Do'myrith took a look at Mi'taan as he walked over to join their group. "He's free of any outside influences or compulsions," she declared.

"Including physical threats?" asked So'layn, the first time I'd heard him speak, his voice deep and gravelly.

"Yes, including threats, physical or otherwise," sighed Mi'taan, at which So'layn simply nodded. "She questioned me under the influence of the pet collar, but only to find out general facts about our species and culture. I wasn't questioned on our defences or other sensitive matters, nor did she make any attempt to invade my privacy. She even answered some of my questions in turn and then fulfilled her promise to remove the collar. I chose to wait here for you of my own will."

"That was all truth," declared Do'myrith, which immediately set off a bunch of alarm bells. She had an ability to tell when people were lying?! I supposed it was probable that a higher tier version of the novice empath skill I'd obtained could do such a thing, so it wasn't unreasonable. Great for claiming I mean them no harm, but not so great for hiding my secrets.

"You have the ability to tell truth from lies?" I asked.

"I do, child," she responded, which caused me to quizzically raise an eyebrow. I was twenty! That's hardly a child. I should have asked Mi'taan about their lifespans and such... "I have been sent to pass judgement on your nature, so is there anything you'd like to say on the matter?"

"Sure, why not. I'm not any sort of monster. My species is human. I didn't damage this shrine. I am the one who repaired it. Hmm... Was there anything else? I would prefer peaceful relations with your own species. Normally my people live on the surface, and I'm the only one of us here."

"All truth," Do'myrith stated, at which Si'chieen practically exploded. The stoic So'layn grabbed him by the shoulder. Si'chieen was obviously outranked here, and So'layn didn't seem anywhere near as impulsive.

"Ask her if she's immortal," said Mi'taan, which was almost enough to break So'layn's expression.

"Yes, I'm immortal," I said, at which So'layn's stoicism broke completely, staring boggle eyed. I didn't mind admitting that much, given that they'd seen me die once already. Actually, given their obvious worship of the goddess, maybe I could win her over completely here... "My immortality is the result of a blessing from the goddess," I added, which caused Do'myrith to break too.

"T... Truth," she stuttered. "I... No, this isn't the place for this. What was your name, child?"

"Katie," I answered.

"Katie then. Please would you accompany me to the temple?"

"What?" exclaimed So'layn, stirring from his shock and finally speaking again. "You want to bring it into our town? Despite knowing its abilities, and that it's impossible to disarm it?"

"Her, not it," I corrected, not really holding out any hope. As expected, So'layn ignored me.

"I was sent to pass judgement on her personhood, and I have done so. I find her to be a person, with all the rights that entails. You are here for my protection, not to gainsay my judgement."

"Exactly. And it's for your protection that I need to consider the possibility that it can subvert this shrine's barrier and fool your truth discernment."

At that, Do'myrith merely smiled. "If she was capable of those feats, and she meant us harm, then my positive judgement would not be something she required in the first place. Now, let us go."

So'layn pondered for a bit, then nodded. He seemed more thoughtful than anything, repeatedly glancing between me and the priestess.

So... I would be heading back into their territory, this time even deeper, right into their settlement. The priestess seemed nice, but my novice empath skill was informing me that claiming to have a blessing from the goddess had been so unbelievable to her that—despite her claim to So'layn—she had started doubting me regardless of what her truth discernment was telling her. Bringing me to their temple was probably to let someone of an even higher level check, as much as any sort of concession to me. At least no-one was suggesting bondage this time.

So'layn seemed a lot more level-headed than the lower ranked soldiers, but again, novice empath was telling me that beneath his stoic expression, he was hiding feelings of excitement. What for? What was he looking forward to? They'd started before Do'myrith had invited me to their temple, and the invite itself had added nothing but a touch of worry. Meanwhile, Si'chieen was filled with nothing but anger and hate. I was fortunate he was so outranked here. Or rather, he was fortunate, because in a one-on-one fight, I doubted he could beat me.

For the second time, I made the journey down their passage and through their defensive wall, out into the large cavern. Mi'taan remained talkative, which made the trip far more pleasant than the first time around. I learnt that they had cut down the crystal trees both as building material and to control the monster population. It seemed they did put some thought into managing their environment, after all.

As we approached the gates, the guards made a fuss, but didn't seem to have any authority to question Do'myrith. Maybe priests outranked warriors? The guards I appraised all had names starting with 'Si'. Mi'taan hadn't mentioned any sort of hierarchy among the castes, but given the alien nature of their social structure, I probably hadn't been asking the right questions. I saw Ja'yakril watching from the distance too, looking distinctly unhappy.

The inside of the town was remarkably normal. There were obvious houses and store-fronts, all made out of the same dead crystal rather than the wood or stone I'd usually think of as building materials, but the buildings themselves were box shaped, with the normal doors and windows, and weren't, for example, growing little legs and walking around. The people here were acting normally, working, shopping or stopping for a chat, with plenty of little kids playing in the streets, bushy tails flicking cutely behind them.

At least, until they saw me, at which point adult and child alike stopped whatever they were doing to stare.

"Aww, she not only lost her ears, but her tail too? The poor thing..."

"What was someone that young doing outside the walls?"

"Why is she with a priestess? Did her family abandon her?"

"What is she wearing? That's not proper gear. Do you think she made it herself and then snuck out on her own?"

The whispered voices I could hear all around us went in an unexpected direction. I didn't hear a single person suspect that I wasn't one of them, but rather I seemed to be attracting pity for my disfiguring injuries. Luckily, that made the journey uneventful, and I soon found myself standing in front of an exquisitely decorated temple front, wrought not from dead black crystal, but glowing yellow. My sense mana skill wasn't good enough to pick up the source, but there was certainly still mana flowing through the structure.

Sense mana advanced to level 5

The pair of guards didn't follow us inside, but departed the moment the rest of us had set foot inside the temple. I wasn't entirely sure why Si'canna and Mi'taan were sticking with us, aside from being nosy, but I had no complaints about them, so as far as I was concerned, they were welcome to hang around. Likewise, I wasn't sure why So'layn had left so quickly, given that he was obviously interested. Maybe he had to return to work, or just wanted to keep up his stoic act?

New respawn point activated

The front door led straight into a large hall, at the front of which stood a winged statue, arms outstretched and welcoming, with a face identical to the one up above. It seemed I'd found my next shrine, although somehow I doubted I would be choosing to respawn at this one, nor had it immediately granted me any side quests. A young female fox-kin in pale green robes was wiping it with a cloth, but stopped when Do'myrith called her.

"Please fetch the arch-priestess," she requested. "She will want to talk to this child herself."

The younger priestess nodded gracefully and departed without a word, leaving Do'myrith looking a little nervous. Not scared, but certainly not entirely happy. "Don't worry, you're the most important visitor we've ever had here," she said to me when she spotted me watching. "We'll definitely aid you in whatever way we can."

It took only a couple of minutes before an aged, wrinkled woman turned up, her fur completely white, wearing pale yellow robes but taking confident strides despite her advanced age. A group of the green-robed priestesses trailed behind her, all looking young, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Did the colour of their robes indicate their rank, perhaps?

"Well now, to have brought this child back here, something must have spooked you badly, my girl."

Okay, with a face as wrinkly as that, I'd let this one get away with calling me a child.

"That's... I have judged her to be a person, and deserving of the rights that entails, but beyond that... It's best for you to hear it from Katie yourself. Please would you repeat what you told me about your blessing?"

Since she was the arch-priestess, she probably had higher tiered skills, so was Do'myrith seeking confirmation? I didn't even want to appraise her, in case she picked up the skill use... Sense presence was telling me she was an existence that even exceeded the centipede, although she still wasn't up to the level of the dragon. "I have a blessing from the goddess that makes me immortal," I stated flatly, causing the arch-priestess to raise an eyebrow, and the priestesses behind her to start muttering in shock.

"Silence," requested the arch-priestess, before turning back to me. "It has been a long time indeed since one of our own has earned a blessing from the goddess, and yet an outsider stands before us, claiming immortality. I detect no lie in your words, yet that cannot possibly be the full story. Why are you here?"

And here starts the difficult bit. Do I trust these people, or not? So far, they'd given a far better impression than the guards, but unlike them, I didn't have any sort of truth discernment. In fact, novice empath wasn't working on this arch-priestess at all. I still wasn't certain they didn't have skills and classes in the same way as I did, but I was sure they didn't know about my trigger respawn skill. If they tried to restrain me, they wouldn't take that into account, giving me at least some safety net.

"I was sent here from the surface on a quest to retrieve an item that was under the protection of the goddess. The holy sword, needed to protect the surface from a demon lord."

"I see. I have not heard of this holy sword, but if you are on a quest from the goddess, we shall offer you whatever aid we can."

Despite the offer, the arch-priestess frowned upon finishing her sentence.

"Your quest is not from the goddess?" she continued.

Drat, that wasn't just truth discernment. I hadn't said anything for her to discern! Was she judging the truth of her own words, or reading my face?

"I don't know. I was originally asked to fetch the holy sword by a human, not the goddess, but it was no human that brought me from the surface to this place. I believe the goddess was involved, given my blessing."

"I see. That is..."

She cut herself off mid-sentence, and turned to stare at the main doors, which burst open with a bang. Behind them stood the biggest fox-kin I'd ever seen, two-and-a-half metres of muscle, and wide enough that he must struggle to get out of town through the small gates. He lit up to sense presence just as brightly as the arch-priestess, and if I hadn't been so focused on our conversation, there's no way I should have missed him. He was flanked by an expressionless So'layn, with another dozen guardsmen behind him. I saw both Si'janrii and Si'chieen among them, with Si'janrii smirking nastily. They were all standing outside of the range of my low-levelled novice empath, but I didn't need it to see that this didn't bode well.

"What is the meaning of this?" asked the arch-priestess. "The matter of the personhood of this child has been settled, or will you accuse me of growing blind in my old age, in addition to casting doubt on one of my high priestesses?"

"Oh?" said the big one. "I don't remember claiming otherwise. I am simply here to arrest a 'person' for a serious crime, and I would appreciate it if you refrained from interfering in my work." He motioned with one hand, at which the rest of his group rushed past him and into the temple. Or at least, tried to. A few steps in, they started struggling, as if they were trying to press forward into hurricane level winds. One by one they were lifted from their feet and blown backwards, and soon So'layn was on his own. He managed a couple more steps before he too lost his footing and was blasted away, landing on his back and sliding straight out of the door.

So, the arch-priestess was serious about helping me. That was nice to know.

"I respect your desire to protect yourself," said the arch-priestess to me, "but this is a holy place. Please do not fight here."

Wait... It wasn't her? She thought it was me? I looked around at the others, but no-one was looking guilty. Mostly just angry. "That wasn't me," I said, at which she repeated my own action of looking around at everyone, before looking confused.

"You are protecting a criminal, Dru'niryeal?" asked the walking mountain. "Do you have so little respect for our laws?"

"And you march in here and demand we hand over one blessed by the goddess, accusing her of being a criminal without showing a shred of evidence?"

"If you want evidence, just ask those two," the vaguely fox-kin shaped slab of meat continued, pointing at Si'canna and Mi'taan. "Has that thing not committed not just one, but two crimes for which the law demands execution?"

Wait, what? I'd not even set foot in their territory without being under constant supervision! From the way the two alleged witnesses were shuffling, he obviously wasn't talking complete garbage either.

"Firstly, that was in self defence, and secondly she didn't do anything your subordinates didn't try to do to her," said Mi'taan.

"My subordinates acted on information which they believed in good faith, and are you truly going to claim that what she did to you was in self defence?"

Sounds like they're talking about the slave collars? Putting one on a person is a capital offence?

"Good faith? They acted purely on their own prejudices, and not any sort of information."

"Enough!" roared the leader, drawing his sword and stepping forwards, hitting the same headwind as the others a few steps in. Unlike the others, it didn't do anything more than slow him down.

"You would draw weapons in this holy place?!" exclaimed the arch-priestess, sounding mortified. "Sanctuary!" she cried, raising a hand, from which blossomed a translucent golden sphere, expanding until it encompassed the entire room. Such an obvious magical spell would have caught my attention, had it not already been stolen by the block of text hovering in front of me.

New side quest: Defend the shrine

A group of vulpes sagax are attempting to invade the protected space around a shrine, and the barrier is insufficient to hold them back. Defend the shrine from desecration.

Clear conditions: Force the vulpes sagax to withdraw

Reward: Gain one class level

That explained the wall; they'd triggered the barrier! Never mind the priestesses, the shrine was siding with me! But while that sounded nice in principle, in practice it was rather problematic. If I let him reach me through the barrier, there was a good chance the quest failure penalty would strip me of my class skills again, and I didn't want to be stuck with that guy for a day without trigger respawn or item box.

If I let him break the barrier, would this arch-priestess protect me? Would she be able to protect me? Surely a warrior could outfight a priestess. But I didn't need to beat him to complete the quest; just cause him to withdraw. That should be easy enough.

"Fine," I said, taking a step forward, at which the approaching meat wall stopped. "If you're so desperate to execute me, I'll save you the trouble." Switching my armour out for my nightie, I drew a dagger and once again slit my throat. Despite the interruption, it wouldn't be a wasted trip; the journey would have been worth it just for the class level.

Nothing happened, nor was there any pain. Touching my throat, my hand came back dry. So... what was the effect of that sanctuary spell, exactly?