Chapter 2

I woke up some time later lying down in a bed. It was still dark, but my body felt a bit more spry. The excruciating pain had faded and my body felt light, as if I were floating on a bed of clouds. The near electrical energy was still hovering beneath the surface, infusing my body with power. I felt it roiling through my flesh like eddies in a river. The low hum was almost intoxicating, but as the soft chatter of voices interrupted my reverie, I brought my attention back to the hear and now.

“She'd make quite an expensive whore, Jasmine. Give her to me, and I'll make it worth your while...thirty...No, a hundred gold. You could be debt free in a year, and she with you. She could even make it as a courtesan of some rich noble!” the voice of the gruff looking man from the bar said just outside the room.

“Absolutely not! She's has a gift. Abernathy said so. She's smart, and has real potential to be a wizard herself.” Jasmine says angrily.

“Maybe, but you'll still be turning tricks as a whore. And where will she be? Surrounded by a lot of hoity toity noblemen, and jealous noblewomen, while her mother is bedding whatever piece of shit walks in off the street with a bit of coin in his pocket. Who'll protect the girl then?” the man responded.

There was a long pause, “No..I'll think of something. I'm...I'm not subjecting her to this life.” Jasmine responded, cracking the door to the room ajar, letting light bleed in from the hallway.

“Come on Jasmine. Faith has been around this her entire life. She can take it...and take it good.” the man says with a laugh. “I bet she'll be just like you!” he say, the laughter continuing. “Besides, you're her only family right? Not like the elves would take a half-breed bitch like her. You two turn tricks for a year or two, and leave here with enough money in your pocket to buy a small shop or something. You'd be able to support her while she went to school...I mean, all of her friends are here.” the gruff man said.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. What kind of twisted son a bitch tried was this guy? He was basically baiting a desperate and scared woman to sell her daughter into prostitution. If I wasn't such a nice guy, I'd march right up and beat the living shit out of him. I paused, and considered while running a hand down the curve of my body. “Hell.” I said confirming my suspicion. This body wasn't mine. The idea of 'possession' ran through my head, and the following line of thought was more and more disturbing.

Was the girl whose body I was inhabiting gone? Was I suppressing her somehow? Had I stolen a body from its rightful owner because I didn't want to be reincarnated? My stomach turned, as stress built, causing me to curl into a ball. The headache from before started to come back, and I let out a soft moan, causing the conversation outside of the door to come to a stop.

“Faith! Faith honey, are you alright?” the beautiful women I now identified as an 'elf' asked softly as she came into the room, walking over to the bed I was on, and pulling back the covers enough to lift me into a hug. It felt...soothing, and the sense of stress that was building inside of me faded instantly as this body's mother pulled her into an embrace. “You scared me...I thought you had died...and then you...” she said, just hugging me tighter.

“What in the abyss did happen to you two anyway?” the gruff looking man asked, glaring down from the doorway. “You two get taken by some street toughs? That's why you need me, Jasmine. Why all of you girls need me. I don't charge much for the...support, and just the occasional free sample.” the man said with a grin. “Quite generous if I do say so myself.” the glorified pimp said, causing my 'mother' to stiffen.

“...I want to be alone with my daughter, Brax, if you please.” Jasmine said, with a note of annoyance. She ran her hand through my hair, brushing it softly, before kissing my forehead.

“Yea, whatever. Just remember you're working in the morning. I need you fresh. No one likes a worn whore...well, most no one.” Brax said with a laugh, walking off, and closing the door behind him.

“I'm sorry darling. I didn't...I didn't mean for any of that to happen. I'm so sorry.” Jasmine said kissing my forehead again. “I'll find some way to take care of your education...just give me some time. And then we'll both be free, and you'll have a bright future.” she said brushing my hair, before she slid into the bed next to me, curling up with me in her arms. I felt...small, but not as tired as she obviously was.

After maybe half an hour Jasmine fell asleep, and I was able to separate myself from her warm embrace. I didn't really want to, and doing so caused the stress to come back, though not as strong as it was before. As I gazed at her in the moonlight, her blonde hair was lit up with a soft silvery halo. She had a kind of otherworldly beauty to her. Her form was lean in many place, though she wasn't without appealing curves. In another world she could have been a model. I stared at her in the moonlight for a while, wondering 'who is this woman?' I peered at her before a window popped up.

Name: Princess Jasmine Lusatra

Race: Noble Sun Elf

Age: 264

Sex: Female

Class: Bard 30, Noble 15

Subclass: Sunsinger 15

Profession: Whore 32

Strength: 40

Dexterity: 90

Endurance: 60

Intelligence: 80

Power: 90

Luck: 5 (Abbot's Cursed)

Health: 900 HP Health Regen: 6 HP/day

Mana: 800 MP Mana Regen: 9 MP/Day

Skills:

Athletics: 50/400

Climbing: 80/400

Herbalism: 75/400

Instruments:

-Harp: 150/400

-Ocarina: 80/400

Lore: 100/400

Persuasion: 120/400

Singing: 200/400

Survival: 100/400

Swimming: 40/400

Combat Skills:

Archery: 34/400

Longsword: 40/400

Blessings: Blessing of Aphrodite, Noble Birthright

Curse: Abbot's Curse

Traits: Sun-Kissed, Exiled-Noble

I stared at the window in front of me confused, my...I mean this girl's mother was an exiled princess...working as a whore? I couldn't imagine how that happened. I mean I could guess, but she seemed a strong fairly strong willed person, surely she could have made a life for herself without..doing that.

The skills and stats were fairly self explanatory, though the low luck and 'curse' caused some concern. I had previously had 'cursed existence' next to my...lower luck. While I wondered at the curse, another window popped up.

Abbot's Curse: A powerful, and hidden, curse laid by the Abbot of the Dune Sea. An insidious curse ensures the target and her descendents for up to four generations are stricken miserable. 'Fate Conspires' to produce the worst results at the worst possible time. This curse is also mind-affecting, nudging the victim into bad decisions, and preventing them from seeing better choices. Hopes are raised, only to be dashed in soul-crushing ways.

Sun-Kissed: The bearer enjoys increased vitality, speed, and health while in daylight. Speed, Health Regeneration, and Physical Resistance doubles in sunlight.

Exiled-Noble: Entering into the homelands results in a 'hunted' status. Gives passive bonus to survival, and passive negative to resist persuasion from possible 'friends'.

Blessing of Aphrodite: Goddess of Beauty and Love, Aphrodite ensures the bearers of her blessing enjoy beauty, adoration, and fertility. Popular among the nobility, as it helps to ensure successful succession.

Noble-Birthright: One major blessing or trait is passed down to all direct descendents. Recognized as nobility for all magical and spiritual effects. Bonus to persuasion in leadership capacity.

“Holy shit...That poor woman. She..” I said in a whisper. Looking around the poor excuse for a whore house, things were starting to lock into place. She had gone from being a princess to a cheap whore. Her daughter is found to have magical talent, offering a small ray of hope for a way out for the both of them, only for her to watch her daughter murdered in front of her. A cold chill ran through me, and I was angry. That low rage that had been seething beneath the surface was screaming at me to take vengeance, to deliver death to the 'Betrayer'. I held my head in my hands for a minute until the feeling passed...and then another minute, and another.

Sometime later the feeling subsided, leaving my mind clear. Breathing in deeply, I glanced around the room, and shook my head. I don't know why, but something told me that she would 'sell my services'. She was struggling with it now, but looking at that curse I knew she was only being presented with a lot of horrible options. Lucky for her I didn't suffer from the same, and I was sure as hell not going to leave my mother...this girl's mother turning tricks in a whore house. Besides, this entire town was a backwater shit hole. I could use my engineering skills to turn a profit...somehow.

Considering for a few moments I frowned. Business...I was never good at business. Still, it couldn't be that hard to find a salesman or something to act as a partner. Shaking my head, I looked back out the window toward the moonlit night. I could think of a dozen major changes, but all of them required infrastructure. One thing I knew is that engineering takes time, from concept, to construction. Looking at my mother's sleeping form I frowned...'Her mother...Her mother's sleeping form' I corrected myself.

Stolen story; please report.

There was something on the sheet about fabrication and magic items I think, willing the screen up, hoping it'll work. I takes a few moments, before I'm able to get the sheet up again.

Fabrication: Able to use Fabrication system to process and form available materials.

-Material Creation: Able to create up to 1 cubic foot of material a day

-Material Alteration: Able to modify up to 1 cubic foot of material into another material, ignoring conservation of energy. (Warning: Certain uses can be hazardous)

-Limit: Restricted to naturally occurring elements and materials.

A chill ran down my spine as I stared at the descriptions. “It ignores conservation of energy..” I muttered. That's just insane, you could make a cubic foot of anti-matter, and blow a planet up. I considered the option for less than a second and shook my head. “Nope.” I said with a shiver. “Still, I could make...gold I guess.” I said focusing on 'Fabrication System'. There's a pause as a group of windows appeared. There's a host of analysis, scaling, and design options. A panel provided a list of materials, with advanced settings for material and chemical compositions. Fiddling with the settings a bit, I decided to try simple shapes. There weren't any templates to use, so I thought on it and decided to create some jewelry for my...Faith's mother.

A cubic foot of material is a lot for something like this, so I created a tiara, a necklace, and a set of bracers. I found the interface simple to use, as the system responded to my thoughts. I was even able to store dimensions and details, which made creating a setting for jewels simple. I tried to rip off something I saw in one of the Lord of the Rings movies. In the end I make a poor jeweler, so I might have overdone it with the leaves and vines motif. It said in Jasmine's description that she was a 'sun elf', so I tried to work a sun burst pattern into them.

Selecting Sun Stone and yellow sapphire for the settings, I considered for a bit what to make the jewelry out of. Gold might attract a lot of attention, but I wanted something that a sun-elf might like. Flipping through lists of materials, I found a listing for Orichalcum. The name sounded familiar, and it looked to have a very radiant golden hue to it. More like sunlight I supposed, but it looked radiant with the jewels. Overly happy with my choice, I selected Orichalcum for the materials, and made a few last minute adjustments. When I had finished, the sunburst pattern had rays that turned into leafy vines. The bracers were padded with something called 'gold-weave silk', which had the right coloring for the pieces, while the necklace was more like an amulet. Happy with the design I told it to 'Fabricate'.

EXOTIC MATERIALS USED, WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE MAGIC ITEMS?

LIMIT: 3 MINOR MAGIC ITEMS PER DAY

YES/NO?

Looking at the window I considered for a few minutes, before selecting 'YES'. Another window popped up with a heading of 'Spells Known', but there were no spells listed. The only available option was under a tab called 'Relics' and just said 'Divine Blessing'...no description provided. Well, that's helpful, but I wasn't planning on making any more magic items today, so I thought 'what the hell', and pressed create.

The effect was...severely draining, and as the jewelry manifested, I was suddenly overcome by lethargy. It was still late at night, and I had a lot to do. Glancing at Faith's mother's sleeping form, I stashed the jewelry in a wooden box I fabricated from cuts of wood next to an empty fireplace. After several minutes I wrote a note on the box that said 'For Mom: From Faith', and headed downstairs.

I considered just creating gold out of thin air, but there were a lot of questions I had about that. First, I wasn't sure how much attention that would bring. Or whether the gold I created could be identified from normal gold...was that illegal? Like counterfeiting money? Would someone show up to kidnap me? I saw a lot of 'traits' listed on my sheet, but besides something about energy resistance and a 'Divine Aegis', I didn't see anything that made me think I could take on the world. Let's be honest, taking down a handful of street thugs caught by surprise over a few seconds in a dark alley didn't mean I or my...Faith's mother was capable of protecting ourselves from whatever might come our way. Hell, apparently there was 'magic', and who the fuck knew what kind of threat that was? I needed more information, I needed a plan...I needed to keep moving so I didn't stop to think to hard on my current situation. 'Too much, too fast...Focus' I thought.

Reaching the first floor I found a dozen or so 'working girls' in various modes of undress, swilling what smelled like cheap booze, and chattering at each other. A few glanced up at me when I came down the stairs, and waved.

“Faith! Oh honey, are you alright? Is your mom? You passed out when you got back, and Jasmine just said you two were assaulted on the way home.” a twenty-something human woman wearing a red bodice and red leather boots said between shots.

“Um, we're fine. I...manage to catch one of the thugs by surprise. It was dark, and after the first one went down, there was enough confusion for us to get away. It was over fast, just a few seconds, so I think we lucked out no one pulled a weapon.” I responded warmly. As I came into the brighter lamp light near the bar, some of the girls stopped to stare at me with slack jacks. I wasn't sure what was causing the reaction, but then again I hadn't exactly seen a mirror floating around. I thought there might be one behind the bar, but this place was probably too cheap to afford one. Or maybe it just wasn't a 'thing' wherever the fuck we were. I did notice that these women were mostly all taller than me. So I was either short, they were tall, or I was young. Thinking about it I brought up my sheet again, and it listed a few more particulars this time. Name: Faith, Age: 13, Race: Half-Elf (Immortal). I'd need to remember to create a measuring stick or something later.

“Oh, that's so scary! Well, I'm happy to hear you two aren't hurt...Still, the whole thing looks like it was good for you. You're so pretty!” the woman in the red-bodice said, reaching over to get a closer look at me. She brushed strands of black hair out of her face, and I could smell the cheap booze on her breath. I smiled and nodded along, backing up slightly.

“Back off Lily, you're making Faith uncomfortable.” a slightly older woman red haired woman wearing blue silk robes said, pushing her way in between us.

“Aw, she's fine Aisha. Aren't you sweetheart?” the woman identified as Lily asked, stumbling a bit. 'God, I had to get Jasmine out of this place.' I thought somewhat distracted by the women gathering around me.

“Well...Ur, Mom is resting up for work. I was just going to pop out for...breakfast. Maybe go for a walk to clear my head.” I said separating myself from the gaggle of under-dressed women.

“Ah, honey, Be careful. If anything happened to you, your mother would be destroyed.” Aisha. said as I headed for the door. As I moved toward the foyer, a drunken man in one of the corners stumbled to the ground, spilling half a pint of whatever swill this place called 'ale' onto the floor in front of me.

“Gah! Filthy low life adventurer.” one of the women said, as the drunk man tried to pull himself off the floor. The guy looked young, but wasted. I looked back at the woman who made the remark with confusion, which caused Aisha to elbow her, soliciting a squeak.

Aisha. wandered over, taking my arm. “Don't worry listen to Silla. Adventurer is a noble profession.” she said glancing around as she escorted me to the door. When we got out of view, Aisha. looked at me with a mischievous gleam in her green eyes. “You didn't think I forgot did you, sweetheart?” she asked, passing me a leather pouch. It had a small amount of weight to it, and jingled a bit. “Happy Birthday Faith. I know you wanted to join the guild when you were old enough. It's not...a lot, but...” Aisha. said leaning in to hug me. “You'll do big things honey, I know it.” she said with a wink, causing me to blush.

“Uh...thanks a lot Aisha.” I said, not quite sure how to respond. It appears the number of things I didn't know about, and needed to, was growing rapidly. “I'll...Just go join I guess.” I said. Aisha. took my hands and held them up, giving them an encouraging squeeze, as I wandered out the door, onto the street.