Mosswood, a small village in Terralea, with around seven hundred humans.Distant from the big cities, like many others, an agrarian village, surrounded by double layers of farms on the inside and a forest on the outside. Mud houses and unpaved roads lead to the city lord's mansion, the only structure made from stones. In one such small house, in a small room, a little girl, around nine years old, was playing with her doll. She had a mop of unruly raven curls that often broke free from the braids her mother would weave. Her equally dark red eyes would peek out from her eyelids whenever she pauses her smile.

“Delilah. Come and eat the food.”

“Coming!” she said in a childish tone. Putting the doll down with a reluctant face, she stood up on her two petite feet and came close to the lone oil lamp that hung high to the wall, acting as the only source of light, as this room didn’t have any windows. Just walls made from mud and a bunch of dried yellow sacs of hay that acted as the roof. After placing the doll below the lamp, she covered it with a small cloth stained with yellow strains resembling the ragged clothes on her body. “ Little Lily, stay here. I will be right back.” Saying that, she left the room.

She passed through the door, and the sound of a cough entered her ears. The path to her right led towards the kitchen, which had space for only two people to stand before they started bumping into various utensils. She found her mother Abigail in the cramped kitchen, coughing as the smoke from burning wood entered her lungs. She had a weary face from years of working. Her blonde hair had faded and greyed over time, pulled back in a loose bun. Despite that, her blue eyes still twinkled when she smiled at her daughter. “Here, help me set this up. Others might be returning soon.”

Delilah took the empty plates from her mother’s hand and began placing them in the room just to her left. This one was only fractionally larger compared to the earlier two rooms. Soon after she finished arranging the plates with small rusty corners, her father and two brothers walked in. Her father, Max, had rugged features with thin blonde hair. Followed by a similar but younger version of him, about 23 years old Carter and, at last, a teenager around 18 years old with a lean figure and green eyes named Kai.

“What’s my little princess doing?” Her father said as soon as he saw Delilah, and picked her up in his calloused hands and pinched her nose with a hearty smile. “How dare Lily make you do such things? Just wait and I will scold her big this time.” He said with his rough voice.

“Papa, no,” Delilah said with a panicked voice, but her face was soon full of smiles as Max made her feel like flying. “ She wanted to help, but I stopped her.” She tried to put a frown on her face to sound serious, as she had seen her mother do, but all she got was small laughs from everyone.

“Really? Then I will leave her be for now.” Seeing his daughter nod at this, another smile escaped his lips. He wanted to continue to tease her but stopped as his wife glared from inside the kitchen. “Dear, stop playing and go wash yourself or the food might get cold. Carter and Kai, you too.” The sky was close to going dark.

Soon, the group of five sat on the ground, forming a small circle. And Abigail started to serve the food. Some rice, a set of cooked mixed vegetables, and a cuisine made from lentils and bread. “You look more worked out than usual?” She asked her husband, noticing his down face.

“The canals are running low.” Max sighed with a frown as the worry took hold of his rugged face. “If this continues, then the crops might die.” The weather has not been kind to them with a few to no rain in recent years.If the canals are already running low and if they run out, the crops would dry out.

“How could that be? What about the city lord? Does he know?”

“We went to meet him today, along with others.” Carter, who was sitting beside his father, said, recalling the scene from the afternoon. “He said the alliance will soon dispatch the mages to fill the reservoirs.”

His words eased some of Abigail’s worries, but she still asked. “ But what if the crops die before that? What would we do then?”

“He said, this time, the mages would also help revive the dead crops, if any.”

His words put her at ease. In usual years, they don't have to worry about the ‌weather, as the alliance takes care of these things way before they notice. “ They have been so erratic for some years,” she said.

This question made Carter silent and before she could ask, her husband said, “I heard the priest from the church will go to every household to bless them for successful crops.” Her face strained as soon as she heard him. “ W-what? Why...” her voice kept breaking when she said so. “ No, we can’t allow them near this house. What if they-”

“ It’s ok.” Max grabbed her shaking hand and said with calm to help reassure her. “ They are not going to enter the house … we just need to act as always.” His eyes turned towards his daughter and her raven-coloured hair that didn’t match either his or Abigail's. Distracted by her big brother Kai, who handed her a little sunflower he brought with him. “We just have to make sure of that.”

***

The next day was uneventful, as much as Delilah was concerned. She woke up and helped with tidying the house with her mother. By the time both of them were done with their work, others also woke up and before long, they had their breakfast. Her father and two brothers left soon after, followed by her reluctant mother. She needed to go to the river to wash their clothes. “Stay inside, Delilah. I will be back soon.” She kissed her on the head before leaving.

“Lily, it's all us now.” She said to her doll, her only friend who keeps her company. “Let’s play princess and knights.” The corners of her mouth tightened as she held on to her doll. “A prince in shiny armour will come and release you from the caged castle.” She was not clear whether she was saying this to the doll or herself. Her parents never allowed her to walk outside, no matter what she said to them. Today was no different and when she prepared to play her usual game, her eyes drew to the window of the kitchen.

Rays of sunlight pierced through the tiny gaps of the worn-out wooden window and landed on the ground, the dust glowed under the rays of the sun. She came close and raised her right hand and grasped towards the beam of light. Her eyes widened and feeling the surge of warmth from her hand made her eyes a little wet. ‘Prince always saves the Princess. He would come from the window, uh?’ Her thoughts stopped when her eyes noticed something different, unlike usual days, the lock of the window was not fully closed. She then thought of something and dropped her doll and moved to her room. From there, she dragged a small wooden stool, about half her size, which made her face out of air and she opened her mouth big to take in more air.

‘Almost there…’ She was going to push her body up against the stool but then remembered her doll, which she dropped and ran back to grab it and then with effort, stood atop the stool. The window was way above her, but with the help of the wooden stool, now her height was just perfect. She used her hands and opened the window. The light from the outside momentarily blinded her for a moment before the vision returned and her eyes expanded and her mouth stretched in surprise. A blue sky with white clouds greeted her, with some brown birds flying in the distance, followed by sounds of their chirping, mingled with the many sounds of insects.

“Wow,” The words left her mouth. She looked on, wanting to etch that view into her mind. But when the words from her mom came back, her spirited face lost its glow, as her mom would not allow her to go outside. Her upward-facing eyes bogged downwards and she could see the black soil with some green grass and wild plants. ‘It’s not high…’ There was a heap of soil just below the window. “Lily, Mom would not notice me if I came back before her, right?” The doll obviously couldn’t reply. Her mother usually takes three hours to come back, which makes her confident. Her face struggled as it continued altering between the window and the door before her desire won in the end.

She steeled her will and tried to climb the window. It was difficult for her to lift her own weight and she needed to use her two hands so she threw Lily outside. “No going back now … hu..” She took a huge breath in and put strength with all her might and with a thud, her butt landed on the grass. “Lily, let's go.” she dusted off the dirt from her and chose one direction at random before setting off.

The winds flew past her hair, making her ears visible, but only for a moment as they became hidden again. “Lily, where are the fishes? Brother said they live in the water.” Her eyes scanned the surface of the water but only a constant stream of water came into her, that reflected the golden light from the sun.

Farm fields surrounded the place she arrived at, not big ones like the wheat that her brothers brought with them, but some small ones that she couldn’t tell the names of. A small canal ran through them and carried water to fields, and the moment she dropped her feet into it, the cool feeling made her yelp. A small plant with sharp leaves at the edges of the canal and a yellow flower caught her eyes. She plucked a bunch of them and before long, merged them into a small crown woven with grass. “ Now you look like a proper princess.” She put the crown on the top of her doll, but the size was too big for her. So instead, she placed it on her own head and smiled while looking at the reflection in the water.

“Who are you, child?” A sudden voice from behind jerked her body. She turned her head, only to find an old-looking face of a man and a white-robed man with golden stripes that ran through the length of his chest and arms. He also wore a deep yellow long scarf with some circles drawn in the middle.

“I um-a-m…” She tumbled her words at his sudden arrival and didn’t notice that his eyes gleamed at her raven red hair and soon narrowed while the initial smile on his face disappeared.

***

It was evening when Max and his two sons finished their daily work. He wiped the sweat from his head and said to Carter, who looked equally tired. “ Let’s go home for now, otherwise it would be too late.” Carter nodded his head and so did Kai. Their farm was a thirty-minute distance from their home on foot and they lacked the cart to carry them back, thus they would need to walk on foot. The trio started to pack their tools when the rapid footsteps sounded from afar, followed by the cries of a woman, whose sound they were all too familiar with. “MAX!!!....Max!!!!!”

“Abigail!? What are you doing here?” Max said in a surprised voice. His wife doesn’t look good. Her breathing was rough, her eyes red with tears streaming down her face. She tipped when she reached near him. Despite him being able to catch her, the foreboding feeling of something terrible increased inside him. His sons were offering some consoling words to calm their mother down, who was bursting with tears, but he ignored them and asked her with a sense of urgency. “What happened!? Why are you like this? Tell me, did something happen?”

“ She … she..” She tried to talk, but her tears made it difficult to make something out as they erupted even more strongly when she tried to explain. “Deli-lah…”

“What happened to Delilah!?”

“S-she left the house through the window and somehow ended up meeting the P-Priest!” The moment these words came out, it was like lightning struck Max and he froze, unable to respond. His sons were no better, for their eyes became round as panic spread to their eyes. Only sometime later did he come back to himself and hear Kai’s voice. “Where is she now?”

Villagers are taking her to the city square and saying they would…” She couldn’t continue after that. Max took a deep breath, trying to calm his bursting heart, and said to Carter and Kai. “This is not the time to waste. Kai, you stay with your mom. Carter, you come with me.”

“Where are we going, dad?”

“ To the city lord’s mansion. Only he could help us now.” Max ran as soon as he finished talking. Carter followed soon after. The city hall was more than half and a quarter hour away from his farm, but he covered that much distance in just fifteen minutes. And only stopped when the guards at the front blocked his way. “Please … I n-need to meet the lord.” He squeezed out these words when his knees gave way and he was on his four. His lips were dry, his lungs felt on fire, and he needed to open his mouth wide to take in the large air. He was all alone, as Carter was nowhere to be seen behind him. The two guards in light armour looked baffled. One of them came close to him and asked with concern. “Who are you and why do you want to meet the Lord?”

“What’s happening here? Who is this man?” A man in a black butler suit walked from inside and beside him was a man in armour with two stars on his chest.

The other guards bowed and said to the man in armour with respect. '' Sir Thaddeus, we don’t know who he is. He just came running to us and wanted to meet you.”

“Meet me?” Thaddeus had untamed, greasy blonde hair and a short but well-groomed moustache. He looked at the kneeling man, and dismissed him with a wave of his hand. “ Come later. I have more pressing issues now.”

“My lord, please, they will kill her,” Max said with a dry throat, but the pain from his throat was not enough to stop his words. “ Only you can save her.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Save her? Wait, are you talking about that witch?” Everyone’s head turned to Max when they heard him. The butler narrowed his eyes and stepped forward to take a good look at the kneeling man. Some recognition flashed in Butler's old eyes. “ I remembered you coming yesterday … Max, was it? You came with the crowd yesterday.”

“Yes, you remembered me.”

The butler, Cosimo, nodded his head and helped him stand back. “What is your relationship with the witch? Are you his family?”

“M-My Delilah” Max grabbed his clothes. The guard wanted to stop him, but the butler motioned them otherwise. He looked at the pleading eyes of Max and asked. “Did you hide her till now?” Mosswood was a small village, and it was not strange for Cosimo to know most of them, he, after all, was working here for a decade. It didn’t take him time to guess the pattern of events to led up to this situation. “You over there, go get some water and have him rest some.”

“Sir, she did no wrong. She's innocent. I will pay-” Max wanted to say more, but the guards were already taking him inside the city hall.

“He looked desperate.” Cosimo said to Thaddeus as Max was being escorted inside.

“ What does that desperation do? You already know we are kind of helpless here.” The City Lord, Thaddeus, could only shake his head at this. They already got to know about the villagers discovering a witch and their plan to burn her in the city square. Both of them were also discussing the situation just now before Max arrived. “The Church’s influence is powerful in this village. Since that priest is there, I am afraid he would rally the crowd against us if we try to stop him.”

The Cosimo went silent at him. As Thaddeus said, if they want to solve this problem, then they might have to use force. But the knights and mages under them were just some trainee knights and mages. They are not adept at restraining their strength yet. Once chaos erupts, the chances are villagers would burn the houses, loot the shops and might even kill each other. Then there was also the worry about the fallout from saving the ‘witch’, too.

“ You know about witches too, right? Cosimo, the Devil's Advocates. Even the alliance remains muted about their conditions.”

“Ambiguity is a feature, not a disadvantage. It allows for careful interventions and strategic retreats.”

“ Perhaps.” Thaddeus joined his hands at his back and gazed towards the Five Stars embedded on the top of Mansion’s gate. “ But I don’t want my family to be called Devil's worshippers, for a person I barely even know about.”

“She was just nine years old.” Butler said with a sigh. “Just a year bigger than your daughter. You sure we should stay out of this?” His words made Thaddeus silent, and from his sides, Cosimo could see him clenching his fists behind his back “And you also know what the alliance wants with the church at this time, right? If they found you did nothing when the church was being so rampant, then…”

“You look like some third-grade villain, you know that?” Thaddeus said as he gave him a look of disgruntlement. He turned to the City Hall’s gate and said to the guard. “Go get my helmet and gather all the manpower.”

“An amicable choice.”

“And also, you owe me one.”

***

‘ Sun God’s brilliance is unceasing.’ Luxor, the Head Priest of Mosswood thought. He couldn’t explain otherwise how he found the Devil’s advocate by just trolling around the farms. As he looked at his front and through the blanket of night had taken hold of the village, the lights from torches made his target clear for everyone to see. Strapped to the thick wooden pole with arms up in the air, the scarlet-coloured hair witch. He looked at her face full of tears with a cloth stuffed into her small mouth from where she made some whimpering noise. He snorted with disdain and turned to his back. “ Look at this devil!!” He shouted towards the countless men and women holding the torches as they surrounded the village square. “Don’t let her looks fool you. It is what demons ‌‌good at, deceiving kind-hearted humans.”

The zealous screams from the crowd made his chest swell with pride. For he couldn’t ask for more, other than to have every person bath in the brilliance of Sun God. Their enthusiasm made him know that his task of spreading the words of his Lord was not a failure. He looked back at the witch and noticed the fear in those red eyes. ‘That’s right, you wretched beings should be like this, cowering in fear of god.’

He turned back to the crowd, for such a joyous occasion demands more than just a few words, but he noticed some disturbances in the distance and noticed ‌the irritants to his mood. Clad in armour, a group of some twenty knights tore through the crowded space and formed a circle around him and pushed the people back, which made the surrounding space bigger around the pole, followed by five robed mages that stood just behind the knights. One person with full metal armour and two stars on the chest came towards him, and he could hear the disgruntled voice from inside the helmet. “Priest Luxor, what’s the meaning behind this?”

‘These blasphemous fools,’ Luxor had to swallow his disgust as he looked at the knight and after he made efforts to prevent his smile from crumbling away. “Shouldn’t I be the person asking that question, Sir Thaddeus? Why are you stopping the work of god?”

“What work that might be, if you don’t mind me asking?” Thaddeus paused as he noticed the red lines with dripping blood on the hands and legs of the tied girl that looked like being made from whips. Although Luxor couldn’t see the expression inside the helmet, he felt Thaddeus’s piercing glare. “It looked to me like you were trying to murder some innocent child.” A chill ran through Luxor’s body when the word reached him, but the anger from inside soon suppressed that feeling.

“Child? Don’t let this thing fool your eyes, Sir Thaddeus.” He grabbed the hairs from the witch and pulled her head up by force, more whimpering followed as the tears made a waterfall on her face. “Look at this. This thing is a master while playing with a human's heart.” He said without a flinch across his face. “Don’t let it fool you. It’s a devil.”

“A devil? Your eyes have got old, Luxor. All I see is a child with mana awakening.” Thaddeus’ shoulders grabbed his hand with force and the pain made him release the hairs from his hands. Despite that, Thaddeus didn’t ease his grip on him. “And according to the laws of Alliance, you have to come with me.”

“ Me? Are you trying to save a devil’s advocate from facing justice, Thaddeus!?” He pulled back his hand and said with an angry face, to hide his pain. “She has bewitched you.”

With his shouts, the crowd of villagers seemed to get agitated, and Thaddeus noticed them pushing against his knights. He wasn't worried about them breaking through the perimeter, but the escalating situation did.‘I need to be quick or else they might start to riot.’

“Tell these things after the investigations. For now, you are coming with me.” He again reached for his hands, but Luxor was a step ahead and pulled a short knife from his pockets. As he was wondering if Luxor had gone mad and tried to resist him, his eyes widened behind the helmet. He watched as Luxor swung the knife and cut open the left hand of the tied girl. But he soon came back to himself and moved swiftly to pull the guy away from the pole and pinned him to the ground. “Have you gone crazy!!?”

All he heard was laughter, and soon found out why. At the pole, the girl was struggling with every effort against the ropes and her sounds were even larger, but the shouts of the crowd suppressed that sound. Thaddeus’s eyes were on the red trail of blood which was trickling downwards and the moment it touched the ground, it turned black and his nose caught the smell of sulphur in the air.

“See that Thaddeus, now even you can’t deny it anymore. It’s not a mana awakening, but a devil’s advocate, a damned witch.” Luxor tried to free his pinned body, but it was useless. “Release me at once. We need to purge that thing before it’s too late!”

“I said, SHUT THE FUCK UP!” He grabbed Luxor’s head and pressed it into the ground and said to the mage immediately next to him. “Go tend to that child and free her. We are moving out of this square in five minutes. MOVE!!”

“S-sir, she..” The situation was not good. The crowd had become fully agitated the moment he pinned the priest down. Knights were holding them back while the other four mages were busy deflecting the stones and whatever the crowd kept throwing at them. They needed to leave this place fast, but the mage who was supposed to free the girl paused mid-way and asked him in a shuttering voice.

Thaddeus then noticed ‌the surrounding air was getting hot. He looked at the source and the girl was glowing scarlet, not just her hair but the entire body, even the tears. “Not good. Everyone gets down.” It didn’t wait for him to finish when a force hit him and everyone around the girl. A ring of fire appeared with her as centre and in just a second, it extended outwards into a ring of more than ten metres. The force threw everyone back into the distance.

Thaddeus felt his head was spinning, and the armour felt hot. He noticed a metallic taste in his mouth, but that was just one sensation. Shouts from everywhere reached his still-ringing ears and in front of his eyes, everything was ablaze. Houses and shops that were close to the city square were on fire. The crowd was running everywhere in panic, trampling those who fell to the ground. And the culprit, the Little girl which he came here to save, was nowhere in sight. The pole she was bound to was also gone. Only some small remnant of charred back wood from the bottom ground was to be seen.

“Ahh... Knights, mages … Gather around me.”He didn’t have time to think about the girl anymore. His eyes scanned for the priest and found him rolling on the ground some distance away, screaming in pain as the fire on his body made him glow yellow.

****

“Come in.” Bardar said as he heard the knock on the door. Soon it opened, and he found Rayen coming in with a glass of water in his hands. He put the incomplete artefact in his hands down and whipped his hand. Then he unwrapped the small cloth around his ring finger. After all, he didn’t want it to get dirty. Looking at it, he still couldn’t believe his lacklustre proposal got through. If not for ‌the sudden guest, he would be wiping this ring the entire day. He forced his eyes away from the green gem on his ring and said to Rayen. “Alright, what’s this time? A glass of water? They are grasping at the straws, huh?”

As Rayen handed him the glass without any expression, Bardar couldn’t help but contemplate. ‘Just what is going on in their head?’ It was some days ago, after Rayen became more ‘normal’ that Bella and Cellia made him do some chores with them. He still remembered them saying something along the lines of, ‘We need to make him more familiar with us.’ Their reasoning made him baffled. ‘ Sure, he doesn't talk much, doesn’t show any expression, and will stare at you all day if you don't tell him anything. But does this have anything to do with him giving me a glass of water?’

“Wait a minute, where are you going?” When he broke free from his thoughts, he noticed Rayen almost passing through the door and moved quickly to grab him to pull him inside. Seeing Rayen turn his face towards him with a blank stare, he couldn’t help but sigh. “You should try to speak sometimes. I know you want to get back to Grandma as soon as possible, but you shouldn’t be like this all the time.”

Rayen just tilted his head at him. Another action he seemed to copy from Cherry when she didn’t understand anything. ‘Did he pick this up when grandma was teaching him Cherry’s language? Did he even understand this?’

Rayen had no idea what was going inside Bardar’s head and seeing him not talking, he made an effort to turn back to the door, but the hand on his shoulder did not budge. And so he was back to staring. He found it very effective when dealing with others. Just wait and they would do something. He was not good at thinking about things, he was not familiar with it yet.

“I don’t know what is going through your head. Hm … Wait, I think I have something that could gain your interest.” Bardar then clapped his hands and from the storage room, a thing flew and unfolded itself into a table. The round table was three metres in diameter and at the top, instead of hardwood, there was a layer of sand. From the raised corners, some depth to the layer of sand was visible. Rayen didn’t know what it was, but he didn’t need to think. He just turned to Bardar and sure enough, he was there to answer on his own with a big smile on his lips. “This was what I made during my academic years to help with designing models of golems. You like the flow of mana, right? You would love this.”

Bardar came close to the piece of clear glass that was embedded on one side of the table. He then opened it and pulled out a pure white stone and put it in the depressed space beside the glass. “Since I put the mana stone to power it, you don’t have to worry about putting your mana for consumption. Now come here and put your hand on the glass.” Rayen also came close and did as he said. Bardar made a rune in the air that struck the glass and made it glow with a soft blue light. Rayen felt something entering his body. Under his constant gaze, a thread of little blue hues rose from the screen and latched onto his hand on the glass. It passed through his body and when he was waiting for something to happen, he found himself back in his inner world.

But he was not alone this time. From his right, the thread with blue hues was also there. Rayen didn’t get time to do much as the thread jumped towards the canvas of the sky with extreme fluidity and he found himself back in front of the table. He blinked with confusion and his head tilted to the side.

“It felt strange, right? I also felt it when it happened to me, the feeling of it being connected with your consciousness. Now try to imagine what you are seeing with your eyes.” Rayen’s simple mind got distracted the moment he heard such words. HIs thoughts focused on the things in front of his eyes and the sand on the table surged with waves. The sand rose to small heights and started to form the outlines of the room, from the benches to the hanging golems. Soon some small, lifelike miniature replicas of various objects appeared on the table, made from the sand.

Badar nodded his head, seeing the table working as intended even after such a long time. He walked around to reel in the feeling of nostalgia and wanted to say some words, but those got stuck in his throat. He noticed an anomaly that made him narrow his eyes. His figure was now opposite to Rayen, and naturally, his figure formed in the sand bed. But the figure was very strange. The outlines were that of a human, but they lacked the density as sand particles were too far apart from each other. And then there was a small floating sphere inside the outlines.

He made some more runes with his hands and struck on the table which made the sand shake every time, but the vision didn't change. He then found Rayen looking at his strange movements and said with a cough. “Ahem! I was checking on something. Don't worry, everything is normal. Huh?” Bardar’s keen eyes then noticed slight shakes on the spherical orbs inside the figure, which made him pause.

“Rayen.” His face became serious and focused everything on the sphere. “Do you know I hate golems?” The sphere shook. Bardar then changed his words. “No, I loved it.”

‘No way. Did he just respond to my lie? There is no problem with the table, so does it mean that’s how Rayen sees us? I need to confirm this.’ “ Rayen, do you know…” Bardar didn’t stop there and under the baffled eyes of Rayen he continued with his round of lies and truth and when he was finally done, he bit his lips looking at Rayen. A range of emotions ran through his face before finally, a sigh left his mouth. He came to Rayen and took his hand. “Come with me.”

Bardar took Rayen with him and arrived at Bella’s room. He knocked and entered when a voice came from inside. “You wait here for a moment.”

Left alone, Rayen didn’t know what to do. He had to wait more than thirty minutes before the door opened again and Bella and Bardar walked out. Bella doesn’t have much change in her face and always looks with a kind smile, but Bardar is the opposite of her. His face was down and with fists clenched and he was biting his lips with such force that blood was coming out.

“Rayen.” Bella kneeled and said while maintaining her smile. “Your brother is going to Oasis tomorrow. I hope you can go with him. You don’t mind, right?”