Chapter 134

The large man sat in the corner of a cell with two partially mummified corpses wearing black brigandine pushed against the bars. The man seemed to be a bull demi-beastfolk, though most of his features skewed to the human side. If it wasn't for his notched cow ears and black-furred forearms he would have looked entirely human. Albeit, a huge muscular one. He had black medium-length hair and a beard, though it was roughly grown out, probably a consequence of being stuck in a cell rather than an intentional grooming choice. He was nearly naked, wearing only tattered shorts that exposed his broad chest and muscular limbs.

At a glance, it was easy to tell what had happened here but not why he was here. He was trapped in a cell where two of the cultists had fought with him and lost. Based on the broken furniture, the fighting had started outside the cell and at some point, the cell had gotten locked with all of them in it. The key was lying on the floor against the wall under the recently relit torch. Next to the rotting corpses was a pile of empty jars and leaves where he had discarded the empty ration containers he had taken from them. Thankfully there was a covered latrine in one corner so we didn't need to deal with that smell too.

When I glanced at his karma it was relatively low, though not unreasonably so. His karma was higher than the slavers back in Traehall but that didn't mean much. It was in the window that made it hard to discern how much he could be trusted based on karma alone. It was positive but as always it wasn't very clear if that was because he didn't do many things that gave him positive karma or a mix of things that cut into any positive karma he would have had. People who didn't often engage in fighting at all, like shopkeepers and craftspeople tended to fall in the same window as him. At least from what I've been able to observe so far.

He turned to me when I walked up to the cell. "So, another one has come to ask me your incessant questions. Just let me out of here, I've been here so long I've lost track."

I looked him up and down. "No demon miasma coming from him, it seems these dungeons haven't had any contact with the demons. Any of the taint that could have been on those corpses has faded too."

The bull-man cocked an eyebrow at me. "Demon hunters? And beastkin ones as well? That's unusual. Now that you know I'm not a demon, are you going to let me out of here?"

"That depends," I said. "Would you be willing to answer a few questions in a [Zone of truth]?"

His eyebrows knitted together. "[A Zone of Truth]? Are one of you a priest of some kind as well?"

"A follower of Sorsette," I replied.

Surprise crossed his face. "One of you is a follower too? Very well, I'll agree to that. But only if I can speak to the follower of Sorsette alone."

Did he just suggest what I think he did?

I nodded. "That would be me." I turned to Jasper. "Would that be alright with you? To be honest, I'm not sure what questions should be asked here."

Jasper shifted his weight. "Well, I suppose my main concern is that he isn't a criminal or affiliated with the group that stormed the castle. That and why he is locked up here. We've scoured the nearby area for records but we haven't found anything that would suggest they were holding any demi-humans in the dungeons at the moment. Even if he is only in there because of a struggle, as it appears, that doesn't explain what he was doing down here in the first place and he's refused to talk to anyone else so far.

"Give me a minute to talk to him alone then, I'll cast [Zone of Truth] and ask him."

Jasper cocked his head. "You can cast a [Zone of Truth] here? Right now?"

"Yeah, I can cast it myself. I just got it recently though, this will be my first time actually using it on someone else."

The guard captain scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Fine, you've shown yourself trustworthy so far and I frankly wouldn't know what to do with him otherwise. He hasn't been nearly this cooperative with anyone else. I want to be here when you cast the spell though, I would at least like to verify its effect."

I nodded. "Fair enough."

I took a deep breath and started to form the spell. It felt similar to [Zone of Silence] but my [Arcane Variant Zone of Truth] took a lot more mana by comparison. It's good that my mana had recovered from the earlier fights because this was going to nearly clean me out again.

I released my breath as the zone slowly formed around us. This spell took more concentration than all the other spells I've used so far and I got the feeling I was only barely qualified to cast it at all. Once the spell took hold and was stable, it was trivial to maintain but I would be rooted in this spot for its duration. A reasonable trade-off, it wasn't like I would want to use this spell in combat anyway.

"My name is Lilith and I am a follower of Sorsette." A reassuring pulse flowed through me, confirming my words to everyone standing in the field.

Jasper nodded. "That will do. Don't drag it out too much, we're almost finished with our search. I'd like to return to the gatehouse before nightfall."

Bella gave a hesitant wave. "We'll wait outside. Be careful Lilith." Morrigan gave me a concerned look before following the group out after Bella.

"This shouldn't take long." I turned my attention back to the large man as everyone shuffled out of earshot, leaving the two of us alone together.

The bull demi stood up and leaned against the wall behind him. He was tall, a good two feet taller than I am. He cracked his neck. "My name is Theo, I am also a follower of Sorsette." The zone pulsed truth in response to his statement.

I crossed my arms. "So then, I suppose I'll go down the list from the top. First question, are you a criminal?"

He smiled and shrugged. "Not currently as far as I'm aware, though perhaps walking on castle grounds could be considered a crime. So, what does that make me?"

The [Zone of Truth] didn't pulse, the answer was so evasive that there was nothing for the effect to latch onto one way or the other.

I narrowed my eyes. "Let me rephrase that, are you currently wanted for a crime to your knowledge?"

He smirked. "A much better question. No, not to my knowledge." The spell pulsed positively this time.

He looked around, clearly able to see the spell construct around us. "Very interesting, an arcane variant of [Zone of Truth]? How does one come across such a spell?"

I sighed, looks like we're going to be doing a little bit of quid pro quo. "I received this as a boon when Sorsette designated me her follower."

When the pulse was triggered his eyes widened and his snarky attitude faded in an instant. "Bullshit" He pinched his nose, "You've received direct intervention from Sorsette?"

I shook my head, "My turn." I pointed at the partially mummified corpses at the foot of his cell. "Are you affiliated with the cultists in black brigandine armor?"

He looked down at them. "Is that who these people are? I was snooping around a bit when I came across them and they accosted me. I've never met these men before that." Truth pulsed with his answer but it raised a few questions.

He was quick to speak again, not letting me ask another question yet. "I ask again, you've received direct intervention from Sorsette?"

I shifted my weight. "Yes, though I hadn't intended to become her follower. I swore on her name a few too many times and she granted me her blessing. I became her follower automatically."

He nodded even before the pulse came. "That can happen once some prerequisites are met, you must have received her notice before that, created some new spell, or innovated on some invention. That's more common, but to receive a boon, especially one related to what you're doing at that moment, that's rare."

"I wouldn't know," I replied with a shrug. Our conversation was moving so fast that the waves of energy crashed into each other like water and created ripples, forcing us to wait for them to relax before we could continue.

I spoke again once the ripples were gone. "You said you were 'snooping around' in your previous answer, why did you enter the castle?"

His smirk returned. "I was looking for something to read." The zone pulsed true again. The wave of energy confirming his words irritated me even more than his answer had.

He saw the look on my face and sighed. "Fine, but you need to be more careful with your wording. I could deceive you in sneakier ways if I truly wanted to. I was looking for a specific book, I had reason to believe that it had made its way here. Walking into a horde of soldiers was hardly my intention, I had only prepared to evade a few guards, not an entire army. A bit of bad luck and I'm trapped here in this cell with wards blocking the few bits of magic I had prepared."

His answer pulsed true and I nodded. "You were here to steal a book?" I asked.

"Not steal, return. But it's my turn now, consider that a freebie. What is that mark you have on your arm?"

I looked down at my arm, not understanding his meaning.

"Come now, you're using magic to hide it as we speak. That's a very curious mark, one I haven't seen before. Though it looks suspiciously similar to one that would get you in lots of trouble with the wrong people." As if to punctuate his point, the [Zone of Truth] pulsed true.

Ah I remember now, not something I would usually talk about but since he knew about it already... "It's a blessing of Change, I got it from a run-in with a different god, who marked me."

He tapped his lip as the zone pulsed truth. "You should cover a larger portion of your arm rather than fitting your magic to the mark, makes it harder to see what you're hiding." He paused, "A follower of one god and blessed by another. You are truly interesting Lilith. Are you a demon?"

The question caught me off guard, it felt like that came out of nowhere. This conversation was becoming more stressful by the moment. Which of us was being interrogated? "No. I am not a demon."

He nodded. "Hm, a short answer. Without any complaint either, you must get the question a lot. Perhaps it's because of that shapeshifting ability you're concealing your mark with, or perhaps it's more than that... Did you used to be a demon?" He was studying my face closely, looking for tells that I was probably giving away like an open book.

I needed to finish this up. I ignored his question for all the good it did me. "Do you intend to hurt anyone or commit any crimes here in the city?"

"Back on track are we? No, I don't intend to do anything. If something happened that conflicted with my goals, I could be inclined to commit a crime or two. You see that? It would have been easy to circumvent your [Zone of Truth] without you knowing had I only answered with no. You need to be more careful, your skill with the spell is limited. You need to be careful with the words you choose, the way you're using it speaks to your inexperience. Not unexpected really but you should be careful about who you inform about your inexperience. Was it really necessary to tell the guard captain right in front of me that you had never actually cast the spell before?"

Rather than snark his words had softened to lecturing, not that it pissed me off any less.

I sighed. "Why are you telling me all of this? What's your game? Aren't you afraid that if you piss me off too much I might tell Guard Captain Jasper that you can't be trusted?"

He laughed. "No, I'm sure you'll let me out at this rate. I'm getting under your skin a bit, I can tell, but in the end I know you'll let me out."

"What makes you so confident?" I asked.

"Because we're allies and I bet you're the reason I've come here." He paused to let his statement pulse true. "You see, I too had a divine intervention. A rather odd one to be honest. I work in the capital at the Great Library of Sorsette as a librarian. In our list of books that have gone missing, I came across the name of a demon-summoning book. The book is considered relatively benign, for all of its sexy and dangerous appeal, the book was a fake. At least, that's how it was categorized. Imagine my surprise when I got a system message saying that 'Sorsette has given me a divine quest of great importance.' Go find and return a missing library book."

To my incredulity the [Zone of Truth] pulsed an affirmative to his words.