NOVEL NEXT 34: First Meetings
Before Valencia knew what was happening, she was pulled back into the realm of consciousness as a weak little girl began dragging her out of the alley. Getting propped up against a wall, Valencia’s eyes widened as a golden glow began emanating from the little girl’s hands.
“Heal! Heal! Is everything alright?!” The girl cried, tearing up as she wiped blood from Valencia’s face.
Feeling her only wound on her hand close as if it had never existed, Valencia reached out to reassure the little girl. “I’m alright! I’m alright! No need to keep healing, you can stop now!”
“That’s goo-” The little girl began before falling to her knees in front of Valencia. Coughing and throwing up globs of dark blood, the little girl clung onto Valencia’s shoulders for support.
“Are you okay?!” Valenca stammered, bolting back to her feet, “Why are you healing me if you’re this hurt?!”
“I-I’m... not... hurt,” The girl choked out as her thin body was wracked with coughs. “This is just what my powers do to me...”
“Then why did you heal me?!” Valencia faltered before beginning to pat the girl on the back. “I’m sorry I can’t do much else to help you right now.”
“It’s... okay,” The girl reassured as the blood stopped coming up, “I did it... I did it because I thought you needed help. If I can help you, it makes the blood worth it.”
“I... see.” Valencia paused, feeling her heart begin to stir in ways it never had before. “What’s your name? How old are you?”
“I’m Astrid,” The girl smiled, pushing herself upright while wiping the last traces of blood off her face. Pointing back towards where she came, Astrid made some general hand motions to articulate her path, “I was just on my way home from school. You know, the one back over there?”
Replying with an “I see, I’m at a nearby school as well, opposite direction though,” Valencia made a mental note to look a little further into the school before beginning to walk along with Astrid.
Some reason, Valencia couldn’t help but want to get close to this girl...
---
“Well, yeah, that’s kinda how I met her,” Valencia shrugged, using her tea cup to hide the faint embarrassment climbing onto her face.
“It’s so cute~ it’s no wonder you fell so deeply for her,” Sylvia chimed in, sipping some tea of her own as she basked in the sweetness of the story. “Can I ask some questions?”
“Sure, ask away,” Valencia consented, leaning back into her chair and getting comfortable. “Also, could I have a refill?”
“Of course,” Sylvia insisted, reaching over and pouring Valencia a fresh cup. “I even have a little plant in there that keeps it warm, a new plant since the last time we’ve talked. Anyway, did you end up transferring to lovely Astrid’s school?”
“Yeah, after a couple months, though, to not make it too suspicious,” Valencia answered without a pause.
“Okay, then for the big one, where were Astrid’s parents? Shouldn’t they be walking her home if the city was this unsafe? If you weren’t there, wouldn’t she have been mugged that day?” Sylvia stroked her chin, taking a small sip of tea as her eyebrows furrowed.
“Now... that’s harder to say, or, well, easy to say, but it just takes a while,” Valencia sighed, leaning to the side and propping her chin up with one arm. “The easier question is would Astrid have gotten robbed? I’ve talked to her about it after I became friends with her and it turns out she turns at the intersection before, so she wouldn’t have gotten robbed right then and there.”
“That stuff with her parents... that’s not... that’s not very good,” Sylvia tapped her chin, “She’s lucky she never got into any trouble then.”
“Well, after that day I began skipping the last fifteen minutes of class everyday from my school to walk over to her school to walk her home,” Valencia looked away, using a cough to hide her embarrassment. “But, yeah, I’m really glad nothing happened before I met her.”
“Aww, look at you,” Sylvia grinned, a teasing expression dancing across her face, “Dedicating your delinquent habits to a good cause for once.”
Rolling her eyes, Valencia took a sip of her tea to moisten her throat before continuing. “So, with her parents though, the situation is... a lot more complicated.”
“Hmm? Why do you say that?” Sylvia’s eyes glimmered, leaning forward as a faint shadow came across her face. “Did they wrong dear little Astrid?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry, I already took care of them,” Valencia reached forward, patting Sylvia’s hand. “I mean, well, I didn’t kill them, but I already taught them a lesson.”
“Good.” Sylvia’s eyes sharpened as a whole different side of her manifested for a moment before disappearing once more. “Anyway, I apologize for disrupting, you can continue.”
“No worries. The situation just boils down to the fact that Astrid’s parents were actually part of a cult.” Valencia explained, motioning with her hands as disdain began to creep into her voice. “Some faith-born god was gathering followers to gain more power and Astrid’s parents were apparently upper-echelon leaders within this cult.”
“Ew, this is why faith-born deities can be problematic at times...” Sylvia sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose. “I mean, of course, not all are bad, but we Primordial Deities never had to deal with this.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the worst of it. Astrid wasn’t aware of this at all, her parents just raised her as a normal child.” Valencia continued her explanation, leaning back into her chair. “I knew something was off but I couldn’t place it. But they really didn’t care about her, she was just being raised to become a future sacrifice for this deity. They wanted to give him her power so he could become some sort of messiah.”
“How could parents treat their child like that?” Sylvia lamented, crestfallen as she took another sip of tea. “Absolutely unacceptable.”
“I agree,” Valencia clenched her fist, a bolt of anger coursing through her just thinking back to the situation.
Crushing some unsuspecting rocks beside their little table to let off a little steam, Valencia scattered them off into the nearby forest. “Pretty much nothing happened for the next ten years though. I thought they were amicable enough even if they seemed to not care about Astrid much. They brought her to the hospital whenever she needed and everything, treated me nicely whenever I came over to hang out.”
“Then?” Sylvia tilted her head, anticipating a very drastic turn around.
“Well, it seemed their cult had taken enough of a foothold in the city by the time Astrid and I were halfway through our last year in university.” Valencia groaned. “Looking back, we should’ve left the city when we entered but... well, it wouldn’t have made a difference since it happened during holiday break.”
Drumming her fingers against the table, Valencia took a few more sips of tea while gathering her thoughts. “Well, they wanted to talk to her alone, so I stayed home... and... well, then I became worried after a whole day had gone by without hearing from Astrid. Then, feeling a spike of divine energy from an unknown deity, I rushed over.”
“Oh, you didn’t know about them before?” Sylvia interjected with a quick question.
“Yeah, I totally didn’t, it was a bad oversight from me, I just forgot to check since we were so far in the country.” Valencia scowled. “I was so... so DUMB. Anyway, I rushed over and found Astrid in the middle of being sacrificed to him.”
Nodding as Sylvia covered her mouth and gasped a “No...” Valencia could only sigh. “I forcibly stopped the ritual, rescued Astrid, and beat up the imbecile. Then, Astrid managed to stay awake for a couple weeks fighting off his divine energy, but... before long she fell into a coma, and then I had to deify her to save her life. And... well... the rest is history and here we are.”
