“Are you sure you’re ready to leave?” Lehie asked for the seventh time, worry etched into her face. “The world isn’t the safest you know, there's danger around every corner, it wouldn’t hurt to stay a little longer.”
“If I stay any longer I may never leave.” He said, giving her a smile. “I will always be grateful for everything you've both done for me.”
“Just remember you can come back any time Ben, you're always welcome here. Now before you head off give me your card.” Father Yan told him, taking it and tapping his own against it. “There we go, as promised the money you were offered. I spoke to the other churches and they agreed you should be allowed a bit extra given your circumstances, so as long as you're careful with it you should be able to survive on that alone for at least six months.”
Ben didn’t know what to say, they had done so much for him already, as long as he could find work he would have no problems surviving in the world thanks to all the help he had received. As he was struggling to find the words Lehie pulled him into a hug and Yan gave him a powerful handshake.
“Best of luck to you Ben, may our paths cross again.”
“Make sure you write to us every now and then so we know how you’re doing, and make sure to stay safe. It would be a waste for you to die after all the time I spent on teaching you.”
“Will do, thanks for everything.”
With goodbyes said and done it was finally time to depart. The sun was setting and the nearest town was about a week's walk away, but Yan had been kind enough to arrange a ride for him with one of the merchants that would come up to deliver supplies every couple weeks. No matter how comfortable he had gotten in the last few months he still hadn’t left the church, and there were plenty of dangerous beasts that could be found in the wood between it and the city, walking by himself was out of the question.
He spent some time talking to the merchant, some sort of bird person by the name of Ty, who was happy to talk at length about his passion for the footwear the various races of the world would use, before he decided to curl up in the back and get some sleep.
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“Ben, Beennn…”
He thought he heard someone calling out to him, but he did his best to ignore it, he was too comfortable to want to open his eyes.
“Wake uuuupp…” It continued on in a sing song-voice, trying to get his attention still. This carried on for some long agonising minutes while he was just trying to rest, and it started to take on a more desperate sounding edge, before stopping all together.
Finally. He thought to himself, drifting back deeper into sleep.
“WAKE UP KID!” Came a scream from beside his ear.
“GAH WHAT?” He yelled back bolting upright, only to find he had no idea where he was. Last he remembered he had been sleeping in a carriage, waiting to get to the town but now he was in an endless greyish blue void. He was standing on something, but there was no visible ground beneath him, no distinct boundary on the horizon to separate earth and sky.
Not seeing anyone he turned around, trying to find the voice that was calling out to him, only to be caught completely off guard by finding a silver cube, maybe the size of a car, floating ominously above him.
“Well that's not concerning at all.” he muttered to himself, before calling out. “Hello! Is there anyone out here?”
“Ah Ben, finally awake are you? I have to say it's pretty surprising to see someone so determined to stay asleep inside of their own dream.” The voice called out to him.
He looked around but still didn't see anyone. “Hey do you think you could show yourself, then we can talk?”
“Of course, I’m right here above you.”
“You’re in the cube?” He asked, looking back up at it.
“I am the cube.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Of fucking course you are.” He muttered under his breath, still not used to the bizarreness of this world. “In that case who are you? And where am I?”
“Straight to the point huh, well the name's Myriad, and I brought you here…” He stopped for dramatic effect and the sounds of a drum roll filled the space. “...To offer you the position as my believer!” He yelled, the entire backdrop behind him exploding into fireworks.
“I decline.”
The fireworks and drums immediately cut off, creating a sudden and uncomfortable silence. “Wait! Don't decide so soon on your own, at least hear me out.”
“I mean from what I heard in the church about divine realms and the fact that you're asking for me to be your believer, you must be some sort of god right? Showing up in my dream and asking me to be your believer is just too sketchy.” Ben knew this world was filled to the brim with gods, some would say too many, but from what he learned in the church they weren’t allowed to try to talk you into being their followers, that was up to their oracles, priests, and apostles.
“Wait, you have that a little bit wrong. We aren’t allowed to actively try and steal the believers of other gods, but you have no faith, contacting you is fair game.”
So this thing can read my mind, great. He wasn’t wrong though, Ben didn’t worship any gods in this world. Both Lehie and Yan tried to talk him into finding one who suited him, you didn’t need to be one of the races that came to this world with a particular god, and they were known to occasionally bless their believers with skills and knowledge, but Ben just lacked interest. It’s not that he didn’t see the value in it, and he had plenty of options recommended to him that may be a good fit, but it felt like the gods just tossed him into the world without any thought. He only survived through the kindness of people. That wasn’t even to mention how suspicious it was that a god would want him as a worshipper of all people.
“Okay I can’t help the mind reading though, it's not really something a god can turn off, but I have all sorts of handy advice for you, I’m super helpful!”
“And coming on really strong, why does such a shady god want little old me so bad then? It can’t just be the fact that you're allowed to try and recruit me.”
“Damn it kid has anyone ever told you you’re merciless? Alright I don’t have any worshippers so I’m slowly losing power, even just one worshipper would be able to make a big difference for me compared to where I’m currently at.”
That actually captured Ben's interest. “Why don’t you have any worshippers? Did your original race turn against you or something?”
“No, they’re all just dead.”
“...So how do I get out of here? Do I just have to make myself wake up or something?”
“Wait wait wait! Hear me out!”
“I mean, back at the church I was warned that there were gods here that ran off and left all their people to die, didn’t think I would get to meet one though. Maybe if I just think awake thoughts…”
“That's not what happened! My connection to my race was just a bit unique among the gods is all, when they would die they’d become a part of me, and they knew it. Rather than just escape with a few and leave the rest, and letting the invaders take our world, they opted for a slightly different strategy.”
“Oh, what did they do?” He asked, his interest caught again despite himself.
“They elected to destroy the world and have all of their souls merge with me. My race may be dead, but at the same time you are also talking to the sum total of them.”
If what it said was true that was definitely unique as far as gods went. He may not have known a ton about them, but he did get some education on the topic, and he had never heard anything like that before. Leaving aside the mentality of any people and god that could decide to use a scorched earth strategy with their entire planet, he decided it would at least be interesting to hear what it had to say.
“Okay then, and what are you offering in exchange for my worship?”
“Love and affection.”
Ben turned around and started to walk away, surely there would be an exit somewhere for him.
“That was a joke! A joke! Right now I can only give you information, but after I’ve been worshipped for a while I should be able to grant you a skill, just give me a chance!”
The offer of a skill was hard to pass up, no matter how long you would worship a god it wasn’t guaranteed you would get one in your life unless you got their attention, either through actions or devotion. Of course since he was already at the center of this particular god's attention that didn’t seem to be a problem.
“And what information can I get from you to make this worth my while?”
“You don’t have to sound so hard done by. I’m not asking for too much, a prayer or two a day, tell people how great I am so they want to worshi- WAIT STOP TRYING TO LEAVE I’LL GET TO THE POINT! By the time you wake up you’ll have arrived at the town of Stonewall at around a few hours after sunrise. You're looking for a master to teach you how to use your crafting and enchantment right? There’s maybe eight or nine places you could train under for only focusing on one of your skills, and four if you want to focus on both. Of those four you want to go to Falk's shop and convince him to take you on as an apprentice, It will be worth your while I swear.”
“Why him?”
“Because he’s the best you're going to find without a few weeks or maybe even months of travels.” Ben thought he heard Myriad click his tongue, but did he even have a tongue? Before he continued. “Looks like we’re out of time, If you agree with my advice once you see him make sure to throw me a prayer, we can talk again then.”
As he said those final words the world faded away, and Ben woke up to sunlight falling onto his face.