Berla was right in saying that this felt a little like Cerus all over again. We had to figure out certain things about the scripts, there was an opponent we had to best, and while I had ideas and theories on how to do that, we didn’t have a proper plan. The only thing that’s missing now, is a few gods showing up to mess with our experiments again...

Despite all this, the others trusted my judgment, and we would go with my approach. However, before we could get to that, we had to explain a few things to a group of people who would otherwise be very confused about what I was going to tell the citizens later.

I had asked Bren and Brie to get Garn and Pallo, our other guards, and come to the office. After about half an hour, they knocked on the door, and the four Fighters entered the room. It was a little unusual to see them all in one place for a change, since they would usually swap out without us really noticing.

“Good morning, thank you for coming,” I said, and gestured towards the chairs on the other side of the desk. Since there were only two, however, they apparently all decided to stand.

Bren and Brie looked a little on edge, presumably because they thought to know what this was about. They had seen Lilana’s body, and while they accepted my explanation that Lilly was now inside Tomar, a dead body still meant that something or someone had killed her. Not to mention that the wound had been substantial. This was only part of what I wanted to talk to them about though.

“Is it just you?” Garn asked as he looked around the room.

He was searching for Lilly, so Bren and Brie had evidently done as asked and not told the others about what happened yet.

“Just me,” I said quietly, repeating his words, while briefly thinking about how to start.

“Garn...” Bren said, admonishing him about asking this question that could be interpreted rather negatively.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said with a chuckle.

“Don’ worry, I know what you meant,” I said. “Though you’re slightly off. I’m not Tomar.”

“Huh?” he said, confused.

“You’ll understand in a minute. But let me begin by telling you that I’m about to let you in on a few secrets that might come as a shock to you, and you can’t tell anyone about them. If this is not acceptable to you, I must ask you to leave and report to Captain Grym for reassignment.”

This alone already surprised all four of them, but especially Garn and Pallo, who didn’t have any idea what this meeting was about yet. However, while they all looked between each other, none of them made to leave, and I continued after a couple of seconds had passed.

“Very well. Let’s start then. How familiar are you with category ten beasts?”

Our guards were still young, a little inexperienced, and they had only ever been assigned as guards for the lumberjacks so far. At least before I accepted them as Lilly’s personal guards, since they had shown that they could be trusted. However, due to their inexperience, only Bren had heard the rumors about the strongest kinds of beasts yet, so I began by explaining to them what other parts of the world looked like. They knew that the outside world was dangerous, but this still came as a shock to them.

“No way...” Brie said.

“H-human sacrifices?” Garn stammered.

“Alarna really is blessed by the gods then,” Pallo commented, looking a little relieved.

“Unfortunately...” I continued, and piled what we had learned from Hayla and Hertar on top.

After I was done telling them about the category ten beast that had had Alarna in its grasp for almost as long as the town existed, even Bren was shocked. Though realization seemed to dawn on Bren and Brie now, who now presumably had an inkling of what happened to Lilana.

“Last night... we went to look for this beast, wanting to learn more about what we’re dealing with. But we weren’t prepared for what awaited us there.”

“Wait. Where is Lilly? Don’t tell me...” Garn said in a panic.

“Lilly is still here,” I said. “In fact, I am Lilly.”

With scrutinizing looks, they waited for me to continue.

“I was killed by this beast, but Tomar used his abilities to pull my soul out of the dead body, and into his, to save my life. We’re currently both occupying his body. This part Bren and Brie already knew about, as they were there last night.”

Wide-eyed, Garn and Pallo looked at the two of them, who nodded in confirmation.

“I did think that you weren’t talking like Tomar...” Garn said. “That’s amazing though! Does that mean you can’t die?”

“Honestly, I don’t know the exact rules,” I said. “Though I’m not looking forward to figuring out my limits either.”

“Right, that makes sense,” he said.

“So you really met this beast... and you lost...” Bren said.

“We did... and someone died for good. The body I was in was not mine. For all intents and purposes, I am Lilly, but the person you saw every day was a girl named Lilana. The same way I’m inside Tomar now, I was inside her before.”

I waited a moment for them to process this information. Bren was the first to break the ensuing silence.

“Does that mean that you’re... taking over people’s bodies...?” he said, sounding a little worried.

“No, it’s more of a sharing situation,” I said.

“So... the divine messenger the gods sent is a separate person who goes inside other people?” Pallo asked, bewildered.

That explanation works... let’s go with it.

“You could put it like that, yes.”

“The body we cremated last night was a dead girl then, but it wasn’t Lilly. Now I understand why you guys were so sad. My sympathies,” Brie said, looking at everyone in our group in turn.

“Thank you,” I said.

The discussion was going well. With Bren and Brie having witnessed my transfer from Lilana to Tomar, even if they didn’t understand what had happened, and with the explanation that Lilly was simply a separate being, this story sounded very believable, and it was close to the truth.

We didn’t have much of a choice but to let them in on this, because they had seen the dead Lilana, and they knew that “Lilly” was still here. I didn’t know how to explain to them that Lilly would not make any more appearances without this background information.

“But what happens now?” Bren asked. “These kinds of beasts... they want sacrifices, and it’s the same with this one, isn’t it?”

“It is, but it’s not going to get them from us,” I said. “We have some time until we have to see it again, and until that time comes, we will develop a method to get rid of it.”

“Is that actually possible...?” Bren asked. “What my father told me was that no army has ever managed to kill a category ten. I mean, Alarna never went up against one as far as I know, but I doubt that the number of Fighters really matters at a certain point...”

“You’re right, throwing more Fighters at this problem won’t do anything, but we will do everything we can to stop the beast, and I know what we need. Once we’re done, Alarna will truly become a beast-free zone.”

Their faces lit up again at this. In their eyes, Lilly had basically never failed before last night, and when I said we would get this done, they shouldn’t have much of a reason to doubt my words.

“We trust you, Lilly,” Bren said.

“I’m happy to hear that, because there is one more thing I need to tell you about...”

***

The group’s personal guards left the office after their meeting with Lilly, and Pallo immediately gestured for the others to follow him down the hallway, to talk about what they had just learned.

“What do you think about this...?” he asked the others.

“What do you mean?” Garn asked.

“What do I...? Everything!” Pallo said, exasperated. “‘She’ just said that she swapped bodies! Do you believe that?”

The other three looked a little confused between themselves, as if there wasn’t anything unusual about this, though they did realize that none of this was normal from an outside perspective.

“I don’t think anything can surprise me anymore with Lilly,” Bren said. “Okay, you’re still new on guard duty here, but you’ve seen her in the Wildlands. And you’ve heard about everything she’s done. Is what you just heard really that far fetched?”

“That’s right,” Garn said. “Also, if that wasn’t Lilly just now... it would have to have been Tomar, and he does not talk like that.”

With unbelieving eyes, Pallo turned towards Brie. “What about you? You were always critical about her!”

“Well, yes,” Brie said hesitantly, “but I trust them by now. All they’ve done is pretty amazing, and they’re even going to fight a category ten beast! For the sake of all of us! Honestly... I kind of wish I could see that.”

There were still skeptics among the citizens, even if they weren’t directly opposing the group. However, there was a direct correlation between proximity and trust towards Lilly, because those who were closest to her were basically not surprised by anything anymore, and the group’s guards were almost always with them. The only one present who hadn’t spent as much time with them yet was Pallo, who only recently partnered up with Garn, as a replacement for Alde, who was injured when Eissen attacked the temple.

“So you believe all of it...?” Pallo asked them again.

“Why would she lie about these things?” Bren asked.

“Because they could take over the city! What if they killed Lilly, and everything they said was just a cover? That would also explain the story they want to tell the people about Lilly!”

“You better be careful,” Garn said, “that’s quite an accusation. And if you were right, that would mean you’d have to deal with Tomar, who might even be stronger than Lilly.”

“Pallo,” Bren started, “I can’t give you proof, but I do believe that the things she just told us are true. Everything fits, and she sounded genuine.”

“We should probably start saying ‘he,’” Brie suggested.

“Right,” Bren agreed. “He sounded genuine. I have no reason to doubt his words, so we’re going to keep doing our jobs. Take that as an order if necessary.”

Pallo looked back at them unhappily. He wasn’t necessarily thinking that everything had been a lie, but he also wouldn’t just believe it blindly. There was no proof that there was a category ten beast lurking in the shadows, and before today he hadn’t even heard about such beasts terrorizing other towns. Had it not been for Bren knowing about threats like this, Pallo might not have believed that part at all. As it stood, however, he apparently wouldn’t be able to convince his companions to think twice about what Lilly told them.

Reluctantly, he nodded in response to Bern’s order, though he swore to himself to keep a close eye on things.