Most citizens of Alarna tended to think back fondly to simpler times, when they were younger and not yet aware of how dangerous the world could be. They would spend their days playing and doing chores, and when the bells rang at night, their parents would reassure them that nothing would ever happen to them, as long as they didn't leave their house at night. Sometimes they might catch glimpses of the outside world through the gates and wonder what lay beyond the town walls, but Alarna was large enough to spend your childhood exploring just this limited area, and before they could become too bored of it, they would begin a new adventure, starting with their ritual.

Receiving your Calling and becoming a true adult was the ultimate goal of every child, but with it came not only new experiences, but also responsibilities and some hard truths. No matter how innocent and naive they might have been prior to this point, they would not be able to ignore the glaring problems of this world anymore.

Their parents might have told them that they would be safe in their homes, but how would a thin wooden wall protect you from a beast that got past the large, strong stone walls around the town? They thought that they would spend the rest of their lives doing the job they had been destined for, which they would find fulfillment in, but what would happen if something as simple as illness or an accident were to put a stop to that, and their place in this world disappeared in the blink of an eye? And of course, the most grueling danger of all, what if your job started to bore you, and after receiving all the knowledge you would need for it, there was nothing new to learn anymore? If you had to spend the entire rest of your life doing that one job, day in and day out, with no hope of ever escaping your destiny?

Some might start to ask themselves what the point of being alive even was, but most would find other purposes in life. Friends, partners, children, and if you were really lucky, even grandchildren. They would make the most of the limited entertainment options in town, and they would listen spellbound to the few stories there were to tell about the outside world, merchants’ travels to Cerus, and news from other towns. Very few things were as enticing as rumors, however. The more perplexing and downright outlandish the better.

The biggest source for rumors of recent memory had been a story about two criminal children, who had destroyed a water source, attacked guards, broke out of prison, stole from multiple homes, and finally assaulted guards again to flee town. Very few details about all of this had ever been made public, which only fueled the rumor mill even more. In some variations of the story, the two were Mad Ones, despite one of them still being a young girl. Some said that these two had lured beasts into town, to destroy Alarna, or that they were beasts themselves, while others spoke of them having killed beasts instead. And the most outlandish claim, which very few believed, was that they were able to control water.

When this story was about to ebb out, despite the curious and sudden mobilization of the soldiers to supposedly hunt the fugitives, the citizens were blessed with something new. The temple had presented a divine messenger, as a source for hope and as a symbol of better days to come. A third of the town’s citizens had been there live, with many of them having been believers already, but the speech the audience heard and the display of Hope’s powers convinced many of the remaining attendees of her divinity as well. Following this event, the temple saw a surge of people coming to the temple to pay their respects to the gods, to donate, and to get blessed. However, a few people were skeptical. The temple made bold claims about the lack of beast attacks and how the gods had restored the previously destroyed water source, and it was true that the bells had not rung in weeks, but some made a connection to the rumors about the criminals.

The two things that had people convinced that this divine messenger was genuine were her special aura and her ability to produce water from nothing. If one was to believe the rumors, however, she hadn’t been the first one to display these abilities. An old woman swore that she had seen the little girl from before shoot water from her hand, and a guard who had since been executed for insubordination had sworn that the boy threw him into a wall without touching him. What’s more, as a pious man, he said he had felt as if smitten by the gods. Those who believed these stories questioned the temple’s words. The boy and the girl had been caught and just a few days later this supposed divine messenger appeared. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Despite a few crazy theories though, the temple’s following grew, until that fateful day, when a group of guards and workers returned to town and started speaking of another divine messenger. For the first time, a larger group of people all told the same story, and they weren’t part of the usual crazies that would make up rumors. They had actual explanations for the things that had happened, and this new divine messenger, “Lilly,” had not kept anything from them. She had apparently not acted like a gift to humanity that expected to be praised every day, she had displayed powers never seen or heard of before by anyone, and she had blessed the area around the worker camp to protect it from beasts. Most importantly, however, this blessing had supposedly actually been effective, and no beasts had been seen anywhere near the camp after that day.

People who were already doubting the High Priest’s words picked up these stories immediately and spread them far and wide, while others were a little more hesitant. Still, an interesting rumor would never go unnoticed, and in a matter of just two days almost the entire town knew about it, regardless of whether they believed it or not.

When the story reached the town’s leaders, their reactions were mixed. The king, who was still worried about his men and his position, saw a new chance to find an ally against the temple, who might help him get the town back on track. He sent out a patrol to try to find this woman, but they came up empty. All they noticed was what felt like an increased number of beasts around the camp, who never ventured into it for some reason. For their own safety, however, they didn’t approach them.

Meanwhile, the High Priest was deeply worried. He knew more about what was going on than anyone else, and Lilana was a major threat to his plans. Even if neither he nor his scripture researcher understood exactly how she was doing what she was doing, he didn’t doubt these rumors for one second, since he knew that a lot of what was being said was true. He knew the girl, he knew that something unusual had happened during her ritual, and he knew that she had received the energy, just like Tomar, Riala, Oryn, and Aelene before her. With her positioning herself as the true divine messenger, who had been persecuted by the temple, and then proceeding to carry out what seemed like actual miracles, he would have a hard time convincing people that she was the true fraud, and any attempt to enlighten people about her being just a girl with some special abilities would call into question the validity of his own claims about divine messengers. He also knew that Lilana had always been ambitious, and even though he hadn’t entertained the thought of making her his successor even once, she was now in a position to aim for becoming the head of the temple. In the end, he could come to only one conclusion. He had to get her onto his side, or, alternatively, get rid of her. Anything else would spell doom for his plans for the future.

While these two men desperately tried to come up with ways to hold onto their power, there were a few voices growing louder among the general public, pointing out that a true divine messenger would be blessing the entire town, and not only a small area east of it, where a few kids were getting the wood. Specifically, they were the people who were also going out into the Wildlands regularly, like the farmers, the merchants, and other guards. They would never truly believe such rumors while they were still risking their lives every day. Little did they know that it was just taking a little bit to surround almost the entire town with specially prepared trees.

***

“Hey, Wryn!” a guard shouted down from the town wall, at another guard, who was preparing to head out north of town in the early morning, with a group of guards and farmers behind him.

“What?” Wryn shouted back in annoyance.

“Uhm... Did you send a priestess out here or something by any chance?”

“Huh? What are you talking about!?”

“Well, there’s a girl standing out there, right in the square between the fields. We don’t know where she came from. I... Do you think that’s...?”

Several faces down at the gate lit up when they heard these words. If this wasn’t a cruel joke, and a young woman in priest robes was standing out there, without a care in the world, that could only mean one thing. The farmers had never been more eager to leave the safety of the town’s walls before.

***

It was the end of the month, and even though the soldiers had yet to return, and the town was low on guards, the monthly caravan to Cerus departed from Alarna on the twenty-ninth day, as usual, to arrive on the last day of the market. Sending multiple squads with the merchants to Cerus wasn’t ideal, but the king didn’t have a choice, as they needed the blue stones from the neighboring town. Luckily, things were looking up for the town ever since the new divine messenger had blessed the entire area. If nothing unforeseen happened, the troops that were left behind would be more than enough to protect the town.

However, the assumption that Alarna would be safe only comforted the guards and merchants who had to make the trip to Cerus to a certain degree. Their families and friends would be safe, but they were uncertain about what would await them outside the area around their hometown. If the rumors were to be believed, beasts in and around town were a thing of the past, but what would happen during their six days of travel? They rarely met a beast that the guards couldn’t fight off, but they had lost people in the past, and the fear was ever present.

As the caravan took off from the western gate, many people in it prayed that they would return safely. When they arrived at the road that wound its way through the forest to Cerus, a young woman blocked their path, and the people knew that their prayers had been answered.

“Good people of Alarna, do not worry! Your journey has been blessed and I will be seeing all of you again very soon! Praise be to the gods!” the young woman said.

““Praise be to gods,”” the people of the caravan parroted.