Faith United

[Breaker]

For a moment I stood rooted, as if my boots had become a part of the beach. After a deep, steadying breath I turned and picked up the Thaynebinder, slipping it into the haversack laying on the sand.

The rising sun shone on my back as I pursued the familiar path through the forest. Leaves and pine needles swirled in my slipstream as I ran, faster than any horse, faster even than the steeds of Suravani’s Oasis in Fallien. Branches whizzed past on both sides in a blur, and dusty cyclones sprang up behind me.

With movement came meditation, and the events of the previous night replayed in my mind. Restlessness had urged me up out of my mortal lover’s bed, and into the ocean. Am’aleh had bade me steal the Thaynebinder from a pirate ship making the passage from Scara Brae to Gisela. I had swum out and met the ship, climbing aboard and cornering her captain. Marigold the Freebooter and I had exchanged both words and blows, and I took the relic from him.

I churned around a corner in the path, loam and dirt flying from the force of the turn. The sun rose higher and the air warmed. The breeze carried the earthy scents of new spring.

The Thaynebinder had brought a surprise with it, in the form of the adamantine bracer fused to my right forearm. It was a conduit for the powers of whoever wore the collar and manacles. With Am’aleh’s might flowing through it and into me, the indestructible metal had heated to such a degree that it melded with my thick skin.

Wielding the potential of a Thayne, I had stepped across the ocean to Scara Brae and found the treasure hunters who had located the adamantine artifacts. From them I had learned of Khal’jaren’s involvement, by listening in invisibly on a conversation. Horrified that I had bound Am’aleh for no reason other than my own paranoia, I returned to Corone and released her. She had punished me as she saw fit… surprisingly little.

A smile creased my face, making the Y-shaped scars on my cheeks dimple. My furious pace had carried me to the meadow where McKinley Parish’s cottage stood. Smoke billowed from the stone chimney and sun spilled off the shingled roof. Some of my happiest moments in recent memory existed within the cobbled walls of the quaint cottage. My mortal lover had a way of making me feel complete, different than the bliss of my goddess, but no less sweet.

I knocked on the front door and then opened it and stepped in. The smell of cooking eggs with melted cheese greeted me, along with a lunging dire wolf. Kinley’s pet Nymeria placed her paws on my chest and attempted to lick my face.

“Down girl,” I chuckled. She dropped back to all fours with a disappointed huff.

“Josh!” Kinley came out of the kitchen almost as fast as her wolf. She whisked her long auburn hair behind her shoulders and stretched up on tiptoe to kiss my lips. I returned the gesture with some force, scooping the tiny woman off her feet and indulging in her flavors and sensations. After a moment we broke apart.

“I’m glad you came back,” she said, taking my hand and leading me into the kitchen, “I made enough for two, and I don’t like feeding Nym eggs. Or cheese.” Kinley grinned. Cheesy eggs were her favorite breakfast.

I ducked into the water closet at the back of the cottage and crouched, wedging my fingernails beneath a floorboard and jimmying it loose. A small space yawned beneath, not quite large enough for the haversack. I pulled the Thaynebinder out, careful to cradle its links lest they clank, and slipped it into the space and replaced the floorboard. As I moved back toward the kitchen I dropped the haversack atop a pile of dirty clothes.

Kinley continued cooking.

I sat at the small square table in the corner of her kitchen and watched my lover cooking the eggs and toast on a pair of skillets atop her pot-bellied iron stove. She selected a pair of plates and glasses from a cupboard, arranging them on the oaken counters surrounding the stove. I stood up and moved to the icebox, fetching a jar of cold sweet tea. I placed it on the table and carried the glasses over as Kinley loaded the plates up with food.

We sat and enjoyed the meal, talking of Kinley’s dreams and her plans for the day. She had become habituated to my vanishing on occasion at night, and did not ask where I’d gone. As we finished the savory food I took a sip of tea and cleared my throat.

“I’m going to have to go away for awhile,” I told her.

Kinley’s lower lip pouted. “For a few days? Or-”

“Longer.” I said. “Months, likely.”

“Why?”

I inhaled deeply through my nose, considering what to say. “I’m to raise an army, one which will defend all worshipers of the Thayne.” I watched her blue eyes widen, and a flush painted her pale skin.

“People in armies get killed,” she whispered, coming to kneel in front of me, “it’s bad enough when you go out prizefighting, but at least then I know you’ll come back alive. Who will you be fighting?”

“We won’t be going to war,” I assured her, wrapping my long arms around her slender form, “it’s just a standing force to dissuade any who would harass the faithful. Army was probably the wrong word for it.”

“Then what is the right word?” She looked up at me, pupils dilated, tiny hands resting on my chest.

“I’m going to call it the Faith United. Worshipers of all deities will band together to defend our right to devotion.”

Kinley smiled, her plush lips pressed together. She placed her delicate palms on my neck and massaged in slow circles. She knew of my love for Am’aleh, even if she did not understand the exact nature of our relationship.

“Well then,” she said, “if you will be gone for months, I must make use of this time.” She kissed me hard on the mouth, pulling me to my feet and down the hall. She laughed as I plucked her off the floor and carried her swiftly to bed.