Twisted Destiny

“The explosion was that big, huh?” Veanya asks as Sid helps her to sit upright, she still looks to be in a bit of pain but she’s managing to bite it away in the most part. 

“Didn’t you expect it to be? It was your plan after all.” Sam fills a bowl with the stew and brings it over to her. “Here, this will help you regain your strength some more.” 

Veanya gladly accepts it although she will probably need some help eating it. “It was slightly more powerful than I expected.” She replies. “But that was probably not a bad thing considering the enemy we were up against.” 

“There’s no kill like overkill?” Gamma jokes. 

“Exactly.” Veanya chuckles but quickly regrets doing so. “Owh, my ribs.” 

As I have regained quite a bit of my mana already, I come closer to Veanya to heal her to some degree. At least to soothe the pain she is feeling. 

She replies with a smile as her chest is being enveloped by the green-blue light. Veanya then continues to look at Sam. “I’m happy that we managed to defeat the purple devil, but I think we should all thank the hero sitting over there for making the plan succeed.” 

“I barely did anything, you two did the hard work.” Sam is quick to shake her head in denial. 

“Oh, right. You did blast the tree out of our way, didn’t you?” I look at my girlfriend. I had almost forgotten about that approach. “If you didn’t do that we would probably have had to cancel the entire ordeal.” 

“Well… I was just about to shoot the devil with my divine arrow when I saw the tree in your way. I made a snap decision and called out to you two.” 

“Good that you did, Sam.” I smile. “We might have been still fighting the thing if you didn’t do that. Or Veanya and I would have exploded mid-air… that was also a distinct possibility.” 

“Yes… It was a close one. Overloading someone’s mana is not without its dangers.” 

Sid claps his hands together and smiles. “Let’s just all forget about the fight for a moment and have a nice meal together, why don’t we? As much as physical prowess is important for battle, so is your mental health. Especially those who need their focus to shift into a more powerful form.” 

“Beauty in mind and body or something like that?” Gamma asks with a smirk. 

“I guess one could say it like that, Gamma.” Sid nods. “More importantly than health benefits maybe, let’s not let our food get cold.” 

“Amen to that, big man.” Gamma doesn’t need Sid to repeat himself before she continues digging into the stew. 

As for Veanya, Sid helps her eat some of the stew herself while Sam and I kind of retreat in our own little world, sitting arm to arm next to each other and enjoying each other’s warmth. Looking at our current state we will probably spend the rest of the night like this, although probably in the bedroll rather than on top of it.  

 

Just about when we finish the last of our meat stew, someone knocks on the door of the house. Gamma walks over and opens it, revealing a bunch of officers standing on the other side together with a couple of adventurer representatives. 

“Are we allowed to come in?” The one in front asks. 

“Sure.” Sam nods. 

They don’t waste any time and just walk past Gamma. “We are here to see how you are doing.” One of the adventurers takes point now, it’s one of the people from Crystal’s guild. “Will you be able to join in on an offensive if we were to launch it tomorrow?” 

“Already able to mount an offensive?” I ask back. 

The adventurer nods. “Thanks to your help we barely suffered any casualties. We are rotating forces to the front line now and are giving people some rest so everyone is fresh for an assault early in the morning. 

I look over to Veanya who immediately sees what I’m asking of her, she gives me a nod back. “I think we will be able to, yes.” I reply. “But we will be primarily charging out ahead of the main forces to strike at the heart. 

The adventurer representative nods. “That’s what we were assuming, but an offensive from our side would not be fruitful without you, that’s why we decided to come and ask to make sure.” 

“What’s your battle plan?” Sid stands up from Veanya’s side and stands in front of the group of soldiers, towering above them by almost a head. 

“We want to at least push up towards the ruins that lady Hilda told us about in the briefing and set up new defensive lines around that area. 

Sid looks at me questioningly. 

“That’s quite a bit closer to the enemy camp, about three fifths of the way there from here.” I reply. 

“Ah, I see.” Sid nods. 

“That’s what the main force is going to do, but we want to send our more powerful soldiers and adventurers forth to really push as much as we can, to divert attention away from your team.”

“If you do that, make sure to take people with you who can take out targets in the air as well.” I say. 

“Do the enemy really have fliers as well?” An officer asks, another one of the officers quickly shuts him down by a tap on the shoulder. 

“Do you question the G… Her word?” 

The officer looks down at his feet and shakes his head. “No… It’s just that… we’ve not seen any of those yet, have we?” 

“They are definitely there.” I reply. “We think they don’t really have the range to get here, that’s why this place has been spared from them so far. If you plan to go through with it, just make sure you have something that can counter a lot of them.” 

Both of the officers who just talked to me give an affirmative nod, together with the adventurer representative.  

 

They go over the general lines of the plans a bit more before they finally leave us alone so we can continue resting. When they are well and truely gone, Sam pokes me in the side. 

“Did you hear that one officer?” She smirks. 

“Hmm?” 

“Do you question Her word.” She mimics the man. 

“Ah… That… I was trying to ignore that to be honest.” 

“Your first Zealot?” Gamma chuckles. “He was rather cute if I say so myself.” 

“I just hope they don’t start to do anything stupid…” 

“Well, I am sure that, as you are the Goddess of Justice, that they will perform with due caution, lest they invoke the wrath of their own deity.” Sid replies. “Although it might be diligent to at least keep an eye out for those things in the future.” 

“Are there Gods who can sense if their name is being used in a vile manner?” Sam throws the question into the group as she snacks on some leftover bread. 

“Like for example hurting people in your name?” I add. 

“Yeah.” My girlfriend nods. 

“There are some Gods who can definitely sense something like that.” Veanya replies. “I’m not one of them, because it generally requires a pretty profound level of connectivity between yourself and your believers. But, as with many things revolving around our existence, it’s not an exact science.” 

Sid nods in agreement. “I have to say, I personally don’t have that kind of attunement either but I do know a couple of other Gods who do. One of those is actually in this very chamber.” 

Both Sam and I immediately look over to Gamma, by way of exclusion she’s the only one in this room who can sense what we were talking about. 

Gamma bobs her head from one side of the other, not really in agreement but not in any disagreement either. “Yes and no.” 

“What do you mean with that?” Sam asks. 

“Well, I can indeed feel it if someone would hurt someone else using my name to justify their aggression. But it’s been so long ago since it happened that I don’t really feel it anymore.” 

“Are your followers that peaceful?” 

Gamma nods. “I mean, people who worship me rather laze around eating snacks with superior technology rather than fighting other people.”  

I chuckle. “I can see that. Your entire vibe doesn’t really mix well with aggression. Apart from your current get-up I suppose.”  

“Yeah, exactly.” Gamma nods. “This is just to combat existential threats, nothing more. If I had to choose, I’d way rather sit in my beanbag playing games.” 

“And if I may ask, what exactly did you do the last time you felt someone was using your name wrongly? Did you do anything about it.” Sam tilts her head slightly. 

“You could say that.” Gamma replies. “That person didn’t have a great day when I was done with him….”