I sat on my fencepost, staring at Brax. She was gushing about her favorite topic again, the power of Elmaem, and how much better my life would be if I just followed him. I wouldn't have asked her to help me garden if I'd have known she'd be this bad. Some days she was mostly normal, but today, she was in rare form, and I just had to hope she didn't say anything she wasn't supposed to; I didn't want to spend the rest of my life serving a flesh pit just because she was a blabbermouth.
""-and we offer beds and sisterhood and there's so much yummy food, and you get to drink the rootwine every day, twice a day! It's so, so lovely..."
"Isn't proselytizing against the core foundations of your faith or something?" I asked, hopping down and picking up a hoe.
"Well... We're not allowed to talk about Elmaem directly to outsiders, and we're not supposed to share our rituals or code, but I'm allowed to talk about how wonderful it is to be a sister of Elmaem!"
She stepped into my front garden and picked up a shovel, leaning on it like she was just taking a break from working instead of having not yet started.
"I think you'd really like it, Vervex... You could be safe no matter what, and once the conversion ceremony was over, you'd be a real girl!"
I stared at her, icily, and she beamed back, her tightly curled white blonde hair framing her dark skinned face, her spiked, sharp teeth perfect, her eyes shining.
Fuck.
It WOULD be nice to have what she has. But I had my own issues to deal with, and I didn't want to add whatever responsibilities being a sister of Elmaem brought on top of that. Besides, if I moved to the church, who would run the fairy sanctuary? I stopped tilling the earth, and looked at the ground. I think having Brax help would actually slow me down now that I think about it. I straightened up, and looked at her.
"Hey, Brax, it looks like we're done for the day! Many hands and all that, thank you, you should head home, I need to get cleaned up."
She nodded, grinning and passed me the shovel. "Wow, it went so fast! I'm glad I was able to help! I'll head back, but if you need anything else, let me know!"
I watched her leave, her long white robes making it look like she was floating, not a speck of dirt on them. I knew the sisters meant well, but some of them just weren't all there after their conversions...
"Who IS that lady? She's the kind of pretty girl I need around me..." I heard a familiar voice say.
Edward was standing up out of the bushes outside my fence, staring at Brax's retreating figure.
"Were you in my bushes? That's so creepy, why were you in there?" I snapped, not happy at his sudden intrusion into my space.
"Well, Altina keeps giving me vagrancy charges for sleeping on benches, and I have to do a lot of work to pay off the fines, it's just a pain. So I'm sleeping outside of town now, to save money."
"And it has nothing to do with the fact that I run a fairy sanctuary?"
"I mean, well, if I happened to see one or two by surprise, I'd be ok with that I guess..."
I look at the un-tilled, un planted garden, then back to Edward.
"So, Ward, you ever garden before?"
"That's not my name, but yeah, a bit, I helped my mom with her garden back home, why?"
"I'll let you hang around here to garden if you want, you might see a fairy, you might not, they're most likely still asleep, but otherwise you need to leave before I get Altina up here."
"Oh... Well, ok yeah, I'm a hero, heroes do sidequests all the time, so I'll be happy to help! But you need to tell me about that girl who was here..."
I passed him the hoe, and got out a trowel and my bag of seeds and we started working.
"Well, there's not much to tell, she's a sister of Elmaem, she converted... I guess about six moons ago or so? She's been living with them since, trying to help out around town. I know we're not supposed to talk about the sister's lives before conversion, but between you and me, she was the daughter of the tanner. They still talk, but she's a bit different now, and there's talk of sending her to another church so she breaks her ties with her old life fully."
Ward frowned and tilled a bit more slowly. "So... She's not allowed to see her family anymore? That's awful... She doesn't look much like the tanner though, especially her hair, his and his wife's are both dark, I guess she was made to be a holy woman, huh?"
I gave him a funny look. "Well... yeah? She was converted? Anyway, it's dangerous for her family for her to be around them, especially with how... enthusiastic she is about the faith, and how much she talks. It's just better for her to leave if she can."
We gardened in silence for a few minutes, and then Ward put the hoe against the fence.
"Listen, Vex, I appreciate the side quest, but... I need to go into town, I'll be back to help later, ok?"
With that, he jumped the fence, and trotted off to town. I heard a small tinkling noise, and glanced at the window to see Eralia poking her tiny head out sleepily.
"Who was that man?..." She sang, sounding like bells and chimes.
"No one, just a dumbass who is going to get in over his head, go back to sleep, babygirl."
She fluttered her wings, and slipped back inside, leaving me to finish the planting.
~~~
"Hi, Vervex! I see you're about to use the public bath. You know, we sisters have a private bath in the church, it's very nice, and the water has- Oop! Ah, well, it's very nice! You could join us, and never have to use that dirty old public one again!~"
I looked at the bathhouse and wrinkled my nose. It WAS a pain, and despite me having been using the ladies baths for four years now, the old lady who ran the bathhouse always gave me a 'look' when I walked past. If anything about the sisterhood sounded good to me, it was the bathhouse. Still, a life is a lot to give up for a bath.
"Thanks, but no. I'll just stick to the regular bath, thank you. I like being me."
"Well, you could still be you! And cleaner! And also mostly human passing too, if that's-"
"NO. I snarled. "I let the 'real girl' thing slide, but I am a goblin to my CORE, and I am not ashamed of it. Even if I did convert, I would make sure EVERYone knew I was a goblin, I'm proud to be me, and your tricks and manipulations won't work."
As I stared up at her, her eyes welled with tears, and she spoke in a soft, shaky voice. "Oh, oh Vervex, I am so sorry, of course you're proud of who you are, I'm so foolish, I wasn't trying to be manipulative, I was just putting myself in your shoes, and it seems I have a lot of work to do on my acceptance of others, please forgive me, and thank you for helping me grow..."
My stomach churned as I felt the pity well up inside me. She was good. Not in a 'she's good at manipulation' way, but the 'she's a good person' way.
I kind of hated her for that.
I kind of hated myself for hating her for that.
I grumbled, and nodded. "Yeah, I forgive you. Just. remember it, ok?"
She smiled through her tears and grasped me in a hug "I will, thank you for your kindness, Vervex!"
She let me go, and I noticed with a little satisfaction that a bit of dirt had gotten onto her white robes during the hug.
"Oh, and I wanted to ask... Do you know a young gentleman named Edward?" She asked.
"Well, yeah, I know him. He's been here for over a week, why?"
"Well, he wanted to meet with me tomorrow morning and talk about the sisterhood! He told me to tell him all about Elmaem, and that he would love to move into the church, isn't that exciting?"
"Oh, geez, that's..." I stopped. If Ward really was from a far away land, there's a chance he might not know what he was getting into. "Do you know where he is?"
She pointed down the street "I heard he was sleeping on the streets, so I gave him some alms to stay in the inn tonight!"
As she left, I inwardly died a bit. My bath would be a quick one after all, it seemed I had an idiot to save.
~~~
"I can handle it, I'm an adult, I swear! Just please, give me half? I have money..." He whined to an impassive innkeeper.
"No, and no means no, I won't have lightweights passing out at my table again, come back when you can handle your ale, lad."
Ward slumped and poked at his slice of ratmeat pie. I patted him on the shoulder.
"It'll be ok, you'll grow up in no time."
He jumped, and then relaxed when he recognized me. "Oh, hey Vex, you here to have a drink? I'm sorry I left earlier, I can buy you a round, if you like."
"No, not right now, I'm here for you, Ward."
"That's not my name, and what do you mean?"
"Well, I just think you're throwing your life away, and I don't think you realize it. I want to make sure you know what you're getting into."
He slowly ate a bite of pie. "My life?... OH, you mean meeting with Brax? Did she tell you about that? No, I'm just hearing her out, I don't know if I want to covert, just... Spend time with her a bit... Hear her out."
Yeah, he had no idea what was going on.
"Ward, you don't get to pick if you're converted to the sisterhood of Elmaem, it just happens."
He snorted. "What, like a 'your name is written in the book' bullshit? I can deal with that."
"I have no idea what that means, but no, I mean if you connect too deeply to Elmaem, you just convert, you can't stop it. Just knowing too much about him can form the connection needed, it's not your choice."
"Wait, like a cognitohazard? That's... huh."
"Ward, you need to use words and phrases I'll know, but it is a hazard, yes. You'll be converted no matter what if you let her explain him to you."
He took another bit of pie, thinking slowly. "Well... She said converts get cool powers, and some even get wings if they're faithful enough, and I'd have a place to stay... She even said I'd get a stronger body, so I guess it's like a blessing? It might not be so bad to be a little brainwashed, I could save way more people as a hero!"
"No, listen, Ward, the conversion is a physical process, you physically get a new body, your face changes, you get new teeth, it's all of you, that's how he can give his followers wings and stuff, you'd be a living part of him."
"But... I'd have wings? I'd love to be able to fly, I know Brax doesn't have wings, but she said almost all warriors get wings super fast, and-"
"Did she tell you about the other extra parts?"
"The what?"
"The other extra parts, the ones the older sisters have. The extra mouths and eyes in odd places, the tentacles that wrap around their wrists, that stuff?"
He swallowed his pie. "Uh, no, no she didn't. Why do they have that stuff?"
"If I knew, I'd probably be converted, Ward."
He looked down at his empty plate. "Well, I'd be able to stay with her, in the church, surrounded by pretty girls, that's worth... a bit of weirdness, right?"
He wasn't getting it. Time to bring out the big one, I hated to do it, but if he was as boring as I though he was, it'd end his curiosity for good.
"Ward. What's the name of the religion?"
"Uhh, I guess Elmaem?"
"No, that's their god, the religion, Ward, we've said it tonight."
"Oh, um, the sisterhood of Elmaem?"
"Right, and are you a sister?"
"No, I'm- well, I assumed it was just a name for this chapter or something, right?"
"No, Ward, there are no men in the entire religion."
He shifted in his seat. "That doesn't make sense, why would no men convert? It's not that they're not allowed, right?"
I stare at his eyes with a focus that he had to take seriously. "Men do convert. It's rare, but they do."
"Then why did you say there's no men in the church?..."
"Remember the conversion? How it gives you a new body?"
"Yeah, what ab-" His eyes widen in horror and his hands shoot between his legs. "No..." he whispered
"Yeah, you willing to give up little Ward just to impress a girl and get wings?"
He shivered, and his mouth went tight. "N-no... Jesus Vex, you should have led with that, good god..."
"Well, it felt like a personal betrayal of my morals to use that idea as a threat, so I didn't want to if I didn't absolutely have to."
"Morals?... Anyway, I get it now, thank you, I would have gone head first into that... nightmare..."
"No worries, it's just polite, you're new here or whatever anyway."
He put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "You know, you're the nicest person I've met here so far, Vervex...."
I push his hand off.
"Dumbass, I'm only looking out for you because Altina asked me to."
He laughed "Yeah, I assumed, still though, thanks. Anyway... Can I buy you that drink?"
I pretended to think about it for a moment. "Ok, sure thing, Ward, I'll have a drink."
He was still a dumbass, but he wasn't as bad as I'd thought.