When Callan next opened his eyes, he found Kivi staring down at him.

“Good morning, Avatar. Did you sleep well?”

“Hey, Kivi. I was just having the most wonderful dream about you.” He sat up and stretched.

“I’m honored you consider me worth appearing in them. However, it is past time we were up and about. I saw Restaro headed for his fields some time ago.”

Callan glanced around, and noticed the elder twin priests were no longer in the loft at all. Down below, the first rays of dawn were sliding their way through the barn doors.

“Sorry, did I sleep overlong?”

“No longer than I let you. I imagine that Xeph-Zul-Karatl kept you working later than advisable.”

Hmm, she is an observant one, Xeph noted as Kivi made her way down the ladder. Callan shook out the remaining pieces of straw from his clothes and followed after. It is good to know that our faith in choosing her as our high priestess was not misplaced.

“Yeah, you realize hearing you talk about faith is kind of ironic, right?”

There are many forms of faith. It just happens that some are more... tangible than others.

Callan rolled his eyes, then dropped from the loft like a stone. He hit the ground about the same moment as Kivi reached the bottom of the ladder, the force of his landing only sending a minor twinge through his system.

Yeah. Thirty-five in Fortitude had its advantages.

Outside, they found Sworv and Paeral munching on breakfast, with Sadie watching them nearby, an amused expression on her face and a basket laden with bread slung under one arm. Her little infant blinked at Callan from a carrier on the farmwife’s back.

“Morning, Sadie. And you as well, little one.” Kivi waved an upper arm in front of the baby’s face, almost standing on tiptoes in order to do it. In response, the rutain woman swung the carrier around and handed it over.

“I’m sure you’re wanting breakfast about now, but would you mind watching him while I take Restaro his meal? He usually likes to get started in the fields before I’m finished.”

“Oh, I’ll take this little one over a full stomach any day,” Kivi said, cradling the babe and making faces at him. The baby let out a happy gurgle.

Turning, Sadie handed Callan a loaf of warm bread. “Fresh from my oven, especially for you. I do appreciate the effort you all are taking on our accounts.”

“Is Restaro interested in watching us raise the tidal tower?” Kivi asked, having moved to sit alongside the two brother priests.

“Somehow I doubt he’ll want to give up the time, we’re still working to recover what we can after that last moonrise. Though he might have an opinion or two about the best place to put it. I’ll bring him back if he wants to oversee it personally.”

Callan bit into the bread and watched the rutain woman amble her way through the gate and out into the fields. The bread was amazingly delicious, especially after having had almost nothing but emergency rations and spirebeans for weeks now. Though he had managed a few meals of venison before leaving the temple, at least.

He hoped it was venison, anyway. The animals looked like deer, but now that he thought about it, he’d never actually heard Lynthia and her hunters refer to them as such.

“About this tower,” he said, glancing around at the farmyard. Besides the multitude of stones making up the perimeter fence, there wasn’t much beyond dirt and wood to be seen. “Where exactly were you thinking?”

“About that. It will be a little extra work, but if we can dig down to the foundational level of the plateau, we should have more than enough material to work with. I don’t expect it will take any more time than the last version. Less, given what we learned from that experience.”

“Huh.” Interesting, how that idea both parallelled his own, and contrasted to it.

Restaro appeared a moment later, followed by his wife. The latter came and collected her child from Kivi, giving her a loaf in exchange. They all turned towards Callan.

“As I was just explaining to the Avatar—” Kivi began.

“Actually, hold on, High Priestess.” Callan held up a hand. “Xeph is telling me something.”

Mortal? I said nothing.

“Uh huh. Hmm. Okay. Interesting.”

What are you doing? Stop that!

Callan turned back to Kivi and Restaro. “He says the soil or regolith or whatever here is too deep. We’ll be digging forever.”

I did NOT. In fact, I explicitly told you the exact opposite. Why, there is a perfect spot just past the barn that—

“Ix nay, upid-stay,” Callan muttered out of the corner of his mouth. The god cut off mid-rant.

What does that mean? Is it more French?

“Close but no cigar. Think less baguette and more bacon-y.”

I don’t even know what half of those words mean.

Across from him, Kivi was frowning, while Sadie’s face had turned white. Restaro, however, wore a resigned look, as if he’d been expecting to hear something to this effect.

“Thank you for your honesty, Avatar. If you don’t mind, I should return to my work.”

“Just a moment,” Kivi interjected. “Let us not give up on the project entirely. Perhaps we could bring in sufficient stone from elsewhere? With our combined strength, it would not take my fellow priests and I long—”

“I could not ask such a thing from you, High Priestess. Such a gift could never be repaid in my lifetime.”

“It isn’t as if the project is off the table,” Callan said. “We just need to find somewhere close with a sufficiently large stone. Besides, didn’t you say there were neighbors nearby? It would make sense to build the tower somewhere more central.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Kivi shot an angry glare in his direction, though it was gone in the next instant. “While I understand your logic, Avatar, I still think—”

“That is a better plan,” Restaro said, something akin to relief on his face. “I’ll leave you to the particulars. Daylight is wasting.”

With that, he trudged off again in the direction of his fields. Callan turned and found Kivi watching him, her expression cool. She opened her mouth to speak, but he overrode her.

“High Priestess, please take Sworv and Paeral to scout the area. Report back when you’ve found a stone of sufficient size somewhere roughly central to all the local farms.”

“If my Avatar commands it, I shall see it done,” she said, the words harsh and accusatory. Callan knew he was likely to get an earful for this later. Hopefully his intuition would prove worth the trouble.

“Good. I’m going to stay here and practice with Wurmchain. I need to master it before reaching Aos, or we won’t be of any use there, either.”

As Kivi led the other two priests away from the farmstead, Xeph rumbled inside Callan’s skull, the sound like a building avalanche. I’m guessing you had a reason for this subterfuge? Though for all the ages I’ve lived, I can’t imagine why.

“Not subterfuge, Xeph. Just an educated guess.”

As to what, exactly?

“Restaro. Whatever Kivi is hoping to accomplish, simply building the tower isn’t going to get her there. I recognize pride like that when I see it.”

Back when Callan had been around twelve, his mother’s cousin had fallen on hard times. Callan’s parents had tried to send him some money to help cover his living expenses, but the cousin refused. In the end, he’d lost his house and ended up homeless for a month rather than accepting charity.

The situation wasn’t exactly the same here, but still... that relieved expression on Restaro’s face had told him everything he needed to know.

Hmmph. I assume you have an alternative strategy.

“Maybe. Like I said last night, I’m still working on it.”

Just as long as there is some plan. If this amounts to nothing but making the high priestess upset...

“Then I’ll apologize profusely and build the tower she wanted. In the meantime, how about we see about the next step to Wurmchain?”

----------------------------------------

Sadie stepped outside, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the noonday sun. She spotted Callan where he was working near the southern curve of the wall and gave a friendly wave.

After waving back, Callan closed his eyes and returned his focus to the task at hand. Inside his head, Xeph let out another growl.

You aren’t doing as I told you, human! You need to relax more. Spread your feet. Breathe deep and allow yourself to feel my energy flowing through your—

“Dammit, Xeph, it isn’t working!” He almost threw down his wurmchain in frustration, but doing that would just mean having to summon it again.

Listen to my words, mortal. Relax. And breathe.

Callan ground his teeth, then tried to force his focus into the weapon in his hand. He could feel Xeph’s energy inside himself, and he could trace that through himself to the chain, but that was where he lost the thread of it.

Trying to move the weapon’s tip and alter the weapon itself were two completely different tasks. The tip had been difficult, but merely a matter of control. But grappling with the entire Wurmchain... There was too much information for his brain to make sense of it.

It wasn’t about finding the source of the energy, because he could see the energy. It writhed around him like mist, undulating, twisting, forming and reforming. By the time he managed to focus on any one section, it had changed into something completely different.

“Why isn’t it like this with Mountainform?” he asked. “I can comprehend the flows within me, but the second they’re outside it’s like trying to read a map written in Cantonese. That’s upside down.”

This is all to be expected. You can read the energies of your body more easily because I am here to help interpret them. I smooth and simplify the flow of information where I can. There is still an adjustment period, of course, but when you look outside yourself, you’re seeing all of the information that the sensate world has to offer, not just your own. There is only so much I can do to help you overcome that.

“I—huh. Okay, I guess that makes sense.”

Fortunately, this is not a process you will need to overcome on your own. As I continue to remind you, improvement comes through constant practice. Repetition breeds familiarity. However, there are some measures that I can take which may aid you. For instance, you see those lines of power there?

Callan kept his eyes closed but felt the tug of Xeph in his mind. The raw power of Wurmchain rose about him, but just outside of it there lay another force. It wasn’t like his own powers, but a small jumble of lines, murky gray where his was pure white.

Open your eyes.

He did as instructed and found Sadie standing in front of him, a shy smile on her face. “I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“Nothing that doesn’t deserve to be interrupted for a few minutes.”

I take offense at that statement.

Callan ignored the god. Releasing Wurmchain, he let it evaporate into sulphureous smoke. “Is something wrong?”

“No, I simply wished to bring you your midday meal.”

“Lunchtime already?” He glanced up, and saw the sun was right overhead. “Huh. I swear it was breakfast just a few minutes ago.”

The rutain woman gave him another shy smile, then began unpacking some food. Unlike with breakfast, there were a myriad of offerings—sandwiches, pickled eggs, dried fruit, and even a small slice of what looked like pumpkin pie.

“Is all this for me?” Callan watched her carefully as she laid it all out. “I hope you didn’t go out of your way just on my account.”

“It is no trouble. How often will one such as myself have a chance to serve an avatar? Besides, Restaro rarely takes a midday meal, so...”

She trailed off. Callan picked up a sandwich and took a bite. Chewed. Swallowed.

“You swore an oath to Xeph?” he asked. The woman nodded. “But your husband didn’t. Seems kind of strange.”

Sadie didn’t respond. Working his way through a second bite, Callan added, “I’m not trying to pry. Kivi seems to have an understanding of what’s going on here, and that’s good enough for me. Only now I’m worried. Is your husband angry that we’re here? Are we actually making trouble for you with our tide tower project?”

“No, Avatar, not at all.” The woman shook her head vehemently. “Restaro actually sounded pleased when we spoke of it last night. Only after sleeping on it, I think...”

“He’s afraid we’re going to use it to take advantage of him.”

Sadie nodded.

“You want your husband to swear an oath.” Another nod. “But he doesn’t want to.”

“No, Avatar.”

“And now you’re here with lunch to try and bribe me to get him to, anyway.” Callan smirked as the woman looked up in shock. “I was hoping to head off trouble by moving the tower further away, but maybe I’m misunderstanding the situation. Again, not trying to pry. I just want to make sure we’re doing the best we can for one of Xeph’s followers.”

“I... don’t understand, Avatar.”

“Being safe during the tides is important, but I imagine you’ve survived alright so far. Plus, Xeph tells me during the rainy season there are torrential downpours and lightning storms, so one of these towers isn’t a guarantee of protection. Not if it makes trouble with your husband.” Callan paused and waited until their eyes met. “Is your husband mad at you for joining Xeph’s congregation?”

“Of course not, Avatar! Restaro—” the woman cut off and looked away, biting her lip.

“Hey, no worries, I said I wasn’t going to pry. So long as you can promise me that what we’re doing here won’t make trouble for you.”

“I thank the avatar for his concern, but I am fine.” Sadie rose stiffly, then gave a quick bow. “Please enjoy your lunch. I’ve tarried here too long, and my little one is due to wake at any moment.”

She fled back towards the house. It wasn’t quite a run, but it was too fast for a walk. Callan watched her, trying to piece together what he’d managed to learn. Or if he’d managed to learn anything.

“That conversation felt off. Did it feel off to you, Xeph?”

I’m uncertain how to answer that question, since I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish in the first place.

Callan shook his head. “Just attempting to make sense of what’s going on here.”

He returned to his lunch, finishing up every scrap the farmwife had brought him. Food this good deserved to be savored, but Callan still inhaled it like he was half-starved. Seemed he’d worked up more of an appetite than he’d thought.

Hmmph. If nothing else, that meal helped to bring your Apotheosis back under control. Shall we resume our work?

“I suppose.” Rising, Callan wiped his hands on his pants. “I just wish that I’d been able to learn more from Sadie. At first, I’d just thought Restaro was too proud to accept our help, but now I’m worried there might be more to it. You don’t think she’s in any danger from her husband, do you?”

Whatever for?

“Like, what if he gets angry or abusive because she’s still pushing him to join your church? I didn’t really get that impression from that guy, but if he hates the idea of us being here that much...”

That’s what’s bothering you? Xeph snorted. I would have thought the answer obvious.

“Oh really? Then care to enlighten me, big guy?”

It’s simple. Restaro is dying.