I paced. Tomorrow, two days after the big trial on Ring One that had decided the fate of House Kalnislaw, we were supposed to have the remembrance ceremony for Elder Escinca.

Tomorrow, I would be doing my first, new Ritual.

Or at least, I wanted to do so. The rest of the day after the trial had passed in a bit of a funk, where despite my intentions, I never actually managed make myself feel like being productive. Not that I had whiled away the whole time doing nothing. I had still explored Ritual, as well as briefly touching on my two new Aspects, Illumination and Flare.

But those were a little less important at the moment. Ritual had the potential for the same kind of open-endedness that Sacrifice boasted, and that had consumed most of the thoughts I could spare.

I had wondered if I could make any process a Ritual. What if I simply created my own steps, simple components I came up with and could execute easily, and channelled Ritual throughout? Sadly, it wasn’t that convenient. One of Escinca’s letters mentioned an inherent need for tradition. As in, the Structure Affix needed to be a real, established ritualistic process, not something cooked up off the top of the caster’s head.

Slightly annoying, but I appreciated Kostis’s incisive questioning. He had asked if Ritual could be used to establish new ritualistic processes that would be recognized by Structure.

According to Escinca, the answer was yes, to an extent. It would just need a separate Affix to do so—Liturgize.

That was going to need a separate bit of effort for me to obtain, but I did want to attain it. If I could more directly control what Ritual even recognized as a ritual, then I would get a much better grip over what I could gain through the process.

Because that was what I would be trying today, the day before the remembrance ceremony. Seeing just what Ritual got me.

Of course, when I had first tried to figure it out, the only ritual I knew about was the induction ceremony. Unfortunately, repeating it with Sreketh or any of the other cultists didn’t seem to do anything. No matter how much I focused on Aspect of Ritual, I couldn’t seem to make it recognize that the drinking and chanting and all that was an ongoing ritualistic process.

Which was odd because we had performed it “successfully” to get me the Aspect in the first place.

I couldn’t find any real references to the phenomenon in any of Escinca’s letters. That said, I had begun suspecting the reason Ritual wasn’t working was because what we were doing wasn’t an actual ritual. As in, even if we were following the steps correctly, our intent wasn’t genuine.

That problem was solved thanks to the fact that more people wanted to join the cult.

I wasn’t going to lie, with the Thralls and their master more or less taken care of, there wasn’t exactly a pressing need to join the Cult of the Sun. Besides, once I got Blessing as an Aspect too, I could recreate the Blessings Escinca had performed, in case they were worried about that.

But no. The people who came to the temple were rather sincere in their intentions of becoming actual members of the Cult of the Sun.

“Some of them came here the day of the trial too,” Santoire told me. “But you were gone so I told them to come today instead.”

I led the initiation personally, as much to see if Ritual would finally work as I intended it to as to determine just what these new people saw in the cult.

“We want to be a part of something more,” a dishevelled man said when I asked.

“We don’t just want to keep going on and on with the same old… drudgery,” said a woman who wasn’t much younger than me. She got more worked up as she talked. “Every day, it’s the same thing, the same meagre job, the same… argh. We want to be a part of something that makes a real difference.”

“A real change,” said another.

The first man nodded along with the others. “We want to be cultists who make that real change. We want to be like you, Cultist Ross.”

Well, that made my spine shiver in a way I wasn’t fully prepared for. Not that it was surprising. Santoire, Guille, and Sreketh had all echoed similar sentiments that had driven their motivations to join the cult.

Real change… I had acted the way I had so far because it had all been the right thing to do, not because I was focused on making a difference. It would be easy to change that focus, to start thinking like I needed to act because everything was shit or needed improvement or something along those lines.

But it made me think of Glonek. It reminded me of the things I had seen when I had poked into his memories with Soul Sight.

Change for the better was obviously good but concentrating on it as the main goal was a path I didn’t want to tread. Change for the sake of change had the potential to be even more harmful than stagnation. It had the power to make things worse than they already were. That I wasn’t going to let happen, no matter what.

Nevertheless, their reasons were still valid, so I performed the induction ceremony for them all. Throughout the process, I channelled Ritual, and this time, when we were all done and the cult had four new members, it finally worked.

[ Ritual

You have performed 4 [Minor] Rituals of Initiation.

Reward: Increased progress towards new Path Attribute by 2x ]

[ Rank Up!

Your Ritual Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Ritual: Iron II ]

I had tried not to be too distracted by that notification, because as the person inducting the new cultists into our little organization, I had to pay attention to them.

Thankfully, the others were also present, and they were happy enough to talk with and entertain the new cultists after I had congratulated them all.

New Attribute? I wasn’t even aware I was making any sort of progress towards any new Attributes. Also, I had two Paths. Under which one was I getting a new Attribute? I wasn’t sure I even wanted to get another one beneath Path of the Archon Apostle, considering Fervour didn’t exactly make me feel like it was helping a ton.

I’d have to worry about it later because my leader duties called and I got busy talking with all our new members.

We settled on the fact that they wouldn’t be full-time cultists. It wasn’t that I was unwilling to take them in. It was more that continuing to have lives outside the day-to-day running of the cult was good for us all. I had no idea what Hamsik got up to, but I liked that both Aurier and I had lives beyond just the cult itself. Something I impressed on the others to pursue.

With that done, and with Ritual successfully implemented at least once, I had to focus on being the cult leader for the time being.

We had decided on the date of the remembrance ceremony after returning to the temple from the trial. I had wasted too much time yesterday, so now I was busy sending out word via various means about our plan.

Thankfully, Hamsik had experience using the Pipe Missives. Escinca had showed it to me once too, but not exactly in a way where I was supposed to learn how to operate it. I made sure to memorize how Hamsik did it though, so I could run it myself from then on. It also, weirdly, made me think of the drudgery the young woman had mentioned.

After the first couple of letters, it started to feel like a bit of a chore, and I actually wondered about getting assistants. Seriously.

If I wanted to keep pursuing the things I had been doing so far, I would need to delegate some of the tasks to people I could trust. That was part of being a leader too.

Still, I focused on it and got it done and dealt with other arrangements and even did a trial run of what the ceremony was supposed to go like just so I wasn’t completely unprepared. It was nice that the other cultists had a frame of reference for me to work with.

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It was also nice that a Ritual of Remembrance was an established, practiced ceremony, so I wouldn’t have trouble making my Aspect work with it. Hopefully.

And then it was the day of the remembrance.

We weren’t burying Escinca’s body or burning it or anything. That wasn’t really what remembrances were about. It was an interesting departure from my experiences of Earth funerary customs, which so often had the final burial as the capstone of the funeral. Here, things were separate. One’s loved ones could take care of what to do with the body on their own time.

It was the ceremony of actually remembering and celebrating the deceased that held a real, societal importance.

We were conducting it in the main hall of the temple that we had finally finished clearing up and making sure everything was clean. Over the next couple of hours, people slowly arrived. I joined the others in welcoming them.

A lot of them were simply folk from all over Ring Four such as the orphanage matron and some healers from the hospital, including members and leaders of the other cults. Despite their general aggressive proclivities, the Earth cult members kept themselves orderly and peaceful. Many of the attendees weren’t Ring Four residents, though.

Several of the guards came, led by Revayne. Their commander didn’t make an appearance, but Revayne assured me that the Ogre had sent her regards. Well, that was nice of her.

Master Kostis had returned to Zairgon so was naturally attending the remembrance ceremony. Gutran came down too. As did the supplier from the Ration House and Linak from the Artificer’s Guild plus Silhatsa from the Mage Guild. Even my adventurer buddies had arrived, Ugnash and Khagnio standing at the back after talking briefly with me.

Those were only the people I recognized. There were others too, many of whom had to be pointed out by Hamsik as others Escinca had dealt with or knew to some capacity, enough for them to visit for his remembrance.

It was somewhat humbling to see just how many lives Elder Escinca had touched positively. The temple hall was the most crowded I had ever seen.

A slow nervousness was working up my spine, tingling like the crack in my chest from the threat of mana implosion. I thought I had taken care of it, but it was rearing its ugly, festering head once more, threatening to derail my equanimity. Really annoying, that.

“You ready?” Hamsik asked.

I nodded, steeling myself. Some things, I admitted to myself, were probably never going to go away permanently. Best I could do was keep moving forward regardless. “I am.”

It was time for me to step up and start things off, but there was a short disturbance. People at the back were gasping and moving away, like someone was about to ram a self-carriage driving through the congregation and everyone was desperately moving out of the way.

What arrived was only slightly less worrying than a runaway carriage.

The bearded Ogre Councillor I had seen at the trial was strolling in, dressed in a flowing white robe, his head bowed in respect, which did nothing to alleviate the fact that he towered over nearly everyone in the temple.

Whispers had broken out, but they all died when the Councillor came to a stop before me.

“I am glad I could make it in time,” he said. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting, Cultist Ross.”

I blinked. “Oh no, uh, not at all.” He was acting like I had sent him a letter along with everybody else, when I very clearly recalled never having done so. “I was just about to begin. I’m glad you could make it, Councillor.”

The Councillor stood off to one side. People gave him respectful space, which meant I got a lot more space than I was expecting.

Clearing my throat, I raised my voice and finally started. “Greetings, friends. As you know, today we’re here to remember Elder Escinca, the man who has led the Cult of the Sun for over thirty years. Today, we remember and celebrate all that he has done for all of us.”

A moment of respectful silence followed.

“Many of you know me,” I said. The speech was practiced, but it was true, nevertheless. Heartfelt. “But for those who don’t, I am Cultist Ross Moreland. Elder Escinca inducted me into the cult when I had nowhere to go and knew next to no one here. He took me in without exacting anything in exchange. He gave me a real home out of nothing but the kindness of his heart.”

I paused for a few moments. “It might seem a small thing, a gesture anyone could have offered. But to me—and this is only something I truly realize now that I’ve taken time to think about it—it was an immeasurable gift. A home, a real home that is simply always there at the end of the day, no matter what happens elsewhere, is a blessing that I can’t even begin to repay.”

Now that I was finished, I took a sip of the aged wine.

Honestly, Escinca had done so much for me, if I tried explaining it all, we’d end up here for the rest of the day. But that wasn’t what the remembrance was about. It just needed a moment of truth. And my moment was done.

“I am Hamsik Kalnislaw,” Hamsik said, stepping forward in his turn. His voice was strange, emotional in a way I had never heard before. “Bastard son of House Kalnislaw. Elder Escinca… gave me a sense of belonging. He taught me that no matter what my experiences elsewhere might be, I would always be welcome by his side.”

He took a sip of his drink next.

Aurier went next. “Elder Escinca was… was like a father to me. Someone who would accept me no matter how much or how often I faltered. I knew I could always return to him.”

And so it went. People would speak, say something meaningful about how Elder Escinca had touched their lives, and take a commemorative drink. It was once again humbling to hear just how many different ways he had affected people from all over Zairgon.

In Ring Four, there were people who had benefited from his direct assistance with things like food or clothing or even just providing the cult temple as temporary shelters. The orphanage, the school, and the hospital had all received donations when the cult could spare them, thanks to Escinca’s kindness.

Some of them were really enlightening.

“Escinca…” Gutran looked like he was resisting taking a sip of his drink too early. “He Blessed me before the war, and it saved my life a few times over. I wouldn’t be alive today, if it hadn’t been for him.”

“The Elder of the Sun Cult,” Kostis said with a sad look. “He was a font of wisdom and knowledge in his own way. Much has been lost with his passing. I regret the great many things we will no longer discover together but I am glad for the ones we did share.”

I stayed silent throughout, even though I did appreciate the greater context it provided for the relationship Escinca shared with so many people.

Near the end, after what felt like everybody had spoken, we all stood silent. The Ogre Councillor, who had remained quiet thus far, even when certain silences had popped up to see if he would step forward, finally seemed to realize he was the last one left.

He cleared his throat. “Elder Escinca of the Sun Cult…” His dark eyes were faraway, one hand slowly stroking his beard. “I knew him when we were both boys, and though our lives drifted apart as we grew, we did keep in touch on occasion. Our stations might have grown vastly different, but he was, in the end, no less an estimable person than me or any Councillor.”

Incredible, to think that Escinca had spent his childhood with a future Zairgon Councillor. I wondered what their history was like.

But that was that. With the last speech done, I raised my hand high, and then we all simply stood quiet and drank, letting the words of the last hour or so drift through us, letting our memories swill like the dwindling drinks in our glasses.

For a second, I considered adding on some last words. I thought about telling them that though Escinca was gone, the Cult of the Sun was in good hands and would continue doing what it did best—supporting Ring Four. But at the same time, I wasn’t here to fill Escinca’s shoes. I couldn’t be the old Elder even if I wanted to. I had my own boots to bring.

But I remained silent, because this was about Escinca and Escinca alone. Nothing and no one else.

“In honour of Elder Escinca,” I said when I was done drinking.

“In honour,” they echoed back.

[ Affix Unlocked!

Your Path of the Archon Apostle has copied an Affix for your Ritual Aspect.

Affix: Windfall ]

[ Ritual

You have performed 1 [Moderate] Ritual of Remembrance.

Reward: Lingering Spiritual Echo of a Beloved Relation resolves into Divine Blessing—a third, additional Affix under Ritual ]

[ Rank Up!

Your Fervour Attribute has risen by one Rank.

Your Ritual Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Your Path of the Archon Acolyte has risen by one Rank.

Fervour: Silver II

Ritual: Iron III

Path of the Archon Apostle: Silver II ]

I blinked at the reward. Iron-ranked Aspects didn’t get more than two Affixes, and yet here I was, gaining a third thanks to this remembrance ceremony. And I had received a familiar second Affix already.

Slowly, I smiled. Escinca was blessing me from the Beyond.

With the ceremony done, people began leaving. Although, before departing, nearly everyone dropped by to say something to me or the other cultists, and we all did our best to graciously respond to everyone who approached.

I was running low on my social batteries, though, so even with people like Gutran and Revayne and my adventurer buddies, my responses sounded a bit too canned to me. Thankfully, they were kind enough to merely offer a brief goodbye, with Gutran talking longer with Aurier before departing. We would all talk soon enough anyway.

“You’ve grown,” Kostis said by way of farewell, his eyes knowing. He had arrived a little late, so we hadn’t gotten to speak earlier. “Quite a bit.”

I laughed. “I suppose I have. And that means I’ve got a lot more questions.”

“So do I.” Kostis smiled at me. “Just remember, it will be your turn to send letters now.”

I nodded.

The Councillor was one of the last people to leave. He seemed rather busy, so I was honestly surprised he hadn’t dipped entirely just yet.

“I must take my leave.” He looked at me and the rest of us cultists critically. “Escinca seems to have left his cult in good hands.”

“He has,” I said. “Thank you for attending, Councillor.”

“Don’t mention it.” He raised his fist, and I noted a strange contraption, kind of like a wristwatch but with what looked like a mini crystal ball. “Ah, Sunken Pits, seems I am already a bit late.”

“Well, we appreciate your presence all the more then, Councillor,” Hamsik said.

“Oh, it is nothing. Se-Vigilance will need to suffer for a bit without me. It wouldn’t be an issue at all if the negotiations with the Nymphs—apologies, with the Anymphea—wasn’t so inscrutable. Language barriers, you understand.”

I slowly smiled. “Language barriers, you say? Do you think… it would be appropriate for me to help?”

They all stared at me.

“You… know the tongue of the Anymphea?” the Councillor asked.

“Not yet. But if I were to meet one of them, I think we could have a solid conversation.”

The Councillor looked a little stunned at that. But slowly, he smiled too. It was a very inviting smile.

After everyone left, I could finally relax. I was thinking of taking some time to stick to my room, maybe tinker around with my other two new Aspects I hadn’t paid as much attention to. Flare and Illumination deserved some love too, even if they seemed far more straightforward than Ritual.

But I didn’t get long before rapid steps were approaching, before excited hands were hammering on my door.

“Ross!” Sreketh shouted. “Ross!”

“Whoa, whoa.” I got over to my door and hauled it open. “What’s going on? You alright?”

“Alright?” Sreketh hissed out a laugh. Her eyes seemed to sparkle. “I—I got it Ross. I got a new Path. And—and I think it’s Unique too!”