Rabet was very, very happy with the road initiative. After talking to their ambassador, I took the guy and Mirina to visit Rabet on a flying Force bubble. It was slower than my other forms of fast travel but it was a trip asured in hours instead of weeks. The talk with the King of Rabet was a relaxed one. News of my appearance in Sadian and the dragon in Lonid already spread this far south and he was more than happy that we were looking for a mutually beneficial relationship.
One thing I learned was that no nation in the region liked Sadian, the rich greedy vampiric cousin that sucked blood out of the local trade, inflating prices and cutting down profit margins. Rabet's key exports were agricultural goods and wood, two things Windere imported from ti to ti. A direct road would greatly reduce prices for us and increase profits for them. Julia and Mirina negotiated quite the trade deal with Rabet, helped by my looming presence. I an, charming smile. Another huge reason they liked the road was because it would limit the ti pilgrims and immigrants would spend in their territory.
After that, I went to see the pilgrims and refugees/immigrants that were camped outside their capital.
Rabet didn’t let them enter their city and I couldn’t bla them. The pilgrim camp was easily twenty thousand people strong. They occupied a resting field near the city and erected a tent city not unlike… the mix of a ren fair with so midwest music festival. I could sense several of the Matriarch priests among them, performing ministrations. And the priests could sense too.
As we approached on foot after disembarking from the carriage Rabet loaned us, the crowd started to look our way. The priests started to preach my advent and the Faith from the people started to flow my (actually Pandora’s) way. As word spread, the people started to cheer and look our way. The fact this field was downhill from the gate didn’t help.
I understood why every deity made a show out of their appearances. It was easier to go with an over-the-top shut-up-and-watch performance than trying to blend in. The sensation was a mix of several from good old Earth. The closest one was popstar fans desperate to get closer to their idol. That’s why they call it. Another, people incensed in a religious ceremony or a political rally. The commotion was so big I had to take to the skies with Mirina and use so Divinity for a field blessing. The Symbol of the Matriarch shot from my hand and grew as it ascended, stopping several hundred ters up in the air, visible for the entire city. I couldn’t help but chant while it rose.
“Thunder, thunder, thunder...”
You used {Deific Presence}. Duration, 1 hour.
You gain 100% faith from your followers that can see your manifestation.
You gain 10% of the faith generated from all other creatures that can see your manifestation.
You have a 50 bonus for all Charisma tests.
The ability would pay for itself in less than five minutes.
They started to shout and then sing hymns. I had no idea but the Matriarch faith already had hymns. So more artistic-inclined priests changed the lyrics of so songs about Locksley’s feats to better reflect their faith.
At my side on the hastily conjured platform, Mirina chuckled. “Feeling awkward already?”
“Very,” I groaned.
“We received training to endure people’s attention since birth,” she reminisced of her childhood as a [Princess] in Lonid.
“And that’s just one reason out of many why I dump the crown on a stooge at the first opportunity,” I whined. She glared at and I poked my tongue out. “Love you. Let’s go et our new citizens.”
“Right...” Still fuming, Mirina absentmindedly glared as I jumped down the half-dozen ters separating us from the ground. “What, you what?”
One could get drunk on divinity. The nectar of the Gods was not curdled milk or processed bean paste, but the golden stuff that wafted from the souls of mortals. Since my divinity was outsourced to Pandora, I stood at the precipice of godhood but still firmly ensconced in my reincarnating mortality. I couldn’t do everything a deity could (probably for lack of knowledge that I was sure they forbade any and all Gods from giving ) but I wasn’t subject to the sa rules as they either (definitely because the Pantheon couldn’t enforce it, thanks to the System).
So yes, I thought at the ti I was in a pretty comfortable position. Any advantages of divinity I was missing were not really lost because I didn't know about them, any burdens that ca with the position were also properly avoided because I was not vested in the job. I was a god-hobo. But I also didn’t get addicted to the eulogies, hymns, and praises of the faithful. It felt more like another tool to work with to shape the world or another resource pool with which make a different kind of magic.
This book was originally published on . Check it out there for the real experience.
And for a long ti and several lives after Haru, that arrangent worked really well for . Until it didn’t, but that’s another story.
I could feel more people getting converted in the city, the camp, and on the road to the south. Their hopes and prayers buzzed in my ears like whispers I couldn’t hear because of the noise of leaves rustling in the faintest of winds. It would be overwhelming if I tried to listen to these prayers and process them. I still had a mortal’s brain and thought capacity. But the emotions, those brushed against the edges of my consciousness like the roiling waves of an angry ocean against a rock cliff.
I summoned my will and sheltered my psyche from this psychic assault. The temptation to rge with Pandora and ascend was great but I was a temporal creature. Worldly, secular, petty. I was not deity material and given my stomach-churning reaction to the idea, never would be. I had a comfortable setup delegating the burden to the mindless [Wisp of Creation].
Speaking of the devil, only then I noticed Pandora floating over my left shoulder. Her {Gifted Divinity} aspect shone, bolstered into double its usual power from the accumulated divinity. I knew instinctively that all of her aspects had the sa boost and that she could manifest two of them at the sa ti. I set {Truesilver Blood} that would surely help any wounded person in the tent camp recover faster.
Mirina finally got down from the platform and hustled to reach my side. “We are having a conversation once we’re back ho,” she whispered to . I couldn’t tell if she was angry, exasperated, or worried. Maybe a mix of all three.
The people prostrated themselves as I walked among them. I feared that without Pandora, we’d be overwheld by them but they didn’t approach us or even tried to touch us. I did hear several comnting on the number of tails I had.
Once I reached the center of the camp, a hastily put-together stage awaited . So priests flanked the wooden step-ladder next to it. I recognized so of them from the first batch Salia converted for . I t their jubilant eyes and nodded, helping Mirina get up on the stage before I followed my [Queen]. Projecting my voice, I made my speech.
“Greetings. First, I want to stress I am here as a friend. My na is Haru, the current incarnation of the Matriarch. Next to is Mirina Locksley, [Queen] of Windere. I would like to ask the people that wish to live in Windere to raise their hands.”
Scratch the vinyl disk. I’ll give you one guess. How many people raised their hands? Keine Leute. Nihil. Nikto. Dare mo. They all fell to their knees and worshiped. Most of the people that kept their eyes on us wept. I forgot to breathe, the gravitas of the situation overwhelming . Faith was pouring out of them like heat from naked bodies on a midwinter blizzard. The priests were singing their… my hymns. It was 99 awkward.
Mirina reached for my hand and laced her fingers around mine. “Endure it and let them have their mont,” She whispered. “Don’t rob them of this experience. It will mark their lives forever. Just smile and wave.”
“I hate you,” I grumbled.
She smirked, “Oh. Weren’t you saying the sweetest words to back at the gates?”
“Hate and love aren’t opposite emotions. They’re just a bad combination.”
“Why so?” She chirped innocently, barely hiding her mirth.
“I thought you were saving the conversation until we got ho.”
“I am. But what other chance will I have to make you squirm?” Her voice took a darker tone.
“There’s payback tonight.”
She giggled, “Looking forward to it.”
The influx of Fatih was distracting. Fortunately, with Pandora floating outside my body, the sensation was muted since it flowed straight to her. It got thinking. This surrogate divinity thing is too good to be true. Most of the benefits of being a deity without the duties? Truly, if I wasn’t a reincarnating cockroach it would all end when I expired, but it didn’t. I should be wary of any hidden drawbacks this setup could have. Even though I was in the dark about them, it didn’t an there was none.
The songs ca to an end and the whole camp was silent. Faith generation, I learned that mont, was keyed to the SP of a person, the most hidden of all Resources I’ve known so far. Spoiler alert, there was one keyed to the ninth locked Attribute I hadn’t t yet. But that was a tale for later. Yes, the people. Their hidden SP pools were mostly spent, their regeneration asured in single-digit points per day.
I saw a stream of people walking out of the city gates and mingling with the pilgrims, immigrants, and refugees of the tent city. Rabet would lose a good deal of citizens today, but I fear they were mostly unwanted in there. Beggars, whores, street urchins. The tantalizing promise of a place to start anew was too enticing to pass. Distracted by my musings, I started when soone else spoke.
“Any and all that wishes for a peaceful and productive life in Windere is welco!” Mirina took over the stage. “But beware. Windere suffers not the lazy, the violent, and the criminal. Thieves, thugs beware. The wrath of House Locksley will get you.”
She donned the tabard over her dress. I belatedly noticed the dress design was ant to match the Tabard. “This is the legendary Tabard of Windere, a gift from the Matriarch, weaver of life, to or humble nation. It contains a shard of her will to recognize the worthy. Know that this test is one of character and will to be part of sothing greater, not one of faith. Form three lines before each of the priests in front of the stage. If you truly love Windere and wish to be part of our realm, don the tabard without fear. Failing this test has no ill effects. But those that pass will be brought to Windere today on the Ice Train.”
I raised an eyebrow at her and she winked back at . The amount of hopeful glimring eyes at the ntion of the Ice Train, the legendary vehicle that brought freed slaves and disenfranchised refugees to safety behind Windere’s enchanted walls. They too hoped to be within the chosen and quickly ford up the lines. I took a step forward, inching on the edge of the improvised stage.
“Windere has no nobility. The few that hold titles have no executive power, no fief to rule. These titles are honorary. Windere discriminates not by species. Our country is not only for the Kin and silk-folk. We have minotaurs, rmaids, and even humans among us.”
“Indeed we do,” Mirina tapped her feet and deadpanned next to .
“Te-he!” I giggled and theatrically blushed by using {Titan Skin} to dye my cheeks bright red. A few people laughed at our skitch.
“Anyway!” The [Queen] restored her regal stance. “The Tabard beckons. Who among you has will strong enough to work hard on your knew ho and a heart worthy of its blessings?”
Many, apparently. The ice train worked late into the night ferrying people across Rabet's countryside on a handful of back-and forth trips.
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