Chapter 60: Diva

Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Diva

Allan almost went down the moment the broken door sealed behind them. His shoulder hit the wall hard. The fresh bandage tore open. Blood ran down his side in a thin line and dripped onto the packed dirt.

Each drop made a small wet sound. He braced one hand against the rough stone and forced himself upright. The pain was sharp and constant, but he kept his breathing steady. He did not have the luxury to care about it for the time being.

He laid the boy against the one solid wall and checked his pulse. The skin under his fingers was cool but not cold. The boy looked okay, but looking okay did not mean he was currently alive. Allan pressed two fingers to the neck and waited. The pulse was clear. Slow. Even. He counted ten beats and then stopped. The boy was still with them.

Allan turned and pointed Diva toward the narrow tunnel that slanted down and left. The opening was half-hidden behind a pile of broken crates. Dirt had spilled across the floor in front of it.

"That one. They never check it. Twenty-three minutes until the next patrol uses the main corridor."

Diva did not move. She stood in the middle of the den and watched him. Her coat was still damp from the rain outside. After a few seconds she lifted a hand and pointed at the opposite entrance, the one that led toward the cult’s secondary staging post. The doorway there was wider and better maintained.

"No," Allan said. "You think I’m dumb?"

"I talked with them, Allan. They didn’t want it to happen."

Allan paused. He looked at her. His eyes shifted slightly. He stepped toward her, slowly, one hand still pressed against his side. Blood continued to seep through the torn bandage.

"What do you mean they didn’t want it to happen?"

"Allan, there was a conflict within the cult. I stayed with them. I understood them. I knew their ways. What happened in the Oakwood manor, it was done by Kael alone."

Allan stood fully upright. His eyes gradually turned red at the edges. The muscles in his jaw tightened.

"You’re saying what my girls went through was because of some mistake, because of Kael?"

Diva backed away, taking a step back. Her boot scraped against the dirt.

"Y-yes. Even the people of the cult are after her."

Allan paused. He breathed slowly, trying to tame what was burning in his chest. He looked around the den. The walls were uneven stone. Water stains ran down from the ceiling. Through a gap in the upper boards he could see the large castle in the distance, the Duke’s castle from the capital. Lanterns burned along its outer walls even at this hour.

Is this a test? he asked himself. No, it can’t be. He doesn’t know Diva, and I know how she looks at me. She wouldn’t lie about this.

"Diva..."

"Yes."

"If the cult really wants me, needs a player, they need to prove it."

Diva’s eyes lit up. Her feet stepped closer. The dirt under her boots shifted.

"How? I can talk to them. I can convince them of anything if it is to bring you to this side, to bring down this Empire of child-killing rules."

"Bring me the poison, the drug, or whatever they are using to make the nobles sick."

Silence filled the den. Outside, wind pushed against the broken door. A loose board creaked. After a long stretch of quiet, Diva turned fully to him.

"Okay. I will do that, Allan. For you."

He smiled. He pulled the child closer to his side, adjusting the boy’s position so the head rested against the wall at a better angle.

"Good."

Now that was out of the way, she had questions. A lot of them. She started with the patrol timing. How did he know the exact minutes? How did he know about the cult operating in this town when even she had only arrived today and had not known they were here? Allan answered each question with half of the truth.

Every half-answer made her face a little harder. He could follow her thinking as it shifted. When he spoke about the nobles and their schemes, when he predicted cult movements to the minute, he even told her about the boy. He kept the details limited. He gave her enough to keep her listening and nothing more.

Diva crossed to the boy and crouched. She turned his collar down with two fingers and stopped. A raw band ran around his neck, red at the edges and beaded with clear fluid. Fibers were still caught in the skin. The mark was clean and recent.

"This is rope," she said. "And it’s fresh. Under an hour?"

Allan nodded.

"Who... who hangs a child?"

"Nobody finished it." His voice had gone thin. "I cut him down in time." He lied. The words came out flat.

"Where?"

"A tree off the ridge road."

"You were there before the cult was and saved him." She did not look up. Her fingers stayed on the collar. "That isn’t just luck, Allan."

Allan looked at the band of burned skin, then at the faint silver line that ran from the boy’s temple to his jaw. It had been dull when he carried him in. It was not dull now. The line caught the dim light from the gaps in the door and held it.

"In the version I know," he said, "you cut him down."

Diva’s hand went still on the collar.

"He lived because of you."

"Are you saying I should take credit for saving the boy? Why? You just told me about him, how important he would be in the future."

She paused. She stood up slowly. Her knees cracked once. She finally understood what he meant.

"Wait. You want me to take credit and advance my position in the cult?"

Allan nodded again.

[Investment Opportunity Detected]

[Asset: Diva.

Relationship: Growing]

[Type: Bond Reinforcement]

[Projected Return: Cult Information, Recipe for Noble disease, and Magic Book]

[Multiplier might be in effect depending upon the Bond with the Asset.]

He read the last line twice. The words sat in front of his vision for a moment and then faded. He filed the information away without comment.

Light came through the gaps in the barred door. A signal flare rose outside, red-white and too bright. It burned against the night sky and held for several seconds before starting to drop.

Step! Step! Step! Step! Step!

Boots hit the packed path outside. Multiple sets. Moving fast.

Diva’s head snapped toward the door and the flare.

"That shouldn’t be possible."

"What is?"

"That flare shouldn’t go up yet. The mark is a beacon, a signal for reconnaissance."

Allan knew what it was for. If they knew what was to happen in the future like him, of course they were searching for the martyr like him. He looked at the boy again. The silver line along the jaw was brighter now.

"They are searching for him."

He had spent the whole night changing the timeline. Now it was moving without him. The door held for another minute and then gave way. Wood splintered inward. Three cultists came through the opening.

The one in front was a mid-ranker Allan knew from later events. Black coat. A scar running from the left ear down into the collar. In the game he got that scar three months from now. Here it was already healed over, old and white.

They’re getting dangerous day by day, he thought.

The timeline had not just shifted. More accurately, it had run ahead.

Allan was half upright, still bleeding, with nothing in his hands. They did not know it was him yet, that he was Allan the player. The leader did not flinch when he saw the three of them. He smiled slowly and looked almost pleased. His eyes moved from the boy to Diva and stayed there.

"Diva, congratulations. You found him. You found our goal."

The leader turned fully to her.

"Hand over the silver-marked child."

Diva took one step toward Allan. Allan grabbed her wrist and nodded once. His eyes told her to seize the moment. She understood. She took hold of the child, lifting him carefully, and pulled him toward the cultist.

"Indeed, I saved him from death. They were going to hang the boy."

The cultist took the boy. He examined the neck. The rope mark was clear. She was right. Their hope, their martyr, had been on the verge of death.

"Good work, Diva. You will surely be rewarded." The leader said. Then he looked past her at Allan. "And who is this?"

"He? He is nobody, just an adventurer who wanted to join the cult."

Another cult member smiled and stepped closer. He grabbed Allan’s shoulder. The grip was firm.

"Right choice, brother. You have taken a holy side, guided by the past gods. You are welcome."

Allan nodded. He gave a smile that looked as genuine as he could make it. He used something that was not knowledge from the future. He said a line from their guild days, a few ordinary words about holding a door while the other took the stairs. The cultist recognized the phrasing and relaxed slightly.

[Fate Deviation Detected]

Allan realized he had deviated Diva’s fate once more. The system was no longer showing what she could become. The path had changed again.

Step! Step! Step!

The guards arrived outside. Shouts carried through the broken door. They were still trying to control the situation but failing hard. The first two came through the doorway with swords drawn. The fight that followed was short and ugly. Stone cracked overhead when a spell hit the ceiling. Dust poured down in a thick cloud.

Diva fought like a beast, the way she always did when the numbers were against her. She took one guard at the knee and put him down hard. The cult leader raised one hand and three more guards dropped where they stood. Their weapons clattered against the dirt.

Then part of the safe wall gave way. The section that had been holding firm split along an old crack. Stones fell outward. The boy was exposed beneath the falling debris. One of the remaining guards saw him, raised his bow, and nocked an arrow in one clean motion. The point lined up on the child’s chest.

Allan had one moment. He threw himself over the boy. His body covered the small form completely. The arrow struck him instead of the child. Pain flared white and hot across his back.

Diva saw it.

"NOOO!"