The trio of companions had spent the better part of the rest of the day into evening piecing together what information they could from the journal. Most of the early pages summarized Constantine’s rise to prominence. A moon elf from a family of of deep seated magical power and ambition he had been given many advantages in his youth.

Dawnslight’s journal was not exactly user friendly and didn’t have conveniences like an index. Hence, Cire was largely skimming through sections and relaying what he could read. Frustrated by banal details he flipped to the very end of the book and mysteries started to unravel.

Constantine did not know why he was betrayed or by who, but he knew it had to be someone from his own royal house. One day, seemingly without warning, his city’s massive defenses were circumvented by legions of monsters of all kinds that roamed on the island. When almost everything was lost he was able to escape. Constantine fled to a prison of his own making, a hiding place of last resort unknown to everyone but himself. A safeguard that he had constructed in the early days far before his family had grown.

Leaving the haven was not an option, as Constantine knew there would be forces left behind to find and kill him. He had to wait and bid his time as everything he had made was torn down around him and scattered to the winds. The moon elf had known that kingdoms did not last, that time wore at all things, but he had hoped it would be his legacy. His last heroic act was to live and die alone, trapped, but free. Through his sacrifice the territory became barren of a leader until the binding stone coalesced to be discovered once more.

“Dragon balls indeed.” Cire sighed and closed the book. He quickly minimized a series of notifications, notably a quest updateincluded among them.

“Boyo, you don’t know the half of it. Maisy be asking for the impossible so far as I be thinkin’.” Durg guzzled down his latest mug to manage some of the spice as he shoveled another mushroom down his gullet. He seemed to be rather enjoying the flavoring, contrary to Selene’s intentions.

“Getting involved in millennia-old political games sounds a bit over my head, but I imagine you have a better idea. You obviously figured out something from those titles. Care to share?” Cire said. “To me they sound impressive, but have very little meaning.”

“The Mithril Order be the ruling council o’ the dwarven clans Cire. Ta claim a seat be no small feat, the least of which is to be the head of house that rules a dwarven city. Not a mere single clan. There haven’t been any but my kind in the order since the collapse.” Durg said. “I don’t be knowing about the others, but I be thinkin’ Selene knows.”

Running he nimble fingers through he long raven hair Selene looked uneasy. “You’re not wrong. Founding the city is obvious, although once again, I don’t know much of the specifics. It’s about gathering a community, building structures, and most importantly, connecting with the land.”

“At this point I think that is the biggest gap in my knowledge, whether we accept Maisy’s proposition or not. We will need to found a settlement somewhere, although the resources already here are potentially significant. I think she could provide invaluable instruction.” Cire glared at Durg to head off any of the obvious commentary.

“There is also a good chance that she doesn’t know as much as she is letting on. It’s not like she was a font of information. She gave us just enough to be enticed, but not enough to make an informed decision.”

Drumming her fingers on the table, Selene stopped the motion as quickly as she started and nodded. “The Unbroken Grove is an old druidic order. There are some members who live at the Tops’, but they aren’t exactly welcoming to outsiders. I think it would be a difficult proposition for you to seek membership, but not impossible. We still don’t know what your full skill set looks like. It’s possible you have more nature and wildlife skills than you have displayed.”

“Ahh huh. Have either of you ever heard of the last title, Lord of the Eclipse?” Cire asked trepidatiously.

Both shook their heads. Cire tried to amalgamate all of the various details they had gleaned from conversation with Maisy to the journal, it was too much. He felt like he was in the middle of putting a puzzle together. He had found the corner pieces, even assembled some of the border, but the middle was a discordant jumble.

Mentally exhausted, the group spent most of the evening relaxing before the fire. Cire excused himself to take a walk around the farm. He needed some time to himself to sort through everything. His mind felt like a blender of whirling thoughts and desires.

Looking up to the stars, a warm breeze brushing over his shoulders and the sweet scent of blooming wildflowers helped center him. He ran a hand along the weather worn split rail fence as his low light vision easily inspected the crops. He didn’t know which plant was which, but he could tell that their leaves were starting to wither.

Cire snatched up a jug and dipped it into the water barrel at the side of the cabin. He started going through the plants watering them row by row. At first he simply let his mind wander, giving it the freedom that had been denied for so many days.

This was his second chance. A chance to live his life with excitement and not buried in the mundane. No clocks to punch. No empty house. No monotony. He chuckled and shook his head at the irony as he continued diligently watering the thirsty stalks.

“Well, maybe some monotony,” he said.

The mundane action let his mind wander. Memories of Eugene and Stacy weren’t all that hard to find. He missed them, the easygoing comfort and hospitality they had provided had been priceless. Death hadn’t exactly been a stranger to him before he came here, but violent deaths were. He knew he wasn’t behaving sensibly.

It wasn’t hard for him to think back over the long day, but it brought some clarity. Even though Durg and Selene now knew what he was, he had still put them into an unacceptable amount of danger. He’d almost frozen up when the fungus beasts had attacked them. It had almost felt like his fight with the boars.

On top of his poor performance, he had gone and used the Blood Rage ability again without much compunction. Odder still was the lack of chastisement from Selene. Durg didn’t seem to care about him using the rage power, but Selene had been wary of him ever since he had first subconsciously activated it in the wake of the gnoll attack. That didn’t seem to be the case today. Now that he mulled it over, both Selene and Durg hadn’t been acting normal.

While his dwarven friend typically drank, he didn’t tend to get nearly as sloppy as he was. Selene seemed to be grasping for a path forward as much as he was. Throwing herself into unraveling the mystery in front of them instead of thinking about what was behind. He shook his head while thinking of earlier that day. He hadn’t exactly been thinking clearly either.

“I said it’s time to ‘go full vampire’ before I just jumped off that twin pine trunk. Ridiculous.”

To be fair, he didn’t think he was reacting to the situation as he might have before his rebirth. Now that he was on the other side of the looking glass he was getting a better sense of himself. Cire wasn’t sure how elves and vampires managed stress physiologically, but he had a suspicion that it wasn’t the same as humans. He had always been guilty of compartmentalization when it came to emotional issues, but this was something different.

Cire didn’t think he should feel guilty about killing the mushroom monsters, they had been attacking them and he doubted they could be reasoned with any more than the gnolls. However, he had panicked at the start of the fight before getting a handle on himself. This was understandable given it was essentially his first fight since the tutorial. He wondered how much work it had been doing since he got here. Obviously the point had been to ease his transition into the world.

Once he finished watering, he moved on to pulling up small weeds, continuing the calming process of moving up and down the rows focused on the ground before him. With a clearer head than he had possessed in some time, he pulled up the bevy of notifications awaiting him. It was about time he looked over the quests he had received from bonding the territory.

Quest Title: Set your Settlement

Condition(s): Found a settlement within your territory. Minimum of 50 individuals and basic shelter required.

Rewards: Experience and linked abilities, skills, or spells

Penalty for failure or refusal of Quest: Unknown

Do you Accept? Yes or No

Quest Title: Dedicate your Domain

Condition(s): Construct, discover, or dedicate a divine site within your territory to one of the deities.

Rewards: Commensurate to the site and deity.

Penalty for failure or refusal of Quest: Unknown

Do you Accept? Yes or No

You have earned 1,000 experience for the quest Visit the Valley.

Quest Title: Flay the Fungus I

Condition(s): Clear the remaining red cap fungus beasts from the ruins of Miletus. Discover the origin of the infestation.

Rewards: Experience and settlement rewards.

Penalty for failure or refusal of Quest: Increased infestation.

Do you Accept? Yes or No

You have learned a new Language: Ancient Elvish. Your understanding of divine elvish and elvish have bridged the gap in your knowledge base to allow you to comprehend ancient elvish.

Skill level up! You have reached level 5 & 6 in Lore.

Skill level up! You have reached level 2 in Arcana.

While walking back to the cabin, he sifted through the quests and accepted all of them. None of them had a time limit and they were all things he either was planning on doing or had to do. He took note of the amount of experience from finally completing the Visit the Valley quest. It was much lower than when he had been completing quests during the tutorial period. It made sense that things would normalize, the bonuses had essentially helped him catch up to other adults.

It was nice to know the reason he could read the books. In a roundabout way the fact that the book was written in ancient elvish confirmed its authenticity, not that he had been doubting it. Cire knew that there would be much more to glean from the books once he had the wherewithal to read again.

Cire sat on the front steps of the cabin gazing out over the valley in darkness. The moonless night shrouding the peaks in dark shadows. He had so many potential paths. He could head to Meadow by way of Gearspoke, how Nic and Andre had gotten to the valley. That was the most likely place he could find settlers. He didn’t think that there were many significant population centers on the island, but he doubted it would be effective to approach cloistered communities like the Tempest Treetops, Selene’s home.

Travel to the elven city held a lot of appeal to Cire as well. He didn’t really know how to be an elf, he had ideas, but the decision to select sun elf and vampire for his new species had been dictated by balancing traits and abilities. The ramifications of that decision were all the more salient now that he was starting to understand that being an elf wasn’t just about having pointy ears and long hair.

Over the course of the last couple of months he had come to an uneasy peace with being a vampire. Now that he remembered choosing to become one it was easy to chastise himself. “Why didn’t I think about how disgusting drinking blood would be? Or how hard it would be to manage the bloodlust? How bad would it be if I wasn’t also a sun elf?”

Cire knew why, he had tried to game the system without considering the consequences. It had seemed like a good plan in a vacuum.

“Nothing to do about it now but to move forward. Your friends know who you are. Just be a good vampire. Suck it up and only drink bad people… and monsters, lots of monsters. Maybe I will find some that taste good.”

Creaking open behind him, Selene poked her head out from the front door and spotted him sitting. “What are you going on about out here?”

“Grinning at my own terrible puns and talking to myself. Nothing that should surprise you. Come out and join me?” Cire said.

She nodded and moved to sit down next to him, a comfortable gap between them.

“It doesn’t.”

They sat in silence, taking in the night with their exceptional elven eyes, muted colors playing in a palate of shadows and starlight. The two sat like that for a while before retiring for the evening. Durg had long since begun snoring having simply laid down on the floor under the table.

Standing in the dirt road in front of the Hamlet of Sunset's lodge Nicolas, Andre, Durg, Selene, and Cire discussed heading to the underground ruins to clear out the remaining mushroom monsters. Durg and Selene had gotten the same quest and had quests related to the founding of the settlement as well. They hadn’t told the human brothers about the binding, but they had to reveal details about the duergar they had fought and the ruins.

“So, you need our help for cleanup, but we miss out on the bulk of the fun.” Nicolas grinned as he cinched the straps on his hide armor.

“We never get invited to the party brother, you know that.” Andreas ran his hand through his matted dusty brown hair before pulling on his leather padded helmet. “At least I’ll get a chance to get back into the fight. I know what you all found at the gnoll camp, but healing in bed was a frustrating way to contribute.”

“We still didn’t move fast enough. If you had been with us we might not have caught the trail in time.” Selene’s comment was the most supportive, but it didn’t leave any ambiguity either. Andreas had taken a spear in the stomach and regardless of quick magical healing a wound like that took time to recover from.

“Besides, we need you two now. No way we are getting back to loot those duergar without help. We will make sure you get a fair cut of whatever we find. I would prefer to work with people I know instead of asking around.” Cire said.

Durg nodded before he took a giant bite from a piece of rubbery flesh pieces of it scattered already in his beard. “There be rewards a plenty ma friends. More tasty mushroom than you will be able ta store before it goes bad!”

Both Nic and Andre looked at Durg doubtfully before shaking their heads. “You three lead the way, let's work out our strategy as we walk.”

The party set out towards the ruined grove at the center of the valley as the sun crested the ridge before them.