Blood Magus

He was forced to wonder what they were taking him in for, though. He certainly hoped they didn’t suspect anything, but these Inquisitors were inherently a wildcard. All he hoped was that they’d take things slowly over the next few days until he was able to find the location of the Blood Mage. Just saying ‘I think he might be in the forest’ wouldn’t be enough—he needed to have a specific location before he could try siccing them on him. Their operatives would need to refine their search a little bit more and find some more evidence first.

Presumably, though, this would just be a standard questioning. The guild was an important entity in this town, so they probably wanted employee information and that sort of thing. He’d just hand all that stuff over and be on his way, then. They’d only been here for a day at this point, so surely there was no way they’d do anything too rash, right?

An Inquisitor marched through the door and walked over to the chair opposite to Clin, sitting down as the loud clanking of their armor filled the room. They had a green cloth wrapped around their shoulders, whatever that meant. “What is your position within the Otis and Roul’s Mining Guild?”

He blinked. “Um, I am an overseer of general supply management.”

The Inquisitor stared at him for a moment. “Do you have knowledge of the office building you work in?”

“What? Yes, of course I do.”

“Have you seen any ritual circles painted on the floors there?”

Clin froze.

“Particularly in the storage closets.”

“Um, no,” he said nervously. How had they figured out so quickly? “D-do you suspect there to be a Blood Mage in the building?”

“Have you seen evidence of such a thing? Have any of your coworkers or employees acted strangely around you?”

“I-I don’t know,” he said, trying to buy time to think. Where could they have heard such a thing? What did they know? What could he lie about? “Give me time to think. You’re asking so fast, and I just have to consider everything before saying anything about anyone, you know?”

The Inquisitor looked back at the other two that were standing by the door, then back at Clin. “We will be investigating your office building. Come with us and ensure there are no problems. You can think on the way.”

With that, they stood and began walking out of the room.

“W-wait!” Clin said as they left. They were doing what?! The cabal had prepared for the Inquisitors to try and investigate near Garon’s destroyed house, and for them to try looking for tunnels underground, but they had no idea these people would try searching the offices. Why would they suspect such a thing?

The Inquisitors didn’t wait, though. They simply continued walking without him. He stood and hurried to catch up. There were countermeasures to ensure wanderers didn’t find any of the ritual circles they had in the guild offices, of course, but those were mostly for tricking random employees who went where they didn’t belong. He had no idea what methods these Inquisitors might have to bypass such things, but they likely would have some way to do it.

If they searched an area before someone could erase it, it’d be over for him. Him and the rest of the cabal members in this town. It was an extended process, but Inquisitors could read a person’s entire Status as long as they expended the resources to do so. It wouldn’t be realistic to do it to the entire town, but checking everyone in the guild offices? That was more possible. The only hope would be to escape capture so they couldn’t do it to you, but Clin was already in their hands. And his Status was far from clean.

He wracked his brain, trying to come up with a solution as they silently walked out of the building and over to the road, heading straight for the offices. It was this Inquisitor with the green cape around their shoulders, as well as two others. He had to assume, if this was all they were bringing, that they didn’t suspect the guild too much—just enough for a cursory check. So maybe…

“You know,” Clin said as they walked, “now that I think about it some more, I think you may be right.”

The one in green looked at him.

“There may be some sort of Blood Mage cabal operating out of the guild. But not out of the offices—out of the mines. I’ve seen those miners acting strangely for a while now, and at first I just thought it was nothing, but now that you mention this Blood Mage business, I’m beginning to think it might be something else.” ἈƝÊS

“Strange how?”

“Um, well, there’s been this mineshaft that’s been closed for a long time now due to cave-in threats. And these miners, it was very often that some of them would go down there to check on the status of the cave-in, but would never return. And so, I think there’s a cabal of miners operating out of their tunnels that’s preying on their own coworkers. How else would so many people disappear down there without explanation?”

“Do you have evidence of this happening?”

“Yes, yes, I do. It’s actually in the offices. Lots of paperwork documenting these people disappearing. So I feel that you should search the tunnels before the office, to ensure they don’t have time to escape.”

“Show us this evidence.”

“Of course,” he said.

The tunnels were clean now, so they wouldn’t find anything down there. And hopefully, after walking into the offices with these Inquisitors, everyone would begin erasing the ritual circles, and his stalling tactic of showing them all of this paperwork would give them enough time to ensure the office was clean, too.

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Clin had been forced to think fast, so he hadn’t fully thought over what the consequences of the Inquisitors searching the mine might be, but he couldn’t think of anything bad happening off the top of his head. Chances were, it’d just be yet another thing to waste their effort and give the cabal more time to find where the rogue Blood Mage was so they could give away his location.

They were coming for him. There was no way he’d avoid detection for long.

***

Upon returning to his base, Zeth sat down and prepared to start on his Empowerment Ritual.

He doubted he’d be able to get the twenty hour requirement done any time soon, but he had a way to avoid that. After a moment’s hesitation, he reached inward and purchased his Skill.

[You have purchased Blood Magus Skill: Speedy Rites.

-12 Skill Points. You have 4 Skill Points.]

Instantly, the requirements for his Skills shifted downward. It was only a bit since the Skill was still Rank 0, but just from the sum of Dexterity he currently had, the twenty hour requirement had one full hour shaved off.

But the real discount would come as he drew his circles. And that would come after he started drawing. So, he got to work.

It only took a matter of minutes before Zeth received his first notification. And, minutes later, another.

[Speedy Rites’s Rank has increased two times to 2.

+2 Skill Points. You have 6 Skill Points.]

From those two Ranks, Empowerment Ritual’s required time shot down to just around seventeen hours. Damn, this felt good.

Within an hour, another notification; Speedy Rites was up to Rank 3 now, and he already had enough Skill Points to purchase Friend of the Unhallowed. It was Ranking up really quickly—maybe because it was such a low-Level Skill and he was essentially overqualified for it now?

Hellfire Ritual was approaching thirty-five minutes now, and Demonic Covenant was at three hours. And, of course, Empowerment Ritual was all the way down to sixteen and a half hours, that old twenty hour requirement feeling like dust in the wind at this point.

As he drew, excitedly awaiting another notification, Zeth heard the trapdoor leading into the base open and close, and footsteps echo out from the wooden stairs.

“I have returned,” Astrys called out as Zeth listened to her descend. “Are you here?”

“In here,” Zeth called back, continuing to focus on his drawing efforts.

She walked into the main room, seeing the beginnings of the six-foot ritual circle scrawled out across the stone floor. “I have ensured there was no evidence left behind in the forest.”

“Great,” he said. “If you aren’t too tired, do you mind lowering the floor of the base by around a foot or so? Apparently your fear aura is strong enough to reach out into the surface, if just barely—that’s what let the bandits know we were here in the first place.”

“I see. Yes, I will do so. Would you like for me to wait until after you are done with your spellcasting?”

“Nah, just work around me, and just don’t do this specific circle of floor until I’m finished," he said. “I don’t mind the company.”

She nodded, and got to work, moving over to one corner of the room and beginning to carve away at the stone with her claws.

As she did so, Zeth got yet another notification informing him that Speedy Rites had Ranked up to four.

“Fuck yeah,” he muttered, smile plastered across his face.

Astrys looked at him strangely. “Have you received fortunate news?”

“Huh? Oh, no, nothing like that. I just got a new Skill recently to help with ritual drawing, and it’s Ranking up really quickly.”

“I see. I did not realize such a thing would excite you so much.”

“Hm? Why not?”

“You seem to be relatively stoic, like I am. So finding enjoyment from something as common as a Skill Ranking up…” she smiled slightly. “It feels…interesting. I did not realize you had such a side.”

“‘Interesting?’ What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps…it is cute.”

Zeth chuckled. “I guess I see what you mean. My younger sister is adorable when she gets excited about something. Wouldn’t have thought to compare myself to a little girl, though.”

“R-right. I apologize if I said something offensive.”

“No, no, nothing like that. Though, I think you might have the wrong impression of me. I wouldn’t call myself ‘stoic’ at all. I normally try to keep how I feel from showing on my face or in my voice, but really, I’m a pretty emotional person.”

“Are you? Why would you hide such a thing?”

“Well, to tell the truth, I had some pretty bad anger issues as a kid. Any time I felt upset, I’d let everyone around know it. I’d yell, scream, whatever it took to ensure that whoever made me angry was miserable. Got into fights all the time, and honestly, I lost most of them. And the ones I won I’m not too proud of. It wasn’t good. But around the time my younger sister was born, I realized I was just hurting myself for no reason. I mean, I distinctly remember going through my memory and trying to find a single time in my life that getting angry actually helped me. Couldn’t find one. So, from that point on, I just did my best to avoid acting on my emotions. Suppress it, ignore it, push it away, whatever. And, I mean, I was just a kid, so it took a while, but eventually it just became my first instinct upon feeling anything—keep it from influencing your actions.”

“That is…remarkably mature, for a child.”

Zeth shrugged. “Maybe. But, like I said, it’s not like I just don’t feel anything anymore. Really, I’d still consider myself to be pretty intense, emotionally. I just don’t normally show it unless I’m alone.”

“I see.” Astrys looked at him for a moment. “I do not know if such a thing is particularly healthy.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Demon society is highly based on emotion. Because of our auras of fear, a large part of something like a negotiation involves attempting to be as aggressive as possible in order to intimidate the other person into complying with your demands. I find doing so to be cathartic, in a way. Even if I personally feel that I am a more subdued individual, I enjoy negotiating. I enjoy getting angry, even if it is mostly an act, and saying anything I possibly can to strike fear into another. It allows for a release that nothing else can bring. Perhaps that is why I stayed in the military for longer than most of my other attempts for prestige—it involved many discussions with other leaders, subordinates and superiors alike. There was quite a bit of room for me to speak my mind.”

Zeth chuckled. “Having someone as scary as you screaming in my face? Your poor soldiers.”

She shook her head. “All demons understand that this is simply how society works. Holding a grudge or getting upset over something said during negotiation would be the height of silliness.”

He frowned, remembering the abrasive attitudes of all the other demons he’d summoned. Had they just been conducting completely normal negotiations, from their perspective? “Why were you so nice when you were summoned, though?”

“Nice? I was being pathetic,” she said. “I was not negotiating with you, I was begging. There would be no reason to strike fear into your heart; I was not making a request to be your equal. It was surprising when you did not respond to my posturing with harshness like any other demon would. But, after spending some time here, I see that humans simply do not use fear like we do.”

“Huh.”

“Regardless, I suppose my point is…Feel free to express yourself around me. You said you do so when you are alone, yes? Then pretend I am not here. I would like to get to know you better—not your facade.”

Zeth looked at her for a moment, feeling the inexplicable urge to take her up on her offer. For whatever reason, he genuinely felt like he could trust her. “Alright, sure.”

As he said that, he got another notification. Yet another Rank-up for Speedy Rites. Absolutely absurd.

With a smile, he refocused himself on drawing, feeling an infectious good mood spreading through his chest. His next Level-up would come far sooner than he’d first assumed, it seemed.