Chpt. 4) The Church of the Gods

As Ford slept, she had a strange dream. It wasn’t clear or straightforward. Just a collection of blurred images. She saw the one clear picture of a woman in a cyan dress. Ford couldn’t see her face; all she knew was that the woman was beautiful and important for some reason.

Then Ford was shaken awake by Max rousing her to awareness. She still felt tired and groaned, “What do you want?”

Max whispered into her ear, “It’s time to get up and get our Grimoires.”

Ford groaned again, “Five more minutes then.”

“No,” Max said, significantly louder as she got up and turned on the light.

Ford groaned again and sat up, swinging her legs off the side of the bed. She stretched and scratched her frazzled bed head. She heard a little chuckle from behind her, and she turned to see Max, hair freshly brushed with a sunflower behind her ear and wearing a clean white dress.

“You’re too happy to be awake in the morning,” Ford mumbled as she looked toward a window. The sun wasn’t up yet, and she looked at the clock. It was five o’clock in the morning. She looked back to Max, who was beaming a broad smile; Ford stared for a moment and said, “I’m going back to sleep.” She then crawled back under the blankets.

“No, no,” Max said as she tried to pull the blankets off Ford with no progress.

“Just stop already and let me sleep another hour…or three…maybe five,” Ford said as she slowly began to drift off.

“We can’t. We got to go now,” Max gave the blankets an extra few tugs to no prevail. She then let them go and crawled up next to Ford, “If you get up now,” she whispered into Ford’s ear, “I’ll give you a gift later.”

Ford wasn’t that easy, but it did get her a little curious, “What kind of gift,” she mumbled, still almost asleep.

Then she felt Max give her a little peck on the cheek, “That kind of gift,” she whispered.

Immediately Ford’s mind went into overdrive, trying to deduce if Max was telling the truth or was just playing with words to make Ford think of something inappropriate that Max knew Ford wanted. Or was the kiss on the cheek the actual gift? If so, she would have already received it and will not receive another. Or she will receive another kiss on the cheek, which would be all she gets. Or she was telling the truth about what Ford would get, which is what Max’s statement would lead her to believe.

Either way, one way or another, Ford got up because she couldn’t fall asleep after all that thinking. ‘Damn my horny-ness,’ she thought to herself as she got dressed. As Ford buttoned up her waistcoat and looked around for her fedora, she pulled off the bandage on her face, revealing a red scar. She looked around and couldn’t find her Fedora; then she turned around to ask Max if she had seen it.

Max was wearing the hat, Ford responded unimpressed, “Really?”

“I see why you like the hat. It’s very nice,” Max responded with a wide smile.

Ford smiled as well and walked over to her and was about to take her hat back when, instead, she took Max in an embrace and whispered in her ear, “Thank you for last night. I needed to hear that.”

Max hugged her back, and they stood there for a moment. Then Max took a step back and looked up at her, “You looked like you needed someone to tell that to and accept it. I had already accepted you for what I saw.”

Ford chuckled slightly and asked, “What did you see?”

Max took off the hat and put it on Fords’ head, “Well, you’re strong, skilled, a little strange,” Max chuckled.

“Ouch,” Ford joked along.

Max continued and grew more serious, “But under all that, I see you’re alone and have no one else, so you cling onto the person you like the most and try to protect them.”

“What makes you say that?” Ford asked, scratching the back of her head.

Max grabbed Ford’s hands as she said, “Because you wouldn’t let go of my hand at the festival, and you wouldn’t stop rubbing your thumb along mine,” She looked up at Ford’s violet and golden eyes. Ford took a deep breath and pulled Max into another hug. They didn’t say anything more as they stood in the embrace.

Max was the one to break the silence, her voice muffled by Ford’s chest, “Now take off the hat so I can fix that bed head of yours.”

“Right,” she said as she took off the hat and sat down for a hair brushing.

***

The entire time Max brushed Ford’s hair, she did her best not to move and brush her hair herself. It had always been a pet peeve of Ford not to let anyone touch her hair; it bugged her to no end. However, Ford decided to let it happen and go with it. After ten minutes of brushing to get everything smooth, Max tied Ford’s hair back with the red hair tie. Ford felt the ponytail she was given and found the tie was in a little bow. ‘Not my style,’ she thought, ‘but I’ll leave it be.’

After that, they went out into the Hall where Luis and Sean were waiting for them, their bags in hand. “How did you sleep,” Luis asked in a weary voice.

“I slept pretty well,” she yawned, “but I could’ve slept longer.”

Luis gave a weak chuckle, “I understand the feeling. Let’s go.”

“Oh, and before I forget,” Ford said, stopping Luis from walking on, “Thank you for your hospitality I greatly appreciate it.”

Luis gave a weak laugh, “Don’t worry about it. Also, if you ever find yourself near my farm in Zuuban. Let me know, and I will be happy to host.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Ford said as she walked past and led them out the motel.

Much to Ford's surprise, more people were around than she thought as she walked out to the dimly lit streets. Luis walked up next to her and gestured to follow them, so she followed Luis. They were all heading to the world tree in the center of town. Ford wanted to ask why, but she would know in a minute.

The walk took what felt like forever as the people grew more concentrated. The crowd made Ford feel nervous, and she crossed her arms and tried to retreat into herself. After a couple of seconds, Max worked her arm into Fords and looked up at her with a smile.

“Wha-” Ford started to ask but was quickly cut off by Max.

“I’m doing this because,” she said calmly, “you’re afraid of large crowds.”

Ford stammered for a moment, “W-what? I am not afraid of large crowds. I’m not. I am highly nervous in them.”

Max chuckled to herself and clasped Ford’s hand, interlocking their fingers; as much as she would hate to admit it, this calmed Ford quite a bit. After about an hour and a half of walking, Ford nervously rubbed Max’s thumb with her own the whole way; they finally arrived at the base of the massive tree as the sun rose behind it.

They stood at a massive arch that the tree had naturally made at its base. The knarled roots intertwined in convoluted and intricate patterns. In the center of the arch was a maelstrom of nebules energy spinning in a massive sphere. The energy center looked like a black hole that kept everything moving around.

Luis stopped us for a second and handed Max a bag of coins, “For the ascension. Good luck.”

Max let go of Ford's hand and embraced her father in a big hug, and Sean joined her. Not wanting to ruin the moment, Ford said, “I’m going to go ahead. See you in a bit.” Luis looked at her and gave a little wave, clearly not wanting to end the hug.

Ford walked on and into the crowd of people, trying to stay confident and headstrong. The mass of people eventually fell into many different lines, which led to the maelstrom of energy. When she got up close, surrounded by people not much older than herself, they didn’t hesitate to walk into the nebules energy.

Every time someone did, they evaporated into nothingness. ‘What the- Oh, hell no,’ Ford thought as she looked back to try and escape but was instead pushed into the maelstrom and evaporated as quickly as everyone else. She felt a tug as she whorled through emptiness and felt that this feeling was familiar. It was the same feeling as she hurtled to Erath just yesterday. Her body is being destroyed and remade over and over again.

Then it stopped, and she stumbled onto a white and golden bridge that was at least twelve meters wide and hung in empty darkness. At least a hundred people on the bridge itself, all human, led to a dead-end platform with four rows of chairs and a podium. Ford walked over to the platform with everyone else and sat in a chair in the front of the rows of chairs. Everybody else followed suit, most of whom didn’t know what was going on either.

Once the one-hundred people sat down in a chair, a bright light shone from the podium, and a throne made of cards and board games replaced it. Upon the throne was none other than Tanashi, his red tattoo on his face giving him a big demonic smile.

Everyone started whispering to each other, figuring out who he was. Tanashi stood and spoke, “Hello, all three million of you. I’m glad you could make it. I’m the god of humanity, Tanashi. Now I know you have many questions and want answers, but I can’t give them to you. What I can give is a Grimoire,” Tanashi spread his arms out wide, and a white and gold Grimoire appeared in front of him, “I spent a long time picking out each Grimoire for each of you now you can feel free to go take your magic and use them to farm if you’d like. But,” Tanashi held up a finger, and the Grimior disappeared, “I want you to take the skills I give you and do something creative and exciting with them. I wish you all luck in your future endeavors.”

Tanashi looked to his side and gave Ford a little wink before disappearing, and his throne was replaced with the podium and a bowl atop it. Behind the podium, an incredibly ancient-looking priest appeared wearing white robes with golden highlights. He started to speak a second later, his voice carrying over all the whispers, “Calm down, and let’s get this over with. Starting at my right,” he gestured to his right to the opposite side of the row Ford was on, “and going left we’ll snake our way through. When you walk up and donate to the gods, it will transform into your Grimoire. Once it does, take it and go through the portal behind me,” he waved behind him, and a white oval appeared behind him.

The first person rose and walked up to the podium, placing a pouch in the bowl. The bowl began to shine, and the pouch was replaced with a brown and green book with a sickle and barley etched onto its surface, “Farmer!” the priest announced, and the newly made farmer walked through the portal.

The ceremony continued for a few minutes, most of the people being Farmers, blacksmiths, and one chef. Finally, it was Ford's turn; she walked up to the podium, pulled out a small purse full of gold coins, and placed them in the bowl. The bowl shone, and a Grimoire replaced the coins. The Grimoire's cover was brown like all the others before her, except there were no knives or hammers, but instead was a circle with seven four-point stars in its center.

The Priest looked at it curiously and opened his mouth several times to say what it was, but he didn’t know. Instead, he opened another portal, “Go through this portal, dear, and I’ll be there in a moment to figure out what that Grimoire is.”

Ford nodded and didn’t say anything as she walked through the new portal. It pulled her into a grand church behind a podium. It had high ceilings with ornate art painted onto it depicting some battle and massive stained windows around the church's walls. There were also Fourteen marble pillars around the entire area; looking at them, she thought she saw two red-tails disappear behind them. ‘Must be a trick of the light,’ She thought. Looking down, she saw several rows of oak benches. She then walked over to them and sat down as the portal closed.

She opened her Grimoire and flipped through the pages with nothing else to do. They were all blank. Then she noticed that she got a notification on the Yggdress system. So she opened it.

Quest complete: rewards; Grimoire, map function, activity log, one-thousand EXP. Level up; you have four ability points and twenty-two skill points to spend. Quest unlocked; don’t kill me; follow the scary lady. Reward; not being killed, information, two hundred EXP.

Ford closed the screen and opened up her stats screen. Next to all her stats, except her Soul stat, was a plus bar. ‘Neat,’ she thought as she looked at the stats and decided what to put her ability points in. She decided to put the points in the lowest of her stats, wisdom, bringing it up to twelve, then put the last one into intelligence.

She then read her new stats. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler; Level: two. Abilities: STR: twenty-one; PER: fifteen; END: eighteen; INT: eighteen; AGI: twenty; CHR: twenty-one; LCK: twelve; WIS: twelve; SOL: five. Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred-five kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. HP: one-hundred ninety-eight; STM: one-thousand eight-hundred thirty-six; MN: seven-thousand eight-hundred three; EXP: zero/one-thousand one-hundred.

‘Grimoire: wood? That’s weird. I’ll have to ask the priest about it,’ she thought as she looked at her stats. She noticed a new arrow above her stats, and she mentally swiped down on the window revealing the activity log. At the bottom of the screen were three new stats and numbers. STM recharge: four per second; MN recharge: twenty-five per second; Grimoire level progression: zero of one-hundred percent. ‘The Grimoire progression bar must be connected to the Grimoire: wood, stat,’ she thought as she closed the window.

When she did, she noticed she now had a mini-map at the bottom right of her vision and a compose at the top; she was facing east evidently. She then looked back at her Grimoire and opened it. The first page had words on it that weren’t there before. Select Class; Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast Master, warrior.

Ford thought it was odd and flipped the page, but the rest were blank. She then flipped back to the first page. She then mentally thought, warrior, and the page turned, revealing more text.

Choose sub-class; CQB, Paladin, Knight. Ford chose Knight, the page turned again, and there was a list of skills and spells. She started flipping through the pages, not caring about the skills, and it just kept going. A never-ending list of abilities in alphabetical order.

‘This would be fun to look through if it were a skill tree instead of a never-ending list,’ as soon as she thought that the Grimoire closed and re-opened to the third page. At the top of the page was the word, Knights, and two options below it; soldier, commander. Ford chose soldier, and three more options popped up; spear, sword, claymore. Below those were the descriptions of the skills. Sword skill: learn how to wield a sword; level: zero of five. The other two skills were the same.

‘Much better,’ Ford thought now that she had figured it out. Before she could start looking through the rest of the classes, a new portal appeared, startling her. She looked up and saw Lilly walk through the portal; she wore the same ensemble as yesterday.

Ford set her Grimoire down and didn’t notice it disappear as she waved at Lilly, “Hey, sup stranger.”

Lilly rolled her eyes and returned the greeting, “Hey, wha’ brings ye to these parts?”

“Got a fancy-ass book that nobody knew about and was sent here,” Ford said.

Lilly looked at her quizzically and sat next to her, “Did it look like this?” she asked as she pulled out her Grimoire. It was the same as Ford’s Grimoire.

“That’s strange,” Ford said, looking at the Grimoire, “Why do you think we got these Grimoires?” Lilly didn’t answer as she stared off into space screens flickering across her eyes.

After about two minutes the screens in her eyes disappeared, and she rubbed her temples, “Tha’ was one hell of a head pundin’.”

“You alright?” Ford asked, concerned.

Lilly nodded, “Yeah, I just got access to the Yggdras system, and the headache is gone now.”

“Well, that’s good. Want to hear what I found out about our Grimoires?” Ford asked excitedly.

“Ye discovered somethin’, well, cheers and celebration for ye.”

Ford stared at Lilly blankly, “One, sarcasm doesn’t suit you. Two, this is critical information that just might save your life.”

Lilly sighed, “Fine, fine. Wha’ did ye discover?”

Ford leaned in close and said, “It gives us access to all the classes.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow, “Tha’ is impossible. Now I have to assign my abili’y points and go through the no’ifications I have.”

“Fine, don’t believe me. I’ll just be chilling here an absolute wealth of knowledge.”

Lilly scoffed, “Says the person who probably has,” she stopped for a minute as she stared off into space again and assigned points, “a base-ten intellect and an eigh’ for wisdom.”

“Before you say something, you will regret,” Ford said sharply, “I have a base-eighteen intellect and twelve wisdom, not to mention a twenty-one strength. So why don’t you try apologizing for your superiority complex.”

Lilly looked down and said, “Sorry, I guess I got carried away.”

“Thank you, and you do have access to all the classes, by the way.”

“Okay,” Lilly said quizzically, “supposin’ tha’ is true. Is tha’ why I have twen’y abili’y points?”

Ford sat up a little startled, “I thought I was the only one to get that,” she said, primarily to herself.

“I guess not,” Lilly said with a shrug. Then another portal opened up and was twice the size of the other two that had brought Ford and Lilly here. After a minute, a Giant wearing a brown toga and no shoes stepped through. Ford assumed the giant was a he, was three meters tall with broad shoulders and evident thick muscles. His skin was grey, with blue veins snaking across his body and a bold head. His face looked like someone chiseled it out of stone, and his eyes were the gentle blue of the sky.

The Giant fixed his gaze upon Ford and Lilly; to Ford’s surprise, the giant's grey skin got paler, and he dropped to the floor, trying to hide behind the podium. Sadly it was too small to conceal his massive frame. Meanwhile, Lilly succeeded in hiding behind Ford by pulling herself behind Ford.

“Let me guess,” Ford said as she looked at Lilly, “You tried to move me, but I moved you.” Lilly nodded, still hiding behind Ford. They both jumped as the big giant groaned and rocked on the floor, “He must have gotten his system installed. Let's meet him.”

Lilly grabbed the back of Ford’s waistcoat and got dragged along as she walked to the podium. Lilly mumbled, “No, no, no, no.”

Ford peered around the podium to get a better look at the Giant. He scurried around the podium to keep it between them as soon as she did. ‘Must be scared,’ Ford thought as she knelt and spoke calmly, “Hey, it’s okay, we’re friendly.”

The Giant slowly peered around the podium with one eye at Ford and spoke in a deep voice, “You friend? I don’t know you.”

“Well, I’m a friend you haven’t made yet,” Ford chirped and gestured to Lilly, “This is Lilly Sucrose, and my name is Ford. What’s your name?”

The Giant didn’t respond for a moment as he thought, “I am- I am Gimble of Snowmen tribe.”

Ford gave him a big, pleasant smile, “Nice to meet you, Gimble,” Ford said as she stood and held out a hand for Gimble to shake. She didn’t get any closer to him, forcing Gimble to get out from behind the podium. After a moment of hesitation, he finally stood and towered over Ford and Lilly and reached out his hand, which engulfed half of Ford's arm as he gently shook it. His skin was ice cold to the touch.

He then extended a hand to Lilly, still hiding behind Ford. Ford then reached behind and grabbed Lilly by the collar and placed her in front of Gimble. Lilly started to tremble as she extended a shaky hand. Gimble shook the proffered hand just as gently as he did with Ford.

“Come join us on the bench, Gimble,” Ford said, waving for him to follow.

“OKAY,” Gimble yelled joyfully and walked with her.

Ford winced as the sound reverberated around the church, “Please don’t talk so loud.”

Gimble looked down and said, “Sorry.”

Ford put a comforting hand on his forearm, “It’s okay. You were just excited,” she said as she sat down on the bench closely followed by Lilly, who sat on Ford’s left, and Gimble sat next to her on the end of the bench. The bench groaned under his mass, making Ford worry about it breaking.

Lilly squished up against Ford and tried to stay as far from the giant as possible. Ford was distracted by Lilly and her surprisingly lithe body for a moment. She shook herself and asked Lilly in a mumble, “So why are you afraid of a gentle giant like Gimble?”

“Isn’ it obvious,” Lilly countered, “he is terrifyin’.”

Ford leaned forward and looked at Gimble's chiseled face as he tapped his index fingers together, “I don’t see it,” Ford said at last.

Lilly was about to argue her case when another portal opened. This one was smaller than the other three, and a Halfling walked through. He was maybe one meter tall with a green waistcoat, brown pants, shirt, and a matching brown bowler hat. He looked half-human and half-elf, judging from the stubble on his face and pointy ears. At least that’s what Ford assumed.

The Halfling locked eyes with Ford and Lilly and spoke quickly, “Good morning,” he said in a joy-filled voice, “What brings you two lovely ladies here?”

“Magic book,” Ford said, then asked, “Who might you be?”

The Halfling approached and took off his hat with a flourish and bowed, “The name is Benet Benten, a pleasure to meet you.”

Ford stood and mimicked him with her hat, “I’m Ford, and this is Lilly Sucrose and Gimble of the Snowmen tribe,” she gestured to each of them. Lilly waved hello at Benet, and Gimble was trying to read his Grimoire and was struggling.

“Oh, I see, he has the same Grimoire as me. I’m going to assume you two ladies have the same as well. Yes?” Benet held out his hand, and the Grimoire appeared in a puff of white flames.

Ford looked at the Grimoire and said, “Yes, we have the same Grimoire. How did you do that?”

Lilly cut in, “It’s how the Grimoire is stored. The Grimoire disappears when ye aren’ usin’ it, and ye can summon it back with a though’.”

Ford turned around and looked at where she had set her Grimoire, only to see it was gone. She then thought of the Grimoire floating in front of her, and it appeared in a puff of white flame. “Whoa,” she said as it just hung there. Then fell to the floor and disappeared again. “That is a cool thing that I didn’t know.”

“I can teach you more cool things in private if you got time,” Bennet said as he got uncomfortably close. Then while Benet was in mid-step, the Yggdress system started to load into his head, and he tripped and fell on his face. He stood rubbing his temples a moment later and had blood dripping from his nose.

“So that you know your pickup routine doesn’t work on me,” Ford said, then added in a menacing tone, “if you try it again, I will be taking off your nose. Got it?” Benet nodded hastily then turned to Lilly but was quickly stopped by the look of rage on Ford’s face.

As if to break the tension, another portal opens up, and a Dwarf emerges. He stood at about a meter and a quarter tall with ashen hair and a long-braided beard reaching his belt. Unlike most of the other Dwarves she had seen, he didn’t have a keg for a belly, but instead, he was built like a bodybuilder. He wore heavy leather boots and a tunic that was no more than a couple of cloth straps tucked under a belt.

He looked upon the four of us with his chin held high and said one word in a rumbling voice, “Elf.”

Lilly leaned back and returned the statement, “Dwarf.”

Not wanting to have an argument breakout, Ford stepped in and started pointing, “Human, Halfling, Giant. Great, we know our races,” she then stood and approached the Dwarf, “Hi, I’m Ford. Nice to meet you,” she then turned and pointed to the others, “that is Lilly Sucrose, Gimble of the Snowmen tribe, and Benet Benten. Now, who might you be?”

“My name is Morgan Stormfall, the fifth,” He held out a muscled and scarred hand.

Ford took it and shook his hand, “Nice to meet you, Morgan.”

“Nice to meet you all as well, except for the Elf,” Morgan spat.

Lilly stood in anger, and before she could retaliate, Ford stepped between them and said, “HEY, HEY, hey. Let’s not start this. I’m going to take a wild stab and say Dwarves and Elves don’t like each other. But I have a feeling that we are going to be together for a long time, so whatever grievances you have with each other, you will have to bury and get over it.”

Lilly got her quizzical look again and asked, “Wha’ makes ye think we will be together for a long time?”

As Morgan zoned out, Ford looked right in her eyes, “let me guess. You are level two and have a quest called ‘don’t kill me,’ with the description of ‘follow the scary lady,’ and a reward of information.”

Lilly blinked and zoned out as she looked at her quest log. She blinked again and said, “How did you-”

“Because I have the same quest,” Ford cut her off.

Then there was a loud bang as Gimble threw his Grimoire down on the ground, making everyone jump halfway out their skins. He started to rub his bald head and said, “Reading hard.”

“Okay,” Ford said as she got her heart rate back under control, “Gimble, open your stats screen and put points into INT. Okay?”

“Don’t know how?” Gimble admitted.

“How can you-” Lilly started, but Ford cut her off.

“Focus on the circle in the top left of your vision,” Ford explained calmly.

Gimble zoned out, and he started to mumble to himself as he searched for the intelligence stat. Once he did, a big dumb smile spread across his face as he said, “I did it! INT higher,” he began to clap for himself.

Morgan started to rub his temples, “Shurma’s beard. That was painful.”

“True, we’ve all been there,” Lilly said. Before Ford could comment on the agreement, a portal opened up behind her, making her jump forward.

A woman walked through, two meters tall with ebony skin and wore no clothes. Instead, she had pink scales across her body, creating a diamond shape around her navel and covering her breasts and shoulders, then wrapped around and down to her clawed hands. Her entire lower half was a bipedal reptilian with five-clawed talons for feet. Her hair was a collection of slicked-back horns that never moved, and her eyes were black with shining pink irises upon her otherwise beautiful face.

She looked down on everyone in front of her and wrinkled her nose, “You all wreak,” her voice was surprisingly high, despite her intimidating features. It reminded Ford of one of her bosses in her past life.

Ford gathered herself and started introductions, “Well, sorry about that. I didn’t have access to a shower before the ceremony. Anyways, I’m Ford, that’s Lilly Sucrose, Gimble of the Snowmen tribe, Benet Benten, and Morgan Stormfall, the fifth. Who might you be?”

She looked down her nose at Ford as she said, “I am Farah Bloodtooth,” she walked forward and put her face right up to mine, “I strongly suggest you address me with respe-”

Farah was cut off suddenly when Ford struck her in the throat with two fingers; she immediately collapsed, coughing as the Yggdress system began its download. Ford grabbed one of her horns and yanked Farah up by it when it finished.

Ford then brought Farah back to her face and said, “I would like to be friendly, but I hate it when people try to intimidate me. When I let go of your horn, you and I will be on equal ground with everyone else. Got it?” Farah snarled, revealing fangs, then she nodded, and Ford let go of her horn, “Good, I’ve always wanted to meet a… I assume you’re a Drake,” Ford asked.

Again, Farah nodded, then she went and sat on the bench with everyone else and as far from everyone as possible. At some point, Morgan had sat on the bench as well next to Benet, who was uncomfortably close to Lilly, who was torn between being too close to the perverted Halfling and letting herself get elbowed in the face by Gimble, who was still clapping.

‘Quite the team we have here, and we haven’t even decided on who will lead through the quests, but we’ll decide that once the seventh of our team gets here, whenever that may be. Might as well waste time now and look at the skills and abilities and shit,’ Ford thought then sat down in front of the podium. Lilly took the opportunity to join her when Gimble stopped clapping a few seconds later.

“You going to look at all the potential skills and abilities?” Ford asked as Lilly sat next to her.

Lilly contemplated it for a minute and pulled out her Grimoire to take a look and confirm that what Ford said was true. As a stream of whispered expletives flowed from Lilly’s mouth, Ford pulled out her Grimoire and looked through it. Then she thought, ‘Could I view my Grimoire through the Yggdras system instead of a magic book?’

She concentrated on the Yggdras system cog, which brought her to the status screen. She swiped as far left as possible, only revealing her clothing and inventory. Then she swiped right as far as possible, and a new screen came up beyond the quest screen that had the word Grimoire at its top. ‘I am the greatest!’ she thought as she began to go through the Grimoire.

Twenty-two skill points are available. Select Class; Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast Master, Warrior. Warrior selected. Select class; CQB, Paladin, Knight. Knight selected. Select route; soldier, commander. Soldier selected. Skills: spear, sword, claymore. Ford put one skill point in each skill and then went back to the commander route to look at the skills.

Commander selected. Skill: empower; grants a fifty percent increase to strength and speed to all party members; cost: one-hundred mana; level: zero of five.

Skill: command: for thirty seconds, give an enemy any order short of suicide; cost: two-hundred mana; level: zero of five.

Skill: comms; passive ability; communicate with anybody in your party within one kilometer; level: zero of five. Ford put a skill point into the comms skill.

She then went back to CQB. CQB selected. Select route; agent, DPS. DPS selected. Skill: knife combat: learn how to wield a knife; level: zero of five.

Skill: hand-to-hand combat: learn how to fight hand to hand; level: zero of five.

Skill: anatomy: passive ability; find the weak spot in any opponent; level: zero of five. Ford put a point into knife combat.

She then went back to the main selection screen and selected mage. Mage selected. Select mage class: Healer, Priest, Necromancer, light, dark, Space, Time, Creation, Destruction, possessor, Illusionist. Possessor selected. Skill: crystal core: craft cores out of monster cores; requirement: INT: fifteen; craft time: ten hours; cost: ten mana per second; level: zero of five.

Skill: weapon possession: enchant a weapon with your mana and control it from a distance of fifty meters. Enchantment is permanent and only has to be cast once per weapon; it can only enchant one weapon at a time; requirement: INT: fifteen; enchantment time: thirty minutes; enchantment cost: five-hundred mana; weapon control cost: ten mana per second; level: zero of five.

Skill: mechanized servant: summon a mechanized servant to fight for you; requirement; crystal core skill, weapon possession, INT: twenty; summon cost: X equals S times SOL squared; function cost: two-hundred mana per second; level: zero of five.

Ford put a mental bookmark on, ‘mechanized servant,’ and put five skill points into crystal core and weapon possession. The skills changed and now read differently. Skill: crystal core: craft cores out of any gem or monster core; requirements: INT: thirty; craft time: ten minutes; cost: thirty mana per second; level: five of five.

Skill: weapon possession: enchant a weapon with your mana and control it from a distance of five hundred meters. Enchantment is permanent and only has to be cast once per weapon; it can enchant five claymores at a time or twenty swords or fifty daggers/knives or ten spears or one object of significant mass; can only enchant one class of weapon at a time; requirement: INT: thirty; enchantment time; five seconds; enchantment cost: five-hundred mana per weapon; weapon control cost; ten mana per second per weapon; level: five of five. Lower-level casting still applies.

Ford then closed the window, deciding to talk to everyone else before placing the remaining seven skill points. She blinked, feeling her eyes dry out and putting moister back into them. She looked around, and everyone looked through their Grimoires amazement across their faces. Except for Farah, because she wasn’t reading, and Gimble, who was more quizzical as he struggled through the reading.

Ford looked at Lilly, who was almost drooling over the book as she looked through the Mage skills in alphabetical order. “You know,” Ford said to her, “there is an easier way to look through that.”

“I’m fine,” Lilly’s voice had a slight lilt to it as though she was in a trance reading it.

Ford closed the book and said, “Okay, that’s enough reading for you.”

“OI,” Lilly complained weakly, “I was readin’ tha’.”

“Well, now you’re not. How long have we been here?” Ford asked as she looked down at the time. It was eight forty in the morning. ‘We’ve been here a while. Is the seventh member going to arrive? Did the priests forget about us?’ Ford thought as she stood and stretched.

She walked over to the rest of the group and sat down in front of them, crossing he legs and looking at each of them. Then asked, “So… what is everyone's story?”

Farah glowered at her, “Why in the hell should I even consider-”

Benet immediately cut off Farah, “Well, I come from a small village on my homeworld, Sholt. Come from a wealthy and influential family and am an excellent thief. I’ve completed many a heist in my day.”

“Benet,” Ford said flatly, “stealing someone’s heart doesn’t make you a thief. Not that I believe you can.”

“Aha, but just you wait,” he countered as he knelt in front of Ford, “for you are my next heist.”

Ford rolled her eyes, “Yeah, good luck with that. Anybody else?” Ford saw Gimble slowly raise his hand to share, “Go for it, Gimble.”

Excitement spread across his face as he collected his thoughts, then spoke slowly, so he didn’t mess up, “I am Gimble. I am a Snow Giant. Lived on top of a mountain for many years. Got strong that way.”

“I don’t dought your strong Gimble. What’s your strength stat? If you don’t mind me asking,” Ford asked.

“Uhhhh,” Gimble said as his brow furrowed and looked at his stat screen, then he closed it with a look of defeat on his face, “I don’t know numbers,” he said with a look of shame on his face.

Ford raised her hands and gave him a reassuring air pat, “It’s okay, buddy. I’ll teach you your numbers later. I promise,” she said. A big smile spread across Gimble's face, which made Ford smile. She then turned to everyone else, “Who’s next?”

Morgan closed his Grimoire and sighed, “I guess I’ll go next,” He straightened and said, “I am from a long, proud line of blacksmiths and possessor experts, and I’d like to get back to them so I may start my apprenticeship. I’d be there now if not for the damnable priests weren’t taking so long.”

“There are around five to six million people they have to give Grimoires to,” Lilly said, “It’s goin’ to take some time.”

“I know this, Elf,” Morgan spat.

Ford asked a quick question before Lilly could respond, and an argument could break out, “So, you’re from a long line of Possessers. Do you know what the mechanical servent thing is? Specifically, the mana requirement.”

Morgan turned to her and said, “Yes, it is. X equals S times your soul squared. Then the function cost is two-hundred mana pre second.”

“Right, but what does that mean?”

Morgan cleared his throat and continued, “The mass of the construct you make is equivalent to the amount of mana you can have. So if you want to have a construct the size of a human, for example, you’ll need a minimum of thirty thousand mana if my guess is correct.”

Ford nodded and said, “So the mana requirement is E equals MC squared thereabouts.”

“Correct, but even sustaining it will be a lot of mana.”

“Good to know,” Ford said thoughtfully, “Alright, before I get lost in thought about making a giant mech war machine. Who wants to go next?”

Ford settled her gaze on Farah. She ignored them, then Lilly spoke, “I am Lilly, the twen’ieth daugh’er in my family.”

Ford slowly gaped at her in amazement, “T-twentieth?! I thought Elves were less fertile than the other races and couldn’t multiply like bunnies?”

“Please don’ start,” Lilly groaned, “although it is true. By the time an Elf woman reaches thir’y, she is entirely infer’ile. The same goes for men. So abou’ two hundred years ago, when our longevi’y almos’ wiped us out, a law was passed. When we get a Grimoire, we must find a mate and reproduce, or try to, till we are thir’y.”

“I’ll be happy to be your mate,” Benet jumped in.

“I’d rather do a rock,” Lilly countered.

Ford laughed at Benet as he slumped and looked downcast. After a minute of laughter, she turned to Farah again and asked, “Anybody else? Maybe a certain Drake would like to share?”

Farah didn’t look her way and sighed, “I am the crowned princess of the copper flame empire.”

“Oh, so your royalty,” Ford said, unfazed by the confession.

“Yes, I’m royalty. Or I would be if I could have my memories.”

“Your memories? What do you mean?” Ford asked.

Farah rolled her eyes and locked gazes with Ford, “Do I have to spell it out for you?”

“Yes,” Ford responded, nodding.

Farah sighed again, “Very well, Drakes have genetic memory. When one hatches such as myself, we receive all our past lives memories when we receive our Grimoires and make our soul. I still haven’t gotten my soul to form, which is the hard part, and I didn’t get a proper Grimoire either.”

“Well, I can’t help with the Grimoire, but I know how to form a soul,” Ford said.

Farah’s eyes widened, “You formed a soul without any instruction?” everyone’s eyes locked on Ford, except for Gimble, who was looking at the stained windows around the church.

Ford hesitated to answer for a moment, then said, “Well, yes and no. I formed a soul with a little instruction, but I couldn’t connect it to the world or whatnot.”

Farah scoffed and said, “That’s the easy part. If you truly made a soul, then it should be simple to do.”

Ford looked at her with contempt, “Well, if you’re such a master, how do I connect to the world?” she asked.

“Simple, just push your soul out of your body and hold it there.”

“Fine then,” Ford said, taking a deep breath, “I’ll just prove that I have a soul.” Farah scoffed as Ford dropped into her meditative trance.

***

Ford was able to find her soul almost instantly. It was right where she left it, a small ball of light in the center of her chest, with water, fire, earth, and light essence. ‘So I just have to push it out of my body and hold it there. I can do that. I can do that. Can I do that?’ Ford thought, to herself, as she looked at the orb, ‘Okay, how do I do that?’ She then tried to push the ball with a mental hand, and it didn’t budge. It felt insanely heavy and dense, most likely from how she formed it. She thought back to what Farah said and thought, ‘She never did specify how much of my soul I have to put out and hold there.’

Ford then came up with a new plan and pulled off a tiny spec of her soul no bigger than the tip of her index finger, but it still felt like she was holding a sack of rocks. She then imagined the borders of her body and brought the spec outside that border, and held it there. She felt the spec start to dissipate and willed it to stay together. It did; to her surprise, it stayed. Then a moment later, the spec grew and grew, eventually covering her entire body, and there her soul sat as an aura around her.

She could feel faint presences around her, not enough to tell who they were or how many, although she could guess they were the others in the church. ‘I did it,’ she thought, ‘I connected to the world. If only a little, but I did it. Ha, in your face Farah,’ she slowly left the center of her soul and back to the real world, feeling more refreshed than ever.

When she opened her eyes, everyone was staring at her, aw struck and jaws hanging loose, and Farah’s jaw looked to be dislocated. Ford stood, walked over to her, and closed Farah's jaw for her, “There, wouldn’t want a rat, like Benet, to crawl down your throat.”

“How-” Lilly started, then she cut herself off and continued, “How did ye do tha’, and why do you have six essences?”

“Six?” Ford asked, startled, “I thought I only had four.”

Lilly shook her head, “It’s hard to tell unless ye know wha’ ye’re lookin’ for, especially with essences. But there were spots of black, and I could feel the air from the air essence. You have six essences.”

Ford scratched the back of her head and decided to tell them everything since it’s pretty hard to hide an impossibility like having six essences. “Well, I guess it’s my turn to tell my story. I-” the rest of what she was about to say was cut off when a portal opened up, and two priests walked through. One was the old man from when she was being given her Grimoire. The other looked like a short, plump elf wearing white robes with gold outlines.

‘Please don’t be the same Half-ling Elf I saw on the street yesterday,’ Ford thought as the short Halfling priest looked at her. He spoke in a high-pitched and gruff voice, “I think you look weird too.”

‘SHIT!!!!’ She thought, then said, “Yeah, sorry about that. I’m new around here.”

“Yeah, I could tell,” the Halfling priest said, “but let bygones be bygones. We still have a job to do, and that is to get you propper Grimoires.”

“But these are propper Grimoires,” Ford countered.

“No, they aren’t,” the old priest said stubbornly, “They are defective Grimoires and are there for worthless. Now, if you will follow me,” the old man turned his robes fluttering, revealing what was under them.

To Ford’s surprise, she didn’t see any old man parts, but instead, she saw pure darkness that could only be seen in a black hole. ‘What the-,’ before she could finish the thought, the darkness exploded into a ball of spikes that impaled the priest and ripped him limb from limb. Blood sprayed everywhere as it quickly drained from his body.

Lilly screamed bloody murder at the scene before her, and the Halfling jumped back, instantly making a spear of pure light. When he landed, a dark figure rose from the darkness behind him. He slowly turned, fear spread across his face as the figure forged a large scythe out of the darkness and cleaved him in two down the middle of his body.

The dark figure stepped over the priest's body and clenched its fist, making the ball of spikes dissipate along with its scythe. The figure stood in the middle of the group and looked at the stunned and fearful faces around it.

Then it snapped its fingers, and the shadow around the figure disappeared, revealing a woman with jet black hair, ruby-red eyes, and fair skin; she was beautiful in an intimidating way. She wore a black cloak and robes, and she had no weapons that Ford could see and was about the same height as Ford. She locked eyes with each of them again and spoke in a very unenthusiastic tone, “Alright, you’re all here. Let’s go,” then turned to leave behind the podium.

“Wait, wait, wait, who are you?” Ford asked.

She turned and locked eyes with Ford, “The scary lady. But everyone calls me Ee.”