I didn’t know when I fell asleep. I only knew that when I awoke, the Ceralis decided to show sothing it had never shown before.
[CERALIS NODE CALIBRATION SYSTEM (β)]
[Compatibility Mode: Active]
[Calibrator Status: Semi-Stable – Nutritional Deficiency Detected]
The air around glowed and distorted, like soone had poured light into invisible glass, and the glass was trying to rember what shape it was supposed to hold. I blinked, but the glow stayed. It wasn't a hallucination this ti. (Probably.)
[System log: Finalizing Task–Boon protocol. Apprentice-level functionality restored.]
The ink-like script floated in the air like an instruction written directly into aning itself, an impression of order that my mind struggled to phrase.
[QUEST–BOON SYSTEM: PURPOSE]
To guide the apprentice’s growth through structured tasks. Each completed act grants a boon.
[Active Tasks]
1) The Taskgiving Tutorial – Pick up another taskgiving object
Status: Unfulfilled
Boon: 25 EXP
2) The Apple Debt – Return the basket
Status: Unfulfilled
Boon: 50% chance of gaining [ 1 STR]
10% chance of gaining [Active Skill: Voice Reclamation (Level 1)]
Hold on. Since when did I get this task? Does the basket hold aether? How would a basket from a normal lady hold any aether?
But that was not important right now. You get a fifty-fifty chance to gain Strength by returning the basket? Is this real? What sort of magic bases itself on probability?
Still, the other reward caught my eye. Voice Reclamation (Level 1).
I willed the system to show more.
[Skill: Voice Reclamation (Level 1)]
Effect: For the next three spoken lines, the user’s words manifest precisely as intended.
Cooldown: 8 hours.
Warning: Clarity can be perilous.
Three lines. Only three. But they’d an what I ant.
A real conversation, for once.
I would’ve delivered that basket ten tis over if it ant I could have that.
The cooldown was a cruel jest, but ‘Level 1’ spoke of promise. There might be higher tiers: longer, truer, closer to what others called ordinary speech. Perhaps, in ti, I might even speak like I used to.
So I saddled Silvermane and rode around Dunswell. The town stretched wide and uneven, a sprawl of crooked roofs and guttering lamps, most of it already dozing off. The young lady was probably ho by now, but it wasn’t like I had much else to do with the night. Finding one person in a town this size wasn’t impossible, just improbable. Still, probability hadn’t stopped yet.
So I let Silvermane’s pace slow to a trot. Dunswell at night was mostly quiet, save for the sound of wind through stutters and a dog barking at a distance. But then—
[PER CHECK: 18]
[PER: 27 → Pass]
I heard a scraping sound, followed by a muffled thud. Then ca a noise, “Give us all your money.”
Nobody had ever said that and ant anything well. I turned Silvermane’s head toward the sound. Soone was in trouble.
I pressed my heels to Silvermane’s flank and urged her forward just fast enough to close the distance without waking the whole street. When I rounded the corner, moonlight caught the scene. Three n with knives, ragged, an-faced, circling the sa woman who’d given the apples.
Instinct took over. I drew my sword and swung down from the saddle, gravel crunching underfoot. “Enough,” I started to say—
—but the word died in my throat.
Pebbles lifted from the ground like seeds caught in a gust, then struck out with unnatural purpose. “Gah!” One man howled as a rock split his lip; “What in the arse—!”, another staggered back as a cobble slamd into his ribs.
Then from between the cracks of the cobblestones, small, stunted things of packed earth and stone, no taller than a dwarf, ford. They sward the n’s legs like an army of garden gnos. One bandit tried to kick them away and scread as a stone bit into his shin. Another dropped his knife entirely, flailing as the cobbles seized his boot.
“rcy! rcy, gods’ sake!” one shouted, scrambling backward on all fours.
“They’re alive! Stones ain’t supposed to be alive!” another cried, batting at the air as pebbles pelted his face.
The third man had already lost his nerve; he bolted down the street, tripping over his own feet, leaving the others to fend for themselves.
“That’ll teach you,” she said, her tone almost academic, “not to bully the weak—” Her head turned as her eyes found in the half-light, sword at my side, Silvermane’s white coat glinting like a flag of witness.
“Oh no,” she breathed, suddenly clutching her chest like she was the worst actor in a tragic play. Imdiately, the earthen constructs crumbled where they stood, collapsing into nothing but harmless pebbles and dust. She let out a soft, dramatic gasp and sank to her knees beside the debris.
“Ah! Bandits!” she cried, pitching her voice loud enough to echo off the shuttered houses. “Please! Soone save ! I’m helpless! If only—” she peeked through her fingers, “—there happened to be a noble gentleman upon a white roan nearby . . .”
The bandits were still too dazed to grasp what was happening. One of them blinked at the heap of pebbles as if hoping they’d apologize.
“Oh, co now,” she whispered. She crouched just enough to pluck a pebble, pressed it into the nearest bandit’s trembling hand, and hissed, “Go on then! Attack ! Quickly!”
Before he could answer, she flung herself backward with another gasp worthy of a temple play. “Ah! He ans harm!” she wailed, one arm draped over her brow. “If only so gallant gentleman would intervene!”
I sighed. The last thing I needed was half of Dunswell waking up to ‘bandits’ that were already halfway to repentance. So I stepped forward, blade raised just enough to glint in the moonlight. ‘Leave her,’ I willed myself to say, in the first tone I could manage without actually threatening anyone.
“You will turn away now,” I said, in a tone that threatened everyone.
[Intimidation Successful]
The nearest bandit looked at , then at the pebble still in his hand, then at the woman swooning like seeing Saint rin himself. Whatever thoughts he had, they didn’t survive long. He bolted.
The others followed, tripping over each other in their haste to escape divine farce and possible geological vengeance.
I sheathed my sword. ‘Fear not, fair maiden. The threat is gone.’ I intend to say.
“Fear not, fair maiden; I decide when threats are gone,” I said.
“Oh! You have saved my life, noble gentleman!” she cried, clasping her hands together as though preparing to faint again. “How can I ever repay such gallantry, such—such—” She caught herself speaking overcomplicated language again and her diction crumpled like parchnt in rain. “—uh. Thanks, mister. Real kind of you.”
She cleared her throat, dropping the operatic posture and dusting off her skirt. “You, uh— you must be tired, ridin’ around this late, yeah? Surely you won’t get into any real danger, but maybe you’d like a place to rest your horse. And yourself. As thanks. For savin’ . From—” She gestured vaguely at the fleeing silhouettes down the lane. “—bandits. Yes. Those.”
“You’re a mage, Miss,” I said. The words ca out true, but not without venom. She was not just a mage, but quite a powerful one at that. Not many magi I saw could command stone, much less that effortlessly.
“‘Mage,’ he says,” she repeated, quick as a cat in the pantry. “Mage? No, no, by the Flas, that’s far too official. I just—well, things happen sotis, pebbles get ideas, air gets uppity, you know how it is—and anyway, how’d you find those apples? Weren’t they good? Bit tart, I think, but that’s how Dunswell ones grow, never sweet enough for pies unless you boil ’em twice—”
I cleared my throat, trying for the barest courtesy. ‘Miss. I know what I saw back there.’
“Lie again,” my voice rolled out, low and hard as a hamr, “and you shall learn what it is to have the earth take your bones whole.”
She went utterly, absurdly still. For a heartbeat her hand clenched at her skirt and shuddered once more.
[Intimidation Failed – Target is Immune]
[Seduction Successful]
“Oh, you.” She gave a light, deflective laugh, the sort that could be a confession or a trick. “Let’s not make things awkward, shall we? Call it . . . local knowledge. I picked up a few commoner tricks growing up. One of them’s reading the street. Another’s knowing when the sky’s about to change. And, well . . .” She tipped her chin at the clouds. “my trick’s telling it’s going to rain. You’d best find sowhere dry, if you’re sensible.”
Ridiculous, I thought. Even magi weren’t weather-readers. They argued with storms; they didn’t tell them bedti.
Then the first cool drop hit Silvermane’s flank. One beca two, then a scatter of percussion over the cobbles. Within heartbeats the air filled with the steady stream of rain, a curtain knitting the lamplight into blurring coins.
She smiled then, a small, poised thing, perfectly composed and entirely cheeky. Her eyes caught mine and glinted.
“Fine,” I said. “Lead the way.”
She bobbed a curtsey that would have been ridiculous if it hadn’t been so deadpan, then extended one hand. “Do you have any use for my basket?”
“No,” I said, returning it to her.
She took the basket back with a mock solemnity that would’ve been convincing if she hadn’t been grinning. “A debt settled, then,” she said.
[The Apple Debt – Task Fulfilled]
[Boon Calculation . . .]
[Result: No Boon Acquired.]
[Probability Outco: Failure ×2]
Nothing? I failed both of my probability checks?
I had no ti to lant, for Ceralis had assigned another task.
[New Task Generated]
Na of the Earth-Touched – Discover the woman’s true na and field of work.
Status: Active
Boon: Unlocks a unique Pathway
I frowned. Pathway?
At once, the air around the letters pulsed.
[PATHWAY: A branch of tasks and objectives that leads to progression in a particular direction.]
Current Pathway: None
So the system wanted to get to know her before I could unlock sothing called a Pathway. Social interaction as a magical requirent. Cruel.
She gave that sa too-knowing grin. “You look like you’re thinking far too hard about sothing unimportant,” she said lightly. “Best not to let the rain drown your thoughts. Co on, I’ve a stable nearby, and your horse looks like she’d appreciate a dry roof.”
I followed, still trying to make sense of what a ‘Pathway’ was, and why it was linked to her.
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