SUPPORT - Noriko and Adrienne - C-Rank

The walls that encircled Cygnus had done an admirable job.

Yet it was not from those sturdy stones that the survivors drew their protection, but instead the overpowering aura from the newly-revitalized keep. Everyone knew it, but as Adrienne Leonhart stared down from the parapets at the gigantic hole where part of the inner wall should have been, the lesson was driven home particularly hard.

It was a poor wall that had holes.

At her direction, scaffolds had gone up just two days after the cataclysmic battle.

Repairing such damage had proven impossible under constant assaults from the dark. Now that they had their opening, the free peoples of Cygnus were at work day and night making whole their defenses.

Those who weren’t burying the mountains of dead.

At least in this climate, there is no rush, save the bite of frost on the workers. We’ll have to ensure everyone has proper equipment.

Adrienne drew her furry cloak closer to a generous chest, guarding against the brutal northern winds. She glanced back and saw the approach of one much less accustomed to the snowy north.

Noriko Akiyama, high priestess to their ever so generous savior.

Though the people of Cygnus had known her for months merely as ‘that crazy adventurer girl who hears voices’. Evidently, those voices had been right on the money. Adrienne couldn’t help but be grateful.

A rare smile graced her features, and the blonde administrator adjusted foggy spectacles. “Akiyama.”

Noriko bowed deeply, shaking loose some of the snowflakes that now speckled her inky-black, long silky hair. “How are you, Miss Adrienne? Have you healed?”

Adrienne nodded. “A miraculous recovery, thanks to you. My life, my mother, my city… it seems the list of things I owe you goes on and on. I’d ask how we could compensate for such services, but...”

Noriko shook her head. “A priestess who doesn’t help others is like a wall with a great big hole in it! Payment is seldom needed, just enough so I can eat. And that should be no problem anymore, with the return of religion to this land.”

“Yes, everything’s put back in its proper place,” Adrienne sighed. "Mortals beneath the divine."

The priestess rubbed her hands together, and stood beside Adrienne, looking at the tiny humanoid dots moving across the snow-covered ruins, carving trails in the endless white.

Everyone looked so small from up here.

“I know this will be difficult,” Noriko said. “It is a time of adjustment, and of change. My Lord isn’t going to place undue demands or burdens upon the people, for they suffer so already.”

Adrienne said, “I’m glad to hear that, but… how do you know? Isn’t your job just to do whatever he says?”

“He is a spontaneous and dynamic man.” Noriko giggled. “As proven by this 'treaty' situation, rather than just taking over as I anticipated. I can’t know for sure what he’s going to do next, especially as he is so new to this world. Yet, at the same time, I have no doubts that he will act with justice, as he has so far.”

Blind faith, huh?

A redundancy. There’s no example of faith in this world that isn’t.

“Not to mention, my job goes far beyond that of mere servant,” Noriko clarified. “I am the high priestess of a religious guild. Granted, until a few days ago, that guild had exactly one adherent, but so what? It is the job of a subordinate to execute on the leader’s will… but also to set them right, if they ever stray from the path.”

Adrienne was taken aback.

Particularly, aback to various memories of trying to hold together the city, under her mother’s leadership as elected mayor. Their relationship hadn’t always been happy. They were working with dwindling resources in a **** siege.

Adrienne had often had to make sure her airheaded mother made the right call.

She nodded. “Fair enough. His arrival was something of a desperately-needed miracle, so perhaps I won’t write you two off just yet. The view from up here is grand, isn’t it… yet we’re needed down there.”

“We are?”

“You can lift a brick, can you not? I’ve seen that greatbow you carry, and the way you draw it… you could probably work the winch in place of our drakken foreman, if needed.”

Noriko grinned.

“Whatever work this meager body can do, is at your disposal!”

That’s what I like to hear. Maybe we’ll make it to spring, after all.