Chapter 220

"I'm not sure when exactly it's happening and I haven't confirmed with Feylaria Winethorn that we're on board yet, but I've pretty much decided that I'm participating," I told Sophin. "The cult of Amphores is going to use magic to disrupt the slave collars in the city and take the opportunity to recruit new members for themselves. It seems like their plan is to start a riot and trigger a slave rebellion while the slave collars aren't functioning. Feylaria told me that she had something that would allow us to remove the slave collars and let people escape or escalate the slave rebellion while we leave after the ball starts rolling."

"That's a dangerous plan, you will be directly involved?" Sophin asked.

"Yes, she was asking us to be the ones to go in and remove as many slave collars as possible to escalate the riot. I was hesitant to help after what I saw in Goldenhearth, but Feylaria told me that she doesn't care if I get in the way of the cult as long as I free slaves and hurt the slaver's guild. We don't know if there is anything else to the cult's plan, but after seeing the aftermath of them dropping demons right into the middle of Goldenhearth, I can't imagine it would be anything good. In a way, our involvement might give us the ability to mitigate whatever they're doing, even if it is just undercutting their recruitment efforts."

Sophin leaned back and looked lost in thought. "I agree that this doesn't seem like the full picture. They already raid slave caravans regularly, I doubt that recruitment is their goal here. It would be a rather messy way of doing things without much benefit."

"There's also the problem of the Tamin church," I added. "Since they are in lockstep with the city guard, we think they may use this upcoming riot as an excuse to entrench their power."

Sophin nodded. "That is likely. If the city guard and the Tamin church reveal that the king has been murdered and they use that to go into martial law in combination with the riot, they could consolidate control of the city under the church. It would lead to more riots in the capital and elsewhere down the road but the Tamin church would be happy to deal with those consequences if they can take control of this country's seat of power."

I scratched the base of my horn. "So I was hoping you would have a solution for the Tamin church problem here in the capital. From what Silva's told me about the Order of Lilith, you guys often oppose the Tamin church directly."

Sophin sighed. "That's a large ask. We mostly only have assassins in this country, we don't really have an army to throw at them. Still, the Tamin church taking control of this country is almost a worst case scenario for us. If we only have a matter of days it will be a challenge to gather the people I do have in the area."

"What about you? Couldn't you step in and help?" Lorriene asked.

Sophin looked over at Lorriene and tapped the table with his fingers in thought. "It would be a pretty large escalation and may draw some stronger people that way... but it may be a good idea for me to get personally involved this time. It will be easier to stop them from taking control now, rather than to wrestle the city from their hands later." He sighed. "I suppose it can't be helped. I'll get everyone I can out here and cut through the ranks of the Tamin church myself during the riot. The cult of Amphores has been pushing for a bloody solution, better to do it now while it will mostly be the Tamin church and cultists we're killing."

"What happens after that?" Bella asked. "If you kill the people in control of the city, and there is no king, who will take the city then?"

"What about the elves?" Silva asked. "They have an embassy here and they were already talking about installing the Marquis. If all the city's leadership evaporates there wouldn't be anyone that could stop them if they mobilize an army to take control of the city."

"Wouldn't that be seen as an act of war?" Torien asked.

Sophin shrugged. "Maybe not if they relinquished control to the Marquis afterward. They could argue that all the leadership died and they did what they had to to protect their embassy and stop the city from falling to banditry. While the Tamin church is popular among some circles in this country, they are still unpopular enough that most people would accept the elves being in control over the Tamin church."

"So do we need to do anything differently when we storm the Slaver's guild?" I asked.

"Likely not," Sophin replied. "I would avoid engaging with the Tamin church at all. You can interrogate or kill the Amphores cultists as you see fit, but it would be ideal if you left as many of the city guard alive as possible should you come into contact with them."

"Why should we worry about that? Aren't they working with the Tamin church?" Torien asked.

"I see it as more of a marriage of convenience than anything else," Sophin replied. "They are working closely with the Tamin church right now, but I think few of the guards are as ideological as the church is. They're mainly relying on the church because they have no other recourse. If we make room for the elves to take over I'm sure the city guard won't be able to do much to stop them. It's better not to murder the locals if we want the city to survive all of this and come out stable in the end though."

I leaned back in my chair. "In that case, we'll continue the plan to feign leaving town, sneak back in, and join Winethorn in freeing and rescuing as many slaves as possible. How likely is it for civilians to get caught up in the crossfire?"

Sophin turned to Lorriene and she sighed before responding, "Pretty likely I would guess. Since most of the slaves will be beastfolk, innocent humans would be most at risk. I'm sure a majority of the slaves will be more focused on escaping or clashing with the guards and the church, but some will likely rob people or attack innocents as a form of revenge. Some collateral damage is unavoidable."

I frowned, not really happy with that answer.

"The cult of Amphores is going to do this whether we're involved or not," Morrigan reminded us. "Most of this will be on them, not us. All we're going to try and do will be freeing people and getting in the cult's way where we can, right?"

I nodded. "That's the idea but I still worry about letting bad people loose."

"Well, we could look at their Karma and just not free anyone who looks especially bad?" Bella said.

"That might help, but it's unreliable," I responded.

Sophin grinned. "I am interested in your racial abilities. What else can you tell me about this karma?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I don't feel like explaining in detail right now. It gives me a sense of how cruel a person is at a glance. It's unreliable because bad behavior can be offset and they can end up neutral on balance."

"Very well, I'll have to accept that for now. When all of this is taken care of I would be interested in getting to know you better though. In a more relaxed situation of course," Sophin told me.

I nodded. "There are a lot of questions I'd like to ask regarding the Order of Lilith as well, but I don't think we really have the time for that now."

"Unfortunately not. If this is happening within the next few days then I need this time to prepare. I unfortunately don't have a great solution for who you choose to free, all I can say is to use your best judgment and urge them not to harm civilians when you release them. If there's nothing else, I suppose we can call this meeting to a close."

"I'll talk with Winethorn and tell her that we'll help with her plans," I said.

"Excellent. Send Silva or Lorriene to me when you get a better idea of when this is happening. If I know the day ahead of time I'll know where to focus my attention." Sophin stood up. "It was nice meeting you, Lilith. Perhaps we can catch up in Goldenhearth and have a longer discussion about the Order and yourself."

The rest of us began to stand up and I nodded to him. "I look forward to it."

He gave a short bow. "Grand. You can see yourselves out, I will get started right away."

Silva led us out of the non-descript house and we started making our way back across the city. It was a little more difficult getting back through the checkpoints to leave the southern quarter but having demon hunters in our group helped a lot. The Tamin church didn't exactly fall over themselves to help us through, but they didn't make things harder for us the way they did for many others.

We didn't talk as we walked through the city, but I could tell there was tension in the group. When we walked through the doors to the guest house within the elven embassy, I could tell everyone was dying to start the conversation. Cecilia was already there waiting for us to return.

"So, what did you think of Sophin?" Silva asked as she took a seat.

"I'm not sure," I said while shaking my head. "He's really strong, probably the strongest person I've met so far. He had a lot of charm, but I could tell he wasn't using Charisma, or if he was, it was too high for me to tell and I doubt that. I'm not sure how much I should trust him, but at the very least I believe that he is willing to fight against the Tamin church."

Silva sighed. "He is the type that doesn't give you much to go off of. For what it's worth, I have only good things to say about him. He's... odd, but he gets things done with as little 'collateral damage' as possible usually. It's why he favors assassination to more open attacks."

"He's always done right by me," Lorriene added. "Never asked me to kill someone I didn't think deserved it."

There was a momentary pause while her words sunk in. I sensed a bit of unease from the twins, they don't seem to have seen this side of her before and she wasn't hiding it as much as she did when we met.

"This should be a huge blow to the Slaver's guild. They might not be able to recover from this," Cecilia said. "They have other locations and other caravans coming and going, but this was always a central hub for the slaver's guild in this country. If a majority of the slaves are freed and a decent amount of the files are destroyed, this could end their presence in this country."

"That's the idea," Lorriene said. "Honestly, stumbling into this plot and getting to intervene personally is a stroke of good luck in my opinion."

I frowned at her words. Am I being manipulated again? Opportunities like this keep appearing in front of me, set up in such a way that I can't ignore them. But if Fortuna is a member of the Tamin church's patron gods, why would she lead me to something that would presumably harm her goals? At every turn, I'm finding that my enemies' motives don't make sense. Or rather, I have such a small grasp of what they actually want that I can't predict them. Maybe I'm just being paranoid and all of it is coincidence. It's just hard not to think about it whenever someone brings up luck. Especially when she doesn't know what I do.

"By the way," I said turning to Cecilia. "I found us a good cover story. That smith that I delivered something to, Tenna, requested for us to escort her and her apprentice to Traehall. That's why I asked for your help getting permission for her to stay here too. She's willing to go along with our plans and wait for the riot to start, as long as we keep her out of it while it's happening. We already registered the quest at the guild when Raya and Sibyl signed up as adventurers."

Cecilia tapped her fingers on the table. "That is a good cover story since it lines up with why we were here in the first place. One thing I'm worried about is that the guards will wonder why a demon hunter is leaving town right before they're attacked by the demon cult the Tamin church is chasing."

I sighed. "That's unavoidable. I've taken care of everything else and I'm even marked down as a journeyman cartographer now. All that's left is to talk with Winethorn again and tell her we'll participate."

"Journeyman? Didn't you skip a couple of ranks?" Silva asked.

"Yeah, I'll fill you in about that later. I think it's time to contact Feylaria Winethorn and talk to her about the plan."