Suara was ushered to a narrow stairway that spiralled down beneath the podium. Each echoing step increased her dread. They came to an incredible circular room with shining white walls. She leaned over the polished wooden bannister to the level below, where an enormous statue of a unicorn reared up with life-like grace.

One of the walls was open to the outside. The back of the hill, she supposed. It was too bright for her to see out, but sunlight reflecting in the pool around the unicorn’s rear legs gave the impression that it was leaping out of a heavenly body of shimmering light.

“Cole!” the priestess shouted down. “We have a new acolyte! Prepare the cards while I take her to the Leap of Faith.”

“Right away Lady Ayoe!” replied a young voice from below.

Cards. Suara stopped trying to tug her arm free. “I get cards?”

“Of course. Unlike that avaricious Adventurer’s Guild, we actually take care of our members. You get your acolyte’s clothes, a ring, and four cards for your deck just for joining.”

“Oh!” Suara wanted to clap her hands together but she was still being held. Maybe this was a good decision after all. Even if it was being made for her. Xander made it sound like she could join all of them eventually anyway.

Priestess Ayoe pulled her to a platform overlooking the unicorn where the bannister was conspicuously absent. The horn was longer than she was tall, and swirled with all the colours of the rainbow. “This is the ceremonial mantle you’ll wear to catch the blood.” Ayoe said cheerfully. She wore a wide smile as she held up a white cloak with miniature phases of the moon sewn around the hem in red. The moons gleamed with reflected light.

“Um, what?” Suara wanted to back away from the priestess, but there was a drop behind her.

The woman let out an eerily animated giggle. “Oh, there’s no pain. It looks much worse than it is.”

She tied the mantle around Suara’s shoulders. It was flowy and Suara found herself really loving the look of it on her. It only went down to her waist, so if she found a cute outfit the mantle wouldn’t hide all of it.

“Now pay close attention, or the ceremony will fail. You must hold your left hand over your heart, and keep it there to matter what. No. Matter. What. You don’t want to do it twice, do you?” She pulled Suara’s Gloved hand over her chest and pressed on it. “Don’t move it!”

Ayoe spun around to face a small stand against the wall. After a few metallic clinks she faced Suara again, brandishing a little mace-like thing.

“What is that?” she asked.

Ayoe swung the ball-on-a-stick at her and something splashed across her face.

“Ow! Oh, is that water?”

“This is an aspergillum. It dispenses holy water. Please remain silent.” The priestess was the image of serenity as she splashed water over Suara’s chest and shoulders next. Then she gently placed the aspergillum down and took hold of Suara by the shoulders. She spoke in a calming cadence. “Lay thy heart bare through the brittle barrier of thy chest cavity torn, and accept the burning fury of the divine Unicorn’s brilliant horn!”

Suara’s heart sank.

The priestess shoved her backward over the edge. “Keep your hand in place!” She called, as she watched Suara fall helplessly onto the unicorn’s horn.

It punctured her chest, piercing her heart and hand, the tip protruding from the centre of her Deck Glove. The burning pain made her vision blur and her head spin as she sank deeper onto the horn.

“Ow, you lied!” she screamed. She realised the pain was subsiding, but she was still dizzy. The unicorn statue lowered its head. She watched Ayoe rise above her with a satisfied smile. “You liar!” Suara shouted, before the statue planted its front legs with a reverberating crash in the water below. She began to slide painfully from the horn as it angled downwards.

Suara landed on the ground face-first with her hand pinned beneath her. Light traced a ring around her, and she was enveloped in a cone of sublime warmth. She pushed herself to her feet. There was no wound in her chest or hand, though droplets of blood had stained the ceremonial mantle. The flowery pattern on her deck glove had been replaced by an image of the horn over a waxing crescent moon.

She looked up at the sound of hooves. Shallow water stretched out endlessly in every direction, reflecting a pale blue sky. The Unicorn stepped gingerly on the water towards her, the ripples of its hooves singing as they rolled by her legs.

“Stay back!” she warned with her hands up.

“Fear me not, child.” The Unicorn raised its head and a halo of light trailed behind the horn as if it guided the sun in the sky. “I come before you only to welcome you. You will see that such miniscule pain is naught to pay for the power to purge suffering from the world. Do not fail me child, I have high expectations for one such as you.”

“O-okay!” she answered shakily.

The Unicorn reared up and the halo expanded to consume the sky. She emerged under the statue in the cathedral. She checked herself again, but there was still no wound.

“Wonderful!” Ayoe beamed. “I told you it was easy.”

“You’re a liar!” she crossed her arms.

The priestess giggled. “Now, now, no need for harsh words. Look.” She swung her arm out to indicate an acolyte boy holding a wooden box full of cards. It had two dividers to separate them.

Suara’s eyes widened with desire. “Are those mine?!”

“Of course not,” Ayoe said. She reached into the two smaller sections and pulled cards from each of them. “These are yours. You don’t exactly need a whole box of them.”

Suara accepted them eagerly.

“Cards befitting an acolyte of the Church of the Unicorn.” She smiled warmly.

Suara checked her chest for holes again. Her eyes narrowed at the priestess. “What do I do now?”

Ayoe gestured towards the box. “There are a few styles of acolytes clothes. Pick whichever you fancy so I can begin to make use of you.”

Suara clapped her hands together and leaned over the box. The item cards had pictures of the clothes on them, but there were no stats or bonuses. She dug through them until she found a nice pair of knee-high boots she could fold down at the top. They appeared on her feet when she waved the item at her character sheet.

As she flipped through the cards again and something caught her eye that nearly made her pop out of her rags. A yellow dress with an underbust corset and puffy shoulders. She didn’t like yellow, but after flipping through three more times she didn’t find another one. She settled for yellow and stuck it in her character sheet. It appeared on her with a flourish. It was difficult to see the front with her cleavage in the way, so she made a mental note to ask Aurea the Innkeeper for a mirror. And to kill Xander when she caught him staring. She twirled a little, and appreciated that she could use the ceremonial mantle if she wanted to be more modest.

“Just need some leggings or something now,” Cole said. His arms were beginning to shake from holding up the box for so long. “Stockings… socks, bloomers…”

Suara picked a pair of white leggings that matched her mantle and the corset of her dress. Except for the yellow, she was pretty sure she liked her outfit now. Finally real clothes! The rags hadn’t been added to her inventory, they occupied a clothing slot for ‘unclothed’ outfits.

Weird.

“Bye!” she said, and turned towards the open back of the lower cathedral.

Ayoe stuck out an arm to catch her. “Not so fast, Suara Kurisol, my dear, you have to receive your quest. And you don’t get to keep that ceremonial mantle. It’s not even a proper item, it's merely a prop you wear for the ceremony!”

“What!” Her shoulders sagged with disappointment.

The priestess held out her hand expectantly. She wore a firm look that told Suara there was no arguing.

So Suara decided not to argue. “No! I’m keeping it. It’s covered in my blood and everything, so it’s mine now.”

Priestess Ayoe began to lose her elegant composure. “Child… this is not a choice you can make. Give the mantle back, or you can’t receive your quest.”

“What are you gonna go? Throw me on the horn again?” she pouted.

Ayoe growled with frustration. “I’ll strangle you you little—” her words cut into a pained gurgle.

Burning pain shot through Suara as well, and she looked down to see they were both impaled on the statue’s enormous horn. It lifted them into the air, and Ayoe slid down the horn into Suara. They were swallowed by blinding light.

When Suara recognized the pale blue sky of the Unicorn’s realm she shoved Ayoe’s neck off her face and looked around. They stood together in the presence of the Unicorn. The priestess dropped to her knees.

“Your holiness,” Ayoe whimpered.

“I am disappointed in both of you.” Its deep voice rumbled. “Such a childish display.” It shook its head, causing the sun-like halo behind its horn to streak across the sky. “Keep the mantle if you like it so much, it means nothing. But you must heed the teachings of your superiors. I will not always be able to appear before you to break up your petty bickering, but you will fear me when I do.”

“Thanks, Unicorn,” Suara said. She shut her eyes and tried a bow. When she raised her head, she was looking at the motionless statue, reared up with its horn poised for impalation just like normal.

Still feeling pained, she checked her chest for holes again. There was a gaping wound where the horn had pierced her. She had only one hit point remaining. “Ow, my dress!” A warning from the Unicorn, she supposed.

Cole had gone, so she stood alone under the statue with Ayoe. The Priestess was also wounded.

“The Unicorn is closely tied to the moon,” Ayoe explained with a sigh, holding her hands over her bloody hole. “In two days, the Temple of the First Quarter will open. It is normally a safe place, unless you are beset by bandits… but the last acolyte we sent to tidy the temple did not return before the temple was sealed for the month. All you need to do is check for any signs of their whereabouts when it opens, and return quickly to report what you found, even if it is nothing.”

“Oh, exciting.” Suara said. “It’s not a dungeon, is it?”

“It’s a temple, child, pay attention.”

She shrugged. Was there a difference she was supposed to know? “I’ll do it,” she said.

[)]

~QUEST ACCEPTED~

-The Secrets of the Temple-

Task

Investigate the Temple of the First Quarter

Reward

200 EXP / ??? Card

Location

Temple of the First Quarter

Suara headed back to the Winged Rabbit with a smile so wide it made her cheeks sore. She had two days, and she intended to use that time to prepare.