Ashera: Chapter 17

NOTE: I’m still so unbelievably busy I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to upload as much but it’s all I can do to keep up with the WPW’s. Here’s chapter 17 of Ashera, I hope y’all enjoy it!

    “-and let him always be with us. Amen,” the priest at the front of the church finished. He looked up at everyone. “Service dismissed. Remember to come to our dinner at my house this Wednesday.”
    People began to file out of the church. Ryan glanced sideways at Ashera. “What do we do now?”
    Ashera looked up at the front of the worship hall. The priest from before was talking to some women, smiling and laughing with them. “We should probably go up and ask if he knows where Quinn Kilo is.”
    “More talking?” Fox groaned. Rolling her eyes, Ashera led her two companions to the front. They waited politely until the priest turned to face their group.
    “Hello, welcome to our place of worship. I thought I saw some new faces out there. How can I help you all?”
    “We’re looking for a priest called Quinn Kilo. We were told that they work here?”
    “I am Quinn Kilo, although I prefer the title of Brother Kilo. How may I help you?”
    “Oh, well, this is going to be kind of hard to explain,” Ashera started. “But Golivun is in great danger. A man called The Alpha is trying to find the Orb of Reality and we have to find it before he does. So we went to find Malic and ask-are you okay?”
    At the mention of Malic, Kilo had stiffened. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.”
    “What?”
    “I have put that man and all of his business long behind me and it’s better if it stays that way.”
    “But Quinn-”
    “I said for you to leave,” he said. “Now.”
    Ashera wanted to say something else, but couldn’t. She sighed. Back to square one, and they were so close to having figured it out. Head down, she started making her way out of the church.

    “Alright, listen up,” Ryan said. “We have travelled all the way from Harle on a suicide mission to stop the Alpha. We have risked our lives numerous times for this. You can’t let this stop you!” his voice was filled with passion now, and Ashera found herself captivated by him. The way his voice rose and fell at the right moments, the way his face burned hot with passion. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. “Please,” Ryan said, his voice suddenly softening. Tears pooled at the bottom of his eyes. “Please, Brother Kilo. For the good of Golivun.”
    For a moment, all was silent. The only sound was Ryan’s heavy breathing. She hesitated, waited for an answer.
    “I was in a very committed relationship with Malic when we were young,” Brother Kilo started. “He was kinder then. Sweeter, handsome, and so so passionate.”
    Brother Kilo’s eyes filled with pain. He looked away, yet he went on. “But there was always that darkness inside of him. That ambition, the kind that only someone who is inherently evil can sustain. It consumed him, and everything that was good about him disappeared shortly after.
    “But I stayed with him. I wanted to help him, I prayed that the man that I knew and loved would come back to me. But he never did. He was too far gone. He spent all of his time looking for the Orb. I left him after his first atrocity was committed and became a priest-being close to such evilness for so long had hurt me, and the light was the only cure.
    “But Malic had a theory. He believed that the Orb was hidden in a cave, far below the Rickshaw mountain, guarded by a dragon. How he came to this conclusion I do not know, but he worked tirelessly to test it. I even believe he went there a few times, but he never got far enough down the mountain to make a difference.” Brother Kilo frowned, looking into the distance. “I heard that he never gave up, kept trying to find what could get him past it. Never knew it was right under his nose…”
    “What do you mean right under his nose?” Ashera asked, snapping Kilo out of his trance.
    “Nothing,” he said, startled. “Forget I said anything.” Ashera gave him a doubtful look. “Why do you need to know all of this, anyways?”
    “A dark sorcerer is planning to find the Orb. He has an army of Calidi. We don’t know exactly what he’s going to do, but we know it’s going to be awful. He needs to be stopped.”
    Brother Kilo nodded. “Calidi are dark, dark creatures. A few have even attacked here. It’s good you all are stopping him.”
    He still knows more than he’s letting on, Ashera thought. “Can I show you something, Brother?”
    “Yes, yes of course.”
    Ashera unsheathed her sword, watching the golden beams of light crawl across the blade. Light shone through her; it was like blood rushing to the surface of her skin but much warmer. The holiness of the church made the transformation easier and, with almost no effort, Ashera shone like an angel.
    Kilo’s mouth hung open. “You-you have the light.”
    “Yeah I guess,” Ashera said.
    “Might I ask who your parents are?”
    “Oh, uh, I never knew them,” Ashera glanced at the ground. “I was abandoned as a child.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that. Pity that we can’t trace back your celestial lineage.”
    “My what?”
    “Your celestial lineage. The history of light magic in your bloodline.”
    “Oh, well we’re in kind of a rush. Needing to stop a dark sorcerer and all.”
    “Right, right, of course. Follow me, I have something that may help you.”
    Brother Kilo had been completely won over. Ryan whispered to Ashera, “How’d you know to show him that?”
    “I don’t know, I just had a feeling.”
    Kilo led them to the back of the church, where the priests resided. He brought a trunk out from underneath his bed and pulled out a pendant from a small pouch. “Malic couldn’t get into Rickshaw because it’s protected by an extreme magical cold. You’d need a strong source of magical protection to combat it. Malic could never find something powerful enough; he didn’t know that I had this all along. It should do the trick.”
    He handed the pendant to Ashera. It was in the shape of a snowflake, with an icy blue stone in the center. And...she may have been mistaken, but was the stone glowing?
    “That should help all of you. It’s the amulet of frost protection, one of the most powerful you could find anywhere. As long as you all stay within 20 yards of each other, the cold shouldn’t bother you too much. It won’t be pleasant, but you should be able to make it to Rickshaw.”
    Ashera didn’t like the uncertainty in his tone, but she supposed the pendant was better than nothing. “Thank you very much, Brother Kilo. We couldn’t be doing this without your help.”
    “Of course, I’m happy to offer my assistance. Maybe after you get back from this quest you could come here and we could study your magic?”
    “Oh uh, sure I guess.”
    “Perfect! I’ll see you then! Good luck adventurers.”
    “Thank you, Brother. Best wishes to you.”

    So, a couple of hours later, the group was trekking through the forest towards the Rickshaw Mountains, the pendant dangling from Ashera’s neck.
    “I don’t mean to sound worrisome, but how are we going to do this?” Fox asked. “This is way harder than any challenge we’ve faced before.”
    “Does it really matter?” Ashera asked. “We have to make sure Bear doesn’t get the Orb. I’m willing to do whatever it takes; are you?”
    “Yes,” Ryan and Fox answered without hesitation.
    “Good,” Ashera said. “Let’s keep going.”

    Night fell. The moon cast long, haunting shadows over the forest. A howl pierced the silent night, sending a chill down Ashera’s spine.
    “Calidi,” she said to Ryan, who was eating a bowl of stew beside her. “Let’s hope they don’t come our way.”
    “Who cares if they do? I’ve got you to protect me,” Ryan smiled, planting a sloppy kiss on Ashera’s cheek. They waited.
    Ashera started to hear footfalls and howls; she knew that the Calidi were approaching. They got louder and faster, but something was different about these. Along with the normal barks and howls, Ashera heard high-pitched yips and wails spaced throughout. When the pack arrived, Ashera saw why.
    Three Calidi had chased one, a smaller, gravely injured Calidi, right into the camp. As the Calidi approached, Fox shot an arrow into the frontrunner’s chest, killing it instantly.
    The other two healthy Calidi turned tail and ran. They were back into the forest, cloaked by the darkness of the night, disappearing as quickly as they had come.
    Ryan sighed and walked over to the injured Calidi, who had fallen over and was breathing heavily now, unsheathing his sword as he did so. He raised it into the air and was sending it down on the Calidi’s neck when Ashera yelled, “Stop!”
    Ryan’s balde halted. Three faces turned to her in alarm. “It’s injured,” Ashera explained. 
    “It’s a Calidi, Ashera. Have you lost your mind?”
    Maybe she had, but the Calidi looked to her, begging for help. In its eyes she saw a level of intelligence and fear that she didn’t know was possible for a non-humanoid creature to possess. He looked so scared and startled and alone, and Ashera had to help it.
    She crossed over to the wolf, pushing Ryan’s blade to the side with her arm. He gaped at her, but stepped away from the Calidi.
    Ashera looked into the Calidi’s eyes-those red eyes so filled with terror. She placed her hand on its midnight pelt and it yelped in pain, squirming away from her arm. Light magic still pulsed through her skin. Grimacing, she tried to move all of the warmth to her chest, out of her limbs. She touched the wolf now and even though his eyes filled with pain, he stayed still. The magic still hurt him, but it wasn’t unbearable.
    “Ashera I don’t think this is a good idea.”
    Ashera ignored him, now inspecting the Calidi. It had a long cut running down its flank and a large bite on its shoulder.
    “These bites, they’re from other Calidi,” Ashera said.
    “What?”
    “Yeah, look,” Ashera moved her head away so Ryan and Fox could see the injuries. 
    “Do you know what this means?” Ryan asked. “There must be turmoil in the Alpha’s army! It must not be as strong as we thought.”
    “Yeah,” Ashera agreed, though she was barely paying attention. “Do you think it’ll hurt it if I try one of my healing spells on it?”
    “You want to heal it?!”
    “Well, yeah.”
    “It’s a Calidi!”
    “Yeah, you’ve said that once or twice,” Ashera said. “Listen, it’s obviously defied Bear, we can tell that from the bites. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
    “Unless that enemy is a crazy evil demon wolf!” Ryan said. “Think about what you’re doing Ashera.”
    Whining, the Calidi lifted its head and licked Ashera’s elbow. Ashera smiled. “I am.” She tore off a piece of her own cloak and began bandaging the wolf’s shoulder.
    Ryan sighed heavily. He looked like he wanted to say something, but Fox put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head, leading him away. “Goodnight Ashera,” she said as they walked away. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
    Ashera rolled her eyes and turned back to the wolf. “I don’t care what they think, I know you’re on my side.” She kissed the wolf’s shaggy forehead and it planted another kiss on her chin. 
    “If you’re going to be with us, you need a name,” she said. Her eyes landed on the moon, and the patterns it cast along the ground. She smiled.
    “How about Shadow?”

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