Cramming for the Exam (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Votes)

Sifa spent the entire afternoon in the study hut.

Besides reading Enilu's notes on the great families of the Fourth Epoch's Tudor Empire, Sifa crammed in a great deal of basic mysticism, along with some of his mother's records on secret organizations.

Most of the organizations his mother had written about had appeared only in recent times, so much of her information overlapped with what the Watcher had already provided.

Still, Sifa found one or two older organizations among them, such as the Blood Sanctify Sect and the Order of the Immortal.

The former worshipped Devils and had three major Devil families within its ranks: Nois, Andariel, and Beria.

Sifa had read about the latter that morning in the Book of Eternal Life and knew its members worshipped Death. His mother's records added one more detail: the Order of the Immortal was a branch of the Numinous Episcopate. There was no further information on the Numinous Episcopate, though.

Since the Order of the Immortal was one of its branches, the Numinous Episcopate presumably worshipped Death as well and held the Corpse Collector Pathway.

By the time Sifa left the study hut, all that reading had left his head spinning. He lay down in his bedroom for over half an hour before getting up to wash his face.

Laughter from his younger brother Jom and sister Pasha drifted through the window. Standing beside it, Sifa saw them playing with Grigor the parrot.

Grigor seemed to have taken Sifa's warning to heart. While playing with the two children, it mostly just squawked. When it did speak, it only repeated words the children had taught it. It looked like an ordinary bird.

After dinner, Sifa went to the Sea Monster Tavern as Duke.

A full day's rest seemed to have soothed the damage