Chapter 129: Charity of His Own

Not just Nara, but John was also a frequent visitor of the church of the healer. Not only did he engage with priests to learn about healing magic and volunteer at healer clinics, but he also had his own concerns of Erras and his distant life on Earth.

“Do you know where mister Redell Gainer is?” John said, asking the priestess at the reception.

“Do you have an appointment with high priest Gainer?”

“High priest?”

The man was gold rank and could literally revive the dead. Now that he thought about, John supposed he should be unsurprised.

“It’s no big deal miss. I’ll try another day.”

Redell was nominally Nara’s trauma healer, and John wanted to discuss his own worries with the man since he had context for their world in his sessions with her. He’d have to work up the nerve to discuss his worries with another priest.

“John. Good day to you.”

A familiar voice called out from behind John, causing him to turn.

“Redell,” John greeted back.

He greeted the receptionist before continuing with John. “There’s no need for an appointment, friend. Let’s walk and talk.”

The two took to the grounds, as many did in their discussions. The church's gardens were pleasantly split between shady and bright. The flowers felt natural rather than strictly planted. The gardens were tailored to put the patients in the church at ease, restful in both body and soul.

“I apologize for my rudeness all this time, high priest Gainer,” John said politely.

The two had last met at Aliyah’s revival, and before when Nara’s soul had been spiked by the gods at their reclusive jungle compound. It was no wonder that a man a god personally called was a high priest, but he still was adjusting to the logic of this world. Earth’s religion was often taught through familial generations; Adventurer families were less religiously inclined as a uniform whole, some members independently joined churches, such as Healer, Hero, War, Knowledge, Purity, Liberty, and Death.

Redell chuckled, “Now I’m not a fan of all the formalities. Just call me Redell, as always. What are your concerns, John?”

“I’ve had some questions about this world’s churches. It’s no big deal,” John said. There were better uses of Redell’s time, he could ask any priest about the churches.

“You’re considering joining one?”

That was a rather complicated question for John, who has privately had his own crises of faith when he found gods were real on Erras. “If and when--” he tried to be confident in his own success, in Nara’s success, “--I make it back to my world, it may change everything. Magic in a world without it. Joining a church would expand the knowledge and aid I can offer to the world in changing times. I’ve been beating around the bush, but I mean the church of the Healer. Is that too transactional for your faith?”

“I wouldn’t say it is. Healer tells me he’d be happy to accept you as a priest, but he believes that if you do now, you’d probably regret it.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Nara, just like you, has shared her concerns with me on how her life now is completely different to what her life in her previous world was. She’s a completely different person than the one she was before, as are you, John.”

“If you called a profession change from desk analyst to monster hunter just a’ change’ it would be one sodding understatement,” John chuckled.

“She is accepting of the change and grateful for it, despite her tribulations thus far. However, John, you have stronger ties to your previous world than she does.”

“She has a family there too. I wouldn’t say I have stronger ties,” he denied.

“A family that she only meets twice a year; such is the working culture of her age. In her world and this one, she is an adult that is walking towards the future, already separated from the home nest of her parents. You, John, are missing the family you see every day. You are missing the home, your love, your friends, and the children you should be raising and caring for.”

John ran a hand through his hair. He looked down at his clothing—a shirt and pants combo that while had basic similarities to Earth’s clothing, was stylistically different. He missed the nights of watching movies on the couch with his family, waking up to the smell of dark coffee. His wife’s cooking in the kitchen—unlike him she was a kitchen wizard, adept at cuisines of the world.

His daughter Sienna was stubborn and with a strong sense of justice. She was 17 when John disappeared, and ready to enter into university. She liked to move her body and had been learning Ju Jitsu. Paired with an equally capable mind, she was a both typhoon and storm chaser, volcano and geologist.

Noah was sweet and cheerful, taking after him more in personality but adopted his mother’s interest in cooking. In their London house, he grew a small garden of herbs and vegetables. He wanted to study environmental sciences or nutrition, and had been undecided in his career.

“I miss them terribly,” John said, morose, “I’m missing so much of an important part of their lives. University, study, and their first steps into adulthood. They think I’m dead.”

“As you miss your family, it is likely you will worry similarly about your new friends here upon your return to Earth. The ties adventurers form through their journey is strong, and yours will grow stronger still. Can you choose one family over the other?”

John was silent. It felt like a betrayal to his wife and children, but he couldn’t leave his team behind. If he was going to leave, he needed to leave them in the hands of a healer he trusted more than he trusted himself.

“I could bring them here,” he said softly.

“That is a choice you would have to discuss with them,” Redell said, his expression strict yet warm. “Thankfully, if Nara is any example, the excitements of magic are very persuasive,” he added lightheartedly, softening up the somber conversation. “There’s no need for the long face. There are solutions that everyone will agree to. And here…” Redell grinned and formed his fingers in an ‘O’ shape, “You have money.”

“I’m not ready to join a church because I can’t commit to any world yet,” John concluded Redell’s point.

“Not just that John. You aren’t ready to join a church because you do not understand what it means. Few really do. Most grow into it, but I do not think that is the right path for you.”

“I have been meaning to ask what that is like. I’ve seen gods for myself. They’re real beings that talk and respond to you. Has Nara told you of the religions of our world?”

“It’s come up in conversation. I find it intriguing that there are so many of strong faith to a god who does not assert their existence.”

“What it mean to be a priest? What’s that like?”

“Ah...My god is with me always. He is a comfort in my mind and soul. To borrow a phrase from Nara, Healer ‘lives rent free in my head’.”

“It’s that blasphemous?”

Redell grinned, hearty and playful. “It’s accurate. Healer is with me John, not metaphorically. I can feel him as much as you can feel your own familiar subsumed within yourself. To the people of my world, it is a comfort. To the people of your world, it may not be the same. You are all rather adverse to submitting to any form of authority or intrusion on a personal level, creating close intrinsic connections, or lasting commitments to a cause,” he smiled to John. “But I only know two outworlders from your world.”

He departed from the Healer church, musing over his thoughts in the afternoon sun. As usual, Sanshi was busy, reminding him much of the modern cities of Earth. Skimmers passed through the main streets, although in far less traffic than cars. Most personal transportation was through the magical subways or light rail systems, which comparatively small cities had. The costs of underground or low-story construction were less in Erras, where construction magic resulted in quick repairs and sturdy foundations without much work and could double as evacuation zones during disasters. Large imports like stone were taken to trade hubs, unseen in the center of the city. Damage from monster waves while cities were still small meant that reconstruction allowed cities to replan as they grew. Such as the great Chicago fire, the old was stripped and built anew. Established cities with their array protections and adventurer populations rarely suffered extreme damage in monster waves, so reorganization was more difficult once they reached that size.

“Nara, Eufemia? I have a favor I’d like to ask.” John initiated a voice chat with the two of them.

“What is it?” Nara responded.

“Do you remember Alea? I want to check up on her. And do a little philanthropy myself, if needed.”

“I’ll be your essence exchange. Where do we meet?”

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*****

As John led them through Shanyin, Nara’s eyes darted from shadow gate to shadow gate. She could perceive their dimension warping features. John no longer had an updated map, so Nara used her perception ability and Sage to map their way forward. As she discovered the linked gates, they were marked onto her map, forming an every more complex spiderweb of shadow pathways.

“People live like this?” Nara groaned. Her directionally challenged mind could never. “This is insane.”

Eufemia was irritable, not with Shanyin, since she was familiar with it, but with the trek in the first place. “Why don’t we just jump over the buildings now? We can do that.”

“In some places,” John noted cheerily, “In other places those tricky ceiling shadow gates will get you.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, John, we can just avoid the ceiling portals.”

“Because shadow portals are cool and fun and haven’t had my fill of them yet,” Nara noted, who was fascinated with them despite her utterly inability to navigate them.

“Whatever. Enjoy your portals.” She still followed along, unhappy yet acquiescing.

Along the way, John greeted familiar faces.

Little Rag, who had grown a few inches taller over the six months since John last saw him. Auntie Yan and her perpetually broken cooling array. J&A Investigation Agency had long been vacated by the two of them, but their shoddy sign hadn’t been taken down—judging by the intense demand for their office, they had probably been overpaying. Small spiders skittered about, as well as a thin layer of dust. They hadn’t been paying rent, but Shanyin had more empty buildings than people to fill them. It was a massive astral space, the buildings generated upon the creation of the space itself, not made by human hands. Only those closest to the Moonlight Society and Nisei’s manor had mattered.

A substantial population still lived in Shanyin, but the outskirts were grey and empty, embodying the ghost in ghost town. The central area thrived. Criminal or not, rent was cheaper here than Sanshi. It was a widely known iron ranker ‘tip and trick’ that poor adventurers could rent in Shanyin to save on costs when the first started out, if they could brave the streets. Luckily, as essence users, they held an advantage. If they were arrogant or careless, as iron rankers were prone to be, they may find themselves cleared out by the enterprising and tricky residents of Shanyin.

“Here it is, the Moonlight Society!” John gestured widely with a smidge of pride. “Where all the have-nots go to became have-yesses.”

“That doesn’t work well in any language John, stop trying.”

He didn’t need to push open the door of the Moonlight Society to know Alea was there. She was the same as usual, grumpy look on her face as she polished her equipment and weapons. Daylight was the time for sleep, maintenance, or conmen. Nighttime is where the moonlighters thrived.

“John? I thought at least you were long gone from this tar pit. Her?” Her gaze disdainfully roamed Eufemia. “It’s expected.”

Eufemia snorted at Alea’s bite, “Both of us are long gone, Alea. We’re here for a pity visit.”

“Pity for who?”

“Who else, miss pays-for-her-little-brother’s-tuition. Pity for you.”

The moonlight guild had their own meeting rooms, but their trustworthiness was questionable. Information was a product that could be bought for a price. Eufemia and John had been thoroughly made aware by Encio.

Alea led the few to one of her own secure sites. Nara was pleasantly surprised with the soundproofing arrays, aura blocking arrays, and other anti-detection arrays in the building. Surprisingly, it was in a relatively busy part of Shanyin. The ambient noise reduced their own suspicion. Nara noted there were various traps set up that Alea could activate to run. Lethal even, for an iron ranker, who were still relatively human. The most dangerous ones were along corridors and escape paths, rather than the meeting room itself. Alea didn’t want to be caught up in them.

“This isn’t anything that warrants this level of suspicion, Alea,” John said.

“I can’t be too sure,” she said vaguely, not meeting John’s eyes.

“Because of what happened with Erin Nisei?”

She was silent.

“I have some enemies, John. Not anything unusual for us moonlighters. We all expect a dagger in the back for the right price. What Nisei did was…a betrayal of this world. We’re criminals John, but most of us in Sanshi won’t fall so low.”

“Murder is okay but not consorting with the enemy?” Eufemia snorted.

“That’s right,” Alea said, fierce. “There is a line, Eufemia. Traitor is a fine line to draw. Traitor wraps you up in the sort of truly terrible shit that ironically, Lady Nisei worked to eradicate.”

She gnawed her lip. She hadn’t meant to call Erin with lady. A bad habit she had to drop lest she draw a target on her back. It was true that the moonlighters had their own sort of professional pride, even if they never became adventurers. Those beyond Shanyin did not share their reservations. Any well-aimed treat would bend the knee. That was expected of anyone; Life and family almost any would kill for. What Erin Nisei had done she had done fully standing.

“Who’s in charge here now?”

“Some other Nisei. Not quite as enterprising as the obsidian serpent, but if he just maintains the status quo, everybody is happy,” Alea said, her voice slightly sinister.

They didn’t need to ask if Alea had her full set of essences. They could tell. She had two, Hunt and Swift. She was missing the all-important Dark Essence.

John looked at the room they were in, armed like a trick-room fortress, “Alea, I’m glad to see you’re fine but I won’t drag this conversation out. I’d like to offer you your final essence.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch. For free.”

“I don’t want your charity, John,” she snapped. “I can make it on my own. I always have. Save your charity for someone who doesn’t have the wits to plan and follow through.” She sneered at Eufemia, the insult clear.

Eufemia sneered back.

John sighed, leaning back. “If you won’t accept charity, how about a deal?”

“...I’ll bite. What do you want? Need a thief on hand for the next year? Some thug you want scared and begging to be swaddled by their mother? Some stupid young master without essence you want watched from the dark? I don’t do murder. That fire is too hot for me.”

John glanced at Nara. He didn’t have any specific job for Alea, but there was two things he could think of.

“One, my team mate here Nara Edea likes to sponsor prep academy students.”

“Ooh,” Alea crooned. “A real patron of the poor? Edea too? Fancy gal. Did she hire the two of you as bodyguards?”

“Alea,” John said, chastising, “She is our teammate. Frankly, she’s the most dangerous person in this room.”

Alea raised an eyebrow, disbelieving. Nara didn’t care to prove her wrong, sitting idly until she was needed.

Alea had half a mind to test her. The polished knife she sat on the table glistened enticingly. Usually, Alea could tell which essence users were dangerous; well-trained normal people could instintively sense those of higher rank. It was an adaptation against danger. Her mind told her she should know better; no matter how little presence that woman gave off, she’d half to be insane to make a move against an adventurer, even if she was born of golden-spoon and golden rank.

Alea did know better. She was prideful of her skills and work. What did John know of her capabilities? He knew nothing. Maybe, she had to make it known. Her mind teetered between arrogance and discretion.

She looked back down at the table, only to notice the knife there was gone. Nara held it in her hands, twirling it absentmindedly.

“…That’s my knife.”

“I was worried you were going to try to stab me with it,” Nara said. “I took it away before you could hurt yourself with it.”

Alea gritted her teeth. “I’m not a child. I have impulse control.”

“Do you?”

“I’m not going to hurt myself with my own knife. Give it back.”

Nara shrugged and tossed the knife. Alea caught it, and quickly sheathed it away.

“Why did you do that?” Eufemia asked.

“Tired of people saying that I look the weakest,” Nara said, “and, I was sort of testing what I could get away with.”

“What you could get away with?”

“Laius says he’s going to teach me some more aura control techniques later. I figure I should brainstorm and see what I could come up with.”

“And what did you come up with?”

“A few things. This, isn’t the time for that though, is it?”

“It’s your fault the conversation derailed.”

“She was eying the dagger like it was her soul mate and I was the fiancée in the way between her and her perfect union!”

Eufemia smirked, “She did look as if she was about to give that knife a hand job.”

“I was not!” Alea hissed, fingers twitching again for her knife. Or at least for a needle, so she could sew their flapping mouths shut.

“Does polishing a knife count as a handy?” Nara asked. She made a rubbing motion with her hands, “It definitely has that motion, right?”

“It does not!” she defended again, “Alright, I admit!” She interrupted, exasperated. “I was thinking about throwing by knife at you! I wasn’t going to do it!”

“Schrodinger’s knife job—Death or masturbation.”

“Death of whom?”

“Enough of that ladies,” John said, “I’m going to turn this conversation back to the deal. It’s still on the table—not literally.”

“...Fine. I’m listening.”

“As I was saying, Nara here likes to sponsor academy students. We’ll give you your full essence set and some awakening stones, so keep an eye on them, train with them, and offer to party with them if they need it. There’s a lot of them, so just keep an eye out on the one you think is most likely to get themselves killed.”

“That’s the most dangerous one.”

“The others don’t need your help, do they?”

“Too difficult for you, Miss Self-Made?” Eufemia crooned patronizingly.

She glared. “Point taken.”

“There’s no commitment to keeping the party say, beyond iron rank. At that point, they’ll al have the hang of things. Other than that one other thing, an ongoing contract for information.”

“What is it?”

“Have you heard of The Advent?”

“…I have. In my previous work with Lady…no, Erin Nisei.”

She knew as much. She was aware of Erin Nisei’s betrayal. Even if the general population wasn’t aware of real reason for Erin Nise’s dismissal, the moonlighters had their ear to the ground and eyes in the dark.

“I want you to report to me whatever rumors you hear of the Advent, or any other suspicious cult-like movement. If there’s any popular ideology or movement within the people, I want to know. Any sort of convenient magic or technology that seems suspicious in any way, I want a list.”

“You want an owl?”

“That’s right.”

She considered it. “I can do that. Safe, easy work. What are you offering?”

John removed some papers from his inventory that he had drafted up with Eufemia’s help. To support her ideal luxury lifestyle, she was surprisingly financially savvy.

“How’s this?”

She read over the papers carefully. Her pay was split between the cost of the Essences and Awakening Stones she’d receive and actual payment to support herself. Once she’d earned cost of the Essences and Awakening Stones, she receive the full payment paid each month. If she accepted, she contract would be sent to the Labor Society, and her payment could be withdrawn according to the stipulations in the contract. John could just keep his account filled without having to be in Sanshi, while still paying Alea for her services.

The Labor Society, like all Societies, charged a fee for their services, so those who employed others in person often paid in person, although with a written contract as proof of agreement. Taxes were indirect on Erras, through the services of Societies, Churches, businesses, sales, trades, and other negotiated contracts.

“Not going to negotiate?” Eufemia asked pointedly.

She rolled her eyes. “I know an idiotically generous offer when I see one, Eufemia. What have I even done to deserve this?”

“You helped us out when we first arrived in Shanyin,” John said, “You introduced us to Erin Nisei, how the Moonlight Society operates, the big players in Shanyin, and how to spread our name and services.”

“I just didn’t want to see two dead bodies the next day because you mouthed off to somebody you shouldn’t have,” she stared pointedly at Eufemia.

“When have I done that?”

“You’re argumentative.”

“To you,” Eufemia said. “I can step all over you.”

Alea wanted so badly to stab her, but she did understand restraint.

John offered her an aura pen, which she took. Alea glared darkly at Eufemia’s true statement, promising revenge, but signed the papers and handed them back to John.

“You want the Dark Essence, right? Haven’t changed your mind? I can give you a different one.”

“No. Just the Dark Essence.”

Most people didn’t change their minds on what essences they wanted, especially when they had already absorbed two essences.

“Alright.” He removed it from his stash, placing it in front of Alea. He wasn’t afraid she’d run off with the essence. She had greater gains to stay. Paid enrollment in the Adventure Academy, Awakening Stones paid out bi-weekly, and a cushy job of listening to rumors so long as John paid her for it. It was the dream contract.

Even if she ran, she had signed the contract with an aura pen. If she tried to make another account at an official society, they’d check her aura for outstanding contracts and debts. Another name wouldn’t fool aura identification.

She held the Dark Essence within her hands, staring at its ink smoke depths and speckles of light.

“Then, John. In one month.”

“See you then, Alea.”