-Callia-

  As I stepped out of the cave back into the tunnels of the citadel, the door behind me softly shut on its own. The presence hanging over it seemed to vanish, and in no time at all it was just me, the presence guarding me, and the sickening stickiness that was being held at bay. Despite the return to a sort of normalcy, I still need a moment to process everything that just happened. How my life went from never having taken religion seriously to being entrusted with a legendary relic, I’m not sure, but here and now wasn’t the place to have an existential breakdown. My dash down the corridors left me little time to properly memorize the route I took, so I focused back on the presence, hoping to lean on it to guide me out.

  I wait and wait some more, but the presence seems content to just keep the malicious other at bay. No matter how I ask, it seems to have no intention of changing. I let myself take a deep breath to swallow the rising nervousness as I moved out of the room and back into the long underground labyrinth that led to this place. Instead of blindly charging through the halls with nothing but faith, I move with my knife at the ready and my senses peeled. The narrow corridors felt like both a boon and bane. On one hand I could focus my attention on fewer avenues of attack. On the other hand, my mobility was limited, and the demon guards seemed to have some means of detecting me well before I was near them. I suspect that just like the presence led me down to the secret cave, the demons were receiving guidance from the evil sticky presence. Meaning the guards had live updates on my every move. Not something someone who has extensive practice hiding would ever appreciate.

  The silence of the corridors seems to echo out as my soundless steps add nothing. The minutes or maybe even hours I spend wandering down here, moving from hallway to hallway, getting myself even more hopelessly lost, wear at my nerves and the tension I initially felt. Thinking it over, I eventually settle on the possibility that, unlike my stereotype for demons as reckless marauders, these ones seem to place far more emphasis on defense. In every fight except my stairwell encounter, the demons prioritized defense and time, but what was it they were waiting for that made time so precious to them? If it was reinforcements from the guards above, there was more than plenty of time. Waiting for paladins to resolve the issue felt like a measure that could blow back on the vault guards just as easily.

  Going from room to room and hallway to hallway eventually led to giving me an extensive glimpse of everything stored away down here. All kinds of artifacts that I wouldn’t even begin to know about. However, none of them called me in quite the same way as the grail did. Amusingly, the first thing that came to mind as I reflected on the grail was the fact that it seems I beat King Arthur in his quest for the Holy Grail. Assuming that it was in fact that very grail that had somehow ended up dimensionally misplaced like me and Callen, but then again, considering the origin, dimensional displacement didn’t seem as far-fetched as Callen and I being reborn here.

  After more time than I felt comfortable with, I finally found myself reaching familiar ground. The crumpled ball of crushed metal plates at the base of a stairwell perfectly marks the staircase back to the gate. With this the labyrinth of tunnels is finally at an end. Familiar territory helps reignite my caution as I make my way back up the stairs. Still no sounds or any sign of life. Just the seemingly infinite silence that only the rhythm of my heart and breathing interrupted. As I go, I pause at the door the guard had jumped out from to ambush me on my way into the vault.

  For a brief moment my instincts and my curiosity clashed, but my curiosity pushed me enough to place my hand on the door handle. I gently pull it out, letting me peek into the room. Inside I see a massive space filled with various couches around game tables; the center of the room is a bar. Scanning the room, I see no sign of any demon or even any people. The place actually vaguely reminds me of the casino built on top of the secret enslavement operation in the capital, but it was definitely a step or two higher class. Gambling was never something that struck me as particularly interesting. However, I came this far, so my curiosity remained at the reins, pushing me deeper in to check out the doors at the back of the casino. First door: private rooms where deviants can do their business. I immediately left and moved onto the other. It led into a back room. The sudden sound of clicking metal echoed out as I moved forward. I snapped my guard up as a door shifting open echoed against the silence.

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  No sounds, but I sharpened my attention as the vault opened itself on my approach. Inside were towers of golden bars stacked into neat rows on pallets. Despite my stated lack of interest in money, this pile was something in a completely different dimension. All the money in the vaults of Eldraine City didn’t add up to one tenth of a pallet of golden bars stacked in the corner behind the countless neatly stacked towers of coins. It wasn’t just gold either; I could see gems of all sizes and colors, high-value materials, and even some top-of-the-line weapons similar in value to the set of gear Karia had commissioned me. I gulped in shock as the sheer absurd quantity of the money seemed to slap me in the face.

  Without thinking, my foot echoing against the ground as I took a step towards the fortune snapped me out of my haze. Immediately I jerked myself back around the edge of the door, forcibly stopping me from looking any deeper. I clutched my chest as my heart hammered wildly against my chest. I take a deep breath and then another. My fascination rapidly shifted back into a bone-deep dread. I glance back at the vault door that just happened to open itself for me. The rush of the moment finally breaks, and I leave the casino directly. Curiosity has a time and place; here and now is neither the time nor the place. Something in that room used the shock of the splendor and money within like a siren’s call to lure me in. I slam the casino door behind me as I move back into the stairwell. Looking ahead, I clench and then unclench my fist. Beating the crap out of a bunch of demons sounds really cathartic right about now.

  Crescent’s research

  Crescent smiled down as she finished treating another patient. With her grandfather taking over as mayor now that he was back, things had gotten a lot easier for her. So much so she was able to revert her skills back into the mix of healing and piloting skills that had come to define the medical profession in Port Town. Despite so many disasters, Port Town’s population hadn’t decreased in the slightest. Instead, the refugees from Woodside and Portten filled the town to the edge. The carpenters and masons were working overtime to build new housing so that the newcomers could move from the emergency space in the castle into proper homes. Considering the act of fleeing had a tendency to cull those lacking physical stats, Port Town now had a serious excess of strong manual labor but lacked those with focused professional and administrative skills. Meaning that she was busier than ever responding to the various medical alerts around town.

  Unfortunately, despite her efforts to help the injured, her cursed trait worked best on those who were unfamiliar with her. In more than one case Crescent couldn’t help but thank Callen for his advice to always have a small core of self-defense skills. When responding to an emergency, she would arrive only to be attacked by nearby residents acting defensively on reflex. Most let her get her work done while keeping a careful eye on her actions, but regardless, Crescent had long accepted that suspicion and distrust were the natural reactions to her presence. Crescent leaned back against her helicopter, reflecting on the story Callen had shared with her. The earthkin who made a secret facility to study the transmutation of humans into subhumans with animal features. Without a doubt his work was an atrocity, but it was also her only flicker of hope.

  With Callen and Callia off in a distant land wrapped up in matters bigger than anything she ever dreamed of being connected with, she was left to investigate the possibility of changing her species on her own. Luckily the full collection of guides that Madam Laina left behind before her passing was restored and copied for use among the new children seeking to follow the path of a healer. The most important of which was a secret guide that she had hidden away secretly. A full in-depth guide into altering appearance. It was still a forbidden application of healing magic, but it was the perfect step into the field of the dwarven mad scientist.

  “First, master natural body alteration. Then I’ll look into species transformation among animals. If I can get that far, maybe I’ll be able to fix this.” Crescent whispered before sweeping aside additional thoughts to focus fully on her studies.

  Romans 10:13 NIV - for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”