"Okay. How do blessings work? What do I give as an offering?"

"Blessings are various minor physical or mental enhancements bestowed by a god. Ellayania offers the blessings of strength, stamina, vision, memory, resistance to cold and damp, and waterwalking. For offerings, there's not really a standard thing. Gods like it if you put some thought into it, though. My first offering to Ellayania was the shoes I'd walked to her domain in, to symbolize my intent to stay."

"What does she value the most? Is there a way for her to tell us what she wants from us?"

"She values knowledge, and those with a desire to seek it. But she welcomes all who wish to worship her. Within her domain, she can answer any questions you have directly. There's really no right or wrong answer to the question 'what should I give as an offering', it's a subjective thing that only you can really answer."

"I don't think I have much knowledge she wouldn't, besides werewolves and stuff. Does telling you about that count as an offering, if I was doing it anyway?"

Pascale laughs.

"It's the spirit more than the substance, Scott. You're not going to get smited if you don't give the absolute perfect offering."

"Nice goddess. Blessings and no smiting. I think I want memory."

"Okay." She reaches over and boops him on the nose. "There you go! It's not retroactive, but you probably won't need to study for school as much now."

"Thanks Pascale. Thanks Ellayania."

He gets started on the dishes.

"So what do you want to know right now?"

"So the new pack are scary. Tell me about Derek."

"Derek knew the pack was coming before they got here. He didn't warn us, because he thought they were only here to hurt him. They went after his betas, Erica and Boyd. Boyd escaped, and so did Cora, Derek's sister. He thought she was dead, but she was okay. Boyd and Cora are safe now. Erica did die, while the alpha pack had her. Isaac is also Derek's beta, but they don't get along so much lately."

"Boyd is a good guy. Derek isn't. He tries, sometimes, but he's too angry and too passive all at once."

"Mm. Not exactly desirable qualities in a leader. That leaves the hunters and the druids."

"There aren't many left, now, and Allison didn't grow up with it, her parents didn't want her to grow up cruel or unable to handle people. But they won't necessarily help us or hurt us, they're unpredictable."

"But possible to talk to? Maybe if I don't associate myself with you too strongly in advance. How do the druids factor in?"

"Dr. Deaton is with us, Ms. Morrell is not. She might be an ally if you talk to her, I don't know what she wants."

"Hm. Okay. So, things to do: talk to alpha pack, talk to Derek, talk to hunters, talk to Ms. Morrell. At least two of those I'm going to want to have Ellayania's domain as an option on, so first thing is find a spot for that. You two have school tomorrow, that's also going to affect at least Ms. Morrell and two of the alpha pack, what about the others?"

"Allison will be there too. If you want to enroll, or pass as a teacher, we can help."

"I don't think I want to commit to something like that just yet. There's still a lot I don't know about this town, the freedom of movement is too potentially useful to pass up."

"Okay. I can't think of any other way for you to meet the alpha pack, but you can probably run into Ms. Morrell, Mr. Argent and Derek around town."

"Yep. And I was planning on avoiding the alpha pack for now anyway. What are school hours?"

"Eight to three. You'll have the house to yourself, mostly, but you're free to spend your time wherever, as long as you're careful."

"I'm always careful. I'll probably go looking for that river, and stop at the library."

"Alright, good luck. Me and Isaac should do our homework, we'll talk more tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

Pascale continues reading the books she has stored. She goes off to bed around the same time as the others. Before she falls asleep, she whispers a recap of the days events, with her added commentary, to the vial around her neck. Shiny new place with shiny new people and shiny new books, good opportunity to expand Ellayania's influence, the people here are nice enough so far, claiming some domain here should be impressive, there's some interesting problems here to solve.

She wakes early in the morning, not long after sunrise, and heads downstairs in search of breakfast.