It was slightly strange to watch the change in Jasmine's demeanour. Riez had noticed that the woman had been struggling under the weight of whatever barrier the town had put up. The Goddess of Mischief had, not for the first time, regretted not taking the Music Domain so she could have manifested the Mission Impossible theme for their mission to save Jasmine.

  However, Celeste had to be a spoilsport and go and bless the woman, to the point where she seemed completely unaffected by the barrier. Not only that, but now that she was immune to the anti-magical effects of runes, Celeste had practically showered the woman in runic armour, women into the mithril threads that made up her uniform.

  Riez was pretty sure that Celeste had only stopped when the AI had told the Architect that one more rune would mean making it into an artefact, which would not only have some negative property for mortals, but also have an associated Worship cost.

  Now that they were walking through the bombed-out town, and Jasmine was practically skipping along, while Celeste was talking about all the various runes that she had managed to combine. Riez had made the mistake of asking the woman about her craft, in the hopes that the Architect might make some rune armour for Spif and Spaf as well, but it seemed like the woman was more interested in giving a lecture on what Runes could and couldn't do.

  Riez wasn't really listening, instead focusing on where they were going. The massive castle that marked the centre of Rosenburg was probably the only thing that was completely untouched. The castle itself consisted of a singular main building, and Riez was honestly kind of disappointed by the lack of spires. She had always imagined a castle to be more akin to that big Disney castle she had seen in Disneyland, but this was a large, boring, square building with walls around it.

  "So essentially, I combined four runes, and what would be bat faeces to create an armour that can produce a gout of holy fire. It was the most offensive rune armour I could create, and seeing that-"

  "All very interesting", Riez cut off Celeste as she was explaining some nonsense about the runes. "But why is the castle so boring? Where are the spires?"

  Celeste was clearly annoyed that Riez had cut her off in her full lecture mode, but seeing that Riez had asked another question, she wasn't too mad. She was just happy that she got to explain something else as well.

  "Oh, they are very boring, and I think that I actually created a bug ticket on it, but Jasper must have thought that it was okay." She said, swiping at the air in front of her, clearly looking through the queue of bug tickets. "I was at the royal palace a thousand years ago, or something like that, but essentially, the Empire's official buildings are as boring as possible, no flare, no pomp, no nothing. The fact that this thing has a wall is actually quite surprising. The one I visited in Salezstand didn't even have that, but rather open sightlines for the internal siege engines to take out anything that might approach."

  Riez considered it a testament to her divinity that she didn't even roll her eyes at the overly long explanation. "But it looks like it is made from pure concrete."

  To Riez's surprise, it was Jasmine who spoke up. "Oi! I can tell you why dat is. Since dese kends av buildengs needs to withstand a lot av fhorce, and we are talkeng proper siege spells and de like, an Elementalest is hired to drag up de hardest stwan from de ground, den set to reinfhorce it. Den it is layered with a powder dat makes it almahst impossible to climb, and den on de inside, it is inscribed with runes by a dwarven smith... hor at least dey used to be dwarven, I think dat dere are a couple av humans dat is able to do so as well."

  Once more, the Goddess of Trickery had to admit that she really didn't care. It had just annoyed her that it looked almost modern, and she decided to add her own comments to the ticket that Celeste had created about the style of Imperial buildings.

  They had to climb over multiple piles of rubble, and when Riez had asked if Celeste just couldn't fix it with her powers, they had found out that even miracles required at least one Energy to use, even if they normally didn't require any. Celeste refused to spend her Energy so lightly, no matter how much Riez, Spif and Spaf complained.

  The gate to the castle was open, or rather, it had been torn open. Celeste claimed that it had been pushed inside the courtyard through the wall, thanks to a consistent mass of force, and not just one singular push, indicating that this too was a trace of the constant revolutions that were happening. Riez wasn't as quick to believe her, as the massive portcullis looked far too heavy for anyone to lift. She was supposed to be a god, and she could probably lift it if she tried real hard.

  Walking inside the courtyard had been trashed and almost completely torn to pieces, as anything that could be smashed had been smashed. A large set of stairs leading to the main building was the only thing semi-intact. However, Riez could spot remnants of what she assumed had once been a stable and something that might have been a forge of some kind.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The strange part was that the large double doors at the end of the stairs looked almost unharmed. As if they hadn't been through the same rough treatment as any of the other things in the courtyard. With Celeste in front, they moved closer, and the divine adventure group even got all the way to the door, which was unlocked.

  The doors swung open, revealing practically nothing.

  The room that the quintet stepped into was impressive in its scale, but almost all the furniture had been removed. Anything not nailed down had been removed, and judging by the holes in the floor where a couple of bent nails were poking up, that might not even be accurate.

  It was the classical foyer with a with wooden panelling along the walls, which, based on the scratchmarks, was not left behind by choice. Markings along the wall told the story of multiple paintings or mountings that had once decorated the wall. The space was open enough that there would probably also be a seating area, and maybe a desk for some staff to greet approaching envoys. All of it was gone.

  The only real thing that had been allowed to survive was a massive staircase made of some dark wood. The staircase had definitely been a work of art, at least before one of the boards had been pried up, and the bannister removed. Now it just looked like something you would find in a haunted house.

  The room had no windows, but wasn't dark. With no obvious light source, Riez had to assume that it was some kind of magic that was the culprit, and yet, she also knew that magic likely couldn't be sustained within the suppression field.

  A groan sounded from the top of the stairs, though the source was out of sight, so Riez made sure to get into character. She was an Inquisitor. She made sure to repeat the phrase in her mind over and over again, until her face grew grim with determination and a scowl settled across her features.

  Celeste was the first one to walk, and with a snap of her fingers and a mental push thanks to her Loyalty Domain, Spif and Spaf fell into lockstep behind her as if they had been exposed to decades of military training.

  They all made it up the stairs, none of them fell over the loose boards or the missing one. At the top of the stairs, in a room with an open door just down the hall, a morbidly obese man was slowly sitting up, which had been the source of the groan. He didn't look at them. Though thanks to the open door, they had full visibility of him. Just grunting and groaning as he tried to sit up on the bed, which was the only piece of furniture which had been left behind. Even so, the bed wasn't one of royalty. If anything, it reminded Riez of her real-life bed. Small, cramped and made to preserve as much space in the rest of the room as possible.

  "You are too early," The man wheezed, winded from even the act of sitting up. "I am not dead yet."

  Celeste raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Finally, he managed to get up with some help from the wall.

  "I am guessing that you are the reinforcement that was sent to take over Rosenburg and shape this place up." It didn't take a genius or the Knowledge Domain to conclude that this was the Governor of Permersland. He wasn't wearing any fine clothes, not even his uniform. Instead, he wore a toga, though Riez wasn't sure that it wasn't just a piece of linen or some of the drapes the man had wound around his wobbly corpus.

  "So which one of you is the unfortunate smuck who has to try and fix this place?" The Governor said with a grunt.

  Celeste finally answered the man, while Riez gave her a scowling look that indicated that she knew all of his secrets. "None of us. Our battle leader sadly passed in a clash with the rebels." She said.

  The man sighed and shook his head. "That is unfortunate... And here I was hoping that I would get the option to pass away with some dignity."

  "Too... late..." Riez said, doing her best impression of Alan Rickman.

  The Governor gave her a scowl in return, but didn't say anything. Instead, he slowly lumbered out to the stairs and then down them. He didn't say anything, and neither Jasmine, Riez, nor Celeste wanted to interrupt him. Spif and Spaf were kept in check by a constant, ever-flowing stream of commands from the Loyalty Domain to keep them in place.

  "You see," The man said. "There is a curse on these lands. Most people in the capital believe it to be a superstition. So did I when I took the job. But once you become the Governor of Permersland, and enter the Steelrose... You cannot leave."

  Riez assumed that the Steelrose was the name of the castle they were currently inside.

  "It is not an exaggeration..." He slowly walked over to the open door and leaned against an invisible barrier that kept him inside. "But you... You are trapped as well, because Rosenburg is simply another trap. You cannot leave it, you may try and tear down the walls, but with no food... well... it is just a matter of time before you turn on each other."

  The Governor slowly walked over to the stairs and opened a door that was located under them. Inside were more formal living quarters... or rather, they were supposed to be. Any furniture had been looted.

  "These are your chambers. Feel free to use them however you wish. As you can see, it has been a long time since the last furniture was used for kindling." The man groaned and slumped onto the floor. The only thing in the room was a giant firepit that had been built into the wall, clearly too heavy to move.

  However, the moment Riez saw the massive stone construction, her Deception Domain told her that it was hiding something. Distcreetly she moved over to it and touched it. Only to be met with a pop-up she had never seen before.

  Text from image:

  Do you want to enter the dungeon: Den of the Inquisitors?

  Riez grinned. A lot of things were suddenly starting to make sense.