บท 7: Lianna Velcross Makes A Choice
{Lianna}
Back home the next day, the blood-haired woman stared at that message for a while.
Without a family or any real friends, Lianna couldn't really bounce her thoughts off anyone. So, she was left to consider this all by her lonesome.
{I have chosen you.}
{I offer you the power of a Constellation in return for a series of services. The world needs assistance and I believe you can help.}
{You may decline this offer if you wish. If you do, nothing will happen.}
{Should you accept, however, you will gain great power in return for becoming my Follower.}
{If you wish to accept, here is what you must do:}
1. Sign up for Telvan's Watchful Guild.
2. Find Enverna Alteri there.
3. Marry her.
{Upon setting up your engagement, your life will finally have meaning. You will meet the love of your life and you may never have another lonely night again.}
{This power will be explained further at that time.}
{Note: Attempting to get a divorce, break off the engagement, or separate in any way will result in your power being taken away.}
Lianna walked around her home as she mulled over the issue. Which, really, meant that she was walking in circles since her house was so tiny.
[That part about "meaning", and the lonely nights... I've never told a soul about that. You've been watching me, haven't you?] Lianna asked the Constellation in her thoughts. She did not get a response but she assumed the answer was "yes".
To an extent, that almost made Lianna want to reject the offer out of spite.
But, she couldn't deny one thing.
She was curious.
[The love of my life... Great power... Is that true?]
All her life, Lianna hadn't considered that she could amount to much. She'd wished for it, of course. She got evaluated by the Watchful hoping that she would be accepted and that her Instinct would be deemed useful enough to join them.
Then, maybe, she could prove that the world created her for a reason, rather than just being a random product of a natural event.
Now, however, she had an option.
An option that brought would bring truly incredible changes to her life.
Cheeks slightly red, Lianna put her hands up to her face, contemplating the biggest one...
[YOU WANT ME TO GET MARRIED???]
In all honesty, that was the part that truly had Lianna pacing around like a mad woman. She was mildly interested in being a Constellation's Follower and in what the message meant by the world, apparently, "needing assistance".
All of her attention was taken up by that one instruction.
[Find Enverna Alteri and marry her.]
Lianna's mind couldn't stop short-circuiting. Smoke was almost coming out of her ears.
[... Okay, okay, okay,] Lianna thought, [how about I check what this girl looks like?]
Lianna pulled her phone up and typed that name out on her default search engine.
["Enverna Alteri"... No results?] Lianna was shocked. [How... Wait, is she from Garriden?]
That would certainly explain it. The division between Telvan and Garriden extended to more than just their geographical positions. Due to the countless wars between both nations, knowledge and information were also tightly guarded.
[Hm... But, well, even if I was to agree to marry this girl, what could I even do?] Lianna wondered. [This message said it wanted me to join the Watchful, but I already tried. They don't want me. All I have is this one, useless Instinct. I'd just be signing up to embarrass myself.]
Knowing that it should have been simple.
Lianna sat down on her couch, her head melting into the back as she stared up.
[Just don't, then,] she thought.
But...
She couldn't just do that.
It was mainly a mix of two things that had Lianna feeling unable to just toss the offer aside.
1. She was lonely.
Sure, getting a date or a one-night stand wasn't terribly difficult for her. But, as far as meaningful connections were concerned... Lianna couldn't say she had any.
And:
2. She was way, way too curious.
[I'm guessing this is a two-way deal and the Constellation probably told this "Enverna" lady the same thing. So, if she agrees... What kind of person is she? The message says I'll meet "the love of my life", huh? What would she be like, then?]
She wanted to know. More than anything else, she wanted to see this woman that the Constellation was saying would be her partner.
[Agh... Okay, okay, okay, okay. Maybe I can check the logistics of all of this.]
Again, she pulled up her phone.
This time, however, she looked up the Watchful's training facilities.
Dialing their number, she called them to see how exactly this would work.
"Good evening, Search and Rescue Task Force Training Facility. How may I be of assistance?"
"Hi," Lianna replied as a man picked up the phone. "I was wondering if I could ask a couple of questions about the, ehm, recruitment process."
"Certainly. What would you like to know?"
"I'd like to know, uhm, is there a minimum amount of time that a recruit would have to spend there?"
"No," the man replied quickly. "You could join and if you feel the path of a Search and Rescue operative is not for you, you can just leave on day 1."
"Oh," Lianna was pleasantly surprised. "I see! Uhm... Could I ask a few more questions?"
"Ask away."
Lianna did just that.
She gleaned a lot of useful information.
Firstly, if one were to sign up for the Watchful, and stick with it, it could take up to a full year to become a full-fledged member of the organization, depending on one's performance.
The weekly courses Lianna would take would mainly revolve around fieldwork. There would be very little in the form of theory she'd have to learn.
And, all new recruits would be separated into different categories based on their strength.
That meant that Lianna would be placed with people who were just as weak as she was.
Suddenly, the offer was a lot more tempting.
Not to mention that, even as she'd been talking about this place on the phone, she began to envision this "Enverna". A woman with a name like that, from Garriden, Lianna pictured someone regal. Tall, maybe, with the kind of look in her eye that could send chills down someone's spine with just a glance.
Plus, in the end, even if it turned out that the marriage wouldn't work out, well...
[You know what? Maybe I could get some decent sex out of this!]
And, on a slightly more wholesome note, if the separation happened on particularly good terms, maybe Lianna could end up with a friend.
All of this led her to one final question.
"Uh, how do I sign up?" She asked.
"Provided that you can pay the entry fee? You can sign up as quickly as tomorrow morning. That said, of course, you'd have to pass the evaluation."
"And, ehm... If I've already been evaluated?"
"And you were rejected?"
"Yes."
This produced a long pause on the other end.
[Crap.]
"In that case, I'll be honest with you, unless you've Awakened, you'd be wasting your time in applying."
The conversation ended there. Lianna looked down at her phone, hearing those words the man just said over, and over again in her mind.
[Agh, so, I need to awaken to be reconsidered for the Watchful, but I need to meet Enverna in order to get my new powers or whatever, but to do that, I need to join the Watchful! Ugh...]
Lianna sat down on the edge of her bed.
[Um... Constellation,] she thought, [I know you can probably read my mind, with what you said in that message. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm kind of in a bad spot here.]
Apparently, this strange figure agreed, as a message soon appeared that said:
{I will give you a small taste of my power.}
{This should be enough to convince the evaluator, if you can drop a bit of silver on your tongue.}
[Okay,] she thought, sitting up on her bed. [I guess-]
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"
Lianna nearly screamed her lungs out.
Her left eye suddenly felt like it was on fire.
Tossing and turning on the bed like she was having a bad nightmare, Lianna had screamed so much there was no more air in her lungs to cry with.
The burning pain in her eye simmered down, however, lowering gradually in intensity, until
Lianna jogged from her bed, nearly tripping and falling, straight to her bathroom.
She was expecting to see, perhaps, a couple of eyelashes caught in her eye. Instead, she found that her left eye had changed colors.
The woman looking back at Lianna in the mirror had a condition that she'd heard about before. Something that only a handful of Players could say they had.
Heterochromia.
[One of my eyes... turned green.]
Lianna knew damn well what this meant. She'd seen people talk about it online too many times.
Shaking with every breath she took, Lianna looked up at her status.
She gasped, bringing her hands up to her face in disbelief.
What she saw nearly made her faint on the spot.
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