season content notes: violence, abduction

He found his target on steps outside a large building with many people gathered around it. She was bright and joyous, talking with her hands as much as her voice. Many stopped to speak with her, and all went away looking happier for it.

The Sun Iberto knew was not a joyful god, but that was not surprising. The goddes found little cause for joy in the temple these days. Perhaps this one would bring joy and brightness back to Han. A happy thought.

Iberto hesitated for a time but decided the best option was to walk up and introduce himself. The woman spoke freely with so many, it would be an easy way to get close to her.

And so it seemed at first, but the closer he got, the more people fell away, the crowd thinning out until no one stood between himself and his target.

The hunt was up in his blood and he kept his steps slow to not seem a threat. Perhaps that had been a mistake, or perhaps there was something else. But her eyes went wide as she saw him approach and when he was still a dozen paces away she took off running.

He cursed and gave chase. The remaining crowd yelled as they dashed through. Too many people, too much attention. That he ran after her alone was enough to draw unwanted gaze, if he caught her in view of the crowd… No, not worth it. If he named himself here, the monks might hear of it. It was too soon for them to learn what he did.

So, still in sight of the crowd, he stopped chasing, muttered a comment about being ‘owed’ something unspecified — there would be a dozen versions before dawn — and hurried out of sight.

Once out of clear view, he wrapped the goddess’ darkness around him to move unseen and picked up the chase again. She had stopped and was catching her breath, in an alley several blocks down the road. Peering out, looking for pursuit that she could not see.

Iberto didn’t approach openly this time. Something about him had her running at the mere sight of him, and while the chase was a joy, he had a responsibility not to drag this one out. Still cloaked in darkness, he grabbed the woman and had her bound and thrown over his shoulders before she could fight him.

With night deepening around them, he started back to the temple. He grinned to see how the not-trail tying the woman to Han brightened with each step he took. Iberto tried speaking to her a time or two and managed to at least give her his name, but she was not content to accept her capture, and struggled the whole way, cursing him, his non-existent lineage, and even his childhood pet.

~~~

Alright, in hindsight, presenting a potential called as a bound captive to a godde who was all about freedom to go anywhere was not Iberto’s best call. Iberto still didn’t see what else he could have done, but he figured he could ask Han and the new called — sometime when they weren’t quite so angry.

Ah, the new called had grabbed up a statue and was brandishing it at him. Time for a hasty retreat.

With a laugh, Iberto dodged the new called’s attack and slipped out into the hallway. Let them sort out what they would do for themselves. Iberto hoped the new called would not choose to leave, that Han would not let pride prevent him from making the call. They would do well together.

But that was not Iberto’s decision to make. He had his own tasks.

The first, even before reuniting with his goddess, was to return to the city. With no hunt riding him. His clothes were travel-stained, his hair dusty. He took with him a small pack. In a city full of travelers, he should have passed unnoticed, unremarked.

He found the opposite. In travelers’ inns and other places full of rough and travel-weary people. Even in inns barely worthy of the name where the hard men of the city gathered and fights were a nightly occurrence — he drew eyes — fearful eyes, wary eyes, cautious eyes. Guards followed him, and door wardens warned him off.

It might well be that the new called was more susceptible to the hunt-fear. It might be that when the hunt was on him, his goddess’ power showed more clearly. It might.

But here was proof that it was more than that. It wasn’t knowledge of his place in the temple or the threat of his hunt that brought the fear. The Great Goddess was right — he was more than he had been, and it showed. Showed enough that he had no place in human society.

Iberto had lived alone since the destruction of his clan and family, more than half his life. Isolated by belief, by upbringing, and by choice, he had no cup companions or surviving family. If anyone had asked him a week before if he would mind being cut off from all society because people feared him, he would have said no. He would have called it a relief — to be feared rather than to live in fear. That he lost nothing when he had nothing to lose. But today… today, knowing he had no place among humans any longer was an oddly sad thought.

He had become the monster in the night.

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