Just as Tilly finished reading the fiery text, something snapped the strange stillness of his surrounding environment, and he felt the passage of time reassert itself. He took a deep breath, trying to push down the surprising amount of nausea that shifting in and out of time seemed to always bring. Swallowing down a wet burp, he looked back up to find the words above the altar collapsing in on themselves.

Their forms shivered and devolved back into a floating vortex of fire that was sucked into a central point above the main Flame of the altar. Tilly watched as they compacted into a fist-sized ball of brilliant flame, which continued to pull in on itself. The smaller the point of energy compressed, the higher the pressure rose in the chamber and Tilly winced in anticipation as he realized what was happening.

Whatever 'Facet' of Origin this was, it seemed to have a fondness for explosions.

Instead of continuing to watch it compress to an increasingly small point, he glanced back at the entrance trying to decide if a warning would help anything... Nope, no point in trying to outrun this thing.

'It had said rewards right?' he thought to himself as he crouched down and covered his face with his arms. Some part of his brain noted with fascination that his armor was already shifting to its yellow salamander form. He wondered idly if that was in reaction to a real environmental danger, or his internal anticipation of a coming fire-based threat.

After only a few seconds in the international “brace yourself” position, a huge “WUUMMPPHH” blew past him. The air around him hiccupping inward, before exploding back outward preceding a wall of immense heat.

Tilly winced as it hit him, but similar to his inflamed state, he comprehended the heat on a sensational level but found the expected pain absent. He hesitantly lifted his head from between his knees and found himself facing a small hovering blue flame, with an object floating in its center.

He stared at it dumbly, until Identify pinged above it, marking it unhelpfully as:

Hidden Quest Reward.

His notification log had started blinking, so he pulled it up and found the most recent entry.

Congratulations! You have unlocked and completed a Hidden Quest. Your contribution is graded as A-tier. You have received a Mythic-grade quest reward.

That was it, nothing else in the description. Tilly closed down the log and considered the thing hovering in the flame before him. As he watched, the flames began to dissipate making the object easier to discern. Then as he watched, the flames winked out and Tilly had to snatch the object as it fell to the floor.

Opening his hand, he looked down in wonder at a baseball-sized oblong object, etched with strange moving symbols that formed patterns reminiscent of flames. As Tilly watched the symbols faded until all that was left was a light blue ovular shape with hard ridges and planes making up its surface. It looked like a many-faceted jewel, but for some reason, Tilly couldn’t shake the impression that it was an egg.

A slight tingle started in the back of his mind as he considered it, but he would have to save figuring this thing out for later. Right now he needed to check on the others. The flame hadn’t harmed him, but it was a core part of his power. Worry shot through his system as he stuffed the egg/rock into his fantasy fanny pack and considered the Flame on the altar one last time. It crackled merrily, as if satisfied with its work.

Tilly gave it a quick glare, wondering how he had been stuck with the explodey part of Origin’s nature before turning to jog back toward the antechamber. As he moved through the passageway, he noted that the stone fittings making up the walls and ceiling were even brighter and more well-made than they had been minutes before.

He sighed in relief as he arrived back at the antechamber, which had become so bright that it was almost like emerging back into the light of day. None of the occupants seemed to be harmed and the large room was now dominated by a crystal pillar, whose top and bottom were rooted into the floor and ceiling like a strange tree. The temple itself seemed to be feeding its blue-hued energy into the pillar, while the central portion of the pillar was constantly pushing out a bright white light back into the structure. The energies seemed to be feeding off each other in a mutually beneficial cycle.

But that wasn't the only thing that had changed in the room. Identify pinged new information over almost all the members of the council! Hiro’s dark samurai armor with yellow stitching and highlights remained the same, but his previously unadorned head now held an absolutely badass new helmet. On its crest was a yellow sickle image of a moon and above his head hung his new class.

Level 58 Daimyo

Both the Honu elders wore the same robes but they each had new staffs topped with what looked like sextants formed from shells.

Level 46 & 50 Way Finders

Linus’s face while still wrinkled had taken on some indefinable element of dignity and his class had been changed as well. His armor was unchanged, but instead of looking like an elderly veteran reliving his glory days, he now radiated a feeling of earned glory and competence on the field. On his head, instead of a helmet was a metal laurel.

Level 65 Consul

Even Ichiro had gotten a new piece of gear. He was seated across the room in a meditative kneeling position, with his eyes wide in wonder. They continually wove through the room, following some sort of pattern that Tilly could not understand. His light armor had been completely replaced with layered samurai robes that were covered in a many-hued maze that seemed to move even as Tilly watched. His class was the same, but the level discrepancy was gone, leaving him at the lower level.

Level 25 Samurai Hatamoto

Of all the chamber's occupants, Shuji reacted to his reward with the most emotion. He held a large tome in his shaking hands, looking down at it with tears in his eyes. It was wrapped in dark leather with a glowing blue symbol that Tilly could not make out on its cover. His class was the same, but judging by the look in his shining eyes, Tilly doubted he cared very much.

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Pupienus stood almost as a counterpoint to Shuji's awestruck reaction. He held up a new pair of glasses and eyed them critically as if he were trying to decide if he should even put them on.

The first one to notice Tilly's entrance was Hiro, his eyes looking up from what had to be his character screen and narrowing. He looked back at the position where Tilly had been standing before the time-stop and then back at Tilly, who was now fifty feet away without having moved to get there.

Finding everyone unharmed with a power-up had Tilly feeling giddy and he couldn’t help but wink at the newly appointed Daimyo. Who cares if all he got was a mystery box award? It looked like everyone around him had come out pretty well, especially the ones who had seriously contributed to the hidden quest at some point.

Aside from Hiro’s puzzled frown at Tilly’s strange human eye twitch, everyone else was busy looking at their own notification logs and character sheets. The spectacled satyr jumped as he looked around with his new glasses and found Tilly standing in the entryway on the other side of the anti-chamber.

“Hum- ah, I mean, Jonathan Tillman, how did you-” He trailed off and then cleared his throat.

“It seems you were right about the benefits of this alignment… But I still do not have access to our city interface. Lord Hiro, if you would be so kind, can you inform us of our position and if these… uh boons have extended to our whole populace.” He asked in a tone that bordered on patronizing.

Lord Hiro nodded fractionally, before turning to the crystal and lifting his hand, as if interacting with another larger screen. The others watched him, waiting patiently, except for Linus, who seemed to be able to see what was happening in front of Hiro even though it was just empty air to Tilly’s eyes.

Looking up from what Hiro was doing, Linus explained, “Well, it seems like Hiro, and I have received class upgrades that allow us direct access to the interface. Hiro I’m sure would have had this with his last class, but faction management is one of the purposes of my new class.” As he said 'management' his voice stumbled over a growling hitch.

He looked like he was trying to swallow a lemon, and Tilly could only imagine what a class that specifically gave him management abilities would do to his outlook on life. Some people were made for admin work and it made others sick. Tilly gave Linus a nod of solidarity. He was a fighter and would adjust to his new fate with the same grim determination that he had used to face death in the past.

Hiro swiped his hand and dismissed his screen before looking up at the rest of the group,

“The system has awarded our new Faction a name, something we have not been able to do ourselves…” He said, shooting a hard look in the direction of the Bureaucrat.

“It refers to us as the Three-Fold Alliance. I am not yet sure of the full significance of this Title, but it is certainly related to our new patron deity. There are two points of immediate interest in the establishment section of the City Interface. I believe I can share them with you…” He said, his eyes flickering as he delivered some mental commands to his HUD.

A green screen appeared in front of Tilly and from the expressions of the others, they each had one of their own as well,

Establishment

Congratulations, Three-Fold Alliance! In conjunction with your starting position and in acknowledgment of the considerable forces arrayed against your existence, you have been awarded two city-wide Boons.

Origin’s Aegis: extends out in a 5-mile area of effect, Origin’s Flame will release a reverse time dilation. For every hour outside the area of effect, 24 hours will pass inside the affected area. This effect will last the equivalent of one day on the outside.

Fires Of Creation: For the duration of the Aegis’ effect all skills will experience a 50% increase in efficiency for gaining levels.

Then, at the bottom of the screen, in a completely different script than the notification, was a personal note from Origin.

A Bond has Been Struck.

Nothing that comes against you will triumph as long as the covenant holds.

“Much better than we hoped… and much worse.” One of the Honu elders said, looking up from the screen with a hard glint in her eye.

“It seems… we will be in… conflict… almost immediately.” The other said, agreeing with her assessment.

Their words drew Ichiro from his consideration of the words before him,

“We have been given what we did not think to ask for, time. Let us use it to its full effect. Our food and shelter challenges are not solved, but with new classes available, and skill leveling bonus, we should be able to integrate our increased population.” Ichiro said thoughtfully, his strange white eyes having no problem reading the notification screen in front of him.

“We will have to see what changes have already been wrought on our populace and what opportunities they provide before we form a plan of action. But near the top of the list should be scouting our 5-mile allotted area and finding out who our new neighbors are as soon as possible.” Linus added while Pupienus began to mumble about figures and estimates to himself.

Shuji hadn’t even looked up from his large book, and Tilly found himself wondering if he had heard any of it,

“Shuji. What have you got there?”

He looked up with puffy red eyes blinking rapidly as he looked around the room in confusion before focusing on Tilly.

Yep, he had definitely been crying.

“Jonathan Tillman… This is an Enchanted Librarian’s Codex linked to me. It stores all the information I gather through any means and indexes it. It does so perfectly, without error, essentially allowing me to copy any book just by reading it. It is a library in itself and will record all that I have ever learned and all that I ever will learn within its pages. The implications are staggering.” He said, hiccuping back a sob.

“There is one more thing here,” Hiro said, interrupting, “Under the advancement tab.” He followed the statement by sending them another screen.

Advancement

Current Status of Three-Fold Alliance: City.

Next stage of Advancement: City State, [25 miles of influence, wall advancements, access to Auction house, and establishment of a standing army.]

Requirements

Population: 110000 / 50000

Subdue Surrounding Area: Cleared

Obtain the Patronage of another Origin Facet: 1/2

“Jonathan Tillman, what is an ‘Origin Facet’?”