Two islands from mine, I came across Hu Ha sitting in a small scorched crater. A broken walking aid lay in shambles around him. Steam thick with Qi wafted from his skin. Foul ichor bled from his pores. This was a cultivator in action! Heck yeah, never seen that yet.
In sync with his slow controlled breath, Qi swirled within his body, forming a cyclic stream. A two-way waterfall that washed over his dantian. It had grown ten times since I’d last seen Hu Ha. Though the hungry corruption still gnawed at his Qi, it no longer seemed one gulp away from consuming him whole.
I’ve got no idea about stages or realms and such, but I was glad to see the boy doing better. Since I wasn’t in a hurry, and we were in the wilderness, I decided to sit down and watch over him.
He roused during my third attempt to sculpt a flute, slowly blinking.
“Hello,” I said, “I’m Eithan, a traveling priest. I hope I didn’t disturb you.” An unfortunate quirk of divine physiology. I was physically unable to introduce myself as anything else than Eithuriel or its derivatives. Eithan wasn’t too bad a name though. Had a nice sound to it. Luckily that restriction didn’t apply to jobs or titles. I would’ve been screwed if I’d had to introduce myself as a god...
Hu Ha sprang to his feet, gave me a once over, and did the fist-and-palm salute. “This Hu Ha, son of Ha Shin, and heir of the Ha Clan greets Eithan with gratitude for standing guard.”
“No problem.” I mimicked his salute, already ashamed of my casual language.
“This one is ashamed to have to do so, but would beg for Eithan for a request.”
I straightened myself and spoke with more cultivator aplomb. “Certainly. Speak thy request.”
Hu Ha cringed. Okay, too formal.
“This one does not mind if honorable Eithan uses his preferred level of familiarity in conversation.” He then did the salute again, as his legs began to shake. “This one is ashamed to admit it, but this Hu Ha broke his walking aid, whilst meditating.”
“Aah, say no more.”
***
I let Hu Ha piggyback to Edgewhere. The tiny town was tribal mixed with oriental fantasy and a dash of scifi.
Farms surrounded a hundred or so buildings built atop ancient fortifications. Bone jinglers and ornate electric lanterns decorated the streets. People wore fantastical furs from night-blue creatures with tacky printed t-shirts as if it was the most normal thing.
What caught my eye immediately was that the post office had a TV!
Some old folks invited me to watch this game-show some former Earthlings had set-up. Basically competitive tower-defence between teams of [System] users. Summoners and enchanters created minions. Fighters and mages then protect a nexus against the waves.
A top thousand show in the multiverse, apparently. No surprise. What should’ve been a brief pause stretched to hours of hollering and shouting at the screen with the geezers. They shared some salty fried snacks and this amazing spicy cider. I shared my smoked ghostfish. We had a blast.
Mentioned my pioneering challenges during half-time. One of the old guys who used to do a lot of masonry back in the day invited me for dinner to discuss business, which reminded me I unfortunately had business to attend to.
Edgewhere didn’t have a real merchant. What they did have was one goblin-nosed farmer, whose house and three barns were stuffed with odds and ends he had hoarded over the years. Simon of Stuff, they called him.
The dude nearly had an aneurysm upon seeing my haul. Tried to trade them for his house, and when I refused, upped the offer with a kidney. A slight oopsie on my part for not realizing that regular folks can’t even see, much less catch and cook ghostfish. What I thought were regular flying fantasy fish turned out to be some kind of special flying fantasy fish, and highly priced by mages and cultivators alike.
Despite Simon’s insistence to take at least one of his kidneys, I was content with a bunch of his old tools, spare tarps, buckets, seeds, and various little things that might come in handy. A rusty old stone cutting chisel in particular gave me ideas of a big stone house suspended over the Void.
***
Nami had sensed the omens of danger suspicious days before overhearing her students gossip of the young master of Ha sect receiving a blessing from a strange deity and becoming a cultivator. For weeks, an unusually large flock of sacred birds hooted around the temple roosters, wraithfish possessions had declined sharply, and all day the sacred chimes had jingled their ominous tune.
Her worst fears were confirmed when pa visited the temple, and told her of a traveling merchant peddling smoked wraithfish. She had noted their population migrating from the central isles. Mortal hands could not touch them, unless a divine influence had released their tormented souls.
A deity had arrived to the Crystal Archipelago, no doubt about it.
But what kind of deity?
Nami tapped into the small pool of mana at her disposal, and danced the ancient ritual of the Gray One to borrow her sworn god’s divine sense. Arcane circles manifested before her eyes. Pigments faded from her world, replaced by a waxing dream of gray.
What she saw nearly struck her blind.
Towering above the town were winged wheels of light. A thousand eyes burning with raw godly power. A singularity of causality and creation. A shard of the primordial eternity from before time. Its deiform dwarfed the town a hundred times over, unseen by all but Nami.
The spell circles shattered and Nami staggered backwards, utterly shaken, filled with dread. “Gray save us…”.
Its whims could wipe out the isles.
Its wrath could doom them into a living hellscape.
And Hu Ha had made a deal with this thing? That fool. That utter, utter fool. Deities do not grant blessings freely. They demand souls and sacrifice, worship and prayer. Since the Guardian’s decline, it had been a matter of time since one would come for their village, but Nami had hoped the remoteness of the village would protect them.
That is, until today.
Nami steeled herself. As the last priestess of the Gray Feathered, the duty of dealing with the divine fell upon her shoulders.
She donned the old armor of the First Priestess and dusted up the sacred staff. Nami was no fighter, but from what she knew, deities avoided squabbles over territory. A display of confidence could be enough to ward it off.
And, should the worst come to worst and its greed prove overwhelming, she’d equipped the rather embarrassing sacrificial garments underneath. A last ditch effort to appease a deity’s wrath.
Anything to save her loved ones from annihilation.
***
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Wow! You live at the temple?”
That wonder of architecture rightly deserved its spot on the highest hill of the castle ruins beneath the town. Generations of love and passion showed on its pillars, arches, bird-statues, and curved roofs.
Old Pa, the retired mason wiped his nose, his chest swelling with pride. “Mah oldest is the priestess. Took me and ma in, when the old priestess joined the Gray One’s flock. Oh, there she is! Nami, say hello to Eithan.”
At the top of the stairs stood a girl, framed by the temple’s entry gate. From neck to toes, she was covered in an armored dress accented by gray feathers. Falls of autumn hair framed a set of soft features and fluffy eyebrows. Eyes icy as the tundra were scrunched up in utmost defiance and determination.
“Hi, I’m Eithan.”
Nami inclined her head. “And I am Nami. Blessings of the Gray upon you Eithan, father. Apologies, but I must remain vigilant. Priestly business.”
“That so?” Old Pa frowned. “Was hoping you’d help us cook. Already bragged to Eith here ‘bout your pies. He was looking forward to them, wasn’t you?”
“I might survive a night without them, if she’s busy.”
“Might survive a night, he says. Ha! Come. Come! Let Old Pa show you a lil teensy project I’ve going on at the Northside. Gray bless Nami.”
“Gray bless, father.” A small smile slipped on her lips. Part of her smile lingered on me, as she nodded. “And you, Eithan.”
“Thanks. See you around,” was all I managed.
The priest girl was hella cute. And damn that armored skirt getup looked cool. She was a proper paladin. Though Old Pa’s presentation on stone craft and masonry was interesting, and useful, I was honestly a bit sad she couldn’t join us.
***
An unforeseen distraction pulled nami’s attention from waiting for the foreign deity to make its attack.
She stole glances of the young traveler called Eithan, as first her father, and then little sisters led him around the temple grounds. He was a tall young man with curly hair and a handsome if unkempt appearance. There was strength in his bearing, quiet confidence in his gait, and a vexing ease in his mannerism that she’d never seen in anyone of her own age.
Had they not been under imminent threat, she would’ve liked to strike a conversation. But alas. Tonight, Nami had to maintain her vigil.
Sun dimmed beneath a lid of red clouds. A few of fathers friends came over with their families. Sounds of merriment echoed in the empty courtyard behind Nami, as her family and friends entertained the traveler, a stranger no longer from the sounds of laughter.
Nami’s stomach growled. She whimpered and cursed the dumb foreign god. She wanted to join the fun!
“Hey, sounds like I had a good timing,” Eithan’s voice startled her to spin around. He chuckled, smiling warmly as he set down a small feast of dishes from mushroom soup to smoked fish. “Priestly duties seem tough.”
“Well…” her eyes flicked from Eithan to food. Reluctantly, she set her staff down and dug in. One couldn’t defend the town with an empty stomach. “Today is a bit of a special case.”
“You don’t usually stand around looking cool all day?”
Nami snorted. “Cool? These old relics? Psssht. Are you trying to flatter me?”
“Maybe I am, but it’s true though.” The quirky flirt in his eyes made Nami’s ears heat up. Eithan must’ve noticed, since he looked away, poking at his nose awkwardly. “Sorry. That was probably inappropriate to say to a priestess. Ahem. Apologies for disturbing your priestly duties.”
Gosh, how dare a handsome boy like him act so cute?
“No.” Nami focused intently at a particular carrot, doing her darndest to suppress a blush. “Priestesses of the Gray One don’t have such vows— I mean. Your presence is most welc— I mean to say...” Gosh! She stopped more stupid from spilling out with a spoonful of soup. Her brows lifted. “Mmm! Delicious. What are these?”
“You like? Honestly, no clue. Brown and round. Some kinda truffle? Found them underground beneath coniferous trees. Don’t worry though, I taste everything to see if it’s poisoned.”
“Ah. I was pondering why a man from the cities would come here. So you are a herb hunter?” Nami guessed. Foragers of the rare and exotic were occasionally seen around the archipelago. Afterall, many of the ingredients found here were valuable alchemical reagents for wizards and cultivators alike.
“Eeeh… Part-time. At most. Nothing’s locked in place yet. I wanna try farming too, though I’d rather not mess up nature too much. Maybe I’ll set up some perennial gardens.”
Nami blinked. “You’re here to stay?”
“Yup. I’m staying on a big island straight north from here. Your dad promised to help me with construction so I’ll keep swinging by.” Was there a hint of flirt in his smile or was it Nami’s imagination?
Gosh! Had she sounded that happy? Nami wolfed down food to escape having to think of her reactions.
Wait.
“You’re staying outside the town?” she asked carefully.
Eithan nodded. “I basically picked the prettiest place I could find. Figured it’d be close enough to visit people easily.”
Nami eyed him with worried suspicion. Many a dreamy eyed city fool had fallen prey to the perils of the Crystal Archipelago. Whilst hunters and adventurers could surely handle themselves in groups, Eithan had neither companions, the magical tools of a wizard, nor the attitude of a cultivator. “Are you perchance a System user?”
“I wish!” Eithan sighed. “Don’t worry though. I’ll manage. ”
Nami finished a bite, and met his lackadaisical smile with a grim warning. “Beware. Voidwilds are unpredictable at the best of times, and now a new god stalks these lands.”
“Right. I guess a priestess would notice it.” Eithan nodded to himself, looking past her at the old shrine. “Hey, mind if I offer my prayers to the Gray One? I’d feel rude not to, given your dad offered to let me sleep outside the shrine.”
“Certainly... you may.”
Eithan flashed a grin and stood up. “Thanks! See you in a bit.”
What an odd request from someone who’d only just come to Voidwilds. Very odd. Nami returned to guarding the entrance, but kept glancing at Eithan as he sat before the old shrine, and chatted by himself. Another oddity of the city folk?
It wasn’t even a proper hunch, more of a whim, but Nami activated the spell to borrow Gray One’s senses to take a better look at Eithan.
Light flooded her vision. The spell shattered.
It’s here.
Her heart sank. Disguised as a human, the foreign deity had snuck right past her! Before the horror could fully sink in, the shrine warped before it, folding in on itself into a pair of feathered doors, which swung open into a dream of whirling gray. It stepped into the portal, invading Gray One’s domain.
On trembling steps, knuckles white around her staff, Nami chased after the invader, prepared to sacrifice her life to protect her deity. What she saw struck her with utter confusion.
***
I made friends with a fellow deity, if only for a little while. Gray One was a big bushy bird half-owl half-tit, hundred percent cute, and surrounded by a huge flock of birds. Kinda like an old bird grandma. We chatted about this and that and nothing in particular. She chirped while I gave her scratches.
She wanted to hear stories about the outside world, so I indulged her, recounting my travels to Voidwilds, and some of my favorite webnovels from back when Earth had been Earth.
She wanted to fly one last time, so I lifted her overhead and ran around making wind sounds.
And finally, she wished to say her bid goodbye to her priestess.
I left the Gray One’s domain, pretending not to notice Nami crouched in the corner. Wish I’d met the old god earlier, but sadly there wasn’t anything I could do for her.
***
“Nami, twenty-first spear of my murmuration, come forth,” chirped the Gray One’s ancient voice.
Nami straggled forward, unsure of what exactly she’d witnessed. None of it made sense. Not unless the foreign deity was a trickster god borne to sow chaos and illusion. Nami took a seat before the Gray One, who hooted in approval.
“Nami,” Gray One said, her voice soft as her feathers. “I will die tonight.”
“No…” She stared at Gray One. “Did he—”
Gray One lifted one of her eight wings. “Eithan is not at fault, though it is his arrival what allows me to pass on in peace. No. I am simply too weary to battle the curse.” The festering cancer pulsed under Gray One’s feathers, eroding her on both the physical and a conceptual level.
It was the price she paid for protecting Edgewhere from the Outsider.
The price every generation paid, with unfortunate children like Hu Ha.
“But. You can’t,” was all Nami could manage. “We need you.”
Gray One chirped hoarsely, as if to chuckle. “You need no old withering ghost. No. Fate has finally granted a true blessing upon Edgewhere. A god with the soul of a man. A pure piece of divine, untainted by the world. Treat him as a man before a god. Let him live amongst mortals. If need be, it may be your job to guide him, not the other way around. Do this, and I foresee a time of great plenty and happiness shall come to us.”
“B-but how could I possibly guide a god?”
Gray one hooted in amusement. “Man before a god. This will be your hardest test, little one, but I know you can do it.” Gray One began to deflate. Her feathers withered into ghostly flakes of light.
Nami cried for her to stay, but the Gray One disappeared.
“And thank you,” whispered the last flecks of light, “for feeding the little birds.”
***
That night, the sky was full of ghostfish. Birds sang a mournful song, and I heard Nami sobbing with her family.
Next day, when I was returning home, she ambushed me outside the village with a huge backpack on her shoulders.
“I’m coming to see your island,” Nami declared, glaring at me with puffy eyes.
I should’ve said no. I should’ve asked if her father knew. I should’ve this and should’ve that. A bunch of should haves went undone that day. I was just too excited to have a guest over and possibly make friends with her.