Chapter 256: Home Away from Home

Chapter 256: Home Away from Home

I excitedly waited at the corner as Beatrice made her way to me as fast as she could. I couldn't help but bounce in the air slightly as I hovered, unwilling to let myself rest on the ground. The prospect of having new paint was simply too much. Beatrice was power walking as fast as she could without looking suspicious, but still, it took her several seconds to reach the corner. I zipped off to the next one.

Despite my excitement, I was trying to make my concealment a little bit less conspicuous. Before, I had just projected false images around myself to hide my presence. However, now I needed to make sure Beatrice could selectively see me to follow.

Of course, this only worked some of the time, and I was pretty sure a few people caught glimpses of me along the way. But they mostly just shrugged it off or acted a little spooked. There were no cries of alarm or anything that drastic.

With a bit of guidance, Beatrice followed my optimized route to the paint shop. We arrived just as they were opening, and despite Beatrice's limited speed, we hadn't really lost any time because of it.

A little bell hung above the door chimed as she opened it. A young man sat behind the counter, looked up from whatever he was doing at the entry desk, and greeted Beatrice with a smile. "Hello, miss. Is there anything I can do for you today?"

I visibly saw Beatrice's face change as she adopted the persona of her merchant's daughter. She lifted her head and met the man's eyes with a cold indifference that just didn't fit her personality. "Yes, there is. I have recently acquired a manor in my father's name. And I have been sent to pick out paint styles."

The young man looked dubious at the claim but went along with it. Her air of confidence carried her through what would have been an awkward encounter as he questioned her ability to buy a manor at her age. Apparently, her family was only well-known in the right circles. A random paint shop clerk probably wasn't aware of who she was, even if she had given him her father’s name. Even so, the confidence she carried herself with was undeniable.

She didn't move to follow the man as he moved to the paint chip display but instead pulled out the ones I had given her. He frowned as he looked over them. "These are our markings on the back, but these colors don't quite match. Don't think we have any paints that sparkle." The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

She looked at them again, and I mentally chided myself. What was I thinking? Leaving them in my dustbin? Of course, that would alter the coloration. One more thing to be careful about. I really needed to invest some time into a solution for this issue.

"Well, luckily, they still have the codes on the back." The man said as he flipped them over. "Yeah, well, we still have these lots, though we are a bit light on the light turquoise. Hopefully, you didn't need too much of that."

Beatrice's eyes widened, and I realized I didn't tell her how much of each one I wanted. Quickly, I found some paper lying around in my dustbin and printed out the precise amounts of each one. I slipped the note into her hand through Air Manipulation. She flinched as it brushed her fingers but picked it up and scanned through it quickly.

"Yes. The light turquoise..." She said as she scanned her list. "We only need three gallons of that."

When we finally made it to the manor, everyone stared in appropriate awe. Once we got the gates open and they were inside, the cascade of magical sparks in the chandelier was a great hit. So much so, in fact, that I thought about updating some of the castle to feature something similar. It would be fun, not to mention even more efficient. Open flames did cause soot stains in the ceilings that were rather hard to remove, but magical flames... now had potential.

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Bee's skin crawled as Void pulled Bradley Chadwick away from the man robed in white. Suddenly, it clicked. Something must have happened that spread the word of Void's teachings away from the castle, away from Caleb. It must have happened some while ago, too. That would explain the spiritual connections between these robed men and her spiritual sense.

Of course. It also explained the different flavors, as it were. The teachings these people were professing did not at all match with what she had learned from her time spent with Void. In fact, they were often rather sickening. There was a distorted, twisted view of cleanliness and order. Yet Void hadn't seen fit to correct them, so she deferred to her master. She would just move on, for now, getting everyone to the manor in an orderly fashion.

Unfortunately, it was impossible for her to pull her mind away from the oozing quicksand that the false beliefs were. It took under an hour to show everyone around, select rooms, and settle in a little bit. Some of the adults were tasked to go find basic furniture so that they didn't have to use sleeping pads tonight. But as soon as that was taken care of, Bee headed out to see if she could talk to one of these actual cultists and figure out what was going on.

These men in white seemed dangerous. But if they truly were willing to believe in Void, perhaps she could teach them the right way to go about their worship. If so, then most of their job would already be done. Especially if these people had as strong of a foothold as it seemed in the city.

How exactly this faith had spread so quickly and ubiquitously baffled her, though. She never did find that yelling things at people was a good way of convincing them to do anything. Any argument she'd have with her father that devolved into yelling never accomplished anything.

Actually, as she thought about it more, she realized that the only time her father had ever managed to get her to do anything his way was with calmer appeals and a bit of bait at the end. Some incentive to do things his way. And Void never had to convince her of anything. Her master just led by example. It did what it did, and she would observe and interpret those actions to teach others. It was up to them to extrapolate the meaning behind them and understand how to live their life.

Maybe Void itself would be helpful here. How could it not if it truly was the god that these people claimed to follow? But even at the castle, her master preferred to take a more hands-off approach and leave such things to her.

Of course, when asked, her master would usually give some sort of interesting bit of advice. It was usually told in some sort of analogy, too. That was useful for determining one's path, but it only went so far. She wasn't sure of her ability to do the same, to show these people the right way of things. But what kind of High Priestess would she be if she couldn’t handle something like this?

She found a young woman, one of the few female street preachers, giving a much more reasonable sermon about the health benefits of washing one's hands on a corner. No one was actually paying attention to her. Hurrying forward, Beatrice came up and interrupted the lady’s rather eloquent diatribe. "Excuse me. I'm new to the city. Could you tell me more about what you people in white are doing?"

The lady blinked as if surprised that Bee could actually see her. It felt as though no one else had been willing to talk to her.

"Eh, uh, yeah, yeah!" She stammered before, eventually, the elegance of her previous speech returned. "You would like to hear more about the Church?" She asked, the surprise still evident in her tone.

"In a sense," Bee said. "I think there's a lot we have to talk about."