Page 137 of The Fake Divination Offense
It’s been years since I truly worshipped the god of strength. I renounced him, turned my back on him.
But in this moment, I don’t need prayers or offerings to earn back his favor.
Because I fuckingamthe god of strength.
Chapter Seventeen
Awareness comes to me as if through water, muted, deadened.
Roesia snarls. Seb’s and Thio’s arms are lit up blue with readied spells. Darian’s strumming on his guitar, building his own spell. Marlow’s… gone, but that’s not unusual for a rogue. And Aaron’s coming around to flank me.
Teeth bared, hands in loose fists, I stomp the rest of the way into the room, envisioning my knuckles in Tem’s face.
The moment I get a yard away from the cultists, a wall of translucent green shoots up, encircling them and Bel.
It doesn’t stop me. I’m a tank for a reason.
I slam into the wall. A burst of electricity seizes my muscles, errant, annoying twitches that send me lurching back. Bel shouts noiselessly, thrashing again. The three cultists facing him don’t react to any of this, their heads bowed under their robes.
The wall remains intact. And Tem, behind it, smirks at me.
“Give us time,” Seb whispers behind me. He and Thio drop to the floor with their backs to the cultists, but they’ll still know we’re trying to break this wall.
I pace, mostly to keep Tem’s eyes on me, not Seb and Thio; but more because if I don’t move, I’ll tear at the floor, slam back against the wall, anything,anythingto get through to Bel.
Aaron rounds the barrier, stops on the side opposite me. Darian and Roesia take up other points, each of us standing near a cultist.
Tem’s eyes slide around the room, and where anyone else might note that they’re surrounded and trapped, he only grins. “You can’t stop this. It’s prophecy.”
“Fuck your prophecy,” I bark. “And fuck your god.”
Tem’s face crumbles, revulsion he quickly schools back into rage. “I shouldn’t expect anything less blasphemous from a traitor to his own god. Urzoth has to be ashamed of you.”
His words do nothing to me. No pinch of reaction; no fear that he’s right. I don’t give a shit what Urzoth thinks of me. I hope he doesn’t think of me at all.
I keep pacing, moving with aggravated jerks like I’m the one in the arcane cage. “You want to talk blasphemy? Bel trusted you.You’rethe traitor.”
Tem scoffs. “I have betrayed nothing; every move I’ve made has been in service to my lord Galaxrien. I tried to get to Belzaroth’s father, but he’s in a heavily fortified prison. Belzaroth, though?” He laughs, dark and cruel. “Do you have any idea how easy it was to infiltrate the adventure party once I figured out who was guarding him? They were so desperate for help that they took me on with almost no questions asked.”
Just like they gave him to me.
Something clinks behind me, and Seb curses.
“Must’ve screwed with your plans when I took him from you,” I say to keep Tem’s focus.
He spreads his hands as if to say,Did it?“I knew his location still; I knew I could reclaim him when the time was right.”
“But the timeisn’tright. Your own rhetoric says the spring equinox—”
“Yes. The spring equinox—in the Demonic Plane. Which istodayin this plane. I merely needed to keep tabs on Belzaroth until the proper date.”
Nowhere in any research has a cultist ever mentioned the Demonic Plane’s calendar. Trust them to add a new factor because none of their other shit has worked.
Gods, I can’t do this anymore.
“You’re making this up as you go, aren’t you?” I throw in a chuckle even though my chest is crushing in with how hard I’m fighting not to look at Bel or lose my shit.
Tem’s brows pulse in a scowl. “You have no idea what I have done. Every ritual this past year has been thanks tome.Igot a clipping of Belzaroth’s hair to test if his lineage would indeed react to the spell.Ihad them try to do the ritual on a real person taken fromUrzoth’s church as a trial runfor today, to see how that church would react and if they would be a problem. All of this has been thanks tome, and in only a few moments, this room will lift into the stadium and Galaxrien’s true followers the world over will see our lordrise!”
