All three of them finished their breakfast with small spurts of small talk. Ed's brain was thinking about the letter from Golliad. The Oracle and Ko'Loss were discussing things related to safety and how to get Ed around and past guards.
When everyone was done Ko'Loss summoned the Goblins and Butlers who pulled the chairs from the table so that everyone could get up easily. Ed still wasn't sure he was allowed to live like this but he was going to enjoy it while he could. As soon as the three of them were up and away from the table another golem butler with a missing face showed up and escorted them to the front waiting room.
Behind the scenes, the goblins and golems cleared the table and dragged it to the kitchen. The goblins packaged up the leftovers and took them back into the walls. Under the house was a sprawling city of house goblins. Generations of them had carved out new tunnels and facilities. They lived off what the house provided and the sewers underneath it. Scraps from the table of the master would be served to the head shaman as a gift, Ko'Loss knew this and purposely had them set a plate for him. This would become a gift from him to them.
In the front waiting parlor the Oracle was sitting in a large high-backed chair. The Oracle crossed their legs and sat with one hand under their chin. They looked to the house goblin waiting in the corner and summoned it with one long finger.
"Please fetch young master Ed's bag from his room please." The Oracle was polite, the goblins would carry out the command either way but it smiled at being treated so nicely. The old texts describe Ko'Loss as a taskmaster who was unlikely to reward you for just doing your job. The goblins were pleased to find that the master and his guests were nicer than they had expected.
The goblin disappeared into space in the wall behind a table. Ed could hear him climbing the walls. He wondered how much of the house was hollow like this. They all sat in silence until two goblins came in through the door this time carrying Ed's bag.
Ed had never noticed that they were wearing tiny red uniforms. He hadn't really paid attention before. They had black piped edges around the hems. He wondered if they had always worn clothes like this or if he was just now noticing it. The uniform looked almost military.
They brought the bag to Ed and held it out for him. Ed took the bag and nodded to the goblins. "Thank you very much," He praised them both and watched them smile and nod before they also climbed up into the walls. Ed marveled as he compared them to having trained the rats in your walls.
Ed opened the bag and passed it to the Oracle. The Oracle placed it on his lap and reached inside. He felt around and pulled out the bag of disks. The Oracle then placed the bag on the ground next to the chair. A house goblin peaked out of the wall to see if it needed to take the bag. Ed shook his head at the goblin who disappeared back into the wall.
The oracle found Ed's disk and held it up into the light. "Amazing things Ed. Thank you for getting these back from the impostor."
Ko'Loss rotated his face to look at The Oracle. "The Fay Knight woman was very helpful."
The Oracle smiled, "Are these friends going to be able to help young Ed along the way?"
Ed leaned forward slightly. "I hope so but will it be easier to have me travel on my own?"
They both looked at him. They both contemplated the possibility of sending him out on his own, Ko'Loss spoke first. "Have you asked your friends how they would feel if you left without asking them?"
Ed blinked in surprise. Ko'Loss showed his humanity more and more these days but that was more intuitive to human emotion than he had expected. "No, I haven't. I guess I should."
"Marvelous idea." The Oracle smiled and put Ed's disk down. "Now, about that. No good journey happens without a destination." The Oracle tossed a blank disk at him.
Ed caught it midair and held it in the palm of his hand. "So what about these?"
The oracle grabbed Ed's disk and looked at Ed, "Hold it in your hand and think about the next soul. This should be easy, I do believe two of them are in town."
Ed closed his eyes and held the disk in his hand. He concentrated and put a small amount of divine energy into his palm. In the black of his mind, he saw darkness, as he focused in suddenly 13 pricks of light came into focus. He could tell that several of them were here in the city. They were bright, like candles in a cave, the others glowed faintly elsewhere in his mind. Several were behind him, he guessed they were back home in the northern side of the world.
"Is that Loran and For'Ten?" Ed said out loud. Some of his memories were still fuzzy and the list of souls had been removed from his bag.
"Very good. Are you doing that from memory or are you guessing?" Ko'Loss said.
"Little of both actually. I faintly remember they were important... But they seem to be close together. So I guessed." Ed sighed. He wasn't lying. He did faintly remember.
The oracle put Ed's coin back in the bag, "This was the best thing I could do for you at this time. With practice, your divine and magical powers will always come back. Unfortunately for both you and Erust you no longer can hold infinite stores of Mana and Divine power. You however have kept the multiplier effect. Erust learned the hard way just a few days ago that he no longer has that power."
Ko'Loss looked over at the Oracle, "South of us?"
The Oracle nodded. "Yes, but it wasn't the god they faced. They haven't discovered that yet. The rogue god died a week before they got there. Someone else did him in. I felt that change in the balance of the world."
Ko'Loss shook his head, but his face stayed in the same place. "A shameful way to die."
Ed was confused about how he knew it was south but guessed if he was back to his old self he would have known that. He focused back into the world of his mind and looked for the dots. One dot was in town also. But it seemed to be farther away from the other two. Another dot was headed back into town. He wasn't sure if it was moving at first but when he looked at it directly he could just barely make out the change in the intensity of the light.
"Who is this other light in town?" Ed said with his eyes still closed.
"That is a surprise, Ed. You are putting the world back to right. That person is important also in their own way. They are like you, but not like you." The Oracle was back to being cryptic again.
Ed sighed and opened his eyes. "Well, I planned to go back to the Glass Capital in the next day or so. I guess this just gives me a reason." He tossed the disk back to the Oracle who put it back inside the bag. The oracle grabbed Erust bag and put it back into the satchel and passed the whole thing back to Ed.
"Now for your last set of presents," The Oracle leaned forward and sat on the edge of the seat. This accented the slim frame of its current body. "Put out your hands."
Ed's chair wasn't directly across from The Oracle so he had to scoot forward and reach his hands out across space. He put his hands with the palms up. The Oracle rotated slightly in its chair and put a finger in each palm.
Ed's hands tingled. He felt information flowing through his body and into his brain. Suddenly he had stories about the world. Memories that didn't fully belong to him, and knowledge of magic and divine power that belonged to someone much older.
Ko'Loss watched this happened and stood across the room next to a side table. A painting of him and his wife was fixed to the wall. His face was rotated around his body again to look up at it.
"Who's thoughts are those?" Ed gasped out as the memories settled into his head and floated around his brain like sand in water. They eventually found places to rest, and his mind became calmer as it did.
Ko'Loss spoke from across the room,, "I am not a human anymore," he began solemnly. "I have memories from many old times as a human though. I will not be able to protect you at all times. I have my knowledge and some of my skills will protect you... Ed."
Ed stopped and looked at the large stonework frame that made up Ko'Loss body. "You aren't losing these memories are you?" Some of them seemed precious, there were images of his wife in there.
Ko'Loss looked up at the painting one last time and walked over next to The Oracle. "Not really. Human memories should stay in human bodies. You are... safeguarding them for me. Thus you must not die."
The Oracle looked up at Ko'Loss and smiled and patted his arm, "You are growing again. Good my old friend."
Ed sorted through the memories. He saw people and places. He remembered where to find a good place to sleep. He remembered what spells were good against what kind of enemies. He also remembered battles they had before and things he had tried to solve. It was like having the life a whole other person inside him because he had a whole human life's worth of memories to pick from.
"Thank you Ko'Loss. I will use them wisely." Ed said and smiled. He felt warm at being trusted with anything so precious. "So what now? Are we on a timeline?"
The Oracle just smiled. It had no human emotions so its face didn't change, "Yes and No. Erust has been recovering in a port town near the mountain. You must be careful to not absorb too much energy when you meditate, he found that out the hard way. If you can get out of town as soon as you identify the three souls near here that would be best. Hopefully you can get to all the other souls before the Divines can kill or interfere with the reset."
Ed nodded, "Wait you knew that there were three? Do I have to take the three with me?"
The Oracle's smile changed ever so slightly, "Why Ed, that's up to you. You are leading this squad this time..."