Dawn- An age of Darkness

"Sister Ashlyne?"

A room of modest size. Nobody was inside besides a woman who had her eyes closed and looked old- close to her fifties. The room looked ordinary and there wasn\'t much.

"Yes, you are?"

"I am Daarc green."

For a woman that old, her voice was quite smooth. If I hadn\'t seen her upfront I\'d deduce she\'d be no more than forty.

"Please have a seat."

I sat down. The woman must have spent her days in this room all alone. The church was booming with activity but there wasn\'t much of anything here.

"You see… a priest from that village…" I told her what the priest had told me. I still didn\'t think having regeneration was a curse.

"I see. Why don\'t you show me your hands?"

I held my hands towards her. I wondered what she\'d do. After all, she seemed blind. "What do you intend-"

She grabbed my hands. "I see. This curse indeed is very powerful. I\'m afraid it\'s beyond even me. Only God himself might be able to rid you of this curse: well, the one that actually gave you this, that is."

And now you\'ll tell me to pray and became a pious person or something? This is too predictable. I saw it coming from a mile away.

I thought I was being scammed. But she continued. "However, I might be able to heal your wounds. As for the curse itself, it isn\'t going to harm you in any way. And given the black spots in your destiny, I believe the curse might even come in handy to you: maybe that is why God has entrusted you with such a burden."

Black spots? "What do you mean by my destiny?" Cold sweats poured down from my forehead. I didn\'t have blind faith in fate but I didn\'t disbelief the stuff either. meaning this sister just got my full attention.

"Do you see the water in the corner? Pour it into a small bottle and bring some here." She ignored my question.

She wasn\'t answering me so I had no choice but to listen to her. "Here."

Sister Ashlyne took the bottle, opened its lid and started to mumble something. She finished her mumble and blew in the water. "Drink this, half of this. It\'ll purify you. I\'ll also cast a spell on you."

So you\'re not going to answer me, huh? Maybe talking about destiny was forbidden or something? Her earlier tone had suggested that I had tough times ahead of me. But I hoped she was wrong.

I drank the water. My body immediately felt lighter and my wounds felt much better. She took her sweet time before casting a spell but when she did my wounds healed. The deep ones were still there but I was mostly healed. "Thank you." I didn\'t think I\'d get much done in this church but I was wrong.

"It is okay." She smiled. "Now strip."

"Sure- wait what!" The hell did she just say? I couldn\'t believe that the sister could say such a thing with a straight face.

"Oh sorry I didn\'t mean it like that. I meant please remove your clothes."

"Both of them mean the same thing!" She\'s not serious, is she? I was honestly dumbfounded. Just what the hell was wrong with this church?

"Remove your clothes and apply the rest of the water to your wounds. I\'m afraid I\'m getting old. Back in the old days, people would strip without even having me explain things. I\'m really getting old, aren\'t I?" She touched her cheeks, looked worried.

Oh no, you\'re plenty old enough. Stop giving me ideas!

I calmed my head and controlled my breathing. Guess I\'ll apply them. I did remove my shirt but kept a close eye on her eyes. She really was blindfolded, if nothing else. The way she smiled, gave me loads of doubts though.

The moment the water touched my skin, the water turned black and my scars disappeared. Wow! By the end of the application, I was fully healed and scar less.

I buttoned my shirt and looked at her in amazement. "How should I- I mean how much should I pay you?" I did have money on me now but I was prepared for a bargain. After all, this was a holy place and people often demanded a hefty sum for helping out in these sorts of places.

"Paying me won\'t be necessary. Just have faith that is all I ask. It doesn\'t matter what god you pray to, as long as you remain faithful that is good enough payment to me." The sister\'s words were actually profound. I couldn\'t help but admire her. I even let her earlier comments slide. Not what I expected. Maybe she is different. And then she had to drop a solid bombshell. "Besides, I already got what I wanted," she murmured and giggled.

A chill went down my spine. But I controlled my thoughts.

I had made up my mind. Maybe it\'s worth taking this risk…. Though the sister seemed a little strange, perhaps too strange, but I still wanted to talk to her about this world and about me. Meaning, I wanted to know what she knew about me coming to this world out of nowhere. If God brought me here, then one of God\'s favorite was bound to know.

I told her about me not being of this world and asked about all the destiny crap. At first she seemed a little shocked but gradually as I went on, she became calm. "As I figured. You\'re smell is different from normal people. "

Hey! Don\'t go about sniffing random strangers! I wanted to say that but I didn\'t have the guts to do so. I sniffed myself a little. I hadn\'t taken a shower in the last three days. Maybe that\'s not what she meant but my under arms definitely needed attention.

"But I\'m afraid there\'s not much I can do for you. I\'m not knowledgeable in this field. Why don\'t you visit a summoner\'s hut in the northern city of Bromum?"

What she did was already enough for me. Bromum? So I\'d have to travel north. And if I\'m right north is where the capital is located. "It\'s okay. I just-"

"What I can do for you is to provide some information." She licked her lips. "And if it\'s something else you seek-"

"Really? That would help!" I didn\'t let her finish. But honestly I needed all the help I could get. But I certainly didn\'t want to go down that other route.

"This world is called Destoa (the continent), the dark realm. There are countless monsters and we don\'t know where they come from. You currently in the northern region of Bromum- the largest human kingdom in the continent. There are other small countries as well. But this country is the largest. "

So by Bromum city, she means the capital…. It made sense. Till now I thought those two places were two separate places but I guess they were one and the same all along.

"Do you know about any empires?" The demon in the forest had mentioned something about an empire. So I needed to know.

"There are two empires at present. The empire in the south- Alfeim, and the one in the west- Demonica or now known as the Galbatian empire. The former is formed by elves and the latter, the demons." She was being rather frank.

At least she isn\'t tempting me anymore. But I was glad. "What did you mean by my destiny?"

She sighed. She might have not wanted to tell me. "You see. I have the gift of divine revelations. I can see at least something about the future of every man that visits me. However for you, I see nothing. Thus I can only conclude that your future might be very cruel and unjust." She paused. "Although I get frequent visions in bed. So-"

Please don\'t scare me like that! It was spooky but honestly, I didn\'t pay too much attention to it. I had better things to worry about. "One last question. How does one meet God?" If I could meet one, maybe they might send me back- or so I believed. However, the reality is often not what you believe.

"Oh, your ignorance is piercing me!" Is she really a sister- a priestess!?

I sighed and cleared my throat.

She controlled herself. I wished she\'d done it sooner. "That is a very good question. But even I don\'t know the answer to that question. In my forty years of devotion I\'ve yet to meet one," she chuckled.

That doesn\'t make me feel all that hopeful, you know. Gods did exist in this world and that much was clear, but if nobody ever meets them, then doesn\'t that mean they just abandoned this world or something? Or was I missing some kind of link?

I needed to pay her somehow. She helped me dearly. "Thank you for your time. Shouldn\'t I really pay anything?"

"That won\'t be necessary. But if you insist we could share a be-"

I ignored her last sentiment. "But, your eyes…" Honestly I felt sorry for her. The poor woman was in no shape to do these but she still kept at it. And then I wondered if she was pretending or not. "On second thought-"

"Don\'t worry. I can get by without them. I don\'t want money for my devotion. It would be an insult to the gods."

I could see where she came from. It must have really insulted her devotion. So I had to make at least some amends. "Sorry about that. Couldn\'t help myself. Please take care."

"Very well. Please take care of yourself as well. May God lead you in the rightest of paths!"

Maybe I should start actual prayers for once too?

"I would really love it if you\'d visit me tonight though," she continued.

Nope!

I donated ten bronze- a measly amount but it was still a lot for a guy like me- to the church. The nun gave me quite a look when I donated. She was the same one who told me where sister Ashlyne was. Perhaps she was expecting more?

I hurried out.