Interlude - Riley Part 1

She wasn't hiding. No, instead she just waited at the chapel, sitting on the bench, looking at paintings of gods and their saints. She was wearing a simple grey robe, similar to that which monks are wearing. Long, black strands of hair were falling out of the hood she had on her head. Violet eyes shined in the light of candles.

There was no one else visible in the chapel, and yet she felt like she wasn't alone. The woman knew all well that in spite of what her senses are trying to tell her, there was another presence. Powerful. She was trained to detect those. And deal with them.

"Riley. Riley Ross."

The presence stated, taking a masculine voice. The sound that he made was echoing through the chapel.

"Hello, Louis."

She responded clearly, without fear in her eyes.

"Oh? You know of me?"

The spirit displayed surprise in his voice.

"Of course I do. After all I came here to meet you."

She smiled.

"I also know you do have a body, so why don't you drop your illusion so we can talk face to face?"

"Very well."

He answered with a slight shame in his voice, and whispered a spell.

The illusion dropped gradually, starting from the bottom. He was wearing normal, new world shoes, and jeans, as well as a bleached out of colour Nirvana t-shirt. As he sat down she could see that he was a thirty-something guy with sparkling eyes.

"So what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? You wouldn't come without a reason."

She shifted her sitting stance, pulled up the bottom of her robe and put one leg on the other.

"You've been misbehaving, Louis. Abusing your powers."

"Me? How?"

He asked. The portraits on the paintings around the chapel as well as the statues also shook their heads in disbelief.

"Okay. Let's see. Villages in the area are convinced there is a literal god living in this chapel. They are bringing you gifts, gold and food. They also said that you've been more demanding lately."

He shrugged. Nearby candelabra lit up.

"They are just grateful for all the good I've done for them. As for the demanding part - one should know the price for their services."

"Of course." She brushed away one of the random strands of hair that showed up in front of her eye. "What about that river that started to flow in opposite direction for a week?"

"A little experiment."

He said innocently. A few of the benches moved slightly.

"That experiment caused the flood of at least one city."

"Eh, I fixed all the damage." He responded.

"No, you didn't just fix the damage. You ideally restored the village to the point from before the flooding. But that didn't fix the loss of life."

"Nobody is perfect. Even I can't fix ****."

She looked at him seriously.

"But the things that you can do... They are dangerous. I can't let you go on, I'm afraid."

"Then I suppose our business here is concluded."

He responded and stood up, before completely disappearing. Several chairs started to fly around.

"Not quite."

She said, and got up, avoiding a chair that was flying in her direction.

The entire chapel seemed to suddenly go alive, statues were moving in her direction, paintings were screaming at her, the floor was shaking...

But none of it affected her. Riley was casual about all of that, like she did it dozens of times before. She just pulled out a single dagger from under her robes, closed her eyes, and after a second, skillfully tossed it in a seemingly random direction, next to the altar.

The illusion dropped. He was lying on the floor, trying to take out a blade from his throat. The life in his eyes was slowly fading away.

"I'm sorry, Louis. You would continue to expand, to be stronger, until only gods would be able to challenge you. We can't let that happen."

She said, as she ripped the dagger away from the neck of the dead man.

The whole chapel was silent again. Sculptures were displaced, but still, like a lot of other things in this place.

Riley cleaned the dagger, and put it back in place. Then, she went out of the chapel.

She took a deep breath and sighed right after. The afternoon sun was warm and nice, but she didn't have time to enjoy it. There was somebody already waiting for her outside. A few someones.

"Is it done?"

The blindfolded older man sitting on a cart asked her. He was accompanied by several armoured men.

"Yes. The tale of Louis, the god of lowlands ends here. He is no longer a threat to this world."

She responded.

"There is a new target for you. Deep into demonic territory there was something that awakened and put on alert our every seer. Including me."

She out hands on her hips.

"Sounds serious."

"It is. You best prepare as much as you can. We believe it's the Void knocking at our worlds doors again. Whoever is the gate managed to suppress it this time. Make sure this does not happen again."