5.10 – Cultists

5.10 – Cultists

After a fruitful morning of alchemy lessons, interrupted briefly by Rosalie, Zoey set out to the training facility to see if she could track down Maddy. Cellphones were unfortunately not an invention in this world, so coordination could sometimes be tricky.

Before finding her mage tutor, though, Zoey was interrupted by someone else.

“There you are,” Delta said, appearing to Zoey’s side in a flash of orange hair, then looping an arm around hers and tugging. “Come on, we’ve gotta go.”

Zoey stumbled a step as her trajectory was forcibly diverted, and soon, she was being dragged away at a brisk pace.

“Wait, what?” Zoey asked, orienting herself to her change in circumstances. “Delta? What’s going on?”

“Found an in with the cultists. We’re gonna go check it out.”

“The cultists?”

“That was the plan, wasn’t it?”

“I—I guess? But already?”

“Somebody’s been productive with their morning, not laying pipe with five different girls.” Delta leaned close to Zoey and sniffed. “You need a shower, by the way.”

“Two girls,” Zoey defended. “One of them with a portal, so it doesn’t count.”

“Portal?” Delta laughed. “Well, good for Blondie. But doesn’t count? I don’t know about that, Zoey.”

“Well. Doesn’t count for the smell comment. It’s not that bad, is it? I cleaned up.”

“You smell like sex.”

“Really?”

“You always do. Maybe stop having so much of it?” Delta laughed. “But no, it’s not that bad. I’m teasing. Mostly.”

“Okay, back it up.” The orange-haired foxgirl had already dragged Zoey out of the training facility and under the open sky; they were setting a quick pace, in a rush. “Where are you taking me? And what about the cultists?”

“I’d grab Blondie, too, but we don’t have time. Couldn’t find her. And I’m not so sure she’s fit for this mission, anyway.”

“Mission?”

“With luck, we’re being inducted into the doomsday cult. I feel like that isn’t a scene she’d handle well.”

“What? Inducted? Be serious for a second.”

“When am I not?”

Zoey gave her an exasperated look, and Delta only rolled her eyes in response.

“They have refreshments, stop whining. It’ll be fun.”

Zoey shook her head. She still wasn’t sure what Delta was going on about—whether she could take her claims at face value. “I was planning on finding Maddy for more lessons. This is more important?”

“Uh, yeah. You can do that whenever. We need to figure out more about our cum vampire. And the world ending. Definitely seems higher on our priority list.”

Zoey winced at the words ‘the world ending’, then looked around, but obviously no one was eavesdropping. “Maybe a little discretion would be smart?”

“Not my specialty.”

“Yeah. I guess it isn’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Real explanation, please?”

Delta groaned. “Okay, fine. I was out in town and saw one of those weirdos. Decided to check out what he was saying. After some chatting, he invited me to one of their events.”

“That easy?”

“What can I say? I’m a people person.”

“Uh-huh. They have ‘events’?”

“You’re not that bad.” She paused. “Anymore. Before, you were. But I’d call you solidly second-advancement now. Your showing at Mel’s shard proved that.”

“Well, regardless.”

“Regardless,” Delta repeated, “we’re wayfarers. And yeah, I’m sure some of them will be too—we’re in the Fractures after all—but I’d be damn surprised if there’s any above fourth at the most, so we can get out of dodge if we need to.” Delta considered. “Then again, maybe they will have a heavy hitter there. Who knows what’s going on with those people? So yeah, maybe a little dangerous. That’s life, though. Especially in our career.”

“Shouldn’t we tell Rosalie?”

“Couldn’t find her. Left her a message, though, just in case.”

“You did?”

“I have some foresight, thank you. Make a career in wayfaring, remember? Wouldn’t make it far if I didn’t have some common sense.”

“That’s true.”

“Really doubt this’ll be taking a turn for the dangerous, though.” A mischievous grin crept onto Delta’s lips. “You know, unless we get a little too ambitious.”

Zoey looked warily at Delta.

“Doubt we’ll find out much by playing things safe,” Delta said. “If there’s something credible going on with these people, we’ll need to do a little digging.” Materializing from thin air, a pane of glass rimmed by ornate designs appeared in Delta’s hand. “Bet this’ll come into real handy, if we decide to do some snooping.”

Zoey stared at the object with raised eyebrows. The Mirror of Deep Echoes. The artifact they’d earned in the second shard that allowed someone to swap bodies with whoever they pointed it at.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Seems useful for espionage, don’t you think? Not that we’re guaranteed to do any of that. But it’s a damn useful tool in our toolkit.”

“What, exactly, do you have planned?”

“Right now? Nothing. I’m just saying, if we head to this and only chat, let them give their spiel, I doubt we’ll figure out much. But with some quick thinking and leveraging of our assets? Well, maybe we’ll find out more than they intend to give out to lowly potential recruits.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Zoey repeated. Delta seemed to be glossing over that point.

“Wayfaring is dangerous,” Delta said. “I figure saving the world is ten times so. Besides, you didn’t seem so concerned about ‘danger’ when you had an otherworldly vampire set on you. That was definitely the riskier event.”

“Mel needed help.”

“Or is it that you just wanted a fifteenth girl sucking your cock on the daily?”

“Fifteenth? And, really, stop being so crude.”

“Why?” Delta smirked. “Having trouble with the imagery? If you get hard, you might have a blonde girl all over you? Be awkward while walking down the street, wouldn’t it?”

“You’re doing it on purpose,” Zoey accused, finally understanding.

“Everything I do is on purpose.”

“Okay, that’s a lie.”

Delta snorted. “We’re almost there,” she said. “Here, take this.” An item popped into her hand, drawn from her inventory. Zoey took it, brow furrowed.

It was a mask of the sort she’d find at a masquerade. Colorful feathers adorned the edges, splaying out in a show of color. “These are yours?” Zoey asked.

“Nope, given to me,” Delta said. “Our badge in, I suppose. Not that I think security’s super strict. Not too loose either, though.”

“Huh,” Zoey said.

Delta put hers on, so Zoey followed suit. The crowded streets of Treyhull had thinned as the foxgirl wound them through the city. Ahead, a man with a similar bright-feather masquerade mask was given entry through double-doors by two burly-looking security guards. It was a more organized event than she’d expected—though she hadn’t expected so-called ‘doomsday cultists’ to be organized in any matter.

“Honestly,” Zoey said. “This will be kind of interesting.”

“Course it will. Cults always are.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Nah. But come on, it’s common sense. It’s a cult.”

Zoey laughed. “Fair enough.”