Chương 118: That Would Be Scary Indeed

I gave her a little wave.

"Hi, Mēnē. Been a while since we talked." She didn't respond, but I got the feeling that she was listening. I thought about saying something to Ambelios as well, just in case, but I had no idea how to talk to him. Maybe that's why my father always used his forge and anvil? Seemed like it would be a good way to talk to the god of crafters. It was pretty hard to carry an anvil around. Impossible, if you were me. Mēnē was easier to talk to. With Mēnē you could just look up at the sky and she'd always be there.

Always watching us. Always guiding us. Always protecting us.

"I just wanted to tell you about my friend, Kasia. I think you'd like her."

"Hecate?" Kasia whispered.

"You've probably been watching, and then you'll already know this, but maybe you haven't. Either way I think it's important you know her. It's important to me. She is important to me." I glanced at Kasia and gave her a single nod. She was looking a bit shy, bordering on embarrassed.

"It is alright, Kasia," I heard Vasil say. I turned back to Mēnē.

"When we met, all I saw was a scared girl. I thought she was someone I would have to carry, someone I had to protect because she was incapable of protecting herself. Perhaps, in a way, I saw a reflection of myself. I was that scared girl. Maybe I still am. But that is not who Kasia is. Kasia is the strong one. Kasia is the one who carries." I paused, searching for the right words.

"I think I may have been stubborn…" I shook my head.

"No. I know I've been stubborn. I've been ignoring Vasil's advice despite knowing he was just trying to keep me strong and alive. I've been impulsive, despite Perry telling me not to be. I know… I know how I'm supposed to act, but it's just so hard sometimes." I exhaled and closed my eyes.

"But every time I stumble, Kasia is there to save me. I keep telling myself I'm a genius, but I know I'm not. Kasia is much smarter than I am, and she always manages to stop me before I get myself killed. Manages to pull me back when I'm about to slip from the edge. She's also much kinder and understanding than I am. I feel like I finally have someone to look up to. To aspire to be like." I sighed.

"Look, I'm not very good with words. What I'm trying to say is, if anyone deserves your light, it's Kasia. More than I do. It would mean a lot to me if you could watch over her as well. Please." I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Whew. That was intense. I looked at Kasia and saw she was staring at me, tears in her eyes, her expression warm and deeply moved. Something about the way she looked at me almost made me cry as well and for a second the world blurred.

I blinked, trying to regain my composure, and the world came back into focus. Vasil didn't say anything, but I could feel his approval. Even Bogumir was silent.

"I…" Kasia said.

"Hecate… I don't…" For the first time maybe ever, I didn't know what to say. She looked so vulnerable, and somehow I felt just as vulnerable as she looked. I stared at her, trying to find the right words, hoping to find something appropriate to say to break this tension. Thankfully, Kasia wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug and the awkwardness and tightness I felt in my chest vanished in an instant. While I was never a big hugger, in this moment, I was grateful that Kasia was.

"Hecate," she whispered.

"Do you really think that? About me?" This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I wiped my eyes aggressively.

"Don't make it a thing, Kasia. I'm just… I'm just…" I was fighting with myself over what to say. It felt awkward to be so honest and I felt extremely vulnerable, but I thought it more important that Mēnē knew. That Kasia knew. Finally, I just gave in and let the tension leave my shoulders.

"Yes," I said.

"That's what I really think about you. I meant everything I said." As we stood there, holding each other, another thought came into my mind. Had she hugged me because she knew how awkward I was feeling, knowing it would break the tension, preventing me from spiraling? Had she saved me from myself again? She must have known me better than I knew myself. Maybe she was a genius. Kasia suddenly laughed.

"Huh?" I asked. She shook her head, smiling.

"It's just funny. It's like I'm hugging myself." She released me from the hug and I looked down at myself.

"Yeah. I guess I don't have to look like you all the time. Especially when we're in a place where it's unlikely we'll run into anyone."

"You still have your voice, though."

"Right. That's something to keep in mind if I ever [Disguise Self] into a man."

"And Hecate?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you." I gave her an awkward smile and a nod, then quickly pulled out the note we got from the quest board, desperate to change the subject. I folded it open and held it out. I studied the lines, crudely drawn in dried blood.

"Tomorrow we'll arrive at Viswa. So what do you guys think we'll find there? It doesn't even have a reward listed."

"Perhaps it is not a quest," Vasil said.

"Perhaps whoever created that note wanted someone to investigate." I squinted at the paper.

"Maybe. The more I look at it, the weirder it gets, you know. Did someone draw this in their own blood, walk over to the quest board, pin it and call it a day? Did someone find this note on a corpse and for whatever reason decided to pin it to that quest board? What do the lines even mean?" I showed it to Bogumir.

"Do you have an idea?"

"Looks like a bunch of blood and mud to me," he said.

"Yes. Very helpful. I got that much. You ever see anything like this? Any idea what it could mean?" He sighed.

"Do I look like the kind of guy that takes quests from quest boards?"

"Um," I said, scratching my head.

"Well… Not right now. But when you weren't just a head, maybe?"

"We cleared dungeons for the Church. We didn't take random quests from quest boards. The Church doesn't…"

"Doesn't do things to help people?" I asked. He was quiet for a moment.

"I guess…"

"Hm. I did see a quest to clear that dungeon on the same quest board I found this one on, though. At least I think so."

"That's impossible." I pulled out the other piece of parchment and showed him. I could practically hear his eyes widening.

"That—That's our quest. That should be impossible. The Church doesn't post their tasks publicly. They are assigned to inquisitors only." Kasia glanced at me.

"Maybe someone in Berava knew who you were. And maybe they figured out what kind of reward would suit you best. Maybe someone wanted you to…"

"Kill Bogumir?" I asked. She shrugged.

"Or just inquisitors in general."

"Or it was a trap," Vasil said.

"It could be that they posted that, hoping the inquisitors would surprise you after being weakened by the dungeon. The Church does like to test and weaken their targets first. It minimizes their losses."

"I don't know," I said.

"That's a lot of ifs." Bogumir had become awfully silent.

"Bogumir?" I asked.

"Something wrong?"

"They sent us there to die," he said.

"Huh?" I asked.

"The Church doesn't care about losses. They have plenty of cannon fodder. When they encounter a new… abomination—someone like you—they don't just kill them outright. They study them first if they can. They record everything they can get so that when another of your kind rises up they can obliterate them instantly. They don't mind sacrificing a few dozen inquisitors. There was probably someone waiting at the dungeon to write everything down."

"Abomination? That's a bit harsh. And why would they put such a big bounty on me then?"

"You must have really pissed someone off. Or scared them." He snorted.

"Knowing you, probably both."

"I don't know. Seems a bit contradictory. Actually, contradictory sounds exactly like the Church of Stvora. Damn, Bogey, they did you dirty! Aren't you glad I didn't kill you now?" Bogumir grunted.

"Um," Kasia whispered.

"What if they're recording everything so they can make Stvora give those classes to their own people? What if they're building an army of inquisitors loyal to them, with unstoppable classes?" I stared at Kasia with my mouth open. It made perfect sense. Especially if they really had Stvora under control somehow. Was it really possible to control a god? Probably. Especially if you had near-infinite resources like the Church had.

"That…" Vasil said.

"Would be scary indeed."