ThabianGD

Sorry for the week delay in the chapter, Life is a cruel mistress some times. I am going to try and have another chapter out before the end of the week, and return to making sure I have a chapter out every Tuesday.

You know, barring Life getting in the road again.

Thank you again for reading my story. Now on with Chapter 11.

The Seraphim was again taking their turn watching over the system that governed the planet below. They had been watching the feed of information play across a multitude of interface screens. Some of the information was not even being shown visually to the Seraphim. The Seraphim, as a race, were able to parse the information given to them in multiple forms.       

This was the bonus of being a multidimensional being.      

The Seraphim were beings designed to help gods keep the information and details of the worlds they governed in order. They were there to make sure that records were available for the future, as this was just as important as knowing when something big was happening.       

Every detail large, and small, was recorded in the celestial archives. That being said. Not all gods truly cared about the information. Some only used it for reference when they wanted to know why the surface of the planet suddenly got glassed by the current sentient beings. Others wanted bullet point daily updates on even the lowliest ant.       

Luckily for the Seraphim, their Goddess, Raianya, was really only wanting to keep up to date with kingdom-level issues. She was not wishing to dally in the daily lives of the inhabitants of this world. Although she also did not want to be out of touch with what was going on.       

The Seraphim had slid another observation file for the daily updates for their Goddess into the designated inbox. The Seraphim noticed something possibly important enough that Raianya would be interested in. Several movements by one of the kingdoms that had worried the Goddess was starting to look more than just worrying. Seraphim believed that the country had slid into the annoying category and knew that the information showed that the leadership was worth keeping a better eye on.      

That was when an activity notice blinked into existence and pushed their personal screen up into the foreground over the other screens. This screen was allowed to be used by the Seraphim for observation and investigation purposes of their personal interests. Some Seraphim used it to communicate with the other Seraphim in the same positions in other universes. Some used it to play games that would be akin to playing with the fates of mortals.      

This one was keyed to something the Seraphim was very interested in. Their friend that had been sent down to the planet they were overseeing.       

When the Seraphim thought back to the time they had spent with the mortal, it brought sensations of pleasure to their minds. They had enjoyed the time that they had together. It had been fun.      

Some others of their kind would have found it tedious, or even just another chore to be done. Contrary to what even they had believed it would be like. Instruction. Training. Educating. All of it had been something new. Something that they had to even investigate and learn about themselves before they could teach the mortal.       

Before the Seraphim could teach Iris.      

Not all the time they had spent with Iris had been instructional. There had been times where they had simply enjoyed each other's company. Watched the shows from Iris’s original world and other relaxing activities.      

The Seraphim had not had such a relaxing time in...     

It sat there for a moment, going through all of their memories, of the times they had spent simply working or just existing as they waited for their next task.     

Had there been a time where they could say they had been enjoying their time in the celestial realms? No. Nothing that would match the enjoyment they had been able to experience with their friend.     

The Seraphim had heard from other older beings that there was more to their existence than the repeated tasks and jobs that they were given. They spoke of finding a path to follow or other such enjoyments. The Seraphim remembered just feeling confused. Others of their own generation seemed to also feel such confusion. What was there other than their purpose?      

They remembered the look on their Goddess’s face when they saw them interacting with Iris. A look that felt both warm and strange to the Seraphim.     

Strange to them.      

Themself.     

Maybe that was it. The Seraphim were born with their knowledge and abilities from the very moment they were brought into existence. They also had no sense of self.     

They were they.     

They were many.     

They had a purpose.     

They existed.     

In the many millennia, since the Seraphim had begun doing their job. They had never thought of themselves as an individual. They thought of the Seraphim as a whole. The whole race was a singular construct, and each Seraphim was a part of the complete being.     

“I am me.”      

Seraphim smiled as they felt the sensation of that knowledge as it propagated through their existence. Knowing that they had been irreversibly, irrevocably, changed. They felt the ripple of this flow through them, and it brought them joy.      

Soon their attention was brought back to the screen before them. The information displayed showed that Iris was accessing the last box of equipment given to her by the Goddess. Seraphim had honestly wondered when her friend would do so. Since they had talked many times about the different games Iris had played. Seraphim honestly thought it would have been the first thing her friend would have done the moment she got her new class.    

Seraphim looked into the box and spied that two pieces of equipment were listed inside it. They also had tags on them to allow them to change to match Iris’s current chosen class and to help her get to the next one that she would be best suited for.     

Seraphim smiled and then tapped on the information and then quickly added something extra to the inventory of the box. Something that they knew their friend would need soon. While the Seraphim were not able to see the future as some of their cousins could.     

What they were able to do was to make leaps of predictive precognition. Which was done with deductive reasoning using the current information available to them through their data feeds.     

What Seraphim foresaw was a situation that was likely to be more than their friend would be ready to handle alone. Iris was there to enjoy their new life.     

As her friend, Seraphim decided that a small boon would alleviate some of the possible stressors that would become less than pleasurable for their friend.     

In a moment, Seraphim had sent a quick flick of their powerful consciousness against the data to correct the information stream. They then sent an updated record to the archive to show that this alteration was an approved boon. Seraphim smiled as they closed the window, “There. That should be fine.”    

There was a cough from behind Seraphim, then Raianya’s voice asked, “What exactly is fine?”    

Seraphim spun around to face their goddess, a look of guilt passing over their being, “Everything? Everything is fine?”    

The smirk on Raianya’s face was telling, “Oh Seraphim, I think you should tell the truth. It makes things much easier.”    

Seraphim groaned, knowing they had been caught, not in just her giving the extra equipment to Iris, but also in lying to her Goddess.    

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    

Raianya had stood there smirking at her Seraphim, but inside she was cheering. Seeing her long-time partner finally breaking into their own being. Making their own choices outside of the designated parameters. This was nothing short of a celestial miracle.     

If Iris had still been up here, she would have likely given the girl more than just a new life. Her help had pushed her little Seraphim from being the barely above automaton existence it had been. Into this current being before her, that had more than just work on their mind.     

Sure, they had been on the cusp already, and it was not really much of a push to get them to become more than they were. That being said, it was also something that would have likely taken another couple of thousand years to achieve on the natural progression of the way the Seraphim were. Also, having the Seraphim reach this level now was going to be a massive help in so many more ways.    

Raianya was overjoyed with the outcome.    

That being said, she was not about to let her Seraphim get one over on her.     

She grinned at the Seraphim. “Serra, or Seraph?”    

Seraphim looked at Raianya with confusion colouring their expression, “Goddess, what do you mean?”    

Raianya snapped her fingers as energy coursed over her hand and started lighting the area around the pair, “Serra it is.”   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    

Iris opened her inventory and looked at the last box that had been waiting for her to open it. She was a little amazed at herself for forgetting it, but when she looked back at what she had been doing and going through at the time, she understood why it had slipped her mind.   

The memories of the last few days had amazed Iris, and if this was just the beginning of her new life, she had no idea how it was going to be in a decade from now. That being said, she looked forward to seeing just how it all would come together.    

She then reached out and touched the box icon in her inventory and triggering it to open. Which caused a soft flash of light to flash from her inventory screen. “That didn’t happen last time.” Iris said as she rubbed her eyes to clear the spots of light left in her sight after the flash faded.   

Then Iris spotted the three new items that had appeared. “Oh! That's really Awesome!” She exclaimed as her hand reached out and tapped the first icon. After the first tap, a description of the item appeared above the item she was interested in. “Okay, the first one is a heavy plate breastplate. Hmm oh! An enchantment. It also has a self-repair function. Nice.”   

The image of the item showed a bright silver breastplate. The breastplate was adorned in the centre with an icon. The icon matched the one on the altar at the front of the church. A circle with a triangle inside it. The triangle was inverted within the circle, with all three points touching the inner ring of the circle. The icon itself looked to be made of a green crystal. Iris would need to pull it out to get a better look at it, but she could do that later.   

She then tapped the second one, “Oh, Priestess robes! That’ll save me having to get some. Oh, are these also enchanted?” Iris asked herself as she read on, and nodding as she saw that, while they were not enchanted, they could be enchanted later. She liked the look of the outfit. The long skirt and layered top reminded her of a Miko outfit she remembered from her previous life. Iris decided to change into it when she had the chance. It looked pretty comfortable in her opinion.     

The third item was a necklace with a pendant that looked like a small stylized wing. The item name was pretty obvious about it being a magical item, “The wing of clarity.” Iris grinned, “Nice! Rare loot drop.” she then read the description and made a soft drawn-out Oh sound. “Protection against mental status alteration. That is actually pretty damn good!”    

She reached in and pulled out the necklace without a second thought and went ahead and put it around her neck. Pushing the little wing pendant down under the neck of her top once she had it on securely. “Protection against, and not immunity. I guess I should still be careful.” Iris reached down and poked the little Fae dragon in her lap as she spoke. Acting like all she said earlier was aimed at her little companion and not like it was her talking to herself like a crazy person.   

Iris asked the little creature in a gentle voice, “You seem pretty comfortable there, don’t you?” She was sure it did not understand her, but the way it watched her as she spoke made her wonder just how intelligent the creature was.    

Just as she had started to amuse herself with her little companion, she heard Doxan’s voice rise like a thunderstorm. She was sure if he was in the chapel with her, the stained-glass windows would have been shaken out of their frames.    

As she listened to the distant raised voice, she tried to make out the words he was yelling. However, after the first ‘What?!’ that had been clear as a bell chime, Doxan’s voice had lowered back down in volume to a level that she could not quite make out through the walls.   

Just as she was contemplating if she should try and eavesdrop on the goings-on. Not that she was nosey, she was just wondering if this was some sort of protagonist story hook. If it was, she would probably not need to try and stick her nose in as it would most likely come and find her. As she was not the protagonist, Iris was a person starting a new life, and as such, she was not worried too much about it. 

Plus, if fate had her down as a participant for what was going down, Iris would get to hear about it eventually. There was no need for her to get an eardrum blown out by an angry old dwarf on a rampage. Also, she mused, there was no need to chase trouble. Trouble always seemed to find people enough to handle it.  

So as Iris returned to patting the little dragon in her lap, admiring how the coloured light from the windows played over the whirled patterns of scales on the little creatures back and wings. The hubbub of noise receded to normal levels pretty quickly. Then not long after, Doxan and Milly came back into the chapel, and with them in tow were a trio of people dressed up in priest robes.  

There was an older man and woman who stood close to each other. They both had troubled expressions on their faces. The third person was a young woman who looked to have been crying.   

Iris scooped up the little dragon from her lap and stood up. Not wanting to be rude while being introduced to the new people being led in by Doxan. She looked over the faces of the three people that had come into the room, taking in their ages and looks. As she took in their faces, Iris then knew, without a doubt, trouble had decided she would be part of the solution for this problem.  

She mentally shrugged as Iris put a smile on her face and decided to herself that if she was going to be pulled into the whims of the fates, she might as well go in with all guns blazing. “Doxan, by the sound of the windows shaking and the roof losing a few tiles. I am guessing something rotten is in the state of Denmark?”  

The Oni woman then saw five blank faces looking at her, puzzled by the phrase she used, and she blushed as her embarrassment rose, “Uh sorry, I mean, something is amiss? Or there is a whiff of corruption. It’s an old idiom from where I’m from.”  

Doxan realized what had happened and was the quickest to recover as he let out a soft chuckle. “It’s alright, Iris.” he then nodded to her, “Like what we spoke about after we helped that young adventurer outside the walls, there is indeed something amiss. But before that, let me introduce you to the ones looking after this chapel.”   

The old dwarf turned, “As you already met Milly here, I’ll start with these three.” his hand lifted and motioned over to the new faces. “This pair here,” his hand stopped at the older pair, their aged faces sliding into soft smiles as they met someone new. “They are Gilda and Jefferson. The pair of them are the joint heads of this chapel. They are also some of the best healers in the area. You’ll be getting instruction in how to use your healing magics from them while you are here.”  

Doxan then turned to the pair, “Gilda, Jefferson. This is Iris. she is the new priestess I was talking about earlier. She’ll be undergoing the training required to become a paladin under Milly. She needs as much training in the basics of mana control and magic casting that you can possibly beat into her.”  

Iris groaned before she grumbled at Doxan, “It wasn’t that bad! I didn’t hit us!”   

Doxan raised an eyebrow and retorted, “I haven’t tingled like that since the last time I stepped into a stun trap in a dungeon.” Which caused Iris to deflate even more. She then hunched her shoulders as she glared at him.  

Milly looked at Iris as she complained at Doxan, a realization rising in her mind as she looked at the young woman before her. Then a grin started spreading across her face. “Oh. A fresh recruit. I haven’t had one of those in a long while!” her boisterous voice filling the chapel.  

Iris looked up at Milly and saw the grin on the woman's face. A shiver of fear struck her as she felt that possibly, she may have just stepped on a landmine. Iris then quickly changed targets. She then stepped forward and held out her hand to the elderly pair. “Hello, my name is Iris. I hope we can enjoy our time together.”  

Gilda stepped forward and took Iris’s hand in her own, the older grey-haired woman seemed to relax as she was starting to realize a good change was coming. With these three new people, possibly the strange situation facing them would be changed for the better. “I hope so too, dear. It’s nice to see young priestesses joining the ranks. We welcome you to our humble little church.”  

The old man, Jefferson, stepped up beside Gilda and held out his hand, “As my wife said, it’s a pleasure.” He was not a heavy man, but he had broad shoulders and was likely once built to fight in combat. The old scars on his face and hands were a testament to the fighting he had seen.  

Iris smiled as she shook his hand, “I’m hoping to learn as much as I can from you. My magic is a bit wilder than I thought. My original teacher was more about getting all you can out of a spell than really controlling it.”  

Gilda laughed at Iris’s statement and nodded in reply, “We’ll get you up to speed in no time, I bet. If you can already cast spells, then getting the handle on the control side of things shouldn’t take too long then.”   

Doxan spoke from the sidelines with a knowing grin on his face, “Oh, she can definitely cast spells. If you heard the thunder earlier today, that was our fine young priestess here, flexing her casting skills.”  

Four sets of eyes spun to look at the young Oni woman, their expressions running the gambit, from surprise to excitement. Leaving Iris feeling embarrassed again, putting her free hand up and over her face, the little dragon in her other hand stopping her from fully burying her face from these new acquaintances inquiring gazes.  

Iris spoke through her hand, “I told you, that was how the spell was taught to me. I didn’t realize it would keep firing until I stopped feeding it mana!”   

Gilda and Jefferson shared a look and then burst into laughter. Milly, on the other hand, had her grin spread even wider on her face. While she started to get a feel for how much training she would have to put this recruit through.  

The young brown-haired woman that had yet to be introduced looked at the purple-haired Iris. Awe and a touch of jealousy in her eyes as she looked the new woman over. She then clutched her hands together and looked at the floor as the others started laughing.  

Iris joined in with their levity not long after.