Noctus leant against the doorframe. Clad in a silk shirt, and tight leather pants, the vampire looked nothing like the skeletal figure of a week prior.

I scowled at the vampire. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Caruan?”

“Darius, and his group were killed by members of the Primordial brotherhood on the way to Rivera.” Noctus’s lips thinned into a tight line, his eyes filled with a dark gleam. “Seems they ran into a group of reinforcements being sent to support those fighting with our guild east of Valonia.”

Gasps filled the room at his words, with Rainy, and the members of the guild hunting team crowding closer as they questioned the co-leader about the attack.

According to Noctus, the group heading to Rivera crossed paths with the Brotherhood on the main road, with the opposing guild out numbering them greatly. Not only had they been looted of any goods not bound to them, but the Brotherhood, suspecting they were bound to a revival token, camped out waiting for the group to revive at their death location in order to kill them again.

If not for Darius and Roan breaking the revival tokens after their first revival, they might have been stuck in a kill cycle. With the tokens broken, it left the group reverting to the nearest guild altar, which happened to be in Caruan.

“Is Darius going to remain in Caruan for a while then?” I asked. I had been planning on having the items he was to purchase by the end of the week, but it would seem I’d need to wait, or perhaps take a trip to Rivera myself.

Noctus nodded. “Darius, and the others will need to hunt to regain what was lost, so will not be able to fulfill your little shopping list.”

“That's fine,” I said, waving a hand dismissively. “I can acquire what I need at a later time.”

“Yuki’s group will be passing close to Rivera,” Noctus said, as he straightened his slouched posture. “Darius is going to have her detour into the city.”

I raised a brow at the vampire. “And he sent you here because?”

Everything Noctus told me Darius himself could have said through a prayer. The guild was under Trismegistus’s patronage, thus also under my own to a lesser extent.

If I made Darius, or another guild commander a priest, could they communicate with the guild in the same manner I can? If that were the case, there would be no need for me to act as a go-between for mental communication, or for the two Tengu guild members to be continuously flying across the continent to deliver missives.

“Because,” Noctus smirked. “I have access to the Whispers guilds transport network, and can more easily intercept the Brotherhood.”

Transport network? “So why are you here, and not sneaking around attacking the Brotherhood from the shadows?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“I’ve been told you used a rather interesting poison on the Brotherhood’s leader.”

“The Pozania poison.” I nodded, gesturing to the shelf where several boxes sat. “What are you intending to achieve? If you’re planning to kill the group as whole, I suggest a smoke bomb or if you want to cause a bit of chaos, I recommend darting them one by one.”

“They killed Darius twice, so a little payback is in order.” Noctus said, following me over to the shelf where I kept my poisons.

“What does the Pozanie poison do?” Sasha, the archer of Roswyn’s team, asked.

“Pozania,” I corrected, glancing over at the elven woman who was practically plastering herself to Noctus’s side.

Roswyn, along with the three human males that made up the rest of her team hung further back, their expressions attentive as they gazed at the vials revealed inside the now opened box.

Rainy was the one who answered, her fingers trailing over another box that had a scarab carved onto the front. “It causes a person's internal organs to hemorrhage, leading to internal bleeding which slowly kills them.”

I nodded in agreement to her words, focusing on the box she was touching. The concoction in that box was quite dramatic, and fast acting, though it took hundreds of scarab carapaces to create a single vial of the flesh-rotting poison. However, it only required a single drop to make contact with a bare flesh to begin eating away at their body.

Truthfully, I was surprised that the gods even allowed such a poison to exist, then again, the nerves were the first thing to be eaten away, so it was a relatively painless death.

The gods perception of what counted as torture made very little sense to me. Trismegistus refused to allow me to experiment on unwilling victims, yet, it was acceptable that I cause a person's flesh to rot away before their eyes, and potentially cause mental trauma.

“I’m looking for mass panic, so I can pick them off slowly.” Noctus said, slipping a vial of the Pozania poison into a pouch. “What else you got, Foxy?”

Scowling at the vampire for his use of the nickname, I gestured to the shelves. “These are all poisons with varying effects, paralyzing, freezing, burning, internal bleeding, and affixation. I’ve got smokes bombs, liquid, powder.” I listed off, pointing to the different boxes as I spoke.

“It’s like an assassin's wet dream,” Lenny muttered from the back of the room, his eyes wide as he gazed at the shelves.

I smiled, looking over at the man. “Poisons are one of the easiest things to make, it doesn’t take much effort. Unless you’re looking to achieve a particular effect.”

“Ooh,” Rainy crooned, flicking open one of the boxes on a high shelf. “The luminous death! This one! This is what you should use!” The dryad beamed as she turned to face the group with a black cloth bag in hand.

Sasha looked at the covered orb, the faint pink light that penetrated the cloth causing her to frown. “Isn’t that just one of the glowing ornaments the guild sells?”

“It started that way,” I sighed, taking the cloth covered orb from Rainy. “This version is the result of Sadie and Helvara’s research into creating a brighter luminous orb. When seen, the orb has a mesmerizing effect far greater than the ornaments produced for sale by the guild. It is a concoction that will completely consume your mind, causing an intense obsession with the orb.”

Noctus laughed, taking the bag from me. “Now that I’ve got to see.”

“Don’t!” I warned, reaching out to stop him from uncovering the orb. “One look, and you’ll be trapped under its effects.”

“Is it really that strong? Even to someone with high mental fortitude?” The vampire asked, raising a pale brow.

“Yes, and no.” I said, tapping a finger on the orb he held. “When Helvara created the first one, he spent three days huddled in his bedroom, refusing to allow anyone to enter. He didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, he lost all sense of being. The effect lessened after the fourth day as his mind built up an immunity to its effect. However, Corvus reported the Hydra broke free of the orb within a few minutes when they used it as a method to distract the creature. Though, it did give them enough time to blow off its heads with NFT sticks.”

Rainy cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention away from the cloth-covered orb. “Guild Leader Darius only took a day to build up an immunity, and Commander Corvus broke free in a few hours. So, I think it’s safe to say that once a higher level of strength is reached the effects of it are lessened.”

Noctus gazed down at the cloth covered orb in his hands. “Once immunity is built, the orb loses its effectiveness?”

“That is yet to be determined.” I answered. “Repeated exposure over a short period shows a lessened effect each time the orb is presented to the test subject, however Helvara has noted that a subject who has not encountered the orb for an extended period showed the same response as their first experience with the orb.”

Seeing the look on Noctus’s face, I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “The room you used last time is still available. If you’re planning to use the orb, you can stay there whilst you build your immunity. But, don’t blame me if anything goes wrong.”

“High priestess,” Roswyn said, pushing her way past her teammates. “Is this the orb Kip was speaking of when he said there was a potion that could be used to lure in waves of monsters when your team hunted.”

“We have used the orb for hunting, however it isn’t entirely safe. The orb will draw in anything that sees it, bugs, monsters, other people. Our last full team wipe was due to the orb attracting a pod of sand whales,” I said with grimace. Being crushed under a massive whale wasn’t a pleasant death.

“But, it can be used for hunting if we’re immune?” Roswyn asked, glancing from the orb Noctus held, and back to her team.

“It can,” I confirmed. “Although, Darius is yet to determine how the guild will be utilizing the orbs for hunting. I believe he intends to use it for large scale hunting expeditions, as opposed to giving them to individual teams.”

The expressions of the hunting team members fell, and Noctus gave a slight nod of approval as he put the cloth covered orb into his bag.

After pursuing the selection of poisons, the vampire selected a few poisonous smoke bombs, and a vial of diluted scorcher venom. As he packed away his choices, I mentally calculated the cost, and was about to inform him of the amount when he disappeared from sight.

Cursing under my breath over my stupidity for not getting payment first, I closed each of the boxes, and fused the lids shut for good measure. I wasn’t worried about him removing the containers from the shelves, as each one had been built into the stone of the shelf it sat on. Unless Noctus possessed elemental magic, he wouldn’t be breaking into my lock boxes anytime soon.

A quick check of the temple’s map showed he wasn’t in the building any longer, which meant I would need to wait to claim payment from him, or demand it from Darius in his stead.

“High priestess, could we use the luminous death orbs on the snake in the underwater cavern?” That question from Lenny made me freeze in place.

This time it was Rainy’s turn to curse, as she turned to face me. “We could have used the orbs against the spiders as well.”

I nodded with a sigh. “Hindsight is always cleverer than foresight.”

“Not really,” Sasha said, tucking a loose strand of her long blond hair behind an ear. “We aren’t immune to the orbs' effects, so using it against the spiders likely wouldn’t have worked in the situation we were in at the time. Plus, if the orb didn’t work on the Sand Hydra, it might not work on the snake. We should do as the guild leader said, and wait for Yuki to bring the others.”

“I believe the issue with the White Goushe is also the water, it affects our ability to fight. That and it’s freezing.” Hugh added, getting nods of agreement from his teammates.

As the five members of Roswyn’s hunting team continued to discuss the previous failed battle with the White Goushe, I pondered the possibility of freezing parts of the underground lake, or covering it over with stone. That would provide more room for the guild fighters, who previously only had a very small space that wasn’t covered in water to stand when engaging the giant snake. There was also the option of poisoning the water, but I wanted to avoid that if possible.

A warm presence nudging at my foot caught my attention, and I glanced down to see the gelatinous rabbit that was my wisp rubbing its head on my boot. The goopy substance that coated the rabbit's skeleton left a burning trail across the top of the shoe, the flames scorching the hardened leather.

Using Pyr was also another possibility, as water did little to extinguish the wisp. At the time of the guild’s first attempt to slay the White Goushe, I had been stuck in my vulpine form, and unable to summon the wisp, but now that was no longer an issue. In fact, the wisp’s strength had increased greatly with the recent event.

“Don’t even think about it Foxy!” Rainy said, her words pulling my attention away from the rabbit.

“Think about what?”

“Using Pyr to fight the snake! The last thing we need is a burning, undead serpent raining havoc on the mountain.” She exclaimed, shaking a finger at me. “No fire serpents!”

“I’d rather it be a fire serpent than an icy one.” Lenny said, earning himself a glare from Rainy in response.

“Don’t encourage her,” she hissed. “We don’t even know the full capability of these creatures yet.”

As Rainy spoke, my eyes drifted to the shelf where I stored the necromantic taint. If the taint, plus alchemic fire, created the creatures now roaming the mountain side, what would happen if I used it on the White Goushe?