In the early morning hours, five inquisitors rode out beyond the edge of the city towards the last known location of Hilda’s tower.

“Inquisitor Malcolm, I don’t doubt that you received a revelation, but why are we headed into the woods,” a fellow inquisitor called out.

“The revelation I received told me that the wizard known as Hilda was experimenting with things beyond her control that had the potential to damage the tapestry of fate,” replied inquisitor Malcolm.

“By The Judicator…” whispered the inquisitor under her breath.

***

! Scan used !

! Mote of Luck scanned !

! Threat level assessment: @#$%&* !

“Well that can’t be good,” I murmured as I stared at the test tube containing several glowing gold flakes of… something glowing that were suspended in some sort of liquid.

“I guess this is the thing that Mr. Serendipity asked me to steal,” I thought as I placed my stray’s paw on the test tube and assimilated it.

Deciding to hide the [stray cat] inside a surprisingly empty cabinet, I jumped back into my core to examine the unusual item.

[Mote of Luck x21]

>combine together for fun!

>stick it in the dais for profit!

>P.S. you’re going to need to build the enchanting table and get your stray cat out of Hilda’s tower before the inquisitor shows up

“Huh?” I asked the menu message.

I had a suspicion that this was a message from Mr. Serendipity and if the post script was anything to go by, this had turned into a timed event.

Not wasting any time, I combined all of the motes of luck.

The menu started to display something called a [Shard of luck] before glitching out and displaying something else entirely.

[Lucky Dice]

>Dice totem for luck

>Discover effects to unlock descriptions

“Wow, that’s vague as hell,” I thought before I put the dice into the dais’ third slot that I had open for an embarrassingly long amount of time.

A strange energy ran through the casino that reminded me of the feeling you get when you pop your ears and suddenly all sound is in HD.

“Whew okay, now I need to craft the enchanting table,” I thought after getting used to the new sensations.

Surprisingly, I had all of the ingredients for a tier three enchanting table.

The fancy diamond was a given as well as a staggering amount of gold and silver.

Well staggering for anyone who hadn’t been generating it passively.

There was also some marble that went in to it that I had managed to recover from an artist dropping off a failed sculpture at some point.

“Well time to skip tiers one and two,” I shrugged before crafting the enchanting table and positioning it awkwardly in the same room as the alchemy station.

! Magical item blueprints unlocked !

! All magical items that have been in your inventory now available for crafting !

“Hell yes!” I exclaimed, “now I just need to get my [stray cat] out of Hilda’s tower.”

I scrolled through all of the items that I had unlocked due to the secret room’s exchange until I spotted one that fit the bill.

[Returning Stone]

>Single use item

>Upon breaking, returns user to a keyed location

“Okay it needs a gemstone, doesn’t say what kind, a bit of silver and copper, and some mana,” I muttered as I selected one of the rubies I had lying around and confirmed the selection.

The enchanting table came to life as the bits of silver and copper morphed and formed a band across the ruby. The diamond floating above the table began to glow and shot a beam of mana at the band. Magical runes etched themselves into the ruby and the band of metal before everything stopped glowing and the newly made returning stone fell back onto the table.

I assimilated it back into my inventory and examined it.

[Returning Stone]

>Single use item

>Upon breaking, returns user to a keyed location

>Keyed to The Lucky Cat Dungeon

“Perfect, now I just need to send it to my stray and I’ll be in the clear,” I thought before doing just that.

For good measure, I hopped back into my stray’s head just to make sure they didn’t just bat it around.

My stray was still in the cabinet where I had left them, but now the returning stone sat at their paws.

Several sets of heavy footsteps could be heard as well as a deep male voice.

“Looks like I got here just in time,” I thought before gnawing on the band keeping the magic in tact.

This time I was ready for it as I teleported away from Hilda’s tower, and with a bit of satisfaction, the ride felt much smoother than when I hitched a ride in Alma’s bag the first time.

***

Hilda and Alma were both awoken by a magical chime in the early hours of the morning.

The two wizards met each other in the hallway, both adorned with long robes to keep off the chill.

“Hilda, what’s that?” Alma asked groggily.

“That would be the proximity sensor,” Hilda replied as she marched her way back into her laboratory and shot a bit of mana into the mirror that was hanging on her wall.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The mirror rippled and showed the image of five armed riders on horseback riding towards the tower, their pauldrons and shields embroidered with a set of golden scales.

“Shit,” swore Hilda.

Alma looked at her mentor in shock.

“Hilda, who are these people?” asked the apprentice.

“That would be the inquisition. They’re a group of religious fanatics who serve The Judicator,” Hilda explained, “get dressed Alma, unless you want to be interrogated in your night clothes.”

The alarm had given the wizards barely enough time to get dressed before the sound of someone pounding at the door echoed throughout the tower.

After a pause, the door to the tower opened to reveal a very unimpressed looking Hilda and a concerned looking Alma just behind her mentor.

“Can I help you?” asked Hilda as she eyed the stern looking inquisitors.

“Is this the tower belonging to Hilda the enchanter?” asked the man in the lead.

“Yes, this is she,” replied Hilda.

“My name is inquisitor Malcolm and by divine authority and for your own safety, we’re going to need to search your tower,” announced inquisitor Malcolm.

“Divine authority? I suppose you have proof and I’m not just supposed to take your word on the matter,” asked Hilda as though she was talking to a bunch of school children and not a group of heavily armed individuals.

“I assure you that I speak the truth. We can return later with a writ of witnessing, but if that’s the case I will be exercising my full authority as an inquisitor,” Malcolm explained.

“What’s a writ of witnessing?” Alma whispered.

“A writ of witnessing,” inquisitor Malcolm began, having overheard Alma, “is a conformation from the church as to the nature of a divine revelation. The person in question is put through an extensive examination to confirm nature of their revelation.”

“They also examine the person for traces of divine magic. People who receive visions from the gods tend to show traces of especially potent divinity. More So than what a normal acolyte of the gods show anyways. It’s to keep the church honest especially after a number of incidents regarding certain members of the church claiming false revelations in order to further their own agendas,” Hilda added.

“Indeed,” said inquisitor Malcolm, “so I ask again, may we come in?”

Hilda stared at the inquisitor, neither braking eye contact from the other before answering.

“Wipe your feet before you come in. I just cleaned the rugs and I don’t want you to undo my hard work even if I can clean it with magic,” she said before stepping aside.

Surprisingly, Inquisitor Malcolm did as she asked and kicked the mud off his boots before stepping inside the tower.

The rest of the inquisitors followed Malcolm’s example before likewise joining him.

“Now, what was it that you were looking for?” Hilda asked.

“My revelation told me that you were experimenting with something that was capable of unraveling the tapestry of fate,” Malcolm explained.

“Be sure not to move anything,” Hilda said, “I have some very delicate equipment in my laboratory that could cause some magical disturbances if it becomes unbalanced.”

“I see, let’s save the lab for last then. You two, make sure nothing is moved,” said Malcolm.

Alma shot Hilda a look as the inquisitors began their search.

The inquisitors searched high and low, but it quickly became apparent that they didn’t know what they were looking for.

“Inquisitor Malcolm, do you have any better description of what you are looking for rather than just something capable of unraveling fate?” asked Hilda with an annoyed tone.

The inquisitor took a moment to stop and think.

“I could be mistaken, but I believe it was a small collection of golden stones, not quite sand but still quite small,” recalled Malcolm.

“I’m afraid to inform you, but gold is quite the common ingredient in spellcraft and enchanting. I have some in my laboratory if you’d like to take a look,” Hilda offered.

“Please, lead the way,” Malcolm said.

“Be sure to follow me closely. I wasn’t expecting guests, so things are somewhat cluttered,” Hilda said as she opened the door.

There seemed to be a brief sense of spacial magic before it quickly dissipated before the inquisitors followed behind her.

“...Somewhat cluttered…,” one of the inquisitors murmured sarcastically.

Hilda chose to ignore the inquisitor before turning her attention back on Malcolm.

“Right this way,” she said before gliding through the chaos with a practiced ease.

Malcolm let out a quiet sigh before doing his best to follow her in his bulky armor.

Eventually, the two of them made it to the other side of the lab without breaking anything before Hilda opened up a door that reminded Malcolm of a walk in pantry.

Magical samples and reagents lined the shelves with much more organization than the laboratory would have suggested Hilda was capable of.

Hilda held out her hand as her bangle lit up and a jar of gold dust levitated into her outstretched palm.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” asked Hilda.

Malcolm examined the jar for a moment and shook his head.

“No, what I saw had an ethereal quality to it,” the inquisitor replied as he turned around to come face to face with Alma who had followed the two of them.

“You’ve been awfully quiet this entire time,” the inquisitor commented as he shifted his attention to the apprentice.

Unlike Hilda, Alma didn’t have the years of adventuring experience facing down monsters and other intimidating people and quickly felt pinned to the spot under the inquisitor’s gaze.

“I- uh,” Alma stammered.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about some ethereal gold substance that can interfere with fate?” asked inquisitor Malcolm.

Alma’s eyes darted over to a cabinet on the wall for a split second.

Malcolm followed her eyes and carefully made his way through Hilda’s equipment once more.

Alma let out a small gasp as the inquisitor flung open the cabinet.

Only to reveal nothing.

“If you’re quite done bullying my apprentice,” Hilda said, stepping out of the pantry, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

The inquisitor stared at Alma for a moment before turning his attention back to Hilda.

“Of course. Thank you for being cooperative in our investigation,” he said before turning to leave.

“Oh inquisitor,” called Hilda just as he was about to exit the laboratory.

“Yes?” asked Malcolm.

“I expect to have a copy of your writ of witnessing when you get back to your sanctuary,” Hilda said coldly.

“I believe that can be arranged,” inquisitor Malcolm replied before gathering up the rest of the inquisitors and exiting Hilda’s tower.

Hilda and Alma watched the inquisition mount up and ride back down the path that they had come from before Alma let out a sigh of relief.

“How did you manage to stay so calm in that situation?” asked Alma.

“Let’s just say that I’ve had experience dealing with the law before during my adventuring days,” Hilda grinned as if remembering something fondly before closing the door to her tower door, “Did I ever tell you the time that my old adventuring party had to pass a stolen ring between the five of us while the city guard was searching us. Brenn ended up swallowing it-”

“Before that, how did you manage to hide the motes of luck before Malcolm searched the laboratory?” Asked Alma.

“Ah, I didn’t,” replied Hilda as she made her way back to her laboratory, “someone or something used a recall stone just before Malcolm started searching the lab.”

“What! How?” sputtered Alma.

The mirror’s surface rippled before playing the events of the day in reverse order at an accelerated speed until the image stopped at a cat that had just hopped out of Alma’s bag.

“It seems like you picked up a stray before we came back,” Hilda chuckled.

***

“[A voice echoing in the valley] [Kneeling before the altar] [Two hundred fifty six] [The smell of lavender] [The concept of creating a perfect crest in sealing wax]”

! Establishing connection……….. !

! Connection Established !

[Beginning conversation log between Username: Selina and Administrator]

“Judicator, this is important. Mr. House has apparently received a prophecy from his sponsor,” Selina explained urgently.

“What?” replied the divine voice in a very not divine manner.

“Wait a moment. I can sense that he’s returned.” Selina said.

“What is he doing?” The Judicator asked.

“He seems to be in his inventory,” Selina replied.

“You have done well to inform me. Provide an update once he-” The Judicator began before he was interrupted.

[System Message: It’s not nice to talk about people behind their back]

[Connection Terminated]

“Oh shit…” Selina thought in shocked silence.