Nascent Goddess Quest

Winning votes:
[X] The power held within all beings

---

As you slept your mind wandered... Wandered away from the typical dreams to something much more real. You dreamt of a street, filled with blank silhouettes bustling through it, but something seemed to emanate from the silhouettes, you just couldn't see it. There! A small spark of light shone from one of the figures. You concentrated on the feeling of the spark and as you did, you noticed that every silhouette began to glow, some much more than others. Basking in the glow you felt powerful.
*Yawn*
You moved outward, from a street to a city, more lights appeared, more power. Outward again, to a territory. There were small pockets of light through it, with more moving between them. Once more and you can see the entire continent, filled with little pockets of glowing lights all across it. You spend a moment simply basking in the power you feel before trying to move outward once more. You feel like you just ran into a glass door, it seems you can't move further out, not yet at least.
Feels nice...I want more
Moving back down to the street level again you find a silhouette that glows much more than the others. Concentrating on it specifically you try to draw it out. You watch in amazement as it flows out of the silhouette and into you, it feels like some forgotten power has been unlocked, it feels exhilarating!
I want more, more!
Looking back at the silhouette, there's no glow left in it. It just stands there, all the other glowing figures moving around it while it just...does nothing. Eventually all the other silhouettes leave the street, while the drained one remains where it is, as though it has nothing to do with itself, no plans, no goals, nothing.
It feels so good though, why do you care?
oOo

You wake from your dream, it felt familiar. But now you don't feel the power, you can't sense any glow.
Mmm, that felt nice
Tobias knocks on your door, signaling you to get ready for breakfast. You dress yourself quickly and head down, making sure to take your rapier with you, remembering Tobias' advice from yesterday. The meal is more or less what you had yesterday for breakfast, but it tastes even better this time around. You wolf down your food as your caretaker nervously paces back and forth.

"My Lady, toda-" he begins to speak but is interrupted by the sounds of people wandering into the church, "Go to your room and stay there until I come get you," he orders. Complying you head back to your room as quickly and quietly as you can while Tobias goes to deal with the visitors. Before they're out of earshot you hear the start of their conversation,
"What are you two doing back here? I told you I don't need your help and I don't have any jobs for you! Even if I did I don't have the money to pay you!"

"We were going to explain earlier before you..."

It seems Tobias has had previous experience with these people, and that experience was less than pleasant. Still, he could deal with it, and you'd probably only get in the way with your lack of experience. Hidden away in your room you wonder what to do. The room is too small for sword practice, and other than the totally magical candles, there isn't much to play with.
Y'know, those lights felt really nice, didn't they?
Your mind wanders back to your dream, was it possibly related to the powers Tobias thinks you have? It could just be a regular dream brought on by all his talk, but you have nothing to do and nothing to lose. Sitting in the middle of the bed, you relax your body as you begin to meditate. Clearing your mind of all thoughts other than the dream proves to be much harder than you thought, but after some time you manage it, it seems Tobias is taking a while with those people. It begins to feel like you're drifting, however there are no lights, just an empty world. Trying to focus like you had in the dream once again you detect a faint glimmer from just outside your room. As you try to concentrate on it a knock comes on your door and you lose it. Just like that you return to reality. Was that real or just your imagination?
Damn, now I'm just hungry, so close too.
With a quick sigh you head out again. Tobias sits at the table with his flask in his hands again.

"What happened?" you ask.

"Bah, adventurers asking for jobs to do," he spat before taking a swig from his flask. "They just want to take what little money I have left to buy some nicer looking swords. I even put up a sign telling them to go away"

"But, why do they keep coming then?" you ask.

"They're adventurers! They think the world revolves around them, they don't care about the 'little people' as they call them. They think they can wander in wherever they want without a care in the world for anyone else. A shame what's happened to Adventuring Guilds, they used to be for people to get help, now they're more so people can get rich and famous," Tobias grumbles.

"Oh..." you respond awkwardly before trying to change the subject, "You were going to say something before you were interrupted?"

He brightens up a little as you say that and puts his flask away, "My Lady, today I shall begin instructing you in the ways of your followers, it is the best chance for you to regain your memories and powers."

How do you respond?
[] "Yes, that sounds like our best chance"
[] "No, I believe I can rediscover my power myself"
[] "I think I know what I need to do, I just need some tips"

Winning votes:
[x] "Yes, that sounds like our best chance"

---

A smile spreads across Tobias' face as you give your response. "Very well, know that it will take time to train you," he informs you. You nod in response as Tobias takes you to begin your training.
I'm just going to sleep, you're no fun
oOo

Tobias worked you hard. He never had someone to teach before and you were trying to learn everything he could teach as fast as possible. This lead to a painful combination that left you incredibly tired at the end of each day. On the other hand you were learning a ton. Tobias explained to you what those glowing lights inside people were, apparently all creatures had Ambition within them. Someone's Ambition was a precious resource for without it they would be left with nothing they wanted to do in life. That explained what happened to the silhouette in your dream...but that was just a dream, right? Regardless you were also informed that Ambition could be used to fuel magic. However this practice was extremely dangerous because most cannot tell how much Ambition they have. People can regain their Ambition by completing goals they set for themselves, though it usually takes extraordinary goals to grain a significant amount of ambition.

Other than telling you about Ambition, you were also trained as a priestess, waking up at the crack of dawn to perform the daily rituals to Eshani...which you found very strange to do.

Getting to the ritual chamber was made a challenge, "to teach you to overcome any obstacles on the way to achieving your goal," Tobias had said. For the first few days he left you alone, but he didn't tell you where the chamber was either! It had been a challenge finding it on the first few days, but eventually you managed to get there pretty quickly, that's when he started to put in traps. At first they were simple jack-in-the-boxes, with you having to avoid them or start over, as soon as you managed to work out the position of each he'd already have added traps that would douse you in water or cover the floor in small stones that made you trip. They were harmless pranks of course, "to prepare you for the real world," as you were told.

While getting to the chamber was a challenge, once there the ritual was fairly simple: pour a bucket of water down what looked like a small aqueduct while saying a prayer. The aqueduct split into several paths that crossed, intersected and swapped around many times before unifying once more at the bottom.

After your daily rituals you spent each day learning various things from Tobias; more sword-fighting skills, various minor rituals and prayers in your name, several meditation techniques and some random trivia about the world. None of this felt like it really helped you get better prepared though, it felt like your caretaker had taught you everything important that he could.

Several times while Tobias taught you those people from the adventuring guild came around, and every time they came Tobias sent you to your room and talked with them, and every time he called you back he was always sitting at the table drinking from that mysterious flask of his. You were really starting to wonder what was in that flask.

oOo

On another day of training Tobias left to get food, the supplies from the makeshift garden in the church weren't enough to sustain you, thankfully the church got small donations from the government, barely enough to live with because of the lack of worshippers, but it was enough.

After some time while you were alone you decide to try your meditations again, you were close before and now you had some time to try it out with the techniques you had learnt and knowledge you had gained. Slowing your breathing you cleared your mind, a much easier task this time around. Slowly you focus on the glowing brilliance of Ambition, a small glow wanders around, through the rooms, you focus on it as it came closer when suddenly you are disrupted by a small fuzzy object hitting your face.

"Meow~!"

You are shocked out of your meditation when the cat that the glow belonged to jumps on your face. Somehow you can still see the glow, it's faint, but it's there. Seemingly proud of itself, the cat lies down in your lap and begins purring. As it does this you feel a connection, as though you can control the Ambition of the cat.
Food!
Do you:
[] Take most of it, more power is something you'll need
[] Take nothing, you don't want to potentially harm the kitten
[] Just take a bit, you're sure you can stop...right?