After a nauseating trip of rushing through the skies to get to the gate, they finally landed, rolling through the streets on solid ground, letting both Ben and Sachel recover while Sonya for her part managed to enjoy traveling like that as much as Thera always did, wearing a bright grin as the experience only lightened her mood.

Like niece, like aunt I guess. At least it seemed to help take their minds off things for the time being.

While he’d been materializing seed after seed on the way there to pass the time and get experience for both his skill and job, the rest of them had been carrying the weight of what they’d be walking into.

While Thera hadn’t experienced any major hardship in the earth tower beyond the strain of overwork, she’d watched Ben suffer through it and couldn’t help but worry there’d be a repeat of the experience, while Sonya and Sachel both couldn’t keep away the concern about whatever they’d be walking into. Both of them knew as well as any other resident of the world that trials were tests from the gods for mortals to prove themselves, with great rewards coming at the cost of great dangers. Neither really believed they were prepared, both of them could only put their faith that Ben was judging things accurately without putting too much faith in any of them.

They were all obviously trying to mentally prepare by the time they got to the gate when Ben got off, handing Thera his card as he did.

“Here, if you guys want to get lunch it’s on me, I’ll be there in an hour or three.”

“Okay, where are you off to?” Thera asked, eyeing him curiously.

“Couple final things to finish and gotta grab our last party member since I don’t even know if she got the letter with the invite. I shouldn’t be long.”

“Alright, in that case we’ll meet you at the tower.”

They parted on those words, Thera taking the other two through with her to the magic towers as Ben instead went off to first find a prospective future coworker, taking the gate to Anailia.

He walked the now familiar streets, his many visits there giving him a good idea of much of the area, while his god helped guide him the rest of the way to a rather unassuming building as he let himself inside, walking confidently and with purpose like he belonged there past the secretaries taking appointments until he found a succubus hard at work with another, her hands on both the woman with her and the brace on her arm as a few minutes ticked by.

“Alright, and it looks like you’re done,” She said, giving the one with her a smile and receiving thanks in exchange. “Make sure you don’t take it off if you leave the city but otherwise enjoy your trip.”

The client walked out the door, giving Ben a smile as Valaria finally noticed him, almost freezing as she did from trying to process the fact that her apostle was so unexpectedly before her and trying to figure out what to do, ultimately falling to a stiff bow.

“Honoured apostle, it’s lovely to see you again.”

“Good to see you too, and seriously there’s no need for formality. Just call me Ben.”

“Of course, Ben, I wasn’t expecting you, is there anything I might help you with?”

Become the high priestess of my faith so I can do even less.

“I have some business in the area so I wanted to stop in to chat,” He told her, putting on his best salesman face. “I remembered the last time I saw you, you felt like you were struggling with the reason you converted a bit. I wanted to see if you were doing better.”

She visibly relaxed when he said that, the look in her eyes quickly changing to gratitude.

“I am, talking with you at the time really helped, thank you.”

“Ah, I didn’t do anything, you would have been fine on your own eventually, but I’m still glad to hear it. Actually, Myriad has told me plenty of excellent things about you. I hear that you’ve not only been acting as someone for the other believers to talk to but also managed to get a church built in Anailia, it’s very impressive.”

“It’s the least I could do,” She said, looking away as she got the praise. “And I was well compensated for it since I managed to complete my quest as a result.”

“It’s a well earned reward,” he smiled. “And on a similar note, I might have a chance to grant you further rewards.”

“I couldn’t possibly-”

“Valaria, I insist. You would make me look like an ungrateful apostle if you decline,” He laughed. “Besides, it’s not a guaranteed thing. In the next couple days, Myriad will ask you to go through the gate to the magic towers. There’s something small you might be able to help with and hopefully you’ll be paid off accordingly.”

“Well, if you’re sure…”

“I am,” He spoke firmly. “And as a final thing, as shameful as it is to say, I believe that you’re more acquainted with many of the other believers than I am. If you would select two more who you think have been doing enough to deserve a reward and discuss it with Myriad, bring them along too when the time comes.”

As he finished his bit, he noticed an incubus waiting behind him to get in, so he spoke again before she could respond.

“Anyway, I’ll let you get back to your work. It shouldn’t be long so give it your best shot. I have confidence in you.”

He walked away with that, his god whispering in his mind as he did.

It was not. From everything you said, I think she deserves to be rewarded, the fact that I’m going to completely corner her into taking the role after is irrelevant.

Look, do you want a high priestess or not?

Myriad, I’m such a sweet guy, who would possibly be scared of me?

He took his god’s silence as agreement as he walked through the gate to his next destination, making his way to Allfaith.

“Ben, I heard you stopped by before, sorry we missed you,” Jake told him cheerfully outside of his home. “Is Thera not with you? Yuzu and Amy are a bit busy right now but if you guys want to meet up later we could do dinner.”

“This is just a quick pop-in,” Ben told him as he began his real reason for the meeting. “But we’ll be back in a couple days if you want to then, I just wanted to make sure you guys were alright.”

They carried on the small talk for a bit, the cover for Ben’s real goal of meeting his friend, the secrets hidden in his mind. Jake had completed the life tower, along with almost half of the others too by that point, and Ben wanted information on just what he was walking into.

The issue was that if he brought it up, he knew that the covenant would block it from Jake's mind. There was always the chance he could push past it with his sacrilege, but since he’d never tried he didn’t want to risk it when instead he could try to exploit one of the new aspects of deep connection. The fact that he could read memories along with minds.

He was theorizing that the covenant acted to keep the person it was on from knowingly revealing anything, otherwise it would simply be impossibly broad, and since Jake didn’t know about the new aspect of his skill, that meant there was a weakness that could be exploited as he connected to the man and dived in, pushing through the surface layer of who he was to begin reading the experiences that made him up, being hit by the most recent ones in the face.

Oh man, and I should not have seen that and the fact that it was from his pov is so much worse. Sorry Jake, Amy, and Yuzu, my mind is too good to actually forget much of anything at this point, but at the very least I’ll try to not actively think about it.

He tried to ignore everything in the man’s head if it didn’t seem relevant as he pushed on deeper, looking at the trials they’d gone through and filing all he saw away as he watched his friend’s life in reverse order, seeing them conquer space, dark, fire, air, water, earth, and finally making it to life as the experiences of each floor flashed past his mind's eye, the secrets of them revealed and the covenant rendered useless.

With the information he needed acquired with Jake none the wiser, they said their goodbyes, promising to meet again in a couple of days as Ben left for his final task, getting the last member of their party.

“So what do you say Steph, you in?” Ben asked her the moment it was clear she’d received his letter that very day, with Will beside her looking none too happy about what he was even suggesting.

“I can’t believe you’re asking my girlfriend to walk into a deathtrap,” He grumbled.

“I get it, but also this entire planet is a deathtrap,” He shot back. “Steph, you don’t need to be compelled to do this. I’m asking you because it’s a chance to grow more and having another awakened life mage would boost our odds of success by a lot. Besides, you have some experience with tower trials already, right? Didn’t you do the space tower with Jake and Amy?”

It was a fact he only knew from plundering Jake's mind just a little earlier, but it was all the better. It meant she already had some experience with tower trials and wouldn’t be walking in blind.

Of course, I’m still going to give everyone the rundown of what we can expect from this one. God I freaking love it when things actually just work.

It would obviously still be a challenge, but knowing what they’d be walking into could make all of the difference in the world.

“I’ll go,” Steph told him confidently, pulling him from his thoughts as she turned to focus on Will. “After everything I’ve had to deal with in the last couple weeks I want to be a better healer, this is a great opportunity for that.”

He looked like he wanted to argue at first, but in the end just deflated. “Just be safe alright. If you die I’m going to beat the crap out of Ben.”

“If she dies then there’s a good chance I’ll be dead too,” He added helpfully, seeing his friend shake his head at his words.

“You’re too much like a cockroach at this point, just remember that if she doesn’t make it out then I’m gonna squash you.”

“Loud and clear man, don’t worry. If things get too rough then we’ll leave, easy as that.”

He nodded, still not happy but Steph went to reassure him as Ben stepped away, giving them just a little bit of privacy before the two of them would leave to face the coming tower.