by Aaron Jay
My masters had one last thing to teach me. Mudras, or hand gestures and positions from yoga, Buddhism and classical Indian dance.
Even with time dilation, the time the GMs and the Eastmans could hold me without trial was running out. I was worried that I wouldn’t have the time to learn this next mystery. After the months of training, I was prepared for some long, drawn-out evolution of hand and finger training. Some sort of insight into the nature of the universe brought out by drumming my fingers on a rock or something.
I couldn’t tell if I was pleasantly surprised or disappointed when Mordecai just set up a bunch of placards with large illustra tions of hands and their titles below them. I learned Prithvi Mudra or Earth Mudra. Vāyu Mudra or Air Mudra. There were Mudras for Life. Strength. Intelligence. Void was Shunya Mudra. Water had one. All the elements and most personal characteristics were represented. After months of Yoga, adding hand gestures was simple. Mordecai’s dark eyes missed nothing and he corrected my form, but the Mudras were much more forgiving than the breath control techniques. I was going to make it.
My last day arrived. The counter on the time slider had begun to blink. I decided I’d rather blink forward in time and be prepared for when I was released than stumble out in the middle of a pose or mid-conversation with my masters. My teachers came to say goodbye.
I began to bow to them but Lemminkäinen just picked me up in his massive arms and crushed me against his bone and antler encrusted leather jerkin.
“You have been a good student. Go! Fight your enemies. Live for today! Then come back when you can and recite your battles. It has been long since I have heard a new saga,” he told me.
“Go with God, Miles,” said Mordecai.
He looked down at Remus. “I feel changes are coming. I feel as if a pebble has been dropped in the illusion of the world. Things are going to change. I think you will be in the midst of it. You may always call on us when you need help.”
They turned and left.
I looked down at Remus. Called up the slider and set it on its fastest. After that I was back.
CHAPTER NINE
The synesthesia of transition came for me. The smell of sunshine and the sound of fresh squeezed grapefruit and I was lying in a pool of nano. The lid of the pod slid back. I pulled myself out of the pod. Months of yoga made me more graceful than I had ever been. I was grateful not to be flopping out of the pod as a voice spoke behind me.
“Mr. Boone. Welcome back. I hope your stay was comfortable,” smirked Arneson.
“Arneson. Continuing to fetch and carry for the Eastmans?”
He examined me, looking for some clue as to what could be expected from me.
“No. I am here in compliance with my orders as a GM. In fact, I am here to give you a mandatory apology.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you have been cleared. You have our apologies. My threats--which, I want to assure you, were made solely to try and elicit information from someone I thought at the time was a criminal--were over the line. I want you to know that I have been reprimanded and a note saying so has been added to my record. I have also been suspended from active duty and my pay has been stopped for two months. The same amount of time that you have been inconvenienced.”
“Wow. Two whole months.”
“I will have to figure out something to do with myself and some way to make up the lost wages. Happily, I will be joining the Eastmans on a raid to the Platinum Depths. They were kind enough to promise me an officer’s share of the loot and first pick of any boss drops. What a stroke of luck for me. I didn’t want you to worry about me.”
“So, I am free to go.”
“Yes. Also, to make up for your inconvenience, I have been told that you will be given the top drop scenario from the last mob you killed in the game before you were detained. See, the GMs are here to help, and we take interrupting people’s game play seriously. I understand from Jude Sandoval that you were farming Desert Hare. I looked up the top drop scenario for Desert Hare. It is 20 silver and a lucky rabbit’s foot. Wow, +1 to luck from a beginner drop. The odds of a rabbit’s foot coming up are one every 2,725,000 rabbit kills. So that will be nice for you. Oh, wait. +1 luck--that won’t be all that useful for your character. Hah. Good gaming, player. The future of the human race depends on all our play. You are free to go.”
As I made my way out of the White Tower, I half expected to see Jude or Maya waiting for me, but no one seemed to care about me as I left.
Making my way back to my apartment, I was overwhelmed at how surreal and strange the world looked. It was odd to be back in the city after months living with a wolf in the woods. Reality dissonance was a common experience in our brave new world.
No one even looked twice at me as I made my way up the stairs to my place. The months away were good for one thing. People’s attention and interest seemed to have moved on. A GM lock was on my door but it opened after confirming my identity. My apartment smelled like home, but also unfamiliar after my months away.
I had a message from my father. He told me he had ensured that nothing about my pod had been altered. And good news, he had also gotten the nano I had saved up returned to me. I was exceptionally well off for a player new to the cradle. Not that it did me any damned good in Quartzite. It was like being handed a ten-carat diamond and finding that it would take three of them to buy a loaf of bread. If I ever made it to an auction house I could gear up and buy a good number of things. My father had also raised me to know that money couldn’t make the man. There wasn’t enough nano or gold in the world to let me buy my way past the Party and out of the wager.
At least I could indulge in some domestic comforts I had been denied for the last few years. Dear old dad had no advice on how to make up for my lost time, but I got a hint that he knew I might have been spending my time productively. He finished his message saying, “You have my confidence. I expect you to play like I know you can. Just remember to stay calm and focused and remember to breathe.” Sneaky old man.
A shower was the first thing on my agenda. Whether it was to wash away the feeling of prison or to clean off the imaginary dirt from months of camping in the wild, a hot shower was needed. After that I made a quick review that my pod was in order and the meal inserts were topped up, and I got in.
I lay in savasana, corpse pose, as the nano flowed over me. I was calm, focused, and I was ready to breathe.
The same gulch I had left all those months ago hadn’t changed a bit except that the Desert Hare had respawned. They hopped and nibbled. Thankfully the mini-boss hadn’t been allowed to respawn. The corpse of the Sand Scorpion was in front of me. The one I had killed should have disappeared and respawned by now but it seemed like this was an effect of the compensation for the GM’s detention. I looked around and saw Remus was idly stalking, scaring, and then releasing a Desert Hare.
The GMs had offered a much better apology than they or the Eastmans had intended. They assumed that the last mob I killed was a rabbit, not a giant scorpion who had to have a much better set of possible loot drops. I was only level three and I had left on the second day of play after my roll up. Arneson had taunted me about only killing rabbits. He had been working me with that jibe to see what kills I had to my name. He had gotten the last word, but it turns out I may have sold it a lot more dearly than the Eastmans would have liked. Well, his assumption was my gain. In big things and small, hubris can take down even the mighty, or so I had to hope. The only thing I really had going for me was being underestimated.
There was a sandy burrow that as far as I could recall hadn’t been there when I was here months ago. It had to be the treasure trove of the mini-boss. Carefully I made my way into the hole. A few roots hung from the roof. The morning light reached pretty far into the cave revealing a pile of random rubbish. There were long chewed and splintered bones, scraps of clothing, and other bric-a-brac. Hidden amongst this refuse would be my treasure. One touch and the bones and scrap fell into dust. Left behind were t
wo gold pieces (a fortune in any other starting location) and a small crystal.
My heart picked up its beat as I snatched the crystal up and examined it.
Congratulations! You have acquired:
A Minor Enhancement Crystal
An enhancement crystal! These crystals were used to add powers and abilities to items. The list of effects one could choose was substantial. This was way better than some new equipment. My sword, buckler and armor were solid until I was closer to level 10, when I’d be strong enough to need some slightly higher-tier gear. Until then, the crystal would allow me to enhance my current equipment.
Memorizing the abilities and features one could add to an item was a part of a basic education in our brave new world. But I wasn’t ready to use the crystal yet. I had to try to figure out what quest I should tackle next and how all my training would pay off in practice before I could make the best decision. So I pocketed the crystal, along with the gold pieces.
It was time to get my magic working.
Sitting down in lotus position, I began a meditation practice. Breath of fire through Bhastrikā Pranayama and the other breathing practices. I cultivated my breath. Below my HP bar and Stamina bar, a new bar faded into sight. Yes! My Mana bar slowly filled.
A system notice brought me out of my practice.
Congratulations!
You have unlocked your Mana.
You must see a trainer in the mystical arts to cast spells or accomplish magical crafts. The nearest trainer is Maggie the Bruja in Quartzite.
If I wanted to cast anything I had to go back to Quartzite. Unless the Eastmans were going to flood this area with their people, they wouldn’t be able to find me out of town. The question was if Tasha Eastman had someone waiting for me back in town. Then there was also the commodities fiddle I had interrupted at Nate’s. It had been two months but there were likely some locals who would want to talk with me too.
Standing up, I wiped the sandy dirt off my hands and legs and started back to see what Quartzite had in store for me.
CHAPTER TEN
Quartzite looked just the same as when I had last seen it from my perch atop of one of the boulder piles overlooking the town. It didn’t seem like the kind of place that changed all that often. I watched for an hour. A very tedious hour. Watching a one-horse town that didn’t even have a horse is pretty dull. There was nothing obvious, like Maya Eastman flanked by knights riding griffins, patrolling the area. The highlight of my surveillance was when a young boy playing with a barrel hoop was called back into a house by his mother. Otherwise it was just the same checker playing oldsters outside of Nate’s. As far as I could tell there wasn’t anyone waiting to ambush me. Of course, I couldn’t see inside the buildings, but no one seemed to be watching the street from any of the windows I could see.
When I crept closer, Remus gave a low slow yip to get my attention. I looked over and he sneezed, ruffled his head and then turned to wander off back into the desert. Clearly, he would meet me after I was done doing whatever I was going to do in civilization--assuming Quartzite even qualified as civilization.
I worked my way to a narrow alley between two buildings opposite the place I needed to visit. The bunches of herbs drying from the rafters of the covered porch and the dream catcher hanging near the doorway let me know that this was the magic trainer. Also the weathered sign declaring, “Maddie’s Magic. Professional Witch.” Some local joker had painted a B and put a slash through the W on her sign. The fading on the offending paint was severe enough to show me that Maddie, whoever she was, was OK on some level with the change to her signage. She hadn’t fixed it in what had to have been years.
I waited until the oldsters on Nate’s porch seemed to be deeply engrossed in the latest event in their endless games of checkers and walked quickly across the street and into Maddie’s Magic.
“I’m having a hard time thinking of which idiot in this town full of idiots is actually idiot enough to come in here without knocking,” said a voice from the back.
The front of the store was comfortable. It smelled faintly and pleasantly of herbs. Curtains and a few touches of lace helped soften the edges of the local construction and rough-hewn furniture. A woven rug covered the floor. A large cat looked up from his nap on top of a bookshelf.
“Pardon me. I’m a new idiot in town,” I apologized.
A weathered woman, who I took as middle aged at first glance, came out from the back. She could have been almost any age in the way a piece of driftwood could be ancient or from last week; the desert and her own vitality made it impossible for me to know. I got the feeling that if I came back in twenty years she wouldn’t have changed a bit.
She looked me over critically.
“You a new man working for Brady?” she asked.
“Who is that?”
She looked me over even more skeptically. The cat jumped off the shelf and scurried off.
“You are here in Quartzite and you don’t know who Brady is? Maybe you should turn around and go back wherever you came from.”
“Can’t. Stuck in Quartzite for the next while.”
“Humph. Not my business any which way. What are you here for?”
“I’m looking for someone to start training me in magic.”
I had her attention.
“You want me to teach you?”
“Yes, please.”
She took down a book that the cat had rested upon before it left. It looked like the book had seen more of the cat then anyone had seen of the book in quite a while. The leather-bound volume was titled “Local Representative to the World of Magic: Rights and Responsibilities.” She put on a pair of granny glasses and thumbed through it for a bit.
“That is one of my responsibilities as the local magic user. Hmmm. You need a grimoire. I can sell you one. First one I’d ever sell--if you can afford to buy it. Which no one could at your level. Thing costs over a thousand gold here. Goddamn Brady,” she grumbled.
“Got one,” I said taking out the grimoire I had been given as part of my starting package.
“Well. Ain’t that something. OK, let me see what comes next.” She looked at some notes. “Right. Now I need to open your channels and allow you to cultivate and recover mana.”
Maggie looked at me and clearly made an effort to get into character for this next bit. “A new adventurer who wants to explore the realm of the mystic and arcane. Your journey begins here. To create a potion to open your chakras to mana I need some ingredients. Surrounding this town are a scourge of Achaanwapush, or cannibal rabbits in the tongue of my people. Go and kill ten Achaanwapush and bring me the bodies. I shall process a tincture that shall open you to the unseen forces of the universe… How was that?”
“Pretty good considering you never get to practice the speech,” I answered politely.
“Thanks. You accept the quest?” she asked.
“I think I got this part covered too.”
Maddie walked over to me. She grabbed a bundle of desert herbs which lit at a snap of her fingers. She waved the smoke over me. Then she surprised me by sniffing me.
“You have mana. How?”
“It’s a long story.”
She looked back into her book. “Alright. Well, now you get to pick a few spells. At your level you get…hmm…you look at least a little bit smart too. So you get a few extra. Come on back to my workshop.”
She went back through the house, past a kitchen. There was a small garden and on the other side of the garden was a barn-like structure. We went inside. There were work benches, alembics, and containers of ground up materials. The floor had a large one… two… three.. Eight. Octagram. Other magical paraphernalia were spread around. It was a working magical laboratory.
She took my grimoire and placed it in the octagram. She took a much larger grimoire that I realized must be hers and placed it into the octagram. She placed me on one of the points of the star inscribed within the octagram. She gave me a feather to hold. She held a geode and
stood on the opposite side. Other points held a candle that Maddie lit with a snap, and a glass of water. Other symbols of the major and minor elements were at the other points or intersections.
Maddie settled herself and then mumbled some incomprehensible words. As she chanted, energies began to flow from the points through tracery on the ground to the two grimoires bonding them for a few moments. The energy dissipated, leaving the books looking the same as before.
“Whoo. Haven’t done that in a while. Well, give it a look and a try.”
My grimoire wasn’t the same as before. It tingled and seemed to vibrate when I held it. I flipped it open. There were a number of spells listed. Looking at the feather I still held, I chose a simple cantrip. I would make a small gust of wind. I settled into Ujjayi breath. Then I moved into Udgeeth prāṇāyāma or chanting breath. My hand made the Vāyu Mudra or the Air Mudra and I chanted “Venteto.” A light gust of air took the feather and blew it across the room.
“Very good. You cast in the old tradition. I didn’t think any adventurers did that anymore,” complimented Maddie. Despite her kind words, my casting style seemed to trouble her for some reason. “Your Mana will recover once a day so select your spells carefully. At this point you have enough mana to load about four to five cantrips, two or three first level spells and one second level spell. Or, you could cast, say, five first level spells but then you wouldn’t have anything left for your second level spell or any cantrips. You’ll get the hang of how the mana costs for the spells trade off with each other.”
