The Insider System

Chapter 49: The Truth

As soon as Lake said this he felt Lucas\'s eyes start to burn holes in the side of his head. Lake felt a little confused; it wasn\'t like Lucas had told him what he was supposed to say or anything. The only thing he could think he could do was ask a question. "Why are we meeting?" This might be a little rude but Lake bet it would clear up the problem.

Lucas grabbed his shoulder and dragged him away from the desk. "Did you not read the note I sent to you last night?" Lake shook his head, the only thing Lucas had given him last night was the core so he could unlock Appraiser. "You didn\'t give me a note." Lake instantly won whatever argument they were having with this line.

"You\'re right, I never directly handed it to you, I didn\'t remember to tell you you might end up meeting Master Donna in the next few days last night when you were in my office because I was busy, so I sent a message to your room, I was told you received it. It had all the info you needed on how you should act when you met her."

Lake didn\'t understand why Lucas was being such a baby, Lucas was the guild leader not Master Donna so he asked. "What\'s so important about this meeting? What did the note say?" Lake felt like Lucas should have made sure before this ever happened and therefore it wasn\'t his fault. "You were supposed to ask for the resources you needed to use your skill. Donna\'s in charge of the resource department and she\'s the only one who can green light the level of ingredients you need to make cursed potions. We keep everything that dangerous locked up and she has the key."

Lake was starting to see why this had been so important but now he just wanted to know who had kept him from receiving the message. The only person Lake had felt any ill will from was Solomon but how could he have possibly done this, Lake was sure whoever Lucas had sent to deliver the message was trustworthy.

"Now that we know what\'s wrong we can fix it. You just need to ask for permission to access the Black Vault in a few months once you\'re ready." This sounded all good to Lake but he wasn\'t sure why Lucas couldn\'t give him permission. "Why do I have to ask her when you\'re clearly fine with it."

"This is one of those things that\'s the result of the Mage guild collapsing. One of the major problems was that lots of us saw that the Demon Lord was silently taking over by spreading his influence, so to combat this some of us that were yet to be won over or controlled got together and locked everything that had to do with Unholy magic inside a vault. We figured this would at least buy us time to evacuate some of the Holy Magic capable members because they kept turning up dead. It was originally supposed to be temporary, but we put Donna in charge because we knew she was the most trustworthy and none of us have a way to make her open the vault if she doesn\'t want to."

"Why Is she the most trustworthy?" It sounded like she was just the most stubborn to Lake. He could see how the two could be confused though they had a lot of the same qualities, the main one being they couldn\'t be won over. "This was around the time The Dark Goddess went missing, and Donna Is Amanda\'s daughter. I\'m sure you can see why she wouldn\'t want to help the Demon Worshipers."

They had made the right decision, there is no way she would ever let any of the stuff in the vault out. "Is there anything in particular I need to ask for, or do I need to just ask for access?" Lake was going to have to write it down if Lucas was too specific. "First we need to prove you aren\'t working for the Demon Lord. That was what this first meeting was about. I wanted you to have enough time to win her over."

Lake wasn\'t sure how he was supposed to do that. He wasn\'t, but he had no problems with it to be honest as long as he wasn\'t controlled like a puppet. Lake didn\'t really care who he worked for. "Alright, you ready?" Lake felt Lucas was moving too fast but he thought maybe Donna wasn\'t too hard to win over if Lucas thought it would be ok.

"Yes. Let\'s go talk to her." Lake just hoped she couldn\'t tell he was lying if she asked him how much he disliked Unholy magic. "Sorry about earlier Master Donna, Lake apparently didn\'t get a note I sent telling him about this meeting." After Lucas said this, he stepped back to let Lake do the talking.

"Master Donna, I\'m here to ask if I may have access to the Black Vault in a few months when I\'m ready." Lake could tell right away that it had been a mistake to think this wasn\'t going to be very difficult. He would be lucky if this didn\'t take all day. Master Donna Had a really sour look on her face like she was looking at a pile of dung.

"Why would you need anything that\'s in there?" Lake looked back at Lucas to see if it was ok to tell Donna why he would need to do something she would consider evil. "She\'s not someone that would spread it around. You can tell her anything you want." Lake thought it was funny Lucas still trusted her so much even though he clearly thought she was a pain in the ass.

"My skill reverses the effects of poisons on me. We plan to brew cursed poison so the effects will be permanent." Lake saw no reason Donna would care if he poisoned himself so he felt she would agree once she heard this. "And you think it\'s worth it to bring those things out of the vault just so you can make you stronger. What about everyone else? Do you think no one will try and take advantage of the things you take out of the vault? It\'s not like we\'ve wiped out the Demon Worshipers here, there\'s still a few hiding in the guild and as soon as we open it they\'ll take back everything we\'ve managed to keep safe."

She had just won Lake over with her impassioned speech. "No you\'re right, it isn\'t worth it." Lake bet anything that was in the vault had already been replaced by the Demon Worshipers, so it wasn\'t like this was the only place he could get what he needed; this just gave him something to ask for when the Demon Lord came to recruit him.

Lake could tell she knew just how unsafe it was to ever open the vault ever again and that she would never do it. "Wait, you\'re just giving up?" asked Lucas. "Yeah, I didn\'t realize that the vault had never been opened. If it needs to be kept shut that\'s how it should stay, It\'s better for the guild." Lake was just hamming it up to be dramatic.

Lake didn\'t really think this was that big of a deal, but to Donna she probably saw this as her keeping her mom safe in some twisted form of logic. Lake knew the crazier the person was about something the less likely you would ever be able to convince them. "We do open it. It\'s just been a few years because we noticed increased activity from the Demon Worshipers."

"Not we you no one else has noticed any Demon Worshipers." Said Lucas. "That\'s because you\'re asking Demon Worshipers." Lake could see this was heading towards an argument so he said. "It\'s fine either way I don\'t want to get into the vault." He was hungry enough that watching a fight wasn\'t worth the wait.

Lake motioned his head to signal he was ready to go, and as soon as he and Lucas started to walk away Donna stopped them. "Wait, Do you really think we should keep the vault closed, why?" LAke didn\'t really have a reason other than he thought she was a waste of time so he just pulled some crap out of thin air. "Our intentions don\'t matter because either way if we\'re reckless bad things will happen."

This was a subtle way of saying if she let him in he had pure intentions but he couldn\'t say the same for the people around him. "The God of Light. Are you a member of the temple?" She was right this had come from the Temple Head when he had asked about the God of Light. "No but I promised to fight with them once I\'m strong enough to make a difference."

Lake felt like he just pulled a magic trick because as soon as he said this the way Donna was looking at him had switched and it made sense because so far The Temple was the only organization Lake knew of that opposed the Demon Lord openly and Lake could tell that was Donna\'s stance as well.

"I\'ll open it when you\'re ready." It seemed he had won her over. Lake would laugh if he wasn\'t afraid it would make him look evil. "Thank you Master Donna, I\'ll try to get ready as fast as possible."