“All done!” she chirped, making him jump. The woman crouched down so she met his eyes, and he could see her bright blonde, almost starry hair. It nearly touched the ground when she was crouched like this. His grey eyes met her red ones, “I heard you’re not very interested in even possibly becoming a priest. Can I hear why?”

Alister wiped the drying blood from his eye with the back of his hand and rubbed it off onto the already ruined blouse, “I’m… just not fond of the idea, Miss. I want to be a magic-user. A mage. My goal is the top of all mages. Being a priest just doesn’t match up with that…” It wasn’t strictly a lie. He fully intended to become an Archmage again. Just… it left out some details.

“You can do both, little one,” the male priest chimed in. His hair was a deep brown, almost black. Less often seen in a priest like him. Had Aster’s requirements gotten laxer over the years? He caught himself before his gaze turned into a glare and looked away. “I mean it! The goddess… all of the gods represented here today are very kind to their faithful.”

That wasn’t his concern! He sighed quietly, “I don’t think any of the gods would want me anyway. I seem to just keep causing trouble.”

“Well! Let us see! I just want to test your compatibility with divine essence,” she said with such a kind, sisterly smile. She offered her hand.

He hesitated, but with another tiny sigh, he relented and placed his hand in hers. There was a bit of him that was curious to see how compatible this body was anyway. In his last life, he was only moderate, somewhat incompatible. Nothing to write home about.

Alister winced on reflex as she poured essence into him. He hated that feeling. He hated Aster. He hated all the old gods. Swallowing his pride once again, he let go of that hate for the moment. This was important. He would say yes to none of the gods. Even if they begged, he would say no if they wanted him. He had to have trust in himself, in his spell. He was safe. They wouldn’t know who he was. It was eight years to him, but who knew how long it had really been? Maybe he’d be lucky and they’d have forgotten about him by now. Heh. He internally laughed at the thought. As if they could forget what he did…

Holy essence filled his small form. He could feel its light, its uncomfortable warmth in every corner of his being. Wasn’t this enough now? Was it supposed to take this long? It felt violating… like he had no control of his energy.

“Lukas, keep going,” Jean whispered to her partner. He nodded and took over. Alister didn’t even notice, his eyes closed, focused entirely on the alien sensation inside of him.

Minutes passed. He felt himself start to meditate, trying to be at peace with his situation. Everyone’s eyes were on him again, though this time he wasn’t aware. All of a sudden, it stopped. He felt full, as though he had eaten a feast by himself. It was… not as unpleasant as it was at the start. The warmth was more like a hearth, a flame in winter… it was… addictive. He opened his eyes, a grimace planted on his face at the realization. Damned gods.

His negative expression gave way to surprise when he saw everyone staring at him. Alister took a step back, “H-hey… what’s going on?”

Jean was grinning, all the other priests looking at him with greedy eyes, “Alister, I’ve never seen someone able to take in so much divine essence - outside of the different head priests, anyway.”

The grimace returned, awkward and uncomfortable, “Wh-what does that mean? I’m really not interested in being a priest, I swear.”

They swarmed around him like flies, towering over his tiny form. They surrounded him, such innocent people now looking like merchants that smelled coin. Alister looked back and forth, unsure who to focus his gaze on, feeling like a cornered animal. Jean knelt down and grasped his hands, sweat visible on her brow.

“You have so much potential, young one! You must have been touched by the divine in one of your past lives,” Jean said, her smile that of an excited fanatic. She clearly trusted and believed in Goddess Aster wholeheartedly.

Well, she wasn’t… wrong? Touched was too gentle of a word, though. He nervously brought one of his hands out of her grasp and rubbed his throat. Touched was… far too kind.

The partner, Lukas, was it? He joined in, “Yes. Absolutely. You must have been blessed before. Goddess Aster has taken an interest in you! I can feel her will.”

“Yes! I can as well!”

One of the other priests, a man with the symbol of Iker, gruffly spoke over her, “She is not the only divine interested. Do not try to monopolize this discussion.”

“Inyet would take his hands under her wing!”

“Do not discount the God Olix.”

“Both Goddess Temera and her brother God Tessin are interested!”

“Sanso is interested as well…”

The Iker priest spoke up, voice loud and commanding over the others, “Silence! All of our patrons are interested in the boy. It is not our place to argue over him!”

“As though you weren’t just about to do that?”

Ms. Koll stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled, the sound echoing like a train’s in the room. She glared at the priests with all the fury of a disappointed mother, and folded her arms, “You’re scaring Alister! Look at him. Isn’t it bad enough he’s still ill enough to have a dizzy spell just going to the bathroom? Save your squabbling for private. You are still in my classroom. Remember yourselves.”

The priests' reactions were a mix of glares and embarrassment, but none contested her. They dispersed as she walked forward and crouched to Alister’s level. She grabbed a handkerchief and used it to rub off the rest of the dried blood with a gentle hand. Her voice was soft, “Don’t worry about this, Alister. Your parents are the Duke and Duchess. They’ll take the brunt of the temples’ requests for you. It’s part of their job as your parents. Even if they feel so enthusiastic, they won’t force you to do anything you don’t wanna do.”

Ms. Koll sighed loudly and stood back up. Alister was left staring at her in shock. What the fuck just happened? All of them were interested in him? That was literally the exact opposite of what he wanted… He didn’t get struck by lightning or a stray meteor so… He supposed his spell worked?

Even fighting to his death he didn’t feel fear. Being weak, though, at the mercy of others? It scared him. He needed to get strong as fast as possible.