Compared to the other, the Aeriliya couldn’t decide whether or not the Cassidians had made any sort of progress. From what she could discern, there were two distinct voices within the report. One seemed to admit that Thatch, for as much as he didn’t fit the Pantheon’s rather narrow definition, was a warrior. His skill and ruthlessness as a fighter seemed far too ingrained into him to be anything else. However, the second voice seemed to decry him as nothing more than a cheat and a coward who embodied none of the qualities needed to become a Cassidian warrior.

  Final report: The Unknown Hero, shows to have a naturally imbued warrior’s instinct, but due to his mindset being without honor or valor, it has caused issues. In total: During training, there were seven instances of seriously injuring his opponent. Outside of training, students reported he almost killed three other students who are expected to make a full recovery. The Temple has encountered a troublesome student or even Hero, but this goes beyond. The Unknown hero shows a thorough, but cynically pragmatic understanding of Cassidia’s teachings. However, he also shows no aptitude for War magic and no weapons take on divine properties when he wields them. It is possible he has the War god’s blessing but not enough to be considered a Hero.

  Pounding her fist against the table and leaning back, “Dammit, just when I thought there was finally something.”

  Aeriliya reached into the pile next to her to find there was only one last file. But when she went to open it, her hand burned and she dropped it. A runic array that she recognized as a magical lock spread itself out across the cover. Out of all the records she had been given, ‘Why is only this one being guarded so much?’

  Biting the sleeve of her jacket, she tried to open the record once more. Her teeth dug into the fabric as the magic burned her once more. Mustering her effort to not drop the file, she activated her Eyes of Discernment and committed the runic array to memory. Whatever she was looking at, there would be something she could find at the Precinct. But looking at the small pile she had already torn through, the convenient negligence of the Pantheonites was irking her.

  As Aeriliya was lamenting the lack of information and how said limited information there was only raising more questions, her stomach chimed in with the ever present question of ‘When was the last time we ate?’

  Being in an underground library with no windows, and not being born underground like a dwarf, any sense of the passage of time was lost on her. She exited the underground library, remembering that taking any of the books would cause them to burn, probably along with her. When she came to the head librarian’s door, she found her sitting there, as if only a few minutes rather than a few hours had passed.

  “You were in there so long, I thought the room had swallowed you”, Barya said humorlessly. Even from across the room, Aeriliya had to do everything she could not to show any visible disgust at the residual alcohol stench.

  “Plenty of things have tried to kill me in the past”, she said nonchalantly, “If a library could kill me, I must be doing something exceptionally wrong.”

  The librarian waved her hand and the door behind Aeriliya suddenly swung forward, sealing itself and the knowledge within. Barya took a quick whiff of the air, “Good, at least you’re not as foolhardy as some of the people who walk through those doors.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Walking back out the entrance of the library, the sun was almost completely beyond the horizon. Questions and theories were swarming in her head but the feeling of her stomach gnawing on itself reminded her that doing investigative work while hungry made you sloppy. A lesson that she had learned the hard way in the first year as a junior Inquisitor. There were any number of bars and pubs open, but she mounted a land dragon belonging to her department. Public servants weren’t always welcome in public establishments, and she was no exception. As soon as she arrived home, Aeriliya took out the notebook she always carried in her jacket and began writing everything she could remember in shorthand. Names, dates, locations, whatever seemed relevant.

  There were few of any of those things but in the elven woman’s mind, ‘Where’s the satisfaction in having all the answers at the very start’, she thought with a wry grin, ‘The 41st year of the previous emperor’s reign. Twelve years ago.’

  Aeriliya felt the memories wrap their cold hands around her heart. Between being a woman and her magic being the wrong type, she had never seen the battlefield, at least that was what she was told would happen. Just because she had never faced down the demon hordes like so many others didn’t mean she hadn’t seen blood spilled. She could still remember that night, the fire, the bodies, the new realities and those glinting yellow eyes, like a fox.

  ‘If you think demons are the worst kind of evil, then you don’t know this world.’

  Aeriliya drew a line underneath that name, ‘Just who are you really, Edwin Thatch?’

  (The next morning)

  She quickly tore through the notes she had made from her near perfect memory. But the more she searched, the fewer answers there seemed to be. After the record telling about the time Thatch spent at the War god temple, there was more of damn near nothing.

  Shows basic understanding of medicine and surprising talent in stitching, but no aptitude for healing magic. Unlikely his Patron is Aesculipias.

  Shows high ability to survive but no aptitude for nature magic. Unlikely his Patron is Natura.

  Shows only rudimentary knowledge and skill in forgery or invention, but no aptitude for fire magic or Ingenuity magic. Unlikely his Patron is Ingenium

  Although unfamiliar with local law, shows understanding of the need for justice, but no aptitude for justice magic. Unlikely his patron is Aequitasia

  No aptitude for death or earth magic. Unlikely his Patron is Baruth.

  No aptitude for sea or water magic. Unlikely his Patron is Marinus.

  No aptitude for sky magic. Unlikely his Patron is Halcyonus.

  With every page Aeriliya turned, what only seemed like a theory at the time, clearly became fact. Edwin Thatch was a wholly new paradox, a summoned hero, seemingly abandoned by the gods. She went through the mental list of people who would willingly talk about Thatch’s existence.

  ‘They probably didn’t have much contact, but would the other heroes know something’, she wondered before shaking her head, ‘Even if they did, it’s almost impossible to see one of the heroes these days.

  Now that she thought about it, from what she saw in the reports, Thatch’s presence in Acolynia seemed like an open secret. And considering the impression he left when he first appeared, there was little chance that rumors weren’t spread around the holy city state like wildfire. Which left the question, ‘Did the other heroes even know Thatch was in the same city or even world as them?’ Did they even know he existed?’