“What the hell is going on?” gasped Alyssa, staring at the disembodied blocks of text. It was too dark to see, but, after that brief period of nothingness, she could feel Carmen’s comfortable presence next to her in bed. “You saw it too, didn’t you?”

“I…I did,” Carmen answered, her hand finding Alyssa’s. She squeezed it tightly. “Could this be real?”

Alyssa had already gone through the tunnel of disbelief and come out the other side. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t see how the situation could be anything but real. It was one thing if it was just her experiencing it, but the combination of the loss of power, the strange period of nothingness, and the fact that Carmen had been through the same thing confirmed the reality of it all. So, she chose to treat it as such. If it turned out that she was crazy, then she would just deal with spending the rest of her life on antipsychotic drugs in a mental institution.

“What choices did you get?” Carmen asked.

“We’ll go over it once we figure this thing out,” she said, reaching over to her phone. Fortunately, it still worked, though there was no signal. Still, it gave her a light source. “I’ll go check on Miggy. He’s probably terrified.”

With that, she slipped off the bed and, using the light on her phone, headed out of her bedroom, down the hall, and into her eight-year-old son’s room. Thankfully, he was more than fine. In fact, he was grinning from ear to ear. When she asked if he was okay, he said, “What’s going on? Why’s the power out? It’s not even raining. Can we play Scrabble?”

Of course that was where his mind would go. For one reason or another, he saw any power outage as an opportunity to play board games, which he loved. Probably because he usually won.

“Everything is fine,” she said. “Did you see any…uh…boxes?”

“Huh?”

Clearly, he hadn’t. Alyssa had no idea why that would be, but that lack of comprehension seemed par for the course. So, she played it off, then led him into the house’s living room. For some reason, she had a very bad feeling, like there was something dangerous right around the corner. Part of that was due to the oddness of the situation, but she also knew just how irrationally people tended to act in any emergency.

“Okay, so what did you get?” Alyssa asked as she walked into the room.

“You first,” Carmen said, her feet curled under her on the couch. It was an incongruous position for someone with her particularly muscular physique.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said, glancing at the boxes she’d so far ignored. After the ones talking about Earth being connected to the World Tree – whatever that meant – was the one mentioning aspects.

She read it, then said, “I got three aspects. Martial, Faith, and Scholar. You?”

“Scholar and Magic,” Carmen said, obviously disappointed. Even if the situation seemed a little ridiculous, she clearly took it just as seriously as Alyssa.

“What are aspects?” asked Miguel.

“We’re not sure,” Carmen said. “But for your mom, Martial makes sense.”

“Because she’s a policewoman?”

“And because I’ve spent years practicing judo and jujitsu,” Alyssa said. “I used to go to the boxing gym with your uncle, too.”

The mention of Elijah brought with it more pain than she’d expected. If his plane had lost power…no, she didn’t want to think about that. Where he was concerned, it was easy to sink into a pit of depression, what with his illness. She was prepared to say goodbye, but that didn’t mean it was easy.

Faith made sense, too. Especially since her brother had been diagnosed, Alyssa had spent quite a bit of time praying. She rarely went to church – most of them didn’t especially approve of how she lived her life – but her religion was still important to her.

Scholar was easy, too. She’d just finished her master’s degree in criminal justice, and she intended to pursue her doctorate as well. It was mostly so she would look better when it came to promotions at work, but that didn’t change the fact that she’d spent quite a bit of her life studying.

For Carmen, the Scholar aspect made even more sense – assuming that it was, as Alyssa suspected, a comment on the lives they’d led. Carmen held her own doctorate in history with a specialization in primitive skills. So, most of her life had revolved around her education. As for Magic? Well, that was a mystery, but hopefully one they could solve by going through the rest of the notifications.

“And your archetypes?”

“What’s an archetype?” asked Miguel, snuggling close to Carmen.

“In this instance, I think it refers to as an overall classification. But we’re not sure, Miggy,” said Carmen. “Hopefully, we can figure it out together.”

He nodded along, and Alyssa said, “I got Warrior, Priestess, and Researcher. You?”

“Priestess? Ugh.”

“Don’t knock it. It says one of the sample classes is a Valkyrie.”

“Sexy.”

“Ugh,” groaned Miguel.

“What did you get?” repeated Alyssa.

“Two choices. Tradesman and Sorcerer. Both of which are bullshit. I mean, it wouldn’t make me so angry if your classes didn’t have feminine suffixes. But you got priestess. Why couldn’t I get Tradeswoman or Sorceress? I mean…come on.”

“I guess they didn’t get the memo on gender equality.”

“Obviously. So, which one are you picking?” asked Carmen. “Priestess, right?”

Alyssa shook her head. “I’m tempted,” she said. “Valkyrie does sound cool. But I don’t know…”

Indeed, looking at her choices, she was torn. Given the vague feeling of unease blanketing her mind, she had no intention of choosing Researcher. With the power outage and the messages she’d read, it seemed a foregone conclusion that things would get more dangerous. And as a police officer, she was duty-bound to meet that danger head-on and protect the populace.

So, her choices were between Priestess and Warrior. She looked at the first description again:

Archetype: Warrior

A versatile melee archetype, proficient with most weaponry. Features bonuses to durability, Strength, and learning martial techniques.

Required Aspect:

[Martial]

Sample Class Choices:

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

{Berserker}, {Guardian}, {Knight}, {Brawler}, {Guard}

First Skill:

Heavy Strike

Compatibility: 77%

Then, she looked at the one for Priestess:

Archetype: Priestess

Faith is versatile, lending power in a wide variety of ways. Features bonuses to Regeneration and Ethera.

Required Aspect:

[Martial], [Faith]

Sample Class Choices:

{Valkyrie}, {Apostle}, {Chaplain}, {Paladin}, {Inquisitor}

First Skill:

Word of Power

Compatibility: 63%

“Do you want my advice?” asked Carmen.

“You know I do.”

“Take Warrior,” she said. “The other one sounds fancy enough, but I know you. You’re a fighter. I can’t imagine any other archetype describing you any better than that.”

“But what if the other one’s better?”

Carmen rolled her eyes, then raked a hand through her black hair. “You always do this,” she said. “Remember when we used to have time to play games together? You would always second-guess your choices. But believe me, Alyssa – you won’t find a better fit than Warrior.”

“What about you?” Alyssa asked, pushing the choice aside for the time being.

“Tradesman all the way,” she said.

“Really? You don’t want to sling fireballs?”

“I mean, yeah. But you know me. I’d rather make things, you know? Besides, I get the feeling that the world’s going to need people who can build things,” she said. “You read those notifications, right? Randomization of terrain? I mean, if I were a betting woman, I’d put money on the reason the power’s out is because the grid’s fucked.”

Miguel gasped. “You said a bad word.”

“And I’ll probably say a lot more before this is finished,” Carmen said.

“Carmen.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll put a dollar in the swear jar in a minute,” she said. “Of course, money’s probably useless right now.”

“What? Why?” asked Alyssa.

“That always goes first, doesn’t it? With the power being out, credit cards and stuff are useless. The same for paper money. Haven’t you ever watched a zombie movie? Society’s about to collapse, Alyssa,” she said.

“This is not a zombie apocalypse.”

“You know that for sure?” Carmen asked. “I mean, maybe not the zombies. But I just got told by a magic box only I can see that I could be a Sorcerer. So, who knows what’s going to happen? My point is that apocalypse rules are definitely in play. Food. Water. Shelter and security. Those are the priorities.”

“You think it’s going to get that bad?” Alyssa asked. As a police officer, she had training for that kind of scenario, but she’d never really taken it seriously. Sure, she was prepared to respond to active shooters and terrorist scenarios, but the full collapse of society definitely seemed a bit far-fetched.

Carmen shrugged. “I have no idea, but I think it’s possible,” she said.

“Okay, so first thing’s first,” Alyssa said, deciding that it was better to treat it as an apocalyptic emergency and be wrong than the opposite scenario. “We need to catalogue our supplies. You and Miggy go to the kitchen –”

“Did you seriously just tell me to go to the kitchen?” asked Carmen with a grin.

“This isn’t time to joke, Carmen.”

Once again, Carmen rolled her eyes. “Fine. But I want it on record that you’re no fun. I mean, assuming we’re not crazy, we just got offered magic powers. Or at least I did,” she said. “That’s kind of a dream scenario for me.”

“Except the apocalypse part you just predicted.”

“Well, the world has too many people anyway,” she remarked. “Maybe Roy will get eaten by a zombie. Or turned. Then, I can legally blow his head –”

“Carmen!”

“Who’s Roy?” asked Miguel.

“Someone your mom knows from work,” Alyssa said, referring to the head of Carmen’s department. He was a blatant misogynist who constantly questioned her work, belittled her at every opportunity, and had even come onto her on more than one occasion. “He’s not important.”

“Unless I need to rid the world of a Roy-shaped zombie.”

“There aren’t any zombies.”

“You don’t know that.”

Alyssa let out a long-suffering sigh. “You’re a child.”

“I’m young at heart, which is why you love me,” Carmen pointed out.

“Anyway – you two take stock of the food,” Alyssa said, moving on. “I’m going down to the basement to get…other stuff.”

That was where she kept the gun safe, which, given what Carmen had predicted, seemed extremely important. Even if it wasn’t a zombie apocalypse – which sounded silly even in the context of what had happened so far – there was every chance of looters and other violent lawbreakers. And even if she had no intention of exercising lethal force, she was prepared to do whatever it took to protect her family.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Huh? What?”

“Your archetype. You really should choose something. You get bonuses to your stats and stuff,” Carmen said.

“Stats? Like a video game?”

“Yup. Just like a game.”

Alyssa shook her head, then confirmed her choice to become a Warrior. When she did, she got a notification congratulating her on it, then another window opened soon after:

Name

Alyssa Hart

Level

1

Archetype

Warrior

Class

N/A

Specialization

N/A

Alignment

N/A

Strength

6

Dexterity

7

Constitution

5

Ethera

4

Regeneration

4

Attunement

None

Cultivation

Body

Core

Mind

Soul

Unformed

Unformed

Unformed

Unformed

“What does all of this mean?” she asked. Before Carmen could answer, another notification popped up, telling her that she had ten free attribute points to spend.

“It means that all that weightlifting I did was completely useless,” pouted Carmen. Indeed, that was her primary hobby and means of stress relief, and her physique showed it. She’d never been one for heavy cardio, but she had long since cultivated a body studded with bulging muscles. Of course, some of that was mitigated by the fact that she was, at best an inch over five feet tall.

By comparison, at nearly six feet tall, Alyssa was extremely tall for a woman, and though she worked out as well, her routines were more for endurance, resulting in a much slenderer physique.

“Kind of depressing, really,” Carmen remarked. Then, she perked up, adding, “But on the bright side, I put all my points into Strength. So, I can probably lift a car now.”

“Ugh. Didn’t think it would be smarter to…you know, spread the points around?”

“Nope!”

Alyssa shook her head, and after spending a few moments reading what each attribute did, decided to follow her own advice, allocating two points into each category. As soon as she did, she let out a gasp as a wave of what could only be called rejuvenation swept through her.

“That’s the good stuff, right?” said Carmen, still grinning.

Alyssa didn’t answer. Instead, she focused on the fact that, if she could feel something like that, then the chance – slim though it was – that it wasn’t real became even more unlikely.

In the middle of her thought, something banged against the door.

She flinched. Carmen grabbed Miguel, clutching him with her thick arms.

Then, a familiar voice called out, “Alyssa! It’s me! Open up!”

Alyssa let out a sigh of relief, then crossed the living room to the door. When she flung it open, she saw a tall, broad-shouldered and athletic man in his mid-forties.

“What’s up, Chief?” asked Alyssa, looking past him and the petite blonde woman clutching his arm. The street was dark.

“Shit is going to go wrong real quick out there,” Roman Cain said. He was both the police chief and her neighbor. “Thought we all might be safer together.”

Of course, Alyssa knew that he hadn’t come for his own good. Rather, he’d done so for his wife, who was good friends with Carmen.

“Yeah. Probably for the best,” Alyssa said, stepping aside. “Come on in.”