I hadn’t known Sofia had a private room. Our plan was to spend the afternoon there. Licking our wounds so to speak. Well… mostly mine. She was hit once, but it didn’t show since her Aura absorbed it. I was rather concerned, how unperturbed Sofia was over the fact that we killed two people today. Not that I let it show. I had my own thoughts I’d need to reconcile, but if nothing else I was an expert at ignoring potential trauma.

  “Two spells!” Sofia said beaming. I took a seat on the one chair she had at a rather small desk. She began to go about and prepared tea which was nice of her. “What do you think it means? Th-that Lord Stultvultan blessed me with them.”

  I gave her a faint smile, of course I couldn’t tell her that, more likely than not, the main reason she got those spells was that Stult was telling me ‘hey dumbass I’m the god in your corner’. From what I gathered for a cleric gaining a single spell at a time was common. Multiple could happen if they hadn’t prayed in sometime, but that clearly wasn’t the case here. Two spells, in this context, implied intent. It was clear to me that Stultvultan was Sofia and my benefactor, though the reason why eludes me.

  There’s also the matter of how he gave Sofia two spells. In theory two would break the ‘equal treatment’ part of the punishment. It was a curious puzzle, but I could imagine a few ways I’d circumvent it. The simple, most likely answer was that it wasn’t significant enough to count. Within the ‘margin of error’ when it comes to equal treatment so to speak. Otherwise the explanations get a bit trickier.

  The intent of the punishment was more important than the letter of it. If two spells were also given to someone who was likely to abuse them in opposition to Stult’s wishes, that might qualify as well. Another option was perhaps the lizard has a different, more lax, standard for giving out spells then Corlyn, and decided to claim Sofia as a follower from her. The last option was brute force allowing all his followers to gain two spells, but that seemed expensive and farfetched.

  Ultimately, Stultvultan was giving me a message, not Sofia. Since I’m not one of his followers the intent of his actions might not have triggered the limitation.

  Whatever, it was fun to guess how, but that didn’t tell me why. Somehow, he seems to know me, or at least in-universe me. Not that that made any sense to me. Hopefully that will come to me. Likely some stray note or joke I made in a session I needed to remember.

  “Perhaps he thinks Corlyn had held you to some unreasonable standard and was compensating,” I replied to Sofia after a bit.

  “I-I don’t think Lady Corlyn would do something like that.” Sofia went over and pulled out a fire and lightning medallion she had from the altar in her room. “I don’t think I’d be here if not for her.” She looked at the symbol with a sad but meaningful expression. The sort a person would give to a photo of a dead family member.

  “Well, I’m glad she helped you out,” I said, unsure of exactly what to say. “It seems to me that Stultvultan was the one that spoke to you.” I wouldn’t let her know he spoke to me as well, not yet. I didn’t want to potentially take any wind from her sails.

  “Yeah… d-do you think I only got those spells because of you?”

  Whelp, she took the wind from herself. “What makes you think that?”

  “It’s… well, he said you were his chosen. And I don’t think I did anything worthy since meeting you.”

  “Well, clearly you must’ve. Think of all the people you helped in the slums today. Even if there were more we couldn’t get to because of the… interruption, that's not nothing.” I did my best to give a reassuring smile. “I doubt a god would give you a spell because of your proximity to another mortal. Me being his chosen or not you must’ve earned it.”

  “I hope so.” She held the medallion close. She had a sudden startled look. “D-do you think Lady Corlyn would be cross with me because another god gave me a spell?”

  I chuckled a bit. “I don’t imagine you, Fionn, Glenn, Archie, or Ivili combined, would be strong enough for the gods to fight each other over the claim of your soul. So long as it’s within the faith I doubt there’s any concern.”

  “I-I hope you’re right,” She looked a bit relieved, but still worried.

  “I don’t think worrying’s going to do us any good. Let’s focus on something better shall we? What spells did you get?”

  “Oh, right! There’s one called Aura Break. It’s first tier and does a lot of damage to their Aura, but not to a person. The other one’s Lesser Remote Healing. It’s second tier and it-”

  “Let me guess,” I grin, “heals people for a little bit at a range?”

  “Y-yea. I guess they both explain themselves.”

  “I imagine both will be very useful,” I said. She smiled at that before sipping her tea. In all fairness if I could give her any two spells at her level, it would likely be something akin to those two. Range healing was quite good and having a cheap-ish way to damage aura seems like it'll be a boon.

  “D-do you mind if I ask you something?” Sofia passed me a cup of tea.

  “Of course. Fair warning, there are some things involving my revelation that wouldn’t behoove me to talk of.”

  “Oh, no. Nothing about that.” She fidgeted, turning her teacup in her hand. “I was wondering how you felt about your time here?”

  “For the most part, fine. The access to resources for learning wizardry has been a boon, mostly. Though, honestly being around people so constantly’s been getting on my nerves. I’m envious of your private room.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Y-you can visit or use it if you’d like.”

  “I’ll certainly take you up on that. What about your time here?” I asked, before realizing I was stepping on an anthill.

  Sofia looked down and fidgeted more before responding. “O-oh. I haven’t been enjoying it as much as I should be. It-it is a lot better than what came before.”

  I grimaced a bit, her past was clearly dangerous territory to tread.

  “I was thinking, well, I guess I don’t really know you too well,” Sofia said, after a brief silence. I struggled to hold my tongue, trying not to make a quip about how she’d been avoiding me for months. “I guess I’m curious about what it was like where you’re from.”

  “Ah, I see,” I said, keeping a cool demeanor, but sweating internally. I was tired from the day and not operating as well as I needed to. Talking about Earth was out of the question and mentioning anything on this continent would likely clash with other things I’ve claimed. “Is there anything in particular?”

  “I guess I want to know what the world’s like outside of here. Maybe also how you grew up?” She asked, unsure of her own question, likely a hint of ulterior motive though I was at a loss at what it could be.

  “I see. Well growing up was nothing to write home about,” I said, deciding to be honest, but careful to frame things in the context of the world. “It was a small sort of farming village. There weren’t too many monsters there. It was calm, but people certainly found ways to cause strife and rile each other up. Castigating and villainizing others who didn’t fit their specific mold of how a person ought to be. That wasn't a unique feature; a lot of places and people are like that.”

  “O-oh, it’s like that elsewhere as well,” Sofia said, sounding disappointed.

  “It’s like that everywhere unfortunately. Some places are better than others. The mold is wider, but still there. That’s not to say the world itself is terrible. There’s a lot of beautiful and magnificent places and people out there as well. Or at least I like to hope there is. It all comes and goes and the struggle to cherish it knowing it won’t last.”

  “It doesn’t last?”

  “Yea, people move on. They change, small grievances grow, or they move on with their life in a way that doesn’t include you.”

  “W-well like I promised, I won’t leave you. Not as long as you keep helping me walk in the gods’ chosen path,” Sofia said with a sweetness to her voice. She’s walking my path not her chosen gods’ path. If she forgives me for that when I eventually tell her. Then maybe, I’d start to believe it.

  We spent at least an hour, if not more, sipping tea and chatting. Eventually Sofia had to excuse herself to give a report of today’s events so I made my way to my bed.

  In some ways Sofia reminded me of Lily. They both cared about those around them. They carried the same deep sorrow, but were so joyful when anything good happened. They both promised me that they’d stay with me. That they wouldn’t leave. A promise Lily broke and Sofia likely would as well. No, it was wrong to blame Lily for that. I could’ve left with her. It was tempting at the time. I do very much hope she was in this world as well. It was surely better than where she left for. A few more months and we’ll be in Northwatch to see if she’s there.

  For now it was best to keep my promise to Sofia. To let her use me so she could grow. It wasn’t like I didn’t want that. Our interests were aligned so I’d gladly help. Plus, I fucked up this world and she’s worse off for it. Sofia’s just one of many, but I’d like to help her have a better life.

  ***

  Laying on my bed, my fingers traced my newest scars. Today was rough. Regardless, I killed two people. Justification could be debated, but that’s what happened. They threatened us and were running an extortion ring so I shot first. I’d been preparing myself for the eventuality that I’d take lives. There’d be more to come no doubt.

  What I hadn’t prepared for was the strange sensation I felt. The warm, almost revitalizing, energy that flowed from their corpses into me. That sensation haunted me far more than the morality of killing. Never in my wildest, most unhinged, moments would I have added something like that into this world. Where did it come from? It wasn’t a natural feeling. It was similar to sensations that told me how much Aura and mana I had. It was something more.

  There must’ve been some gap, something I handwaved away that explained it. There were somewhat arbitrary caps. People in this world generally couldn’t surpass casting third tier spells, or the equivalent martial level. I hadn’t specified the reason so perhaps taking energy from others was it? Stealing a small piece of the divinity their mortal soul possessed? Though that felt wrong. There was something I was missing.

  I hate that some sort of experience point analog makes the most sense. I never ran games with experience points so that shouldn’t be the case. Could it have wormed its way in because so many different game systems included it?

  Eventually, Clair entered and walked over to her dresser to settle in for the evening and began undoing outer parts of her uniform.

  “I went with Sofia to the slums you mentioned.” I gave her a less than pleased look. “There was a gang there that was trying to extort us for money.”

  “Hm?” She tilted her head slightly looking at me. “Did you charge too little? Usually three to five silver dolves per spell tier is standard. Though if you went to the slums you might need to lower it to two or three. I didn’t think Sofia would actually go through with it. I bet she got squeamish around actual injuries.”

  “Sofia really isn’t as bad as you believe. Are those prices really standard practice?” That basically would’ve been my monthly stipend for the spells Sofia casted on me today.

  “What, charging for healing? Of course, it’ll be silly not to. If anything it’s usually the thugs there that’ll be willing to pay standard price.” She looked over to me from her dresser. I was still tracing my newest scars with my fingers. “Did something happen?”

  “Well, I didn’t know there’d be an extortion racket trying to charge for healing,” I said with a frustrated sigh. “Yea, I didn’t have the money to pay them so we got in a bit of a tussle.”

  “You better not have ruined this for us.” Her expression darkened for the first time I’ve seen. “How did you not have the money? Surely Sofia has plenty.”

  “Can you get off this Sofia tirade? It’s annoying and she’s done nothing wrong.”

  “Let me guess, you were also fed with a silver spoon so that’s why you're taking her side,” Clair snarled at me.

  “What, you want to argue over who had the shittiest upbringing. Be my guest.” I smirked. “At least I was actually trying to help people as opposed to helping gangs run their extortion racket.”

  “... My family needs the money.” Clair stared at me with daggers in her eyes.

  “Yea,” I said with a resigned sigh, “things always circle back to something like that doesn’t it? Why worry about those families suffering when your own is getting out of it fine?”

  Clair didn’t respond, just grabbing a change of clothes and leaving. Whatever, I rolled over in bed. What a wretched day, surely the next wouldn’t get any worse.

  Maeori also might be making a little cameo in her web comic which is really cool.

  I really want to be able to upload twice a week, but I don't think it's a reasonable pace for me. I'd say I'm fairly slow writer, work a full time 9-5, and imagine this isn't exactly a simple story to start off with. I also don't really want to cut corners for faster uploads. My process is also kinda slow as well. Right now I'm writing the whole perspective, do one pass to split it into uploads, a second pass to make sure each upload section works, get feedback from a beta reader, then do the final look over.

  I do have a decent backlog right now, well at least long enough to last me until the end of January, so I want to use that to help me judge how feasible it is. At a minimum my goal is to have ~3 months of uploads ready in case something happens. Hopefully though I can do two uploads a week at least once or twice a month. That's sort of my personal goal. Though ultimately my hope is with enough experience I'll get faster over time.

  I do feel like it'll get a little easier after we leave the church/Firstlanding. I'm writing this on 12/17/25 so a bit over a month since I started posting and I've only finished 7 new chapters. Though, to be fair to myself I also did the Appendix stuff, which ate up more time than I expected...