The War of Gods

Chapter 3 - Part 5

The next day, they arrived in the small town of Divemir. More of a settlement really. Korfez and Szofe had many towns like that spread out through the wilderness. Both were relativity new and unexplored countries and so, towns like this were brought up to prevent the wilds from claiming the area until reinforcements were sent.

Divemir had about twenty houses and a town square, so it wasn't particularly hard to find the stables. Mavar stepped forward to speak with the bulky human behind the counter, who appeared to be cleaning a set of tools.

"How can I help you, son?" the man said with a tired voice.

"I was wondering how much gold I'd need to get one of those horses out of your hands, sir." Mavar said. The stableman eyed him from head to toe, and then went back to his tools with a sigh.

"The farmers need those horses, traveller." The man replied, "I'm afraid they ain't for sale."

Mavar's heart sank. "I'm sure we could strike up a deal, for the right price."

The stableman chuckled. "Got a hundred and fifty gold on ya?"

Mavar tried his best not to flinch. He felt at the measly silver coins in his pocket. If he was lucky, they might've amounted to about eight gold.

We still need food too, Mavar thought, growing anxious.

"Let me ask my companions what they think." Mavar said.

The man chuckled again, not looking up from his work. "Yeah, ya do that."

After delivering the bad news to the rest of the crew, Joel suggested stopping by an inn for a hot meal to lift the spirits.

The inn was about as good as you'd expect it. A simple room, with no more than six tables, most of them occupied by human patrons on their lunch break. A large hearth kept the room warm, even though the Southern Winter wasn't as cold, and the smell of fresh food flowed through the air. Mavar didn't miss the odd looks from the townsfolk, Nerith was gathering quite the reputation.

They sat in one of the corner tables.

"Are you certain you don't want to use Disguise Self?" Mavar said. "It's a simple spe-"

"Yes," Nerith interrupted, "I'm very certain."

Mavar sighed. He had tried to convince her to cover up her... unique characteristics on their way here, but to no avail.

A young woman dashed from table to table and soon enough they had a generous portion of food and drinks in front of them.

Mavar felt at his pockets again, trying to gauge how full they were.

Not full enough, he thought to himself.

Joel nudged his shoulder.

"Don't worry too much about that," Joel said, "I stayed up late last night practicing. Check this out..." He winked and extended out both hands, cupping them. Mavar could see Joel straining, his hands glowing with a green and yellow tint. This glow began to take on a mist-like appearance, converging into small balls of light in Joel's hand. Joel strained a little harder, his hands beginning to shake, and the mist-like substance slowly transitioned to a physical form, dry and with patches of blue, just like...

"Blueberries!" Nerith said.

"The Goodberry spell..." Mavar realized. "You've done it! Do you understand what this means? Food is no longer an issue! We can move on freely and focus on-"

The small berries suddenly faltered and crumbled into a deep blue dust. Joel sighed and their general mood went back down, once again. Mavar's excitement vanished just as fast. They sat in silence for a moment.

"Failure is a stepping stone to greatness, friend." Mavar said, as encouraging as he could be.

Joel actually grinned at this, still handling the dust with care.

"Well, it actually makes for great tobacco flavouring, you know." Joel said, while taking out his pipe and placing the dust inside. "Would you care for some?"

Mavar and Nerith exchanged a glance, and then both let out an unexpected laugh. Maybe they were falling to the side effects of stress and exhaustion, or maybe the situation was just that ridiculous, but they kept on laughing. Joel, confused at first, eventually joined them as well.

When they managed to regather their wits, Mavar accepted the dust - which, surprisingly, did make for good tobacco flavour - and they kept on eating and drinking until nothing was left on the table.

Nerith and Joel slumped on their chairs, drowsiness showing on their faces, even with the Sun at its peak. They sat in silence once again. Mavar's mind began drifting away, thinking of the past few days. So much happened in such a short amount of time; was this all in God's plan?

He looked from Nerith to Joel. What was their part in this? And how would it end? Mavar realized he didn't mind their company. Joel happened to be quite the enjoyable fellow. Nerith was a work in progress, but she was strong. Could he exploit that?

He turned to God once again, calling into the well of power that flowed through his body. Calling for guidance.

Nothing, as usual. God hadn't spoken to Mavar since their first contact, all those years ago. But Mavar knew It wanted something. And nowadays, It was hungering more and more for it. They couldn't afford to sit around.

Mavar got up and placed a gold coin on the table.

"Get a room and some sleep, you two." Mavar said. "We'll need to be well rested tonight."

Nerith and Joel snapped awake and exchanged confused glances.

"Tonight?" Nerith asked. "Why? And where are you going?"

"Going to evaluate our surroundings." Mavar answered. "We're going forwards with Plan B."