As Mirgia expected, three camps quickly formed. The priests all insisted that Mirgia must be the one responsible for the death of Head Priest Danil. Sereh, Raol, Doroly and Kimi backed up Mirgia and the Sahalid mercenaries took a more neutral stance for the moment, even physically positioning themselves between the two other groups.
“You must have been overcome by greed and killed the head priest,” Karal shouted. He was the most vocal of the priests and after hearing what happened from Mirgia he’d immediately claimed to not believe him. He had also claimed that they traumatized Masahi to the point where she couldn’t even really say what was going on. Although the rest of the priests weren’t as vocally hostile, it definitely seemed like they were all in disbelief that their leader would do something like that.
Mirgia leaned against one of the pillars, his arm now limp due to the damage it had taken. He could still move it, luckily, but doing so hurt quite a bit so he tried his best to keep it steady for now. “I was caught off guard by it as much as anyone here, and honestly all I can do is tell you what happened. When I climbed up to the final pillar, Quint was already dying and Danil then turned his attention to me. He said something about two being enough. Whatever it was that he wanted to do up there, it looked like he was planning it from the beginning.”
“That’s preposterous, we didn’t even know about this place until he received a vision the other day.”
“So he was the one who suddenly knew this place was here and that you would all have to go there,” Doroly asked.
“Well, yes, he was given a vision by Owlana after all.”
“Did he get these visions more often?” Sereh asked.
This sent a bit of a murmur across the priests until Karal spoke again, sounding a little less confident. “I don’t remember it happening often, but I believe it happened once or twice before. Owlana doesn’t interfere with the mortal world a lot.”
“How often do people get visions then?”
Silence.
“Did anyone else in your temple get visions from her?”
“Only the most devout get visions,” Masahi replied.
“And what does a vision look like?” Kimi asked. “I ask because Abreloka doesn’t interfere with us spirits at all, at least not in ways that we notice. I don’t know much about the other members of the Arpentara, but why would he get a vision about this place and know about me being a crucial part of it from something Owlana said to him.”
“I don’t know, I can’t begin to understand the workings of the gods,” Karal spoke, still sounding annoyed but the confidence was gone.
Mirgia stood up straight, wincing as his arm stung. “Look, all cards on the table, I am well aware that there is absolutely no proof of anything that happened up there because I am the only one who came out of that situation alive. The best I can do is tell you what I know and ask you to believe me.”
“Not necessarily.” One of the priests that hadn’t spoken until now stepped forward. Mirgia didn’t remember his name. He opened up a pouch on his side and a flash of recognition showed on several of the other priests’ faces. “We have a way of discerning truth from lies.” He took out a small orb. “Owlana is the goddess of knowledge and wisdom after all.”
“What is that?” Salandi asked. The Sahalid mercenaries had kept to themselves for most of the confrontation, but with people pulling out seemingly magical artifacts they wanted to make sure they knew what to expect.
The priest gave the orb to Karal. “Thank you Daved.”
Karal looked at the orb and then at Mirgia. “This artifact is called the Noctua Veritas. When you’re holding it in your hands, it lights up with a dark red color when you tell a lie.” The artifact had a teal hue to it and didn’t seem to do anything for the time being. Karal held it up so everyone could see it. “I’m Karal, I’m a priest of Owlana and I am here to find out what treasures are hidden in this dungeon.” Nothing happened. “I have seven legs and twelve grandkids.” The orb emitted a dim red light.
Karal looked at Mirgia. “I would ask you to continue our chat while you are holding onto this. Our rules don’t allow us to use these sorts of tools lightly as searching for the truth ourselves is a big part of our beliefs, but I think this moment calls for some more certainty.”
Mirgia nodded and took the orb from Karal. “I promise to answer your questions to the best of my abilities while holding onto this artifact.” No red light showed as Mirgia was telling the truth.
After establishing several test questions to make sure the artifact worked in the way the priest said it did, as the rest of the party had no way of knowing this without testing it, they started questioning Mirgia about what happened in the room. He answered everything honestly, including his earlier suspicions about not quite trusting the head priest due to some strange feeling he had. After an intense few minutes it seemed like everyone hesitantly agreed that Mirgia could only be speaking the truth and that Head Priest Danil was in fact the one who set off the violence happening in this room.
“I believe your words, but I cannot fathom the head priest doing something so crazy. Why would Owlana tell him to do such a thing?”
Mirgia shrugged, immediately regretting the motion due to a stinging pain in his arm. “I’m not a religious person. The god of nature is a very hands-off kind of deity even to his most devout and I am far from it. I’m just very glad you had a way for me to prove my innocence.”
“I’m still not happy about it, but the Noctua Veritas is a well known artifact among our people. And this particular one has been tested rigorously.”
“Are there more of them?” Kimi asked.
Karal nodded after handing the artifact back to Daved. “We wouldn’t be walking around with one on us if this was the only one out there.”
“That makes sense,” Kimi nodded. “That’s a powerful artifact,” she said.
“It is, but ultimately it is only up to us to believe the result of any given test. If the person we test has access to illusionary magic or is able to dress their lies carefully then the artifact is useless. Not to mention that Owlana teaches us that forcing knowledge under threat of the Noctua Veritas does not constitute truth. If someone denies to hold the artifact while talking we are explicitly told that this does not indicate any guilt.” He hesitated a little bit before adding the next part. “We are also aware that the artifact simply does not work on some people. For roughly three out of ten people the artifact simply never lights up, even if they lie. Of course we’ll learn pretty quickly if someone is a part of this minority, but that still makes the artifact useless beyond that. And it’s not like the artifact not working properly is any sign of a person being guilty. So I would say it’s roughly fifty-fifty for it to properly work.”
“Sounds tough,” Mirgia said. “Well I’m glad it worked on me, else this would have continued to be a very tense situation.”
Karal nodded. “As much as I dislike it, I will have to assume you’re not one of the exceptions that is able to manipulate the magic.”
“I appreciate that trust.” Mirgia sighed. “I am hesitant to admit that I am still struggling to trust the rest of your group of priests. There is no way for me to prove that you weren’t aware of what Danil was planning.” He looked at Kimi. “Unless you also have some form of magic to test if they speak the truth.”
“They could use the stone as well?” Kimi suggested.
Karal shook his head. “I don’t think that would work as proof,” he looked at Mirgia, who nodded in agreement.
“How come?” Kimi asked.
“We brought the artifact,” Karal said.
Mirgia added, “although I don’t doubt that the church of Owlana has access to many types of powerful artifacts, all we have to believe that this one does what they say it does is their word. It works for them because they know it’s the actual artifact, but it doesn’t work the other way around because we have no way of knowing it’s legit.” He shrugged. “At least the fact that you were ready to admit that makes me more inclined to believe you.” He looked at Karal. “Either way, we’re in this mess together and we need to figure out where to go from now on. It’s clear that something happened at the top of that central pillar but we don’t know what exactly happened. This makes our options limited. We have some wounded and two dead people. Do we continue deeper into this dungeon or do we retreat and regroup?”
This sent murmurs throughout the group as several discussions started. It seemed like the group was relatively split on what to do next. The Sahalid members were more inclined to continue and some of the priests wanted to do the same. The people from Redsan wanted to return and regroup. Mirgia also leaned towards returning for now, considering his wounds as well. The priests had healed the worst of it and he could move his arm pretty well, but it still stung and he definitely wouldn’t be able to fully draw back his bowstring with his arm in this condition. But he also had to admit he was curious about what lay ahead and had some worry that leaving now would let whatever was unleashed come out to the surface. After a long discussion, a decision was made. Mirgia, Kimi, Doroly, Roal, Sereh, Karal and Masahi would return to the surface with the bodies of Quint and Danil. The remaining priests and Sahalid members would explore deeper into the dungeon. After handing over remaining provisions to the people who went deeper into the dungeon, the small group made their way back up the pathways and towards the exit.
Opal Kaharis 