Chapter 206

Once again, all of us sat around the table in the common room of the guest building. Lately I've felt like I've gone from one meeting about life-changing events to another. The only solace is this meeting will be about something more concrete than usual.

Silva cracked her neck. "I say we help. After what happened in Goldenhearth, I'm not keen on helping the cult of Amphores either but it'll be a good opportunity to free a lot of people from slavery and cripple the heart of the slave trade in this kingdom."

Torien crossed her arms. "Is the best way to free people from slavery? By starting a slave rebellion? A lot of people are going to get hurt in the crossfire and I don't trust the cult of Amphores to avoid innocent casualties."

"Those are the guys who killed the Baron of Goldenhearth though right?" Raya asked. "If their actual goal was to free people from slavery then why would they kill the Baron? Everyone knew that he was against slavery. How do we know they aren't trying to use a slave rebellion to hide what they're actually doing?"

"We don't," I said. "Or rather, it's safe to assume that we would be running cover for whatever their actual goals are. We could be helping them distract people from something else or even just pushing recruits into their arms. The real question here is if the risk of empowering them is worth it."

There was a tense moment of silence between us before Lorriene spoke up next. "I'm inclined to agree with Silva. Even if we do help this cult of demon worshippers, this is an opportunity to almost completely dismantle slavery in this kingdom. That elf implied we would be only be there to remove a few collars and escape, but we could also take the opportunity to torch their records and make off with their treasury."

"I don't know about that," Sibyl said jumping in. "Everyone here is pretty strong sure, but you think they're going to leave their treasury and records exposed without anyone strong protecting them? I wouldn't be surprised if they have several guards over level one hundred protecting their stuff, they certainly have the gold to pay for it."

"Silva and Lilith are both above level fifty now, right? The two of them just killed a King. Wouldn't they be enough to deal with strong guards?" Bella asked.

Silva shook her head. "No, Sibyl is right. I got lucky catching the king's main protector unaware. We could try to scope out their records and treasury to see what we can do but if we run into a level one hundred or higher, we should avoid them. No offense to Lilith but while she is high-level from a raw power perspective, she could use a lot of training. I wouldn't want to take a bet on who would win in an actual fight."

"I didn't help much when Silva killed the King. Her magic blinded me and I got pushed over when it happened. The guard captain and the King were already dead by the time I got back to my feet. I was left so flat-footed the most I was able to contribute was helping with one of the guards," I admitted.

"Doesn't matter," Silva said. "The point is, it's not worth the trouble. If we run into someone that strong, we run."

"You're talking like we've already decided to do this," Torien quipped back. Silva frowned at her reaction but didn't argue.

"I don't think we should do it," Morrigan followed her sister up. "The things we saw inside the castle at Goldenhearth were awful. If we went along with helping the cult of Amphores, things could turn out just as bad or worse. I don't want to help people that would do that to so many innocent people."

"With respect," Silva replied. "most haven't adapted to the life of being a slave as well as you have. There are lots of innocent people in collars in that building too and I don't think we should weigh the lives of people who have turned a blind eye to cruelty over the ones wearing the collars. I think the relationship you have with your former mistress has left you blind to what we're talking about."

Torien squinted her eyes at Silva. "How dare you. My sister's opinion doesn't matter because you think she got lucky? How much do you really know about the kind of training we went through?"

"Enough," Lorriene raised her voice and interrupted. "That was out of line Silva. Ultimately, I agree that we should do it anyway, but telling my niece that her opinion isn't valuable is uncalled for."

I could feel some of Silva's indignation through the bond. It seems like that wasn't how she had meant her statement, but I don't know what she expected. I don't know how to feel about that exchange. I don't think the way Torien reacted was extreme based on how Silva sounded but part of me wondered if Torien had reacted so negatively because of her own current issues with the woman. Then again I don't think her protectiveness of her sister has ever come into conflict with Silva before so it might just be that.

I sighed and spoke next, "We're getting a little off track. I think that even if we do decide to help, keeping what Morrigan said in mind is important. We would be assisting, either directly or indirectly, a group that has murdered a lot of innocent people. They released demons into the castle of a baron that didn't even condone slavery and the demons killed most of the staff there and lots of people throughout the city that had never even owned slaves. Bella and I personally helped some of the victims of that event at the Brothel. Raya is right, that group has some kind of other goal to all of this so even if we do this, we need to avoid helping them if we can."

"It sounds like you're leaning toward doing this," Silva said.

I shook my head. "I don't know... Seeing all of the people at the bazaar on pedestals being sold like pets was disgusting. But so was clearing out the castle of undead maids and cooks. Until now I didn't think I would ever be in a position where I would seriously consider helping them but I also don't want to do nothing about all of those people being sold off like meat."

Raya leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. "Why don't you just tell everyone you free that the Order of Lilith is the one freeing them? You said the Tamin church already knows about the group Silva and Lorriene are a part of, they can't be the only ones. If this is just a method of recruiting people to the cult of Amphores then they would be seen as trying to poach from the people who actually helped them. I know I'm the one who brought it up, but if this is just a smokescreen to hide what they're doing, that's unfortunate, but that doesn't really take away from freeing people right? Helping them might even give us some clues to what their plans are and then maybe we can mitigate some of the damage from there. If we don't help, something terrible might still happen anyway and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

"That's true..." Morrigan conceded.

I turned to Cecilia. "How much can we trust Feylaria Winethorn?"

Cecilia shrugged. "I'm not sure. Feylaria seems pretty cutthroat from our conversation with her but I haven't heard rumors of their whole family being like that. The Winethorns are one of the major houses on the same level as the Silvergroves but other than that I don't know a lot about them really. I usually tried to stay out of politics so you would be better off talking with Tarklin about that." I nodded. I was a bit disappointed by her answer but that was probably a bit unfair to her.

I looked around the table. "Is there anyone strongly against helping them?" There were a few frowns and furrowed brows but no one else was entirely against it. Though I also sensed quite a bit of apprehension from several of them through the bonds.

When no one replied I continued, "Feylaria said she would be by within the next few days before the cult of Amphores activates their collar suppression magic again to see if we intend to help her. We should have at least a few days before we have to make a final decision and maybe we can ask for more concrete details about what the plan is and what the cultists will be doing during the collar suppression. Until then we have a few days to relax. Does anyone have anything else they want to talk about before I drop the [Zone of Silence]?"

I got a lot of shaking heads so I nodded and released the spell.

Morrigan tugged on my shirt so I turned to look at her. "If we have the time, I think you should look at the book that the Head Librarian gave you. I think it's exactly the kind of thing you were talking about being interested in," she said.

I smiled. "Sure, I've actually been looking forward to it." I turned back to the table. "It sounds like we won't be able to head back into the city for a while, at least till Talis looks into what's happening there for us. Tarklin is headed to the guild to see about the cartography stuff but we're not going to be able to register you two into our party yet," I told Raya and Sibyl. "Actually... for that matter, I never added Silva to it either."

Silva shrugged. "Normally you don't need to register slaves. Though if we're going to be traveling and I'm no longer wearing a collar then I probably should get registered eventually so I don't look suspicious."

"Well, alright then," I said. "I'm going to head upstairs to read for a while. Feel free to come get me if anyone needs anything."

I stood up and started heading up the stairs and found that both Morrigan and Torien were following me. I didn't say anything but once we entered the room I turned to Torien with a raised eyebrow. "Did you want to look through my new book too?"

Her ears went back and she glanced away looking a little guilty. "No, I just didn't want... to be down there right now. I don't really know how to act around everyone now that I'm not a slave..."

I didn't totally buy that reason but I bet there was at least a kernel of truth in it. I think this was more about Silva than anything else. While I did eventually want to push her to talk with me about it more, I didn't think now was the moment to broach the subject. That meeting had been a bit tense and I'd rather just relax for a while.

"I don't think you need to worry too much about acting differently in front of everyone, but if you just wanna hang out on the bed while Morrigan and I get nerdy, then be my guest," I told her in a mirthful tone.

Her cat ears perked back up and she looked relieved. "Sure. I'll just sit in that chair out of the way and relax for a while. Maybe I'll go back down later if I feel more up to it..."

"Sure," I replied with a smile.

Morrigan pulled the book she had been holding onto for me and placed it on the bed. There was a desk but it seemed a bit too small for the two of us to look through the contents at the same time. I flipped the book open and my eyes lit up when I realized what I was looking at.

It was a reference book for known ritual circles and ritual circle component pieces.

There were lots of pieces I already recognized and some that I had already intuited their function, but even in those cases, the book went into a lot more detail on how powerful their effects would be and what other components were known to cancel each other out. This book was a treasure trove of information that would work great with [Light Scribing]. I had been excited to see what kind of book Sorsette had given to me as a gift but I hadn't thought she would give me something so practical.

Though in retrospect, I should have known she would have given me something like this. How else would I develop this new angle of magic I had created without a book this detailed? This book would save me so much time in reverse engineering ritual circles like I had expected to have to do. Morrigan and I flipped through the book and talked about different applications for some of the circles and their components. We quickly started theorizing about which ones would be practical for different applications. Eventually, even Torien had gotten drawn in by the conversation and all three of us were discussing what kinds of circles would be practical to keep at hand and which would be useful with a bit more setup.

Things were going to get fun.