Chapter 5: Spirit Guide
> There's a time for love and a time for healing
> Can't go back and undo what's been done
> Word of mouth, time is revealing
> Just how far we've let this kingdom come
> Hand in hand we're finding our way
> And today is just tomorrow's yesterday.
> - “All Kinds of People,” Susan Ashton
Sophia lay on her back on the stone floor, staring, wide-eyed, at the cloudless blue sky above her, her knees up as her legs were stuck on the bench she had been sitting on. She only had a moment to try to regain her breathing before a translucent copy of the kisq that she had just killed scurried into view on top of the bench next to her legs.
“Are you listening to me?” It cried in a voice that sounded exactly like how Sophia imagined a crazy mutant squirrel would sound. “You’re ignoring me, aren’t you? You-”
Sophia was already rolling away from the weird encounter, hissing through the pain as she pushed herself up to her feet and tried to back away. Now that she had the vantage of standing up, she could see that the kisq’s body still lay in a broken pile against the far wall. This new figure looked just like the kisq, down to the part of its ear that had been missing - something Sophia hadn’t had time to notice before. But this version of the kisq was decidedly less… tangible. Sophia could see the right through it to the bench and rubble beyond.
As Sophia stared in silence, the kisq… ghost? … was getting more and more hysterical. “Hey! I’m talking to YOU! You can’t just ignore me - you’re the reason I’m DEAD!”
Finally, Sophia shook out of her stupor and held up a hand. “Okay okay. Hold on. I’m sorry, I’m just… surprised.”
“Surprised? Surprised that someone as pitiful as you could defeat the marvelous Tiko? Of course you are! I don’t know how you managed it, either.” The spirit huffed, still looking peeved but perhaps a little less hysterical from the perceived compliment.
Slowly, Sophia nodded. “Right... I mean… yeah. Of course. I can’t believe I stood a chance against the great and powerful Tiko.” She wondered idly if she had overdone it with the sarcasm, but the ghost didn’t seem to notice. It nodded sharply, straightening in pride.
“That’s right! It is good that you understand the great potential that you have removed from this world. Are you ashamed yet?”
Sophia felt her back going up and she scowled. “In my defense, YOU attacked ME.”
“I did nothing of the sort!” The ghost protested, then scowled and grumbled, “Just because I lost control and can’t remember. It’s not nice to throw accusations around.”
Sophia opened her mouth, then shut it quickly. She was starting to feel a headache coming on. “Um… okay, look. I’m sorry? I…” Sophie stopped herself before asking whether the creature had perhaps been rabid, thinking that that might just set off the ghost again. Instead, she changed directions and just sighed. “I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”
For a long moment, the kisq seemed to glare at her and Sophia just shrugged, trying to look sympathetic. Then the ghost huffed. “Fine. You are forgiven. It wouldn’t do to stay mad at you anyway, if we are going to work together.”
“I… what?” Sophia took another step back and shook her head. “What are you talking about? You’re a ghost, right? Don’t you need to… move on or something?” She had hoped that making amends would help the thing do just that, though in truth she hadn’t actually interacted with a ghost before.
“Move on? To where?” The kisq exclaimed, starting to get agitated again. “You called me! Now you don’t want me?!”
Sophia groaned and shook her head. This was getting ridiculous and she was losing her patience. “I did not call you! I killed you, and I said I was sorry! Now you need to go. Go… frolic in squirrel heaven. I’m sure there are lots of trees and hoards of acorns or something.”
For a long moment they just stood there, Sophia and the kisq staring at one another. Then the little ghost’s nose started twitching in a way that reminded Sophia distinctly of a child’s upper lip quivering. She groaned silently. “You AREN’T crying. Tell me you’re not…”
“You don’t want me?” The ghost bemoaned through what were clearly sniffles. “I thought… I thought you needed the great Tiko to guide you! Why would you call me if you didn’t want me to be your spirit guide?”
Sophia felt her eye twitching and she started to speak, but stopped herself and pulled up her character sheet, curious.
----------------------------------------
Name: Sophia
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Race: Human
Class: Unknown (level 1)
Attributes:
Presence: 12
Mind: 12
Spirit: 16
Power: 6
Agility: 8
Endurance: 10
Essences:
Animal - Tier 0 (1%)
Demon - Tier 0 (1%)
Power - Tier 0 (0%)
Abilities:
Summon Spirit Guide (Zoion, Deimon): Call the spirit of a recently slain animal to be your guide. Can only have 1 animal spirit guide active at a time.
----------------------------------------
With an arch of her eyebrow, Sophia focused on the new ability.
----------------------------------------
Ability: Summon Spirit Guide (Zoion, Deimon)
Type: Spell
Mana: High
Stamina: Moderate
Casting Time: 5 minutes
Duration: Permanent
Effect: Bond with the spirit of a recently slain animal. This animal spirit can provide insight and wisdom as well as bonuses to attributes based on the type and quality of the spirit. You may only have 1 spirit guide at a time.
----------------------------------------
While the new addition to her character sheet offered some insight, Sophia found herself with even more questions. After considering for a moment, she focused in on the abilities section and a new window popped up.
----------------------------------------
Constellation: Tier 0 Evolution
Name: Sophie
Class: Unknown
Essence nodes filled: 3/3
Abilities unlocked: 1/3
[https://sn3301files.storage.live.com/y4mONkBBs7x1XyXDZaaF_JeOMvPQf640nfwBbSYb6C04YbFeUHrFkGJR1mFNExyxwyPiV8vdzsl2vqZQCrVB_YaimYABJmJFdnl9LC57AVIP4qoLHF38JRONjMetGS9ggIZnXDumlbQqd4F-TQ3baUNIQcbBAMaGqYchOh28EtlegGFcR6XqJdbRuw8CXTtAxEl?width=660&height=476&cropmode=none]
----------------------------------------
Sophia stared at the image on the window in front of her for a long moment. When the kisq - Tiko - started to get antsy, she just waved her hand, “Hold on a moment, okay?” Then she lowered herself onto one of the other benches and let her mind go blank. It was as if the amount of information - questions and answers and more questions - had shorted out her thought processes for a time, and she had to let herself settle before she could go forward.
The triangle might have surprised her, but she realized, once she could think logically again, that it shouldn’t have. In Realms of Destiny, character advancement had been achieved through a character constellation built of a series of essences and abilities. Symbolically, the essences made up the stars in the constellations and the abilities were the lines between the stars. Each ability was formed through the interaction between two of a player’s essences. For example, a character with the essences of shadows and vision might forge a bond between those two essences and gain a darkvision ability. There were an untold number of combinations, and in fact it wasn’t unheard of for a pair of essences to create different abilities for different characters. Thus, it didn’t really surprise Sophia that Realms of Destiny 2 (if that was in fact where she was) would have the same mechanics.
What did shock her was the sight of her tier 0 constellation. It had been over 30 years since Sophia’s character had been at a tier 0 evolution, and she had forgotten how… simple it was. The first evolution was typically considered the tutorial phase in Realms of Destiny, with only 3 essence nodes and 3 connected abilities available to unlock. At the tier 1 evolution, the constellation would become a 6-pointed star with 6 essence nodes and 12 abilities. It wasn’t until the tier 2 evolution that the constellations of each character became unique based on their essences and the use of their unlocked abilities. Each additional evolution a player underwent increased the complexity of their constellations. When Sophia’s character, Huli, had reached her final evolution and become a deity, her constellation had been mind-bogglingly complex. Sophia had known that she would be starting over at level 1 for the alpha test, but to see her constellation in its tier 0 evolution, just a single triangle, was like a punch in the gut. It was hard to let go of what she had had.
“But I’m not Huli,” Sophia sighed, “And this isn’t Realms of Destiny.”
Looking over, Sophia realized that the kisq was giving her a strange look, but she just shook her head and turned back to her windows. Though it was a hard blow to revert back to such a basic constellation, Sophia knew it shouldn’t have been a surprise. What didn’t make sense was the notations of her essences. In the description of the ability that she seemed to have just unlocked, the connected essences were noted as ‘Zoion’ and ‘Deimon’. Those were two of the names that she had seen listed as her essences in the character creation room, before they had been changed. But in her constellation, her ability seemed to be connected to the ‘animal’ and ‘demon’ essences. Was it a glitch, as Sophia had originally thought? Or just a translation issue? After a moment’s consideration, Sophia guessed that ‘deimon’ must mean her ‘demon’ essence, which left - if her triangle was to be believed - ‘zoion’ to represent her ‘animal’ essence. Sophia tried to think back and remember what the third strange essence had been, the one that might pair with her ‘power’ essence, but she couldn’t remember.
Finally, Sophia turned her attention to her new ability. While it wasn’t necessarily a bad ability, Summon Spirit Guide confused Sophia because it didn’t seem to have anything to do with demons. Was it possible that ‘daimon’ meant something different than ‘demon’? And if so, why were the two seemingly interchangeable? It seemed that despite giving her answers, Sophia’s character sheet had left her with just more questions. For the time being, though, she closed her windows and turned her attention back to the kisq.
“Tiko, you said your name was?”
The kisq still looked sullen and about to start crying again at any moment, but he nodded.
Sophia sighed and pressed her fingers to her twitching eye. What would happen if she accepted this… rodent… as her spirit guide? Would she be blocked from getting another one? The ability said that she could only have one at a time. Would she be forever saddled with the ghost of a rabid squirrel monkey? Resigning herself to her fate, Sophia finally lowered her hands. “Alright. You can be my spirit guide.”