Chapter 10 Chapter Nine: The Words of Ramos Scarlatti

"Goodbye." Xuelin said, and the three women came to a three-way intersection on the mountain trail early the next morning.One of the roads bends south to the library, while the other two continue largely west. "King Abereth will be delighted to hear all the information I will report to him." "All the information?" Dorigen asked, and the observant elven girl knew that the magician was herself, alive and well, and ready to face justice for her crimes. Xuelin's smile was enough answer for Dorigen. "Abereth is not the revenge type," Danica added hopefully.

"It's King Aberes." Dorigen quickly corrected her. "Whatever the priests decide," she told Xuelin, "I will stay in the library and wait for news from your king." "I'd be happy to deliver a message of fair judgment," Xuelin replied, and with a nod, she left.She slid down the west-bound trail so gracefully and silently that in the eyes of the two women she was almost a ghost, an artist's tapestry, a perfect embodiment of nature.She was out of sight for a few seconds, her gray-green cloak hiding her form in the shadows of the forest, though Danica and Dorigen knew she could still see them both.

"I'm always amazed by their actions," Dorigen said. "Delicate and graceful, yet no other race is as ferocious in battle as the elves." Danica doesn't deny it.In the Battle of Simista, this monk was the first to really come into contact with elves. From her point of view, it seemed that only her years of training in harmony and movement allowed her to get a little closer to the opponent. For Lin's clansmen, that natural realm.Danica wished she had been born an elf, or had been raised among elves.She knew that then she would be closer to the spirit of Master Pampa Damm's scriptures.

Still staring at the empty mountain trails, she imagined that she might be able to return to Simista, to work with the people of Abereth, to introduce them to Pampa Dam's vision.She pictured an open green field full of elves practicing the master-knuckle-style graceful dance, and the sight made her heart skip a beat. Then Danica let go of the image, shaking her head away from it, because she remembered the elves' mannerisms, and what it meant to be an elf emotionally.They are a calm and free-spirited people, easily distracted, and while they fight quite ferociously, they behave in a playful manner.The grace of movement was in their nature, not a conscious act, and it was very different from Danica's life.Following the teachings of his mentor, this monk rarely acts casually, and is always focused.Even Sherin, who Danica would want to be by her side in any danger, couldn't keep up any one behavior for long.During the weeks before that in the cave, waiting for winter to pass, the elf would spend hours, even days, just sitting there watching the snow, occasionally getting up and dancing, as if no one else was in the cave, as if everything else in the world It doesn't matter, only the falling snowflakes and Xuelin's unconscious movements.

The elves could not abide by the strict precepts of Pampa Dam.Danica didn't think she knew any elves, not even Shaileen, who had become her close friend.She knew that the elf was extremely loyal, but she still couldn't understand the motives of Xuelin's actions at all. Xuelin sees the world in a way that Danica can't understand, one that sees friendship differently.While Danica didn't doubt the affection Shaylin felt for her, she knew that the elf maiden would likely see the dawn for centuries after Danica died of old age.How many new human friends will Xuelin meet and love in these centuries?Can the memory of Danica stand the test of such a long time?Or will she become a fleeting glimpse of Xuelin's future trance?

Simply put, Danica couldn't possibly be as important to Xuelin as Xuelin was to herself.She will remember this elf girl vividly until she dies. She considered this difference between them for a while, and then decided that her own way was better, a more passionate way of being.Still, Danica found herself envious of Xuelin and all of her kind.The blond elf girl was born with what Danica was looking for: balance and grace in true harmony. "Can we make it within today?" Dorigen asked, and Danica noticed, for the first time, a slight tremor in the determined woman's voice. "It'll be here today," Danica replied, walking down the trail to the south.

Dorigen paused for a moment, gathering courage.She knew she was doing the right thing, that at least she owed the library and the elves their actions.However, the first step of the magician's final journey was still quite difficult, just like the second, third, and every step after that. A short distance away on the western mountain trail, Xuelin watched every movement of Dorigen.She didn't doubt Dorigen's sincerity, knowing that the magician was honest and wanted to follow through, but she knew that the journey would be more difficult than Dorigen expected.Dorigen may well be heading towards her own death.Xuelin knew that at a certain point, Dorigen would need to battle her survival instinct, the most basic and powerful driving force in human nature.

Xuelin waited a little longer, then slipped quietly into the low bushes that grew along the south-facing mountain path.If Dorigen loses this battle with ego, she will be ready. For now, Xuelin can count on Dorijean as a friend, but the elf girl can't forget the hurt that Simista has suffered.If Dorigen couldn't bring herself to face the victor's fair trial, Shayrin would execute Simista's sentence—by a well-placed arrow. ※※※ "Where's Bron Terman?" asked a younger priest nervously.He leaned against the low railing that surrounded the altar in a chapel on the first floor of the library.

"Otherwise, what about Dean Thobicus?" another added. Ramos Scarlatti was a short, dark-skinned Oghma priest whose shoulders were almost as wide as he was tall.He tried to calm down five brother priests belonging to both denominations, clapping their hands in the air and saying "shhh" as if they were little children. "Besides, of course Cadderly will be back soon, right?" said a third priest kneeling before the altar, hopefully. "Cadderly will set things right." The other two young priests were the only Denierites in the group. They had heard Thobex's warning about Cadderly, so they looked at each other and shrugged, fearing that Cadderly might actually Shangzheng is planning all kinds of strange things happening around the library.After a whole day, the leading priests of the two denominations were completely missing, and Dean Thobicus and Bron Terman had been missing for two full days.

Although no one in this group of priests can confirm it, it has been rumored that several low-ranking priests were found dead in their rooms this morning, lying peacefully - under the bed!But the priest who brought this startling news to the crowd was not the best source.A recent member of the Cult of Oghma, he was short and frail, having broken his collarbone in his first wrestling match.Everyone knows that this man does not want to stay in the Oghma Cult, however, his request to join the Denier Cult has not received a warm response.So when they met him earlier in the day, the six of them were not disturbed to find him packing his personal belongings into a bag slung over his shoulder, staring straight at the front door.

However, it is undeniable that the library is eerily quiet today—except in one corner on the second floor, where Brother Chantikeri is shutting himself in his room singing to his God.Not even half a person in the Rectory could be seen.It was strangely still and unusually dark, too dark even for a place where light never shines, and almost every window was barred.There are usually nearly eighty priests living in the library--before the tragedy of the Chaos Curse, there were often more than a hundred--and there are also five to thirty visitors at any time.Now that winter was just past, there were few visitors, but neither were there many priests going to Calaton or Simista. So where has everyone gone? Another disturbing feeling that these six priests could not ignore was that, albeit subtly, they did feel that the Moezhi Library seemed to have changed, as if the darkness around them was not just a physical phenomenon, as if Denir and Ogg Marsh has left this place.Even if there had been a noon ceremony before which Brother Chantikeli sang to the two main gods in front of all the priests, it had not been held for two days.Ramos himself had gone to the room of the singing priest, fearing that Chantikri had fallen ill.He found the door locked and knocked for several minutes before Chantikri yelled at him to go away. "I feel as if someone has put a ceiling over my head," said a Denierian priest, suspicious of Cadderly following the seeds of suspicion that Headmaster Thobicus had planted earlier. "A ceiling that separates me from God Denir." Another Denierian priest nodded in agreement, and the Oghmaite priests looked at each other, then at Ramos, because he was the strongest priest among them. "I'm sure there will be an easy answer to the matter." Ramos said as calmly as he could, but the others knew that he agreed with the Denierian priests' inferences about the status of the two gods.The library has remained one of the holiest places, and any priest of considerable faith could feel the presence of his own god or goddess.Even the druids who had visited were surprised to be able to feel the breath of Sivanus in a man-made building. For Oghma and the Denirian priests, there may not be a more sacred place in the entire Faerun continent than this place.Here is their offering to the two gods, a place of learning and art, a place of study and singing.The place of the song of Chantikri. "Let's wrestle!" Ramos Scarlatti announced suddenly.After being stunned for a while, the other Oghma priests began to nod their heads in agreement, while the Denierite priests continued to stare dumbfounded at the astonishing Scarlatti. "Wrestling?" one of them asked. "Sacrifice to our god!" Scarlatti replied, taking off his black and gold vest and delicate white shirt, revealing a muscular chest covered in black hair. "Let's wrestle!" "Wow." A satisfied female voice came from the back of the chapel. "I love wrestling!" The six priests turned around expectantly, each expecting that Danica, who not only loved wrestling, but could beat all the priests in the library, was finally back. What they saw was not Danica, but Suni Priestess Histra, who was good at seduction.She is wearing a dark red robe that she usually wears, with a very low opening in the front, as if her belly button would be exposed. In addition, there are high slits beside her thighs, showing off the woman's slender legs.Her long, voluminous hair, dyed so blond this week, almost white, was flying as wildly as ever, and the make-up on her face was very rich—these priests had never seen such bright red lips!A large amount of perfume was sprayed in the chapel. Something is wrong.All six priests could see this fact, but none of them understood it.Beneath Histra's heavy make-up, the skin was deathly pale, as were the legs poking out from under her robes.The scent of the perfume is also disgustingly sweet and unattractive. Ramos Scarlatti examined the woman intently.He had never liked Histra or her goddess Suni, whose only teaching seemed to be the physical pleasures of love.Histra, always in a state of hunger and thirst, always made the hairs on the back of Scarlatti's neck stand on end, just like now, but now more than usual. Scarlatti knew that it was unusual to see Histra on the first floor, and it was already unusual for the woman to leave her room or her bed. "Why are you here?" began the alert priest, but Histra didn't seem to notice. "I love wrestling," she moaned again, openly wanting lust, and then opened her mouth and laughed wildly. All six priests understood, all six nervous priests recognized the vampire's fangs. Among the six people, five including Scarlatti and the two Denier priests immediately reached out and took out the holy emblem. Histra continued to laugh. "Wrestle them!" she yelled, and several ripped apart, rotting men stiffly entered the room—all men the priests knew. "Dear Denir!" one of the priests murmured helplessly. Ramos leaped forward, bravely raising the holy symbol of Oghma. "Get out of this hallowed place, filthy undead!" he yelled, and the zombies stopped moving, several even turning their backs. Histra viciously hissed at the monsters, forcing them to move on. "Get lost!" Ramos yelled at Histra, who almost fell backwards.A zombie reached out awkwardly to the priest of Oghma, and with a growl he grabbed the holy symbol and threw a punch, which slammed into the monster's cheek.Choking smoke rose from the wound, but the monster moved on, and the rest of its accomplices passed around Ramos and fell on the others. "I can't push them back!" shouted a priest behind Ramos. "Where is God Denir?" "Where's God Oghma?" cried another. A stiff arm struck Ramos on the shoulder.He let out an angry grunt to bear the impact, then pinched the zombie's chin, twisted its head back, and then swiped the edge of the holy emblem across the monster's throat.Another puff of smoke rose from the wound, and the rotting flesh of the zombie easily burst open under the heavy blow of the strong man. But zombies don't need to breathe air, so the wound doesn't have much effect. "Fight them!" cried Ramos Scarlatti. "Down with them!" To reinforce his argument, the powerful priest of Oghma unleashed a barrage of onslaughts on the zombie, finally lifting the corpse above its head and throwing it into a statue on the wall.The priest of Oghma turned quickly to look at his friends and saw that instead of fighting, they were backing away with a terrified look on their faces. Of course they would, Scarlatti understood.The undead monsters they are facing now, those men, were their friends once! "Don't look at their faces!" he ordered. "They are no longer members of our sect. They are just tools, just weapons!" "Histra's weapon!" Ramos Scarradie said, and turned to face the female vampire. "You're going to die now," the furious man promised, holding up the holy symbol that glowed fiercely at the monster. "Death by my hands." Histra didn't want to get entangled with Scarradi at all.Like Benar and Thobex, she has not yet attained full power.Even if she had, she would think twice about confronting Scarlatti, because she could tell the man had complete faith.She may be able to dig out his heart, but not his soul, because he will defeat all fear, and fear may be the greatest weapon of vampires. Histra spat defiantly at Scarlatti's raised holy symbol, but he could see it was just a bluff.If he could track her down and shove the holy symbol down her hateful throat, the zombies would be leaderless and probably easier to repel. Unexpectedly, Histra quickly dodged towards the altar, going deeper into the chapel, and Scarlatti suddenly saw two zombies standing between him and the vampire. Now other priests are fighting too.Two Denier priests remembered bringing their weapons into the chapel together, blessed maces, while the other two priests ran to the altar table and cleverly snapped off its legs to use them as clubs. The remaining priest of Oghma didn't pull out the holy emblem when Histra showed his true form, and now he was at the side of the room, cornered against the wall, shaking his head in extreme horror.When Histra pushed away the zombies near the man and let him see her ferocious smile showing her fangs, the fear intensified greatly! Scarlatti was immediately cornered by the zombies.Then he knew in his mind that the library was no longer a place for Oghma or Denir, and the desecration was almost complete.The weather outside is cloudy, but the sun that is slightly exposed is enough to help them. "Fight outside the room!" Scarlatti ordered. "Get out of the room, then out of the library!" He moved forward quickly, placing two zombies on their backs against the wall, trying to give his friends an escape route. The priests of Denier rushed forward, bombarding the zombies to the sides with heavy maces in their hands.Suddenly, there seemed to be enough space for everyone to escape, so the priests of Denier, followed by Scarlatti, hurried towards the door together.Club-wielding priests of Oghma followed after them, but one caught his foot trying to jump over the altar rail, and fell headfirst on the stone floor. Zombies swarmed, and his companions turned back to help him. When Scarlatti looked back and saw the catastrophe, he had already reached the door of the chapel.His first instinct was to rush back to die with his companions, and he took a step in that direction.But two Denier priests grabbed him by the shoulders, and though they couldn't hold back the strong man if he really wanted to keep running, the brief delay allowed Scarlatti to see the situation more clearly. "You can't help them anymore!" cried a Denier priest. "We have to stay alive and warn the town!" another added. Scarlatti staggered out of the chapel. The horde of zombies tore the two priests of Oghma to pieces. The fate of the priest trapped at the foot of the wall was even worse, and he spent many nights secretly with Histra.His guilt was too heavy now to resist the female vampire.He shook his head in feeble protest, whispering, begging, for her to go away. She laughed and continued to approach, and the man, though terrified, stretched out his neck to her. The three fleeing priests staggered along the corridor without encountering any obstruction.The front door was already in sight, and a door was open, a faint ray of sunlight falling into the library foyer. But one of the Denier priests yelped, clutched at his neck, and fell sharply forward on the stone floor. "Go to the door!" Scarlatti called, dragging another Denier priest along.The Denier priest looked back at his brother and saw the man frantically beating a little bat-winged devil, which jumped on his shoulder, bit his ear, and repeatedly slapped him with a venom-tipped Tail poked—Scarlatti swooped toward the door—but it backed away from him, as if with a will of its own.It slammed shut with a loud bang, causing him to fall headlong at the base of it. "Dear God Denir!" He heard the last remaining companion whisper.Scarlatti rolled over and saw Dean Thobicus standing in the shadows, and saw Zirkan Rufo—Zirkan Rufo! ——moving quietly behind the haggard man. "God Denir is no longer in this place." Thobix said calmly and non-threateningly, walking towards the man with open arms. "Come with me now, and I will show you a new path." The young Priest Denier staggered, and for a moment Scarlatti thought he would surrender to the Headmaster Thobix who was now within two steps of him. The young priest suddenly took offense and slammed the mace hard into the Academy's wrinkled face.Thobicus jerked his head sideways violently and was forced to step back.But only one step back—and then it straightened up again, eyeing the young Priest Denier in disbelief.A long pause, a long, terrifying moment, the silence before the predator prepares to strike. Thobicus suddenly raised his arms high, his fingers bent like claws, let out a roar that seemed to come from another world, and then threw himself at the young priest, his limbs raining down on the man like a shower. Scarlatti crawled over on hands and feet, grabbed the door, and pulled with all his strength. "The door won't open," Zirkan Rufo assured him. Scarlatti yanked hard.He heard Rufo approaching, right behind him. "The door won't open," said the confident vampire again. Scarlatti turned quickly, and the holy emblem poked at Rufo.The vampire leaned back to avoid the sudden glare. But Rufo is not Histra, he is filled with the Chaos Curse surging in his body, and it is also several times stronger.The moment of surprise is fleeting. "You're going to die!" Scarlatti promised, but no sooner had he finished the sentence than the confidence in his voice flew away.He felt Rufo's will in his head, forcing him to surrender, giving him a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. Ramos Scala had always been a fighter for the first time.An orphan, he grew up on the harsh streets of Sundabar, where every day was a challenge.So he is still fighting now, resisting Rufo's invasion with all his willpower. Green flashes of ablative power burned into his hands, and his holy symbol was sent flying.Both Scarlatti and Rufo looked aside and saw the laughing Druzil, still perched on the body of the priest Denier. Scarlatti looked back helplessly as Rufo grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward, inches away from his face. "You're strong," Rufo said. "really not bad." Scarlatti spat in its face, but Rufo didn't explode in the same rage that Thobex had.The Chaos Curse directs the vampire to focus on the most effective course of action. "I'll give you power," Rufo whispered. "I can give you eternal life. The joy you can taste is..." "You bring me nothing but wrath!" Scarlatti growled. Across the hall the Priest Denier screamed, then fell silent as Thobix was gobbling. "What do you know?" Rufo demanded. "I'm still alive, Ramos Scarlatti! I drove the gods Denir and Oghma out of this place!" Scarlatti clenched his jaw firmly. "The library is mine!" Rufo continued.It grabbed Scarlatti's thick black hair with one hand, and it was so powerful that it surprised the Oghma priest, and easily pulled the man's head back. "Karaton will be mine too!" "They're nothing more than two pieces of land," Scarlatti insisted, using the simple but undeniable logic that they had guided the man throughout his life.He knew Rufo wanted more than conquering the land, he knew what the vampire wanted. "You can join me, Ramos Scarlatti," Rufo said, as he expected. "You can share my power. You like power." "You have no power at all," Scarlatti said, and his visceral calm seemed to shake Rufo. "All you have are lies and false promises." "I can take your heart out!" Rufo growled at him. "Hold it high before your dying eyes, and watch it dance with your own eyes." At this moment, Histra came to the foyer, followed by several zombies under her command. "You want to be like them?" Rufo asked, pointing at the zombies. "No matter what, you have to obey me in the end!" Scarlatti looked at the hideous zombies, and to Rufo's shock, the priest smiled.Scarlatti knew, and believed with all his heart, that they were nothing but moving bodies.Protected by this belief, the man looked straight into the blood-red eyes of the vampire, and into the animal-like face of the vampire, dripping with slobber. "There is more to me than this body," said Ramos Scarlattihon in a voice. Rufo twisted the Oghma priest's head back so violently that the neck bone completely shattered.With just one hand, the enraged vampire flung Scarlatti across the foyer and into a wall, collapsing into a heap at the foot of it. Histra hissed evilly, and Thobex joined in, and together they circled their master in a bloodcurdling applause.Rufo was still shrouded in rage, hissing and roaring from his evil heart, scoffing at Scarlatti's hint of divine condemnation just now. "...not just this body." came the whisper from one side.The three vampires stopped their song and dance of death and turned to the badly wounded priest, who was propping himself up on his elbows, his head dangling weirdly. "You're dead!" cried Rufo, vainly denying the priest's words. Scarlatti immediately corrected it: "I have found Oghma." The man then died, safe in his own faith. ※※※ Outside the library, Percival was jumping excitedly from one branch to another, listening to the torture of the people still alive inside.The squirrel came down to the ground just outside the door when Rufo slammed the door shut in front of Scarlatti. Now Percival was high up in the tree, climbing as high as he could, squeaking frantically, leaping from branch to branch, and making great circles about the grove.It could hear screams, and from a window on the second floor, it could also hear the Denier Song, the prayer of Brother Chantikeri. The screaming got louder.