The Training Begins

Dozens of shelves with hundreds of books lined the walls of the room Qiin had brought her to. Reading desks on one side and desks that held an ink well and a quill on the other side greeted her.

This was probably one of the rooms where monks either copied or read books. She had to wonder whether these books were all on different topics or whether there were several copies of one book. If this was a library then probably both. The backs of the book didn't tell her anything. They had all the same decoration, and she probably had to pull one out in order to discover what the book was all about.

“Please, take a seat.” Qiin pointed at one of the chairs. She peeled her gaze away from the books and sat down. The monk sat opposite of her and fixed her with a hard stare. “So, what do you know about priests and how they wield their magic?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

If there had been any magic in my world, I might've believed in the existence of some god.

“You should’ve witnessed some priest doing magic …”

“I have seen several priests defrauding people. If you call that magic, then yes.”

Qiin blinked with his eyes a few times. Apparently he hadn’t expected such an answer from her. Then he took a deep breath and slumped with his shoulders. “You’re really not making things easy for me.”

As if I could change anything about that!

“Look, you have summoned us. You may have gotten what you asked for, but maybe your question was just wrong?”

If you search for something on the internet, you need to be precise as well …

“We’ll be more careful the next time.” Why did that only sound half sarcastic?

“Then let me explain how a priesthood works. Usually a priest gets their power from their god in exchange for their worship and dedication. The latter generates power for the god, and you’re granted a part of it in return. With that power you can perform miracles in the name of that god which then generates new worshipers for them.”

That sounds eerily like an advertisement deal.

“Your priesthood is slightly different, because you are not from this world. The ceremony embedded a piece of the power, or essence, of both gods within you. You’re basically the living bond that symbolizes the alliance of two gods.”

“I am what now?”

“The symbol of a divine alliance.”

The alliance between what? This Luaria and … nothing? Do you really know what you’re doing?

“Both gods have given you an equal amount of power,” Qiin continued. “Our goddess gets help from another god, and your god gains the ability to gain followers in this world. You can probably imagine that this is not done lightly, and is reserved for very dire situations.”

“I have two questions to all of that,” Nia replied and held up two fingers. She lowered the first one and continued: “One. Why do you have the power to make those decisions for your goddess? Shouldn’t she be the one to decide these world altering events?”

“I have been given special permission and powers to act in her stead. She has given me the power to act in her behalf for these things.”

“Why?”

Qiin’s eye twitched, as if he didn’t like her questions. “Because I have shown good judgment and loyalty in the past. All in her name!” His voice rose as if there was a sudden undertone of anger.

Maybe your judgment has been lacking when you summoned us, she thought.

“Well, then onto my second question: How am I supposed to know all this?”

“You’re not.” His voice was cold, but he seemed to calm a little. “I would’ve explained this to you anyways, because it makes a difference in how normal priests enact magic and in how you have to go about it. It just would have been easier if you already had some grounds to go off of. Which is why we have to start at the basics.”

He rose and walked to one of the shelves. After pulling one book with a practiced motion, he sat back down and pushed it toward her. “This is a prayer book for Luaria.”

Some strange glyphs adorned the front cover. Triangles, circles, crescent moon shapes, and things that looked like an H or an F. She couldn’t make sense of it at all. Opening it to a random page somewhere in the middle, she saw even more of those glyphs. Staring at that text only served to give her headaches, so she closed the book again.

“I can’t read that at all,” she said, turned it around and pushed it back on Qiin.

“But … you can understand me?” he wondered. “Our language should be embedded within your mind!”

“You know that reading and writing are a different skill than just speaking a language?”

“Luaria must already be weaker than we thought …” He rubbed his chin and seemed to stare into the distance for a while. “Well, it doesn't matter much. It just means that I have to teach you her prayers myself.”

Please. Don’t make me pray! I haven’t even seen evidence of that goddess of yours and doing something you don’t believe in is just embarrassing!

Her mother had tried to get her to believe in something, but asking someone or something that she didn’t believe existed, just felt like talking to empty air. And that was frowned upon.

The hypocrisy was strong in my world!

“Just follow along, and we’ll see whether your magic responds to it. Pay good attention to the prayer, and then, when you pray yourself, pay good attention to how your magic responds.”

“I don’t even know how magic feels like?”

“Oh, don't worry. You will notice its presence. Trust me.” The grin on his face was like that of a predator chasing a herd of shivers down her spine. “Now, pay good attention. I’ll start with something simple.”

Qiin stood up, and began to sing. His voice rose and fell as he went through a short prayer about wisdom, light, and the power to chase the darkness away, even during the long period of darkness that had to be the night.

When he was finished, he himself seemed to blossom into a pillar of light. All those pictures that depicted a holy man were nothing against the way he shone.

Then he looked at her, and she froze. He really wanted her to sing? Praying with a text like that was embarrassing enough, but singing in front of him, or the rest of her world?

“Have you forgotten the text? Or the melody?” he asked after Nia didn’t react for a few long minutes.

“Do I really have to do that?” she asked, hoping that there was another way.

“Yes. Luaria’s magic resonates to songs. It’s the only way to invoke it.”

Nia looked away. The desire to experience magic herself, and the want not to sing this embarrassing prayer, warred with each other. The former feeling won. Barely. In a quiet voice, she began to sing:

“Luaria, my goddess of light,

please learn of my plight.

Darkness and evil bars my way,

but in your grace I want to stay.

Shine your wisdom down on me,

give me the strength to defeat my enemy,

so in the darkest moments of the night,

I can always be your pillar of light!”

As soon as she finished, she felt something rush out of her. A feeling akin to warmth, and yet different, resonating with what she had sung. That resonance created a thin layer of light directly above her skin.

“You’ll get a stronger reaction when you're singing with more confidence.” Qiin smiled at her. It was almost as if he liked the results of their little experiment, even though she hadn’t sung with any confidence at all. It had been barely above a whisper.

“Do you feel the well of power within you?” The glow around him faded while he leaned forward. “With a bit of practice you should be able to call on it directly and bring it to resonate in the same way. It is far quicker, because you don’t need to recite the prayer for it.”

Nia looked up. She could do this without doing these silly prayers? She quickly closed her eyes and examined that strange power. How it had changed into the active effect of making her light up like a light bulb.

It took her some time to find out how to … resonate … with that power within her, how to activate it. Then she noticed that the light effect around her was already gone.

“There is a more difficult prayer I want to teach you next. It will allow you to tap into the wisdom of our lady, which should enable you to read the contents of this book.”

“What?” There was a language comprehension spell?

“There are a lot of things our lady can gift us with.” He smiled, and then began to intone another prayer. There was no way she could memorize it that quickly. She had already forgotten the light spell he’d taught her.

How can he expect me to remember things I heard only once? This is bad. Really bad …