Chapter 293: Miss Miscommunication (1/2)
Cariel blinked, and then straightened. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be any cause for concern, but under their current circumstances, it was a fatal mistake.
”Wha..Who goes there?! Identify yourself!” The University Guard yelled while running in their direction.
”Idiot! What are you doing?!” Julia screamed before grabbing the angel's unresisting arm and pulling her back through the tunnel. After winding through the irregular pathways for a few minutes, they broke through into the streets of the old city. A few minutes of running saw them once more hiding in the abandoned tea shop that had been serving as their base of operations for the time being.
They'd nearly succeeded in infiltrating the University, but Cariel's little episode had thrown away the hours of prep work they'd sunk into bypassing the outer wall. The passage would most likely be guarded from this point onwards, now that the guards had located it's entrance.
”What's wrong with you?!” The cat beastman yelled, once they were finally able to relax. ”Do you have any idea how much effort it took to get that tunnel made? How many people I had to bribe in order to get that Earth Mage to make it? Why in the hells would you give us away like that?!”
The angel looked at her blankly for a moment. ”Well, I got a message from my goddess.”
”That's no…” Julia started to yell, and then frowned, finally begrudgingly asking. ”How does that work? Did she just talk to you in your head, or something?”
Cariel didn't respond initially, instead wandering over to the window to look out at the walls of the University. ”Normally, yes, but this was different. Jumbled somehow. I'm still trying to make sense of it.”
”What did she say? I hope it was important enough to interrupt our infiltration attempt.”
Without looking, the angel replied. ”The part I understand is that I've been failing a lot. I've not only met the Hero once, but twice, and both times I failed to recognize him.”
”We pretty much knew that already. Haven't I basically been saying the same thing?”
Cariel shook her head. ”This is different. I could feel her anger, her frustration with me. I mentioned that I'm something of a screw-up, right? Well, I've never heard her like this before. I think she's running out of patience with me.”
Julia was about to say that the goddess was right to be angry, but held back her words at the last second. She took another look at the angel, and realized that she'd never seen her this depressed. Despite all of the difficulties they'd faced, Cariel had always maintained an upbeat attitude, never letting the situation get her down. Now, she looked ready to give up.
[Whatever happened between her and her goddess is definitely bothering her...Ugh, whatever. I can be mad at her later, I guess.]
”I'm sure she's just upset that it's taking so long. In your defense, you've been busy with other things. Securing transit to this city, surviving a shipwreck, getting rescued by raiders and then joining them, and finally fighting to protect Almir from undead hordes. Honestly, I'm impressed you even had the time to look for the Hero, let along guide him.”
Finally, Cariel looked back at her, a confused mix of emotions threatening to burst free at any moment. Tears were beginning to bead up at the corner of her eyes. ”Really? Then you don't think I've failed?”
”Well, I wouldn't say that, precisely. More like you've been...delayed. Yeah, that's it. You've been delayed by unforeseen circumstances beyond your control. Completely reasonable. Why, anyone else in your position would have likely floundered in the face of those challenges. You not only persevered, but succeeded, and now you are standing on the threshold of completing your mission. The only thing we have left to do is get past a little wall, nothing to worry about. Quite frankly, it's downright admirable that you've gotten this far.”
”Then...then, you think I can still complete my mission?”
The cat beastman gave her companion a confident grin. ”Don't worry, I'll make sure you can report back to your goddess with news of success.”
With tears pouring down her face, Cariel suddenly gripped her in a bone crushing embrace. ”Thank you so much! I was really worried there for a second, but I'm so glad I have such a great friend watching my back.”
”Urk...can't...breathe.”
Finally letting Julia go, the angel wiped her eyes with the back of one hand, a broad grin on her face. ”Alright! I'm all fired up now. Let's get to work on the next infiltration plan. I have a good feeling about that whole posing as fishermen and landing on the shore near the lighthouse. I bet we could really sell it, after all of our time with boats.”
*Cough, cough* ”We would need a boat for that...well, nevermind. I'm glad you're feeling better. I'll try to come up with something that will work. Worst case scenario, I suppose we can just try to leave a message for that guy...Speaking of which, was there anything else to your goddess's mind thing? Any kind of clue that might help?”
”Hmm, not that I can remember...wait, I think there might have been something else, something about going different ways?”
”What, like we shouldn't try the usual routes or something?” Julia asked.
”Hmm...that sounds about right. I think she was trying to warn me about something.”
”Well, can you message her back and ask her to clarify? This could be important.”
Cariel frowned for a few seconds and then shook her head. ”I think she's busy. That or one of the other angels is screening my prayers.”
”...Is that a thing?”
”Of course. You don't think a god has time to listen to everyone's problems, do you? Unless you are particularly important, your prayers mostly just go to one of the angel clerks. From there, they usually get sent to the one of two places...what were they called again?”
”Some sort of processing location, maybe?”
”No...Ah! I remember. Disposal is the big one. Almost every prayer ends up there. Only a few get sent on to...what was it...uh...stoppage? No...Oh! Storage. Then, in a few years or so, one of the more senior angels might get around to looking at them.”
Julia looked at her companion, aghast. ”It can't really be that bad. I mean, isn't there some kind of category for particularly sincere prayers or something?”
”Not that I know of...but I could have forgotten about it. They were always coming up with new rules in heaven, so it was hard to keep track of them all...” The angel replied in a carefree tone. ”Anyway, what were we doing?”
”Figuring out how we should go about finishing your mission.”
”Hmm, what mission?”
Julia sighed deeply, allowing every ounce of the sheer frustration she'd been feeling over the last few days to drain out of her, before finally grabbing Cariel's shoulder. ”I want you to listen to me very carefully. You are supposed to meet the Hero, and become his guide in the mortal world so that he might save the world when he is needed most. This is a mission given you to by Aminatrea, who is the goddess of the Sun in case you've forgotten.”
”...Right…” The angel responded with a blank look.
”All we need to do is to talk to him a bit, explain your intentions, and then convince him to take you along with him. With the possible exception of that last bit, this shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. Do you think you can remember that?”
She took a moment to return Cariel's blank stare, before sighing again. ”Well, just stick with me and I'll do the talking.”
”Awesome! Thanks, Julia.”
She managed to fend off another rib-crushing hug. ”Now we need to focus on how we're going to meet him in the first place. Considering that last bit of your divine message, I'm guessing we need to think outside of the box. Do something really out of the ordinary.”
”Hmm...” Cariel frowned in thought. ”Can I just blow a hole in the wall?”
”...Let's save that for a last resort.”