Denver sat her pack on the log and knelt down to rummage through it. She grumbled. The deacon she accepted this quest from had promised that the cave was only a day's travel east from the village's edge, and yet here she was, sun setting, wandering aimlessly after nothing. Knowing how these things went, she knew it wasn't absolutely nothing, otherwise she wouldn't have this gray box in the corner of her vision, but ever since she turned off the guidance on her System, she had found more often than not, people were terrible at giving directions. Society just hadn't been designed to perfectly accommodate someone with a terrible sense of direction.
She didn't care though. She could live with it, even if this time it was a little annoying. She looked towards the horizon. The sun was touching down already: there wouldn't be enough daylight left to look much further. Maybe she should swap to looking for a good campsite instead. That would serve her needs much better, and she could give it another go in the morning.
She pulled her tent supplies from her bag and inspected them. She only brought enough to camp out here a couple times at most. Hopefully, it wouldn't come down to that.
The backpack went back on her back and she took a stick, marking where in the road she turned off into the woods. This was one of her older habits, but it helped with the kind of diversions she usually got into. After all, no matter the quest, she always had time to give a little pond fishing a try. The world was usually full of great spots to fish, actually. She stopped for a moment, flicking her rabbit ears around, trying to hear for any bodies of water nearby. Didn't sound like anything was, unfortunately. She sighed and headed into the treeline.
The woods were alive with other, non-watery sounds at the moment. They were always filled with choice game and wildlife, it made it easy to prepare for bed. Something caught her eye now, actually. Denver took her staff off her back and held it in both hands. "Magic missile," she muttered, barely audible. The yellow gem on the tip of the staff glowed for a moment. The sound of dice rolling followed. She'd only fail if she got really unlucky at this point in learning this spell, but there was always a chance.
Acceptable. Better than average, really. The bolts of light went through the birds above, and soon she had 3 pieces of choice game on a rope. Soon after that, she found a suitable place to set up her tent. A couple of pieces of wood and a few magic words later, she had a campfire going. She set things up to cook, and then fell on her back. Dear god, that was a lot of work. It would be worth it in a moment, she could see the skin on the local birds crisping up, being licked by flame. The spices she had bought were proving their worth; the smell was intoxicating.
She picked up a drumstick by the bone and took a bite. All that cooking practice was paying off. She finished what she could, and packed up the rest for later. It wouldn't last as long as her smoked stuff, but she didn't want any to go to waste.
With nothing to do but wait for the sun to rise once more, she entered her tent, closed the clasp of the door behind her, and went to sleep without even taking off her adventuring garb.
The world was a purple basin, and she was the yellow liquid coallesening on one side of it. The other half was filled with an inky blue. It was scary, it felt so much more intense than the liquid that made her up. It wanted to mix together, to create one mixture out of two beautiful substances, but something within her stopped it. She had put up a wall, or perhaps the basin had? It separated the two. It felt right this way, to keep the intensity away from her essence, but there was a growing curiosity in her. Just to give it a touch, just to see what would happen. The two liquids pressed together, the blue eager, the yellow careful. Just as the edges blended and the first drops of green emerged, her eyes fluttered open.
There was someone in her camp. She didn't move, but she could hear the figure moving about. She sat up slowly and reached for her pack. Her staff was outside, sitting as a ward for the camp, but both of her daggers should be hanging from the side of her bag which- her bag which was outside too. Shit.
Her mind raced. What could she do? Wait it out? No way, if that was a person out there, they would probably take her stuff too. Why hadn't they already taken her stuff and left? Or even just killed her? Hanging about in a random person's camp was certainly suspicious behavior.
She thought for a moment and then quickly burst from her tent. The camp invader fell back in shock, and some of last night's cooking fell from their hands into the grass.
"Who are you?" Denver asked. The figure seemed to wince at her volume. Her heart sank a bit.
"S-Sorry," the other person said. They were wearing a blue robe that covered most features. "I thought you had left it out to share. And it smelled so good."
She relaxed a little. This person didn't seem like a highwayman, at least. "You gave me a fright, is all," she said. "You aren't here to rob me?"
"Oh, dear above, no! I would never," they said. "Although we own nothing ourselves, we respect the property of others."
"You talk like a preacher," Denver responded. She narrowed her eyes. "For whom do you speak?"
"For the Surrounding, the Blue above all, of course," they said politely.
"You just admit you're a heretic?" Denver asked.
"Well I am not a heretic to myself," they said. "Or to most people around here," they added after a moment. "You don't see things that way?"
"No! I've been asked to track down a cave full of you and either convince you otherwise or kill you all," Denver said.
"That seems like a mean way to do things," they said.
Denver shrugged. She just worked for them, she didn't really buy into their ramblings. "Hey, it's not the sun in the sky that causes droughts," she said. "It's the empty blue around it."
The other figure smiled. It was about all she could see under the hood. "Is that what they say, or what you think?"
Denver shrugged once more. "It's what they say when they pay me," she explained.
"Well, you seem willing to talk before bloodshed. Could we keep doing that, please?" they asked. "What's your name?"
"I'm Denver. How about yourself?"
"Atlas," they said. The System went to work, flinging a nameplate above them that confirmed this. "What do you do?"
"Me? I'm an... adventurer I guess. I got a little distracted and started taking odd jobs too. How about yourself?" Denver said.
"I'm an acolyte for the Blue," they said. "I got kicked out of my village and went to a temple."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Why did you get kicked out?" Denver asked. "If you want to share."
"I'd rather not. I like to focus on the good I do now," Atlas said, kicking the dirt.
"Oh yeah? What good is that?"
"Oh you know, spreading food around to those who need it. Giving rides to towns, occasional lessons. Expelling people who own land without living on it, and other things," Atlas said.
Denver frowned. "That doesn't seem so bad," she said. She had run out her fair share of greedy landlords herself. "And what of the corruption within your church?" she asked. That was the big ticket issue, of course. They turned the land dry and such! Everyone knew.
Atlas's expression was unreadable. "Well, it is true, a bare sky means a bare field as well, but we don't actually control any of that. Our corruption is no different than the holy power they've imbued in yourself, honestly."
"How did you know?"
Atlas laughed a bit. "You glow the same yellow anyone in their service does. It's a 'blessing' they put on. To track you, maybe. I don't really know what it does."
"Tracking me!? No thank you!" she said. The deacons did always seem to know when she was going to come by. She shivered.
"I can dispel it, if you like. It's one of the only spells I know," they offered.
"Yes, please do!" Denver said, without thinking.
"I must be honest," Atlas said, "before I do this, it does mean letting a bit of the Blue into your heart. Just a bit, nobody but the head of yours would even be able to detect it. Is that okay?"
