Godless and Faithless:2 Chapter 2

Rayner stood in front of Tessa’s shack, his hand over his brow to shield his eyes from the sun’s heat. He’d only just arrived. The usual riot of pickpockets and women soliciting him slowed him down. Visiting Tessa had become a regular event for him and he truly enjoyed the woman’s company to Axel’s amazement.

She was a severe woman at times, with admittedly prudish and old-fashioned notions. Other than that, she was a very good listener with cute kids. They reminded Rayner of the kids he cared for back home. The kids he ultimately failed to help.

From behind him came a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see Tessa. “You move silently. How long were you behind me?”

“With the way things are going in town, I have learned to move quietly and with a sense of haste.” She moved past him to open the door. She muttered and clasped her hands in prayer and the rickety door swung open. “You could have let yourself in.”

“Don’t I need your skill for that, what was it called again? … Closed Entrance.”

“Yes, it is not very useful though. It locks doors but does not make the door itself any stronger than a proper lock, just difficult to break in silently.”

“Why not bless the shack?”

She smiled indulgently. “Not even Alta’s petty gods would bother blessing such a place. That whorehouse does get blessings though.” Her face twisted as she spoke of the brothel.

Stepping inside the well-managed room and taking a seat on the blanketed floor, Rayner stated the reason for his visit. “Madam Grace wanted me to ask you if you could convince the refugee women to stop selling themselves. We know you disapprove.” Tessa was nodding in agreement. “And because of your position as representative of the caravan’s refugees, you could step in and—I don’t know, preach to them or something.”

“I would hate to do that woman a favor but I do owe her for letting me stay at her den of sin for as long as she did. The problem is I have already tried to show the ladies of the streets a different path and they have chosen whoring instead. Also, I am no longer the representative for the refugees.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Tessa.”

“I’m not. I could do very little in the position as events settled down. More competent leadership took over.”

“If that is what you want, then great. But why no luck with the streetwalkers?”

“They owe money and the thugs control the ones who don’t using violence.”

“You mean pimps?”

She sat confused. “I don’t know that word. But if you mean women like Madam Grace, then yes.”

“Madam Grace thinks we can do something about the crime, about everything. Axel doesn’t want to and I don’t think we could help even if he wanted to.”

Their talks always came to this. He would ask her about her troubles but he really wanted to talk of his. She didn’t seem to mind in the least. Rather, she gestured to her lap for him to rest his head.

As the back of his head laid on her thighs, she wiped the sweat from his forehead and spoke gently to him. “Just because people do not speak of you two as openly as before does not mean they have completely forgotten what you boys did. They know that when you left and came back their situation improved. But they do not know how.”

“Everyone had a part to play,” Rayner said humbly. “Besides, I can’t fix systemic poverty and entrenched crime.”

She idled before responding, then stopped wiping his sweat and began to brush his blond hair. “When you left Ridgehill so soon after aiding me and the others, did you do so in order to save Ridgehill?”

Blinking at her question he answered, “No, we got hired to escort Fred Copper’s wife and daughter from the Alea region to Ridgehill.”

The mission had truly gone off the rails, ending with a fight with a dragon. Fred’s wife even ended up being used as a living flame shield by Axel when fighting off a Coalition bandit mage. He struggled not to judge Axel’s brutal choice.

“Exactly, and yet you saved Ridgehill because you moved forward.”

“So, people just want me to try.”

“What else is there but to try. If we fail,” Tessa shrugged, “then we fail. This is the way of life. We are blessed and cursed by the whims of the gods.”

He took her nugget of wisdom to heart, clutching it like a child. He could try. It was the very least he could do. Because unlike others of this world, he was Faithless. A title that prevented him from worshiping gods.

He couldn’t rely on them. He didn’t have to.

Rayner heard an insistent rapping on the door and calls for Tessa to open up. Rising from her lap, he motioned for her to stay behind him.

Rayner greeted the men outside. “Hello, can I help you with something?”

The two men staggered back, shocked. They expected a mother of two, not a youth with bulging muscles and a hard face. “W-we are here to offer you protection but it’s expensive to keep all the men happ—”

Rayner connected his fist with the man’s nose. The man staggered back, clasping his bleeding nose with his hands. Eyes of shock and fury glared back at Rayner. Instead of waiting for the man to spew out threats, Rayner attacked again with a blow that would have broken the man’s jaw, if the attack landed. To the thug’s credit, he expanded the distance between them rather than charging in anger. Too bad.

Closing the distance, Rayner bore down on the man, hauling him up till his legs dangled off the ground. The display of strength halted the other thug who stood positioned to stab Rayner with his knife. Perfect.

Rayner chucked the man into his partner in crime, leaving them a heap on the floor. Then, clapping?

Others had gathered outside of Tessa’s shack to watch what they thought would be a beat-down. They found the thugs being handled like squalling babes instead.

He felt like giving them a bow but showed them his blushing face instead.

Then he took in his actions.