“It’s kind of like reaching out and squeezing something, but with your soul,” said Michael as he walked. He had been trying to explain to Lys, and Trina, the other diviners in the group, how to close rifts since they’d never done it before. “It was actually very intuitive once I was near one, but it wasn’t easy, and somehow the things from the rift can feel when you’re doing it.”
Trina looked afraid when he said that. She was young, maybe nineteen, short and slim with sandy brown hair. She’d been given a light breastplate, a spear, a buckler, and a dagger. She had no mercenary or fighting experience, but Gemini needed diviners for this job and she’d apparently leapt at the opportunity when she heard of the pay.
“Don’t worry, everyone else will be there to keep you safe. You just have to focus on the task at hand,” said Lys.
“I thought Gemini had worked on rifts before, have you not closed any of them before?” asked Michael.
She nodded. “Last time was with the support of Swandian diviners, and I wasn’t ever needed, but this time there are so many sprouting up they had none to spare.”
Michael nodded, so they were at least familiar with the kind of danger they represented.
“Um, I heard you’re a healer too,” said Trina.
Apparently Lys had to practically smuggle Trina out of her village; they were so set on keeping their healer from leaving. For Trina’s part she didn’t seem all that upset to have left them behind.
“He actually has the most blessings that I’ve ever seen. He has two I hadn’t even heard of before.” said Lys with a frown.
“The gods reward proper worship,” he said with a smile. He’d tried not to prosthelytize too much, as he felt that watered down his message, but that was the truth. The gods had favored him for the attention he gave them, he imagined they’d do the same for others.
“So you say,” replied Lys, incredulous.
“With certainty,” he replied, carefully stepping over a root that had managed to protrude onto the road they were on. As they got closer to the Lake of Beasts, the greenery had grown thicker, to the point he was starting to feel like he was back in the woods of Stent again. Their destination was a small town that would link them up to a number of villages closer to or even on the lake. The Lake itself had always had a bad reputation for rifts, hence the name, and it lay between Swandian and Old Hume.
They’d had a few days to settle in and meet everyone. It was a good group from what he could tell. There were a few points of tension here and there, but they all seemed to mostly get along thanks to a strong foundation of people that had been there from the beginning. The twins themselves were well respected and for good reason from what he’d heard so far, though he had upset Tai when he’d told him about the ending of the Sopranos. He was just glad that Tai had been dead before Game of Thrones had started airing.
“So, how many people have you healed?” asked Trina.
Michael blinked, he’d been four layers of internal thought deep and had forgotten they were having a conversation.
“I haven’t really kept count,” he said honestly. “Probably several hundred, you?” he asked.
Her eyes widened. “You’re joking. Were you a healer in your old life?”
“Nope. Didn’t have the discipline to be a doctor.”
“Were they just cuts and bruises, or?”
“Uh, some of them were, but I healed just as many ruptured intestines, severed spines, and concussions.”
“When I healed my neighbor's broken leg I nearly passed out.”
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“I have several strong Recovery titles and deeds that have helped to increase my Stamina. Between that and the gods, I have a lot of benefits when it comes to healing.”
She frowned. “Even with that I can’t imagine healing that many people.”
“You’ve been training since you joined Gemini, right? I bet you’re already a better healer than you used to be. If you just practice it on top of the training, you’ll get even better. After a march there should be plenty of people with minor injuries and twisted ankles.”
He’d gotten a similar amount of surprise when he’d explained his healing to people. Some of them had even reacted with outright disbelief. Being an exceptional healer was something he’d grown used to, being some kind of healing monster was taking a bit longer.
After another two hours of marching, the town of Southwind came into view. The trees were so thick at that point that it actually kind of snuck up on them, and before they knew it, their fiftyish person group were back to walking on brick streets.
There were a few people in the streets who took stock of the motley group of them and several guards approached wearing the same ochre Michael had seen on the guards back in Stad.
“Are you Gemini?” asked the lead guard, a young man with a well manicured orange mustache.
“That’s us,” said Tai with a wide smile.
“Thank the divine, I thought we were being invaded for a moment.
“Well, we do want to drink all of your wine and eat all of your food, but don’t worry, we don’t plan on burning the place to the ground.”
“What my brother means is,” said Finn, stepping forward, “we would like to speak to the mayor now that we’ve arrived, and we were told there was an old farm to the south we could set up at?”
“Uh, yes. Jameson, please lead these men there. I’ll bring this man to the mayor.”
Another man, a bit older and clean shaven, saluted Earth or at least American style and nodded to Tai, asking him to follow him. They walked through the town, continuing to draw stares, but getting a few waves as well, particularly from the people working at the inns and taverns who seemed very happy to have some fresh potential customers.
They travelled just a few miles out of the city and arrived at a small farm with barn and still standing house. They’d clearly seen better days, but would definitely provide cover for at least a good portion of their group.
They all began to get settled and Michael volunteered to be one of the people sleeping outside in his tent, not wanting to take the space from someone who may be more comfortable inside. The others weren’t so eager, but since they all lacked seniority in Gemini, it wasn’t long before they’d all had their tents pitched next to his. Some of their weekly pay was meant to pay for lodging, but they all opted to save it for the moment, some doing so more easily than others.
“I had months with a bed and easy access to hot food. Why the fuck are we doing this?” asked Ollie.
“Money,” replied Marcus. “To stay in a place with nicer bed, better food, and hopefully easy access to a brothel after we’ve done it long enough.”
Ollie shook his head. “It’s amazing how little my priorities have changed from my old life.”
“Aside from creature comforts, what goals could we really seek?” asked Pyotr. “It is not as if we have the same options we had in our old life.”
Davi nodded. “It’s not like I can be a cop again and make my mãe proud again. There is no ballet here for you.”
“I think you’re selling yourselves short,” said Michael leaning back. “Ollie, you spend everyday practicing your magic. Is that just for fun? And Pyotr you’ve turned fighting into dancing, I don’t think that’s for nothing. Davi, I think we both know you enjoy fighting and getting stronger. Marcus… well you do just want money, women, and food.”
Marcus shrugged. “I’m a bit more evolved than the rest of you.”
“And of course, you want to save every person in this world you meet and find all the gods,” said Ollie, shaking his head. “It’s good that we all have exactly equal goals.”
“I dunno,” said Michael with a smile. “Marcus’s goals may be a bit better than mine.”
They shared a laugh and finished readying their tents and started doing some equipment maintenance . Michael had managed to get a second regular shortsword to carry along with his extra durable one, but he still wasn’t very happy with the edge on it, so he got to sharpening.
After an hour or so, Finn returned, and had everyone gathered outside the farmhouse.
“I know everyone was hoping for a few days before we got to work, but unfortunately you’ll all actually have to do your jobs starting tomorrow.”
There were a few groans, but they seemed mostly to be teasing Finn rather than out of any actual annoyance.
“There are already four rifts active south of us. We’ll need to split into teams and take care of three at a time. We’ll be dividing the groups up in the morning, so make sure you all get a good night's rest. If you spend all night getting wasted in the town’s tavern, I’ll have you march with me and I’ll make sure you keep my pace.” He looked across everyone. “Now get some rest!”
Four rifts, that wasn’t a good sign. Michael wondered what it was that was causing so many to start cropping up at once. Unfortunately, since he had no idea what caused them in the first place he didn’t really have any solid guesses.
“Wizard did it. Don’t know how many times I have to tell you,” said Ollie.
Michael sighed. “Probably at least a few more.”