<~> Chapter 120After finishing the cipher key, I tinued skimming through the rest of the journal for a while. While there are a few more refereo the cult he was w with, there wasn't much else that looked useful among the pages to me directly. There were some indications of other things the man did that could be illegal but I don't know the full scope of the ws in this city to know for sure. There wasn't anything obvious like more kidnappings or sacrificial murders anyway. I decided I got everything useful to me from it and closed the journal for now.

  It took a while for Bel to e back from the bathroom. The man had been ed for so long he couldn't support his ow, his muscles had severely atrophied from disuse. I don't remember precisely how long ago the city had been attacked but he's had to have been here long enough to kill a person if not for the magi his system, namely his vitality stat. He's beehree weeks at least. I know the author of the journal hadn't intended for this to happen but it was hard not to be disgusted when looking at the shape this Julian guy had bee in.

  Bel peeked around the er of the office. "Lilith, will you give me a hand?"

  "Sure." I followed her to the bathroom and hahe journal tan. The man was slumped against the side of the bathtub. He was unscious now, he had fallen asleep while being washed.

  "It wasn't too hard helping him in but now that he's wet I was having trouble lifting him." Bel and I lifted him from the tub and onto the nearby chaise and she began to towel him off. "He's really weak, in and out of sciousness. He he attention of aire ic, there's only so much I do for him here without staying with him till he starts to recover."

  "We should take him to the guards anyway. He could be a wito whatever the guy who did this was doing with the cult. With as desperate for clues as they probably are, they have plenty of iive to make sure this guy recovers," I said.

  Man's voice came through the door. "I agree."

  Once we had finished dressing him I would have to be the oo carry him. It was awkward to carry the frail guy but he was so light it wasn't difficult with my amount of strength. It wasn't long before we were at ground level again, the trail of demonic miasma I had seen ing from this building had dissipated pletely after we killed the monster on the sed floor. There was still some of it flowing through the area outside but noticeably less now. The observation made me wonder what was behind the door of the first pce we visited.

  Outside the building, I could see Torien and Silva talkihe bakery we had been at earlier. It looked like we were gone so long they had already returned and were waiting for us. Torien was the first to notice me ing over and patted Silva on the arm to get her attention.

  Silva looked the skinny man up and down. "Who's that?"

  I adjusted the man sleeping in my arms. "We found a house with a demon in it, this guy had been ed up in a secret room. We found a book that says he was a guy who was kidnapped and forced to be a sve. The owner of the pce must have died before he could e bad collect him. This guy has been ed up ever sihe night of the attack."

  Silva's eyes widened and looked at the man. "That was nearly a month ago!"

  I frowned. "I knoere going to take him along with us to the guardhouse. He is probably a witness and the author of the journal talks about the 'Cult of Amphores,' they were the ohat instigated all of this."

  "Cult of Amphores," Silva whispered and her fist ched.

  I looked at her face carefully. "Do you know of them?"

  She paused for a moment. "No. But it's good to know the name of the people who did all of this."

  I had a weird feeling, like Silva had just lied to me. I wasn't sure what to make of that but I don't think it would be all that productive to interrogate her over that right now. I should ask her about this privately ter, I'm sure there could be more to the story there.

  "Well, we should bring this man to the guards. Does anyone know the way to the gate we came in through? Torien?" I asked and looked over at her.

  Torien's tail flicked. "I do but why are you asking me specifically?"

  I grinned. "You're a scout, I assumed you had a good sense of dire. Should I ask Man instead?"

  Man ughed. "Ask me to lead the way if you want to get lost. I also make Torien do that stuff."

  Torien sighed. "Alright, let's go." Torien acted like she was irritated but I got the impression she liked to be relied on like this. There was a certain spring iep.

  Once we got baore poputed part of tow some weird looks for carrying a person through the city like this. The man was pletely out. I could tell he was still alive, I could feel his breathing against my chest, but despite the noise and the sun he just kept sleeping. It wasn't long before the gatehouse came into view, lots of guards were cheg the long line of people still trying to get in and out of the city. There were a couple of unoccupied guards by a door leading into the tower so we headed in their dire.

  The felifolk guard eyed me with suspi when he g the sleeping man. "Do you have something to report? Does that man need help?"

  "Yes, we'd like to talk to..." I just realized I never got that priest's name. "uh, the priest of Morkinne with. We have some information we're sure he'd like to hear, tell him we're the demon hunters he met the other day."

  The guard's eyebrows furrowed befng at his partner. "Fine, I'll go see if he see you. Wait here."

  The uard was a human, she stepped forward and looked Julian over. "Let me help you with him, there's a couch we y him on in one of the offices."

  While the female guard led us through the guard tower, Silva leaned over to me. "Was it wise to mention being demon hunters?"

  I shrugged. "I think it's more likely to get us a meeting."

  "Could get us the wrong kind of attention."

  I looked Silva in the eye. "I know."

  She shrugged and moved away. Not lohe guard found us in the breakroom. "He's agreed to see you. We'll wait here with...?"

  "He's a witness, Julian. I'm sure the priest will want to talk with him."

  The felifolk guard nodded. "Sure, follow me then."

  The man led us up the guard tower and into a small office with an interior window. Despite the breeze, it was rather hot in the room and the priest looked unfortable.

  The priest g the man before looking back at me. "How I help you? I had expected Tarklin to apany you again."

  I nodded. "roup disbanded like we had briefly discussed the st time we met you. My party and I have been staying iy and Tarklin has presumably left town already."

  "In that case let me introduce myself, I'm Nathaniel. Why have you e to speak with me? And who was the man you've brought here?"

  "My name's Lilith." I gestured tan and she hahe journal over to him.

  "That's a journal I found in one of the houses he area that was destroyed by demons. We were doing some scouting and noticed demonic miasma ing from a three-story house with a destroyed wall. Sihe demons could leave the building and escape into the city we decided to have a look because the miasma was s."

  The priest nodded. "That's acceptable, though I wasn't uhe impression you were intending to... actively hunt for them. Don't misuand me, I'm happy you're willing to help, I just didn't think you would a your own. At least without any ission to do so."

  "We met a friend who asked us to take a look around and I'd rather not have any demons roaming around loose. Anyway, we ehe house and found a fairly strong demon. It was a hungering corpse. We also found a banshee in the celr of a destroyed bakery, though that one was a lot less threatening."

  The priest interjected, "We have been worried there were still demons iy but we are too low on mao clear the area after the attacks. It's fortunate we now have some more demon hunters iy willing to help."

  "Sure," I replied. "Anyway, when we were clearing the house Bel here heard something and it prompted us to look for a rooms." I gestured to Bel before tinuing, "We found the secret room along with a coded diagram to open it. I found that journal there and was able to decode the cipher and open the door where we found the man downstairs, he had been ed to the wall ahere to die. That journal you're holding is written in the same cipher, the st entry describes how he aid by a cult to use his house in a plot to kill the baroeo return home arieve Julian, the man he had kidnapped, before leaving town. For whatever reason he never came back."

  The priest was now flipping through the journal. "And you decode this?" he asked.

  "I already have. After the st page with writing on it, I wrote the key down for you. I didn't o write it out for myself because I have a skill that helps with that kind of thing but it will help you decipher it. There are probably other crimes written in there as well."

  "And the man?" the priest asked.

  "He was kidnapped by the author of that journal acc to the final page. I was hoping you would care for him, he may know a lot more than what's written there about the atta the city."

  The priest leaned ba his chair in thought. He was silent for over a minute before he looked back up at me. "I'll take him into my custody and personally make sure he gets proper treatment from a ic I'm associated with. If he has any information oack it would help us greatly. What about you? Do you want pensation for this?" he asked raising the journal.

  I scratched the base of my horn. "A trade of information?"

  The priest set the journal down. "If it's something I share, sure."

  "Do you have any information on a cult named 'The Order of Lilith?' the Tamin church alerted me to its existend I'm curious why a cult sharing my name might be running around."

  He looked down and cupped his before replying. "I may be able to get some information about that but it will take a while. I have a friend who wouldn't mind sharing that kind of thing with me. How about you e ba..." he g an obje his desk I didn't reize. "three days? I could have any information I'm willing to give you by then."

  I smiled. "Perfect, sounds good."

  "Excellent, there should be a guard outside the door. Ask him to show you out." Before we evehe priest started rewriting the coded jourries onto a new sheet of paper.

  Just before I crossed through the door the priest suddenly sat up. "Wait! While we're at it, would it be possible to hire yroup as demon hunters? We io clear out the castle soon, your help would go a long way toward keeping the guards safe." He looked roup up and down. "Yroup seems reliable and we don't have any other demon hunters avaible, I pay your party 5 gold for the assistance. For reasons I 't go into, we 't get the Tamin churvolved in this endeavor. I hadn't even thought to ask you until now."

  I turo my friends. "What do you guys think?"

  Silva was quick to answer, "I want to go. I want to get a better idea of what happehere that night."

  I nodded. "Sure, is everyone else alright with that? Any s?" None of them spoke up so I turned back to the priest. "Sounds like we're in. When are you pnning on clearing it?"

  He cleared his throat. "We were already pnning on sending a group in tomorrow m, though with your addition I could dey it if need be."

  I scratched the base of my horn before shaking my head. "No, tomorrow will work fine. I'm curious about what happehere as well but we still o make our way to the capital soon. We shouldn't dey too long, the soohe better."

  "Excellent, you be here in the m by the third bell?"

  Third bell, around 8 in the m. I nodded. "Sure."

  He turned back to the journal. "Excellent, I'll see you in the m then."

  When it was clear he wasn't going to tinue any further roup left the guard tower. Soon after, we were ba the street heading back toward the Ruby Vixen. I looked at my friends. "Is there anything else we o take care of? Anything else we want to pick up before we go back?"

  "Did you want to buy some equipment?" Torien asked. "You were pining about how awful a fit your new sword is for that sheath. You wouldn't stop pining about it the ht."

  "Ah right." I looked down at my sword. It was easy tet but when I was on the uuna the other day it wouldn't stop rattling. "Sure, let's head to a on or armor smith and see if we get something new."

  We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in the safer parts of town, the sun was starting to go down by the time we got back to the Ruby Vixen.

  Saine

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