Orario, Hestia's Church
Judith
Judith gasped into consciousness. "I… I'm alive?"
A bare rock ceiling she'd seen only a few times greeted her as came back to awareness with a sharpness that-
"Ow." She moaned, closing her eyes as she grasped at her head. Memories came flooding back, thankfully more distant and blurry than they'd been while she was fighting, but with them came pain.
As she was riding through the worst of it a hand caught hers, the feeling distant, yet… incredibly warm. Focusing on that made things a little easier, and with a little time, she blinked back into the light again to find Elric's- her Goddess staring down at her.
Her blue eyes filled with concern, or was it pity?
Judith hated pity.
"Judith-kun?" The Goddess asked softly.
The redhead grunted in response. "Water." Her mouth felt drier than the wells in summer.
"Ah! I'll be right back!" The literal deity scampered away, scrambling through the one room basement to the kitchen thing. Even after Elric's advice, she never could get used to how the Gods would act, it felt like only the older Adventurers really understood it.
Sitting up she addressed her most immediate concerns; phantom pains seemingly vanishing as she scrubbed her fingers over unmarred skin where injuries that she should have had for weeks once were. Elric originally hadn't really said anything about how they'd deal with injuries, but she'd learned early on that nothing short of death would stop him from patching her up and tossing her back to the fucking ants.
It was almost enough to feel human again as the Goddess returned with a glass of water and she finally tasted something other than her Captain's freaky potions.
"Are you… okay?" Hestia tried.
"I… don't know." Judith admitted. She felt like shit, the last few days were the worst of her life -which was a fucking achievement given the life she'd lived- and worse still, she'd asked for every second of it.
She wanted more than anything to never feel powerless again, so the real question was, was it all worth it?
"Can you update my Falna?" She asked after a long moment.
The petite Goddess seemed to hesitate, then seemingly war with herself as she cycled through increasingly confusing expressions. Judith never really got it when Loki did this either, but the others always kinda ignored it, so she did too.
"F-Fine…! But as long as you understand that there's more to life than these numbers alright?"
"Sure?" The Goddess stared at her before letting out a long sigh.
"Good enough…" Hestia sighed. "Come on then, sit up a bit more."
Just going along with it was easier than trying to understand the Deity, so Judith did that, leaning forward and pulling up the surprising fresh shirt-
Did Elric… "Did you change me?"
"Yup!" Hestia chirped back as she cut her finger and leaked divine blood onto the redhead's back.
Judith honestly didn't know whether the following shiver came from the weird tinglyness that always came from having your Falna opened, or from the idea that a Goddess had changed her dirty clothes as she slept. The idea that an entity that was worshipped in parts of the world would do that, is just so bizarre.
Especially the clothes of a…
She cast aside the thought, focusing instead on the feeling of Hestia's fingers seeping into her back. She was a lot gentler in comparison to Loki and a lot quieter. Loki could barely get through a five second silence without making some comment about Judith's scars or the condition of her skin…
Which definitely felt weird looking back.
In contrast, the only thing she could see on Hestia's face was either worry or pity as the Goddess bit her lip from whatever she was seeing, which was its own…
She sighed, trying not to get all defensive, but pity was always just one of those things for street kids. Every kid has some story about some better off fucker trying to rescue them, only for a minor inconvenience to get in the way and then suddenly it's 'too much trouble'.
Some kids play into it, use that pity for all it's worth while it's still there, but she could never bring herself to lower herself like that. To bow and scrape and act all pathetic just to squeeze a few extra coins out of them.
Pity was something given to the weak; she never needed it and she certainly didn't need it now.
Straightening up, she forced out her next words clearly, without the roughness. "Well?"
"Ah… it's um… Mou~!" The Goddess let out a weird sound of frustration. "Can I not show it to you?" Hestia tried, before immediately wilting in the face of Judith's bewilderment. "F-Fine, okay, I'll do it… But just, don't take this as a sign that Elric was right okay? There can be a lot of causes for this kind of growth and-"
The rest of the Goddess' words were lost on Judith as her heart started to beat faster and a strange feeling rose in her at those words.
Hope, anticipation… a dream that had run into wall after wall finally, maybe seeing some kind of light.
"Here…" Hestia offered weakly, handing her the sheet that held her future. Should she keep subjecting herself to Elric's training after learning in brutal detail exactly what that meant, or should she just try and do her own thing?
• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •
Judith (Chapter 29)
Lvl 1
Str - G 266
Vit - G 259
Dex - H 191
Agl - G 204
Mag - I 000
Magic:
Skills:
' ር ,' ረ ጎ .
• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •
Ah.
Her stats that had been nearly stagnant, taking months to get anywhere… had what, in some cases nearly doubled? Months of people telling her to pace herself, outdone by the effort of a few days.
They were shit days, but still only days; days she'd take over and over again alongside anything else Elric could throw at her if this was the result.
"What's this?" She asked, staring at what could only be a weird looking skill, the page nearly shaking in her hand from excitement.
"Oh the skill?" Hestia said, glancing over her shoulder. "It's not uh… fully formed yet."
"Huh…" During training, they'd been shown examples of Falnas, what to look out for and what to do about certain skills and magic. But she'd never seen anything like this before. "How do I…?"
Hestia seemed to wilt even more in the face of Judith's excitement, before reluctantly and almost mopily admitting. "…you need to experience the same thing again."
Judith laughed, how could she not? Elric was right about everything and this just confirmed it. Her future was probably going to involve a lot of pain, but when the rewards were like this?
She'd take it all with a grin.
After fixing her shirt, she spent a few minutes just admiring her Falna as Hestia nagged at her about 'not following in Elric-kun's footsteps', unaware that Judith's mind was already made up. She was grateful to the Goddess obviously, and a little sympathetic given that it probably wasn't easy to worry after someone like El- her Captain.
But well, when she could feel the strength setting in as she tensed and untensed her muscles, there wasn't much that could be said to convince the redhead to get off this path.
She'd follow Elric to the very bedrock of the dungeon if that's where his path led.
Knocking on the wall finally ended the small Goddess' rant, giving them time to respond as Elric's boots appeared at the top of the stairs and Hestia looked almost resigned as the man appeared, looking as unflappable as ever.
Her memories of the last three days were obviously mostly her fighting for life, but Elric was by her side for almost all of it and in that time she saw just how little it all seemed to affect him. Time spent in the dungeon just didn't seem to do anything to him and even his stupid blonde hair refused to do anything but fall perfectly.
It was maddening when just trying the same thing was enough to drive her almost insane.
As he stepped up beside them she could see him glancing at where her wounds should have been, steadily checking to make sure she was alright. Dumbass. She almost smiled before he opened his mouth.
"You look like shit."
"Elric!" Hestia protested.
"Fuck you!" Judith retorted at the same time.
"Judith!" The Goddess turned on her, but she and Elric were already smiling.
"You alright?" He asked.
"I feel like shit." She admitted with a chuckle. "But I'm ready to do it all over again whenever you have the time, Captain." Obviously she wanted to do it now, but she probably needed rest or something, and she obviously couldn't take all his time.
"-Ack!" Hestia let out a weird strangled noise as she rounded on Judith. "Red, how could you betray me like this! You were supposed to help me rein in Elric-kun, not join him!"
The redhead just looked away and whistled innocently, playing along. She'd seen it in the Goddess' eyes after she'd read her Falna; Hestia almost certainly understood how much effort Judith was willing to put into getting stronger. The Goddess just also seemed like the type that couldn't help but say something when the people she cared for kept throwing themselves into danger.
And well, in spite of the pity that came along with that, it was… nice to be cared for in that way. Loki was a lot of things, but she never really felt all that caring.
Elric just snorted. "That'll have to wait, we only have a few days before the expedition and we both have our own training to do before then."
"Wait, the Loki expedition?" Judith perked up. "You're bringing me along?"
He nodded. "And the Captain of the Skadi Familia, though I don't really have an invite for either of you."
Huh. "…Isn't that a problem?"
"Nah, they're obviously trying to win me over, I'm just… extracting that good will for all its worth. They owe me for that shit they pulled at the bar anyway."
Judith felt like she should probably say something in defense of her old Familia, but honestly they deserved it in this case. Even Hestia -who was trying to do her best to look mad- was hiding a smile at the thought.
"Alright, so I'm going then… to the depths of-" Ah, she did say she'd follow him anywhere, but she didn't think it would be quite so fast. "Like as a fighter or?"
"As a baggage girl actually." Elric laughed as she stared at him in shock.
"You've seen the difference between levels, past a certain point even I'll be useless down there."
"Then why are we going?"
"Experience and resources." Elric admitted. "Seeing everything the dungeon has to offer and picking up tips from how the Loki lot deal with monsters and the terrain could save our lives. They also have limited bag space, so we can grab whatever we can carry as long as we're not obvious about it. Leave that part to me."
"To you?" She questioned, still digesting the entire thing. Obviously she wanted to see the dungeon herself, even if it meant being a… baggage carrier.
It was just really sudden, and kind of daunting.
He smiled, holding up a familiar blue ribbon that she could quite-
"Mou!" Their Goddess squawked, snatching the ribbon back from Elric, half her hair suddenly hanging loosely. "Don't use your sneakiness to steal my stuff!"
The man just laughed. "I've got quick fingers; so like I said, just leave that part to me." Huh, she'd obviously known pickpockets before growing up, but he very much didn't strike her as the type. Which was probably the point, knowing him.
"Alright, experience huh? If you think it's worth it, then I'm in." Judith nodded. If mister 'I train every hour of the day' thought it was worth it, then it was worth it. He wouldn't take time away otherwise.
He nodded approvingly. "It'll be pretty simple. I'll be working as an apothecary for the expedition, so you just need to carry supplies related to that, they shouldn't be too heavy. As for the rest, I'll be adding to your armour, so you should bring a full load out. I'll try and make opportunities for us to fight as much as possible."
She groaned at that, her armour was already… "Alright, sounds good, Captain."
He nodded approvingly.
"Then I suppose we just need to talk about what happened to you in the dungeon before Hestia here explodes." He went on simply, yet despite that simplicity, she immediately felt her stomach drop.
"Mou!" Hestia pouted outrageously. "I'm going to explode your face if you're not careful, mister!"
"Can we not talk about this?" Judith tried quietly. She obviously wasn't a fan of talking about personal shit.
"Denied!" Her Goddess immediately vetoed. "If you're going to keep doing this -against my advice I might add- then we need to understand what's going wrong."
"Nothing's wrong!" The redhead protested; sure, she passed out and might have been seeing things, but humans aren't meant to be awake that long in the first place.
"It depends on the root cause to be honest." Elric added calmly. "Either you're running into limits that'll improve with experience and maybe levels, or it's a psychological issue. In which case it might not get better with time."
"I… fine, what do you want to know?"
"Before that, we should probably ask the one who's been in both our heads."
"Ehe~ It's good that you acknowledge my wisdom in such matters." Their Goddess practically inflated with pride and Judith's sinking feeling only got more intense. "As for the problem…" She suddenly pointed at both of them. "Red you think too much! And you Elric-kun, you think too little!"
"I think more than enough, thank you." Elric retorted with a snort.
"About killing things! When was the last time you thought about taking me on a date!" At her words even Judith turned to look incredulously at the Goddess.
"I'm not even going to bother responding to that." He shook his head. "Alright, let's ignore her. Judith, you wanna try explaining it from your point of view?"
So she did, uncomfortably at first, but Elric was pretty good at asking the right questions and before she knew it, she wound up explaining the whole thing.
She started with the basics, of how the lack of sleep affected her physically. How it wore at her as the days went on and made it increasingly hard to focus, before moving on to how it affected her emotionally. How -towards the end- it became almost impossible to cast aside thoughts and feelings. And how she became unable to stop herself from getting lost in her own head because of that.
She even admitted how those conflicting ideas and feelings started to… pull on her in the end. Drag her in so many different directions that she felt like she was coming apart.
At the end of it all, she felt weirdly… relieved to get it all off her chest. To just admit to how much she was struggling with this shit to people who actually gave a fuck to listen.
It was… kinda nice.
Elric hummed at the end of it all. "The memory aspect is something I experience as well." He admitted. "Though it doesn't seem to affect me as much as it does you. As for the rest, it sounds like you need to come to terms with yourself."
"Huh?" Judith uttered, more confused than anything.
"I mean that you need to acknowledge who you are as a person honestly and move on from there." He clarified. "If you're jealous then you're jealous, you obviously don't have to let it rule you, but you also don't have to wallow in shame every time it impacts you."
That… was easier said than done. She knew exactly what he meant, but at the same time, she didn't really know if she could apply it. At least not consistently.
"Well, it's fine." He suddenly went on.
"It's fine?"
"It's our whole thing as Adventurers." He smiled. "We naturally have to overcome ourselves to become more than we are today, whether that's in body or mind. After all, there is no limit to how high we can climb."
Adventurer philosophy. She'd heard similar before of course, from trainers who rarely gave a damn and said almost the same words without a fraction of the passion in her Captain's voice. She felt nothing back then, but… there was just something in his eyes that showed how much he believed in those words.
"I…" She wanted to say more, but out of the corner of her eye she could see their Goddess doing that thing again, so she decided to save it. "Thanks. Any other advice Captain?"
"Advice no, orders yes." He said, his expression the exact same as the one he took while training her, sending a shiver down her spine. "You started slacking off at the end, defaulting back to your old tactics."
"You want me to…"
"Train until it's instinct." He answered like it was natural, and to everyone else -her included- it was. Thing is she'd seen him cycle through so many different styles and techniques while fighting her that it was pretty clear that he'd never done what he was telling her to do. He was just so fucking talented that he could completely skip that part.
And that's not even mentioning that he'd apparently copied the styles that crazy Vice-Captain had used against him.
So it was a little bitter to have him of all people tell her to do it, no matter how right he was.
"After that, hit up the seventh floor, there's potions over there if you need them." He gestured over to a shelved nook in the wall.
"I'll get it done." She promised, though a thought occurred. "What about you?"
"Me? Well I think I'll be borrowing Hestia for a bit."
"Eh?" The Goddess blinked. "Whoa wait, Elric-kun what do you meeeeaa-" She shrieked as he just picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, her dress riding up to show her pure white panties.
And in the face of said literal Divine sight, Judith couldn't really do anything but gape at her Captain's sheer audacity.
"Good luck with your training." He smiled.
"Ah… thank you?" He waved her off and disappeared up the stairs with their struggling Goddess on his shoulder, leaving her alone to process everything.
Why was every Familia she joined so fucking weird?
-
Orario, Interior District
Hestia
"Oh, my eyes are bleeding." Her child said, so calmly that she almost didn't register that she should panic.
"Then stop you idiot!" She shouted, resisting the urge to throttle him from her position on his back, already regretting everything from the moment her own child kidnapped her. Of course, she was kind of into that part… and especially into it when his building defying leaps took them to a room he'd apparently rented on the main street.
Or she was, until she found out that this wasn't a date and he just wanted her to keep an eye on his Falna while he was 'power leveling Alteration' whatever that fucking meant.
Honestly, she loved Elric, truly she did… but she also wanted to strangle him
And she couldn't even do that because of how ridiculously tough the Falna and his skills had made him!
"It's fine, I… oh, that's really burning." He uttered and worse, she could see the blood from over his shoulder. Whatever magicks he was working made his iris glow an almost eerie blue even as the rest of his eye ran bloodshot.
She should stop him, she should really stop him. But at the same time she had no idea what he was doing with only these weak mortal senses to call upon, and she had no idea if there would be any backlash to punching him in the back of the head. Thankfully whatever spell he was casting seemed to run out of juice quickly enough, his eyes dimming as he blinked into thin air.
And yet, despite all that, he still managed to catch her fists from behind his back, because of course he did!
"It's fine." He repeated.
"It's not!" She quite reasonably pointed out, trying to break his awkward grip on her wrists.
"Well it will be, if you let me grab a potion."
It took all her considerable will to relax her arms and sit back, definitely not pouting as her child ran through a pair of health and mana potions. His eye from what she could see from her awkward position rapidly healing like whatever he'd just done had never happened.
"How's it looking back there?"
"What?"
"The skill." He clarified. "Did it, y'know…"
Despite the fact that she should be pouting in protest right now, she couldn't help but take a peak at the alien writing upon her child's back. The skill had utterly captivated her for the last month, the sheer mystery and excitement of exploring it calling to her, again and again. And right now was no different, even if she really should be ignoring it to teach Elric a lesson.
Infuriatingly enough however it had shifted in response to whatever her child was doing. The Alteration skill that had only just reached halfway had responded to whatever self-destructive method Elric was currently employing, growing by a full two levels in the maybe half a minute he'd been staring at a wall.
Infuriating because she knew exactly what came next.
One of these days, he was going to take responsibility for frustrating her like this; even if she had to s-strip in front of him to get the message! Stupid Elric and his stupid antics!
"Hestia?" He asked, his voice dangerously smooth considering where her mind was at… then she looked and saw his face was still covered in blood.
"Shut!" She commanded, shoving her hand in his face and pushing him away so he couldn't see how furiously hot her face felt. "And clean up this blood!"
"Fine, but is it going up or not?" He grumbled, grabbing a linen from the bed to mop up his face.
"…It is."
He grinned at that, once more solidifying her resolve to get him to make up for all this stress he kept putting her under! And definitely not because it made him look roguishly handsome or anything!
"Excellent, I think I might know how to lessen the side effects a little as well…" He trailed off, his eyes spacing out like they often do while he was 'working on his spells'.
"W-What are you even doing?"
"Soul sight." He answered absently, sending a thrill of shock down her.
"Soul sight!?" She parroted incredulously, that was a Godly ability! She'd heard that some Gods retained it after descending but…
"Well, I think it was called Detect Life or something, but I always called it soul sight." She almost sagged in relief at that, so it wasn't soul sight but something else entirely?
"And what does it do?" She tried.
He hummed. "In the game, it used to highlight living beings with a kind of purplish aura. Though for me that doesn't seem to be the case."
"What do you mean that doesn't seem to be the case?"
"Well, I couldn't really see much because it was a bit too… sensitive for the crowds down there. But it definitely didn't look just purple." He stated, though his voice was still distant.
"Then…"
"I'll give it a try in a minute, lemme just tweak the spell a bit." She really shouldn't, but she honestly couldn't help herself as she prodded the bond between them and jumped in the second she got permission from his end. It didn't really do anything right now, but she'd get a vague idea of what he was doing once he started casting.
The bond -what his Falna named 'Yol'- forged a connection not only to her after all, but also to her temple and to the Flame she guarded up in Tenkai. It gave her a touch more leeway with the rules, even if they hadn't really worked out the best way to use it on his end beyond just those weird cutty flames of his.
"It's done." He announced, bringing his hand up to his temple to cast the spell again.
"Don't injure yourself." She poked him, knowing full well he'd just keep casting no matter what.
"Oh." He muttered softly. "I don't think it's supposed to be this colourful…" He trailed off, seemingly engrossed in the sight. And though Hestia couldn't see through his eyes, she could vaguely understand the thrust of his bizarre magic. He was… looking in the right direction to see the souls of others, or perhaps their lifeforce?
"What are you seeing?" She urged.
"A lot of colours, some brighter, some darker." He vaguely explained, as out of the corner of her eye she could see his Alteration creep up another level. "At least it's not blinding anymore." He chuckled, still staring straight at the wooden wall that separated them from the busy street outside.
"Does it feel like those colours mean anything?" She pushed.
"Maybe? I…" He glanced up at her in response and immediately froze. His pupils dilating as he stared unblinkingly up at her, not her mortal shell, but her.
Ah, shit.
The glow disappeared from his eyes, but still he said nothing, just staring up at her as if transfixed.
"D-Did you see?" She asked hesitantly.
Gods… were not simple existences to gaze upon, he could have seen any of a dozen aspects of her, or even the concepts that made up her existence. And she had no idea how any of that would affect a mortal mind.
She should have called this off the second she suspected he was using actual soul sight.
"Elric…?" He blinked this time as she called his name, his eyes refocusing on her with a strange clarity.
"Sorry, I saw… a bit too much." He paused, before smiling. "Pink's a good colour on you."
And suddenly her face was way too hot again.
-
Judith found her motivation and path, and Hestia is down bad for a person who didn't even intend to put her there in the first place.
The next three chapters are up on https://www.patreon.com/c/OneFallLeaf. Hope you all have a great day!
-
Glossary
Sleep and Adventurers
Adventurers as they go up in level can go for longer without sleep naturally, sometimes going days without rest if they really push themselves. This isn't just limited to those with Falnas either, but anyone who grows 'strong' in this world.
Soul Sight
An ability of every God and a key component in how they handle their work as the managers of souls. Despite this, very few retain this ability when they descend to Gekai, with one of those few being the Goddess Freya. Elric's use of it is something that should not have occurred.
Pink
The pink Elric saw is an aspect of Hestia, specifically her 'Vesta' form that often comes out when she starts channeling her Arcanum. It is the aspect of her that she typically takes on while doing her Divine duties, a more serious version of herself in a sense.
Arcanum
A God's authority and power; the Gods intentionally keep this sealed away while on Gekai (the human world) as a condition for their ability to play around down there. Very small uses of this power can be achieved, but anything beyond a certain threshold will see the God in question banished back to Tenkai (the godly realm). This includes the Gods automatic use of Arcanum to heal themselves if they sustain a fatal wound.