The morning after

John woke in the morning, not to his alarm as he’d expected, but to an insistent chiming from inside his head. A moment’s confused slapping at his phone, alarm clock and bedside table later, he sat up and looked at the veritable fountain of windows that opened in front of him, the first being one he’d seen the previous night but hadn’t bothered to close.

Clearing the completed Quest windows, John glanced over at the model soldier on his desk and debated seeing if he could raise Malal again for some advice. Opting against it as he didn’t want to become too dependent, he checked the time on his alarm clock and winced at how early it was. Over an hour til he would normally wake. On the plus side, that’d give him time to review the quest rewards, sort his Inventory a bit, and then still have time to get ready for Ashcroft like normal. Maybe if he had time later on he’d summon his pet god for advice, if not… well, he could think on the new Quest throughout the day and try to reach a decision on his own.

The initial rewards - the XP and the Wisdom points - were simple enough. With the Experience that he guessed had come from killing the ghouls the previous day, he was almost at the next Level, and for a moment he debated opening a Barrier to see if he could find something easy to kill. The risk of running into something worse than the ghouls made him discard that idea, and anyway, his new Quest would tip him over if nothing else did. That left the Item rewards.

Observing the bag first revealed something interesting - the thing seemed to have a limited weight capacity, but could store anything considered “gathered crafting materials” in a single slot in his Inventory. Given the need to collect things if he wanted to create a shrine for his new Quest, the timing of what basically amounted to extra storage was perfect. The book meanwhile was filled with details on different ritual practices. Flicking through it, John got the impression that it would help him learn a few abilities related to his Class. Finally, the other two items had their own interesting details.

Getting a massive Charisma boost was amazing - although it only working for five minutes was a pain in the ass. Still, if he needed to talk his way in somewhere, or out of a difficult spot, the bracelet could be incredibly useful. As far as the sharing Mana ability of the sigil went, though, it was a bust currently. If he got himself a whole group of friends and then stacked Int, it could be useful, but as a solo preacher it wasn’t exactly the greatest reward ever. Still, the weight of it felt good around his neck as he equipped it, a solid presence to remind him that all this was really happening.

Climbing out of bed and dressing, John went downstairs; for once he was up before his mother and so he opted to set the table for breakfast before she arrived. He was curious to see if he got a Buff from making food himself; the bonuses he’d gotten from his mom’s cooking the previous day had been frankly ridiculous compared to how much Mana Observe used.

As he ate, John pondered on the second part of his new Quest. Getting a shrine would be a challenge, but one he shelved for now as he had no idea what a shrine key was, nor where he would find the enchanted materials he needed outside of possibly the highly dangerous Barriers. The final option - taking over an existing shrine - sounded like he’d have to fight for it, and he wasn’t exactly building into a Class made for combat so he dismissed that one out of hand. Beyond the issue of obtaining a shrine, however, there was also the business of dedicating it to a god.

Brenda entered the room right around the time that he was reaching the conclusion that he’d need to talk to Malal about the whole thing that evening - the only gods John currently was aware of were the chaotic one that had helped him, Gaia who seemed to be responsible for his system, and the one Malal had referred to as the rat. Of those, Malal and Gaia seemed the obvious ones to choose from, but John wondered what exactly the merits of one over the other would be - or indeed how one was supposed to dedicate a shrine in the first place.

His mother’s hug and gentle appreciation for the fact he’d made breakfast did a lot to keep his spirits high, and despite the whirl of new questions he found himself ready to leave for Ashcroft far earlier than normal; even the fact that his own attempt at breakfast had failed to get him any kind of regen Buff didn’t irritate him as much as he thought it might. In short, with all his new items in his Inventory and a plan to study the textbook for Class specific Skills later that day, John Newman was having a very good morning.

On the far side of town from John, Lady Moira Brighton on the other hand was not having a particularly good morning. She’d been out late the previous night, helping direct a group of her father’s men in clearing out a group of criminal mages and was tired. As far as her father’s men went… well, technically, the men were hers rather than his. But she saw the way they saluted when he walked past, and she was smart enough to know that their loyalty to her was not yet earned when compared to the man they’d served for longer than her entire life.

With those thoughts adding to her tiredness on this particular morning, coffee was not cutting it - even with a tincture one of the Order’s herbalists had added to give it extra pep. Her eyes ached - and she was having to keep it together in front of a very sheepish looking young woman with pale blue eyes and light brown hair, wearing a novice’s uniform. “Let me get this straight, Rebecca,” Moira said with a sigh, glaring at the woman in front of her. “One month ago, during the incident where I led several members of our Order to successfully neutralize a warlock who had invaded Ashcroft, you were assigned to cleanup duty to ensure that anything brought out of the Barrier by accident or intent was not left lying around afterward to cause problems for either us or the mundanes.”

The recruit nodded, trying her best to sink through the floor without much success. Moira continued, gesturing at the fragmented sword lying on a plain black cloth between them. “As part of this, you were tasked with recovering the pieces of Knight Featherston’s sword which was destroyed by dark magic during the encounter. You found most pieces, but one eluded you. Now, missing a piece is not folly - the Lady teaches us that we are all fallible. But why in her name did you wait OVER A MONTH to tell me that there is an enchanted fragment of an Order sword floating around my academy?”

Taking a deep breath, Moira pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine. Fine. It hasn’t caused problems yet, which means hopefully it isn’t anywhere it could get snagged by someone mundane. Maybe it got picked up by someone Abyssal; there’s certainly enough of us at Ashcroft.” Sighing, she turned and stomped to one of the cabinets that lined the plushly carpeted room. Pulling a rough wire pendant out, the paladin returned to the table, sorted through the fragments for a moment and pressed one inside the pendant’s wire net. “This will pull you towards other shards when you get close, and is what you should have used on the night in question if you had been paying attention to the briefing.”

The redhead’s tone was terse and to the point as she gave her orders. “You will find this shard before I decide your penance. And if you run into trouble, you will inform the Order right away instead of waiting, and I cannot believe I have to say this, over a month again. Do you understand, novice?”

The brunette bowed her head instantly. “I understand, Lady Brighton.”

Shaking her own head as the other woman left the room, Moira debated if she had time to return to her chambers. The Blessing had left her flustered last night, and a moment's release before she got ready to attend Ashcroft might be… but no, there was no time. It really was a horrid morning.