Going to Brighton

John saw the first message from Matilda as he and Rebecca arrived outside the gates of the Brighton estate, and promptly shoved his phone into his inventory. He’d already messaged his mom to let her know he’d be late home as he was visiting a classmate to discuss a project - not totally a lie, as he’d made small talk with Rebecca on the walk about his menu plans for Henrique’s class - and so the device losing signal wouldn’t be a problem. At least, not as much of a problem as getting what he presumed were risqué pictures of his girlfriend might be right when he was doing his best to convince the Order that he was one of the good guys.

The walk itself had been one he couldn’t avoid. As soon as he’d left the area with the font, Rebecca had basically marched him out of the temple, sent a quick text to someone, presumably her superiors, and led him away from the graveyard the instant he’d locked the door behind them. As she’d been practically vibrating at the time, with one hand resting twitchily on her bag (and, presumably, the daggers it contained), he’d wisely opted to go along with her plan. His brief exploration of the temple’s inner sanctum had however come with a few gains - namely, Quests. A lot of Quests. John had been a little shocked when the second one appeared, and as for the fourth…

The first one was simple enough - asides from the question of what exactly counted as a registered faithful. John obviously did, but given there was no shrine to Malal in the temple, he was currently assuming it only registered those loyal to Gaia. But if that was the case, why was the number only 1/10? He’d been scratching his head on that question while peering into the other rooms surrounding the font, the first being a very empty looking workshop, when the second Quest appeared.

John was immensely glad that he’d been in another room, and with Rebecca not in a party with him when that Quest popped up. Interestingly, unlike most of his Quests recently, it actually had an option to refuse - a blinking Y/N at the bottom that he basically didn’t even think about before hitting the option to accept. He’d have agreed to do it without any reward, and would be telling Malal so the next time the pair talked - the god had done so much for him, including helping him save Matilda. At this point, he owed the divinity one.

With that Quest accepted, John barely had time to turn to leave the room when the next one appeared - this one in the more familiar blue box.

Unlike Mal’s Quest, Gaia’s hadn’t given him the option to refuse. Instead, it had four blinking options at the bottom - one for each god, letting him make his choice. Given the rest of the text, he rather assumed that the chance meeting it mentioned would be his way of finding someone local that could get him access to whoever was worshipping the gods currently… or people who could “overwhelm” the existing believers, whatever that meant.

The second room had been rather boring after that - it looked like a map room of sorts, with a small model of the temple in it and not much else - the area around the temple was blank, a black void that hurt his eyes to look at too long. But the final room? That, it turned out, was not a room at all but actually a tiny apartment. Bedroom, kitchenette, sofa. And then a Quest that made him almost as glad Rebecca wasn’t partied with him as Malal’s had.

It seemed that Gaia had decided to make rather explicit her views on the discussion between him and Matilda the previous day when his girlfriend had raised the way the goddess’s Quest had pushed him towards having multiple partners. He’d made a note as soon as he finished reading the Quest text to discuss the whole thing with Matilda, but that had been before Rebecca dragged him away from the temple; there hadn’t really been a chance since.

Back in the present, John stared up at the high walls and wrought iron gate in front of him and wondered if there was any way he could get out of this situation. Brighton Manor loomed in a way that none of the other houses in this expensive part of town managed. Rumour had it that Moira’s father had paid to have the entire estate moved brick by brick from England at some point almost two decades ago - certainly, the building looked like it had spent a hundred years or more in the damp, rain-swept British Isles rather than the sunny suburbia of the posh end of Springfield.

Rebecca had pressed the buzzer and spoken briefly while he was dwelling on the appearance of the outside of the estate, and he returned his attention to her right as the gates began to swing open. Before John could say anything, his classmate grabbed his hand and tugged him inside - giving the impression of a woman eager to introduce him to a friend, rather than that of a novice about to introduce him to the senior members of her religious sect.

As soon as the gates closed behind them, however, her manner changed. Smoothing her skirt, she dragged him off the gravel driveway and out of sight of anyone peering in through the gates - and then raised her hand, the sky turning into an oil-slick overhead as she did so.

John turned around slowly, trying to get his bearings in the Order’s headquarter barrier. The high walls of the Brighton estate were still present - but what in the real world were rolling lawns and ornamental ponds were here filled with outbuildings and what he assumed were training grounds - rough areas fenced in with equipment racks propped up nearby. The main building was still as imposing - but massive banners featuring a rather impressive shield and rose motif hung either side of the main entrance. Additionally, the entrance itself was now flanked by four men in mail armor who moved to attention as Rebecca and John approached.

“Novice Fallows, the Warden instructed us to direct you to the chapel.” One of the guards stepped forward from the line, eyeing John suspiciously. “Will you require an escort for your… guest?”

The chapel was cool and delicately lit by the light coming through a stained glass depiction of a woman holding a rose between her cupped palms, when Rebecca led John into it a short time later. He was both glad and nervous that she’d guided him - the manor had so many twisting passageways, he’d have never found it otherwise. The issue with that and the reasons for his nervousness, of course, was that he wasn’t sure he could find his way out without an escort either.

Hoping that it wouldn’t come to it, he took in the figure standing on the far side of the room, staring up at the window. Moira Brighton looked just about as stunning as ever - although he vaguely noted in passing that seeing her in jeans and a t-shirt rather than her Ashcroft red would have had given him a hard time not thinking a whole bunch of sinful thoughts, were it not for the time he’d spent with his girlfriend the previous day. That self-control proved handy when the redhead turned and regarded him with an assessing look.

“Novice, this is the man?” Moira asked, one hand playing with her necklace as she spoke. Rebecca nodded, swallowing and stepping to the side as the Warden approached John. “Rebecca tells me that you blessed her weapon the other day, and that you are in truth guided by our Lady.” It wasn’t a question, Moira’s tone made it clear that she was just stating a fact as the paladin gestured to a table at one side of the chamber on which lay a small dagger. “Show me.”