A rabbit was nibbling some grass when it heard something coming. Peaking up from its meal, it saw a monster with thick, gold fur heading toward it. The rabbit squeaked and ran away. Trixie watched the rabbit run away, walked over to where it had been eating, and sniffed.
The golden sunchaser loved running but she also enjoyed the calm pace as well. There were so many things to see and smell. She went from one side of the dirt road to the other finding new and interesting things to smell. Every time she crossed the road she went up to the winged girl and every time she did that she received the same response.
“Aw, who’s a good girl? You are,” Brivaria said while petting the energetic dog. Trixie’s tail wagged for pets. She loved pets. Soon something new caught her eye and she went off to look around thus leaving the two adventurers for her own search for adventure.
Brivaria watched Trixie run about with a smile of pure joy. Kseniya chose to watch the angel instead. The lamia didn’t believe magic was evil. That was a silly belief held by silly people however it was true certain types of magic attracted certain kinds of people. Not every fire mages was an arsonist or pyromaniac but lots of arsonists and pyromaniacs were fire mages. The angel’s mostly sunny disposition made her choice of magic very strange. That wasn’t the only strange thing about the angel so Kseniya decided to broach a new topic.
“So, little angel, what god or goddess do you serve?” Kseniya asked. She twisted her body to look at Brivaria while continuing to slither forward. The winged girl blinked.
“None. What makes you think I serve a deity?” Kseniya was equally confused by the question. Her knowledge of angels was, admittedly, spotty. The lamia was unlikely to ever meet one so all sorts of misconceptions were being cleared up daily.
“Do all little angels not serve a deity?” Brivaria shook her head.
“No. We don’t. In fact, no angels are required to serve any god or goddess.” The answer surprised the lamia more than the previous one had.
“Oh, I see, I see. Truly, I have been misled by the stories. So often I see them referred to as angels of one god or another, summoned by priests of specific gods.” Brivaria shrugged.
“We work with certain gods and goddesses. They share in our desire for peace and cooperation. When their faithful call then we will answer. That doesn’t mean we endorse the deity, let alone serve them. We don’t perform an intervention based on the identity of the one asking for it but based on the need and what our diviners are able to glean as their purpose.” Kseniya absorbed this and pondered before asking another question.
“Do any angels choose to serve gods of their own volition?” Once more, Brivaria shook her head.
“No, all angels serve their choir and the host. No angel serves an outside power. I understand that Celians will sometimes spend an entire lifetime searching for their purpose. Angels understand their purpose upon creation.” Kseniya was boggling at her so Brivaria continued to explain further. “We receive knowledge from the angels who formed us upon creation and are then instructed in our purpose by the choir. We choose skills and advancements per the needs and will of our choir.”
“You’re born with knowledge from your parents and are told what skills to take?” Kseniya sounded aghast. The angel didn’t see the issue.
“Yes. In some cases the creators are chosen specifically as we’re likely to gain class selections or skill selections based on their progression. We have had many cycles refining our people to ensure newly created angels may inherit supremely useful classes or skills early in their path. It is an incredibly successful practice, my own unique situation not withstanding.” Brivaria was extremely proud of her people and all they had accomplished. Kseniya didn’t seem to share her sentiment.
“What if an angel doesn’t want to do what the choir or host says, you know?” Now it was Brivaria’s turn to look at Kseniya like the other girl had grown a second head.
“Well that’s never happened,” the blonde girl said, dismissing it outright.
“You mean in the hundreds of years or however long your people have existed that no one has ever decided there was a better or different way than the whole species? Little angel, do you expected me to believe that not one angel has ever decided they wanted to wear a black blouse instead of a white blouse? That is a very hard thing to believe, you know?” Well, when Kseniya put it like that… It did sound a little bit improbable even to Brivaria’s ears. The angel sighed.
“It’s never happened that I know of.” It hurt to admit that her people might be fallible. The two lapsed into silence for a while. Brivaria’s blue eyes followed Trixie around as the dog happily chased small animals from their path. The golden pooch never caught anything but enjoyed the chase. The winged girl should have been thinking about her class advancement and was about to start when Kseniya gave her the means to put it off for a little while longer.
“So how old are you? You said you were pretty high level. It takes decades to gain levels here for most folk, you know. If you’re not dying every other day, you make slow progress.” Finally, Kseniya was talking about something easy to answer.
“I’m three and a half cycles old,” the angel said confidently and with a smile. Kseniya about fell over.
“You are joking, yes? Wait, you said ‘cycles’ and not years. How long is a cycle?”
“Hm, I’m not sure.” Kseniya squinted at the angel and Brivaria held up her hands in a placating gesture. “Really, I’m not. Time works differently in Heaven than it does here.” It was hard to describe precisely because she’d never had to describe it before. Intervention was not a “sit down and chat” sort of occupation.
“Is it really different? I figured it was just another dimension or plane or something, you know?” the lamia asked with a confused expression.
“It is. We don’t have physical bodies and we don’t speak. We communicate by sending thoughts to other angels and we can feel one another’s emotions just by being near. Heaven isn’t a place that physical beings can even enter and those who have tried… historically have not survived the attempt.” Even the words Brivaria used were imprecise and incomplete. There simply weren’t words or concepts that the people of Zlithia could comprehend. It was like trying to explain a complex painting to an entire world that was blind. Kseniya seemed to comprehend the angel’s struggle after a moment.
“It sounds very different. It is a sad thing to not be able to go home, you know? I hope you can go back eventually.” Brivaria smiled at the words. She’d told Kseniya of her exile just as she’d told the Second Sword. Nothing about her identity nor predicament was a secret. Meia had cautioned her against talking about her true nature and she had yet to see anything but warmth and compassion come from it.
The conversation faded into contemplative silence soon after. The lamia had her own thoughts and Brivaria had her class advancement to look forward to. She wanted to do that before the day was done. She’d already been ambushed on the road and wanted her level 20 advancement done in case it happened again.
First she had her current class. This would always be the first item on the list. Brivaria had never heard of an instance where someone was forced to leave their current class and this wouldn’t be one.
Decaying Lightbrand
Light is your ally, your partner, and your companion. It is also your weapon. You are the light in the darkness and will shine brilliantly as your enemies shrivel and decay beneath your radiance. Selecting this class will improve your ability to control light and wield it as a weapon to weaken your foes.
Next she had the four new classes that would be the ones she picked from.
Apprentice Shaper of Flesh
You have recognized your own weakness and decided to strive for something more. This is the first step upon the path of greatness. Your form is the most important asset you possess and to improve others while neglecting it will only foster weakness. This class will let you acquire the skills necessary to begin honing your form.
Honorable Champion
You stride into battle with your chin held high and your conscience clean. You meet your opponents wherever you must and meet them on the field of battle as an honorable combatant. This class will give you the skills to overcome treachery and foul play as well as improving your ability to combat foes directly.
Sky Dancer
The sky is your home and the wind is your partner as you move through the air with grace and elegance. From the lightest breeze to the greatest gust, all will come when you beckon. Choosing this class will let you acquire skills to call forth the wind and dance among the clouds.
Wither Blade
All things will wither and crumble. You have embraced your affinity for decay and will wield its greatest powers to see your foes dissolve into dust at your feet. Selecting this class will give you a wide variety of battle skills that focus on striking at your foe’s essence and destroying them from the inside out.
Technically there was only one new class to Brivaria. Wither Blade was the only class the angel had never seen before. That looked like an offshoot of her newly acquired decay abilities. Withering Ray and its infusion proved very deadly in combat. She put them to good use against the Pseudolith. Though the winged girl was fairly certain that Kseniya’s poison magic was ultimately what the beast succumbed to, the withering magic was strong.
Honorable Champion and Sky Dancer were classes she recognized as both were in the list of candidate classes for combat and intervention-focused angels. Honorable Champion wasn’t as good as its holy-themed counterpart, Holy Champion, but it was very strong and worked toward mitigating the inherent weakness of angels—low awareness.
Sky Dancer was a non-combat class that focused on controlling the wind and enhancing aerial mobility. It was also a skill class rather than a magic class. There would be no Magic (Wind) skill, no spells, and no skill-spells. That unfortunately meant that there would be no Infusion (Wind) skill to enhance Brivaria’s sword.
Finally there was Apprentice Shaper of Flesh. It was back. This was one of her choices at level 10 and now it was one of her choices at level 20. Once again she felt the compulsion to select it. The angel was using Lesser Shapeshift every day and exploring new possibilities daily. She was also starting to run into the limitations of the skill. Those would only become more numerous because, as versatile as Lesser Shapeshifting was, it was a low level skill.
Of the four classes, only Wither Blade was immediately removed from the list of options. It was undoubtedly the strongest class of the four new ones but something about it didn’t sit well with the angel. Something about it bothered her. It was as though she knew it was a bad fit but didn’t understand why. That didn’t make sense since it was an off-shoot of Decaying Lightbrand which she felt no such aversion to. Ultimately this was fine. She had three other options.
Of those three, Brivaria decided to phone a friend. Balthazar would be checking up on her soon. Her people had the wisdom of countless generations to draw upon so she would do so and make her choice based on their guidance. It was the angel way.
The group entered the Cervidian Woods without incident. A few small beasts approached them but Kseniya zapped them with Toxic Bolts. Brivaria learned that the lamia had an array of different poisons she could mix into her spells. Similar to how Brivaria had regular light and decaying light, Kseniya had poisons to do a variety of things. That meant she could deter creatures without killing them. The angel was impressed. Where Brivaria was very spread out with her skills, Kseniya was focused. The difference in ability was noticeable.
It was only the second day out from Tenome that Balthazar made contact with the winged girl. Magical speaking skills and spells were not uncommon on Zlithia, the angel learned, but ones that would let the participants have a full conversation that could last an hour or longer were. Those were the products high level abilities, powerful artifacts, or both. Brivaria didn’t know Balthazar’s level but she assumed the overseer was at least in the 200s. He was many cycles older than she was and, well, he was an overseer. There were countless planets and many overseers but it was still a demanding role. She assumed it was demanding. He was always very busy, anyway.
“Oh good. There’s no noise or commotion this time,” the disembodied voice of Balthazar said to dark campsite where Brivaria sat. The angel was perpetually keeping watch for the lamia during their travels as she didn’t need to sleep but the lamia did. The little stones had been scattered about to illuminate the darkness though they did little to assuage the sense that Brivaria was being watched. It was a feeling that only intensified when they entered the woods proper. Thankfully, she hadn’t felt the sheer sense of dread that she had on that one night early into her journey.
“Balthazar, I’ve been looking forward to your communication. So much has happened…” Brivaria went into an explanation of the past week of her journey. The overseer paused to interrupt her story at times. He chided her for not communicating to the lamia the danger the Pseudolith posed when she suspected it was the culprit.
“You put her in unnecessary danger, Brivaria. You must communicate with your allies. You would have found the beast far quicker and with less mana expanded if she was helping you search, particularly if she has multi-target spells and skills.” The angel hung her head. Balthazar was correct. They both knew it.
“I will do better in the future,” she promised.
“I know you will. This is a difficult situation. You need to remember your training, all of it. Some of the oldest lessons you’ve been taught are now the most valuable. We don’t know what will happen if you die on the planet. If you’re going to keep getting into trouble then be more careful.” His words were soft, kind, and concerned. She accepted the scolding gracefully, as an angel should. The conversation continued with Balthazar critiquing her behavior as an instructor might a pupil. That was his role as overseer—to ensure his angels were well-prepared and positioned to succeed at their missions. The conversation topic eventually made its way to the thing Brivaria was most eager to discuss.
“I’ve reached my next class advancement. My choices include Honorable Champion and Sky Dancer. I was hoping you could see what skills they will provide and what I should aim for if I take one of them,” she said with excitement.
“Mmm, let me look to see if I have a record of those two available. They sound familiar. Not interested in your other two?” the older angel asked conversationally while clearly busying himself in the search.
“One is potentially good depending on what the other options look like. One is not appealing.” The last part was accompanied by a sour expression. Truthfully, Wither Blade wasn’t the only class of the four her instincts were telling her to avoid but that was the one she would directly listen to them for.
“Well, let’s sort out the matter together then, shall we?” Balthazar’s voice lapsed into silence for several minutes before returning. “Ah, here we are. Honorable Champion and Sky Dancer. Let’s see what they have…”
Brivaria patiently waited while the elder angel perused the information on the classes. A small part of her hoped that neither would be useful so she could pick Apprentice Shaper of Flesh sans guilt. That seemed unlikely based on the names and descriptions of the other two. The winged girl mentally prepared herself to pick with impartiality.
“Alright, let’s start with Honorable Champion. It’s exactly what it sounds like. It holds the owner to a standard of honor, as dictated by the System. Honorable Bearing is the signature skill which gives bonuses based on how honorable you are as judged by the System. This can be a disadvantage at times so it also gives Discern Honor and Foresight to mitigate the enforced behavior. Foresight is a powerful divination skill that can glimpse a potentially dire future. It’s not as reliable as Sense Danger and won’t prevent you from being surprised all the time but it will warn you about extremely dangerous and deadly situations. The class also has a leadership component with Call to Arms, Champion’s Call, and Rallying Cry. If you were to take all three then they combine into Heroic Surge. It can turn the tide of a large-scale conflict all on its own.” Balthazar paused to let Brivaria take the information in.
“How does it fare in small-scale engagements?” Brivaria was looking for passive skills rather than active skills.
“About average. The list is mostly enhancement skills. It can lead to Honorable Duelist or Honorable General depending on what size conflict you want to specialize in. Though, the choir does not recommend this class outside of very specific circumstances. Honor is a nebulous concept and more cunning foes who recognize the skills will take advantage of the weaknesses.”
“Alright so that one is off the table. What about Sky Dancer?” the winged angel asked. Two classes down, one to go and then her decision would be made.
“Sky Dancer is a non-combat class. It specializes in airborne mobility and wind skills. Its signature skill is Sky Step which lets you remain airborne if you’re already such and even jump in mid-air. Skyclad is the flight skill of the class which has been known to combine with Lesser Flight into Aero Flight. Wind Accompaniment and Grasping Gale will combine with Sky Step into Guiding Winds which allows for precision control over wind. Many are instructed to choose this class then fuse Guiding Winds. Most already have an upgraded flight skill so Aero Flight isn’t necessary but it might be a worthwhile choice in your unique circumstances.” Well, Brivaria liked a lot of what Balthazar described.
Sky Dancer offered improved flight and some solid wind-based abilities. It was non-combat but if Brivaria was to return to original paradigm of holy, light, wind, and healing then this would get her closer. She didn’t feel compelled to take it like Apprentice Shaper of Flesh nor compelled against it like Wither Blade and Honorable Champion. The feeling wasn’t as strong for Honorable Champion as Wither Blade but she was glad it wasn’t a fit for her.
“Should I take Sky Dancer?” she asked at last.
“Without knowing the other options, I cannot say. I trust your judgment and reasons for not speaking of them. Sky Dancer is a good choice that the choir approves of. That said, if you do pick it then do not pick a second non-combat class afterward. You do not want a situation where you see two or even three non-combat classes in future advancements.”
“Is that something to be concerned about?” she asked. Rake told her in the past that humans had to be concerned over such things because taking a combat class would cause more to appear. That was undesirable for some of his people.
“Concerned? No. Aware? Yes. You were instructed in what classes to take and what skills to pick during your training for intervention. We have refined our training program over many cycles to ensure a class will appear from a pool of desired classes. During older times before training was so meticulous, angels would often have to take classes such as Sky Dancer as it was the best on their advancement list, as it may be on yours now. The more classes you take of a given type—combat, magic, non-combat, etc—the more of those you will see in the future. For your role in particular, you do not want to be in a position where you are acquiring too many classes that stray from your purpose or you will have difficulties in the future.”
“Hm. I understand. Should I be doing anything else?” the winged girl asked.
“Begin looking for defensive traits and passives in your next two advancements. A combat-focused class that specializes in preventing mundane and magical ailments would be ideal but it’s unlikely you’re going to see one of those unless your experiences on Zlithia change drastically from what you’ve told me so far. I’ve already reported your attribute anomalies to Anriel. Your low endurance is particularly concerning and you should look for ways to mitigate it sooner than later. If we can get you more normal class advancement options like Sky Dancer then perhaps the choir can begin correcting your course.” Balthazar was really trying to sell Sky Dancer without directly telling her to take it. That was fine. She would take it anyway. In fact, that was what she did as soon as their conversation ended.
You have gained the class Sky Dancer.
You have gained the skill Sky Step.
Sky Step (Active)
You may step onto empty air as though it were solid ground. This skill may be used consecutively at an increased mana cost with additional uses. Weight supported scales with arcane, duration scales with spirit.
Next came experimentation. The angel discovered that she could use the skill several times at zero mana cost and many more times with just a single point extended. It was a low cost skill from a fairly low level class. There were advantages to that. That said, there were disadvantages as well. For example, it didn’t stop momentum from a fall as the air became very, very solid beneath her feet. She wasn’t using it to safely stop after plummeting any significant distance. Funny enough, she found that she could sit down in mid-air. That was perhaps not the intended way for the skill to be used but it could be used that way and that was worth knowing.
At the back of her mind, the little voice that said she should have taken the shapeshifting class kept nagging at her. Maybe she would take one for her level 30 advancement if one appeared and perhaps even if the same one appeared. For now, she was a level 20 Sky Dancer.
Name: Brivaria
Race: Angel
Class: Sky Dancer
Level: 20
Stats: Health 50/50, Mana 88/88, Stamina 63/63
Attributes: Physique 38, Endurance 25, Arcane 42, Spirit 44, Awareness 25, Presence 46
Active Skills: Healing Touch, Holy Bulwark, Sky Step, Tailwind
Passive Skills: Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lesser Shapeshifting, Lingering Decay, Rest, Traits (Angel)
Magic: Light of Decay