Very different air awaited as I emerged from the portal on the other side, stepping out into an alley between tall buildings. There was no snow falling here and the sky was clear allowing an endless yet deep blue to dominate everywhere you looked above. Because it was still winter even on the east side of kingdom the temperature was still below freezing, just with no clouds there was no snow. This was the capital city Norlov and its increased population made it a much bigger risk to bring Barthenor here. However I was confident in my abilities to contain him if it came down to it and I believed that wouldn't be necessary.
Barthenor stepped through the portal behind me, certainly an act of great trust on his part. Going through a random portal conjured up by a goddess was definitely not something any mage as familiar with goddesses as he would do. This showed that he was indeed willing to take great risks to further this relationship of trust the two of us were trying to build and made me quite happy. He looked around behind as the portal closed and seemed to be bracing himself for whatever was to come.
I smiled and walked down the ally towards the opening to the wider city, the temple just beyond towering over the city scape. While walking I raised my arms to my shoulder height.
“Welcome to the capital city Norlov and The Grand Temple of the Sisterhood!”
Barthenor walked after me, slowly at first, but then with normal pace as we got closer to the street. He looked around as he walked and took in his surroundings, clearly analyzing the buildings and people he could see. For several moments large glowing circles appeared in front of his pin light eyes which I could tell were seeing spells of some kind. Even a lich required magic to see invisible things where a goddess could do so naturally. He also looked up at the temple as it rose above the alley with no emotions visible on his bone face.
“I remember the temple.” He said as if reminiscing. “Though I had only visited once. Much to my relief there had been no goddesses there at the time of my visit.”
Once we got to the end of the alleyway I stopped in the opening which blocked my follower from exiting. I put my right hand on my hip and tilted my head while looking up at him with curiosity.
“Oh? What goddesses were worshiped here back then?” I asked.
Barthenor looked down at me with those emote-less glowing points of light in his eye sockets.
“The temple was in part dedicated to the goddess Hala at the time, though she rarely came down from the north. Mainly a goddess known as Visādah presided here, drawn to the city that stood here then due its large human population.”
I put my other hand on my hip and tilted my head the other way, still blocking the exit of the alley.
“Oh she sounds interesting.” I said. “What was she goddess of?”
With his emotionless eyes the lich looked right at me and responded without even hesitating.
“She was the goddess of the universal despair.”
That answer made me jump back into an upright position. A look of nervousness came over my face and I looked away to try and hide it. I didn't know what I had expected but it certainly wasn't something as unsettling as that.
“A-Ah...” I replied shyly. “Sounds lovely.” I then paused for a few moments before speaking again. “What despair would that be exactly?”
Barthenor either didn't pick up on my clearly displayed discomfort or didn't care. A question had been posed by what he assumed to be a curious mind and so he explained without sparing what feelings his listener might have.
“She was a figure of quite deep melancholy.” He said starting out. “Overseeing the concept of 'universal despair' that all life feels in the course of its existence. To grasp true infinity is something the mind of sentient creatures are wholly incapable of and discovering one's finite nature leads into horror. Generally these feelings overcome a creature when it reaches its end.”
He paused for a moment and looked up to the endless blue of the sky above. Whatever he was thinking about it was probably quite profound. He then looked down at me again and continued.
“She supposedly was able to instill this feeling into those around her at will. Though she also claimed to help living things find their inner strength with which to overcome this feeling with and discover true meaning in their existence.”
The beads of sweat that had been forming on my forehead while listening to this explanation had frozen. I quickly reached up with my left arm and wiped them away while fully collecting myself again. This Visādah sounded like she'd be terrible at parties. Here I was thinking I had it rough as a goddess when you could get linked up with a portfolio as frightening as that!
I let out a nervous laugh and turned around to face away from Barthenor.
“Well aren't we lucky she isn't around anymore!” I quipped.
My lich companion nodded solemnly as he answered.
“Indeed.”
He then stepped up behind me and came to a halt. It was clear he was confused why I was blocking the alley. He didn't say anything though and just stood there waiting for me to say or do something.
After a few moments of awkward silence I jumped in realization. Then I whirled around and moved my hands in a shooing motion at him.
“Scoot scoot!” I said quickly. “I forgot to mention you'd be your normal self for this. Go ahead and take that magic armor off.”
Barthenor looked down at me in genuine surprise, at least that was what his voice sounded like even though his face was unchanging.
“Take off the armor?” He asked. “But then all would see me for what I truly am. Is not the reason you had me wear it in the first place to avoid the humans from fearing me?”
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I sighed and put my hands on my hips in fists as I looked up at him. There was a confident expression on my face.
“Yeah I did.” I replied. “But here at my temple I want everyone to meet the real you. If anyone in the kingdom is willing to accept you for who you are its them. This is what you call a litmus test. Now hurry up and take it off so we can go in.”
“Very well.” He replied.
It took only a few moments for the skeletal mage to release the magical enchantments that had given him the armor. Due to the nature of magic this outfit was only conjured up out of mana, something I could have easily done myself but had allowed him to do himself. Mage's creating their own armor was pretty common in magical settings and a mage of his level had no problem with it. Apparently it was earth element due to the metal.
Thus with my plus one once again appearing as a well dressed man of nothing but bones we were ready to enter into the temple. He still had with him the ornate wand he usually had with him, something I had allowed due to its necessity for most of his magic. It had been transformed into the sword on his hip before and he now turned it into a walking staff of obsidian.
I gave him a once over look and nodded satisfied. Then I turned around and waved him along as I walked out of the alley.
“Alright come along then.”
Barthenor followed after me obediently as we stepped out and into the main plaza of the temple. The building stood above us in all its majestic glory, though to the lich it would likely not be as impressive as one would think. Regardless he did look up and take in its fine masonry and probably was remembering that time he had visited here so long ago in the distant past.
There were quite a few people out and about the place in the middle of the day like this, all wandering about on their way to and from the temple on their business. They immediately recognized me and many stopped to give me a bow and quick words of praise. Others when seeing me tried to avoid me or kept from even making eye contact out of fear of the goddess I was.
It seemed that the literal goddess walking among them completely overshadowed the actual walking skeleton in robes that was following behind me. Though to be fair anyone that looked close enough at Barthenor to see what he was were quite filled with fear at the sight. There were gasps and murmurings as people gave us great breadth in passing. My clear collected confidence was enough to keep people from outright panicking however and instead they were just generally uneasy.
For his part Barthenor was completely unfazed by these reactions, likely having expected much worse from the general public. It was clear that he was silently judging them back however and also analyzing both the people and the city itself as we walked towards the temple. If he still had feelings to hurt there was no way for me to tell without reading his mind, something I wasn't going to be doing.
Together the two of us walked up the temple steps and through the open doors into the main lobby. It was pleasantly busy in here with small groups of people visiting for various reasons. Some were here to give tribute to me ,others came in need of assistance of some kind, while still others came to learn the history that the temple still housed within its walls. All of the activity stopped the instant I walked in however as both staff and visitors turned to see who was coming in.
Immediately there were gasps of both surprise and horror as they beheld the pair of us. There were plenty of people that hadn't seen me before and were frightened of me, the addition of the skeleton only adding to that fear. Others like the staff and regular patrons were used to me but were wholly terrified of the lich standing right behind me. They all stood there in combinations of shock, horror, and confusion.
With a great sigh I rolled my eyes and lifted my hands up to my sides. My voice was filled with combination of annoyance even though mentally I understood where they were coming from.
“Yes yes!” I exclaimed. “He's a skeleton! I get it.” My fierce gaze scanned around the room and caused anyone it landed on to jump where they stood. Then my gaze and voice became much more gentle. “He's under my power and here as my guest. Everyone just go back about your business.”
After my mostly reassuring order most everyone at least pretended to go back to whatever they had been doing, though many were obviously still staring at my and my companion as we walked further into the entryway. The people that were either on staff or volunteers were the most relaxed after my little speech and seemed to be doing alright now. They even helped calm down the others present the best they could.
I flicked my head to Barthenor and he walked after me as I went up to the main desk. One of the humans behind it was already rushing from his post up to me. He was a man in his early twenties who had short olive hair and lavender eyes. His outfit was clearly not one typical of the others that worked for the temple as it was actually light chainmail armor. It took a moment but I recognized him as Broan. The knight I had enlisted into the temple's service way back at the jousting tournament I had gotten my champion at.
He seemed quite flustered and upon reaching me quickly bowed deeply while he recovered his breath.
“G-Goddess!” He exclaimed. “T-Thank you for coming here today!” After this greeting he stood up again and gulped nervously as he looked down at me, still unused to me being as tiny as a human child. “So erm. For what do we owe the pleasure?” He asked with some sweat on his brow as he looked the two of us over. “A-And who might your companion be?”
I smiled warmly and gestured with my hands to the lich.
“This is Barthenor.” I said. “He's being allowed out of house arrest for a testing period. Rest assured he'll be on his best behavior and poses no danger to anyone with me around.” I then tapped my left foot once. “And yes he is a skeleton. Try not to stare?” Then I turned around again and gestured to the knight. “This is Broan. He's one of my knights and works here at the temple.”
Barthenor just stood there just and stared at the knight at first. He then nodded and spoke himself in his magically produced voice.
“By the nature in which she speaks to you it is clear you are held in high regard. Consider yourself highly honored that one like her sees value in you as a life of servitude has clearly been chosen.”
Broan was clearly not entirely sure how to respond to that and awkwardly rubbed his right hand on his arm before giving a quick bow himself.
“P-Pleasure to meet you Barthenor.” He answered. “As the goddess said I am Broan Delenski, knight of the temple, at your service.”
After the man had stood back up I smiled and put my hands on my hips.
“I'm just here to visit with my high priest and whatnot.” I then lifted my left hand. “Don't worry I already know where he is. If you don't mind I'll just head over there with my follower here.”
Broan nodded and took a step back away from us.
“Of course goddess! Thank you once again for gracing us with your presence.”
I nodded once again at him and turned to the hallway which led to the room Timothy was in. He was just on the other side of the temple doing something with laundry. The fairy was with him too of course and they would both likely be quite surprised to see my little friend. I started walking away and waved the lich to follow.
Barthenor silently turned and started following me without another word to the knight or any other human for that matter. It was clear he saw mortals as lesser beings and that was a sentiment I would have to work on him with if I was to get him to integrate into society on a reasonable level. Thankfully his silence was useful in the sense that it kept him from making any comments on those around him.
As we walked out of the main entrance I did however make a comment myself when we entered the hallway.
“Thank you for being on such good behavior Barthenor.” I said slightly snarkily.
Barthenor clearly understood my cutting comment was mostly done in friendly fashion and decided not to reply at all. He still seemed unhappy to even be thrall to a goddess in even this light capacity though he was following along out of both curiosity and out of a desire to actually become antiquated with me. So without protest he walked down the hallway with me deeper into the temple.