Vina hefted the shovel over her shoulder and walked it back to the grave warden’s home. It had taken her a long time to find the woman who had fallen from the bridge. It had taken her even longer to carry her body back up to the city, locate a graveyard, and dig her grave. She had found a gravestone at the grave warden's house and used Blood Runes to engrave it. When Vina was putting the finishing touches on the gravestone she had realized she didn’t know the woman’s name. She headed back into town and checked the town registry. Based on the information she was able to gather, her name was Mary.
After saying a few words, Vina left the graveyard. Her heart was heavy and her arms were sore, but she felt slightly more at peace. With the countless dead bodies already surrounding her, it felt nice to try to repair at least one of the tragedies that happened in this city. Vina slowly walked back to the Refuge of Trina, avoiding the dead.
Among the dead, Vina saw that not all of the victims were Paliternian. There was another race that had fallen victim to the young girl’s abuse of the Aspect of Memory. Vina’s curiosity was tempered by the sobering nature of the tragedy that had befallen the city, but she had done a quick Examine on one body.
Stigandorian (Adult) Deceased No further information
They were bipedal and vaguely human or paliternian just like her, but had clearly come from a different evolutionary line. The men’s facial features were hard with strong lines and their frames were stockier, with thick oversized limbs and hands. If they had stood they would be slightly taller than Vina herself, and the ones she identified as women were even taller on average, easily average six feet and above. Their bodies were thin, yet athletic. She found their hair color ranged from completely ice white to a vague ashen gray.
After she had satisfied her curiosity and resolved to ask Nori about them later, she checked her notifications.
You have slain 6 civilians. You have gained 600 experience points. You have slain 4 soldiers. You have gained 800 experience points. You have slain 6 bandits. You have gained 900 experience points. You have slain 48 craelids. You have gained 12000 experience points. Experience is reduced by half.
Vina frowned at that number. Despite the incredibly difficult nature of this mission, she had gained a total of only 7450 experience points. Her current experience points sat at 8350 out of 21000. “Is it getting harder to level up?”, she asked herself. She checked out her skill gains next.
Skill Level Up: Running has reached level 9. Running currently burns 10.2 times more stamina than walking. You can run at 7.6 miles per hour. Skill Level Up: Jumping has reached level 7. You can jump 21 inches off of the ground.
Skill Level Up: Ambidexterity has reached level 5. You can use your off hand 4% as well as your dominant hand.
You have gained a skill point.
Skill Level Up: Throwing has reached level 13. Your current throwing distance is 54 feet. You can throw harder and faster.
Skill Level Up: Thrusting Sword has reached level 5. Thrusting swords ignore 4% of armor and inflict 8% more damage.
You have gained a skill point.
Skill Level Up: Juggling has reached level 11. Your hand and eye coordination is improved by 10%. Skill Level Up: Blocking has reached level 4. Blocked attacks have their damage reduced by a further 3% of the armor of your shield. You have gained 1145 experience points from leveling skills.
Vina opened up her first skill point option.
Where would you like to spend your Ambidexterity skill point? Option 1: Increase damage done by your offhand by 5%. Option 2: Change your dominant hand. Your right hand will become dominant. Option 3: Enhanced Grip: Your non-dominant hand has equal grip strength to your dominant hand.
Vina thought back to her past battle and the needs she had when fighting so many craelids. She had been engaged in many different actions at once. Most of the time she was going offensive with her left hand, and then she would switch to the defense or physical attacks with her clawed right hand. She didn’t need to change her dominant hand. In most fights lately, she had been forming a claw on her offhand to block and just recently she grabbed a craelid to hold it in place while stabbing it. “I guess it’s enhanced grip”, she said.
Next she opened the skill point options for Thrusting Sword.
Where would you like to spend your Thrusting Sword skill point? Option 1: Impaling Thrust: Thrust your sword forward dealing 15% more damage and ignoring 10% of armor. Option 2: Exploit Weakness: Striking an enemy with a thrusting sword in a weak spot inflicts 25% more damage and may stagger the opponent. Option 3: Quick Thrust: Thrust your sword forward 25% faster inflicting 5% more damage.
She wasn’t expecting much from this skill. She had gone heavy into throwing knives, but she did respect the options listed here. When she had gotten low on blood, she had switched to her thrusting sword near the end. While she had impaled the two craelids in the final moments, it had been shockingly effective. So effective it was essentially a one-hit kill. She shrugged and decided to double down on that. She selected Exploit Weakness.
As she was walking, she had another notification window pop up.
Mission Completed. You have received 2000 experience points.
With that she was halfway to her next level. As she neared the top of the city, she began to sense the blood of other people. A part of her wanted to stop and try to open her mother’s final letter, but the risk of these people seeing her was too great. When they were in view, she saw they wore gloves with an imprinted bleeding eye on them. She watched for a moment as they gathered the city’s dead and loaded them into wagons. Vina moved past them and back to the Chapel where Nori sat. As she often did, she was reading a book.
“You turned in the mission?” Vina asked.
“Yes. Did you get some rest?” Nori asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
Vina nodded, “I found a cot and moved it outside.” She was still sore, but found her body had managed to do quite a bit of healing over the last two days thanks to her use of health mixtures.
Nori looked at her weirdly, but Vina knew she didn’t understand why she had slept outside, “Are you ready to talk?” Nori asked.
“I won’t discuss the aspect”, Vina said, “Who are the Stigandorians?”
“What? They’re outworlders,” Nori sighed. She waved a hand as if to dismiss the topic, “Vina, I need an answer on what happened here. I turned in the mission and told them you were recovering from a difficult mission. But the Watch will want to know why everyone is dead. If I tell them you took the true Aspect of Memory, they will kill both of us to get it.”
“Then don’t tell them that. Kill the girl and no one has to ever know. Tell them we arrived in the city and everyone was already dead. Tell them some weird runes were controlling the weather and it took me time to break it up.” Vina suggested.
“I can’t kill the girl!” Nori said, raising her voice. She took a calming breath, “I gave her to some of my associates not affiliated with the twelve. That’s a beginning to an answer at least. I’ll make something up about runes. I can claim you broke it with your blood like you did before.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Vina considered Nori’s words for a moment and her eyebrow furrowed in offense. Breaking the runes was a weird way of putting it and it bruised her feelings. She was just converting them to blood runes. She changed the topic by gesturing at a person in the distance, “Are these some of your extended associates as well?”
“No. They are part of the clean up crew for The Watch. They clean up our messes. We left early, but a similar crew tidied up that cave with the Shaper’s creations. They are bound by secrecy about anything they see or hear at places like this, so we are free to talk in front of them.”
“What organization do you work for, Nori? Vina asked.
Nori covered her face with her hand and then she began to massage her forehead. “I’m not going to tell you that yet. I really need to talk with you about the Aspect of Memory. No one can be allowed to have it. It’ll be the safest it can be with my organization. Please let them keep it safe”, Nori pleaded.
Vina gave her a look. There was no way she was letting this aspect out of her backpack, especially with an organization she didn’t know. Her mother’s memory would never be hurt like that again. “No.”, Vina said simply.
Nori’s face tensed with frustration and Vina watched as her eyes turned completely white. In just a moment not even her pupils existed. Just when Vina thought Nori might lash out at her, Nori's eyes switched back and she just yelled instead. “Okay! Fine! You can keep it for now. But Vina, I need you to reconsider later.”
Vina made no promises, much to Nori’s annoyance.
“As if my day can’t get any worse…”. she said, clapping her hands together, “...we’ve been assigned a new mission. We are visiting a man I once killed. Our mission is to rebuild a diplomatic connection with Lord Hakim Halos. The Watch feels our diplomatic relationship was damaged with my previously successful assassination.” Nori led Vina back into the Chapel and fired up the portal ring with her divinity. She kept eyeing Vina as if she would leap in and corrupt the ring with her blood.
Vina simply stood there without movement. “You tried to kill this Lord Halos?”
Nori groaned, “No. I just told you. I succeeded in killing him.”
Vina cocked an eyebrow at her, “You’re not making sense. How can we improve relations with a man you killed?”
Nori groaned again and walked through the portal, and Vina quickly followed. As soon as she stepped out on the other side she received a few notifications.
Mission: Improve diplomatic relations with The Halos Family to Stable or better. Current relation: Unstable.
You have entered the The Halos Family Home
You are afflicted by Peace. This is a place of peace.
You are afflicted by Retribution. Injury to others is an injury to yourself.
“Welcome to the Halos Family Home, Lady Vina”, said a woman’s voice. She had a companion sitting beside her with a smile on her face. Their faces showed some doubt when they looked into Vina’s red eyes.
Vina tried to ignore their judging looks and thanked the woman before looking at the rest of the room. She was standing in a massive wooden building. The building she found herself in, with the portal ring behind her, looked to be the size of a massive banquet hall, complete with high arched ceilings with huge exposed wooden beams. She was most shocked by the amount of plants in pots and those that hung on those beams that filled the room. There was a slight trickling of water and Vina could see a large pond had been built inside the building as well. She saw some very strange animals swimming around in there.
“We welcome you too, Lady Norimor. We must humbly ask you to remain in some separate accommodations for the duration of your stay. We are certain you understand”, said the other woman. A tone of tension hung in the air.
Nori grunted her agreement. Shame clearly evident on her face and Vina saw her shoulders sagged ever so much as she turned to follow the woman out a nearby door.
“Lady Vina, would you please follow me?” said the first woman.
Vina followed her through the massive and wonderfully decorated room until she reached the other end. She was then led outside into a garden area. She saw dozens of men and women wearing metal armor arrayed at the entrance to the building she just exited as well as at the entrance to another gigantic building just ahead.
“Just ahead is Lord Halos’ family home”, said the woman helpfully as they passed the guards and two large doors were opened for them.
Inside was another enormous open space, but Vina could see this was a designed living area. She passed numerous rooms until she entered a grand hall. Inside there was a large table that could easily fit dozens of people. A fire burned gently in one of the several nearby fireplaces. The chandelier above her head was lit with scented candles. The woman gestured for her to sit at the head of the table and Vina obeyed, silently. As soon as she sat, waiters began loading the table with food.
She was impressed with the diversity of dishes that were laid out before her. One of the servers brought out multiple different glasses filled with drinks she had never seen. When they saw Vina hesitate, they loaded up plates full of food and brought them to her. Vina slowly began to eat the diverse dishes in front of her. She didn’t realize how hungry she had been until Nori had mentioned how long she had been trapped in Valanire and even then she had only grazed on some foragables she had in her backpack. She was confused when notifications popped into her vision.
You are afflicted by the Tortine Juice of the Musician. For the next 2 hours, your ability to play music is increased by 641%. You are afflicted by the Garbeline Leg of Focus. For the next 30 minutes you’ll regain stamina at twice the normal rate. You are afflicted by the Trimuny Tuber of Dance. For the next 45 minutes your ability to dance is improved by 421%. You are afflicted by the Bitimer Tea Leaf of Artistry. For the next 2 hours, your ability to paint will be improved by 538%.
On and on, the afflictions stacked up, and Vina’s head and body began to feel strange. A fog began to form in her mind, but she managed a thought while she ate, “The word affliction is strange. Clearly these are a benefit.” She ate until she was full and soon had a massive list of afflictions related to various forms of art. Her head felt so pumped up she had difficulty focusing. Her entire being was absolutely swimming with ideas, inspiration, and a desire to do… something.
The wait staff quickly emptied the table and Vina was led away once more but this time by her hand. She felt wobbly and her legs didn’t quite respond correctly, but her attendant ensured she did not fall. At some moment, Vina realized time seemed to stop making sense.
She walked the halls of the massive building, looking at the art on the walls. She soon lost all sense of direction as the colors blurred in her vision, and the still pictures seemed to come to life. Somewhere in the home, she could hear music being played. It overwhelmed her senses and she felt like she was sinking into a puddle of liquid that buoyed her up as the beat changed. For her, not even Blood Sense was an anchor she could latch onto as she was thrown about by the waves of sound and color. In all of the beauty she could see, hear, and feel, there was one beautiful thing that no one else could experience but her. “I must fix that”, she whispered. She had a window notification pop up, and noticed the text was a different color than normal.
“You feel inspired.”
She was suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to create. She wanted to make something with meaning and she begged the woman beside her to be given the opportunity. Suddenly she was aware that she was already in a room able to do just that. “How?” she thought to herself, but the moment was taken from her when she saw what she needed. She headed immediately to the easel where a huge canvas was already prepared.
She made a knife from her blood, cut herself, and began to paint. She first pressed her blood onto the blank canvas nearly twice as tall as herself. She pushed in broad strokes with her hand. Then she switched to moving it about with her blood runes ability. The blood flowed as it moved into the places she desired. She began weaving runes and escribing them onto the surface, sometimes upon the canvas itself and sometimes on the layers of dried blood she had already created. Her heart rejoiced in no longer needing a knife to create the beautiful runes and the messages she intended to convey.
When she began to feel tired, the staff forced a mixture down her throat and she would continue. She painted with her entire soul laid bare as something else had taken control of her. The blood flowed freely down her arms and she applied it liberally to the work of art she was making. Adding her finishing touches, she began to slow down. As she created the final rune phrase that the art needed, her knees gave out. She fell to the side when her balance failed her, but her inspiration did not let her go yet. Something or someone lifted her back to her art, and she signed her name before falling to her side once more.
You have created a Masterpiece. Trina has named it The Hope of an Asharaina
You are afflicted with severe bleeding. You will take 20 points of damage every minute until the bleeding is stopped. You will die without medical attention.
Her mind seemed to snap back into being her own once more and she saw her blood bar was just above the vertical line signifying her death. She made the choice to stop bleeding, but her list of afflictions made her mind fuzzy. Her ability to focus was not quite up to the task of stopping it entirely. She rolled over and desperately looked around for some of her blood. She faced her masterpiece and tried to use blood call, but nothing happened. “Oh”, is all she could manage when she realized what went wrong. She had created something that now had a life of its own. It was not her blood anymore.
She looked over at the people in the room, her eyes begged for help, but she could see the fear in their own. They hated what she had made. They hated what she was. They would not help her. She felt someone enter the room and heard them begin yelling orders. A man covered her art. Then he lifted her and began running as she lost consciousness.