Aura Moriel woke to an unfamiliar ceiling.
It was vaulted slightly, as opposed to the completely flat ones in all the rooms in the home of her Familia; it was composed of gray stone rather than papered-over wood; and sunlight was faintly coming in from behind her head as opposed to her left, where it should have been in her own bedroom.
Where am I?
She laid there, staring blankly up at the stone above her, and tried to figure out how she had ended up in this place, wherever it was. She reached back in her memory, and found…
Nothing.
She didn't remember anything from the previous day.
Well, okay- that wasn't quite accurate. She remembered the assault on Knossos: the assembly in Daedalus Street, the short trip underground into the sewers to their assembly positions before the hidden doors, the doors opening before the keys that Loki Familia held. She remembered everyone storming in at the command of Loki Familia's captain, she remembered following along in the wake of Loki Familia as they crushed all resistance before them and began splitting up into smaller groups, she remembered following along with Lord Dionysus and Lady Loki as they searched for the enemy gods. She remembered splitting off from them, along with Filvis, some others of the Familia, and Lefiya Viridis, to join with a different group.
She remembered the masked creature. The loss of her Status, the loss of everyone's Status. Filvis's death.
The green flesh. The screams, running, screams, panic, screams. The look on Anakitty Autumn's face as she reached for the key. The door closing, jumping, the dirty Dungeon floor coming up to meet her and a searing pain in her foot.
The memories were odd; it felt as though she was viewing them through a haze, detached utterly from the horror they bore. As if they had happened to someone else altogether. She decided it was better to leave them that way, to not really look at them and just acknowledge they were there, floating in her mind; else otherwise she might suddenly realize that in fact they very much had happened to her.
She didn't remember anything after landing in the dirt outside of Knossos, though.
Well, that wasn't quite true either: she remembered flashes. Just a few images and sounds. Being carried through the darkness. The sound of swordplay. The feel of fresh surface air on her face.
Nothing more. Anything coherent after her escape from the underground fortress had vanished completely into a black void. It was rather like waking up after a night of very heavy drinking; or, at least, what she imagined that must be like, as elves generally didn't drink alcohol.
Nope. It was fruitless. Her most recent memories contained quite a lot of information she definitely did not want, and none of the information she did. To be precise:
"Where am I?"
She spoke it aloud this time, more to hear her own voice and thereby verify to herself that yes, she was really alive. It barely sounded like her voice, it was a strained and cracked whisper, but it came out of her mouth and said the words that she'd been trying to say, so she supposed it must be hers.
She hadn't actually been expecting someone to answer.
Yet someone did.
"You are in the House of Loki, also known as the Twilight Manor. And it is eight o'clock in the morning, on September the Fourth, if you want to know."
Startled, Aura let out a gasp and half-rolled, half-rose onto her side, looking at the rest of the room for the first time.
It was an average sized bedroom. The walls were stone like the ceiling, but the floor was polished wood—likely covering more stone beneath. There were no windows—the sunlight was coming in through the half-open door and the hallway beyond. The room was furnished with all the things you might expect of a bedroom: wardrobe, dresser, desk and chair, all of which were painted in shades of pink, white, and green. The air was perfumed rather heavily with the scent of evergreen trees such as pine, fir and spruce. It brought to Aura's mind images of a boreal forest, somewhere in the far north.
In the chair by the desk there sat another young elven woman. At least, Aura thought she was young; even as an elf herself, it could be difficult to guess the age of her kind once they reached maturity, and the anti-aging properties of the Falna did not help matters. At a glance, Aura would put her age at maybe 22 or 23, a few years older than Aura herself. She had a typically beautiful elven face, wavy tawny hair that reached the middle of her back and matched the color of her eyes, and was dressed in a pink-and-brown outfit that somehow managed to be both fashionably flattering and quite modest at the same time.
This young woman was sitting with her legs daintily crossed, holding a steaming cup of what appeared to be tea in her left hand with a matching saucer in her right, the picture of elegance.
"It's good you're awake, and seemingly responsive. Lefiya, unfortunately, can't say either as of yet. It's just in time too."
The unknown young woman took a sip of her tea, pinky finger extended, then set down the cup on its saucer. She then placed both upon the desk, folded her hands in her lap, and looked back at Aura.
"I'd ask 'How are you feeling?', but it strikes me that the question would be outrageously insensitive and the answer blindingly obvious."
"I…" Honestly, Aura didn't really know how she felt. The place and environment she found herself in were so detached from her last clear memories that it felt like she was dreaming even now. She knew, abstractly, just what had happened, but it still didn't seem real. She feared for the moment that it did. "I've been better, yes." It was such an understatement that it felt gross. Yet, at the moment, it seemed like the best description.
The woman laughed, though it had no humor in it. "Indeed. No, I suppose the best question to ask you is: how much do you remember?"
Aura swallowed. Her mouth seemed to have dried up completely. "I remember…" She did not dare say it explicitly, for fear that the weight of it all would suddenly come crashing down on her. "I remember everything that happened in Knossos. I don't remember everything that happened after I got out. You said this is Loki Familia's home? How did I get here? Who are you?"
"I hope you don't mind if I answer your questions out of order. And forgive me, I should have introduced myself from the start. My name," the young elven woman curled her hand to point at herself, while giving a sort of half-smile, "is Alicia. Alicia Forestlight."
"Forestlight…" Aura rolled the name around her tongue. It only took a moment to come to her. "You're "Elleaf"?"
"None other. While insignificant compared to the executives, it's still rather gratifying to have become famous enough to be recognized that quickly." Forestlight's half-smile faded away, and she cocked her head slightly. "As for the other questions, yes, this is the home of my Familia. And you are here because… well, if I was to interpret it literally, you are here because we carried you. You were in no state to walk last night. I doubt that was what you meant, though."
"It… actually sort of was," Aura replied. At least it answered the question of whether she'd been staggering around insensate like a drunkard. "But also sort of not."
"I see. Well." For the first time, Forestlight's dainty and composed demeanor broke somewhat. She now looked rather uncomfortable, bringing a fist up to her mouth and looking away. "I'm sorry, it's just that answering the spirit of your question will be rather…"
"It's okay," Aura said. "I think I've already cried all the tears I have, at least for now." It wasn't true, but maybe if she believed it was, it would be. "Can you at least tell me if any of the others of my Familia made it out?" She knew none of those who had been with her had, but there'd been several other groups stationed throughout the 9th Floor of Knossos. Maybe some of them had been close enough to the exits, maybe one or two of them had gotten lucky like she had. She grasped at the tiny thread of hope.
"No. I'm sorry." With a gentle face, and a warm, sympathetic voice, "Elleaf" ruthlessly burned it. "All other members of Dionysus Familia were caught and killed by whatever that horrid green stuff was. It was confirmed when we all assembled on the surface."
Aura let the words wash over her. Somehow, she'd already known. She could feel the reality of it looming over her, beginning to grasp her shoulders and press down on them, but she refused to look at it. Alone. Lord Dionysus, Filvis. Gone. All the others, gone too. Most of them honestly really hadn't had the makings of true adventurers, and would readily admit it themselves. They'd been failures, washouts from other Familias, people who were down on their luck, or had screwed up and knew it. They'd been nothing like the elegant and powerful young woman sitting in the chair here with her, or her fellows in the mighty Loki Familia, but Lord Dionysus had loved that sort of person, had believed in their capacity to shine even after everyone else had discarded them. They'd willingly overcome their fears for his sake, stepped up to prove they were worthy of the belief he'd had in them, and now… Gone. All of them. In a place like that. In a way like that. At a time like that. It's not right, it's not fair, it's too cruel. The weight pressing on her shoulders increased.
"Given the horror of what you had just been through, it's no surprise you collapsed as soon as you were out of immediate danger and the adrenaline left you." Forestlight had been watching Aura, watching the emotions play over her face, and had apparently judged that now was a good time to continue. "You and Lefiya both went into near-catatonic states, and were still in that condition by the time you were brought to the surface. You were crying, and didn't seem to be aware of anything around you; and as you yourself have said, you indeed were not. We obviously could not simply leave you in Central Park, and Lady Riveria wisely saw the cruelty of leaving you alone in your Familia's home with nothing for company but ghosts. So, she made the decision to bring you here for the time being."
"Thank you." Truly, Aura could think of nothing else to say. Despite what Forestlight said, leaving her in Central Park if she couldn't muster the strength and will to go anywhere herself or dumping her at her own home would both have been valid and accepted options for many in the city.
Forestlight waved her hand. "Think nothing of it. It was Lady Riveria who made the decision."
"Then I must see her and thank her at the first opportunity. Your goddess, as well, it was truly generous of Lady Loki to extend me such kindness." Aura thought she saw something flicker across Forestlight's face at that, but it was so brief she could not be sure. She looked around at the room. "Is this a guest room, then? It's quite pretty."
Forestlight flashed another half-smile. "It's actually my bedroom. And I'm pleased to hear you think so."
"Eh?!" Aura shot bolt upright in the bed for the first time. "This is—wait, you mean I forced you out of your own—your superior ordered you to give up-,"
Only now did she see the neatly folded blanket and pillow on the floor beside the desk. Forestlight had spent the night in her chair, while Aura had gotten the bed.
"Please do not suggest that Lady Riveria would ever give such an order. I know that you intended no disrespect, and that your mind is distraught, but as an elf, you should honor the dignity of our crown princess. In any case, Lady Riveria's mind was far too occupied after we returned with matters of our next steps, and she had already put me in charge of organizing the rest of the Familia for our return here. I put you in here of my own accord."
"I…My great mistake. I meant no disrespect to Lady Riveria." An error compounding on another error. It stung her pride as an elf to have done such a thing, even in the heat of the moment, just as it stung her pride to have been reduced to such a state that a stranger needed to burden herself in such a manner. At least focusing on this gave her something to distract her. "I can only apologize for my inability to-,"
"Kindly do not finish that sentence." Forestlight's voice took on an edge. "Please do not suggest that your grief requires an apology, nor that I need special thanks for helping a person in need. Especially not a sister elf. I consider this to be the bare minimum of decency."
Aura found herself unable to speak, and looked away. The corners of her eyes were prickling. Silence reigned for a moment, then Forestlight spoke again. "There are no guest rooms in the Twilight Manor. There are no empty rooms, either—well, I suppose there are now, but neither I nor anyone else would put you in any of them at this time. I am not an executive, but I am senior enough that I have my own room, thus, I would not be disturbing anyone's arrangements but my own by putting you in here. It was the best solution. I've slept in far less comfortable places than my desk chair as an adventurer. So, again, there's no need to thank me." She paused for another moment, then said in a warmer tone of voice, "But if you still want to, you could start by telling me your name."
Startled, Aura looked back at Forestlight. "You don't know my-,"
"No. Actually, nobody in Loki Familia does, save Lefiya, and she isn't in any condition to tell us at this moment. Our Familias never really had any contact or business before this whole mess began, and even once it did we only ever saw Lord Dionysus himself and your captain. In Knossos, Lefiya was essentially our liaison with all of you. Last night, we were simply referring to you as 'the Dionysus girl'. I think it's high time that changed. So?"
It was true. Lefiya Viridis had been the only member of Loki Familia that had interacted with them directly during the assault, due to her connection to Filvis. "…Aura Moriel. I am, or I suppose I was, the vice-captain of Dionysus Familia. Level 2. My alias is "Krater". I doubt you know it."
As she'd suspected she would, Forestlight shook her head. It was only natural. A relatively senior member of one of the top two Familias in not just the city but the whole world and a member of a random minor Familia inhabited completely different strata of society. "I do not. But I will be sure to remember it from now on."
Another silence fell. This time, Aura was the one who broke it. "What happens now?"
Another odd flicker seemed to pass over Forestlight's face. Aura was quite sure she saw it the second time. "That depends, again, on what you mean by the question."
"That…" That was a good point, actually. What did she mean by that?
Seeing the look of confusion dawning on Aura's face, Forestlight continued. "It is currently 8:24, according to my magic-stone clock. That means that, if you feel up to it, there is enough time for you to go to the showers and wash before breakfast at nine o'clock. Please do not take this the wrong way, but you rather need it."
For the first time, Aura lifted up the sheets and looked at herself. She was still in her battle cloth from the previous day—that finely tailored, elaborate outfit that Lord Dionysus had ordered for all of them before the assault on Knossos.
It was indescribably filthy; caked with sweat, tears, snot, dirt, sandy grit, dried blood, and traces of green goo. So were her skin, hair, and worst of all, Alicia Forestlight's frilly pink-and-white bedspread. Aura felt the blood drain from her face in horror.
"I'm so sorry-,"
"I thought we'd already cleared this up. It can't be helped. The sheets will wash out, and I certainly wasn't going to be undressing you while you were too addled with grief and despair to be aware of what was going on. So, then. I think we're agreed that you need to use the washroom. After that… Well. That depends on what you want to do for yourself."
Aura knew that this was it. This was the part where she would have to directly confront her situation. Let it wash over you. Hear it, acknowledge it, but do not sink into it.
"Your god has returned to the heavens. Naturally, that means that your Familia is dissolved, and by the laws of Orario, all property held in the Familia's name is forfeit to the Guild. You yourself are now a free agent, able to join any Familia instantly. I should think most deities would be happy to recruit someone who's already leveled up; after all, more than half of the adventurers in the city can't say the same. I also believe that Dionysus Familia was involved in the wine trade. If you have any expertise in that field, you can opt to leave the city behind altogether and start a new career. There's any number of vineyards who would be glad to hire someone like you. In any case, whatever you decide, I highly recommend returning to your Familia home later today and packing up your personal possessions."
Aura's mouth felt dry. She could feel the weight pressing on her shoulders as if it contained all the weight of all the adamantium and orichalcum in Knossos; the beast of her memories looming over her, demanding for her to look it in the eye.
She did not.
"I… I can't do that. It sounds tempting, it does, but I can't. I can't just leave and start making wine, and pretend that nothing ever happened. Joining some normal, everyday Familia that doesn't know what's going on would be just the same." Her comrades had all known just how in over their heads they were before marching into Knossos, yet they'd gone in anyway, because they could do no less. What would they say if she ran off now? What would Lord Dionysus say, looking down at her right now from the heavens, if she did that? "I'd never be able to look myself in the mirror."
"Good," Forestlight said quietly. "Nobody has any right to choose your path except you. But I'm glad you're choosing that one. Since that's the case, you'll want to pay attention at breakfast. Lady Riveria will be discussing our next moves with us."
"Could I…" Aura's mouth was still dry; she swallowed, and attempted to wet her lips before asking, "Do you think I could join Loki Familia?"
It was a foolish question, she knew. Loki Familia was even larger than her own Familia in terms of numbers, but those that made it up were very different from Dionysus Familia. Lord Dionysus chose the rejects and the failures, because he loved watching them struggle and overcome the obstacles of their own past. Lady Loki, advised by her top executives, took only the best of the best, because she wanted to build the strongest Familia of all. Aura may have leveled up, but she was still a mediocrity. Barely worthy to serve as support to the strong, certainly not to fight alongside them. I learned that in the Dark Ages.
As Aura had known she would, Forestlight shook her head. "I can guarantee that you cannot." But then, she continued. And Aura noticed that the flicker that had passed over her face before had come once again, and stayed. It was a grim and bleak look as it settled on Forestlight's beautiful face, one that looked quite unnatural there. "Allow me to explain. Perhaps I should have done so earlier, but I believed it would be insensitive and wrong to launch into our own troubles as my first words to you. This has nothing to do with your own strength. You cannot join Loki Familia because it technically does not exist anymore. Lord Dionysus was not the only deity to return to the heavens last night."
Aura felt her jaw drop. She couldn't have heard correctly. The only thing she could manage to say was a dumb, "Huh?"
Forestlight smiled. Unlike her previous ones, it did not contain wry humor or gentle warmth; it was as bitter as ash. "Shortly after you escaped from Knossos, there were two more quakes. Two more gods were sent back. We believe the first one was Thanatos, last god of the Evils, though we have no way to confirm that. The third we know without a doubt was Lady Loki. Almost instantly upon the quake's beginning, every member of my Familia was stripped of their Status within the Dungeon, whether on the 9th or 12th Floor. Had it not been for the quick action of "Perseus" and Hermes Familia, it's quite likely all of us would have met roughly the same fate as your Familia, only being ripped apart by killer ants, Wall Shadows, and orcs instead of swallowed up by green goo."
Forestlight paused for a moment, then continued. "Instead, thanks to Hermes Familia, all of us that had already made it into the Dungeon were saved. Unfortunately, not all of us made it into the Dungeon. The detachment guarding Lady Loki and Lord Dionysus, which I believe you and Lefiya yourselves were originally part of, was entirely lost, as was Captain Finn and those with him, who had gone to reinforce said detachment. In addition to our goddess, we've lost Captain Finn, Gareth, Tione, Tiona, my fellow second-stringers Narvi and Cruz, and a selection of others. Eleven in all. Hence, Lady Riveria, our lone surviving leader, is going to address us at breakfast regarding where we go from here."
Aura was speechless. This was…. What happened to my Familia was a tragedy. But ultimately, other than myself, who is going to care? Who does our loss affect? No one, really. I'll just fall between the cracks. This, though. This is a calamity. First-class adventurers, those who had made it to Level Five or higher, were rarer than hen's teeth. There were less than forty in Orario, where the Dungeon gave a unique opportunity to grow stronger, and there was only one in the outside world that Aura had ever heard of. Level Sixes were even rarer. Orario had only ten.
Now it had six.
Aura felt cold. What chance do the rest of us have, when even the strongest are falling? When the news spread, the blow to general morale would be…
"And speaking of breakfast, we now have only about twenty minutes left!" Forestlight sounded as if she was forcibly changing the subject. "Which means that we need to stop dallying and get you to the showers. I washed earlier, so that's taken care of. We seem to have similar builds, so I'll let you borrow a change of clothes for now." She clapped her hands lightly and stood up from the chair. Aura moved to do the same, swinging her legs out of the bed and moving to stand.
The moment she put weight on her legs, she felt…. odd. Her right leg didn't seem to want to respond correctly. It wasn't in pain, it just didn't feel… right. Like her center of gravity was off. She lost her balance and began to fall.
"Oh, blast, I forgot about that!" Forestlight rushed forward and caught her before she could, while Aura stared numbly at her foot, or what was left of it.
It seemed that Forestlight had, at least, removed Aura's boots before depositing her in the bed the previous night, leaving her socks. The one on her right foot was torn and stained what had probably been crimson twelve hours ago, but was now a dull brown; the great hole in it allowed her to see where three of her toes along with a part of her foot had been cut off, or rather smashed off, by the great orichalcum door of Knossos.
No wonder my balance was off. Am I going to be able to walk without crutches?
Her god, her Familia, and her foot too. What even was left of her? All the important parts seemed to have vanished overnight.
"Lean on me." Forestlight draped Aura's arm over her shoulder, and supported her as she awkwardly staggered to the door. "I'll lead you to the washroom, it's not far. Guess I'll make a second trip for the clean clothes." She reached out with her free hand, opened the door, and they stepped out into a long, gently curving stone corridor that twisted away upwards to the right and downwards to the left, as if they were in a tower (Aura remembered dimly that that was exactly what the Twilight Manor was, a collection of towers and spires). Along the exterior wall, doors indicated more bedrooms, while the occasional alcove held chairs, tables, and large windows through which morning sunlight was streaming.
Forestlight nudged them to the right, and they began to proceed down the corridor.
It was a short walk as Forestlight had promised, passed in silence. Aura's mind was a chaotic mess, as she tried to sort through everything that had happened, everything that she had learned, everything she wanted to say.
"Here we are," Forestlight said after they'd gone perhaps twenty yards down the corridor, approaching a door on the interior wall. Forestlight reached out with her free hand again and opened the door, revealing a spacious, well-kept washroom with five individual shower stalls, each with a curtain to hide the occupant. "We're in the Maiden's Tower, so you don't need to worry about men barging in on you. Four residential towers in this complex, and the boys are crammed into one of them, heh."
Aura finally decided on what she wanted to say. "Ah, Ms. Forestlight-,"
"Alicia. We're going to be working together closely from here on out. It would be awkward for you to just call me by my surname the whole time, yes?"
"Ms. Alicia." Aura moved out from Alicia's supporting arm. It was difficult to begin to undress while leaning on the wall for support, but she attempted it anyway. "I truly cannot begin to thank you enough for everything you're doing for me."
Alicia frowned and opened her mouth to speak. This time, Aura cut her off. "I know what you've said, that you view it as simply being the right thing to do. Forgive me, but I must disagree. Your own Familia has been ended just like mine has, you're suffering yourself, and yet you've gone out of your way to show me the utmost consideration."
Alicia closed her mouth. She stood there, face slightly lowered so her bangs hid her eyes, as Aura finished undressing and reached in to the nearest shower stall to turn on the water. As the spray began to hit the floor, she spoke.
"You were crying in your sleep last night." Aura turned back to her. "I admit that it was a little distracting when trying to sleep myself, but I've slept through monsters howling a hundred yards or so away. In any case, it helped me realize something.
Narvi was my dear friend, as were Tione and Tiona. Finn and Gareth were wise leaders, who truly cared for all our wellbeing. Cruz, Nick, Olba and the others were fine men. Even now, I can hardly believe they're gone.
But Ais is still here. So are Aki and Lefiya, Raul and Bete, Sonia and Chiffon and Ruuni and Elfy and Rakuta. So is Lady Riveria, who I trust and believe in with all my soul. All perfectly healthy and whole. If I wish, I can leave this washroom, walk through the manor, and speak with any of them, right now. I've lost much. But I still have so much more."
Aura stared at the other woman. Alicia's eyes were steady as she continued. "I've heard it said that a death in the family presents the survivors with two choices: they can let it drive a wedge between them, or they can move closer together to fill the gap. I don't have to think, even for a moment, about what our response will be. Just as, when Lady Riveria asks us what I am sure she will, I don't have to think about what our response will be to that. I am afraid, Aura, that I must correct you: our situations are not at all alike. Loki Familia has not ended. Some of our best are gone, our goddess is gone, and soon our home will be as well. But we are still here. And whichever deity reactivates our Falna, we will remain. Listening to you, last night, I understood just how trivial my own problems are right now. I do not have the right to wallow in my own losses when you are standing right there. And I do not have the right, as someone who was not raised by goblins, to not extend my hand to someone suffering so much more than I can begin to comprehend.
It would be unseemly."
That did it. Reality, the full, true, awfulness of everything, decided that it was tired of being ignored. It leaned over her shoulder and looked her square in the face.
As tears began to pour down her face once again, Aura turned back around, yanked open the shower curtain, and stumbled into the now-fully-heated spray.
Alicia quietly left the room, to retrieve some clean clothes.
It took Aura quite a while to recover her composure after that.
The steaming hot water served well enough to wash away her tears, but even so, she sank to the bottom of the stall and cried for what felt to her like hours, sitting on the wet tiled floor as the faces that she would never see again began flitting in front of her.
It was all she could do, eventually, to rise—her already-skewed balance having been done no favors by the slippery floor- and awkwardly scrub her body and hair with the soap and shampoo already in the stall. Then, having fully cleaned herself at last and her body beginning to shrivel up like a prune, she eventually made her way out of the shower.
Alicia was standing there, waiting patiently by the door. The clean clothes she'd promised were laid out neatly on a bench by the wall. "If you need any help dressing, just ask."
"Thank you, but I can do this," Aura managed in reply. It was difficult, as undressing had been, but she could indeed do it. The clothes fit well enough, though they were perhaps a size too large in the chest.
"You look… well, I won't say you look your best, but you look much better now. We should go as fast as you can manage. Breakfast started fifteen minutes ago." Aura couldn't even open her mouth to apologize before Alicia continued. "No one with a soul that isn't completely black would begrudge you your grief, but we don't want to miss Lady Riveria. Plus, of course, you need something to eat."
With that said, she set off, Aura following. Or, rather, Alicia led the way by a step, lingering close enough to catch Aura in case she fell, which happened three times as they made their way down through the spiral of the Maiden's Tower, once more as they crossed a small courtyard that separated said tower from the central and largest spire of the complex, and yet again as they entered the main building.
"Here," Alicia said immediately after they entered the main building and she'd helped Aura back to her feet. "First door on the right in the entrance hall." She pulled the door open, and stood aside to let Aura enter.
The first thing Aura noticed as she crossed the threshold of Loki Familia's dining hall was the atmosphere. It was a large room, suited to serve as the communal dining and gathering space for more than a hundred individuals, and it was currently packed.
In such an environment, one would normally expect it to be buzzing with conversation, laughter, and the ordinary sounds of a busy place. Now, however, the place was silent, save for the clink of knives, forks, and spoons as the Familia members ate. The air felt grim. "Funereal" didn't quite seem to fit, but there was no denying the grief that Aura felt hanging over this room, as well as the bitterness and anger. She thought she also felt some… anticipation?
It seemed they'd gotten here before Lady Riveria began to speak, at least.
"Over here," Alicia murmured, obviously trying not to draw too many eyes to the late arrivals. A few eyes had risen at the sound of the doors opening, but most of Loki Familia's adventurers were still focused on the food in front of them. The dining hall was arranged into four rows of tables, each with benches along either side, with the exception of a single table with four chairs behind it on a raised dais at one end. Of those four chairs, three were empty, while Riveria Ljos Alf sat in the fourth, picking at her food.
Alicia steered Aura towards the table in the row closest to the door and on the end closest to the dais. This one had only two people sitting on its benches, more spaces empty than filled.
One was a slim, ridiculously beautiful girl with hair like beaten gold and similarly colored eyes; the sort of maiden that seemed to make her surroundings look dark and dull in comparison, and made other girls feel pathetic as soon as they laid eyes upon her. Aura knew who this was immediately. There was no one, in Orario and quite possibly in all the world, who had not heard of Ais Wallenstein, the "Sword Princess." Said "Sword Princess" was currently half-heartedly picking at her food, in a manner similar to Lady Riveria's at the high table.
The other occupant… was Anakitty Autumn. The black-haired catgirl looked up at the approaching footsteps; her eyes met Aura's, just as they had the previous night.
Just as they had when Autumn had left Aura to die.
Autumn flinched and looked away.
She must feel guilty.
Aura didn't know what to think. She couldn't blame the catgirl for what she'd done, but… she couldn't imagine trying to hold a conversation, let alone being friends. It simply wasn't the sort of thing that was easy to look past.
Aura was about to sit on the bench opposite from Autumn, as far as possible from the two girls already there, when Alicia took hold of her arm.
"I'm sorry, this is another thing I forgot. Wait here, just a moment, I'll be right back." With that, Alicia hurried off, trying to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible, though the overall silence in the hall made that difficult.
And so Aura found herself standing there pointlessly, next to a table at the front of the room, putting as much weight as possible on her now-aching left leg so that she didn't fall over and cause a true commotion in the home of another Familia.
She could already feel the gazes beginning to fall on her. Their arrival in the room had mostly gone unnoticed, but now she felt more and more people in the dining hall begin to look at her. She thought she heard whispers of "the Dionysus girl". Only in spirit, now. At the table, Ais Wallenstein raised her eyes from her plate and looked curiously at Aura, though Autumn determinedly kept looking anywhere else.
Thankfully, Alicia reappeared at that moment, carrying a chair with one hand and somehow balancing two loaded plates in the other. "Sorry about that," she said, placing the chair at the end of the table. Aura sat down gratefully, and Alicia proceeded to place a sizzling plate of food in front of her, before sitting down on the bench on the "Sword Princess's" side with her own food.
Aura felt the stares linger on her for a moment longer, then vanish.
"This is the table that the highest ranking young women of the Familia normally eat at," Alicia explained in a whisper. "Myself, Ais, Aki, Tione, Tiona, Narvi, and Lefiya. Lefiya's still catatonic in bed, her roommate Elfy-," Alicia nodded towards a depressed-looking human girl with curly brown hair two tables down, "-couldn't get her up, while the others…"
Alicia trailed off. Aura didn't need her to explain further. She had no desire to steal the space of a lost comrade of Loki Familia.
"Anyway," Alicia resumed, still whispering, "I apologize about the food."
Wondering what the other elf had meant by that, Aura looked down at her plate and immediately understood.
Before her was a steaming plate of steak and eggs. The eggs were moist and fluffy, the steak cooked at medium and juicy. Looking up, she could see that the "Sword Princess" had a half-eaten plate of the same, while Autumn's plate was almost clean but still bore crumbs of the eggs and a few pieces of trimmed fat.
There was just one problem: elves almost never ate meat. It wasn't universal, but it was close to it. Alicia's own plate contained granola and fruit, as did Lady Riveria's, alone at the front of the room. Aura herself was no exception in her preferences. She ate fish maybe once a month or so, and she couldn't remember the last time she'd had red meat. She couldn't even say why elven diets were like this, precisely; there wasn't a blanket moral prohibition on killing animals for food. It just wasn't done.
"It's fine," Aura said absently, looking back down at her plate. The last thing she wanted right now was to kick up a fuss and draw more attention to herself. She tentatively scooped up a forkful of the eggs first, delaying her encounter with the meat.
Alicia watched her for a moment. "It's a Familia tradition to have steak and eggs either before or after any major expedition or other significant mission. The cooks will prepare alternate meals for those who don't eat that sort of stuff, but nobody told them you were an elf, so they only had the normal meal ready for you. Just like nobody told them, apparently, that this was no normal expedition. The whole thing was Mr. Gareth's idea. He said it was a 'proper warrior's meal'." Alicia's lips twisted bitterly. "Typical dwarf." That last came out in a whisper even softer than the tone she'd been using previously, to the point that Aura wasn't sure she'd heard it. Alicia looked down to her own plate, and dug out a chunk of granola.
The rest of the meal passed in silence; nobody was particularly in the mood to talk. Aura managed to get all the way through the eggs without too much difficulty, but then she tried tackling the steak.
It probably was very good, as steak went; it was hot and tender and juicy. She could acknowledge that it didn't even taste unpleasant, exactly. But it tasted wrong, if that made any sense. She simply was too unused to meat. She ate two pieces before she stopped, looking down at her plate, conflicted.
It was at that moment that a sharp ringing came from the front of the room.
Riveria Ljos Alf had stood from her chair, her own plate (and that of just about everyone else in the hall, other than Alicia and Aura) clean. Those who hadn't eaten everything in front of them had seemingly been finished anyway, and seeing this, Loki Familia's last senior executive had begun to tap her fork on her drinking glass for attention.
She got it. Instantly, every person in the hall, even those few that were still eating, had turned their faces towards her.
Her face calm, Lady Riveria put her glass and her fork back down on the high table and moved around to the other side, closer to her audience. She stood there for a moment, her hands laced behind her back, looking out at them.
Then she began to speak.
"I wish I could say something like, 'I hope all of you had a good night's rest.' Or perhaps 'What we all experienced yesterday and last night was a horrible dream.' I know full well that none of you truly slept well. And what happened yesterday was very real, as much as we all might wish otherwise. There are twelve empty seats in this room now, seats that but a short while belonged to our friends and comrades. People that we have known for months, for years, for decades." Lady Riveria closed her eyes.
"I wish that I could spend this time giving the eulogy they all so richly deserve," she continued. "I wish that I could give each of you all the time you need to mourn, each in your own way. For that matter, I wish that the events of last night had not happened, and all those people were back where they ought to be. If there is one thing we as adventurers should know above all else, it is that our wishes seldom correspond to reality."
Her eyes snapped back open. "The opponents we sought to defeat in our assault on Knossos are still very much a threat. To us, to the city, and to the world. More than a threat, they were indisputably victorious last night, the second time they have been so against us. The final destruction of Evilus is of no matter. That organization ceased to be a true threat in its own right after the Dark Ages. What was destroyed was nothing more than a few stragglers who'd been skulking in the shadows, stragglers who had planned the destruction of this city by unleashing the demi-spirit upon it. The demi-spirit is still there. If I can even refer to it in the singular at all, I have grown a terrible suspicion that there are far more than just the one. But whether one or two or a dozen, they are there, and they will soon be unleashed, unless they are somehow destroyed. Those are the stakes."
Lady Riveria let the words hang in the air. The atmosphere in the room now was like a black cloud; bleak, dark, and foreboding. She could not have put it more plainly; they were running out of time before the destruction of the city of Orario, and its consequences for the world. The destruction of the Lid Upon The Dungeon, and the renewal of the horrors of the Ancient Times. They had known of their enemy's goals before the previous night, though they'd been confident in their ability to stop them in time. Now, though…
"Our defeat is quite bad enough, the loss of some of our strongest and best even worse. The final injury is the loss of our goddess. We have been returned to the level of ordinary people, unable to utilize our Skills, cast our Magic, or do anything that we normally could. As it stands, we are unable to defend ourselves, let alone the world, as you all saw last night when we required Hermes Familia to save us. In order to rectify this, each of us will need to reactivate our Status. We will need to join a new Familia. And so, that brings me to the first step of the future plans that I mentioned last night.
I will be spending the majority of today speaking with gods. Exactly which ones, I have yet to decide, as that depends on the answer of you all to the question I am about to put to you, though I do have several candidates already in mind. I aim to have found a suitable god, and joined their Familia, within no more than another twenty-four hours. Ideally, there would be a much longer search period, given how important such a decision normally is, but there is no time for that so far as I am concerned. I will continue to fight against this threat to Orario until my dying breath, just as Finn and Gareth did, and I require my full strength back immediately. That is the decision I have made for myself."
Lady Riveria paused here, her eyes sweeping the assembled adventurers. Every one stared back, their gazes unblinking.
"By myself, however, I can hope for no more than an honorable death. I will, of course, attempt to reach out to the other powers still remaining in the city, but at this point every bit of strength Orario can muster must be brought to bear, and it must be united. And so, I come to the request I must make of you all.
I humbly ask that all of you follow me to the Familia that I join.
I recognize that this is something that I have no right to ask of you. The choice of Familia is a deeply personal decision between individual and god, as it was when you joined Loki. I also recognize that given the circumstances, with our failures in the last two assaults on Knossos, none of you have any reason to trust your former leadership anymore, nor have I any right to request to be given authority over you again in any capacity. Nevertheless, I believe-,"
"TO HELL WITH THAT!" A voice yelled from the back of the dining hall. Aura looked to see the speaker—it was masculine, she could tell that—but could not over the rows of heads. Not that she would have known who he was in any case.
Lady Riveria half-closed her eyes for a moment in what seemed like resignation, then opened her mouth to continue arguing her case, but before she could—
"YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO LOSE OUR TRUST!"
The unknown speaker beat her to the punch.
The Crown Princess of the High Elves froze, her mouth half-open. Besides Aura, Alicia stood up smoothly from the bench.
"Lady Riveria, I should think that at the very least myself and every other elf in this Familia have made our loyalty to you perfectly clear over the years. Even those of other races have followed you and our other leaders into nightmarish situations beyond count. These two encounters with Knossos don't change that in the slightest. I grieve Mr. Finn and Mr. Gareth, but above all else, I am grateful that you are still here. I know that you won't pick a god that will abuse or exploit you or me, and will give you their full cooperation in saving everyone. I think I speak for every one of us here when I say that this whole speech of yours was unnecessary. We will follow you to whatever end."
And just as Alicia's words to Aura earlier had opened one set of floodgates…
"DAMN RIGHT WE WILL!"
…so her words now opened another.
The entirety of Loki Familia began to jump to their feet, one after the other, in a rising cacophony of banging, scraping, and yells.
"WE'RE BEHIND YOU!"
"THIS ISN'T OVER!"
"TELL US WHERE TO GO!"
"THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS KILLED THE CAPTAIN!"
It was pandemonium. People began to press forward, shouting, the various emotions they'd been experiencing in the last twelve hours finding an outlet. Even the noncombatant members like the cooks and the cleaning staff, who'd been inconspicuously listening outside the room, came in and added their voices to the din. Even Alicia and Autumn had gotten up.
Only two people had not. Ais Wallenstein, who sat looking on, placidly chewing on one of her last pieces of steak, but with an unmistakable smile on her face.
And Aura herself. Surprisingly, the thing she felt most looking at this was… regret. Could such a scene ever have been possible in Dionysus Familia? Would the members ever have rallied around me in such a way? Would they have rallied around Filvis? She knew the answer to that. She had never done anything to earn such loyalty. And the Familia had hated Filvis. I helped make sure of it.
The noise continued.
"WE'LL DEFINITELY GET THEM THIS TIME!"
"WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK!"
"I REALLY THOUGHT NARVI HAD GREAT GAP MOE!"
"JUST AS LONG AS IT'S NOT FREYA!"
Finally, the cacophony was pierced by a shrill whistle, and it began to quiet.
Lady Riveria withdrew her fingers from her mouth, and Aura was astonished to see that her eyes were shining with unshed tears. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her green longcoat before any of them could fall, and coughed into her fist.
"Thank you. I had hoped, but had not dared to be so arrogant as to simply assume all of you would support me like this. It is very gratifying, and makes things much easier. You need not fear, Rakuta, I have no intention of approaching Freya for anything more than an alliance in these dire circumstances. The way her Familia is run is distasteful to me in the extreme. Each of you are friends, comrades, and juniors to mentor to me, not rivals to attempt to murder." She raised her voice. "Since all of you have affirmed that you are willing to continue following my orders, I would now like all of you to return to your seats so that I can lay out our immediate next steps."
As the members of Loki Familia began to obey, Lady Riveria pulled a furled roll of parchment, a quill, and a stoppered inkpot from one of the pockets of her coat. "I brought this with me so that I might ascertain just how many people would be willing to follow me. It appears that I now know the answer to the question already, but even so, I would like every one of you to sign your names on this anyway as it makes its way around. It will prove useful." She moved to the table at the front and furthest away from the entrance and deposited the parchment and writing implements there. "In the meantime, I will continue. There is much to be done."
She moved back to the dais and faced them all again. "I will be spending today, as I have already indicated, speaking with gods. I cannot say when I will return, but it will be as soon as possible. In the meantime, there is much for all of you to do. Firstly, you must begin packing. Regardless of where we all are in a few days' time, it will not be here. Go through your rooms, and begin putting all of your personal possessions into crates and other moving materials. We should have plenty of those in storage, the kind that we normally use for moving heavy gear on deep expeditions. Do not bother with your furniture for the time being, there will be time to collect that later, assuming the new deity has not already provided such. Once you have finished packing, help someone else. Secondly…"
Lady Riveria's eyes narrowed. "Tomorrow, after having made arrangements for our conversion, I will approach the Guild and formally notify them of Lady Loki's departure from Earth. Once I do that, they will undoubtedly send a representative to formally possess the manor within hours. Before that occurs, I need all of you to go through our armories and our archive and secure as much of it as you possibly can into our packed materials to take with us. The law states that it is to become the property of the city in this case, but we have invested far too much time and money to lose those weapons and books. Prioritize especially the Durandal weapons that were made for our last Deep Floors expedition, and any research material in the archive that relates to spirits. Leave only the items in Finn's, Loki's and Gareth's chambers. I will deal with those myself."
The parchment had continued down the row that Lady Riveria had placed it in, all the way to the far end of the room, and was now working its way back up the next one. The table of ranking young women Aura was at would be the last to get it. From what Aura could see, nobody yet had failed to sign.
"The third thing I must make clear to you all is this. We are all aware of our status as a Familia within the city. We are viewed as the guardians of order, one of the protectors of the world, the vanguard of the exploration of the Dungeon, and so on and so forth. These are titles that all of us have worked long and hard for, fought for and bled for. The people believe in us as unshakable pillars of society. While it is a source of pride for us under normal circumstances, as it should be, at this moment it stands to be the cause of a disaster."
Lady Riveria's voice took on an edge of steel. "The moment word gets out of what has happened to us, a mass panic will ensue. I would dearly like that to be an exaggeration, but it is not. Fear will grip the civilian population. Fear of what may become of them due to outside threats that Loki Familia is not there to protect them from anymore. Fear of whatever it is that has done this to us. Questions will begin to be asked. In the worst case scenario, it will become known that there is an active threat directly under our feet that threatens to destroy the city and that we have already failed to stop at least once, and lost our goddess and some of our best in the attempt. Chaos will erupt, the sort of chaos that at the very least will cost innocent lives and at the worst could make the difference between victory and defeat in our next and final attempt at the cleansing of Knossos.
This being the case, I am issuing a strict curfew. Until I direct otherwise, none of you are to leave the grounds of the Twilight Manor. This applies even to any of you that may change your minds and not wish anything to do with this any longer; it is the only command that I will issue to you. I am the only one that leaves here today. We will begin moving in to the home of our new deity tonight, under cover of darkness, so I suggest that you all take naps in the late afternoon if you feel tired. If anyone shows up at the gates, they are not to be allowed in, for any reason. If they request to see myself or any of the other senior leadership, find a way to redirect their attention. It will, of course, be impossible to pretend that nothing has happened forever, but it is my hope that if we delay the release of the news sufficiently, we can get ahead of the matter sufficiently to be able to contain it when it does get out."
The parchment had made its way around most of the room and was now almost at their table.
"That should be it for now. Are there any questions?"
Only one hand went up- the human girl with curly brown hair a few tables down that Alicia had called Elfy earlier. "Lady Riveria, what about Lefiya? She still isn't up. She doesn't know anything that's going on, and I'm starting to get really scared for her."
Lady Riveria closed her eyes for a moment. "Leave her to me as well. When I return today, if she still isn't responsive, I will attempt to talk to her. Anyone else?"
No one else raised their hand.
The parchment had now reached their table. Ais Wallenstein immediately signed it, followed by Anakitty Autumn and then Alicia, who then held it out for Lady Riveria to collect…
…but before she could, Aura took it, put it back on the table, and ignoring the stares of everyone else in the room, squeezed her own name in right at the very bottom.
I said it earlier, Alicia, did you somehow forget?
Even if I can't contribute much, far less than you and infinitely less than someone like the "Sword Princess" or Lady Riveria.
Even if I'm going to spend most of today figuring out how to just consistently walk around without needing someone to catch me when I overbalance and fall, and then spend tomorrow figuring out how to get into my own Familia's home to retrieve my things from there.
Even if someone as weak as me is almost certainly going to die in this third and final assault, whenever it happens, the day after tomorrow or in a week.
I am going back in. I owe it to those who can't.
The gates of the Twilight Manor closed behind Riveria with a CLANG. She lingered there, just outside them, for a moment, craning her neck back, looking at the spires and towers of the complex, leaping toward the sky like flames carved from stone.
It's strange how quickly I grew to take this place for granted. How long have I lived here, twelve years or so? I'm ninety-nine years old, a hundred in five months. I left the Royal Forest and joined Loki's Familia as its second member when I was seventy. We wandered the world for just under a decade after that, then after we finally came to Orario it was some time before we could accumulate the funds to order the construction of something like this… twelve years seems about right. A tiny fraction of the life I've lived to this point. And yet so many more of my memories are bound up here than anywhere else.
The thought that soon, she would have to leave behind forever this place that was more a home to her than anywhere else she'd ever been was yet another hammer blow in a 24 hours full of them. And yet, paradoxically, a part of her was glad to be outside the gates at this moment—the irresponsible, bratty part she thought she'd long since squelched, the part that had driven her cousin and handmaiden Aina up the wall with exasperation back in the days when she was still a princess living in her forest castle.
Inside the manor at this moment was a mountain of problems, all of which needed her input to solve. There was a very good reason, beside merely the comradeship of old times, that she, Finn, and Gareth had essentially run the Familia as a triumvirate; it was a colossal amount of work even in ordinary times. Now everything was tripled, and it all fell on her shoulders. A ninefold increase in work, just for "Nine Hell". She laughed under her breath mirthlessly.
She needed to organize, she needed to plan, she bore final responsibility for everything they did at the moment. She was the one that would be the final authority on all problems, big and small. Problems that often had no easy solution—she was not looking forward to the inevitable task of trying to restore Lefiya to some semblance of functionality.
And so, the lazy little part of her that rebelled against the inevitable rejoiced now, as she turned her steps down the small little side street that the Twilight Manor was on to join North Main, that she could focus on the only one of her problems that promised to be at least somewhat simple.
She had lied to the Familia earlier.
Or rather, she had exaggerated. She had told them that she would be spending the rest of the day speaking with various gods, trying to evaluate them, and that she had not yet made up her mind as to exactly which ones.
That had been true, up to a point. Before she had gotten up in front of them to begin speaking, she'd had a number of different scenarios and options in her mind. She had not anticipated the overwhelming show of loyalty she'd gotten—something that had very nearly driven her to tears on the spot, and sent a flood of warm emotions through her even now—but the knowledge that essentially the entirety of Loki Familia would support and follow her had simplified her choices immensely.
Not just all of my Familia, even, but the Dionysus girl as well. What was her name… Riveria fished out the parchment from her coat pocket, unfurled it as she walked down North Main with the morning traffic, and examined the name scrunched in at the bottom. … Aura Moriel. Just what did Alicia say to her, I wonder?
Regardless, when she'd gotten up that morning and begun to tackle her bedhead (she sometimes wondered what all the elves who saw her as their perfect, flawless, refined princess would say, if they could see her falling out of the covers looking like she'd been struck by lightning), she'd had upwards of twenty gods in mind as possible choices to approach. Now, there was really only one.
There were dozens upon dozens of gods in the city of Orario, known as the Center of the World. Deities had been descending from heaven for over a thousand years at this point, gods and goddesses representing all sorts of pantheons, the vast majority of which were coming down for nothing more than entertainment. And for a god, the best entertainment was likely to be found in the most important place in the world.
Thus, an individual who wanted to be an adventurer in Orario, exploring the Dungeon, had no shortage of options, if all they wanted was a Falna inscribed on their back. The problem was that gods and goddesses, as mortals had known long before the first of them came to Earth, were capricious.
Each of them had their own individual personalities, and the "entertainment" each of them sought from the mortal world was different. There were gods and goddesses who found their greatest joy in helping mortals in some way, be it running a business enterprise, or leading a conventional exploration Familia that took care of its members as much as possible. There were also gods that ran exploration Familias, took all the hard-earned coin that their mortal followers had earned in peril of their lives, and immediately went and spent it all in a whorehouse. There were deities that didn't want to bother spending the money, and instead simply took advantage of their relationship with their Familia to force sexual favors out of them. There were gods that would deliberately provoke and instigate fights in the street and between their own followers just to laugh at the chaos. There were gods that self-described themselves as "evil" and recruited like-minded mortals, gods that decided the best entertainment the mortal world could provide them was its own destruction; these had been the deities of Evilus, the organization that had finally been completely extinguished the previous night.
In summary, finding a deity to join in Orario was easy, especially if you already had something to offer, like strength or money or good looks (Riveria indisputably had all three). The problem was finding the right god or goddess.
She'd been incredibly lucky with Loki, though she hadn't known it at the time (she hadn't even been intending to join a Familia at all, but had rather been forced by circumstance). Loki was a Trickster Deity. A goddess whose existence revolved around getting one over on other beings, usually by deceit. There were all sorts of things one might expect from getting involved with such an entity, most of them bad.
As it turned out, however, the desire that Loki had had in the mortal world was quite simple: she had wanted to win. Wanted to win the Gods' Great Game, by producing the strongest Familia of all, by exploring the unknown farthest depths of the Dungeon, by defeating any and all comers, by defeating the last of the Three Great Beasts, the One Eyed Black Dragon. Working together with Finn, Gareth, and of course Riveria herself, Loki had aimed to achieve that by building a Familia that was a family in more than just name. One that prided itself on teamwork, careful planning, and helping each and every one of its members, from the most important to the most insignificant, become both better people and stronger fighters in some way every day.
A Familia built upon a culture of excellence in all things.
I must not allow that culture to be lost. Both for the sake of the goals we four set, and the sake of their legacy on this Earth.
It was one of her most important criteria in her current task.
In Riveria's mind, several things were required of her next deity.
He or she must be a morally upstanding deity, the sort who would not abuse their followers in any significant way.
He or she must be trustworthy, enough to be willing to immediately join the fight to save the city when given the full details of what was going on, rather than for example attempting to flee and hide in a corner of the nearest mountain range. Also enough to be given access to certain secrets of Loki Familia that Riveria would prefer not to be shared with anyone, but would be impossible to hide from their deity.
He or she must have the facilities available to accommodate the immediate recruitment of over a hundred new members. A mundane consideration, but no less important for it. Riveria couldn't ask everyone to join some poor Familia living in a townhouse designed to accommodate six.
He or she must run a Dungeon Exploration type Familia, known more simply in the city as a militaristic Familia. That one was fairly self-explanatory.
Lastly, the Familia must not have such a firm and distinct culture of its own that what had been Loki Familia would become completely assimilated and lose its identity altogether. Riveria knew this was an unfair thing to ask, but nevertheless she was firm in it. I would prefer to have something arise in the long term that incorporates the best aspects of us and them, but if something must be absorbed, I will not have it be us.
Riveria weaved her way through the late-morning crowds on North Main, and entered Central Park. From there, she turned right, walking about a quarter of the way around the circumference of the park until she reached the entrance of West Main. She entered the new boulevard, and began to move up it.
There were quite a few candidates in the city that fit the first item on the list; a true blessing on the world. They ranged from dirt-poor and insignificant ones like Miach and Takemikazuchi, to ones of medium prestige like Demeter, to the top ones like Hephaestus and Ganesha. Ironically, despite the actions of his Familia the previous night, Riveria couldn't really put Hermes on the list.
The above mentioned ones mostly fit the second criteria as well, though Riveria had her doubts about Ganesha's ability to not say something he wasn't supposed to at an inappropriate time.
The last three items, though…
Miach and Takemikazuchi, and others like them, were out of the question based on the third item alone. Miach lived in a shack in the slums, Takemikazuchi barely better. Ganesha Familia was the largest in the city in terms of numbers (in fact it boasted more than three times the members of Loki or Freya, the next largest), which was necessary as it served as the city's police force. But that very size cut against it, as the Familia home was currently stuffed almost to capacity. Iamganesha, as it was named, could not hope to accommodate a hundred new members without an expansion. Plus, of course, Riveria flatly refused to contemplate living in a building designed in the shape of a giant elephant-headed man with the front door located in said man's crotch. Demeter and Hephaestus Familias might be able to accommodate so many recruits, given their particular situations, however…
They fell afoul of the fourth criteria. The reason that both might be able to accommodate so many recruits was that both were primarily commercial Familias, Demeter Familia exclusively so. That Familia primarily lived just outside the city, managing vast farmlands that served to provide much of Orario's food supply. Hephaestus Familia was the single largest producer of weapons and armor in the city, and a major exporter across the world; its members did not just live in their home, but were often allocated forges that doubled as living spaces in the east-northeast octet of the city. Hephaestus Familia's members often ventured into the Dungeon, but it wasn't their primary goal. They were blacksmiths first. The members of Loki Familia were not. Neither were they farmers.
So, then, all the options that immediately came to mind were busts.
And yet….
There was one.
Riveria continued a short way up West Main, then turned left, into a maze of side streets that led her into a relatively quiet and peaceful sector of the west-southwest octet. She continued down sunny streets, past playing children and passerby that stopped and stared as she passed. Adventurers of her fame and prestige were almost never seen in this part of the city. That will soon change.
She turned one final corner, and emerged onto a comparatively wide road, though one mostly free of traffic. On the other side stood a large estate.
"Estate" was the right word. In some ways, this building was grander than Twilight Manor; it visibly had grounds, for one thing; a large lawn with occasional groves of trees surrounding it covering several acres of land. An extravagance in the middle of the city, all surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. The mansion itself was large; Riveria confirmed at a glance what she had already known, that it could easily accommodate as many people as the Twilight Manor could, though its size lay in the horizontal dimension rather than the vertical. It only made sense, as the previous owners had been roughly the same size in numbers as Loki Familia.
The current owners, on the other hand…
Riveria pushed open the gate and walked up the paved path through the manicured lawn. Past the large fountain, up the front steps, preparing her first words to whoever came to greet her.
She knocked on the door, heard footsteps coming to the door, and…
"Tsubaki?!"
"Riveria?!"
… was shocked when she was greeted by, not any of the faces she was expecting, but that of the captain of Hephaestus Familia, Level 5 Tsubaki Collbrande.
""What are you doing here?!"" The two women exclaimed simultaneously.
Riveria recovered first, and repeated her question. "Tsubaki? What are you doing here? This isn't your home. Why are you here?"
"I thought you'd have heard—the owners are off on an expedition," the tanned woman replied, crossing her arms over her voluminous chest. Ah. Yes. I had heard that. It had just slipped Riveria's mind with everything else that had happened. "Since my goddess and theirs are friends, I got 'volunteered' to play housesitter. Not to brag, but there isn't a petty thief that would dare come around with me here. I don't really mind, Welfy-boy's got a pretty nice setup in his forge out back so that I don't get bored. So-,"
Riveria interrupted. "But their goddess wouldn't have gone down into the Dungeon with them. May I speak with her?"
Tsubaki raised an eyebrow at Riveria's rudeness, but let it pass. "Their goddess isn't like Loki. She doesn't sit around drinking all day, she works. Her Familia brings in good money for how few people they have, but in a place this size, that's just barely enough to keep the lights on, the larder full, and the lawn maintained. So she works. One part-time job to help pay her Familia's bills, and one part-time job to pay off a personal debt she owes my goddess. She's at the first right now. So, why are you here?"
Riveria hesitated. She knew Tsubaki well—the woman was a good person at heart in addition to being the world's greatest mortal blacksmith, and had been an ally in the field of Loki Familia before. But… "It's a private matter for now. I promise you'll find out soon enough." Tsubaki had a particularly expressive and chaotic personality. Riveria did not trust this woman to keep a secret, and she wanted this kept a secret until the deal was done, at a minimum.
Tsubaki's eyebrow rose even higher. "Uh huh. So, is there anything else I can help you with?" If not, please leave, Riveria heard unspoken.
"Yes. You said she's at a part-time job right now? Where is it?"
"She's working at a Jagamarukun stand," Tsubaki replied dryly.
Riveria froze for a moment when she heard that. A Jagamarukun stand? This goddess was making stuffed hashbrowns and selling them as street food? For a moment she almost reconsidered the train of logic that had led her here.
"It's pretty far up North Main," Tsubaki added. "Pretty close to your place, actually. You probably walked right past it coming here."
Riveria actually groaned aloud at that one. Now that it was mentioned, she knew the exact place Tsubaki was talking about. While Riveria herself didn't care for Jagamarukun (much too greasy), Ais adored them- Riveria had to personally manage the girl's finances to prevent her from dividing her entire income equally between weapons and stuffed hashbrowns. She had known for some time that if Ais could not be found in the Twilight Manor, she was either in the Dungeon fighting and training, or in line at that exact stall. Of all the places…
She inclined her head in Tsubaki's direction, thanked her, and turned to leave.
"Hey, can you tell Gareth I've got that spare ax he ordered ready, whenever he can come pick it up!" Tsubaki called from over her shoulder.
Riveria was glad her back was already turned.
From the manor, she retraced her steps—weaving through the side streets to West Main, then down West Main to Central Park, then around Central Park to North Main, then up the road that had for so long been her way home. As she did, she reflected that this was already much more walking than she thought she'd have to do today. And I'm far from done.
Soon enough, the familiar storefronts of the Twilight Manor's local neighborhood began to pass around her. Should be… there. It was beginning to approach the point when an early lunch was viable, and a line was beginning to form around a medium-sized food stall.
Riveria paused for a moment, then marched right past the line to the stall. It's not like I'm here to order food.
The stall was large enough, and popular enough, that it was divided into two areas; a front area for customer service, and a back, hidden by a curtain, for food preparation. On reaching the counter, Riveria surveyed the front, and did not see the person she was here for there. Ignoring the stares pressing on her back (whether because she'd cut the line or whether they were simply the normal ones she garnered wherever she went, she didn't care), she turned to the woman currently taking orders and opened her mouth to speak…
….when the curtain parted, and a form emerged from the back, carrying a basket of freshly deep-fried potatoes.
She was quite short, well under five feet tall. Her figure was womanly despite the diminutive height, what Loki might've called a "shortstack" (though for this particular individual, Loki had usually had far less complimentary words). A divinely beautiful face, though this one tended more towards "cute"; a pair of long, jet-black pigtails; and eyes like deep-blue pools completed the picture.
"Orders up!" The goddess began to shout, before noticing the odd atmosphere on the street and looking around for the source. She didn't have to look long.
"Goddess Hestia, I presume?" Riveria said.
Aura Moriel
[Redacted] Familia
Race: Elf
Gender: Female
Dungeon Range: 24th Floor
Notable Equipment: Staff of Brunello's Blossom
Level 2
Strength: H122
Endurance: H183
Dexterity: H177
Agility: D566
Magic: B723
Mage: I
(Magic)
[Vitalia Bacchae]
Water of the God that nourishes the vine, burst forth upon my enemies!
Creates a stream of high-pressure water. Unguided, moving in line directly ahead of caster. Approximate range: 20 yards.
[Lumina Bacchae]
Light of the God that ripens the vine, burst forth upon my enemies!
Creates a flash of intense light.
(Skills)
[Fairy Cry]
Increases the effect of magic.
Alicia Forestlight
Loki Familia
Race: Elf
Gender: Female
Dungeon Range: 59th Floor
Notable Equipment: Purecrystal Wand, Shortbow, Shortsword
Level 4
Strength: E488
Endurance: F323
Dexterity: A852
Agility: C611
Magic: A888
Mage: G
Abnormal Resistance: G
Magic Resistance: I
(Magic)
[Arctic Edge]
Merge my touch with that of winter.
Imbues currently equipped weapon with ice-element enchantment.
If melee weapon, grants weapon small chance to completely freeze enemy instantly upon contact.
If ranged weapon, grants projectiles small chance to create medium-sized ice explosion upon impact.
[Frost Javelin]
Shards of the frozen trees, shrapnel of deep chill. Strike forth, piercing the cores of the heated savages!
Creates burst of large ice spears to strike the target. Number depends on level and amount of mind expended. Unguided projectiles, fired in line directly ahead of caster. Approximate range: 70 yards.
[Hail Dust]
Frozen skies, heavenly rain. White ice that colors the forest, shoot the shameful barbarians. Freeze, binding chains of winter!
Creates a sphere of light above caster's head which is consumed to fire a swarm of magical bullets which freeze their targets.
360 degree zone of attack. Approximate range: 50 yards. Projectiles take flight paths necessary to strike only enemies and avoid allies in area.
(Skills)
[Fairy Chorus]
Increases the effect of magic, improves mind usage efficiency.
[Gust of Driven Snow]
Raises Strength stat by moderate amount whenever magic is cast while wielding a melee weapon.
Raises Agility stat by moderate amount whenever magic is cast while wielding a ranged weapon.
Stat boosts can stack for a combined total of 3 times. Duration of each individual boost is approximately one minute.
So, here's Chapter 4! Eight days later, so I technically missed the deadline I gave (already?!). I took an extra day of break to play Hearts of Iron, which was bad. The school semester started, which is also bad. Trying to get all my boxes organized for the class I'm teaching, and making sure I'm ready for the ones I'm taking.
In compensation, here's the longest chapter yet. Yes, LF is going to join Hestia Familia. My apologies to those of you that thought they'd do something else, but this was one of the very first things I thought of when I first came up with the idea for this story. I hope you're satisfied with the chain of logic that Riveria uses.
Hugely ironic that Aura and Alicia get the starring roles in the chapter, then SO15 comes out while I'm writing this. Both girls moved up my favorites list in the process of writing their scenes, and probably will continue to do so. There's something about filling in the gaps of a canon character's personality, taking the foundation that an author gives you and building on it, that really endears the character to you. It's not really possible with main characters because they're mostly fleshed out already, but I still look forward to writing Riveria, Ais, and the various HF characters in the near future.
Also, a couple of stat sheets. I try to work off what we know about the individual, both in terms of any stats that are already known and their general personality/background information, then build a profile from there.
Aura is Level 2, but a comparatively weak one. She ranked up to 2 six years ago during the waning years of the Dark Ages, and went on a couple missions as far down as the Colossal Tree Labyrinth, hence the floor record. She doesn't go that far nowadays, being restricted by the vast majority of Dionysus Familia being Level One. She is an elven mage, so the mandatory elven magic-boosting skill. However, she's a utility/support type as opposed to the usual offensive juggernauts we generally see from the series (I thought we need some utility mages here), and it shows. Knockback magic (think a firehose), and what's essentially a flashbang grenade.
Alicia, on the other hand, is exactly what we'd expect from a senior member of Loki Familia in their second echelon. She's been Level 4 for less time than Aura's been Level 2, but her far superior natural talent means that she's advanced both faster and further within her level. In fact, she's almost ready to promote to Level 5, just like the rest of the second echelon, and just needs a good feat. Canonically, the two things we know about her as a combatant are that she specializes in ice magic (Oomori makes a connection to her roots in a forest in the far north, she's essentially a Snow Elf), and that she is a prototypical Magic Swordsman. She wields a sword, a bow, or just pure magic, depending on the situation. Versatility is the name of her game, so I tried to write her sheet reflecting these things. Hail Dust, her canon spell, is crowd control suitable for the congested front lines she often finds herself in. A single target spell suitable for taking down larger monsters/boss minions that would threaten a particular sector of the front line. And an enchantment and a unique skill that both synergize with the fact that she has an actual weapon in hand far more often than pure mages like Lefiya or Riveria.
See you all next time, hopefully within a week this time, and please tell me what you think!