Chapter 2 - Divine Apostasy Book 2

Happy weekend everyone! Here is chapter two. Enjoy!  

Chapter 2

The sound of boots on the road reached them a few seconds before four Order Enforcement soldiers came running into view. These soldiers were city patrol, so they wore scale instead of plate armor. Each carried a long sword and a shield with the Order Class blue circle on it. The fighting path under the Order Class didn’t get all the advantages of the pure Fighter Class, but they made up for it with their auras and spells.

As the four soldiers approached, three buffs appeared at the top of Ruwen’s vision, and a debuff flashed under his resource bars. His shoulders relaxed, and some of his anxiety disappeared. He wasn’t that familiar with Order’s auras, so he looked at the buffs.

Shelter: +10 AC, +5% Resilience

Hearty: +2 Health Regeneration per second

Clarity: +1 Mana Regeneration per second

He glanced at the debuff.

Honesty: -10% Persuasion, -10% Disguise

The Honesty aura worried him a little. His Persuasion Rating was 6.90% of which 2% came from his Deception skill. The aura penalized him and made it 3.10% more likely he would tell the truth. And the truth was he knew who’d attacked him and why his Fade ability hadn’t worked.

When he’d used Magnify, he’d seen part of a woman in a dress, but the rings on her fingers as she pointed at Ruwen were what gave her away. He had seen those same rings that morning, as he’d approached the temple. It was Slib’s mom, Annul Strongspell, who had ordered him killed. Ruwen had enough problems without accusing one of the wealthiest families in Deepwell of murder.

Sift put on his shirt and Hamma stood to meet them. Ruwen glanced at the clock above his map: 6:48. That whole ordeal had taken less than ten minutes, and they were only five minutes from the Worker’s Lodge. Hopefully, they could still make it there on time.

A female soldier displaying the name Juhn knelt next to Sift. “Whistler? Are you injured?”

“I can’t whistle,” Sift replied.

Juhn cocked her head.

“Sift, she means your name. Whistler. Sift Whistler,” Ruwen said.

Sift’s eyes grew large, and he nodded. “Yes, Whistler is my name.” He tried whistling, and Juhn leaned away from Sift until he finished.

“He took a hard blow to the head,” Ruwen said.

Juhn nodded and checked Sift’s head for injuries.

Two soldiers, Mavy and Warber, stood near the group, swords drawn and shields held ready for any additional trouble. The last soldier and the oldest of them crossed his arms and gave a small bow to Hamma. The name Officer Kaleb floated over his head.

“Sister, what is your need?” Officer Kaleb asked.

Hamma returned the bow. “We were attacked. Six with crossbows, all masked. They tried to kill Ruwen, but Sift got in the way.”

Officer Kaleb nodded. “Mavy get the Sketcher.”

Mavy sheathed her sword and placed the shield on her back. She removed what looked like a book about two-hands long from a pouch on her belt and walked up to them.

“Any details?” Officer Kaleb asked Hamma.

Hamma took a deep breath. “They took direction from someone out of sight. The only one who spoke had a black crossbow, Idlewood, I think. Voice inflection was male, mid-hundreds. From their stances, I would guess all were Fighters, not Observers, but trained well. They were very accurate and used poisoned bolts. So possibly mercenaries or a household militia.”

Officer Kaleb nodded. “Excellent attention to detail, Sister. Are you training to be an Inquisitor?”

Hamma blushed and shook her head. “No, sir. Just observant.”

Officer Kaleb turned to Ruwen. “What about you, son? Anything to add?”

Annul Strongspell Ruwen wanted to scream. He bit his tongue and tasted blood. The desire to please Officer Kaleb and answer his questions was overwhelming. He had to say something, or he would explode.

“Hamma saved Sift’s life,” Ruwen said in a rush.

The desire to talk abated and became manageable. Officer Kaleb must be using some sort of magic on him. Ruwen wasn’t that familiar with the Order’s soldiers because he never got in trouble. This was the first time he’d actually ever talked to one. They made him nervous.

Hamma frowned and looked down. “No, I didn’t. You had to.”

Why did Hamma look so sad?

Ruwen faced Officer Kaleb. “She saved us twice, actually. If she hadn't signaled you, they would’ve had the time to make sure we were dead.”

“Any idea why they attacked you?” Officer Kaleb asked.

Ruwen held up his left wrist.

“Well, that explains it. Your the Death’s Grip causing all this ruckus?” Officer Kaleb asked.

The soldier was using the term from the famous song where a farmer’s Void Band killed him nine times. Ruwen was on his way to reaching that number even without his Void Band doing the work.

“Yes,” Ruwen said.

He immediately filled with relief and joy at answering truthfully.

“Anyone you know who wants to kill you?” Officer Kaleb asked.

Ruwen thought about Annul Strongspell, Naktos, Blapy, other gods he didn’t even know the names of, and probably a large percent of the city.

“A lot,” Ruwen said.

“I suppose that’s true,” Officer Kaleb said. “You are both on private, can you give us your info for the report.”

“Hamma Blakrok, Order, level six,” Hamma said.

Officer Kaleb tilted his head. “Any relation to Elyse?”

Hamma sighed. “My mom.”

Officer Kaleb whistled. “Well, we’re lucky nothing happened to you. Please let your mom know we came as fast as we could. Is there any chance you were the target?”

“No, they were clearly after Ruwen,” Hamma said.

Officer Kaleb turned to Ruwen.

“Ruwen Starfield, Worker, level two,” Ruwen said and prayed his Fabricate ability was strong enough to counteract whatever magic Officer Kaleb was using.

“You get all that Mavy?”

“Yes, sir,” Mavy replied.

“Then let’s file a report, notify all the other Sketchers, and escort them to the Worker’s Lodge,” Officer Kaleb said.

Mavy stretched her right arm into the air and quietly chanted. She brought the arm down and touched her forehead, then her lips, and finally, her heart. Her finger grew brighter with each touch. With her left hand, she opened the book and began to write with her glowing finger.

Ruwen knew what Sketchers were, but had never seen one. When the soldier finished writing and closed the Sketcher, it would send the information to all the other teams in the city with Sketchers. Had they seen someone’s face, Mavy would have drawn that in the Sketcher as well.

Officer Kaleb looked down at Sift. “You okay to walk?”

“Yes,” Sift said.

Officer Kaleb glanced at Juhn.

“I can’t find anything wrong, but his Stats are confusing,” Juhn said.

That was because they were fake and being provided by the giant snake tattoo on Sift’s chest. Ruwen didn’t know what would happen if they found out Sift was impersonating one of Uru’s subjects. But it probably wasn’t good. He needed to do something.

“I’m really late. Big D is going to be mad at me,” Ruwen said.

It was actually 6:55 AM and they would be there on time if they left right now. But, Ruwen wanted Officer Kaleb to feel pressured to move along.

Officer Kaleb grimaced. “Warber, collect these bolts for evidence. Let’s get moving. We’ll get these kids to the Lodge and then set them loose. I don’t want to talk to Big D if she’s upset.”

Me either, Ruwen thought.