Chapter 844: The Saviour in Stone (Patreon)

Three days later, I arrived at my final destination in this realm.

Despite the world-changing events that had taken place, the road to Porvale hadn’t changed at all. There was still the same smell of wet soil and woodsmoke over the fields, the same deep ruts, and even that crooked fence on my left that hadn’t been fixed.

But I do have to admit, it did feel strange walking this road to head towards the village. Usually, I would be getting as far away from the village as possible, more often than not fleeing from angry abominations chasing after me while a hungry fire devoured everything behind me. So, it was a completely different experience walking through it slowly, and being able to take everything in.

“When you leave, I’ll be by myself,” a voice spoke up in my mind, and from the tone, I could hear the nerves eating away at the village boy. “What if…what if something happens? What if I fall over?”

“Then you’ll get back up,” I said simply. “You’ve seen things that no mortal has seen, you’ve experienced things that you thought were impossible a few months ago. The difficult part has been dealt with. Whatever comes next, you’ll be able to take care of.”

“But I’m not like you,” Tomas whispered. “I’m just the son of a miller. I can’t save anyone.”

His words made total sense, and I could relate with them because there had been a time when I didn’t have the advantages that I currently did. At that time, I wouldn’t have be able to protect anyone, no matter how much I wanted to.

“I won’t leave you helpless,” I promised. “Your body has been channeling all kinds of different energies these past few months, and it’s perfectly primed to reach a respectable level in Golden Sun cultivation. You’ll be one of the most powerful beings in this world by the time I say my final goodbye.”

Even though he didn’t have a physical body and had no need to breathe, that drew a sharp gasp from him, and I could understand why. It was one thing to watch someone use your body to perform acts you would have considered miracles growing up, and it’s another to be told that you would be able to do it yourself. Tomas had seen the true power of the Golden Sun, he understood exactly what I was offering him. And the best place to do this, instead of leaving from the monastery terrace with a nice view, was his home.

My thoughts were cut off when somebody on the roof of the grain store started screaming.

“IT'S HIM! IT'S HIM, IT'S HIM, RING IT, RING THE BELL—”

The bell that rang was less of a bell and more of an iron pot on a rope, but it fulfilled its purpose of bringing the village to life. Doors banged open, two men dropped a fence rail in the road, a woman came out with flour to her elbows, somebody's dog joined in before it knew what it was joining, and then they all came charging at me.

“Oh no,” Tomas whispered.

Oh no, indeed. This was all the elders’ fault: Cairan, Molric, Monroe, Kal, Thorn, and even Lady Laelyn. After the events in the vale, they had all decided that the world deserved the name of the person who had saved them from two extraterrestrial threats. I had argued against it, and I had argued hard, telling them that I’d prefer to stay a rumour until I was forgotten, but my objections had fallen on deaf ears.

If anything, it encouraged them to send out riders, monks, and because Cairan has a sense of humour nobody warned me about, even painters. And the title they had decided to give me was The Saviour…

“Yours is better than mine,” Tomas muttered as the crowd loomed over us. “The Blessed Vessel…what kind of title is that? A vessel is a bucket. They named me after a bucket.”

“It’s…something.”

“I didn’t even do anything. You did it all. My da told me that somebody who sat on their backside all day didn’t deserve thanks.”

“Well, you did offer to die so a world could have a sun,” I replied. “That’s not nothing.”

“You said no…”

“That doesn’t change that you were ready to sacrifice yourself to save this world.”

Before he got the chance to reply, the front of the crowd hit me, and the one who got there first was Henrik. The man had been charging at full speed, he skidded to a halt, his face red from the sudden exertion, and he put both fists together in a salute somebody had taught him very recently and very badly.

“Honoured Saviour,” he said, in a voice he'd been practising. “On behalf of… of the free people of Porvale, we, ah. We give thanks to. Hmm." He paused and it looked like he was going to turn around and ask Maya what came next but then he just shrugged. “There was more of it. Bugger it, come here.”

I didn’t get a chance to think about it, he was already coming in for a hug, arms wide. Holding back a sigh, I gave in to it, and the man hugged me hard enough to lift my heels off the road.

“You're thin,” Maya said, arms folded. “I hope you’re taking care of our Tomas.”

“He’s doing well,” I smiled, enjoying that I was once again tethered to the ground and not up in the air. “You’ll be seeing him soon.”

She nodded, and for a moment there was awkward tension since she didn’t know what to say to a stranger wearing his neighbour’s body.

“We kept your sword.”

“My what?” I blinked at the random topic change.

“The rusted one. You know, the one I put in your hands the morning the raiders came, when Tomas stood there with his mouth open.” She pointed her right hand back toward the village. “Old Teller cleaned it and hung it over the well. It's got a little roof on it now to keep the rain off.”

That was not something I had expected at all. Honestly, the sword had been garbage, and had it not been for me channeling spiritual energy through it in previous loops, it would have been worse than useless. And I still remember the expression on Beric’s face when he had taken it off me and looked at it like it had insulted him personally. So, it came as a surprise when the people had built for a shrine, or at least their version of a shrine. Clearly, I had underestimated their feelings towards their local hero…

“I think we should swap,” I said inwardly, while doing my best to keep a smile on my face as the crowd stared at me with wide eyes and open mouths. I swear I could see some drool leaking from that kid in the right, he looked like he would burst if I said a word to him. “You know them better than me. I don’t know what to say. Look there’s your aunt. Go say hi or something. I don’t know.”

“No,” the reply came instantaneously. “They didn’t come running for me. They’re here for the person who saved them. I’m not taking that away from them. And I’m not taking that away from you.”

I sighed, not bothering to argue since I knew that there was no chance that he would budge. The village boy could be stubborn when he put his mind to it. It was actually one of the reasons I trusted him to do what he could to protect his people when I left.

“Big brother, you’re here!”

A small figure shot through the crowd and attached itself to my leg.

To my surprise, it was Liara. This wasn’t her village. I had no idea what she was doing here. At least she wasn’t by herself, behind her came Cobb, walking with the exaggerated slowness of a boy who wanted everyone to know he wasn't excited, and Liriel, who still had the duck. And the parents, Levi and Niah, stood with them next to the rest of the pilgrims that I had on my journey to the Stone Haven Monastery.

“When the girl heard you were from Porvale, she wouldn’t stay quiet unless we paid a visit to her ‘Big Brother’,” Heti, the group leader said, noticing the unspoken question in my eyes. “I don’t know what you did to her, but I sure as hell didn’t sign up for this headache when I let you join our caravan, lad.”

“I’m sorry about that,” I apologized, rubbing the back of my head. “I didn’t expect this too.”

“I kept it! I did!” Liara cried out. “The secret you told me to keep. The thumb one. I never told anyone, not Liriel, and Liriel asked hundred billion times.”

“I did ask,” Liriel confirmed sadly.

“You're a hero,” Cobb said, scowling at me. “Why didn’t you let us fight the bad guys? If I was there, I would have eaten three suns, not two.”

“There were only two suns,” Milla, the teen around Tomas’s age cut in. “How could you eat three?”

“I…I…that’s not what I was trying to say.” Cobb’s face reddened. “You’re not being fair!”

I didn’t hear the rest of their conversation because Liara let go of my leg, grabbed my hand, and pointed across the square with her whole arm.

“Look! Look at it! It’s you! A big you!”

There was no need for her to even point. I had noticed it before I even entered the village. I just hadn’t wanted to address it. It was massive, and it was totally unnecessary. Fifty feet of pale river stone in the middle of the central square on a plinth of stacked flat rock, where the grain cart used to park. The face was Tomas, and I had to admit, they had done an impressive job. As for the one hand that was raised toward the sky, I didn’t know what to say about that, I don’t remember ever doing that pose. But the finishing touch of a thick slab of stone carved with veins, winding up the left leg, around the waist and along that raised arm, was exquisite. The addition of Yggy inspired a sense of awe when someone looked at it, and my buddy knew it well, if the wave of pride heating up the soul bond was any indication.

“Master, the nose is wrong,” Azure said, sounding a little too pleased with himself. “That looks like a heroic nose. Tomas’s is more of a…regional nose.”

“Azure...”

“Fine. I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”

“What…what do you think, Honoured Saviour?” one of the villagers asked.

The crowd looked at me with an eager expression, but also one that looked shockingly fragile, as though the next words that came out of my mouth would determine their state of mind for the next few years, and probably the loss of a job of whoever built that thing if they didn’t get the response they wanted.

“I…I love it,” I forced a smile to my face.

While the villagers let out a collective sigh and cheers, my thoughts turned to bigger things.

The truth was this village wasn't going to stay a village. Whenever a place gets a story attached to it, the story pulls people, and people need beds. I would bet that in five years there would be an inn on that corner with a painted sign. In ten years, the fields north of here would be houses, with men charging a copper to show you where the Saviour stood. In thirty, Porvale would be a city, and Henrik's grandchildren would be arguing in a stone hall over tax on pilgrim carts. And then a few hundred years later, some snot-nosed brat would climb this statue on a dare and get clipped round the ear for it.

It was thoughts like this that dominated my mind as people came and offered me their thanks. When finally the crowd had thinned enough that I could hear myself, and Liara was distracted by my gaint statue, I turned to Henrik.

“The Skybound woman,” I said. “What did you all decide to do with her?”

“Ah,” Henrik said, rubbing his neck. “Her.”

For a second, his reaction made it seem like the villagers’ anger had gotten the better of them, but then Maya added.

“Even though half the village wanted her hanged, Henrik talked them out of it.” From the look in her eyes, it was clear what her opinion had been. “But the girl now hauls water, digs the drainage, and mends fences. All she needs is food and a roof. She hasn’t asked for anything else.”

“I said we'd see what she did with it,” Henrik muttered. “I think the lass is doing a good job.”

Maya didn’t say anything to that, which told me what I needed to know.

Before I could ask them any follow up questions, I saw her.

There was a young woman at the edge of the square with a water yoke across her shoulders and two full buckets swinging. Her hair had grown out uneven and was tied back with string, her hands were cracked and red, and her forehead was bare where the Fundamental Rune used to sit. She wasn’t doing anything. For a few moments, she just stood there and stared at me as though she couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing. When she blinked a few times and I was still there, she set the buckets down carefully, so nothing spilled, walked over, and knelt in the dirt in front of me.

“There’s no need to do that,” I said, helping her back to her feet. “I’ve had enough of that these past few weeks.”

“T-Thank you,” she whispered as she stood up, her voice rough from disuse. “Thank you for killing Vayara.”

I stayed quiet, getting the impression that she had more to say.

“After everything I went through during my childhood, I…I made her,” she continued, staring at the ground. “I was always frightened, but she never was. She knew how to survive. And she made me trust her until I realised that I was just a ghost watching my own life playing out before me. Then she…then she killed all those people, and I was…I was too weak to stop it.” Her hands closed on her knees. “You saved me when I couldn’t save myself. Thank you. I will never forget it.”

“If you really want to thank me,” I said. “Take care of these people.”

She lifted her head, and for the first time her gaze met mine.

“I will protect this place with my last breath.”

What followed those words were eyes flashing gold.

A smile appeared on my face seeing this. The girl had been cultivating these past few weeks. Her red sun cultivation had been crippled by myself personally, but somehow, she had found a way to cultivate the Golden Sun, and she had done it without any teacher. That was seriously impressive. But what impressed me more was that she could have taken whatever she wanted from this village and left to regain her old status, but instead chose the life of a servant. A servant who would stay low-key and protect this place from the shadows.

Vayara's story had ended in the dirt of this square with a girl whispering thank you through a mouthful of blood, and I'd assumed that was the whole of it, but now Book 2 had begun, and that was the story of Eda.

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