"A nameless god’s temple."
The words echoed across the tavern, and deep in his isolated corner, Lucien's finger froze mid-motion. The strand of long golden hair he had been idly twirling slipped from his touch, falling back against his white silk shoulder.
Around him, the rough laughter and frantic prayers of the patrons continued to shake the rafters, but Lucien was no longer listening to their panic. A sharp sense of inconsistency rubbed against his thoughts. A nameless god possessed no divine authority left to steal. Why would someone waste time killing a dead, forgotten sanctuary?
He let his hand drop slowly onto the sticky wooden table, his fingers curling slightly into the wood. The heat of the tavern suddenly felt heavier, thick with the scent of cheap grease and sour alcohol. He closed his eyes for a brief second, testing the logic, but the pieces refused to align. It didn't make sense. He didn't like any of the answers forming in his mind, but sitting here wouldn't change anything. He needed to see the ruins for himself.
Lucien stood up. The white silk of his long dress glided smoothly against the dark edge of the table, the heavy, elegant fabric brushing his ankles as he stepped out from the corner. The distinct, sharp click of his high heels rang out against the floorboards, completely swallowed by the chaos of the room.
As he walked straight through the crowded aisle, a patron backed up directly into his path, only to subconsciously turn left at the last second without ever looking back or realizing why. The tavern simply parted around him like water around a stone, and he stepped across the threshold into the street.
Outside, the midday glare felt just as oppressive as the suffocating tavern.
His tanned skin glowed from the glare of the sun.
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The edge of the dirt road, right under the baking heat, a beggar family sat huddled in the dust. The mother held two small children tightly against her chest, her arms shaking as she lowered her head to avoid the cutting glances of the townspeople passing by. The villagers walked a wide berth around them, lips curled in disgust as their voices dropped to a sharp, venomous hiss.
"They're cursed..."
"I heard the God of Fate completely abandoned their bloodline," another whispered. "That's why the harvest blessings have weakened recently."
Lucien stopped a few paces away, observing the scene from beneath the glare of the sun. He didn't rush forward to help, nor did his face soften with pity; his expression remained entirely detached. Abandoned by fate. The gods built a broken system of arbitrary blessings, and humanity blindly weaponized it to justify their own cruelty against the weak. The townspeople's quickness to blame a broken bloodline felt entirely too convenient, a cheap shield to ignore a much larger threat.
Let them whisper their convenient lies.
He lifted his gaze toward the distant, hazy horizon where the wilderness began, letting the noise of the village fade into absolute silence. Taking a single, deliberate breath to stabilize his focus, he snapped his fingers.
Instantly, the surrounding wind shifted with a violent crack. The sunlight bent unnaturally around his body, twisting the air into a tight spiral that sent dry leaves and dust swirling wildly at his feet. His long golden hair whipped around his shoulders, catching the brilliant light as the vortex crystallized. For a single heartbeat, the physical world fractured like a cracked mirror, the thatched roofs and whispering villagers distorting into a void of shimmering, broken colors.
Then came the sudden drop in pressure.
A sharp wave of confusion hit him as his feet left the village soil. His hearing dulled to absolute static for a brief, disorienting heartbeat, before the world rushed back in with a sudden, heavy layer of absolute silence.
The transition made his vision tilt slightly, his high heels balancing carefully on a patch of damp, slick moss. Lucien stood perfectly still with his eyes closed, letting his equilibrium adjust to the grey, heavy chill of the deep woods.
The silence around him deepened. Only then did he open his eyes.
His gaze settled directly on the sprawling silhouette of the ruined temple looming ahead of him.