Rae stood atop the temple at the edge of the dome, looking down upon the assembled group. People from every camp had arrived. She’d estimated that the building might hold 100 goblins but at least 2,000 had come. The crowd was so desperate that those who couldn’t fit through the front door had knocked down a wall. Rae had ordered everyone but the priests out, who had been grateful when she’d restored the wall. Despite their heavy, concealing robes, they radiated nervousness and seemed unaccustomed to addressing large groups.
The woman with a circular red hat appeared to be in charge now that the Prophet had vanished and she was ill-suited for the role. If anything, she appeared far more timid than than the average person in the camp.
Priests had also come from other temples and one of them fit the loud and commanding personality Rae was used to. He also had a circle hat.
“Relax, relax,” he called, his voice like a bell, “the star-maiden has come to bless and heal us. Though we are unclean, the heavens are generous. Soon the dark times will end and a new dawn will come upon the forgotten!”
He was slightly too flamboyant and managed to strut under his confining robes, but she could see people drinking it up. The eyes of the goblins that looked up at her carried curiosity and wonder but mostly a sort of desperation. As though their souls were bones that had been gnawed upon for so long they struggled to imagine it ending.
Yet there was a matter of concern here.
“Faithful,” she called out and waited for a breath. The buzzing crowd hushed. “I am here to heal those who suffer in body. Those who know the pain of an injury or sickness. If you are healthy and whole, go to the well and stand beside it while I work my grace.”
Rae was no great expert on mortal bodies. Their flesh had all the strength of wet clay and their lives were often brief. To her eyes, however, many in the crowd appeared healthy. She understood those holding sick children or aiding those who struggled to stand but the majority seemed to be here simply because they wanted to see her. Which they could just as easily do beside the well.
There was a jostling of bodies and a fair number pushed out of the crowd to wait beside the well. But a fair number also remained for some reason.
Did they not understand her?
“This grace will heal infirmities and strengthen the wounded body,” Rae repeated. “I understand life is difficult here and many suffer from aches and pains, but this grace is for those whose need is greatest.”
A few more hesitantly shuffled out.
“Come now, brothers and sisters!” the loud priest called. “Heaven is blessing us. Healing our friends and loved ones who are close to death or who may no longer be able to walk or see. Do not be greedy in the face of such kindness!”
Greed? Ah, Rae understood. A number of those who looked healthy had downcast eyes or were glancing around to see who else was going. If they could be a little healthier, a little stronger, they’d ignore the command to leave. Life here was tough and while it was good to be generous, sometimes you had to look out for yourself. If there was a blessing to be had, why not get a little for yourself? Even if you didn’t strictly need it.
“Some malignancies run deep. These wounds may fester out of sight of man but heaven’s grace will heal them as well. If you are sure you are in need, linger. Otherwise, go to the well.”
Eight people left, reluctantly at that. Of the original 2,000, about a third now stood before the temple. Rae centered herself, ignoring the crowd below her, closing her eyes, and raising it to the sun. The warmth upon her face was distant but loving. She stepped forward and rather than falling, began to float over the crowd until she hovered over its center. There Rae let her aura expand, billowing outward from her and spreading over the mortals below.
She could feel them then. Each a small, delicate thing clinging to life. She felt their pains and weakness. She let it flow from them into her and it burned to nothing in her core. In exchange, she sent her Radient into their forms, returning their bodies to the peak of health. It was a slow, gradual process in comparison to the healing she’d done before, lasting about ten minutes.
When she was done, Rae floated to the earth and took a deep breath. A light sheen of sweat covered her golden skin. [Mass Healing] was the province of Sages and specialized Warrior, or even Judges if it meant casting out malignant influences.
But her work wasn’t done.
Rae crossed the plaza to those beside the well. The [Mass Healing] had been the warm-up. It was an expanded form of what she’d done several times the other day. This was going to be the difficult part.
Cheers were coming from the healed group but Rae ignored them. Instead, she put up her hands, indicating that the others weren’t going to join them yet.
“I am here to mend your world,” Rae said, “but this is not a task for the divine alone. Within each mortal lives a flame of celestial light and through the grace of the Makers, this flame can be enkindled. This is the true blessing of heaven, the true gift. With it, you may forge your own towers, cleanse your own worlds, and join the heavens not as lessers but equals.”
Rae raised her hands, forming a bridge between heaven and earth. This time she kept her eyes open and saw how the light poured out of her skin and washed over those assembled. Again, she let her aura expand, touching everyone in the group, all 1,500 of them. It made her ache in ways Rae was unused to feeling. She was pushing past the limit of what she could do and she hoped she hadn’t erred.
Rather than touching their bodies though, she reached for their spirits. For the flickering, ephemeral thing that might develop into a core as strong as any god’s.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The [Enkindling] rolled out of her like a wave as the system that the Makers created for the world awakened. In truth, Rae immediately lost control. The System used the Radiant within her as a fuel source, uncaringly pulling it from her core for its own work.
Before her, the mortal’s eyes flickered with golden light as something shifted within them. A few cried out and some vibrated as their body was overcome with energy.
Though it felt as though it lasted as long as the [Mass Healing], it was only a handful of moments. The connection broke and Rae’s aura snapped back into her body. As expected, the System had drained her completely. It had been formed before the Gods had taken Axis and viewed her as simply a servant of its grand design. If Rae had tried this with a large enough group, it would have torn her apart body and soul in search of the necessary Radiant.
“Faithful,” Rae said. “You’ve been blessed…” She pressed her hand to her head, which was swimming. Though she stood strong as ever, Rae felt as though the ground bobbed beneath her feet.
“Classes,” she added. “These will allow you to grow strong and protect your community… Status. Say ‘status.’”
“Status?” asked a confused-looking older woman. Her eyes then widened as something appeared before her that Rae couldn’t see.
Others took up the word. “Status… status… status!” echoed among the crowd.
“You got it,” Rae mumbled. There was more but she could feel herself about to collapse. “Just follow the screens.”
She pushed her way through the crowd beside the temple as gently as she could, went inside with Dwin and a handful of priests, and had them shut the door.
“Star Maiden, what is a [Cleric] class?” the priestess asked timidly.
“Not now…” Rae sat down hard beside the altar. There was a six-armed figure on it, carved from wood and painted with bright colors. It was a shirtless man with a lion’s head. Mathel? Not quite his style.
How did Judges make this look so easy? Menders weren’t meant to [Enkindle] mortals. Typically, the Celestial Hierarchy decided that a world had enough mana density or spiritual enlightenment to awaken every mortal at once to the system. It was a grand ritual performed in the Hall of Fate with thousands of Judges and Sages participating. Advanced enough mortal worlds could also let the System lose on a population but that was apparently far more haphazard with monsters bursting through rifts and dungeons springing up like mushrooms after the rain.
Rae had little interaction with advanced worlds–what would they need a Mender for?–and wasn’t sure how they did it.
“Are you unwell, Star Maiden Rafael?” the priestess asked.
Rae cracked open one eye and realized she must have dozed off. Someone had drawn a heavy curtain around the back of the temple. There were rough blankets piled up around her.
“Communing. Regaining power.”
“People have many questions I cannot answer, Star Maiden. A man is shooting bolts of ice from his hand and a pair of twins are popping around.”
“Popping around?”
“They’re in one spot and then in a blink, they’re in another.”
“Teleporting.” Rae gathered up the blankets into a pillow and laid on them. It was passed noon so her Radiant levels hadn’t increased at all. She’d need to meditate to bolster them. Something Rae planned to do… right after a small nap.
“How do we best use these gifts? Are those with classes Chosen now? Some have ‘Quests’ they’re being told to do. Mine says I should explore the dying well but that’s dangerous and I would have to leave my post at the temple.”
“Hey, what’s your name?” Rae had meant to ask earlier.
“Ane.”
“Cleric Ane. A quest is a difficult, sometimes dangerous, task that the System gives you for its own reasons. If you complete it, you will often be rewarded. I suggest you ignore it for now and compile a list of all the classes you have. It’s up to you how to best use these gifts. And no, having a class doesn’t make you Chosen.”
“I see. What should I do with…?”
“Communing with Heaven,” Rae said. “Not to be disturbed. No one bothers me.”
Cleric Ane bowed low and departed silently. As the curtain swished closed behind her, Rae had already fallen asleep. Her dreams were undisturbed save for a small shouting match in the temple followed by a tingle of Radient nearby. Rae merely pulled a blanket over her head.
She awoke with a start at dawn. Even if she were deep under the earth, the sunrise would quicken her ichor. Cursing her laziness, she kicked the blankets away and spent an hour in proper meditation before emerging from behind the curtain. The priests were there, robed as ever, in silent prayer with their heads pressed to the ground.
“Star Maiden Rafael, you’ve returned from your… communion.” Ane tone suggested she’d seen through Rae’s ruse. Perhaps she’d snored.
“I have a great deal to do and I’m afraid that I don’t have much time. Has anything important happened?”
“No, well… another priest named Buran tried to speak with you and I had to [Smite] him. He left with his followers and seems upset but I…”
“Wait, what?” Rae said with a chuckle. “You cast [Smite] on another priest?”
“He was being rude. This is my temple in the Prophet’s absence and he must respect my authority. It was a little [Smite]. It hardly hurt him at all.”
“Give a kitten claws and watch how quickly it becomes a tiger.”
“As I was saying,” Ane said with a hint of embarrassment. “Several priests have made requests that you visit their temples as well. There are already people talking about moving here from the other camps, and I’m worried we might not be able to accommodate them all.”
Rae glanced around the small, cramped temple. There was a small door near the back that she assumed led to a kitchen and the priest’s sleeping area.
“I expect I’ll stay here,” Rae replied. “Might want to expand the place. We can talk about it this evening.”
She pushed the doors open to find a mass of new tents had been set up right outside the temple. “Oh.”
“People have wondered if heaven might bestow another blessing…” Ane explained.
“Are those people fighting chickens?” A small group of goblins had etched out a circle and sat there placing bets and smoking thin pipes as two roosters fought in the center.
“We typically keep people from gambling and drinking near the temple but they’re celebrating. I thought it would be harmless.”
“Not for the loser.”
Rae peered at the pair as they leapt up, winds flapping, and tried to eviscerate one another. She didn’t understand the fascination the goblins had with the fight. They were animals acting on instinct, not skilled combatants who had spent centuries honing their talents and techniques. It was an empty fury.
“The larger one has Infernal energy in him.”
“That’s Banger, my champion,” yelled a goblin.
Ane looked between them and then headed for the group. “There shall be no demonic chickens in sight of the temple…” she began.
Rae followed the pathway down to the gate. It automatically opened every morning and closed at nightfall. She hoped the guards knew how to overwrite the mechanism in case of an attack. Most of the monsters that had attacked last night had come from the south and there was a long-buried roadway leading south from the gate. Rae suspected that the dungeon she’d sensed was at the end of it.
Vuuthas had been in the dream realm for two days now. It sometimes took him up to five days to properly explore the spiritual nodes but given the state of Shal, he’d likely keep his trip short and sweet. Rae still wanted him to wake to a fully powered shrine.
Rae formed her bracers into a large, two-handed hammer and began to smash the debris that lined the roadway. It was a tremendous amount but that suited her as she wanted to reuse the material. Nothing here was sky-cobalt like the tower or any of the higher matera but it was good, solid stone influenced by both the stasis of the Hadean realm and the tower’s protective aura.
For the next few hours, she maintained a swift but steady pace. Breaking down fossilized trees made of stone and ash into gravel and then turning her hammer into a plow to she pulled to force it off the roadway.