Lea walked down the velvet-carpeted stairway with the mask on her face, heart pounding with both dread and excitement. The room was quite nice, vish but not too extravagant, a perfect pce to stay if you want to have somewhere nice.

  Each step creaked louder than it should, as if echoing into somepce unseen. The corridor at the top stretched far too long for the building’s frame, nterns flickering with violet fme.

  At the end stood a bck door with brass fittings, engraved with gear patterns that shifted faintly if one stared too long.

  Lea braced herself, half expecting marble halls lined with celestial statues, or perhaps a throne room where gods themselves feasted on divine nectar. The door opened.

  She froze.

  It was… a bar.

  Not even a particurly fancy one. A circur counter of dark oak stood in the middle, with bottles of liquor gleaming in dim crystal light. Cushioned stools. A haze of smoke and chatter.

  Behind the counter, a pale bartender in a spotless vest was polishing a gss with a white cloth.

  Her heart sank a little.

  "Seriously…? This is it?", he muttered under her breath.

  She had been expecting a temple of secrets or at least some grand ritual chamber, not this pce where half the crowd seemed more interested in pying dice than in unraveling the mysteries of existence.

  Pathstriders in cloaks and masks leaned over tables, exchanging notes in hushed tones, while others simply drank as if they were ordinary patrons at an ordinary tavern.

  Except nothing here was ordinary. The dice rolled without ever touching the table, cards whispered their own suits when revealed, and the smoke hung unnaturally still in the air, forming shapes that dissolved when stared at.

  Lea tugged the half-mask over her face and slid into the room, keeping her disappointment hidden. Her eyes swept across the crowd. She caught fragments of conversation, terms like "Third Step bargain", "Memory Charms", "exchange rates of sigils"... the kind of knowledge no normal person should hear without going mad.

  The bartender’s pale eyes flicked to her. He smiled faintly, setting the gss down, "First time?"

  Lea stiffened, but nodded.

  He poured a clear liquid into a gss and slid it toward her. The drink glowed faintly, like moonlight trapped in water, "On the house."

  She picked it up, still slightly sulking at the anticlimax. A bar. Just a bar. Yet even as she thought it, she caught her reflection in the surface of the liquid, her face split into three versions, each smiling differently.

  Lea’s fingers tightened on the gss.

  Maybe this pce wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

  As she swirls her gss, taking a sip of the cocktail, which tasted quite nice and easy to drink - she saw something. Above one of the wooden beams supporting the bar was an emblem, blending in with the decorations, of three gears, the big one supported by two smaller ones on the side.

  Thinking back to the materials Bathory sent st meeting, besides the general overview, there were also some Groups of Interest. For the Goddess of Technology, there are two groups.

  MSSH, who follow the philosophy of enlightenment. Their symbol of worship is a gear inside a book

  And the Cult of Technology, following the philosophy of progress above all. Their symbol for their goddess is a big gear supported by two smaller ones.

  The host of this gathering is a worshipper of the Chalk Princess. That means the Lady in White is the Chalk Princess!

  Lea deduced, keeping herself calm, sipping her drink while waiting for the gathering to start. Honestly, meeting worshippers in the mystical world isn't difficult. Against the madness and insanity of the other side, faith is pretty much a necessity.

  She was gd it was the Chalk Princess, not some crazy person chasing after the Tome of Light or someone following The Maker. The only reason why the Chalk Princess isn't an orthodox god yet is time; Lea no doubt thinks an official church will come soon enough.

  She enjoys her drink for a while, savoring the rare fvor she wouldn't enjoy often, or not at all.

  It was then that the gathering officially began. On the stage, a man wearing an owl mask walked out from behind the curtain.

  "I am your host, Geas, here to officiate the beginning of the gathering.", he spoke slowly with grandeur, "As always, I shall oversee all transactions under the Oath to the God of Commerce, the Steam Bat. Everything shall be fair under the watch of the divine; if I fail to uphold my duty, then It shall devour me."

  Some people chuckled, joking that the Steam Bat might physically crash into this pce. Hearing those murmurs, Lea prayed the host wouldn't let a transaction fail.

  He stepped down from the stage, and the people here looked at each other, wondering what today's gathering would bring to the table. Lea was quite excited too.

  Then a woman stepped up, carrying with her a case.

  "Manufactured by Thunder Forge, the newest model of Rupture bullets, one shot, one kill, and if missed, they can crumble an entire building. I have with me sixty bullets, the starting price is 900 Cee."

  Lea flinched at the price; it was expensive. She observes the reactions of the people around her.

  Then a hand raised, "I'll buy it."

  "I'll buy it for 910!", another raised his hand.

  "950!", another went in.

  "A thousand!"

  After that, nobody else raised their hand.

  "Both of you enter the booth with me.", Geas stated, getting up from his seat.

  The woman and the cloaked man nodded, following him to a booth hidden just behind the music box.

  It didn't take long for them to go out either, mostly to maintain secrecy, and they returned with their desired items.

  Making money seems easy here, but the real problem is where to find seastones.

  The next person came up, he was selling five Water Path sigils capable of summoning water, he demanded 2,000 Cee. Someone actually paid that.

  The next person was asking for information about the Third Step for the Bloom Path, and someone else gave the information for a thousand Cee.

  Everything was going quite smoothly, some bids were accepted, some were not, Lea was in confusion about the high price of the items and even information, she was having fun watching people bet...

  The next person came up, "I want information about the Fourth Step for Malediction."

  Lea’s fingers tightened around her gss. Her mask hid her face, but not the way her chest rose too fast, not the way her nails dug into her palm.

  Malediction.

  Her Path, her whispers, her curse.

  It felt like a hand had just cwed open her ribs, letting the whispers spill out. They flooded her ears, slithering like serpents...

  Speak. Share. Let the venom drip. Power is never kept— it is spread, it is multiplied, it festers. Let it flow.

  Lea pressed her lips together, willing herself to stay still. Her rational mind screamed that it was suicide, giving away something that tied her to her Path was no different than sentencing an entire nation to doom.

  But the other voice, the darker one, purred...

  Imagine their face when you give them what they want. Imagine how they’ll beg for more. You could trade… you could shape… You could own.

  Her breath trembled.

  Across the room, the man who asked, cloaked, faceless behind his mask, stood waiting. The silence stretched. Nobody moved, nobody offered.

  Lea’s heart hammered like a war drum. She could keep her head down. She could pretend she didn’t know. She could walk out of here unmarked.

  Or—

  Her tongue burned with forbidden words, her veins itched with the need to let them spill.

  If she raised her hand, if she even hinted she knew the Fourth Step, there would be no going back.

  Gritting her teeth, she raised her hand, a smile pstered on her face to hide her inner conflict.

  "Fifty thousand."

  The crowd was stunned at the price, but some rationalized it as the right price, some even scoffed at how cheap it was...

  The man asking for it visibly shook; it was steep for him. But he eventually accepted.

  Geas led both of them to the booth. Lea's steps were careful, eyeing the man with caution. He was obviously stronger than her...

  The man, in turn, does the same. Thinking of her weak aura as a disguise, thought her smile was a dead giveaway to her inner machinations. He didn't even bother to use Malediction's emotion radar, scared that it would tick her off.

  Someone knowing the Fourth Step obviously wouldn't be a traumatized woman who just became a Pathstrider in a month.

  Entering the booth, which merely contains a table and two chairs for a one-on-one conversation. Geas stood between them as they sat down.

  "Under the gaze of the Steam Bat, please begin the transaction.", he also slipped a cheque to the man.

  "Please...", he was nervous, "Tell me the Fourth Step..."

  She recalled Lady Keter's words, still smiling, "Orchestrate the fallout of a country, the outcome must be the fragmentation of that country."

  Silence drowns the room. Geas was the first the speak up after being dazed a bit.

  "Ehem... there is no deception.", he announced.

  "T-Thank you... Great Lady...", he hurriedly wrote down on the cheque. Instead of writing his name, he pricked his finger and let a drop of blood drip onto a square.

  Taking the cheque, slipping it into her pocket, never once did she break eye contact with the man.

  "I will watch your career with great interest.", she said and headed out.

  Returning to her seat, she ordered another cocktail from the bartender, who now gave her a nervous ugh. Everyone just assumes she's someone here for fun, since there is no reason for someone so powerful to be here.

  But soon, the gathering resumed.

  After three more bids, many people had moved on from Lea's supposed scary ancient monster from the Era identity.

  A woman stepped up, carrying a thin longsword.

  "I have a weapon with Resonance as the base and Severance as the support. It's very light and can be wielded with one hand.", she stated, but not actually swing the weapon, "I'll take 3,000."

  It was quite cheap for a mystical weapon, but from hearing the discussions around her, Lea realized Resonance and Severence are amongst the least intensive Paths to obtain. Making a weapon out of them is quite cheap.

  One man raised his hand, "I'll take it."

  Then the bid rose, "3,500"

  "3,550!"

  "3,600!!"

  Then Lea raised her hand, "4,000."

  Everyone went quiet, remembering Lea's daring demand. It was a Resonance item that her club member needed, after all.

  The process went as before, but she paid up front. Now with a weapon by her side, she ordered another drink.

  The life of high society was delicious...

  The voices in her head whispered to her, she could continue this path, break away from the church... and use the information from the library to strike out on her own.

  That would be ideal... she let out a silent sigh.

  She's still too weak to do that at this point; she needs to achieve at least the Third Step to even have a good footing.