Chapter 7 - Divine Apostasy Book 4

Chapter 7

Bliz laughed. “You’d need to be level twenty for a Specialization.”

Ruwen rubbed his forehead. “I just dinged twenty.”

Bliz stared at Ruwen in disbelief. “You only Ascended two months ago.”

“True, but we ended up someplace we weren’t meant to go, and that power leveled us,” Ruwen said.

“Us?” Bliz asked.

Sift spoke up. “Ruwen’s girlfriend, two assassins, three –”

Ruwen interrupted Sift. “We can talk about the details later.”

Tremine and Bliz stared at Ruwen.

“A girlfriend?” Tremine asked.

“Assassins?” Bliz asked at the same time.

Ruwen glared at Sift, who seemed oblivious to the problems he’d caused.

Desperate to shift the attention someplace else, Ruwen pointed at the crystals. “What do you think of the crystals?”

Tremine and Bliz both reluctantly looked away from Ruwen and glanced around.

“I was going to ask you about them,” Tremine said. “They seem out of place.”

Bliz touched the nearest crystal. “It looks like quartz to me, but I’ve never seen such large formations.”

“What’s their purpose?” Tremine asked.

In his haste to avoid talking about the last two months, Ruwen had stepped right into another topic he’d hoped to avoid.

“Yeah, Ruwen, what’s their purpose,” Sift asked.

Ruwen had never answered Sift’s earlier question about Blapy’s presence. The truth was Ruwen didn’t know how much more Blapy would be around, but he had a bad feeling it would be a lot. And Blapy liked to harass Sift, which was likely why Sift was so concerned.

“It will soon be a portal to the dungeon north of Deepwell,” Ruwen said, leaving out a hundred details he didn’t want to explain.

Bliz frowned. “How can that be? Something destroyed the dungeon the day you all disappeared.” He shook his head. “Big D is still suffering from that camping disaster. The dungeon is empty, a Councilor’s daughter disappeared, one of the wealthiest families in town lost a son, but I think she took your disappearance the hardest.”

Tremine looked down, pain evident on his face. Ruwen could see the librarian still felt guilty for all the pain his actions had caused. And Ruwen felt guilty as well. The disappearance he had no control over, but the state of the dungeon was entirely his fault.

Bliz continued. “When Tremine talked me into coming here, I thought about telling Big D you were still alive, but,” Bliz glanced at Tremine, “I didn’t really believe it. Now I wish I had.”

Tremine and Bliz must have left Deepwell before Slib and Juva reappeared. Otherwise, they would have known everyone had returned.

Ruwen patted Bliz on the shoulder. “Big D will know we’re safe by now. The goddess returned some of our group to Deepwell. And the dungeon is going to recover soon, too.”

“That’s great news,” Bliz said. “Councilor Blakrock has been hysterical. Having her daughter back will ease the pressure on Big D.”

Ruwen winced.

“Is he talking about Hamma?” Sift asked.

Tremine looked miserable, and Ruwen didn’t feel much better. 

“Hamma had a message delivered to her mom,” Ruwen said. “You two must have just missed everyone returning.”

Tremine pointed at the crystals and brought the subject back to the dungeon. “How can the Deepwell dungeon form a portal here?”

“It made a deal with a more powerful dungeon, and this was one of the benefits,” Ruwen said.

Tremine’s eyes grew large, and he placed a hand on a crystal to steady himself. “Did this other dungeon actually manifest here?”

Ruwen nodded, knowing Tremine would immediately know who the dungeon must be.

“Why is the area for the portal so large?” Bliz asked.

“I agreed to give the dungeon inhabitants an area of their own,” Ruwen said.

Bliz’s eyes grew large. “I request to build my bar as close as possible to their area.”

Ruwen thought a moment before speaking. He knew how Blapy felt about equal rights for her followers. Just like Big D, Blapy wanted equity and fairness for her people. He decided it would be a requirement for anyone who wanted to do business here.

Ruwen waved at all the crystals. “Eventually, this entire area will be full of creatures people usually only see in dungeons. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, so this might change, but I think a good start is every business must agree to the following. One, they can’t deny service to anyone without a good reason, and two, every business must employ someone with the ability to translate fluently. That can be a Worker with a level three Hey You, or some equivalent. You have temporary permission to build, and when you show me your plan to serve everyone, I’ll make it permanent.”

Bliz’s eyes glazed over for a second. “You just triggered a quest for me. I go decades without a quest, and then Tremine prompts one followed a few days later by you. I feel like I’m a hundred again. I like your philosophy young man, and I accept.”

Ruwen smiled. “Then build wherever you want.”

Bliz grinned. “This is going to be epic. Does the dungeon have a focus yet?”

“It’s called the Shattered Sun, and it has a Resource focus,” Ruwen said.

Now Bliz used a crystal to steady himself. “Uru help me. I must be dreaming. This is fantastic news for the Lodge. Workers will be in high demand.”

“You know an awful lot about this dungeon,” Tremine said casually.

Ruwen rubbed his forehead. “It’s mostly because of the temple thing.”

“The temple thing,” Tremine repeated.

“Yeah, we got the temple working again, and I learned some stuff,” Ruwen said, the biggest understatement of his life.

“We noticed Uru’s Blessing had doubled in size,” Bliz said. “That was you?”

“It was a team effort,” Ruwen said. He really didn’t want to talk about his Architect Role and restoring the temple because he didn’t want to lie to Bliz, so he tried changing the subject again. “Why are you two here?”

“To help you,” Tremine said.

“We could have used your help yesterday,” Sift said.

“It appears you didn’t need it,” Tremine said.

Sift pointed at Ruwen. “Barely. Genius here almost killed Lylan by shooting her from his bag.”

Tremine and Bliz both stared at Ruwen, their eyes wide.

Ruwen groaned. “I didn’t kill her, and that idea saved us.”

Bliz stepped up to Ruwen and grabbed his shoulders. “It worked? You guessed the countdown would keep her alive, right?”

Ruwen nodded. “It was a last resort. But the Bone Sculptor was on top of a tower, and we didn’t have any other way of getting up there.”

“I’ve tested it on plants, but always wondered if it worked on people,” Bliz said. “I could never talk anyone into trying.”

Ruwen looked at Sift. “Well, Lylan has a habit of making bad choices.”

“Hey!” Sift said.

Bliz patted Ruwen on the shoulder. “You’ve had your Void Band for two months, and already answered two questions I’ve spent my life wondering about.”

“The gate runes and launching Lylan were all done in desperation,” Ruwen said. “My only contribution was finding terrible situations.”

Sift nodded. “He’s like a bad luck magnet.”

Before Ruwen could respond, Tremine spoke up. “Speaking of bad luck, we encountered Naktos and Haffa Scouts on the plains. The poor Cultivators are as trapped as you.”

“Let’s head back to the city,” Ruwen said. As they walked, Ruwen wondered about the Cultivators. “Are the Cultivators fighting?”

Tremine shook his head. “They’re just protecting themselves. They’re mostly nomadic, so they don’t have cities to defend, but they’ve run out of places to hide and are grouped north of here.”

Ruwen hadn’t given the Cultivators much thought, but now the area they’d inhabited for thousands of years had returned to Uru’s Blessing. That meant Uru’s followers would soon follow to farm and build cities. If that wasn’t bad enough for their culture, an invading army was putting their lives in danger.

If Ruwen could talk to the Cultivators, maybe he could convince them to help. Perhaps in exchange for an area of their own, they would help Ruwen defend the southern border. He thought of Phoenix and Willow and the other Cultivators he’d met in the Spirit Realm. Powerful allies like that might make a huge difference.

But the Cultivators probably saw little difference between Uru and Naktos or Haffa. Those who Ascended were all the same, and they tended to treat Cultivators poorly. The Priests especially didn’t like Cultivators and referred to them as the Unbound. High Priest Fusil had threatened to cast Ruwen out to live with the Unbound on Ruwen’s Ascendancy day.

Ruwen wanted to offer the Cultivators a deal, but he didn’t know how much authority he had. Did his control just cover New Eiru?

Rami? Will you listen in on this conversation, please.

Sure.

Lir? Ruwen asked, not sure if the temple could hear him.

Yes.

Ruwen took a moment to be as specific as possible, knowing Lir took everything literally. Earlier, you told me you spoke with the other temples. What did you tell them about me?

Your oxygen levels, weight, bone density, blood pressure, chem —

Stop. Let me try again. Do they know my name?

Yes.

Ruwen stepped around a pine tree and swallowed a groan about the revelation of his identity. Sift was interrogating Bliz on the last two months of Step Tournament matches. Sift had removed Io from his sheath and spun the dagger as they talked. Ruwen knew Sift had removed Io just so the dagger could hear Bliz’s responses.

Have they given my identity to anyone else? Ruwen asked.

Of course not. Protocol requires me to inform my siblings of your Role. The Architect’s word is law, so proper identification is paramount.

Ruwen felt a wave of relief. That makes sense. I don’t want my identity revealed to anyone. Can you tell the other temples?

I can. Do you wish to speak with them yourself? I can connect us all.

No! You’re good for right now. There are already too many people in my head.

Lir’s words sunk in. Did you say my word is law? Like whatever I want?

Correct. You are the Architect, and Divine authority is yours.

Divine authority? Like I’m a god?

Correct. Although a severely handicapped one as your body remains in the Metal levels.

What does that make Uru now?

Uru is a Divine Harvester and the current figurehead for your domain, but her authority has been transferred to you. Do you wish to alter the figurehead to one that more resembles your form?

No! Leave everything as she had it, and tell me if a decision I make alters her choices.

As you wish. I’ve updated my siblings.

Ruwen had started this conversation to understand if he could make a deal with the Cultivators in good faith, and now he knew he could. In fact, he could do anything he wanted.

The idea of being a god had never occurred to Ruwen. His goals had centered around knowledge and magic. A surge of adrenaline accompanied the realization that he now held ultimate power over everything in Uru’s domain.

Thoughts of punishing High Priest Fusil immediately came to mind. Ruwen could have the man killed, or punished, or whatever he wanted. Justice for his parents and for the misery Ruwen had endured was just a command away.

New swords cause the most harm, Rami said.

Ruwen flashed back to his years of training with Rami. When she wasn’t teaching him Step Forms, she taught him strategy, and this was one of her favorite sayings. He’d thought she meant new swords were better because they caused the enemy more damage. But he’d quickly learned she meant the opposite. New weapons were unfamiliar, and they, more often than not, injured the owner who used the weapon too soon.

Thanks, Rami.

Ruwen wouldn’t make any changes right now. He’d wait until he had more experience with this new power.

Bliz and Sift were still discussing the Step Tournament in front of Ruwen, and Tremine walked beside him.

Ruwen turned to Tremine. “Do you think I could convince the Cultivators to fight with us? Maybe for some land of their own?”

Tremine nodded. “It’s a good idea. They will be desperate soon. As desperate as we are.”

“I know,” Ruwen said. “There’s an army here ready to be revived, but we need a lot of some critical resources.”

Tremine pointed at Bliz. “I assume that’s why she wanted me to bring him along.”

The emphasis on “she” confirmed what Ruwen had guessed. Uru had sent Tremine here.

“There’s something else,” Ruwen said and swallowed hard. “My parents are here. They’re reviving now.”

Tremine stopped, and Ruwen did as well. 

“Thank, Uru,” Tremine said, his eyes glinting. He stepped forward and hugged Ruwen. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks,” Ruwen whispered.

They started walking again.

“That simplifies things a lot,” Tremine said. “Maybe we do have a chance.”

“Simplifies what?” Ruwen asked.

“Finding the terium to revive that army you said was queued in the temple. I thought Bliz and I were going to have to treasure hunt, but now we’ll have guides.”

Ruwen’s stomach knotted. “What do you mean? My parents didn’t take that terium. They didn’t kill that party!”

Tremine’s face paled, and Sift and Bliz turned to look at them.

After a moment, Tremine lifted his hands. “I never said they did. None of us knows what happened or why. Let’s let them speak for themselves.”

Ruwen strode toward the city, his thoughts in chaos. Regardless of what Tremine said, he must have guessed what had happened. And if he was right, it meant High Priest Fusil and all the people who’d whispered about his parents were right. 

It meant his parents were murderers and thieves.