7.00
“First friend I laid to rest, a tragedy,
Thousandth, a memory.” - Wundall, the God of Games

It was rather anticlimactic.

You have fulfilled the unlock conditions for the new class Keeper of Secrets
You may invest your level in either Fungalmancer or Keeper of Secrets
Note: Investing in Keeper of Secrets will remove the [Et Non-Discent] skill

I had long been in the range of levelling up, in fact, counting my Keeper of Secrets, I had already been at level ‘six’.

It’s just that Keeper wasn’t a class of the system, and I had no intention of changing that any time soon. It might be interesting to see how the class translated, but in the end, I only put the level into Fungalmancer.

Name: Dustin
Racials: Magic Myconid Level 1
Classes: Fungalmancer Level 5

Body
Strength: 8
Agility: 7
Dexterity: 6
Constitution: 19
Stamina: 10
Vitality: 12

Mind
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 21
Charisma: 6

Soul
Will: 10
Psyche: 10
Perception: 10

Available SP: 9

Racials:
Manavision, Fungal Body, Sun Sickness, Mana Dependency, Pacifying Spores, Strong Innate Magic, Age-Type Heteromorph

Class Skills:
Fungalmancer:
Path: Symbiosis
Grow Sporage (Visual / Proximity), Sporage Wisp Symbiosis, Bracken Polypores,

Magic Myconid Spells:
T0: Sneezing Spores, Acid Spit, Watching Eye

Fungalmancer Spells:
T0: Balm Spores, Light Spores, Shillelagh (1 Free)
T1: Mushroom Meal, Poison Spores, Euphoria Spray, (1 Free)
T2: Bark Skin, Fix-Up Fungus, Rot Spores, (1 Free)
T3: (2 Free)

Languages:
Common
Undercommon

And watching the Scales above me, I saw it imperceptibly shift.

Indeed, I hadn’t yet taken any of my new level six skills, spent my Stat Points or even filled out my new spell slots.

Right now, all the Scales were calculating was that one increased point of Wisdom from my automatic growth and the opportunity to fill those out.

Until I actually did something with them, it was just something waiting.

However, the fact that it changed led to the rather horrific implication that it was inevitable for people who pursued both the levelling system and natural power progression of Indiri to be always moving towards imbalance. Meaning that encounters like I had may be inevitable. Double the rewards, but double the pushback.

Thankfully, my Keeper of Secrets was currently static. So long as I kept it like that, it should be a non-factor in future level ups.

Not to mention, I already knew a way to get rid of imbalance, simple acts of charity should do it, what I actually sacrificed was the problem.

Gold and a magic staff was not a significant loss, losing both deific eyes and the Paths associated was a… It hurt my collector’s heart a bit, not to mention seeing one of my spells become effectively useless without Observe to back it up. But your Balance can be managed if you aren’t too greedy.

I suppose I should warn Noam about it, since he was pursuing Aura techniques with Tai, he might be carrying a bit too many magic items.

Though… glancing at him with a smiling Johnny sitting on his shoulders, I don’t think I needed to tell him anything.

Unlike me, he was a good person all on his own.

We found the Hearth Church soon.

Squirrelled away in an older part of the city, a bit of a ways away from the bustling and new markets, the house looked old and lived in. Red bricks overgrown with vinery with the cobblestone streets leading to it were well worn to smoothness.

Children were playing in the front yard, a good sign.

Noam stepped forward, waving one down, “Where’s your umm…”

“Hearth Priest,” Celine reminded him.

“Yeah! Can we talk with your priest?” he continued.

“Sister Glascoin?” the child replied.

Yellow nudged me, whispering, “The other children have stopped playing.”

Indeed, the sounds of play had stopped.

A side eye from Noam was all the communication we needed, my manavision caught him easily, and I did not turn to him, that alone was enough to remind him I still had the ability. But I was still unaware of everything outside of its short range.

Perhaps switching my current Secret to the Balance was a bit too hasty.

“Something’s wrong,” Tai whispered.

‘Defensive,’ Noam mouthed quietly. Now knowing to take advantage of my manavision.

Shuffling, a door slammed open as someone hurriedly rushed out. Weight of the steps indicated someone older, or at least heavier.

“Greetings,” the voice of an older woman sounded out.

There was still some time before I could swap out secrets… Actually, with my remaining good karma, I think I could manage a faster speed Secret swap if I really tried.

No, not yet worth it. Increasing the strength of Keep just meant every consequent Secret added to it would bring more weight. The power of this Path was to let me Keep or let go of skills as my karma needed, as well as sealing the dangerous bits of knowledge I had.

“Hello,” Noam began, his voice remained cheerful, but I caught the slight bit of hesitation that pinned under it.

“She’s acting afraid of us,” Greenie whispered.

There was a gulp, but then Noam’s eyes narrowed. ‘Resolved,’ he mouthed to me.

“Are you Governor Hye’s men?” the Priestess of the Hearth asked.

“Who?” Tai asked in response.

At that moment, Johnny, who had been behind us, slightly poked his head out from behind Noam’s legs.

There was a moment, and a sigh of relief from the priestess. The tension seemed to disappear in my companions, sadly I couldn’t see whether it was as a response to the other party.

I needed my own eyes.

Normal ones, ones that didn’t see through all illusions or told me the Balance of all things.

Or maybe I should keep this lack of sight, such detriments might skew my own Balance positively in other directions.

“This is going to be hard to explain but well… we have a kid, Johnny,” Noam said, lifting the boy up by his arms.

“He’s not ours, but from a Tilt church that was attacked by a monster, we’ve been looking for a place for him to move to.”

“Indeed,” I said, taking the opportunity to take a few steps forward, enveloping the woman into my manavision’s limited range. “The matter is rather sensitive, may we discuss it inside?”

She was an older, motherly looking woman, healthy with few wrinkles on her face and a mop of red hair tied behind her head. There was hesitance on her face, but why?

“We may,” she said after a moment's deliberation. “Come in, I’ll have tea and hospitality prepared.”

We were led inside into a small living room, where Sister Glascoin quietly excused herself to prepare tea.

“Something’s wrong,” Tai began.

“Obviously. Who’s Governor Hye?” Noam asked, turning to Celine.

She shook her head, “Governor is a common title for city lords in this country, I don’t know the name of the Governor of Taebut, but it would be easy to find out.”

“Yellow, scout the premises, don’t be seen,” I said, letting the wisp leap off my arm, it soon disappeared into the corners of the room.

“Steps,” Utoqa simply said.

We heard it a bit after him, the sounds of footsteps nearing the entrance. Discussion momentarily quietened.

As I was sitting right by the door, I saw her first through the wall with my manavision.

A child peeked her head through the frame of the door, before hurriedly retracting it upon seeing the eyes on her.

Noam shot me a glance, then gestured towards Johnny.

I nodded in response.

Johnny yelped as Noam lifted him by the shoulders, “C’mon Jojo, there’s no point in hanging out with these stuffy assholes, let’s go and play with kids your age.”

“Don’t you mean ‘our’?” Tai retorted with rolled eyes.

Celine hurriedly rose from her seat, “I’ll go with you two as well.”

Noam welcomed her, before waving down the kid outside the hall.

I could faintly hear Noam asking if they’ve ever played soccer as they left.

It was around then that the priestess returned.

She looked noticeably more relaxed. Judging by the structure of the house, she must’ve passed by Noam and Celine playing with the kids as she came here.

She set down the tea that she brought onto the table, bowing as she tapped her chest four times. “Welcome, I offer hospitality in the name of the Old Laws, may you return like with like.”

I hurriedly rose from my seat. What was it that Celine said? God, it was just a few days ago.

“May you find honey on your doorstep?” I said with a tinge of uncertainty, still trying to remember her response even as I bowed.

“May you find honey on your doorstep,” Tai helped, bowing as well.

Glancing towards the windows, she smiled, “I may have to provide something cooler for your friends outside.”

I could faintly hear laughter as a ball was kicked around, Noam was doing his job well.

“They’ll be at it for a while,” I replied, “for games, Noam has stamina to last days.”

“That reminds me that I have not caught your names.”

“I’m Tai,” she said before glancing towards me.

“I’m Dustin,” I said with a small wave. “The two outside are Noam and Celine. We’re of a newly formed mercenary group.”

Sister Glascoin quietly glanced towards Utoqa.

“Utoqa,” he answered simply.

“May I know the name of the mercenary group?”

“Toy Dragons,” I told her with a blank face. Tai quietly cringed, but thankfully the priestess didn’t catch it.

“That is an… interesting name,” the Sister said with a strange look.

“It was named by the man outside,” I shrugged.

Somehow, that made her nod in complete understanding. Even having a look of ‘maybe it doesn’t sound that weird after all.’

Was this what pretty privilege was? Just because Noam had ten more Charisma than I did?

Taking a sip of the tea, I began what we were here for.

“You’ve heard most of it outside already,” I began. “Johnny Joymoon is an orphan, formerly of the Tilt Church in the town Lake Bayt, said church was ransacked by a monster, who killed everyone except him…”

Slowly, we told the tale to Sister Glascoin. I did the bulk of the retelling, with Tai adding in details that I wasn't aware of or missed.

The priestess slowly slumped into her chair.

“So he is the last of his house,” she tiredly said, wiping a tear by her eye. “And protected by the Weeping Child.”

It was then I noticed the grey hairs on her head, streaks of silvery age in an otherwise healthy looking woman.

Sister Glascoin looked at the two empty chairs by the unlit hearth, and made that now familiar sign on her chest.

“I’m afraid I cannot take him,” she said with a voice of regret.

There was a moment of silence.

“Is this because of this Governor Hye?” Tai asked.

The priestess glumly nodded, “I owe him a debt. During a Rift, one of the children was caught outside the Home. Hye’s mercenaries rescued her, but she told me it wasn’t out of charity.”

My fingers drummed the armrest of my chair.

Wayshard Rifts simply referred to any event in which a number of unknown hostile entities emerged from a Wayshard, generally otherworldly and seemingly ignoring the rule that the entity had to have visited the Wayshard previously. It was one of the reasons why all the in-use Wayshards were surrounded by walls and defensible positions. With such things, it was quite possible for an entire army to show up and attack out of nowhere.

“I still have money to run the church, but I’ve already sent away a lot of the children to other Hearths. I’m sorry, but you may have to prolong your journey to another Hearth Home.”

“Can’t you ask for financial assistance from other Homes?” Tai asked. “What about the donations? Surely you receive plenty of donations as a church.”

She shook her head, “Many of those who donate are working folk who can’t spare much coin. We pale compared to the wealth of other faiths, so there is little to go around. I have already received as much financial assistance as I can.”

“How much?” I asked, “How much coin do you still owe her?”

“Two-thousand.”

Tai frowned, “Silvers? Two-hundred gold is pricey but it should be manageable.”

I nodded, “I can raise that amount after doing some quests, if I save my cut of the shares, it should take a month or two at most for me to raise that amount.”

“Less than a month,” Tai said, “I can pitch in my share, and Noam and Celine would probably agree in a heartbeat.”

The priestess shook her head, “You misunderstand, I meant two-thousand gold.”

There was a moment of silence.

And my mouth moved before I could stop it.

“What the fuck?”

“Language Dustin,” Tai shot me a dirty look, masking her own shock quickly. “We’re in front of a priest and inside a church.”

I shook my head, “I’m sorry Sister Glascoin, but unless that child was literally made of gold, I don’t see a reason to demand such an exorbitant price for them. Are they running a fucking mob racket here?”

Was I in the wrong profession? If shaking down elderly priests and orphans was so profitable, should I also start my own criminal mob?

She rubbed her brow, “It is as you say, Governor Hye bought her way to her position and has replaced most guards with her men. She dares not hurt or threaten us, as Lorn and Gwaina protect all their families, but money is not a place where the Hearthfire can help.”

She wrung her hands tiredly, “I can only pay off the interest of the debt, not the debt itself.”

There was fucking interest?

“I am practical enough that I won’t reject any offers to help me, however, this is not a debt that you owe. It is my fault alone for not watching the children properly. And it would be simpler for you to move to another city to find another Hearth Home not in such dire straits.”

“You can flee,” Utoqa suddenly suggested, “move all the young to other nests.”

She gave a tired smile to him, like she had considered the idea. “And who will maintain this Church? Am I to pass this burden to the next one who comes? Will the next child orphaned in this city be lucky enough to have adventurers escort them to the next city with an orphanage?”

I sighed in agreement, turning to Tai and Utoqa.

“We’ll have to discuss this as a group,” I told her.

She nodded, “I understand.”

We finished the tea, and she let us go outside to meet Noam and Celine.

Johnny was still playing soccer with the kids, and Noam slowly extracted himself, telling the kids his old body had to rest before sitting down beside us.

“The kids are energetic,” Noam told me as we rested in the shade, “no signs of malnourishment that I could tell and seemed all around pretty happy. They’re well fed and exercise pretty frequently.”

Celine looked at him strangely. “You were taking note of that?”

Noam snorted, pointing in my direction, “He put me up to it.”

Celine looked at me strangely. “When?”

Both Noam and I shrugged in unison, which, I admit, neither of us planned.

“Wanna tell them the other thing?” Noam asked Celine.

She nodded, “The kids told us they were warned off talking with certain people by Sister Glascoin. Namely the guards and people in armour.”

I nodded, “And Yellow?”

The wisp tsked as it crawled out of a crack in the wall, having failed to surprise me with its entrance. “The food place- pantry- had food and stuff but it was a lot of the cheap things.”

“Cheap things?” Tai asked.

“Lots of dry meats and hard breads,” the wisp elaborated. “The cupboard for tea was big but empty.”

Tai nodded, adding, “The tea also didn’t have any sweetener in it.”

“Hmm?” I asked.

“Hearth Homes all serve their tea the same way,” Tai continued. “They always add some honey since the kids don’t like the bitter taste, the habit carries over with their hospitality, but there wasn’t any honey in our tea.”

Huh.

I barely noticed what tea we had drunk.

“Good observation,” I praised.

Tai shrugged, “It’s nothing.”

“That leaves us with an overall lack of non-essential and luxury items then,” Noam noted. “So, should we help? Any opinions? Utoqa?”

“I have food and shelter,” Utoqa replied simply. “I care for little else.”

“You’re a low maintenance guy aren’t you?” Noam remarked. “I’m fine with helping, the main problem is the money isn’t it? How long do you think it’ll take us to raise two k gold?”

“Judging by our previous efficiency, six months to a year,” I answered. “We can change our strategies slightly, if you and I exploit our respawns, we can lower the risk of all operations significantly.”

“A year though…” Celine muttered, “That is a long time to be spent on a single request.”

“Is it?” Tai asked. “It’s just a year, it’ll pass in a flash.”

Celine looked at Tai strangely.

As did the rest of us.

“How lucky it is to be a race that measures their life in centuries,” Celine sighed.

“We can do it faster,” Noam said, “let’s just beat up this Govna Hye and threaten her to never touch the Sister and the kids again.”

Tai shook her head, “Can we not break any laws? I’m too young to be a wanted criminal.”

“Technically we’re only criminals if we’re ever caught,” Noam pointed out.

“We’re criminals if we did crime,” Tai pointed out. “The fact that I have to tell you that is more worrying than you suggesting this.”

“We can just bring Johnny to another orphanage,” I said. “It might even be safer, if they don’t have a corrupt Governor running a protection racket.”

“How about we overthrow them?” Noam suggested. “There’s gotta be dissidents somewhere. Give em the good’ol mob riots and pitchforks.”

“How did you get from threats to political revolution?” Tai exclaimed incredulously.

“With my head?” Noam replied.

“You-” Tai shook her own head, sighing in resignation.

I glanced towards the person we were talking about, though Johnny was out of my manavision range, I could still hear his laugh.

I thought to Johnny laughing behind my back as Tai carried me.

“We can continue to raise him,” I said, “let him join up as we travel.”

“No.”

Noam stared directly at me, before shaking his head, “We can’t Dusts. A travelling life with a bunch of crusty older people isn’t the type of life for a kid.”

“Kids need kids their age to play with, to become friends with, to learn with, to group together so they could beat up older kids,” he continued.

Celine nodded, “I agree… though that last part sounded strange… A life of travel moving from one place to another is fine for us, but only because we have places to return to.”

She turned towards the courtyard, “Where’s his?”

I was silent.

“Let’s ask him,” Noam suggested. “Ask him what he wants.”

Tai raised an eyebrow, “He’s just a kid though.”

“Kids are smarter than we think,” Noam replied simply.

He began walking towards Johnny, leaving my manavision. Slowly, I followed behind him, as did Tai, Celine and Utoqa.

“Jojo!” Noam called out, “Come here for a sec.”

Johnny soon came into my vision, and Noam knelt down to speak to him eye to eye.

“I have to tell you something,” Noam began.

He spoke slowly, but clearly, so that Johnny would understand everything.

“The Hearth Home here… it can’t take you easily, Sister Glascoin owes money to some people. We can make it work if you want to, but it would be easier for us to move to a new city and find a different Hearth Home.”

Johnny shook slightly.

“Would I leave this place behind as well?”

“If you want to,” Noam told him.

Johnny turned around, to where I assumed the other children were still playing, “Would I leave them behind?”

“You can continue to visit through the Wayshard,” I answered. “Set up playdates.”

“But I will still leave them,” Johnny said.

It was slightly unsettling, seeing the young boy stare unblinking towards me.

Johnny clutched that ragged doll with weeping eyes, “I don’t want to leave anyone behind anymore.”

“I want to stay.”