Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 10

Chapter 10

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 12:30

* * *

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 12:30

Three spirits, glowing and trembling from the power pumped into them, gave a series of grateful and subservient images and were gone, drifting deeper into the immaterial until the shaman changed his mind and took away the generous reward. They were, perhaps, the last of those to whom he was indebted for their almost selfless help in curing the sick. Stepan had to spend only on the direct pumping of forces to perform the cure, while these three had come to the call and supported their existence “for their own”, and spent almost as much as they received, trusting in the authority of the sphere-marked shaman and his promise to “be sure to pay later”. It is possible to break such promises, and there is no special damage from such a thing, especially with small and not especially strong entities, but their fulfillment, and even with interest, just may raise the authority and connection with the spheres even more. On the one hand, a lot of people on Earth still work for giant companies with a notoriously brutal attitude toward lower-level employees, and there are a lot of scandals and denunciatory articles about it, and the Earthman even read some of them. On the other hand, everyone wants to get into a company where salaries are higher and the social package is fatter, sometimes going as far as outright bribes to recruiters. In the case of the spirit world, it doesn't quite work that way, and spirits are unlikely to bribe a shaman to let them join his retinue.... though, although, with this non-game system, nothing can be said for sure.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 18:54

Shaking his head, a little dejected by the sagging reserve, which no longer seemed satisfactorily large, Stepan began to collect the totems of the protective circle and bring the ritual circuits to a temporary opening. Even though he was just handing out debts, he was still in the habit of putting full protection, strengthening it time after time, if it was done in the same place. The situation in which some evil and strong spirit would buy out someone else's debt and name-image of summoning from a weak healer in order to come instead of him and eat the shaman looks quite fantastic, but not at all impossible. Getting in a plane crash isn't easy either, but shit like that happens to people on Earth on a regular basis. In other spheres dwells all sorts of things, very different and often aggressive, every summons, every call is always associated with risk, which can only be reduced and leveled, but not rid of completely. Shamanism, of course, is not as risky as demonology, but completely safe for the gifted areas of magical development is still not, a priori. Earlier or later, their risks appear in each of the schools, in any doctrine, method, and approach. That's why so valuable in fact his absorbed knowledge provides not just power, but the best options for its application, honed to perfection and absolute methods, contracts, small details and unwritten truths, which in normal conditions are passed from teacher to apprentice, under a thousand oaths and the apprentice is often still a close relative of the teacher.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:00

When he had finished collecting the totems that he was not going to leave here for the night, he started packing back to the village. He put on his top clothes and shoes, rubbing his body, which was still freezing, despite the spirit that had planted in him, and left the clearing he had chosen almost satisfied, even a little happy. He was done with his debts - he had spent two and a half long weeks trying to give all the summoned ones what they deserved. A good memory, only strengthened by his magical gift, and the marks left on the spirits in advance so as not to confuse them, allowed him to do everything quickly and not to miss anyone. However, he wouldn't mind a meta-skill with logs of all actions, including any kind of calling, summoning, and the terms of deals. Apparently, it was time for him to either write it all down, as he was accumulating too much information as his own power and retinue grew or to take the aforementioned meta-skill. However, the default notebook in the system also helped him time and again, allowing him to quickly write down a thought or place an informational image of a glare of some spirit he owed an extra portion of reserve.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:02

Almost three weeks spent, hardly any experience, just a waste of magical powers, and the sense of duty that had been driving him all this time, because Stepan always preferred to pay his debts, as if he were a Lannister at heart. The path trampled in the rain-soaked mud led him to the backyard of the lodging house he had been assigned for the time of his stay. The local peasant, who was Hrol, lived mostly by hunting and gathering rare herbs; he did not plow the fields, only the bare minimum. He was an extremely mediocre hunter and herbalist, he didn't go deep into the forests, and he relied more on fishing if the time was hungry, but he had enough for himself and his orphaned nephew, and he was completely devoid of any ambitions. Here, in this village, they did not starve at all, taking advantage of the presence of the river nearby and the fact that the river is controlled by the ruler and the city council of the free city of Dantmark, so the risk of attack by river robbers was not so high. And the risk, Kirik said, was easily offset by regular gifts to the sources of the risk, especially since they took little.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:05

"Hello, your magic." As soon as he entered, a short but stout and agile boy with dark-blond braids and mischievous devils in his eyes greeted the earthling. "I've heated the stove, chopped wood, brought water, and also brought your clothes from washing."

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:23

When the headman Kirik said not to be shy about chasing the young brat, he knew what he was talking about, not just to make a point. Meld was just like his uncle, as lazy as he was and always not against shirking any labor, especially if the community was feeding and the magik was in the village only until spring. No, there was no disrespect or Stepan's attempts to make him work because Meld, they said, “doesn't know how to do it”, but if you don't order a boy to do anything, he won't do anything, and to order him, you still have to find him. It was as if he had seen a fellow student in action. He didn't kick the boy himself, he just talked to Kirik and the next day the boy with a glum look performed the tasks on the list and didn't pretend that he needed to go there, it was important, he didn't know this, and he couldn't do that, because he wasn't ordered to.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 07:40

He didn't feel like a slave owner, feeling Meld's attitude perfectly well and seeing that the other local teenagers, even younger than his age, worked quite well. He didn't have to do anything really hard. The late Hrol had his own well, albeit a poor one so he didn't have to walk to the river. But Stepan had to send spirits to clean the water because it was a bit dirty when it came out. The boy, who realized there was no way to get excused, it was useless to press pity, and his own Lyady's men would punish him, stoically accepted the new conditions and did not slack off anymore. It turned out that to have his own servant, who takes care of household issues, in fact very convenient, and what was supposed to take almost a month, was successfully solved for a period much shorter, even remaining power to deal with the household. Water filtration and purification, insulation of the house, banishing all kinds of unnecessary animals, and setting up tracking totems - small things, but it was still nice that he didn't have to find reserves for them.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 09:31

The tantric hearth helped a lot, thanks to which even without meditation, just in a dream or during a walk from the clearing to the house, the reserve was slightly but noticeably replenished, as if by a poor, very careless, but meditation. This stream turned out to be really important and necessary, allow not to completely neglect himself and his defense. But still, he was able to spare his energy for only small things, while the main activity consisted mostly of a cycle - from morning to the clearing, until evening to pay debts there, then dinner, sleep, and again in a circle. He even made it clear that he was to have dinner only, but a very heavy one, so that he had enough for the early morning, and that he was to have lunch only once every three or four days so that he did not have to go back and forth every afternoon.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 10:07

Food, by the way, was carried by one of Kirik's daughters, named, surprise surprise, Kira, it seems that Meld was not trusted to carry all kinds of tasty things, though he was not hungry, Stepan asked about it separately in passing and found no lie in the answer. The magician was indeed well fed: all kinds of rich porridge, sometimes meat, but more often fish, regular chicken, and goose eggs, though small, not like on Earth, potatoes, vegetables, decoctions, and compotes. Beer or even wine, not bad wine, not moonshine, was also offered, but he refused. The poison tests had never found anything, but the guy didn't even think about stopping them, while he didn't want to think about voluntarily reducing his concentration and will, not with such a busy schedule.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 11:52

In response to a few cautious questions from Kirik, the young man just as cautiously tried to explain the problems of his work, unexpectedly meeting with full understanding. The headman with an interesting past understood the concept perfectly well, for him it was like if a neighbor's house burned down and the whole village helped him to rebuild and gave him some clothes and clothes for the first time. Yes, technically it is possible here not to pay back debts, the laws of the community are such that everyone helps the burned-out people, even if they can't stand the victim (but they can still put a dead rat between the logs of a new building), because they will be helped in the same way. Everything is for their own, so to speak, while to screw a stranger is the most common thing, and their own here are not villagers in general, but only the inhabitants of a particular village, because of which there are real fights between separate neighboring settlements now and then, sometimes amusing and frivolous, and sometimes with arson, steel, funerals, and subsequent baronial trial. Therefore, the shaman's desire to repay his debts to those who lent him a loan met with only one solid respect, as well as a quite serious offer to help with herbs or materials. There was no herbalist or witch doctor in Lyady, but there were a few families who knew something, and they collected herbs for themselves and traded, sometimes even actively.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 10:10

The young man did not become uneasy, but simply listed a list of simple and not especially valuable herbs, which were easy to find, but he did not have time to collect them. And, miraculously, by the evening of the third day of that conversation, Kirik himself came to him with dinner, and with dinner, he brought a whole bag of collected reagents. Some of it, of course, had to be put aside. Not that, collected in the wrong way, or simply spoiled, but the rest he put into business. At the mere hint of payment, the headman only chuckled and said that he would hear such a thing again and “your magic would offend me a lot, we are not poor as it is”. Shrugging Stepan conceded, especially since the expenses there were probably really cosmetic, expressed by the time to dug through the storage space.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 10:13

Kirik, who made Stepan more and more nervous every day. No, but it's not serious, that for many years a mercenary, who had traveled the world for many years, suddenly became honest, conscientious, and good-natured. This can only occur in the books of those authors who have not seen mercenaries in real life! And in the real world, they were not even taken prisoner. Because there were very distinguished personnel. And they themselves were afraid to be captured more than fire because they knew how they would be paid for their entertainment, if they even bothered to take them prisoner. That's why the most part of the forces saved at the expense of the hearth of the spirit was used by the young man to get into the man's dreams and try to understand what kind of man he was and why he was behaving like that. It was supposed to be different, from really bad, like a quietly sent messenger, which will sell the visiting mage to someone-somewhere, to also not too good, like the fact that the man realized the limits of Stepan's real powers and now because of this very cautious. Screwing over a master and an apprentice who had developed his gift a little bit were different things, and it was easier to kiss the first one's ass, as long as he didn't take his anger out on you.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 11:49

The reality turned out to be different, unexpected because the generous and honest headman did not intend anything bad in his address, unless you count lazy thoughts about the fact that he had already married off his eldest daughter, and the youngest had not even periods yet, to put under the magician. Yes, and the “disguise” of the earthling he did not reveal, although he realized that the young man was strong, but just considered that he borrowed the power for a while and in doing so almost killed himself. In his dreams, Stepan had several times seen the scene that had seared Kirik's soul, where the previously mentioned squad magician, who could hardly send a few fiery arrows, decided to exchange everything for nothing, for a couple of minutes he began to roast with a flamethrower and burn with napalm, to burn out and then hang himself from grief for the lost gift. But the headman was not a mercenary in the usual sense of the word by earthly or local pseudo-medieval standards.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 11:54

The thing is, these fifteen years that the tanned and wiry man, with considerable experience in cutting throats and ripping open guts, had spent away from home. He wasn't just working as a classic hired gun. No, he was not a former agent of the secret guards either, though you never know, Stepan was not that good with the spirits of dreams, but he was hired almost exclusively as a ship's guard or as one who combined the guard with the position of a rower, and exclusively on river voyages. The river trade is so specific that the usual truth, according to which a merchant differs from a pirate only by whether he had time to change the flag, as well as the number of guards at a randomly met colleague, somewhat malfunctioned. The river is not the sea, you can't completely hide from sight or guarantee to remove all the witnesses, so it's very difficult to combine the roles of a robber and an honest citizen, you have to choose something. River pirates are there, in assortment, it would be strange if the mighty Dantra didn't have this scourge, but they act differently. They are quick to attack, quick to kill, quick to leave with their loot, hiding in one of the countless backwaters, and their boats are small, just to bring a boarding party aboard a merchant.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 09:34

And so it came to pass that a relatively honest individual, even by earthly standards, not only managed not to degenerate over the years of such service, unlike many of his colleagues but also failed to accumulate a rather thick list of crimes, as you would normally expect. No, he'd robbed, especially in bad years, and killed a couple of times those who didn't deserve it or got in the way, but against the background of even his “colleagues,” he remained not a saint, but close. That's why he was able, after so many years, to save up only for a house and dowry for his daughters, having become the headman of a very distant, though not poor, village, and not for a house in the city and a shop in order to break into the middle class. Well, or the spirits again confused everything, while dreaming Kirik, and in fact, he is a cruel sadistic maniac, who just considers himself a completely innocent sheep, and Stepan is still too crooked a dreamer.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 11:56

Meanwhile, while he was thinking about important, not very important, and completely unnecessary things, Meld had already managed to show his work and get permission to go wherever he wanted. He has his passions and problems, thoughts and worries, real teenage dramas that Stepan doesn't care about yet. Maybe he would have gotten to know the servant boy he got a little better, but because of the same debt distribution, he felt like a bit of a cooked crab most of the time. But this time Meld himself, who until now always disappeared at the first opportunity and was openly afraid of the terrible shaman (which did not prevent him from shirking by any means, and one did not depend on the other), did not disappear, instead looking at the older boy as if he wanted to say something. Or maybe he had a stomach bug, who knew?

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 12:01

"What up?" He said, speaking in his usual quiet, yet clearly distinguishable voice, as if it were creeping into his ears on its own, and then, seeing that the boy shrank and ran his eyes. "Ask, and even if I don't answer, I won't be angry."

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 12:02

"Can I become a magician?" He blurted it out as one would say a cherished dream or a confession of stealing a large sum of money. "To be like you?"

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 12:03

And, well, it's clear, for any villager to be gifted is already a big plus, even if the gift is meager - at least amulets can be used, and not fabulously high-quality ones, which will also suit the ungifted, but any, including some of them, which can't be activated without a drop of the gift at all. And just longevity with good health in life usually does not interfere. The question, of course, is immodest, it is more straightforward only to ask for a pupil with literal words and, perhaps, Stepan even thought about it, but, alas, the reality is that the gifted are rare and among the peasant even rarer (but mathematically more often due to their number).

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 12:04

"No, you can't." Despite his attempt to show sympathy, he couldn't because he was too used to talking over the last few months with a calm face, without emotions, as if he'd been stunned. "You have no gift, Meld, and you can't become a full-fledged shaman without it. Even if you started studying, you'd be an ordinary shaman with a few tricks and rituals that don't require a gift."

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 12:05

In theory, it is possible, for example, to bind spirits to the boy, to train him to communicate with them and to understand them rudimentarily, so that even without a gift he could call his retinue and command it. Yes, it will be impossible to pay with pure power and reserve, but there will still be blood and life force, especially if carefully and little by little, as well as classical offerings and rituals. The lack of magical perception can be replaced by the famous mushrooms, the spirit can be developed by training, from mistakes can be covered by the help of a full-fledged gifted at the initial stages. Thus, the output will be the owner of a dull but covered with spiritual marks aura, which may well be able to replace the average junior shaman, even pass his retinue to descendants or independently replenish it. The latter with great difficulty, literally asks one of the controlled spirits to help find and contract another spirit, acting as a mediator of will. There are also such wielders, everywhere, but full-fledged magicians are considered very rare, almost never, however, not without very different exceptions, sometimes very even outstanding.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:33

Yes, exceptions are possible, if only by sacrificing your whole family and specially conceived children to awaken the source of the gift, or having a very powerful spirit on a blood contract because your great-great-great-great grandfather was much cooler and bound the spirit, but the children did not get the talent. It happens, yes, but the chances of this boy achieving such power are much less than the chances of seducing the baron's daughter to successfully become a lover with her, and then get married. And he realized it too, despite the small age he had already learned not to believe in fairy tales. And in general, he did not want to be a magician, but to have everything at will and at once, instead of this hard life of a simple plowman - a naughty boy and a tomboy, just as Kirik had said. In some ways he reminded Stepan himself, only he, wanting the best for himself, always tried to support that desire, instead of just wanting everything for free. He was a normal individual, especially by local standards, but he didn't show any sympathy for him either. Despite a certain sentimentality and his regular altruism towards those who had really bad luck, Stepan remained a hardened loner in ordinary everyday life, rarely looking for company and having great difficulty making new friends.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:47

“Too bad, yeah, I would have been ugh!” Wiping his slightly snotty nose, the boy, as if nothing had happened and seemingly not upset, ran about his business, still planning to spend the rest of the evening in the company of other children. “Good night!”

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 12:08

"And you too," Stepan replied. "Goodbye."

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 12:08

Today he was done with the debt distribution, feeling as if he'd closed the mortgage, no less. As of tomorrow morning, he could safely begin to resume recruiting and adjusting his retinue, as well as filling this house little by little with subdued spirits, just in case. Then, when he leaves, he'll just let them all go, or even send them away if they don't want to leave. The house is technically Meld's, and he'll live here later, as he can provide for himself on an equal footing with the men. He'll leave a couple of keepers, put someone in the hearth, a fiery one to keep it warm and kick out the dangerous trash.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 13:51

But that's tomorrow.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:13

He is tired.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 13:48

* * *

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 13:48

It was not possible to start work in the morning. First I had to go to the village to buy some wine, not for myself, but for an offering. He'd planned to, but he'd been so busy that he'd forgotten! In any case, he did not ask for wine along with the usual food delivery, because it was not some kind of moonshine, it would be much more expensive and it would be embarrassing to take it for free. So he went to the inn and had a few words with its owner, who looked very much like Gozb, even after his illness he hadn't lost weight. He bought a better jug of wine, promised to think about how he could make the barns and warehouse free of mice and rats, and then the fuss started. Actually, it had begun before, but Stepan had missed it with the grace of a deaf and blind man until it reached him - it was a healer sent from the neighboring town, Risar, the healer whom the villagers had so desperately called earlier.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 14:02

"You've been healing here, boy?" There wasn't much warmth in the tone of those words, but some underlying resentment, a slight irritation. "You don't have a healer's license either, of course?"

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 06:52

The woman who said this, in a deceptively simple white and gold dress, had a beautiful appearance, a young face, a voluminous chest, and an aura that was only a little older than Stepan's own, or even younger by a year or two. It was easy to see and perceive the analog of shamanic contract marks, only here this mark was one, literally growing into the aura and merging with it, complementing it and filling it with itself. There was nothing sinister in this sight, from the mark and aura there was a pure and pleasant feeling, alive and living, life-giving and gracious. One could not help thinking that there was some ironic opposite to the spirit of the dark forest, which embodied also the forces of nature, but in its dark and merciless incarnation. Here the mark was left by an entity incomparably more pleasant and even more powerful - not a spirit, but a god, or rather, it seemed, a goddess. There was a purely feminine quality to this presence, intuitively understood, which was why Stepan was in no hurry to answer rudeness with rudeness, let alone apply the wisdom of the Great Connery.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 19:13

"You weren't there, Auntie. - His address to her actual classmate was also a mockery, which she herself appreciated, her lips tightening and her sky-blue eyes sparkling, which even looked a little cute. "I had to, haha, heal. As best I could and as learned as I was."

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 06:46

The young man uttered his “haha” in an even and expressionless tone, otherwise, he tried only to mirror the answer, not to anger intentionally, but not to let down insults either. The maiden standing before him was hardly above the rank of a mere novice, even if she was rejuvenated by prayer. The power in him is noticeably more, and the aura demonstrated through the Shroud is quite comparable in brightness, there is nothing to bend his back. He will not lose, but time after time, bending over and over again can go very far in this bending. And this way? They'll snarl at each other and start a normal conversation, which is often a normal practice for magicians of different directions.

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 06:50

" Your mother didn't teach you manners, did she, boy?" The priestess took a few steps closer to him, but the Earthman didn't take a step back, either. "Or did your father teach you to flout the laws and regulations? And who taught you to defy the servants of the Life-giver?"

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 13:58

"Auntie, there's one thing I can't understand." Stepan decided not to go to the conflict, intuitively sensing that he had made a mistake somewhere in the local fancies again and, therefore, it was time to slow down. "Why are you angry at me? I wanted to help people dying without a healer because the nearest town is days and days away. Can you, as one who saves lives, blame me for such a wish?"

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 13:55

And again, as he'd gotten used to, the words he'd spoken hadn't led to what he'd originally wanted. The girl didn't calm down or lessen her aggression as he'd wanted, calming her down and deliberately switching to a more polite conversation. She pressed her lips even tighter on her pretty face, making it take on an altogether unpleasant expression, and her eyes flickered with more of those lightning bolts. She turned to the shaman, measuring her words one drop at a time, and now there was not irritation in those words, but a blatant threat.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 13:57

"Do you dare blame me for turning my back on those dying of sickness?" He did not say anything of the sort, only pointed out that the priestess herself was far away and could not come physically, because she had no personal hang-glider, but as it often happens with women and Stepan, she heard in his words something different from the original message. "You know, fuck it with your patent and your application for a healer's job, boy. If you don't apologize in such a way that I forgive you for the insult, I'll caress you, I'll grant you the grace of Gaia so that you'll know the joy of life creation only in your memories of the past."

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 06:44

Judging by the way all the villagers tensed at once, and some of them recoiled from the shaman standing right in front of the priestess flaring her nostrils angrily, the threat of impotence was clearly known to them as a real possibility. The priestesses are harsh here if the analog of taking bromine pills is used instead of pepper spray. The young man, somewhat discouraged by the pressure and puzzled by the very undesirable prospect of losing contact with Stepan Junior, finally realized what was originally wanted from him. She either didn't realize that he was working for free, or she didn't believe what Kirik had said, thinking that the healer-shaman, a young and hardly strong boy, had made a profit. The fact that everyone was alive, not dead, suggested that the disease was not as bad as the messengers who had reached Risar had described. She decided to ask the young man to share, perhaps to keep him from asking any more questions, but certainly to partially squeeze the money he had earned, and the young man started to be rude and generally showed blatant impoliteness. This understanding was formed from the untold meanings of the words spit out in the threat, when the spirits managed to translate the untold into understandable images, making the earthling mentally roll his eyes in annoyance, realizing that now he would have to escalate. There was no way he wanted to test the divine curses on himself.
Таблетки с бромом.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 14:11

"Auntie, I'm going to knock you." Peacefully, gently, and with a slightly embarrassed smile Stepan said, looking her straight in the face and not averting his gaze. "Not in an intimate way, but to death, right here, as soon as you start cursing me."

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 17:35

"Boy! Do you realize that the Giver of Life will curse you to eternity for such a thing?" Surprised, but with some apprehension, as if she had not expected such an approach and approach, the priestess continues to threaten. "No female affection, no continuation of the lineage?"

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 06:41

"I hope that while the spirits are playing with your bones, you, in the halls of the Life-giver, will be eternally consoled by the fact that I will have an eternal soft dick for the rest of my life." Smiling the same way, modestly and quite sincerely, parries the fallen man, sensing now someone else's weakness. "I didn't come here for money, but to save people, to protect their lives, literally. I lent a helping hand. And you, Auntie, are spitting in it."

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 06:42

He thought for a moment, and the priestess opened her mouth to say something, to argue, to object, but the boy interrupted her again, going on the offensive himself, daring to take a risk, relying on his own strength, the system, and his level. Divine curses are unpleasant, no doubt, but far from irresistible, and in front of him is only a novice, not a fully-fledged priestess, no relics with her, as well as the temple altar. If something happens, he has a chance to repel the blow. However, the life-nature-fertility is very specific, and to reflect such a narrowly focused and intensifying from the aspect synergy blow may not be possible even at a gifted more powerful than the current Stepan.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 14:17

"You know, come on, though." He took a step forward, moving closer, but now the lady was backing away, and her eyes showed not full-blown fear, but a discernible apprehension. "I don't like you, that's a fact, but I have not harmed your Goddess. I have not prayed to her covenants, but I have hardly broken them that much. I even wonder if she will curse me with your mouth if she will curse me for the fact that I have done your work, saved someone's life from destruction, even if I did not give it to her, eh? Come on, I'm waiting, or do you, venerable novice, only have the strength for threats?"

Camrad_RIP 18.05.24 в 06:39

Actually, divine prayers may well work against the doctrines of god, they do not look at each of their novices around the clock. But confidence and belief in oneself, in one's rightness and in the fact that one is doing a god-pleasing deed - is the cornerstone of all priestly and clerical magic, and her confidence was shaken, though not destroyed, after such a response. And the girl, who was really Stepan's yearling, not as experienced as she tried to convince herself and everyone around her, was frankly shaken from such a counterattack. She took a step back, then another, and then she took off altogether, barely keeping herself from going at a run. No “I won't leave it that way” was uttered in response, no prayers were activated either, and no divine punishment fell upon the young man. Realizing this and knowing that the treatment of male impotence and the same male infertility was canceled or at least postponed, Stepan himself imperceptibly exhaled, although outwardly it was hardly reflected. Judging by the way the village priestess herself had spent her eyes, here not only he had screwed up the social-fu, but she had behaved really wrongly and incorrectly.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 14:30

“Little brat, her tits have only grown since she was promoted, but she's got the attitude of a sacred priestess.” Kirik gritted his teeth, exhaling and wiping sweat with his palm, his hand trembling very noticeably. “You're harsh on her. And you were clever at figuring out her cunning, too. Such a pest, it's not often one of the Life Giver's servants is like that, honestly. Gaia said to be closer to the earth, they are the most understanding of all God's people, they often help for free, but this one, this one is a schmuck, and as angry as a hungry wolf in spring.”

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 14:33

The rest of the village nodded and murmured in agreement, and watched the lady who had jumped back into the big boat, a full-fledged, though small, riverboat, with the coat of arms of the Free City of Dantmark on its flag, with such glances that it was clear at once that this lady would not be missed, even if she had come for a short time. Later he was told that while Stepan was in his thoughts, this novice, sent directly from Risar, had time to question the locals, to wonder how they had managed without her, and to be visibly upset that she would be left without gifts appropriate to her work and status. Yes, the priestesses of Gaia are really considered to be the most adequate and normal to the common people, and they are still beautiful, big-breasted, and do not preach about the greatness of the Sun, due to which they win in this contest of sympathy of those sun-worshippers of the Northern Theocracy. But this one was especially wicked, and therefore the way Stepan, not afraid of punishment, put her in her place, was liked by everyone.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 14:38

And yes, careful inquiries, so as not to show ignorance, confirmed what Kirik had heard - priestesses of the Life-Giving, Fertile, and Healing, after taking initiation, do indeed increase in volume of breasts, and further, with the growth of power and rank, also grows. It does not mean that every woman with tits is necessarily her priestess - the same Truda was not connected with the religion at all, and her breasts were of the level of no less than a high priestess, a master of magic - but each of her priestesses is almost always powerful with her tits. Do they store divine energy in them? No, the knowledge of the system told Stepan that it was a working manifestation of the aspect attribute and not the strangest. It was better to let the tits grow than teeth in the crotch and tentacles instead of a mustache, but still, the young man was chuckling, just because of the comical situation and the adrenaline.

Camrad_RIP 13.05.24 в 14:46

By the way, the ship sailed only the next day, and the crew had time to shop in Upper Lyady and even to gossip about where they were going. Still, the young novice did not come ashore again, and, according to the captain, she even began to behave a little less bitchy. Stepan, however, did not bother her, and almost immediately went to his house, and from there to the call clearing, where he began to put totems and create a defense against the curse of the Life-giver. It didn't work well - a few consultations with the spirits of the knowledgeable subtype confirmed the assumption that such an effect is almost several times more difficult to repel than any other curse of divine nature. Of course, a novice is not a high priestess right near the temple altar, and the distance is also very important, but the young shaman calmed down only when the ship sailed and disappeared down the stream of Dantra, indifferent to human squabbles. There was no curse, so Stepan exhaled, calmed down, girded himself, and sharpened half of a lush and still-warm pie with a jam from some unknown fruit.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.24 в 14:13