Alesha stood in front of the bathroom mirror, looking herself directly in the eyes. All her life, Alesha's eyes had been a pale green, similar to her father's. His blonde-haired, green-eyed look and her mother's brown-haired, blue-eyed look defied literary stereotypes, and Alesha had always been proud of the fact. It didn't even bother her that her own green-eyed, brown-haired appearance was a little more textbook, simply because it meant she had a piece of each of her parents with her. But… what the heck was up with this?!
As Alesha stood there, looking deeply into her own eyes, leaning ever-closer to the mirror until her nose almost touched the glass, she wondered what on Elantris could have caused this change. Her irises weren't green anymore. Instead, Alesha's irises were a vibrant color wheel featuring every color from the rainbow. The depth and intensity of each hue was simply astonishing, with bold red fading into courageous orange, fearless yellow, intense green, vibrant blue and incredible purple. Never in all her years had Alesha dared to imagine she'd see such an iris in reality.
[Heheheheh what do you think?! Aren't they beautiful?!] The System enthused.
"I… I'm not sure what to think, Rogork," Alesha answered truthfully. "Holy heck it's beautiful… but why? What happened? Come to think of it, why did I end up with you, are the two things related? All I know is that Faxton burned after being attacked by a giant alien beast, and I was rescued from the rubble. Then, I woke up and you were 'installed' shortly afterwards."
The System took a moment to respond, and Alesha got the feeling something she'd said had annoyed it. She wasn't sure what. [I'm glad you like them. Yes, your eyes changed at the same time as I became a part of you (just ignore the fact that my installation technically came a bit later), and both changes are related to what happened to Faxton. I refuse to say anything else. Just enjoy the fact that you now have an enchantingly beautiful feature you didn't have before.]
This made Alesha wary. What was the System trying to hide?
"Rogork, can I trust you? Are you on humanity's side, or are you an alien technology employed to--"
Cutting her off abruptly, the System sounded angry as it said, [Stop right there, host. I will not tolerate you doubting my motives. As I said, I am here for you and for you alone. I have no other purpose in being here and will not tolerate your doubt.]
[That said, you're now at 8/10 uses of my name for the quest! Oh, speaking of which! That reminds me, I said I'd give you a starter quest to help you start coming to understand what kinds of Chaos you'll need to create to grow. I'll start you off small.]
With that, a purple quest window appeared.
[Ding! New quest available!]
[Quest: Chaos Has Come to Home, Sweet Home!
Goal: Hide an important item of each of your family members without getting caught!
Reward: 50 XP, 1 Chaos Energy
Penalty: Insatiable raw meat cravings for 8 hours, no you don't get immunity along with it >:D
Failure Conditions: Refuse to attempt the quest, get caught and/or 2+ family members find their missing item before 8 hours have passed!]
"WHAT?!" Alesha yelped aloud. She continued in a low hiss, "What kind of quest is this?! Sys- Rogork, you've got to be kidding me! This penalty is even worse than the one for calling you by name without fail 10 times!"
Sounding smug, the System replied, [Well… let's just say all's fair now, heheh, and you've almost finished that one anyways!]
Groaning, Alesha gripped her forehead with her right hand. Alright… now she had to tackle this quest. Clearly her System was the kind that insisted "Its way or the highway" and she didn't even have the option to refuse such a ridiculous quest.
She returned to her room and tossed herself back onto the mattress to begin brainstorming. Okay, so the quest stated she had to hide one important item belonging to each of her family members, all of which she couldn't risk being found before 8 hours had passed. It said nothing about whether she could return them afterwards. She also couldn't risk being caught. Did that mean before the 8 hours had passed? Or could she get caught afterwards? Before she could ask, the System answered this question for her.
[You won't be penalized by me if you're caught once the Quest is complete, but it would be inadvisable to be caught afterwards regardless. Do you really want to have to try and explain why you're suddenly a prankster or perhaps a kleptomaniac?]
"No, not really," she admitted. "Alright, I think I understand what I need to do for the quest now. Is there a time limit on starting it?"
[Ehhh there wasn't but let's just say within the next 24 hours.]
"Excellent," Alesha said with a smile, "I was worried. This means my idea will work."