“Well, this is interesting,” I muttered, staring at the character sheet. “If anything, it seems a little generous. At least, assuming this is standard 1-18 attributes.” Like any self-respecting engineering major, I was familiar with the basics of RPG - role-playing games. Characters in RPG had attributes like Strength, Intelligence, et cetera, that described how powerful they were. Usually the scale was from 1-18, with 1 being as low as it was possible to go and still be alive, and 18 being the absolute peak of human achievement. A newborn baby would have Strength 1, whereas an Olympic powerlifter would have Strength 18, and so on. All of my stats were at least average, with my Intelligence and Dexterity being well above average. I knew I was smart, but I didn’t think I was that smart.

“Help Special Skills?” I said quietly to myself. I was pretty sure I knew what ‘Omniglot’ was, but I had no idea what “Leader of the Band” might be, and in RPG, special skills were often unusual and very powerful abilities. This world was obviously oriented around music as a source of power. Besides, I wanted to see if this thing even had a help feature and that was the place to start. Fortunately, a text box appeared in my vision under the character sheet, which presumably I had to dismiss somehow.

Special Skills: Special Skills are abilities independent of standard physical, mental, or magical abilities.

“Well that’s helpful,” I snorted. “Help Leader of the Band?”

Leader of the Band: Leader of the Band is a Special Skill which enables the members of your party to Harmonize. (Passive Skill.)

“A little better, I guess, but still not very informative. Passive skill usually means I don’t have to actively try to make it work, which is nice. Help Harmonize?”

There was no new text box. So no help on that one. I’d have to figure that out as I went. “Help Omniglot?”

Omniglot: Omniglot is a Special Skill which enables you to speak, read, and write every language currently used on the world of Laroha. (Passive Skill.)

“Okay, this world is called Laroha. Good to know and at least I won’t be drawing stick figures to try to communicate. Help Song Mage?” I thought I knew where that was going but I was going to interrogate the Hell out of this help thing before I did anything else.

Song Mage: Song Mages use pure, focused notes to create Manifestations. Anyone can use their Resonance to create weak Manifestations, but only Song Mages can use a note other than their Resonance, with a range of one chord. Song Mages can also produce Manifestations of far greater power than ordinary people, depending on their own strength and skill.

As I thought. Musical mages. No wonder the voice said mastering musical theory would be a big deal here. Who knew if they even had musical theory here? My three weeks of the Introduction class could make me an Einstein on a planet full of Aristotles, for all I knew. But I was still a complete ignoramus as to how it worked in the first place. More Help questions were in order.

“Help Manifestation?”

Manifestation: Manifestations are created when a person uses Breath to sing a pure, focused note and are associated with the Element and Domain of that note. A note can create any Manifestation the singer can imagine and has the Breath to empower, although it is easier to create Manifestations which a singer has practice and training in manifesting. A note can only produce Manifestations correlated with the element and corresponding domain associated with that note.

“Now we’re getting somewhere. Manifestations sound like spells you make by singing a note. Help Breath?”

Breath: Breath is the mystic energy used by singers to empower notes to create Manifestations. Any singer can sing any note at will, but unless they infuse Breath into the note, no Manifestation will occur. The more powerful the Manifestation, the more Breath is required to create it. Breath replenishes over time when a singer is not singing.

“Breath is musical Mana, got it.” ‘Mana’ was what most game systems called the magical energy people used in magical worlds to make magical things happen. You had a certain amount of it, and when it was used up, you couldn’t do any magic until it regenerated. It made a certain amount of sense that you needed “Breath” to sing a magical song, just like you needed actual breath to sing at all. Speaking of things that seemed obvious…

“Help Resonance.”

Resonance: Everyone is born with a single Resonance, a note that their body and soul are particularly attuned to. When a person sings the note that is their Resonance, they can use Breath to cause Manifestations to occur. Song Mages can infuse Breath into notes other than their Resonance.

“Things are starting to make a lot of sense now,” I said, pleased with my progress. I kept studying the character sheet and noticed that it said my Resonance, C# (or ‘C-sharp,’) was associated with the element of Shadow and the domain of Thought. Or at least, that was my guess as to how that worked. I guessed it could be the element of Thought and the domain of Shadow just as easy. After dismissing my Character Sheet with a thought (‘close Character Sheet,’ to be precise) I looked around and confirmed that there was nobody else in the vicinity and the guards at the faraway gate weren’t paying me any particular attention. I walked around behind a tree so that they wouldn’t be able to see me at all. Then I looked around for animals to make sure nothing was about to take a bite out of me. Everything seemed quiet at the moment.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I thought about what a C# sounded like in the range of middle C, which is where most scales I had learned about started from. Professor Richard played scales a lot when he was illustrating tonal relationships and such.

Then I tried to sing it.

It felt weird.

I knew immediately that I was singing the right note: I could feel it… resonating. ‘So that’s why they call it a Resonance,’ I thought bemusedly. I was singing very quietly. I doubt anybody more than a few feet away would have even heard it. But it was almost thundering in my ears.

Shadow, shadow… the domain of shadow. Can I make a shadow? I held up my hand and sort of focused the song at it, thinking about a shadow forming over my palm.

The note stopped thundering, but suddenly it was a lot more work to hold it. (I’d already held it pitch-perfect for several seconds, which should have amazed me but I was distracted.) At the same time, a cloud of shadows appeared around my hand and started to spread up my arm. Stunned, I stopped singing. The shadows immediately vanished.

“Whoa,” I said slowly. “I just did magic.” Something occurred to me. “Character Sheet.”

Name: Chris Erikson

Class: Song Mage

Level: 1

Health: 100

Breath: 129

Stamina: 100

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 12

Dexterity: 14

Constitution: 9

Charisma: 12

Resonance: C#

Element: Shadow / Thought

Known Manifestations:

Call Shadows

Special Skills:

Omniglot, Leader of the Band

I took a deep breath and let it out, focusing on the screen. After a second “Breath” ticked back up to 130. So at least a little magic didn’t put too big a strain on me. I’d have to experiment more with it, since it didn’t tell me the rate Breath regenerated. My new “spell” had been added to my sheet, though.

Let’s check that out. “Help Call Shadows.”

Call Shadows: A Manifestation that causes shadows to collect around a designated target man-sized or smaller. 1 Breath per ten seconds of Manifestation. Element: Shadow.

Well, that was pretty cool. It even volunteered some information I hadn’t had to experiment to get - that there was a size limit, or at least that there was a limit on the size I could get at the base Breath use rate, and that there was a straight ratio between Breath used and the time the Manifestation would last.

That would make me a pretty good thief, I thought to myself. At least, it should. Not really my style but being able to stealth is always a good option to have. Plus it looks really cool. It did, too. The shadows were thick even in the afternoon sunlight. At night, they’d blend into any dark space or surface without a trace.

Of course, it was probably pretty hard to hide while you were singing, but I’d been very quiet, hardly more than a whisper, and the shadows came just fine. Singing loud, at least for this Manifestation, didn’t seem to be necessary. Also, maybe there were ways to cover up the noise. Magic appeared to be quite flexible at this point.

Besides that, the Character Sheet had confirmed that Shadow was an element, which hopefully meant that Thought was a domain. Whatever that meant. The usual fantasy elements were Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, though in some East Asian cultures the classical elements were Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

Yes, I am a giant nerd. We know these things.

In any event “Shadow” was not a classical element in any culture I knew about, so that meant that there were probably others. Earth, Water, et cetera might not even be elements here. One way to find out.

“Help Elements.”

Elements: The philosophical building blocks of the world. Each Element corresponds to a pure note.

Rats. No chart of which note goes with which Element. Not even a list of Elements.

“Help Domains.”

Domains: The building blocks of the philosophical world. Each Domain corresponds to a pure note.

Okay, I think somebody is messing with me, I thought when I realized that the descriptions for Elements and Domains were the same except for the position of the word “philosophical.” But if I couldn’t get a list, maybe I could at least learn more about what I already knew.

“Help Shadow Element.”

Shadow: The Element which conceals but does not hide completely. It represents leaving the Darkness… or entering it. Shadow corresponds to the pure note C#.

“That’s… interesting,” I said to myself. “So does that mean… Help Darkness Element.”

Darkness: The Element which hides all. Only Light can reveal that which Darkness hides. Darkness corresponds to the pure note C.

Follow the trail. “Help Light Element.”

Light: The Element which reveals all. Only Darkness can hide that which Light illuminates. Light corresponds to the pure note B.

Aha. B is the last note in an octave before you wrap around to C again. B and C are as far apart as notes can get on a scale, but at the same time they’re right next to each other at the end of two scales. This is starting to come together. Let’s check for other stuff.

“Help Water Element.”

Water: The Element which ultimately flows freely. Only Earth can block the flow of Water. Water corresponds to the pure note D.

I smiled. This was like beating a game by looking closely at its basic requirements. Or as the voice might say, it was like solving a puzzle. You might not know where all the pieces were, but once the right void formed, you knew which pieces had to go there. And look at that, another lead.

“Help Earth Element.”

Earth: The Element which ultimately stands firm. Only Water can overcome the firmness of the Earth. Earth corresponds to the pure note F.

Let’s check the other possibilities.

“Help Fire Element.”

Fire: The Element which consumes all. Only Air cannot be consumed by Fire. Fire corresponds to the pure note A.

“Help Air Element.”

Air: The Element which persists against all. Only Fire can consume that which from which Air depends. Air corresponds to the pure note G.

It was beginning to look like there were gaps in the notation of the octave, which probably meant there were more elements “in between” the base elements. I had lots of experimentation ahead of me. But mostly what I literally had ahead of me was a gravel road that led into a walled town. Walls on a town implied something dangerous, human or otherwise, that the walls were meant to keep out. Assuming I wasn’t one of those things, I decided I should start heading for town to see what I could see. Hopefully a steak dinner and a nice cozy bed, but it doesn’t pay to take things for granted. So I tried not to.

I figured that alternate timeline or whatever or not, food was essential. When I looked inside, the pouch contained a mix of coins. They were all the same size, only the markings varied. They seemed to be gold, silver, copper, and iron, as far as I could tell.

Putting the coins away, except for a few smaller ones I slipped into a front pocket, I walked back around the tree and started heading for the town. Time to see what a little fantasy money could buy.