The old newcomers had been put in one spot near the back of the main hall. They looked relieved but subdued, taking everything in the vicinity in without really registering any of it, their faces blank and unwilling to take more in. The looks of the preoccupied. Or the distraught.

It was only when Rory reached them that they finally focused.

“Nice place you’ve got here,” the young man offered with a smile.

Rory remembered him well, trying to hold his father back. His dad was leaning against the wall near him, wearing an expressionless mask that looked like he had forced it on himself.

“Thanks,” Rory said. “We did our best to make it habitable. I never caught your name, though…”

“I’m Sid.” He clapped his father on the back, earning a low glare. “This is my dad, Raj. Say hi, dad. It won’t hurt you.”

Raj looked like he wanted to cuff his son, but he softened under Sid’s pointed look and turned to Rory. “I’m grateful for the help.”

“See, that wasn’t so bad, right?”

“That’s enough patronizing for one day, boy.”

Sid only grinned, completely unchagrined.

“It’s alright,” Rory said. “I’m just happy you’re all safe. But, just to set things straight, we won’t be able to spare any vehicles to take you to Mirrorend.”

Raj took a moment to contemplate that. “I understand. I’ll need… some time, but I get it.”

“Thank you.” Rory looked at the older couple. “That goes for you as well.”

They didn’t answer, and he took that as their form of assent. It was good enough.

“It’s better this way,” Sid said. “Didn’t you say there was going to be a war in Mirrorend?”

Rory nodded. “That’s what I’ve been hearing. The Otherworlders should have finished setting up their base in Dwellmont by now. Last I checked, they were waiting for the seventh day of the apocalypse to begin the war, though I’m not sure why it has to be exactly seven days of preparation first.”

“It is strange to enforce a ceasefire.

“Right. Unless it’s some sort of enforced tactic to level the playing field…”

“What? Who’d be doing this enforcing?”

Rory realized he hadn’t ever told them about the Plane Rulers. Well, in all fairness, he’d never had time for a proper talk with them since they’d been so adamant about heading off to Mirrorend. Now was a good time, however, while the others prepared.

He summarized what he had learned over the course of the last few days, explaining how the Plane Rulers used Homeworlders and Otherworlders as proxy warriors to settle their war. Their powers would devastate any world they decided to compete over, so instead of acting directly, they supported different sides in the conflict and settled their dispute via their intermediaries.

“That’s nuts,” Sid said. His stupefied expression mirrored that of everyone else’s in the vicinity. Even the old couple looked as much awed as confused.

“How d’you even figure all that out?” the old man asked.

“Uh…” Rory wasn’t sure he wanted to reveal that his source of information was a talking donkey. “You learn things as you go on. Anyway, what exactly happened to you all?”

Sid told their tale from when they’d left the police station. “A bunch of weird monster gorillas ambushed us later that day. We had to abandon the car, and since we had nowhere to go, we had to hide in one of the nearby buildings.” His face fell. “I won’t lie, I felt awful just then. Abandoning you guys only to be attacked and forced to hide again. It sucked.”

“We’d have made it through,” the old man insisted. “You just needed to tough it out.”

“Shut it,” Raj said with vehemence. “Don’t interrupt while he’s talking.”

The old man was shocked into silence. Even Sid looked a little frightened.

Rory cleared his throat. “And what happened then?”

“We tried to move again after a while,” Sid said. “We thought we’d waited long enough. The monsters had to have left us alone. So, we ran.” He grimaced. “We were wrong. There were these strange plant creatures following us, and Alves had set fire to a warehouse with lots of oil to get them off our backs. Poor guy gave his life for us.”

Raj wrapped an arm over Sid’s shoulder. He looked remorseful for Alves’s death as well. “We went into hiding again. Everything was looking real bleak, but we found the courage to get out again. That’s when we met the doctor coming down the street.”

Rory frowned. “Coming down the street, just like that? All by himself?”

“Yeah, I found it odd too,” Sid said. “He said he had a strong Sigil that let him get through the press of monsters, so I didn’t poke into it too much. We were just happy to find someone who could help. It’s sad we got our Sigils only after we arrived here.”

Rory frowned. The doctor’s had holed. It felt as though he hadn’t been as open as he could have been. More than that, though, there was the matter of the newcomer’s Sigils.

“When exactly did you get Sigils?” Rory asked.

They proceeded to show him. Raj had received a Sigil of the Familiar while Sid had a Sigil of Resurgence. The former allowed buffs with pets and other animal companions while the latter allowed transforming any damage suffered by the user into potential boosts to their other Sigils or to their stats. Rory nodded approvingly. Both had potentially very useful applications.

What really caught his attention, however, was the Sigil of Quests that the old man had received.

“Can I see it?” Rory asked. He tried to keep his excitement bottled, but it was hard. Miles’s excitement back then at having yet another way to raise their Sigils’ power was infecting him.

“What’s in it for me?” the old man asked.

Rory bit off his urge to tell him that granting him a safe roof over his head was more than he deserved. “Do you know how the Sigil works?”

The old man was caught off-guard for only a second. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“See, knowing what Sigils do and where to apply them is key to making sure we’re prepared as best as we can. It’s possible that a Sigil one person finds works better with someone else because you can have more than one, so different Sigils can synergize.”

“What the heck are you talking ‘bout?”

“Just show me the Sigil, will you? Things will be clearer, I promise.”

The old man continued to glare at him for a while before finally handing over his Sigil. Rory nearly snatched it out of his hand. It had the image of an upside-down triangle with a smaller diamond at the middle of the top edge.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Quests. If you ever thought performing a certain task wasn’t worth it, well, now you can make it worth it.

[Argent I] allows setting 1 minor reward for 1 task per day. Rewards can be toggled between Sigils, Mana, Experience, and Crafting Materials.

Stats

Type: System

Rarity: Mythical

Tier: Argent I [0%]

Efficiency: Extreme [87%]

Rory had a strong temptation to absorb the Sigil and figure out how it was supposed to work. But he needed to find a guinea pig other than himself. He considered he new folks for one second, then discarded the thought. It would help if whoever had the new Sigil had a better grasp of how Sigils themselves worked, potentially someone who’d stay safe in the palace.

But who…?

The idea popped off in Rory’s head with rapid ease. “Give me a minute,” he told the others. “I’ll be back soon.”

Rory rushed off. The others would be ready to head out soon, but he wanted to see if his idea would work before they got going. This could change a lot of things.

He eventually found Leo and Leanne taking inventory of the stores they had in the east tower.

“This is super cool,” Leo said after Rory had explained the Sigil of Quests to him. “I can be a real live NPC! Handing out quests to any adventurer who comes over to me.”

“A what?” Rory asked.

“NPC means non playable characters in games,” Leanne said. Strange how the tables had turned, and it was Rory who needed explanations now. “Usually, they hand out quests, items, and other information.”

Interesting mechanics, but Rory decided to focus on what was really important. “Try it out. I wan tot see if you can give us a quest before we leave and what sort of reward we can set for it.”

Leo nodded and absorbed the Sigil. His eyes lost focus while his Sigil’s image flashed on the back of his hand. Rory frowned at the silver bounding circle with a single triangle. It would have to provide better rewards in later Tiers.

“It’s asking me for a quest,” Leo said, staring inquisitively at Rory.

“I thought you were supposed to tell me what the quest is?”

“Apparently not. I need to set what the quest is, which basically looks like an objective you need to achieve.”

“An objective…” Rory thought for a moment. “Let’s say I want to rescue everyone at the hospital. We’ll bring in as many people as possible from the hospital to the palace. Does that work?”

“Let me see…”

Leo’s eyes lost focus again as he inspected whatever his Sigil was showing him. Rory exchanged glances with Leanne. Rumour had it that twins had a strange mental connection, as though they could read each other’s thoughts, but it seemed she was as clueless as him.

“What exactly is it showing you, Leo?” Rory asked.

“It’s a list of options mostly.” The focus in Leo’s eyes returned to survey Rory. “Multiple lists, actually. I have to pick the subject first, whether it’s you or someone else or maybe a group, and if it’s a group, I have to define the group’s parameters. Then I have to determine what action the subject will take from a huge list, and what object the action will be performed on. Finally, I determine the exact parameters of the result, which will be the criteria that defines the reward.”

Rory crossed his arms, a bit puzzled. “Wait, so you can have the reward change depending on how much of the objective we accomplish?”

“You also have to set the reward itself, right?” Leanne asked.

“Right on both counts. I can only select small rewards from the list I get, no matter how big I make the objective, but it is a list and the rewards themselves can vary depending on the task.”

“I see,” Rory said. “So, what exactly are you setting up for our trip to the hospital.”

“I set he objective as your group rescuing as many people as possible from there, as you said. As for the reward, I can only set either one random Sigil, a small pack of Mana, one small pack of random crafting materials, or one Tier of experience.”

“Hmm, how would you pick who to apply that Tier to? Unless you’re saying we can apply it to everyone in the party?”

Leo’s eyes lost focus again, and Rory was pretty sure he was trying to see “I’m not sure. It doesn’t say anywhere.”

“So basically something we’ll have to see for ourselves.” Rory didn’t need to think long on what reward he wanted based on the information available to him. “I pick the last one. Just in case we all get an extra Tier, it will be more useful.”

“More useful than a new Sigil?” Leanne asked. “Or crafting materials? You can make more Sigils if you get enough ingredients, right?”

“Right is right. We don’t need Mana as a reward because we’re getting a ton of that ourselves. A new Sigil we’ll likely get via an achievement, if things go well. Finally, the crafting materials could be nice, but I’m not sure we want a random pack with who knows what in it. Crafting needs the correct materials. So, for now, an extra Tier might be best.”

Leanne nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Thanks for explaining, Rory,” Leo said. He glared off to one side. “Not everyone wants to take the time to explain stuff nowadays.”

“Be salty later, Leo. You’ve got a quest to hand out, don’t you?”

“Oh right.” Leo cleared his throat. “Anyway, here you go, your very own quest.”

Leo offered Rory his hand, which he shook, trying to match the boy’s enthusiasm. He felt oddly proud that they had felt he had treated them well. Their mother and father might be keeping things from them, stuck in their belief that they were protecting their children.

Rory got that. He and Viv had done much the same to Alex for a while. Thankfully, they had learned to be more honest and upfront quickly enough.

His thoughts were cut short when the Sigil on the back of Leo’s hand flared with golden light.

New Quest!

Rescue the people at the hospital. The hospital has rescued a lot of people from the brink of death. It’s your turn to rescue the hospital!

Objectives

Bring in as many people as possible from the hospital to the palace

Rewards

Raise any Sigil by 1 Tier

Rory read the quest notification a few times before the golden letters finally started to fade. Leo stared inquisitively at the look on Rory’s face, so he cleared his throat and quickly explained what he had read.

Leo smiled. “So, it’s working!”

“Well, we’ll see when we get back,” Rory said. “But for now, yes, it’s working!”

Leo and Leanne both cheered. Rory smiled at them both. Belatedly, he realized he probably should have informed their parents. But then, it wasn’t anything that dangerous.

A shout from behind cut off their celebration. Rory looked and found that the others were indeed ready to leave. He thanked both Leo and Leanne for their help, then hurried back to the newcomers he had nearly forgotten. Rory summarized his most recent findings and thanked the old man for the Sigil. He was taken aback by Rory’s gesture.

“Take care of yourselves,” Rory told Sid and the others. “We’re going to see how we can help the patients at the hospital.”

Sid waved farewell as Rory left, the others now ready to go as well. They accosted Adam out in the garden.

“Everyone ready?” he asked.

Rory looked up. The afternoon was coming on at an incredible pace, the sun now well past its zenith. He considered having a quick lunch, but they could have food on the way there. “Yes. Let’s see these patients of yours.”

“Excellent,” Adam said, pressing his hands together. “Let’s go.”