Chains of Eternity

Chapter 3: Freedom

It had been a few days since Alminos had first stepped foot in Freefeather Village, which was ironically the name of the village that the majority of the Freefeather Guild members resided in. Despite it not being that long, those few days were very busy, at least, in his eyes. Most of his time was spent by learning how to speak better, thanks to Malinks of course. He could form a few loose sentences, but sometimes he pronounced things a bit disjointedly. Of course, sometimes he would help Malinks with a few errands, such as "buying groceries" (which involved buying a bunch of food items) or tending to the garden.

Today, he had woken up a bit earlier than usual, so he had decided to go outside and feed the fish that were in the pond. Malinks had told him that they were called "koi fish", which he thought was an interesting name. There were only two that lived in the pond, and they had apparently been there since Malinks moved in. One was mostly white, with small black and orange spots all along it. The other had a white underside, and had large splotches of black and orange along its back. He enjoyed feeding them, since it meant that he got to see their patterns.

"Alminos!" He heard a voice call to him.

He turned, and saw Tawno, the owner of the postal service and the only person who delivered letters throughout the whole village. Xe had dark brown hair, with a long braid in the back. Xe wore a light blue collared shirt with a darker blue vest, and brown pants with simple black dress shoes. There was a satchel slung over xir shoulder, which was always filled to the brim with letters. Xe waved to him, holding a letter that looked to be sealed with a wax stamp.

He walked over to xem, and xe handed the letter to him. The wax seal had the symbol of the Freefeather Guild, with golden letters that read "In the lost god of life do we trust". There was a signature on the envelope, which he couldn't read at all.

"It's for you and Malinks!" Tawno said with a grin. "Straight from the guild headquarters!"

He nodded in response. He knew exactly what this was for.

"Thank you," he said.

"It's no problem!" Xe replied. "Have a good rest of your day!"

He watched xem walk away, before he turned back to the cottage and walked to the door. When he stepped inside, he saw Malinks sitting at what they had told him was called the dining table, eating some sort of odd, yellow and white food. Across from them was a plate with the same contents. He sat down in the other chair, placing the letter on the table.

"What... is this..?" He asked, struggling somewhat.

"Mm..? Oh," Malinks replied, still sounding tired. "It's scrambled eggs..."

He looked down at his plate, grabbing a fork and picking up a piece of the "scrambled egg" before sticking it in his mouth. Surprisingly, it didn't taste as odd as it looked. He looked back up at Malinks as he continued to eat.

"Letter," he said, nodding his head towards said letter. "From guild."

Malinks looked at the letter, studying it for a moment before nodding.

"Alright," they said. "I'll look at it after breakfast."

The two ate in silence for the rest of breakfast, which Alminos didn't mind all too much. He pondered over the message on the seal. Was there some other god that the Freefeather Guild knew about that he didn't? He had never seen another god before, not even in his earliest memories.

Surely if there were other gods, wouldn't they have tried to rescue him, instead of letting him stay a prisoner for who knows how long? Unless he was this "lost god of life", which he doubted. He didn't feel like he had enough power to reign over the entirety of life itself. Even over these past few days, where he wasn't chained up, he still couldn't muster any kind of magic or godly powers.