175. A Familiar Cast

"There's no need for that anymore." She smiled softly, setting down the teacup so gently that only the smallest clink of glass against glass could be heard.

However, to Grand-Priest David, that small clink may well have been the sound of the world rending itself apart. He quickly tried to form words but anything he wanted to say became a frog in his throat. His eyes widened, and he panicked, looking back and forth between her two apprentices and Her.

"W-Wait! We had a deal. I did everything you asked! If you had let me send a high-level party – or even just a party of more than clerics… this wasn't my fault! And there's still a chance of finding him!" He managed to stutter out. The grand-priest couldn't let go of this opportunity. If she could really heal him…

"Hmm." The woman smiled playfully, a finger coming to her chin in mock thought, lips slightly pout. "I suppose that is true… However, you are wrong about one thing." She chuckled. "There's no chance of finding him anymore. At least not for a while."

"What do you mean?" The grand-priests old and tired gaze was frantic for answers. He couldn't understand this woman.

"Well. There's no harm in telling you now I suppose. He should have ended up meeting a wizard on the way, and due to that chance encounter - the wizard would end up providing him with an escape. Although that's as much as I am able to see." Her playful tone had calmed, and she settled back into Her usual sweet voice.

"I was really hoping to avoid this eventuality… even going so far to kill off two of your Orders clerics to force a meeting between him and that Sarah…" She sighed. "There was a higher than zero chance of him falling in love with her and traveling back with her to the Capital… that would have been the best recourse." Slowly, her thoughts became musings, revealing things that caused the grand-priest to shudder, his face paling.

"Diviner's…" He thought. "They're too dangerous."

"Oh." She paused, remembering something. The playful and innocent smile returning to her eye-less face. "That means you still have a chance with him Adria. How delightful!" She teased.

One of her two apprentices blushed, her face growing to match her red hair, but she said nothing. However, the suppressed excitement could be seen in her young eyes. Underneath her cloak, red lines of power glowed gently with fire energy.

Adria turned to glance at the other apprentice. They made eye contact for a moment. He gave her well-meaning smile as if to say, 'good for you, Adria.' But underneath it, she could see his ever-present depression which was always just under the surface.

She didn't let his melancholy infect her though, and a small smile played on her lips. She couldn't wait till she was able to meet Noone again… it had been so long.

"So you knew this was a possibility… please Elize. We had a deal, I did everything you asked. Please, if you have it… I need it. This poison grows worse by the day." The grand-priest, noticing the shift in tone, made another plea.

"How many petals do you have left in your little pouch there?" Elize smiled delicately at the old man.

"Only a few thousand flowers… that will last me only ten more years… Please. If it weren't for this poison, I would easily be able to live three hundred years. I'm supposed to be the next inheritor!" he cried.

"A few thousands… just how many lives did you have to uproot in order to obtain so many?" She tisked, shaking her head and admonishing him. "You know that many very important people would kill for just a single petal? I suppose that's the benefit of rising so close to the peak though… if only you could have advanced one more level." She shook her head again.

"I wonder… did you ever stop to think about why you aren't able to dispel the poison with even your gods' best miracles?" Elize said calmly.

The grand-priest didn't know how to respond.

"Well. No matter. I suppose you did do everything I asked. Never let it be said that I don't live up to my promises. Although you failed to deliver Noone here, I will not deny you what is yours."

The eye-less beauty waved her hand out and a single delicate orb appeared in her palm from a storage ring on her finger. It floated from her palm, landing in the open hands of the grand-priest.

Immediately the old man gasped as he felt the poison within his body recoil away from the odd pill he was now holding.

"It's real!" His eyes shined, looking down at his hands. It took everything in his power not to down the pill immediately then and there.

"Thank you! Oh thank you kind diviner! With this I will be able to live out the next century and a half in peace… then I will be able to ascend!" Almost mad with glee, the old man bowed his head to the floor.

"Not at all. Think of it as me returning your favor, and a parting gift." Elize smiled gently. "Now I really must be going. I am quite busy with the future after all." She mused to herself, chuckling. "We can make our own way out."

As she said that, the space around her warped slightly, bending light within the room and condensing it. When it finally returned to normal, Elize the Diviner and her two apprentices were nowhere to be seen.

The scowl immediately returned to the grand-priest's face. He had come to realize why She – A diviner who had lived for a thousand years – was so dangerous to work with. Anyone trying to control the future like her… they were only asking for trouble. Something as vast as fate couldn't be moved by mortals after all. That was left to the Immortal Gods.

When he looked down at his palm though, his mood lifted.

…

Just outside of the Capital on a nearby hill a dainty and delicate woman with no eyes appeared, as did Adria, her athletic and feminine appearance unable to be hidden by her long overcoat, and a tall thin scholarly-looking man who always wore a slightly melancholic expression.

Adria looked around for a moment before recognizing where they were.

"Why are we here?" She asked Elize, who was watching a particularly tall tower at the center of the Capital.

Elize smiled softly. "To see what choice he makes, of course."

Adria knew that was all the mysterious diviner would say on the matter, so instead of prying for answers she gave the other apprentice a look, imploring him to explain.

"Oh… that's right. You weren't there at the time… You see…" His eyes looked towards the capital, a flash of pity could be seen. "Within the Order of Life, there are those who are blessed to achieve the highest state of being – ascension. It is well recorded that in order to achieve ascension – regardless of race – you must achieve level 19 within the two lifetimes allotted to you by joining… If that's the path you choose anyways. Usually this means crossing level 10 by the time you turn an adult."

Adria's eyes widened. That's no easy feat. Especially not for humans with such short lifespans.

"It's extremely difficult and rare. Usually there is only 1 case per century – give or take – of someone with that level of talent or blessing emerging. Well… when David was young he had that talent. But he failed to cross level 10 by the time he became an adult." The thin man sighed. "In an act of desperation – he struck a deal with a dubious god. This god offered him three human lifetimes… in exchange for a favor if he managed to ascend." Adria nodded. Listening carefully.

"Of course, no one knew about this except Elize… and over the last century and a half he has managed to achieve an amazing amount. Except for this one deal he had made, by all accounts he had lived an exemplary life – as evidenced by the level he achieved.

But as he tried to push through to the next level, the grand priest suddenly developed a poison – or maybe a disease. And it was one that he was unable to cure. Even with his immense power and ability to harness the will of the gods, he only continued to grow more and more sick."

Adria frowned at this. "There shouldn't be any sickness that a level 18 cleric of life can't heal though? Right?" As she thought of incurable sicknesses, a memory of a hundred-year-old past flashed in her mind. A memory which haunted her. She frowned slightly before shaking her head, pushing the memory out. Not right now, she thought.

Elize smiled. "That's exactly right. The only poison that can't be dispelled at that level… is one given by the gods themselves."

Adria's eyes widened. She started to understand the whole picture.

"The sickness slowly ate away at him… body and mind." The tall figure added.

"So then that pill?" Adria asked.

"It will cure him." Elize smiled.

"But… at what cost." The thin figures eyes narrowed as he looked back and forth between Elize and the city.

Suddenly, a flash of light a million times brighter than the sun appeared at the center of Cinapul's capital. In less than a blink of an eye, the entire world around the city became so bright that it pierced through the walls of the city. Everything was bathed in white light.

The light was so powerful that it caused Adria to lose her breath, her entire body felt like it was being pierced through.

It took a few minutes, but when the white light began to fade, Elize and Adria both looked out onto the city – and the tower they had been in moments before – only to see that it was now no more than a smoldering pit of ash.

"Pity." Elize said, however her expression did not change.

"What…" Adria was at a loss for words.

"The gods gave him the poison as punishment for blaspheming against them and trying to cheat his way to ascension." The tall figure spoke, sadness on his voice.

"So, in taking the pill to cure himself… he only fell further from grace?" Adria clarified… her heart was relatively calm as she watched smoke rise up into the night sky from the ruins of the tower.

"It really is a pity." Elize sighed. "If he had embraced his own death and recognized his mistake instead of trying to fight back against it, they would have removed the poison and healed him at the last moment, allowing him to achieve ascension. It was only because he was too attached to this life that he lost his way." She shook her head.

"Alright. Let us depart. We have some golden tribesman to talk to about a coat after all." Her dainty voice resumed its usual calm.

"Let's go Adria. Liter." She said, before flashing out of existence with her two apprentices.

The city stirred in chaos, but on that hill only a calm breeze floated past.

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[END BOOK 1]