The village was larger than Cassie's, and had a small stream running across it. There was a little wooden bridge the wagon rolled over, and by it were children catching fish. The sound of their laughter drifted along with them as the man went further into the village. He stopped at a half-stone building with an archway of woven branches decorating the doorway.

"Will you be alright if I leave you, ma'am?" the man asked.

"Yes, thank you," Cassie said. She hopped of the cart. The man turned the donkey around, and headed back the way he came.

Cassie walked into the building. Each panel of the walls had a little wax paper window, and the space was bathed in a soft light. There seemed to be some small rooms at the back, but most of the building was taken up by a large hall. There were stools piled up in one corner, and in the front there was an altar with wooden figures on it. Cassie found that she didn't recognise all of them, but she knew the one with the closed eyes clasping a flower was Bounty, the sleeping god of the forest; the short one with the hammer was Axel, the god of mechanics and patron of tinkers; the one with the cape was probably Magnus, god of magic; and the one with the red beard was Noname the Trickster. Cassie pointed a finger at the figure of Noname. He was roughly carved, but appeared to have a sneer on his face.

"Is this really what your patron god looks like?" Cassie asked.

"Uh, about that..."

"Hello? Can I help you?" A man wearing the plain undyed clothes and the story beads of a templeman came out of the back rooms.

"Two important rules here, Cassie, now you have my power: you are not allowed to lie to a templeman, and you are not allowed to ask them directly for anything," Angus said quickly as Cassie opened her mouth. She took a breath to think.

"Hello, I'm from a village further out. Cultists planned to kill me and I left without any of my possessions. I was told the temple may have something to help that it wouldn't mind sparing."

"Sorrowfully we have come into possession of a large bounty due to the cultists that have been travelling around these parts. I would imagine that we can help you. Do you plan to stay in the village?"

"I plan to go to petition the gods for help with the cultists," Cassie said. The templeman paused for a moment.

"Well," he said, "that's a long journey. I will see what I have that is suitable. In the meantime, would you like a bath?"

"Oh gods yes," Cassie said, and the templeman led her to the back rooms.

"I have been meaning to ask," Angus said as Cassie sat in a mountain of suds, washing her hair. "What do you know about the gods?"

"What about them?"

"All right, do you know about the forest?"

"It comes from Bounty. Your god tricked the god of magic into putting her to sleep, and her power spills out of her uncontrolled. They say that near where she sleeps a tree has ten years growth in a month."

"And what about the god of magic?"

"He's called Magnus, he's the patron god of witches."

"Anything else?"

"I think he's like a cousin to most of the gods or something, he and the Trickster had different parents to the rest."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"That's really all?"

"I'm not a witch, I don't know."

"All right then, what about the Trickster?"

"He goes around tricking people," Cassie said. There was a pause.

"That's all?"

He has a red beard and the other gods don't like him."

"Ouch," Angus said. "Do you know why he doesn't have a name?"

"I thought his name was Noname?"

"Where did you get all this from?"

"A travelling templeman told us all this when he came to the village once."

"How old were you, five?"

"I was six."

"Um," Angus said. "I'm trying to figure out a way to break this to you gently, Cassie, but he doesn't have a red beard, that's a blood stain. And he doesn't have a name of his own, he steals the names of other people."

"Why?"

"It's a complicated story," Angus said.

"Why didn't his parents give him a name?"

"His father died before he was born, and his mother died in childbirth."

"Surely someone must have called him something."

"Not really, no."

"I guess gods don't have to make sense, but it seems silly to me," Cassie said. Angus was silent for a while. Cassie ducked under the suds to rinse her hair.

"I think we've got a little off topic--don't get up, there's someone here." Cassie held her breath. Her lungs started to burn.

"You're going to have to fight them," Angus said. "They're coming this way, just wait a little longer--now!"

Cassie burst up from the tub, startling the man in hunting gear that stood next to the bath. He had a knife in his hand, and wore a wooden talisman with a red compass painted on it.

"He's a cultist, Cassie!" Angus said. "You need to kill him!" The cultist came at her with the knife. Cassie splashed suds at the cultist, feeling idiotic, and jumped out of the bath to keep it between them. The cultist leaned over the bath, slashing at Cassie's midriff, and she leapt back, landing on the pile of towels the templeman had given her, scattering them onto the floor.

"Fight him!" Angus said urgently.

"With what, soap?!" Cassie wailed, sounding close to hysterics. She kicked the tub over, soapy water drenching the floor. The cultist avoided the tub, and lunged at Cassie. She stepped out of the way, her footing less slippery on the towels. She kicked out at the cultist's knee, and he slipped, falling to the ground. Cassie quickly fell onto his back. The man tried to get his arms under him, and Cassie lent over and bit one of his hands, moving a leg over to pin the other hand, the one with the knife. The cultist screamed and cursed and bit at her face, and she used one hand to balance herself and another to reach for the medallion around the cultist's neck. She found the string it hung from, and pulled. The cultist, choking, tried to arch his back to throw her off, but Cassie, sobbing with terror, managed to hold on. Eventually, the man grew silent and still. Cassie let go of his hand with her teet, but stayed where she was, tears running down her face.

"I'm sorry about that," Angus said after a moment. "I think his death gave me enough power to deal with the rest. You need to get up, Cassie. We need to see if the templeman is okay."

Cassie sniffed, nodded, and got to her feet.

"I swear to you, I know nothing!" the templeman said, his voice shaking. He shrieked as the cultist lazily tilted the knife that pinned the templeman's hand to his altar.

"You harboured witches once, you'd do it again. Where is the girl who passed by here?"

The templeman's eyes widened as he saw a sudsy, naked woman walk silently into the main temple hall from behind the cultist. She reached the cultist, and put an arm around his shoulder and her lips up to his ear.

"I think you should die now," she whispered to him. The man fell without a sound. The templeman stared at Cassie's tear streaked face. "Are you alright?" Cassie asked him, then winced. "Ow. Ow--"

Pain built up from inside Cassie's belly. Fire roared in her lungs. She took a breath, tried to say something, but the pain grew too much, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.