by Ian Rodgers
I bobbed up and down in agreement before putting the robe away. Rosa then picked me up and we flew off back towards the hostel to try and sleep. All of us knew, however, we had a problem brewing in the near future.
Chapter 11: Gift from a goddess
“Morning, Jellik,” Yorrik called out to me with a yawn. I waved back at him from across the staging ground where Torren’s caravan was gathering.
“Sleep well?” he asked as he got into line.
“Eh,” I replied with a noncommittal grunt.
Last night had been tense. I had not been able to calm down after learning that Katherine was more than likely planning something against me. A scant few hours of sleep was all I’d been able to grab.
Yorrik patted me on the back. “Don’t stay up all night studying, Jellik. It’s impressive you’re so dedicated, but you need to learn to live a little.”
“You’re right,” I agreed softly. I still remembered how he’d stayed supportive of me with the other adventurers.
“I’ll join you next outing. Maybe I have been working myself too hard.”
“That’s the spirit!” the Ranger cheered.
I glanced over as I sensed Katherine approaching. “Morning, Katherine. What were you doing in Crotia?”
“Managing my rent with my landlord,” she replied as she rejoined the caravan.
I nodded. The problem with her statement was that in all honesty she probably had spoken to whoever leased her dwelling in the city after obtaining the Ward Breaker. She had an alibi. I vowed to keep my guard up around her at all times and not let her out of my sight.
“Alright, we’re moving out now!” Torren bellowed, causing a few groans from those people who now regretted their excessive drinking the night before.
The convoy started to move and in no time at all we were on the road east. There were plenty of other travelers with us, on foot and on horseback, though like before on the Red Road each individual group of travelers kept to themselves while walking.
As we exited the Ring Road and got onto the path to Arv Prith I took a long look up at the towering statue of Gaea. The season that pointed to the east, Fall, looked out over everything with a kind, matronly smile.
Several people were bowing towards it or offering a gesture of prayer before going on their way. There were even a few pilgrims dressed in green robes and carrying crooked wooden staffs, marking them as Druids.
I was not sure why I had been drawn to the Idol of Traveler’s Boon as I left. I felt a familiar tingle of energy course through the air, one I had not felt since my first winter in Sanc Aldet.
I looked from the living shrine to the convoy and approached Torren with a question.
“Sir, is it possible for me to make a quick dash to the Idol and make a prayer then dart right back?” I inquired.
“Not a sir. Also, yeah, go ahead, but be fast about it!” he replied, and I hurried off towards the sacred site to investigate.
(I’ll just stay here with Yorrik,) Rosa told me, going from my shoulder to the Ranger’s.
I was confused until Tara spoke up. ~Gaea is well known for her dislike of all things Fey. If one were to approach a location important to her, even a kind Carbuncle like Rosa might be in danger.~
‘I didn’t know she hated Feykin,’ I said surprised as I headed to the large wooden icon of Gaea.
~Yes, it’s a fairly obscure piece of theology, to be sure.~
As we chatted in my mind about this interesting tidbit I also examined the statue and tried to find the energy again. It was elusive, and seemed to be playfully darting around as it lured me towards.
‘Tara, can we go over what we know about Gaea before we arrive? I don’t think this energy I’m detecting is hostile, but it is trying to get my attention.’
~Gaea, also known as the Four Faced Goddess of Nature, is one of the oldest deities of Erafore,~ Tara provided, using the Academy’s library to search out what I needed. ~Although originally an elven goddess she cares about all living creatures and willingly aided the humans who fled Val’Narash and came to Orria during the Great Cataclysm. She’s also the wife of Kazum, the chief of the dwarven pantheon and god of stone and protection.~
‘Really?’ I asked, surprised.
‘Yes, she’s a very inclusive goddess. She does not care who worships her, or that she’s even prayed to at all. Her only concerns are the balance of nature and that people respect and protect her domains.~
‘Interesting. I knew she changed her form depending on the season, but that’s it,’ I noted. ‘If I recall, in spring time she’s a green-haired, barefoot girl, in summer she is a seductive red-haired maiden, fall sees her as a plump, brown-haired mother, and in the winter she becomes a white-haired crone.’
~Exactly right. She represents the different stages of a woman’s life while also the concept of change. While her main powers are over life and nature she can bestow blessings based around protecting women. Much like Nia, only they affect all ages.~
After talking with my personal Spirit of Knowledge I reached the hill where the Idol of Traveler’s Boon rested and made my way up alongside several Druids.
They were an interesting type of mage, I mused as I walked among them. I had no fear of them trying to expose me as an Ooze.
Druids were magic users attuned to nature and life in ways that made them connect easily with plants and animals. And while not pacifists, they did live by the ideal ‘Live and let Live.’ If I did not harm anyone, they had no reason to question why I was wearing illusion magic, or why I felt different to a human.
One of the teachers at the Academy, Professor Blott, was a Druid, and he had confided in me that Druids could detect the life energy of all things. Shapeshifters and illusion users were useless before even a novice Druid with Life Sight, a unique spell-like ability they were taught. The class always had fun playing a form of hide and seek with him for training. He always knew where we were, no matter how well we used our magic to hide.
As for the Druids themselves, they were an interesting blend of both Cleric and Paladin for Gaea. They spread her word and protected the lands she deemed to need it. But they did not pray to the goddess for spells often, only using what magic they could tease out of the air and environment to perform their spells.
There was also an interesting movement spreading among some of the Druids, a belief that it was not only the deep forests, glades, and swamps that needed protection, but that cities too needed guarding. The cosmopolitan centers needed to remember that nature was important, and so these so-called Urban Druids maintained parks and floral shops inside cities, promoting clean living among the Stone Jungles.
The flickering motes of energy that had drawn me to the Idol in the first place were now hovering above a small shrine built before the east side’s trunk. I awkwardly kneeled in front of it and clasped my ‘hands’ together to pray.
‘Um. Hello.’ I said hesitantly. ‘I’m not really sure what the etiquette for praying here is. The last time I was in a church or temple was before I left the Academy for my journey.’
‘Anyways, I’m here. It’s been awhile since we met, Lady Gaea. Not that we’ve actually spoken or anything like Cynthia, I’m just saying I remember you showing up a few years ago during the Winter Solstice ritual and all that back in Palestone Castle…’
I trailed off, unsure of where to go from there. A giggle passed over me, and it was not from either of the girls who shared a link with me.
‘So, um, please don’t let any accidents happen to me or the caravan before we get to Arv Prith. Not that I want something to happen when we get there, but, you know, maybe keep it sunny? Or at least not too much rain. I hate trudging through mud.’
I sighed as I stumbled over my prayers and heard another giggle. It was joyful and kind and gave me the feeling of a warm kitchen.
‘I’m going to quit before I make an even bigger fool of myself. Thank you for your time, Lady Gaea.’
I stood, but before I could move a
way from the shrine a bright light, green and amber, fell upon me. Power welled up within me, and I felt the illusion around my body grow stronger and more solid.
I would later learn that from a distance it looked like the goddess’s statue had cried tears of light which had fallen upon me and bathed me in divine radiance.
The warm, tingling feeling that washed over me eventually faded, leaving me with a sensation of disappointment. Though a moment later it was gone, and I was back to normal. As normal as a sapient Ooze could be, at least.
But something seemed off, and there was a foreign lump of magic inside of me. Benevolent for now, but I wanted to check on it.
~Jelly, I think we should move,~ Tara suggested, and I tore myself away from my introspection and internal investigation to look around. I flinched as I realized a lot of people were staring at me in shock and awe.
It wasn’t every day the goddess showed off such blatant approval of a person and bestowed a flashy blessing.
“Um…” I paused, unsure of if I should say anything.
“Have a nice day?”
I swear I could hear someone facepalm and let out a groan of disbelief. I wanted to accuse Tara of it, but the voice was decidedly masculine.
I beat a hasty retreat down the hill and back towards the caravan.
As I jogged back to the line of wagons I noticed that I was far more comfortable running like a biped. Apparently Gaea had seen fit to give me more help than I’d expected.
The convoy was staring at me as I rejoined, and I gave a sheepish wave.
“I knew you were special,” Yorrik said with a shake of his head. “But clearly I wasn’t thinking big enough for how special you were.”
“Thank you, I think,” I mumbled, shuffling back into line and trying to ignore all the stares directed towards me.
“What in the Hells was that?” Katherine demanded.
“I honestly have no idea,” I replied with complete sincerity. The dwarven maiden shot me a look that said that not only did she not believe me, but that she believed I was a mystery to be solved. By force if necessary.
“Jellik, forgive us for our disbelief on your innocence, but what just happened has never been seen before,” Yorrik explained.
“It’s not uncommon for Lady Gaea to give blessings to pilgrims or those who pray fervently to her. Normally only Druids get them,” Brent spoke up, idly fiddling with the handle of his axe as he glanced nervously at the distant tree line of the Dullwilds.
“It’s sort of a rite of passage for apprentices. If Lady Gaea blesses them, they’re considered a full-fledged Druid. If not, they have to return after undergoing more training. For a non-initiated mage to have such a vibrant reaction from the goddess means you are destined for greatness. Whether you like it or not.”
I bowed my head in defeat. ‘If only you knew how right you were,’ I grumbled to myself.
Having learned I was a Chosen One for a Prophecy involving the End Times was not what I’d expected when I went to study at the Academy with Liliana.
But now here I was, traveling the world in order to prepare for some nebulous doomsday – likely involving the World Rebellion cult – while keeping an eye out for either of the other two Chosen Ones. Whom I knew nothing of, because Headmaster Arnolt refused to tell me for my own protection.
I glanced over at Rosa who was hovering nearby. I moved my head to the side so my right shoulder was open for her, but she remained at a distance.
(It’s not you, Jelly,) Rosa began when I sent an inquisitive look towards her, (It’s the piece of Gaea inside you. It makes me nervous.)
‘That’s right, she put something in me,’ I remembered. I proceeded to dive into my soul, but was unable to grasp what it was. It was pure mana, but structured and complicated in appearance. It nestled in a part of my soul in such a way that informed me it had replaced a tiny fragment of it.
‘Tara can you tell what it is?’ I asked, unable to analyze it.
~It’s a spell,~ she said after only a cursory examination.
‘Oh, so this is what it’s like to have a Divine Spell!’ I exclaimed, my intrigue piqued.
Divine Magic was what Paladins and Clerics used predominantly. It involved offering up a sliver of one’s own soul as payment to a god, who then bestowed upon the worshipper a spell or blessing. Once it was used up the wound to the soul would heal, and in time a person could pray again for more spells.
I’d never seen it up close before, and spent most of the time I was walking passively examining it.
‘I can tell that it is a spell related to the Earth Element, and its focus is on large scale soil and rock manipulation, but I can’t figure out which spell it is exactly,’ I complained.
~It’s a new experience for me as well to see a spell in its raw, untapped formed,~ Tara agreed, happily studying the spell.
To try and explain the shape of a spell while it was uncast is not easy. Try to describe the color blue to a man who can only see shades of red. That was what identifying a spell is like. There’s a reason why Spell Crafters and mages who try to invent new magic work so hard for, at best, one new spell in their life. And also why so much emphasis is given to understanding magic at the Academy. If you do not know your own magic, how can you possibly work to improve it, or unmake another person’s?
As it was, to me and my superior magical senses the spell Gaea had given me resembled a tangled amber knot. I knew that the way the magic ‘thread’ twisted and looped was the answer to figuring out the identity of the spell, but it was hard to do so without any previous experience in the matter.
And why would she give me a spell I knew nothing about? From what I understood when a god gave a mortal a spell the recipient knew instantly what the spell was and how to cast it; a side effect of having it literally imbedded into their soul.
Being an entity of solid magic who in normal circumstances would not have a soul made my ability to use Divine Spells a complicated grey area. At least Liliana and the professors at the Academy would be intrigued by this development if nothing else.
~You know, if we cast it, we’d be able to figure out the spell,~ Tara pointed out.
‘But then it would take at best a few days for me to recreate it, if I could at all,’ I argued. ‘I have a lot of mana, but I don’t have the ability to accurately reproduce spells just by seeing them. And judging from the amount of power inside it, this is a Level Five or Six.’
~True,~ she admitted. ~I suppose we’ll just have to keep working on unraveling its mystery for now.~
After a bit more technical talk I let her focus on the task while I returned to the world.
“Hey, you’re back!” Mitch said in surprise. My sleepy, lethargic movements had suddenly become sharper and more steady, alerting the group that my introspection was over.
“Yeah, apologies for zoning out like that, but I was curious about the blessing Lady Gaea had given me and I was trying to figure out what it was.”
“I’ve seen sleepwalkers before, but never anyone who could do what you did,” Yorrik praised. “Is it a meditation technique?”
“Yes, it’s one that allows me to slip into Mindscape so I can sort my thoughts and observe certain things while still being aware of my surroundings to a degree,” I explained. “So, it’s a bit like sleepwalking. Good comparison.”
I looked around, taking note of the area. A lightly wooded region, with the Dullwilds a fair distance to the north. The clouds were darkening in a way that promised rain however, and everyone was eyeing them warily.
“Alright everyone, we don’t have much time before the storm breaks, so let’s hustle!” Torren shouted, snapping the reins of his cart in irritation. “I want to make it to the campsite soon, so let’s push it!”
“Oooh!” Everyone cheered, just as excited as I to avoid getting drenched.
We made it to the clearing with a few other travelers just the first drops of rain began to fall.
“Guess my prayer for good weather won
’t be honored this evening,” I muttered dejectedly. Rosa patted me on the back as she flew past, carrying an edge of a tarp to cover the wagons with. She’d been surprisingly helpful around the caravan while I’d been out of it.
Being so close to one of her people’s enemies had made the young Carbuncle quiet down on her pranks and jokes. Plus, she wanted to be a good girl while I was busy thinking about magic and stuff with Tara. And Rosa did not want to disappoint me with any mistakes.
I was immensely proud and touched by her thoughtfulness. I wondered if this is what being a parent felt like when their child did something right.
“Drat, not enough time for all my wards,” I stated as I felt the raindrops fall faster and harder. I quickly raised my tent and popped up a handful of quick wards while throwing in a few extra for wind reduction, dry ground, and water proofing.
I offered my spells to my fellow travelers and they all eagerly accepted my aid. I’d just finished waterproofing Katherine’s tent when the storm finally erupted overhead.
Rain pelted us and lightning snapped and boomed. I hastily scurried back to my tent and dove inside to stay dry. Around me the muffled curses of the others greeted me, and a few seconds later Rosa shot into my tent as well, dripping wet and scowling.
“You alright?” I asked, worried.
(The wind was really strong, and it nearly knocked me into the mud,) she griped.
I smirked at the image that conjured. In my mind’s eye I saw Rosa being tossed about like a rag doll at the mercy of the weather. Maybe this was Gaea’s way of getting back at Rosa for riding that Dire Moose.
My Familiar was not amused when I mentioned that to her and she proceeded to aggressively dry herself off with my robes. We both shared a laugh at that, and snuggled down into our sleeping bag for the night.
At least we wouldn’t have to deal with any crazy dwarves tonight. No one in their right mind would brave a storm like this!
Chapter 12: Muddy steps
My prediction that the weather would force Katherine to hold off on trying to use her Ward Breaker on me proved true. I got through the whole night with a decent night’s sleep.