Jake spoke at length, walking the Hunter through everything from his initial testing all the way to Nepthys being captured and beyond. The older classer listened carefully, but the heavy furrow in his brow told Jake that he was shocked by what he was hearing.

  Jake did do some light editing to leave parts out, but he kept most of it in, especially the parts about the Corrupters and the Fatesworne working together.

  “I don’t want to believe you,” Kirn said eventually. “I want to decry you as a liar, but as I said before, I’ve noticed things since my arrival. Manos and Disa must weep at the chaos that has spread throughout this land. If they even know about it.”

  Manos was one of the gods of the Triarchy, Jake knew that much, but the specifics eluded him. “What do you mean?”

  “I have seen no sign of any of worship for Manos and Disa since I arrived,” Kirn said, shaking his head in disbelief. “I haven’t been looking for it, so I didn’t give it much heed, but it’s clear to me now that their followers have been removed. Whether by force or by slow relocation, I don’t know.”

  “But why, aren’t all of the Triarchy gods aligned together?”

  “They are,” Kirn said in a rote manner before hesitating. “At least, they are in our home of Maddir. The priesthood of Dranos orchestrated the war here, and it was their responsibility to prepare Strovia for full integration.”

  “Which one is Dranos?” Jake asked, wilting a little under Kirn’s shocked gaze. “I know the names, but not what they stand for.”

  “How?” Kirn seemed incredulous and caught completely off guard by Jake’s question. “You said you were raised in one of our orphanages, they should have taught you of the gods and our culture. That is their whole purpose!”

  “Well they didn’t,” Jake said with a touch of defiance. “All I know of your culture is that you hate other gods, and any classers with Patrons other than the three in your pantheon are killed or banished.”

  “Killed or banished?” Kirn echoed, glancing between Jake and Nepthys before shaking his head and running his hands through his short hair. “This is madness, utter madness. No other gods are allowed temples, and their followers are encouraged to leave, but that is a long way from murder!”

  “Maybe where you’re from, but that isn’t the way it is here,” Jake said with an almost vindictive sense of satisfaction.

  “How could Dranos and his priesthood have let things become like this?” Kirn’s question seemed rhetorical, so Jake kept silent, letting the Hunter work his way through it all.

  “Do you know why the war was started?” Ari called out, appearing at the edge of the treeline alongside Aspen and Gargan. “No one I know has been able to answer that question, and we both know that war is unusual in this Realm.”

  Jake blinked in surprise at that. His education was somewhat basic, to say the least, but he’d assumed that what had happened to Strovia was normal.

  “The worshippers of Dranos asked for it,” Kirn said after a few moments of thought. “They claimed that more cities were needed, and Strovia was isolated and alone. They were given approval to attack, on the understanding that they would control and govern the conquered lands themselves. The intent was to balance out their desire for conflict by slowly converting this land, not whatever this has become.”

  “Are wars so unusual here?” Jake asked, glancing between the two classers. Ari and the others had come over to join them now that the threat of violence had abated, and Jake was eager to take hold of this chance to understand more.

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  “In this Realm, yes,” Kirn said before falling silent, leaving Ari to explain further.

  “The first two tiers pass by quickly for those with the drive to succeed,” Ari said, making a vague gesture to Jake and the others. “Look to yourselves as an example. You’d already be gone if it wasn’t for this madness. That leaves only those lacking in dedication or ambition, and while they do sometimes battle for more, it is rare. Higher tier classers that retire to this Realm have little reason to war either. They’d have little to gain, and would be blocked by their counterparts elsewhere.”

  “The invasion of Strovia wasn’t blocked.” Jake’s voice was flat as he tried to not get too caught up in his darker thoughts.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Ari said, letting out a long breath. “The System doesn’t allow those of higher tiers to get involved in conflicts within Realms that they have previously passed through. I don’t know the exact rules, but Felix told me he was warned not to get involved by the System when the invasion first began.”

  Jake thought of the power needed to monitor the actions of countless people and issue personalised warnings and shivered slightly. The System was all-encompassing, it was as much a fact of life as the seasons or gravity. Yet Ivaldi had spoken of it being modified and changed.

  What terrible power must The Great Dungeon wield if it could influence the System in such a way?

  “I need time to think on all of this,” Kirn said abruptly, breaking Jake from his thoughts. “You’ve painted a disturbing picture, and I need to confirm things are as bad as you say. If I find out you are lying to me…”

  “We are not,” Jake said firmly, though he realised that the threat had been somewhat perfunctory in nature.

  “Then we shall meet back here in three days time at noon,” Kirn said, already turning to leave. “At that point, we can discuss our next steps.”

  Jake nodded, but the Hunter was already at the edge of the small clearing and disappearing into the woods beyond. An Ability must have been at play as Jake lost track of the other man almost immediately.

  The uncomfortable thought that Kirn could be just out of view, waiting to hear what else they said, occurred to Jake, but there was nothing he could do about that. They’d chosen their path, now they just had to hope it played out as expected.

  The crux of it all had been that Kirn had come of his own accord and from outside of Strovia. Jake was certain by now that the local Triarchy forces were riddled with corruption of one kind or another.

  Kirn’s outrage and disbelief only gave credence to that thought, and for a moment, Jake wondered how different things would have been if he’d grown up in the Triarchy that Kirn described.

  Sighing, Jake rubbed his face and pushed such thoughts aside before turning to the others. “Well, I think that went well. Thoughts?”

  “Felix and I always had our suspicions that things were wrong here, but neither of us were familiar with Triarchy culture,” Ari said, a shadow of grief crossing his face as he mentioned Felix. “Having those suspicions confirmed is troubling, though. Whatever has been happening here must go deep into the government they established.”

  “It does bring things more into focus,” Aspen said, leaning against a tree and letting his spear drop into the crook of his arm. “That stuff about the gods was interesting as well. My biggest concern is that if such a basic tent of their culture is being twisted, then surely the majority of them are with the enemy?”

  “Not necessarily,” Gargan said, folding his arms with a frown. “All it would take would be a general understand that they were taking a harder line while things were unruly, and then just a few key people to do the dirty work.”

  “Either way, will our plan be enough?” Nepthys spoke up as she tugged nervously at her braids. “If the taint is deep enough, will attacking the outpost do anything more than potentially get us killed?”

  Alan and Aspen both made noises of agreement, and Jake couldn’t blame them. The whole thing felt somewhat futile if they were up against the entire occupying government.

  He said as much, letting the words hang in the air before continuing. “I don’t think we are, though. Remember the information that Gordon has given us, this outpost is a hub for all three forces, Triarchy, Corrupter and Fatesworne alike. They’re doing something there. Those missing supplies show that, if nothing else.”

  “But what if it’s just that,” Alan said with a frown. “This could just be a way for them to smuggle official supplies from the Triarchy to the other groups.”

  “Perhaps.” Jake shrugged, knowing it was a possibility. “Even so, disrupting it might reveal what they’re doing to the parts of the Triarchy that aren’t corrupted. We don’t know how much of that there actually is, of course, but its a risk I’m willing to take. Especially now that we have Kirn’s attention.”

  Alan let out a long breath before nodding. “I’m with you, Jake. I don’t like how far this reaches, but I’ve come this far and I won’t back down now.”

  Jake saw the same reservations on the faces of the others, but none of them were willing to step aside now. As Alan had said, they’d come too far to just let the enemy win.