<~> Chapter 134The rge man sat in the er of a cell with two partially mummified corpses wearing bck brigandine pushed against the bars. The man seemed to be a bull demi-beastfolk, though most of his features skewed to the human side. If it wasn't for his notched cow ears and bck-furred forearms he would have looked entirely human. Albeit, a huge muscur one. He had bck medium-length hair and a beard, though it was roughly grown out, probably a sequence of being stu a cell rather than an iional grooming choice. He was nearly naked, wearing only tattered shorts that exposed his broad chest and muscur limbs.

  At a g was easy to tell what had happened here but not why he was here. He was trapped in a cell where two of the cultists had fought with him and lost. Based on the broken furniture, the fighting had started outside the cell and at some point, the cell had gotten locked with all of them in it. The key was lying on the flainst the wall uhe retly relit torext to the rotting corpses ile of empty jars and leaves where he had discarded the empty ration tainers he had taken from them. Thankfully there was a covered trine in one er so we didn't o deal with that smell too.

  When I g his karma it was retively low, though not unreasonably so. His karma was higher than the svers ba Traehall but that didn't mean much. It was in the window that made it hard to dis how much he could be trusted based on karma alo ositive but as always it wasn't very clear if that was because he didn't do many things that gave him positive karma or a mix of things that cut into any positive karma he would have had. People who didn't often engage in fighting at all, like shopkeepers and craftspeople teo fall in the same window as him. At least from what I've been able to observe so far.

  He turo me when I walked up to the cell. "So, another one has e to ask me your incessant questions. Just let me out of here, I've been here so long I've lost track."

  I looked him up and down. "No demon miasma ing from him, it seems these dungeons haven't had any tact with the demons. Any of the taint that could have been on those corpses has faded too."

  The bull-man cocked an eyebrow at me. "Demon hunters? Akin ones as well? That's unusual. Now that you know I'm not a demon, are you going to let me out of here?"

  "That depends," I said. "Would you be willing to answer a few questions in a [Zone of truth]?"

  His eyebrows kogether. "[A Zone of Truth]? Are one of you a priest of some kind as well?"

  "A follower of Sorsette," I replied.

  Surprise crossed his face. "One of you is a follower too? Very well, I'll agree to that. But only if I speak to the follower of Sorsette alone."

  Did he just suggest what I think he did?

  I nodded. "That would be me." I turo Jasper. "Would that be alright with you? To be ho, I'm not sure what questions should be asked here."

  Jasper shifted his weight. "Well, I suppose my main is that he isn't a criminal or affiliated with the group that stormed the castle. That and why he is locked up here. We've scoured the nearby area for records but we haven't found anything that would suggest they were holding any demi-humans in the dungeons at the moment. Even if he is only in there because of a struggle, as it appears, that doesn't expin what he was doing down here in the first pd he's refused to talk to anyone else so far.

  "Give me a mio talk to him alohen, I'll cast [Zone of Truth] and ask him."

  Jasper cocked his head. "You cast a [Zone of Truth] here? Right now?"

  "Yeah, I cast it myself. I just got it retly though, this will be my first time actually using it on someone else."

  The guard captain scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Fine, you've shown yourself trustworthy so far and I frankly wouldn't know what to do with him otherwise. He hasn't been nearly this cooperative with anyone else. I want to be here when you cast the spell though, I would at least like to verify its effect."

  I nodded. "Fair enough."

  I took a deep breath and started to form the spell. It felt simir to [Zone of Silenbsp;but my [Are Variant Zone of Truth] took a lot more mana by parison. It's good that my mana had recovered from the earlier fights because this was going to nearly me out again.

  I released my breath as the zone slowly formed around us. This spell took more tration than all the other spells I've used so far and I got the feeling I was only barely qualified to cast it at all. Ohe spell took hold and was stable, it was trivial to maintain but I would be rooted in this spot for its duration. A reasorade-off, it wasn't like I would want to use this spell in bat anyway.

  "My name is Lilith and I am a follower of Sorsette." A reassuring pulse flowed through me, firming my words to everyoanding in the field.

  Jasper nodded. "That will do. Don't drag it out too much, we're almost finished with our search. I'd like to return to the gatehouse before nightfall."

  Bel gave a hesitant wave. "We'll wait outside. Be careful Lilith." Man gave me a ed look before following the group out after Bel.

  "This shouldn't take long." I turned my attention back to the rge man as everyone shuffled out of earshot, leaving the two of us aloogether.

  The bull demi stood up and leaned against the wall behind him. He was tall, a good two feet taller than I am. He cracked his neck. "My name is Theo, I am also a follower of Sorsette." The zone pulsed truth in respoo his statement.

  I crossed my arms. "So then, I suppose I'll go down the list from the top. First question, are you a criminal?"

  He smiled and shrugged. "Not currently as far as I'm aware, though perhaps walking on castle grounds could be sidered a crime. So, what does that make me?"

  The [Zone of Truth] didn't pulse, the answer was so evasive that there was nothing for the effect to tto one way or the other.

  I narrowed my eyes. "Let me rephrase that, are you currently wanted for a crime to your knowledge?"

  He smirked. "A much better question. No, not to my knowledge." The spell pulsed positively this time.

  He looked around, clearly able to see the spell struct around us. "Very iing, an are variant of [Zone of Truth]? How does one e across such a spell?"

  I sighed, looks like we're going to be doing a little bit of quid pro quo. "I received this as a boon when Sorsette designated me her follower."

  When the pulse was triggered his eyes widened and his snarky attitude faded in an instant. "Bullshit" He pinched his nose, "You've received diretervention from Sorsette?"

  I shook my head, "My turn." I poi the partially mummified corpses at the foot of his cell. "Are you affiliated with the cultists in bck brigandine armor?"

  He looked down at them. "Is that who these people are? I was snooping around a bit when I came across them and they accosted me. I've never met these men before that." Truth pulsed with his answer but it raised a few questions.

  He was quick to speak again, not letting me ask another questio. "I ask again, you've received diretervention from Sorsette?"

  I shifted my weight. "Yes, though I hadn't inteo bee her follower. I swore on her name a few too many times and she granted me her blessing. I became her follower automatically."

  He nodded even before the pulse came. "That happen one prerequisites are met, you must have received her notice before that, created some new spell, or innovated on some iion. That's more on, but to receive a boon, especially oed to what you're doing at that moment, that's rare."

  "I wouldn't know," I replied with a shrug. Our versation was moving so fast that the waves of energy crashed into each other like water and created ripples, f us to wait for them to rex before we could tinue.

  I spoke again ohe ripples were gone. "You said you were 'snooping around' in your previous answer, why did you ehe castle?"

  His smirk returned. "I was looking for something to read." The zone pulsed true again. The wave of energy firming his words irritated me even more than his answer had.

  He saw the look on my fad sighed. "Fine, but you o be more careful with your w. I could deceive you in sneakier ways if I truly wao. I was looking for a specifibsp;book, I had reason to believe that it had made its way here. Walking into a horde of soldiers was hardly my iion, I had only prepared to evade a few guards, not aire army. A bit of bad lud I'm trapped here in this cell with wards blog the few bits of magic I had prepared."

  His answer pulsed true and I nodded. "You were here to steal a book?" I asked.

  "Not steal, return. But it's my turn now, sider that a freebie. What is that mark you have on your arm?"

  I looked down at my arm, not uanding his meaning.

  "e now, you're using magic to hide it as we speak. That's a very ark, one I haven't seen before. Though it looks suspiciously simir to ohat would get you in lots of trouble with the wrong people." As if to punctuate his point, the [Zone of Truth] pulsed true.

  Ah I remember now, not something I would usually talk about but since he knew about it already... "It's a blessing of ge, I got it from a run-in with a different god, who marked me."

  He tapped his lip as the zone pulsed truth. "You should cover a rger portion of your arm rather than fitting yic to the mark, makes it harder to see what you're hiding." He paused, "A follower of one god and blessed by another. You are truly iing Lilith. Are you a demon?"

  The question caught me off guard, it felt like that came out of nowhere. This versation was being more stressful by the moment. Which of us was being interrogated? "No. I am not a demon."

  He nodded. "Hm, a short answer. Without any piher, you must get the question a lot. Perhaps it's because of that shapeshifting ability you're cealing your mark with, or perhaps it's more than that... Did you used to be a demon?" He was studying my face closely, looking for tells that I robably giving away like an open book.

  I o finish this up. I ignored his question for all the good it did me. "Do you io hurt anyone or it any crimes here iy?"

  "Ba track are we? No, I don't intend to do anything. If something happehat flicted with my goals, I could be ined to it a crime or two. You see that? It would have been easy to circumvent your [Zone of Truth] without you knowing had I only answered with no. You o be more careful, your skill with the spell is limited. You o be careful with the words you choose, the way you're using it speaks to your inexperienot ued really but you should be careful about who you inform about your inexperience. Was it really necessary to tell the guard captain right in front of me that you had never actually cast the spell before?"

  Rather than snark his words had softeo lecturing, not that it pissed me off any less.

  I sighed. "Why are you telling me all of this? What's yame? Aren't you afraid that if you piss me off too much I might tell Guard Captain Jasper that you 't be trusted?"

  He ughed. "No, I'm sure you'll let me out at this rate. I'm getting under your skin a bit, I tell, but in the end I know you'll let me out."

  "What makes you so fident?" I asked.

  "Because we're allies and I bet you're the reason I've e here." He paused to let his statement pulse true. "You see, I too had a diviervention. A rather odd oo be ho. I work in the capital at the Great Library of Sorsette as a librarian. In our list of books that have gone missing, I came across the name of a demon-summoning book. The book is sidered retively benign, for all of its sexy and dangerous appeal, the book was a fake. At least, that's how it was categorized. Imagine my surprise when I got a system message saying that 'Sorsette has given me a divine quest of great importance.' Go find aurn a missing library book."

  To my incredulity the [Zone of Truth] pulsed an affirmative to his words.

  Saine

  Hello! New character! I wonder what kinds of trouble we're gonna run into with this guy? I'll be ho, this entire character was initially thought up because I thought it would be funny if someone's divine quest was something that sounded so mundane.

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