Soul Bound

1          Soul Bound

1.1        Finding her Feet

1.1.4      An Intriguing City

1.1.4.7    One race there is, that none wish to be the first to finish

[Level 15 acquired. You have 50 unspent stat points. You have 12 unspent skill points.]

{Kafana}

The group chat suddenly un-muted, as someone mentioned her name.

Tomsk: {That was me and Bungo. They skipped our apprenticeships and sent us on a journeyman test. We just cleared out a whole bunch of ghouls infesting a sewer near the Gate of Sorrows.}

Bungo: {Sorry Kafana, I was just commenting on how I missed your buffs. I’ve learned a challenge skill that grabs aggro, but the smarter the target, the shorter the effect. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything important waking you up on chat. How’re you doing?}

Kafana: {I’ve been apprenticed in Priestess and Cook so far. Columbina at the Speckled Dove cafe is quite a character. I dread to think what she and Alderney would get up to, if they ever conspired.}

Alderney: {Oooh, sounds fun, arrange an opportunity for us to meet! If I can create a volleyball, do you think she’d enjoy playing it?}

Bungo: {We’re doomed.}

Kafana: {Well, she did ask me to put a bit in DEX, but I’m not in your league. I’d love to watch a beach volleyball game of Columbina + Alderney versus Bungo + Tomsk. Maybe Mary-Lynn would come and act as a commentator? Tuning out.}

{System, hush chat please.}

{System, add 9 stat points to DEX}

Kafana’s Stats (Level 15):

Base  Mod  Total  Stat

1    0     1     CHA (Charisma)

10    0    10     INT (Intelligence)

27    0    27     MAG (Magic)

1    0     1     STR (Strength)

10    0    10     DEX (Dexterity)

20    0    20     CON (Constitution)

You have 41 unspent points available.

Massimo was looking well fed and content with life but, despite being unaccustomed to running around, he didn't even wince when she appeared.

“Follow me.” he said and, not wasting a second, they set off across the Plaza of the Public at such a pace, the Journeyman's determined face was soon running with sweat. Grateful for how hard he was trying, she tried to think if there were anything she could do to make this easier. A few moments later, she got an idea.

Kafana: “Stop a moment, time for a song.”

Some of the people walking nearby stumbled to a halt in surprise as she sang the chorus of "Run For Your Life" but that just made her grin and lean into the performance, and she felt the now familiar sensation of mana flowing out of her: a tingling in her hands and throat, a pulsing along her arms and spine.

“Now let’s go. Let’s run like the wind!” she challenged, feeling the energy inside her “I’ll race you.”

[Skill “Speed buff” has reached level 2.]

He looked startled but, having already seen her magic earlier, took her at her word. He sprang off, nearly falling over, then tore through the plaza like an Olympic sprinter. Kafana followed, again aware of being watched. Well, what did she expect, running like this? She ignored the feeling. She was having fun.

They crossed over a long bridge that was part sandstone, part magic, and onto the island of Libri. Looking at her overlay, the three biggest roads on the island joined the bridges to each other in an isosceles; the one she’d come over in the south east, the bridge to Alto in the north and the bridge to Mercato in the south west. Between them zig-zagged a narrower pedestrian street with staircases at seemingly random points, as though large craters were scattered over the area. Overall, it looked rather like a Cov rune. To the North West of the rune were the walled grounds of the university. To the North East were towers both large and small, scattered across acres of grassland. By far the oldest, widest and tallest, reaching 40 stories high, was the Mage Tower on the far North East corner itself, by the river.

It was to this they raced across the grass, students cheering them on as one pulled ahead then the other. Kafana touched the tower first, though it was close. Massimo lay flat on his back, muttering the slightly contradictory “Cov, save me from zealots!” Kafana clutched her hands over her head and did a little victory dance.

[Skill “Running” acquired.]

[Title “Victor” acquired.]

He made a gesture, as though stabbing himself in the chest with a dagger, and acted a death scene: “Tell Isabella, it was always her I loved…”

She wagged a finger at him: “Oh don’t be a baby, it was only a flesh wound to your pride, not a mortal blow.”

She gave him a hand up, and they staggered through the great gates into the Mage Tower.

And floated.

One moment she was on the grass outside. The next, she was floating in space near the planet’s violet Moon, every crater visible. Echoing in her head she heard an unfathomable voice: “Open your mind to me, seeker.”

A short moment later, the voice continued, “No ill intent discovered. Destination found.”

She blinked in shock as she found herself standing in a foyer next to Massimo, who was grinning to himself, but hastily held up a warding hand at the look in her eyes narrowing upon him. “It is tradition, Suor Kafana. Nobody ever has it explained to them before experiencing it for the first time.”

Kafana: “What was that? Where are we?”

Massimo: “It is an ancient artifact, designed to read your mind and send you to the appropriate floor, depending upon your needs and status. The rest is illusion magic. As far as I’m aware, with the illusion stripped the artifact just appears like a spherical stone about 5 meters across. We are quite safely in Torello, inside the tower. Probably. The tower doesn’t have windows, so who really knows?”

Massimo: “This is where the messenger said we should come.”

He led her forwards to a desk marked with a big “?” where a prim lady with stiffly set hair sat, a meaningless smile fixed to her face.

“Attunements?”

Massimo: “She’s asking what your primary and secondary elemental attunements are.”

She shrugged, and said to the lady: “No idea. Water, maybe?”

“Go to assessment, second door on the left. Next please.” and turned away from Kafana as though she were a piece of paper that, now sorted into an appropriate pigeon hole, could safely be forgotten.

She thought to herself, “It isn’t only expert systems that behave like people. People often behave like unfeeling, rule-bound systems.” This game was getting to her. Seeing an NPC behave robotically felt so unlikely, that her first assumption was that they were imitating the way some human receptionists behave, rather than a programmer cutting corners.

She decided to test her assumption. Looking at the name her arlife overlay displayed above the lady’s head, she produced a piece of baklava that Mary-Lynn had cooked.

{System, I want to use my “Sweet Talk” skill, please.}

“Despina, isn’t it? Must be hard, dealing with so many clueless people. Here, have a piece of baklava, to make it up to you for adding to your burden.” she gave Despina a big friendly smile, before walking towards the assessment room.

Massimo muttered: “You really have no fear, no fear at all. Cov help me.”

A pair of bored looking journeymen were playing a card game at a desk when Kafana entered. The taller one who was losing perked up on seeing them enter: “Cards away, Pietro, we have a seeker!”

Pietro: “Away nothing, Marcello. This doesn’t take more than 2 minutes. I’ll grab a clipboard and write down the numbers. You lead her to place her hand on each sphere in turn.”

Marcello chided him: “Manners Pietro, we represent the whole tower in this, and it is an important moment in her life.” and then bowed to her with exaggerated courtesy, as though she were a princess. “Please, in your own time, let us start with chaos”

She placed her hand upon a sphere containing a white vapour. It roiled, and Marcello announced in a clear voice: “42, not bad, not bad at all, though a pity it is in the element that’s weakest here.”

“Next, fire, again a weak element in this place” and, after she’d touched the sphere of red vapour, “37.”

After three more spheres, purple air at 24, green earth at 18 and dark shadow at 5, Pietro was thoroughly bored, and even Marcello was finding it difficult to come up with encouraging things to say.

Massimo spoke up, from by the door: “Madame Kafana heals and is chosen by Cov. I think you’ll find her attunements to light and order to be up to your standards.”

Marcello perked up, and ceremoniously handed her the sphere containing pink vapour, saying “Light” She took it, and the sphere shook a bit as the vapour spun furiously and light filled the room. “92”, crowed Marcello “You don’t see that everyday. You should be able to make Master stage in that. Well done.”

Next, he handed her the golden sphere of order. She took it firmly, not wanting to drop it, closed her eyes and opened her mind to Cov.

*DONG*

The sphere nearly threw itself out of her hands, and she had to hug it to herself. She could feel the warm beat of the light through her closed eyelids. A loud chime rung from the room and out into the corridor. Nearby magicians crowded over to find out what had happened. She opened her eyes to see Massimo had, with calm anticipation, covered his own eyes before she even touched the sphere.

“100” stammered Marcello, in an awed voice. “Perfect attunement with the element of order.”

“What did you expect from the Sanctum Guardian’s own apprentice?” shrugged Massimo.

Pietro gave Massimo a dirty glance, like he’d tried to slip a ringer in on them. “You didn’t mention that.”

The master in charge of apprenticeships bustled in, and snatched the clipboard from Pietro. “100 in order, prime attunement and 92 in light, secondary attunement, 37 in fire. She should make a reasonable crafter. Her fire probably isn’t quite strong enough for taming in this location, but she might manage it in deep forestland.” then he added sharply “You didn’t write one down. What did she get in water?”

Pietro answered quickly: “Sorry sir, we haven’t measured her water attunement yet.”

“Well quickly, lad. Always complete the job. Measure it then we can find her a suitable Crafting master to study under.”

Marcello smoothly passed a blue orb to Pietro, then stood well back, leaving Pietro with no choice but to be the one to hand it to her. Massimo gingerly edged to the back of the crowd and stepped outside the door, saying “In fairness, I should mention that Madame Kafana is also a Questing Spirit sent by Cov. I believe her water attunement may be higher still.”

The master of apprentices snapped back. “Not possible. You can’t go higher than perfect attunement. Stop worrying, priest. We mages have been doing this for thousands of years, nothing can possibly go wrong.”

She mouthed the word “sorry” to Pietro and reached for the orb. The moment her fingertip touched the sphere, it detonated.

[Damage taken: 1600. Hit points remaining: 400]

[You are stunned. You can take no actions for the next 20 seconds.]

Pietro didn’t have as much CON as she did. He wasn’t an adventurer, and had never expected much danger. The table with the cards on was blown across the room, along with most of the students. And, stunned, she could do nothing but watch as a lone card drifted through the air to land gently upon his body, showing a cloaked skeletal figure with a crown and a dark scythe.