Talking of Dreams

You enter town with the dazed goblin on your hip. It isn't long before you approach the church, passing through its open archway. Gilford is still assisting the goblins' victims the best they can, and Kristhyra is helping him however she can...hopefully without reliving the experience herself. You stand toward the back, both waiting for an opening and draining the timer on Mind Break.

After a few minutes of idle thinking, you're almost startled when Kris approaches. "Hero, thank you keep Ri-, Eve safe."

You cock an eyebrow. Calling her Eve, now? "Well, she's a bit out of it right now." Taking a look at the goblin through God's Eye, you continue. "Another minute or so before she's back to her senses."

The elf's eyes widen and she blushes, before averting her eyes. "A-ava, Eve...mention..."

You feel your face heat up a bit, chuckling nervously. "Yeah, I'm sure you're aware of her...needs."

"Y-yes..." Her face reddens even more, before she takes a deep breath in an attempt to regain her composure. "H-hero...about...night last..."

You feel Eve stir in your grasp as she begins speaking something in elvish, albeit drowsily. After a moment, she switches to the language you share, her head still resting on your shoulder. "Dusk, Kris wants to talk to you about that 'dream' you told us about this morning."

. . .

"Wait, so both of you were actually there?" You look at them confused as they fidget in the pew behind the one you sat in.

Eve shakes her head, her arms loosely folded under her relatively flat chest. "We were still back at Garth's, but we saw everything..." Kris squirms a bit, muttering something in elvish, and Eve looks away guiltily, scratching her cheek. "And maybe did something..."

Is that why they were so flustered when I went to invite them over this morning? You think back to the strange brunette elf that had finger-fucked Kris in the 'dream', that was apparently Eve. Now that you think about it, it was brief, but...you think she actually looked a bit similar to the elf sitting in front of you. Wait, so Eve was actually 'prepping' Kris for me? You shake your head. "Sorry, a bit off topic, but...are you two related? Is that what...what was the word, nozzle?"

The brunette nods. "Nosiel."

Eve follows up quickly. "In humish, the closest thing would be a close female relative. We're cousins."

Humish? I guess that's english? Or did the gods mess with my mind to just make it seem like it's english? You shake yourself off the line of thinking to get back on topic. "Well that's good to know. But back to that...dream, for lack of a better term." You blush when you realize that Eve was prepping her cousin, of all people, but shake your head again. "That was definitely something magical, since you, Eve, looked like what I assume is your old self." And I still need to ask Mel about Eve's reincarnation... "Do either of you know anything or anyone that deals with dreams or hallucinations?"

After Eve translates a handful of words, they both shake their heads. "Isn't it the slime?"

You shake your head. "I don't think so. If it was just me and Camilla, I can see that happening, but you were both dragged in and didn't know anything about the slime before this morning. I mean, to be fair, I didn't either, but you get my point."

The goblin purses her lips as she sighs through her nose. "Then someone's messing with us."

You solemnly nod. "They're making themselves known. Why, is anyone's guess."

The flushed elf sighs, saying something to Eve in elvish, before the former elf translates. "You don't have any enemies, right? I know there's the Empress and...your plan for her, but no one else?"

"None that should be aware of me, unless they got some information from the gods, themselves." You sigh. "I guess we won't know until they contact us again. By the way, since you brought up the Empress... Kris, would you be willing to help us out tomorrow? We're going to be marching on the Empress' hive with Recuan's army, and having a priest would certainly help."

She looks shocked for a moment, and slips into elvish when she turns, seemingly accusatory, toward her cousin. Eve looks guiltily toward you, before looking down, responding in kind. The visibly frustrated elf then turns to you, nodding. "I go." She takes Eve's hand and squeezes it tight. "I lose Eve once. Not again."

Your lips curl into a melancholic half-smile. "I can understand that." After a moment, you stand up. "Anyway, I should probably go train for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine, but better safe than sorry."

Kris stands as well. "Wait." She runs off to some side room, and quickly returns with the white rod Torch had given you, which now that you think about it, was probably the elf's to begin with. She touches the blue gem to your forehead, despite your visible concern, and begins chanting something in elvish. The gem glows, before fading again. She pulls back the rod, smiling. "Arsorisa be with you."

You look to Eve, and despite her still looking guilty, she answers the unasked question. "Arsorisa is the god of growth. Kris just gave you a blessing to...make training better(?), for the day... It's hard to explain in words..."

Does that mean an experience boost? That's pretty cool, actually. You turn back to the elf, planting a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks, Kris. I'll make sure to use it wisely."

You arrive at Camilla's once more, this time with Eve right behind you. Considering what's going to happen tomorrow, you're not surprised to find Camilla training the new recruits once more. She, herself is taking a breather outside the ring, while Gerald and Mark (you think those are their names) are sparring with spears.

By the time they finish their duel, Camilla has acknowledged your presence, and stands to address everyone. "Alright, rookies. All of our training so far has been with your opponent on equal footing. If you don't already know, most monsters won't give you the chance to be on equal footing. We have two examples right here." She gestures to you and Eve. "Goblins live in forests, more often than not, and will use their skin color as camouflage to ambush their enemies. Winged monsters, such as hornets, won't bother meeting you on the ground, and instead fight from the air. Around here, you need to be able to defend yourself from both. Lucky for you, we have friendly monsters here to help out."

You raise an eyebrow as the captain turns and approaches the two of you. "Volunteering us as target practice?"

"Come on, you can heal basically any wound these guys could deal you. If they stand any chance against hornets, they need better than what I can give." Camilla lightly bumps your chest with her fist. "Besides, it's more you than Eve. Tomorrow's apparently a big day, after all." She gives a weak smile.

You nod, returning her enthusiasm. "I'll see what I can do." With a look to the recruits, you step forward. "Alright, everybody. You may or may not know this, but I took an oath not to harm innocent people unless they harm me first. I'm gonna be honest, and say I don't know if hurting you while training you counts against that, or maybe you're fair game since you've resolved to fight the Dark. Either way, I'm not going to risk breaking my oath, so I'm gonna need you all to actually hit me, just in case. I'm going to be attacking you from the air, and I can't guarantee that I won't mess up, since I haven't really fought like this before." Last time, I could control my strikes more easily since we were all on the ground, but...aerial combat...I should probably get better at that...

Hey guys! I'm back now, but to try to help out with NOT having burnout in the future, Dusk's story will be updated Mondays and Thursdays, now excluding Tuesday from the weekly list. Unfortunately, that means only 2 updates each week, but hopefully they'll be longer than what's become the usual lately. We should be wrapping up the Empress arc by the end of the year, and just so you know, there will likely be another short hiatus after that. During then, and hopefully leading up to it as well, I'll be editing some older chapters and doing a major overhaul of my first chapter for this story.