Kya smiled to herself as she walked through the streets of Lyra, periodically pausing to reach down and stab her venomous dagger into the dwarf whom she was pulling along behind her like a sack of potatoes.

Oh, I hope they have potatoes in this world. She thought idly. They probably have some sort of substitute for them, but I'll be pretty disappointed to never have one again.

She shook her head before broadening her smile. Another group of confused and mildly terrified pedestrians scrambled out of her path with eyes like dinner plates. That kept happening for some odd reason. Meanwhile, looking back, she saw the large troupe of random children following her some distance back. She didn’t know where they had come from, nor where they were supposed to be, but at this moment, it genuinely felt to Kya like she was the pied piper, leading a group of children with her ragdoll dwarf.

Deciding it was probably best to cut this short before it got out of hand, rather than later regret allowing it to continue, Kya ducked into a side alley way, then did so again, and a third time, until she had more or less shaken off the merry band of kids.

She knew vaguely where Rory’s clinic was, but the specifics were somewhat eluding her. Especially in a town of this size, she was absolutely beyond her scope of expertise. If she had lived here for several months, with a priority on exploration, then she might have known her way around. But this wasn’t like the grid system she was used to in large cities back where she came from. These streets were wide in some places, narrow in others. Some had roads spanning miles and miles, others led to immediate dead ends. If not for the frightened populace giving her directions whenever she asked, Kya would likely have never found where she was trying to go.

However, after much longer than she would have liked, and several more attempts at ditching the horde of kids now entirely hooked on chasing down and finding the elusive dwarf dragger, Kya finally arrived at the large doors to Rory’s clinic.

Not wanting to drop her hold on the dwarfs legs, Kya awkwardly raised her foot and pulled on the door to try and open it. After her third attempt, she sighed, and was about to acquiesce when none other than good old Tom came and opened the door from within.

“Ah, welcome back Miss… Kya… Why and how are you dragging an unconscious dwarf around?” He had started off so cheerily, only to have such a rapid and visual decline into utter confusion, that Kya couldn’t herself and let out a lighthearted laugh.

“Hello Tom, how are you doing today?”

His eyes never leaving the dwarf as he beckoned her inside, he responded “Well, doing well. There is this one thing though, I can’t quite seem to remember… Oh yeah, and why is there an unconscious dwarf being dragged into the lobby of our clinic?”

This only redoubled her fit of laughter, and still not answering him, Kya asked “Is Rory in? I need to see him on a variety of issues, but I think it’d be best if we talked one on one.”

Sighing with the auditory power of a steam engine, he walked away mumbling “I’m a healer too, I could have helped. But fine, I’ll fetch Rory. He probably won’t even take bone samples, huh.”

Leaving Taln in the center of the lobby, she went over and collapsed down into a chair. They were the kinds that seemed mass produced. She had no idea the types of industry they had in this world, some magical chair making ability didn’t seem out of the question, but these were nice enough. Plush enough to be acceptable, but uncomfortable enough to not make you fully relaxed.

Looking over, she saw an elderly man with rosy, red splotches on his cheeks, and bald scalp. His long elf ears were discolored and the skin on them seemed to be peeling. She didn’t know what he had, but clearly it wasn't something pleasant from the constant scratching he did.

He likewise stared back at her, ordinary non magical green eyes meeting her luminous pinks, and they seemed to almost size each other up.

- - - - -

Aaron Svit

Class - None

- - - - -

She had felt this from his aura, sensing that he was there and that there wasn’t any magic in him, but it was good to have the confirmation.

As she observed the man, and he her, several things hit her at once. Firstly, and most obviously, this man reminded her of Arthur. Not through any specific shared facial features or mannerisms, simply by being an elder, it made her think of the man whose body she’d looted hours before.

All the laughter left her then, sobered up in a moment like cold water had fallen on her face.

The second realization was one of age. She didn’t know how long elves typically lived, but assumed it to be roughly equivalent to humans. That put this man in maybe his high seventies or low eighties. Somewhere around there.

What would she look like when she was eighty? Rory looked remarkably young, and yet she knew him to be much older than he looked. Would she ever actually grow old? So many parts of this new life and new reality remained entirely foreign to her. Yet to be broached or really faced by her conscious mind.

“You are a user.” The man stated in a quavering voice. Not from nerves, she thought, but merely age. His observation wasn’t a question, but Kya answered him anyway.

“Yes, I am.”

“You have chosen the path of space, it would seem.”

“Yes, I did.”

“You are young. Human. I’d guess not from around Lyra, maybe not even Loterre.”

Kya wasn’t wholly enjoying the line of observations made on her as the subject and decided to try and cut to the chase. “Is there going to be a question at some point?” Her tone not unkind, but not the warmest it could have been.

He smiled, showing off several yellowed teeth and a couple missing ones “Not just now, no. But how about a recommendation instead. You ought to-”

“Alright now Milly, here’s a toffee for being such a good girl today, and remember to hold onto the railing next time you’re going down the stairs, okay?”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Rory was handing a small girl of about two or three a wrapped piece of candy, while the haggard looking mother smiled and said “Thank you dear, we really appreciate all your help. Don’t we Milly?”

The child, Milly, was already loudly chewing on the toffee but garbled out a laugh and something along the lines of “-ank yoo ‘unny man”

The mother did a small bow with the child in her arms, before turning and leaving a chuckling Rory waving her off. It speaks a lot to the relief of a parent about their child's wellbeing that the woman didn’t even stop to question the passed-out form of Taln not two inches from where she stepped on her way out.

Rory, on the other hand, very much had noticed.

“Now then, I’m sorry Mr. Svit, but if you can hold on just a little longer, I think I’d like to clear up… whatever this is before I see you today. Unless you wouldn’t mind letting Tom see you?”

The elderly elf chuckled softly, and Tom stuck his eager face around the corner, eyes full of hope.

“Tom is more likely to cut off my ears to cure me than to give me any medicines. I’ll see him though, so long as he keeps the scissors in the drawers.”

You might have thought it was Tom's birthday, the way he let out an excited whoop before coming over to escort the elf back.

Turning as he left, he said “My recommendation. Read up on some history. It wouldn’t do for someone in your position to go about not knowing any. I don’t know how you managed to get the class you have, but it’s a remarkable thing. Remarkable indeed.”

Without saying anything else and leaving both Kya and Rory with mixed expressions on their faces, the too-excited-to-take-in-anything-happening-around-him Tom led him back into an examination room.

“I have just so very many questions, Kya.” Rory began, “I think the most prescient would be: Why is there a drugged-up dwarf passed out and drooling on my floor?”

Focusing her attention back onto Rory, Kya said “Well, if you’ll help me get him off the floor, we can talk about that in a less conspicuous place.”

Nodding slowly, Rory came over and executed a perfect fireman's carry, hoisting the dwarf over his shoulder and grunting as he stood back up from his squat in a single fluid motion.

“I hate caring for dwarves; their bones are so dense. Makes them impossible to move around.”

Looking over his shoulder, he noticed that Kya had simply been staring open mouthed at him. It had taken her using a mix of spatial magic and brute strength just to drag him across the floor… and Rory was just carrying him around, presumably with raw strength alone.

“Rory”

“Yes Kya?”

“How strong are you?”

“In what context? I’ve done a bit of wrestling, but it’s been a couple years since I did any fighting outside of the waves.”

“In the context of ‘how the hell are you carrying that guy.’”

“I’m carrying him pretty much solely because of my second star. Come on,” he grunted, readjusting “we’ll talk about it after I put this guy down.”

The resounding crash that followed Rory placing down the dwarf, as well as the groan of effort accompanied with him rolling his shoulders and taking a couple deep breaths, were both testaments to the sheer weight of the man. Kya realized belatedly that she could have probably helped him with the weight using her abilities, but… oh well.

“Now then,” Rory said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them back and forth in what Kya had always called ‘polishing your palms’ “There’s a whole list of things I need to know. Firstly, who is he. Secondly, do you know the venom he’s suffering from? Thirdly, what happened that led us here, and how does it involve the undead?”

The last addition taking her back, Kya asked “How do you know about the unde- oh is it the blessing or boon or whatever?”

“Yes, but we’ll do that later. Start at the start, who is he and what happened? I can tell the venom isn’t life threatening, at least not at this dosage and at least not for him, but still.”

“Do you want the long answer to your question, or the short answer?”

He thought for a moment “Can I have a medium answer?”

Kya then explained about the hellhounds, the dinner at Arthurs, the discovery of the rituals, stopping the one in the underground chamber, and about Taln offering to play the game in exchange for answers, followed by Kya’s knocking him out and transporting him back here.

She intentionally avoided referencing the quest ability she had, as well as the mysterious four-eyed man. She didn’t know why but had a strong feeling that those weren’t cards she wanted to play just yet.

Sitting down with a huff as a stool appeared beneath him, Rory ran a hand across his suddenly tired looking face. She noticed this time, unlike before, that his ring had flashed ever so faintly as the stool appeared. A moment later, her assumption was confirmed.

- - - - -

- Item: Spatial ring

- Rarity: Common

- Description: A ring once used widely throughout the world, it utilizes a spatial enchantment to create a small storage space inside the gem.

- Enchantments: Basic Spatial Expansion

- Requirements: N/A

- - - - -

She made note of the fact that he was wearing it, and that it was the same basic enchantment as both the other ring she’d found, as well as the bag she still carried with her.

“A resurrection ritual right outside of the city, and no one even knew. That can’t be right.”

“Well, I could have been wrong, but it really seemed like-”

“No,” he said, cutting her off “I don’t doubt that was a resurrection ritual based on everything you told me. What I’m saying is there isn’t any way someone hadn’t detected that much death magic in one area. We need to have a talk with the death church.”

He then heaved a great sigh and looked up at her from his wooden stool “We’ll take him to the guild hall to be interrogated, but we can take care of your boon right now if you’d like.”

“Interrogated? They won’t harm him, will they? It’s possible he was complicit, but I don’t think he had any active role in what happened, nor do I think he was acting of his own free will.”

Rory absently waved his hand “No no, they won’t hurt him. Just get the information from him so it’s on record.”

Kya let out a knot of tension that had suddenly sprung up between her shoulder blades. She didn’t know Taln very well, or at all really past his name, but she still didn’t want to see him blamed for everything simply because he was their servant.

“So then, the boon?” Rory said again.

“Explain what it is first. Like what will happen, do I have to convert to your religion or something?”

Rory let out an amused grunt “If you mean become a priest, no, no you don’t have to do that. Basically, all it means is you did something my god has commanded. Depending on what it was and how difficult it was to do, you get a boon. I can already tell this is a pretty minor one, so most likely it’ll just be some small passive boost to an ability, but they can vary wildly. The best effects come when the boon is given by your own god, but they’re hardly ever bad things.”

“Hardly, so it might be bad?”

Rory shrugged and made a half grunt half groan sound “ehhh, almost certainly not. Definitely not from the church of life. Some of the other ones though can be pretty weird. The god of fire likes to give out a boon where your abilities get a slight boost the warmer you are. You get people wearing woolen cloaks and dying of heat stroke for a few extra powerful attacks.” He shook his head “anyway, I digress. Let's take care of yours in the ritual room, then we can get heavy here to the guild and clear up this whole mess.”

Nodding her agreement, Kya wordlessly followed Rory down the hall like she’d done days before when she’d first unlocked her class, mind full of questions about gods and goddesses of this world.