Jasper went still. His heartbeat thudded in his ears, his hands grew clammy, his breath came fast and shallow. “No. No, no, no. You can’t do this to me. She can’t be.” He ripped his hand free from Kas̆dael's as he staggered back, nearly falling as a sudden bout of dizziness hit him. “I saw her die. You can’t-” He froze again, his words faltering, and he didn’t resist as Kas̆dael stepped forward and took his hand, her brow furrowed in concern.
“I don’t understand, Jasper. I thought you’d be happy about this news,” the goddess admitted.
“Happy?” His voice slurred, his eyes blinking rapidly in a vain attempt to dam the swell of moisture that threatened to overflow its bounds. “I’d be…ecstatic. But there’s no way, there’s just no way. You can’t give me hope like that.”
Kas̆dael understood then, and leading him back to the chair, made him sit down before she continued. “I can’t promise you she’s alive,” she said slowly. “But in your father’s mind, I saw memories of a young woman who resembled you quite closely. Many memories.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s my sister,” he hissed. “The person you saw could be anyone - a cousin, a half-sister, a random person. I was there when she died, Kas̆dael, in the car with her. A semi lost control on the ice and flattened us like a pancake. I was in the hospital for more than a week - two broken legs, a broken collarbone, cracked ribs, but she…” He broke off. “Her side of the car was annihilated. I want to believe you, but there’s no way she could survive that.”
“He called her Jenny,” Kas̆dael replied.
“No,” he whispered, his hands trembling.
“Maybe it isn’t her, but you know your memories can’t be trusted,” the goddess continued. “Your mother meddled with your memories of her absence, and you had forgotten your encounter with your father altogether. Isn’t it possible that there’s more to her death than you recall?”
The quick, angry denial that rose to his tongue stalled out. It had taken him years to move past Jenny’s death, to rise out of the deep depression that had swallowed up much of his later teens and early twenties. To admit that it might have been a lie, that she could still be alive was painful in more ways than one, but he couldn’t rebut Kas̆dael's argument. Not honestly.
She was right, after all. How much of his life had proven to be a lie since coming to Corsythia? Jasper had never doubted he was anything other than a normal human, until he discovered his mother had been a Djinn from this world. A princess at that. He’d then believed himself to be half-human only to discover his father was some unfamiliar race from a realm he'd never stepped foot in. The truth was, Jasper had gone his entire life without knowing who he was, so was it really so surprising that there might be one more lie?
“Kas̆dael?” He asked quietly, not continuing until he felt the weight of her gaze fall upon him. “If she’s alive, will you help me save her?”
“I don’t know that she needs saving. She seemed…happy," she replied reluctantly.
“Happy?” A bitter smile marred his face. “Of course, I should have known. Just another lie.”
“It doesn’t mean she’s forgotten you,” Kas̆dael said softly. “I think she was the reason he was here. She wanted him to help you.”
“So…what, then?” he sighed. “Do I try to find her? Or do I just let it go?”
“For now,” the goddess replied. “You do nothing. If she’s alive, she likely lives in Arallû, a world I have no authority over. I cannot protect you there, and you are not strong enough to go without me. Not yet,” she added firmly, “But that can change, if you keep growing stronger.” She extended her hand to him again. "That is, of course, if you stop avoiding me.”
He took her hand with a guilty grimace, knowing it had been too long since had bothered to level up. Still, he was shocked by the sheer number of levels waiting for him.
“What the hell? How did I level up so much?”
Jasper Welles
Health 7000
Spirit 7000
Essence 11440
Heritage(s)
Dayyāmmūt Djinn
Watchman of Aldāru
Level: 137
Level up: x12
Hand of Kas̆dael
Level: 36
Level up: x14
Stats
Racial Traits
Class Abilities
Class Abilities
Strength 75
Scion of Flames
Shooting Star
Scales of Justice
Endurance 100
The Broken Shackle
Seraph Burst
Scourge of Despair
Vision 60
Maṣṣāru (Dayyāmmūt)
Eternal Night II
Hand of Judgment
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Inspiration 143
Unlocked
Fiery Shackles II
Hand of Glory
Willpower 143
Locked
Into the Valley of Death
Circle of Forgiveness
Intuition 75
Locked
Heart Stopper (Undead)
Purge
Locked
Flame Charge
A mixture of amusement and annoyance danced in Kas̆dael’s eyes as she replied. “Because as usual, Jasper, you’ve put off leveling for far too long. You’ve fought mutakil, Atrometos, undead Seraphs, and the men of Mūt-La’is multiple times in the last few months, and yet still didn’t visit. Maybe,” she said with a frown, “if you’d bothered to level up more frequently, some of those fights would have been easier.”
“You’re right,” he admitted with a sigh. “I’ll do better-”
“Don’t make a promise you don’t intend to keep,” she cut him off. “Just…level up.”
He nodded mutely, not daring to disagree, and returned his attention to the screen. The levels he had gained in his primary class had fallen short of unlocking another reward, but a box awaited him for his subclass. He decided to open it first, just in case it would affect how he should allocate his points and clicked on it.
For reaching level 50 in the Hand of Kasdael, you have unlocked (1) upgrade point and (1) new spell.
The upgrade point was a pleasant surprise, as he hadn’t received one in quite some time. He scanned the list of spells quickly, but he had already picked one out - Fiery Shackles. It was hard to overestimate the value of being able to control the battlefield, but he’d found that higher-level enemies were simply too strong for the shackles to bind. Satisfied with his choice, he tapped the spell and frowned as it refused to let him choose it. “Uh, Kas̆dael, is the system glitching?”
She leaned over his shoulder and laughed lightly as she saw the spell he was trying to upgrade. “It’s a reward for leveling my class, Jasper; obviously, the spell you upgrade has to be from my class.”
Crap. Upon reflection, Jasper supposed that made sense, but it was still disappointing. Abandoning Fiery Shackles, he turned his eyes to the spells listed beneath.
He immediately dismissed the truth-telling spell Scales of Justice from consideration, but there was a case to be made for the others. His Scourge of Despair was one of his most powerful spells, as the host of specters it summoned was a danger even to a high-leveled opponent, but its limitations - the scourge’s need to draw or touch blood - made it not entirely reliable. But there’s no guarantee that enhancing the spell will fix that.
Then there was the Hand of Judgment. The Ophan had saved his ass on more than one occasion, but while it was incredibly durable, its damage output wasn’t as high as he wished. Increasing that could be useful, but, on the downside, it was a spell he could only use once a month. Maybe I should pick a spell I could use more often.
He hesitated when he reached Hand of Glory. Truthfully, he’d forgotten he even had the spell, but he remembered the reason he’d picked it in the first place. Like Fiery Shackles, it was a spell intended to bind his enemies in place, but because he hadn’t really used it, he was uncertain of its limitations. Is it worth the gamble?
Undecided, he moved on to the final two spells. Circle of Forgiveness had quickly become one of the most used in his repertoire; a healing spell, after all, was useful for pretty much everyone not named Wolverine.
But upgrading Purge was also appealing. When it worked, the spell was probably his second most powerful, but its limitations lay in his inability to be certain who the spell would judge guilty and its inability to kill those who were significantly higher-leveled in him. If either of those limitations was improved, the spell might rocket to the top of his most used list.
He drummed his fingers indecisively, before glancing up at the goddess. “Any recommendations?”
“You wanted to upgrade, Fiery Shackles, did you not?” She pointed out. “Why not try Hand of Glory? The spell seems similar enough.”
He hesitated a moment longer, still dubious about investing in a spell he had never bothered to cast, and clicked on the spell to refresh his memory of its description.
Hand of Glory - Summons a Hand of the Dead that may bind your foes in place for up to 30 seconds. Foes above your level are unlikely to be affected. Cost: 1000 Spirit
Sounds like it has similar limitations to Fiery Shackles, but the cost is way higher. Of course, most of the spells I use burn essence rather than spirit, so maybe that doesn’t matter. He was almost convinced, but there was one part of the description that troubled him. “Kasdael, why does it say it ‘may bind your foes.’”
“Unlike your Fiery Shackles, which binds only three foes, Hand of Glory could potentially bind an entire company. The downside is that it’s not guaranteed to bind any,” she explained.
“So it is a roulette,” he sighed, eyeing the spell with renewed doubt. Jasper wasn’t much of a gambler; he already used Purge less than he probably should, simply because the spell wasn’t guaranteed to work, so was it really worth upgrading another one like that? He nearly dismissed it, but then he remembered Kas̆dael’s recommendation. I’ve trusted her thus far, so why not know? Hoping he wasn’t making a mistake, he selected the spell and pressed the upgrade button.
Select (1) of the following upgrade paths
Hand of Glory II - Summons a Hand of the Dead that may bind your foes in place for up to 40 seconds. Foes up to 20 levels above you may be affected. Cost: 800 Spirit
Punishing Hand - Summons a Hand of the Dead that may bind your foes in place for up to 30 seconds. While foes are held in its grip, the hand drains 50 points of health per second. Cost: 1000 Spirit
In addition to those two options, there were another two that seemed to be variations on Punishing Hand, with one draining essence and the other stamina. Jasper dismissed them both quickly, deciding that there was no point in specializing the spell so much that it only affected mages or warriors, and focused on the first pair.
The first one was a straightforward upgrade. The time it held enemies was improved, the cost lowered, and, most attractive of all, the ability to entrap foes above his level was added. That alone was almost sufficient for him to pick it, but he knew that 20 levels was really not that much - not when people could have hundreds of levels. But if I continue down that path, who knows how many levels above me it will eventually let me freeze.
The second one, by contrast, he almost dismissed at first glance. The cost of casting remained high, the time of binding was unimproved, and the only thing that had been added was a health penalty that seemed too small to be useful, at least until he did the math. Fifty points for thirty seconds is 1500 health. It wasn’t enough to kill him - Jasper was up to 7000 health now - but it would still do a sizable chunk of damage, and would be absolutely devastating against lower-leveled foes. And there will be a lot of low-level enemies once we join the war. The debate decided, he picked Punishing Hand and turned to the next box, eager to see what new spells awaited him.