I picked up the scroll, untied the grey ribbon, and read it. “You have rededicated a fallen altar to The Architect, take this scroll a high priest at one of his temples, to receive your reward.” Below that was the grey shield and the 2 burning fists, symbol of the Architect. The rest of the page was an arrow pointing South-east. That matched with the directions Aggie gave me, add that to running into this church in the first place, and I might be in luck and was dropped where originally intended. I will operate on that assumption until proven otherwise.

Tucking the scroll into my inventory, I went outside the church and tried to pull down and tear up all the vegetation covering it. After a not so quick tidy, my arms were heavy and my back bowed. I stood panting. Recovering the energy to go inside. I twisted my head to judge how much daylight I had left. With my hand out at arm’s length, the sun was only 2 fingers above the Horizon. So, 30 min. to sunset, maybe an hour of light left. I set to gathering fire wood, and looked for a water source for the church. I found plenty of dry wood, I was in a forest after all, but no water to speak of. No wonder this church was abandoned.

I went and cut a large branch, the right size to wedge the door shut, and lit a small fire to warm my MREs. Yes, I used the ring to light it, wouldn’t you? Burninate!

After eating my spaghetti and sides, I popped the gum into my mouth, hoping it would ease my thirst.

I jammed the door shut, and pulled out the scroll just to have a little light. I spent a little while failing at pulling the magic off the scroll and into my charge stone. I lay back, trying to sleep, hoping to meet Bill soon. My eyes blinked slowly as exhaustion pulled me down.

The next thing I knew, I was in a half cubicle, In a bustling office under blinding fluorescent lights. I saw a dapperly dressed man of Gars age, but slender where Gar was massive. He caught my eye smiled and spoke. “Hi Joseph, I’m Bill Colquhoun. I’m your case worker. Ms. Orebite left me some notes here in your file.” He turned back to his computer, and clattered away on his keyboard. He paused frowning, “There are some notes here too from the training department. Hmm, you must have been rather rude at the intake camp to justify this, do you want to tell me about it?” His tone was sharper now, acerbic and precise, his eyes judging.

Swallowing quickly, taking my eyes off his dew-covered water bottle. I said “Ms. Agatha told me I’d skipped training, sir. First thing I knew I was sitting in the chair across from her. Before that I was back on my world. Nothing in between but hold music and a small please wait sign, I swear.”

Mr. Colquhoun looked at me rather doubtfully, turned back to the keyboard, and started making Hmm and Ah noises in turn clearly reading, deftly navigating page to page, popup to popup. He turned, spinning his chair smoothly back to me, “According to Training, you were a right bastard in Intake camp, failing out on discipline charges and deserving the worst fate I can give you. Ms. Orebite’s, Agatha’s notes, however back up your story. I dug into the change logs on your file. As a team lead, I have the ability to do that. Trainings notes, which should have predated your arrival in On Boarding, were added afterwards. A violation of procedure which I have already reported. Why don’t you tell me everything from the beginning from your point of view.” Here he turned back to me waiting patiently.

After telling him my story, from cereal to hold music to sitting right here. He looked at me sharply and asked. “Ok do you have any evidence to back that up? Not having much else, I pulled a small spider out of my inventory and put it on the desk. Then held up my 2 hands with the rings on them for him to see.

That got me another, “interesting”, and he reached out and touched each of the rings with one finger. followed by “Let me see what Garabal put down.” His computer made a plaintive beep after that. Frowning, he picked up the phone and had a quick conversation with what sounded like his boss, explaining why he needed access. At the mention of Training, the voice on the headset got loud enough for me to hear the words “Carol Ann Beisler” clearly, before returning to muttering. Bill got a delightfully wicked smile on his face and said “Of course, I’ll document and cross reference my investigation thoroughly. Do you authorize some overtime to dig into it? If anything, his smile got even more devilish. I think I’m going to like this guy.

Bill, paused and sent a couple quick text messages on his phone, and turned back to me.

“Okay honey, it’s going to take a fair bit of work for me to untangle things here. To cut to the point, I see you absorbed a powerup crystal, looks like an old one too, before they started right sizing them. But you never read your Tome, so it’s useless for now. I’ve put in a request for a replacement Tome, and something extra to make up a little for what’s happened. I’m looking into the mess. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before your request gets processed, I think the last one of these I did took 90 days. In the meantime, I can’t help you with magic. I’m very sorry. When you get to a city or town, be sure to check the mail box in front of the city hall, all correspondence will go through there. I doubt you’ll see me again before you can read your tome.“

I slumped in my chair, feeling heavy, like a truckload of wet sand just got dumped on me. “From what I was told that’s it then. I’m fucked.”

“I’m very sorry Mr. Walker, my hands are tied. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

I looked back as his cool, dew-covered water bottle and asked. “Anyway I can get one of those, sir?”

“I’m afraid that’s strictly against the rules Mr. Walker, my hands are tied. The rules clearly say that you can’t carry anything out that you didn’t carry in.” His hands might be tied, but his foot pushed something up against my foot. He then blatantly rolled a pencil off my side of the desk, and said in a patently false voice of contrition “Oops, would you mind grabbing that for me?” when I bent down to grab it, his foot was pushing a sixpack of water bottles and some boxes of wheat crackers towards me. I stashed it all into my inventory silently, and popped back up smiling “Here you Go, Sir, er Mr. Colquhoun.”

Bill Colquhoun was rubbing his chin, and looking off into space. Decisively he turned around, grabbed a handful of pamphlets one off several stacks in cubbies on the wall behind him, and handed them to me. I glanced at the top couple, each looked to be for one of the schools of magic. They disappeared after the water.

“I’m afraid that’s all I can do for you today, Mr. Walker, I’ll touch base with Agatha and see what we can shake free, but don’t hold your breath. The system is designed to wait out most problems hoping they will solve themselves, making it hurry is nigh on Sisyphean. I can’t keep you here much longer, or it’ll ruin my case numbers. Good Luck Mr. Walker.”

I blinked and the next thing I knew it was dawn and the light was leaking in the top of the church. I moved my gear to my inventory, being very glad Gar was able to give it to me. I went outside and took the rest of the firewood too. I popped open one of the water bottles Mr. Colquhoun, Bill, had clearly -not- given me, and drank it slowly savoring each drop, tossing the empty back in my inventory. Nibbling on crackers, I headed towards the rising sun.