Chapter 192

"One last thing before we finish up here," I said to Sorsette. "I was curious if it was possible to recover my memories. Theo had mentioned that it may be more difficult than I was hoping for but I want your opinion directly."

Sorsette frowned. "I'm afraid I cannot help you with that either and while Theo's speculation wasn't entirely correct, none of us here have the power to return your memories. The only way you could recover the memories of your last life would be by convincing Velenthel, the goddess of life and reincarnation to return them to you. Your case is a little abnormal. For the most part, she leaves the memories of world travelers intact so that they are better able to spread their ideas. Perhaps she sought to limit your growth since she, like I, had feared you to be a calamity rather than the positive influence I believe you are shaping up to be. She was forced to bring you over to satisfy her responsibility to give a soul to the first succubus being summoned to this world, this may have been her way of protesting."

"Does she get to choose the soul she brings over? Did she pick me specifically to mess up the prophecies because of how I view succubi?"

Sorsette smiled and gave me a shrug. "All good questions that I unfortunately cannot answer. To my great dismay, knowledge of the gods and how exactly their domains and powers work is not included in my own domain. It's very unfair."

Suddenly she stood and waved the tea and water in front of us out of existence. "Our time is up. I no longer have the power to sequester the two of us in here without drawing too much attention. Not all of the gods are aware of who exactly you are, the only reason I do is because I could trace your status messages through the system back to you, a perk of being in control of the status system. If we spend any longer here I won't be able to hide you from them. If you're truly interested in your memories I suggest you try and contact Velenthel's church, she may be willing to help you but I cannot rule her out of being involved with the Tamin Church just yet."

It felt as if the world shuddered around me and suddenly I was sitting in the same office but the woman in front of me was once again the plain human woman with dark hair I had entered with. "Please keep our conversation a secret except to your closest confidants. As head librarian, I will do my best to give you what information I can. Thank you for having this little chat with me, Lilith."

I frowned, the sudden shift in demeanor, power, and subject threw me off. I stood up and cleared my throat. "It was good to get to meet you. I hope we can continue to help each other reach our mutual goals."

She beamed at me with a smile that touched her eyes. "I was truly glad to meet you as well. I hope this talk cemented a long friendship between the two of us. Here, let me lead you back to your friends and I'll see what I can do to learn about the situation outside. Oh, and while I am acting as the head librarian you may call me Sophia or continue to call me Head Librarian like many of the other followers here."

Walking past me she opened the door and let me back to the main hall of the library. Bella and Torien perked up when she saw me walking over but Morrigan was predictably nose-deep into a book with a healthy stack right next to her. Mimi and Silva were also looking at books to my surprise, Mimi's looked to be made to help children learn to read and Silva was holding a book on obscure magic types.

"Lilith, you're back," Bella said with a gentle smile. She glanced at 'Sophia.' "Have you two finished talking?"

Sophia smiled and answered for us, "It was very enlightening for both of us. I am always happy to meet and talk to those that have been noticed by the Goddess."

A young but bookish human man walked over to our group. "Head Librarian. I found the book you requested and was also told to inform you that the situation has stabilized outside. Talis says that it would once again be safe to open the library to visitors."

He handed the book to Sophia who trailed her fingers along the cover. "Excellent, will you do me a favor and take this book to Seagrim? I'd like him to make a full copy of this book for me immediately. Please return here with the copy, I wish to give it to Lilith here as a gift of friendship." She noticed the book in Mimi's hands. "And a quick copy of that one too," she said pointing to it.

The man gaped a little and looked over our group before taking the book back. "I- yes of course Head Librarian." With some prodding Mimi handed the book to him and the man ran off.

Sophia turned back to our group. "If you would be kind enough to wait a moment longer, I need to talk with my head guard and get some of the information you requested. Please accept the books as a token of our friendship. I hope you will do great things with it."

"Thank you... Sophia," I replied to her.

She smiled and gave me a nod. "You're always welcome here, please do not be a stranger." She gave a knowing look to Morrigan. "I'm sure your friends would enjoy the time to pursue knowledge whenever there is time available." She turned and started walking toward the entrance.

Morrigan smiled up at me. "Good job making friends with the head librarian! Everyone was really nice here, despite our status. It was almost as if they were eager to bring me any book I was interested in." She glanced at the tower of books next to her. "Unfortunately they don't usually allow books to be taken from the library but we can pay to have some excerpts copied by the scribes. The uh, book she's bringing you a copy of as a gift is probably really expensive if the rates scale the way I think they do..."

Torien laughed. "Though Morrigan was practically gushing about how nice it would be to get copies of up to sixty pages a month between the three of you members. One hundred if you can convince Raya and Sibyl to donate their pages to you too."

Bella frowned. "I don't think they would look too kindly if we suddenly asked to pool all of our monthly pages to the same book... It would probably look like we would be taking advantage of the system..."

"I don't mind it," Sophia said as she walked back up to our table. "Though you should keep your voices down in the library. Those pages are for members and if members wish to pool their pages into a single tome there is nothing wrong with that. Just keep in mind that the more pages you request at once, the longer it will usually take."

"Head Librarian, I have the books you requested," The young man cut in.

She took them from him and handed them to Morrigan, who took them without any resistance. "Usually. Fortunately for me, one of my subordinates has some interesting magic for making quick copies of books, though it is not a service we provide to others. For now though, please come with me. We've made contact with the city guard and it appears the guard captain is still interested in meeting you today, though they told me to limit you to only one companion."

Silva set her book down. "If we're splitting up Bella won't be able to come with you, she needs to stay with your other slaves to be safe. You should probably take Torien with you."

Frowning, I thought back to the conversation I had overheard. I didn't completely trust Silva now. She seemed to be connected to the twins' aunt somehow, more than just previously being in a relationship with her. Maybe it would be better to keep her close to me so I can keep an eye on her. It might also give me a chance to talk with her alone about that conversation.

I shook my head. "No, I think I want you to come with me, Silva. Everyone else can go back to the inn together." Silva looked surprised but didn't argue with me.

Sophia nodded. "Great. Lilith and Silva, please follow me. It was nice to briefly meet the rest of you. Hopefully, there will be time in the future to get to know the rest of you better."

I gave my friends a wave as they prepared to leave for the inn and the two of us followed the head librarian to an office near the entrance. I stared at the bookshelves as we passed by, I had hoped to do some research while I was here but it didn't seem like I would get the chance. In the room we were led to was a man that I had first seen when we came to the library, he was dressed in robed armor like the other guards that protected the tower from the riot. His helmet was set aside on the desk, showing a fairly handsome dark-haired human man.

"Lilith, Silva, meet Talis, the head of the library guards. He made contact with the city guard and heard that they still wish to speak with you today about matters related to demons." She turned back to Talis. "Please, tell them what you learned about the slave collar suppression."

The tall human glanced at Silva's collar but continued anyway. "We've confirmed through some of our back channels that there has been a cult of demon worshipers that have been talking about ending slavery in the capital through a violent rebellion named the cult of Amphores. To that end, the cult has found some way to suppress the way slave collars work by removing their ability to interpret direct orders. This is some form of wide-range magical effect that they are trying to time with instigated violence. The riots today seemed unconnected and uncoordinated and didn't affect the entire city. Either it was a failed attempt or a test run for a larger attack, either seems plausible."

Here they are again, the Cult of Amphores. Why did they attack Baron Morrister if they are trying to end slavery? Shouldn't they be aligned? I don't understand their motives.

"Did anything major get destroyed?" Silva asked.

"No. The riots were all over petty stuff, though a number of slaves killed their owners while the collars were suppressed. There is a lot of strain on the guards right now as they try to work out how to handle the situation. There's no indication of which collars were affected so they've scooped up anyone wearing collars that were involved for questioning. We haven't heard back from our contacts in the city guard if they have any information on the affected slaves. The reason Sir Noreth, the captain of the guard, wishes to speak with you directly is because you've apparently dealt with the cult before in Goldenhearth. You have the most information on them out of all of the demon hunters here in the city right now outside of the Tamin church. Sir Noreth asked me to bring you to him himself because he wants as few people as possible to know of your involvement. The only ones who know of this are him and his personal team as well as the four of us."

"Isn't that odd?" I asked. "Why are we being kept secret, especially if the Tamin church has information on them too?"

Talis shook his head. "I'm not sure, it is odd but perhaps he suspects the cult has infiltrated the city guard. You'll have to ask him that yourself."

I sighed. "Well, I promised to see him anyway. It's probably best to just get it over with." I glanced over at Silva. "Do you think it will be an issue if Silva comes with? She's wearing a crime slave collar."

Talis looked over at her. "Have you issued her any orders?"

Silva shook her head. "Only to keep her secrets and not to harm others. I serve her out of my own will. I don't really have much choice, but I'm happy with my master."

Talis shrugged. "It should be fine then. I'll vouch for her." He gave me a knowing look. "If the Goddess puts this much faith in you then who am I to argue with who you keep at your side? We should get going though. The riot outside is over and Sir Noreth is not known for his patience. He's likely already irritated you missed the original appointment with him even if you did have a reasonable excuse to be absent."

I sighed. "Alright. Let's just get this over with. Why does this crap have to follow me everywhere I go? I just came here to get cartography training."

Sophia grinned ear to ear. "Perhaps it's just bad luck."