Oh thank the gods, finally.

In the days that followed their talk, Thera had gone off to search for any spirits and was finding herself growing exhausted. Usually, she would come across one or two a day as they would float around, but it was only now after days of searching she’d managed to come across an air spirit just at the edge of the forest, mercifully far from anyone who might catch her talking to herself.

“Hello there,” She started, unsure how to lead the conversation now that the opportunity was finally here. “Do you think I could take some of your time?”

It was quiet for a moment, and even though it appeared as a dense ball of mana to her, lacking any distinguishing features, she got the impression it was appraising her.

“I suppose I could stop my journey along the air currents earthkin, what may I do for you?”

Thera was instantly taken aback. Normally when spirits would communicate they would do so through mana, but that wasn’t what was happening here, the spirit she had encountered was talking normally, in a way anyone could hear.

“Is that… a sound spell?”

“I was lucky to see one of the non-spirits perform it and found it interesting. To communicate through the vibrations in the air, what a novel idea? Of course, if you prefer I can talk normally.”

“No this is fine, I was just surprised. I was hoping you might be able to give me some help and direct some life spirits my way if you can?”

“If I see any wherever the wind takes me there’s no issue, but how would any find you? You seem to lack presence as the other non-spirits do.”

Thera turned back and pointed towards the town. “I can usually be found in the town over there if you can direct them that way.”

“Just that one little spot in this large world? How suffocating.”

She knew the spirit didn’t mean anything by it and tried to let the attitude slide, they both experienced the world in such different ways that some aspects needed to be excused, especially when one was a creature that rode the air, never to be tied down.

“Maybe, but it’s home.”

“Alright earthkin, I will spread the message to those I see. Give my regards to the great one.”

“I will let my father know,” She said, before thanking the spirit and letting it go on its way. Air spirits were nice in that they typically didn’t like to chat for too long. An earth spirit on the other hand was more than content to stay in one place and talk her ear off and likely would have taken ages to fulfill her request.

With that done she made her way back to town and decided to stop in at her uncle's shop for a bit while she was out. After spending the last few days searching for any stray spirit on top of continuing her studies and magic practice while at home she needed the break seeing Falk and Ben could provide, even if her friend was busy practicing one of his skills with a single-minded dedication.

When she got there, Falk was sitting in the front looking emotionally exhausted while Ben was nowhere in sight. “Everything okay uncle?” She asked him with concern.

“Ah Thera, yeah everything’s fine, the boy’s doing some apostle stuff in the back and it was a little too strange for my taste.”

“What?”

Instead of answering Falk instead held out a hand pointing her to the back room and without a need for further prompting she went to take a look.

When she turned the corner she was left not knowing how to react when she found Sachel, Ralia, and Skoe all kneeling in front of Ben, seemingly in prayer, while Ben stared off into the distance giving a half-hearted one himself. They briefly made eye contact before she gave a quick sorry and left to walk back to spend time with her uncle while he finished whatever it was they were doing, at least she tried to.

“Wait Thera stop!” He called out to her and she could only sigh. I guess I won’t abandon him to whatever the hell this is.

“So what’s going on Ben, this looks… Interesting.”

“Oh you know, just my god being a bastard,” He said with false cheer, but his comment immediately caused the three praying towards him to whip their heads up and open their eyes wide in shock. He ignored the reaction though and went on. “It looks like Myriad decided to out me as his apostle.”

“Okay, but then all this is…?”

It was Sachel who answered the question she left hanging. “I was given a quest by him,” She said, beaming. “So I wanted to make sure to pray before we went off to do it.”

“And you’re all praying to Ben because?”

“Since Skoe and I are helping her we all came to pray at her god's… church,” Ralia told her, seeming conflicted about the whole thing herself. “When we found out it was in town we weren’t exactly expecting this, but it never hurts to have a god smiling down on us. Of course, the details were left unmentioned.”

“And it looks like having a believer as well as non-believers pray to Myriads representation/zipper acts as decent job experience,” Ben told her, full of exasperation. “By having them do this for a while as I’m wearing it, it looks like it counts me as acting as the head of the church so I need to take advantage as long as they’re around and willing.”

“And you’re all fine with this?” She asked, addressing the group specifically for the first time.

While she could see hesitation from the other two, Satchel had none. “Of course!” She said proudly, eyes shining. “To find out I’ve been receiving guidance from the apostle of my god this whole time, what’s a few hours of prayer if it means giving thanks to Myriad for giving me the chance to complete a quest?”

“I guess that’s reasonable and-” She stopped as something Sachel said caught her attention. “Wait a minute, hours?”

“Two so far,” Ben said with exhaustion. “But since I’m technically acting as head priest of the first church of Myriad I’ve managed to gain two whole job levels so I’m dealing with it, the sooner I complete this one the better.”

“Well good luck with that,” She told him and took her leave to go back to talking to Falk. Her uncle had been right, that whole situation had been too weird, not to mention her complicated relationship with the group in question.

Satchel and Ralia seemed content to try and act casual around her, but Skoe had been the biggest pain to her of all since she had her problems with Roan. It would be nice if he were to say something about it, maybe even an apology?

She shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts. It doesn’t matter what that asshole thinks or does now anyway, my standing in the town has improved enough that people seem content to just leave me alone, and Ben can always back me up if anything happens. Seems like he could at least get Sachel to keep him in line for me, it’s kind of freaky how she wound up so devote all of a sudden.

Not that she couldn’t understand a bit. Meeting Anailia had been a deeply moving experience, even if there was some chaos during it. Really, maybe the issue was more Ben being completely indifferent to having near-daily interactions with such a being, she couldn’t imagine many other apostles so casually referring to their god as a bastard, no matter how close some of them might be. The distance between god and mortal should be too big for that sort of behaviour for all but those who might bridge the gap.

She sighed and tried to ignore it. She’d long grown used to Ben's attitude toward Myriad, maybe it was a good thing for his god to have someone like Sachel to balance him out.