I stood in awe as I watched the gritty dust burst settle on the floor following Alis’ single strike, which had taken down a sand wraith. Once the dust settled, the dungeon went back to the plain boring monotonous place devoid of anything of interest.

Alis’ freckled face and her fiery red hair, was clear of the grit which had burst over her. What would’ve made me excited, being able to defeat the powerful wraith in a single strike, was obviously not important enough for her to get excited about. Her face was as dour as it had been since she told me she’d been alone for five months.

Alis stood there impassionately staring at where the wraith had been.

It seemed that she was another immovable and fixed part of the dungeon. Only this time instead of that pale sandstone colour she was a bright spot of… Of something. Something I couldn’t fathom.

Once again, the distance between us grew to even greater lengths.

‘Do you have faith in me?’ Alis asked, still staring into nothing.

‘Why are you asking?’ I couldn’t give her a straight answer. I couldn’t simply tell her I trusted her. My mind was too troubled for that to be the case.

‘Inside the both of us is divinity. Divinity is a power beyond most anything on this world. It is unlike mana, as it is finite. What you have is what you have. So every time divinity is used, it disappears. But if that were the end of it, then divine beings would become weaker over time.

‘So why is it that the curse put upon these Isles have been growing all this time if divinity is finite?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said to Alis’ back.

‘Faith.’

‘Faith?’

‘In its most basic form, yes. Our divinity is renewed by faith. For a being such as Aggard, with her many followers, it is difficult to notice the growth or loss of faith by individuals.’

Alis just stood there, not looking at anything, but she was waiting for something to happen. Clueless as I was, I didn’t know what she was waiting for, so I remained silent.

‘As I have fewer people who have faith in me, it is easier to notice all of whom who do.’

She spun round, grit grinding under her shoes as she did so. There was an intense and fearsome presence coming off her. I collapsed backwards, grit digging into my hands. Alis took a step forward. For once I saw someone look like the fearsome and overwhelming image that was often depicted upon the Aggard’s judgement scenes.

In front of me was the goddess of warfare.

She might’ve been slightly shorter than me.

She might’ve been slender, with lithe muscles.

None of that mattered; this goddess was approaching me with all the intensity of a charge of heavy calvary upon the panicked backs of retreating lightly armoured foot soldiers.

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Then the presence faded.

I gasped a couple of breaths of sweet, gritty filled air. My breath was jerky. My muscles weak and refused to move.

Alis sat down next to me. Her troubled face looked much like the one she had on when we had first met in that training fort.

‘For five months,’ Alis said, ‘I was waiting for our joyful reunion. Waiting for the time when I could hold you in my arms, and enjoy even more of your kisses. Maybe even enjoy you making a woman out of me.

‘But I noticed the lack of faith from you towards me. I didn’t know what to do.’

My muscles were still weak and refused to listen to me. As I fell backwards onto the gritty ground, I reached out and grabbed hold of Alis. She allowed herself to fall next to me. I pulled her into my arms and she came unresistingly.

It felt strange laying on the hard gritty ground, holding Alis close and intimate like this whilst wearing armour in the midst of a dungeon.

‘Klarric,’ Alis said, muttering into my armoured chest, ‘I was jealous and scared when I saw Aggard come into the bathroom. She was everything I wasn’t. Even now I can’t believe that I told her to go to you. It hurts to know I will never be your first. That your first would be with someone so beautiful, so perfect, that you would forever compare my shameful body with her bountiful one.

‘Yes, I know that I’ve won , that she’ll never be around again. The one thing which kept me going was seeing you again and feeling that connection to you I can feel with Celameth, Hallvard, and even Wulf. But I cannot have that. I cannot feel that connection with you, fragile and frail as it might appear.’

She lifted her head up to look at me. Her beautiful freckled face twisted in pain, her pleading eyes glistening with held back tears.

‘What is wrong with me, Klarric? Why do you not return the feelings I have for you? Am I not good enough?’ She stopped ranting, and in a quiet voice she carried on, ‘shall I just go and leave you alone?’

I pulled her tighter and gave her a kiss on her forehead.

‘Alis, please don’t leave me.’ I begged. ‘I’m lost right now. Ever since I died and was reincarnated in this world, Aggard had always been there for me. Even when she wasn’t with me, I could fell her within me, a tender warmth that gave me the strength to push forward. It didn’t matter how much those fools mocked me for being different to them, that warmth inside and the dream of being there for Aggard kept me going…’

It was harder than I thought to let everything out to Alis. To let her know how I was feeling inside. So I gave up and looked up at the bright light shining down upon us from the centre of the domed celling. The light was too bright to continue staring at, but the pain felt comforting, as it was not just my heart which hurt, but my body too.

‘I’ll never talk to her again. I’ll never get to see that bright half smile again. But at least I got to see her smile without the pain in her eyes. But I miss her, Alis. I miss feeling that warmth inside. All I’ve got is a horrid bundled knot of something which hurts. It hurts because it mocks the warmth that I once gained from Aggard.’

Alis gave me a gentle kiss on my cheek before easing herself out from my arm. ‘Shall we go and see what it is that Celameth wanted us to do with that key she gave you?’

I looked away from the light and up to Alis. Her fiery red hair shone like a halo around her head. For a moment I believed I was looking at Aggard herself, but the eager glint in Alis’ eyes was nothing like the pained look that Aggard held. That and Alis’ freckled face was so much more beautiful and expressive than that of Aggard’s carefully held neutral, peaceful, saint-like look.

‘I cleared the inner dungeon. All that awaits is for us to see just what that key does. So, Klarric, shall we go?’

She reached out her hand towards me. Finally, she was acting like the adventure mad, Alis. The one whom I had fallen in love with. And, so, there was nothing to say and do but…

I reached out my hand and took hers, ‘let’s go and find out.’