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With an uneasy feeling forming in your gut, you tear your gaze away from the mural. From what little you can see, you have little doubt that it portrays some terrible scene. You’ve had quite enough of that for now. You’ve got other horrors to focus on. Taking the charm out of your pocket, you snap it open and stare down at the centipede engraved into the dull gold. Even though you keep the charm tilted away from Kalthos, you can see that he’s trying to sneak a peak at it. You look up, only for him to hastily look away.
“I’ll cut you a deal,” you tell him, “I’ll show you this, if you tell me what you know about it.”
A hungry look steals through Kalthos’ eyes for a moment before he smirks. “Ah, but I might not know anything about it,” he sneers.
“You do. I can tell,” you counter, tossing the charm across to the old man, “Here. Take a look. You’ll only pester me until you get your way anyway.”
Snatching the charm out of the air, Kalthos takes a long look at it. “This takes me back...” he muses, before his eyes sharpen, “Where did you get this?”
“A particularly unpleasant man had it in his possession,” you answer, “He was responsible for an attempt on the new Saint’s life. He failed, thankfully, but we know that he wasn’t acting alone. This charm here – it’s associated with some cult or group, something that once had links with the Tomoe.”
“Well, it seems as if you don’t need me to tell you anything at all. You’ve got it all figured out,” Kalthos laughs, “Yes. A long time ago, those people were part of the Tomoe family. But, there were… disagreements. This may surprise you, but my family can be quite disagreeable at times. They believed that the Tomoe of old acted with insufficient zeal, that they had grown fat and lazy. They were all too comfortable living within a society they were meant to tear down.”
“I met some of them once, before my self-imposed exile here. Unpleasant sorts. I thought they had some interesting ideas for a while, but I soon realised that I mistaken. They were as dull as all the others. They sought out mindless destruction and called themselves enlightened,” the old man continues, “When they originally split with the Tomoe, they stole certain texts and tomes – books containing knowledge that the Tomoe refused to use, including some teachings from my old master.”
“Teachings that they completely misunderstood,” he adds, almost as an afterthought.
“Misunderstood?”
“I do not believe in destruction for its own sake, my young apprentice. Nor evil, nor suffering. None of that,” Kalthos sighs, shaking his head “I was taught to rise above morality. These young whelps sought to shatter it. It is a subtle distinction, my boy, one entirely lost on them.”
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