Iris sighed deeply as the warm water of the shower hit her back. Even back home she wasn't used to showers, and had only ever used them during rare visits to the city. The thought that a dingy, closed down tavern underneath a frontier town like Giantrock had better amenities than her apartment made her laugh.
She did need to occasionally pump mana into the shower for it to continue working, which hadn't been the case for those she had used at inns back in the empire. She supposed she might not be able to use the shower at all if she didn't have powers, and was delighted for the one thousandth time that she did, in fact, have magic powers.
The towels weren't exactly fresh, they actually smelled vaguely mildew-y, but considering she'd been sleeping on the ground and bathing in stagnant ponds for the past week or so, she didn't really care. She relished the soft fabric on her face, and delighted in taking an extra towel to tie up her hair.
"Ugh," she heard Autumn from outside, banging on the door to the washroom, "hurry up!"
"Sorry!" Iris squeaked, hurrying to gather her clothes and scurry out of the washroom. She gave Autumn an apologetic wince as she passed her, then hurried down the hall to her room.
She sighed once more as she stepped into her room and closed the door behind her. She had really, really missed having her own space. She had grown accustomed to it over the years, having her own personal sanctum where no one else was allowed unless she invited them in -- which she rarely did. Her bedroom had been a place to retreat from the whole world and just exist for a while. She was more than happy to trade that for a life of adventure, but she could already tell that she would cherish moments like these when she got to have some semblance of that feeling again.
She unceremoniously dropped her dirty clothes on the floor, and pulled some clean clothes out of her bag. They were more borrowed items from Victoria, which meant they were slightly oversized for her, but she was wearing them as pajamas, so that was okay. She hoped that by this time tomorrow they would have gone shopping in the city and she'd have a whole wardrobe of her own stuffed into her bag.
Happily, she plopped onto the bed. The mattress wasn't exactly soft, but it was a hell of a lot better than the rocky floor of a forest or desert. She snuggled up to the pillow with the blanket pulled over her shoulder until it almost covered her face, and was ready to drift off to sleep.
Then her eyes shot open as she remembered. She kicked off the blanket and launched herself out of bed to grab her bag from the floor. She reached in and pulled out her journal which promptly flicked itself a mostly blank page with a bold announcement near the top.
IRIS ORION
Hero Rank, Level 5
Experience Points: 492 / 6680
Progress to next level: 7.36%
Recent Accomplishments
Quest Complete : The Golden Fish
Reward: 700 EXP
Abilities:
- Spatial Distortion
- Send and Retrieve
Pending abilities and evolutions : 0
Special Abilities:
- Extra-dimensional Familiar, unknown
Attribute Scores:
- Vitality : 22
- Strength : 25
- Speed : 18
- Intellect : 18
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- Spirit : 22
Unspent attribute points : 5
"Yes!" She shouted allowed, clutching the book with one hand as she punched the air with the other. In the next room over, Titus knocked gently but pointedly on the wall. "Sorry!" she said, trying to contain her excitement.
She flipped to the next page, where her skill breakdowns where.
IRIS ORION
ABILITIES
Spatial Distortion
Source : Thread of Power (Void)
Cooldown : N/A
Mana cost : Low, varies
Description :
Lapse into the void behind reality and reappear a short distance away, in an unobstructed location of your choosing. Mana cost increases exponentially with distance traveled.
Discovered trait : other beings can be brought through the void with you, however this results in extremely high mana cost.
Special Use : Emergency Exit
Cooldown : 30 days
Mana cost : All
Description:
In the event of imminent death, lapse into the void behind reality and reappear an extreme distance away. Activates automatically, location cannot be chosen.
Available Evolutions : 0
Send and Retrieve
Source : Thread of Power (Void)
Cooldown : N/A
Mana cost : Low, varies
Description :
Temporarily lapse an object into the void, reappearing a short distance away in a location of your choosing, with a velocity and direction of your choosing. Max velocity is approximately the speed at which user could throw the affected item. Cannot be used on items too large or heavy to be lifted by the user. Cannot be used on items worn or held by others.
Available Evolutions : 0
She immediately eyed the dresser across the room, where she spotted a small, dusty candle. She held out her hand and instinctively activated the power. The candle disappeared from its place on the shelf and reappeared in her hand with a surprising amount of force, as if she caught it after it was thrown towards her. Smiling at her new power, she looked back at the shelf and sent the candle back. It appeared near the circle of missing dust where it had originally sat, except it flew past it and slammed into the wall, cracking the glass.
That was, thankfully, the exterior wall of the building, and no angry knocks came from the other side. She suppressed a cackle of excitement even as she tried to chastise herself for being reckless. Satisfied for the time being, she climbed back into bed and sat cross-legged as she returned her attention to the book. She took note of the additional information added under her Spatial Distortion skill, the phrasing seemed to imply that she could discover additional details and mechanics of her powers, and they would be documented here. She decided to experiment with this more in the future.
Next, she flipped back to her stat page. She had five attribute points to spend, which she carefully deliberated. She figured that if she wanted a well-rounded distribution she should probably put those points into speed and intellect, but she wasn't certain that she wanted to be well-rounded. Despite it being her highest stat, so far the attribute that she was most consistently disappointed with had been strength. After a minute or so of trying and failing to think of reasons she shouldn't, she placed four points into strength and one point into vitality.
Attribute Scores:
- Vitality : 23
- Strength : 29
- Speed : 18
- Intellect : 18
- Spirit : 22
Unspent attribute points : 0
Finally, with a deep breath, she flipped the pages of the book towards the beginning of the journal, hoping to find a new message revealed from her mother. The journal soon took over, flipping its own pages independently until it settled on one of the first. As with all the pages belonging to her mother most of the text on the page was jumbled and illegible, though this one included another short, handwritten portion that was now readable.
Dear Iris,
Strange things are happening. Already, so much in my life has changed. I remember things that haven't happened yet, I forget things that happened yesterday. All my life I dreamt of power, but I never knew it would come at such a cost.
Tomorrow we ride for The Shining Peaks, to the towers of the Great Wizards. It's there that I hope to a cure for my mind, and if not a cure, then at least answers. I promise to explain more in my next entry, for now I fear I can't make sense enough of my visions and thoughts to know what to write.
Travel safely, stranger,
- Mary Orion, 968
Iris stared at the page for some time. She cycled through countless fantasies of what her mother must have been going through. Had something gone wrong with her powers? Had she been driven mad by their effects? If she had, it must have been temporary, her mother had never seemed particularly mad in her childhood. These same thoughts continued to swirl in her head even as she closed the book, blew out the candle on her nightstand, and curled up under her blanket.