Balm in Gilead Chapter 13 (Patreon)

This is last week's chapter, because I didn't know that November had five Mondays, so I wasn't ready.

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Balm in Gilead Chapter 13

I didn’t expect to wake up.

But then, that was nothing new.

I sat up gasping for air, my hand flying to my chest.

I felt my fingers run over healing skin, seeking out wounds that had been there so recently that I could still feel the blades cutting into me.

Then I looked down, at the soft glow suffusing me, as blood seemed to run up off the floor and back into my body. I looked up to see Lili crouched over me, an empty potion held in her hand.

The dagger had vanished back into the folds of her sleeve.

I gave a soft chuckle. “And where did you get a rejuvenation potion?”

Lili gave a shrug, looking off to the side. “Aiz gave it to Lili, after I told her about my bag.”

I laughed again, half slumping back to the rubble as the miracle potion continued to do its work on my body. “That sounds just like her.” The bottle in Lili’s hands, the one she’d just poured down my throat, was worth millions of vallis.

Miach, a god and friend of Hestia, had bankrupted his familia to buy a prosthetic arm instead of the ingredients to brew such a potion himself, even though he was a god of medicine.

And she just threw it away. On me. “I guess I owe you again, huh?”

Lili looked down, worrying at her lip.

I raised an eyebrow.

After a moment, she shook her head. “No. No, Miss Taylor doesn’t owe Lili a single valli.”

“Oh?”

She met my gaze, determination settling over her like a shroud. “Talk is cheap. But actions are worth very much.” She nodded once. “You saved Lili’s life. Now Lili saved yours. We’re even.”

I sighed, pushing myself to my feet. “Finally made your choice then?”

Lili shrugged. “Lili thought about cutting off your head and selling it to her Familia.” The girl admitted it with the same blasé tone she had about the weather. “But Lili feels like this is a better investment.”

I laughed again. Reaching out, I ruffled her hair with my prosthetic, metal fingers combing through her chestnut colored locks. Lili blinked, looking up at me in surprise. “There’s the Lili I know.” I smirked. “What happened to me not owing you anything?”

Lili huffed, crossing her arms. “Lili doesn’t know what you are implying.”

I nodded again, stretching my arms over my head. I felt good, better even than I’d felt before fighting the entire theatre full of Soma familia. As if I’d just had a good night’s sleep and a long bath in the space of a few moments.

Like most things sold in Orario, that potion was worth every penny.

Now, it was time to make good on that ‘investment.’

I started walking, Lili falling in step beside me. Idly, I kicked up a long hafted weapon from the ground, catching it in the air. I hummed, spinning it once, before settling it over my shoulder.

“Is that a war hammer?” Lili asked.

I glanced over at her. “It doesn’t look much like a hammer.” Really, it looked like an upscaled version of my own pick. It also looked like one of the more expensive weapons here, which would probably make it good for what I intended.

A statement.

“That’s what warhammers look like.” Lili nodded. “Lili thinks that type is called a raven’s beak.

“Well, if you say so.” Not sure how a beak was supposed to be a hammer. But there were more important matters to attend to.

I turned, heading down a street in the opposite direction as my church. Lili tensed, but she followed after me all the same. “Where are you going?”

I smiled. “Exactly where it looks like.” I looked over at her as we slowly made our way to more populated streets, towards the various houses and mansions that housed the vast majority of Familias in Orario.

Or, at least, it housed those that were not rich enough to buy a palatial estate wherever they damn well pleased.

“You don’t have to come.”

“They attacked you out of the dungeon. Lili will see this through to the end.”

I huffed. Where did I keep finding these midgets with more guts than the entire Protectorate? “Thanks.”

“Talk is cheap.”

I nodded, coming to a stop in front of an unassuming manor house. “Action is everything.”

I flipped the hammer into my grip, pulling back from the massive oak door. Then I grinned. “Let’s say we put that into practice.”

I swung with all of my strength, and the spike on my raven’s beak pierced the door and shattered the wood like matchsticks, sending it scattering over the dusty floor within. I stepped back into the courtyard as shouts rose from the interior of the building.

Across the street, I saw other adventurers coming out of their own houses, looking for the source of the commotion. I planted the haft of my new war hammer on the ground, and waited.

A few moments later, a grey haired man stepped out of the building, glasses glinting in the sunlight. Several Soma members trailed in his footsteps, like dogs waiting for their master to praise them.

“What is this?” He glanced over the wreckage of his front door, and the two women standing in front of his manor house. “You think you can insult the Soma Familia like this and get away with it?” He waved a hand. “Take them down, it appears some adventurers need to be taught a lesson.” His eyes caught onto Lili. “Even if they are members of our own Familia.”

The men behind him, less than I’d faced in the theatre less than an hour ago, fanned out around us.

“Zanis, I presume?” I asked.

The man raised an eyebrow as his men surrounded us. “Yes. It’s good to see my reputation precedes me.”

I chuckled. “I suppose it does.” I raised my hammer, before striking the cobblestone between my feet with its haft. A crack like thunder echoed off the walls of the buildings, ringing through the air. Everyone stopped for a single second.

And into that silence I said, “Zanis of the Soma Familia. I hereby challenge your Familia to a wargame. On the ground of the aggression your members have leveled against the Hestia Familia!”

“Hestia Familia?” He tilted his head, resting his cheek in a palm. “Isn’t that some dinky little Familia with only one or two members? I suppose I wouldn’t be averse to crushing it, if you want to pit our Familias against each other.”

I smiled. “Here are my terms.”

He blinked. “Your terms.” He waved a hand. “I don’t think I’m going to let you come here and dictate the terms of this wargame.”

“Well, you could leave the format up to the fickle gods, couldn’t you?” My smile grew. “Or, how about we settle this in a way that should be right up your alley.” I leaned forward. “Let’s have a little… drinking competition.”

Lili jumped, staring at me in shock. But my eyes were on Zanis.

He smiled, and I knew I had him.

*~*~*

“Put it right there!” Hestia smiled as Aiz set down the last piece of furniture. “Thanks so much for the help! The third batch should be just about done.”

Aiz nodded, golden eyes flicking over to the fryer she’d hauled into the church and the Jagamarukuns held within. Hestia skipped over to them, taking them out of the oil and setting them on a plate to cool. Really, doing it on her own was so much better than working at that food stand. She hoped Aiz liked the better quality as well.

“Here you—”

The door to the charge slammed open. “Goddess Hestia!” Hestia glanced over at the half elf in a guild uniform that burst into her home. “Your Familia head has challenged the Soma Familia to a war game!”

The plate slipped from nerveless fingers.

Hestia didn’t even hear it hit the ground.

Wait.

She glanced over.

That would be because Aiz had caught it before the plate could hit the floor.

Hestia blinked once.

Then she decided to deal with the more pressing issue and turned back to the half elf. “What?”

“We have to go now.” The woman gestured to the door. “I’m Eina Tully, Taylor’s guild advisor. They’ve already convened at the Amphitheatre Dionysus.”

“Already?!” Hestia jumped to her feet, moving towards the door. Aiz, one small part of her noted, trailed after her, happily munching on her potato snacks. “The gods have to be there to agree to terms in the first place!”

“Ah, well.” The woman had a pained expression. “It appears that both Familia heads have already agreed on terms.”

“What?!” Hestia shook her head. “What did Soma say?”

“I don’t know exactly, I only just caught wind of it when my superiors gave the go ahead for the war game… but apparently he said ‘as long as the deal with it quickly, I don’t care.’”

Hestia growled, walking faster. “That sounds just like that lazy bastard. What are the terms?”

“A… drinking competition, between your head and theirs.”

Hestia frowned. “A drinking competition? What kind of wargame is that?”

Eina ducked her head as they raced down the street. “They’re going to be using… Soma’s own wine.”

“WHAT?!”

She tried to start running, only to immediately be stymied by the growing crowd. Apparently she wasn’t the only one to hear about the wargame. Hestia bit her lip, before turning to the sword princess at her side. “Miss Wallenstein… if you get me to the amphitheatre, I’ll make you Jagamarukuns every day for the rest of your life.”

Aiz blinked slowly, before nodding. Hestia didn’t resist as the follower of her most hated (before today anyway) rival picked her up. “I’ll see you there, Eina!”

“Lady Hestia!” But the rest of the half elf’s words were cut off as Aiz jumped.

Well, calling it a jump would be a lot like calling a demonic lion a ‘little cat’. The wind whipped through Hestia’s hair as they flew so quickly that she barely even felt the secondary impacts of Aiz kicking off other buildings hard enough to crack shingles.

Hestia didn’t know if she should be impressed that the woman had that much strength, or that she held back enough so that there was no permanent damage.

In seconds, they’d crossed almost half of Orario and landed in front of the amphitheatre in question.

Hestia scrambled out of Aiz’s grip. “Thank you!” She raced into the amphitheatre, feet beating against the marble tiles.

Apparently, she was the last of the divines to make it.

Gossip was the only thing in Orario that traveled faster than light. She pushed through the crowd of gods and goddesses. “Excuse me! That’s my Familia down there!”

“Hey look, the short stack finally showed up!”

“Oi, Hestia! You got a real looker, want to trade her to me?”

“Hey, don’t step on my toes.”

Hestia ignored them with the ease of long practice, squeezing through increasingly smaller gaps until she popped almost like a cork into the empty marble expanse in the center of the Amphitheater. Taylor and the head of the Soma Familia were already seated at a small table, Soma himself standing between them.

“Taylor!”

Her daughter looked up, a small, controlled smile flicking across her face. She turned to the guild representative. “I’d like a moment to speak with my goddess.”

The suited man looked over towards Soma. The disheveled god of wine shrugged, and Taylor stood, moving over to her.

She caught Hestia’s flying hug, before gently setting her back down. “Don’t worry Hestia, this will be taken care of momentarily.”

“What will be taken care of?” Hestia did her best to keep her voice down, but it was a futile effort. “I… I didn’t even know you were having a problem with the Soma Familia at all, and then suddenly we’re in a war game?”

Taylor sighed. “I know. I’m sorry.” She squeezed Hestia’s shoulders, before letting go. “I didn’t want you to worry. I didn’t think things would spiral so far out of control.”

“Whatspiraled out of control?”

But Taylor just smiled. “Nothing that will matter, after today.”

“Taylor. Why did you agree to a drinking competition?! That man’s a level two, he’ll drink you under the table.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Taylor stepped back. “It’s not that kind of competition.”

Hestia was left blinking as her daughter returned to the table. She was about to storm forward, demand the whole thing be called off as was her right as the Goddess of the Hearth and Home. It was her Familia fighting here after all!

But then Taylor looked over her shoulder and mouthed ‘trust me.’

Hestia slumped, wringing her hands.

She said nothing as Taylor sat back down at the table.

The guild representative cleared his throat. “As the representative of Ouranos, I will be officiating this War game. The terms are thus: Both participants will drink a single cup of wine. The person who takes a second drink unprompted will be the loser.”

Hestia’s eyes snapped wide. What? No! Soma’s wine? They were drinking Soma’sWine?!

She took a step forward, but two sets of hands caught her, pulling her back towards the stands.

“Huh, who?” Hestia glanced over her shoulder to see Aphrodite and Hephaestus. “L-let go of me! I have to—”

“There’s nothing you can do now.” Hephaestus’s voice sounded strained, but she kept hold of Hestia all the same. “The war game has already been approved by Ouranos.”

Dite nodded. “You have to believe in your Taylor, Tia-chan.” The god of love had a very sad expression on his face. “If you interrupt now, the Soma Familia will probably be able to claim a forfeit.”

“The winner of this wargame will be able to demand anything of the members of the losing Familia,” the guild man continued. Hestia just shook her head. Every time someone spoke, it felt like things got worse and worse. “This will be enforced by the guild itself… as it does with every wargame. Lastly—”

“Hey!” one of the gods called from the crowd. “Get on with it already! I’m tired of waiting!” Cheers rose from the crowd of gods as Hestia slumped. She pressed her hands together, almost as if in prayer as the man on the stage shrugged, and stepped to the side.

Soma pulled a small bottle of wine from his coat, setting it and two small saucers on the table. They looked practically tiny. Then, he pulled the cap off of the bottle.

Even as worked up as she was, the smell of Soma’s wine was like a balm. She remembered drinking it occasionally in Heaven, before he descended. It was certainly better than any mortal fare, even if this was just a pale imitation of what Soma had made in Heaven.

But to have Taylor drink it…

Hestia swallowed, before firming her own heart.

She had to be strong, and trust in Taylor.

‘I’ll always come back to you.’

She had to believe.

Soma poured a finger into each saucer. “Go ahead.”

As one, Taylor and Zanis both threw back their cups, setting them down as one.

Neither moved.

The crowd leaned forward with baited breath, trying to see who would break first. But, neither so much as made a single motion towards the bottle.

After a moment, Zanis glanced towards it, licking his lips. Taylor didn’t move her gaze. For a moment Hestia felt hope rising in her chest, but Zanis continued to hold firm, only giving the occasional glance towards the bottle.

But Taylor would win at this rate; the temptation was right there, and Taylor wasn’t even bothering to look at it.

“This is really boring.”

Hestia’s head jerked towards the crowd. She couldn’t see who spoke, but the sentiment quickly spread all the same.

“Yeah, Soma! You’ve got something better than this don’tcha?”

“I didn’t come all this way to watch marble erode in the wind!”

Hestia shook her head, there was nothing to be done right?

Then Soma smiled. “I had hoped to save this for a special occasion.” The amphitheater grew quiet again at his raspy voice. He scratched his hair. “I think this counts…” Reaching under his cloak, Soma pulled out another bottle and decanted it.

If the first bottle was a wave of calming scent, this one hit the room like a wash of golden light.

Hestia’s eyes widened. “Th-that’s?”

“Impossible!” Hephaestus’ hands fell slack from Hestia’s shoulder. “It’s…”

“It’s the good stuff!”

Cheers and hoots rose from the assembled gods. “I didn’t know you could make the real deal down here, Soma!”

“No way?”

Dite only shook his head. “It is. That’s… the exact same as Soma’s divine wine, from Heaven itself.”

“Made here.” Hephaestus’ voice was thick with emotion. “Made without a drop of his divine authority.”

The noise and anticipation in the amphitheater continued to swell as Soma poured out two more cups of his wine. “Now, drink.”

Zanis drank with a smile, Taylor with a grimace.

The effects were immediate.

Taylor hunched over, hands gripping the table. Zanis leaned back, face going slack as he stared back up at the sky.

“I think you broke ‘em, Soma!”

Soma didn’t reply, watching both adventurers with rapt attention. Hestia pressed a hand to her mouth as Taylor started to tremble. Soma’s wine… it was like all of your cares were carried away, but this…

This, Hestia knew, would be a taste of Heaven itself.

“All food will be as ash in their mouths.” The words escaped her before she could stop them. Mortal bodies were never meant to experience such perfection. “It will turn to dust upon their tongues.”

Neither Hephaestus or Aphrodite gainsaid her.

Hestia felt the floor drop out beneath her feet as Taylor’s arm rose from the table. Zanis was still lost in the clouds. The wine had burned through him like a thin reed, leaving the man like an empty husk. He might not even be able to pour himself another cup.

But Taylor was stronger than that.

Tears formed at the corners of Hestia’s eyes as her daughter’s hand moved towards the bottle.

This was it then.

She closed her eyes.

Then there was a snap.

Her head jerked up.

Taylor threw back her head and screamed. She let loose a sound of pure inarticulate rage and loss, so sharp it seemed to cut the air itself, so full of pain that even the gods went silent.

In her fingers, she held her own arm, her bones snapped in a metal grip.

Slowly, gingerly, Taylor cradled her broken left arm against her chest, before resting her prosthetic against the table. The black metal seemed to glow, for a moment Hestia thought that someone might accuse Taylor of cheating, but…

The glow, it didn’t come from just the metal. It came from the mortal. As a goddess, she saw what was happening immediately.

The mortal ardor of Taylor’s soul shone so strong, so bright, that it reflected in the metal of the divine artifact. An expression of the wearer that transcended the mortal realm and touched the heavens, just as Soma’s wine did.

Hestia felt her gaze, drawn by a magnetic force, shift to look at her friend. Hephaestus was staring at her own creation, features slack.

“I did it,” the redhead murmured. “I really… did it?”

“It’s the sum of all of its parts.” Dite’s voice broke the silence, its truth echoing long and loud. “The skill you poured into it, the strength of the mortal it has become part of, all of that and more…”

Taylor seemed not to hear the words as she stood, glowing metal arm reaching out. She picked up the bottle of wine, Soma’s eyes locking onto her in interest.

This time, though, Hestia didn’t feel afraid.

Taylor poured herself a cup, raising it over her head. “I’m sorry for worrying you, my goddess.” She looked over towards Hestia and Hephaestus. “And I am sorry for almost besmirching your creation, oh goddess of the forge.”

The girl seemed almost larger than life, as if her soul was straining at the bounds of her flesh, but not like a god’s or goddess’s would. Many mortals would no doubt think thus in the days to come, but in truth, that would have been so much less impressive.

What stood before them was not a nascent divinity, or a mortal standing on the cusp of the divine. No, this woman was instead shining with her own power, the light of her own soul and struggle growing to a point that no mortal in Orario or beyond should ever have been able to reach.

Becoming perfection in itself without borrowing from the might of Heaven.

A fulfillment of humanity made not as one with god, but in their image.

“Oh goddesses, please, accept my offering.”

Taylor tilted the cup, and the little piece of heaven flowed from it in a stream of rainbow light made from the songs of the choirs of the heavenly hosts, to splash upon the ground as though it were an obeisance from the mortals of old.

It was a moment divine.

“No!”

Hestia barely noticed the man move as he threw himself forward.

Zanis’s hands grasped at the stream of heavenly wine, lips stretched wide in a caricature, trying to grasp even a bit of the perfection that streamed out of his grasp.

She saw the exact moment a single droplet landed on Zanis’s tongue.

And he swallowed.

The spell was broken. The light vanished. Gods and goddesses started to yell, people ran down onto the stage. Taylor swayed, cup slipping through her once-again-mortal fingers to shatter on the ground. For a moment, it looked like she might be swept away by a tide.

Then Soma clapped his hands. His authority washed over the room.

“The wargame is over!” His smile grew wider than Hestia could ever remember seeing.

“The Hestia Familia is the winner!”

And Hestia fainted dead away.