Ekari knelt in front of the gilded feather. “Great One. I am in dire need of guidance. Please grant your follower some of your wisdom.”

She knelt there for most of an hour before she heard a reply.

“Child. You call from a Tutorial. What guidance is needed?”

“There is one here. A student, yet … also an instructor. He was clearly chosen by Order’s Voice to instruct. No other of his talent was chosen, and the Voice gave him dispensation - gave him special rules. His contract is only the special rules, nothing else.”

“Interesting but not urgent. You would not call for that alone. What else?”

“He is - this is a Human tutorial but he is not Human. I don’t know what he is. He is too fast, he heals too quickly, he is too hard to kill. He has incredibly high Death affinity. He also knows of something on his planet that makes him believe multiple Great Factions will be interested.”

“Watch and listen. You are my eyes. See what you can find out. If possible, find out what he is. Is he undead?”

“No. He knows a lot about them, but he doesn’t seem to notice the undead wards.” Ekari stopped for a moment. “He has the eyes, sometimes. Eyes of pale blue fire. He hides them, but forgets. It seems like he’s not used to hiding.”

“One who can hide the eyes, yet who is not used to doing so, and who is not undead. That is interesting, but still you have not asked your question.”

“Someone is trying to kill him - several people. He scares our Cleanser, and one of the Trial leads hates how he has changed the way students approach the Trials. Three students as well, though one can no longer act against him. Should I stop them? Or help them?”

“You want to stop them. Interesting. I thought I had burned your idealism out of you. No. Do not stop them, but also do not help them. Watch. If he is powerful enough he will survive. And now - a gift for you. So that you may become a more perfect servant.”

Ekari felt her God’s power ripple through her. It brought pain. The pain as her body and soul were refined to fit her God’s desires and needs.

The connection was broken, but Ekari did as she always did after prayer and opened her Available Paths to see if anything had changed.

She saw the same ugly Tier 4 Path she’d seen for decades. The one she knew her God wanted her to take, but that something had always kept her from even looking at.

Lykandeon’s Slave

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She never checked the words of the Path; she didn’t truly want to know, and she was afraid that if she did, it would feel too much like her God and she would select it. She was her God’s loyal follower, yet something always kept her from choosing to be her God’s slave.

She felt the pain that came from disrespecting her God. She felt the pain that came from even thinking of his Name rather than simply calling him God.

She knew he hadn’t always been her world’s only God. He’d once been a mortal like herself. She’d been well taught, and her teachers had chosen to tell the full history, for all that it was on the edge of heresy at the time.

She knew where the Path ended up. Unquestioning obedience. It was comfortable - that was obvious - her family had all taken one like it, and they were always happy. Everyone she’d grown up with had. Even the few teachers who had once counted themselves as heretics had, eventually.

Most of her home planet had a variant of it; she’d gotten the one that called her God by his Name instead, but even so it was close enough. It was the normal Tier 4, and she was just delaying her way forward by saying she didn’t have it available.

The same way she’d delayed by taking every available Tier 3 Path.

As she started to close the window, she noticed a second Path. A Path she had never seen before. It was Tier 3, but that didn’t matter compared to what it might mean.

Shrouded Hope

This one … Ekari asked for more information. This one might be worth something.

Shrouded Hope

The candle is lit. Will you follow it?

Level 10: Clear Mind

Slowly reduces the effect of long-term mental control and conditioning

Level 25: Shrouded Mind

Hides the effect of Clear Mind when desired. Tier difference applies. Additional protection against the original source

Level 50: Clear Body

Slowly removes externally imposed physical changes

Level 75: Shrouded Body

Allows physical changes removed by Clear Body to be temporarily restored. Limited duration per use. Changes imposed by a formerly linked higher-Tier power cannot be restored

Level 100: Clear Soul

Allows a permanent bond to a higher-Tier entity to be broken. The previously linked higher-Tier entity will believe the user has died. Single use power

The difference between this Path and the one she’d had available for decades could not be clearer. This Path did not offer power. In fact, she suspected that the Level 50 skill would weaken her. She knew the Lykandeon’s Slave path offered power.

Order’s Voice was giving her a choice. Power … or herself. Lykandeon called them deals with the Devil. They were supposed to grant power at the price of being removed from the Light of God. That wasn’t what was offered here.

She had set herself against her God by wanting to help Serenity for no benefit to Lykandeon, and her God had punished her. Warped her. Restricted her. She could do nothing.

Yet apparently her resistance had been Noticed. She had a choice.

Taking the Path would forever bar her from her family, her people, and her world.

She did not mind that it would also bar her from her God.

The new heretic selected her new Path.

It would be difficult to level in the Tutorial - there was nowhere for a Tier 3 to fight - but it looked like a Path that might have a secondary leveling method.

She’d just have to keep her head down and her eyes open.