Chapter 521 - Changing of the Guard II (Patreon)

Night was a gracious vampire, my mentor, my friend. He’d spent quite a lot of time with me, helping me settle in when I first came back.

But he was a busy, busy man.

During his ‘vacation’ from leading the Sentinels, he still had a full social calendar. Not only did most of the Sentinels seek to bend his ear on occasion, but he was the vampire. He seemed to know everyone, have connections to all the movers and shakers, was mentoring at least three people in wildly different arts and pursuits, that I knew of, and entirely bucked the notion that Immortals were stuffy, boring, and didn’t keep up with things.

The idea of an Immortal staying in a cave and not noticing thousands of years were passing was laughably absurd. Time passed for them like everyone else, if perhaps a hair faster than normal.

Stacking on top of that, Night was about to resume command of the Sentinels, giving Arachne a much-deserved break. Susan wouldn’t be tied into every single thing that occurred in Sanguino. She wouldn’t have feelers in every room, she wouldn’t hear every whisper that occurred, nor feel every footstep, every movement, every skill. She didn’t need to stay on top of every conspiracy, nor would she need to let most criminals go.

The months leading up to the transition of power were busy for both Susan and Night. In spite of being married, they managed to not bring work home with them too often, and Night had years of catching up to do.

In time, when the hourglass turned and the two traded off again, they’d need to do the same thing. Only… much faster, given Arachne’s heavy focus on all things knowledge and information.

When I brought my question to Night about what Aion had implied about ‘fight against the encroaching darkness that threatens all life on Pallos,’ he hadn’t immediately known. He needed to spend some time unlocking the proper, relevant memories, and with everything else going on?

Well, that had taken time. While I had a moment of his time, I’d also included a list of other questions. Questions that, mere hours from taking over, he finally had an hour to answer them.

No longer was I sneaking through a weird tannery and making my way down through tunnels. Instead, I walked right up to Castle Stormwatch, the Bloodsworn Order looking extra-spiffy today.

Hey, the Sentinels were about to go all-out, and we had a friendly rivalry going on of sorts. I didn’t interact much with them - I barely knew the names of three members of the Bloodsworn Order - but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a professional rivalry going on.

A few members of each group took it way too seriously. It wasn’t my problem.

A few guards, a lot of hallways and uncountable art displays later, and I was knocking at the appropriate door, having already confirmed with a pair of guards that I belong.

“Enter.” Night’s familiar voice was brusque and promised no nonsense. I quickly slipped into the meeting hall.

Night had a pair of powerful Immortals by his side - an elf and a devil - a third one - a dwarf - slipping by behind me to deliver another stack of papers. I couldn’t help but sneak a peek at the papers. It wasn’t like they could be top-secret.

List of Sentinel Candidates was written at the top. Each candidate had exactly five sheets of paper dedicated to them, and it seemed like they cast a wide, wide net when vetting candidates. Maxlin, Wren, and Katerina from the Sixth all had their own files. To my surprise, the notes on Wren’s implied he was the most likely of the three to make it - but even that wasn’t super promising.

Night’s aid carefully moved a few files around, clearing a little spot on the table and placing the list of candidates where they belonged.

“Dawn. Welcome.” Night looked up as he put down the paper he was reading. “I would like to apologize for the nature and timing of this. The information was important enough that it warrants a direct conversation, but I find myself lacking in the time to have a full, proper discussion as usually marks our meetings. Come, sit, I will introduce you to my personal team along with everyone else at the ceremony later.” Night said with a hint of amusement.

Sentinels were rarely recruited. I was still the newest recruit, and the only one ‘obtained’ during Arachne’s most recent tenure. I don’t know why it came as a surprise to me that Night had his own personal team assisting him - and that only one of them was a vampire!

“First, ‘the encroaching darkness that threatens all life on Pallos.’ Addolorata, Daku the Five-Hundredth and Thirty Sixth, Talathil, you may leave the room if you do not wish to be cursed with knowledge.”

To my great consternation, the room cleared out in moments. Just how badly had Night traumatized those three that their curiosity had been replaced by caution!?

… How badly traumatized was I about to be!?

Eh… couldn’t be worse than what I learned as a [Loremaster]... could it? Well, if it was, it’d be great fuel for class rarity!

I sat down next to Night, deciding to suppress my curiosity on all the reams of paperwork and not potentially traumatize myself with more knowledge, or distract myself from Night’s information.

“It is fortunate that I was able to regale you my tale of finding myself trapped on Aetherion.” Night started.

I nodded. I remembered that! It was the story of when Night got yoinked by a portal mage onto another planet. That idiot hunting Auri had crashed the party, but Artemis had fixed things.

“For narrative purposes, I cut a number of aspects to my tale, parts that wouldn’t add to the story yet were part of my adventure. Nobody needs to hear the mundane details of how I fed on blood for the sixty-fourth time, nor did every trip between a city require a ballad on how an axle broke and we helped a farmer along the way. Mundane details. There are other parts that I passed over, such as the complexities of the magic available there, and the intricate details and research into spells that we needed to do. Fascinating to a [Researcher] who would like to know how other schools of magic work, but boring from a narrative perspective.”

I nodded again, slowly, unsure how this all came together. Starting to get an unfortunate picture of possibilities.

“One aspect I didn’t delve deeply into was how difficult it was to locate Pallos in the grand scheme of the multiverse. We found ourselves engaged in sympathy, like calling to like, my blood and the vampiric offspring I’ve left behind acting as a beacon to find home once again. At the time, not knowing better, we simply assumed it was difficult to find a single needle in an infinite haystack. I now know better.”

Night tiled his seat back, a nostalgic smile playing on his lips.

“The gods on Aetherion were entirely different from the gods here on Pallos.” He said. “It is only natural. I witnessed most of them ascend. Solaris isn’t the Goddess of All Suns. She is the Goddess of the Pallos Sun. Edor is the god of this Ocean here on Pallos. Your wife’s very own Selene and Lunaris are the goddesses of these moons. On Aetherion, the gods and goddesses were inactive, for lack of a better word. They rarely answered prayers, and miracles were a once-in-a-century event from the entire pantheon. Cutting to the heart of your question. I have asked a few of the gods whom I am on good terms with for clarity and other potential answers, but all of their responses were the same. I unfortunately do not have a strong enough connection with Aion to directly ask her what she meant, but I believe my speculation has some merit.”

Yeah, if Night made his ‘best guess’ saying A, and a thousand [Scholars] told me B was the answer, I was still probably putting my money on A. Night had been around a few times. Night knew things.

“I believe what Aion was referencing was how the pantheons do not get along. They war with each other, protecting their domain and attempting to steal power from others. You might have borne witness to how the gods bicker and argue with each other here on Pallos,”

I had, more than once. With how gleeful Iona was in offering up other god’s divine implements to her patrons, I’d have a hard time being convinced that they mostly got along.

“But my understanding is the fighting reaches a whole different level of vicious in the battles between divine realms. The pantheon headed by the Big Five, to my understanding, have taken a ‘hidden’ approach to the war. It is probably less shocking to you than to others, but nearly 30,000 years after Creation, we are still a young world. A young pantheon. Newcomers still have multitudes of easy opportunities to ascend. From here on out, my speculations grow a little wilder. A little less sure. I could be entirely wrong. There is a veil over Pallos, one that tries to keep its existence and exact location secret, even while the gods wage war and gently skirmish with others. I believe as well that is why the Divine Decree against ‘tearing the fabric of reality’ exists, for each shred weakens the veil, risking our exposure to the greater multiverse, and the factions in which our existence is simply the blink of an eye.”

Another thought connected for me, and I snapped my fingers.

“The Big Five!” I said. “They had to come from somewhere, they didn’t just spring into existence out of nowhere and started creating.”

Night slowly nodded.

“A decent speculation.” He agreed. “My personal speculation is perhaps five minor deities from a larger pantheon decided to break away and try their own hand at things. Now, that is my best guess. A second guess I have on the matter is related, yet different. Things exist in the void, in the spaces between universes. Unfathomable existences. Should one find Pallos, we would find all of existence in a fight for survival, if there even was an ability to fight. It is possible that it would caress this world, and we would all drop dead. Then it would feast upon the corpses of the gods.”

I shuddered. Night shrugged.

“It is no use worrying about such an event. If we should die in such a manner, we die. I have a few more speculations, but each one is less and less founded on fact and observation, and I have little to recommend or support them, and time flies by quickly.”

Fruit flies like a banana. The bad joke popped into my head unbidden, and I suppressed an inappropriate laugh.

“It sounds like the offer to battle darkness is a relatively noble one, no matter how things are sliced.” I cautiously offered.

“Indeed.” Night quickly agreed. “It is like taking the role of a guard or a Ranger in the greater cosmos, and I could only hope the brave men and women who have found it their calling in life have gotten a chance once more after death to once again take up the mantle.”

Ooof. Thinking about it - noooo thank you. When I died, I planned to rest.

Ugh… but if I could keep things safe for everyone…

A debate for another day.

“Was there anything unclear about what I said, or any questions you might have?” Night asked without a characteristic pause for thinking.

“Ehhh… okay, so yes, I’m going to have a bunch of questions when I think about it, but no intelligent ones at the moment.” I said.

“Then I apologize, but time is short. Fame and Identity-based classes. I have held a number of them over the years, and apologies if I don’t tell you what I currently have, but the walls have ears, even with Arachne’s presence. Broadly, I have found them to be pure upside. Passive experience gain, and most every action rewards modest experience. The downside is worth keeping in mind. Your scope will rarely expand when you have one in your possession. It will encompass everything you have been and done, but rarely will it point you to new horizons and new trails to travel. When you have lived a long and varied life, that is less of a concern than when one is young and still exploring.”

Night sounded distinctly smug at the last part. Made sense - a [The Long Night] class for him would encompass almost literally everything, while mine would be a little more restricted. He rolled his fingers on the table, then slapped it.

“Your third request. Yes, I am familiar with a Spatial [Runesmith]. He specializes in Jiwa, which is arguably something of a misnomer of tongues and languages that I will not get into at this moment. Kunchenjab can be found at the Jakhong Monastery. Here is a letter of introduction. I recommend you manually walk up the Giant’s Stairway and take a contemplative journey through the Valley of Echoing Prayers. It will endear you to them, and likely grant you an audience in the first place, after which you can present my letter to them. However, I must be clear. I am simply opening the door a little wider, they may make their own requests or simply deny you.”

“Thank you Night, I understand.” A little social bird that sounded suspiciously like Iona was whispering in my ear, telling me to reciprocate. How to do it, how to do it… ahha!

“If you ever need to send someone my way, my door’s always wide open for anyone with a letter from you.”

Night smiled at me, a twinkle in his eye.

“Ah my dear, how you’ve grown! It’s such a joy to see. Now, I believe that covers everything. I apologize once again Elaine, but the timing of your query is most unfortunate.”

I nodded and stood up.

“No, thank you Night, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I won’t disrupt you anymore. Thank you for your time.”

Night smiled, letting his fangs show.

“Then I will see you at the ceremony later.” He picked up another stack of papers, and I recognized a dismissal when I saw one.

Success!

I got up, saluted, spun on my heels, and left. Night’s team was just outside the door, and they efficiently piled in behind me the moment I’d left.

Today was shaping up to be an odd day. I figured since I was working on the various questions that had been brought up when I last classed up, the day was all off-kilter, and it wasn’t quite time for me to start getting ready, I hunted through the city until I found a temple dedicated to Ciriel, Goddess of Healing.

She was relatively popular, as far as goddesses went, although less popular in a major city like Sanguino. Gods could grant miracles to their faithful, and out in small villages and other places where there weren’t well-trained [Healers], begging Ciriel for a miracle of healing was one of the only options. The closer a miracle was to a goddess’s portfolio, the more likely it was to be answered.

Of course, out in little villages, there were good arguments to be made about praying to harvest gods, wood, sheep, wheat, stone, clay…

I took a seat in one of the benches, bowed my head and clasped my hands. I don’t know why I’d put this off so long.

Hi Ciriel.

It’s me, Elaine. I’m not too good at this prayer thing, but-

My prayer was interrupted by a voice in my head.

Elaine!!! I’m so happy you finally reached out! You have no idea how anxious I was when I didn’t hear from you. I thought I’d done something wrong. Alright, I hope I’m not being too excited and forward, but I am so impressed!

I’ll be honest, I thought for sure that you were another elf when I read the Medical Manuscripts. With Lumornor being the famous spreader and all that. Imagine my surprise when you weren’t!

Huh, Ciriel… I guess that was a pretty elvish-sounding name.

I’m so curious! How’d you write them? How’d you know?

Trade you a question for a question! I teased back. I don’t know a lot of gods and goddesses. Do elves lose their arrogance when they ascend?  What got you into medicine and healing in the first place?

An embarrassed laugh came back to me over the connection.

By my books, ascending was the greatest dose of humiliation and embarrassment ever. Ciriel said. An Immortal’s lifetime worth of memories of being far too arrogant and condescending hit all at once. I almost died from sheer mortification when I realized what I’d said and done. It was the WORST. I’ll freely admit I took a few decades to stew over it and try to make some amends, but in some ways, making amends just amplified the problem and - yeah, let’s not talk about that anymore.

My ears perked up at Ciriel’s swear. By her books? Another bookworm? Another part of me told me not to laugh at the goddess. Not because she was a goddess, but laughing at someone who’d just revealed a private embarrassment was the wrong thing to do. It just wasn’t kind.

Well, my turn! You’re probably familiar with Papilion…

I leaned back as I started to give Ciriel the basics of my story, a smile playing over my face as we chatted. I felt like I’d met a kindred spirit, another healer, one who’d gone the whole distance.

Another friend.