Dare to Accomplish Wonders [Isekai Quest] <Birdsie Quest>

[Birdsie]

Chapter 16: A New Dawn

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Agria was one of the great ten deities that Algrannar, as a kingdom, worshipped. The church, ancient and imperious, had been built on the foundation of a pantheon.

In reality, there were hundreds of gods. The line between 'god' and 'spirit' was blurry. There is no strict definition for a god, in arcane studies, but generally, the consensus is that a god is powerful and astral in nature. It helps if they mark certain followers as clergy or paladins and offer them power, and if they have realms to welcome the souls of their followers after death.

But the Ten were special, at least in Algrannar. The church, building a pantheon of shared faith and acceptance. A prayer sent to Bahamut is shared, to lesser extent, with nine other deities. Through association.

Agitating as it may have been, this system of organization and equality among the deities helped build balance among worshippers and allow to better fight back the less pure aspects of the human subconsciousness' spectrum.

That's what most gods were, anyway - transcendent spirits. Clumps of emotion and energy that made their way to the Astral Plane and swelled in size due to prayer, until they eventually burst into a semi-conscious state vectored within their given concepts. Now they feed on prayer and produce miracles that mankind needs. Salvation after death, from our own creations of a similar nature - demons, daemons - or even unsavory eldritch aberrations.

Agria is special to the Lightbrook household.

She represented earth, growth, harvest, nature, forests, wilds, farmers, roads, hunting; a balance between civilization and nature. Not the wild fairy nature, but a sophisticated nature that has been tacked by sentients.

There wasn't much else to learn. Her actual cleric spells mostly revolved around spontaneously growing bushes, causing geysers of water to erupt from nowhere, or drawing in nearby bees to lend you a helping hand with the local bandits. Balance with nature; cooperation and nurture of nature, in exchange for protection and information.

Water a flower, and it will tell you secrets. Whisper where the roots of an elder tree are found, or how to implant a chloroplast or two into your brain.

Lazara flipped to the next page, yawning.

Realizing it was nearing midnight, she sighed and stretched.

The chair slid back and Lazara blew out a candle, then laid in bed. She'd pick up the goddess studies tomorrow.

Her father had been caught off-guard; that much was true. The reason was tiredness, overwork, using chemicals on himself - above all, being emotionally fraught in the wrong moment.

A stalwart man, like her father, when driven to the brink of collapse and finally forced to break, is a perfect vessel for the Adversary's vileness to seep in and take root.

Truth be told, she half-expected to find Timory standing over her at midnight, with a pillow in hand and ready to extinguish her oxygen supply by pressing it into her face with the force of a boulder rolling downhill and plugging up a cave.

Still, she felt positive. The new wards were running up to projected efficiency, her arteries were mostly non-bursting, she was under the watchful eye of a force of paladins who were only a walk downhill away, and of course, she got to sleep her worries away.

Adversary wouldn't attack again, not without a proper chance. She'd prevent it by not giving him one.

But for now, time to be a normal girl.

###​

"That's... asinine, for you," Timory stated. His face was blank, his eyes a little tired with dark circles. He mustn't have slept as well as she.

Lazara pouted, turning to look away from him. "I thought you'd be excited!"

That night, her idea of being a normal girl was... tested. The dreams were becoming vivid, recollections of a past life she didn't remember living becoming like hammer blows to her psyche. She shook off the distinctive feeling that she was Lily, then returned to being Lazara.

"You okay there, scrub? You look like you've seen a ghost."

She rolled a leveled, tight-lipped glare at Timory. Unimpressed. "Just shut up, okay? Idiot. I just wanted to try something normal for once."

"Flower crowns are normal. Not sure about perfume machines." He raised an eyebrow, grinning sarcastically.

"Hmmmmph!" Lazara stomped her foot on the ground with a pout, then decided to go for the comedy angle. "Now, listen here, 'my lord!' If you think you can talk down to me, you're very wrong!"

"You've disappointed me for the last time, young lady!" he said, adopting a faux-serious voice. "You will pay for your insolence!"

"Oh no, woe me!" She stuck the back of her hand to her forehead in a melodramatic pose. "He will have me, the daughter of a nastily wealthy noble family pay for insolence! How will I afford that?"

They snorted.

"Seriously, why are you against the idea?" she asked. "Mom would love it."

"I... You saw what happened last time, Lazara. I've got to keep to my training regimen, but... now that dad can't function as lord anymore, I guess I'll have to accelerate my studies."

"Studies, dear brother?" she inquired curiously, drawling.

"More like meeting contacts; dad invited me to a few people, mostly nobility. I'll need political knowledge to have any real push," he explained, sighing as he walked to sit down on a nearby bench and motioned for Lazara to join him. "I'll need to know the who's who, and I've only met a quarter of dad's people over the years. I don't even know how to get in contact with half of those."

She hmm'd.

"When do you have free time, then?" she asked, intending to pull a sneaky and already lining up her idea.

"I don't know, I have... an hour in the evening, tomorrow?" he said in a questioning tone.

She nodded with a smile, taking that as an agreement to come and spend time with her.

"Great! Meet me in the laboratory, then!" she chirped and ran off.

"Wait, Laza- ugh."

They'd do something to prank mom, in an affectionate way - maybe that perfume idea? The pond can be done easily by herself, but this was something Timory could help with. The flower crown idea would help if she learned to bind doves to drop it on mom's head.

###

Savior Panel
"He's growling at you, from that eternal void of his. He considers your pursuits 'foolish,' and your determination wavering."​

It's 27th Goldleaf, 1310, in the late evening, 19:00.

Lazara just finished a conversation with her brother, roping him to help her out with a prank tomorrow. If you do not specify which one you'd like to go with, I will roll dice.

Her latest dream involved recalling some mostly mundane things, as well as guiding a large vessel to the shore during a rain. The memory felt cold, like frigid glass with a winter landscape on the other side; it invoked some amount of fear.

Lazara has decided to change her studies' focus, to orientate more with communications.

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A/N: Sorry there hasn't been an update in so long, but I don't have much time to write lately.