First Day's Trial

You walk into the room you played in yesterday, after some difficulty finding your way, only to find that everyone is already awake. A large pot of coffee sits on the table, and Irina pours you a cup, which you gladly accept. Also on the table is an assortment of breakfast pastries and cheeses — you opt for a few slices of mozzarella as well as a papaya custard.

As everyone eats their food and drinks their coffee, Irina commences the meeting. "We have gathered here today to officially commence the tests to see if our new friend here fits in with the rest of us. Before that though, I would like to express gratitude to Violet for making all the pastries for today." You raise an eyebrow towards Violet — when did she get time to do that? She shrugs in response, "I only need three hours of sleep — bit of an eldritch gift, so to speak."

Irina resumes talking, "how this works is each of us six has a trial prepared for you. Most of them will only take a single day, but I will warn you in advance that Violet's might take two, given how thorough she is, and Qilen tends to be quite slow to warm up to people, so there's no telling how long that'll take; the fastest person took one day and the slowest took a month." "Wait, how many people tried to join before I did?" "You would be the fourth aside from the core six." Huh, three before you but none joined; you wonder whether that was because they failed or because they decided not to join at the end.

Irina brings a small-necked clay jar up from the ground under her chair. "This is the jar which holds the votes. I'll deposit a single white marble now as a ceremonial start to your trials." She grabs a small box out from the table and lifts a singular white marble from within said box. She deposits the marble in, pushing it into the jar. You look at the jar with curiosity, "what's to stop someone from changing someone else's vote, or getting an extra marble to throw the count off?" Irina responds, "there exist only six black marbles, and each of us has a single black and a single white marble. Should you join we'll get a seventh black marble made, but it takes the craftsman who makes them two weeks to make the black ones." She pauses. "As for the vote changing," she hands you the jar, and you turn the jar out, but the marble doesn't follow. You look down the neck, and see a rubber stopper with a small hole within the neck. Curiously, you push your finger in, and the rubber gives, permitting your finger to access its hole.

You remove your finger, "huh. So how are we going to check the votes?" Irina pulls out a warhammer, "that would be a job for Bessy here." Your eyes widen at the giant hammer, but you nod, your curiosity sated. "And that," Irina finishes, "concludes the ceremony." Everyone except Irina goes their separate ways. "Once you figure out whose trial you want to attempt, let me know." "Why are you administering it?" "Because I'm the only one whose logistical skills don't suck." Aaron chuckles at this, and Giovanni simply shrugs his shoulders in response.