Chapter 417: The High Priestess of the Merfolk

In a world without telegraphs or telephones, the fastest way to deliver information was a teleportation array: to move a person physically and let them speak or carry a letter in person.

The only known exceptions were the Elegiac Society's Necromantic Codex and Ambrose's magic mirrors, which alone in the world could transmit messages across vast distances in real time.

The Blue Algae Tribe was far too small a settlement to have invested in the considerable expense of a teleportation array. Nephrys had no choice but to use the most primitive option: swim.

After leaving strict instructions for his people not to provoke either of the two formidable undead guests, Nephrys boarded his conch-shell boat and let a team of specially trained dolphins pull it forward at speed.

They were fast by any measure, but it still took the better part of a day to reach the nearest large merfolk settlement.

Several hours more passed before he secured permission to use their teleportation array. When he stepped out of it, the world erupted in colour.

He had arrived at the Rainbow Tail tribe, the most powerful of all the merfolk tribes, and the home of Ezdolo's high priest.

The tribe had claimed an entire sea trench as its territory, arranging every surface to glitter like a vault of gemstones. Coral and shell palaces shimmered in the deep blue light, and the path Nephrys swam along was paved in pearls, with sea grass drifting around him and schools of fish weaving between the light and shadow.

The Blue Algae Tribe had made similar arrangements, but the effect simply could not compare.

Merfolk customs were mercifully simple, and Nephrys was granted an audience with High Priestess Ariel without delay.

The high priest wore elaborate armor set with shells and coral, and the trident in her hand trailed a constant flow of shifting, iridescent light. Even her face was shielded by a finely worked red coral mask.

Before she took the position of high priest, she had been known as the strongest warrior in the Rainbow Tail tribe. The fact that she had ended up as high priest had surprised everyone.

"Nephrys," Ariel said, recognizing him immediately. "I remember you: you were the second to arrive at the last inter-tribal council. The Blue Algae tribe is the outermost among the tribes, as I recall. Have you encountered some trouble?"

Nephrys had been about to deny it, then thought about who was waiting at his tribe and changed his answer. "You're right that we've run into trouble. The Mistress of the Silent Sea has arrived in our tribe, along with a lich who says he wishes to meet you."

"The Mistress of the Silent Sea? We merfolk have no quarrel with the Silent Sea pirates. Don't they usually just fight the shagin? Why would they come looking for me?" Ariel asked.

"They say they have important intelligence for the goddess."

Nephrys relayed Ambrose's message word for word. Ariel frowned. "This is a critical time. I have no desire to deal with the undead. I've heard nothing to suggest the Mistress of the Silent Sea has any connection to the ixiray, but who knows what undead want. I can't approach the goddess over something this vague."

The gods were exalted, and none more so than a racial deity, the supreme patron of an entire people. Every merfolk held Ezdolo in absolute reverence and would not presume to disturb her lightly.

The undead had no particular connection to the merfolk. Why had they appeared now?

Ariel's assessment was that this was likely some kind of scheme.

"Tell them I am occupied with pressing matters," she said to Nephrys. "If they wish to meet, they are welcome to wait. When my current business is concluded, I will reach out to the Silent Sea pirates."

Nephrys was about to agree, only to stop himself. "High Priestess, I'm afraid I was not clear enough before. This matter is not by the Mistress of the Silent Sea's initiative. The one who truly wishes to speak with the goddess is the lich himself: Megaman Tiga."

"Just a lich?" Ariel said, puzzlement still clear in her eyes. There was nothing particularly strange about a lich joining the Silent Sea Pirate Company—

Then the trident in her hand trembled. "Which lich did you say? The one who destroyed the dragon clans and the githarks?"

Nephrys smiled ruefully. "That's the one. If not for him, I wouldn't have dared disturb you at a time like this."

Ariel fell silent.

She didn't mind asking the Silent Sea pirates to wait. Fearsome as they were, they weren't about to declare war on the merfolk over something this minor.

But this lich changed everything.

The entire ocean had heard tell of his ferocity and his greed. He had even stripped and broken the dragons. Thousands of githarks and Lyon soldiers had died by his hand, reportedly because they had been reluctant to do business with him.

He was the tyrant of the undead world. If she refused to meet him, there was every possibility he would simply launch an extermination campaign against the merfolk—or exile them all into the void, the way he had done with the tiflings.

The very thought was terrifying. How was it even possible to exile a kingdom?

Ariel had refused to believe the rumors at first. Then the Sea of Volcanoes had appeared, visible to every ocean race across the world.

With that consequence in mind, she had no choice but to take the meeting seriously.

"What could a being this greedy, this vicious, and this merciless possibly want from our goddess?" she asked herself.

No answer came to her. Finally, she said to Nephrys, "I will head to the Blue Algae tribe and meet this lich myself. Go back and prepare. And plan for the worst."

Nephrys nodded gravely. "Understood, High Priestess. The warriors of the Blue Algae tribe do not fear death."

He made the return journey as quickly as he could.

He arrived to find Ambrose's party still waiting—though now, alongside the two undead, was a third figure who had not been there before.

He seemed to be a human covered in lightning-bolt scars, whose face was hardly inviting. He appeared to be living rather than undead.

Nephrys addressed Ambrose first: "The high priest has agreed to meet you. Please wait a little longer—she will come once she has dealt with urgent business."

Ambrose tilted his head slightly. "She isn't inviting us to come to her?

"We couldn't possibly ask our guests to make the journey," Nephrys said quickly. "To show her sincerity, the high priest will come in person."

Ambrose smiled without comment. He could read the subtext plainly enough: the merfolk were frightened, and did not want to bring him deeper into their territory. It was understandable.

It made no difference to him. What Ambrose actually wanted was to speak with Ezdolo herself, and the high priest was just a means to that end. Blunt as it was to admit, Ambrose had reached a point where dealing with mortals felt like an intermediate step. The gods were those whom he needed to reach.

Seeing that Ambrose showed no sign of displeasure, Nephrys exhaled slightly. Then he looked at the scarred stranger. "And may I ask who this guest might be?"

Nephrys was privately dreading hearing another alarming name.

"This is Aiolos, a friend of mine. He also wants to meet your high priest."

Mercifully, it was an entirely unremarkable name that Nephrys had never heard before.

Someone who could befriend this lich was probably no ordinary person, but at least he couldn't be more frightening than the lich himself.

Nephrys relaxed a fraction and threw himself into his duties as host, doing his best to keep Ambrose comfortable and prevent him from growing impatient.

Ambrose, for his part, gave Nephrys nothing to worry about. A merchant's face was always pleasant, even when plotting an opponent's impending demise.

However stilted Nephrys's efforts at conversation were, Ambrose met him with easy warmth, and the atmosphere never soured.

By the time Nephrys received word that Ariel and her escort had arrived, he looked up and discovered that four hours had passed.

He had been bracing for every moment of that wait to be a test of his nerves, but somewhere along the way he had simply... grown comfortable. Nephrys couldn't identify exactly when his guard had come down. The lich was far more talkative than he'd imagined, and far more personable. He was nothing like the tyrant the stories had described.

Not only that, the lich was extraordinarily well-read, and his gift for conversation was remarkable. In those few hours, Nephrys had felt as though he'd taken a journey across the surface world—Ambrose's descriptions of golden deserts, emerald jungles, and mountains perpetually wracked by lightning storms had been so vivid that Nephrys had lost himself in landscapes he had never seen.

What a lich. He really hadn't been put under any illusion, had he? Or had he? Were the rumors just inaccurate? He didn't seem that fearsome up close.

Regardless of Nephrys's thoughts, he was no longer the one who would have to face Ambrose.

Tens of thousands of merfolk warriors moved in a vast formation, hovering above the Blue Algae tribe's coral reef, their tamed sea beasts pulling enormous carved conch-shell structures into position.

One look told Ambrose these were not decorative. Each one was a compact magical tower. Fifteen such towers, each over ten meters tall, radiated enough magic that even a non-caster would feel it washing over them.

Ambrose and Aige exchanged a glance. They both understood that the merfolk were making a show of strength.

Neither of them was particularly moved. They had both seen things that would dwarf this without effort. Tens of thousands of merfolk was not a force either of them would lose sleep over.

Ambrose turned to Aiolos, who was craning his neck looking for Ariel, and said: "When I introduce you, whether or not you think you recognize this Ariel, keep your mouth shut. Don't say a single word until I tell you otherwise. If you open your mouth, we won't be friends anymore."

Aiolos nodded vigorously. "Understood. I swear by the Lord of Storms, Thanos himself, that if you tell me not to speak, I won't say a word."

Ambrose: "..."

He's actually swearing oaths on Thanos's name? Impersonating a deity's follower was one thing, but as for invoking that deity in a solemn oath... Wasn't he afraid of getting struck by lightning?

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