“Just make sure nobody stops me.”

Ben wasn’t given time to ask what she was going to do before she’d already crossed the boundary to the statue, leaving him to deal with the yelling staff who’d come to stop her as he rushed over and held them back, trying to be as reasonable as he could given the circumstances.

“Now, I know this probably doesn’t look great, but there’s definitely a good reason for this,” He told the two he’d grabbed in his arms, all while trying to keep an eye out for more as they screamed at him. They’d already drawn the eyes of the other visitors but that was always going to happen in a circumstance like that, Ben could only hope that none of them decided to join in on the chaos. The bigger the crowd that tried to push past him, the more he’d have to do to hold them back.

His only option was to try to hope that Thera finished whatever it was she was doing quickly and after a minute it seemed she had. The staff had stopped their yelling and thrashing while the visitors who’d been looking were wearing expressions of either confusion or horror, giving Ben the leeway to look at what she’d done before coming to the same horrible understanding as she had.

In front of Thera was no longer a statue, but instead a man, one free of the petrification that had to have been placed on him hundreds of years ago as what happened all came together.

Ben had wondered if the famous healer, an awakened life mage, who had supposedly created all of the statues surrounding them had been an earth mage as well and it seemed the answer was a firm yes, granting them access to the spell they’d need to do such a thing with the implications of what that meant for every other statue in the room clear as Ben turned his thoughts upward, needing some higher powers to give their input as he screamed into his head.

MYRIAD, HELORI, NARE, ANAILIA! ANYONE LISTENING ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!

<Infinite hells, what happened?> His god asked as the others made themselves known.

<You really can be quite loud when you want to be, can’t you?> Nare added, with Anailia speaking up next.

<Rare for you to call on me, Child.>

<Consider yourself lucky then.> Helori told her. <Once he’s comfortable talking to you it’s getting him to stop that’s the trick.>

So not the time guys. Take a look at where I am and then notice that every statue here is actually someone who’s been petrified for a couple hundred years and let me know what the hell to do about this!

<What!> The gods yelled in one voice before quickly talking amongst themselves and deciding that they needed to inform the others, leaving him alone with Myriad.

You know, I called all of you for advice, not to wait for you to figure it out yourself.

<Well unfortunately, something like this manages to be the sort of thing we need to talk about. For now, go to your girlfriend, it looks like she’s having plenty of struggles about this herself.>

Shit, right.

Taking his god’s advice, Ben dropped the two members of staff before rushing over to her as she tried to handle the very disoriented cyclops, looking like she was feeling deeply out of her element.

But how could she not be? How was one supposed to tell someone that everyone they knew was likely long dead and that they’d been brought back in the middle of the world’s dreaded invasion? That shouldn’t have been a job for anyone, let alone her.

“Where am I?” The cyclops asked in a panic. “I was going out to dinner and then I… I… What’s happening?”

“Just try to calm down a little,” Thera told him gently. “Take a seat. I’m a healer, you’re okay but it’s just going to take some explaining-”

Despite what she was telling him though, the worried look in her eyes was only making the man panic more, making him try to dash off before immediately being caught in Ben’s arms.

Myriad, give me permission to tell Thera to put him to sleep.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

<Granted. Do it and if there’s any issues then I’ll take responsibility.> His god said despite the laws about casually using mind spells on people and he connected to Thera to tell her exactly that which she did without argument. While normally she would hesitate it was obvious that she felt out of her depth enough that having the gods give her an out was a welcome opportunity, and with a quick exertion of mana the man fell in Ben’s arms.

All that leaves is everyone else around. Okay, I’ll do something.

Gently placing him down, Ben turned to face the crowd of onlookers and yelled for their attention.

“Alright, as you’ve all seen we have a bit of a complicated situation on our hands! As the apostle of Myriad and acting representative of the gods, I’ll ask all guests to leave the gallery for the time. As for the staff members, one of you go and pass that message along to the rest of the staff to lock up for the day and gather here!”

The air of authority he’d given himself by saying he was both an apostle and a representative of the gods seemed to have helped since not one person tried to argue with him after. The visitors flooded out and seemed happy to, not wanting to stay to deal with whatever was going to happen from there while the staff went to close the place down while gathering the rest, leaving a few moments where it was only going to be him, Thera, and the now unconscious cyclops alone in the room.

“You okay?” He asked his girlfriend the moment they had some privacy.

“No, this is really too much.”

“I know, just do your best to relax. I’ve told the gods I know and they’re talking to the others to figure out what to do from here. Just take a seat for now, I’ll handle talking to everyone for the time being, okay?”

“Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Thanks Ben.”

“No problem.”

It wasn’t long after that brief exchange that the staff came back, all of them looking uncomfortably worried given whatever word had managed to spread around in that short time.

“Okay, first things first, which of you would be in charge here?”

“I am,” An older man said, stepping forward and looking as nervous as the rest.

“Okay, so I’m not sure how clear it was to everyone but it looks like everything in this room probably wasn’t sculpted but instead petrified. Obviously, this is a complicated issue that nobody could have expected and the gods are currently discussing it. Now, can anyone tell me if this is the entire collection or do you have any more of the statues somewhere?”

“There’s about a dozen more in storage.”

Jesus Christ.

“Okay, does anyone know if any have ever been bought or stolen since they were first discovered?”

“I don’t believe so, no.”

“Okay, good,” Now for the big one. “And have any of them been damaged and repaired?”

Ben had no idea what would happen to any of them once they were unpetrified if they’d received any damage. Would scratches and chips translate to gouges and bleeding? What if an earth mage had repaired the damage or reattached an arm that had broken off? Would that properly unpetrify and if it did would that carry any long-term consequences?

To his small fortune, it seemed the answer was a general no. While they couldn’t be sure there weren't any scratches, in general the staff had made sure to treat the statues with extreme care, believing them to be the hidden works of their city’s greatest healer. At the very least, no limbs had broken off and been re-attached, at least as far as any of them were aware.

Which just means we’ve gotta cross our fingers and hope nothing has been secretly damaged and repaired. Okay, this is probably fine.

<Fine is a bit of a strong word.> His god chimed in.

It’s called optimism. Now hurry up and tell me what we’re supposed to be doing here man. Like, should we even unpetrify them?

It was an obvious question in the end. All of them would be coming back to an objectively worse world, their friends, families, and livelihoods lost to them, with the worst part of all that they’d be coming back to face the second wave. Rather than deal with the horror of all of that, wouldn’t it be kinder to leave them as they were and then worry about awakening them if the world was lucky enough to survive in the end?

It was something he thought was worth considering at least, but Myriad disagreed.

<The longer something is petrified the harder it is to undo.> His god told him. <The fact that Thera can at all could be considered their blessing, after being stuck for a couple centuries it's doubtful anyone else on the planet would have the raw power needed to, but if she ends up dead in the next wave or the one after then that’s the end of the line for these people. We need her to do it.>

Ben let out a sigh.

Fine, I’ll tell her, but she’s putting every one of them to sleep and the gods can send someone over to act as a therapist when they wake up, she shouldn’t have to deal with that.

<I agree. We already have some church officials making their way to you so once she’s done, you can leave it to them.>

Okay, thanks buddy.

“Thera-” He began, only for her to cut him off as she stood up.

“Anailia just told me. Don’t worry, I’ll get it done.”

“I’m less worried about that than you.”

“I’m a healer, this is the sort of thing I should be doing.”

Despite what she said though, she didn’t sound okay as she moved to the first statue to begin the mass unpretrification, with Ben moving to her side to provide the emotional support he could.