Chapter 61: Observation

The city of Matrazere had no alarming activity to speak of, no indications of great movements. It was silent, as was the fortress by all appearances. And that was the word, not ‘quiet.’ Silent. The people walked around with their heads down, and adults were almost universally in drab garb. Grays or browns or blacks.

Not a style choice, either. Not a city of goths. I’d be down with that. I could visit with Redberry, she’d love- no. This is just fear.

Plenty of guardsmen waltzed around in dark jerkins with a white symbol emblazoned on it, that of balance scales inside of a shield. They carried something like billy clubs on one side and swords on the other, the swords wrapped in an intricate gold thread to the scabbards. They did not have their heads down like the rest. Instead, they eyed the rest of the populace judiciously.

Sammy made sure she spied around the city utilizing her False Auras ability on Mirror Sense to its maximum, ensuring the apparent source was ‘Arcane’ and also using the cloaking function. There was every reason to be extra cautious. She even kept the portal a bit further away. Just a bit… it wasn’t as perfect an image, but it likely helped reduce discovery chances.

From a puddle of liquid that she didn’t want to think about the origin of too much, she caught a scene of a large fellow unloading a wagon outside of an inn, for what appeared to be a young scholar or wizard, in white robes and a white, brimless hat or cap. He had a book open with one hand, his other hand clasped behind his back.

The large man had… a very dumb, happy look on his face. Otherwise, he might seem relatively normal… when Sammy caught his eyes, though, they were… empty. Dead. Zombie-like. The light inside was just gone.

This is one of the ‘rehabilitated’. Mind-altered. Like what they might’ve done to Merril.

When the fellow was through, he kinda milled about near the scholar, looking nervous to interrupt him. Finally, the scholar noticed and closed the book, smiling and saying something obviously praising, to which the fellow beamed joyously like the idiot that he had become.

The scholar then literally patted the man on his leather-capped head, while he reached into a pocket and pulled out something and gave it to the man, soon thereafter walking off toward the inn. The big fellow hopped up and down in excitement as he appeared to… unwrap a little candy in a wax wrapper.

He popped it in his mouth and clearly swirled it around with an expression of absurd bliss, as if he’d experienced the height of human pleasure.

Sammy felt utterly horrified by it all. Sure, someone could’ve simply been afflicted by circumstance to experience reduced faculties or the like, and them being treated decently would be preferable, but she knew that wasn’t it. The eyes… and the existing implications. Possibly induced addiction to the candies. Making him like a pet. They’d done that all to him deliberately.

But what did he do? And what if he was actually innocent? Could they infallibly know, do they have that capability?

“System, how is this even allowed? Wouldn’t just… warping the psyche and consciousness ruin their reincarnation?”

Not at all, User Sammy. Nothing done in a current existence erases past or future ones, and ruin in one cannot prohibit that soul’s future. The exact formula for incorporation of past experiences into the next iteration is proprietary, but highly traumatic or disturbing aspects are often suppressed and less accessible.

“But it's still completely overriding someone’s entire identity! What makes them who they are. How is that allowed?”

Users can do as they wish to one another, subject only to their capabilities. The System does not restrict in this way.

“Of course. Why did I even ask…”

If anyone is going to do something about it, it's me. Or us. The gods. The Dominion probably thinks they’re in the right… wiping out foul deeds for someone they know will reincarnate one day. And making a productive member out of a criminal. It’s like the balance scales without any intrinsic sense of freedom or rights for an individual.

Sammy checked thoroughly around the city, and beyond it, looking for any signs of military mobilization. She didn’t detect anything of note. Everything appeared calm.

Guess this is a good sign for Zaddy. This slow engine hasn’t even started. They probably still assume their distant counties will be able to handle the ‘raiders.’

She shifted her attention to Mon Mako and Rivermount. It was not hard to find… Unsurprisingly, there was a great river, which was often calm enough in parts to form a satisfactory mirror, though there was certainly plenty of boat traffic disturbing the water regularly. Mountains could be seen in the distance, and there was one singular, smaller one rising much closer and sharply, enough to look down on the river and city. A castle lay at the relative base of the great rise.

There was also a gigantic bronze statue of a muscular, almost naked man rising up right outside the docks of the city, flexing his biceps with a proud expression. The entire thing was enchanted to retain its impeccable form without blemish. As such, it gleamed and was a giant mirror, especially from the larger uninterrupted surfaces.

Hehe. Looking out from a giant guy’s tit.

Indeed, the chest held a great view of both the river valley, the city, and the mountain. The statue faced upstream.

Zadkiel had mentioned it was an ancient honoring to traditions of physical excellence here. Some believed it was actually to some dead and forgotten god too, but not enough survived that they opted to tear it down. There was a large amphitheater or colosseum that still stood, which was once a place of gladiatorial matches and physical games of prowess.

Sammy poked around by it, getting some angles of view outside, as well as from inside. There were a few guards as well as official clerks of some kind there. Though it was inactive at that moment, it was obviously still frequently used. She found a room with multiple vanity mirrors and equipment, including various costumes laying around or hung up.

They do dramas here. Plays. Music. Interesting. I wonder where else they do such on the continent? Has to be some less Dominiony.

She checked for signs of troop build-ups or movements in the city or surrounding, including up and down the river. Nothing, really. All was calm and normal. The castle was definitely occupied by soldiers, mostly bored guardsmen playing cards and dice. The apparently rather old commander — what his title would be in Dominion lands, Sammy didn’t know — was still asleep into the thick of the morning.

I guess it’s good news for Zaddy again. Not sure how long it’ll last, but he’s flying under the radar so far.

Withdrawing from her spycraft, Sammy contemplated how to deliver the news. Probably the Twin Wells info later on in the day or night. The rest… perhaps the next day, after another double-checking. The delay was better for the sort of intel she wanted to feed him. She didn’t want him trying to use her for real-time feeds, not anytime soon anyway.

Dad always said: give some guys an inch, they try and take a mile.

The day wore on for her Followers. She let Orswyth know Bast’s ETA, which he was reasonably satisfied with, and the ‘small ship,’ called ‘Stripping Josephine’ — ‘the Strip’ for short — was loaded up from early in the morning.

“I am a level 1 Priest, Your Majesty,” Orswyth also said with a grin of pride, as they conversed through the staff mirror in the small, private quarters allotted to him in the fortress.

Sammy beamed back. “Ah, that’s right! I had noticed more in the back of my mind amidst other things. Congratulations!”

“Thank you. The level 0 slots are 7 now, and the level 1s are 5. Various odds and ends… It seems you can indeed provide level 1 healing! Seal Minor Wound. Very useful. And upgraded illusion spells. And! The buffs are like yours, now. But I still have to construct them into static slots, so the choices are difficult.”

“Hmm. Just take the best one — you know the one, you were the first to have it. You could use that on believers and I can layer something else, or use it on non-believers for the versatility and protection.”

“Ah yes! Salient, salient. Hmm. There is another matter I noticed while tinkering. An area-of-effect modifier. It acts as 1 level lower but affects up to 5 targets in a small radius, increasing with level.”

“Oh. I can’t even do that!”

“Perhaps because it can affect non-believers. If you had a hundred believers lined up, you could buff all of them.”

“True. So I need you guys to reach out to the heathens. Heh.”

Orswyth chuckled. “So it would seem, Your Majesty.”

“Well… I don’t have any boosts to buffs at level 2 by any appearances. Perhaps it’ll come later. That or it simply requires specialized domains.”

“Only time will tell. In any case… I’m happy I can finally be useful directly in a fight, again, even if it's not to fight literally with steel. I feel fortunate I never had to stand around and be useless in an altercation before gaining this capability. Thank you, my goddess.”

“I’m happy for you too, Orswyth. Thank you for helping me to grow.”

A grin. “Oh, I’m just getting started. The future is big, the future is bright. You’ll be the one to light the way, Samantha.”

She gave him a small smile and nodded. “I will do my best to be, Hierophant.”

Carlisle’s group made it out of the forest shortly before midday. As they took a brief break to eat, Estara sent a polite query to converse with her goddess.

Hidden behind some trees, she held her mask in front of her. “Your Majesty, I hope everything is going well.”

“Of course. And for you?”

“Alright so far…” She blinked a few times and took a breath, appearing hesitant. “Well... I did talk to Dax about Merril… with everything else that happened, I didn’t really realize… the extent of how hard things hit him. She said it was from a terrible chance that he took, which changed him. Crushed his spirit…”

She looked at Samantha inquisitively, like she wanted to know more.

Sighing, Samantha nodded. “We are going to do everything we can to fix that. In the end, I hold to the hope that he will be stronger than ever for this ordeal. I have some of the responsibility, though he asked me for this at the most vulnerable and desperate point of the battle… hoping to save his sister. Fate had other ideas.”

“I see… so this happened to him because his heart is noble.” She looked off, her face cast in sadness and sympathy.

“He ran only due to the same thing. He could not resist such a power. No one could have.”

“Is there… anything I can do to help?”

“In fact, there is. Converse with him and be there. Get him to talk about any variety of things. Honestly… be yourself. You’ll put cheer in his heart to some extent.”

“Oh.” She seemed to contemplate it. “Are you sure? He seems so withdrawn… I feel like I’ve been bothering him just to ask even simple things. He avoids me, avoids my gaze.”

“He feels ashamed, Estara. Just work to get through to him. He may be suspicious. Well, be honest. You’re worried about him. You don’t want to be avoided. You don’t look down on him at all, you see his noble heart.”

Her young priestess looked like she was steeling herself to such a charge. She took a deep breath and nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat. “I… will try, Your Majesty. I will do my best.”

“To be honest.”

“Right!”

“Because we’re not trying to just fix him in a day or anything. Or feed him bull- bull… dung.”

“Absolutely no stinky poop on a platter, Your Majesty.”

Samantha couldn’t keep the laugh out of her voice as she replied, “R-right. Exactly.”

“I’d also… if you would, please, may I be authorized to convert another once? I’d like to do so with Sir Pashett. One of the other medically-capable gents of the group. He was a friend of Sir Galmore, and they drew straws of who would go below as a healer. H-he feels great guilt for this… I believe Sir Galmore is one of ours in spirit, Goddess. So should Pashett be.”

The former servant girl took a deep breath. “He would serve you in honor of his fallen friend, Your Majesty. I know that he would be staunch, loyal, and gallant. I’d like to dedicate him in this way.”

Samantha smiled at the carefully laid-out reasoning and said, “Of course, Estara. I trust you and your intuition. I know you’d consider carefully and ask if you were unsure. So consider yourself authorized from here to old age! You shall lead others to me permanently.”

Ritual of Conversion form updated.

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