…No. There is no other path. If they knew, they would hate me, if they could comprehend the scope of the Plan. Nobody else would understand, but then…

--

Ok, what is going on now? Matt watched the other four, each of them staring off into the distance, gazing at something that only they could see. Some kind of writing, just floating in the air? He was about to express his doubts when he stopped himself. If he could see weird energy threads, was it really so strange if they saw some writing? Writing was just another type of symbols, right?

And they had mentioned symbols–presumably symbols like he could see–inside their mind. Which again was similar, even if it was not exactly the same. So the pattern in the ceiling did something to them as well. Only instead of seeing the threads in the air, and a cloud of patterns whirling around in their mind, they see single symbols. Two different types of… magic. Because that is what this was. Two… As he considered their situation, there was something in his memory he couldn’t quite get at. Something relevant to this.

So something is different between them and me. Why? Why do they have the symbol in their mind? Why can they not see the threads? Something was different about him. And as he watched his friends come to grips with their fundamentally changed reality, he directed his attention inwards, towards the sphere that was pulsing there in the middle of his mind. He followed the lines as they looped and curved and became symbols, only to dissolve back into chaos. Sometimes the threads would be captured by the pulsating sphere and dragged into it, as it slowly contracted and expanded, as if breathing.

He felt the glowing heat that was radiating from the sphere, sensing it flow outwards into his body, letting it calm him.

“And what is a class, or an affinity?” Thor said and looked towards Mia. “What does your text say?”

She took a moment, then replied. “There is a lot of it, and none of it makes sense… It’s all arranged as a grid. At the very top it has my name, then it lists my level as 0 and my class as Not Determined. Then…” She swallowed before continuing.

Level: 0 Class: Not Determined Affinity: Growth Area Growth Essence Density: Drought Health: 30 (Regeneration: Base+0) Essence: 30 (Regeneration: Base+0) Skills: None Skill Slots: 1 (Base:1/E:0/E:0/E:0/E:0) Titles: None Heart Loci (Tier E) Physical Resistance 0 Magical Resistance 0 Spiritual Resistance 0 Mind Loci (Tier E) Intelligence 0 Knowledge 0 Wisdom 0 Body Loci (Tier E) Strength 0 Speed 0 Stamina 0 Soul Loci (Tier E) Perception 0 Presence 0 Insight 0

“What does it all mean?” Mia turned to Thor, biting her lower lip. There was a strange tension in her voice. “Thor, what do you–”

“I have more or less the same,” he said. “Except I have two affinities. Magma and Ice. The Magma affinity has Present as the density, and for Ice, it is Void. I wish I knew what it all meant. Somehow it reminds me…” Thor’s voice trailed off, before he swallowed and looked back at Mia with a sheepish smile. “It reminds me of stories I read when I was a boy. With wizards and monsters, magic and dragons. Sometimes the heroes would be categorised into different types, which I think were called classes. There were warriors, and magicians, and…” He looked down. “This is very silly, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think it is,” Vic grinned back at Thor. “At least not if it makes you contract your words. You got so… enthusiastic. Sounds like this was pretty important to you?”

For a moment, a strange look flickered over Thor’s features, which ended in a bright smile. “I guess you can say that. Books, stories… were my place. Where I hid when…” Thor closed his eyes and swallowed. “Anyway. What about you, Vic? What does your writing say?”

Vic crossed his arms, just staring back at him. “Oh yes,” he said, “You cannot read. Hold on.”

Thor bent down to the floor, his long, thin body twisting as he found an undisturbed area of dust. With a finger, he drew a series of shapes in a line. It almost looks like the patterns, Matt thought as he observed the writing.

“There, I have written the words from the left side of the writing. Do you recognise this? Do you have these symbols?”

A moment later, Vic nodded. “Yeah, it’s there.”

“Great! To the right of those words, there should be other words or symbols. Write what it says. You too, Pete and Matt.”

Matt watched Pete and Vic bend down to the floor, eyebrows coming together as they concentrated. Fingers already drawing out shapes in the dust. This is also a type of magic, he thought as he watched meaning coming to life on the dusty floor. Shapes that spelled out words that meant something, a way to share information and knowledge. To Matt, it was another glorious portal into a new world, almost more magical than the patterns. He saw Mia looking at him with her head tilted and shut his wide open mouth with a snap.

“How about you, then?” she asked.

“Uhm. I don’t have that pattern. I can’t find it.”

“It’s in… this is hard to explain, Matt. Look… inwards. Turn your attention into your mind. It should be there, almost lighting the place up like a fire! Close your eyes, it may make it easier.”

Matt shook his head. “No, I know what you mean. Only I have something else. I turn my attention inwards and I can see threads swirling… The same threads as in the air around us. But they just keep moving around in a big cloud. Nothing is settling down into a symbol.”

“What do you mean? Swirling? Threads? The pattern sits there. It does not change. And there are no threads around it. Like this, look,” she said, and bent down to draw out a pattern of lines that felt familiar to Matt. As he inspected her drawing, he thought he recognised some of the symbol.

Lost in his study of the symbol, he almost forgot to answer Mia, but eventually shook his head. “No. It’s not there. I don’t know-”

He heard Thor’s voice and stopped. The long, thin man stood above the scribbles in the dust, reading. “Steel, Pete. Your affinity, whatever it is, is Steel. The rest is the same as we have.” Next, he looked at the other series of symbols that Vic had written. He was quiet for a long time before he looked up at Vic with a frown. “And yours is Shadow, Vic. Now we just need to figure out what an affinity is.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“What is that, though?” Mia asked, pointing to something Pete had drawn in the dust. “After Skills, you have written–”

Tuning out the conversation, Matt thought. Magma, Ice, Growth, Steel and Shadow. This sounds like magic. Why do I not have an affinity? Why do I not have the strange text? Did the near death break something in me? Or simply change something? How did the strange crystal that his mind had rejected fit into this?

More than being concerned or disappointed, the questions just fueled Matt’s curiosity. While the others were studying the writing in the dust, Matt tried to piece together all the strange information. There was a puzzle here. Something to investigate, something to solve. And with a jolt, another thought pierced through his mind with a glowing intensity and reached down his back like an icicle. I have time to learn now. I could learn to read! I can read… so many books.

Until now, necessities had dictated every day of his life. Tend to the crops, watch after the children, take care of the farm. To put food on the table, they had to follow what their parents had taught them. To sow and to water and to prune. If they wanted to survive the winter, they had to stay together and ration what they had, carefully estimating portions and storing their food so it would last. If they wanted the farm to continue, to have a future beyond themselves, they had to find wives and husbands and make children while they still could. Their bodies had only a few years to create and care for a new generation. To take care of the babies and toddlers until they were old enough to join the work teams, and then to find partners of their own. A rush to live a life before the wasting disease killed them. Not even a life, just survival.

Since he was four years old, Matt had worked full days in the field in the summer. In the winter, he had spent every day in their cold house mending clothes, cooking and cleaning the animals the hunters killed and brought back to the farm. When he turned fourteen, they had tried to send him away to the nearby villages to find a wife. Only he never made that journey. The needs of his baby brothers had kept him at home, and he had agreed with his sister that she would make the next generation.

As a small wave of wistfulness filled him when he thought of his sister, another wave of emotion washed over him. Elation, as he was beginning to realise the consequences of their situation. He had time, now! And not just time for himself. He could go and get his sister, and his brothers, and…

His musings were interrupted as Pete took a step to one side, hatchet in hand. As he raised the weapon, Matt saw dense threads wrapping tightly around Pete’s arm, and suddenly the hatchet carved a line through the air in front of Pete. Matt wasn’t sure what he had seen, the weapon moving too fast for him to follow, a silver arc still etched in his vision.

What the–Matt jolted to his feet as Pete stumbled forward, momentum pulling him forward as the weapon finished his swing. “Oh shit,” he began. “That was-”

“That was awesome!” Vic interrupted with a huge grin. “What was that? What happened?”

Pete grinned back at Vic and gestured to the writing on the floor. “The other pattern, Cleave. From the crystal… It was a skill. I just… I just focused on the symbol, just like the other one, and…”

Vic’s face flared up with enthusiasm. “I’m going to learn magic!” Matt almost laughed at the wide grin while fighting a small stab of jealousy as Vic held his dark grey gemstone up in front of his eyes. Thin, almost invisible filaments of grey light twirled in patterns that reached from the crystal up into Vic’s eyes. In a moment; the gemstone disappeared in a grey cloud, getting sucked into Vic’s eyes as he looked at it.

Vic turned his head to Matt, grinning, and then he just vanished from view! What the fuck?

“Vic, where…” Pete began, as Matt noticed the dust on the floor being disturbed, heading around towards Pete’s back. He thought he could detect a vague shimmer in the air and grinned as he reached a hand out to steady Pete. Pete looked at him quizzically, and then a moment later, the man stumbled forward, Vic standing behind with hand outstretched and a huge grin.

“Now that’s an interesting skill,” Matt laughed.

Mia looked at Thor and brought out her crystal. “Shall we?”

He nodded, and Matt watched them inspect their crystals. The familiar threads appeared between the stones and their faces, forming patterns of energy that were absorbed into their eyes. That will never stop being weird, he thought.

“So?” Matt asked, looking at them.

Thor answered first. “Something called Boiling Earth. It is not working here. I have tried, but nothing is happening. It is weird, but somehow I know that the skill is supposed to do something to the ground, and that it will not work here. Something about the floor.” He looked at Mia. “How about you?”

Instead of answering, Mia turned to Vic and motioned him over. “Vic, can I try something? Come here.”

Vic tentatively moved closer to Mia, and gently Mia reached towards his broken arm. Vic tensed, and Matt saw green threads taking shape, reaching from her fingers out towards Vic. Dark green, twisting, wrapping like a bandage around the arm, before constricting and becoming more dense. Patterns and symbols danced around in the threads.

“Oh, that’s a weird feeling,” Vic said, eyes closed and face twisted into a grimace as Matt could see something shifting inside the arm. That is so fucking weird, he thought, as the skin rippled inside the green threads wrapped around the arm. There was a sharp pop, and a moment later, the threads began to loosen and fade, and as they dissipated fully, Vic drew his breath sharply.

“You ok?” Mia asked him, worry on her face as she carefully unwrapped the bandage. Vic turned and flexed his arm, testing it. “It’s… it’s fine. It is–” He turned to face Mia, incredulity written on his features. “It’s perfect. No pain, no…I can move it! You fixed it!”

Mia grinned back at him. “My skill is called Mend. And I suspect it is going to be very useful.” A shadow flickered across her face, and Matt knew instantly what she was thinking. Could it have fixed her hand?

He felt at the last crystal–the white one–now stored in a pouch on his side, and his shoulders slumped slightly. The excitement he felt at the other’s strange abilities dampened as he turned to look back up at the ceiling. The magic threads kept up their strange dance, and inside his mind he felt the glow of the sphere pulsing in his mind.

“Guys,” Pete said. “I know magic is great and all, but… we have some other problems we need to address. We have enough food for one more meal, and then…”

Mia nodded back at him. “We need to go back outside and see what we can find.”

“But... How do we get back up?” Vic asked.

“Up the tunnel we came in?” Pete replied.

Matt frowned. “Can we get back that way? I was… not all there when we arrived, but it seemed like a big fall.”

“We will get back up,” Mia said, certainty in her voice. “The slope itself is manageable, and I don’t think the initial drop was much higher than a few feet. The real question is what we are going to do when we get back up there. Apart from finding more food, that is.”

“What do you mean?” Pete said, tilting his head as he looked at Mia. “We need to find people and tell them about this cave. We need to bring in as many as we can. It will cure them!”

Matt took a drink from Pete’s water bottle and watched Mia, waiting for her to say what he was thinking.

“We cannot tell anyone yet,” she said. “If we do… For a day, maybe two, people will come here. Then they will stop them. Perhaps a hundred people, if we are lucky, but that’s it. The nobles, they will stop them.”

Thor nodded. “They will block off this place and kill anyone who knows about it. Then they will take everything for themselves.”

Matt nodded. “Yes.” He paused and took a deep breath, looking back at Thor. “And it’s a secret they will kill for without a second thought. I’ve suspected it for a while, but… It turns out there is nothing special about being a noble. No grand bloodline making them too pure for the wasting disease.”

Thor nodded at him in agreement, an unreadable expression on his face.

“But why haven’t we heard about it?” Pete insisted. “If they had a method to save people, then why...”

They all fell silent as they considered the question. Matt's thoughts inching towards a terrible conclusion when Vic broke the silence. “Because it is… magic,” Vic whispered, “and it is power. And who gives up power willingly?”