A Vinekin's Revenge (pt. 6 - 7): The Mayor's Plan & A History Lesson
Morgwen continues her morning and recalls the directions Jean had given to her to the blacksmith shop, Rock Ridge Forge. She follows the main road and sees the front of the shop. She notices that there are no windows in the front of the building. She then makes her way around the side and notices a broken wooden panel on the wall where she can slip through. Taking a peek inside, she can see someone working in the shop.
There is a metal-worker forging weapons. She sneaks into the building and hides behind a couple of crates, but the worker hears someone break in. He draws a dagger getting ready to defend himself and he asks the stranger to reveal themselves and explain. She slowly gets up with her hands in the air and makes her way around the crates saying, "I just want to know who Graff is, the blacksmith that worked here."
He hesitates, "Who are you? Are you a guard?" Her response is calm and certain, "Morgwen. I seek to simply bring justice." She inches her way to him. "Well, if you're wondering... Graff is innocent. He didn't kill that priest." Morgwen listens intently, "Then, who did?"
The metal-worker introduces himself as Ben, a good friend of Graff. The weapon found at the murder scene is owned by Graff, but he wasn't even there at the time the murder happened. He was at the shop working late with Ben. Rumors started going around that Graff was a wanted man and that was when he decided to get out of Thornmere and take everything with him.
So, that must be why Felix saw Graff wandering around Everveil Hollow... he has been on the run, trying to get away... Morgwen thinks to herself.
Ben is confident that Graff has been set up... One person he believes that may be behind this is Seoha. She used to work at Rock Ridge Forge and has always been vocal about her hate towards Wildebourne Chapel. She would be the only person (besides Ben) who would have access to Graff's weapons to commit the murder. There's always been tension between the Wildebourne Chapel followers and the other townfolk. And Graff has always been indifferent towards the religion, but Seoha would always talk about how "crazy" it is for people to worship Kevin. Throughout the week, Ben sees her head to the chapel for daily services; he believes that she may not be a "true" follower and is disguising herself as one.
Morgwen promises Ben, "I will do her best to find Graff and put Sehoa in jail. We can make this right." He thanks her and says that she can always visit him again at the shop if she ever needs his support.
After receiving all that information from Ben, she starts to put all the missing pieces together. She says to herself, I really need to speak to Felix and ask more about what he noticed in Everveil Hollow. She makes it to Town Hall to find Felix and to finally get a job at one of the town's construction sites. Upon entering the front doors of the building, she sees a poster sign of open jobs and makes a mental-note to check out the site near the Market Square. Looking around in the main hall, she spots a Town Guard and asks if she could speak to one of the mayor's servants, Felix. He responds, "Yes, he should be down the hall near the council chambers." She walks over and soon spots Felix.
"Felix! Please we need to talk; I need to know more about what you saw in Everveil Hollow," she says.
Felix looks around nervously and starts to bite his nails, "Morgwen, the information that I am about to share with you is confidential and honestly scary... I regret working for the Mayor... he's EVIL. He was the one behind the murder of the Wildebourne Priest!!!! He apparently hired someone to commit that murder and EVERYONE that works for him knows and is in on it! Even the guards!!! Ok... so when I passed by those stone columns, I continued onward and noticed Graff was walking in the opposite direction of the town. I think he was trying to escape Thornmere..."
"Yes, you are correct. He was framed, Felix. They're all pinning it on him, but it was someone else and I have an idea of who. What else have you noticed working for the Mayor?" She asks.
"He HATES that Wildebourne Chapel and everything that they stand for. He thinks that cult is preventing him from expanding the town and he wants to get rid of it... he thinks killing the Priest will help get rid of Kevin and his vines..."
"This is bad, he really thinks he can just stop Kevin? A god? If anything Kevin might get more and more aggressive..."
"He has to be stopped Morgwen, I cannot believe all the shit I hear in these meetings..."
"I know... you need to keep me posted on anything else you hear. I'm going to get a job at one of the town's construction sites, and try to just blend in and get to know the Mayor more that way... maybe talk to a few workers. I can stop by again maybe in the next couple days after I figure out some more details..."
"Yes, of course. I'll be here."
--
It's the afternoon and she makes it to the construction site. She notices an old rotting building all covered with with vines and a couple workers on ladders cutting them off. She then hears two men bickering about development plan for the weathered structure.
One worker says, "We need to just tear down this entire thing. There's no use in trying to rebuilding it... the walls are old and there's wood rot everywhere."
The other laborer hesitates, "No, we should just cut off a few vines. I'm worried it might anger Kevin or something..."
His colleague shakes his head, "Are you serious? You don't even need to worry about that. The Mayor has all of it under control and plus it's only the afternoon. It's nowhere near nighttime." He continues tearing down the wooden panels.
The apprehensive worker interrupts and pushes him off the ladder to stop him, "HEY, KNOCK IT OFF."
And suddenly the two start to get into physical fight. Morgwen runs over to the Foreman and says, "Hi, I'm here for work? I'm ready to get started! I think that one guy is right... we should just tear down the entire building." The Foreman lifts his eyebrow impressed with her suggestion, "Alrighty, let's do it. Ok everyone, just go ahead and tear it down and then you're done for the day!"
The two workers stop fighting and she joins one of them at the rear wall. They both ready the pulley system to tear down the back wall and with a bit of team work and strength, it is a success!
Morgwen tries to start a short conversation with him and casually says, "Man, aren't you glad that Wildebourne Priest is gone now? Huh?"
He responds, "Hush! We shouldn't just bring that up randomly... but yes, we are finally slowly starting to get rid of Wildebourne Chapel. About time... it's that Priest that is kind of the communicator between Kevin and his followers, so we had to cut that off, you know?"
She lowers her voice and smiles trying to blend in, "Yeah, good thinking. Wait, so who did it?! I gotta meet them. They're doing Thornmere a favor!"
He looks around making sure no one else could hear, "Her name is Seoha and MAN... She is GOOD at what she does. You'll probably see her around Market Square. But, be careful around her. She's... I guess... feisty."
As the day continued, they all successfully were able to tear down the old building. The Foreman yells, "OK EVERYONE! Great work, go home and rest up!"
Great, I still have time to make it to the library. Maybe I can find some sort of history behind Thornmere and Everveil... Morgwen thinks to herself. She walks over to the Town Library and heads inside. "Hello, and welcome! Are you looking for anything specific? Here to help." The old librarian waves her hand greeting Morgwen. "Hi, actually yes. I am looking for history books about Thornmere and Everveil." The librarian smiles and points behind her, "Yes, of course. Well, we have a section in the back that may be of use to you."
Morgwen pulls off a book from the shelf and learns quite a few things...
The Mayor has always been a "likable" person. He has been voted throughout the years by the people of Thornmere to continue governing the town. He is known to prioritize expansion and job creation. He developed a large mechanical demolition rig, called the Timber Maw, and it's a complex system of ropes and pulleys to quickly tear down large buildings and trees. The creation of this machine helped really speed up the overall progress of Thornmere.
He's been vocal in his religious opinions. He is not religious himself, but he does embrace different beliefs and welcomed The Wildebourne Chapel to settle in Thornmere hoping to create unity and collaboration in expanding the town.
She closes the book and pauses to think... very interesting, maybe over time his views on Wildebourne Chapel started to change and Kevin started to become more aggressive with his vines... Maybe that's why he needed to act fast and murder the Priest.
She walks back to the Librarian and asks, "Thanks, do you have any books about Wildebourne Chapel?" Her friendly smile faded and she raises her brow, "Interesting, may I ask why you are wanting to look into Wildebourne Chapel? Those books are not just available to the public." Morgwen starts to sweat, "Of course, it's simply for learning purposes. I simply desire insight into... our rivals, if you know what I mean..." The Librarian nods, "Very wise of you. You know what? I will give you the key to access the archives downstairs. But, I'll give you only 10 minutes. After that, I need to kick you out!"
Morgwen lets out a big sigh of relief, "oh, PERFECT. Yes, of course. I will be fast!"
She takes the key and heads down the stairs leading to a locked door. She slips the key into the keyhole and click the door opens... She goes into the room and notices how small it is, almost like the size of a tiny closet. All the walls are lined with bookshelves. She spots a section specifically on Wildebourne Chapel. She opens a book and begins to read...
Wildebourne Chapel sings praises to the Spirit of Everveil Forest, Kevin the Vinekin. Arteris, the Goddess of Earth appointed Kevin to protect Everveil, but with the expansion of Thornmere progressing... Kevin is no longer favored by Arteris and she is disappointed in him. He needed to find a way to please her again and so he created Wildebourne Chapel... A lonely traveler, just an ordinary simple man, was hiking through the forest and Kevin ensnares him with his vines forcing him to become his follower. Kevin instructs the man to start Wildebourne Chapel and appointed him to be the Priest. Kevin wants to reclaim the land, hoping that this religion will make a movement to stop Thornmere from expanding and then... maybe then he can finally earn back Arteris's favor.
She turns the next couple of pages and finds an image of a man getting entangled and below it read the words...
Vineamorphosis - the transformation of a human into a vinekin entity... Kevin, the Spirit of the Forest, has the ability to turn his followers into vinekins. Only on the Stone Thornbound Altar of Everveil Hollow is vineamorphosis known to occur — a rare communion of flesh and vine... to become one with Kevin... Traveling through the forest to locate the altar is difficult. The wooden path constantly changes at night; it's a sort of protective mechanism Kevin does to guard his home...
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