From innocent young boy, over Mad adult, blasphemist, and wanted man, to thief. Thinking about it, the turns my life took in the last three weeks weren’t ideal. However, as I stood in someone else’s house and emptied a bowl of blue stones into a bag, I also felt a little bit of excitement that I couldn’t quite explain.
“You don’t have any qualms about this?” I asked Miles.
‘I’m not happy about it, but I think you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it either. We don’t have much of a choice right now.’
Before we could leave town, we would need a little bit of food, flint, writing utensils, and most important of all, blue stones. The mana blasts we had been using seemed to work well to throw someone into a wall, but it was far from ideal. Without blue stones, we wouldn’t be able to properly defend ourselves against beasts at the moment. In addition to that, we would be able to use the stones to produce water for our own use. Writing utensils on the other hand were more of a convenience, because I didn’t want to constantly have to write with my blood.
Riala entered the house I was in through the front door and notified me that it was time to leave. “Someone’s coming!” We left through the back door and searched for another empty house, while I worried about the young girl, who was really into her role as a lookout.
Because of the severe punishments for crimes against the town’s citizens, and because everybody had a job anyway, thefts were exceedingly rare. So rare in fact, that almost nobody even owned a lock for their house, which surprised and delighted Miles. From the viewpoint of a freshly minted thief I had to agree, this made it beyond easy to run around and just take whatever you needed. I had never even considered something like this before.
We tried to take as little as possible from each house, to lessen the impact per family, but we also couldn’t take too long, because of our pursuers. After five houses I decided it would have to be enough. We had several dozen stones, enough food to last us three days, chalk and some ink. One reason for stopping here were the people we stole from, the other was the fact that even though stones were relatively light individually, this amount was not only starting to get heavy, but also unwieldy. I carried the bag under my arm as we made our way to the eastern gate.
‘This is the best option?’
“The eastern gate is our best option,” I said in a way that it could be interpreted as information for Riala. I had yet to explain Miles to her. “It’s almost noon and the workers will come back in to take a break before heading back out. That’s one of the few times when there’s a remote chance to slip out of town. Provided that you can make it past the guards.”
We arrived at the house closest to the gate and hid in its shadow. I had been at this gate a few times before, watching the workers return and stealing glances of the fields outside. Almost everyone I ever knew was fascinated with the Wildlands at some point in their lives, since all we ever got was stories about the outside world. These ranged from fun adventures to horrifying tales of beast attacks, depending on each individual’s experience. Most of the time, however, the workers returned in one piece, thanks to the guards.
It wasn’t long before someone on the outside announced the arrival of the workers and their protectors. The two guards on the inside started to open the large, wooden doors, to allow the group inside. The first to enter the town were the workers, a group of about twenty men and women, flanked by six guards. Behind them two wagons followed, guarded by two more guards each. The men that had opened the gate stood by, waiting for the group to pass. Afterwards, they would be closing the gates again as soon as possible. It would be tricky to make it through.
I was getting ready after the first wagon had made it inside, when Miles piped up. ‘Wait, I have an idea for a distraction.’
Per his instructions, I took out some ink and quickly wrote a script on my hand. Then I aimed at the first wagon’s wheels and used a blue stone to fire a thin stream of water before ducking behind the house again. I heard wood cracking and the guards panicking, as the cargo started falling off the wagon.
“Stop! An axle broke!”
The gates weren’t large enough for two wagons to pass through side-by-side, so they would have to clear the way before they could continue. This would give us some flexibility. Almost everybody present started helping with securing the cargo and getting the wagon out of the way, while we went up to the wall and slowly crept towards the gate.
I was a little worried about getting separated from Riala, so I let her climb onto my back. Laden with a heavy bag and a little girl, I jumped around the corner and started sprinting through the gate.
“Hey! Stop!” the guard in my way said as I ran straight in his direction. I used another script to shove him off his feet with a water blast, jumped over him and finally entered the Wildlands.
Wide, almost unobstructed grass fields lay before us, dotted by bushes and small trees. A dirt road led into the woods to the east, where the workers had come from. That would be our destination before we went deeper into the forest, to shake any potential pursuers. Afterwards we would circle back and make our way west, towards the neighboring town.
There was nothing between us and freedom. I kept running, hearing another guard move and shout behind us. I had barely made it twenty meters when a blinding light appeared out of nowhere and I stopped in my tracks. I don’t hear the guard... Did he stop as well?
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I squinted as the light abated and saw a glowing white figure standing before me. It didn’t have any face or other defining features. It was slender, and just a little bit taller than me. A god...?
Glancing back, I saw three guards stand stock still just outside the gate, staring at the figure. That’s when I realized I felt fine. I glanced to my shoulder where Riala’s head was and she only looked at me in amazement. The god stood just three meters away, which should’ve been deeply uncomfortable for us, but the oppressive air I had felt in the past wasn’t there, and it seemed like it was the same for Riala.
I looked back at the god as I heard a sweet, feminine voice say “You shouldn’t leave the safety of the walls. It’s dangerous for you out here.”
I swallowed hard and steeled myself. “It’s dangerous for us in town as well. We’d rather try our luck out here.”
“You’re too young to understand the gravity of what you’re attempting. I can’t allow you to throw your lives away so easily. Let me accompany you back inside, there will be no danger for you there.”
Would she talk to the authorities? Throw around her weight as a higher power? I considered it for a moment, but I had never heard of a god directly involving themselves with mortals like this.
“Why would you do that?” I asked.
“All life is dear to me, and you are inadvertently going to end yours on this path. That would be a shame. Let me help you.”
I wasn’t sure what to do. Maybe it would work, maybe not. I didn’t know if the authorities would even care about her words.
‘So that’s a god?’ Miles asked inside my head. However, the figure seemed to react to it.
“Oh? You’re not alone in there?” the god said, followed by a barely audible whisper in a much less graceful sounding voice. “You seriously messed up Gallas...”
‘You can hear me?’
“You identified me as a god, did you think I would not notice your presence?” the god said with a chuckle, back to her sweet voice.
‘Would you have noticed if I hadn’t said anything?’
“Of course,” came her immediate response, but something was off. She appeared flustered somehow.
I glanced back at the guards, who were still frozen in place. I remembered the feeling. In the presence of a god it should be difficult to move. To even think. People took that as a sign of their overwhelming power. Public wisdom was that they refrained from appearing more often for our sake.
“Why aren’t we affected by you like the others?” I asked her.
“You two are special. Precious even. Which is why I can’t allow you to run to your doom.”
‘You want us to go back that badly?’
“Very much so, yes,” she said, followed by a moment of silence.
‘Make us,’ Miles said, at which the god visibly twitched.
It took her several seconds before she started again. “I would prefer not to use my powers for such a purpose. I might hurt y—”
‘You can’t, can you? That’s very interesting...’ Miles said and she twitched once more.
“I assure you, I—”
‘Let’s go, Tomar!’ Miles said and I took off in a sprint, running around the god and towards our destination.
In passing, I heard the god say “You will regret this.”
When I glanced back at her, she disappeared into thin air. The guards started moving again, but they didn’t follow us. We were finally, truly outside. As I ran, both Riala and I looked around in wonder. Very few people ever got to see this. No houses, no brick roads, no walls. Just the open Wildlands.
I wanted to discuss what had just happened with Miles, but that would have to wait until later. In a few minutes we would arrive at the edge of the woods, and then we’d find out exactly how dangerous our journey would be.
***
The escape of the criminals quickly became the talk of the town. Crimes in general were always a popular topic of gossip, given how few felonies the citizens ever committed, but suspects escaping from prison and fleeing outside town was entirely unheard of. As if that wasn’t enough, all the workers that had been present at the gate at the time talked about a god appearing just outside town. This was the first appearance in years and rumor had it that the god had failed to bring the criminals back into town. Even citizens who thought themselves lucky that these dangerous individuals had left town took part in speculations about who they were, what they had done, and how they had managed to defy a god.
The authorities had not openly announced the identity and the crimes of the prisoners yet. However, the few people who had recognized them on their way to prison, as well as those who noticed the absence of a certain young man and a young girl, spread rumors about them.
Some citizens, especially those who knew the two, found it hard to believe that they had supposedly committed crimes dangerous enough to land them in jail. People who had already kept an eye on the boy, however, now realized that they had been way too careless. There had been warning signs that made them curious, but they didn’t want to overreact. With the second beast incident, they had realized their mistake, but they quickly found the boy and felt safe again, just for the prisoners to escape a day later. Now that they were out of town, they would be difficult to catch, but all parties involved were even more determined than before. They would not underestimate the boy again. Just two hours after their escape, a search party consisting of soldiers and agents moved out through the eastern gate in pursuit of them. High Priest Orthur Syfar and King Hertar Alarna stood on top of the town wall, watching the group depart.
“You’ll honor our deal?” the king asked.
“We let something very valuable slip through our hands, while trying to avoid antagonizing or working with each other. I don’t intend to repeat that mistake, and I don’t intend to fight you. That leaves cooperation. Equal rights,” the High Priest said as he extended a hand towards the king.
“Equal rights,” the king agreed, shaking the priest’s hand.
As the group of Fighters made their way closer to the woods, the two leaders parted ways and walked away in opposing directions, displeasure on their faces.