"Well, assassin, how do you suppose we should find our way?" This was Kaitlyn's first question to Emil after breakfast. Her tone was exasperated and scolding, and she was well aware of it. The question was rhetorical, but her tone seemingly demanded an answer, one which she was also keenly aware would be unsatisfactory should it be anything short of divine intervention.
Kaitlyn considered Emil's words to invariably have one of 2 effects on her. The first of which was to make her feel her pulse through her entire body, simultaneously causing butterflies and or blushing. The other effect was somewhere between wanting to assault him with fireballs or slaming her head against a wall. There were very few instances of a middle ground. This would surely be the latter.
"We could try asking for directions."
Kaitlyn paused, her mouth agape. She'd forgotten a third reaction: slack-jawed amazement. Usually, it was accompanied by one of the other reactions, but this time it was only being left stupefied. Her limited experience with people and her slightly less limited experience in the world of literature had taught her that men simply didn't ask for directions. She looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "As novel a thought as that is for one of your sex, need I remind you that we need to avoid people?"
"I never said who we'd ask."
"Who could we ask? We can't exactly walk up to the nearest stranger, risking being identified for one of several reasons, on the chance that they may which direction to go, and that they won't attack or report us."
She glanced at him. He was giving that smirk, the one he used when he was up to something or when he was about to do or say something that he knew would annoy her.
"I was thinkin' of someone a bit more trustworthy, like... The Goddess of Puddles."
"You're going to ask the gods for directions? As in 'excuse me, your divine radiance, could you please tell me how to reach Azidon? I fear we are lost?' You couldn't possibly..."
She watched as Emil picked up a leaf from the ground, poured a bit of water from his canteen into his palm, and set the leaf in it. She found her train of thought derailed, and merely stared at him for a moment.
He took a deep breath and focused on the leaf atop the water in his palm, "Miss Goddess of Puddles? I'm sure you're busy with... Goddess things, but if you could spare a moment to help us get to Azidon, we'd be real greatful."
"You seriously expect a god to respond to that?! Shouldn't you have..."
The already soft winds stilled completely and the leaf jumped from his palm, along with the sound of a single drop of water falling into a much larger amount of water. Kaitly found this strange, as this wasn't something that could be done with the amount of water that was... no longer in Emil's palm.
Kaitlyn felt a wave of calmness wash over her with that sound, and she turned her gaze to Emil's face. His left eye was glowing, and he looked to be in thought, which soon shifted to an uneasy expression.
"I don't think I like that look. What's wrong?" Her previous hesitation and scolding were nowhere to be found. Whether she thought he could or not, at the very least, that man had managed some sort of response from... something.
"She says a cup of tea would've been great, and that she can't do much with what we have...." He paused. Kaitlyn found herself holding her breath, waiting for more words. She didn't have to wait for long. "She says she'll ask someone... and to... please call her Seriah?"
"Are you on a first name basis with a literal goddess?!"
"I 'spose I am."
Kaitlyn's jaw once again hung open, as if inviting bugs or food. Here he was, receiving words from deities directly, asking to be called by their name. Things that would make most anyone a pious believer, and he just... shruged it off. That being said, Kaitlyn had a bigger concern. "...exactly who does a goddess ask for help?"
Her answer literally floated into her field of view, in the form of the earlier fallen leaf. It stopped at eye level, not to Emil, but to her, just waiting for her to stare at it, which she obviously did.
The wind around her was calm, but that most certainly was not the case for the leaf, though she dare not touch it and find out.
The leaf spun slowly in the air, unnaturally so, not that it just floating there was any less natural. The leaves movement slowed, until it stopped, it's tip pointing. East-southeast. It wasn't in the opposite direction, but there was the question of "side of the leaf am I supposed to believe?"
Those words passed through her throat silently, unheard by eother Emil or herself, bit the leaf responded. It started to fall in straight line, something which leaves weren't exactly known for doing.
"Well, I suppose we know the way now. Was that... the god of wind?"
"Yup. Seems he opted to help, but I feel like there will be some sort of payment required for his help so far."
She found his words slightly ominous. "What makes you say that?"
"He's known as the 'male wind', and well known for flipping dresses and skirts. I suspect he'll take payment the next time you wear a dress or something."
Kaitlyn could feel her expression sour, "...and if I don't...?" Kaitlyn had heard of the seemingly lecherous god of wind. She figured it would be easy enough to merely not wear dresses or skirts.
"Well, I heard once that angered the god of wind. They got either no breezes or hot breezes during summer, and the coldest winds during winter. Anything not properly shut, like a door or window shutter, would be blown open and shut, or blown in such a way that made it creak. Wind does a lot. If the wind decides it specifically wants to cause you trouble, then you'll have trouble."
That male and a rain puddle....