“Hey! Wait!” this priestess said, following her. “I’m a healer! I can help you!”

  Yeah, help alright she would. Probably at the price of listening to a sermon.

  “I don’t want your help”, Vic spat, racing a bit harder. She stumbled on her feet and fell on the ground, scratching her hands. Okay now that was just pathetic.

  The priestess slowed down. “Look at what you’ve done to yourself…” she said. Vic cringed.

  Oh gods why were those cultist so weird. Nobody outside this damn city coddled children in any shape or form. Monsters, shades, ancient forgotten gods, all of that was too much of an obstacle to anything close to normalcy. That amount of sympathy was just plain weird. And fake. Very fake.

  “I know you’re a cuuuult!” Vic turned her head towards the priestess, “I know what you’re doiiiing!”

  The priestess looked taken aback.

  “What could you mean, new friend?”, she chirped.

  “You’re faaaaaking your kindnessss! Now leave. Leave or I blow you up. Shoo.”

  Still on the ground, she motioned for the priestess to back off. The priestess didn’t. Instead she stepped closer.

  That was foolish. She meant those words. She was about this close to incanting the first spell to spit out some sun spits.

  “His Eminence once wrote that great acts of Bravery could only be done in the face of true danger”, the priestess intoned, then knelt next to Vic, smiling at her kindly. “I want to help you. You’re hurt.”

  Vic quickly scrambled up to her knees.

  “I’ve got healing potions. I don’t need you”, Vic said dryly. Her stock was low but not that low. She wasn’t going to let desperation be her guiding principle in life.

  “But you could spare some coin, right? It’ll be free of charge.” the priestess said, closing her eyes while tilting her head and smiling. “I promise.”

  Huh.

  Vic looked back at the priestess. The way she was smiling was strange because of how genuine it looked. Perhaps she was one of those fools that genuinely believed in the purity of their cause. That was something veeery silly to do in this world.

  The priestess incanted her own healing spell, and Vic’s nose stopped leaking blood, finally. The surprise was that the scraps on her hands were gone too.

  Hm. Not too bad. Adequate, even.

  The priestess joined her and Vic’s hands together.

  “There, you are healed.”

  That was far too close for comfort.

  The priestess looked young now that she focused on her face. About perhaps a year older than her.

  Yeah, that girl was probably a naive fool.

  “I hadn’t healed anyone today, yet”, she said. “I’d like to go more often near the poorest districts, but I have to sneak out in order to do that.”

  “Were you following me?” Vic asked.

  The young priestess’s eyes became round.

  “What? No, I was eating, I finished my morning work late today. It’s said that a worthy soul gives their best for the betterment of mankind!”

  Vic considered her options.

  “Okay, erm, could I ask you to tell me where the contest for new shiny spells takes place?” she asked. Maybe she could get the prize and leave this city immediately afterwards. As quickly as possible. Leaving was on the top of her list of priorities. Perhaps just below getting easily some absurdly big amount of golden coins, but still pretty high on her list.

  The priestess’s eyes rounded up again.

  “You’re magically gifted?” she said. “That’s amazing! Oh, you’re not from here, are you?”

  Vic shook her head. She couldn’t possibly look the part, ever.

  “Well that’s great news!” the young priestess said. “The city loves its mages and sorcerers! Oh I tell you His Eminence would be so happy if you joined us in our pursuit of truth and betterment!”

  Oh well she wasn’t about to tell her that His Eminence had just broken her nose, huh. By accident, still, but that wasn’t the point. The point was beyond that. She hated this city and just the thought of living here permanently made her want to retch.

  “Yeah, I’m sure he…” she said, feeling that her throat was becoming dry as sandpaper, “…can’t wait.”

  The young priestess nodded positively.

  “Oh! I’m Karah, by the way!”, she said, “I’m sure we’ll be great friends!”

  Vic stared at her.

  “Sure”, she said, with the assumption that the other girl understood that she was absolutely not convinced.

  Karah just seemed happy instead.

  Nice. This was going to bite her in the back in the near future, she felt.

  “And you are?” the other hopefully asked.

  Vic swallowed.

  “I’m Vic”, she said. “Vic the human.”

  ___

  Five minutes into the walk and she was already regretting her decision. Karah had started talking praises about the residential god of this city and oh boy was it making her want to die inside each time a little more. Maybe she’d get a headache from this and need a quick healing spell again. Maybe the price would be listening to another sermon. And then she’d get another headache. And then the cycle would continue, and on and on, without end.

  She needed to interrupt that monologue at all costs.

  “And what do you think of the academy of spellcrafts there is here haha”, Vic squeezed in while Karah took a deep breath of air to keep on talking.

  It made the girl pause.

  For a single moment, it felt like the freshest of airs was blowing between Vic’s ears.

  “It’s the Academy of Enlightenment, actually”, Karah interrupted in a bit of a nerdy way. “They’re good! Really good! It attracts the best sorcerers and mages of all the lands! It’s all thanks to His Eminence, who sees that the best can exist in everyone and how anyone has their own talents! It’s all about being enlightened enough to see where those talents are!”

  “Uh-huh”, Vic said, feeling a bit desperate because of the amount of times she’d heard the words ‘His Eminence’.

  “Oh you’ll see you’ll love it here!” Karah enthusiastically added.

  “I’m not staying”, Vic jadedly replied, nearly automatically.

  That made Karah frown.

  “Why wouldn’t you?” and oh boy was the confusion real on her face.

  “Because I’ve got lands to explore and corpses of creatures to loot”, Vic replied without missing a beat. She didn’t say “and because I’ve got gods to kill and pyromaniacs to burn” because she wasn’t quite sure how Karah would take it. Probably not well.

  “But that doesn’t sound like a life”, Karah said.

  Vic frowned.

  She was right. It didn’t sound like a life, it sounded like a video game.

  “Yeah but that’s a me problem”, Vic lightly answered. She turned her face to Karah aaaand oh no what had she done now. She looked hurt.

  “You don’t want to stay here? But… it’s the best city there is!”

  Vic chuckled.

  “And have you been to any other city?” she quipped.

  Karah was frowning now.

  “No, but I know that there are monsters out there that kill easily by the hundreds. Before His Eminence arrived, we suffered. We suffered from the will of other gods. But His Eminence is good and holy and will help anyone who will help themselves, who will accept the offered hand that he extends to anyone needing it in their heart. He is good, and benevolent, and it’s thanks to him that His City, the heart of his empire to come, has never had to suffer the assault of foes for a hundred years and more! No living soul remembers a day where we lived in terror, no living soul has had to face the horror of not knowing if they’d make it to the next morning: he has put the nights of horror to an end with his undying, true light.”

  Vic absent-mindedly nodded while Karah continued. Oh she never stopped.

  “He is both God and human, he is both cursed creature and Holy Thinker, he is the ambiguity that truly represents mankind. He is the only true leader that-” and oh she was going to shoot herself. Blabla bla. Bla.

  “Well he does seem to come down to the market that’s sure”, Vic said light-heartedly.

  “Oh yes!” Karah replied, looking like she was infinitely happy by her reaction, and that kind of made her feel guilty. Had she noticed how little she listened? “He does! He cares for us, he comes see if all is well in all districts, for he desires nothing more than seeing his city and its citizens flourish through careful tending!”

  Yeah yeah this god-emperor was a gardener, she got it.

  “I’m sure he cares”, Vic replied, feeling a bit sassy, and when Karah nodded with a smile, she knew that the cultist agreed unironically to her statement and hadn’t gotten any of the irony of her tone.

  Damn. This cult was something. She’d met a few but to see an entire city being held that much by the belief that their local eldritch god cared, well that was something that just made her guts twist.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Maybe she was biased because she’d broken her nose on said god but urgh anyway.

  Karah then said nothing and the silence was a bit weird.

  Oh, maybe she’d realised that Vic would enjoy a bit of alone time. Yeah, right, because “sorcerers needed their calm for their spellcraft”, something-something, one of the cultists had said. But Karah looked meditative. They went through a few turns and narrow streets. It seemed the young priestess knew a few shortcuts.

  Perhaps she’d listened to some of the food for thought that Vic had sprinkled to the slightly one-sided conversation. Could it be possible to make a cultist realise that they’d been indoctrinated? Who knew. She’d never managed to do that. She didn’t think it was possible.

  She’d admit that this world had hardened her ability to care about the wellbeing of others, especially when most people here were badly intentioned, had tried sacrificing her to their gods, or were simply deceived into doing bad things and really believed they were doing something good in this fucked up world. It was so much simpler to kill some mindless monsters, get some money, then some food, and call it a day.

  …She had helped a few people though. Those, she remembered. She hoped they were fine.

  “Oh we’re here!” Karah said excitedly. The end of the street was opening on a wide central plaza. It felt a bit too wide, like the left-over ruin of an ancient and gigantic coliseum that had been repurposed as a meeting place. At its centre was a six metres tall statue of the masked god she’d accidentally started a bossfight with. Ah darn that had been awkward to deal with.

  With a few slow breaths she made her reddening face calm down. Rolling away could get embarrassing, but that didn’t make it any less efficient… and very much worth doing.

  “The contest takes place in the Academic Great Hall, which is facing that tall clock tower you see here, Vic”, she said, and hearing her name in someone else’s mouth felt weird. Giving it away might have been a mistake.

  Vic shuffled a bit as she saw patrols of guards coming in and out of the plaza. Well, so far, this city was well taken care off and well-guarded.

  Like a prison, a part of her realised.

  She gulped down.

  “Oh don’t feel nervous I’m sure you’ll do great! You must be amazing if you’ve survived so far in the wastes! You’re from the wastes, right? I don’t want to assume”, Karah excitedly skittered.

  Vic didn’t quite know what to answer.

  “Not exactly but I was in it for a while. I needed to get some sort of… ehhhh”, and oh well Karah didn’t need to know everything about her.

  Karah smiled at her, then seemed to notice someone at the entrance of the great hall. She raced there, holding her robes in her hands to speed up faster.

  Vic walked behind, approaching slowly. A little bit of people-watching wouldn’t hurt her.

  “…oh I’m so happy for you!” Karah said to the boy said. “I knew you could do it.”

  “Please, Karah, it’s thanks to you”, he replied. And oh now she was bored of this conversation. “I’d never could have kept going without your undying faith, really, Tom thanks you too. He’s a bit sick right now but-”

  “Oh no! Is he alright?” Karah interrupted.

  “Well he’s going to be from what the healers and the high priest said. He’s been put in quarantine, so you shouldn’t try to meet him like you probably planned to.”

  “You know me so well! Oh well, I guess I’ll trust he’ll be fine! I know he will. It’s been told”, Karah enthusiastically replied.

  Vic walked passed them. Time to go in and swoop in some easy money in her pockets. This was going to be so easy. Yes, thinking it wasn’t jinxing it.

  “Hey, who’s that?” the boy asked, and Vic just knew he was talking about her from the tone.

  Karah’s hand fell on Vic’s shoulder. Vic froze.

  “That’s Vic! A new friend I made today!” she said. Vic gulped down. Karah’s hand was still on her shoulder.

  “Oh that’s just like you Karah”, the human boy said. He had round ears. Huh. So humans and elves, living together… that was something to note. And there didn’t seem to be any of the subtle points of tension.

  “She’s a mage! Or a sorcerer! But more importantly, she’s participating in this novel spell contest!” Karah said.

  “Oh”, the boy said. “Well, the contest started a few thirty minutes ago.”

  “Oh nooo!” Karah said. “Vic that’s terribly bad luck. They… They only happen once every six months.”

  Vic stared at the ground. No way.

  She felt her mind conceptualise a minute of silence for all the troubles she’d gone through, only to be rewarded by nothing, nothing at all.

  Alright. She’d just leave the city now. She never was going to wait for the next contest. She didn’t have the patience.

  “The next contest is just in six months, maybe you could find work in the watchguard in the meantime? Some of their ranks are always welcoming any sorts of recruits that have a fair understanding of magic”, the boy said. He then hesitated. “It’s kind of unfair to Tom, but he’d just been let in a spot as one of the quartermaster’s attendants for that reason, but it’s… free now? And… oh.”

  He’d just realised the way she was looking at him.

  “Argh yeah, missing the contest like this really stinks”, he said, looking away before eyeing Vic again. “I know someone though”, the boy said, looking back at Karah while blushing a bit. “I’m sure they can be understanding. Everyone knows how you are, Karah, and you’re involved with that fellow mage right now, so they must be okay.”

  “Oh that’s so kind of you”, Karah said excitedly. Vic just stared at the two.

  “It’s going to be tough today though, there’s that outstanding, renowned honorary student competing for the prize”, the boy said.

  Vic stared at him.

  “Hey”, she said. “If you think I can still enter the competition, let’s go in. If you keep talking I’ll try my luck without you.”

  The boy snorted.

  “Alright, alright”, he said, like there was no reason to be stressed about speeding up.

  ___

  Entering the contest, even late, wasn’t a problem. Having Karah around was surprisingly helpful. She really was known and well-liked. And signing up wasn’t a problem either. She didn’t need to sign anything for it, so that helped. Just giving her name was all that was needed.

  It was nearly funny how she went straight from registering herself to having her name called thirty seconds after entering the main hall where the contest itself was taking place.

  “Good luck!” Karah cried out, doing big wide hand movements as a sign of encouragement as Vic stepped forwards, feeling a bit awkward because of the cheering. She pulled the hood a bit more over her face. She positioned herself in front of what looked like a shooting range with a wooden figure with a metal shield and a wooden sword in hand standing at the near end of it. She could see the other wooden figures from the other contestants were into various states of decay. Some had fuming holes in them, some were buried beneath the tiles with only a hand sticking out, and one had a chunk of it missing.

  The other contestants, who looked to be between the range of young teen and old adult, were examining her with suspicion. She fingergunned at them in turn. One of them shrugged like she wasn’t worth their time.

  “Name?” a serious looking elf said, squinting at her.

  “Victorya”, she said. “With a ‘y’ instead of the second ‘i’, of course”.

  “Age?”

  “Fifteen”, Vic thought for a bit, then replied, feeling a bit weirded out. Perhaps they were asking this now as she had gone quickly through the registration process. Doing it in front of everyone made her feel uncomfortable, however.

  “Origin?” the elf continued.

  “Eh, the wastes?” she said.

  The elf tilted her head.

  “That was a lie. Try again.”

  Vic rolled her eyes.

  “I’m not telling”, she tried, hearing Karah gasp in turn. Oh, that was an easy bet. She was pretty sure that the lady here wouldn’t care.

  “Very well. Type of magic?” the elf asked.

  Vic squinted.

  “Uh. What do you mean?”, she said.

  One of the contestants that had foreign looking clothes sneered at her. “What a waste of time”, she heard him say. Another woman chuckled at her.

  “It’s versatile enough”, Vic said, feeling her nerves tense a bit. Oh how she had forgotten how it felt to be right back at school. “I’ve got some, stuff.”

  “I mean the type of spell you’ll use”, the elf shortly said.

  Vic heard some more background laughter directed at her and flinched. There was one rude comment made about her appearance. Damn. How could she be terrified of children while having turned indifferent to horrific deformed monsters that actually wanted to kill her in this world?

  “Well you’ll see”, Vic frowned. “I haven’t… decided yet.”

  The elf that was examining her didn’t seem impressed at all.

  “Mage or sorceress?” the lady asked.

  Sheesh what was this going to be, an interrogation?

  “Okay can I just shoot the spell and be done with it- I’m going to snap because of those little shits that are snickering behind you.”

  The lady blinked at her. Insulting said people didn’t even make them stop exchanging looks. She could hear more hushed whispers from a group behind the lady.

  Vic sighed.

  “The contestant does not seem to want her registration finished”, she said to three people sitting on extremely comfortable looking chairs behind a long fancy looking table covered in fancier deep blue fabrics.

  Oh. Those were the judges.

  “Let’s see what you have in store”, a male elf said, a hand held beneath his chin, “quickly.”

  One of the other judges was glaring at her.

  “Have you considered bathing yourself before entering the true world of civilisation?” a dark-haired elf in a priestess’s expensive looking garment said. A huge dark blue jewel was set in the middle of her chest, little bursts of magic evaporating imperceptibly away from it. Maybe she was upper in the social ladder than the other priests.

  Vic stared back.

  “I don’t know, that’s such a deep question, you should ask your mom”, Vic said.

  She heard gasps across the great hall. It was nearly funny. And oh there were nice looking chandeliers above her head. Those could fetch a nice price.

  The third judge held out a booming, nervous laugh.

  “Now now”, said a round-eared man in a priest’s garment. “Let’s keep ourselves focused. You arrived right on time before the second turn was reached, how blessed you are today!”

  Vic stared back.

  “Yeah”, she said. “Blessed. Truly.”

  The priest smiled. Like a plastered thing on his face. How nice.

  “Go ahead. Impress!” he intoned.

  She heard snickers again from teenagers. Young adults and adults alike were staring at her. So many eyes, so many judging eyes.

  She fucking hated this city.

  ‘Should I use the most powerful spell I have in store?’ she wondered. No, that would be overkill. It might also be unsafe to use it inside a building. Behind the wooden figurine was a thick wall. It might stand an attack, but…

  “What, going chicken?” said the teenager just next to her.

  “No”, Vic replied, “I’m just focusing really hard on aiming right at the wooden puppet instead of your face”, she downright seethed.

  At least the boy stepped back.

  Then he tsked. “Oh-ho, I’m not impressed”, he whispered.

  Vic bit her lips. She was going to kill someone if she stayed in this city.

  Then she chuckled, got her hands in position, and closed her eyes.

  She had decided. She needed to keep her cards a secret. She couldn’t just show off because she felt like showing off.

  …Maybe just a little bit, though.

  When she opened her eyes again she pulled.

  “The sun is a deadly laser!” she yelled out while a bursting blob of bubbling incredibly bright miasma was shot several feet away from her extended hands, the beam of whitening plasma bursting like a precise direct arc of bright luminescent blue lava that pulverised the wooden man along the wall behind it, and she quickly shut off the spell as she realised it had begun eating away at the ornate marble wall of the great hall behind it.

  There was a perfect, harmonious silence then. Except for the structure’s hall which had started burning, spectacularly fast. There was a large hole where the puppet had been. And no puppet left. Ooops, might have miscalculated on how long she was supposed to keep it turned on. She wasn’t used to having fragile wooden puppets as adversaries. There usually always were some magic shields to pierce before impact was made.

  She gave a brief side glance to the annoying teen that had last talked to her and saw that he had fallen on his butt and was looking at her with something akin to mild horror.

  There was still silence for a few more seconds as she turned around and saw the same look on everyone’s face, even adults.

  Oh. Had she overdone it?

  It wasn’t that bad, right?

  The silence felt crystal clear.

  “Someone move to shut that fire off!” the priestess-judge yelled, breaking the spell of silence that had taken a hold of everyone inside the hall for a good eight seconds.

  “Is an incantation necessary to the spell?” the priest quickly asked, getting up from his chair, like he’d been in a state of shock.

  “No I just thought it was funny”, Vic numbly replied, staring at the elves that had moved to shut off the fire and were struggling to put it out with their magic spells.

  The priest laughed back.

  “If you would be so polite as to not intone any incantation during your second turn”, he said, staring at her oddly until he sat down. “A spell requiring no incantation is always considered more difficult than an incanted one”, he explained.

  “Uh, sure”, she said. She shrugged. She had shown off too much. She had shown off too much. This wasn’t good.

  She suddenly saw the judges all begin writing on a piece of paper.

  It was so weird seeing them take notes on parchments. It felt like… oh! Yeah! She was truly back at school, being graded in ways she couldn’t begin to comprehend. Hoh!

  …So that was why she had disliked it.

  The first judge that had talked to her, the only one that wasn’t in priesthood, smiled at her.

  “I knew you were hiding something beneath that facade of savage foolishness”, he said.

  Well that wasn’t going to fly well with her.

  “I’m not hiding anything”, she said, facing him straight ahead, “you’re just all so used to being pretentious pricks that you’ve forgotten what it is to be normal.”

  Another series of gasps echoed through the hall. Oh whatever. All that those people could do was gasp at this point. She shrugged and began walking towards a wall, seeing a few contestants part away from her before she reached them. Shit. She’d really overdone it.

  …Those arrogant brats had just made it so hard not to try to impress a little bit.

  She put her back against a column and slid down to the ground. Only then realising that there were chairs available to the contestants, and that she had clearly not taken the one that was available for her.

  …Oh, the woes of having to decide to get up again to look a bit silly while sitting down on a chair that was supposed to be used. No, it was okay, she could just look cool this way, as she’d totally intended. She was too cool to sit on a chair, yeah, this was what it was about.

  “We’ll take a break now!” the priestess said, loudly, pulling her out of her distracting thoughts. “Good job, everyone.”

  And when she said that, Vic could feel eyes on herself.

  The pale blue eyes of the priestess were fixed on her as she had spoken.

  …

  Shit.

  She’d overdone it.