No one will notice you crying in the rain

Helia sat down next to him, trying to gather her thoughts. A small Ceres snuggled into her arms, trying to cheer her up. With a sigh, Arthem started talking.

“As I said, I grew up with the Solarists. My parents were Solarists, and so were their parents, and theirs before them, you get the picture. I was taught to worship the Sun Goddess, much like you, only we, I mean, the Solarists, are the ones making it taboo for others.”

“It’s not only my family, either. There are many, all of them connected generations ago to a Sun High Priestess. There is an ancient prophecy that has been passed down from Her, and that states that once a Moon Priest appears, darkness will follow. Eventually, they will summon an eternal Eclipse, ending the world. And, for some reason, they seem to think that would be you, Helia.”

Her head was spinning as she tried to make sense of everything. “How could that happen?”, she asked. “I mean, how could just one person end the whole world?”

“Well, I don’t really know”, he excused himself, shrugging his shoulders. “I was just a pawn, another child amongst the many from the lower families. I’ve only been told the broad strokes of the prophecy, and how to recognize a Moon Priest.”

He continued. “A very powerful Handler, accompanied by a Great Spirit, wielding the Divine”, Helia gasped at his mention of the supposedly unknown element. “Probably a performer of some sort, a bard, a storyteller, anything like that. And, of course, shining silver hair, like a ray of moonlight”, he finished, softly taking a strand of her hair. She blushed, still perplexed at all he knew about her.

“They say the Sun has many Priests and Priestesses, that as long as you are devout, and your Soul can handle the Pact with one of Her Great Spirits, She will accept you as one. Her power and influence are spread across many, most of them currently Solarists. The Moon, however, only has one Priest, someone He picks Himself. They have to be an extremely powerful Handler to bear the burden by themselves, and they have to be entertaining enough to keep their volatile God’s interest.”

Arthem let her hair go, his deep blue eyes fixated on her. “The Solarists have been keeping tabs you for some time, but they needed definitive confirmation before making their move. Apparently, they got it not long ago, so they sent everyone they could afford to intercept you tonight.”

“The Full Moon…”, uttered Helia, widening her eyes. Someone must have seen her then, surely.

“I stopped agreeing with how the Solarists do things a while ago, but I couldn’t just leave like that”, continued Arthem, looking bleak. “They knew what the Shadows were, and how to fight them, but they said nothing, and many people have suffered as a result.”

“What Shadows are?”, she asked. She had an idea of what he meant, but still, having confirmation would only be positive.

“Corrupted Spirits. Like what you saw in Alfor”, Arthem was trying to contain his rage as he continued. “They knew about light helping fight them, they knew about lumiranite, they even knew about secondary Handler elements! And yet, they said nothing, too busy with their alleged holy mission to save the world to bother themselves with saving actual people.”

“And do you know why there are Shadows? What has caused Spirits to become… That?”, Helia gulped as she asked, once again suspecting what the answer would be.

“I’m not sure”, he shook his head. “Their leading theory was that somehow, something is corrupting the Mana around us, and this forces Spirits to manifest as Shadows. But the prophecy does talk about the Moon Priest bringing darkness before the Eclipse, so the Solarists always assumed it would be you causing it… I mean, them. The Moon Priest.”

He averted his gaze, and Helia did the same, feeling guilty. From the moment she had heard the prophecy, she had also come to this conclusion. Even if she didn’t know how she had supposedly done it. However, it was also true that, before she had been reborn as Helia, there had never been Shadows. It could be a coincidence, but her gut was telling her otherwise.

“This is nonsense, and I won’t let you accuse Helia of such a thing”, piped up Ceres. He had been letting them talk so far, curious, but this was too much. “You appear out of nowhere, with your stories of cults and prophecies, and trying to put the weight of the biggest danger currently plaguing the world on Helia’s shoulders. We have no proof of what you say, and no reason to trust you. Helia, we should leave.”

“Ceres…”, she looked as the bird took off from her arms and started flying towards the stairs.

“Of course you would say that, oh Great Spirit, Ceres. Helia, did you know the Moon is always depicted as having a Wind Phoenix by His side, one of his Great Spirits? Do you think such a loyal servant would be clueless about all this?”, retorted Arthem.

“And what proof do you have of that, other than the words you just came up with?”, Ceres defended himself.

“Right now, none”, conceded Arthem. “However, I’m also certain that you know far more than what you have shared with Helia about what your beloved Master is up to.”

Ceres flew back towards Arthem’s face, cawing angrily, until Helia stopped him with a stern, “That’s enough!”

Unbothered, Arthem continued his tirade. “I also saved you both from a certain death, by the way. Oh, and, you are now fugitives, in case you didn’t understand that part. The Solarists have eyes and ears everywhere, and you have become public enemy number one.”

“What? But I need to perform publicly to earn my living! What will we do now, Ceres?”, Helia’s head started spinning again, trying to come up with a way to survive that didn’t involve leveraging her current unwanted fame.

“Come with me”, said Arthem, putting his hand on Helia’s shoulder, making her blush once again with his determined eyes. “I have learnt where they keep the original prophecy. I’m sure there must be some kind of misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. Honestly, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the whole thing was a lie. If not, my sources tell me there are other things, more ancient knowledge. There must be something we can learn, something we can do, to prevent a tragedy, that doesn’t involve any more suffering. I can fight, but I’m just a warrior. With your Handling, it would be easy.”

Helia’s breath was taken away. She paused for a second, recomposing herself.

“I’m sorry”, she began, averting her gaze. “Just like Ceres said, I don’t really know who you are, or if what you are saying is true. I am grateful for you saving me from whoever it was that was after me, but I can’t tell you I’m someone I’m not and follow you who knows where, just because you claim to have had a similar childhood to mine.”

Emotions flashed rapidly on Arthem’s face. Surprise, hurt, then, ultimately, understanding.

“Yeah, I guess so. That makes sense. I would say I’m sorry for involving you in all of this, but that wasn’t my doing, so. Anyway. You can leave through there. Please, do be careful, even if you don’t believe my story.”

Arthem sighed, getting up and offering Helia a hand to help her stand up, which she accepted. She shook the dust off her pants and took her bag without a word, only nodding to him in response to his worries.

When they emerged back into the streets, the rain had finally stopped. Lumiranite illuminated the night with its soft light, with the Moon hidden behind a thick cover of clouds. Cautiously, they tried to make for their original destination, Kesmer’s church.

They didn’t see any more pursuers on their way there, but they still wanted to be extra careful, so they entered Kesmer’s bedroom directly through the window.

“What, who’s there”, she said, startled half-awake.

“Ssshh, it’s me, Helia”, whispered Helia in return. “I’m really sorry for coming in like this, but, well, I don’t know what’s going on? I just came back from Alfor, there was a Shadow in the Sun, and then there were some people following me in the city, I didn’t know where else to go…”

“Oh, no”, answered her friend, holding her head with both hands. “No, no, no. You shouldn’t be here. I was really hoping you would do as you usually you and disappear for months on end, but this time you had to come right back, and now I’m going to have to report that I’ve seen you!”

Helia froze. “What… What are you talking about?”

“You have to leave, right now. Did anyone see you coming in?”, Kesmer rose up from her bed and started walking towards Helia, who took a step backwards.

“It’s the middle of the night, no one was around, but, please, Kesmer, stop! Talk to me!”, Helia held Kesmer’s shoulders and forced her to look at her. “What is happening?”

Kesmer’s eyes finally focused on Helia’s. “This probably won’t make any sense to you, and I’m sorry, but we have no time for me to explain. There’s a group of dangerous people who are convinced that you are some sort of priestess from an ancient prophecy, and they’re looking for you everywhere. They expected you to come see me, so I’m supposed to tell them when you do, and keep you here.”

Helia let go of Kesmer, taking another step back towards the window. “The Solarists.”

Kesmer’s eyes widened in surprise at her words. “You know about them?”

That was all the confirmation Helia needed. She turned around to avoid showing the one she had considered her friend the single tear that had escaped from her eyes.

“Wait, Helia”, whispered Kesmer. “Is it true? Are you the Moon Priest, the one who will end the world?”

That question hurt her even further. It would have hurt her much less if Kesmer had just planted a knife on her back.

“I’m no one. Just a traveling bard”, and with that, she left through the open window, disappearing into the night.

Unable to stop her, Kesmer dropped to her knees, crying, holding her Spirit tightly in her arms.

Helia sat down on a roof not too far from the church, bawling her eyes out, just like her friend. It had taken her years to be able to open up to someone other than Ceres after what had happened in her village, and she had really thought she could trust Kesmer.

Her intrusive thoughts were trying really hard to make her believe that, perhaps, from the beginning, Kesmer had only gotten close to her under the impression that she might be the Moon Priest from the prophecy. But, if that was the case, she had to be a master manipulator and liar, and Helia didn’t, couldn’t, believe that the Kesmer she knew was like that. Although, maybe she didn’t even know her at all.

Helia waited a few hours, ignoring Ceres’ pleas to flee the city as soon as possible. She had to know. Time passed, and the Sun rose. But the Solarists never came to the church. Maybe Kesmer hadn’t given her up. Or maybe they met somewhere else. She would never know.

Helia got up, cleaning her tears up as best as she could, before tucking her hair extra tight into her hood. She also took out a scarf from her bag and tied it around her face, hiding it as much as she could without compromising her vision.

“You should hide inside the bag, Ceres”, she told him, making space for him amongst her belongings.

“Are you serious?”, he complained.

“You’re at least as famous as I am, and you love telling me how much everyone knows me, so, please. They’ll be looking for a female Handler with a green bird Spirit”, she gestured towards the bag.

With a sigh, Ceres got inside, unable to argue with his own words. Helia secured the flap and discreetly got down onto an alleyway.

The last of the lumiranite hanging around the houses in the church’s district was slowly going off as sunlight got stronger. At the same time, more and more people started leaving their homes, on their way to work, school, or any other obligations. Helia walked as fast as she felt wasn’t suspicious, looking at her feet, and wishing she was invisible.

She couldn’t hear anything other than the loud beating of her own heart. She felt like she had been holding her breath ever since she left Kesmer’s bedroom, and only once she was out of the city, was she able to take air in once again.

As soon as they were able to, they left the road and disappeared into the forest, staying on their guard for any straggling Shadows. A few minutes later, they heard the rustling of leaves behind them, but no Shadow came out to attack them.

“So, do you believe me now?”, said Arthem, emerging from the bushes.

“Were you following us?”, responded Ceres, struggling to get out of Helia’s bag and then transforming into his true form.

Helia snapped out of her confusion and took a defensive stance, quickly drawing her bow and pointing it at Arthem.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down”, as he was used to by now when dealing with Helia and Ceres, he raised his hands. “I was just worried about you, is all. You were lucky that your friend didn’t send word to the Solarists, or things would have gotten pretty ugly.”

She lowered her bow, holding her breath. “How can you know that?”

“Well, things didn’t get ugly, as I said”, he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “In any case, what do you say, will you come with me?”, he added, extending his hand.

Helia paused and looked at him with an enigmatic gaze he couldn’t decipher, a shining arrow still pointed towards him.

“No”, said Helia, lowering her weapon. “But”, he started, before he could get another word in. “You are welcome to travel with us, and answer my questions.”

Arthem had probably meant for Helia to take his hand as if he was helping her get down from a carriage, but instead, she shook it. He was perplexed at first, but immediately after, his expression turned into a bright smile.