<~> Chapter 157I looked over the prisoners and realized something, there were only men being held here. I walked over to the guard who had been esc us. "Are there women being held somewhere else?" I asked.

  The guard furrowed his brows. "No, these are the only prisoners we've found. We kept the ones with sve colrs in a different room but I was told I 't show them to you, they're a top priority for Nathaniel. One of them is a woman though, that blond dogfolk he was looking for."

  I nodded. "I uand. In that case, I want to look around more. you show me the room the hell hound came from?"

  "Sure." The guard led us out of the room and down the hall inter chamber.

  The room had a giant summoning circle on the ground that looked eerily simir to the one I woke up in some time ago. Some of the symbols were the same as the ohat were used in my summoning circle. Either the 'fake' summoning book that summoned me retty closely based on real summoning circles or the story behind the book didn't match what I was seeing.

  I let my eyes shift, allowio see the mana in the air. There were some fvors of mana I didn't reize along with the typical ones like fire, water, and wind. I was quickly starting to get the impression that the types of mana they tested for at the guild were only scratg the surface of all the distinct kinds I could see and sehrough [Mana Sense]. I had already intuited that from feeding on 'lust' aspect mana but being able to see the mana really made it obvious.

  The air in this room was full of magiow that we're here I kind of wish Man had e ih us. I didn't know if this kind of mana tration was normal. Other than the dungeon, it seemed much greater than anywhere else I had been. The number of Aspects the mana came in was heavily varied as well. While I was busy iing the summoning circle, Torien and Bel split off from me and started searg the room in other ways. The nearby guards seemed more ied in what Torien and Bel were doing than what I was doing at the moment so I decided to take advantage of that. I wasn't sure how good of ahis was but I took out one of my sketchbooks and began to quickly copy down the circle. I made sure it was crossed diagonally like I had been taught when studying ritual circles before I began to copy down the sigils, just to make sure I didn't actally activate it somehow.

  It retty obvious summoning magid ritual magic had a on aor if they weren't just the same thiirely. I did spot the irony of being ied in ritual magic when I was a summoned person myself. There was a kind of romanticization in having big glowing magic circles when casting spells though, perhaps my supposed i in the pop culture of my previous life was influeng my is here. I closed my sketchbook and slipped it bato my bag, if the guard saw me copying the ritual circle down he didn't say anything about it.

  It had been a while since I had practiced any ritual magic using [Light Scribing]. I was a bit more focused on my active magi the st few fights in the castle and with everything going on at the brothel tely I haven't spent any time experimenting with any rituals. I'm sure the skill is useful but I o expand my repertoire still. I've been able to mess around with some of the individual parts of circles I have but I just don't have enough uual circles to get many differes. Once we finally get to the capital there should be a pce where we buy some more books on magic, I just hope it doesn't pletely bleed away all of our money. Books are expe perhaps I could make some copies at the Library of Sorsette when I get access. I'm not sure how muething like that is frowned upon though.

  I walked over to Torien who was examining some of the shelves in the er. "Find anything iing, Torien?"

  She shook her head. "Less than I would have thought. There's nothing but equipment here, magifused paint and dles for their summoning circle. Obviously enough to prove they were actually trying to summon demons, which is illegal by itself, but nothing that would lend itself to their greater motives."

  "So is this it? Just a bunch of them hiding here on top of a summoning circle?" I asked.

  "It is a bit strange how few people are actually here though. With an atta the city that rge you would think there would be... more," Torien said gesturing to the room. "Even if you only sider the people that had to have participated iack directly, this pce doesn't look like it could have supported something that huge. As deep as these tunnels are, this looks more like a safe house with space for a summoning circle rather than any kind of base of operations. ...It seems like a dead end."

  I sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Let's hope we get more out of the prisoners and sves the cultists kept then. I'm going to be pissed if Jasper died for nothing."

  Torien nodded grimly.

  "Guys?" Bel called out to us from the other side of the room.

  The two of us came over and looked at what she was looking at along with one of the guards. There was a small depression in the wall and what looked like a footprint that ended halfway into it.

  "A secret door?" I asked.

  "Looks like it," Torien agreed.

  "You seem to notice hidden doors quite often Bel. You have a good eye for them," I said while patting her on the shoulder.

  "Hehe, thanks. Somethi odd over here though, I picked up on it through my nature magic this time."

  I ran my fingers across the depression but it was hard to tell what I was looking at. I slid the pay bad pulled out one of my notebooks before ripping out a page.

  Torien raised an eyebrow. "Seems like a waste of expensive paper..."

  "Watch." I pulled out a stick of charcoal and lightly rubbed it on the paper over the depression. This retty on tri movies and stuff but it seemed perfect for this. Once I was finished we could see the shape of the impression perfectly.

  "It's a ritual circle," Torien said while looking at the impression. "Not sure what kind though."

  "Water probably," I said fidently. I pointed out a squiggly line I've seen in a bunch of the circles. "This line here is usually used in water ritual magic."

  "How do we open it then?" Bel asked.

  I turo look at Torien.

  "Don't look at me. You should ask my sister, she would have a better idea about this kind of thing."

  The guard tried to peek at the paper over Torien's shoulder.

  "Here." I handed him the paper with the impression on it. "We found what looks like a secret door. I o go get my friend who's waiting outside."

  "Sure... May I take this? I'd like to show it to... um, Bertrand I guess."

  I nodded in uanding. "Sure, let's go up together."

  When I came back outside I saw that most of the corpses had been lined up again rather than just left in disanized piles. Even the bodies of the cultists deserved that much dignity. I thought about pg my s on their eyes... but no. This wasn't their funeral, their bodies would be moved and taken care of by someone else, this wasn't the time for that.

  Man perked up when she saw roup walk out of the door. "Find anything?"

  I smiled. "Actually, we need your help. We found something that is probably more your speed. A secret door with the imprint of a ritual circle outside of it."

  "Really? Sounds iing. May I see it?"

  I turned and looked over at the guard showirand the impression I had taken. "Sure, let's go over there."

  "A secret door?" I heard Bertrand ask the guard. "You're sure?"

  The guard shook his head. "Not really no, Lilith and her group spotted this in the room the hell hound came out of."

  Bertrand turo me wheiced us walk up to him. "Ah Lilith, what is it that you found?" He handed me the impression I made and I gave it tan.

  "Not sure," I replied. "It looks like there is a hidden door based on a footprint we saw halfway into the wall. Bel noticed it based on the flow of nature magic." I turo Bel who nodded in firmation.

  "I'll e with you." Bertrand gave some of the nearby men some orders before following us back down into the tunnels.

  Once we were back at the ritual circle carved into the wall I turan. "So, you figure out how to open it? Some of the markings make me think that it's a water ritual circle."

  She nodded. "Looks like it to me too. You probably know more about ritual magic than I do already but I dhis. It's a basic water lock. It's not typically used for anything important but non-water magic users 't open it easily, I could see how hiding a door with it could be effective though. Allow me, there's plenty of water mana in this room." She held out her hand and coalesced a fist-sized ball of water above it. "Water loeed water magic to fill the ritual circle and then activating it moves pins or bolts made out of water in the nearby area. The only real difficulty is that it take a det amount of mana trol to fill the circle properly before activating it."

  Man moved the floating ball of water close to the ritual circle before stretg it into a disd pressing it into the circle before pulling away any of the water that wasn't filling the cracks. She then pced her other hand oual circle and activated it which caused the rest of the water to disappear. Several hollow g sounds happened all at ond the wall opened inwards revealing the secret room.

  I summoned a small ball of light that I floated into the room which revealed a desk and two filing ets, the kind that were presumably filled with dots. There wasn't much else ihe room but if those dots gave away any clues to how we could find the rest of the cult of Amphores, then this find would be invaluable.

  "Woah, I've never seen an actual secret door before," Bertrand said. I turned and gave him a look. "What? It's the kind of thing you only hear about in stories, don't look at me like that."

  Torien stepped forward and examihe edges of the entrance as well as the floor and the ceiling. "Don't see any traps."

  "Nothing magi there either, not any more than out here anyway, should be safe," Man added.

  Bertrand shrugged and nodded his head toward the room. "Your find, be my guest."

  I stepped into the room and looked down at the desk. There was an oil ntern, quills, ink, and a few thiher-bound books. I opened one up and it appeared to be a ledger, I skimmed through the ohat was on top. It looked like it was a colle of shipping mas, rge lists of goods, where they were from, and where they were going. Logistical things that I didn't really have any reference for. I hahe mao Torien before pig up the ledger.

  This one was a little different. This looks like shipping routes but not the ohey were using. Names of roads or rivers were giveween each city on the list. There were several holes though, pces iionally left bnk because the route was unknown. Most of the pces I didn't reize but he bottom of one of the lists were Traehall and Goldeh. Traehall had a star o it and Goldeh had a dash.

  Torien closed the one I had hao her. "This book looks like a mert's ledger, most of it is supplies you would o navigate a trade route. I don't know too mu the subject but the lists themselves don't look odd, the amounts of supplies they are taking aren't crazy for a caravan. It doesn't look like they're trying to raise an army or anything of the sort."

  I nodded. "This one looks like trade routes of some kind, a petitor maybe? I'm not sure what any of this has to do with what we're looking for." I hahe sed ledger to Torien while I skimmed through some of the loose papers on the desk. They looked like they were descriptions of people but sometimes there were super specific details included like tail length, ear length, and neck circumference. Kinda creepy to be ho.

  "I think I know what this one is," Torien said with a sour look on her face. "The stars on each of these cities are where there is a branch of the sver's guild. These dashes are pces where there is no sve market but the city is unavoidable on that route. Capital, star, Goldeh, dash, Traehall, star."

  Bertrand took the ledger from Torien and skimmed it himself. "Why would this cult have a list of sver's guild locations then attack the only noble openly opposing svery?"

  "Could they be transp and selling sves themselves?" I asked.

  Bertrand's eyebrows furrowed. "Perhaps, I had thought that ossibility too but after seeing their prisoners earlier I find it unlikely. I've hunted down smugglers and traffickers before and the simple truth is that humans don't sell for as much as beastfolk, for a variety of reasons. That room was full of humans, if they were being held captive to sell to svers illegally they wouldn't primarily target humans. There were only three beastfolk ihree dozen prisohey were keeping. I find ritual sacrifice more likely, as grisly as the thought is. Usually, big demons like that hell hound e at a cost."

  "What do you make of these?" I asked while handing him the strange papers.

  He looked them over and shook his head. "I'm not sure either. They could be sve descriptions. Seems likely based on the weird measurements, I have no idea how they would fit in with these ledgers though. I'll have to take these ledgers and show Nathaniel. I'm sure they'll hold a clue to finding this cult. Best give them to someone who make better sense of it than we ."

  I nodded. "Of course. I hope Nathaniel will be able to keep us updated on it."

  "With as helpful as you've been I expect he wouldn't object to that. Anyway, I think I've given you all the time I in here. Now that this pce is secure it's time to send in our iigators, people with actual csses for this kind of stuff. There's no way that Nathaniel will have time to talk with you today... after losing Jasper. You're better off ing back to the castle tomorrow."

  It wasn't much but we did find some clues. Hopefully that will be enough. I followed Bertrand bato the street and headed toward the brothel. After the harrowing experiehis m I wao rex for the rest of the day.

  Saine

  Hello! Clues! I wonder what the cult's goals are? Lots of mysteries, I hope you're excited! Thanks again for reading as always and I'll see you ime!

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