Deliverance (2 page)

After cleaning up from breakfast, Tessla ventured out into the town of Silvermeer to make her way to the general store, in search of supplies for their home. She had given Illadari the last of the gymer bread and needed more to go with the stew she planned to cook that evening for supper.

Upon entering the shop, she noticed her friend Liza browsing the sensual snake oils and quickly turned away to hide herself.
I wonder if she and Sam are still having issues?
Tessla thought as she looked over at Liza picking up a vial. Making her way to the shelf with the gymer bread quickly, Tessla was trying to be careful not to be spotted, as she feared Liza would be embarrassed browsing the snake oils.

While checking various loaves of gymer bread, Tessla heard her named from across the shop. “Tessla!” Liza shouted as she ran across the shop floor beaming with a smile. Wrapping her arms around Tessla tightly, her smile growed.

I guess she doesn’t care who knows about her intimacy issues?
Tessla thought as she hugged her friend. “How are you doing?” Tessla asked glancing at the vial of boson berry snap.

“Things are…” Noticing Tessla saw the vial, she continued, “They are difficult right now honestly…” Her words trailed off but her eyes looked for encouragement in Tessla to continue on.

“I hope everything ends up good for you,” Tessla said with a smile trying to divert from continuing the conversation. “Sam still in the Guilted Gulf?” she asked hoping to push the conversation to a bit less awkward one.

“Yes…” Liza’s voice said with a heavy and saddened tone. “He’s home only a few days a month.” To Tessla’s surprise, she lifted the vial and placed it in Tessla’s face, “Have you and Illadari used this before?”

Overtaken with embarrassment for herself, Tessla quickly grabbed Liza’s hand and shoved it down as she looked around the shop at the other guests. “Stop it!” Tessla whispered loudly to Liza as she continued to glance around the shop. “We don’t use that and if we did, I wouldn’t be talking about it in public!”

“I’m sorry,” Liza said softly. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“It’s okay…” Tessla said. Whispering, she continued, “If you are going to shop for
enhancement oils,
I suggest you discuss this type of thing with your husband. Not your friends and absolutely not in public.” Squinting at Tessla’s hair, Liza’s eyes fixated on something. Grabbing her own head as she saw Liza looking at it, Tessla asked, “What? Something wrong with my hair?”

“It’s just strange,” Liza said. Grabbing a few strands of her hair, Liza pulled it over Tessla’s shoulder and showed her the strands of blonde. “See?” Liza asked.

“That is odd,” Tessla said.
I used to have blonde hair… is it coming back through?
she wondered. “I will have to keep an eye on it and see what happens… I’m sorry about the oil thing, I know you miss Sam. When’s he due to be back?”

“Tomorrow,” Liza smiled making eye contact with the vial of oil. “That’s kind of why I was picking this up…” she said excitedly.

“That’s so gross!” Tessla said smacking her playfully. “You did not need to say that!” she laughed.

Smiling, Liza said, “You and Illadari should join us for supper tomorrow evening. I know how much Illadari and Sam get along! They’d probably
love
to catch up.” Tessla laughed a little inside, she knew that Illadari couldn’t stand Sam and all the fishing stories he would tell. Illadari was always a gentleman and would allow him to rattle on for hours about his stories of the open seas.

“I’m sure they’ll love it,” Tessla said with a smile.

“I best be on my way,” Liza said giving Tessla a warm embrace. “It was nice seeing you, and I look forward to having the two of you over tomorrow!” Tessla politely smiled and nodded as she turned and continued with her search through the loaves of gymer bread. Strolling through the store, Tessla ended up with a few loaves of gymer bread, a couple black diamonds and a pinch of salt for the stew.

As she was fishing for gold pieces from her pouch to pay for the items at the counter, Tilvo asked, “How is life Tessla?”

“Oh you know, it’s been good,” Tessla smiled up at him as she handed him two pieces of gold.

“Good. Is Illadari doing okay? I saw him earlier and he didn’t look so good. He had this chest pain thing going on when he was in here,” Tilvo said.

Tessla thought to herself,
he had another episode? This morning?
Nodding to Tilvo she said, “He’s going to Quin today, so we are hoping she can figure it out.”

“He mentioned that. I hope she does figure it out because he’s a tremendous blessing to this entire town,” Tilvo said handing her back a few silver he owed her in change.

“Thank you for the supplies and the kind words,” Tessla said with a smile as she left the shop.

**

That afternoon, Tessla began to prepare the stew. She started with cutting and slicing of all the ingredients she was going to be using. Beef, cloves, onion, carrots, sage and parsley would all be going into the hearty stew for the Vivac family. Every few minutes, she’d go over to the window in the kitchen and push back the drape to see if Illadari was heading down the cobblestone street back to their house.

I hope his heart is okay… I could never handle raising Kessler on my own without him. I’d be a wreck, a mess, I’d surely shrivel up and die on this floor, I am sure of it. Kessler would end up as a beggar in the town square without a father. I could never let that happen.
she thought to herself as she picked up the pace in cutting the carrots.
What if that’s why he isn’t back yet? Maybe he’s getting something done to his heart?
She began to panic while she diced the cloves.

Startling Tessla, the door swung open and it was Illadari. Quickly staggering over to the kitchen counter, he scooped water up out from the pail, wetting his tongue. After a few handfuls of water, he relaxed, but kept breathing heavily as he clenched onto the sides of the pail. Concerned, Tessla placed a hand on his back.

“Illadari?” she asked leaning in near his face. “What is wrong love?” she asked concerned.

“I sprinted from Quin’s office to here!” Illadari said sternly as he lifted himself off the pail and took a seat at the table. “I was running late to Quin’s and then I knew you were waiting for me… So I made haste getting here!”

Warmed by Illadari’s affection and concern for how she felt, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “Don’t hurt yourself on my account love. Especially when it’s not needed,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Illadari said with a nod.

“It’s okay. What did Quin say?” Tessla asked curiously as she sat down at the table across from Illadari.

“She said I need to take this Hilted Banes Leaf,” he said pulling a pouch of green colored leaves out from his robe pocket. “Twice a day. She said it’ll help heal the insides of my chest. She said there’s something in there that isn’t right and probably infected, so the Hilted Banes Leaf should attack it from the inside. She even said my episodes could stop almost immediately.”

Reaching across the table, Tessla grabbed Illadari’s hand. “I’m sorry you have to take that. I had a maid in the castle that had to take that every day, she let me sneak a taste one day and it was disgusting.”

“Oh joy… But it’s okay,” Illadari smiled. “Quin had me taste it also to see if I would have a reaction to it. My only reaction I had was disgust.” Illadari cleared his throat, with a disgusted face thinking about it, he said “If it helps, I’m okay with it… I suppose.”

Kissing his hand, Tessla said, “My maid was only on it for a year. So I’m sure you won’t be stuck taking it forever.” Standing up, Illadari nodded, acknowledging her words.

“I’m going back to the Halls,” Illadari said coming around the table, he kissed her cheek. Glancing over at the prepared ingredients, he smiled and said, “I can’t wait for stew.”

“It’s going to be delicious,” Tessla said smiling. Illadari left back to the Halls.

Arriving at the Halls, Illadari promptly made his way into the alter room finding Ponio overwhelmed with resurrections of the adventurers. Illadari quickly made his way over to the cleansing water and dipped his hands as he prayed,
Omad… Provide strength, power and healing to the weak and afflicted adventurers.

Getting behind the summoning rock, he reached over to the wall behind him, and grabbed a glowing medallion. Placing it onto the rock, he bowed his head and began to cast the prayer of resurrection.

This adventurer seeks his resurrection Omad, please grant him life reborn. How many lives does he have?

Opening his eyes, Illadari saw the number five bleed out of the medallion and onto the rock. Bowing his head again, he prayed.

Please use one of his five lives to bring him back, through your grace, he is reborn.

Illadari placed his hands out in front of him and focused his concentration onto the medallion, channeling the power from it to summon the adventurer that had fallen. After a few minutes, the channeling had stopped and a large light blinked filling the room. The light partially blinded Illadari and Ponio for a moment, just as each time the prayer is casted.

Blinking his eyes open, Illadari found a young man curled up in a ball with nothing on. Shielding his eyes, Illadari threw a gray robe from the stack between himself and Ponio to the man. Standing up as he put the robe on, the man came up to Illadari and embraced him with a hug.

“Thank you! Thank you!” he said excitedly.

“This must be your first time,” Illadari smiled warmly.

“It is! I had just recently graduated up from Haden’s arena ranks and joined the adventurers… I was fearful of the dying process, regardless of how well I’ve heard it works. I have heard the horror stories about some of the adventurers not finding grace with Omad and dying! I was fearful that I might not find his grace.”

“If Omad doesn’t see that person as worthy of continuing the good fight, he won’t resurrect them. But be of good cheer, it rarely happens.” Glancing over his shoulder and seeing two more glowing medallions, Illadari turned back to the boy and said, “Be on with you now, I have more of your comrades to summon.”

“Thank you again!” the young man said scampering out of the alter room and out of sight.

Working through the rest of the medallions from the group of adventurers, Illadari finished his final summon. As he blinked his eyes open to see who it was, he was surprised to see it was Olesk. One of the veteran adventurers that rarely would fall in combat.

Helping the muscular man up to his feet, Illadari handed him a robe. “What were you and your men fighting that would cause you to be slain?” Illadari asked curiously. After sliding into the robe quickly, Olesk pushed back his straggly brown hair and hocked a giant wad of spit at the stone floor.

“My men were ambushed by a pack of disgusting and vile creatures I have never seen before in my life. They had faces like that of rats and moved with quickness I have yet to see in Belstrom!” Olesk glared over at Ponio. Illadari wondered to himself,
like rats? Could it be the Kobolds?

“Where were you and your men?” Illadari asked, with a raised brow.

“We were in the Northern part of the Darkwood Forest, we were on our way to get supplies from the human fortress we had spotted,” Olesk said, keeping his eyes locked on Ponio.
That sounds like the Kobold fortress that Tessla and I heard about,
Illadari thought.

Illadari was about to tell the adventurer what he knew of the creatures, but fear stopped him in his tracks as he realized there would be no reason why a High Priest in the Halls would have such information.

“Hey Priest!” Olesk shouted at Ponio, as he was cleaning his summoning rock.

“Yes?” Ponio asked with a confused look on his face.

“Keep your daughter away from my son, he is training in the arena ranks and cannot spend valuable training time gallivanting around the Limestone Shores with a girl.” Olesk quickly left the alter room in a fit of rage which all seemed directed at Ponio.

Watching as Olesk stormed off, Ponio looked over at Illadari. “He thinks I can control my daughter?” Ponio laughed. “She’s but a teenager, and there is no controlling that girl,” Ponio said, as he continued to scrub his summoning stone clean with the cleansing water soaked rag.

Illadari recalled his and Tessla’s beginnings as teenagers a decade ago. “You‘re right Ponio, kids are hard pressed to be controlled by their parents. The best we can do is direct them and show them the right paths.” Ponio nodded and Illadari grabbed a cloth and dipped it into the cleansing water, then proceeded to begin washing his summoning stone.

“You took off so quick to Quin’s earlier, you never told me what happened when you met with Oren,” Ponio said, looking over at him as they both scrubbed their summoning rocks.
Should I tell him?
Illadari wondered.
I don’t want him to get jealous that I got selected for the arena summons this year… after last year and the whole goat in my house stunt… But… I best tell him, he has to find out eventually.

“I got selected for the arena summons…” Illadari said gently trying to be considerate of Ponio’s feelings on the matter.

“What? Again?” Ponio said standing up. “That’s stupid. You did it last year…” Ponio said tossing his cloth against his rock. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Really?” Oren said stepping into the alter room.

“Sorry Oren,” Ponio said, returning to cleaning. “I didn’t see you there.”

“You weren’t chosen because your channeling summon still takes over five minutes, while Illadari is down to two minutes flat. The arena master, Haden requests Illadari for his speed. It’s nothing personal and it’s definitely not stupid.”

Ponio looked to be ashamed of his words, and said, “I’m sorry… I should have known
that
was the reason. I keep practicing, but I’m unable to drop the speed below five minutes. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.”

Oren walked slowly into the room and stood towering behind the two of them while they washed their rocks. “Maybe if you were to work on your focus a bit more, you’d be able to drop the times.” Illadari knew what Oren was speaking was truth. Ponio often could be found in his spare time resting, eating and having fun, while Illadari would tend to the needs of the people around town, and the sick animals in the forest, all which fortified his focus and healing abilities.

“I suppose what you speak is true…” Ponio said reluctantly. “Maybe by next year I can get my times down.”

“The adventurers will be attending the arena battles tomorrow, so you will not be needed in the Halls, Ponio,” Oren said. “You on the other hand,” looking at Illadari, Oren continued, “You will need to report to the arena by ten o’clock.”

“I will be sure to be there,” Illadari said.

“Be sure to bring your summoning necklace with you, and stop by in the morning to make sure no adventurers died this evening,” Oren said. Illadari nodded acknowledging his request, and Oren returned to the Bishop’s quarter.