Chapter Five

“It has been a long day.” A huge man said, hovering over his desk.

The desk was comically small for him, as he was at least three meters tall.

“What’s the problem Lor? Issues with the hubby?” A small, lanky woman sitting at the desk next to his asked.

“No, he’s been wonderful.” Lor said, “He’s even cooking a roast for when I get home; such a kind man.”

“He does love cooking, ever since he retired from his job at the bureau he’s thrown himself into it.” She said, “What’s the issue then?”

“It’s this new unit. It’s causing all kinds of problems with the soul forge.”

“How is it doing that?”

“It performed a perfect restoration of a body, just as its soul left it. I had to go intercept the soul personally to send it back on its way.”

“How did it do that?” She asked.

“We’re still looking, and we really don’t know. We think it has something to do with the small lightening bolt it sent through her.” He said, “The boss has one of her clerics nearby to investigate, the communion should happen later today. Well, all’s well that ends well. The job has been completely handed off to Idra, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s just fine.”

“Well, as long as it’s in capable hands.” She said. “Say, is Gorus going to make something for the potluck? I remember last year’s dish was amazing!”

The two minor gods left work that day, not knowing the pandemonium that was to follow over the next year.

Idra was not having a good day.

She wasn’t having a bad day, per-say; one of her faithful was brought back to life after all. The problem was how they were brought back.

While she was on a mission to Rongvald, Jace Strongvald’s caravan was ambushed. She was knocked out during the fight and the bandits thought her dead. She would have died there if someone did not make it in time to heal her, so Idra sent word through one of her prelates to hire the adventuring party “Idra’s wings” to assist.

She never liked the name, but it was the decision of that hot-headed beast-folk woman. Qeth didn’t object to it in the end, despite Idra’s protests; the angelic girl has always had a crush on Naphrashi, though she wasn’t quite aware of it.

The situation was somewhat urgent, but if they didn’t make it in time, Qeth would still be able to cast resurrection on the child. The party was making good time, so there shouldn’t have been a problem… but Idra couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

It was extremely confusing, as if the entire world was shuddering at the events that were about to unfold. She could see nothing wrong with the situation. She knew it was urgent, but the feeling that the world gave off was similar to that of a major catastrophe. Something was wrong, and she didn’t know what.

That was until an entirely unknown entity fell from the sky in a ball of fire, landing onto the ruined caravan with all the grace of a boulder.

Now things went from urgent, to downright panic. The entity contained enough energy packed into a small space, that if it’s power leaked, the explosion would destroy half the countryside; what’s worse, it didn’t have a soul.

Not that having a soul was some mark of morality or anything. Many of the enlightened races didn’t have souls, it just meant they were brought about by natural selection, instead of by divine intervention.

Having a soul didn’t make you a good person, and not having one didn’t make you a bad one.

No, the real problem here was the fact that this thing could not be communicated with.

It looked around and tried to get it’s bearings. It might not notice or care about the dying human on the ground, but just to be sure, Idra used up some of her power to give a divine revelation to Qeth. The had to intercept this entity, to see if it could be negotiated with.

In the mean time, her worst fears were realized when the beast, whatever it was, noticed Jace.

At first, Idra was thrown into a blind panic, having no power over the situation until her cleric arrived, she could only sit and watch; that is, until the monster started to work on Jace’s body. Jace was going to die, there should have been no doubt about that, her soul had even disconnected from her body and was starting it’s journey back to the void, and now, she was alive. Well, her body was alive.

Because she was revived too quickly, her soul hadn’t had time to index itself with the soul forge, so it didn’t automatically return to it’s body. Idra had to have one of her people personally go there and set the soul to return.

And that brings us to now. There’s a completely unknown, probably friendly, and extremely powerful entity setting up fortifications around one of her most devout priests that could fool even the most perceptive of adventurers. The worst part is, as soon as it deemed Jace to be safe, it started producing more autonomous entities that seemed to not have any mind of their own. It had them scout out its immediate surroundings as it produced more things.

Finally, it started constructing something that looked like a human body.

When it was done with that, it started moving straight in the direction of Idra’s Wings. It seems to be able to communicate with those flying entities remotely, so it already knows about the adventuring party heading its way.

While the sense of panic had left her, Idra was still extremely apprehensive about what this thing would do to her faithful, so she decided it was time for drastic action.

She would have to visit and talk to this thing herself.