Chapter One

ALICE IN WONDER-PUDDLE

ALICE

The world came into fuzzy focus around her. She hurt everywhere, and she was beyond thirsty. Nightmares floated through the edges of her mind as she struggled to bring her thoughts into the present. The pain in her chest began to register, and she took a deep breath in, only to sit up, spitting and coughing out the mouth full of ash she'd nearly swallowed. A cloud of dust exploded from her sudden motion, making the air near her unbreathable. She continued to cough and, with a bit of strength of will, forced herself to crawl away from the cloud she was now choking on. Rain poured down on her, the only fortunate part of her circumstances as it helped clear the air, and she collapsed into the mud when she was finally able to get a breath into her lungs. She lay there for several minutes, just breathing and trying to focus. Memories struggled to fight their way to the surface, but everything was a muddled jumble. She could feel herself absorbing the rain as it poured down onto her, and it soothed the dryness she felt in her bones. It was tempting to lay there and just soak up as much water as she could manage forever. She might have if only the driving terror of her final moments hadn't begun to rise to the surface of the tumult in her head.

With slowly dawning clarity, she began to remember. She was being attacked. The monster had torn her open and was drinking her dry. With speed and grace that belied her condition, she threw herself to her feet, taking in her surroundings for the first time. She spun in a circle, looking for danger but finding only ruins. It was early morning, the sun slowly brightening behind the rain clouds, but all she could see in any direction was the broken remains of a long-dead city. Nearby, a shattered keep stood, and behind her, a trail to a half-washed away pit of ash, slowly filling with water. She stood there letting the rain wash the dirt, mud, and ash from her skin and trying to remember who she was and how she'd gotten there. She'd been hiking with friends. They were crossing an old abandoned rail bridge. She was Alice. Alice Clarke. It was her birthday. They'd borrowed her older brother's car and driven to the park. It hadn't taken long before Cindy convinced them to go check out a spot she'd heard about and led them off the trail. Crossing the old, abandoned rail bridge had been a dare, and she'd accepted. Troy was there, and there was no way she was going to let him think she was a coward. She was nearly across. She remembered something catching her foot and then falling. It had been fast. So fast. She only had time to think that she didn't know someone could fall so far so quickly, and then everything was dark.

Unexpectedly, that darkness seemed only to last a moment, and she found her eyes popping open again. The instant she saw the boxes of text in front of her eyes, she'd gasped in a confusing mix of terror and excitement. She tried to shoot to her feet, and would have shouted about being isekai'd, only the collar around her neck pulled tight. She gagged and was jerked back to slam her head onto the stone altar. She'd raised her hands to her throat, trying to pull the metal band away, but froze a moment later at the command of someone she didn't know. His voice had been a horrible guttural sound, but somehow, she understood him, and he'd commanded her to stop. She didn't want to stop, but she couldn't move. He told her to lay still, and her arms weakly fell to her side. She'd tried to fight against the commands with all her might, but it was like being paralyzed. He'd demanded her to tell him her name and where she was from, and much to her horror, the words spilled from her mouth. With a grunt of approval, he ordered her never to disobey him or any of his cultists, only to speak when commanded to, and to never try to escape, and then he moved on.

A woman stepped into the place he vacated as the monstrous man began the same process with someone else that Alice couldn't see. The new cultist hadn't been so kind. The woman demanded many things from Alice in quick succession, and she'd followed the commands. It wasn’t the same as when the monster had done it. His words were like a remote control. Her commands were different. Alice didn't immediately obey as before, her body moving like a robot out of her control. Instead, she moved her own body as she was instructed because she knew she had to obey. When the woman ordered her to move, she moved. When she was told to speak, she spoke. The actions became more complicated with time, from being told to lift her arms or repeat a phrase to showing her how she would greet someone or answering open-ended questions. Tears rolled down her face as she had been forced to tell the woman about her family in her own words. Unable to stop herself, she'd told her a happy story about how her parents had surprised her with a new computer for her birthday. She'd even sounded excited as she spoke. This went on for a long time, and following the commands started to become a natural reaction. It was insidious, like a slowly growing acceptance creeping through her brain that she didn't want. She felt violated, and she tried to fight it, but at most, she slowed herself down.

Then, the woman told Alice to read her personal status to her. It was the first thing she remembered not having to obey. She didn't know how. It took her tormentor several impossible commands before she said the right thing, and Alice was forced to tell her the problem. Her orders before that were things that might lead to Alice telling her why she wasn't responding, but none of them were a specific order that she knew how to obey or answer, and she'd stayed silent. The woman cursed the mistake and then told her what to do, but it showed Alice that there was hope. She realized what they were doing. They had rushed her through so many commands that she couldn't refuse, even while acting under her own power, that when they'd gotten to those that they couldn't force, she was supposed to reflexively obey without thought. She played along with everything that seemed harmless, but when the woman had commanded her to select the "Slave" class, she absolutely refused. This, too, the woman couldn't force her to do. Whatever was making her obedient to these people, it couldn't force her to interact with the system. Somehow, the woman knew she'd not taken the class without asking. Alice had no idea how, but the woman had become quickly irritated.

"Well?!" She'd demanded in an angry shout. Alice, of course, had been commanded to be silent. In a fit of growing frustration, the woman realized this and growled out, "Speak!"

So, Alice did. "They can't force you to pick a class! Ignore their commands about the system!"

A sudden pain filled her head with the cracking impact of something hard crashing into the side of it. The sound was like a sharp punctuation to her shout, disorienting her so much that the only coherent thought she could manage was, "What is wrong with my Georgia accent? I worked really hard on that." And she had. Her scrambled brain followed the only path it could grab onto – memories of moving to a rural town in southern Georgia and trying to fit in with her new friends at school. They'd all be graduating together soon. Only, she had died. She'd fallen into that river. But, as she thought about it, her mind gripped on and sank into the concept. The rush of the river in an unending flow, the water an integral part of the world, and the life and healing it spread. Something about it echoed within her, and she felt a deep yearning to be part of that cycle. Her soul seemed to reach out for it, and something she'd felt in the background of her mind began to make sense. She could feel another river nearby, and the cadence of its waters, calming and peaceful while powerful and unyielding, drew her in. She floated in a semi-conscious state for what seemed like hours, listening to its flow, harmonizing the song of its waters with the rhythm of her soul. The magic and life of the river were strong, and finally, in tune with it, she could hear that it was calling to her. It was like a part of her that had been missing, and the call filled her with peace, draining away the pain and anxiety. A serene smile fell over her features, and she reached for it.

• Congratulations, you have successfully bound yourself to the Dragonspine River.

It had been the right thing to do, apparently. The notification came with a feeling of peace and the calming of an uncertainty that had hovered in the back of her mind. And that had all been just in time. She wasn't fully conscious, but she remembered the new monster. Time had been passing in a daze as she had lain there limply. She remembered little until there was a loud commotion and screaming, and seconds later, the thing appeared beside her in a blur. It had snatched her up in a giant clawed hand, and her neck had broken with the sharp pull it had given against the chain before biting into her. That was a small mercy. She knew she was being drained. She felt the water leaving her being as it drank her down. When the monster had thrown her torn and broken body to the ground, she knew the only thing holding her from falling out of this world and into oblivion was the connection to her river. Darkness overtook her. From then on, there were only flashes. A fire. Rain. Men searching the ruins. It had rained many times, and she always seemed to hover just out of reach, grasping for the water in flashes of memory. But this time, this storm was different. The rain had begun, and it hadn't stopped for days. She began to remember absorbing it as it filled the small ditch she'd been in. Those ashes weren't just burned wood. She would have thrown up at the realization if she'd not been so suddenly happy to be alive! She closed her eyes and tipped her face up to the sky, letting the thick, heavy rain clean her face and enjoying the refreshing feeling of the cold water running across her skin.

As she centered herself and began to relax, she realized the feeling of the water flowing over her and washing away the mud meant she was standing there in the nude. She knew it was odd how much that didn't bother her, but she was standing in the middle of a ruin, after all. It wasn't like she had to deal with any creepers watching her get clean. With a sigh, she rubbed her hands together, getting them as clean as possible before using them to try her best to brush the rest of the ash and mud from her skin. She'd expected that to be a bit of a nightmare without any sort of soap, but everything easily flowed away from her in the heavy rain. Once she actively began trying to clean herself, it took less than a minute, even with her waist-length hair. Her hair had only been to her shoulders before she had died, never having been much longer in her former life. Having so much now was a novelty, and seeing it caked in mud and ash had been a major concern and an unexpected weight. As she cleaned it, she saw it wasn't the dark brown she'd been familiar with but an unnatural silvery blue. The shock of that had her inspecting the rest of her body. The obvious differences were unnerving. She had done her best to be exactly what was expected of her before. She had been fit but not too skinny and had just the right amount of curves for her cheer team. She'd always managed a perfect tan, an easy task with her Boricua mother and sunny climate. Now, she maintained an athletic form but was far more slender and lithe. Her skin had lost its strong tan appearance, now having a soft pale blue tone and a very subtle, almost iridescent sheen. Once she realized that, she quickly checked her pulse, worried that she'd died or was in shock with hypothermia. Just thinking about it made her suddenly aware of how cold it was. She wasn't feeling chilled, but it was easily cold enough for this storm to turn to snow at any moment.

"Am I dead?" she asked no one in particular. Of course, the pattering of the rain on the ruins around her was the only answer. She didn't feel dead, at least. Her heart was beating a little quickly with the sudden shock and concern, but she felt fine. Maybe a little hungry, and not for brains or blood, so she was sure she was a real, living person. With a helpless shrug, she began walking. She had no idea where she was or where she should be going, but after a few steps, she knew she was heading for her river. It felt like the natural direction to be heading, and rivers had clean water and food, and people tended to live near them. She made it about twenty feet before a chime rang out, nearly making her jump into the air.

* Selection Period Expired. Random Class Assigned.

* Congratulations! You have gained the [Hero] class Mystic of the Waves! You are now the Mystic of the Waves! +30 Hit Points, +80 Mana, +50 Stamina, +5 Intelligence, +5 Charisma, +10 Attribute Points, +5 Skill Points, +5 Spell Points per level! You have gained the following skills! [Water Mana Manipulation], [Healing Arts], [Elemental Performance], [Proficiency: Staff], [Proficiency: Trident], [Proficiency: Daggers], [Proficiency: Harp], [Proficiency: Flute]. You have gained the following Traits! [Dragonspine Harmony], [Mistwalker], [Blessing of the Waves]. You have gained the following spells! [Summon Rain], [Heal Wounds], [Water Shield], [Whirlpool]. You are level 1.

Alice froze in her tracks. Somehow, she'd almost forgotten the most important part of the whole being reborn in a new world thing! She was almost angry, but the [Hero] part sounded suitably impressive. If she had the option to be a [Hero] or be a carpenter, she knew which she'd choose. The word [Hero] implied a lot of responsibility, but that only meant that she was going to be awesome! The information flooding her mind was crazy. She knew magic! She could feel the water in the air and knew how to pull more of it to her. She even knew how to use the innate water magic in her soul to heal someone with a simple touch! There was so much more, and as much as she wanted to sit down and figure it all out, she could tell she had more notifications stacked behind that one. With a sigh of regret, she put aside playing with her magic for the moment. She went back as far as she could and began to read through the messages, starting with the oldest one… and almost immediately felt like she'd been punched in the gut.

* Welcome Hero! You have been Summoned by the Ritual of Salvation! You will have unique races and classes to choose from to help you in your quest to save the world!

* You gain the Title [Hero]. This Title grants the following perks: [Mental Resistance], [Fast Healing], [Heroic Presence].

* Please Choose Your Race from the following list: Error! [Forced Selection – Ritual Runes] Race Selected! Naiad!

* You will receive a bonus to your agility, intelligence, and charisma!

* You have an affinity with the [Water], [Healing], [Nature], and [Illusion] schools of magic!

* You gain the innate Traits: [Water Immunity], [Aquatic Respiration], [Water Form], [Hydrokinesis].

* You have gained the skills: [Swimming], [Water Mana Manipulation], [Disease Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Healing Touch], [Charm], [Disguise], [Perception], [Graceful Movement], [Stealth].

"Wait, I ain't human?" Saying the words out loud only made it more surreal – Especially as the unfamiliar sound of her voice began to register. She'd recovered her prized accent, even if something about it sounded off. But her voice! It sounded so much more melodic and ethereal. Beautiful, even. She began to sing scales, "do re mi fa so la ti do", just like she'd learned as a child, and couldn't help but giggle at how wonderful it sounded. With pipes like these, she could be an idol, no problem! It was a momentary bit of mirth, but she began to really inspect herself. She looked human enough. Two arms, two legs, five fingers, everything was there, but she didn't have a mirror. The colors were all wrong, and her skin did sometimes seem to shimmer like the sun on the surface of a river, but that was all she could see. There wasn't much she could do about it, and at least she hadn't been reincarnated as something weird like a slime or a spider. She didn't think she would handle that very well. She recognized the word Naiad but couldn't really recall what it was. Based on her new skills, though, maybe some sort of mermaid? That didn't really make sense. She had legs. She'd seen in a movie once where a mermaid on land would suddenly have legs, but that whole concept seemed silly to her. She did have a great singing voice, and mermaids were a siren of sorts. Buuuut... Sirens ate people, and the idea of eating a human still seemed insane to her.

Hoping for some clues, she continued reading her notifications. She did learn a lot, like she was in a place called "The Desolation of Kingsgrove," easily the most depressing name for a city she'd ever heard. She had apparently resurrected a long-extinct race of legend by being a Naiad. The horror of her last memories was caused by something called a slave collar. And, most importantly, there was at least one other survivor from the summoning. Well, she thought it was another survivor from the summoning because it seemed unlikely that [Heroes] being summoned would happen often. Someone named Evelyn. That was an Earthy enough sounding name, so that was another point in favor of her theory. Regardless of where she came from, she had been busy killing greater devils and destroying necropolises, something Alice was positive that she was meant to be at her side helping with. Heroes fighting devils, demons, and undead sounded familiar enough from her books and shows, and at least now she knew what she was up against. That seemed a lot less scary if she had another experienced [Hero] around to show her the ropes and fight with her. Just the idea of having help with whatever her heroic mission was supposed to be made it seem a lot less intimidating.

She made her way out of the city and into the surrounding woods. The walk through the ruins was downright depressing. Nothing about the place was interesting, and she even found the long-decayed remains of several people. The whole place gave her the creeps. It was like walking through a graveyard and knowing that the place was haunted by something terrible that had happened there long ago. Things didn't improve when she passed the last piles of rubble. The forest was in sight, but she had to cross a large open field to get there. Everywhere she looked the ground was littered with bones. She shuddered to think what could have happened to so many people. As gingerly as possible, she wove a path through the remains and was actually thankful to make her way into the forest. The canopy was so thick overhead that it looked like she was stepping into nightfall rather than closing in on noon, and if there were more bodies, at least they were hard to see. On the bright side, she wasn't afraid of getting lost. The knowledge of where to find her river was ever-present in her mind. She kept a determined stride and did what she could to pass the time. It was going to be a bit of a hike.

At first, she quietly sang songs from home to herself, enjoying the sound of her new voice, but eventually, she started trying to practice with her skills and spells. It seemed a bad idea not to at least know what they did. She didn't have any of the items she was proficient with, so she had to stick to spells and traits. [Summon Rain] seemed like a poor choice, considering the weather. She'd never know if she'd done it right or not. [Whirlpool], however, was amazing. When she cast it, she knew she needed a target, so she chose a small clearing between some trees. The water in the air tore into a powerful whirlpool, dragging in all the nearby puddles and debris, pulling everything into its center, and whipping it about until it filled the space. The vortex of water looked like it would shred anything that got caught up in it. She released the spell before she drained all of her mana, but she loved it. [Hydrokinesis] turned out to be pretty simple yet incredibly useful. At first, it was just moving water around with her mind. It didn't affect her mana pool, and it wasn't very powerful, not yet at least, but she was sure there could be a lot of practical applications. Then she realized that with it, she was always connected to the water around her on some level. All of the water around her. Anything that moved and disturbed the water be it rain, mist, or a puddle, and she would know. It was tough to use as a makeshift radar with the heavy rain pouring down, but not impossible. She just needed a little focus.

[Water Form] had taken some work to figure out. When she did, though, and collapsed into a literal puddle, her mind froze. After the initial scare and the twenty or so minutes of pure panic that followed, she sorted out that she was alright, and it was just a new bit of weirdness. The shock of it had been the worst. She could see in every direction at once and feel vibrations a lot like hearing, but both were overwhelming and confusing. The sudden lack of limbs did not help anything. Once she had calmed herself down enough to think, things became clear. It was even soothing in a way that could only be improved upon if she were already in her river. It took her far longer than she'd like to admit to figure out how to move as water and even longer to figure out how to change back. That was something that was going to need a ton of practice. She gave a small sigh at what amounted to magical homework, and unable to remember what else she had to work on, she finally pulled up her status – the one thing that her torture session had been good for teaching her.

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Personal Status

Name: -

Race: Naiad

Titles: Hero (Displayed: Hero)

Class: [Hero] Mystic of the Waves

Attributes:

Hit Points:132/140

Mana: 198/250

Stamina: 158/160

Strength: 8

Agility: 14

Dexterity: 10

Constitution: 10

Resilience: 12

Wisdom: 15

Intelligence: 22

Charisma: 20

Arcana: 18

Aurora: 0

Affinity: [Water], [Healing], [Nature], [Illusion]

Perks: [Mental Resistance], [Fast Healing], [Heroic Presence]

Traits: [Water Immunity], [Aquatic Respiration], [Water Form], [Hydrokinesis], [Dragonspine Harmony], [Mistwalker], [Blessing of the Waves]

Skills: [Swimming] 1, [Water Mana Manipulation] 1, [Disease Resistance] 1, [Poison Resistance] 1, [Healing Touch] 1, [Charm] 1, [Disguise] 1, [Perception] 1, [Graceful Movement] 1, [Stealth] 1, [Water Manipulation] 1, [Healing Arts] 1, [Elemental Performance] 1, [Proficiency: Staff] 1, [Proficiency: Trident] 1, [Proficiency: Daggers] 1, [Proficiency: Harp] 1, [Proficiency: Flute] 9

Spells: [Summon Rain] 1, [Heal Wounds] 1, [Water Shield] 1, [Whirlpool] 1

Attribute Points: 10

Skill Points: 5

Spell Points: 5

She stared, confused at her lack of a name for a moment. Did this mean she could pick anything? She'd always liked her name. Alice, at least. Clarke was very generic, but she didn't hate it. She had just always been Alice Isabella Clarke, and it might be weird to use a different name. It seemed like something she could take her time to think about. She had been reincarnated after all. The system had said she was the only one of her kind, but she had to come from somewhere. She might have ancestors or something.

"My name is Alice," she told the box curtly, and it complied, filling her name. "Well, that was a piece o' cake."

She didn't really need to speak out loud, and she was pretty sure of it just from how well the system responded to her thoughts and mental commands like opening her status – But she really liked her new voice. Just hearing it out loud made her feel more excited about the possibilities of this world. She contained a giggle, but as she began to slowly continue her walk, she read over her status again.

"Looks like I'm a healer, or maybe a mage. Reckon I'm a bit of both. Well, papa didn't raise no shrinking daisy. Might as well get my wisdom up. Arcana looks real important, too." she said to herself with a nod, confidently plugging points into her character sheet. She only teetered for a moment before putting her five skill points into [Healing Touch] and her five spell points into [Water Shield]. "Perfect!"

Entirely content with her choices, she pushed further into the forest. She had absolutely no feel for navigation, and she really wasn't sure how to determine exactly how long it would take her to get to the river. One thing was for sure, though. After walking for a couple of hours, she was confident that it was going to take a few days. As she stood there, naked and empty-handed, that seemed like it might be a problem. It was time for a break, and with nothing better to work with, she found a mostly smooth rock to rest on. After hours of hiking through a forest, it was surprising that she wasn't feeling terribly hungry or thirsty yet. The constant rainfall of pure, clean water likely had something to do with it. It felt unendingly refreshing. It was as if she didn't really need to drink anything if she were in the water. Alice thought about this new aspect of herself and realized she was going to have a hard crash course in basic survival. Instinct would carry her so far, but there would be some trial and error. With a helpless shrug, she laid back on her rock and relaxed, mouth open to catch the rain.

As carefree as she might have seemed, it was only a passive bit of fun while she tried to get used to using [Hydrokinesis] to sense her surroundings. It was the perfect thing to practice while she watched her stamina slowly refill. Soon, she began to sense small critters hiding out of sight, a snake, and even a few larger insects. She began trying to feel further out, finding birds in the trees and what she thought might be a deer. Briefly, she thought about trying to make a spear to hunt, but the thought soured her stomach. She'd been hunting with her father a few times, and she'd never been queasy about it before, but the idea of killing a deer, especially to eat it, turned her stomach. The pointless destruction of a beautiful creature was bad enough, but then eating something like that? Even the notion of trying to eat deer meat was repugnant. But that thought struck a new horror in her.

"Oh no! Y’all ain't tellin’ me I gotta be a vegetarian, right?" There was no response from the system.

The notion had her quickly sitting up and looking around. She didn't see anything that might be edible, and needing an answer to this question, she hopped to her feet and started moving again. Now, more focused on finding things that she might be able to eat than safely traversing the forest, she had been running for almost two minutes when she stumbled into the clear path of a creek. It followed along the side of a small road, well worn by wagon wheels. Not twenty feet away were several men standing next to one such wagon tied to a single giant cow. Her explosive exit from the woods had captured their attention, and they just stared as she looked back in wide-eyed surprise.

Before anyone could decide what to do, the words spilled out of her mouth, "Oh, please tell me y’all got some food with you! Maybe some meat? Can I see it?"

That seemed to shock the men back into sense, and one howled with laughter as another, a large man with long dark hair, worn leather armor, and seemingly the leader of the group, stepped toward her. "What have we here? Yeah, miss, we have meat. Are you some sort of elf? We can help you out."

Before he'd taken two steps, another of his companions, a man in dark oilcloth and a hood, put a hand on his elbow. "Wait, boss."

The two men conferred quietly before the "boss" looked back at her in surprise, his eyes glazing over for a moment. "No kidding. What is a [Hero] doing all the way out here?" His mood suddenly seemed much improved, and that made Alice smile.

"Oh, right," she replied with a bit of a laugh. "I'm real sorry to be a bother. I'm a bit lost, but I'm glad y’all know about [Heroes]. I could sure use some directions to find the [Hero], Evelyn. Do y’all know who that is?"

"Aye, girl, I know who that is. I can take you to her myself. It would be an honor."

The way he said it gave her a moment of pause. She needed the help, and he was claiming he could do it, but his smile looked just a little too satisfied. It tickled something in the back of her mind, but she didn't have a lot of choices. Trying to rationalize things, an answer came forward almost immediately. "Let me guess. There’s some kind of reward for findin’ [Heroes], ain't there? Well, don’t y’all worry. If anyone asks, I’ll make sure they know who rescued me when I was lost and alone and how grateful I am." She finished with her most friendly smile and stepped forward, raising her hand to shake. "I'm Alice."

The man raised his hand to return the shake, but she never quite reached it. In a flash of white, she lost all sense. She vaguely felt like she was falling. She felt herself hit the ground and groggily watched blurred images of the forest moving overhead as her senses tried to come back to her. Pain roared through her head. She was being carried by her arms and legs. She tried to yank herself free, but her body felt too lethargic to move. As they carried her into the wagon, she started to hear more than the ringing in her ears, which she was only just registering.

A gruff voice was saying, "Girl like this naked in the forest. I usually like 'em with a few more curves. When're we ever gonna have a chance with a [Hero] again?"

Another older-sounding voice replied, "You're a damn idiot, Jasper. If you touch her and she tells whoever buys her, you're a dead man. And when they level her up, who do you think she's going to come after? Now shut your hole and help get her in these irons. There are other girls at the camp."

She tried to say anything at all, but her tongue felt thick in her mouth. It did, however, brush against one of her razor-sharp teeth. If she'd have just thought to do that before, she would have known she was at least an omnivore, maybe even a carnivore, and she wouldn't be in this mess. Before that thought could fully clear her head, someone stuffed a ball of cloth into her mouth and began wrapping a gag around her head as another of her attackers bound her wrists and ankles behind her in cold, heavy iron. She did everything she could, but that amounted to nothing. She felt weak as a kitten and was entirely helpless as they locked the shackles together, leaving her hog-tied in chains.

A sudden, obvious way to escape came to her as she watched the rain water pouring between the floorboards of the wagon, but she was struck with a moment of indecision. He said they had "other girls" at their camp. She was a [Hero] now, wasn't she? Shouldn't she stay and try to save them? Or should she try to escape and follow the men? Her vision had almost cleared when someone wrapped a blindfold over her eyes, then put a wet canvas bag over her head, tying it tightly around her neck. It smelled like rotting herbs, and she immediately began to feel light-headed. The little focus she'd recovered fled, and she felt an unnatural calm suffuse her mind as she lost the will to string her failing thoughts together. As her vision darkened around the edges, the only thought she could manage was that the pain was fading, at least.

There was no way to tell how long it had been when the sound of rain pattering on canvas, men and horses walking, and the low murmur of conversation in every direction woke her. Her shoulders and wrists were on fire, and she ached all over. She could hardly breathe, making even moaning feel impossible. The moment she tried to move, she knew why. She had been limply hanging from chains with her wrists still clasped in manacles. As she found her feet under her, barely able to reach the ground well enough to stand, the rattling gained enough attention for someone to check on her. She was still blindfolded, her mouth was painfully filled with a too-tight gag, and her neck was constricted by something unyielding, leaving her head pounding. The feeling of the collar around her neck made her suddenly feel panic, and she gave one jerk again to her chains before falling and making her shoulders scream in agony as the collar nearly cut off her airway. She struggled painfully back to her feet, barely able to get more than her toes under her.

A timid voice spoke then, hardly able to be heard over the rain. "Mi-miss, please don't struggle. They'll only beat us if you struggle." The terror in the girl's voice was real and worse than her own. Somehow, that was enough to bring her senses back to her. She couldn't respond, but she calmed, doing her best to stand still and see if she could wiggle enough room to get her feet flat. She already felt exhausted. She took a quick look at her status.

Hit Points:87/140

Mana: 25/250

Stamina: 16/160

It was no wonder she felt half dead. She was! She had no idea why her mana and stamina were so low, but ten percent was pretty obvious. She had a suspicion it had to do with the collar around her neck. She didn't feel the insidious worming into her mind that she'd woken up with in the ritual chamber, but as she tried to focus on it, she felt drained. The pounding in her head was from more than being drugged and dehydrated, she was certain. She noticed something odd, almost like a pulling sensation in her vision, and she focused on it, finding a hidden notification.

• You have improved your [Poison Resistance] Skill. Level 16. 

"Th-they said.. They said if you woke up, we had to t-tell them. You're not supposed to wake up. If… Please pretend to be asleep if they come. They won't touch you if you're asleep."

The dread in her voice startled Alice enough that she almost rattled her chains again. She managed to take a long, slow breath through her nose. The air was permeated with the same poison from the bag, and she suspected it had to be in the gag. It didn't take much to put together that the poison resistance was protecting her. A moment later, she felt something slide under her heels, and she suddenly had enough support to stand.

"There… just, please. Don't let them know. I-I, can't take the gag away. They said they'll cu-cut off my hands. I have to water it every hour. S-so you stay alive.. and asleep. They p-promised to s-sell me to whoever bought you if I take care of you."

The girl seemed to be rambling to fill the silence or as if she needed to justify helping her captors. She kept talking, but Alice had the idea. These people were slavers or maybe opportunistic bandits. This girl sounded young. They chose whomever they could intimidate into caring for their prisoner, with a carrot on a stick for compliance. She had to figure out where she was. With a little focus, she tried to feel for the rain. Pushing through the mental fog was somehow more painful than what she had already been dealing with, but she gritted her teeth and buckled down until she could feel outside the structure she was in. It was perfectly round, and the sound of rain on canvas could only make her think it was a tent. There were people walking past only a few feet away. As she kept going, she started to get an idea of how big the camp was. There had to be forty or fifty people. Some were coming and going, making it difficult to be certain, and she had no idea how many might be hiding somewhere she couldn't see them, but damp seemed to suffuse everything, even the interior of her own tent. Of the people she could sense, though, there were no more in chains. Even the girl with her, the only person as small as her in the entire camp, wasn't bound. She tried to get more of a sense of anyone who might be a captive, but it was getting harder by the second. So far as Alice could tell, she and the girl, her minder was too small to be called much more than that, were the only women.

Just as she was about to withdraw, she felt someone coming through the rain directly for their tent. As quietly and gently as she could, she lowered herself back to a hanging position, wincing her face in pain at the pressure on her shoulders but managing to relax and let her head lull against her arm in a way that helped keep the pressure from the collar off her throat. The girl took the hint and quickly moved closer, slowly pouring water into the gag. Only seconds later, a man stormed into the tent as if he intended to catch her doing something she wasn't supposed to, but when he laughed at her squeal, it was obvious he was just tormenting her.

"Stand back, girl. I need to change her gag."

The girl didn't reply, only meekly shuffling off and cowering as far away from the man as she could be.

"You're lucky this didn't dry out. You mess this up and we can get one of the boys to take over. They won't be so gentle with your friend here. It will be your fault, too. The boss will slit your throat and sell your meat to the goblins like they did the others."

"I-I-I… I won't mess up!" she whimpered at the man, and he only laughed.

Alice's lips were assaulted with a sudden burning pain even as her jaw felt some relief when he untied the gag and began to pull the oversized wad of cloth and herbs from her mouth. She barely resisted gagging as it tugged and peeled away, leaving a sticky residue behind. The feeling only got worse as fresh air suddenly made it feel like her mouth was full of cotton. Without thinking, she tried to take a deep breath, but she was still too choked by the collar for it to make a difference.

"You should be grateful. The boss was going to sell you all to Chithian pirates. If you even survived the trip back to the islands, they'd sell you to a whore house to be used up until nothing was left. Elves go for a good price over there. Now he's going to let you go with this one to some eastern noble house. If she lives."

"I am! Gr-grateful. P-lease. I'll keep her alive!"

He stuck a dirty finger into Alice's mouth, pulling it open and managing to cut his finger on one of her teeth. "Damn!"

Without another word, he jammed the new pack of herbs into her mouth and began to tie the gag back, less tight than before but more than enough to be painfully uncomfortable. Alice was just grateful that the blood tasted like blood and not some nectar she needed to survive. The last thing she wanted was to be some kind of monster that ate people.

"Water that thing. A lot of water. She looks dehydrated, and I don't want to have to come back in the middle of the night to replace it again."

The bitter taste of rotting herbs filling her mouth was much stronger than before, only made far worse when the girl began to slowly pour water over the gag. Alice couldn't help but swallow it, though. The moment enough moisture was in her mouth, she greedily drank it down. She didn't realize how parched she was until then, but the poison had an immediate effect. It was far more potent this way than just breathing it, making her head spin and her muscles go lax. She could feel her poison resistance fighting against it almost immediately, but the toxin was powerful. The next swallow was involuntary, and it was the last thing she remembered.

When she came to again, the only sound to greet her was the pattering of rain on the canvas. It had to be hours later. A quick check of her status showed that she'd still not recovered any mana or stamina, and her health had dropped down to the sixties. Whatever was in that poison was killing her. She'd originally thought that she was recovering from the blow to the head, but it was hard to argue with the facts. If she didn't escape, she would die. She did have a notification, at least.

• You have improved your [Poison Resistance] Skill. Level 21. 

As nice as that was, she was sure it wasn't going to be enough to save her. She didn't know what a high level was for anything yet, but that couldn't be very high if she were leveling it so fast. She needed to plan an escape. Alice spread her awareness as far as she could, managing to get past the border of the camp. It only took a few moments to confirm her suspicions. The camp was asleep. Her estimates of their numbers had been short by about twenty, but now only a few were awake. If she could manage to escape without alerting the guards, she might be able to get away. Slowly, she stood again, finding the block the girl had given her and carefully balancing on it. The relief was immediate. It was impossible to make no noise at all, but the jingle her chains made was very light.

That brought about another problem. If she were to manage to shift into her water form, the chains would all fall to their full length and clatter together. She needed to keep that from happening. She could try to get as low as possible and hold them together first, but the chains to the shackles and collar weren't the same length. She also knew she wasn't thinking clearly. Her inability to breathe normally was stressing her out, and it didn't take long for her to get frustrated. If she could just turn one hand at a time to water, that would solve all of her problems! …. Of course. She didn't know that she couldn't just do that, and she wouldn't until she tried. Alice did her best to slow her breathing and concentrate on just her right wrist and hand. Holding the shackle around it with her left hand, she poured all her willpower into taking a water form with only the right. Nothing happened. So, she tried harder. If she had to hide in her water form, they'd kill the girl. She couldn't let that happen, and she wasn't going to be sold off for whatever reason, so she had to make this work. Pouring all the focus she could manage, she tried again. She focused on the feeling of water, as she had before, feeling her arm as water, then her hand. Then, suddenly, she was holding a shackle. It was heavier than expected and had nearly fallen from her left hand. She almost choked trying to sigh in relief. With a better understanding of what she needed to do, she carefully put the right shackle down to hang and took hold of the left. After only a few seconds of concentration, she had her hands free. Doing her neck and head was another story. Somehow, it seemed far more intimidating. What if it somehow killed her? Or if she became a puddle entirely and dropped everything? It was a risk she needed to take, but she decided to be smart and fully extended the chain. With the three chains resting together, she gave it a shot. The anxiety made it feel so much more difficult. She leaned against the chain just a little and then pushed the ability hard.

Before she knew it, she was on her hands and knees, gasping for breath through her nose as best she could, finally able to breathe. Her headache spiked before starting to recede. She had almost failed to notice the jingle of the chains as the centerpiece had jerked up at the released pressure. She focused, sending out her senses again, but no one seemed to be coming. The girl with her, however, was sitting up now and looking at her. She couldn't see facial expressions, but she could only assume it was something like muted horror.

"N-n-no… Why? They were going to sell us to nobles… They're going to kill us!" her words were quiet but panicked.

Alice wasted no time untying the blindfold, a very long strip of cloth wrapped needlessly around her head several times, and then the gag around her mouth. She had to pull the oversized ball of poisonous herbs out of her mouth by hand, spitting in disgust at the lingering taste. Without hesitation, Alice picked up the wooden pitcher of water the girl had been using and rinsed out her mouth twice before taking a long drink. It didn't feel like there was enough water in the world, but she stopped, passing the water to the girl who was just staring at her slack-jawed but accepted it in numb hands nonetheless.

Alice tried to smile despite the pain in her face, "Everything’s gonna be fine. I'm Alice. What's your name?"

"Y-y-y-you're not an elf!" the girl sputtered, and Alice gave up on the smile.

"No, hon, I ain't. I'm a Naiad. But if we're gonna get outta here without these folks catchin' us, we need to go real soon."

"What?" the girl asked, looking lost and terrified.

"Look, I know you're scared. That's okay. I'm Alice. I'm a Naiad, not an elf. I'm also a [Hero]. I'm gonna escape, and I'm takin' you with me. Just stick with me and be quiet as a mouse, and you'll be alright. Easy peasy."

That only made the girl look more confused, "I thought the [Hero's] name was Evelyn?"

"Evelyn's the other [Hero]. I need to find her. Say, you don’t happen to know where she is, do you?"

The elven girl, Alice was sure the girl was an elf now, shook her head, looking at the ground in defeat.

"Now, now, don’t let that get you down. We’ll find her. You still haven’t told me your name."

She looked up at Alice, "Caeda. I can still come with you?"

"Of course! I wouldn't leave you behind. I'm gonna focus for a minute on an ability, then we’re gonna go."

Alice tried to give her another smile, but it turned into a painful grimace. She stood slowly, feeling every ache on the way up, and a painful soreness as her breast rubbed across the inside of the rough sleeveless dress that someone had stuffed her into. Only then did she finally realize she was dressed and was happy for it, but this chafing was not okay. Looking around the tent, the only thing she could find was the blindfold.

"Alright. I was wrong. I’m gonna wrap this cloth around my chest. I need you to tie it up snug behind me, okay?"

"Uh, okay. I know how," the girl answered, which only made sense, Alice supposed. She had to strip, but there was nothing for it. Without needing to be asked, the girl quickly and expertly wrapped her chest with the cloth, tied it, and then helped Alice back into her dress. It was a painful experience with Alice finding bruising in her chest that strongly hinted that someone had hurt her intentionally. She had more important things to worry about, though. Sighing, she closed her eyes and gave her [Healing Touch] a try. It was easier than she thought, and a rush like being splashed in a cool river ran across her from head to toe. Then, she fell to her knees as her stamina and mana dropped several points.

"Are you okay?" The girl asked, and Alice nodded.

"I'll feel much better once we get out into the rain."

Already plotting a course to a brook that she could feel nearby, she watched for the guards to move in a way that left a gap. She didn't wait long, and then, taking Caeda by the hand, they were off.