Book 2 - Prolog

"… so your guards shot her?" Lucas stood before his father. His clenched fists and the veins budging on his forehead showed just how upset he was even though his voice was calm.

"The Dark God proclaimed her as his herald. You know Goddess Brigit's prophesy. The Herald will bring disaster wherever she goes. Cities will crumble, countries will fall. OUR Country could fall! We cannot let her live. The fact that she terrorized the city with her monsters and called a death handmaiden to kill my guards, shows just how dangerous she is."

"She saved us. She resurrected YOUR children and as thanks, your men shot her!"

"Enough! Leave and do not think of helping her or I will remove your rights to the crown. There are more important things going on. More important than one person."

"Fine, I will return to the school to reassure the students. They are naturally upset." As the king waved his hand to indicate that their conversation was done, Lucas hurriedly left. A man stepped out of the shadows as the doors closed.

"Any progress on tracking her down?" The King asked, his voice holding a bit of the fatigue he had been masking when he was talking with his son.

"No my Liege. We have no idea that she even had teleportation magic and there is no telling how far she could travel with another person. We have searched the city quietly but found nothing. Tracking magic is somehow being blocked so our only source of information is secondary. People have reported her a few times in hopes of the reward but in the end proved to be false. Even after we publicly punish those people, more come forward in hopes of getting rich. Investigating every report has proved to be overly taxing on our personnel."

"I understand. Continue with my last order, find and kill Alice."

The man stepped into the shadows and left the king. He had a job to do.

***

When I woke up I was on a wooden floor. The gentle rocking motion let me know that I was inside a ship. I saw Amy wrapped in bandages lying on the only cot in the room. At first, I thought we had been kidnapped but the door wasn't locked and we were allowed to move about freely. There was only one other person on the ship, an old man, that dispelled my imagination of being overpowered and sold.

It was the first time I had ever sailed and the novelty of it soon replaced my worry. I was told that a school guard had paid the captain to smuggle us out of the Capital. His ship was a small fishing boat so he could not take us too far but the captain had promised to take us to a trading port that was five days away. Amy and I were having fun trying to help him with the nets and it felt nice to at least have her with me.

The fact that she had disappeared for days, had left her little reason to return, or so she said. It was hard for her family to find her another man after she lost her first fiancé. Her disappearance would bring into question her purity and she was pretty sure that her new man would use this excuse to dump her. I did my best to cheer her up, since she got shot saving me. I masked my worry and ignored some questions that I didn't have answers to, like how did a guard get us away from the king's guards or what the 'Goddess' on my character sheet mean? Was I ready a god? If so what did that even mean? I didn't feel any different.

I had stared at the screen trying to figure out what it all meant late into the nights. The screen showed;

Goddess of ?

Believers: 74

Acolytes: 0

Priests: 0

Chosen Ones: 0

Did I have to choose what type of Goddess I was or was there a system that assigned it? I figured either way, followers would be needed. If I somehow got another Gods or Goddesses power would they just come and smite me or did we simply compete for followers if we overlapped?

It had been four days and, if the captain was to be believed, we would hit port tomorrow. We made plans on where to go after we got there. I had a little bit of money but Amy had none and, without knowing where we should go, I was worried if what I had would be enough. I had leaned toward Ickrana because it was huge, women were treated equally and they were nomadic. If we went there it would be easier to disappear. Sadly, after talking about it I came to the conclusion that Amy wasn't tough enough to go there. While it was the biggest country it was also the most dangerous of them, with more vicious monsters and dangerous weather.

We settled on Shaila. It was known for its mountainous region that had dungeons to explore as well as its unique trade items, animal rearing and farming. Although, the crops varied from what could be grown in Ofrait. On the map, it was the arm of the dragon that reached into the sea. The mountains gave it a scaly look. Because it was not connected to Ofrair like Ickrana or Udros, we would need to find a boat that was going there. Once there, we could settle down and live in peace.

Of course, we first had to get off this ship and into the town without being noticed.