Arcane

Chapter Three

            The rising and falling of voices were a beautiful cadence.  The hushing and whispered shouts twisted together to create a beautiful melody.  Slipping in and out of consciousness the harmonious song kept me company.

            “She hast to leave!”

            The discordant shout sliced through the fog.  Groaning slightly I fought to find my way out of the dense haze.  Misshapen images swirled before my mind’s eye as the low murmur of voices touched my ears as thin tendrils of sound.  Swimming towards full consciousness I noticed the tension that had palpably woven its way into the room.  Uncertain of my surroundings, I cast out with my god powers.  Snaking through the house with my amplified awareness I discovered that I was lying in a bed on a lofted bedroom.  Below me sat five quarreling figures, three women and two men, were gathered around a table in front of the kitchen fire.  All were intent on their conversation.  Knowing that they were too engrossed in their conversation to hear any slight sounds of movement, I rolled onto my side before peering over the edge of the bed and through the slits of the loft’s slatted wood flooring.  The five figures, one of them the young woman I had saved, wore sensible woolen clothes in varying shades of brown.  Weariness lined all of the faces as they shoveled food into their mouths from wooden trenchers.  Orchard farmers.  By the looks of their fatigued state, they had just finished a hard day’s of work, making their tempers sharp and words edged.

            Pressing my lips into a flat line I swung out of the bed, the dry wood of the frame groaning under the sudden change of weight.  The thin, high creak drew the attention of the feuding figures.  Excellent, it would only further cause harm to the group if they sat arguing.

            “There!” A gruff voice protested.  “Now ye’ve gone and woken ‘er up.”

            “Ye crazy lout.  Itsa good thin’ she’s up.  She hast to leave,” the discordant voice from earlier spat.

            Sighing I loped down the worn wooden ladder that led to the kitchen floor below.  Turning towards the little assembled group I was able to see that a woman was agreeing whole heartedly with the man’s statement, while three others were in grim disagreement.

            Turning open palmed hands toward the men and women, I motioned for peace.  “Postion’s right.”  Shock at my knowing the man’s name registered on four of the faces. 

            The lass I had saved from Liirton smugly mumbled, “Told ye she’s a goddess.”

            “I must leave.  My presence with you is putting all of you in too much danger.”

            The two women and man raised their voices in protest.  Sputtering that my ‘divine goddessness’ should not be shoved out of the door in the harmed condition that I was in.  Smiling gently at them I shook my head.

            Locking amused eyes with the woman that I had saved earlier I said, “I can assume from your fighting that you have told them who I am.”

            The pretty lass nodded her head.

            “Then you must know that I have other gods that are after me.”  My voice was light, airy but laden with importance.

            Superior looks crossed over the faces of the couple that were fighting to get rid of me.  Their demeanor slightly mocking, silently saying I told ye so.  The touchy man’s woman had at least the manners to give me an apologetic look afterwards.

            “We mean no disrespect to ye Goddess,” she muttered.  “But we’ve our chil’en te look after and we don’ wanna get caught up in yer silly gods’ curst war.  If it were under any o’er circumstances we would have been pleased to have ye.”