Dreamland

Anabella had come home with some surprising news.

She continued to offer gratis healing and an extra portion of soup for whoever wanted to take it. There were surprisingly many people who passed by her improvised stall in the market. Word was that her soup was giving a minor boost to endurance. She did not sell her soup, but she accepted payment. She even had a separate tax collector bin where she gathered the tax money to keep things clean, but slaves could have their soup or healing for free.

What she got from slaves was information. Most of the time, she did not ask any questions; she just let them talk about what they wanted, but sometimes through subtly hints or answering in a certain manner, she changed the conversation to get to the points she wanted to hear about. And it was surprising to see how many slaves could find a way to pass by the market to receive a bowl of her soup.

This way, she had learned that Cala had been in the city about ten days before their caravan arrived. It was said that she came to take revenge on Grackak for a fight she had lost in Lilitown. She was here with a carriage that she had blown out and killed some of Grackak's people, then she had run away and got away with it.

She had been here with a guy that was probably Spartacius, with her bodyguard Alice and another girl. Some people had tried to make a connection between that girl and the missing governor's daughter from the nearby kingdom province, but that was only an unconfirmed rumour.

But, the rumour about her and the Lynx was confirmed; a Lynx had been seen trotting behind her carriage.

One of the slaves had told her a different version of the story: in that version, Cala was the victim as she had been forced to come here because Grackak wanted to recruit her against her will for his guild.

There was, however, something else that Anabella had learned, a much scarier story that only two slaves dared tell or maybe knew about. A story they had heard from Grackak himself when he had spoken about it with the council members: the storm that had hit the city was not an accident. The storm that had hit the city had happened when Grackak had dismantled the Silver Shrine, as one angel had told him to do.

It was true that he, Grackak, had won all that the angel had promised him he would; it was true that he did not die, as the angel had promised, but what the angel had not said was that the storm would kill anybody else in the city. Only one slave had dared tell Anabella who the angel was: the Angel of Death.

Why would an angel tell that to Grackak, one could only speculate. The fact was that nobody dared to speak openly about it.

They should also know that it was verboten, strictly forbidden, under penalty of death to talk about it.

It was coded as the Death Touched paragraph in their code of law, and until now, three persons had been sentenced under it.

The paragraph contained only that, the name: Death Touched, and there was already a legend circulating among the slaves: anybody who mentioned or talked about this story would be soon touched by death. Death touched. That was even the reason why that particular slave had told Anabella the story: he wanted to die.

Was this story true? Was anything of it true? They could not know, but the fact was that the Silver Shrine had been destroyed, that Grackak had gained some miraculous attributes. How did he suddenly become so strong? How could he not be affected by any spell cast against him?

But there were still unanswered questions, like how could he and his close lieutenants spell much more powerful spells than almost anybody else. Another dark secret?

“There may be more to the story!” - said Geral

Anabella raised a brow: “What do you mean?”

Geral sighed. “You know that I am a player.” - Anabella and the girls nodded. He continued: - “There was the possibility to pay for reincarnation here in the Silver City.”

Noviel wondered, agape:

“Reincarnation?”

Geral shrugged:

“Well, revival, reincarnation, how you want to name it. A player could contact the priests here, and once the requested amount was paid, he could be resurrected.”

“Resurrected? Do you mean really die and be brought back to life? Have you been...?”

Geral shook his head.

“No. I did not have the money to pay for it, so if I died, I would have died for good, but some people with higher levels than mine did. Normally only people with levels at least above thirty can gather that much money to pay for resurrection. I think it was limited to once or twice a year, but I haven't bothered to inquire about it as the cost was ten thousand gold, much too much for me.”

Noviel wondered: “I don't understand; it is interesting, but what does this have to do with what we talked about?”

Geral grinned: “Well, try now to pay for resurrection! The shrine and the priests do not exist anymore.”

“Oh!”

Anabella raised a brow and bit her lip: “Could this have been what the angel of death wanted to achieve?” - she turned to Geral - “Who would have resurrected you? I mean, if you had the money. The priests? Did somebody have to bring your body here?”

Geral shook his head:

“No. A silver shrine angel would have appeared to take your soul to a safe place and resurrect you.”

"And the body?"

"I don't know. Maybe the body too. It would anyhow disappear in the process."

Noviel watched him pensively:

"So the priests would have done the deal on behalf of some angels? Or were the angels contracted by the priests? What angels? Are there silver shrine angels?”

“Well, the silver shrine is the shrine of the God of magic. So they are the angels of magic?”

“As if the angels would have fought each other?” - wondered Zera, who had been silent until then.

They all looked at her and then at each other. Could there be such?