Inside the building Sheia called the “poetion” is honestly quite extravagant. We stand on a marble floor in a circular room, with doors going out in different directions. The walls are made of the same uniform stone that the outer walls were made of.

The main items of interest, though, are the doors. Beside each of them is a small pedestal with a plaque on its side, and a statue resting on top. The statues show something that gets my hopes up for there being valuable information, though.

They depict the same figures I saw back in the throne room with the king - there’s the man with the flame and the blackened skull, the woman with the tentacles sprouting from her back, and all of the others. Each one stands beside a different door.

There’s the man chiseling himself out of stone, too; in the throne room, he was shown much more prominently than the others, being set in the middle of the room next to the throne and his statue much larger than the others. Here, though, he seems to be shown on equal footing with the rest here.

What could the statues be here for, though? They were prominent enough cultural figures to dominate the throne room, so they’re clearly important.

There are some people in the center of the room sitting at desks. They glance up at us as we walk through the door, but don’t do anything more than that.

Sheia looks at me as I examine all of this. I wonder what she’s thinking? Honestly, I’m curious as to why she paid to let me in here. It’s strange; I didn’t think she was that fond of me. She gestures to each of the doors in a slight sweeping motion, looking at me expectantly. Is she asking which door I want to go through?

Hm, my first thought was that this building was a town hall or something similar, just judging by the fact that the only other time I saw these figures in the statues was in the throne room, and so I thought this was another governmental building

However, in this case, it seems like a pretty strong chance that this poetion is a type of church worshipping each of the beings depicted in the statues. I don’t see any governing person here, and the plaques underneath the statues seem to indicate that this building is here to educate people about the deities, rather than to just honor them while doing something else.

In that case, maybe each door leads to a special worship room dedicated to the being depicted in the statue next to it?

Hopefully the rooms have some sort of historic art in them. Even if the ‘history’ would obviously be fictional stories told about these deities, I could still glean knowledge from them. If Sheia’s letting me choose, which one is most likely for me to learn useful information from?

I think there’s an argument to be made for the woman with the tentacles - she seems to be the most strange figure here, so it seems that I’d have the most to learn about her - but I think the best one would be the man chiseling himself out of stone. The throne room had him as the most prominent figure, so if I can learn more about him, it can be assumed I’d learn more about the kingdom as a whole.

I point at that room. Sheia looks somewhat surprised, but quickly recovers and walks over to the door with me. She opens it, revealing a small, dark room. There is no historical art, unfortunately. Well, there’s not much of anything. It has a simple wooden floor and wooden walls, with a small brazier in the center of the room. Quite the opposite of the main room.

The brazier is burning dimly, giving a waning light to the small room. Smoke from the meek fire has filled the room. It smells similar to the incense Itor and Magna were burning in the carriage, so this brazier is probably burning the same thing.

Hm. I didn’t feel any adverse effects from the incense back then from being near it as it burnt, and it seems like it’s clearly socially acceptable to breathe in, considering there’s an entire building dedicated to it.

I think it’ll be ok for me to stay here for a bit. If I start feeling any sort of psychological effects I’ll leave immediately.

Sheia sits on the wooden floor of the room. I follow, making sure to sit close to her, but not too close. I want to seem friendly, but not desperate.

Sheia gets in the same position that Itor and Magna got in. I guess that’s a necessary component of this. I imitate the position. It’s honestly quite difficult to get into. She closes her eyes. We sit like this for quite some time as my mind wanders.

What could the purpose of this ritual be? I know it’s a religious thing, and those don’t always have a real practical purpose, but it’s still strange that it’s so standardized. Judging by the smell, this incense is the exact same as Itor and Magna’s, Sheia is sitting in the exact same position, and that’s not even getting into the fact that a small town like this one has such an expensive building dedicated to this.

This poetion is made primarily of marble, which has historically been a luxury resource, as well as having over a dozen hand-carved statues to decorate it. Although, maybe they aren’t hand-carved? If that creation ability allows you to generate resources - and I know the resources can take various forms - then maybe the statues are just brought into being fully-formed?

I need to figure out what to do about that guy that was talking to Sheia. The more I explore, the more I realize how valuable she is to have helping me, and I don’t think he’s going to appreciate that. I genuinely do believe that if I can antagonize him to the point of attacking me, and then defeat him, I can earn sympathy and respect.

That course of events could also help me convince Sheia to leave this town with me. I think Itor and Magna were valuable protectors up until now, but they seem to work for some sort of governmental entity, which does not bode well for me. So skipping town after acquiring some way to protect myself - preferably while Magna’s leg is still shattered - would be the best course of action.

I don’t necessarily need Sheia to do that, but having someone who understands the world with me would certainly help.

So, if I do something drastic - but morally justifiable - and then convince Sheia that my life is in danger because of that, and hopefully she’ll help me escape this town.

Honestly, I’ve been dancing around the subject, but that “drastic but morally justifiable” thing that I have to do seems clear; I’m gonna have to kill Sheia’s friend. He doesn’t like me, I already want to defeat him in battle, how much harder could it be to just make it seem like I’m losing the fight, only for my last option to end up ‘accidentally’ killing him?

I could maybe use a blade poisoned with that liquid I got from those spider-wasp-monsters’ venom sacs? I still have that pouch of poison in my pocket.

Whatever. I’ll deal with the subject of that man’s murder when it becomes relevant. The preceding goal I have to accomplish is finding some way to defend myself from the dangers of the forest.

Well, not just the dangers of the forest. If I’m really going to try and escape from Itor and Magna, I will have to avoid being re-captured. Not just from those two, but - if I’m truly as important to them as I think I am - probably from the might of the military.

Itor and Magna are incredible fighters, and they also have this ability to create and propel objects on top of their already-solid combat prowess. It makes them very dangerous threats at basically all engagement distances; I’ve already seen what they can do at a close range, but at medium or long ranges, it seems like they could simply snipe at me from afar with high-speed projectiles.

It seems like the only way to defeat them would be to set up an ambush or to acquire that creation ability on top of training up an exceptional fighting skill. There’s also the option of overwhelming them with sheer numbers, but as of now I don’t see any way for that to be possible.

There’s a knock on the door. We’ve been sitting in this room for about half an hour, so my body is pretty sore from sitting in that uncomfortable position. Sheia looks a bit startled at the sudden noise, but quickly gets up and opens the door. It’s one of the people who was at the desk. Their calm, bored eyes tell me that there’s nothing out of the ordinary going on. We probably just ran out of time for the room we rented or something.

Sheia motions for me to stand up. I do, and a wave of dizziness quickly hits me. Oh. Shit.

I didn’t think that I was being affected by the incense because I wasn’t feeling any of the effects of it while sitting, but that was clearly very naive of me. I shakily step through the door. I need to get away from the smoke-filled cell as quickly as possible so as to not inhale more of the drug.

Fuck, my head hurts.

Nausea hits. I’m sitting on the steps outside of the building again. Sheia brought me here. My head hurts. Damn it, it really hurts.

Sheia seems concerned, but not confused. Did she drug me on purpose? Do I need to run? I try to stand, but immediately collapse and tumble down the stone stairs. More pain. I’m bleeding. My legs don’t work.

Now Sheia seems really concerned. She helps me to my feet. I put basically all of my weight on her. She begins to lead me back to the inn that Itor and Magna were at.

My stomach empties its contents onto the sidewalk. That relieves me of some of the nausea, but my head still hurts like nothing else.

I’ve been stabbed, tased, shot, burned, and beaten within an inch of my life - most of that happening all at once after a particular incident - but none of that kills me like my head does. It hammers against the walls of my skull. It hammers so hard I barely notice myself vomiting for the second time.

We arrive at the inn. It’s darker out. When did it get darker? I’m laying in bed next to Magna. Sheia sits in a chair next to a sleeping Itor. Sheia looks upset. Why does she not look surprised? How did she know this would happen? Fuck. It hurts.