Gods and Familia

Even when Mallory was putting in her best efforts to bring good changes for the city and to protect its citizens, she could not completely control how everything would play out in the end.

Not everyone was so accepting of the talismans in the beginning and even if they purchased them, they did not take her advice fully to heart and suffered as a result.

She had given them the tools to avoid being harmed and the knowledge on how they would use them then the rest was left to themselves.

The cleaning up of the city and the changes brought forward had turned the city upside down.

Even if it was in the name of good and for the survival of the city, not everyone saw things the same way.

When there was change, not everyone was so happy with the unfamiliarity they felt and there would be those that wanted take advantage of the situation or cause problems for Mallory.

The man that arrived and caused problems had not been her first bad customer and he would not he the last.

Mallory could not always be there to sell her talismans so there would be others to sell them for her or they could be purchased from those that were sold by Goddess Seshat for Mallory to the City Lord and others.

Each of the talismans or other items came with instructions and the wooden carving items were the most recent of them.

There were always people that tried to misuse the items for themselves or acted recklessly while not following what had been instructed.

They thought that if they had such an item then they could act more recklessly without suffering any consequences but that carelessness would only put themselves and others around them in further danger.

There was a limit to how much one or more talismans could prevent and they would run out eventually.

Some would have accepted their own faults but not everyone was the same and saw their misfortune as being the fault of Mallory who had encouraged them to take such foolish actions after they trusted in her.

There were many loyal customers that had been pleased with her products and listened carefully to the instructions given so they came back again so Mallory was happy to keep providing them advice and selling them talismans but not everyone got the same treatment.

When there were troublemakers that had developed a grudge against her for the things sold to them and the misfortunes they suffered or for the changes that were brought to the city that they disliked then Mallory wished to keep some distance between herself and them.

If they obstructed her business, threatened her or became violent then she made a list of them so that she would not serve them again.

It was her own skill that was used to protect others but there was little benefit in helping others that were unwilling to listen, formed a grudge against her and may have wished to do her harm.

Once Mallory returned inside the gates after packing up her little stall, she returned to her room and started to read some more books while there was another room that had something going on within.

Goddess Seshat looked through a large pile of documents and picked up a piece of paper that had a rough drawing on it. "So this is it."

In front of her was a sketch of an insignia or marking that belonged to one of the gods.

Each god had their own kind of symbol that represented them and acted as a symbol of faith for people to worship even when their presence could not be seen or felt within the world when they were in the place of the gods.

Each god had one and they were marked on the backs of their familia in the form of status.

Not everyone could read the status unless they had a status revealer type of item or someone that could decipher it clearly enough but the symbols were very clear.

Even if the humans did not recognise the symbol on the backs of each familia member, almost all of the gods could recognise the symbols of their own kind unless they were a far less known god that had been living in seclusion or just had zero presence.

Goddess Seshat tightened her grip on the paper so it crumbled. "This is not good. If it is them then this cannot be that simple. This is not just some longstanding grudge or something as predictable.

This could just be happening for the sake of enjoyment or to relieve boredom… perhaps this is some kind of game to them. My biggest concern would be if their familia is acting alone or if they are working with others on this. I really hope they are alone."

She had a hint of worry and distress in her voice as she called out. "Oars. Bring Mallory to me. I have something to discuss with her."

Oars hurried along to fetch Mallory who appeared before her goddess and greeted her. "Goddess Seshat. You called for me?"

Seshat did not display her previous playfulness as she usually did towards Mallory and spoke seriously. "You did a good job in getting us some valuable information when you went out but this could be much bigger than I thought it was. Now I will go over the familia crest that has been identified and some of my own suspicions."

Mallory sat down opposite her and nodded. "Please tell me goddess."

Seshat took a deep breath then spoke seriously. "Each of the gods have their own symbols and various names they are known as along with the myths and legends that are about them.

Each of their titles as a god usually describe their alignment, their unique characteristics, their personality, their past actions and their personality. Not every god with the same title will be exactly the same but it helps to recognise what kind of god each one is.

I have many titles of my own and other gods may have more than one themselves. There are gods of beauty, fertility, purity and others but there are not just good sounding gods.

There are neutral, chaotic or evil gods too that are more well known for their different personalities. The war gods in particular have a love for warfare and combat but not every single one of them is the same.

Some like to use basic tactics and power to fight wars while others use other methods which helped them gain other titles like pestilence or disease. Among the information that has been gained, there is a god that has been identified by me and the recent happenings fit with his style of doing things.

The problem is that it is not just his way of doing things and he could be affiliated with others. War is just a fun thing to those war gods and they treat it as a game at times.

If my thoughts are not wrong then there could be several war gods playing a big game together. If there is such a thing happening then the scale of this game may not just be limited to this city.

Depending on the scale of each of their familia or those they are affiliated with, the danger will increase even more significantly. Lets us not mention that there are some areas that may have been missed. We are still missing a connection to the curses so there may not just be war gods and their familia involved."

Mallory cautiously asked after taking in all of the information. "So which familia do they belong to? What god is our first discovered enemy?"

Mallory possessed a wide range of knowledge related to all kinds of religions, countries gods, superstitions and rituals that came from her previous life but it did not mean that she could play a big role in identifying each god based on the symbols they used.

Goddess Seshat was far more familiar with the other gods and had met many of them that visited her library in the place of the gods so she knew far more about them.

There were far more books in her library that had recorded the history of the gods and humans so Goddess Seshat was able to spend a lot of time reading through them.

Goddess Seshat cleared her throat and spoke up. "Ahem.. it is.. the Resheph familia."