[Where we left off- Fenve's invetation.]
You go to meet Fenve and Noctru in their little den, the brick walls shielding you from the day's particularly rough desert winds. The two lions lean against each other and chatter with you, making small talk about the day and how you're liking the city. Noctru has brought a fallen antelope youth, and its meat is tender and seems to melt away as you chew. It's absolutely incredible, and you find yourself staying at their den for quite a while longer than anticipated. Fenve excitedly asks you all about your meeting with Ademion, though he's careful not to mention their name. You tell him everything that you're able to say, and when you mention the god seemed to be struggling, Noctru takes an interest. However, he is careful not to get his excitable companion worried about it. The way he talks- it's as if he knows something that he doesn't know he can trust you with. As the night begins to fall, Noctru realizes they've kept you for far too long, and asks if you'd like to go home. You shrug and say you ought to get ready to sleep, and the pair understands.
"We'll let you go," Fenve says, smiling. "It was great seeing you. I'm glad you got to meet our god today." You nod and slink out of their cozy home, making towards your temporary dwelling near the sanctum. Although that was a relaxing way to spend your evening, the events of your visit with Ademion rush through your head as you try to sleep, and it seems you're not the only one worrying about what you witnessed.
You barely notice as someone's shadow paints a picture of a lion picking their way quietly through the ruins. Your eyes are half-open, but your mind is racing as you watch them approach. The shadow silently springs over one of the low walls of your den and lands soundlessly before you. As you blink sleep from your eyes, your vision adjusts. Noctru stands before you, his silvery eyes gleaming in the dark.
"I need to talk to you. What you saw in the temple... It's not safe to talk here. The priestesses have ears and eyes everywhere. Leaving the city at night is less of a risk than discussing these matters within its walls. Follow me," he says, slinking out through a gap in your den's walls. "Keep to the shadows if you can, and when you aren't within their shroud, stay on the move. Do what I do."
He immediately darts to the nearest patch of shadow, and hunches beneath a wall. He stays in the dark patches, hugging crumbling brick walls, and keeping as far away from the Sanctum's door as he can. Eventually, you reach the entrance to the city. "Once we leave, we're no longer protected by Ademion's blessing. And the priestesses are out here looking for anything at all to squeeze the life out of." You glance at him in shock, and he chuckles. "What? Don't look so surprised. I was an outsider once, like you, and Ademion told me of their plight, and of the sacrifices. I couldn't do anything until now, I-" he pauses, trying to justify his procrastination. "I had no allies. Now I have you. We can end this. Keep up, I have a place we can hide out and speak of these things." After a few quick bounds, he is running ahead, with you only a few paces behind him. He springs up canyon walls with the agility of a leopard, and once he's high up in the cliffs, he squeezes into a tiny crack. It's a struggle for you to follow, but you understand the need for security, when the higher-ups of the city could be working to kill both you and him as you speak. After a few grueling moments of pushing, the crack opens up into a cavern, with a hole directly in the top that allows the moonlight to filter in. He paces for a moment.
"The ritual is happening this week," he growls. You look at him and inform him gently that you haven't been told what this ritual is. He snorts. "Of course not. It's presented to civilians and outsiders as a celebratory prayer to Ademion, and a way of giving thanks. They have the citizens bring offerings and sing and chant, and the whole thing is made to be a festival. But it's a front. The ritual is one of mass death. The food is poisoned with something.. something twisted, something unnatural. Not normal poison, not like anything you know. It makes their deaths seem to be from sickness, and the variation of its effectiveness means the deaths are a ways apart in time. It makes it look natural," he says. You cling to his every word in terror, and eventually you ask- how do you stop them? And if you do manage to stop them, then how will Ademion keep protecting people, with no souls to harvest?
Noctru sighs and dips his head.
"I've been puzzling over that question for a long time," he says.
Suddenly, a voice echoes out from the hole in the ceiling, and a lion drops down into the beam of light.
"What question?" shouts a voice, followed by a deep snarl.
[Continue the story- Ambushed.]
