Divine Wars: Awakening

Dance of the Pagan Healers

A couple of days passed after the intense battle, and things didn't seem to be getting better. Mizumisha, despite looking like she was recovering from the battle we had, took a turn for the worse hours after she took up some of her duties as the leader of the Bianchi Mafia. And it worried the group, given the fact that she didn't take that much damage from the battle. And nobody was more worried about Mizumisha's health than Olympos. Every time her health changed, Olympos would panic, not allowing anyone else to see her. Even Santino, Mizumisha's second in command, wasn't allowed to see her, despite the fact that he had no substantial power in the mafia on his own. And because of that, he couldn't make any serious decisions, so the mafia was left severly crippled without their leader. Though Olympos could care less. He only cared about Mizumisha, almost to an obsessive level. And that left the rest of us isolated. But we have to get her some help, as it was clear that something else was at play. So while Olympos watched over Mizumisha, the rest of us got together and planned our next move.

"So what should we do?" I asked

"Mizumisha is clearly suffering from something magic based and needs to be looked at. And no, the spells you cast at her don't have anything to do with her current condition."

That was a relief. I was seriously about to start panicking again if I was the cause of Mizumisha's current state.

"So what should we do?" Santino asked, clearly worried about Mizumisha.

"We have to look for people who deal with magic-based illnesses, and I think I have an idea of who we can turn to."

As usual, Atria had a plan formulated before we even needed it. And unlike Olympos, who usually revealed his plans to us when it made him look the best, Atria filled us in without waiting for us to ask. Thankfully this plan wasn't as death-defying as the previous one, and I was all for it. No fighting, no manipulations, just a simple go to a person and bring them back to the Dragon's Keep. How hard could that be?

"If that's it, we should probably start heading out," Atria said.

"I can't really leave. With Mizumisha out of commission, someone has to take care of the mafia, and I am her second in command."

"I guess it's just you and me Atria," I said, looking at her.

"I guess so."

I don't know if I was imagining things, but was Atria blushing? I think it was the first time I saw the standoffish woman be embarrassed by anything. But here she was, acting like a little girl. And I was all for it.

"Ok, so where are we going to first?"

"We need to head back to the States, either South Dakota or Minnesota."

Cool, heading back home. My parents have relatives in South Dakota, but I doubt they want to see me. They haven't visited us in years, and that really hurt my parents. So I have no incentive to go and see them, which I think is for the best.

"Don't you have relatives in that area?" Atria asked me.

"Not really. My parents do, but they never accepted me, so I never saw them as family."

Atria could sense the pain behind my words and decided not to push the topic any further.

"Anyway, we should start going as the trip is going to be quite long. And the person we're going to meet can be quite elusive."

Elusive? I guess this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be. Hopefully, they weren't too elusive.

"Your chariot awaits ladies," Santino let us know.