Gaia's Champion Ch. 36 - Teaser (Patreon)

The high priest Jonas had just finished his meal when his spies came into the room. He smiled, hoping for some good news, but going by the downcast looks on their faces, Jonas knew that the news was anything but good.

“Well? What have you learned?” he demanded.

“That whoever these Gaians are, they aren’t going around advertising their presence. It’s like they are aware that we are out there, hunting them!” a small, lithe man complained.

“Our apologies, high priest, but he is correct. I know it is not what you wish to hear, but these Gaians they are quite clever. They are not prone to lingering in places that we may find and expose them,” the woman next to the man added.

“Was there nothing at Syme’s home?” Jonas questioned, wondering if there was anything to be had on that front.

“Only lingering traces of Gaian magic, but they have since faded. As my associate has said, the Gaians are clever and they are no fools. They left the illusory enchantment that was protecting Syme’s home, making it appear that all was well,” the man responded.

“So, they left no traces that were strong enough to get a bearing on?” Jonas huffed, not liking what he was hearing at all.

“No, high priest. It seems like these Gaians are the investigative sort as well. There was nothing left of Syme or anything she collected in her home,” the woman said dejectedly.

Now Jonas was livid, but not at them, as they had simply done the duties he had demanded of them. No, his ire was directed at the damned Gaians and the fact that they cleaned out Kathryn Syme’s home of anything of value! Rumor had it that Syme was an avid collector of magical items, even if she didn’t know what the item did. If those cursed Gaians had it, it just made finding them all the more important!

“What of Syme herself? Did she get herself killed?” Jonas asked, hoping that the Gaians weren’t that strong yet.

“From what we could garner, she lives. There was quite the tussle that happened at her home, though. We used our magic to deduce what had happened and know that she fought them, but ultimately lost. She had a sanctum built into the basement and… the damn thing was ruptured!” the man breathed, not quite believing what he had seen, even though his eyes had told him as such.

“WHAT?!? The sanctum of a Black Witch… was ruptured?!?” Jonas gasped, taken aback that such a thing was possible.

“Yes, high priest. If we had not seen it with our own eyes, I would not have believed it!” the woman told her master.

“Hard to believe that these are the same Gaians who decimated that entire chapter of the Sons!” the man breathed, still coming to terms with the power their adversaries wielded.

“Are you certain that this group wielded the same magics you detected at the mansion ruins?” Jonas queried.

“Yes, high priest. The feeling, the sense and even the very magic itself resonated with the exact same signature that was left behind at the former Sons’ chapter house,” the man told him.

Jonas huffed for a moment and sat back, thinking to himself about what was going on. Just then, a final puzzle piece clicked into place, which made this whole debacle make sense to him. Usually, when it came to encounters with the Sons of Caesar, you rarely walked away from them unless you were insanely powerful or extremely lucky. He thought about lumping the Gaians into the latter category, but understood that to do so was foolish.

The Sons weren’t a group to take on more than they could safely handle, as that is what enabled them to be one of the oldest secret societies in existence. They ensured that every angle was covered and that every possible ally was neutralized. Since they had been taken down fairly quickly, Jonas had to conclude that it was both the Gaians power levels and a fair bit of luck that had allowed them to walk away alive.