Blink didn’t go back into the dungeon the next day. I made her spend time with one of the bows loading and shooting it until she had her light crossbow skill up to level 3. Then we worked on getting her the combat acrobatics skills since she was used to pouncing as a ropola.

I spent the first day talking with the old men as I had come to call the Shamans from the past. I needed to know how to raise my faith and why it slipped down. So I took the first day to do the ritual of remembrance.

As my fire turned into their fire, the eldest spoke up.

“Chaos told me you would be back.”

I walked over to the fire to see just three of them sitting around. The one who helped me with my spells was there, along with a huge shaman who I didn’t remember seeing before. The big one spoke up as I reached my rock.

“Arn, good of you to come to speak with us.” He said with a smile.

I sat down and replied, “Yes I prayed to the Sisters and while I got some information from them I didn’t get everything I felt I needed. I ended up a little more confused than before.”

The big one chuckled, “The Sisters like doing that, or at least Chaos likes doing that. Order likely gave you something solid to go on then before you could ask enough to know what to do Chaos kicked you out.”

I nodded. “Yup. I kind of guessed that was what happened but I wasn’t sure who was speaking since the voices seemed like one most of the time.”

“Oh that would be Chaos doing that. She likes making is so Order doesn’t scare people off too badly. But what was it that you were left confused about?”

I looked around at the three men, “Well I noticed my Faith had gone down but I wasn’t sure how that happened and I have Faith now in someone that I thought had died. Also I was sure what they meant by I needed to use the gifts that I was entrusted with.”

The one who helped me understand souls nodded to the other two and faded away. Then the giant of a shaman answered.

“Faith moves up and down based on a few things. You can use faith points by asking for help even minor requests will use Faith. You can raise it by prayer or by dedicating things to them. Small expensive items work great and so does money.”

I sighed, “So even just saying something like Chaos help me would be enough to use some faith points?”

The eldest nodded his head, “The more you believe that she will hear the more points it will take. However, because you have Faith in them even just asking for the blessing with out any thought of answer will take some.”

I was shaking my head at that. “I think I have been asking for help or saying their names more than I thought. But I know there was at least one battle that I went into not sure if I would make it out that I wanted the help on.”

The large one nodded his head. “Just using their names like that would be a slight drain on your Faith. How often have you been praying.”

The eldest started to laugh. “Until recently he hadn’t been!”

The big one shook his head, “How have you been gaining faith?”

“I am not sure that I have. I have lost around twenty points so I am not sure if I have gained any. I have been trying to build a path for pilgrims but it seemed to be going the wrong way.”

The big one grunted, “Have you been dedicating them as you went?”

“Yes each one.”

“You should have gotten around 50 faith for each one that you dedicated while you thought you were doing the right thing. You might have lost about half of that all at once when you felt like you went the wrong way and that you weren’t serving the Sisters.”

“I put in like a dozen of those rooms. I should have more Faith than I do.”

The old one spoke up, “You said there was a battle that you didn’t know if you would live through that you asked for help. That is where most of your Faith went.”

“Okay so how much should I expect to get in faith from praying and does it need to be the prayer ritual?”

The big one gestured to the old man to speak, and then he faded away. The old guy looked at me with a sly grin.

“Well through prayer alone you can gain 1 point of Faith per day for either one of the sisters. It doesn’t have to be the ritual but it must be real honest prayer for at least an hour. If you can’t do that it needs to be the ritual.”

“That’s going to take way to long. So I guess I am going to buy my way there.”

The old man grinned again, “For every ounce of gold or the equivalent you give you can earn one point of Faith up until you get to 100. After 100 points in Faith it costs 2 ounces and at 200 it goes up to 3. Bought Faith is expensive. As it also costs Faith if you don’t pray for a day.”

“What? I lose Faith by not praying but only gain 1 by praying?”

“Yes, what good is Faith that you buy. You are a shaman if you were just a warrior then your Faith would not decrease by not praying daily but weekly. As it is if you don’t pray you lose 5 points a day down to 50.”

“I don’t have enough gold and items to buy my way to 150 points of Faith with both of them. So how am I going to raise my Faith enough that they will help me?” I asked.

“Well they like things dedicated to them and while it is true that money and small expensive things are great they also like actions. We are at war with the dark ones. So defeating them helps when you dedicate your battle to them. Also Order likes it when things are built. She loves those who take the wild and make it orderly. Chaos herself however, prefers the things that are unexpected. If it is perfect Order in a place that shouldn’t be or confusion where Order should be. Big displays are great but the mild slightly wrong feeling that can cause lingering doubt are what she truly loves.”

“Well I can’t build more way stations because I don’t know the direction to go. So building things seems out. How do I go about dedicating a battle to them?”

“First don’t think that building is out. I am sure that you can figure out something that you could make that you could dedicate to them. As for battles that requires that you use ritual prayer before the warriors go out for the fight. The battle needs to be joined within half a day of the end of the prayer.”

“Crap, that almost completely leaves that out for me since I am not sure I could make it from here to their camp in half a day to attack. Nor do I like the idea of doing the prayer out my camp since it takes so much time.”

“True it tended to be best when used with large armies or higher level shaman. As your prayer skill goes up the amount of time you need to pray for the battle to be dedicated goes down.”

“Sounds like I need to figure out how to make something that will please both Chaos’s sense of style and Order’s desires. Any suggestions?”

“Some of us spent time building hidden paths others tended gardens that were not what they seemed. Most of us however, spent our time helping others to understand the Sisters. Your Faith is increased when teaching about them. You gain even more when others believe because of what you said. Those healed by us would thank the Sisters and our Faith would go up some from that. You however, have a hard road in front of you unless you can figure something out. No one to lead to the Sisters, not enough money to buy your way ahead and no idea which direction to go.”

He smiled at me from his rock and spread his hands out in almost a pleading method. Then my ritual ended, and the hoarseness of my throat showed up.

I slowly got up from the ground where I had been sitting and started to think as I grabbed some water. I needed to figure out something that I could make that was both bringing order from around but yet confusing in some way. Then I needed to make sure that when I made it, I dedicated it to the Sisters.

The good thing was that when I built something, I shouldn’t expect it to disappear from me because at least the rooms stayed around, and I could use them. So it wasn’t like in some games I played where everything just vanished. Though, I bet the money and small things given to them in the shrines would go, poof.

As I started to work on figuring out what I would do to bring up my faith, I got to work on the weapons for Blink. I knew that she just wanted them for the fun of it, but it got me working, and that hopefully would get me thinking of ways that I could earn faith from the Sisters.

The crossbows were by far the best-made items that I had tried to work on. They were all of twelve inches long. The stock was made from a tightly-grained wood that I had never seen before. It had a dark green hue to it and was heavier than I thought it should be. All of the metal appeared to be high-grade steel, which kind of worried me. The screws were finely threaded, which made the process easy to cock but would take longer.

I knew that I could carve into some metals, but this was by far the best that I had seen. I was hoping that I would be able to work my runes in and then place the cores. The wood would be able to hold some things, but I wanted to socket at least two cores in each. One on the screw and one on the body. If I could, I would put one bow part as well.

I planned this job out, and so it took me a couple of days in the safe room to get things ready and made. For power reasons, I was going to make the crossbows not have any magical attack damage added. The improvements to them would be self cocking, more power, lighter, increased accuracy, and recall. I was also going to work her quivers to be like mine, but one would be ice and the other fire. That way, she could pick what she wanted to use.

I was getting ready to make the quivers when Blink came hoping over.

“Daddy, I knows that you saids that you were goings to make one firesand the others ice. Could yous give me a pausing bolts in each? I thinks that having that option would be greats! Also could I gets one that could weaken armors?”

I sighed, “Yeah I can do that I just need to rework what I am doing. But you are right having some other option will be helpful. I just wish that I knew the full extent of what they would do on each item before I made them. Adding cores helps to bring everything together but it also seems to make it do what it wants.”

Blink smiled and snatched up the second crossbow, and skipped back over to where she had been shooting the wall of the safe room. Every shot into the wood made Dave winch.

Dave called out from behind the bar, “You know in other safe rooms you can’t go doing things like this. Moving around everything to create a shooting lane and setting up several crafting tables. If we were busier than I would have to restrict your space.”

I smiled back at him and laughed. “If we were in another dungeon I wouldn’t be out in the main room leaving things around either. I don’t trust others enough to leave my lab open.”

* * *