Veneir quickly got the cue and let Valny off my ship, apparently to ask him further questions about his country and the culture surrounding Saints. There were too many blindspots in his knowledge about the forces who had just been involved in our settlement. Veneir actually seemed to be way less excited than I was, as I practically flew into my cabin, entering meditation and my Demesne.

“Did it work, Lily?“ I asked breathlessly even before I had opened my eyes to my mind-space.

“It did! At least I think so. It is a bit different than what I had expected, but the ship itself is consecrated in every manner that counts. If you can project your skills upon the surrounding lands depends on you, I guess.“

“I still don‘t have claimed the Wyld you mean.“ I furrowed my brows. How? What was I to do? There was nothing I could do to change the fact that I did not own, in any meaningful sense, the wilderness around Ravenport. Not yet.

The small blue ball of light flitted excitedly around my head. “Don‘t mope around now! Try it out! Maybe we have achieved more than you think. At least wait with your depression until you have tried everything you can.“

I nodded, running over to my favorite spot, quickly grasping the tome of Skills, flying through the pages until I came upon the one I needed. I had gained the Skill a lifetime ago, it seemed, in the battle of the Mad King‘s Seasons, roped into the fight against Winter by the Autumn-Aspect. The reward had been, besides my old and trusted [Cutting Winds], a Skill fittingly called [Blessed Cycle of Seasons].

From the study of the workings of the Skill I only understood, that it was a Skill meant to be anchored to a place effectively blessing the seasons to be less cruel and more benevolent. Winter would lose its teeth, summer its glaring heat, autumn the strength of the rain and storms, and spring would soften its floods. It would require a constant stream of Essence to keep the Skill going, but by now my passive influx of Essence from my Paradigm, my Companions, and those...empowering...me was big enough to justify the expenditure.

Weaving the Skill was second nature by now. Calming myself down enough to find the right frame of mind to weave the Essence of creation was the only problem.

“Find me some other things to do with a sacred place in the meantime, Lily!“ The Skill was, as a Loci-Skill, rather expensive with the steep cost of 900 Essence. But after all the quests, the passive income of between 20 and 40 Essence per day, depending on the actions of my companions that day, and the week of hunting fat and juicy wyrms down in the Hidden Garden, I sat on a comfortable 4344 Essence. Not even counting the sparks I could crush for more, which I had collected ever since I had angered the gods of darkness, which took the opportunities to spend them away from me.

It was a beautiful, intricate pattern I wove, and the most complicated Skill I had ever the pleasure to finally integrate into my Demesne. And even that proved to be easy as I just created the faint sensation of seasons that would add to the ambiance of my Demesne. As it was now winter, little merry snowflakes began to dance across the cliff and around the warm lights of the wind-oak tree, giving it a calm and homely feel.

That had taken a couple of hours and I immediately anchored the active Skill to the Raven‘s Nest, opening my eyes on the deck of the ship to observe the results. It was a subtle Skill in effect, despite its grand nature. But I did feel that the biting cold had lost its edge, even in the middle of the night when the temperature could drop quite rapidly.

I actually enjoyed standing in the cool, winter night, even without my heavy cloak, and that was a miracle if ever I had seen one. The stars were bright and clear and my view unobstructed from Needle to the bay.

“Is it working?“ I whispered, gripping the railing of my ship and taking deep breaths of the crystal clear air.

[It is. The effect is centered on the ship, though, and effectively only covers what you really can claim. Which is currently Ravenport, the Needle, and part of Shipwreck Bay. It does not reach the Shattered Lands or the Stormplains as far as I can tell. It is a big step, nonetheless. I am proud of you! -L]

And so was I. I had just, in a minor way to be fair, changed the world. Changed reality. All I had done so far had been less monumental, more personal. But this...this was the first thing I had done clean within the purview of gods.

I wondered if among those stars that shined so bright the Wanderer journeyed ever forward and if he was satisfied with what I had done with the gift he had given me. It had been some time since he had spoken to me. I felt that he would not return too soon. If I wanted to talk to him, I needed to carve a Gate to his Demesne. Which was very far down the list of the things I needed to do, unfortunately, as high as I might value his advice.

Right, what next? I clapped my hands and returned, refreshed by the winter air, settling back down again.

“Talk to me. What can I do?“ I said as I sat down with Lily to go through my options.

“Now that you have a sacred space we can do a lot. And I mean a lot. You can benefit those being part of your faith, and you‘ll have to excuse me using those terms. It is how I have learned it. You can offer them Skills to buy or outright gift them. You can change the rules within your temple. Eternal sunshine is yours if you are willing to pay the price. You can buy some of the Skills available to everyone. Those boost morale or strengthen the defenders of your faith and more. Most importantly you can create the classes associated with your faith. The paladins and priests of your old empire. Which I can imagine might be awkward given your hesitation when religion is concerned.“

“We would have to come up with something else, I guess.“ I mused. “I want to be true to our strength as Ravenport. Strong people living in a dangerous environment, thus getting stronger. I feel like it is the best chance we have for survival in both the short and the long term.“

“There are some auras used by gods of learning, well most gods really, I know. I have met just the right wisp in the Afterlight. Basically, in the influence of your domain, your people will learn faster and grow quicker in levels. These are very small increments, though, but you need to see the big picture in decisions like this. This is different from the creation of your knightly orders which allowed you to quickly boost the strength of chosen individuals. You are blessing a civilization, here and even small percentages add up to significant change time.“

“Can I afford such a blessing?“

“What I have in mind, the most convenient one, is [Divine Spirit of Learning], passively increasing the growth of all citizen by 5%. For the same price, you could focus on martial prowess or crafting and get 10%. But those basically are the options.“

“This is difficult. I fear that it will be martial prowess dictating our chances for survival.“ I murmured.

“And yet societies based on nothing but war are doomed to scavenge from the more sophisticated societies, ultimately falling behind.“ Lily chirped happily.

“You have thought about that.“ I accused her.

“I have. Well, I got told. It will not make a difference in the short term or a very small one, but in the long term, I imagine you need everyone to prosper. You can personally train your troops, can you say the same for your craftsmen and farmers?“

I nodded. “You are right. When it comes to war, I can play my part. I already have sponsored two knightly orders and I can draw the sword myself. For everything else, Ravenport has to rely on the people and the Wounded Pride. This will likely be the only way I may be able to help them.“

“You will get more for your investment as well, as you have much more non-combatants than fighters. And those training on sword and spear benefit from learning other things as well. The people you have who are only fighters are a very small group. Not even every knight. Although it has to be said, that your knights and rangers won‘t benefit while they are out in the Wyld on their merry quests.“

“But they will in sparring and Nightmare Hunting. Which is enough.“

“You might be able to help them out in other ways. As the patron deity of a faith, in whatever form, you can start quests.“

“I can what?“ I could not believe my ears. That truly was...on par with the power of the system itself. My head swam from the absurdity of it all.

“I would start small. And generate quests for the craftsmen as well, as they have usually a much harder time leveling their classes. They can use the boost, while the knights and rangers can just go out to hunt for Essence.“

„Where do I even start with all of this?“

“You have to pay the Essence yourself, though. So maybe don‘t start right away.“

“Right, right.“ I sat back down, trying to think everything through. “Why don‘t you start at the top again. Slower, this time.“ I asked looking up to the small wisp.

Lily laughed bright and merrily.

In the end, I spent around 900 Essence for [Blessed Cycle of Seasons] and 1200 for the [Divine Spirit of Learning]. I held enough back for some personal improvements and I wanted to have a buffer for when I would claim the Wyld for my own.

Until then, I was happy with the small but in the long run significant blessings I had woven today. With the weather calmed, life would be much easier out here, farming would improve and the active time of all inhabitants would increase by so much. Today I had wrought a strong foundation out of the Essence of creation a society could build upon for the future.

There was much to learn still, and I spent the rest of the night talking with Lily about the things she had learned in the Afterlight. Soon I began to see a path in my mind as to how to build my - let's call it religion- for Ravenport to prosper, if I had the time and the Essence to do so.

All that was left for me to do was to ensure there was a future to be had.

The secret of that future was hidden behind the Elemental Keys that now were floating, in images created by myself, in front of me. I tried studying the patterns of their weavings, I involved the learned spirit of the Skillforge for the knowledge of the gods, and here and there I began to glimpse small insights into what the keys could do.

Finally, I lost my patience and just went ahead and created the Skills in truth. If I could not learn what they were by their patterns alone, maybe some secret would reveal itself once they were brought together.

They were complicated to weave and I settled begrudgingly down for the longest session of Skillweaving I had ever done.