Ashinaro pushed through the crowd in the outdoor plaza of West Argalis to get a better view of the ascension ceremony. It was the first of his lifetime, and he wasn’t going to let politeness get in the way of the best vantage point.
Being so much taller than everyone else, he could already clearly see the dais set atop the roof of the temple. But he wanted to be as close as he could get for this, so he used his size to aid in that goal.
Like Ashinaro himself, everyone in the crowd was in their drakken battleform, so he had to deal not only with shouts and pushing, but was forced to dodge several tailswipes.
Ignoring the cries of outrage and minor assaults, he finally made his way to the front of the crowd.
Before him was Joy’s temple. On its roof was a raised dais of polished stone upon which priests of Joy in their ceremonial robes stood solemnly.
Around him, the crowd murmured, discussing what was to come.
Except for two whelps to his right, who didn’t understand the significance of ascension and were more interested in the recent visitors who’d been shaking things up.
“…trolls cleared the whole thing.”
“And lost one of their own for it.”
“No one else managed it though!”
“Because we’re not stupid.”
“The trolls aren’t stupid. They couldn’t be to build—”
High Priest Vershik ascended the dais, and the murmur quieted to a hush, even the two whelps beside Ashinaro cutting off their argument.
Vershik raised his scepter in his clawed hand, adorned with three rings of the goddess, as behind him the priests began a chant.
A deep, resonant drone washed over the gathered thousands, harmonics layering upon each other. It spoke of the sacred cycle of striving, achieving, and surrendering to the divine embrace.
Ashinaro felt not awe, like everyone said you’d feel upon witnessing an ascension, but a nascent, formless anxiety he couldn't name.
He’d hoped for different, but wasn’t surprised. He’d always harbored a certain cynicism regarding the gods, but as of late that feeling had grown and become something he couldn’t ignore or write off as a side-effect of bitterness at never having been visited by one of their divine messengers.
The change was worrisome, yet also as though a veil had been lifted, one he’d not been aware of until it was gone.
Of the cause, he had no notion. He ate the same meals, hunted in the same places, trained in the same ways. His renown hadn’t changed, he’d bound no relics. No messenger had visited him.
But something was different. Something had changed.
He simply didn’t know what.
The priests’ chant ended suddenly and Ascendent Maris—flanked by two honor guards in crimson plate that gleamed like freshly spilled blood—ascended the dais steps.
All the gathered priests, even High Priest Vershik, went to their knees before the Ascendent.
It was the first time Ashinaro had seen the priests show deference to anyone other than the High Priest himself, and the first time Vershik had shown it to anyone but the goddess.
Whispers rippled through the crowd as Maris reached the top of the dais and spread her wings, now standing higher than even High Priest Vershik himself.
“…slaying an Archdemon with a single attack…”
“…utter nonsense, she made the treaty, why would Joy…”
“…not a…”
“…heard it was a…”
“…lifetimes of service…”
“…the godrealms…”
“…rewards await her?”
The whispers built her legend, reinforcing the narrative: struggle leads to reward, devotion leads to paradise.
And here was the proof. Maris was ancient, yet looked no older than Ashinaro. She’d reached Myth before Ashinaro even hatched.
Now, she would be the first to ascend in years uncounted.
The priests stood, and High Priest Vershik’s voice boomed, silencing the crowd once more. He called upon the Exalted god Joy, Maris’s patron, extolling Maris’s virtues, her unwavering faith, her countless completed divine quests. He formally requested passage for this worthy servant, her long journey finally at its end.
The response was immediate.
A column of pure, blinding white punched through the clear green sky and struck the dais.
It radiated a profound sense of euphoria, a physical pressure that demanded happiness, smoothing away anxieties, doubts, and any stray negative thought.
Many in the crowd were not godsworn, yet all were affected.
Ashinaro felt it settle onto him, a cloying sweetness that felt both wonderful and deeply intrusive.
His own nascent worries—about having yet to be visited by a divine messenger, about perhaps truly being afflicted by some unknown curse, the unsettling feeling he sometimes got when thinking too hard about the gods, his stress at being stuck at Initiate when all his peers had surpassed him—these all receded, replaced by a mandated sense of blissful acceptance.
Around him, a wave of guttural affirmation swelled as it washed over the gathered masses. Many began rhythmically thumping their tails in applause.
Maris turned to face the light, her face serene.
This was it.
The culmination.
The reward for ages of service, the fulfillment of enumerable divine quests.
The paradise promised by the gods.
She took a deliberate step forward, then another.
She reached the very edge of the blinding column, pausing for the briefest of moments.
She stepped into the light.
And in that sliver of time, in that infinitesimal transition between this realm and the next, Ashinaro saw it. Or believed he saw it. The serene mask didn't just crack; it shattered. Her eyes flew wide, not in ecstasy, but in stark, uncomprehending horror.
Then the light consumed her entirely, swallowing her in blinding, absolute brilliance.
Ashinaro’s mind screamed even as the imposed euphoria tried to smooth over the jagged edges of what he’d witnessed.
The light held for another moment, intense and absolute, then retracted smoothly, pulling back into the sky and vanishing without a trace.
Maris was gone. Ascended.
A collective sigh, heavy with fulfilled expectation and reflected glory, swept through the thousands of drakken. The rhythmic tail-thumping intensified for a moment, a final salute, before gradually subsiding.
The artificial euphoria faded, leaving behind a sense of communal pride, reaffirmed faith, and perhaps, for the many godsworn, renewed determination in their own divine quests.
High Priest Vershik began the concluding rites, blessing Maris and offering thanks to Joy for the goddess’s favor.
The onlookers reverted to their humanforms and began dispersing, conversing boisterously about Maris's achievements.
Ashinaro examined the faces around him, searching for any flicker of doubt, any sign that someone else had seen what he’d seen.
He found none. Only joy and awe.
He felt no awe.
As he made his way out of the temple district, Ashinaro pondered what he thought he’d seen on Maris’s face in that fleeting moment before she’d ascended.
He must have imagined it. Or misinterpreted it. Drakken battleforms weren’t known for their expressiveness.
That had to be it, he told himself. Ascension was glory. Ascension was peace, no matter your patron, but especially for Joy.
It was blasphemy to think otherwise.
But Joy would surely understand his confusion. An easy mistake to make.
He thought of it no more.
As he neared the grand archway leading into the market district, someone shoved him to the side. He was about to growl a response when he saw it was an old man looking not at him, but at something behind him.
A patrol of city guards in battleform, all of them at least Greater Champion.
The crowd made way.
Once they passed by, the old man craned his neck to glare up at Ashinaro, then his expression shifted. “You’re the cursed boy.” He huffed. “No excuse to not pay attention.”
“I’m not cursed,” Ashinaro corrected half-heartedly. He’d found once people made up their minds, protesting only cemented their position.
Though maybe he was cursed in one way: his size. He stood two heads taller than anyone else, which made it so this man—who Ashinaro didn’t know and was fairly certain he’d never seen before—had recognized him.
The old man muttered something under his breath about watching where he was going to Ashinaro, then hobbled off.
No godsworn was he.
That was to be Ashinaro’s fate if he didn’t receive a divine quest soon. He wouldn’t be young forever, and advancing wouldn’t make him any younger. Perhaps reaching Ascendent would do that, but that was a long, long way off.
And after what he’d seen…
He shook his head, pushing the memory of Maris’s expression away.
On a whim—and to distract himself from dark thoughts—he decided he’d stop by Kakoris’s Emporium.
Maris wouldn’t need her treasures in the godrealms, so they must have ended up somewhere. And Kakoris’s was one of the few merchants on the council.
Even if none had found their way to his shop, he might have new things to sell thanks to the recent visitors from Fairwind.
Ashinaro patted the coin pouch at his waist—which held the entirety of his wealth—then headed to the merchant quarter.
The air inside Kakoris’s Emporium was cooler than outside, tinged with an undercurrent of unpleasant odors and the metallic scent that always clung to places where relics were bought and sold.
The massive yet cluttered shop was quiet today, likely because most people were still out celebrating Maris’s ascension.
Kakoris, a wiry man whose hair had dulled from green to a muddy brown with age, was hunched over his main counter near the back wall of the emporium, meticulously polishing an amulet with a hydestone, seemingly oblivious to Ashinaro’s entrance.
Ashinaro knew this to be a mere pretense of disinterest. The old merchant likely had a boon or relic that let him watch the entirety of his shop. He knew for a fact Kakoris had a method of preventing shoplifters from leaving the store despite the counter being at the far back.
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Ashinaro headed straight for the relic section.
He moved through cluttered aisles filled with empowered weapons and armor, alchemical supplies, and various trinkets from forgotten lands, bypassed the dusty shelves crammed with dubious grimoires, and nearly tripped over a new display of a precarious stack of goblin heads set up right as one aisle turned into another.
There hadn’t been goblins on Fayteraus in Ashinaro’s lifetime, so these must have been brought over by the godsworn from Fairwind.
So, Kakoris had been buying goods from the trolls. This gave him hope there’d be new relics on offer.
But when he made his way to the grandiose section labeled relics, the relic display case was, as usual, sparsely populated. Within its gemglass confines, ornate wooden stands held small, coin-like objects. Most were familiar; relics he’d seen gathering dust here for ages. Hardly worth the cores Kakoris demanded for them.
He was disappointed to see only two new relics for sale, though they were from gods he’d never before seen relics from.
The first was a burnished copper disc with jagged edges, its surface etched with symbols that shifted when viewed from different angles. At its center was a stylized eye weeping a single tear.
The second was smoother, pearlescent pink and deep violet, unsettlingly beautiful. It drew the eye, promising… something.
He examined the jagged one first, looking for the price on the small card which sat below it written in Kakoris’s florid handwriting.
Ashinaro grimaced. Far out of his range. He didn’t even have any Fiend cores, let alone the thousand it would take to be worth ten thousand corens.
Not that he could use it now even had he enough money. Without having completed a divine quest, he was stuck at Initiate and wouldn’t be able to bind a relic. For that, he’d need to gain favor from the gods by completing one of those divine quests, which would break him through to Lesser Defender.
He read the rest of the description anyway; no harm in a little fantasizing.
Caustic Instillment
This MIGHTY relic of the high god DISTRESS will make you an UNSTOPPABLE MENACE on any battlefield! No longer must you slave away to poison your arrows or seek out alchemists to concoct explosives or haul around heavy containers of flamegel. Now, the power is in your very hands! Any projectile you launch is imbued with a DEVASTATING caustic liquid that SPREADS ON CONTACT with the enemy and leaves behind a DEADLY mist that will make any of his allies unlucky enough to be nearby wish they were instead his ENEMIES! YOUR enemies will writhe and perish while YOU stand TRIUMPHANT!
10,000 corens (minimum denomination Fiend)
As usual, Kakoris’s description was exaggerated. Which was foolish since anyone could examine the relic for themselves.
Ashinaro had asked about it once when he was a whelp. The merchant had given a long rambling answer about first impressions, the power of suggestion, and the importance of aspirational visualization.
It boiled down to fancy lies, in Ashinaro’s estimation.
Using his beyondsight, he examined the properties for himself.
[Caustic Instillment (Relic of Pain)]
For seven breaths, any object you throw releases a corrosive liquid on contact. Liquid evaporates into a corrosive mist that lingers.
Test of faith: Experience distress for 150 breaths.
So, it wouldn’t work on any projectile, only ones that were thrown. Which meant the bit about arrows was nonsense unless you were throwing them. Or the bow itself. Both of which seemed counterproductive.
The only way it might work for arrows was if you had an empowered bow linked to your battleform. But there was no guarantee the relic would be altered in that manner once you bound it.
More likely, you’d have to amalgamate another relic to it that would allow it to affect arrows.
Which, Ashinaro realized, Kakoris just so happened to sell.
Empower Arrow
With this MIGHTY relic of the most gracious god EXCITE, instill into ANY arrow the boundless might of your battleform! Watch in AWE as your ORDINARY arrows transform into DEVASTATING PROJECTILES that pierce the thickest armor and SHATTER the strongest defenses! Your enemies will QUAKE with TERROR as they witness your arrows fly FARTHER, hit HARDER, and OBLITERATE targets that once seemed impervious! Become the ARCHER LEGENDS FEAR!
2,120 corens (minimum denomination Fiend)
Well, at least he only claimed Legends would fear you instead of Myths.
Ashinaro used his beyondsight on it.
[Empower Arrow (Relic of Excite)]
Feed your excitement for battle into your arrows, increasing their power, range, and durability.
Test of faith: Experience excitement for 200 breaths.
If you amalgamated that with Caustic Instillment, it would likely alter the effect so that it worked on arrows. But even with amalgams, there were no guarantees, so Ashinaro still regarded Kakoris’s description as, if not misleading, at least overzealous. Plus, there was nothing about your battleform affecting it.
Sure, when you bound it to your battleform there was always the chance of one of your traits affecting it, but there was no guarantee your Strength trait would be the one that did. Let alone if some other race than a drakken bound it.
Though that at least hadn’t been likely until quite recently.
Not to mention excitement couldn’t last forever. If you had no excitement to feed, it wouldn’t work at all. Breath relics were much more reliable.
He turned his attention to the second new relic for sale.
Ravener of Desire
STEAL the VERY LIFE from your enemies with this devious relic of the EXALTED LUST! Strikes multiple enemies and CANNOT BE STOPPED. With this and a little ingenuity, you could OBLITERATE AN ENTIRE PACK of monsters in a SINGLE BREATH. Imagine HUNDREDS FALLING in a BLINK to your will. Become a BRINGER OF DEATH that enemies fear to face! The very AIR ITSELF becomes your DEADLY WEAPON!
25,000 corens (minimum denomination Fiend)
[Ravener of Desire (Relic of Lust)]
For 30 breaths, create an insubstantial manifestation of your lust, which enervates all whom it passes through.
Test of faith: Experience lust for 50 breaths.
Ashinaro shook his head. At both Kakoris’s exaggerations, and his exorbitant prices.
Not for the first time he wondered how Kakoris had such a stranglehold on the relic market. True, not many were sold, most godsworn choosing to keep them to use themselves, or trade for another relic more suited. But still, Ashinaro had been scouring the markets for relics since he was a whelp, and only a handful of times had he come across other merchants selling any.
He suspected Kakoris’s position on the council was more than mere public service.
He made his way to the back of the emporium, hoping against hope Kakoris might have a divine scroll on offer that wasn’t too pricy and that Ashinaro had at least a chance of fulfilling. The few he’d had in the past had left Ashinaro with the judgement that he didn’t have the slightest chance of completing them.
And even those had been more than Ashinaro could afford.
But he’d keep trying. What other choice did he have?
It wasn’t like he was going to suddenly get visited by a divine messenger after all this time.
Kakoris finally looked up from his polishing as Ashinaro approached. He sighed, holding up his hand.
He set the amulet down and turned away, digging through a bin that appeared filled with junk, coming out a moment later with a divine scroll.
Ashinaro’s brow raised in question.
“Ten silver.”
“Who’s it from?”
Kakoris snorted. “Who do you think?”
Excite, obviously. Every drakken godsworn in Argalis had been visited by Excite’s divine messenger and given a quest from the god.
Everyone save Ashinaro, the ‘cursed’ Initiate.
Which meant he was perhaps the only person in the city who would receive a relic as reward. Other than the few outsiders about.
Even still, ten silver was low. Suspiciously low.
Maybe it was an extremely difficult quest.
Despite this, he had to fight to keep his excitement in check.
Excite gave out quests like a waterfall spewed water, and wasn’t known for his fantastic relics, but Ashinaro had no relics at all, so he didn’t care what god the quest came from. Plus, the favor he’d earn from completing it would finally let him advance to Lesser Defender.
He shrugged. “Well, might as well show it to me.”
Kakoris shook his head. “You’re determined, I’ll give you that.” He unrolled the scroll, laying it out on the counter for Ashinaro to read.
Outsiders have once more ventured onto Fayteraus in search of glory and riches. One such outsider is a troll named Orn-Kalot. Seek her out in Arkalis and point her in the direction of my temple.
If you yourself manage to convince her to become my adherent, I will grant you an additional of my relics.
Ashinaro tried not to let his excitement show. Other than a crusade, a two-relic reward was the only way to get more than one relic from a given god, and it only cost ten silver.
Of course, it only cost ten silver because everyone else had already received a relic from Excite, and so would gain nothing from completing this quest save for divine favor.
And Arkalis was a long way to travel for a little favor from a low god.
Still, it was one Ashinaro was actually capable of doing. There weren’t many monsters on the way to Arkalis, so long as he stuck to the road.
And he’d be gaining a lot more than favor for it.
He wondered why the god didn’t simply send a messenger to Orn-Kalot herself. But the ways of the gods were inscrutable, and, especially now after what he thought he’d seen on Maris’s face, he had no desire to ponder them.
It was odd Kakoris had it priced so low. It had clearly been given after the trolls arrived.
Ashinaro supposed it was possible that someone had sold the quest after the trolls arrived in Arkalis, but before they’d visited Argalis. It would be strange for Kakoris’s judgement not to include that there were outsiders in Arkalis, but it was the only thing that explained the low price.
But if he got another look at it now that he knew about the trolls revitalizing Arkalis…
One’s judgement of a divine quest was based on one’s own desires, and Kakoris’s desire for money would mean he’d recall its ease prominently, and advertise it loudly. It would sell quickly. The Fairwind godsworn didn’t spend a lot of time in Argalis, but they did spend time here. And most of that time was spent trading. And Kakoris’s Emporium was the largest and most well-stocked shop in Argalis.
Rarely was there a divine quest with so little risk attached, and divine favor was divine favor, no matter which god bestowed it.
Worse, the trolls and the other races from Fairwind had been on Fayteraus for a while now, but surely not long enough for them all to be visited by Excite’s messenger.
Which meant one of them might stumble across this and buy it when they saw how easy it was, especially considering they’d get at least one, but possibly two relics from it.
If the merchant got a look at the scroll again, his judgement would change. As would his price.
Luckily for Ashinaro, Kakoris looked profoundly uninterested, having gone back to polishing the amulet.
But his affectation of disinterest in order to forestall customer attempts to negotiate lower prices would come back to bite him for once.
This was worth far more than ten silver. Ashinaro just had to buy it without the merchant looking at it again and updating his judgement.
Ten silver was still a lot for Ashinaro, but he could manage. And if he earned his first relic… Well, his days of worrying about coin would be over.
Perhaps the gods did smile upon him. Very occasionally.
He sighed dramatically. No need to seem too eager and open himself to negotiation. “I suppose any quest is better than no quest.”
Kakoris snorted, continuing his polishing. “My judgement was that it was difficult, but not very dangerous.” He looked up, and Ashinaro’s heart skipped as he expected the merchant to glance at the scroll again. “But you… You should be careful.”
Ashinaro stifled his sigh of relief as the merchant returned his attention back to the amulet.
“But don’t expect a discount. Quest’s a quest, this one’s as cheap as I’m willing to let it go for. I’m already giving you a discount.”
Ashinaro doubted that very much, but didn’t reply, only pulled out handfuls of copper and began stacking them in stacks of ten.
He began to worry that he didn’t have enough, but when the final stack was done, he had ten stacks of ten, and one stack of three.
This was all his money aside from his cores, but even if he couldn’t convince Orn-Kalot to become Excite’s adherent and only received the one relic, he wouldn’t need to worry about paying for food or rent anymore. Even without a single relic, it only took him eight or nine days to earn enough for a tendays’ room and board.
As a Lesser Defender with a relic, he could finally move somewhere that didn’t stink like a smithy.
He smiled, looking up at Kakoris.
But Kakoris—amulet forgotten and giving Ashinaro his full attention now that money was involved—was scowling as he looked at the coins Ashinaro had just neatly stacked on the counter between them. “I can’t sell this to you.”
Had he looked at the scroll while Ashinaro had been counting out the money and updated his judgement?
Curse his luck.
“What do you mean you can’t sell it to me? I have money.” Ashinaro pointed at the stack of coins to emphasize the point.
Kakoris pointed at a sign to the left of the counter: only silver and above.
“When did you put that there?”
“When the curse’ed trolls dumped all their copper at the bank. Exchange fee doubled.” He sighed. “If I had known they would be dumping so much, I would have added more conditions to my vote to free them.”
“Yes, but there’s a hundred and three. That’s worth more than ten silver. That should cover it with your merchant exchange rate. Even with it doubling, that’s what, one-and-a-half percent?”
“Value ain't the issue.” Kakoris pushed the stacks carefully back toward Ashinaro. "Weight is. You think I want to lug around bags of copper? Silver only.”
That made no sense. Coins weighed almost nothing.
“But… you just said—”
“I know what I said.”
“Well then, you can exchange them with the bank and still have more than you’re asking for.”
“Or I can kick you out of my shop.” He scoffed. “Come back when you've got proper coin.”
“But I don’t have a business. With the bank’s exchange rate, I’d only be left with eight silver.”
“Eh, less than that now.” Kakoris tilted his head. “About, six, I’d say. Because no one wants to lug around copper.”
“I can pay in cores.”
“Can you now? And would any of those happen to be better than Beast?”
“Beast cores have their uses.”
“Aye, and I could get more than enough from whelps hunting in the Boneyard.” He considered this. “To be honest, not sure that’s true anymore. Curse’ed trolls,” he muttered again, shaking his head. “Lucky for me, I’ve got all the Beast cores I’ll ever need. Now, if you have any Fiend or rare cores, we can talk. Otherwise—” He pointed at the only silver and above sign again.
“I have rare cores! I’ll go get them.”
Kakoris sighed. “Rare, or just uncommon?”
“Well, what’s the difference, really?”
“You know very well. If you have any cores besides white, red, or blue, I’ll consider it.”
“I have—”
“And not hollow ones either.”
Ashinaro slumped. He wasn’t going to give up so easily, but earning enough copper to be able to eat the exchange fee would take… well, too long. Even if no one wanted to go to Arkalis just for favor, with all the new godsworn about, someone who hadn’t yet received a relic from Excite was bound to buy it eventually.
No doubt a fellow troll would have an easier time convincing Orn-Kalot of following Excite than a drakken would. All they’d have to do—
His thoughts came to a halt.
He blinked, the merchant glaring at him surlily.
Ashinaro remembered the quest described in the divine scroll.
But that was impossible.
The content of divine scrolls was wiped from your mind the moment you looked away from them. All that you retained was your judgement of the quest. You might retain bits like how difficult it would be, or how much money it might be worth, depending on your intentions for it. But the details of the quest itself? Never.
He glanced back down at the scroll to confirm.
Yes, he was remembering correctly. Find Orn-Kalot, convince her to become an adherent of Excite.
Did he even need to buy the scroll? Would he still be rewarded if he completed the quest without binding it? He had no idea.
Then again, what did he have to lose? A few days’ travel time.
Ashinaro was rich in nothing, including time, but he could spare a few days.
But why was he able to recall it? Was there something different about this quest?
Though Kakoris wasn’t able to recall it, only his judgement.
Yet for some reason, Ashinaro could.
Could this also be to do with that veil he’d felt lifted, that—
Kakoris rolled the scroll up and tossed it back in the bin of junk.
Ashinaro ran through the quest again. It was still there. He remembered all of it. Even Orn-Kalot’s name.
“Go on now,” Kakoris grumbled. “You’re scaring away paying customers.”
Suppressing a grin, Ashinaro gathered up his coin and left the emporium. He needed to pack.
