The Sun Shines For All
Gavriel had always felt some pity for those at the bottom of society, whether it be the the criminals sentenced to indentured servitude to the state, or those born into abject poverty like the many hominids who risked death everyday just to earn enough to live through the week. He knew he was lucky to be born a dwarf, and he was reminded of that as he watched a young woman hang at the gallows.
He had seen her attend his sermons once every now and then. She mostly came to see what she could get from the temple, but she never stole from them, and always sat through the service whenever she came. It was a shock for Gavriel to hear that she had been caught stealing from a sun elf instead of coming to his temple and asking for whatever she needed. Then again, sun elves were notoriously wicked people, and it wasn’t too uncommon for a hominid to die suddenly after meeting one. But even as the girl kept struggling against the rope on her neck Gavriel felt no compulsion to save her. This was just the way of his world, you suffer and then die by inconveniencing a sun elf. As a dwarf Gavriel himself did not have much footing against them with their magic, even in a land ruled by dwarves you didn’t want to upset the sun elves. He just wished that the world wasn't like this for anyone.
Gavriel turned from the gallows and walked away in contemplative silence. He walked straight away from the town court and through the thick crowd of onlookers before rounding a corner and turning down the road towards his temple, and slowly his mind began to focus on other things, but a thought always came to his mind every other step; Should I have done something? That's when he heard something behind him; the sound of clinking metal armour as he passed by the candlemaker, and when he looked over his shoulder another cleric, this one of a different order, was running to catch up to him. He slowed his marched down the street and allowed her to catch up to him, though this was less because he wanted her company and more because she’d find some other way to annoy him if he didn’t. She was weird for a forge priest, or maybe forge priests were just weird general; they were only priests in town, so maybe he was the weird one. When she did catch up to him she greeted him with the clap on the back with a heavy gauntlet.
“Gavriel, come share a drink with me!” She shouted. The clap on the back just now might have left a bruise.
“I have things to do Lalita, maybe some other time.”
“That’s what you said last time Gavriel. For an acolyte you sure are busy-busy.”
“For a member of Lord Sharl's temple you sure seem to dislike your fellow clergy."
"It's less that I dislike them, and more that I'm the only one stationed in this town for Lord Sharl, ya dummy. We're the only holy-men in this town."
"Wait really? I thought-"
"Did you see that poor girl being hanged at the court just now?"
Gavriel started, stopping midstride to gawk at Lalita. Her habit of abruptly changing the topic was not something he had gotten used to in the month he's been in this town.
"I did. I'm... sorry for her family."
"I am as well. Hey, how about we pay them a visit later today and offer them counsel."
Gavriel went quiet as he walked, walking past the alley that would lead him to his temple. Why didn't he turn to go down it?
"What time should we go visit them? Think they're home right now?" Lalita continued.
"I don't think they'd be at home right now, probably went to watch her hang. If they are home, then they're probably fornicating with other hominids."
"Bit of a rude thing to say Gav. Her parents are probably devasted, I doubt they're mating so soon after a family member was just hanged."
"Then tell me why they're are so many of them around, almost twice as many as the dwarves in Mithrel City."
"Don't ask me why people would want a family, I'm sure you'd find the answer shocking. Gavriel," Lalita stopped walking, "Do you care about the people you are here to look over?"
Gavriel stopped a few feet away from Lalita, releasing a deep breath but not turning back to look at her. "Honestly, I'm not really sure why I should care about any gnome or hominid. If you ask me how I feel about elves then I'd say that everyone would be better off with them gone. But hominids?" Gavriel turned around to face her. "Hominids are a sad bunch of people, but I don't have much pity to offer them."
"And you don't think that wrong of you? What if you had been born a hominid?"
"But I wasn't."
"But what if-"
"But I wasn't." Gavriel said that with more ice in his voice than he intended. Why was she pushing him on this issue? Well, it was too late to simply back down. "I am a dwarf, Gavriel of house Ariel by blood, and a member of conclave of Kin Solahau. I was not born in this word destined to suffer."
Lalita stood quiet for almost a minute, staring with deep green eyes into Gavriel's soul as if searching for something. He looked away incase she found it.
-Gavriel goes back to his temple, prays, and is visited by the girls family. maybe before or after he then runs into them but avoids them, until he eventually has to comfort them.
