“Ugh, I hate this.” As we walked through the streets of the Divinity District, Emin ran a hand through his hair, only for it to come out slick with sweat. He tried to put some of that sweat to good use, rubbing at the lipstick on his cheek, but it refused to vacate its prime real estate. “How did I let you talk me into dancing of all things?”

“Booo, you had fun, just admit it.” Admittedly, he did look pretty raggedy compared to his usual appearance, but that was part of the fun too, wasn’t it? Then again, some of his bad mood might have stemmed from only one of us looking disheveled. Between my Endurance and a choice few applications of Chill, sweat hadn’t been an issue for me. “And we can go do something less physical if you want. We’re still in the ‘cultural hub’ of Sylum aren’t we? I dunno. You want to see a play or something?”

I’d never delved too deeply into the thespian pursuits, either in watching or performing, but I wasn’t against changing that. Maybe I’d be an avid theater-going patron of the arts here.

Emin swished his head from side to side, mulling it over until the weight of the sweat on his head seemed to make the decision for him. “If I were less…” He gestured down at his present state. “... this, I might, but I feel like I need a bath.”

I mean, that’s easy enough. I took off my Cleansing Shower Gem Pendant, handing it over. “Here. Use it.” While I doubted he was under the effects of any movement-impairing skills, the secondary cleaning function would serve him well.

Though somewhat uncertainly, Emin accepted the necklace and put it on, apparently able to identify it once he wore it. His face lit up and he activated it without reservation, the magic giving him the equivalent of a full shower all at once.

“That’s a- Wow. That’s an incredible enchantment. Thank you.” If somewhat reluctantly, he returned the pendant. “Is it gone?”

Wonder what he would say if he knew I won that in a dungeon with the guy whose daughter I’m pretending to be right now. Far from telling him that, I gave Emin a thumbs up instead. “Success! Washed the lipstick right off.” It would have been a bit funnier if somehow it hadn’t, but evidently, if there was some sort of skill that went into the mark, it was nothing a shower couldn’t fix. “So? Still want to call it a night, or do we keep going?”

Seeming to regret his words even as he said them, Emin replied affirmatively. “I suppose so. But… But I’m going to choose this time.” As if to prove his point, he strode ahead, taking the literal and figurative lead.

I simply shrugged.

We walked through the streets of Sylum for a time, enjoying the refreshing air after being cooped up in the dance hall for as long as we had. I probably would have enjoyed the walk a lot more had there not been so many god (not-)damned churches around, though. As irrational as it was, I kept expecting some sort of priest to come charging out of one of them to yell about my Protagonist-ness.

Evidently, I was doing a bad job of hiding my wariness as well.

“I, uh, take it you’re not a church-goer, then?” He pointedly stared at one of the nearby churches, as if to call out the fact that I’d been avoiding looking at it. “You know, they don’t bite. We said we’d look for a play or something, but we could check one out if you wanted.”

I actually thought I was doing a good job of making it clear that that was the last thing I wanted. “Really think I’m going to pass.” I’d heavily avoided most religion talks, partly out of a desire to hide my own ignorance, and partly because I wanted as little to do with gods as possible. Despite that, with all of it around me, curiosity got the better of me. “How does it all work though? Do you have a god you pray to? Or a church you go to?”

Emin narrowed his eyes and looked at me funny, quickly letting me know that my question was, in fact, weird. “Apologies. It’s all different up in the dead zone with the Yekkish, right? Shouldn’t assume you know all that.”

Right. Yekkish. As more time passed, I had to give Suds some credit for the lie. It came in handy at times like this.

“It’s nothing special, really. I visit a few shrines now and then for gods related to my life path. Medicine. Knowledge and research. Pay my respects. Give a few coins. Say a few prayers. I’m not too devout, and I don’t have a particular god I pray to, but it’s still nice.”

Huh. Wouldn’t have pegged him as the religious type at all. But ‘nice’ how? “Do they, like, give you a blessing? Help you with your research somehow? Or do they ever just say hi?” It would have been a dumb question back on Earth, but the gods were a bit more accessible over here. Certainly there was a reason people worshiped them.

This earned the rare full-on laugh from the reedy bookworm, though he quickly schooled his expression before apologizing once again. “The gods don’t- They don’t really do any of that, Tess. Some of the nicer churches have effects tied to the building that can give you some temporary bonuses, but that’s about it. I can only think of, uh, four ways a god would ever even know you existed.

“One, if you do something so horribly blasphemous to them that they know you in the bad sense. Two, if you’re a really, really high-up priest. Three, if you have so much Prestige that even the gods take note of you. Four, they say that some smaller-time gods can be more local, with only a few cities worshiping them. I’d imagine they probably know their individual worshipers a bit better, but who’s to say? I haven’t even heard stories of people meeting gods, except for the old legends and fairy tales where they make it sound like gods just walked around.”

Well, maybe that’s why meeting your first god is worth 100 Prestige. Wonder if it’s really that rare, or if we’re just not in a spot where the gods meddle as much? I recalled the memories I’d been shown of Ephesis’s life — they were probably outdated, but he’d been to entire countries that were essentially run by gods.

Although, if the gods really aren’t paying attention, maybe I should check out some of the churches? I wondered if I could cop one of the churches’ schematics somehow to use back in my settlement. Or should I see if there’s a temple for Dex? I discarded the thought immediately. Maybe there was a temple for luck-related deities, but for all I knew, they were all rivals with one another. I knew Emin didn’t think they were paying attention, but if a luck-related Protagonist walked into a temple of luck, who knew what sort of attention I’d attract?

Yup. Leaving the religious stuff to Emin, I think. Still, though…

“So, uh. Why do it if the gods don’t even know you exist? Not to kind of trash the gods in the middle of the Divinity District, but it sounds like they don’t really care much?” Admittedly, the gods of various religions on Earth weren’t known for chatting people up and blessing them, and they still had tons of worshipers. It somehow felt different when you knew for a fact that your god was real, had the power to hear your prayers, and was pointedly ignoring them, though.

To this, Emin could only shrug. “What can I say? It’s… heartening, kind of. They’re these figures straight out of myth, with more knowledge and healing power in their pinkies than I’ll ever manage in my entire life. It’s kind of a show of respect, I guess? Or it’s nice to think that I’ve devoted myself to a similar life path as them. Kind of makes it feel like, uh- like they’re on my team, I guess?”

He scratched at the back of his head, a motion I’d seen less and less of since getting to know him. That nervous tic soon vanished, however, as he straightened up with a wide grin.

“Of course, you never know. If any gods ever do take interest in me, that’d be nice too. Can you imagine? Protagonist Emin! Hopefully I’d get some powerful medicinal boon and whip up the best potions you’d ever heard of!”

Careful what you wish for, bud. As was often the case, it was the thought of his research which seemed to banish any of his insecurities. In fact, suddenly I found myself far less interested in the gods than I was in Emin’s potions. How did one even find something that they cared about that much? I certainly didn’t have anything like that.

“If I ever meet a medicine god, I’ll put in a good word for you,” I replied, only half-jokingly. Who knew? “On the non-god-related side of things, though, you talk about your research a lot, but I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned what made you want to go into it. How’d you figure out that studying potions was what you wanted to do with your life, anyway?” I wondered if it was largely a matter of luck, or if there was something deeper.

This, however, did not appear to be the correct follow-up question, as he visibly stiffened before I’d even finished the question.

“Eh. I- Well- You know how it is. If you ask someone why they’re obsessed with cheap, accessible medicine, I’ve found there’s at least an, uh, 80% chance you’re going to get hit with a sob story. No need to mar the mood with one of those right now, you know?” The head scratching came back in full force, along with a deflecting nervous chuckle. “Oh, but that looks like it could be a theater, right?” He pointed to a building which could have been anything, even with all the hints provided by my Perception. “Let’s check it out!”

Much to Emin’s dismay, the building in question did not end up being a theater, but after a bit more hunting, we ended up successfully finding a performance to watch. Seeing as there weren’t any movie theaters, I’d been skeptical of us finding a live play on such short notice, but I was still thinking in Earth terms. Here, every actor — every Actor, that is — tried to put on as many shows as humanly possible, even if they weren’t acting in front of a full audience. Actually getting on a stage and acting, after all, was likely one of the only ways for them to really level.

We were so happy to finally find one that we didn’t even bother to check what it was about before buying tickets, which in hindsight was possibly an error. It turned out to be a super cheesy romance play, and most of the audience members looked to be couples.

I didn’t really mind, but the entire time, Emin seemed equal parts embarrassed and uncomfortable. I hadn’t really taken him for the type to get hung up about watching romances. I knew some guys thought they were too girly, and certainly this one was pretty cheesy, but the cheesiness is partially what made it fun, no?

I joked that if he found the girl who’d kissed him on the cheek in the dance hall, maybe he could join the rest of the couples and take her on a date here. Clearly not wanting to be reminded of the resulting lipstick stain, Emin did not appear to find this overly amusing.

Oh well.

We agreed to call it quits afterwards, as it had gotten pretty late. All in all, though, I’d had a lovely evening. Something told me I’d have some trouble roping him into being my plus one to the dance hall again, but perhaps now that it was less novel to me, I’d try going on my own.

Having succeeded at filling up my free time, however, my classes quickly came back to hit me in full force.

“Today, we have two goals.” The kindly, wrinkly Advisor Flithus once again sat behind his desk, eyeing me from behind his spectacles. “Firstly, I’d like to go over your class skill options and help you assign your current points.”

Nice. I’d been stockpiling a good number of them ever since getting all my magic schools to the Initiate rank. Normally I would have used them up, but I’d gotten the bulk of them after I’d signed up for Skill Advising. I figured it couldn’t hurt to put things off for a few weeks if it meant I got an expert opinion before locking everything in.

“Secondly, I believe it is time for us to remedy your lack of some basic skills, yes?”