The next stop was the ritual building; it looked rather modern compared to the surrounding buildings. There were fewer people around this building than at the first one. When they entered, a small hush fell over them; the building was much quieter than outside.
As they entered, Torin stopped her. " I'm going to switch to my human form to make things easier. You can ride on my shoulder until we get your human form."
Nora nodded her head, curious about what Torin's human form looked like.
Torin stepped away briefly, going around a corner for a moment, then there was a quick flash of light before Torin stepped back out.
As he did, Nora's eyes widened, and she felt some of her feathers puff up slightly. The torin that stepped out from behind the corner was incredibly handsome.
Unlike the grey and white plumage that his bird form had, Torin's hair was jet black. He had a very muscular build that was highlighted by the black button-up and pants that he was wearing. On his back were a pair of large, grey and white streaked wings, similar to his bird form.
Spotting Nora once again, he smiled genuinely. His smile complemented his features even more and made Nora's heart skip a beat. If Nora were capable of blushing, she would be redder than a tomato right now.
Torin noticed Nora becoming flustered, he chuckled slightly before picking her up, "What? Too stunned by my appearance?"
The comment snapped Nora back to reality. She squawked indignantly. Turning away in a huff.
"Relax, I'm just joking," Torin laughed, placing Nora on his shoulder, "Let's get going."
The entrance hall of the building was large and echo-y and was styled almost like a cathedral on the inside. There were large, colorful stained glass panels on the walls depicting different birds in different scenes.
Nora spent so much time looking around that she didn't notice that they had gotten to yet another front desk. This time, the bird person on the table didn't have a name tag.
Torin once again began the conversation, "Hello, we have an appointment for Nora, she's here to get her human form."
"Oh yes, Mina set up that appointment just a little while ago. She said she's getting her human form and her life stone here. Is that correct?"
"Oh, uhm, Mina didn't mention getting the lifestone, but I don't think Nora minds getting that out of the way now, too, right?" Torin turned his head to Nora, asking if thats ok with her.
Nora chirped and nodded her head, still not quite understanding what the lifestone was, but not against getting one.
"Ok great! Both of those will take place in the same ritual hall, so it should be a super simple process." The bird lady explained, getting up to show them to the ritual hall while explaining the ritual.
"We will give you two stones, one is the stone that grants you the ability to change to your human form, and the other is the lifestone. We ask that you use the lifestone first, since it works best when you're in bird form, as that is where your mana is most pure. "
'Interesting… ok I can do that.' nora nodded, indicating she understood.
"The lifestone will bind to your specific mana signal and to your soul, and that will ensure that if you are in a life-threatening situation, you will be transported back to the bird clan, so long as you're on the same plane of existence. The lifestone will also help us to track the tasks that you complete, and ensure that they are done adequately. All the information about your tasks will be recorded on the lifestone and sent back to the headquarters. You'll also be able to view your tasks by reviewing the lifestone."
"Next is the stone that will give you your human form. Once you are bound to the lifestone, you will take the humanform stone and throw it into the fire in the center of the ritual hall. The fire connects to ancient magic that will grant you a human form. It won't be painful, but you may feel strange, and it will take you a few minutes to get used to the new form. We have some regular clothes placed within the hall for you to use when you change forms. Those will serve you until you learn to condense your own."
'Condense my own?'Nora thought in confusion, 'You mean like clothes??'
Nora didn't have any time to think more about it since they had arrived at the ritual area.
"Ok, we're here! Both stones have been placed within the room already. Take your time, your friend here will be waiting for you once you're done."
"Hey, I didn't agree to that!" Torin protested jokingly. "But yeah, I'll stay here till you get out."
Nora nodded and hopped off Torino's shoulders, then headed into the ritual room.
The interior was similar to the oath room. The walls were made of white marble stones in a circular pattern, in the center was a basin of liquid, getting closer Nora inspected it and found out that it was a pool of liquid mana, the walls arched upwards into a dome, the dome seemed to be made out of glass and there was a light pouring in, the entire place seemed peaceful, and certainly gave Nora the feeling of a ritual room.
Sitting on the side of the basin were two stones, one was a blood red, and emitted a faint glow around the room, the other looked like clear quartz, with a slightly hazy interior.
Before Nora grabbed either, she first looked at the descriptions of each. The blood red one was her life stone, while the clear one was the human form.
'Ok, the lady said the life stone first.' Nora reached out, and as her talon wrapped around the rock, her system lit up with a notification.
Ding!
Life stone detected, would you like to attune?
Nora clicked yes without hesitation, and the stone disappeared. She felt the life stone connect to the mana within her body and partially fuse with her mana signature.
Ding!
lifestone connected
Click for more details:
Nora decided to click it, since she wasn't in any rush, and she was a little nervous about the human form.
Ding!
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Lifestone
Attuned: Nora
Description: a small blood-red stone associated with life, these are used around the world, made by different factions, and tied to that faction. They are commonly used in the initiation process of most factions.
Skills:
Recall, Tasks, Monitor
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Recall: once per day, in a life-threatening situation, you will be transported back to the home of the bird clan. This can be caused consciously or unconsciously, but only if you are in the same plane of existence as the bird clan.
MP cost: N/A
Cooldown: 1 day
Tasks: Every moon cycle, the bird clan will assign you new tasks. Due to the system interference, these will count as quests, and you will gain rewards from both the bird clan and the system. Failure to complete a task will cause a penalty based on the importance of the task
Tasks: released in 12 hours
MP cost: N/A
Time: N/A
Monitor: the Lifestone will act as the bridge between you and the bird clan, at any given point, the bird clan may check in to see your physical state as well as the state of your mana.
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'ok interesting,' Nora thought, 'that's not too bad, the monitoring is a bit weirs but it makes sense that they would want to pay attention to the tasks being completed. This stone is actually really efficient… they've got a whole database of information, I bet…' Nora felt a little excited thinking about it.
She always had a soft spot for the data analysis part of her job, though she didn't go into that field specifically; she had always wanted to.
'You know… I never actually looked at the rewards from my trials with the pocketwatch. I should look at that too while I've got time.' Nora considered, before another voice chimed in, 'No, we should get this over with quickly. Torin is waiting for us outside. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time once we get to our house to look at those rewards.'
'Hmm, that is true… I am really curious about what I got, but I guess I should wait. Wouldn't want Torin waiting for too long.'
Nora reached out for the human form stone. She expected another notification from her system; however, there was nothing. When simply holding the stone didn't work, Nora tried crushing it, and when that didn't work, she decided to look at the info page of the stone again.
Ding!
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Stone of Human Form
Description: This stone is commonly used by creatures in order to gain a common form, that of humanity. This stone specifically is attuned for those of the bird race. Simply injecting a bit of your mana into it will grant you the ability to switch between human form and bird form.
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'Oh.' Nora felt a little embarrassed as she manipulated some of her mana to enter the stone.