<~> Chapter 220"I'm not sure whely it's happening and I haven't firmed with Feyria Wihorn that we're on board yet, but I've pretty much decided that I'm participating," I told Sophin. "The cult of Amphores is going to use magic to disrupt the sve colrs iy and take the opportunity to recruit new members for themselves. It seems like their pn is to start a riot and trigger a sve rebellion while the sve colrs aren't funing. Feyria told me that she had something that would allow us to remove the sve colrs a people escape or escate the sve rebellion while we leave after the ball starts rolling."

  "That's a dangerous pn, you will be directly involved?" Sophin asked.

  "Yes, she was asking us to be the oo go in and remove as many sve colrs as possible to escate the riot. I was hesitant to help after what I saw in Goldeh, but Feyria told me that she doesn't care if I get in the way of the cult as long as I free sves and hurt the sver's guild. We don't know if there is anything else to the cult's pn, but after seeing the aftermath of them dropping demht into the middle of Goldeh, I 't imagi would be anything good. In a way, our involvement might give us the ability to mitigate whatever they're doing, even if it is just uting their recruitment efforts."

  Sophin leaned bad looked lost in thought. "I agree that this doesn't seem like the full picture. They already raid sve caravans regurly, I doubt that recruitment is their goal here. It would be a rather messy way of doing things without much be."

  "There's also the problem of the Tamin church," I added. "Sihey are in lockstep with the city guard, we think they may use this uping riot as an excuse to entrench their power."

  Sophin nodded. "That is likely. If the city guard and the Tamin church reveal that the king has been murdered and they use that to go into martial w in bination with the riot, they could solidate trol of the city uhe church. It would lead to more riots in the capital and elsewhere down the road but the Tamin church would be happy to deal with those sequences if they take trol of this try's seat of power."

  I scratched the base of my horn. "So I was hoping you would have a solution for the Tamin church problem here in the capital. From what Silva's told me about the Order of Lilith, you guys often oppose the Tamin church directly."

  Sophin sighed. "That's a rge ask. We mostly only have assassins in this try, we don't really have an army to throw at them. Still, the Tamin church taking trol of this try is almost a worst case sario for us. If we only have a matter of days it will be a challeo gather the people I do have in the area."

  "What about you? Couldn't you step in and help?" Lorriene asked.

  Sophin looked over at Lorriene and tapped the table with his fingers in thought. "It would be a pretty rge escation and may draw some stronger people that way... but it may be a good idea for me to get personally involved this time. It will be easier to stop them from taking trol now, rather than to wrestle the city from their hands ter." He sighed. "I suppose it 't be helped. I'll get everyone I out here and cut through the ranks of the Tamin church myself during the riot. The cult of Amphores has been pushing for a bloody solutioer to do it now while it will mostly be the Tamin churd cultists we're killing."

  "What happens after that?" Bel asked. "If you kill the people in trol of the city, and there is no king, who will take the city then?"

  "What about the elves?" Silva asked. "They have an embassy here and they were already talking about installing the Marquis. If all the city's leadership evaporates there wouldn't be ahat could stop them if they mobilize an army to take trol of the city."

  "Wouldn't that be seen as an act of war?" Torien asked.

  Sophin shrugged. "Maybe not if they relinquished trol to the Marquis afterward. They could argue that all the leadership died and they did what they had to to protect their embassy and stop the city from falling to banditry. While the Tamin church is popur among some circles in this try, they are still unpopur enough that most people would accept the elves being in trol over the Tamin church."

  "So do we o do anything differently wheorm the Sver's guild?" I asked.

  "Likely not," Sophin replied. "I would avoid engaging with the Tamin church at all. You interrogate or kill the Amphores cultists as you see fit, but it would be ideal if you left as many of the city guard alive as possible should you e into tact with them."

  "Why should we worry about that? Aren't they w with the Tamin church?" Torien asked.

  "I see it as more of a marriage of veniehan anything else," Sophin replied. "They are w closely with the Tamin church right now, but I think few of the guards are as ideological as the church is. They're mainly relying on the church because they have no other recourse. If we make room for the elves to take over I'm sure the city guard won't be able to do much to stop them. It's better not to murder the locals if we want the city to survive all of this and e out stable in the end though."

  I leaned ba my chair. "In that case, we'll tihe pn to feign leaving town, sneak ba, and join Wihorn in freeing and resg as many sves as possible. How likely is it for civilians to get caught up in the crossfire?"

  Sophin turo Lorriene and she sighed before responding, "Pretty likely I would guess. Since most of the sves will be beastfolk, i humans would be most at risk. I'm sure a majority of the sves will be more focused on esg or g with the guards and the church, but some will likely rob people or attas as a form of revenge. Some colteral damage is unavoidable."

  I frowned, not really happy with that answer.

  "The cult of Amphores is going to do this whether we're involved or not," Man reminded us. "Most of this will be on them, not us. All we're going to try and do will be freeing people aing in the cult's way where we , right?"

  I nodded. "That's the idea but I still worry about letting bad people loose."

  "Well, we could look at their Karma and just not free anyone who looks especially bad?" Bel said.

  "That might help, but it's unreliable," I responded.

  Sophin grinned. "I am ied in your racial abilities. What else you tell me about this karma?" he asked.

  I shook my head. "I don't feel like expining iail right now. It gives me a sense of how cruel a person is at a g's unreliable because bad behavior be offset and they end up ral on bance."

  "Very well, I'll have to accept that for now. When all of this is taken care of I would be ied iing to know you better though. In a more rexed situation of course," Sophin told me.

  I nodded. "There are a lot of questions I'd like to ask regarding the Order of Lilith as well, but I don't think we really have the time for that now."

  "Unfortunately not. If this is happening within the few days then I his time to prepare. I unfortunately don't have a great solution for who you choose to free, all I say is to use your best judgment and urge them not to harm civilians when you release them. If there's nothing else, I suppose we call this meeting to a close."

  "I'll talk with Wihorn and tell her that we'll help with her pns," I said.

  "Excellent. Send Silva or Lorrieo me when you get a better idea of when this is happening. If I know the day ahead of time I'll know where to focus my attention." Sophin stood up. "It was nice meeting you, Lilith. Perhaps we catch up in Goldeh and have a longer discussion about the Order and yourself."

  The rest of us began to stand up and I o him. "I look forward to it."

  He gave a short bow. "Grand. You see yourselves out, I will get started right away."

  Silva led us out of the non-descript house aarted making our way back across the city. It was a little more difficult getting back through the checkpoints to leave the southern quarter but having demon hunters in roup helped a lot. The Tamin church didly fall over themselves to help us through, but they didn't make things harder for us the way they did for many others.

  We didn't talk as we walked through the city, but I could tell there was tension in the group. When we walked through the doors to the guest house within the elven embassy, I could tell everyone was dying to start the versation. Cecilia was already there waiting for us to return.

  "So, what did you think of Sophin?" Silva asked as she took a seat.

  "I'm not sure," I said while shaking my head. "He's really strong, probably the stro person I've met so far. He had a lot of charm, but I could tell he wasn't using Charisma, or if he was, it was too high for me to tell and I doubt that. I'm not sure how much I should trust him, but at the very least I believe that he is willing to fight against the Tamin church."

  Silva sighed. "He is the type that doesn't give you much to go off of. For what it's worth, I have only good things to say about him. He's... odd, but he gets things doh as little 'colteral damage' as possible usually. It's why he favors assassination to more open attacks."

  "He's always dht by me," Lorriene added. "Never asked me to kill someone I didn't think deserved it."

  There was a momentary pause while her words sunk in. I sensed a bit of unease from the twins, they don't seem to have seen this side of her before and she wasn't hiding it as much as she did whe.

  "This should be a huge blow to the Sver's guild. They might not be able to recover from this," Cecilia said. "They have other locations and other caravans ing and going, but this was always a tral hub for the sver's guild in this try. If a majority of the sves are freed and a det amount of the files are destroyed, this could end their presen this try."

  "That's the idea," Lorriene said. "Holy, stumbling into this plot aing to intervene personally is a stroke of good lu my opinion."

  I frow her words. Am I being maniputed again? Opportunities like this keep appearing in front of me, set up in such a way that I 't ighem. But if Fortuna is a member of the Tamin church's patron gods, why would she lead me to something that would presumably harm her goals? At every turn, I'm finding that my enemies' motives don't make sense. Or rather, I have such a small grasp of what they actually want that I 't predict them. Maybe I'm just being paranoid and all of it is ce. It's just hard not to think about it whenever someone brings up luck. Especially when she doesn't know what I do.

  "By the way," I said turning to Cecilia. "I found us a good cover story. That smith that I delivered something to, Tenna, requested for us to escort her and her appreo Traehall. That's why I asked for your help getting permission for her to stay here too. She's willing to go along with our pns and wait for the riot to start, as long as we keep her out of it while it's happening. We already registered the quest at the guild when Raya and Sibyl signed up as adventurers."

  Cecilia tapped her fingers oable. "That is a good cover story si lines up with ere here in the first pce. Ohing I'm worried about is that the guards will wonder why a demon hunter is leaving tht before they're attacked by the demon cult the Tamin church is chasing."

  I sighed. "That's unavoidable. I've taken care of everything else and I'm even marked down as a journeyman cartographer now. All that's left is to talk with Wihain and tell her we'll participate."

  "Journeyman? Didn't you skip a couple of ranks?" Silva asked.

  "Yeah, I'll fill you in about that ter. I think it's time to tact Feyria Wihorn and talk to her about the pn."

  Saine

  Hello! Things are set in motion for the riot and Sophin is getting involved directly. There's still a few days before the riot is set to start and everyoill o do some st minute prep before we're ready to go. I hope you enjoyed reading!

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