"I forgot to ask Dolores sothing," Jenkins realized. "I was going to have her help investigate three nas."
It was only after returning to Nolan that he rembered he had unfinished business, so he promptly made his way back to Ruen. In the few minutes he'd been gone, Alexia certainly hadn't fallen asleep. She stood alone by the window, gazing at the city lights sprawling below the mountain.
"Sheffield, Capello, and Stevel," Jenkins listed. "I suspect these three were Papa Oliver's apprentices in the past. I have a feeling that if I asked him or anyone else at the Church directly, they wouldn't give a straight answer. I was hoping Dolores could help look into it. Of course, if it's too much trouble, she doesn't need to go out of her way. It's not a major issue."
"No problem. I'm sure Dolores will be happy to help."
She turned to face Jenkins. "Goodnight, Jenkins."
"Goodnight, Alexia."
The hour was late. Jenkins spread his bedding before the fireplace, ready for sleep. He made a ntal note to move back into the second-floor bedroom next week if the weather continued its warming trend.
With winter now past, there was no longer a need to use the living room as a bedroom. But that ant he would have to tidy up the upstairs room. Since annexing the widow's house next door, he hadn't seriously considered how to organize his own ho.
Chocolate's soft cushion was already laid out on the sofa. The cat probably found the house too warm and had no interest in being covered by a small blanket. Jenkins gently patted the cat's head. It didn't get up, but curled into a tighter ball of fur and let out a soft "ow," not even bothering to open its eyes.
If that wasn't a "goodnight," then it was definitely a "don't touch ."
"Knock, knock, knock."
Just as he was snuggling into his covers, ready to drift off, he heard a rap at the door. Jenkins froze. When he ca ho, he had locked the gate to the yard. Anyone wanting to enter should have rung the bell by the gate. The only other possibility was that they had simply jumped the fence.
"Who is it?"
he called out, slipping on his slippers and walking toward the entryway. He blinked, and a brilliant golden light filled his vision, instantly stinging his eyes and making them water. Wiping his face with a frown, he opened the door to find an ordinary-looking middle-aged man dressed in an unsightly woolen sweater, his hair lank and greasy.
Jenkins had never seen the face before, but this man was no mortal, and Jenkins knew exactly who he was. This was a projection of a god—the God of Shadows and Stealth, the very deity who had intentionally lost their wager and ceded the divinity of Lies to him.
"My apologies, but what can I do for you this late?"
Since the visitor had been polite enough to knock, Jenkins saw no reason to be rude. Still, he had no intention of letting this god into his ho. After all, he suspected this old trickster had sothing to do with the mirror world incident.
"I've co to pay you a visit, and quite politely, I might add."
The god said this while brandishing a stone slate he was holding.
"See? A gift for you. I found this Doomsday Docunt in the theater outside the city. It was stuck in the crevice between shadow and reality, so the mortals haven't found it yet. I figured you might have a use for it, so I grabbed it on my way. May I co in? This isn't exactly the place for a conversation."
"...Fine."
Since he hadn't been expecting a visitor so late, the house was unprepared. Chocolate was asleep on the sofa, so Jenkins led his guest to the dining room. The deity seed unbothered by the low-quality tea Jenkins offered.
The Doomsday Docunt was casually placed on the shoe cabinet in the entryway, making the god seem like a perfectly normal visitor.
"I'm sorry to disturb you so late..."
Jenkins didn't see a hint of apology in the god's deanor.
"I mainly ca to thank you for sealing the Beast of Chaotic Pollution again. To be honest, that slly thing is a bit of a handful."
The god said, spreading his hands.
"What do you really want? Can we just get to the point? It's already very late."
Jenkins responded, clutching his teacup. He had heated the kettle with his inexhaustible fire, so the cup was pleasantly warm in his hands.
"When you sealed it, you got a pitch-black stone, didn't you?"
Though phrased as a question, the god stated it as a fact.
After a mont's hesitation, Jenkins asked his guest to wait. He stood and went down to the basent, retrieving the ring he had stored in a shoebox. He suspected the stone was a Cursed Item and had used the remnants of his divinity to create a seal, which appeared to be holding up well.
"Yes, this is it."
The God of Shadows and Stealth nodded, his right index finger tapping rapidly on the table. It wasn't necessary for him to manifest directly, so this was just a projection, but it looked almost indistinguishable from a real physical body.
"I knew this thing would show up. How to put it... it's difficult to describe what it is in human language, but I imagine you can sense its danger. It is... a conglorate of calamity. When the stone is activated, a conceptual 'disaster' is released, which in turn triggers a catastrophe in the material world. You understand what I'm saying, right?"
"Pandora's Box."
Jenkins summarized quietly to himself, while on the surface, he nodded without a change in expression.
"Good that you understand. This stone is a product of the Beast of Chaotic Pollution's own power, crystallizing into a physical form only when it clashes with divine power. I ca across one a long ti ago. My mortal followers nearly made a grave mistake that ti, but thankfully, everything was salvageable. Divine power can destroy this stone, but doing so would also release the disaster within. So, the best way to handle it is to seal it and let the great power of ti erode its strength. We're now at the end of the epoch, and I assu you don't want this thing to beco the spark that ignites the final catastrophe, do you? But you've done well. I think you're a better fit for the divinity of Lies than I was. Keep it. Patiently wait for the stone's power to fade completely."
He then stood up to leave. Jenkins quickly asked another question.
"So you visited just for this?"
"Of course. After all, your encounter with that thing is sowhat related to the divinity of Lies."
The middle-aged man winked at Jenkins. "The last thing I need is for you to unleash a disaster, get branded an evil god by Them, and have dragged down with you. You have no idea what a headache it was to switch over to the lawful alignnt."
Without waiting for Jenkins to react, his body dissolved into motes of golden light and vanished into the air, leaving Jenkins sitting alone at the dining table, fiddling with the ring. From the sofa, the cat peeked out over the cushions, its head tucked low, and saw an inscrutable expression cross its master's face.
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