Charles was absent when we departed the funeral. Mazarin reached him telepathically and confirmed he was alive, though otherwise engaged.
NOTE: Witnesses observed Charles Brand leaving with Belladonna Vorynth and traveling together to the Vorynth estate. Staff accounts describe the two becoming physically intimate shortly after arrival. Following this, Charles was overheard consenting to a pact, renouncing a prior unknown contract of open insurrection in favor of targeted killings with a weapon described by staff as “unsettling and alive.” One overhead Belladonna telling him, “I know you are a killer.”
The way to answer Xalithea’s summons allowed only a brief discussion with Mother. The Prophet meets her daughters at turning points in their lives, and the occasion was an honor. I was expected to comport myself accordingly.
Xalthea’s shrine rest at the foot of an obelisk, its base surrounded by a carefully tended garden. The Prophet herself appeared as a radiant force in balance with her Forever Blade.
She asked my perspective on the FETC. I conveyed my growing disillusion without evasion. In turn, she spoke of her origin, she and her siblings were created not to guide civilization, but to erase it for renewal. She issued neither directive nor reprimand, only her blessing.
Satisfaction marked Mother’s expression. Upon return to the Katharis manor, there stood Marrion Virelle and moments later Charles appeared from his unexplained absence. Mother received Marrion coldly, remarking that corruption within The Ledgermen was unmistakable.
Marrion proposed our reassignment into a special operations division reporting directly to the spymaster. She informed Enoch that negotiations for the Ashborn captives had succeeded, though one elder tribesman died in custody and is now the subject of an internal inquiry.
She attempted to speak with me privately, beginning with an apology for the manner in which we last parted, but a courier arrived with a reminder of the scheduled hunt, cutting the conversation short.
The outskirts of Conscriptus marked our rendezvous with Freya Maelthrumm, where red clay overtakes the soil and the warrens begin. She commanded a pack of trained bulettes and had us mount them for travel.
We rode through the warrens as Freya demonstrated a series of maneuvers. It took longer for me to adjust than the others, but eventually I permitted myself to participate fully in the clay-driven drills. An uninvited sense of freedom and lightness crept in, I suspect that may have been Freya’s goal.
Freya led us to a nesting field where a necromancer has been reanimating feral bulettes. House Maelthrumm has been culling the undead population to protect the land Conscriptus sits upon, though the necromancer remains unidentified.
Before engaging the nest and its undead creatures, Freya offered us an opportunity to turn back. We declined. We do not withdraw from necessary engagements.
Current Places
- Conscriptus
- Vorynth Manor
- Katharis Manor
- The Clay Warrens
Recap Video
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