------------Northern Continent, Boreal Territory---------
Ari looked across the sprawling wilderness of the northern continent. Taking in the beauty of her homeland she embraced the chill turning her breath to mist as she tackled the decision facing her.
Conflicted, Ari ran her hand through her blond hair before resting it on the familiar smooth scales of her companion and best friend Esti. Esti made a deep crooning sound as he felt her hand, closing his eyes in affection and trust. Ari had raised Esti since he was still an unhatched egg and she was a little girl. They'd grown up together saving each other's lives countless times while patrolling her father's territory.
Now Ari wished more than ever that her lifelong companion could speak so she could ask for Esti's advice on the biggest decision of her life.
She tried to weigh the decision subjectively as her father had taught her to do with complex problems when training her to be the next Warchief.
If she did take the offer and left the Northern Continent with the Church's Emissary she would be able to focus on saving the world alongside others just like her. Focused on doing good and removing the evil corruption plaguing the world. The Emissary had even said she would get a chance to work alongside some of Ari's role models like Blue Pillar Mallory or even the Grandmaster of the Justice Paladins Lioness Luxia herself!
But to do so would mean leaving the Northern Continent. Leaving her people to stand against the world's evil wherever it lay in hiding. A task that could very likely lead to her to an early grave.
Dying didn't bother Ari as much as she knew it should. Alongside Esti, Ari had faced death in the face countless times already in her short fifteen years of life. The North wasn't like the other continents. Here going into the deadly Northern wilds as a child was an action readily supported by her own family. Even expected. It was the way of the North, they even had a word for it. They called it the Trials.
Ari had lost three siblings to the Trials all dying while pushing themselves to their limits to become stronger. Her family simply acknowledged their deaths as acceptable losses. They said death was always a possible consequence for anyone seeking strength. Each and every time. That was all they said to Ari to comfort her for her sibling's deaths or her other childhood friends who disappeared one after the other never to return after being pushed to undertake their own Trials.
Her parents would give no excuses, they wouldn't take any of the blame for the deaths of the children they sent into the unforgiving wilds alone. They simply said it meant they weren't meant to be strong. That the children who died would always have been weak. Ari's family, along with the entire Boreal Warband, believed dying in the Trial saved the children from the ultimate embarrassment of living out their lives as cowards.
It was their way in the North, the weak die while the strong thrive. Her people believed it was their harsh traditions like the Trials that made the North's Mercenary Warbands the most feared for-hire fighting force in the world. That the strength they gained from overcoming the Trials was what made them able to bring money and food back to their home every spring after fighting in the other continents' wars all winter long.
It may be the North's way. But Ari didn't want it to be her way.
The only thing Ari wanted to do ever since she was four years old and watched her first brother die in his Trial was change it. Change everything the North clung to so desperately.
She'd sought strength endlessly. Not for fame and fortune, but so others didn't have to. So that no more of her friends would be forced to an early grave in the name of tradition.
To achieve her goals she'd pushed herself to her limits ever since she could hold a sword. The first time she went into the wilderness alone for her first Trial was on her sixth birthday.
When she returned three days later half dead and carrying an odd-looking Polar Lizard egg her family showered her with praise. Rejoicing in her strength.
Six-year-old her had then asked that if one day she was strong enough to protect everyone could they then stop the Trials from happening so no one else would be pushed to their deaths like her older brother had.
That night instead of enjoying her planned celebration, her father beat her until she had one foot in the grave. He said dishonoring the ancestors and the ways of her people would not be tolerated especially from his own daughter. The Warchief's daughter.
The beating only made Ari more determined. She would become so strong that no one could stop her from protecting her people. She would become so powerful they wouldn't have to be strong. They could be weak and chase happiness rather than flee from death with every breath.
Looking back down from the frozen wilds sprawled out all around her Ari looked to Esti, now munching on a small rodent he must have caught while Ari was lost in thought. Esti had grown rather large for a Polar Lizard, what they'd assumed he was given his reptilian look and blue scales. Recently odd nubbs had grown out of Esti's shoulders. Ari had tasked a doctor with checking them and they came back saying it was an odd bone growth nothing which should be too dangerous as long as the progress was monitored.
The little girl in Ari hoped Esti, her three-foot-long lizard, was secretly a dragon. No matter how far-fetched for a dragon egg to be alone in the wilderness when everyone knew dragons guarded their young zealously, it was still one of the few daydreams Ari liked to splurge with.
Realizing she was trying to distract herself to avoid making a decision Ari refocused back on her dilemma.
Should she give up her position as successor and leave the Northern Continent to help the Church hunt down and eliminate evil wherever it lurked even if the odds of her coming back alive were next to none?
For Ari, who had been throwing herself at impossible challenge after impossible challenge since she was four to accomplish her dream, the answer was clear.
-----------
The next day Ari got on the boat with the Emissary from the Church to the racious cheers of her hardy people.
Her father had been surprisingly easy to convince. He said to avoid such a challenge would be something only a shriveling coward would do. The greatest insult conceivable by any Northerner.
As for Ari's mother, she had been equally enthusiastic in her own way. Negotiating with the Emissary to allow Ari to join the Church while maintaining her status as a Boreal Mercenary, her mother not only jumped at the opportunity to advertise the Warband through her daughter but also managed to capitalize by charging the Church a steep price for her daughter's enlistment to boot.
Her father and mother had even told Ari that if she returned triumphant he would appoint her once again as his successor, a position she had to forfeit while under the leadership of the Church.
Everyone she knew and cared for supported her decision, so why did she feel so sad? Watching her people on the docks grow smaller and smaller Ari vowed she'd return one day when she was finally strong enough to accomplish her dream.
"Sad to say goodbye?" A friendly voice chimed in.
Ari turned to see the Emissary dressed in white robes with a gold outline at her side.
"Yes." Ari didn't see any reason to lie to the man from the Church.
"You know when my teacher Satrim chose me to be his apprentice and I found out I had to leave my village I broke down in tears. So if it's any consolation you're doing far better than I did."
Finding it nice to talk to someone who was empathizing with her Ari responded, "How old were you when you left?"
"Sixteen, so I guess just a year older than you are now. I'm sure Satrim took one look at me crying my eyes out and instantly regretted choosing me over all his other candidates." The Emissary let out a self-deprecating laugh as his eyes seemed to be distant as if focusing on a memory far in the past.
"Oh, how many people competed to be your teacher's apprentice?" Ari asked innocently.
The Emissary paused. His thirty year old-something face seemed to hide behind his long brown hair as he paused a moment as if contemplating whether or not to answer.
"One hundred and sixteen thousand."
Ari laughed assuming the Emissary was joking about a population larger than the entire Boreal Territory trying out just to be an apprentice for some priest. The Emissary played along smiling kindly not willing to correct the girl's misunderstanding.
"You know far more people than one hundred and sixteen thousand will look up to you one day." The Emissary said spinning it back to her.
"What do you mean?" Ari asked confused.
The Emissary answered her question with a question. "What do you think it means to be a Hero?"
"A Hero?" Ari's face scrunched up preparing to think it over for a while. To her surprise though the answer came to her as soon as she thought about her people, their struggle, and her dream to free them from it.
"It means to do what's hard so others don't have to." She answered resolutely.
"Doing what's hard so others don't have to." The Emissary's eyes squinted as he repeated her words once before beginning to laugh heartily. An action which made Ari look at him with some anger. How rude for him to mock her answer she thought.
Seeing her souring expression the Emissary stifled his laughter. "Oh Ari I'm not laughing at your answer," The Emissary put on a self-reflective expression, "Well actually I guess I am, but not because it's wrong."
Seeing Ari was still upset, but staying silent, the Emissary continued. "I just thought of how mad it would make half the Pillars to hear the prospective Hero describe their role so plainly. You see the Pillars are to quote my teacher, "A bunch of stuck up glory hounds who don't think their shit stinks." Hearing Ari's gasp at his frank words, the Emissary leaned towards her conspiratorily and whispered in her ear.
"You cannot tell anyone my teacher said that. Ok?"
Ari nodded enjoying the tone of secrecy the conversation had taken on.
"You promise?" The Emissary said with a very serious expression.
"I promise," Ari responded solemnly.
Sitting back up and returning to his jovial expression the Emissary returned back to his explanation for laughing.
"So as you can tell from my teacher's words, the Nine Pillars can be a little stuck up believing they and the Church can do no wrong."
Suddenly the Emissary straightened his back to a ridiculous degree and straightened his face mimicking a stern demeanor. He began to move his hands like he was giving a sermon to the waves below as he continued.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"They love spending their days doing nothing more than giving flowery speech after flowery speech rattling on endlessly about the virtues and values of the Radiance and her doctrine. If asked what it means to be a Hero you wouldn't be able to shut them up for hours. Bringing up scripture to back their words, emphasizing the Hero's true heart, and their unfailing faith in protecting the innocent just like the Radiance herself." The Emissary looked down from gazing out across the ocean ending his mock acting as the so-called "glory dog" Pillars.
"So hopefully you understand why hearing the Hero describe what it means to be a Hero so plainly is extremely refreshing."
Ari couldn't help but let out a giggle at the Emissary's silly display. "I understand. Thank you for explaining. To be honest I didn't really think there were non-fighting parts of being a Hero." Ari admitted. "Will I have to be able to talk like that, quoting scripture and all that?"
The Emissary looked at Ari as if trying to figure her out before waving off her concerns. "Ah I guess you probably wouldn't know much about that stuff in the North. Don't worry my job's to handle most of that stuff for you and your party until you all get good enough to do it yourselves. Trust me after sitting through a few of my doctrine-thumping sermons you'll be able to give a more inspiring speech than half the clergy at Solis."
Ari gave a warm smile to the Emissary thankful for the support. "You'll be accompanying our party?"
"Yep, that's right! I'll act as a liaison between you and the Pillars. You can think of me like your secret butler ninja bodyguard." The Emissary raised his hands and crouched in mock imitation of one of the infamous Eastern Continent ninjas.
Ari let out another laugh at the Emissary's ridiculous imitation before poking some fun at the man assuming he was joking. "Bodyguard? I didn't expect you to be my bodyguard? I thought it was basically a throw me to the wolves and see if I survive long enough to become a real Hero thing. Besides no offense, but I am a Mage of the Sixth and a master warrior of the Boreal Warband. I don't think any foe that could threaten me would even be slowed down by you."
The Emissary stepped out of his crouching position and gained a dangerous glint in his eye. "Oh you don't think I could even slow it down do you?"
Ari not realizing she was entering some dangerous waters pressed on playfully. "Don't get me wrong you seem like an excellent priest I'd totally let you tag along with the party to tell us bedtime stories. But for the fighting you can leave it to me." Ari puffed her chest out getting into character.
"Bedtime stories? Oh I like that idea." The Emissary's grin began to widen. "You know I have a good one I could tell would you like to hear it?"
"Sure! Regail the Hero with your tales oh Priest. I'm sure it'll be better than relying on the waves to lull me to sleep." Ari responded enjoying this seemingly innocent back and forth.
"Well if you insist." The Emissary's long brown hair began rising into the air and shimmering with light warranting Ari to clap in joy at the apparent party trick. "You see there once was a young girl. Oh, say fifteen years old who specialized in the Earth Element." Ari leaned forward in mock interest matching what she thought was a fun atmosphere.
"And she boarded a ship to sail far from home. On the ship, she met her bodyguard who she challenged to save her from peril."
Ari's expression became a little less jovial hinting there was some hidden malice in the Emissary's words. Esti, far more perceptive than his owner, began frantically nudging Ari's hand with his nose.
"So the bodyguard put her in peril to achieve his order. And waited for her to ask him to help. The end."
Ari's smile fell away as she gained a confused expression not understanding the punchline while also annoyed at Esti who was now pulling on her shirt with his needle-sharp teeth trying to pull Ari away from the dangerously smiling man.
"I'm sorry, I guess I don't understand this style of southern humor," Ari said as she tried to pry Esti's jaws off her. This was her favorite shirt!
The Emissary's smile had grown so large it was half a pinky from his ears. His sparkling brown hair was slowly turning to a lighter shade and now stood straight above his head like some type of odd hat.
"Oh no worries dear Hero. Allow me to help you understand." His tone dripping with warning signs.
Ari finally picked up that something wasn't right, but too little too late as suddenly she found herself and Esti surrounded by a circular column of golden light angling towards the far-off horizon. A complex pattern of mana that would make anyone impressed by its intricacy, if they weren't too busy being concerned at why it was surrounding them that is.
"Wait! Wha-" Ari's voice was cut off by the Emissary whose hair was now a bright gold.
"Just call if you need me Hero!" His cheery voice now with an obviously sinister undertone.
And with that Ari found herself shot far, far into the cold and dangerous Northern Sea.
The crew of the ship all glued their eyes to the prospective Hero who, now screaming her lungs out while flying away from their ship. A second later all eyes moved to fix on the white and gold-robed Emissary whose hair had returned once more to an unassuming brown color. He was currently wearing a serious expression. Identical to the one he used to mock the Pillars earlier.
"Do not be alarmed, the Hero is simply experimenting with her abilities. Continue on as you normally would. Do not worry she is the Hero. Where she goes so does the light of the Radiance. She will return when the Radiance deems it so."
The sailors nodded respectfully to the Emissary believing the words he'd given with the same demeanor as a Priest preaching their sermon.
Seeing the sailors returning to their tasks the Emissary allowed himself a wry smile. Some of his hair began to shimmer once more as a telescope made of light appeared floating in front of his left eye. Looking through it the Emissary's vision was filled with a very pissed off looking Hero trying to climb a sea serpent bigger than the boat the Emissary was currently on while her pet Lizard no bigger than a large dog was hovering just above the sea while trying to intimidate the massive serpent by roaring at it.
"After all these years my aim's still not half bad." The Emissary chuckled to himself as sat himself on the ship's railing with his feet hanging over the side of the ship. A few more strands of his hair turned golden and the sound from the scene in his telescope began to be played for him, allowing him to hear Ari's fight as well as watch it. Pulling out some crackers and cheese from his pockets the Emissary readied himself to enjoy his righteous Hero's first battle. As the Hero's Emissary, he must be sure to accurately chronicle all their conquests after all.
---
Ari was currently screaming obscenities at the backstabbing Emissary while clawing her way up an Adult Ice Sea Serpent. Because of course, she would find an icicle-covered sea serpent while unarmed and far from any substantial earth mana.
Redirecting her anger meant for the Emissary at the relatively innocent Sea Serpent, Ari punched her hand through the squirming Sea Serpent's scales etching out hand hold and footholds as she waited for it to inevitably panic and do what all aquatic monsters did when they panicked. Dive.
The Sea Serpent, engrossed in a roaring contest with the tiny odd-looking sea serpent that had landed next to it while it was sunning on the water's surface, halted its verbal duel when it felt an intruder digging painfully into its side.
Craning its body so its head could get a closer look at where the pain had come from the Serpent moved his head right next to where a fuming Ari was waiting, her fist already raised. Not wasting the opportunity Ari's fist collided with the serpent's eye puncturing it.
In a world of pain, the serpent fell back on what it had always done when in danger since it was a hatchling. Swim fast! Swim deep!
The serpent arched itself into the abyss face first instinctually using water mana to hasten its massive body's movements.
Ari, who was now elbows and knees deep in the serpent, held on for dear life as the Serpent plunged itself straight down into the deep. She knew the ocean was incredibly dangerous, she even had one of her Trials in it at the age of twelve. The rules for that Trial were to be quiet and meek because in the deep there were true monsters. But Ari was quick to abandon that ironclad rule for ocean expeditions in this particular predicament the Emissary placed her in despite the obvious risk.
Not because she was crazy, but because she was proud. And of course, because she had a plan. As the Ice Sea Serpent continued diving at a breakneck pace straight down Ari spent most of her focus ensuring she reinforced the bubble of air mana she was using to maintain the pressure around her body properly. Ari knew if she failed to do so correctly she would be stuck down her for far longer than she wanted to be. And probably dead.
Second on her list of things demanding her attention was maintaining her hand and foot holds deep in the serpent's flesh. If she let go she'd be helpless against the nimble sea monsters patrolling not to mention she would be at the sea serpent's mercy who would probably not let her off lightly for poking its eye out.
And third on her list of important things was using her mana sense to scan straight down to find the ocean floor.
A few moments later Ari felt it, the increasing levels of earth mana which only meant one thing. They were getting close to the seabed. Her ride seemed to realize the same thing as it started to pull up to avoid crashing straight into the ground, only for Ari to dig her hands and feet into the serpent's nervous collum, which she'd been working towards through her hand and foot holds while in the same moment sending her mana to shape the seabed into an earthwork fit to welcome her ride.
Overcome by the immense wave of pain the serpent reflexively clenched its body into a ball. Missing the crucial seconds it should have been using to pull up from the seabed, the Ice Sea Serpent now a tangled ball riding its previous momentum slammed into the seabed and onto Ari's towering earth spike, spearing the serpent all the way through and killing it instantly.
Dismounting her dead ride Ari floated to the ground like a seasick passenger getting off a ship. Welcoming the earth mana like a long-lost friend Ari tore up the seabed and used it to cover her pressurized air pocket. After taking a moment to smooth out any cracks to make sure the air pocket wouldn't be compromised, Ari enclosed the air pocket transferring most of the force required to maintain its standard pressure to the steadfast earth element.
Finally able to rely on earth mana once more Ari quickly began rolling her earth-surrounding shell along the seabed wanting to put as much distance between her and the crash site before more fearsome predators arrived attracted by the blood of the dead serpent.
Ari continued rolling inside her shell while sending mana scans directly upward looking for her ship and that damn Emissary! Careful to keep moving as she did so knowing scanning the wrong monster and letting it trace back to her would only mean her death. Even for her as a Mage of the Sixth the ocean floor was not somewhere she could afford to remain for long.
Finally, Ari's scan found a ship above. Not waiting for another second, Ari slammed a rounded earthspike into her shell boosting her toward the surface. Unfortunately, the force of a single earth spike was quickly balanced out by the weight of the surrounding water. Still, it gave Ari the start she needed.
As she rose from the seabed her air pocket began to rapidly increase in pressure. Instead of bleeding that air off into the surrounding waters, Ari created a separate pocket of air physically divided from the one sustaining the safe pressure around her body. In this second separate pocket of air, she allowed the air to rapidly gain pressure and expand.
What does high-pressure air do? It rises! Rapidly! And in this case, Ari holding onto the second air pocket, rose alongside it like a rocket from hell.
As for the poor sailors manning the ship directly above her, which was not her original ship, they were treated to a person-sized ball of earth exploding out of the water flying over their ship, and landing back in the water creating a splash that soaked anyone on deck. For the cherry on top, an enraged girl then boarded their ship and demanded to see where they were hiding the Emissary.
After a few minutes, the girl's face turned a bright red as she realized not only was she on the wrong ship, but she had just been verbally assaulting what were effectively her rescuers.
The shame only grew as her actual ship pulled up alongside the one Ari had boarded with a brightly smiling Emissary joyously announcing Ari was the Church's new prospective Hero.
Ari tried to charge the Emissary and murder the evil bastard but Esti, who somehow returned to the ship, pulled her back by her shirt before she could do so.
The two crews exchanged some trade goods, food, and information on the Northern Seas' everchanging tides before going their own ways. This time with Ari on the proper ship.
Changing into dry clothes Ari's mood improved a bit, but while hanging the wet ones on the railing with Esti's help the person she wanted to see least in the world approached her grinning ear to ear.
"Brave Hero Esti what a fine first adventure you had!"
"You!" Ari tried to pounce on the brown-haired monster but was tugged back by the familiar pull of Esti latching onto her shirttail.
"Oh? Not a fan? Personally, I think the people will love the part about calling the sailors who "rescued you" sniveling cowards and yellow bellied sugartails the most. How about you?"
Seeing Ari making guttural sounds seemingly stuck between spouting a stream of insults and screaming the Emissary continued.
"Oh was it exploring the seabed astride your loyal mount only to spear it into your own earth spike? Or maybe it was casting Titana's Torpedo only replacing the Torpedo part with your own body?" The Emissary seemed to be positively glowing in how his plan had worked out.
As for Ari she finally calmed down enough to speak. "You saw that? With the serpent?"
The Emissary's hair began to glow which, to his great joy, caused Ari and her lizard Esti to both flinch.
"Calm down you two, I'm just making a telescope. This time." The Emissary let out a wry grin and chuckled as the telescope of light from before formed in front of him.
"It's called Satrim's Gaze. Penetrates any clear surfaces with a range of effectively forever if you're good enough. You can listen through it too although the range for that aspect is more limited and a little more challenging to use."
For a second Ari forgot about her recent tragedy of an adventure as she inspected the coalesced spell.
"Wow! That's incredible, no wonder so many people wanted to be your teacher's apprentice." Ari hid her probe as a joke. No longer fully doubting the Emissary had been kidding earlier after seeing some of his abilities.
Picking up her hidden intentions the Emissary replied, "Yes, I'll satisfy your curiosity no need to conceal it." The Emissary flung his hair back dramatically as he stood with a straight back and a stern face. Once again adopting the priestly demeanor.
"Prospective Hero Ari! You stand before Arthur Heartsweep, trusted Aide to his holiness Gold Pillar Satrim. The very same Satrim who is one of the few Ninth Ranked Mages in the world." Then with a flash Arthur's posture was relaxed once more, his face wily and his eyes playful. "Oh and please don't tell anyone that last bit about Satrim being at the 9th, it's kind of a big secret."
Ari just rolled her eyes walking past the goofball Esti had convinced her to spare for now. Ignoring Arthur's ridiculous claims, Ari headed to her cabin to try and sleep off this insane day. Scratching Esti just under his chin as she walked Ari idly wondered if Arthur had noticed Esti using complex air spells. Well if he did she would find a way to have him keep quiet.
Throwing her to an Adult Ice Sea Serpent was one thing, but if Arthur threatened Esti, Ari wouldn't hesitate to do what she needed to keep her lifelong companion safe.