Chapter 8: Eight
The trip from the campground began peacefully enough, with surprisingly few signs of monsters along the path to the temple.
The eyes of wolves glowed within the gloom just off the path, but whispered words of magic from Gemma kept the beasts away from the trio.
While he was never sure what the two had actually talked about, Ezekiel did notice that Taniel went to great lengths to avoid looking at him, something that he was at least partially thankful for.
After shooing off a particularly persistent pack of wolves like they were children, Gemma whispered in his ear, "I don't know what you two are so shy about, you're both at the perfect age for some harmless fun."
"She's a Songstress, Gem," Ezekiel said, for what felt like the hundredth time in the last couple of hours.
"Songstresses don't take vows of chastity, Ezie. As far as the Church is concerned, they're free game," she whispered, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Walking faster, he said, "I feel like we have more important things to focus on, Gem."
Matching his pace effortlessly, she mumbled, "Gotta have some fun sometimes."
Looking at her thoughtfully, he asked, "What's this really about?"
Sighing and taking a more serious expression, she said, "Look Ezie…I'm not always going to be around. I'm not getting any younger and one day you'll need someone else by your side."
Shaking his head, Ezekiel started to say something when she cut him off, "Look…I love you like a son. Like my own son. I've walked this world for a long time, much of it alone, and much of it with the same anger you have. It isn't an easy life to live alone, and I don't want that for you."
It wasn't that he hadn't thought about this…as much as he hated to think of it.
The truth of the matter was, he loved her the same way, like a son loves his mother, and the thought of losing her…it made something in his chest hurt.
Death was a natural part of life, and in their homeland it was taught to accept it for what it was. You don't mourn the lost, you carry them in your heart and in your work, whatever that may be.
Honor the fallen by encompassing the beliefs they held and shared with you, and they never truly die.
The Tree of Life was a further extension of this, carrying the names and some even believed that the souls of family members resided within the Tree, though Ezekiel doubted that.
Gemma was still strong…but he'd be lying if he didn't notice that she walked a little lower every year, slept a little harder every night, and woke up a little later every morning.
Nobody was safe from the ravages of time, and in tiny, almost imperceptible ways, those ravages were taking their toll on this woman who had taught him so much of what he'd known.
What she wanted from him though…he didn't know if he could give that to her.
It had been years since he'd left home, but everything that had driven him to leave in the first place still throbbed in his heart like a gaping wound on his soul. Sometimes he doubted that it would ever heal, that he'd ever be whole again.
On a smaller scale, she wanted him to experience the joy and pleasure of losing himself in the touch of a woman…or man, he doubted she cared, but on a larger scale, she wanted him to build connections.
To trust.
Maybe he could see himself with someone physically…maybe even maintaining his own string of connections across the country for jobs, the way Gemma did, reaching out for help with difficult jobs, but something more than that?
The idea of actually trusting someone else in the way she wanted for him, it filled him with apprehension.
She knew what had happened before he'd left, and agreed it was for the best, but disagreed with the idea that he would never trust again. Gemma wasn't a big believer in forgiveness, but healing? Gemma was all about healing.
The circumstances were different, but Gemma's exile had shaken the entire village, and when they removed her name from the Tree, her funeral was bigger than any had been in recent memory.
Losing her had hurt so many, so deeply, that even though the law said that an exile was to never be spoken of again, they still referred to her as the Village Mother, an exalted position that had only been given twice in the history of the village.
The woman who would have otherwise gone down as a living legend gestured to her side with her head and Taniel walked into his vision from behind Gemma.
She carried herself with pride, Ezekiel thought, watching her walk with exceptional grace.
Her beliefs aside, Taniel was an interesting woman for sure.
She was bubbly and bright, funny and sarcastic, innocent and somehow also well-traveled, all things that inexplicably had begun to draw him to her.
He towered over her at six feet even to her barely five feet tall, but something in her eyes made him feel like she could reduce anyone to inches if she got mad enough.
Short cut black hair and gently expressive blue eyes that were so bright they practically glowed with their intensity made his heart skip a beat if he looked at them too long.
When had he started looking anyway?
He wasn't entirely sure.
They hadn't traveled together long, not long enough for him to feel this strongly, he was sure.
"Are you ok," she asked.
Ezekiel blinked, suddenly realizing he'd stopped walking as he thought.
"Wh..what?"
Taniel leaned forward, looking up at him curiously.
"Are. You. Ok?"
He nodded sheepishly and it struck him how silly this was.
Ezekiel and Gemma had killed an entire group of bandits by themselves less than a week ago, and here this one woman had driven him to blank stares and…yes…his mouth was slightly agape.
He wasn't a teenager anymore, this kind of thing shouldn't happen to him…and yet, here he was.
Clearing his throat and making a conscious effort to close his mouth, he said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm ok."
She nodded and her hair flounced around her cheeks and he felt warmth flood his ears.
Farther up the path, he saw Gemma smirk and mouth the words, "Cute, ain't she?"
Ezekiel shot her a look and before he could say anything, Taniel grabbed his hand and pulled him back up to Gemma so they could continue together.
"You know…when I left on my pilgrimage, I wasn't sure that I actually wanted to go," she said.
"Oh?"
She nodded and said, "Honestly, it was the idea of helping people that actually got me to take that first step. Gemma says you guys help people a lot too…is that true?"
Ezekiel shrugged and said, "Maybe not as much as we'd like, if I'm honest."
"Why is that," she asked, climbing over a tree that had fallen onto the path.
Looking down at his feet, he said, "We try not to let anyone become too reliant on us."
Suddenly somber, she looked at him as she walked and asked, "Majni said that the two of you could have beaten the flight of knights in Covold…is that true?"
Impressed by how frank she was about the hidden knights, he nodded and said, "Probably."
Her eyes glittered a bit and she started to say something when Gemma put her hand up and said, "Those aren't wolves."
Looking up and out into the forest, Ezekiel saw glowing red eyes dancing from side to side in the darkness beyond the path.
In a flash, Gemma had her sword out, her stance flawless.
An inky black claw reached around the trunk of a nearby tree and pulled, raking deep grooves into the bark and launching its monstrous owner forward.
Goblins.
Known for their numbers more than their power, goblins barely kept a physical form, seemingly born from the shadows of places that had seen terrible tragedy.
As this one flew toward Gemma, a dozen more climbed up from the darkness along the ground, their bodies forming as they ascended.
Bright red eyes lifted up, their heads forming slowly around them, organs and skin, tendons and bone seeping upward, against all logic, and out into the light along the path.
Taniel started to lift her arms and time slowed around Ezekiel as he took his stance, focusing on his targets.
"Time to earn our pay," Gemma said, speaking in the language of their homeland.
Nodding so subtly that anyone else would miss it, Ezekiel stepped forward and almost instantly was beside the three that had leapt up at Taniel.
Bringing his sword in an arc that caught all three in the neck, he turned and before they began falling had already made his way to the one that was forming just behind them.
Gemma's Family Blade had cut down six in the time it took for him to take those three, her speed remarkable as always.
He stabbed downward into the head of this one, casually tossing knives at the remaining two as Gemma flicked the thick, purple blood off her blade.
Extreme battle sense and reflex was part and parcel to Exile bladework, something every child learned, whether their family trade was combat oriented or not.
The average citizen of the Valley of Exiles was capable of combat speeds that bordered on superhuman, just one of the many reasons for their secrecy…and why they rarely stayed in one place for long when outside the Valley.
Taniel's hand covered her face just in time for all the goblins to fall down dead, spraying viscera and gore in a carefully set pattern, just narrowly avoiding the Songstress.
Gemma and Ezekiel looked at each other knowingly.
It was time to go.
Goblins are like roaches, in habit and in numbers.
If you saw one, there were a hundred.
It was a mystery even to the citizens of the Valley how goblin biology worked, how they slid through the shadows like they were water, but the one thing they knew for sure was that you don't try to eradicate a colony of goblins without extensive preparation.
"No more chit-chat," Gemma said, motioning with her sword to the far end of the path, where the temple stood, shining with divine light.
"They won't be able to get into the grounds of the temple," Ezekiel said, picking up Taniel and starting to run.
Taniel's cheeks blushed as she was carried princess style at almost frightening speed.
Behind the trio, dozens upon dozens of goblins began forming and leaping onto the path, the sickening stench of their blood and fluids filling the air like liquid.
Chittering and clicking as their bones fell into place and their tiny chitin covered feet raced behind them, the goblins giggled sadistically at their prey as they ran.
Gemma shouted words of magic and leapt into the air, spinning as she pointed her sword at the demonic horde of monsters, casting a massive spiraling fireball of red and green fire into the masses.
The explosion of fire and ichor barely slowed the army of monsters.
Speaking more words, Gemma landed on the air, sliding along a glowing line of magic runes that formed and landing beside Ezekiel, continuing to run without missing a beat.
The light of the temple grew closer as they ran, but it wasn't long before they could feel the breath of the creatures on their backs.
It would be close.
Ezekiel's chest began to thrum as a heavenly sound filled the world around him, glittering light flickering into existence around him.
Taniel was singing.
Her eyes slowly closed as her hands clasped together and her voice filled the trees with song and magic so powerful it practically lit the entire forest.
Calm filled Ezekiel and he felt himself begin to get faster, even as the horde grew slower.
The temple grounds were suddenly upon them as the song ended, divine light burning the goblin's blood off of his clothes, turning into a mist and fading away in the presence of the divine.
Goblins burst into smoke and screams as the horde tried to force its way through the light onto the grounds.
A pair of eyes floated high above the tiny creatures, each the size of a human head.
A Goblin Lord.
The eyes turned away and abruptly the screams dissipated.
Behind them, the Choir's song began, gently at first, rising in volume until they had almost matched the level of Taniel's song.
Gemma and Ezekiel turned around as Taniel slipped out of his arms.
The Temple of Divine Flight towered over them like a god.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone