Chapter 24: Side Chapter 3

In a familiar village nestled atop the mountains, a certain woman walked through the narrow streets. 

She calmly observed the bustling activity of the local clanswomen as they gossiped or haggled for various goods in the small market.  Everyone relieved that the recent troubles in the village had passed so quickly and that life was seemingly going back to normal.

The woman maintained a stoic face as she passed through, though internally she sneered at the whole lot of her kinswomen.  She felt a sense of betrayal at how quickly they had abandoned their previous chieftain in favor of a collaborator and profiteer of the instigator of the chaos that resulted in the death of their chieftain.  Yes, Makuri wasn’t the sharpest leader in existence, but that didn’t change the fact that she was the just and rightful chieftain of the clan.

Well, if they chose to play the blind, ignorant fools, then I can play along… for now.

‘Sardura, you’ll never be worthy of being our chieftain, I’ll punish you and your little toy you incited against Makuri.’  The priestess of Haous swore to herself indignantly.

The priestess recalled how Makuri was cut down by that ungrateful foreigner, Louise Yuri.  The memory of Yuri’s knife plunging into Makuri replaying over and over, increasing in cruelty and horror each time. 

“Are you alright?”  A voice pulled the priestess out her thoughts.  Turning towards the source of the voice was none other than one of girls she was just thinking of, Sardura. 

“…I’m fine.”  The priestess answered neutrally.

“Oh, good.  I was worried that you might still be upset about what happened to the shrine.”  Sardura replied with relief showing on her face.  She like everyone else in the village didn’t know of the true nature of their relationship so they mistook the priestess’s recent emotional state as a result of what happened to the shrine and not Makuri’s death.  “Do you need any assistance with purifying the shrine?” 

“No.  I wish to complete the necessary rites alone.”  The priestess stated firmly, then turned and walked off.

She left the new chieftain behind and moved at a brisk pace down the alley.  Her immediate goal was getting out of the village.  Reaching the edge, she didn’t stop, instead she made for a path that ascended upwards into the mountain tops.  The priestess travelled through the rugged mountainous trails for some time as she made for a particular location.

Eventually taking a steep flight of stone steps she hiked to the summit of one of mountain peaks. 

Reaching the top, she was greeted with the sight of a crude looking rock alter.  Chiseled from a single slab of stone, this alter had weathered eons as it stood at on this summit exposed to the sky.  A number of rectangular standing stones formed a circle around the alter, creating a boundary of sorts.  With fierce, howling winds whipping through the whole area, there was a sense of the raw, wild majesty to this place.

This was another shrine to Haous, a far older more archaic holy site for the faithful of the Sky Goddess, with which to practice their most ancient and sacred rites.  Exposed to the endless sky as a proper shrine of Haous should, this made it easier to draw the attention of the goddess.  Not a place for cheap, meaningless platitudes, but the site where real divine power graced this mortal world.

Approaching the alter the priestess pulled out several small items from her dress.  The first of which was a small bronze mirror that gave off a mystic aura.  The second item was a small clay jar filled with alcohol.  She placed the mirror and pottery onto the alter then loosened the strings that tied around her dress.  Slipping the fabric on her shoulders aside, her clothes fell off and leaving her bare flesh exposed to the biting wind. 

Making sure that her own nude image was reflected in the mirror, she began to sing a hymn.  The priestess’s high-pitched voice seemed to drown out the billowing wind in defiance of all commonsense as she swayed her body back and forth.  Moving side to side with arms raised over her head in order to entice the goddess’s interest, while the alcohol was an offering.

Honestly the offerings she was making towards her mistress at this time was woefully insufficient.  A proper set of offerings would include a freshly slain lamb, fruit, cereals, fine cloth and far larger jugs of alcohol than what the priestess had just produced.  But there was no time to make the preparations and she merely wished to attract the deity’s attention.

It only took a few minutes before her pleading was answered, the mirror grew clouded.  The small clay container vanished from atop the alter.  And the priestess’s reflection faded to then slowly be replaced by the divine presence of Haous.

The imagine that was shown through the mirror was that of a tall, busty girl with long, wild looking blonde hair that had blue accents at the tips.  She had deep blue eyes that went well with her sapphire blue eye shadow and lipstick.  The goddess wore no clothing or accessories other than a pair of earrings, not that she needed any, if anything clothing would have diminished the splendor of her beauty, with her hourglass figure and pure, unblemished skin radiating an enchanting aura.  Though none of this could hide the mildly bored expression that she had on her face.

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“Hmm, yes?”  A quick, tert response was all that the goddess said to her supplicant.

The priestess immediately bowed to her goddess.  “Oh Great Mistress over the Ever-present Skies, this humble servant seeks to relay the unfortunate news that one of your sacred shrines has been defiled.”

Haous merely tilted her head momentarily, her gaze lowering down to see the priestess’s bare flesh.  “…I see.  And so, what happened?”

“One of your faithful was viciously murdered by an interloper who wormed her way into my clan’s village.  She despoiled your sanctum with the blood of our chieftain, your devoted servant, then fled from the consequences of her sins.” 

“…hmm.”  The priestess noticed where her goddess’s eyes where wandering to and so parted her legs while having her hand linger on her thigh in order to give Haous a better view. 

“I beseech you, my divine mistress, to punish this defiler of your holy shrines.” 

“And who is this that defiled my shrine?”  Haous asked, her head resting on her hand.

“She was a human girl who went by the name of Yuri.  Umm, dark haired… she is of unknown origin, and I don’t know where she fled towards.”  The priestess desperately described Yuri as best as she could, she could tell that Haous’s interest was waning, so she propped an arm underneath her breasts in order to push them upwards.

“Anything else about this defiler?”

“Umm, she… she showed up naked, tried to seduce girls and, uh, could command beasts.”  The priestess desperately recalled every scrap of information she could remember.

“What!?”  Haous shot up in surprise upon hearing the last part.

“Yes, she was able to command a lion that had attacked our flocks to leave.  Many of the clan’s elders had initially believed that she was some sort of divine gift, though this been abandoned after her actions in my mistress’s sanctum.”  The priestess continued eagerly, now pleased that her goddess’s interest had been piqued.

“How?  How did she command the beast?”  Haous drew closer from within the mirror, her eyes snapping directly into the priestess’s own eyes.

“From what I heard… she roared at it.” 

Haous looked away in thought, her slender fingers rubbing her chin in contemplation.

“Hmm, this girl… she dominated a beast by acting like a primal beast… did moth… no, of course she did, she’s been sent plenty already.”  She turned towards something out of sight, mumbling to herself.  “In that case… what do I have in this region… not much, scattered mountain clans, tribes of steppe nomads… hmm.  The hermits could be helpful… Ooh!  An order of shamans!  Primordial Maidens!?  When did those girls catch some of them?  And those island bound sorceresses would be quite the resource.  Okay, I’ll order any available Apostles to converge on this continent, I’ll then encourage those nomads to start organizing…

“Yes, yes, and once this girl has been caught, I can build up my cult’s influence throughout this continent.  Perfect, I’ll be increasing the number of assets al in one swift set of maneuvers.  This means I’ll need new temples to better interact with the new strongholds, don’t want any subversions…”

The priestess watched dumbfounded as her mistress formulated plans with an ecstatic look on her face.

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