The sensation of my surroundings changing is subtle but it occurs fast enough that when I decide to open my eyes it is already finished. I find myself standing not terribly far from a beautiful golden lake. Beyond the lake is a mountain, and the place almost reminds me of a more dramatic, heaven-themed, version of the neutral Chao Garden from Sonic Adventure 2.
The soundtrack of this place is a heavenly hymn and as I look around I see various angels, of both and every gender, observing me in the distance. A figure lounges on the shores of the lake and she is the only person not flying or far away. Her features are amorphous, changing every few heartbeats, though she's always surpassingly beautiful. I approach her and kneel, causing her to laugh musically.
"You receive my blessing and then wait almost a year to come and see me… Only to kneel so respectfully? Lalo you are a person of unpredictable character." She proclaims, speaking simultaneously haughtily and warmly.
"Rise, Lalo… champion-to-be." She tells me and I do as she says. This isn't out of genuine faith; it's more of a combination of Chad-driven-instinct, a recognition of her real power, and also self-preservation. I do hear the term "Champion-to-be" and a part of me realizes she's making plans in her head I may or may not be down to go along with.
"It's about time you've come here. I was a few days from losing face with some of my followers." She says and this time there's some real steel in her voice, actual annoyance, though no serious malice. Still, she's a goddess. It's a matter of pride I suppose.
"I apologize, First Mother. I was helping Thomas and the Amarans back in Warnerberg." I reply, and while this response is to save face myself it's also factually true. Much of the work I did in Warnerberg was to help Thomas and the small, but vibrant, community of people who identified with Amara's tenants and domains. At the same time I use my voice and words as a medium for Special Effects, which I shape to produce an illusionary figurine, causing her to smile.
"I also made you a figurine. And I noticed there wasn't one in Warnerberg." I explain, also truthfully. This causes her to laugh, the sound beautiful and serene, and for a moment I have to wonder if one of her domains isn't beauty. I can't tell if she's beautiful because she's a goddess of life and love, or if she's a goddess of life, love, and beauty. It is actually distracting to hear her laugh.
"Yes I remember your trinket. There's something magical to it. Magical in a way that I don't recognize." She tells me, her eyes narrowing even as she undergoes one of her metamorphosises.
"It's a curious little thing. Now that it's been bestowed with my power I can see through it. I have watched your adventures, or at least seen part of them, through it." She explains with a genuine smile.
"There are some finicky conditions with gaining the ability to make something like what you made that can actually be bestowed with a slice of my energy and thus turned into my eyes. Between Thomas and yourself you fulfilled those conditions. If more of my followers fulfilled them I'd have more eyes in different towns." She tells me, and I wonder what those conditions must be.
"Belief in me, the real kind, the kind that empowers gods and goddesses to new heights, isn't as high as I'd like it to be." She adds, and I can see a look of sadness in her eyes. I see now that this world's divine rules are a combination of different places and ideas. One of the ideas is the common enough fantasy idea that a god derives real power from worship but that there are different degrees of belief and that some levels of belief offer more power to a deity than others.
"But that's where champions and heroes come in." She says, pipping right up. She eyes me up and down and I watch a series of emotions alight across her face, some being more visible and lingering longer than others. Desire, the kind that leads to new life, is one of them.
"Goddesses of life are often pigeonholed into a specific set of ideas, ideals, and images. Some of us enjoy having male champions, for a multitude of reasons but one such reason is that such champions can typically help with expanding views of life-goddesses and broadening our appeal beyond casual worshippers, mothers and very specific kinds of men. I'd like for you to become my champion, Lalo." She tells me, causing my eyes to widen. I'm about to speak when she waves a hand and I am silenced.
"This process won't be fast, nor is it something I'm thinking of lightly. And there'll be rewards for you, of course. But you have taken, without my guidance, several good first steps towards this grand objective anyway." She explains, before immediately launching into an elaboration of those remarks.
"Upon meeting a worshipper of mine and learning more about me you immediately began to help a church of mine. Beyond that, even after you left said church you went to another church and immediately assisted them, giving them a connection to me beyond the passive one I had by virtue of the city's priests to me and the small church. And here, within minutes of arrival, you have saved the life of a bishop. I would have intervened to save his life if necessary, but you took it upon yourself to save a life unprompted and without promise of reward, which has also saved me some energy. That is very much an act in line with my ideals." Amara proclaims, smiling in a way that manages to capture her serenity and also hint at her haughtiness. She flashes me a different look and then her expression relaxes.
"All of that said, I am aware that I have made a great ask and not explained what you'd get in return. I will continue to bless you, I will throw more of my support behind you and inform leaders in different churches nationwide of you, and I will encourage the deployment of my resources against your foes, that… sinister consortium." She says, which fully surprises me.
The "Sinister consortium" in question is the secret group of art suppressors. This odd collective is opposed to art and free expression and I've clashed with some of their members in the past. My reaction causes the goddess to smile.
"Yes, I am aware of them. I was going to warn the bishop you saved before I sensed you arriving in the cathedral. Lucas Roades is a sincere believer, though more casual in his faith then I'd like, but he's also the organizer of a series of sermons that incorporate music and the arts into worship. The collective your actions stopped have annoyed worshipers of mine like him for years. I… don't like that they tried to have him assassinated. He'd make for an invaluable ally of yours, given your own artistic abilities, and that's before we take into account that you saved his life." Amara tells me with a beautiful, gentle smile.
There's a glimmer of gratitude visible in her eyes that I don't miss, though it's faint. She's pretty arrogant but there's a good core there, a level of goodness that reminds me of Arsinoe: someone used to power, who wields it quite naturally and regularly, but does so fundamentally from a kind, caring place. Curiously, the level of arrogance in her actions reminds me of a handful of Troyverse characters, figures whose descriptions mention that they have kind hearts that look down, benevolently, on people behaving in subtly, but nicely condescending ways.
The next few minutes pass in a blur, with Amara doing more talking-at-me than talking-to-me. I suspect such things are pretty common for her. She does release me from her realm, but not before saying that if I don't advance her objectives she'll simply rescind her blessing and with her saying something to the effect of "No harm, no foul". I sense that this would hurt her, emotionally at least, but I suppose she's doing a mental calculation that between the powers I've shown and the acts I've done for her people she knows I'd be a good ally and she doesn't want to sour that. When I return to the mortal world it is done suddenly and I am surprised to see one of the twins offer me a handkerchief. I take it right before I feel something dribble onto my lips. I touch the offered item to my lips and when I pull it away there's a thin line of blood on it.
"Our lady's divine realm is not a place for mortals. Those who stay too long experience… odd effects." One of the twins, the man, explains. He smiles at me softly, almost apologetically.
"Our lady is pleased by you. The First Mother looks forward to your successes, and assures us that they will bring many hearts and minds to us." The other twin, the woman, tells me. I look at the twins and thank them before returning the handkerchief to the man. My healing factor is already allowing me to recover from the time I spent in her realm.
I leave the space and return first to Lucas. He speaks to me energetically and excitedly, telling me Amara spoke to him via their connection, and gives me permission to leave my wagon in the space it is parked in long-term. He even tells me to let it transform if I wish, surprising me by knowing that it can do that. As he speaks it becomes clear that before he's a cleric he at least has knowledge of bardic things, which could explain his affinity for the arts. I take this and run with it, before going and seeing my friends and taking them back to the wagon. When I explain what has happened to them they are all excited. This kicks off another stint of Jumper Time, one that feels like the first real stint in a while.
Over the course of the next week life begins to change. Upon arriving back at the wagon I go ahead and transform it, doing so while being inside of it and willing it to transform. The place undergoes a majestic transformation, becoming a large though not distractingly so, tavern to the outside viewer and on the inside it is a strikingly large restaurant complete with a stage for plays and performances. I don't plan specifically to become Amara's champion but I also figure I might as well align with her and advance her stuff. Love, life, and healing are all things I'm down for and Amara herself has a personality that I can work with.
At first only church-goers come to the tavern form of the Traveling Stage, and they actually get a discount if they can prove they attended services or donated to the church over the last week, and the cooking is done by Lilly. In time the restaurant becomes more popular, causing me to hire chefs and I myself cook here, which unsurprisingly bolsters the popularity of the tavern more. We host talent nights and allow the church to send speakers and staff the place with people who volunteer their time to preach, casually, to people about Amara and partner with the church. When we have a full staff Lilly becomes a manager and I get hands off.
I focus more of my time and energy across a few different objectives. One of my big goals is to accrue more tales via Story Collector. I do this by going to the city library and adding its books to my grimoire, a text at a time. After that I do minor things to aid the church, such as fashioning instruments for them which I mark with dwarven sorcery, and I teach a number of clerics the keys to story and music magic like Special Effects and Accompaniment. Drawbacks start to subtly intrude their way into my life, with me learning about tension between local musicians and actors, and me having more encounters with Art Suppressors.
I turn the area around the cathedral into my lair, using an ability I gained in Generic Monster School via the Beholder Supplement but never meaningfully utilized. This gives me an eerie level of knowledge and power over the area around Amara's main earthly base, which I use to help and protect people, and very purposefully avoid marking with negative energy. This lessens what I can do, a little, but the overall effect is still strong enough that people come to view the place as both safer and more holy.
Weeks turn into months as I grow used to life in Orchestraville. I sometimes aid adventurers, usually by doing things like healing people or offering adventurers a slight discount at the tavern and giving them minor, though dwarven-touched; in the sense that they have been enchanted, weapons and armor. I spend a lot of my time near the church and even high-ranking figures like Bishop Roades become common sights at the tavern as we cross the 1 year anniversary of my arrival in Orchestraville.
I achieve a significant success when I stop another assassination that would have had a devastating impact on Orchestraville by killing a young man who was planning to kill a city councilman who advocated for public sponsorship of arts during a festival. As a reward for this I suggest a collaborative musical parade that begins in the city square and ends inside of Amara's temple. This suggestion is met with great excitement by both church officials and the congressman himself who offers to bankroll a good portion of it.
Thanks to a combination of things, including me using Lucky Bastard; a new perk attained this jump that allows me to earn what is essentially karmically neutral luck that I can give people, as well as decide whether its good luck or bad luck depending on whether or not I want to help them, to help those who support the parade, it is a smash hit. The city comes together in a heart-warming display of artistic talent and devotion to the local life goddess, and a choir I helped teach myself performs in front of her cathedral. For one night the whole city is unified and Amara speaks to me and thanks me for bringing the city together.
For a while life is fairly peaceful. The city's officials are fully onboard supporting the arts in the city and the consortium is just… defeated here. Occasionally someone will try to get lucky, but in the city, where all art-supporting people are under my protection, their efforts just fail. More than once it doesn't even take me directly stopping them, as partway through my third year I do something I have found myself doing in every jump: training warriors and guards. This time though I also do more than merely train guards.
"The First Mother is a benevolent mistress." I explain softly as a number of students, men and women, children and elderly folks alike, look up at me. They listen raptly.
"She has given me, a firm devotee of hers, permission to share the secrets of restorative magic." I proclaim, wand in hand. This is true enough, in the abstract anyway, though more than anything else this is something I'm doing of my own accord. I like this, I enjoy beats in my chain like this, where there's no combat, no dark intrigue, no mysteries, just a teacher… teaching.
I ask Rowena, not a classmate but someone aiding with the class, to bring in the person who has volunteered to be healed in front of the class in exchange for free healing. She brings in a man walking on a cane, a sight that causes my heart to ache. And then I immediately remember that he's here for healing and I smile.
"This is Julian Reynolds. He was injured riding his horse." I explain as Mr. Reynolds waves at the class. I tell the class of his condition. The class looks at him sympathetically, and I can tell everyone is happy that I will be healing the man. In fairness to him he's just a good guy. Even the music of his soul speaks to the goodness of his character.
I invite the man to show the class his leg. He's sheepish about it and I nod in understanding.
"I get it Julian. I understand how humiliating it can be. But these are future healers who will help others. People like you, good, hard-working people who can't afford treatment. Learning from you, seeing what happens to you, will be good for them. And these healers will be moved by what they see here. Not only will they learn by observing what I do, they'll see the relief and elation on your face and be moved by it, heartened, encouraged to take what is being taught here seriously." I tell the man, softly. He looks at me and is quiet but moves to his pants and lifts them up just enough for the class to see the damaged limb. They see discolored skin and those closest to him, closest to me, can smell an unpleasant scent. I flash him a sympathetic look and I can tell a part of him hates the sympathy. Pride. I remember the same sort of pride.
"Class I'm going to use a 'Lesser Restoration'. It is a bit more taxing than the simple healing spells I've taught you but our patients deserve the power of this spell and it is good for you to know it." I tell the students. Everyone, including Julian, nods. He is listening as diligently as they are.
Healing magic is something keyed to my soul. It's the form of school that I, Lalo, have the most natural affinity for. Necromancy is the form of magic I use the most, but that's because of the potency of my essences. The Awakening perk from the Veiled Earth jump allowed me to use a school of magic that is keyed to my heart, to my personal essence, and not the spooky potion kind, and healing magic was the school that I linked to the most strongly. Even without my heavy-duty, essence-backed magic nature, I'd be able to do stuff like this.
I point my wand to the man's leg and I utter the spell. I call it "Lesser Restoration" and I have taught it as "Lesser Restoration", but it's actually more original than the D&D spell of the same name and is keyed to the fixing of purely physical ailments, unlike the actual D&D spell which can solve a number of magical conditions of lesser to middling strength. I feel my energy transfer from my reactor to my wand and watch as soft pink light is gently expelled from the tip of the wand and touches Julian's leg.
The man's breath catches in his throat and I watch the magic working. Light covers his leg and multiple students scribble notes and sketch pictures as the light glows. When it begins to fade the man looks at his leg in awe. The injury, something which has plagued him for months, is completely and supernaturally repaired by the magic. The man smiles and he puts his pant leg down before slowly but surely putting weight on the leg.
"Lalo… Lalo you mad genius! Ah, praise the goddess. I can work. How could I ever repay you?" He asks, smiling at me with soft, amazed eyes. I smile warmly at him and pat him on the back.
"You don't need to repay me Julian. The work you do is noble, hard work. You feed your family, you care for your friends. The goddess smiles at you. I am simply doing her will." I remark, reciting the sort of cheesy lines I've said before, but I'll admit when I heal people I mean them. Maybe not so much the parts about the goddess, but certainly the parts about helping people and not needing to be repaid. I ask him if he's open to being asked questions by the students about the magic and he agrees to the questioning.
In my time as a teacher I've made many discoveries about the nature of my ability to share magic with others. I've discovered that different people have different affinities as far as magic goes, something "Sage"; a perk of mine, allows me to observe and piece together with a glance. I used that when coming up with classes. I've also discovered that different people have different learning styles. People with greater affinity tend to be able to learn just by being shown the magic and me intending for them to be able to use it. They are like sorcerers, the D&D kind, able to use magic more on instinct, feeling, and as if it's a natural part of them that I have simply awoken.
People with lesser affinities, such as this class, need more standard teaching and in those cases it's better for them to take notes, and be taught things like it's a series of facts that need memorization. When their ability to use magic materializes and they become spellcasters they become like wizards, learning magic through intelligence. For them magic is a skill, one that can be trained, honed, sharpened, through diligent practice.
I hand Rowena a few coins and tell her to give them to Julian as he's leaving. She nods and flashes me an approving smile.
When the man leaves, more people in need of treatment come into the classroom of the small clinic. Students step up and move over to them, ready to help them. This building is beside the tavern and was hastily constructed a year ago. It's small but it's big enough for plenty of folks to come by a day. The class, despite being made up of people who lack significant affinity with healing magic has a few students who stand out. This is only one of their first days and several of them already have deep enough magical energy pools to treat multiple people with magic rather than simply diagnosing their problems and sending them to more magically gifted healers.
I am able to teach my class of healers for over two and a half years, dealing with occasional interruptions in the form of fiat-backed drawback-based distractions but in large part my faction; my maids, my friends, the Amarans, and I have won any sort of major would-be conflicts in Orchestraville pretty handily. My students learn potent healing magic, with some of the sorcerer-like healers leaving to different communities to go and practice healing arts and preach to Amara in distant locales, while the wizard-like healers prove more likely to become clerics. In time my efforts swell the ranks of the active Amarans, both here and elsewhere, so I'm a little surprised when Bishop Roades himself shows up one day around five years and a few months into my stint in Orchestraville. This is the sixth year I've been in this world, and in time my abilities have grown sharper thanks to the practice I've had with them. Even Dabbler has become strong enough to allow me to slot six things into it at once!
"Good morning Lalo. Could you come with me to the cathedral? The First Mother wishes to speak to you." He tells me. There is politeness in his language but seriousness and urgency in his tone. I readily agree and in minutes we are in the inner sanctum of Amara's most sacred location in this plane. I am kneeling in front of her station and I feel myself be whisked away to the place I first visited over five years ago.