Awaken Online: Ember (Tarot #1)

by Bagwell, Travis

  Zane’s eyes flashed angrily as his gaze swept to the gangly earth mage. Yet he controlled his expression quickly, a grin tugging at his lips. “I prefer to think of it like re-allocating resources. I’m more of a socialist gamer, I suppose you could say,” he added with a chuckle – laughter that was echoed by members of his crew.

  “Yeah, and have you given any thought to what it’s going to be like to kill other people in this game?” Kyyle demanded. “It’s pretty authentic. You saw that girl that electrified herself. The burns along her arms… Yet you don’t seem too worried about that part.”

  His accusation hung heavy in the air and Finn noted that Zane’s hands clenched involuntarily. “It’s still just a game. It isn’t real. No one really gets hurt. Besides, we’ll be doing much worse to each other soon, and we won’t be given much choice then. I guess we’ll see if you’re able to get off that moral high horse.”

  Zane’s attention snapped back to Finn. “It’s clear that this is a dog-eat-dog world and having powerful friends would be a blessing,” he said, the implicit insult to Kyyle not going unnoticed. “So, what do you say,” Zane asked, offering a hand. “Interested in joining our crew?”

  Finn hesitated for a moment. Some of what Zane was saying rang true. This world seemed to operate much like the real one – which meant it wasn’t fair. Not at all. Just like their little class of novice mages, people would likely fall back into a natural rhythm. The strong would prey on the weak. People would band together for protection. Zane’s offer was blunt and heavy-handed, but he also wasn’t wrong.

  At the same time, Finn didn’t like the hungry glint in the man’s eye. He’d seen that same look in the corporate world. They might not burn each other alive, but business was a different form of battle – one where most players were willing to go to any lengths to win. However, that wasn’t Finn. Not anymore, anyway.

  “I think I’m good actually,” he said, meeting Zane’s eyes evenly. “I appreciate the offer, but I think it might be a bit early to start picking sides.”

  Zane barely reacted, his face remaining neutral. Yet Finn still picked up on the way his eyes crinkled at the corners as he struggled to control his expression. “Well, I’ll leave the offer open.” A brief glance at Kyyle. “But it won’t be on the table forever. You’ll need to choose your friends wisely.”

  “I plan to,” Finn replied, unperturbed by the man’s posturing.

  With a jerk of his chin, Zane motioned to his crew, and the group strode down the hallway, leaving Finn and Kyyle standing there.

  “What an asshole,” Kyyle muttered.

  Finn just shook his head, watching as the group walked away. “He’s not wrong, though. He just might be one of the first players to realize what’s happening here.”

  “Which is?” Kyyle asked, his anger giving way to puzzlement.

  “I think this place is a hell of a lot more real than we first thought,” Finn said aloud, almost talking more to himself than to the earth mage. “This world isn’t handing us pre-prepared spells or asking us to mash a single button like an idiot. It’s asking for a hell of a lot more.”

  “Like creating your own spells?” Kyyle demanded, although he kept his voice at a discreet volume.

  Finn glanced at him, noticing the look on his face.

  “What? It’s an obvious deduction,” Kyyle added when he saw Finn’s reaction. “You were able to summon your mana easily the other day, far faster than anyone else in the class. I doubt you suddenly lost control. Which only leaves one other answer.”

  “I could have just thought I was about to die. Stress does strange things to people,” Finn offered. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to pull his fraying thoughts together and come up with a reasonable-sounding excuse. To make matters worse, his thigh still ached from where Lamia had impaled it. The pain, even muted, was distracting.

  “You don’t strike me as the sort of person who loses your cool,” Kyyle replied immediately, waving down the hall in the direction of Zane’s crew. “So are you going to level with me or what?”

  Finn sighed. “Alright, I’m not sure what I did. I might have created something new. Maybe. But I’m not sure what that means or how to recreate it.”

  “I bet that won’t take too long,” another voice chimed in from behind him, this one distinctly feminine – and oddly familiar.

  Oh, who the hell is it this time? Finn thought to himself.

  When Finn turned around, he froze in place, his jaw going slack. A pair of mischievous brown eyes met his from under a deep hood. Despite the heavy fabric, he could still see stray locks of auburn hair framing her face. Even more strangely, she wore a familiar set of pale-blue robes.

  “J-julia?” Finn asked.

  “Hey there, Old Fart,” she replied with a grin before taking in Finn’s battered and bloodstained appearance. “You look like shit.”

  This earned a chuckle from Kyyle. “I said something similar.”

  Finn could only stare dumbly as his brain tried to reboot. Was his daughter a student at the school? That didn’t seem right. He also couldn’t help but remember her seemingly innocuous question the day before about which city he had started in. Had she followed him here? How the hell had she even found him? He looked much younger and was walking around on two fully functioning legs.

  “Uh, not to interrupt this moment or whatever?” Kyyle interjected. “But are you going to introduce me?” He nudged Finn.

  “Um, so this is Julia. She’s a…ah… a friend of mine,” Finn choked out. Julia’s grin widened. “And this guy propping me up is Kyyle.”

  “Pleasure to meet you,” Julia offered, her eyes flitting to Kyyle. “It looks like you’ve been taking good care of my friend here.”

  Even in his surprised state, Finn noticed that Kyyle looked a little tongue-tied at that comment, his eyes darting between Julia and Finn with a questioning look. It seemed like he might have taken away the wrong message from Finn’s hesitation.

  “So how did you guys meet?” Kyyle asked.

  Finn opened his mouth to answer, but Julia beat him to it. “I’m actually in another entering mage class,” she explained smoothly. “We ran into each other randomly. Turns out we have a connection in the real world. Go figure,” she added, rolling her eyes.

  “Huh, okay…” Kyyle offered, confused by the weird tension between the pair.

  “Would you mind if I spoke with Julia for a bit?” Finn asked Kyyle. The young man arched an eyebrow and Finn continued quickly, “I haven’t forgotten our conversation. I promise. I’ll try to explain more. I just need a second.”

  Kyyle’s eyes bounced between the pair, and Julia smiled at him sweetly – which was usually Finn’s signal to start running. Meanwhile, Finn could already see Kyyle’s mental wheels turning. The young man was too damned perceptive for his own good. “Yeah, no problem,” Kyyle said slowly and extricated himself from Finn’s grip, letting him lean against the nearby wall. “I guess I’ll see you at the physical training thing tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good. Thank you,” Finn replied.

  As Kyyle walked away, Julia slumped against the wall beside Finn. “Seems like a smart guy. Sort of cute, in an awkward kind of way. Plus, he didn’t buy your bullshit story. I already like him.”

  “What are you doing here?” Finn hissed under his breath. “And don’t try to feed me that bullshit about being a student. I didn’t believe that the first time.”

  “Ahh, so little faith in your darling daughter,” Julia replied with a grin. As Finn glared at her, she let out a sigh. “Fine, I might have snuck in when you mentioned you were stuck in the Mage Guild.”

  “Snuck in,” Finn echoed, suddenly remembering what Lamia had told them at the beginning of class. “You didn’t…”

  “Knock out some idiot mages and steal their shit?” Julia asked. “Maybe.” She flicked an object at Finn. He barely caught it, and when he unfurled his fingers, he found a small chit, much like the one Abbad had given him to access th
e library.

  “Not a terribly secure system if you ask me,” Julia offered.

  “If they find you in here, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

  “Then let’s hope they don’t find me,” Julia replied with another grin.

  Finn sighed again, rubbing at his temples. At some point, this day had taken a hard-left turn into crazy-land.

  “Why exactly are you here?” Finn asked, glancing at Julia again.

  “Can’t I just be checking on my dear old dad?”

  Finn stared at her with a deadpan expression.

  Julia shrugged. “Hey, I actually did want to check up on you. You know this is basically a prison, right?” she added, waving at the hall.

  “Well, it’s more like a school…” Finn began.

  His daughter arched an eyebrow. “It has guards and walls, and you can’t leave.” She hesitated. “Although, I guess the same could be said of my high school back in the day. Huh, damn.” She refocused on Finn. “Either way, I’m not sure you completely understand what you stumbled into.”

  “And you do?” Finn asked skeptically.

  “Maybe not all of it, but more than you,” Julia replied with a dry voice. “There’s a ton of shit going on out there beyond the walls of this place. People are saying the Emir is sick and might be going a little batty. The guilds are in an uproar. People are already talking about the line of succession. It feels like there’s something big brewing.”

  She met his eyes, her expression more serious. “And you’re stuck in this prison, which isn’t exactly ideal.”

  “And you know all this how?” Finn asked, handing back the chit as he tried to maintain his composure. Julia had just dropped yet another bomb on him. There was a growing power struggle outside the guild? That wasn’t great – not at all.

  Julia shrugged. “I like to keep my eyes and ears open. Plus, my particular skill set adapted well to this world.” As she said this last part, Julia flicked the chit, and it disappeared before Finn’s eyes. He also caught a flash of what appeared to be leather armor beneath her robes. What exactly had Julia been up to in-game?

  Julia noted his confused expression, another grin tweaking her lips. “I was always good at getting into places where I shouldn’t be and learning things I shouldn’t know.

  “Although, I’ll admit that finding you was more challenging than I thought. I wasn’t expecting the makeover. Although, the legs should have been an obvious point,” she added ruefully, gesturing at his appearance. “It wasn’t until I heard a bunch of students talking about how some guy named Finn blew up a classroom that I was able to find you.”

  Finn grimaced. Great. The rumors were already starting to spread. He wondered idly if Abbad would kill him quickly or draw it out.

  “I also overheard the conversation with your boy,” Julia continued when he didn’t speak. “You created something new, didn’t you?” Her eyes darted to his, sparkling with curiosity. “I’m not exactly surprised, but I feel like I deserve details.”

  Before he could figure out how to respond, her fingers plucked at the cuff of his robe, noting the tattoo on his right wrist. “This looks new, and the other novices don’t seem to have one. I bet there’s a story there too.”

  Finn was saved from responding as he heard a commotion farther down the corridor. The pair turned to look, only to find a group of three robed mages making their way down the hallway. Their robes were higher quality than the students and the tattoos that spiraled up their arms and encircled their necks indicated that they were much higher-ranked. They stopped to accost a student, and Finn noticed one mage pull out a crystal, holding it toward the novice. It soon glowed with a bright-green light.

  The group immediately dismissed the student and moved to the next one.

  Shit. Finn assumed they were somehow testing students for their magical affinity. They must be searching for whoever broke into the school.

  “You need to get out of here,” Finn whispered.

  “Yeah, it does look like it’s time to make a hasty retreat.” Julia’s eyes flitted back to Finn, and she smirked. “But don’t think I’ve forgotten our little conversation. I’ll be back, and I’m going to expect some answers.”

  “Fine, fine. Just go,” Finn replied, the mages already stalking closer. “If you need to find me, I’ll likely be in the library – fourth floor.”

  “Huh, I haven’t broken into a magical library yet. That should be fun!”

  Finn turned to snap at Julia; this wasn’t the time to be cracking jokes. However, she had already vanished, only a faint chuckle echoing through the hall. He quickly covered up his irritation as he saw the guards approaching, re-assuming a genial mask and giving them a polite nod.

  Nothing to see here, he thought. Definitely not breaking multiple rules or anything.

  They gave him a quick pass with the crystal and then passed him by. As they marched away, Finn let out a sigh of relief, slumping back against the wall.

  What the hell had he gotten himself into?

  Chapter 13 - Modified

  Finn leaned back in his chair, taking in the tomes and scrolls that riddled the tabletop before him. He had made it back to his haven in the library – managing to skirt past the mages that patrolled the guild’s hallways. Yet even in the relative peace of the library, his thoughts were a chaotic whirlwind, fluttering about wildly.

  To sum things up: he had somehow created a new spell, accidentally blown up a classroom, revealed his abilities to the other students, likely made a permanent enemy of one of the guild’s faculty, and turned down an emerging gang leader. Then his daughter had shown up – revealing herself as the person who had been breaking into the guild and assaulting students. He was still struggling with her role in all of this, much less the news she had revealed of some impending power struggle in the city outside the Mage Guild.

  He rubbed at his eyes.

  Oh, and he still had that tiny little problem involving his need to learn Veridian, and the clock was still ticking on the upcoming duels.

  Finn could feel his pulse thumping in his ears. It had been a long time since he had felt this sort of stress – not since his days back in college and working at Cerillion Logistics. How had he managed to make it through those moments when he just felt overwhelmed by the endless list of tasks and problems before him?

  The answer came to him immediately, Rachael’s face flashing through his mind’s eye. He had always found her a calming presence. A hand that set down a steaming mug of tea in the corner of his vision. A kiss on the forehead. And when he was truly struggling, she had been the person to make him step away from the work for a moment – just long enough to take a walk or stretch.

  She had given him perspective.

  She had helped him find his center again.

  Finn felt a hollow ache in his stomach – like a gnawing void had formed there that could never be filled. Rachael was gone now. He was on his own. Yet, for some reason, as painful as those memories were, they were still calming. He knew what she would say if she were standing beside him in this strange new world.

  Rachael would likely rest a hand on his shoulder. “Everything will be okay,” she’d say. “Just focus on one thing at a time.” For a second, he could almost feel the weight of that hand on his arm.

  Finn’s eyes fluttered open. There was no one there. He was alone. Just a trick of his mind. He let out another sigh.

  However, the phantom advice still helped.

  He just needed to focus on one task. The first step was to rule out things he couldn’t control. Finn couldn’t do anything about whatever was happening outside the school, and he couldn’t change what had happened during the class. And he sure as hell couldn’t keep Julia out of trouble. Right now, he needed to learn more spells, and he needed to get out of this guild. Those should be his only goals.

  And both were accomplished by finishing his studies. Which meant he needed to learn Veridian and see if he could replicate how he had created the Fire
Nova.

  A thought suddenly occurred to Finn. It was a moment of clarity that left him sitting there in stunned silence for a moment – like he had been staring at a half-finished jigsaw puzzle and finally realized he had been holding the piece he needed in his hands the whole time.

  Maybe he could kill two birds with one stone.

  “Daniel,” he said aloud.

  In a flash, a ball of flame erupted in the air beside Finn. Tendrils of fire licked at the air, causing it to ripple from the heat. “You summoned me?” Daniel replied.

  “Did you finish compiling the language training software?” Finn asked.

  “Yes, sir. I have also uploaded the vocabulary and syntax for this new language, and I have taken the liberty of creating a custom framework for a new iteration of the software. Would you like for me to show you what I’ve done so far?” Daniel asked.

  Finn’s eyes widened. Well, that was one spot of good news.

  “Yes, please,” he replied.

  The ball of flame flashed, and a half-dozen displays suddenly appeared in the air in front of Finn, the translucent blue screens shimmering in the light cast by Daniel’s form. Complicated lines of code skittered down one screen, and another showed a modular view of the program’s codebase. However, Finn’s gaze focused on the rough simulation of the program’s UI.

  Finn chewed on his lip as he examined the display, his wrist occasionally flicking at the air. The tantalizing idea at the edge of his mind had now fully come into focus – especially after the incident in the classroom earlier. Learning Veridian was critical to spellcasting in this world – both in terms of memorizing existing spells and creating new ones. However, that was just the first step.

  His thoughts drifted back a few decades to when he had been in college. He had spent far too many hours sitting in front of a screen mindlessly clicking away at some MMO. Finn could barely remember the game itself. The reason for that was because he had gotten distracted working on mods for the game.

  He had spent countless hours designing various UI and gameplay improvements. He had built mods that mapped out dungeons and detailed boss attack patterns. Mods that added additional information – mob threat, teammate DPS, healing assistance that auto-targeted injured teammates. Complex macros that automated his actions with pinpoint precision. It had become an almost-bottomless rabbit hole filled with legit and not-so-legit modifications to the game world.