Downtown Druid

They stood there in silence for a moment, sizing one another up. Dantes was covered in blood, and Godfrey was immaculate in a dark waistcoat with gold buttons that matched his face.

Godfrey moved for something in his coat, and Dantes drew his pistol and fired at him just as he threw a handful of coins into the air.

Dantes’s bullet hit the air, and Godfrey was suddenly standing across the room.

Dantes raised his wooden hand and extended one of the wands within it through his palm, sending his will through it. A bolt of lightning shot from it, but once again Godfrey wasn’t there when it struck. Now instead he stood in another part of the room. Dantes hesitated to fire anything else at him, not wanting to waste more resources unnecessarily until he figured out what Godfrey was doing. He began to back up toward the already broken window. He looked at the ground, and realized that Godfrey had transported himself to wherever one of the coins he’d thrown had landed.

Godfrey casually smoothed out his clothes, picking a small piece of lint from his vest and flicking it away from himself.

“Are you done?”

Dantes began to gather what vermin were nearby, though he was having some difficulty. The temple didn’t have an anti-vermin enchantment, but it did have a thoroughly clean staff that gave vermin few reasons to be nearby.

“For now,” he said, as he began loading his pistol.

Godfrey took a few steps toward Danglar’s and raised his hand. “Tsk, tsk, I warned him that his offerings weren’t cutting it anymore.”

Godfrey shrugged as he stood, and leaned against the tall post in the corner of his bed. “It’s alright. I don’t like to lose more people than I have to, but at this point his madness made him near useless anyway. Speeding up his way to my patron’s pockets serves things just as well.”

“The God of Greed.”

Godfrey smiled. “He’s one of them, yes. You aren’t the only one with the blessings of more than one god.”

That gave Dantes pause. He hadn’t exactly discussed it with a priest, but he knew there was something odd about the way in which he was a druid. His dreams indicated that the God of Thieves was watching him just as much as the Mother was. He suspected that his ability to keep his clothes and possessions when he shifted was related to their dual attentions. Not to mention the small audience of other gods they’d gathered. He had been too busy with his revenge to really ponder what all of that meant.

“Do you know how unique you are?” Godfrey continued. “I mean, having the gods watch over you isn’t all that unique. Many people have dreams of the gods, as the gods can be many places at once, and they like to enjoy their little amusements with even the most minor of players. Those actually blessed though, they’re special. Those blessed by more than one god? Now there’s probably few enough of those that you could count them on your hands, and maybe a toe or two.”

Dantes cycled to a fresh wand in his palm as well as the marble twilight. “I thought the sermons were only held downstairs?”

Godfrey chuckled. “Well, how would you like to be one of the only mortals blessed by three gods?”

Dantes and Jacopo traded notes on where each of the coins were and divided them mentally so one could focus on some, and one the others. Even as he was focusing though, and gathering his will, he felt it waver a little.

“You’re a capable man. That’s been made very clear. Escaped the Pit after clearing it of all your enemies, quietly gathering resources, killing Gaspard and now Danglars, dismantling Mondego’s operation piece by piece. It makes me regret choosing them for my God’s blessing.”

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“Then why did you?” he asked, feeling almost as if he was reading off a script when Godfrey asked it. As if he was being led into the question.

“Because I underestimated you and overestimated them. I thought you were all just little street rats. Vermin I could elevate or damn for my own purposes. You were one of many games I was playing in the city, perhaps if I’d had more focus on this piece… It doesn’t matter. I was wrong. Let me make it up to you. You’re already familiar with how god’s grant blessings. I could give you what you want. I could have Mondego and Mercedes heads brought to you on a golden platter. Only one of them was ever worth a damn anyway. You could take over all of their operations and then some. You’ll find all coincidence and luck to be in your favor, and if your smart enough perhaps a few other gifts as well.”

“As long as my offerings are regular and increase each time.”

Godfrey smiled a bit wider, and shrugged. “Yes, there is that tidbit, but unlike your former friends, all I’ll ask of you for this initial offering, is a single copper piece. How simple would it be to just offer two the next time? And three the time after that? With how much gold you’ve accumulated that would be almost nothing. You’ll be old and gray, fattened on fine foods, and wearing the finest silks. You’ll likely die sandwiched between two young beautiful whores long before your favor runs dry. The God of Greed and the God of Thieves are close brothers, so I’m certain there’d be no issue with them sharing a blessed, and the Mother well, how much greener could this city get with the right support?”

Dantes was listening carefully, caught in the rhythm of Godfrey’s words. Life hadn’t been easy. It was a struggle for everything he’d ever had. Much of that struggle was his own fault. Having everything just handed to him. His arms started to relax and fall to his side.

Godfrey’s smile widened, and he took a couple steps forward. “We can make it a handshake deal right now. First thing I’ll do is call off the guards that are coming up the steps.”

Dantes took a step toward him.

“Don’t be an idiot,” said Jacopo in his mind, finding that their connection was being weakened somehow. He couldn’t fully see the contents of Dantes’s mind as he usually could. It was like the connection between them was through honey rather than air.

Dantes kept walking toward Godfrey and reached out his hand.

“No!” screamed Jacopo in his mind, driving his teeth into his shoulder.

Dantes reached out for Godfrey’s hand, Godfrey’s eyes were glowing with golden light, his hair rising slightly from his face as if lifted by a slight wind.

Dantes grabbed Godfrey’s sleeve and pulled him close, jamming the point of the wand he’d had extending from his wooden hand into his stomach.

“Dodge this.”

He released his will and white hot fire blasted from his hand, completely engulfing Godfrey, and blasting him back until he hit the wall. Dantes kept his hand pointed at him until the wand was completely empty.

Jacopo, realizing only at the last moment what Dantes was doing, watched the coins to see if Godfrey had managed to teleport away, but there was no sign he’d moved.

Once the wand had burnt out Dantes let it fall from his hand and squinted into the flames at the end of the room.

“Well, I can’t say I’m not disappointed by your choice,” came a voice from beyond the flames. A silhouette walked through them until Godfrey stood in front of the fire which reflected against his now bare gold skin lighting the room. “You’re only going to be making things harder for yourself. In the end, you’re going to be doing my bidding whether you want to or not.”

Dantes stared at him, he initially thought that he was completely unharmed, but his enhanced senses picked up the slightest twinge in Godfrey’s voice, the barest discomfort in the way he was holding himself. It was minor, but the blast of flame had hurt him.

Heavy footsteps approached the door to the room.

“Oh, that’s the guard. As you can expect, I’ll no longer be helping you with them.”

Dantes shrugged. “I thought I made it clear I didn’t need your help. Were you too stupid to pick up on that?”

For just a moment Godfrey’s smile dipped, and that made Dantes flash one of his own.

Dantes ran for the same window that Danglars had been running toward, and threw himself out of it with his arms folded across his face and his legs tucked beneath him to protect both himself and Jacopo. In mid-air they shifted themselves into roaches and landed on two of the twenty pigeons that Dantes had summoned to fly beneath the window. Gripping those pigeon’s backs, they flew back toward the garden, one more foe of Dantes’s enemies killed, and a new one joining the board against him.

“I was really hoping that would kill him,” he sent to Jacopo.

“I was really hoping to have more time to eat Danglars. Bodies filled with rich food like that… there are few things that taste so sweet.”

“I guess we’ll both have to live with a bit of regret today.”

“I guess we will.”

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