Chereads / Why the Gods? Tale of the 15 souls / Chapter 109 - Movements

Chapter 109 - Movements

This world was full of people moving or standing still. People moved and flowed around the cities and villages. Some stood still, laboring over one piece of land their entire lives to cultivate new life. They created the food that kept others alive. Those who moved often brought the extra food to other villages where that kept other people alive.

You needed people moving to support the people standing still. In reverse, you also needed people to stop moving to support those who moved. All things in life have a balance. Sometimes it's very noticeable. A farmer won't grow anything if he never applies water. Sometimes it's not noticeable at all. Like a caravan takes 2 days longer to arrive because a rock that got kicked up by a rainstorm breaks a wheel on a carriage. No one would notice that one lonely rock but it served a purpose for whatever reason.

The divines could watch over the people on the planet, but they viewed them like a person staring into a stream watching sand move in the flow of the water. They didn't know each grain of sand's name. They only knew that whole batches of sand moved and created new land or got swept away to join the river further downstream.

Right now people were moving around. The people were moving towards a goal that they couldn't see. The divines were watching the movements but even they couldn't see everything happening.

At the moment two giants were just about to make it into the human territories. They had walked down the mountain and were slowly making their way through the foothills.

Morgan and Loran were stopped at a town in the far north, just south of the two giants. They had stopped during the night and found the last Inn that the trappers used before they wandered into the hinterlands.

Ed and For'Ten were walking up to a town by the beach about to ruin the day of an old scholar on a beach.

The Dirge had made his way inland and was currently riding on a cart headed towards the city of Northern Gate.

Just behind him were Erust, Ashra, and Rennish. Erust had sent the cart through the desert towards their home. They were traveling on foot. Erust had created more golems with simple instructions ahead of them. If the church sent more people after them he hoped it would slow them down until they got across the border.

Ostrand was the one currently the most confused. Somehow he had made friends, which was totally against his nature. For a minute he was missing the crazy elf woman. She would have been able to manage this situation far better than him. He was riding a boat up the river towards the desert divider of the continent. Two small children were playing with him. They were fascinated by him. He was different from what they were used to, and unlike other people, they weren't the least bit afraid of him. He was terrified he would squish the two kids when he slept. The kids on the other hand were afraid to let their new best friend out of their sight.

A boat full of pirates was lazily making its way up the western coast. Hector was driving them to work harder than ever to fight the mild currents at this time of the year. When the wind stopped blowing, the rows came out and men worked in shifts. For a moment the crew almost missed their captain.

This whole time Ysennia was working with her coconspirators to plan how to stop the oracle. The oracle was quietly enjoying some time with Ko'Loss. He was working on his house. Priya had taken off quite some time ago and a silence had fallen over the house. The house staff was doing their best to liven the place up, but even they noticed the lack of life in the house. They missed having a purpose with each day.

And the one group who we hadn't heard from was the church. While all the different players were moving into their final places, the church was joining in late.

It wasn't that they weren't aware of what was going on in the south, it was that they believed that the actions of the heathens in the south would never travel north. If their human prophet wanted to waste time there they would respect it. They also heard that he had removed a new heathen god. This was further proof of what they considered divine providence, proof that their teachings were the truth.

After the miracle had occurred in the chapel Brother Darby had been promoted. He was exalted as having interacted with the prophet. The relic of the event was protected and used for all kinds of purposes.

Darby had pushed back against his new place of prominence at first. He was a priest first and he didn't aspire for leadership. This new position was forced upon him. The cardinals used this position as a way to keep him in place. To lose someone who had touched the power of the divine was unimaginable.

Darby paced his offices quite often as he chomped at the bit to get back into the chapels. Like many priests, he fought the urges to nap while a monotone priest carried on about the wills of the gods. In those moments he was sure the gods wanted him to die of boredom. The more he was trapped inside the walls of an office he was guessing boredom was his punishment for witnessing a miracle.

His boredom was a complete difference to other men working in the background. In another part of the center of Ganel one particular inquisitor was making backroom deals. He was raiding the storehouses for their relics and amassing his power once again. He had been out of the church long enough that people really didn't complain about his coming back at this point. Time makes a great white-wash for the memory. Was he really as bad they remembered? Why not give him a new chance.

And among all these humans and demi-humans moving from place to place the gods were the most and least busy of all. Ysennia was moving divine beings around, planning for her last act to put the oracle out of commission and move control of the earth and heavens to the gods.

As the pantheon of divine beings sat in meetings some of them nodded while holding onto hope that one man with a fractured soul would complete his job before Ysennia got smart enough to look around. An eternity of having flawless plans had made her overlook the obvious problem with her plan. She had never stopped to ask, "what if someone I worked with worked around my plan?"

And far beyond the view of any of the players currently moving around their home planet was the creator. He was working on another creation and was focused on his work. He felt the tug of other places. In the back of his mind he knew something needed his attention. He kept thinking to himself, let me finish this and then I will look over there. He was as focused as a craftsman.