Chapter 4
The stares of the townsfolk cut right through me. I figured that walking in and announcing I was the God of Time would make them all laugh at me. The sorcerer hadn’t been all that impressed the first time he had summoned me. Then again, these people had just watched me annihilate an entire horde of vicious kobolds as easily as if I was taking a stroll through a quiet forest.
I was so glad they didn’t remember all the times I had been killed.
“Th-The God of Time?” Elrin stammered, and his drawn face was now completely drained of blood. “You’re the God of Time?”
If he fainted, I was going to have to figure out another way to spill the beans. These people would never let me stay if my first act as God was to make their leader pass out.
Or maybe that would just add to my awesomeness as a God. I didn’t really know what was going to happen, but if I didn’t like the results, I could just do it over.
And over. And over. Until I got what I wanted out of everything.
“Uhh, yeah, that’s me,” I said with a grin. He swayed like a tree in a hurricane, so I sprang forward and grabbed his elbow. “Look, why don’t you sit down and take a few breaths. I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything.”
“No, no, I’m… I can’t believe this is real.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Yeah, me, either,” I snickered under my breath so that no one could hear me.
A burly man with part of his eyebrow missing came forward with a log that had been stripped of its bark. He rested the makeshift stool on the ground and helped me lower Elrin to sit. Then the burly man gave me a small bow before stepping back into the crowd.
Oh shit, I wasn’t going to have people being all formal with me now, was I? Manners and niceties were one thing, but if people were going to start bowing and calling me “Great One” as I walked past them in the street, I was going to lose my mind.
“My name is Sebastian.” I turned and smiled at everyone, but then I realized that I might actually be covered in gore. I looked down, and saw that my work dress shirt just had a few angry red splotches, probably because I’d gotten so good at murdering these kobolds. “You don’t have to call me the God of Time or anything like that. I actually prefer to be called Bash.”
The townsfolk muttered amongst themselves again. It might have been a bit much asking them to call me by a nickname straight out of the gate. If some badass god came up to me and said the same thing, I probably would have given him the same look they were giving me. A few of them even shook their heads.
Maybe I should start this over? I considered it, but then I decided to just ride this life out for a few more minutes and see how it went.
“If that is what you wish, then that is what we shall do. Welcome, Sebastian.” Elrin was still looking like a man half-dead, but his handshake was as firm as it had been before. “Will somebody please fetch my daughter?”
“I’m here, Daddy,” came an immediate response.
The young woman that came dancing out of the crowd made me do a double-take. She wasn’t short, exactly, but her petite frame made her look like she was less than half my size. Her hair was a fiery shade of red, and it cascaded down her back in natural waves. The dress she wore was a sunny-yellow color and complimented her hair very well. She locked her stunning green eyes on mine and gave me a to-die-for smile that made the smattering of freckles on her face dance.
“Sebastian, God of Time, I would like you to meet my daughter, Elissa.” There was a stubborn frown on Elrin’s face as he regarded the girl. “Elissa, this is--”
“I know, Daddy,” Elissa interrupted, and she stepped forward and offered her hand. “I am Elissa Addington, daughter of Elrin Addington. It is a pleasure to meet you, Sebastian, God of Time.”
I grinned and fought back the urge to properly drink in the rest of her appearance. With her father standing right there, I probably couldn’t get away with it, so I just took the hand Elissa offered and shook it.
“The pleasure is all mine, Elissa,” I said.
The young woman arched one of her perfect eyebrows and glanced down at our joined hands before piercing me with a long look.
Oh shit, I guessed that people didn’t shake hands? Or maybe I was reading the situation wrong. It probably didn’t matter much, since I could just restart the whole thing.
Maybe I could get a bit risky then.
I carefully twisted her hand around so the back faced upward, brought the hand up to my lips, and then locked eyes with her as I placed a soft kiss to the back of it.
The giggle that earned me was as sweet as honey, and I felt no urge to retry this attempt.
“I saw you fighting out there,” Elissa cooed, and she slid her fingers along mine at an agonizing pace as she held my gaze. “I’ve never seen anything so incredible in my entire life. You easily slayed all of those beasts!”
“You shouldn’t have been here at all,” Elrin growled at her. “I told you to stay in the house.”
He was one of those fathers, and I was definitely glad I hadn’t checked Elissa out too thoroughly.
“I waited until the bell stopped ringing,” she replied with a shrug. Her father’s ire didn’t seem to faze her one bit. “I figured it was safe, and I wanted to make sure nothing happened to you.”
Whatever anger Elrin had felt up until that point drained from the man’s face, and he looked at his daughter with absolute adoration.
Elissa winked at me when she caught me staring. She totally had him wrapped around her finger.
Oh boy, I was in for it with this one.
“I still wish you had waited,” Elrin said as he reached up to brush Elissa’s cheek like she was a porcelain doll. “I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to you.”
Elissa rolled her eyes. This was clearly a conversation that happened all the time.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but I could really use a hot bath.” I gestured to my white button-up shirt that looked like a botched attempt at tie-dye.
An uneasy wave of laughter rolled through the crowd. They didn’t expect the God of Time to enjoy being covered in blood, did they? This world was even crazier than I had thought if so.
“Alright, let’s get back to work, everyone!” A short, plump woman cut through the crowd like Moses splitting the sea, and she clapped her hands with every other step. “Sebastian doesn’t need us all gawking at him like this! We have to clean up his handiwork and return order to the town.”
The crowd slowly dissipated, and anyone that grumbled for too long was practically chased away by the plump woman. She was so much shorter than most of the people that it was comical when the burly men rushed off with fear in their eyes. Only a few people were brave enough to linger, but they kept their distance from the mama bear.
“I am Torya Szandor,” the plump woman said as she stepped forward. She offered her hand in the “handshake” pose, so I knew she wasn’t expecting the royal treatment like Elissa. “I’m the innkeeper, and I would be honored to have you stay in one of my rooms.”
She could have told me she was the Queen of the World, and I wouldn’t have been surprised.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Torya--” I said.
“Nope! None of that ‘Miss’ nonsense! You are a god, after all! Just call me Torya, and we’ll get along just fine.” She crossed her arms as if daring me to contradict her.
I wasn’t gonna take the bait. “Torya, got it.”
She grinned and stepped back, and the burly man who had brought Elrin the stool took her place. He wore a shirt that either had the sleeves rolled up all the way or just didn’t have sleeves at all, but it was hard to tell. A long black apron covered him all the way down to his knees where a pair of very worn trousers took over. They were only visible for an inch or so before disappearing into a pair of heavy leather boots.
The burly man nearly broke my hand when we shook, and I did my best not to let any discomfort show on my face. His palm was slimy with sweat and soot, and he reeked of smoke and forged metal.
“Th’name’s Jaxtom, but you can call me Jax, God of Time.” His voice was deep and growly like two rocks being rubbed together. “Can I see your sword?”
There was no arguing with a man like Jax. I handed the blade over, and he ran his hand down the length of the steel. The blood didn’t seem to bother him, and he didn’t even wipe it off after he finished touching it. He then placed a finger where the hilt met the steel and tried to keep the sword balanced. It swayed slightly back and forth, and the man clicked his tongue.
“This is terrible,” he growled as he handed the sword back to me. “I’ll be gettin’ you a blade you can be proud of.”
“You’re a weapon-smith?” I asked. If I could get a sword like the woman’s, I would jump at the chance.
“Blacksmith,” he corrected. “Swords, shields, farm tools, horseshoes. You name it, I can make it.”
My heart soared at the opportunity that was thrown into my lap. Not only could I get a better sword than the terrible sixty-two-percent durability, I could deck myself out in a full suit of armor and a full-body shield that would make me even more of a badass.
I almost asked him if he would make a custom chestplate, but I held onto that thought for now. This wasn’t the time and place to try bartering for fancy gear.
But I added it to my growing mental list of things I wanted before I faced my next foe.
“C’mon now, Caelia, don’t be shy!” Torya dragged a diminutive woman to stand before me. “Go on, dearest, introduce yourself!”
The woman looked to be about my age, but she couldn’t look me in the eye for too long. Her brown hair was worn in a long braid, and when the sun hit it just right, there seemed to be streaks of blonde weaving through it. She had a much darker complexion than most of the other people here, and her cheeks turned even darker with what I assumed was a blush. The pale green dress she wore was modest compared to the other women, with a high-collared neck and long sleeves, even in the heat.
“H-Hello, Sebastian,” she stammered as she smiled at me. I smiled back, and she let out a little squeak. “I-I-It’s nice to meet you.”
I reached for her hand and kissed the back of it as I had with Elissa’s. Her eyes finally met mine, and her face turned even darker. “The pleasure is all mine, Caelia.”
Her lips quivered with some unsaid words as she stared at me for a moment. She then pulled her hand gracefully out from mine, and she ducked back behind Torya again.
She was fucking adorable.
My shirt jerked as someone tugged on it, and I turned my attention to my torn sleeve. A blonde woman in a very fashionable lavender dress was standing there with my arm up to her eye level. I thought she was inspecting my wound, but when her fingers tugged at the cuff on my wrist, I knew she was more interested in the actual shirt than the bloody scrape.
“Well, no wonder you got injured, Great One,” she said as she shook her head. Her dark eyes met mine, and she smirked. “This flimsy thing could be ripped to shreds by a toddler and a rock.”
“You don’t happen to have a toddler and a rock, do you?” I laughed.
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” she replied with a mischievous look in her eyes. “Doubt you’d want to find out, though.”
“Not really, no,” I answered.
She inspected the shirt and my trousers for a few more seconds before snapping her fingers at me. “Take it off and I’ll make you something befitting one of your title.”
I blinked at her. “Take it off? All of it?”
“Just the shirt for now,” she replied as she glanced in Caelia’s direction. “It’s hardly appropriate to have you walking around in your undergarments.”
“I don’t really mind,” I said with a shrug. Torya and the shirt-woman both chuckled as I carefully slipped out of the garment. I hissed as it dragged across the wound on my arm but handed it over without a fuss. “Thank you for this, Miss…”
“Bellona Uriel at your service, Great One.” She gave a very ladylike curtsey and then smirked up at me. “But not all of your services. I am happily married, I’ll have you know.”
I laughed along with nearly everyone in the crowd. She was certainly an attractive woman, and her forward personality was easy to get along with. Her hair was a golden-blonde color, and she had very pale skin that brought to mind the Snow White fairytale my mother used to read to me when I was little. If she had fallen under a sleeping spell, I totally would have given her true love’s kiss to wake her.
“How do we even know if this guy is who he says he is?” a loud voice cut across the laughter. We all turned toward a muscular dude with his arms crossed and a dark scowl aimed at me. “He could just be playing us for a bunch of idiots.”
“Oh, shut up, Stryker,” Jax growled as he rounded on the other man. “You saw him out there! He’s nothin’ short of a miracle, and if he says he’s the God o’ Time, I believe him!”
The others nodded in agreement which only seemed to make Stryker angrier than he already was. He didn’t have any sort of comeback and just spat on the ground before stomping off.
“Ehh, don’t mind Stryker, Sebastian,” Jax said as he laid a heavy hand on my shoulder.
“Someone must have peed in his ale,” Torya said, and then she shook her head. “Again.”
I choked on my laughter and did my best to play it off as a cough. From the smirks on Torya’s and Bellona’s faces, I did a poor job of it.
“Right!” Torya exclaimed with another loud clap of her hands. “Why don’t you get to measuring Sebastian’s shirt, Bellona, while I draw the Great One a nice hot bath. And Jax? Could you see if Dora is available to take a look at his cut?”
Bellona and the blacksmith nodded at their orders before heading off in opposite directions. Caelia muttered some kind of dismissal and took off after Bellona, but Caelia only made it a few steps before she glanced back at me, and I smiled and waved at her. She rewarded me with another adorably wide-eyed expression and a deep blush.
“All the girls are gonna be sweet on ya,” Torya snickered and shoved me further into the town. “The inn’s this way.”
“Sebastian!” Elrin called after us. He rose to his feet as I turned around, and Elissa grabbed his elbow to steady him. “I would like to invite you to dinner tonight.”
“Oh, yes! You must come!” Elissa’s vibrant eyes met mine, and she lowered her eyelids with a sultry smile. “You will come, won’t you?”
Was that a double-entendre I heard, or was I just hoping it was there?
“Uhh, yeah, sure, I’ll be there,” I blurted out. My brain was a puddle of goo from the pheromones Elissa was hurling my way. “Which house is yours?”
“I’ll send for you at the inn,” Elrin answered with a wave of his hand. “Come, Elissa. We have much to prepare.”
The young woman curled her fingers around her father’s arm and shot me another dazzling smile. “I can’t wait to see you again, Sebastian.”
That made two of us.
The town had more buildings than people, and as I walked through with Torya, I discovered why there were so few defenders protecting everyone against the kobolds. For every building that was bustling with activity, there were three that were either completely boarded up or damaged beyond repair. Near the western exit of the town, one of the homes was just a pile of charred rubble.
If the buildings told their sad story with their broken windows, it was nothing compared to the people. Nearly everyone we passed had the same haggard expression that Elrin had when I first stood before him. Their eyes would light up when they saw me, but the flickering hope was just moments away from being snuffed out entirely.
When Jax had called me a miracle, he wasn’t kidding.
“What happened here?” I asked Torya as we passed another dilapidated building. “Did the kobolds do this?”
“Some.” She spat the word like it was a vile taste in her mouth. “Them and worse started showing up about a month ago. We were caught unawares during the first attack and lost over a dozen good men.”
There was a haunted look in her eyes, and I had to wonder if she was reliving that first attack all over again. I couldn’t think of anything to say that might comfort her, and even if with my power of infinite reboots and all the time in the world, I don’t think I could have come up with anything that wouldn’t sound completely shallow.
“You have come at the best time, Great One,” she continued before I could come up with anything. She glanced at me out from the corner of her eye, and her lips quirked up and helped wash away the haunted look. “We needed a healthy dose of hope, and you’re a whole year’s supply worth.”
“That’s me,” I said as I scratched the back of my head. If I wasn’t careful, my ego was going to make my head explode. “I know I can’t change the past, but if I can keep anything else from happening, I will.”
Torya reached up and patted my cheek. “That’s all we could ever ask for. Thank you.”
The inn was less than a five-minute walk from where Elrin had gathered the townsfolk to greet me, but it felt like every step lasted a lifetime. Each destroyed building I saw placed a heaviness on my shoulders that only added to the weight of the two epic battles I had just fought. I had been summoned to this world to protect these people and others like them. If I was supposed to fix every town I came across and return them to their former glory, while also destroying every bad guy I came across, I was going to be making mistakes at every turn.
Good thing I could just rewrite my own history until I got it right.
“Here we are,” the brunette innkeeper announced as we reached her inn. She threw her arms out toward the building with pride on her face. “Home sweet home for the foreseeable future.”
The two-story building was easily one of the oldest buildings I had seen so far. The wood was darkened by weather and yet looked like it could have withstood a tornado trying to rip it from the ground. The inn was like a physical representation of its master. Both were a great comfort to those around them, and only the most extreme circumstances could shake them to their core.
Torya led me through the entryway and toward a set of stairs leading to the second floor. A doorway led off from the back of the main room to what I could only assume was the kitchen, and the scent of freshly baked bread was hanging in the room. There was another door just past the foot of the stairs, but it was locked, so I could only fantasize about what might lay beyond it. There wasn’t anybody at any of the tables scattered around the main room, probably because they were dragged out to clean up the bodies of the kobolds.
A twinge of guilt stabbed through my gut. I should have been out there helping to clean up after myself rather than relaxing in a nice hot bath, but then again, it seemed like these people needed someone to believe in, so I quickly overcame my negative feelings and grinned.
People don’t want a walking God to do his own laundry. They want him to kick ass, protect them, and have sex with all the hot women. I needed to give these people what they wanted.
My room was the first on the left after the landing. The furnishings were minimal with just a bed, a large tub at the rear, and a small desk with a chair. There was a trunk at the foot of the bed, probably for putting clothes or gear into, and a fire was already roaring in the small fireplace. The room smelled mostly of the smoke from the fire, but at least it didn’t smell like the last guy who must have slept here.
“We are one of the few inns with hot water plumbing,” Torya said as she turned the faucet knobs of the tub and tested the water. “It comes up from the spring the inn was built over. I’ll be right back with some clean linens for the bed and a change of clothes for you. My oldest boy was about your size, so his things might serve you well until Bellona is finished.”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile. I could only assume by her words that she had lost her son in a battle for the town, but I figured I’d eventually find out.
I crossed the room and opened the window just behind the large tub. The town was laid out before me in an organized pattern, and I could see the damaged buildings better from this height. They drew the eye like a bunch of boils on a man’s face, and I figured things must have been really bad if they didn’t even get the chance to fix the buildings up between the attacks.
Or maybe there was some other reason the townsfolk weren’t trying to fix the buildings up.
“Here you go, dear.” Torya sauntered into the room, placed the linens on the bed, and held the clothes out. “Hold them up against you so I can see. Yes, they should fit you just fine.”
The shirt was like something from the days of the Salem Witch Trials. It was off-white and had a deep V-neck that could be tied together with a pair of strings hanging from the collar. The sleeves were long and poofy, but at least there weren’t any frills at the cuffs. The pants weren’t all that different from the ones I was already wearing, although they were definitely a shorter cut than I was used to. A clean pair of long wool socks completed the main outfit, and I couldn’t wait to throw my blood-soaked socks into the fire.
Torya placed some towels onto the desk chair and got to work fitting the bed with the linens. While she worked, I tested the rapidly rising water for myself. The steam lifting from the surface was too strong a pull to ignore, and I didn’t care if Torya saw me naked or not.
I kicked off my shoes, peeled off my blood-soaked socks, and unbuckled my belt. I didn’t bother taking the weapons off as I would be wearing the same belt again later, and I quickly shimmied out of my trousers and underwear. I sat on the edge and submerged my feet with a deep sigh. I snatched up the bar of soap on the tub’s rim and started cleaning the blood from between my toes. The rich lather of the soap was like heaven, and the room quickly filled with its floral scent.
“Mmm, mmm, mmm! You are going to create quite the stir among the ladies of this town,” Torya said, and I turned to find her with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face. “I’d steer clear of the married ones if I were you. I doubt the men wouldn’t try to take on the God of Time, but I’m always the one who has to nurse their wounded pride.”
“I’ll do my best,” I laughed.
Torya left me to bathe, and I took my time enjoying every moment of it. After cleaning my feet, I slipped into the tub and threw my head back against the rim. My aching muscles all but sighed with relief as the heat soaked into them. Once I had rinsed off all the soap and cleaned the parts I had missed, I simply relaxed in the water and closed my eyes. I didn’t let myself actually sleep, but it was a difficult fight. It may have only been a few hours since I had fought and defeated Raijin and his cronies, but in linear time, I’d killed some Raijin and his fourteen henchmen, walked down a mountain, and then the twenty kobolds. That was some pretty epic shit, and the thousands of respawns made it feel like I hadn’t slept in many lifetimes.
I was probably going to sleep for a month when I finally threw myself onto that bed.
The water was cold by the time I dragged myself out of the tub. A little plug covered a little hole near the one end, and when I yanked it up, the water slowly drained out with a faint sucking sound as I dried myself off.
I had just pulled the new pants on when someone knocked on the door.
“Come on in,” I called out as I tied the waist closed.
A scrawny woman with skin even darker than Caelia’s trudged into the room. Her face looked even more severe because her hair was pulled back tight against her head. I figured this was a woman you didn’t want to mess with, even if she did look like a gust of wind would knock her over.
“I’m Theodora, the town Healer. Call me Dora.” The woman wasted no time as she crossed over to me and grabbed my injured arm. “I can’t use magic, I’m afraid, but I’m good with a poultice that will keep the infection out.”
There was healing magic in this world? I had to find a way to learn spells as fast as possible. But not yet. I needed to have a savepoint to return to in case I caused suspicion. The God of Time was probably expected to know all kinds of epic magic that could be used in the heat of battle. I could play off the injury for now if anyone badgered me about it.
“Hey, no worries,” I said with a half-shrug. “It doesn’t hurt or anything, but I don’t want to stain the new shirt Torya gave me.”
Dora gave a little snort, but made no comment as she inspected my injury. She twisted my arm back and forth to get a better view of it, and she muttered a few times, but I couldn’t hear what she said.
“At least I don’t have to sew you up,” she said after a few minutes of analyzing the wound. “I’m all outta herbs that would numb you up, and most people get all fussy when I poke them with needles and they can feel it.”
I smiled as she set to work mixing up a poultice. She was a little rough around the edges, but her heart was in the right place, and her lighthearted teasing set me at ease. The townsfolk obviously trusted her with their injuries, and she clearly knew exactly what she was doing, magic or not.
The poultice was ready in a jiffy. It was a sickly green color, but it gave off the pleasant scent of fresh herbs, and it had a cooling effect when she slathered in on the abrasion. I didn’t even try to suppress my sigh of relief as the itchiness went away.
“I’ll want to look at it again tomorrow, but it’s just a scrape,” Dora said as she covered the poultice with a bandage. “This stuff will work with your body to speed up the healing. You probably won’t need a second dose unless you go out and poke another beast with that sticker of yours.”
“I make no promises there,” I laughed. “Jax might not approve of me using such a poor blade, though.”
“Bah!” The healer grunted. “Anything he didn’t make himself, he considers a poor blade. If it gets the job done, who cares if it’s the right length or balance?”
“Thank you,” I said once the bandage was secured. I flexed my arm in a few different poses to make sure it didn’t pinch. It was perfect. “Would you teach me how to make that poultice if I asked?”
“If you asked,” she replied with a glimmer in her eyes. Her expression was blank so I wasn’t sure if she was being serious or not. Then she shoved her bony finger in my face and almost jabbed my nose with her long nail. “We are all happy you are here to protect us, so I expect you to come ‘round my shop as soon as you wake up tomorrow. No side stops, no delays. You got it? You may be a god, but if you got injured, you’ll be needing my help.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied as I put my hands up in surrender.
She let out a snort and left the room before I could say anything more.
Yup. I liked her.
Torya returned to check in on me and to assure herself that the clothes fit properly. She handed me a second set of clothes much like the first, just in case, before leaving me to do as I pleased.
The first thing I did was focus on creating a new savepoint. I was pretty happy with the dialogue earlier with the townspeople, the bath had been delightful, and conversing with Dora was entertaining, but the less I had to repeat this first day on the world, the better. The tingling sensation washed over me and filled me with a sense of peace. The kobolds were defeated, the town was in one piece, and unless a fire-breathing dragon descended from the mountain of the Great Catacombs, I wouldn’t have to worry about any more battles for the rest of the day.
The promise of safety bolstered my confidence and my stamina. It no longer mattered that I was mentally exhausted from my gruelling day. I had an entire town to explore and learn about, and then I would be eating a hot meal with a delightfully attractive young woman and the leader of the town I had just saved.
But that wasn’t until much later, I assumed. Our conversation had been about an hour ago, so I figured there was plenty of time for me to run around and meet the townspeople.
And if I was late, I could always reset back to my room and be a good little boy and wait for Elrin’s messenger.
I slipped the new shirt over my head but didn’t bother tying it shut as I crossed the room. I paused only long enough to grab my belt, and I fastened it around my waist as I descended the stairs. I gave Torya a little wave as I passed her in the main room and threw open the doors leading into town.
The warrior-woman who lent me her sword was leaning against the side of the building, and she jumped to attention when she spotted me.
“May I walk with you, O Great One?” she asked as she dipped her head politely.
She still looked just as fierce as she had when the kobolds first lined up outside of the town’s walls, with her iron-and-leather armor she wore like a second skin. She was without her helmet now, and her black hair was pulled back into a short ponytail. Her piercing blue eyes cut right through me, but there was something more to her expression that drew me in.
I was determined to figure this beautiful warrior woman out, and with my powers, I could make a thousand attempts.
“Of course,” I said as I gestured for her to follow me. “And you don’t have to call me that. I prefer Bash.”
“No,” she said firmly. She didn’t even glance my way when I looked at her. “You are the God of Time, the Great One who had been foretold to save this world. I cannot be so... familiar with you, even if you ask it of me.”
“What? But why?” I asked.
“Again, you are a god.” She was simply stating a fact, but she had no idea how far from the truth she really was. “I watched you take out the horde of kobolds like you were dancing to the beat of a drum that nobody else could hear. You knew where your enemies would strike, and you dodged attacks that came at you from all angles as if you already knew they would happen. That injury to your arm was not caused by a beast that got too close; you sustained it while handling a corpse as a weapon.”
I just stared at her for a long moment. Was that really what it looked like on the other side of things? I could hardly imagine it because I was always stuck going through it time and time again. But the truth was that everyone in this world would see me the way this woman did. I was someone who could predict the movements of my enemies and annihilate them all without breaking a sweat.
I really was a god to them.
Would I want to try to get close to someone like that? If this woman were the one who had taken down all of the kobolds, I’d have reckoned her out of my league. So I guess I saw her point.
Well, shit. There went my chances of getting to know her on a deeper level. Probably worth trying this again.
I took a deep breath and focused on my room at the inn. Her response felt like a door being slammed in my face, and I didn’t want her to keep me at arm’s length. I wanted to know why she was the only warrior left in the town and why she had that hard-to-read expression on her face. I didn’t want to go walking through the town with what felt like a royal escort.
Even if she was an extremely attractive one.
Chime.
I once again threw my shirt over my head, grabbed my belt, and waved to Torya as I bounded out of the inn. The dark-haired warrior woman was there, as expected, and her spine went rigid when I closed the doors of the inn.
“May I walk with you, O Great One?” she asked again as she dipped her head.
I really hated that title coming from her mouth, but I had to grin and bear it.
“Sure, I don’t mind,” I said as I gestured for her to walk before me. All I got for my chivalrous effort before was an arched eyebrow, so I shrugged and led the way. “I’m Sebastian, but you can keep calling me Great One, if you prefer.”
Her eyes widened briefly, but she recovered quickly and nodded as she lengthened her stride to match mine. “Thank you, I would. My name is Mahini.”
Mahini. It had a nice ring to it. The name was exotic with a touch of a melody, and it was almost impossible to say it without smiling.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mahini.” I got another polite bow for my effort. “I was really impressed when you showed up at the frontlines. Are you the only warrior the town has protecting it? I didn’t see anyone else by your side when the dust finally settled.”
The look on her face was enough to stop me dead in my tracks. Her piercing eyes were focused on something a thousand miles away, and whatever she saw was so much worse than whatever Torya had seen earlier. The haunted expression filled me with instant regret, and I knew I had fucked up once again.
“I am the only one who survived,” she whispered. “I should not be standing here right now, and there is no greater shame than that.”
“What do you mean? I’d be pretty happy to be alive if I were in your shoes.” I tilted my head, but I immediately realized I said the worst possible thing.
“How dare you!” she cried out as she leaped away from me. Her nostrils flared with her rage, and the tension in her neck spoke of a tight chord that had finally snapped. “It is an honor to die fighting for the people you love--the highest honor! To be the only one left behind, when you could have saved them, when you are the reason they went to their deaths…”
Her voice quivered, but not a single tear fell from her eyes. She looked more pissed off than truly sad, and when she finally looked at me once again, there was nothing but the deepest hatred waiting for me. Her hand fell to the hilt of her sword, but she didn’t draw. If she had, I don’t think I would have had the heart to fight back.
“You may be the God of Time, but you have no sense of honor,” she spat out.
Chime.
In such a short span of time, I had managed to first have an ocean spread between us, and then have Mahini almost draw her sword and run me through with it. The saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’ had never made more sense to me than in that moment.
I let out a sigh as I grabbed my shirt and my belt and then headed down the stairs. Now that I knew what kind of fresh horror was in Mahini’s past, I could avoid any kind of triggering topics. But how was I supposed to get to know her if I couldn’t really ask her about herself? There had to be some safe middle ground that we could stand on without creating an ocean or a galaxy between us.
“May I walk with you, O Great One?” Mahini’s nod would not have been out of place in a royal palace.
“I don’t really have a destination in mind,” I warned her. “Maybe you could suggest something?”
“Jaxtom’s shop is my favorite place to be,” she answered without hesitation. “But he is out helping collect the weapons from the kobold horde, so the forge will be cold.”
“You could just show me around,” I suggested. “I’ll be staying here for a while, and it would help to get my bearings.”
“As you wish,” she said with an obedient bow.
I followed her as she turned down the main street Torya had led me down an hour before. Most of the buildings along this route were boarded up or damaged and looked so lonely standing there. What had happened to the families that had once lived inside? Were people just up and leaving the town or had most of them been killed by various raids? Torya said the very first attack took them completely by surprise. Without any kind of warning, Mahini and her companions would have been easily overwhelmed with trying to defeat the raiders while also keeping everyone safe.
“Torya told me that this town has had trouble with attacks before today,” I said. I watched her expression for any big change, but although there were dark clouds brewing in her eyes, her jaw didn’t tighten and her nostrils didn’t flare.
So far, so good.
“Today’s attack is just the most recent in a long string of unwarranted raids,” she explained, and her shoulders drooped as her eyes fell on the next boarded-up house. “We have lost many good people in such a short amount of time. Nothing will ever change that.”
I knew she was thinking about the other warriors that had been killed recently, and I wondered if it was worth trying to approach the subject from a different angle so I could understand the specifics.
“Nothing can ever change the past,” I agreed, though I would have told her about my power if I thought it would bring her any comfort. It would probably have had the opposite effect. “All we can do now is look to the future and prevent any further loss of life.”
Mahini turned and looked at me with wide eyes, and she stopped in the middle of the street. I tilted my head and hoped I hadn’t just fucked up again.
“That is a very positive outlook,” she commented just barely above a whisper. “I wish I felt the same.”
“That sounds ominous,” I said.
The black-haired beauty let out a deep sigh that must have started somewhere deep in her soul. “I am the only remaining member of a group called the Golden Sword Mercenaries. Without them, I am nothing, I have no purpose or reason to live. I was going to my death when you appeared and defeated the horde.”
I already knew better than to suggest she was lucky to be alive because she sure as hell didn’t think of it that way.
“Why would you willingly go to your death?” I asked instead. “Can’t you find a new purpose?”
Mahini laughed for the first time and it sent chills up my spine. There was no humor in it, and she almost sounded like a woman on her deathbed. “We were joined together by more than words of request and acceptance, Great One. Ours was a bond of the deepest order, and if they are gone, then so is my honor.”
“But you can’t find another reason to live?”
“No.” Her blue eyes pierced through me. “My only purpose now is to die. I believed those kobolds would do the deed, but then you showed up. Do not misunderstand me. I am happy you arrived, destroyed them, and saved the village, but now… I must take the matter into my own hands.”
This woman was drowning in her pain and was too far gone to reach her hand above the raging water and seek the help she deserved. Her life began and ended with her Golden Sword Mercenaries, and since they were dead, she felt she had to be as well.
I could understand the whole honor-bound thing, and her loyalty to these people was really admirable. The proper thing to do was to let her follow them into the next life, but I couldn’t agree with that sentiment. I had seen her fight before I mastered the art of slaughtering the kobolds. She was beautiful, she was honorable, she was… amazing. Her skills would be incredibly useful to me and the town, and if she couldn’t see that, then I was going to have to find a way to open her eyes.
But to do that, I would have to figure out a way to be just as important if not more so than the Golden Sword Mercenaries. I needed to become a person that she could bind herself to in the same fashion so that she could get back her honor and her purpose. Otherwise, her life was literally at stake.
Challenge accepted. I was going to save this graceful warrior woman from her own sense of honor, and I was going to make her a part of my life in this strange new world.
Chime.
“This is gonna be fun,” I laughed as I grabbed my shirt and belt, and headed out of the inn. I liked the idea of the beautiful woman joining me on my journey of being a badass god, but I didn’t want her to think that it was some kind of ultimate sacrifice she had to make or a choice between me and the Golden Sword Mercenaries.
So what if I convinced her it wasn’t a choice at all? If I could figure out a way to learn everything about her without her blowing up at me, I could just say all the right things, and she would follow me without a second thought because I knew everything about her.
After all, wasn’t I supposed to be a god?
And what did it matter if she did get mad at me for asking too personal of questions? I could just try again and again and just say something different each time.
I couldn’t lose. The God of Time was supposed to just know everything “somehow,” and it would only add to how much of a badass I was.
Once I came to that conclusion, I had no more worries when it came to the beautiful warrior woman. I could say whatever I wanted to, and even if she got angry, I could just chime and do it over again, and she would never remember how pissed off she had just been.
And it was so much better than the innumerable respawns before because I was spending all of my time getting to know the attractive swordswoman. I got to delight in her wide-eyed expression every time I dropped a fact I had learned in a previous attempt. Even her rage was appreciated since I learned that my newfound information wasn’t quite enough to get her to fall to my charms. I even learned how to brush off the questions about why I knew everything.
I was a god, so why wouldn’t I know all of these things?
I lost count of how many attempts it actually took me, but I was probably an expert in all things Mahini by the time I was ready to continue business as usual.
Mahini’s hometown was a village at the edge of the Kotar desert where women were more of the population than men, and life was difficult but manageable. She trained to fight at a young age, long before she became a mercenary, and she was especially deadly with a bow. The beautiful desert goddess would still be in her little village if some jackass hadn’t shown up and threatened her entire family. She could have easily killed him, but it was treason for a woman to kill a man in her culture. Instead of submitting to him, she faked her own death and left in the middle of night.
If I ever met the asshole who put her through that pain, I would do whatever I could to help Mahini destroy him.
The black-haired woman became a mercenary at the same age I was learning how to drive a car and joined a small mercenary group named “The Golden Swords.” The group had a very intense bonding ritual called the Pledge of the Phoenix that tied them together through this life and all others to come. The Pledge demanded her loyalty, her love, and her sacrifice to the men and women she committed herself to. It was kind of like a marriage ritual, and it was this that caused Mahini all of her pain, since the group had come here to defend the town from the goblin nest in the caves, and had gotten overwhelmed by the hundreds of monsters living there and killed a week ago.
Those brave men and women she was previously joined with still held a piece of her soul, and without them beside her, she was nothing more than a shell of a person.
There was nothing for her to live for without that purpose.
So, I was just going to have to give her one.
I found out pretty much everything about the woman in the hundreds, or maybe thousands of short conversations I had with her.
Her favorite color was the orange of the sunset. She liked beer when it had a bit of hops in it, her favorite food was smoked pheasant with pickled dates, she didn’t know how to dance, but she loved music from the reed pipes that her people used to play.
Mahini was also beyond clever. I sometimes started our conversations with a riddle I knew from my world, and she was always able to guess the correct answer within a few minutes. She solved math problems easily when I asked her about them, and she easily saw through any outrageous tale I’d try to spin.
I’d also tried a few naughty things that led her to kill me right afterward: She was ticklish on her stomach and armpits, her sweet mouth tasted like cherries when I kissed her lips, her ass was incredibly tight, and despite the fact that her mercenary band was made of both men and women, she was still a virgin because she’d never found a man she respected enough to take as a lover.
Chime.
“May I walk with you, O Great One?” Mahini’s melodic voice and piercing blue eyes gave away none of the pain I now knew she was feeling.
I would never get over just how amazing this woman was, and I realized that this was it. I was finally going to save her life and make her mine.
As long as my plan came together, and if it didn’t, I’d just try it again.
I’d never lose Mahini.
“Of course,” I said with a small nod. “I could use another perspective on the best way to fix up the town.”
She fell into step beside me, and she looked a little confused. “Fix the town? But Great One, there is nothing left for any of us here.”
“That’s not true,” I argued. “You may have lost your companions, and Torya may have lost her son, but you have all made a life here. There is absolutely no reason to just roll over and let the town be taken from you.”
“H-How did you--” Mahini’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened.
I’d seen her do that a hundred times, and it still made me happy. I’d memorized her every small movement by now, and I was in love with everything about the stoic warrior woman.
“I’m a god,” I said with a shrug. “Of course I know everything.”
The desert beauty was silent for a few steps as she just stared at me.
“I think the first thing we need to do is start training the men. We may not have any proper fighters, but if you pass on some of the skills you learned in your village in the Kotar desert and with your Golden Sword Mercenaries.” I had to bite my cheek to keep from grinning at the stunned look on her pretty face. “And if we get some proper walls around the place, there won’t be a single beastie that can get in without our say so.”
“That’s what--How is this--I don’t understand…” Mahini shook her head, and I half expected her to start pinching herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “You think we should stay?”
“I don’t see why you should leave.” I shrugged as we passed by a boarded-up house. “The town has been here for years and could be here for many more to come if it is made properly defensible.”
“Where does all this optimism come from?” she asked and shook her head again.
“I would call it confidence, actually,” I said with a grin. “I can’t fail at any task I put my mind to, especially when I have a beautiful woman like you at my side.”
Some of the surprise faded from her face as her eyes narrowed. “What are you trying to say, Great One?”
I stopped in the middle of the street and faced her with my arms crossed. I had reached this point several times already, so I knew the speech by heart.
“You’re going to join me,” I said. “You lost yourself when your soulbound companions were killed by the goblins in the caves of the mountain, and you have been searching for a new purpose. I am here to give it to you. My journey to save this world will be a long one, and I will need strong women like yourself if I am to succeed. Do you know the Pledge of the Phoenix?”
Mahini’s eyes widened once more. “What? I--How do you know it? It is sacred to the Golden Sword Mer--”
“I am a god.” I interrupted her. “Like the phoenixes in the legend, we must pledge ourselves to one another. You will become mine, body and soul, and I shall be yours. Our blood shall be thicker than the water seeking to destroy this land, and we will honor each other in life and death. You see, Mahini, your life didn’t end when your Golden Sword Mercenary family was slaughtered in the caves. No. It began again when I came to this world, just like the phoenix rising from the ashes. It is time. Your soul is made of iron, gold, and spirit. You will take another master now, and we will create a new family together.”
While the black-haired beauty stared at me slack-jawed, but then I held my hand out and gestured for her to step forward.
“Lay your sword at my feet, Mahini, and give me the dagger hidden in your boot.” I smiled when her eyes darted to her right foot. “We will perform the ritual here in the street to solidify our new bond, my love.”
It had taken a few attempts to remember the entire legend she had taught me and to figure out which phrases I needed to use to convince her to join with me. I actually needed to order her around, and not give her a choice in the matter, but it wasn’t a choice she wanted in the end. A sense of purpose was more important to her than anything else, and giving her the chance to fulfill that need was all the “choice” she needed.
She was looking for a new god to worship, and I had arrived just in time.
“I would be honored to bond with you, O Great One.” The black-haired warrior woman drew her dagger from her boot, handed it to me, laid her sword at my feet, and knelt with her head bowed.
“Excellent.” I grinned and tightened my grip on her dagger. It was much smaller than my own and was pretty much just a sharp bit of iron attached to a short leather grip. “We will bind ourselves to one another with blood. You will be mine, forever. Until the ashes spread us across the land, and we are reborn in different forms, but with the same soul.”
“You… you… know the words?” Mahini looked up at me in awe as I drew the blade across my right palm.
“Of course,” I said as I flipped the dagger in my hand and offered her the handle
She rose to her feet as I gestured, and when I handed her the dagger, she sliced into her left palm. She then grasped my bleeding hand in hers and twined our fingers to make the moment more intimate. Her skin felt like smooth leather against mine, a testament to how many battles she had seen and how seriously she took her job as defender of this town.
“Blood will always run thicker than water, and from this moment forth, your blood is mine,” I said.
“Blood will always run thicker than water, and from this moment forth, your blood is mine,” she parroted right back in a voice barely above a whisper, and then she began to blink back tears.
Back in my world, the CDC would have had a heart attack for the unhygienic display of our bloody hands pressed together, but here it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. We stood there for a long time just staring into each other’s eyes with our fingers clasped. Mahini’s eyes seemed to sparkle like polished sapphire, and they easily drew me into their depths.
I took a step toward the mercenary, and when she didn’t immediately back away, I took another. Her eyes swam mostly with confusion, but there was a large dose of desire in them as well. She glanced from my eyes down to my lips and back, and her own lips parted ever so slightly in invitation.
“You belong to me now, Mahini,” I whispered. “You will serve me for eternity. Now you have a purpose. My purpose.”
“Yes, O Great One,” she gasped as her eyes fixed on to my mouth. “We will be together. Forever.”
And then our lips finally touched, and the beautiful warrior woman moaned into my mouth as she kissed me passionately.