Chapter 397

Faerûn was home to countless powers and factions. Most had culture, but little sense of civilization. Everyone cared only about their own interests; how many people truly concerned themselves with the bigger picture?

Even the gods rarely bothered with matters that had nothing to do with their own faiths.

From Shamar's perspective, the fact that Anser had keenly discerned the orcs' conspiracy and come here alone to investigate showed a breadth of vision, perspective, and wisdom far beyond that of an ordinary person.

Someone like that couldn't be bad!

The moment Anser met his gaze, he realized Shamar had misunderstood him, but there wasn't really any way to explain.

"What's the situation, exactly? The orcs don't seem to have that many troops." He steered the conversation back on track.

Shamar stood and glanced around before beckoning to Anser. "Come with me. This isn't the place to talk."

Anser acknowledged him and followed him upstairs.

The two made their way to a street-facing room on the temple's third floor. Through its narrow windows, they could see students coming and going across the street at Suzail Academy.

"This is where I live. Sit wherever you like."

Shamar closed the door, dug some tea leaves out from the table beside him, then began boiling water and brewing tea with practiced ease.

Next to the tea tin sat a jar of coffee. Sunlight fell across it, revealing a layer of dust. Clearly, it hadn't been touched in quite some time.

In Faerûn, tea was the mainstream drink. From nobles to commoners, everyone drank it, and it was considered a basic necessity of daily life.

Coffee was a distinctive beverage that had spread from the southern and southeastern regions. It was reasonably widespread, but its audience was limited.

The continent of Kara-Tur regarded it as a barbaric drink, leaving coffee in a rather awkward position.

This wasn't disdain from a more advanced civilization.

Supposedly, plantation owners in the south gave coarse-ground black coffee or spent coffee grounds to slave laborers and livestock to keep them alert, working hard, and productive.

Rumors like these, combined with coffee's own characteristics, made it difficult for the drink to gain acceptance among the nobility.

Anser withdrew his gaze and looked toward the nearby academy. "You don't seem very worried."

"Then you make life too exhausting for yourself." Shamar set a plate of fruit on the table in front of Anser, casually picked up a piece himself, and started eating.

"War is Faerûn's shadow. The two have always gone hand in hand, so what difference does it make? The sun still rises every day, doesn't it?" He looked completely unconcerned.

"Fair point." Anser shrugged.

Across Toril's tens of thousands of years of history, the creator races, dragons, giants, elves, and humans had taken the stage one after another, each enjoying countless years of glory.

After all that glory faded away, Toril was still Toril.

Even if the orcs won their war of conquest and Faerûn changed hands, humanity would still exist. Their circumstances would simply be different.

That would certainly affect the God of Knowledge, however, because humans were better suited than any other race to creating and spreading knowledge.

Shamar crossed one leg over the other. "The orcs of the Storm Horns have been fighting Cormyr for centuries. The two sides know each other well. This time, though, the orcs came prepared and caught Cormyr off guard. Even the Purple Dragons took a beating..."

Anser listened carefully, gradually gaining a detailed understanding of the war.

At the beginning of the fighting, the humans had assumed the orcs were simply coming down from the mountains to raid for food again. They hadn't taken the threat seriously enough and suffered a minor setback.

The Cormyrean royal family was furious and immediately deployed the Purple Dragons, intending to crush the orc coalition in one decisive blow.

Instead, as soon as they entered the mountains, they ran straight into the Eyes of Gruumsh that the orcs had kept hidden for a long time, along with two Legendary Professionals. The two sides fought bitterly for an hour before the humans ultimately withdrew.

The Purple Dragons suffered severe casualties in that battle, losing several hundred troops.

After weighing the situation, the royal family chose caution over pride and withdrew to defend Suzail.

The outcome was hardly flattering, so it was never announced publicly. Only a small number of high-ranking officials knew what had happened.

The orcs had suffered heavy casualties as well, but they had been frantically raiding the elves and had created more Eyes of Gruumsh during this period. Instead of falling, their numbers had actually increased.

"Two legendary orcs?" Anser pressed.

"Apparently neither of them was an orc. One was a gnoll, and the other was a half-orc Chosen," Shamar recalled.

Anser nodded silently. The orcs really weren't getting much respect this time around.

But regardless, they were all part of Gruumsh's camp and mortal enemies of humans and elves.

"How many legendary figures does Cormyr have?"

The Purple Dragons had been able to withdraw in an orderly fashion, so they must have possessed top-tier forces capable of contending with the enemy. Otherwise, two legendary figures backed by Eyes of Gruumsh would have been enough to crush the Purple Dragons.

"Two. One is the legion commander, who hasn't shown himself in a long time. The other came from Obarskyr Castle. I heard they were both injured." Shamar had observed the battle from afar and had plenty of well-placed sources, so he knew quite a few details.

Anser understood. No wonder Cormyr had been so well-behaved lately.

He'd even praised them for being cautious before. Apparently he'd spoken too soon.

It just went to show that there were differences even among legendary figures. An ordinary Legendary Professional couldn't match a legendary Chosen.

"You... aren't going to get involved?" Anser looked up at Shamar, his tone probing.

"Me? I don't like all that fighting and killing. I'm not much of a fighter. Besides, they never asked me." Shamar waved a hand and tossed the fruit pit he'd finished with out the window.

The corner of Anser's mouth twitched as he gained a whole new understanding of this Chosen of Oghma.

Sure enough, the kind of god you worshipped said a lot about the kind of follower you were!

Thinking back carefully, he vaguely remembered that Oghma had good relations with Mystra, Goddess of Magic; Azuth, God of Wizards; Lliira, Goddess of Joy; and Lathander, the Morninglord.

His mortal enemies included Talos, God of Storms; Bane, God of Tyranny; and Cyric, God of Lies.

Oghma was True Neutral, but his relationship with Gruumsh probably wasn't particularly good.

"Talos and Gruumsh have formed an alliance," Anser reminded him.

"How do you know?" Shamar immediately sat up straight.

"The alliance also includes Lolth, the Spider Queen." Instead of explaining, Anser dropped another piece of information on him.

Shamar believed him immediately. Those three gods had plenty of history, so it was perfectly normal for them to get together again.

He leaned toward Anser. "Actually, I'm a Chosen too."

"That... really isn't obvious." Anser looked him up and down, then asked meaningfully, "What divine revelation did you receive?"

"I didn't receive one." Shamar looked perfectly calm.

"Huh?" Anser leaned backward, his face filled with surprise.

"Who said a Chosen has to receive divine revelations?" Shamar said calmly. "A Chosen is an agent of their god. If their ideals are aligned, what need is there for a divine revelation?"

"Fair point." Anser had no response to that.

He now truly appreciated just how different Oghma was. This deity might be far more formidable than he'd imagined.

After all, divine portfolios could be seized. Perhaps it wasn't that no one had ever tried to take Oghma's, but that they couldn't—or didn't dare.

"Whoa, they're huge!"

Just then, Shamar's eyes suddenly widened, his mouth hanging half open as though he'd just witnessed some extraordinary sight.

Anser noticed that his gaze had gone unfocused and immediately realized he was surfing the Spirit Net again.

Powerful professionals could split their attention between two things at once, so Anser wasn't surprised.

"What is it?" he asked casually.

"Quick, connect to the Spirit Net. Go to the Beauties forum. Hurry, hurry..." Shamar urged.

Anser was just about to connect to the Spirit Net when Sakkors's telepathic voice sounded in his mind: {Master, someone posted nude pictures of a woman and is even planning to charge people to see them...}

{What?}

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