Daniel and Trill stood before a cathedral that quite literally glowed with the all too familiar runes that seemed to dance upon anything sturdy and old in the city.

“You cost too much, you know that right?” Trill complained towards Daniel for what felt like the fifth time that day.

“Lay off me,” Daniel retorted. “Your family has connections with these people. From what Pavel told me this will barely cost you a thing.”

“Pavel,” Trill said with venom in her tone, “is an idiot who is convinced that the world is going to end every blood moon. He just wants you to have your deck up and running before then.”

“Some would call that being prepared,” Daniel commented.

Trill snorted, “I call it burning money for something that’s not going to happen. This city’s been standing for two hundred years. If it was going to fall it already would’ve. Past that you’re just an expensive political message.”

“Well,” Daniel retorted. “You’ve already hired this political message, and I’d say that having the legendary wielding mercenary on your payroll actually be capable of combat, regardless of how this blood moon turns out might be a good idea. Pavel already threw away the big money getting me those cards. This is just a drop in the bucket at this point.”

Trill scoffed, gesturing for Daniel to follow her inside the cathedral. She was, despite her attitude and consistent complaints, someone Daniel found himself spending quite a bit of time with. She was stronger than she looked, and a fairly good sparring partner. She used a spear, so that was what Daniel found himself using when he practiced with her. He still had the revolver resting in its leather holster on his hip, but that had limited ammunition and he wouldn’t be able to rely on it forever, assuming things actually did go bad.

She’d helped him learn some of the basic spearmanship stances she practiced and he’d found himself excelling in them with the aid of Foundation of One. Using it to reinforce muscle memory and good form almost seemed to be what the card was designed to do. Every motion he practiced felt fluid and natural, and came to him even when the card wasn’t enhancing that facet of himself.

Trill walked past the heavy ornate doors with Daniel following at her side. While the two of them walked into the cathedral, inside of Limbo a group of four mimics no bigger than a brick each craled along behind Daniel on spidery legs, carrying a long metallic spear.

It was an experiment of sorts that Daniel was running, to see just how much trouble the creatures would have navigating through Limbo while he walked in the real world, but so far they didn't seem to have had much issue. The only real problem was that he had to hold any door he walked through open slightly longer than he otherwise would’ve in order to give the mimics enough time to pass through.

Disregarding that, the cathedral itself was ornately made, with marble pillars and stained glass that glittered in the midday sun. The mainroom was enormous and contained hundreds of statues that represented one god or another. Hundreds of priests and commoners gathered around them in silent contemplation and prayer, but Trill paid them no mind, gesturing for Daniel to follow.

She walked confidently through the center of the room, pews lined up on either side of them, over to a stout man in priestly robes sitting in the far corner.

“Yaseb,” Trill said as they approached. “Do you have the portal ready?”

The priest, apparently named Yaseb, looked up from the book he’d been reading and smiled warmly, “Our portals are always ready for members of the Brighttree family.”

“Which farm is it connected to?” Trill asked.

Yaseb buckled the book he’d been reading to his belt and began to stand, “It’s connected to the Drita farm north of the wall. Just like young Pavel requested,” Yaseb said while stretching his back.

“He’s the only one that needs to do the killing, right?” Yaseb asked, looking at Trill.

“Yes, a few thousand Drita should suffice. See to it that he’s back by nightfall. I’ll be back to pick him up then. Don’t let anything kill him.”

Yaseb chuckled, “That goes without saying, Lady Trill. Now, legendary wielder Daniel, if you’ll follow me I’ll lead you to the portal.”

“Sure thing,” Daniel said. “This monster farm’s close to the wall, right?”

“It’s no further than a dozen miles away, Sir,” Yaseb answered, leading Daniel through a side door and deeper into the cathedral through winding cobblestone corridors.

Daniel swiped his hand against the wall as they walked, feeling dust on the tips of his fingers. They didn’t use these corridors often, and likely the portal by association.

“What type of monsters will we be dealing with?” Daniel asked.

Yaseb sent a glance back towards Daniel, smiling. “A subspecies of ratmen that lost their anthropomorphism and developed a stinger-like tail. You don’t need to worry, the farm rarely has breaches. Under normal circumstances we only use the portal in case one of those occurs, or if the bloodmoon happens to come early, but we make exceptions to members of the Brighttree family.”

“And why is that?” Daniel asked. He hadn’t gotten any specifics from Pavel, who appeared to be the de facto leader of the Brighttree family. Despite the weeks he’d spent at their estate Daniel hadn’t seen a single trace of Pavel’s parents. It was a bit suspicious, but he didn’t particularly care why they had a ‘child’ running the household. Just that his interests and Daniel’s coincided.

Yaseb unlocked a door using the chain of keys on his belt and led Daniel into a room that housed the outline of a portal. It wasn’t too dissimilar to the ones he’d seen thus far, though it did look far more simplistic.

“The Brighttree family has provided us with a great amount of funding throughout the years. Several of our monster farms could ostensibly be called theirs with how much silver they donated to the church.”

‘I’ll need to ask Pavel about that sometime,’ Daniel thought. ‘See what that paranoid little schemer is doing throwing so much money away. Not that I can complain, I suppose. As Trill puts it, I’m one of the more expensive things he’s purchased recently.’

Yaseb moved his hand along the edge of the portal’s frame and the tips of his fingers slowly began to glow a bright red as the portal sluggishly ignited, shining a shimmering blue.

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“What god do you worship?” Daniel found himself asking.

“Officially?” Yaseb asked, still focused on the portal. “All of them. They get jealous if you just serve one. Though they only seem to really care about that if you reach a certain level of strength, but it’s both safer and easier to not show a preference.”

“Even the goddess of blood?” Daniel poised the question.

“All of the recognized god’s,” Yaseb corrected with a snort. That ones gone mad, or she's just always been that way, it’s unclear.”

Daniel nodded, remembering what he’d seen while traveling between the draconian settlement and the city. It’d been grating to look at her at the time, like he’d been drenching himself in acid just by being in her presence, but looking back at it, she'd had a certain feel to her. He’d understood it at the time, but he also hadn’t been in the best headspace either. She'd felt like she'd had such a fake malice, if that even made sense.

“I don’t think she’s crazy, underneath it all. Not in the way you’re thinking at least,” Daniel said after a moment of thought.

Yaseb finished stabilizing the portal and stepped back, sending a glance towards Daniel, “Respectfully Sir, what are you talking about?”

“Just thinking out loud,” Daniel deflected. “Do you get anything from worshiping the gods?”

Yaseb chuckled, “Wouldn’t be much reason to otherwise. While we have to worship all the gods, it doesn’t mean that we don’t ‘cater’ for lack of a better term, towards one in particular.”

“And which one is that for you?” Daniel asked.

“Drint, god of cowards,” Yaseb answered proudly.

“Huh,” Daniel said. He hadn’t taken the time to learn much about the gods yet, but a god of cowards seemed an odd pick.

“What does he gift you with?” Daniel asked skeptically.

Yaseb smiled brightly, lifting his right sleeve up, “Take a look for yourself.”

Gift of Flight

Divine/Fleeting/Space

Uncommon

When the user of this card is put into a situation that would result in their death they will instead be transported to safety.

This card has a cooldown of one week.

Fleeting Condition:

This card can be revoked at any time by the entity Drik, God of Cowards.

“Interesting,” Daniel said as he finished reading the card. “And what does Drik ask from you in exchange for this?”

“Nothing more than our loyalty,” Yaseb answered, smiling brightly.

‘In this world that cost may very well cost too much,’ Daniel thought pessimistically, turning back to the portal.

“And this thing’s safe to use?” Daniel asked, watching the flickering blue of the portal.

“Of course,” Yaseb responded. “This is a holy place, no gods can interfere in a portal’s usage on these grounds without drawing the ire of all the others.”

“Good,” Daniel answered. “Then lead the way.”

Yaseb bowed, “Very well, Legendary holder Daniel. Follow me through the portal, but do make sure to wear one of these,” Yaseb said, pulling a blind fold from his belt and handing it to Daniel.

“The portals are safe, but the transfer process takes a few moments and it's best to not see the things around you during that process. It messes with the ol’ noggin.”

“What things?” Daniel asked skeptically.

“More than four dozen gods have stake in this place, and you can see bits of their aura while moving through portals in their domain. It’s best to not see it at all.”

Daniel looked down at the blindfold, and then back towards Yaseb, before reluctantly putting the blindfold on. He didn’t like the implied danger of the situation, despite Yaseb’s assurances that everything would be fine. Moreso he didn’t like that nothing like this had been mentioned about any risks beforehand.

“This is still safe though?” Daniel asked.

“Of course it is, now let’s be on our way. It’s not good to let the portal idol. It uses far too much energy, and we have a schedule to keep.”

Daniel sighed and tried to calm his mind. He didn’t want to believe that something would go wrong, mainly because his status as a traveler would increase the likelihood that something would if he fed into that fear, but it was hard to just believe that everything would turn out completely fine.

‘I may have a bit of paranoia towards portals,’ Daniel realized as Yaseb stepped through the portal. ‘The first time I went through one I got stalked by a spector, and the second time the goddess of blood almost broke my soul. Not exactly a great track record so far.’

Daniel hesitantly slipped the blindfold down over his eyes and sighed, “Ah well, nothing ventured nothing gained,” and stepped through the portal. The portal itself felt cool to the touch, like he’d passed through a thin layer of water. Then he found himself floating somewhere, and didn’t dare take off the blindfold.

A few seconds spent floating quickly turned to a minute and Daniel began to grow concerned, but before he could decide what to do he began to hear thousands of different voices suddenly speak out around him, overlaying onto one another into a jumbeled mess of noise. Though when they spoke, he could understand them all the same as if they were speaking directly and clearly, and they began to sing towards him. The sound drilled itself directly into his head, but at the same time wasn’t intrusive, though if he didn’t have A Sane Man’s Burden Daniel suspected it would’ve been. As things were, it was as if the voices were singing their message to a sturdy wall. Never going to topple it, but audible on the other side all the same.

"Child watching beneath the tainted moon,

Know in yourself that the fall is soon,

a god risen to fall to chase the light,

to rise to grasp it all with all of his might,

before falling down to the land below,

with nothing for his work to show,

though the lights long gone,

and in its glow,

is nothing that he’s come to know."

"Nothingness isn’t bad, it is an absence, a void. But a single emotion, pure and unfiltered, no matter what it may be will always be worse. It’s only when ideals mix that there's meaning to them. Purity absconds the mind, restricts it, torments it. You cannot let him fall for it again. Help him to see what is before him, for if you don’t, he will falter. That is our request, that is our plea.

The overlapping voices suddenly creased, dropping away hundreds at a time until only one remained. It was a tired, strained voice that spoke. It rasped with each word and there was sorrow in what it said, and in that sorrow burning with emotion that Daniel could feel in his bones was the unfathomably deep regret of the entity speaking to him.

“Please, help my friend.”

And then it all cut out as the emotion surrounding Daniel ceased to be and he found himself standing on the other side of the portal.

Yaseb stood in front of him and after a moment lifted Daniel’s blindfold.

“So, was the trip uneventful Sir?” He asked, seemingly unaware of what had just happened. Daniel couldn’t help but stare down at his hands as he thought through everything that had just happened. There was so much implied in what he’d heard, but through all of it there was one thing that he was sure of.

“I’ll be walking back,” it was all Daniel could think to say.