Even with multiple scrying constructs searching for the very distinctive form of Lorgar, it took me quite a bit of time to find him. Part of that was due to my assumption that he would be somewhere near the people and their massive party, maybe trying to perform damage control or something along those lines. Another part was because the guy had hidden himself away in one of their storage sheds, with his four buddies keeping watch and protecting him in his time of need. Or maybe in his time of discomfort.

  I had no idea how he got into the state he was in when I finally spotted him through a narrow gap between the roof and the walls, but the guy looked rough. Not rough as if he had partied too hard, but rough, as if he had fought against a monster like the Tallest’ Guardian and come out second best. The guy was, quite frankly, utterly wrecked, though I couldn’t see any bruises or actual injuries, making me wonder if there was a magical cause for his state.

  Looking at his buddies, I started to think that it might have something to do with their faith in Sunna, as they looked somewhat beaten down. Not as badly as Lorgar did, but they, too, seemed to have been in a fight and lost badly.

  Maybe the truly devout followers of Sunna were actually allergic to fun, as amusing as that idea sounded, so when they were doused with Lia’s concoction that lowered their inhibitions, they might have decided to have some, only to break out in hives and isolate themselves here. Then, when I unleashed the secondary agent that turned the initial dosing up to eleven, they, too, got affected, and their allergy to fun broke them. While it was extremely unlikely, the theory was so amusing that I made a mental note to spread it around. However, I’d probably leave out the part where we drugged an entire town with an untested alchemical concoction.

  Regardless, I wasn’t sure I could learn anything else here. The narrow gap I was using to observe these people gave me a very narrow field of view, and the scrying construct’s senses didn’t help much. I could hear their quiet moaning, and something that sounded remarkably like a prayer, but beyond that, I was effectively clueless.

  So, instead of focusing on the observation of moaning fools, I left that one scrying construct sitting atop their shelter and focused my attention elsewhere.

  Not on the party, though.

  Even observing from fairly high up, above the height of their rooftops, I was seeing far too much for my comfort. The things people did to each other were disturbing, and the looks of enjoyment, or even rapture, I could see on a few faces weren’t helping much.

  “Mom?” Lia’s voice pulled my focus back to my body, and most of my scrying constructs returned to their usual observational height, allowing me to keep an eye on the ongoing events without having to spend any focus on them. I was fairly confident that I’d notice anything large, but otherwise, it was almost as if these events were happening in the corner of my eyes.

  “Yes, dear?” I asked, curious if she had seen something else from our position here.

  “Care to fill me in on the effect of my concoction?” she asked, her eyes shining with excitement, “You said earlier that these people had been under tight control, almost as if in a state of lockdown, right?” she continued, making me nod in response. It had looked like that when I visited earlier and spread the second part of her concoction.

  “But with the light, something must have happened. Unless they decided to make some sort of bonfire, or maybe to roast a heretic or two. You know, with smores,” she joked, making me roll my eyes. It was a little too close to the truth for comfort. I was fairly confident that the insanity that gripped the Blessed City, thanks to us, had killed more than one person. And, given the fires I had seen, I was confident that some people had burned to death.

  “They are having a Christmas Party,” I replied, keeping my voice as bland and calm as possible.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “What?!” Lia and Luna asked, their voices forming an amusing impromptu chorus.

  “They are out there, with bonfires, and burning houses, singing Christmas Carols and fornicating in the snow,” I elaborated, my voice still completely placid, as if I were reading a boring weather report.

  “What?” Lia repeated herself, while Luna was simply staring at me in disbelief.

  “You heard me,” I replied, barely keeping the chuckles that wanted to escape under control.

  “That’...” Luna began, only to shake her head.

  “Somehow, it feels as if that should be descriptions of two different events. You know, half of it is wholesome, the other half is, well, not,” Lia shook her head as well, briefly glancing over in the direction of the Blessed City. Or maybe towards the mountain slopes, still lit up by flickering light from below.

  “That’s not it,” Luna threw in, her voice now deadly serious, “Mom, what is Christmas?” she asked, making me wonder where that question came from, until my gaze caught Lia and a few pennies dropped all at once.

  When I had originally restored Lia into the form she now had, the people of Apple Gate Farm had prayed for her, using Christian prayers. Those prayers were charged with Astral Power, giving me an additional source of power, as no Christian God was available to accept it. Maybe that deity was simply absent in this world, or there were other divine shenanigans going on. Regardless, I had simply used that power and been done with it, not really reading too much into the situation.

  Now, looking back, it proved that even prayers without a direct divine patron carried power. That, in turn, made me wonder what would have happened at Apple Gate Farm if I hadn’t been present to direct the power they unleashed. It was possible that the unrestrained power eventually took on a life of its own, forming some sort of Genius Loci, or it might simply fade away. It might depend on how much power people poured out and the strength of the local Astral River, as those factors would influence how quickly the power faded. Regardless, it was merely an interesting question when asked in general, but in the case of the Blessed City, there was a bit of a problem.

  Namely, that the Blessed City was, quite literally, Blessed. The city in its current form, or rather, the form it had the day before, only existed thanks to a divine blessing. Namely, the wards that protected them from outside influence and might even have helped to prop up some of their buildings, I wasn’t sure.

  But that reliance on literal divine miracles raised a fairly important question, especially now. What would happen if a large amount of Astral Power dedicated to another deity accumulated below those wards? Especially as those wards had some sort of loop going on that allowed the controller of them, probably Lorgar, to influence the people living under their protection? If people committed mass blasphemy, with some heresy thrown in, while they were linked to that ward, wouldn’t things get quite interesting? And if the whole thing happened during the time at which Sunna’s power and the wards were at their weakest, would ‘interesting’ become ‘devastating’?

  It sure looked like that.

  “I think I know what happened,” I admitted, after both my daughters tried to get my attention a few times, only to realise that I had been lost in thought for a minute or two.

  “So?” Luna asked, and I began to explain my idea.

  It didn’t take long, and soon, Lia looked thoroughly amused at the surprising success of her concoction, while Luna was only shaking her head in disbelief.

  “This seems almost a little too convenient,” she admitted, “But it does make some sense.”

  “Think about it like this, dear,” I shrugged after a moment of thought, “Almost everyone who survived the change was already an adult; people like you are a rarity. The yearly celebration in the middle of winter was Christmas, at least in this part of the world. Even if you weren’t a Christian and believed in the religious aspect, it was impossible to escape the cultural aspect of it, so the association is there for everyone. Lia’s potion removed inhibitions and might have dampened the mind control effect of the ward, allowing people to slip into old habits. Or the relative safety and security the people of the Blessed City enjoyed made them remember the world before it all Changed.”

  “Does it change anything?” Lia asked, sounding curious. “I mean, how it all came crashing down.”

  “Not really,” Luna had to admit, “Unless you want to repeat the success, I guess it doesn’t matter too much.”

  “I don’t think so,” I shrugged once more, “I’m more interested in making sure that the people of the Blessed City get back to their feet after this, and know who they should blame.”

  The grin on my face told my daughters who I wanted to take the blame. And it wasn’t us.