Suspicions

The silence hung in the air like a heavy blanket. One that you were loath to remove in the mornings, when it was cold in the room and you had to go to work.

“Why is that impossible?” Sonja ripped the blanket away, and the priestess flinched as if she had been slapped. “Anyone can wear any clothes …”

“You can’t wear a blessed robe, unless you’re a priest or priestess of Luaria.” Mother Clemens shook her head. “Which means that one of our priests has …”

“Defected to the dark side?” Nia asked.

Saesquar must bake some very good cookies!

“I guess you could call it that.” The priestess sighed and looked as if she had suddenly lost all energy. “Please tell me the name of the priest.”

“Qiin.” Nia spat the name. She wouldn’t respect anyone that tried to kill her. Or rather, who did killing her.

I guess anyone would do that. Just most can’t hold a grudge after that.

“That is … not good. Not good at all.”

Nia narrowed her eyes. “So you know him?”

Mother Clemens nodded. “Qiin is one of Luaria’s High Priests. He was tasked with making sure that Saesquar stayed in exile. That the seal around her temple was in pristine condition.”

“Guess, who we also met,” Nia said, shaking her head.

“I need to inform the council!” Mother Clemens shook on her feet and looked as if she would collapse at any moment.

“How are you feeling?” Tina asked, looking into the crowded room.

“Good enough to run around.” The healing really had done wonders for her psyche.

“I … We need to go to Drakar as soon as possible!” Mother Clemens turned to her and took her hand. “I need you as proof.”

“As proof?” Nia felt her eyes going wide. Even if this world had any kind of forensics, her wound was healed. How could she be some kind of evidence?

“The council will heed the words of an actual saint! If you tell them what happened, they will take action and excommunicate High Priest Qiin.”

Nia blinked a few times. “Aren’t saints just people, too?”

“Saints have been chosen by Luaria herself. Every priest will heed your words!”

I don’t think that’s very wise! On the other hand though … We need all the help we can get!

“Well, if you think that will help, we’ll accompany you to Drakar.” Nia nodded and smiled warmly. Maybe she could get some few free things out of her supposed sainthood, too.

“Thank you!” Mother Clemens got to her knees and took Nia’s hand.

Stop it! That’s weird! Her desperate thoughts went unheard, and the old priestess kissed her hand. What is it with these people and their saint complex? If magic wouldn’t exist, I’d still think this an installment of ‘hidden camera’. Maybe this is the divine version of it and somewhere some gods are laughing their asses off.

“I will ask if some of the villagers are willing to protect us on the journey.” Mother Clemens got back to her feet and all but ran out of the room.

“If we’re going to this Drakar-place, you’ll need new clothes,” Tina observed.

Nia looked down at her body. She wasn’t wearing her blood-soaked robes anymore, but some kind of night-gown. She hadn’t even noticed that someone had changed her clothes.

I guess when your busy resurrecting, you miss certain things. Then she felt the blood rush to her face. Who changed my clothes?

“I … I can provide you with new clothes,” the farmer’s wife remarked.

Nia looked at the woman, feeling a bit strange. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You’ve already done so much for me …” And she didn’t have any money. Especially not this world’s money. Her own belongings had some money from her old world, but that hadn’t any value here, not to mention that it was still back at the monastery.

“Please, don’t worry.” The farmer’s wife smiled slightly.

Nia shook her head. She wouldn’t mind poaching a few drinks and some food due to her sainthood, but clothes were a different topic. Those were valuable. Especially, if you didn’t have anyone to extort to sew them for you. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Rena, miss.”

“Rena, please teach me the prayer for good harvests.”

“I could never …”

“Just teach me the prayer. If someone offers you something good, don’t reject it. This is the only way I can show my gratitude.” Nia crossed her arms. “Never think that someone of a higher status deserves something from you, just because of their status!”

“I … understand, miss.” Rena hesitated, but finally relented. “Let me fetch you the clothes first.”

Nia nodded and smiled. Rena left the room quickly.

“Are you sure you should put such ideas into the minds of the people?” Sonja whispered and squinted at her. “It might cause trouble for the people here.”

Nia shrugged. “I just don’t like how they’re treating me. I’m not anything special!”

“You’re sort-of encouraging them to rebel,” Sonja hissed.

“I also don’t think you’re normal anymore.” Tina shook her head. “You’ve come back from the dead …”

“Please, don’t. Just don’t.” Nia sighed. She didn’t even want to think of the comparison Tina could’ve made right then.

“Anyways. You’ve all gotten something special, too, so there is no reason to just focus on me.” She hoped that the distraction would be enough.

“These things might be common in this world, though.” Sonja shook her head and sighed. “After all, our teachers could do all of those things. And better than us or on equal footing at least.” The other girl shot a side glance at Tina.

Nia frowned and looked away. She would’ve liked to say that Qiin was also better than her at magic, but her magic had clearly outclassed his. Granted, it was much too strong and draining, which spoke of poor control, but if she were to compare pure raw power? Qiins reaction, or rather Saesquar’s reaction showed clearly, that she had surpassed Qiin. Was the dark goddess afraid, that she could surpass even her?

“As far as I could tell though, we all picked our subjects up pretty quickly.” A flame appeared above Sonja’s hand, turned into a small flaming figurine that could’ve been in a Disney movie, and bowed, before disappearing again. “But it wasn’t enough. They managed to overpower us far too easily.”

“I still wonder why Saesquar has summoned several saints so far.” Nia looked down at her hands, but there was no answer written there.

“If she’s really summoned more saints before, then she might have had an ulterior motive.” Tina shook her head. “They’ve probably been given the same mission: Defeat the dark goddess to get back to your own world. Then they had to fight together, bonded during their time together. And then, if all your friends are suddenly taken hostage, you might do something you wouldn’t have done before. If the saint is really powerful and they managed to manipulate them like that, they might even have fought against the goddess that supposedly summoned them.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Saesquar hinted at that herself. Why else summon more people than just the saint? Why wait with killing us until you could see them do it? We hadn’t bonded enough, but you still tried to stop her. She clearly hoped that you would crack, that you’d beg her not to hurt us. But something was wrong. You managed to hurt her and get us all out of there.”

“Then they want to turn us against Luaria?”

“Maybe. It’s the best guess I have right now.”

“Then we should speak to Luaria. I hope the council knows how to contact the goddess.”

The room fell silent after her statement. Tina reached around Nia’s shoulders and pulled her closer to herself. “Just don’t change, please.”

Being embraced like that felt strange. It was a feeling she didn’t even know she missed.

“It’s not a good plan, but better than none at all. I’ll go find the boys,” Sonja said and left the room.

Rena returned a few minutes later with a whole bunch of clohtes. “I wasn’t sure which ones would fit you, so I brought a selection.”

“Thank you.” Nia smiled. But when she saw Tina reach for the stack, she somehow got the impression that this would become a far more involved process.

The way Tina acted around her, made Nia suspicious.

Please don’t start to mother me!