Rennish was driving the cart today. They had been switching off and on for quite some time now. Ashra had practiced driving it for a while before she got tired. Erust and Rennish agreed to keep the driving between them. Ashra was on the lookout. She had to keep her eyes and ears open for anything out of the ordinary.
After they had collected the corpse of the divine being they had been visited. A divine being showed up claiming to be one of Ysennia's workers. She had passed a small package to them before walking off and disappearing.
It was the first time one had visibly shifted out of view of them. Rennish knew what it looked like because he had been used to doing it. For Erust and Ashra they both blinked when they realized the person wasn't really human.
They had received a visitor who had sent them on a mission. Rennish had expected Ysennia to do it herself but instead, she sent a flunky. He shook his head and wondered what was so important that she couldn't come to play with her pet human.
They had been told to head north and find the followers of the Oracle who were plotting against the gods. Ysennia had sent a letter informing them that The Oracle was on the move again. She had arranged for people to start the process of removing the gods, and they needed to use their miracles to make sure that that never happened.
So the plan was set to use the Finder to locate followers and stop them however they could. They had agreed that murder was out of the question. What kind of prophet goes around murdering in cold blood? Not the kind they wanted to be. And seeing as how they were working with Ysennia they decided it was something she wouldn't have wanted. Hadres on the other hand might not have cared about the direct method.
So they had taken off. None of them realized that Golliad had rigged The Finder. So they followed it without question. Several times a day they would take it out and follow the direction it pointed. Rennish was surprised that the needle moved quite a bit each day but Erust had brushed him saying it was probably them moving around using the power of The Oracle.
And as they moved they stopped in the occasional town. They didn't have the benefit of magical travel like Ed and For'Ten. They still needed a good old fashion cart and Lloras to get from point a to point b. The only thing they had going for them was that they had The Finder and inside information. Or at least so they thought.
At this point in time, Ed was still in the capital and a day from leaving. So while they had a head start they kept getting interrupted.
Part of their mission was to spread the word of the divines. And it worked in their favor. As they traveled from town to town the word of their exploits seemed to travel just slightly ahead of them. So that when they pulled into town, the villagers instantly knew who they were.
Erust and Ashra were given favorable lodgings whenever they got to some of the smaller towns. Village elders would come to them and push them to fix little things or perform miracles. The first town they had gotten to had a sour well. Erust had looked into it and felt a negative presence at the bottom. He used a small bit of divine power and rewrote the water. He turned it from water into rock and back into freshwater. Now their well was pure and fresh again.
And it traveled like that from town to town. Rennish was treated just like a cart driver, he slept in the barn with the Lloras and ate whatever the villagers ate. As they traveled from town to town their reputation as prophets grew.
After they fixed the well they blessed some crops. Overnight the crops started to flower and grow. Another village had an outbreak of disease. Erust had gone into the town hall and used his mana to cleanse the bodies and the air around them. Within hours of arriving the poor souls were breathing better and up and walking around.
For 3 weeks it continued like this. Each small town had something that needed to be dealt with. It ranged from sick animals and people to bandits or bad luck. Erust performed some small miracle and then spent the rest of the day meditating to keep his divine energy up.
The villagers assumed he was praying to his gods. They didn't realize what a toll this level of magic use was having on his body. Thankfully the constant use of his powers meant that he was learning to use less of his power to complete larger tasks so he was getting better. But the act of doing something like curing a whole village of rampaging dandruff left him sucked pretty dry. He needed sleep before he could get up and perform again.
The real problem wasn't that they were helping anyone, the problem was that even if they tried to avoid towns and cities, they seemed to wander into them at every turn. villages were spaced out 50 miles or so apart so that trade could happen within a one day's cart ride by horse. This meant that you really didn't camp out on the side roads. The merchant highways were different. They bypassed towns so that whole caravans could load goods from one place to another.
Golliad watched them travel from his little personal space where the gods lived. Or'Ain watched with him as he sat down looking at them travel.
"You think Rennish will ever catch on?" Or'Ain said.
Golliad shook his head. "We can't have that. Not yet. The longer things go like this the better off. We need our other actor to get to the coast and collect his items there."
"Is having this happen really the best?" Or'Ain wasn't drinking. Which was unusual for the divine being of partying and drinking.
"This is the way things are. All things begin and all things end. It's time."
"So what's next?" She shook her head and looked at the picture of Erust and Rennish driving along slowly in a cart.
Golliad waved a hand and the screen shifted over to Ed. He had For'Ten were headed out of town and headed towards the coast. They were a day or two away from the port city where their next target was moored at. "He just needs to get past this hurdle now and he can collect what he needs there."
Across the world, Rennish sneezed. This was odd for him, being partially divine he was immune to disease, so a cold or allergies was out of the question. He looked up at the sky and sneered. Someone was talking about him and he didn't like it.
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As Ed and For'Ten left down they put the short fat man out of their mind. He had been lowered into a holding cell in an old well. The guards were posted 15 feet from the hole and a fire had been lit near the top to keep the air going in warm. They weren't about to give him a fire inside where he might commit suicide.
The first night was cold and wet as Felgar had to sleep on a rock near the edge of the wall. The next day he found a corner where the water wasn't trying to seep its way into the hole. He hung his blanket up to dry and leaned against the wall.
As he lay there half asleep and shivering he felt someone in the cell with him.
"You lost it didn't you?" Ysennia said as she sat down next to him. She created a warm blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders. He looked up to see that his blanket was gone and she had just exchanged his wet one for this one.
"The man. He was a knight and he had some kind of power. I lost my will to fight." Felgar groveled quietly to her. He knew she had the power to obliterate him if she wanted.
"Oh him... Must be time for the rounds again then. You just got unlucky that's all. I wouldn't be mad at you over bad luck. Now you weren't abusing your power were you? You know getting rich and fat and happy at the expense of my gift were you?" She stretched the blanket over him and patted his shoulder.
"Nnnnnooo ma'am. I was consolidating power. I might have spent too long but having the local magistrate on our side was going to make this easier. It is always good to have important people on your side of things." He faked a smile and looked up at her, trying to hide his fright. The smile lacked genuine sincerity.
She shook her head and patted him once on the shoulder before his head exploded into a bloody massive pulp... Blood sprayed across the floor and his brains and bones stuck to where his head had once stood.
She ran a finger across the wall behind him. The blood and brains stained her fingertips a grayish red color. It stood out against her pale skin.
She shook her head and then looked back over to Felgar. His head was now back where it belonged. His clothes and blanket were still covered in the remnants of his brain. He wanted to scream but his body was in shock. His mind couldn't handle the thought of what had just happened, even thought he knew what had happened.
"Did you need a little reminder of what happens to those who cross me? I am a creator and a destroyer. I can make your life miserable." She squeezed his shoulder as she stood up.
"Now I am going to help you this last time. Head north, get across the border and find our old friends. You are going to do what I asked of you correct?"
Felgar nodded as quickly as he could without feeling nauseous again. His clothes and wall were covered in the remnants of his brains. "Yes ma'am," was all he could croak out.
She smiled. "Good, I am glad I don't have to do anything drastic to make my point. The box is gone from my sense so whoever has it is strong. That damned Oracle is probably behind this somehow. I am going to help you along. Now go." She snapped her fingers and the bloody blanket and brain stained wall were all that remained.
She looked at her handiwork. She knew she had a violent streak. She knew she loved the smell of carnage. And she did before she was divine as well. She wasn't dumb thought. She knew the small town guards would see the blood and guts and assume someone had come down and murdered him and taken the body. This would end the little farce of justice she knew would happen here.
"Podunk, backwater, hillbilly demi-humans." she cursed as she phased back out of the world. She knew this had to get done soon. The sooner the world was on track the sooner her plans would be done.