CHAPTER 83: INFORMATION EXCHANGE

By the end of the day, Caleb needed only one or two minutes of break between the purifications, making the job much faster.

Elira also made significant progress in her training, she was now capable of retrieving complex and precise information from plants, even if it still took her some time - according to Sylara the best druids could read years worth of memories in a split second, but that came with practice, for now she had to go into trance for half an hour to interpret a single memory.

The key to this method turned out to be sensing power of the nature domain - since it was perceived by humans in the same way as by plants, interpreting memories based on it was significantly easier.

Of course it wasn’t the only thing she relied on, with a few tests and some practice, she learned how to decipher speech from just vibrations - it was a tedious and mentally straining process, but it was the thing that finally allowed her to gather all the information Sylara wanted her to find.

"This potted plant was planted by you almost seven years ago, and it has been standing on the window seal in your office ever since." Elira stated confidently.

Sylara smiled and clapped her hands.

"Very impressive, you got that right - and on your first day no less! Tomorrow we’ll move onto the next topic, but I encourage you to train this skill on various plants you find whenever you have time."

"Are we done for today then?" Elira looked at the setting sun, which cast a crimson glow over the entire city.

"Yes, Calen has already finished his task half an hour ago, so if you’re ready to go we can wrap this up."

She nodded.

"Yeah, let’s go home."

***

When Calen and Elira entered the common room they found both of their friends deeply immersed into their respective books, to the point they didn’t even see them come in.

"Hey, we’re back!" He announced to get their attention.

"Oh, hi!" Isara’s head snapped up and she smiled. "How was your training?"

"Nothing interesting here, literally the same thing I did yesterday, but easier." Calen shrugged. "Ellie’s training did look interesting though."

"It was... illuminating." The alchemist admitted. "More than anything I’m curious what other applications of this power there might be, if she showed me something like this on the first day what else could she have on store?"

"Interesting... anyway, as for us we pretty much haven’t moved since morning, just sitting here and reading." Isara informed them.

"Found anything groundbreaking?" Calen gestured at the book she was holding.

"No, quite frankly Antonio is a terrible writer who goes on a tangent every other page and never finishes the original topic." She sounded a bit frustrated. "So far the only thing I got from this are a couple of tricks for spellcasting - maybe there’s more later on, but for now this thing sucks."

"Sounds fun." He chuckled. "What about you Cass?"

His friend put away the heavy tome and sighed.

"I agree that the Fool’s works aren’t the best, while this one doesn’t have any personal tirades, the information inside is completely jumbled up - one paragraph he talks about the beliefs of the Serakhiin, only to switch onto the topic of how they build their fortresses in the next one."

"No wonder it took Sylara so long to make dedicated versions." Calen nodded. "But I assume there’s actually useful knowledge on there?"

"Very much so, the information is unordered and disjointed, but extremely detailed - for example I learned that the assumption that corrupted creatures cannot interact with magic is only partially correct, yes, they can’t interact with pure magic, but they can use a twisted form of it through Blight."

"That’s good, I hope everything in there is as useful."

"Unfortunately not." Cassian tapped his fingers on the book’s cover. "You have to remember that the Fool observed the Serakhiin as a form of entertainment while he was trapped in the tomb, so let’s just say that not all of the information here is strictly... necessary."

Something on Cassian expression hinted at what he was talking about.

"... you’re joking." Calen said.

"I wish I was..." His friend pinched the bridge of his nose. "Almost twenty pages Cal! Twenty!"

"Wait, what are we talking about?" Elira asked, clearly confused by the conversation.

"I don’t think you want to know Ellie." Isara giggled. "If you haven’t put it together, then it’s better this way."

"No, I think I would like to know actually."

"Fine - he’s talking about the reproduction of our interdimensional invaders."

"Reproduction...?" You could clearly see the cogs turning in Elira’s head before her eyes widened in horror and her cheeks darkened. "Oh! Why in Sun’s name would he put something like that in there!?"

"Maybe he was freaky." Isara suggested.

"To be clear it wasn’t just reproduction." Interjected Cassian. "It was mating rituals in general."

"And?" Isara had a devilish smile on her face. "Tell us what you learned!"

He met her enthusiasm with a deadpan expression.

"Let’s just say that there wasn’t any difference from humans." Cassian stated drily. "Why are you even asking me about it? There were many more interesting social facts about the Blightborn in there."

"Like?" Calen decided to help his friend out.

"Well, for one they are not allowed to openly disagree or criticise they superiors under any circumstances, as they believe it would be akin to disobeying their god."

"They have a god?"

"Or at least a figure they revere, yes." Cassian nodded. "She’s called the Blight Queen, but it seems like the Fool couldn’t confirm whether she is a real person, a mythological one, an actual deity, or just a made up god."

"Anything else that could be important?"

Cassian thought for a bit while rubbing his chin.

"There are few pieces of information that hint on Serakhiin’s ’dark past’ - and dark as in unknown, not evil."

"Figured, it’s not like world conquering empire has something to be ashamed of..." Calen said. "What do you think happened to their history?"

"I think it got erased when they got corrupted by Blight." Elira stated. "It would make the most sense, the people would forget, and the Blight couls force them to destroy any historical records."

"You think that the Blight became corrupted?"

"I mean, they had to be." She raised an eyebrow. "Don’t tell me I listened to your conversation with Sylara more closely than you..."

"My conversation with...?" Calen frowned, but then remembered. "Ah, you mean that part! I completely forgot that she said that to be honest."

"I can see that - anyway, the revelation that the Blight apparently can’t create anything on its own means that both the Serakhiin and the creatures they domesticated used to be uncorrupted at some point."

"Since we’re talking about the Blightborn I got to bring up something." Isara interjected. "Wasn’t this city supposed to be attacked? Like, what the hell are the Serakhiin doing, did they forget?"

"I can explain that actually." Cassian offered. "At the current moment a small group of Serakhiin is searching the surrounding area with pets they specifically designed for this very purpose. Once they’ve found the city, they will go back to their fortress and report on what they found."

"...so we’re not getting attacked yet?"

"I was just getting to that part - when they report their findings to their superior, that commander will decide on what to do, either get everyone under their command ready and attack, or ask for assist of other outposts if they deem that they have too few battalions."

"Wouldn’t that take weeks? If they don’t get lucky and find the city soon, we could move it before they even realise where we are.*

"That’s what the Verdant Watch is hoping for, but apparently they got significantly closer to the walls in the last few days."

The rest of them stared at Cassian.

"What? I talked with Alison after you all went to sleep yesterday."

"Who would have thought that it would take an apocalypse for you to make a friend on your own..." Calen chuckled.

"We’re not friends." Cassian insisted. "We just work towards common goal and exchange information sometimes."

"Sure, whatever you think Cass - but going back to the topic of potential siege, do you guys think we should do something about it?"

"Like what?" Isara questioned. "I hope you’re not suggesting that we should try to exterminate an entire horde of monsters that we can’t even get close to without getting ripped to shreds."

"Well no, even if I think our little group is rather capable, that’s out of our reach for now - I was thinking of something along the lines of interfering with the Serakhiin directly? I believe someone told us there would be only two or three of them."

"Assuming we can find them, and that is a big assumption, what can we even do to mess with them?" Cassian crossed his arms.

"I don’t know... trick them into thinking the city is in another direction? Sabotage them somehow?"

"I think we should ask Sylara for pointers - and if she’ll even allow us to do that in the first place." Elira said.