Sacrifice Mage-Chapter 9: Little Tributes

Hamsik and I spent some time wandering all over our side of Ring Four, helping people here and there. Since getting my new Affix, I was rather eager to explore its capabilities, and it wasn’t actually that hard to find people seeking to carry stuff around.
There was one family moving entirely from one house to another, and I made the entire process a total breeze. Admittedly, it helped they were only shifting something like forty feet. The wooden walls of their current abode had started rotting, so they had found a new abandoned home to reside in for the time being.
That was another dreary fact that I had discovered. Lots of houses on Ring Four were abandoned. There were more homes than there were actual people, which seemed a bit odd to me.
Turned out, Ring Four had historically been a more bustling, out-of-city-bounds part of Zairgon. But that was way back, when there had been an actual sun and all that.
“Sometimes,” one old man wheezed to me when Hamsik and I was helping push along his wheelbarrow. “People climb on up to Ring Three and just…” He made a strange wiping motion. “Never come back!”
“Fascinating,” I replied.
While on our little altruistic adventures, my main priority was looking out for more opportunities to test my newest Affix. It wasn’t that I was selfish. More of a why not kill two birds with one stone situation.
The first time I had used Siphon, I had simply drawn out the weight of my target. All that did was make my singular targets lighter.
But I had learned that Affixes were literal. It was why the Weave didn’t provide any further clarification about them. That meant I had the opportunity to dig into the Affix’s capabilities by exploring everything that its name suggested it was capable of.
Siphoning away something’s weight was all fine and dandy. But I kept drawing all that weight into me, and though that didn’t increase my own weight for some reason—it kept getting added to that sensation of flowing mass within me, whenever I channelled Gravity—I had an idea. Could I siphon weight from one object into another?
Try as I might, I didn’t succeed in that endeavour. I couldn’t transfer the amount of gravitation force between different targets.
Either I was missing something, or my Gravity Aspect just wasn’t strong enough to do that yet. Deciding to imagine it was the latter, I just used it as yet another impetus to keep training and using the Aspect to make it grow stronger.
“I’ll be keeping my eyes on you,” Hamsik said when we parted. He had led me back to the temple out of courtesy since I was new here and wouldn’t know my way around.
Before I could reply, he trudged off.
“You know, I was hoping you’d turn into a bat and fly off,” I said.
He made the rude gesture again, the one where he raised three fingers and curled them into claws.
Back inside the temple, I didn’t see Aurier anywhere, but I did find Elder Escinca mopping the second floor.
“Ah Ross,” he said, greeting me with a smile. Man had excellent teeth for living without modern toothpaste. “Could you bring along the bucket while I mop?”
“Uh, sure. Hmm, better yet, I can make it easier for you to take it yourself.”
“Oh?”
“Yep.”
I touched the bucket with my foot, purple threads of power emerging at the point of contact and establishing the connection I needed for Siphon. Soon enough, the bucket of water weighed about as much as a beachball. I gently nudged it with my foot. It went floating along the floor.
“Not that I don’t
want
to help you, Elder,” I said. “But I’ve been trying to get my Gravity ranked up, so I figured why not.”
Elder Escinca slowly nodded, fingers rubbing his chin. “Mm, I suppose that is a rather smart use for it.”
“Isn’t it?”
I kept him company as he worked, telling him about my day so far and what I’d been up to with Hamsik.
“It’s nice you two are getting along,” he said with a bright smile.
“I wouldn’t say we’re uh…” I stared at his glowing expression, then cleared my throat. “Yeah sure, why not. We’re getting along just fine.”
“Mm, good, good. Though, I am afraid Ring Four had probably left you with a poor impression of our current state of affairs, hasn’t it?”
“Eh, it’s…” I almost wanted to say it wasn’t my concern. But the entire thing with Hamsik had been
about
whether it was my concern or not. “Well, it made me think.”
“Oh, about what?”
“About how the cult is helping everyone. Or trying to. And it puzzled me, because—and I apologize for my frankness, Elder—but I couldn’t justify in my head how a cult that takes care of everyone who needs help can also go around… Sacrificing people.”
Our mopping mission had taken us to through a few corridors, and Elder Escinca finally paused, leaning on his broom for support. “I do apologize for it, Ross.” He sighed. “But a mere apology is nowhere near enough for the transgression we committed. We were just… desperate, and thus, we ended up taking a decision we never should have.”
“Desperate for what?” I thought back to the day I had arrived at the temple. “Those nobles…”
Elder Escinca nodded slowly. “Our cult is under pressure. Almost in peril, in all honesty. The nobles who wish to purchase our land outright are but merely a symptom of the real issue. We are becoming obsolete.”
“Is that even allowed? Can the nobles just buy whatever land they want?” I supposed
buying
was a better alternative than just using goons to chase off whoever was residing somewhere. Maybe the Zairgon administration didn’t want chaos this close to their city.
“The land is apportioned according to how the Zairgon Council sees fit. Ring Four lands
are
available for purchase, but there is little incentive to buy anything here. However, certain lands are protected from purchase, and these include lands held by cults.”
“But they’re still trying to take over the temple?”
Escinca nodded morosely. “They are petitioning the Council to get rid of the protections we possess. While also offering us
monetary compensation
.”
The tone in his voice made it clear whatever money they were being offered, it really wasn’t compensating.
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I mused. “And so, you tried to perform a Sacrifice to obtain…”
“It was an attempt to re-establish our relevance. Ever since the gods were banished, all cults and religious organizations have been floundering.” Escinca swallowed. “In general, human sacrifice is forbidden in Zairgon and most other places as well. However, we used a small legal loophole. The law forbids any citizens of Zairgon or any other settlement from being sacrificed. You… aren’t one, Ross.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. There was no way I could be mad for long at a shrewd play like that. This old bastard was a lot more cunning than he looked. Would the Zairgon Council care about the little loophole, or would they just not give a damn?
Considering what I had seen of Ring Four so far, my thoughts didn’t exactly go in the generous direction.
“Speaking of Sacrifice,” I said. “Can you basically Sacrifice anything? The rewards are dependent on what you’re Sacrificing, as far as I can tell, so long as it’s actually yours.”
Escinca looked a little surprised, probably at the fact that I wasn’t pursuing the issue of them sacrificing
me
any further. “They are. Well, the idea of owning something is a bit complicated. What you offer must truly and irrevocably belong to you. Simply claiming something as yours will not work either. The Weave must recognize your ownership.”
Ownership. Alright, now
that
made me scowl just a bit. Because it suggested that the Weave had determined that I belonged to the cult after I had been summoned. Fucked up bullshit.
“Hmm, I’m going to need to test some things then, I said.
Seeing my expression, Escinca resumed his mopping. “Thank you for your assistance, Ross. Both here… and against the nobles. The damage to their carriage is, ultimately, meaningless, but cathartic nevertheless. I would caution you remain circumspect, however.”
I had to wonder what the nobles felt about it, and if I had made things worse. Would they be angry at the cult for some reason and take it out on Escinca and the others? The old man was right, though. I still felt the itch to punch them in the face.
“Thank
you
for letting me join,” I said. “It… might have actually saved my life, so I guess we can call it even, yeah?”
I could feel Escinca’s little smile. “See you at dinner.”
“Hope it’s not more bugs,” I muttered.
I thought my voice had been low, but Escinca’s answering laughter suggested otherwise.
It was nice that Escinca hadn’t saddled me with chores or something, even though I figured those were definitely part of my cultist duties. Come to think of it, neither Aurier nor Hamsik were around the temple all the time. Things did appear a lot more loosely structured, which was fine by me.
I got ample time to test and train my Aspects some more. Escinca had said Sacrifice only worked on what I truly owned. It made sense why I had been able to offer my clothes up as tribute.
That set me to exploring the limits of what actually the Weave decided was mine. I was back in my room, my little golden sprite still keeping me company. The food I got—those weird and now suspicious thick breadsticks for instance—wasn’t mine. Not even when they were on my plate and no one else was around to eat them.
Not yet
.
However, they did become mine when I put them in my mouth. I chewed and chewed and just before I swallowed them, I channelled Sacrifice. I felt the hum of mana come alive, strands of power threading through me to connect the food to the barbed sensation in the centre of my chest.
I still hadn’t figured out the chants Escinca had used. They sounded way too long anyway. Not really my style. And did I even really need them to act as some sort of switch for Sacrifice?
“Food,” I said just to be sure. “Begone.”
Terrible. The sprite agreed with a glimmer. But it worked well enough. My mana wrapped around the food and with a sizzle of magical energy, it disappeared.
Leaving me feeling like I was an engine pumped full of gasoline.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Meal. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward
: Full energy for 1 day
]
I laughed. Brilliant. I could skip insect dinners now.
Alright, so Sacrificing a
minor
meal gave me enough energy to spend a whole day without worrying about hunger or exhaustion. And it was true. Jogging and jumping exhausted my meagre stamina, sure, but I recovered quickly and definitely didn’t feel tired. Honestly, for one breadstick, this was a great return. Windfall was rather busted.
But the real issue was that it didn’t affect the countdown at all. Since the last time I had checked, it had reduced to two days now, and my little offering didn’t dent it in the slightest.
Fine, there
might
have been a change in the number of total hours I had left, since my status only showed it in cumulative days. But for a Sacrifice to feel meaningful, I would need to see changes on the level of days. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to rest easy.
Since simple food wasn’t making any difference, I would need to find something more valuable.
With my newfound energy levels, I spent a good chunk of the rest of day just training with Gravity. So far, I had been considering weight training as literally lifting weights like a bodybuilder. It didn’t have to be that way. Instead, all I did was infuse my body to weigh a good chunk more than it did and performed some regular exercises.
This meant jogging around the temple, doing push ups, stretches, and a bunch of other basic exercises that ought to help get my body in shape. Just doing them normally should have helped enough, but adding Gravity into the mix was improving the effectiveness.
My sprite kept me company like a personal trainer. A golden, blinking orb of light egging me on with its presence.
By dinnertime, I had actually improved my Power by a rank.
[ Attribute Rank Up!
Your Power Attribute has risen by one Rank.
Power
: Iron II
]
The sensation of new energy that flowed into me was different from the magical hum I had been experiencing so far. This one felt more solid, more grounding somehow. I didn’t suddenly develop bulging biceps, but there was an ingrained feeling that I could punch a decent bit harder than I had been capable of before.
Hmm, maybe I needed to find a dummy to test it on…
Dinner was mostly formality for me. I just made the motions of eating because I wasn’t exactly starving. The conversation was interesting, though.
“Are you taking Ross here to see Gutran, Aurier?” Escinca asked.
Aurier seemed surprised. “Oh, did Ross tell you?”
How was I supposed to tell him when I didn’t even know who Gutran was? Though I suspected that was Aurier’s master.
“Oh, I was simply observing our newest member’s… proclivities,” Escinca said, taking another spoonful of his porridge. I blinked. Maybe I had been a little too focused on my training to notice
others
noticing me. Escinca smiled. “Not that I don’t approve. Pursuits of betterment are always worthy, though it makes me curious about the motivation behind it.”
“He just likes magic,” Aurier said.
I nodded. That was one thing. “And I want to see if I can acquire better things to Sacrifice.” I explained my tests, and why I needed to use Sacrifice to push back the threatening mana implosion in my core. “And getting better stuff means I need money, which I’m guessing I’m not going to get much of just through the cult.”
“Mm,” Escinca said. “Unfortunately, the allocation of funds from the Council is our biggest source of money, and it isn’t much. We do get the occasional call for services from higher Rings, but those are increasingly rarer,” he added with a sigh. “That is why I keep urging young Aurier to continue his attempts at apprenticeship.”
Aurier flushed again. He was definitely easy to embarrass. “I’m working on it, Elder.”
“Good. As for you, Ross, I would suggest joining one of the Guilds and using their job boards. Those would pay much better than any random employment, possibly even more than apprenticeships. If you go to the Mage Guild, make sure to find Kostis there. He’s an old friend.”
I nodded. The funds probably weren’t much at all. They could barely keep this place running. There would be little they could spare to provide stipends for actual cultists, which would also explain why there were only three of them.
Also, something told me Kostis wasn’t the same gangster-wizard who had summoned me here in the first place.
“The man who brought me here with magic,” I said. “He mentioned you paid for the use of a Sovereign-ranked Aspect… who was he?”
For the first time, Escinca’s expression actually darkened. “Not a citizen of Zairgon.”
That didn’t tell me much about who the man was, but it sure made it plain how Escinca felt about him.
He smiled as he gathered his dishes, however. “We should plan a small fete. We have our first new member in over a year. A worthy cause for celebration.” Escinca continued muttering as he walked away. “We will need to gather supplies and send out invitations…”
Aurier grinned at me. “Sounds fun, doesn’t it?”
I wasn’t exactly a party llama, but their niceness rubbed off on me. “Sure.”
For now, I pushed down the impulse to ask more questions. Gathering supplies and invitations meant getting a better showing of how the cult worked. It might even lead to a jaunt through the rest of Zairgon, especially if we got time to meet Aurier’s master.