Bishop Yan was having a very bad day.

He had first woken up to find his bed inexplicably soiled and when he g out of his bed, he fell onto the floor.

Counting himself lucky, he had taken his sheets down to the washers.

His day took a turn for the worse when he was scrubbing the sheets as a large hole tore into it, effectively ripping his sheets in two.

Yan had not had much experience of bad omens, but he had certainly taken this situation as a mass of them.

Not knowing what the omen was trying to say, he had rushed back to his room and donned his pale white robe which he tripped on and tore a chunk off within the first step.

He had then spent a small amount of time praying to Repleh, the Aiding god, before changing clothes.

He had chosen the itchy straw coloured robe that disciples usually wear and wore it in hopes that other misfortunate omens don’t befall his humble self.

Collapsing down a set of stairs momentarily after, he deemed that there will be no such luck.

He had mended his broken leg with his priestly powers and after recovering had continued about his day.

Yan thought at that point, he would be wise to just lie in bed and do nothing for the rest of the day.

However he had continued on in hopes that it would get better.

Having to be saved by a fellow brother at breakfast from a fishbone in the gullet, Yan had decided it will not.

He had slowly traveled to each of the rooms of prayer within his chapel, catching himself often on the curtains after being inexplicably tripped by nothing along the way.

He prayed forgiveness and an answer to whatever these omens meant to each and every deity that he knelt before, but the only answer he had got was the slight cracking of Kraow’s, god of Allsight, statue.

The before omens had been bad yes, but the cracking of a holy statue was a terrible one indeed.

Not a moment after that had registered into Yan’s mind did the screaming come.

The screaming of one seemingly mad man with no shirt and ripped shorts who was praying at Aegi, next to him.

He’d screamed his desire to worship and his desire of immortality before ripping his throat with the offering bowl, and splattered blood all over the place.

Blood had found its way to Yan’s face and had soaked into the hems of his robe.

Yan knew not what to do, so he had fled the room along with some others.

Rushing back to his room, smashing his face upon the steps along the way, he had rushed inside, only to vomit on the floor.

After he had recovered from that strange bout of sickness, not one caused by the blood for he had seen worse on the battlefields, he changes his robe to a dirty cream coloured one.

He had retched once clothed again, and covered his new robe.

Today was not a good day for Bishop Yan.

Quickly clothing once more after he had cleaned himself with his water basin, he had gone down to the main Hall and had seen that many of his brothers and others who had been in that prayer room had rushed to the stone pews to pray.

He had walked up the aisle hearing locals who were not busy praying forgiveness at their lack of faith, speculate as to why he was wearing his torn white robe.

Ignoring the speculations of the unshaken, he had made his way to the podium at the center of the room and had taken out the calming scripture of Arethius and opened it to the two hundredth and forty second page.

However the gods did not seem finished with him since the mad man from before, now fully clothed in peasants garb, had walked through the hall and towards him.

From his grasp the book had dropped and landed in a mess on the floor, but Yan had not cared about that; all he had cared in that moment was the thought of this man being immortal. And that thought had terrified him to his core.

Yan knew that his day had gotten worse.

…

“Sir, you look important, could you please allow me to become a brother in this great cathedral?” His surprisingly gentle voice reaches Yan’s ears easily

The mad man kneels on the floor and everyone in the room is confused, while many are shocked, as they have knowledge others do not.

Yan is in a horrible bind, because this man is weak. He does not know how he can feel that, but to him it’s almost instinctive. He knows that this man cannot become a brother with how weak he is.

But neither can he deny him and his fanatical devotion to Aegi, mostly because he would be offending her as well as 

everyone else who views his devotion as just that.

His minds gears twist and turn, cranking up thoughts and disassembling ideas on how to deal with this situation.

The man remains kneeling, waiting for an answer, and everyone in the room remains with bated breath.

Yan sighs lightly. To him there is no other choice.

How bad can allowing him to join be?

He has a feeling that he will regret that thought soon enough.

Placing a hand on the man’s shoulder, Yan gives in to fate.

“Ok my son, you needed but to ask. Arise and become a brother of this holy domain where our deities of old and new reside.

We shall begin with the ceremony momentarily, until then, quietly pray to whomever you please as they will be the ones to truly choose whether you can join us”

Most around seem happy, but some brothers, such as Brother Sian, look less pleased about the sudden gain of a new disciple; One more fervent in prayer and sacrifice then they are.

Yan gives a slight smirk at that, as this incident may help all his brothers gain a new sense of faith.

The room quickly clears up as the younger priests aid the locals out of the hall, while the elder priests set up the ceremony.

Yan, returns to his room in that time but he encounters no bad omens for some strange reason. However he does not feel happy as this strange sense of terror is firmly placed in the back of his mind.

Just thinking of the man gives Yan a slight shiver down his spine. He does not know why, maybe because of his fanatical devotion, or maybe something else...

Grabbing his crimson robe and hat from the dresser, he skirts the slightly damp spot on the floor and returns downstairs.

Re-entering the hall it is all set up.

The pews have been moved to either side of the room, leaving a large space for all the priests to gather round.

Usually for a ceremony of disciple induction to take place, either the Bishop or three elder priests must be present.

However for this ceremony, a few dozen priests are present as well as Bishop Yan himself. One could say that it is quite a unique moment for a disciple to be watched over by so many of his elders upon his induction.

Yan, noticing a tense atmosphere, walks over to the podium and claps his hands.

The tension dissipates instantly and everyone turns round to look at Yan.

“Let us begin the ceremony”

…

..

.

Where is he?

Yan looks questioningly at the mass of priests and soon enough an elder priest gets the message.

Pointing to the man, Yan realizes why he had felt a tense atmosphere.

The man was sitting by the kneeling statue of Aegi taking a nap.

Many present did not take kindly to the fact that he used her lap as a pillow for his head. Or maybe just the fact that he fell to sleep in such a holy place at such a time.

Such a disciple is not going to be liked in this Cathedral. And Yan believes in such a thought too…but he also believes that the man will be fine nonetheless for some inexplicable reason.

He makes an almost imperceptible nod to one of the elder priests and one walks to the man to shake him roughly awake.

“Ah that was a nice nap”

One could swear they heard the popping of veins around the room.

The man rubs his eyes as he stands up and walks over to Yan, who is looking mildly unamused at the man, yet still holds some disintegrating respect towards the holily devoted man.

“Ahem, let us proceed with the ceremony.

All of you here today, are here to witness the birth of a new brother to our priesthood. He is one who has shown his devotion and faith and thus, I, Bishop of this Cathedral give my blessing upon his priesthood.”

The man kneels as Yan places a hand on his head.

“Does anyone in this room deny this blessing? Or give their own?”

Looking around the room, Yan sees that not many of them look happy and definitely don’t look like they are going to give a blessing.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I will give my blessing”

A young voice from the doorways makes Yan and many others turn their heads, to see the youngest disciple; Moren standing by the doorway.

“You cann-“ Brother Sian starts up

Yan quickly waves a hand in front of him silencing the brother. The rules do state that disciples can still give their blessing, although usually disciples are not present in the ceremonies.

“Then come”

Moren walks over and places a hand on the man’s shoulder.

A few of the elder brothers shuffle forward and place their hands upon the man, giving a silent blessing.

A couple more, a bit more half-hearted than the previous brothers, come up and give their blessing.

And finally, after some deliberation a good number of the younger brothers decide to join with the majority of the room and give their blessing.

“Welcome to the brotherhood” All chant synchronously.

After many moments of silence, the horde of hands that cover the man’s body release him and their owners all start dispersing to do their own thing.

Yan delegates Moren to take the man to his new room.

Before he leaves, the man quickly kneels down to Aegi. A sight well taken by the brothers, as the man does at least show his faithfulness.

Yan is not sure that he has made the right choice, as his palms are shaking for a reason he does not comprehend.

But he has a feeling that something will happen soon that will make him regret this decision.

…

The rest of the day had gone by as per usual, without the strange omens haunting Yan. However even though he prayed, ate and talked with brothers. He did not get rid of this ominous feeling that scratched at the back of his mind.

Watching the sun fall down into the bowels of the earth leaving nothing but shadows in its demise, Yan sighs in mild relief at the end of this strange day.

However, someone knocks on the door to his room. Not a heavy knock of command, or a light weak knock of quiet interruption.

It was a curt three knocks, stating purpose and intent sending shivers down Yan’s spine.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me Bishop Yan” A gentle voice comes from the other side of the door.

He ponders on what to do; to let the man in, or to talk to him through the door, or even dismiss him since he’s just a disciple.

Yan silently debates for a few more seconds before he gets up from his window-side chair and goes to open the door.

The new disciple walks in, now dressed in a shoddy straw-colored robe.

“Bishop Yan, is there any way you could teach me the arts of healing?”

He did not expect that, though truly he did not know what to expect anyways. This is but a frivolous situation to Yan.

“You are but a disciple, so until you join the priesthood then you cannot be taught the divine ways of healing”

“I believe you misunderstood Bishop, I merely want to learn how to bandage, treat burns, and disinfect scars and the like” The man had not missed a beat with his explanation.

Yan raises his eyebrow for a second before furrowing it in thought once again. Before he could deny him teaching him divine spells, however first aid is not something he can really deny giving without a paramount excuse.

“Very well, but instead of asking me, you should speak with your elder brothers. Brother Chosat knows much upon the subject”

“Thank you Bishop Yan” he sounds happy and he gives a curt bow before he walks off

“Its brother Yan to you now” Yan calls out after him

“I will not forget, brother Yan” the answer comes echoing back from the stairwell.

Closing the door, Yan goes back to looking at the now moon-light city.

To him it’s a beautiful and calming sight, but this time he is distracted with a strange feeling; a feeling of familiarity.

However bizarre the new disciple is...he swears he has heard of something similar. Somewhere, but he does not remember where or when he heard of this. Or maybe it was his own imagination at play.

Before he realizes it, he has already procured some historical and religious scriptures from his personal library and has begun reading through them.

He reads through them for hours, looking for a sign that connects this man to these scriptures.

But time seems to run out for him as he is interrupted by a series of urgent knocks.

Yan, stifling a yawn, goes once more to the door.

Opening it up, brother Sian almost stumbles in, wheezing and out of breath

“What happened dear brother?” Yan watches brother Sian take in deep breathes to try regulate his breathing once more.

After a few seconds he calms down enough to speak

“That man…he’s a monster!”

Sian visibly shivers and Yan does too, because Yan knows which man is being mentioned and he can imagine all his worst fears come true. It was those omens; they had warned him this would happen. And he had not prayed for guidance hard enough and now, this has happened.

“What has he done?” Yan asks with more than a twinge of fear in his eyes.

“He…he breaks his own bones. He shatters his fingers and snaps his leg. But that’s not the worst of it, no. The worst is that he was mending them!

He was using cloth and splints of wood to create casts for the broken parts. He was teaching himself how to do first aid! He was teaching himself by breaking himself!

But even that isn’t the worst! No! even worse is that I saw it; I saw his bones repair, just suddenly start working again. No human could do that without magic! HE’S ISN’T HUMAN I TELL YOU, HE’S MONSTER!”

Brother Sian got more hectic as he told the story and by the look in his eyes he was having a vivid imagination of what he had seen. He had grabbed onto Yan’s robes and tugged at them with terrified fervor.

“Brother stop!” Yan places a hand on each of the trembling shoulders, causing Sian to lessen the tugging at his robes. “He is not a monster; he is just a normal human like us, although strange in many ways”

“Stra-“ Brother Sian goes slack-jawed slightly

“Yes, he is human but he is also different, so he will have his own way of doing things” Yan says with more knowledge than he previously thought he had.

It was because he remembered now. He remembered that these ‘humans’ had come to this world in the beginning of the first age.

Quickly commanding brother Sian to get some rest, he watches the mentally exhausted and confused brother Sian stumble out the room.

Yan rushes to his pile of scriptures and within a few seconds, finds the one he was looking for.

Settling down to read it, he quickly remembers and learns things about these ‘humans’ or foreigners as the people of the first age called them.

They are rumored to be immortal, but not unkillable. They grow stronger than any human ever could, and the theory of the scripture is that they can continually grow until they can defeat the gods themselves.

He read through the whole thing, slowly absorbing all the information he could get about these foreigners and that they are in essentiality the physical embodiment of potential. The first age came to be because of them, and it also ceased to be because of them.

Reading this did not improve his mood, and neither did it improve that niggling thought of horror that clawed in the back of his mind.

This new disciple was a foreigner and where one comes, many will follow. And if they are all as crazy as this one, Yan 

knows the world will become a chaotic place.

As he read through the section where it dealt with the learning capabilities of the foreigners, the dawn sun rose, slowly drawing away the black curtain that was over the city.

With a sigh at his lost sleep, Yan looks out into the city. And sees quite a peculiar sight: A small mass of people are coming out from the forests and are walking towards the city.

He can only see the mass due to it being a decent size, as well as having a very good viewpoint. Though their figures are not distinct.

And upon seeing them, he can only think of one word

Foreigners.

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Author's Corner:

Sorry but this chappie is a bit short but that means that the next one will seem longer :P(cause it will be i promise :D)

Hope you enjoyed it and review/comment/tellmethings