*Date: 33,480 Second Quarter - Chalice Theocracy*
Aris woke up still horrified and couldn't concentrate even in class or when picking out herbs. He faintly remembered Nevyre saying something.
Before going to the alchemy chamber, he wrote a note and gave it to Fox to deliver to Lyra.
The alchemy chamber was warm and smelled faintly of honeyroot. Aris muttered over his tally of herbs, lips moving as he scratched figures on scrap parchment. "Two bundles swiftgrass, one mudroot... still missing silverleaf. Without it, I can't even attempt cure disease. Well, I don't need that anyway." His satchel looked pitiful compared to the long list of recipes pinned to the wall.
Fox yawned on the table. "You're muttering like an old drunk counting coins. Just admit it. You're not going to complete the whole list before the next dungeon."
Aris ignored him, leaning over his bundles. "If I just..."
The door creaked. Aris froze, every muscle locking like a rabbit spotting a hawk. The figure who entered was short for a wolfkin, her muzzle narrower, fur streaked with gray.
Aris's heart thumped. A Chalice Templar had questioned him just a night ago. Had they sent someone to finish the job?
The wolfkin's eyes met his, and then the face shimmered. For half a heartbeat Aris recognized the eyes even though they weren't the same eyes.
Aris sagged with relief. "Lyra. By the gods. I thought Chalice sent another one."
The wolfkin smirked, tail flicking. "What was so important you had to call me through your fox courier? Even this big mouth didn't blab."
Fox bristled. "Hey!"
Aris swallowed. "A Crusader came to me. Gold sash, heavy armor, name Kurgodan. Asked about you."
Lyra's smile vanished. "Ughh. What exactly did he say?"
Aris repeated the questions as best he could. Lyra listened, expression unreadable, until he pressed, "What did you do to agitate them?"
"Nothing. High Priestess ordered some mechanical projects. I did them." Lyra's ears twitched, gaze dropping. "Threatened me same as the last builder who got too curious. He lies underground now."
"And?" Aris demanded.
"And I was busy with that for a month. You know that," she muttered.
Fox hopped down from the table. "He's asking what you did. As in what you did to piss off a Crusader."
"Nothing important. I snooped around a little as a human. Pretended I was a guard. And lied that some halfling killed the guard. That sort thing." She looked away, a little too quickly.
Aris's temper stirred. "Is it going to be like this? You expect me to be loyal, to risk myself, and you won't trust me?"
Lyra hesitated, then sighed. "It's not that simple. If I tell you everything, it drags you deeper. You're already in danger just knowing me."
Fox snorted. "We're already in danger. This whole country's a zealot hive."
"Fine."
Lyra pulled something from her satchel, a box of brass and crystal, humming faintly. Then she pulled the cable and attached it to her sphere artifact that showed stats. She twisted a gear and a pale blue sheet of light spread out in the air, forming a flickering screen.
Aris blinked. "That's... that's a surveillance feed."
Lyra adjusted dials. The projection started to show a surveillance room with Chalice templars and priests monitoring the whole of Chalice.
Lyra's wolfish lips curled. "High Priestess wanted me to install a recorder in her private library salon. Said it was for safety. In truth? She wants the room bugged before a summit of the Eleven Kings. So I bugged hers."
Aris stared. "This is a proper control room. With screens. With... everything. How are you even getting this feed?"
Before Lyra could answer, Fox's tail bristled. "Look. Something's happening."
On the central screen, two armored guards dragged in a pale, battered figure. They strapped him into a metal chair worked with cruel hooks and glowing runes. Magical chains wrapped around his limbs, each link shining faintly.
Aris's throat tightened. "Who is that?"
Lyra's voice was hushed. "Shadowborn male. See the chains? That's Chains of Atlas. Wolfkin invention, designed to suppress high-level Shadowborn mages. Whoever he is, he's dangerous."
The door opened, and High Priestess Aeloria entered. Even through the shimmer of the screen her presence was suffocating: gilded robes, silver circlet, wings like folded light. Her heels cracked against marble as she spoke.
"You see this room?" she said softly, voice carrying like a whip. "Every inch of this world is under my boot. I am running this world. Now talk, or you will not see another day."
The Shadowborn spat blood on the floor. "Nothing to say to likes of you."
Aeloria's lip curled. "A shame. We gave much to the likes of you. Made you what you are. All your powers thanks to me."
The prisoner chuckled, ragged. "We gave back what was given to us tenfold."
Her hand lashed across his face, but he only grinned through the blood.
"Who ordered you to kill the Human Faction's king Augustus Telumus?" she demanded.
"Human faction?" Aris whispered.
"Shh. Non-player human faction," Lyra answered.
"State secret." The Shadowborn winked, lips split.
Her eyes narrowed. "If I do not know it, it is no secret."
The Shadowborn leaned back as much as the chains allowed. "Then you are not in the state. Not really."
Aeloria's voice broke into a scream. "I AM THE STATE!" Her aura flared, wings blazing like a second sun. "I know the replicator who shat you into existence. I ordered the witness stones that shaped your powers, traitor."
The Shadowborn's laughter was hoarse but defiant. "I serve the true residents of this world, not you or your ambition to be a false god." His grin turned thin. "Kill me if you dare."
Aeloria raised her hand. Veins bulged across the prisoner's body, bursting in crimson sprays. He convulsed, eyes rolling white, yet still alive, still breathing.
At last she exhaled, lowering her hand. "Not yet. Keep him alive. He will serve as bait at the summit. His owner will come sniffing."
Her guards bowed low, dragging the trembling Shadowborn away.
Lyra closed the projection with a snap. The light folded into the brass box.
For a moment the alchemy chamber was silent except for the hiss of the cauldron fire.
Aris's hands were shaking. "What... what did we just watch?"
Fox's ears were flat. "Whatever it was, it wasn't supposed to be seen."
Lyra's face was pale under the wolfkin glamour. "I need to go. Keep your head down, Aris. Study your exams. Don't draw attention." She tucked the device away and slipped toward the door.
Aris opened his mouth, but she was already gone.
He turned back to his herbs, staring blankly at the bundles. He tried to focus, to grind mudroot, to measure swiftgrass. But his mind replayed the veins bursting under Aeloria's hand, the Shadowborn's defiance.
His hand slipped. The cauldron boiled wrong. Another failure.
"Kid, snap out of it. These things are way beyond our depth. You focus on getting better. Duels are coming along, remember that," Fox said.
Aris tried to gather his thoughts. "Yeah, you're right."
"Kid, also I noticed something. Everything they teach prepares students for dungeons one way or another."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, healing was crucial to survive the first dungeon and shields were crucial to the second. And now they will duel you against each other."
"So the third dungeon could be we face humanoids to fight?"
"Exactly. So even though these potions are a good addition, if they're not giving XP, study fighting. I advise."