Chapter 595 - The Wheel of Time (Patreon)

It was winter, and I was sitting around the Auri-fire with everyone else, telling tales with a dramatic flourish as snow fell softly around our cabin.

It was spring, and I was pulling on the plow with conjured rope. One of those unexpectedly hard to replace items, we couldn’t afford to lose any more. We were attacked by shambling dead men infested with spores. The zombies had frozen over the winter, and were slowly invading as they - and their mushroom controllers - thawed out. Auri had a grand old time, and quite a few people took Spore classes. They were excellent for pollination.

It was summer, and I danced with my wife under the Maypole, garlands of flowers woven into my hair. I put a small damper on one of the few occasions we were all together by announcing that I was dropping my permanent healing on everyone, but educating people in another way. All they had to do was call my name, call for a healer, call out ‘Elaine’, and all their medical problems would vanish. 

[Domain of the Healer] was only good if people knew it existed.

It was autumn, and I was the grim reaper, scything down stunted wheat. The entire growing season had been shaded by ashes, but we had enough.

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It was the second winter, and Iona wrapped her arms around her lover, keeping her warm, ignoring the smoke. She’d heard the story before, but laughed like it was the first time. A quick dart of her eyes let her gauge moods and check in on everyone. Who was happy? Who was upset? What would make everyone move together more smoothly, what needs were being unmet?

It was spring, and Iona wrangled the plow into a straight line, making a lewd joke about it and what she was going to do to Elaine later. Her wife groaned, but there was an extra sashay to her step after.

It was summer, and Iona was arguing with her patron goddesses. The first temple in Orthus Town had been built almost entirely by Iona, from dredging up and quarrying the stone, to carving the altar and statues. They wanted the temple to be dedicated solely to them, and Iona believed the temple should be dedicated to all the gods and goddesses.

It was autumn, and she loaded Raccoon up with sacks of grain to bring to the [Miller]. The Valkyrie was quite pleased every time she saw the millstone - she’d carried it personally to make the town’s mill. She paused as the goddesses whispered in her mind, letting her know of a group of people looking for help, another group that could be folded into Orthus Town.

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It was the third winter, and Auri flew from chimney to chimney, hearth to hearth, in the dead of night. A bright red hat with a white bob was on her head, a hat Elaine insisted was traditional. It was hard keeping a few hundred flames burning. Enough heat for everyone without burning the stone, enough warmth to keep poorly swaddled babies warm and stop sickness from developing. One chimney at a time, she dropped a flame, then flitted over to the next one to give the gift of fire again. House after house, hearth after hearth, her rounds were never-ending and vital to life.

It was spring, and [Auri’s Little Helpers] were out in legion, picking up rocks and moving them, then preparing the fields. Everyone needed to handle their own fields to properly level and strive… but there was nothing saying Auri couldn’t work a community field for everyone. If she happened to put more hours into it and got less out of it than others, well. That was just the nature of a community field, wasn’t it?

It was summer, and Auri was flying far out, trying to find as many wild flowers as possible, carrying small jars with her. The juice reserves had run out, and her limited biology demanded sugar. If she collected enough, she wouldn’t need to fly north for the winter.

It was autumn, and Auri proudly hopped through the central fire of the harvest festival, subtly making sure everything was just right.

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It was the fourth winter, and Fenrir tracked down the thief who dared to steal food from the community granaries. A fierce legal discussion erupted, with the eventual sentence being exile. He snorted - in the weather, in the season, it was simply a different form of murder. 

That night, Fenrir made it quick and ate well.

It was spring, and Fenrir defended his territory from a polar bear who saw the damsels as food.

It was summer, and Fenrir smoked a pipe with Elaine as rain poured down outside the cave. A nice chill was coming from behind him, blocks of Ice keeping the community granary cool, and well guarded. He’d never been one for hoards, but this seemed nice.

It was autumn, and Fenrir defended his territory by fighting off a roc, taking horrific injuries in the process. They were healed a moment later, but the bruise to his pride wasn’t so easily cured.

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It was the fifth winter, and Raccoon was cursing the great gobbler once again for putting the outhouse so far from the cabin. Why did the gods hate her so!?

It was spring, and Raccoon was standing still as Iona, Nina, and Elaine tried to fit her armor on. All their spares were human-sized. Well, a big shield was better than no shield.

It was summer, and Raccoon was leading the citizens of Orthus in old Legion tactics. Nothing but the simplest of basics, but those would take them far. How to stand in a shield wall. How to cover the people next to them. How to stab monsters with a spear. It wasn’t much, but it’d help keep them alive.

It was autumn, and Raccoon received a pair of metal wings, hammered into a badge. The Valkyries were fading in a way - what Orthus needed was a pair of [Constables].

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It was the sixth winter, and Nina had never been so glad for her fur. She pulled out a pair of board games she’d discovered during her many travels, and thought she remembered most of the rules. Hopefully, this one was simple enough that they’d spend more time playing, and less time arguing. The storm outside was making her bones ache.

It was spring, and Nina was dutifully planting, counting the rows until she needed to swap seeds. Dreams of diving into the bay where Sanguino used to be and seeing what treasures she could find danced through her mind, lending an extra pep to her step.

It was summer, and Nina was showing off to the neighbors during the summer fair, creating sweeping illusions to narrate dramatic stories set in far-off places. Places that no longer existed, but as Elaine said, as long as they existed in story and memory, they weren’t truly gone. It had Nina’s mind wondering.

It was autumn, and Nina accepted Elaine’s offer of [A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight].

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We did it on an ashen hilltop, as two full moons struggled to penetrate the thick haze to watch. A small way of showing our devotion to Selene and Lunaris, who’d asked for us to do it this way for some reason.

The world went dark, and a tiny glimmer of starlight appeared above it. It grew and grew, shining with blinding light before it got too heavy for the ‘ceiling’ it was clinging to. It dropped down onto Nina, infusing the kitsune with light. She started to glow herself, turning entirely white as she floated up and began to spin around and around. I ducked to avoid her tails, backing up out of range. It would be interesting, but possibly in the ‘oh gods where’s my face’ sort of way. 

Nina landed with a flourish as the lights faded, straightening up and awaiting her judgment from White Dove. Iona moved in and put her hands on Nina’s shoulders, a reassuring presence. 

[*ding!* [A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight] leveled up! 520 -> 521]

White Dove landed on the shoulder Auri wasn’t on, her weight metaphysical, causing me to stagger at the not-blow. She was feeling particularly vindictive, as her claws dug into my shoulder, drawing blood through my subdermal scales. White Dove simply nodded at Auri, who did a little burst of flames as a wave back. Nina had been shamelessly buttering Auri up to help her put in a good word for her curse. Auri opened her beak to give Nina a hand, but White Dove beat her to the punch. She Spoke, and the world shuddered.

“Nina of a dead order, a dead city, a dead nation.” White Dove mocked the kitsune, who flinched at the insult. “[The Storm Valkyrie]. [The Killing Trickster of Hard Choices]. You have chosen the path of Immortality, a rejection of the natural cycle, a rejection of my gift, and for this, I curse you. Nevermore shall a lie knowingly pass your lips. No more will you deceive others into opening their home to you as you intend to betray and murder them. No more will you abuse sympathy and goodwill to cause harm to others. No more can you spin a pretty tale to others. May every word that passes your lips from now on taste like ash.”

With a clench of her claws digging deeper into my shoulder, White Dove vanished, leaving me bleeding. I poked at the injuries as Nina’s mouth opened and closed silently. Iona was looking deeply conflicted over the whole thing. Honesty on one side—something she’d always hoped Nina would take in her Restriction skill—White Dove’s curse, Nina becoming Immortal, the girl she thought of like a daughter being near her, being harmed in a sense… yeah, Iona was going to need some solid tender loving care later on.

It was a big moment, but I’d found over the years a little levity, a distraction, was nice.

“Wait, did White Dove seriously leave an actual injury on me!?” I joked-asked as I poked the still-bleeding wounds. I immediately went to a half-dozen different answers, and with a surprising amount of image-work - excluding a very specific injury was harder than it sounded - I tried not healing that part, while keeping everyone else up and alive. 

It started to slowly scab over, which told me [Domain of the Healer] wasn’t applying.

That asshole.

Nina finally found her words.

“Let me tell you a story about a girl.” She said with a grin of delight, wrapping an illusion around herself to look like a gorgon. “Her name’s Metusa, and she’s got the biggest head of snakes around.” The snakes on her hair hissed along, and Nina had a feral grin as she dropped the illusion, rubbing her hands together.

“Oooh, I’m going to have so much fun with this. Thanks Elaine for all those stories about fairies! They can’t lie, but they can deceive… the added challenge’s great! I’m going to level up so much from this!”

Iona looked like she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. She chose to hug Nina instead.

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We were talking on the hill, Nina experimenting with her limits - no way to divine universal truths with her ability, sadly - when Iona went dead quiet, her eyes locking at something over my shoulder, bending her knees like she was ready for a fight. Nina went quiet a moment later, and Auri and I swiveled our necks in unison, taking a look.

A wave of green was coating the land, the ashes removed from the air, and it was coming towards us.

Fast.