Dreaming Red

Golden tendrils of divine magic slithered through the damp, cold morning air, leaving the pink-skin priestess's fingers and settling on Niss's wounded leg.

"Vifafey, I beseech you, heal your daughter," murmured the priestess. "She has fallen on hard times. Help her now in her time of need…"

Nass cast a furtive glance at Niss, feeling himself growing nervous as his breath quickened. Kelyn, the younger second priest, who was apparently an apprentice to the woman, stood at his side and laid his hand on his shoulder.

"This will work," he whispered. "My mistress is favored by Vifafey. He answers her prayers, I've seen it many times."

"How often were those prayers for goblins?" Nass asked.

Kelyn said nothing. Nass hadn't expected him to.

"How do you feel, Niss?" he asked aloud, taking a step forward, warily eyeing the snaking magic.

Niss smiled at him lopsidedly from the ground before looking back up at the priestess crouching over her. "Tingly," she said. "Or … maybe itchy. It's strange, but it doesn't hurt."

"Heal this child, so that she may shine upon the world," continued the priestess, with her eyes closed.

Nass looked again towards the golden tendrils of magic snaking around Niss's wounded leg. They were pushing themselves into her skin. It was completely bizarre, unnatural even. He couldn't suppress the horrible, sinking feeling in his head, the voice that told him that it wouldn't work … but if it did, he'd be grateful forever.

By the time the sun had finished rising over the horizon, it really was done. The warmth of the glowing magic disappeared as it vanished, the priestess opened her eyes, and Niss began fooling around with her previously injured bare leg, lifting it into the air and twisting it every which way. The messy brown rag she'd had wrapped around her wound slid from her olive-green lower thighs down to her calves, useless, forgotten, and smelly.

Niss bent her legs and reached out a hand toward Nass. He grasped it tightly and pulled her to her feet. She didn't stumble in the slightest.

"Wow," she said, looking around with wide eyes. "It worked. Nass, it worked! It doesn't hurt at all! It's like it never happened. I … I feel like I've just woken up from a bad dream!"

Nass smiled. "Well … please don't ever dream like that again," he said. "I was starting to get worried."

"I'm okay! We don't have to go begging to Father!"

Nass breathed a sigh of relief. "You've no idea the relief I feel for that. I'm glad you're okay, Niss … and for the first time in my life, I'm also glad to have met a pink-skin. Thank you, priestess."

The woman a few feet away wearily brushed the dust off her rumpled clothing and stood up. "Don't thank me, boy, I just said some words. It is the god Vifafey to whom you should be grateful."

"Many thanks to Vifafey, then. For once in his long existence, he finally … never mind. I am truly grateful."

"As am I," said Niss. "That was painful … I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk anymore."

"You'll face no such problems now," the priestess said. "My god himself has blessed you … uncannily, in fact. Rare are the times he makes his will quite so apparent."

She and her apprentice exchanged a meaningful frown, looking at each other with concern.

Nass grimaced. "Meaning?" he asked.

The priestess turned her gaze towards him, looking considerably more troubled than she did before, while she was healing Niss. "Meaning, I wasn't expecting my blessing to heal your sister so rapidly. My lord god expensed quite a bit of power on her," she said. "Thoroughly unexpected … If I didn't see that you were goblins, I'd say you were my lord god's prophets."

Cursed Father, Nass thought.

He smiled maliciously. "Ah, but of course, a prophet of Vifafey couldn't possibly be a half-goblin."

"No … though it is clear nevertheless that he deems you thoroughly worthy of aid … What were you two doing before we met?"

Nass shrugged. Honesty with pink-skins rarely did anyone any good, and religious zealots had a tendency to be on another level entirely.

"I was taking a leak," he said. "Answering nature's call."

The priestess frowned and rolled her eyes.

Niss, by Nass's side, lay her hands on her hips, looking angry. "Nass, for Gromph's sake … they just helped us! I think we can trust them."

Trust is for idiots, Nass thought, but he threw his hands in the air and told her to do as she liked.

"Priestess," Niss said, "we were … well, we were originally looking for a shard of the divine. I know it's not exactly a good thing…"

"A shard?" the priestess cut in. "Of which god?"

"It wasn't one of Vifafey's. It was, um … Aru."

"The god of freedom?" Kelyn asked, frowning and sharing another look with the priestess. "There may be shard-seekers aplenty in the world, but what would one want with a piece of Aru?"

"Well, we heard a rumor that it was near where we were going, and—"

"Trust is … earned," Nass exclaimed, looking at Niss and smiling widely. Please don't spill your guts, that smile said.

Niss glanced at him nervously and shrugged, then smartly shut her mouth. Nass noticed the dirty brown rag still tied around her previously injured leg and walked over to untie it.

The priestess and her apprentice whispered something amongst themselves before coming closer and staring.

"Your reasons may remain your own," the priestess said, "but I believe Vifafey himself has blessed you to succeed in your mission. You may be the ones we've been searching for. Given that we can't confront the real issue directly … we will help you."

"I don't recall…"

Niss lightly elbowed Nass in the stomach.

"That shard you're looking for is in Lyerateh," the priestess continued. "It's supposed to be a well-kept secret, though rumors have spread in the past. It is said to be an uncommonly powerful shard—with it, one can communicate with the god himself."

"We've heard," Nass said. "But why exactly would a pair of pink-skin clerics offer to help our kind? Down in Ryzayah, we're not even allowed in your churches."

Niss placed a hand on Nass's shoulder and leaned in closer to speak into his ear. "Nass, they just healed me. Come on."

"No, you 'come on', Niss," he replied. "They're pink-skins! Priests of the bigot god, preaching that humans are above us!"

And enemies of a certain species of man-eating monster that helped us escape slavery.

"I know … but … I owe them, too."

"You take 'paying your debts' far too seriously, Niss."

"Well, I consider that a virtue. And we are a package deal, aren't we?"

Nass rolled his eyes.

Niss scowled at him. "You're being even more paranoid than usual. Come on, can't you see the opportunity? They mean to help us get the shard!"

"So they said. Like scorpions to frogs."

"You're a frog," Niss said, smiling smugly. "You've got the color right."

"So do you, sister. But fine, whatever … together then, to Lyerateh."