Nobody spoke until they returned to the temple proper. Soon as they set foot inside, Callan rounded on Kivi. “Alright, so what have you got to tell me?”
“So many things, Avatar, that I hardly know where to start. First, however...” She held out her hand. Inside his head, Xeph let out a gasp.
I had hoped when I saw her, but... Quickly, mortal! Take her hand!
“We were literally just holding hands, Xeph.” He reached out for Kivi.
Ah, but not formally, that was more of—Ahhhhhh. Now that’s more like it.
You have been awarded 8 additional faith.
Congratulations! Due to crossing the required threshold of 80 followers, your God Bond has increased to Talc — IX.
+1 to all stats
Apotheosis cost of all bounties now decreased by 45%
Conviction rate has increased.
Mountainform’s coverage has also slightly increased.
Next God Bond threshold: 90 followers.
Callan blinked and swiped the messages away. “Why am I just getting these messages now?”
Because this faith was gathered by a priest rather than given to you directly. Or would you rather see a message every time a new follower joins the ranks?
“I would very much not.” He turned his attention back to Kivi. “You found eight additional followers in Aos, I take it?”
“Correct, Avatar. More than eight, actually, but there are... complications. A subject we must discuss further at length, and soon. I fear the situation in the yeth village grows dire, without our immediate intervention.”
“That sounds both familiar and incredibly worrisome. Not more problems with Zavastu, is it?” From what the lud had told him, the god controlled a large section of the Badlands, but he didn’t know exactly where that influence began and where it ended.
“Not Zavastu, no.” Kivi looked as if she wanted to say more, then glanced at their retinue a moment before adding, “It is a discussion better held in private. We shall speak more later.”
“Okay, fine by me. What happened after you returned? I saw you were only a day or so out before my, ah, disappearance.”
Luckily, Kivi had made no further comment after the accidental reveal that he’d been a prisoner himself. Hopefully he could keep the conversation from steering back that way.
And above all else, he had to keep Shamain from learning about it. He’d never hear the end otherwise.
“Unfortunately, there is not much I can tell you,” Kivi said. “By the time I arrived, your absence had already been noticed and the village was on high alert looking for you.”
“It was the high priestess who thought to use the temple’s scrying function to locate you,” Paeral added. The old lud had dropped back to walk with them now that the danger of the dveorgan tunnels had passed.
“That was smart thinking,” Callan said. He was glad Kivi had more luck with that function than he had.
They discussed a few other minor details. Kivi told him a bit about the journey to and from Aos, but it was mostly uneventful. The Etruscian woman who went with her, Silfia, had been helpful, but was not as familiar with yeth communities as she was with others.
Soon the main temple began to draw close enough they could hear the echoing voices of the lud. They sounded like they were in a full-blown panic. Callan wondered how long Kivi and the others had been gone. Long enough to cause an uproar, apparently. He let out a sigh.
“Before we wade in and deal with whatever mess is waiting for us, we should post a watch back in the room, just in case Krov sends someone to speak with us.”
“I can perform this function, Avatar,” Paeral said with a bow. “If a surprise attack comes from that door, better one of advanced age be the first to fall.”
“How wonderfully pragmatic of you,” Callan said flatly. All of the lud looked at him curiously, and it occurred to him that term might not exactly translate. He shook his head, and added, “Take your brother with you. Nobody travels these halls alone until the children are found.”
Paeral nodded and set off in the opposite direction with Sworv in tow. Watching them retreat, Callan couldn’t help but wonder if the priest simply didn’t want to deal with the uproar that was waiting for them.
Then something occurred to Callan. He started to call out just as the two lud disappeared around a corner. “Hey, Paeral! Sworv! Wait!”
“Avatar? What is it?”
“I’m an idiot, that’s what. What the heck are they going to do if a dveorg does amble along? They don’t speak the same language!”
He paused. Something was itching in the back of his skull, some detail he’d overlooked, but which he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“The dveorg do not speak the same language as us?” Kivi asked, a note of confusion in her voice. Just like that, everything clicked.
“You!” He faced the high priestess. “You were able to speak with Krov down below! How do you know their language?”
“I do not understand, Avatar. The tiny creatures you call dveorg were speaking Urslang common.” Kivi paused, then added, “Weren’t they?”
I told you before, human, Xeph said, That one of the powers I bestow is that of language. So long as our priests are within a domain over which I have control, this extends to them as well.
“Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” Quickly, Callan repeated to Kivi what the god had just told him. She frowned throughout but was nodding by the time he finished.
“That does explain some of the... inconsistencies with a few of our conversations. I had merely attributed it to your being from... elsewhere.” Her eyes darted to the two nameless lud who were still standing nearby. “But knowing now that the god has been an intermediary between us this entire time, it makes far greater sense.”
“Really? What sort of ‘inconsistencies have there been?”
Kivi opened her mouth, then paused. “I think that is a conversation reserved for another occasion. For now, we have kept the rest of the community waiting long enough. Shall we?”
“I guess. Still have no idea what I’m going to tell Racine and the others, though.”
“You’ll think of something, Avatar.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “We’ll think of something. Now, come with me. Your followers need to know that you’re alright.”
----------------------------------------
Callan lay on his bed and tried his best to forget the last few hours.
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At first the lud had been overjoyed at his and Kivi’s return. Unfortunately, once it had become apparent that they had not returned with the children, joy had quickly turned to frustration and then to anger. Callan would have thought the fact he had a god inside of him would be enough to keep an angry mother out of his face, but he’d been massively disproven in that regard.
Once Racine and the other parents had finished chewing him out, he’d calmly explained that they would continue to search, but without any further leads he was stumped. It had been a difficult admission, but eventually the lud had accepted it.
Not that anyone was happy, mind you.
At the very least, there had been no further disappearances. With the return of Callan and Kivi’s search party, the only ones missing were the three children. And further good news: Callan was able to assure the parents their children were alive. He’d lost no faith since Tervak’s death. With luck, that would remain the case.
So life had resumed around the temple. Search parties were sent out regularly, but there were still meals to cook, laundry to clean, tools to repair, and a hundred other tiny tasks that any self-sufficient society was forced to engage in on a regular basis.
Callan could only hope that, now that he’d opened communications with the dveorg, some of those duties might be simplified. Xeph had hinted that they had only brushed upon the technology available in the temple, and even if he couldn’t remember its functions specifically, he recalled enough to know that they were all a far cry from the quality of life that should be available.
But until Krov deigned to reach out to them, or a lud braved venturing down into the dveorg city, that avenue was closed.
In the meantime, they had more short-term issues to deal with. Lynthia’s hunters had managed to bring in several kills, so meals were more than just biscuits. Kivi had sent word for the watchers at the pythian to begin gathering leaves and bark. Both for trade, and for their own use. Honestly, the idea should have occurred to Callan the second he saw that group of lud trying to rework the priest vestments.
So now there was food that would need to be preserved, and raw materials for clothing that would need to be processed. Callan had consulted with a dozen lud about the best places for both these operations, but so far hadn’t found anything ideal.
How this temple had once hosted hundreds, if not thousands, he had no idea. There were plenty of rooms with beds and for storage, but not a single room for cooking? For manufacturing? For anything that might have occupied an army of priests a few millennia ago?
He couldn’t bring himself to believe that.
Anyway, he was exhausted over racking his brain on the subject all day. Now, he just wanted to lay here and think of something, anything else.
Which is why he’d brought up his stat screen.
Currently, he had eight faith points to spend thanks to Kivi’s recruitment efforts. The question was what he wanted to do with them.
“Thoughts, Xeph?”
Hmm. Callan could feel the god scrutinizing the screen. If Kivi is correct, and there are more faithful waiting for us in the yeth village, there is no reason to stress over a few measly points. But if you truly want my advice, you might continue to build your Fortitude.
“Because it’s what is helping to keep me alive?”
That, and because it is the closest to reaching the next tier. Stats can ‘tier up’ the same as your bounties, and you will see additional benefits by doing so. Your first tier will be reached at one hundred which, while admittedly still a ways off, the more you work towards it, the better of a position you’ll be to cross the threshold if called to do so in a time of need.
Callan smirked. “I thought you told me to avoid overloading my Fortitude before. Now you’re advising me to focus more on it? Which is it, Xeph, buddy-ol-pal?”
Hmmph. I do not care for that particular moniker. Also, these are two completely different situations! Before we had just received a windfall from an entire village, and I did not want you becoming so disproportionate you are unable to function. But this is a mere eight points. There is little harm whichever direction you choose.
“Disproportionate?” he asked. “Can that really happen?”
Yes. Should your stats ever become too uneven, you may suffer physical or mental consequences. You are more prone to it while in the early stages of avatarhood of course, when your body is still ill-prepared for a stat overload, but even more advanced avatars need to be careful they do not ignore one stat in favor of their others.
“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.” He resumed studying his screen with fresh eyes. Still, while Xeph’s advice had sobered him, in the end, he still needed to focus on healing himself. Some risk of consequences was worth it.
To that end, he dropped half of the new points into his Fortitude, allocating the remaining four at a point each into his Brawn, Momentum, Influence, and Concentration. As much as he needed more Piety to increase the range of his priests, it would just have to take the short end of the stick for the moment. Callan promised mentally to make it up later.
No sooner had he dismissed the last message than there came a knock on his door. By the sound of it, he knew immediately who it was.
“Come on in, High Priestess.”
The door slid open, and Kivi slipped inside, closing it softly behind her. She glanced over, saw Callan reclining on the bed, and her body tensed.
Right. He really needed to stop having important meetings in his bedroom. Immediately, Callan sat up, swinging his legs off the edge. “Welcome to my humble abode. I’d offer you a chair, but...” He gestured to the austere room.
“You didn’t have any furniture brought from another room?”
“I mean, I guess I could have tried, but the last chair in this temple I sat on crumbled to dust underneath me. Not an experience I intend to repeat.”
You’ll recall, I did try to warn you about the unsavory look of it, Xeph groused as a hint of a smile crept across Kivi’s face. Giving a shake of her head, she turned and started rummaging in a bag slung over her shoulder.
“We’ll speak to some of the Biiran villagers tomorrow and see about getting furniture constructed, even if materials need to be hauled all the way back from the village. In the meantime, I brought you something from Aos.”
“Oh?” Callan watched, curious, as Kivi reached into her bag and withdrew a tiny statue of... well, he wasn’t actually sure. It had sort of a post-modern art look to it. Clay formed into a myriad of shapes, and painted several different shades of dark reds, grays, and brown. He frowned as the lud girl set it into his hands.
“Something to help liven the appearance of your chambers. I recall hearing once that humans appreciate art.”
“I suppose we do.” He turned the clay piece in one direction, then another, trying to make sense of it. “Was this made by the yeth?”
“No.” When Callan glanced up he saw a sour expression on Kivi’s face. She shook her head, and the expression melted away. “As a rule, Yeth do not appreciate art, or really anything that doesn’t serve some utilitarian purpose. The merchant I purchased this from was quite relieved to finally be rid of something he deemed to have no value.”
This time, Callan was watching for it, and he distinctly saw that Kivi’s lips didn’t match up when she said ‘utilitarian’. Was that even the actual word she used, or just Xeph’s translation? Like when he’d mentioned pragmatism earlier but in reverse. He supposed there was no way to know for certain, and it didn’t really matter anyway.
“Well thank you for the gift,” he said, setting it on the mattress next to him.
“Of course. Though that isn’t the ultimate reason for my visit.”
“Is it time to finally hear what is happening in Aos?”
Kivi nodded. “I fear the situation there is... difficult. Perhaps more than we wish to involve ourselves in. However, I promised the village’s mayor that I would request your personal aid on her behalf. It is ultimately up to you whether we accept or not.”
“Okay...” If the problem wasn’t Zavastu, he couldn’t imagine it was anything too dire. “I thought you and Shamain were set on me staying here at the temple where I’d be safe from, how did you put it, ‘some villager sticking something sharp in me because I said the wrong thing’?”
“Technically, that was Shamain, not me. And in this case, I believe an exception is warranted given their situation. Aos is beset upon by raiders. Ones who wield the power of an unknown god.”
Huh. So not that different a situation from the last time, then.
“What exactly do they expect us to do about it?” he asked. “Destroy their temple? Round up all the priests and ransom them back like we’re doing with Zavastu?”
“I... do not think this will be a possibility,” Kivi said hesitantly. Callan frowned.
“Why?”
“Because this god, whoever they are, walks amongst the priests.”
“You mean an avatar,” Callan said. The priestess nodded.
“I could not confirm, and the mayor would not provide sufficient details, but that appears to be the case. If so, it will be a much more difficult matter than rooting out the cult in my own village.”
“You can say that again.”
Why would she repeat herself, mortal? Xeph muttered. Even if you didn’t hear her the first time, I happen to have perfect recall.
“Dammit, it’s an expression.” He sighed, then said to Kivi. “Let me sleep on the matter and talk it over with Xeph. Taking on another god is a lot, especially when I don’t have more than a couple powers unlocked. Do they even know how powerful this god is?”
Kivi shook her head. “Not particularly strong, I do not think. They appear to be a newly formed avatar, and their influence is not known outside the Aosan plateau.”
“Okay, well that’s something.” He waited a moment, then asked. “Was there anything else?”
Kivi glanced at his bed again, then shook her head. “I do not know of anything else, avatar. Though regardless of your current thoughts on the matter, it might be best to wait a few days in case Shamain returns as well. We need not act until we have all facts and potential tools available.”
“Sure, sounds like a plan.” Callan leaned back on his bed. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to get some sleep now. This’ll be the first time in a week I’ve slept without my feet hanging off the edge of the bed.”
“Very well.” Kivi turned to go.
“High Priestess?”
“Yes?”
“It’s good to have you back. Place wasn’t the same without your company.”
A bright smile bloomed on the lud girl’s face, and a bit of pink tinged her cheeks. “I am glad my presence is so appreciated, Avatar. Rest well, and we’ll speak more in the morning.”
With that, she slipped through the door, and Callan was alone again.
Well, not exactly. Never alone, not now. Probably not ever again.
Strange, he thought to himself, leaning back into his pillow. There’s a time I would have found that discomforting, sharing my mind with another creature. When exactly did it become normal for me? When exactly did I stop thinking about Xeph as something separate from myself?
“Goodnight, Xeph.”
Good night, mortal. Rest well, we have much to do on the morrow.
“Will there ever be such a thing as a quiet day again, long as we’re together?”
He hadn’t expected an answer, but Xeph gave one anyway. Perhaps, one day, when our followers number in the thousands and we have sufficient trustworthy priests to handle the day-to-day affairs. But such a time is still on a distant horizon. For now, take what rest and relaxation you can, human.
Now sleep. Sleep...