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Chris wasn’t quite used to the shunting back to above-ground just yet, having only done it two or three times with loads of bodily trauma in-between each to make even such a situation as this fade to the back of his memory, but he was starting to. The magic teleporting string now in his possession being such a close facsimile helped as well, as did the inevitable medical treatment awaiting them on the other end. But he couldn’t stay and hang out like last time -- he’d said as much before, but it couldn’t hurt to say it again: “Alright, well, I have to hopefully go find the girl who gave me this purple heart-thing,” he said, patting the pocket where he’d kept it (thankfully it was still there, he wasn’t sure what he would have done if it was gone) and trying to remember exactly what Estellise had said about it (something about summoning, he remembered that much? Maybe she hadn’t said much else) before wandering off in the direction of the church. It had been a while since he’d actually been to church, Chris realized as he entered, the late afternoon sun bathing the entryway in a golden light. His parents had certainly tried to instil in him a sense of piety, though, given his current line of work and relation to his parents, nobody could really say that it took (this in addition to the general politics of being nobility and interacting with the church, which he also never enjoyed the few times he was involved -- especially the solstice party everyone agreed to never speak of again). This one was smaller than the one he was used to, but that was the only big difference. Chris supposed that things changed slowly when you were a church. He hadn’t been listening too closely, but he was pretty sure he’d have known if there were any big schisms or reasons to change things up. He didn’t see anything immediately out of the ordinary, certainly no mysterious water girls throwing themselves into his open arms or anything, but that didn’t mean anything given how little he knew of his potential engagement’s circumstances. Maybe there had to be nobody else around -- the church wasn’t crowded, but there were other people. Maybe the time of day he’d suggested was all wrong for the woman. Maybe, the worst-case scenario, they just weren’t coming at all. Whatever it was, it was worth waiting around for to make sure, so Chris took a seat in one of the rearmost pews and did exactly that, passing the time by taking the purple heart out of his pocket and pondering it as it pulsed with energy in his hands.

"And them" the disrespect