Dawn rose over the quaint monastery walls as Charity stretched on the small cot that she had slept on for the last decade of her life. She wouldn't have expected to have lived this type of lifestyle when she was growing up, but times had changed in the world since her youth, and as she had finally made her way into adulthood everything around her world had changed. A dozen wars, bloody rebellions, and civil unrest had ripped their way across the dozens of small kingdoms and territories that made up the known world. Then, after the better part of five years of fighting, the world had stilled into the current state and silence that felt like the calm before the storm.

Five individual humans had turned the very foundations of culture upside down within a blink of time, before settling into a cold war of tense borders and half threats against one another. This was the state of the world when she had felt so powerless to do much of anything in the sight of such grandeur that had forced her into exile.

Truth be told, she had traveled as much to heal herself as it was meant to hurt herself, having had her business cut out from under her feet by an unfortunate fluke of fate. Still, it had given her time to explore herself and what she stood for before finding it in the unclaimed forest of Marren. There she had met a man who had given her purpose for perhaps the first time in far too long as he took her in for what had only been meant to be one night of rest under a solid roof at first.

“Charity, to be honest with you I don't think your problem is a lack of purpose. I think its a lack of the means to meet that purpose.”

She hadn't expected the words to cut into her heart like they had, even when she left the monastery later that afternoon after bidding everyone goodbye. But then, at the end of a good day's travel as she continued her search for more, she finally took the time to truly explore the opportunity that the head priest had offered to her.

It was a promise of easy advancement. Of a sixth god’s coming that would rock the world to its very foundation, just like what had happened during her coming of age. And the idea that she might be able to ride that wave this time? To anticipate the next change in the market and bet everything on the idea that she would be there to see it come? Well that was a dream worth clinging to, even when she turned back to make the awkward journey to join their monastery the next day with open arms.

Her faith had been tested then, by the years themselves. The turning of time had at once made her bitter, defeated even, as she was forced to confront the idea that maybe she had been wrong to bet everything on the words of a single man and some passed down prophecies. But what kept her there after the months turned into years of waiting for the next shard bearer to come, had been the bonds she forged over that time.

It was hard to spend every waking moment working beside the men at her side without forming somewhat of a connection, and it wasn't like she was trying to avoid developing friendships so of course something was bound to happen. Even as she was given these years to formulate her own sense of purpose in the wait, she also found the bonds to the men on her left and right to be comforting as they all pursued some sort of similar awakening through their daily toil.

So when the prophesized day finally came and cut through their group, opening the possibility of the future just as easily as it had cut down the man that had once opened her mind all those years ago, she was surprised. She was surprised that no one else had stepped up in the moment of uncertainty. That no one else had seemed to be committed to the group due to the same sense of ambition that still burned inside her heart even to this day. Surprised that even after the sixth goddess had graced them with her wave of possibility, it seemed like no one else was willing to grab a hold of the ship with her.

It was with this fact in mind that she rose for the day’s travel with a certain grimace on her face, all at once conflicted about what she had realized was a turning point in her life as she made her next choice. Sure, she still cried as she hugged the five monks that would be staying behind in the monastery, understanding the fact she might very well never see them again. But they weren't committed to the same ideal she had, not exactly. Their devotion to the sixth goddess had been formed out of the very basis of her distant presence, as Charity finally realized that what they truly wished for was solitude from the world more than anything else.

She turned her back on the monastery to walk alongside her new traveling companions between an old man and a gangly soldier, all of which followed a pair of half clothed skeletons down the western trails. And without a single glance back at the men she had spent her last decade getting to know, she at last realized that there was probably only one man among their number that had truly understood her, and his bones were now walking ahead of her, still leading her on her path.

She smiled at the skeleton’s back while a heavy weight settled on her soul as she set her mind on the task at hand, devoted to the Herald of Death and the waves she would bring.

—

Dei had been somewhat surprised as she watched the group form up for travel that morning when the vast majority of the monks had elected to stay behind from the group to continue to live their lives in seclusion. They had given Charity some non-committal answer about how the soldiers searching for the Herald might have found it suspicious if the monastery was unexplainably empty if they ever doubled back to check on them, but it was all but obvious they simply didn't want to leave their comfortable life behind.

Dei had been thinking on that moment as they walked away, uncertain of her past as she was, she felt some form of attachment to the monks and their thought process. That wasn't to say that she actually wanted to stay with the monks, but more so that she felt like she could empathize with the desire to do nothing more but settle into the ennui of a stable life. What had happened in her first life to cause this reaction? It felt almost like a sense of grief washed over her as she thought to herself, distinctly aware that the person she had used to be had tried incredibly hard to accomplish something. And then failed.

Voices drew her back to reality as the group continued to walk down the path. Dei realized that the trio of humans had taken to the front of the group, presumably to allow them to take the lead and guide the group considering they had the best idea of where to go. Dei and Xei settled into lock step, burning eyes watching the humans lead them down a new branch of the forest trail to their left.

“-and just what do you think will happen if they come back to the monastery?” John seemed to be aggravated by the conversation, “We've just left those men to die.”

“Death means nothing in the-” Charity began before she was cut off.

“You know damn well that those men don't give half a rat's ass about our little ‘Goddess’ compared to you.” John said.

Matthew craned his neck while they continued walking to look back at Dei with a strangely knowing look in his eyes before he spoke, “I don't think that those men will face much in the way of danger considering they have the goddess's blessing watching over them.”

John threw up his arms in exasperation even as Charity nodded along to Matthew's words, but Dei could do nothing more than narrow the embers of her eyes into thin slits as she stared at him.

‘How does he know?’ Dei asked herself.

‘He was asleep throughout the entirety of the night, i'm sure of it. My body would have seen him moving if he even rose for a midnight piss.’ Xei insisted.

Dei felt Fei leave the group for a moment as the ember seemed to zip away at high speeds following the light tendrils of smoke that extended away from Dei back in the direction of the monastery. Thankfully, these markers of sorts were only visible to herself in her bone sight as the purple flame disappeared from sight in only half a second of blurred light.

A couple of seconds later Fei rushed back to make a report, ‘They're still posted around the church and following the GUARD order as best I can tell, but I have no idea how the old bastard managed to see them even as we walked out of the place. They're practically posted so far out from the monastery you can hardly see the walls with all the trees in the way!’

Matthew had returned his gaze to face forward as Dei took his measure for what felt like the tenth time just today. ‘Just who is this man?’ she thought aloud, desperately wishing she could actually talk like a normal person again. She had tried questioning the man at one point during their short stay at the church, but between the annoying fact that she had to try and write out any questions she had for him, and his deft ability of avoid telling her anything of real worth, she had given up on the attempt after only a short while.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He certainly seemed to be helpful, practically serving as a guide for their group in most of the key decisions, but was that really what was for the best here? Dei had wondered at multiple points whether she should have taken more direct control of the decision making since she was theoretically the de facto leader they were all following. And yet, it just felt so easy to let Matthew lead the way as she let herself become a passenger along for the ride.

The day's travel ended up giving Dei far too much time to think to herself as she second guessed every decision or lack of decision she had made so far. Thankfully, the journey was fairly uneventful even as they moved to make camp at the end of the day, and the girl resigned herself to the understanding that she didn't know what the right choices were even now, no matter how hard she tried to think about it.

—--

It had been raining for some two or three hours or so by the time Sergeant Ozwald reached the small farm house along the main road leading into the Golden Kingdom. He had made the call for his men to compress inward at mid day, drawing them in from their one mile wide spacing as he had seen the storm clouds approaching; but even then it had taken them far past sundown to reorganize into a single group once again.

The rain had left his uncovered hands a pale color as he knocked on the heavy wooden door holding back the light of a flickering fire that could be seen illuminating the cracks. A pair of voices that had been conversing on the other side of the door skittered to a stop as the sound of a moving chair could be heard followed by muddled footsteps.

“Who is it?”

“We're a group of weary travelers who were caught in the storm. Would you be willing to let us stay the night? We'll pay for the chance to get dry.” Ozwald replied in a light voice, letting the hope of a good night's sleep bleed into his weary demeanor.

The door stayed closed for another couple moments before some sort of locking mechanism could be heard on the other side of the wood and it started to open inward. After a couple of inches, a face of a hardy man with a bald head and a thick mustache peered through the half closed door at the group as he took them in, soaked through to their very bones in the early hours of the night.

Ozwald quickly held out a few golden coins, cradled in his cupped hand as an offering to the obviously hesitant man while he looked them over. The squad had taken great care to stow away their painted spalders and helmets shortly after they had left behind the damn church after the awkward situation, so they looked merely like a group of well armed men of no affiliation. For better and for worse.

“And why should I trust a group of fighters to enter my home?” The man asked.

Ozwald looked him back deadpan and stuck his foot into the crook of the door as he responded. “Because you're smart enough to know we could always just decide to kill you if you say no. So are you going to take my coin or not?”

The man looked down at the thinly armored greave forced into the way of the door as he took only a single moment to answer by swinging the door wide open to reveal the inside of the main room. A middle aged woman was clutching tightly to her cutlery at the table on the far side of the room, flanked by a young boy who peered over at the men with curious eyes.

The man looked down at his boots as he spoke under his breath, “My family means you gentlemen no harm, and we hope you mean us no harm in return.”

Ozwald merely clapped the man on the shoulder and entered the room in response, quickly walking over to a short bench nearby a softly burning hearth in the corner of the room. His men followed him just as quickly, finally smiling for the first time in what seemed like hours as they made some sort of thanks to the man at the door and started taking off their packs.

The sergeant was just barely able to reach over from his seat on the bench to slap the golden coins down on the table the family was eating at before settling into a content position with his pack resting against the wall like a pillow. The main room wasn't so big as to casually accommodate the addition of 6 men alongside their ration packs without being a little tight for space. The owner of the house had to weave his way through their fallen bags after closing the door, taking up a defensive seat alongside his wife and child.

“I mean it, my coin is good and my men just want their rest after a long night. We'll be out of your way as soon as daybreak comes.”

The man said nothing as his wife seemed to come to her senses all at once and started ushering the boy to pick up his plate and come with her to the other room. The boy made some faint resistance as he wanted to stay with the adults, but his father quickly shushed the boy and helped the mother gather their things into one of the side rooms quietly. The man then quickly returned to the table, swiped the handful of coins into his hands then left the room to make his way to the bedroom his family had presumably barricaded themselves in.

“There's some leftover stew in the pot as well as whatever bread is left on the table. I hope you all have a wonderful night’s rest and safe journeys on tomorrow's road.” he quickly snapped out even as he closed the bedroom door on the group of men stripping out of their wet clothing.

A couple of the soldiers laughed at the man as they started opening the top of the pot hanging over the fire, helping themselves to a hearty dinner even as the sergeant closed his eyes and rested his head back against the wall. As awkward as the situation might have been, it was still preferable to causing the deaths of innocent farmers.

Ozwald thought back to the most recent kill to his name, some unnamed priest that had tested him in an awkward moment, the man so obviously trying to become combative with his force mage. Even still, after the fact it seemed like such a pointless death to him. Sure, he could react to the moment with all the deftness of a man who had dealt with similar situations in the past, but it didn't mean he liked it.

Shaking his head, he forced his mind onto other thoughts as he sped through the last couple of days' memories. They had spread into a searching pattern, raking through the northern border of the Golden Kingdom for the last two days straight, not even stopping to rest overnight. Every fifteen minutes he had sent mental checks to his men, spread out in a fan over a distance five miles wide as he monitored their spacing and speed to keep them all on line. But even those frequent checks did little to distract him from the sheer monotony of walking in a straight line for thirty-six hours straight, alone.

Every twelve hours had been punctuated by a short report from his other four search teams as well, each continuing to say the same thing each time. Nothing. No sight or sign of the skeleton or the men accompanying it, even as one of his squads got attacked by an angry bear they had stumbled upon in a cave. Nothing to see for their efforts even as they combed through the miles upon miles of several days worth of travel.

Eyes still closed as he enjoyed the heavy warmth of the open room as rain pattered against the thatch roof, Ozwald categorized the day's events before he made his own report. He let his mind wander to that other place that let him send magical messages as he tugged lightly on the mental string that he knew connected him to his commander.

‘Sir, SFC Ozwald reporting for the daily sitrep, over.’ Ozwald paused for a moment to see if he got cut off, but soon continued after no one stopped him.

‘Currently at thirty-nine hours traveled so far and an estimated eighty miles traveled No sign of our target yet across all five search teams as my squads hunker down to wait out tonight's rain. One minor injury so far in sector Three-Five-Nine-Zero of Marren forrest, but we already called him up for pickup last night. Current plan is to continue movement in the morning once my men get some sleep, over.’ He hesitated again, waiting for the response that soon came back to him over the link.

‘Roger that sergeant Ozwald, report received. Current guidance is to slow down your pace to a sustainable rate and spread out your forces to infiltrate the border towns of-’

Ozwalds eyes snapped open as he quickly reached into his bag to grab some paper and charcoal that were both kept in a thin leather portfolio to guard against the rain like tonight. A couple seconds later he hurried to write down the names of the fifteen border towns the commander listed off, charcoal held at the ready to continue writing as the voice continued on, audible only to him within the room.

‘-, Tefton, Fordton, and Camp Miller. These are the most likely ingress points to the four border nations, and our last chance to catch the shard bearer before they slip away, understood? Over.’

‘Understood sir, will post our soldiers in or near-’ he listed off the long list of towns written on the sheet, ‘-as soon as possible. Over’

‘Happy hunting, sergeant. Our lord is counting on you. Out.’

‘Roger sir. Out.’ Ozwald replied dryly. He only waited for a moment before plucking on his mental strings to relay the same message across to his various squad leaders before he allowed himself to really confront the moment. Then, after another handful of minutes of quick discussion as he read off the list of towns in front of him, he finally returned to himself again as he watched the men around him as they finished off their food and started taking off wet boots to place by the fireside overnight.

The rank smell of pruned feet started to spread through the cozy room, and even as the first of his soldiers began to set up a place to sleep he was content with the fact that he knew they had already defaulted to the same order of watch shifts like normal as corporal Benny posted himself up at the kitchen table without taking any of his clothes off like the others. Ozwald met the corporal’s eyes, and the tired bags formed below them even as he looked alertly over the group and nodded his head in thanks, receiving a short nod in return.

Then, sergeant first class Ozwald finally allowed himself just a moment of rest as he closed his eyes for a well deserved reprieve at the end of a stressful day. Stomach empty, boots still on, pack hardly opened other than the writing materials in front of him, the man drifted into sleep as he fell into dreams of himself chasing something constantly out of sight.