The company remains gathered around the marble basin, with the barred entrance quiet behind them. Dolly sits within the circle, then glances toward Alberta, who keeps to its edge.
Dolly
Aphrodite, perhaps belonging must be practiced, not merely promised. Will you help me welcome someone who still stands apart?
Harriet
A lasting invitation needs consistency. Make room today, then keep making room tomorrow, when attention has moved elsewhere.
Hitomi Tanaka
Begin gently. Ask what she prefers, listen without forcing an answer, and remember what she trusted you enough to share.
Tsubomi Inaguchi
An invitation should leave space around a person. Too many eager voices can feel like another kind of wall.
Stella Nabokov
And add music! Not loud music, unless she likes it. A little rhythm can tell someone they are expected, not merely tolerated.
Alberta's copper head turns toward them, pale eyes reflecting the basin's wavering light. She remains beside the cracked bronze seal, robes gathered close, waiting without approaching.
“I invite Alberta to sit beside us”
SUCCESS (Legendary Charm, rolled +0)
Aphrodite opens a place beside the circle and gestures toward it, leaving the invitation plain and unforced. The gathered company falls respectfully quiet.
Alberta the Necromancer
An invitation extended without coercion. How refreshingly unlike most institutional procedures.
Alberta the Necromancer studies the waiting cushions, then the faces that have made room. Her fingers release the edge of her robe.
Dolly
Please sit with us, Alberta. I would like to learn how welcoming someone is supposed to feel.
Alberta the Necromancer
Very well. I accept the seat, and perhaps the experiment in belonging that accompanies it.
She crosses the marble floor and settles beside Dolly, close enough to join the circle without crowding it. The cracked bronze seal glints between them.
Harriet
Then let the invitation become practice. Welcome, Alberta. You have a place here now.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what forbidden knowledge Alberta seeks
“I ask Alberta what forbidden knowledge she seeks.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Charm, rolled +1)
Aphrodite
Alberta, what forbidden knowledge do you seek?
The question stills the small welcomes around the basin. Alberta the Necromancer's pale gaze shifts from Aphrodite to the cracked bronze seal, as though weighing how much truth the room can bear.
Alberta the Necromancer
I seek the knowledge hidden beneath every boundary: how souls remain themselves after death, what binds memory to flesh, and whether the gods conceal a door between those states.
A faint draft moves through the temple despite the barred entrance. The lamps bend toward Alberta the Necromancer, their flames narrowing while the company listens.
Alberta the Necromancer
I do not seek corpses for spectacle, nor power for its own sake. I seek an account complete enough to withstand priests, philosophers, and my own doubt.
Dolly
That sounds frightening, but you told us plainly. Does sharing the question make it less lonely?
Alberta the Necromancer
Perhaps. Knowledge becomes less forbidden when it can be discussed without pretending fear is ignorance.
Quest Complete
Learn what forbidden knowledge Alberta seeks