Seekers of the Flame
"Oh, it's a strange tale indeed. When we were little -- well, Holy Sister was really little, I was, oh, maybe eight? -- I used to tell Holy Sister stories, because daddy was busy in the fields and mama had all she could do in the orchard.
"Anyway, I'd tell these stories, and the ones she liked best, even then, were always the ones about the Frog God. Back then, I thought he was just a story, a frog who lived in a swamp and was really a god, and he'd be clever enough to keep from being eaten by the egrets and otters and big fish, and he'd have a harem of girl frogs and all the eggs would belong to him and things like that. And Holy Sister believed every single word, didn't you?"
She looks at Elaina, who nods, eyes wide and grinning.
"I did this for years, and I told the stories to all my friends, too, and I told them all I was the Queen of the Frog God Cult and they could join if they promised to do whatever I told them to.
And then, one day, when I was oh, about fourteen -- right, Holy Sister? You were ten?" Another nod. "One day, I did something, and it wasn't just me talking about the Frog God, it was the Frog God, talking through me! Holy Sister was ecstatic, she though it was the greatest thing ever, and asked the Frog God all kinds of questions, and all I could do was sit there under the pear tree -- we'd been picking, but it was too hot to stay up on the ladder until the sun got lower -- and listen to everything. It would have been scary, but Holy Sister was right there, and she wasn't afraid, so I decided it was okay.
"I was too tired to climb back up the ladder afterward, and we got a whipping from mama for goofing off -- but Holy Sister kept pestering me to do it again, so I tried to remember exactly what I'd done before -- and a couple days later, I managed it again.
"After that, we talked to the Frog God that way every couple days. He's got a name, but neither of us can say it. I don't think anyone human could. We just call him the Frog God, and he says he's okay with that. He told us everything we ever needed to know about how to worship him, and he gave us powers and taught us to use them."
Evelina pauses, then says a couple words and gestures, and a tiny light, like a candle flame, appears in the air before her face, then flies around the room for a moment before returning and winking out.
"That was the very first thing he taught us to do. To make that little light.
"When I started being able to do things like that, I was seventeen, and we'd been worshiping the Frog God, for real, for three years. When mama and daddy found out, they made me sit down and have a really serious talk with them. They said God -- they're Triunists, they only believe in one -- didn't approve of people playing with spirits, and I needed to stop. I had to tell them the whole thing, that it wasn't just a spirit, it was the Frog God.
"They yelled a bit, tried their hardest to make me admit I was making it all up. Eventually, they calmed down, and I let them talk to the Frog God. They asked lots of questions, and the Frog God answered them all. I thought for sure they'd understand after that, but they kept it up so long, I fell asleep before they stopped.
"When I woke up, they told me I needed to leave home. I needed to stop deceiving and misleading my sister, and using this black spirit magic to convince her I was a prophet and a priestess. They said there were good, honest ways to use magic, even if I was a spirit talker -- but I needed to stop this nonsense first."
Evelina's voice is choked by now, and a tear runs down her cheek.
"The next morning, I packed up what I owned, some clothes and a comb and a little mirror grandmama gave me when I was little, my knife, a bowl and a spoon. Mama gave me a water bottle, some bread and cheese and a few pears, and a sack to carry it all in. I kissed Holy Sister goodbye, but mama and daddy wouldn't kiss me.
"I started walking. I didn't know where to go; I'd never been farther from the farm than the village market, but there was the road, and it had to go somewhere. When it forked, I took the left, always the left. I think I knew it would bring me back home, eventually.
"And two days later, it did -- and there was Holy Sister, standing at the corner of the orchard fence, with a sack just like mine. We started turning whichever way after that. We never went back again."
She looks at her sister, notices and wipes away the tear, now fallen to the corner of her mouth.
"We've been wandering for five years, now. It's always the same. Find a new village, show them a miracle or two, and they get all excited. Start telling them everything about the Frog God, and they start to look worried. Ask them to help support us if we'll help clear away the bugs that eat their crops and clean up their wells so they don't get sick, and they start frowning and suggest we might want to move on.
"Just a few weeks ago, we cured a duke's daughter. She was coughing all the time, and burning up. They said she'd been getting sicker, slowly, for months. They didn't have a healer, I guess, or the one they had didn't know how to help her.
"We cured her, and then started telling the duke and his chamberlain about the Frog God -- and he ordered us out of the house, even though he'd agreed to pay us a purse full of gold if we could save her life. We were used to that, of course -- but the girl's mother, the duchess, caught up to us before we got to the road and slipped us a purse. It wasn't what the duke had offered, but it was enough to buy all new equipment, and there's still enough to keep us eating for a while."
She looks at Elaina's shiny new leathers and shield, and smiles.
"So, you see, there really isn't much of a cult. I think one of my old friends believed me, back when we were kids, before we even started doing miracles, but I haven't seen her since we left home. We had one convert, a couple years ago, a stable boy who left home to follow us, but I still think he mostly wanted to get into Holy Sisters sleeping fur, more than he wanted to follow the Frog God. Doesn't matter, turns out he couldn't swim. At all. And by the time Holy Sister and I could find him in the river, he was dead, not just drowned, but really, genuinely dead."
"So, here we are. Queen of the Frog God cult, and her Holy Sister."