The world buzzed with the news of the dragon. Towns that had been visited by Erust, Ashra, and Rennish spread the news of the divine visit. Everywhere they went their fame and adoration expanded. The closer they got to the city of Northern Gate the more people seemed to be waiting for them.
It was almost as if whole towns had picked up and followed their trail to get a glimpse of them. Or even just to ask them to cure pox, or dispel a curse. Rennish knew most of this was backwater mumbo-jumbo. Almost everyone had some made-up disease. For the few that were real Erust went about the business of putting their soul right.
Rennish tried not to think about it. He spent his days scanning the crowd for a familiar face and talking to everyone who would bend their ear for news of anything out of place.
Stories of the dragon and the god were being passed around among villages. News traveled faster than you would expect. The merchants were excellent at passing along rumors.
Rennish had to assume that the dragon was somehow related to Ed. As much as he wanted to go see if it really was his friend he understood that his job was to keep Ed and Erust apart as long as he could.
Erust and Ashra had noticed his sudden interest in local gossip and news. Erust initially dismissed it as him being a gossip. Ashra was curious at first and picked at his knowledge of local events. When his grasp of local gossip turned out to be wide and varied she shrugged her concerns off as his suddenly being serious about the work of committing miracles.
Rennish had debated on scaling back his inquiries, but he figured if he had that would suddenly be even more suspicious. So for the time being he continued his gossiping and rumor-mongering ways.
They were currently stopped at a village several days away from the city of Northern Gate. A whole barren field had been filled with make-shift tents. They were occupied by people who had made the journey to see the trio. The day they arrived the villagers started a party as soon as they set foot in town.
Music would fill the town center as a village elder guided them to the most opulent home in the village. The whole thing had become routine.
First, you would come into town.
Then the oldest person in town, who was almost always the village leader, would take you to their nicest house or the town hall.
You would be offered gifts, food, baths, and anything else they could muster together.
Finally, you would be introduced to someone who was considered the most deserving of help.
Erust would then bless/cure/help the afflicted person and more people would be brought forth while a party raged on outside.
The familiarity of the whole thing felt comforting. Humans and Demi-humans loved the consistent feel of routines, but they long for change. For the villagers, the sudden change and excitement was a welcome reprieve from a life of living the same ordinary existence they faced every day.
For the trio, having the same pattern made the hysterics and festivities seem somehow homey. What was abnormal for everyone else became normal for them.
They knew that the trip to the northern gate, and then back to the house in the desert would take a few more weeks at this pace. They could bypass all the villages by abandoning the cart and walking the rest of the way through the dry parched lands around them.
A vote had been made on whether to head through the safer well-traveled paths or risk it and make it more quickly. They debated the merits of each and finally decided to stay the course. So far they had made it this far and changed the lives of an untold number of other people. If they disappeared now people would go looking for them and their new-found fame could make them targets for bandits and thieves.
Rennish was languishing near the back of a feast set for all the visitors on the outskirts of town. They had been in for nearly a day now and Erust had to sleep. He lacked the mental stamina to keep using divine power and mana at the rate he required to heal this many people. He took full or half-day breaks to recoup the lost power and let his body relax. The use of that much power was a strain on anyone's body.
Rennish was listening to the voices around him for signs of anything that might give him a clue what was going on with the other group of adventurers. His distraction was obvious as he got lost in thought trying to manage to hear everything he could while still daydreaming about what Ed must have faced until now.
The first sign something was obviously wrong was the feeling of something cold across his neck. When the cold steel pressed against the fold of his skin he sighed and put his drink down. "Shit," he said softly. He regretted for a moment that this was where he died, so close to getting back over the border.
"That's not very gentlemanly of a member of the prophet's friends." The smooth silky voice behind him carried the sound of some youth with a bit of rasp to it at the end.
"You see here, I am not a member of anything, I am just his friend. Don't make it sound like a business deal. This is the real deal. We aren't selling fish oil or anything here. Ask any village between here and the southern coast." Rennish tried to bluff his own importance to the mysterious attacker.
"I know full well and good who you are. You are the bard, shouldn't you be guarding your charge?" The voice paid no attention to his words and showed no signs of changing the placement of the blade.
"He doesn't need me anymore for this part. He and his wife are perfectly fine to relax and replenish his powers." Rennish released a long-drawn-out sigh. "If you plan on killing me do it now and make it quick. I'd hate to spend my last moments alive choking to death and not just remembering the good times."
The knife jiggled against this throat as laughter came through the body of the voice. "I couldn't really kill you if I wanted to so why even ask. If I sliced your head off it would regrow back, or be regrown for you. Benefits of being already dead."
Rennish made every effort to crane his neck around to look at the man. "Who are you?"
"Keep your head forward!" Anger seeped into the words and Rennish snapped his head forward. "You and I have history once before at the church. I think you threw a rat at me. Either way, I have been tasked with a message to bring the two of them to Or'Ganel first before you go anywhere else."
"So this is the church eh?" Rennish considered his options around this and tried to find a way out of it. "We can't see the world's largest pile of stacked hay in Hi-Sid village?"
The knife tightened. "You think this is a game? You wanna sightsee like a rich tourist? We have been informed who and what you are. Your divine power may heal small wounds but you have nothing to defend against me."
Rennish knew it was true. While he had been a Demi-God he had lacked significant power. That small power he did have was still several magnitudes higher than all but the most skilled of mages. His specialties filled in at places, not near the battle spectrum. So while he was nearly physically impervious, his weak point was that he couldn't do much to counter and attack mana alone.
The really troublesome part of this was how did he know? Was it a divine backstab or what? "We have worked here, we have been commanded by Ysennia and Golliad on what to do."
"And I'm here to interrupt that. They have changed their minds." The voice behind him dripped with his loathing for the task at hand. The man didn't like being an errand boy, and Rennish wasn't pleased with his current position.
"If that's so why haven't they just show up like normal. You know I see them on the regular..." Rennish was used to trying to defuse situations. In a moment like this, he thought he still might be able to make it out of the current situation.
The problem was that his attacker lacked any kind of humor. He had snuck his way across a border and wandered between villages trying to find out when the prophet would get north. He had wanted months for them to finally make it here. "I don't care what you are used to. This is the new norm. You get them collected in the morning or I bring them in maimed but still alive. You don't need most of a human body for it to live, painfully, but alive."
Rennish knew the man was wearing thin on patience. So he sighed and shrugged. "Fine, We will meet 4 miles outside of town from the northern exit. Come before lunch."
The knife released from his neck. "If you try anything the next time I will just kill you and take off with those two."
Rennish doubted that he actually could take off with those two. Ashra was a skilled fighter and Erust was better than your average fighter. The problem was his weakened state. If the man took the time to wait for him to deplete his power he made an easy target. And Ashra would fight recklessly to defend him. It didn't guarantee him a win but it stacked the odds in his favor.