Stephan spent a quiet evening with his family. Come morning, he endured multiple attempts at suffocation through hugging before he finally left town with Tod. He had considered seeing Lacy one more time, lingered at his family’s gate longer than he should have, but in the end decided against it. He was afraid he would make her uncomfortable.
Not to mention how he would feel.
“How far’s the academy?” he asked Tod as they walked out of Brighthollow. The familiar creak of the heavy wooden gate as it closed sounded final.
“Should be two to three weeks at our pace, but to tell you the truth, I don’t really know. Never been there myself.” Tod shrugged. “Then again, only Clara traveled that far from Brighthollow. We’re a small town, with few rare classes. I think we had a Cavalier once, before my time, but he left for greener pastures. Besides that, we get a Priest or a Healer and a handful of Sentries every generation. With Buck and Mike gone, we’ll certainly get at least one more before the year is out.”
His cheerful tone turned gloomy; the promise of a distant journey drowned by memory of friends recently lost.
“That’s how it works?” Stephan asked. It was the first time he’d heard class bestowal framed so plainly.
“Mostly,” Tod said, grateful for the change of topic. “It’s not exactly precise. Brighthollow has had anywhere between three and six Sentries at a time. Youngsters only learn what Commoners and Artisans need to know. But once you get some other class, you learn about it and about the balance.”
He gestured vaguely skyward. “Gods above grant classes as they see fit, and times with more Sentries and Healers aren’t good times to live in. Especially for us Sentries.”
He fell silent, eyes drifting over the predawn landscape around Brighthollow. They weren’t exactly a frontier town, but close enough that most people from the kingdom’s heart would certainly think so.
Silence stretched, and the sun rose, breaking beyond the eastern hills.
“So,” Stephan said, hefting his travel sack, “why didn’t we bring more supplies?”
He had two days worth of bread and cured meat with a pocketful of dried apricots. That was it. That and his clean underpants his mother had washed and boiled extra carefully last night because the Paladin’s under armor was of critical importance.
Oblivious of Stephan’s shiny underwear, the old Sentry answered.
“Towns are spaced out so that merchants can always spend the night at an inn. Twelve, fifteen miles apart inn to inn. We’ll pass two to three a day.” Tod smiled. “If we need anything, we can go straight to a temple and ask for it. No sense lugging stuff when you’re the Paladin on your way to learn and grow. People should be tripping over themselves to give you supplies, and more than one young lady should offer you a warm bed to spend the night.”
Tod was laughing at how witty he was, then remembered the situation with Lacy and went silent.
“It’s all right. I’ll get over it,” Stephan lied, and they continued their journey in silence.
They reached the first village in less than an hour. Stephan barely noticed the thatched roofs before an idea struck him.
“Do you have anyone injured? I’m the Paladin, and I would like to help,” he asked the village chief two minutes later, after dragging Tod to his house.
They lost half an hour, during which Stephan restored two injured men to full health, but failed with three others. Which allowed him to make a few discoveries.
Each healing still added a bit of warmth to his chest, bringing him closer to the next level, no matter how slowly. Unfortunately, his healing ability wasn’t a match for the Paladin’s legendary power. Namely, he could mend lighter injuries, cuts and cracked bones, but couldn’t cure diseases, nor regenerate lost limbs.
By evening, they had been through six villages and three towns, Stephan healing those he could, and the warmth built up in his chest so much it should’ve burned him, yet all he felt was pleasurable contentment. He hovered on the cusp of getting a level, but wasn’t there yet.
Which was fine. If he could level by healing people, he should be able to reach level eight or nine before arriving at the academy.
The next day, after healing the injured from the second village, golden letters formed before Stephan’s eyes again.
[Level 7 reached
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Skill acquired: Blessing of Intuition I
+0 Agility, +1 Charisma, +1 Composure, +1 Dexterity, +0 Endurance, +0 Intelligence, +0 Luck, +1 Perception, +1 Presence, +1 Strength, +1 Toughness, +1 Vitality, +0 Willpower, +1 Wisdom]
.
Stephan focused on them, and instead of just flashing past, the information lingered.
What’s Blessing of Intuition I?
Unexpectedly, the golden letters changed.
[Blessing of Intuition I - You gain introspection and the ability to perceive truths about yourself.]
Stephan took an embarrassingly long time to read the answer, but the letters felt attentive, as if waiting to respond to his will.
Maybe I should’ve done this earlier? But when he thought about it, there was never a calm moment to do so. All his other levels came in the heat of battle or in a state of emergency.
“You all right, Steve?” Tod asked, worried that his charge was staring into the air in the middle of the village green.
“Yes, I’m trying to figure something out. Can you give me a while, please?” Stephan’s voice was distant as he dealt with what he was reading. He was so distracted he didn’t notice the old Sentry’s nod as he waved the villagers back.
‘May I see more truths about myself, please?’ his lips moved without making a sound.
[Stephan Cobblerson, Paladin level 7
Class skills: In Living Memory XVI, Blessing of Healing I, Blessing of Arms I, Smite I, Blessing of Protection I, Inspiring Aura I, Blessing of Conviction I, Blessing of Intuition I
Attributes: Agility: 15, Charisma: 16, Composure: 17, Dexterity: 16, Endurance: 16, Intelligence: 13, Luck: 15, Perception: 16, Presence: 15, Strength: 16, Toughness: 16, Vitality: 17, Willpower: 16, Wisdom: 16]
Stephan went through all his class skills, starting from the last and working his way up. Apparently, he was getting one at every level. He learned he could heal minor to moderate injuries, wield weapons and wear armor as a seasoned veteran, shield himself from divination and identification, and smite fiends and undead.
‘What’s In Living Memory XVI?’ He asked as he reached the innate class skill.
[In Living Memory XVI - As long as Paladin Stephan persists in the memories of his loved ones and those around him, he is immortal. Each time Paladin Stephan dies, he will return to the moment when he received the class with all the benefits he had previously attained. In return, Paladin Stephan will disappear from the memories of those who remember him best, with gaps filled in by those who knew him superficially.
Current number of holders of Paladin Stephan’s living memory - 16.]
Lacy… Stephan’s knees nearly buckled as he read by far the longest and most horrible skill explanation of them all. She’s not an exception. She’s the first.
Dread crept up on him as the magnitude of it all dawned on him. His head spun, and finally, he looked at his class and gambled a question with nothing to lose.
‘What is the Paladin?’
[The Paladin is an incarnation of mankind’s hope, a perfectly average, normal human with extraordinary will and desire to do the right thing, willing to place the safety of innocents above their own wellbeing.]
Stephan slowly read the answer and smiled. It was a small, shaky thing, a hint at the minute comfort those words brought. The way Lady Clara had framed it, he was afraid he’d got the class at random. That he was a stand-in just because the other Paladin had died, but that wasn’t the case. He was extraordinary.
To calm himself completely and keep busy, he read about each attribute and its description.
“Steve,” Tod said gently, “you’ve been standing there for almost half an hour.”
“Right, sorry.” Stephan blinked, and the description of Dexterity disappeared from his sight.
“You know your lips were moving the entire time, as if you were mumbling with something unseen? I had to drive away the crowd twice. They think you blessed their village.”
Stephan finally returned to his body and looked around, people ducking and hiding from his sight.
“Have I healed all the injured here?” he asked, genuinely unable to remember what had happened prior to the level-up which had opened his eyes to the world and to his class.
“Yes, you have, and we should get going.”
They left the confused villagers behind, picking up their pace a bit to make up for the lost time. Stephan still insisted on stopping and healing people. The warmth gained had been tiny, and while it didn’t feel like it dwindled, Stephan knew he would need a lot more before he would gain another level.
Ten days passed on the road, and for all his effort, Stephan had barely reached the midway point to the next level. It was early afternoon, and they had just left a town whose name Stephan either hadn’t bothered to ask about, or had forgotten as it melted into the mass of settlements he had rushed through.
He and Tod mostly traveled in silence, shared conversation topics exhausted, and the gulf in their age making jokes feel inappropriate. Especially when Tod joked about women and sex. In Stephan’s opinion, they were topics men over fifty shouldn’t broach. Perhaps over forty.
As they walked, the only sound was that of their footsteps hitting the dirt road, and Stephan realized it was strange just about the same time as Tod. Birds and bugs should’ve been making noise of life all around them, and yet there was silence.
Tod grabbed Stephan’s sleeve just as the young man stopped on his own. They looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. All was quiet, Stephan holding his mace, Tod the sword Lady Clara had given him from War’s altar.
Then, the leaves started rustling too loudly for it to be the wind. A moving skeleton stepped out of the forest, followed by another and another.
A dozen undead abominations stood still, holding axes and thick branches, their empty eye sockets glaring accusingly at the two living men. Then, without a sound, all twelve ran towards them like one.
