The next morning we left for Ironsource and arrived around noon. It was much warmer than yesterday and the few carriages that had already traveled down the road had caused tracks to melt through the snow. After pulling into the city we went to the farm where all of the men were out pulling stumps in the field. Persy greeted everyone and hugged her grandfather, then we returned to the town square where we set up the tent and started treating people. The men at the farm had agreed to help until all of the tree stumps were cleared, after all, and that would take at least another two days. At least this city had a doctor’s office, and the doctor allowed Persy to use his office to examine the women in private while I took the tent this time.
I didn’t have any Nutrition potion to hand out, but this town seemed to have enough food, even if the variety was limited. They were, after all, only a day’s journey from Manasource on the trade route to several other cities. We were offered free rooms at the local inn that night and, while the meal wasn’t fancy it was at least filling.
On the second day a Fox man that looked to be in his low twenties came in for an exam. As there were no women waiting in line at the moment, Persy was sitting beside the line and they started flirting. He stepped out of line to talk to her, so I examined several other men before an old orc woman showed up and Persy had to go. This forced the guy to the back of the line. Still, he got to flirt for thirty minutes and Persy seemed interested, so I guess he didn’t get that bad of a deal. I did, however, make sure to check him really well for STDs during his exam, just in case things went beyond flirting.
That night Persy left the Inn shortly before supper and I didn’t see her until we were setting up the tent for the final day of examinations. “Fun date last night?” I asked, and she blushed.
“I guess.” she said sheepishly.
“That Fox guy I saw you flirting with yesterday?”
“Oh, you saw that?”
“Everyone waiting in line saw it. None of us cared, though. You made a cute couple. Too bad we have to leave tonight.”
She thought for a little while. “Speaking of that, can you examine me before we get started?”
I stretched a magic thread between our brains and encoded one concept on it. ‘Pregnancy’. She nodded and did the same. ‘Worried’.
“I don’t think an exam will answer the question yet. As soon as we get back to Starshine, I can, though. That should be enough time for things to be more obvious.” She nodded, looking a bit sad, but continued setting up for the day.
“So,” I changed the subject. “When did you learn telepathy?” I had gotten the idea from the Advanced healers manual, which suggested it as a way to talk with mute or weak patients, though the spell was still too complex for me to use correctly. I didn’t think she had access to that book, and I knew the Army Training Manual I gave her didn’t contain it.
“Oh an Elf woman-of-the-night I treated at the clinic used it to tell me her symptoms, as they were embarrassing. I asked how she did that, and after I treated her she gave me a lesson. I’m not very good yet. I can only send one concept at a time, no actual words, as those are harder.”
“Oh, I’m not much better. I can only manage two. Maybe we can practice on the way home.”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
Now that everything was ready, we set up some collapsing fabric chairs and sat in front of the tent. “So, learn anything from that Army Training Manual?” I asked.
“Yes actually.” She reached into her nearby backpack and pulled out her staff and the book. “I managed to cast all of the fire ones,” she said, shooting a jet of flames out of her hand. “I also managed a few of the Death magic spells. Can’t really demonstrate without a lifeform to test them on, but I hit one of the bandits that attacked us with a necrotic bolt.” She mimed casting a spell with her staff. “His shoulder turned black and he couldn’t use that arm anymore. The pain also slowed him. Of course, once we were captured I had to heal it. That was really hard to do, since necrosis ignores weaker healing spells. I had to cut the skin off and use Regeneration to grow it back. Thankfully it didn’t rot the muscle. I wouldn’t have been able to just cut that off.”
“Maybe next time, as a healer, you should use non-lethal spells. Maybe Relax or Constrict to alter their muscles if you want to use Death spells. Though Convulse is easier to pull off.”
“I didn’t see those in the manual.”
“Oh, they’re in the intermediate Combat Mage manual. I’ll show you when we get home.” An elderly couple walked up and we each took one of them for an examination, ending the conversation. Most of the people in town that wanted our service had come by on one of the previous days, so today was going pretty slowly.
We only had fifteen or so clients that morning, but shortly after noon the men from the farm walked up. “We finished up out there at the farm, so we’re going to check out the town for the rest of the day.” said the caravan master. “But first, do you mind giving all of us a checkup?”
I shrugged. “Sure. Who wants to go first?”
Wally stepped forward. “Want me to check you out, Grandfather?” asked Persy.
“I’d prefer your friend do it this time.” he said, pointing to me.
I nodded. “Follow me.” He followed me into the tent and, once we were inside and I closed the tent flap, I touched the Muffle magic circle that was sowed into the wall of the tent and fed mana into it. That was one advantage the medical tent had over a normal tent. You could feed mana into the rune sowed into it to prevent people outside from hearing what happened inside it. There was also one to prevent detection threads from passing through the tent and one which distorted light passing through the tent, so people couldn’t see inside. “So, I’ve muffle the sound leaving us so no one can understand us. What didn’t you want Persy to find out?”
He looked a bit embarrassed. “Well, I’m not normally into this, but it had been a while, so...” He explained to me how they partied last night with some of the other farm workers, and how he got drunk and was hit on by a middle aged orc woman. One thing lead to another, and he ended up back in her room, where he had a really good time.
I nodded and scanned him. “Lots of bruising, a cracked hip, and your arthritis is acting up. Looks like she went a little wild.”
“Worst part was that we had to finish the last of the stumps this morning with more than just a hangover.”
I smiled. “Well, lay down. This won’t feel as good as last night, but it should heal you instead of breaking you.”
“Good, I don’t think I could take any more, and I’m not into guys.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
It took almost fifteen minutes to finish healing everything. His arthritis was a long term condition that would come back, and his bones were more brittle than they should be, probably because he was in his late fifties, the equivalent of a mid-sixties human. I could give him a more permanent treatment for those once we got back to the clinic.
The rest of the checkups went quickly, as none of the others had anything worse than blisters and hangovers, so we were finished within an hour. Robert tried to flirt with Persy, somewhat crudely while she was examining him, but she mostly ignored it. He was in his mid thirties and apparently not her type.
The men partied again that night and we left the next morning, gathering all of our carriages and what was left of our trade goods from where the city guard stashed them. They had taken all of our food and useful items, but the luxury goods, potions, and most of the magical trinkets were still there.
Persy rode with me rather than her grandfather so that we could practice our telepathy as we rode. She had over a week to catch up with him, after all, so they didn’t have much to talk about any more. When we arrived in the late afternoon, Persy and I were both mentally exhausted but could manage three concepts each and even emphasize them or question them, the equivalent of putting an exclamation point or question mark on the end of a sentence. It was the first step in speaking with words instead of concepts.
We parked the wagons in front of the Governor’s storefront, and I went inside. It was almost closing time but, as the manager had been briefed on my arrangement with the governor, he accepted the goods and paid us, promising to send the governor the sample he asked for at once. I kind of felt sorry for the governor’s mistresses, given my experience with the potion’s effects. I asked them to send samples of the female version as well, just in case.
The Caravan Master also negotiated with them and managed to offload most of the luxury goods. After we had left he looked at his books. “Well, we almost broke even on just the potions, but the other goods didn’t sell too well. I’ll have to leave them out of the next trip. Food is also really expensive here, so I’ll only buy the three days worth that we need to get back to Starshine where I can properly restock. Lord Shadowblade won’t be happy with how small the profits are, but given the risk that was involved and the fact that thanks to you we’ve mitigated that risk, we should earn much better profits next time.”
I nodded. “I think you can probably turn a nice profit just bringing in food, even if you sell it here where the price is only doubled. In the outlying villages the margin would be even higher. Even something cheap and easy to acquire like rice should sell well.”
“I was actually considering that. This country lacks the setup to grow rice, so it would be something new to their diet, though not something unfamiliar, as they had access to it until a few years ago.” Most of the rice in this region was grown in the more tropical southern countries, though some was grown in the wetter areas of Ferin as it was one of the few crops that grew well in flood zones.
The men decided that they would start their night of celebration by thanking the gods at the temple before blowing all of their money at the bars and brothels. They could pull more out of their Merchant’s guild account once they were back in Starshine, after all. And given how rare and expensive alcohol had gotten, they probably would be able to spend four days earnings in one night. We put the wagons in the stables and walked to the temple. All of the gods of the Ferin pantheon were represented there, plus a few more. While most of the men found a priest of the God of Commerce to thank his for the profitable trade and for rescuing them from captivity, something I was pretty sure fell under the domain of Soquan, god of justice, Persy and I made for the statue of the Lord of the Forest, though we would need to thank Keshan for his aid in helping so many as well.
The priest of the Lord of the Forest was a Deer Beastfolk, and very animal-like in his appearance, as if a whitetail deer stood on its hind legs and put on clerical robes. He did have humanoid hands, and presumably feet, however. “Greetings.” he said, bowing slightly. “It is not often we get a healer or a human visiting us.” He tilted his head and looked at me. “Very unusual. My Lord has granted me the ability to see the souls of people, so that I may judge their intentions, but something is off about yours. Not just that it is stronger than most, or that you bare his mark, but like you have, or had, more than one life. Very unusual.” Persy looked at me a bit surprised. “Only a high ranking priest or a prophet would normally have the mark of the god they serve, but you seem to be neither, and you work for Keshan, so if you bore the mark of any god it should be his. Most unusual. Do you know why this is?”
I knew exactly why that was, but I couldn’t just come out and explain it. Just then I felt something stir within my soul.
There was a slight pause.
I nodded. “I would like to pray about it.” I said, careful not to lie.
“That is true. Very well. Follow me.” He lead the two of us into a room with a large statue of a chimera of a man. The body appeared humanoid, but the head was of a boar, it had deer antlers, the right arm was from a wolf, the left from a fox, and it had the tail of a squirrel, dressed entirely in leather and leaves. “If you will please touch the statue and begin praying, He will hear you.”
I reached out my hand a split second before Persy and the world went white. I opened my eyes and saw a person that looked almost identical to the statue pacing the floor of a log cabin I was standing in. “I’m surprised you look like the statue.” I said.
“I took this form because of the statue. It makes it easier for mortals to recognize me, since I don’t really care about my physical form. But, we have a problem. You weren’t supposed to be recognized.”
“He’s your priest, you could just order him not to speak about it.”
“In his case, yes. But the fact that he can do it means that other priest probably will soon as well. With the war coming, many gods are doing what I did and giving their priests spiritual sight, as it lets you see through illusions, see if people are good or evil, if they lie, and see ghosts and spirits. He just happened to be the first priest you came across.”
“Interesting power. Is their any way to fool it? Wait, war? Between the gods?” That could be very bad for the mortal races.
“Only by changing your soul. And the war is between the Northern nations and the Demon Empire, though their gods might get involved, which would mean we would need to as well.” He paced for a little while thinking. “I could probably convince Keshan to give you his mark and accept you as a priest. That would help hide my mark and he is accepted in Ferin. The only issue is that having two divine marks on your soul could stress it a bit. I may have to remove mine just to not destroy your soul. And if I’m going to do that, I may as well remove it now.”
“Why not make me your priest or prophet? Wouldn’t that mean that the priesthood accepted me?”
“Things might have changed a lot since I sent you down there, but I’m still not well liked if Ferin due to my association with Beastfolk. I think we need a second opinion. Someone we can both trust.” He waved his hand and a fox woman appeared beside me.
“Persy?” I asked, and she looked around in shock.
“Cam? What am I...” she then saw the chimera man in front of her and collapsed to the ground, bowing. “My Lord. I am not worthy.”
“Stand up.” he said. “I don’t ask that you grovel before me. You are a loyal member of my pack.”
She stood. “Understood. May I ask why you brought me and Cam here?”
“You can. I wouldn’t normally bring a soul to the Great Forest until they die, but we are in need of the opinion of someone we both trust.” He had me explain how I remembered my last life in another universe, and how he chose me to help his people. He then explained the situation with soul sense and the war, and how his plans were being disrupted.
Persy listened to both of us then thought about it before speaking. “It isn’t a perfect solution, but I think the only solution is for you to make him a priest or prophet.” Priests and prophets could both access powers within the domain of their deity, using the divine energy held within their own soul to cast divine magic, aka miracles. The difference was that a priest needed to pray and expend divine favor each time to cast those miracles, whereas a prophet had access to all the abilities all of the time. This created a semi-permanent connection between the souls of the prophet and the god, the mark I already had, but limited most gods to having only one prophet at a time.
The Lord of the Forest nodded at her statement and looked at me. “In that case, you realize how much risk this puts you under, right? They might accept her as my priestess as she is beastfolk and a slave, but a human noble of their kingdom will be a threat.”
“I do, but I think the other gods will assume that I am already your priest or prophet anyway when one of their priests sees my soul and reports it.”
He nodded. “In that case, I’m not half-assing this. Cameron Starshine, I hereby name you my personal representative on this planet, my prophet. Feel free to contact me at any time. And Persimmon, Daughter of Ivy, Daughter of Walnut and Peach, you have prayed to me many times since you were a little girl, even before you came to Ferin. I ask that you look over my new Prophet and keep him safe, that you aid him in his mission to improve the lives of beastfolk everywhere. I name you as my priestess, and confer on both of you the Soulsight, on top of the knowledge of how to use your new divine powers.”
I felt a rush within me as Persy and I started glowing. After the glow stopped I looked at Persy and activated Soulsight. She was beautiful, if a bit more fox-like than her normal appearance. I also looked at the Lord of the Forest, but he/she was just and indistinct vaguely humanoid shape. I knew at once that the physical body they now used was just a costume they put on to interact with us.
“Wow, this is amazing.” Persy said, then looked at me. “I see what the priest meant with your soul being weird. It’s like the edges are poorly aligned, like your soul was cut out and glued over your body instead of being a part of it. Quite strange.”
“Yes, that’s one reason your memories need to be erased when you reincarnate.” said the god. “It makes the soul less compatible with the body, and less likely to bond properly. I actually had to tweak a few minor things to make this body accept you. Nothing noticeable, I hope.”
I nodded, then turned off Soulsight. “So, before we return, is their anything you can tell me about the war?” I asked. A second war would cause all sorts of issues.
“I can tell you a few things. The Demon Emperor invaded several coastal towns until he managed to capture Sharkport on the northern coast. He has since turned it into a beachhead, replacing the Baron in charge with one of his many sons and brought in massive armies. They have started seizing towns and villages in the area, leading to the Northern nations signing ceasefires and mutual defense pacts with each other. Ferin is even in secret talks with Ridalia and two of the governors of the Free Peoples to sign such a treaty so that the three nations can focus on defense and driving off the demon army.”
“I think I remember someone talking about that last part.” I said. “You said the demon gods might get involved?”
“By proxy. If a god enters into a mortal battle, it will upset the other deities, and they might cause the gods to fight directly. That could destroy the mortal world. Instead, we fight by proxy. We send priests, holy warriors, and sometimes prophets, to fight in our stead. Mortals at least have a chance against them.”
“Understood.” I replied. With the conversation over, the god nodded and waved his hand, and Persy and I found ourselves back in the temple.