When Valkorion finished brewing the tea, the same subspecies that he had made for Ashe a few days ago, he sat on the sofa across from her. For the time being, they spent drinking their tea while observing each other.
Both of them were measuring each other like they would measure their opponents during the battle. Soon enough, it was Melisandre who broke the silence between them as she sipped a bit of her tea.
"It's a good tea, but we are not for the pleasantries. I came with the task from the Lord of Light as was agreed."
Valkorion nodded when he heard that as it was time to do the business.
"It seems so."
He, too, put down the cup of tea that he was holding as he looked at the priestess before him.
"Our target is a particular artifact that the Red Temple believes is buried in the catacombs underneath the Orange Shores, mostly forgotten in the tie, and it is of the utmost importance for the Lord of Light to obtain at any costs."
As Melisandre stated, Valkorion was pondering over the information as he suspected that she was talking about either a very important ingredient or perhaps even the Uniqueness so the Lord of Light could advance to the King of Angels.
For the Sequence 1 Angel to be successfully promoted to the King of Angels, they needed to accommodate more than 1 Sequene 1 Characteristics or have accommodated the Uniqueness of the different adjected Pathway.
"If it is so important, why are only two Low Sequence Beyonders going to retrieve the thing?"
While he suspected the answer, he wanted to draw more information from her, seeing how much she should divulge, mostly to observe what she would say, because Valkorion was sure that Melisandre was aware that he was just digging for more information from her.
"If they send the High Sequence Beyonders, would everyone notice? Wouldn't they? The Red Temple is, technically speaking, an evil cult in the eyes of the Church of the Dragon Gods; only due to the indifference of the Lord's Freeholders is the Freehold ignoring the Red Temple and restraining the Church of the Dragon Gods in their pursuit of the faithful."
Valkorion, of course, knew the reason why the Red Temple was insisting on sending only the Low Seqneuce Beyonders, which was because practically no one would pay them any attention as they were rather insignificant in the great scheme of all things.
He understood the viewpoint very well, and despite not liking it too much, Beucae found it dangerous. As he was right now almost certain what the Lord of Light was sending them to retrieve, he could only hope and pray that nobody else was aware of it.
Nevertheless, if that was indeed the case, then the Red Temple would either send some very powerful Saints or 'He' would make a move personally if it came to that. For sure, he still had some room to maneuver, or he could send some angels who were allied to him to bring the item for him.
However, that, too, had its own dangers because if they were indeed going to retrieve the Uniqueness of some Pathways, then if it became public knowledge that some Uniqueness of some Pathway was located in the Orange Shores, it would be swarming with powerhouses and most probably even entire armies in mere moments.
Everyone would want to obtain it as it was the thing that was worth waging war for.
"When do you want to depart, and where exactly are we even going?"
Valkorion had certain knowledge of the Orange Shores, though not much. Aside from knowing that it was a strip of shoreline along the southern coast of Essos and technically speaking it was under the direct administration of the Volantis.
It was also one of the outmost regions of the Valyrian Freehold, thus it was more desolate and there were not many settlements, aside from the few original villages and such that were not annihilated by the Valyrians on their crusade to forge the Valyrian Freehold.
"Soon, in a few days. The target is Asylum Catacombs, though several millennia ago, it was called by a different name... Firelink Shrine."
When she said the name of the place, Valkorion could sense some emotions in her voice... was it something akin to veneration?
"For your information, seeing that the name isn't ringing any bells, the Firelink Shrine, was once in the very distant past home to the Beyonder Organization called Pyromancers of Izalith; they were the Beyonder Faction was the most was most reversed in the usage of the Pyromancers and Flame Magic. Izalith was once the premier organization in the world of Beyonders until it started declining, and they perished in a fight against rival organizations."
For some reason, when he heard that they were going to the place that was once a place of gathering for Beyonder Organization that was destroyed for several millennia, Vaolkorion suddenly got a very strange feeling.
"And the name Asylum Catacombs? That doesn't sound very appealing... or safe... or just anything positive..."
For some reason, when he heard the name that Melisandre was using to call the Firelink Shrine, he felt some creeps.
The priestess of the Lord of Light, who was not Lord of Light yet, looked at Valkorion with a scrutinizing gaze before she proceeded to explain the rather complicated situation of the Firelink Shrine, now known to the Red Temple as the Asylum Catacombs.
"That is because it isn't... from the records that the Red Temple managed to recover and from our own reconnaissance of the Orange Shore and the surrounding areas, and managed to confirm that the Izalith was overrun by some Organization that deals with the Undead and pretty dark Magic... We are rather sure that to this day, within the former base of the Izalith, there are a lot of Undead and Skeletons and who knows what; that is the reason why we call it Undead Asylum Catacombs... the last Asylum for the Pyromancers of the Izalith that was turned into the Catacombs full of the Undead."
Valkorion's expression became more severe the more he heard because it was rather a serious situation. The more he listened to the situation and description that the priestess was giving him, the less he found liking this entire situation.
Still... he had on his side a priestess of the Lord of Light, or the future Lord of Light. They were known to be skilled in the Fire and Light Spells, and he himself had a powerful sword that had passive effects against the Dark-Attributed Beings.
After some time of consideration, Valkorion realized that he started really disliking this entire mess because it was what it was... total mess, and now, he was forced to go into some god-forsaken hellhole filled with the Undead or whatever..
The Undead were rare in the modern world, typically raised by the Necromancers and people dealing with rather shady spells that usually belonged to the Pathways that either dealt with Magic in general or in the Death.
"This is getting rather dangerous, Priestess Melisandre?"
Valkorion asked while sipping from his tea.