“Calm down, Kessler!”
“No, I will not calm down, Kaluna -“
A bit disoriented Ariel stepped outside the door of one of the barracks. She had not had much sleep. To her delight, one barrack had been assigned for the female part of the party. That meant she had bunked with Abalone while sister Freya had preferred a room to herself. Abalone had not minded at all answering all of Ariel’s questions. The older woman had turned out to be just as nice in real life as she had seemed on television and they had ended up talking most of the night.
Kessler, Kaluna, sister Freya and one of the clerics from this side was arguing. Seemed weird in Ariel’s mind. She had not known that Kessler had a temperament but it was obviously that he was agitated the way that he waved his skateboard around. Kaluna tried to catch the arm.
“- What do you mean, your’e not going? You’re the freaking party leader!”
“That is where you are wrong, kid”. Sister Freya was sounding very condescending. Ariel tried to inch closer. “I’m not risking my life going into some Lord’s ruin. Besides, me being here was just for show. This is not Church sanctioned”.
“Not Church sanctioned? You’re a priest. The show on the plaza, you being our leader. My ass. Of course this is a Church sanctioned expedition, why else would we be here?”
“Somebody has to keep an eye on the portal. Stay here to secure the perimeter”, the cleric said.
“Church opened the portals, Church has a base camp on the Other Side, portals are on Church property, party leader is a priest accompanied by clerics! Please spell it out for me?”
“The base camp was sanctioned to protect our side from anything from the Other Side. We need sister Freya here to establish more faith. Besides she is not equipped to handle combat. That is why you have clerics with you. On loan from the Church”.
“What do you mean by ‘on loan from the Church’? We were hired by the Church. To assist in anyway we can in the event of unforeseen circumstances, so you wouldn’t be dependent on the mages opening the portals from our side”.
Now Kaluna had stopped trying to calm Kessler. Instead he took out a document and started reading it.
“So what does it say?” Kessler asked.
“The Church hired us. It says here black on white”.
“Well, this could be interpreted as unforeseen circumstances”, the cleric said with wide arms, “I mean, you’re here now right, thinking you were hired by the Church only to find out that you’re not”.
“Unforeseen circumstances usually implies ‘things that happens from the outside’”
“He’s twisting the words, Kaluna. They are out of their minds!”
“Calm down, Kessler. Freya is there any truth in this?”
Ariel was not the only one noticing the honorary title was missing, because the priest looked annoyed now.
“As I said before, I’m not going anywhere. I stay in the base camp. I don’t know what your contract says, but brother Samuel could be right. If you interpret this as an unforeseen event, you are still obligated to fulfil your contract”.
“Contract, my Lord!” Kessler said with a raised skateboard. It was humming with power now, and Kaluna had to restrain him with a hand once more. “That contract is null and void. You are no better than the Ministry when it comes to worming your way out. What do you expect us to work for free? Is this what this is about? No wonder I got those bad vibes from you, yesterday”.
“I was court ordered to join the party. By his Holiness”, Ariel said not able to keep her mouth shut anymore. All this did not make any sense.
“Wow, you were?” Kessler’s sympathetic look would have felt nice if not for current discussion. “They really didn’t want you to say no, eh?”
“Witches are not as greedy as mages”.
“Kessler!”
“Yeah yeah, Kaluna, Relax. I’m not about to do anything to provoke a holy war. Doesn’t change the fact that she was also hired by the Church. Which brings me back to my first point. Church sanctioned!”
“So what does all this mean?” Ariel looked around. “Why are we here?”
The hero and one of the soldiers approached them. “Are you ready to go? Day’s not getting any longer”.
“Tell me, Abalone, who hired you?” Kaluna asked.
“I did”, the soldier said. Ariel was not sure if it was Alegra or Stone.
Abalone nodded and looked them over. There was a confused expression on her face. She gripped her sword and shield. “Is this what you have been arguing about? When we are about to go on adventure?”
“Some of us are”.
“You got that right, Kessler”. The priest crossed her arms.
“I see, you still haven’t changed your mind Sister Freya?”, the soldier said. “Too bad, we could have used your skills”. He shrugged and said to the others: “Let’s get going”.
“Wait”, Kaluna said. “You have to clarify this for us. Is this a Church sanctioned mission or nor?”
“It’s Church sanctioned, of course”, the soldier said matter of factly. Kessler gloated.
“And Ministry sanctioned”, the soldier continued. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be here. I’m in charge. Stone is my second. You all do what we say. For your own safety”.
“But-“ started Kaluna.
Alegra smiled patiently. “I don’t believe in forcing people. But you are here now, however you ended up here. And I could use your help. We don’t know what we will encounter. We are going into uncharted territory. The only thing we know is that there is a temple. A temple his Holiness, because of sister Freya, wants investigated. So to be frank. I don’t care which of the two agencies recruited you or how. You’re here because you fit my specifications. Don’t be a coward like sister Freya”.
The priest grimaced and looked angry but kept quiet. Kessler smirked.
“Of course we are no cowards! And of course we are coming, right Kaluna? Ariel? This is so cool! To boldly go where no-one has gone before! This is gonna be so much fun!”
Ariel could not help but be smitten by his enthusiasm. The air reflected the lighter mood around her.
“Yeah, sure”. She knew she would regret it.