<~> Chapter 200"What happe the library?" Man asked. "I fill Torien in ter. We should still discuss things... right?"

  I sighed and ran my fihrough my hair. "Right. The library. After the Head Librarian took me to her office she revealed that she was actually Sorsette. We talked at length about a number of topics but after everything she's shared with me I feel as though Sorsette is staunchly on my side."

  Different looks of i, disbelief, and surprise came over the room. Talis had a strange look on his face, brows furrowed and fused. Did he not actually know her true identity? Man looked a mixture of excited and surprised and Lorriene only looked puzzled.

  "This was never mentioned in any versions I've heard of the prophecy," Lorriene said. "We don't have a lot of details about what the sed war will look like but none of them suggested that Sorsette would side with Lilith."

  I nodded. "Sorsette told me that my as have already deviated from what many have anticipated already, including her own expectations. Most will still think I'm a demon for a while longer and from what she told me, that should make a lot of my as a lot harder to predi general, even from the ods." I decided to keep the simution aspeyself for now, I'm not sure how much of that would transte and I'd prefer not to get bogged down iails yet. "She believes that the war of the gods is iable and my as don't have any impa whether or not it happens, only how it happens. Her ultimate goal is to protect herself and as much sapient life as she , both through the sed war and after it."

  Lorriene rubbed her fad looked back up at me. "Okay then. Here's the most important question. What are you intending to do? At this point, I think that even the order of people who already worship you probably won't be able to predict this either."

  I nodded. "Yeah. I want to know more about them too. Initially, I had thought that the Order of Lilith wouldn't be any different from the Cult of Amphores but now that I know that Silva has been a member of them this eime I don't know what to think. Frankly, up until now, I haven't had any lofty ideas of what I would do. I only came here to learn cartography and deal with the fallout of destroying a dungeon. We only got ed up in all of this retly. I'm at a loss for what to do other than what I've been trying to do. Deal with the problems I have at the guild and find some clues about my past."

  "What about svery abolition?" Silva asked.

  I sighed. "I don't know. I do want to support it but I'm not sure what I do in particur. After seeing he the svery operation is in the capital, it will be difficult to do anything about it. roup has gottely strong since we started but I'm not strong enough to have much impact against such a rge anization."

  Lorrieapped the table slowly in thought. "Well, if you are ied iing involved with abolishing svery here in Torlimal, you could take trol of the Order. There will be some like me who will have trouble believing your cims but from what you have showonight I'm sure you would win most of them over in the end."

  "What does the Order of Lilith even do?" I asked.

  Silva cleared her throat. "Generally speaking we work to abolish svery and assassinate anyone who stands too trary to that goal. Where we , we work in the light, like supp Morrister and his family. Where we 't, we work in the dark, pig targets to disrupt the various forms of sve trade and murdering anyone especially disgusting. Aside from that, we collect outsiders, prostitutes, runaways, and anyone else who doesn't fit into society and try to help who we while recruiting those we think will be helpful tanization. This is done across the world, not just in this kingdom."

  I suspected that her use of the world was more like known world rather than all-enpassing after my talk with Sorsette.

  Lorriene spoke up after Silva finished. "We also fight with the Tamin church often, especially where they're left to their own devices. Truthfully, the way the Tamin church operates in this try is retively tame pared to some other pces. I'm not sure how things will shake out now that the king is dead but they're likely to try and fill the power vacuum that was left after his assassination." She g Cecilia for a moment before tinuing. "The elves of the Northern Green are likely to step in though, they're not the biggest fan of the Tamin church, to put it mildly."

  I cleared my throat. "How so? Treat me as if I don't know my history." Because I don't.

  Cecilia spoke up before Lorriene could tio keep things simple, the elves of the Northern Greens sided with the tribes of Zarcuda that formed a bined army in the war against the Kingdom of Torlimal. Fifteen years ago, the Tamin church cimed a missionary was killed iory that belongs to the Kronil . This likely did happen. The Kronil is a race of fierce beastfolk simir to pantharians but with e and white fur with bck stripes. They are incredibly territorial and are known for very specific rituals to be done before anyone eveer their nd. A Tamin missionary treading onto their nd unannounced without partaking in these rituals would be asking for a swift death. The elve houses firmed the Tamin church's words were likely true but bmed their ignorance for the transgression. However, the Kingdom of Torlimal had furnished guards to the missiroup and referred to a non-aggressioy that many of the border tribes had agreed to. Notably, the Kronil had not been included in this treaty. Regardless, the Kingdom of Torlimal still cimed that the tribes had broken their promise and dispatched a rge army with the Tamin church to attack. They fought this war over ten years and finished with a reaty around five years ago. The elves believe that this reteo take civilians and ehem to earn the Kingdom money which is why Selitraetilil, the Queen of the Northern Greens, sided with the tribes of Zarcuda and fought against the Kingdom of Torlimal in this war. The Tamin church also doesn't seem to like elves mu the first pce but they're not as dismissive or rude to elves as they are to beastfolk."

  "What happeo the sves?" I asked, trying to keep the heat out of my voice.

  Cecilia shook her head. "There are still many that had been taken in the war here in Torlimal but most of the ones being bought and sold now are sed-geion or young third-geion sves. For the record, this includes elves as well as beastfolk."

  Man took my hand, trying to quell my anger. I squeezed it gently and willed myself to calm down.

  Lorrie i, "The elves dislike most forms of svery, they only participate in criminal sves and some ritualistic stuff. The Order doesn't sider the Northern Greens to be a target so we don't operate there. Instead, we have some ties to a great house and use them to smuggle pantharians there whenever we e across them. That was what we were pnning on doing with those two we learned about in the Sver's guild."

  "Do you normally gh the Embassy?" Cecilia asked her.

  She shook her head. "No, we typically go he border a an elf who takes them the rest of the way."

  "What about us? Why didn't you take us to the elves?" Man asked.

  Lorriene frowned and suddenly defted. "I really tried. Things never lined up right. It was like any time I started the pns, something would crop up that would ruin them. After I was sold off, I worked as an assassin for a noble before Sophin mao trick the o sellio him. It was cathartic to kill him after he had been using me as a on for so long. Sophin had e to recruit me, I accepted with the dition that he would help me track dowwo of you. We had mao track you all the way to the frontier but we weren't able to e pick you up before you were sold to someone else." She spared a g me. "We were just lucky that you were sold to Lilith of all people."

  I sighed and cradled my fa my hands for a moment. When I sat back up everyone was looking at me with . "This brings up ahing I talked with Sorsette about... She was able to discover one of the three gods that were supp the Tamin church."

  Everyone's eyes went wide and I even heard a fes. Lorrieood up and smmed her fists oable. "You've waited until now t that up!?"

  I almost s her but I schooled my face before I shed out. Tensions were high, it's not worth the fight. Taking a deep breath I looked up at her. "Sorsette told me that she found one of the three because she's been maniputing things around me for a while."

  "Wait!" Talis stood up. "You ot speak of this out loud. The only way uttering this information out loud would be safe is if you were being isoted using divine magic. Gods know if you speak or write their name, Lilith telling us would only ihe god iion to listen in. If I'm not mistaken, no one here is a priest or padin?" He tinued when everyone shook their head, "The to yourself for now." He turo Lorriene. "Find a priest or padin from a god you trust if you want this information as badly as I think you do."

  Lorrie back down with a grumble, eyeing me. "Okay then, did Sorsette reveal which gods we bsp;trust?"

  I sighed. "I wish she would have warned me more explicitly about gods listening in. There are a few that have been ruled out but only ohat help us."

  "What does that mean?" Lorriene grumbled again.

  "Two of them don't have churches we could visit, and one is Sorsette herself, her priests apparently aren't able to power divine magic. That leaves Morkinnen as the only option."

  "That makes sense," Silva said, and everyone else nodded in agreement.

  Lorriene sighed and shook her head. "Setting that issue aside, there's also the issue of the Cult of Amphores. Silva kind of preempted their pns with the riots. Now that the King is dead the Tamin church is going to tury upside down trying to find them and they may retaliate. It was why I thought it was so important to leave the southern quarter."

  "How do you know about that?" Talis asked. "Are you w with them after all?"

  She scoffed in reply. "No way. Harming i people and putting sves in a position to get themselves killed is not what our Order does. And, despite our target of worship," she said eyeing Lilith, "we do not summon demons... Well, not ohat aren't Lilith anyway."

  My brows furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

  She shrugged. "There was this guy I knew who found a book he became obsessed with. A lesser hat had helped us a few times. He had been searg for a 'site of power' where he could summon Lilith. We thought the guy was crazy and figured he would get himself killed but summoning demons was taboo, even for us, a kicked out fgesting it. I haven't heard from him in a while so he's probably dead... one way or the other."

  "God damn it." I groaned and leaned ba my chair. "I was summoned by a guy who cut his arm too deep and ended up killing himself. I woke up naked and all alone so I took his clothes and his money."

  "You're not serious?" Silva asked. "You got summoned by Cliff?"

  "Mimi, I have my trunk please?"

  "Sure." Mimi dropped my truo my chair, I dug out the clothes I had retailored for myself and threw them oable.

  Lorriearted ughing. "No fu' way."

  "Well... At least I didn't get summoned by a rich virgin who just wao fuck me..." I said exasperated.

  Saine

  Hello! Chapter 200! This feels like a big milestoo me. I've always enjoyed writing but it's crazy to think about just how much writing I've done now. I've kept up a pretty solid pace since I started and I've happy with how the story's gone so far! It's been just over two years since I started posting and I've never skipped a chapter since! (I was te a couple times but I've sorted that out!) There's still a lot of stuff pnned for the future but I've hope you've ehe ride so far. I don't really feel like I have a lot to say about this chapter but there are a lot of tle lore tidbits tucked away. I hope you've enjoyed reading, lets see if I go for 200 more!

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