The Forsaken Scavenger’s Rise to Godhood

Chapter 9

# Chapter 9: The Inquisitor's Invitation

Cassian kept his word about Wick.

The cure arrived that evening in a sealed vial, delivered by the same smiling clerk. Tobin tested it on a drop of water before he let the boy drink. The black veins faded by midnight. Wick slept for the first time in days.

Zephyr should have felt relief. Instead he felt watched.

A second card arrived at dawn. This one was white, edged in silver, and stamped with a sunburst.

*High Inquisitor Seraphine Vale requests your presence at the Sanctum of the First Light. Come alone. You will not be harmed.*

"Don't go," Mira said immediately.

"If I refuse, they send soldiers instead of a card."

"If you go, you walk into the one building in Nethralis built to hold people like you."

"I know." Zephyr folded the card. "But she knows something about my mother. I can feel it."

Mira didn't argue. She just handed him a small clay vial. "Salt water. If they give you anything to drink, dip a finger in first. Some Church wine carries Stillroot. It numbs the soul."

He pocketed it. "Thanks."

---

The Sanctum was a white stone tower at the heart of the city. Priests in pale robes watched him cross the courtyard. Nobody spoke. Nobody smiled.

A guard led him up four flights to a round office with tall windows. A woman stood at the far end with her back to him, reading a scroll.

"Zephyr Kaelith," she said without turning. "Sit."

He stayed standing.

High Inquisitor Seraphine Vale was perhaps forty, tall, with iron-gray streaks in dark hair and a plain white robe. No jewelry. No weapons. She turned and studied him the way a surgeon studies a wound.

"You walk with a limp," she said. "Your brother has Blackroot damage in his lungs. You have no license, no home, and a bounty on your head from a man who owns half my priests." She set the scroll down. "I can fix every one of those things."

"For what?"

"Your relic."

Zephyr said nothing.

Seraphine walked to her desk and laid out three items. A rolled parchment. A silver cup of water. A thin gold ring.

"The parchment clears your record. Your name, struck from every Church and magistrate ledger. The ring grants access to the Sanctum's restricted library, where you can study anything you like. And my best physicians will treat your brother in our infirmary, free of charge."

"And I give you the relic."

"You give it to the Church. For safekeeping." She met his eyes. "Certain artifacts have caused catastrophes before. Cities burned. Thousands died. I am trying to prevent another."

It was a good speech. Zephyr almost believed it.

He picked up the parchment.

The cold weight behind his ribs stirred. Text appeared at the edge of his vision.

**[Relic detected: Binding Contract (Dormant).]**

**[Effect: Signer's soul bound to issuer's will.]**

**[Compatibility: Dangerous.]**

His fingers tightened on the page.

The System had read the parchment because he touched it. It hadn't warned him in advance. It hadn't told him to be careful. If he had signed without picking it up, he would have been owned.

He set it down very gently.

"Interesting parchment."

Seraphine's expression didn't change. "Is something wrong?"

"It's warm. Paper shouldn't be warm."

A long silence. Then Seraphine smiled slightly. "You are more observant than the reports suggested."

"I read ruins for a living." He touched the ring with one fingertip.

**[Relic detected: Tracking Band (Active).]**

He pulled his hand back. "That one's a leash too."

"Both are protective measures."

"Both are chains." Zephyr stepped away from the desk. "You offered me everything I need, and every piece of it comes with a hook. So here's what I want to know. Why were your soldiers carrying forbidden relic weapons out of Cassian Draven's warehouse?"

The room changed.

Seraphine's face went completely blank. Her hand, resting on the desk, curled slowly into a fist.

"What did you say?"

"Crates of them. Stamped with your sunburst. We found them at the Customs House." Zephyr watched her closely. "The Church burns scavengers for owning relics. But it buys them in bulk."

"That is not possible." The words came out low and tight. "I authorized no such purchase."

"The ledgers say otherwise."

"Then someone forged them." Her voice sharpened. "Or someone inside my own order is acting without my knowledge."

She caught herself, a half second too late. Her mouth thinned.

Zephyr noticed. He had spent years watching dealers lie, and this wasn't a lie. This was a woman discovering her own house had been robbed.

"The Church is divided," he said slowly.

"The Church is not your concern."

"I think it is." He turned toward the door. "Thank you for the offer. I'm declining."

"Zephyr."

He stopped.

"You are making a grave mistake." Seraphine's tone had changed. Quieter now, almost careful. "Your brother will not survive without proper treatment. Your enemies are stronger than you realize. Cassian Draven is the least of them."

"Then why don't you tell me about them?"

She didn't answer.

He reached for the handle. Behind him, her voice came again, so soft he almost missed it.

"Your mother was a brave woman. It cost her everything."

Zephyr turned. "You knew her."

"I knew her name." Seraphine's eyes were unreadable. "That is all I can say today."

"That's not good enough."

"It will have to be." She straightened her robe. "You will be watched, Zephyr Kaelith. For your protection."

He left without another word. His heart was pounding until he reached the courtyard.

Rowan needed treatment. He had just thrown away the only offer of real medicine in the city.

But if Seraphine knew his mother's name, and Cassian wanted the relic, and the Church was hiding something from itself, then every road in Nethralis was leading to the same place. He just didn't know where yet.

---

Seraphine stood alone in her office for a long time after he left.

Then she unlocked a drawer in her desk and drew out a sealed report. The wax was black, stamped with a symbol she hadn't seen in fifteen years. It had arrived by courier that morning, delivered from the Sanctum's deepest archive. She had not opened it until now.

She broke the seal.

The first page carried a single name, written in the careful script of an archivist.

*Zephyr Kaelith.*

She turned the page. A sketch of his chest. The black mark, drawn in meticulous detail.

On the final page, beneath the drawing, someone had written four words in red ink.

Seraphine read them once. Her hands began to shake.

*The Seventh Origin has returned.*