A breeze whipped by and Roisin came to with a start. She was standing outside, in the midst of inky black night. Barely able to see two feet in front of her, she tapped the side of her head and cast Night Vision. Images blossomed around her; shrubs with sharp, spiny leaves, a loose field of coarse rocks, and a jagged, undulating horizon. If she had to guess, she was in a desert. She had no memories of visiting one on Earth and Astros was nestled within a green, temperate archipelago, so she had little to go off. But the pervasive scent of dirt and dust strongly suggested she might be right.

Her robes had been exchanged for a dark-colored jumpsuit and she blended into the environment so well that she could barely see how own shape. Roisin marveled at how light and agile she felt. Jie, I get it now. Thinking of Jie reminded her of Samer’s grouchy face after finding out about his attendance on the expedition. She almost laughed out loud as she thought about Samer’s face permanently plastered in a look of crabbiness throughout the course of the expedition. The momentary spark of joy helped lift the anxiety regarding her current situation just a bit.

The faint outline of a path led to a hulking structure in the distance, likely the palace grounds. Eager to get off to a fast start, she cast Haste, a fire-based spell. She concentrated on her overwhelming desire to complete the Trials with aplomb and show herself worthy of becoming an official mage. A warmth spread throughout her body and her pace doubled. After a few minutes she skid to a stop and squatted behind a large boulder. Large walls materialized in front of her, broken up only by a dimly lit iron gate.

Roisin contemplated her options. The easiest solution would be to use an air spell to leap over the walls, but given their height, she would need to user her Evoker power to have any chance of making it over. This came with a small problem. For air, the required emotion was detachment, by far the most difficult of the elements for her to tap into. To her, detachment translated to emptiness, which summoned the ghosts of her past in a very unpleasant way. Samer had counseled her that she should instead focus on cultivating inner peace and allowing herself to let go of earthly desires. Grumbling about being subject to silly mumbo jumbo talk, Roisin grudgingly acceded and attempted to meditate. After a few seconds of stillness, a yawning horror began to claw at her gut. That was enough of that.

She dismissed melting her way through the gate as too likely to attract attention. That left only the down and dirty option. As in literally down and dirty. She was going underneath the walls.

Fifteen minutes later, moonlight filtered through an opening at the end of a small, barely human-size tunnel she had created. She cast a final Dig spell and the last dirt crumbled away, leaving an opening wide enough for her to poke her head through. Seeing that her excavation had gone unnoticed, she cautiously lifted herself out and then scampered over to the nearest building, crouching behind it. Hey, I’m no slouch at this sneaking around stuff. Taking a few extracurricular classes with the Rogues Faction paid off.

She took a moment to survey her surroundings. She was in a deserted courtyard, occupied by a decrepit fountain and a few scattered concrete buildings. The buildings were dark and appeared empty, lending the complex a sense of abandonment and decay. Is the power off? Or maybe they forgot to populate the NPCs? Roisin stifled a chuckle as she pictured the dictator wandering the halls, desperately searching for his guards and attendants.

The courtyard abutted a squat, bulky building that when she squinted, appeared to be covered in smooth limestone. More examination yielded decorations of archways and columns, signifying that it was likely the residence. Again, she could no see no lit rooms and wondered if anybody was home. Only one way to find out. She caste Haste again and charted out her path. She’d run over to the palace wall and try out the one door she could identify. If locked, she’d bust out her rudimentary lockpicking skills and hope for the best. She took a breath and stepped into the darkness.

Halfway there, she heard a scraping sound from the residence’s second floor and saw a glint of metal. Panic seized her and she blindly poured her emotions into the Haste spell, pushing herself to move as fast as she could. Then, an earsplitting bang rang out and a small object whistled past her shoulder swifter than she had ever seen anything move before. The ground reverberated with its impact and a cloud of dust kicked up and coated her ankles.

Time slowed and she stretched her arms out, catapulting forward. She tumbled smack into the wall, her limbs a tangled mess. Her heart pounded wildly and she gasped for air as she tried to get her bearings. Opening her eyes, relief flooded her. Thank my lucky stars. She was concealed underneath an overhang. Immediately though a debilitating fear began to take over her mind. Holy crap, I almost died. Although death here wouldn’t be permanent, this was little consolation given that death in this world meant failure back in Arcadia.

A scuffle of movement signaled the assailant’s departure from his perch. Time was ticking; it would be only a few minutes before the sniper found her and she doubted he would be by himself. She made to stand up but images of bullets speeding towards her flashed through her mind and her limbs froze in place. She grunted, dazed by her body’s betrayal.

Get a grip Roisin. You’ve made it through worse. She lightly tapped both sides of her head and cast Clarity, clearing her mind. Her thoughts immediately sharpened, as the fear retreated and yielded to a blaze of determination. She wrenched control of her hand back from the paralysis and used it to steady herself and slowly stand up.

Her Evoker power called to her, this time beckoning her to use a water spell. She waved her hands in concentric circles and cast Ring of Frost. A field of icicles formed around her and began to rotate rapidly, ready to intercept any future dangerous projectiles.

Looking at the reinforced door, she reckoned that her time playing as a rogue had come to an end. Casting Ice Lance, she flattened her palms against each other and pulled them apart inch by inch, a large, sculpted javelin of ice emerging between them. She held her hands in this position for a few extra seconds, letting the ice condense and harden, then drew back her arm and heaved the spear at the door. Both ice and door shattered into dozens of pieces, leaving a gaping hole. She climbed through, taking care to avoid stepping on sharp objects.

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The room was lit by bright, fluorescent overhead lights. After turning off her Night Vision, she observed a few couches and a pool table, and guessed she was in a guard recreation room. In other words, far from where she needed to be. She made her way through a few similar rooms before emerging into a large, cavernous hall, the walls adorned with rows of portraits of a uniquely ugly man, his expression idiotically pompous. She scowled, before spotting a red laser dot track its way across the nearest portrait and onto her icicle shield. A loud burst of fire rang out and icicles shattered into thousands of pieces. Instead of falling to the ground or flying into her, the icicles repulsed away from her body and quickly reformed into a highly chipped barrier in front of her. Roisin fell backwards onto the carpet, landing awkwardly on her right arm, which protested with a sharp, stabbing pain.

Three figures moved swiftly into the hallway from the other end, wearing goggles and covered in black. They each held what looked like heavy-duty guns, causing Roisin to frantically try to recall faint memories of action movies she had watched years ago. Crap, crap, crap. Ring of Frost won’t be able to handle this many people shooting at me and Ice Lance will be too easy for them to dodge. She’d need to switch elemental schools. Given her current intimate position with the ground, earth seemed like the natural choice.

She pounded her fists onto the tile floor and cast Tremor. The ground rippled away from her, gathering speed. Upon reaching the three men, they swayed and topped over each other. One pulled the trigger of his gun, spraying the wall with bullets and striking an enormous tapestry of the dictator’s hideous mug, which promptly fell and covered the men completely. Seeing her good luck, she used Gust to topple a few scattered marble busts onto the corners of the tapestry, hopefully pinning the men underneath for the duration of her visit. Roisin couldn’t help but grin. Please be a sign of how the rest of the night will go!

Feeling that it would impede her movement, Roisin dismissed her shield of ice. She sprinted past the immobilized soldiers and into the room beyond, where a grand staircase emerged into view. Reaching the landing at the top, she was faced with a narrow hallway, lined with doors. The final door was cracked open, emitting a faint wisp of yellow light.

Roisin crept along the hallway towards the light, thankful her outfit emitted no sound of movement. The house had become eerily silent, and a small burst of fear made its way back into her mind. Breathe, Roisin.

She positioned herself opposite the lit doorway. She thought about readying a Fireball, but the impulse was overridden by a curiosity to find out what the room contained. Roisin, this is a mistake. Still, she felt strangely compelled and quietly stepped into the room.

It appeared to be an office; plush, leather chairs arranged around a roaring fireplace on one side, a large, mahogany desk on the other. Sitting behind the desk, the man whose face she had grown quite familiar with during the course of the night. Portly but broad-shouldered, his greying black hair was slicked back, and his hawkish eyebrows obscured beady, dark eyes. He appeared to be avidly typing away on a computer, his attention fully occupied.

She lifted her foot to take another step.

“Come in. Take a seat.”

Roisin froze in place.

“Don’t leave me waiting.” Suddenly she felt herself pulled forward, as if on a puppet string. She slammed into a chair, striking her sore arm, and let out a gasp of pain. The hidden force grew heavier until she sat down, then lifted. The chair spun around so that she was facing the dictator. He punched a few keys with emphasis and turned to face her, his face distorted with a malevolent curiosity.

“That’s more like it. So, what did you think? I custom-built this scenario just for you.”

“I’m sorry, what? You built this world?”

The dictator glared at her. “I just said that. Don’t ask silly questions. Now, tell me what you thought.”

Roisin felt numb. None of this makes sense. She could fathom no explanation for what the dictator had said.

The dictator let out a grunt of impatience. Roisin stammered, “Right, well. I didn’t understand it at first. The quest description indicated I would practically need to storm the palace. Instead, it was pretty much abandoned.”

The dictator nodded impatiently. “Yes, yes, I didn’t have time to create all the NPCs. That’s your fault actually. I thought I had least another week to work and then bam, you’re outside the gates.” He shrugged. “How were the soldiers?” He leaned across the desk in anticipation.

Roisin felt a bead of sweat roll down her forehead. “Uhh, the sniper did surprise me, a lot actually, but I took out his squad pretty easily. It seemed like they hadn’t dealt with facing magic before.”

The dictator pressed the tips of his fingers together and leaned back again. “Interesting. I still have work to do.” He closed his eyes and began muttering to himself. Roisin thought he heard him say something about a mathematical formula.

Enough of this. She silently moved her hand away from her. She snapped her fingers and a ball of orange heat flickered into place. She reared her arm back and threw it forward at the man, then sprang up and sprinted for the door.

Suddenly her legs seized up and she toppled to the floor. I’m really getting sick of falling. The invisible force returned and flipped her right-side up, then pressed down to limit her movement. She could see the fireball hovering a foot in front of the dictator, stuck in place. His eyes remained closed, and he appeared to be frowning.

“That was foolish. This is my world, Roisin. I have complete control over everything here. Yes, that includes you.”

Suddenly, he grinned. “Actually, your early arrival may be fortuitous. I’ve been meaning to practice my latest experiment and now I have a perfect testing subject.”

Moving out from behind his desk, he grabbed a cane and hobbled his way over to her. Reaching her, he leaned over and stuck his bulbous nose into her face. She twisted her head to the side, desperate to avoid looking into the black voids that swirled within his pupils. He straightened and sneered.

“Based off my observations over the last few years, your greatest fear is losing your humanity. This won’t be pleasant then.” He stretched a hand out towards her. Suddenly, a tearing noise began, as if the world was a piece of paper being ripped in half. The room around them blinked in and out of existence, and she saw streams of what looked like code behind them. The dictator closed his eyes, and the room settled back to normal, but now her body began shimmering in and out of focus. Then, there was a popping noise and she became fully transparent.

Roisin yelped in surprise. She rapidly began trying to pat herself, but her hands just passed through. As far as she could tell, she was incorporeal.

***Progression Towards Metahuman: 5%

“What happened? Am I a ghost?” she asked, horrified.

The dictator shook his head, his still eyes closed. “Hush, we’re only just getting started. Don’t interrupt me or you may end up like that permanently.”

He closed his hand into a fist.

***Progression Towards Metahuman: 15%

Roisin screamed, as a river of fire lit up the nerves of her feet and started traveling up her body.

Suddenly, a large sucking sound erupted, and a whirlwind of energy appeared in the air above them. Objects began flying towards the maelstrom, and Roisin felt the invisible weight begin to lessen. The pain in her feet abruptly subsided. The dictator looked around him and growled.

“Your friends at the Academy have decided to save the day. But don’t worry, we aren’t finished here. We’ll see each other again soon.”

The weight disappeared completely and Roisin found herself rapidly floating up into the air. She tumbled straight into the middle of the storm.