Chapter 15: Souls That Shouldn't Be Here

The next morning, Jyn and Kalender were out and about, looking for the place where the purification was going to be held.

“Is it normally a public showing?” Kalender asked.

“No. Unalive are assumed dangerous unless proven otherwise. On top of that, the ritual is done privately by a Cleric or Priestess of Reincarnation.”

“Huh, isn’t that…” Reincarnation—wouldn’t a Priestess be in charge of the temple?

“You were told to find a temple, yes?”

“Well, yeah? Though, I always imagined that Minimine told me to go to one so that a Priestess or someone else could pass me a message from her. We could totally just skip that step if the Priestess were just, well, here.”

Jyn stopped in her tracks. She had no defense—she was quite stiff in her interpretations of instructions, admittedly—but she had an attack.

“You didn’t think to ask me about Priestesses or Clerics?”

Kalender turned his head away. He was debating firing back, but he decided to drop it here. “A-anyway, let’s ask when we find one.”

Jyn–1, Kalender–1 .

By complete chance, they caught a glimpse of a procession moving along the town’s main road. There were squads of knights in front and behind a one-horse wagon, on the back of which was what was probably a cage draped in black cloth.

If anyone had previously known the person inside, they didn’t want them to make a scene about it.

“There’s neither a Cleric nor a Priestess with them. She is most likely already at the ritual site,” Jyn noted.

This main road should lead to the town’s plaza. Jyn had done some exploring during their downtime, and she knew where it was. There was a good chance that the town’s guard barracks was there. A guard barracks also meant a nearby private execution site. That would be where their person-of-interest was.

Kalender followed Jyn, weaving through crowds that occasionally formed to watch the procession, staying ahead of it as best they could.

There was a squad of town guards lined up in front of the barracks, blocking the entrance. They wore nothing better than dirty padded dresses, and wielded nothing better than short spears, no taller than themselves, and round shields of woven wicker.

“Kalender, give me the endorsement plate.”

“Alright, but what will you do?”

“I will be a Knight for a moment.”

They strode up to the picket line, with Kalender following behind. The guards eyed them warily as they approached.

“Guards, I need to speak to your commander,” Jyn said, flashing the endorsement plate. Everyone recognized the seal of the Inquisition when they saw it.

The guards looked between each other, all eyes finally landing on the one who could use Appraise. Shaking her head to mean a “fine, fine,” she took a look at the endorsement plate.

“A-ah.” She paled. “I-it’s genuine.”

Just like that, they were through. One of the guards led the way, slinging her shield across her back. She stopped at the first door on the left, just a few paces from the entrance. She knocked.

“Feran, Rank 3. Permission to enter, ma’am.”

“Enter.”

The guard opened the door and stepped in, saluting.

“What is it?” the officer asked. She was seated behind a desk, apparently in her last leg of paperwork.

“Ma’am, you have two visitors with an endorsement from the Inquisition.”

The officer’s pen stopped. “Let them in.”

She stood up and prepared to receive the, no doubt, grizzled veterans of the Inquisition. What matter would they be visiting for, anyway? The recent Unalive sightings? A loose necromancer is well within their purview, for certain, but they had already received orders to ascertain the threat first before the Inquisition could be hassled to dispatch its own specialized forces.

Not all necromancers were dangerous. Many, in fact, could be subjugated with just the local town guard. Those necromancers who could create Unalive, besides, are not usually interested in conflict, illegal their practice may be.

Jyn entered first, followed by Kalender. She hadn’t expected them to be so young. One verily had the air of experience around her, but the other was nothing more than a lad.

“Commander Tana?” Jyn said.

“… You know my name?”

“As a Knight with peculiar experience, my work makes it a point to acquaint oneself with the local commander, first and foremost—with or without the commander’s knowledge.”

Damn, she’s dominating. Kalender’s curiosity about the specifics of Jyn’s past was escalating. Commander Tana, meanwhile, readjusted her valuation of the person in front of her.

“I see. For the sake of my pride, again, I am Commander Tana of the Town Guard of Clarinets. Humble as my command may be, I am at your service, Inquisitor…?”

“Knight Jyn—but due to exceptional circumstances, I am not serving as a knight today.”

Just a Knight she may be, the word “Inquisition” hovered behind Jyn and Kalender. The power of endorsement was just too powerful.

“I-I see. What can I do for you today?”

“We noticed a unit of knights moving here, escorting a prisoner under a black cloth. We have no interest in the prisoner per se, but the Cleric or Priestess conducting the purification.”

Although Jyn avoided calling the prisoner an Unalive, her mention of purification indicated that she knew just as much as they did. The officer stood just a little stiffer. She is only endorsed by the Inquisition, and yet she already knows about the capture of the Unalive?! A-as expected, the Inquisition’s scary.

Of course, it was just that Jyn and Kalender were at the Knight HQ when the messenger blurted it all out.

“We wish to speak to her,” Jyn continued. “This is not urgent, but it is of great importance. We hope we can privately meet with her within the day, or at least before she leaves.”

“I understand. She will be conducting the purification in three hours. I will send someone to ask if she is willing to meet you before then.”

“That will do. We will be loitering about the plaza until then.”

Jyn thanked the commander and Kalender opened the door for her. They left the barracks, wondering what to do for the next hour.

***

As it turned out, they didn’t even need to wait 10 minutes.

A messenger found them, informing them that the Priestess of Minimine was waiting for them in a private meeting room in the barracks.

With some trepidation, they returned to the barracks, then followed a guard to the meeting room. The guard saluted and left them, leaving them to face the doorknob alone.

Again, Jyn went in first to set up the “we’re a very official and experienced team” mood. As soon as Kalender went in, however, the Priestess’s eyes went wide. This didn’t go unnoticed to Jyn, but she figured she’d let things play out first.

As soon as Kalender closed the door behind him, however…

“Are you Champion Kalender?” the Priestess asked, standing.

“Huh? W-well, yeah—woah, there!”

The Priestess got on one knee, her head bowed down. “M’lord, I am glad to see that you’re safe.”

“Wait, wait, what’s going on!—”

“Some weeks ago, my goddess had voiced her concern, and granted me a vision of a man whom, she ordered, I must support with all my might!”

“Thanks for answering in a concise way that I understand—but wait! Just wait! I can’t keep up!”

He looked to Jyn, but the girl was just sitting down and doing her best to keep a straight face.

“For now, can we just sit down and talk?”

“Yes, m’lord.”

While they settled down, Kalender took the time to confirm that he hadn’t accidentally charmed someone he hadn’t even seen before from long range.

Thankfully, such wasn’t the case.

“Please let me introduce myself. I am a Priestess of Minimine, Tak Recue.”

Jyn noted the foreign-sounding name; it was not uncommon to have foreign Priestesses, but it would never stop drawing her attention. In fact, she was pretty sure Tak’s first and last names were from completely different countries.

Now that they were properly facing each other, Kalender noted Tak’s clothing, which were what one would expect a priestess would look like.

Except for the plate armor around her neck and arms. That one’s new.

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“M’lord, I do not consent to being gazed upon.”

“O-oh, no, no, I was just curious about the armor.”

“… What about the armor?” The Priestess was suspicious of his excuse.

“It’s specifically around the neck and arms. Is there a reason for that?”

She squinted at him, then remembered something. “Ah, of course, you’re a reincarnator… M’lord, Clerics and Priestesses of Reincarnation often deal with undead. 80% of their attacks are aimed around these areas.”

“Is that a Reincarnation thing, or…”

“It is not exclusive. The Domains of Death, Life, and others still, all frequently deal with undead.”

Huh. Interesting.

“M’lord, there is a more pressing issue.”

Huh. Trouble.

“My goddess has gone missing.”

"“What?”"

Even Jyn was surprised. Goddesses didn’t just—poof.

“I know that she is not dead. However, the connection is severely weakened.”

“I am Knight Jyn, friends and working with Kalender. When was this?”

“Some 9 days ago.”

Kalender and Jyn recounted that this was sometime in the middle of the Carmine Test. However, Jyn recounted something else.

“I inquired with the knights and guards here, and I learned that the first Unalive sighting was … it should be 8 days ago.”

Priestess Tak glared at Jyn. “Are you insinuating that my goddess is responsible?”

Jyn glared back. “Stay your antagonism. The two events are clearly related, but I am not so foolhardy to draw conclusions at this stage.”

“I apologize.” Tak bowed.

“Hey, is necromancy, like, forbidden or something around here?” Kalender asked.

“There are white- and black-hood necromancers,” Jyn replied. “Both are dangerous, but the latter is morally bankrupt.”

‘White- and black-hood necromancy’—the heck, what’s this, some sort of magic hacking convention? Ohh, that doesn’t sound too bad, actually…

“Why do you ask?” Jyn continued, interrupting Kalender’s trailing thoughts.

“A-ah, another question.” He faced Tak this time. “Can goddesses incarnate?”

Tak and Jyn raised their eyebrows. They both knew what Kalender was going with here, but Tak continued, anyway. “There are historical accounts of it, yes.”

Then she remembered another detail. “The records of the priesthoods of that time also report their connections with their goddesses weakening as the goddess’s will and power is sublimed into the mortal realm…”

They shared three-way glances with each other.

—Minimine probably incarnated.

Jyn recalled something. “Kalender, why did you ask about necromancy?”

“Ah, well—if you think about it, necromancy is—actually, wait, is necromancy ‘power over souls’ here?”

"“Yes.”"

“Alright—if you think about it, reincarnation falls under necromancy, doesn’t it?”

"“… That sounds strange, but not wrong. Go on.”"

“So won’t that make Minimine the most powerful necromancer on earth—err, Gaia—if she’s actually incarnated?”

Tak’s eyes twitched. With the recent sightings and capture of an Unalive… “Are you insinuating that my goddess is responsible?”

“I’m not sure how you got to that conclusion, but there’s a lot of things I don’t know to draw that one in particular.” He scratched his cheek. “Why are Unalive so bad, anyway? What are Unalive, anyway? Do they have a soul?”

Jyn glared at Tak to suppress her emotions. Tak sighed, answering, “Their souls are clones of the original. Unlike a real soul, their pseudo-souls cannot rejoin the River of Souls. That is the only critical difference.”

“Cloning a soul sounds…” Yeah, sounds pretty high level to me. “Then why purify them?”

Tak fully knew that she had to obey her goddess, but this man’s level of ignorance was just appalling. She sighed. “We would rather not have a magical construct puppeteering our loved ones, m’lord. Between undead and Unalive, the latter are a much more bitter sight, for they act just as they were alive.”

Enlightenment dawned on Kalender’s face—and then concern. “Alright, I’ll admit, I was totally suspecting Minimine—”

Tak glared at him really hard, overcoming Jyn’s own glare field.

“—but if she understands the human common sense of not defiling the dead, doesn’t that mean that our local maybe-Minimine necromancer isn’t actually creating Unalive, but straight-up resurrecting the dead? She can probably do that, can’t she?” Being a goddess with power over souls and all.

Of course my goddess understands human common sense!—but after hearing the latter part of Kalender’s statement, she couldn’t disagree. After all, resurrection was a normal feature of this world—not common, perhaps, but not unheard of, either.

There was a historical account of Minimine’s elder sister, Maximine, resurrecting an ancient army to fight against the demon lord’s army. In the face of that, Minimine resurrecting even a hundred would not be considered extreme.

If her goddess had actually incarnated and decided to start resurrecting people left and right, there had to be a reason for it. Did she sense some sort of impending danger?

First and foremost, they had to confirm that it was Minimine who was causing the irregularity in Clarinets.

“I will speak with Commander Tana. I will inform her that I will perform a confirmation of the Unalive’s soul first. If she is a real soul, then—” Then Minimine had truly incarnated. “—then we will take it from there.”

“We’re also planning on visiting the Temple to Maximine outside of town,” Kalender continued. “Since you mentioned that you regularly dealt with undead, I was thinking maybe—”

“Of course, I will participate.” Tak smiled. “If my goddess is in the area, I will not hesitate to meet her. When shall we sally? I hope to ask for time to inform my Head Priestess that I have found you, m’lord.”

Kalender thought she sort of sounded like a fangirl for a moment there.

Withholding that thought, he looked to Jyn. His training menu was still up for debate. Jyn gave it a thought. “I’m still training Kalender here—ah, actually, I must also train Page after tomorrow, come to think of it.”

“Page?” Tak asked.

“Page Turner,” Jyn replied. “She is the Librarian of this town’s Knight HQ. After—” Jyn shot a sharp look at Tak. “Do you know of Kalender’s circumstances?”

“I do. The goddess feels remorseful in failing to prevent the curse from reaching him.”

Jyn relaxed. “Alright. After his anti-charm cuffs were circumvented, she was charmed. By the Inquisition’s behest, she is to join our party.”

“I see.” Tak nodded. “I believe it is best to tackle the Temple earlier when the undead have not achieved much numbers, and so it is best to decline that Librarian’s participation.”

“Uhh, I don’t think just three of us will do it, though,” Kalender remarked. “That adventurer group Jyn and I encountered coming from the Temple’s direction was pretty big, but a bunch of them were still roughed up pretty bad.”

“That means the undead have already become decently numerous…” Tak fell to contemplation. “I see. If we can spare four days, I can call my sisters to arms.”

“Oh, four days is okay. I can train with Jyn and Page, so there’s no time wasted,” Kalender said. “Sounds like you’re bringing in a small army, though,” he jokingly added.

Tak chuckled. “Nothing of the sort. Twenty should do.”

“T-twenty?” Kalender imagined, like, five or something.

“Hm, that’s a good number,” Jyn agreed. She noticed Kalender’s surprise. “We will not be fighting in a tight formation. The bulk of the number are fighters, but an above-average number of them will be specialized in scouting and detection. That way, we will never be outnumbered against the undead, at least not in a forest.”

“Ohh. Thanks for the explanation.”

Kalender and Jyn agreed to meet with Tak tomorrow about the results of her confirmation ritual on the suspect Unalive. If anything else came up, Tak was also just staying in a guest room in the barracks; Commander Tana issued Kalender and Jyn some guest IDs, so there shouldn’t be a problem just barging into the barracks and kidnapping Tak in some strange-case scenario.

For now, their soonest concern was that Page’s last day as a Librarian was tomorrow. They still didn’t know how Page was holding up, so Kalender opted to go to the magic practice field, while Jyn visited Knight HQ.

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