The headache from suddenly learning the deep common tongue passed relatively quickly. I answered her, “May your passage be swift and the ears of predators filled with wax.”

She clapped in happiness. “I understood that. When I got here, I was told there was a dwarven delving nearby so I’ve been practicing. Its good to know it wasn’t wasted effort.” The woman’s easy smile made me relax.

“What is this place? I mean, you told me it’s a temple, but I’ve never seen anything like it.” I asked, looking about.

“Is it the benches? I did my apprenticeship in a small temple to the Guardian in SeaGate. They had benches like these around the clearing for the speaker.” She shook her head. “Its been a long time but I think I got them pretty close to right.”

“What? No. Don’t get me wrong, the benches are great, I mean the building. How is this possible?” I asked in wonder.

“The divine blessing of the Guardian of course.” She smiled, then frowned and shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t identify myself. I am journey field maiden Alissa the tasseled. You are?”

“Oh, hey.” I stood and held out my hand to shake. “I’m Mike. Mike Resnick.” She shook my fingers, head cocked and staring at our hands like it was a foreign custom.

Alissa’s brow furrowed. “Res-Nick. I’m so sorry, I know little of the styles of your people. Does that name mean you are from a destroyed delving named Nick?”

I thought for a moment. “Uh, yeah. That’s what it means.” I pursed my lips and nodded my head.

“I’m so sorry for your loss.” She looked mournful, then bowed her head and raised her hand. “Blessed Marylyr, lady of the fields. Please lay your blessing upon Mike and all other survivors of the lost delving Nick. By flower and plow, let it be.”

Huh, so the addition Res added to your delving meant it had been destroyed? That’s good information. I’ll need to verify it with Goldo. It could be convenient for my backstory if accurate.

“Hmm, thanks for that.” I told her. She beamed at me.

“So what can I do for you? Do you need advice on mushrooms or a beetle pit?” Her eyes lit up. “HEY! Do you want to have this conversation in the basement? It’s set up for your people.” She walked down the aisle and waved me to follow.

As she walked off, I studied her. The woman was slightly above what I thought was average height for a human female in this area, maybe about 5’7”. Blond highlights lightened the dark brown hair. A slightly upturned nose dotted with freckles marked her as lighter complected than the typical dark tans of the locals.

Her shirt was normal material. It looked like wool dyed brown. Her skirt looked like a few very large living leaves growing down from her belt, which now that I looked at it was a vine. Her bare feet hardly made an impression on the thick grasses she walked on.

The priestess went to a large crook in the roots of one of the corner trees. It was a huge oak. The root was nearly as thick as I was and stairs were visible beneath it. She took to them fearlessly, grabbing a torch from a basket filled with them as she passed.

The steps descended fifteen feet or so and wound around themselves. At the bottom was a small chamber with huge mushrooms growing in it. When I say huge, I mean many of them were taller than me and some had stalks thicker than my shoulders. There was a powerful, earthy scent wafting out of the underground area.

Alisaa moved to the side of the cave and sat down on a thick tree root that erupted from the ground for a moment before diving back in. “Please, come and sit. Feel free to snack from anything you see. Its all edible.”

As I stepped off the stairs, my boots crunched something. Looking down, the ground was covered in foot long beetles. Some had red carapaces and a few had black ones with yellow spots. “Ugh, I’m sorry. I stepped on your… bugs.”

Her laugh covered the low chittering sound of the insects. “Please, don’t worry. This is just a demonstration beetle growing operation. I made it so the local farmers could see one in operation as they consider setting up something like it.” She reached up to a brown mushroom with white spots and pulled a fist sized section out of its cap. She took a big bite, chewing appreciatively.

“This a beetle grow operation, huh? That’s interesting.” I said, looking around. Studying the ceiling, I noticed it was alive with bats. More of the little fruit bats, clinging to each other and napping.

“Yeah, I’m sure the ones you had in Delving Nick were far more glorious, but as a demonstration for the local farmers, this one does pretty well.” The priestess said, chewing on her mushroom. “Which of these beetles do you like? It’s weird trying to farm something I can’t eat, but you know…” She shrugged. “I’m limited by my human digestive system. I’ve tried the meat and quite enjoy it, especially grilled with some butter. Can’t do anything with the shells, though.”

“Is this where the castle gets the dwarf food?” I asked.

“I use a bit as part of my tax payment, but it mainly comes from the few farmers who have set up operations. The Geophagos and Summerlin families have and a few others are building them. Its good income in the winter when other things aren’t growing.” Alissa said.

“Hmm, are you a full… I can’t think of the word. Service, I guess, priestess?” I asked her.

The woman’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure what you mean. I mainly advice farmers on crops but I bless babies, do handfasting and all the normal ceremonies.”

“Is everything a parishioner tells you considered confidential?” I stood up to pace and instantly crushed a handful of beetles. Curling my lip I sat back down.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“It is.” Alissa said carefully.

“Okay, can I get some advice?” I asked her.

“Oh, I’m great at advice.” Her smile erupted again.

I grinned, “Good, cause this is a doozy.” I told her as much as I could about our situation, leaving out the bit about dimension hopping. All of us getting drafted into the queen’s army and trained as murder squads. The brutality of the training and everything.

“Wow.” She was quiet for a long time. “That’s a lot.”

“Yeah. I told you it was a good one.” I smiled faintly.

“The ethical dilemma being, is murder in service to the queen the right thing?” She said carefully.

“Pretty much. Keep in mind, none of us are citizens of the Queen’s country. What is this place called, anyway?” I asked.

“The village is High Vale. The kingdom is Erlatracia.” The priestess said, looking at me carefully. “You really had no idea the name of the kingdom?”

“I told you, I’m not from around here.” I shrugged.

“Your home must be far, far away.” Alissa said quietly.

“Further than you can imagine.” I said wistfully.

“Okay.” she said, clearly rolling around all I’d told her and trying to make sense of it. “As to the training and everything. I don’t see that you have much of a choice. Iron doesn’t choose to be a sword or a plow. It becomes whatever the blacksmith makes it.”

“That’s a pretty good analogy.” I chewed on my beard in thought. “Are you familiar with Conscientious Objectors?”

“I know those words, but I think you’re using them as a title.” The priestess looked at me sideways.

“I was in a war a long time ago and many people didn’t believe in it. There was conscription to fight, but many people became Conscientious Objectors, meaning they wouldn’t bear arms. They would be things like medics.” I said.

“From what you’ve said, I think your trainers would just kill you, right?” Alissa asked.

“Well, yeah.” I laughed. “That’s a good point.”

“And escape is not an option?” She said, but was clearly asking a question.

“One of the girls ran. Her extra duty was to train with the hunters working the nearby woods and knocked one of them on the head and made a break for it. She was out for a week or so.” I ran a hand through my hair. “When she came back, they beat the stuffings out of her and the lashed everyone in the platoon. It was… pretty bad.”

“You can’t escape, you can’t just not train, and you aren’t here voluntarily.” Alissa ticked off the factors on her fingers. “It sounds like, morally, the decision has been removed from you. There will be another decision point once you go out on missions, but so far it sounds like you no more make decision than an arrow decides to be loosed.”

“You really think so?” I asked, a bit of hope creeping into my voice.

“Is there any doubt? What decisions have you made? What choices have gotten you into this?” The priestess asked.

“You wouldn’t believe this, but the whole thing comes form a misunderstanding. We all used to play a game back home. In was sort of realistic, you know. In that game were people who were only there to forward the plot. So there were players and everyone else.” I shook my head. “We were like a plague of locusts, stealing and killing. But it wasn’t real. It was all in the imagination. We got grabbed because someone took that for real life and our actual morality.”

I got up to pace now, heedless of beetles crunching beneath my boots. “You know, I tried to be a good person. I tried to be nice and kind to strangers. This game, it was just the release, you know? It wasn’t real, so we could all be our worst selves.”

“I can’t imagine the game you were playing, but it doesn’t sound like much fun.” She said quietly.

“It really was, though. It was great. You could fight a dragon and be home in time to make it to work the next morning. No consequences, no healing. Just exit the game and continue with your life.” I crossed my arms, frustration visible on my face.

“Then you were taken because the servants of the queen believed that murder and steal ethos was your true moral path?” Alissa asked.

“Yeah. Just a big misunderstanding.” I rubbed my eyes, blinking once I’d stopped.

“Mike! Mike, are you here?” A voice sounded from above in the temple.

“Who could be calling me?” I asked. Alissa and I both walked up the stairs to the main hall.

Elyse stood in the central clearing, yelling my name. Her cobra-like hood flared open and closed. Each time she called out her tongue flickered, tasting the air. “Mike!” Her tail lashed.

“Hey Elyse, what’s up?” I asked.

She turned, “Thank god I found you. Sshe sshouldn’t have come into the egg commune. It wassn’t for her.” The tall lizard woman started pacing back and forth. “You know what I mean? They weren’t wrong. She didn’t belong there.” Her hood kept flaring.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I told her, walking up to the six and a half foot tall serpentine woman.

“Sshe was trying to fit in somewhere. It was jusst the wrong place.” She shook her head. “They barely let me in and I’m one of them.”

“Where are you talking about?” I put a hand on her shoulder.

“The egg commune. The center of The Eagless of War’ss operation in the valley.” She gestured broadly. “They’re all mercenariess and couldn’t be expected to know we aren’t what we look like.”

“Who Elyse. Who and what are you talking about?” I asked slowly.

“Deniz.” She leaned her head down to look me in the eyes. “She’ss run off, trying to esscape.”