John still loved cathedrals. Sure, they were overdesigned pieces of immense impracticality, but that was part of the point of their existence. Cathedrals were the highest places of worship; their entire purpose was to make one feel the presence of God through their design. Even from the outside, the church loomed in an odd way above John. In one way, it imposed him, on the other, he felt respected.

The idea that an inanimate object, a building of all things, could respect him was incredibly odd. Regardless, that was his impression. Marie waited for him with one of her slender eyebrows firmly raised. “You look at this building with more veneration zhan a sweets addict looks at a chocolate orange.”

“That’s less bloomy than your usual metaphors,” John couldn’t help but respond with a joking observation.

“It is a-“ Marie began to correct him.

“A simile, yes, sorry.” John waved off. “Potato, potahto. Anyway, I just really like big stone buildings with impressive windows and cultural value.”

“As a leader, I find function to be more important zhan form.”

“In this case, form is the function,” John retorted, causing Marie to fall silent for a second.

Then she bowed her head in a literal display of bowing to his wisdom. “Touché,” she conceded the point, and they finally headed inside. The second they were past the grand wooden door, the French noble looked to her potential lover with anticipation. “I am awaiting this surprise of yours.”

“Hmm, we’ll see if it happens at all. I don’t have control over it,” he told her.

“Is it another part of your Gamer abilities?” Marie wondered.

Hesitantly, he shook his head. “No, I think this is something else that Gaia just tangled me up in. I don’t know exactly why.” He kept his voice respectfully low; this was still a church after all. “Honestly speaking, I’m looking forward to what she pulls out of her head next. Gaia’s involvement, indirect as it is, usually works out to my benefit, even if I have to dance around like a monkey for her amusement.

“Your powers, your life and your character continue to intrigue me,” Marie chuckled. “It is no wonder that you attract such a circle of capable and beautiful women. The willpower you display in handling so many at zhe same time is commendable.”

“So, you can make compliments,” John acknowledged in a surprised tone.

Rolling her eyes, Marie responded, “I’m fully capable of ‘zhe compliments.’ I do not often have reason to praise aspects of strong characters. Zhere are many more weaknesses in others that need addressing.”

“Well, do less of that last bit and more of the praising and you’ll make a lot more friends,” John told her as they arrived in front of the altar at the cross section. “Do you want to take that oath?”

“Hmm.” Now it was on Marie to hum thoughtfully, taking off her hat and looking up at the cross and Christ hanging from it. Placing the hat on a nearby bench, she then joined her hands in the typical prayer pose, closed her eyes and lowered her head.

John had expected her to say what she swore out loud, but she kept it between herself and God. On a surface level, this annoyed him, just because he wanted to hear her say it. If she took her faith moderately seriously, then her making that oath quietly would be more effective though. Words to other people were fallible in formulation. Words to God, if one believed in that, for those only intent really mattered.

“I have offered and I have asked,” Marie broke her silence and picked up her hat again. “We shall see if that haz any impact on my behaviour you regard as positive. I will expect something to be offered to me in return.”

“Is that so?” John asked and would have hugged her in a very indecent, butt-touching way were it not for their surroundings. Instead, he opted to do what was allowed. Taking hold of her chin, he turned her towards himself and looked into her dark eyes for a little while. “I don’t think you should feel entitled to rewards because you fix a flaw of yours,” he told her, “but I will happily offer you encouragement.”

Her rebuttal had to wait, as John bowed down. It was their second ever kiss, longer lasting than the first one, but no less tender. Tongues carefully explored past their usual boundaries and the intertwining of their lips was a slow motion. The wet smacking that underlined the end of it echoed in the quiet cathedral.

“You have given me a lot to think about, John Newman,” she whispered when they brought some distance between each other again. “It irks me that you cannot stop criticizing me, but I prefer your honesty to the boring home I left.”

“I’m often told things like that.” John grinned. “That I’m difficult but enjoyable. I guess that goes to show that I have something to offer that you are willing to muddle through difficult conditions for.”

“Oh hey, there it is,” he, rather cryptically, tagged onto what he had said before that window suddenly popped up. Reading through, he found the price reasonable and the different rewards quite interesting. Favour was useless, he didn’t have any Ire. Even if he did, the amount cleansed was pretty low. Regardless, something to stay aware of in the future. Between Luck and Intel, he preferred Intel. Items weren’t something he wanted for, and if he was targeting something specifically, he could just grind it out. Intel was harder to come by and intel by the supreme deity herself was surely something worth his while (especially since she guaranteed as much).

There was another thing that piqued his interest. He already knew that Gaia was trying to reincarnate someone from the previous Quest he had gotten in this affair. Now he also had the confirmation of the person’s gender. Which quite clearly meant that the nice booty that had been previously promised must have been hers.

John pushed the button, and immediately the air changed. Turning his attention to above the cross, the Gamer was able to witness the formation of the figure.

Specs of golden energy appeared out of nowhere and coalesced into a humanoid shape. The radiant glow made it impossible to glance at any distinct features, but now that John was aware of the gender, he thought he made out the outline of breasts and a feminine waistline. That may have all been confirmation bias though.

Golden feathers of a metallic lustre reached out behind the being’s back. Those wings, he could see clearly. They were immense; even completely folded they quintupled the width of the angel. Something was off about them, however. The way they moved seemed hollow. It was as if they weren’t properly solid. Like there was no flesh those feathers attached to. Instead, it seemed the golden quills just hovered at the position they should have.

The one other thing that John could clearly see were eyes of verdant green, the colour of Gaia’s hair and life itself. They stared at John with mild curiosity. Strands of hair, their colour consumed by the glow, flew around her head in a heavenly breeze and a halo hovered above.

“Do you see tha-“ John asked and looked down to Marie, whose eyes had turned bloodshot. It was of such intensity that it felt uncomfortable to just look at. Directing his gaze back at the cross, the angel was already gone again.

“I saw a glimpse of wings,” Marie mumbled and then closed her eyes, “glorious golden wings on a golden body…” She reached for John’s arm. “A beautiful sight, but I require eyedrops now.”

‘I wonder why I… oh, the contact lenses,’ John answered his own question before he had fully formulated it. If the raw sight of the angel was too much for human eyes, then the fact that he didn’t have those anymore would protect him. An unintended but positive side effect. Also only a theory. Looking around, none of the mundanes had noticed anything. At least that was consistent with past appearances.

“I don’t have eyedrops, but we can get out and start with some water,” he told her, while his reward Intel appeared. It was a window with quite a bit of text to it. A location, basic information about the people inside it and what they were doing. John read it all very carefully. “…and then we might have to end this date early…”

_____________________________________________________________________________

“You sure you insist?” John asked Marie, about twenty minutes later. They were talking, while nursing her back to relative health. Eyedrops and some water really were the best that could be done to help her. Luckily, that was also enough. The red colour had greatly diminished and all that stuck around now was an increased rate of blinking.

To do any more than that, he would have needed Undine but the slime girl was still in the Hudson Barrier. While the elementals lacked the ability to enter or leave barriers by themselves, they were perfectly fine if left inside them. Unlike the first time this had happened, when Nathalia had suddenly carried him off into an ‘adjacent’ Illusion Barrier, they now had the increased distance perk. Through some arcane machinations, that allowed them to stay in contact, even if the connection quality suffered. For something like this, he wouldn’t have expended a teleport cooldown, however.

“Slavery is deeply dishonourable,” Marie simply stated. “I want to see it fought and abolished at every turn.”

“Seems more like an American or British mindset to have than a French one,” John joked and earned himself a poisonous glance that could have come straight from Lydia.

“Zhe world likes to forget that the French abolished slavery before either did,” she stabbed his chest with a finger. Her honest annoyance emphasized her accent immensely, “While zhe world at large iz often disappointing, I ezpected better from you. Stupide, très stupide!”

“Je vous demande pardon,” he quickly apologized in French. “Was just meant to be a joke, the French have made numerous historical contributions.”

“You’d do well to remember zhis,” Marie crossed her arms. “You Americans like to joke about white flags and boast your accomplishments, seldom remembering that your independence was thanks to our contribution.”

John could only nod, to show he agreed and to dissuade her. It seemed to work, so he returned to the original topic. “If you insist on tagging along, I won’t say no. It just won’t be pretty by any description and thus not what I would normally want associated with a date.”

“I’m not a weak-willed woman that needs to be protected from bloodshed, I am Marie of house Damocles, the Illuminati’s foremost family,” the same insisted, and it was decided.

“Your foreign affiliation is exactly why you should think carefully about getting involved,” John reminded her. “If you insist, then I will not stop you, but whatever consequences are born from this are yours to bear.”

“I’m no patron god, I bear no obligations to withhold myself.” Brushing an unruly strand of her black hair behind her ear, Marie stood her metaphorical ground. “Aside, zhese are only slave traders, no? Nothing for anyone to take offense over.”

“As far as the Intel goes, yeah,” John confirmed.

What he had received from Gaia had been the location of (hopefully) New York’s last remaining slave trader guild. How they had survived the past few months was a mystery John would look extensively into later. That their location was overlooked was easily explainable. As long as they were outside of the border of the Hudson Barrier, hiding from anyone who wasn’t a Fateweaver was quite easy.

How they received new humans to sell and had arranged to get things done without Scarlett being notified in any fashion, however, was the more mysterious part. For the latter, explanations could be easily found. As far as the former was confirmed, John would look into the part the police force dedicated to this area played. There weren’t a lot of people, so any corruption should be quickly identified.

Along with the location, he had also received the levels of all members of that guild. Information that would have been valuable for other organizations, but was limited to twelve people in this case. Twelve people of no particularly impressive numbers or standing. Which was also why John had decided to end the date in favour of waltzing in there by himself and cleaning things up.

As much as he preferred spending time with Marie, if he allowed the misery of whoever was stuck down there to continue for longer than needed, he would have felt like the scum of the earth. None of that showed on his face, though. For the moment, he kept calm, almost joyful. There was no need to channel his anger before it was actually time to strike.

“We can’t know if they have customers or other potential threats present, though,” he gave her to mind.

“Zhen why are you going by yourself?”

“Because I have six lifelines to burn and am basically guaranteed to have control over the Protected Space once I get in,” John told her. “I’m just saying that I can’t guarantee that I can protect you.”

“I won’t need your protection,” she stated, “my decision is made.”