<~> Chapter 192"O thing before we finish up here," I said to Sorsette. "I was curious if it ossible to recover my memories. Theo had mentiohat it may be more difficult than I was hoping for but I want your opinion directly."

  Sorsette frowned. "I'm afraid I ot help you with that either and while Theo's specution wasirely correone of us here have the power to return your memories. The only way you could recover the memories of your st life would be by ving Velehe goddess of life and reination to returo you. Your case is a little abnormal. For the most part, she leaves the memories of world travelers intact so that they are better able to spread their ideas. Perhaps she sought to limit yrowth since she, like I, had feared you to be a camity rather than the positive influence I believe you are shaping up to be. She was forced t you over to satisfy her responsibility to give a soul to the first succubus being summoo this world, this may have been her way of protesting."

  "Does she get to choose the soul she brings over? Did she pick me specifically to mess up the prophecies because of how I view succubi?"

  Sorsette smiled and gave me a shrug. "All good questions that I unfortunately ot ao my great dismay, knowledge of the gods and how exactly their domains and powers work is not included in my own domain. It's very unfair."

  Suddenly she stood and waved the tea and water in front of us out of existence. "Our time is up. I no longer have the power to sequester the two of us in here without drawing too much attention. Not all of the gods are aware of who exactly you are, the only reason I do is because I could trace your status messages through the system back to you, a perk of being in trol of the status system. If we spend any longer here I won't be able to hide you from them. If you're truly ied in your memories I suggest you try and tact Velenthel's church, she may be willing to help you but I ot rule her out of being involved with the Tamin Church just yet."

  It felt as if the world shuddered around me and suddenly I was sitting in the same office but the woman in front of me was once again the pin human woman with dark hair I had entered with. "Please keep our versation a secret except to your closest fidants. As head librarian, I will do my best to give you what information I . Thank you for having this little chat with me, Lilith."

  I frowhe sudden shift in demeanor, power, and subject threw me off. I stood up and cleared my throat. "It was good to get to meet you. I hope we tio help each other reautual goals."

  She beamed at me with a smile that touched her eyes. "I was truly gd to meet you as well. I hope this talk ted a long friendship betweewo of us. Here, let me lead you back to your friends and I'll see what I do to learn about the situation outside. Oh, and while I am ag as the head librarian you may call me Sophia or tio call me Head Librarian like many of the other followers here."

  Walking past me she opehe door a me back to the main hall of the library. Bel and Torien perked up when she saw me walking over but Man redictably nose-deep into a book with a healthy stack right o her. Mimi and Silva were also looking at books to my surprise, Mimi's looked to be made to help children learn to read and Silva was holding a book on obscure magic types.

  "Lilith, you're back," Bel said with a gentle smile. She g 'Sophia.' "Have you two fialking?"

  Sophia smiled and answered for us, "It was very enlightening for both of us. I am always happy to meet and talk to those that have been noticed by the Goddess."

  A young but bookish human man walked over troup. "Head Librarian. I found the book you requested and was also told to inform you that the situation has stabilized outside. Talis says that it would once again be safe to open the library to visitors."

  He hahe book to Sophia who trailed her fingers along the cover. "Excellent, will you do me a favor and take this book to Seagrim? I'd like him to make a full copy of this book for me immediately. Please return here with the copy, I wish to give it to Lilith here as a gift of friendship." She noticed the book in Mimi's hands. "And a quick copy of that ooo," she said pointing to it.

  The man gaped a little and looked over roup before taking the book back. "I- yes of course Head Librarian." With some prodding Mimi hahe book to him and the man ran off.

  Sophia turned back troup. "If you would be kind enough to wait a moment longer, I o talk with my head guard a some of the information you requested. Please accept the books as a token of our friendship. I hope you will do great things with it."

  "Thank you... Sophia," I replied to her.

  She smiled and gave me a nod. "You're always wele here, please do not be a stranger." She gave a knowing look tan. "I'm sure your friends would enjoy the time to pursue knowledge whehere is time avaible." She turned and started walking toward the entrance.

  Man smiled up at me. "Good job making friends with the head librarian! Everyone was really nice here, despite our status. It was almost as if they were eager t me any book I was ied in." She g the tower of books o her. "Unfortuhey don't usually allow books to be taken from the library but ay to have some excerpts copied by the scribes. The uh, book she's bringing you a copy of as a gift is probably really expensive if the rates scale the way I think they do..."

  Torien ughed. "Though Man ractically gushing about how would be to get copies of up to sixty pages a month betweehree of you members. One hundred if you vince Raya and Sibyl to doheir pages to you too."

  Bel frowned. "I don't think they would look too kindly if we suddenly asked to pool all of our monthly pages to the same book... It would probably look like we would be taking advantage of the system..."

  "I don't mind it," Sophia said as she walked back up to our table. "Though you should keep your voices down in the library. Those pages are for members and if members wish to pool their pages into a siome there is nothing wrong with that. Just keep in mind that the more pages you request at ohe lo will usually take."

  "Head Librarian, I have the books you requested," The young man cut in.

  She took them from him and hahem tan, who took them without aanbsp;"Usually. Fortunately for me, one of my subordinates has some iing magiaking quick copies of books, though it is not a service we provide to others. For now though, please e with me. We've made tact with the city guard and it appears the guard captain is still ied iing you today, though they told me to limit you to only one panion."

  Silva set her book down. "If we're splitting up Bel won't be able to e with you, she o stay with your other sves to be safe. You should probably take Torien with you."

  Frowning, I thought back to the versation I had overheard. I didn't pletely trust Silva now. She seemed to be ected to the twins' aunt somehow, more than just previously being in a retionship with her. Maybe it would be better to keep her close to me so I keep an eye on her. It might also give me a ce to talk with her alone about that versation.

  I shook my head. "No, I think I want you to e with me, Silva. Everyone else go back to the inn together." Silva looked surprised but didn't argue with me.

  Sophia nodded. "Great. Lilith and Silva, please follow me. It was o briefly meet the rest of you. Hopefully, there will be time iure to get to know the rest of you better."

  I gave my friends a wave as they prepared to leave for the inn and the two of us followed the head librarian to an offiear the entrance. I stared at the bookshelves as we passed by, I had hoped to do some research while I was here but it didn't seem like I would get the ce. In the room we were led to was a man that I had first seen when we came to the library, he was dressed in robed armor like the uards that protected the tower from the riot. His helmet was set aside on the desk, showing a fairly handsome dark-haired human man.

  "Lilith, Silva, meet Talis, the head of the library guards. He made tact with the city guard and heard that they still wish to speak with you today about matters reted to demons." She turned back to Talis. "Please, tell them what you learned about the sve colr suppression."

  The tall human g Silva's colr but tinued anyway. "We've firmed through some of our back els that there has been a cult of demon worshipers that have been talking about ending svery in the capital through a violent rebellion he cult of Amphores. To that end, the cult has found some way to suppress the way sve colrs work by removing their ability to interpret direct orders. This is some form of wide-range magical effect that they are trying to time with instigated violehe riots today seemed unected and uncoordinated and didn't affect the ey. Either it was a failed attempt or a test run for a rger attack, either seems pusible."

  Here they are again, the Cult of Amphores. Why did they attack Baron Morrister if they are trying to end svery? Shouldn't they be aligned? I don't uand their motives.

  "Did anything majet destroyed?" Silva asked.

  "No. The riots were all over petty stuff, though a number of sves killed their owners while the colrs were suppressed. There is a lot of strain on the guards right now as they try to work out how to hahe situation. There's no indication of which colrs were affected so they've scooped up anyone wearing colrs that were involved for questioning. We haven't heard back from our tacts iy guard if they have any information on the affected sves. The reason Sir h, the captain of the guard, wishes to speak with you directly is because you've apparently dealt with the cult before in Goldeh. You have the most information on them out of all of the demon hunters here iy right now outside of the Tamin church. Sir h asked me t you to him himself because he wants as few people as possible to know of your involvement. The only ones who know of this are him and his personal team as well as the four of us."

  "Isn't that odd?" I asked. "Why are we bei secret, especially if the Tamin church has information ooo?"

  Talis shook his head. "I'm not sure, it is odd but perhaps he suspects the cult has infiltrated the city guard. You'll have to ask him that yourself."

  I sighed. "Well, I promised to see him anyway. It's probably best to just get it over with." I gnced over at Silva. "Do you think it will be an issue if Silva es with? She's wearing a crime sve colr."

  Talis looked over at her. "Have you issued her any orders?"

  Silva shook her head. "Only to keep her secrets and not to harm others. I serve her out of my own will. I don't really have much choice, but I'm happy with my master."

  Talis shrugged. "It should be fihen. I'll vouch for her." He gave me a knowing look. "If the Goddess puts this much faith in you then who am I tue with who you keep at your side? We should get going though. The riot outside is over and Sir h is not known for his patience. He's likely already irritated you missed the inal appoi with him even if you did have a reasonable excuse to be absent."

  I sighed. "Alright. Let's just get this over with. Why does this crap have to follow me everywhere I go? I just came here to get cartography training."

  Sophia grino ear. "Perhaps it's just bad luck."

  Saine

  Hello! That Sorsette is such a kidder. Lots of fun stuff in this chapter but it's more of a transition into the few. Pretty exg stuff ing up though! I hope you enjoyed reading!

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