Warbound

3. Realizing Your Station

Running was a concept easier said than done. Sancha racked her brain for some back up plan but nothing remotely realistic cropped up in mind. There was one small idea she couldn't shake but was too embarrassing to say out loud.

An idea she found herself continually stuck on throughout the day as they bought provisions, looked into hitching a ride (Ilya peeled out of the city with two carriages full to capacity with furnishing), and generally scrambled around the city like chickens who had lost their heads. And had anxiety. They were still wearing their bright and cheery vestiges but at least had the good sense to wrap some old travelling cloaks over them. It was a haphazard fix to hide their robes, every time they took a step a flash of pink or lilac appeared from underneath.

She decided she'd voice the idea to Asa but every time she came close to letting it out of her mouth her palms began to sweat and she'd clam right up. Thankfully after a few times Asa caught her floundering about around noon when they had stopped to take a lunch break. A storm was coming in and the winds carried rain. The city's temperature had dropped considerably. So why were her palms so sweaty. It's because she was about to look like a lunatic.

"What is it? You look like you're about to explode." Asa asked, mouth full of some disgustingly buttered garlic bomb that opened up like a flower to reveal more butter and garlic inside. They were taking turns ripping its fluffy pedals off but it had been bold of them to assume they could tackle the monstrosity.

"I- well I was thinking. This is a long shot. It's sort of crazy. But you know, with The Saint gone there's only two other gods. And only one of them isn't..." Sancha gestured nonsensically but Asa nodded along sagely anyways. Their friendship was on that sort of wavelength.

"Its just, I have no idea how we would do it. But what if we...tried to contact The Reaper?" She gasped after the breathless stream of words and readied a long and carefully thought over explanation but Asa just nodded.

"That's a good idea!" They said sensibly.

Throwing out her readied defense of the idea she voiced her concerns. "No it's not!"

"You literally just suggested it!" Asa exclaimed incredulously.

"I mean what would we even say. How would we even do it? We-"
Asa held up a hand to stop the word vomit Sancha couldn't keep under control.

"I think finding the, you know, literal god of death and going 'hi, we think someone killed one of the other gods. Help please?' is actually a completely understandable course of action."

Sancha looked skyward at the darkening clouds and plead for some benevolent force ,not related to her own dead god that may or may not be some horrible creature thing, to free her from her own embarrassment.

"Don't you know Them? Obviously you don't talk about it but I know you...met or something." Asa worded that like a suggestion to open up some dialogue but Sancha refused to take the hint. She very much planned to continue her silence on the subject.

"Sure. And technically I guess it wouldn't be too hard to, I don't know...find one of Their followers. Or maybe summon them," she nervously played with an unraveling thread from her tattered robe's sleeve "but I'm not messing around with anymore spell circle's." She finished gravely. They had both agreed on staying away from any sort of magic. The fear of somehow coming in contact with that thing was very real.

Asa nodded in agreement and sat deep in thought. The two sat in silence, the cooling greasy street snack sitting between them. They were on an arched stone bridge that allowed them to look to the city below, the winds ruffling Sancha's hair and just grazing over Asa's lack thereof. They hadn't had much luck on catching a ride west away from the border fighting. An incredible percentage of the city planned on staying, some even welcomed the occupation with open arms. Mostly through ignorance or some fool-hearty belief that their money made them impervious to the empire's advancements.