Book 2 Chapter 12

Tirr’s eyes narrowed and he looked at the priestess suspiciously. He still remembered how Torn had tried to turn him against Maria. Manipulating him from the moment they had met. Was she trying to do the same thing? He took a step back, channeling his blessing once more as he looked at the woman in front of him, his anger rising.

“Completely,” he finally answered through gritted teeth. Garm let our a low growl in response to his master’s growing anger.

“Oh…” Nerida stuttered, shocked at the sudden change. Looking at the young god, she seemed to realize something. She reacted quickly, kneeling on the ground in front of him. She kept her head bowed as she spoke in aa soft pained voice. “I've angered you… I apologize my lord. I’ll take any punishment you find appropriate.”

Tirr frowned at the kneeling girl in front of him, not having expected such a quick and sincere apology “You can get up…” He said, his anger somewhat mollified. “I doubted Maria once and have regretted it ever since… I won’t make the same mistake twice. I trust both her and Claire, so don’t ever bring it up again.”

“Of course my lord…” Nerida replied without lifting her head. “Then does that apply to the country of Rasor as well?”

“I trust Rasor way more than I trust this country…” Tirr answered with a grunt.

“Is it okay if I ask why? From what I understand Rasor’s troop’s attacked the village you woke up in and sent assassins after you when they failed, correct?”

“How did you know that?” Tirr asked confused.

“I’ve had people investigating ever since I heard you had awoken and appeared within Rasor,” Nerida answered, standing up upon seeing that the added question didn’t seem to bother him. “I also heard that there was a commotion within Rasor’s capital though I don’t know the specifics.”

“The stuff in Rasor’s been dealt with, Claire's brother is King now so there won’t be any more problems.”

“Is that so? Then maybe she would be able to explain the raids Rasor has been carrying out on our border villages recently. It caused Agir to all but give up on the idea of peace...”

“What?” Tirr exclaimed, “Lutel is the one that attacked Rasor! I saw what they did myself!”

Nerida frowned, “While I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty that no one in Lutel has done such a thing, I find it unlikely that it would be able to go undiscovered. However, we know for a fact that Rasor troops attacked several of our villages, while the peace talks are supposed to be ongoing.”

“How?”

“Because the survivors were able to describe someone using the Spirit of Fire.” The priestess replied calmly, watching Tirr’s expression.

Tirr frowned and started to speak when voices came from the partially shut door to his room.

“I think they went in this one…” Maria said as they pushed open. Claire and Maria entered, walking towards Tirr as they inspected his room.

“Have you finished looking over your rooms?” Nerida asked cheerfully on seeing the girls enter, her previously cool expression gone.

“Yes, they’re amazing, thank you,” Maria said for both of them as they examined the mural. “This is amazing, it must have taken forever to have this painted…” She turned to Tirr but stopped as she saw the deep frown of concern on Tirr’s face.

“What happened?” Maria asked, turning from Tirr to Nerida.

Tirr turned to Claire a serious expression on his face. “She said Rasor has been the one attacking Lutel.”

“What?” Claire answered immediately, outrage growing on her face as she turned to Nerida “I keep quiet about things and so you decide to accuse of us? Bullshit! I saw the bodies your soldiers left. Now you're saying it was us who started it?”

The smile remained on Nerida’s face as she looked at the princess, “I’m not aware of any attacks carried out by our side, but several of our border villages have indeed been attacked. I can provide you the reports or take you to them myself if you require proof.”

“As for the reason we are sure it was Rasor,” Nerida continued, “Survivors from the attacks were able to describe the use of a Fire Shard.”

“A shard user…” Claire muttered, deflating somewhat under the information.

“That’s unfortunately why Agir has been giving you a hard time. He felt it was ridiculous for your country to offer peace in one hand while holding a dagger in the other. I’m sure he would be happy to know that it seems like you had nothing to do with it at least.”

“Is that even possible?” Maria asked Claire.

“Obviously none of my people.” Claire snorted, “But…” She continued, looking a bit embarrassed. “There were some Shard users that disappeared after the incident in the Castle. We’ve been working on tracking them down but haven’t managed to find them yet… And some of the people that used to work under Monter have been giving my brother a hard time lately...”

“So they might have done it?” Tirr asked thinking.

“Maybe…” The princess answered, “But isn’t this too coincidental?” She continued looking accusatorily at the priestess. “One of our villages gets attacked but when we come here you say it's us that attacked you?”

“It is definitely strange,” Nerida confirmed smiling once again. “There’s no point in this he said/she said for now. I’m relieved that it might not have been the work of Rasor itself. I’ll send some of my people to investigate and see if there have been any groups within our military that have moved past the border recently.”

Claire nodded unenthusiastically, “Then I’ll send a message to my brother to look into things on our side.”

“Well then,” Nerida exclaimed, looking from the girls back to Tirr “Now that that’s put away for the moment, let's talk about how to help god take over the water temple!”