In the darkest, coldest depths of Greenstone’s Old City, something stirred.

A door of stone slid to the side, grinding against the rusted rail upon which it had been set. Stale air, entombed within the chamber for years, swept up and out, carrying a decade’s worth of dust with it. The pale light of the moon shone down, lengthening the shadows into exaggerated, rangy caricatures.

Silhouetted against the now open doorway, a figure shrouded in a ragged black cloak stepped inside.

A pale hand brushed over the plain lid of a stone sarcophagus. With strength that belied the sickly appearance of the cloaked figure, the lid was pushed aside. Yet more dust ascended skyward, this time carrying air thick with the stench of death.

Within the shadowed recesses of the sarcophagus, a breath was drawn in. It was sharp and sudden, rattling and hollow. The air howled as it passed between exposed ribs, and the thing within the tomb hacked a cough.

“Motherfucker, I hate that…”

A skeletal claw clamped down upon the stone as the creature hauled itself into a sitting position. The cloaked figure did not draw back, quite the opposite. He leaned in, embracing the creature—who, in turn, extended one bleached white arm to encircle the cloaked figure’s shoulders.

“Little brother,” the cloaked figure said, his voice a rock-salt rasp.

“Big brother,” the thing replied, teeth clacking together as it spoke. The two of them drew apart and looked upon one another for the first time in more than a decade.

“So,” it said, pushing itself to its feet. The skeleton clanked and clicked as it stumbled upright, conjuring a black garment with a gesture. It was equal parts robe of office and funerary shroud, hiding the creature’s true nature beneath layers of shadow.

“Enlighten me. What has She woken me up for…?”

…

Bloody Delahaye, former pirate and Adventurer-in-training, groaned as she rolled onto her back. Every muscle in her body, some she hadn’t even known existed, screamed at her. She was sore to the extent that she no longer felt sore. It was an all-encompassing, all-consuming sort of pain that ignited a headache behind her eyes and set her teeth on edge.

It was the result of how far she had pushed herself. Weeks of relentless work, training without any intent of rest. Delahaye had thrown herself into her training, despite every instinct and inclination she had imploring her to drown her sorrows in cold drink and warm bodies. Were she still the same woman she had been when she’d arrived in this strange new world, she may very well have done so.

The thing was, Delahaye wasn’t the same woman. Far from it.

For better, or for worse, she’d been irreversibly changed. In body and in spirit, she was not the same person. The frivolities of her past seemed hollow and meaningless in retrospect, paling in comparison to what lay before her now.

The life of an Adventurer was a demanding one. That had been proven to her more than once. Even preparing for that life was an arduous task. It was far harder without the support of Primrose Primadola and her team, but that bridge was nothing more than a smouldering pile of cinders, now.

Delahaye was alone in a world not her own—and a part of her preferred it that way. She had never been meant to join a team. Delahaye was not a follower, it was antithetical to her very nature. She’d been told as much by a mysterious, seemingly all-powerful Gold Rank essence user; Your aura is the most defiant I have ever seen, he had said. At the time, Delahaye hadn’t been entirely sure what he’d meant.

Now she did. Delahaye felt it as keenly as any part of her body. Her Aura, the manifestation of her soul’s power. A representation of her true self. In the weeks since her expulsion from Team Primadola, she had trained it as much as her body. Before, her control had been flimsy. Now, however, she had a firm grasp on the basics. That was enough for her, at least for the moment.

As she lay on the bed, Delahaye pushed the aches and pains aside. She screwed her eyes shut, centering herself. The sounds of Old City in the morning melted away, the hubbub of the inn below her faded into the background, and Delahaye found herself resting amidst a calm expanse of nothing.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Meditation is the third pillar of adventuring, Samson Delile, another member of Primrose’s team, had said to her. Consolidate what you have learned. Make it a part of you. Only then will it truly function.

That had taken work. Delahaye didn’t like how damned mysterious all of it had been. She would’ve preferred it to be more plainly laid out, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. More so than the physical training, or the Aura training, the meditation had been the most difficult thing to master. Delahaye did not have a mind predisposed to calm.

She’d managed, though. Eventually. She always found her mind drawn to the same place when she meditated. That dock where she had shared her last words with Eurydice Ihejirika. She was alone there, but she didn’t mind.

Delahaye focused on her training from the previous day. The aches in her body faded away, not just from her conscious thought, but from her body entirely. She breathed in deeply, new strength surging into her limbs. As she opened her eyes, Delahaye flexed her fingers. They had, just a moment before, been so stiff and sore as to be incapable of bending—yet now it was as if that had never been the case.

…

The Line & Sinker was a simple inn and tavern that rested on the waterfront of Old City. It reminded Delahaye of home, with its ramshackle exterior cobbled together from pieces of other buildings and parts of ships. It was a deliberate design choice, rather than one of necessity, which was the main difference between it and the places she had stayed in back home.

Delahaye drew her coat around herself to ward off the worst of the early morning chill. Greenstone was usually pleasantly warm all day long, but the mornings had a far colder nature to them.

Making her way to the waterfront, Delahaye looked down at the calm waters below. Fastening her jacket and fixing her boot, Delahaye ran through a circuit of simple stretches as she watched the sun rise. As she finished those, she leaned over the pier, and dropped off of it, towards the water.

She took a breath, and with a mental command, activated one of her essence abilities. It had proven to be plenty useful, especially regarding the shortening of her daily commute to The Island. It had been the ability she’d awakened with her Ocean Essence, and she didn’t even need to pull out her Inventory Log to remember the details; she’d read and re-read it so many times she’d committed it to memory.

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Inventory Log.

“Ocean Essence.”

Ability: Between Wind and Water (Ocean).

• Special Ability (Movement)

• Base cost: None.

• Current rank: Iron 0 (77%)

• Cooldown: None.

• Effect (Iron): Walk on water. Blend into water when not moving. Whilst in the air, slow fall speed for a low mana-per-second cost.

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Delahaye’s boots met the water with a semi-solid squish, but she otherwise remained standing on the surface. It had taken some getting used to, but in the previous few weeks she had become more than comfortable with it all.

She walked over the calm waters, in the direction of the distant Island. The time had come. The Field Examination, the thing for which she had been training for, had come. Whether or not any of her training had been worth it would be decided over the coming days—and Delahaye was determined to succeed.

…

The main courtyard of the Adventurer’s Society campus was busier than usual. A large group of people, their Auras similarly Iron rank, were massed to one side. Another figure, his Bronze rank Aura shining like a beacon amongst them, paced back and forth. He was a harried looking man in scholarly robes, a ledger clutched in one hand.

Delahaye joined the group, ignoring the looks she received. She stuck out amongst the crowd, standing a full head over most of them. Her clothing was far from fine, and her mane of fiery red hair was in no state even close to presentable. She looked like she had just rolled out of bed—which she had.

“How embarrassing, to come to an event such as this looking like… that,” a young man sneered. He was young, perhaps seventeen or eighteen. The sort of snotty young prick who had never heard the word ‘no.’ His clothes were fine enough to buy a damn house, and he glittered with more jewelry than was necessary.

Delahaye ignored him, which she would not have done a month prior. She wanted to pick a fight, but too much was riding on her success. She had thrown every part of herself into training to become an Adventurer, into turning over a new leaf as she had intended. She refused to jeopardize that now.

She shifted as someone bumped into her, tilting forward before leaning back onto her heels. Delahaye looked down, into the silent, apologetic eyes of the woman next to her. She was a dark-skinned young woman, her blue hair done up in intricate locs; tied back in two bows behind her head, with the rest left to hang freely. Her cerulean eyes glowed faintly, casting a blue light over her skin.

“Sorry, it’s cramped,” she whispered. Delahaye waved a hand, smiling leisurely. Before she could reply, the Adventurer’s Society functionary cleared his throat.

“Prospective Adventurers, on behalf of the Greenstone Branch of the Adventurer’s Society, I thank you for your time. I am Hobart Bren, and I shall act as your advisor during this Field Examination…”

The man’s monotonous voice droned on, and Delahaye did her best to pay attention—but she still lost some of what he said. The man simply could not hold the attention of a crowd, and the gathered Adventurer prospects shifted uncomfortably. Finally, as his speech came to an end, Hobart snapped his ledger shut, which roused Delahaye from her thoughts.

“…With that,” he was saying, “We shall depart. In seven days we shall return, so I trust all of your previous affairs have been dealt with.”

As they clambered into the wagons gathered to transport them, Delahaye could only hope she hadn’t missed anything important.