A Jaded Life

The silence settling over the little tableau was a confused one. Well, Joshua looked like he was pretty much out of it, having a deity use you as a sockpuppet to speak into the mortal realm must be quite exhausting, but the five guys who had come to confront me looked almost as stunned. Granted, they were still on the ground, while Lorgar was swaying as if he had been punched in the face a few times.

As for myself, I was both amused, amazed, intrigued and a little confused, all at the same time. My confusion came from the sheer impact the divine manifestation had, while also wondering just what would happen next. I highly doubted that Lorgar and his group would dare threaten me in the short term, but long term? That would depend on circumstances, they would try to harm me if we met, but the question became, how far would they go to hunt me? If they remained in the area around New Dawn while I continued my travels north, this would be it, but who knew, they might decide that they were on a mission from god or some foolishness like that. Or I might decide that prudence can be better than vigilance and take care of that problem before we leave the area. As long as I didn’t act while under the protection of guest rights, I would be good.

The intrigue came from a realisation, namely that I recognised parts of Frigga’s presence within myself. Mother, it wasn’t just a name or title, there was a lot more to the concept and while the way I was starting to understand it was completely different from the way Frigga embodied it, we shared the concept. Just what that meant, I had no idea but it was an interesting realisation, one that made me wonder just how far I could delve into that particular topic.

“What’s going to happen now?” Hauke asked, looking around and verbalising what all of us had to think on some level.

“I believe the five of them will return to their home and start thinking about the importance of guest rights and, maybe even more importantly, the necessity to keep promises spoken in the name of the Gods. It turns out, Gods don’t like it if somebody tries to break an oath given in their name, who would have thought?” I chuckled, especially when I noticed the way Lorgar turned pale.

“As for myself, I believe I have overstayed my welcome. Tomorrow, I will leave this place and I doubt I’ll return,” I added, keeping quiet about the fact that I wouldn’t really wait for the next morrow, but that I’d make sure I’d be gone before that, some time in the middle of the night.

For a moment, I wondered if I should shatter the millstones I had made for the village but I quickly decided against it. Doing so would mean I had broken my word, something I was loath to do. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t have some fun before I left, there were things I could do that couldn’t be easily undone.

“Might be for the best,” Hauka agreed, while Joshua started to come around and was nodding.

“Indeed,” he nodded, “I would have liked for you to stay in town, the things you make are quite amazing, but by the looks of it, that’d be impossible.”

While the three of us talked, Lorgar managed to push himself back to his feet and for a brief moment, the glare on his face made me wonder if I would see what a divine ‘or else’ looked like. Sadly, my curiosity wasn’t sated as sanity prevailed. He simply collected his friends, letting them use his massive equine body as a crutch, and walked away without another word, only stumbling a little as he went. A part of me wanted to taunt him, just a little, or maybe place a curse or five on him but that would have put me on the receiving end of the divine ‘or else’, not a place I wanted to be at.

“All the best, I guess,” Hauke shrugged, now that the confrontation was over, he didn’t seem to have an idea how to act so he simply helped Joshua back to the village. The entire sequence of events made me snigger, though I took a moment to check the place where Lorgar and his buddies had been knocked around, hoping to find a few traces of blood or something like that. Sadly, I wasn’t that lucky, having some of their blood would have allowed me to weave curses over them, regardless of distance, something that’d make dealing with them a great deal easier. Even if I had only enough to track their positions, knowing where they were could have been useful on its own.

Once back in the house, I considered my next steps. If I wanted to leave during the darkest part of the night, I had about eight hours to kill, time I could use to cause some mischief. A part of me wanted to destroy the house I had created, simply to deny these people its use, but then I had an amusing idea.

“Lady Hecate, I offer You this house, built by my own hands and with my own magic, as Your shrine and temple so that all who visit may learn about the mysteries of the Arcane and the gift bestowed upon us mortals,” I intoned, deliberately channelling some power into the Blessing of Hecate I held in an attempt to get the deities attention. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen but after that moment, I felt a strange sensation, as if my head was detached from my body and just floating in space.

“A dedication, to me,” the familiar tritonal voice of Hecate spoke within my head, just loud and reverberant enough to make me feel awe without giving me a headache. “Surprising, show me your reasons,” she prodded and after a moment of consideration, I tried to encompass the memories and ideas leading to the offering with my Mind Magic and channel it towards the voice in my head. It was a weird sensation, even worse than the feeling of being a disembodied, floating head, but I felt something reach back and accept the package. The connection to a far greater mind than mine, even if it was incredibly brief, gave me a few ideas to try with my Mind Magic, but those were things I could work on later.

My musings were interrupted when bright laughter echoed in my head, this coming from only one of Hecate’s voices, the voice of the Maiden. A little later, a soft chuckle that could only belong to the Mother joined the laughter accompanied by an amused snort from the crone.

“A fascinating idea,” the three voices spoke in unison, “You will have to add some of the usual reading materials yourself, but I have no doubt that you can accomplish that. So be it, I accept the labour of your hands and magic. It shall be a shrine to the Arcane.” The last two sentences were spoken with authority, similar to the declaration from Frigga I had heard earlier.

Suddenly, Lady Hecate’s magic flooded the area for a moment, settling in the stones I had formed and blessing the house. Thanks to my presence at ground zero, I could tell that anyone who was studying the arcane within the small building would have an easier time and sometimes be inspired by Lady Hecate Herself. Then, her presence faded from the area and my mind, leaving me a little out of sorts but also quite amused.

My amusement was only amplified when I noticed that I had gained two points in Mind Magic and a single point in Astral Meditation for some reason, bringing the two skills to sixty-five and forty-seven respectively.

Chuckling to myself, I used the remaining time to write some instructions in regards to Arcane Magic while also adding the usual trappings of the shrines Luna and I had created for Lady Hecate, including the statues which immediately were infused by Her blessing, only adding to the grin on my face. Curiously, when Her blessing settled over the statues, only the statue of the Mother remained the usual size while the statues representing the Maiden and the Crone shrunk and took a lesser role. I wasn’t certain why, but given that it was done by divine intervention, there had to be a reason for it. Either way, I was quite happy with it, by making the statue wearing Luna’s face smaller, it took attention away from her and would make it less likely she’d be targeted.

All in all, the entire thing was hard work but as the blessing from Lady Hecate was helping me, both the one on the building and the one on me, I could finish about an hour after midnight.

Once I was done, I grabbed my bags, making sure I had everything I wanted to take packed up and stepped out of the reformed door. Outside, I pulled my cloak around me and started channelling magic into it, letting myself take to the sky and vanish in the darkness above. Let the locals try to figure out what happened and, maybe more importantly, how they were going to deal with a blessed shrine to Lady Hecate in the middle of their town. I had a feeling if they tried to tear it down, bad things would happen.