On the altar, a blinding flash shot out, and I knelt down to take my necklace. For them, it meant so much, yet, even though it was mine, it meant so little to me. Apart from Asher, who always had a positive outlook on life, the remaining group was initially silent; their faces frozen in a serious expression. "Hi Alex," he waved with the old hand of a human woman. "Good day, Asher," I responded. There were only six people here now, including Asher and me, so I extended the greeting, and made a formal bow, to the rest of them. "Do you prefer the name Asher at this time?" "I think I'd like that," Asher answered. “You know this old lady?" Aebshem questioned with a chuckle. "I do," I turned, "Faye," she had accompanied me down onto one of the mortal realms. I could have ordered her to not go, but that would only make her worry, "would you kindly guard Asher and the others?" "Yes, my goddess," she answered without hesitation. She drifted by and past Aebshem. He was alight with pow

"A relic was taken from the church's crypt eleven days prior," Zedro Diringer stated. "What relic!?" Lord Maximilian Carr sprang up and inquired with a yell. "Lord Carr!" The Lord Speaker said in a very firm tone to remind everyone of their manners. Then he let Priest Diringer continue "It is a necklace or an amulet, which belongs to the goddess Alexandra herself. It was thought to have been given to humanity thousands of years ago and to have the power to call the goddess to the mortal plane itself. We did our utmost to protect the church's vaults, but that day, it was gone, stolen by the Black Order of Urien." "Who is this order, exactly?" the Lord Speaker inquired. "As in their name, they worship Urien, the deity of death. They have been a pain in the church's side for a few decades, as the majority of you are well aware. While they sometimes caused trouble or vandalized other houses of worship, they were mostly harmless, thus stopping them was never given any thought. Though

"The head priest Zedro Diringer gave me the assignment of rescuing an amulet, a relic of the church, from the grasp of the cult leader, Aebshem. I was given a team to work on achieving that objective with. I believed it would be challenging to work with the chosen individuals because I hardly knew them and there were some obvious disparities between us, but I accepted the task for it seemed such a crucial aim for my nation and I presumed to give it my all. We traveled to the cult's lair over the course of four days- Wait, actually, five. We waited for it to get dark for the latter part of one day and then, over the hours, it must have passed over to the next day. We approached the entrance carefully, but there were no guards until we had penetrated deep into enemy territory. We reached what had been the main hall of the underground network of the enemy base. At this time, we had dispatched twenty-six enemy combatants, and in hindsight, they were probably just used as bait; as sacrifi

Pointy ears. Since yesterday I was a proud owner of a pair of them. They were long, not the stubby pointed kind but the long kind which pointed upright into the sky. Elves in anime often had these kinds of ears, which just extended straight out of their head or slumped down because of their weight. The second one wasn't an aesthetic I enjoyed. I like the ones I had. You are now aware that I enjoy pointy ears and elves in general. Not that I'm an elf supremacist. I like all other races too, nothing wrong with them. No matter what they are — drow, high, timber, snow—they are all as lovely as each other. Though I'm sure some hated each other more than others, maybe for good reason. I'm no historian and still not that familiar with the history of this world. I wonder if I ever was going to be. My interest in the topic came and went, but was not so great that I actually went and researched the topic. Stereotypically elves are snobbish, great with magic or bows, and detest or otherwis

I noticed a bar nearby, and despite the strange glances I'd gotten from the villagers, I thought this was the perfect time to wet my lips. Even though I thought strangers weren't particularly welcome here, I figured that money would be a good incentive to ease most prejudices. I went in expecting trouble, but my expectations were quickly dispelled: this wasn't any typical drinking establishment with drunken brawls and foul walls. It was a gentleman's residence, with cigar smoke billowing and conversations that never rose above the realm of polite banter. "If you please, bartender," I said as I took a seat at the bar, "give me a drink. Anything's fine." "Of course, sir," he replied, handing me a glossy glass filled with a black liquid. Taking a sip, the taste pleasantly surprised me. I had imagined something bitter, but it had the taste of a sweetness I had never experienced before. "What is that?" I asked in shock. "It's my own special brew. Black Beer, named after the bark of th