I felt a mix of nervousness, fear, and elation as I moved through an alley going north in the slums, toward the Merchants' Quarter. It took effort to behave as if this was any other day and I had doubts about how well I managed. Inside my shirt I carried a purse that contained all the coin I had scraped together in the last few years and I did not want anyone to try to take it from me.
Having done my best to draw attention away from my appearance with both dirt and loose clothing, I tried to come off as an older child as usual, helped by my lack of stature. Unfortunately not everyone believed in that ruse anymore, just fair skin was enough to end up in one of Syvon's brothels and I had the bad fortune to have much more than that.
The plan I had hatched almost the hour my mother died, several years ago, was deceptively simple, driven on by mother's teachings I wanted out of the slums and out into the world I had only read about.
My current goal was the Scribe's shop just off the corner of Merchant's Lane where it turned onto King's Road leading down to the main city gates. Normally this was far too upscale an area for a half-way street rat like me but I thought I knew the mannerisms well enough that I should hopefully pass as a servant, though I would certainly look like one belonging to a less well off family.
While the shop I had in mind was more expensive than others of its kind, the Scribe that ran it had a reputation for fair dealings, something I desperately needed.
As I came out of the alley I stopped a moment and took in Merchant's Lane with its vibrant colors and floods of jovial, well dressed people, a stark contrast to what was found anywhere in the slums. It also did not smell as bad, probably because the sewers here were kept in good repair and got used as they should.
I moved swiftly up the road keeping my head down, while mumbling apologies whenever someone came close. It took me only a few minutes to reach my goal and luckily I got there without anything unforeseen happening.
As I entered the shop I stopped a moment to stare in wonder at the contraptions that hung from the ceiling, the glass vials full of sparkling somethings or gross dead things. Or things I could not even give a superficial identification to despite my broad, though rather eclectic, education. Across the room from me there was a heavy looking well-worn wooden counter behind which stood a thin intense looking man with eyebrows overshadowing any other feature of his face. His gaze bored into me from across the room as he watched me, no doubt making sure I would not try to steal anything.
"I wou—"
My voice gave out with a croak, and I took a deep breath to try to settle my nerves and tried again.
"Sir, I would like to buy a spell book, Fire Burst."
The man watched me in silence for a few moments before speaking.
"Fire Burst, is a weak ineffectual spell with no room for growth, it is in fact one of the few single Attribute spell known, it has no room for finesse or variation, driven only by the feeble amount of Mana its construct can handle. Even in the hands of an Arch-Mage it would not be an impressive spell, its only real use outside of possibly scaring away rats would be to cheaply become a Mage. Is that what you are planning, child?"
His intense eyes stayed on me as I gave a hesitant nod, not expecting this amount of conversation over something I had thought would be a simple and hopefully straightforward transaction of coin and a spell book.
"How old are you, child?"
It sounded like his voice had become less harsh as he spoke, but it might be my wishful thinking, for any difference was slight. The question threw me a bit, making me unsure if I wanted to keep up the pretense or not, but considering the man's reputation I decided to go with the truth.
"Seventeen, sir."
He kept silent for several long moments, making me squirm under his gaze before he resumed.
"You on the streets then?"
I shrugged and he gave a deep sigh as he crouched somewhat and began to rummage under the counter. While I did have a roof over my head, I either stole, begged or did chores where I could find them to feed myself. I was not sure if the Scribe even had a frame of reference for that way of life, apparently my attempt to pass as a servant had failed miserably.
"At seventeen it is hard to say if you are grown enough that there will be no side effects, you know how age affect the Attributes, yes?"
I nodded once more, but immediately felt foolish, the man could not see me facing down as he was.
"Yes, sir"
His search continued as he spoke, ignoring my reply.
"Did you know that once you gain a class, you will no longer naturally gain Attributes?" The man looked up over the counter to meet my eyes. He placed a slim red volume on the counter, and put his hands on both sides of it and leaned forward as he kept speaking.
"You see, as you grow older, your Attributes increase naturally throughout puberty and into adulthood. Gaining a class changes all that. Only changes recognized by your class, a skill or a Trait will change your Attributes, normally. So the safe option is to not gain a class too early in life. In most cases people can only reach a certain level before gaining further experience would require a risking of life and limb they are not inclined to put up with. The sensible choice then is to be as strong as possible at a certain level, that is, to have the highest Attributes you can. Then again, there have been children who grew up with a class, gained Attributes as normal and had a head start on their peers. On the other hand, there have been those who never hit puberty, never gained another increase and stayed a child in body until they died. There is no way of knowing which will happen, most children with a class never even gain their first level so the information available is sparse and inconsistent to begin with."
He pushed the spell book across the counter.
"But seeing as you have saved up what would be a considerable fortune on the streets, I assume none of this changes your mind. Going down the road of a mental focus is the wise choice. You have little chance matching up physically against anything threatening. So, hand over the coin, child. The book is a gold."
I felt a bit annoyed at the man, it was clear he did not believe me about my age and went on a rant as if to a child. There were admittedly some grounds for his assumptions, in truth it was impossible to know if I might have another growth spurt coming. While I might one day grow taller, there were no guarantees of that and the risk of staying in the slums was not one to be ignored either. I fished out the coin purse, the price was what I had expected, and the total of my funds.
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I did not feel ashamed when the Scribe counted out a gold in copper coins, I felt pride that I had managed to gather the staggering amount, no shame as I so clearly showed I did not have a single silver to my name. The Scribe finished counting with a grunt and swept the coins into another purse while pushing mine — now empty — along with the book to the edge of the counter.
As I reached for the book and purse the man grabbed my wrist causing my heart rate to skyrocket as I stared up at him with wide frightened eyes.
"You should use that book here, child. If you leave with it, things are bound to go badly for you. If you are set on getting your class, just do it here and at least accomplish that much in safety."
Having said that the man released me. I did agree with him, I would not have dared to do so had he not offered, but here was far better than some dark corner in the slums. I pocketed my empty purse and looked at the cover of the spell book. I could feel it was a spell book, everyone knew how to recognize one by the power they emanated. I could not read it though, the language was nothing I had ever seen before so I could not say which spell it was. But the idea that the Scribe would give me a more expensive one than what I paid for was laughable. I opened the cover and a flash of light burned my eyes as I had my first interaction with the Order.
Do you wish to learn the spell: Fire Burst?
It took me several moments of mental gymnastics to figure out how to give an affirmative, and as I did so I felt pain rush up the back of my head and tears started streaming from my eyes as the world swam in a kaleidoscope of colors as shapes distorted. I backed up against the door and slumped down it, trying to get my eyes to focus again while my head pounded like never before. The book in my hands felt oily against my fingers as it seemed to grow less substantial until I could not feel it anymore, with the distortions to my vision I could not make out what had happened, but the thin volume was clearly gone.
And just like that it all stopped, the pain went away and I once more caught the eye of the Scribe, as he stood leaning over the counter, studying me.
"So, child, you a Mage now then?"
I took a deep breath,
"Status."
Ewynne
Age: 17
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
Race: Half-blood
Class: Enchantress
Strength: 6
Dexterity: 14
Agility: 12
Constitution: 7
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 19
Wisdom: 11
Willpower: 12
Perfection: 14
Charisma: 12
Health: 70/70
Mana: 230/230 (19/minute)
Stamina: 80/80 (15/minute)
I stared in shock at my status, trying to wrap my head around what I was seeing. There were just so many things that did not add up. If you learned a spell, you became a Mage, everyone knew that. There were only four base combat classes, Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric, they diverged later on, but those four were what everyone started out with. Yet here I was having just learned a spell, the Order even told me what spell it was, and now I was an Enchantress; a class I had never even heard of. It grew more difficult to keep a hold of myself as the urge to hyperventilate was almost overwhelming. I had planned, worked and schemed to achieve this moment for years, barely scraping by and seldom having enough to eat. The joke was on me apparently, I was not a Mage.
Furthermore I was a half-blood, if that became known it would add another heap of troubles to the ones I already had. Then, finally, my Attributes. Many believed ten was the normal value for an attribute, but I had read more than one account that clearly explained that ten was not average, rather, it was the natural value a person could achieve without any significant detriments or affinities. So rather than ten being normal, it was what could be achieved by time and effort if there was nothing in the way. Of course that was not strictly true, you could not train say Perfection for example, but in general the explanation was sound. Taking care of your general physique did affect your Perfection so it was not entirely out of your control, though what caused an improvement or not was rarely certain, and accounts varied as to what the Attribute actually did, though it did seem to improve one's general appearance.
I would not have been surprised if the average Attribute in the slums was five or six. Having thought all that, my Attributes did not match what I had expected by any stretch. My voice shook as I spoke to the Order once more.
"Abilities."
Sense the Flow, rank 1
You can perceive the flows of Power around you. Limited to the basic Powers.
Cost: N/A
Cast Time: Instant, Instinctual, Intentional
Range: 2 meters
Upkeep: N/A
Enchant, rank 1
You can enchant objects with the Magic you know.
Cost: Variable.
Cast Time: Variable, Intentional
Range: Touch
Upkeep: Variable
I had heard people joke about how uninformative the Order could be when it came to descriptions, but the truth was glaringly obvious here. I did not actually understand what this meant and it would take experimenting to figure out the exact mechanics of the Abilities. But they were also very clearly not anything like what I had expected as a Mage.
"Traits." I was all but shaking as I hoped for some good news.
Limited Caster
You are not a Mage, while you may learn spells your ability to cast them is limited.
Effect: The Mana cost of all spells is increased to five times.
My eyes bugged out as I tried to take in what was being presented to me. If I had actually been reading the information in question I could have hoped for a misunderstanding on my part. But it was not possible to misunderstand the Order; You might forget, or gloss over something, but outright misunderstanding was impossible.
"Spells."
Fire Burst
Throws a burst of fire at a nearby target. Spell structure maintained by 10 Willpower.
Damage: 3 times Willpower, excluding structure requirement.
Cost: 125 Mana
Cast Time: 2s, Intentional
Range: 2 meters
Upkeep: N/A
The massive Mana cost was insane, I could only cast the least impressive spell ever invented, once.