Book Three - Chapter Fifteen (Patreon)

“The Master Sergeant does have other duties. Perhaps we should—”

“Yes, yes. Consider our curiosity sated.” CeeCee waved away her fellow administrator’s complaint and returned her attention to Alarion’s glowing Status report. “Tell me about this next one. Shatter Magic.”

Shatter Magic [Epic]

Description: Where others unweave magic through targeted precision, you have decided on a more… direct approach.

Requirements: Major Flaw – Splintered Mana Circuits. Unbound Student of Isha. Dispel at least five spells of your Rank or higher.

Type: Active/Channelled.

Cost: Variable.

Effects: Upon activation, the user channels a slight amount of MP into any held melee weapon and/or limb of their choosing. While so empowered, the weapon/limb will attempt to disrupt any foreign magic it encounters by attacking it with the user’s own mana. The cost for [Shatter Magic] will drastically increase while it is actively attempting to disrupt a bound or unbound field.

Growths: STR +18. WIL +18.

Note: Should the user’s MP be insufficient to sustain this effect, the deficit will be drawn from HP.

—-

“My tenth-level milestone for Fated Warrior. I was offered several direct combat abilities, but was dissuaded by Hum—” Alarion saw the younger Ordinate flinch at his choice of words, and quickly corrected himself. “By your fellow Ordinate. Between my high Attributes and skills like Fated Strike, I already kill or maim most things I hit. Shatter Magic gives me utility, defense, and offense in a single package.”

What he’d said was almost true. Alarion had indeed turned down a good number of active combat skills in favor of [Shatter Magic], but Hummingbird was the last person he’d have ever gone to for advice. The woman spent more time with her vices than her profession. If Alarion had not sent word ahead of their arrival, he had his doubts she would have been sober.

“You should refrain from becoming familiar,” said CeeCee, her vacant gaze leaving it up to them just who was being scolded. “Yet, sound advice. We are curious, however. Offense and utility are obvious. But defense?”

“I am fast enough to swat down incoming spells from many opponents.” He felt a certain smug satisfaction at the brief flicker of surprise that crossed her face. “But doing so without Shatter Magic is dangerous.”

“I imagine that could blow up in your face.” CeeCee did her best to conceal a growing grin at her own terrible joke as she moved on. “If you were told not to take damage-boosting skills, why Arcane Empowerment?”

“It was the best of a bad lot,” Hummingbird answered to the visible annoyance of her peer. “He had not—”

“We believe the Orphan can speak for himself,” CeeCee coolly observed. “An Exceptional skill must have been quite the disappointment.”

“The other options were equally unimpressive,” Alarion replied, choosing each word carefully. “One had a Rare grade but was functionally useless for me. The others were even worse.”

“They should be in the file,” Hummingbird noted, exchanging a quick glance with Alarion as her fellow Ordinate went digging. “They really were terrible, if I recall.”

That much was true, at least. The skills they’d made up to hide his actual selection were utter garbage.

Like Calls to Like [Epic]

Description: The strands of Sympathy and magic connect all things. Great power can be found where these strands intersect, but experience in drawing upon the power of others has taught you that strength is mailable in unexpected ways.

Requirements: Everything They Left Behind. Sympathetic Manipulation. Maintain a strong Sympathetic connection to at least three enchanted items for a period of one year.

Type: Active/Passive. Sympathetic.

Cost: Variable.

Duration: Ongoing.

Effects: The user creates a temporary Sympathetic link between two items in their possession, one of which must hold a strong Sympathetic bond. For the duration, a single enchantment, property, or stored effect present on the bonded item is usable by both.

The cost of this skill varies depending on the strength of the effect transferred. Linked items must be of comparable make and quality to contain the transferred effect without damaging the underlying item.

Most requirements of the borrowed effect are waived, but certain requirements—most notably physical restrictions—cannot be circumvented. The user will be notified if they attempt to transfer a nonviable effect.

Effects that consume a charge, a stored spell, or a bound formula are not duplicated by this link; they are shared, and may be expended by either item.

Growths: INT +6. PER +6. WIL +6.

[Like Calls to Like] had been one of four very good choices he’d been offered at Level 20. Each had followed a similar theme—utility powers that enhanced a specific part of Alarion’s existing kit: an enhancement for Kotone, a new way to use his Oath and Vow skills, an expansion of his foresight, and of course, a way to duplicate the effects of his magic items.

Alarion had agonized over the choice for days before ultimately deciding on [Like Calls to Like], not only for its tremendous effect, but for its link to [Orphan]. The old class would never Rank Up, but if the System was giving him [Orphan]-inspired skills, then he could still carry on its legacy through [Fated Warrior].

Unfortunately, the choice necessitated another cascade of lies. Because even with a doctored description, [Like Calls to Like] was still the successor to a skill Alarion supposedly didn’t have.

[Everything They Left Behind] was not a unique skill. While there were no other [Orphans] in the Empire, there were undoubtedly Awakened—either living or dead— who possessed similar skills. Even if the name, details, and effects varied, there were others out there who had been offered a version of [Everything They Left Behind], and some of those who then went on to take their own versions of [Like Calls to Like].

And on the scale of an Empire, patterns emerged.

The two skills might have been rare enough that no Vitrian record-keeper had yet drawn a line between them. But possible was not the same as safe, and Alarion did not want to trust his faith to a possibility.

He had to work with the assumption that Syrus’ goons were scouring every update to his dossier. Any anomaly, no matter how minor, could be all the excuse needed to force an independent review.

To her credit, Hummingbird had been instrumental in keeping him safe. ZEKE had been quick to raise the alarm about his possible discovery, but it was Hummingbird who had buried her nose in paperwork for weeks on end, cross-referencing every last one of Alarion’s skills—not merely to find plausible alternatives, but alternatives sturdy enough to serve as the foundation for further fraud, should it come to that.

If there was one thing he could count on, it was her sense of self-preservation.

“You are aware that low-grade skills are a sign of stagnation?” CeeCee asked, having finally finished her review.

Alarion nodded. “I had been too focused on building up the 238th to maintain my personal growth, and I paid for it. But given my special status, the Ordinate requested bi-weekly guidance sessions. My next choice was much more in line with expectations.”

Fated to Defy [Epic]

Description: The things you love are fated to be taken from you. Even so, you struggle against the strict bindings of fate.

Requirements: Guardian Oath. Suffer the loss of a subordinate. Fated to Fight, Fated to Live, Fated to Lose.

Type: Active/Passive.

Range: 50 miles/level.

Effects: At a touch, the user may mark up to (5/level of this skill) willing individuals with whom they hold a positive sympathetic bond. Marks persist until dispelled, dismissed by the user, or the marked individual leaves the active range.

The user maintains a vague awareness of the direction and relative distance of all marked individuals, as well as their approximate remaining vitality expressed as a proportion of their whole. The user can sharpen this awareness for greater precision, depending on their mental attributes. The user is immediately alerted to the exact location and distance of a marked individual who drops below half of their maximum HP value. The user will be alerted if the mark is temporarily suppressed, and given the direction and distance where the interruption occurred.

If a marked individual is at risk of death, this skill will attempt to defy their fate at the cost of the user’s LUK Attribute. This skill will drain up to 50% of the user’s LUK and grant it to the at-risk ally. This drain will persist for 24 hours and cannot be reversed.

The user is aware of the death of any marked individual.

Growths: LUK +36.

—

“A splendid officer’s skill.” It was hard to tell if the Ordinate’s words were compliment or rebuke. “You turned down personal power for this skill?”

It wasn’t a question, but Alarion answered anyway. “I did.”

“A proper dimensional storage space, an active thrown-weapon skill, and a temporary self-enhancement. All good options. What was your reasoning?”

“I followed the advice of my Ordinate.”

It was an utter lie.

The version of the skill on display was different from Alarion’s, with a much more banal description and lacking any reference to his flaw—another of the things they thought was to keep from the Vitrians. To her it seemed a useful utility skill. To him it was a lifeline.

“Did you?” There was just a touch of a smile as CeeCee turned her head a few inches to the side. “And your advice, Ordinate?”

“For all his luck, the Master Sergeant has faced considerable loss in the past.” Hummingbird paused, blue-grey eyes lingering on Alarion, caught somewhere between warmth and pity. “This makes him… volatile in stressful situations.”

Alarion raised a brow. “Volatile?”

“Ikeda.” She smirked.

His rampage through the initial engagement was something of a company legend. Alarion had saved many lives that day, but he’d all but abandoned command to Kali in the process. His aversion to loss had prompted such reckless behavior, and [Fated to Defy] was the best salve the System had yet offered.

“Fair,” he grudgingly conceded.

“A knock-on effect of his single-mindedness, we are sure.” This time there was a hint of a smile on the old woman’s lips. “It is a good choice, even beyond that. Too often Ordinate advice focuses on ambition without obligation. Your personal power is important, yes, but your duties as a Warrant Officer are just as vital. We must apologize.”

“Hm?” Alarion tilted his head. The Ordinate had been terse, certainly, but she had not wronged—

“To the Ordinate, not to you.” CeeCee scowled, finally turning in her seat to look at her colleague. “We may have misjudged you. Ordinate work in the provinces can be… mixed, at best. At first blush, we felt our skepticism warranted. But your choices would have been our choices—your reasoning, ours.”

“Thank you, Ordinate,” said Hummingbird.

“Of course, Ordinate.”

With that concession out of the way, CeeCee planted her cane and levered herself upright with unhurried inevitability. Seeing the struggle, Hummingbird stepped forward to help, but a flat, milky-blue glance drove her back.

“We will leave you to tend to the remainder of the Master Sergeant’s documentation. At your convenience, please provide us with a schedule for the senior-staff appraisals, and any other tasks with which we can assist,” she said, already turning. The cane found the floor in a slow, deliberate meter, each tap punctuatin her departure.

At the door she stopped but did not turn around.

“One trifle, before we forget ourselves.” A pause just long enough to be sure she had their attention. “You will not raise your voice to the young mistress like that again. Not in private, and certainly not in public. Do we understand one another, Two-Thirty-Eight?”

Alarion bristled but did not rise to the bait. “Ordinate, I—”

“Understand.” Her voice was sharp and angry. “Say ‘I understand’, boy.”

The old woman was no more a threat to Alarion than a rat scurrying in the cellar, but the venom in her voice chilled him to his very bones. This was a fight he did not want.

“I understand.”

“Splendid,” CeeCee replied before turning the door handle, moving down the corridor with Cyiar quick on her heels.

Alarion watched her go until Hummingbird finally pushed the door closed and said, “You see why we need to—”

“Hummingbird?”

“Hm?”

“Shut up.”