Ghost and the Writer

Dolt

Violet looked down at her compass, and while she did five more blasts resounded from somewhere out south. Then silence. A gust of wind passed them, ruffling Alice's hair, then five more airwaves followed matching up with the pattern of the previous blasts.

Both Mandy and Alice looked towards Violet with worry over their faces.

"My guess is that the other one appeared and Riveria took it out," Violet said, not looking particularly worried, rather, she looked relieved.

Mandy tilted her head, looking in the direction where the blasts had come from. August's reaction towards facing a tentacle dog hadn't been good back when Sarah mentioned it, so she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

"Snarghlah'ahd might be troublesome to us, but it's nothing more than a pest for a dragon," Violet said. "With those two around I don't think even an army of them could get to August."

Mandy straightened her back glancing over at Violet. Mandy had a feeling that August's impression of the tentacle dog had been more vary than that towards paladins, in that case, she mumbled, half to herself: "Would church be a problem?"

Violet made an amused smile. "Is August gathering strength to take it down?"

Mandy frowned, realizing she had spoken too carelessly. "No, I mean, it's a what-if scenario," she said. "What if paladins target him."

"Hmm, that's a good question," Violet looked up as she thought on it. "Their trump cards might be enough, but for the church to take those out, August would need to become a true calamity first."

True calamity? Going around killing other dryads indiscriminately? Didn't seem likely. 

"The way things stand right now, there is no way Grisham or Garold family would agree to harm him even if what he is becomes public knowledge. Rather, in a scenario like that, I would place a bet that church would ally with him rather than fight him," Violet said. 

Mandy listened with wide eyes. "Why would they ally?" That made no sense considering they had attacked him before. And even that book named 'undead' dryads as highest level threats. Wouldn't that, by all logic, make him an easy target too? Since they could probably take some family members hostage or something.

Violet tilted her head a bit, showing surprise at Mandy's confusion. "Imagine you have a beautiful home and all that is protecting you is a sturdy fence maintained by some incomprehensible beings you can't even talk to."

Mandy nodded faintly. That was about Urea and dryads isolating it from Terea and Solus. And August was, in fact, someone with the ability to harm them, was he not? 

"You know, that if by some chance the fence comes off, your house will be taken and who knows what will happen to you."

Till this part, Mandy had no questions whatsoever, but it all added up towards the argument of why they wouldn't ally with him. 

"And then, one day, you discover that one of your loyal dogs is actually a cerberus pup who has every reason out there to protect your home - family, career, and a good track record of doing exactly that. Also this pup can work on maintaining the fence and it has no motives whatsoever to take it down."

There was a moment of silence. Alice was nodding her head like an old man would when hearing a good sermon. And Mandy was dumbfounded. Everything Violet said made complete sense. She didn't think you could put it that way. She lacked knowledge about exorcists and their relations to church, but August was from a lineage that was half-church members. If you could consider him as being a part of them-- and she had learned just now that church and guild shared their main values - then...