Death's Priestess

Chapter 7- Letifer

The man that stood before me was the same man from the tavern. The only difference was his hood was down and I could see his face. It was even more beautiful in the shimmering sunlight than the dull lamplight of the tavern.

"How do you know my name," I said, my voice shaking. "Why did I see you next to my dying mother."

"Diatus, grant me patience," the man sighed. "Well, you weren't supposed to remember that."

"That's not an answer," I grumbled standing up. I brushed the dirt off of the dress and took a deep breath.

"To put it simply, you were supposed to die that night," he explained. "My Master told me to prevent it." I stood there baffled, I couldn't even comprehend what this man was saying.

"That makes no sense," I barked. "No master could control death no matter how wealthy."

"My master is not among the living," He grinned. His pearly white teeth peeked out from behind his thin lips. "Diatus himself wished you to live."

"Diatus..." I murmured.

"Continuing, I used the rest of your mother's life to make you live, it wasn't easy," the man continued. His mouth kept moving but I could hear none of it. The god of death himself wanted me to live. I stole my mother's life, none of what this man said made sense.

"I don't know how long you will continue to say this nonsense, but I will not listen to it any longer," I announced as I lifted myself into Shadow's saddle. Suddenly a raven burst through the trees landing on the saddle horn. Its beady black eyes searched deep within my own. Almost immediately it turned around, faced the direction I came in, and let out a piercing screech.

"The Duke told us to search the entire country," a voice grumbled through the trees. I could hear others replying but couldn't make out the words.

"We need to go, and we need to go now," the man said. He let out a piercing whistle and his horse trotted into view. The horse was midnight black with a single snowy white splotch on its nose. He mounted and sped down the path.

"Momma who's that," Alessia questioned, turning her head in the direction of the voices. The men's voices came closer and I had no choice but to follow the mysterious man in black. I whipped the reins quickly catching up to the man. We rode until my thighs cried out in pain. The sun was almost behind the horizon by the time we stopped.

"We'll stop here for tonight," he decided.

"Since when were you in charge," I huffed.

"You're the one that followed me," he shrugged. I dismounted and stalked over to him, he stood at least a foot taller than me. I

"How do I know I can trust you," I said. The man was highly suspicious, but he did save me from a wolf. He couldn't be all that bad.

"It doesn't matter if you do or not," he said. "All that matters is you follow me."

"Where are we going," I questioned.

"Aurelentia, a country to the north. Somewhere that the church can't find you," he answered.

"The church," I said confused.

"You found out that it's corrupted, yes," he said.

"Yes," I nodded. He didn't even need to explain the rest. I knew the church was part of the black market, that they sold monster parts and who knows what else.

"Also my name is Letifer. Hopefully, you can trust me a little more now," he said, turning away. I nodded and looked around to see where we had stopped. We were just inside the forest, the Kalui Mountains stood tall and loomed over us. I didn't know much about the mountains, only about the beasts that lived there.