Wizardness

The fist had been training and building their barracks for nearly 4 months. Tobias’s body was a cross hatch of scars. Despite that, Markings from each fist member was clearly visible when he was shirtless.
He had just returned from sealing the ceiling of their new barracks. They had finally finished the first floor. They’d be able to move in to that floor soon, leaving Delta barracks for cooking and eating exclusively. Lee claimed Delta would be returning soon.
Tobias filled his plate. He’d found his appetite continued to grow as his endurance grew. He could easily run 5 laps around the island without being winded on the other end. He and Plain had begun testing themselves. The giant’s endurance seemed to grow apace Tobias’s.
The rest of the Fist had already eaten, he was the last one in. As he dug in, he heard the scuff of the chair next to him. He glanced up. It was a halfling. Which was unusual.
“You humans are interesting.” the halfling said, “every time you lose, you find a way to test the edges of your nature. It’s fascinating.”
“What do you mean by ‘you lose’?” Tobias asked.
“Well, obviously, if we’re in a loop and you only remember echoes. You’re the ones looping. You’re looping because you failed. Which means we won. We’re closer to killing her and preventing the abomination.”
“What?”
“By the abyss. You don’t even know why you’re fighting, do you?” He laughed. “Sure seems like your nurturing failed.”
Tobias returned to his food.
“Do you not care what I have to say?” the halfling asked.
“I do. I’m just really hungry.”
“You humans are so like your patriarch. Your GOD, the Lord of the Stars. So stuck on your needs, your cravings. He’s at fault here. Made her pregnant with his seed.”
Tobias finally stopped eating and looked at the halfling. “Wait, you’re killing your goddess because she shacked up with the human god?”
“She soiled herself. Debased herself with a human god.”
“She picked a pretty good one if you ask me.”
“There are NO good ones! You humans are a disease! Conquering land after land.”
“Are you trying to get a rise out of me?”
“No. I’ve watched you enough in this loop to know you wouldn’t raise to that bait. The very first loop though. By the abyss you were a zealot. You murdered half of us halflings before Leetonio could stop you. He restarted the loop immediately.” The halfling roar with laughter.
Tobias wiped his face. He stood, “I will not be slandered by you.”
“Unlike you humans, we remember everything. Every time I die, I bare a scar.” The halfling pulled up his shirt. “Each one of those scars are from you. You murdered halfings because you hated us.” He lowered his shirt. “But now, you, you fight FOR us. Leetonio told us we were going to stand until we died from exhaustion. You saved us. In other echos, we all eventually died. Even the last one, it was just before you lead the assault you killed the last of us off. You cried when you did. This time, you saved us.” The halfling was yelling. His confusion was plain to Tobias.
“You’re a slave. Slavery is wrong. In this ‘loop’, that was what I was taught. I don’t know why no one else, except Plain, seems bothered by it.”
“You’re the enemy. You must lose.”
“Thanks for the chat and the food. As always, it’s excellent.” Tobias stood and tossed his plate in the pile and grabbed a pitcher of beer and a mug. He left the confused halfling behind.
Tobias found himself at his rock. He watched the waves in the bay. He could just make out White’s Ferry in the distance. The beer was dry and bitter. It was perfect for Tobias’s mood. Tobias let the breeze drift over him, he let his thought go with it. He could, but didn’t, check in on the Fist. They were always there, strings tied to him. Giggles tightest, while Red was just a gossamer strand.
He could feel strands from his village. They were getting fainter, but he knew he could pull them in tight. He saw his mother cooking an evening meal. It was lighter there than it was here, almost mid afternoon. She looked up, looked back at him. She gave him a sad smile.
He moved on, before he reached out to her. She had to have known and been part of the experimentations with raising him.
A scuff of a boot brought him back to the present. Commander Lee was standing next to him. He had his own mug of beer. “Good evening, sir.” Tobias wearily said.
“Good evening, Order Boy.”
“The beer is excellent for a night like this, isn’t it?”
“It’s almost not bitter enough.” Lee sighed. “The easy part’s over now. Tomorrow, the summer of your youth ends. You’ll be plunged into a frigid icy winter, again.”
“It was a rather hot and exhausting summer.”
Lee chuckled. “You’ll miss it. Tomorrow, you’ll be leaving on a mission for the King. I’d like you to bring your Fist together. You need to be formally inducted into the Good God Damn.”
“Now?”
“Now. I had hoped for another week. You earned tonight.”
“Fucking, right we did. Give me thirty minutes.”
Lee nodded and disappeared. Tobias stared out at the darkness, where the light’s of White’s Ferry should be blazing. He pushed himself up. He decided to walk to each fist member, rather than send to them. They earned their time.
Within 30 minutes the full Fist had been assembled. Giggles scowled. Tobias was mildly embarrassed, he’d interrupted a romantic evening between Red and Ronlique. Dar’kid wouldn’t look at Tobias. Even Plain looked irritated.
Commander Lee appeared. He had several trunks with him. Tobias felt a pressure shift. All the anger was shifted to another target. He smiled. Lee fixed him a scowl.
“I have bad news. You won’t get your day off tomorrow. The King has ordered you to enforce a treaty with Faltun. They have been a staunch ally in our war to rescue the Lord of the Stars. Over the past year, the king was murdered and a dispute over the heir. Normally, this isn’t a big deal, but the Regent, is anti-theists. That’s an untenable stance and The Good God Damn, need to deal with it.”
“Anti-theist?” Dar’kid asked. “Do you mean, this Regent is against the existence of gods?”
“Yes. Which certainly means they will align with the halflings” Lee said.
“How can anyone be anti-theist?” Tobias asked.
“Look, I’m going to be blunt. Your education was skewed in a way that this would be baffling to you. That was intentional. Before the war, this stance wasn’t radical. It is now though. The Regent is an old woman. She has been a vocal advocate for deicide for several generations.”
“So we commit regicide to prevent further deicide.” Giggles said dryly.
“If it comes to that, yes. The Godly Sent. It’s in our name. It’s who we are. God sends us. God Damns us. we do good for god, but that good is vile.”
Plain spat. “We are assassins? I thought we were warriors.”
“We are what god needs us to be.” Lee sighed in frustration. “There are key choices that lead to an echo. I learned very quickly that this here, is one. This woman becoming Regent is a thunder clap, it will reverberate across the world. It reverberates across time. We can stop the clap, give ourselves a chance to save our god.”
“Not just our god, but the Halfling’s goddess. And our God’s child. The halfling’s goddess is pregnant with the Lord of the Stars child.” Tobias said.
Lee staggered back, “What? Who told you this? I’ve never heard this!”
“One of the halflings told me today. He started talking with me out of the blue.” Tobias shrugged.
“What an abomination.” Lee said.
“That’s what the halfling said. That’s why they’ve chosen the abyss.”
Lee stared at him wide eyed. He shook his head and blinked rapidly. He nervously licked his lips. “Regardless, we have to stop this regent. She’s causes an echo and that’s enough for me.”
“You said something about an initiation.” Tobias said.
“Oh yes. These trunks here have your uniforms, armor, and other Godly Sent effects. That’s not the important part. You need Godly Sent names.
“I screwed up a few months ago and called Ronlique by her Godly Sent name from the last echo.”
“How do we get these names?” Red asked. “I don’t want to be ‘Red’ and I’m sure Tark doesn’t want to be ‘Order Boy’ forever.”
“They should be a God’s name or god adjacent.”
“Like Leetonio?” Tobias asked.
“Did you figure that out?” Lee asked.
“No, the halfling told me.”
“Yes, my full name is Leetonio. Named after the southern god of Tyranny. I hated it, so I shortened it to Lee.”
Giggles fell into a fit of laughter. “There’s a god of Tyranny? And YOUR Fist decided that it fit you? That’s too perfect.”
Lee’s face reddened.
“I guess I’m off the hook from Leetonio then.” Tobias laughed.
“How do we find these names? Order Boy did not know of other gods.” Plain rumbled. “I do not want my echo name.”
“In each trunk are a book of all the Gods names, past and present. Big guy, you’ve had so many echos, that at this point, there are no new names, unless you take one of Red’s names in the past.”
“Hmm. We have been in more than 500 echos then?”
“There’s just not that many gods that suit you. You have one hour to find a name that suits you.”