Chapter 222: Hidden Motives

"What the hell do we do now?" I heard Mona's voice through the windows. With no glass remaining in the windows and the numerous cracks in the stone walls, the building didn't provide them with much privacy.

"I don't know," Asher's voice was lower. I couldn't have heard it if I weren't right at the door.

I took a deep breath, then slowly pushed the wooden door open.

"Who's that?" Lucius' voice echoed as his sword appeared in his hand. I stared at the sword leaning against my neck, then turned my gaze on him.

"Are you going to pull that away?" I asked. Lucius quickly did so, though I could see how startled he was.

"How did you know where we were?" Asher asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"I didn't. I've been searching since… last night?" I fiddled with my hair as I tried to remember when I first returned to Fetheion's hideout. "Dusk, I think." I concluded after a moment. "Why did you run off all the way here? And where is Fetheion?"

The answer to the first question, the Demon Lord had already given me. The second question was what I really wanted to know the answer to. Yet, before Asher could reply, I was rammed by Mona. She hugged me and whispered, "I'm glad you're ok!" She pulled herself away a few moments later. "At one point, the Divine called us to the library in a panic, shouted something about having been found out, gave us a pendant and teleported us to the fields where we first met." She quickly explained in a single breath.

"Let me explain properly." Asher chimed in with a cold voice. I glanced at him with an expression that basically said 'Yes, please'.

"After the Divine returned from your little adventure, he asked me to make sure we were all keeping a low profile. No magic, no walking outside too much, no loud noises. He claimed plenty of demon scouts were flying about." 

I tilted my head slightly as I listened to Asher's explanation. I knew Fetheion wasn't too keen on sharing everything with everyone but demon scouts? That was a little hard to believe, wasn't it?

"We did as he asked, naturally." Asher continued. "Though, only about a couple hours after that, he gathered us in the library, saying this place wasn't safe anymore. I had some trouble believing it at first but…" He hesitated. "Kai, he seemed scared."

I flinched. For some reason, hearing those words hit me. He was scared of the Demon Lord. I knew that before – I knew Fetheion stood no chance against the Demon Lord, no matter what he did, but still, hearing those words helped put it into perspective for me.

And it stung a little, because… Oh well, that wasn't worth thinking about, was it?

"He teleported us to the grassy fields, then told us to move somewhere safer. The pendant he gave us was something he made so he could locate us later on. He said he would need a few days to 'take care of something'." Asher clenched his fists. "He was close to finding out about the location of a few other Divine Pillars too." I could see how bothered the blonde sorcerer was. Despite trying to hide it, I could tell he was worried about the crimson haired Divine.

"We feared for you as well." Lucius chimed in. He seemed to have shaken off the shock of me suddenly appearing. "We knew you'd return to the Divine's home. I wanted to leave a message, but we didn't have the time to do anything. Everything happened so suddenly."

I shook my head. "I'm fine – I was worried when I couldn't find you, but once I noticed you had all gotten away, it was just a question of where the hell you'd have gone." I turned my gaze on Asher. "You chose this place, didn't you?"

He smirked. "Who else could?" He asked with a shrug. I chuckled. "Memories, memories…" I mumbled as I looked around.

This was the Keeper's home. Or at least that was what we guessed it was, all those months ago. The watchtower with my predecessor's notes and library in it. 

"Yeah," Asher chuckled. "I guess this place is filled with memories." He shot me a worried glance. "In more ways than one, I assume."

I looked away. He wasn't wrong – despite losing the souls that I once gathered, I still remembered some of their memories. The men, women and children that lived here. Those who died to protect the home of the man they respected so much.

"I guess so," I said after a moment of silence. "Anyways – you were arguing about something, weren't you? What's going on?" I asked, mainly to change the subject. 

"We're not sure of what to do next." Lucius bluntly said. "We don't know the location of any Divine Pillars, we don't know where the Divine is, we didn't know where you were until a few minutes ago and we don't know what's going on with the demons." He shrugged. "Man, we know nothing."

We couldn't help but laugh, though mine was fake. He was right – they knew next to nothing. I, on the other hand, had the answers to nearly all of those questions.

I took a deep breath. Was it ok to tell them about the location of the Divine Pillars? Would I be painting targets on their backs? I clenched my fists under the cover of my cloak. I didn't have a choice, did I? I couldn't do all this alone and he hadn't said anything about doing things alone either.

"I can help with some of those," I suggested after a split second. "I have no clue as to where the hell Fetheion could have gone to, but I know where three Divine Pillars are."

Asher's eyes widened. "How?" He asked as he got up from his chair. "Where?"

I gestured him to open his map. I didn't want them to see my interface – seeing the whole continent revealed wouldn't do them any good and they would only doubt me because of it. 

He quickly did as I said, and I pointed at the three spots. "Here, here and here," I said, then hesitated. "Asher, I overheard some people speak while I was looking for some place to grind at. Apparently, a Divine will make a speech about an assault, or something?" I phrased it like a question – I wasn't supposed to know about the planned attack after all.

Asher's eyes widened even more. "An assault?" He asked. I nodded. "Look," I pointed at the map. Mona and Lucius also leaned forward to look. "Two of these are right at the border between the Ereth and Demon lands." I pointed at the third one. "This one is straight up in demon territory. This must be why the demons were especially active and why Fetheion didn't feel safe back at home anyways."

Asher nodded. "That makes sense," He mumbled. I had to stop myself from breathing a sigh of relief. Had I actually tricked him?

"So, Divine Matriarch Aelith is preparing to attack the demons." He continued. "Why?" He glanced at me, clearly hoping that I knew that answer as well. I shrugged. "No clue."

"It makes no sense," He said as he pointed at the three pillars. "Why are they capable of building pillars now? They couldn't do it without our help just a couple of months ago. Hell, they've been in this war for decades, if not more. Why are they striking now?"

I hesitated. He was right about all that. Wy would they be attacking after all this time?

"Alina." Mona spoke up. "She can build the pillars for them. That's what they had been waiting for."

I drew a sharp breath. "No…" I whispered. I didn't want that to be the truth. "She…" I stopped. Of course she would do that, why wouldn't she? She hadn't hesitated at all as she killed me, she wouldn't mind destroying the demons' home either. That is, if she even knew about the truth of this whole war, which I sincerely doubted.

"She's a priestess," Lucius mumbled. "She works with holy magic anyways. That can't be too different from Divine magic, right?" 

I glanced at Asher. If anyone knew the answer, it would be him.

"Both Priests and Paladins use Holy magic, given to them by their patrons – a divine. It's basically recycled magic from the pillars." He raised his hand to create a speck of light, which quickly disappeared. "I figured out how to use my own magic for it, so I'm free of their grasp, but I highly doubt she would have figured it out."

I took a deep breath. "Yeah. But let's stay on topic." This war wasn't all about Alina. If anything, she was only a tiny part of it who wouldn't even matter once the actual fighting began. "We need to decide on what we do and how we do it." 

Asher nodded. "Let's come up with a plan. We certainly need to destroy those pillars."