CHAPTER 35: DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR

Each member of the party had a different reaction: Elira covered her mouth to stifle a gasp, Cassian looked away and shook his head, Isara looked down in silence, while Calen simply sighed.

"Why are we sat like this then?" He asked. "We’re not going to interrogate the guy in critical condition, are we?"

"No, we won’t be doing that today, it will be a few weeks before he can answer any questions." Lydia confirmed.

"But we have the next best thing." Baor announced.

"...which is?"

"A civilian spy who worked for Trent! He might not know as much, but maybe he can at least give us some clues."

"How did you catch someone like that?"

Baor shrugged.

"He wasn’t a very good spy - in fact, he was absolutely awful at his job. The only reason we let him be is that it’s significantly easier to simply avoid a bad stalker, than to out him and deal with a potentially better one."

Cassian furrowed his brow.

"So you knew Trent was spying on you this whole time?"

Lydia shook her head.

"We didn’t know it was Trent before, we just noticed that sone weirdo was following us around. The identity of the spy was confirmed when we found a written report from him in Trent’s quarters."

Baor clapped once to get everyone’s attention.

"Are we all ready? I’m going to tell the guards to bring him in."

A few seconds later two armed druids came inside, dragging a very thin and small man.

His features were entirely unremarkable, rat-like face, thinning dirty blond hair, and grayish blue eyes. The man could barely stand because of how scared he was.

When he saw Vinifer he fell down to his knees and started begging:

"Your lordship, this must be a mistake - please find it in your heart to..."

Vinifer interrupted him.

"I am no longer the Archdruid, you should address Lady Lydia if you want to plead."

The man slowly turned to look at the new Archdruid.

"Please, forgive my transgressions kind Lady, I am merely a beggar, brought here by a unfortunate twist of fate."

Lydia scoffed.

"Yeah, no one here is buying your bullshit - if you don’t want to get arrested for collaborating in a terrorist attack, you better answer all of our questions to the best of your ability. What’s your name?"

"My Lady..."

"Your. Name."

The spy swallowed loudly.

"C... Conto, my Lady."

Lydia gave a fake smile.

"See? Wasn’t that hard. What was Trent planning to do after the sacrifice?"

"I don’t..."

"I advise you to reconsider your response while you still have time.*

Conto sighed.

"After the ritual was completed Elder Trent would gather the people he spared, and travel to the sage’s summit."

Lydia was confused.

"Why would he seek help from the Enlightened? Logic dictates that they would execute him for his crimes."

The spy nodded.

"That’s true - under normal circumstances. Elder Trent wasn’t particularly open about the matter, bit from what I understood he had several allies high up the chain of command. They would grant him sanctuary until it was time for the next part of his plan."

"The next part?"

"You wee my Lady, Elder Trent wasn’t satisfied with just power, he wanted authority. He was planning on subduing every human faction in existence using the might granted to him by the ritual. The Order, the Dusk Riders, even The Fallen Tower - he wanted all of them to bow to him."

Baor snorted.

"He was even dumber than I thought then, the power he would have gotten from that sacrifice wouldn’t have been nowhere near what he would need to take on the Order - let alone the Tower."

Lydia ignored him and asked another question:

"Did he order his disciples to commit suicide if his plans are exposed?"

Conto looked surprised.

"I’m sorry my Lady, but I’m not aware of anything like that." He considered something for a moment. "I did hear his helpers mumble something about rebirth though, maybe that has something to do with it?"

Lydia nodded, and took out the tiny key.

"Last question, do you know what this opens?"

"No..." Recognition lit up his eyes."Wait I do know that key! It’s the one for the sacred chamber beneath the inner sanctum, no?"

The three Elders exchanged meaningful looks.

"Thank you for your cooperation, you’re free for now." Vinifer signaled for the guard to come closer. "Show him to the exit."

The guard bowed and escorted the former spy. When they were out of earshot, Vinifer called the second guard.

"Put Sia on him, we need to know if he’s still in contact with the Enlightened."

The guard nodded and also exited the chamber.

"You think he’s in cahoots with the summit?" Lydia asked.

Vinifer shook his head.

"It’s highly unlikely, but it won’t hurt to double check."

Calen coughed to get everyone’s attention.

"Excuse me, but would someone explain what the hell you were talking about? The only thing I got out of this is that there’s some sort of a secret chamber in the inner sanctum."

Lydia looked at him apologetically.

"Right, I forget you’re not familiar with the political structure of the current world. Most of the names Conto mentioned are human factions scattered around the Sun Kingdom."

Baor leaned in the chair and added:

"Most of them aren’t very important in your current situation - the only one you might encounter in near future is the Order, but even then the chances are rather slim."

"Why?" Calen inquired.

"They had a... change of leadership recently, and they’re still figuring things out, so they rarely venture outside their keep in the recent times." The large druid stretched. "You might meet their ambassador in Mountainfall, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to explain what they’re all about."

"Noted. What about that rebirth thing Conto mentioned?"

"A phoney ritual supposed to bring someone back to life, in exchange for three souls." Vinifer said.

"Well, the purpose is fake, the ritual is real." Lydia clarified.

"What does it do then?" Calen asked.

"It’s a summoning ritual - probably for a demon, or another hellbeast."

Isara rolled her eyes at that.

"With this volume and quality of souls the best they could do is a lesser imp - a toddler could kill it."

Lydia shook her head.

"Maybe so, but I would rather avoid dealing with demons at all, if possible."

"What about that secret chamber, are we going to check it?" Elira asked.

"I am curious as well, I was in charge of this place for almost a century, but I has no idea something like this existed." Vinifer admitted.

Baor stood up.

"Well, let’s go there now, no time like the present, ey?"

***

The group of seven was standing in front of the shrine in the inner sanctum.

Calen didn’t get the chance to admire the altar before, but he had to admit it was quite impressive.

The middle of the shrine was taken by a large bronze basin, filled with the holy oil. Unlike the altars he activated there were no flames - in their place a golden flower grew.

Even though the plant looked like a sculpture, it was in fact a living organism - the bloom was actually a representation of the great tree’s lifeforce. Supposedly when the tree was at its peak the flower reached to the ceiling of the hollow, and took up most of the space in the inner sanctum.

His musings were interrupted by Lydia’s voice:

"We should look for a keyhole"

Calen focused at the task at hand.

’If I had to hide an entrance to a secret chamber, where would I put it?"

His friends were tapping on walls, and tracing the lines in the wood in search of an opening, but he got a different idea.

He crouched above the altar, and carefully as to not disturb the plant, he wiggled his fingers between the roots to touch the bottom of the basin.

Sure enough, there was a small hole there.

"I found it!" Calen announced.

"So quickly?" Lydia asked surprised, but she handed him the key.

After some fumbling around in the holy oil, Calen managed to insert the key and twist it.

Right at that moment, the altar started slowly moving backwards, revealing a spiral staircase leading into the darkness.

"That’s worryingly deep." Lydia commented.

"It wouldn’t be a very good secret chamber if it wasn’t well hidden." Baor quipped.

"Should we send Cal first to light up the way?" Isara asked.

Vinifer rubbed his chin.

"There should be some kind of lighting system, since technically it’s forbidden to bring fire into the inner sanctum."

Everyone’s gaze travelled to the lamp at Calen’s belt, and Vinifer quickly added.

"What I meant was that Trent wouldn’t have used a regular lamp, so there has to be an alternate light source he would have employed instead."

"Maybe he could just see in the dark?" Elira suggested.

Baor shook his head.

"Even I wouldn’t be able to see shit in complete darkness, I’m positive he had a lamp or something similar."

Calen sighed and lifted up the lantern.

"You can try to find it later on, for now let’s just go inside."