Raymond had seen a lot in her short time being aware. From seeing her own mutilated flesh regurgitated, waking up covered in maggots and having adventurers attempt to enslave her, she felt she could reasonably say she’d seen a lot in her short life.

None of that prepared her for the sight of civilization - there were so many people!

As she passed through the gate, the morning sun blinded her for a moment. As her eyes adjusted and took in the scene, she gasped. A swarm of humans in dozens of varieties walked through the street: young, old, male, female, those who looked both male and female. Some had long or short hair in black, red, blonde or brown tones. Some had dark skin and others light with dozens of shades in between.

All of them walked on cobblestone streets, moving between wooden stalls set up along the sides. Alongside the visual storm was a cacophony of noise, almost like a symphony gone wrong. Merchants shouted, advertising their wares while the buzz of side conversations covered the sound of hundreds of footsteps on stone.

“Hey, young miss!” one merchant shouted, pointing at her. Raymond stared at the guy for a moment, unsure of whether or not she should respond.

“No need to be janglin’ yerself! I haven’t seen you ‘round these parts. You new?”

“Yes,” Raymond responded, “I came to visit the Temple.”

“Oh, a pilgrim are we? Don’t see too many of them pious sorts this close to the border. Too many monsters, not enough devotees if ye catch me drift.”

Raymond nodded slowly.

“But hey, if ye be needin’ anythin’ while yer in this here city just look fer good ol’ Max. I can get ya squared away.”

Raymond nodded again, turning to walk away. Then she paused.

“Max, which way is it to the Temple?” she asked.

Max looked at her appraisingly, a look of incredulous disbelief on his face.

“Are ye sure yer a pilgrim, miss? Ye never saw a Temple before?”

Raymond shifted uncomfortably under his piercing gaze, but she held her ground. After another moment of silence, Max spoke again.

“Ye see that there big building in the center of town?” he said, pointing at the huge, white cathedral visible in the distance. Raymond nodded. It definitely looked like an important building. She wouldn’t be surprised if it was the place she was looking for.

“It’ll be right behind that. Ye can’t miss it.”

Raymond smiled warmly. “Thank you, Max! I’ll be sure to visit again later.”

Max blushed slightly, looking away. “No problem. Off with ya, I need to be findin’ payin’ customers.”

Raymond turned, moving down the street. She was unfamiliar with the flow of traffic and kept bumping into people but they seemed to not even notice. Gradually, she made her way through the city, her eyes greedily consuming every new sight she could find.

Past the merchant stalls, she found herself in a large open square ringed by buildings of various shapes and sizes. One had a sign with twin swords, another with a picture of armor. She was intrigued by the ‘Adventurer’s Guild’ and the ‘inn’ on the corner. Particularly, she was wary of the first building and curious about the purpose of the second building but she moved on. The smells coming from the structure were not appetizing and she presumed that they didn’t feed True Vampires.

As she continued to look around, she started noticing other details. The alleys between buildings were dark and often seemed dirty or run down. More than once, she saw cloaked individuals moving through an alley before disappearing from sight.

Additionally, there were slaves. She identified three different ‘types’, grouped by races. There were the animal/human hybrids, some sort of tall, green-skinned humanoid and ginormous, gray-skinned humanoid monsters with thick, craggy arms.

All of the slaves wore rags of some sort and had chains attached to some part of their body. Strangely enough, the chains were never connected to anything else and simply dragged across the ground behind the slaves but Raymond just assumed it was because they were magical like her rope.

The sight of the slaves filled her with a strange emotion she hadn’t experienced yet. Her heart ached and she felt like something was caught in her throat. This had almost been her fate, had she not had the presence of mind and the mental fortitude to break out of her bindings. She wanted to help them too but now was not the time.

She continued moving through the city until she reached the tall cathedral. It towered over all the other buildings and was a testament to the wealth and power of humans. Three large panes of colored glass depicted a young, blonde-haired child with blue eyes accomplishing various heroics. Each pane had a description engraved beneath it.

In the left pane, he fought off an army of the green-skinned humanoids. It was titled ‘Doug subdues the Green Tide’.

In the right pane, the child faced off against a group of the gray-skinned giants. ‘Doug defeats the Trolls’.

However, the center pane was the most interesting to Raymond and made a nervous chill run through her. It had an image of a divine light settling on the boy as he posed in victory. Countless bodies surrounded him.

‘Doug, Tether of Dallin, the Strong One.’

This cathedral was a building dedicated to the Tether of another Overseer. Clearly, he was a dangerous enemy despite his young appearance. Raymond silently prayed that she wouldn’t have to deal with Doug for a long time as she skirted around the building and moved behind it.

Max had been right, there was no way for her to miss it.

Directly behind the Cathedral was a set of stairs. The bottom step floated almost a foot above the ground. The stairs were pearly white and had intricate patterns lining the sides, from roses to swords to strange reptilian creatures. Raymond’s eyes followed the several dozen steps up, landing on a small island floating in the sky. The sheer size of Doug’s cathedral had blocked it from sight. Atop the island sat a modest, white building. A single spire jutted from the center, ending in a sharp edge pointed towards the slightly cloudy, blue sky. White-robed individuals moved in and out of the structure and a couple of them traversed the stairs.

Raymond approached the stairs, carefully testing her weight as she pulled herself up onto them. They held. As she ascended, she glanced nervously at the increasing height, painfully aware that there was no railing on the stairs. A few more steps and all it would take was one mistake to go splat. She’d already experienced a fatal fall once and, despite her unique ability to recover, she was not eager to repeat the experience.

She reached the top of the stairs without incident, passing a few white-robed individuals as she did so. They had nodded to her in greeting, continuing on their way without sparing her a second thought. She did the same.

At the top of the stairs, she gazed across the Temple courtyard in awe. Dozens of people moved back and forth, moving in and out of archways on all sides. Through the archway on the opposite side of the courtyard, another set of stairs led up into what Raymond presumed was the main structure.

“Can I help you?” a pleasant voice inquired from beside Raymond.

Raymond turned, finding a young, blonde-haired, bright-faced girl standing next to her. The girl beamed and Raymond couldn’t resist returning the smile.

“Yes, I think you can. I’m here to register a new Overseer.”

The girl’s smile dropped slightly. “Oh?”.

Raymond felt her stomach sink. “That’s not a bad thing, right?”

The girl stared at her for a moment as if she was unsure how to respond. Finally, she spoke, her voice even.

“No, I don’t suppose it’s a bad thing. Are you sure though? Maybe you just imagined it? There have always been only four Overseers.”

Raymond didn’t know how to respond to that. While she knew that it was technically possible that she had imagined the Overseer, she was about 99.999% certain that she hadn’t. Her eyepatch proved it if nothing else.

“Yeah, I’d say I’m pretty sure he’s real.” she responded.

The girl shrugged indifferently, yet she looking around, checking to see if anybody else had heard their conversation.

“If you’ll follow me, then. I’ll take you to see the High Priestess.”

Raymond nodded, feeling her stomach twist. She didn’t know if this was a good or a bad thing but it seemed to be going alright so far.

“Lead on.” she said.

They walked side-by-side across the courtyard. Few people even spared the duo a second glance despite Raymond’s dark cloak being totally out of place. They reached the stairs through the central archway and began to ascend.

“I’m Raymond, by the way. What’s your name?” Raymond asked.

“Kelsey,” the girl responded, “Kelsey Vale.”

“I’m new to this Overseer thing, Is it alright if I ask some questions?”

“Sure, I guess.” Kelsey responded.

“What do Overseer’s do?”

Kelsey suddenly stopped, staring at Raymond with a sharp expression. Raymond stopped as well, uncomfortable with the rapid change.

“Overseer’s are the guardians of humanity. We worship them and they protect us.”

“I know a bit about ‘respawn’. What other things do Overseers do?”

“... Who are you?” Kelsey demanded, “Everybody knows the answers to these questions.”

Raymond shrugged. “You could say I’ve been living in a roc for most of my life.”

Kelsey stared at her for a moment longer. She abruptly turned and started walking forward again.

“You mean ‘under a rock.’ she corrected.

Raymond smiled as she followed, “No, I think my expression was more accurate.”

Kelsey shook her head, giving up.

“As I said, Overseers are the guardians of humanity. Each Overseer has jurisdiction over different areas and accordingly grants different perks. The ‘respawn’ you mentioned is one of the universal perks granted to all followers regardless of which Overseer they worship.”

Interesting. That means that if the Great One that Raymond was working with got stronger, then she’d get access to these perks as well. This trip was sounded more and more worth the effort.

“What kinds of perks are there?”

“The lady I worship, Jocelyn the Lovely One, has a perk which allows her followers to double their Charisma stat. I’ve heard Dallin the Strong One has a similar perk for strength.”

“Jocelyn and Dallin… who are the other two Overseers?”

“Loki the Hidden One and Mumblegrumble the Strange One. Those two are a little more mysterious and their followers keep to themselves, usually.”

Raymond took a careful mental note of all the information.

A minute later, they found themselves outside an ornate, white door. The edges were rimmed with silver and the handles were shiny and transparent. Kelsey raised a hand and knocked.

A moment later, a gruff man slid the door open.

“Whaddya want?” he grumbled.

“I’ve brought another Tether claim.” Kelsey replied.

Wait… another? Raymond turned and looked at Kelsey, but the girl didn’t acknowledge her gaze.

The man sighed. “One moment.”

The door closed and Raymond heard the sound of footsteps moving away from the door.

“Another?” Raymond questioned.

Kelsey grimaced. “I swear, we get another person claiming to be a new Tether every other week. They don’t seem to realize that they need to prove the claim.”

Raymond felt a bead of sweat run down her neck. “Prove it how?”

Kelsey leveled her piercing gaze on Raymond. “Obviously, through a full status appraisal. Tether’s get a unique skill that will show up on their status.”

“Oh,” Raymond said with a nod, “That’s true, I suppose.”

Kelsey grinned, “I’m sure you have nothing to worry about. If you’re telling the truth, you’ll be one of the most important people in the world. If you’re lying… well, you won’t need to worry about it for too long. False tether claims are dealt with swiftly.”

The longer Raymond was around Kelsey, the more and more she felt like the girl was a little scarier than she let on. With this latest reveal, Raymond was unsure of what to do. If she left now, they would probably let her go. She did actually have the ability they would be searching for, but it was something else that Raymond didn’t want them to see.

A full status appraisal probably included her race.

She didn’t have much time to think though. The footprints on the other side were approaching the door again.

With an inward sigh, Raymond decided to continue forward. She was already this far. No matter how much of a long shot it was, she would likely never get a chance as good as this one. She had to continue.

The door opened and a tall, graceful woman stood on the other side. Her very presence seemed to radiate light, accenting her beautiful features and long, black hair.

The High Priestess smiled widely as she looked down at Raymond.

“Are you the new Tether?” she asked warmly.

Raymond nodded, dazed.

“Come in, come in! We… Oh, my! What happened to your eye? Who would hurt such a cute little girl?”

Raymond shrugged, “Attacked by a monster.” she replied.

“Hmm,” the High Priestess said, looking down at Raymond appraisingly. Her attention shifted and she paused for a moment, looking at something only she could see. Her smile widened.

“Interesting. Come on in then. I think we have much to discuss.” she said, stepped back into the room gracefully.

Raymond moved through the doorway, hesitating only when she noticed that Kelsey didn’t follow. The door closed behind her.

Raymond squared her shoulders, fighting down her nerves as she walked forward, alone in the Temple of Cairel with the High Priestess.

She had no idea what to expect because, unless she missed her guess, the High Priestess had already read her status.

And she let Raymond in anyways.