-Bhashera: Sanctum of Frezia-

Amara

Profession: Pyromancer LVL: 3 EXP: 250/450 HP: 10/10 GLANCE: 40/40 LEVEL UP SKILL POINTS AVAILABLE: 1 ATTRIBUTE POINTS AVAILABLE: 4

She looked at the screen behind her eyes with little more than weary disdain.

What did having all this power at her fingertips matter, if she couldn’t use it to convince even a muscle-bound warrior like Mendax to follow her, without question?

She mused over the attribute list – reading over their descriptions, feeling their meanings slip through her grasp before she could really get to grips with them. Like everything else in this place, they just left her with more questions.

Ask me them, her mother said. Ask, and I will answer.

She sank deeper into the ethereal pool, feeling it’s still waters restore her body, whilst doing nothing for her mind.

I just get more confused, she told her mother. I just don’t understand why, even when I try to do good, I end up hurting people.

She felt like an imbecile as she said this, and shirked away from the stewing Lokar who she’d made sure was at least forty feet away from her, threatening him with a primed fireball should he even attempt to squirm closer.

But, in truth, she was embarrassed not by their sharing of this unnatural pond, but of her own stupidity that she felt placed her on the same level as that sniveling little wretch.

Mom, she said. Tell me what to do.

Her mother considered this. She felt it – she felt the tendrils of her mother’s mind reach back and pull at thin hopes she maintained. But in the end, the answer was a grim one:

I can’t, she replied. The threads of prophecy are stretched thin enough. The future: swirling with uncertainties. Should I but drop a pebble in the pool of eventualities, it could cause ripples that would distort the preferable reality.

In English? Amara demanded.

I cannot help you because, if I did, I would be making your choices for you. And your choices must be your own, Amara. I can guide you in the right direction, but only you can walk your path.

She sighed, taking in the fumes of the pool wafting around her tiny head, absorbing the waters of life with her uneven threads of auburn hair.

Our choices are who we are, her mother continued, as though dissatisfied with her own explanation. They are the only thing worth clinging to when all else is lost.

Amara sensed something deeper in those words as she normally did when mother started musing. Something that might have been familiar. Something like…regret?

She shook the thought from her mind and moved through her ‘stats’ – looking for clues as to what might help her in the battles soon to come.

I will say this, her mother offered. Consider your strengths, and consider your weaknesses. Meditate on how to achieve balance. Think about what you have seen, and what could provide the best chances of your survival.

Survival, Amara scoffed. She was used to that above. Scrounging for scraps of torn meat like a dog or stealing the money from the poor of Averix’s disgusting cities. Yes, she was no stranger to focusing on her survival. But she had never had numbers attached to her concept of her self. She had never known that her weaknesses could be quantified with small digits that mocked her in their simplicity.

Such as:

CHARISMA Charisma represents a Delver's force of magnetism, influence, and ability to move others through the medium of words - whether written or verbal. Charisma is mainly used in tandem with the social skills of Persuasion, Performance, and Intimidation. Your attempt to succeed in checks using such skills is increased by 3% for every two points in your Charisma attribute. Equally, this also increases your ability to resist such skill usage by Voidspawn or Void-touched enemies. Current LVL: 2

Magnetism, influence…both things she didn’t have. Of course she didn’t. She’d never seen them as useful. She’d used her power to get what she wanted, always. She’d been strong and fought tooth and nail to claw her way here – where she was destined to stand with the greatest Glancers of the Old World. And yet here she was, in a bleak cave at the bottom of the earth filled with nothing but dust and echoes of the past.

Her Glance? That could be raised again…she could increase her power that way. She needed more, right? She just had to grow her reserves and she’d be alright. Mother had told her before that the best defense was a good offence.

CHANNELING 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. Glancer schools can further enhance this multiplier and the speed of your Glance pool regeneration. Current LVL: 5 Allocate attribute point?

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Her eyes wavered as she considered the question. Four attribute points. She could throw them into increasing her strength, sure, but what if she ran out of her Glance pool again? Without restorative items that seemed so randomly distributed around this place, she’d have no chance.

She she settled on a different plan. She recalled how her flesh had crumbled under the strikes of the Ash Shambler above, and bled like a carrion carcass when the Scorpirex Alpha had slashed at her, nearly emptying her life force completely with a single strike. So, she decided it was time to rectify that first, before anything else:

RESILIENCE Resilience is a marker of your basic fortitude and body vitality. Resilience is an important factor in checks to determine one's ability to resist harmful elements, ailments, and poisons dedicated to weakening the body. It is also the attribute that determines an Everloftian's Health Pool (HP). Each point in Resilience accounts for 2.5 points of maximum HP and affects HP gained per level. This multiplier can be increased via obtaining skills specific to the Warrior and Guardian classes and their associated sub-classes. LVL: 4 Allocate attribute point?

She nodded, and felt her blood flow increase. She felt her heart itself expand – its chambers opening and ventricles doubling their efforts.

ATTRIBUTE POINTS ALLOCATED: x2

RESILIENCE: 6

Max HP Increased: +5

Current HP: 15/15

Not only strength, but willpower. That’s what she needed. She needed to be hardy like a rock.

And bright as a flame.

But the other two attribute points were going somewhere else. Sure, she could focus on her strengths, but she wasn’t about to throw away the chance to balance out her abilities. Amarata had power, too. She had that huge flaming sword the called Everflame that they said could sear the Glance from the bones of the Old Magisters who ruled the world. But she didn’t kill them and imprison them alone. She had armies. She had, if her priests in their stuffy old gowns and smelly churches were to be believed, a certain righteous anger that bled into the ears of her subjects. She had a way of making people listen to her.

So, just like the greatest enemy of her people, Amara needed to make people listen, too.

ATTRIBUTE POINTS ALLOCATED: x2

CHARISMA: 4

Now she felt the dark waters below her give way to new reflections – of Lokar sitting there alone, probably using his subservience to cover up his own self-hatred. Yes. She could see the scars he’d carved into his own body, looking at him now with her new eyes, and her new sense of how to pull his strings.

“A-are you ok, Amara?”

She wheezed a tired, “Yes, don’t mind me,” and promptly returned to the improvements she was making to her self.

She still had her skill point waiting.

Remember, her mother said. You have both martial, class-based, and social skills. Your class-based skills hone your connection to the Glance, but do not neglect your other skill trees. There is value in having more than one weapon at your disposal.

It’s not another weapon I need, she replied. I need better words.

She felt her mother smile.

My dear, those are just as much weapons as the sharpest knife in the dark of The Everloft

She let her eyes wander towards the ‘Social’ category, and her eyes lighted on two options open to her.

PERSUASION At times, A Delver's words can be their greatest weapon. Improving your persuasion ability will lead to more successful attempts to sway others to your side, convince them to accept your way of thinking, and avoid conflict altogether. NOTE: Many higher level entities, including Voidspawn, have immunity to this social skill. Most insane, infected, or Voidspawn-posessed creatures cannot be reasoned with. Current LVL: NULL LVL 1: Unlocks context sensitive dialogue options. Can attempt persuasion to coerce a denizen of the Everloft to see your point of view (success depends on CHA skill)

INTIMIDATION A hardened exterior can be useful for more than just combat - intimidation allows a Delver to use their strength to cow their foes into submission and even turn them against their former allies. NOTE: Many higher level entities, including Voidspawn, have immunity to this social skill. Most insane, infected, or Voidspawn-posessed creatures cannot be cowed into submission. Current LVL: NULL LVL 1: Unlocks context sensitive dialogue options. Can attempt intimidation to force a denizen of the Everloft to obey your commands (success depends on CHA skill)

Her eyes flit between the two, holding her free skill point in the back of her mind, knowing she could unlock the secret to gaining Mendax’s trust.

She just needed to know the right thing to say to him, that was all.

But then, she suddenly felt a pang of regret in her heart. The feeling was new. But it was similar to that which she’d felt when her chest burned with pain as she ran through the snow of Yarruck, forced to realize that Anna was truly dead. A feeling of misplaced trust gnawing at her bones. A feeling that she could have done more…

He had watched his brethren die, and just seen another fall all for the sake of her. She understood that. Looking back at him now, she could see that he wanted nothing to do with her. Nothing but a warped sense of duty kept him bound to her like a chain – the compulsion of his species to covet purpose. Kimon had said it himself: they were a race of purpose. They needed direction.

And that in itself was a kind of prison.

She was sure he hated it. She was sure that, deep down inside him, he was just as trapped as she felt up there on Averix, amongst the myrmidons of the Chainbreaker. She didn’t know if it was her new Charisma score that was making her empathize with him, but she knew, as soon as the fleeting thought formed in her brain, that she couldn’t just stay here, now.

But Amara, her mother said as she rose from the radiant pool. Your skill point..?

I won’t use it, she said, beginning her march towards Mendax that seemed like a call to a duel. Not unless I have to.

Her mother was distant.

I don’t understand, dear.

It’s not fair, she explained, trying her best to quiet the storm of her mind. I don’t want to trick him into following me. It wouldn’t be right. I have to show him that I understand. I have to make him see that Kimon did…what he did…because he understood that I am important.

Even as she said it, the words rang hollow in her ears. And yet, still, she pressed on. She just had to.

Very well, her mother said just before she reached the brooding brute. I will be ready.

Amara paused mid-step.

Ready for what?

For the moment, her mother said. And with that cryptic statement, she fell silent.