Chương 19: Thinking About Home as a Teenage Girl

Chapter Nineteen Thinking About Home as a Teenage Girl Alice thought of Thomas. Her mind raced with sillier and sillier silliness as the cool numbness spread its invisible tendrils. Kuonrat disappeared from her thoughts, and she started to think, quite oddly, about her older brother. Because he had always been better than her. Be it school or sports, if it could be tracked, Thomas would come out ahead. And he did not particularly like Alice. Of course, brothers and sisters always fought.

There was something primal about sibling rivalries. But with Thomas... Alice had never been popular at school. It was weird that she remembered this now, with a gaggle of snot-nosed brats bowing their heads to her in prayer, but Alice had never been popular. Thomas, though... Popularity was a game of numbers, and her brother had always been N̸̰͊ư̶͉m̴̹̽ḃ̴̠ȅ̴͎r̷̼͝ ̷̲͆Ỏ̶ͅn̵̼͋e. You might think the sister of Mr. Popularity would enjoy some of his shade, but Thomas...

She wondered how he would react if he knew about all this [Divine Development] business. What would he do if he knew about this little slice of freedom Alice had found? She thought of Urd's prayer then.... I finally found it...... don't let The Fates take this purpose away from me... She almost laughed, though she felt so terribly cold. Something was very wrong with her thoughts, but as she recalled Urd's prayer, Alice found herself wishing for much of the same. She did not want someone to take away her...

her new freedom. And the strange cold disappeared. Alice blinked and truly realized the absurdity of her thoughts. She was in an abbey with the shabby Priest. She was in another world, and the last thing she wanted to think about was Thomas. She must have been... been bewitched!

"What did he do to me?!" Alice wondered in a panic.

"What just happened?!" Kuonrat was nowhere to be seen. She had not even noticed the man stand up from his desk. Alice used [Geological Memory] to try and find out what had just happened, to study the Priest's reaction to [Assess], but the moment she replayed the last couple of minutes, an overwhelming sense of vertigo washed over her. She could not focus on anything beyond the strangeness of her thoughts, on anything beyond the melancholy that so often accompanied thoughts of her older brother.

But she knew she was in danger. She needed to get out of this room.

"What will he do to me?" Alice wondered, chewing on her nonexistent lip.

"What did he find out? What did [Assess] show him?" The skill did not need an explanation. Whether it was called [Examine] or [Study], skills like [Assess] were as ubiquitous as the systems they belonged to.

"If this was a story, he would have definitely seen my race..." She was not sure if the divine before grudge stone would mean much to the Priest.

"What do people do with grudge stones in this world anyways? Why had Sorin been so excited to find me?" [Geological Memory] may have been unable to show her the Priest's face, but she quickly remembered that she had a new skill. Without a moment's hesitation, Alice quickly brought it up. Active Skills Haunt Object (Rank I): The inanimate are simply vessels without fuel. You can manipulate those within your vision with an infusion of your essence.

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"Th-that could work!" Alice said as she studied the skill. She was not sure what infus e with your essence meant, but this seemed like her ticket to freedom! The desk was cluttered with papers, quills, and a dozen other miscellaneous items. Alice studied each in turn as she struggled to decide which would best win her freedom. And then, rather dumbly, her attention fell on Alice the Rock.

"Is it possible...?" It was hard to think of her body of sixteen years as inanimate, but...

"I guess it's worth a try!" She was not sure how to infuse Alice the Rock with her essence, but [Haunt Object] sounded like a grudge stone ability. Cursed energy seemed like the best bet! Focusing on Alice the Rock, Alice willed for a ball of black miasma to fill the black stone. Sweat would have poured down her face as she painstakinly visualized two invisible hands molding the invisible cursed energy into an appropriate shape. She was soon rewarded with a familiar notification. Unable to use [Haunt Object].

Insufficient cursed energy.

"Come on!" Alice cursed, but a human wail quickly silenced her frustration.

"Stop yer weeping," Kuonrat said gruffly from nearby. Urd appeared the next moment, running into Alice's cone of vision and scooping up Alice the Rock. The Girl hugged the black stone tight to her chest and collapsed in her tears.

"What the?!" Alice was left thoroughly stunned. She slid into Urd's skin, but the Priest remained infuriatingly out of sight. The child's attention remained fixed on the black stone in her hands.

"I'm shorry, Mashter!" Urd wept.

"I'm shorry, I'm shorry!"

"I already told you, child," Kuonrat said from nearby.

"That is just a normal rock." The room seemed to go very still for a moment. Alice was not altogether sure she had heard the Priest correctly, but [Geological Memory] soon repeated the absurdity.

"An ordinary rock?" Alice repeated, stunned.

"You shouldn't play games like this," Kuonrat continued. His voice seemed to be coming from just outside the office door.

"Your affliction already sets you apart from the others. There is no reason to invent your own... own cult."

"Y-You're w-w-wrong!" Urd said between several miserable hiccups.

"M-Master Merry Weather sp-speaks to me! She's a god! She's- ""Enough!" Kuonrat barked, and Urd yelped.

"I've entertained you long enough. I assessed your rock and that is all it is. A rock." Urd shook her head wordlessly. Alice was left stunned. She had no idea what was going on, but she wasn't about to let Urd ruin this perfect chance.

"Urd!" Alice said, and The Girl jumped slightly.

"G-God?!"

"Shhhh!" Alice cringed.

"C-Calm down! Everything is... is fine! Just play along, OK?" Urd's eyes went very wide, but she nodded her head.

"I have much work to do," Kuonrat said with impatience.

"If you do not intend to stay for the afternoon service, I would have you take your shiny rock and leave."

"Listen to him!" Alice said, and she felt a hum of excitement fill her nonexistent body. Was it possible that his [Assess] hadn't worked?

"Just stand up and leave!" But Alice immediately frowned. She had spoken to the Priest with a [Malevolent Whisper]. She had even [Smited] him! There was just no way Kuonrat could think she was just an [Ordinary Rock]. Is it possible something happened to him during the [Assess]? Her thoughts turned to the glitched notifications as Urd raced out of the Priest's office and through the sanctuary doors.

The sun overhead was the most beautiful thing Alice had ever seen, however, and she quickly found herself too exhausted to care. She had no idea how she had escaped, but she had escaped. She had gotten away from the Priest without him being any the wiser. Fifteen Minutes Later Inside the Abbey Anna the Acolyte knocked on the Priest's door. She did not wait for the miserable man to call her inside, but simply pushed the doors open straight away.

"The afternoon service!" Anna shouted, exasperated.

"Did you fall asleep after harassing that poor child? Everyone's waiting for the service to begin." Kuonrat was sitting at his desk, his shaggy mane of black hair and beard hiding whatever papers he was bent over.

"There'll be no afternoon service today," Kuonrat said flatly. His voice sounded rather unusual, and he did not look up from the desk.

"Send them away."

"What?" Anna was too confused to be annoyed.

"No service? What are- " She jumped as a ceramic jar shattered beside her. Kuonrat's eyes were two mad marbles hidden behind his overgrowth of hair.

"I SAID SEND THEM AWAY!" he shouted, and Anna hurried out of his office, flinging several curses over her shoulder as she slammed the door shut. Kuonrat remained standing over his desk, staring at the shattered jar for several heaving breaths. But then he seemed to collapse, falling back into his chair with a miserable moan. He looked down at the three pieces of paper in front of him and was swallowed by the same uncertainty as before.

"The danger..." Kuonrat mumbled to himself as he picked up the nearest paper with a trembling hand. He had tortured himself over what to write, if to write anything at all. The danger was immense!

"But I have to..." The others had to be informed. Damn the risk, he had to tell them! And so he stared down at the three papers and the three identical messages scribbled across them, his heart hammering noisily in his chest. EMERGENCY MEET TONIGHT GATHER EVERYONE