Leaving the Village

When they met up the next morning, the sun had yet to rise. Nia had slept at some point, but had to be woken by Mother Clemens. Rena was already up, doing chores around the house.

There’s no sleeping in in another world. I’m really racking up book titles.

Besides Mother Clemens and the Twins, everyone else looked as she felt. With the exception of Tina. Why did she have to check another field on her stereotype-bingo field? Should she shout ‘bingo’ now, or should she wait for a bit longer? After all, she hadn’t kept track on the locations of the boxes in her virtual bingo card.

“Do you have everything?” Mother Clemens looked at everyone in the group, even the twins. The latter pointed at the scabbards hanging at their sides.

Ralf had taken a large ax. I really should draw out those bingo-cards. Tom had a bow and Tina … just smiled.

“Good.” Mother Clemens nodded and turned toward the large road that ran through the village they didn’t even know the name of.

No one said a word as they trotted along the street and out of the settlement. Nia looked back at the house where she had stayed these last few days. She didn’t know what would have happened to the village, if Saesquar or one of her goons had found them here. Though with rumors that the saint was in this village, they could still be drawn here. Nia bit her lip. There was nothing she could do for them.

She pushed the dark thoughts aside and looked toward to the horizon and the rising planet there. If they could speak to Luaria, they could probably change not only their fate, but also that of the poor villagers here—if they were affected by it at all.

“Have you ever spoken to Luaria herself?” Nia turned to the old priestess, hoping to get more information.

“Luaria is the creator of our world. She has watched over us since the end of the old world.”

“The old world?”

“Rygara. We lived on the planet before it became uninhabitable. She relocated a few faithful followers to our moon, where we have lived as one with nature ever since.”

Nia gulped. There were a lot of implications in that one sentence. “What happened to the ones that were not faithful?”

“I don’t know, to be honest. But it is safe to assume, that they haven’t survived. We haven’t seen any water on Rygara’s surface for decades.”

A shiver ran over Nia’s spine. Maybe talking to Luaria wasn’t that good of an idea, after all.

“Couldn’t she have changed the planet to be habitable again?” That should’ve been easier than teleporting thousands of people onto a moon and terraform it so it could sustain life.

“I don’t know.” Mother Clemens shrugged. “I am not privy to her divine wisdom.”

Nia sighed. There were a lot of parallels between the believers of her world and the ones worshiping Luaria.

Hopefully she can tell us more about something else.

“Is there anything we should know about the council?”

The others glanced at them while Mother Clemens kept looking at the sky.

“Luaria’s High Council consists of three bishops. There’s lady Rafhina, who’s known to listen to the people’s problems. Then there’s Rahl. He’s a skeptic and will probably want to test your sainthood. And lastly there’s Zarah, who’s usually the deciding voice in anything that concerns the church.”

“So we have to persuade two of them and we can meet with Luaria?”

Mother Clemens laughed. “No, no, miss. For that you need to persuade all three. And even then our lady will only be presented with the request. She has to decide in your favor, too.”

Of course it has to be complicated. Nia sighed and shook her head.

“But since you are a saint, that will surely be no problem.”

“I thought that we’d keep that a secret,” Nia whispered.

“But we can’t keep that a secret in front of the council!”

“From now on, we’ll keep that secret from everyone. If there’s a high priest that has defected, then a bishop might’ve, too.”

“That’s impossible!” Mother Clemens gasped.

“You also couldn’t believe that Qiin had turned,” Nia answered, trying her best at a deadpan-expression. Why can some people have this much faith in a person they know so very little about? I bet she’s never even met one of the bishops.

Mother Clemens didn’t answer. Instead she looked straight ahead. She probably recognized that Nia was right, but didn’t want to admit it.

It killed their conversation completely. So Nia looked straight ahead and walked along the road. The twins were in front of the group, followed by Ralf and Tina, then Tom and Sonja. Nia and Mother Clemens were in the back.

The sun rose while they walked, and it revealed more of the planet in the distance. It had risen considerably.

As the sun climbed higher, Nia slowed. Her legs felt heavy and burned slightly.

Great. Of all the things I could keep from my old life, it just had to be my poor endurance.

She fought on for a while. When she saw a tree, she leaned against it and stopped. She sank to the ground, and noticed a moment later that that had been a mistake.

“Miss, we need to continue,” one of the twins said after she didn’t move for several minutes.

“We need to get to the next inn before it gets dark,” his brother added.

Nia considered strengthening herself with magic, but from what she knew about her abilities, it would only serve to make her unconscious. And I’ve been unconscious far too often the last few days.

“We can’t camp out here,” the first twin—was that Erax? Or Torax?—added.

She ground her teeth. She hated to show weakness, but even more so, she hated to admit that she was weak. Memories flashed in front of her eyes, and she held her left arm for a moment.

“I … I can’t walk anymore.” Saying those few words was hard.

The twins looked at her, then at each other for a moment. When one turned his back at her, squatted down and held out his hands to her, she had this disquieting feeling that he wanted to carry her piggyback. Like a small girl. And this time, she was sure, that steam escaped her ears.

“I know how you feel,” Sonja said, “but you either need to get up, or give in.” When Nia didn’t react directly, Sonja sighed. “You said yourself that time is of the essence.”

Nia looked at the large back presented to her. “But …”

“No ifs or buts,” Tom said. “You promised to abide by the group’s decision. And we all think that you should get on his back!”

Now that Tom demanded it, she wanted to do it even less, but with all of them—even Mother Clemens—staring at her down, she finally relented.

It’s the third time I’m getting carried. Just kill me. Please.