Amara

- Temple of Bhashera, LVL 1 -

Wailing, trailing threads of its yellowed papyrus wrapping through the azure chamber, the mummified corpse lurched forward with as much pitiful speed as it could.

She didn't even move back.

GLANCE channel: Fireball

GLANCE type: Pyro

Rank: Seeker

Dmg: 25pts (Target)

Channeling cost: 10

The flame leapt from her fingertips like a ravenous tiger being set loose upon the hated foe of its master. It instantly consumed him - eating away at his bandages and the dead skin beneath, bringing forth an agonized wail of pain from his dead lips:

WK: PYRO

DMG: x2

Gerjiyk Xonmei (Mummified)

HP: 25/75

She watched him crumble beneath her, her smirk never failing, still imagining that it was the sordid lizard that killed her friend burning at her feet.

She tiptoed round and watched him try to rise, looking now into the soulless oval voids that were the pitiful creature's eyes.

"Dominion Lord?" she scoffed. "You're just a walking bag of bones."

And she clenched another globe of flame in her hands just as his gnarled hand shot towards her feet.

HP: -3

HP: 7/10

She collapsed, and felt keenly the lashed that had just been torn into the pale flesh just below her kneecap.

Before she could even scream out in fury he was upon her - all aflame, tattered bandages flailing around him. His wail was that of an animal on the brink of desperation, and as his teeth shone bright against the ashen black of his skin, for a moment, he wasn't a being of the Everloft at all.

He was her father, coming for her after death.

But the fear she'd once harbored deep in her being was no longer that which reacted to the stimulus of danger, or pain. Now, her new instincts kicked in, and another bolt of fire sailed from her fingers right through his open mouth. His skull imploded from within, pieces of gangrene infected skin rained down on her face, and then his inert body slumped beside her.

She crawled away from the corpse, watching it still burning, watching the remaining bandages on its headless form crisp and crumple away to nothing, leaving just a thin piece of rotten flesh on the floor of the chamber.

Of its broken head, only the the chin and jaw remained.

She fought to control her breathing, steadying herself and gripping her arms tight, even allowing a miniscule amount of power to flow up her skin in little red-rivers.

You're ok, she told herself. You're ok. You're...

She shook her weakness out of her and stood, straight-backed once again. Why was she wallowing like this, down here of all places? Averix and the world above had never really been her home. It had never even been real. Everything that transpired on that rotten land was just a testing ground to make her capable of surviving in this place.

But another question was beginning to rage in her mind:

Where was her EXP? Where was her increase in power?

The answer rose up behind her back, clutching the remains of its head in its hands.

As she turned, the charred, emaciated body aimed its mouth towards her and issued a scream that obliterated all thought.

She fell back against the wall and felt the sting of the hard etchings against her back. They were glowing now, and the azure flames in the two braziers burning at every corner of the room had turned to an unnatural, sickly green.

Gerjiyk Xonmei (Ash Shambler)

HP: 50/50

She couldn't register the shock of the reanimation. Shock wasn't what she needed now. It served her no purpose. What she needed was action. She needed the flame.

Yet, though she could feel it bubbling within her, she found her hands barely responsive to her commands.

Another blast of earsplitting sound shot from the crumbling maw of the creature and pinned her against the wall before she could even lift a single hand. Now, she felt herself totally immobile - as inept as the open sarcophagus that laughed at her through its dull, dead eyes:

Status: Paralyzed.

Duration: 10 secs

That's exactly what he'd done. The wailing freak-show had cast its vile spell upon her - and kept casting it with every new scream its eyeless face directed at her.

Mom wasn't there. She couldn't help her.

Once again, she was alone.

She tried to kick out, to yell back, even just close her eyes to banish the image of the skinless corpse shambling towards her slowly, deliberately, with blackened spittle spilling from its dry, crumbling lips.

You don't need mom to win! she felt herself cry out. And it was her - her own self within her head. That self that she'd felt direct her when she'd sat with Anna on those short winter nights in Yarruck that seemed an eternity away now.

It was a stupid part of her. It was a part of her that had trusted in her own judgement, not in that of the voice. And it had failed her.

You need to keep fighting!

The creature sent another wave of sonic disturbance towards her, freezing her auburn hair that had began to fall back over her forward as the spell effect started to end.

And one of its hand now rose to claw at her face.

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How? She asked herself - her eyes darting around, looking for something - anything - she could do.

GLANCE: 5/25

Not enough for her fireball. Not enough for the gout. Not enough for anything that could beat this thing.

But as the beast's nails raked themselves across her neck, and she felt again the sting of its rot-ridden attack, her eyes lighted on the burning brazier in the corner beside her.

HP: 5/10

The thing brought its skull close to her now and she felt the blast of sound again, so strong this time that she could barely even visualize the world in front of her.

But she didn't need to see the fire that lay by her side. She could feel it. She was that fire.

And you can use it!

How? she screamed to her own consciousness as another claw rose to strike her.

Just like mom said, she thought. Stretch out your finger - and flick!

Another set of nails raked through her abdomen this time, and she felt her body bleeding. She felt her life fade.

HP: 2/10

But she didn't need her blood. She didn't need her eyes, or her ears that were being slowly eroded by the screaming head of the zombie.

All she needed was the flame.

And, stretching out nothing but her forefinger as the maw of the beast opened to scream again, she let a trail of fire shoot from her fingertip towards the chain link that held the brazier aloft, and in the next instant all the pain of her wounds faded away, replaced by only the sight and smell of the corpse's burning flesh as the brazier fell towards it, wrapping it in a cloak of white-hot fire.

She watched what remained of his limbs crisp and break away in the fire, and his last roar was directed not at her, but at the very roof of the prison he was finally able to die in.

Foe Slain: Gerjiyk Xonmei

EXP: + 60

LEVEL UP!

Equipment gained:

Arcanists' Elixyr x2

Tears of Yevua x2

As she fell to her knees, trying to catch her breath, her ears slowly began to adjust and communicate the incessant Ding ringing in her head.

She put it aside as the room dimmed back to its default azure shade, and the braziers abruptly faded into just sconces filled with ashen mounds.

Amara! her mother yelled within her pounding brain. Amara!

"I'm...here," she coughed, feeling her throat and the fresh scars that now ran across it.

"He wasn't the Dominion Lord-guy. But he is dead. And I'm alive."

She said it like she needed herself to believe it. True, she'd finished the fiend with barely any life left in her, but she'd finished him, decisively.

And she'd done it on her own.

Was that even possible?

If her mother heard such heretical thoughts, she said nothing about them. Amara felt instead her sigh of relief, and then a sense of unbound pride that soared through the still raging maelstrom of her being.

This chamber severed our connection, dear. I tried to break through, but The Everloft's magic is old, and strong. Thank goodness you are safe.

She was only half listening. As she rose and looked around the now vacant room, she saw the entrance had been unveiled once more. Clearly, the purpose of this room was to prompt a duel with that beast.

And she'd won. Like she was supposed to.

Mom, she began. I'm alive. I've survived worse.

Dear - your HP...you almost died.

She came right back, wiping her bloody nose. But I didn't. That's all that counts.

At her mother's silence, she breathed in the dry, arid air of the tomb and turned her thoughts towards the fight itself. Thinking about it - she'd assumed such a tough enemy was supposed to be the Dominion Lord. But if this was just some dumb servant, then she'd need to gather way more strength before she headed down to confront the big boss.

The Dominion Lord'll be stronger than him, mom, right?

Silence.

Mom, I know you know.

The Voice's response was cool and neutral: The Everloft is ever-changing, Amara. Know that every dungeon, every person, every single grain of sand, patch of grass, rubble or pebble is never constant. This world is one that all of creation was supposed to be, and so I know not what form the Dominion Lord of this temple shall take, nor its strength compared to your own. All I can tell you is this: all within the Everloft changes - is supposed to change - but ultimately all things can only be what they were made to be.

She rolled her eyes at that. All the mystic babble was starting to irritate her. She didn't need all those nonsense 'lessons' now, did she? She was here, and all she needed was more power, more Glance. It was the time for practical measure, not old woman's riddles.

So she crouched down, put her feet together, and called up her 'status' menu again with nothing more than a thought:

Profession: Pyromancer

Profession Skillset

GLANCE Font: NULL Channeling Expertise: I/V Dominion Expertise: NULL Augmented Arcanist: NULL

Everything looked like an alien language to her. But GLANCE, of course, she did know. So naturally that was the first thing she focused on:

GLANCE Font Your connection to the mysterious force known as the Glance is established, but weak. Meditate on the mysteries of the Doors and you shall find yourself more capable of harnessing the energies within them. LvL I: GLANCE pool growth multiplier upgraded to 8 per level

All this stuff about 'Doors' she scrunched up her dust-caked face at. But 'growth' sounded like just what she wanted.

"Growth pool multiplier?" she asked her mother.

Yes, dear, the voice replied. Your Glance reserves currently stand at 25. That is the maximum 'pool' you maintain. In essence, it is a measure of the energy you may draw through the Doors. Right now, the link you have established to the Outer Realms is small, but this skills will grow it slightly every time you invest a Skill Point in it. Bring up you Channeling Attribute to learn more.

She did so by fixing on the word in her mind, and another little black box blazed into life before her:

CHANNELING (Attribute) Channeling is the innate capacity to harness the ethereal energy known colloquially as the "Glance". Your Glance pool is determined by your Channeling attribute, and for every level you increase in this attribute, your Glance pool grows by 5. The 'Glance Font' skill can further enhance this multiplier. Current Channeling LVL: 5

She thought of conversations she'd had with that traitorous bitch Anna - of numbers, and their meanings. Basic concepts she'd never known in her life that made so much more sense when she considered the money she must have lost during her travels. She normally just threw handfuls of gold at merchants and walked away, thinking little of the cost of food or board.

With no small degree of frustration, she was realizing that she still had a lot to learn.

"Alright, so how can I increase this Channeling thing?" she asked.

Right now you stand at LVL 2, dear. You have a Skill Point to distribute, but not any attribute points. Those come every three levels only, or when you complete certain quests.

"Argh! Why does everything have to be so damn complicated?"

She kicked at the ragged pile of dusty bones beneath her and placed her point into her Glance Font without thinking again. When she did so, she felt a rush of life pour over her, and saw her wounds slowly begin to seal up and vanish, and the stuttering flame inside her glow with primordial power once more.

LVL 2

EXP: 110/250

HP: 15/15

GLANCE: 40/40

She looked at her new Glance rating with satisfaction, and let the embers of her newfound reserves flicker off the tops of her nails.

"Now that's more like it."

Allow me to explain the Level Up process in some more detail, my-

"I don't need to understand", she said as she sparked her little flickering flamelight into existence and began walking back outside. "When the numbers go up, I get stronger, right? And to make the numbers go up, I have to kill. Way I see it, life down here ain't too different from up there so far. Only difference is down here I don't have to care about these monsters I'm burning up. Like you said, they're supposed to change, right? So I'll change them all into ash."

As she cleared the chamber entrance and followed the next path down the dark, winding corridors of the temple, she expected her mother to tell her some other riddle or snippet of wisdom.

But, once again, the voice was silent.