O1 + M

Olivia walked out of the tavern and took a deep breath of the evening air. She closed her eyes and savored the slight chill that tinged the spring twilight. Someone bumped past her to get into the tavern, and she stumbled to the side. “Oh, excuse me!” Her cheeks reddened as she realized she’d been standing in the doorway, but the person who bumped her was already gone. “Oh, well!” She smiled at the people standing around on the deck, but no one seemed to be paying attention. Stuffing her hands into the flimsy pockets of the smock-like shirt she was wearing, Olivia hustled down the steps and started making her way to the tent she’d set up all those days ago when she’d started the orientation.

As she got closer to her tent, once a part of a large group but now sitting lonely across a firepit from just two others, a few people called out friendly hellos. She waved good-naturedly and walked up to her firepit. Her tent neighbors weren’t home, but there was a good-sized stack of logs nearby. She walked over to the pile and grabbed a couple of big logs, dropping them into the pit. She concentrated on the logs and said, “Ignis!” A fiery beam of Energy surged out of her palm and engulfed the logs for a few seconds, and when it faded, the logs were charred and crackling merrily. She smiled inwardly; she didn’t need to say ignis or anything else for that matter; she just had to concentrate on activating her skill, Fiery Burst. She’d learned Latin to help with her research and thought adding a little flair to her magic was fun.

She flipped open her tent flap and then sat down near the opening on her blanket. Olivia was tired, but she wanted to mess around with the Energy bead idea Morgan had given her. She paused for a moment and thought about her stats sheet:

Status

Name: Olivia Bennet

Race: Human - Base 1

Class: –

Level: 6

Core: Prisma Class - Base 2, Fire, Earth, Water, Air

Energy Affinity: 9.1, Fire 9.6, Earth 9.6, Water 9.6, Air 9.6

Energy: 530/555

Strength: 6

Vitality: 7

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 6

Intelligence: 35

Will: 15

Points Available: 0

Titles & Feats:

Skills: System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable, Stealthy Maneuvers - Basic, Prisma Core Cultivation Drill - Basic, Orb Manipulation - Basic, Icy Shards - Basic, Fiery Burst - Basic

She pulled the pouch of beads from her pocket, taking one out to study it again. It was fascinating to her; if she looked closely enough, she could see swirls of smoky-looking particles and tiny flakes of blue crystals. The smoke was always in motion, and the crystals would form and then dissipate in a seemingly endless cycle. The bead felt dense in her fingers, and she could sense the Energy thrumming within. She put it away before she accidentally started drawing the Energy out. She’d done that with the first bead she created, rendering it useless before she realized what she’d done. The Energy moved so easily for her that she had to be careful. Not many of her colleagues had an affinity as high as she, and she figured that was why.

She tucked her legs up and crossed them before her, placing her forearms against the insides of her knees. She opened her palms, like she was cupping an invisible ball between them, and started to concentrate on moving Energy out through her channels. She began with fire, gently coaxing a thin stream out between her hands and pressing it together with her will. Then, still concentrating on the fire, she began to send a parallel stream of earth Energy out and into the tiny seed of an Energy bead between her hands. At first, the differently attuned Energy resisted, falling away from the little ball she was trying to form. She concentrated, pushing with her will, imagining that she could feel the elastic shell of the Energy bead she was trying to create and squeezing it down tight.

Slowly, the fire and earth Energies started to swirl and mingle at the center of the space between Olivia’s hands. She continued to feed the two different Energies into the bead, pressing and pressing down with her will. After about an hour, she knew she was on the right track, the bead was taking shape, and she didn’t have to push as hard to keep the Energies together. Seeing that her project was becoming stable, Olivia started to channel a third stream of Energy, this time water attuned. Soon, a third, pale blue stream of Energy poured out of her palms and added to the partially condensed bead.

Olivia struggled to get the third Energy stream to mix in with the other two; the water attuned Energy kept drifting off, her will insufficient to force it into the mix with the earth and fire Energies. She huffed and stopped the water stream. Next time, she’d try mixing three in from the start, not adding a third halfway through. Resigned just to create a double affinity bead, Olivia opened up her channels as much as she could for the earth and fire Energy she was pouring forth and managed to finish forming the bead in the next half hour.

The little earth and fire bead she’d created glistened in her palm. Olivia held it up to the night sky and stared into it. Tiny embers winked in and out of existence within the bead, surrounded by minuscule flecks of gold and silver floating in its depths. It was wonderfully beautiful. She’d gotten a lot faster at making Energy beads, and it didn’t seem to take any longer to make the dual attuned one. Olivia yawned and thought about going to sleep, but she really wanted to try a triple-attuned bead first. She smiled and got to work.

****

Olivia’s eyes sprang open with a start. What time was it? She sat up and looked out the tent opening and sighed with relief. The sky was starting to turn light, but the sun wasn’t out yet. There was no way Morgan could call this dawn; she still had a little time. She crawled around in her tent, piling her few belongings onto her favorite blanket: a journal and tin full of pencils, a sheathed knife, a corked bottle full of water, a few extra sets of the everyday, cheap clothes from the Contribution Store, the tattered banner from the Yovashi cave, and the beautifully ornate little chest that Bronwyn had given her to examine. She really wanted to investigate the chest herself but didn’t think it would be fair to take it with her on a journey that might take weeks. She’d take it to Boris Saltzki - he was almost to level seven and had been studying “artificing” ever since the orientation.

Olivia hurried to the little house Boris shared with a few others and knocked on the door. It took a while for anyone to answer, but luckily, a sleepy-eyed Boris opened the door after her third knock. “Boris, I have to run, but I need to give you this chest to check out. Bronwyn got it from a very dangerous creature. Please see if you can determine if it has a trap or anything. After you get it open and study its contents, report to Bronwyn. I’m leaving town for a while.”

“Uh, who is this?” Boris blinked blearily and moved his face close to Olivia’s. “Olivia?”

“Damnit, Boris!” Olivia had to explain to him twice more what she was asking of him, but he finally woke up enough to acknowledge her request. She ran from Boris’s house all the way to the Colony Stone, and she could see that the first rays of the sun were poking above the horizon as she scaled the little hill.

Catching her breath, Olivia slapped her hand on the Colony Stone. She traded the Energy beads Morgan had given her plus the four she’d made before going to bed; the dual-attuned bead, two triple-attuned, and one with all four of her attunements. The store gave her an extra twenty credits for each attunement. She was pretty pleased with that, considering after she’d gotten the hang of it, the beads with four attunements were just as quick to produce. After her sales, she had just over 2,500 credits in the store. She really wanted a magical container like Bronwyn had, so she flipped through the menus to the “containers” category and scrolled down past all the cheap items like sacks, backpacks, barrels, and boxes, and suddenly saw a price jump: Satchel of Spacious Storage - 2,000.

Olivia groaned. She wanted the satchel so much, but it would take all of the money that Morgan had given her. Thinking about it, though, she reasoned, Morgan wouldn’t want to deal with her lugging around a heavy backpack, would he? She smiled and bought the satchel. After the smoke cleared, she picked it up, a grin spreading from ear to ear. The satchel looked like a messenger bag made from supple leather dyed baby blue. She couldn’t have imagined anything better. Olivia hugged the satchel to her chest and then quickly slung it over her shoulder and slapped her hand back on the Colony Stone.

Olivia spent almost all of her remaining credits on food, extra clothes, sturdy boots, a warm cloak, and a tall staff made of a hardwood called Nettlewood. She tossed the rest of her belongings, including her blanket, into her new satchel and then started hustling down the southern road toward the gate. The sky was a pale grey-blue by this point, and she hoped Morgan hadn’t left without her. She didn’t think he was that type, but the worry still tickled the back of her mind. Sighing, she broke into a trot and then a jog, already glad to have new boots and a satchel to hold all her belongings.

Her worries proved to be unfounded. Morgan was sitting by the side of the gate when she walked up; his eyes were closed, and he was in the lotus position. She was still catching her breath from her jog when he opened his eyes and smoothly stood. “Ready?”

“Good morning!” Olvia straightened up and smiled broadly at him. “Yeah, I’m ready. Were you waiting long?”

“Oh, no. I don’t really sleep much anymore, so I did a walk around the walls this morning, and I’d just been sitting here for a little while.”

“Well, off we go, then. A grand adventure awaits!” Olivia spoke cheerily and led the way through the gates. As she cleared the tunnel and waved to the guards, she thought about how she’d been so rushed that she hadn’t said goodbye to Bronwyn. She glanced over her shoulder at the wall and the gate, almost stopping.

“Everything alright?” Morgan asked, catching a glimpse of her frown.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Let’s go!” She turned and started walking. Bronwyn had said goodbye at the tavern yesterday. She’d be fine, and a little time to herself was probably just what she needed.