At the mercy

The plant golems twisted their viney arms together around Mara and lifted her up like two little paramedics. Like the driver of the cart, there were several guards passed out around it.

Villagers around the scene fled, called for guards, and screamed about witches.

“This way.” Ember gestured for an alley, the golems and Sally entered. Ember put her hands to the ground. Immediately, thick vines emerged from where she placed her hands, blocking the path behind them.

They passed more villagers who were dumbstruck at the golems, and mostly stared. Arriving at the end of the suburbs, at the city wall, Sally asked: “Where are we going?”

“You two are leaving the city.” She stood against the thick stone wall that was twice as tall any house beside it. Again, she put her hands to the ground, sliding them up along the wall. Vines grew rapidly along the wall. “Grab one, like this.” she said, grabbing one of the vines which promptly stopped growing. Sally imitated her, the shrub formed a pedestal of leaves under their feet, and the vines carried them up the wall.

“As you see, I can manipulate plant matter.”

The golems attached themselves as well and rose under them.

“It’s quite versatile… and I have a lot of fun experimenting.” She smiled.

They rose to roof level. In the distance, where the wagon came from, large clouds of black smoke rose above the skyline.

“Mara, however—”

Over the skyline, blue hellfire had leveled multiple houses to ashes and was still burning many more.

“their power is destruction…”

Torchlight could be seen moving to and from the location of the disaster. It reminded Sally of the time their neighbor’s house was on fire, it was supposedly started by an elderly man smoking in his bed. Since the house burned flat, nearly setting the neighborhood on ablaze, fire drills became regular practice, and everyone bought an extra fire extinguisher. “Did Mara do this?” she asked.

“The gods are—were… in an alliance, someone broke that alliance by stealing the ring from Mara. In an attempt to get the ring back, Locust was taken by Ouroborith, the dimension-traveling serpent. The ring was the thing that made Mara able to control her power, removing it made them easy to detain, if they attacked someone next to them, they would be caught in their own blast radius, so they lashed out by destroying the city around them”

At the top of the wall, Ember guided the vine to go back down the other side. They helped the golems up and lowered Mara down.

To the south the sea with harbors, the north, a wall of mountains covered the horizon, the east was covered in farmland, heaths and a small amount of sparse forests.

Below the wall, Ember continued as they headed south. “What kind of deities are you familiar with?”

“Mainly fictional ones I’m pretty sure. And if they weren’t, they would be cruel ones.”

“Nature can seem like that can’t it?” Stray fireflies lit up parts of the wall and the shrubberies beside the path ahead, nature wasn’t the problem, the mountain nor the sea had ill will. “Us gods, the ones here, don’t necessarily live glamorous lives, we are not worshiped unless we create cults, we are not loved unless we deserve it. Even our strength is meaningless if we don’t seek to understand it.”

Sally was silent, not sure if she agreed.

“Mara can be… impatient, I’m bringing you to someone who can help you with your powers.”

It became easier to avoid nosy residents as the surroundings became more cluttered with buildings as they moved closer to the main gate of the city, before which, they headed further to the sea. They stopped at a small house just off the main road covered in ivy and closed flower buds. Ember knocked three times on the door. “…just a second…” a shaky male voice called from inside. Shortly after, the sound of a mountain of tin cans shuffling to the door. A crack of the door opened, stopped by a chain. “…ah lady Ember, did you lose your key? Should I change the lock…” he noticed Sally standing behind her, “ah, guests, where are my manners…” He removed the chain and held the door open. The boy looked about Sally’s age and was covered up to his neck in shiny metal armor, which seemed to have been made with his poor hunched posture in mind. The room was a mismatch of potted plants, metal bars and gadgets scattered.

“I have a quest for you, Niklas.” Ember stated.

“…A quest?”

Ember nodded in excitement.

“…what about the project?”

“We will have plenty of time for that when you return!”

The boy looked to his boots as he thought.

“You are free to refuse, of course.”

“No! I’ll do it.”

“Great, We’re leaving immediately!”

After hesitating about what to take, Ember convinced him he didn’t need anything he couldn’t create on the way, taking only a small pouch along herself.

Ember introduced Sally, “This is Sally. She’s the new champion of Mara.”

“I’m Niklas…” he almost offered a handshake, but froze when he saw her hand. He politely bowed instead.

“Nice to meet you.” she said, pulling her sleeve down to cover her newly discovered insecurity.

“…and who is…”

“That’s Mara. I will explain on the way.”

Seagulls flew and over and an increasingly pungent smell of rotten fish dulled the senses. The golems laid down Mara at the last row of houses before reaching the harbor. Ember moved Mara’s hair to the side, to gain access to her neck. Vines sprouted from the ground and entered their shirt, after a couple of seconds, Mara’s legs twitched, and she stood up, eyes closed, still asleep. “They’ll definitely hate me after today…” Ember said, “Could you hold her steady as we walk?”

Sally put her arm around Mara, who’s movements flowed like that of a zombie, the vines creeping up their neck to keep their head straight.

“…I can re-enforce her spine if you want.” Niklas added.

“I think this will do, thank you though.” Ember patted him on the head then gestured to follow.

Wooden ships of all sizes lay at the sides of large stone pathways protruding into the sea, Ember asked around about which ship was leaving soonest. The workers seemed suspicious of the group and didn’t really want to interact with them. The third worker she asked pointed her to an office down the dock.

“I heard you’re leaving in an hour.” Ember blurted out at entering. A burly captain with a long black beard sat at his desk checking boxes on a large sheet on his desk. “We’re not leaving today.” He said without looking up. Ember set the pouch on the paper, interrupting his work. “Half of that is yours to rent your cabin during your next voyage to Orevale—”

“We’re waiting for a shipment of—” the captain interrupted.

Ember ignored him, “The other half is yours if we set out right now.”

“You need a permit to transport fugitives,” he said and nodded to the shackle around “I’ll have to contact authorities if you don’t have one.”

“Oh…” Niklas took off his gauntlet and took off the shackle, which opened by itself. “This is just a prop, It doesn’t actually work…”

“You’re a strange lot,” the captain sighed. He untied the knot to the pouch “you’ll need at least double the silver to—” the pouch fell over and several gold coins fell out on the desk.

“I’ll get you double if you ask no further questions.” Ember added.

The man stood up and yelled into the other room, “Scribe! Write an apology letter to the Smithsons, we have urgent cargo that needs to go to Orevale."