Zagaroth

  There are an infinite number of worlds inhabited by se life in this universe, across which the most powerful deities have their attention spread, using avatars to focus themselves a little more sharply where needed.

  One such avatar had formed in respoo the peryton fog its i on Fuyuko, before the girl had a clue she was being stalked. Ozuran’s avatar, invisible and intangible to the rest of the world, watched with more than a little , for he had set in motion the of events that brought her to this path, and so bore some amount of responsibility for the results of decisions she made in respoo his interference.

  A mortal devotee was sent t a message to a priest that was not Ozuran’s. A potion brewed to give a former demon the ce to experience a mortal childhood, to be used at her discretion. An ‘uncimed’ bag and a ent during a lesson that brought this same risen succubus’s attention to a different mortal, and to a pce where a young child without parents could be raised.

  This had been a more delicate task than with Bellona, for he was dealing with a younger mortal who had not dedicated herself so devoutly as the champion had. Free will was an incredibly precious thing, and always created its own interfereh attempts to guide events the way a god wished.

  Even the least of animals had some small trace of their own will. A monster like the peryton had more free will than a normal animal, though its blood-thirsty, sadistic urges restricted its will, leaving it less free than most mortal ses.

  A csh of wills and the sequences of choices. Choices that were made in part because of his own as and choices. He could not interfere in this moment, but felt obligated to at least watch. The girl’s death would weaken his pn, but there was still a good ce that the future of this ti would be weighted in the dire he wanted. She’d always been ara touch he’d been hoping to include, to make things better by creating a heroic figure for her people. Ozuran would mourn for both her shortened life and the lost opportunity. Such a young soul too, he retty certain she’d be eligible for a karmic reination but such decisions were not his to make when it came to souls not dedicated to him.

  Then the monster howled, and a different awareurhis way. It was no divinity, but her was it quite mortal anymore. Hope bloomed as Ozuran reized the aura, and a semi-immortal warrior rose from his camp with haste to find the target of that howl. Others might have mistaken it for a normal wolf, but sane animals never carried that note of true blood lust in their voice.

  Gil’s kingdom may be lost to all but archaeologists and historians, but he had not lost his edge for heroic a when it was called for. Divots of earth were flung out of the ground with every distaing stride, carrying him toward the fight at a speed unbelievable to those who’d not withis level of power before.

  But he had a rge distao go and only a vague dire. The g souls were too weak for their io be very noticeable, f the giant of a man to pause and focus, correg his dire as he got clil was too te to interfere with the fight, but not too te to save a young girl’s life.

  Ozuran’s attention had been focused too mu Fuyuko, and he had not looked for other presehat might be able to a time. A god could be capable of knowing about anything they chose to pay attention to, but this was not the same as knowing everything at the same time.

  He tio watch closely until Gil made his decision to travel with Fuyuko. Well, that should be eaining, and he made a mental o pay attentiohey arrived at the Azeria dungeon.

  With his immediate s alleviated, Ozuran’s avatar turned his attention to the patterns of time, fog on the events surrounding the Azeria dungeon. Iing. There were a few alterations of probable events in the near future, but the lorajectory of probabilities remained almost identical, within the limits of his temporal vision. His father could see further and in more detail, but the scale of events was far too small to call upon Zagaroth’s aid.

  Satisfied, Ozuran’s avatar dissipated, returning that tiny fra of power and attention to the greater existence of his self. Across the universe, he had an untable number of other avatars iing with various worlds in a simir manner, as did most primogeies as well as the most powerful of the gods who came ter to this realm.

  Younger deities did not have enough power to spread themselves so thinly, nor the ability to be aware of so much of the universe at once, and were mostly limited to worlds where they had enough followers to develop a presence. Which drove most of them to ence a portion of their followers to travel to other worlds and spread their religion. This generally did not bother the greater gods who had effectively infinite followers, but some gods were less tolerable than others.

  The m, Mordecai was musing over the information that Orchid had provided, once she was doertaining Li Zarb. Kazue assing on the same information to Moriko, who was in turn passing it on to Kazue’s avatar, so it was taking a bit of time to pass the report along. It was quite an ii, and included an overview of methodology as it was being given to The Azeria Mountain Dungeon as part of their role as an ally.

  Kuic was indeed pying it as nice as they could with interrogating the prisoners. The more vocal and votile were grouped is of three, then mostly left to their own devices, and were simply listened in on. The others were isoted, and then given a single point of tact who acted as their primary social iion, mixing lightweight interrogation with whatever other roles were o form a bond. The entire area was subject to a permaruth-speaking, that only pelled truthfulness. Many such effects also tried to pel answering questions.

  The guards and interrogators were subject to the zone as well, with the i of increasing trust and bonding. It was a much slower method of interrogation than other forms, but much more ethical and with long-term gains ih and reliability of information. Which art of the reason he’d been eager to hand the prisoners over, Mordecai couldn’t summon the mio have the proper patieo deal with them, aher Kazue nor Moriko had the trained skill sets to do it. They were both charming enough, but it required partmentalizing the information-seeking part of your mind from the part that was bonding and being passionate. And he really didn’t want to teach them how to do that sort of thing if it wasn’t necessary.

  As for the information gathered, at this point it was mostly firmation of things they already suspected, though with a few bits of new data. This particur cult called itself The Puritasi, and Kuic’s agents had added a note saying that simir groups in ions seemed to each have their own he leader was male, presumably human, sidered a priest, and his names began with either “Ig” or “Di”, without firmation of which starting sylble belongs to his first or st he people who started to say his name mao either cut themselves off, or been cut off by their panions. There was an annotation suggesting that this might be one “Dimitri Igorek”, as it lined up with other information that Kuic had. Per the letter:

  Dimitri is a minor lord who has ae within the Barony of traberg and is on good terms with Baron Demidov. He also has an unknown source of wealth and resources that none of ents have been able to track, but it has also not been a priority to date. He is not a member of the gover beyond the rights and powers of being a lord, nor a part of the military, so any as he takes are teically those of a private citizen. Kuic press Trionea over the issue, but as no one ermaly injured, material repense would be minor and political fallout would mostly involve exged words and an apology of dubious siy.

  Also, the words of the assault force are the only usable proof of their in, which would meaing Trionea and probably Dimitri know that they yet lived. This would undoubtedly gee political pressure to have them extradited back to Trionea. It may be more useful to withhold this information. However, the Azeria Mountain Dungeon is the aggrieved party, and the decision is yours.

  Mordecai was ined to maintaiatus quo in this case, ahe prisoners in reserve. There was also a good ce that the lohey were held, the more information could be gained from them. But the three of them would discuss it over the several days. He retty sure they would e to the same clusion, but he wanted Moriko and Kazue to think it over first and discuss it before he introduced his opinion. Taking a trolling lead during bat was ohing, presuming that his wives would agree to all his other decisions was far different.

  “Mmm, Mordecai. We just got some iing visitors. I think they are here for you.” Kazue’s voice pulled him out of his reverie, and Mordecai’s focus followed her own to find the group of small figures making their way down a mountain trail, ing into their territory from a very different dire than all other visitors so far. They had stopped a short way into their territory, and he could hear them discussing the sudden, if small, ge in mana pressure and a subtle differen the way it felt. Well, it seemed they were sensitive to the feel of a cimed territory. No point in trying to hide it from them.

  He smiled and shifted his avatar to a location about teers away from short, scaled humanoids, and gave them a slight bow. “Wele to the Azeria Mountain Dungeon, I am Mord-”

  A tiny, furry form sprung from a nearby shadow to g to him excitedly. “Mordi! It’s your lizard people! They came back! Ohh, since your bunny people are called bunkin then maybe they should be lizkin? You guys should see the new pce Mordi and his wives made its all sorts of fun games and there’s three ways to explore and they are all so different and so many new creatures I really like the fairies they are all so fun to talk with and have told me some of the best stories I tell you some of my stories if you like I know lots of stories because I have been to lots of pces and there’s always something to see do you guys know that there is a vilge of really pretty fox girls nearby they have some of the best desserts, and-”

  While Li was talking, the elderly leader of the group of kobolds had begun to rex with a smile. “I think our aors words have proven true.” He said in the draiguage. The kobold looked to be a shaman or priest, which worried Mordecai a little given that they had banners and heraldry in the form of a purple dragon, with crystalline scales where detailing ossible. “Would you be Lord Li?” he asked of the ratling burr that had attached himself to Mordecai.

  “Oh I’m no lord I’m just Li or Li Zarb if you really have to be formal but I don’t like being formal because then they make you put on this weird stiff suit and half strangle you with a tie unless its a bow tie of course because bow ties are cool which reminds me of this friend I know, he was a traveling healer-”

  The old kobold just nodded along, then patted the shoulder of one of the young warriors near him as he interrupted Li’s monologue. “Well Li, you seem like quite the clever young d and you know so much about this pce. Would you be willing to show my grandson all the sights? His name is Viris.”

  “Oh wow sure I would be gd to but shouldn’t you all know your way around although I guess it has been a long time and he’s redecorated a lot sihen so sure let me show you the cool things here have you ever met a slime girl?”

  Mordecai wasn’t certain how ed he should be about the fact that not only did Li agree with Kazue that Kstoria was a girl, but that his belief seemed to be guiding the process of her being able to refihe shape of her body further, though so far she’d only managed vaguely humanoid forms with no faces or other small details.

  Once Li had dragged off his victim new best friend, the shaman focused on Mordecai and bowed low. “Lord Mordecai, I only presume. My name is Crizdirk. Our aors did well in preserving our knowledge of you.” A younger acolyte came forward, carrying a small book in her hands. It was posed of several sheets of hardened metal, and she prese Mordecai in a ceremonial manner.

  “I am.” Mordecai aowledged as he accepted the book and analyzed it. Then he sighed softly. “And it seems my own presumptions are correct as well. I am gd so many of your people escaped the result of my fury and hubris. But their works praise me too highly, and it es unfortably close to worship.” With the tents now known, Mordecai hahe book back to the acolyte as it did not seem likely that they had many copies.

  “Perhaps. But that is our decision to make, is it not?”

  Mordecai couldn’t resist a smile at that. “Yes, it is. But if we are going to talk, let us do so somepce more fortable. We have a tle town outdoors now, and an inn with good food. I would love to introduce you to my wives, but Kazue’s avatar is traveling with Morikht now.”

  The shaman ined his head. “We would gdly feast with you. And things have ged signifitly it seems, we will have muformation t back to our tribe.”

  Kazue had been everything of course, but she just now realized something about the versation. “Mordecai, why do I know draiow?”

  Zagaroth