Deities and Demons

Chapter 1.2: Strangers

The small town of Riba stood by the Moyo River. Hiking from the forest down to the town took roughly three hours. Raye had wanted to avoid the town's folk, but now the streets were bustling with people and carriages doing the day-to-day trade. As she entered the town, people gave her indignant looks, and they whispered to each other. She didn't need to hear them to know what they were talking about. All her life, the town's people had called her cursed, and she was used to being discriminated against.

She couldn't exactly remember what happened, but she heard rumors that when she was three, her mother drowned while fishing in the Moyo River. When some fisherfolk retrieved her body, she was already lifeless. Poor Raye, who was left by the river bank back then, unconsciously used her abilities to bring her mother back to life, draining the nearby plants and animals of their life force. However, her mother remained lifeless. When the fisherfolk saw what she had done, they became terrified, and they attempted to put her in a boat and let her flow downstream, away from the town. Fortunately, an old doctor, Hira, stopped their vicious attempt. Hira and her granddaughter Mizpah were forced out of town because of saving her. Since then, the townspeople of Riba called her cursed. They all feared her for her ability; yet some of them would go to Hira's house on the low hill across the river to ask for some medicine whenever they are sick.

Raye put her chin up and continued walking, ignoring all the gossipers. As she passed by the town's inn, she noticed a small commotion. An enormous man with a compact and ferociously hairy body was whipping several others who were profusely apologizing for not being able to catch some thief. She heard the huge man grumble about how all of them idiots were double crossed by a petty thief.

Raye ignored the commotion and went on her way.

"Miss Hikari!" A woman's voice called out as Raye was half through the bridge.

She turned and saw a woman carrying a wrapped infant with her. She looked pale and weak. Her skirt was stained with blood. Raye could tell that she had just given birth. The woman rushed to her and kneeled.

"Anya, no! That girl is dangerous!" A man called after the woman at the bridge's entrance, hesitating to take another step towards them. Spectators gasped, obviously afraid for the woman.

"I think she has lost her mind." a voice from the crowd stood out, and indistinct murmurs followed.

"Miss Hikari, please...." the woman said in between sobs, "You can take my life in exchange for his." She revealed the infant in her arms. The baby was blue. He was faintly breathing but still alive. It was apparent there was something wrong with the newborn and he wouldn't last long.

"Please." The woman begged, "I know you can move prana from one living thing to another. Please give my prana to my son so he can live. I know he won't last long."

"There's no need for that. I'm not a murderer." She sighed as she kneeled in front of the woman.

Taking a lunar herb in one hand, she laid her other hand on the infant. Her palms glowed yellow and the baby cried as his flesh turned from blue to pink, along with the withering of the herb in the other hand. The mother hugged her child tightly and cried. Only then did the husband rushed towards them.

"How...how can we repay you for saving our son?" the man asked.

"I don't need anything from you. Just make sure that you raise him to be a good person." she said with a low voice and went on her way.

***

Raye spent the day concocting the lunar herbs into medicine. Her adopted grandmother Hira was a great doctor back when she was alive, and she had taught Raye and Mizpah how to identify different kinds of herbs and turn it into medicine. As the sun set, she gathered vegetables from her small garden, and prepared rice and a bowl of vegetable soup for herself. The house was quiet now that she was living alone. She missed her grandmother and Mizpah, and longed for the times when they used to happily eat together.

As she finished her meal, she cleaned the dishes and retreated to her room. It had been a long and exhausting day. Raye was expecting to get an early rest, but as she slid her paper door open, a dagger's blade pointed to her neck. Nervously, Raye put her hands up.

"Where is it?" A young man firmly gripped the dagger.

Despite the lamp's dim light, Raye noticed that the left side of the man's coat was stained with blood. He was also sweating profusely, and his face twitched. He was obviously enduring some form of pain.

"What do you mean?"

"The amulet. I know you have it." Even his voice was weak.

"You're the person from the forest!"

"So you remember. Now the amulet."

"If you could just remove that knife from my neck so I can get the amulet from my pocket and give it to you."

Shun slightly moved the dagger away from Raye. As she handed him the pouch, he suddenly collapsed. Raye examined his wound while he laid unconscious on the floor. She carefully checked the wound on his left chest. The man seemed to have applied some sort of poor treatment to stop the bleeding, but the wound had been infected. The darkening of the skin surrounding the wound indicated that the arrow that struck him was lined with poison. Raye guessed from the Chelicerata's venom, filthy eight legged giants from the Asurian desserts. She remembered Hira tell her how the Celetinian Empire used Cheliceteran poison to slowly kill criminals under interrogation.

She carefully placed Shun on a thick, soft mat and cleaned and disinfected his wound with an antiseptic solution. She took some of the lunar herb concoction she had brewed earlier and poured a few drops into his wound. She wondered what the amulet was for and why the young man was desperate to have it. She thought about the day's events and realized that he must have been the thief who double crossed the men at the inn. She looked at the scintillating gem and kept it. This man seemed dangerous, but she can't just send him out with his injuries. If her grandmother was here, she knew she would also help him. Hira never turned anyone who needed treatment down, but helping a thief seemed like a very stupid idea. She took the man's dagger and kept it under her pillow while she slept in the other room.

***

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