<~> Chapter 219Cecilia had been able to get approval from the embassy pretty easily. It seems that Wihorn was happy to take the smith and her apprenti, my guess is that she already realized that they would be a good cover story for us when we leave town. Cecilia hadn't asked for maails, she was still busy with some other stuff, but she was able to get us permission t Tenna and her apprenti without any issues. Sibyl and Raya decided to stay with Tenna at the embassy while we headed out to meet with the Order of Lilith. It was better to leave some people with them even if they were protected at the embassy.

  Silva and Lorriene joined up with us and soon we were walking through the closed bazaar toward a nondescript house in the southern quarter. A g the small inn we had oayed at showed that it had been raided and ransacked since we left. Several town guards and a Tamin priest stood nearby watg the building. I was unsure if it was because the building was suspiciously abandoned or if they had somehow ected it to the murder of the King. Luckily, no one had ected the pce with any of us yet though. We had received some trouble at the checkpoints but wheamin priests noticed most of roup had auras that could only belong to demon hunters we were suddenly treated with a lot more resped let through more quickly. They believed us to be hunting down demons alongside them and I didn't find it necessary to correct them.

  "We're almost there," Lorrieold us.

  I nodded and tio follow her through the fusing alleys of the southern quarter. It was almost as if the area had been designed iionally for wlessness, it stood in such stark trast to the rest of the city. We finally reached a fairly average pin stone building. Among the other buildings in the area, it didn't stand out at all, which was undoubtedly pletely iional.

  Silva stepped up to the door and knocked quietly. If there had been some kind of secret signal or something simir, there had been no indication. The wooden dhly dragged on the frame when it opened, either not fitted properly or salvaged from somewhere else. A pin lookifolk man with e ears opehe door, looked over roup, and pulled the stubborn door the rest of the en. Without a word, Silva and roup filed into the building and the door was roughly shut behind us. The moment the door closed I felt numerous different entments on the building snap into pd all of the outside sounds of the city muted. Like always, stepping into someone else's [Zone of Silenbsp;made the hairs on the bay neck step up and I could tell there were several other entments I couldn't as easily identify yered on top of this building as well.

  There was a group of beastfolk pying a card game at the table on the first floor, but they paid us no mind as Silva led roup up the stairs. The top floor of the sed-story building was only a hallway with two doors and she led us over to the one on the far side. The eop floor had been cleared out and the first door had been ed shut, leaving only e room with two people waiting for us at a round table. One was a human man, who I could instantly tell greatly out-leveled roup by a signifit margin, and a beastfolk woman wearing bd grey armor that seemed a bit weaker than the average of roup. The woman didn't have any parts of her body uncovered, not eveail, and wore a stylized metal mask of a snarling dog that stood out as ented to my mana sehe only reason I could tell it was a woman at all was based on her body type. Despite her armor and cloak, it was easy to tell that she had wide hips and a slender frame, not that it meant much when stats and magic were in py. She had two swords on her belt, both on her left side, as well as a rger sword on her back.

  The human man wore pin brown scks and a tucked-in white shirt, his matg brown coat hung from the back of his chair, giving him the impression of a mert. He had short bck hair and a -shaven face making him look impressively... normal. Despite the prickle of danger I felt from being so out-leveled, his rexed manner, curious eyes, and charming grin made him disarming.

  He stood up once we all ehe room and gave a short bow. "It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you, as I'm sure you're aware, my name is Sophin Talrassi." He motioo the woman. "This is a ret recruit of mihat I've decided to take under my wing, you call her Lyric." She gave a silent bow. I couldn't see her eyes through the mask but I got the impression that the woman was staring at me. She kind of gave me the creeps.

  Silva began pointing each of us out, "Beldonna, Mimi, Torien, Man, and of course, Lilith Baphomet."

  Sophin smiled at us and turo focus on Lorriene. "It seems you've finally gotten your wish, reunited with your nieces, and with the death of the king, the freedom of the pantharians. At least the ohat didn't get snapped right back up anyway."

  Lorriene smiled and turo look over the twins. "Yes. Things have ged a lot i few days. I hope to spend more time with them soon, but none of us have had much opportunity to rex yet."

  He gave a small nod of aowledgment befesturing at the rge table. "Please, let's all sit. We have a lot to discuss." He sat down and looked at Lyric who o him. Her nod made him grin, clearly some kind of unspoken unication was going oweewo.

  Once everyone was seated he focused his attention on me. "I have it from a few reliable sourow that you're the Lilith that everyone has been searg for, including us, The Order of Lilith. Though I admit, heariimony from both Lorriene and Silva that you're the real thing is almost so ued that I would doubt it if I didn't have my own sources."

  I studied his face carefully and activated the charisma portion of [Being of Karma]. It was odd, the guy retty unreadable, yet it felt like he wasn't using a charisma skill at all. Either he didn't actually have one or his attribute was so high level that it was unreizable. Shaking off that question for now I decided to respond.

  "So you have other sources that suggest I'm the Lilith of your prophecies?" I asked.

  "As much as you've tried to stay uhe radar, you make quite the impression on a few people here and there, believe it or not. I first heard of you when you were still in Traehall and the event was notable enough that I dropped what I was doing to e see if you were the right person all the way back then. I had just missed you leaving town but I went bad found the ruin I believe you woke up in and firmed that it was Clifford Remitori who had summoned you. I think I may have made it to Goldeh while you were still there, but before I could seek you out I was redirected to Port Kornd. Unfortunately, I only arrived just before the Amphores cult attacked the t."

  "Wait," I said interrupting, "You know for sure that Amphores is the one who killed t Kornd?"

  He nodded. "I do. t Kornd wasn't high up on our list of targets but he was still nominally pro-svery. Some of ents were monit his operations and caught wind of Amphores' movements. I was headed that way to personally intervene, but I arrived there too te to stop them from assassinating him or his wife. I was able to firm their involvement because I ended up fighting some of them directly. No one present there had been high enough up to be important though, so we didn't learn much else."

  "Why were y to intervene if he ro-svery?" Bel asked.

  He turo Bel and smiled kindly at her. "While the Order of Lilith does its share of dirty work, anization are pragmatists first and foremost. t Kornd ro-svery on paper but he had a fairly amiable retionship with the te Baron Morrister. Even though t Kornd owned sves himself, he only owned crime sves. The Order doesn't like the practice of crime svery either, it is very often misused to entrap people, but it is a lesser evil and we would much rather have someone we feel like we could push in the right dire in trol of the port territory. We were targeting him for influeher than assassination at this point. Him dying so shortly after Baron Morrister is a huge blow to our efforts in doing this the bloodless way. We believed we could have used Morrister's death to push Kornd to the te Baron's cause."

  "The bloodless way," Torieed. "And that means the bloody way is the only way left?"

  "The hope is irely gone of course, the Elves still support our efforts in their own way, but the death of those two in particur means that the remaining hat we think could have been pushed will be much less likely to stick their necks out than before. Even putting up resistao pro-svery edicts and ws will be much less likely from them now."

  I rubbed my eyes. "Now that the king is dead, the elves said they wao push for Marquis Saffadder to bee the new king, but that would require removing the Duke of Torquin. Is that a path to removing svery without further bloodshed?"

  Sophin nodded. "That's our current posture, we already have an assassin w on targeting the Duke of Torquin as we speak. At this stage, installing Marquis Saffadder is the only path that doesn't end iire colpse of this kingdom through civil war, or a theocrastigated by the Tamin church. Things are already moving in that dire. The guards of Torlimal city are allying themselves with them, even more closely than before."

  I nodded. "I heard that from Talus, the head guard for the library of Sorsette."

  "Sorry for the sudden ge of topic, but what is your retionship with Sorsette? I 't help but be curious," Sophin asked.

  "Currently, I'm a follower of Sorsette and was even offered a priest css from her. In the grander scheme, you call us allies. I feel as though our values line up fairly closely."

  Sophin's smile widened. "This could be quite the boon for us. If the Order get some direct support from the Libraries of Sorsette, it could make oals that much easier."

  I frowned. "Us?"

  Lorriene cleared her throat. "Before we talk about any of that, we should keep discussing the cult of Amphores. Do you know their motives Sophin?"

  He turo her with a fused look. "Did I not already say?"

  The rest of us looked at each other in fusion and even the, until then, stoic looking Lyric looked like she suppressed a ugh.

  Sophin signed and shook his head. "The cult of Amphores is pushing this try into a civil war. They have been systematically destroying all of our pns to get rid of svery in this try the slow but less bloody way while also provoking sves into rioting like they did earlier this week. I think that is why they targeted Baron Morrister. There are a lot of sves privileged enough to know about him who had their hopes die with his passing. Across this try, many sves held out hope that he would somehow alter the bance of power in this kingdom and free sves from their bonds. Now that he's dead, a lot of the sves that would have adopted a wait-and-see approach are more likely to violently rebel if an opportunity arises."

  "But what about the colrs?" Man asked.

  He smiled at her but I sensed a sliver of pity in his voice. "Most colrs are not as insidious as the ones you three retly wore. Normal sve colrs and crime sve colrs have their limitations, as Silva likely proved with her ret stunt."

  I nodded. "She used magic to pull it off somehow. I didn't think something like that ossible."

  "Most colrs are simply ented tools. Some magic, lightning magic especially, interferes with them. But even without the ability to pletely remove the colrs, sves have found ways to manipute their orders aively apply ands in ways that fly in the face of their i. If there were a full-on rebellion, many sves would be able to twist their masters' words enough to kill them and get away from the immediate area in the chaos. It would be hard for them to live anywhere respectable while wearing one, but it's not unheard of for bandits to be wearing untrolled sve colrs. And then, of course, there's the cult of Amphores with their retly developed colr disruption tools and the elves with their ways to remove the colrs entirely. The colrs don't make it impossible to escape, only more difficult."

  I turo Silva and Lorriene. "How much have you told him about Wihorn's pn?"

  "Nothing," Silva said simply.

  Turning back to Sophin, I looked him in the eye. "Sometime in the few days, the cult of Amphores and the elves are going to attack the sver's guild simultaneously, and Feyria Wihorn asked roup to help free some of the sves and steal as muphores' thunder as we ."

  "I'm not aware of the idiom, but I think I get the idea... Tell me more about this pn, I'm sure I'll be able to help."

  Saine

  Hello! We finally meet some of the members of the Order of Lilith! Sophin was a character first talked about early on in this ard as roach the ter parts of this book we're finally getting to see him e into py a little bit. We also get his perspective oentions of the Cult of Amphores. The pieces for the assault on the sver's guild is finally ing together! I hope you enjoyed reading!

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