“H-how did you do that?” one of the workers asked me.

Didn’t they listen to my story...?

“I told you, didn’t I?” I said with a smile.

“B-but...”

“Would the gods really...”

“Maybe not...? But then how...”

As they recovered slightly, the workers started talking among each other in hushed voices.

As far as I knew, the gods had never shown special abilities to the people. They gave “blessings,” and their overwhelming power was obvious to the inhabitants of this world, but nobody truly knew what a god could do or what the rules were. The one thing everyone did seem to agree on, was that the water sources and the ritual platforms were created by the gods, because they didn’t know how else these divine instruments could’ve come into being. Based on that assumption, there weren’t a lot of possible explanations for what Aelene and I were able to do. Our abilities were otherworldly. People had recognized that with her, and my own show went two steps beyond what she could do.

So far so good... I thought. Some of them seemed to lean towards believing my story, and while others were still on the fence, they appeared to have a hard time ignoring what they had seen. At least it had seemed that way.

“This is all nonsense!” one of the guards suddenly blurted out.

Oh? Do we have a skeptic?

“Why would you believe any of this crap!? The gods have never done anything for us! And these ‘divine messengers’ are just like the High Priest and the king! All they want is for you to follow them for their own benefit!”

“Brie... calm down...” another one said in a low voice. “You shouldn’t say something like that in public...”

Sounds like she’s not happy with the administration. She might be like Reurig... Nice.

“I don’t care!” Brie said dismissively. “My parents died doing this job, my brother died doing this fucking job, and now I’m out here, while our esteemed leaders sit behind tall walls, sipping tea, or whatever they’re doing all day long!” she said and then turned to me. ”And you? You want us to follow you as well, right? You saw it work well for that Hope girl, and now you want to try the same thing! But her oh so great divine blessings didn’t change anything for us! Ten minutes ago we almost died!”

“I’m sorry to hear how much you have lost, and I’m sorry that the gods didn’t send me sooner,” I said.

“I don’t care if you’re sorry, just leave us alone,” she shot back, and the guards in particular seemed to agree with her assessment. They were disappointed by their leaders. Even though Aelene had promised them that their lives would improve, nothing had changed out here. If I were just another “Hope,” there would be no reason to listen to anything I had to say. Smart girl.

“I hear you. Words are meaningless,” I said. “Anyone can make grand speeches, and the last ‘divine messenger’ you saw did little to nothing for you, the people. But how could she? After all, she doesn’t actually have any abilities that would let her do anything for you. Let me prove to you that I’m different. One question, how often are you attacked by beasts out here?”

Surprised at my inquiry, the guards briefly looked between each other, until Bren answered with one eyebrow raised. “Almost every day. Do the gods not know that?”

“Haha, you know they do, but I’m still human, and they could only impart a certain amount of knowledge. So you’re getting attacked almost every day... I must say, I’m impressed that you manage to keep these people safe on a daily basis.”

Almost every day...? That’s much more than I thought. The guards may look young and inexperienced, but they’re evidently doing a good job under the circumstances.

“I can’t believe they would send you out here with only one squad if you’re getting attacked that frequently though. It’s disgraceful. I will make you a promise. This was the last time you were attacked by a beast in this camp.”

Another few moments of confusion and unbelieving looks followed, before Brie piped up again. “Riiight,” she said with a derisive laugh. “While you’re at it, why not make it so the trees fall and climb onto the wagons on their own, so the people don’t have to do it? Oh, and a banquet would be nice, so we can eat something while we wait for the trees to do their new job.”

A few people laughed at the ridiculous mental image, and my barely existing reputation seemed to take a small hit, but I could work with this. “I’ll see what I can do,” I said, still smiling. “We’ll see each other again in a few days. Take care.”

As I turned around and started walking away, I heard Bren yell at me from behind. “Hey! Stop right there! I never said I was letting you go!”

When I didn’t stop, I could hear someone follow me with quick steps, until both of my arms were being held from behind. “You’re coming back to town with us!” Bren said.

Glancing behind me, he was apparently the only one gungho about taking me in, as the other guards hadn’t moved an inch. I thought that Fae might interject again, but she seemed to be just as unsure about the whole situation as everybody else.

“Bren,” I started, “in the interest of you, your men, and the workers here, you should let go of me. I can guarantee you that I won’t be going with you. You’re in a privileged position though. I will grant you true blessings previously unknown to the people of this world, and you’re the first ones to benefit from them. You will enjoy safety, and by spreading the word, you will have done your part in furthering the gods’ agenda. Life will be good, assuming that I won’t have to defend myself.”

His grip on me loosened slightly, but he didn’t let go yet. “I don’t trust you.”

“Heh, and you shouldn’t. At least not yet,” I said in a whisper. “But you should act in your best self-interest. Let me go and go back to your men.”

I started walking again, and my arms slipped through his hands. Without looking back, I disappeared into the forest, my steps quickening once the camp and the people were out of sight.

***

As I hurried through the forest, Reurig appeared at my side.

“Looks like that went relatively well...” he said.

“Yea, it did. That beast was unexpected though. You thought we were done for?”

“I did... I’m sorry...”

“I get it, we’re good.”

Reurig knew what a category six can do, and he had determined that fighting it would be suicide for us. If he had been right, coming to our help would’ve been nothing but a nice gesture, with all of us dying in the end, which would’ve helped nobody.

‘You’re good!? I’m not! He left us for dead!’

“It’s okay, Lilana, really. We’ll talk about it later.”

“What actually happened there...? Why did the beast back down?” Reurig asked.

“I can’t say for sure yet, but I think it recognized that I was the stronger one.”

“But how? Many Fighters can easily dominate category ones and twos, like Captain Lera, but I’ve never heard of anybody scaring a beast away like that!”

I had yet to process everything that had happened, but that question probably only had one answer. “I’m guessing it’s because of the mana. It’s what makes beasts stay away from us, and even though stronger ones don’t seem to be affected as much, that shock wave showed the little guy what I was capable of.”

“... the ‘little guy?’”

“You’ve got to admit that it was cute.”

“... are we still talking about the beast that tried to kill you and everyone else in that camp?”

“Hm, maybe it’s just me.”

‘I do still think it was cute...’

“And Lilana,” I said with a chuckle. “Anyway, we’ll have to get to work.”

Now that I had made promises to the people, we would have to make damn sure to make good on them, or they wouldn’t listen to us again. We couldn’t hang around the camp all day, so we had to keep the beasts away in a different way. While staying there and protecting the workers would technically work to keep them safe, we wanted the lack of beasts to appear like a miracle and a blessing, and for that, we couldn’t be seen near the camp. Not to mention that all of this would have to work without us on site anyway in the future. However, we would at least need to patrol the area a little, in case another high level beast appeared. For now, we followed the cub’s tracks, to make sure that it actually left.

“Are these the same kind of tracks you saw earlier?” I asked Reurig.

“I think so. I hadn’t seen these kinds of tracks before, I thought it was a smaller cat five. When I actually saw the beast itself though, I knew that I made a mistake.”

“Can you tell me something? Why is that only ranked at six? It’s way too fast, how is anyone supposed to fight it? And how could any of the higher ones be worse than that?”

“As far as I know, the categories are just based on physical strength. Cat sixs are fast, but if you use bait to distract it you can get hits in, and then it’s barely stronger than a five.”

“So you have to sacrifice people to fight it... that’s tough.”

“It is, though at the end of the day, the result is pretty much always the same. No matter what kind of high cat beast you fight, you rarely leave with more than half of the people you started off with.”

“Right. Well, let’s hope we can fix all that.”

“I need to ask you something as well. Why did you let it go?”

The guards had glossed over that, but they probably just went with my explanation about gods and their no-violence policy. Reurig, however, knew that I didn’t believe in any of that, and it also hadn’t been part of any of our plans. A big reason for him to join us was that he had been fed up with risking his life. Letting a beast live, especially one so dangerous, must’ve seemed weird to him. He probably expected that it had been a calculated decision though, which was only partially true.

The idea that I wanted to spare this animal, this beast, would probably be difficult to accept for people. Especially for those who regularly risked their lives or had lost people. After this encounter, I saw beasts in a new light though, and I thought that there might be other ways to handle them than waging war. However, I didn’t know whether I could become the top dog among the beasts in this area or something, to keep all of them under control, so preaching peace between humans and beasts would sound absolutely ridiculous. For the time being, I would stick with my other reasons for letting it go.

“It felt right at that moment. Think about it, they know I could’ve killed it, and it completely surrendered to me. I dominated it without harming it. This being would’ve probably killed everyone in that camp, yet the new, benevolent divine messenger let it go, as one of the gods’ creations, and all that nonsense. Also, I have to admit, I was really fascinated by it cowering before me. I want to know more about our effect on beasts.”

Reurig nodded in understanding. “You’re right, it was a sight to behold. The guards didn’t really react to it, but they surely will when they think back to it. And you still showed them your power. Hm. I agree, this was probably effective.”

Once we were sure that the beast was gone for now, we changed course and eventually reached a point a little over a kilometer north-east of the camp, close to the treeline behind which we would find the open field outside Alarna’s walls, which I could catch glimpses of through the trees.

‘Wow, somehow the walls look even bigger from the outside.’

“Mhm, pretty imposing. I fled town twice, but this is the first time I’m actually looking at the walls,” I said with a chuckle.

“We should probably get started, right? There’s only a few more hours until we lose the daylight,” Reurig said.

“Right, let’s get to it.”