After a round of greetings Calen offered Cassian some leftovers from their last meal, but he declined.
"Before I got discharged Sylara came to talk to me."
"What did she say?" Calen asked.
"Not much, only that we should meet her tomorrow to discuss things properly - apparently there were some issues today?"
"You have no idea..."
They quickly explained to him what happened during the breakfast, and the main conflict between the advisors.
Cassian slowly nodded.
"Interesting... she also mentioned that we’ll work with someone named Alison, do you know her?"
"Yeah, a perpetually upset redhead in charge of the army and the city guard."
"Isn’t she a bit... young to have so much responsibility and power?"
"Your father took the position of a captain at the age of twenty, and she’s a couple years older than that." Calen pointed out.
Seeing that Cassian opened his mouth to argue, he quickly cut him off:
"I’m not belittling sir Vandrel’s achievements, he’s an extremely capable and talented, but we can’t discard the possibility that she’s just as good."
Cassian grumbled a bit, but he didn’t continue the argument.
"Vinifer said Sylara will likely test us before helping, is that what this is about?" Isara asked.
"Probably, I’d even venture a guess that our ’test’ will concern the incident with Konrad." Elira answered.
"Because she can solve two problems at once, she’ll check our capabilities and solve the most divisive issue in her inner circle - at least that’s what I would have done."
"What makes you think there’s something left to be solved in that case? Konrad is dead and the barrier is fixed." Calen remarked.
"Alison said that they don’t know who exactly convinced him to blow up the barrier, which means the situation isn’t exactly resolved - I’d want to catch the person responsible, or at least identify them, wouldn’t you?"
There was a moment of contemplative silence, but it was cut short by Cassian:
"How did they save us from that big monster? I tried to ask the medics, but they were very vague about it."
"Ah right, you were kinda knocked out - Sylara saved us." Calen answered.
"Really? How many people did she bring? Did you see how they defeated that thing..."
"Cass, she was alone - She’s a guardian, just like Lydia predicted."
"Yeah, whatever that means." Isara snorted.
"Not a god, apparently." Elira added with a giggle.
"Hey, it was a reasonable question considering our situation!" Calen defended himself.
"We’re just messing with you, it wasn’t a bad guess." Isara grinned. "But if she’s not secretly a long gone deity, what is she?"
"A very powerful druid?"
"I don’t think she’s a druid actually." Elira shook her head.
"She used the nature domain, didn’t she? How could she not be a druid?"
"It’s because of how she used that power - druid’s power doesn’t come from within, its source is the world around us." She paused. "Her attacks were different, the energy came not only from outside, but from the inside as well."
"Okay... but what does it mean?"
"I don’t know, maybe that she’s connected to the domain in some alternate way." The alchemist shrugged.
"I suppose there’s no point in guessing, she’ll probably tell us after we’re done with whatever job she has for us."
The next morning the four of them were sitting at the same table as yesterday, but Tiana and Geodor were missing, while Alison was standing in a dark corner, sulking about something.
"Let me get this out of the way first: I’m not going to give you the location of the next temple." Sylara stated.
"Why?" Calen frowned.
"Because you’re not ready - you were extremely lucky with that the first temple had mostly functional seal, but others are in a much worse state. Many horrors made their nests inside those ancient buildings, and you wouldn’t stand a chance against them at your current strength."
"What am I supposed to do then?"
"I can help you reach the required power level, make you strong enough so that you can inherit the flame - you should be able to challenge one or two least perilous temples."
"...but you won’t do it for free."
"Correct. I have a job for you, it will involve helping each of my advisors uncover and the truth about the sabotage."
"Told you." Elira whispered, visibly proud of her own guess.
"You’ll start by helping Ally, who will be going through all the evidence we’ve gathered so far."
"Lasy Sylara, is this really necessary? I am perfectly capable of doing this on my own, I don’t need any help."
Ah, so that’s why Alison looked even more annoyed than usually.
"Ally, we’ve been through this before - this isn’t your area of expertise and it’ll be easier if you work with other people."
"Then let me choose someone from the guard, I don’t want outsiders..."
Alison huffed, but didn’t reply, so Sylara turned back to the party:
"I also have a special task for you Calen, but it’s a bit more... abstract."
"Abstract in what way?"
"Well... How much do you know about merging your soul with a piece of a divine domain?"
"I know that it will hurt, but not much else." Calen scratched his chin.
"So pretty much nothing... Let me explain then. The act involves a rather complex ritual, and while I’ll take care of all the necessary ingredients, you’ll have to prepare yourself mentally."
"...as in for the pain?"
"No, you need to come up with your tenets."
"Tenets, the main principles your domain will be built upon. Attributes of a domain are mostly set in stone, but a god - or someone holding a piece of a divinity - has to set their beliefs, which will shape their power. You have to find your own before the ritual, or you’ll inherit the ones that the Sun God chose."
"Perfection, perseverance, power - not something I would like to follow, but that might be just a personal preference."
"I’ll think about it."
Seeking perfection for eternity didn’t sound particularly pleasant, so he would certainly try to come up with his own.
"One last word of advice - the beliefs you’ll end up choosing will interact and clash with those held by the Sun God, influencing your final abilities, so keep that in mind."
Sylara gave him a measured look, and then addressed the rest of the party.
"I think we’re done here, unless you have any questions?" No one answered, so she continued. "Ally will guide you to the Verdant Watch’s headquarters."
They left the fortress for the first time, and entered the city contained within - it was big, certainly bigger than one would expect from a settlement hosting thirty thousand people.
The architecture was archaic, but very well preserved, almost like time couldn’t touch this place. Some places resembled the ruins under Asharil, hinting at the city’s pre Sun Kingdom origins.
The houses were gray and had simple geometric shapes, while their roofs were covered in baked tiles, making the city look strangely uniform.
"So... do you know what exactly is Sylara?" Isara unsubtly asked their unwilling guide.
Alison looked at her, completely unsurprised by the question.
"I don’t know. She’s certainly not a human, I can tell you that."
"Why do you say that?"
"According to Geo she’s been in charge of Mountainfall since the invasion, and she hasn’t changed a bit since then - she’s obviously not an Archmage, and even the most powerful druids age eventually, so I don’t see any other option."
’Not a human, huh?’ Calen mused.
There were stories about other sentient races of course, but there was no tangible evidence of their existence. Everyone heard of elves, and their inexplicable connection to the stars, as well as spirits - beings without a body, deeply connected to the world around them.
Some people cowered because of demons, lurking down in the five hells below, while others sang of angels serving the one above all gods.
Whether those tales were true or not, Calen did not know - but if he had to guess what type of being Sylara was, he would say she’s a spirit.
That would explain why the power of nature came within her, as well as her longevity. It was a problematic because of the fact that contrary to what legends said, Sylara had a body, but who knew which parts of myths were true.
"The incident was almost two months ago, why are you investigating it now?" Cassian questioned.
Alison let out a frustrated sigh.
"Lady Sylara insisted that we wait with it until we have all the information, and even then she asked us to wait a little bit longer."
’She planned it from the very beginning, huh? At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if she already knows who did it.’ Calen paused.
’How does she know this much anyway? She knew our names, about the temple, and even waited for us with this case - which happened before we were even awake!"
He could attempt to find rational explanation for each of those facts - like for example that Sylara knew Koravel, and he told her about his plan - but for now it would be for the best to keep a eye out for other things she was strangely well informed about.
"We’re here." Announced Alison
They’ve reached the Verdant Watch’s headquarters.