I sat down while facing the other direction in order to avoid staring and I could hear Elder Irvin putting on at least some clothes while groaning.
Well, let´s get this party started!
"I want to know... What do the blessings even do? Can you have more than one? What is the effect on the body and..."
Elder Irvin raised his hand in defeat.
"Enough! Enough..."
I turned back to him looking straight at him... after having a small glance. He had covered up his body with leather trousers, but his chest remained barren as always. Most of the men wore an open vestment or nothing at all only sporting some long and sometimes short trousers made of leather.
"I see that either you did not pay much attention or Erwin did not mention this to you."
He stared hard at me and I felt quite uncomfortable. After a while, I broke eye contact with him and looked into a corner.
"Ähm..."
In my defense, Erwin did mostly talk about punching people and I had to stop myself from facepalming all the time when listening to him, so...
... maybe he did talk about the important stuff? But I doubt it.
But he did not think like ma as I could hear another heavy, long sigh escaping his lips.
"You should at least know about the gods, right?"
I shrugged my shoulders. Gods you say... In my books that is a contradiction in itself, but I doubt he would be interested in a theological debate with a five-year-old...
"Yeah, Uisce for water, Aer for air, Domhain for earth, and Doite for fire."
"Good. And you know why the gods decided to give us blessings?"
"Yes. Because we are the first of their beloved creation and although we are not weak we needed a bit... special attention."
"Good. It seems you did listen to Erwin a bit at least."
Did Erwin talk about this? I am pretty sure the songs yesterday and my mother's stories did teach me more than Erwin´s lessons.
"Now then, you must know that the blessings do strengthen us in order to survive better in this harsh world. Once our ancestors lived together with the gods and they were safe and the gods thought us many things... What great days these must have been! A paradise of challenges, fights, and feasts... "
Elder Irvin started to have a lecturing tone and I could only try and listen to what he wanted to say and what I wanted to know.
You know in my former world I would say not having magic power or gods magically solving all our problems for us did have a possible positive influence on us namely science. We are creatures that drive on intelligence, even though it does not seem so most of the time, and pain. The pain is the extrinsic motivation to change our situation and our intelligence makes that change possible. For example, it is hard to carry everything in our arms, so backpacks and carts were invented. If everything was magically solved or if we are so strong that we don´t need carts I am pretty sure, that carts would not have been invented... well... carts really are handy in that they are able to carry more so it would have happened eventually?
"Hey!"
Elder Irvin clapped in front of my face to get my attention back.
"I thought you wanted to know more?"
Sounding really exasperated and even I could not help, but mentally facepalm at my stupidity.
"Sorry! I just got a distracting thought..."
Elder Irvin eyed me suspiciously.
"It is not my fault you went into my house before I put on clothes."
Hmm? Wait does he think I am still?
"No! That´s not it! I just..."
What am I going to tell him? That I thought about pain being the catalyst for evolution? Sure let´s explain Darwinism to him! Won´t go that well I believe...
"Sure..."
He did not seem to believe me and I just sighed and gave up on correcting him.
"Instead can´t you just tell me what the blessings of the gods do to us?"
"I was and you weren´t listening."
His accusing tone left my face burning with shame and I was looking down on the floor. But the worst part was: He was right.
That wasn´t like me. Actually, I was a great listener in my former life and would never not pay attention if someone was talking. Well, after my teenage years were over...
"I... I am sorry."
He sighed loudly and send a gaze towards the ceiling.
"It´s fine."
He patted my head softly and carefully.
"Gulda warned me a long time ago, that your attention span is quite... limited."
He withdrew his hand and scratched his face with his index finger.
"Didn´t think it was that bad though..."
I heard his mumbling loud and clear and was once again staring at the floor in awkwardness. He took a deep breath and sighed.
"So what you want to hear are the observed effects of the blessings, right?"
"Yes, please?"
"You know these stories do tell us what the blessings are and even how to obtain them, right?"
Why does every word need to hit like a sledgehammer? I know I always had a bad time when someone was being aggressive, but what is this feeling? This really reminds me of my parents in my youth... but they never let me explain myself... just wanted me to swallow and nod. This is better... kinda?
"Yes? I do know, but... these descriptions are kinda... vague."
He nodded and stroked his beard thoughtfully with his hand.
"Alright, I believe I understand now what you want."
He looked at his hand and opened and closed them again and again.
"From my experience, I can only tell you about Uisce´s blessing. And I know a bit about Doite´s blessing, too as Gabthar is a good friend of mine and we talked a few times about our blessing ritual."
He shrugged his shoulder with his arms lifted.
"For Domhain´s blessing why don´t you ask Gulda as I think she is the one with the strongest blessing within our village."
I finally lift my gaze from the floor and looked at him.
"Yes, but her explanations are... too simple for me. No... I feel like simple isn´t the right word..."
He facepalmed. He really just facepalmed?
"Vage, simple... Fine! I will try to explain to you what the blessings do, so try and listen okay."
I nodded happily.
"The blessing ritual gives you always more strength, but in other ways. I believe one of our heroes said, that the gods are sharing a part of what they are in order for us to gain power. Domhain´s blessing might be the easiest to understand. The bearer will get stronger and gain more endurance. Uisce´s blessing made me more flexible and granted me the power to heal though it is not without limits. Also I am able to sense water from a faraway distance. But I did not get any stronger from the blessing which makes me less useful in fights. Doite´s blessing is similar. Gabthar told me that after the blessing he is more hotheaded and aggressive. Also, his reaction time has improved significantly and he is able to produce flames."
That was a lot of exposition and most of it is expected, but what did he say about the gods sharing a part of who they are?
"So? Happy? I believe that is what can be said in a short and uninteresting way."
Yeah, it was informative and I think I need some time to think about the consequences of what he said... Wait a minute! isn´t something missing here?
"What about Aer?"