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Chapter 1: Destiny renewed
"Hold, the line, whatever comes through, we must stop it!" the captain ordered. Several minutes had passed since the explorers had stepped into the portal. Nothing had happed, until the gate had begun to tremble. Captain Undak tightened his grip on his weapon, and prepared for battle. Several moments passed, when a large red figure burst through the portal. He almost gave the order to fire, recognizing what had come back: it was the human. Byon put something down in front of him and almost ripped his helmet from his head. Undak was almost relieved, until he recognized to his horror what the man had brought with him.
"Get me a healer right now!" he bellowed, his voice a mix of authority and fear. A goblin slipped through the ranks and ran up to the man.
"I am healer Jalsi, what happened to her?" the goblin looked at the man kneeling over the broken and bloodied body of Zanik.
"She got hit in the chest… he swatted her across the room with his mace. I think she broke several ribs." Byon was almost panicking.
Jalsi did a quick check of the explorer's torso. "I… I'm sorry. The blow crushed over a dozen ribs in several places, and I'm afraid that the bone is sticking into her vital organs. This is beyond my abilities."
The man began to tremble. "No! This is my fault, I won't let Zanik die!"
The healer put a hand on his shoulder. "You did all you could, Byon. Don't blame yourself." She comforted him. "All we can do now is giving her a worthy goodbye."
"I haven't done all I could." Byon mumbled, holding his hands just above Zanik's body. He closed his eyes and his lips began to move.
Captain Undak moved toward the group. "Byon, did you succeed? Did you destroy the avatar?" Ignoring the goblin, the man did not move. "Please, we need to know if you won. If you retreated to bring Zanik to safety without destroying that thing, we need to-" the warrior kept ignoring the guard. Undak was getting annoyed, and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Byon! Did you destroy the-"
Pushed backwards by the guard, Byon looked up. His eyes radiated a bright light, his mouth forming an incomprehensible mantra. Both the captain and the healer did a step back from surprise. His words reaching their apex, Byon's hands began to glow, and a loud crack that send shivers down the spines of all that could hear it came from Zanik's body. Leaning back, his eyes turned normal.
"What did you do?" Jalsi panicked. Doing another check of Zanik's injuries, she reached a startling conclusion. "The fractures… they're all healed."
"We won, captain. I was right after all." Turning to the portal, he saw it fracture and disappear. Granting the captain a wry smile, Byon allowed unconsciousness to take hold of him.
Their argument could be heard from across the hallway.
"No, you did the most damage with your crossbow. You withered him down before I finished him, and it was your weapon." Byon noted.
"You delivered the finishing blow, and dragged me out of there. You get all the credit." Zanik retorted.
The healer opened the door, and entered the patient wing with her guest. Both the goblin and the human were bandaged, she across her chest, and he had an arm in a sling and a patched temple. Due to Byon's unusual length, the healers had to bring in a second bed and place it sideways at the end of the first, so his legs didn't have to hang on the ground. The healer gave a nod and left again.
At the sight of the visitor, Zanik sat up. "Elder Ur-tag," she acknowledged "I am sorry, I'm not properly-"
Ur-tag waved a hand. "Do not worry, Zanik, I'm not here on official business. How are you, both of you?"
Byon shrugged. "I'm okay. I took a nasty blow to the arm, but nothing that a week rest and a good meal won't fix."
"From what I've heard, you did something back there to save Zanik. What did you do?" the elder inquired.
He hesitated, and turned to Zanik. "I… haven't told anyone yet. Not even you. Please, don't get angry at me, I acted on the moment, and didn't think of what you would think of what I did. I'm sorry."
The goblins were confused. "What did you do?" Zanik asked anxious.
"There are three ways of healing someone. Mundane, through medicine and science, was not an option, it had already failed. Arcane healing can be done, but I didn't have any runes with me. So I took option three: divine healing." He turned away, fixing his gaze on the wall across the room. "I know what you think of the gods, but they were the only option left. I began to pray. I'm not a devout man; you won't see me in the churches of Saradomin every week. Still, I acknowledge the gods as being the highest authority to judge every action. My prayers were answered: by none less than Saradomin himself. And this is what worries me."
"Saradomin don't just answer every prayer for life. If he did, we'd all be immortal. He only saves the lives of those who are not yet done in this world, with great roles to play in events to come. That means that if you survived through his intervention, there must be a reason why. I didn't want to put this onto you again; I just didn't want you to die. I'm sorry, Zanik."
Zanik just blinked. "But what if this was a reward of some sorts?" Ur-tag asked. "Perhaps it was a gift of thanks for defeating Bandos?"
"No. If every god just keeps bringing back their followers as a reward for success, we'd have a new god war on our hands within our lifetime. Mortality is part of life, and nobody will upset that balance." He shook his head. "First thing I'm going to do when I'm back in Lumbridge is visit the church. I need to talk about this."
Zanik clenched her fists. "No, not again! I won't be part of any god's games again! I'm finally free of the curse of Guthix, and now I'm enslaved to Saradomin? I won't play along, you hear me! I am Zanik of the Dorgeshuun, a free goblin, not some kind of toy like I was to Bandos! You do not have some moral high ground over him; you're just as bad as he is! Get someone else to do this job, because I quit!" she yelled at the ceiling, for a lack of focus point for her anger.
"Zanik…" Byon whispered.
"Don't get me wrong, Byon, I am grateful for what you did for me by saving my life, but I'm not going to use that life to carry out some divine plan. I am free, not some kind of slave like I would have been to Bandos." She told him, audibly angry.
Worried about his friend, he turned to the other goblin. "Where has our gear been taken?"
"Do not worry; after we brought you here we stored your possessions away safely. Though removing that expensive suit of armor of yours was quite the job, even for three guards." Ur-tag explained. "It is good to see you are both healing well. I'm afraid I have other business to attend to today, in preparation of the celebration next week."
"What do you mean with celebration?" Zanik asked.
The councilor smiled. "You did not think that we would let this pass without a celebration? The two of you saved our civilization, and destroyed the deity that had enslaved our kind for centuries. We are now finally free. A celebration for the people is at place here, to say the least." He gave them a nod. "I hope you heal soon, and that both of you can attend to the celebration in good health." He left the room, leaving the two heroes to each other's company.
"Huh, I've been doing this work for quite some years now, but I've never had an entire race celebrate my success." Turning to his friend, Byon saw that Zanik wasn't quite as happy. She had her head bowed down and her legs pulled up, her forehead resting on her knees. "Zanik, are you alright?"
"What do you think? Being saddled up with another grand destiny to save the world after nearly dying during the first time around? I just want to live a normal life down here, or in the world above, just anywhere, as long as some god doesn't use me to do his dirty work. This cost me nearly everything: my people, my city, my free will… I want to be free from the gods, that's why the Dorgeshuun fled the surface. I don't want to be part of some divine scheme; I want to be left alone."
She looked up at Byon, a sad look on her face. "Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that you saved my life. I just want you to know that I won't use it to fight the fights of the gods. And I want them to know that as well."
The human thought about her words, then carefully got out of his bed. Sitting down next to his friend, he put his good arm around her. "I'm sorry I dragged you into all of this. I'm not even sure if saving you was possible because of some part you have to play, maybe you survived because of entirely different reasons."
Zanik looked up at her friend. "It was divine meddling, and I don't want to be any part of it. But Byon, I don't blame you for this." She put her arms around him, carefully not pressing her still sore upper body against him. "This isn't your fault. Nothing is."
And there ends chapter 1. Next up, a celebration, and the words of a wise man on Zanik's fate. Read, rate and review!