Want To Go Home - 19

To Propose Proposals

Waking up the next morning, leaning against Uké’el with my wing around her, was slightly awkward. I wasn’t sure where we actually stood in our interpersonal relationship, after all. Possibly not helping matters, someone had draped blankets over us (in a somewhat precarious way, due to my wings). It was, though, a gesture that was appreciated with how chilly it now seemed.

“I was hoping you’d wake up soon,” she said in a quiet, though slightly flat, voice. Revealing she’d already been awake.

“Mn?” was the best reply I managed, still waking up.

“Extracting myself from your wing without waking you seemed reasonably challenging,” she explained. “And I would like to go check on Kel.”

“Oh. Yes. Sure,” I said, unfolding my wing to let her out.

She made it two small and drowsy steps before there were a pair of yelps. One from her out of surprise, and another that seemed slightly pained. Looking down towards the source of the second yelp, I saw that Ne’avo, Aara, and Sukura had all set out bedding beside the bench. Uké’el had managed to step on Ne’avo, and apparently ‘being stepped on’ wasn’t a pain her magical sword protected her from. The yelping had also managed to wake both Aara and Sukura up, fast enough that I wasn’t quite sure if I’d been seeing things when I’d sworn Aara had been snuggled up beside Ne’avo.

“Sorry!” Uké’el whispered sharply, before processing what had happened. “Why are you sleeping under foot?”

“I was the last to go to bed, and I didn’t want to be way over there,” Ne’avo replied, pointing just past Sukura with one hand, while rubbing her stepped on side with the other.

Uké’el seemed to not quite be convinced that was a good reason to sleep right under us, but she didn’t say anything. Whether it was out of empathy or because it was too early in the morning for an argument was unclear. Whatever the reasoning, though, I appreciated it. It was certainly too early for me to deal with an argument. In fact, I felt deeply tempted to lay down on the bench and try to go back to sleep.

Until Sukura stood up and stretched, announcing that we needed to start sword practice. I still had quite a bit to learn, and Ne’avo’s form was… apparently best left unmentioned. Sukura just focused on dragging us both over to an open area and drawing an oval in the ground with the scabbard of her saber. Ne’avo fished out her nightglasses while Sukura explained the basics of the sparring style to her, as even this early morning light was apparently a bit too bright for moon elf eyes.

Stepping into the oval, I summoned a magicka blade while Ne’avo awkwardly drew her greatsword. The process pushed her reach to the limit as it had every other time… her sword really seemed outrageously oversized. It was longer than either of us was tall (at least if you didn’t count my horns). I shifted into a fighting stance, ready to defend, and trying not to be intimidated.

I got into position just in time as well, because Ne’avo rushed straight into a full on assault, swinging her massive blade wildly. If she’d been less muscular, and the sword less obnoxiously long, it would have been easy to parry one of her strikes and then slip in. Even for someone as green as myself.

However, she was exceptionally strong and the sword was about as long as a spear. As such, her strikes had enough power to be hard to redirect, and the reach kept me too far away to easily close the gap. It wasn’t impossible, though. I was still stronger, thanks to my divine nature… though I suspected her magic blade was doing something to help her strikes hit harder.

Whatever the case, I eventually found a moment to get in a clean parry, then put my hips into my footwork to cross the gap, ending with the tip of my magicka blade mere centimetres from her face. She froze, and I let the blade drop slightly, to lightly poke her chest.

“Point me,” I said.

“You have no idea how to use a sword, do you, Ne’avo?” Sukura asked, a somewhat tired and broken look in her eyes.

“I have some idea,” the muscular elf said, switching to a one handed grip so that she could point at the blade of her greatsword. “You hit people with the sharp part.”

Based on her expression, I was fairly certain she meant that as a joke. Sukura, however, didn’t seem as certain, and let out a moaning whine in response.

“Alright. I need to take the direct approach… Emily, we’ll discuss things later,” she said, stepping over to Ne’avo’s side.

Unsure what else to do, I wandered over to where Aara was sitting. She did not look awake yet, and her impressive mane was poofed up in an amusing level of bedhead. I sat down beside here and we quietly watched Sukura physically moving Ne’avo’s limbs and torso into something resembling a proper fighting stance, while Ne’avo seemed to enjoy every second of it.

“I hope we’re leaving soon,” Aara said, in a quiet voice.

“Oh?” I asked.

“This place… there’s so little life here. The nature spirits are spirits of stone, not of life,” she mumbled. “They don’t care for me, and I am not sure I care for them.”

“Huh…” was the best I managed at first, taking a moment to weigh a response. “Well, we’re probably heading off in the next couple of days. The town is safe and there’s other places we’re probably needed.”

Aara leaned against me and quietly muttered, “I hope so.”

-

A few birds had shown up around noon. I wasn’t sure why that caused such commotion until the three birds transformed into mages. One had been the first shifter sent out to ask for aid while I’d fought; the second one was one who’d been sent after I defeated the bulk of the enemy; and the third was sent by the Imperial forces.

The military mage had issues of grand strategy to discuss, and I soon found myself dragged into the talks as well. Maps were pulled out, the messenger filling in details about the situation on Chuu-la. It seemed the island subcontinent was mostly holding together, only the large mountainous desert province around Guuji city had fallen. With the city retaken the situation was looking rather better.

The rest of the world, however, remained uncertain. The northern continent of Aelvus, home of the Holy City and base of Nemza’s armies, was believed to still have some holdouts along its southern coasts, but there was nothing reliable to go on. Working out which cities might still be holding out, or how long they were likely to last, was a fool's errand. Kati, Aara and Sukura’s home continent and the other one near to Aelvus, was thought to mostly be free, but even I knew there’d been raiding parties up and down the coasts. Lands being conquered seemed plausible. Probable, even.

What to do about the dark armies was even less clear than the military situation on other continents. The military mage wanted me to stay put and help secure all of Chuu-la before moving elsewhere. Thankfully the university professors were far less regionalistic, though not all of their ideas seemed amazing either. A chunk of them recommended that I charge straight north to the Holy City, which seemed reckless to me. Then there were a few others who wanted me to stay and study more or less indefinitely, which felt like a poor use of my existing abilities to fight.

Awash in uncertainty, we broke for lunch and fresh air. I found my way over to where Sukura was still training Ne’avo. Aara was watching them still, and, from a distance, it seemed clear she was watching Ne’avo specifically. Apparently the night elf was beginning to win her over.

“Politics,” Uké’el muttered, causing me to jump a little as I realised she’d followed me. “They can probably argue in circles for weeks.”

“What’s the big problem?” Ne’avo asked.

“We’re trying to figure out what I should do next,” I replied.

The dark elf nodded a few times, though she seemed confused that there was a debate. “I… get married, obviously?”

I blinked, and I was far from the only one.

“Is now really the time for that?” Aara asked.

“Uh… yes? We need the power we’d get from it,” Ne’avo replied.

“… what power?” Uké’el asked.

“It’s part of being chosen to be a divine hero? I—I think it’s not exactly a marriage. There’s slight differences from a standard wedding, but auntie Ner—my aunt who became a high ranking priestess said it was effectively a marriage oath?”

“We’re not priestesses, though?” Sukura said.

“Well, no. But divine heroes are basically like clergy, from what I remember… I think… it seemed like that in—well, we should probably find a cleric to get the details,” Ne’avo replied.

“That soun—Wait, would there be any clerics left who’d know how all that works? Didn’t Nemza burn the temples?” I asked.

“The ones in the Holy City,” Uké’el replied, “but there’s other temples. Secondary ones. They’ve always kept a few high priests tucked away, in case the forces of Discord attacked the city. Though… I personally couldn’t say wh—Trazeg would probably know.”

“Trazeg?” Aara asked.

“He’s one of the researchers. Does divination,” Uké’el explained. “High priests know how to hide themselves, but arcane and religious seers are fairly close. He’d at least have some ideas of where to start.”

With that, she set off, the rest of us following along. My brain, though, was starting to actually process the fact we were looking for a priest in order to get married and my cheeks went hot. That was rather a significant development. Though, it was only sort of marriage adjacent, right?

It still very much seemed like something I should tell Lena and Kris about, though. Not-quite-married was still a significant step in a relationship, after all. Though, I could point out it was for ‘saving the world’ reasons more so than romantic ones. Which surely had to be a half decent defense for why I wasn’t marrying either of them first. Well, that and the fact I was pretty sure Canadian marriage laws didn’t allow legally dead women who’d resurrected as deities to engage in polygamy.

Taking that into account, maybe it was better to bring Lena and Kris here. Once the world was saved. As a Goddess, I probably had some sort of sway over marriage laws in this world. Was starting my own church an option, in case anyone refused? How distinct were the worshippers of the various deities? Growing up in a mostly Christian nation meant I didn’t quite know how polytheism worked.

Before I could fall too much deeper down that rabbit hole, we’d arrived at Trazeg’s home. The seer had decided to move back to his home after the city had been liberated, which was apparently seen as an encouraging development by many. After all, if a master of divination had decided it was smart to move out, then surely that was a good sign?

When he opened his door, I saw he was an elf, with a sort of reddish tan and sun bleached brown hair. He was also rather tall, which may have been the actual reason he’d moved out of the tunnels of the old city so quickly.

“How may I help you?” he asked.

“We’re trying to work out where to look for high priests in hiding,” Uké’el explained, indicating to me. “They can likely help us.”

“Ah… there are some options I know of, but… finding ones that would still be safe…” Trazeg said, clearly drifting off into thought.

He then hurried off, forcing the rest of us to try to keep up with him as he scurried across his house. It was dusty, but otherwise in better shape than I’d expected. Clearly the ghouls and zombies didn’t give in to looting much.

“The central issue,” he said, gathering up maps and books, “is that the Dark Lady was the princess of Garzot. As second in the line to the Holy Throne, she’d surely know nearly all of the hiding points. But…”

He laid out a few maps, and began circling what felt like random points to me. “There’s still a few options. The temples of Litania, for instance… they’re a long way to travel, though.”

He opened a book, leafing through it. He was clearly looking for something, and it kept him quiet for a few minutes. He let out a shout of ‘a-ha’ when he found whatever it was, though. Which was not to say that he explained whatever it was, instead going back to consulting the map. Finally, a few more lines drawn, he gave a nod.

“I think there’s a temple roughly here,” he said, pointing to an empty point of ocean. “There’s rumours and whispers of something out there in my oldest texts. Things that have nagged at me before, but I never had the time or funds to investigate. The mystery of it all would fit if the priests ever decided they needed to hide a safe point from the royal family.”

I blinked, staring at the reasonably small circle he’d drawn. To think someone was able to provide us such a good lead so quickly… it seemed mildly unbelievable.

“You’re… sure about this?” Aara asked, also leaning in to look at the map.

Smile straining, Trazig gave a nervous chuckle. “Heh… nope. Not at all. But it’s the best I can give you for a temple that might exist that isn’t on any official records. I give it at least one in four odds of existing?”

There we were. That felt more like my luck.