Chapter 7: Of Advice and Squires
Rose walked out of the inn and wandered around town. She then started to feel a bit strange, she flinched and placed a hand over her chest.
"Something wrong?" She heard Edna ask.
"I just started feeling this strange pressure in my chest all of a sudden." Said Rose.
"About time." Said Edna.
"Huh?"
"What you're feeling is most likely malevolence. It'll go away if we get rid of it, if it doesn't then you're probably gonna die." Said Edna.
"And I suppose the purple splotches I'm starting to see floating around are probably the same thing?" Asked Rose.
"Oh that is definitely malevolence, I can't really tell you about the chest discomfort since it's a fifty percent chance that it'll kill you but combined with the floating purple things you're seeing it's most likely malevolence." Said Edna.
"Great, so any ideas on how to do get rid of it?" Rose asked.
"Rose!" She heard someone call. She snapped her head to see Sorey running towards her holding something, when he got to her he keeled over coughing.
"Whoa there, are you all right?" She asked.
"So-s…" He tried to say but he couldn't form any words through his coughing.
"Hey can you heal him?" She whispered to Edna.
"I can, that doesn't mean that I want to." Said Edna.
"Please just do it." Whispered Rose.
"Fine." Sighed Edna coming out of her body and casting a healing spell on the coughing boy until it turned into heavy breaths.
"You all right there?" She asked patting his shoulder.
"Don't worry … I'm all right." He wheezed. "This is pretty common for me so it's nothing to worry about."
"You sure? Shouldn't you see someone about it, it could kill you." Said Rose.
"Like I said don't worry." Said Sorey. "Anyway the boss wanted to give you this earlier but she kind of forgot." He handed her a white cloak that had a hood in the back and a vine design embroidered into it. "She was working on this for the last few days. I think it's based off of the traditional garb of the shepherds in Hyland." Rose bit her lip. "Hey, are you okay?"
"I'm fine …" Said Rose. "A lot's happened within a very short amount of time. God I haven't even done anything yet and I'm gonna crash under the pressure of being the shepherd with everyone thinking I'm a screw up." Sorey pat her shoulder.
"Hey don't worry about needing to live up to any shepherd, you're not the one from thirty years ago and you're not the one from two hundred years ago." He said. "And don't worry about needing to uphold some morals and expectations, even the greatest shepherds and their companions have done some pretty amoral things by everyone's standards, like for instance this one shepherd that married a hellion who really messed up his arm or the shepherd who slit an unconscious guy's throat with a mace while one of her seraph companions murdered a sleeping old woman." Rose looked at him in abject horror as he talked about shepherds murdering people so calmly and with a smile.
"Where did you learn these things?" She asked.
"Well the Celestial Record and the very few documents from before the age of disappearance that managed to get scavenged." Said Sorey pulling out his copy of the Celestial Record with the pages over flowing with little notes and bookmarks. "My point is don't worry about everyone and just do your own thing as the shepherd and you'll do fine."
"Thanks." Said Rose, "Oh and here." She gave Sorey the prickleboar bone necklace. "This is for the cloak and the advice."
"You really don't have to." Said Sorey.
"Shut up and take it." Said Rose. He took the necklace and put it on.
"How does it look?"
"Good. But it would look better if you wore some more whites." Said Rose.
"Now can you put on the shepherd's cape?" Sorey asked.
"Here and now?" Rose questioned.
"If you want." Said Sorey.
"Do it." Said Edna.
"Okay." Sighed Rose removing the clasp on the front then throwing the cloak on her and putting the clasp back on. Sorey gives her a big smile and two thumbs up.
"Looks great!" Sorey complimented.
"Apparently you can put lipstick on a pig." Rose glared at Edna, she heard a strange hybrid between a snort and a cough and shot her head towards Sorey who had his hand over his mouth trying to hide an urge to laugh or cough, one of the two, with his face red. "You all right, you look like you're gonna die." He regained his composure.
"Um … ye-yes … I'm fine, totally." Said Sorey. "I should get back to my boss." He left Rose and Edna.
"So … how do you try to return the blessing?" Rose asked as she and Edna start walking.
"Normally a blessing would be restored if you have a seraph willing to be lord of the land and bless the area and a completely pure vessel." Said Edna. "You also need people that will worship the lord of the land and by extension the vessel. That way a blessing can keep going."
"So with the requirements would the prop blade make a good vessel?" Rose asked around that time she overheard some guys talking about one of the workers not coming back from maintenance in the aqueducts. She stopped to listen in a bit more.
"Well theoretically it-" Edna began "What are you doing?"
"Can we talk about this later, I wanna check out the aqueducts." Said Rose.
"If you want to look for something in particular then good luck, you need a different seraph to get you through that." Said Edna.
"No I mean I heard about a disappearance of someone in the aqueducts, might be something worth investigating." Said Rose.
"Is this your fancy way of saying that you have an impulse that you want to act upon?"
"Well it's actually worked out pretty well so far, I mean there was a brief incident where Dezel turned into a hellion but otherwise everything else worked out pretty okay." When they got inside the aqueduct Rose cringed from the increased pressure in her chest.
"There's a lot of malevolence here." Said Edna. "So much so that if I didn't have a vessel I may have turned into a hellion."
"I think I know what Dezel felt when we entered Lady Lake now." Said Rose. Edna went back into Rose's body as she descended further into the aqueduct. She then encountered a green blob chewing on a guy with his legs dangling out. "Uhhhh Edna …" She said, Edna appeared in front of her.
"What?"
"Would that guy be dead by now?" Rose asked.
"No he should still be okay. It's probably gonna burn like hell with the slime slowly digesting him."
"Would he be fine if we beat it up?"
"We have a pair of knives and an umbrella, the only way he wouldn't be fine is if somehow one of our weapons turns into a big fuck off sword and cuts him in half." Said Edna.
"Great, let's go." Said Rose drawing her knives and running towards the slime hellion. A few seconds later the slime was purified as the malevolent energy sank back into the earth the guy was spat out covered in slime vomit.
"Uuuun … what happened?" He moaned. "And why do I feel gross?"
"You were drowning and got some shit on you." Said Rose.
"Oh god, thanks for helping me out uh …" He started. "Aren't you the one who grabbed the sword and ran?"
"Yeah..." Rose sighed.
"Hey, thanks for saving me." He said. "I need to get back to wash this shit off."
"Yeah, go do that, you stink." Said Rose. A little later Rose picked the conversation back up again, "So what were you saying about the prop blade?"
"Theoretically it can serve as a vessel I mean it's been sitting under a decent man's bed for three days so I guess you can put it back in the pedestal and find a seraph." Said Edna.
"So … wanna go find a seraph?" Rose asked.
"Eh, why not." Edna shrugged.
"Though we might need to look for Sergei …" Rose muttered. The two continued to walk through town.
"Hephsin Yulind." Said Edna.
"What?" Said Rose turning her head.
"That's my true name in the ancient language." Said Edna putting down her umbrella and pulling out a book out of the pocket dimension that umbrella apparently contained. "You're gonna need this since you need to know some of the ancient language for getting squires."
"Ah yeah, I remember some things of that." Said Rose taking the book and flipping through some pages. "Lafarga tried to teach it to me and Dezel but I always dozed off and Dezel can't read and had tons of trouble with the language so he stopped." She started. "Doesn't your true name mean something like 'Early Bloomer Edna?'" Edna then jabbed her with her umbrella. "Ow! Hey!" She shouted when she ran into some armor.
"Watch it!" She heard the person she bump into say.
"Sorry about uh …" She started, "You're Boris correct?"
"So glad you remembered me." He said cheerfully. Edna stiffened and shivered when he spoke. Rose looked between him and the other soldier he was with to see them carrying a body on a stretcher covered with a white sheet with one of the arms sticking out.
"What the hell happened to them?" She asked.
"Gel Powder overdose." Said Boris.
"Gel Powder is the ground up remains of the plant that gel base is made of." Explained Edna. "It's typically traded for the common folk as the recently mass traded Elixir is normally far too expensive. It's either smoked or snorted. It's super addictive and from what I hear it kills any pain you feel. And with the times, it's easy to see why people would keep coming back."
"When did this start being a problem?" Rose asked.
"Well about a few years ago when the water level dropped due to a drought, followed by the flood." Said Boris, "A lot of people took to Gel Powder as a way to cope."
"Boris, we have to dispose of this." Said the other soldier.
"I know I know. See ya around you crazy bitch." Said Boris as he and the other soldier walked off with the body. Edna did not take her eyes off of Boris until he was out of her vision.
"Something wrong?" Rose asked.
"… No." Said Edna. "Let's try to find Sergei and the prop blade."
"Kay." Shrugged Rose as they headed to the barracks but didn't find him there. So they went to the sanctuary, there they saw Sergei talking to one of the priests while holding the prop sword. "Yo! Sergei!" She shouted causing Sergei to nearly injure the priest and drop the prop.
"I am so sorry." He apologized to the priest. He then went over to Rose. "What is it and where did you get that cloak?"
"Got it from the Light Sparks." Said Rose showing off the shepherd's cloak. "Anyway Edna and I were talking about that prop blade …"
"And not Dezel?" Said Sergei, noticing a severe lack of something.
"The asshole walked off to get stronger or some shit like that." Said Rose.
"I'm guessing it's because he's still bummed that he turned into a hellion." Said Sergei.
"That's exactly the reason. Anyway, Edna and I were talking about how to make things suck slightly less in Lady Lake." Said Rose.
"Okay, what is it?" Said Sergei.
"Well since this town is pretty malevolent … well malevolent to me, Edna, and any other seraph in the area if there are any, we were thinking of getting the blessing back to Lady Lake." Said Rose.
"And how would it do that?"
"Um … it would make the atmosphere marginally better?" Shrugged Rose.
"Oh for the love of … Rose, take Sergei's hand and close your eyes." Said Edna.
"Why?"
"Just do it." Edna snapped.
"All right all right jeez." Said Rose closing her eyes and taking Sergei's hand.
"Hey Sergei can you hear me?" Said Edna.
"What are you doing?" Sergei asked.
"Edna it's not working, why don't you just tell me what I need to say so I can-" Rose started.
"Shush!" Edna cut off. "Get down so I can cover your ears."
"Fine!" sighed Rose. "Miss bossy" she then muttered kneeling. Edna covered her ears.
"Sergei?"
"E-Edna?" Said Sergei.
"Oh so you can hear me now." Said Edna. "That's good, for Rose cuz if this didn't work I was going to make her hold her breath."
"… Wow." Said Sergei.
"Anyway, you want to know how that prop blade can help with Lady Lake right?" Said Edna.
"Yes." Said Sergei.
"In ancient times, even up until thirty something years ago, the seraphim and the people had a bit of a symbiotic relationship. The seraph using a pure vessel, or lord of the land, would protect the people from Malevolence while the people would worship the seraph to help spread their domain." Explained Edna. "With less malevolence there will be less bad stuff going on. While it may not solve everything, at least that Gel Powder problem would go down along with some of the other crimes."
"I see, the prop blade is this pure vessel while we need to look for a Seraph that's willing to lend their power and people willing to worship them." Said Sergei. "I think I might know someone that could help."
"All right, who?" Asked Edna.
"Father Breunor, he recently ascended into priest hood and hasn't been involved with any scandals." Said Sergei. "I would ask him right now but he's currently out on an errand." Edna uncovered Rose's ears.
"Got everything you need to know?" Rose asked.
"Yeah." Said Sergei. "I'll talk to the priests about the prop blade and we'll talk to Father Breunor when he returns. Now all that's left if to get a seraph."
"Well there are plenty of Seraphs in Elysia, I'm sure maybe one of them would like to help out." Said Rose.
"How about something closer?" Said Edna.
"But do you know anything closer?" Rose asked Sergei.
"Let's see … I've heard rumors of a water spirit at Falkewin Hillside." Said Sergei looking up. "I also heard of a spirit at Rayfalke, but that one may be a bit more sketchy since there was originally sightings of two spirits until five years ago, now people are saying a dragon and a spirit."
"Let's take a look at Falkewin, I get the feeling that the spirit at Rayfalke may be a hellion, especially since there's mention of a dragon." Said Edna.
"How about you talk to the priests about the prop blade and then let's head to Falkewin to check out that water spirit since that sounds the most promising." Said Rose.
"Sounds fine to me." Said Sergei.
"Wait." Said Edna.
"What now?"
"If you want to bring Sergei along you need to make him your squire, basically a sub shepherd of sorts that can borrow your power to purify hellions as long as he's within your domain." Said Edna.
"Hey Sergei you wanna be my squire?" Rose asked.
"Like the ones that accompanied the Shepherd from thirty years ago?" Asked Sergei. "Sure."
"Sweet! Edna how does this work?" She asked.
"Just give him a true name in the ancient language when I'm finished with the incantation." Said Edna.
"Give me a minute." Said Rose pulling out the book Edna gave her. Sergei went to the priests about the prop sword and placed it back in the altar during the time Rose read the book. Sergei stood in front of Rose with his arms crossed for an extra ten minutes. "Sorry about that." She said putting the book away.
"Hands." Said Edna. Rose gave Edna her hand while Edna just grabbed Sergei's. Sergei looked at her confused.
"Don't worry, it's part of squire thingy… I think." Said Rose.
"Let's see … something something new bud on holy branch something…" Edna began as the space between them started glowing Rose looked at Edna completely dumbstruck. "flowers, fruit, and seeds, something something something wheel of destiny keeps on turning." A light rose from the ground and shot up through Sergei's body. "Something will of the Shepherd, something bond … what's the true name?"
"Uuub baah du … ahem, Resbelva Kulco." Said Rose. The light emanating from Sergei's body dispersed.
"Nice to be your squire Rose." Said Sergei. "I think I mean judging from your face I don't think that was supposed to happen."
"No … it's not that, it's that Edna's incantation was so half assed it's pretty unbelievable." Said Rose. Edna grumbled something and jabbed Rose with her umbrella. "Ow! … So … to Falkewin?"
Ah critical role references ... Yeah the shepherds and seraphs Sorey was talking about are more or less references to critical role characters. And about damn time Rose got that shepherd's cloak am I right.
Sergei's true name is primarily pulled out of my ass because it's difficult to try to come up with a coherent cypher for true names because not every letter matches up and I'm not using that fan made cypher. Also Resbelva Kulco is supposed to mean "hunting buddy Sergei."
As for the gel powder, well Zestiria already has fake elixir which I swear is a widely traded meth analogue that's primarily for middle and upper class people.
Also I'm surprised that no one here has tried to guess who wrote the note for Dezel, I'm guessing it's either the no one cares or that it's obvious to even bother with. Anyway onto review responses.
DeathLadyShinigami- I'm glad you're enjoying this so far and I'm glad you look forward to future chapters and sorry that I responded to this so late.