“Perfect!” Sadie grinned. “Heather and I can go start the fire now, then – Heather can even be the one to practice her Fire Starter Skill, so Akari can honestly say she didn’t work on the fire at all!”

  “I’m certainly not going to argue with other Party members practicing their fire-building skills,” Akari said.

  “I brought a book that isn’t my Class guide with me,” Cassy said, “and my water and stuff, so I’ll go show them where the wood is if you guys will bring out the breakfast tomatoes.”

  “Sure, we can fill up everyone’s mugs,” Akari said. “Everyone in the camp has the same mugs, so I can’t imagine anyone getting crazy over the urge to steal those.”

  The day was clear and still, and rapidly growing hot. Sitting around the campfire reading and eating cherry tomatoes really did make for a relaxed morning. Sadie hit the fish with a use of Purify Food before setting the fillets out on the tilt-logs to dry more. Danielle brought out the mostly-dry cherry tomato pieces, since none of the party were quite sure if they were done yet or not, and just setting them in the sun didn’t really require work.

  Everything was set up before Danielle’s watch ticked past 10am, and they settled in for the morning. Danielle and Cassy both turned out to be reading A Lost Boy’s Treatise on Finding Oneself, each from her own room’s bookshelf. Akari had chosen Campfire Stories of the Sent. Heather continued reading Class Guide: Herbalists, Basic and First Tiers, while Sadie took advantage of the chance to monopolize Crafts for Skill and Trade for the day.

  Late in the morning, people started appearing. First there were a few people sitting on the balconies, reading books of their own. Then the Lemonade Hunting Party started showing up. First came Nathan and Gonzo.

  “No one on the boys’ side is doing anything like this, as far as I know,” Nathan said, “and I was never real serious about church before, but I do believe! Besides, this just seems like a terrible time to just stop doing, well, anything that might help get on God’s good side, you know?” He smiled at Heather, and sat down next to her.

  Heather blushed, whether at the statement or just the attention, Danielle wasn’t sure.

  Gonzo, meanwhile, glared at everyone and went to sit petulantly a few feet away. “I can’t believe I let you drag me into this,” he complained.

  “I didn’t drag anyone!” Nathan retorted. “I told you I’d be fine! The Wolves like to sleep in.”

  “You came just to keep your Healer from crossing camp alone?” Sadie asked Gonzo.

  “Just to keep him from crossing a Wolf-infested camp alone,” Gonzo agreed sourly.

  “That was really nice of you,” Sadie told him. “Don’t worry, you can hang out with me and Heather when they get going.”

  “Oh! Uh, thanks,” Gonzo said. “I wasn’t actually sure who all, um, was thinking like Nathan on this one.”

  Danielle looked at her watch. “I said we’d be doing our thing in the afternoon, and it’s not noon yet, so nothing special is happening for at least another 45 minutes. We’re just reading Rooms books right now.”

  “You can share with me, if you want,” Heather volunteered immediately.

  “Sure! What are you reading?” Nathan asked, moving closer.

  “The Class guide for Herbalist, from the shelves. We heard it’s a pretty rare Class to get unlocked at the Dome, so I’m checking out what they thought was so important and how it might synergize with Healer,” Heather explained.

  “Oh, that does sound interesting,” Nathan said. “It never occurred to me to look into Classes that worked together like that.”

  Gonzo scoffed and pulled a piece of wood out of his pocket – a half-finished whittling project, Danielle though. He confirmed that by drawing his knife next and going to work on the carving, carefully collecting the shavings for tinder as he went.

  Maybe 20 minutes later, Dana led the four girls from their party around the corner of the building. “Are we late to the church thing?” she asked, looking around at everyone.

  “Early, actually,” Danielle said. “We’re starting the prayer meeting at noon, not that most people seem to have any way of keeping time. Maybe I should see if we have any information on sundials in any of these books!”

  That got an easy laugh out of everyone, even Gonzo. Dana, meanwhile, sat down next to Akari. The others looked awkward, and Lauren turned to Gonzo.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Doesn’t your dad say all religions are conspiracies?”

  “I’m keeping our Healer from getting killed by a Wolf because he decided to walk across the whole camp alone,” Gonzo retorted. “Besides, Dad says the Christians are mostly conspiring to just get you to join their being-nice club, which doesn’t sound so bad to me. It’s the Systemists that have the kind of conspiracies that give me nightmares.”

  “They’re not all ‘let the mutations come’ crazies,” Akari said. “The two camps of Systemists are practically two different religions that just both insist on using the same name.”

  “Are they really, though?” Gonzo asked. “How do we know the ones Inside aren’t just moles there to undermine the mana-security of the sanctuaries?”

  “Because they’re the biggest single religious affiliation in the state, in the majority of existing states including ours, and no undermining has happened,” Akari said dryly.

  “But how would you know?” Gonzo insisted. “That’s how undermining works; it’s subtle and you don’t know it’s going on until BAM! Someone breaks through and it all comes crashing down!”

  “The Outsider Systemists do attack sometimes, though,” Heather said. “If the Insider Systemists were really working with them, isn’t that when they’d break through, whatever that means?”

  “No, see, they’re playing the long game,” Gonzo started.

  “Can we not do this again?” Marc said, and Gonzo turned and looked up to see Marc and Reggie approaching from behind him. “I’m not a Systemist, but even I’m getting tired of hearing about how Sending is a Systemist conspiracy.”

  “Well it is!” Gonzo exclaimed.

  “Just stop,” Marc said. “Or better yet, tell me what’s going on? I thought this was going to be a church thing.”

  “The prayer meeting hasn’t started yet,” Sadie told him. “Also, half of us are just hanging out anyway, reading and watching out for the stuff we’re drying.”

  “There are getting to be a lot more people than I expected, here,” Danielle said uneasily, casting a wary eye across the building. A light crowd was building up on the balconies again. It looked like some people on the second floor had pulled the benches from the fire corner up to the walkway railing. There was a fire going in the corner brazier on the third floor, and a group of girls there leaning on the railings to look down at them, while still keeping a casual eye on their fire. “Maybe we should take the drying racks inside for now,” Danielle said. “So they don’t get knocked over or anything if people keep showing up.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Akari. “I’ll get the tomatoes; will you get the fish, Sadie?”

  “Yeah, no problem.” Sadie collected the fish and took it back inside, and Akari followed with the drying frames full of tomatoes. Cassy collected up the empty mugs and followed them.

  Danielle felt exposed, with people above and all around that weren’t there to pray. The rest of the Lemonade party sat down, at least; Marc positioned himself next to Dana on the opposite side from Akari’s spot, the two Reggies went and sat together against the nearest tree, distancing themselves, and Lauren and Cynthia sat near Gonzo. Heather and Nathan actually went back to their book, and when the other three party members came back, Danielle was about to do the same.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She was interrupted by the sight of another group coming around building six, this time on the end facing building two. It looked like at least three more rooms worth of people.

  They came up to the fire, and one of the boys said, “We heard this is where the church people were meeting. Are we in time?”

  “Um, yes, you’re in time,” Danielle said. “The prayer meeting is supposed to happen at noon, and then some more people are going to come just to hang out, and a bunch of people are probably going to cook lunch over the fire.”

  “Oh cool! Like a group picnic,” one of the girls said.

  “I’m Peter,” the first boy introduced himself, “and these are some of my friends from the Christian Youth Club’s Booker Middle School chapter. I guess you guys were from Tree of Knowledge?”

  “Yeah, most of us,” Danielle said. “Nice to meet you. How did you even hear about this?”

  “Well, word got around about people coming out here and singing last week,” Peter said. “We kind of wanted to connect up with whoever that was, but we didn’t get names or anything; but then one of the guys in the bottom floor of building one was checking in on this other guy who you apparently invited? The guy who doesn’t have any roommates left?”

  “Oh, right – he was planning on coming, but not until after,” Danielle said.

  “Actually, I think he’s basically right behind us,” said one of the other boys.

  The people standing turned around to look and Danielle leaned to the side to see around them; sure enough, Tom was hovering uncertainly near the north corner of building six. Danielle stood up and waved to him. He glanced around and up at the balconies, looking uncertain, but after a long moment he started across the grass and joined the group near the fire.

  “Um, hi,” he said. “I didn’t realize this was going to be so big.”

  “Neither did I!” Danielle replied. “I’m glad you came, though; it’s too nice of a day to spend it all hiding in a room.”

  “I hope you remembered your sunscreen, though!” Heather piped up.

  Everyone laughed. It was an odd feeling for Danielle, being in the middle of a crowd of over twenty people – and at least double that up on the balconies! – but at least everyone seemed pretty relaxed. Well, everyone except Tom, but that was why Danielle thought he needed this. She looked at her watch.

  “Well, I said we’d be doing the prayer thing in the afternoon, and it’s officially after noon,” she said. “Plus, like a real church service, lunch comes afterward so we can’t go too long!” That got another wave of chuckles. “I guess the people that don’t want to be in the prayer meeting should go ahead and slide out of the group now. Obviously, none of us is actually a pastor, and we didn’t get to bring any Bibles (unless one of you actually found one in a necessities store), so we’re not going to try to do any kind of sermon or anything. The plan is just for everyone, um, who wants to, to have a chance to lead a song. Then we’ll be praying using the Lord’s Prayer as a guide, and it’ll be the same – by which I mean, we’ll give anyone who wants to add something a chance to speak up in each part, and we’ll move on when no one is speaking up. OK?”

  There was a general murmur of agreement, and some rearranging as the people who didn’t want to participate moved further away. Lauren and Gonzo went to join the Reggies at the tree line. Cynthia and Sadie followed them after a moment. Heather, to Danielle’s surprise, stayed; so did Tom, who sat down on the other side of her from Nathan. Nathan, Marc, and Dana predictably stayed – evidently they were the ones from their party who had actually wanted to come. The CYC group turned out to be ten people, so there were eighteen total making a double circle around the fire when everyone was settled.

  “Shall we open with prayer?” Peter asked.

  “Oh, um, a quick one if you want,” Danielle said. “I mean, since we’re going to be praying a lot more later.”

  “It’s my turn to open!” one of the CYC girls announced, and the rest of that group chuckled. She didn’t give the others long to be confused, but immediately started in, praying “Dear God, please bless our time together, and let everything we do at this Bible st- uh, prayer meeting, be pleasing to you, Amen.”

  Danielle guessed she was saying a standard opening prayer from the Christian Youth Club’s ‘student interest group’ meetings. She briefly entertained the hope that Peter and the girl would take over, since they seemed to have a style they were used to, but after everyone said “Amen,” she found them all looking at her again.

  “OK, um, I’ll go first to start a song, and whoever knows it should sing along,” Danielle said. “Then whoever else wants to can start another one.” She saw a lot of nods around the circle, though everyone stayed quiet. There are a lot more than just three of us and God this time, she thought, with a faint flutter in her stomach. There was nothing helpful about thinking about that, though, so instead she took a deep breath and began the same song she’d started with the previous week.

  “Out of the depths I cry to you,

  In darkest places I will call,

  Incline your ear to me anew,

  And hear my cry for mercy, Lord!”

  Awkwardly, the CYC group didn’t seem to know that one, but Marc and Nathan both did, and Cassy remembered it well enough to join in this time.

  When they finished, Peter chose the same song Cassy had started the previous week; everyone seemed to know that one except Nathan, Heather, and Tom. Dana went next, choosing a song based on Psalm 23. Danielle didn’t know the song, but she knew the Psalm, which let her join in with some of it. Then one of the CYC boys started another song that referenced Psalm 23. Danielle had at least heard that one, though she didn’t remember the rest of the words very well.

  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death / you perfect love is casting out fear,” they sang, and Danielle silently prayed that it might be true. Being Sent certainly felt like walking under a shadow of death sometimes. She was pretty sure Tom felt the shadow of death.

  Cassy followed up with a song so old, the verses were full of weird grammar and rarely-used words. Danielle didn’t know that one either, but it had a chorus that she immediately loved: “I come broken to be mended / I come wounded to be healed / I come desperate to be rescued / I come empty to be filled / I come guilty to be pardoned / by the blood of Christ the Lamb / and I’m welcomed with open arms / Thank you God / just as I am!” It looked to her like Nathan particularly liked that song too, though Tom looked a little overwhelmed. Everyone was singing the chorus pretty loud; maybe it was partly because it was easier to remember and sing than the verses, but Danielle figured it was mostly because they all knew more about what it meant to come “desperate to be rescued” than they ever had before.

  There was a longish pause after that, so Danielle said, “Let’s pray now. We’ll go line by line – would you like to start, Akari?”

  Akari gave her a look that said no, actually, she did not want to be called on in front of everyone to start, but she nonetheless began. “Our father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name,” she said. “Um, may we all remember to honor you throughout the week.”

  “May we represent your kingdom in honorable ways,” someone from the CYC group added; and another voice said, “May your name be remembered as your name and not just a swear word.”

  After a pause just long enough to be sure nobody was waiting to jump in with something else, Danielle continued, “May your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God, please help us to live like citizens of your kingdom and do your will, wherever we are on earth.”

  “Please make it so the people around us to live according to your will, even if they don’t know it,” someone else said. “Lord, please come again soon, and save us from this,” a new voice piped up. Danielle wasn’t sure what to think about those two, but now wasn’t the time to discuss it.

  Peter started the next line, “Lord, give us this day our daily bread – or rabbit, as the case may be. Please help us find everything we truly need out here in the Outside wilds. We mostly don’t know what we’re doing, we need your help.”

  Nobody seemed to know how to add anything to that.

  “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us,” Cassy said after a moment. “We have a lot of people to be mad at right now, because injustices have happened. Help us trust you for justice, and focus on living the day in front of us,” she prayed.

  “Forgive us for doing, um, the bad stuff, and help us do better,” Tom awkwardly added. He whispered something else under his breath, too quietly for Danielle to hear. It wasn’t exactly a polished prayer, but it didn’t have to be, and there were a number of mutters of “Amen” around the circle. Danielle had the impression that a lot of people were thinking of specific ‘bad stuff’ they regretted. For herself, Arny sprang to mind, although she wasn’t exactly sure she had sinned, given that she was protecting Heather against an unprovoked attack. Did she need to forgive him, though? He wasn’t going to be affected one way or the other, he was dead. Still, she was angry at him, even though he was dead and gone. She supposed she should be praying about that some more.

  After a rather long pause, the girl who had said the opening prayer moved on to the next line. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” she said. “Deliver us from general evils like thoughtless governments; deliver us from specific evils like the members of the Wolf pack.”

  “Rescue us from wild animals that want to eat us,” someone added; and another voice said, “Rescue us from spiritual evils, and don’t let them rile up other people against us.” A third voice quietly said, “Rescue us from angry Systemists.”

  “Um, because yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever,” Nathan said. “Can we finish this part with one more song? I, um, was thinking we could sing Amazing Grace, because I think pretty much everyone knows that one?”

  Everyone showed their agreement with that proposal by starting to sing. Danielle glanced up and was surprised to confirm that even some of the people on the balconies were singing that one. It was one of the best known religious songs in existence, of course, but the surprise wasn’t so much that people knew it (at least one or two verses) but that the people who had been watching from above were actually joining in.

  There were quite a few people up there, too. They outnumbered the people around the fire by at least three to one, if her count was good – probably closer to four to one. There were even a number of boys, so it obviously wasn’t just people that lived on the even-numbers side of building six. For a moment, she was caught between amazement and fear, and then both were washed away by determination as she got an idea.

  https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2