Chapter 62

We spent several hours outside of town working on our magic. Luckily, no monsters have run into our clearing since we started practicing. We were still close to town so it was unlikely there was going to be many prowling around but it's not like there was no monsters in the area either. I had settled on a lightning magic spell that shot sparks into the air. It wasn't a particularly useful spell really but it was the circle that had the most individual lines in it so it seemed like a pretty good spell to practice casting everything at once.

I had been able to get the new spell cast consistently in less than 20 seconds. It didn't sound like much of an improvement over my fire spell but considering how much longer it would have taken to physically draw it compared to the fire spell it felt like quite the accomplishment. I found that visualizing the ritual symbols came pretty natural to me and the hardest part was 'double checking' it so everything was 'in focus' so to speak. If I got lazy it would distort too much and the ritual circle would come out too messed up to cast. I had been practicing picturing, building, and executing the circles repeatedly until I got an unexpected notification.

[Drawing has increased from level 8 to level 9]

Drawing? I... suppose the visualization aspect could be related to drawing. Using [Light Signal] to mark out the shapes could be akin to drawing them but at this point I'm just kind of... putting the circle together all at once like a photocopier. Hmm, maybe I have been going about this in the wrong way. Maybe I should lean into the idea of 'drawing' the circle in my mind rather than just making the circle appear whole in my mind. Maybe something like 'animating' a ritual circle.

I took a deep breath and imagined the individual parts of the magic circle quickly being scrawled into place. The outer circle that contains the power and gives it structure, spinning around the rest of the shape. The sparks of lightning crackling off the center of the circle. Two more symbols that have unknown meanings to me but shape how the form of the spell will manifest, written like a cursive script. Then I imagine all of these pieces running all at once together, the motion just as important as the final product. I opened my eyes and activated [Light Signal] using [Light Manipulation] to 'run' the animation I had been picturing.

Rather than instantly appearing each part of the circle simultaneously drew itself in front of me. Strangely enough the circle was more memorable to me this way, improving my casting time from 20 seconds to only 3 seconds. I was able to reconstruct the ritual over and over now, creating splashes of harmless sparks all around me. I smiled as I felt the echoes of a good memory, of sparklers all surrounding me, of cold wind and the smell of the beach.

[Ritual Magic has increased from level 3 to level 10][Drawing has increased from level 9 to level 11][You have created the new spell Light Scribing][Level increases by 1][You have gained the notice of Sorsette the Goddess of Knowledge and Innovation]

I felt a shiver down my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I looked around but didn't see anything. Nothing really seemed different but I got that prickly feeling of being watched. However, I wasn't sure if it was because I was being watched or if I was feeling paranoid because the system told me I was.

I took a deep breath and put it out of my mind. I had no control over it so I might as well just let it go.

[Light Scribing - Light Magic Spell]Draw and cast ritual magic using light magic as its base. This spell increases the ease at which you are able to build and cast complex rituals and manipulate them before and after being cast. Strength of the effects are increased by [Magic Force] and control of its effects are affected by [Magic Control].

"Hey Lilith, are you okay? You looked like you were having fun a second ago but then you just stopped and now you look like you've seen a ghost."

"I uh... got a system message. It says I've... gained the notice of Sorsette the Goddess of Knowledge and Innovation."

"Really!? Wait, did that technique turn into a new spell? Gods, that's so cool! I thought you might get a new spell but to have created one, that's way cooler."

I turned to Morrigan, "Wait, how did you know?"

"Lilith, she's the goddess of innovation. It's obviously pretty rare to create a new spell but getting Sorsette's notice or even a blessing from her when this happens is pretty well documented. Sorsette is actually one of the most active of the gods, encouraging the spread of knowledge and rewarding the creation of new things. It's a badge of honor to get her notice."

"Is she connected to the Tamin church?"

Morrigan's mood soured instantly. "If I didn't know you better than that I would have taken that as an insult. On paper the Sorsette church and the Tamin church are neutral, in practice the two churches conflict with each other constantly. Sorsette's followers encourage the spread of knowledge to everyone. That includes all other races. Her church is also the only one that doesn't produce any paladins. Sure, you could argue that Sorsette affiliated mages are like paladins but without any paladins the Sorsette church doesn't directly interfere with wars. Well... at least in the same way. Being affiliated with the Sorsette church makes you somewhat of a free agent, they're truly neutral, to the extent that there are often Sorsette mages on both sides of any given conflict and individuals don't always get along. For better or worse, while Sorsette mages are often hired by everyone they're rarely given any positions of power because they aren't allowed to restrict any knowledge 'that could help society' which can make them a huge liability, or so people say."

I scratched the base of my horn. "You have a lot to say about this. Are you affiliated with the Sorsette church?"

"No, even if I wanted to they don't take slaves. They don't mind teaching slaves, they're actually one of the few churches who will, but you aren't allowed to join the church in any capacity unless you're freed first. Generally the church has an unfavorable view towards slavery but because they don't directly try to influence any wars that sort of thing is restricted to politics alone."

"Mmm, that actually sounds good then. I'm curious though, what is Tamin like then? I'm not used to... active gods so I never thought to ask about it."

"The Tamin church is actually kind of an odd one. There isn't actually a god named Tamin, the church is actually a collection of three separate gods. The church is rather hush hush on the core of their religion though, despite how spread out and open they are about what they don't like. You would actually have to join the church and raise in rank a bit to even find out which three gods they worship. There's some speculation that one or more of the gods the Tamin church worship are also worshiped separately, which is where a lot of the church's resources supposedly come from but that's all just a rumor. This is actually really frustrating for many of the other churches because a lot of beastkin are scared of supporting any of the religions because they'd rather not chance supporting the Tamin church even indirectly. The only two gods that are almost certainly not part of the Tamin church are Sorsette and Morkinnen the god of love and beauty. Sorsette for a lot of different, if minor, reasons and Morkinnen primarily because the Morkinnen church is very openly supportive of same-sex and inter-race love and marriages. Morkinnen is the most popular church for beastkin by far, partially because there's no way they're affiliated with the Tamin church and also because inter-race relationships are really common for beastkin who have extremely varied tastes in partners. Hence how common demi-humans are."

I was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this. "So... you mentioned paladins earlier, how common are wars based on religion here? I feel kind of uneasy about the idea that the gods could be fighting some sort of proxy war using the people who live here."

"Not all that common really. The gods themselves are more or less immortal. They don't age and are hard to kill, but they aren't impossible to kill. Especially among their own kind. There are only a few dead gods though, the most notable being Erimikai the god of war and destruction. A number of the gods discovered that Erimikai was influencing mortals to incite wars almost constantly and when confronted about it made his followers actively hunt down the other churches' followers. Despite all of the other churches and gods banding together, Erimikai almost defeated all the other gods simultaneously while fighting on multiple fronts. The god of Death was the one who killed him in the end, he had mostly been neutral through the entire conflict so the gods were all really surprised when he stepped in."

"What caused Charon to step in?"

"His motives were never clear to the other gods and he doesn't have any direct followers or a church. The only people who have any affiliation with him at all are those who receive blessings or marks of Death." Morrigan awkwardly looked at my arm where my hidden mark was when she said this.

"How do you know about all of this anyway? How long ago did all of this happen?" I asked.

"I'm not sure how long ago this happened but at least a couple thousand years. The only reason any of this is known is because Sorsette has made a deal with the other gods to spread this specific information. Each church has its own slightly different version of the story, focused on their own history in the conflict. It's a common enough story that basically everyone's heard it in some form. Religious scholars speculate Sorsette wanted this information to spread to dissuade the churches from fighting each other directly. Paladins do fight directly in conflicts but it's taboo for them to fight battles that could be perceived as attacking another church directly. Like, they could fight a different church in battle over which lord they prefer in a succession dispute but they can't fight a war over lands held by a rival church."

"What stops them?" I asked.

"It's said to be an accord of the gods, all of the churches teach it and any time they would be in direct conflict with another church the leaders of the respective churches have to approve their participation in the conflict. There have been a few wars where churches conspicuously didn't participate because it seemed too close to breaking the accord."

"That sounds very political."

"It is." Morrigan replied with a shrug. "While churches are only occasionally in conflict during war, they're in constant conflict in politics. It's often said the gods' accord merely shifted the battlefield."

"So with the direct presence of the gods, is being a member of a church expected?"

"Well... it's common enough to join a church for various benefits but most people will only pray and visit their temples for specific related things. There are benefits to joining the church in a more regular capacity but it's kind of treated as a profession or a trade. If you want to be a paladin or a priest then you would have to join a church for that. Otherwise, it's not necessary for most people. Nobles are also not allowed to join any churches unless they give up their family affiliation, supposedly so they remain loyal to their church rather than their namesake. Most churches don't even actively recruit and the only one that aggressively recruits is the Tamin church, mostly because they try to exert their influence everywhere they can."

"How does the Tamin church get away with being so aggressive towards beastfolk and same-sex relationships? It sounds like there's a lot of people who are against them."

"Well, it's complicated. They've been around for so long now that their followers are deeply rooted all over the place, including most guilds. Their influence is likely inside other churches as well since the gods they worship are unknown and tightly held. And the group that dislikes them the most are the other churches and they can't move for fear of breaking the gods' accord. Their power varies though. Some places they may as well be the country's enforcers, other places they're basically outlaws. It really depends where you are. Out here on the frontier, they probably don't have a lot of influence outside of the guilds but there also are less people around to rein in some of their extreme members. The kingdom of Torlimal is generally in favor of the Tamin church's actions but stop short of endorsing any lawbreaking activities. Not that they really do much to stop it either."

I stretched my arms and looked around the clearing. "You know when the other girls aren't around it's pretty easy for us to get caught in conversation."

Morrigan laughed. "Well, I don't mind talking about this stuff. Now that I actually know why you don't know any of it, I don't feel as silly talking your ear off."