NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27 - The Shrine
‘You do realise you’ve just made a mortal enemy?’ Caeileera asked after taking care of our wounds from the fight. ‘Gaar’rinver won’t rest until you are dead.’
‘Is it over the mask?’ I asked, voicing my suspicions.
‘Yes. The masks are… well… they’re hard to describe to an outsider. Basically, they are… a mark of our common identity as the members of the court of the Blood that Devours. In essence, they are meant to show that we are all equals - both among ourselves and with the lower Sanguine. All of us sapient ones are supposed to wear these at all times while in public. We can only take them off in private. Losing your mask… is not advisable. The maskless ones are basically outcasts, who tend not to live too long as usually the lower ones will hunt them very quickly. If a mask is broken, kinda like what Aki did by accident, it can be put together by the owner, but it will be forever marked in the places it was damaged at. That alone is a mark of shame, but one of the Crimson Vicars may choose to fix it, usually when the wearer completes some important task. A mask that is destroyed… well… a replacement is very rarely issued. If it happens in combat the initial condition is the death of the person who broke it. Then well… you need to somehow earn the grace of the Blood that Devours. A mask that is stripped as a punishment will never be restored.’
That made me realise something else.
‘So when you threw away your mask, you made yourself an outcast among your own people, pretty much forever?’
Aki gasped in shock upon hearing that. I never mentioned that bit to her, as I never understood the significance of the action. She looked at Caei with newfound respect and asked:
‘So why didn’t he stay to fight. Between him and the “lower ones” he stood a chance against us three.’
‘He didn’t,’ Caei explained. ‘Remember what I said about the lower Sanguine hunting maskless ones on sight? Yeah. He would likely be their first target. In general, I have no idea why he did what he did. A maskless one commanding any Sanguine is a grievous offence. Doing so to regain your honour? That’s almost unheard of. Gaar’rinver pretty much ensured he will forever live in infamy. He probably will still have some allies like his medical cabal, at least until they learn of his sins, but other than that… he’s alone.’
I nodded and said:
‘So… he’s probably a problem for another day. I don’t think he is still in the Tower.’
‘Most likely not.’
‘Anyway… you said you knew where the exit from this floor was?’
As we walked, it was my time to answer some pressing questions from my companions. The chief of them being “who exactly Löwe was”. By the time I finished giving them a brief history of Nazi Germany, Aki was green from nausea while Caeileera somehow got even paler than she was.
‘Wh-why would someone do such a thing…’ Aki stammered out.
‘Hatred,’ I replied simply.
‘Did Laachersain know?’ I asked Caei.
‘I don’t know,’ she answered with a weak voice. ‘Probably some of it. Whether Löwe revealed the full extent of… that, I don’t know. Given how Laach was willing to work with Gaar’rinver… I doubt he would care even.’
Caeileera explained that Spooder-Boy was actually a bit of a LARPer. He and a bunch of other mad scientist wannabees formed a group known as the Cabal of the Perfect Form. They believed that only by merging the lower and the higher Sanguine together they would achieve perfection. This was a somewhat controversial position to take among their people since the Blood that Devours wouldn’t have created two kinds of servants if it didn’t feel they served some kind of a purpose. Furthermore, the title of “Lord-Diagnostician'' was a self-proclaimed one. The Sanguine didn’t have nobility and the very point of masks they all wore was to mark them as one of equals. So, the Cabal wasn’t particularly popular in the Pale Badlands due to their views being close to actual heresy, and that was before the crazy experiments they did on each other, and the Non-Sanguine who lived there. So Laachersain throwing his lot with them was not a good sign.
I found all of this both fascinating and surprising. Up to this point, I assumed the Sanguine were all like Gaar’rinver.
‘No,’ Caeileera laughed. ‘But that doesn’t mean that we… they are all on your side either. Ultimately, the Cabal is tolerated, at least until they cross some red line during their search for perfection, and while the experiments they do are distasteful to many, nobody will intercede on behalf of the Non-Sanguine since you all are viewed as lower life forms.’
We reached the staircase to the next level unmolested. Luckily it didn’t collapse during the cascade failure so we were able to go up without issues. Unfortunately, the corridor leading directly to Laachersain’s lair, which was located on the top level of the dungeon, DID cave in so we would need to go around. On my suggestion, we went to the staircase room where Tyrric and his party met their gruesome demise. I was hoping against hope we would find some extra equipment there, though I assumed the place was likely scoured clean. If anything I was confused why the Blade of the Black Rose was left lying there to begin with. Aki was able to provide the beginning of an answer there. She has heard legends of magic swords sometimes choosing their owners. In essence, if the Blade of the Black Rose did not want to be found by a necromancer it wouldn’t be. It was also possible that this Rivard guy and Löwe were not much for exploring.
We never reached our destination. A wall on the crossroads that would lead to it had collapsed revealing a chamber with a tarnished golden statue in the middle. It depicted a tall vaguely female figure. It was hard to tell exactly as it wore heavily tattered once-luxurious robes. There were clear remnants of embroidering on the cuffs and piping, and the collar was long and rigid, ending far above the cowled head of the figure. In its extended left hand the figure was holding a pair of scales, and in her right, hanging loosely at the woman's side, a censer. Her face was hidden by the cowl, well… not modelled really, I had no idea why I was starting to think of the monument as a person, and she… it... IT was barefoot.
There was something really wrong about the statue and it wasn't just me that was feeling it. Aki’s tail was wagging like crazy and Caei was muttering something. I looked around the chamber. It was definitely completely unlike anything else I have seen in the tower so far. If anything else, it felt like some mausoleum. There were even empty funerary recesses with… lit candles inside of them. I looked at the foot of the statue and saw more candles and some wilted flowers lying there. There was another exit behind the statue. It looked to be another cave system, but I couldn't tell for sure. It definitely seemed that there was a drop there. I wanted to get a better look at it, but my gaze kept drifting back to the statue. Was that golden “smoke” coming out of that censer before?
‘Ummm… guys…’ Aki said. ‘Is it just me or do you also feel like the woman is looking at us?
‘Yeah…’ Caei confirmed. ‘But it can’t, can it? It’s just gold, isn't it?’
‘How about we just go?’ I suggested weakly. ‘I think the mysterious shrine should be a mystery for another day. Like I don’t know… a day after the sun explodes sounds nice?’
The girls both agreed and we retreated from the chamber, carefully observing it just to be sure.
Not willing to come into the vicinity of the creepy room again we abandoned my idea of heading into the staircase and went in the other direction. As we walked we all got a quest notification:
New Quest Acquired: Something that Shouldn’t Be There
Type: Mystery (Legendary)
Difficulty: ???
Description: Some things are best left forgotten.
Objectives:
Discover the identity of the mysterious figure on the statue
Rewards:
???
Notice: You really shouldn’t do this
Notice: This quest cannot be cancelled or declined