Awaken Online: Ember (Tarot #1)

by Bagwell, Travis

  “Well, this place seems real laidback,” Kyyle murmured in a dry tone, interrupting Finn’s dark thoughts. “Totally not getting a magical concentration camp vibe or anything.”

  Finn couldn’t help but grin at that. “Agreed, but I have to admit that I am sort of curious about the classes,” he replied quietly.

  “You mean the ones where the teachers are permitted to beat us to death?” Kyyle asked, trying but failing to stop the smile creeping across his face.

  “I have a feeling that I won’t be sad to see that happen to some people,” Finn commented, watching as the burly man strode up to Abbad.

  Kyyle snorted before glancing at Finn out of the corner of his eye. “Speaking of which, you know this is going to get ugly, right? They basically just told us that failure means some sort of expulsion and victory means you get a cushy position in the guild or with that Emir guy. These people are going to be ready to shank each other in two weeks.”

  Finn nodded. He hadn’t missed that.

  He also suspected there was another explanation for the competition – not just to encourage the students to try hard. His gaze hovered on Nefreet’s face, his expression a perfect, neutral mask. However, it was the headmaster’s eyes that drew Finn’s attention. They were coldly calculating, weighing and measuring each student that approached Abbad. That was the gaze of a shark – of a predator.

  Finn had seen a similar strategy applied to young executives back in the day. Older leadership had intentionally created a competitive environment. Their objective wasn’t to improve the company’s bottom line – at least, not entirely. Their true goal had been to keep those young bucks fighting each other instead of gunning for their own job. If Finn was right, then this system was likely meant to destabilize a new generation of mages. However, there was some power in numbers, especially when it came to sharing information.

  “Truce?” Finn suddenly said, offering Kyyle a hand.

  The young man looked back at him in surprise.

  “At least until they try to force us to kill each other,” he added with a grin.

  His smile was matched by Kyyle. The young man shrugged and then accepted his hand. “Fair enough. But I’m not gonna hold back if they eventually pit me against you.”

  “I never doubted that for a second,” Finn replied, meeting Kyyle’s eyes evenly. Despite his awkward appearance, the young man had already shown himself to be much more perceptive than the other players. Finn had no doubt he would be a challenging person to fight.

  The moment was interrupted as Abbad called Kyyle forward. The young man spared Finn a wink and then stepped up to the front of the room, accepted the language and tattoo, and then quickly exited the room – likely planning to go explore their new school-prison.

  And then Finn was alone, the last of the students.

  He didn’t wait for Abbad to wave him forward and instead stepped up on his own. Finn did his best to control his expression as he approached the pair. Until he knew what had happened in that testing room, he didn’t plan to reveal that he knew Abbad – especially not with Nefreet standing right there. He didn’t get the sense that the headmaster was on team Finn.

  However, as Abbad went to raise his fingers to Finn’s temple, he put up a hand. There was also no way in hell he was letting these people mess with his mind again. “I don’t want it,” he said tersely. Abbad’s eyes widened in surprise, and even Nefreet arched an eyebrow.

  “You will need this language to cast spells,” the headmaster said calmly.

  “Is there another way to learn Veridian?” Finn asked. “Perhaps some books or something?”

  Nefreet cocked his head, staring at Finn. “There are many books on the language in the library. However, that process will take time – time that is in rather short supply. As I said before, you will only have two weeks before the duels begin, and you will not be granted a reprieve. This decision should not be made lightly.”

  Finn grimaced. It was easy to pick up on the implication of the headmaster’s words. It was safe to say that the others had just had the language dumped into their brain, which would give them a considerable headstart. By the end of the two-week mark, they would likely have mastered multiple spells. In contrast, it was possible that Finn would still be learning the basics. At the same time, he just couldn’t go through some sort of mind dump. Not after what he had experienced in the testing room.

  He would find another way.

  Finn met Nefreet’s eyes evenly. “I’m a fast learner.”

  The headmaster watched him for a heartbeat and then seemed to come to a decision. “Let us hope so.” Nefreet waved at Abbad. “Abbad can assist you in finding the right manuals and scrolls. He is one of the guild librarians.” The man bowed his head in acknowledgment.

  Finn mimicked the movement, bowing to Nefreet. “Thank you, headmaster,” he said. There was no sense antagonizing the man, not when he would have considerable power over Finn.

  When he looked back up, he saw something that looked like curiosity in Nefreet’s gaze. Had he done something wrong by making that gesture?

  “Don’t thank me yet,” the headmaster replied. “You have chosen a more difficult path. Only time will tell whether you come to regret it.”

  With that, the headmaster strode out of the room without another word. The benches behind Finn slowly sunk back into the floor as Nefreet released his spell. Which left Finn standing with Abbad, at least a dozen questions whirling through his mind.

  Perhaps it was time to start answering some of them.

  Chapter 6 - Enlightened

  “So…” Finn began.

  Abbad raised a hand, shaking his head curtly. He then reached for Finn’s left hand, tracing a simple pattern with the stylus along his forearm. The instrument left a faint, burning line in its wake, but it wasn’t enough to truly hurt and didn’t pierce the skin.

  As he completed the tattoo, Abbad let Finn go and began heading for the doorway, not saying a word. He merely gestured at Finn to follow and then stepped out of the room.

  Finn rubbed at his arm. The tattoo itched slightly. The pattern was a simple star, each point connected by a thin line. He had gone his entire life without getting a tattoo, and yet his digital body seemed to be collecting them at an alarming rate.

  His eyes lingered on the doorway for a fraction of a second. Questions swam in Finn’s mind. What had he gotten himself into? What had happened with the crystal? Why was Abbad hiding Finn’s test results from the other mages? Would following him just make the situation worse? What was the librarian’s motive in all of this anyway?

  The man’s silence and his cautious behavior did little to ease Finn’s worry. At the same time, he supposed he had no choice but to follow Abbad if he was going to learn Veridian.

  Damn it. With a sigh, Finn followed after the librarian, jogging lightly to catch up.

  Only a moment later, Finn’s eyes widened in surprise as the hallway opened into a terrace encircling a massive courtyard. A gust of wind whipped at his clothes, the breeze feeling hot on his skin. They were apparently on the third floor of the school, a series of open-air walkways ringing the enclosure at each level. Finn could make out mages walking along the terraces, their forms blurry at this distance.

  The inner courtyard was roughly the size of a football field, a rectangular enclosure about 100 yards across. Thick sand coated the area except for a large circular stone platform that rested in the center.

  Geez. This place is huge, Finn thought.

  He couldn’t help but wonder at the purpose of the field and the strange stone stage. Maybe this was where the headmaster addressed the school or something?

  The librarian gave him little time to ponder on this. Abbad made a sharp left turn and Finn was forced to follow, soon losing sight of the courtyard. The librarian led him down several flights of stairs and out into an open concourse. Finn could only assume that this was the Mage Guild’s main hall, a wide hallway stretching on for hundreds of feet and do
zens of staircases leading up into the bowels of the guild.

  Throngs of students now streamed past, and Finn was forced to weave his way through the crowd to keep up with the librarian. Strangely, Abbad seemed to have no difficulty making his way through the other students, seamlessly flowing through the mass of limbs and feet with a casual grace.

  Finn was only able to distractedly observe the people around him. Many wore different-colored cloth robes. Finn assumed that the colors identified each person’s affinity. A uniform of sorts, perhaps? Although, that theory seemed a little tenuous when he noticed that quite a few people were wearing more traditional tunics and pants, while others were garbed in leather and chainmail. A few hasty inspections also revealed that the crowd was composed of a mixture of players and NPCs, although the player population was much larger, the travelers easily identified by the tags floating above their head.

  Interestingly, Finn noticed that many people sported tattoos like Abbad and Nefreet. Yet the designs were less elaborate and more spartan – similar to the one on Finn’s left arm. Perhaps this was some way to identify a person’s rank within the guild?

  Finn started to ask Abbad about the tattoos, which seemed like an innocent enough question, but he froze as he caught a flash of light in his peripheral vision.

  He turned to find an enormous screen projected above a grand central staircase. The display stretched at least fifty feet into the air. The title line simply said “Novices.” Below that, the screen had been divided into two columns – one marked “Travelers” and the other as “Residents.” Each row contained a name, a rank, and a numeric score.

  Finn suddenly realized he was looking at a leaderboard, most likely reflecting scores in the ongoing duels among the students.

  That seemed extreme. It looked like Kyyle had been right. The rivalry among the novices was about to get ugly, especially if the guild broadcast their relative rankings this publicly. Hell, even Finn’s programming classes back in the day hadn’t been this intense, and his professors had gone out of their way to weed out students.

  The leaderboard also raised another question that was far more interesting.

  How the hell had they built this thing?

  Before he knew it, Finn had approached the display, his curiosity overriding his caution. He soon discovered that what he had thought was a screen was actually a series of colored crystals embedded into the wall. His fingers traced the rough stones. As he inspected them, the crystals flashed and changed color.

  Stepping back, Finn could see that the names and numbers had all shifted. They now showed the leaderboard for the “Journeyman” mages.

  Fascinating. They are using the crystals like pixels on a screen. So, that must mean that this world’s crafting system lets them mimic our technology, Finn thought to himself. He wondered if players could recreate something like this or if this kind of in-game crafting was exclusive to the NPCs.

  What could I build with magic crystals?

  A cough behind Finn made him jump. He turned to find Abbad staring at him. The man’s expression was still perfectly neutral, although a lone eyebrow was twitching slightly. From the little Finn knew about the librarian, he was practically shouting.

  He got the unspoken message. No detours.

  With another sigh, he followed Abbad, sparing one last longing glance at the display behind him. At least the crystal screen told him one thing: this world was a lot more complex than it appeared on the surface.

  A few minutes later, they arrived in front of a pair of massive steel doors. Abbad approached a column beside the door and waved something across the surface. A moment later, the portal creaked open, letting out almost no sound despite its monstrous size.

  Abbad waved Finn inside. As soon as the pair crossed the threshold, the doors let out a soft thud as they closed behind them.

  Finn was left staring at what he assumed was the guild library. It was a squat, square affair. The center of the room was empty, a smooth stone floor devoid of chairs or tables. Only a single pedestal rested in the very middle of the room. As the pair stepped further inside, Finn spun, taking in the bookcases and cubbies surrounding them, holding all manner of books and ancient, dusty scrolls.

  However, he couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed.

  After everything they had seen, the guild only had a single square room for its library? Why bother with those massive doors then?

  “So, uh, is this it?” Finn asked, gesturing at the nearby shelves.

  Abbad’s response was a single arched eyebrow. Without responding, he paced over to the pedestal and waved something across its surface.

  Before Finn had a chance to ask what he was doing, the floor suddenly lurched beneath him. The pair stood upon a square platform in the center of the room, which began to rise at a rapid rate… heading directly toward a very solid-looking stone ceiling.

  Finn eyed Abbad nervously, but the librarian made no move to jump off the platform, even as the ceiling approached at a frightening rate.

  “Abbad…” Finn began.

  Just as they were about to be crushed against the stone, the rock ceiling turned to liquid and rippled away. The stone pooled around the edges of the platform as it smoothly climbed upward, revealing yet another square floor filled with books and scrolls. This time, Finn could see robed men and women moving between the cubbies and shelves – attired similarly to Abbad and dark patterns spiraling across their skin.

  Abbad made no move to stop the platform, and they continued to climb. Finn counted at least three levels before the librarian removed his hand from the pedestal. The platform halted and the stone floor slid back into place, sealing them inside what Finn assumed was the fourth floor of the library.

  A quick glance around the room revealed that the pair were alone. Finn once more opened his mouth to ask Abbad a question.

  The librarian raised a staying hand. His fingers then began to twine through a rapid series of gestures, and the man muttered something under his breath. A gust of wind suddenly blew through the room, tugging at Finn’s clothes before whipping and whirling around them. A moment later, the wind stabilized, and a sphere enveloped the two of them, the surface almost invisible, but glowing with a faint yellow light.

  “Now you may speak,” Abbad said plainly, making no effort to lower his voice.

  Finn could only stare back and forth at the faintly shimmering globe and Abbad, suddenly realizing that he wasn’t even certain where to start with his questions.

  “Uh… okay. So, what is this globe?” Finn asked, pointing at the yellow sphere. He tentatively touched at the surface of the orb, and his hand passed through with only slight resistance.

  “A sound-dampening spell,” Abbad replied calmly, gesturing for the pair to move out of the center of the room. Finn followed his lead, staying well within the circle of yellow energy. “I am an air mage, master rank. We can create barriers of compressed air that prevent sound from passing through.”

  Abbad’s hands darted through another series of gestures, and, as Finn tried to respond, he suddenly found that no sound escaped his mouth. He went cross-eyed trying to look at his lips, and he could just barely see the edges of a smaller, shimmering yellow sphere resting near his mouth.

  Abbad made a dismissive gesture and the smaller sphere dissolved.

  “Well, that’s a cool trick,” Finn murmured.

  “Indeed,” Abbad responded dryly. “Although, applying the spell to a smaller area, especially one that moves around more quickly, is difficult to master. Which reminds me, we need to get to work. We should secure several tomes and scrolls to assist you in your studies. Please follow me.”

  With that, the librarian took off, winding through the shelves with Finn hot on his heels. Abbad plucked at a few materials as they walked past, handing each one carefully to Finn.

  “So, would you mind explaining what happened with that crystal and the test?” Finn asked cautiously.

  Abbad spared a glance over his shoulder.
“Did you see something when your hand touched the crystal?” he asked calmly, picking up another scroll and passing it to Finn.

  “Yes,” Finn murmured.

  “I take it the image was rather personal?” This didn’t really feel like a question.

  Finn just nodded.

  “That is the crystal’s function. It utilizes dark magic to scour a person’s memories. It conjured a moment that was impactful – emotional. This is important since the six magical affinities are tied to emotion. Or I suppose you might also call them personality traits. Regardless, eliciting strong emotions is the easiest way to test for the type and strength of a person’s affinity.” Abbad handed him another tome, the pile growing quickly.

  “The crystal is one of the few objects that the guild has retained that utilizes dark magic. As the headmaster explained, this guild caters exclusively to the elemental affinities: fire, air, water, and earth.”

  “I assume there’s a reason for that?” Finn asked.

  Abbad hesitated for a moment, as though considering his words. “The Emir decided long ago to forgo training dark and light mages. Suffice it to say that the mages of those two schools can be rather difficult to control.”

  That just raised more questions than it answered.

  Although there was one thing that Finn had been dying to ask. And he wouldn’t be distracted from it – even if he badly wanted to know more about the game’s magic system and the guild.

  “Okay, so you told me I had the fire affinity, and I’m a novice. But you also seemed pretty nervous, and that crystal was shining like I lit the place on fire…” Finn trailed off, his implicit question hanging in the air.

  Abbad gave a curt nod and gestured toward a corner of the room. Finn followed his direction and soon found himself in a small study area, a few rather mundane wooden tables pressed up against a plain stone wall. He carefully placed the pile of books and scrolls on one of the tables before turning to focus on the librarian.

  The other man seemed to be struggling to decide where to begin. “I suppose the short answer is that your affinity is quite strong. Much stronger than is normal for someone with your lack of experience,” Abbad explained.