Redemption Arc

“You’re really good at finding stuff like this. Maybe you were a thief in a past life,” Rowan praised.

“Past?” Lucian joked.

“He’s just got good intuition,” Miriam said, covering for him. “I’ve seen it myself.”

Lucian had picked up a large variety of things while exploring the Fifth Canton. The real treasures would be inside the cathedral, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t things worth getting on the outside. In particular…

Lucian held a nice-looking spear up to a beam of sunlight passing through the water. It was made of a silver metal that hadn’t rusted, and the spearhead had two spikes turned upward like a crescent moon just beneath it. That made it a spetum, technically—Lucian only knew that word because he’d googled what the word meant after encountering it in-game. A single thread of gold spiraled from pommel to spearhead, catching the sun brilliantly even this deep underwater. A gold tassel hung from it, only partially degraded.

“No one’s going to have any complaint if I take this, right?” Lucian asked.

No one brooked any protest, fortunately. Lucian was glad. This spear—the Inquisitor’s Spetum—was technically not a unique item because it appeared elsewhere, but only three existed, and it outclassed a great many unique items by simply being dependable without drawbacks. It was a very solid polearm that added some holy damage to each swing. For Lucian, that would make his feeble spearmanship near the same level as his spells.

It had one special ability alone: the user could attach spells to it, which would activate on contact. The ability didn’t seem like much on the surface, but it was. Oh, it was.

This thing’s going to be by my side for a while. Lucian admired it. It was difficult to tell how it felt as a weapon while underwater, but he met the stat requirements to wield it without a doubt.

The spear was the least of their haul from looking around. Unfortunately, Lucian couldn’t hog everything. Even if he did find it first, the other four were going to be fighting a life-or-death battle at his side, and it was just common sense to split what they found. So long as he had first pick on what they found, that was enough for him to get what he wanted.

Excluding the spear, everything else Lucian called dibs on was just something that sold for a fairly decent amount. He needed to make some money for the battles that came ahead, and selling items was incredibly lucrative. He’d even been considering selling some of the legendary artifacts, way later… but maybe he should give those to some of the Student Ambassadors.

“I think it’s overdue to go to the cathedral.” Lucian looked toward it. “What does everyone else think?”

“Definitely. Definitely!” Helen agreed quickly, eager to get out of the ocean.

“Don’t you think we should look around some more? There are a lot of peripheral buildings that we haven’t explored,” Olivia said.

It was sensible, but…

I know that there’s nothing in those buildings, Lucian thought. Don’t want to waste time.

Maybe Miriam noticed what he was thinking, because she quickly said, “No, I think I agree with Lucian.”

“I agree with Olivia, but… it’s two to three. We’re outvoted,” Rowan said. He looked at Olivia. “Maybe you and I can check out the other buildings on our way out?”

“Maybe,” Olivia agreed.

They swam through the water as fast as they could to make it to the cathedral. Being close to it, Lucian finally took to heart just how massive the building was. It felt almost as large as the Collegium itself. Perhaps it was, considering it was partially modeled off of it. At the entrance, the water abruptly stopped. The others advanced first. The feeling of stepping out of water to dry land was incredibly disorienting. All of the water that had been clinging to them had been left behind with the rest. With it, the potion wore off, like something coating their skin had been scraped away. They had some for the return journey, fortunately.

“I’m dry,” Miriam remarked with awe. She looked around, holding one arm to the wall to keep her balance. “Imagine a world where the Concord had protections like this.”

“This cathedral was the pride and joy of the church, according to my aunt,” Helen explained, walking around. “They’d been losing a lot of steam through more secular ideas since the rise of the Collegium, so they put their very best into making this place.”

Miriam put her prosthesis back on, and then looked around. “What do you people worship, exactly?”

“It depends on what region you live in.” Olivia looked around. “Everyone has disagreements about which gods are real, and which govern which sphere of life. There’s only one unifying principle. They exist in the Heavens, which stands in opposition to the Hells.”

“These days, people give a lot less credence to their faith. The failure of the Inquisition coupled with the rise of secular institutions have been harsh blows to their prominence.” Rowan looked around at the various statues, each depicting the most prominent gods. “Among rural folk, you’ll find plenty of believers. But the cities, the aristocracy… from all I can tell, it’s faded to mostly lip service.” He looked at Miriam. “What about your people? What do they believe?”

Miriam shook her head. “It’s not important.”

“The elves worship the forces of nature itself,” Lucian said. “They believe that the world itself is a god, which we all live on.” He looked at her. “Am I right?”

Miriam looked at him in surprise. She was always very quick to distance herself from others. Lucian wanted to help her achieve her aim of curing the Black Bloom as soon as possible, and helping her make allies among the Student Ambassadors was one of the best ways to do that.

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“That’s… the simple way of putting it,” she said uneasily. “How do you know that? That’s an oral tradition alone.”

Lucian smiled vaguely.

“Interesting. I’m sure we could discuss theology until we find out whose eschatology is accurate, but we came here for a reason,” Rowan said, and Helen nodded in agreement.

“We did.” Miriam looked around. “For now, we should focus on exploring this place. We agreed Rowan should be the leader, right?”

“Definitely,” Lucian concurred. “But if I can, I’d like to give some light guidance. You remember I got that blessing, right? Well…”

***

Rowan stepped out into the open of the nave of the cathedral alongside Lucian, Helen, and Olivia. His footsteps were heavy and decisive, as if he wasn’t making any effort at all to hide his presence. Immediately, he looked up at the ceiling. Several creatures were perched above. They were snail-like monsters, their sluggish figures fixed to the ceiling. Their eye stalks stared Rowan down, and when they were seen, the creatures shrieked hideously.

They dropped down from the ceiling, their slug bodies retreating into their shell. Rowan drew his sword and grabbed his shield, assuming a defensive posture. Even as they were falling through the air, lightning shot out from one of the galleries overlooking the nave to slam into one of the monsters. It flew out of the way from the force of Miriam’s spell.

The snails, once they impacted with the ground, starting rolling toward Rowan aggressively. Fortunately, they were forced to slow, because Rowan stood in between the benches. Only one of the snails could come at a time. Olivia and Rowan battered at the one while the others attempted to go around the benches. All the while, Miriam, Lucian, and Helen ruthlessly bombarded them with spells.

From the beginning, their position had been too advantageous for their foes to overcome. The enemies had strong physical resistance, but little magic resistance. With three casters and managed chokepoints, it was a quick, decisive battle.

Rowan pulled his sword out of the head of one of the snail creatures. The disgusting viscera on his sword slowly turned to ash along with the rest of the creatures. “Good call, Lucian. I definitely wouldn’t have seen those things,” Rowan said.

“I bet,” Lucian said with a hint of bitterness.

That part had been an unavoidable ambush encounter in the game, even if the player knew the ambush was coming. It was satisfying to finally be able to use his foreknowledge to avoid it. They were able to trivialize this once-difficult battle with his knowledge—ordinarily, the player would be surrounded on all four sides. He’d provided the knowledge, but it’d been Rowan who’d decided on their tactic. It worked out great.

“I’ll be sure and let you know whenever I have any intuition of enemies ahead,” Lucian said.

“Useful blessing you got,” Helen said. “Still doesn’t justify risking your life like that, but…” She looked around the nave before settling her eyes on Lucian. “Can I ask you a question about your father?”

Lucian looked at her tensely. “Why?”

“He was involved in the dismemberment of the Inquisition as a Student Ambassador,” Helen said, and Lucian blanched a little. “I was hoping to corroborate some information received from my aunt.”

After mulling his answer for a bit… Lucian realized he could make use of a skill that he’d learned in the Collegium.

Vague trauma, activate!

“I don’t want to talk about my father with you, or anyone,” Lucian said. “I don’t want to even think about him.”

The benefit of working with nice people like the protagonists? They respected boundaries. Metterand would chop the tips of his fingers off if he said something like that, but Helen…

“I understand,” she said. “I apologize.”

“No need. You couldn’t know. But now you do,” Lucian concluded.

***

Helen watched Lucian as they proceeded further into the cathedral.

I’ve heard Duke Cyril Villamar was a man who overindulged his son… but Lucian seemed uneased when I mentioned him, and drew a firm line immediately. Coupling that with what my aunt said about him—about his inhuman expectations… maybe everything isn’t as it appeared outwardly, Helen deducted.

Lorenna had told her that Cyril abhorred mistakes, almost to the degree of neurosis. He had countless odd, perfectionist mannerisms. He would become infused with wrath when things didn’t go his way—a rarity, considering his unparalleled talent. He could be incredibly callous in his execution of the Concord’s settlements.

‘Outwardly, Duke Cyril is the perfect duke. He cares for his subjects, he tends to their needs. He built up his power base honorably, and he maintains a stellar reputation… but I never got the sense that it was something he did out of a sense of honor,’ Lorenna had told Helen. ‘Rather, Cyril understood the power that reputation and goodwill afforded him. Being known for honor was a tool for him, like any other. At least… that was my impression.’

Helen knew she shouldn’t be spending so much time looking into this. She justified it as investigating someone with high holy affinity, but it wasn’t just that. There was something very wrong with Lucian’s situation. She had no idea what, but something was disturbing him. She’d seen such features on her brother, once, and she’d ignored the signs before they were too late. He seemed like he could handle everything, but he broke.

Delusion or not, I don’t want to make the same mistake, Helen thought with conviction. Helping others is what those of House Brumaire must do.

***

Lucian used his ‘blessing’ to steer them away from the pointless fights. Most of the monsters here had no purified essence except for in the final fight, so it wasn’t worth it to fight them.

“This place is endless,” Rowan said, looking up and around. “We might have to make a return trip.”

Lucian took the time to look around, too. There was water pushing up against the stained-glass windows, and the light filtering through them danced in strange ways. It was a slightly terrifying sight, but they did have potions for the return trip even if this place did suddenly start flooding.

“I think we should focus our efforts on a few places in particular,” Helen said. “Huge or not, this place is still a cathedral. Just looking around… I think that I recognize the layout. They reuse them often. If I’m right, I can take us right to the Scriptorium,” she suggested.

The Scriptorium was the right way, but it was where the final fight of this side mission took place.

“Hold on,” Lucian said. “I’m not disagreeing, but I think we should check out the clerestory gallery first. When we were swimming around, I saw that this cathedral looked like it had an observatory. The Scriptorium will probably have been cleaned of information by the Concord’s cover-up, but the observatory is bound to have plenty of books. Maybe we can get lucky, find something there.”

Surprisingly, everyone went along with him. The lone dissenter was Olivia, but even her dissent wasn’t particularly enthusiastic. The reason why he pushed for that was simple. An item called the Vitaegis was in the observatory. It was a cornerstone of Lucian’s build that would last through the whole game.

It also came with a fight. A fight which Lucian intended to test his build on.