CHAPTER 85: JESTER LORE

Charon’s jaw dropped in perplexity as he stepped forward to grab the paper. Pulling it to his face, he read the referenced line.

’Met potential contact Jester near city edge. He requested nothing but a relic from a local store as compensation. I agreed. Contact then proceeded to mutter random sentences. Unsure about contact reliability. Evacuated the location as fast as I could. I have declared him a contact to be used only when absolutely necessary. Power level unknown.’

Every sentence was strange, offering him no concrete understanding of a second Jester.

Emerius, equally confused, reached over and took the page himself, reading it before adding it back to the stack.

"This is... odd."

Darius tilted his head.

"How so?"

"Charon recently joined the Stadia, doing so under the stagename Jester. The spy’s files reference him as such, listing him as a potential contact despite being in the Novice arena."

Charon’s mouth opened, then shut again as he tried to find the proper words.

"I’ve never spoken to this guy before today. Not near the city edge, or the park, or anywhere. I met him when the rest of you did."

Emerius crossed his arms thoughtfully.

"Is it possible he confused you with someone else? I heard tell of the mask you wear. With a hidden face, someone could be assuming your identity. Or they also liked the name and took it for themself."

Annie forestalled any debate by joining in, excitement tinging her voice.

"Jester? Like the demi-god? Why would you choose that name, Charon?"

Liam shot her a sideways glance.

"Demi-god?"

"Yeah, do you all not know who Jester is?"

Everyone looked at her with blank expressions, Charon scratching the back of his head as he awkwardly glanced away.

’Kind of, but only the bare minimum. The relic description described him as someone who danced for the God of the Mind, was banished, then was released by someone else, who betrayed him soon after.’

It was a convoluted sequence of events made worse by the enigmatic sentences used to describe it.

Sighing, Annie rolled her eyes as if it were obvious and launched into an explanation.

"Jester was one of the demi-gods who served the God of the Mind. The history books claim that during a civil war among the gods, Jester snuck out of Mind’s palace and witnessed the fighting firsthand. It was so scarring, he broke down in tears, refusing to dance anymore."

She paused as if struggling to remember everything before continuing.

"When Mind learned of this, she was enraged and exiled him from her pantheon. In those days, that meant being forced into the Profane Realms, where the enemies of the gods roam. He was hunted for generations, wounded and on the verge of death."

Annie then pointed at Charon and smirked, her tone becoming more upbeat.

"Then your god freed him. Death came down and took him into his care, healing him and granting him new powers alongside his old ones. With those, he became one of the deadliest assassins in the war, wounding Mind herself."

She then exhaled deeply and looked down, an unexpected sadness overtaking her.

"The next part is mostly conjecture, but the books say Death then turned on Jester, unwilling to allow any of Mind’s demi-gods to escape at full strength. Without any allies, he was helpless against one of the strongest gods, and so he was allegedly destroyed."

Ending her story, she looked up to see everyone mulling things over, with Charon being the first to break the silence.

"Why would someone take on his name then? I did it because I heard of it somewhere, and thought it sounded cool."

’Until I know them better, I don’t want to reveal the truth behind my mask. With Annie’s knowledge of history, and Darius seemingly high born, only the gods know what they could do with the information.’

Annie scoffed humorously.

"You picked a hell of a name. There are a lot of people who worship Jester like a cult. The higher operatives take his name as a sort of offering, symbolically abandoning their old life like the Jester did to the name he had before his banishment."

Charon blinked.

"He had a name before Jester?"

Annie nodded.

"No one knows what it was, that’s part of the reason so many people study him. Mind erased it from memory as a punishment, a spell that was so powerful it stunned even the other gods. Even in the most ancient texts, it’s just scratched out or replaced with symbols. Some scholars call it Mind’s Masquerade, with the idea that if someone ever learned the truth, Jester would be reborn into his full strength."

Liam muttered under his breath and elbowed Red, who was listening attentively.

"Creepy. Hard to blame all the hate mind mages get when their god does stuff like that. Sorry, Red, should’ve worshipped Blood."

Darius looked at Annie with a crease on his forehead.

"If a demi-god cult is getting involved, that is not good. The Colossus Machines are a large enough problem on their own. Is this something we need to consider as a threat?"

Annie frowned and wrung her hands.

"I can’t say for sure. Jester cults are notoriously secretive. They work towards goals only they understand, with the punishment for divulging information being death. What I do know is that they won’t be staunchly on the Claytons’ side. They don’t work with absolutes; it goes against their code."

She turned her gaze to Charon, her eyes hard and slightly worried.

"You will need to be careful. They may come for you to figure out why you took their name as your own. It could be seen as an insult, or worse, blasphemy. These cults don’t mess around."

Charon bobbed his head, a sign of understanding, similar thoughts already going through his head.

’This is getting out of hand. I came to the Fort to try and find a way out of the River Acheron. Now I’m getting involved with national politics, Colossus warfare, spies, and a cult! This wasn’t the plan at all!’

It felt like every day things were growing more serious, and he didn’t know how to stop the downward spiral. It was as if he were on a train that had lost the ability to brake, instead going faster and faster until it inevitably crashed, killing all of the passengers.

’I anticipated some fighting, not a war. I’ve certainly gained some advantages from all of this, I won’t deny that, but it’s getting out of hand.’

He jerked his gaze to Red as he remembered her ability to read thoughts, an ability she had just reaffirmed by using it on Phillip; however, she was looking at Darius rather than him.

’I know she can hear what I’m thinking. Why does she never react to me acknowledging that? Is she used to it? Does everyone who knows her think this often?’

Charon supposed it would be annoying if the roles were flipped. Listening to everyone guess about what she was overhearing or not must be exhausting.

’Yeah, well, I’m not the one invading everyone’s privacy!’

His eyes went wide.

’Good idea, antagonize the mind mage! For all I know, she is ignoring me out of mercy, and offending her will make her start to share some of my secrets!’

Which raised another question in his mind, something he had been considering a lot.

’Why hasn’t she told the others about where Emerius and I come from, anyway? It would be huge news; the two strangers are actually from the Living Realms and are trying to escape back to them.’

If shared, it could change the group dynamic entirely. They would all, understandably, have hundreds of questions about how things were going on the other side.

They would become outsiders, more than they already were.

The door suddenly shot open, the Panoplians re-entering. Their metal feet stomped on the hard floor, causing the room to shake slightly with every step.

The leader’s robotic voice addressed them.

"Your fifteen minutes are up. Please evacuate the area and allow us to conduct our own investigation. All items related to this case are to be left here. You are to share any pertinent information on your way out."

He then stepped to the side, allowing them to exit, which they promptly did, Darius talking to them once they were outside the interrogation room.

"Do not worry about the sharing information part. I will handle that myself. I apologize that our outing was cut short, but needs must. I pray that we will meet again in good health in a few days. I have heard rumors that our mission may pertain to the Clayton Republic."

Emerius and Charon gave their thanks and told everyone goodbye before leaving the Wall the same way they came in, the duo splitting off not long after.

Now alone and somewhat bored, Charon knew exactly what to do.

’No time like the present!’