Eldritch Guidance

“Beyond the veil of our reality exist dark and malevolent forces. They call out to the people of our world and tempt them with evil. Those that give in to the temptation begin to worship them as gods. The names of these beings are unspeakable, as a result, those that worship those forces have instead given them epithets to convey the natures of these beings. The worshipers of these entities have formed organizations and groups named after the epithets of their dark gods. Thus, the Cults of the Nameless Gods were born.

“Of the countless numbers of cults, there exist three that have shaped the history of the western continent for the worst. The names of these groups are as follows: Rattle Bone, Endless War, Blood Caller. These cults' practices have been banned everywhere and membership made illegal. The actions of these cults have caused countless tragedies and loss of life throughout the land. If one is to come in contact with a member of one of these cults, they should inform authorities so that these individuals can be contained or eliminated.”

—Writings of Light Scholar Lukka on “The Machinations of the Nameless Cults”

A week had gone by since the accident that happened in the courtyard, where Alan had saved Edward. It was the talk of the university for a while amongst the students, but exams were around the corner. Talks of that event were short lived since many were busy focusing on their studies.

In one of the university study halls that was beside the cafeteria, Alan and his two friends were sitting at a table with a bunch of books and papers splayed out in front of them.

Jafar: “Alan! Stop dozing off!” he yelled.

Alan: “Huh?”

Alan was woken up from his daydreaming by Jafar's voice.

Jafar: “By the light. Why am I even helping you? I’m not even the one who’s taking the classes on cults.”

Alan: “Sorry Jafar. Once you started going off on that reading, I just couldn’t help falling asleep. This whole cult stuff is just so boring.”

Jafar: “If it’s so boring, why even take this course.”

Alan: “I didn’t have a choice. It’s not an elective. Occult studies are mandatory in the Lionheart college.”

Sere: “Yeah, it’s the same in the Silverwings too.”

Jafar let out a deep sigh and shook his head.

Jafar: “Fine. Let’s go over the basics with some trivia, so you guys don’t completely bomb on your tests. Can either of you name the three big cults and what they're particularly known for?”

Sere: “Oh, that's easy! There’s the Rattle Bone cult. That group is all about necromancy. Then there is the Blood Callers. I think they have some sort of weird prophecy related to blood. Then there was the… um, what were they called again?”

Alan: “The Endless War Cult. They exist to destabilize countries and perpetuate a never ending war between them. Their members are psychotic battle junkies that revel in the combat and the violence that occurs in war-zones. The organization is funded by mercenary contracts that they take from anybody that will give it to them. They are also the leading group suspected in orchestrating the destabilization and collapse of the Gix empire, resulting in the formation of the Warring States,” he said, leaning into his hand while looking bored.”

Both Jafar and Sere looked at Alan dumbfounded at the detailed information he just presented to them. Alan was not the most book smart person, so it was surprising. It was way more information than they thought Alan would know.

Jafar: “So… you were listening?” he said, curious to know if Alan was secretly listening and pretending to sleep.

Alan: “Oh, no. Please don’t mistake me. I know a fair amount about that cult specifically. The other two, I have no clue about.”

Sere gently smacked her forehead with her hand and had a look of realization on her face.

Sere: “Oh, yeah. You're originally from the Gix Empire. So you would know… Oh. I'm sorry if talking about this upsets you,” she said with a look of concern for Alan.

Alan: “Please don’t worry about me. I’ve had years of therapy to process what happened to me and my family back then in the Gix Empire, and have come to terms with it,” he said, with a fake smile.

There was an awkward silence that filled the space between Alan and his friends.

When Alan had moved to Graheel, Sere and Jafar had quickly become his friends. The three of them had been friends since they were little. Both Jafar and Sere knew a little about Alan's past and how he lost his sister. They have actively always tried to avoid bringing up stuff about Alan's former home. Because, despite what Alan said about being fine about what happened to him, Sere and Jafar always felt a deep sense of sadness from him when it came up. And, they didn’t like seeing their friend sad.

The silence between them was broken by the voice of another boisterous sounding person.

???: “Hey Alan! There you are.”

Everyone sitting at the table turned their head towards the voice.

Approaching them was another Lionheart student in his red uniform. He stood around six feet ( 1.82 meters) tall, shorter than Alans imposing six foot seven (2 meters), and had green eyes and short brown hair. The person carried himself with confidence and was rapidly approaching the group.

This was Cris. The same Cris that Alan was friends with in the Gix empire. They both ended up living separately in different cities, and it caused their friendship to become estranged for a little while. It was only once they both started attending Graheel University did they start to reconnect with each other. They both became regular sparring partners and since they were both in the same college, they took a lot of the same classes together and would team up on projects.

Sere: “Hey Cris,” she said.

Cris: “Oh, hi to you too Sere, and Jafar,” he said, greeting them. He then turned toward Alan.

Noticing that Cris was about to ask him something. Alan spoke up and cut him off.

Alan: “Sorry Cris. I can't spar with you today. I'm studying for the upcoming exams.”

Cris: “What? C’mon, there's also a bunch of physical combat tests we have to do too.”

Alan: “Yeah, I think I'm pretty good in that department. It’s all this written stuff I'm having trouble with. That's the area I gotta focus on and study for.”

Cris: “But who am I going to train with for the tests?”

Jafar: “Do you even need it? Aren't they calling you a prodigy in the Lionheart?”

Cris managed to get into the Lionheart on a scholarship due to his excellent abilities in combat magic. He was a natural and some of the teachers even claimed that he might become a master combat mage one day.

Cris: “Still gotta do the practice. I need someone that can keep up with me.”

Alan: “And you think I can??? How many times have you kicked my ass in those practice fights?”

Cris: “And every time you get a little better, " he said, playfully.

Alan: “Forget it Cris. Go ask one of the seniors in the Lionhearts to spar with you. They’ll be able to help you better than me.”

Cris: “No way. They’ll kick my ass. I might be good, but those seniors are still leagues ahead of me.”

Alan: “Oh, so it’s OK that my ass gets beaten, but not your own.”

Sere started to chuckle at the two Lionheart students fighting in front of her.

Jafar: “Get a room for you two. You act like married couples.”

Alan: “We do not,” he said, adamantly.

Cris straightened his posture and started to look a little more serious.

Cris: “Anyways, I'm not here for combat practice.”

Alan: “Thank the light.”

Cris: “Remember that Gilded Sun guy you saved a while ago, Edward Scefer. “

Alan: “Yeah, what about him?”

Jafar: “Oh no, are the Gilded Suns going after Alan now, because of what happened?”

The conflict between the Lionheart and Gilded Suns was intense. The fact that Alan, a Lionheart student, saved one of their members was probably humiliating to them. It wouldn't be hard to imagine them trying to do something against Alan, even if he did save a fellow member of that group.

Cris: “It’s not that. Besides, Alan’s got me and the entire Lionhearts backing him if they tried something. No, it’s this,” he pulled out a school newspaper and threw onto the table Alan was sitting at.

The paper had all sorts of miscellaneous information and local news in it, but it was the header that shocked everyone sitting at the table.

Sere: “W-what? Edward’s dead, how?”

The headline on the paper read: “Gilded Sun Student Edward Scefer Died In Accident”. A picture of a body covered in a white sheet surrounded by other students was the picture used on the front of the newspaper.

Cris: “Apparently, he tripped and fell down the stairs in building B6, and smashed his skull open in the process. Killing him instantly.”

Jafar: “Wow. Survived that statue almost falling on him, only to trip and die. I guess fate is funny like that,” he said, trying to add a little levity to the news.

Cris: “Yeah, I thought that Alan should know about this. It sucks that your heroism went to waste on that guy.”

Alan: “This can’t be a coincidence. No way it is,” he said, with a serious look on his face.

Jafar: “You're not going to go off about that guy you saw last week.”

Cris: “What guy last week?”

Sere: “Last week when Alan saved Edward, he said he thinks he saw a guy that purposely caused the accident.”

Cris: “Really? I went there and saw the area where the statue fell. There were big ass cracks on the side of the walls surrounding the courtyard. It even looked like some other pieces of overhanging architecture fell since the incident with Edward. It didn’t look like something that could be planned. It just seems like poor maintenance of an old building.”

Jafar: “That’s what we tried to tell him too, but he’s insistent that it wasn't natural. If someone wanted to cause something like that and make it look like an accident, they would have to use magic, yet that courtyard was filled with mages and no one sensed any strange aether fluctuation when it happened.”

Alan: “I know it seems unlikely, but something tells me what happened at the courtyard wasn't natural.”

Alan knew what he saw, he just couldn’t explain it. He didn't know how or why that person tried to cause that accident, but he could feel the animosity the Shroom Pact student had towards Edward, and the disappointment at the statue missing him.

Sere: “Anyways, we gotta get back to studying. Wanna join us Cris? We're going over occult studies and—” she said, before being interrupted by Alan shouting.

Alan: “That’s the guy!”

Jafar: “What are you going on about?”

Alan: “It’s the guy that caused the accident,” he said while pointing at the picture on the front of the newspaper.

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Everyone leaned in to see what he was talking about.

Alan was pointing at one of the onlooking students in the background of the photo of Edwards covered corpse. It was a plain looking student with brown hair wearing the green robes of the Shroom Pact college. He blended in perfectly with the crowd and would have likely gone unnoticed if Alan didn’t point him out.

Jafar: “That’s the guy you were talking about? The guy in the back with the green Shroom Pact robes?”

Alan: “Yeah, it’s definitely him. He’s the one I saw when the statue almost fell on Edward. It’s the same guy.”

Sere: “You're sure?”

Alan: “Yeah, I'm sure. Do you guys see what I mean? What are the chances that guy would also be there when Edward died? It’s not a coincidence, that guy murdered Edward while making it look like an accident.”

Sere: “I mean… when you put it like that. It does seem a little strange.”

Cris: “I don’t know about that. The actual report about it had a dozen witness accounts, and they all said the same thing. Apparently, the floor was wet from a recent mopping and he just slipped and fell. I don’t know how you plan around that.”

Jafar: “You would have to use some kind of magic, and this a university full of mages. I’m sure those twelve witness accounts were also mages, and would have said something if they felt the aether fluctuation of magic being used.”

Sere: “But Jafar, it does seem a little strange that person was there when Edward died.”

Jafar: “Not really. Tons of students go in and out of that building all the time. That guy could have just been walking to his class and stumbled upon that whole thing.”

Alan let out a sigh.

Alan: “So, you still don’t believe me.”

Jafar: “Alan, you’re my friend. I believe that you believe this, but I'm just being realistic. Even if you're right, what can be done? There’s not any evidence that could be presented to anybody that would do anything. All we have is your gut feeling and a slightly odd circumstance,” He said, as he re-adjusted how he was sitting. “And, if I am perfectly honest, I don't really care what happens to a Gilded Sun.”

Sere: “Jafar! How could you say that? Wishing death on someone.”

Jafar: “I’m not wishing death on anyone. I’m just saying I'm not going to shed a tear if a rich noble dies.”

Alan: “Do you think it will stop at that?” he said in a very serious tone.

Alan's friend stopped the banter as the atmosphere around him changed and became more serious.

Alan: “I get that no one here likes the nobles and it’s easy to dismiss this, cause it’s that group that’s suffering, But, as much as an asshole Edward might have been, he still didn’t deserve to die. And, there is no clear indication that this killer will stop at one Gilded Sun member. There might be more deaths.”

Jafar let out a long sigh.

Jafar: “It’s still out of our hands. So, are we still going to keep reading through ‘The Machinations of the Nameless Cults’, or do we want to argue about a hypothetical murder for the next hour?”

Sere: “Sigh. Jafar’s right. Let’s just focus on studying,” she said before turning to Cris.” Care to join our study group?”

Cris: “Nah. I think I'm good.”

Alan: “You're gonna fail the written tests.”

Cris: “Fat chance of that happening. I can afford to spar all the time because I've already memorized all the written stuff,” he said proudly.

Jafar: “I guess they don’t call him a prodigy for nothing.”

Cris: “Anyways, if you're not going to spar with me, I'll go find someone else that will.”

Alan: “Ok, talk to ya later Cris.”

Cris said his goodbyes and he left the group.

Alan and his friends continued to study the occult for the next two hours, until it started to get late. Sere and Alan headed home as it started to get dark, but Jafar stayed behind to continue studying by himself in the library.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Night fell upon the university. The University library at this time was abandoned. The shadows of this place became more pronounced and forbearing than they were in the day. It was as if this place was hiding secrets from those seeking knowledge. The only light in this place came from the moonlight shining in from the windows, and a single solitary lamp in the corner by a desk.

It was by that lamp that Jafar sat while reading through a stack of books while writing down notes. It was midnight. There was no one here beside Jafar. He was technically not supposed to be here at this hour, but he had a good relationship with the librarian that was working that day. She would allow him to remain in the library after it was closed as long as he cleaned up after himself and locked the door on his way out.

Most of his own study time had been taken up by him helping his friends prepare for their own exams. So, he decided to stay late, allowing him to catch up on his own studies.

Jafar was beginning to feel a little drowsy and was debating in his mind if he should leave now. He knew that studying while tired was not a great idea. He wouldn't be able retain much of the information while exhausted, but he knew that the notes he was creating would be helpful for further study in the future. So, it was a debate between getting some shut eye and filling out his notes.

“Do I go home and get some rest, or do I stay and finish taking notes? There is no guarantee I'll be able to read these books tomorrow if someone else gets a hold of them before me. I don’t know if they have enough copies of these books for all the Ember Gear students taking the same exams as me.” Jafar pondered to himself.

Jafars query was interrupted by the sound of a metal door being opened somewhere in the library.

“Oh shit. Is that security? If they find me I'm so screwed!” He thought in panic.

While the librarian he knew allowed him to stay in the library after it was closed up, that was only for an extra hour. It was now way past the hour grace period he was given. If he was found in the library now, they might suspect him of something malicious and could possibly expel him over this.

Realizing the situation he was in, he quickly turned off the light beside him and grabbed his stuff.

He could hear footsteps rapidly approaching. Knowing he didn’t have time to flee, he quickly and quietly hid under the table he was sitting at and moved the chairs around so that they were in front of him. It wasn't the greatest hiding spot, but it was the only thing he could think of.

He silently waited with controlled breath. Hoping that he wouldn’t be found. Jafar concentrated on the approaching footsteps and noticed it wasn't just one pair of footsteps, but two. The footsteps continued to get closer, until they stopped just in front of where Jafar was hiding.

Jafar closed his eyes and held his breath. He was praying that he wasn't noticed.

???: “OK. We can speak candidly here,” the voice confidently stated.

???: “Are you sure?” the other voice nervously said.

“Thank the light. They haven’t noticed me. But, I think I've heard those voices before.” Jafar quietly thought to himself.

Jafar carefully and quietly peeked out where he was hiding to see who was talking.

The two people he could see were wearing the robes of teachers of the university. They were both male. One wore the black and gray robes of the Gray Scale college and the other wore the blue and white robes of a Silverwing. The Gray Scale teacher had black hair tied up in a short ponytail and a light complexion with a sharp look in his eye. The other person had a darker complexion with gray hair and wore thick glasses that made his eyes look bigger. The Silverwing teacher looked extremely nervous.

It took Jafar a little while, but he was able to recognize the people here. It was professor of arcane law Sorin Black of the Grey Scale College, and surgeon professor and manager of the university morgue Pitter Patariki of the Silverwing College. These were both teachers that taught classes Jafar had attended in the past.

“What are they doing here?” Jarfar thought to himself.

Sorin: “It should be fine. There is no one here at this hour and the doors automatically lock themselves at eight. Short of another high ranking faculty member, no one is getting in here."

Pitter: “If you say so,” he said while wiping sweat off his forehead.

Sorin: “Now, tell me what is so important that you insisted on talking somewhere privately.”

Pitter: “It’s about the boy who died recently. The child from the Scefer family.”

“They're talking about Edward?” Jafar thought while listening curiously.

Sorin: “What about him?”

Pitter: “When the body was moved to my department for storage, I performed an autopsy secretly on him.”

Sorin: “What! Why would you do that! We’re already in enough shit with the Scefer family over their son dying on campus! Us performing an autopsy on their dead son's body without their consent could be seen as desecration!” he half yelled out.

Pitter: “I know! I didn’t want to do it, but the Gilded Sun headmistress made me!” he half yelled back.

Sorin: “Why would Jenna make you do this? She deals with those rich fucks all the time, so she should know better than anyone not do something like this.”

Pitter: “She told me that she wanted confirmation on his death and to report anything odd about it.”

Sorin: “Confirmation? Why does she need to confirm anything! If you look at his body, it doesn't take a genius to figure out how he died. His skull is cracked open from the fall.”

Pitter: “I know! That’s what I tried to tell her, but she wouldn't listen!”

Sorin: “So now when the Scefer family comes to collect the body, they're going to find a whole bunch of incisions on his body.”

Pitter: “No they won’t. I didn’t do anything super invasive like that.”

Sorin: “But you still did something invasive, right?”

Professor Patariki turned away from Sorin with a pained look that emitted his guilt.

Sorin: “Great. Now we have to hope that the Scefer Family don’t perform their own private autopsy on their son. Otherwise, they might just find out that someone was tampering with their sons’ body,” he said while staring directly into Patariki's eyes.

Pitter: “That won’t be a problem. Any oddity that might be detected from what I did, could be chalked up to damage done from moving the body.”

Sorin leaned back and began to cross his arms.

Sorin:“OK then. I think I see where this is going. You want me to help you deal with Jenna. I’m assuming she is trying to push you to do a more invasive autopsy. Is that what’s going on?”

Pitter: “Yes. No. Kinda? It’s complicated.”

Sorin: “OK, what exactly is the problem?,” he said as he uncrossed his arms.

Pitter: “Look, I did a very basic autopsy. Like you said, I didn't expect to find anything strange about his cause of death, and I didn't. But, I did find something odd about the body itself.”

Professor Sorin's demeanor changed and he began to look even more serious than he did before.

Sorin: “What did you find?” he said, while staring intensely at Patariki and gauging his response.

Pitter: “I found formaldehyde.”

Sorin: “On him?”

Pitter: “No! It was in him. It was in his blood.”

Sorin: “How?”

Pitter: “I don’t know. That’s the problem.”

Sorin: “Have you told Jenna this?”

Pitter: “No. I have only told you.”

Sorin: “Ok. Just give me a sec to think this through”

Professor Black began to pace back and forth in deep thought. Professor Patariki waited patiently while this was done. After a minute, Professor Black stopped pacing and turned back to Patariki and began speaking again.

Sorin: “OK. Here is what we’re going to do. You’re going to tell Jenna that you found nothing strange.”

Pitter: “But I did find something strange.”

Sorin: “No, you found a fuck up. It sounds like someone in your department processed the corpse. I believe you guys put formaldehyde in bodies to preserve them, right?”

Sorin Black was referring to the fact how Patariki and his department managed and preserved corpses on campus for study. And, the process of pumping formaldehyde into corpses was one of the things they did.

Pitter: “We do, but there were very specific instructions not to touch that corpse. Besides, the amount of formaldehyde I found wasn't enough to properly preserve the body.”

Sorin: “And that’s why I'm calling it a fuck up. It sounds like someone started processing the corpse, and stopped part way through when they realized they weren't supposed to tamper with it.”

Pitter: “No student or faculty member came forward to me about doing that.”

Sorin: “Whoever did it is obviously going to hide the fact. They're not going to admit to this and get into trouble for it. Or, do you honestly believe the Scefer’s family son was walking around with formaldehyde in his veins, like it was nothing.”

Pitter: “I guess when you put it like that, it makes sense.”

Sorin: “And that’s why you're going to tell Jenna, you found nothing. She won’t have grounds to push you into doing a more invasive autopsy if you ‘find nothing’ from the basic one you already did. And, if she tries to push you into doing it anyways, come to me and I'll deal with her for you.”

Pitter: “OK” he said as he nodded his head. “But, what do I do about the formaldehyde? I can’t remove it from his blood.”

Sorin: “When they come to collect the body, try to present it in the most gruesome way possible, without drawing any suspicion.”

Pitter: “What do you mean?”

Sorin let out an annoyed sigh from Pitter questions.

Sorin: “When they come and look at their dead son’s body, make sure they can see his cracked open skull. They won’t have to do their own autopsy to figure out the cause of death if they see that. Thus, they won’t pick up on the formaldehyde in his blood and start accusing us of desecration.”

Pitter: “Right. I see what you mean.”

Sorin: “Good, they shouldn't be able to smell the formaldehyde either, so hopefully we’ll be in the clear and the Scefer’s won’t suspect anything.”

After Sorin said this, there was an awkward silence between the two professors before Pitter spoke up.

Pitter: “Sorin…This doesn't feel right, us trying to cover up this mistake.”

Sorin: “Look Pitter, if you want to launch an internal investigation to figure out how this happened and prevent it from happening again, fine. But, the Scefer’s can’t know about this, and by extension everyone else. It will be me and the rest of the Grey Scale professors who will have to deal with the legal fallout of this. So, sorry that this all feels ‘wrong’ to you. Unless, you want to represent yourself in court without the assistance of the legal expertise of me and the Gray Scales college.”

Pitter: “No, of course not!”

Sorin: “I figured. So, keep everything we just said a secret, especially from Jenna. I will confer with some people I trust to make a plan, in the case the Scefer’s do discover tampering on their son’s body. Anyways, it's late,” he said as he pulled out a pocket watch and looked at the time on it. ”I have classes to teach in the morning. So, unless there’s any other details you want to tell me about, I'm going to head home now."

Pitter nodded, and both professors proceeded to walk off and leave the library.

Jaffar continued to hide under the table and didn’t move until he heard the sound of a door opening closing off in the distance. He continued to wait for another few minutes to ensure that there really was no one else around. After some time had passed, he let out a long sigh of relief. He then crawled out from under the table and began to gather his things.

Jafar: “Thank the light. I can’t believe they didn't notice me. But, I definitely heard a bunch of stuff I think I shouldn't have,” he said while letting out another tired sigh.

“I guess Alan was right, something strange really is going on. Now, do I tell Alan or not about what I heard?” Jafar silently pondered to himself before packing up his stuff and leaving the library.

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