223: Attention

I had no real time to process what had happened. I stood there looking at the cracked shells, turning my head to see everyone in the room looking at us.

Turning around, the entire room stood in silence, watching us, when a familiar pressure arrived. Then, before I knew it, darkness, an icy chill running up my spine. I had felt this before. It only lasted a moment before I was dropped on a familiar floor, the orange glow of Crisplet bathing it with light.

Looking up, noticing I was now sitting in the kitchen at the house, I saw Lily standing over me, with Liane standing off to the side.

“The others, please, Lily. Don’t leave them there,” I said, gathering myself.

“It’s fine, Trev. Jen would refuse anyway. They’ll be fine. They know Lily took you,” Liane said.

I wasn’t so sure. “Please, at least make sure they are safe, then.”

Liane laughed. “Trev, you just had the goddess accept your gifts in such a manner that I’m sure the whole city knows. Who’s going to risk the wrath of the gods?”

I sat in silence, trying to process everything while Lily was pacing nervously back and forth. That in itself had me worried.

“She spoke to me this time,” I mumbled, and Crisplet let off a burst of sparks.

Liane let out a snort of laughter. “You’re not going to devote your life to the temple now, are you?”

I shook my head. “No?”

“Good. More often, when you hear a god spoke to someone, they then turn around and devote the rest of their life to a temple,” Liane smiled, taking a seat on the ground next to me.

“She just said thank you and the gift was most welcome, but that breeze, it didn’t feel natural,” I said.

Liane looked troubled. “I’m sure Milo would have felt more, but it wasn’t natural. That was pure mana, and a lot of it.”

I panicked at that. Large amounts of mana could overload channels and cause the same pain I went through, or cripple someone. And this was a populated city. Would thousands of people get mana sickness?

“You look troubled, and I want to put your mind at ease. It’s not the same mana that would be in your food or released from a master mage. This was softer, and didn’t feel like it caused any harm, but there was so, so much,” Liane said.

It appeared Lily was speaking with Crisplet, as Crisplet interpreted the conversation into a scene of fire, where it appeared like Lily was lying down in the forest with Sylverith in dragon form. Then an enormous wave of fire washed them away.

“You felt it even in the forest?” I confirmed.

A burst of sparks.

Liane didn’t say anything but just let out a nervous chuckle.

The first person to arrive was not someone I expected, as a familiar old man walked through the door from the butchery room, catching everyone off guard and causing Lily to immediately go on the defensive.

“Morlin?” I asked.

“Calm yourself, Lily. I am no threat,” Morlin said, waving her away.

Lily did not back down at all, standing between us with the chill in the air growing heavy.

“I felt the mana, and I’ve only come to find out what occurred. After visiting the temple, there was a panic about the goddess visiting, only to find someone had vanished,” Morlin began, not leaving the door that he had walked in from.

“Are the others okay?” I asked from behind Lily.

“Yes, yes, no one is hurt. Well, so far. Though that mana has attracted the attention of several fearsome entities, one I presume to be Sylverith heading back here,” Morlin said with a look of concern.

Crisplet appeared to be confused between Morlin being a friend or someone to defend against.

“It’s fine, Crisplet,” I muttered.

“I must ask, Trevor. What occurred?” Morlin asked.

“Uh, we just made an offering, and it was accepted. Then the breeze blew past us, blowing all the other offerings off the plinth,” I said simply.

“And that’s all? The goddess didn’t appear before you?” Morlin confirmed.

“Uh, some words were spoken, but that’s all. No one appeared before us, no,” I said.

“I see. Well, the release of mana I experienced would be something I’d expect if the goddess appeared,” Morlin said, with a look of confusion on his face.

I didn’t know how to respond to that, and I really just wanted the others to arrive quickly, but I knew from our journey there it would be a long trip through the city, especially if crowds were heading towards the temple.

“The mana felt different. Soft, even. Will it cause issues?” Liane asked.

“Hard to say. Any time there is a concentration of mana, it causes more beasts to appear and the dungeons to grow stronger, so there is some concern. Lily, it’s important you pass the message on to Sylverith when she arrives. You have a being of fire coming from the north, and a being from the sea coming from the south, while the demons have also reacted to this event. I need to leave you now, as I must warn the King. Farewell.” Morlin said, walking back into the butchery room and shutting the door.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

There was a moment of silence. “How’s he getting in and out that way?” I asked, confused.

“Likely has some form of teleportation, if I’m to guess,” Liane shrugged.

“Don’t like him,” a soft growl came.

“Lily?” I was shocked. This was now the second time she spoke, and the words were not incredibly clear, but unmistakable.

Lily just let out a sigh and flopped onto the floor.

“It’s fine, Lily. He’s not caused us any harm so far,” I tried to reassure her.

“So, uh, that message sounded very ominous, though. Being of fire from the north might be Alira, right? But the sea creature to the south, I only know of the one, and it’s the entire reason boats can’t travel through there directly,” Liane said.

“Dangerous, then?” I asked.

“Extremely so, but we have warning, and this is the capital. If anywhere has a chance to drive them back, it’s here,” Liane said.

I sat on the ground wondering what we could do about it, and the demons reacting, too, before shaking my head. There was nothing I could do about it myself, and I didn’t have time to waste sitting on the ground.

I had a dinner to get ready for, sausages to smoke, and side dishes to prepare.