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Chapter 237: INTERLUDE. Paranoia

“There’ve been rumours, Rogues, about all kinds of dissidents amongst mortals. Well, you know these rumours—they always here. Heretics, adventurers that use their divine power on other humans instead of monsters… You sure know how much of truth and lies there are.”

God of Rogues nodded, confirming that yes, he knew better than most that all that mortals at their best were creatures prone to all sorts of debaucheries that they, of course, hid from the eye of officers of law and order. Sharing with him, though, was a completely different matter. He was a rogue himself, one of them.

It’s alright to share with one of them. He would understand and help to hide the body. Or at least, his priests would—God of Rogues had more interesting things to do. But in the eye of a common man, there was not much difference between the priest and the god, and his donation went to the temple, anyway.

“But with all that Devourer business, templars have been zealous… Maybe overly zealous. I personally think that the chances of him hiding among mortals are no bigger than this.” the goddess brought together her thumb and forefinger. “This! I let them be. I don’t want them all to die to monsters, and giving them all the power to not die is both complicated and troublesome… Besides, this is what angels are for. Then, recently, I got a curious report about a new heresy… Not even new, actually, as it turned out.”

“A heresy? What is so interesting about it? Do these people worship a dead fish, or something as ridiculous?”

Goddess of Sorcerers did not like his scepticism. She pouted and crossed her arms in a manner too childish for a woman that old… Of all gods, she alone still had a truly youthful spirit. Without pretence—her eyes were always as clear as water, that God of Rogues could tell from an experience of a complete liar.

“You won’t laugh after I tell you. See, there’s been an old man who thought he had a vision of the past… or future… that the world was dying and only one person, the messiah, could save it, but the cost would be great and so everyone should prepare and pray and blah blah blah, usual stuff. Got that from old reports. Templars in the city thought about throwing the man into jail for heresy, but no one listened to him, and then he himself grew quiet, and they just forgot about him entirely. Or maybe someone paid them to forget—ages passed, and you know mortals’ memory. That’s why it’s so important for them to write everything down, and at least that, they did…”

The goddess frowned and grew quieter, and her gaze now grew thoughtful, as if even now, while talking, she was mulling over this theme.

“Still, someone must’ve remembered. The old man died long ago, but the heresy is still here, which is rare for a heresy. He must’ve had a pupil, a loyal follower, and smarter than himself… But not that smart, not entirely, because the prelate of the city where it all happened grew suspicious of another guy at some point, but there were no proofs… Until they caught one man… No material proofs here either, but the prelate was sure enough to just move him straight to the questioning. Cracked him, one way or another—gah, these all are nasty details. You know, I don’t like all that torture, agony—everyone should go fast, and in a blaze. Nasty deaths are…” Goddess of Sorcerers shuddered.

“Nasty, yes. We can’t wish that even to our enemies. Did the templars caught the heretics in the end?”

“No. But they got close enough to lose an entire squad to them, and find a burned down cart full of ashes of books and other thing—forbidden, they assure me. And hell be with the squad and the cart, but there was even an adventurer among the escaped heretics! Now that they ran, templars had their names and faces for sure, you see. A barbarian… And I thought, well, adventurers do all sorts of things all the time, but who knows? Maybe it’s a sign. You know Barbarians, Rogues, no one would think on him. They all think he’s too stupid for intrigue.”

God of Rogues grinned, amused at that—truthful—assessment. “Including you?”

The goddess shook her head. “No, no. He’s fine. But that’s the thing—maybe he’s too fine? Maybe he only pretends to don’t like the intrigue as much as I do. So I went down to check myself. I looked into the past of that place… but you know that I’m not as good in these spells as Wizards.” She sighed. “I couldn’t track them far—but I’m sure the templars can manage that, with their dogs. But what I heard, Rogues… Well, saw—had to read lips. Doesn’t matter. They were mentioning Devourer!”

After the lengthy tale, God of Rogues’ alertness lowered a bit. It was inevitable. Not that Goddess of Sorcerers was a poor storyteller—she talked with energy, rhythm and pleasant voice that one could listen to for a long time—but after that long, he himself began to lose any hopes he had that the story would lead to anything worthwhile. Including any proofs of his fault.

If not for that, the last word wouldn’t have made God of Rogues jerk like he did—very unprofessionally.

“Devourer? He has… you want to say he has followers among mortals?”

Goddess of Sorcerers shrugged.

“Apparently so. Then, who knows, whom else these people serve? As I said, there was a barbarian, and other people, even a pair of kids. Kids, imagine that! Even kids turn into heretics now. And another guy whom templars knew nothing about, but who fought like a monk, with bare fists against steel armour. I couldn’t bring that tale just to anyone…” Goddess of Sorcerers grit her teeth. “I hate that damn paranoia! And still. It can be anyone, right? Maybe it was Barbarians… but if you ask me, Rogues, I swear its Wizards. Or else I’d come and ask her to track these people down sooner.”