Chapter 11

Tirr and Doron walked into Maria’s room and Tirr told him to lay down on the bed. As Doron sat and laid back, Tirr looked over the leg, finding where the bone had healed incorrectly. “I’m going to need to rebreak the bone, its going to hurt.” Tirr said plainly.

Doron nodded, “I can handle it…” as he bit down onto the sleeve of his tunic.

Tirr waited untill he was ready and with one hand on the leg, squeezed down. To Doron it was as if his leg was suddenly caught in a vice. The hand twisted and there was a loud crack. Doron groaned into his sleeve as tears came unbidden. His whole body broke out into a cold sweat as the pain surged through and left him gasping

Tirr’s hand shifted as he properly set the bone and Doron let out a growl as he fought to stay conscious. Once the bone was set, Tirr focused on letting his blessing flow into the leg.

Doron felt the pain slowly ebb away as the warmth spread, covering him completely. He lay back exhausted after the warmth and pain subsided.

Tirr stood up, pleased with the results. “It healed properly this time so you shouldn’t have anymore trouble with it.”

Doron was tired but as he tested his leg out, he was happy to not feel any of the aching pain for the first time in years. “Thank you!” Doron said relieved.

“Just make sure to serve me well!” Tirr said proudly, “When you’re ready, come in so Maria can give you the blessing, it will increase your strength by a good bit as well.” Doron agreed and lay back down to rest.

Tirr headed back into the kitchen just in time to notice the end of Lina’s Blessing. She stared in wonder at the small mark on her arm, giving Tirr a big smile and showing it to him as it faded away. Maria was sitting, catching her breath as she noticed Tirr enter.

“It’s done, so you have your third follower. With this we’ve started the first branch!” Tirr said posing proudly. “He’ll come in later so you can pass him the blessing, once the rest of the injured get here we’ll get you all practicing.”

“How does practice work?” Maria asked curiously. “Do we just have to use the blessing for it to get stronger?”

“There are three ways to grow your Blessing.” Tirr said, looking over Nora and Lina as well. “The first way is to just use it. The more you practice using it the more control you’ll get, and the more it will grow. However, the growth is unsteady because you must really tire yourself out for good results. Long-term you may end up pushing too hard and cause your blessing to run wild. I’ll help today, so it won’t be a problem while your healing, but usually this method works best for learning control instead of growing stronger.

“The second way is prayer. Instead of focusing on using the blessing outwardly, you focus inward. By finding your blessing and stretching it across your body repeatedly, you can slowly and steadily make progress. It’s called prayer because it’s a good time to think of me and give thanks for the blessing. Which ties into the third method.”

“The third way to grow your blessing is through loyalty. The better our relationship, the faster your blessing will grow. The more trust I have in you, and you in me the better.

“Didn’t you use to have lots of temples?” Maria asked.

“I used to visit the larger ones regularly in order to meet new followers. It was always the biggest event of the year at each temple.” Tirr said smugly. “Since I’m great, usually just spending some time with me will help this one.”

Nora and Lina agreed happily, but Maria nodded a bit skeptically. Tirr didn’t seem to notice though and continued, explaining how to use the first two methods.

Soon the wounded villagers started to arrive and Tirr guided them through their first healings. Slowly teaching them how to focus the blessing outside of themselves and using a command word to keep focus on what they wanted to do. Maria, Nora Lina, and soon Doron were all whispering “Heal!” with each attempt.

After the first few people they soon got better. Maria was the strongest and could heal small cuts or gashes quickly while Nora, Lina, and Doron were only able to help bruises and scrapes.

One of the people they healed was Roger, the village head’s son. As Maria was healing him, he warned her that his father was acting strangely and had told him not to come. In fact, Roan had tried to stop most of the villagers from coming to see the god. Nora was furious and wanted to go speak with Roan right then but Doron said it was expected. When Maria explained it to Tirr he just said it didn’t matter.

All four grew tired quickly, Tirr passed them some of his own strength so that they could keep practicing. He seemed excited after every successful attempt and was even more pleased by the offerings people had given him in thanks. He kept them near him. Ordering Garm to guard them carefully, as he gazed proudly at the small pile of simple food and toys.

By the afternoon they had healed the injuries from the attack. They took some of the meat from Garm’s earlier catch and cooked it for lunch before resting. All of them were exhausted from the constant exertion. Even Tirr ended up falling asleep at the table once he finished his meal. Maria carried him to rest in her bed before finding a spot of her own to nap.

After a few hours of rest, they all slowly started to rise again. Once evening came Doron told Tirr that it was time to head down for the meeting with Roan. Lina and her father went home, while Doron led Tirr, carrying Garm, Maria and Nora down through the village to Roan’s house.

Along the way they passed the village center, which had only just started to be rebuilt. The villagers had removed all the bodies and started to fill in the crater left by the explosion. The remains of nearby houses that were caught in the flames were being torn down inorder to clear the ground and start over.

They soon arrived at Roan’s home, the largest house in the village. Once they arrived Roger opened the door for them and Tirr strode in confidently. Roger gave Maria a look and she nodded in return, entering behind Tirr with her grandmother.

Roger lead them to the dining hall where some of the older men and woman of the village were already sitting and talking with Roan, who sat at the end of the table. They all quieted down and looked cautiously over Tirr as he entered.

Tirr sat down at the other end of the table, Maria and Nora sat next to him. Roan called Doron to come sit next to him, but Doron ignored him and stood just behind Tirr. Roan looked annoyed at this display but quickly hid it.

Roan smiled and welcomed everyone to the meeting, before asking the surroundings to let him know if they would like anything.

“Meat and some wine!” Tirr said happily as Maria gave him a disapproving look. She had been avoiding giving him alcohol because she wasn’t sure if it was wise given his body. Tirr ignored her though and happily guzzled down the glass that was brought to him.

Meanwhile Roan looked at Doron behind Tirr, “It seems the rumors about your leg have been true.” Roan said acidly

“Yes, I can’t thank Tirr enough for healing it.” Doron said seriously, staying where he was behind Tirr. Roan nodded, understanding Doron’s intent.

“Of course, the whole village must thank you for the protection you have provided us your Lordsh…” Roan started looking back to Tirr as he asked for more wine.

“Tirr, I prefer when people use my name” Tirr interrupted with a hiccup.

“Of course, Tirr. We cannot thank you enough for helping protect the village and for meeting with us tonight.” Roan said a bit shortly, but still caused Tirr to perk up proudly. “It’s a shame that such good intentions have left us with such a problem.”

Tirr frowned, “What problem?” he said unhappily as he drank.

“Well because you killed all the Kingdom’s knights, it won’t be long untill the Kingdom finds out that they went missing here. The kingdom will assume we have rebelled and will take further action.”

“So what? If they try something else, I’ll just handle it again.” Tirr snapped. Maria could feel the tension in the room starting to rise.

“I’m sure you will, but if they send even more knights than the first attack, especially if they have strange powers like that man, the chances of more villagers getting hurt or even killed goes up.”

“Tirr saved our lives, the only reason people didn’t die this time was Tirr.” Maria cut in angrily.

“But he is also the only reason they were here in the first place. From what that captain was saying if he hadn’t been here, they never would have come.”

“This village wouldn’t exist period if not for the Guardian and God’s Shrine!” Nora yelled, standing up as she faced Roan. Garm let out a low growl from Tirr’s lap, frightening the elders and making Roan gulp.

“Were happy with that of course, but he could have simply agreed with the man and gone with him inorder to avoid further damage”

“Those men didn’t have any intention of letting us go in the first place. They wouldn’t have acted so violently if they really were planning on leaving in peace.” Nora shouted. Tirr sat silently, empty glass in hand as he kept his head down.

“We can’t know that for sure. There is obviously something they want from him” Roan retorted. The other elders nodded in agreement.

“What are you getting at Roan, get out with it.” Doron said holding a hand to the raging Nora.

Roan looked around at the other elders before looking directly at Tirr. “We think you should turn yourself in to the Kingdom…”