Chương 3: Chapter 2 - The New World

Karina awoke in a dark room on a hard bed. The damp air clung to her skin through the thin blanket draped over her, the same one they'd laid on her during the summoning ritual. Unlike then, she was clothed. Someone had dressed her in a soft coat and thin linen trousers. She tried to sit up, but everything was sore, as if she'd exercised parts of herself she'd never used. If she'd been summoned into a fresh body, perhaps she hadn't. Its first day had ended with her burning a demon alive. And then she'd fallen.

There had still been fire coming from her hand when she fell. The most Karina could do at first was raise her hand. The bandages shifted toward her wrist, exposing patches of blackened flesh through gaps in the cloth. She flexed her fingers. No pain. No stiffness. The rest of her ached, but the part that looked ruined moved as easily as ever. She lowered her hand and looked for a way out. Light edged the single door on the far wall. The rest of the room was dark, its gray stone walls broken by wide lines of mortar.

Long cracks followed the joins. Either nobody took care of this place, or it was losing a battle against time. Beside her sparse bed stood a small, solid table holding a carafe of water, a cup, and a book. Someone had made sure she could drink. Whether she could leave was another question. Karina reached for the book and ran her thumb over its wooden cover. The cracks in her blackened skin caught on small imperfections, then on the lettering burned into the wood. It was not in a language she could read.

What languages could she read? She'd understood everything spoken to her. Why couldn't she read a few words? She tried to picture a book from her old world and found nothing to compare it with. Another world. What did that even mean if she could barely remember the previous one? Karina set the book down. The floating text had been readable. It had known her class, even when the people around her hadn't. She searched the darkness for it, then raised her hand and fixed her attention on the empty air.

Nothing answered. The door opened. Alyssia peered around it, then stopped with her eyes on Karina's raised hand. Karina lowered it, and Alyssia let go of the door.

"Hero." A simple brown dress and an apron had replaced her ceremonial robes. During the ritual, she'd worn an impossible-to-keep-clean white. Now her face was almost that pale. She slipped into the room, her hands folded before her and her gaze fixed on the floor, carefully avoiding Karina.

"Are you doing well?" she asked after a moment.

"Stiff," Karina said. She had other things to say. Unlike in the ritual room, she was the one holding them back. Alyssia still hadn't looked her in the eye.

"But fine. I—as fine as I can be, anyway."

"That was a most impressive showing in the ritual room," Alyssia said.

"I have been present for many summonings, but none of them have been… quite like that."

"No other demon attacks?"

"Those are unfortunately growing more common." She nodded toward the bed, silently asking permission to sit. Karina nodded back.

"The Cathedral of the Centric Sunrise is a powerful summoning circle, but it lies far outside the kingdom's defended borders," she said as she joined Karina on the bed. She lowered herself carefully, ensuring she didn't jostle the mattress.

"Then why use it?"

"We need the heroes," she said. The words came more easily than anything else she'd said, as though she'd repeated them too often to hesitate.

"One day the war will end, but it hasn't, and thus the Seven Rays of the Pantheon provide us with the heroes we need to battle against the darkness." Karina straightened. Her arm was blackened from whatever had happened in the ritual chamber, but it didn't hurt. In fact, the tips of her fingers were no longer burned. Fresh pink skin showed through the bandages as she ran her hand along the blanket. That skin had been black when she woke. She rubbed her thumb across it again.

Alyssia had seen enough summonings to know what should happen. Perhaps she could explain the hand, the fire, the interrupted restoration. But first, Karina needed an answer she could act on.

"Are you hungry?" Alyssia asked after a moment.

"I could have someone bring something—""Am I locked in here?" Karina asked. From the look of the room, it wasn't clear whether it was a medical ward or a prison. In the darkness, the difference was difficult to judge.

"Well—""Sounds like a yes."

"Well," Alyssia insisted, "you're a brand-new hero. You're expected to rest after your resurrection. This is usually the time when you would be saving your energy for the class ritual, but—""But I already have a class." This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Alyssia nodded. The question about the door remained unanswered. Before Karina could ask again, Alyssia reached over and took her by the wrist.

"Then let's see what it does. Two fingers out." She demonstrated with her free hand.

"And bring them down like this." She guided Karina's hand through the motion. Text glowed in Alyssia's eyes, though Karina could see nothing in the air before her. Alyssia released her wrist. Karina repeated the motion. It felt simple as breathing. A line of burning light carved a frame into the air. Softer orange filled it, and text wrote itself across the glow. NAME: KARINA CLASS: CINDER MAGE LEVEL: 1—1—1—1 Karina blinked and waved at the space her level was supposed to be.

"What level am I supposed to be?" she asked.

"You just arrived," Alyssia said.

"You should be level one. I doubt the Karash levelled you up split between so many…" She kept speaking, but Karina was watching the number. As soon as Alyssia confirmed it, the flickering text stabilized. She was level one. Of course she was. She'd just gotten here. Still, she waited another moment to make sure the number held. NAME: KARINA CLASS: CINDER MAGE LEVEL: 1 EXPERIENCE: 480/800 NEW ABILITIES! NEW STATS!

"Do I click on something or—""If it helps," Alyssia said.

"A lot of summons find that touching the words helps them focus, but you only need to think about something in the menu to use it." She pointed just below the word 'Abilities.' A good guess, assuming she couldn't see it.

"The interface is as much a part of you as those fingers." She nodded to the bandaged hand. Karina wasn't sure how reassuring that was supposed to be. Karina stared at the word abilities for what felt like too long.

"Click," Alyssia said.

"It's a funny word. So many heroes use it when they first arrive, when they mean something like 'poke.'" Karina almost explained the difference, then stopped. She knew there was one. She couldn't quite find the wording.

"Touch the words if that helps," Alyssia said, folding her hands in her lap. Karina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The exhale came out hot, almost burning her tongue. She swallowed, then tried again. This time, a glance opened the abilities menu, the words burning away to reveal the next set. [KINDLED FORM - CINDER MAGE INHERENT PASSIVE] [The Cinder Mage may fuel their fire with their body as well as mana. While unburned tissue remains, spell mana costs are partially refunded on cast. Burns sustained this way heal as the Cinder Mage's mana recovers.] Karina looked at the fresh skin showing through her bandages. She'd paid for that fire with her body, and now her mana was putting it back. A discount on spells sounded useful. She ran a finger along the bandages toward the next patch of blackened skin. How much of herself had one spell cost? And what happened when there was nowhere left to burn?

[INHERENT FATE - BASIC PYROKINESIS - LEVEL 1] [INHERENT FATE - BASIC SPELLCASTING - LEVEL 1 - AFFINITY: FIRE] There was one more thing on the list. [INHERENT FATE - FIRESTEALER] [The Cinder Mage is the one who stole the fire from the heavens. That flame burns within them even in this new world, and gives their fire the ability to evolve.]"Well? What does it say? I've never heard of your class. Neither had Dashun." Karina glanced at Alyssia, then back at the word 'stole.'

Dashun had warned her about rejecting a divine gift. Admitting she'd stolen one seemed unlikely to help. She read Kindled Form aloud, then Basic Pyrokinesis and Basic Spellcasting. Alyssia made a series of small, thoughtful noises and asked to see her hand again when she explained the mana recovery. Karina held it out, keeping her eyes on Alyssia while Firestealer burned between them. The priestess examined the fresh skin without asking whether there was more. Which was good, as Karina had questions of her own.

What did it mean for fire to evolve? Dragon fire? Something stronger than what she'd used in the cathedral? Those could wait until nobody was listening.

"Anyway," Alyssia said after a moment.

"It's good that you have a spellcasting class."

"Because I have Basic Spellcasting as an…" She checked the wording.

"Inherent fate?"

"Yes, it means that your class is meant to pursue that skill," Alyssia said.

"There will be more to discuss once you are higher level and you have gained access to other fates—but think of them like a path. By choosing Cinder Mage, you've set yourself on some paths of progression."

"Forever?"

"For inherent fates, yes," Alyssia said.

"That's one reason your class matters. Some classes have passives, like your Kindled Form, or even an exclusive fate. But every class fixes your starting point and part of what comes after." Karina looked at the paths she'd chosen. Moving fire. Casting it. Learning what else it could become. There was more here than the single blast she'd dragged out of herself in the cathedral. She wanted to find out how much more.

"I have a spellcasting class too," Alyssia said.

"We can study together later. I'll show you the ropes."

"Study?"

"Spellcasting means you can learn spells and make spells. A lot of the ones in the archive are locked behind level gates, but you gotta learn how to learn." She chuckled at the wording of the last part.

"Are we going to do that now?"

"Not now."

"Then what? What's next for me?" She'd finally learned how to call up her own abilities. Was she supposed to lie here and read about them?

"Right now? Nothing, I suppose. Usually, after the class ritual, they would have found volunteers to join you on your noble quest." A quest? Another prescribed fate. Karina shook her head, trying to clear away the spiteful taste of that thought. She didn't know much—if anything—about who she'd been before, but apparently that woman hated being told what to do.

"But usually, you would have been in the keep for several days by that point and had a chance to meet potential companions," Alyssia said.

"As it stands, you're ahead of schedule on one hand but behind it—""Socially?" Karina suggested.

"I personally was finding a nicer way to say that, yes," Alyssia said.

"That, and I don't believe Holy Guardian Dashun will allow anyone from within the summoning chamber to join you. That knowledge would only sow…" Alyssia cleared her throat.

"We don't want people who know that the Exemplar of the Sky was an option," Karina finished for her. Of course they didn't. She could explain her choice. She just couldn't see the explanation helping: a god had tried to hide this class from her, and the class itself said she'd stolen from the heavens. For now, she could at least learn to use what she'd chosen. Karina looked down at her hand.

"Is there somewhere I can practice?"

"The training yard," Alyssia said.

"Though I would prefer to wait until you've recovered."

"If another demon comes through that door, I want to know whether I can do that again." Alyssia glanced toward the doorway.

"We can see how you manage the walk. At least until Cascad returns."

"Cascad? The other hero?"

"One of the greatest."

"One of?" Karina said. She'd seen the wear inside the summoning circle, but she hadn't known how long it had taken to get that way.

"How often do you summon someone?" Alyssia offered Karina a hand as she stood and smoothed out her dress.

"Many heroes are summoned every day, and many are sent to fight the Demon Queen."

"Many?" Karina asked.

"How many?"

"Oh, I don't know the numbers, but there was supposed to be another summoning here later this afternoon." She glanced away from Karina before adding, "Of course, it was cancelled due to the damage caused during the battle. By the Karash."

"There was another summoning today? Was there one yesterday?"

"We cannot summon on the week's waking, and we only arrived the day before." Alyssia watched her for a moment, then slowly frowned.

"Is the summoning troubling you?"

"Dashun thanked me for coming. Said I had a great destiny. I thought that—""Of course. Each and every one of you is special. That is why we provide so much to—""But there is a whole army of us, from what it sounds like." Alyssia chuckled.

"Hero, of course there is an army. We're fighting a war."