He followed the tendril around the warehouse, and found a large cobblestoned yard and behind that a large frozen river, although he couldn’t see the far side. The tendril trailed into the ground. Cautiously, he flew around, trying to work out why it would be heading underground. There was a small hole in the yard, a faint wisp of smoke coming out.

Flying down the improvised chimney, he found himself in an alcove. A stream ran through an adjoining man-made passageway next to the alcove, out into the river beyond. Inside the alcove there was a small shrine, it was badly made with broken wood and rags. It drew in grace more slowly than any other shrine he’d seen before because of its shoddy workings, but despite that, a hefty pool of grace sat above it. In front of the shrine was a meagre fire, nearly burned out for lack of fuel. Next to the fire, a child sat. He’d guess the child was about 10, but considering his malnourished state, he could easily have been older.

The child was dressed in ill-fitting dirty clothes and by the smell hadn’t had a bath in a long time. His hair was short, red, and poorly maintained. Beneath the smudges of dirt, he had pale freckled skin.

Poor child, he must be homeless. Even with the fire, it’s so cold in here.

The child shivered and placed his last stick on the fire.

I’m not sure he’s going to survive the night.

He watched the child, unsure what to do.

After several minutes, the child stood up, taking a small cup from next to him and filling it from the stream. The child came back standing with both the fire and shrine in front of him. The child bent his head down and prayed. Grace slowly began streaming off of the child and towards the shrine. To the spark’s surprise, he could hear the words of the child’s prayers.

“Please, please, please, I’m so cold! Mother, I remember the stories, please! If there are any sparks listening. If anyone cares!” The child called out in prayer. Tears slid down his cheeks.

“Help for a price, that’s what mother said. I’m scared of dying. I don’t want to die! Please, I’ll do anything.” The prayer continued.

The child stopped for a moment considering the meagre fire before him. Then, with a slow smooth movement, the child reached forward with the cup pouring the water on the fire, extinguishing it with a hiss of steam and smoke.

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“I sacrifice this fire, what I need to live, and myself to any spark that will help.”

The grace from this prayer was at a completely different level than he’d seen before. Immense waves of grace roiled off of the fire and boy and pooled above the shrine to the point of filling nearly the entire room.

I have to help this kid. The spark thought as he rushed to absorb the grace. There was so much grace he couldn’t absorb it all at once.

The kid stood there for a moment, as if waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he sat down huddled in a corner and sobbed in the now dark alcove.

After a few minutes had passed, the spark had gathered the grace. The black writing of the scrivener appeared before him. It had a faint white outline that made it visible in the pitch dark of the alcove.

You have now gathered sufficient grace to gain a power. I will now explain how to gain a power.

All that is required is for you to detail the power you wish to gain. I can then give you options of what powers are available for someone with your level of grace.

Powers come in 3 types, passive, activatable, and burner.

Passive powers are powers that are always active. Your ability to detect grace is an example of this. Passives are the most expensive powers and can cost thousands, even millions, of grace to purchase.

Activatable powers are powers that can be activated, but they are often limited by certain conditions, such as only being able to be used a limited number of times per day or only in certain places.

Burners are powers which you can use as much as you want, but they require grace to activate or maintain.

Once you have purchased powers, I can repeat their details if required if you ask me for a summary.

There was a lot to take in there, but he only had one thought on his mind now.

“Do I have enough grace to get a power to keep the kid warm until the morning?”

Calculating now, please stand by...

There was a moment of silence.

You currently possess 27 grace.

Assessing potential solutions.

1 solution found.

I can grant you a burner power for 20 grace. Once activated, you may keep one person warm for one hour for one grace. I estimate sunrise in 5 hours. Do you wish to purchase this ability?

“Yes!”

Power gained.

Name: Desperate warmth

Type: Burner

Cost: 1 Grace per hour (scalable to time used)

Description: Provide sufficient warmth to keep one normal person or animal alive in cold weather.

The spark who had only just felt full from the grace gained felt hunger again, but with it came a flood of understanding of how to use his newly bought power.

He rushed towards the boy and activated his power on him.

“Wha- Thank you!, Thank you! Thank you! It worked!” the boy let out teary cries of joy.

The spark floated there, keeping the boy warm as he waited for the first rays of morning.

If either the spark or child had been less distracted, they would have noticed the green reflection of eyes watching them from the darkness of the tunnel.