Flora appeared in her workshop. It wasn't her current workshop, but the old one of her CAD-system.
She saw a woman working on one of the benches, resizing a globe with subtle gestures and for a millisecond, she thought it was herself and had an out of body experience, but then her reason caught up.
"Evai?"
"Flora!"
Now, in the privacy of her workshop, the similarity between them hit Flora harder.
It was so strange looking in her own face and not knowing what expression it would produce next or what words would come out of its mouth. Not that she knew what she was going to say next, most of the time.
"Is this as strange for you as it is for me?"
"No," Evailyn said with a shit-eating grin. "In the case we will be interrupted, I'll start with the most important part, the options I have for contacting you. I'll tell you a bit about the rules governing the gods of the Cetviwos. Furthermore, I want you to know my limitations because you have a knack for working around restrictions."
Flora nodded and smiled. Prioritizing had been one of Evai's strong suits. Flora had missed it and celebrated its reappearance in her life.
"Generally, the powers of a god depend on the number of their followers and the place.
Currently, I'm a minor god with 19 231 followers. If I fall below 10 000, I become a guardian spirit; if I rise above 100 000, I advance to god.
As a minor god, I can send visions to my followers when they sleep in my main temple—one per week, and this week, Deriga got it."
"Wait, is it already next week, because this is a vision as well, right?"
"No, the week starts on Monday One. I interpreted your requests as 'heartfelt prayers'. Praying allows the gods additional reaction. Additionally, I saved up a few visions and quests for rainy days. Honestly, I regret doing that now. I hadn't realized the deterioration of my Church. More to that later." She sighed. "Once a month, I'm allowed to do a miracle. You used it up with the alchemist. I'm not permitted to manifest except if called by a major god or a champion. Are you following me so far?"
"No. Sorry. Can you display it as a table?"
"We must act all high and mighty and mysterious. I'm bending the rules quite a bit, love."
"Thank you. I appreciate it. Are we under time constraints now?"
"The vision is limited by your ability to sleep."
"No problem, I can easily nap two hours." Flora grinned and looked around for someplace to get comfortable. Trying the workshop controls, she discovered she had access and produced two armchairs. "So, how do you like the new job?"
"Honestly, I haven't spent many thoughts on it. I'm preoccupied with things I can't tell you about. Did you really had to agree to EVERY invasion of privacy the bosses have to offer?"
Flora shrugged and nodded.
"Not that it would matter much, System is noisy. When you reach level 250 in faith, we can establish a private communication channel. I'll tell you about my projects and troubles then."
"How much do you see from my endeavors?"
"When you are on a quest for me, I can see everything you do for the objectives, which was almost everything since the lawyer meeting. I can sense, what happens in my holy places, including your lair, but I don't have enough... let's call it godly power... to monitor everything all the time."
"I guess System has limitations on his monitoring powers as well."
"I wouldn't bet on it. He has apps for realizing the players' skill use, but the way you do magic isn't harmonizing well with them, so he has to monitor you all the time." Evailyn's eyebrows twitched. Flora knew it meant she couldn't say something. It was so relaxing to talk to someone whose body language you understood perfectly.
"What do you think of the Headmaster?"
"Faith 250."
"What do you think about my AIs?" Flora didn't want to single Aitoshuri out, but she was the reason for the question.
"Aidan seems to be lovely, and I've known Aitoshuri for a long time. She had it hard, and I admire her conduct. Faith 250."
Flora wasn't getting as many answers as she liked, but she was in no hurry.
"I'm sorry, Flora. Before we continue to chat, I have to forward you a quest." Evailyn added, visibly embarrassed.
Quest: Champion - Divine –Yellow High Faction
Description: You have to compete for the Champion class. Prove you are the best possible Champion for the Yellow High Faction and defeat the other candidates.
Time: Noon - Sunday Two - The Cradle, Talpica, Yellow High Faction HQ
Rewards: Faith, Champion Class
Penalties: Loss of reputation with the Church of Evailyn, loss of the Champion class
Difficulty: S
"I reserved a champion spot for you. I had told my fellow gods since the start of the game. Over time, they stopped believing you would appear. Under their pressure, I had lent the spot to another church. Now this church and the other small churches of the Yellow High Faction are protesting about my reallocation.
The only positive aspect of this mess is I could convince them to hold the competition on the Cradle."
"Today? No, it's past noon. Puh! So, in a week, alright. It's lovely of you to think of me. There is no cure for politicking. We just have to prevail." Flora received the champion class because of connections and not from merit. She preferred to prove to everyone she deserved to carry the class and title.
Flora called up the table again. "Do I understand it right: I have used up my champion prayer to rank up your vision ability?"
"Yes. I can give you one additional quest in a vision. I have several in mind, but I'm open to suggestions."
"We should max out my quests for the additional faith experience I'll get from them. And of course, I'll use my prayer powers more mindfully. What do you like me to pray for next week, maybe more quests? You could set your house in order with them."
"Sounds great." Evailyn smiled. "I'm so glad you are here. I missed having your input."
"Likewise, dear. If I can do anything to help you with your other stuff, please tell me. You don't have to give me a quest for it or explain the background. Of course, I won't do anything illegal or crazy, but I'm sure I can assist you with some things."
"We need a line of communication for it. I can allocate my weekly vision for you."
The Goddess and the engineer planned out their next moves and chatted until Flora woke up.
When she opened her eyes, she looked at a forest of turrets and a nice, albeit steel-encased, butt. Flora reactivated the sound transmission of her helmet.
"The Champion has a vision. You will not disturb her." The butts owner said.
"How do you know she doesn't conspire with our Goddess' enemies? Your powers can't tell you from what faction she received the vision." An arrogant male voice countered.
"We are in the headquarters of the Church of Evailyn. Our Goddess wouldn't allow this kind of interference in her own place." The nice butt was defending Flora. She approved and stood up.
"Thank you for protecting me, dear."
Name: Tomos Ceart
Class: Paladin
Title: Guard Captain
Level: 1 (250)
Rating: B
RGS: 20
Flora raised her eyebrows. She had never seen a recommended group size this high. She wasn't even sure if you could assemble a group this big and get it to move in the same direction with the attitudes of the youth these days.
"My pleasure, Champion."
The Captain wore a short tunic with Evailyn's logo on it. His red hair fell into his burgundy face while his hand rested on a pommel of a sheathed sword.
In front of him stood three older people. Flora glanced at their badges.
Bishop Nomizo, the wood lady, she already knew. She had visited Flora in her lair and took the holy scepter and Deriga away.
Name: Afstira Nomizo
Level: 1 (250)
Class: Bishop
Rating: B
RGS: 3
The portly Waterling was a bishop as well and the one who argued with Tomos.
Name: Hannes Dysian
Class: Bishop
Level: 1 (250)
Rating: B
RGS: 3
The third woman had silver hair and skin. She had been silent the whole time, but her badge spoke of her power.
Name: Ellaciel Zander
Class: Bishop
Level: 1 (250)
Rating: A
RGS: 5
Flora stood straight and looked at the group of bishops.
"You all doubt my status as Champion, and I know why. You are afraid I will disrupt your petty scrambling for power. Before I told Bishop Nomizo, I don't care. But I changed my opinion. You are right to fear the arrival of a Champion because I will clean up this Church. I'll start tomorrow. And now show me the way to Deriga."
The bishops stared at her. Nomizo glowered, Dysian's mouth opened and closed without a sound, and Zander sneered.
"Of course, I can search for Deriga myself, but you won't like my methods."
Tomos volunteered and led her through narrow corridors in front of a row of identical doors. Cheerful chatting came from them, and Flora relaxed. At least they didn't keep her in a cell.
"Novices, which room belongs to Novice Deriga." Tomos asked.
Colorful heads of young novices appeared, then fingers pointed to one of the entrances.
"I'm here! I'm sorry, Captain. I can't get out. The door is locked."
"I'll take care of it, sweetie." Flora dashed to the door.
"Auntie! I'm even more sorry. Oh, Auntie, I didn't get your order, but I didn't give them the funds. I didn't give them anything." Flora heard her crying.
With a click, the lock opened.
Flora took the sobbing novice into her arms and patted her back.
"It's alright. I'll take you home and make a mountain of Nutella toasts, and everything will be okay."
"No. No, I won't go with you. They accused me that I don't belong to the Church of Evailyn. But I do, and I'm proud of it! I stay here until they understand it. I won't abandon the house of my Goddess when strife tears it from within!"
"Wow, dear. Please tell me what happened." Flora sat on the small bed and looked to Captain Tomos. "I will see you tomorrow. Thank you for your service, Captain."
After Tomos left, the words gushed out of Deriga. On the way to the temple, she had told the bishop about Flora's request for household appliances. Nomizo had taken her to the meeting with the whole council.
They had grilled her about Flora's equipment, her financial situation, and her character. Nomizo gave them the scepters but didn't mention they were gifts. Deriga had supplied the information.
"They said they couldn't be gifts because they already belonged to the church." Deriga sounded distressed but balled her fist.
Dysian and Razo had chided Deriga for arrogance to even be at the meeting and for speaking out of order.
"I see their point, I'm only a novice. What right do I have to speak to the bishops? I was very polite, though."
"Who said the scepters couldn't be gifts? Was it Nomizo?" Flora couldn't believe the audacity of those guys. She was looking forward to tomorrow.
"I don't know. I was panicking, maybe Bishop Zander or Bishop Dysian. Pope Razo gave the order to set me under house arrest. Normally your door isn't locked for it. I only noticed it when they brought me food and unlocked it."
"What a mess." Flora unpacked a stack of Nutella toasts and took one. She pushed the rest to Deriga. "Something sweet for the meantime. I spoke with our Goddess, and we have a plan. You are sure you want to stay here?"
Deriga nodded while nibbling on the toast.
"I admire your bravery, sweetie. Tomorrow, I will visit you again."