“Alright, you’re good to go,” Lucy said.

  Richard hesitated. “Um, I wanted to talk to you about something, if that’s alright.”

  “I don’t do romantic relationships.” Lucy said this as casually as if he had asked for a report on his health.

  “Right, I know. It’s just... I barely leveled up.”

  “Congratulations,” Lucy said with none of the heart behind it. She went back to studying Savannah.

  “I just unlocked one of my gifts from Order. Uh, this ability is for cooking food, but the one I unlocked deals with healing.”

  As soon as Richard said healing, Lucy’s eyes snapped toward his. “You have a healing ability from Order?”

  “Well, not just healing. But this one will heal ten percent of whatever injury someone has.”

  Richard realized what a rare occurrence he had stumbled upon. For a good ten seconds, Lucy was speechless.

  “And you’re just telling me now?” The hint of anger in her voice made him wince.

  “I... didn’t realize that...”

  “You didn’t realize—“ Lucy cut herself off like she were about to say something extremely offensive in her anger and had the barely contained sense of decorum to stop herself from saying it. She closed her eyes, giving a sigh.

  “So, you should be under Amarynn and us with a specialized gift.”

  “No.” Richard’s stomach dropped. He might have messed this all up. “No, I am a scavenger. I also have some abilities that could help with healing.”

  “And defense? Or offense? Different helps other people can use to strengthen base two? Literally the definition of people with a more specialized gift?” Lucy asked, sounding more incredulous.

  Richard ran his tongue over his teeth. He wanted to offer this to Lucy because he was concerned for Savannah, but he was afraid of how much digging Lucy might do.

  “I want to be a scavenger,” was all Richard could say.

  She gave him another look, then shook her head. “As someone with a scavenger base class... I don’t understand at all. But whatever you’re clearly trying to hide, I don’t really care. However, if your ability does what it says it does, I need you to go into the mess hall right now and make two servings of... whatever.”

  “Two servings?” Richard asked.

  Lucy pointed at Dmitri. Richard stared at the man, feeling an overwhelming horror. He hadn’t even thought about what this gift could have done to help Dmitri. He didn’t even think Dmitri could eat.

  “Do you think it’ll work?” Richard asked.

  “Safety rule number one. If it won’t do harm, there’s no harm in doing it.”

  “He’s eating?”

  Lucy rolled her eyes. “Go, Richard!”

  Richard found himself outside the healer’s building before he even registered how fast his heart and feet were going. When Richard reached the mess hall, he tried not to feel guilty. He had been holding this gift back. If he had told someone beforehand, maybe they could have made him level up faster. Maybe he wouldn’t have spent so much time farming.

  He pushed all the thoughts aside as he focused on what he needed to do now. He waited for some magical information to trickle into his brain on how to cook, but he realized he was as lost with the skills as he was before. Richard didn’t have instant knowledge of recipes, though he figured soup was a good idea to feed people who were sick. At least he wasn’t trying to make a recipe up with a handful of ingredients like with Fang. Or… back when he used to be called Fang.

  There had to be a recipe box somewhere, and after some searching, he found it in a cupboard. He flipped through them until he found a veggie soup.

  Cooking was a lot like potion making. He gathered the onions, potatoes, carrots, and celery to make sure they were on hand before he started dicing. He still couldn’t figure out if this ability gave him skin impervious to knife cuts, but he wasn’t about to test it either. Richard chopped, boiled, softened, and added ingredients until he had a nice pot of soup. It wasn’t super thick, but considering the state of Savannah and Dmitri, he figured it would be better this way. He could tell his ability had been used because there was a twenty-four-hour countdown that triggered for his cooldown.

  Richard walked into the healer’s building with two bowls of soup. Lucy took one and went immediately to Dmitri’s side. Despite Dmitri looking a few days away from death, Lucy closed her eyes and mumbled something. Dmitri’s mouth fell open, and Lucy helped him drink the soup. Richard stared, one eyebrow slowly lifting upwards. Lucy had her glasses on, studying Dmitri far more than paying attention to helping him with the soup. When the bowl was gone, Dmitri closed his mouth again. Lucy kept studying him, then wiped the side of her face with her forearm.

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  “How many times can you do that?” Lucy asked.

  “I have a twenty-four-hour cooldown,” Richard said.

  “For now.”

  Richard was confused by how quickly she spoke. “What?”

  “Twenty-four-hours for now. That will get shorter when your ability jumps from basic to advanced. So I will expect you to make food for these two once a day until you’re able to do this twice a day. Are we clear?” Lucy asked as she grabbed the bowl and moved over to Savannah. Once again Lucy muttered something, and Savannah’s mouth fell open, ready to take the food.

  “So… it’s working?” Richard asked.

  “Minimally. But that, too, will change when you level your ability up. And it should, since you’re going to make something every single day.”

  Richard held back a sigh. This was good. It was what he wanted to have done. Order’s gift was something he had shown interest in, and if it woke Dmitri up even a couple of days sooner than it should, he’d be happy.

  “Also, Dmitri will learn about this when he wakes up. This gift you have. Whether you want him to hear it from me or from you personally, that is your choice,” Lucy said.

  “I’m not hiding anything. I’m a scavenger.”

  Lucy gave him a look that made him feel as though she knew every secret he was hiding. “Right. Okay.”

  Richard shook his head and turned around to leave.

  “I don’t know if you’re hiding anything. But what I know is that people don’t last long here who have secrets. Dmitri is not your enemy.”

  “Chaos is?” Richard asked.

  Lucy frowned a bit at that. “Maybe. But you can’t exactly destroy him.”

  “Why not?” It came out of his mouth before he could stop himself. Somehow he imagined Lucy didn’t actually care whether he spoke his mind.

  “Because they’re stronger. This is Order’s system we have, but that doesn’t mean she’ll make us strong enough to kill her and Chaos. Maybe gods and goddesses, but not the pure natural force of ideals.” Lucy chuckled as she handed Richard back the empty bowl. “You know, if there was no apocalypse, I’m pretty sure Eddie would go off and be a god himself. He’s got to be one of the strongest leveled people here.”

  Richard rubbed his forehead, trying to hold back a groan. He had assumed he couldn’t kill Chaos or Order. He hoped Chaos wasn’t secretly trying to employ him to kill his sister, but he also couldn’t rule out the possibility.

  “Is there…” Richard started to say before he could solidify what ideas he wanted to portray. “Is there another time I could talk to Order? Like at the tent when I chose my class? I just want to double-check something with her.” Mostly that she wasn’t so angry at him she had sent a locust swarm to wipe him out.

  Lucy kept staring, then blinked a few times. “Right, you’re from Earth. You’re unfamiliar with Order and Chaos.” Richard didn’t know what she meant by that, but thankfully she kept talking. “You just pray to her. If she wants to answer, she’ll give you a scroll on your nightstand. That’s usually what happens with me.”

  Richard stared at her. “Oh. That’s… all?”

  “Well, I mean, there is some nuance to it. You should, of course, understand that Chaos likes to play tricks and write scrolls pretending to be his sister, but those are usually identified by some sort of mistake. Order’s handwriting is perfect. Chaos’s is… not. He tries, but he cannot imitate Order well without it falling apart pretty quickly. Oh, and also, Order will never give you instructions for the entire base camp. Those instructions go to Dmitri or a class leader. Even then, the leaders usually have a conference of some sort to make sure it’s genuinely from Order, because again, Chaos likes to play tricks.”

  Richard took this all in. Something about praying to Order made him uncomfortable, and he had a guess that it was because it all felt too much like religion to him. Something he could now confirm he was deeply uncomfortable with.

  “How does one pray to Order?” Richard asked.

  Lucy scrunched up her face. “You just talk to her. Out loud. Address her by name and start talking.”

  Richard nodded, then glanced down at the bowl again. “I’ll… be going now.”

  Lucy said nothing as she went back to tending Savannah. While Richard scrubbed the bowl in the sink, he prepared himself to feel like an idiot. But an empty mess hall was as good a place as ever.

  “Hey, Order.” Richard winced, hating that he was doing this. Could he talk to Chaos in the same way? He wasn’t too keen to try that yet. “Hey, Order,” he tried again to get his thoughts focused. “I feel like we started off on the wrong foot when I chose my class. Though I’m also aware that despite you and everyone else saying that I could choose for myself, you didn’t actually give me a choice and sort of shoved the class and gift on me, so….” Richard trailed off. Did he actually expect an apology from Order? Maybe it was some rebellious streak to make her realize he was serious about not wanting to worship Order or Chaos. Despite Lucy talking about them as though they were higher in power than deities, Richard didn’t want to give them the impression that he was here to ask a special favor from them. He craved answers.

  “So, um… you gave the impression that you wanted me dead, and then a few days later a swarm of locusts attacked, devouring our crops and half of our food. It’s left us in a pretty dire situation. I am not blaming you, of course, but I also… you know. Want to make sure I’m not…” Once again Richard trailed off. What exactly did he want to know? If Order came back and revealed it was all his fault? What would he do? Would he willingly walk away from base two and survive in the forest? That was a death sentence. Would this be the kick he needed to research more into Order and Chaos? They couldn’t possibly be destroyed, but there had to be some way to limit their power.

  Richard started drying the big pot he had used to make the soup. “Am I the reason the locusts came and attacked?” Richard finally asked. Once he asked his question, he didn’t know how to end this prayer. Lucy made him think it was a conversation, so he ended it how he would if he were talking to Claw or Amber. “Okay, thanks. Bye.”

  That morning when he woke up, there were two scrolls beside his bed. He opened one, seeing the perfect handwriting that almost hurt his eyes. It had a single word written on it.

  No.

  Richard paused, then opened the other one. This writing was far more chaotic with random lines and blotches, but he could still make out the words.

  If you leave another ability point for me, I can put it randomly where it will help you. The real question is whether you trust me.