Since their departure from the hamlet, there has been an occasional conversation or two here and there, but it was oddly quiet as time passed, no one really wanted to discuss anything, well, Tim might have but Lewis was starting to get the general feeling that he was more of a ranter on demand than a ranter without demand needed. And well, Lewis much preferred to not set that batch of metaphorical explosives off without any easy access to escape nearby.
For why they were travelling and where, well, they needed to find someone with a cure to Hera's current state of Capra and well, Lewis had a general idea that if there were spells to transform then there must be spells to transform a person back to the form they were previously. But well, Lewis had no idea for where one could go for such a service and even less of an idea as to how much it could be in terms of cost.
This is where Tim came in great help, for apparently the hamlet was close by the city of 'Feoh' and there was a great center there of healers and priests, apparently in addition, there was one of the largest cathedrals there. So hopefully they'd know how to fix Hera's current condition and hopefully! Considering they were a religious bunch, they'd have it done for free and with a prayer at the end. Simple and easy.
It was also very lucky that the hamlet that Lewis and Tim departed from was close enough to Feoh for them to reach by the time the sun starts setting, so around the evening. So then, here now walked Lewis and Tim, with Hera just behind them walking on an incredibly fancy road towards a giant walled white city that looked as if it was forged from the purist of marble and decorated with the finest silver.
It was here as they walked that Lewis saw that he had an escape in the case that Tim ranted, and well, Lewis had some questions he wanted to ask about the place they were headed. What was Feoh and what was its general feeling. So Lewis said turning to face Tim as they walked down the road.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, can you tell me about Feoh? What exactly does it do?"
Tim seemed slightly joyful to be able to talk about something, after all they had been walking in utter silence for the last few hours and that surely must have drove the young lad a tad bit pent-up with talk. So, Tim said.
"Well, I have a short story for you, which is going to be way too simplified... And I have a long version that should last long enough for it to be done by the time we reach the gates, so I'm telling the latter"
Lewis could only nod and follow along, letting himself be Tim's chosen target of a lecture, albeit even Hera to a certain degree was not spared, that of course being if she was able to listen to the language being spoken by Tim and Lewis. If not, then Hera hopefully would be cursed, of course, not in the same way as she was.
"Ok, well, a few hundred years ago, our holy mother Celestne sent out the call for several knight orders to assault the black tower and the sorcerer queen... However, this would be a gigantic operation, the knights brought along their families and entire legions of the conscripted. As you can imagine, the logistic costs became massive and things became overstretched... So! The knights hired the finest builders in the entirety of Eostia, the finest architects and guilds on the entirety of this land. These builders constructed two wonders of our land, that being Feoh and Ur. Any questions so far?"
Lewis nodded as he walked alongside Tim, even as he ranted and lectured about, these rants brought Lewis to a state of curiosity and well, he had questions to ask, so he did just that, asking.
"I thought this was just about Feoh, what is this Ur?"
Tim looked a little bit sadder upon hearing the name of Ur from another voice, one not his own. Still, Tim spoke, saying as he walked to the magnificent city of Feoh in the distance.
"Well, the leaders of both knight orders founded their own cities, built on separate duties regarding their purposes. Feoh was founded by the large Arcturus family. While, Ur was founded by the Fiorire family. Feoh was designed to be the place where soldiers and knights gathered before a push, thus, the massive presence of nuns to bless them all..."
Tim before continuing his lecture about Feoh and Ur, slightly silenced himself and coughed twice before saying, continuing his speech.
"while Ur, well Ur was the place where soldiers would stock up on supplies and merchants went to sell their goods, even those goods that Feoh banned. It became a city built up on coin and services... But I liked it, it was where I was born and raised for most of my life. I'll admit it definitely had its issues, but well, most places do. I still have fond memories of it. The city used to have this great forest in its walls that I realize was probably a fire hazard of some sort, but no one cared. It was incredible, it was an entire eco-system that the city kept alive and thriving..."
Lewis sensed something was about to come up, as Tim was referring to Ur in a general past tense, and well, that was usually a good sign of something really bad when talking about a city of people.
"That was all till after a failed attack by the Fiorire knight order, which resulted in them leaving the city unprotected and lacking a garrison. The dark elves marched on the city under some new half-elf General and..."
Tim slightly began to tear up and stopped, Lewis realizing something was about to happen, rushed over and tried to hold onto Tim, making sure he didn't fall over or anything like that. Tim, did continue the story, albeit with tears forming and flowing down his face.
"They reduced the entire city to rubble, every single structure gone... I was lucky enough to be out on a caravan near Geofu to not be there... But I still remember vividly returning with the caravan and seeing the burnt ruins of our home... As well as the rotting bodies of our families dangling from the forest, nigh but ash..."
Tim's voice slightly rose following this as he said, slightly getting angry as Lewis held him, making sure he was relaxed even a little bit.
"And! How was this treated by the Fiorire's, our patron lords and knights... They wrote a poem about it... A poem... Can you believe that, they did nothing but write a poem and say that they'd have to discuss things with Celestine... That was all they did. They didn't do a single thing to help their subjects who survived or now live without a home or family. Do you wanna know what that did to us in the caravan! I remember the days afterwards, they began to kill themselves... people without their families. I nearly joined them, if it were not for my grandfather in the countryside inviting me to stay with him. Ever since then, I don't know what to do, I've just delayed thinking about this or really even talking about this with anyone... But I suppose, it's relieving to be able to, and knowing that we're going to help some poor woman"
As Tim spoke, Lewis's theory about the goat proved correct as she brushed her head up against Tim's right leg, trying to comfort him in his time of needed support.
It would be a little bit before they started walking again and they reached the gates soon after and talked with the guards for around two minutes, simply filling out a basic list of reasons they were there and where they were coming from.
After passing the gates and entering through a second line of gates and walls, they reached the city proper and were immediately greeted with the shining lights of a holy city in the evening. Apparently Feoh had an entire nightlife to it, entire shops opened up selling food and blessed water. A small crowd of people walked around. Of course, under the watchful eye of the many silver coated guards, all wearing incredibly strange looking full-plate and oddly quiet. At the center of the city laid a gigantic cathedral, easily rivaling the very parliament building in size and scope.
Tim nodded at Lewis and the duo began heading to the cathedral, but while on their way, Tim pointed at a large black stone and said, chuckling a little as he pointed at it.
"In case your wondering, that's where the Fiorire's had their poem inscribed, in case you wanna read it"
Lewis nodded his head and walked over to the stone and said, choosing to read it aloud, hoping to see if it was a good poem or not. Before he spoke, Lewis coughed a few times and began speaking.
"Ok, here's the poem, you ready tim?"
Tim nodded and looked a little bit jolly as he prepared himself for what to him must be like comedy. But anyways, Lewis said, speaking the poem in a very much overdone fancy accent.
"Oh. How I did let the tears go upon hearing of my city's ruin. It is a? sad stuff, a sad state of affairs. Let us mourn the loss of all there and let us be able to reinforce our courage. Despite the sadness I feel for all you affected... By Princess Prim Fiorire... So, Tim, did they let some child write this poem? Or did some public relations specialist?"
Tim nigh but cackled at Lewis's reading of the poem and said, getting a little closer with Hera in tow.
"They did actually sorta, the princess was only like 14 when she wrote this and it bloody does well show eh? Feels like Hera could write something better. No offense to ya Hera"
Hera took offense and lightly head-butted Tim's right leg, but less so out of hostility and more so a playful reprisal. But still, her little comeback was plenty good enough a sign for them to get walking again and they did, towards the open front door of the cathedral. As they walked closer to the doors, Tim said looking at Lewis and smiling.
"You go in with Hera and I'll find a place to sleep for the night, sound good?"
Lewis nodded and walked past the doors into the cathedral. Inside was 800 rows of beautifully crafted pews and dozens of marble statues of a naked woman in a toga lifting up a small baby. As Lewis stared at the statue, he was approached by a trio of women in robes, nuns.
One was a blond with short hair and of rather short posture. Another was dark-haired and wearing glasses, the finally there was a woman with red hair and Lewis had to slightly shamefully admit quite large 'assets'
The blond woman was the first to say something and she said, almost overcome with glee and joy, but also a certain level of attempted wisdom.
"I see you are admiring the tale of us humanity. That being our holy Celestine raising the form of Roia, the progenitor of all humanity.
The woman with glasses said, butting on in and slightly pushing aside the blond woman.
"As you most surely aware. It just happens that certain people, tend to say that to everyone who enters the domain. But seriously, Sister Gertruid, I have to say this again, everyone knows"
The blond woman who Lewis is now able to identify as Gertrude just nodded her head and said, slightly backing away and starting to move away.
"I know but like it's always so fascinating. The statue is representing so much in its design. its telling our entire history in one single powerful image. Our entire culture in just a powerful display. But I am sorry, sister Beth"
The woman with glasses known as Beth just waved her hand at Gertrude, who quickly dashed off to one of the many rooms of the cathedral to attend to some duty most likely. Lewis, in that moment was able to say something, turning to Beth and the other nun and saying.
"Heyo. The name is Lewis, and I'm from Kent. I was wondering if I could help, you see this goat by me, she's a human who got cursed to be like this. Do you have anything to help her?"
Beth looked down at the goat and then right back up to Lewis and shook her head and said, walking away as she spoke.
"No, we do not. Even if we did, we would not waste them on such a minor thing such a peasant woman being a goat. for it as Celestine says in the book of Eostia, 'give to the many and ye shall have none, give to the few and you shall have many' thus, I must follow our holy mother's example. If you want help, make a donation to our cause and then perhaps we can help"
Lewis felt just a tad bit pissed off as Beth walked away to go pace the halls of the cathedral. The remaining nun however stayed and said, quickly wanting to inform Lewis of something that could be useful.
"Sister Beth, as much as I respect her. Is being a real... Muddy person about this, we can fix up your curse, no problem. It's just Beth needs donations to have enough to host a gathering for a local Lord and well, she gets desperate really fast... Now, your curse from what I can detect is very small, it looks like the goat was hit by a temporary spell, it should wear off in around 300 or so days... But I'm guessing your peasantry, so that's a whole lot of harvesting missed. So I think I can fix her. But! I want one thing from this."
Lewis was glad to have someone willing to help him out in this, even if he was a little bit angry at Beth for leaving and requesting money, but alas, that was life. At least there was the remaining nun, who he had no idea what was called. The nun could probably uncurse Hera but she wanted something, so Lewis asked.
"What exactly do you want here? Do you want money like what this Beth wants or? Do you want something else? And what are you called exactly?"
The remaining nun kept up her smile and said, being as calm and collected as she could be, even as she spoke on what was starting to sound like a rushed tone.
"I want to leave with you. I sense something bad is going to happen, I just need someone to flee with, I need to warn certain people of things, I'm starting to have visions of small red demons trying to defile this city. I need decent people to get me to Celestine or Alicia even. And you seem decent enough. That's my request, take me with you. Now then, if you don't mind, I can start the uncursing. oh, and my name is Daisy. I know it's a silly name and all"
lewis backed away from Hera and daisy, deciding to give them quite a bit of space to do whatever they were going to do to uncurse Hera. As he did so, he spoke.
"Yeah, that's ok. I don't mind having you join us on our travels. Just do your magic and you can grab your stuff lassy."
Daisy nodded and got down on one knee and held onto the sides of Hera and started quietly chanting for around five minutes before with a small poof of smoke, there stood Hera, in her human form. Wearing her incredibly impractical armor and looking incredibly confused. Hera almost immediately said.
"By Celestine's fucking hair! I have seen things I can never unsee! I have lived days! Days! I say in the care of a insane man named Frank! I got to experience the majestic taste of hay... it's incredible... I have so much to report back to Alicia, she needs to know some things about Hay."
Daisy and Lewis both backed away a little as Hera began to pace around the cathedral, looking at everything around her like some sort of forging creature. It is very possible she was altered slightly by the time she spent in the form of a goat, or maybe this was just what she was like as a human. Maybe not. All the duo knew was that were soon following Hera to some unknown alleyway.
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