For the speech to the priests, I gave control over to Lilana for the first time in a while during the day. Since she lived in the temple, she knew many of them, and it might’ve been difficult for me to really interact with them. After the priests had gathered in the garden, Lilana briefly addressed them, telling everyone what had happened to her once more. She naturally stuck to our story and only added a few personal details. The priests looked uncertain about the whole situation at first, and there might’ve been rumors about what had happened to Lilana before she returned, but after hearing everything from her perspective, they seemed to be coming around.

One question that was raised was why we didn’t have a divine aura, like Aelene did, but they seemed to accept the answer that different people had different auras easily enough.

“These abilities can be imitated to a degree, but controlling them is difficult,” Lilana said. “People who manage to activate them have an aura, but Aelene wasn’t able to subdue hers at first. It wasn’t really divine, it was just out of control.”

Having answers really made all the difference. As long as you were able to explain everything, people were bound to lean towards trusting you. The last question she had to answer was whether everyone could imitate these powers. A very valid and natural question if you were told that someone else had done it. After all, even if you would just imitate the abilities, they were still impressive and useful.

“It is possible,” Lilana said, but before anyone could get their hopes up, she continued. “However, the process is difficult, costly, and very dangerous. Aelene could’ve easily died, and I could not bear the thought of someone risking their lives just to become an imposter in the eyes of the gods.”

Out there, the large crowd had been easily swayed and everyone had gone with hit, but here, in front of only about fifty priests, some did voice their opinions much more freely. Lilana referenced the gods time and time again, like a magic wand, to wave away doubts or criticisms. The High Priest couldn’t be as evil as we made him out to be? Well, the gods beg to differ. We couldn’t come in here and just take over? That’s what the gods told us to do though. Were we really a divine messenger? Duh, where else did our powers come from?

The gods... I thought, as I listened to Lilana slowly shutting down even the last skeptic. Speaking in the name of the gods seemed to never be a problem in any world, as long as you were some kind of religious leader. Do they truly know what the gods think though? Of course not, how could they? All humans ever did was interpret whatever had been told or written about the gods and their ideology. In my old life, under the assumption that gods weren’t real, this made perfect sense. It’s not like you could actually ask them. Here, however, gods did exist, and every time we spoke in their name, I almost expected one of them to come down and shut us up.

Maybe they didn’t really care about us “lowly beings,” but then again, they had shown up multiple times to interfere with our lives, so they weren’t entirely hands-off. They also did make appearances from time to time, which didn’t quite fit either. Typically, a god would appear, people gathered, they would bless them, and that was it. From what I had been told, the gods usually didn’t even talk much to the people. Not that normal people would be able to have a nice chat when they were under the effect of a divine aura.

What job exactly would a god even do anyway...? I thought. Let’s say they created the world, and maybe even everything on it. What then? Do they sit back and watch us live our lives, like some kind of reality show? Were they responding to prayers all day long, like genies? That seemed unlikely. There was also a whole group of gods here, and I assumed they would have to be doing... something all day long.

According to this world’s lore, there were twelve gods in total, each one with a job to fulfill. One was responsible for the wellbeing of the humans, one for the beasts, one for the water sources, one for the rituals, and so on. Eight of them were responsible for the day to day operations, so to speak, while four of them ruled over the others as the “council.” Like many religious beliefs, this made some sense on the surface, but we knew that the water sources and the ritual platforms didn’t require “divine assistance.” They were running on Omega. Now, there might be a god responsible for running Omega scripts, as unlikely as I thought that was, but that would be just one job. What about the other eleven gods then?

I also questioned the need for a “god of beasts.” Since beasts looked and acted so much like animals in my eyes, I assumed that they would surely reproduce naturally. But even if not, why would they even have a god whose job it is to produce more of them? Especially if, according to the temple’s own teachings, a god had died at the hand of a beast in the past? Celeth had supposedly been instructed to reel his creations in, to let humans have a shot at living, and he failed, at least partially. He was killed, but afterwards the gods decided they would still create more beasts, out of some kind of obligation? The story seemed a little convoluted.

The only conclusion I could come to was that humans had made up most, if not all of it. They tried to explain how the world worked and they based their stories on what they had on hand. In this case: A group of otherworldly beings that lived somewhere and did something. They weren’t humans, and they seemed powerful and knowledgeable, of course they had to be the creators of the universe. Are their names even right? Or how many of them there are? Where exactly did this information come from?

Lilana had had every resource at her disposal growing up, but even she hadn’t been able to answer that question for me. There was apparently one text that described the creation of the world, which also spoke of the gods and what their purpose was, but nobody even knew who had written this document. It was all so obscure that I had to meet a borderline fanatic priestess-to-be to tell me about it, because common people like Tomar or Berla knew little to nothing about all of this. On the other hand, there were rumors about the temple that apparently weren’t true at all, such as them being able to summon gods. “I wish!” had been Lilana’s response to this claim I had heard about.

The divine beings of this world were a mystery that nobody had actually solved yet, and unless a god came down here to clear things up, they might even stay a mystery. Though I was a little too curious about them to just forget all about it. I wonder if we could protect ourselves from them somehow... Luring Gallas here with another ritual would probably not be an issue, the question is just “what then?”

“Praise be to the gods!”

As Lilana’s speech came to an end, the priests seemed content with their new situation and stood in prayer. Nothing would change about their lives for now. They would just not answer to the upper clergy anymore, which many quite liked, as it gave them more freedom. There also wouldn’t be a High Priest anymore, only the divine messenger, appointed by the gods.

Lilana was the one who would take over the temple, so I let her work out how she wanted to operate from here, though we had agreed that, down the line, the temple would have less influence over the daily lives of the people. She wanted to lead the true believers, and she still wanted to spread their faith, but she had no interest in leading those who didn’t care about the gods.

‘Good job,’ I said as we left the garden and Lilana gave control back to me mid-step. It had been her first speech, but she had done well.

‘Thanks!’ she said happily, now on the backseat.

Though she probably went over it again and again in her mind, like some weirdo who does nothing but think and plan all day long.

***

While Tomar and I made our way to the prison, Berla stayed at the temple, wanting to rest a little. Our new guards were with us though. In the heat of the moment, I had agreed to let Bren and Brie guard us, and getting accompanied by guards felt appropriate, but this would also make speaking freely more difficult. While I was kind of used to that from our time in Cerus, it was also a little annoying. I need to be more careful about what I say and do.

It had been about an hour since I spoke to the people and most of them had left by now, but the main square was by no means empty, as it was still the middle of the day. While we weren’t swarmed by people, we couldn’t walk ten meters without having to greet someone. Now I was starting to be thankful for our guards being here, however, because they seemed to be the reason people were holding back, always eyeing them before saying anything to me and Tomar. Maybe they knew this would happen, when I hadn’t even thought about it yet. Having guards might not be such a bad idea after all.

As we got closer to the prison, I could see two guards out front, who seemed very uncertain about what they were doing right now, whispering to each other, and looking around restlessly. I would be more surprised if they were certain, however, seeing how they had kind of let themselves be pushed into imprisoning their leaders. Eventually, they noticed us approaching and fixed their eyes on me. I didn’t recognize them, and both were a little older than the guards I had interacted with so far.

“Hello, gentlemen,” I said with a smile and came to a stop a few meters in front of them.

“You...” one of them said. I thought he meant me, but his head suddenly snapped to my left, where Bren stood.

“Dad... Sorry about this,” he said.

Oh... Huh. Your dad does not look happy, Bren.

“Is this what your happy future looks like? With our king in shackles!?” Bren’s father said.

“Why should he not be in prison? He did things that were wrong, and now he’s receiving his punishment!” Bren responded.

Clearly, my companions weren’t the only ones who had been surprised by my sudden decision to gun for the top right away. Bren and the others had spread my story and my hopes for a safe future for everyone, but they hadn’t known what would happen here today, and it might’ve caught some people off guard. Based on the argument between these two though, his father wasn’t a fan of me in general, and he probably didn’t like Bren wanting to follow me at all.

“Will you please just let me make my own decisions!?” Bren said.

“Not if you’re going to betray everything our family stands for, boy! Not if you betray your king and your town, and follow some... girl from the woods!”

Okay, this is getting tiring.

“Excuse me,” I said, stepping up to him. “You’re not a fan of me I take it, but aren’t we past the point where arguing about it is going to change anything? I understand your concerns, but I would like to ask you to give me a chance.”

“Is that so!? Little Miss Angel understands my concerns! The world is good then, praise the gods or whatever!” he spat. “You’re a child! Just like my boy! What do you know about life!?”

My smile widened. Is it weird that I feel better now, after meeting someone who hates my guts? I would get seriously paranoid if every single person treated me like a gift from the gods.