Waking up, I get immediately blinded by opening my eyes in a bright white room. There, again, two figures are sitting. Straining my eyes full of retina burn, I could tell one of them was lithy and the other, Klast.

Although normally looking as if he was about to kill everybody in the room with a face permanently pressed with scorn, with a large and outwardly ruffian physique that would cause even higher beings to shudder. Now, he showed an expression of notable contempt my direction me. His blood-red eyes staring daggers into me, with his dark-skin having a red hue.

“Sam, there is a limit to how many gods, deities or whatever I wish pestering me. Regardless, we have business so let us not digress,” he bluntly stated, letting Lithy fill me with the details.

“So, this little fiasco happened at a terrible timing. To cut a long story short, a majority of the treant population are causing an uprising within most of the forests on the continent as a whole. Warning they will cause as much damage as possible in a week given no decision is reached in time, which we know will not happen. Though they do have a valid reason, ‘tis a bit of a concern and limiting the situation has become a priority A request for every guild in the country… including ours. Now, the members protected by the gods will likely have you identified as a non-issue due to the priority, and I will try to get the others to ignore the issue as I announce the situation to everyone as a whole… Yet, with a request of this magnitude, I feel that even the remnants of a drama will become an issue. So, I implore you to deal with it as soon as possible. I have a plan in place to help you do so, just do not try to aggravate the situation further.” She explained, allowing no time for comments and expressing a strict, non-nonsense tone.

“I will do my best. However, will you actually allow me to explain the situation in full master Klast? Leaving anything out will only lead to more questions,” I commented, pressuring the person who fumed with fury already.

“Go ahead,” he answered, filling every syllable with emphasis.

“Meeting adjourned.”

With the swift conversation over, I end up waking in the real world. My eyes, although severely in pain during the seancing, had no such issue now. The light in the room was about normal for when I wake up, and I could hear footsteps quickly closing on through the door.

Preempting whoever they were, I opened the door… getting hit in the face by something hard and falling due to it.

‘Uh… Sam? Are you… okay? I-I… I’m sorry. S-sorry, please follow me though.’ S helped me up and then bowed profusely, apologizing.

Having a revelation about how S always woke me up with her knocking alone, I then proceeded to shake it off and followed her without more conversation.

She lead me to the shrine room- the room directly opposite of the dining room. In it was a simple and humble shrine with a statue of Lithy at its centre at the front, and nine seats- six of which packed with all the members of the guild par me, S and Charles. There was no conversation of curiosity or any other icebreaking topic, although the silence is occasionally broken with a yawn I don’t bother to locate the source of.

-

Eventually Charles came, entering without a word and filling the final chair swiftly.

A light filled the room. An intense blue coming from the statue, as movements behind the veil of light became evermore present.

As suddenly as it came, it vanished like mist into the background. The statue being replaced by a moving, living being. The avatar of Lithy, with identical looks.

Without room for commentary, she explained the situation in full, “To those who have no gods, let me explain the situation. There is a priority A quest coming in a week, and I can see the seeds of distrust in your relationship due to a specific recent ordeal. I implore you to follow what I say without question to sort things out. So, I have arranged a trip for all of you in the neighboring country of Alpatoa, one of the more vibrant nations with both great scenes of nature and a strong, quirky culture. All I want you to do: relax and get rid of the animosity building within you. Now then, the arranged carriage will arrive in an hour from now. This is no joke, for the reasons stated, this is imperative you obey the request.” Taking a deep breath, she continued to ask, “Any questions.”

The room was in silence as she finished. From the expression on those who had faces, confusion over it reached critical mass. Even Helen and Serv reacted by blankly staring into space, trying to compute the situation in front of us.

To break the ice, Charles simply asked, “Sorry Goddess Lithy, but who do you see as right?”

“After using judgement and talking to other gods, I can only say I believe his surreal story. Those with gods of their own should also reach this conclusion to it in due time. Any more questions?”

A unanimous nod ended the conversation then are there. With everyone splitting up to pack their needed stuff.

-

Soon the deadline had come, and as we lined up outside in silence. Everyone carried their own necessities, with me not even offering to store anything. The carriage came a few minutes out of time, and we all fit in with no delay.

A thick atmosphere of brooding and confusion filled the journey with silence. With me taking an end seat, with S next to me and Jacq on the other side. Helen, Serv and Grey filled up the direct opposite side of the carriage, Mask, Charles and Jessica sitting central.

-

The tense aura inside made it so I couldn’t sleep, so instead, I viewed the scenery gradually change out of the window. Adding to the silence. Even with this said, the journey wasn’t ‘short’, with a few hours travelling to the coast, upon which we boarded a ship which brought us to an island, where we spent another hour travelling on land.

However, eventually the journey ended. Trees pink with blossoms lined the streets, oriental arches loomed over a path on a nearby hill and the sunset died the orderly streets with wooden houses scarlet, all of which greeted our collected vision as we exited. The building we were guided to was only four stories, but with lack of competition from the ordinary houses- which seemed more like huts with their short height- it poked out of the horizon with ease. A massive sign over the archaic wooden building read ‘Hakimora Resort’.

We entered in silence, the scenery doing nothing to stop the doomed atmosphere around us.

Upon entering, the otherwise cheery employees sporting unusual clothing, all did their job around us succinctly. Actively avoiding us in the process. All have a similar aesthetic to them. The humans, elves and other races all sharing tanned skin and similar facial features such as extremely thin eyes.

The person behind the counter who spoke to us simply explained in our language, “Our resort has separate bathing and rooms for the genders… So, the males get room 19 and the females get room 20, our employees will inform you when the baths are open for your use. We suggest which for the sake of sorting out room service. As only a few of us speak your language, we request you to wait upon us doing our routine services unless absolutely necessary. Unless you have any questions: here are your keys, as you have booked the rooms for two nights and one day, please enjoy your stay. Any questions?”

There are none. And with the awkward silence continuing, we split by gender and enter our rooms unimpeded.

-

With Charles, Mask, Grey and myself setting up our bedding, a conversation eventually begins with a simple question asked.

Grey, tapping my back, forced me to look in his eyes and asked, “Sam, is the absurd story we were told through miss Serv translating miss S’s recollection correct?”

Unflinching, I replied, “What did S… Ser… What story did you hear?” I stuttered slightly simply due confusion on how to word the question.

“I heard you were a slave, who killed your master somehow and then got smited by the high council for doing so. If you confirm the story, give me an explanation on how killing a master and causing such a big scene in the high council is possible, if you will,” The other two nodded with Grey’s sentiment, all focusing on me with baited breath.

On purpose, I face Grey in particular with a grin etched into my face. “It is all true. I will answer your question, but I can not find it fair if I am the only one bearing my life story. So, how about you tell me about this legendary weapon I heard about from Logan, mister… Jacob was it?”

“How do you know?!” Grey’s face immediately turned flush as he grabbed my collar and forced me against a wall. Charles's jaw gaped as he stared witlessly, meanwhile Mask, although intrigued, instead wore a smile as if revelling in the chaos.

“I got seanced by two gods simultaneously yesterday, so they had a fight. During which, your god basically spilled everything to me arguing with the other god for right to seance me. Has he not told you?”

“I… I haven’t talked to him in years… Fine, I will discuss this after you do.”

“Fine, would prefer not to repeat myself again and discuss this in front of everyone, but I will bear with it for this once. To answer your first query, to shock no one, I use void magic remember this. Being a pure archer class, I was worthless to my owners, so I ended up being taught magic to my value rise. Guess what a slave collar does? It decapitates its wearer if violence is done to the owner by the slave… even if it is on the owner. Put two and two together, and you get a master killed by their own collar they attributed to me after I grabbed their shirt. For your second, I was enslaved in the underrealm by a trafficking clan. And the high council didn’t know which realms laws to apply. With the outcome being decided by underrealm laws even though I was born, and was released back to this one. Does this answer your questions?”

Without letting anyone have a word in, Mask snapped at me, “I have a few more, brat… Why didn’t you just say this in the first place? Why did we need to find out through Serv skeptically translating S’s recounting of your story? And why did you add in so many deals now?”

The rest nodded in approval at his questions.

“It was classified by the god I serve and the high council, with my identity being anonymous to a point of absurdity during the proceedings. I was not even allowed to attend. The case was about to overflow into outright war between the gods of the different realms, Mine was not the first case of the varying realms conflicting with each other unfavourably in the high court, yet it was the most egregious by far. And, to understate the drama, gods of this realm and the ‘underrealm’ do not get along. When you said to go to the priesthood, I could not allow it simply to limit the damage of the situation- which was indeed by my god’s orders to minimize those who found out. So, until the situation favoured honesty and with Lithy, Logan and the other god down his throat, my god did not wish for any of this to be known for his own sake. Does this answer your questions?”

Mask nodded. Through his mask of which only his eyes showed, I could tell from the fact he was staring into space that he was in deep thought. The others also showed similar reactions, contemplating the story.

I soon snapped back to Grey, who was still in deep thought, and simply changed the topic to pressure him. “So, about the legendary weapon Grey…”