The table was surprisingly lively. Everyone seemed energized and excited, except Archimedes, who was groaning as his buddies smacked him on the back and laughed at his misfortune. He didn't seem upset about it though, either with me or them, just taking the ribbing good naturedly.

Brightlaw looked over his team and snorted, shaking his head in amusement. "Incorrigible, the lot of them. Sorry for the wait, I wanted to get everyone settled before I share what I know. Mind you, that isn't much, but a deal is a deal. Before I begin though, I have to ask...are you really the grandson of the Radiant Pope?"

"That's what they tell me." I said with a chuckle. "I'd love to hear about him too. I hear he's a terrifying guy, but then, any S-ranker has to be, right?"

He hesitated. "He is...driven." He sounded hesitant to speak. "His holiness is a powerful and complex man. His youngest daughter was the only one of his children to become a Saint, though he has one son who is at the peak of Arch-Paladin, the church's B-rank combat job. It's the combat equivalent to an Arch-Bishop. Regardless, the Radiant Pope was a household name long before the Saintess was born, and was, in fact, the youngest Pope in church history."

I nodded. "I heard someone mention he killed one of Black Sorrow's daughters personally. That's got to be a big deal."

"The Saintess of the Drowning Shade." He nodded. "She was, by all accounts, a complete monster. We've all seen the kind. Spoiled little brats with powerful parents who think they're the gods gift to the universe. The problem was that Drowning Shade was RIGHT. She was a natural genius with her mother's ability, Enshrining Darkness. You've seen tame versions of it, learned as a Skill, I'm sure."

"That...weird conceptual rotting dark?" I said cautiously. "Because yeah, I've seen a few people use that. A Skill huh? That makes sense. Sounds like she must have been a nightmare. How did he beat her? And what power does he even have? Or well, what's his Main Skill, since he's obviously using the job system."

Brightlaw shrugged. "No one knows. No one has ever seen it and lived. He arranged a meeting with her on one of the Church's A-ranked planets, the challenge was very public, and she accepted without hesitation. Rumor says she brought her three strongest guards along, against their bargain, but none of them were ever heard from again. There is no planet there anymore."

I blanched. An A-rank planet. Even if he was AT A-rank at the time, that was just...monstrous. How many people had died there? Cultists or not, the thought of inflicting that level of slaughter was just nauseating to me. Luckily my mask hid my expression. "Yeah...complex. I see what you mean." I wasn't sure I wanted to hear any more stories about my grandfather. "What about his son, the Arch-Paladin you mentioned?"

"Samuel." He said with reverence. "The Shining Hand. One of the strongest of the combat order. At A-rank, Sainthood is achieved, and the clergy and combat orders merge in preparation for the ascent to the Papacy. Some say Samuel reached the limit of B-rank some time ago, and holds himself back so he might continue to serve."

I nodded. "Sounds like a scary guy. Tell me about my mother. You have to know something about her, right?"

"Some." He admitted. "I know some of the stories. The Fist of the Radiant Pope isn't exactly a common sight in the Holy Dominion. She often travels, and even when she returns to the central system, a place I'm rarely able to go, she keeps to herself. I know she's powerful. I know she has two abilities, and..." He paused. "I can't say everything. Some of this is faction secrets."

I opened my mouth to protest but he held up a hand. "I know. I understand your frustration, and I do not seek to abandon my honor. I must simply decide what I may share." He paused, thinking it over. "Her location is not....closely guarded. Given her power. I don't know where she is, but I know where she will be. After this. The trial at the ruined soul temple. She'll be there accompanying some of our most talented."

Settling, I let out a breath. That was...a lot. It was more than I expected. I'd have loved to hear stories about her, but it was clear there was something he couldn't reveal. Knowing where she was going was a big deal. I gave a shallow nod. "Thank you. I realize you could have just fed me some nonsense. That's more than I've ever had. I'd like to work together at some point, if you're open to it. Maybe if you see you can trust us sharing more would be more acceptable."

He gave a slow hum of consideration. "Perhaps. I will consider it. We did find a building some distance from here we were...hesitant to approach. It bears the stink of the fallen gods. Perhaps we might journey inside together." His blue eyes pinned me, looking for any sign of cowardice and weakness.

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Grinning, I nodded. "I'm definitely interested. You'll need to tell us more about it, and I might run it by some of my local lore experts to see what they know. We found out the hard way that forewarned is forearmed. You guys have a hookup for local information?"

"No." He said with a shake of his head. "The kingdom we find ourselves allied with is...distasteful. They simply throw us at problems, hoping we'll either come back with the Dew they require or not at all, so they might steal it from our corpses. We've not found any of the Lunar Cascade Lightblooms. I suspect we're being steered toward the most dangerous areas possible to clear the way, while the local forces do all the real searching."

That sounded stupid as hell, given what I knew about how the flowers reacted to us. We were their best bet for finding them. Whoever was running his allied kingdom was too greedy to be sensible. I took a bite of the pastries that Brightlaw had laid out when his people set up the table. Cherry, and delicious. "Are you willing to switch to a different kingdom? Ladrigan is trying to scoop up as many of us as possible, and they're actually being smart about it."

He grimaced. " The Banwar Kingdom has several dangerous generals that have been augmented with Dew over a long period of time. I believe I could defeat one in a direct fight, but sadly, I don't think I'd get the option. If we try to renege on our arrangement, chances are good they'll send someone after us. Not that I'm not willing to do it anyway, but I plan to wait until more kingdoms get involved and things are more hectic."

"Fair enough. Do you have any pictures or anything from the ruins you mentioned?" Probably more accurately a temple, given what he said about that fallen gods.

He shook his head. "No. We didn't think to photograph the site. We can lead you to it if you wish to attempt your own research." He seemed pretty interested in how we would do that, and I didn't mind showing him. I'd be avoiding the Banwar Kingdom like the plague (interesting that the kingdom descended from the Binvari were already active).

"Sounds good, we can go whenever you're ready." I heard a loud groan from Benny's direction as he heard me. He and Celine were chatting amiably with some of Brightlaw's team. Callie heard me too, and turned to give me a nod as she started getting everyone ready to leave. I wasn't sure what I'd do without that girl.

Brightlaw (who insisted I call him Gabriel) had them pack up the table and led us off into the jungle. My Danger Sense remained pretty damned silent given where we were, so I had no issue following him. Plus I got a good feeling about the guy. He was scary as shit, but he was also a man of his word.

It didn't take long to reach the over grown building, a massive stone monolith of a place covered in moss and vines. It was so densely coated I thought the damned thing was a hill until we got closer. I turned to Mel. "Can you clear some of that greenery out without covering up the stone with soot?"

Abel waved the question away. "Soot can be blown away with force. Just burn it clean. Worst case somebody can water blast it. I'm sure SOMEONE here has an ability that can manage."

At my nod, Mel just shrugged. "One flashfire pressure wash coming up." She snapped her fingers, sparking a small, blazing light, then tossed it at the building. She didn't put too much power into it, since we were trying to clean off the stone without damaging it. The moss and vines were G-rank, so lowballing the power was more than feasible.

The spark touched the green and the whole thing went up in a sea of golden flames, but to my surprise, it burned absurdly hot for just a second and then went out like a candle. Mel had excellent control. Abel stepped up and swung his hands, manifesting a pair or giant images that clapped together in a short, sharp explosion of force and pressure. I felt wind buffet me as the soot was blasted off the building by the sheer force of the vibrations.

"Cal? That good for you guys?" I asked my girlfriend, who had already spun up her scan ring to contact Anna-Marie.

The blue skinned princess nodded with a wide smile, returning my nod of greeting. "I think that's plenty. Make sure to send over some more pictures for us up close, but that exposed enough of the building to work with. Not just symbols, architecture can be a big clue to what we're dealing with. The researchers tell me that building methods, materials, and things like that vary as time passes, when certain types of materials have more renown at certain times you can see wide shifts in style and construction." I hadn't considered that, but it was an interesting line of reasoning.

After hanging up to take the pictures and send them over, it didn't take long for them to go over the new information and get back to us. The group she had hired or cobbled together were excellent researchers, and she must have dropped a pretty penny on books too. It was shocking what you could do with enough resources. Salara was clearly bankrolling her daughter generously.

Gabriel looked impressed too as the return call came up and Anna-Marie gave us a worried look. "Ok. We found...something. You're at some kind of...sub temple? But also probably a tomb. There's no concrete information about when the place was built, based on the materials used all we can tell is OLD. A few of the symbols were translatable, though more because they seem to be proto-versions of symbols we've seen in ancient dialects than because we know what they are."

"Sub temple?" I asked cautiously. "So this isn't a temple to one of the fallen gods?"

She shook her head. "We don't think so. The symbols we managed to translate meant guardian, servant, disciple, and trove. That kind of thing. At least, that was the meaning the more recent variants had. We think this person was some kind of priest or something. A direct disciple of one of the fallen gods you mentioned. We also believe they were buried with...quite a bit of wealth. We don't know anything else."

I nodded. "Thanks. We appreciate that." I looked over at Callie. "I have a weird feeling that this place is...important. But I don't want to just jump in and get us all killed. Can you check it out? Be careful, but some recon would be the smart call here I think." I knew she'd want to go in when she heard trove, but I was determined to play this safe.