Neladrie was woken up from her sleep by a knock which had to belong to one of the priestesses who handles the night duty. Though she didn’t need as much sleep as the lower rankers, Neladrie still enjoyed the calmness of sleep, especially while fully relaxing within Sol’s Temple. Having only gone to sleep a couple of hours ago after taking Jasmine home, Neladrie had just gotten into a deep sleep and was less than happy at being woken up.
Still, if the priestess was waking her up it must be for good reason. So, not having heard what the priestess had said the first time, she called out to the woman in a rather groggily voice that hopefully and unnoticeably stopped the woman from hearing the bit of annoyance that had spilled through.
“Please come in! It's open!”
The priestess, in turn, was in a mid-frantic speech as she opened the wooden door to her room.
“High Cleric! There is an emergency in the Free-”
It was rude, but Neladrie hadn’t heard more than that last word before. In less time than the woman could breathe in and out, she had fully enhanced her body, sharpened her mind, and been out of the room to what Neladrie imagined the priestess only saw as instant teleportation.
As she left the temple, she saw a beastkin waiting outside, but she didn’t stop. She had simply channeled her mana and flown off.
It took only about half a minute before Neladrie had wooshed across half the city and softly landed in front of the Free Spirit Orphanage.
Once again, siding on the side of rudeness, Neladrie did not bother to knock and wait for someone to unlock the door. Her base B Rank strength was more than enough to tear the whole building apart so what was an unenchanted wooden door. She softly broke the handle and pushed the door open, promising to pay for repairs later.
Of course, Neladrie already knew where Jasmine was as she had used her active presence from the moment she arrived at the front of the orphanage. She wouldn’t normally be able to do such a thing as her presence abilities weren’t the best, but if she had to guess who the clearly odd soul belonged to, then there was only one guess. So, she rushed upstairs, stopping in front of the door in order to be let in by the mobbing caretakers.
All she needed was sight. Something she cursed herself for. She really needed to improve her presence abilities. If she had better presence control, she would have already begun healing the girl.
Either way, a few more seconds wouldn’t matter, and she found Jasmine lying on the bed. She had noticed how trashed the room was, along with the dead body on the other bed and the odd pile of ash on the ground, but that was a matter for another time. Seeing Jasmine, Neladrie instantly channeled Sol’s warm mana from her soul core and diluted it as much as she could so as not to strain Jasmine’s body with healing magic. She would have preferred to chant and create a runic circle, but this wasn’t the time for that.
Then, as soon as she gave the spell form and released it, Jasmine glowed with golden light as her body healed just a bit.
Just a bit.
That wasn’t right.
Neladrie quickly scanned the girl's body with her presence, and the realization hit her just as she felt Sol’s presence descend.
The girl was the celestial of two gods.
How was that possible!?
“My child, I am afraid you cannot do more. I have informed Luxana, and she has a Cleric en route. Wait until your fellow arrives and then depart. Do not speak of what you have seen. This is a matter between Luxana and these unfortunate souls. We cannot interfere.”
Too shocked to speak, Neladrie simply nodded. Her god, feeling the intent behind her action, dispersed his presence, leaving her feeling like she had just received the last rays of sunlight before sunset.
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Annale could not fall asleep after returning to Luxana’s Temple. Her mind swirled with the possibilities of what she had felt back at the inn. She had clearly felt Luxana’s power within Jasmine, but that vile feeling she had also felt could very well be the power of the dark goddess. But how? That was the question.
Well, Annale knew how a hybrid celestial could come to be, and she had read about Luxana’s experiments, but she knew her goddess would never approve of what Jasmine could very well be. One entity being able to manifest two different physical celestial aspects due to dilute and mixed bloodlines was one thing. However, there were no records of one entity having two actual celestial powers. If, for whatever reason, two hybrid celestials of two separate gods had a child, the newborn would manifest one of the parent's celestial powers. This effectively and permanently caused the child’s soul to sort of belong to that god, which was the reason why gods kept a close tab on their celestials.
The fact was that gods jealously guarded those whose souls they had access to. So, there were only so many ways a being whose soul belonged to two gods or entities could come to exist. One of the only ways Annale knew of, and something that rarely happened, would be when a few gods that shared the same views, aspects, portfolios, or goals came together and made a new celestial with a mix of all of the gods power. These entities often only acted when all gods that took part in its creation approved of whatever action the celestial was going to take. This meant most of the time, these entities were in stasis until they were needed.
Annale herself only knew of this due to her rank of High Cleric as the Celestial Alliance Pantheon Luxana was a part of had created one of such entities. However, other than its existence and how it came to, Annale knew nothing else. The creation had never been seen, used, or displayed. That, of course, caused rumors to start that questioned whether such a creature had been created. There were also rumors about what would happen if other pantheons created such entities and why they would.
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The main answer to that last statement being - just in case.
Everyone had not forgotten about their visitor who took the moon. Luxana especially. The goddess had such anger for the Eldritch God that it impacted all of her clergy. For the Moon Goddess to lose her moon was simply unacceptable. The goddess remembers, and so does her clergy.
The Eldritch God had been with them for 553 Years. The damn thing had been with the planet since before the Realm Invasion, and yet it hadn’t done much. Sure, there were aberrations everywhere, but everyone knew of them. The planet knew of them since before they arrived. So, the Eldritch God was planning something big, and whatever it was definitely was one of the reasons for creating these new celestial weapons.
However, all of this still didn’t answer Jasmine’s existence. A mortal containing two different celestial powers? It just didn’t seem possible.
It frustrated Annale. There was something else going on, but she couldn’t see what.
What had her goddess taken part in? Why Jasmine? When did it happen? How did such a creation just go undiscovered for so long?
Round and round she went, at least until she felt it.
It was always an odd, unnerving, yet wonderfully exhilarating moment when your deity was the one to contact you. That small tug or tingle as you felt the connection strengthen before their glorious presence manifested within you.
“Go to the orphanage. The seal has shattered. She is in terrible condition, but she still lives.”
Annale felt the last two sentences more than she had heard them. She had been struggling all this time with all her worry. She had been dreading a summons, but when she got it, she was ready.
In but a few blinks, Annale was outside the temple. Then, in the span that a dragonfly flapped its wings, she unleashed a torrent of her goddess’s mana. Be damned if her body burned.
Arriving like a falling star at the orphanage's door, she saw that it was open, handle broken. Her mind, moving faster than any mortal could comprehend, inspected the scene and the worst came to mind.
Gushing out more pure mana, a bright silver shimmering field sprung around her.
Looking to burn the darkness, she failed to see the faint and warm trail of energy left in the air.
Another blink, and she appeared in front of the doorway, overpowering the faint golden light surrounding Jasmine.
However, releasing the breath she had held since she left her temple, her power waned, and she entered.
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Early in the morning, way earlier than she was usually awake during her off days, Rose was called into the Holy Captain’s office.
She was told to wear casual clothing as this meeting wasn’t official. And, of course, she wasn’t going to complain. Though her armor was custom-made to fit her large proportions, it still sucked to wear. However, she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world since her armor meant she was well on her way to becoming a Paladin.
Now something she enjoyed in the Order of the Solari was the fact everyone was treated equally be damned if you were human, beastkin, male, female, or other. Yes, other, she was pretty sure one of her mates was a changeling, but they didn’t like it when she tried to inspect the goods so she had given up trying to prove it. Either way, one of the equal implementations in the Order of the Solari was that everyone was given basic formal clothes, such as tan cloth pants and a simple button shirt.
Of course, even if the clothes were nice and comfortable, that wasn’t the best part. Not even the fact she made the clothes look good was the truly wonderful thing.
What was utterly amazing was the fact that she now had pairs of pants with lots of pockets!
Rose, being the tomboy she was-was more than irritated when she was given the basic hand-me-downs in the orphanage. The damn pants and shorts had no deep pockets!
How was she supposed to tote around prank goods with no pockets!? She couldn’t! At least not easily, and she definitely believed that was a setup arranged by the caretakers.
So, moving on from that, Rose knocked on the captain's door and was quickly told to come in and sit down. And that was when Rose’s cheery mood took a turn for the worse.
The captain wasn’t the cheeriest of fellows, but she had only seen his look of serious concern and worry once. It had been a while back when one of the initiates had gotten rather close to death on the outing they had done. So if his concern overcame the natural cheerfulness given by his green beard and eyes, then there was definitely bad news about, especially with all the frown lines that extend up into his bald head, which really sold the seriousness of the situation.
Not wanting to dally, Rose quickly sat as her face went a bit blank, revealing only traces of the growing worry underneath.
The captain's voice was rough and low-pitched, with just a hint of elderly experience, as one would expect from a dwarf who had probably lived for a couple of centuries.
“Rose, I am afraid I have some bad news, as you most likely can tell.” He then paused and looked at Rose, seeing if she had anything to say. Seeing she didn’t, he continued.
“Now, when I tell you this, you will probably want to bolt. However, I am ordering you, as your superior commanding officer, to sit there and hear everything before doing so. Understood?” This was said with some sympathy but also had a commanding undertone Rose had heard many times when taking orders.
“Yes, sir,” Rose answered firmly, hoping to conceal the growing panic underneath.
“Last night, there was an incident at the Free Spirit Orphanage.” As he said this, the dwarf’s eyes met Rose’s, and he saw the fear build up in her eyes. Not wanting to delay the news and cause unwanted worry, the captain quickly continued.
“Your friend Jasmine was badly hurt but still lives and is currently under the care of Luxana’s clergy.” This particular answer caused Rose to frown, and her eyebrows matched the sentiment.
“Now, I have contacted the temple, and they aren’t willing to let visitors in. You may still try to convince them; however, do not give Sol a bad name in the process. Finally, there was another casualty in the orphanage. Sadly, a kid you know by Jeremy has been killed, though we are trying to bring him back. However, with that said, you have the rest of the week off. You are dismissed.”
Registering the last word, Rose bolted from the office and ran full sprint towards the orphanage.
Watching Rose left a sad smile on the captain's face. He mentally approved of Rose’s restraint even as tears cascaded down her face.
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The Guard Captain sat at his desk early in the morning, reading reports about a supposed shooting star that flew across the city last night and had caused all sorts of issues.
That was no damn shooting star. The captain knew better.
So, letting out a sigh, he placed all the reports aside and prepared to head to Luxana’s Temple.
The temple better have had a good reason for this, and they better be ready to dish out some serious gold to repair all the issues one of their High Clerics had caused.
Sometime later, the captain left the temple a bit annoyed. Their Grand Cleric simply said it was a so-called “Religious emergency,” and they couldn’t give more details.
He didn’t believe their nonsense, but at the very least, the spatial pouch with 3,000 gold coins he held would be more than enough compensation to repair any possible issues. There was even enough given as an apology for causing the king and the guard such an inconvenience.
Honestly, the temple better be glad the king liked gold more than his predecessors, or they would be in some serious trouble.