(Year 997, 14th of Full Inji, 6:55AM)

Most days don’t start with someone banging on my door. This one did. I normally wasn’t quick to rise from bed, but the sound of the pounding sent me scrambling up from my covers. Through the door, my father called, “You alright in there?”

I choked on my words for a moment, still a bit stunned from waking up so suddenly, until I figured out what exactly I was trying to say and do. “Yeah! Yeah, I’m alright! I’m alright!” I even nodded my head, until I realized that my father couldn’t see me, given there was a door between us.

The pounding stopped, and after a moment, I heard my father grumble, “Good. You’re late to rise, breakfast is getting cold.” After a moment, he added, “I’m… going out. The forest, you know. Eat your food while it’s still good.”

Another moment, and then I heard his footsteps, starting loud and fading as he made his way down the hall.

I took a moment to breathe deeply, feeling bad that I was glad he was gone.

That was around the time my brain started catching up with itself, starting to process what I’d discovered overnight, and suddenly I was breathing deeply for a different reason.

A part of me wanted to run after him and tell him what had happened. That was because I was scared, sure, but he would probably know what was happening. He’d told me stories about fighting demons with his friends when he was younger, so he might actually know more about the Sinful Paths than the Preacher – firsthand experience, and all that.

On the other hand… I found myself thinking about what he might say. What if Dad got angry about my new Skill? What if he thought I’d been corrupted by a demon, or something awful like that? What if he thought I was a sinner!?

Picturing the look he might get in his eyes (a look I’d seen him give to Preacher Stefenson once, and our neighbours a couple of times), I decided that telling Dad about [Indulge] was not an option.

Then my stomach started rumbling, and after another minute or two of calming myself down, I decided that I’d probably be able to think better on a full stomach.

Walking out to the living room after pulling on my tunic, however, made me reconsider that notion. I hadn’t really been thinking when Dad said that the food was getting cold, but sure enough, the eggs and biscuit sitting on my plate looked dry, like they’d been sitting out for a while.

Rather than stare at my food, I walked over to the window, because I’d just thought of something else that seemed important: How late had I slept? What time of day was it? Looking at the sky, thankfully, revealed that it wasn’t too late. The sun was fully revealed in the sky, but the first and third moons were just passing the roof of the church, so I probably had two or three hours before noon.

I thought about going to check the sundial, to be sure, but I didn’t want to leave my breakfast uneaten.

Did I?

I turned back toward the table and took a good look at my plate. Dry biscuit and eggs… not a fun time. I could try adding a bit of water, but that might just make them too soggy. I could try butter, but Dad was always telling me I used too much.

Rolling my eyes, I took my seat at the table and picked up my fork. If I was lucky, Dad had put too much salt on the eggs again… that would make them a bit more bearable.

As I forked up the first bite of eggs and swallowed them down, I thought to myself that it might be nice if I could [Indulge] in this, the way I’d made myself sleep the night before. It probably wouldn’t work, since the word ‘desire’ made the Skill sound like I had to want to do the thing I used it to do…

Except that was where my thoughts trailed off, because I’d realized that something was wrong. Sure, the eggs were too salty and too dry, and I’d forgotten to pour some water to wash them down with… but that suddenly didn’t feel like it mattered.

Testing something, I picked up my biscuit to take a bite. Drying out had turned it hard, and it crunched a bit as I bit down… but again, that didn’t feel like it mattered.

I knew that bad-tasting food should bother me, I knew that it normally would bother me, but at that moment… it just didn’t. I didn’t even feel like stopping.

I did, though. I held my fork still for a moment, another bite of egg halfway to my mouth, and then slowly lowered it back down to my plate.

I took a deep breath. I hadn’t expected my new skill to work on this, but if it did…

Hesitantly, I raised the fork and took another bite, and then my eyes widened, because the taste of the eggs suddenly felt like it mattered a lot more.

I closed my eyes, thinking. Okay, so… The Skill had taken effect, but then I’d stopped it, and the effect had stayed stopped. I’d made myself less bothered by eating stale food, and then suddenly gone back to caring about it.

I opened my eyes and stared down at my food, noticed that I’d dropped my fork, and picked it back up.

I was probably going to hate myself later if I didn’t eat breakfast. At the very least, my stomach would hate the rest of me.

Even if this weird new Skill was evil, surely it couldn’t hurt to [Indulge] for the sake of cleaning my plate.

And so, just a few minutes later, I was still staring down at my plate, but now the plate was empty. This time, I’d noticed that it was more than just the taste that stopped bothering me. I’d stopped noticing the draft from the window, or the feeling of my clothes on my skin. Whoever had described [Indulge] by saying that nothing would distract me, they’d meant it.

That was good. It freed my mind up to worry about other things.

The main worry, of course, was the level I’d gained in the path of Consumption. Not only had I acquired a dark power, somehow, but now I’d used it. It didn’t seem like a bad power, it had actually been pretty helpful, but… I knew how Preacher Stefenson felt about the Sinful Paths. People who walked Sinful Paths were sinners, full stop, and the Church needed to deal with them – usually in bloody ways, if his stories were true – before they spread sin to others.

That thought gave me pause. If sin could spread, that meant I could spread it, right? I didn’t know how I could spread it, but if the Sinful Paths could be spread, that probably meant I could spread Consumption.

Which meant that unless I figured out how it worked, and made sure not to do it, a lot more people than just me could be in trouble.

There was only one way to learn about the Sinful Paths, though. Dad was out at work, and I didn’t want to see Miss Ambrose, so unless someone in the village had a book about the Sinful Paths (and it wasn’t like I could just ask people about something like that), there was only one person I could ask about these things.

I was tempted to [Indulge] again, just to see if it would make things easier, but the way the Skill seemed to change my feelings about things… no, probably not a good idea. Reluctantly, I put on my shoes, turned over the sign next to the door so Dad knew I wasn’t in the house, and opened the door… off on my way to see Preacher Stefenson.

One of the perks of living near the middle of the village, thankfully, was that the church wasn’t far away. One of the not-perks, on the other hand… was having a lot of neighbours. I didn’t want to be distracted or lose my courage, so I’d been hoping to go straight to the church, but instead, Mr. Marokson waved at me from near the sundial. “Morning there, Aedan! How’re you faring?”

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I didn’t want to spend much time on this, but I didn’t want to be rude (Dad always groused at me when I was rude to the neighbours), so I slowed down a bit to wave back. “Doing alright, sir! You too, I hope!”

This gave Mr. Marokson exactly the wrong impression, though, and he waved me over to him. “Ohhh, you know how it is. Not many traders coming through before Uber's Waxing, not this far south, so I’ve got too much free time on my hands. As do you, eh? You should be at your lessons, shouldn’t you?”

Right. My lessons.

My lessons…

I had to fight myself to keep my eyes from widening. “Oh! Well… you know how it is, Mr. Marokson! Miss Ambrose doesn’t worry me too much about Lessons if I miss one or two, not since I got the news about my Intelligence Score.”

Mr. Marokson frowned a bit. He must’ve known I was fibbing. I didn’t want to get caught up in that, though, so I decided to tell the truth. “I, uh– I have business with Preacher Stefenson, anyway, and I’m actually on my way right now! Sorry to go, but I shouldn’t keep him waiting!”

Sure, it wasn’t the whole truth, but that was better than nothing, right?

Mr. Marokson continued to frown as I started to walk away, but he waved me off without giving me any more trouble. “Well then, you’d best go. Good day to you!”

I nodded, waved again, and turned around without looking back until I reached the doors of the church. There, before I opened the door and walked in, I took a minute to breathe and slow down my heartbeat.

The inside of the church was bright, with sunlight streaming in through the tall windows. Reggin, an older boy from the other side of the village, was dusting the floor between the pews, and he looked up when I walked in. We stared at each other for a moment, neither of us seeming sure what to say.

“Umm…” I was the first one to speak, apparently. “…May I speak to Preacher Stefenson?”

After a moment, Reggin nodded. “He’s in his room.”

He didn’t bother to point, but that was fine, I knew where that was. Reggin ducked his head down to keep dusting, and I gave him a nod before making my way to the back of the church, to the door behind the altar, to the little room with a little window and a little desk where Preacher Stefenson liked to work on his sermons. Sure enough, there he was, scribbling at a page as I walked in.

His head lifted up suddenly, and he nearly yelled, “WHO–” He paused when he got a better look at me. “Ah! Aedan. Apologies, I wasn’t expecting you. I should say, though… I know your father has taught you to knock at doors before you enter, boy.”

He had, of course, and I did know to do it. I’d just been in too much of a hurry, apparently, to remember to do it. “Sorry, Preacher Stefenson. Won’t happen again.”

The Preacher nodded. “Best not. Our manners and common graces are the first line of defense against vice, after all. Now, tell me… What brings you to my office when the other children are in Lessons?”

Again with the Lessons… I shook my head. “Sorry, Preacher, I just… I had some questions for you, and they seemed important. Not the sort of thing I would ask Miss Ambrose first.” This was all true, of course. I wanted to avoid lying to the Preacher, if I could help it.

The Preacher raised his eyebrow. “A matter of faith, then…” He set down his pen and paper. “Well then? What are your questions?”

I opened my mouth to say, “Well…” and that moment, midsentence, was when I decided that I could tell Preacher Stefenson the truth. Sure, I’d been planning to, but that was before I’d used [Indulge] for anything. Now that I’d used my Sinful powers… well, what if he knew? What if he’d call me a sinner?

I couldn’t tell him the whole truth, not right away. Not until I knew how he’d feel about my new Level.

“Um.” The Preacher’s other eyebrow was rising, so I knew I had to say something, and I started with the first lie that came to mind. “Well, you know how I’ve been reading those Starlight–”

That was where the Preacher cut me off. “Oh Goodness, yes, those Starlight Witch books you’ve talked about. I keep telling you, boy, they’re no good for you! Your father should have you reading history, not silly fictions. I’m sure you find those books quite entertaining, but they’re filling your head with lies when you ought to be reading the Gods’-honest truth.”

As much as I wanted to tell the Preacher that what he’d just said seemed kinda stupid… well, that wasn’t the point, but he’d also given me an idea about how to get him talking about the Sinful Paths. “Well… that’s what I wanted to ask about, Preacher Stefenson. There are all sorts of weird things in Starlight Witch, like monsters and demons, so… I wanted to ask if some of the things it says about them are true?”

The priest huffed and shook his head. “Monsters and demons… the things children read these days.”

I felt a need to protest that. “I’m not a child, Preacher. I’ll be 15 years old soon.”

With a firm harrumph, the Preacher conceded. “So you will be. Old enough to be curious about these things, I suppose… so then, what are your books saying about monsters and demons, boy?”

I realized, just then, that I should probably have planned what I was going to say beforehand. “W-well…” The shake in my voice was real, but hopefully he wouldn’t guess why it had happened. “They’re making me curious about the Sinful Paths, Preacher.”

I watched the Preacher’s eyebrows rise again, and I quickly corrected, “A-about how they work, I mean! There are people in this story who use the powers of the Sinful Paths, and… well, they say a lot of things about sin and corruption, sir. I don’t want them to be true. How does corruption really work?”

After a moment, Preacher Stefenson sighed and shook his head. “You’re really shaken up about this, aren’t you, boy?”

I wasn’t really, or at least not the way I made it seem. If the Preacher thought I was scared of sin, though… well, that was good. I nodded.

The Preacher’s face took on a faint smile. “Well, it’s a good thing to be frightened about, I say. Sin and corruption are a danger to us all, and we must always be wary of them. You needn’t worry about this though, boy. Sin and corruption… they’re choices people make, not things that happen to them. Demons may want us to sin, but they can’t force us to do it, no matter how hard they try. It takes some convincing.”

I nodded, although maybe a bit too quickly. “Right… right! You always talk in your sermons about that, about how we can’t be forced to sin. I guess the book was making things up, then, talking about people being forced by Demons to gain Levels in the Sinful Paths, like Consumption–”

The Preacher harrumph’d again, loudly this time, interrupting me. “Consumption, you say?”

I nodded again, and Preacher Stefenson let out a single, loud “Heh!” It was laughter, clearly, but he could’ve been mistaken for a barking dog. “Well, boy, your book’s author was telling tall tales about that subject, and you’d better be glad about it. Tell me, from all the stories I’ve told in church, do you remember a single one of them that talks about a human with the power of Consumption?”

I stood there for a moment, thinking hard about the question. I felt like he was asking a trick question, but I really couldn’t remember anything. A bit nervously, I just responded, “Um… no?”

The Preacher grinned. Apparently, I’d answered correctly. “Well, that’s because there are no stories to tell! Plenty about Evil, a few about Chaos, but no human has ever been known to possess the power of Consumption.”

My eyes widened. “W-wow… Really, Preacher? Not ever?” My surprise was completely real, just… not for the reasons Preacher Stefenson might’ve assumed.

The Preacher shook his head. “Not ever, boy. Bishop Mordecai would tell you the same, if you asked him. Not once, to the knowledge of the Church, has any human gained a level in Consumption, and according to scripture, it’s outright impossible. The exact verse says…” The Preacher paused, reached into a pocket of his frock to pull out a small book, and quickly flipped through it. “Ahh, there it is. Second Epistle of Magnus, Section 5…

“‘It is the gift of the Mindful Races, the gift of Gnomes and Elves and Dwarves and Men, to stand above their baser urges. The Sinful Path of Consumption, based as it is on primal desire, cannot be walked by any human who retains their mind, for only those who lose their minds have sunk to the level of the Beasts. This, say the sages, is a blessing of Regulus Maximus, who gave to us our ordered minds, so that there might be one Sinful Path which men need not fear. No, The Path of Consumption can only be walked by the Lower Races, by the monstrous and the mindless. It may only be walked by Goblins and Orcs and Beastlings, and worst, by Demons.’”

Preacher Stefenson shut the book, the pages slapping together loudly. “There you have it, boy. The one Sinful Path that none of us need fear walking, although that’s no excuse to be lax in our wariness against Evil and Chaos. It’s an interesting subject, I suppose… I ought to speak about this in a sermon soon, to make sure the other children understand. Now, is that what you were worried about?”

I froze. That was what I’d been worried about, really… but in a way, Pastor Stefenson had given me a much worse answer than I’d been expecting. Hastily, I nodded, hoping I hadn’t been stilled for too long. “Yes. Uh, yes, Pastor! That’s very good to hear, now I– I should be going. Don’t want to keep anyone waiting for me.”

I turned my back on the Pastor and walked away, trying to be quick without looking like I was in too much of a hurry.

Before this visit, my worst fears had been that my Level in Consumption might infect my soul somehow, and turn me into a monster… or worse, that I might be able to infect other people if I wasn’t careful.

The idea that humans couldn’t walk the Path of Consumption, though… that was so much worse. Not only did it mean that Preacher Stefenson was useless to help me, not only did it mean I might still be in danger… This meant my new Skill was proof that, when it came to at least one thing, The Scriptures of Holy Order were wrong.