Chapter Sixteen

Igneous buries his head into a soft pillow as he wiggles his body on a soft bed, wrapped in warm blankets. Igneous pulls his body inward and tenses with a silent yawn. Rolling over to his back Igneous allows his eyes to drift open to survey his surroundings. He finds himself in a small room with wooden walls, there is narrow high window allowing dwindling sunlight in behind him, he looks beside him and sees a small wooden table with an unlit lantern and looking down he sees that he is laying on a narrow, but comfortable, bed. The fur blanket that is wrapped around him slides down as he sits up in the bed. Stretching his arms and letting out another yawn, Igneous slips his legs from the blanket and places them on the cold stone floor. Igneous pushes himself off the bed, when he notices a wicker basket with folded clothes and a pair of large brown leather boots next to it. Going through basket, Igneous pulls out a pair of tan leather pants, a white blouse, a dyed red leather jacket with a hood, and black leather gloves. Putting the clothes on he finds that they fit perfectly, the good comes down just enough to cover his horns and casts his face in shadows, the boots and gloves are extra long to accommodate his claws. While the clothes feel a bit constrictive, Igneous finds he rather enjoys them, and this means he has to worry less about people noticing the fact that he’s not human. After taking some time to get accustom to his new clothes, Igneous opens the wooden door to his room with a low creak escaping the doors hinges. Looking out of the door, Igneous finds himself in a hallway lined with more doors and halls extending away. Shrugging, he picks a direction at random and begins walking. After taking a few wrong turns and ending up at dead ends, Igneous comes out into a large room lined with tables, at the tables he sees a dozen priests and priestess eating, at the front of the room, he sees the high-priest, Thomas, sitting with his friends, including Nelly, who looks to be dressed in clothes similar to his except her jacket was green and her hood was pulled back to reveal her wood brown skin and pointed ears. Igneous looks around the room and sees that no one seems shocked or even to care that a non-human sits among them, then looking back at the head table he sees another wood elf, dressed in various shades of green. Stepping more into the room, a few people look to him, but only smile and give him a polite nod. As Igneous gets closer to the head table, Marigold looks up from her now empty plate and sees Igneous, she jumps up as a grin spreads over her face and she waves as she calls to him, “ Hey! Igneous come sit up here!”.

Some of the priest and priestess look up at Marigold’s outburst but shake their heads and smile as they go back to their meals and conversations, most likely used to the young woman’s loud and chipper nature. The rest of table look up at Marigold the follow her line of sight and see Igneous, the group give a various combination of smiles and nods, save for the unknown wood elf. The wood elf smiles and gestures for Igneous to come over. Curious about the elf’s presence, Igneous walks towards the elf, sitting next to Nelly. Nelly smiles and pats the empty seat next to her at the end of the table. The wood elf smiles harder when Igneous gets closer and says, “ Hey, brother. Do you like my new look?”.

Igneous studies the elf, the bark brown skin, a lithe frame that end in thin nimble fingers, the elf has long twisting green hair with flares of color in it, and instead of the typically pale-yellow gold they are deep emerald green. Igneous looks at the elf for a moment before hesitantly asking, “ Yasevl?”.

Yasevl laughs with his hearty hissing laugh and nods, “ Ha-ha, Yes, brother.”.

“ But, how did you—what happen—huh?”, Igneous stumbles through ending with a baffled look across his face unable to fully process everything.

Yasevl looks around the room with a cheerful, but wary eye, then looks back at Igneous and whispers through a smile, “ Not, here. We’ll talk later.”.

Igneous is about to ask why, when Thomas interrupts, “ Please won’t you join us, Igneous.”.

Turing to look at Marigold, Thomas says, “ Marigold why don’t you get Igneous a plate.”, then whispers so only those close by can hear, “ And you could get a little extra yourself.”.

Pure delight engulfs Marigold’s face, she grins and darts off toward a door next to the table. As she rushes in the sound of a crash and clambering metal can be heard followed by Marigold calling out cheerfully, “ I’m okay!”.

Some of the priest and priestess let out a low chuckle at Marigold’s antics, even the high-priest, Thomas, has to stifle a laugh with a cough then says, “ It sure is nice to have her back.”.

Once, Igneous sits down Nelly begins talking a mile a minute, about how she loved her new clothes, how after she had put them on, she had been allowed to go with Nora and Mitch to check out Forestedge, learned so much from Thomas, and how the priest here were really nice and didn’t care that she wasn’t human, and--.

Nelly could have continued on, but Igneous had to stop her, “ What do you mean they don’t care that you, and I assume, Yasevl, and me, aren’t human?”.

“ Like it sounds. Mr. Thomas talks to everyone and told them how we are not the with the elves they had that fight with, and they all seem just fine with it.”, Nelly said like it was the natural thing in the world. Igneous looks over to Thomas, who nods his agreement, then looks over at Yasevl. Yasevl smiles his lips parting to show of perfectly white teeth, leaning forward Yasevl whispers into Igneous’ ear, “ He had a little help from a certain human god.”.

Igneous nods and releases an understanding, “ Ooooh. Okay.”.

Soon after Marigold comes back, with a plate full of steamed vegetables mixed with small chunks of meat and a wooden cup of water. She places this in front of Igneous with a smile, before heading back through the door, only to return a moment later with a plate full of just meat. As Marigold sits down and is getting ready to dig in, she looks up to see all eyes on her, and her plate stacked high with meat. Smiling she asks hopefully, “ No one else wanted seconds, right?”.

Shaking their heads everyone returns back to what they were doing, their own plates till mostly full. Everyone sat in silence ,save for the light conversion here and there, and ate their meals. Igneous, who was still getting used to eating and it’s natural after effects, ate his meal and found it to be quite delicious, even if he couldn’t help ,but eye Marigold’s quickly dwindling tower of meat with envy. Once everyone was finished, a few of the priests came by and picked up everyone’s plates and took them away. After everyone’s plates were taken away, Igneous looks to Yasevl, “ Can we discuss what happened?”.

Thomas interjects with an answer, “ We can talk about this in my study.”.

Igneous rolls his eyes, and lets out a sigh, “ Fine.”.

Thomas gets up and is followed by Yasevl and Igneous, but the others say they have other things to attend to and Nora promised that Nelly could tag along and quickly say their good-byes. Following behind Thomas and Yasevl, Igneous hears Yasevl asks Thomas, “ Has the letter been sent?”.

“ Went out right before we ate. Should be in the capital in a few days.”.

Igneous sighs, another question that will need an answer.

As the sun set behind her, Marigold waves to her friends as they go off to do some last-minute shopping before the shops closed for the day. As they turn around a corner, Marigold makes her way to The Wounded Purse, for a drink and hopes of finding a certain bard. Stepping into the noisy tavern, Marigold spots Vance, the bard, in a corner booth drinking by himself. Grinning, Marigold stops a barmaid and orders a honey ale, then heads over to the bard’s booth. Standing over the table, she bends down and smiles, “ Hey! Care if I join you?”.

Vince jumps slightly, but recovers quickly when he sees who it is, with a smirk says, “ Please do.”.

Darkness swirled around Con, the burrow he had found was now triple the size it was when he had first found it. Out of the dirt and stone, pews had been made and re-enforced with dark energy. An alter rose from the dirt, before his vary eyes. Even in the darkness he could see clearly, just one of the gifts from his new master. The roots that had assaulted him when he first came, were now growing wildly, growing gnarled and sharp, black and red thorns jutting from the walls. A now familiar chill runs down his back signals the presence of his master. A light devouring miasma swirls around Con, before solidifying into the rudimentary shape of a person. His master grinned at him and in a thick dripping voice says, “ Good, my child. My temple is coming along nicely, soon you shall go forth and find more to join our family.”.

Con drops to his knees and places his forehead against the packed dirt floor, “ He’s my lord. Soon divinity shall spread across the kingdom.”.

The darkness grabs Con and forces him to his feet, “ Never kneel to anyone, not even me. You are one of my chosen. Only those not blessed by me should kneel.”.

Con smiles and thanks the darkness. Con’s master swirls about and retreads into the shadows, leaving Con to his own devices. Con sits in one of the pews and closes his eyes. He pulls the shadows to him. As the shadows cascade over him, Con lets out a low and sinister chuckle.

The Grand-Bishop slowly opens his eyes and takes stock of his dark room, looking to his side he sees the still sleeping form of his wife, her breathing giving way to snoring before returning to silent breathing. Smiling, the bishop rubs a gentle finger over his wife’s face, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Taking a moment to clear the sleep from his eyes, the bishop carefully climbs out of bed, making sure not to wake his wife. With all the dexterity of a thief, the man is able to quietly open and close the door to their room before making his way through his large, apartment and into his study. Upon entering the study, the bishop is greeted to the not too unfamiliar sight of his god, studying his collection of books. As the bishop closes the door, Dorean turns to him, “ Hello there, friend we have much to discuss.”.