Spectres & Skin: Exodus

by RJ Creed

“I’m—” I looked around. The sky was a clear blue with just a few fluffy white clouds gliding slowly across. The smell of her gardening was sweet and earthy and alien but … it awakened something primal inside me. It was as if I knew that the world was supposed to be like this. I couldn’t quite put exactly how I felt into words, so I just smiled. “Apart from this wolf bite, I’m doing pretty great.”

  Her gaze trailed down my body to the bloody tooth marks on my ankle and she wrinkled her nose. “Here,” she said, and stood to hand me a bandage from the little pack beside her. I didn’t want to accept at first, but she looked alarmed when I waved it away, so I took it.

  I bent down and tied it tightly around my ankle.

  You have discovered a hidden skill!

  First Aid: Don’t trust doctors? Grab your trusty herbs and bandages and tie a comrade, or yourself, back together after a tricky combat encounter.

  Related Attribute: INT

  Oh, cool! Good to see that something useful may have actually come from that unfortunate encounter with the wolf earlier. It had been pretty unlucky of me to spawn right next to a hostile enemy in the first place, but what else was new? I’d pretty much always been the unluckiest person I knew.

  I rolled my ankle and grinned, watching as my health bar slid up closer to 100% — stopping at 90. “That’s so much better, thank you,” I said. Were all characters as helpful as her? This game was going to be a cinch if so.

  “Glad to hear it,” she said. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” She still wasn’t really looking up at me, just spreading fertilisers, or something, around the bed of new trees.

  “Are you safe here? There are wolves,” I pointed out. She gestured to her pack beside her without saying anything, and I could only assume that she had some good weapons, or something, inside there. “Could you just point me in the direction of the spire?” I asked. “I am new here and I’m just kinda turned around.”

  She peered up at me like I was trying to test her, but hopefully saw the genuineness on my face. She gestured behind me, and I turned. “It’s that … big spire over there.”

  Just beyond the little patch of farmland, and beyond the rickety homestead that I assumed this woman lived in, was … yeah, a towering spire. I could see it now. It was one of the largest things I had ever seen. Probably, I realised getting to my feet, no bigger than a skyscraper, but when nothing around here stretched taller than a tree … the spire was noticeable.

  More than that: it was intimidating.

  I took a few steps so that I could see past the farmhouse and folded my arms across my chest as a cooling breeze rippled across my skin, and chilled me as if my sackcloth wasn’t even there. The city gates surrounding the spire came into view, and for a moment I wondered if I would have any trouble breaching the gates as a newcomer, but then I recalled that I was one of the people that lived there. Presuming that this Dawnspire Collective operated out of Dawnspire itself.

  I considered for a moment asking the woman still kneeling nearby if she would clear up a few things for me, like who my people were and where their headquarters were, but she didn’t seem to like interacting with me, particularly.

  Instead I thanked her and she gave me a cursory nod, and I took off in the direction of the spire.

  I hoped idly that Luke had spawned somewhere nearby. We were similar people, after all, so maybe he had answered the questions similarly? Hopefully he wasn’t in the North, anyway. Then there was literally zero chance I was going to find him during this short week, and it would be fun to play a little together when we had so little time here.

  It occurred to me as I crossed the beautiful arable land towards the thick, tall walls of Dawnspire that maybe I should try to level up a little before I got into the city, because maybe Luke would be waiting there after all — and knowing his incredible luck, he’d already be at level 40 and have a harem of beautiful local women following after him and giggling.

  I looked down at myself, tugging on the coarse, loose-fitting clothing the game had given me, and glanced around momentarily before I pushed my shirt up. Yes. The game had selected my usual avatar: the one I used in every other VR experience. I was stocky and built and my body made me look like the kind of dude who spent all his time working on it. I did not have a problem with this.

  When I got to the gates of the capital city, a guard jerked his head towards me from a watchtower by way of greeting.

  “Acolyte,” he said.

  I nodded back up at him, though it hadn’t seemed to be a question. With a groan and scrape, the gates slid open in front of me, and I took in one last look of the gorgeous landscape behind me: the bright green grass bent by the breeze; the tall swaying trees, and then turned around again when the gates finished their journey.

  At that moment, I felt totally ready for anything.

  3

  The Collective

  I stepped inside Dawnspire with awe. It was a bustling city, filled to the brim with NPCs that laughed and talked and shouted at each other. Children ran and played, kicking up dust from the clay-red ground. Dogs barked and chickens roamed free.

  Every single face I saw looked unique, and as realistic as any other face I’d seen, and it was almost overwhelming for a moment until I took a second to gather myself and carried on moving.

  Where was I supposed to go? What was I supposed to do? Was there some kind of a tutorial that I could still wander into and get myself up to speed with the intricacies of play?

  I told myself that my order of business would be this: I would check around the spire to see if Luke was there, and then I would go and find a low-level quest to dive into the game and see what was what. I should have asked the woman outside if she had anything I could have helped with … but actually all I had on me were my fists and wide-eyed naivety; not exactly the stuff needed to even finish your basic rat quest.

  So actually my revised plan was to glance around to see if Luke had already made it here, and then to go and find some equipment. I wondered what kind of character build I was going to have. Magic user? Sneaky rogue? Sword and shield? From the lack of the word ‘Class’ on my character sheet, I was going to go ahead and guess that I could pretty much be anything I wanted, and maybe a combination, like a swordmage.

  Around the base of the spire I realised that there was a set of ornate double doors leading inside the thing. The spire at Dawnspire was made of a shining black material that I had never seen before, and studded with what looked like gold and jewels, but they couldn’t possibly be real. The woman outside the gates had looked impoverished, with her sparse land, brand new young crops, and patchy clothing.

  I circled it twice, and there was no sign of anyone even resembling Luke, though there were plenty of people dressed in the same sackcloth as me, with the same pendants, and I noticed that when they greeted each other — and me — they would nod with a smile. It was surreal, almost, and it creeped me out a little, though I couldn’t say why.

  A hand clapped on my shoulder as I was squinting around me one last time, just to triple check that Luke wasn’t there, and I jumped almost a foot in the air before whirling around. Being grabbed by somebody was the last thing I’d been expecting.

  “Boy,” the man said. I looked up at him, feeling dwarfed even in the broad six-foot-plus body I inhabited, and noted that he was wearing the same pendant as me, but was wearing actual leather armour.

  And, most interestingly, the man was … well … he was draped in a snake. How else to put that? It was as if a ghostly serpentine apparition had latched onto his body. The white, almost blurred, tail of the beast hung low across his chest and twitched, and the head reared and licked the air right in front of my face.

  I took a step back, almost unable to breathe, and the large man held up an admonishing finger. “Don’t,” he warned me. “Silas is uncomfortable when people display fear.” I stared into the shining black eyes of the white, ghostly snake, and I swallowed hard as it licked at the air again, its head bo
bbing around in front of me as I was appraised.

  “Are you ready for your Initiation?” the man asked.

  “My…” I croaked, looking back up at him. He was a fairly good-looking guy, with thick black curls on his head and a strong, no-nonsense jaw. He could also have felled me with a single punch, and I was no small guy.

  “Your Initiation, Acolyte,” he said.

  “Um, my name is—”

  He held out a hand and winced at my words as if I had caused him some pain. The snake hissed along with him.

  “Please, I know your name. You will be Initiate when you have been blessed by Titania, and then you will be Brother Matthew when you have earned it. Until then, as you well know, you will be Acolyte. That was the path you chose when you signed up for the Collective.”

  “Right,” I said, getting into the swing of it a little. I tried to concentrate on the man for a moment, as was the way to determine the alignment of other characters in The Afterlife, and was rewarded for my wild guess with some bright, floating text above him.

  Brother Nickel

  Level 28 Human

  Dawnspire Firemage

  Friendly

  Friendly? The game was playing it a little fast and loose with the term, right?

  Also, Firemage? That was pretty cool — maybe I could get the guy to teach me some stuff soon.

  “Come,” Brother Nickel said, waving for me to follow him before turning and walking with the sturdy confidence of a man who knew nobody around him could defeat him in a fight. With my newfound ability, I quickly concentrated on a couple more passers-by before following him towards the double doors at the foot of the spire.

  Aoife Ludley

  Level 7 Human

  Jewel Merchant

  Friendly

  I squinted at the woman behind a little stall, showing beautiful sparkling necklaces to women on the street. That looked about right. I was glad that I had figured this small thing out; no doubt it would come in handy. I also noted that this particular woman was gorgeous, with an exposed cleavage and a freckled face.

  Nicholas Graystone

  Level 9 Human

  Blacksmith’s Assistant

  Unfriendly

  I was a little taken aback by the next guy I looked at, a normal-looking guy just strolling through town and counting some coins before putting them in his pocket. Why would he be unfriendly towards me? I hadn’t done anything in the game yet … made no decisions. I knew from The Afterlife that ‘unfriendly’ meant that he wouldn’t attack me on sight, but he would not be difficult to goad into attacking me. Why was that, though? I had literally just been brought into existence several minutes ago. Strange.

  Nickel stuck his head back out the double doors, his brow heavy and creased. “Acolyte, come!” he roared. His snake lifted its head up even higher and hissed menacingly, and I found myself scurrying towards the man.

  Soon I was through the double doors and inside the spire. “What is this?” I asked in a hushed tone. It felt like somewhere I shouldn’t be yelling. The room was dome-shaped, and it was as big as a school hall, filled with flickering light from several torches and candles, and absolutely none from the outside world. No windows, nothing.

  What struck me the most about the building was that the walls seemed to be inlaid with jewels. But it wasn’t beautiful, and I wasn’t sure if it was intended to be. The precious stones were set in the walls like shining boils or pimples that begged to be popped; it was ugly, and difficult to tear my eyes away.

  On the floor were mats, and on those mats were several other youngsters in sackcloth, sitting, kneeling, praying, or just standing there awkwardly and staring, like I was.

  “This is the Hall of Silence,” Nickel said to me, folding his arms over his large chest. The man didn’t look like a mage to me, at all, I noted. He looked more like a longsword warrior of some sort. “This is the hub of the Dawnspire Collective, and where you will receive your blessing from Titania, if you earn it.”

  “My what?” I asked.

  He turned and glared at me, hard. “I get the feeling you’d better learn to watch your mouth, boy, before your foot falls in it,” he growled. I wasn’t about to argue with the man with the twenty-foot ghost snake around his shoulders.

  “Where do I go?” I asked instead. At this point, a raised platform partially obscured by a red curtain caught my eye, and I stared at the light scorch marks on the wall and curtain beside a large wooden chair that remained unscathed.

  “We wait for the Father,” Nickel mumbled to me, “and he will tell all of you Acolytes what the task is.”

  I couldn’t help it. I had to keep pressing. “The task?” I asked, turning half back to him from the group of other sackcloth-wearers.

  He shot a look at me, irritated, and I resisted the urge to flinch away from the snake again, knowing it would just make it angry. “Yes, the task,” he said. “You will all complete a simple task and then come back here for your judgment by the goddess.”

  It was all so vague; I really wished that I had access to some kind of walkthrough, so I could at least just look up the damn Dawnspire Collective to see who they were and what the task and judgment would entail. Could I just … leave? It seemed a weird choice to turn and walk away from what seemed like preamble to a good starting quest, but these people were all weird and the hall was making me uncomfortable, though I couldn’t pinpoint why.

  Being judged by a god at Level 1 seemed a little weird, too. Would I have to do some kind of boss battle? I’d be pissed if so.

  A hush came over the room and Nickel held out his hand as if to silence me, and I pressed my mouth shut and watched to see what was happening.

  An elderly man entered from a big far door, hobbling and almost completely obscured by a thick brown cloak. In his hands he held what could have been a staff, or just an ornate walking stick, since he used it to steady himself as he made his way slowly across the floor.

  As he passed Acolytes and non-Acolytes (as I inspected people in the room I could see a mixture of ‘Brothers’ and ‘Acolyte’ titles; I imagined that mine would say Dawnspire Acolyte, just like these people had) they bowed in a Mexican wave of respect, and I managed to dip my own body before Nickel dipped it forward for me.

  When I straightened up, my heartbeat kicked up a notch when I realised that the old man wasn’t alone. Through the door behind him came a … creature. It was ghostly and slightly blurred around the edges, like Nickel’s snake, but it was as big as a lion with the head of an eagle, and beautiful gold-feathered wings tucked at its back. The man had what looked like a pet griffin, and I made a mental note to never mess with anyone high up in the Collective if they all had animal companions like this.

  At the last moment, just before the old man took his seat behind the curtain, which some silent people were hauling back, I remembered to inspect him to find out who he was.

  Father

  Level ?? Human

  Dawnspire Patriarch

  Friendly

  A lot to unpick there, but I could glean that he was the leader of the Collective, which meant that he was the boss of my character — of me, during my stay here in Ilyria. I flicked my attention over to the magnificent beast, silver and gold and emanating some kind of easy power, and inspected it too.

  Rae

  Level ?? Spectral Griffin

  Spectre of Flaira

  Neutral

  I wondered what the ?? meant. Was I too low a level to see a higher level, or was there some other reason I couldn’t properly inspect them, like some magical cloaking spell? I had no idea what Flaira meant, but I could tell that I was seeing the spectres from the title of the game right in front of me. I wondered briefly then what the ‘skin’ referred to, and whether I’d actually want to know or not.

  Just before the Father began to speak, I quickly turned my head and inspected the snake beside me, just to see what kind of danger I could actually be in if I accidentally pissed it off.

  Silas


  Level 28 Spectral Viper

  Spectre of Rax

  Neutral

  OK — at least it wasn’t yet ‘unfriendly.’ I noted that it seemed to be the same level as its human friend, and wondered if that was just a coincidence. I also lingered over the word ‘viper’ for an extra second. Were vipers ever that big? Silas there was maybe the width of an average beech tree. I turned my eyes back to face the chair and the man at the front before I received any glares.

  “My children,” the Father said, and his voice didn’t sound quite as old as his stance and his walking stick would have implied. I still couldn’t see his face. I looked around to see if any of the other Acolytes were as confused as I was by this whole deal, and saw only one guy, slim and fair-haired, looking unnerved. Another one, a young kid at level 5 whose name on inspection was Ryken, was staring with a tense jaw at the ground and clenching and unclenching his fists. I got the impression that he really did not want to be here. Rae turned to preen at her feathers and I found it difficult to take my eyes off of her.

  “You are here to prove yourselves worthy in the eyes of our Titania.”

  Every higher-up around me suddenly hollered as one: “My heartbeat; my soul!” and it freaked me out just a little.

  “Go forth and prove yourselves. Prove strength of mind, strength of body, and strength of character by helping the citizens within the walls of Dawnspire in any way that you can. When you return, Titania—”

  “My heartbeat; my soul!” I looked around and noted with relief that it was just the brothers, including Nickel beside me, and not the other newbies yelling.

  “—will smile upon you if you are worthy. If you are truly notable, she may reward you with the spirit link of the Collective’s inner circle,” the Father continued. I looked around and saw with interest that the initiated members — the Brothers and actually now that I really looked, a Sister or two — looked a little sour when he said this. “Nobody has been seen as worthy of a spectral link by our Ivy Lady in thirty years,” he said. “So do not get your hopes up — if a spectre is all you are looking to gain, you must turn and leave the hall now.”