White Witch

After Tom had tackled her to the ground, he shot back up. Him, Ralf and Tina ran into the underbrush, while Sonja stayed at her side.

Apparently I am the damsel in distress now. The princess that needs to be protected. The fifth-wheel-feeling only got stronger and she hated it and herself for being this weak.

She rose slowly to her feet and waited. It didn’t take long for the three to reappear. They had the arms of two men twisted on their backs and pushed them along. “Now,” Tom demanded, “explain why you shot at us!”

“You… you’re,” the man in front of Tom gasped, as he twisted the arm once more.

“Take your time. We want to know everything.”

“That priestess … she said if we bring her the White Witch, dead or alive, she’d resurrect the people of our village!”

“Isn’t she the one that killed them in the first place?” Tom asked, but the man shook his head.

“It was her,” the man in front of Ralf said and nodded toward Nia. “White hair and piercing purple eyes!”

“I did what?” Nia was shocked. That was a lie. If she had that kind of power, she wouldn’t need to run away from Saesquar and her goons. “I wasn’t even close to your village!”

“Don’t lie,” the first man hissed. “We have seen you. How you threw balls of fire around, how you burned everything with flames hotter than the sun!”

Nia flapped with her mouth. She hadn’t been there, she was sure of it.

“Explain something to me,” Sonja said calmly and walked in front of Nia. “If you really believe that, then why did you think it was a good idea to attack her? If she can burn everything, then why did you think that you two, of all people, could stop or even kill her?”

Now the two men were silent and stared at Sonja. Then the one in front of Ralf looked to the ground and kicked some dirt around. “We thought that if we surprised her …”

“I want to know more about this priestess.” Nia gulped. Was this Saesquar? Could the goddess take on her likeness and kill an entire village? All to frame her and get the people to hate her?

“You must have seen her!” one man exclaimed. “She was the one that drove you from the village, after all!”

“I haven't been in your village!” Nia almost shouted, then turned around. “But this has to be Saesquar’s doing. She didn’t get me in Drakar, and the people started to fight her, so now she’s looking for other ways to turn the populace against me.” She looked at the rest of their group. “Or us.”

“What will we do with them now?” Tom asked and looked to Ralf. The man sighed and let go of his prisoner.

“Let them go. We’re not the evil guys here, and they’ve learned their lesson. Probably.”

The man stared at them and rubbed his arm. “I … I don’t get it. You’ve destroyed the village. Why are you letting us go?”

“Now listen here!” Sonja grabbed him by his clothes. “You seem to have gotten the short straw as intelligence was being distributed, so listen clearly. We only just arrived here, after everything was burned down. We couldn't have done anything. There is no way. Do you understand that?”

The man gulped and nodded, then quickly fled, after Sonja let go of him. Then she looked to the one, that Tom still held with an arm behind his back. “And you? Have you gotten the message?” He also nodded, far too fast for Nia’s tastes, but Tom let him go. He almost stumbled as he ran back into the underbrush.

Nia sighed and looked at where they ran.

“Don’t worry,” Tom said and pointed to his back, “I confiscated all their arrows.”

Nia took a deep shuddering breath. “This … is hard. I don’t think I’d be able to go through all of this, if I were alone.”

“Don’t you worry,” Tom put a hand on her head and patted her. As if she was a small girl. A child. Compared to him, she was small, but her heart was still that of an adult. An overwhelmed adult. And yet, her indignation refused to show. Maybe it felt as exhausted as she did?

“Let’s continue,” she whispered and walked deeper into the forest, away from the village. “I don’t even want to know, what nasty surprises come next.”

The rest followed her silently, and, as far as she could tell, far more aware of their surroundings than she was. They kept looking in all directions as if more people could run at them every minute.

Nia didn’t. She didn’t even know what she should look out for. She could see in the dark, but she hadn’t gotten the full elf package, like better eyesight or better hearing. At least her mind seemed to still be working, despite all the emotional assaults it had gotten.

Through all of this, she noticed something: Saesquar herself kept her distance. Sure, she probably thought that Nia could still hurt her by just touching her. She could probably have hugged her to death. But the dark goddess kept even more distance than necessary to avoid all that. Was there a reason, why she worked so hard to turn the people against her?

Was there a strange set of rules about being a goddess? In some stories, gods got their power from the people that worshiped them. That would mean that Saesquar had to find followers, that she couldn't just kill everyone. Turning people against her and then acting as the savior would help her with that. If that was true, she’d be killing two birds with one stone …

Nia sighed. Thinking about all this just didn’t help. Noticing all these things wasn’t any good, if she still lacked the necessary information.

Nothing happened for what felt like several hours. Then, as the colors started to fall away, Tina approached her. “I think it's best if we continue your training.”

Nia looked at her with wide yes. “No … no, no, no.” She was still exhausted and didn’t feel at all like training.

“Oh yes.” The rogue nun grinned. “It was your idea, and you have to earn your food.”

What do you mean, I have to earn my food?!