Chapter 13: Blessings, and underground plans
The group traveled for a couple of days until they got back from Lady Lake. They headed to the sanctuary with Uno.
"And here we are!" Announced Rose when the party entered the sanctuary. "And here's the vessel we'll be using."
"Wasn't that taken like thirty years ago?" Uno asked.
"It's a prop." Said Rose. "Though I don't think it's corrupt, I mean at worst it was sitting in some shit."
"For the record that's not what's under my bed. Just spiders." Said Sergei.
"So yeah a spider probably crawled on it, no hellionized spiders." Said Rose.
"… All right." Said Uno.
"Oh, I'll go find father Breunor, I'll be right back." Said Sergei then rushing out of the sanctuary. Mikleo lightly tapped her shoulder.
"What?" She asked.
"We still need to have that talk." Said Mikleo.
"Fine fine. In the back." Said Rose. "Hey, Edna, can you get out of my body for a sec?"
"All right …" She sighed materializing in front of them. The two headed to the back of the sanctuary, slumped against a wall and sat down.
"You wanted to talk?" Said Rose.
"Yeah, can you tell me about Dezel and what happened between you two?" Mikleo asked.
"What?" Said Rose.
"I have a hunch on why you can't turn off the Armatus." Said Mikleo.
"All right. What is it?" Rose asked.
"First the context." Said Mikleo.
"Whaaaaat?" Rose whined. "Oh all right. It all started when I was a baby and Dezel was four-"
"I don't need to hear your whole life. Just around the point where you left Elysia." Said Mikleo. Rose sighed and talked about what happened in Mabinogio ruins and how they met up with Sergei along with how the Elysians didn't seem comfortable with him around and Mason dying soon after he left at the hands of a hellion. She then told him about the going to Lady Lake and finding Mason's murderer only for Dezel to turn into a hellion himself after being knocked into the lake and the Scattered Bones interfering. Then her becoming the Shepherd to save Dezel and three days later while she was talking to Muse, Dezel just left with a note, with her suspecting that Sorey was the writer of the note since him having resonance was blatantly obvious when he responded to Dezel to lying about getting arrested and the guy can't lie worth of shit.
"And that's basically what happened." Said Rose. "So what do you think is the reason I can't turn off the armatus, minus that time at Flakewin."
"I think you're still hung up over Dezel and it's affecting you." Said Mikleo.
"Pf, yeah right." Said Rose.
"Seriously." Said Mikleo. "You're still mad at the guy for leaving because he's the reason you became the Shepherd otherwise, someone else would've pulled out the prop blade, have Edna as a Prime Lord and honestly neither of us would be here."
"Not true." Said Rose. "I would've became the Shepherd anyway if Dezel wasn't in trouble."
"Really?" Said Mikleo crossing his arms. "How so?"
"Well we originally came here to look for Sergei to make sure he wouldn't get killed by a hellion. If Dezel hadn't fallen in the lake, we probably still would've gotten our asses saved and we would've made sure Sergei was all right by going to the sanctuary." Said Rose.
"And then what?"
"And then … and then … I don't know wait for some hellions to disrupt the festival which would give me the chance to talk to Edna and then grab the blade."
"And what if that didn't happen?"
"Um well … I don't know."
"Exactly." Said Mikleo.
"The hell does that mean?" Asked Rose.
"If there was no one in danger there would be no reason for you to become the Shepherd. Whether it's Dezel, Sergei or some random bystander." Said Mikleo.
"I'm not that nice!" Rose snapped.
"Okay, correction, someone you know and care about, cuz that bystander can just go die in a ditch. Otherwise we wouldn't be here talking about you being unable to take off the armatus." Said Mikleo.
"I'm pretty sure it's because I'm not strong enough yet." Rose insisted.
"Rose you've been the Shepherd for like two … three weeks? You learned how to use mine and Edna's powers in a short amount of time and you still can't take off the Armatus at will minus that one time at Flakewin." Said Mikleo. "What happened there anyway?"
"I dunno, I was freaked out and was thinking that we need to split and before I knew it I found myself on the ground and we were separated." Said Rose.
"… Of course." He sighed. "The one time you stopped thinking about being mad at Dezel you were able to deactivate the armatus."
"I don't do that!" Rose claimed.
"Sure." Said Mikleo. "Try not thinking about Dezel while you're armatized."
"I told you I-" Rose started.
"Rose? I got father Bruenor." They heard Sergei.
"Coming." She said. They found Edna standing nearby.
"Thank god, that conversation was going in circles." She said.
"Edna! We needed some time alone!" Mikleo shouted.
"You two are loud. It's kind of hard not to ignore Meebo." Said Edna. "And Rose, I'd listen to Meebo."
"The sky doesn't seem like it's falling and pigs aren't flying." Said Mikleo. Edna growled and jabbed his back with her umbrella. "Ow!" He cried. They went to Sergei accompanied by a hybrid between middle age and elderly of a man with short brown hair, wearing glasses and a priest's uniform.
"Pardon me, but are you the Shepherd that Sergei's been talking about?" He asked.
"Act like you have some tact." Said Edna whacking her butt with her umbrella, Rose momentarily cringed.
"Yes." Said Rose. "And you must be Father Bruenor, I've heard great things about you."
"I'm sure I've got nothing on you, the woman that quelled the storm and the river by Griflet bridge." Said Bruenor.
"Boy word spreads fast." Rose muttered under her breath before clearing her throat. "However things like that can only get us so far in these times of chaos, we also need the hopes and prayers of the people to help as well. Which is why I'm asking you to pray for a new seraph for this sanctuary."
"I'm afraid I'm unworthy for such a task."
"He can't sense us but I think he's sincere enough." Said Uno. "He'll do."
"Please father Bruenor, don't be so modest. The seraph says you're a good man and would be happy to have you pray for him." Said Rose.
"… Very well." Said Father Bruenor.
"Uno, if you would please." Said Rose gesturing to the sword. Uno nodded and became a light, similar to Edna and Mikleo when they go into her body, and went into the prop sword. A wave of energy passed through them and just the pressure in Rose's chest subsided.
"What was that?" Sergei asked.
"That was the blessing returning to the town." Said Edna. Uno came out of the sword.
"Ladylake and the surrounding area has become my domain." He said. "It'll need to be maintained via purifying of any stray hellions in town or through prayer and offerings." He then flinched.
"Something wrong?" Rose asked.
"I still feel some malevolence coming from over there." He said pointing to somewhere.
"Uh … Sergei what's that way?" Rose asked pointing in the same direction as Uno.
"That's the palace." Said Sergei.
"… Of course." Said Edna.
"What?" Said Rose.
"Politicians are corrupt bastards so it's no surprise that there would be tons of malevolence from the palace cuz that's where they live." Said Edna.
"Well at least most of the malevolence is gone, how about we crash at the inn." Said Rose.
"Shepherd-" Bruenor started.
"Just call me Rose." Said Rose.
"Rose. Thank you so much for trying to help our city." He said.
"It's no problem." Said Rose. She and the party left the sanctuary. As soon as she did so she felt a sudden surge of malevolence. "Who are you? Show yourself!" She shouted. A hooded figure stepped out of the shadows. Rose couldn't make out any features.
"So. You think you restored the blessing in one town you think you can just leave and be on your merry way to fuck knows where?" A feminine voice asked. "You're honestly more of a screw up than I thought."
"Who are you calling-" Sergei started but Rose stopped him.
"I appreciate it but you should be quiet." Said Rose. She then turned to the hooded figure. "I'm not going to leave the city just yet there's still you and the malevolence at the palace. If I leave those two things alone they'll become bigger problems."
"Hmph, something a little stupid girl would say." Said the figure.
"Hold up, now what the does that mean?" Rose asked becoming defensive.
"You'll find out. Or someone will just up and tell you." The figure then left without a word.
"What a bitch." Rose muttered.
"They're most likely the hellion form of a disillusioned person that's lost faith in the shepherd." Said Edna. "If we run into them again, purify them."
"Yeah, I know."
At the inn Rose laid back on the bed.
"So what are we gonna do about the palace?" She asked.
"You apparently have connections with the scattered bones right? Why don't you ask your friends to help you break in?" Edna suggested.
"We're not friends." Said Rose. "Plus the palace is where the royal family and some politicians are so it's gonna be heavily guarded."
"You know some of my superiors are at the palace." Said Sergei. "We could just go in and ask to talk to one of my superiors while the seraphim look for the malevolence."
"Yeah let us go while we have no ways to communicate to each other so we can't tell you we're in a pinch." Said Edna.
"Well it is honestly the best option, though we could try to sneak off on our own." Said Rose.
"No, you can't." Said Sergei. "It's a bit of a policy that guests to the palace are watched and followed at all times."
"All right, so Edna and Mikleo are gonna look for the source of malevolence while we hang back. Sound good?" Said Rose.
"Yeah." Said Sergei.
"All right, we got that down, Sergei do you need to see your superiors any time soon?" Rose asked.
"No … not for a while but I think I can try to pull some strings. Just give me three days." Said Sergei.
"Really, you can get us into the palace in that short amount of time?" Asked Edna.
"That's short?" Said Rose.
"By comparison." Said Mikleo. "I hear appointments inside political facilities take longer than that to arrange normally."
"Yeah, don't worry." Said Sergei.
"Any idea on what we should do for three days?" Rose asked.
"I dunno, help people, kill prickle boars and illegally sell them, draw on Mikleo's face-" Edna listed off.
"No." Mikleo interrupted. "If you're bored the Sparks might still be in town due to Griflet bridge collapsing, so you could try to hang out with them."
"I'll keep that in mind." Said Rose.
A couple days passed. While Sergei was trying to get a word in with his superiors at the palace Rose was keeping herself occupied through feeding stray dogs and by somewhat babysitting some kids which was making sure that the kids didn't get near the waterwheel. And for the first time in a while she ran into the Sparks again. She bummed around them for a little while and finally learned some of the other member's names; Eguille, Rosh, Felice and Talfryn Ayn, Mupvet, Sefna, Ivj, and Bari. She managed to lean things like; Felice and Talfryn are twins (though it's obvious), Eguille is currently Muse's right hand man but they're training Sorey, Rosh, and the twins to take the job(s) in case either or both of them die, and Mupvet is a man whore with at least three illegitimate children. Also with the bridge down they're gonna be stuck in Lady Lake for a while longer. Then she ran into Sorey.
"Hey what's up?" She said. "You doin' better?"
"Yeah, I've been fine for the last few days. Can you tell-" Said Sorey.
"Tell Mikleo yourself I know damn well you can see seraphim." Said Rose.
"Wha-uh-um… how did you know?" He asked.
"Let's see you reacted to Dezel when he said that you lied about not getting arrested, you reacted to Edna talking and making a joke about me, and you fell in love at first fucking sight with the seraph that healed you. Not to mentioned that when I visited you I had a talk with Zenrus before hand and he said that he raised, slash, is raising you." Rose listed. Sorey's face turned red.
"I-I did … not fall in love at first sight with that really pretty Seraph!" Sorey claimed.
"Yeah you're not helping yourself." Said Rose. "Hey Mikleo can you come out?"
"Okay." He said. He appeared in between her and Sorey, startling the latter.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Said Rose. There was a long awkward pause. "Well go on."
"Oh! Um … thank you … thank you so much for using your artes to have me recover faster." Said Sorey.
"It's probably nothing, I'm sure Zenrus and that medicine did more than I did." Said Mikleo.
"No, that stuff has been doing the same thing for years, while you didn't cure me by any means you still shortened my time in bed and I managed to get a lot done with that extra time including finding and exploring some entrances through the aqueducts." Said Sorey.
"What? Really? Where?" Mikleo exclaimed his eyes lighting up.
"Oh no …" Muttered Rose.
"Oh boy." Sighed Edna. Sorey smiled and excitedly pulled out a piece of parchment that contained a very rough outline of the city of Lady Lake with squiggles and lines drawn everywhere inside it. X's and sloppy labels were scattered throughout the rough map.
"What the hell are we looking at?" Said Rose.
"A map of the aqueducts." Said Sorey bluntly. "Okay, this one is the main obvious entrance, leads to a dead end because it's sealed. It's also close to the area where you saved that drowning man."
"Yes, we know this." Said Rose bluntly.
"I don't, I wasn't there." Said Mikleo.
"Now now, don't start fighting you two." Said Sorey. He pointed to one of the X's. "This one is behind the sanctuary and it's actually a trap door that's only triggered by a switch. And this one leads into the kitchen of the palace."
"Wait, you've been to the palace?" Said Mikleo.
"Only took a peek." Said Sorey "I think that was created so you can have high ranking officials and royalty evacuate quickly in case there was a disaster like an enemy overrunning the place or a dragon attack."
"Did you get caught?" Rose asked.
"No." Said Sorey.
"The guards are either super stupid or he's just lucky." Edna commented.
"Huh, thought that would be heavily guarded." Said Mikleo "Carry on."
"This one on the north eastern part of town is a fun one because it's underwater and I do not recommend this other one because it leads to the inn's piping. Unless you're insanely flexible, and impossibly thin for that matter, you're not gonna get out of the toilet. Believe me I tried." Said Sorey. Mikleo game him a look that was a mix of shock, disgust, confusion, and impressed.
"… Lovely." He said.
"I don't recommend these two entrances neither, because they lead into cellars of homes and you need to be a one sneaky bastard to get out. Though this one leads into an abandoned building though I think the building might be used for back alley medical procedures. Or a minor cult trying to summon some sort of arch lich, either way there's a lot of blood in there." He continued. "Those are all the entrances I managed to find."
"Again, lovely." Said Mikleo.
"Some of the entrances you mentioned, why did they build houses over them?" Rose asked.
"I don't know my best guess is that the old town got toppled over and the current Lady Lake got built on top of it." Said Sorey.
"Unlikely." Said Mikleo. "It's more like the current Lady Lake came about via tearing down some old buildings that were in disuse and with population growth they needed more room for housing so they built some buildings over entrances to the old aqueducts."
"That would be the case if Lady Lake had enough housing for its citizens but as it stands-" Sorey began to argue.
"I think that's enough, let's go Mikleo." Said Rose grabbing Mikleo by the collar of his shirt and dragging him away.
"Oh thank god." Said Edna.
"Wait we might need that map!" Mikleo shouted.
"Just take it!" Sorey shouted throwing the map with it landing very short of Mikleo's reach and onto the ground.
"Edna … pick that up." Rose ordered.
"You have a Meebo to do that for you."
"No, he'll run back to argue with Sorey on why they built on top of aqueduct entrances." Said Rose.
"No I won't." Mikleo pouted.
"All right, fine." Said Edna. She got out of Rose's body then picked up the map and handed it back to Rose who stuffed it in a pouch hanging off her belt.
When they headed back to the inn they were staring at the map Sorey threw at them.
"So you two can just walk on in through the kitchen entrance since as I recall the malevolence was stronger underground so we might find some powerful hellion there." Said Rose.
"We'll take a look there after we look around the palace cuz I suspect that there might be some malevolence that lurks within the palace, especially with some of the politicians." Said Mikleo.
"I have that in mind, if you two run into something dangerous get out of there and get back to me." Said Rose.
"We know that since we kind of need you as a conduit to purify hellions." Said Edna. "Plus if we have to purify humans, especially in this setting it might end up being an interesting learning curve."
"How so?" Rose asked.
"For one, if you do what you have been doing with hellions which is attack willy nilly you could get yourself arrested." Said Edna. "However purifying hellions requires physical contact, so…"
"I need to do it without looking like a serial killer or just fucking creepy." Said Rose.
"Pretty much." Said Edna.
"Great. Now all we have to do is wait for Sergei." Said Rose.
"What should we do if Sergei doesn't get any approval to get into the palace?" Mikleo asked.
"If that doesn't work I'm thinking we should sneak through the underwater entrance and try to look for the source of malevolence from underground and use the palace kitchen's entrance if we find nothing in the aqueducts." Said Rose. "So Mikleo when it comes to that we should have the spectral cloak ready."
"Fine by me." Said Mikleo. "Though what if we get caught?"
"I'm kind of hoping that won't happen cuz well we'd be invisible to them and if worse comes to worse we'll use the same entrance we came through. I doubt they would know about the entrance in the north eastern part due to it being well underwater."
"What about the entrance in the abandoned building?" Mikleo asked "I mean obviously if worse comes to worse we can't use the town's main aqueduct entrance or the palace and the ones that are in the cellars of some homes cuz those would be guarded. If we took the underwater entrance you need sneak through town without looking suspiciously wet. That building could be a place we could hide in until things calm down a little."
"That could work, if worse comes to worse, which I hope it never comes to. And we could hide back in the entrance in case palace guards come looking there." Said Rose. Just as Rose said that Sergei came into the room. "That was sooner than expected."
"Well with the stuff that happened at Falkewin I managed to get us into the palace. We an audience with the general as well as the council." Said Sergei.
"Why the sudden interest?" Rose asked raising an eyebrow.
"I'm guessing it's because what you did at Falkewin." Said Edna "Someone that's able to tear down a waterspout and clear the rain is bound to gain the attention of the higher ups there's no question that the council would want to use you as a weapon."
"Well since you two will be looking around I just might have to play dumb in front of the council." Said Rose.
"Good plan." Said Mikleo. "When are they expecting you two?"
"Tomorrow evening." Said Sergei.
Okay I know I said in a few days but ... real life man. Three studio classes and a philosophy class can leave your hands tied for a bit. But so begins Rose's part time job as wing man and the close of the Lady Lake arc.