Aftermath

It took me over an hour to heal Amy completely. I had to force myself to think of other things as I watched her cry in pain. Anything to distract me from her agony. She finally passed out about halfway through me mending her bones. I knew just how painful that spell really was. My aura did help to reduce the pain but not enough for somebody that had little pain resistance. Perhaps, I could make a tranquilizer or numbing spell. I was bound to run into this situation again and I didn't like seeing people in pain.

As for what I thought about, other than making a spell that probably already existed, it was mostly about my dream. The first thing I realized was that Mort had said something about the other Gods which implied he was one. I wasn't sure on which God he was. And, why was he hanging out around me? I tried to think of the type of God he would be and settled on protection or something similar. He just seemed to be always around when I needed him most. I briefly thought he could be the God of Stalking, if that was even a thing, but that was too creepy and didn't fit the vibe I got from him. Nope, he was definitely somebody that would protect others.

Then there was the meeting. Who was the lady in white and why did she want me to watch them arguing? It was pretty obvious she was the one that hid me from the others. Was she giving me a warning? I had to be the girl that over half of the people there wanted to kill or didn't care if I died. The fact that the pregnant woman was slandering me, for taking something from her, didn't help. I had to assume that they were the Gods Mort had warned me about. What I didn't understand was why they didn't simply kill me. Were there rules I didn't know that restricted them from doing so? I was pretty sure that the giant I saw, could rip my arms off and beat me to death with them.

I should be ok as long as they didn't simply show up to smite me down. I just had to get stronger before their minions showed up or they decided to act directly. The best choices to do that were going adventuring it the wild, going into dungeons or completing quests. Since quests were out, I really only had two choices. I preferred dungeons since I had a lot of bonuses inside them and the monsters tended to be clustered together. But to get into the dungeons, I would have to either find an undiscovered one or go through the Adventurers Guild.

The problem was that I was on the wanted list. I knew that they had a system set up to catch people in disguise. I wasn't sure if my 'Masquerade' spell would hide who I really was. It really only changed my outside appearance. I would have to ask Amy if she had any spells that could mask me since most spells that did that were classified as divination or illusion. My original plan had been to pretend to be a summoner in my fox girl persona. I wasn't sure that was such a good idea after the demons appeared the last time I tried summoning something. After thinking about it, I had to admit that my confidence was shaken. If I remembered correctly, there were animals, beasts, and demon statues in the temple of Annos. Did that mean it was a common occurrence, simply a mistake or something else?

When I picked that magic discipline, I didn't give it much thought but what if I really was the one that summoned them? I was nervous because I didn't understand why it happened. Plus, I got my ass handed to me by that white demon. It wasn't even close. Did I even want to continue with my plan of being a summoner? Maybe I could pretend to be a priestess of Alice to help spread my name. Those believer numbers had to mean something or they wouldn't be on my character sheet. Or, would they burn me as a heretic for making up a new God? I already missed the school's library and the vast knowledge it held.

I needed a plan. I would have to go freelance if I couldn't join the guild or get over the border. The issue with that was almost all of the freelancers were criminals of some type and that tended to limit the kind of jobs I would be offered. I didn't want to work for evil people. I had my morality still. I could also go into the wild and hunt monsters there but the further away from human settlements you went the worse the monsters became.

Another thing I needed was to find a way to protect Amy or send her away. Being around me was too dangerous for a nerdy scientist. I actually came up with two possible ideas. The first was enchanted ink. While not easy to make, it would allow me to apply an enchantment directly onto Amy as if she was an item. The issue with it was I had no artistic ability and lacked the confidence of making it look good. I needed something simple. Preferably, something that related to this world.

That was when I had an epiphany, I needed a holy symbol. Something that when people saw it, they would relate it to me. Honestly, I got the idea when I saw Marge's necklace. It had a charm on it that was the holy symbol of Brigit, an open eye. Each God has some type of symbol that represented them and they varied from complex to super simple. It just depended on the God in question. I needed one that I could easily tattoo. It took me a while, and a few bad ideas, before I decided on my Goddess symbol, a golden circle. I would just tattoo a yellow circle since I tended to look like the sun when I went all out. I debated on if I should add a silhouette of a person in the middle so it wasn't just a yellow dot. Adding the silhouette would make it look nicer but if I kept it simple, any villager could copy it making it easier to spread. Undecided, I put it off for now.

The other idea was the enchantment 'Goddess's boon'. I didn't know what I could offer but I did know just how powerful they were. The biggest issue with this enchantment was getting a hair from a God. Since I was now a Goddess, mine should be ok to use. The other five items weren't common though and I lacked the money to obtain them for now. Happy for at least having a direction for helping Amy, I gently shut the door as I left the room and followed the noise and smell of Marge's cooking. I found her twirling, flipping, and whisking over six dishes in the pots and pans that bubbled and sizzled happily on the a stove that took up most of her kitchen. It was like watching a choreographed dance. She cooked at an expert level and I felt my mouth water at the very smell of her food.

She started talking without turning around or stopping what she was doing. "I know you want to understand about the Gods and their followers but I can't answer you. That is not information I am allowed to share. What I can say is your friend already took care of the issue of being found out by the guild and you won't be detected. That is of course if you decide to take that path. I've had multiple visions which rarely happens. Lunch well be ready shortly if you're hungry." My first thought was which friend? I wondered if Lily or Bella had managed to do something. I hoped they hadn't gotten into trouble doing anything dangerous to accomplish it. I didn't have many others. I thought the princes were but after being shot I wasn't too certain.

By the time Marge placed the last dish on the table I heard Amy moving around in the room I had left her in and somebody coming in the front door. An old man walked in before Amy came out. He moved like a teenager and, other than looking like an eighty year old, I wouldn't be able to tell he was an old man. He was simply full of vigor in all his actions.

Marge had us all sit down for the meal and as we ate I was filled in on what happened with the demons. The white one was killed by Smelt but the others were killed by a couple of adventurer groups. Over a dozen people had died in the attack and I felt guilty for their deaths, even though I knew they were after me at the time. What can I say, I'm too tender hearted at times or, to put it another way, you could say I'm a sucker.