A Little Covert Action

Forget about prayers and miracles, this is borderline magic. For the five affinities tested at the shrine assessment: fire, wind, water, ice, and lightning, Faye can effortlessly conjure up and manipulate to her heart's desire.

Well, lightning we didn't test, seeing we were in the middle in the convent's backyard, all the others are undoubtedly under Faye's belt.

I have already seen Faye start a fire before, but she had a lot more where that came from. Faye made water flow out of her palm and wind blow out of her fingers. She could turn the contents of the well into ice and back with a swipe of her arm.

I was surprised that there is no cost or cool down when it comes to prayers, but Abigail told me that there is. Performing too many miracles can cause fatigue, and how much it affects a person depends on their physique and divinity levels. She said Faye being a half-elf might have something to do with the fact that it's not doing any work on her.

Of course, after that blessing Astra bestowed upon me, I can do any of the stuff Faye can, and probably even better, but I said nothing about it since the result of my assessment would prove otherwise.

The five common affinities were not what Faye was limited to. She obviously had the ability to heal, which surprised Mia, because apparently, she thought she was special being one of the few people with that ability, and Astra and Faye just randomly turn up one day, both of whom possess her "specialty".

Mia called Faye amazing and said she should escape from my "clutches" and have a bright future all to herself. Abigail shot down the idea, explaining how Faye would just be taken by somebody less kind than me, to which Mia responded by saying that such a person doesn't exist.

Hurtful, but Faye stood up for me, which made me feel pretty good about myself.

Daylight disappeared in no time. The nuns went to get changed, and we had a quick dinner. Logan and his friends were back, but they sat all the way at the other end of the table and avoided making eye contact with me the whole time.

Later, we retired to our room to find Astra having not moved from her bed. After a whole afternoon of using her prayers to perform miracles, Faye's exhaustion has finally set in, as well. She fell asleep almost immediately.

Seeing that both the girls resting soundly, I think it's time.

"Lohikaarmi," I say.

"Yes, Master."

"I have something to take care of. Can you stay awake and watch the girls while I'm gone?"

Lohikaarmi nods.

"Yes, Master," she says, "When will you be back?"

"I am not sure. A couple of hours?"

"I understand."

"Great. I will leave them in your hands, then," I say and exit the room.

It's late. The other guests have all retired for the night. I sneak down the stairs and slip through the front door of the convent. As far as I could tell, no one caught a glimpse of me leaving, not that it really matters.

I take the same path as the one from this morning to the horse stable. The owner has gone to bed by now, but since I paid to borrow the horse for the entire day, I figure taking it for a ride right now isn't technically stealing.

There are no safeguards against thieves in the stable, which makes sense, as there would be no use in stealing a horse. Not a lot of people in this tightly packed city have the capacity to keep one.

I wake up the horse that dragged our carriage and quietly ride it out of the stable.

I have a destination in mind. There is something I would like to try. I don't know if this is going to work the way I want it to, but it's only the first day. I have a lot of time to come up with new plans in case this one doesn't work out. However, if this does, then I might not need any more plans.

The only thing I know for sure is that whatever trap the shrine has against the poor, it's not going to work on me. My philosophy is that success from hard work isn't true success. I shouldn't need to climb the rank ladder like everybody else if I find a way to shoot myself up with a rocket.

At max speed, I ride the horse down the empty city hoop toward the west gate, where the shrine is.

The city isn't completely dormant. There are a few places that are livelier than they were during the day, but they do not provide the kind of services I usually like being acquainted with, despite how much Mia tries to link me to them.

As I am on horseback, I wonder if I can eventually ask Lohikaarmi about the possibility of using her as transportation. Who knows, maybe a saddle is really all that's needed to become a dragon rider, well, of course, and a dragon, but that's the part I don't need to worry about as much.

Soon, I arrive at the Shrine of Crusaders. Even though most of the city is asleep, this place is still bustling. Beautiful lights shine out of its mess of colored windows against the dark night sky. People are still streaming in and out through the front gate.

There aren't nearly as many people as there were a few hours ago, but needless to say, business is still going on inside.

I ride past them and out into the other side of the city walls, where we picked our grassland yams. I jump off the horse and tie it to a small tree growing in the middle of the meadow.

I can't see much out here under the canopy of stars, so I ask comms if there is a night vision feature, and indeed, there is, however, it only works in one eye, so it feels a little awkward, but after a few seconds, I get used to it.

The dark world is now tinted green. I can't see the fine details of things, but I have no need to.

I bend down and spread the tall grass around to look for something, and not long after, I see its four leaves.

I dig away the soil beside it and pull up the brown mass beneath the surface. There it is, a prairie yam. It looks not much different from the grassland yams we were harvesting this morning, but it's noticeably heavier.

"Cisca," I call out into the darkness.

Three dots appear in my view. A minute of wait passes by, and the video feed comes through.

The scientist is currently lying in bed and holding the camera above her half-opened eyes.

"Uh… it's so late… what do you want, Kris?" She groans.

"Remember that thing I asked about? I would like you to do it now," I say.

"Now…?"

"Yeah, come on. We are running on a time limit."

Cisca slowly sits up

"Uh, fine," she says.