Sophie eventually found the building with the ‘Crafter’s Guild’ sign hanging over the door next to a blacksmith’s and a lumber yard. She brushed her hands off on her pants, stuffed the already empty brown paper from her scone into the bag with the bread, and pulled open the heavy door.

A pale man with severely brushed back hair and a pinched face greeted her at the counter. “Can I help you?”

“Uh, sure – I’m looking for Briony,” she tried, hoping she got the name right.

“What’s the request?”

“I have a broken window that needs to be repaired,” Sophie replied.

“Good, good,” he said. “Let’s see here…” He pulled out a thick, heavy-looking book and flipped through some of the pages and ran his finger down one of them.

“She’s free tomorrow afternoon,” he said after a moment. “Your name? And what’s the location?”

“It’s Sophie Birch. And I’m at the shrine nearby. Just outside of the main gate.”

The man glanced up at her again, his face taking on an icy look. “Is this some sort of prank?”

Sophie shook her head. “No! I’m – I’m the new priestess there.”

He glanced at her clothes and frowned further. Sophie apparently really needed to find out what shrine priestesses were wearing these days.

“You do realize that I have the ability to confirm your class? As a Clerk?”

“You do?” Sophie asked, suddenly curious. Apparently Acacia did not have that ability, then. Sophie wondered if Acacia had a class at all.

“Of course,” the clerk scoffed. “What do you take me for?”

“Please check my class then,” Sophie said with more confidence than she felt. So far Elowen had been Sophie’s only source of information about the classes and abilities system in this world. If someone else could confirm Sophie’s new apparent status as a Shrine Priestess…

Well, it would go a long way in proving that Elowen was a shrine spirit, first of all.

The clerk narrowed his eyes at her, obviously still skeptical, but gave a quick nod. “Right, well come here then. I can't do it from way over there just yet.”

He seemed a little embarrassed at the admission, but Sophie wasn’t surprised at all. She made her way to the counter, automatically holding out her palm, expecting it to be similar to what Elowen did to her, and she was surprised when the man laughed.

“You don't have to do that,” he chuckled. “I can already see you’re a priestess.” Sophie blinked at him in confusion. Were there different types of scanning abilities? Whatever his ability was must be somehow different than Elowen’s. This was all very complicated.

“How curious…” the man continued, and now he looked more intrigued than anything. “You do mean the abandoned shrine right?”

“It's not abandoned,” Sophie insisted, feeling a little annoyed for Elowen’s sake. “The shrine spirit is still there.”

The man shook his head. “As far as I know, it's been abandoned. Ever since I can remember, but probably for much longer than that. There’s really a shrine spirit still there?”

Sophie nodded. “That's how I got my class.”

He jotted something down on the leger in front of him and glanced up at her again. “I suppose a spirit is the only way you could have gotten this class,” he confirmed. After making another note on the page in front of him, he finally shrugged. “All right. Well, everything appears to be in order. I can send Briony over there tomorrow afternoon. It’s just off the little side path, right?”

Sophie nodded. “It is… although the path is – well, it’s a little overgrown.”

The man chuckled. “I’d expect that. The town would probably send a Forester over for you to help clear it out, if you’d like. It’s no small thing to have an active shrine again.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Sophie said. “Although I don’t exactly know how to go about finding one –”

The clerk waved a hand at her. “It’s fine. I’ll see about getting someone to go out for you.”

Sophie appreciated it more than she could say. She wanted to ask more questions – especially about the shrine and perhaps about the whole trolls in the forest situation – but she felt it wouldn't be appropriate.

“Anything else I can do for you?” the clerk asked.

Sophie shook her head. “Nope. That's it.”

She turned to go… and nearly ran straight into a solid wall of a man who easily stepped aside, holding the door open for her.

“In a hurry are we?” he asked, chuckling.

“Sorry,” she apologized, ducking her head in embarrassment and making her escape out the open door.

At least people seemed to be fairly polite in this fantasy world.

***

Next up: clothes. After the reaction at the bakery and the Crafter’s Guild, she couldn't afford not to go there next, even though she desperately wanted to find some coffee. Luckily, the tea from earlier must have had enough caffeine in it to prevent a major caffeine headache, but she regretted not being able to have tea with Acacia, all the same.

Apparently a shrine priestess in business casual office attire turned a few heads here, though. It was probably a good idea to avoid any more attention than she really needed, just in case someone else decided to scan her and determine her class.

She wandered back in the direction of the main plaza, wishing she had a map. If this were really a video game, surely she’d be able to pull one up. Alas.

At least the town wasn’t that big, and it seemed to be fairly centrally organized around the plaza, with a few residential units sprinkled in here and there. So after a bit more wandering, she finally found a street dedicated to more commercial shops, including a tailor.

Sophie felt hesitant about walking into the tailor, but as soon as she stepped foot in the place, a well-appointed woman with small, brown horns greeted her with a friendly smile. Sophie nearly did a double-take at the horns, but she’d definitely seen weirder things living in Seattle, so she suppressed the reaction.

“A priestess!” the woman said as soon as she got within arm’s length of Sophie. “We haven’t had a priestess in the shop in such a long time. Please, do have a seat.”

Sophie was surprised both at the lack of reaction to her clothes and to the fact that the woman so easily determined her class. What a handy ability.

The woman led Sophie over to a small seating area, and Sophie could have nearly cried at the steaming pot of tea already set on a table in front of another client who glanced at Sophie with open curiosity.

“Oh! Is that – do you mind if I –?” Sophie was so excited about the promise of more caffeine that she could barely get the words out.

The woman laughed pleasantly and rearranged the tea so that it was at the center of the table. “Of course not. Please help yourself. I’m assuming you’re looking for priestess attire, hmmm?”

Sophie nodded, feeling relieved that someone else was taking the lead for once. The woman smiled at her. “I’ll see about some appropriate fabric. It will be just a moment.”

Sophie cautiously picked up the pot of tea, pouring herself a cup. She inhaled the fragrant scent that smelled far too floral for her own tastes, but whatever it was, she was sure it would be better than the stuff back at the shrine.

As she sipped her tea, Sophie wondered again about the woman and how quickly she could tell Sophie’s class. Was she a Clerk like the last man Sophie had met? Surely she would have to be something like a Tailor, instead, judging by her occupation.

Just how many classes were there? What could they all do?

“A shrine priestess?” the other client asked, interrupting her train of thought. He was an older man with light brown skin and greying hair. “Are you in from out of town?”

Sophie shook her head, before she realized that she was actually in from out of town. “Well, sort of,” she said instead. “I”m…”

What was she going to tell people? She had thrown herself into this situation without thinking up a plausible backstory. She decided to stick with the facts again, until she could work out an explanation with Elowen later. “I’m a new priestess. At the shrine nearby.”

“The one connected to the town portal?” the man asked, his eyebrows raising.

Sophie nodded and took another sip of her tea. She remembered that much from her conversation with Elowen. That the portal at the shrine was supposed to be connected to the one in the town, although she hadn’t seen the town portal yet, even after all of her wandering earlier.

“Well, how fantastic!” he replied. Sophie was surprised at his positive reaction, but he continued. “When my daughter wanted to get her class, we had to go all the way over to a shrine near Sentus.” The man smiled encouragingly. “It will be nice to have a local shrine again.”

Sophie nodded politely, but the strange normality of the encounter started to get to her. This really was her reality now. Somehow she had been following through the motions of the morning, pulled from place to place by sheer necessity without thinking too hard about the future. But… some of these people seemed legitimately happy she was here.

Was she going to do this? Would she really reestablish the shrine? Would she never go home?

Her hand shook on the teacup, and she set it down. “The woman at the bakery told me the shrine was haunted,” she said, if only to distract herself.

The man laughed. “Some of the younger ones might think so. There are all sorts of tales about what happened at that shrine. Supposedly there’s no mana left there. The spirit hasn’t gone mad, then?” he asked.

Sophie shook her head. Elowen didn’t seem mad, although it’s not like Sophie spent that much time talking with her. Sophie wasn’t exactly in the mood for conversation this morning.

The man nodded thoughtfully, and looked like he was eager to continue the discussion, but the tailor returned, saving Sophie from having to respond any further.

“Ready for you, dear,” she said, gesturing for Sophie to follow. “Feel free to bring the tea along.” She winked conspiratorially.

Sophie turned back to the man, and he waved her on. “I’ll bring my youngest over in the fall,” he promised. “He’ll be coming of age then.”

Sophie nodded, although she wasn’t really sure what the man meant. “See you then,” she said, wondering if she really would, and followed the woman further into the shop.

“We’re just going to need a few measurements,” the woman explained, showing Sophie to a curtained off space with a small stepping stool. “What’s your name, dear?”

“Sophie,” Sophie replied, as she set her cup of tea down on a small table nearby, along with her little parcel from the bakery. She stepped up on the stool. “Sophie Birch.”

The woman measured Sophie quickly and efficiently, jotting the numbers down as she went, and then she gestured for Sophie to step down again and showed her to another table with some bolts of fabric. To Sophie’s delight, there were muted browns and blues and greens in addition to the same grey color that Elowen had shown her earlier. The woman also showed her some sketches of a few different styles of shrine priestess attire, and Sophie decided on a loose flowing top with linen pants.

“Can I choose several colors?” she asked, and the woman nodded.

“Oh yes of course,” she said. “Pick any you’d like.”

Sophie decided on three sets for now plus some ready-made undergarments, after discussing the cost. She sweated a bit as she parted with one of her precious gold coins and a handful of silvers for the total. Clothes, it seemed, were quite expensive here, even if the tailor did insist she was giving her a deal on the set.

“The other items will be ready in just a few days,” the woman continued as she wrapped the undergarments in brown paper for Sophie and handed them to her over the counter.

Sophie nodded, but felt a bit glum at the time estimate. She didn’t have anything else to wear until then. But it didn’t seem like there was anything else she could do about that unless she wanted to wear the stuff back at the shrine.

She thanked the tailor again and asked for directions to the market, before heading back out into the town.

***

On her way to the market, just a few more streets over, she was delighted to notice a clocktower in the distance. Somehow, it was already well past noon. No wonder she was starting to get hungry again. She was almost tempted to eat the other scone. It was never a good idea to go grocery shopping while hungry, not even in a strange fantasy world, but Sophie figured she should probably save that for later and see what else she could find here.

She could smell the market before she found it – there were hot food stalls, produce vendors, and other stands. She stopped at a linen stand near the entrance of the market. So this was where she could have found pre-made items. She wondered if she got ripped off at the tailor, but the woman was so nice and seemed to know exactly what she needed. Sophie supposed for her official priestess outfit, it was better to leave it to the professionals after all.

She was tempted to buy something here as well, but she honestly wasn’t sure she could afford to spend much more of her money, judging by the cost of the clothes at the tailor. She also would have the window repair bill tomorrow, and she had no real idea of knowing how much that would cost either.

Who knew that she’d be spending her time worrying about her bills in the fantasy world, just like she did in her old world? She sighed, forcing herself to step away from the linen stand with its brightly-colored fabrics. She’d just have to make due with what she was currently wearing and the new undergarments. Hopefully it really would only be a few days until the clothes were ready.

The hot food stands were next. She appreciated the shrewdness in how the market was organized. She definitely couldn’t pass up the food after all of the delicious smells. She found a stand selling some sort of kebab-looking food on sticks and handed over a few coppers for three of them, munching happily as she made her way further into the market.

Next, she noticed vendors with fresh vegetables, cheeses on display, and dried goods, among other things. She wandered around the stalls, looking at every item, wondering what to select as she finished her kebabs. She’d have to carry everything back, so she would have to be careful about the weight. Plus she didn’t really know how to cook anything, but she’d just have to do her best. Maybe the old shrine priestess had a cookbook somewhere in the pile of dusty old books and scrolls.

Sophie selected as many items as she thought she’d be able to carry – some more rice, some root vegetables, and a few tins of tea. She paid for everything at their various stalls, internally wincing as her coin pouch grew thinner and thinner. She did ask about coffee at a few of the vendors, but only received blank looks in return.

It had been less than a day – not counting however long she had been passed out in the front of the shrine, of course, because Sophie didn’t remember any of that anyways – and Sophie had already resigned herself to just never having coffee again.

With her purchases in tow, she finally made her way back to the main gates.

It was time for the trek back.

***

Little did Sophie know, as she walked back to the shrine weighed down by objectively probably far too many bags of food, the town was already abuzz with gossip over the new shrine priestess. Many people had already heard the news as it spread first from Acacia’s Bakery, then the Crafter’s Guild, and finally even the little tailor shop.

“How’d she come to get chosen by that shrine? There’s no mana there. Didn’t it all dry up?”

“Isn’t it cursed? I heard the old priestess died years ago in strange circumstances.”

“We haven’t had a shrine here since I was a boy. I’ll be glad for it, if it’s true.”

“But where’d she come from, anyway? How would she even find that shrine?”

No one knew the answers to any of these questions, let alone Sophie herself, and thus some in the town looked forward to making the journey to the old shrine, formerly rumored to be haunted, if only to see if they could figure out the mystery of the new shrine priestess.