Sara
The lock clicked as, with a turn of a key, Sara made her way into room 9 of the Windy Pines. By that point, she had spoken to a deity, fallen down a hill, and performed a rapidly exhausting ritual to heal her wounds. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when she collapsed onto her pillow as soon as she closed and locked the door behind her.
The next morning, she awoke with a purpose already in mind. If she was to find the other two champions in Palon, she would need some help. The best place to do this, of course, would be to inquire at the local temples. As she recalled, Palon was host to temples of Serenity and Ragos. To her, the choice was more complicated than she had considered, so she left her room without a clear idea of which to go to. On one hand, the Serene clerics wouldn’t be much help; after all, she was already sure of who would be representing the Goddess of Tranquility. Unfortunately, she felt certain that she wouldn’t even be welcome at a Chaotic temple.
There might be some compact between the local temples, though, so Sara ultimately decided that she would ask the Serene clerics for help. Assuming she could get their cooperation, they might have been able to speak to the Chaotics on her behalf. Of course, that assumed that the local champions weren’t those chosen by Crane and Salica. She had no way to know, so it was with some distraction that she had found herself stopped in the inn’s lobby by a tall man with cropped red hair. His presence felt somewhat familiar, and he seemed to be smiling at her.
“Good morning,” he said cheerfully. “You might not recognize me since you were unconscious, but I was the one who took you to Dr. Clark’s last night.”
“Well, I don’t recall seeing your face before, but what you say explains the familiarity of your presence,” Sara said diplomatically, unsure of what to make of this man’s appearance. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
The man nodded slowly. “I was wondering if you could give me some spiritual guidance.”
Sara shook her head awkwardly. “Oh, I don’t think I’m qualified to do that! I’m merely an acolyte! But if you are interested in the Serene path, there’s a temple nearby.”
This time, the man shook his head. “I don’t think a bunch of Serene priests can explain the message I got from Crane, but I’ve had the strong, inexplicable feeling that you can all night.”
To say that this string of words left Sara dumbfounded would have been a colossal understatement. Here she was about to start her harrowing search for her fellow champions and the secret trail left by their predecessors and one of them had simply shown up unbidden. Still, to take this as simple providence would go against the diligence she had recently been praised for.
“I follow the ways of Crane as well,” Sara said uncertainly. “So I may be able to assist you, but I can promise nothing. What is this message you speak of?”
When the man had finished explaining his vision, however, she no longer had a trace of doubt in her mind. With hardly a hint of hesitation, she asked, “Might I know your name, sir?”
The man nodded. “I’m Clint Blackstone. I’m from the Orchard.”
Blackstone Orchard, close to the holy city of Crane, was a top producer of food for the rest of the kingdom and its owners were descended from the first templar. She had always revered Karla Blackstone, so she was pleasantly surprised to find herself in the company of one of her descendants and that he was to be a part of her quest.
“That’s quite a prestigious name you have, Clint Blackstone,” Sara uttered humbly.
“Oh, we only have the one paragon to our name,” Clint replied with an awkward chuckle. “But there are a lot of important Marles in history.”
Sara had not even thought to ask how Clint had come to learn her name already, because she was preoccupied with his obvious flattery. Marle was a common name, which most tended to think diluted the legend of people like Colton and Iris Marle. Even so, neither of them were as distinguished as the founder of the Kingdom’s modern clergy. Still, she certainly had more important things to think about. She cursed herself for digressing and smiled politely.
“It is kind of you to say that. As for your dream, I believe Crane was telling you the same thing I was told by Serenity yesterday. The only difference is that you are not of the clergy and therefore can’t communicate in the Gods’ ancient language. This prophecy was an alternate means of telling you that you are among four people who are meant to protect this world from the Goddess of Death.”
Clint took a moment to absorb this explanation in silence. When he finally found the words, he replied, “Of course it is. It all makes sense now! That dark cloud is Maula and you are one of the three people who stood beside me in my vision. So that means we’re going to have to find two more and…”
She did not blame him for trailing off where he did. He clearly had not been able to glean as much information from Crane’s will as she had from Serenity’s words. “And then, we will follow in the footsteps of the champions who protected our ancestors in the name of the elder gods.”
Clint nodded. “That makes sense. If a record of what they actually did exists somewhere out there, we’ll find it. But first we have to find the people chosen by Ragos and Salica.”
Sara would freely admit that she had underestimated Clint when she first met him. But to hear him talk, it seemed to make sense that Crane would have chosen him. While most would associate Crane devotees with academia and hard science, Clint seemed to possess a more worldly sort of intellect. Common sense, some would call it, but there was more to it than that. He was probably the sort of person who preferred to learn from his personal experience with the world around him over a secondhand source; a sharp, rapid kinesthetic learner.
Sara nodded. “Precisely. Serenity said that I would find two of the other champions here. Do you remember anything about your prophecy that might help us identify them?”
Clint seemed to wrack his brain for a minute before replying. “I couldn’t make out anything that could help us identify the girl with Salica’s presence. All I could sense from her was wrath. But the Ragos guy felt a little familiar to me. If there’s another champion here in Palon, we’re probably looking for him.”
Sara frowned. After her stroke of good luck in finding Clint, she had not considered the fact that she’d still have to meet with the Chaotics. Seeking to avoid that, she asked, “Do you know of any followers of Ragos offhand who might fit the description?”
Clint shook his head. “I go to temple in Seres, so I don’t know any of the local Chaotics except for my friend Seth and his sister. But Seth is in a coma right now. He won’t be championing anything.”
Sara sighed. “Well, I suppose we better consult with the local clergy. Are you a member of the Chaotic following?”
Clint nodded and chuckled. “Yeah, but I can’t go to the temple they have here. Some dumb prank, you know.”
Nearly scandalized that Clint would dare to make fools of the clergy, even Chaotics, Sara groaned. “Okay, we’ll talk to the people in the Serene temple.”
Fortunately, consulting with the Serene clerics had turned out to be a good idea after all. The two champions quickly learned that the local temples were a shadow cult, those who believed that the balance of war and tranquility was the way of the future. She had never seen Chaotics and Serenes who coexisted so happily. She could only be so happy for them since she was no fan of Ragos herself, but the Serene clerics did manage to get the Chaotics to let them into their temple. There, Clint and Sara found a lone elderly man praying to a statue of the god-king. He turned toward them with a look of disinterest and said, “You must be the people Mother Maxine told me about.”
Sara bowed in a gesture of universal respect and whispered at Clint to follow suit. When both backs had bent and been re-straightened, the priest coughed. “State your business,” he ordered sharply.
Caught off guard by the priest’s rudeness, Sara had lost her ability to speak. Fortunately, Clint hadn’t lost his tongue. “Your holiness, my name is Clint Black--”
“I know who you are, you dirty vandal!” the old man barked in interruption. “What I don’t know is what you want of us!”
Clint blushed a furious crimson, but managed to reply, “We are looking for one of the local Chaotics. Someone who may have been chosen by Ragos for a divine quest.”
The priest laughed for several seconds, but when he realized Clint had been serious, he harrumphed. “What are you doing wasting my time with talk of quests? We don’t deal in dogma here, boy!”
In her indignation, Sara finally managed to find the words. “But sir, there must be someone here who seems unusually important to Ragos. We’re certain the man we’re looking for is here in this village!”
The priest rolled his eyes and turned back toward his statue. “We don’t claim to have the foresight of Crane or Serenity here, but what a Chaotic never fails to see is power. And there is a large concentration of it nearby. It’s centered around that heathen doctor’s infirmary!”
Clint and Sara both turned to look at each other. The latter quickly remembered what the former had said about a friend in a coma, but she didn’t even need to ask. Clint had already nodded urgently.
“Thank you, your holiness, you’ve been most helpful,” Sara said with sincere gratitude.
The priest just shook his head and pointed toward the door. “If that’s so, then get out! Your timidity is stinking up my temple!”
As they rushed back to the infirmary, Clint smacked his head. “Doctor Clark told us that Seth might be waking up soon. There‘s no way to know when, but if he‘s the guy we‘re looking for after all, it could be any time now.”
So it was with great anticipation that the two of them had burst into the nearly-empty infirmary. What they found there, however, was far from expected. Dr. Clark sat on one of the open beds wearing a visible mask of shock and grief. Alexis was with them along with an elderly man dressed in a similar set of robes to hers.
The other nurse was dead.
“What happened here?” Clint asked urgently.
Alexis had been in tears as she pulled him in tightly and locked her arms around him. Sara couldn’t help notice the possessive edge in this gesture as the nurse buried her face into Clint’s chest.
“I think it’s a reaction to the infection,” Dr. Clark said shakily, clearly unable to think straight
“Wait, what?”
As Clint sputtered in confusion, Sara felt a sinking sensation in her stomach that spoke clearly of a complication in their plan.
Then, Alexis confirmed her suspicion. “Seth woke up this morning. But somehow Albert was giving him some medicine and he just… died!”
Clint seemed to be catching up now. “Because of the wild source matter?”
The doctor nodded grimly. “Whatever happened, Albert’s body was the first thing he saw when he woke up. He just began to panic and… now he’s gone.”
I wasn’t prepared for this to be easy, Sara thought.
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