“Are you sure you still want to go to the bakery, Arthur?” Emily asked as we left our home, patting her tummy. Her face looked tense, her hand clammy in mine.
“Yes,” I responded, keen on buying some sweet bread from Edwin’s, “I thought you wanted something from there?” I glanced at her curiously.
She doesn’t say anything but nods.
I took a moment to look at her expression, before leading us to the other side of the street, where the best bakery in River’s End was.
Edwin & Sons!
We head inside.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
The chiming of a bell emanated from above us as we opened the door to the bakery, the scent of tantalising baked goods was present, wafting through the air. No one was manning the front.
“I’ll be out in a moment!” a gruff voice called out from further in the bakery. “Sons, keep an eye on the Honeyed Mud,” the voice continued. The two baker’s boys responded affirmatively.
The large, muscled man that was Edwin walked through the opening that led into the front, smiling brightly at us, as he greeted us, “Arthur and Emily Patten! Fancy seeing you two here!” He leans forward onto the counter with his hands, looking at us both from top to bottom. “You two have grown since I last saw you!”
“We saw you yesterday!” we both said, chuckling to ourselves.
Edwin chuckled along, looking up into the air as if recollecting a memory as he said, “Oh, they truly do grow up fast, as the saying goes!” He returns his attention to us, combing one hand through his thick beard and then rubbing his bald head with the same hand before leaning back onto the counter, his arms apart, “So, what can I do for you?”
Emily’s curiosity got the best of her, “What’s this ‘Honeyed Mud’ you talked about?”
He makes a fool of himself, his face full of faux surprise. He leaned in conspiratorially towards us, whispering, “It’s a top secret!” He looked left and right quickly, as if he were hiding from someone, and bringing his index finger to his mouth to shush us. We continued to laugh at his theatrics, Emily seemingly finding it really funny, laughing extra hard.
“Since you’re already in the know,” he exaggerated the last word, winking very obviously at Emily, “I’ll let you both in on it.” He sneaks his way into the back of the bakery, his back slouched forward and lifting his feet into the air with every step like a little goblin.
Edwin is a funny man.
We hear some shuffling from further in the bakery, before Edwin returns and brings out a single tray, laying it on the counter.
Inside the tray were many cookie-shaped goods. Unlike a cookie’s usual beige exterior, the Honeyed Mud was dark and brown like mud. And as opposed to the chocolate chippy goodness that most cookies Edwin had, this one had none of that, only having a rather thick layer of honey on top of it.
At least the name made sense. But it doesn’t look very appetising, in all honesty.
But I have been wrong before when it came to Edwin’s baked goods.
“Looks can be deceiving.” A flash of a memory appeared in my mind. A memory from that night. My mum’s voice, another one of her morals.
I rapidly blink in an attempt to get the memory out of my head, before Edwin’s voice cut through the sudden memory, ridding it for me, “It’s a new recipe that my sons were working on together,” he said, a proud look on his face, “They know it’s not much, but it’s their pride and joy.”
Edwin is, also, a good man.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
We leave the bakery, bell chiming once again, one silver poorer but much, much happier.
We make our way back to the orphanage, five cookies bought and a freebie to share amongst us all.
Her hand was no longer clammy.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
As we closed the door behind us, a voice spoke up from ahead, “How was the bakery?”
Mother’s head peeked out from behind the opened pantry door. A stray strand of hair falls between her eyes, to which she blew a gust of air to get it out of the way, her attention returning to Emily and I.
“Edwin gave us a freebie!” Emily smiled, holding out the paper bag that held the cookies.
“That’s wonderful, Emily!” Mother poked her head back into the pantry, the sound of rustling coming from inside. “I’m assuming you got enough for everybody?”
Emi hummed an affirmative as we took off our coats and boots. Mother told me that it was okay to walk bare-footed in the home when I first came here – and Emily does – but I wear the indoor slippers this time. Folks from the Emerald Isles – where Mother comes from – don’t even have slippers indoors! I don’t know how they manage it.
The spotless floor’s cold now with autumn coming around.
Once I’d worn the slippers, we walked to where Mother was.
She was busy rearranging things in the pantry, but she opened her mouth in our direction, her eyes and hands still moving about. Emily let her bite a chunk of the cookie.
“Mm!” Mother sounded pleased, opening her mouth once more. We did this two more times so she could finish her cookie. “I’ll need to ask Edwin how he made those!” she said looking at us, her sweet tooth satisfied, “Make sure to not give all of it at once to Matthew. His sugar rush is worse than all of yours combined, and that’s saying something!” Mother laughs to herself, returning to her reorganising.
Emily and I walk out of the kitchen and up the stairway. Before we reach the top, Mother says out loud, “Drink plenty of water after you eat it, okay?”
“We will!” we said in unison, climbing further up the stairs.
“Oh – and Emily dear!” Emily turned back. “Is everything all set?” She nodded in response, Mother smiling as she nodded back and returned once more to her work.
“Emi,” I whispered as we took another step up the stairs, a confused look on my face as I got her attention, “What’s happening?”
“I can’t tell, it’s a secret!” she whispered back, laughing quietly, a cheeky smile on her face.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
What’s going on? I thought, as we finally made our way to the second floor.
We made it to the front of Winfrey’s room and before we could even knock, Samuel had opened the door. Everyone else was inside. “Hey, guys! Oh, are those from Uncle Edwin?” Emily gave Samuel his cookie as we entered.
Samuel walked back to Winfrey’s bed, lying down and eating his cookie. Her bed was to the left of the window. To the right side of the window was her table, where she often read her many books and used her alembic and alchemical apparatuses.
Winfrey chose the smallest room out of the whole building. “It was more cosy,” she’d said.
Winfrey was sitting in her chair at her table, reading another one of her many books. Matthew was on the floor, going through the many adventure-picture books she had at the bottom of her bookshelf, which was at the end of her bed. A sheet of paper for him to draw on was right beside him, nothing yet drawn. Many books were on the floor around him, all left open.
We walked around the books, sitting down on the bed Samuel was lying in. He scooted his body further to the wall, making space for us to sit. I take my cookie and bite into it. It was quite good!
“You want your cookie, Winny?” Emily asked between chews of her own cookie.
“Not at the moment, thank you,” she replied, turning a page.
Matthew reaches his hand out to where we were sitting, still going through the many books. We hand him half of his cookie. “Thanks’ yew’,” he said. He was still learning how to speak.
Matthew is a very polite boy.
“Oh yeah!” Samuel yelled out of the blue, scaring Winfrey so much that she dropped her book, looking at me all the while, “Just wanted to say happy bir—”
A sense of wrongness came through all of us at that exact moment.
A loud rumbling noise came from outside the window.
BOOM!
The whole room shook, causing the bookshelf to begin toppling over. Winfrey turned immediately, her eyes going wide at the falling bookshelf before Samuel violently leapt forwards, pushing it back in its place.
A clear, crystalline dome with fractal-like patterns appeared out of nowhere outside the window, surrounding our home.
Order has been activated.
No harm shall befall any within its Heavenly domain.
Any damage dealt to Order will be deducted from the additional mana given to it.
The mana used to cast the spell is not counted as additional mana.
Additional mana can be provided to reinforce Order, adding to its maximum capacity or refilling it.
Will last until concentration is lost or once all mana is consumed.
Current Additional Mana Deposited: 30,000/30,000
Due to the spell’s HOLY nature, any UNHOLY attacks made against it will deal double the damage.
“Stay inside,” Mother’s voice appeared out of nowhere, the message stone on Winfrey’s table glowing faintly. Her voice was different from all the other times she’d ordered us around. This was sharp. Authoritative.
Commanding.
Matthew had crawled onto the bed, crying and practically shaking, and hugged Samuel very tightly. Samuel rubbed his back, soothing the poor boy.
Winfrey looked out of the window, looking up. Before we could say anything, she’d stood up from her chair, opened her door and ran down the stairway, her eyes wide as she left.
The rest of us looked amongst ourselves before Samuel also decided to peek out the window.
He runs off downstairs, still carrying Matthew in his embrace.
We follow them down.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Name: Mareyana Patten
Class: Arch-Crusader of Demos (Paladin + Commander Advanced-Class)
Level: 100 (27 Levels Self-Withheld)
HP: 105,000/105,000 | SP: 99,993/105,000 | MP: 20,002/55,000 | DEVOTION: 127/127
Notable Items:
* An enchanted cleaver knife*:
* *Enchantment of Cutting Edge;
* *Enchantment of Lasting Durability;
* An ornate, enchanted wedding band* on [Left Hand - Ring Finger], given by Eldric Patten:
* *Enchantment of (5000) Mana Storage;
* *Blessed by Demos - Selflessness: Every selfless action you do for the benefit of others will be witnessed by Demos, granting Devotion if deemed worthy.
* 9 Enchanted Rings of (5000) Mana Storage on:
* [Left Hand - Thumb];
* [Left Hand - Index Finger];
* [Left Hand - Middle Finger];
* [Left Hand - Pinky Finger];
* [Right Hand - Thumb];
* [Right Hand - Index Finger];
* [Right Hand - Middle Finger];
* [Right Hand - Ring Finger];
* [Right Hand - Pinky Finger];
* 8 Linked Message Stones in [Satchel]:
* Eldric Patten - Husband & Former Party Member [Cathedral of Demos, River's End];
* Winfrey Patten - Daughter [Home];
* Samuel Patten - Son (adopted) [Home];
* Arthur Patten - Son (adopted) [Home];
* Emily Patten - Daughter (adopted) [Home];
* Edwin Willawett - Former Party Member [Edwin & Sons’ Bakery, River's End];
* Keh’laksh - Former Party Member [The Forge’s Underbelly, in the Dwarven Keep of Mak'shurim, below the Nathalan Mountain Range];
* Trefylei Beialosi - Former Party Member [River’s End’s Guard’s Training Grounds]
Mareyana ran outside of her home, looking up at the sky. She focused on the object hurtling down from the pitch-black gash in the clouds, inspecting it as it fell gracelessly, flakes of it blasting off of it as it tumbled and turned.
Meteor
Size: ~160 metres wide
Affinity: Unknown
Notable Characteristics:
* Odd-make: dark-grey liquid exterior, tendrils trailing behind, flakes coming off upon entry and dispersing far and wide;
* Dangerously close: current location is hundreds of thousands of kilometres above the southern edge of River’s End, heading further away from the town
* Approximate landing zone is west of the Nathalan Mountain Range;
* Surprisingly cool in temperature: vast amounts of steam trail behind, possible Enchantment of Tremendous Cooling;
* Unknown affinity; has elements of EARTH, METAL, and ELECTRICITY
* No known Divines – neither HOLY nor UNHOLY – have control of ALL aforementioned affinities in their domain
“Everybody!” Her voice was incredibly loud but firm and controlled. All the people outside, those panicked and those who were staring at the meteor, turned to her, their expressions varied. “Get your families in the orphanage’s basement!”
Commandment.
A wave of energy released itself from Mareyana’s soul, making itself heard, and resonating in the souls of those touched by the skill. They all scramble, making a mad dash to their homes – the elderly sprinting like they were still in their prime, rejuvenated by her command. Mareyana turns to look at the meteor once more.
What is that thing?
!!! DIVINE MESSAGE !!!
Demos, Hive-Queen of Collectivism, speaks to you, Mareyana Patten.
A flurry of ideas, thoughts, worries, fears and hopes entered Mareyana’s mind.
The chittering and clacking of mandibles could be felt, a voice speaking directly to her.
“My child,” it boomed, echoing through her mind, embedding itself into her soul. “Heed my words, for they are sacrosanct.”
Mareyana kowtows herself instantaneously, her clothes stained by the unfortunately placed dogshit, but it is of no regard to her.
“Do not fear, River’s End will be safe.” A wave of relief flowed through Mareyana, her knees shaking from the revelation.
Thank you, beloved Demos... They’ll all be safe, oh, thank the Heavens...
“But do not go near — once it has landed — without my permission.”
The connection abruptly ended. The severity of the divine connection's abrupt end, the maintained concentration of Order, and the smell of dogshit were too overwhelming for her to maintain her composure.
She vomits there on the ground, right outside of the orphanage.
She lifts her head back up, smiling as she does, vomit and spittle on her chin.
She mumbles passionately as she repents for having lost faith, ignoring the many families who stare at her as they walk past her and enter the orphanage.