Chapter 32: A Few Things Picked Up
They rushed Sorey, and the dog seraph, back to the hideout and laid him on the bed. Around that time Rose groaned and put her hand to her head.
"Rose?" She heard Dezel say.
"I'm all right, I just feel little dizzy right now." She said.
"You're probably fine." Said Zenrus. "That can happen after exhausting yourself."
"Okay … Think Sorey will be all right … after coughing up some blood?" Rose asked.
"To be honest I don't know, I think it has to do with the coughing fit in the experiment chamber then getting into an intense fight right after that caused it." Said Zenrus. "He probably won't be able to do anything for at least another week." Just when he said that Muse came running in.
"Is he all right?" She asked panicked.
"Um … he's still breathing if that's what you're asking." Said Rose. Muse looked at her as if to tell her that now is not the time for her antics and went over to Sorey and checked to see if he had a fever. She sighed, however it sounded like a mix of relief and frustration.
"This is the third time this month." She growled. "What happened in there? And why is there a dog?"
"Well … we were dicking around in the ruins and I pulled a trap that ended up producing a bunch of smoke which didn't bide well with Sorey so Mikleo had to turn off the trap, then not long after I got into a fight with a hellion in which he ended up joining and making the squire pact with me and we defeated it which and it turns out to be the dog. Then he started coughing up blood and passed out." Said Rose.
"Blood?!" Muse exclaimed. She then collapsed on the bed. "Oh no … oh no no no no no no no no no no no no …"
"Muse…?" They heard Mikleo say.
"It's only gotten this bad only five times before …" She said. "I sincerely hope it was him over working himself and not a sign of whatever's plaguing him getting worse."
"What?! That's a sign of his health getting worse?!" Rose exclaimed. "Goddammit! I knew his health would be a problem!"
"Not always." Said Zenrus. "Sometimes it just happens if he is pushed too far."
"Is there a way to help him recover?" Rose asked.
"I would say use an elixir but they're far too expensive, rare, and heavily regulated for it to be of any help." Said Muse. "All we've really done so far is use healing artes, his usual medicine, and a concauction that is mixing the stuff in panacea and life bottles. It's worked most of the time it's happened." They then heard a groan coming from the dog seraph. Everyone turned their attention away from Sorey and to the seraph dog.
"So, you're awake." Said Rose.
"Yes, thank you for saving me Shepherd and my seraph bretheren. Though it seems that I may have interrupted something and for that I should apologize." Said the seraph.
"No. We're just about done." Said Muse.
"Oh if you're sure." Said the seraph Muse got up and left the room. "Though I must say I didn't expect Lord Zenrus to be here. I thought you would be in Elysia."
"It's a long story." Said Zenrus.
"You used to be part of Elysia?" Rose asked.
"Yes." Said Zenrus. "But due to some circumstances I ended up entrusting it and my family to Lafarga."
"So like Edna, he's very new to the job." Said Dezel.
"Yes, yes he is." Said Zenrus. "In anycase, what's your name?"
"I'm called Oysh." The dog introduced himself.
"Um … nice to meet ya." Said Rose. "I'm Rose and these are Dezel, Edna, and Mikleo, and the unconscious one is Sorey."
"Likewise." Said Oysh. "Though did Sorey pass out from the shock of forming a pact?"
"No, he passed out due to illness." Said Rose.
"Oh, that's a shame." Said Oysh.
"So how long have you been a hellion? Out of curiosity." Rose asked.
"Hm … Let's see … I think a week or so." Said Oysh.
"Oh, what are you gonna do from here on?" Rose asked.
"I figured I'd stay here for a bit but be a bit careful lest I turn back into a hellion." Said Oysh.
"Zenrus, would you mind if Oysh more or less took your place with the Light Sparks … or Scattered Bones? Whatever you call them. I mean you're gonna be traveling with me and due to the sublord pact." Said Rose.
"I don't mind myself but it is honestly up to Muse and Oysh." Said Zenrus with a shrug.
"Are you asking me to well effectively join an assassin's guild?" Oysh asked.
"Hey, you said yourself that staying here any longer would turn you back into a hellion." Said Rose.
"Yes I'm aware of that but I'm a bit iffy on wether or not these assassins will be produce a lot of malevolence considering their job and the hatred it attracts." Said Oysh.
"I've been with them since they started up fifteen years ago." Said Zenrus. "The only time we had a problem with malevolence was with a member that turned hellion but we managed to kick him out."
"No offense Lord Zenrus but you're an ancient all powerful seraph with a pretty strong domain I don't think malevolence would hut you too much." Said Oysh.
"None taken, but I'm pretty sure that even without that one mishap they didn't produce very much malevolence so you should be safe." Said Zenrus. "However you will need to find a vessel and the more faithful among the assassin merchants would have to be willing to worship you."
"Oh yeah … there are others." Said Rose then inhaling sharply. "Maybe we should talk to Muse about that."
"Yes. We should talk about that with Muse and the other resonant members outside of Sorey." Said Zenrus.
"What about Eguille and the others?" Rose asked.
"They tend to unfortunately think Sorey, Muse, and the others hear non existent voices and are mentally ill, unfortunately, so their response would be something along the lines of telling them that there's gonna be a new seraph that'll be with them will be something along the lines of "uh … cool …" before walking off and muttering that they are a loon." Said Zenrus. Rose flinched.
"Ouch. It's a miracle that more haven't become malevolent." Said Rose.
"Well they have others like them." Said Zenrus. "This keeps each other in check. Though in any case, come Oysh, let us talk with the leader of the Scattered Bones and hopefully with other resonant members."
A week passed and Oysh got a vessel being a necklace that was held by one of the resonant members and slowly they were starting to take a liking to the new seraph even though they admit that they will miss Zenrus hanging around. Meanwhile Sorey recovered to the point where his chest didn't hurt and Muse would allow him to wander out of bed. However she wouldn't let him go into the ruin unsupervised so she would have one of the twins or sometimes Muse herself keep an eye on him with Mikleo tagging along of his own volition every time. Also sometime during the week she left the hideout for an "errand" at a nearby location for two days but that is something for another time. Anyway, at the very end of the week Rose noticed Sorey going into the ruin once again but with a different member of the guild that had long dark brown hair and looked pretty gloomy with dark circles under her eyes not helping her look any less so and in the standard Scattered Bones uniform. Rose with the seraphim approached them.
"Hey." She greeted. "You planning to go in again?"
"Yeah, I mean I figured you were thinking of leaving around tomorrow or the day after as according to our network things seemed to have calmed down from the war eventhough Lastonbell is running inspections to find the Shepherd." Said Sorey. "Otherwise there's not much tension now so it would be a good time before people stat spreading rumors that the Shepherd died or something."
"Well we were planning on leaving anyway as we've been bored out of our skulls this whole time." Said Edna.
"I haven't." Said Mikleo.
"You don't count Meebo." Said Edna.
"Hey!"
"Ah! Seraphim?" The girl exclaimed with little surprise or excitement.
"Yeah, they're around. And I don't think I got your name." Said Rose. "I mean I've seen you around I just don't know who you really are."
"Joanna." The girl droned. "It's a pleasure to meet you Shepherd."
"…Yeah …" Said Rose feeling a little creeped out. "You here to babysit Sorey to make sure he doesn't die from whatever he has?"
"Hey!" Snapped Sorey.
"Yes." Said Joanna rather bluntly.
"Haven't you seen enough of this place?" Rose asked.
"No. I've managed to set off some traps which made a path to a different room that I have yet to investigate." Said Sorey. "However I did find this." He said pulling out an Iris gem.
"An Iris gem?" Rose exclaimed. "You already looked through it right?"
"Yeah, but I've heard of you taking a look at these as well. So you can take a look while we're gone." Said Sorey.
"Hold up. Who says I'm staying here? I'm coming with you two." Said Rose.
"Really?" Said Sorey. "I mean no offense last time you nearly killed me with a smoke trap and you've made it very vocal that you don't really like learning about history."
"Oh come on! Please? I promise I won't touch anything!" Rose promised.
"Oh!" Joanna exclaimed with dull joy. "The Shepherd could protect us from those strange monsters!"
"Joanna … I'm her squire. I can do what she can do." Said Sorey. "We'll be fine."
"Okay. Is this revenge on me being rather adamant on not letting you be my squire?" Rose asked. "Cuz if it is it's really pathetic."
"Oh like you're to talk." Said Sorey.
"Hey, your health is a legitimate concern." Said Rose.
"Pethdak Kiwat Rose?" Said Sorey crossing his arms.
"You're still hung up about that?" Rose snap.
"Well yeah! Half of my true is gibberish in the ancient tongue, hell it being ancient tongue is dubious! Couldn't you at least do something that sounded like you put effort in it like 'Kiwatis Kiwat' or 'Giyalbur Kiwat'?" Sassed Sorey.
"One, I don't know what either of those mean and two, I panicked! How the hell are I supposed to study up on ancient language and give you something fitting in the middle of a goddamn fight?!" Rose shouted.
"They're Sorey is Sorey and Sorey the Goddamn Nerd respectively." Said Sorey bluntly.
"Look now that I know that we can change it!" Offered Rose.
"You can't do that." Said Edna.
"What?" Said Rose.
"She's right." Said Zenrus. "Once you've given someone a true name you can't change it. The only way it can be changed is if he ends op with a different Shepherd."
"Dammit!" Rose shouted.
"Can we drop it and head in?" Joanna asked.
"… Fine …" Rose and Sorey mumbled. And they walked into the ruin to the spot where they fought Oysh days ago. However like Sorey said, this time there is a solid walk way leading to the other side of the room which was a corridor lined with dragon statues. Mikleo came out.
"That's quite a lot of dragons, I don't think this place is Ashari affiliated." He said.
"You don't know that." Said Sorey. "No one is sure about their beliefs, except that they don't really like it when Shepherds and Lords of Calamity clash as it consistently screws them over."
"Dragons are often a sign of calamity. I don't think they would worship a being that could screw them over." Mikleo pointed out. "This this is worship for the eight serpents?"
"I don't think so, the number of heads doesn't match up." Said Sorey. "Back tracking to the Ashari thing they could've worshipped dragons after all praying to them could be an attempt to protect them from whatever ends up harming them and what better way than to worship a creature of destruction?"
"I'm with Meebo. This isn't for the Ashari." Said Edna coming out. "This is far too confined for them."
"Oh what's this? Edna openly agreeing with me without an insult or a hint of sarcasm? Am I dreaming?" Said Mikleo with heavy sarcasm. Edna then whacked him however he instinctively yelped and whacked the umbrella out of her hands causing it to fly across the room almost hitting Joanna as she jumped out of the way. Everyone stopped to look at the the frozen seraphim. Edna had a shocked look on her face while Mikleo looked dazed while having a fearful look in his eyes as if having a flashback.
"… Mikleo …?" Said Rose. He snapped back to reality. He quickly looked around. "Are you …?" But before she could finish her sentence he went back into her body. "Mikleo! Are you okay?"
"D-don't talk to me right now!" He said quickly in a panicked tone.
"Mikleo! What's going on?" Rose asked.
"I … I just want to be alone now." Said Mikleo. They continued down the corridor in silence until they got to a room containing a map of Glenwood that went into a little bit of Northfell with symbols associated with the different elements were placed on different areas of the map.
"Yeah, this is deffinately not Ashari." Said Sorey.
"What makes you say that?" Rose asked.
"For one there would be five markers instead of just four as the Void Ashari are a thing." Said Sorey. "And on top of that these look like elemental symbols associated with the Shepherd."
"How do you know that?" Rose asked.
"Well the glyphs indicating a fire sword, water bow, earth gauntlet, and wind blades tend to indicate holygrounds involving the Shepherd even in the oldest records we have on the subject." Said Sorey with a shrug.
"You didn't go outside much as a kid did you." Said Rose.
"I thought we established this a long time ago. But yes, I mostly stayed inside reading as a kid." Said Sorey.
"So indoor nerd. Why are there Shepherd associated symbols across this map of Glenwood with a little bit of Northfell?"
"I don't really know." Said Sorey. "But I guess these could be sacred places that the Shepherd has to go to to help them out or something like that." He then looked over to Zenrus.
"I'm not saying anything." He said. "You need to learn these things yourself."
"So we're off to traveling the continent to see what those mean." Said Rose. "Which one is the closest?"
"Well … we're kind of right in the middle between the one around Lake Haven Heights and Briocleft Ridge. So either of them could work." Said Sorey.
"Yeah … I've been thinking of going into Rolance so … we should head towards the one at Briocleft Ridge?" Said Rose.
"Yeah that might work." Said Sorey.
"Oh that sounds wonderful." Said Joanna still using her monotone.
"Nothing to get excited about." Said Edna. "Days on end dealing with her idiocy."
"Hey! If you remember my idiocy has worked!" Rose shouted.
"Yes it has. And most of the time it really shouldn't have." Said Edna.
"Gah! Would you all quiet for a bit?!" Sorey shouted holding a sketch book.
"Okay what are you doing and where did you get that?" Rose asked.
"My jacket is surprisingly roomy." Sorey replied.
"Good to know but that doesn't explain what you're doing." Said Rose.
"I'm trying to sketch this down so we can reference it later." Said Sorey.
"… All right. Let's hope it's better than your map of Lady Lake's aqueducts." Said Rose.
"Did you seriously get lost there when you executed your insane plan to release a buch of powder addicts that got you into the war?" Sorey questioned.
"How do you know that?" Rose asked.
"Well you all aren't quiet, especially the seraphim, for one. And I saw a powder addict buying the stuff while wearing your cloak back in Lady Lake." Said Sorey.
"Oh." Said Rose. "And no I didn't get lost the map just looked rather messy with you scribbleing out stuff all over it."
"… Noted …" Said Sorey going back to his map drawing. After a long while that to Rose felt like an hour as sometime during Sorey drawing she got bored and started counting the dragons and started thinking how to get up there so she could draw faces on them. She then found a stray rock and went looking around for a blank wall, though most of the walls in the ruin were pretty blank so she went up to one and started drawing and writing on it. When Sorey was finished he went to Rose to tell her but instead he saw a dick drawn on the wall with "Rose was here" written above it. "What are you doing?" He asked not amused at what he's seeing.
"Um … drawing …?" She said.
"You know you could've asked for paper instead of vandalizing a ruin with a dick." Said Sorey.
"That was supposed to be a middle finger." Said Rose.
"Not helping your case." Said Sorey.
"Hey you looked busy so I didn't want to bother you." Said Rose.
"Can we go now?" Edna wined. "We've been standing around without a Meebo to poke."
"Yeah maybe we should go back." Said Rose. "We have an Iris gem to check out after all." When they got back to the hideout they went to the room separating with Joanna and during the whole time Mikleo didn't come out of Rose. They all sat on the beds. "Sorey, you found an Iris gem right? Did you see what vision in produced?"
"Yes, I told you that." Said Sorey.
"All right. Don't tell me what happens. Let's go." Said Rose. Sorey gave her the Iris gem and it started showing them a vision.
Heldalf stood above a cliff as he watched Rolance's army fight another army that had horns on their helmets with a young girl and the hooded figure that Rose ran into at Lady Lake. Amist the fighting on higher ground and towards the back line a Rolance soldierwith a Flamestone Firecracker shot at one of the horned soldiers killing them. While close to the opposing army's back line a soldier shot at the Rolance soldier charging at him then reloaded. Then the same soldier from Rolance got a lance thrown at him stabbing him through while the other soldier with the Flamestone Firecracker got decapicated while reloading. So the battle went on without the use of the weapon. However the Lord of Calamity smiled as the lack of the Flamestone Firecracker didn't matter, soldiers on both sides were starting to turn into hellions as malevolence corrupted them and turned them into lizard monsters or goblin like creatures making their killing methods more brutal and the stronger of the hellions mutated into something even more dangerous then fighting off the other hellions corrupting the area. Then a cut to a different scene where a villiage got burned to the ground and a Hyland soldier just stabbed a woman with the act turning into a hellion but with her last breaths the woman turned into a giant spider like hellions and ripped the soldier that had just attacked her into pieces and then attacked other soldiers ripping them apart corrupting the area with malevolence with her eating the dismembered soldiers as the gore covered cherry on top. Then another cut to the Lithwerg woods where Rolance soldiers corner a band of mercenaries and in their fury the mercenaries turned into very lycanthropic hellions and started tearing into the soldiers causing them to turn into hellions as well so they could over power the mercenaries corrupting the area in the process then dragging them off.
"So that man … Heldalf, he's the one giving people outside of Northfell the Flamestone Firecracker?" Asked Sorey.
"Looks like it, though judging how he mistook me for someone else it's likely that he and an accomplice were smuggling them in." Said Rose. "But what the hell does he gain out of it?"
"I think it helps makes wars more brutal and brutality mixed in with the other emotions that come through during a war produces malevolence faster." Said Zenrus. "Basically quickly turning a battlefield into a crucible for creating hellions."
"So it helps create hellions faster and then pit them against each other to increase their strength and ferocity." Said Edna.
"Disgusting." Dezel growled.
"Seriously." Said Edna. "The bastard is so depraved that he probably eats kittens for breakfast."
"True. But wouldn't that count as cannibalism?" Rose asked.
"Technically yes." Said Edna.
"Okay, enough about the Lord of Calamity's speculated diet do you think we should try to go to Northfell and warn them about someone smuggling their weapons outside of their country?" Sorey asked.
"It's not that simple." Said Enda. "The border's blocked off so just going there will be a too much of a pain in the ass for it to be worth it."
"Well then. We find Heldalf's accomplice while going to the sacred places that Sorey marked down and try to get information out of them." Said Rose. "Okay?"
Well this has been done for a while but I wanted to wait until Sormik week has passed. Plus I was also working with Nat20animation on tumblr for a Critical Role project.