It’s nighttime and I need to go to sleep, but I don’t think it would be a wise idea to head right back to the inn. I have this vest that I need to hide from Itor, and sleeping in the same room as him just brings up a lot of problems. He could easily find it.

I don’t want to just hide it somewhere outside, either, since exposing something like this, made of organic material, to the elements for a night would give it a good chance of just being destroyed, so I’m just going to sleep outside with it, that way I can keep it covered with my cloak.

I head back to the area I made my knife. The ground is still littered with shards of stone. I lie down here. That way, if someone finds me, they’ll probably just see all of this and figure I was experimenting with this new ability.

As I fall asleep, my head becomes littered with ideas and plans. Just what ways can I use this ability to its fullest? There’s a really steep drawback of the fact I have to sacrifice my own flesh to use it; I’ve been able to use it so much now because I haven’t used it before, but skin takes a long time to grow back, so it’s not like I can constantly be using this.

Maybe there’s some sort of way to get around it? And this ability seems to be somehow related to the god that chisels himself out of stone. I walked into the room with his statue next to it in order to inhale that drug that seemingly gave me this ability, so what happens in the rooms for the other gods?

I smile as my consciousness drifts off. This really will be fun, won’t it?

-------------------------------------------------

I awake to a still-asleep town. It makes sense, the days seem a good few hours longer here, so my body probably hasn’t adjusted to the longer nights, either.

Hmm. Well, if not many people are awake right now, maybe it would be a good time to go exploring? I’d like to get a better idea of what that church-like poetion that Sheia took me to is like.

I get up and walk through the town. There are some people out that seem to be guards - or some sort of law-enforcement, anyway. They give me some strange looks when they see me out so early, but don’t confront me or anything.

I arrive at the stone building. The moons in the sky softly illuminate the area, but not many guards are currently around. I walk up the steps and put my hand on the door handle. I don’t think there’s any crime in just checking, right?

Damn. Locked. I step down and look around the building. It’s on a raised stone foundation, but up about six or seven feet on the walls are some glass windows. Perhaps I could get in that way?

I pass my hands over the stone walls. I might be able to climb up to check if the windows are able to be opened. While each of the large bricks are homogeneous in shape and size, they’re worn down enough to give me some footholds.

I step up and grab onto the window sill, using one hand to keep me upright, and the other to fiddle with the window itself.

They’re locked, but it’s just a simple latch on the other side of the pane. I wiggle the metal at the bottom a bit and pretty quickly it falls out of place. I slide the window open and slip in. Alright, so I’m currently in the main room, the one with all the doors and statues.

It’s difficult to see in the low light, but my eyes have adjusted enough for me to get my bearings. There’s nobody else in here, thankfully. I walk over to one of the doors, the one next to the statue of the man with the fire. It’s unlocked, so I open it.

The small room inside is identical to the one I was taken to before. It does smell a bit different, though. I walk up to the incense drug in the middle of the room. It isn’t currently burning, but yeah, it’s definitely giving off a different scent. If the incense in the other room gave me this creation ability, what would these other ones do?

I take the bowl of incense and empty it into one of the pockets in my cloak. I’ll have to experiment with it later. I check out the next room. It smells different from the other two. I guess they’re all different. I go through each of the rooms and empty the incense into my pockets.

With that, I leave the way that I came. There’s not much else in the building, so I don’t want to take any more risks in being here. I’m not sure how early people come in to open it up, and the sun is just beginning to rise.

I check before exiting that there are no guards around, and then climb out of the window.

I wander the town for a bit, exploring the nooks and crannies and just generally familiarizing myself with the layout. After some time, the sun fully rises and people start emerging from the buildings. In only a few minutes, it goes from a dark ghost town to a fully populated, bustling village.

Where’s Sheia? I want to interact with her more so that she becomes more familiar with me.

Eventually I find her walking down the street. Or, rather, she finds me. I’m walking around pretty aimlessly when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I admittedly jump pretty badly when I feel it, but when you’re planning an escape from your captors, you do tend to be a little on edge.

She laughs at my jumpiness, which is a good sign, and I simply laugh along with her after I move my hand away from my knife. After a second, she grabs my hand and leads me somewhere. It seems she’s getting very comfortable manhandling me.

We arrive at the inn that Itor and Magna are staying at. I guess Itor was worried about me. We enter the room. Magna is finally sitting up this time. She’s staring at me with a judging look.

Itor, however, looks at me with a mix of relief and worry. He immediately runs up to me and begins pulling up my sleeves to check my body.

Shit, I don’t want him to see the chestplate I made. I immediately unwrap my bandage and show him the other wound I have from experimenting with my ability. I also point at the reddish tint from my arm. Hopefully he takes this as me showing him all of the places I sacrificed and doesn’t find it necessary to investigate further.

He seems to understand. He seems especially impressed at my having used my whole arm instead of a specific point on my body. Magna doesn’t seem to be put at much ease, though. Itor says something to her excitedly, but she replies in a disinterested, almost hostile tone. They have a conversation that seems to be bordering on turning into an argument, but eventually Magna just sighs and lies down, closing her eyes.

The older woman who was with Sheia when I first met them enters the room. She seems surprised to see Sheia and me, but quickly recovers and seems to assume a more professional identity soon after. She speaks a brief greeting to Sheia, who reciprocates it, and then she speaks for a bit with Itor.

During their conversation, Sheia leads me out of the room, seeming to have gotten bored. She takes me to a more secluded spot in what seems to be a sort of park. We sit down in a gazebo-like structure.

Sheia opens her mouth to say something to me, but then seems to realize that that wouldn’t really do much. She motions for me to open my bandage up. I comply. She takes my hand and examines the two wounds on my palm.

To be honest, they’ve been bothering me quite a bit. The pain isn’t anything unbearable, but it’s very annoying to have them on my hand of all places. The first one I put there by accident, and the only reason I put the second one there was to re-use the bandage, and also to get rid of any variance caused by different locations of the sacrificed flesh while conducting my experiment.

She runs her finger over the two wounds. They’ve long since stopped bleeding, but it still stings a bit. Then, she puts her own hand over my palm and closes her eyes. What exactly is she doing? I feel a tingling sensation on my hand. It kind of hurts, but I don’t pull away.

After a minute or two, she lifts her hand from mine. I look down at my wounds.

Wait. No, I don’t. They’re both gone.