Chapter 167: 9.9 – Secrets of Tarin-Tiran

‘I accept your proposal,’ Fiara said, ‘provided you swear upon your faith.’

Savra gasped and looked at Robin.

The bard winced internally. Clearly this was some sort of big thing. His [Bardic Lore] pinged, agreeing that this was dangerous and important, but providing only fictional and exaggerated versions of what it might mean, rather than concrete mechanics.

What he wouldn’t give to be able to read the Dungeon Master’s Guide for this universe!

‘But I will also require something to increase my power now,’ the demigoddess continued. ‘I will not aid you in bringing Nilsiir here in a state where I cannot be certain of matching or exceeding their power.’

Right. Sacrifice was back on the table. Robin was about to open his character sheet and look once more for what he might give up when Jhess spoke.

‘I will devote myself to you, lady, to be your true and willing servant. I offer you all my memories of lost love, all my hope of restoring one who loved me so that I may love her in return.’ The rogue stepped forward, unsteady on her feet, all customary grace drowned in a clear case of nerves.

Fiara looked at Jhess and smiled softly.

‘There now. Was that so hard, my child?’ The demigoddes reached out to take the rogue by the chin and draw her eyes up to meet her gaze. ‘Thank you. I accept your service and your sacrifice. And I shall do all I can to answer your prayers for love.’

Robin, watching the exchange uncomfortably, as it seemed such a very private and intimate thing, caught a glimpse of another woman’s face than Jhess’s reflected in Fiara’s eyes. He didn’t recognise her, but from the way Jhess’s eyes were glimmering, the rogue did.

The rogue kept a lot of secrets, and he’d known that she had an ulterior motive for amassing such a hoard of wealth, but he’d had no idea it had to do with personal tragedy and lost love!

Robin turned his head to the side, averting his gaze to give Jhess and Fiara a bit more privacy.

Vance caught his eye. The librarian had likewise averted his gaze, seemed to likewise be surprised by Jhess’s revelation. The two of them looked at one another for a long moment, wondering which secrets the other was carrying.

‘It is done, then,’ Fiara said.

Robin turned to look at the demigoddess and felt his heart nearly stop in his chest. Before her visage had been affecting, but now it was an order of magnitude more extreme. His body reacted instantly even as his heart began to ache with loss and longing.

‘Do we have a deal bard? Will you swear upon your faith to spread my story as we discussed?’

Robin paused, looking from the demigoddess to Savra. The seeress just stared at him with wide eyes.

Fuck it. He needed this. And he had no intention of breaking his word anyway.

‘I so swear.’

Robin’s veins suddenly sang with crimson fire. he felt the words write themselves upon his bones and it was agony and ecstasy, the touch of a diving hand on him, body and soul. Every sense he had was amplified, turned to overdrive as sensations of all kinds tore at his mind in their intensity.

In his mind Fiara’s voice whispered like a lover’s caress.

And think not to betray this oath with any of your patron’s tricks. I know Rhyth of old, and I will know if you use any of his customary means of slipping the consequences of an oath.

Robin gasped and was almost blinded by the blazing blue light that appeared with the notification before his eyes.

 

Advanced Knowledge Unlocked! [The Trickster’s Oath]

A demigoddess has rudely laid hands upon you, body and soul, binding you with a terrible oath. However, in the process she has revealed to you the existence of a way to avoid the consequences of breaking an oath. Your attempts to discover this knowledge for yourself in the future will benefit from a greatly increased chance of success.

 

‘Yes, my lady,’ Robin managed to say aloud, blinking away the notification.

‘Then you may proceed with your attempts to complete Nilsiir’s request when ready.’ Fiara gestured and the runic structures powering the temple revealed themselves.

Robin pulled out a waterskin from their emergency supplies, used [Lesser Phantasm] to give it the sting and burn of eighteen year old scotch, and slammed back several swallows.

‘Right,’ he said. ‘To work, then. Drev, Vance, why don’t you help me while Savra and Jhess entertain our gracious host.’

Jhess would be in no shape to help them spot inconsistencies, even if she had had the magical know how for it. And while Savra would be useful for her divinatory skills, Robin felt Jhess needed the seeress by her side more than they needed her double-checking the magical work he, the librarian, and the mage were doing.

So they began the work. It was mentally taxing, and by the time they had a workable model of the changes they wanted to make, they were nearly exhausted.

‘This isn’t going to work,’ Vance said regretfully.

Well, an almost-working model.

‘It’ll work,’ Robin said. ‘Nilsiir won’t have the control they had in the last space, but they should be able to manifest.’

‘That won’t be enough for them,’ Drev said. ‘No way.’

‘They can take that up with Fiara, then,’ Robin snapped. ‘Or you can. I’m not going to.’

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He waited to see if either Vance or Drev would take him up on that offer. When neither said anything, Robin crossed his arms and continued.

‘No. It’s not perfect. But it should work. And there’s a chance Nilsiir will be able to work with Fiara to finish, once they’re here. They have a lot more knowledge than any of us, after all.’

‘If they and Fiara don’t try to kill one another on sight,’ Drev muttered.

‘Yeah, that’s not helping.’ Robin shook his head. ‘Look, they’re both remnants of the old city, both want this place restored. There’s a bigger chance of them working together than coming to metaphysical blows. I think at most we’ll get some catty sniping.’

‘Fine,’ Drev said. ‘Just do it. But I’m going to have a shield ready to cover our retreat if this goes pear-shaped.’

‘I wouldn’t have it any other way.’

Robin didn’t bother waiting for Vance to add his opinion, he just called up both [Visual Phantasm] and [Lesser Phantasm] and made the necessary illusory changes to the runic structure. Neither alone were enough to cover the space needed. It took some quick timing, but Robin was sure he—

The magic connected, surging along the illusory conduits and arcing across the gaps to ground themselves in Robin’s eyes. His world went blue and black and he lost the words for colours as darkness claimed his mind.

His last thought before it did was that he’d definitely miscalculated somewhere, but damned if he was going to tell Drev that he was right.

When he came to, the first thing Robin heard was Nilsiir’s voice, strident and full of ire.

‘…botch job! Now I’m trapped here in on of these ridiculous sex mirrors! What do you intend to do about this? I’m going to fry that idiot bard once he wakes up!’

Robin wisely decided to keep his eyes closed for a moment longer. He could hear Nilsiir, so presuming he wasn’t dead or hallucinating, his fix had worked, somewhat. Trapped in one of Fiara’s mirrors though? That didn’t make any sense.

He went over the sequence of runes again in his mind. It was easy. They were practically burned there by the feedback.

Yeah, there was no way he could see that a mishap like this would result. Maybe wild magic? But no. [Touched by Wild Magic] didn’t so much as quiver at the thought.

‘All right then,’ Robin said, opening his eyes. ‘Fry me. Unless you’re ready to come clean with the bluff and stop tricking everyone for no good reason.’

Fiara’s laugh, ringing and high and bright as gold, rang out.

‘I told you he’d figure you out,’ the demigoddess said. ‘Pay up!’

A bet. Sure, why not? Robin sighed and clambered to his feet.

‘What’s my humiliation worth, then?’ he asked.

‘Above your pay grade, I’m afraid,’ Nilsiir said. ‘Suffice to say that Fiara and I have worked out an arrangement that should make everyone happy. Well, except for you and your friends. I’m afraid it means a bit more work for you. Perhaps some additional hazards to face.’

‘Great,’ Robin said sourly.

The rest of his party didn’t seem too upset though. Robin wondered why, but didn’t want to ask in front of the High Priest and the demigoddess.

Then Robin noticed the additional figure standing quietly in the centre of the room.

It was Melusk!

Or the illusion of him, Robin decided at once. There was no way the actual man could be here, and if he was he wouldn’t be acting so docile. Fiara, or Nilsiir, or possibly both, had to have conjured up this spectre.

‘Well that’s new,’ he said.

‘In light of the information gathered here,’ Nilsiir said, ‘I am amending your task list. There are some additional locations I need you to repair on the way to uncovering this reprobate’s hidden stronghold.’

The illusion of Nilsiir appeared next to that of Melusk and flashed a rude gesture before its eyes.

‘Between the two of us we have found three likely locations for Melusk’s hidden sanctuary,’ Fiara said, ‘and with the aid of Savra we have been able to ascertain that the Disciple of Urkhan survives and is headed towards Melusk’s hiding place as well.’

‘You’ll need to deal with that as well,’ Nilsiir said airily, as if he were telling Robin to mow the lawn or pick up milk from the store. ‘So that’s the bad news. Priest of Urkhan bent on destroying what’s left of the city using something nasty Melusk left behind. Well, not literally destroying. Trying to wipe out what’s left of the soul of the city.’

‘You mean yourself and possibly Fiara,’ Robin said.

‘Yes,’ Nilsiir said. ‘Bad news. As I said. But there is some good news! Though that comes with a tad more bad news too.’

‘What’s the good news?’ Robin asked warily.

‘You can easily beat the fucking priest of that wankstain of a god to where he’s headed,’ Nilsiir said cheerfully. ‘Plenty of time to get there first, find whatever Melusk has left behind, and destroy it. Maybe even to plant a trap for him. There’s a shortcut you can take through the ruins of the city to ensure you’re there first.’

That sounded too good to be true to Robin, so he asked the obvious question.

‘And what’s the bad news?’

‘You’re going to have to brave the depths of Silinir in order to make use of said shortcut.’

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