>>6263657


"I need to discover the nature of the soul within Velmora's Purple Gem!", you say, remembering the purpose of the ritual despite the pain.

"Oh! Well, why didn't you ask Velmora then?"

"I tried! But when I said you are the most beautiful and powerful goddess, her golem kicked me out!"

She blushes a little.

"Really? You really think I'm the most beautiful and powerful? I mean... yeah, of course! Of course I'm the most beautiful and powerful!", she says and then begins to cackle.

"Creatures! Fetch my divining mirror!", she says, and a bunch of those weird creatures bring a huge mirror to Phlegna.

"Velmora, are you home?"

Velmora appears on the mirror.

"What do you want, Phlegna?", she says with a tired face.

"I want to know what that Purple Gem of yours is for!"

"Ah, that old thing? One of my girls asked for a son that would be a Powerful King. Since I'm so gracious, I granted it! But a spiteful god made her lose the child, so I stored the sould I so carefully prepared into a Purple Gem. Couldn't let it go to waste. But why...?"

"Thank you, Velmora!", she says, and the creatures carry the mirror away.

"Wait...!", you still hear Velmora say.

"There you have it. You can't even do a divination properly, little chief. Now, stop bugging me, I have other things to do!"

You feel yourself falling back into your body. Your face is intact when you touch it - but you have a very high fever.

Within a few days, however, your fever gets worse. Half of your face falls off. The mages ask what happened in the ritual.

"I... I let a demon eat half of my face..."

They then say there is nothing they can do about it. It was a fair exchange.

They think the ritual was a failure... they don't know you learned the truth!

Do you tell them what you learned from Velmora?
> Yes, tell them
> No, don't tell them
> Write in