1.04 – Decision


    In the end, she couldn’t turn the offer down. Buting to that conclusion took a while of just sitting there, running her brain in circles. The Bestower, at least, waited patiently. She didn’t speak a word as the minutes ticked by. Natalie supposed it made sense a deity—or pseudo-deity, or whatever the automaton was—would be endlessly patient.


    And honestly, Natalie didn’t think she spent more time deliberating than most, so it wasn’t like The Bestower had to be overly long-suffering. Natalie would never call herself a meticulous person. It was only because of the monumental circumstances—her unlocking—that she gave the decision the consideration it deserved. Most situations, she’d go with her gut. Jump in with much less forethought than appropriate. The Architect knew Jordan hadined about Natalie’s brashness more than once, through their adolescent adventures across the Entwining Forest.


    Natalie sighed, then stood.


    “Okay,” she said. “I ept.”


    An unsurprised nod. Had she known Natalie would agree before even she had? Though, theck of surprise might just be from a stoic nature. Or disinterest. Natalie might be reading into things.


    Certainly, the decision Natalie had made wouldn’t be a given for all people. Despite the ss being guaranteed to be powerful, not everyone would take it. Not knowing the ss you were picking … there was serious risk, there. Even three choices weren’t enough options to make peoplefortable.


    The plinths holding Natalie’s sses sank into the ss-like water. Natalie’s heart jumped, seeing her potential future vanish, for everything to be so suddenly unknown<em>. </em>She vibrated with nerves.


    “So,” Natalie said. “What is it?”


    “Goodbye, Natalie,” The Bestower said, turning away.


    Natalie blinked, not expecting the response. She opened her mouth to call out—


    ***


    And her eyes shot open.


    The empty, moonlit church greeted her.


    For a moment, she sat there in silence, perched atop the cushion Elder Britt had ced down for her.


    Her unlocking had ended, and she didn’t even know what ss she’d received?


    She scrambled to her feet. Adrenaline doused her, and she tried to fight through the panic and shock, to wrestle some sort of clear-mindedness back. It took effort. Natalie had never had great control over her emotions. At least the dead-silent church provided no distractions.


    Okay.


    So.


    The Bestower hadn’t told her what ss she’d got, but there was a way to determine one’s ss and skills. Obviously. Unlockings were a one time event. How would people know their level and skills as they progressed, without something of the sort?


    Looking inward, Natalie quested out. It was something she’d never done before, but everyone with a ss—so, everyone over the age of eighteen—was given a basic skill, [Inspect].


    ***


    Natalie / Level 1


    Pdin of Lust


    Stats


    Furor: F


    Tenacity: F+


    Prowess: F-


    Gear


    Weapon Slot 1: <Unused>


    Weapon Slot 2: <Unused>


    Equipment Slot 1: <Unused>


    Equipment Slot 2: <Unused>


    Equipment Slot 3: <Unused>


    Equipment Slot 4: <Unused>


    ***


    Natalie’s brain locked up.


    ‘Pdin of Lust’?


    Huh?


    That was her ss name?


    The oddity of having the information ced in her head—at experiencing the [Inspect] skill for the first time—went ignored over the much more shocking item of interest.


    Pdin of Lust?


    What in the world?


    What kind of ss was that?


    ‘Pdin’. That was the easier part to digest. Pdins were, to Natalie’s knowledge, rare, but not unheard-of. They held to a specific god, which their powers were derived from. Or, ‘held’ in a loose sense. Natalie didn’t know if it required actual worship. But pdins revolved around an aspect—a theme—which were tied to a specific god or goddess.


    So, ‘Lust’? Who was the god of lust? Truth told, there were too many to keep track of, and Natalie had never paid attention to Elder Britt’s lectures. She knew the Upper Pantheon, of course, because everyone did. But only the mostmon of the Lower: Setrus, The Trickster, or Thorne, God of the Forge, and so on.


    But it didn’t matter who her patron was. What mattered was … what it meant. Implied.


    And weren’t Pdins half-mages? A fighter-mage hybrid was the most urate way to put it, but pdins were definitely spellcasters, as a whole.


    Natalie, a mage? Even as a hybrid, the idea wasughable. Proficiency with magic was so … antithetical to her … that Natalie felt like she ought tough.


    It was what she’d been worried over, epting an unknown ss. Getting something unsuited to her. Natalie didn’t know how to cast spells. sses only amplified, not created from nothing. Even someone without a mage ss could cast a spell, just never to the level of a real mage. It was how ces like T sorted for candidates before they reached their unlocking. Aptitude was proven before a ss was obtained. And Natalie had aptitude in fighting … but definitely not casting.


    What had she expected? She’d known it would be a mystery what she received. Honestly, at least a Pdin was half a fighter. She fit <em>somewhat </em>with the ss.


    But Natalie was shying away from the actual problem.


    The whole … ‘lust’ part.


    What the hell did it mean? Or entail?


    Surely not … ?


    What other interpretations were there?


    Natalie didn’t get to stew in silence for long. Adrenaline and shock had masked something obvious from her, but as she came down—slowly, and certainly not all the way—something attention-grabbing forced her focus away from her ss’s name, and all the implications.


    Something … somehow even more shocking.


    Her body.


    Something had changed.


    Something between her legs. Something was there, that hadn’t been, before.


    What?


    For the second time, Natalie’s brain nked out.


    She pulled on her waistband and looked down. The fabric to her pants didn’t yield much, only letting Natalie pull a few inches out, and it was dark inside the moonlit church, but it was enough to identify the problem. To … discern the invader.


    The piece of biology that had <em>definitely</em> not been there before.


    She had a cock.


    A dick. Tucked into her underwear. It sat there, soft and wrinkly and … dick-like.


    Natalie went dizzy. She let her waistband snap back. Now that she’d noticed the invader, the sensation couldn’t be ignored. She felt it. She felt her pants pressing against it. Maybe someone who’d had one their whole life would be able to ignore the pressure, having grown used to it, but Natalie had never had something pressed against her cock.


    “What the fuck,” Natalie said.


    Natalie didn’t have a habit of talking to herself, but considering the circumstances? She felt she could be excused. The words escaped her mouth without her input.


    She had a cock.


    Her ss had given it to her. Her ‘Pdin of Lust’ ss, the impossible fourth option.


    The gods had given her a cock. As if things hadn’t been strange enough.


    Even through her paralyzing confusion, she had one question wrestle to the forefront of her mind:


    <em>But why?</em>