You groan as you come to for the fourth time that day, and this time your are not tied up in the back of a cart. Progress. Instead you are tied to a chair, this time with chains instead of rope and a circle has been drawn around you.
You recognise it as the sacred circle of Mlaycran. The God of jailers. It would have been drawn by a priest, while reciting the legend where Mlaycran trapped Thafe the God of thieves within a circle of the same design. The reciting of the God's legend would access the divine power of Mlaycran himself by using the priests faith a link. In short, this circle had become an impenetrable jail cell. The chains were most likely from some villagers who didn't truly understand magic.
You however understood it. As the daughter of a mayor your father had convinced several priests of dozens of Gods to teach you magic. You understood the theory and the process. You just didn't have the faith required to form a connection.
This also meant that you were in hot water. People don't just make circles of Mlaycran for anyone. The ingredients to do so are pretty expensive and it takes a fairly high level priest of Mlaycran to perform it, they would at least need to have began the development of the final stages of their signum fidei.
You manage to gather from your spurts of conciousness on the journey that your appearance had changed somewhat. Your once reddish hair has been turned to a pitch black and you have grown more than a fer inches. Your eyes have also become some shade of red, if Sam's mumbling on the ride to the village are to be believed.
Suddenly you hear raised voices from outside the door.
"Damn it Jonathan, she is obviously not human any more."
"So what, Nindorian decrees that all have a right to a fair trial. It matters little how she looks now. Besides, she may know more about what happened there."
"Jonathan I am the Mayor here and I say we ki-"
"A Mayor in name only. We all know any action you take is for your own best interests and not that of the village. If I speak against you most of the village will follow me and mine."
"The priests will never stand for this!"
"HA! Please the local priest is a corrupt old man and everyone knows it. As for that priest of Mlaycran, He may be the real deal but he inst from around here. You know how people are, they wont like nor trust him."
"Be that as it may the girl is a monster."
"And I suppose we will find that out at the trial. Wont we."
"You picked an awfully strange time to grow a backbone Jonathan. Anyway the girl has a fully formed signum fidei, one that neither priest has ever seen before. She is too dangerous to be allowed to live!"
A signum fidei. On your back. That is rather ominous. Signum fidei, marks that appear on the backs of magic users. There is a different one for each God. The rule behind a signum fidei is rather simple. The more of it that has formed the more powerful the user. Signum fidei form over time as the person uses more magic. The more complete it is the more powerful magic they can call upon. But you never had the required faith to use magic. You shouldn't even have the barest hints of one, let alone one that is fully formed.
Jonathan is apparently unperturbed by this fact.
"So what, the circle that trapped the thief is the most powerful magical prison in the world. Even a farmer like me knows that much."
"What if she has some way to break it?"
"If she is powerful enough to do that then the moment you try to kill her she would kill you."
There is some more muffled arguments before you hear the Mayor storm off. Jonathan pushes the door open and steps into the room. Walking to the side he grabs a stool and then brings it to just outside the circle.
"So your awake. To be honest a lot of people are surprised your alive. Granted it's not doing you any favours. Hell there have already been a couple of guys with relatives in your village that have tried killing you. One should have succeeded even"
The way he words that is odd. Should of succeeded. It bothers you slightly.
"What do you mean, should of?"
"I mean he stabbed you through the heart with a dagger. Everyone thought that you were going to die, but the wound closed itself in minutes. A massive wind picked up and your wound began to close itself. When it healed the wind stopped."
He leans forward then. Staring at you, but never going inside the circle.
"What the hell happened at your village. I hate to break it to you Yvette but your not a normal human any more. You may not even be human. For all I know you might not even be Yvette."
[X] I have a signum fidei?
[X] I don't really know what happened at the village.
[X] What will happen to me?
[X] What is a high ranking priest of Mlaycran doing here?
[X] Write in.
Sorry to any people who are also reading the SV version. But this is another update that is pretty much the same. Hopefully in the next update or two they will begin to diverge.