A category six beast had attacked the worker camp, two guards were heavily injured, and a girl that had fled town two days ago suddenly appeared and apparently scared off the beast. Everyone present seemed perplexed at what had happened in the past two minutes, but the guards’ confusion didn’t last long.
One of them, who had attended to the injured, finally got a good look at me and yelled out in surprise. “You’re the one from the other day! Arrest her!” he said to the others.
I took a quick step back as some of the guards looked at me in shocked realization. Of the six guards present, I recognized only two. The one who told them to arrest me was Bren, the young man who didn’t want me to help with the wagon at the east-gate before. The other one had guarded the second wagon and took a water blast to the chest to allow me to get past him. He was now lying on the floor, unconscious. That guy doesn’t have it easy.
I hadn’t gotten a good look at the others back then, but even if they were here now, it was reasonable to assume that they had been focused on their task at the time, while I helped the workers. When I finally fled, they would’ve mostly seen my back. On top of that, I was wearing Lilana’s temple robe again for this special occasion, instead of the simple cotton clothes I had worn at the gate.
That they would try to arrest me for my crime of attacking town guards wasn’t the best possible outcome, but it was well within expectations. “Woah, before we go down that route, I’d like to tell you guys a story. Would you give me five minutes?”
The guards looked between me and Bren with mixed and confused expressions. It seemed like the situation was too much for them. They were all relatively young, and I assumed that they didn’t have a lot of experience handling criminals. Bren was clearly the squad leader, and he tried to act the part, but he too was easily flustered.
“You can say what you have to say once you’re in an interrogation cell! Now, would someone please take her—”
“Bren! Would you please shut up!? She just saved all of us! You can at least listen to what she has to say!” Fae yelled at him from behind the wagons. I didn’t know what kind of relationship these two had, but she seemed to have a lot of influence over him. It had been her who convinced him to let me help at the gate by just yelling at him once, and her telling him what to do now left him with a conflicted expression again.
“Fae, out here I’m the leader! It’s my responsibility to protect everyone! And the last time we saw her, she attacked my men!”
“You’re right, I did. Let me start by apologizing for that,” I said. “Unfortunately, I had to leave town as soon as possible, and there aren’t many ways to do that without going through somebody.”
“Lilly... How are you—” Fae started, but quickly corrected herself. “No, I guess I know how you’re still alive... but what are you doing out here?”
“Fae!” Bren tried to interject, but she spoke up once more, this time in a milder tone.
“Bren, please give her the five minutes. I want to know what’s going on here.”
A few of the other workers around nodded in agreement and he finally gave up, motioning towards me to go on. “Ugh. Say your piece.”
Under normal circumstances, getting the injured back to town would take priority, but as long as you didn’t die or lose a limb, Fighters were resilient enough to recover from most wounds. With the injured having received first aid, there was nothing more to do for everyone present but listen to my story, as the two guards would recover on their own in a day or two.
I started by formally introducing myself and telling the people that I received my ritual on the day I first met them, but that it wasn’t one of the usual Callings, and that I had a mission. The story went as follows.
About a month ago, the gods had tried to send us a blessing in the form of a Calling. A young man was granted knowledge only known to celestial beings via the ritual, and he was supposed to bring a level of prosperity to this area not known until that point. However, certain people felt threatened by him, and they imprisoned the boy. They treated him poorly, attempted to steal his knowledge for themselves, and even tried to kill him. Despite failing for the most part, they managed to glean enough knowledge from him to imitate a portion of his powers. What they did with this knowledge, however, was not what the gods had had in mind.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
In his hunger for power, the High Priest decided to introduce a divine messenger to the masses. Aelene, a priestess turned angel, was to be their figurehead for running a campaign to take over town. On the surface, their work was good, but underneath, all they cared about was their own influence over the town’s citizens. Hope was but an imposter, and a tool of the High Priest, which he used to accomplish his selfish goals.
The gods were furious at this development, and they decided to send a true divine messenger. Someone to stop these liars from deceiving the gods’ followers, and who would finally carry out their wishes. They had sent me. Despite all their greatness, however, the gods didn’t understand the primitive thought processes of us lowly humans. They chose to use a priestess-to-be, who could clean up the temple from within, but true to form, the High Priest immediately imprisoned me as well, before I had any chance to talk to anyone or accomplish anything. When the agents who guarded me didn’t believe me, I saw myself forced to flee for the moment, out of fear for my life, knowing what had happened to the last human who had been blessed like I had been. I had to collect myself.
After thinking my options over for two days and nights, I came to the conclusion that I would have to tell the good citizens of Alarna my story. They were following people who didn’t have their best interests at heart, and even if it might cost me my life, I couldn’t ignore the gods’ plans for me. I had been blessed in a way that would’ve made it possible for me to live out here, protected by the gods and their gifts, but that wasn’t my destiny. And blah and blah and blah.
I was amazed at myself for the things I had come up with to explain everything that had happened in a believable way. My story had it all. Power hungry dictators, benevolent gods, oppressed saviors, conspiracies, and so on. If I didn’t know that half of it was complete bullshit, and if I wasn’t an atheist, I might’ve believed it myself.
Finally, I explained how I had decided to approach the people outside the walls first. The ones I could reach without breaking any more laws, who were also the ones most at danger on a daily basis. I had chosen them as my messengers, to spread the word. When my story came to an end, some of the people looked at me in amazement, while others threw me dubious looks. Nobody seemed to really know what to do now though. Even the very vocal Fae and Bren were silent.
‘Nobody is saying anything...’ Lilana said. ‘I think that was a bit much.’
Thanks for the insight... you could’ve said something when we came up with this story.
“The divine messenger is an imposter...?” one of the guards finally asked.
“She is. Aelene might mean well, but she’s still taking part in this farce.”
A few more seconds passed. Wow, it’s seriously awkward to stand here and wait for them to say something. Any more questions? Yes, the gentlemen in the chain mail! No, not you, the other one!
“Why should we believe any of this!?” Bren yelled out, exasperated. “You’re a criminal! I don’t know what you did to that beast, but that doesn’t make you a divine messenger.”
“Oh? And how would you know?” I asked him and he looked back at me in total confusion at my retort. A random guard presumably wouldn’t know more about the temple and the gods than what Lilana had taught me, not to mention that the whole “divine messenger” thing was made up by everyone involved, and there wasn’t a specific way any of this was supposed to work. As long as we could convince people, it would work however we said it does.
“I understand where you’re coming from though,” I said. “What would a divine messenger be without divine powers?”
Raising both of my arms, I aimed at two trees on either side of me and activated a script on either hand. Water streamed out of my hands and gathered in two rotating spheres, floating in the air, before they shot away with enough force to break through the trees’ trunks.
““Ahhh!!”” A few of the workers screamed in panic as the trees ached loudly and finally fell. First, a show of force.
Next, I raised my arm into the air and activated another script, to shoot water into the sky, which then rained down over the camp, just like Aelene had done to impress people. Second, proof that I can do the same thing as the divine messenger they’re already familiar with.
““Ohhh!””
Finally, I held out my arm in their direction, with my palm facing upwards. While they were focusing on that, I used my other hand and a white stone to activate a hidden script. Everyone was slack jawed, as a Calling sign appeared above my outstretched hand. A white figure formed in mid-air and looked down at them with outstretched arms, as if giving them a blessing. Last, but not least, something nobody here has ever seen, a Worshipper Calling sign that I can simply make appear out of thin air, without even a ritual platform.
Silence.
No matter what they might have heard about Tomar, Riala, or Aelene, this show went beyond everything normal people had seen so far. I bowed a little to them, to signal that I was done, and looked at their shocked expressions with a friendly smile. Aaand curtain. Now that was fun.