I had a hard ti believing the letter. Aqrea wasn’t kidding. It very plainly stated that the temple was now for sale and that the price had been matched by Lord Brasvay, and that Councillor Hristo had approved of the purchase via the title that the Rakshasa lord had shown. The Councillor, it turned out, was a witness to the existence of the deed and had verified its accuracy.
“This can’t be real,” I said. “Title to the land? Where would they even find sothing like that? Why don’t we know about it?”
Aqrea slowly shook her head. “The titles are maintained on Ring One, but usually, the title holders are aware of it. They’re essentially statents of land ownership. Didn’t Elder Escinca ever ntion anything about it?”
“No,” I said. “Never. Well, it wasn’t like he foresaw his death, and we never exactly found a will or anything like that.”
“A will?”
It wasn’t surprising Aqrea didn’t know about wills considering they had a different term for deeds as well. “It’s like a statent from a deceased person about who will inherit their belongings and such.”
“Oh! So, an inheritance statent.”
“Yes, basically.”
Conversations like these always made wonder about Universal Language Approximator. In this case, I wondered how much intention mattered when it was translating things. Certain words could an several different things in different contexts. For instance, “ball” was a spherical toy or sports implent depending on the perspective, but it also ant a formal dance.
In the sa way, “will” could an different things. So was the Weave not taking my intention into account when originally translating it to New Zair? Because if it had, Aqrea would have suggested the inheritance statent as her own—and this world’s—understanding of wills without needing to explain what they were.
But such musings were very distant when all I felt at the mont was growing dread.
A crazy part of considered Sacrificing the temple. At least that way, it would be useful to . And I could rope in so of others who had the Aspect of Sacrifice, though theirs would obviously not be anywhere near as effective as mine without Windfall.
But that was crazy talk. That was defeatist talk. If I was forced to Sacrifice my ho, I was losing to these bastards.
They’d still own the land. We’d still have to move. Screw that.
I had been forced to Sacrifice Elder Escinca. Letting the sa thing happen to the temple would drive insane.
“Do you have any ideas on how to tackle this?” I asked. “I’ve already thought of a couple of avenues of enquiry, but I’m open to suggestions.”
“I…” Aqrea bit her lip. “I’m not sure. Sorry, Cultist Ross. The only thing I can think of is offering resistance from here, but otherwise…”
Offering resistance. Even Aqrea was so desperate that she could only think of tackling the problem with brute force at first.
“Don’t worry,” I said, putting on my leader hat. “I don’t know how they did it, but I intend to find out.”
To that end, I intended to contact the Councillors. I had the Ogre Councillor on my hotline. Unfortunately, the ti wasn’t ideal. It was late and I doubted I’d be able to reach him now. I’d have to wait till tomorrow.
Try as I might, sleep didn’t co to despite my apparent drowsiness. So, I just used Sacrifice and decided to try to be productive and train instead. I simply practiced with Gravity and Illumination. Later on, with Flare too. One of the things I intended to discover was whether Threaded Reinforcent could hold Aspects, especially Flare, within .
Having seen Kotis turn his hand to smoke, I wanted to work towards turning my hand into either heat or light.
I succeeded. Back then, when I had tried to insert heat energy into the internal cracks of mana, the energy had just seeped back out. Now, however, the cracks had transford into fine but firm lines of mana, Flare-Aspected mana suffusing them and turning them orange-hot.
It only made feel faintly warm, nowhere near overheated. Which was good. It ant I had a pretty decent capacity to store heat.
Thinking of capacities made think of my Affix. No, I hadn’t just lost all use for Capacity. I could still store heat energy outside of my body, and I was starting to see a few interesting applications for it, especially with the potential new Affix for my Gold-ranked Gravity I was slowly thinking up. Just needed to acquire said Affix now.
Thankfully, that was easy to practice. I could just create heat pockets all around and direct my Gravity to try and affect them. It was slow going. Even with Sacrifice boosting its effects, I didn’t get the new Affix by the end of the day.
Holy Pits, was working while Gold that difficult? Then I blinked. It had taken almost three months to start cursing the sa way native Epheroth people—Epherothians?—did. Well, the way native people of Zairgon did. For all I knew, the people of Claderov and Sinthesar and wherever else all had their own blasphemous curses to use at opportune monts.
At least it got a rank in Thauma and Sacrifice.
[ Rank Up!
Your Thauma Attribute has risen by one Rank.
Your Sacrifice Aspect has risen by one Rank.
Thauma: Iron II
Sacrifice: Silver IX ]
The morning brought different priorities, though. I quickly sent off the letter to Wargrog, the Ogre Councillor, that I had prepared overnight. Waiting for his reply was going to leave anxious the entire day.
I tried distracting myself with more training and Augntation considerations. Performing a Ritual of Growth first ought to help with everything I was trying to accomplish.
The Affix I was trying to get with Gravity gave an idea to get sothing similar with Power. How cool would it be if I could simply bash sothing like a fireball out of the air before it hit ? I was sure if I tried doing that now, I’d only cause my arm to explode in burning agony.
But with the right Augntation, that shouldn’t be an impossibility.
I even tested it with the help of Vandre. He created a big orb of swirling blood, the whole ss crackling with sparking red-black lightning. I tried punching it out of the air and only received nasty burns for my efforts.
Vandre was worried only slightly. He had seen my wounds heal up with Mana Heal, which took effect thanks to Mana Injection pouring out extra mana strands at my Power-driven punch.
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“I’ll get there,” I said.
Vandre nodded like he believed more than I myself did.
But interactions like that with the others made consider how exactly I was going to bring up the news to them. I was making enquiries to find out more and see if I could get to the bottom of what was going on. That didn’t an I was bound to succeed in stopping Brasvay. It was horrible to consider, but we really might just need to move out of the temple.
The thought made a riot of anger and frustration try to break free. Was this supposed to be my legacy after taking over from Elder Escinca? Was I going to lose to that stupid asshole Brasvay?
Had I really just created hos for the Scarthralls and the Anymphea only to ironically end up holess myself?
My distracted, sowhat despondent self finally got an answer a few hours later. I felt like that was a rather prompt reply from soone as important as a Councillor, soone who was busy running a whole city. I appreciated it and told myself to rember it when I wrote down my reply to him.
“The title is an ancestral title,” I read from the letter Hamsik and Aqrea both standing nearby as I went through it. I looked up at them. “What’s an ancestral title?”
They both looked troubled at that revelation.
“That explains a lot of things,” Hamsik said.
I raised my eyebrows. “It does?”
“An ancestral title is one passed down through generations of title-holders,” Aqrea said. “And are usually locked to a certain qualification. These qualifications are usually familial, as in, you would need to be the son or niece or sothing like that to make use of it.”
“You’re saying Brasvay can sohow claim the temple land through his family? How?”
“That I can’t say…”
“I can.” Hamsik’s troubled look only grew more intense. “You see the Councillor who approved it? Councillor Hristo is the oldest Councillor, and by a big margin. He’s a Scarseeker, the oldest one in Zairgon, nearing his sixth century last I heard. Needless to say, he’s so much older than even the second-oldest Councillor, he’ll have seen things none of them can dispute. Not without making the entire body of Councillors look fractured.”
And of course, the Councillors would never allow that to happen. The projection of their unified strength was a big factor in keeping the peace within and without Zairgon. Let any cracks show, and enemies would start circling like sharks sensing blood.
“So this Scarseeker Councillor is using his age as an excuse to say that this ancestral title is real?” I said.
“It could be real, Ross. None of us were alive over half a millennia ago.”
I grumbled under my breath. Reading more of the Councillor’s letter revealed much the sa information. Wargrog ntioned how his hands were tied because of the ancestral title, which only Councillor Hristo was able to verify as actually existing because he had apparently seen it long ago as well.
The good thing was that he still suggested certain actions that might help. Ancestral titles could still be legally challenged, especially in cases such as ours when other people had been living in the disputed location for a while. But the challenge would only ever benefit the challenger if they significantly proved that they deserved the land over the title-holder.
“Significantly being the key word there,” Hamsik said.
I sighed.
“How in the world are we going to prove that?” Aqrea asked.
I had no clue because the letter didn’t specify any reasons or anything of the sort. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”
We would need to think about it. The greatest proof we had on our side was the fact that we had been living on this stretch of land for ti immorial now. Since long before Escinca. Ring Four was our ho. I didn’t even know what it was about the temple that attracted a Ring Two Great House so much.
As I spent much of the rest of the day considering how best to present proper evidence, I started wondering if Aqrea had it right to begin with. Offering resistance.
Maybe the best way to stop Brasvay was to offer resistance. Just in a way they weren’t expecting.
I was hoping I could ask around and get so more suggestions. Later on, I t Revayne and asked about the likelihood of the guards ousting us from the temple at Brasvay’s behest.
“I will caution against it, of course,” Revayne assured . “And however poor of a reputation the Commander has about you—”
“The feeling is mutual.”
Revayne glowered behind her book but continued like I hadn’t interrupted her. “—she isn’t unfair and doesn’t bear any goodwill towards the nobles. She won’t do anything of her own volition to inconvenience you. The problem, however, isn’t us.”
I sighed. “It’s the Councillors compelling you to do your legal duty.”
“Correct.”
And if that ca to be, then the guards’ hands would be tied. They’d be forced to cooperate regardless of their actual feelings on the matter.
At least I received a letter from Master Kostis asking him to et again the next day. That was sowhat relieving. For that day, though, I thought about spending the remainder at Gutran’s and getting so actual training in.
Plus, he would likely be able to help with my new Augntation training. I wondered if I could start catching up to him now that my Power was at Gold.
But I had only just reached the gate to Ring Three before Sreketh was calling out my na from behind.
“Ross!” she shouted. I turned to find her approaching at a dash, everyone else staring at the half-Scalekin running full tilt. “Ross!”
“What’s wrong?” Her deanour obviously had concerned. “What’s going on, Sreketh?”
She only needed a second to catch her breath before she answered. “It’s Brasvay! He’s here, and he’s saying we need to get out of the temple.”
My heart thudded in my chest. That’s when I noticed the tears in Sreketh’s eyes. That piece of shit…
I quickly went off with Sreketh straight to the temple as fast as we could. It was pretty exhilarating to find out how fast I could run, and for how long I could do so without getting tired. But that was muted because of the fear of what awaited at the end of my run.
Nobody was being forced out of the temple when I finally arrived. A small relief. Though that quickly disappeared when I saw Brasvay standing within the temple like he owned the place already.
“Ah, you’ve arrived!” he said as soon as he saw . His mouth had twisted into an ugly sneer. “I was sure I’d miss you, what with you being so neglectful of the temple to go touring magic academies and adventuring in dungeons to cause little upheavals.”
“You’re not fooling anybody, Brasvay,” I said. “I was sure I’d have seen your carriage if you had co here normally. You specifically arrived in secret right now so I would miss you. All so you could bully every other cultist like the coward you are.”
“Now, now, no need to fling invectives so easily. We will never get anywhere without a productive conversation.”
He was trying to unmoor . The whole stunt of appearing at the temple after I had left, of his casual admission of keeping tabs on , had been to throw off balance.
Brasvay decided to ignore and looked over the rest of the gathered cultists, all of whom were standing in a line like they were ready to bodily prevent the Rakshasa from entering deeper into the temple. “Look at you all, pathetically trying to attach yourselves to this wreck you call a temple.”
“Watch it,” Vandre growled. “I’m sure your blood is extra sweet, you being a pampered noble brat and all.”
Brasvay only sneered back at the little insult. “Is that how you speak to the new owner of the very ground you muck up with your dirty feet, you cur?”
The others got instantly agitated. All the Scarthralls vociferously protested and several yelled insults at the Rakshasa lord for daring to lie in that manner. He just grinned through it all.
“Ask him!” he said with a laugh, pointing in my direction. “I sent the letter. I’ve given you all notice. This land has belonged to my family for ages, and now, it returns to its rightful ownership. Don’t bla for taking what was always mine. Bla your stupid leader for letting you think you could ever squat on what was never yours to begin with. Ask him. Ask!”
Of course, not all of them were going to be convinced by what a lord who wanted to drive us all out had to say about the matter. But enough of them turned to , with looks ranging from questioning to near-accusation, that I felt my face flushing.
So that was the other reason he had decided to co here in secret. To sow division among our ranks. To make it all the easier for him to take over the temple grounds.
I took a deep breath and sighed it out. “We’ll comply with the law where necessary.” Brasvay’s eyes lit up with triumph, but I did my best to squash it as fast as I could. “Which isn’t you coming to gloat at us about it.”
“I’m rely here to give you an advance warn—”
“You’re here to make us distrust each other so it’s easier for you to take over the temple. I don’t know why you’re so insistent on inflicting cruelties on the people who are already suffering in Ring Four, but we’re not going to take this lying down.”
“What cruelties?” Brasvay chuckled and shook his head, the little jewellery hanging from his horns tinkling. He faced the other cultists. “Are you worried about losing your job and what little purpose you have here? Well, fear not. Those among you who are truly qualified will be re-hired once I take over running the temple. You won’t lose your ho. Not all of you, at least.”
Offering salvation with one hand while insulting them with the other. People were of course not going to take kindly to that and generally told him to screw off. Brasvay just shook his head so more and finally began leaving. His job here was done.
“We will be back,” he said as he walked away. A few retainers who had waited outside now fell into step behind him. “But my next visit will likely be a lot more… consequential. Try to settle your matters before then because we won’t be waiting for you to be finished.”
He didn’t even give us a date.
There was a mont of heavy silence following the Rakshasa lord’s departure. Then several of them rushed up at , for good reason. I tried to not be influenced by the wild avalanche of fear, confusion, and sheer disbelief across the many faces and stood my ground.
“We’re not giving in,” I said, calmly but determinedly. “But we’ll need to take drastic asures if we’re going to stop that bastard.”
“Have you already thought of sothing?” Aqrea asked.
I took a deep breath. This was going to be a bombshell I’d need to weather. “Yes. We’re going to call their bluff. We’re going to see if they really want this temple.” I looked up at the sky as the shocked faces stared at . “We’re going to see how they act when the Blight Swarm lands.”
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