Phoenix felt much happier with Uriel and Camilla back with them now but continued to worry about their final missing member. While Uriel, Camilla and Rayna went back to the inn to rest, with Ray acting more as a bodyguard, Phoenix, Saiya and Ren went to the temples like they had planned before being reunited.

  While the temples weren’t particularly difficult to find, they were rather spread out from one another across the city, unlike Tulimeir that had a dedicated section for all of them. Part of this likely had to do with the more theocratic nature of the city, rather than Tulimeir simply making space for whichever clergy wanted some.

  The lower floors was where most of the shopping was, which Phoenix assumed was due to the visiting tourists and Casters that didn’t plan to stay for an extended period of time. This was also where the temple of the Merchant lay which was an interesting affair considering she was more used to the towers in Tulimeir. Here it felt less like a temple and more like an open bazaar centered around an inner sanctum that acted as a Bit Exchange and provided analyzing services of goods.

  Phoenix actually took this chance to convert one of her Ruby Bits into the smaller, but currently more useful Emerald variety. While she had left most of them with Patricia to invest, her aunt had insisted she take some with her when traveling to a city known for its extravagance. She was also strongly encouraged to shop around for Emerald Spirit Gems while she was here to have them all ready for her next ascension.

  She wasn’t exactly sure how long she had to curate those gems though. While they had blazed through Crystal at an astonishing pace, that was mainly due to the combination of prolonged blood moon and war with the Soul Reapers. She had since learned that outside of those events, most combat Casters took about three years to reach Sapphire. The average for getting from Sapphire to Emerald? Eight years.

  The fact that Pualani thought she could reach Ruby in merely a decade almost baffled her, but when she had asked Dazien about it, he had explained that they would likely beat the average simply by traveling and dedicating that time to hunting. He explained that if they had stayed on the tundra and Presley had never risen the magic levels, they would have been stuck waiting for monsters to spawn at a much slower pace and competing with every other combat Caster who remained in the cities.

  Traveling through the wilds meant clearing out monsters that may have spawned quite a while ago and had slowly been building their numbers out as Casters rarely traveled through. Phoenix had confirmed that theory for herself from the dozens of monsters she had battled on her way across Ren’s island to get here.

  After Phoenix finished converting her Bits, she was about to ask if she could talk with the High Priest or maybe the Merchant directly, but the attending priestess merely gave her the Emerald Bits with a smile and said, “Here you are Saint Wayland: ninety nine Emerald and one hundred Sapphire Bits as requested, and my Lord says that if you could first learn how to make a proper budget, then he might be willing to make a deal with you, but until then, he suggests asking the Gambler to take a risk on you.”

  “Wow, he really hates me doesn’t he?”

  The priestess gave her a flat look, “Personally, it sounds more like you hate him if you didn’t even bother to figure out how much a Bit is actually worth.”

  “Okay. Fair point. I’ll give you that one, but in my defense I’ve never actually needed to shop for anything on my own before arriving here, and when I did… Well, I have magic money-making powers.”

  The Merchant’s priestess just stared at her nonplussed before she finally took a few steps back, thanked the woman for the assistance, and fled the temple market. Taking the Merchant’s advice, though, they headed for the mid-level’s gambling halls.

  The amount of noise was simply overwhelming at first but their Saphire Caste Mind quickly adjusted to the laughter, banter, and shouting taking place in every little casino they passed. Each seemed to have its own theme and many were specifically dedicated to a certain type of game. She could understand now why the Gambler was considered a subordinated deity to the Gamer, though. Everyone was playing and having fun, but not everything involved betting it appeared. There were some free versions available for each game that were purely for the enjoyment and socialization of it.

  The Socialite’s presence was also prevalent here, with a particular locale dedicated to “storytelling gaming” which Phoenix internally geeked-out over because it was basically this magical world’s version of Dungeons and Dragons that she had loved playing with Jin and both of their moms.

  People were laughing and having fun around heavily illusioned tables as they pretended to be someone completely different from themselves. A hulking draconid was loudly singing off-key, pretending to be a Song-Attuned Boon specialist when she would have sworn from the feel of his aura and the axes hanging from his hips that he was some kind of Blood-attuned Striker.

  There were a lot more Mundanes and younger teens in this particular hall too, pretending to be Casters and playing with different build ideas. She thought it made sense as a sort of mental exercise to try and figure out what they might want to be once they saved up for Aspects.

  Phoenix at first had thought she wouldn’t like the gambling halls, considering her mental image of them were rows of slot machines with addicts glued to them, or heavy amounts of alcohol while playing poker and trying not to get caught cheating as the house did so itself.

  Here, she was quickly corrected of that misbelief as she learned the deity Gamer theirself heavily leaned into fairness. Apparently, the slogan here was that ‘it’s only fair when it comes down to skill and luck, and it’s only fun when everybody has a fair chance.’ Cheating was heavily punished, and could even result in expulsion from the city.

  Phoenix had to be dragged along by Saiya to actually reach the temples to the pair of closely aligned gods. These reminded her a bit more of normal temples, with priests speaking with one another in quieter settings, but many were still playing games or discussing the latest sports results.

  A pair of representatives greeted them but both had the same answer for her. While they would both gladly make deals in exchange for a Soul Mark, they couldn’t help with her current goal of locating her brother as it was far outside the purview of their own domains.

  With a heavy sigh she turned to Saiya, who currently had Ren perched on her shoulder, and said, “We might as well go back to the inn. It’s almost dawn when everything will close, and I don’t think the Socialite or Lover are going to risk trying to mark me.”

  “Why’s that?” Saiyia asked in confusion.

  “Because I hate talking to people almost as much as Paul does, and I’m wearing this,” she replied, gesturing to the white ribbon around her throat.

  “Ah. Good point.”

  “Let’s just go get some sleep, and we can try the Fainéant and Cultivator’s temple in the evening. It’s the last plan I have until I go find Emrys and beg for help.”

  “He didn’t seem all that bad,” Saiya said, but hesitated before adding, “I know he’s Emerald and my senses usually can’t get a clear read on the emotions of higher tier Casters without them allowing for it, but I could sense that he was very happy and curious around you.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or a good thing…”

  “Well, I think it’s better than if I had sensed deception or hatred that counteracted his words, but like I said, he is a whole Caste above me. However, if those feelings were genuine, I believe he’s interested in helping and getting closer to you as a friend like he said. I can’t tell if he hopes for more than that, but he did mention he was also a noble so maybe he simply believes you’ll understand him too.”

  Phoenix sighed, “Well, if it helps me find Dazien, one more friend isn’t going to hurt.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Saiya chuckled, “You say that like having more friends is ever a bad thing.”

  “Only to my growing list of people to worry about,” she replied, joining in her friend’s laughter as they made their way back to their inn.

  It had been a week now since Dazien had been forced into Valtessa Vanderill’s keeping. He would be brought to her quarters as “dinner” just before the early morning hours where the Sanguine Vampire liked to try different places to bite him.

  Then she would force him into her bed, where he quickly realized she sadistically enjoyed dominating those who were dominant, like it was a competition.

  He would awaken later that afternoon to her biting at his neck, making him serve as “breakfast” too. It was always his neck for that feeding, and he swore he’d end up with a permanent bruise there.

  After Valtessa was through with him, Finn would show up to take him to another room on a lower floor that was used for ritual work, and he would go through more rounds of interrogation.

  The only good part about this new arrangement was that they had changed his Silencer out for a more normal one and began feeding him Sapphire Mana Bits properly. He wouldn’t have survived feeding Valtessa otherwise. Slowly, he was refilling his massively depleted reserves and wasn’t bordering on insanity from the gnawing hunger.

  With his mind returning to him, he had finally begun to form the beginnings of various escape plans with this new routine he found himself in. On that fourth day with Valtessa, he had stopped physically fighting back. Pretending to enjoy what she was doing made her both less cautious and less interested.

  The difficult part of his first plan was that, as an Emerald Caster, she only needed an hour of sleep where he still needed about three, though that seemed longer when he was exhausted from feeding her. If he was to attempt escaping while she slept, he needed to figure out how to stall or fake his own sleeping. Even then, there wasn’t a guarantee his movements wouldn’t wake her up with her enhanced Emerald senses.

  The only other plan was just as insane, and that was to try and make a run for it during the brief window he was left a mentally broken mess while Finn went to clean up before taking him to Valtessa. The only way he could see that actually working was if he could manage to steal a key to his Silencer from either of those two.

  At this point, with his time dwindling, he may need to attempt it even without a key. Perhaps today he would try.

  As Finn led him from Valtessa’s quarters to the ritual room, he continued observing his surroundings to see which way might be the best for potentially finding an exit. His plan to run after Finn left to clean suddenly crumbled into dust when he entered the room this time to find a stone altar in place of the interrogation ritual’s diagram.

  He hadn’t completely lost track of the days, right? It wasn’t today that they were planning to turn him into whatever a Scarlet Thirst was, right?

  “What is that for?” he managed to ask, usually trying to remain silent when in this particular room.

  Finn gave an exasperated sigh, “I need to prepare the vessel for the grand ritual.”

  “What exactly does that mean?”

  “It means that you’re going to drink this very expensive potion that will render you immobile, while I try focusing very hard to not mess up the ritual pattern on you.”

  “On me?” he repeated, suddenly worried that they were going to try doing one of those rune pattern scars like Uriel had on his upper body.

  Finndeshin didn’t answer right away that time. Instead he grabbed Dazien by the neck and practically slammed him down atop the large stone table. Some of the other cultists that normally attended to the lord, moved to help subdue him when he tried to fight back, but eventually, that potion made it down his throat like all the others had.

  Not being able to move his body at all was worse than anything Valtessa had done to him.

  His own muscles refused to respond to his commands, and panic threatened to suffocate him. Finn could still move him, though, and forced his body to lay flat on the altar before lifting an item that Dazien actually recognized.

  “Do you know what this is?” Finn asked.

  Dazien tried to nod or say yes, but his body didn’t belong to him anymore. He couldn’t move or speak at all and every fiber of his soul was revolting against being powerless. He’d rather they just kill him than keep him a prisoner within himself like this.

  Finndeshin’s smirk made his anger flare as the elf said, “Ah, right. I guess there’s no opening that pretty mouth of yours right now, is there? Well, this is a very special tattoo pen. It’s going to draw and transfigure your own blood and infuse it with Dimension magic to use as the ink. I’ve heard it’s very painful, but the potion will help you keep still and not mess me up. Luckily, I can do it this way since you’re Sapphire and don’t need to breathe.”

  The pain began at one of his fingers, right where his pinky nail started, and swirled down the length of it onto the back of his hand.

  It was excruciating and seemed to last an eternity.

  He could feel every rune, circle, and connecting line that was being drawn on him. His body wanted to flee, to flinch away from the pain, but it was frozen in place. He felt inanimate… like he truly was just an expensive doll being engraved upon and played with.

  He had no agency.

  For hours he was forced to remain as still as a statue while Finn tattooed down his arms, eventually removing his white tunic that had been stained red with his blood, and then continuing to tattoo his torso.

  Dazien knew it wasn’t exactly the same as the repeated cutting his partner had gone through for months, and he knew that by the end of it the tattoos wouldn’t look the same as Uriel’s scars, but now he felt like he finally understood his partner’s pain. Not just in a physical sense, but this emotional turmoil of being utterly powerless to stop it.

  He wondered if his mother had been forced to go through something like this. Had she been trapped like this as they took pieces from her to use as ingredients? Or had they actually been merciful and killed her before tearing her apart? Had she begged them for it to stop unlike how he was currently incapable of doing? Had she thought of him at this point too?

  Had she felt as hopeless as he did now?

  Dazien eventually lost consciousness at some point. He only knew this because he woke up to find a young woman he didn’t recognize bathing him with a towel. He was still on the altar in the ritual room, but Finndeshin was absent and he wondered if this was his opportunity to flee that he had originally been hoping for.

  The woman looked around his age, if not slightly younger, and her long pale blue hair was lovely. Her expression was different from the other cultist he had met before though, while they mostly seemed indifferent or enthused about helping, this girl seemed conflicted.

  “Hello,” he managed to croak out, grateful to be able to speak again as the effects of the potion were wearing off.

  She jumped in surprise, obviously not expecting him to awaken, and blushed as she met his eyes, whispering her own, “Hello.”

  “Are you new? You’re much prettier than the other helpers I’ve seen here,” he said, hoping flattery would serve him well at the moment. “I’ve never seen hair that color before, but it looks good on you.”

  She gave a little scoff. “You’re one to talk. Even short I can tell your hair is naturally better. I have to dye mine with potions.”

  “Different isn’t always better,” he answered bitterly. “My hair is what has me here and you there. I didn’t realize the Scarlet Banquet recruited younger girls, though.”

  Her cheeks turned pinker again as she murmured, “My uncle is Lord Finndeshin. He brought me into the fold just a few days ago… said they needed the extra help for an upcoming ritual…”

  “You don’t seem so excited about that. Did they tell you what it was for?”

  She silently nodded, glancing around before quietly admitting, “I know who you are, too. Your sister has been staying at an inn where my friends and I like to hang out. She’s been looking everywhere for you.”

  Dazien’s heart soared at this news, a spark of hope reigniting inside of him. “If you already know my name, will you tell me yours?”

  “Kelana Finndeshin,” she replied, nervously moving the towel again when she realized she had stopped.

  She frowned as she looked at his skin and said, “This might sound odd to an outsider like you, but even though I think these purple tattoos actually look amazing on you, I don’t like that they were forced on you. The people of Serenydi are raised to love and appreciate art and pleasure… What my uncle did to you…”

  Kelana nervously glanced around again, “Well, it’s just wrong. What they plan to do with the ritual… it will destroy so many beautiful things. Why does he believe any of this is good for our city?”

  “Perhaps, he really doesn’t and brought you in hoping you would see that?” he suggested, wanting more than he ever had before for his Shiny Talent to help convince her to help him. “He told me that he disagreed with the High Priestess, but I think he’s afraid to go directly against her.”

  Her eyes went wide at that revelation, and she asked, “You think he trusts me with something like that? I don’t know what he expects me to do against Lady Vanderill. I’m only Crystal Caste.”

  “But you know my sister,” he pointed out, “You know she’s looking for me and can get more help. She’s the Regent of House Wayland, you can tell her where I’m at.”

  Kelana nervously bit her lower lip as her gaze shifted from him, to the door he normally came through, to another side entrance the lord normally went to clean up in, then back to him. “I… I don’t know.”

  “I only have a week left to live, Kelana,” he stressed, trying to sit up and failing miserably, “Unlike me right now, you have the power to save my life and countless more that will be lost should this ritual succeed.”

  “I can save you?”

  “Only if you’re brave enough to tell someone in time. Are you brave, Kelana?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip more as she seemed to contemplate the idea. Then her next question made him realize that she was a bit more like most of the other nobles he had met than she had seemed at first, “If I can be brave enough, would you have dinner with me to celebrate?”

  He fought back the groan that wanted to claw its way from his throat as he said with a tight smile, “I think dinner is the least I can do for saving my life.”