"When it comes to matters that would affect you for your entire life, never make a snap decision on it, lest you fall into regret on a later day. Unless you're on the battlefield fighting for your life, in which case, go ahead." - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden

The next morning, the family had breakfast with the imperial couple as usual, before they bid them their goodbyes and promised to visit again. With a last hug, Cal departed with her family, with a promise to visit when she brings Ying Xiao back the next year in winter.

They walked together back to the pagoda, took the gate there back to paradise, and since it was still rather early in the morning, Cal excused herself by saying she had some private matters to handle first.

She found Ergan - the mixed descent bard she accidentally rescued back at Barzum and supposedly the Champion of Wind - nervously waiting for her right outside the gate hub. He looked as if he had been waiting for her arrival, which just doubled her suspicion that the one of the blurry figures she saw in her "dream" last night was him.

"Miss Ambervale? Ma'am deVreys asked me to bring you over," said the bard with some nervousness. He did not seem much different than how he was when Cal saved him a couple years ago, despite his stay in Paradise and what she assumed to be his status as a champion.

"Lead the way, then," Cal replied as she just followed behind him. She already had an inkling why, considering that she had long suspected Aideen to be one as well. After all, who would be fit as Champion of Mortality if not the first who wielded it?

To no surprise, Ergan led her in a familiar route, straight to Aideen's personal tower. They both entered the tower, and climbed up to where Aideen had her dining room, and there, Cal saw seven other figures already waiting for her, as well as empty seats for herself and Ergan.

Cal surveyed the seated people as she took her seat. Aideen herself was one of them of course, leaning back relaxedly on her seat while giving her a wave of her hand. A few other faces she recognized and had half expected to see, like Magnus, the fire archmagus who loved cooking, and Hogart the blacksmith. They were indeed at the top of their craft, of that there was no doubt.

She had also already met the other four figures, but had not suspected them to be of such lofty status in the least. One of them was Shi-Huang's half therian wife, who looked amused at her surprise as she played with her fluffy tail with one hand.

The twin brothers who were the owners of the inn where her family had stayed were also present, both giving her friendly smiles. The elder twin she had not seen before because he was out of town on an errand wore his hair long and cultivated a neatly groomed mustache compared to his more gruff looking brother.

Last of the figures in the room, but definitely far from the least, was the cloaked, masked figure Cal met once in Eyjafjord. The Bounty Hunter.

"Glad you could come by, Cal," Aideen said once everyone was seated. "I'm guessing you already got a good idea why we're all gathered here, no?"

"I presume… you all are the champions I felt approval from yesterday, in the conclave," replied Cal seriously. She was still uncertain what exactly she had been offered, but was well aware that it involved powers far greater than any mortal could fathom.

"Close, but not quite," answered Aideen with a shrug. "Ol' Rags isn't here, not that there's any way we could have transported her here anyway, nor a way to get her inside a building this small. She ain't no shapeshifter."

"Rags? Wait… do you mean… Ragiula? The Kraken?" Asked Cal with evident surprise.

"The one and the same, yep," noted Aideen with some amusement as she replied back. "Ain't no rule that the champion of the deities gotta be a human or anything."

"That's… unexpected," admitted Cal, slightly lost for words, which brought her to instead wonder why there were eight people in the room then.

"Let me do the introductions. Magnus and Hogart you already know for sure. They're the champions of fire and metal as you can tell," said Aideen as she made the rounds. "And Ergan I have no need to introduce you to since you ran into him before we did. He is indeed the Champion of Wind."

"You've met Eirycea often already," Aideen went on as she gestured towards Shi-Huang's wife. "She's the Champion of Sand, though if you read your history books you'd know her better as the Thousand Shards, who made her fame during the Al-Shan invasion of the mainlands some seven centuries ago."

"These two are my father and uncle," Aideen said as she introduced the twin brothers who owned the inn. They gave Cal a friendly wave which she returned, and now that Aideen mentioned it, she could indeed see some family resemblance. "They're the Champion of Light. Before you ask, yes, sometimes the duty could be given to more than one person at once like in their case."

"And she… well, you already met the Bounty Hunter," added Aideen as she went to the last person in the room, who sat on their seat and radiated menace."Would you cut it out with the jest already? You're scaring Ergan there shitless."

"Okay, okay, just having some fun with him, y'know?" A melodic female voice came from beneath the mask that Cal recognized. The Bounty Hunter pulled off her mask, and lowered her hood, to reveal a fox-eared pretty face she recognized well. Kino the bard, the acquaintance she made… in Eyjafjord, shortly after her encounter with the Bounty Hunter. "Heya Cal!"

"Kino is the Champion of Void," said Aideen after Kino revealed herself and withdrew her menacing aura. "And as you might have guessed by now, I am the Champion of Mortality. Now feel free to ask your questions."