As Alicia slowly opened the great doors of the temple, she felt uneasy about the situation. She hadn’t been alone since she was in Calarina, and she wasn’t used to the feeling anymore. Worries began to flood her head as she slowly stepped through the halls of the stone temple. Despite looking like the great Cathedral back home, it was remarkably different. It was far older, smelled different, and the walls were made of different stones. It wasn’t much, but she could recognize it without thinking. Anyone who grew up near the church could, it was second nature. As she made her way through the halls of the darkened church, winding through the twisting passages that reminded her vaguely of her former home, she worried about exactly what she was being asked to do. All she knew is that she had to power up the soul that rested inside her, but not much else. Eventually, after what felt like hours of walking, she burst out into a huge central room that was overflowing with sunlight. It obviously was never used for any form of official church service, judging by the ivy that had crept around nearly every surface in the room. At the former altar, several very old men were talking. Alicia stayed quiet and listened intently to what they were saying, knowing better than to just charge in uninvited.

“Of course, Ulthos could charge at any moment. We all know that don’t we? But to deprive the people of the festival…” The old man on the left spoke quietly, as though the wall behind him were made of prying eyes. “The workers would riot. The festival is the only bargaining chip we have, you know that. How else are we supposed to keep them in line?”

“Would it not be easier just to crack down on them?” said the old man on the right, rubbing his temples. “If we hear talk of unionization, they’re imprisoned. It’s as easy as that.”

“We would be no different from our enemies, you fool. That’s an Ulthos tactic, we are not Ulthos, we have class.” responded the old man on the left. “Food production has been at an all-time high here, there’s no telling what a potential raid would do to our industry. Besides, I can’t have the workers rioting under my watch. There are already people who are trying to vote us out for putting children in the fields. In what-” He tried to continue, but was cut off once again by the man on the right.

“You’re worried about voting already? It’s another three years until the elections, so why exactly are you so worried? If the fieldhands try and rise up, we’ll nip them in the bud. It’s as simple as that.” The old man sighed and looked over at where Alicia was standing, his face quickly shifting to alarm. “Goodness! Paarl, we have a visitor.” The other old man, who Alicia assumed was named Paarl, straightened himself up and walked over to Alicia.

“Young lady, this is a sacred place, we cannot have tourists walking through here. I’m sorry, but I must ask you to leave.” He spoke quietly but firmly. It was clear by his tone that he was expecting someone far worse.

“I’m not a tourist, sir. I’m on a Pilgrimage. The Elder in Oscis told me to come here to give my soul power.” She spoke slowly and nervously, avoiding making direct eye contact with Paarl.

“So, number five is finally upon us. What a tremendous day. Now then, would you mind demonstrating the power of your soul?” He asked his question and quietly stood back, making sure to leave plenty of room for whatever Alicia was going to do. Without thinking, she took off her necklace and drew her blade. She was getting remarkably better at this as time went on.

“Oh heavens…” Muttered the other old man. He walked over to Alicia and looked closer at the blade she was holding. “There’s no mistaking it, that’s the Heavenly Blade.”

“What’s the Heavenly Blade?” Alicia asked, remarkably confused at what was happening.

“The Heavenly Blade is the sword Laius himself used to slay the Great Ones, ten thousand years ago. It’s a miracle you were even able to conjure it.” The old man spoke with reverence, doing everything he could to touch the blade. “Well then, I’d say you’ve more than proved yourself. The altar is through the doors behind us. Pray there, and you will be one-third of the way done with your journey.” Alicia nodded and walked across the room to the wooden doors the men were speaking of. She looked back at them, before slowly pushing them open and walking through. The inside was remarkably well-kept in comparison to the outside. The altar, as the men had called it, was an extremely simple room at the back of the church. Inside was a spring of water and a very large stone structure in the middle. Upon closer instruction, there was a little incision that was the exact size of her necklace. Without really thinking, she took it off and inserted the gem into the slot, and stood back to watch the effect. Almost instantly, the air above the stone structure began to shimmer. Alicia watched as it did, transfixed by the way it looked before a figure began to appear in the light. The only things that were easy to make out on her form were her face, her hands, and the brilliant wings that stretched up from her back. The rest of her body regularly flickered between a solid form and a hazy mist. The two stared at each other for a moment, before the woman smiled and began to softly speak.

“Hello, Alicia. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Her voice was as soft as fine cloth, and she spoke to Alicia with reverence. “I am Myrthola, the Goddess of the Fog.” Without thinking, Alicia almost instantly kneeled and placed a hand on her heart.

“It’s an honor to meet you, fair lady,” Alicia stated, keeping her position.

“I could say the same for you, you know. You’ve already got quite the presence in Godhome. Everyone’s talking about you.” Myrthola laughed a bit at Alicia’s formality. “No need to be so formal, my dear. Talk to me as if I am an old friend.” At once, Alicia stood up and nodded.

“Well then… Myrthola. May I ask you a question?” Alicia asked. In response, the goddess simply nodded, causing Alicia to continue. “Well, how exactly does this pilgrimage work? I’ve been told it’s very important, but I’m unsure as to exactly how it works. Can you tell me?” The fog goddess laughed again, before nodding gently.

“Of course, my dear. It’s really quite simple, you know. Sihn, the beast who lives under the endless Ocean, is in an incredibly weakened state. Not weak enough for anyone to just go down and kill him, but weak enough that a concentrated blast of soul power could finish him off for good. Laius’ soul could do it, but when it’s away from his body, it’s weaker than usual. That’s why we set these shrines up, in order to charge up the power in his soul. Laius, our heavenly lord, chooses individuals whom he feels are strong enough to go on the Pilgrimage, and you partake. It’s simple, isn’t it?” Alicia nodded, finally beginning to understand exactly what she needed to do.

“Thank you, miss. With everything that’s been going on as of late, it’s borderline impossible to get straightforward information. I thank you.” Alicia finished and began to relax in front of the goddess.

“Don’t mention it, Alicia. Now then, when you take your necklace out of this statue, your soul will grow more powerful, and you will be one-third done with your pilgrimage. Take it with pride, you’re getting closer to destroying Sihn.” Alicia nodded and took her necklace from the now-glowing statue. Upon putting it back on, she was almost instantly hit with an intense sensation of dizziness. It quickly faded, however, and she was back to normal. “Our time runs short. I need to go back to Godhome soon, you know. It’s been lovely talking with you, Lady Alicia. Oh, and write Kane a letter when you can. She’s been praying for your safety ever since you left.” With that final message, Myrthola began to shimmer again, and she was almost immediately gone. Alicia put a hand on her necklace and sighed, wading out of the pool of water. She felt bad about forgetting to write her letter to Kane, but after everything she’d been through the past few days, it made sense. As she left the altar chamber and returned to the cathedral proper, she found a pen, a bottle of ink, and a piece of paper, and immediately began to write her letter to Kane, hoping desperately that she would be able to get it sent in time. The pen felt awkward in her hand, but she persisted regardless, writing as much as she could think to say:

Instructor Kane,

My apologies that this is reaching you so late. I meant to

write this letter in Oscis, but there was a situation. I must let you know

that I am fine, however. I’ve acquired two new companions, who will hopefully

make sure that another issue of that caliber does not happen again. Based on

our travel routes, it’s likely we will meet at Ulthos. I do hope to speak

with you in person there when I get the chance, there are many things we

need to discuss.

-Your Student, Alicia

As she set the pen down, she waited for the ink to dry, before folding the paper up and sealing it in one of the cathedral’s envelopes, entrusting it to the cheerful older men that patrolled the area. Once she was finished, she walked out of the church, finding that it was sunset already. She sighed a bit, wondering where the time had gone, only to rejoin her group at the steps of the cathedral.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“What’s up, Allie? You get that soul thing powered up?” Miranda asked, leaning on a colossal cucumber behind her. Alicia rolled her eyes a bit before responding.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s charged, it’s charged.” She responded, trying to hide her amusement towards Miranda’s apathy towards the situation.

“Good! The boring part’s behind us. Now come on, there’s a festival about to start!” Miranda was yanking Alicia’s hand even before she was finished speaking, which made the others laugh.

“Miranda! Are you sure we have time for this?” Alicia asked though Jacques seemed to interject.

“Oh, give it a rest, Alicia. We’ve got plenty of time to complete the pilgrimage, don’t we? We can kick back and have fun for one night. Besides, we’d probably be getting to bed soon, anyways.” As Jacques finished, the remainder of the group seemed to agree. Despite traveling together for quite a while, they hadn’t had any chances to really kick back and have fun.

“Oh… alright, fine. Let’s enjoy the festival while we’re here. After all, it only happens once a year, doesn’t it?” She responded. Sean cheered and grabbed Jacques by the hand.

“C’mon babe, the pumpkin ale they’ve got here is calling my name!” He shouted, before running off, dragging Jacques behind him. Jacques was only able to get out a very forced;

“Remember, you kids aren’t allowed to drink!” before his voice was drowned out by the other festival attendees. Miranda turned to Sly after they left.

“What’re you gonna do, shady? We’ve got the whole night to ourselves.” Sly stared at her, before leaning up against the nearby building.

“Sean was telling me about this ‘Pumpkin Cutting Contest’. I believe I shall enter myself into that. I have a good chance with this sword, I think.” Sly stared at the two girls for a moment there, before pushing his glasses up.

“Alright, have fun,” Miranda remarked, before tugging on Alicia’s arm. “Let’s go, Allie! I wanna see how much booze we can get before they catch onto us!”

“Wait, Miranda-” She started, but she was already getting tugged everywhere by Miranda. She knew better than to try and stop her, at this point. Even though she knew it was a bad idea, she was always happy to play along with Miranda’s antics. As they stepped into the city’s square, they were almost immediately hit with a bonanza of colors and sounds. Sean and Jacques had already managed to cram an entire cart full of more sweets and snacks than Alicia had ever seen. The entire city square was lit up with no less than fifty torches, and tons of people were dancing in the center of the city while a band was playing music. Ringing the square were dozens and dozens of shop stalls, and Alicia was certain that there were more tucked away in the winding streets around Mistwood. Her eyes almost immediately lit up at everything she was seeing. Sure, the festivals in Calarina were fun, but they were almost always governed by the Church, so there wasn’t a lot that two teenagers could get up to without getting yelled at. Miranda, in much the same boat, almost immediately took off towards the nearest street stall.

“Hey! What’re you selling?” She asked, practically bouncing in place with excitement.

“Pumpkin Pie! You want a slice?” The vendor asked, a warm smile on his face.

“We’ll take two pies!” Miranda announced, causing Alicia to laugh.

“Wh- That’s a lot of food, you know. We make our pies bigger than normal.” He responded, very obviously nervous. “Are you sure you-”

“Yes. Give us the pies, pie man,” Miranda finished, before slamming a fistful of gold coins on the counter. Alicia had to hand it to her, she really did know how to get stuff done. The vendor rustled around behind the counter, before putting two giant pies the size of serving platters onto the counter. In just a few moments, they had obtained a wagon, set the pies inside it, and proceeded to have a personal goal of trying every unique item of food at the festival. The church very often didn’t let children eat sweets unless it was their birthday or another special occasion, and even then it was in extremely limited quantities. With their newfound freedom at their fingertips, Miranda and Alicia strutted around the festival like they owned the place, trying just about everything they could get their hands on. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin donuts, apple danishes, juices in every color they could imagine, loaves of bread stuffed with nuts, rolls that had a creamy orange sauce inside them, cookies and pastries in just about every variation they could think of, more soups than they could reasonably name, and various fried foods. If they could fit it into the wagon, they bought it, and almost immediately ate it. Much to Miranda’s dismay, the vendors that sold alcohol required a valid Mistwood ID in order to purchase, so she was completely unable to get any. After they’d finished eating, they decided to wander over to the pumpkin-cutting contest to watch whatever Sly was doing. As it turned out, the majority of contestants brought knives, not nine-foot-tall broadswords that could cut through solid steel. Predictably, when they showed up, Sly was covered head to toe in gold medals.

“I have no idea how this happened,” He muttered as they approached. “I kept waving my sword around near them and they gave me all of these. I love this town.” For absolutely no particular reason, they decided to walk away when they heard him say this. Throughout the night, he continued to get more gold medals. They’d keep periodically checking in on him, only to find him encased in the metal more and more, until he was just a pile of gold medals. Alicia wondered how much gold they’d need in order to get that many medals. The two of them spent the rest of the night hitting up various food stalls and dancing as much as they possibly could in the town center. They used to dance a lot when they were kids, but they’d since fallen out of the hobby. Miranda was still an excellent dancer though, being able to move her body in bizarre ways that Alicia couldn’t even fathom being able to move in. On one of their food stall runs, they ran back into Sean and Jacques.

“What’s up, boys?” Miranda asked. “How’s the date night going?”

“Fantastic,” Sean muttered, before drinking an entire glass of juice in one gulp.

“Sean, you’re going to drown if you keep drinking those,” Jacques said, tinkering with a belt-like machine. Alicia recognized it as the same device he’d been messing with in the woods the previous night.

“If I drown, I will drown in delicious juice!” Sean cheered, before bursting into a chorus of laughs.

“Hey Jacques, what’re you working on?” Alicia asked, looking at the weird belt that he was messing with. “It looks interesting.”

“Oh! Well uh… I don’t usually talk about my inventions with other people, but I suppose I can make an exception for you,” Jacques said. “It’s something I call a grappling belt. Each side of the belt is fitted with a device that shoots out razor-thin wire, with a hook attached. I figured I could use it to get around the higher trees here, but we’re not going to be spending nearly enough time to properly test it out,” He muttered. “Oh well, at least I got to finish it!”

“Hey, why don’t you normally talk about your machines? They sound awesome!” Miranda asked, evidently confused.

“It’s the church,” Sean responded. “My dear Jacques here is a priest. Modern technology of any kind is pretty thoroughly forbidden in the halls of the church. He mostly tinkers in secret.”

“The people in Oscis didn’t care?” Alicia asked, extremely confused.

“Well, it was a small town. It helped to have someone who knew how to fix things, so the majority of people just looked the other way. If he pulled something like that in Calarina, they’d execute him,” Sean said, drinking yet another cup of juice, which caused Jacques to sigh.

“Well, it’s alright. I’m devoted to my faith, and that’s all that matters,” Jacques finished what he was saying and reluctantly ordered a juice to go along with Sean’s.

“Huh,” Miranda commented. “That’s a little silly, but alright.” Jacques looked surprised at her comment as if this had never been brought to his attention before.

“If it’s what Jacques wants, he can do it,” Alicia said. “We’re technically both servants of the church still, Miranda.”

“Well… yeah. I guess,” She responded, crossing her arms.

“You two also work in the church?” Jacques asked, interested.

“Yeah. We’ve been working there since we were kids. The head priest recommended Miranda join, and I sorta tagged along for the ride. Most kids in Calarina tend to work for the church unless they’ve got a family business. I’ve still got scars on my hands from candle wax,” Alicia said, showing off the scars on her hands to Sean and Jacques.

“Well, it was the church’s capital. I suppose that makes sense,” Jacques responded with a sigh. “Well, enough about sad stuff…”

“Yeah! Let’s talk about happy stuff! Like the fact that I’m finally back home again!” Sean said with a laugh.

“You lived here, Sean?” Miranda asked. “Wouldn’t expect you to be a city-type.”

“Well, I moved out when I was ten. Still, though, my mom was from here,” Sean finished his juice and sighed a bit. “Think I’m good on food for a bit, Jacques. I’ve gorged myself to death from all this food.” Alicia nodded and looked around the pavilion. The festival was still in full swing, even though it was nearing two in the morning. The sight of people dancing and laughing made Alicia smile. She appreciated the fun times they’d all shared tonight. For a moment, she closed her eyes, before she felt Miranda jostling her shoulder.

“Alicia? What’s that smell?” She looked like a panicked animal, and it was making Alicia concerned.

“Uh… I don’t know. A bonfire, maybe?” Alicia shrugged. Whatever the smell was, she was so used to it that she didn’t register it as a threat. That comment immediately made Sean leap out of his chair.

“That’s no bonfire…” Sean muttered, looking out into the horizon. A very faint glow could be seen in the distance, followed by the telltale sound of a horn being played.

“Wait…” Alicia said. Suddenly it was all coming back to her. The old men in the Cathedral earlier were talking about Ulthos attacking. This had to be what they were talking about. “Guys. It’s a raid.” Before the others could even react, the army of Ulthos burst forth from the trees, storming directly towards the town square.