Role

Chapter 5

Being of a singular focus regarding his unraveling of this conspiracy, it took
only a couple of days to quietly dispatch Jomved's allies. Still, though,
there was a missing piece of the puzzle that only Jomved himself could now
fill in. Ryl had to know the answer, he could not rest without it. Jomved
would tell him, one way or another. That night, when he snuck to the basement
to look for his partners, Rylwaequarth was waiting.

Once he had ambushed and drugged Jomved, it was simple enough to drag him into
one of the newly vacant cages in the anti-library. More difficult had been
convincing the former occupants that now was their chance to escape to
Galadon, but Ryl also managed this. To his credit, Jomved resisted Ryl's
questioning through the first night and refused to give him any new
information. But the self-indulgent fool had been too eager to break his fast
after a day without food. Within an hour, Jomved could feel the poison racing
through his body. This loosened his tongue considerably, and he spent the
parts of the day he wasn't retching in a corner of his cage trying to answer
Ryl's questions.

By nightfall, it was clear that Jomved had answered everything he was able to
(and even signed a written confession), except for what God he served, and who
his outside man was. These secrets he still guarded dearly, much to Ryl's
displeasure. Tomorrow, when he returned from his monastic duties, he would
increase the severity of the inquisition, he explained to Jomved, until his
curiosity was sated. Rylwaequarth would stop at nothing. He HAD TO KNOW.

Ryl was awoken later that night by monks shouting about a fire in the
basement! His heart sank as he immediately knew where the source of the fire
would be found. When the fire was doused and the smoke cleared, it became
obvious that someone had gone down, brutally finished off Jomved, gathered up
any icons or valuable texts, and burned everything else. The fire had been
found and extinguished before it had fully burned out, so enough remained that
it was obvious that some sort of demon worshiping cult had been using kids
down there. Whoever had done this had made certain that Ryl's involvement was
obvious to the elder monks. Luckily he had kept Jomved's confession, which
exonerated him, on his person.

This convinced Feristle that Rylwaequarth hadn't been a part of the cult, but
Feristle was still wise enough to discern what he had done, especially as one
of the other corpses had also been found. Most in the monastery knew Ryl had
been involved, but not how. Many presumed him a victim in some way. While
Feristle bore Ryl no ill will, it was obvious to them both that the peaceful
path of the monks was not to be his path. Thus, Feristle put in a word with
the Galadon shaman's guild, and Ryl returned to Galadon to join the academy
and the guild, and to see what they would teach him.