Roobit

Chapter 28: Meeting Favors One Task as a Rock?! (Patreon)

Published:

2026-09-28 19:33:01

Edited:

2026-10-09 12:34:56

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Content

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Meeting Favors One Task as a Rock?!

Favors One Task frowned.

She had a soft and round face, one that almost suggested a childlike innocence. But her eyes... One was the color of molten gold and the other the crimson dew of freshly drawn blood. One look at those eyes told you she was a monster.

"You can hear me, right?" Favors One Task asked with a pout. She brushed aside a lock of silky smooth hair. The ropes of black fell around her like a cloak, hardly distinguishable from the priestly black robes she wore. "She should be able to hear me. She's not ignoring me, is she? Why does everyone ignore me?"

And Favors One Task slumped forward with another pout, her cherub features hidden behind the thick curtain of her long hair.

"What...? Who...?" It was hard for Alice to conjure even a single thought as the strangeness unfolded before her.

Favors One Task immediately snapped free from her melancholy. She looked up, not at Alice the Rock, but at Alice, and beamed brightly.

"I knew you weren't ignoring me! Why would you ignore me? Nobody ignores me!" Favors One Task bobbed her head back and forth as though she were agreeing with herself. "Alice, right? Alice Merryweather? I like that name. Merry Weather. Of everyone they sent, I'm glad I was assigned to you."

Alice felt as though this mysterious stranger was running circles around her head.

"Sent...?" She felt like an idiot as she blurted out another single-word reply. But who was this? Or rather, what was this?

"It wasn't easy to get you here, though," Favors One Task said with an impish grin. She nudged Alice the Rock playfully with her elbow as though they were two colleagues sharing an inside joke. "Two trucks? Normally just the one is enough."

Alice blinked. Despite the insanity sitting in her rock lap, her thoughts quickly returned to that fateful day so many years ago. She could not remember why she had gone out shopping with Mom.

But she remembered the trucks.

"Truck One fails? Embarrassing," Favors One Task continued, oblivious to Alice's rising horror. "Truck Two fails? Worrying. They really put up a fight. They did not want you here. That's why I'm so glad you made it. Yes, yes."

Comprehension dawned on Alice, though there was no sanity to the logic.

"You... sent the trucks?" An otherworldly cold filled her rock body. "You killed me...?"

Favors One Task gawked up at Alice. She blinked rapidly, the red and gold hues of her eyes switching places over and over.

"Kill you?! Me?!" Favors One Task scrambled to her feet, her innocent face arranged in the height of horror. Her eyes, though. Her eyes were two empty voids. "I'm your number one fan, Alice! Do you really think I would ever hurt you?"

Time seemed to quicken, and connections began to form in Alice's head that should have appeared with the first words out of this stranger's mouth. Because there were no trucks in this fantasy world. This person... They were from somewhere else.

"Are you The Voice?" Alice asked numbly, but Favors One Task's face immediately dispelled the idea.

"The Voice? The Voice!" Favors One Task wore a cruel monkey grin as she considered the title. "Is that what you call Them? They must hate that! I like it, though. You're good with names. But no, I'm not The Voice. I hate them, actually. And I don't hate easily. Yes, yes. But They told me to find an eagle. They never said anything about a rock. No, no. Thirteen years I was looking. I found the eagle, but it wasn't you. That was a one-truck job. I didn't like the eagle either, but they're my sister's problem now."

Alice could feel herself developing a migraine. There was something deeply grating about the way Favors One Task spoke. And what they were speaking about!

An eagle...? Their sister...?

"What are you even talking about?!" Alice asked incredulously. "Who are you?!"

Favors One Task's face broke into genuine surprise.

"Oh! I forgot to introduce myself!"

Favors One Task straightened to her full height, which was not particularly tall, and bowed. She bowed until her face crunched noisily into the ground, leaving her robed rear end sticking up in the air like some B-Grade comedian.

"I'm your number one fan, Alice!" Favors One Task repeated, her words slightly muffled as she spat out dirt with every other syllable. "My name is Favors One Task. Well, that's not really a name. No, no. Just an anagram."

"What...?" Alice was shocked that the woman could still find new ways to confuse her.

"Names have power here, Master Alice of the Merry Weather," Favors One Task said slyly, her face still pressed against the cavern floor. "It's how They keep track of everyone, so I am Favors One Task whenever I visit. But I would be less worried about what you call me and more worried about your pint-sized priestess."

Alice's thoughts flashed with sudden alarm. For a moment, she forgot all about the strangeness surrounding this mysterious visitor.

"You said... You said she was going to die?" The memory was hazy. It tried to slip out of Alice's thoughts, much like how Bram's soul had sought to escape her hands. But somehow Alice knew it was the truth. "She can't! Urd can't die!"

Favors One Task shook her head sadly, shifting the dirt around her in a small circle. Her eyes, however. Her eyes showed not the faintest flicker of concern.

"Her Fate has already been set," Favors One Task said, and she began to count her fingers, which looked supremely absurd with her face still pressed into the ground. "Eleven days. Stabbed through the heart. Dead. If it's any consolation, everyone dies. Yes, yes. I'm not sure what will happen to you, though. Well, I do, but I can't tell you. No, no."

"What are you talking?!" Alice wanted to disregard the woman's babble as nonsense, but somehow Alice knew this creature was telling the truth. On an instinctual level, Alice knew there was no deceit in their prediction. "Why?! How?!"

But Favors One Task simply shook her head.

"If I told you, They'd know. Sad, isn't it? Dying?"

Alice's confusion reached its crescendo and transformed into open fury.

"If you won't tell me anything, why are you even here?! Just what are you?!"

"I already told you, Alice," Favors One Task said, and she allowed herself to sit down on the cavern floor. No dirt or dust marred her face. "I'm your number one fan. Yes, yes. And I already told you how you can save them. Save everyone."

Alice's heart skipped a beat. She did not remember. There was no memory to recall. But somehow she already knew.

"Defy Fate..." Alice said, and Favors One Task nodded happily. "But what... what does that even mean?"

"Well, for starters, it means moving out of the basement." Favors One Task offered Alice an ear-to-ear grin. "I know, I know. It's only Day One, but looking around, I can see you're already putting down roots."

Alice glanced at Isaak's wooden chest and the offerings laid within them, but still she shook her nonexistent head.

"I don't understand," Alice said simply, and she was surprised how good it felt to be able to admit, for the first time, how little she knew.

"You're a god now," Favors One Task said simply. "A bonfire for the mortals of this world to warm themselves by. Or a watchfire! No, no. That's not a word. A lantern! Yes, yes. You're a lantern. I'm good with words. It just takes me a minute. You don't light a lantern and then hide it beneath a veil. No, no. You hold it over your head to light the way."

Alice would have laughed if her head was not buzzing with the effort to understand. What kind of answer was that?!

"That [Priest] wants to hide you away down here. That's why everyone will die. You can't hide the Light. No, no. It needs to be shared with all those poor souls trapped in the Darkness. Yes, yes."

"I... I still don't understand," Alice said.

Favors One Task sighed.

"You've been here for thirteen years, so I sort of forgot you're still just a kid." Alice felt a flicker of indignation at this comment, but Favors One Task pushed forward before Alice could bark. "Let me explain this to you as if it were a video game."

Favors One Task cleared her throat...

...and an unusual screen appeared in front of Alice.

Received F̵͈́a̴̦̩̿̄t̵̺̲͌̄e̶̫̓'̷̟̿͂s Guidance from C̸̬̄a̸͕͉̔r̵͔̀͜ë̷̻̤́͋t̸̟̃͘á̴̮͠k̶̡̈͌ḙ̵͕͌̿r̵̺͛̕

Guidance: Your First Shrine!

Instruction: Establish a shrine in the Waterhold Abbey within (3) days.