Chapter 4: Interlude: Nightmares

Celestine Lucculus dreams.

They come to her at any time of the day or night in the form of strikingly realistic visions almost from childhood. When it first happened, the young priestess of the supreme goddess of light was frightened and turned to the mentors to help her figure out what was happening, but it was not possible to immediately understand the nature of the visions. It was difficult for the girl to remember and somehow interpret what she could see, so she had no choice but to wait.

This has borne fruit: over time, vague and blurry images have acquired clear outlines. And when it became clear that they were coming true, a wave of madness arose among the priesthood. Correlating the ability to see the future with Celestine's gentle and kind nature, as well as her amazing abilities in healing magic, they came to the conclusion that she is the reincarnation of the goddess of life in the mortal world. Stunned by this development of events, the young maiden began to be seriously trained so that when she matured, she could take on the responsibility of taking the post of high priestess and, along with the royal family, the ruler of free cities.

At first it was scary. Celestine simply did not believe that she could be anything more than a simple elf, but gradually she accepted her future role, surrendering under the pressure of numerous mentors. Instead of fears, she was even inspired: after all, her dream was to sincerely help those in need, and so she will be able to do in the best way what her heart is for.

Everything turned out to be completely different.

As the years passed, Celestine graduated and became a high priestess. The common people loved her for her gentle disposition and infinite kindness, but the aristocracy… She did not meet understanding among them. Plunging into politics, virgo saw another, black side of life, where the rotten and deceitful essence of the upper strata of society is hidden behind friendly smiles and sweet speeches. Celestine tried to fight it, but there was no way to change something radically. There was no one to help her. Because of the threat of the invasion of monsters, even the royal family, with whom she was friendly, had their hands tied, and other powers that be for the most part did not want to share this power. But she did her best to improve the lives of ordinary residents of her country. She even managed to achieve the abolition of slavery, although it was extremely difficult to implement.

Perhaps this step was the beginning of the end. Having seen the end result with the help of her gift, Celestine did not see the consequences that would follow, namely, the conspiracy and the murder of the royal family. Everything was arranged like an accident, but it was clear that everything was really wrong. Only, there were no traces left to find the culprits, and even the gift was powerless here, because the visions did not depend on the desires of Celestine herself. Only the daughter of the rulers remained alive — a girl named Alicia, over whom the high priestess had to take custody, as well as full power over the country until she grew up.

The years went on. The Order of the Seven Sisters was born in response to the growing threat from the wastelands. Seven noble women on whom Celestine could rely in everything. They became a shield that covered the lands of the Free Cities from the constant raids of monsters, but this was not enough to win. A full-fledged army was needed, which did not exist. The aristocracy had personal squads, but no one wanted to put them under the same banner, and the character of the high priestess was too soft to insist, and it's not a fact that it would have turned out, even if it had been tough enough — the lords who had disbanded after the death of the king did not recognize Celestine and did not take her seriously, obeying only on in words, but in fact, turning illegal affairs behind her back, despite the numerous laws that she has introduced. So, unable to solve everything on her own, Celestine had to create her own army, with the help of which she hoped to solve the external problem, and then deal with the internal one and rein in the nobles. But she did not want to ruin the lives of the common people, so she decided to resort to the help of mercenaries, especially since Maya, one of the members of her order, was just a native of the mercenary detachment "Black Dog" and was friendly with its leader, who once saved her life, and the vision that came the day before showed the complete success of this undertaking.

Celestine spent all the available money she had on hiring a Black Dog and several other smaller detachments. The resulting strength inspired: more than 6 thousand experienced warriors who had passed more than one battle. After seeing them off on a hike, she already began to think through options for how she could put things in order at home after everything was over, but the happiness was short-lived: the old lesson about the consequences she never learned, and this time, foresight showed exactly what they would be…

Fall.

Mercenaries, instead of fighting monsters, will make an alliance with them and return not as heroes, but as invaders. In the smallest detail, Celestine saw the bullying that she, her order, and all the other women inhabiting the free cities would be subjected to. Each vision was different from the previous one, there could be different places, actors, and many other factors, but the content and the end were the same. And then despair overtook her. With her own hands, she condemned what she swore to protect to a fate much worse than death, and nothing can be fixed. She could only accept it. She wanted to kill herself, run away, or in some other way hide from the approaching horror. But, remembering how people will suffer, that they trusted her… she just couldn't... couldn't leave them. If it was destined to end like this, she would face it with them, accept punishment for her carelessness and at least a little, but ease the pain that they were going to experience. After all, who else can do it besides her?

***

Celestine was in her chambers when another manifestation of her gift happened, which in one unfortunate moment turned into a curse. The painfully familiar picture of burning houses and dead bodies appeared before her eyes . Realistic enough that the air heated by the flame was felt by the skin, a cacophony of sounds burst into the ears, and the smell of burning mixed with blood hit the nose. The woman did not even wince, maintaining the detached state in which she was in the real world. If anyone here could see her, they would be amazed at the blank expression on her face, but for the priestess herself, this is nothing unusual. She had already seen all this many times and this one was no exception... or was it?

Celestine didn't realize something was wrong right away. At first glance, everything was the same: the devastated city, the agony of the unfortunate victims and the triumph of the invaders, but something made her look closely at the surrounding events, some inner feeling that is difficult to describe in words moved her, forcing her to pay attention. And Celestine followed that call.

Screams: usually she heard the cries and pleas of the rаpеd women and the agony of the murdered men accompanying the vision from beginning to end, but this time, after listening, the elf did not hear the first at all, and the second was accompanied by the ringing of weapons and swearing, as if a battle was going on. It took her a while to finally make sure of this due to the fact that the place in which she found herself was empty without a single living soul and the sounds of the battle were heard from somewhere from the side at a sufficiently large distance. But it was the sounds of battle. The second discrepancy was the bodies: they were only armed men in armor. And monsters. When Celestine came across the huge carcass of an ogre without half a skull, she was scared and jumped aside — this creature was so creepy, even dead. But its dead state really struck the priestess, because she had never seen killed monsters in past visions. And the destruction was much less, so somewhere there really will be those who will be able to fight.

"Is it ... is it really still possible to fix it?" — She whispered, overcome with excitement and timid hope.

For a moment, the elf's gaze was hidden by darkness, suddenly replaced by another place: this time it was a dead end in some alley, along which a man was running towards Celestine. His appearance suggested that he was a mercenary, but he only had a battered leather armor from his equipment. There were no weapons, and a mask of horror froze on his face. The man was breathing loudly and violently and did not look at his feet at all, which is why he stumbled, driving his face on the ground.

The feeling that had visited Celestine recently screamed that something extremely important was about to happen, and, echoing it, another person entered the impasse. He looked strange: the girl had never seen such an unusual cut of clothes anywhere, on top of which sits the same strange armor, as if made up of many small segments connected together. Celestina was frankly poorly versed in the military and weapons business, but she could say with confidence that there was no such armor anywhere. The second oddity was the object in his hand, resembling a curved metal bar with a finger ring and a hole at one end. And the eyes. Glowing in a soft blue color, with segments floating around the pupil. Celestina saw vaguely similar ones in mechanical watches.

He walked slowly towards the fallen man. Not a single muscle moved on his face, maintaining a cold expression. There was a threat from him a kilometer away and the priestess involuntarily took two steps back, but she could not stop looking. Her instincts demanded to run and hide, but the force that brought her here demanded to stay close.

[It's him! He will change everything!] — The girl realized, while the stranger was slowly moving towards his victim.

"No!" — The fugitive exclaimed, turning and seeing the pursuer and, without getting up, crawled backwards until he hit a dead end — "Don't!"

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"Don't?" — The stranger asked, hardly changing his face in any way. only a slightly raised eyebrow indicated the presence of at least some emotions. Both Celestine and the cornered man shivered at the sound of that voice. — You came here to kill, so why are you surprised that that you can be killed in return?

"No, no! I... I give up!" — The mercenary begged for mercy, kneeling from his back and stretching out his arms in a defensive gesture. — "Don't kill me! Please!"

He continued to beg while death in human form was approaching him.

When he reached the mercenary, the stranger stopped at arm's length from him and silence reigned for a few seconds. With his head cocked to one side, he looked at the man who was bending over him and shaking with fear, as if deciding something for himself. Taking advantage of this pause, Celestine tried to remember every detail that would allow her to recognize this man, because she already realized that her future fate was now connected with him. The object in his hand was not a solid piece of metal, as it seemed to her at first, but a mechanism consisting of several parts.

[What is it?] the elf asked herself. — [F weapons?]

As if hearing her, the hand holding the mechanism moves, and its slice turns out to be in front of the mercenary's head.

"Welcome to Feoh" — The words sounded dryly, followed by a deafeningly loud bang and a bright flash.

***

"What?!" — Celestine jumped up from the Bed, emerging from her dreams into reality.

Involuntarily twitching upon awakening, the hand swept away a vase with a flower standing next to her on the bedside table to the floor. The container could not withstand the collision and collapsed. At the sound, two guards immediately appeared with weapons at the ready. A man and a woman.

"My goddess, are you okay?!" — The guard girl asked, looking around for a threat.

"Yes, everything is fine. Just a bad dream." — Celestine replied, slowly coming to her senses. — "You can go."

"Yes, my goddess". — The guard replied, as did her partner, sheathing her sword. — "Should we call the maid?"

"Yes, please." — The elf nodded and the guards, bowing, went out the door.

[Welcome to Feoh...] — The priestess remembered the last words uttered by the stranger. Nothing happened for a moment, but it was followed by a loud click right in the woman's head.

[Feo! Surely, he is there now, or he will be there soon! The gift never lies, which means it's for sure!] — The decision was made instantly. — "I need to meet him."

"Wait!" — She called out to the guard who had not yet managed to close the door, forcing her to stop. — "Invite Maya to me."

"It will be executed." — The girl bowed once more and closed the door to the chambers.

If there is at least one chance, Celestine has no right to loose it.

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