Chapter 120

After finishing the cipher key, I continued skimming through the rest of the journal for a while. While there are a few more references to the cult he was working with, there wasn't much else that looked useful among the pages to me directly. There were some indications of other things the man did that could be illegal but I don't know the full scope of the laws in this city to know for sure. There wasn't anything obvious like more kidnappings or sacrificial murders anyway. I decided I got everything useful to me from it and closed the journal for now.

It took a while for Bella to come back from the bathroom. The man had been chained for so long he couldn't support his own weight, his muscles had severely atrophied from disuse. I don't remember precisely how long ago the city had been attacked but he's had to have been here long enough to kill a person if not for the magic in his system, namely his vitality stat. He's been here three weeks at least. I know the author of the journal hadn't intended for this to happen but it was hard not to be disgusted when looking at the shape this Julian guy had been left in.

Bella peeked around the corner of the office. "Lilith, will you give me a hand?"

"Sure." I followed her to the bathroom and handed the journal to Morrigan. The man was slumped against the side of the bathtub. He was unconscious now, he had fallen asleep while being washed.

"It wasn't too hard helping him in but now that he's wet I was having trouble lifting him." Bella and I lifted him from the tub and onto the nearby chaise and she began to towel him off. "He's really weak, in and out of consciousness. He needs the attention of an entire clinic, there's only so much I can do for him here without staying with him till he starts to recover."

"We should take him to the guards anyway. He could be a witness to whatever the guy who did this was doing with the cult. With as desperate for clues as they probably are, they have plenty of incentive to make sure this guy recovers," I said.

Morrigan's voice came through the door. "I agree."

Once we had finished dressing him I would have to be the one to carry him. It was awkward to carry the frail guy but he was so light it wasn't difficult with my amount of strength. It wasn't long before we were at ground level again, the trail of demonic miasma I had seen coming from this building had dissipated completely after we killed the monster on the second floor. There was still some of it flowing through the area outside but noticeably less now. The observation made me wonder what was behind the door of the first place we visited.

Outside the building, I could see Torien and Silva talking near the bakery we had been at earlier. It looked like we were gone so long they had already returned and were waiting for us. Torien was the first to notice me coming over and patted Silva on the arm to get her attention.

Silva looked the skinny man up and down. "Who's that?"

I adjusted the man sleeping in my arms. "We found a house with a demon in it, this guy had been chained up in a secret room. We found a book that says he was a guy who was kidnapped and forced to be a slave. The owner of the place must have died before he could come back and collect him. This guy has been chained up ever since the night of the attack."

Silva's eyes widened and looked at the man. "That was nearly a month ago!"

I frowned. "I know. We were going to take him along with us to the guardhouse. He is probably a witness and the author of the journal talks about the 'Cult of Amphores,' they were the ones that instigated all of this."

"Cult of Amphores," Silva whispered and her fist clenched.

I looked at her face carefully. "Do you know of them?"

She paused for a moment. "No. But it's good to know the name of the people who did all of this."

I had a weird feeling, like Silva had just lied to me. I wasn't sure what to make of that but I don't think it would be all that productive to interrogate her over that right now. I should ask her about this privately later, I'm sure there could be more to the story there.

"Well, we should bring this man to the guards. Does anyone know the way to the gate we came in through? Torien?" I asked and looked over at her.

Torien's tail flicked. "I do but why are you asking me specifically?"

I grinned. "You're a scout, I assumed you had a good sense of direction. Should I ask Morrigan instead?"

Morrigan laughed. "Ask me to lead the way if you want to get lost. I also make Torien do that stuff."

Torien sighed. "Alright, let's go." Torien acted like she was irritated but I got the impression she liked to be relied on like this. There was a certain spring in her step.

Once we got back to a more populated part of town we got some weird looks for carrying a person through the city like this. The man was completely out. I could tell he was still alive, I could feel his breathing against my chest, but despite the noise and the sun he just kept sleeping. It wasn't long before the gatehouse came into view, lots of guards were checking the long line of people still trying to get in and out of the city. There were a couple of unoccupied guards by a door leading into the tower so we headed in their direction.

The feline beastfolk guard eyed me with suspicion when he glanced at the sleeping man. "Do you have something to report? Does that man need help?"

"Yes, we'd like to talk to..." I just realized I never got that priest's name. "uh, the priest of Morkinnen we met with. We have some information we're sure he'd like to hear, tell him we're the demon hunters he met the other day."

The guard's eyebrows furrowed before glancing at his partner. "Fine, I'll go see if he can see you. Wait here."

The other guard was a human, she stepped forward and looked Julian over. "Let me help you with him, there's a couch we can lay him on in one of the offices."

While the female guard led us through the guard tower, Silva leaned over to me. "Was it wise to mention being demon hunters?"

I shrugged. "I think it's more likely to get us a meeting."

"Could get us the wrong kind of attention."

I looked Silva in the eye. "I know."

She shrugged and moved away. Not long later the guard found us in the breakroom. "He's agreed to see you. We'll wait here with...?"

"He's a witness, Julian. I'm sure the priest will want to talk with him."

The feline beastfolk guard nodded. "Sure, follow me then."

The man led us up the guard tower and into a small office with an interior window. Despite the breeze, it was rather hot in the room and the priest looked uncomfortable.

The priest glanced at the man before looking back at me. "How can I help you? I had expected Tarklin to accompany you again."

I nodded. "Our group disbanded like we had briefly discussed the last time we met you. My party and I have been staying in the city and Tarklin has presumably left town already."

"In that case let me introduce myself, I'm Nathaniel. Why have you come to speak with me? And who was the man you've brought here?"

"My name's Lilith." I gestured to Morrigan and she handed the journal over to him.

"That's a journal I found in one of the houses near the area that was destroyed by demons. We were doing some scouting and noticed demonic miasma coming from a three-story house with a destroyed wall. Since the demons could leave the building and escape into the city we decided to have a look because the miasma was so strong."

The priest nodded. "That's acceptable, though I wasn't under the impression you were intending to... actively hunt for them. Don't misunderstand me, I'm happy you're willing to help, I just didn't think you would act on your own. At least without any commission to do so."

"We met a friend who asked us to take a look around and I'd rather not have any demons roaming around loose. Anyway, we entered the house and found a fairly strong demon. It was a hungering corpse. We also found a banshee in the cellar of a destroyed bakery, though that one was a lot less threatening."

The priest interjected, "We have been worried there were still demons in the city but we are too low on manpower to clear the area after the attacks. It's fortunate we now have some more demon hunters in the city willing to help."

"Sure," I replied. "Anyway, when we were clearing the house Bella here heard something and it prompted us to look for any secret rooms." I gestured to Bella before continuing, "We found the secret room along with a coded diagram to open it. I found that journal there and was able to decode the cipher and open the door where we found the man downstairs, he had been chained to the wall and left there to die. That journal you're holding is written in the same cipher, the last entry describes how he was paid by a cult to use his house in a plot to kill the baron. He intended to return home and retrieve Julian, the man he had kidnapped, before leaving town. For whatever reason he never came back."

The priest was now flipping through the journal. "And you can decode this?" he asked.

"I already have. After the last page with writing on it, I wrote the key down for you. I didn't need to write it out for myself because I have a skill that helps with that kind of thing but it will help you decipher it. There are probably other crimes written in there as well."

"And the man?" the priest asked.

"He was kidnapped by the author of that journal according to the final page. I was hoping you would care for him, he may know a lot more than what's written there about the attack on the city."

The priest leaned back in his chair in thought. He was silent for over a minute before he looked back up at me. "I'll take him into my custody and personally make sure he gets proper treatment from a clinic I'm associated with. If he has any information on the attack it would help us greatly. What about you? Do you want compensation for this?" he asked raising the journal.

I scratched the base of my horn. "A trade of information?"

The priest set the journal down. "If it's something I can share, sure."

"Do you have any information on a cult named 'The Order of Lilith?' the Tamin church alerted me to its existence and I'm curious why a cult sharing my name might be running around."

He looked down and cupped his chin before replying. "I may be able to get some information about that but it will take a while. I have a friend who wouldn't mind sharing that kind of thing with me. How about you come back in..." he glanced at an object on his desk I didn't recognize. "three days? I could have any information I'm willing to give you by then."

I smiled. "Perfect, sounds good."

"Excellent, there should be a guard outside the door. Ask him to show you out." Before we even left the priest started rewriting the coded journal entries onto a new sheet of paper.

Just before I crossed through the door the priest suddenly sat up. "Wait! While we're at it, would it be possible to hire your group as demon hunters? We intend to clear out the castle soon, your help would go a long way toward keeping the guards safe." He looked our group up and down. "Your group seems reliable and we don't have any other demon hunters available, I can pay your party 5 gold for the assistance. For reasons I can't go into, we can't get the Tamin church involved in this endeavor. I hadn't even thought to ask you until now."

I turned to my friends. "What do you guys think?"

Silva was quick to answer, "I want to go. I want to get a better idea of what happened there that night."

I nodded. "Sure, is everyone else alright with that? Any concerns?" None of them spoke up so I turned back to the priest. "Sounds like we're in. When are you planning on clearing it?"

He cleared his throat. "We were already planning on sending a group in tomorrow morning, though with your addition I could delay it if need be."

I scratched the base of my horn before shaking my head. "No, tomorrow will work fine. I'm curious about what happened there as well but we still need to make our way to the capital soon. We shouldn't delay too long, the sooner the better."

"Excellent, can you be here in the morning by the third bell?"

Third bell, around 8 in the morning. I nodded. "Sure."

He turned back to the journal. "Excellent, I'll see you in the morning then."

When it was clear he wasn't going to continue any further our group left the guard tower. Soon after, we were back on the street heading back toward the Ruby Vixen. I looked at my friends. "Is there anything else we need to take care of? Anything else we want to pick up before we go back?"

"Did you want to buy some equipment?" Torien asked. "You were complaining about how awful a fit your new sword is for that sheath. You wouldn't stop complaining about it the other night."

"Ah right." I looked down at my sword. It was easy to forget but when I was on the uuna the other day it wouldn't stop rattling. "Sure, let's head to a weapon or armor smith and see if we can get something new."

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in the safer parts of town, the sun was starting to go down by the time we got back to the Ruby Vixen.