Tibi had spent the previous week researching in the library. He had discovered nothing concerning "quests." This was bizarre. The profile was just that: a picture of the royal family that described who they were. Nothing in his search indicated anything about the profile mentioning much other than itself, and the profile evolved as the individual grew.

He had reached a fork in the road. He considered asking his father, but then he'd have to explain how he acquired it. His brothers would both denounce him to his father, so he decided to try Glori. He was highly confident she couldn't help him, but he was prepared to give it a shot. She at the very least, knew how to keep a secret.

"Hey Glori, I've got an extra blueberry muffin from the kitchen. Is that a new dress?" Glori's eyes narrowed, and even the normally quiet Mando raised an eyebrow. Tibi mentally kicked himself, subtlety was clearly not his strong suit.

"What do you want, Tibi?" she inquired, suspiciously.

Tibi attempted to appear as unconcerned as possible. "Nothing much. I just wanted to talk. How about we go to the library?"

"If you want to talk, just talk here." He hadn't lost her interest because she took the muffin as she spoke.

"Come to the library. It's peaceful there." She still looked on the fence. "Please," he begged.

She rolled her eyes and chewed into her food. "All right, lead the way."

She sat across from him in a comfortable lounge chair. She'd left a crumb trail to the library, but a maid would find it. He hadn't really thought through how he was going to approach this, so they just sat in silence for a time, staring at each other.

Her forbearance was not what he had hoped for, and she was the first to speak. "OK, little brother, spill it, or I'll go back to spy on Courageous' new girlfriend."

“Courageous is seeing someone new? What became of the Duchess's daughter?" He inquired, but Glori gave him a stern look. “Really Tibi, That ended almost two years ago”

“Ah okay. I suppose you’re wondering why I asked you here.” He looked at her, but she only stared. He proceeded with a tense cough. "Well, I was curious whether your profile has ever done anything... uncharacteristic of your profile?"

She stood up and snorted. "This is stupid. I'm leaving if you don't tell me what you want."

He rose and extended his hand to stop her. “No, I mean it. Have you ever had an interaction with your profile? As in, maybe providing you a quest?"

She paused for a bit to think about it. "Are you serious? Has this happened to you?” He said nothing, but she sat back down.

"Did you receive a quest? Like saving a princess from a dragon? When did this take place? Is there anything else on your profile since then? Do you already have your complete profile?" All of a sudden, her excitement was bursting at the seams.

He jumped in as she paused to get her breath. "Nothing like that, I'm still not level five," he said, pausing briefly before continuing. “However, the other day I was out in the city.” She opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped as he proceeded.

"It was only a few lines of text, and it said there was a quest alert, which I could accept or decline. There were also success and failure possibilities, but they weren't specified. That's something I've never heard of before."

She sprang up and began pacing. "I'm guessing you haven't told father, which is probably a good thing. And our brethren would insist that your abilities be investigated in case those abilities could be of assistance to them." Her hand had reached her chin, and while she pretended most of the time to be air headed, he could tell she was far brighter than she let on.

“What was the quest?” She inquired abruptly.

"Umm, to investigate at a new temple."

She took a breath and stopped. "What exactly do you mean by a new temple?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "As I already stated, there is a new temple that has suddenly appeared, and it is not dedicated to the Seven."

"Wow, that's an odd situation. Who do they worship?"

"I'm not sure. I inquired around, but the most I obtained was that there is only one goddess, not seven."

"A monotheism. I've heard that people over the water believe in such foolishness. I wonder..." She came to a halt in her pacing and stared at him. "Well, it appears that you just have one option: to see how this "quest" plays out."

"It appears we will have to investigate this temple," she said with a smile.

……………………………..

Faux was drenched in sweat. His nerves were frayed, but he tried his hardest to keep it under control. He was doing it for them both, knowing that if they had a small purse, they could get some decent meals and possibly spend the night in a children's home.

Faux wasn't a nitwit; he didn't go looking for the fattest purse nor the most obvious target. He was looking for someone ordinary, with a little to medium-sized purse that was easily accessible. He assumed that someone with a bulging purse could either handle themselves or was really foolish. Faux, on the other hand, was not willing to take a chance on the former.

The crowd was thick today. A jostle wouldn’t alert most people as they passed and bumped their way through the narrow market aisles. But he still had to be cautious; he'd rehearsed with Mckale before, but this was a different beast. He saw a suitable target after trekking for thirty minutes with Mckale trailing after him.

With a salt and pepper beard and a solid face, the older man appeared to be in his fifties. Faux hesitated for a second when he discovered something was wrong with his eyes, but he could already feel the pressure increasing and knew it was just his nerves. He glanced behind him and noticed Mckale was still around, so he gave him a subtle nod. Faux took a deep breath and made his move.

He got into step close behind his target, pacing him as they walked through the crowd. His target abruptly came to a halt, and Faux made his move, colliding with him and quickly removing the purse from his belt.

"Excuse me," Faux muttered as he continued on his way. His gaze was drawn upward and captured the mark's stare. The dark vacant glare indicated that he knew exactly what Faux had done. It brought Faux to a halt, and horror welled up inside him. Should he return it? Run as fast as his feet would take him? He did neither, frozen in fear.

Then, from a few booths down, there was a cacophony. Mckale had collided with a seller selling brooms, and they had all fallen down. He seemed to think the distraction was necessary. Faux’s eyes snapped back to the old man, but he was gone, as was the purse straight from Faux’s hand! Then he heard a cry, "Fool," and turned around to see the enraged merchant stepping around his stall.

They had agreed that this would be the most convenient method of distraction. They figured a harsh tongue lashing would be the worst case scenario if they knocked over something non-breakable. But, as the mob formed a small circle around the vendor and Mckale, he saw the vendor hit the the thirteen-cycle-old boy in the chest with a cudgel. Faux could hear Mckale's head crack into the stone from twenty feet away as he lurched back and finally dropped.

……………………………..

Tibi grumbled, "You're not coming, and that's it." Unfortunately, they both knew Glori would do whatever she wanted, and he was just putting out the effort out of habit.

She cackled, "Let me tell Mando you don't want him to go." Tibi thought he noticed the man's expression darken as he looked at him.

"How is it sneaking out if you bring your bodyguard?" Tibi yelled but she already started walking, as if arguing was beneath her. He sighed deeply, but he couldn't tell if it was out of annoyance or relief.

Mando was one of the most dangerous men in the kingdom, and even Kinkade respected him. Mando had served as his sister's bodyguard since she was able to walk. Tibi wasn't sure how a Hephastian mercenary from across the sea had become his sister's bodyguard, but he was reasonably certain he was well compensated. He thought to himself, "Just another example of his sister being the favorite."

Tibi cast another sidling glance at his sister and her six-and-a-half-foot shadow. The man wore his long black hair back behind his head and carried two swords with him at all times. Hephastian blades were single-edged, thinner, and had a backward bend to them, unlike ordinary broad or long swords.

He wielded two swords, one long and one short. Tibi had seen him fight before and remembered him as a whirlwind. An ongoing joke between the brothers was that Glori had his tongue cut out so that she could never be interrupted while speaking. The young princes prudently avoided making this joke in front of Mando.

"All right, Tibi, let's get started." Tiberius said to himself as he gave Mando another glance but said nothing to the man as he began walking toward the gate. Mando hardly ever spoke, so he knew he wouldn't say anything.

Glori replied to him, "So when you claim you "snuck" out, you really mean you walked out the front gate."

Tibi blushed just a smidgeon. "Well, I had to give them an excuse and a cause to-" he began, but Glori interrupted him.

"Our brothers have educated the household guard not to ask questions, so you probably didn't need to say anything." Tibi didn't respond. His sister was correct. Guards didn't question royalty, so perhaps he just liked the idea that if he went missing, someone would notice.

With dusk on the horizon, they strolled out the front gates, and the guards did nothing more than salute them, as Glori had predicted. They made their way out into the noble quarters, the only wealthy area near to the castle that was permitted.

This only made TIbi blush brighter as he had previously spent a quarter turn of the hour glass making excuses to silent guards.

"I can't remember the last time I left the castle, it's so great to be out." Glori remarked.

"It's great here, but the rest of the city," Tibi said, pausing. "It's not at all what I recall."

"What do you mean?" Glori inquired.

They strolled silently into the temple district, Tibi stating, "It's meaner, scarier. It didn't feel right."

The districts were merely additional strata of the metropolis. The closer you lived to the castle, the more riches you could amass. The noble district was not exclusively for nobles; some exceptionally successful merchants might live on the outside of the noble district.

Shop owners who had their residences and stores in the same building might be seen on the outskirts of the merchant district. The majority of the temples could be found on Soul Street, which was also where the most of the temples were built.

The Seven were honored in the biggest temples, although religion here was not restricted as it was in Agothir. Smaller temples littered the roadway that ran along to the worker district's border. Unless you were on the main thoroughfare, where the standing market and inns were, the closer you got to the city wall, the worse things were.

"Tibi, where is this temple?" Glori spoke in hushed tones. Even though it wasn't completely dark yet, Tiberius was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the way people looked at them. Glori's outfit and her looming bodyguard could not be hidden, even though he had dressed down. Tibi, on the other hand, was now overjoyed that Mando was with.

"I don't know much for sure, but it should be up ahead; I asked around a little when I got the quest to see what I could find out." Tibi took a look around; the streets were still rather crowded, and this was a well traveled street. He could see a group of guards on patrol, but he couldn't put his finger on why he felt uneasy.

"This land is lost!" A crier hollered in front of a tiny temple. He was dressed in a dark gray robe with a thick heavy metal chain over his shoulders.

Tibi stated, "The temple we're looking for should be next." He wasn't a major believer in the Seven, but he couldn't see how anyone could believe in the rubbish offered by the little churches.

"You're on a dark path; remember the light!" Wailed the crier as he approached them.

Tibi almost jumped out of his skin since he hadn't noticed Mando get in front of him. Mando's hand dropped to the hilt of his blade as Glori emitted a tight chuckle, but the strange priest was already pestering someone else.

"That should be the one there," Tibi said, shrugging off the strange encounter. The most impressive temple Tibi had ever seen that wasn't one of the Seven stood on a large street corner.

Glori murmured, "It's lovely." The white marble pillars and massive bronze sconce candles offered a wonderful relief after going down a nervous street. "Does this happen to be your shady church?" Glori inquired with skepticism. He, too, was surprised; if he hadn't heard a couple of the whispered stories, he might not have believed it.

She looked at the well mannered priests in white robes that stood at the entrance, nodding, waving and talking to passerbys. "Well, it was a good laugh. I can't believe you got me, Tibi." She turned completely around and began walking away.

"Wait a minute, Glori." The difference in appearance was significant, and in retrospect, even those priests had an air of holiness if one merely looked at the surface. But there had been rumors of disappearances and people who had begun worshiping there being altered behind the lavish exterior. "This isn't a joke; I don't know what's going on, but something isn't right."

She stopped and looked back. A few friendly elderly men talked about redemption to those on the street out front. As well as providing food and healing to those seeking the goddess's word. Glori scowled and walked away. He decided that perhaps he could do this alone, without her help. Then with another look at the fading sun, he suddenly realized he didn't want to be without Mando, so he took another look at the temple before immediately turning to run after Glori. As he knocked over a crying boy, there was a thud and a "oomf."

The youngster, perhaps his age or younger, had fallen but stood up without looking up. "I'm sorry," the young lad grumbled as he continued going.

He restrained himself from running after his sister as soon as he discovered the lad was on his way to the temple. It wasn't his business, but after the disturbing things he had heard about this facility, he went after the youngster. “Wait!” The boy didn't even pause, indicating that no one was paying attention.

Tibi looked back at the retreating backs of Mando and Glori. “Damn it,” Tibi muttered to himself as he turned to catch the kid.

……………………………..

Faux appeared to be in a daze. He'd been breaking down since he'd dragged an unresponsive Mckale into the alley. Mckale was still breathing, but he required assistance, and Faux had no idea where to turn. Someone had mentioned this temple to him and Mckale before, but they had dismissed it. Other, more nefarious tales circulated as well, but when people were desperate, and the majority of those in the "workers" section were desperate, they did what they had to do.

So Faux had taken the gold farthing they'd previously concealed and was on his way to the temple as quickly as he could to heal his one and only pal. He was scared of having the gold farthing in his pocket, fearful that it wouldn’t be enough to buy his only friend’s last possible chance.

He practically leaped out of his skin when a hand gripped his shoulder. He turned around to see another youngster following him; he was torn between running and screaming, but the other boy sensed his anxiety and let go of him.

"Whoa, calm down. I was only calling you and you kept walking." Faux twitched a little. He looked behind him and saw that he was just thirty yards from the temple, and that if he ran fast enough, he might be able to make it. "Look, kid, you seem upset; I'm simply attempting to assist you."

Something in that comment irritated Faux, and he cracked a little. “Upset? Upset? Why would I be irritated by being trapped in this dreadful nightmare of a city?" Faux hissed.

The boy took a step back and raised his hands, startled by the venom in his voice. "You appeared to require assistance, and based on what I've heard, you shouldn't be attempting to obtain it there."

"Oh thank you oh great knight, I didn't realize you could miraculously heal my injured friend, praise the Seven," he said as he took a step nearer, his cynicism virtually dripping from his words. "No one in this city helps, and if you try to assist, if you get in my way, I'll, I'll..."

The boy took a step back and said, "Neptia's tits kid. I promise, I know a healer, and if your friend requires assistance, I'll make certain he receives it. Just don't go in there," the youngster said, pointing to the shrine.

“Why? What's the big deal?" Faux had enquired. He had heard the street talk as well, but it was just that. Street talk.

"I don't know… I just… I don't know what's going on," the boy's face hardened from his indecision. "Look, I have a responsibility, and if there is anything I can do to help, I will."

Faux glanced at him, and despite his apprehensions, he saw a genuine resolution in the boy's eyes. "All right, if you're able, please assist my friend," he said, holding out his hand. "My name is Faux."

The boy gave a brief glance at the filthy hand before grabbing it. "And my name is Tibi."

……………………………..

Tiberius had no idea why he had chosen to assist this young man; part of him felt sorry for him, while another part was outraged that people could be so unhappy here. This was his city, and his family had served as regents for over 500 cycles.

He had no idea what was going on, and what he had been told and what he observed of the city were two completely different things. As they moved farther into the worker's area, he trailed behind the waif of a youngster. As they traveled down side alleys and dark corners, he would have assumed this was going to be a trap if he hadn't approached Faux first.

The city was dark and filthy around him; he saw beggars and bums, and he thought he saw a dead body down one alley. "He's just up ahead," the boy said as he motioned him forward. He reasoned that they could transport the boy's companion back to the castle, where one of the healers could examine him.

Now that night had fallen, he needed to get things done swiftly before he started second-guessing himself. He noticed the enormous boy pushed up against the wall as soon as they entered the lane. They were not going to be able to transport this guy. Faux went over to the giant boy and squatted next to him. That was when Tibi overheard “no, no, no..” coming from Faux.

They both had realized it. His friend was dead.