A True Threat

We walked outside of the Inn, it was a beautiful, sunny, mid morning. Barely a cloud hung in the sky and birds flew overhead chirping happily. Tiaria and I were still holding hands, I could feel how nervous she was through the shaking of her hand. I looked at her and gave her a big smile. She returned a nervous smile to me.

“You’re okay with this, right?” I said looking towards our hands which were clasped together.

“If I was a normal priestess no, but as a future goddess of love I have some very specific leeway for this type of thing.” Tiaria said with a proud look on her face.

“Oh, do you do this kind of thing often then?” I asked with a snicker.

“Hmm.” Tiara gave a thoughtful look before looking at me with a mischievous face. “Would it bother you if I did?” She asked.

“Would you prefer if it did bother me?” I asked in response.

Tiaria looked annoyed that I didn’t fall for her bait.

“Well, I haven’t done this before.” Tiaria said, resigned to my melancholy.

We walked for a bit before the clothing shop that Tiaria had talked about a few days ago came into view.

I looked towards Tiaria. “So, all priests and priestess left are worshipers of Ariet right?” I asked.

“Lord Ariet,” Tiaria began with a snark. “Is the only remaining god, so for the most part everyone worships her. There are those, however, who do stick to the old ways. Everyone in the tabernacle worships Lord Ariet.”

“So.” I began. “If Lord Ariet is the goddess of life and death wouldn’t she want people to be in relationships?” I asked.

“She does. However, Lord Ariet only blesses relationships that exist for the sake of producing life.” Tiaria looked at me as I stared back with a little fear in my eyes.

“However.” Tiaria quickly slid into the next sentence. “As the future goddess of love I wouldn’t require a new life to bless a relationship, only love.” Tiaria said the last part with a high-pitched happiness.

“Makes sense.” I said.

“So, once you… ascend?” I turned the sentence into a question. Tiaria nodded. “If I pray to you can you hear me?”

“That depends a little. For a new goddess like I would be I wouldn’t have powers anywhere near omnipresence. You would probably need to be at my altar for me to hear you.”

As we talked we arrived at the clothing shop. The building was a pastel yellow with a pinkish-red clay roof. There was a wooden sign hanging off of the building which had a carved picture of a shirt and the words “clothing”. Tiaria looked at me.

“Alright, let’s finally get you some clothes.” Tiaria said with a giggle.

Tiaria and I shopped around for clothes for some time. Tiaria picked out several shirts and pants for me. It was a relief to have something to wear under my robe, it had been quite inconvenient to not have anything to wear except the robe. Tiaria and I were enjoying looking at clothing so we were a little bit sad to finish up. Tiaria paid for my clothes, or at least tried to, the shopkeeper wouldn’t take the Lord Apprentice’s money.

“Thanks Tiaria.” I said with a smile, wearing my new clothes.

“Well, I didn’t really do anything since I couldn’t pay.” Tiaria responded.

“In a way you did.” I said with some sarcasm.

I pointed towards a multi-story shop.

“Let’s go there next. I saw it before and was interested.” I said.

“Sure.” Tiaria said with a happy tone.

We walked to the shop, once again holding hands. People on the street looked at us. Some seemed confused, others seemed to be quite happy seeing Tiaria on an obvious date. One older man stopped us and even told Tiaria that he was glad she was finally experiencing love so that she would be able to ascend. Tiaria and I were both a bit embarrassed with that comment, actually, Tiaria was very embarrassed.

Once at the store we walked up and down the aisles, looking at all the trinkets and gadgets that the store offered. I saw a yellow bracelet with a blue strap which I thought would match Tiaria very well. Unbeknownst to Tiaria I had actually managed to make a little money by selling some of the materials from the sloth which I had stuffed in the inner pocket of my robe. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to buy the bracelet.

“Tiaria, put your arm out for me.” I said as we exited the store.

Tiaria did as I asked and I placed the yellow and blue bracelet on her wrist.

“Did you steal this?” Tiaria said with shock.

“What? No, I had some money from selling materials from the monster that attacked us.” I said quickly.

“Oh.” Tiaria looked down at the bracelet and looked back up at me with a smile. “Thank you, it’s beautiful.”

I started to pull my hand away but Tiaria grabbed it and held it in her own. She gave me a sly smile.

“So, what’s next Yu?” She asked.

“Are you hungry?” I asked. It had been a few hours since we started.

Tiaria looked towards me and was about to give a nod, but right before she could an incredible feeling of unease overcame me, and from Tiaria’s reaction, her too. Suddenly a black shadow raced across the surface of everything in all directions and a low rumble began shaking the earth. As suddenly as the shaking and rumbling started it subsided.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Nothing good.” Tiaria replied. “Let’s head to the Tabernacle.”

I shook my head in agreement. We started to make our way to the Tabernacle. The townspeople were in disarray. Some seemed confused while others raced into their homes and shut the doors tight. Tiaria began picking up her pace and I followed.

“Yu, this may get dangerous.” Tiaria said, catching her breath while nearly breaking into a run.

“What’s going on?” I asked, picking up my pace.

“I can feel both holy energy and darkness.” Tiaria said. “I feel that Lord Ariet is drawing near. Likely, whatever the thing is that is releasing darkness is dangerous enough that Lord Ariet feels the need to intervene in some way, if that is the case this could be beyond both of us.”

I swallowed hard. For some reason I was more nervous about the idea of Ariet than I was about darkness. Darkness you can fight, a god you cannot.