Baer 2nd, 4288: 63 Days in the mortal realm
This morning I had woken up feeling particularly good. But those good feelings dashed after our little meeting with Soap.
“Knowing we are a nights rest away from Hommlet, I figured I’d give you guys a little run down of the place just so you’re not taken terribly by surprise,” Soap began. I raised an eyebrow in suspicion of what place we were venturing to if we had to be warned.
"It use to be quite the city," he explained, "About twice the size it is today. It started out as just another farming village, but when the kingdom was divided into Dukedoms a couple hundred years ago, Hommlet found itself right between the two most important dukedoms, and our modern day Cities of Lupik and Calik. Business boomed and the little village suddenly found itself growing faster than any other city in the country. Within a decade it was the same size as either of the duke's cities, and a few decades after it was twice their size. Unfortunately, such prosperity tends to attract unwanted attention. I don't know all the details, but about a hundred years ago a cult was discovered trying to open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Evil. Paladins and Clerics from all over were sent in to fight off the demonic hordes and after several days of hard fighting, the cult was destroyed and their underground temple was sealed.
"Unfortunately for Hommlet and its remaining inhabitants, the taint of the evil made others weary and they stayed away for years, starving Hommlet's economy. It's really only been in the last few decades that Hommlet's begun to make a comeback. There have been rumors of a new evil stirring in the land and, naturally, people have been wanting to point the finger at Hommlet. Lots of adventurers have gone through Hommlet lately, looking for clues. Me and my companions even looked around for a while, but didn't find anything other than a bunch of hard used people who are weary of outsiders and have a big dislike of anything evil or demonic. We might go have a look at look at Nulb, an annexed part of the old Hommlet where the cult was based. There is a sealed Temple there,” Soap said with more excitement, seeming to forget he was intending to give us a rundown of Hommlet and not of the evil relics, “We, my party that is, figure there's a good chance for some ancient relics in the temple that we could salvage. Nothing we'd use for ourselves, of course,” Soap quickly tacked onto the end. He then rifled through his bag and brought out a sheaf of parchment.
“Here,” he said, “I found this in Lupik’s Dukedom. It was just laying around, I swear, with a few others even,” Soap said, putting too much emphasis on 'finding' the parchment. Once he too in our looks, he frowned and rolled his eyes, “We did buy one, at an unreasonable price curse that Cleric and her guilty feelings,” he then trailed off in some mutterings that seemed to be directed at Florence
“I’m sorry... Here’s what I was meaning to show you,” Soap then unraveled the parchment and we could clearly see a map. At the center of the map was a collection of tiny dots, each labeled with a name as followed:
Araja Eloirakn of Celestia (cast-out)*
Raæin of the Forgotten Lands
Cortanna Elvenshrine (a.k.a. Cortanna Paddockson)
Neigh-huh-hehe-hrumph (a.k.a. Fire-That-Kills, Briar)*
Rekka Sangrail*
Bar Wench Jessica
_________(a.k.a. First-High-Priest-Of-Highnulfia, Enslaver-Of-Nations, Isaac)*.
There were also dots and names for the Rogue and the other folk traveling with us. The little star next to some of our names were symbols too small for us to see.
"It's a useful map," the Rogue continued, proud of the map he had found, "since it'll give you everyone's true name in case they try to give you a false name. It'll also show you nearby roads, towns, and even hidden stuff like lost ruins. That's how we found the Dwarven ruins in the first place. It'll even give you clues about how to get past obstacles and to avoid traps. Yes indeed, quite a useful map. Of course, the map doesn't show non-humanoids very well, so you have to watch out for monsters and things. And the map is completely useless on undead and constructs.
"My last word of advice about the map, only ask it for help directly if you really need it. It can help you out only a couple times a week, but it's help is phenomenal, so don't waste it. You never know when you're going to need help. If ever you're lost, you can ask the map for directions to any location and it will show you, perfectly. Every aspect of every turn in the road will be given to the holder of the map, and that information will stay with them until they have reached their destination. However, the map will cease to function until the location has been reached. Also, if you really get into trouble, or if there's no way for you to get to your destination, you can have the map open a portal to your desired destination. The map will stop working for a few weeks afterwards, but the magic will return eventually.”
We all stood dumbfounded at the generous gift we were given. Isaac questioned why he was giving it to us. Soap said it was his way of thanking us for saving his life, but it almost felt like overkill. Then again I wasn’t about to say no and everyone else seemed to agree. We then waited until Soap was well out of earshot before studying the map some more. Cortanna put her ‘new’ goggles down over her eyes. As she looked at the names more closely, Rekka made a quick comment.
“Okay, this Hommlet city, is a little too much on edge, when it comes to evil cults and such things. Let's try not to destroy it or wreck chaos this time. I would so much love to have a city on my list of visited places to still be there and willing to allow us back. Could we at least make the effort to keep to ourselves?” She nudges Cortanna and looks at me, "Can you two do that?" I bit my tongue, wanting so badly to throw back at her how she was the tipping point on the chaos that broke out in the slums back in Sardik by sicking the people on one of her enemies. How she too needs to be careful. Instead, I just said, “My exact thoughts,” and left it at that. I really hated being so bitter, but it was just annoying being talked to as though I was a delinquent adolescent.
“As long as you are,” Cortanna said back to Rekka without taking her eyes from the map. She then began to tell us that Rekka and Brier have the mark next to their name, Isaac has the mark of Nerull (an evil Deity who hates life) next to his, and next to my name was the mark of Heironious...
“I thought you hated Heironious,” Isaac asked.
“Still do,” I said, but it was as though I was listening to someone else say it, “It could just be the map affiliates me, as an Angelic, with Heironious though it knows I’m fallen. I wouldn’t know why Heironious would even consider me affiliated with him still considering he casted me out.”
“Maybe he’s just letting you throw your temper tantrum and didn’t really permanently kick you out,” Isaac suggested. I looked at him as though he was an idiot, “Araja, just saying. From what I know of Deities, why is it your God didn’t just kill you for being out of line?”
That was a very good question. Why was it Heironious didn’t just take me out? It’s not like I’m doing him any good will here. If anything, I could very well just be messing things up for him. But that doesn’t explain what we as the party have learned about this mark going around. He was working with Erythnul! They were using my sister! Then again, what if there was something I was missing… I couldn’t deny that I suddenly missed home to a certain degree. I missed not being weighed down with guilt. Like that night when He comforted me after I had killed Meryth… it was like the greatest love I’ve ever felt. I didn’t seem like a monster to Him for what he saw was an honest mistake and one that I wasn’t to be held accountable for. I wish my action had saved her from the power of the mark.
With my head flooding with those confusing thoughts, I walked away from the group to have a moment to myself. I made sure I walked far enough away from the group to just let myself cry.
Was I angry? Sad or Hurt? Maybe? I didn't want to believe Heironious was truly corrupted. I desperately wanted peace within myself. What was I suppose to do about this new mark? Am I to do anything about it? I knew I was very confused and felt I carried this burden alone. How certain I was that no one could comprehend my situation. Were there others who were indecisive and uncertain about whether they were doing right or wrong? If Heironious hadn't lied to me, none of this would have happened! Why was it I was even reconsidering Him!? I don’t know who He was any more with the stupid mark and using my sister with Erythnul... All of those thoughts, intertwined with the past, was eating away at the direction I thought I wanted to go with my new life. It was like I was floating in the wind with no anchor to give me direction.
As I hugged my knees, reminiscing on the good qualities of the Kingdom, it then came to me. When we reached Lupik, or any city for that matter that had a cathedral, church, or shrine for Heironious, I was going to do something I thought I wouldn’t do ever again. It felt very right. Just maybe if there was some light to be shed on what was happening in this world… maybe if I should apologize first for being so angry and vengeful… no... well, not yet anyways. If He was corrupted, then he deserved no apologies. But, I must at least try to ask Heironious if he knew what was happening now.
It seemed like a brilliant, but very daunting idea. If Heironious was truly involved I could very well be submitting myself to being marked seeking His counsel... Then again was there anything any of us could do against the mark? I sure didn’t feel like I could take on a Deity let alone 2 of them. Malfeiya was the only being who was strong enough to remove the marks too. I doubted that there'd be another Malfeiya any time soon. Still, I made up my mind. I would go pray to Heironious, hope for some answer and possibly succumb to the mark I had learned to hate for centuries. Now the question is, would he even visit or answer my questions?
A sound from behind me took me from my thoughts. I looked and was surprised to find Isaac there. I quickly rubbed at my eyes, hoping they weren’t too red.
“What do you need?” I asked, avoiding his eyes.
“Just came to check on you.”
“Well, here I am. I was about to go back,” I said truthfully. I got up and began to walk back.
“Araja,” Isaac said, interrupting my attempt to leave. I froze, keeping my head up at my full height and leaving my back to him. He let out a reluctant sigh, “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. It’s so clear you hate yourself for what happened at the ruins and I just want you to know that I know it was an honest mistake. Let it go,” Isaac almost pleaded with me. I slowly turned to face him. A sense of being nagged came over me, like now it was wrong for me to feel bad about what I had done? Yet in that same moment it was so unusual of Isaac. He actually came out after me to try and make me feel... better? To check in with me? Once more, this tough looking guy showed a softness about him that was easy to overlook. But why did he care?
In that moment I felt I should let him in on my plans since they could quite possibly have a great impact on the party. I also didn’t want his effort for checking in on me wasn’t completely in vain.
“Isaac, I will be seeking Heironious in the Court of the Gods at the next city that has His cathedral,” was all I said. It was then silent for what felt like a minute. It was an awkward comment. How was one to respond to that? Right as I began to move away, heading once more back toward the party, Isaac stopped me with an awkward comment of his own.
“You’re not the only one confused about your purpose Araja,” he said. I looked at him again, curious why he had said that. He pulled at his shirt, exposing a mark, “If I am really here on a second chance, then why am I branded, as though I am destined to fail from the start?”
I hadn’t a clue how to respond. I hadn’t known he was already claimed and from the sounds of it, right from the moment his eye opened to his second life. I gave a silent laugh to myself as I thought about when we had first met. How talking about what he was seemed to bring a sense of panic upon him, especially after seeing how I reacted to the mark of Erythnul and Heironious. 3 years of dealing with his situation and I come along to bollix it all up.
I gave a small smile. I hadn’t asked him to share that with me, but somehow he seemed to know what I was feeling and I now had a sense of not being the only one so confused about what their purpose was. Now all I needed to do was learn to be stoic like Isaac and not let this anger, I’ve allowed, to control me any more. And with that thought, I knew it was going to take time. A long time.
We then met back up with the party. I continued to hang at the end with Raæin.
It's interesting how the past 2 days of travel has left a lasting impact on me... I have to wonder what kind of impact will be left once I’m finally able to pray to Heironious.
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