“Are you... alright?” Caspiera asked, more confused than concerned.

“Hm?”

“You just got this sad look all of a sudden.”

“It’s nothing,” Donavan said, forcing a smile. Caspiera furrowed her brows at him, but he had no desire to dwell on dark thoughts. Looking around for something to change the subject, Donavan spotted something on the far side of the room.

“So, what's all that?” Donavan said with a nod, he could feel Caspiera’s gaze linger on him for a moment longer before she glanced over to where he’d indicated.

On the far wall, dominating the entirety of its upper half was a circular stained-glass window. No, not quite a circle, it had twelve sides distinguished from each other by slight angles. Its colors were predominantly of browns, greens, and golds, but backlit by the waning daylight they were muddied to darker and deeper shades. All around the inside of the shape, like numbers on a clock, a series of golden circles sat nestled in each of the twelve corners. Each circle had a symbol in its center. Inside the circle at the top, where the twelve would be, was what looked like a silver tower. To its right was a crashing blue wave, after that a sapling with golden leaves like the one on the other windows, and so on.

“You mean you seriously don’t know?” Caspiera asked looking back up at him.

“Assume I don’t know most things.”

Caspiera frowned, then nodded to herself. He tried to ignore how quickly she let herself agree with his statement.

“That is the Dodallah, it's the symbol that represents the twelve in their entirety. Though this temple is dedicated to Jeiya in particular, every temple pays homage to the other twelve.”

Donavan nodded. He wasn’t sure how useful this information would be, but he figured it was good to know on principle. He studied the symbols, starting from the top and moving clockwise downwards, but frowned as he got to the six o'clock circle.

“How come the bottom one’s empty, and why is it black when the rest are gold?”

“Quiet!” Caspiera barked. “Don’t talk about that, especially not here.”

Donavan blinked at the woman’s sudden forcefulness. He opened his mouth to ask why when the clopping of approaching heels drew his attention to the two women crossing the floor over to them. One was the priestess who originally lead him in, the other was… well, she was something.

Though her outfit technically had more fabric than the other priestesses, it somehow managed to be more provocative. A long, slinky green dress hugged tightly to her voluptuous curves. It had slits up both sides to the waist, flashing the length of her long legs with each step. The lace waistband of her panties peeked out on each side with the swaying of her hips. Unlike the other priestesses, The heart-shaped cutout on her chest was upside down and quite a bit bigger allowing for not just a bit of cleavage, but the entirety of her gold leaf embroidered bra to be seen. And there was a lot to show. Donavan half worried she’d spill out any second.

“This is the man who rescued the captain from the field.” The first priestess said as the two arrived.

The new woman looked Donavan up and down, a lascivious glint playing across feline jade eyes. Waves of dirty blonde hair tumbled down from underneath her headdress. A beauty mark sat just above and to the left of plump cherry red lips. She had flawless sun-kissed skin and glamor makeup that would be at home on the cover of a playboy magazine. That was probably exactly where Erwin had got his inspiration for her.

She was a little too perfect though. Like an amalgamation of the best features of hottest celebrities. Long shapely legs led up tp wide hips and an ass a Kardashian would be jealous of. Not only that. She had to have a bust size on the large side of a G cup, yet her waist was thin enough to seem fragile. Donovan hoped they had chiropractors in this world, poor woman.

“I am headmistress Vivienne.” She said, her tone so intimate it sent swells of heat rippling through his body. “Caspiera is a dear friend of mine. I can’t begin to express my gratitude.”

“It was nothing,” Donavan said, making a point to look her straight in her eyes.

“Nonsense,” The headmistress said taking a step closer, softly biting at her bottom lip. “The Captain keeps everyone in this village safe. We owe you a great debt for doing the same for her.”

“Really, it’s no issue,” he said taking a small step back. “Helping others is its own reward and all that.”

“But surely it doesn’t have to be the only reward.” The headmistress responded, closing the distance between them again. He could smell the scent of flowery perfume on her skin.

“Oh, will you lay off it. I'm right here” Caspiera interrupted, still cradled in Donovan's arms. “Leave your bimbo-ing for another time, if you hadn’t noticed, I need your help.”

“No need to be so impatient.” The headmistress muttered, stepping back and relieving Donavan of the swelling heat in his chest. “Now, let's have a look… How did goblins manage to do all this?”

“They had firebombs,” Caspiera said.

“That's just ridiculous.” The headmistress replied, folding her arms. The action enhancing her already abundant cleavage. Donavan tried not to look. He lost

“I was at the northern water-gate, the fires were on the southern wall. How the fuck else do you think my arm got burned?” Casperia said gritting her teeth as she raised the scorched arm up for the headmistress to see. “Look, I hate to ask, but I need to be back on my feet asap, can you do your thing?”

The headmistress frowned for a moment, but nodded, and glanced back up at Donavan. He snatched his eyes back up to meet hers. Maybe he'd been fast enough and she hadn't noticed. Then the woman flashed him a clandestine wink and, for what felt like the billionth time today. Donavan silently cursed Erwin's name.

“Hold her still.” the Headmistress said. “She can be surprisingly squirmy”

Caspiera rolled her eyes, and Donavan readjusted his grip. The headmistress laid an outstretched hand just a few inches above Caspiera’s charred arm. He realized then that he had no idea what exactly it was the headmistress intended to do. Watching on, it should’ve been obvious, but when she started, he still couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.

A series of glowing green patterns and pathways appeared on the pale skin of the headmistress's hand. It was like she had glowing tattoos that hadn’t been there just a moment prior. The designs almost seemed to resemble circuitry. a labyrinth of thin, hard angled lines organized into various arcane looking shapes and sigils. They started glowing a soft, pale green, but rapidly the designs burned into an emerald luminescence that blackened the rest of the grand chamber with their casted shadows.

Donavan's breath caught, as he and everyone else in the temple went quiet. Expressions of wonderment, reverence, and just a bit of fear painted the faces of all watching on, all bathed in that eerie verdant light.

In the space between the headmistresses' hand and Caspiera’s burnt arm, a spectral circle the size of an open palm hung in the air. Little runic markings orbited along its circumference and inside geometric shapes and even smaller circles revolved inside of and around each other in a seamless waltz of clockwork rotations.

Donovan was so mesmerized by the carousel of holographic patterns he almost missed what was happening to Caspiera's arm.

The burnt skin foamed and fizzed, and as the foam abated, underneath was pink and healthy skin. Nothing whatsoever of the blackened and blistered burns remained. Caspiera quivered in his arms as the strange power washed over her, and for a second, he thought he could smell the blooming of flowers and hear the chirping of birds.

The headmistress then moved her hand over Caspiera’s broken leg. This time, the exposed, jutting bone slowly slid itself back into place. Caspiera convulsed, grunting out in pain, but Donavan held her firm. After the bone repositioned itself, the skin began to knit itself back together. After a few moments more, the only remnant of the wound was a tear in her trousers.

“That was… That was incredible” Donavan murmured.

“Oh, I can do all sorts of incredible things.” The headmistress said batting her long eyelashes at him. Despite her bragging though, a measure of fatigue seemed to weigh down her suggestive expression.

That was magic. He’d just seen real, honest-to-god, magic.

How many times had he imagined being able to see something like this? Or even better, to do it himself. Erwin said he was some kind of wizard, right? That had to mean he could use magic himself, how amazing would that be, but how? How did it work, what did he have to do to use it? He had no idea where to even start, but the prospect itself was exhilarating. Despite everything else, Donovan had always loved the idea of magic.

The more he thought about it, the wider his smile grew. Maybe this place wasn’t gonna be so bad. Maybe he could find some actual enjoyment in his situation despite having been forced into it against his will. Sure, he’d been a bit baffled by some of the more ‘exotic’ quirks of this world, but what he had just witnessed? That was why he had fallen in love with fantasy in the first place.

“You can put me down now,” Caspiera said impatiently.

“Oh yeah, sorry.”

He lowered Caspiera gently to the floor. She wobbled for just a second on her newly healed leg, but soon was standing tall. Now seeing her full and towering stature, she was certainly impressive.

“You’re not hurt at all are you?” The headmistress asked looking over Donavan’s body. “I think there’s enough for one more if you need it.”

“No worries, I’m fine.”

“Why don’t you let me do a quick check-over to be sure, I'll be gentle.” The headmistress said quickly stepping over and pressing her body up against his own. “But only if you want me to be.”

“Oh, for fucks sake,” Caspiera said, rolling her eyes.

For a moment, all rational thought fled his mind. every thought replaced with the cripplingly vivid awareness of how warm the sections of exposed flesh allowed by her outfit felt against all the exposed flesh of his outfit. That and how precariously the cloth around his waist seemed to be tied.

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Then he remembered he was not a fourteen and reclaimed his mental faculties enough to carefully push himself away from the lewd woman.

“I appreciate the offer, but now that the Captain is healed, I really must be getting back to what I was doing.”

The headmistress seemed to pout for a moment, but stepped back, and gave him a kindly if somewhat disheartened smile.

“I meant what I said about repaying you,” she said, the earlier flirtatiousness gone, replaced with earnest sincerity. “So, if we can help you with whatever it is your doing, just ask.”

Well, maybe they could help, it couldn’t hurt just to ask, could it?

“I’m actually looking for someone, they should be here in town.”

The headmistress nodded. “We here at the temple know everyone in the village, everybody has come in to see us at least once before, can you tell me their name?”

“Well, not really,” Donavan said scratching at his chin. If only he’d read the damn draft instead of just skimming the summary. Then he’d already know this basic crap, but it wasn’t like he knew that the information would end up ever being relevant to his life.

“Can you describe them at least?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Donavan nodded. He’d seen the cover art Erwin had commissioned for his book only a few hours ago, he could just go off of that. “Young guy, maybe just barely in his twenties, a real farm boy type, tall with long brown hair.”

“Hm.” The headmistress said looking down in thought. “You’ve just described half of the village. Lots of young men came here to farm at the behest of the Oaktri Trading company, is there anything more specific you can give me.

Donavan frowned down at the floor. The guy depicted on Erwins cover was so generically handsome, he couldn’t think of any features that would easily set him apart. but maybe he could use something else he'd seen on the cover.

“He might have a sword.”

“A sword?” The headmistress said, golden brow raising slightly.

“Yeah, a fancy one. With a crystalline black blade and a golden hilt, it has these abstract sigils running down the center of the blade, real sleek looking, not made out of any normal metals. Definitely magic.”

Caspiera raised an eyebrow and looked at the headmistress. She displayed no reaction whatsoever.

“Can’t say I’ve seen anybody with anything like that around here.” The headmistress said evenly.

“Neither have I.” Caspiera chimed in.

“Damn, he must’ve not gotten it yet,” Donavan muttered under his breath.

“What?” Caspiera asked.

“Nothing," Donavan said with a dismissive wave. “Guess I’ll just have to get back to looking the old-fashioned way.”

“Very well.” The headmistress said with a nod. “But remember, we still owe you, so if you should ever need anything from us, healing, a good meal, a warm bed… or a warm body.” She added with a seductive tone. “I’ll personally see to it that any of your desires that it is in my power to fulfill, will be.”

The headmistress then made it a point to look him square in the eye as she drew a finger up to her lips, and slowly glided it down her neck and fondled one of her breasts.

“Yes, um well, I-uh I really must be going now,” Donavan coughed and quickly pivoted towards the entrance, only to find the other priestess standing in his way, playfully nibbling on her thumbnail and staring up at him through flirtatious lashes.

“Buh-bye now,” She cooed. “Come back soon.”

Donavan ignored her, nimbly side-stepping around her and sped-walked his way to the front doors.

“Any friend of Caspiera’s is a friend of ours.” The headmistress called out after him. “Remember, anything at all!”

By the time the headmistress finished her sentence. Donavan was already out the door.

…

Vivienne watched as the temple doors closed behind the strange man and turned with an inquisitive brow to her old friend.

“You found an odd one.” She said to the captain. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a man so shy before, it’s almost as if he’s never been in one of our temples.”

“He hasn’t,” Caspiera said folding her arms. “He said so himself.”

“Really? That can’t be true, where could he have come from that doesn’t have at least one of our temples.”

Caspiera shrugged. “No idea. He didn’t seem to be to keen on talking about himself. He just showed up out of nowhere.”

“Half-naked and doesn’t like to talk about himself? How come you always get the good ones?”

Caspiera rolled her eyes. “Whoever he is, he’s strong, scary strong. He killed those goblins like they were nothing. Then he carried me all the way here without so much as a heavy breath.”

"Oh did he now?" Vivienne purred, "How did it feel. Did being manhandled like that turn you on?"

"Whore." Caspiera said, though there wasn't any real insult in her tone. This was often how their conversations went. The familiarity of it was reassuring.

Vivienne giggled. "I just thought you might have finally found someone that could help you relieve all that frustration you're always carrying around. If not him, then how about you finally let me try?"

Caspiera's cheeks tinged red. She scowled and looked away. "Must you always tease me."

"Who said anything about teasing?"

"Viv!"

“Fine." Vivienne acquiesced, "does the mystery man have a name?”

“Don of Navan.”

“Hm, that is odd. Well odd or not, he was not at all hard on the eyes. If you can get him back in here, me and my girls could have a lot of fun with that one.”

“Oh no,” Caspiera said adamantly. “I’ve told you before, I want no part in your games to lure random men into your bed.”

"What are my chances of luring you into my bed?"

"Viv!" Caspiera growled.

“Oh, don’t be like that.” Vivienne pouted. Then she narrowed her eyes at the guard captain and smiled. “Or is it that you want him for yourself? I’m willing to share y’ know. Having both of you at the same time? I can barley imagine what it would be like to be between all that muscle.”

Caspiera scowled and turned away. Though Vivienne was well aware that she only did that when she was trying to hide a blush. She smiled, happy that she could still get a rise out of the grizzled captain now and then.

“Seriously VIv, you can stop. I appreciate your repeated attempts to make me feel..." Caspiera frowned. "Wanted, in that way. But its unnecessary. I don't need everyone and their mother to want to jump into bed with me to feel good about myself."

"I am serious though. He didn't seem bothered by your stature at all. Maybe he'd be interested? You never know if you don't ask, and you deserve something nice with all the work you do. I could teach you how to seduce him."

"I’m the captain of the guard, I’ve got better things to do than going around seducing people.”

“You’re still a follower of Jeiya though aren’t you? Seducing people is a form of worship for us. He might be a tough nut to crack, but the chase is half the fun.”

“Drop it, Vivienne.” The captain growled. “My only interest in him is strictly professional. He may have saved my life, but he could be dangerous. We still don’t know who he’s looking for or why.”

“Too bad he wasn’t looking for a wife because I’m available. Or even just a mistress, I’m available for that too.” Vivienne said, a playful finger twirling her hair.

“By the twelve you’re incorrigible, do you ever stop thinking about sex?” Caspiera said shaking her head.

“Nope. It’s what makes me such a good follower of Jeiya.”

Caspiera hung her head and let out a long, familiar sigh. “Whatever, I’ve got to get to the head office before the village meeting starts or Desna’s gonna burst a blood vessel. I’ll catch up with you later.”

With that, the captain of the guard took her leave. Vivienne smiled and waved as she watched her friend go, but the moment she was out of sight her expression dropped.

This couldn’t have been a coincidence. Not one week after she received a proclamation from the high-cardinals that the cursed swords location had finally been discovered. A man shows up out of nowhere and starts asking around about it? Only the highest church officials were even aware of the sword's existence, much less its appearance. She'd only been told because it was supposed to be somewhere on the frontier. Yet this stranger had escribed it perfectly. How had he known about it, was he working for the church? He had to be if he knew so much, but if so, why wasn’t she notified of his arrival?

Plus, what he’d said had made no sense. All their texts indicated that the sword could not be touched by mortal hands, yet he had spoken as if he expected someone to just be lugging it around. Was it possible some other faction had become aware of the sword's existence, but who? The Imperial family wouldn’t send a single half-naked vagrant, and he’d seemed all mystified when he saw her use magic which ruled out the Arcanists Association. Maybe one of the city-state alliances, but they rarely concerned themselves with legends and obscure mythos. Hells it could be an enemy nation or something else entirely.

Dozens of major factions could’ve had an interest in acquiring the sword, it possessed immense military, arcane, and even theological value, but up until now, only the church of the twelve possessed any real information on it. Now this Don of Navan, some supposedly random farm boy, and gods knew who else seemed to be aware of it as well. That did not bode well at all.

“Nira,” Vivienne called over to one of her priestesses.

“Yes, headmistress?” The young girl said running over, still holding a pan of needles in need of disinfecting.

“I need you to draft a letter for me to the geezers at Ziaxium. Tell them... tell them we may have a problem.”

The girl nodded and quickly ran off.

A knot began to form in Vivienne’s stomach. There was something off about this whole situation; from the church’s sudden but secret crusade to find and acquire the cursed blade, to the mysterious stranger showing up expecting to find it here. If knowledge of the sword's existence had gotten out, it would have world-shaking consequences, and if that was already the case, then firebomb flinging goblins were going to be the least of their worries.