Between The Soulweald and Nantes existed a black space.

A white thing appeared before Dahlia. Information appeared on it in a familiar language, sylvan. When she read it, a strange voice narrated it in her mind, and she didn’t have to read it anymore. But she definitely kept looking at it, and not at the vast black space all around her, and she certainly didn’t write her name in the black void in fairy glitter.

Language identified: Sylvan (Soulweald), Common.

Race identified: Fairy (Soulweald).

Class: Gloamcaller [Covenant Class*]

*Covenant Classes are limited by sacred pacts. Gloamcaller is restricted by race and origin.

“That’s what Mistress Nyxaria said. I think,” Dahlia said in deep thought. She couldn’t help the way her chaotic little mind worked, and giggle after giggle escaped from her as she considered being a bard. It’d really show that daft old cow who was boss, and that stupid human too! No matter how she thought about it, the voice in her head didn’t acknowledge her desire for mischief, or acknowledge any way to change her class.

Maybe it was for the best.

Attributes Assigned.

Strength

7

Intelligence

6

Dexterity

17

Wisdom

7

Constitution

12

Charisma

19

“Intelligence six!? That’s really low! I’m smarter than I am stronger! Fix it! Fix it now! Why aren’t you fixing it?” Dahlia raged at the world. The intelligence attribute did not change. For the first time in her life, the tiny fairy felt less instead of more.

“Faeries aren’t stupid! And we’re wise too! Mistress Nyxaria!!!!!” Dahlia cried out in desperation for the ArchFey. The facts of her existence cut deeply to her core, exposing vulnerability and undeniable failures of who she was. This self-discovery was not the kind of new and exciting revelation one sought from an adventure.

“You’ll just have to raise those attributes, won’t you dear?” Nyxaria’s voice rang in Dahlia’s mind in a haunting, unforgettable suggestion.

“I will,” Dahlia vowed and wiped the tears from her eyes. Determination replaced despair.

Size: Tiny.

“Who’re you calling tiny, you stupid voice!? I’m properly sized, everything else is what’s too big!” Dahlia immediately picked another fight with the strange voice and its hurtful messages, but this time her righteous anger sort of petered out on its own after a few seconds. Lady Nyxaria’s voice echoed in her mind. After all, magic could fix size issues as well as increase attributes. Probably.

Congratulations, you qualify to start at level 1.

Class: Gloamcaller

Class Skills: Adventure—Nature, Magic—Thaumaturgy

Nature Rank 1—Forager’s Instincts: Your familiarity with the wild shows. If you spend a half hour foraging, you are extremely likely to find enough food to nourish yourself and four others for a day.

Thaumaturgy Rank 1—Abundant Magic: Your innate magical nature as a Fey grants you a natural bonus to magical manipulation and precision. (Passive).

Class Features: Spellcasting, Shadow Kiss.

Shadow Kiss: You inspire others through a manifestation of the Soulweald. Subject: One creature within 60 feet of you. Effect: Increases probability of success of their next difficult action.

Spellcasting: You are an innately magical creature and draw magic from the well of creation.

Cantrips

Prepared Spells

Lvl 1 Spell Slots

4

2

2

You know three cantrips! Illusion (Minor), Shadowy Whispers, and Soul Lash. Please choose one more cantrip to learn from the list.

Acid Throw, Cinder Bolt, Echo of Destiny, Electric Touch, Light, Magic Trick, Repair (Minor).

“Magic Trick!!” Dahlia answered without even investigating the others. It had two of her favorite words in it. Magic. Trick. Dahlia couldn’t imagine what kind of idiot wouldn’t want Magic Trick. Perhaps the person asking her these questions was that kind of idiot? They were no doubt miserable old curmudgeons overwrought with regret that they hadn’t chosen the glorious Magic Trick.

You know one spell. Call Shadow (Level 1).

“I do?” Dahlia whispered in amazement.

Please choose another spell from the list provided.

Arms of Apep, Bouncing Bolt, Inflict Pain, Sphere of Sickness, Call Familiar.

“Call Familiar!! I’m going to have a dragon!” Dahlia dreamed happily, and her glimmering fairy dust turned a bright pink to match her mood.

Background: Acolyte of Nyxaria.

Description: Raised as a follower of the ArchFey Nyxaria, Dahlia was raised amongst a cohort of her sisters to serve the ruler of the Soulweald.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Origin Feat granted: Disciple of the ArchFey (Soulweald).

Disciple of the ArchFey (Soulweald): You gain +1 Charisma.

You gain Social—Insight (Level 1) and Social—Performance (Level 1).

Social—Insight (Level 1) grants you Attentive Observer. You pick up on subtle changes in tone, body language, and expression and can often tell when someone is uncomfortable, excited, or hiding tension, though you might not know why.

Social—Performance (Level 1) grants you Catchy Tune. You’ve practiced enough to reliably hold a crowd’s attention for short periods and gain a bonus to performances before small crowds.

You gain proficiency with the lute and Noctherin (Exotic, Soulweald).

This background grants two cantrips from the following list: Echo of Destiny, Glittercloud, Light, Resistance, Vine Whip.

Dahlia thought about it briefly, before she chose Echo of Destiny and Glittercloud. Both cantrips seemed like they might be handy.

Echo of Destiny (Divination Cantrip): You brush the threads of fate of a willing creature, momentarily aligning their path with better possible futures.

Glittercloud (Evocation Cantrip): You conjure a swirling cloud of iridescent fairy dust in a 10-foot radius centered on yourself. Each creature of your choice who fails to resist the magical dust cloud suffers force damage and is wreathed in fairy dust for ten seconds. Creatures wreathed in fairy dust cannot benefit from being invisible and suffers penalties to attempts at hiding.

Choose one first level spell from the following list: Entangler, Make Water, Safe Food, Super Runaway, Wisp Heal. You will be able to cast this spell once per day for free, subsequent uses will require expending a spell slot.

“Oh, Wisps are my favorite!” Dahlia swooned and chose Wisp Heal without even bothering to learn what it, or any of the others, did.

You have completed registration with Nantes. Welcome to our World.

Unlike the previous words that were dull, the final greeting was a mish-mash chorus of very bored and unenthusiastic voices, none of which Dahlia recognized. That wasn’t what was important, though. The darkness went topsy turvy, the black bled through with waves of purple like the time she ate those mushrooms she wasn’t supposed to have eaten and got sick. Experiencing the trauma even in flashback form made her stomach heave.

Thankfully, the wind from earlier finally reappeared, plucked her from the darkness and carried her into a meadow at the edge of a forest.

The wind dropped Dahlia onto her ass in a large, suspiciously convenient pile of red-brown fall leaves. The summoned winds of Nyxaria disturbed the great oak that towered above her and her comfy pile of leaves once it let her freefall. Dahlia didn’t mind, the leaves were soft and had a pleasant earthy smell to them. She was comfy—until the first acorn fell. It impacted the pile with great kinetic drama and Dahlia burst out of the leaves in a nova of fairy dust and white light, only to be forced to immediately engage in evasive maneuvers.

Dahlia weaved around the first few acorns before she looked for a pattern in their falling. Her chaotic little brain failed to pluck any patterns or useful information useful to her current situation, but looking up did allow her to rely on her quick reflexes and gorgeous purple wings to dart between acorns. She even anticipated a few of the acorns, before she zoomed past the edge of the tree to the safety of the open air.

“Whew, what a stupid tree. You meanie asshole, I’ll teach you to attack a fairy!?” Dahlia yelled at the tree and shook her fist threateningly at it.

It didn’t talk back.

“Oh, you’re too good to talk to me!? Take this!” Dahlia shouted and gestured dramatically as she unleashed Soul Lash.

Soul Lash: You strike the life-essence of one creature of your choice that you can see within 60 feet of you. The target takes radiant damage and cannot regain hit points for twenty seconds.

A crackling sphere of vibrant white life energy coalesced in Dahlia’s diminutive hand, and then struck from her palm to the base of the large oak like a flash of lightning. Hunks of bark and wood filled the air as she created a wound easily twice her size in the trunk of the tree.

“Yeah, that’s what you get! Don’t fuck with a fairy!” Dahlia taunted the tree, but it still wouldn’t reply to her.

Inanimate trees. Who had ever heard of this bullshit? Dahlia missed home already.

“There’s a forest, maybe it leads back to the Soulweald.” The fairy hoped fervently as she darted towards the nearby forest. An invisible wall stopped her.

You may not enter the Forest of the Fey. You must reach level 20 and complete Quest: Become the Greatest Necromancer to gain entry to the Soulweald.

“Moooooommmmy!” Dahlia cried in frustrated rage when the silly voice said she couldn’t go home.

Crying for mom usually solved a lot of issues that cropped up in life, so Dahlia was flabbergasted when this time it did nothing. Not even a sigh carried to her upon the breeze. This cruel world with its untalkative trees and deadly acorns seemed completely unconcerned with her, and worse, indifferent to her plight.

Quest: Become the Greatest Necromancer (0/4).

“This blows!” Dahlia cried out in despair. To get back home she was going to have to do the one thing fairies hated to do. She was going to have to work hard.

Or was she?

If no one cared about her plight, then why should Dahlia care about a bet between two old dummies? Dahlia daydreamed of moonlit flower beds full of Night Phlox, Gardenia, and Evening Primrose. She could practically taste the sweet nectar of the flowers on her tongue.

One major hurdle prevented Dahlia from living a life of laziness. She had no idea where to find a glade like that. Normally, she would simply ask a tree. These trees didn’t talk for some reason, maybe they were too young? Plus, she couldn’t become smart and wise by being lazy. Could she?

“Let’s see,” Dahlia said to herself, while the wind made her fairy dust into a spectacle of color even in the daylight.

“The forest is out. This tree is rude. So, I’ll find another tree, or some sort of person. I’ll swindle them for their knowledge and something sweet, then it’ll be the easy life for me, ahahaha,” Dahlia laughed like a mad woman before she blitzed up into the sky. High, higher than the big oak, to look at her surroundings.

To one direction lay the big forest. Dahlia couldn’t go that way. The sun hung directly overhead. Opposite the big forest a large meadow filled ample space, but a big river lay at the other end of the meadow. To either side lay more of the forest, as if it formed a horseshoe around the meadow. Her only option, then, was to go towards the river.

A shadow crossed over Dahlia’s face, and quick reflexes were all that kept her from being grasped in the talons of a giant yellow bird. It cawed its anger at missing her, and banked around for another try.

“Oh piss off!” Dahlia exclaimed, but the bird didn’t acknowledge her decree. So, she conjured the radiant power of Soul Lash. The blast of brilliant light struck the giant yellow bird as it banked around. Feathers and blood filled the sky, but the minor wound didn’t deter the creature from making another swoop at her.

The bird barreled down on her, death in its eyes, but the talons missed Dahlia again. No! The talons had been a feint, the birds giant beak pecked at her and ripped a painful gash across her arm. Luckily the dumb bird failed to get ahold of her.

“Owww!” Dahlia screamed in real pain for the first time in her life. She had been injured before, but the creatures of the Soulweald knew better than to attack one of the daughters of Nyxaria.

“Oh, I’m going to kill you and eat you, you stupid ugly ass bird, and make a quill out of your tail feather!” Dahlia shouted while she cast a different cantrip, Shadowy Whispers.

Shadowy Whispers: You dispatch tendrils of shadow that gnaw at the confidence and psyche of creatures. Resisted by Intellect. Failure to resist results in psychic damage, and the creature suffers large penalties on their next attack.

Dark tentacles of power coursed around the golden feathered bird, and it emitted a terrible shriek of pain before it swooped around for another pass.

Whether it was due to the shadowy whispers in its mind, or the nimble evasiveness of Dahlia, the bird missed the fairy with its peck attack and its talon grab. Dahlia blasted its backside with Soul Lash and landed a lucky blow. The yellow bird fell out of the sky and crashed into the ground far below with a satisfying splat.

You have gained 100 experience.

“Yeah, that’s what you get!” Dahlia puffed up her chest and shouted in joy but noticed more large birds in the sky. She swiftly dipped back down to the ground below and struggled to pull the big tail feather out of the very, very large bird. She failed to free the giant, beautiful feather.

“Mm.”

When Dahlia closed her eyes to think. To her surprise a list of her current spells came up.

Call Familiar, Call Shadow, Wisp Heal.

“That might work,” Dahlia mused and closed her eyes to see if she could learn anything more.

Call Familiar: Summon a familiar, a spirit that can manifest from myriad forms. As a Fey, your familiars will be of a fey origin. Material components: Incense.

“Let’s see what’s in my pouch,” Dahlia said with dread. It didn’t seem too likely she’d have any incense in her tiny pouch.

“Woohoo!” Dahlia chimed a moment later. Her little belt pouch for treasures and spell components contained a stick of incense, a pinch of dirt, and a fragment of bone. The latter two were components for Call Shadow, so she left them there.

“Fire!” Dahlia exclaimed grandiosely and used Magic Trick to light the incense. It smelled like cloves and burning.

“Oh, great spirits of whatever world this is, bring me a familiar to do my bidding. I need a strong one, so don’t be stingy!” Dahlia plead with the wide world around her, and the corpse of the bird, before she recited the words that swam through her brain. About halfway through the ten-minute-long spell, she found that she’d stopped speaking the words to the spell, and instead sang them.

Singing totally kicked talking in the ass and brought Dahlia full strength back into the spell. She struggled to reach high notes, and by the last syllable she panted with exhaustion from her elaborate performance.

You have unlocked the Magic Skill—Spell Singing.

Rank 1—Harmonic Casting: Your sung spells resonate with minor harmonics which enhance range or duration. Increase range by 30% or duration by 10%.

Magic flowed around Dahlia, the smoke from the incense drifted into the shape of a dog before it solidified into a fey creature. A large, intimidating fey creature.