Midwinter is the last festival of the year and is also known as the Day of Dead Winter because it happens to be halfway through the harsh winter. The rich and powerful certainly did not care much about this than the serfs and commoners huddled in caves, mud huts and straw huts, but the lords and kings would make alliances with other nations or renew their covenants on this day, and summon loyal courtiers and servants to gather in the fortress and feast and drink around the burning hearth—the old and weak, the old and the weak, the sick and the young, were slaughtered at the onset of winter, and the roasted sausages, dried meats, bacon, and things like lamb's belly pudding, were put to best and most thorough use.

The winter in the Dragonfire Islands is warm, food is almost never scarce, and the huge wealth is destined for them to always get the best, the Midwinter Festival is almost meaningless to them, and the father of the lord can invite his son or slave to his island whenever he wants, but this year the East Crown Island may be a little exceptional, because Amos is resting with a strong lion resting beside him, and the lords of Xiguan, Nanzhi and Beizhi rarely take the opportunity to start a war that people expected- Perhaps they were waiting for the inevitable conflict between the lord of the Eastern Crown and his only courtier, but Amos was not foolish enough to do so, and after the harvest feast he sent an invitation to Cremar and his friends to come to the Eastern Crown Island for the Midwinter Festival, the first great celebration of Lord Amos, and he invited not only Cremar but also three other lords, though the lords would only send one of their sons.

In just a few months, the area that had been ruthlessly devoured and erased by the lava had been covered with a rich green again, but this green was still a little weaker than the place that had not been eroded by fire elemental creatures, and one could still find the black and shiny volcanic stone belt if one lowered one's head or brushed away the dense foliage. It spilled out of the giant bowl of bright magma and flowed in all directions, some of it to the hidden harbor once used by Cremar and the other mages, sliding off the towering platform and forming tear-like condensation marks on the vertical and sandy rock faces.

The fortress and palace of the Eastern Crown Lord were rebuilt, and Amos was not like his father. and several other rulers of the Dragonfire Islands, who liked useless extravagance and waste, and his palace had no ebony or alabaster, and all the stones used were gold-dotted purple stones, a gray stone with golden and purple dots, harder than alabaster, and beautiful after polishing and carving, even if the doors and windows were not made of ebony. He also used non-flammable and finer ironwood, but because of the lack of wonderful statues and decorations of gold, silver leaf, precious stones, etc., his temple looked a bit monotonous and unpretentious, and looked more like a temple of nameless gods—the visitor whispered that this was the reason why he had been a slave and eunuch, after all, it was already an almost open secret, and his only weakness had been remedied by Adel, and the "real" Amos had melted into the lava. As an unbeliever or a hypocrite, his soul has either been nailed to the walls of Cranvo. Either they were forked by the devil for food, and even if they could summon his soul, they were brothers, with identical faces, and even they were confused when they stood face to face.

"I just don't quite understand," Xiu said. His eagle-sharp eyes swept over everyone in the hall, all of them with a hypocritical smile, elegant words but full of traps, not much different from the nobles of the Norman capital: "I thought that there was such a great turmoil on the island of the Eastern Crown, that the vultures would rush up and divide it. As a result, I didn't even wait for a war. ”

"For the sake of balance," said Adair, "probably." ”

"Is it because of the geographical location of the East Crown?" Xiu said, walking over and opening the long window, the entire height of the long window exceeded Xiu, about nine feet five inches, the bottom was only three inches from the ground, each long window could be opened, and even removed, at least two walls in the room were this kind of movable partition that could be used as both a door and a window, and when opened at the same time, the sea breeze would run through the entire room, bringing the fresh and cool air that people expected. As a knight, his first focus is naturally related to his profession, he recalled the map that included the entire Dragon Fire Islands, as the name suggests, the Eastern Crown is located on the east side of the archipelago, the northernmost section, almost about to break away from the archipelago, the south is the closest, the north is slightly farther away, and between Xiguan and Dongguan can even be said to be separated by an inland sea, if the lords of the other three islands want to annex the Eastern Crown, they are afraid that the distribution of benefits will be very troublesome - as for whether they can send troops alone, then he ......"

"Do you want to consider whether the other two islands will take advantage of the opportunity?" Xiu said, the sea breeze at night was extremely fierce, almost like being pushed by a strong male, and his voice disappeared without a trace in an instant, but Adel still caught a few of the most crucial words, and he nodded: "This is from your point of view." ”

Xiu smiled: "Yes, you are the priest of Rosada, who taught you this?"

Adel's expression darkened a little: "My eldest brother." ”

Xiu turned around unnaturally, he remembered that when Adel first arrived at Thunder Castle, he had also investigated the details of this fallen priest, after all, the two labels of "blasphemy" and "homicide" on Adelle's cheeks were really too terrible, he knew that Adel had stabbed a dagger into his eldest brother's chest, he coughed twice, trying to divert the topic away from this sad content: "What about from the priest's point of view?"

"From a pastor's point of view," Adel said, "they're afraid of change. The priest of Rosada got up from his couch - in order not to be extinguished by the sea breeze, the cetacean candle in the room was covered with a shell that had been polished to an almost transparent surface, and the light emitted was as beautiful and bright as a pearl, and a fat snake-headed moth was attracted by the light, and burrowed into the shell but could not get out, Adel picked up the shell and pinched it out, "You may have noticed that there are no temples or sanctuaries on the main island of the Dragonfire Islands, and the main island is inhabited by most of the people of the archipelago and some of the most powerful people. ”

Xiu is not a priest. He wasn't sensitive to some things, but now that Adel had brought it up, he was able to detect it quickly.

"I've discussed this with Cremar," said Adair, "and the Dragonfire Isles are a deformed place, beginning with the people who came here a thousand years ago to escape the calamities of the Holocaust - when even the gods were in mortal danger, and the priests of the main physical plane could not draw power from them. Nor could they hear their own arcs, and the priests of that time were the worst and least popular, because they were seen as people who had angered the gods—without priests, there would be no temples, no sanctuaries, and the original buildings would have been abandoned over time, and with them neglect and neglect of the gods.

Now it's different, the gods have refocused their gaze on this place. Repair. Now the people of the Dragonfire Islands are like fish trapped in a pool of water, they don't dare to break the existing balance and attract more attention - so even if the Eastern Crown is crumbling, they will only watch from afar, looking for an opportunity to nibble away at a small piece, rather than swallowing it. ”

"But I've heard that slaves have no faith. ”

"It's not out of their own will - it's Xiu, it's the lords of the Dragonfire Islands who have stolen the believers of the gods. ”

Xiu showed a look of disbelief: "What do they think?"

"I don't know," said Adair, "but you should know what this continent was like a thousand years ago—when the gods weren't as forgiving and gentle as they are now. Their power does not come entirely from the belief in sapient beings on the main material plane, so they are not so concerned with the main material plane. They are more focused on their divine power and glory, and when they quarrel with each other, it only takes a divine war to destroy the entire continent - the formation of the Silver Falls is regarded as an untrustworthy legend by humans, because their lives are too short, but ...... Repair, part of it is true. The dwarven gods clashed with the dwarf gods, and the dwarven gods threw his hammer, which struck the edge of the coast, and he knocked down a rock the size of a country, leaving such a spectacular gap in the shore. This is where Silver Waterfall comes from. ”

"But all this changed after the Holocaust," Addel continued, and then he suddenly made a mischievous look: "Faith is power, and even the most evil gods must take this into account when they want to do something, or he may be torn apart by the other gods before he can do anything, and he himself will want more power- Elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, halflings, humans, especially humans, finally got a little respite, although with it the gods became more demanding of the faithful and the priests, and their avatars wandered all day long in the mourning wasteland, calling, was it because of the great attraction of that desolate place, no, they just didn't want the power of their faith to disappear into the mouths of the devil and the devil for some reason. Especially the priests, and some strong-willed, devout believers, after they came to the kingdom of God, they are not only residents, but also soldiers, but also the cornerstone, so, think about it, Xiu, how many slaves are there in the Dragon Fire Islands? And among them, even if only one out of a thousand is a believer, it is also a loss, accumulating sand into a tower, gathering armpits into a fur, this truth is understood better than us. ”

"Then ......"

"It's not going to be around for long. "The gods are watching here, and while they don't have the right to interfere directly with the main material plane, the Eastern Crown ......," he stood up, glancing at the strange scenery outside the room—a gray-black rocky river flowing between the dense vegetation, "It won't be the first and not the only one." ”

"There's already a temple of Flo on the side island," Xiu said, "Of course, this is negligible, but I think it's more like a prelude, and then you, the followers of Rosada, who is next? Ilmot or Suron?"

"Neither," Adel scratched at his hair in annoyance, "it's Talos." Though I was trying—I think Amos would have preferred to be a believer in Rosada rather than Talos," he did not dare to despise the irascible god......"

"You need more helpers. Xiu said, "You are now in one against seven." ”

"I've written to the Lord's Temple...... "I hope they'll be here soon." ”

Farther afield, in the glorious and majestic main temple of Rosada, the god of morning light, the other followers of Rosada, were also discussing the issue - there was a thousand years of faith in the Dragonfire Islands, before which they did not allow priests to build temples and sanctuaries on the islands, and the lords relied on either mages or warlocks, and even they almost thought that the gods had abandoned the islands. But the message from Adel was that a terrible and drastic change was about to take place there, and that the first sanctuary to gain a foothold in the Dragonfire Islands would naturally take place in the future, but as Adel had feared, they needed to fight against the storm god Talos and his priest.

"Let the children of the White Tower go. "The patriarch of the main house made the final decision.

"Does the White Tower still need additional personnel?" said an elderly priest, because of the blasphemous incident at the Rosada Sanctuary in the White Tower. So the priests who were sent after that were all elite, even if it was more than enough to garrison the royal capital of a country, and now that people were about to forget about the disaster, it was not a bad idea to replace them with ordinary priests.

"No," the Patriarch smiled, and there was no lack of bitterness in his smile, "They have been expelled by the lords of the White Tower and the Partridge Hills. ”

As they mentioned, the priests of Rosada of the White Tower had gone a long way, as far as the walls of the White Tower, leaving a pale white trail, in the white light of the dawn. Slightly invisible.

The priests stopped on a gentle hill, they drew water from the stream at their feet, let the first rays of morning light fall into the silver cup, they sang songs in praise of the god of morning light, and prayed to him with a pure and firm heart.

When they drank the water from the cup, it reflected the land around them, which was covered with a thin layer of sand except for a few hills. The senior pastor in Rosada lowered his knees and fell to his knees. Carefully digging up a layer of mud and sand with his fingers, he soon found a small seed, gray-black, inconspicuous, and could not bear such a brilliant flower and such an evil fruit.

Unfortunately, humans do not understand what kind of ferocious beast they are raising, and they are addicted to the wonderful illusions it brings and are satisfied with its low price. Even some of the priests of Rosada, who were also brothers, did not think that this medicine was too threatening, and they even used it without any scruples, and how much disaster could this herb cause if it did not infect people with the plague and did not seal their throats? But the priests of Ilmot have never been popular with those who indulge in pleasure, the priests of the Castle of Bi Desan are because of the support of the consuls and the mage Alva, and even so, there are short-sighted merchants and councillors who complain, and the White Tower, after disappearing for more than ten days, their lord Ann Rui appeared, and the first year after her appearance was to expel the priest Rosada from the White Tower.

"That's not a bad thing. An Rui said.

The Senior Priest understood what she meant, and that their shelter of the common people had angered the thieves, and although Ricka had now replaced Ryette and restrained the guild members from doing anything wrong, that didn't mean that the thieves would forget the priests. And just three days ago, fifteen priests of Gretdy and five red-robed warlocks entered the White Tower, and the meaning of the guild was already obvious, the cultivation and sale of that kind of herb would not be disturbed in any way, if they insisted on staying in the White Tower, then the White Tower would most likely become their burial place.

But if the Thin Web Guild thought that the war between them was over, it was a big mistake, the senior priest thought, and a golden-red flame rose in his hand, burning those seeds in an instant.

"I thought you'd do better. Ostal said as he looked at the departing pastor Rosada.

"If anything is missing," said Anrui humbly, not knowing how she had escaped the long torture and assimilation, but now she found that the so-called dignity and pride were just meaningless garbage, "or should I expel them a little further?" I promise they will not reside in the land of the White Tower and the Partridge Hills. ”

Ostal gave her an interesting look, their original intention was to kill all the priests who did not belong to Greday, but this could only be done by the lords of the human race, and by letting the priests of Gredi, at least on the surface, it would be tantamount to declaring war, and it was not a good time to declare war.

Thankfully, there isn't much time to wait. (To be continued.) )