Chapter 230: Willing vessel
The Caretaker was one of the lesser-known secrets of the city. There were forums online that mentioned it by name, but it was buried so deeply under countless conspiracy theories, that the public either wasn't interested or had discounted the idea completely. Most people didn’t care if there were some shadowy beings behind the system, they were more interested in their survival.
However, for those with access to first-hand information, the name meant something. So when Jonathan got impatient and dropped the name, both Nathan and Lisa froze. Patrica showed only curiosity at the name as she separated from Mark, though not completely, making sure to keep hold of his arm.
Lisa nodded for Jonathan to go on and the guy did, explaining everything they had learned from the Caretaker.
Mark thought back to the discussion he’d had just before they had arrived, and eventually, the decision to let NAS in, or at least Lisa and Nathan in on their findings. Mostly just to do with the spire and the Tenders.
They had contemplated telling the Loyalists too, but there were just too many unknowns in that faction. Ethel was worried they would play into their fears and try to take control of the spire and everyone in it.
However, with the arrival of the system message they needed to accelerate the rate at which they were testing people against the spire, to do this they needed help.
NAS had its problems, but at least its objectives were known and Mark trusted its leaders.
The reason for the reveal was simple, they were now in a race to open their spire. If this truly were a competition then knowing the system, it would give whoever opened their spire first a reward. The system seemed to like firsts, Mark himself had benefitted from this rule multiple times.
So with this reasoning, they had decided they needed an ally to help accelerate the testing, while they were gone.
Jonathan continued.
“As we informed you, we’re heading out in the next couple of days to establish a connection to the global networks. Our faction is strong enough now to protect themselves but having an ally to watch our backs would reassure us greatly. With all that said, can we count on you?”
Mark watched as Lisa and Nathan glanced at one another, communicating in a way that only those who had fought together for a long time could understand.
They didn’t say anything for a while but no one rushed them, Jonathan had just dropped a lot on them, Mark refocused on Patrica and saw that she was simply observing everything.
So in the meantime, Mark began to channel Prana into her body. When she noticed this a grateful look crossed her face.
By the look of things, she was severely lacking in power, it was almost as though her body were being leached of strength.
Mark frowned and was about to take a closer look when Lisa spoke.
“We understand and greatly appreciate the trust in us. If that is the case, we know your stance on joining our faction but what about signing a defensive pact? We’ll publicly announce you as our ally and have a greater portion of our fighters moved into the area just in case?”
Mark’s brows rose, NAS had many allies, but none in an official sense. Most were verbal agreements or protection acts. They didn’t currently have a single official ally. By signing this it meant that if either of them were ever in danger the other was to send their strongest fighters to help defend and visa versa. It was an interesting offer, one they had discussed as a group already, they just didn’t think NAS would go for it, let alone be the one to suggest it.
Numbers-wise, they still outclassed them eight to one.
“Also if you’d have us we’d like to send some men with you on your excursion.”
Jonathan looked significantly less welcoming to this idea, but he did make a concession.
“We have decided to take only minimal personnel. If you want to help, then we could use a single frontliner, but they are going to have to be tough to survive out there.”
Nathan looked at Lisa and then said.
“I know exactly who to send, does this mean you are agreeing to the alliance?”
Jonathan glanced back to do some of his own ‘checking’ and then nodded.
“Yes, we have discussed it already and feel that if you are willing we could both benefit from this development.”
Once that was decided Jonathan launched into a more detailed explanation of how they were going about searching for the Tenders.
Sam walked them through the plan and the help they were hoping to get, now that NAS was willing to help.
Mark turned back to Patrica with a curious glance.
“I tried to visit you at your church but the whole district was locked down. Is everything alright there.”
Patrica looked considerably more uncomfortable as she used her other hand to brush errant strands of hair out of her face.
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“...There's a power grab going on right now by the major religions. To be honest it's all-out theological war and in some place actual battle.”
Mark frowned now, he hadn’t heard any rumor of infighting among the religious people, though they had always been at one another's throats.
Patrica swallowed and seemed to hesitate to say her next words. She brought a hand up to his ear and whispered as best she could but it probably wouldn't stop either Jonathan or Lisa from hearing her.
“It just came out that Ideals can die… and when they do, their power is absorbed by the nearby deities. I felt it happening to the watcher of the mountains.”
Mark pulled away as though a viper had stuck him, his head swiveling in the direction of the religious district. He recognized that moniker.
When Mark had first entered the religious district he had been met with templars from that very religion.
The lockdown suddenly made more sense, what if they weren’t only trying to keep people out, but people in too? Something bothered Mark about that theory though. If the major religions were trying to absorb the minor ones, why didn’t they allow Shelby’s ‘non-religion’ in? Mark thought back to the strength of the entity behind the tower and shuddered. Perhaps the strength of the deity factored in on whether it got absorbed by others.
Turning back to look down at Patrica, Mark asked.
“And what of all the people worshiping the ‘dead’ god?”
Patrica glanced down at her shoes and back up at Mark, she almost looked at a loss.
“Well… they were given a choice, choose a new Ideal to worship, or leave.”
Mark found it had to believe that they would allow rival worshipers to leave peacefully but he didn't press Patrica, she already looked ragged from their short conversion and he had more to ask her.
“What about you, how is the church of brilliance?”
Now Parica's uncertain face morphed into one of anger.
“I’ll be honest, not good. A man by the name of Yasha, one of my previously trusted inner circle turned on me, and now he’s dividing us. In doing so he’s causing a rift in our Ideal. We are already in a dangerous situation, and he’s making it so much worse.”
Mark knew from past experiences that Patrica had not been quiet about wanting to help everyone. Because of the dynamic in the religious district, she’d not made many friends with this outlook. But now that Mark thought about it when he had passed through the Healer's house, he had not seen any of their number there like in the past.
This caused Mark to worry for her safety.
“Are you spending a lot of time there? If so do you have an escape plan? Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked.
From Mark’s point of view, Parica was doing the best she could to help people, many out there were only out for their own gain, but she cared about others, so if Mark could help, he would.
That fact that she didn’t immediately laugh Mark off was proof that she was already thinking ahead.
“...Mmm for now no, but your offer means a great deal. NAS is giving me the support I need right now, but if you are willing I was hoping you could do a checkup. I’ve been feeling weak for a while now and was hoping you might know what's happening.”
Mark agreed immediately and took her over to the other side of the roof.
The Prana he’d sent in earlier was gone, so he started with [Prana pulse] what could be using that much?
He found the issue the next second.
The Lord of brilliance, or at least a shard of it was staring back at Mark as though he were intruding on sacred ground. The Prana he’d sent in rushed towards it as though called by an unstoppable force. Mark let his power flow into her, up to the point he felt his Mana being drawn out too. Cutting the connection, Mark wasn’t sure how his Mana would affect her but he wasn’t going to risk it.
Mark bearly stopped himself from snatching his hand back as he restricted the flow back to pure Prana. He was getting used to the raw power Ideals held, and enduring the brunt of their gaze was becoming slightly more bearable.
Mark grunted to himself and said.
“...I see the problem, you’re feeling drained because you are holding onto a shard of divinity, or it’s holding onto you. How often are you getting worship?”
Mark opened his eyes to look at Patrica, not missing how strange this would have all sounded before the fall.
Patrica drew her brows together.
“We praise our Lord hourly, if I do have a shard of him near me it should not be starved.”
Mark scratched the side of his face absentmindedly.
“Oh, wait. You said Ideals have focal points. Like in your church?”
Patrica nodded slowly.
“Yes, our lord resides in a podium in the main hall of worship. Though if it was ever damaged we could just as easily transfer it to another holy artifact.”
Mark forced himself to brush over the fact that holy artifacts were a thing and asked his next question.
“And how comfortable do you feel in your church now that Yasha has taken over? Irrespective of the other followers. Like do you feel comfortable in the building?”
Lisa must have heard what they were talking about and made her way over because she answered Mark's question instead.
“Pat, didn’t you say that the church felt claustrophobic like you weren't meant to be there? You’ve been going back but each time you do you come back slightly more drained.”
Mark was surprised by Lisa’s sudden appearance but ran with it.
“Then if you weaken every time you go there, have you considered that your your Lord of Brilliance is not there anymore?”
Patrica’s face clouded over with anger, but Mark raised his hands.
“Hear me out, it's not that they don’t follow the Lord of Brilliance anymore, but have you considered that instead of having one Ideal there are now two? One of which now resides in you until you can give it a new home, and in the meantime, it's drawing power from the only source it can find. You.”
Patrica’s eyes widened as her hands dropped down to her belly.
“What, but how? I’m housing divinity?”
Mark shrugged.
“You’re the expert here, I’m just guessing from what I’ve seen.”
Patrica shook her head.
“No, what you said makes sense. To survive I had to pull a piece of my Lord into myself to ward off the Corruption, normally it returns after the fact. Yasha took over at that time, and when you healed me, I was able to let go of it, but perhaps it couldn’t rejoin with the main body of my Lord because they were no longer the same.”
Patrica looked convinced, and while Mark couldn’t quite wrap his head around the idea of how the Ideal could be in two places at once, she did.
Lisa looked even more confused than Mark.
“So what there’s two Lords of Brilliance now?” she asked.
Mark shrugged again.
“More like there are two separate denominations now. This means that to save your Ideal, you will need to locate the worshipers that still believe in it and get them out of there.”
Now it was Lisa’s turn to frown.
Mark knew how hard something like that was going to be, even for NAS it was a tall order, and yet when Mark saw Lisa glance at Patrica he only saw determination to help.