War is calling

Jp between Lucian, Omni and Bandorchu

Deserter… it was true, but the word was like salt in a wound.

Again she spoke the words of her former, prime deity.

“According to Vastad, ‘Zin already stalked the Odsier Plains and the others would soon follow.’ And he declared that ‘We all have parts to play.’ Even me and Gonyaul. and that there was no running from it… A foreboding message, indeed. Tell me you aren’t thinking of fighting against our people?”

She went on before hearing an answer.

“While I hold very few allegiances to the people of Helias, and even fewer to the Arcadians, I do not wish for their deaths.

They, like myself, are following the divine decree of their Gods. I can confirm that the tenet to destroy magik is their will. I know, perhaps more than most, the danger of the maleficium…for they took my mother from me as a child... And in my anger I allowed the Pillars to guide my adolescence through young adulthood. Now since coming to Arcadia, I have ignored or directly acted against that tenet. All I have left now is here in this room.”

She pointed to each of them and stopped on Gonyaul.

“I will not take him closer to the Inquisition. I don’t know if he has told you what he is… but he would be used as an unwilling weapon for them.”

There was something in the mercenary’s eyes as Voah spoke of the dangers of magik, but for now she held her tongue.

“You are talking about what happened when he touched the ice witch. What… was that?”

“Gonyaul is a Vauxian. His people were targets of a genocide by the maleficium of the Forsaken Lands… it grieves me to no end to say that while they once worked hand in hand with the Inquisition, they were exploited for their propensity to nullify magik. Slaughtered to the point of extinction. Turned into weapons for Holy warriors. I had no previous knowledge of his people before my coming to Arcadia… a deep dark secret of the Inquisition it seems. From the pages of Road To Salvation I learned of them. How Saint Pahadron stood by his friend Daewyndl, the first Inquisitor. He was a Vauxian. My suspicions of their fate were confirmed by a witch of Erewhon on the Odsier plains. This sword… forged by the bone and blood of a…”

Her words caught in her throat.

“…of a Vaux child…”

She shook her head.

“I took her vision for truth, for she had no need to lie, but I hoped that she had. I want no part in killing a race of people, especially children.

After meeting the kind soul that is Gonyaul, I learned more. An enclave of his people still live… I wanted to leave the Inquisition… so that they would never find him or the Vaux… but clearly it isn’t so easy to escape the past.

Vastad found me… he took my mind. And now his people… I fear I’ve only done him more wrong than good.”

“That…”
Alexis shook her head. Words escaped her at this horrific revelation. The Inquisition, to an outsider, had always felt ruthless and cruel. But this…

She took a deep breath.
“Makes you wonder if the Ozainae are not right to march on Ostiarium. However…”

Her gaze hardens.

“… not everyone is the Inquisition. But they will make no difference. They never do. Besides…”

Alexis gestured to the walls of the cavern.

“… they have their own skeletons in their closet.”

Hearing everything, Tarmen could only listen. He wasn’t ready to decide if he would fully reject his home to fight here or blindly slaughter the natives to ensure he had a home to return to. He wasn’t prepared to hear that the gods, the gods he had considered kin for his entire life, would stand against him. That his entire way of life thus far might be a lie.
The rumbling had returned in the midst of this barrage, only increasing his stress as he say silently, looking at the floor as the others continued to talk.