>>5748931>>5748969>>5748975>>5749013>>5749030>>5749056>>5749082>>5749083>>5749254>>5749395“Circumstances have changed so much, from when I began by journeys… For even the last time I visited YOU, Heretical One,” you tell him. “Yet the Dark Gods… They do not recognize this. Their attitude remains the same: they are masters, I am servant.”
“It is as they made things,” Infiltrator Halle points out. “That IS our role—even yours.”
Olu the Archer says nothing, but you see his own brown furrow as well, confused or concerned by your misgivings. You ignore them for the moment, focusing on the Heretic.
“Is there a way to… To decouple the source of my powers from a patron? To draw upon the Darkness Below and Beyond itself, as the Gods of Darkness do?”
“This is what you desire, Superior One?” the heretic asks, his voice barely a whisper. “Youa re… Certain? To be like the Gods?”
The greedier aspect of your nature cries out to you to ask for EVERYTHING, every piece of information this unusual outcast ahs accumulated. Perhaps, with all that, you could become a Dark God yourself! After all, is not a True Dragon a demigod? And if you can ascend to become practically a True Dragon—a DRAGON KING, even—then why not a deity in truth?
But… No. You remain loyal to the True Faith, for oen thing. For another… Well, if the Gods are displeased with you now, you can only imagine how they would react to such a direct challenge. Maybe SOMEDAY, but for now…
“No,” you sigh. “Just to be… Independent. Sovereign. Free to serve our people—and our faith—as I see fit, without the bindings of a sworn holy knight.”
“…But with all the power of one?” he asks.
“Yes,” you confirm, for a LITTLE greed is good.
The Heretic is silent for a moment, bowing his head apologetically and retreating into his books. He skims the spines of them, traces the aps of scrolls, eyes following his spindly finger as he seeks the literature which will help you. Already, you feel hope rising like a fire in your chest, for he would not be looking so intently if he already knew it was impossible… And indeed, your suspicions seem to be proven correct.
“It can be done,” he says, producing from his collection a single, small book bound in hide. You tilt your head curiously as he flips it open, scanning the small print as he flips pages, before pressing a claw to a single passage. “Here.”
