It was as Darrien and I were passing the shrine that we overheard some commotion. The 6 guardians that I had assigned to watch the 2 actually decent shrines were all arguing. I held Darrien back so we could listen in. They all were displeased with their station here. While it was true that Eswirl and Darwo were both deities, there was no one to worship them aside from the Blade Spirits themselves. Krit and Shank forced their family and their chosen champions' families to worship Darwo, but they clearly were not devout. Unless the spirits were there to force them, they were not offering prayers or anything else. The same could be said for the others worshipping Eswirl. A small improvement could be found. The devotion was better as there were more of them, but it was not that sincere. No human outside the Osna people wanted to pray to the spirits at all. They had their own gods. Neither deity of the Blade Spirts had seen fit to even grant the replicas any power at all. The shrines were bigger, but only because they had to house bigger weapons and the spirits paid them.
Fighting like this must mean they were getting discouraged. The original plan was that each of the 26 would take guardianship of a single chicken coop. That would be a huge waste. I was going to step in when a spirit said "If it was going to be so boring, I would have asked to be a servant instead." They all seemed to agree. One from the other shrine said "The servants get to serve and feel useful. It's exciting everyday from what I see of the ones scurrying about after Lord Krit and Lord Shank." I had to agree with that. Krit and Shank loved having servants. It made them feel big and important. Something that was a downside was that all the running around was totally in vain. It was not like they cared too much about their servants. They did not let their servants get kills in battle. They were just shield to protect them until they could kill the enemy. One of his fellow guardians said "If possible, I'd wish Lord David took me on as another servant." The others frown. "Pipe down Uri. No one wants a tiny dagger like us." a carbon copy of him said. "What's that about daggers, Ahu!?"
Guffawing with laughter, a guardian put a placating hand on the rowdy one's shoulder. "It's alright, Ras. Daggers are useful too. Just not as useful as a sword like me." he teased. "Slash off, Droa!" he said in annoyance. His ire turned to the spirit with a sword and shield. Wipe that stupid smirk off your face, Tev! You use a shield to make up for a lack of defense. All of us can see that. The only female of the group laughed. Her name was Qwill. I knew her because all the spirits were taken with her rustic charm and tomboy personality. Even Krit and Shank talked about what they would do if she was their servant. I looked at Darrien. "You can go back to your family. I want to mess with them a bit." He sighed. "I'll go with you. I need to put this weapon in the shrine anyone. Praying to an empty shrine is like being robbed." he said. I could see that. People prayed and made offering believing their god saw them and would care enough to help. Gods were active in this world. If their god was not there, why would they leave offerings or prayers? "You're a good man, Darrien!" I said.
