Daniel ended up spending a couple of hours at Padri’s creating a few small items with pathfinder and patchwork, separately, as well as having the Engineer assist him with making a few spare pair of boots. Even though his class had changed, he could still make what he’d been able to as a Craftsman. That wasn’t usual for evolutions in the crafter line, which was one of the primary reasons Padri speculated it was a rare evolution rather than one open to everyone. There was no easy way to test it as the number of people who could hit level 3 was limited, and few would take on more level disparity than they were willing just to satisfy curiosity.

  He didn’t reach his second stop of the day until far later than he’d intended. If anything, the Divine Quarter was busier than it had been in the brief moment of peacetime he’d seen his first time here. It wasn’t just that this was the religious heart of the city. It had to be remembered that every church had services it could provide to society, for all the church of the Hand’s was the most obvious.

  Not that he was going to any of the others today. He could see stopping by Star’s at some point, but he wouldn’t be caught dead in Hammer’s. Cloak’s? Maybe, the god should know about what he’d found in the ruins assuming he hadn’t been listening in. But not today.

  Finding a seat on the crowded benches outside of the church, Daniel closed his eyes and extended his hearing. Taking Keen Senses from Hunter in a crowded area was taxing on his nerves, but he managed it. If Hunter was alive now, Daniel doubted he’d have any trouble taking over. That being said, he still couldn’t compare to the ringcat’s scouting prowess and this was as important a skill to improve as the others he was working on.

  Daniel wouldn’t disagree that he had wasted much of what his attributes had been giving him and still did to some degree now. His hybrid form didn’t hesitate to use the fullness of his strength and endurance, but that was about it. It was hard for someone who had lived within the confines of a normal human body for most of his life to adjust to what magic was giving him, especially considering how quickly he’d improved his attributes in the first couple of months. As the pace slowed and the need to be better grew, Daniel was warming to his power.

  In this case, he was attempting to draw on his wisdom, which was currently 24. Filtering out the sounds of a crowded square and the surrounding buildings to hone in on the one he was trying to find, while also blocking out what his empowered nose was feeding him, would have been impossible before. Among other things, Daniel would have struggled to mentally map where every sound was coming from, to say nothing of processing each and discarding what wasn’t important.

  He could manage it now, locating his target within half a minute and mentally marking them with an aura. Moving quickly to catch him before he was occupied, Daniel entered the church and waved at Thomas. The Cleric did a double take, paused his attempts to draw a fellow Cleric into a bet on when a mutual acquaintance would propose, and excused himself.

  “Guy. It’s been a while.” There was that carefulness to his tone all friends had when meeting again after a long time while they evaluated what had changed. It hadn’t been that long for Daniel, in fact Thomas might have been separated from the group longer after Khiat’s Assassin class was removed, but more had happened. “Whatcha here for?”

  “A couple of things. Do you have time to talk?” Thomas glanced around at his question and shrugged.

  “I guess I can. I’ve already used a lot of mana today. I’m telling you Guy, Vitality Bubble’s great and all but the mana drain makes me miss Healing Hands.”

  “You told people about your condition?” Daniel asked as Thomas led him through the crowded space full of healers and sick. There hadn’t been a recent monster attack on Aurus, but that didn’t stop illness or accidental injury.

  Thomas gave a light chuckle, but the slightly pained smile told him there was more to it than humor. “It’s not like I can not tell people, Guy. People expect me to have certain powers at level 3. Plus, we lost Resurrection.” His hand gripped the handle of one of the side doors Daniel couldn’t hear anyone behind and held it for a few seconds longer than necessary. “I would’ve given it up, you know? It saved my life who knows how many times. I could save any of you with it, but the cost of it’s hard to bear.”

  This had become a conversation about something Daniel hadn’t intended, but he could see Thomas still had conflicted feelings on the subject. He did too, considering what had happened when he’d learned Thomas had the power. “But you don’t have to worry about it now.”

  “Well, powers are still suppressed.” Thomas tapped his knuckles together. “Contract bond’s there too, not that I ever use it. Silora’s happy as a fish in water, besides about a week’s worth of panic attacks after she learned about that monster spawning thing.” He propped himself up on the examination table and Daniel took a seat on the small chair, feeling odd at the role reversal. The sounds outside began to intrude on his consciousness and he cut off Keen Senses, giving the feeling as if he’d entered Padri’s workshop again. “Still haven’t found them. Guy, you’re sure they’re alive?”

  “Lograve is, and if he is, the rest should be. They are,” Daniel corrected firmly. He felt things beginning to spiral into old topics and shook his head. “How’s the church handling the news that Tlara’s come back from the dead?”

  “About as well as if you gave Tlara a dragon and permission to let it run loose through the wards,” he scoffed. “Her of all people, Guy.”

  “We had the best chance with her.”

  “Hunter?”

  Daniel’s head fell slightly. “It didn’t work. I think I know what’s wrong, but it’ll take a while if I’m right. The Astral in the ruins is all messed up. I can fix it because, you know, Spoke, but we could be talking years.” Thomas wasn’t able to hide his grimace quickly enough to stop Daniel from noticing. “What?”

  “It’s just- Guy, I’ll be straight with you. A week’s the limit for most when it’s coming back from the dead. I got that Hunter’s special,” he quickly assured when Daniel opened his mouth, “But I’ve been hearing things about the Astral. I’m no Willow, but there are some who’ve awakened similar classes that’ve come in. Mostly idiots thinking they’re chosen heroes because they’ve got some special powers. But the thing is, they’re all saying that the Astral’s feeling more and more different as time goes on. What exactly is happening I’ve got no idea, I deal with broken bones not different realities, but if he’s stuck there? I know how you feel about this, Guy. I’m just saying you might not have that long.”

  “I’m open to other ideas.” Thomas couldn’t respond to that so Daniel moved on to a different topic. “How have things been over here with monsters? Anyone saying they’ve seen an elite?”

  “Dunno. Buncha weird ones, new variants like before, only they’re beginning to be different. Like, two that look mostly the same will be kinda off, and can do different things. By the sound of it, hunting’s getting harder in general.”

  “That will mean people will advance faster,” Daniel countered, trying to throw a positive spin somewhere in the conversation.

  “If they live that long, Guy. Crest, I’m sure not changing my mind about it. I’m glad you’re all doing well though,” he added weakly. “I heard the stories from Willow. She makes being shot in the head sound like falling down the stairs.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “So, not great but better than it should be?” Daniel translated. “She does have a good bond.”

  “Really good. Tlara complains about the monsters she lost to it every chance she gets, but that’s only when she’s not depressed about-“ Thomas abruptly froze, cursed, and slapped himself across the face. Alarmed, Daniel stood up. “Damn it! Sorry, Guy.”

  “The hell was that?”

  “I just…” Thomas rubbed at the red area on his face as he his words together. “It’s something about myself I’m trying to be better at. All that stuff with Evalyn and, well,” he gestured to himself. “I know how I can be. Quala’s been leading me to the right place, I’m just too stupid to have gotten the point until the third time the world started to end.”

  Daniel thought to offer a healing potion as he saw a bit of blood welling where Thomas had scratched himself with his nails, but thought better of it. Instead, he said, “I don’t think you were ever terrible. I don’t blame you for not wanting to fight, if I hadn’t landed in the Thormundz I wouldn’t have either, but there were a few times you were a bit much.”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s just, I like people, Guy. Helping them, talking with them, being, with them.” He lifted his head from the table bed to make sure Daniel got the point before continuing. “A bit much? That’s fair. I am trying to rein myself in now. Definitely shouldn’t have let that slip and don’t ask me anything about what I was saying.”

  “I’ll just hear through Willow if it’s important,” Daniel assured, ultimately not as curious about whatever it was he had been about to say then Thomas would have been. “You know, for a Cleric, you can be like a Bard.”

  “Yeah, Quala says that a lot.” Thomas now had both hands under his head, gazing upward as if there was a sky instead of a ceiling over him. “I just don’t get how people can like being alone. Like when you had holed yourself up in Roost’s Peak, that would’ve been torture for me. You know that jerk of a guard that tried to follow us when we got to Aughal?”

  “The one that killed Casia?”

  Thomas fully brought himself up with an incredulous look on his face. “He what!? That was the guy who was up there? I thought he- ok, you’re telling me that story later. The point is that guy was a jerk and Lograve sent me after him as a distraction, I even got arrested for it later, and I still enjoyed talking to him. I do take it too far sometimes, and I know that now. Being able to talk to Quala again after everything that’s happened, Aughal, losing my family, it’s helped.”

  “She is good at doing stuff like that. I had almost no control over the rage power my cat form gives me but I slowly got a handle on it while recovering from, well, you know. Her being there was a big part of that.”

  “Yeah. I don’t think I can ever be like that myself. It’s a bubble boy’s life for me.” Thomas extended a hand toward his face and Daniel blankly watched as a small shimmering sphere of restorative force formed around it, curing the results from the slap.

  “Why didn’t you do that before?”

  “I was trying to save mana but it started to really hurt.”

  “I didn’t know you could control it like that.”

  “Practice,” Thomas boasted, pointing the still glowing hand toward Daniel before turning the effect off. “Though Flash Reset’s still the same, not much I can change with that one. All or nothing kind of thing. I was pretty bummed about not getting Flash Heal but I’m seeing the benefits now, like fixing Sigron’s curse.”

  “And Soraso’s secret thing.”

  Thomas shuddered at that. “Yeah, Guy, going to pass on some advice Quala gave me. Anyone asks you to do something like that again, don’t. I thought it was fine because of my power, but I don’t think it works on everything and there are some nasty things higher level people can give you, Bards especially.”

  “Makes sense. I mean, in that case there were dozens of people there and someone would have caught it if he did something,” Daniel replied, acknowledging the point in general but not seeing any specific reason to worry. “Plus he’s Murdon’s friend.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Just don’t let people use powers on you is the gist.”

  Daniel spent the next few seconds toggling the aura on Thomas, mainly for his own amusement. It was good to catch up with him, even if the conversation had swerved hard away from traditional small talk. He was considering letting the Cleric in on the possible advent of drone warfare into the Octyrrum when he got an odd feeling. There were a lot of things that could do that these days.

  “Something wrong?” Thomas asked as Daniel pulled out his phone.

  “Trying to figure that out. I keep forgetting to check for notifica…tions…”

  System Alert: God: Grave has re-established Domain Linkage with System Hub. A quorum of Gods is still needed to restore ??? from its default state.

  Daniel shot out of the chair, heart racing, and causing Thomas to fall off the table in surprise. He ignored the Cleric’s pained exclamations as he reached out with his mind. Hunter? It was an unthinking, reactionary hope. Willow hadn’t seen either of them in a while, maybe they’d found a way back. He didn’t wait for a response as he’d gotten a hold of himself. There was no way Hunter would return without him knowing on a fundamental level.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Thomas asked sharply, shaking Daniel out of his head.

  “Spoke stuff,” Daniel answered, looking to the door. He was pretty sure he’d turned off Keen Senses, but it didn’t sound like that. “You hear that too?”

  The Cleric was at the door before he was. “Guy, if this is an attack, I gotta help get patients to safety.” Daniel could make out the noise better when he opened it, though he also reactivated Keen Senses. There were exclamations, prayers, confusion, and jubilation, mixed chaos of differing reactions that resisted attempts by authority figures to reign in.

  “I don’t think this is an attack,” Daniel replied cautiously. He couldn’t say for sure. It was too bright outside. Something was happening. “Flash Craft. Janice, is everything alright?”

  “Whu, that’s-“

  Janice started talking over Thomas after a short pause and Daniel screened out the Cleric, Thomas running off to ask someone what was happening rather than wait for Daniel to explain. “Uh, not sure exactly. I’m at the compound. Pinion’s Point is secure, but we’re seeing something in the distance around where Aurus should be. Is everything alright there?”

  “Going to find out. Alert the Captain there if you don’t hear from me in about ten minutes.”

  “I don’t think he needs me to tell him something’s going on, but will do.”

  Daniel placed the rapidly enchanted sending stone in a bag of holding and headed for an open window, attaching the wings to his arms as he did so. He didn’t pull out his blast bow, but otherwise readied himself for combat. As he exited, he saw the entire quarter amid a partially controlled mayhem spurned by something at the far end of the islet where it connected to the rest of Aurus.

  Every divine quarter in the world was built in the rough shape of an octagon, and always in a set pattern. Seven churches, and an empty space facing the church of Hourglass. The space wasn’t empty anymore. Something on the ground was shining brightly. Daniel did what others had already done, fighting to get clearance in the crowded sky to see the pattern burning itself into the ground from above.

  Some of the divine iconography matched concepts from his world that you wouldn’t assume to have automatically existed on the Octyrrum, Hourglass being the prime offender. What he saw now wasn’t too outlandish, since the dead were buried here, even in Aurus where the land was more precious. It could have been a rough rectangle if you looked at it dispassionately, but if you’d seen one before you’d know what this depicted. A headstone. The symbol of Grave.

  The image burned in Daniel’s mind, every memory he had of the Divine Pavilion altering as the symbol behind the empty throne revealed itself. One of the most powerful unidentifications ever used on a global scale, meant to hide the existence of Grave from mortalkind, was being undone. With its passing, Daniel felt another hole in his memory begin to gain definition.

  “How?” Cloak appeared below him, the space clearing around the god as he manipulated the perceptions of others causing them to avoid it. “I… do you know what this means?” He’d expected the god to be happy, but there was a concealed terror that he wasn’t sure what to make of.

  “I’m getting another memory fragment, right now.” Daniel looked to the ground and saw it completely packed. He still couldn’t trust Cloak, but it wasn’t the time for it. “Clear me a space, I need to concentrate. They’re slipping away faster and faster each time.”

  Cloak looked away from the ground and sighed. “Fine. But I’ll be there when you wake.”

  “Yeah, just do it!” Daniel grabbed at the sending stone and practically threw it at Cloak. “This goes to Pinion’s Point. If they need to defend themselves, tell them. If not, tell them.” Saying that, he dove at the spot people were randomly walking around and away from, closed his eyes, and remembered.