Doing the ritual needed an expert, so after a restful night at the inn and Corvayne getting some private time with Spears-Like-Water and Bell, it was breakfast and off to the other side of the tower town.

"Dot, what is the name of the town anyway?" Corvayne asked.

The librarian blinked. "Staffos."

Lady Blood Claw nodded. "Good to know, if we need to come back."

Grunt and Mister I had waved them to go do the ritual, choosing instead to sleep in and eat an extra breakfast. Mister I claimed there was some planning for getting the book, but Corvayne guessed that it was more likely the two were hung over.

Corvayne supposed that Lady could have waited back at the hotel too, but she waved the thought away.

"If you only have you and the girls together, something will happen."

The ritualist had a store in the part of town that was always hidden in shadow. Old lanterns didn't fully push back the looming dark in windowsills, doorways, and the side streets. Corvayne guessed there was probably some sort of sub-dungeon if he wanted to wander through streets risking tower folk trying to mug him, but there was plenty of dungeon if they wanted it staring them in the face, and Corvayne besides that didn't need to leave the central street around the town.

The ritualist's home had skulls with candles augmenting the poor lighting of the shadowy part of town. His house looked a lot like a face or skull, with three bars on a big lit window making teet from two windows arranged to look like eyes.

Lady Blood Claw looked at it and smirked. "Good setup to make you look serious."

Bell, on the other hand, stiffened like a board. "Ill omens. I will not go into that place, we will be cursed."

"Half of us are cursed, which is part of why we are risking our lives to explore dungeons."

Spears nodded at Corvayne. "It's also because you'd get bored without something to fight. Or something to F-"

Bell interrupted Spears to point as the house's lights flared. "Look!"

Deep laughter boomed from the house. Dot, seemingly totally oblivious, went up to the door and knocked, using the sinister brass lion. As she did, a gust of wind pushed dried leaves that Corvayne swore were not there before. The door creaked open, and a hunched and hooded figure stepped away from the door, beckoning.

Dot curtsied. "Why thank you for inviting me in!"

Lady Blood Claw sighed. "We didn't actually awaken her I think."

Corvayne followed them in, with Spears dragging Bell behind them. The robed figure moved around piles of extremely cursed looking things dripping candle wax, and settled into a chair.

A suprisingly smooth male voice called out. "What brings you to this dark corner of Staffos? Do you wish your enemies to bleed out? Or perhaps an ally? Or perhaps are you looking to conceive, and willing to submit to a dark deal for an heir?"

Lady Blood Claw pointed to Corvayne, Spears, and Dot. "No to all that. Subjobs. Three of them."

"Oh. Boring." The man got off his stool. "Do you have Skulls, Aprons, and Shield-shells?"

Corvayne nodded. The man gestured for them to follow and made his way through a room with lots of blood drawings, candles, skulls, and whispering shadows to a pretty boring looking stock room with metal shelves and concrete. It even had a flourecent light.

Spears pointed at it. "That's an anacronism!"

"It's a non magic light, I'd go blind if I had to work by candle light."

Bell was shivering. "What about that other room? This person has blood everywhere, they are a warlock!"

"That's for customers expecting a lot. I keep a subjob circle in this room."

He pointed to a wide part of the floor where a spray-painted circle on the ground was partially obscured by a box labled 'Mummified chicken parts'. The ritualist had to stand straight a moment to move it with his boot. He turned and crouched again, shadowy hood just letting the whites of his eyes through.

"Produce the materials for the first celebrant."

Corvayne handed him a flawless skull, a pristine apron, and a shield. Then he stepped in the circle, careful not to bump into a workbench where the ritualist was gluing a skull together.

The robed man took the materials and set them around the circle. He clapped his hands twice, then touched the sigil.

"Repeat after me: For the system, by the system, in the system, of the system."

Corvayne did so. A bit of energy entered the air.

"Find me the items three. A Crab Apron, A Magick Skull, the Worm from a Damselfly."

As Corvayne repeated the words, he heard Bell say "Doesn't that mean we have the wrong items?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The ritualist waved his hand. "Doesn't matter Gov'ner. You thought they were the right three and they are close enough. You got what, 4 of the 6 words?"

Bell squeaked out. "In the wrong order!"

The man turned back to Corvayne and adjusted the position of the hump on his back. "All right, last line..."

"I will survive, I will thrive, I will strive to make long forgotten wrongs right."

As Corvayne said the words he felt something tighten in his chest then snap loose, and the circle glowed a moment, the shield and apron turning to dust. The robed man took the slightly burnt skull and tossed it in a large basket half full of them.

"You might feel strong as heck now, but it's something nearly every adventurer gets one way or another. You have to fight to keep the playing field even. Who's next?"

Dot Inkwell stepped forward and cheerfully did the ritual herself. Spears was next. Corvayne saw something glow from inside her a moment as she finished the ritual.

"All right, anything else that actually makes me coin?"

Lady Blood Claw paused at that. "If this is the ritual you do the most, to the point you have a permenant circle... why don't you charge for it?"

"Lord of the city pays me to do these free. Also, it doesn't cost skulls. I need skulls for just about all the real rituals."

Bell shied back. "Can we get out of here?"

LBC scoffed at that. "We didn't ask him about what his other rituals are. Also, I think you need to see what he really looks like so you can stop bothering Corvayne about Dot."

The shopkeeper turned to her. "I don't dare with so many women who might be faint of heart."

Lady Blood Claw flicked a gold coin and the man pulled his hood back and straightened. Corvayne was pretty sure the person before him should be modelling somewhere. He also wasn't wearing a shirt under the robe, so with the hood off Corvayne could see he probably had a similar balanced workout routine. Did the ritualist maybe also train people in quarterstaff?

LBC pointed at the man, who had started to look away from the attention. "This man looks like any given ad model pretty boy, and is a perfect hit for a gothy girl adventurer passing through. Just like Dot naturally shaped herself to be a companion for someone who really likes bookworms."

The shopkeeper was blushing. "Calling me pretty boy, are you mocking how ugly I am?"

Corvayne paused. "Lady I think you are absolutely correct."

"Out! Out!" The keeper said. Corvayne looked at Bell and Spears and noted he might want to ask the Ritualist where he got his hair styled. Lady Blood Claw dragged his girlfriends out before they could embarass themselves.

Spears was flabbergasted. "What do they put into the water in town?!"

Bell pointed back. "I didn't understand why men leered until now!"

Corvanye looked around. Blood splattered butcher? Wiped his face and looked like a body builder. That thief, watching them? Perfect jawline under his mask, also clearly had a signet ring. Secret prince. The guy pulling the waste cart, with greasy looking hair over his face? When it parted a moment, perfect features.

"This is the part of town for lonely women?"

Lady Blood Claw nodded. "I had FOUR of them try to give me quests yesterday."

Spears nudged her. "Any takers?"

LBC's voice, normally sort of rough, become positively frigid. "Absolutely not."

Bell looked conflicted. "So then, back on the light side?"

Stepping out of the towers shadow into the morning, Corvayne looked with bell and saw signs that there were women who clearly dressed more colorfully and distinctly that fit into archtypes. Big sister. Huntress who looked clueless about the big city. Suspiciously well poised girl dressed as a waitress with blond curls and a signet ring they had on a neckless. A beggar catgirl who had a faintly glowing crystal in her clevage. A proud looking knight with silvery hair, a broken sword and several wound, clearly ready to refuse any help even though she probably needed money after likely being betrayed and left for dead by her old party.

Lady Blood Claw in fact went up to her and gave her some gold. "I don't want Corvayne to run into her on accident."

Spears nodded. "She seems very dangerous."

Bell huffed. "I'm a beautiful knight."

Corvayne was confused. "If I was at all attracted to proud tough warrior women with silver hair, wouldn't-"

Spears stuffed his mouth with a warm slimey hand. "Don't say it."

Lady Blood Claw was suspiciously gray and facing away. Corvayne removed the psudopod from his mouth, then sighed at Spears and Bell. "You guys. Have some faith. I know who my real sparring partner is, even if my training weapon were to stray."

He caught Lady Blood Claw turn some atomic shade of pink from head to toe, [[Unity]] leaking appreciation. Someone giggled. Dot elbowed Corvayne.

"I envy the friends you made... do you think I could find an adventuring party?"

"Of course. But it's hard work. Books are a good start, but it was when I stepped into the world that I could even start to know that I didn't entirely know myself."

The Tower-Folk looked confused. "I thought all wanderers and adventurers were sure of who they were, not like us simple folk."

"You faced a challenge, and are going to face more. In the process of doing that, you'll become sure of who you are, rather then what others tell you that you should be."

Spears put an arm around Corvayne. "He says that, but he still likes being the hero everything told him he should be."

Dot paused. "So... what should I be?"

Lady Blood Claw stopped and looked at her. "If you are happy at the Library, you need not be anything else. But if you wish to learn more about the world you've read about, you should persue what interest you. If it's books, if it's plants, if it's learning to swing a sword. Find friends to support you. Don't feel trapped somewhere that you don't want to be."

Spears nodded. "When your heart tells you to go somewhere, follow it! It might take fifty thousand years, but you can get there!"

Corvayne had to remember she was talking about him, and not just being horribly lost. Though, thinking about it, he had no room to talk having possibly wandered for that length of time.

Bell straightend up and put a hand on Dot's shoulder. "And don't listen to people that don't understand you."

Dot tilted her head. "I don't really get why you are all telling me this, but I will take it to heart. Now, I need to steal a book for you!"

Lady Blood Claw caught her before she could march to the Library. "First, I want to hear your plan."

"Plan? Miss Blood Claw, I will go into the archives, take it, walk out, hand it to you."

Lady Blood Claw quickly assembled a plan with a stealth robe, a distraction that Grunt would provide, and made Dot promise not to act before she got assistance from Mister I to waylay her grandfather and mother, who had unknown levels and powers related to libaries and might bring in guards, knights, wizards and so on all the way up to the lord of the town who was pulling the strings on some vast conspiricy that ended with helpeless adventurers being married to townsfolk after they were tempted by quests involving teaching them romance.

She did a lot of talking, more then he expected, and she seemed nervous which was out of character for LBC. His first instinct was that he should talk to her tonight at the hotel, which he stopped and examined, instead choosing to follow her. This proved fruitless as by the time he caught up with her, she had found Mister I and they instead went to find Grunt, having left Spears and Bell to help Dot if the girl needed anything for the heist. Corvayne was self reflecting, trying to pin down why Lady Blood Claw felt like a tooth that wasn't sitting quite right after a fight. [[Understanding]] suggested his curses were acting on him in a way that he wasn't used to, but the thought was slippery as he kept thinking about unity feeling a hole or edge inside LBC.

They found Grunt in the market, looking at maps, and dragged him to where Spears and Bell and Dot were, but by the time they got there the girls had gone on some errand and were walking back.

Lady Blood Claw looked impatient. "Okay, so, we have Corvayne's stealth cape. That's an object we can use to help her."

Mister I raised a finger. "We might need to find a stairway up quickly. Is there one in town we can use to proceed to the boss?"

Corvayne greeted his girlfriends and Dot, who pulled The Last Symphony of Amerhost from her bag and handed it to Corvayne. It looked like, despite the name, it was a book of love poems. Corvayne flipped through it, shrugged, and put the book away. He watched as Dot let Lady Blood Claw go through another few minutes of the plan with Mister I and Grunt before he pulled the book back out and showed it off.

LBC turned red. “Why DIDN'T you say anything when you got it?”

Corvayne blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I like hearing you talk.”

There were a lot of angry noises from the girls at that moment, Mister I nodded knowingly, and Grunt actually had a full on hearty laugh, which stopped Spears from berating Corvayne to turn and stare at his large friend, all while Dot looked on, pleased as a pickle. His shadow hands gave him four thumbs up, a rare expression of total agreement. Lady Blood Claw herself switched from vibrant red and blue and orange and eventually clamped down gray. Bell was exasperated, but he didn't feel jealousy through unity, instead some complex vector of frustration. Corvayne felt like he was back on that first week in Cascadia, where he was sure he was missing something important.

Of course, with the confusion that his simple statement caused, it took a few moments for the clatter to die down. Corvayne heard Dot cleared her throat.

“I've decided to join your Party!”