Chapter 38: "Elixir"

By the time they got to Gododdin Sorey was kind of delirious from a fever he managed to develop.

"How are you doing?" Zenrus asked.

"I'm … I'm still walking …" He sighed. "… I wanna die …" He then slumped on Rose and she partially dragged him along. The party walked through Gododdin's gates many of the children stopped what they were doing to stare at the outsiders only for them to get scolded for doing so.

"Excuse me is there an inn nearby?" Rose asked a nearby person, they told her that it was just by the school house. They went to the inn and let Sorey sleep in the room they checked out with Zenrus watching over him.

"Rose …" Said Sorey getting her attention. "Are you gonna take a look around the village?"

"Yeah." Said Rose. "Want us to get you anything?"

"Just … if you see anything suspicious tell me." Said Sorey. "I may be sick but I still have a job to do." He then went into a coughing fit.

"All right." Said Rose before going outside.

"One last thing Rose." Said Zenrus. She turned suppressing her annoyance. "Keep quiet about being the shepherd and if our drug theory is correct, please refrain from doing anything … stupid."

"Hey! What the hell do you take me for?" Rose exclaimed. "I can manage myself!"

"I'm sure you'll be … fine … but I'd like it if we'd draw as little attention to us as possible." Said Sorey.

"All right, all right I get it! Don't make a scene! I'll tell you if I find anything!" Rose exclaimed before leaving the room in a huff. The remaining seraphim came out.

"Do you think we should split up?" Dezel asked.

"Yeah, you guys can get through various places without getting caught by humans." Said Rose. "But if you find yourself in a bind come back immediately."

"Will do." Said Mikleo as he and Edna left the two.

"You know you could investigate on your own." Said Rose.

"I'm fucking blind." Said Dezel.

"You know you have the wind with you and don't you have ridiculously good hearing?" Rose pointed out.

"I just think that we would get more done if we're together." Said Dezel.

"Is this another thing like the time you turned into a behir?" Rose asked.

"…No…" Said Dezel.

"Ah whatever come on." Said Rose. They walked towards the rather impressive building in the center of the inn close to the inn which the residents call the school house.

"It's a little plain compared to the rest of the town don't you think?" She heard behind her, she turned to an elderly man in plain clothing and wearing glasses.

"Well … I don't know about plain." Said Rose "Sticks out a bit … especially since I come from a mountain town that didn't have a school."

"Well we have to do something for the future for our village why not build a school so the children here can get an education?" Said the man.

"I suppose." Said Rose.

"Rose get his trust, he might know something." Said Dezel.

"I'm Rose by the way." Rose introduced herself. "I'm a researcher surveying the dietary habits of people out on the frontier."

"I'm Slenge, the chief of this village." The old man introduced himself. "Thankfully our village hasn't experienced the ravages of drought and famine."

"That's good to hear. Hope we don't get in your way as we continue to conduct our research." Said Rose.

"We?" The chief questioned.

"I have a partner doing research with me." Said Rose. "He caught a cold when we entered the village so he's currently resting at the inn."

"That's unfortunate. Well I send my condolences to your partner. And good luck." Said Slenge. And he walked away.

"Hear anything from nearby?" Rose asked quietly.

"There's talk that the food supply might be at a surplus this year." Said Dezel.

"So nothing unusual." Rose remarked.

"Well there is talk that the Chief hasn't been in good health recently." Said Dezel "That seems to be raising some concern."

"But other than that nothing out of the ordinary?" Said Rose.

"No … nothing." Said Dezel. The two walked around town with Rose striking up conversation with the town's folk trying to gather information about the town, including the chief's health. However the villagers try to dodge the subject and Rose didn't get any clear answers on how they manage to get their income.

"Nothing." Rose huffed plopping onto a rock. "God there's something odd about this village and we know it! This place seems too prosperous for a land that would normally be barren!"

"Not to mention there's some malevolence hanging about without the blessing of a guardian seraph." Said Dezel.

"You know, the more I think about it the more plausible our drug scheme theory seems to be." Said Rose. "Though it's not like we could find proof of that unless they decide it's okay for us to break into houses or something like that."

"Though aside from that, it's a nice place." Said Dezel.

"True … it's just … god it's just too weird how this village seems so … upbeat when by all accounts there should be far more malevolence and despair." Said Rose. "If it weren't for that it would be a nice place to settle down."

"Take in a young seraph and start a family." Said Dezel.

"Yeah hope you could find a seraph that would want to do that with you." Said Rose. She didn't notice him looking at her crushed. "For me personally there's so much to do and see that there's no way for me to bring myself to settle down."

"Then …" Dezel started when Mikleo ran up followed by Edna sauntering behind.

"What's up you two?" Rose asked.

"Well for one it's the chief." Said Edna. "I think he may be the missing pope."

"What?" Said Rose.

"What makes you say that?" Dezel asked.

"The school is very recent like within the last six months recent and people are comparing and contrasting a year ago to now all thanks to their chief." Said Edna. "Then there are his glasses."

"Okay … what about them?" Rose asked.

"Lenses are not particularly common place outside of Northfell." Said Edna. "Even after 200 years they are still very expensive only reserved for nobility or people involved with religious orders."

"Huh …" Said Rose, "What about you Mikleo?"

"I overheard some conversation that the villagers are worried that we came for the chief, which very much lines up with Edna's claim that he's the missing pope." Said Mikleo. "And that there's a ruin in the back of the village."

"Why tell us instead of Sorey?" Said Rose.

"That's not the point, the point is I heard the chief say that he doesn't want people, specifically us, go into that ruin and he had some malevolence emitting out of him." Said Mikleo. "I think we were right to guess that drugs were involved and they're using the ruin as a storage facility for that drug."

"And thus we have "Gilmore wanting to expand his shop to the area" …" Said Rose. "We need to tell Sorey and Zenrus now." They went back to their room to explain to Zenrus while Sorey slept.

"Hm … that is concerning." Said Zenrus. "What are you going to do next?"

"Probably find a back entrance and then wait until everyone is asleep before going in through said back entrance and take a look around then get the hell out before dawn." Said Rose with a shrug.

"Sound good enough. Have Sorey join you if wakes up doing better." Said Zenrus.

"All right…" Said Rose with a sigh. Rose and the seraphim went back outside trying to use Dezel's wind reading as a method for finding a different way to the ruin.

"I need to get closer …" He said "but with the malevolence around I'm afraid any hellions in the area will notice me."

"Hm … we might just need to wander around town for a bit." Rose muttered to herself.

"Yeah looks like it." Said Edna. The seraphim went back into Rose's body while Rose wandered around the village faking being a researcher when she was in the village chief's view. Then she got to the back of the village where she found an area covered by collapsed rock.

"Hey Dezel." She said quietly. "Can you feel small air holes?" Dezel came out and paced the area a bit before standing at a place where he presumably feels has more air pockets. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the wind for a little while. He then went back into Rose. "Well?"

"There is definitely a chamber behind there." Said Dezel. "I don't know if it'll lead to a ruin but it is a place to look into."

"We can break it down but doing it now would stir too much attention." Said Rose. "We're gonna have to wait until tonight. By then hopefully Sorey would be well enough to help us."

"And what if that doesn't happen?" Edna asked.

"Then we keep up the researcher front and keep waiting until Sorey is over his cold." Said Rose. So they waited until nightfall but Sorey wasn't over his cold. So the operation had to be delayed for a day and the next night they went to the area sneaking through the village to make sure they didn't wake anyone until they got to the collapsed area. Sorey pointed over to the area and Rose nodded. Rose, using Edna's power punched the cavern open with Mikleo coming out and putting up the spectral cloak to hide them from any the villagers that went to take a look as he stayed behind as the rest of the party went inside the cavern before letting it down and following them in. Sorey pulled out a candle that he probably uses for late night reading out of his absurdly spacious jacket and lit it with a match. Sorey and Rose walked through the cavern and found a bunch of crates. The seraphim came out and started looking in some of the crates.

"You two are gonna want to see this." Said Edna pulling out a distinct hexagonal bottle. Sorey took it from her and fumbled with it.

"This is elixir." Said Sorey.

"Really? They're the ones selling elixir for a potential drug problem?" Said Rose.

"Maybe … but I have a feeling that there's something a bit more to it." Said Sorey starting to open the elixir bottle. Rose snatched it from him.

"Whoa! You're not actually thinking of drinking it are you?" Rose exclaimed.

"Well there's no way I'll let you drink it." Said Sorey keeping it out of her reach as she tried to jump up and grab it with his hand in her face. Mikleo goes in to grab it but Dezel yoinked it from Sorey, screwed off the cap then chugged the bottle. Mikleo and Sorey looked on in abject horror while Edna seemed amused and Zenrus looked at him and gave a very long drawn out sigh while shaking his head.

"Dezel!" Rose exclaimed. Dezel took a deep breath and started fidgeting.

"I probably shouldn't've done that." He said. He then started laughing nervously. Rose took a look at his clouded over eyes and the darker parts of his eyes were dilated. "Oh dear fucking Maotelus I really shouldn't've done that."

"Um … How do you feel?" Mikleo asked.

"Hot, bothered, unusually energetic, and extremely fidgety." Said Dezel. Mikleo picked up a different bottle and and tried to look at the contents inside. He then opened it and used a seraphic arte to float the blueish contents outside he swirled it in the air for a bit and tried to separate some of the components inside.

"What are you getting?" Sorey asked.

"Well…" Mikleo began putting the contents back in the bottle, "it looks like it's made by energy drink byproducts and I think there might be an acid in there, lye, and other things that got ground up and likely boiled in so it could dissolve so I can't really tell what else is in there."

"Oh … oh no …" Said Sorey. "That would make this not only fake but extremely addictive."

"One bottle and you're hooked, even if what you're saying about the ingredients is true, it would also make people think if would make them feel better when they start getting ill because of the elixir. So they'll race back." Said Enda. "Pretty devious."

"But is it being sold officially under the church's authority?" Mikleo asked. Sorey and Zenrus investigated the boxes.

"Well it looks like they have the official seal of the church." Said Sorey. "However all the funds are going here."

"You all were on the right track that this is a drug scheme." Said Zenrus. "However there are a few details missing that prevent our little theory from becoming a fact. Like who would have the authority to create any authentic certificates, if any, and have something be branded with the church's stamp of approval? And would the church really know what's going on?"

"Holy shit it's the missing pope!" Exclaimed Rose. "That's the missing detail in all of this!"

"It explains the funds. And if the church is oblivious why they can unwittingly sell a super addictive drug." Said Dezel annoyingly tapping his foot and scratching at his arms.

"Careful Dezel, do that enough and you'll break through the skin!" Mikleo warned.

"You know it also would explain the malevolence coming from the chief." Said Sorey. "Which would either lead to the village being conspirators with the pope or as, Edna theorizes, the chief IS the pope."

"Hey! Hey you! What are you doing here?" They heard a voice shout. They turned to see a tiger man hellion aggressively approaching them.

"Um … this isn't what it looks like?" Said Sorey.

"Um … you don't think that's the…" Rose started when Dezel rushed up to the hellion and decks it. "DEZEL WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

"I'm drugged and really want to punch something don't stand in my way!" He snapped continuing to wail on the guy turning him into a bloody pulp in the process to which Mikleo and Edna restrain him by holding his arms behind his back while getting elbowed in the face in the process and having the earth trap his feet respectively. As the malevolence returned to the earth the hellion turned back into one of the villagers, that wasn't the chief.

"You know it was a damn relief that you assaulted a villager cuz if that had been the Chief… there's no way we'd be able to get any information." Rose scolded. The villager woke up

"So … so you really had come for the chief." Said the villager.

"No! We came here for the drugs!" Rose exclaimed. Sorey gave her a blank look then sighed. "That came out wrong didn't it?"

"Yes. Yes it did." Said Sorey rather bluntly. Just then the chief walked in.

"What is the meaning of all this?" He demanded.

"Are you Pope Masedra?" Sorey asked.

"Hmph, I see your "research" paid off." Said the chief confirming the suspicion. "And I assume that you've come to take me back."

"That wasn't a thought until recently, honest." Said Rose. "With the Cardinal's activities and people that try to investigate her disappearing. I honestly thought you were dead and Gododdin was just involved in a drug scheme that's as bad as the powder problem in Hyland."

"You're particularly a bright Shepherd aren't you?" Slenge asked rather sarcastically. Rose pouted.

"Rose, ask him about his intentions and try to get some information about the Cardinal." Said Zenrus.

"Ugh forget that why are you doing this? Aren't there a lot of people that depend on you, like the emperor, the knights, Maltran and Alisha?" Rose asked.

"There are." Slenge admitted. "But because of them I lost everything dear to me so I ran into the woods to kill myself." Sorey's eyes widened and he gave a small gasp.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"All I wanted was to help my family so I became a priest." Slenge started. "But ended up being Pope when the last one up and died with the empire making me slave away at the job. And before I realized it my family had left thinking I had abandoned them for my work, putting me in the deepest pits of despair."

"Did try to orchestrate war with Hyland?" Sorey asked.

"I was beyond caring to be concerned with the war with Hyland so I ran to die. But then that's when the people of this village found me. They helped me get back to my feet and asked nothing in return. So I wanted to give something back because they became … my family." Said the Chief saying the last two words with heart filled earnesty.

"Hey, do you think we should bring him back?" Rose asked.

"Well he did abandon his job and started a drug trade that this town depends on… but then again we need him to decipher the tablet." Said Mikleo still holding a restrained Dezel. "Ugh hold still!"

"At the very least I'm gonna need to talk to my boss about this." Said Sorey.

"That's fair, but what about the Pope?" Rose asked.

"On one had you have the knights and the Cardinal mucking things up for Rolance and the other you have a village that depends of the contributions of a drug trade that this man created." Said Zenrus. "What are you going to do Shepherd?"

"As I see it you're dealing with a selfish agenda either way." Said Edna turning around and getting rid of Dezel's restraints.

"You sure this is a good ide-" Mikleo began to ask before Dezel kicked him in the shin. "Ow!"

"We're gonna lock him in our inn room and have him hopefully burn out." Said Edna. "If he's getting low in a locked room he won't want to grab another bottle of Elixir."

"Funny cuz I already want another bottle." Said Dezel.

"Okay. Room. Now." Said Edna jabbing Mikleo.

"Ow! Hey! Okay okay I'm going!" Mikleo snapped as the two walked Dezel out of the cave. The Chief the cringed and collapsed on the ground.

"Chief!" The man cried.

"Are you okay?!" Rose cried. The man looked to Rose and Sorey.

"Look I don't want you to take the chief away but just for this moment help me get him to his house." He said.

"Okay." Said Rose. She helped the man carry the unconscious chief to his house to the front of his house. The man opened the door and had Sorey go inside to since he still had the reading candle burning. However in the low light he and Rose saw a glimpses of a table covered in beakers on one end with a series of other chemicals on the other which include some of the stuff that Mikleo mentioned as well as a glowing red crystal. However the inside of the house just smelled awful, like cat urine and rotten eggs were mixed together in an unholy concoction. The man pulled her along to get the chief to his bed by then Mikleo had ran in.

"Hey, you doing all right?" Sorey asked. Mikleo looked at him for a brief moment.

"I'm fine, I healed the injuries Dezel inflicted on me." He replied.

"That's good." Said Sorey.

"Now what of Dezel?" Zenrus asked.

"Edna's keeping an eye on him." Said Mikleo. He then took a look at the table particularly at the crystal. "Wait … this is vermillion ore." Rose looked over to him with a questioning look. "I hear it's only made with seraphic artes but it's quite dangerous to process and tends to make any drug addictive."

"Wait wasn't that stuff used in Pseudosuude after the original plant went extinct?" Sorey asked.

"It was." Said Zenrus.

"You helped me get the chief back to his home, there's nothing for you to do here, leave." Said the man.

"Fine." Said Rose. "C'mon." They left the house and went back to the inn.

"So what do we do?" Sorey asked.

"We leave for Lastonbell and tell Muse." Said Rose. The next day Sorey and Rose left the inn with villagers wary of them as they likely heard the news of the previous night. "Don't worry we got what we came here for. We're just gonna leave."

"It's all right everyone! There's no need for concern." The Slenge announces coming out of his house. The villagers rushed around him asking him about his wellbeing and if he should even be outside and he assured them that he is okay. "Don't worry about that woman, she's the real Shepherd." He also told the villagers. He then went up to Rose.

"Shepherd, please understand that these villagers have nothing to do with the creation and distribution of fake elixir. It was my doing, so if you had to blame anyone, blame me." Said Slenge.

"We just wanted to learn the truth, so we'll be leaving." Said Rose.

"Before you leave Shepherd, follow me to the cave." Said the Chief. The two humans followed him into the cave that was storing the fake elixir with the seraphim in Rose's head arguing amongst each other primarily keeping Dezel away from the crates. They walked to the back of the cavern to a door with a red glow emanating from a crack in it with the emblem of the flaming sword carved about it.

"What is this?" Rose asked. Zenrus looked up and smirked not that the other seraphim were paying any attention dragging a thoroughly drained Dezel away from the direction of the drug crates.

"The Shepherd is grated four powers: earth, water, fire, and wind. They are the blade that shall cleave the Lord of Calamity." Slenge recited. "Scattered across this land are the shrines of trials. They too are of earth, water, fire, and wind. Tests they are of power and spirit. Power is brought forth in the spirit, and the spirit captures the power. With balance may malevolence be purified; with imbalance does the body smolder and burn. Test thyself Shepherd and brandish thy might! Rise to the challenge, and stake thy will on the outcome!"

"The inscription!" Sorey exclaimed.

"Wait … isn't it missing void?" Rose asked.

"Void is more of a conglomeration of elements that can't really be categorized by the other four and not common so it's frequently not needed unless you are an Ashari seraph." Said Zenrus.

"Okay … what does it all mean?" Rose asked.

"Well …" Sorey started.

"It means that we can obtain a power in four different places and you need to pass a trial in each one. I think." Said Mikleo.

"What he said." Said Sorey.

"So we need to find those places." Said Rose.

"Yeah unless … wait …" Said Sorey. "Is this…?"

"Yes, this is one of them. This is Igraine the trial shrine of fire." Said Slenge.

"Do you need a fire seraph to be able to go through this trial?" Rose asked.

"I assume so." Said Zenrus with a shrug.

"…Shit…" Rose muttered under her breath.

"Is something wrong Shepherd?" Slenge asked.

"We forgot something." Said Rose. "Is there a time limit to when I have to do these?"

"Well it would be preferable if you got them done before word of war sparks again, if that happens, otherwise there isn't." Said Slenge.

"Great, not is there any particular order you need to do them in?" Rose asked.

"Nope." Said Slenge.

"Great. And uh … we're so sorry but we do need to leave town to get something before we could even attempt this trial." Said Rose. Slenge looked at her for a brief moment.

"Very well, I'll make sure this door or cave doesn't get blocked off and leave it available for you when you return." Said Slenge.

"Oh thank you!" Rose sighed. "I'll come back to this as soon as I can. With that stay well." Said Rose.

I know this took a while due to Nanowrimo but I think it will take even longer to update because the next couple of chapters will contain major spoilers for the other long form Critical Role/Zestiria crossover. So this fic will be on a hiatus until I get close to being done with the other fic so I can avoid another Vax and Keyleth situation.