Prologue

The memory was faded, a scribble drawn on humid glass with the tip of a finger, melting away before it was even complete.

Still, she could remember it in pieces. Fragments that glinted and sparkled. Glass being thrown, crashing, but not as loud as the sudden screams of surprise and pain.

Her hand hurt. The girl next to her was holding onto it too hard. A death’s grip.

Everything became tight. She could remember that well enough. That last moment before her eyes finally closed and the screams and the bright burst of light faded.

Then quiet. A humming sort of quiet. A vibration she felt in her soul. Her hand was still tight, still gripping onto something. Still holding onto a friend.

Something came from the darkness, and she heard it. An offer was made. To be reborn, to see a new world, to go on grand adventures and become the chosen one.

But that offer, it wasn’t made to her.

The grip on her hand tugged, pulled. She didn’t want to let go.

And then it was ripped away, but not before dragging her along, if only a little bit.

She tumbled into the dark.

The impact blew whatever breath she held out of her lungs. Her back twisted, the shock making her flinch forwards. Then she sank.

The murky depths clawed at her face and she found herself with a second wind, a sudden burst of energy where moments before there was none. She fought, tried to swim, tried to move arms that felt sluggish, her legs which were weak.

“Help!” she called out. Her voice sounded wrong, too desperate, too young, too broken.

It didn’t matter. The liquid slipped over her prone form and stuck to her. She was the fly caught in the spider’s web.

Her last gasp ended with black sludge crawling into her mouth and down her throat.

No! Please no!

She died, and in dying, as with all things in this world, she was born anew  in her own image.

***

The d ark g oddess sat upon her throne and whiled away the hours. Texts, scrolls and newly bound books from Santafaria  lay in heaps next to her, more valuable than any gold or silver or lavish art. Once, she had surrounded herself with that sort of luxury. It only took moments to discover that their beauty lacked the depth to truly interest her.

She wanted... entertainment.

It was perhaps the only reason humanity was still alive. They provided something no army of monsters could. A distraction from the endless doldrums of immortality.

She scoffed at the book held before her in the claws of a primordial beast. A long centipede whose body was strung up to the ceiling of her throne room, and whose veins glowed red with restrained power.

Her fingers twitched.

The monster carefully turned the page.

Another story of a valiant hero, born with good fortunes, and blessed by the light gods to be able to defeat the endless hordes, to protect the feeble peasantry and gain the hand of some pretty maiden.

Frivolous and lacking in any sense. The hero acted with the sort of determination and love for violence only found in the sociopathic. It was trash that had made it onto the printed page, and had she not read everything else, she would have loathed it. But the story was long-winded, and filled with twists and turns.

It was vaguely enjoyable.

She twisted in her seat, a long leg coming to rest upon the arm of her throne even as the centipede shifted, moving to keep the pages of her book within her line of sight.

Another gesture, another turn of the page, soon, another scoff at a particularly poor piece of writing.

She was growing bored once more.

It was in that precise moment, where the slow realization of her impending boredom hit her, that she felt something.

The d ark g oddess spun, both feet touching the ground in the same moment. Her eyes sharpened, and across the throne room, from behind pillars and in hidden alcoves, creatures that most would consider fearsome terrors perked, attention falling upon their master.

She rose, and throughout her fortress, creatures big and small huddled and trembled as her gaze shifted over them.

“Oh my, oh my,” she muttered.

Chills crawled down the spines of nightmares.

The d ark g oddess began to walk through her castle. Neither too fast, nor too slow. She would arrive when she wished to, and not a moment sooner.

Her path brought her lower and lower, into the bowels of her fortress, where the air was heavy with stale humidity. Monsters trickled after her, casting light ahead of her to illuminate her path while others darted ahead and ensured she would not be disturbed.

Finally, she arrived in the lowest part of her castle. Far beneath the earth, where the walls were little more than bare stone and where the air stank of sulphur and rot and worse.

The great cavern beneath the castle was as deep as it was dark. A pool sat in its centre. Black liquid. Thick, and viscous, like tar. No waves lapped at the shore, no bubbles broke the surface. On occasion a creature would claw its way from the depths, tiny malformed monsters, with pale skin covered in black, whose delicate veins were of the darkest blues.

Ancient creatures, with legs like stilts, roamed the pit and with darting claws, would fish these newborn from their birth place and grasp them close. Some would be escorted out of the castle. Others would be consumed. The life-cycle of the monstrous had no room for pity or coddling.

The d ark g od’s attention moved towards the centre of the pit. Something was there. A lump in the tar, a vital energy where there should have been none.

Not an intruder.

She was... curious.

“Fetch me that thing,” she ordered.

Some of her monsters leapt ahead, burying themselves into the tar. Fur became clotted, the smaller, more foolish of her servants drowned and in doing so removed their incompetant selves from her consideration.

Finally, a chain was formed and some of the longer-limbed creatures reached into the tar and pulled out... something.

They brought it to the shores and at a gesture from their god-queen, let it drop at her feet.

She knelt, long robes of midnight satin pooling around her as she leaned over the object of her curiosity.

A girl.

A child, with human proportions, but with no humanity. The soul was all wrong, the girl’s skin was white, not the pale beige of a human from the north, but the white of cold marble, laced with fine veins of glowing blue.

She reached over and turned the child around, gracing it with her touch. Her own hand lingered there. Just as pale, but with veins of deep purple.

She stood. “Take it. Bring it to one of the guest chambers.”

Her creatures leapt into action.

Within the depths of the birthing chamber, the d ark g oddess watched. After a moment of quiet contemplation, she followed.

This might prove entertaining.

***

Futur-logue

Twelve Years Later

Duke Araujo of Guimadora regretted many, many things in his life.

He wasn’t an awful man. Oh, he wasn’t sinless. No man was, he found. He had risen to the rank of [Adept] twice, and [Initiate] once. A three-classed man of noble privilege. A thinker more than a fighter, but he had been able to hold his own in a scrap, when he was a decade or two younger.

Now... now he feared that he might have to test that ability once more.

Duke Araujo had much time to consider regrets as he ran up the many steps of one of the greater towers in his keep. As each slitted window passed, he caught glimpses of the world beyond. Guimadora, a beautiful city, made rich with a gold mine that seemed slothful in its desire to hold its wealth. Trade was good, money flowed quickly , and his guard were sharp-eyed and paid well enough to keep corruption to a minimum. A good, affluent city.

He did not regret being its duke.

The next window afforded him a glimpse of the gorgeous green countryside, the Montibus mountains,  the river Manuel, named after his grandfather, whose name he had inherited. Beautiful. He regretted not spending more time looking out onto the scene.

Then he crossed another window, this one affording him a view of the army camped on the other side of the river. Grey and red banners, N ot the colours of Guimadora, and not the colours of his precious kingdom of Adrana.

The Duke made it to the top of the stairs and waited, breathing hard to catch his breath. Perhaps he also regretted not exercising a little more. He had something of a gut.

He unlatched the door and opened it. Before stepping outside, he reflected on his many regrets.

It was fitting. Regret, the loathing of self and of one’s past actions, the fuel of Dark magic.

He walked into the light, blinking to adjust his eyes. He was... alone. He almost laughed. No one on the roof with him, just a wonderful view and a bit of wind, the snapping of banners and the brilliant sun above.

The wind died down, and he heard that flap again.

Not banners, then.

The Duke carefully raised his head, and on looking up, his regrets returned in force.

The monster coming down from the heavens was massive, a black beast, with bone-white plates covering parts of its body. It came swooping down, fast, but not so fast that he couldn’t identify it.

[Foot - The Bane of the Landbound - Carrier of the Child of the Dark God]

Scourge of the Burning Skies

It was a dragon.

Duke Araujo contemplated fainting, yet somehow he didn’t have time to fall over before the dragon landed on the roof with surprising grace.

It towered above the Duke, four red eyes glaring, its ribbons--which covered its many spikes--fluttering in the wind.

“Good job, Foot!” said a voice. Young, feminine.

The Duke’s legs quivered. When he had supplicated the only God that would listen for aid, he expected little. That she warned of the arrival of a herald was already more than he had expected. Now he suspected it was more than he wanted.

The dragon lowered its head, and the Duke noticed its rider as she disembarked from the dragon’s neck.

She landed on both feet, knees bending, then bending some more before she crashed onto her rear. “Ow,” she said.

The Duke didn’t know what to say. Should he laugh?

If he saw one of his knights falling off their steed, he would laugh with good humour.

The woman was not one of his knights. They didn’t ride gods-damned dragons.

The young woman jumped to her feet, patted her behind free of dust, then adjusted a pair of very large, very thick spectacles. She wore something similar to what the Duke’s nanny had worn when he was a child. A simple blouse, a long skirt split for riding. There were things on her, what he had mistaken for simple jewelry, but they moved, and in so doing revealed that they were living monsters.

It fit, in a way. For all that it seemed human, the woman was not. Pale skin, riddled in veins. Yellow-green eyes in a black sclera.

“Hi!” she said before stepping closer. “You’re the one Mom said needed a hand, right?”

“Mom?” he muttered. Then, of course, he inspected her.

[Valeria - The Monstermancer - Child of The Dark Goddess]

The Duke never did see the rest, his eyes too busy rolling up into his skull.

“Oh, shucks!” were the last words he heard before diving into unconsciousness.

***

Terror One

The wyvern beats its wings, clawing across the sky with heavy thumps. Each one makes it climb then drop a little. Behind it, behind us, half a dozen more dragon-like monsters hover in the air, eyes twisting around and searching for prey and trouble in equal measure.

I’m the one clinging on the back of the largest wyvern’s neck, hands wrapped around a pair of spikes. My fingers are numb, the leather gloves I’m wearing doing nothing to fight the cold air. At least if they freeze there, I’d be so much less likely to just fall off.

My knees are clamped around the wyvern’s shoulders, and my chest is pressed down onto a cloth-covered saddle. I have goggles on, to protect me from the wind, and my scarf whips at the air behind me, a banner declaring my presence.

Not that I can see any of that.

Both of my eyes are screwed shut, and my knees are wobbling against the wyvern as if I have the biggest urge to pee.

I don’t want to say anything, because that might distract the nice wyvern taxing me around, but I can’t help but repeat the same mantra over and over again. “Please don’t fall. Please don’t fall. Please don’t fall.”

I have a whole mission to accomplish, and falling down--I peek out of one squinted eye, stare way, way down at the ground way way below, then squeeze the eye back shut--falling down all that way wouldn’t be good, not at all.

Clinging to the wyverns for hours on end isn’t my idea of a fun time. I had plans for the trip. Maybe a bit of light reading?

Of course, those plans took a backseat the moment Mom gave me goggles and made that little noise she makes when I’m about to do something unpleasant and she gets to watch. I think I even heard her laughing out loud when the wyvern took off and I started screaming.

Mom can be like that.

Finally, at long last, the wyverns shift and I can feel my tummy climb up my throat as we start to descend. I grip on even tighter not to be pulled off the monster’s back, but they’re surprisingly gentle when it comes to landing, both legs shooting out ahead of them and running across the ground for a little bit until they slow to a wing-flapping stop.

“Oh, thank you!” I cheer before disembarking.

Disembark might be a little disingenuous. It’s more that I flop off the side of the wyvern and manage to slow my fall by grabbing onto some of the monster’s many spikes.

“Thanks,” I tell it . “Now give me a bit, I need to fetch my things.”

The wyvern stares at me with surprisingly intelligent green eyes for a moment, then shifts so that it’s even lower.

I pout. Couldn’t it have done that earlier?

We’ve landed  in a big clearing, an open field, with rocks all over and big bushes and spiky weeds poking out from between the rocky... everything, really. There is plenty of plant life though. The field is just on the side of a slight hill where the wind cutting across the Ares Pond makes it hard for dirt to settle down.

A lot of the land around here is supposed to be fairly rough, at least according to the old maps Mom has in her library.

I take a deep breath of fresh air. It smells different here. Not as sul phur- y  as the air back home. We’re technically downwind from the volcanoes back home, but far enough south that most of the ash-y air probably misses this area entirely.

It’s a nice place, very green. I like green.

I grab my pack from the saddle over the wyvern’s rear and shove my goggles and scarf into it. The riding gloves I keep. Then I root around and find my glasses, big round things with thick glass that weigh a fair bit and sit pretty on the end of my nose.

The backpack slides on, then I pick up my cloak and realize that I can’t put my cloak over my pack.

I sigh as I take off the pack, put the cloak on, then slip my backpack over that.

The hood can stay down for now. My skin can’t be any paler than it is, so maybe a bit of sunlight will help. “Alright,” I say as I bounce on the spot to make sure everything is sitting right. “You guys can head out now.”

The wyverns raise their wings, and I bring an arm up to shield myself from the whipping winds they create before taking off. Soon, they’re just dots in the sky above, one peeling off from the others to circle around.

Of course mom would insist that at least one of them keeps watch.

Well, I can’t argue with her from here. This is my first time away from home, and it might be dangerous.

Every book I’ve read suggests that people remain in or near a city. The only people that should leave a city are those in large bands, and the very strong. People with at least three classes, all of them past Novice.

According to my books, it’s dangerous to underestimate monsters. They’re always on the prowl, always searching for someone or something to kill and consume.

I see a couple now, a pack of them, all wolf-like and covered in spines,blue eyes glowing bright enough that I can see them even from where I stand.

They’re really cute! “Hello puppies!” I call  out.

My trip starts on a positive note as I’m escorted by a pack of monster doggies. Most of them are only tall enough to reach my hip, but the biggest of the pack is taller than I am, and he (or she? I didn’t look!) really likes  being scritched under the chin.

I have a destination, of course. This isn’t just some wandering out into the wilderness. I was given a chore to take care of. A mission.

Otherwise I’d be back home, cocooned on a nice chair with a good book.

Mom would be pretty disappointed in me if I failed though. Heck, I’d be disappointed in myself.

I keep my nose up and my emotions level as I continue on my trek. Actually, on thinking about it, it doesn’t make much sense not to use some magic. I’m not in the castle, I can do whatever I want.

Laughing to myself, I run  ahead of the pack of monster dogs, channelling my Amazement into a spark that makes me just a little faster, that sharpens my perception by just a bit. I’m hardly gifted with that kind of thing, but I can manage that much.

The monsters bark and growl as they follow me, probably making more noise than is wise, but these lands, these open fields and this forest that I’m skirting around, they all belong to the monsters, and the monsters, well, they’re mine too.

I skip over tiny tar-pools, black spots of sludge filling little crevices, and I push my legs as hard as they can go for a little bit. It doesn’t take long before I slow down. I might have brought too many books. Ironic, seeing as that’s the crux of my chore.

Mom is an avid reader. She has copies of everything. Everything. No matter how mundane or boring, she has a copy of it. Some she tosses, but most she keeps.

Getting a copy of everything means dealing with merchants and such, which is what she sent me out here to do. Someone’s late. More late than usual.

There’s no reason to believe that books have suddenly gone extinct--something Mom said has nearly happened a few times--or that there’s some big war causing delays in the market. So, the likely cause is some small bit of trouble that can probably be sorted out.

I have gold, and threats.

Mom says that they’re both great ways to get what you want.

I figure this will be a cake-walk. My first task completed  on Mom’s behalf. Just get in, poke around, and leave. I could even ride along on the caravan back! No flying, and I’d finally get to read something before Mom gets to it.

The pack of friendly monsters and I break through the underbrush, and out before me, sitting in the crux of a valley with Ares Pond to the west and deep forests opposite, is a city.

Santafaria . The first signs of actual civilization I’ve ever seen.

I need to stifle my joy and soothe my core, or else my emotions will get the better of me. Still, I can’t help but be excited.

***

Terror Two

I whistle as I walk towards Santafaria in the distance. It’s a nice day for whistling, I think. Unfortunately, I’m really bad at it. Mom always gives me this look  when I make strange noises. She never tells me not to, she just radiates so much annoyance that I can feel it.

I even asked her if that was a magic trick and she did it right then and there to prove the point.

I... kinda miss Mom. I know, it’s silly, I’m only a few hours by wyvern away from home. Maybe two days on foot. I could get back there no problem. Still.

It’s hard to tell the monster pups that they can’t come with me, but eventually I manage. It requires some cajoling and a lot of belly rubbing, but they get it and stay right on the edge of the nearest forest as I walk out.

There are roads leading from Santafaria to the north, to home. That’s how we get our deliveries of stuff, I imagine.

I hop  down an embankment, and managed to scuttle my way out of a small ditch and onto the road, all that without getting anything but my shins dirty. Not bad! The road isn’t that impressive. It’s these twin lines of packed dirt, squished into place by hundreds of trips back and forth by wagons.

Mom made a point of directing her monsters away from the road, and only letting the smarter ones live right next to it; that way they can spot a clever army coming and do something about it. I’ve never seen that kind of thing happen, but there are a few mentions in the history books I’ve read.

So-and-so the Great! Powerful leader, master whatevermancer, coming to slay the Dark Goddess with his mighty army! And then the book would go on about how the army broke after like, five hours of being eaten.

Well, at least I live in a place that has some historical value. That’s cool!

My whistling stops on a discordant note as I start coming across homes. Little shacks, mostly wooden, and nearly always right next to a fenced field. There’s something growing there, but I can’t begin to guess what it is.

Corn? No, that’s not likely. It’s the wrong colour for wheat.

The stalks are too narrow to be something like broccoli.

I hum to myself as I walk along. Santafaria looked so close from the edge of the forest; now I’m not so sure. The city’s not supposed to be a very big one. This isn’t even the first Santafaria according to my books. It was burned down a couple of times already.

There’s a kid at the next little farm, some boy maybe five or six years younger than me, in some dirty pants and without even a shirt on, though he does have a big straw hat to compliment the stalk of grass he’s chewing.

I grin. Not what I expected for the first person outside of the castle I’d talk to, but it’s something. “Hey!” I call out.

I want to ask a few things. Little things, really. My small talking skills are probably really bad, but hey, they won’t improve if the only people I talk to are monsters.

The boy looks over to me, the grass stalk in his mouth moves from one side to the other, then it drops.

“Uh,” I say as it hits the ground.

“Monster!” he screams.

“What?”

Before I have time to do anything at all, he’s scrambling back and running to the nearest house. He’s screaming, with the screams cutting off and starting again every time he catches his breath.

“Hey, wait!” I call out. It’s too late though, he’s long gone.

I let my arm drop to my side. It’s... probably not a reaction that I should be surprised about.

The kid isn’t wrong, I am a monster, but I kinda hoped-- well, it doesn’t matter.

Mom had warned me that this might happen. Would happen.

Sighing, I pull up my hood. The cloak is probably the nicest piece of clothing I have. All dark cloth and embroidered with silvery patterns. The hood is deep, casting a good amount of shade over my face.

I hope it’s enough to keep people from screaming. I might be a monster, but I’m not an unthinking, unfeeling beast.

The walls of Santafaria are bigger than I thought from afar. Maybe three stories high? Not much bigger than some of the shops I’d seen on Earth, and certainly not as impressive as something like a skyscraper , but still, the sheer mass of stone and rock makes them kind of imposing. That they’re not the first walls to be set here only makes them cooler.

There’s a gate, of course, for carts and such, and a lot more homes right up against the walls. I figure that building codes aren’t the same here. These places look like shacks, half of them using the city walls to stay standing.

It stinks.

That’s not something I was expecting.

The castle Mom and I live in is clean. Not super-clean, some of the floors aren’t dusted daily, but still. We have a literal army of monsters who do nothing but pick up trash and trim the bit of grass we have and dust the windows. All day, every day, without sleep. It means that home’s pretty clean for a millenia-old castle.

I shake my head and refocus. There’s a guard by the gate, not guarding the gate itself, but instead a door set into the wall next to it. I guess it makes sense to keep the gate closed when there’s no cart or wagon traffic.

I lick my lips, then step up while clearing my throat.

Attempt number two at conversation. “Hello!”

The guard jumps on the spot, his helmet—a cabasset if I’m not wrong—is tipped way forwards. He blinks at me. Was he sleeping?

I stare at him a bit, not really caring if he’s sensitive enough to feel my inspection.

[ Vicente Arroyo - Watcher of the Monster Gate]

Novice Guardsman

Initiate Heavy Sleeper

Oh wow, he’s weak. I mean, I’m not that much stronger, but this guy looks like he’s in his early twenties. He could be like, ten years older than me.

“Go on in,” he says.

“You’re not going to ask me anything?”

He blinks a few times, but that doesn’t sharpen his gaze much. His grip on his pole arm- a halberd?-- shifts. “Uh, right. Do you have anything to declare?”

“No?”

“Then go on in,” he says, this time more insistent.

“Right, okay, bye?”

I move past him and into the tight confines of a long tunnel that cuts all the way through the wall. It’s not a very thick wall, maybe a metre deep.

The smell on the other side hits me like a fly swatter to the face.

It smells like an unwashed bathroom.

I blink to keep my eyes from watering, and consider finding a handkerchief for my nose.

No, no, I can’t be defeated by a bad smell.

Stepping to the side, I glance around. The road here isn’t all that wide, just enough that two carts can move past each other side by side if no one else is on the road. Not that there’s much traffic.

People are walking around, some women in long but simple dresses with baskets around their elbows, men in tough clothes moving around and carrying stuff and doing... city people things.

I don’t know how they can stand the smell.

A window opens up on the second floor of a house across the street, and a woman tips a bucket out of it.

I gag.

That’s disgusting!

And it’s going to wash into their water supply! There's fresh water in the lake, but it’s a good walk away, so I bet they have wells.

I decide  not to start shouting at people about cholera. I’m not supposed to be noticed much.

Not that I stand too much of a chance to be noticed. I’m maybe a little, tiny, insignificant bit shorter than the average

One day I’ll be as tall as Mom and then I won’t need to worry about navigating crowds or anything.

Sighing, I reach into one of the pockets on my backpack and tug out a bit of rolled parchment. The map I have might be a few decades out of date, but I’m pretty sure most of the districts are in the same place.

West it is! Out of the North Quarter and onto... Innstreet? Or maybe I should get to the temple first. Would it be with the others in Templetown?

I hold my map up ahead of me as I walk and very promptly get lost.

I think I turned into an alley that I misread as a road.

That, or the thugs in this city mug people out on the street.

I eye the three men, all of them with some kind of weapon, and with very ugly looks on their faces. On the ground behind them, coughing and curled up in a ball, is what looks like their last victim.

“Do any of you gentlemen know where the temple to the Dark Goddess is?” I ask politely.

***

Terror Three

“Go away, girl,” one of the thugs says.

I’m not calling him a thug to be insulting or anything, that’s what he is.

[Gael - Of the North Quarter]

Initiate Dockworker

Initiate Thug

I eye him up, and his two buddies. They all have two classes, nothing above Initiate. That makes them... kinda really weak. They all look adult too, though one of them is young enough that he might just be an older teen.

I’m beginning to wonder if everyone is this weak here. Mom wouldn’t be too happy if I reached adulthood and was only at Initiate. It would be a bad showing.

Actually, I’m not sure she would be displeased so much as disappointed. I have a good Mom, the sort who probably wouldn’t mind if I decided to change careers one morning.

“Hey, kid, did you hear me?” Geal asks.

“Hey, Geal, look at her clothes,” the other older guy says. He gestures at my cloak and the clothes beneath.

They’re nothing special, just some plain riding skirts split down the middle and a clean blouse. I suppose they do have some embroidery. Iris and edelweiss and lavender, all carefully sewn into the edges and hems with silver thread.

Oh, right, this is probably really expensive. He thinks I’m rich.

Well, that or the man knows enough about flowers to recognize the patterns, then happens to know what each sort of flower means. I can barely keep track of that myself, so I’m thinking this random thug doesn’t know.

“I literally just need to know where the temple of Darkness is,” I say. “You guys can go back to... uh.” I tilt to the side to see past the thugs. It looks like they’d been kicking the snot out of someone.

Kind of awful, but I’m not here to police this city.

Geal shifts from foot to foot, then shakes his head. “Go away, girl.”

I shrug. “Alright.”

“Geal! She’s rich.”

“You want the whole city guard all riled up because we hurt some noble’s get?” Geal hisses back.

Oh hey, he’s not stupid.

“No need to hurt her,” Geal’s buddy says. He steps past and grins at me before a knife slips out of the dirty cuff of his shirt. “How about it, girl? Care to be a little charitable?”

“No thanks, my gold is for me to spend.”

I think I’ve made a mistake. There’s a flash in their eyes, and I can almost taste the greed in the air.

What was it? Do I look too weak? No, it had to be the mention of gold.

Of course. Gold is worth a lot, and these guys probably don’t see anything bigger than Mortimer-minted silver coins passing around.

“Gentlemen, I think you’re about to make a very big mistake.”

I can see the thug with the knife hesitating. I’m stronger than he is, just out of sheer level. I have fewer classes, but that’s not too impressive.

I can feel my lips twisting up, and I allow raw emotion to flood my core. Disgust. It’s what comes easiest in a situation like this, and I don’t see why I should wrack myself to feel something more for three idiots like this.

Running is an option, they’re not even circling around me yet.

But why?

“Is she crying?” one of them asks.

I can’t be bothered to keep track of them, it’s hard enough to concentrate on the magic rolling around inside me. Not that I can’t control it, I’m just trying to keep the amount I use low. These three aren’t worth more effort than...

Taking a deep breath, I recall my lessons. I’m maybe a bit stressed if I’m slipping this much.

Darkness gives power, but without control it’s worth nothing. It’s too easy to fall past disgust and into loathing.

“Gentlemen,” I say. “Go away if you don’t want to assist me.”

The thug with the knife reaches for me.

He grabs my arm, and my hood slips back a little. I suppose they notice the glow.

“Magic!” Geal says.

I expect him to run away, but instead he swings a meaty fist forward.

So he wants to take out the threat as quickly as possible? It’s not a bad idea against some kinds of magic users.

I let myself fall, dragging the knife-thug towards me.

He stabs, and I feel the jab of something in my side but it doesn’t go anywhere. Physics is still a thing though, and the blow does lift me a little. I can be as invulnerable as a city wall, but I still only weigh as much as the average thirteen year old.

“Gentlemen, say hello to my little friends,” I say while I spin in the knife-thug’s grip.

My friends leap out of my cloak.

To the thugs they probably looked like black blurs, moving too fast to react to.

I know them better. My little friends were each made a while ago, monsters no bigger than a closed fist. Some are shaped like wasps, others like spiders with sharpened fangs, all in the light-absorbing black that nearly all monsters have.

Knife guy gasps as a wasp buries its stinger into his abdomen.

That can’t be pleasant.

The moment he lets go of me I twist back, shift all of my weight around, and shove my closed fist into his jaw. Black tendrils of magic burst around the impact. Wasteful. I can do better.

Knife guy slumps back, and my friends fling themselves off of him and to the others with a thought.

“Hey!” Geal screams.

I can’t avoid his shove.

I bump into an alley wall then... watch Geal run away, a couple of my friends buzzing after him before I recall them.

Turning, I look to the last thug, but he’s running away too, hands over his head and shirt pulled up to keep his face safe from the sting of my friends.

I whistle, and the little swarm breaks up and flies back.

Taking a moment, I adjust my clothes and make sure that all of my friends return to their little hidey-holes tucked up against me where they’ll be nice and snug. These friends are the disposable sorts, but I don’t think it’ll be easy to find tar in a city like this, so it’s best that I don’t be wasteful.

The lump the others had been kicking coughs.

Oh, shoot, was I seen?

As the pile of clothes shifts back, I can see that that won’t be a problem.

It’s a girl. Maybe my age, maybe a bit younger. It’s hard to tell, she’s all skin and bones and her clothes look like potato sacs. Her eyes are covered by a grimy bandage.

Actually, I don’t think I need to mention the dirtiness of any one part of her, she’s entirely filthy. Her hair is matted and tangled, and her clothes are stained and covered in soot. She looks like a mess.

The beating probably didn’t help.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She smils. A huge, happy grin. She’s missing a tooth and her lips are bloody, but it doesn’t detract from her smile any.

I can, literally, feel the joy radiating off of her.

A Joy mage?

“I’m okay, miss,” she says. “Thank you.”

“Uh, yeah, no problem,” I reply. “You wouldn’t happen to know where the temple of Darkness is?”

I feel bad after saying it. The Disgust is leaving me already, and the feelings leave me kind of empty. I’m aware, academically, that I should either feel bad for the girl and her situation, or maybe I should be disgusted by the way she’s dressed, but I can’t manage that right now.

The girl’s smile twitches. “I do.”

“Oh, cool. Can you tell me where it is, and do you need help?”

“Ah, I should be okay? They didn’t hit me too hard. If someone dies here the guard get angry about it. They didn’t want to have to carry me to the Roughs either, so I can still walk.”

I nod. “If you can lead me to the temple, I can pay you a little.”

She perks up, then pushes off the ground to climb to her feet. It looks painful, but she doesn’t so much as wince.

“Can you see?“ I ask.

“I know my way around.”

Somehow, she looks worse standing up than sitting down. I move over to her, but before I can reach out, she shakes her head and raises a hand. “Geal and his friends thought that Miss was wearing a nice dress. I’m filthy, I wouldn’t want to get you dirty.”

“Oh,” I said. “Thank you? What’s your name?”

This entire thing was really awkward.

“My name’s Felix.” She grins. “Just a normal beggar from the Roughs.”

[Felix - The Blind Joy]

Novice Windtouched

“What’s your name, miss?”

“My name? Oh, I’m--”

***

Monster One

I woke up with a deep intake of breath. Not a gasp filled with the cloying black tar that clung to my throat and clogged my airways, but pure, fresh air.

I was alive!

I was alive?

My eyes fluttered open, then squeezed shut. It was too bright. The ceiling above was made of some white stone that practically glowed in the sunlight pouring in from a floor-to ceiling window to one side of the room.

The glimpse I’d gotten did reveal some things. I was in a bedroom, a very nice one. I... didn’t recall exactly how I’d known that it was a nice bedroom. Maybe it was the size of it? The pretty purple curtains next to the windows, or the dresser against the far wall, dark wood covered in careful, intricate carvings that I couldn’t quite make out in the little time I’d had.

I was alive, and not home.

Home.

Like cold water down a parched throat, my mind snapped to full wakefulness. The fog was washed away, but beneath it was nothing. Fragments and ideas, threads that were snipped and cut. Home was...

I frowned. Home was...

I started breathing faster. The memory was just there  but it was still beyond reach, like trying to touch my own image in still water. It warped and rippled away as I reached it.

But I wasn’t a dumb girl. I could remember being praised for being clever. Not by whom, or why, but I knew that the right way to avoid panic was to think things through. “I’m aware that I’m confused,” I muttered. A mantra?

I had to break it down. That was a neat trick that always worked.

First, how did I feel?

Well, I was scared, and a little bit terrified, and very spooked. But those were all feeling-feels. I had physical feels to look into too.

I wiggled my toes, waggled my fingers, and scooted my hips around. I felt fine! My tummy had a bit of emptiness to it, so maybe I was due for a snack.

After that was... seeing how things were around me? Then I could get rid of all the confusion! Perfect plan... me... whatever my name was.

Oh that was probably bad.

I opened my eyes again, slower this time, to take in a ceiling that was made of stone with large wooden beams across it. A chandelier hung from above, all crystal with no lightbulbs within. I wasn’t entirely sure why that was important. Around me were posts reaching up, with curtains draped across them. A four-poster bed? That was more princess-y than I was used to. Probably.

Something else jumped out at me.

The words hovered there, perfectly in focus, the letters like those in some terribly old computer, all blocky and square.

I wiggled to the left, and the prompt wiggled with me. Interesting!

I wiggled to the right, and the same happened. Hypothesis confirmed!

“So cool,” I said as a hand slipped out of the covers and reached up towards the prompt.

“I would advise against that, child. Accepting a new fate so soon is only going to lead you down a path of tears and sorrow. Patience, for the right moment, for the right knowledge, and for the right circumstances, will often reward you far more than blindly charging ahead.”

[Congratulations!]

[Through your actions you have unlocked the potential to obtain the following classes:

Sleeper

Tar Drowned

Do you wish to learn more about these classes or accept them into yourself?]

The voice had come from inside the room. A rich, cultured voice. Slow and careful, but captivating, like the growl of a cat about to strike.

I slowly craned her neck around and found that I wasn’t alone in the room.

In the corner, not too far from the window, where the light from outside would splash against her, was a woman. Tall and lithe, with sharp features. White skin, bulging with veins that pulsed purple. Her dark eyes locked onto me like someone eyeing a choice of desserts before picking one out.

“Hi?” I tried.

“Hello, child,” the woman said. She gestured to the side, and the shadows shifted.

Not shadows, but a creature. Long and covered in segmented armour, with protruding spikes and flesh so dark it swallowed the light. Its mandibles were opened over the pages of a book which it slowly closed with knife-tipped feet.

“Oh wow, it’s so cute!” I said.

The woman blinked. “Pardon?”

“Um, it’s cute?” I repeated. I was talking about the giant centipede baby, of course. The big cutie pie, with its big mandibles and wee-widdle claw-feet.

“This is Milpiés, the Long Librarian,” the woman introduced. “It is a unique creature. In its past life he was a great hoarder of knowledge, powerful but greedy. Now it seeks knowledge eternally, tearing and consuming it out of the minds of men to grow its ever expanding library.”

“He likes books?” I asked. I liked books. I couldn’t remember any of them, but I liked the idea of books. I slid under the covers a little as the woman looked at me. The woman was very imposing, after all, and quite a bit taller than me.  

“I suppose so, yes,” she said. “Focus upon Milpiés, will yourself to know who and what it is.”

I wasn’t sure if I ought to do that, but then, I was in a comfortable bed, in a nice room. The woman had been there for some time, quiet and likely watching me, which was admittedly a little strange. Doing what I was told to do was right, some of the time. I knew that much.

Still, focusing on something while willing myself to know something was very strange. I focused hard, nose scrunching and eyes squinting to better make out the dark form of Milpiés in the corner. The monster shifted, moving into the light so that he was more visible, so that I could better make out the battle-scarred surface of its millenia-old body.

I focused very hard, then let out a sigh. “I’m aware that I’m confused,” I muttered for the second time.

“Perhaps that is beyond you? How disappointing.”

I blinked, then blinked again. Disappointing? No, no that would not do.

Forcing myself to think, I looked at the monster and focused so hard my head hurt.

[Milpiés - The Long Librarian - Greater Servant of the Dark God]

Scourge of Deep Knowledge

I took a deep breath, then smiled over to the tall woman. “I got it!” I said.

It had felt very strange, like popping a zit, but in my head.

“Well done. And how many of its classes did you see?”

I glanced over to the creature again. “I see his name, and Greater Servant of the Dark God, which is very spooky, and Scourge of Deep Knowledge.”

“So, only to the first. I suppose that would suffice.” The woman walked over and sat upon the edge of the bed, one leg carefully crossing over the other at the knee. “Now tell me, child not of this world, who are you, and what were you offered to come into my land?”

I tugged the blankets up, or tried to, but the woman was sitting on them, and so I couldn’t shield myself away from her questioning gaze. My initial observation had been wrong. The woman did have an iris. It was a dark, dark purple that shone a little brighter as it caught the light.

“Um, ah,” I said.

“Do not waste my time, child.”

I flinched. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say, and I only had one trick at her disposal. I focused upon the woman.

[The Dark Goddess - God of Darkness - Servant of None]

God of Monsters

One of the woman’s eyebrows rose. “Truly?”

“Your name is The?” I asked.

The Dark Goddess tilted her head to the side, then she made a noise, a faint chuff at the back of  her throat that coincided with the smallest twitch of her lips. “No, child. My name is not ‘The.’ I have decided to present myself to you with my title.”

“Oh,” I replied, not entirely certain I understood, but willing enough to go along. Being called ‘The’ would be pretty strange.

“You have failed to answer my question, though perhaps I was hoping for too much. Tell me, what do you last remember?”

“Ah, well, I was... drowning, I think, in black stuff?” I squirmed in her covers. They were quite nice, thick and plush. I wished the Dark God wasn’t sitting on the bed. “Before that... I remember... a car crash?”

The Dark God nodded slowly. “And did you hear anything? A voice, an offer?”

“Yes! Someone was talking, but it wasn’t to me.”

“Then to whom were they speaking?”

“I don’t remember,” I admitted. I was afraid that the Dark God would be angered by that, but the woman didn’t seem overly bothered.

She rose, carefully and with easy grace. “So, you are a mistake. A mistake he  likely made.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be, child. If nothing else, your appearance marks you as one of mine. Time will tell if you’re worth being considered as such.”

“Wow, that was kind of scary sounding.”

The Dark God stared. “Yes, I think I’ve been told that I am somewhat scary sounding at times. Are you not scared yourself?”

“Nope,” I said. It was only a little bit of a lie. “You seem nice. I remember drowning in black stuff, and now I’m here. So you must have cared at least enough about me to let me use this nice bed, right? So you can’t be that scary. Besides, you’re the Goddess of Darkness and Monsters. Not scary things.”

She made that strange noise again. “An interesting way of seeing things.” Turning, the Dark God started towards a door at the far end of the room. “Milpiés will remain here, for the time being. Rest. I will have more questions later.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. I was feeling rather tired.

“Valeria.”

“Huh?”

“Your name. Seeing as how you don’t remember your own. It shall be Valeria.”

And just like that, the Dark God was gone.

I stared after her, wondering how she had known that my name was missing.

Before I could wonder too deeply, sleep snuck up on me.

***

Terror Four

My magic is returning, and with it, I’m getting a better hang of my emotions.

Felix and I are walking down one of the busier roads in the North Quarter of Santafaria, Felix just a step ahead of me, her head down and back hunched a little, and there’s a limp to her step, but she’s still smiling.

And despite her blindness, she’s navigating the crowds better than I am.

I can’t help but bump into people and I have to jog to keep up every so often. Felix just flows around the traffic, somehow avoiding everyone.

It would be mildly impressive even if she wasn’t blind.

“I’m sorry,” I say as I come up beside her. We’re caught at an intersection, a group of people are ahead of us escorting a... cow?

I don’t know why the cow needs guards, but there it is, being protected by four farmers with clubs.

“Sorry?” Felix asks. She looks at me, and I’m kinda surprised that she’s just a pinch shorter. Her lips are quirk ed  in  a strange smile.

“I’ve been kind of mean, haven’t I? I barely asked if you were okay. I didn’t even try to get help for you. You’re limping, I....”

Felix giggles. “It’s okay, miss,” she says. “I’ve had worse.”

That twists my tummy up. The worse thing is, I’m pretty sure she’s telling  the truth. Being hurt like this isn’t new to her. “I’m still sorry,” I say.

She shrugs a bit and then looks ahead. “We can cross now.”

We move on, and soon enough we reach a spot where the crowd is a bit thicker still. A market of sorts, with shops on either side of the street and stalls set up wherever there’s enough room for them.

Merchants with classes that I quickly identify as Seller and Bargain Maker and all sorts of craftsmen are guarding their wares. Beyond them, a wall rises up. Taller than the exterior wall to the city, and looking a fair bit better maintained and guarded.

Felix reaches back, and it looks like she’s about to grab my hand, but she hesitates. “We might have a hard time crossing to Midtown,” she says.

Midtown, that was the centre of the city, according to what I remember of my map. Not a very creatively named area, but I’m not complaining. “Why not?”

“It’s for rich people,” she says. “Miss will fit in just fine, I’m sure, but they don’t allow beggars.”

“You’re not a beggar,” I say. “You’re my guide.”

There are a half dozen guards by the gate dividing the North Quarter from Midtown, all of them in the same ridged helmets as the guard I met outside, though these have much nicer uniforms. Big puff-sleeved tunics and thick padded gambesons.

The people moving to the gate are split into two lines, one for carts, with workers and folk in simple clothes, and another that looks like it’s reserved for merchants and more important people. That second line is a lot shorter.

Felix wants to go to the first—it’s obvious from the way she stands—and maybe that line would draw less attention, but I do want to get things moving, so I grab her hand, swallow my disgust at how dirty it is, and move to the second line.

It doesn’t take long that we’re standing before a guard and some sort of functionary. He looks at me, eyes lingering on my hood, then my clothes beneath. I guess looking rich has some advantages.

His lips curl a bit when he looks at Felix. “Are you of a house?” he asks.

I nod. “House Malvada,” I say.

“And your... companion?”

“She’s my guide.”

“Young lady, you are aware of what can happen to a proper young woman who spends too much time with riffraff?” he asks.

I really don’t know, but his tone is just on the wrong side of condescending. Sighing, I reach into my cloak and root around in one of the little pockets sewn into it. I pull out a small coin and reach out to him with the coin pinched between thumb and forefinger. “Can you tell me where the best inn in town is?”

He eyes the coin for only a moment before it disappears into a pocket. The guard next to him is much more alert now.

“Of course, my lady.” He tugs his shirt on neater. “If you continue down the road and past the bazaar, you’ll find yourself on Inn Street. Most of the establishments there are quite reputable, but I would suggest Ocuous ’  Inn. It’s somewhat difficult to find, but it is the finest inn in Santafaria.”

“Thank you,” I say before pushing past him.

I don’t want to give him time to start plotting anything.

Midtown is different from the North Quarter. The homes are bigger, and for all that a few look like they could use a fresh coat of paint, they’re still in much better shape. There aren’t any beggars here, and the streets are mostly clean.

It still smells like poop, but not nearly as badly, and most of that is drowned out by the much nicer smell of seaweed and dead fish.

“Are we going to the inn Miss Valeria?” Esma asks.

“I think we should go to the temples first,” I say. “Did you ever go there?”

Esma nods. “I have. Most of the temples are near the Roughs. The temple of the Three sometimes helps girls, and the priest of Besters disapprove of poverty, so sometimes they’ll give people food and work. They’re strange about it though.”

I nod. That makes some sense. I suppose the Temple of the Goddess of Darkness isn’t nearly as helpful to the poor and downtrodden, which is... actually kind of sad. I can’t imagine Mom working in a soup kitchen or anything like that though.

“Do you know how to get there from here?” I ask.

Esma nods. She doesn’t look my way, or turn her head to look around. Now that I’m paying attention to it, it’s kind of weird. Still, she’s smiling as strong as ever. “This way, Miss.”

We turn off the main road, slipping between two shops and past an alley where carts are being unloaded, then its down a long residential road. The homes here don’t have much by way of yards. They’re packed too tight for that, but they’re not ugly or anything. Most are two stories tall, some are a little wider than others. These aren’t homes built from the same mold over and over.

The roads in Midtown are tight, it would be hard for two carts to drive past each other, but they don’t have much traffic here, so maybe that’s not a concern.

“Here we are,” Felix says as we arrive on a wider street. The buildings across the street weren’t homes or businesses. “This is Templetown.”

The name fits.

It looks like every other building here is a big, ostentatious thing. Some look like churches, others are boxy and square. A few of the temples aren’t really what I’d imagine as a temple, more like a small shrine set in a nicely manicured yard, the building next to it likely a home for the priests or whatever.

I probably should have paid more attention to the god and all of their symbols, but magic is so much cooler than studying theology. There are twenty-four minor gods, and six major . That made for a lot of temples, even if only a quarter of them bothered with that kind of thing.

Mom says that only weak gods need temples, and that things like priests are just a tool to get things done with less effort. She has a few temple s though, and she was very unimpressed when I asked her if they made her weaker.

“Where’s the Dark Temple?” I ask.

Felix shrugs. “I think it’s at the end of the row. I never   went  there before.”

Nodding, I start walking that way. There are some priests out and about, most of them in garb that I find a little strange. The priestesses of the Three are all women, of course, and they wear specific clothes based on their age and position, Thornton’s church is easy to recognize because it has a bunch of sown fields around it, and his priests are more like farmers than anything else.

There are others that I don’t recognize though.

None of that matters, not when I reach the end of the street and find Mom’s temple.

Or the remains of it.

It was supposed to be a small, simple building, covered in black stone, with little more than an altar and a home next to it for administrative things.

Now all that’s left is a burned down husk, with charred wooden pillars standing where walls once were.

“What happened?” I ask. My fists tighten.

I think that maybe my first chore isn’t going to be quite as easy as Mom made it out to be.

***

Terror Five

I stare at the temple for a while. I don’t know what it is about it that’s so captivating; after all, it’s just some burnt wood and torn down stones.

Maybe it’s less the state of the temple and the idea behind it?

I’m not the cleverest girl around, but I’m hardly an idiot. A glance at the buildings around the temple and I can see that none of them are burnt. This wasn’t a fire that hit all of the temples here, just this one.

Which means that it might have been done on purpose.

“I realize that I’m lacking data,” I mutter.

“What was that, miss?” Felix asks. Her smile is still on, but there’s a melancholic twist to it.

“Do you know who did this?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I heard that there was a fire.”

And suddenly I’m disgusted by her. How... why didn’t she tell me about it? But no, it’s not her fault, and I take a deep breath and settle my core.

“I didn’t know it was this temple. Maybe it was an accident?” she continues, unaware of my reaction.

“I don’t think so,” I say.

I need to find out what happened here. Mom would want to know. Better yet, she’d be pretty happy if I’m the one to figure it out.

That means that I need to find someone that I can ask a whole lot of questions to. I consider the other temples for a moment. There are plenty of them here, small as they might be. But I don’t trust them. Mom said that she’s not on friendly terms with... any god, really. There are a few she trusts, but she’s very weird about how she trusts people.

So maybe not the temples then.

Visiting this temple was only part of my chore. The bigger, more important part is securing the ne t shipment of books.

I swing my backpack off my back and rummage through it until I find a notebook. I took notes when Mom was telling me about my task. Notes are good.

I flip through them for a moment until I notice Felix watching. “Are you okay?” I ask.

She nods and glances away. “I haven’t seen many books,” she says. “Only one of the older ones in the Roughs can read. Sometimes he’d read stories for us, when we were really hungry.” She smiled. “It made it easier to forget.”

“You don’t know how to read?” I ask with dawning horror. That’s... that’s just awful.

She shakes her head. “I don’t have eyes. You can't read without eyes, miss.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” I say. My grip on my notebook tightens. It’s not often that I’m reminded so starkly of how lucky I am. “You could still learn your letters, and how to count and such.”

Felix nods. “I can count. You need to know your numbers to use coins. The people at Mortimer’s will teach you numbers if you want, for free too, and they give you food while you learn!”

“Right,” I say.

Most people probably know that much, then. I eye my notebook, then trace a finger over to a name. Javier Juárez. He’s the man that Mom uses to buy books from all over. A merchant that Mom has blessed in exchange for a good price on the things she wants: mostly more books, but sometimes meat and foods that can’t grow around home.

He’s supposed to have a big home in the capital, but he spends most of his time here, in Santafaria.

I need to find him.

“Come on, Felix,” I say. I do feel bad for her. Maybe I can hire a healer to look at her eyes? It would only cost a few gold, I figure. At the very least, I can get her something to eat and a little silver. “Hey, do you know where the best place to learn stuff would be?”

“What kind of stuff?” Felix asks.

“Like, rumours, what’s going on in the city, stuff like that?”

Felix nods quickly; she looks happy to help. “Yup! I know a few places like that. Most of them are in the Roughs or in the South Quarter. Mostly the taverns, but you can hear lots of rumours in the markets, and some people will buy those rumours.”

I nod. “And what about in the nicer parts of town?” I ask.

“The inns, I think. The fancier folk don’t talk in the same places. I think they do all of their rumour  stuff at balls and fancy parties where they have lots of free food.”

I pause in my walk when I realize that I’m not too sure where I’m heading. I just have to walk, and the road seems inviting. “Let’s go to the inns then,” I say. It’s past midday already, and I’ll need a room soon.

“The inns are that way, right?” I ask as I point towards what I think is the west.

Felix follows the direction of my finger, then nods. “Yup. On Innstreet.”

“Imaginative name,” I say.

“It’s where the inns are,” Felix says.

I can’t really fault that logic. Kind of a boring name, but I guess it works. “Was the inn that guard  mentioned any good? The Ocuous one.”

Felix shrugs. “I’m not the kind of person that can go to an inn. I know it’s very expensive. Are you sure you don’t want to go to an inn in the South Quarter? They’re only a few silver a night. You even get a bath and some food.”

“That’s alright. I think the security is better around this part of Santafaria.” Midtown has guards. We cross two of them chatting at an intersection, neither doing more than eyeing us quickly, and more of their attention is on  Felix, who looks  a bit poor compared to the people here.

It’s an eclectic mix. Some workers, but all of them look clean, and there are plenty of others in nicer clothes. Not nobility, I don’t think, just people who are well off.

I shake my head and refocus. The walk is a good opportunity to think.

Someone destroyed the temple. Is it possible that they’ve done more than just that? Mom will be really miffed if someone burned her books, she doesn’t even allow candles in the library.

Once I find Mister Juárez and ask him, maybe things will clear up. I still have the impression that things aren’t nearly that simple.

Felix is good with directions, she cuts across an alley or two, avoiding spots where there are more people on the road, and before I know it, we’re back on Innstreet. “I think it’s that one,” she says, pointing to a fence. “I heard about it from others. No one knows what it actually looks like.”

The Ocuous Inn is hidden by a fence covered in a thick layer of vines that obscure anything behind it. There’s a gate in the fence, with nothing but a plaque next to it with the inn’s name.

I walk up to the gate and push it open. There’s a little garden on the other side, with carefully tended flowers in raised banks, benches and a few big shrubs. The inn itself is just as well maintained: a two story building, with a wide balcony around it and a shingled roof.

Some lights are lit within, so I invite myself in, Felix right on my heels. The girl makes herself smaller, shoulders hunching and head down. She probably doesn’t feel comfortable here.

The interior was just as clean as the outside, with a large dining room behind some sliding doors to one side, and a desk right opposite the entrance. I walked up to the desk and to the man standing behind it. “Hello,” I said.

“Ma’am,” the man says. He looks down his spectacles at me. I don’t know if he's snobbish, or if I’m just short. “May I help you?” He glances at Felix, and I notice his nose twitch.

“Yes, please. I need a room for the night. A decently large one. And enough hot water for a bath... perhaps three baths? Food as well, of course.”

“I see,” he says. I think he’s trying hard to remain professional. “The Ocuous Inn is one of--if not the--finest establishments in Santafaria. Our cost--”

I tug my hand out from within my cloak and place it over the desk, then open it to spill a handful of gold over his guestbook.

“How much is a room for a night?” I ask.

“Three gold,” he says, somewhat faintly.

“Wonderful! There’s nine gold there, that should be enough for a day or two. I trust that such a distinguished inn knows how to remain discreet.”

“Of course, ma’am,” he says.

I nod. “Can you bring up supper right away? Before the baths. And would it be possible for you to find some clothes for my friend here? She’s in rags.”

Felix doesn’t turn her head my way, but I still have that itchy feeling of having her attention be entirely on my back.

I hope that’s repayment enough for the help she’s provided so far.

***

Terror Six

Felix is a simple girl. A happy girl, even.

She needs to be, because when she’s not happy, the world shrinks, becoming smaller and smaller until she suffocates in the tiny bubble around her, where only what she touches is real.

So she remains happy. Always happy.

That morning is a good one. A day begging by the Monster g ate while the early morning train of farmers walk in and do their things. They’re always a little generous. Not with coin, but they have bread and food. She can almost always get a bite to eat if she tries hard enough, and no one tries harder than Felix.

It’s a mistake, of course. Gael shows up, with two others Felix doesn’t recognize. She’s in their territory, or at least the territory of the North Quarter gang.

Felix isn’t too disappointed about it. She’s nabbed a whole fist-sized piece of hardtack from one of the farmers that she scoffed down in an instant. That makes it worth it.

Gael explains things to her. That this is their area, and she doesn’t belong, that she should return to the Roughs.

Felix knows that there’s nothing to g et  from begging in the Roughs. Even if you did get something, some kid would take it.

Gael’s not too mean. His beating is light, and when his friend kicks her in the tummy, he tells him to slow down. Felix smiles at that. A bit of niceness, just a tiny bit.

And then Felix sees someone new.

Not with her eyes. Those are long gone. They didn’t work when she was little, and the maggots took them before she could get help. It’s why she’s so good at seeing with her happiness, a gift from some benevolent god. She believes in those, even if a lot of the other kids in the r oughs don’t.

One day she will gather enough coins to buy new eyes. There are healers that do that, in the nice parts of the city.

“Do any of you gentlemen know where the temple to the Dark Goddess is?” the new person asks.

Felix can’t see her, not like others can. Her sight is all touch, feelings and shifts in the air, tiny vibrations. If she’s happy enough and paying  enough  attention  she feels the thump-thump beat of a person’s heart.

She isn’t feeling all that happy right then. It s hard when it hurts so much.

She listens with her ears instead as the new person, a girl just a bit taller than her, talks to Gael. She’s about to get robbed, Felix knows.

And then the girl wins. It’s fast and Felix only has her ears to tell her what’s happening. A  thump ,  of a fist hitting flesh, a scream, the low hum of a bug.

Gael runs, and so does one of his friends. The other is on the ground.

“Are you okay?”

Felix holds back a laugh. The  nice girl is actually  concerned? Felix knows it s true ,  she can always sense it. And while she feels disgust wafting off the girl, that’s nothing new.

The bit of joy is a spark, and it reignites the blaze in Felix’s core.

“I’m okay, miss. Thank you.”

“Uh, yeah, no problem,” the Miss says. Miss, Felix knows, is what you call important ladies, like the person who gives soup in the South District , and the priestesses who offer to help sometimes. “You wouldn’t happen to know where the temple of Darkness is?”

“I do,” Felix says

“Oh, cool. Can you tell me where it is, and do you need help?”

“Ah, I should be okay? They didn’t hit me too hard. If someone dies here the guard get angry about it. They didn’t want to have to carry me to the Roughs either, so I can still walk.”

Felix s  senses the girl nod. “If you can lead me to the temple, I can pay you a little.”

Pay! More coins for Felix’s stash, a bit of money closer to having eyes again. She stands.

“Can you see?“

“I know my way around.”

“Geal and his friends thought that Miss was wearing a nice dress. I’m filthy, I wouldn’t want to get you dirty.”

“Oh. Thank you? What’s your name?”

“My name’s Felix. Just a normal beggar from the Roughs.”

“What’s your name, miss?”

“My name? Oh, I’m Valeria.”

Felix leads Valeria, to the gates and past them and into Midtown, a place Felix has rarely been to. The guards don’t let her sort in. Only beggars who work for Fancy are allowed in, and they need to know tricks and put on little shows to earn their coin.

Felix wants to work for Fancy, once she has her eyes. She has magic, magic that can make things move and  that can  create little breezes.

Leading Miss Valeria is easy ,  the girl doesn’t ask too many questions, and she never touches Felix. They get to the temple district, mood riding high , that is, until they find the Temple to the Dark Goddess.

Felix can’t see it well, just abstract shapes and jagged pieces of wood, but she smells the burning in the air, and hears the murmurs of the people going a long way around the temple.

People, Felix knows, always go around when something bad happens. Like a kid dying on a corner from not eating enough, or a working girl’s body being put on the road after too hard a beating. People pretend it doesn’t happen while making sure to keep away from it.

Miss Valeria, Felix discovers, is strong. The magic is snapping at the air around her for a full minute before she speaks. “I realize that I’m lacking data.”

“What was that, miss?” Felix asks.

“Do you know who did this?”

“I heard that there was a fire . ”

And suddenly Felix feels even more magic wafting off of Miss Valeria, just for a moment. “I didn’t know it was this temple. Maybe it was an accident?” Felix replies fast .

Miss Valeria’s magic settles, and Felix can see her again. It’s always hard to see magical people. “I don’t think so.”

Miss Valeria wants to go to an inn next. A nice one. The sort that would never allow someone like Felix in.

She leads again, of course. There’s no saying no to Miss Valeria. She’s a little scary, even if Felix thinks she’s not much older than her. There’s something about her that’s wrong, but there are things wrong about a lot of people, and Felix trusts herself.

She’s said no to offers of food from men that felt wrong before, and she’s accepted help from others who felt wrong in a different way. Wrong isn’t always bad, Felix knows. She’s wrong herself. Magical beggars aren’t a thing, and most people are born with eyes that work.

They arrive at the inn, and Felix is impressed by how much money Miss Valeria has. That’s gold, she knows. But she’s not a thief, even if that’s a lot of gold.

Miss Valeria takes Felix up to a room. It’s big, bigger than any home Felix has stayed in, with all sorts of furniture around. She likes it ,  the wind ha d   pl ace to roam around, mapping the contours of the room so that she doesn’t hurt her shins on anything.

“Ah, the water’s here!” Miss Valeria cheers.

Felix starts to doubt things very much soon. “Miss wants me to get in that?” Felix asks.

She senses Miss Valeria nod. “You’re dirty,” is the explanation she’s given.

The bath is hard. Her magic doesn’t agree with water. It could be a wall for all she can tell of it. But she sinks in and the heat isn’t that bad. Miss Valeria attacks her with a brush  and bottles are emptied onto Felix.

She’s seen fancy people do this to their dogs and horses. She didn’t know they did it to themselves. Now she does.

Miss Valeria has her exit the water twice, and asks for more every time before Felix is given clothes. Not hers. New clothes. Soft, of a materia  she’s not familiar with.

Felix can sell these for a lot to the rag-women.

“Felix?” Valeria askes after she steps out of her own bath. She’s in the same cloak as before, Felix senses.

“Yes, Miss Valeria?” Felix replies. This has been a very nice, if very strange  day ,  and Miss Valeria has promised that food is coming.

“Do you have a dream? A goal? Something you want above all else?”

Felix has never been asked anything like that before, so she thinks a little before answering. “Yes.” It’s an easy question. “I want new eyes.” Felix touches the new cloth around her face, covering the holes. She doesn’t know where Miss Valeria found it, but it’s nice.

“And after that?”

“And after... I want to find more things that make me happy.”

“Hmm,” Miss Valeria says. “I guess that’s not the worst dream. What sorts of things make you happy, Felix?”

Felix sniffs at the air. It smells like fancy people food. Breads and vegetables and sauces and... and meat. Only the really fancy eat meat.

“I think being with Miss Valeria is making me very happy right now!” Felix says.

Her vision has never been this clear before. It’s why she can practically see the way Miss Valeria squirms, and somehow, that just makes her grin all the harder.

***

About finding out what Felix wants

Book registry

Monster  Two

I walked carefully along the edge of the wall, one hand out and trailing against the rough brickwork to help keep my balance.

I  didn’t feel dizzy, but I did feel weak. My legs were heavy, as if something were clinging to them, and staying upright was tiring.

Moving ahead, I paused by a window cut into the wall. A huge thing, with glass from hip-height all the way up where the window ended at an arch. Leaning against the base, I looked out of the castle and onto the wider world beyond.

The view from this window was no different than the view from the others I had looked out of. A world of dark rocks under a grey sky. A purple haze floated bare metres off the ground in swirling patches that rotted away any weeds that dared poke out from the ground.

Sometimes the ground dipped, or a large crack ran across it. These were always filled with black tar. The surface would sometimes bubble and a creature of black skin and white bone would crawl out of the muck.

I had to squint to make out any of the smaller details. Still, I could tell that the world outside was dangerous.

Two moons hung above, one of them pearly and white and cracked, with a chunk of it missing and a ring of stone hovering around it. The other, smaller, was pitch black and only visible as a circle of missing stars.

I supposed that it was almost pretty, in a way. Just like my new name.

Valeria.

I wondered if it meant anything.

“Do you know?” I asked as I half-turned.

Milpiés the long librarian eyed me carefully, the huge centipede-like monster wrapped around the edges of the corridor to fit its entire body in. It... he, I supposed, because he looked like a boy monster, didn’t seem to mind me leaving my room to walk about and explore.

“About my name, I mean,” I explained. “You’re a librarian, right? You should know.”

“It means brave.”

I spun and faced the end of the corridor.

The Goddess of Darkness was walking my way. Her entire body swaying gently with every step, and despite her statuesque height, she seemed almost small compared to the creatures flanking her.

I squinted at one of the monsters.

[Falanen - The Breaker of Men - Greater Servant of the Dark God]

Scourge of Burning Fists

That was a fitting name for someone with fists as big around as I was tall. He was a nice looking fellow, with veiny, pebbled skin, and a whole bunch of cute spikes across his shoulders and back. “Hello,” I said both to the monsters and to the Dark Goddess.

“Hello child,” the Goddess said. “You’re up and about then?”

“I am,” I confirmed with a nod. “My name really means brave?”

The goddess made a noise again. I suspected it was the closest thing the woman had to a laugh. “It does, yes.”

“Does that mean you think I’m brave?”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps I am not so cruel as to call you Temerius.”

I didn’t know what that meant. “Well, thank you, it’s a very pretty name. What’s yours?”

One of the goddess’ eyebrows perked up. “I have had a few. Most just call me the god of Darkness, or the Dark Goddess.”

“But that’s a title, not a name,” I said.

“That is true. Luciana Malvada is the name I once called my own, before the titles. Few know of it. Fewer dare use it.”

“That’s a very pretty name too,” I said. I smiled up at the Dark Goddess, at Luciana, until my dimples hurt. “We both have pretty names.”

“Precocious one, aren’t you?”

“Thank you, I think,” I said. I tried to smile harder, but I couldn’t.

Then the Dark God’s hand was around my chin and my head was pulled back just a little so that I had no choice but to look into the god’s black eyes. “Child. Valeria. Bravery is strength in the face of fear. I did not name you so because I merely found you courageous. I bestowed the name upon you because I can see your fear.”

I swallowed and tried to keep my smile on. “Um, I don’t know what you mean?” I tried. My legs began to wobble a bit. Did I have to pee?

Luciana made that noise again, her sort-of-laugh. “I see you’re working to live up to the name,” she said as she let go of my chin. “Tell me, what do you want?”

“What do I want?” I repeated. I blinked. I wanted... well, I wanted... “I don’t know?” I admitted. “Lunch, maybe?”

“Is that all? Your only desire is to fulfil some base need?”

I shook my head. Saying ‘yes’ sounded like the wrong answer, and while I didn’t remember much, I did know that I didn’t like being wrong. “No. I... I guess I don’t know what I want, but I know that I want something?”

The Dark Goddess tilted her head as if considering that. “Yes, I suppose that would be fair. Do you know why I spared you?”

“Um, no?”

“Because you might be entertaining. I surround myself with powerful creatures and beasts of immense strength, but so little of what I have around me is different and new. I am giving you a chance.”

I didn’t know what that meant, exactly, but Luciana had been nice so far, so I decided that the best thing to do was think real hard about what she said.

I put on my thinking face and stared off to the side. The Dark God looked at me strangely for a bit, but she didn’t interrupt me or anything.

What did I want in life?

I felt like that was a pretty big question for someone who had skipped breakfast.

“You said you have a bunch of strong people working for you already, right?” I asked.

She nodded.

That made sense. She was a goddess, so she had strong friends. Also, I bet she was real strong too. Probably. I didn’t really have much of a frame of reference, but she lived in a big huge castle and had handsome monsters serving her, so I figured it was a safe assumption to make.

So, she didn’t need someone strong. What did she need?

Did I want to become someone that she needed?

I looked up to her. “Will you kick me out if I don’t want to serve you?”

The god blinked, then her lips quirked just a little. “No. It’s rare to have company. Though I must warn you, brave little child, that your appearance alone will make you an enemy of mankind.”

“Oh,” I said. That wasn’t nice. That was very not-nice. I nodded. I could fix that. “Then I’ll change people’s minds.”

[Congratulations!]

[Through your actions you have unlocked the potential to obtain the following classes:

Prophet of Chaos

“Oh, I got a new class thing! Prophet of chaos. Is that a good one?”

Luciana reached down and, very carefully, patted me on the head. “No, I don’t think that’s one you want to take, child. Though it certainly has potential. I wonder, how much of that was you considering my words and how much was you allowing yourself to be distracted?”

I felt my cheeks warming up. Right, I was supposed to be thinking. I even let my thinking face fall. Still... “Wasn’t that an answer, though?”

“You truly think that you will be able to change people’s opinions?” she asked. “Knowing as little as you do?”

“Uh, maybe? If I try really hard?”

The Dark Goddess’ expression was neutral, but there was a glint in her eyes. I think she liked my answer. “Follow me. I think I shall set aside my question for now. We shall return to it once you have the context and knowledge to truly understand what is at stake.”

“Okay?” I asked.

She started walking, and I ran to catch up to her. She didn’t look like she was going fast, but she had really long legs.

Then she started to climb the stairs, and it was all I could do not to huff and puff the whole way up. I still felt heavy and weak, but Luciana had said that I should follow her, so I did.

I hoped that she would lead me somewhere nice!

***

Terror Seven

“That was pretty good,” I say as I set my fork down next to my plate. The inn served us a nice little meal. Some bread, cheese and a small cut of some sort of meat. The sauce was actually pretty good.

I lean back into my seat and look across to my... guest? Friend? I’m not entirely sure what Felix is to me yet. I guess she’s just a nice girl that was willing to give me a hand in exchange for a bit of help.

She looks a bit stuffed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone scarf down their food so quickly, even if it looked like she had a hard time with the whole fork and knife thing for a while.

“Thank you, Miss Valeria,” Felix says. She’s looking a lot nicer now that she’s not in rags and has taken three baths.

“No problem,” I say.

“If Miss needs anything from me, anything at all.” Felix pauses, as if she’s looking for the next thing to say, then she grins. “I’ll do my best.”

I laugh. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Sighing, I lean forward and put my elbows on the table then grab one of those tiny loaves of bread from a basket in the middle of the table. I’ve noticed Felix hiding a few of them under the table already, but I don’t comment on it. “So! That was a good meal, and now I have a sort of base of operations, which will be good.”

Felix tilts her head a bit. “Is Miss planning something?”

“It’s just Valeria,” I say again. “And I don’t know if I am planning anything, not yet. Someone burned the temple down, and someone delayed the shipment of my mom’s books. That’s two things I need to solve. Mom won’t like having the temple destroyed.”

“Your mom’s temple?” Felix asks.

“Uh, I mean, the temple of the Dark Goddess. Who my mom... likes.” I’m really not good at this whole undercover thing. I blame the lack of good spy fiction. “Anyway. I need to find Mister Juárez. Which means... I guess asking around about him?”

“Maybe Fancy could help?” Felix asks.

“Fancy?”

She nods. “Fancy is the person who runs the city. Well, the parts of the city where people who aren’t rich come from. The South Quarter, the Roughs, and the North Quarter. Basically, everything but Midtown is run by Fancy and his crew.”

“I have the impression you’re not talking about an elected official here,” I say.

“Oh no, Mister Fancy is, ah, he’s just the boss of the city.” Felix shrugs.

I’m imagining some sort of mafia-don kind of guy. Big and burly, in a nice suit and tie, with a few equally large body-guards, of course. “Where does Fancy stay?” I ask.

“In the South  Q uarter , there’s a place with a lot of warehouses. One of those has a sort of inn inside it. There’s gambling and alcohol, and that’s where Fancy rules from.”

I stand while glancing out of the nearest window. There’s still plenty of light out, even if the sun is starting to dip. “Let’s head out then.”

“You want to go see Fancy? Just like that?”

“He might know things that I need to know. I won’t learn any of that without asking.” I stretch. “Did you want to come?”

Felix looks like she’s thinking about it, but only for a moment before she stands up too. “I’ll come. I’ve never met Fancy before, but he’s supposed to be kind of dangerous.”

“I’m kinda dangerous too,” I say. It comes out sounding a lot cooler than I usually sound, which is neat. Mom once told me that the person I was most dangerous to was myself, but I’m pretty sure I can hold my own in a fight.

Felix follows me downstairs, patting her belly which is a little distended with every step as if shaking it too much might make it burst.

The inn’s... keeper? Maitre’D? The guy who stands near the door--greets me as I come down. “Lady Valeria, is there anything we can do to assist you?”

“I don’t think so, though maybe later. We’ll be leaving for an hour or two. If we don’t come back by this evening, can you inform the guard that there’s some sort of trouble? We’ll be down by the South Quarter.”

He eyes me and Felix, one eyebrow perked. “As the lady wishes. We could arrange for a guard to escort you, if you wish.”

That might not be a bad idea. “Can it be done fairly quickly?” I ask.

“I’m afraid not. It’s not a common request.”

“In that case I should be fine. Thanks though.”

We step out into an evening that’s turned a little cloudy. The wind has shifted and it’s coming in from over the nearby lake, thick with humidity that’s turning the sky a dull grey. “It’s going to rain,” Felix says with bored certainty.

“You’re the Joy mage,” I say.

“Joy mage?” Felix repeats.

“Your kind of magic, that you’re using to see,” I add.

“Oh. I didn’t know it was called that,” she says.

I shrug a shoulder and take off, quickly leaving the inn’s courtyard and stepping out onto the not-so-busy streets of Santafaria. “It’s what the books call it. I never really studied it. Which way?”

“That way,” Felix says while pointing to her left. “Down the main road all the way to the Yellow Gate.”

I nod along and start heading off that way while adjusting my cloak. If this Fancy person is going to be any  sort of trouble, then I want my little friends to be ready to pounce. I can feel about all of them if I focus a bit. Little pinpricks of... something, nestled in close to me.

I think it’s similar to proprioperception, but not quite. None of the books I’ve read cover anything quite like it, but then, it is a unique class.

Name

Valerie Malvada

Displayed Title

Magus of Four Paths

First Class

Harbinger of the Dark Tide

Class Rank

Novice

Displayed Class

Bookworm

Mom put a spell on me that changes my displayed class. I think she’s playing some sort of prank on me, giving me a class like ‘Bookworm,’ but it’s not a mean sort of prank. I wouldn’t mind the class that much, actually. It’s probably really weak, but fun.

“What can you tell me about Fancy? Other than his position and all that?”

Felix tilts her head. “Well, he’s strong. I think he was a noble once. I heard people say that he’s the forgotten prince of Santafaria.”

“Santafaria isn’t a kingdom,” I say. “It doesn’t have a king or queen to produce a prince. There’s a marquis, I think.”

“I don’t know about that,” Felix says. “Sorry.”

I wave it off. “No matter. It’s not important anyway. I don’t think we’ll be dealing with the local nobility, not unless things go very pear-shaped.”

“Pear-shaped?” Felix repeats.

“Uh, it’s a fruit that’s sort of... not quite round? Actually, I don’t know where the expression comes from. Some book I read, I bet.”

Felix nods. “I don’t know how to read, so I wouldn’t know, I guess.”

I almost trip over nothing. “You can’t read?”

Felix turns her head my way, but not entirely. If she had eyes, they’d be looking a foot past my shoulder. “No one in the Roughs knows how to read. And you need to see the letters besides.”

I nod. That makes sense. But I don’t like it. “Well, once we get your eyes fixed, I’ll see about teaching you a little. I thought that the level of literacy here was pretty high, what with people having to read their system stuff.”

“You mean classes and skills?” Felix asks. “Mine sound like my voice when I listen for them.”

“Huh,” I say.

Had any of my books mentioned how the system would function for someone unable to read or write? Or a person with no sight for that matter? I suppose the people writing those books aren’t the people with no eyes and an inability to write.

Maybe Mom had ulterior motives in sending me out here. The more I look around, the less I like the way things are.

I can meddle once things are fixed with the books.

“That’s the Yellow Gate ,” Felix says while pointing ahead.

I snap out of my reverie and take in a gate that isn’t very yellow at all. There are banners around it that are, though, so I suppose the name isn’t entirely awful.

Getting out of Midtown is significantly easier than getting in. No one even tries to slow us down or ask any questions, though some of the guards watch us pass by.

The South Quarter isn’t as bad as I expected. It’s filled with little homes, all squished together and with no two alike, but the roads are only a little dirty. I take a few steps only to feel something tugging at my sleeve.

“That way’s the road to the South Gate and the Roughs,” Felix says before pointing to her right. “Fancy’s place is that way.”

“Ah, well, lead on then!”

***

Monster Three

I had never fallen in love before.

Probably.

I’m pretty sure I would remember that a little, because what I felt as I entered the library behind Luciana was love, and I couldn’t imagine not remembering a feeling that strong.

“Whoa,” I said.

Saying ‘there were lots of books’ was like saying the ocean was a bit wet. Shelves ran from the floor all the way up to the ceiling, with ladders mounted on rails perched here and there. There were multiple floors of the library, the upper floors mostly made up of balconies that followed the shelves around the room in rings that climbed all the way to the ceiling far, far above. I counted five. Five floors of books.

“Can I live here, please?”

Luciana placed her hand on my head and patted me up and down. “No. The library isn’t a place where anyone should be caught sleeping. For that matter, I don’t allow food here, for obvious reasons.”

“Okay,” I said. No problem. I didn’t need to eat, there were books.

“Come,” Luciana said.

“I’ve changed my mind,” I said as I followed her. “My goal in life’s not to make people nicer. It’s to read all of these books.”

“My, how fickle, to change your goals so quickly.”

“Extenuating circumstances,” I said. “I like reading. I... uh... oh no.”

She glanced back. “Is something the matter?” she asked.

I paused to gawk at a strange octopus-like creature sorting some books, then shook my head. “I just realized that I can’t remember any of the books I’ve read.”

“That is unfortunate.”

“I’m not sure, actually. Now I get to re-read them all over again!”

The goddess didn’t reply, merely turned and continued past some smaller standing shelves and to a spot at the back with a single comfortable seat. It was a big plush armchair, all leather and it looked really worn, as if someone had spent a lot of time sitting in it.

A few chandeliers hung behind it, with tiny monsters within, all of them glowing and casting soft light around the corner.

Luciana sat, then folded one leg over the other. She gestured to the floor before her. “Sit.”

I sat. It was a bit awkward, but I had to be on my best behaviour if I expected to be allowed to use the library.

The Dark God looked at me, then stared up and above. I noticed that Milpiés hadn’t followed us, but was instead crawling up one of the massive shelves to the side, his little claw-claws touching the books and scrolls and flicking away lint and dust.

“I think,” Luciana said. It snapped my attention back around. “For you to have a worthy goal, you need one of two things.”

“Okay,” I said.

“You must either want something so badly that all else pales in comparison. It must be the thing that drives you every morning, and that keeps you awake at night.” Her voice didn’t rise, but I still felt the weight of every word pressing down on me.

I swallowed. “What’s the other thing?” I asked.

“You must have a worthy opponent.”

“Oh,” I said. I shifted on the floor. There was a rug, but it was still less than comfy. “Which one drove you?”

She leaned back into her seat a little then raised her hand to the side just as a monster slid past. A serpent, but one as big around as I was wide at the shoulders. Its head stood perfectly still, and atop it was a crystalline goblet which Luciana plucked away. The purple liquid within smelled like grape juice. Wine?

“I thought we couldn’t eat in the library?”

“No, you  cannot. It is my library.” She took a sip. “As for my drive... that was long ago. There was something I had to prove. It is done. I have proved it far beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

“What was it?”

She smiled, the first actual smile that I saw touch her lips. It never reached her eyes though. “That I am the most powerful.”

I nodded. She was pretty scary for a God of Darkness.

She tapped the fingers of her free hand against the arm of her comfy chair. “Now, I am curious about what you would want, and whether you could ever find a worthy opponent.”

“I don’t know? I have as many opponents as I have friends. Which is none.”

“Hmm. Do you know why I am spending time with you?”

“It’s not because I'm interesting  company, is it?”

She shook her head, though I sensed that she was amused. That was good! If I made her happy, she might let me get a library card. Did she have library cards?

“Then a history lesson is in order.”

I sat up a bit straighter. “I’m all ears.”

She took another sip from her probably-wine and then licked her lips. “You understand what a god is, yes?”

“I think so?” I said. “Someone who’s... godlike?”

“Technically accurate, I suppose, but no points for creativity,” she said. “A god is someone who has reached a pinnacle of power and who has obtained divine abilities over their domain. There are many gods. Some share domains, rendering them weaker. Others, the major gods, rule over their domain exclusively. Some form pantheons of overlapping abilities and powers. It is an interesting field of study for many mortals.”

“And you’re the Goddess of Darkness. Are there others?”

“No. There is no god of shadows or goddess of the night. My domain is my own, and I do not allow others to encroach upon it. This has, historically, led to some issues.”

She sounded like someone that didn’t want to share her toys.

“Do you know what many people who have power want?” she asked.

“Wouldn’t that depend from person to person?”

She nodded a little, conceding the point. “Yes. But often what the powerful desire most is more power. I have much, and it is beyond the reach of many. So plots are hatched and great sacrifices are made to dethrone me. They fail.”

“Okay,” I said.

“The most successful of these involve taking souls from another world. Souls entirely untouched, and bringing them here. These are often given gifts and great powers, and are blessed to grow strong. Some have reached godhood, though they are few indeed. Most only reach the edges of my territory.”

I shifted. My butt was falling asleep.

“You, I suspect, are a mistake. A soul dragged along with another, dropped and abandoned. Had you more luck you would have been born untainted to some mortal family and would have grown and lived and died a normal life, perhaps only with vague notions and memories clinging to you. But you didn’t have such luck. You died in this world, and in so doing, your soul belonged, if only fleetingly, to me.”

I settled on bringing my knees up. “Is it like that for everyone?”

“Mostly, yes,” she said. “When someone dies, they are reborn in one of my pools. Returning to life as a monster. Their power and abilities are always a reflection of the power they had as a living being. Their temperament and body are a reflection of the sins they committed. In dying unborn and as a being not of this world, you have been resurrected entirely without committing any sin in these lands. You are, I imagine, as close to your original form as anyone or anything has ever been.”

It took me a moment to process all of that. “Oh, okay, that sounds important?”

She didn’t reply right away. “Perhaps. You already show an intellect far surpassing that of the average monster. A Scourge might be as capable. A Calamity, certainly.”

I puffed my chest out. “Thanks!”

“But you are weak.”

I deflated. “I am?”

“Terribly weak, yes. The smallest monster could kill you. Perhaps you have potential, but it would take much to realize it.”

“Oh,” I said. “I can try though, right?”

“Perhaps. Perhaps I will even assist you. It would certainly... cause a reaction, for certain people to see you. I would very much enjoy that alone. And I am not so callous as to admit that some company would be amiss.”

I bounced to my feet. “That sounds great! Where do we start?”

Luciana gestured to the library. “We will begin by teaching you a little. History, of course, and... perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to train you in the magical arts.”

“There’s magic? ” I asked.

Of course there was magic, who was I kidding? There were gods and monsters and oh gosh I couldn’t wait!

“Indeed. But first, I think our very first step will be finding you a suitable class.”

***

Monster  Four

Apparently, the grumbling from my tummy was too big of a distraction for Luciana to focus, so we left the library (I didn’t want to, but I also didn’t want to make Luciana mad) and made our way down a long, long flight of stairs and down a corridor.

I was feeling a bit lost. Also, a  bit tired. I was  hungry, and that pushed me on, but it felt like I had bricks hanging off of me.

By the time we moved into a big dining room, I felt like I was about to collapse.

“Sit,” Luciana said. She gestured to a seat in the middle of the room’s lon g table. It was a long, long table, the length and width of a bus, with cushioned seats all around, and a small throne at the end. I pulled the seat she’d gestured to out, climbed onto it, then turned and scooted the chair forward with little hops. My toes could only just brush the floor.

The Dark Goddess sat at the head of the table. That wasn’t too surprising, really, it was her house after all.

She placed her hands onto the table, then looked my way. “While we wait for dinner, perhaps we can begin discussing classes?”

“Sure!” I said.

Classes sounded neat! Did they level up and stuff? Give me a bunch of cool things? So far I’d gotten ... I tried to think about which classes I’d gotten, and in so thinking, a list appeared before me.

[Current Available Classes]

Sleeper

Tar Drowned

Prophet of Chaos

“I’ve got three of them,” I said.

“Do avoid selecting any,” she said. “I doubt any of the three are truly worth it.” She tapped the table with her forefingers, then nodded as if to herself. “I have never had to explain this from the beginning before. Most people with whom I have spoken have been given at least a basic education.”

“I know how to read,” I said. I was pretty sure I knew how. “And write, and I can do math.” Some math.

“Hmm, yes, but that isn’t what I meant. Your education in the matter of classes and the like is severely lacking. I suppose I should start from the top.” She shifted back in her throne, one arm falling onto the armrest with easy grace. “Most people believe that the system works in fives.”

“Fives?” I repeated.

“Yes. Five classes that you can obtain. Five skills obtained on each fifth level, with no more than five stages available. A simple pattern, and one that’s visible throughout the system.”

“You said... that most people believe that. Are they right?”

“No,” she said.

“Oh. Um. What’s the right answer then?” I asked.

She smiled, but it was a smile with a lot of teeth and little humour. “As with most things, the truth is far more complex and nuanced than most believe, and yet not as complex as you might think. For your personal knowledge, the common understanding will be sufficient.”

“But now I know that it’s wrong,” I said.

She gestured, a dismissive wave of her hand. “Then figure out the truth yourself. The first step was given to you already. Do so on your own time though.”

“Okay,” I said.

I would have asked another question, but a door at the far end of the room opened and from it came a trio of monsters. Small ones, that felt... weak? No, not weak, but they didn’t have the presence that the other monsters I’d seen had, and even those monsters failed to fill the room half as well as Luciana.

[Mus - Servant of the Dark God]

Bane of Hunger

I waved to one of the monsters. It was a big tall rat-looking thing, with sharp eyes and sharper fur, like little black needles. It stood on its hindlegs and carried a tray tucked against its neck with two silver domes on it.

Luciana was served first, then the monster placed a dome before me and lifted it up to reveal... soup. In a pale porcelain bowl. It looked kind of purplish, and smelled like carrots. I picked up the silvery spoon next to the bowl, then glanced at the Dark Goddess. She was looking my way.

I held back until she dipped her own spoon in and took a tiny bit of soup before digging in.

“This is great!” I said.

“I would certainly hope so,” she said. “Now, to continue the lesson.”

“Right,” I said. “I can eat and listen.”

“I would certainly hope so,” she said. “Classes are unlocked by accomplishing things. The more something is natural to a person, the more likely it is they’ll obtain a class related to that thing.”

“Like what?” I asked.

[Congratulations!]

[Through your actions you have unlocked the potential to obtain the following classes:

Eater

“Oh, like that.”

“Indeed,” she replied. “On accepting a class, very little happens. It’s only after some time practicing with the tasks and abilities central to that class that it will eventually evolve.”

“Like a level up?”

“I suppose. Each class’ progress grants more skills, and more power. Five skills are obtained at each milestone, but only one may be chosen at a time.”

“At a time?” I asked. I considered that for a bit. “Does that mean you can pick them at different times?”

She nodded. “Yes. It does. Swapping a skill locks the new skill in place for a number of days equivalent to the rank of the skill. It will become simpler to understand once you’ve reached that point.”

“Cool,” I said. “So, if I want a really good class, I need to do something really cool, right?”

“Ideally, you will want five powerful classes that all synergize.”

“Don’t you need a class to  be at max to get another?” I asked. “Or something like that?”

“No, of course not,” she said. “You could pick every class you have available now, if you wished. It would greatly stunt your progress, but it could be done.”

“Oh,” I said. That was... a lot? That sounded really flexible, depending on how strong a class was. “And you can only have five classes?” I asked.

“Such is the common belief, yes.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So you can have more?”

“Perhaps work on obtaining mastery of five first?” she asked.

I nodded. That was probably fair. It wouldn’t do to be  too greedy. Just... a little greedy. I finished up my soup just as Luciana set hers aside. It was really, really good, and that wasn’t just the hungry talking.

The serving monster took my bowl away, and another took Luciana’s just as more creatures stepped in and quietly placed more plates before us.

I looked at the steak before me. It was about the size of my splayed hand, and lightly seared, with some spice atop it, and a few leaves on the side. I shrugged and cut into it, the meat coming apart with just a twist of the fork.

“Mmm!” I said. “This is great!”

“I see no point in not eating well,” Luciana said. “I once ignored food as a source of pleasure, rather focusing on my art, but I have since decided not to act that way.”

“I’m glad you changed your  mind,” I said. “This is yum.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” she replied. “Do you have any questions?”

“About classes?” I asked. “So many.”

She raised an eyebrow, and I sensed that she wanted me to go on.

“Oh, uh. Can you get rid of a class?”

“Yes,” she said. “It’s something some unscrupulous people will use to maintain power in certain places. It must be done somewhat willingly. And you may do so to yourself, though only with difficulty.”

“Do you need a magic class to do magic?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. Magic comes from within, and in a way, the system is an outside force.”

“What’s the best class?” I asked.

Luciana tilted her head to the side. “A childish question that is surprisingly profound. I suppose the correct reply would be to say that the class that best suits the user is the best, or perhaps the class best suited to a given goal is the best at that. None are able to do everything.”

“So there is no best class?” I asked.

“That would be the correct answer. The truth is that few classes are made equal. Some are always superior to others. There is a reason why the farmer god isn’t feared.”

“They’re weak?”

Luciana shrugged. “What can he do? Grow turnips at you?”

I giggled, the image of an old man flinging seeds at Luciana too much to hold in. “So, if I want a really strong class, what should I do?” I asked once the gigglefit  was past.

The Dark Goddess smiled, a small one, one that actually reached her eyes, if only a little. “Why, Valeria the brave, perhaps you need only ask me to assist you?”

***

Monster  Five

Another book that failed to deliver on its initial premise.

She sighed a little and shifted upon her seat. Usually, the Dark Goddess would lounge to the side, perhaps with a cushion or some smaller, weaker monster next to her. Now she sat with her legs crossed at the knee and her back straight in a proper royal’s bearing.

It was, of course, all the fault of the child.

Luciana glanced away from the book held before her in the grasping claws of one of her beasts and to the far end of the library.

Finding the child wasn’t difficult, one had only to look for the stack of books set in a semi-circle atop one of the study tables. The child was hunched over a book, bent nearly in half so that her face was almost touching the page of the tome she read. Her lips were working as she read, perhaps sounding out the words? No, she read too quickly for that.

Luciana looked away and back to her own book. Another piece from Santafaria . Fiction again. She had long ago decided to be honest with herself, something which did not come naturally to her. One of the things she had to admit to was enjoying fiction over non-fictional texts. There was just more value as entertainment in a story over something informative. Not that she avoided purchasing every sample of both.

 Her thoughts were wandering, she realized.

A slight gesture of her hand, a minute pulse of magic tinged with brooding, and the creature holding her book retreated. Another carefully set a bookmark in place and the book was closed and set  onto a nearby table.

Luciana leaned back into her seat and gazed over at the child, at Valeria. She was interesting, a little font of potential. A distraction from the mundane of her usual day-to-day.

It had been a week since the child awakened from the deep sleep Luciana had found her in. In that time the child had moved very little. She went from her rooms to the library, occasionally to the bathing room near her room, and twice a day down to the dining room. A simple routine, one that allowed the child to spend a maximum amount of time diving in to  old texts and tomes.

Diligent.

No, not merely diligent. Interested in the act of learning.

Of course, the child’s attention-span was about what Luciana was expecting from someone seeming so young. She jumped from topic to topic, her searches through the shelves often waylaid when she encountered an interesting text.

It was strange, to feel a presence moving through her castle that was not one of her monsters, and yet was.

It was... nice?

Luciana held back a grimace.

She might have chosen not to lie to herself, but that was no reason to start thinking such foolish thoughts.

The child was a tool. A strange opportunity born from a confluence of coincidences, and likely not something that would happen again , but nonetheless, she was but a tool.

Luciana had plenty of those; this was merely one that had perhaps more potential than others.

Were she one of the lesser gods she might have forced the child to bend a certain way, or encouraged her with honeyed words and sweet promises. That was not her way. The child would be given the opportunity to grow into her potential, and that was it.

She rose, standing to her full height and stretching her back out. Perhaps she could afford herself a small cushion? Back pain was such an annoyance once one grew to be several millennia old.

Walking over to the child, Luciana folded her hands over the flat of her stomach and timed her approach to coincide with the child reaching the end of a section in the text she read. “Have you discovered anything?”

Valeria spun, wide eyes looking up to Luciana with undisguised emotions. Curiosity, suppressed fear, joy and that strange desire to impress that Luciana had seen very little of in her long life. “Hi! And, ah, yes, lots of things,” Valeria said. She reached to the pages of the book before her, paused, then let her hands retreat back under the desk.

The child rubbed at her skirt. A simple thing, part of an equally simple  outfit in whites and greys thrown together by the same monster that cared for Luciana’s own outfits.

“Such as?” Luciana asked. She doubted there was anything the child had learned that she herself did not already know, but then, that wasn’t the purpose of the question.

“Well, I’ve been mostly thinking about classes. They sound... well, they sound incredible.” Valeria had a tendency to move her hands while she spoke. It lacked decorum, made her seem young, but Luciana left her to it. It went against what she stood for to stifle the wants of others.

“Have you made a choice then?” Luciana asked.

Valeria bobbed her head from side to side. “Maybe?” She turned, dismissing the Dark God  for a moment to search through her stack of books, tongue pinched between her lips the entire time.

To be dismissed so easily... Luciana had had few guests in recent memory, but most of those would never have dared turned their backs upon her. It was somewhat refreshing. The child had no ill-will, else Luciana would have felt it.

“Here!” Valeria said. She placed a book onto the desk. A Guide to the Summon Arts.  “I tried to read this one, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. It talks about making animals out of magic, and... it’s really complicated sounding.”

“Summoning... an interesting art. One that is at once incredibly hard to master, and just as weak. It’s impressive when properly executed, and does have its uses, but it’s never truly been a magical art that was popular. Its downsides are many, and other magics do most of what it can do better.”

“Really?” Valeria asked. Her shoulders slumped. “It sounds so cool.”

Luciana touched the cover. “You would not be able to do this type of magic regardless,” she said. “It requires access to powers that are, and are likely to always be, beyond you. Yet...”

Was that wise?

There was a path to give the child what she wished for. It wouldn’t even be that dangerous, but it would infringe upon Luciana’s domain.

Valeria was looking up to her, eyes sparking, hope wafting off of her like the fresh scent of a flower in bloom.

“You will never be able to summon magical creatures as summoners can. That art is beyond you in many ways, and you would likely need texts and training only found in I aria. The distance is rather great. There is another option, one uniquely available only to yourself.”

“Only me?” Valeria asked.

Luciana nodded. “I can do it too, of course. It would require that you have a good understanding of magic, a foundation, at the very least.”

“I can learn!”

Luciana nodded, then she indulged herself and patted the child upon the head. The strange joy that sparked in Valeria did not go unnoticed to her. “Then you shall learn. Perhaps some light instruction outside would do you good as well.”

“I’m okay not going outside,” Valeria said.

“I will not have you practicing some fledgeling magics in my castle,” Luciana said. “Now, go eat, you have been studying for far too long.”

Valeria jumped to her feet, almost tripped on her chair, then hesitated next to Luciana. Her arms rose a little, then lowered. “Okay!” she said before scampering off.

Luciana watched her go, then considered her own actions.

Was she really merely allowing the child to find her own path in the dark, or was she pushing things along?

“Hmm,” she hummed. “In either case, I wouldn’t go against my own word.”

If she started to do these things for the child, then that would require some small amount of aid from the outside. Which in turn...

Repercussions.

Perhaps not all bad, though.

She certainly looked forward to it.

***

Monster  Six

For the first time ever, I went outside.

I kinda doubted it was actually the first time ever. I’d probably been outside plenty, but I couldn’t remember any of it, so really, I figured it counted as a cause for celebration.

Celebrations were best done indoors, of course. When I pointed this out to Luciana, she just stared at me expressionless.

I paused by the doors. Luciana had decided, halfway into our walk, to turn and bring us to a courtyard. She walked right past the doors and out into the open air while I hesitated by the threshold and looked out.

It wasn’t so bad. There were walls all around, and... and the sky was very high up.

“Are you coming, child? You won’t learn any magic just by trembling like a rabbit that has seen a hawk.”

“Right!” I said. It wasn’t a squeak.

With a bounce I ran over to Luciana, eyes focused on her and nothing else. That made it easier.

“Good. Sit.”

I hesitated, then looked back.

The courtyard had a small garden in it. A rock garden, with areas filled with raked pebbled and delicate stones stacked atop one another. Some shaped rocks served as benches which were across from each other. It was almost strange seeing the Dark Goddess sitting down on something that wasn’t a throne.

“We will start with the more academic side of things. I want you to understand before you try to use the art.”

I nodded. When I’d asked Milpiés for a notebook, the big old softie had scuttled around for a while until he found an empty notebook for me. They didn’t have pens though, just long, narrow sticks of charcoal in metal tubes with a screw in the side to hold it in place. It worked well enough.

“Ready,” I said as I set my notebook on my lap. If I pretended that the wind came from an open window, then it was easy to forget that the light beating down on me came from the sun sitting in the open sky.

“Hmph. Very well. I won’t bore you with the philosophical questions and implications. You can read into those on your own. Magic is, at its base, the application of your soul towards a specific action. In layman’s terms, it means feeling so strongly about something that you turn that raw emotion into something tangible.”

I wrote that down as quickly as I could. It was hard, because she used a few words with ‘i’ in them and it was hard to draw little hearts for each dot. “Okay,” I said before re-reading what I’d written. That helped me grasp it a lot more. Fortunately, Luciana was really patient with me. “Does that mean that you just need to want something to happen for it to happen?” I asked.

One of her eyebrows rose. “There are two answers here. Essentially, yes, you only need to feel some way for you to be able to use magic. Want, the desire for something, is a good example to start with. The emotion associated with it would be anticipation. You’re familiar with that feeling?”

I nodded. I really wanted to go back to the library, so that was anticipation.

“Good. Anticipation, if you allow it to build in your core, can be used to fuel some magics. Particularly magics associated with earth and stone and the shaping thereof.”

“So cool,” I said. “Can you use that kind of magic?”

Luciana looked at me, then raised a hand before her. With a flick of her wrist a small bump appeared in the ground and tossed up a rock which she caught out of the air. “Most who focus on learning about magic itself will know how to tap into every emotion, using each one in the way best suited for it. That kind of person is rare though.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because in humans the use of a particular kind of emotion reinforces that emotion. They become more adept at using it, and at feeling it. Those who use fire magics fed by anger and rage will often become little more than beasts. Mages who thrive with the healing arts need to fuel their work with sadness and grief. Often it overwhelms them, and they fade away or take their lives.”

“That’s... that’s awful,” I said.

“Magic isn’t awful  child, it has a price. Few are unaware of it, or the consequences of using magic. Do you understand?”

I nodded, then looked at my notes. “Um. Sadness is healing, anger is fire, right?”

Luciana made that little laughing noise she made. “Not quite. Sadness is used to fuel nature magic. Often called wood magic. Anger and rage feed fire. Joy brings about great winds and trust creates light. Fear is as deep as the deepest waters, and surprise is a spark that can turn to lightning. Anticipation is of the earth, as I have said. And disgust is the dark element.”

I scribbled that down, then paused over the last. “Wait, dark, and you’re the Dark Goddess?”

She nodded. “Yes. Disgust is part of my domain. Though, unlike any other part of my domain, there is a god that infringes upon my control there. The God of Magics. Its domain overlaps with my own, though only narrowly.”

“Oh, okay. What’s dark magic good for?” I asked.

“It's magic powered by disgust and loathing. What do you think those emotions would do, if given power?” she asked instead of answering directly.

I kind of liked these moments. Luciana was really nice, and super cool, but she seemed a bit lonely, but when she got to teaching like this it made her look happier. “Hmm, I don’t know. I guess it would help hurt the thing that disgusts you?”

“That’s part of it. Dark magic excels at hurting a single opponent. Unfortunately, Dark magic isn’t an offensive magic, insofar as any magic can be placed into one of two boxes.”

“Oh?” I asked. “In that case... does being disgusted by something protect you from it?”

“The disgust itself does not, but the magic does. Dark magic allows you to avoid the attention of others onto whom it’s applied. It allows you to better resist attacks from things which disgust you, and it allows you to shield your mind from the impacts of other magics.”

“That sounds important,” I said.

She nodded. “It is. All magics have more extreme forms as well. Spark magic becomes lightning, fearful water becomes terrifying ice. When the disgust you feel turns to loathing, you obtain void magic. Powerful, and dangerous, though of limited utility.”

I nodded and made more notes. I’d need to reorganize everything. This was a lot to take in all at once, and I was pretty sure I’d forget most of it soon enough. Oh well, I was sure using magic would help me remember all the bits and bobs of it. “So, should someone only learn one kind of magic? I feel a bunch of things all the time, I think it would suck to only feel one thing.”

“I suppose,” Luciana said. “A balanced approach isn’t terrible. It allows those who take it to live a more comfortable life. Temper your disgust with trust, your joy with sadness, your anger with the rationality of fear, and your surprise with anticipation.”

“Cool,” I said, noting that down. I definitely wanted to try dark magic. Luciana had to be the best at it, so I would learn a whole bunch. But the other sorts sounded cool too! Angry fireballs and scary water stuff! “So, do I just need to feel really hard at things now?”

“Hardly,” Luciana said. She stood, then idly wiped her hands against each other to wash them off. “Stand.”

I fumbled my notebook down, then jumped to my feet before coming closer to Luciana. Looking up to her, framed by the sky and castle walls, made it very obvious that she was a whole bunch taller than me.

I realized that I’d kinda forgotten to be scared of the sky for a bit. Neat!

“Every person can open their soul to its full breadth of emotions. It requires work and diligent study. Hours of meditation and years of contemplating your own feelings. There’s little doubt that those who open themselves to their feelings naturally have an advantage.”

“What’s the advantage?” I asked.

“A better, untainted understanding of your own emotions,” Luciana said. “Perhaps not the full spectrum of emotions though. Some people naturally gravitate strongly towards one or another. Some are destined to be sad, others have anger in their blood, still others are joyful without cause.”

“Oh,” I said.

Was I like that? I didn’t think so. I was a perfectly balanced and reasonable sort of girl.

“There is one advantage to having your soul opened by another,” Luciana said. “The time saved notwithstanding. You gain, in a small way, a part of their own understanding. When two souls touch, it is only natural that something of each will  remain in the other.” She looked down at me, her face almost blank.

Almost. There was something that. I thought it was her being afraid, but that was silly.

“Would you allow me to open your soul, Valeria? To allow you to unlock your full potential? Know that refusing is fine. The act carries some small risk, and it would forever mark you as someone touched by the God of Darkness.”

I smiled up at her.

Maybe someone else wouldn’t have trusted her. She was a lady that lived all on her own, with only monsters for company, in a big scary castle. She didn’t shy away from admitting that she wasn’t always the nicest person... but she had never been anything but helpful and nice to me.

“I would love that,” I said.

Luciana stared, then her eyes looked away. For a moment, I imagined that her cheeks darkened, but it must have been the light, a passing cloud or something.

“Very well,” she said.

She placed a hand onto my head, pressing back my hair until her thumb came to rest on my forehead. Her other hand lowered and she knelt. Two fingers touched my chest, right on my sternum where my heart beat loudest.

I looked into her eyes, which seemed suddenly so deep.

“We are the will of the world. Disgusted by travesty and lies, we stride forth towards a future darker, but of our own making. We shape the will of the world. Infinite in potential and unbound by fleeting humanity, I liberate your soul, and by my hand, I free thee.”

***

Monster  Seven

[Congratulations!]

[Through your actions you have unlocked the potential to obtain the following classes:

Acolyte of Darkness

Lesser Cultivator

Do you wish to learn more about these classes or accept them into yourself?]

Two new classes, both added to my growing list of classes I could learn, both of them sounding kinda weak.

That was the sum total of the rewards I’d gotten from two weeks of hard work, from practicing and studying until my eyes went blurry.

Well, no, there was one more reward, but it wasn’t from my studying.

[Congratulations!]

[You have unlocked the title:

Touched by the Dark One

Do you wish to equip this Title?]

When I poked at the title, all I got was a description that wasn’t all that helpful.

Touched by the Dark One

Your soul itself brushed the Dark God’s. You have felt her essence, and have shared, for a fleeting moment, her will and that of the world.

You will find Disgust and Loathing, both within yourself, and without.

I pouted at the description, but it didn’t help any. What the heck did that even mean?

Of course, I equipped it. It wouldn’t do not to experiment a little, and this was the first thing I could do with my system that Luciana hadn’t warned me against. Equipping the title did nothing obvious. Removing it did much the same.

I even had a notebook out to take notes and everything! It was very disappointing. I did leave it on. It was, in a way, a gift from Luciana

I found that most of my days post-magical awakening weren’t any different to my days before. I spent a lot more time studying magic now, but most of the books I found were very advanced, talking about techniques and spells and powers people could use. There were plenty of texts that warned people of over-emoting--apparently over-using one kind of magic in quick succession--but not one book I found taught the basics.

“You seem irate.”

I jumped in my seat and looked up from the manual I was reading. It was about the more esoteric emotions and their possible uses. Things like remorse being somewhere between loathing and sadness, and was able to fuel spells from both emotional domains, but not very well. Very interesting.

Not as interesting as finding Luciana hovering over me. “Hi!” I said. “And, uh, yeah, a bit.”

“Are you having difficulty?”

I hummed, then rubbed at my chest, the spot where she’d touched me, where our souls had mingled, if the Title was to be believed. “I think so, yeah. I was thinking that I’d find a guide on how to unlock my magic, but I haven’t found anything yet.”

The Dark Goddess nodded serenely. “It is doubtful you will. There are many ways to find out how to use magic. Most involve careful study and meditation, cultivating your emotions and their power within yourself. Usually focusing on only the one initially.”

“That sounds like it takes a while,” I said. It wasn’t a complaint, really.

“It does. Those who are destined to become warriors and fighters will start when they’re even younger than you are, and will have discovered how to use one or two domains by their mid-teens.”

“That’s years!” I said. I kinda wanted magic now. “I thought the thing you did would make it easier.”

“It has. I can feel your disappointment now, your disgust at your own inability. It’s just a kernel, too feeble to be of any use, but it is there.”

“Really?” I asked.

“And now it’s snuffed out by hope,” she said. She made that little noise again, her almost-laugh.

“Shucks.”

The Dark Goddess hummed. “There are other ways of opening the paths you need to use magic.”

“Oh?” I asked, very interested.

“Indeed. You need only feel extreme emotion. It’s a quick path to power, but a dangerous one. You obtain one emotion’s strength, but often cut yourself off from others. For example, if I pushed you to do a task you loathed, surrounding you by what you perceive as disgusting, you might stunt your own ability to feel admiration or trust.”

“Do emotions work that way?” Just because I felt something, didn’t mean I couldn’t feel the opposite anymore. That didn’t make sense. I could be sad, then happy.

She nodded. “It is when magic is involved. Give me your coal.”

I handed her my coal pen, and shifted a bit as she leaned over my shoulder and pulled a blank sheet over. She drew a shape on it, like an eight-petaled flower, then labelled all eight of them. I recognized the eight emotions she’d mentioned before.

Joy. Trust. Fear. Surprise. Sadness. Disgust. Anger. Anticipation.

She then drew a plus in the middle, linking four emotions together. Disgust and Trust, Anticipation and Surprise. “Before you try anything drastic, you should consider forcefully unlocking multiple emotional paths, all adversarial, so that your thoughts and feelings are still unaffected. These four would keep you in relative balance.”

“Not Joy?” I asked. That was easy to feel. So was Fear.

“Ecstasy, Terror, Rage and Grief are some of the easiest emotions to use for the common man. They would also, if you push yourself, become hard for you to use. You would only feel them when you want to, or, if uncontrolled, would feel them ceaselessly.”

“Oh,” I said. That would be awful. “Won’t I have a hard time with, um, Trust and Disgust and Anticipation and Surprise then?”

“Yes,” she said. “But you want power, don’t you?”

So a sacrifice then? “Yeah, I guess I do. I still don’t know what my dream really is, but I’m sure it’ll need me to be strong.”

She made that noise again, then pat  me on the head. “I’m sure. Now, a four-path route like that is complex. To awaken it properly would take a decade or more of careful study, all without a class interfering. The power from it wouldn’t be that impressive either, though you would have utility to compliment that power.”

“Hmm,” I said. “That’s a long time.”

“To you, perhaps,” she said. “The second method, of feeling great emotion and opening your paths that way, would also be complicated. Can you have four moments of supreme emotion in one lifetime? Likely, but still difficult to orchestrate.”

“So it can’t be done?” I asked. The hard way sounded hard.

Luciana looked down and blinked at me. “I am literally a god. I did not become one by thinking to myself that things could not be done.”

 “You’ll help?” I asked.

“Certainly. For a price.”

“Oh,” I said. “Okay.”

“Okay, you want to hear the price?” she asked.

“No, I’ll accept it.”

Luciana stared at me for a moment longer. “Without hearing it?”

I shrugged. “I trust you.”

For a moment, her mask cracked and she looked genuinely confused before her emotions returned to something more normal. “I see. Then... one year of servitude for every path unlocked.”

“A year!” I said. “That’s... so many chores.”

“I was thinking more than chores.”

I flopped onto the desk. “Do I still get to stay in the library?”

“Certainly, when your... chores aren’t keeping you occupied elsewhere.”

So, did I want magic now, or in a decade or so? “Yeah, alright, I’ll do it.”

She nodded, not surprised this time. “It may take some time to prepare it all.”

“Oh, well, less than a few decades, right?”

“Indeed. Now, there is one use to having your magic unlocked that you may not yet be aware of, though I’m certain what you’ve read may have referred to it in passing. Follow me.”

I jumped out of my chair, set all of my notebooks together to the side, then skipped after her. One of the librarians would probably look after things if I left them out too long. They were alright with leaving books out during lunch, but if I left a book on a table overnight, I’d always have to go looking for it again the next morning.

Luciana went up instead of down. That was neat; I’d never been to the higher floors.

I regretted it four flights of stairs later. My legs were aching and I felt like I needed a rest, but Luciana wasn’t slowing down, so I grit my teeth and caught up.

When she finally stopped, it was on a floor that only had a little alcove next to the stairs, and a single door.

It opened onto a round room, with a tall ceiling and some windows on three sides, all of them way up and far from the ground. There wasn’t anything there except for one chair, and a monster.

[ Barbatius - The Soft - Lesser Servant of the Dark Goddess]

Monster of Swinging Fists

“This is Barbatius,” Luciana said.

The monster in question was short and squat, not even as tall as I was. It had wide shoulders and long arms, like some sort of ape, maybe, though its face was a bit squished, and it was covered in thick white scales that looked almost like hair.

‘Barbatius here will be fighting you. It’s time that you learned how to defend yourself. And it’s a wonderful way to learn how to use your magic to lessen blows and harden your body.”

“Uh... what?”

And then Barbatius roared and leapt at me.

***

Monster  Eight

Lord Malicieux gestured to his manservant to twist the mirror a little, then he stretched his neck back and adjusted his doublet. It was a fine thing, made in Caselfella by a true artisan, and covered in fine brocade work.

Nothing too flowery, nor anything too loud in its brilliance. He was an older gentleman, not a young peacock. He had no need for bright colours, and in a place such as this, they might well be to his detriment.

It was a garment he had carefully chosen in his Nafpraki estates and that he had brought all the way here.

It felt... wrong, to wear something so refined in a place such as this.

“You look well, sir,” his manservant said. The man tried to hide his nervousness, and did a poor job of it.

“It will have to do,” he said. “Do you have the letter?”

The manservant nodded, then patted a satchel upon the bench next to him. “I do. It will be given to your ladyship should the... unfortunate happen. I swear it.”

Malicieux nodded. “Do so,” he said before opening the coach's door.

He had seen the l and s  of darkness  from within the carriage. Now he was seeing it unfiltered by glass.

A blackened land--fitting, he supposed--with leagues of grassless fields and torn, rocky surfaces. Crevices hinted at great destructive magics being unleashed decades ago. Now they were the homes of soul pools, where monsters were even now crawling out into the light of day.

He felt as though it should have been thundering, perhaps with a cold wind and blistering rain. Instead, the sky was clear, the sun was bright, and the weather fair.

It had taken him three weeks of travel to arrive here. First a coach from his estates to Vizeda, then two days of waiting and travelling to Blajón by ship. The rest of the time was spent on the cobbled roads of the Kingdom of Héroe until he reached Santafaria .

He expected that it would be difficult to hire a coach from there, one to bring him to the l and s  of darkness . He was prepared to stoop so low as to steal one from some merchant to make the trip, but it seemed as though trips to the Dark Goddess’ abode were... perhaps not common, but not entirely alien.

A carriage with her symbol upon it, the Dark Dragon, would pass unmolested to and from Santafaria .

An interesting detail, one that seemed to irk the priests of Héroe and Acacia, but the people of the city didn’t seem to care. It was a sign, to Lord Malicieux, that the Dark Goddess’ reach went farther than the clergy said.

He took a deep breath, and settled his nerves. He was a practitioner of Spark magic, once a devout servant of the God of Surprises. Now... he chose not to dwell on that. If he was lucky, perhaps there wouldn’t be any surprises to come in the next few hours.

The Dark God’s castle was unlike any godly abode he had seen, though his experience with those was limited. The God of Surprises had none, of course, but a few minor gods had estates and humble homes across the world, and he had once allowed his curiosity to bring him near them.

Humble would not describe the dark towers and jagged stone battlements of the Castillo De’la Sombra. It was a place of legend, the site where many battles had ended, and where great heroes had fallen trying to breach the gates.

Those gates were open now, welcoming him in.

By their side, still as statues, were two monsters. Banes, both of them. Strong enough to give cities reason to worry. Perhaps it was not surprising that there were two guarding the front doors.

A smaller monster, mouse-like and nearly timid, stepped up to him and bowed, then gestured back into the castle.

“Lead me,” he said, his voice even and calm. He funnelled Surprise through his core; wasteful, but it would prevent him from being taken entirely off guard. He wished he could use Loathing as well, but he dared not risk it here, not in her domain.

The castle’s interior was bare and utilitarian. There were few statues, and few decorations, and all of those present seemed to be there to hide creatures in the darkness they cast.

The place would be a nightmare to fight in, he realized as he noticed small passages leading off to the sides, some with doors difficult to distinguish from the walls.

The mouse-like monster walked at an even, unhurried pace, and soon they were climbing a wide staircase up one floor. His attention was wavering, focusing on what he would say, and how he would say it.

He did not fool himself into thinking that this would be a meeting between equals. He had certain things he wanted, and in exchange, he would give more than their worth to the Dark Goddess.

He was so focused that he initially missed the sounds of fighting, it wasn’t until he heard a heavy grunt that he started to pay more attention.

The mouse monster was still walking at the same pace, which wouldn’t give him a lot of time to see anything, even if it was a relaxed walk. Still, they crossed a pair of large doors, both opening into a nearly empty room.

Within, a monster with long arms and a distinct lack of natural weapons was sparring with... a girl? A child wearing long robes and a hood upon her head.

He wondered what a child was doing here. A girl, no less. An urchin, perhaps? Maybe the Dark Goddess had servants within her castle, though why she would need men as well as her monsters, he did not know.

He inspected her.

[Valeria - Touched by the Dark One]

Touched by the Dark One

A shiver crawled down Lord  Malicieux’s spine. For someone to earn that title... no, perhaps he was thinking too far. Some titles were very literal. Perhaps the Dark Goddess had literally poked the child.  No family name, so not a noble, though she was well dressed. No classes, despite seeming to be in her younger teens, perhaps as old as thirteen. Strange. Most would have a class by then. Those training for battle or of noble birth might well have two.

He watched the child fling magic ahead of her only for the monster to weave out of its way and hit her in the chest. She stumbled back, aura sparking to deflect the blow. And in doing so, her hood fell back.

A gasp may have escaped him, had he not spent his Surprise already.

Pale skin, lined with blue veins, eyes that were entirely dark.

He walked fast to keep up with the monster. He was not here to question what he saw.

His prayers had been answered, and now he was here.

Lord Malicieux followed the little monster before him into what was very obviously a throne room. Grand windows of stained glass cast purple and deep blue light across the hall, enough light to see everything, but not so much that the throne at the end of the room was properly illuminated.

Walking down the middle, he idly noted that the mouse-monster split away and scurried off to the shadows, leaving him alone. It wasn’t an issue, this was the moment he had prepared for.

He reached the middle of the room, then dropped to one knee, head bowed and one arm tucked into the small of his back. He wished that he had dared to enter armed. A hand on a pommel always felt more natural.

“Rise.”

He stood. Could he read into that? Being asked to rise so soon? Perhaps, perhaps not. This place was far from the courts, different rules applied.

For the first time, he laid eyes upon the Goddess of Darkness.

In all the paintings she was a malevolent thing . Vaguely feminine, in the way a truly old crone was feminine. Always horrific and monster-like.

Above him, reclining on a seat of cold stone, was a regal woman, with high cheeks and a delicate nose, purple lips and veins that thrummed with magic just under the surface. Purple, the royal colour, the colour of   the deepest magics.

He cursed himself for his stupidity.

He had just reminded himself that this wasn’t the royal court. There was no question about power in the hands of a woman here. The shape the creature before him took was meaningless. A monster or a beauty, it did not matter. She was a god first.

“My goddess--”

“No,” she said, the word sharp and fast. “I am not. Not yet. But perhaps I can make some you  of you , and likewise, you may find some good in serving me.”

He swallowed, but negotiating was something he was familiar with. And so, in their own way, they began to dance.

***

Go to library

Current Class List

Sleeper

Tar Drowned

Prophet of Chaos

Eater

Acolyte of Darkness

Lesser Cultivator

[Congratulations!]

[Through your actions you have unlocked the potential to obtain the following classes:

Acolyte of Darkness

Lesser Cultivator

Do you wish to learn more about these classes or accept them into yourself?]

[Congratulations!]

[You have unlocked the title:

Touched by the Dark One

Do you wish to equip this Title?]

Humanity: Initiate > Novice > Adept > Expert > Master

Monsterkind: Monster > Terror > Bane > Scourge > Calamity

Valeria Malvada

Luciana Malvada

Nations:

Iaria - Good with magic

MC grows up MC makes a bff rival Rival goes on to attend some big fancy school MC decides to steal that university's books MC and BFFrival end up collaborating Shenanigans ensue

[Milpiés - The Long Librarian - Greater Servant of the Dark God]

Scourge of Deep Knowledge

Characters

Humans

Duke Araujo of Guimadora

        -Duke of the city of Guimadora (Adrana). Chubby fella.

        Marquis Malicieux

                -Lord of Nafparki (CaselFella Republic). Thin, mean looking. Made a deal with the dark goddess.

Felix

                -Blind girl from Santafaria ([Felix - The Blind Joy] Novice Windtouched)

         Javier Juárez

                -A servant of the dark god, he buys and transports her books to Santafaria, and to her castle.

Monsters

[Milpiés - The Long Librarian - Greater Servant of the Dark God]

Scourge of Deep Knowledge

        -Is a giant millipede librarian

[Falanen - The Breaker of Men - Greater Servant of the Dark God]

Scourge of Burning Fists

         -Big fisted gorrilla monster

[Mus - Servant of the Dark God]

Bane of Hunger

        -Giant kitchen mouse

[Barbatius - The Soft - Lesser Servant of the Dark Goddess]

Monster of Swinging Fists

        -Monkey-like monster, with padded ‘fists’ for training

Plot

Valeria is sent to Santafaria  to see why Luciana’s books haven’t been arriving. It’s a small, simple chore that Luciana thinks Valeria can do safely.

On-route to Santafaria , Valeria meets some people, but they scream and call her a monster, then run away.

On arriving in Santafaria , Valeria’s contact is missing, so she goes looking, and she runs into some thugs robbing a blind girl. She saves the girl, and the girl agrees to help her for a bit of coin.

They search the town for Valeria’s contact, but it gets late, and Valeria decides to rent an inn-room for the night. They learn that the contact was arrested by the church of Enano the Enraged. The priests of Luto are also causing trouble, especially to a small cute dedicated to Luciana that’s sprung up in the city.

With the contact gone, Valeria decides to find out more and explores the city, dragging her new friend along. She almost gets attacked by some members of the church, but the blind girl saves her.

They discover that the merchants that usually bring books were all arrested, and their shipment was impounded over in the capital. So they rent a coach and head on over.

On arriving, they discover that the merchants are being tried for conspiring with monsters.

The books themselves are all held in a church, and the girls hatch a plan to steal them back (they’re paid-for, after all!).

They get caught by the Isekai Protagonist, who sensed something wrong about Valeria. They fight, and manage to get away, but it’s a near thing. Blind girl learns the truth about Valeria and her powers.

Valeria returns home, defeated (mostly) but with her mom’s books, and a lot of important news. Blind girl follows her, because she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, and they’re friends.