Theus had heard about this. There were no Transcendents in the Mystic Society; the people guarding him in secret were all ordinary folk. Granny had easily rooted them out, questioned them about the situation, and let them go.
After all, they had done nothing bad and broken no laws. Theus merely gave them a few warnings.
Theus actually found this group rather troublesome.
A force loyal to him could be of great use in the shadows, especially in a place as chaotic as Blood Port. Theus did not mind finding people to do the dirty work.
But the bond holding this group together was a cult of personality—indeed, religious worship that treated him as a god. That was a serious problem.
Fanatical, irrational faith could easily bring tremendous backlash. The more loyal they were now, the more thorough their future rebellion would be.
That was why Theus had always been trying to diminish his own divinity. He often showed himself in public, chatting and talking with all sorts of people, making them realize that he was merely an ordinary person and steering their admiration and faith toward knowledge instead.
Of course, this required moderation. Excessively fanatical worship of technology would merely lead them back down Moth Chasing Flame's old path. That was also why he wanted to suppress the Faithguard Army's obsession with explosive yield.
Thus, Theus ultimately did not claim the Mystic Society's faith for himself. Instead, he spent considerable effort explaining things, at least ensuring that the Mystic Society no longer openly worshipped him personally.
That was enough. He had no intention of engaging in thought control; what others thought was their own business. Theus merely needed to put the brakes on certain ideological currents.
They soon arrived at the Mystic Society's gathering place. It had originally been