Michael jerked awake. He was breathing heavily and dripping with sweat as he looked around. The others were still asleep and their fire had burnt out, but the sun was starting to rise. Michael wasn't sure of when he'd gotten back to camp, or even if he'd ever left in the first place, but he could tell that everything he'd seen and felt had been real.

He took a few moments to steady himself and think through what he'd seen. There was something tearing at this world, something that wanted in. In his vision the place where the large shield first appeared was where the wound in the barrier was the worst, that had to be Old Hume. It had rifts regularly even before the problem had begun to grow worse. That assumed he was the large shield of course, though he wasn't sure who the staff and crown were. The staff could be Ollie, though it wasn't impossible that it was some other mage. The crown on the other hand was likely the king of Old Hume since that's where the wound was worst. Again though, he couldn't be entirely certain of that.

Michael sat up and dug through his pack to find his handmirror. He could tell something had changed significantly in him and he needed to look.

Titles:

Michael Mann

The Restored

The Wound Man

Seer

Champion of the Gods

Deeds:

Bridge Holder

Revenge Denier

Run Conqueror

Resilient Competitor

Fort Healer

Righteous Defender

Castle Taker

Baron Breaker

Rift Sealer

Warrior Mender

Blessings:

Cleansing Healing

Pain Transfer

Smite

Bless

Eyes of Love

Eyes of Judgement

Michael had a moment of panic when he saw that his list had shrunk, then he relaxed a bit as he focused on Champion of the Gods.

Champion of the Gods

Grants:

Minor Strength

Middling Durability

Middling Protection

Minor Recovery

Minor Concentration

Very Minor Reaction

Very Minor Magicka

Blessing- Eyes of Love

Blessing- Eyes of Judgement

All feats and actions are in devotion to the gods and can strengthen this title

These actions can still reward other Titles and Deeds

Michael's eyes widened. While the benefits of strengthening the titles granted to him by the gods had been worth it, losing out on the possibility of other titles and deeds had been unfortunate. It seemed that now no matter what he did his actions would go to whichever god would appreciate them most and on top of that he would be able to gain Titles and Deeds.

Michael had felt something changing within him when Estaid had embraced him. She'd seemed to be made of Titles and Deeds, and Michael wasn't certain, but he felt that she likely had more to do with them than the other gods. She had to have been the one who had made the changes he now saw on his list. That was on top of his new blessing Eyes of Judgement. Michael assumed that ability was the same as the one he'd seen Meera utilize nearly two years ago when she'd helped to clear Marcus of murder. Michael didn't feel comfortable testing it on his friends, as it felt like an intense invasion of privacy, but it would definitely be useful when he went to Old Hume. Between that and the Eyes of Love, he'd have a much greater ability to know who to trust and who everyone was connected to. They might not help him to crack skulls in the name of the gods, but there were plenty of other uses he could see.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He noticed that his Godseeker title had also been replaced with Seer. He focused on it.

Seer

Grants:

Pulls to the places where the veil is thin and the gods grant visions

Michael nodded silently to himself. He didn't need to seek the gods anymore, he'd found that. That didn't mean that they wouldn't have information to give him though. He tried listening to their voices for a few moments, but there was no increase in clarity from what they'd said. Perhaps it cost them something to tell him things directly too frequently? If that was the case then communicating using visions made sense.

He stood and stretched, gathering his things before making some of the tea he'd gotten from the hidden village so many months before. Pyotr had been out of it, but Michael had kept some squirreled away. Once the tea was brewed he dipped a cup into it and took a deep sip of the strong brew. The warmth of it travelled through him and he just sat with that sensation and took some time to think.

"You alright, mate?" asked Ollie as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"No," replied Michael.

"Me neither." Ollie walked over to the pot and smelled. He raised an eyebrow, but grabbed a small cup from his pack and scooped some out for himself. He drank it slowly, winced a bit as it burned his lip, cooled it a bit with the touch of a finger and had some more.

"S'good." He said. "Be better if our lazy healer could take the edge off this headache though."

Michael chuckled and healed his pounding head before doing the same to the others pre-emptively. The empty bottles meant they'd wake up with hangovers.

"Thanks," said Ollie, taking another sip as he slowly woke. He stared at Davi's bag for a few moments before slowly making his way over to it. Michael didn't say anything, just watching as he opened it and started to rifle through. After a few moments he pulled out a large stack of parchments. He started to look through them and shook his head as he looked at one in particular.

"That fucking bastard," he held out a drawing that seemed to be a perfect representation of Ollie in profile. "Can you believe he drew me this ugly?"

Michael smiled. "You mean accurately? I absolutely can."

"Fuck you," he said going through more of them. "Oh, here's the good stuff." He pulled out a stack and started looking through them. Even from where Michael was sitting he could tell they were sketches of women less than clothed. "Oh wow, I didn't know Francesca was that fit."

Michael shook his head. "Maybe leave that one alone."

"He has a lot of her. Most of them are clothed even."

"Let's hold onto them. Maybe we'll run into her at some point. I'm sure he'd want her to have them."

The others began to stir, looking bleary eyed at their two companions.

"Are we marching yet?" asked Pyotr as he ran a hand down his face.

"Haven't heard anything from the twins or Suraj yet," responded Michael. "Made some of the tea you like."

"Thank you brother," said Pyotr, digging a mug out and taking, not a sip, but a large gulp of the liquid. He looked over to the stack of papers that Ollie was going through. "Davi's art?"

Ollie nodded. "If you can call it that. Definitely wasn't able to capture my likeness."

Pyotr moved over to start looking at them with him. Michael followed, and then Marcus. Davi had three or four sketches of each of them. He also had sketches of most of the members of Gemini, including ones of Trina and Lys training with him. They all shared the same somber expression as they finished going through them.

"We should give these out," said Michael. "I think a lot of people would like to have them."

"I can hold on to these," said Ollie, grabbing up the more lewd ones. "If we're ever back in Southwind I know which girls would want them."

"Sure, brother. That's the reason," responded Pyotr, shaking his head.

"I may actually be going back to Southwind soon," said Michael as he carried the pictures of himself back to his bag to have them join the ones Davi had done of his family.

"What do you mean?" asked Marcus, speaking for the first time since he'd woken.

"The gods are calling me to Old Hume. The rifts are going to get worse, and something terrible will happen if I don't do something about it." He looked at them. "I was hoping you would all come with me?"

"Michael…" said Marcus shaking his head. "I'm not going somewhere that makes takers indentured servants. I don't really want to go fight monsters on the behalf of people like that. Do you have the gold to pay them for citizenship? I know you've got a higher pay than we do, but I don't think you're at a hundred gold pieces yet."

"I'll just have to figure something out. The gods will provide."

Marcus frowned deeply. "I'm sorry. I can't grow unless I fight things with titles and deeds and so far none of the rift creatures have given me anything. I'm staying with Gemini."

Michael nodded. "I understand. It was maybe selfish of me to ask. I just… it's going to be hard to travel without all of you after just losing Davi."

"I'll go with you," said Ollie.

"Really?"

"Someone's got to keep you from making a stupid American mistake and dying. Besides, Old Hume… if anywhere has magic I haven't encountered yet, power I haven't seen, that's where I'd find it. Maybe something that could have…" his voice trailed off for a moment and his expression grew solemn before he caught himself and forced a smile. "Honestly, I just don't want to be too far from the guy that cures hangovers."

Michael's eyes drifted to Pyotr as the only one left that hadn't yet made a decision.

Pyotr was stroking his dark beard, looking thoughtfully into the middle distance. He seemed a bit older in that moment, the age of his past life showing through in his expression. He glanced at Marcus then Michael.

"I will stay with Gemini, at least for now. Things are going quite well with Syl and I don't want to leave this one alone." He pointed at Marcus.

"I'll be fine."

"Probably, but I will watch your back anyway."

Michael nodded, understanding. He would've felt bad if Marcus had wound up alone anyway, besides based on the poorly hidden hickies on Pyotr's neck, he wasn't lying about how things were going with Syl.

Michael nodded. "I'm going to let the twins know… then I'll need to talk with Lys and Trina. Maybe talk to a few of the others."

"You're leaving right away?" asked Pyotr.

Michael nodded, the vision still fresh in his mind. "I need to. I don't know how much time I've got."

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