The sun was in the dawn position when Heather stumbled onto the ship's deck with Webster in tow. The others had returned hours ago and told Blackbast of all that happened the night before. The cat woman agreed with Quinny that a mimic could not be so big under normal circumstances. However, she had seen enough to know that the rules could and often were broken. This statement was made with a sideways glance at Heather. Blackbast went on to explain that what she didn't understand was why it hadn't eaten them.
They debated it for only a few moments until other people began to stir along the docks. Blackbast quickly produced the collar and placed it around Heather's neck, restoring her disguise before anyone saw her.
“Now, let us slip out of town and be gone before anyone asks any questions,” Blackbast suggested. Legeis jumped down in his armor and helped as Frank, and the others lifted the palanquin over the side. Once securely on the docks, Blackbast summoned another magical disk to carry it and stood with Legeis and Frank flanking her. Breanne, Quinny, Heather, and Webster took their place inside the palanquin, with Umtha sitting on the front over the egg. Once they were assembled, Blackbast led them into town as Heads turned to see the strange procession.
“Nobody is doing anything more than staring,” Breanne remarked as they began to pass into the narrow streets.
“Good,” Heather remarked as she tried not to yawn.
Breanne looked at her with a concerned expression before asking if Heather had gotten any sleep. She had gotten a few hours but not enough to feel rested. Even Webster hadn't wanted to get up and lay in a ball at her side, snoring gently.
“I must have the only spider who snores,” Heather remarked as she considered him.
“He was afraid of being in that house on his own,” Quinny added and lifted her blank mask so they could see her pale face. “I didn’t even want to go inside.”
“That thing made us see an image of you at the back door,” Heather explained as she relived the moment. “The whole experience was surreal.”
“Careful,” Breanne whispered as she watched out the side. “We’re about to pass a group of players.”
The three went quiet, and Quinny lowered her mask as a crowd of five came into view. Not one of them was human, and Heather watched as they took note of the palanquin’s passage. Still, none of them did more than look, and moments later, they were safely behind.
“This is silly,” Heather sighed. “I would love to explore this town and see what it offers.”
“I think Blackbast wants to keep you focused on the egg,” Quinny replied with a shrug.
Heather sighed and folded her arms as she longed to get down and explore. “I may as well hide in the magic room with my bone champion.”
Quinny leaned against the back wall with a nod and lifted the mask again. It was clear she didn't enjoy having it on, but like Heather had to hide who she really was. She asked if Heather believed the story that the egg was part of some plan of the goblins to restore Hathlisora.
Heather asked why Hathlisora needed to be restored. If the voice was telling the truth, Heather was the plan to do that, not the egg.
“She never actually said what you were supposed to do,” Breanne pointed out.
It was true; the woman in the crown had answered questions but only so far as to create more. Heather wondered if maybe they needed to call on her again and ask more direct ones. It would be faster, but the woman warned that learning too much too soon would lead her down the path of madness. Of course, not knowing was driving her crazy as well, but no more than usual.
“Hopefully, this egg isn't far now,” Heather said as she held up her arm to admire the bracelet of green stones. “Show me the hand,” she said, and a moment later, a single stone began to glow, indicating they needed to go west.
“I suppose you want to hunt that down as well,” Breanne said as Heather turned her wrist, causing the stone that glowed to change, so it always pointed west.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. It was a clue to her past, but some part of her wanted to abandon that life and start a new one. What was the sense of chasing after something that had gone so terribly wrong the last time she had tried? Still, her nature craved answers, and she hated the notion of being a pawn in some game. She desperately wanted to understand what was going on, if only so she could break the pattern.
They reached the outer edge of the buildings in minutes and quickly set out into the stony grasslands. The desert seemed more alive, with cactus, gnarled trees, and thin, spike-like grass. Frank walked ahead with Legeis as the three talked away, with Blackbast occasionally pointing to something in the distance.
Heather decided to pass the time by going back to the magic room for a book. She returned with the guide to magic and resumed studying the schools and the few basic spells it contained. An hour later and she was through a chapter on divination and finally had the detect magic spell. With delight, she cast the spell to see the ring and bracelet begin to glow. Quinny’s sword, Breanne’s pouch, and the collar around Heather’s neck also began to glow with a faint blue light.
“That’s useful,” Breanne remarked as she looked at the ring on Heather’s hand. “I would like to learn that spell as well.”
Heather nodded and handed her the book before admiring the ring's blue glow. She opened the panel and looked over the stats of her character sheet. This new race had such interesting features and somehow felt natural, yet in the back of her mind, she knew there was more. It was as if it was a stepping stone to something greater, a move in the right direction. The very fact that she now effectively had five classes made her smile. She was a necromancer, flower singer, recluse, slave, and lilithu devil. She was a living breach of the rules, an example that the visitors did not have absolute control. The system could be manipulated so long as you understood how it worked. The necromancers figured this out and were tampering with the rules. Hathlisora was helping them in an effort to find a way home. Somehow it all went wrong, and King Kevin came to put a stop to their plans. The respawn system was broken in the process, and players who died while under necromancy effects stayed dead. The necromancers were blamed for the crime, and the class banned lest other players discover the secrets they did. Heather wondered if it had something to do with the buffer. The necromancer class called minions from that mysterious void and discovered how to hide things in it. The dead slept in it until the time to respawn came, unaware of the passing of time. She had finally been killed and spent her time in the sleep of the buffer, yet she had dreamed. A familiar voice told her that he had been chosen to protect her but hadn't said who he was. She leaned to the side to look out the window to see the armored hulk that was Frank. She already knew the answer, but the real question now was why?
“Are you daydreaming again?” Breanne asked as she looked up from the book.
“No, I am putting my thoughts together,” Heather replied and glanced to Breanne. “Can you teach me some shadow spells?”
“We have spoken about this before,” Breanne replied with a nod. “I can teach you, but you won't have true access to the higher spells unless you spend a lot of skill points to gain access.”
“The book describes the schools of magic as spheres that contain sub spheres,” Heather pointed out. “Holy, life and light magic share the sphere of radiance, for example.”
“And your point is?” Breanne pressed.
Heather explained that so long as you had a primary magic skill in a particular sphere, you had access to the others that shared it. It was not as strong as a class focused on the specific school but better than in another sphere. She then pointed out that unholy, necromancy, and shadow shared the same sphere. Since she had a primary in both necromancy and, thanks to her new race, unholy, she should have excellent access to shadow.
“The devil class gives you access to unholy?” Breanne stammered with a hint of shock.
Quinny laughed and pointed out it made perfect sense. All infernals probably had unholy.
“It doesn't seem to come with spells like a traditional class would,” Heather remarked. “I get magical abilities I can use only so many times in a twenty-four-hour period.”
Quinny looked on curiously and asked what she could do. Heather opened the panel and looked over the character sheet, and began to point out some abilities. She could make her skin as hard as obsidian for up to one minute. She could turn invisible for fifteen minutes three times. She could cause an aura of fire and heat twice or take control of an existing fire, shaping it to her will five times. Finally, she could walk on lava anytime she wanted and could pass through it like it was water.
“Won't your clothing burn off?” Quinny asked, but Heather explained her nature protected whatever she was carrying.
“So you can swim in lava?” Breanne said with a raised brow.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Or walk on it,” Heather added and looked over her panel. “In one level, I gain the ability to corrupt the ground around me. It causes anybody attuned to the darkness sphere to heal and recover mana faster. It also hurts beings attuned to radiance.”
“Undead are attuned to darkness as part of their nature,” Quinny said. “So we will all heal from it.”
“You may not have full access to all those abilities,” Breanne remarked and reminded Heather that the collar would inhibit her primary class. Since that was now the lilithu devil, it made sense that some of the class's abilities would be restricted. Still, it was worth it for the sake of the disguise, and it could be taken off if she ever needed those powers.
Heather nodded and tapped open her necromancer skills. She noted that the necromancer class also gained the ability to corrupt the ground in a few levels. It had the same effect as the lilithu devil but also acted as a graveyard for the purposes of raising minions. Even though she could summon a small group of skeletons anywhere, they only lasted a short time. If she had a graveyard, it was possible to summon a small army that lasted until slain. More so, she could summon powered-up skeletons that had weapons and armor, giving her far more combat options.
“Why would two classes have nearly the same ability?” she asked as she pondered the two spells.
“Lots of classes share abilities,” Quinny replied with a tone of humor to her voice. “There are so many classes that they overlap a lot. Even the races overlap quite a bit when you think about it. There are at least four different cat races, and they all have the same abilities.”
Heather didn't think that made a bit of sense and asked why it would be that way. Breanne explained it was because the visitors drew from so many sources. Many games shared the same races with only minor differences, so the visitors included them for the sake of variety. She mentioned how one of the feline races was based on lions, and the males had large manes of hair. The only real difference other than being cosmetic was that the race was naturally stronger than other feline races.
“One of the races is based on tigers and is nearly as strong but also can run really fast,” Quinny added. She then commented that Blackbast's particular flavor of cat could jump high and was super agile. Like a house cat, she could fall farther than other people without taking damage. They all had cat sight and reflexes as well as enhanced senses.
“Provided she isn’t wearing heavy armor,” Breanne said before setting the book aside. “Let’s see if you can use shadow magic as easily as you think you should be able to.” She started with a basic spell throwing a simple dart of shadow. With a hand stretched out the window, she demonstrated the spell, hurling a small ball of darkness across the sands.
Heather listened as Breanne went over the simple gesture and single command word. She silently mouthed the word before reaching a hand out and attempting it herself. A moment later, a second dart of shadows flew from the window and raced away from the palanquin.
“She can do it!” Quinny said excitedly and urged Breanne to teach Heather another spell.
“Let’s try something more advanced,” Breanne said with a calculating expression. She showed Heather a defensive spell that turned her body into shadows. She demonstrated it, showing Heather how nothing appeared to change until she moved. Snapping her hand rapidly caused it to trail shadows that broke apart like smoke from a fire.
“What use is a spell-like that?” Heather asked as she wondered why she would want to trail smoke.
“Your body is less solid,” Breanne replied. “Any physical attack that lands has a chance to disrupt you instead of wound you.” When Heather still didn't understand, Breanne went on to explain that her body would break into dark smoke when struck and reform in seconds. She would even be able to move about while reforming. The problem was she would leave black smoke in her wake when she moved so her enemies would know she was using the trick. At higher levels, she could even collapse into smoke at will, flying off as a means of escape.
“Really? How come you never use that?” Heather asked in surprise.
“I can turn into a ghost and avoid most attacks anyway,” Breanne said as if the question was silly. “Now, focus, this is a higher-level spell. I want to see if you can manage it.”
Heather took a deep breath and had Breanne walk her through the steps of the spell. It was more complicated, requiring three well-spoken words and a hand gesture that snapped the wrist. She followed the steps exactly as Breanne instructed and then wondered if anything had happened.
“Waive your hand rapidly,” Breanne instructed, and they all watched as nothing happened.
“So fifth-level spells are beyond you,” Breanne said with a thinking expression. “I am rather impressed you managed the first level spell, to be honest. You shouldn't be able to cast any spells unique to the shadow line.”
Heather smiled and admitted she spent skill points on shadow magic a while ago but never got around to asking Breanne to show her some spells. A thought occurred to her as she explained it and decided to open her panel for all to see.
“I wonder if I have talent points from my new race,” Heather remarked and poked at the interface. All eyes went wide to see she did indeed have many talent points.
“You have more weapon options,” Quinny pointed out with a finger. “Look, you can use daggers and swords now.”
“Daggers,” Heather repeated with a sudden memory. She realized there was a wavy dagger sitting on the table in her room. They found it when they killed the hag, but since she had no skill in it, she never carried it. She marked that thought for exploration later and went back to focusing on her large pool of talent points.
“So, what are you going to spend them on?” Quinny asked.
“More access to shadow, I guess,” was all Heather could think of.
Breanne quickly pointed out how expensive that was going to get and suggested she pick something more practical. Heather added a few points of toughness to her character and improved her combat skill with her scythe. She boosted the power on her call the dead spell once again; then, she looked at unholy spells. Her race gave her access to the school, but it didn't learn spells as it leveled. She discovered this was because her race was more melee combat focused. Still, talent points spent to learn unholy were cheaper than shadow since she had direct access to it. Though she knew no unholy spells, she spent enough points to access the third level of ability.
Breanne argued she was gaining nothing from that, but Heather was undeterred. Sooner or later, she would find a way to acquire spell books, and then she would learn all the spells she needed. She decided to save a bunch of the points until she found a use for them and closed the panel.
“You're almost as melee-focused as I am,” Quinny remarked when the panel blinked away. “Maybe you should consider wearing armor since the lilithu race can wear some.”
“That may hinder her necromancer spells,” Breanne said but paused as she realized the solution. “Of course, you have all the points you need to learn the combat casting skill. Then you can cast spells even while in medium armor.”
Quinny suggested Heather might even have that skill by default like some other classes did. Heather decided to check but discovered Breanne was right. She didn't have the skill by default, but it was cheap, and she picked it up just in case.
“I want to ask Frank something,” Heather said as the panel winked away. She leaned out the side door of the palanquin to see they were traveling at a trot, covering ground at a brisk pace. With a smile, her eyes glowed with a green light as a third one appeared on her forehead. She vanished in a flash and had to catch herself as she arrived at her destination.
“Frank,” she called and clutched at his helm to hold her balance where she sat on his shoulder.
With a lurch, Frank turned to look to the right and see her smiling face. She was grateful when he helped her balance by putting an arm around her legs and asking how she got there.
“I teleported from the palanquin. I wanted to ask you if you could spend talent points to learn necromancy,” she said.
“I don’t have access to any magic schools,” he replied.
Heather thought that was wrong somehow and asked him how he used grave dancer magic. He explained that the class was a bit like a warrior with special undead-related abilities thrown in. She realized it must work a lot like her lilithu race, but Frank's was a class. Surely there was more to it.
“I get special abilities every level, or more often than not, older abilities upgrade as I level,’ he replied. “Remember, my class is very heavily based on building a graveyard and tunnels. It's more like your recluse class than your necromancer class.”
“Right,” Heather replied as the comparison made perfect sense. Her recluse class had all sorts of abilities that were only useful to building a base. It came with no magical spells of any kind though she could place magical effects in her tower. “It’s a shame you can’t learn magic. I was just thinking how useful it would be for you to have some basic necromancer spells.”
“He doesn't need magic,” Blackbast said from her perch on the back of Legeis's armor. She stared at Heather, who was almost the same height from where she sat on Frank's shoulder. “You look comfortable there.”
Heather wasn't sure what she meant by that and returned the stare without blinking.
“You can cast spells. Could you learn necromancy?” she asked.
Blackbast shook her head and explained that her magic had a divine source. She could only cast the spells her class was allowed and wasn't technically a magical class like a wizard.
“But my flower singer can cast spells from other classes,” Heather insisted.
“The flower singer is a magical class based on nature magic. If you were a priest of a god of nature, then you would be like me, unable to cast outside your list of spells,” Blackbast replied.
“So magical classes come in two varieties,” Heather surmised as she pondered it out.
“Three,” Blackbast interrupted. “Those that cast spells. Those that cast blessings, and those that have innate magical abilities. Most racial classes have the innate abilities while primary classes have the other two.”
“So blessing-based classes can't learn spells outside their list?” Heather asked as she tried to grasp it all.
“No, they can't,” Blackbast replied.
It seemed simple enough but then how did paladins work. Wasn't holy magic blessing-based? She asked the question and was surprised to learn that all holy magic was blessing-based. This led her to ask if that applied to unholy as well, and Blackbast confirmed it did. This meant that she had access to a whole school of blessings she knew nothing about. It made her head hurt to try and understand it, especially considering they were listed in the book on magic. Now that she thought about it, they were only listed on the page with the pattern that showed the schools. Nowhere in the book did it describe those two particular schools or have a basic spell listed. She wondered how many of the others were blessings and made a note to figure it out later.
“You are using that crown to move around now,” Frank said, drawing her from her thoughts.
“I just wanted to ask that question,” she replied and looked around. “How long until we are out of the desert?”
“We should be clear by morning,” Blackbast replied. “Legeis is going to lead us until he tires; then Frank will take over through the night.”
“So you're going to press on while I sleep?” Heather asked, and Frank nodded.
“We talked about this before,” he reminded her. “This way, we can cover twice as much ground. I can even run for most of it to push our range.”
“It makes sense,” Heather replied and looked to Blackbast. “But won’t that mean you will have to be here? Don’t cat people sleep?”
“Frank is going to carry me in his arms so I can sleep,” Blackbast replied with a wink to Frank. “That way, we can press on as quickly as possible.”
“That’s great,” Heather replied as a twinge of jealousy crawled down her spine. She glanced at Blackbast to see the woman studying her reaction and quickly looked away. Why should she feel jealous? It was a logical arrangement that would greatly increase their rate of travel. Yet, the thought of that curvy feline who wore slips of clothing asleep in Frank’s arms bothered her.
“Is something wrong,” came a purring voice that now grated on Heather’s nerves.
Heather replied quickly that nothing was wrong while at the same time adjusting her seat on Frank’s shoulder. She was just about to excuse herself and retreat to the palanquin when a thought dawned on her. She asked Legeis what kind of magic he used, but he said none. He followed the school of engineering, which wasn't a magic school despite the many similarities.
“The big difference is magic can be used as needed, while engineering stuff usually requires a lot of preparation,” he said from the seat of his mechanical armor. “I gotta make the ammo for most of my weapons, and that takes time.”
“I need components for some spells,” Heather offered, but it wasn't the same. She felt rather sad that she and Breanne were the only true spell casters. That meant Breanne was the only one who could hope to learn some necromancy. She would see if Breanne was interested in spending the points necessary to gain access. Probably not, considering she had fewer points than Heather and was spending many of those on archery. She resigned herself with learning more of the spells from the book of necromancy for herself. Now that she knew how to read the hidden spells, it was simply a matter of devoting time to study. She made her excuses and vanished in a flash to arrive at the doorway of the palanquin.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Breanne asked, but Heather only shrugged and headed for the magical door frame. She explained she wanted to study another spell from the book and headed inside.
In moments she was inside the hidden room with the strange clock on one wall. Pausing before that clock, she wondered once again why anybody would need to know the sun's exact movements. With no more insight than before, she turned to the magical book resting on the desk. Here was a wealth of knowledge that she was only partway through. The necromancers accomplished feats so great the server turned against them. She would learn all this book had to offer and add to it the others from the library. When that was exhausted, she would seek out the other books referenced and then do some of her own research. She would not be content to be just another necromancer; she would rise up as they did before and take her place as a necromancer queen.