After her second day of helping her aunt at the hospital, Thera finished a bit earlier than she had the day before. She had originally planned on only helping every other day, but since her father was still away dealing with the other great spirits she decided to do a bit more and was already seeing a benefit with a level up to her medical knowledge during the day. Besides that benefit, even if it wasn’t for her current job after all, it was still worthwhile to train her life magic when she could, and without the fear she’d gotten in Stonewall it was a more pleasant experience overall.

Of course, that lack of fear was mostly related to the patients not knowing who she was, but that didn’t matter too much. It felt surprisingly nice to be genuinely thanked for her work, it was an experience she wasn’t used to but it made her want to improve and she understood why Lux spent so much time going from hospital to hospital, doing what she could. It did leave her to wonder why Vividus didn’t do more for the various races of the world, but then again the great life spirit wasn’t so inclined to help out of charity when she could focus on whatever nightmares she was preparing in the life valley.

She felt herself getting worked up and took a breath, not wanting thoughts of her least favourite aunt getting to her given where she was and took a seat at her destination, the first church of Anailia.

While she made sure to pray semi-regularly, given the fact that her goddess had not only given her a quest that she’d been greatly rewarded for, she’d also actively worked to save her life. Given all of that, it was probably a mistake that she hadn’t immediately gone there upon arriving in the nation, but she did her best to make up for that with the sheer amount of gratitude she put into her prayer as she closed her eyes.

“Ah, as nice as your gratitude feels, I do hope you’ll open your eyes so we might have a talk Thera,” A voice she recognised said light-heartedly as her eyes shot open, only to be blinded by the force of the divinity before her.

Realizing she was in the realm of her god, she quickly took a knee as she bowed to show her respect. “Anailia, it’s an honor to have the chance to talk to you again, what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Hmm? Does a mother need a reason to visit any of her children?” She told her in amusement, though feeling Thera’s panic grow at the answer.

“Not at all, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“I’m only teasing you Thera, please be at ease. Perhaps take a page from the child of Myriad,” She said before thinking better of it. “Well, maybe don’t be quite that liberal, it caused quite the headache up here when he mentioned an interest in attempting to seal a soul to put to use.”

“Uh, I’ll try my best to keep him from doing anything too bad,” She said, knowing in her heart that if Ben’s interest was caught he wouldn’t listen to reason, a fact her god easily picked up on.

“Don’t worry, as long as he only tests it on demons like he said he would in the event he succeeds in making such a tool then there’s no issue. Actually, I’ve come to you about another matter.”

“If there’s anything at all I can do for you I’d be happy to.”

Her goddess smiled with her thin reptilian lips at the prompt answer. “I’m glad to hear it, but try not to be too quick to agree to things without learning what it is you’re agreeing to first, even if it’s coming from a god. Having said that, I doubt you’d find any issue with this. You’ve done excellent work completing your quest so quickly, and I was particularly moved to watch you gaining the zeroth level of life magic. To push beyond your limits for the sake of a loved one is something to be rewarded, and it is with that in mind that I’ve come to you with another should you choose to accept it. Thera, I offer you this, awaken one of your magic skills. If you succeed in doing so I’ll grant you a level to any non-awakened skill.”

She felt herself stunned to silence as she processed just what had been said. A level to any non-awakened skill, meaning that it could even go to a ninth level skill to awaken it. The gods simply didn’t make offers like this to individuals as far as she knew, a quest with such a reward that was entirely focused on her own growth was beyond reason.

“It really isn’t as great as it seems,” Anailia told her as she read Thera’s thoughts. “Even though you struggle with your magic control, your soul is so tightly bound to the ones that you’ve gained that providing a level for anything less than an awakened skill is a trifle. As for why you don’t hear about quests like this often, well it comes down to the fact that we try not to give challenges if we don’t believe a person can succeed, even to issue the quest costs some faith after all, but ones like this have been made in the past. I’m offering it to you now because awakening your magic skills isn’t a question of if but when. Given the lifespan you can expect there is no doubt in my mind that you’ll be able to one day awaken any of your magics to even the third tier so long as you have the opportunity, I’m simply hoping to help speed things along given the timeframe we’re all forced to work on.”

She felt stunned. In her heart she always dreamed of awakening her magic, beginning the path that would let her see the great spirits of the world as equals, but to make it to tier three? That went beyond her already ambitious dream. It was a goal countless people worked towards but few had the talent and skill to pull it off. Still, if it was to meet her god's expectations then she would put herself to the test.

“I’ll gratefully accept this opportunity.”

“I look forward to seeing what you’ll accomplish,” Anailia told her, placing a gentle kiss on her brow before Thera found herself opening her eyes back in the church.

It took all of her effort to keep from merrily skipping back to her home, the excitement she felt could barely be contained as she tried to plan just how to go about her quest.

Obviously, I have to try to awaken my earth magic, the only question is which other skill should I try to raise up to level nine at the same time? Dark magic is out so it really comes down to life magic or telekinesis. Oh, an awakened telekinesis skill would pair so well with my earth magic, but with an awakened life magic I’d be able to help so many people and keep Ben from dying next time something decided to eat him. I really should aim for that one, right? Well, I guess I work on my telekinesis at the same time as a lot of my earth spells anyway now so I can just see what’s closer by the time I’m close to level nine in my earth magic.

When she got home her mother was already outside the house, seemingly waiting for her. She couldn’t help but wonder if the nation would be alright when the queen seemed to have such a casual attitude about all but the most pressing work but pushed the thought to the side as she greeted her.

“Hello mother, isn’t it just a wonderful day?” She asked, filled with a level of cheer that Pelenia hadn’t heard from her daughter since she was a child and it took her by surprise.

“Any day you’re so happy is wonderful sweetheart, what’s the good news? Unless you’re still so overjoyed about your brace.”

As thrilling as that particular development was, she still wasn’t used to the idea that she could wander her home nation now without too much fear of harming someone, to the point she’d forgotten she didn’t need her cloak while out for the day and was still wearing it, but that was all but irrelevant as she gave the good news about her meeting with Anailia.

“That’s incredible honey! To receive such a quest, what an honor!”

She smiled through her hood as her mother reached over to lower it.

“Come now, I don’t get to see you looking so happy often, you should let me see your smiling face.”

“Well, I guess it’s fine. Anyway, what are you doing out here? Don’t you have work?”

There was a subtle change to her mother’s smile, the same she’d get on occasions when she saw an opportunity to have some fun and it immediately left her worried.

“Oh I was just taking a peek at the various people lined up to receive a brace from Ben, why not come with me to have a look?”

She looked at her mother with curiosity but went along with her around back, finding a variety of individuals from the races afflicted with passive magics, each with a healthy selection of amulets to keep themselves safe from the others around them, as well as one more thing that stood out.

Isn’t that disproportionately women? She thought. They were all around her age and seemed incredibly beautiful, at least by the standards of her race, and for whatever reason it left her a sense of unease.

“Well, it looks like everyone is behaving so come with me to my room for a bit Thera, there’s something we should probably work on.”

“Um, what?”

“Why you’re outfit of course.”

“I’m not wearing that.”

“Oh come on, please? You’d look so nice in it.”

“It shows way too much skin.”

“What are you talking about, it leaves you almost completely covered. At worst it has a bit of a V-neck, but it’s a tasteful amount of exposure. You’d had far more skin showing when you wore a toga last time you were here.”

“That’s traditional wear, it’s different. Why do you want me dressing up anyway?” She asked. Upon arriving in her mother’s room Pelenia had begun pulling out outfits, holding them in front of her and either shaking her head and tossing them to the side or saving them for another inspection after she was done.

“You’re going out with your friend once he’s done, aren’t you? You should wear something nice. Come on, at least try it on.”

The one her mother had her heart set on was a royal blue dress with long sleeves to keep anyone from touching her arms by mistake. Admittedly the V-neck wasn’t too deep, it was more of an excuse, she wasn’t used to wearing dresses like that since she always had her cloak on when going out and there was no need to wear anything like that indoors.

“What does going out with Ben have to do with this? At most we’re going to wander the town and maybe visit a restaurant, I can wear something a bit plainer.”

Despite saying that though she at least put it on and looked at herself in a mirror. She had to admit she liked the colour on her, it went well with her golden hair and marble skin. It was also far more comfortable than she’d expected. The fabric felt nice and the fit allowed her to leave her tail hanging instead of having it coiled around her waist like she usually did. She found herself half tempted to keep it on until she caught the mischievous look in her mother’s eye as she gazed at her reflection.

“It’s nice, but maybe I’ll wear it for some other time.”

“Oh don’t be like that, if you don’t put in a bit of effort then someone’s going to take Ben from you.”

“Regardless of the fact that you forced an engagement on us, Ben isn’t mine.”

“Oh, so you don’t have any issue with the fact that all those women getting their braces made were specifically sent by their countries to try and seduce him?”

She froze as she prepared to take off the dress in favour of something a bit more common. “What’s that supposed to mean, that would be breaking the craftsman guilds policy.”

“More like carefully skirting it. They can’t send people to his home because that would be in clear violation of guild rules, but we put the offer out for them to send people to have their braces made. If Ben just so happens to fall in love with one of the women he talks to then no rules have been broken, have they? Really, the fact that this didn’t happen the first time is almost entirely due to the chaos that the creation of the braces brought, each nation has had plenty of time since then to try and figure out how they want to go about winning him over, and well, he is a young man after all. Would you be surprised if someone managed to catch his eye?”

She knew she was being manipulated. Even though she was sure her mother was telling her the truth about the goals of each person waiting to get a brace made, she didn’t doubt the fact for a second that she’d only been told to get a particular emotional response. Ben had never shown interest in anyone in Stonewall, and if he had she was sure he would tell her. He simply cared more about focusing on his skills than finding love or sex, and that wasn’t mentioning the fact that he wasn’t dumb. A bit clueless about the world sometimes, sure, but not dumb. He’d pick up on the fact that seduction was the goal from the start, he wouldn’t just go along with it.

Why would she even be worried about it anyway? She knew he might want to have a family of his own one day, at which point they’d have to call off their farce of an engagement, and he was her best friend, of course she’d want him to be happy if that was what he wanted. Sure, it would hurt to not have him in Stonewall if he was to leave, but it wasn’t like she would never see him again if that was the case.

So there was no reason to give into the outcome her mother so clearly wanted. He wouldn’t fall for something like that, and even if he did it was his life, she’d be happy for him.

Casting one last look in the mirror, she bit her lower lip as she tried not to be swayed by the nagging feeling inside of her.