Ed had the most extravagant bath ever that afternoon. He was covered in a fine layer of dust and before he could get into the bath, he felt Ashra wrap a towel around his waist before dusting him off with a fine horsehair brush. She combed his hair to get the dirt out of it before leading him to a bath filled with petals of flowers from the oasis. The water was warm to the touch but not hot and had some kind of oil in it that perfumed the air.
Ed instinctively laid back and let himself sink into the water. This was probably the most relaxing thing he could imagine, and his brain wandered with thoughts of meals not caught in the desert or mysterious miracle sandwiches. He was drifting slowly around the fog of his brain and hadn't even noticed that she had begun to bathe him with a sponge and a soap that smelled of the same flowers. He only noticed when she started to scrub his neck and face. He blushed at the sudden thought of her scrubbing certain areas.
"Do not worry, I am not ashamed but pleased to wash and prepare you for your return to the world." She purred at him, soothing him again. House cats have many different purrs to calm their owners or put their prey in a trance. The race of Demi-humans she came from had at least 6 and most of them did not even use the common tongue to speak when at home. They preferred the natural noises they were raised with. The human tongue was hard to convey thoughts when a simple purr would give so much more meaning in their minds. They couldn't understand why humans didn't have something like this of their own.
She rubbed his temples and put the sponge in the water in front of him. "You have a visitor upstairs in the third-floor receiving room. They have been waiting for you since yesterday. We were foretold of your time in the desert by them and prepared this place for you. You will need a new home here since you are here for us now master." She said softly as she leaned in next to his ear.
Her breath was warm and his body was relaxing. He hadn't realized how badly he needed this bath. The bathhouse at the inn he had used in Or'Ganel was nice but nothing like this. He was having a hard time remembering that was only a week or two ago. So much was happening so fast that he couldn't keep track of time.
"You left the capital of the humans and walked here, five long years you have walked and learned to end up here. So many other places you could have gone first. But you acted exactly as the prophecy predicted." She said moving from his temples to his shoulders. She laid a towel around his shoulders and began to cut his wet hair. Ed's brown hair was normally the shaggy mess of a normal town runner, but she trimmed and clipped it with ease, styling it into something more fitting of his status in her mind.
Ed sighed and let her finish. There it was, the gods had stolen more time from him. And five years this time, they kept messing with him. He wasn't even surprised at this time. He hoped that what he had learned in the desert would be enough to impress whoever these people were.
"Ashra, when I left for my… pilgrimage… who told you I would come here and why am I so important?" he said to her, trying to sound like he was checking her knowledge and not desperate to find out what he had missed.
"Oh, you wish to test me." She said moving from one side of his head to another trimming hair from behind his ears. "I will answer while I give you a mane befitting you." She ran her fingers through his hair, applied a small bit of water more, and combed it through her fingers.
"You are Erust the pilgrim. Where you go things happen. I have heard the tales of the harvest, the exorcism, and the plague upon the wicked at the church." She tipped his head forward to cut the hair at the back of his neck.
"We of the south have no love for the church. They spit at us and scorn us as worth less than god's other creations. But we know that we are made special for a reason. We know that the spirits do not all look like man, they look like the spirits of the land they inhabit. Some look like man and some look like us." She removed the towel from his neck and ran water through his hair with a jug, washing the cuttings from his body.
She held a mirror up for him to inspect his hair, he looked very different. His hair was cut short and tidy, with a curl at the top that made him look somehow more masculine but wise at the same time. Ed looked from his head to her face, the eyes were a light-yellow color and her face was smooth and wrinkle-free. He couldn't gauge her age correctly, but she had to be the same age as him. His face was weathered a little from his time outside, he looked nearly 30 when he inspected his face.
He was still 20 inside though, he and Rennish had been traveling about 6 months now and would be turning 21 sometime around the spring planting. Of course, that had passed several times now. He contemplated giving up on keeping a running tab on his age now with all the magic running around. He wondered what his face looked like underneath the one that Erust wore. But as time wore on he was caring less about that and had begun to accept that Erust face was actually his. Only the spirits and he himself ever called him Ed anymore.
She continued on, "When the word of your actions reached us the oracle of the south spoke that you were important to our kind. You were going to rebalance the world and put all things back into their order. Humans, Demi-humans, and the spirit world would regain the triangle of life. You are going to bring peace to us Erust and for that we are thankful."
Ed swallowed, so that was all. Save the people, bring peace to everyone, and rebalance the world. He who was only slightly better than average.
"And you have no doubts I can do this? The one was called only slightly better than average in his own home?" Ed said turning his body to look her in the face and try to watch for lies in her face.
"There is no doubt. You have already fulfilled the prophecy, you came here. The oracle foretold your return. You have walked through the desert with a Minstrel as foretold. You walked in full and flush showing that even the desert itself provides for you in thanks. The woods of the north respond to your kindness. The stories of your traveling through the woods like a spirit yourself tell us all we need to know. If you can strike peace with the Fay Folk of the forest then you are strong enough for what must be done." She said looking at him. She used a finger to brush water from his face and smiled. "I am pleased that I get to greet you back into the world again. It is an honor."
Ed leaned back again. His head was spinning but he was doing his best to focus his powers into his intelligence so he could process this. He self-buffed his intelligence and sighed. "I guess I should see my visitor." He said with a sigh. He was tired and really wanted to rest on what looked like the most comfortable bed he had ever seen.
Ashra stood up and brought up a towel. She averted her eyes out of respect and waited for Ed to take it. He got out of the tub and dried himself off. He could see Ashra take a peek at him, but he wasn't going to chastise her. He was her prophet he guessed. And to be honest, Ed was a little drunk on the feeling.
He had not yet realized it but the longer he was Erust the more confident and self-assured he was becoming. He was not afraid to be more assertive as Erust. When he thought like Ed, he was still shy and somewhat reserved. The life of that young man had been hard and full of trials and rejection. It was hard to be rejected when you were Erust who was gifted. He had not realized that Erust was just a face and as soon as he did he would start being more confident all the time. In the meantime, he just trusted in his abilities as Erust.
Ashra dressed him in soft linen clothes. She had folded his old clothes to be washed and promised to have them to him tomorrow. When he was dry and his clothes properly adjusted she held up the mirror for him to inspect. He looked taller somehow when he examined his own image.
He played with his hair and used a finger to lay down a stray hair before nodding to her in approval. "Okay take me to my visitor." He said.
She led him from the room, holding open the door and leading him to the end of the hallway. The hallway wrapped around the back of the building before leading up to the top. The third floor was a partially enclosed parlor. The room had doors with glass that could be closed when needed but also swung wide open giving plenty of room to spread out. With the doors open it looked more like a patio with the chairs spread around the rooftop and flowers decorating tabletop vases. Candles were spread around but not lit in the mid-afternoon desert sun.
Three people were lounging on the roof. Ed recognized Rennish's body sitting on a chaise, leaned forward talking with his hands to someone hidden just inside the sunlight. They both slowly came into focus as his eyes adjusted to the light again but he didn't recognize either of them. He had expected Ysennia.
"Please, come and sit Erust." Said a man who was sitting across from Rennish. He was built like a pole with long lanky arms and arms that made him look skeletal almost. He motioned to a lounge that had pillows and drinks already set in front of it.
Ed walked over and extended his hand. "And to whom do I owe the pleasure." He said smiling. He knew already that they were both spirits. They had the same aura as Golliad, Ysennia, and even Rennish to an extent. But Rennish's aura was becoming tinged with human colors the longer he stayed human.
"Oh, I assumed you had been informed of my coming. I am Hadres, this is a friend of mine, Hatsheput." He extended a hand to Ed who shook it with a firm grip. The one named Hatsheput extended a hand also. They had the look of a man but slender hands like a woman almost hinted at something else going on. It was perplexing but he didn't question it.
"No, I am finding out all sorts of interesting things. Ashra, please go prepare my room. I am safe here with them and wish to not be disturbed for a minute. I will call you when I am ready." He said with authority.
She nodded and almost disappeared into the shadows. She had not removed her eyes from Hadres companion as she moved away. Something was visibly bothering her.
"So, why isn't Ysennia here? And what are you doing here in this area?" said Ed leaning forward to inspect the face of Hadres who he knew was the god of the underworld.
"She sends her apologies and told me to tell you that something had come up. When she left the room shortly after you an emergency had popped up elsewhere on the planet. I have also been ordered to apologize for the time. Normally when the gods go spend time in our chapel, we are not worried about the flow of time outside." He smiled and put a hand out for a flourish.
"You see the room that you are in there at the chapel exists slightly in and out of time. For spirits such as us who no longer live attached to the waters you call time, we forget that you would be affected by the dilation. It's like a pond in the middle of a creek you see. The creek moves along quickly until you come to pond. The water is still moving but much more slowly as it goes across the surface. When it exits it speeds back up again. Such is time in that space. Your little lunch cost you about 3 years, we decided to add in the extra time and drop you off here. Seeing as Rennish was in human form this was all perfectly doable. I spend most of my time in this area though. What humans consider the underworld is actually located in this world a bit further south. It is part of the reason why humans instinctively avoid it. They are afraid of death, but the Demi-humans are more equally balanced you see. They don't fear death because they understand that without an end you can have no beginnings." Explained Hadres in such a way that it seemed like he expected Ed to just understand it all at once.
"And that's what pissses me off!" said Rennish with anger in his voice. "You see why I say you can't trust them, Ed. They are playing with us like chess pieces. How long before they sacrifice us to take the king?"
Ed only barely knew about chess; it was a game that Endre loved but he was only mediocre at. He got the reference and replied, "I think we fall somewhere around the bishop and the rook though Rennish. We are not designed to be thrown away first like a pawn."
Rennish stood up angrily and threw his hands in the air. "It all just stinks of manipulation." Frustration was visible on his face. He was having a hard time dealing with the emotions tied to a human body.
"So Hadres, you guys let me disappear and, in the meantime, I became a prophet to the southern peoples? What now? Doesn't that make me stand out more?"
"Oh, you were going to shine bright either way. You've met one of the souls active now I understand. There are several in this world. You will need to find them and help bring things back to order. I think your maid told you that the church is reviled here. Your little stunt with the spiders was turned in our favor you see.
The peoples of the south are not ready to follow you. You believe in the church but have brought it to its knees according to the stories they have heard from the capital. You need to get the people to reunite. There is a new religion that needs to be squashed here before it can expand. It has become a problem, those souls that don't believe can't be sent back to start over and we are losing souls faster than the Lord makes them. We are stretching souls thin and the people of the south are at an exceptionally dangerous point. Many of them no longer believe. We can't send their souls back to this world, and if it continues, they will die out from a lack of souls. The oracle is still a believer and you should meet them as soon as possible."
"No apologies, no nothing then? Just drag me from a chapel filled with rats and nearly murdered by Inquisitors who worship you, Hadres, and all I get from the divine is thanks sorry, but we need you to hold membership rally among the people of the south?" Ed said with disbelief.
Rennish turned around and held his hand out towards Ed. "Thank you! You finally get it!"
The silent Hatsheput finally spoke up after putting a hand on Hadres shoulder. The voice was almost ethereal, like wind chimes with no hint of masculine or feminine, like the owner had been almost been wiped out also. "You must understand. This is only part of the problem with this world. The whole can not be saved. A false god IS growing more powerful. That is not all. We cannot burden you with everything.
When you learn about the people you will see what is happening. The 15 souls must achieve their stated purpose. You, Ed, are the catalyst to make each part happen at the time it must happen. I was once human like you and I too had a purpose. My purpose was erased from time itself and now I am here to help make sure that never happens again. I will be a spirit near you to help you as you need."
Hadres nodded at the spirit and put his hand on its hand. "You must trust Hatsheput. They know worse than anyone what happens when your soul is forgotten or wiped out."
"I apologize for the zealots also. Your purge though made it easier for me to wipe out a few more and the inquisitors shouldn't be a problem any longer."
"Fine," Said Ed. "I will agree to meet this Oracle. I will travel among the people here and see what I can do. I have the list of souls and I will see what I can do but at this point, things need to start happening with me being an active participant, not just the person they keep happening to. I am not yet as fed up as Rennish but I am starting to get the feeling that something else is going on. And you can pass that on to Ysennia if you so wish."
Ed stood up and called for Ashra. She appeared from the stairwell wearing a white linen robe and holding her hands at her waist. "Yes, Master." She said to him.
"I am done with my visitors. I am hungry for dinner. We have something prepared?" He said.
"Yes Master, a meal for your Minstrel has been made as well. Shall I have MiNoosh excuse the guests or will they stay the night?"
Ed looked over at them and sighed. "That is up to them I suppose. They have a message to take back home though, so time is the essence of the matter isn't it?" he said with frustration in his voice.
"If that is what you wish. I do wish you would take our words to heart and leave no later than a week from tomorrow Erust. The trip south can be hard if you hit the windy season." Said Hadres with a sinister smile.
"Yes, yes, duly noted now please excuse me." He said and walked to Ashra. He was going to eat now. He was starving for whatever was making the smell wafting up from the kitchen.