“Oh, right, I kind of forgot about them.”
That left me a little stupefied. “You forgot that there were a hundred people outside?”
She furrowed her brow a little. “I was a little bit more concerned about you, and was happy that you finally woke up, so forgive me if they became somewhat inconsequential.”
I put up my hands in a placating manner. “Okay, okay, sorry, I'm just a little weirded out right now. What are they doing here?”
She started acting a little dodgy around the question. “Well, I guess the easiest way to explain it is that they know about you now.”
My stomach sunk a little bit. “They... know about me? In what way?” I was already fairly certain about what the answer would be, but I just wanted to make sure.
Kala took a bracing breath before continuing. “They kind of know you were blessed by the goddess now.”
I stared blankly for a second before my hands came up to cradle my head. I walked back over to the dining table to lean on it while I thought about things. It was obvious that the catalyst for this situation was my berserk rampage, but a single day for them to piece together that situation with me possessing a fragment of the goddess was a little too fast.
“What happened that they managed to figure it out so quickly?”
Kala came over to stand by me again. “When they first started showing up, I asked them what was going on, and they claimed that they knew you were blessed by the goddess. I tried to deflect a little bit, asking where they heard that, and apparently Durdan had told them.”
“Durdan!? That fucking asshole! I thought I could trust him!”
She placed a hand on my shoulder. “James, I'm sure Durdan didn’t reveal your secret because he wanted to. What you did back then was, well, impossible in every way. Rumors probably spread, people most likely started asking questions, and Durdan was forced to make a choice on the matter.”
My indignation died down to a low simmer as Kala explained. Eventually I just let out an exasperated sigh. “I suppose this is mostly my fault. Still, I can already feel the headaches that this will bring.”
“Maybe it won’t be so bad?” She tried to reassure me.
“Kala, I'm already being hounded by these people, and I wasn’t even conscious until a few minutes ago. They’re going to follow me everywhere, asking for miracles or prayers and a bunch of other things I can’t provide. What the hell am I supposed to do in this situation?”
“Maybe we can explain to them that you just can’t do those things?”
“Because that would go over well, not to mention that there would still probably be a fair few who would think I was lying and just trying to hoard the power for myself.” I scoffed. “That would be rich, wouldn’t it? To be deemed a miser for a power I didn’t even want.”
Kala slumped her shoulders a little, looking defeated. “I’m not sure what we can do other than accept that this is the reality of the situation.”
“Well, it’s a pretty fucking shitty reality.”
“I’m sure we can find a way to handle it.”
A weak smile found its way onto my face. “Your optimism is always appreciated, but I'm just having a hard time finding any for myself.”
“It’ll be alright, we’ve been through worse situations before and faced more than our fair share of foul words.”
“True enough.” I took a deep breath to steady myself before pushing off the table. “Can’t stay holed up in here for the rest of my life, and I have business that needs to be attended to. Let’s get this over with.”
I went over to the door once again, taking another quick huff of air before opening it. I blinked at the harshness of the afternoon light while the masses of people came more into focus. Members of every race in the coalition were present here, and upon seeing me, they all lowered their heads while raising their hands to draw a circle in the air before placing their palms skyward and out in an almost begging fashion.
Slowly and awkwardly, I inched outside of the relative safety of the house and into the midst of the hands that always presented themselves to me. At least they're not actively asking for something. I wasn’t sure what I would say or do if someone decided that they wanted to request a blessing from me. As it stood, I was feeling extremely self-conscious and could feel a cold sweat start to form. Despite their heads facing downwards, it felt like my every move was being analyzed under a microscope, and I wanted nothing more than to be gone from here.
There was a slight issue though. I was completely surrounded by bodies with no clear path out. We were on a street that directly connected to the noble district, and in fact, the gate that led there was in view. Nervously, I walked over to the side of the crowd that was blocking my path in that direction.
“Uhm, I need to go talk with Durdan, so could you all, uhm, move, please?” As one, all the hands in front of me now were placed upon the ground as their owner’s heads bowed deeper, faces nearly touching the ground. Like a certain biblical character, whose actions are used in metaphors far too often, the crowd pushed themselves out of my way without rising from their kneeling posture. It was weird to see so many people curtail themselves before me, particularly those from the larger and more physically intimidating races.
This is so fucking awkward. With my spine just about ramrod straight I made my way through the breach in the crowd. About halfway through, I felt a hand brush against my leg as I passed, and I just about jumped out of my skin. The young Ulgor who was responsible was immediately set upon by his neighbors who restrained him and forced his head down against the ground.
“Whoa, hey, don’t hurt him.” Immediately their attention snapped back to me as they released the young Ulgor and prostrated themselves again. “Yeah, it’s uhm, fine, so, yeah.” Again, I started to make my way down the path, hoping that would be the last of it.
I was getting close to the end of the crowd now. Just keep walking. Just keep walking. Just keep walking. I may or may not have sped up a little bit as I saw freedom from this situation growing closer and closer. Breaking free from the crowd gave me some measure of relief, but not to the point that I was absolved of the feeling. Their expecting gazes still pierced into my back, sending shivers down my spine that made the hairs on my neck stand on end.
Once we were well out of earshot, Kala decided to try to speak up. “Well, at least they didn’t ask for anything.”
“They’re trying to feel me out right now, see what I do and do not approve of. I'm an enigma to them, someone who wields a lot of potential power, yet they know nothing of me. Wouldn’t be surprised if that Ulgor who reached for me was part of it.”
“Isn’t that being a little paranoid?”
“Maybe, but I'm honestly feeling a bit paranoid right now. I don’t know what any of these people want from me, and organized religion has always been a touchy subject no matter what world you are in. Sooner or later, I'm going to step on someone's toes, and they're not going to take too kindly to that.”
Kala smirked at me. “You’ll infiltrate a fortress, almost single-handedly bring about its fall, and charge into a small army of soldiers by yourself, but you're afraid of a few priests?”
My face not showing any hint of humor diminished her smirk a little. “If you knew anything about the history of my world you would choose all of that over priests as well. On the surface they may preach the virtues of their gods, but behind closed doors there’s more cutthroat dealings than any despot could hope to achieve in a lifetime. If they decide that I don’t fit in with their carefully constructed ideology, they will try to get rid of me.”
“But what if our world isn’t like yours, what if they’re different?”
“Believe me, I would invite someone to prove me wrong, but there is a saying in my world, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ All it takes is for one person to let their morals slip for the benefit of themselves and the whole system becomes rotten. The longer an organization has existed, the more likely that is to have occurred.”
Kala became really quiet all of a sudden. I glanced back at her, and she was looking at her feet as she walked, seemingly deep in thought. Concerned, I questioned her about that. “Are you okay?”
She snapped out of it. “Oh, yeah, I'm fine. It's just... I’ve been praying since I was old enough to learn how. It was always a big deal when a traveling priest visited. The whole village would come alive and crowd around them, giving donations, asking for absolution, or just to pray with the priest in hopes that their words would reach the gods. If you’re right, does that mean we’ve been doing the wrong thing?”
I realized then that, like an idiot, I just threw what was probably a major part of her life into question with my paranoia. My advance came to a halt as I stopped to face her. I reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a firm reassuring squeeze.
“No, Kala, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you question your beliefs. It’s alright to believe in something more than yourself, you just have to be careful on the path you take. The gist of what I was saying is that you shouldn’t blindly follow someone because they say they know what the right thing to do is. Use your own discretion, I'm sure you know in your heart what is right and wrong.”
She gave a small smile and a little squeeze of my hand as well. “Thank you, James. Your words hold a lot of wisdom to them, and it has given me a lot to think about.”
“Try not to stress too much alright, I'm just being my skeptical self over here.”
“So, I should ignore everything you say.” She smirked at me.
That got a little amused huff out of me. “Come on, does it have to be one extreme or the other?”
She walked by me, giving me a bump with her hip. “Have to keep you on your toes somehow.” She sauntered teasingly down the path, leaving me trailing behind her bemused.
Our little conversation did help take my mind off the situation that I was escaping. Of course, that didn’t last forever, because when we reached the gate to the noble district, the new coalition guards who were watching it immediately stepped to the side and bowed their heads to me as I passed. I could only try my best to act impassive to all of this, but I would have much preferred suddenly becoming invisible.
The noble district had been seemingly drained of its Thrainian population and instead became a hub of activity for the coalition forces who were currently organizing supplies, setting up shelters, and doling out their new stock of weaponry. I was glad that the hustle and bustle of the soldiers here left them little time to gawk at me. Many of them still shot glances my way, and a few even paused to draw a quick prayer circle in the air before returning to work.
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Just then I realized that I had completely forgotten about everyone else with all these developments taking place. “Hey Kala, I kind of feel like an idiot only asking now, but where is everyone else from our group? Are they alright?”
“Last I saw them they were all waiting for their chance to be healed. The Thrainians apparently built a facility to house and treat their wounded around here, it’s really a shockingly nice place all things considered, and I've not seen anything like it before.”
“Damn, so Balidor built a hospital huh.”
“Hospital?”
“A building specifically made and designed around treating the wounded or sick.”
“Huh, well, they’re probably there right now. There were quite a few wounded after the battle and not enough healers to get through them all in a reasonable amount of time. Those who didn’t have life-threatening injuries had to wait their turn, and thankfully that was most of us. However, Jorn is... feeling a little down right now.”
My mind had to do a little recalling, but then I remembered. “His hand?”
Kala nodded. “Yeah, severed. They closed the wound, so he wasn’t in danger of bleeding out, but his prospects as a soldier are looking rather slim now. It was wearing on him last I saw him.”
“I can only imagine. Maybe we should drop by, check up on everyone, try to lift some spirits.”
“That sounds like a good idea. It’s this way.”
Kala directed me off the main street and led the way towards the hospital. I was still receiving reverence with practically every step I took. One Nactren who we had a close encounter with while rounding a corner even dropped to his knees right there and offered the palms of his hands up towards me in that begging gesture. However, I was aware that a few people who were sprinkled around were giving me more pointed looks, that of skepticism. Frankly I would take skeptics over believers any day of the week, they seemed much easier to deal with.
“There it is.” Kala said with a gesture. I followed her point and saw the building in question. It did indeed look like a very nice place. Two stories, wide, square design, primarily made of brick, and plenty of rooms. The grounds surrounding it had small patches of grass alongside bushes and flowers, giving it a more welcoming feeling.
We approached the double doors that marked the entrance and pushed it open. Inside was a somewhat miserable sight. I was introduced to a large room on the ground floor with many rows of beds stretching from one end to the other. They were all filled at the moment with the moaning and groaning forms of coalition soldiers who were currently in the process of being treated or waiting for treatment from the handful of healers that moved at a brisk pace from one bed to the other. On a second scan across the room, I was actually surprised to find a few Thrainians here as well, separated from the other patients, but still being treated for their wounds.
My gaze eventually picked out a familiar form amongst the other healers. Velshi was currently at a bedside, crystal in hand and a look of concentration upon her face. I approached her but kept a respectful distance while she was currently working. There was no doubt that she could have held a conversation while treating her patient, but it was polite to wait.
As the crystal’s light faded completely, she removed her hand from the patient's chest and gave him a few words of advice. “I treated the worst of it, relax for a little while and take it slow. You’ll probably be sore, and if there are any sharp stabs of pain let me know.” She straightened herself and turned away from the bed, halting for a moment when she saw me standing behind her. “Oh, James, you’re awake. I was starting to get worried.”
“Yep, back in the land of the living and thought I'd drop in and say hi to everyone.”
“How considerate of you, but as you can see, I don’t have much free time right now.”
“I won’t keep you from your work, but I just wanted to say thanks for looking after me when I was unconscious, and for leaving that crystal with Kala, saved me an agonizing morning.”
“I’m glad it was useful, but really the worst part of my visit to you was the cleaning. You were covered in so much blood it was hard to even tell it was you.”
I rubbed the back of my neck a little. “Yeah, it was an intense few minutes back there.”
“Understatement of the century from what I heard. If that is all, I must get back to work.”
“Oh, really quick, do you know where the rest of my group is?”
She gestured off towards a corner of the building. “Down the hall on your right and then third door on the left.”
“Thanks.”
Following her directions, Kala and I went down the hall in search of the door. It was easy enough to locate, and being courteous, I knocked on the door first, waiting for a response.
“Enter.” That was definitely Holdrem’s voice.
With the all clear given, I pushed the door open to reveal a midsized room with four occupied beds in it. Familiar faces sat or laid in all of them, and they perked up when they noticed it was me who entered.
“James!” Otar exclaimed excitedly, sitting up a little straighter and wincing in pain a bit before refocusing. His torso was wrapped up in bandages, and there was a slight stain of blood around his wound. “Damn man, it’s good to see you awake. Got a bit worried when you passed out and wouldn’t wake up after that display of yours.”
I gave a sheepish grin and a shrug. “Yeah, kind of pushed myself beyond my limits when I did that.”
“I’ll say, but still, that was badass though. You slaughtered your way through those soldiers like they weren’t even there. Why didn’t you tell us you could do something like that?”
“For one, I didn’t even know I could, and two, even if I did, I wouldn’t use it regularly at all. I don’t think you can quite grasp just how painful that whole experience was for me. If I hadn’t already been accustomed to a level of pain far beyond what a normal person should experience, I might have just broke and lost my mind.”
“Yikes man, just... I don’t even know what to say other than yikes.”
“Your sympathy is good enough. I wouldn’t wish even the slightest amount of empathy for that situation upon you.” The conversation sort of trailed off after that, so Kala moved over to where her mother was resting.
Silia’s leg was propped up and immobilized to prevent accidental injury as it was clearly broken. Kala stopped at the bedside and held her mom’s hand before talking. “Are you feeling alright mom?”
Silia smiled warmly at her daughter. “I’m alright my little river glider, they’re taking good care of us here.”
I came up to the foot of my bed and did my best to be friendly. “Well, I certainly hope that they can patch you all up sooner rather than later. Must be kind of boring in here.”
As soon as I started speaking to her, she sat up straight and with slightly widened eyes. She seemed to be almost frozen in place if it wasn’t for the rise and fall of her breath. This was an odd reaction towards me, even for her, and I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at it. She blinked a few times, seemingly coming back to herself as she began to stammer out words.
“I, uhm... I apologize for my disrespectful words and actions towards you. I was unaware that I was speaking to a champion of the goddess and if I had known, I would have-”
“Okay I'm going to have to stop you right there.” I interjected myself into her apology before she got any further down that road. “First off, I was hiding it because I didn’t seek special treatment or attention. Secondly, you were right to distrust me. From your perspective, I was another slaver who may or may not have been lying to you, so your skepticism was warranted. And finally, don’t even start with trying to worship me, that goes for all of you! I just had to trudge through an army of people who practically kissed the ground I walked on, and I need some damn normalcy in my life right now.”
“I’m afraid normalcy is out of the question for you.” I turned to Holdrem, who was now addressing me. His arm was in a sling, pressed against his chest as he sat up in the bed. “With your secret out, the people now know that you have been chosen by the goddess to right the wrongs of this world. You will have to accept your role in this, accept that you are her champion.”
“That doesn’t mean that I want to be worshipped. I’m not some holy figure. I can’t perform miracles, or answer prayers. Hell, I don’t even know what a prayer would be like for you.”
“And yet, you have performed miracles, and you have answered prayers, thousands of them. Taking Yol’vastume was considered impossible by the coalition, yet you brought it down in just a handful of days. All the slaves and the families of those who were trapped here prayed endlessly for freedom and to see their loved ones again. You answered those prayers, threw off their shackles and gave them another chance at life. And let’s not forget, you saved us from a situation that was guaranteed to end in our deaths, yet here we are, alive and thankful. Miracles need not be the sky opening up to reveal the faces of the gods themselves, and prayers can be answered even by the poorest individual who just happened to do the right thing.”
“Cute, but all the philosophizing in the world won’t stop the people who actually expect me to be a direct line to the goddess from making unreasonable demands of me.”
“True, there will be some who think like that, but perhaps it would be better to show them the right path than to scorn them for their ignorance.”
“Yeah, major doubts that that would work.” I sighed heavily and waved off the whole thing. “Enough of this conversation, I just want to spend some time with my friends and not have to worry about all that right now.”
Thankfully Holdrem dropped it, allowing me to focus on other conversations. Jorn had been very quiet up to this point. He sat on his bed by the far wall with a small grin on his face that felt all too forced. The missing hand was hidden under the sheets, and I wasn’t sure if that was a conscious decision on his part or not. I decided to engage him directly, moving over and sitting at the foot of the bed.
“Hey Jorn, you doing alright?”
He shrugged. “Can’t complain. Bed’s comfy, food could use some flavor, but it’s far better than that slop the Thrainians fed to us.”
“Well, that’s good to hear, but are you doing alright?”
His grin faded away into a neutral look. He turned away and looked out the window for a long moment before speaking. “I can feel it sometimes, when I'm not thinking of it, when I'm not looking at it, it’s almost like it’s still there.” Slowly, his right arm was raised as the sheets slipped off his form a little. Eventually, the sight of his stumpy arm wrapped in bandages about where the wrist normally is was revealed. It certainly wasn’t pretty, and I empathized with him having lost my fair share of limbs as well, though none in such a permanent manner.
He contemplated the stump for a moment, turning his arm to look at it from every angle. “My sword hand too, don’t know if I can learn how to swing solely left-handed.” His arm suddenly dropped to the bed as his head fell back and hit the wall behind him with a thump. “If they even let me stay a soldier, they’ll probably put me on logistics, glorified fucking crate mover.” A forlorn sigh escaped him. “I wanted to see this through till the end, fight alongside my brother, you, everyone, and now when we finally score a major victory, this happens. What kind of cruel fucking joke is that?”
I wasn’t sure what to say to him. He was wallowing in despair, almost drowning, and I didn’t want anything I said to come off as empty or unthoughtful. In lieu of any vacuous condolences, I instead started to try and brainstorm solutions.
“Maybe we can work something out, give you some time to recover and train, perhaps get you fitted with some prosthetics?”
His brow furrowed and he dragged his head off the wall to look at me. “Some what?”
“Prosthetics.” His vacant gaze told me he had no idea what that was. “You know, artificial limbs, create a new hand or tool and strap it to where the old one used to be.” Now his eyes went wide, and he stared at me with surprise written on his face. Has he really not heard of that? A quick glance around the room found that everyone else was also looking at me like I had suddenly sprouted an extra head. Wait, are prosthetics not even a thing here? It seemed I had just accidentally invented them.
“Can you...” Jorn started hesitantly. “Make, something like that?”
“Uhm...” I scratched the back of my head. “I don’t know if I could, but if I find a craftsman willing to experiment a little, I'm sure I could give him some workable ideas. Of course, anything that is made won’t be nearly as good as the lost limb, but it would restore a little functionality, maybe keep you in the fight.”
Jorn opened and closed his mouth a few times, apparently finding it hard to articulate his thoughts. Eventually he just let out a quick huff of laughter as his face cracked into a smile. “You know, I think Holdrem has a point.” He leaned forward, bringing his left hand up to rest the large thing on my shoulder. “You do answer prayers.”
I smiled but rolled my eyes at the same time. “Ugh, stop before I change my mind.” He removed the hand and put it up in a mock surrender fashion. A genuine smile now graced his face, radiating the hope he felt that maybe he could soldier on. I sincerely hoped that I could come up with something that wouldn’t disappoint.
Everybody talked for a little while, Jorn speaking mostly with me about prosthetics and what could be made for him. I bounced a few ideas back and forth with him, but we had to temper our enthusiasm until we found a craftsman whose skill could back up the ideas. It was nice, a rare quiet moment where I didn’t have to worry about anything and could just enjoy myself. All good things must come to an end though. There were still people I needed to talk to, plans to speak of.
In the end, I stood up and addressed the room. “Well guys, I enjoyed this immensely, but there are still things that must be done today. I’ll leave you all to recover and hope to see you out and about soon. We can go get that drink I promised once you're healed up.”
“We’ll come find you if we get out of here. Take care in the meantime.” Otar said.
“Yeah, be seeing you James, and thank you.” Jorn chimed in, shooting me a grateful smile.
“Take care James.” Holdrem finished the goodbyes directed towards me.
Kala went over and gave her mom a hug. “I’ll see you later mom.”
Silia squeezed her daughter tightly. “Stay safe until I get out of here my little river glider.”
With all the goodbyes said, I bid the room farewell and made my exit. That was a pleasant little visit, but now it was back to work. I had to discuss some things with Durdan, get an explanation, and then make a few demands. No rest for the weary.