KEREU TAAKI
Sitting in court, next to his defender Kadish Anashii, a Kyadi-ha-Sygia from a neighbouring planet, Kereu was nervous. The judge was very unsympathetic to Kadish’s arguments. You could see it in his eyes. To that old, grey-haired, perpetually scowling person, Kereu’s very existence seemed to be an anathema. Or maybe that was just how judges were. Kereu never had been in court. Now he was called up to the stand and after a whispered encouragement of Kadish, he went ahead.
After being sworn in, prosecutor Kim Miller started to ask questions: “Mister Taaki, can you please explain to us what you were doing before you were arrested?”
Kereu responded: “Certainly, sir, I was opening the door to let them in.” ‘Sir’ was actually the mispronounced version of a Sigyan term that was not very flattering.
The prosecutor asked: “And before?”
Kereu smiled: “I was letting a guest of mine out of my house.”
The prosecutor asked: “A guest? Who?”
Kereu shook his head: “I don’t know their name.”
The prosecutor asked harshly: “You have guests that you don’t know?”
Kereu nodded eagerly: “Yes, I do.”
“What was the purpose of the visit?” the prosecutor asked.
Kereu tried not to let his voice shake: “They asked for a prayer of healing and I asked for the symptoms and then prayed with them. When they felt better, I encouraged them to spread the faith and sent them on their way.”
“Can you tell me what you mean by ‘the faith’?” the prosecutor asked.
Kereu paused for a moment before he spoke: “It’s based on personal revelation. Visions and dreams that presented themselves to me. I do not think that it is based on any existing religion.” This was what he agreed on with his defender.
“So, you were practising an unauthorised religion?” asked the prosecutor.
“Practising is a bit of a steep word here. I was offering to hold the hand of someone and pray for their healing.” Kereu said, “I don’t think that is forbidden. I didn’t charge anything. I didn’t force adherence to anything. I just silently prayed for the health of the person.”
The prosecutor shook his head: “There is a list of religious organisations that are permitted. You are not on it.”
Kadish interjected: “The Sigya-ha-Sygia have freedom of religion according to Varikaan Article 7.”
The prosecutor asked angrily: “Are you really referring to the documents of the integration of Windrush here? There have been enough times that the law has invalidated these particular protections for the sake of national safety. Mister Taaki, can you please tell me: Did people wait for you outside of your house and if yes: Did you do anything to prevent transmission of communicable diseases?”
Kereu said: “People did queue outside and kept as much distance as they were comfortable with. I never organised this. It happened on its own.”
The prosecutor asked: “So then, how did it happen that a group of people came to your place?”
Kereu smiled: “Word of mouth. Praying for the healing of my family from diminishment saved my family and they spread the word. And, well, so did I. This led to people coming to me to ask for me to pray for them or their loved ones as well.”
The prosecutor asked: “So, you are telling me that you advertised not adhering to the rules regarding acceptable religious practices?”
Kereu made a displeased sound.
The prosecutor asked again: “I didn’t understand you. Was that a yes or a no?”
Kereu mumbled: “It was a yes.”
The prosecutor nodded: “Thanks for establishing this. Now, can you tell me about what you eat on a normal day?”
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“Sure, mostly jeljet grain porridge, legumes and vegetables. Fruit really seldomly. When I can afford it, you know...” he explained.
The prosecutor showed bank statements that showed that he spent more on food recently and insinuated that this was a sign that Kereu had other sources of income for other things, not a sign that before Kereu spent a lot on folk remedies against diminishment. Kereu tried to argue but was cut off every time he tried to. Eventually the prosecutor ended with: “And this is why I believe that the talk about the accused not taking payment is hogwash.”
In that moment, Kereu saw a notification:
Due to continued violations of the Varikaan treaty, the reach of Unlimited Potential on Windrush is restricted. Non-affiliates of Ishtaan or Solidarity are going to experience skill loss akin to losing half their levels and related attribute restriction.
JAARU ANIIK
The flying contraption was made using little more than scrap metal and the hopes of their builders. It didn’t even have a motor, instead, it was powered by the pedalling of a level 100 person who really didn’t appreciate doing it this early in the morning. She did like it even less when she saw that there was a veritable runway in the middle of nowhere, indicating that this place was frequently visited. She was glad that the landing didn’t take off more hitpoints than Level 3 Healing skills were able to fix. And the fact that the flying contraption was still usable filled her with even more joy, as walking back would have sucked.
The dungeon entry was just there and yet, it looked strange. Its portal was round, but surrounding it were 5 layers of light. Neither Jaaru nor anyone else of the group knew the meaning of this particular scheme.
After Jaaru entered, she heard a click. The portal was closed. Jaaru sighed, took her spear and decided to go for the monsters and look for a key to get out of this mess. She heard approaching noises and then realised that a horde of monsters were approaching. The four-legged creatures made terrible noises and snarled. Their sizes varied from about twice the size of a rat to tall enough to bite her into the navel. And biting was what these creatures were made for. Their jaws looked strong and their teeth were sharp. She thrusted her spear at the dozens of dangerous creatures. The creatures were aggressive but that was an advantage: They didn’t try any strategies, they just rushed into the tunnel in which she was and tried to attack her, running into each other and getting into each others’ ways. Her stabs and thrusts were able to keep the bigger ones at bay, the smaller, nimble ones however ran towards her trying to bite. Jaaru had to watch her legs and jumped over and over. She tried to catch the animals with her feet, to descend on them and to crush them with her body. She sometimes felt like she stepped onto something, but looking down, she saw nothing.
She got bitten several times, screamed, cussed but kept on it. Her spear killed monster after monster. Her breath was heavy. She had been frustrated from pedalling the flying contraction, tired from the fact that it was early in the morning and then, in a tedious battle where she was hurt but never to the point that there was actual threat to her life.
It took a long time to fight through the dozens and dozens of enemies. Eventually, the last enemy was a huge monster, grey fur, blue eyes, snarling, taller than all of the previous creatures, exuding an icy aura. It snarled at her and she was angry enough to tell it to fuck off before she attacked it with a well-deserved thrust towards the throat. It dodged, but Jaaru’s agility allowed her to anticipate the movement and she slayed the giant creature quickly. There was a clicking noise behind her, and she realised that the portal opened again. She didn’t care and after taking the spoils of this battle, which she hoped would pay for the loan for this guy she never met but she understood had done a lot of good for society. The corridor’s walls were painted with pictures of these animals being absolute menaces. Of them mauling infants and cattle, killing pets and their noises disturbing people. It was clear that this dungeon was not fond of these monsters. In addition, there were signs to turn back, that the boss had been defeated and nothing of value would be found here. Jaaru didn’t stop though. These signs looked like they were rusted, dirty and in general not of the dungeon. They seemed to have been left there by these rich folks for their own brood. Eventually, she reached the end, which looked like a solid white wall. She examined it, as this seemed a very anticlimactic end to the place. She noticed that next to the wall, there were some strange, humming contraptions, the size of a shoe. She crushed them with her feet in a concerted, angry stomp, after which the high-pitched hum ceased, to her utter relief. As soon as her hand touched it, she heard a voice: “Sigya-ha-Sygia detected. Please proceed.” Then the wall opened. The inside of this place looked strange. It was like a park on earth with much vegetation in an utterly disgusting green that to her always looked poisonous compared to the blue vegetation of Windrush. There was a blue sky which was worryingly without any clouds. Immediately afraid of exposure, she rushed into the small house that utterly failed at being a house. It had outer frames, a floor, and a roof but no real walls. As she reached it, she again saw these devices that emitted an annoying whine and with how many of them were there, she again stomped them for silence. Then, she examined this absolute failure of sheltering against the elements. There was a hole in the brown-wooden floor directly in the middle. Inside of that, she found a large, orange ball the size of her forearm, that had a slightly rough texture as if this thing as made of cement despite it looking semi-translucent. She didn’t feel any kind of magic in it, but she had a feeling, a hunch that this one was utterly important. Her intuition generally was not that reliable, but taking this ball with her.
As this place seemed to hold nothing but earth vegetation, exposure risk and a very blue sky, she took the ball, found it heavy even for her strength, but rushed with it and the rest of the loot through the tunnel and the portal. Then, two things happened simultaneously: The ball started glowing and she saw a notification in front of her.