As Ylre began to wake up, he heard voices everywhere around. He dimly glimpsed a group of familiar people and the person they were talking to but his eyelids were too heavy to keep open, so he closed them again.
He had no idea what was happening, he felt exhausted and had the impression that every movement cost him more energy than he could expend. He was unable to think normally. It was as if he was still asleep and only partially aware that something was happening around him.
He would prefer to doze off, but something told him he couldn't. Therefore, after a while, he opened his eyes again, looked around. He took a soft breath and shook his head. It had been a while since he had been so spent and although he had no idea what was going on, how he got into this state, he didn't even have the energy to think about it.
When he felt a foreign touch on his body, he blinked a few times trying to focus. But he didn't make it in time and the stranger's hand pushed him into the stone wall behind him. He felt a cool touch of air on his chest as someone parted his robe to reveal his bare skin.
Ylre blinked again, trying to clear his hazy vision, with which he could only dimly see the person who dared to touch him. He subconsciously raised his hand and grabbed the palm on his chest. He tried to pull it off, but to no avail.
"Shh...keep sleeping," a calm voice told him, "it's better if you sleep, we'll be done soon." he said.
Ylre subconsciously frowned. He bent his legs and automatically moved to the side away from the voice. He straightened gently as the guy's words partially woke him up and turned to him.
The man sighed deeply "How much did you say he ate?" he asked.
"Half the baskets, they both ate them...and two drinks in the pub," a familiar voice said.
For a moment Ylre didn't know when he heard it, but after a few more words he realized it was the owner of the establishment they stopped at today. Ylre looked at the man who had once served them and after a moment moved his gaze beyond him. A bunch of villagers, including children and adults with their heads down, were giving a report to the man who had touched him a moment ago.
"Half a basket," the man stated, "how come you're awake after eating so much?" he bowed again to Ylre.
Ylre looked at him hostilely from behind half-open lids. He wanted to sleep, he wanted to keep his eyes closed and don't care about what was happening around him, but he couldn't. He slowly lowered his gaze down to the stone floor next to him, where his eyes stopped at the familiar black hair with shiny strands, falling on a gentle-looking face. Rue was sleeping as he had been, and Ylre gaze on him intensely.
He knew that no matter what happened, he couldn't fall asleep again.
He looked at the guy in front of him a little more clearly, "Who the hell are you?"
The man just sighed softly and reached his palm to Ylre's orange hair. He slowly touched them and stroked Ylre, "Guardian of luck, child," he said.
Ylre blinked in confusion. For a moment, a bitter feeling of fear filled him, his stomach tightened, and he resisted nothing for a few long seconds. Panic gripped his insides and he just snapped his gaze to Rue in fear of what they were getting into before returning his eyes to the man in front of him.
He remained in shock for a few seconds before suddenly calming down again. He stared into his eyes for a moment longer before letting out a loud breath of relief after a while.
"Ah," Ylre straightened up, yanking the hand from his hair and leaning against the wall, "you're not…damn, you scared the crap out of me." he breathed out as the man's irises were clearly not golden…but bright blue.
"You must still be exhausted, get some sleep, child." He reached out to him again, but Ylre didn't let him, and although he was sleepy, the previous shock had woken him up enough to defend himself against his touch.
"I'm not a child…I'm older than you…the only reason you're still breathing is that doesn't look like anything happened to him," Ylre said, "but wait until my head stops spinning… If I were you, I'd run." he stated threateningly.
"Oh, do you hear what he's saying?" the man shook his head and looked at the villagers.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but...but we all followed the instructions," the innkeeper said, "some children won't last much longer, please fulfill your words."
"But of course, thanks as always for your help," the man smiled and went to the table at the end of the room.
Basically, it was a chapel. It wasn't big, it didn't look like it was used at all, but anyone would know what it was built for. After entering the main hall, the first thing that caught everyone's eyes was a large statue representing the guardian of luck. In the past he was described as the king of the Infey, nowadays people called him luck itself, although no one knew the form of luck.
The statue was prayed to, gifts were given to it, and everyone believed in it, as Luck was the only thing that could help people in their life journey. At leas if they didn't believe in the second religion that arose in recent years...the bad luck church. But that didn't apply to this village.
In front of the statue stood a high stone table, behind which church employees usually gave sermons to the people. In this case, the man who pulled out a large sack from behind was a member of the church. At first glance, he looked different from ordinary people. It was clear to everyone that he was not a Rinselan, and although his bright blue eyes would have made him appear to be Lacrisan, the villagers were convinced that he wasn't. And he wasn't.
His shoulder-length pale brown hair fell against the familiar white church robes. Pure white with burgundy or gold stripes on the side was the worldwide symbol of the Church of Luck. Its members were respected, although they came from all kinds of countries. Usually the employees were the citizens of the land where the church was located, but sometimes people from Lacrisu or Equil were also found in Rinsel and vice versa...and sometimes there was some Infey among them. Although people didn't know about it. Like now.
"Thank you, thank you," the villagers knelt down to the big bag and immediately opened it enthusiastically. Everyone gathered around it trying to get their share of the contents. The amount of yellow stones in the bag became the center of attention, and the innkeeper immediately started handing it out to everyone around...as always.
People who didn't have many opportunities for earnings, who didn't live near the city and their surrounding land wasn't the most suitable for growing salable raw materials, didn't have much to earn their luck. No one could afford any Lacrisan, the yellow stones were also more expensive than they had. They were in need for a long time, every day was about survival and everyone would take any chance if it meant that the situation would improve.
Therefore, when a member of the church appeared in their village promising to provide them with yellow stones for everyone whenever they brought him passing Lacrisans, there wasn't any reason to object.
"One can supplement his luck directly from them. Who will it be today?" the man asked, whereupon the innkeeper stood up.
"Thank you, thank you," he bowed and found the most endangered boy in the crowd.
A small child of about ten bowed gently to the man, "T-thank you, sir."
The man gave him a soft smile and walked with him to Ylre, who was sitting leaning against the wall trying to regain his composure. He was feeling better than a moment before, but still not the best, so when the man bent down and took his hand, it took him a moment to shake it of.
"Don't fight back child, give your luck to others," the church guy said, but as Ylre continued to fight back he motioned for several men to hold him down. Since Ylre was still quite exhausted, he didn't react quickly enough and before he could do anything, the man cut into his forearm with a short knife.
Ylre closed his eyelids for a second as the sharp pain shot from his wound. He looked down at his bleeding hand confused before the small boy approached him. Ylre simply shook him off and tried to get up, but the villagers pounced on him and held him in place. Sighing deeply, Ylre let go of his defiance as he had no energy for futility and decided to wait for the daring child to come to his senses by his own.
He gave him a look, "Stupid human kid," he remarked looking at the boy, "didn't you hear what he told you?" he remembered how Rue had been talking with him when he was selling him apples, "You have to earn luck, deserve it...do you think you do by stealing it?"
The boy hesitated, but the innkeeper holding Ylre objected, "Don't listen to him, you're lucky to get opportunities," he said.
The boy hesitated for a moment before lowering his face to Ylre's bleeding hand and gently touching it with his tongue. Ylre watched silently as the boy drank his blood and waited. The boy tried to get some luck from Ylre, but he didn't feel anything special on his tongue. A metallic taste filled his mouth and after it didn't change, after it didn't become sweet and his body didn't fill with luck, he pulled back confused and looked at Ylre.
"Why doesn't it work?" he didn't understand.
"Because you didn't deserve it," Ylre said and shook off the villagers in irritation.
Several guys grabbed his side and after Ylre kicked the little boy away from him, he slowly stood up. His head was still spinning, he was still pretty tired, but that didn't change the fact that he couldn't stay here much longer in case the guy in white wasn't the only member of the church nearby. If the real Guardians of Luck came, if one of the highest Infeys came, it would be a real problem.
"What's going on?" the man in white didn't understand.
"It doesn't work...I tried, but no luck came out of him," the boy said.
"What?" the man frowned and looked at Ylre, "Equilan?" he asked.
Ylre laughed irritated and leaned against the wall for a moment, "Not even close."
"Sir...won't I get the luck?" the boy looked at the man.
"You'll get it, child...try another one," he nodded to Rue, who was still lying on the ground.
The boy nodded and moved towards him, but Ylre intervened and stepped forward, "You touch him, I'll kill you." he declared in a dark voice.