Chapter 24: Ch. 23 – Even Gods Get Manicures

Momo and Valerica sat, alone and cross-legged, on the floor by Morgana’s statue. Everyone else had long retired to their chambers; the introverted Necromages had a very limited ceiling for social activity, and playing dead amongst the Earl had been quite enough contact for the week. Momo was sure it would be many days before they reared their anti-social heads outside their rooms again.

Momo smiled. She had really found her people.

“You did exceptionally well out there," Valerica said, laying praise on her for the hundredth time that day.

“Oh, I didn’t do much,” Momo’s smile fell, and she bowed her head. She really was unpracticed at handling compliments.

“Stop it with that. Didn’t you listen to what I said?”

“I - I did,” Momo defended weakly, “I’m sorry. It’s just a habit.”

“Speaking ill of yourself?”

“Uh, yes,” Momo said, embarrassed.

Momo’s deep-seated insecurity was more than just a habit, it was a life-long passion project. It wasn’t exactly easy for her to just wake up one day and decide to think of herself as cool and confident, even if Valerica was ordering her to.

Still, Valerica smiled at her with patient, emerald eyes.

“You will get there.”

“Maybe,” Momo said with a shrug.

“You already are. I saw you received your [Intermediate] evolution papers. That is a great achievement, not to be undermined! Few recruits come this far before they’re tossed back into the abyss."

“How reassuring,” Momo said quietly. The ‘abyss’ was Valerica’s affectionate nickname for the caverns that sat below the sanctuary. Being there once was already enough times.

“Very. Now pray tell, which class did you pick?”

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Momo sighed, “I haven’t. It’s too many decisions.”

“Oh, but that’s the fun of it!” Valerica said gleefully, and pulled the pieces of parchment out of Momo’s robe pockets. She scanned them with her eyes, humming with interest as she reviewed Momo’s available choices.

“Can’t you just pick one for me?” Momo asked hopefully.

“Of course not! This is your moment, Momo. You must follow your rodent-run heart.”

Momo’s skin crawled. Valerica brought up the whole "rat pacemaker" thing way too often for it to be a joke, but Momo refused to believe there were anything but totally human arteries inside her chest. Ignorance was bliss, even if she did occasionally hear a squeak in there when she slept on her side.

“Fine,” Momo sighed, “can I ask you some questions at least?”

“Of course, that’s what I’m here for!”

Momo could laugh. Most questions posed at Valerica were rewarded with half-answers, or if Momo was lucky, an amused laugh.

Momo reviewed the class list again. Never good at just choosing, she decided to go at it by means of elimination. First up, there was [Necrodancer]. She certainly wasn’t interested in dancing her way across a battlefield. She wanted less eyes on her, not more, so that was out.

[Harbinger] was interesting. She liked the idea of focusing on STR, as her job required a lot of legwork. But ‘eviscerating the enemy from close up’ was very much not her vibe. She’d prefer to not be eviscerating anything. Maybe eviscerating a bread roll with some hot tomato soup, at the most.

She crossed out [Harbinger].

That left [Necromage] and [Corrupted Druid]. Looking closer at the two, she noticed for the first time that [Corrupted Druid] was a subtly different color than the others - it glowed a faint white.

Remembering that the parchment was partially sentient, she inquired, “why does [Corrupted Druid] look like that?”

The stack of paper easily obliged her question. It twirled in the air, re-sorting itself until it landed on the relevant page.

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