William chuckled at her sudden enthusiasm. “Yes, probably? I’m not sure if it means anything here, but I might be something called a Radiant Paladin. Is that a thing?”
Lidarein pursed her lips in approving amazement. “Wew. Never heard of radiant stuff, but to be born a paladin. That’s lucky.”
“Wow!” Ember clapped, her ears flapping. “Now we have a Ranger for sure. I can finally start my expedition.”
“Hold on. I haven’t agreed to anything yet. Anyhow, paladins are a thing over here? Cool. I wasn’t sure if the word was made up.”
“They are, though they are at least as rare a sight as a human or a dragon,” Lidarein said. “Although, we did see four of you in a row so…” She shrugged. “Poof goes my common sense.”
“Paladins are, hmm. How to put it.” Ember pressed a hand over her lips. “There are many who channel the power of the gods, but out of all the wielders of divine power paladins are the rarest. They’re said to be individuals whose fate has been moulded by the divine since before they were born. They walk the realms as heralds of a god will and have throughout history brought great changes, whether heroic or villainous. That’s amazing William! Who do the people of Planet Earth worship? I hope it’s not a selfish god.”
The disbelief drew a chuckle from him. “I can say for sure I wasn’t born with this, and I’m definitely neither Jesus nor a prophet. No way. Besides, I wanted to play rogue…”
He glanced at the white ring and the unfamiliar twin moons white against the azure sky. All his life William had been a Christian in name only. Now he was a chosen paladin of God? Yeah right. But, what if he was? The thought weirded him out more than it should’ve, considering he was currently chatting about magic with an elf and a faun in another world. It felt presumptuous of him to assume the big guy would care — sinful even.
“But, if I am someone’s paladin, I guess it has to be God’s, I think…”
“Just ‘God’? Not very creative.” Ember flipped open her little book as she began to frantically scribble notes. “What are God’s domains? What aspects does God represent? Does he have an avatar? Which Pantheons does it belong to?”
“Slow down Ember,” Lidarein scolded her. “Seems like it’s a revelation to Will too.”
“It’s fine. Well, God, I guess he’s an old bearded dude on a cloud. Honestly, I don’t think I should be giving you details of it.” William didn’t want to risk botching the details and offending the big guy if he was indeed real.
Ember nodded, tongue poking out as she wrote. “A secretive cult that does not wish to share their scripture.”
Let’s go with that for now.
“So, any chance either of you knows how a paladin goes about practising their powers? I have a vague idea of how this works, but I’d rather not throw people off the roofs accidentally.”
“Hah!” Lidarein squinted a playful glare at him. “Gloat while you can, holy boy. Next time I’ll be mopping the floor with you from the start. But no, I don’t know how divine magic works, Ember? Hey Ember?”
“Hm? Ah. How does it work?” The faun’s ears tilted in opposite directions as she held a ponderous expression. “Hum-hum, it’s been some time since my Deities and Demigods one-o-one. Divine magic, if I remember correctly, consists of rituals and prayers unique to each deity. It is said they are passed from cleric to cleric, or sometimes hidden within the faith’s sacred texts.”
“Fantastic.” William breathed in, raking fingers through his hair.
The old hag’s sneer would never end if she knew a day came when I regret quitting the Bible study. He shivered at the thought. Guess I’ll have to experiment. “Do you mind if I try some things here?”
Lidarein shook her head. “Not at all. Knock yourself out.”
After ten blessings, he did.
5
William sat upright as he woke up. A weird ass isopod sat on the ceiling, scurrying about as bugs do. Pale light of pre-dawn illuminated the sheets at his feet and patchwork walls of ancient stone and wood. The wind brought in a fresh whiff that stirred the warm herbal scents rising from a nearly extinguished incense stick.
He could not remember how he ended in bed. Yesterday’s events began to slowly untwine from the soup of dreams as William pulled on clothes resting at the foot of his bed. He took a chug of cool water from a pitcher. It tasted nice. He drank some more until nature called.
William wandered out of the room in search of a toilet, finding himself into the Ranger’s office lobby with a front desk, a lot of locked doors and cupboards, but no restrooms. He ended up going to the backyard and sprinkling the streets far below.
The morning felt dreamy. Above, the ring and moons reflected the crimson of sunrise, while stars still flickered bright in the dark side of the sky. All around him, the vast ruins of Iram still rested in the shadows of the mountains. Only the domes and spires of the few tallest were dyed by the sunrise. And far beyond the ruins, where the ancient city faded into horizon, shimmered something almost like faint starlight, but not quite as bright.
A loud yawn made him turn around. “You’re up,” Lidarein said, yawning again.
Her long black hair was a tumbling mess and her eyes barely open. A breezy white tunic draped her perfect handful sized breasts, its hem high enough for him to glimpse black leather shorts so tiny they might’ve been her underwear. The way they gripped her taut sporty rump made
