~Chapter Fourteen: A Reason to Go~

"You know, I should have foreseen that killing all of the major gods would have some repercussions."

***

It took well over three hours for the limpet to reach a level of proficiency with Cold Touch that allowed her to initiate the cantrip.

I was impressed.

Not so much at the speed of her learning. A proper wizard could go through the entire process of learning such a simple cantrip in the space of a few minutes at most. The fact that she wasn't a wizard and that she was entirely unfamiliar with the workings of magic did excuse her lack of speed in that regard.

What impressed me was her resolve. She didn't waver and she only paused my instructions to ask usually valid questions, even if the answers I delivered were occasionally far beyond her current level of understanding.

The limpet, still in her circle of rocks, raised her hands before her and moved through the appropriate somatic motions. There was no grace there, but she did make every sign correctly.

"Fear, from a necromancer's touch

To remove the healer's clutch

With strength despotic

And power necrotic

I cast upon thee, Cold Touch!"

A hand appeared before her, no bigger than a child's and not quite skeletal, but it glowed and gave off the faintest aura of necromantic power before it zipped across the courtyard and crashed into the skeleton serving as a practice target.

The hand grabbed onto the skeleton's collar bone and gripped hard enough that the bone creaked.

"I did it!" the limpet said. She began to bounce up and down, arms waving as she cheered her very minor victory. "By all the gods, I've done it!"

My finger bones clattered together as I clapped. "Well done, well done," I said. "You finally got the touch for that particular cantrip. Ohoho!"

Grinning, the limpet turned my way. "Now what? Do I just continue practising?"

"Perhaps," I said. "I require you to level up a few times to test some things. Merely learning a cantrip probably won't do much in that regard."

"Whatever you need me to do, I'll work hard," the limpet said.

I nodded.

"Observe."

A Wandering Scholar, Level 14.

No noticeable change. "Very well. Skeleton," I said as I addressed the skeleton standing by. By my reasoning, it was a few levels above the limpet, though it had been injured, first by my use of a few illustrative cantrips, and just now by the limpet. I pointed to the girl. "Kill her."

"What?" the limpet said.

"The best way to level up is to face difficult challenges. Do try not to die. It would be a mild inconvenience to train someone else up to your level of understanding."

The limpet raised her hands again and began the incantation to her only cantrip. She cut herself off with a squeak when the skeleton rushed at her. Alex had done a good job equipping the skeletons with bits and bobs from the armoury, so the limpet had to bounce around to avoid some blows from the no-doubt enchanted club the skeleton was wielding.

"Oh, you can leave the circle, if you wish," I said.

"Thank you!" she screamed before darting away from the skeleton. It, of course, followed after her.

"You mentioned gods earlier," I said. Learning that the locals, as backwards as they seemed, had fallen back onto such superstitions wouldn't be surprising. For every true god in my time, there was an equal number of mythical persons to whom the simple would pray. Still...

"What do you what!" The limpet ducked under a swing from the skeleton. She was quite fortunate that the skeleton was hampered by its injuries, else that would have taken her head. "W-what do you want to know, master?" she asked.

"Try casting while moving," I said. "It should be doable. Otherwise, don't forget that even a caster can throw a punch on occasion."

"Right!" the limpet said.

She jumped, rather clumsily, to the side of a swing from the skeleton, then swept the undead's legs out from under it. That gave her some space. And then her dog ran up to the skeleton and started gnawing at its leg.

I decided to allow that. It was only fair.

"What do you want to know about gods?" she asked as she ran back a bit.

"Describe what a god is, and what you know of them."

She nodded, adjusted her glasses, then began. "Gods are the kami who have grown strong through mystical means, and who govern a domain. There's a lot of small kami, like the kami of different lakes and mountains, but those aren't gods. The gods themselves are much stronger. Some of them look like people or dragons, and they have a lot of people who worship them."

"They're physical?" I asked.

"Sometimes?" she said. "Um. I've never seen one, but some of them walk around and do stuff. There's a bunch of them. Some people say that they met Daxrus, the traveller's god on the road. He looks like a horse. And there's Xephine over at the Path to Heaven sect's temple."

I leaned back, hands gripping the edges of the bench I was sitting on.

Some gods remained?

That was... distinctly possible. The things the limpet had called kami weren't entirely unfamiliar to me. Minor deities that lived around an area, or whose domain was some minor concept.

The powerful gods generally ruled over more, at least, that was the case in my day. But some of those minor gods still existed around them. Totarr, the god of foods and consumption, hadn't seemed to care much for Qhurtarr, the god of freshly baked bread.

I had dissected both of those, of course, but that was beside the point.

Was it possible that in my time away, some deities had returned? If a mortal could resurrect, couldn't a god? Or were these new gods just that? New gods.

Curious. Very curious.

"Is master a god?"

The question startled me out of my thoughts. "Pardon?"

The limpet was lowering her arms, and there was currently a necrotic hand grabbing onto the spine of the skeleton she was fighting. She had cast that while I was distracted. "Are you a kami, master? I heard that some cultivators grow so strong that they can rival the gods."

"I'm not a cultivator," I said.

"Oh," she said. Her eyes widened. "Oh!"

I had the impression she had just reached a faulty conclusion, but I put off any corrections as the skeleton, sluggish though it was, reached her and swung for her head. Her dog was still clinging onto its leg to little effect.

That didn't quite matter. "Where can I find the nearest temple?" I asked.

If I could find a god and persuade them to answer some questions, it was possible I could save myself some time otherwise spent experimenting.

Not that I'd skip the experimenting, of course, it was just a good idea to have multiple corroborating sources on such things.

"Um," the limpet said as she flung her satchel at the skeleton's face. "Uh, I think the nearest temple is at the Jade Golem sect? It's about two day's walk west."

I stood up. If we were going to be setting out to travel then I'd need to collect the remaining books left here. "Very well," I said. "Do try not to die while I'm busy."

"Yes Master!" the limpet said.

I hesitated a moment, then reached into my pockets and rooted around for a moment. My search ended with me finding a small box filled with neatly organized books. I picked one from the pile, a small text, no thicker than my pinkie, and set it onto the bench.

"This book here has the instruction on a cantrip called Prestidigitation. If you survive, do attempt to learn the spell."

Limpet's smile was huge, despite the sweat marring her face, and the hair plastered to her forehead. "Yes, Master!"

I nodded to her and walked off towards the main administration building and the library within. I was humming a happy little tune to myself when I heard a clattering from one of the rooms on the way to the library.

A curious glance within revealed Alex bent over a table where a bundle of cloth was laid out. "Are you working on your outfit again?" I asked.

Alex snapped to attention. "Yes Daddy," he said. "The entire compound has been tidied and dusted, the floors have been mopped, the chimneys swept and lunch and supper only require warming up to feed Test Subject Limpet. I thought... if it was okay, I could fix my dress now."

"I see, well if it's not interfering with your other duties." I approached and pinched the cloth he'd laid out between thumb and finger. "This seems to be of rather middling quality," I said.

"It's not very good," Alex agreed. "But this isn't for Papa, it's for me, so it's okay if it's not the best."

"Hmm," I said before applying my palm atop the material. "Are you done with it?"

"Yes, the new dress is mostly done. I only need to add the lace."

"I see. In that case."

"Greater Bless."

"Greater Haste."

"Soul Cage."

"Elemental Resistance."

"Greater Physical Resistance."

"Self Restoration."

I picked Alex's bonnet from off the top of his head and cast the same set of enchantments on it, then added one more.

"Mind Blank."

"There," I said once the light show settled. So many enchantments woven into one outfit was bordering on the dangerous, but they seemed stable. A material of greater quality would have allowed for more, of course, but there was no point in going too far for what was essentially a uniform. "That should save you some time otherwise spent mending holes."

"Thank you, Bone Daddy," Alex said. "I'm going to get dressed now!"

"Yes," I agreed. "I will need some help packing away those books I've yet to read and a few others that were interesting."

"Are we leaving?"

"Yes," I said. "We're heading to another area, one with a sect that we've yet to visit. I suspect we'll be meeting some lesser god along the way."

"Are we bringing the test subject?"

I tapped at my chin. Would it be worth carrying the limpet with us? "I don't see any harm in doing so," I said. "Bring some food and such, I suppose."

"And the undead Papa made?"

"I suppose we can use them to carry some goods along with us. Let's strip this place of anything valuable before we head out. We'll likely be able to ransom some of the things we've collected away for favours."

Alex nodded. "Everything will be ready for you, Papa. When do you plan on leaving?"

I considered it for a moment. I wasn't actually in any rush. "Tomorrow morning? Travelling by daylight is far more enjoyable than moving in the dark." No matter how much I tweaked my arcane sight, the world still felt a little too dark at night. And casting an artificial sun above me just to light my way felt wasteful.

I pat Alex on the shoulder. "Well, get to it. I've got some more reading to do and a bit of organizing."

There had to be something about the gods in all of those books I'd yet to read.

I still had a few little things I wanted to uncover here, and then I'd be ready to move on.

Perhaps I should have spent some time creating a proper wizard's tower, but it had been thousands of years since I'd been on a proper adventure. It would be nice to stretch my bones.

"Oh hohoho! This will be quite amusing," I said to no one in particular.

For some reason, I still felt as if the world itself shivered at the idea.

***

Answer to the last riddle: All 12 months!

Today's riddle: What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?

Thank you for reading!

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