“Absolutely not!”

Ray flinched in surprise. She had neither heard nor sensed the old goblin approaching, yet Shaman was suddenly right next to her.

She lowered her sword, a bead of sweat forming on her brow as she felt an overwhelming pressure. The old goblin was brimming with authority, her eyes a burning inferno as she stared Ray down.

“They have the tent surrounded with weapons drawn!” Ray protested.

“And what do you expect to do about it? Kill them all? Is that the solution that your ‘new god’ offers to problems?”

Ray glared at the old goblin. Her simmering bloodlust was palpable. She was confident that if she fought all of the goblins except Shaman, she could come out victorious. There was no problem.

Ray paused as she was about to respond to Shaman when the voice in her head began to speak with a sharp, cold tone.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? You just offered them our religion. If you purge these attackers now, they’ll see this as a ‘crusade’. I will not create a religion that converts by the sword!”

“What about people that refuse to convert?” Ray asked.

Her nostrils flared as her eyes roamed over the watching goblins.

“We will fight our enemies. But are these goblins our enemies? Or are they simply ignorant? This is a race of creatures that have been hunted as ‘monsters’ for over a thousand years! Remember that these goblins won’t respawn. They will die if they are killed.”

“Well?” Shaman demanded.

She hesitated, her mind filling with uncertainty. In the few weeks since she had become ‘Ray’, she was faced with several difficult circumstances. Every time, she had been forced to make a choice and those choices led her to this point.

However, this time she wasn’t sure what the correct choice was.

“I...I’m not sure…” she mumbled.

Her shoulders slumped and her bloodlust drained away.

Shaman stared at the dejected young woman for a moment and then donned a warm, kindly smile. She placed a gentle hand on Ray’s shoulder.

“Let me show you another way.”

Her heart ached. A war was raging between her heart and her mind. She felt terrible and sad. She wanted to cry. She wanted to teach those goblins not to threaten her or her friend. She wanted to drink their blood and hear their agonized screams.

Amid her inner turmoil, she felt a comforting arm wrap around her.

“Thanks, Lexi…” Ray whispered.

Her friend didn’t respond. She didn’t need to.

Ray’s eyes focused on the crowd and she felt a tinge of fear. Now that her head had cleared up a bit, she realized how badly outnumbered she was. Even with her regeneration, she would have to experience a lot of pain to win a fight against this many people.

And what about Lexi? Her friend wouldn’t respawn if she died.

“Take a closer look at what is happening.”

She carefully looked around.

The sixteen goblins surrounding the tent were all armed. Vorg stood opposite the entrance flap, his eyes tilted up in a feral grin. He held a small, serrated dagger held out as he crouched, ready to pounce. Next to Vorg stood Jug with his twin swords held in his hands. Directly between the entrance and the group was Trog. Urg covered the back left side of the tent and Frog stood to the back right.

Her eyes settled on Shaman. The old goblin walked up beside Trog, her gait strong and confident - nothing like the struggled shambling she had shown inside of the tent. She raised her staff and rapped it against the ground. As if striking a hollow metal surface, the sound reverberated throughout the camp and drew all eyes to her.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Vorg stepped forward.

“I discovered that you were meeting with an immortal. I simply wished to take part in the meeting as a representative of the Gobber Goblins, but your assassin squad barred the path.”

Shaman sighed.

“Why did you draw your weapons? Who drew first?”

Trog grimaced.

“It was my fault. I lost my temper and drew first,” he admitted.

As Ray listened, she felt her heart sink. Because of a misunderstanding, she had almost jumped into a fight against people that simply wanted to speak with her!

“Don’t worry about it. What matters is that you didn’t do it. Nobody expects you to be perfect and I will always be here to help you. Let’s build up a nice church full of good ‘monsters’ that can help you avoid any mistakes like this. You don’t have to do this alone.”

Ray felt a strange sensation as liquid rolled down her cheek. She reached up and touched it. Another drop formed at the edge of her eye and she realized what was happening. It was only the second time she had personally experienced it.

“Huh…?” she let out a gasp of surprise.

She hadn’t cried when her body was self-destructing. She did shed a single tear when she was being carried by the roc, but she hadn’t cried since, even when she was being eaten alive. She hadn’t cried when her head was cut off or when her heart got stabbed. She did cry a bit when she was helping Lexi back in Cairel, but that didn’t count. Those emotions came from the old Evelyn Raymond, not her.

Crying was something that other people did.

Now, it was something that Ray did as well. She couldn’t explain why. It was like everything came crashing down on her in a single moment. The weight she was carrying suddenly seemed to be too much.

Lexi hugged Ray tighter and Ray felt warmth fill her even as her frustration fled through her tears.

She wasn’t alone.

All the goblins put their weapons away and Trog stepped back. Vorg turned to look at Ray and then hesitated when he noticed her tears.

“It seems that now is not a good time,” he observed wryly. “I would speak with you when you have a moment.”

Vorg signaled his Gobbers, and they backed off, moving towards another large tent that emitted the stench of food.

Shaman and Og walked over to Ray.

“Violence doesn’t solve everything. Simple misunderstandings and flared tempers can and should be resolved easily by figures of authority. If you walk this path you are setting yourself on, you will lead many more than I do. You have much room to grow.”

Ray nodded at Shaman’s explanation. She wiped her tears on the sleeve of her robe.

“Og, take her to the training area and teach her how to let out her emotions the goblin way. When she is composed, introduce her officially to both Vorg and to the Glitter Court.”

Og bowed and then motioned for Ray to follow him.

As they were leaving, Shaman grabbed Lexi by the arm and pulled her back towards the tent.

“Meek one, I would speak with you some more.”

***

Lexi followed Shaman back into the tent. She was reluctant to leave Ray by herself but figured that they were past the most dangerous part.

She had only known Ray for a few weeks, but she knew that there were times when Ray became a little unstable. She didn’t know all the reasons and she didn’t care to ask. Ray was her savior and, more importantly, her friend. Lexi would respect and follow her until Ray didn’t want her around anymore.

It was as simple as that. Ray had long since become Lexi’s support.

“Meek one, the path of magic is difficult but rewarding. I can see that you have awakened your mana and are trying to study it. Your mana shows signs of frequent strain, yet it remains unrefined. Do you not have a proper teacher?”

Lexi shook her head, her shoulders trembling.

“My tribe was destroyed before I could learn much. Ray rescued me but I am pretending to be a slave so that I can live with her in a human town. There is nobody to teach me properly.”

“Hmm,” Shaman pursed her lips. “You have a strong latent potential, but it will go unrealized if you tread without proper guidance. What magics do you seek to learn?”

“Enhancement and elemental magic,” Lexi replied. “I also have an aptitude for holy magic but I’m not a human.”

“What about your other aptitudes? Have you considered becoming an illusionist?”

Lexi stared at the old goblin with a confused expression.

“I’ve never heard of that aptitude. Is it a branch of arcane magic?”

Shaman snorted.

“Child, those things that you know of as ‘aptitudes’ refer to the magics that are known and understood by humans. Isn’t it only natural that we, the original residents of this world, know more secrets of magic than they do?”

Lexi nodded hesitantly. It made sense logically.

“I am an illusionist,” Shaman continued. “The closest human ‘aptitude’ to my magic would be a dominator warlock, but the medium, the operation, and the scale of the magic are all entirely different. I have been searching for many decades for one who has the ability to use illusion magic.”

“Right…” Lexi responded, unsure where Shaman was going with this.

“Meek one, I feel that you have this capability. If you prefer the term, you might have an ‘aptitude’ for it. Your potential is simply astounding and given time, I believe you could surpass me.”

Lexi’s jaw dropped. The chain on her wrist rattled as she covered her mouth.

“If it is your desire to learn an art that no human or beastkin has ever touched, would you consider studying the art of illusions?”

Lexi purred with excitement.

“Yes, of course, I would!”

She started this morning with satisfying revenge and now she was receiving the opportunity of a lifetime.

This was the best day ever!

***

“Hey Auto…”

“Yes?”

“What is a god?”

“Please provide context behind your inquiry.”

I pointed at Ray’s hunched form as she followed behind Og. “She is my Tether and my follower… and I am her god. I can feel her sadness and pain… and I can’t do anything about it!”

I took a moment to calm myself, then spoke again softly.

“What is my purpose here? Why do Overseers exist? Why did I become an Overseer?”

“I cannot answer.”

“Cannot, or will not?”

“I cannot. I am not authorized to access data on the purpose of Overseers, and I do not know why you became one. They simply exist.”

“I can’t accept that. Who controls access to that data? It sounds like there is someone more powerful than Overseers running the show.”

“Of course.”

Seriously? You’ve got to be kidding me.

“What kind of entities could be greater than the gods?”

“Precursors. The entity known as ‘Demestrix’ that these goblins mentioned is one such being. There are currently four whole Precursors that reside on this world, as well as some fragments.”

“Are any of those your boss?”

“Negative

I sighed. The more I learned about this world and the universe, the more curious I became about what else is out there and the more nervous I became about the future.

“At least gathering these goblins as followers shouldn’t be too hard. I haven’t used any holy power since I awakened, so I can probably use what I have to appear in front of them and do some magic tricks or something.”

“Are you being serious?” Auto scoffed.

Huh?

“Wouldn’t that work? The gods on Earth always did it the hard way. People are much more likely to believe in something they have seen, right?”

“Did you stop for a moment to consider that there might have been a reason why the Overseers of Earth rarely performed personal manifestations?”

Well, not really. I guess I assumed that they were being lazy.

“Haven’t you wondered why your holy power isn’t increasing despite Ray’s knowledge of you?”

“Ah! Now that you mention it, that’s true. It didn’t even occur to me since I hadn’t been thinking of Ray as a true follower.”

“There is a difference between ‘faith’ and ‘knowledge’. Faith is believing in things that you do not have a perfect knowledge of being true. They may have signs and reasons to believe but if they saw you directly or had a conversation with you, if they in any way gained an absolute, sure knowledge that you definitely exist, then you would no longer be able to harvest faith from that individual.”

“Seriously?”

“Additionally, you cannot perform miracles without faith. Your holy power bar is charged by the faith of your followers. This is manifested in them following your tenets and by them beseeching you for aid.”

Auto paused, letting the full meaning of that statement sink in. I frowned as Auto finished the explanation.

“A full-physical manifestation is a miracle as well. The amount of faith that must be present would be astronomical. There are ways that you can get around this but in general, you should assume that you can only physically manifest yourself in areas where many followers are gathered. In so doing, you must be prepared to lose the ability to gather ‘faith’ from those individuals permanently.”

Okay, so manifestations were a last resort. Damn it.

“So, I need to come up with a real way to convince the goblins that I exist and am worth following…”

“Good luck!”