While I had gotten a few words out of Shadi, she was anything but forthcoming. Though she at least wasn’t trying to use scripts to free herself or attack us—for the moment.

Based on what I knew so far, it seemed like the scripts on her back presumably made up her “job.” However, due to the nature of the divine scripts, it was night impossible to tell how many there were or what they did right now. The only clue I had regarding her intended job were the two scripts she had used. Unfortunately these seemed fairly generic, as if any magic user might know them. That being said, her not throwing something outlandish like a fireball at us was telling in its own way. Either I was severely underestimating her attack script, or her job was possibly not combat focused.

Her keeping her cards close to her chest, asking her questions about this topic wouldn’t yield any results for the moment, but maybe we could come to some agreement.

“I don’t understand why you attacked me. We’ll have to clear that up before we can let you go. Would you mind telling us?”

Of course, there was no response.

She had told her friends that she would “end this right now.” My interpretation was that it hadn’t been a spontaneous decision, and that she was shooting to kill. She found herself with this Calling, figured she was as strong as I was, or even stronger, and simply gave it a go.

Her friends had acted as if they had no idea what was going on with Shadi either, but they must’ve known what she wanted to end and why. Reurig was going to talk to them once he was done here, so it was presumably already under way. Not that I expected them to say much, and we also didn’t have a real reason to detain them until they talked, since they hadn’t done anything wrong themselves.

“I will say it one more time. You’re not going anywhere until you talk. And you seem fine, so your next destination would be a cell here in the temple, where we can easily monitor you during your indefinite stay.”

Another twitch in her eye. It seemed she couldn’t entirely hide when she was irritated. Since she and her friends were orphans, and had lived at the Raising Site for years, I assumed being able to finally leave that place behind would be a big moment for them, which I also remembered reading in at least one application. She was surely not looking forward to staying there or at the temple any longer. Not to mention her intended lodgings.

Her face relaxed slightly, and with a sad expression, she started talking. “I don’t know...” she whispered. “I feel like something wants me to do that. Wanted me to attack you. To hurt you, and not tell you anything. I... I can’t help it.”

“Like a voice in your head?”

“I’m not a Mad One!” she exclaimed immediately, her eyes shooting wide open.

“No, you’re not. I know that.”

Well, I think.

“But maybe you don’t have to be one to hear a voice.”

“I’m not hearing a voice,” she said firmly. “But I don’t know how to describe it either...”

“Alright.”

So you don’t want anyone possibly thinking you’re mad, I get that. But it was you who brought up getting influenced by something... Going that direction was risky, you were practically asking us to make this connection. You couldn’t have known that we would have a different understanding of it. Are you telling the truth then? Or was this calculated?

‘Her having a Miles in her head could explain these moodshifts. Maybe they’re even switching back and forth.’

I crossed my arms and looked down at them to give hand-signals to Tomar.

(Maybe.)

Just because I couldn’t actively take control away from Tomar and vice versa, didn’t mean that another soul might not be able to do so. And we talked freely with each other, but what if that wasn’t the norm? Maybe this experience was much more vague to her, and she couldn’t explain sitting on the backseat while her body was still doing something.

“You’re innocent then? It was that feeling that made you attack me?”

She looked up at me apologetically. “I’m very sorry about that. I really don’t know why I did that. I... Gods, I could have killed you!”

Confirmation on deadly script, even though it didn’t do anything to the wall. Very interesting.

“What will happen to me now...”

I glanced at Berla, looking for another opinion, but she seemed unsure as well. Right now, Shadi seemed like a confused and scared girl. The biggest problem was that if we assumed her to be a Split One as well, as the High Priest had called us, we couldn’t trust this side of her. She could apologize all she wanted, her other side would stay a threat. Unless we were looking at a slow merge here, like the ones happening with the moderators. If we could confirm that it’s only her in there, we could feel a little safer.

I turned my gaze towards the door and shouted, “Bren!” It opened almost immediately and our guard stepped inside and stood at attention.

“Yes?”

“Please get Hati and bring him here.”

“Understood,” he said and left immediately.

Riala had asked him to accompany her home and I had had no reason to refuse her wish at the time. As a result we now had to wait about half an hour until they got here, even if they hurried, but we couldn’t do much about that.

“We will figure out what happened to you. While we wait, how about we talk about your Calling a bit?”

“I feel like I shouldn’t,” she said. “But I want to try.”

“That’s a start,” I said with a friendly smile. “Maybe you can sate my curiosity a little and tell me what would’ve happened if that attack had hit me?”

“It depends on your potential mana strength. It ranges from nothing, to your body shutting down momentarily...”

“Momentarily? Not indefinitely?”

“No, it stops all processes in your body for just a moment and then starts them again. But in that brief moment you would have been very vulnerable.”

That sounds... really interesting, but also kind of pointless. You have to hit the enemy anyway, might as well use a more effective script that doesn’t need some follow up.

“Hm. Is that script intended for combat? It sounds a little roundabout.”

“No. I’m not supposed to be a combatant... I’m a doctor.”

“Excuse me?” Nym piped up. “You’re a doctor?”

“Ah, I mean... it’s like...” she stammered, trying to find the right words.

Your Calling told you what you are, but not what to call yourself. She adopted the Sourcerer name because she knew it, and she called herself a doctor because that’s the word she knew for someone who helped people with medical knowledge. Who would’ve thought that this would be the first magic Calling we would find?

“I guess she’s a healer,” I said.

***

“That’s all for now, thank you for listening,” Saharl said, ending the gods’ meeting.

Gallas was the first one to jump up. He had waited literal hours to finally get out of there, and while only minutes had passed in the Inner Realm, he could hardly wait to go back there.

He was about to run off when he stopped and looked back at the table, seeing his friend Celeth get up as well. A fellow god of the “old guard,” who was personally created by their master, this world’s creator. Their eyes met and after a brief moment of consideration, Gallas inconspicuously gestured for Celeth to follow him.

Both of them walked a certain distance away from the table in different directions, until they disappeared into thin air. A moment later, both of them appeared in a different location that looked the exact same, but with the table and the other gods missing.

Seeing Gallas excited was a rare occurrence for Celeth, and asking for a secret meeting even more so.

“What’s wrong?” he wondered.

Gallas briefly checked their surroundings, making sure that nobody followed them, before breaking the news.

“You won’t believe this. I found our master,” Gallas finally said.

“Hm? Is there a new architect?”

“No! I’m talking about Miles, he’s in the Inner Realm!”

Celeth furrowed his brows. They hadn’t heard from Miles in centuries, and given his unusual viewpoints and his disagreements with his superior, they assumed him to have been reassigned. Or worse, his soul having been recycled. Those were the obvious explanations for why he had just up and vanished one day.

“Architects can’t go into the Inner Realm, you know that. Did you actually see him?”

“Yes! I— Well... kind of. He’s the soul I’ve been trying to get rid of, he’s the scripter!”

“Him?” Celeth said in shock. “The one who killed my mods?”

“Right, I suppose that was him. Not such a huge surprise anymore now, is it?”

“Your comment about that guy being that best scripter you’ve ever met... Of course he would be the best if it’s actually him. He developed the entire darn system. But why is he down there? And why hasn’t he contacted us?”

“I don’t know yet, Saharl recalled me right when I realized it was him. But he didn’t recognize me. And he asked questions he should know the answers to. He might have lost his memory.”

“He came here as a normal soul... That would make sense, he wouldn’t be able to remember the Outer Realm. Still, are you certain?”

“Fairly, but I want to go back and confirm it. The problem is that Shae is back and on monitoring duty. Do you think you can distract her for a little while?”

“You mean for hours, to get you a few minutes?” Celeth asked in exasperation. “I’ll try. If it’s actually him... that would change a lot.”

Determination and hope in his eyes, Gallas nodded. If this was their master, maybe they had a chance to right the wrongs in this world, and lead it back to the path he had originally intended for it. A world of adventure, instead of horror.

Walking in opposite directions, the gods disappeared.