The process of getting some clothes that besides fitting her didn’t look ridiculous and were actually functional had been less daunting than she had imagined. The young clerk at the store, which just now she learned was called Mercury Threads, was incredibly helpful to any and all outworlder that stepped foot within his store. Selecting various pieces from a variety of pre-made outfits, she settled on a white cotton shirt with a black overcoat, a wide deep red cape that kept the cold air at bay on top of that and a pair of brownish black pants and boots that fit her strangely well.
Now properly clothed, and with the soul-exhausting litany of revelations and twists weighing upon her shoulders, she stepped out of the Mistfall Hall for the first time, taking in the sight.
The city was not at all how Alice expected it to be. The previous mention of an hotel instead of an inn or some more arcane method of shelter had sparked some curiosity in her, but not enough to interrupt Marie’s explanations.
The first thing she noticed as she followed the oddly detailed map towards the hotel — apparently named Blossom Nights — was how oddly… clean, everything seemed to be. The floor was made of perfectly cut and expertly placed white stones, the main thoroughfare being sunk in around three inches deeper than the sidewalk, allowing for strange metal contraptions that were and were not cars to pass through, as well as various speeding individuals that had to navigate through a small lane placed explicitly for them.
Besides that, every fifty feet or so there seemed to be a strange sort of lamp, but instead of a bulb or some sort of fuse or wick, there was a strangely carved stone that was impossibly white. There was a glass showcase in front of basically every other shop, their wares ranging from simple butcheries, to wooden furniture, to strange, metallic contraptions that almost looked like steam golems, but without the steam.
Alice shuddered as a wave of wind from one of those human-shaped blurs passed through. She didn’t want to imagine what would be the state of her body if one of them accidentally slipped and splattered her against the immaculate pavement, painting it all an awful shade of chunky carmine.
“Yeah, better stay away…”
Only when she found herself at the wide, glass doors of Blossom Nights did she remember that she had left Julian behind in her haste to get a good night's sleep, regardless if it was, apparently, still midday.
Fucking up her sleep schedule was a time-honoured tradition of hers back home, and she wasn’t going to swap out habits now.
Registering was a fairly painless affair, where she only had to showcase the glinting, off-white badge she had received at the shop inside the Mistfall Hall for the clerk to give Alice a key and usher her inside.
Shelter accounted for, she resolved to wake up tomorrow and see if she could have something heavy for breakfast.
Remembering the toothy smile Marie had given her when she had started talking about training made her reconsider with a shudder. Perhaps something light would do, after all.
—❈—
Alice ate a light breakfast provided by the hotel the next morning, and then she set off towards the External Affairs Hall, or, as Marie had referred to them, the Delver’s Hall. Why they were colloquially known as such, she had no idea. Perhaps they delved inside dungeons or some other such? She wouldn’t put it past a world so obviously brimming with magic to have some.
Following the map so as to not get lost, she arrived at the Delver’s Hall, and she couldn’t help but be a bit… disappointed.
She had expected some grandeur display of extravagant wealth, or a high tower covered in arcane symbols, or a hole in the ground that led towards some sort of hidden dungeon that had been cleared decades ago, or just straight up a mansion, but no, the building almost managed to look mundane.
The Hall was tall, and seemingly mixed an awful lot of deeply red wood with the same pristine white stone she could see almost everyone, giving it a beautiful contrast. Besides that, the thing that stood out more to her was the lack of windows in the first floor, added to the front, metallic double doors that were wide open to the public. Alice inspected the entrance as she approached, and she noted with a nervous sweat how said doors were almost a hand in thickness, not that her own hands were a good indication, small as she was.
Still. If those didn’t count as blast doors, she’d eat her own boots, newly applied polish and all.
The entrance room [?] was as spacious as they came, in fact, now that she looked more closely, she was completely sure that the interior was significantly bigger than the exterior would suggest, to an almost ridiculous degree. As she scanned the area, she noticed the massive wooden counter at the back end of the room and the couple of bored-looking clerks manning it. The counter was almost sandwiched besides the four sets of stairs to the left and right — two on each side, one going down, one going up.
As she took one step towards the visibly perking up workers, a hand fell on her shoulder from behind, almost making her scream.
“Going somewhere?” Asked Marie’s voice, and a look backwards confirmed that it was her.
“Don’t do that!” she hissed with more heat than she intended, and the older woman backed off with a chuckle, raising both hands.
“Alright, alright! Don’t bite my head off. Now, I believe we have some tutoring to do, yes? Come with me.”
Marie didn’t wait for an answer, already walking out of the Hall.
“Hey, why did you tell me to come here if we’re just going to leave?” Alice asked as she struggled to catch up to the much longer stride of her tutor.
“Mostly? So you know where it is, and how the building looks. Every Delver’s Hall in Aspen has more or less the same look to it, so if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, really. The only thing that changes is the color scheme to accommodate for local materials.” Marie tilted her head to one side, as if thinking something through, then spoke again. “As for why we’re leaving? Well, I don’t really like the facilities they have inside. Too sterile, too safe, too… bland, for my tastes. We’re going outside the walls so I can have a look at you, see where you stand, and beat you into shape.”
The glint she now could surely see in her eye gave Alice pause, and she slowly asked, “aren’t you preoccupied that I don’t want to be a delver? Perhaps I want to be a crafter, or a seamstress, or anything else, really.”
Marie snorted, then started snickering, and it had almost devolved into a full blown cackle by the time Alice had stopped to stare at her in incomprehension. “Oh, I hadn’t laughed like that in decades. Alice, dear, your Class is you. There are no two ways about it. You can’t have a class forced upon you, you can’t be coerced in any way into choosing a class you don’t want or that doesn’t fit you. It is, inherently, a process that is so intrinsically tied to your soul, that someone trying to force something like that, be it through coercion or blackmail or what have you, has more odds of killing you in the backlash than getting anything useful out of it.” Marie shrugged as they kept walking, and a massive, open portcullis easily the size of a four story building started looming in the horizon. They were getting near one of the exits, and to her horror, all Alice could see almost a thousand feet out the gate was red. Red grass, red trees, red leaves, red everything.
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Marie kept going on, as if they weren’t approaching the very place she had so strongly advised against visiting unless she wanted to be torn apart and turned into tree food.
“Sure, a Profession is a tad more malleable, but it’s almost as bad. You’re your Class and Profession, and they represent you. You’re a Pain Mage and an Explorer whether you think you want to or not. And,” Marie stopped just before the massive portcullis guarded by at least half a dozen bored out of their mind men and women, only half of them keeping proper watch of who came and went, “we’re here.”
One of the guards, a blonde woman with tanned skin and a lithe build that had apparently just won the last strange game of cards they were playing noticed Marie, and instantly jumped into the most ramrod-straight salute Alice had anyone ever seen do, the cards and the old wooden box they were in toppling to the ground, not that the woman took notice of it, instead staring straight ahead with both hands behind her back.
The rest followed suit as a strange sense of silence fell all around the gate, one that had started to weigh heavily on Alice as the wardens kept sneaking glances towards her. Marie acted as if the guards weren’t even there. “Pretty, isn’t it? At least when it’s not trying to turn you into mincemeat.”
As she started walking again, Marie motioned towards Alice to follow. “Come, we don’t have all day. You don’t want to be left here at night do you? Better hurry!”
Alice swallowed down the saliva that had started to clump together at the base of her throat, and tried to ignore the half-hidden stares and the odd whisper here or there, like ‘poor girl’ and ‘I don’t envy her at all’.
Just what had she gotten herself into?
Marie trudged forwards on the wide dirt path that led to the forest, Alice noted that the thousand feet before the woods proper were all completely dead. No yellowed grass, no half dug out tree stumps, no green shoots, nothing. The land was completely barren of any form of life, and she had a sneaking suspicion that whatever had done this, did so regularly. To stop the forest from encroaching into the city, perhaps?
That was a scary thought.
Putting matters currently out of her hand for now, Alice stopped the moment Marie did. Now, both of them found themselves at the very edge of the dead zone and the Blood Blossom, and as they stopped, Marie dropped down into a sitting position, back against the nearest tree without a care in the world, as if she didn’t fear the plant life suddenly and painfully awakening a thirst for blood.
Alice chose to sit somewhere more sensible, almost ten feet apart from the older woman, which made Marie chuckle, but she didn’t verbally jab at Alice for it, for which she was grateful.
“So, now that we’re in a more private setting, where do you want to start?”
Thinking it over, Alice chose the most obvious thing. “I want to know how I should distribute my attributes, and what each one entails.”
“Sensible choice, and an easy one to boot.” Marie brought her hands together, settling them on her lap.
“Let’s go in order, shall we? First off, the attributes are separated into three categories; Body, Mind, Soul. We’re going to start the most straightforward of the bunch, Body, and with the simplest one, Strength. It makes you stronger, and also gives a minor enhancement towards your physique, but if it balloons out of control, you’re in deep shit. Every movement will bring about excruciating pain as you tear every ligament, muscle fiber, and bone in your body. Never let it overshoot Vitality for a ridiculous amount, no matter what any blockhead tells you.” Marie ended that sentence with a frown on her face, distaste clear in her tone. So, pumping Power full was probably out of the question as a strategy.
“Vitality is, also, pretty obvious. It makes you tougher, more resilient, and more resistant to physical trauma and rapid, violent changes in your environment. I once heard of some lunatic with a ridiculously strong Fire affinity and a Vitality to match taking lava baths and playing with the overgrown salamanders and other critters that live near the geysers of magma.
“Agility is a bit more tricky, and it’s a lot more tied to Reaction and Perception. It governs how nimble and quick to move you are. Your sense of balance and how fast your body can follow your commands, and how accurately. Don’t let this one overshoot Reaction, or you’ll bounce around the place, breaking every bone in your body until there’s nothing left of you but a mushed carcass.” Marie’s tone had a grim certainty to it that assured she had seen such a scenario first hand.
Alice hoped she wouldn’t have to, soon, if ever.
“Reaction governs the alacrity of your Mind. How fast you process information, formulate a response to a threat or analyze an issue before coming up with a possible solution. The only danger of overindulging in Reaction is that your body may feel completely out of place with your mind, although it is a common choice to do so between Agility-based fighters and Air mages.
“Perception does what it says on the tin, and a little more besides. You’ll be able to take in more information at once and discard the noise at the same quicker than before. It works for all of your senses, except when it counts towards sensing Ether. That’s just your Soul.
“Presence is, essentially, your force of personality. It also ties into Will, grounding your personality and beliefs into a stronger foundation, making it harder for any Psi spell to rewrite anything. Beast Tamers, Leaders, almost every high ranking official makes extensive use of Presence. It can also affect some area buffs meant to strengthen companions or intimidate foes.”
Marie took a deep breath, and suddenly, her expression seemed carved from fine, smooth stone.
Alice stilled as the hairs on her neck started raising one by one. Something deep within her chest told her in no uncertain terms that if she moved a finger out of place, she’d die.
No two ways about it.
“Now, Soul, the most dangerous of them all. Listen very carefully, because I’m not going to repeat myself.”
Marie fell silent, staring at her with her only eye. It almost seemed to draw her into an infinite abyss, and she couldn’t help but think of the rusted chains coming from the void within her soul.
Once it was clear that her tutor was awaiting a response, Alice nodded, and Marie followed suit, then starting the explanation without any preamble.
“Power. The most insidious of them all. It dictates, as the name indicates, the power and potential inside your soul. The more Power, the more Ether will your soul hold. Having your Soul overflow with ether is an almost euphoric feeling. Addictive, even, and that’s what makes it so dangerous, because with an overabundance of Ether and a lack of Control and Will, you will not just burn out, but kill everything and everyone around you in the process.”
Alice reeled back, not expecting something like that. Burning out and dying, maybe, but killing everything around her?
Marie continued, not commenting on her silent outburst, for which she was grateful. “If you overindulge, the Ether will start to string you along, demanding more and more, until the Ether itself starts to fill every nook, cranny and crack in your being. You won’t die, so much as your soul will be washed away by the tides of Ether you hold, leaving nothing but a Husk behind — a being of pure magic, completely geared towards aligning their surroundings towards the element they represent, and always ravenous for more energy. There’s no coming back from that. No afterlife, no knocking at Death’s door, nothing. You, as a being, will be dissolved into more energy, your soul forever erased.”
Alice’s insides churned with anxiety and horror, and if she didn’t feel so paralyzed, she’d be puking her guts out. She could feel the bitter burn of bile at the back of her throat, but she couldn’t even move, the sheer terror before the idea of being completely erased overriding any other physical functions.
Marie stared at her for a long time, the patch of land they sat in blissfully devoid of any sound. The lack of more external stimuli helped Alice center herself again, and a new resolution took place wherein before was nothing but terror.
She would not be washed away.
She would rip out any Ether she needed, and make it hers and hers alone. A mere form of energy wouldn’t stop her from seeing everything this wonderfully horrifying world had to offer.
Seeing the newfound resolve in her eyes, Marie smiled. It was a nasty thing, full of teeth and malice.
“Good, you didn’t break! Now, let’s finish the explanation, and get on with your training, yes?”
Alice nodded, not trusting her own voice right now.
“Last but not least we have Control and Will. Both of them help with the raging torrent of energy Power puts forth, acting as regulating valves besides their other, secondary functions. Will is more geared towards how fast you regenerate Ether, and how hard of an attack on your Mind or Soul you can rebuff. With me so far?”
“Yeah,” her voice was raw, and she just noticed how thirsty she was. Alice damned her lack of preparation as she nodded once again.
“Now, show me your Echo, and we’ll see where we go from there.”