"I've heard the news. Congratulations on becoming a father for the third time." Tazmanias said with a soft spoken voice. "Oh, is that the little bundle of joy that was welcomed into the world last night?" He said as he glanced at Tsuki. "Oh? Why's he got white hairs? Was he really born just yesterday?" Tazmanias joked and chuckled.
"It's great to see you again, Taz. You see, the white hair is partly why I'm here. My wives are saying that little Tsuki over here is cursed. You see, just last night, he had a black horn coming out his head. Think you can help me out?"
Taz looked puzzled. "A horn, you say? Judging by you and little Gwendolyn's racial backgrounds, Tsuki should not be possessing a horn, unless one of you have the blood of a demon or Fiend. That can't be true, however, since I would have killed either one of you by now." Tazmanias turned his back and started walking to the altar. "Well? Come on. Let me see what I can do."
Tazmanias was a sweet old man. Well, not old, he's barely fifty. He's still in good shape for his age and he doesn't look old aside from his white hair. He did grow up in the Karangan Church all of his life, though, which means unfortunately he does have some...disdain...for the demon race. Demons are different from Fiends, they don't feast on humans or the Seal Energy from others. They do have horns, though, which gives them a bad reputation among many (basically all) religious groups.
I walked up behind Tazmanias and faced him face-to-face. He then placed a hand on Tsuki's forehead and closed his eyes while humming a tune. He continued to do so for about thirty seconds. I felt a bit awkward, just standing there while he hummed away with his hand on my baby. I wonder how Tsuki felt about it, probably a little weirded out to say the least.
"Oh!" Taz blurted out suddenly, opening his eyes wider than usual. He stepped back with an expression of disgust. He then cleared his throat and changed his facial expression back to normal.
"The heck was that?"
"Language, Gou."
"Sorry."
"No problem. May Gan Karah forgive you."
"Um...I'm not Karash."
"Oh, right. May your East Continent god forgive you."
"Can you just tell me what you saw?"
"Right. From the blessing of sight I gained from the lord Gan Karah, it seems your child has been cursed by the God of Fiends."
"...What?"
I let out a small nervous chuckle as I tried to cope with the news. God of Fiends? Since when did those sick monsters have a God? Why are they cursing innocent babies? Why my boy?
Tazmanias was trying to tell me something, but I wasn't focused on that. I felt sick. My legs felt weak. My vision was locked on Tsuki. I stumbled backwards having lost my balance and landed on a pew behind me.
My stomach is churning.
My head hurts.
My face feels hot.
My chest feels heavy and I can't breathe.
"Gou!" A loud voice shouted at me as hands latched on to my shoulders. I looked up from my child and saw Tazmanias looking at me with worry on his face. "Are you okay, my friend? I know this kind of news is hard to digest."
"I'm okay." I wasn't. "What were you saying?"
"Gan Karah told me that this curse is a spell created by the Fiend God. As for why they did it, I'm not sure, but I do know the side effects."
"Tell me. Tell me everything you know."
"Well, the blood moon uses Seal Energy to attack the Inner Seals of newborns, cursing them. White hair and horns are the main cause, with the horns only coming out whenever the blood moon is present. However, the downside is that within a few decades, the cursed victim will turn into a Fiend. Now, Tsuki is half Oraphim, so a few decades for him would be about a century for us humans."
"Is there a way to break the curse?! Any way at all?!"
"With all honesty, I'm not sure. This is a curse from a god, so it may function differently from a regular one. You could always ask Gan Karah, though."
"This is no time for your jokes about conversion, Taz!" I said as I got up from the pew with panic and rage surging through my body. I grabbed Tazmanias by his collar with my left hand as I held Tsuki in my right. Tsuki began to cry as Tazmanias tried to step back but I didn't let go.
"Now, tell me!"
"I'm being serious, Gou! You can enter the shrine of Gan Karah and speak with him."
"What?" I released Tazmanias from my grip as he adjusted his collar.
"Normally, those who aren't Blessed individuals can't enter the world of deities, but I can make a case for you."
"You're crazy."
"Do you really wish to doubt the word of my god in front of me, Gou?"
"Right, right. Well, this sounds a little weird, you're saying I can talk to your god?"
"Just follow me, Gou. I'll take you to the shrine."
Tazmanias turned his back to walk out of the main room of the church and I followed. The church was quite big and I knew my way around it, but Tazmanias was taking me to a place I had never been aware of. He led me to his office within the church and lifted up a tile from the floor, revealing a staircase.
"Climb on in." He said as he began slithered down into the floor and made his descent. I followed but it was difficult since I was carrying a baby with me. Nevertheless, Tsuki and I made it through and began to follow Tazmanias down the stone stairs. There were torches hung up on the stone wall which emitted blue flames to give me an illuminated view of the stairs. I didn't see any cobwebs or a lot of dirt so this place must've been cleaned often. Tazmanias and I walked for about five minutes, staying silent for most of it. Our footsteps echoed throughout the dark and ominous stairwell as we got closer to the shrine. Finally, the stairs reached an end.
"Here we are." Tazmanias said as he stopped. A shrine with two, six-foot tall hourglasses full of sand on its left and right was in front of us. Inside the shrine was an orange circle with the same language on an Inner Seal written on it. The language of the gods.
"Here, I'll take Tsuki and you just step inside. I've already talked to Gan Karah and he said he'll let you in."
"Is that why you were so quiet?"
"Precisely. Now run along, he hasn't got all day."
I handed Tsuki over to Tazmanias reluctantly and let out a sigh.
"I hope you're not making me look stupid."
"Ah, just hurry up, you big oaf."
I shrugged my shoulders and stepped into the shrine.
"Now what?"
"Step on the orange circle."
I stepped on to the orange circle.
"What now?"
"Can you be patient?"
Just then, the circle began glowing with a bright rainbow colored light. My entire body began to feel lighter and lighter as the light engulfed my very being. I became so light that I began to float as even more light erupted from the circle. It was abrupt, I couldn't even tell what entirely was happening.
"What the-?!"
And with a flash of light, I was gone.
I came back to my senses once I felt sand in between my fingers. My vision returned and I was met with a vast desert with two blue suns in the sky. The sky was red and the clouds were a beautiful hue of pink and orange. Stars were faintly visible among the majestic sky. My, I could stare for hours.
"Hey! I thought you came here to talk." The voice of a kid called out to me. I looked away from the sky and looked in front of me. There, I saw two beautiful dark skinned women wearing skimpy outfits feeding a young boy grapes and fanning him with leaves. He sat on a throne with a camel laying beside it. The boy had orange skin with dark blue tattoos running along his bare torso. He wore gold on his arms, forehead, and large white pants. He also wore golden anklets. His dark red hair ran down to his back, which also led me to see his necklace that had an hourglass attached to it. "Well?"
"Wow...I thought you'd be a lot bigger, considering you're a god and all. All the paintings I've seen of you depict you as an adult, too."
"Yeah, well, I'm a god. I can do whatever I want."
Yep, this was him. Sand God, Gan Karah.