1.42 Of Flame and Field Trip’s
Vicktor's heart was beating hard in his chest, as he glanced to Alar and Nora, they both looked similarly shaken. That had been an awfully large number of armed goblins and they were uncomfortably close.
One of those women had looked incredibly similar to the woman who'd thrown a knife at him at dinner the day before.
Re'at allowed their intrusion as well as their departure, returning to the ceremony as soon as the final wail echoed around the amphitheater for the last time.
"Collect the offerings" The elder said, gesturing toward Xethrai.
Re'ada and Re'tai nodded, then looked at each other and nodded once more. Re'tai dropped the long locks of hair into Re'ada's wooden bowl.
Quickly she returned the bowl to its fellows and returned with an empty one.
Xethrai raised a hand, palm up and looked directly into Re'tai's face as she drew the edge across his hand.
"Huh?!" Xethrai muttered.
The goblin cocked his head with how easily the knife cut him, but did not react as the sharp steel dug into him. Blood pooled onto his calloused hands and into the awaiting bowl.
Re'tai stared back, letting the bowl fill nearly completely before pressing a woven cloth to the wound, letting the gray fibers soak in the red offering.
The man did not respond or show any emotion beyond his initial confusion.
Re'ada stepped away to place the full bowl onto the table with the empty bowls and the lock of hair.
Xethrai stood, holding the red fabric with his dark green hands, his gaze moved to a point above the crowd.
The rest of the goblins' offerings were collected, a simple short section of hair and a pinprick of blood were collected into the bowls.
Vicktor noticed Nora upturned lips when the archer that she had temporarily crippled was able to stand to give her offerings.
"The offerings are collected. Tosk will offer it to The Eight. He will now provide a flame for the burnt offering."
Master Tosk nodded and gestured at Re'tai and Re'ada, who both grabbed two bowls of blood.
His master produced his bare palm from a pocket in his robe, and sparked a white spark that quickly grew in intensity like magnesium set alight. Soon it grew to be a great white flame taller than a human emitted from the scaly green hand.
The flame grew brighter, but the size condensed. From the height of a human, to the height of a goblin, to a blinding white blaze no larger than a human head.
With his other free hand, he carefully grabbed a bowl from Re'tai who had shut her eyes completely. After the bowl was taken from her, she used her free hand to cover her face.
Vicktor almost thought to do the same, but he was far enough away to manage, the light pervaded his sense of sight even when he blinked.
Master Tosk set the bowl upon the blistering heat, ignoring the concentrated flame as it licked around his hand and robe.
The bowl vanished in an instant along with the blood inside, vaporized into dust with a harsh whistle. Air above the flame wobbled as the shear heat refracted any light that dared approach. Soon another bowl of blood and yet more organic matter disintegrated from the powerful magics.
Once the last blood bowl had burned up, Re'ada and Re'tai grabbed the hair. Vicktor noticed with astonishment that Re'ada’s eyes were wide, staring directly into the beautiful flame.
Xethrai's long hair was the first to burn, but instead of assaulting the nostrils with the smell of burnt hair, instead there was no smell at all. The combustion was thorough and complete. The next offering was consumed, then the next, until finally all the offerings were no more...
"I'm glad that's–"
Vicktor nearly jumped out of his robe, next to Master Tosk's shrinking inferno was a translucent iridescent glowing goblin. Its hair glowed, its eyes glowed through the back of its head. The outline of the being felt as if his retinas were being plucked out. A harsh cacophony of eight voices clashed:
"THE SIN AND BURNT OFFERING PLEASE US, SO LET THE VANQUISHED LEARN FROM THEIR DEFEAT!"
Then as soon as the voice and form appeared, the glow vanished, taking along with it, the effigy of the god-like being.
"What was that about?!" Nora said, hand touching the symbol of Eldurel on her neck. The three apprentices were in Master Tosk's room at the brothel along with Re'tai and Re'ada.
"Who was that!" Alar's eyes were as wide as the moon.
Vicktor could acutely feel the weight and temperature of the symbol of J on his chest. "Was that one or all of them?"
Master Tosk looked his three apprentices in the eyes before speaking. "That was the closest you any of you will get to hearing gods in the material world speak for a long time, most likely."
Vicktor tried not to notice that Master Tosk's eyes fell on him for a bit longer than the others after that statement.
Alar nearly squawked as he asked, "that makes it sound like it wasn't actually a god. That's not blasphemy is it?!" The avian looked up through the ceiling.
Re'tai and Re'ada moved a little closer.
"You're a Mage! You shouldn't be afraid of God's and their seats of divinity, you should be afraid of your fellow sapients who wield that divinity in the name of their gods. It's a slight but important difference."
Nora's normally calm voice fluttered a little, "that sounds like blasphemy, Master. I hesitate to guess at your age but–"
"Not the worst parts, not even close. They still have some even today you know, it's rare but there's still some 'Mages' foolish enough to mess with The Divine Warrant. There's been much better substitutes for a long time, no need to return to the old ways." Master Tosk sighed.
Nobody dared speak for several moments until finally, Master Tosk lightened and clapped.
"A field trip! Let's go explore that bridge now that everything has been resolved. Would you two like to come along?"
"Sure, but do we have to walk?" Re'ada asked.
"My apprentices can't fly Re'ada, well..." Master Tosk looked at Alar. "They can't all fly."
"Sure." Re'tai answered quickly.
Master Tosk clapped twice, "That settles it, let's let some important people know where we are going before we depart. The reports were unclear exactly how damaged the bridge was, human guardsmen and battlemages aren't exactly architects or structural engineers."
The return to the forest felt somewhat more ominous than before. If goblins could attack in the past, they could do so again, Ritual of the Vanquished or not. The slowly increasing chill unnerved Vicktor, first real snowfall was going to be difficult, especially if it happened before they left.
Green leaves were covering the underbrush, the color never faded from the magical trees, but the leaves still fell, waiting to be crunched by the group.
Vicktor crunched some of the cold leaves under his bare feet, the magic leaves only slightly sharper than mundane ones.
Cold whipped at his exposed face and hands even as the sun tried to warm them. The first snow would be here soon.
"Hey Vicktor, how are you going to build anything if the ground is frozen?" Re'ada asked as she sat on his shoulders and pack with her thighs warming his neck and feet lazily bumping his chest.
"You have legs, you know?" Vicktor retorted.
"Hmph! I thought you wanted me to ride you?" The goblin woman's crossed arms moved onto his head.
"That was last night, and this is not what either of us had in mind at the time!"
Laughter of all kinds resounded just outside of Vicktor's vision.
It seems everyone in their little "field trip" had both heard and been amused by his predicament.
A full hour had passed since leaving the wallowing rice fields of Tao-Ti-Cua when a distant constant roar slowly became perceptible, a deeper heavy reverberation than the lighter rustling of the foliage above.
After another few minutes of walking, it emerged from the relatively flat even field of the old forest.
There, as if etched into a freshly hewn slab of granite, was the steep riverbank easily fifty feet wide and ten feet down from the roiling white surface to the flat soil of the forest. Ancient roots held the river in check as it weathered them. Only boulders and large filleted stones remained, everything else had been scoured by the whitewater.
Barely visible underneath the coursing water, lay the sundered remnants of a bridge...