Chapter 58: Blinding of Truth

  Crimson only had a moment to be grateful that he had finally finished mapping out the secret passages before being kidnapped by Lars. Kidnapping was definitely the word to use, as he had been literally dragged off by the back of his shirt by the bear-kin.

  He couldn’t fully blame Lars, he had been the one trying to run out of the guild to finally celebrate being done with the task that had been eating up all his time, but as he dangled helplessly from Lars grip, the best way to describe what he was feeling was… Well, it was the same kind of relaxed indifference he saw in kittens being carried by their mothers.

  He was just content to go along with the kidnapping.

  After being summarily dropped into a chair, he tilted his head as far back as possible to look Lars in the eyes, and asked, “What’s up?”

  “You’ve been summoned to the palace. I’m supposed to escort you.”

  “Isn’t that beneath a Guild Master?

  “Not today. I’ve been summoned too.”

  “Am I supposed to bring anyone else?”

  “Verity.”

  Speaking of her, Emma led her over to where they’ve been conversing from the training grounds out back. It had been a bit since they talked, so Crimson waved at Emma with a friendly smile. She flashed him a quick grin and said, “I brought her as you asked, Guild Master.”

  Lars grunted and sent her away. He then gestured for them to follow him, and he led them to the dark short building on the other side of the fountain from the temple. It had purple lines full of [Mana]. A year ago, Crimson had attempted to determine what those purple lines were doing, and had failed utterly. He hadn’t even been able to determine the [Affinities] present in the lines.

  Brushing up against them, he still wasn’t able to learn much, but it was a marked improvement from his first attempt. At least he could tell that the main [Affinity] present in the lines was pure [Mana], though there were undercurrents of [Holy], [Purity], and, oddly, [Corruption]. That information only left him a bit more confused about the purpose of the lines, but an informed guess led him to believe that it was likely an enchantment to protect the building.

  He did notice something new about it that he hadn’t last year though. Despite their best efforts to match them, the dark stone was actually a different type from the other dark stone buildings in Falst. Half the buildings in town were made from wood, while the other half was made of dark stone.

  The only reason he could notice that the stone used in this building was different from the others was his higher PER. It allowed him to notice the fact that the color wasn’t exactly the same, and there were minute striations in this building that weren’t present in the others.

  The king had said that the gods had given them this city, so maybe this was a building built after moving in? If so, then the purpose would be to disguise that it was built later.

  It was an odd detail that lacked a proper explanation, and he didn’t get the time he wanted to ponder it as they were led into the building.

  Crimson and Verity exchanged glances as they felt a dozen or so eyes boring into them. He could just see the glint of arrowheads in the slits in the walls and ceiling of the hallway, pointing at them in the head and the heart.

  It was Crimson’s second time coming this way, and the sense of discomfort he’d felt the first time was only stronger this time.

  Lars, like Damus had been, seemed un-petered by the arrows and led them to a door. He conducted the same procedure of talking to someone through a slit in the door, and they all had to show IDs.

  In the center of the room was a small shack, a familiar door frame was set into it, like the ones Crimson was used to seeing in the secret passages, and an older man exited from it holding a [Mana] key, which he used to unlock the door for them.

  After crossing the bridge, while steadying Verity against the wind, they entered the castle and were led to a room deeper in. It was a conference room, though that probably wasn’t the name the people of this world would give it. There wasn’t a chair at the head of the table, but a few feet beyond it was a raised dais with a throne.

  The king was sitting in the throne clutching his head. He seemed profoundly exhausted by everything. One of the reasons why was readily apparent, as a thin man with brown hair and blue eyes who looked a lot like the king was lightly tied to a chair in the first seat at the table to the throne’s right. Opposing the thin man was Damus, but he was chained up instead of just tied up.

  High Priestess Rei, Rhinese, and Richard were also present, but not all of them were sitting. Rei was next to her husband, and seemed to be there to keep him in check, and Richard was standing next to the king and staring down Damus.

  A chair, much larger than the others, had been prepared for Lars and he settled into it. Crimson and Verity settled in chairs next to him after being beckoned to do so.

  After a moment of quiet, the king raised his head and looked around the room. He said, “It’s time to hear the report on the events of the disaster last month. Those who are here are either involved or important enough to need to know these results. I expect that none of the things we talk about today leave this room. Richard.”

  Richard bowed and stepped forward, “The Former Priest, Damus, is the primary offender in causing the riots as a result of interfering with a dangerous artifact that had been hidden in a vault under Falst. He stole an artifact from the Temple, and used that artifact to open that vault. Additionally, he has repeatedly engaged in acts that ought to have violated his oaths as a devotee of the God of Truth.”

  He took a breath, “It appears that Damus had outside help, some form of outer god or the like, as all over his [Blessing] were things to hide his actions from the God of Truth. [Titles], a [Skill], and his [Condition] all had effects to hide his profanity. We can’t get any answers out of him as his mind is still gone, but there can be no other explanation than outside help to achieve this.”

  He continued, “We’ve traced the odd behavior back as far as we can, and have determined that he had been engaging in this contact for approximately a year, with the first occurrence of problematic behavior occurring a short time before last year’s tournament. His behavior was largely dismissed with the understanding that if he stepped over the line the God of Truth would punish him for it.”

  “It’s common for there to be a medium when an outer god is involved,” cut in Rei, “but we haven’t been able to track down any suspicious individuals tied to my husband that would have allowed him to make contact. It’s very likely that whoever that individual is, they’re a Rak’a’niir who was led to him. They probably made a deal and left quickly to avoid being tied to his actions, so its unlikely that he was receiving instructions regularly. It’s also possible that the full instructions are in the coded notes that we took from my husband’s office, but we still have yet to decipher their meaning.”

  Richard waited for a short moment after she fell silent, then said, “We don’t have any other information to add on this Rak’a’niir, and we expect that we won’t be able to again until this person pulls this stunt with someone else.”

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  He said, “Going back to Damus, his behavior was typically erratic, but a consistent behavior is that he took advantage of the blinding of the God of Truth to engage in market manipulation. He used his position to drive up demand for specific drops, secured unfairly advantageous deals with lies, and most notably used his position to steal a [Holy Crystal] from Miss Verity.”

  He gestured at Verity, seeming to expect her to say something, so she said, “Why is this ‘notable?' It seems consistent with everything else he’d done.”

  Richard nodded, “It’s notable because this harassment forced him to take more extreme actions than usual. Most of the prior market manipulation he’d engaged in in the past could possibly have still been done without violating his oaths, though they would’ve been very close to breaking them, but he had to be more overt than usual to steal from you.”

  He said, “The thing that was the biggest giveaway was the fact that he’d need a collaborator to falsify the transaction records. We tracked down and questioned the individual in question, but it appears that Damus had tricked him into helping. He had verbally relayed the contents of the purchase receipt to the recorder, and as he did so he lied about the contents. This is, of course, where he messed up, as this left a trail for us to investigate.”

  He continued, “Near as we can put together, it seems he was trying to prevent his handwriting from being present in the book, but he wasn’t able to dispose of the original purchase receipt, which is how we determined what happened.”

  Crimson tilted his head, why was this incident so important? It was negligible in comparison to the menorah incident. It was probably only worth a brief mention, not an in depth explanation.

  Richard spotted his expression and asked, “Yes? It seems you have a question.”

  Crimson ventured to ask, “Why focus so much on this incident? This mattered a lot to Verity and our party, but it doesn’t seem worth the attention of this group.”

  Richard nodded, “Yes, your point is valid, but by investigating this, we found a secret room in the dungeon.”

  Found a secret room in the dungeon was a turn of phrase meaning something similar to ‘falling down the rabbit hole.’ It was an annoying one for Crimson, as he’d taken it literally more than once.

  “Damus had been reckless, but he’d used High Priestess Rei’s caution against her. She started taking over tasks that should’ve belonged to him, and in doing so, he was able to bait her into being away from her office to search the place, and in the process stole the artifact. High Priestess Rei informed us that Miss. Verity caught him in the act, but wasn’t able to prevent the theft, and reported it to her as soon as possible. However, our investigation determined that he had made several attempts before succeeding, and the time Miss. Verity caught him was the successful one.”

  Crimson rubbed his hands together, processing that information. This had all been happening right under his nose, and he’d never noticed anything. Granted, he’d been in Lupaken for this particular incident, but in retrospect, Damus’ actions were far too strange for a devotee of the God of Truth.

  In his own defense, when he’d first met Damus he hadn’t understood enough about the religion of this world to realize how profoundly against the logic of the world for him to be doing what he’d done.

  Richard allowed a moment of silence, checking for other comments or questions, then continued, “After the theft, it took Damus a fair amount of time to actually find the vault. He confined himself to the secret passages, and likely wandered for some time before finding and opening it. We have mapped those passages with the help of that young man there,” he gestured at Crimson, “and believe that to be a feasible conclusion.”

  Crimson chimed in, “The vault has completely sealed itself. I couldn’t find any way to open it when we investigated. So we don’t know if there’s any other objects of danger or value in there.”

  Richard nodded, then said, “There is something else strange about the incident though. The first person to be affected by the menorah was His Highness, Prince Kaine. He abruptly set his study on fire, then escaped into the city where he burned three more buildings before being caught.”

  The king spoke with a low voice, “And you’re certain that Kaine was the first? There wasn’t anyone else affected at the same time?”

  “That is…well, Your Majesty, Prince Kaine was the first to start burning things and behaving violently in Falst, but it appears that others were affected earlier in the day. Many reported husbands, brothers, daughters, or wives as behaving strangely during the day. Prince Kaine was under the weather prior to his violence, so it is likely that we misunderstood his condition.”

  Lars grunted and pointed at Crimson, “This one suffered from the rampage too. He and his party were attacked while exploring the [Goblin Manor] by a mob. We believe this mob to have been controlled by the same phenomenon.”

  “They acted differently from the ones in the city though,” Verity said, “they didn’t try to burn us, and they were able to carry on a conversation with us.”

  “To clarify,” Crimson said, jumping in, “Only one of them could talk with us. The others were completely silent, and aside from being under the obvious control of the one who could talk, they behaved the same as those we saw in the city.”

  “Anything else stand out to you from this group?” Asked Richard.

  Crimson tilted his head for a second, then said, “The group was made up of tournament participants who despised me. The one in charge was one of the finalists from the Under 10 category, one I personally fought, but he didn’t fight the same way when he confronted me.”

  Crimson thought about it for a moment, then just decided to share the information, as it would be important, “I had a [Skill] at the time called [Eyes of Will]. It allowed me to get a glimpse of what people were feeling when we made eye contact. When I made eye contact with the ringleader, it seemed like he was being directly controlled by something else. I don’t know what, but the only thing I can think of is that the menorah is sentient.”

  “You’re talking about the [Skill] like its gone.” Noted Lars.

  “I technically still have it, but I can’t use it anymore. My [Bloodline] affected it in a strange way, changing it into another [Skill] - [Aura of Will] - that I don’t know how to use.”

  “Is that why your eyes are yellow now?” Asked Rei.

  Crimson nodded.

  “When did the change occur? Can you tell us what the rioters were feeling?” Asked Richard.

  “The [Skill] changed not long after the initial attack. I couldn’t tell you what the people in Falst were feeling, but Verity might.”

  Everyone turned to her, and she said, “Their Auras were completely dominated by Fear and Anger, to an unnatural extent, but that’s all I can tell you.”

  Some other theories were thrown around, but none of them were conclusive. There were two things that were clear, Damus was the one who caused the problem, and the Menorah was the sources of the mania. Any other information was conjecture. It was an informative and unhelpful meeting.

  At the end, the King spoke, “Now I have two other items of business to address. The first is to rebuke my daughter, Rhinese, for discovering this ‘Astral Library’ in the castle, then not reporting it. In light of this lapse in judgement, we would typically place her on probation, but the circumstances being what they are, well, that brings me to the next item. As a result of this incident, Kaine has failed the Regent Royalty test by succumbing to the evil artifact that controlled him. Rhinese, you will be officially announced as the Regent Princess next week.”

  She looked completely stunned by the announcement, and immediately argued, “Father, I don’t believe its fair to fail Kaine for this. Many others were controlled, there’s no reason to-“

  “Rhinese, you did not succumb to the artifact, yes?”

  “Well, yeah. I managed to fight it off, but…”

  “Kaine failed. You did not. If everyone under level 10 had been affected, then your case would be valid, but he is Lv.10, and you are Lv.6. In his weakness, he hurt the people he was supposed to protect, and it is for that reason that he has failed.”

  Rhinese lowered her head, and for the first time, Kaine said in a low and slow voice, like he was zoned out, “I accept your decision, Your Majesty. I believe this to be wise.”

  “But brother!” Rhinese turned to him, but he didn’t respond to her, or even look at her.

  Crimson knew how close they were from how she had talked about him, so seeing this was a bit heartbreaking.

  “That is all the items of business for this meeting. You are all dismissed.” The king said.

  Crimson and Verity stood and bowed to him, and turned to follow Lars but Rhinese called out, “Crimson, a moment please.”

  He turned back to her, and she approached him and said, “Two things. I’ve got a letter for you, and I’ve got a favor to ask.”

  He tilted his head in confusion, then said, “A letter…for me? From you?”

  She shook her head, “Oddly enough, it’s from Elegance, the Am’zavac who visited for the Tournament. She left a few weeks back, but it came up that we knew each other, so she left a letter with me for you.”

  Why would that Dark Elf write him a letter? Strange…

  Rhinese continued, “As for the favor, could I hire you to consult with my younger sister? She needs her [Mana] awakened, and I want her to get as much help as possible…”

  Crimson nodded without any resistance, “Just send for me when you find a good time for me to come over.”

  “Thank you,” she said with a smile, “please wait here for a moment. I’ll go grab the letter.”

  She returned a few minutes later, and Crimson slid the letter into his [Blessing] and left with Verity after shooting another long glance at Damus, who was now being surrounded by guards and hauled away. Kaine only had one person leading him.

  Crimson and Verity returned to the Guild with plenty to think about. It was still early, but it felt like the day should’ve already ended.