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I was running on scorched earth, my mouth filled with bitterness, the air thick with the scent of sulfur. A mighty deer, the likes of which I had never seen in my life, stood in my way. Its antlers were twice as big as its body, they shimmered with a blood-golden light, and its huge eyes glowed with the same color. It lifted its foot smoothly and tapped its hoof against the ground in the same graceful motion. Cracks opened in the ground, one of them opened under my feet, and I fell into a pit where black flames raged.

A terrible rumbling sound cut short my nightmare. I woke up and felt a burning thirst in my mouth. I got out of bed and rushed to the jug of water to pour it into my beak. I felt the water pouring down my throat, but it did not bring moisture and freshness, instead only increased the dryness and burning pain. I was terrified. Before I fully recovered, a fat, foul-smelling parasite fell on my head. The thing bit me and clung to my feathers. With a quick movement I peeled it off and crushed it with my foot, then raised my head to the ceiling where it had fallen from. The floorboards above were rotten, a disgusting bloody-pus-colored slime oozed from the gaps, and there were many more of the same worms crawling in it.

There was another rumble, and I realized it was coming from outside. As I approached the window, the wind from outside blew the shutters open, causing me to fall on my back. The sky in the distance was clear, but clouds had thickened over the guild. The rumbling sounded for the third time. A golden lightning flashed in the sky and struck the wooden frame of the window, causing it to burst into flames. I poured the rest of the water from the jug onto the fire, but the flames grew even hotter and spread to the walls. Then I tried to create a dome that would encompass the fire, shrink it, and extinguish it. But my magic was powerless against the raging elements.

Thus, the guild of Kaldenburg lost its home. The building went up in flames very quickly, and the mages didn't immediately realize what was happening. If it wasn't for my fellow guildmates helping me out of the room, I would have suffocated and burned to death. If I had told them right then that the fire was because of me, and not just now on these pages, maybe they would have thrown me back into the flames. That would have been fair: I realized it was a punishment from the offended gods.

***

His Lordship has been magnanimous. He allowed us to stay in his castle and set up a temporary residence for the guild. After recovering from what had happened and helping the others, I decided to start making things right that day. First, I had to straighten out the madman who started it all.

I found Safaxer in the tavern, in his rented room. The gods had let him know they were angry, too. There were feathers on the floor near the window, drops of blood everywhere, and the dog's face was scratched. He was sitting tiredly on the bed, staring at a point on the wall, and only the creaking of the floorboards beneath my feet brought him out of his trance.

It turned out that that very morning two, as he thought, frightened wild birds had burst into his room and scratched him before he could drive them away. He explained that it was the thunderstorm that had frightened them. I told him directly that the gods had sent us a punishment, and now he and I were the reason the mages' guild had burned down, yet he was just scratched. Safaxer listened silently, and then laughed in my face. In his opinion, what had happened was just a series of coincidences, nothing more. He claimed that thunderstorms and winds happen all the time, as do house fires, especially ones as old and in need of repair as the one that burned down.

It was hard to believe that Safaxer was such a stubborn madman or a blind fool. At that moment, however, I was finally disappointed in him, and decided not to fight for his lost soul, but to save my own.

I told him I would not help him anymore and left. An angry grimace immediately appeared on his face. He rushed from the bed and fell upon me, a thirsty and tired little owl. The rabid dog pressed me to the floor with all his weight, and glared at me with his angry eyes, but most frightening of all was his savage grin. His mouth came close to my eyes, and he growled softly, as he had in the forest, that we were in the same boat and would go to the end together, or else everyone would know I was involved.

I wasn't going to fall for his blackmail anymore. At that moment I silently prayed to the gods, repented of what I had done and asked for their help. And they answered my pleas.

A loud noise outside distracted Safaxer. I seized the moment and pushed the madman off me with a magical barrier. It was so powerful that the dog crashed through the ceiling and landed hard on his stomach. I quickly got to my feet, but I couldn't run away; I had to make sure that Safaxer would get away from me and not tell of my involvement.

I formed a protective barrier between us and waited until he was on his feet and ready to talk. It was a tough conversation, but a good punch calmed him down, and I managed to negotiate a truce for myself. We agreed that we would part ways, that I would not participate in his further attempts to please Jedidah without exposing them, and that Safaxer would leave me alone and not volunteer any information about my complicity. After that, I silently walked away from that tavern.

Later that day, I began to make amends and reconnect with our gods. I used my savings to buy cattle and sacrifice them to the offended deities, then visited the temple of the elements and made a generous offering, helped the priests in performing rituals, in caring for the destitute, and began to observe the precepts and to treat the aspects of the offended gods with great reverence. By the end of the week, I began to feel better in body and soul.

At the same time, news reached me of a desecrated funeral in which the priest of Morthial was prevented from burying the body of the deceased in the midst of the ritual. It just suddenly disappeared and then fell out of the sky into a ditch nearby.

He was almost done with the lesser domains. If I hadn't been afraid of being punished and losing everything back then, I would have given it away. But alas, I was left to keep my word and hope he couldn't find a way to solve the paradox.