Chapter 7
The world was a blur of light and motion, ecstasy and pain. The sound of a far and distant song pitched to discordance, then a wail, leaving Riley's ears ringing before everything went white.
There was a feeling of descent, then the world went topsy turvy as disparate cracks of thunder washed over her, punctuating the cacophony of light and sound as if some giant creatures were echolocating by blasts around her.
"Net!" Cried a voice as a headache blared to life. For a moment, her body, from muzzle to tail, felt like it was on fire, as the confusion of her initial moments with Grimm was replaced with the agony of being reborn out of the magic, only to be suffused with a fresh wave of numbing physical onslaught.
A mesh that glowed with a faint blue light was covering her, keeping her from motion as her eyes fluttered open.
"Where am I?" She said to herself and tried to get up, but her body would not respond.
Adrenaline slammed into her, clearing the cobwebs further. Her world cleared, but still, all she could see were a series of purple hologram-like boxes overlaying one over another.
At the front of the morass floating in her vision, one displayed:
Welcome to Calaria, a high magic world. Initiate Guide Y/N?
"Cage!" An older man in his mid-forties, his face weathered by age, looked her over before holding out his hand. A silver light like living flame burst to life, "low magic, mostly worthless, still she might fetch a few coppers at least, maybe even a silver to the right soul in the second tier."
Another older man wearing spectacles and a dark robe made a notation in a small book he was holding before nodding and moving down the line.
"Why are you doing this to me?" She called out before a young boy of no more than thirteen approached, lifted her by the net, and placed her in a small cage
"Poor thing looks half terrified, she does," he didn't seem like much. A tattered linen shirt and breeches clothed him in dull and dingy brown. No shoes covered his feet. Overall, he looked malnourished and dirty, but upon his face, a warm, hopeful grin still shone.
"Easy there. I'll get that stun net off ya," he said to himself before tapping a bangle on his left wrist. Reaching out, his hand passed through the cage, grabbed the net and removed it quickly in a deft and practiced action.
"Quit yer dawdlin, runt! Put her off to the side with the others and let her calm down. We've a long day ahead of us," the gruff man ordered. He was holding what looked to be a fishing rod. The strange golden strand that had wrapped around her hindpaw was visible, running down the rod before coiling in the reel.
Puzzlingly, it faded to a dull glowing green before her eyes as he flung the rod back, preparing to cast again.
These damn boxes make it hard to see... She thought.
Poised at the edge of a building, they seemed to be about 2 stories up. Silver rods towered at the corner like strange antennae. Electric blue sparks crackled in the air. Ten men stood between the corners, including her captor. They'd each cast out the line, which would sail a few feet before vanishing into the ether, only for the reels to keep feeding out until they exhausted their reserve.
Creatures and objects were flashing into view as men retracted their lines, suffering a fate similar to her own.
"What the hell is going on?" She said again, but no one seemed to recognize her voice or, at the very least, give care to her concerns.
The young boy lifted her cage and took her over to an area filled with a variety of beings. Some snapped and pushed against their confinement, while others seemed as scared and lost as she was.
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"You seem a timid thing. I'll set you where it's quiet, out of the sun, and let you rest," the boy said to himself as much as her. Setting her with other such beings that looked more lost than angry.
"At least he's a nice jailer," Riley clung to the positive, using it like a toe hold to bulwark against the terror and confusion she felt as, again, her eyes focused in on the strange purple glowing boxes floating in her vision.
Welcome to Calaria, a high magic world. Initiate Guide Y/N?
Looking around, it certainly felt as if she needed a guide, and for a moment, she considered calling Grimm, but something told her that wouldn't help.
"I need to understand where to run and how to run before I run, so I'll break it down into parts and pieces. I can get through this. I just have to keep moving," she said to herself, making a plan.
Willing yes, as if reaching out for the "Y" in her mind, not knowing what else to do, the "Y" highlighted before vanishing, and a massive rectangle filled with English text appeared, hiding all the others.
You have initiated the guide. Welcome to Calaria!!! This world has a high magical density, allowing for the spawning of high magic creatures like yourself.
Your race is: Outsider, celestial, white tailed jackrabbit.
Your current level is tier 2-0; progress to tier 2-1 is at 0.0%
A terrifying and tragic magical event led your soul to be reforged with that of a celestial of greater power and a true enemy of greater shadow, leading to your rebirth in magic, opening your spirit to new paths of progression ordained by the Fates.
You have the following abilities:
Angelic Construct: Your spirit naturally interprets and translates magic and spirit into an informational system that filters through your consciousness, granting you a bonus to perception as well as an affinity with holy and life magic.
Glossolalia: Your semi-divine nature grants you the ability to understand any language and speak it via magical projection.
Enhanced Constitution: Your semi-divine nature grants you a bonus to resiliency and healing; while not immortal, you are hard to kill.
Shadow Soul: Elements of an ancient enemy of reality are woven into your very being. Your true nature and potential is naturally hidden from others, and you have a bonus to stealth, infiltration, and chaos magics.
Devil's Luck: Things go wrong in the right direction for you. Your unique confluence of soul gives you a bonus to your luck while increasing your exposure to adversity.
Stalwart Soul: A lifetime of challenge, setback, and failure has granted you a grim resolve, strengthening you against tragedy.
Astral Pack Mule: Your affinity towards the astral grants you a protected space in which to hold items. The current size of your astral inventory is five square by two. Each element stored occupies a square, granting you ten current slots. Items stored will enter a type of stasis, forestalling their decay. Note: This will expand with level progression.
These abilities grant evolution paths in the magic. Good luck!
The giant rectangle flashed away as she began going through the others.
"This is kind of cool," All she had to do was mentally reach out to it, and the box she was focusing on would come to the forefront, ablating some of the worry that she was in a cage, in an alien world, and she no longer had thumbs.
Echoes of her human life floated like a ghost in her mind, but nothing was congruent. Instead, they were more a disparate collection of memories, lessons, and experiences, framing and shaping her world.
She couldn't even remember her human name, but the celestial side was even more shadowy. While devoid of almost all memory, it seemed to form the foundations of her subconscious and identity. She didn't have thumbs, which upset the human side of her, but something deep within told her that was normal, that her body was normal and right, leaving her to feel like a quilted being, her essence made up of patches of what had once been separate and distinct entities.
There was nothing she could currently do about those things, but knowledge was power, potentially leading her to paths of escape.
Dismissing her reflection, she focused on her boxes and prompts.
Inventory 0/10
The box showed ten squares arrayed in two rows of five. Dismissing it, the next screen showed what reminded her of a character sheet from a beloved MMORPG she had played in the human world. In the upper right hand corner, a profile shot of what she assumed was herself appeared, that of a white tailed jackrabbit in their prime. Underneath was her name, Riley. Set to the right side were three bars, one green representing health, red, stamina, and purple for mana, but no numbers.
"That makes sense. I never liked math," she said to herself, grateful that she didn't have to crunch digits.
An hour or so passed as she practiced, moving and calling up the guide, which seemed strangely limited. Multiple entries had the image of a padlock over them, which only frustrated her.
She needed a way out, and soon, but hit dead end after dead end. Finally frustrated, she willed the last box away and tried to get comfortable in her cramped cage.
"Devil's luck indeed. I'm obviously not going anywhere for a while," she said as the boy returned, only to lift her cage and carry her towards a cart pulled by what, to her mind, looked like a pair of reptilian griffins.
Proud beaks gave way to a sharp and severe beaked muzzle. Their bodies were covered in reptilian scales. Powerful legs ended in two tridactyl talons. At their back was a thick, crocodile like tail, the end covered in a puffball of spines that seemed to have been ablated.
"Or maybe I am," she sighed, waiting for an opportunity and a way out to present itself.