Alleyn slammed the door shut with perhaps a bit too much force than he should have, although now was hardly the time to worry about such a thing. His mind was still reeling from the thought of having killed someone, and so instinctually; while he was still questioning why the voice would mention the dagger, his body had already managed to kill a man. The sprint back to his house had only made it worse as, with the night’s wind still having the cold bite of winter, it had done ‘wonders’ for bringing clarity to his mind.

Thinking back to what had happened shortly after Powell died, Alleyn remembered the floating eye that gave the distinct impression that it had somehow imprinted his features and sent them off to somewhere else as a way of sealing his fate, something his instincts were screaming to be the correct idea. 

Letting his eyes wander over the darkened interior of his own, more modest, home, Alleyn thought about what to do; it seemed almost counterintuitive for him to travel to Battsek, considering that was likely where Powell had been sent from. Although, whoever would be looking for him wouldn’t expect him to be hiding so close to them, right? It was a desperate idea, and a crazy one, but his newly obtained Quest did appease the majority of his concerns, especially with how ‘lenient’ the Quest was. The failure condition and penalty were one and the same: death, not at all mentioning anything about what would happen should he not go to Battsek, leaving him to believe that it was ultimately his own choice; very much unlike the first Quest he got.

—————————————————————————————————————

[Quest completed: Fate’s Guidance]

Objective: Reclaim at least one Traveller’s Pendant from the Overseer (2/1).

Rewards: 1x[Unique Skill], Title: [Fate’s Chosen], Restoration of System’s Quest function.

Unique Skill acquired: [Unveil]

Title acquired: [Fate’s Chosen]

System’s Quest function has been restored

[Fate’s Chosen:

Let the hand of Fate guide you to greatness.]

—————————————————————————————————————

Alleyn suddenly remembering his first Quest seemed to have triggered the completion of it, although, now having read through it, it felt strangely anti-climatic. His new Skill, [Unveil], had no explanation about what it did leaving him completely in the dark as to its use, although the explanation tagged on to his new Title, despite being meagre, did help him to make up his mind. Both of the Quests he’d gotten had been called ‘Fate’s Guidance’ and, now with the description of the [Fate’s Chosen] Title, he felt it safe to assume that it truly was ‘Fate’ guiding him. That being the case, why wouldn’t he follow along? The System, or perhaps Fate itself, had promised him ‘greatness’, which would undoubtedly help him on his road to finding the entity that had pulled him from the void.

With that in mind, Alleyn quickly set about filling a burlap sack with whatever he thought he’d need on his travel. Once more mentally thanking Gareth for all he’d done, Alleyn packed what should be enough dried meat for three or four days, or a little more than a week if he ate sparingly, as well as the fruit he’d gotten just a couple of hours ago, along with a couple of jars of water; the jars would be heavy once filled but, since he didn’t know what to expect along the road, they were a necessity. 

Rolling up the few blankets he had, Alleyn tied them together with a small length of rope. They were thin and coarse, the latter of which he’d grown used to over the years, but it was all he had as preparation for keeping the night’s cold at bay when he inevitably had to sleep. 

Sorting through the clothes he had, Alleyn couldn’t help but lament the fact that he didn’t have any shoes besides the ones already on his feet. He’d have to watch his every step so as to avoid a repeat of him cutting his feet on an ill-placed and sharp stone. Something he did have, however, was a cloak; he hadn’t ever used it for anything outside, for obvious reasons, but it had kept him warm during the winter months. It had been one of Gareth’s own, so it was the highest quality of clothing he had, being made out of wool instead of linen. There wasn’t really any point in packing extra clothes since all it would take was one rainy day and everything he’d packed would be soaked, although this was unlikely to happen; the early spring had always been dry, and he hoped that this year wouldn’t be different.

Hoisting the sack over his shoulder, Alleyn set out. It didn’t feel safe staying in Trudid throughout the night; with every passing moment, the odds of someone finding Powell’s corpse increased, which could lead to drastic consequences. Even if no one in the village would realistically make the assumption that it was Alleyn that had killed Powell, the village could erupt in chaos, perhaps leading to a village-wide search for the murderer. Alleyn didn’t think for a single second that he would be exempt from this should it happen, resulting in whoever came to search his house finding the still blood-stained clothes as well as the…

Why did he still have the dagger? Was he truly that big of an idiot, that he take the murder-weapon with him back home? What would he even do with it? Bury it inside the house? It would leave very obvious marks if he were to dig up the dirt floor since it was hardened from years of walking on it, so that wasn’t even an option. Must have been the fact that his mind wasn’t quite in the right place, Alleyn rationalised. It still wasn’t. Perhaps it was better if he brought it with him, that way he could dump it along the road, or even bury it where no one would find it…

***

It had been a few hours since the first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon when Alleyn thought to pause. He’d found the road leading to Battsek with ease, as it was the largest of the paths connecting to Trudid, the rest leading to the various farmlands surrounding the village, and he’d been walking for what he thought to be a couple of hours. Now, about two hours past the most remote farmland, Alleyn was out of energy; he hadn’t eaten since lunch of yesterday, as he was simply too nervous to have an appetite. Not only that, he hadn’t slept since the previous morning, either, something that had hit him quite brutally now that he had calmed down.

And so, hoping that people wouldn’t be awake for another couple of hours following a night of festivities, Alleyn made his way into the forest, wanting to use the shrubbery for hiding as he slept. Thankful that the morning dew was gone, he set about untying and setting out his blankets before he sat down and bit into one of the apples Gareth had given him. While it hadn’t set in yet, Alleyn was sure that he’d miss the young-looking Elder in a few weeks time. It was surreal to think that he wouldn’t see him as he had greatly enjoyed the bi-weekly visits, although that wasn’t much of a surprise since Gareth was literally the only source of interaction Alleyn had. Now, he may very well never see him again…

Alleyn swallowed a mouthful of water in an attempt at trying to push away the creeping feelings of homesickness. With that proving to be useless, he instead thought to focus his mind on something more important: his new Skill. Bringing up his Status, he confirmed that there was, indeed, no explanation tagged onto the Skill, unlike his [Heightened Empathy], which he could still see the description of if he wanted. So, with no other choice, Alleyn asked the one entity that could, hopefully, shine some light on the matter.

(“Why is there no description for [Unveil]?”) he asked the voice, (“How do I use it?”)

[The lack of description is likely due to its nature as a Unique Skill] the voice replied, its voice the same calming cold as ever, [And it would appear that you are lacking some requirements to activate it.]

The answer wasn’t exactly what Alleyn had hoped for, even if it did annoy him to some degree. Not only had he gotten a Skill that he couldn’t use, but he also didn’t even know what it did had he been able to activate it. He had killed a man and been forced to flee his home of sixteen years, all for what basically amounted to nothing. 

It took Alleyn a handful of moments to calm down but, likely due to his lingering anger, he found himself to be remarkably less tired than before. So, with nothing better to do, he thought about his immediate future. Gareth had told him in passing that some villagers made the trek to Battsek every now and again, and it usually only took them a little over a week to make the trip and return, so he was optimistic that, despite his less than stellar physique, he would be able to make it before his food and water ran dry.

That not being much of a concern meant that he should be able to complete his second Quest, too, one that looked to give him a more immediately useful reward: a ‘Minor increase in any one Skill or Racial Trait’. It made little sense to use it on his [Unveil], considering he couldn’t even use the damn skill, leaving [Heightened Empathy] and [Human Adaptability] as his only choices. Thinking about it, Alleyn couldn’t find a real reason to use it on the former of the two, since the only thing he could think of happening would be him being able to better intuit what others felt. The latter, meanwhile, would boost his comprehensive ability based on his age, something that seemed much better in the short term, as well as the long term. Even if he didn’t know how many years a ‘minor increase’ would equate to, he was hopeful that it would give him an edge in whatever situation he might find himself in.

With his mind made up, Alleyn brought his attention to the final of his rewards: the Quest function. Having no idea how to access it, he briefly thought about asking the voice, but ultimately decided to experiment. It didn’t take long for him to realise that all it took was a single thought for it to appear, much like his Status, resulting in a new panel floating in his vision with the caption ‘Quest List’ at the top. Unlike his Status, and its name as a ‘list’, the panel was very much empty, with the name of the function being the only sentence on the entire pane...