Jin finds herself seated in one of the chairs facing the large plush looking chair that the librarian sits in now.

She takes a moment to organize the items on the table in front of her. Not that there’s much; just her notebook, pencil, chalkboard, and chalk. The librarian insisted on the board for some reason. She looks back up at the librarian who has been glaring at her through half lidded eyes.

She waits for several moments, and decides to be the first to break the silent stalemate. “I suppose the first information I would like to know is—“

“You’ll learn what I want you to learn girl.”

Jin matches the librarian’s glare. “And what would that be?”

The old woman wrinkles her nose. “Respect would be a great starter, but I don’t expect you to know the first thing about that.”

“Tsk.” Actively antagonizing her best source of information is probably a bad idea, but…

“Neither do you apparently. Don’t you know how disrespectful it is to strike a stranger?”

The librarian snorts derisively, but something in her expression softens. Her next comment comes as a surprise. “What year was it when that artifact trapped you?”

Jin blinks, but she’s far too used to being called on in lectures to not answer. “1392 P.E. according to the New Celestial calendar.”

The librarian frowns. “Then you truly are ignorant.”

Jin is about to snap back an insult of her own but… Something tells her the comment wasn’t meant that way. Instead she waits, since the woman gets a contemplative hue to her, ever scowling, face.

“I hated learning about your time, Cleric. All the driving forces were greed, fear, or madness. 1393 on your calendar was when your people began to destroy themselves, but the root of the rot went far further back.”

Woah, this sounds like an actual history lesson? If heavily colored by bias, but little of history isn’t. Jin sits straighter.

The librarian looks towards a window facing the village, thinking. “I know little of the horrors your people inflicted upon themselves. I actively avoided learning, and this room has no records of it. But after eight years, the Gods arrived and put an end to it. We mark that as the first year of the Traveler. The year is 239 T.G. today.”

Jin breathes in sharply. Assuming she followed the story properly, that means… She’s been in a stasis for 248 years. This is the information she was looking for, isn’t it? Two hundred and fifty years… Shit. Her stomach sinks. She doesn’t know what she was expecting but hell… She doesn’t want to think too much about that right now. Not right now. Forcibly she drags her thoughts away from time.

Only partially, because what the hell kind of battery life did that hourglass have?! She knew the mana coils in its power supply were dense, but she never stopped to consider the sheer longevity it must have had. In her haste to escape the wolves she didn’t think to check how much juice it had left, either.

She decides to ask something else entirely before she forgets. “What does T.G. stand for?”

“Traveler’s Glory.”

Of course. Jin rolls her eyes.

“It’s a better measure than post enlightenment. As if magic is something to be enlightened about. Ha!”

Jin shrugs, not too concerned about calendar labels. She doesn’t want to look even slightly emotional in front of this woman, so hastily she finds another question to ask before she starts thinking. “What about the moon? What happened to it? And the rings?”

“Your ‘mages’ destroyed it. The ring is the remains of Earth’s old partner. The Gods had to put them together so the idiocy of your people didn’t choke the planet to death.”

“Why? Why destroy the moon?”

“What do you take me for girl? I can’t comprehend the insanity of your people! Some madman saw fit to destroy it so they did, and the Gods cleaned up the mess. That’s all anyone needs to know of the matter.” The woman huffs and adjusts a blanket set across her lap.

Jin speaks quietly, more to herself than the librarian. “We colonized the moon, you know. There was a city there. It required constant attention from the arch-mages that moved in to keep the void of space at bay, but there was a city there nonetheless. I had always dreamed of visiting it one day. ”

Jin sighs and leans back. “Guess that will never happen, now.” She doesn’t know why she’s telling this to the old woman, honestly. It’s not like she’s capable of sympathizing.

The librarian has an indiscernible expression on her face.

Jin decides to move on before she starts dwelling on her lost future too much. “Alright, what about here, then? The plant life is not the kind I’m familiar with.”

She receives another glare for her question. “Don’t be daft, girl. Your people killed the surrounding area. You’ve seen the state of that city to the south, no? The world regrew with the aid of the Gods. It still has a ways to go, but nature takes time.”

“What, did your gods do everything?”

“Quite nearly. Do I need to repeat how stupid and destructive your people were? They were stupid and destructive. Short sighted. Aggressive. Idiotic. Greedy. Selfish-“

“Yeah alright I get it, mages were the bane of existence or whatever. I’m guessing the desert to the north is a similar situation?”

“What do you think?”

Jin sighs. “Yeah, ok. Sure, mages fucked things up, people claiming divinity cleaned up the mess, and now we’re here. Why not.”

She frowns. “What about ‘clerics’, then? I still don’t get why the church is so accepting of them if they’re actually just mages from the past.”

The librarian scowls. “I’m certainly not.”

Jin’s not surprised.

“Alright… How common are they? Do you have a rough estimate of how many exist?”

“Too many.”

Both scowl at each other, but the librarian continues. “Clerics are… Somewhat recent. The first one appeared around a hundred and fifty years ago, after humanity already put itself back together with the help of the Gods. They’ve been growing more common since then, but hardly any have arrived in the past couple decades. More exist, but I have personally seen ten in the Grand Cathedral over the course of my life. One since I retired.”

Jin guesses that would be her. Ten, huh? She nods slowly. “What sort of roles do they typically take?”

Her response is a scowl and. “Whatever they damn well please usually, the filthy freeloaders.”

Jin raises an eyebrow. “Priest Herrick seemed to think they’re useful.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The librarian’s face doesn’t change. “He would.”

Jin waits for a moment to see if the woman will elaborate, but she doesn’t. Jin decides she’ll ask the priest later. On to the next question, then.

“What about paladins? It usually requires the touch of a mage to activate most enchantments.”

“Paladins are chosen for their role. As the chosen champions of the Gods, the Gods granted them blessed artifacts. No ‘mages’ necessary.”

“What do you mean the gods gave them the enchantments? Is there a storeroom they’re divided out from, or are they specially made..?”

“I said what I mean. The Gods create and give specific blessings to specific people. During their anointment ceremony, a blessed artifact is sent down to them. Only they can wield it.”

“What do you mean by ‘sent down’?”

“I mean sent down—stop acting so daft, girl! One of the Gods makes the artifact and gives it to their chosen paladin. It’s not complicated.”

Jin glares. “How common are ‘artifacts’ then? Not the paladin ones, but ones clerics might use.”

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

“Tsk…” She’s getting a lot less information out of this conversation than she was hoping for. Maybe she’ll have to wait for better information until she makes it to Travelers Rest after all.

“On clerics they’re common enough. Those glittering buffoons rarely go without metal nailed into their every body part.” Jin prickles at the old woman’s eyes analyzing her. She doesn’t have any of her enchantments, however. She crosses her arms, not wanting to explain.

The librarian fortunately doesn’t comment on her lack of jewelry. “Inquisitors bring in artifacts every so often as well. Less frequently, now that ruins in all but the farthest corners of the continents have been searched. My last five years in service at the Grand Cathedral only had three new artifacts come in through the doors, and all at the same time.”

Jin blinks. “I thought Inquisitors were… More common than success every five years?”

“Hm, yes.” The librarian collects her thoughts for a moment. “Artifacts are only a portion of an Inquisitor’s role. They’re the smallest branch of inquisitors, as well, if the first and most famous. If you spoke to Herrick, he probably made you think it was the most important branch around.”

“Additionally, my last years of service also employed very few field Inquisitors. The more common kind simply investigate the populace and organizations occurring therein. I’m sure plenty of inquisitors are up North right now. All inquisitors are trained in basic diplomatic intrigue, so if less are needed to hunt for treasure, they may be used for information gathering purposes instead.”

That seems strangely inefficient. What about good treasure hunting skills transfers to good people skills..? And what’s up North?

Jin is about to ask when surprisingly the librarian starts to answer her question. “The most recent artifact acquisitions have all been diplomatic events with groups of people who are, often, unaffiliated with the church. Since it is predicted a majority of artifacts found from now on will be acquired in such a manner, the inquisition has moved to a more diplomatic focus.“

Librarian Mirriam smiles fondly at a window facing the plaza. The expression is so unexpected and out of place looking that Jin almost starts to worry the old woman is having a neurological issue before she starts to speak. “Sage will make for a fine example of the old branch of the Inquisition.”

Um..? Jin slowly taps her pencil tip to her journal in thought. Yeah, this expression of emotion from the librarian is distinctly uncomfortable. She clears her throat after a moment to ask— ugh, anything.

“What do you do with the artifacts after you find them?” Eh, didn’t she already ask Herrick this? Whatever, she might have an interesting comment or two on the topic.

“Hm…” The woman has a searching look to her gaze as she stares at Jin. She’s not sure what the woman found, but the librarian eventually decides to answer her question. “Usually, they are offered to the Gods. Occasionally a cleric will catch wind of a new artifact and try to pry it out of a deserving Inquisitor’s hands before they can make a proper offering. Occasionally they succeeded, when I wasn’t around.”

There’s a pause. The old woman has a sharp, amused glint in her eyes. “Snatching a sapphire amulet out of that icy bitch’s hands is one of my fondest memories.”

She’s surprised she actually wants to hear this story. Who’s this icy bitch, hm? What sort of amulet—

Suddenly Jin has a thought and her eyes widen. Quickly she opens her notebook to a page near the back and starts frantically drawing and measuring out shapes.

The librarian stares at her for several moments. “What are you doing?”

Jin doesn’t look up. “Writing down very specific spell structures from my amulet.”

She bites her lip and pauses at a section her memories are fuzzy on, and starts to write the surrounding structure instead. “If it’s not destroyed, I might be able to find it with a strong enough tracking spell.”

There’s silence for a moment, then the librarian starts to speak again, “Clerics do tend to be riddled with artifacts. I suppose that makes you the least offensive of them, having none.”

Jin glares up at her briefly before resuming writing, not bothering to mention her tooth. She’s annoyed with herself, this should have been the first thing she did, not try to refresh her basics! Shit shit shit, what structure is supposed to go here again?

There’s silence for a minute longer when Librarian Mirriam sighs and slowly stands up. Jin doesn’t look up from her work.

“I’m tired. I’m going to take a nap. Don’t disturb me.”

Jin’s eyes only briefly flick to the old woman in acknowledgement.

Before closing herself into her bedroom, the librarian pauses and looks back at the cleric. An expression that can almost pass for a smile passes over her face when she delivers her next remark. “You remind me of myself, in my youth.”

Jin’s hand stops and she looks up at the librarian with an incredulous look on her face, but the door closes behind the old woman.

She sits there not sure how to process the comment for a moment. “I think that is the most scathing insult I’ve ever gotten.” She’s impressed, honestly. Not happy, but impressed.

Scowling, she goes back to writing.

—

Sage swings her feet while looking down at the village from atop a table. The church plaza is always a good place to perch.

Oak is walking up the path and she waves to him with a grin. He waves back but doesn’t smile. This wipes away Sage’s smile briefly.

She tries a smile again when he’s within speaking distance. “Hey Oak! What’s up?”

He still doesn’t return the smile. “I’m going with you to Travelers Rest.”

Sage frowns. “…Why?”

He doesn’t say anything which sends ribbons of anxiety through her stomach. “Oak… You aren’t gonna join the church’s militia are you?”

He turns to look at the village and Sage jumps off the table. “Oak you can’t! The village needs you!”

He turns a grim expression on his sister. “The village needs properly trained warriors. I’m not.”

“Is this over the arc-wolves? Oak there were only three! And they left! Look, Moss found this journal-“

“This isn’t about the wolves, Sage.”

She furrows her brows and he continues. “I’ve been planning on doing this since I was sixteen. I just… Didn’t want to leave. But I’m twenty-three winters now and it’s well past time I learn proper technique. If I left before now there would be no one who could find you.”

Sage feels like she could cry. “But Oak! What if they send you to fight and you never return?! They have three year minimum serving times! We can’t lose you! And- and you don’t have to look out for me, you know, I can take care of myself.”

Oak… glares at her. She feels like she was slapped. “You think we don’t all feel that way about you galavanting off to become an inquisitor? Inquisitors die, Sage. They don’t get blessed items like paladins do. We’ve already lost enough, don’t you think?”

Sage opens her mouth, but strangely no words come out. Instead she shakes her head, as if denying him could change his mind.

“When I return to the village, I’ll be able to teach others too. We need this, Sage. Nobody else is willing to go.”

Sage bites her lip and she looks away.

“The arc-wolves aren’t what spurred this decision. It was you coming back with a Gods damned cleric. With you leaving to… I don’t have any more excuses not to go.”

This is my fault…

Sage can feel tears pricking at her eyes, and she shakes her head again. She takes a deep breath, then two.

“What if you become an inquisitor with me instead?”

Oak doesn’t say anything for a long moment. “I don’t believe inquisitors are offered the same level of training-“

“But we can ask Jin to get the rules bent for you! Probably! Maybe—maybe if—We’ll have to ask her of course but if—Maybe we can get an allowance or—“

Sage fumbles trying to find the words, but Oak is shaking his head. “Don’t rely on it, Sage. I’m doing this.”

Sage bites her lip hard. She looks over towards the church, where Jin is still inside. She hopes Librarian Mirriam isn’t giving her too hard of a time… No! Her head snaps back to Oak. “Just—Let’s try first, ok? I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you.”

Oak sighs and his expression softens. He runs a hand through his hair. “We can ask. No harm in that, I suppose.”

Sage nods aggressively. Then, she runs forwards and hugs Oak, speaking into his shirt. “I’ll never forgive you if you die.”

After a moment his arms wrap around her too. “I’ll do my best.”

A deep breath later and she steps back, giving her brother a serious look.

Then her ears prick at the sound of a door opening, and she turns to see Jin exiting the library. She has an open notebook in her hands that she’s glaring at.

She glances at Oak again, who gives her an attempt at a reassuring smile. She tries to return the look, then skips towards Jin, forcing cheer into the motion.

She’s sure she can convince the gold-eyed to help Oak. Absolutely positive. There’s no way she can say no. And—And no way the church will say no to her. She’s not going to let another sibling die.