“Rory, you have four other patients to se- Oh! I’m glad to see that our mystery woman has finally woken up.” A young man said cheerfully from a desk just down the hall from Kya’s room as they both walked out and turned away from her.
“Ah, yes Tom, go ahead and have Alexi fill in for now.”
The man, who must have been Tom, made a doubtful face “Alexi? Are you sure, yah know I’ve actually been practicing, and I could probably-”
“No! Thank you, Tom, but your expertise and knowledge of the ledgers is invaluable, Alexi is a wonderful healer and she’ll do a great job while I’m preoccupied. Thanks Tom!” Rory finished by yelling the last part over his shoulder as he hurried Kya into the room at the opposite end of the hall.
The moment the door closed, Kya felt a profound shift in the atmosphere. It reminded her of when she’d stepped out of or into the temple grounds back in the forest, the difference was now she was magical too.
“Tom is a great people-person, but whew, do not let him try and heal you. He’ll think there’s something wrong and amputate a limb out of panic.” Rory looked back and chuckled at Kya’s face.
“Yes, right, you’re new to all this. So, this is a ritual room.” He gestured around the moderately sized room. It was all silver stone, shining brightly and reflecting the radiant green sigils set in the walls in intricate patterns. Glow stones sat in recessed alcoves, providing a steady light source without many shadows, and in the center of the room sat a round pedestal a couple of inches off the ground. It seemed to be made entirely of a greenish crystal, like a giant emerald. It was the apparent inverse of the room around it, with a large circle of silver runes already drawn in going around the entire perimeter.
“I thought you said this was for class rituals, why are we here?”
“Well,” Explained Rory, “It’s not only for class rituals, but it can also be used for any ritual we need here. The life attunement makes it especially helpful for any intensive or emergency care we might need to provide. All rooms like this do is purify and condense the natural mana in the air to make it easier to use more powerful abilities. That’s probably what you felt when you walked in, an increase in pressure that made your ears pop right? That's magic.”
“Again though, why are we here? Aren’t we in something of a hurry to register at the guild hall?”
“Yes, we are. But if you walk around town with your aura on full blast, not only will people notice you and give attention we really don’t want, but you’ll also gradually tire yourself out. So, we’re going to do a quick crash course in aura control. Yours is still pretty weak, but that doesn’t mean I want to keep suppressing it all day.”
With that, he started to gradually let off the pressure on her aura, and she once again felt her senses expand to fill the room. As soon as they reached Rory, she recoiled back. It was as if she’d been traveling in pitch black darkness and stumbled upon a massive bonfire. She felt him blazing in her aura, not a dangerous wild force like Wade, but a warm and soothing flame that one might tell stories around.
“I like your aura” Kya said, coming to grips with the sensation “It befits a healer.”
Rory beamed, clearly pleased with the compliment “Why thank you very much.”
“What does mine feel like?”
“Right now, not much.” Seeing her frown slightly, he quickly added on “Sorry, sorry, I meant no offense with that. But because of how new it is, and how new you are, it’s like asking to feel the warmth of a candle from the other side of a room. It will grow more powerful with time, and then you can use it more liberally. But, for now, let's get started on simple control.”
Her eye’s growing sharp, Kya focused on Rory, banishing all other thoughts from her head.
“Firstly, you should be able to get an idea of what your Aura does by concentrating on it. It might be vague, but usually it can be… What are you doing?”
“Reading.”
“Reading what?”
Kya slowly looked up, and then tilted her head in slight confusion. “Reading about my Aura. It says it’s ‘Spatial Awareness’ and basically allows me to sense everything in my immediate vicinity.
- - - - -
Class Benefits - Aura
Spatial Awareness - 1-Star
Effect - Grants complete awareness of your surroundings in all directions; anything within your Aura is more easily affected by Spatial abilities.
- - - - -
“What do you mean you’re reading about your aura? Do you have an ability that tells you about your abilities?” Asked Rory, still not understanding.
“Is that… Not common then?” Asked Kya, mentally face palming. She’d assumed everyone got such abilities.
“It’s not unheard of, but no, not common at all.” Said Rory, a look of jealousy. “Right well then, that takes care of the largest hurdle in our way. It normally takes people quite a while to get a grip on their new aura abilities. So then, can you feel your aura itself?”
“I can, it's like a bubble. It reaches a few meters in every direction, before it stops abruptly.” She took a few steps backwards, and felt Rory leave her small sphere. Immediately, it felt like the room got darker, though the glow stones stayed just as bright.
Rory watched her experiment with her ability for several minutes before finally saying “Right, now that you have a feel for it, can you make it smaller?”
Concentrating, Kya thought back to when she’d used the staff for the first time. Exerting her will, she felt the familiar clench in her stomach as her sphere of awareness slowly, ever so slowly, shrank, about an inch.
Breathing hard, Kya wiped sweat from her brow, and looked up at Rory, now sitting on his little stool on the other side of the room.
“Perfect!” Exclaimed Rory “that was quick, I thought you were new to magic! It usually takes people at least an hour to begin retracting their auras.”
“It’s a similar feeling to a magic item I used to stay alive in the forest” Explained Kya “Otherwise I’m not sure I’d have had any clue what I was doing.”
Understanding crossed Rory’s face, and he accepted the explanation in stride. “Well keep at it, your goal is to make it as small as possible. It won’t stop anyone who wants to identify you. Masking your aura completely is a whole other ball game. We’re just trying to make it so fewer people take notice in the first place.”
- - -
About an hour and a half later, Rory and Kya walked out of the clinic with a goodbye to Tom, the front desk worker.
Her aura was currently in an egg-shaped bubble around her body about as far away as arms reach. This was deemed passable by Rory, saying that ideally, it should be like a second layer of skin when not in use. But as her aura was only a few hours old, this was respectable progress.
Stepping out onto the street, Kya got her first look at a city in a new world and was not disappointed.
Most of the buildings, in fact almost every building she could see up and down the large road, were made in every imaginable color of stones. The clinic they had just left was lustrous silver and vibrant green, across the street was what looked to be a restaurant with large open walls and outdoor seating. The smells coming from the building were intoxicatingly delicious, drawing her into the bright yellow and gold store.
Laughing from behind, Rory walked with her up to the large man behind a polished dark wood counter. “Hello Rory” Said the man in a gruff, lightly accented voice “Who’s this you’ve brought into my shop? Trying to impress another lady frie-”
“No, no!” Said Rory quickly, cutting the man off with a fierce blush. “Come on Sugg, don’t do that, besides, I don’t do that that frequently.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Sugg let out a barking laugh, before turning to Kya “Apologies young miss, I can never rightly pass up an opportunity to mess with Mr. Mayler here.” Taking off his simple white cap and bowing to show off his shiny bald head, he introduced himself “Eugene Suggilaran, at your service, but please just call me Sugg.”
Inclining her head with a smile, Kya introduced herself as well, then asked “I’m new in town Sugg, what would you recommend to someone who’s absolutely starving?”
Replacing his cap and absently scratching at his scruffy gray beard, he said “Is there anything yah won’t eat?”
“I’m open to trying anything you’ve got.”
With a broad smile, he shuffled off back into the kitchen, as Rory let out a small groan “You definitely shouldn’t have done that”
“What? why not?”
“Because, Sugg likes to do dumb stuff.” he said simply, and nodded as the curtains obscuring the kitchen rustled and parted to reveal Sugg carrying a large plate with… noodles? Piled high.
“Do you want to try it before or after I tell you what it is?” Asked Sugg with a grin.
Picking up the little green chopsticks placed to the left of the plate, she smiled back and said “During” before digging in.
The dark purple noodles were semi-transparent and oily, but tasted extremely good. It reminded Kya vaguely of pad thai, with crunchy little veggies and a sweet and spicy sauce.
As she was chewing her first bite, Sugg said with a barely contained laugh “Those are pickled viper spleens, with fried rat belly bits and sour eel milk sauce.”
Kya stopped chewing and slowly met Suggs eyes as Rory silently shuddered next to her. She finished the bite she had in her mouth, before saying “Sugg… this is one of the best meals I’ve had in my life.” Then promptly ate another bite.
Rory, who had gone from a blushing pink to a sickly green, looked at her in horror, while Sugg took a minute to stare in confusion, before releasing a bellowing laugh and slapping his belly.
“Young miss, you flatter me. You’re welcome back here anytime you’d like, anytime at all.”
As he walked away to greet another customer, she turned back to Rory who looked absolutely appalled at her continued dining.
“What's the matter?” She said in between bites “This food is delicious.”
“It’s literally all animals,” He said before looking away again.
“Oh, are you a vegetarian?”
“A what?”
“Someone who doesn’t eat meat.”
Looking at the ceiling now, he took on a contemplative expression “I guess that describes me. But I don’t eat anything, I haven’t had actual food in about two years I think?”
“What?!? How do you… What???” Kya asked in astonishment.
He laughed and replied, “You’ll stop eating as well, given enough time.”
“Like hell I will” She muttered “Is this a magic thing or an elf thing, or both?”
“For me, it's a magic thing, and specifically a class thing. As we become more and more magical, our bodies need physical matter less and less. As a 2-Star, I need a single life attuned crystal a day, and that’s it. Plus, as a healer and user on the path of Life, it feels wrong to kill just so I can satisfy myself when I don’t need to.” He shrugged and finished by saying “You might still eat if you choose, but you won’t need to.”
Taking another look at her slimy purple noodles, he shuddered again and said "But still... pickled intestines..." Then shook his head and looked away again.
At the mention of him being 2-Star, she mentally chastised herself for not thinking about it sooner and used her identity on Rory.
- - - - -
Name - Rory Mayler
Class - Life - 2-Star
- - - - -
It was a pretty sparse description compared to the monsters in the forest, but at least she could confirm he wasn’t lying about his identity or anything.
Finishing the meal and leaving a single one of the coins from her spider earnings on the counter, she and Rory walked back out onto the street.
“You wildly overpaid” Rory said idly as they walked.
“How much is one coin worth?”
“You got about a hundred silver coins there, yes?”
Nodding in confirmation, Rory continued “A single auren, gold ones, are worth ten agrens, the silver ones. Which are worth ten curens, the copper ones. Which finally are worth ten ferens, the iron ones. There’re also chips, but those aren’t used that often in this part of town. It’s one hundred chips to a feren. That meal was worth maybe, maybe a full curen. You paid for your next nine meals there, plus a handsome tip.”
“Well then, I’ll be returning for my prepaid meals’ Kya said with a laugh, making a mental note on the currency exchange.
As they climbed polished white stairs, Kya asked “have we arrived?”
Chuckling, Rory simply pointed as a massive wooden bus seeming to sit on a bed of clouds pulled into the elevated platform on which the pair now stood, along with a handful of other patrons.
“You didn’t think we’d be walking all the way to the guild hall, did you?”
As they got on the bus, people made a path for them, a few even lowering their heads slightly as they looked at the pair passing them.
After they were seated and flying through the air over the city, Kya wanted to look out the vast windows at the gorgeous city below but couldn’t take her mind off of what had just happened.
“Rory, how does your society see people like us? People with magic, I mean.”
He thought for a moment, having no trouble looking out at the beautiful setting suns. “You mentioned you came from a life in a foreign military, right?”
She nodded.
“Did your culture have any ways of showing appreciation to said military?”
“It was mostly just discounts at most retail locations” said Kya with a laugh, before adding on “But I would get random people walking up and thanking me for my service to the country. It always felt… odd. I knew what I was doing was hard, brutal at times. But it never felt like I earned their gratitude. I never knew what to say when they would say stuff like that.”
Rory nodded, understanding her sentiment. “In our culture, it’s similar, I think. But a little more intense. I take it the monsters weren’t bad where you’re from.”
“We hardly ever saw any in our own territory. It was usually that we left to go fight elsewhere.”
“I think that might be the difference then. That feeling like you haven’t truly earned the gratitude? You won’t get that here. I take it from what little you’ve said” this part was said dryly with a semi-accusing glance in her direction “that you fought quite a few monsters in the forest. Well, they aren’t limited to forests. This city has some strong walls, but the outlying farms? The lumber mills and the mines? The traders and the fisheries? We are treated well Kya, but sometimes you’ll wish we weren’t. Sometimes it can almost be too much.”
The rest of the voyage was spent in silence. Rory’s tired features had returned, and she thought perhaps it wasn’t simply from working too hard at his clinic. He was a healer, yes, but he was also older than appearances would indicate. He’d been running the clinic for fifteen years, and before that… who knows.
It was clear to her, then, that he was a soldier in his own right. They might be called something different here. Guild members or Users or Explorers, or whatever. Different names for the same things. The people who take responsibility.
Kya looked out at the city now, seeing the vast rivers and canals that spread throughout the city, dividing almost into three main islands. She saw the walls and the docks. Trading squares, with colorful tents and magnificent churches. Turning away from the oceans they began heading deeper into the city and towards more large and ornate structures. At the far end of the city, separated with its own walls, was a small castle of pristine white stone with deep blue spires topping its many towers.
But all the while, she wasn’t really taking any of it in. She appreciated the sights, as they truly were magnificent. But her mind and her heart weren’t in it. She remembered back to the night of the spider nest. She would not be taken in by the beauty of this world. For she knew it simply to be a cover for its darker sides. She knew why she was headed for the guild. She knew without its protection; she may be taken prisoner to a different city somewhere else. But she wanted to have agency in this. She wanted to choose this life, not be forced into it. She had chosen to join on earth for her sister, for her country, for herself. There were, in truth, a thousand reasons why she had joined. But here? Could she really sign up to protect a people she did not know, to risk her life for others she would never meet?
As they got off the cloud construct and stepped into a massive city circle outside the castle walls. In each direction, another street branched off leading in a random direction or towards another ornate building. Again, there were nods and mutterings of thanks from the people they passed as they made their way to a six-story building with towering trees and beautiful fountains surrounding its perimeter.
It wasn’t a castle, but she preferred this instead. It had full length tinted windows running up to the top floor, with large columns of what looked to be tree trunks at regular intervals. The branches of the trees acted as frames and supports for the windows themselves, and the roof seemed to exist solely as a collection of dark green leaves.
In several of the fountains, children laughed and played as they splashed each other. As the pair passed them, they all nudged each other, and their eyes got huge in their heads.
“Are they allowed to play here?” Kya asked quietly, breaking the silence that had gripped them.
Rory gave her an odd look, something that was becoming a habit for him at this point “They’re kids. Even if they weren’t it’s not like that would stop them. But no, this is the guild hall. They know this is a safe place to do as they please, so long as they aren’t hurting anyone.”
Looking back before she passed through one of the several doors at the top of the front steps leading in, she saw the kids had all gone back to playing. Except for one. A little girl peeking out from behind one of the fountains and staring up at her. Hesitantly, she gave a jerky wave, and Kya couldn’t stop from laughing and waving back.
Turning and entering the hall, Kya knew then what she had known all along. Of course, she could protect. Of course, she would protect. Not because of her newfound magic, but because it needed to be done. And Kya was ready, able, and willing.