Chapter 2003: Nemerys, the Unforsaken

Quinlan watched Void scramble off Sera’s lap in the inn’s private dining room, clutching her robe closed as she fled around the table to Jallen.

"Had enough?" the healer asked.

Void nodded fervently at her. She dragged her abandoned chair around to Jallen’s side and sat down, keeping the healer between herself and the smiling elf.

"You’re welcome back whenever you like~" Sera offered.

"...I’m fine."

Quinlan chuckled as the mage tucked herself against her teammate. Leaving Jallen to reclaim her sleeve from Void’s grip, he drew their map closer and pointed to the country north of Sarthal.

The Sacred Custodianship of Orathis occupied the northern highlands and fortified valleys. Its drow inhabitants were governed by priests, and Quinlan laid a pamphlet beside the map to show the Lilies which goddess those priests served.

"Nemerys, the Unforsaken," he read. "They say she ruled Thalorind before Lilyanna stole her place. According to their faith, the whole world still belongs to Nemerys."

"A goddess before Lilyanna..." Serika’s hands paused on his shoulders. "It’s hard to imagine..."

Quinlan understood her disbelief. Even after hearing the name from several people, he struggled to accept the possibility of another goddess once ruling their world. He’d spoken to Lilyanna, argued with her, seen her with his mothers. Now an entire country was calling her a usurper.

The pamphlet beneath his fingers accused her of stealing everything Nemerys ruled. He wanted to dismiss it as the ravings of angry priests, but they knew so little about Thalorind’s past that he couldn’t even say which parts were impossible.

"We still don’t know what led to my mothers and the other primordials being exiled," he sighed. "Perhaps Nemerys losing her place has something to do with it."

Mearie and Luminara could hold him when he visited, spoil him, teach him, and send him back out into the world. They still couldn’t follow him home.

"I don’t like how little we know," Lucille said, her worry plain as she looked at him. "These are people we know. Our family. And we’re piecing together what happened to them from strangers’ stories."

"Lilyanna needs a very stern spanking," Vex declared. "I mean, she already did, but now I might just do it myself."

Aurora set her notes aside and reached for his hand.

"Supposedly, she isn’t allowed to tell us. The primordials are bound to silence too, remember?" Her fingers closed around his. "We’ll have to take it one step at a time."

Quinlan knew that his plump alchemist was right.

"Did you find anyone with a different account of Nemerys?" he asked the Lilies. "Anything beyond their priests insisting Lilyanna stole the world from her?"

"Nothing we could put any faith in," Jallen replied. "Or anyone who could tell us where Nemerys is now, whether she’s alive or dead, what happened to her, nothing."

Lilith glanced at the declaration beneath the goddess’s name.

"They were much more interested in calling everyone who accepts Lilyanna’s rule a traitor. We heard that part plenty."

"Yeah. Their priests have declared an eternal holy war against the rest of the world," Sera nodded. "Until everyone recognises their goddess as its rightful ruler."

"Blossom never promised this goddess anything," the dogkin objected. "How can Blossom betray her?"

"You were supposed to be born worshipping Nemerys, apparently~" Kitsara gave the pamphlet a disdainful look. "Very inconsiderate of you."

Blossom, for once, smirked at that, knowing her friend was joking. "Blossom is shocked their faith held so long!"

"Yeah," Ayame agreed. "Although I haven’t heard a concrete date yet, Nemerys must’ve fallen at least a million years ago."

"That’s right. But we can only learn so much from merchant hearsay." Quinlan drew the Guild’s notices from beneath the pamphlet, laying out the jobs available across Orathis’s borders.

"The Guild did confirm we can take work in Orathis regardless of our religious beliefs," he continued.

"We got the same answer," Lilith said. "With an unhinged lecture attached."

"They’re just as hypocritical as Lilyanna’s church, if not more," Ayame shook her head, grinning. "Proudly proclaiming their beliefs then when the time comes to actually uphold them, they find excuses to make."

"Yep~" Vex purred. "But what did we expect?"

Blossom frowned down at the drow country on their map.

"They sound very different from Miss Kiryssa. She was so happy to teach Blossom! And Iris, and Ria!"

The dogkin had trained under Kiryssa herself, one of the drow’s primordial progenitors. Farther down the table, Iris lowered her fork.

"She hugged me before I even finished asking."

Quinlan turned toward her. The red-eyed woman was looking at Orathis on the map, her meal forgotten.

"Just picked me up. Because a human wanted a drow teacher. I couldn’t even finish my fucking sentence."

"And then she cried when the rest of us asked!" Blossom added, smiling at her.

"Yeah..."

Remembering that welcome still left Iris flustered. She was fond of Kiryssa, the female drow primordial who taught them by sadistically butchering her students over and over again.

"She’s a terrible and cruel bitch, though," Iris added. "When I get stronger, I’ll kill her at least a hundred times."

"No wonder you like her so much. She’s you, just powerful. And smart. And wise. And emotionally mature." Ayame smiled innocently, blinking cutely when Iris’s murderous gaze found her.

Before the hissing battle could begin, Quinlan’s large palm came down on Ayame’s head, patting her lush black hair. "I agree with you, Iris. She certainly doesn’t view Lilyanna in the same light as her descendants do."

Iris picked up her fork again, giving Ayame a final warning look before returning to her meal.

Lilith drew one of the border contracts toward her.

"We asked about the fighting too. The hypocrite nation is careful about which countries they actually attack, whatever their priests promise. But when they do march, their armies are very dangerous. These border contracts pay for experienced adventurers for a reason."

"That’s what the Guild told us," Quinlan nodded. "They also buy grain from Nharum’s undead empire. Unofficially, of course. They’d never admit that publicly."

"Of course not," Ayame replied while removing his hand from her hair. Two gorgeous, crystal blue eyes narrowed at him.

"And they still pay tribute to Vorzatha, the dragon Sovereign who rules this continent," Lucille tactically swooped in, rescuing her husband from the ire of a feisty samurai. "Just like the rest of Avaranth."

"How do their priests explain paying tribute to the dragon claiming their goddess’s land?" Vex asked. "Unless Vorzatha also believes in Nemerys, isn’t she a heretic?"

"I’d enjoy hearing that explanation," Quinlan admitted.

"Could we talk about Telvaren next?" Aurora opened an illustrated catalogue beside Quinlan’s plate, turning it toward him. "A potion seller here in Sarthal gave me this. Look at these gardens."

Her finger travelled over beds of unfamiliar plants beneath a painted manor. The pages that followed showed bottles of the potions made on the estate, each bearing the noble family’s crest.

"They grow their own ingredients," Aurora explained. "I’d like to see what I could make with some of those plants."

"Did the seller explain which herbs they use in the potions?" Serika asked.

"I asked which herbs went into one of his potions. He told me how prestigious the family making it was instead."

"So she asked again," Kitsara added, leaning closer to see the catalogue. "He brought out a more expensive potion~"

"And did he know what was in that one?"

"No." Aurora tapped the family crest printed beside the garden. "But it came from the same wonderful people, so apparently I should have been satisfied."