Throne Of Steam

The clergyman wasn"t able to pry into anything related to the old book; does the book has the ability to avoid the powers of that scale? Lurmon said they would ask the Lord directly, that means the book can hide from the Lord"s inquiring? It"s a good thing it wasn"t discovered... Garett"s lips curled up, he quickly left and closed the door behind him, as if afraid of the priest noticing something wrong.

Outside, he found the two patrolmen waiting while sitting on an old stone bench. Lurmon just glanced at him once before entering the room, probably to ask the results of the scrying. As for the young Hilren, he looked as if his idol was present right before his eyes.

"You saw it, didn"t you? The Lord"s grace, how it felt? Only those with high contributions to the church are allowed a ritual, even after rescuing you, I"m still far from qualified..." His eyes instantly turned downcast after uttering the last few words.

Ritual? Was that a ritual? No, It felt like some outside power forcefully dragged my spirit out of my body... Carefully pondering his words, Garett tried to probe for more information.

"I"m a bit confused Hilren. What is this ritual you are talking about?"

The knowledge recorded in that weird book is deeply imprinted in my head now, there are many things I can call supernatural in there, but nothing about rituals... Garett tried hard to recall the newly added contents to his memory, but a lot of information seemed to be locked.

"Oh, right. You don"t know about this stuff... Just treat it as if I didn"t say anything, please. I"m not allowed to talk about this without permission." He scratched his head and looked in Lurmon"s direction, hoping the Executor wasn"t able to hear the contents of their conversation.

Why did you talk at all then! Are you not worried I will search for this information in some other place? That"s beyond unprofessional... Inwardly lampooning, Garett vowed to find a way into this weird, mystic world. It was the way he found to become a rich man!

"I-I don"t think I can live a normal life after all that happened, sir Hilren. I need to understand what happened and remember the things I forgot!" He pressed, vying for an answer.

"You won"t, there"s a word for people like you. We call people who had contact with the occult and lived as Marked." Lurmon"s grave voice could be heard from behind, his expression was a lot softer than before.

I was marked? So I"m one of these so-called marked people now? That"s not ominous at all... Garett"s eyes twitched briefly, he calmed himself with a deep breath.

"S-sir Lurmon! I hope everything is fine now? Am I cleared of suspicion?"

"No."

What do you mean by no! I know everything the priest saw during the ceremony! You should know by now that I"m had nothing to do with it! Screaming inwardly, Garett adopted an indignant expression.

"While what you said was true, about not remembering things, just because you can"t remember doesn"t mean you didn"t do it." Lurmon took an old cigar from his pocket and lit it up, using the flames of a nearby candle.

Then say everything you had to say at once! Why do you keep playing with my fragile heart!? I"m sure you have some kind of s.a.d.i.s.tic tendencies... Garett felt that he was complaining too much lately, maybe he should start practicing some calming techniques, like meditation.

"Then... what now? And what did you mean when you said that I wouldn"t be able to live a normal life?" He asked while suppressing his urges to curse.

"You can call it a supernatural phenomenon, or something like that. We call them marked because when one comes into contact with the mystic, this type of thing keeps reoccurring to said person, in something we call it the law of attraction. Now that you"ve been marked, it should keep happening frequently, at first we tried to erase people"s memories about it, hoping to erase the marks as well, but it didn"t work. You can well imagine the chaos that occurred afterward." Lurmon patiently explained, maybe after knowing that Garett spoke the truth, he became a lot more friendly.

"Then what happens to me now?" His concerns were mounting! If weird things happened all the time, and a lot of people were already considered to be marked, how would he leverage his advantages into making money?

"You"re a believer of the G.o.ddess, right? I can explain your situation to the Church and they"ll surely have some arrangements, each church deals with it differently, in our case, we usually recruit the marked to the patrol or offer other jobs in positions close by, so we can control any occurrence without much commotion. I"m not sure about how the Church of Mists does things, but shouldn"t differ much." Lurmon started walking in the direction of the exit, prompting them to follow him while he rambled through the procedures.

"I"d be very grateful, I"m not eager to be hit with Starfire again..." His hollow laugh gave in some of his concerns, and that was easily noticed by the experienced Executor.

"Oh, don"t worry too much. Starfire is a somewhat rare occurrence, most frequently we only have to deal with objects moving on their own and the like. You should be mindful that you are not allowed to spread information on the supernatural to the ma.s.ses, we take that seriously as we don"t want panic and a sudden influx of marked people."

Arriving at the carriage again, Garett had a better idea of the situation, while he still had more questions than answers, he should be able to get some more information from other sources.

Maybe the G.o.ddess clergy will be a lot more forthcoming with a believer like me... I should be able to probe more from them, there"s a lot of books about occultism in the College as well, probably not all of it is rubbish... Garett traced a few ways he could proceed in his mind, he still hadn"t had time to sort the things that happened and craved for some time alone.

"You can use the carriage to help you traverse the city the G.o.ddess cathedral is a bit far. You may want to go home as well, and you don"t seem to live in the Inventors Borough." Lurmon sent him off with a nod, and after saying a few pleasantries left for the patrol quarters again.

"I hope we can meet again, Mr. Garett. Under less stressful circ.u.mstances that is." Hilren bowed and left, leaving Garett alone with the coachman.

Finally free! Now I need to sort out the things that happened in the last week; if I"m still a suspect, they"ll surely keep an eye on me as well... Maybe I should not do anything problematic for the time being, they expect me to head over to the Church of Mists... Garett nodded to himself and climbed the carriage, appreciating once again the expensive leather seats.

"Take me to the Market street, please. There"s no need to hurry." Garett added as he felt the carriage speed up.

I don"t know when I"ll be able to use such an expensive carriage again, let me savor it a bit... he thought with a smile on his lips.

...

Alighting from the carriage, Garett was met with the dirty streets that reeked of p.i.s.s, the people all wore ripped clothes, having parts of their skins exposed to the foul air.

Ah, home sweet home... The familiar place helped him exit from his stressful condition, being exposed to all the weird things that happened, he still hadn"t had the time to let it sink in.

Maybe I should visit my sister, I"m sure they are still monitoring me, and visiting family after everything that happened would be the natural thing to do... Garett walked a couple of streets, arriving home at 1277 Fisher"s Row.

"This place seems okay at least, I was worried something had happened here." He climbed the stairs, slowly taking in his surroundings, hoping to remember something.

Now I"m glad I didn"t fix the door"s handle, I have no idea where my key is... He stood before the door, half afraid of what he could encounter inside. Taking in a deep breath, he turned the handle and opened the door.

A moldy smell invaded his nostrils, many of the houses in the district had mold problems, and it wasn"t unexpected to find this smell upon entering someone"s home.

Nothing seems to be wrong... I suddenly feel very sleepy... Garett dropped on the couch, his eyelids slowly closing in.

"I can"t sleep yet, I should take the time to study the weird knowledge from that book. I remember having a few eccentric books about occultism that I borrowed for fun, maybe I can find something there before going to the church." Garett used all his strength in getting up and scurried all over the house in search of the books, after finally finding all three of them, he sat in a hard chair in the kitchen, knowing that the couch would win the battle of wills and he would get sleepier.

Before anything, I feel like I need to understand the concept of rituals, there should be something about that here... The three books were named "Spirit Channeling and Offerings", "Ritualism and Divinations" and "Occultism for Dummies" respectively.

Why did I borrow this last one in the first place? It"s obviously rubbish... Grumbling under his breath, Garett opened the book on Ritualism and started to search for relevant pa.s.sages.

"Rituals mainly encompa.s.s ceremonies were one"s soul connects to the spiritual body of some ent.i.ty, usually the spirits of the deceased, and, in more advanced cases, even G.o.ds. After offering something or fulfilling the terms of a contract the ritual is estabilished, and the holder can receive something from the ent.i.ty in question"... Then, when I signed my name in that book, did I fulfill the requirements of a contract? The knowledge I received is my reward for holding the ritual? But the ent.i.ty should gain something out from it as well, the book doesn"t comment about that... Garett kept searching for other pa.s.sages, most of the things were quickly dismissed as gibberish.

I don"t have the necessary knowledge to judge the contents of the book, should I find someone with more understanding and ask them for their judgment? That young patrolman seemed to know some things... Garett looked through the window, only to realize that night had already arrived, and according to the clock, it was just after eight.

Maybe I should go to the church... No, I"m too sleepy for that, I should use my time to catch up on my sleep...

Garett laid on the couch, not bothering to wash or change before embarking on a voyage to the world of dreams...