Chapter 37: To Gododdin
The next morning they were about to leave Pendrago when they saw a hellion above the knights at the front gate.
"Hmph looks like the church might be looking for us." Said Dezel.
"Well I did break a window to get the fuck out yesterday." Said Rose.
"We need to find a way around." Said Dezel.
"Or just use the Spectral Cloak and just walk on through." Said Rose.
"The Spectral Cloak?" Dezel asked.
"Oh yeah you weren't there." Said Rose. "Long story short it makes us effectively invisible as long as we don't make a lot of noise. And since there's no one here that wears heavy plate armor we should be okay."
"Wait … why did you mention plate armor?" Sorey asked.
"Long story short we tried to use this with Sergei and it failed miserable because his armor made a lot of noise." Rose explained. Sorey snickered for a bit. "Can we go now?"
"All right all right, sorry." Said Sorey. Dezel went back into Rose and the two humans went closer to the gate. When the lizard started in turn their direction Rose evoked Mikleo's powers and created a bubble around them. The two shuffled through the gate then went behind a tree just as the spectral cloak wore off. They looked to the field to see many more hellions patrolling the pasture.
"Think they're affiliated with the church?" Rose asked.
"I would hope not." Said Mikleo. "But we might need to keep using the spectral cloak."
"It doesn't look like we'd be able to get very far." Said Sorey. "Do you think that at least for tonight we should head to Greyskull and wait until it mostly blows over?"
"I'm okay with that." Said Dezel probably shrugging if he could.
"Well I guess we can do it for just tonight." Said Mikleo rather begrudgingly. So they started sneaking towards Greyskull using the Spectral Cloak to get past hellions until they approached the keep. Just as Rose was about to open the door Sorey grabbed her wrist.
"Rose there are a shit ton of hellions looking around the front, they'll notice." Said Sorey.
"Well where do we go?" Rose asked.
"There's a collapsed portion that's being used as Keyleth's garden, let's get in through there." Said Sorey. So they went around back where the collapsed portion of building with a tree growing out of it a full story up was. The two then started scaling the wall.
"You know you two could armatize with me to get over the ledge." Dezel pointed out.
"That's fair … Lukeim Yurlin." Said Rose then armatizing with him and hovered to the portion under the tree then dearmatized so Sorey could do the same. When they got there it was pretty dry all with the mostly leaved tree and there stood Keyleth.
"Hello Shepherd breaking in now?" She asked.
"We're so sorry Keyleth." Sorey apologized "But we need a place to hide for a bit and we figured that this is our best bet."
"And why do you need to hide?" Keyleth asked.
"Well we" Rose started.
"We?" Sorey questioned slightly miffed.
"I destroyed a window in the Shrine Church because we felt a strong domain that temporarily paralyzed our resonance." Said Rose. "So now there are a shit ton of hellions that are associated with the church that might want me dead." Keyleth rolled her eyes then sighed.
"Yep, Shepherding as usual." She said to herself. "Well come on." They went inside where Vax was just walking around.
"Hey, didn't expect to see you all so soon." Said Vax. "What brings you back here?"
"Damage of church property and we're hiding from the a bunch of hellions outside." Said Sorey.
"Okay. What would lead you to damage church property?" Vax asked.
"A really strong domain suddenly appeared blocking our resonances so Rose broke a window to get out." Said Sorey.
"Oh, all right." Said Vax.
"By the way are either of you familiar with the trials of the Shepherd?" Rose asked.
"Well we've heard of them but we didn't do them." Said Keyleth with a shrug.
"How the hell did you guys defeat the Lords of Calamity?" Edna muttered under her breath.
"Well one of them was killed by a different Shepherd and the second one … I like to think that it's because the void armatus can be really clutch with a badass mystic arte. Plus we managed to get some things from helping out Keykey's family." Said Vax. He looked to the new Shepherd's group who were really nonchalant about it. "You know I was expecting more of a reaction to the fact that there is a void armatus."
"Well when you find out there's such a thing as a lightning armatus you figure that any armatus is possible." Said Rose with a shrug.
"Even an armatus that requires you to fuse with two or more seraphim?" Vax asked.
"Okay now that's not an armatus, that's becoming a god." Said Rose.
"Not to mention it's just sounds fucking ridiculous." Said Sorey. Rose and the party seraphim stared at him. "What?"
"I would say to watch your language Sorey but …" Zenrus began.
"You never fucking swear!" Rose finished. "Plus the old man hasn't scolded any of us for our honestly fucking filthy mouths."
"Though I would be careful when you call me "old man."" Said Zenrus.
"Anyway …" Said Dezel, "You saying "fucking ridiculous" somehow adds more weight."
"You're all being really jumpy about an extra "fuck" to something that just sounds stupid." Sighed Keyleth rolling her eyes.
"Because it never happens with him!" Rose exclaimed. Keyleth and Vax rolled their eyes and sighed.
That night after everyone went to sleep Sorey woke from another nightmare with the inability to get back to sleep again. He got out of the old bed and left the room and started wandering the dark halls. He saw a faint light come from downstairs. He went there to see Mikleo and Keyleth talking in the kitchen.
"I can't believe you would go for someone so cold." He heard Mikleo say.
"Now now, there are times where Vax acts like the biggest asshole but he really means well." Said Keyleth.
"How is telling me to give up on Bahamut meaning well?" Mikleo asked.
"Well … he always has a soft spot for broken seraphim." Said Keyleth.
"What does that have to do with anything? I'm not…" Said Mikleo.
"You know we talked about it that night." Said Keyleth. "We get this feeling that you tend to hide things a lot like if you've been hurt in the past you wouldn't tell anyone about it." Mikleo's eyes widened and he scooched his chair back. "We just fear that it'll be self destructive and from what Rose told us may be the reason you turned into a hellion. So we think you should leave Bahamut."
"That's … that's none of your concern." Said Mikleo.
"Is it really none of my concern or are you trying to divert the conversation?" Keyleth asked.
"Both." Said Mikleo "Can you please not ask about this?"
"Sorry." Said Keyleth. "I'm just concerned for you after last time."
"I can do without your concern." Said Mikleo. It was quiet for a while before Sorey tapped on a nearby wall. They turned to see him standing in the doorway.
"Hi … do you mind?" He asked nervously.
"No, come on in." Said Keyleth. Sorey walked in and sat down.
"Did you have another nightmare?" Mikleo asked. Sorey silently nodded. Mikleo hesitantly reached for his hand before asking "Do you mind?"
"Not at all." Said Sorey. Mikleo held his hand.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Mikleo asked. Sorey shook his head. Keyleth wanted to ask something but hesitated.
"Y-you know … I could make you a charm that's said to keep nightmares away." She said changing her mind. "I don't know if it would actually work but my parents used it to keep me from getting nightmares when I was little."
"I don't think that would help … but thank you though." Said Sorey.
"Let's get back to bed." Said Mikleo. They went back upstairs.
"Mikleo …" Said Sorey, the water seraph turned to him. "Can you stay with me … just for tonight?"
"Well … my stuff's in another room …" Said Mikleo. "But … all right." The two went into Sorey's room and Mikleo watched Sorey fall asleep and he just stared at the sleeping boy occasionally brushing a hair out of his face before drifting to sleep himself.
The next morning the seraphim were peeking out of the window to make sure if any hellions were still around.
"You guys seeing anything?" Rose asked.
"No, well there are some hellions but none of them are with the church." Said Mikleo.
"Don't go out just yet." Said Vax. "Let me get quickly search the pasture."
"And why would we let you do that?" Mikleo asked crossing his arms.
"Because I am a terrible decision maker and danger magnet that can get the fuck away really quickly." Said Vax. "Just give me a few hours."
"Why would we do that when Mikleo just said that it's clear?" Rose asked.
"I'm just looking out for you and making sure that you guys don't make dumber mistakes than us." Said Vax. "I prefer if you guys do just as dumb stuff if not actually smart stuff."
"I think we can manage." Said Rose.
"All right, all right. Suit yourselves." Said Vax backing away with his hands up.
"Thank you." Said Rose.
"Thanks for letting us stay again!" Said Sorey giving Vax and Keyleth a brief wave.
"Later." Said Edna to the seraph couple before leaving the keep.
Once again the party spent a week walking through the Meadow of Triumph before getting to Biroclef Ridge. And just like the walk to Pendrago it was relatively uneventful. When they got to the ridge they decided to camp out for the night as the sun was setting. And it was around then that Sorey got into a coughing fit.
"Shit! Now?" He muttered under his breath.
"Sorey," Said Rose, Sorey looked up, "I know we didn't discuss this in Pendrago but did you get any further information on the money trail you were sent to investigate?"
"Well I'm pretty sure we recently picked up on this trail due to someone noticing a pattern with the church spending and a chunk of it was going to Gododdin." Said Sorey.
"Do you know what's coming from Gododdin?" She asked.
"No." Said Sorey.
"Oh no …" Groaned Rose.
"What?" Said Sorey.
"I have a bad feeling about this …" Said Rose.
"You're thinking it has something to do with drugs don't you?" Dezel asked.
"Yeah…" Rose sighed.
"Wait you think there's something like the powder fiasco we had to deal with in Hyland?" Mikleo asked.
"I mean it's possible." Said Rose with a shrug.
"If there is a drug scheme going on in Gododdin why would the church be giving money for it?" Mikleo asked.
"Addiction rehabilitation, withdrawal recovery, compensation for prisoners on drug allegations, funeral costs from overdose …" Sorey listed with a shrug.
"Or the church is the one behind the whole drug problem." Said Enda.
"Okay considering that some of the actions of the cardinal are pretty sketchy lately that's a bit extreme don't you think?" Rose asked.
"Maybe." Shrugged Edna.
"Or they are starting this drug problem in Gododdin because they're actually getting their revenue from elixir through this." Said Dezel.
"What?" Said Rose.
"You know I think he might be going somewhere with this." Said Sorey. "If the church is making money off of a drug problem in Gododdin it would lead to a scheme where the church is giving money to Gododdin so they can gather materials, equipment, and labor for making the drug, Gododdin distributes the drug, consumers get addicted in which the knights and church would interfere to get them off the drug, then the consumers suffer withdrawal symptoms, the church cures it with elixir, so demand of elixir would go up but since the supply of elixir is limited the prices for elixir would also go up thus them making a profit off of the stuff. It's insane for the church to do this but it is plausible due to rumors of church corruption and elixir becoming the rage these days."
"Yes it is plausible but you are forgetting one thing." Said Zenrus. "Elixir is popular among the upper class, lower classes don't have access to the money needed to buy elixir. So this theory falls apart because you need an upper class addicted to drugs."
"Actually that might be pretty plausible in Rolance." Said Mikleo.
"How so?" Zenrus asked.
"Well we haven't heard of any drug problem among the majority of the populace we haven't witnessed any arrests for a drug problem. In fact none of the regular citizens seem to be getting hit with the powder problem like Hyland did." Mikleo explained "However they're not the ones buying elixirs, the nobility are. What if it's because they're dealing with a drug problem and they know that the only way to fix it is through the elixir. And they can get around the inflating prices because they have the money to do so."
"Wait … elixir is a onetime cure all." Said Edna.
"This is a super addictive drug with devastating side effects." Said Mikleo with a shrug.
"Okay so are we good on this church drug conspiracy?" Rose asked.
"Yeah. I think so." Said Sorey.
"Great." Rose sighed "More drugs. Ah let's just get to sleep and sort out this drug thing tomorrow." However nobody got a good night's sleep due to Sorey's coughing, with Zenrus going up to heal him every hour or so. They next morning they were heading up Gododdin exhausted, with Sorey and Zenrus being especially tired that Rose pointed out that they look like shit as they climbed up the mountain pass.