Prayer for a Friend

"…and when I finally stopped feeling that horrible headache, Gaal's reanimation suddenly ended."

Tristessa finished narrating the events that happened in the stable to Jin, while they walked side by side towards the Sea of ​​Trees. It was only a walk of a few hundred meters —or hundreds of imperial feet, from the consolidated measurement system in Nekrom— that Tristessa was grateful for in order to get out of that house whose atmosphere had become permanently tense.

To face the raw cold that came from the snowy peaks beyond the horizon, the hunter had given her a black leather trench coat, with long sleeves and two belts that adjusted to the low height of the breasts and waist. An absolutely incompatible outfit for a fourteen-year-old girl, but it was the only thing left for a woman of small stature in the closet of the guest room.

"And did the discovery of your Divinity happen before or after your fight with my wife?" asked Jin, who besides carrying his hunting rifle and a shovel hanging from one shoulder with straps, also carried on the other a large bundle wrapped in sheets: Gaal's corpse, who received the family's mournful goodbyes in private, of course.

"After." The instant she said that, Jin stopped her dead by clinging to her left shoulder. She looked at him strangely, then sighed when she recognized that sad grandfather expression he had on his face. "Jin, if you're about to apologize to me one again, I swear that..."

"The one who will apologize will be you, once we return." Given the way he was ordering her, Jin was not in the mood to hear any retorts. It was amazing how Tristessa felt extremely intimidated out of the blue, especially influenced by mixing reality with the Jin of the past timeline. "My wife is not the best exponent for dealing with strangers, but I will not allow you to insult her or raise your voice at her again. Even your Divinity is not an acceptable excuse for me. Am I clear?"

"Y-yes..." said the girl, so tiny and small that her voice sounded like the squeak of a mouse. "I will apologize to her, I swear."

"Well, I am glad to hear that." The hunter released her and invited her to continue walking beside him, something that Tristessa did not accept until the fear that parasitized her heart began to fade. "That said, I want to ask you about your decision to leave. I will not deny that it worries me a lot. Your Divinity too, if I am honest with you."

"I don't blame you: raising angry cadavers is a skill that mustn't be looked upon favorably," she said, staring downwards and dodging the occasional puddle of muddy water. "I would appreciate your discretion, Jin."

"Of course. That Divinity will bring you trouble, if you're not careful, and I'm not just talking about the rising dead..."

"I fear my other Divinity more. Too bad I can't talk about it without you going insane and us both ending up dead," she thought, with deep bitterness that left an unpleasant void inside her.

"What's your next goal? Do you even know where to go?" Jin's questions kept her from sinking even deeper into her own misery.

"Well..."

The answer was wherever she can recover her memories and return to her own world. Her two main goals, indistinct in order of priority. It was easy to say, but the execution was astronomically difficult.

Nightmare difficulty, was the phrase that came to her head, coming from a person she didn't remember.

In addition, there was an obstacle that made one task more difficult than the other, and Tristessa knew it very well: she was an alien in that world. A Stranger. Revealing her nature to people unknown was suicidal, Tiara had taken it upon herself to prove it to her. Without knowing anything about this new world, it was a very risky bet.

And without a doubt, she did not want to die again. Never again.

"I will go to the flagship city of End-World and look for this Severus you talk so much about," she finally answered, her hands shaking a little as she saw for the first time in days the gigantic trees of that continental forest, beautiful by day, ghastly by night. "What was the name of the city? Entrails?"

"Entrana. By the Goddess, I am very worried about you…Tessa," Adjusting his belongings that hung from his already numb shoulders with a gentle shake, before entering the forest, Jin hesitated a little, but he sounded very affectionate when he called her by her nickname. In another context, the girl would have given him a hug without thinking twice. "Will it help if I ask you to stay at the house and wait for Severus to come visit us? You'll be safer with him on the journey… The road from the Sea of ​​Trees to Entrana is abandoned, but not uninhabited."

"Why do you say that?! You're scaring me!"

"That's the point."

Tristessa groaned, hitting Jin's arm in a harmless and cute way, who tried to laugh amidst the true seriousness with which he had communicated her his concerns, and so both officially entered the Sea of ​​Trees, sinking their legs into the massive carpet of red leaves. The place where they met; the origin of the girl's arrival in Nekrom, as well as her first Death and Resurrection.

Last night's rain and the drop in temperature had covered the forest with a fine mist. It could be seen from a certain distance, but the feeling of discomfort it caused in the depths of Tristessa's chest was very strong. Knowing well what it was that lived among the trees, what those beasts were capable of, destroyed the little courage she could muster. If it weren't for the presence of Jin, someone more than experienced in the art of being the predator of predators, she wouldn't have dared to set foot inside the forest.

"I think here it's more than fine," said the hunter, after several minutes of walking, in a wide space between the trees; not enough to be a clearing, but enough to have more freedom of movement. There was no clear path in sight, thanks to the constant falling leaves, making Tristessa wonder how he knew how to move in such unfavorable territory for a scout. "The time has come, dear Gaal… Tessa, you watch my back. Let me know if you see a spinnarak, okay?"

"Of course."

"Thank you. Ah… It's unfortunate I don't have not even a drop of holy water."

"If you had stock, could you have buried Gaal at home?" she asked, watching him for a moment as he left the delicately wrapped body on the ground, his rifle leaning against the nearest tree, and set to work with the shovel.

"It's enough to bless a grave, but not to formalize a burial. Especially not in our house: any building that has not been properly blessed by a Heterodox Priestess is abandoned and excommunicated land," he explained while digging. His face and beard were stained with dirt, his hunting trench coat as well. Too much mud from the rain, there was nothing that could be done about it. "That category includes the entire infrastructure of the former Kingdom of Exilia. And since the houses of the Royal Hunters were considered obsolete, and therefore never blessed by the Imperial Heterodox Church… I will be doing a disservice to Gaal's spirit. He is worth a more dignified burial, in gratitude for accompanying my son in such difficult times…"

"Wow, even in this world people can be very devout. Although… Yes, it makes sense that they are, given the large amount of evidence that confirms the existence of the Gods. My arrival in this world practically confirms divine intervention…," she thought, looking around and walking slowly. As she turned around in a complete circle, Tristessa looked at the hunter's back and decided to ask him a question related to what was going through her head. "Jin… Did Tiara tell you about her suspicion that I am a…?"

"NO!" Without looking back and raising a hand, he managed to stop Tristessa from saying that word with his stern shout. "Don't finish that question. For your own good, don't do it. Otherwise…"

Jin stuck the shovel into the ground, bent down and lifted Gaal's wrapped body. He glanced at the now silent black-haired girl and said:

"I like you, Tessa. Please be thankful that ignorance is bliss, and don't force my hand."

With that, there was nothing more to say. Jin buried Gaal and Tristessa had no more doubts, once again feeling that she had just dodged a dark fate: if she told anyone that she was a Stranger, someone from another world, she would be killed.

Even at the hands of the person she trusted the most in this new world, who had now knelt on the ground and clasped both hands together, interlacing his fingers.

"Xiliarra, Goddess of Order, Daughter of the Supreme Mother, I beg you, grant us peace. To my wife, to my son, to my new friend, to the spirit of the friend and family we lost. Peace for my house, peace for End-World, and peace for all of Nekrom… And may your light defend us from the Shadow that comes for us all," the man prayed, ending with a sharp clap that echoed through the perpetual rows of trees.

Tristessa's eyes scanned the path of the echo. It was there that, between the fog and the rain of red leaves, she saw a dark silhouette approaching.

A shadow that froze her by surrounding her with a halo made of the purest terror, bringing flashbacks of intense and indescribable pain from her first Death.