Even unconscious, he looked willfully ignorant of the damage he’d done to his people.

  “There will be a village-wide gathering tonight at this very spot come sundown. I will share with you what I’ve learned and explain to you what must happen next if Hilst is to remain a free and tranquil village.”

  The time when I stood on the sidelines had come and gone once the church had provoked me so brazenly.

  “Your village leader has placed you all in peril, whether or not he had intended to, and my goal is to help you all out of that peril to the best of my ability. Spread the word to those you know and come prepared to mete out justice upon those that have wronged you. I expect to see you come dusk.”

  A rumbling murmur picked up from the crowd as they all began fervently asking questions at once. I raised my hands to settle them once more.

  “I know you all have questions, but please practise patience for the brief time before the meeting. I will tell you that none of you are in immediate danger now. The walls of your village are secure, and I will monitor things to ensure that remains the case.”

  I looked through the gathered crowd, meeting as many pairs of eyes as I could.

  “Please, use this time to return to your loved ones. Ensure that they are reminded of your affection! We never know when our last day comes, and to some it comes far too swiftly and far too soon. Every question you have will be answered tonight.”

  The murmuring quieted down substantially, and some of the gathered people made their way home. A few folks remained and spoke with members of the recovered party, asking what had happened and what was going on.

  The sense of fear was still in the air, but it had been balanced by a wash of curiosity. That was when the parents made their way to me in order to thank me individually, not just for what I had done for them, but for initially saving their children from the goblins as well.

  More than a few of them swore a life debt to me, and explained that after what the church had done to them, they no longer held faith in Rel or its followers.

  It was quite an outpouring of emotion as my hands were shaken and kissed; even the children eagerly glued themselves to my legs. Many of them recognized me and were happy that I’d come for them again.

  I was glad for the warmth and appreciation; it eased the sorrow I felt for the people around me.

  Until the little girl who’d been assaulted stepped forward. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her hair was still tangled but had obviously been viciously hand-combed by her parents.

  She looked up at me with enormous, shimmering blue eyes and sniffled as she let go of her parents’ hands and raised them up towards me in the universal gesture for ‘I want to be picked up’. Stunned, I looked back up at her parents, and they both nodded.

  Her mother had her hands clasped over her mouth and nose to stifle her sobbing, and her father held a grateful look partially masked by the hand also clamped over his mouth.

  I knelt in front of the girl, and as my arms stretched out, she scuttled towards me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I gathered the rest of her up in my arms and stood, cradling the back of her head with my hand as she bawled against my shoulder.

  I hadn’t thought about it while in the moment, too blinded by rage and the urgent need to halt what was being done, but I knew this little girl’s name. She’d given it to me the first night I’d arrived here, along with the other 5 children in the forest.

  She’d stood next to Jol as I’d clapped and set loose their little drones.

  Tempi.

  My heart ached at the thought that I hadn’t gotten to her in time to prevent this. If she’d had her drone with her, then something could have been done much sooner.

  “I’m glad you’re safe now, Tempi.”

  She squeaked out a simple “mhmm” as she nodded her head against me, still crying and bunching up my tunic in her little hands.

  I looked at her parents as I spoke.

  “This will never happen again, not to her, not for as long as I live.”

  Tempi spoke between her sniffles and sobs, not removing her face from my tunic.

  “I was scared… it hurt a lot.”

  I was glad I lacked a biological body. I wouldn’t have been able to speak through my own sobs.

  “I know, Tempi. But it’s alright now. Those wicked men won’t hurt anyone else ever again.”

  I patted her back gently as I swayed her back and forth. I wasn’t sure where the impulse to do that came from, but it felt like it was something I needed to do.

  “Hey… wanna learn something from where I’m from?”

  Her crying calmed slightly as her mind switched gears. She was still sniffling, but the prospect of learning something new from me interested her a great deal; she pulled her head back to look at me.

  “Mhmm.”

  I smiled softly at her and then brought my left arm up next to our faces.

  “Back where I’m from, there’s a little ritual you can do with the people you trust. See, you put your smallest finger out like so.”

  I extended my pinky while curling my other fingers and gestured for her to do the same. She did.

  “And now, once the promise has been made, you lock them together like so.”

  I gently wrapped my pinky around hers, and she reciprocated.

  “This is called a ‘pinky promise’, and it’s a very important thing! If you do this with someone, then they can’t ever go back on their word!”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Her sniffling had almost stopped altogether as she had become enthralled by the importance of what was happening. I played into it, dropping my voice into a conspiratorial whisper.

  “But there’s another step! Something that is even more special!”

  Her eyes practically sparkled as she drank this information in.

  “Do you wanna know what it is?”

  She nodded eagerly, her sadness and fear fading into the rear of her mind momentarily. The brief break from the trauma wouldn’t do much in the grand scheme, but I hoped it helped to lighten the burden on her heart, and the hearts of her parents.

  They looked on with curious interest, still fighting back their tears.

  “Alright, but you can only do this when keeping your promise is the most important thing ever. So make sure you reeeeaaalllly think about it before you do it with someone!”

  She nodded, even more excited now as the stakes continued to rise.

  “Good, let’s do this for real with the special part!”

  I unravelled our pinkies and reset to the start.

  “I promise I won’t let anything like this ever happen to you again!”

  We locked our pinkies together as we had before, but this time I gently swivelled my hand and slightly extended my thumb. Tempi followed my motion and pressed her small thumb against mine.

  “This promise is locked now! It can’t ever be taken back, so you know it’s the most important thing!”

  She beamed at me, tears still caught on her cheeks. Some of her adult teeth had yet to fully come in, so there were charming gaps in her smile.

  After a moment, her smile faded slightly, and I could see the question form visibly in her mind as her eyebrows drew together.

  “What do I promise?”

  I chuckled softly and wiped her tears from her cheeks.

  “This time it can be anything you want it to be! You don’t even need to tell me what it is, as long as you hold it in your heart and always keep it close to you, then I will be happy!”

  She thought for a bit, regarded our clasped hands, and then nodded. I pulled my hand away and then knelt down to set her back on the ground.

  She hugged me tightly once more, as though she were afraid I would disappear once she’d let go.

  “I’ll make sure you’re alright, Tempi. But keep this with you now, never let it out of your sight.”

  Her drone once more ejected from my shoulder and orbited her head.

  “You can tell it whatever you like, and it will listen, and if you call out to me, I will answer. As long as you have it, you will never, ever be alone.”

  The look of elation that crossed her face was brighter than any star.

  Standing, I addressed her parents once more.

  “There are no words that could express my sorrow over what you’ve been through. No one should need to experience such a thing in their life. There have been many affected by the evil that has corrupted the Church, and I am confident that its roots run deeper still.”

  They nodded at me, their disgust with the church evident in the scathing looks of pain and resentment they had.

  “But I will burn them out. I will purge this villainy from wherever it nests so that no others can share in your pain. I have granted Tempi a gift, the same gift as the night I recovered her from the clutches of the goblin raiders.”

  I looked down to watch Tempi chasing the drone as it deftly evaded her clutches. She giggled joyously as it flitted about.

  “Do everything in your power to ensure she is never separated from it again. I’m working to improve it to better suit her circumstances, so while I do that, please accept it as a small token of my consolation.”

  I softly patted Tempi’s back, encouraging her to return to her parents.

  With a look back up at me, she made the short walk and once again took the outstretched hands of her parents. I found myself emboldened by the promise I’d made. There was a certain level of impunity with which I could conduct my affairs.

  I was not beholden to any land or God here, beyond my own. And while there were some who would point to me and question by what right I could judge who was wrong, or who was right, I’d concluded that it was fundamentally my decision to make.

  I could take the life of an innocent man as easily as I could a guilty one; the tangible consequences for both actions remained the same for me. No cell could hold me, no kingdom could execute me, and no God could smite me… that I knew of.

  Nia’cyl had proven that my soul was vulnerable to acts of spirit. She had, with a simple expression of her will, nearly extinguished my life. I didn’t know if she was an exception or the rule when it came to the ethereal.

  I looked at the mark on the back of my hand, the curl of wispy smoke shifting slightly across my skin. I still wasn’t sure what our bond had done. Did binding with a member of the Fae grant me some resilience to soul-damaging effects?

  I shook my head, dropping my hand back down to my side. I had far too much power and far too little understanding of the world.

  This was a slippery slope, and one that I needed to stay aware of. All too often, people who could arbitrarily mete out their own vigilante justice tended towards a bias, and it didn’t matter who their advisors were.

  Most would agree with their rationale, if not for the simple fact that they had allied themselves with the vigilante, then because they feared the repercussions of disagreement.

  Even now, some men I’d killed in cold blood may very well not have deserved such a fate. Being even tangentially involved with something I found disgusting was enough to warrant their execution.

  Was that right? Would others look upon my decisions and condemn me for overstepping an immutable respect for life? The more I thought about it, the more it became apparent to me that no one would have these answers.

  If a committee were gathered to decide, it could very well be that they would come to a consensus, but would all the members truly agree? There was never any way of knowing. The question of morality was something I needed to decide for myself.

  And having the task of shaping the universe to my God’s will thrust upon me more agency than I could contend with. Until something changed, I would continue acting in what I believed to be a just and righteous way, protecting those I felt deserved it, and demolishing those who I believed earned it.

  There would be many corpses in my wake before this was over, and not all of them would be guilty. That would just need to be something I atoned for at the end of my journey.

  A great and terrible reconciliation for the achievement of my goals by any means necessary.

  The crowd dispersed; small pockets of conversation followed them down the main street. After I’d mentioned my name, some of the speculation over what I wanted, and what my purpose was, had died, but the focus of their curiosity had pivoted to what was going to happen to them.

  With their leader detained, and the Church of Rel now an active enemy to the people, if I didn’t quell their concerns then the unrest would quickly become unmanageable. Seta came over with her parents not far behind her.

  They looked significantly better than they had when we’d found them, and this relieved me greatly. I waited patiently for Seta to make the introductions.

  “Vita! This is my father, Corlun, and my mother, Preela. Father, Mother, this is Vita. My benefactor.”

  I extended a hand to Corlun, shaking it as he clasped mine.

  “Well met, Corlun, and well met, Lady Morethy; it’s an honour to meet you both. Seta had introduced herself as her father’s daughter, and I failed to ask for your name. I’m glad to receive it now, finally.”

  I bowed slightly, bobbing my head in recognition of meeting her.

  Corlun released my hand and replaced it on the top of Seta’s head.

  “We’ve much to thank you for, Vita. Were it not for you… we… well…”

  He trailed off, fighting to decide if he should speak about the outcomes in front of his daughter. I could understand his hesitancy, but also didn’t want him to mis-attribute their rescue to me.

  “Corlun, the one responsible for your rescue was your daughter. Had she not taken the incredibly brave and incredibly quick actions she did, I truly fear what might have become of both you and the people the priests took.”

  I gestured to her as I spoke, her eyes going wide and her cheeks flushing at the attention.

  “The safety and security of this entire village are squarely the result of her decisions. I simply did what any man would have done, were they in my same position.”

  Both of Seta’s parents turned to regard their daughter. For her part, Seta was now fidgeting heavily under the scrutiny.

  “Is this true, Seta?”

  Corlun looked down at his daughter in astonishment.

  She grimaced and shot me a look of superb irritation.

  “Vita’s exaggerating! All I did was run and hide…”

  Her eyes fell to the road. I felt a bit bad for forcing the spotlight onto her, but her father knelt on the road and gently spun her to look her in the eyes.

  “My love… I’m sure it felt like nothing to you. With the excitement and worry and fear, it all probably felt like it was over in seconds.”

  He smiled bitterly.

  “Even now I bet that memory seems like such a small thing. But think about this: if you hadn’t done what you did, where would Vita be right now? Where would we be? And the people in the carts?”

  Seta emitted what I could only interpret as a half-hearted, argumentative grunt as her father’s words sunk in and made sense. Corlun went on.

  “Something you’ll come to learn when you’re older is that sometimes the smallest actions have the biggest results.”

  A thoughtful look crossed his face.

  “Remember when we made that trip out to Eprie, and you fell into the Fountain of Rel? Remember just before, when we’d tossed our coppers into the still water at its base? Such a small coin made such big ripples, and when you’d reached down to swat at them your hand slipped, and in you went! Haha!”

  Corlun laughed merrily at his remembrance; Seta, on the other hand, seemed mortified that she’d be embarrassed like this in front of me. She glanced up at me to gauge my reaction to the story. I smiled and chimed in.

  “If throwing a copper in grants a prayer, I wonder what a whole Seta is worth! What do you say, Seta, should we make another trip to Eprie?”

  Naturally, she stomped her foot and growled.

  “You’re all going to regret this! I’ve never been so embarrassed!”

  I was quick to follow this up to bring the point home.

  “Cherish this memory, Seta. Had you acted differently today, we might not have been sharing this moment with your parents. I’m incredibly proud of you, and I’m sure your parents are too. Being embarrassed is fine, but you truly made a difference.”

  This statement finally brought the sombre atmosphere into sharp relief. Seta found a lump growing in her throat and so she simply nodded before taking her parents’ hands and allowing them to lead her back home.

  I couldn't imagine all the different emotions that were running through her mind at that moment. She had expressed a strong desire to accompany me on my travels; however, after the events of today, I wasn’t sure that would still be the case.

  As they walked along, Seta turned her head and smiled at me, mouthing a silent ‘thank you’ before returning to her ongoing explanation of how the drone operated. For their part, both of her parents were looking down at her with confused and slightly concerned faces.

  Tonight would mark the beginning of an extremely radical shift in Hilst’s future. The village would soon become the epicentre of change in this world, and it was rapidly becoming apparent that I was going to play a much more direct role in that change than I had anticipated.

  I’d originally planned to affect minor changes here and there to grow a mythos around my name; however, my hand had been forced by the events surrounding Seta, and with the lack of leadership in Hilst, someone had to step forward.

  Since I had the best grasp on the current situation aside from Seta; it was going to have to be me, at least, temporarily. The people of Hilst could decide what to do after I had finished speaking to them and proposing my plans for the village.

  Though I suspected that with the looming threat of the church, my involvement here wasn’t quite at an end. With that in mind, I would need to begin my preparations for the speech at dusk.