Clerical Package

A knock erupted from Hannah's door. Master Sara shouldn't be checking up on her so late at night... Karina was in her arms, trying to fall asleep -- and realistically, she wouldn't need to knock anyways. Who could be at the door? Maybe someone found the wrong door. That could easily happen in Entela, where Hannah had to give precise directions to avoid people getting lost in the labyrinth of apartments. If she ignored it, maybe they would figure out that they had the wrong door.

Nope. A second knock at the door. "Yeah, I'm here," Hannah called out to it, knowing that the rooms were soundproofed anyways. She freed Karina from her arms, leaned off the bed to reach the first shirt she could find, and hopped up to her feet. Karina had an equally confused look, so she probably wasn't expecting anyone either. Hannah lightly stepped up to the door and used a pulse of magic to disable the lock.

The door opened to reveal an elf that seemed at least half a foot taller than her. He was dressed in a heavy-looking green and brown cloak, with a bow slung underneath it and over his shoulder and a knife sheathed at his waist. He was carrying some paper-wrapped package tied down with thin rope. "Greetings. Hannah Delcarlo-Nisita?"

"Hi, yeah, that's me." Hannah yawned.

"Excellent. Therian courier services; Bishop Niri requested this from the Master of Theria for you." The elf handed the package to Hannah. It was lighter than she expected of an object this size, and it was soft when she picked it up.

"Oh, okay," Hannah said. "Is... is that it?"

"Unless you specifically need something from me, yes."

"I don't think so."

"Alright, then." The elf bowed to Hannah. "I will return to Master Ayra with news of a successful delivery, then."

"Right, uh... May Solari guide your way."

The elf smiled and nodded. "Solari guide your way as well." The elf turned and started down the hallway. He turned off in a direction that would eventually get outside and Hannah closed the door again, using another bit of magic to relock it.

"Whatchya got there?" Karina asked once Hannah returned to the bed. Hannah sat down on the edge and set the package down, reaching over to her pile of tools to grab her small conduit knife from among them.

"Miv Niri sent a..." While she tried to figure out what to call it, she cut the rope and the paper wrapping fell open. "Oh, they sent a letter with it." Hannah read the note aloud, but made sure that Karina could see the note too.

Child,

By your request, I asked Master Ayra to send this package to you. It should serve as an introduction to the Church of Solari. It should contain a set of clerical robes, a small selection of holy symbols, some of our texts, and a small guide to magical first aid.

May Solari guide your way,

～Bishop Niri

"Soo, this word is Solari?" Karina asked, pointing at one of the words on the page.

"Yep!" Hannah replied. "You're getting better at that."

Karina crossed her arms. "I hope so. It's been a while." Karina turned her attention back to the package. "So, what else didjya get?"

"Well..." Hannah followed Karina's attention and started moving around things. "There's books. A few books, even! *The Lives Touched by Light*, *Hymns of the Solaran Church*... that one's probably songs. Oh, there's the magic book, and *Solari in Community*. I think I've seen some of these on shelves at the shrine before."

"Those'll be interesting to read, huh?"

"I assume so. They're read by everyone in the church, so they've gotta have something. I've also got... a compass. Like, perfectly normal compass." Hannah held the compass up. It had a needle that was going haywire and the symbol of Solari, a sun surrounded by a circle, was on the bottom of it. "Well, except we're surrounded by aethersteel, so it's having problems. There's a little wooden carving of Solari here, it looks adorable. This is..." Hannah held up another wooden object, again with the symbol of Solari carved into it. It had a metal strip going around the outside of it, with a knob on one side. "I'm not sure what that is."

Karina lightly reached around Hannah and pushed the knob up, causing it to unfold into a knife. Hannah stared at it for a moment, deciding that nothing was the best thing to say for a few moments. It only caused Karina to giggle more at her.

"How have I never seen one of these before?" Hannah asked. "These should be all over the place."

"The 7CI has these sometimes. They're really easy to carry."

"Yeah, I bet you could fit it into your pocket." Hannah looked over the blade while she gripped the new handle. "So, uh, how do I put it away?"

Karina took Hannah's hands in her own and guided Hannah's fingers out of the way of the blade, then pushed a piece of metal aside and let the blade snap closed. "Like that. Just make sure your fingers aren't in the way first."

"Huh," Hannah noted. "It feels like it's just aethersteel, so it probably can't cut conduits."

"No, but it'll probably cut rope really well!"

Hannah chuckled. "Yeah, okay." Hannah picked up the pile of green and white fabric that was probably the robes Miv Niri mentioned. Another golden object fell from somewhere inside them onto the bed. It looked like a necklace, with a white metal circle on the front of it. This design *also* had a yellow sun on it, but at the center of the sun was a yellow crystal. Hannah poked it with the smallest bit of magic and it began to glow. "That's pretty," she remarked.

"I guess that's what Bishop Niri meant when they said 'holy symbols'?" Karina asked.

"I guess so. But they said 'a small selection', right? Are other things holy symbols?"

"Gods usually have a handful of them."

"Oh, well... okay! I guess all of these are the holy symbols then. I'll talk to Miv Niri about them tomorrow."

"Cool. Now... how do you look in your new robes?" Karina's smile wasn't something Hannah could even begin to contest, and so Hannah tried as quickly as she could to unravel the robes and throw them over her current clothes.

The robes were almost entirely white. A lime green hem covered every edge of the fabric, so there was always a way to find the edge. A yellow four-pointed star decorated the front of the robes. While it felt like thick cotton before, it felt a lot lighter and thinner now that she was wearing it. Even in the Entelan heat, it didn't feel like too much. It came with a hood, in case of wind or rain, but she didn't have it on while she was inside. The length seemed perfect for her, and while the sleeves had extra room in them, they weren't annoying enough to be a problem if she wasn't doing technical work. "So... how do I look?"

"Cute. As. Heck," Karina replied, her smile seemingly growing as she looked at Hannah. She lightly placed the necklace on Hannah and tiptoed up to kiss her. "You look ready to go be the cutest cleric of Solari ever."

"I'm glad I finally look like something that can be even comparable to you," Hannah returned as she started to take off the robes. They were harder to take off than they were to put on, but it still didn't take too much effort. "I think Miv Niri said that the robes are something to wear in Shrines and Church gatherings and stuff but the holy symbols I can wear or carry whenever."

"Aww," Karina replied, "Well, you're *still* cute as heck without it, so I guess that's okay."

Hannah laid back down on the bed and took Karina's hand. "Only half as much as you are."

"No way," Karina replied as she returned to the bed as well.

"Absolutely," Hannah argued. And the argument continued until both had fallen asleep.

## Clerical Package

### Characters

* Hannah Delcarlo-Nisita (previous story) (next story)

* Karina Oblay (previous story) (next story)