One should be careful with one’s words for the birds hear those words spoken in the day, and Wise Ones hear the words spoken at night.

  - A proverb of Al-Lazar.

  “Should they pit you against me, you know what to do,” I said, washing my face with clean water from a copper bowl. It felt good to be in a clean change of clothes and not having to wear the damned face covering.

  “Give up and yield,” came Larynda’s sullen response.

  “And?”

  “Yield if it looks like my life will be in danger…” she grumbled. “Still don’t understand how you lost to that old fellow. Guess I’ll see you near the finals… and then, well, just give up.”

  I dried my hands on a scented towel that a servant offered me. Bowing, the girl faded once again into the background, a sign that she had been.

  “There is more to this event than victory itself. The pleasing of the crowd is as important, perhaps more so, than simply just winning. I lost to the old man because I chose to do so. I wished to write the tale of the underdog clawing his way back from ignominious defeat,” I explained, tossing the towel into a small basket.

  “Looked to me like you just plain lost. How strong was he anyway?” the girl persisted, doubt etched in the lines of her face.

  “Believe what you wish,” I answered, choosing to ignore her question. “Now, did you bring me my guest, the girl? I made a solemn promise to her brother.”

  As if in reaction to my words, Bubbles, her pet Whispermews, peeked out from one of her sleeves. But, the creature took one look at me and promptly hid again. A part of me was surprised that the six-legged rodent was still alive after five years.

  “I did, she is waiting in the next room. Looks to be a bit of the skittish sort… and well she does not look very happy at all either,” answered my somewhat grumpy ward.

  “That is what grief can do to you. The lizard killed her brother, and I in turn avenged him. I made a promise to her brother Khalil that I would see to her well-being,” I decided to add.

  She frowned as if unsure of my words. “There are times when I really can’t understand you.”

  “It was a promise between two men. These things are sacred. I would have thought that Kidu would have imparted to you the weight that honor holds,” I replied, sighing to myself.

  She shrugged. I chose to see it as Larynda going through a difficult phase—one she’d hopefully grow out of soon. But there was always the chance it could become a permanent part of her like it had with some women I had known in the old world.

  “Now, please, bring her here,” I asked again.

  Thankfully she followed my command with nary a word of complaint. The girl could be unbalancing at times.

  Half a minute later, the late Khalil’s sister was corralled into the room, shuffling in on reluctant feet. The girl’s dark hair hung limp over bloodshot eyes that seemed to stare past the walls. She looked as though tears might spill any second. Melis was, I guessed, around the same age Larynda had been when I first met her. But there was no spark to her, none of the fire I had seen in the half-elf. Melis was just another small girl—plain, unremarkable. Another quick glance told me she might grow into something pretty one day, but no more than that. If she lived that long, for about her was an aura of frailty, an aura of weakness. The thread of her life looked like it could snap at any moment.

  “Melis, I presume,” I asked, trying to look as friendly as possible.

  “Yes,” she squeaked, stealing a look at me. “I am she, Melis Al-Farouq.”

  I looked around at the servants in the room. They were so still and unassuming that a person could have mistaken them as part of the furniture.

  “Leave us,” I commanded quietly. Almost as one, they quietly left the room. I could get used to this.

  I looked at Melis, giving her a small welcoming smile. “I made a promise to your brother…”

  “Khalil? He was my brother, my only family. A promise? If you would forgive me… I don’t know what this is about,” she said quickly, her eyes darting all over the place like a worried animal.

  “Yes, as I was just about to explain,” I continued, trying not to sound exasperated. “I did not know your brother long, but he and I sort of made a mutual promise…”

  The rest of the words that I wanted to say stuck in my throat. I tried to recollect the exact vow we had exchanged, but the event seemed strangely fuzzy, their details eluding me. For something that had happened so recently, it was very strange. Internally, I shrugged. It must have been the adrenaline and my steady diet of death and violence that may have addled my recollection.

  “...before he died at the hands of the Beastkin…”

  Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Larynda too, for some unknown reason, looked puzzled at the statement. “Was… was no Beastkin that took my brother’s life…” the girl Melis stammered.

  “Will you truly quibble over minor details? I promised your brother before he met his fate that I would see to your healing…” I pronounced proudly.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “...But why? They said to heal me would cost more than I could ever earn in a lifetime. You have no reason to help me,” she asked, her face a picture of disbelief and doubt.

  “...And that is what I will do. It was a promise I made to him. And, it is a promise I intend to keep. I will cure you of whatever ails you…” I vowed, a hand on my chest to show my sincerity.

  “But, I could not afford to give you…” Melis protested.

  “Now, if you keep interrupting me I will wash myself of the whole matter,” I added sharply, feeling annoyed.

  “You best listen to what Gil says,” Larynda decided to flippantly chime in.

  I glanced at my ward before mastering myself and continuing. “You will hold no debt to me. I do this because I feel it is the just and correct thing to do. Now, please sit,” I ordered, indicating to a draped divan.

  Glumly she sat down. I was already beginning to regret this choice. I opened up myself to the divine song, the melody of angels. It took a long time before I found it; I would have to practice more. The liquid light of gold filled the room, saturating it with the raw stuff of the holy.

  Melis’ face was an expression of awe, of near adulation as she witnessed providence made manifest before her very eyes.

  “I know what it was that ailed you, but now you shall be made hale and whole,” I commanded, touching her head.

  The light flowed from me to her, a torrent of right, and I could almost feel it warring against an innate wrongness within her. The light of heaven would always win, correcting a thousand mistakes that were written in the fiber of her very being.

  Yet, miracles, no matter how divine, never lasted forever. Heaven’s light faded, replaced with the mundane light of the dying evening’s sun that streamed weakly in through the windows.

  Melis, on some deep fundamental level, had been fixed. Had been corrected by my miracle. Her hair was no longer without luster and now almost shone. Eyes bloodshot and red were now clear and bright. Skin that had once been sallow was now filled with the raw bloom of health.

  Silence, unbroken and pure, lorded over the room.

  “My chest… I don’t feel the pain anymore. I feel so light!” she exclaimed, breaking the silence with tears of joy falling in a stream from her eyes. “Everything… the light… oh my! Things are so clear!”

  I looked to Larynda, smug in the display of my power. Her earlier attitude had evaporated, replaced with a much more palatable expression of hero worship. Good, I thought, much better.

  “What has happened? By the eyes of the thousand gods, thank you… thank you, samasa!” cried Melis, her brother’s death forgotten in this moment of pure selfish joy. “I prayed, but never believed. Forgive me!”

  She threw herself onto the stone floor, clutching at the fabric of my sirwal, my baggy trousers, leg. “Please… I was not worthy. I am not worthy,” she begged. “Tell me what I must do.”

  I sneered, sure of the fact that I had made another believer. In a flash of cruel comedy, I decided to take a page out of the religions of my world. The first desecration of the divine. “Arise now, for you have been reborn as Imani of the First Belief,” I decreed, wondering if the world would recognize my actions. “Allaha Akbara, sister Imani, the Goddess Avaria is great!”

  In Melis, now Imani, I saw only adulation rage in her eyes. She prostrated herself before me, believing, truly believing. For her, it must have been as if the gods themselves had answered her prayers.

  Like a tailor inspecting the final seams on a dress, I looked deeply into what I had wrought with an Identify spell. I savored this moment with delighted glee.

  This was too much. So was her belief in me that it overwrote the very data of this game. I could give customized names to not only animals but, now, also people—if the conditions were right. I fought back a laugh, converting it into a friendly smile.

  “Look for those who are weak of body but sound of heart and mind. Bring them to me so I might judge their worth,” I pronounced slowly. “I am her Herald and the salvation of this world.”

  “Yes! Yes!” the young girl shrieked disturbingly. She collected herself and said in a more controlled manner. “Thank you, Herald. You have given me purpose. I will see to it that your will be done…”

  Larynda shot me a very pointed look.

  “Now, Imani who was once the weak Melis Al-Farouq, go forth and find them. This is your mission. I have gifted you with the grace of the Goddess. Go forth now and do her work,” I declared.

  “Yes, samasa. But… may I know the name of her Herald… so that others may know it,” Imani asked.

  “Gilgamesh of Uruk,” I answered simply.

  “A thousand thanks, samasa. I will do your will. Thank you for giving my life back to me… I will bring others, those that are worthy, so they might be judged or saved,” she groveled on the floor, rising up only after a disconcerting amount of time.

  I pressed a few gold coins into her hands, and her eyes widened once more. “Our goals may be pure, but we are still limited by earthly ways. May this go a small way to easing your mission along.”

  Mumbling heartfelt gratitudes, she bowed again to both of us, before slowly leaving the room, bobbing her head and never once showing us her back as a mark of respect.

  “That was cruel… you can’t play with people’s beliefs like that!” complained Larynda.

  “Play with people’s beliefs? With her brother’s death, she had given up on life, and her illness would have claimed her soon… healing or no healing. She had the look of one with one foot in the grave. She had given up,” I explained calmly.

  I took in a deep breath.

  “We wage a quiet war against the Divines, what better way to do so than to subvert their followers? I gave that girl purpose… a thing that most people never find. A good purpose. She would have most likely taken her life in despair if I did not do so. Where is the harm in finding more worthy people to heal? Would you just have me use my powers for just selfish reasons?”

  I wedded logic, lies, and a fair smattering of guilt to hammer my points home to get my way. With Elwin, Cordelia, and Kidu gone, I quite frankly needed replacements. Larynda and Vincenzio were simply not enough for the plans I had in mind.

  “It just doesn’t sit right with me doing it like this,” the young half-elf whined.

  “Life is unfair, as well you know. You are no stranger to misfortune’s fickle touch. I have given that a girl chance, and in doing so, have opened myself to some potential new allies. We need to make do with what the world gives us,” I stated.

  “The die has been cast Larynda. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so let us enjoy the hospitality of the Council. You always did enjoy your food, right?”