The consequences of faith and devotion (part III)
Thirteen scratched his head as he was trying to make sense of what he heard from Leovold, that was looking at him.
“Seems like you are as appalled as we were”
“In a sense yeah, given what my cards told me I was expecting a different set of blessings. Some I can explain better than you, like the blessing of life and death, that maybe …”
“Once again, it is not the same blessing!” Said Levold angrily “I told you to have twenty-two blessings, if those were the same like you sustain it would make them twenty-one would it not? “
“I know, I know, it would make a lot more sense if they were the same.” Said Thirteen making Levold quickly jab him with a “like hell, it would!” the old priest grumbled “ Listen, for the last time, ever tried to mix oil and water? That’s the same! Life in itself will always prosper for it is our goddess will it does so. While it is true that each speck of life will eventually meet its end in death, it is in the natural order that the weakening older flames like mine leave places to more bright and promising sparks to light up the flame. You say they are the same is preposterous! “
Thirteen scratched his beard “For you, maybe, but for me, that’s the whole cycle into one place. From death, life; from life, death. That’s how it’s supposed to work!”
The old man grumbled and looked up to the stained glass “Goddess please give me patience over this one” he said and looked down to him with his blank eyes “Listen, I can maybe, and I say maybe concede that on Earth it might have worked that way. BUT! Here it doesn’t! Don’t assume it is like you know!”
Thirteen puffed looking straight at Levold “I am here asking, am I not?” he grumbled “Listen I am fifty-two, consider you are trying to teach an old dog new tricks ok? I still tend to cling to my old ideas. Let’s set it aside for a moment. Let's go in my order for a minute, God of Magic’s blessing, the blessing of Inspiration, of choice, of prudence, of strength, of fate, balancer’s blessing, the blessing of Death” He grumbled forcing himself to pause” of Life, of alteration, of Nightmares, of Justice, of renewal. Those I can understand or at least divine.”
Leovold rose an eyebrow “You? A diviner? Then that’s what the sight blessing is for. That explains the blessing of fate too. Are those cards your tool? “
Thirteen nodded “It’s not like a mystery. I told the very first day, I can tell the future. I can tell a person’s path in life, I can answer questions. I sure hope it’s not against your goddess to peer into the future.”
Leovold shook his head “Why would it be? Many priests have been given the gift of prophecy, to some mages is made the blessing of sight, it’s uncommon but it’s requisite to open a diviner shop.”
Thirteen chucked “Well I can open shop and earn my living. Yay! Maybe I can even afford a computer!” He looked at the faces of the two, realizing the translation magic had probably failed “Never mind” He puffed scratching his long beard. “Then there are those I can kind of go around. Like good health, I mean, I found it strange not having even caught the flu. The blessing of time…”
“You can understand why you have the blessing of time?” Asked a curious Leovold “Care to share with us?”
Thirteen shrugged “Answer me, is that uncommon?” Leovold made a complicated expression “Uncommon? Say blasphemous! I mean, we humans are bound to die and join the goddess in a relatively short time. To remain in this world indefinitely is against the will of the gods, that’s why elves are an abomination that we should rid the world of! Were it not for those fools that followed the fake hero we would have waged a war like never before and cleansed the world of such abnormality!”
Thirteen rose an eyebrow to those words -So it’s like a gift of immortality? Just my luck! Do they hate elves too, just because they live a long while? I kinda got that they were a tad human-centered, but this is absurd. I mean aside from the god of darkness and goddess of light thing, that kind of end fighting because the god of darkness steals creation why hate the children of other gods? From the genesis viewpoint alone it lacks logical sense. There must be some other religious lore to support this crap! - “I see.” he simply replied “You seem aware of Earth, so I guess you have access to the same quality source as the crown. Time runs differently in those worlds. I mean here Hiroshi has passed away centuries ago, right?” Thirteen waited for Leovold nodding before going on “On Earth only half a century passed.” He would have rather played around a bit more with the sentence but he opted to make a direct sentence to prove his point being true.
“I fail to see your point “ Said Nuidan after looking at Leovold that was as perplexed as him “I mean, it has to be true, or at least you’d be punished. So why is it so important?”
Thirteen sighed “ Well to keep it simple a day here equals a week on Earth. My body comes from Earth so if it kept its clock I would be getting old very quickly. Each year I would be gaining seven years more or less. That is, assuming a year is three hundred sixty-five days here of course.”
Nuidan looked at Leovold that sighed “Lord Hiroshi had no such a blessing and he lived a long fulfilling life after he defeated the demon lord.”
Thirteen scratched his temple “I have a question, is it so unthinkable that Hiroshi may have had this same blessing and it was concealed because… well you have your beliefs?”
“Of course it is!” Said Nuidan with pride only to be scolded once again by Leovold “Oi, how much shame are you going to bring me!? It is not that unthinkable. Not considering that Hiroshi fought the demon lord and won and that Hiroshi has been the first ruler of this country, after all, he couldn’t have been with a blessing that problematic! “
“No king can rule forever right?” Asked Thirteen grinning
“Precisely. Maybe it’s where that blasphemer of Limner got his idea of prolonging his lifespan.”
Thirteen made an annoyed face.
-But according to Limner this trend of over-zeal came to be in the last century. He’s ninety-four so he should know or was it less gradual than I imagined? To begin with he’s only ninety-four after all. It means his first sound memories should be around eighty years ago. Twenty years is a lot of time to alter all the perceptions and records. -
“Is something the matter?” Asked Leovold interrupting his train of thoughts
“No sorry I was only considering the possibility that the blessing is only a fix to give me a normal lasting human life. After all, Hiroshi died of old age right?”
Lenovo scratched his head, stretching his old skin “It’s like you say. We can maybe forgive the existence of said blessing if you help us”
Thirteen smiled “Naturally. Then back on topic, I can justify the blessing of granting, sort of, oh and I think I kind of think the blessing of revelation could be tied to the diviner think too.”
Leovold nodded “Yeah, by you declaring being a diviner back on Earth some of those blessings make more sense. See? It’s easier if you open up to us.”
Thirteen shrugged it off sighing “ Maybe I can sort of make a sense of the blessing of the bridge. The problem is the last four blessings. The blessing of the well. I mean… what well? ”
Leovold mulled a while before answering “ Well you seem to have a lot of mana, it is related to that. People with that kind of blessing usually die burned down by their mana”
Thirteen rose an eyebrow “Why doesn’t that happen to me?”
Leovold shrugged “You have the blessing of resistance, it is a rare blessing that helps people resist charms and the like usually. I would guess that in combination with your other blessings helps you resist the weight of your magic.”
-lucky me huh?- “I see” sighed Thirteen “Then there is this blessing of the maker and blessing of the tree”
Leovold made a complicated expression “ The blessing of the maker is complex, to say the least, it is an ancient blessing that came before the more specialized production-related blessing, like the blessing of the forge for example. It is documented in the very beginning of the Kingdom of Cesio, nowadays it is seen as less than ideal.”
“A jack of all trades and master of none kind of blessing? “ asked Thirteen
“Not quite, you can excel pretty much in anything you put your mind into.
It is considered less than ideal because it’s slow, how I can explain? With the blessing of the forge, you would be able to make a decent simple sword within two to three months of apprenticeship. With the blessing of the maker, you would need one year to attain the same result. The flip side is that with the blessing of the forge you’d take two to three years to become a full-fledged carpenter to make an example but with the blessing of the maker the time would still be a year. “
Thirteen scratched his head “I see, so I can make anything given the appropriate time and guidance. What about the tree?“
Nuidan sighed “It’s a heretical blessing.”
Thirteen rose an eyebrow “A heretical tree? Really? You send your lumberjack out in the woods in the name of the goddess? To chop down heretics and make houses out of them?“
Leovold sighed “What my foolish assistant is trying to say is that it is a blessing that comes from a source we firmly condemn as heresy. You asked me the tale of creation let me put this in perspective, what if I told you it all came from a tree? That’s pretty much the extent of heresy this kind of blessing represents. Were you in a different position you’d been slain on the spot?”
Thirteen scratched his head “ I wonder, is it possible to carry over a blessing from one’s world?”w
Leovold took a deep breath and then puffed “We wouldn't really be able to confirm or deny, why asking?” looking annoyed.
Thirteen smiled “But the act of asking sets the premise, don’t you think?“
Leovold sighed “ Fine, let’s say it is not a blessing from here but from earth do you have some religion to back it up?”
Thirteen nodded “A couple of religions yeah. There’s this religion where the main god hangs himself to a tree to gain knowledge and there’s another where humans eat from a tree whose fruits grant knowledge.”
Leovold narrowed his eyelids looking at the man “Then you lied when you told you can’t figure it out.”
Thirteen chuckled “But I can’t figure it out. Like I told you, to my knowledge, there are two. One is by choice and self-sacrifice, the other is by sin and betrayal of trust. Witch one? It’s not like I can see titles or blessings, for starters.”
“your priests should’ve told you in the first place!” roared an irritated Leovold, making Thirteen smirks and reply
“Yeah they sure did, both of them telling me what they were telling me was the only truth. So I get here, see I have the blessing and I’m like. Ok, but witch tree? “
Leovold “Let’s stop talking about this blessing then. Do you have a question about your titles?”
Thirteen scratched his chin under his beard and shuffled his cards.
“I have to believe you can’t read some of those, since the translation magic isn’t able to convey some concepts. If I am correct they should depict some of my noteworthy achievements, or characteristics.”
Leovold nodded “ Do you understand your importance to us then?”
Thirteen sighed “You want me to go and ice the demon king, like forever this time. But like you said “ he smiled evilly “In the history of Cesio there was only one hero”
Leovold snapped “You irritating piece of junk! For the last time there are no heroes besides Hiroshi!” he shouted
Thirteen massaged his ears with a smile leaving his deck on the desk “You don’t need to shout old-timer, I heard ya loud and clear the first time. This is the problem you face when you mess with history and make that become a myth. History, you see has this tendency to repeat itself if you don’t learn from it. “
Leovold made a facepalm groaning something halftone and then sighed “Listen, I can’t allow you to spread the illness the princess is suffering from.”
Thirteen chuckled “I don’t see Sinalta suffering any illness, nor being contagious for that matter. Well I can guess she sure would like to be in a sense, but it’s another story entirely”
Leovold frowned, narrowing his eyelids. “So you can see”
Thirteen shrugged, raising as he took his cards “Want to know your future?” He tried to stretch his smile ear to ear resulting in an eerie grin as he offered his cards to Nuidan.
The young priest shook his head “I appreciate your offer but I know my future…”
Leovold sighed “I can tell without looking at the cards. I don’t have one.”
Thirteen rose an eyebrow “Oh? Really?” Leovold nodded “I can’t live forever too, I lived a long fulfilling life of service to the goddess, what more could I ask for?”
-well at the very least he’s a coherent grouchy old man- “Then I think I can go unless there’s something else you want from me.”
Leovold stared at him daggers “your firm promise you’ll kill the demon lord!”
Thirteen puffed “How many times do I have to repeat myself? I won’t kill the demon lord! It’s pointless! He’ll come back!
Leovold scratched his bald head once again “ From what I gather you want to go out of town to adventure right? I will send you a healer. She is a great healer that will help you!”
Thirteen sighed “Yeah, tempting but I won’t change my point”
Leovold rose his hands showing his wrinkled palms “Wait., I just want you to remain alive! For now at least! So she comes to you as a healer! The only thing I will ask you is to do all you can so she comes back alive and well!”
Thirteen rose an eyebrow “You are serious?” - Well at least the lots of girls part is proceeding well. I expected Selie to be the most annoying but if I’m getting a goddess cheerleader I will have to re-evaluate -
Leovold nodded, making Thirteen take a short breath and expired violently with his mouth. “I can try at the least. May I go this time?”
Leovold nodded allowing him out of the room, waiting he’d gone out of hearing reach he looked at his assistant.
“It wasn’t a total loss, but still… that guy seriously has a knack to rub people the wrong way! “ he commented before making yet another battle meeting.
Elsewhere Selie and Xindi had engaged in an almost real battle but opted to keep it to stares and little accidents that made the other occupied for a while to sort things and avoid getting scolded by priests and nuns when they came to check on them.