“It took three whole days to get all the konboh sorted out into the right flocks, but Mama was feeling better so Papa didn’t need to stay with her because he said I’d be enough to help her all by myself.” DeeDee seems to have adopted my upper surface as her seat. She likes to perch there cross-legged, making her flowers into chains to drape over and around me, chattering away with the latest gossip as she understands it. I don’t mind too much. I’m learning bits and pieces about the world from her childish ramblings.

There’s a fox-like creature watching us from behind a grassy clump nearby, ears flicking now and then in response to the girl’s voice. It’s surprisingly tame for a wild creature, although it won’t let DeeDee close enough to pet it. I think it might be the animal that made the hole that DeeDee hid in. I guessed that it didn’t want to use the burrow after that, and felt sorry for having damaged its home, so I gave it a small Bless and now it just hangs around.

DeeDee calls it Pooky.

“They’re all talking about a strange man in the village. He’s a priest, I think. He sounds like a priest. Tall and thin with long robes. They don’t like him. He’s been asking how the bandits got beaten. They think he’ll want to take people away to fight for the King. Don’t worry, nobody’s told him about you.”

Great, now I’m worrying about what would happen if someone DID tell him about me.

“Mama’s getting really big now. Did you make a little sister or a little brother for me? Papa says he doesn’t mind but I know he’d like a boy because he can’t give the farm to a girl when he gets old. Which is silly, because I can be just as good with the kondoh, when I’m not helping Mama. Look, this one’s all red flowers, and this one’s all yellow, like the Aostea flag.” More strings of flowers join the trails over and around me.

You have been offered Tribute! Do you accept Y/N

Another Worship Point drips into my collection as the girl’s innocent prattle continues. “The stranger had a badge instead of a flag on his robes. A crescent moon with a rose. Have you seen a rose? They’re much bigger than these flowers, and they have thorns all over. Mama says that men give roses to women when they’re trying to make them smile. I don’t see how something with thorns all over is going to make someone smile. Do you think Mama would like some of these flowers? Would you mind if I took her some?”

DeeDee has been trickle feeding me Worship Points for… I don’t know how long. I’m still struggling to keep track of the time. I’m pretty sure I’m losing whole days at a time, maybe even weeks. I really hope time doesn’t pass at the same speed back home. I hope my family aren’t missing me the way I’m missing them.

Anyway, I’m many Points richer as a result of DeeDee’s visits, and all she wants is to do something nice for her mother. It would be a minor miracle if a flower grew right out of solid rock, wouldn’t it? My mother liked… likes daffodils. Smooth, tall, dark green leaves and stem. A bright yellow trumpet with a frill behind it. We used to make them for… for… for Easter cards! Back when I was a little kid.

I picture one now, right in front of my young Follower, as detailed as I can. I can picture the crisp fold along the length of each narrow leaf-spear. The papery feel of the brownish stuff at the back of the flower, covering the little bulge there. The feathery softness of the petals, and the tiny orange padded clubs on the ends of the stamens within, brushing pollen powder onto any questing bee or finger. The faint green-honey-vanilla smell.

DeeDee gasps in surprise and delight as my focus returns and I see what I have made. I’ve cracked myself, creating a small crevice almost at the tip of my ‘nose.’ Out of the crack, proud and bright and strong, is a daffodil, just as I remember. The girl’s eyes seem to fill most of her face, they’re so wide. The last few delicate blue flowers tumble from her hands as she stretches them out, tentatively touching the new flower with the tips of her fingers.

Achievement unlocked!

Creation

You have brought something entirely new into this world, something previously unseen by any mundane eye, untouched by any mundane hand.

+1 Level

Power gained

For goodness sake, any mother does that every time they pop out a baby. I bet “mundanes” don’t get all these rewards. Yes, it’s a nice step towards my ultimate escape from here, but it seems horribly unfair. I didn’t even think up a daffodil, I just imagined one really, really well.

“For Mama? ‘Specially for her?”

Worship Point received

With solemnly careful hands, DeeDee extracts the daffodil from the crevice, bulb and all. She offers a smacking farewell kiss (a Tribute that converts into yet another Worship Point), and heads off at a run. I hope the plant survives its enthusiastic transport. I hope Namuna likes her present.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

To keep myself awake- if I can refer to it that way, the avoidance of the lack of awareness that can hold me in its grip- I check the hovering box of progress.

[SANDY

MINOR ROCK NUMEN LEVEL 5*

POWERS

Inconsequential Miracle (WP 1)

Minor Miracle (WP 2)

Miracle (WP 10)

Bless (Max WP L)

Heal (Max WP L)

Curse (Max WP L) ERROR: VERBAL COMMUNICATION REQUIRED

Sacrifice (*)

Vituperation (*) ERROR: VERBAL COMMUNICATION NORMALLY REQUIRED

WORSHIPPERS: 4

FAVOURED WORSHIPPERS: 1

WORSHIP POINTS: 101

ACHEIVEMENTS

*Creation

INFLUENCES

Life

Oblivion

Invective

DOMAINS

Invective ERROR: VERBAL COMMUNICATION REQUIRED. DOMAIN SUSPENDED

Livestock]

I relax, with a mental sigh, as I find myself a step closer to the Divine Miracle that I have in mind. That is enough that the dreamless sleep claims me for a while. I have the impression that it wasn’t for too long this time.

I wake to tragedy. It’s a distraught little group that I find in front of me. A contrast to the day that surrounds them, because that is beautiful, clear and sunny. DeeDee looks confused, pale and on the edge of tears. Namuna is there, even paler than Dee, her skin practically transparent and her expression drawn with shadowed eyes and tear-tracks on her cheeks. If not for the woman supporting her, I think she wouldn’t be able to stand. I’m amazed she’s managed to walk here. I don’t recognise the second woman. She’s somewhat older, considerably rounder and gives the impression of being simultaneously cuddly and made with a core of steel.

Ganzor looks almost as pale as the rest of his family, and he has a sheep with him. It has a rope around its neck, just like the last one that the other farmers brought to me, but this one seems to be perfectly healthy. I can’t tell what the sheep is feeling, but I expect it would rather be somewhere else.

I’m missing something, though. Namuna is clutching a bundle of cloth in one arm. Clean cloth, white cloth, in a bundle about the size of a small dog. A small dog, or a very, very small child.

Gently, Ganzor takes the little bundle. More carefully still, he places it on top of me, drawing aside the folds of cloth a little. There’s a tiny face in there. It’s very still, grey-blue and lifeless, with deep purple lips and closed eyes, still damp with birth fluids. The bundle lies completely motionless as the shepherd draws back.

“Please,” Ganzor says brokenly, and DeeDee echoes the word. The girl’s hands find their place on my rocky nose. “Please. You gave him to us. Don’t take him away before he’s even looked upon life. Please.”

Oh g…

If there was a moment for a Miracle, it has to be this one. I focus on the idea of the baby breathing, its skin growing healthy, its eyes opening. The tiny body remains unchanged, and the Worship Points stay stubbornly in my collection. I try Heal, but it does nothing. Thinking that maybe it’s because I’ve never used Heal before and I got it wrong, I try to pour almost everything I have into Bless, and it’s like stubbing a toe that I don’t have. I stop, and stare in helplessness.

“Please,” Namuna whispers. “Take my life. Take it in return for his.”

“No! Namuna, no.” Ganzor pulls the sheep around in front of him. DeeDee starts sobbing as she reaches into her father’s bag and takes out a large knife, handing it to him. Ganzor sets the blade to the sheep's throat. “You saved this lamb for us. We give her back to you now.”

I don’t have room for more horror, but somehow the realisation of what Ganzor intends to do to what must be the baby lamb that I saved is enough to push me into action again.

Sacrifice

There are those who willingly give their life to save the life of another. You understand what drives them to make that bargain, as you, too, were willing to trade your life to save that of someone else. You have the Power: Sacrifice. You may take life in order to give life.

I know what the family are offering. I know what I am not willing to accept. But I can see a loophole. It doesn’t say “You may take A life in order to give a life.” It just says “life.”

I reach out and take just a little life. From Namuna, from Ganzor, even from DeeDee, but just a year or two each. The baby stays still and silent.

I don’t know how long sheep live. I don’t want to kill it.

Motion overhead draws my attention. A birdlike creature, something like a hawk, is stooping down, arrowing towards something like a pigeon. The moment before the hawk strikes, I take the life of its prey. It won’t change anything. The pigeon was about to die anyway, and the hawk will still get its meal.

The baby does not move.

A little distance away, Pooky is tracking movement in the grass. As the fox pounces, I take the life of the mouse it catches.

The baby lies silent.

Another mouselike creature, more fierce than its cousin, fights a centipede-snake thing that I steal the life from as its victor starts to eat it up from head to tail.

Within the cloth bundle there is no change.

In the depths of the grassy plain, insects go about their lives, tiny predators granting me minute slips of life from each even tinier meal they catch, but I need more. I grasp the grass itself, draining it dry until it is nothing but harsh brown stems against dry dust. The wildflowers wilt and shrivel. A dead circle around me expands, wider, wider, until a small sound gives me pause.

A sound like a squeak, or a sob. The bundle twitches. Namuna’s cry cuts me to my rocky heart. The woman with her tries to catch her and fails as she falls to her knees before me, lifting her arms to pick the baby up and cradle him against her.

I can help Namuna too, I realise. The Sacrifice has cost me no Worship Points at all. I try Heal again, concentrating on helping Namuna recover from the birth. She has a grey streak through her hair now. So does Ganzor. So, to my shame, does DeeDee.

For now, that doesn’t trouble them. They close about the new baby boy as the colour of life and health spreads through him, forming a bubble of thankfulness and love. What was lost has been returned to them, and they are content.