"Can you go into more detail about the village?"
the man looked up. "Oh, sure."
While he smiled, his words had a sad undertone.
"That village was always… a bit problematic to say the least. I was the head priest assigned to that area. But even I couldn't get them on the right track."
I was a little scared with that information. ("Forget killing him if he finds out, he is going to kill me!")
While we walked to this house, I kept my distance from him to see how well the illusion worked. An in here I was surrounded by holy items that was why I didn't notice it earlier.
I tried my best to hide my panic and listen to the story of the old man.
"Eventually the church decided that I wasn't fit for the job and was even suspected of working with demons. That is why they chased me out. After that moment people begun to make false accusations that certain people may or may not made deals with demons. It only grew worse when the demons started to enter our world more frequently. They would do something that resembled the witch hunt that happened back in the day. Throwing people in the fire to see if they burn. If they lived, they had made a deal with a demon and if they died, they were innocent. The fools, it doesn't work like that at all!"
He closed his eyes and paused for a moment. Then he opened them to stare into the fire again.
"So many innocents died."
"But when would someone be accused of having made a deal with a demon?" I could not help but ask.
The man rubbed his forehead and sighed.
"when they have it either to good or to bad. When they have it to good people would think that they made a deal to improve their living situation. When they have it to bad, people think that they are using the demon for revenge or something along those lines and that their poor state is just the price they had to pay."
"Then how bad is the situation now that even the devil comes to warn them?" I couldn't blame those bandits for thinking that I was the devil. Knowledge about demons was limited, especially around the common people. And to add up, no one knew exactly what the devil looked like or if he even existed in the first place. so, it wasn't really that weird that they would think that the first demon they ever saw, and slightly resembled the vague description of the devil, was the devil.
The man took another sip from his tea. Some soft sounds could be heard outside, but I thought of it as just an animal walking by.
"Really bad. The new priest is a power addict. He claims that one can get a place in heaven if you support the church with offerings no matter how many sins one committed. So, he sees it as no problem that the people are burning each other as long as they throw some money at the church. And to top it all off. He only worships the god of order. He just doesn't realise that both gods are necessary for existence. Chaos makes endless possibilities and order makes those matter so that they exist. You can't just ignore chaos, because then order has nothing to bring order to."
The man started to cry. He was clearly pained by how for the situation had escalated. I wanted to help him, but if I came to close, I would only hurt myself.
Some more sounds could be heard but I ignored it, trying to fully focus on the man.
"At this moment I'm afraid that order is furious with that people in the village who just happened to adapt bad behaviour. Chaos wouldn't mind. I'm sure of that. Afterall chaos can see only chaos and probably doesn't realise what is going on. But order, order would notice immediately. I didn't come close to the village ever since I was expelled and had to deduce from rumours what was going on. Maybe the gods have already left them."
He stood up and placed his now empty teacup in the kitchen.
"Thank you for sharing this information with me."
He looked up when I suddenly spoke. A sad smile formed on his face.
"No problem. It is important that the younger generations know what is going on. Especially when those are such important matters."
My eyes followed the man as he walked through the room. Both with pity and a slight hint of fear.
"Is there anything I can do?"
The man shook his head.
"No. most of them never knew another live. It isn't their fault that they ended up like that. They just happened to be born at the wrong time in the wrong place. it will take a lot for them to change."
("So, not only did they kill their neighbours and family, use humans as tools you can buy and ignored my warning. They are also guilty of being dumber than a pile of shit! The one who follows the fool is more foolish than the fool himself. They each have their own mind to figure out what is right a wrong, they each had the freedom to leave so their children wouldn't adapt the bad behaviour. Yet they chose not to think and burn their own instead.")
The man waled back into the kitchen to get some food when suddenly the door flung open. I immediately used my normal illusion magic. A group of people entered the house like ants trying to get something sweet.
I had only been paying attention to the man and had completely ignored the sounds from outside.
The humans each carried crosses or small statues that represented the gods. But something was off. Only a few of those items were actually holy.
They easily overpowered the old priest. And before I could help him, I was knocked out by someone hitting me on the back of my head with a cross.