In the midst of the darkness that had engulfed the world, only one star remained in the sky: The Starlight Witch, shining as much with hope as with fury. Hovering above the desolate earth, she called down to her enemy, “This goes no further, Demon Prince! I cannot allow you to continue!”
Shown in brilliant relief under the shine of the Starlight Witch, Demon Prince Korrack lifted one muscled arm to point upward, screaming at the sky, “You know nothing, Witch! You are a clueless fool, with no conception of what awaits me in this world! You would dare to say that this ends here, when you do not understand what has begun!?”
Her eyes narrow and her fury aroused, the Starlight Witch raised her wand to point down at her foe. “I know that you are my enemy, Korrack. That is enough.”
The blast of pure radiance that surged forth from The Witch was enough to sunder the earth where Korrack stood, tossing him high into the air. Hardly fazed, the form of the Demon Prince twisted in midair, spinning and rolling to barely avoid the storm of blasts that followed. The Demon Prince could not dodge forever, however, and at the apex of his rise, a blast finally caught him, hurling him back to the ground with cratering force.
When the dust of the impact cleared, the Demon Prince lay still in the crater, wheezing for breath but seemingly stunned. Weakly, he reached up to the Starlight Witch with one hand, but with a sudden burst of strength, his fingers curled into a fist and slammed down on the ground. His blow cracked the earth and opened great fissures around him. As the ground broke apart, a glow appeared from beneath the cracks, and up from the depths spewed a geyser of lava.
The Starlight Witch, still airborne, had no trouble in dodging, but when her vision of the ground cleared,
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
(Year 997 of the Organized Calendar, 14th Day of Inji's Fullness, 1AM)
As the last flickers of my candle faded, the room finally became dark enough to black out the ink on the pages of my book, and although I wasn’t happy about it, I regained my awareness of my surroundings. Rolling over in bed, I hefted the unfinished book onto my growing “finish later” pile, although now that it was four books high (five, with the new addition of Starlight Witch In Midnight World to the pile), I had to strain my arm a bit to reach high enough.
My arm flopped down onto the nightstand, and after a moment, I rolled over again to stare up on that ceiling. I had no idea what the hour was, nor how much I’d read in that time, but I did know one thing: With my mind still full of scenes from Starlight Witch, I was no closer to falling asleep than I had been at dusk.
I closed my eyes. Sleepless as I was, I could at least keep my mind busy by replaying scenes from the book in my head. In my mind’s eye, I found myself particularly focused on the scene of the Starlight Witch facing down her archrival, Demon Prince Korrack. In the titular Midnight World, perpetually engulfed in darkness, the image of the Witch shone like a heavenly figure, raining twinkling stars down on Korrack from above. It was an impressive image, and one that I’d been building up in my mind for three previous books (and then for the months it had taken Dad to get me a copy). I was excited to see how the author, the great penman Karloff, would top himself again…
Once morning came, that was, and brought new reading light with it.
A sigh escaped my mouth, and before I could finish replaying the scene in my mind, I lost my concentration. Rather than try to get the image back, I opened my eyes, and in contrast to the splendour of the scene I’d just been imagining, I waved my hand in the air, conjuring an illusion to display my Personal Statistics, to see just how far I was from measuring up.
Aedan Omarsson
Peasant
Age: 14
Good: 0
Physique: 0 (0/0)
Evil: 0
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Dexterity: 1 (0/1)
Order: 0
Mind: 3 (2/1)
Chaos: 0
Soul: 0 (0/0)
Creation: 0
Fortune: 0 (0/0)
Consumption: 1
Advancements: [1]
It took me a minute to figure out what stood out to me about this screen, but when it hit me, it hit me like a falling boulder.
Consumption: 1
That… was new. That was not supposed to be there. I’d been a hard Zero in all six Paths last I checked, and as far as I knew, that was just like most people. Preacher Stefenson was always talking about the ‘extraordinary acts’ required to Walk a Path…
Consumption, too… I’d been hoping to gain a Level someday, if only to say that I could. Creation or Order seemed like they might be nice, but Consumption?
I found myself wracking my brain about the Path of Consumption. Had Dad ever mentioned Consumption when he talked about adventuring? Had Miss Ambrose taught us anything about Consumption in school? What had Preacher Stefenson or Bishop Mordecai said about Consumption in church?
On every new question, I found myself coming up short… except the last, unfortunately. One of Bishop Mordecai’s lecture-like sermons came back to me, and in his deep voice, I heard the words,
“…and thus, it is a sacred duty for the Knights of Holy Order to stamp out the corruption of the Sinful Paths wherever it is found. Because of this, the common people of the land – people like you – may appreciate the virtues of the Righteous Paths, the virtues of Good, of Order, and of Creation, without succumbing to the vices of Evil, of Chaos, and of Consumption.”
I had to pause and breathe deeply. If I was remembering the Bishop correctly, after all, I might be in deep trouble. I tried to console myself that if anyone my age could figure this out, it was me, since my Intelligence was a whole two points above the average… but first, I had to put my brain to work.
The trouble was this: I didn’t know how I’d managed to gain a Level in one of the Sinful Paths. On the other hand, if I was lucky, that was a good thing. If I hadn’t done it on purpose, then– well, surely it wasn’t my fault, right? Surely Preacher Stefenson would forgive me, and help me get rid of it!
If I were sure about that, in any way, my heart wouldn’t have been racing.
I was hesitant to focus on the “Advancement” notice to see what had happened, but I did. I’d seen that before, when my Intelligence and Wisdom had first been measured above-average, but my Personal Statistics were all the same as they’d been when I last checked…
Which meant the “Advancement” was probably related to the level I’d gained.
Sure enough, another layer of the illusion manifested to inform me of the following:
Skill Unlocked: [Indulge]
My first thought was that I’d never heard of a Skill called “[Indulge]” before. That’s why my second thought was “Oh no, oh no, this is probably a Consumption skill. I have Sinful powers now. That’s very bad.”
It’d been empty until this exact moment, but I did know how to view my Skill Overview. All the kids in the village had learned it from either Miss Ambrose or Preacher Stephenson at some point.
Another wave of the hand conjured up an illusion showing my Skill Overview, and…
I’d looked at my Skill Overview a few times before, but it had been completely blank. Now, when I looked at it, I could finally see what I’d see on the Overviews of some of the village adults: The outline of the Six Petals, representing the Six Paths. Sure enough, at the very base of the bottom-right petal, a blinking dot signaled to me that I’d gained my Skill: [Indulge], clearly the first Skill on the Path of Consumption.
Focusing in on [Indulge] simply revealed the description, “Allow nothing to distract you from indulging in your desires.”
I couldn’t help but crack wise to myself, thinking, “Sure would be great to [Indulge] in some sleep right now,”
But then my eyes closed, and I wouldn’t awaken to be surprised about it until morning.