Calvin The Almighty cackled madly as his troops surrounded the hapless civilians, whose backs were pressed against the deadly river. A few tried to swim across, but they were torn from their feet and swiftly plunged into the white rapids, never to be seen again.

“You fools! Your flesh will be fuel for my army, your bones built into cages to house your next of kin until they too, are consumed! Nothing will remain to say that your people ever existed at all!”

Cal broke into another laugh as victory loomed near.

This was a great day for his army of darkness. The first step of many toward conquering the land as far as the eye could see. And once he had his way, he would build his utopia atop the ashes, creating the ideal land, where upstanding citizens could eat Crim Cookies before bed-time, and stupid girls weren’t allowed, only big boobied ones who liked him a lot.

Cal’s army encroached, pressing closer to the cowering mass of flesh…

“Calvin!” his sister’s shout physically yanked him to his feet, reflexively wiping the dirt off the knees of his Sunday best.

“Yeah?” Cal shouted, orienting on the voice echoing through the shade-drenched woods.

“Are you playing with ants again!?” The voice came from the west, toward the village.

Cal glanced down at the line of ants attacking the beetles he’d diverted a little stream around with a stick.

“No!”

“Karen says to get back to the village! It’s our Breaking-day, dolt!”

Breaking-day, when all of Cal’s careful plotting would come to fruition. In the country of Gadvera, a child took a major step toward becoming an adult on their Breaking day, when they would experience their first Break.

The Break happened when a person experienced too much Warp at once, causing them to get sick with a fever. Warp was released when a living thing died, flowing into the air.

When Cal woke up tomorrow morning he would experience one day where both his body and mind would react and grow exactly the way he wanted it to. Peasants typically used that day to expedite apprenticeships, and Cal knew Karen intended to force him to learn swordplay the entire day, so he could ‘protect Jinnei’.

The girl needs a little less protecting, If you ask me.

Cal had other ideas. He was going to learn magic. Those who could control the Bent to alter reality at their whim were Cal’s heroes, regardless of whether they were street magicians or wizened old men in towering libraries.

Karen said the magic of Surrak, the port city down the road where they went to sell wool each spring, was vile heresy. Which he found odd, because they were citizens of Gadvera, and nobody else he’d spoken to seemed to have that opinion. In any case, Karen hadn’t offered him an alternative, so he was going to take whatever he could get.

“Now!” Jinnei’s scream echoed through the woods. By all the gods, that girl is loud.

“Coming!” Cal said, scrunching up his face and sticking out his tongue as he picked up the basket of berries and mushrooms for the party.

“And don’t make that face!”

Cal started, looking around the woods. There was no actual sign of Jinnei. She must still be at least a couple hundred feet out and blocked by massive trees.

He shivered. “The enemy has eyes everywhere,” he muttered to himself before hustling to the village, his calloused feet picking their way through the woods.

When he finally got to the treeline, the raven-haired girl with the farmer’s tan was dressed in woolen Gudveran peasant garb, her birth mother’s silver necklace tucked under her shirt, with only the chain visible. She was waiting for him, hands on her hips and an angry look in her eye. She was about two inches taller than Cal too, a result of getting her growth spurt first, and refusing to give the lead back.

I swear, one day I will tower over you, wretch.

They’d known each other since they were born, and Cal always thought it was strange how he, Karen, and Jinnei all looked different than everyone else in the village, with their strangely sun-intolerant skin and pale eyes. Karen got evasive whenever he asked, Jinnei had no idea, and the other villagers didn’t seem to care

Cal’s eyes flickered down to her budding breasts, and back up to her face. Damnation!

“What took you so long to gather berries?” she asked. Maybe she hadn’t noticed his slip.

“What’s taking you so long to fill out an A cu-“ Cal’s words were interrupted by a slap.

My advantage, Her rage. Her advantage, my testicles. Incoming assault. Feral, but experienced.

Cal ducked under her right hand and managed to ward off the left swing with his forearm, then Jinnei looped her hand around the back of his neck and got him in a clinch, driving the wind out of his ribs with a gentle knee to the ribcage.

If it hadn’t been, she probably would’ve broken something.

Cal staggered back, stooped over and holding up a hand in surrender while his left hand clutched his ribs.

“I give,” He said. “Training with Karen was always more your thing than mine.”

“You’ve got the speed for it,” she said, picking up his basket. “If not the personality.”

“And she wants me to protect you.” Cal groaned as he straightened up. That was going to bruise tomorrow, no doubt about it.

Cal and Jinnei scoffed as they headed back to the little sheepherding village of Deinos.

****

“…and with this sacrifice let the Warp fill these youngsters with the quickness of limb, sharpness of eye and the iron will that they need to find success in their choice of professions. Let the Break be gentle and fair. Let these children become fine Men and Women…”

The village elder’s voice was causing Cal’s eyes to start to roll back in his head, but it seemed like this was the end of the speech. Maybe they could get on with the feast now.

“…Men and Women who fufill their duties to community and family by…” the Elder continued, droning on and on.

Oh gods, just kill the griks and have done with it. Cal was fairly sure the rest of the adults in the village were thinking the same thing. Probably. Cal wasn’t good at reading expressions, and was often mocked for taking people too literally.

The village elder was chanting sonorously on a raised altar with no less than a dozen griks and youngsters, surrounded by anyone in the village over the age of twelve. Children weren’t allowed to attend the Breaking because their young bodies had a chance of succumbing to the fever, so they were rounded up under the watchful eye of a few adults.

Every Breaking Cal had ever been to had always been after the griks were killed, when they threw them on the grills and had a feast. He had had no idea the torture each generation of older kids had to go through at their first Breaking.

Cal glanced to his right and saw Harram nodding off, the large, dark skinned boy just as bored as he was. Beyond him was Jinnei holding up admirably well, and Persei, a slender brown girl with a wide nose and gentle mannerisms.

To his left was Baroke, a rather oversized Gudveran boy with a wide jaw, thick neck and placid eyes.

The selfish oaf! How dare he not share the secret to growing so freakishly large? Cal demanded internally. He carefully kept his face neutral, since it wasn’t like he’d actually hogged the growth…and the boy could probably punch a hole through him.

Beyond Baroke was a slender, muscular boy named Kort, who had defensive scars winding up his arms from where he’d enthusiastically taken lessons from Karen.

More power to him, I guess. Cal was not a fan of pain. Or losing. And training with Karen guaranteed plenty of both. Not that his distaste stopped her from forcing him to attend.

“Begin the ceremony!”

Yes!

Three of the bigger villagers stepped up, Ghol the blacksmith, Endras the farmer down the road, and Kahm the carpenter. These dark-skinned men hefted large wooden hammers with a single iron spike on them, driving the spikes through the Grik three at a time.

Grik were large, insectoid, eight-legged monsters about the size of a dog. They were herbivores, docile, and stupid, and they tasted great roasted over a fire and dipped in butter.

They died with a squeal, releasing their Warp into the atmosphere, where it soaked into everyone present, a subtle pressure in the air that was more implied than felt.

For the adults, this much Warp in the air would do nothing to them, but for the uninitiated, like Cal and the others, it would force their body to adapt, building a reserve of Bent as it struggled to process the poisonous substance.

“So mote it be,” the elder said as the last grik was perforated. “And now a moment of silence for their sacrifice, and contemplation for our youth’s future.

Everyone bowed their head, giving quiet thanks to the stupid bugs for their sacrifice – which they probably had no concept of – and thinking wholesome thoughts about what they wanted to do when they grew up.

Greatest spellslinger in all the land would be an acceptable start, I think.

The village elder reached up to his embroidered cap and spun it around.

“All right everyone, I got my ceremonial hat on backwards, it’s time to fuckin’ party!” he shouted, throwing his gnarled hands in the air, rousing the cheers of the rest of the village, who got to work dismembering the griks and getting them ready to boil.

The rest of the night was par for the course. Cal had never experienced the Breaking party from the Table of Honor, but it turned out to be a lot less interesting than he’d been led to believe.

It was less being congratulated, encouraged, and fed, and more being interrogated by nosy neighbors.

“So, what do you think you’ll be studying tomorrow?” Marshine, a dumpy, well-meaning older woman, asked him as she refilled his wine.

“Oh, I…” Cal glanced over at Karen. The six and a half foot tall shepherd with brilliant golden hair and a frame that supported an ungodly amount of muscle eyed him suspiciously. “I’m going to learn swordsmanship from Karen.”

“Oh, I suppose you’ll be quite the deadly weapon by the end of the day then,” she said with a smile, nudging him with her soft hip before moving on to the next person’s cup.

Was that sarcasm? Cal couldn’t tell. Eh, not important, he thought, bringing the sheep horn cup to his lips and taking a hearty swig.

The conversation continued, with Cal deflecting as best he could, while the boys of the village surrounded Jinnei, congratulating her on her Breaking-day and asking her what she planned on doing with the rest of her life.

Jinnei was technically exotic and lovely – although Cal didn’t see it – and after twelve years living among the villagers of Deinos, she was still the center of attention wherever she went.

She caught his eyes.

Help me, she mouthed at him.

Cal smiled and waved. Serves her right for getting all the attention. Not a single person of Cal’s age had expressed an interest in him. Probably. It was a little hard to compete with the lumbering titan seated to his left.

Jinnei shot him an angry look between people pestering her, and then pointedly ignored him for the rest of the night. In the meantime, with little else to do, Cal continued to nurse his wine, getting deeper and deeper in his cup.

Can’t wait for tomorrow, he thought as the world started to spin, and everything got several times funnier than it had been just an hour ago. He was actually starting to enjoy the village elder’s jokes.

“And the hunter asks the wise man from the top of the cliff, ‘Now what?’”

“Aaahahahaha!” Cal’s plate nearly flipped over as he slammed his cup down on the edge, spilling a bit on Baroke’s elbow.

“Ah, sorry Baroke, you…ummm?” Baroke was face-first in his plate of grik shells. Cal leaned forward and glanced to either side, noticing that not a single one of the adolescents were still awake. They were, to a person, face down on the table, the feast continuing on without them.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that…

Cal’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he tried to support himself with his cup hand, succeeding only in spilling wine all over the front of his shirt and pants as his face hit the pointy grick shells covered in butter.

The kids that underwent the Breaking always ended up shitfaced.

******

Warp overflow detected…

Initializing Warp Protection System… Break.

Scanning subject.

ERROR: Subject is [Redacted]… reporting…

-Manual override. Authorization XN7-FIN-056. Show me what I’m dealing with.

Insufficient Clearance, Seek Higher Authority.

…

-Not enough Clearance? Do you know who I am?

Seek Higher Authority.

-AFK, I’m gonna go talk to management.

….

…

>>>Warning, External Access Detected<<<

>>>Attempted Write permissions access<<<

>>>Begin Lockout<<<

…

….

…….ɀɮɧɪɗɮ©¥ɰʫʩʕˉ

Lockout Rescinded.

Adjusting framework.

Installing new software.

Bent Core installed.

Scrubbing History.

….

….

………

-Yeah, that’s a negative on the System Install, orders from on High. Let this one go the way of the dodo.

Connection terminated.

….

……..

…ɯʘʋЃϠ ӌʘʋ Ѓɫʞʒ Tʘ PЃǢӌ Ǣ ǤǢЖʒ?

“Cal, get out of bed! I’m gonna work you to the bone!” Karen’s voice shouted from outside his hut. He’d been living alone since two years ago, making enough to get by doing odd jobs and fishing in the river, trying to avoid being eaten by Norlocks.

To the hells with that! Cal thought, rolling over in bed, worming his way deeper under the covers and squeezing his eyes shut tight.

Wait a minute. What the hell am I looking at?

Body

5

Strength

4

Kinethetics

5

Endurance

4

Mind

9

Intuition

3

Stability

7

Will

8

Bent

2/7

Skills:

…In front of him was an array of numbers that represented –

“Shit!” Cal jumped out of bed. He was seeing his Status, which meant it was Forming Day, and he didn’t have a single second to waste being beaten half to death by an overenthusiastic Karen.

Cal slipped into the clean clothes he’d laid out for himself the day before, keeping his head down and trying not to make any unnecessary sounds. If Karen thought he was still asleep, he could probably get away without activating plan Ghol.

Cal held his breath and slid his pants on silently, then his shirt, grabbing his secret stash of gold and sliding out the back window, carefully keeping himself from rubbing on anything. He was somehow being sneakier than he’d ever really been before. It just seemed to come to him naturally.

You have manifested Stealth

Stealth has reached Level 1!

Level 1: Boosts ability to remain undetected. 5% correction

Remaining Warp 11/12

Oh, right. Cal slid out the window and silently dropped to his knees, ignoring the voice in his head. It was happening exactly the way the adults had said it would, so he wasn’t particularly concerned. It was a bit strange, but not unexpected.

Cal kept low, trying to slide through the grass behind his hut to avoid catching Karen’s attention. The meaty woman was probably going to snap the lock off the front door in a few minutes to find nothing but an empty room.

Take that, meathead.

Cal spotted a patch of thin grass, and slid his foot into place, avoiding twigs and leaves.

Stealth has reached Level 2!

Level 2: 10% correction.

 Remaining Warp 10/12

Cal stopped, a horrible though occurring to him.

What If I use up all my Warp just getting to Surrak? That would be stupid. Really, really, stupid.

Cal sighed and stood up straight, abandoning his attempts at stealth.

Looks like it’s plan Ghol. Didn’t wanna do that, but the Forming Day leaves me no choice.

Cal walked out from behind his house and began walking down the road, hoping that by some miraculous twist of fate the giantess wouldn’t see him walking town the long hill to the port city in the distance. The morning sun glittered off the ocean, rising as it always did, from the west.

About halfway out of town, a thick hand clamped down on his shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Karen asked. The thick jawed, bright haired woman stood nearly a foot above him and outweighed him by a substantial margin, and if she were to be believed, had experienced the Break eight times.

There was no chance he’d get away from her.

Unless…

“There’s a letter in Ghol’s house that details the incident with him last winter while his wife was in town. Better find it before she does.” Cal said.

A thick hand seized around his neck and Cal was lifted off the ground. This was not part of the plan. Suddenly Cal realized that Karen could simply search the blacksmith’s house while wringing his neck like a chicken.

This was poorly thought out.

“Where is it?” Jinnei’s and Cal’s guardian growled into his face.

I think I smell blood. Cal thought as his vision tinted red.

“I don’t know. I had someone else do it.”

“Who?” she demanded.

“I don’t know!” Cal croaked, “I got everyone together and had them decide who would hide the letter while I was gone. It’s possible they didn’t do it at all.”

“Damn!” Karen said, the giant woman dropping him to the ground and running back down the path. It wouldn’t take her long to find out who hid the letter, if anyone.

Time to haul ass.

Cal turned and ran down the dirt road at full speed, not stopping until he caught a ride with a wagon headed into the city on the main road.

Your Body has reached Level 6!

Remaining Warp 7/12

“Damn,” Cal said, panting on the back of the wagon.

A skill took one Warp and a Stat took three to raise, and Cal wanted to make sure he had enough to learn some magic.

Cal had been to Surrak before, but rarely by himself, and that was a completely different experience. The newfound freedom and heavy purse tucked inside his coat made him feel ten feet tall, despite generally significantly shorter than the average adult.

All around him, the sights, sounds and smells of the port city washed over him, a confusing jumble of stimulus that nearly made him forget his purpose.

Right. let’s get some samples of what this heathen magic has to offer. Cal remembered a seeing a few preforming magicians, and that seemed like a good enough place to start. He elbowed his way through the crowded streets, the sun just beginning to beat down on them from above.

Unfortunately no matter how hard he looked, he didn’t find the usual skinny man making toys and small animals multiply as part of his act, so Cal would have to aske around.

“Excuse me, could you-“

The man next to him grumbled and kept walking.

“Do you-“

Cal got elbowed aside.

Undeterred, Cal continued to pester person after person until a man gave him halfhearted instructions leading him to a street on the far side of the city, north of the docks. The smell of rotting food and disease did nothing to slow him down.

Now that he knew what street he was looking for, he easily got a specific address for his elusive Gadveran magician.

Cal walked up to the door and began knocking on it. lightly at first, then progressively harder, until finally a shout from inside indicated that the owner was awake.

Cal waited.

Nothing happened.

Cal started beating on the door again.

“What!?” A thin Gadveran man missing a couple teeth snarled as he yanked open the door, his breath punching Cal in the face with tangible force.

“Are you a magician?” Cal asked.

The thin man looked him up and down.

“beat it kid.” He said, slamming the door on Cal’s foot.

OOOOOOWWWWW

“It’s my Forming Day, and I really, really…wanna learn some magic.” Cal said. “It’s gonna happen, whether it be from you or the next guy. I could do this all day.”

The thin man looked Cal over again.

“What’s your Intuition?”

“Three.”

“Huh.” The man smiled. Smiling was good. “How much Warp you got left?”

“Seven.”

“Money?”

“Right here!” Cal pulled out his bag of coins he’d fastidiously saved over the last couple years, for this specific moment –

A thin hand reached out and snagged the bag out of Cal’s hand before slamming the door on his foot again.

As it turned out, he could not do it all day, reflexively yanking his aching foot out of the door a second before the thing was latched shut.

“Lesson one.” The man’s muffled voice came from the other side of the door, before it once again went silent.

An hour of banging on the door netted Cal nothing but bruised fists to go with his slowly swelling foot.

This is not how I pictured this going.

Cal glanced behind him, and noticed the shadows of the city getting long as the sun began to sink toward the city wall.

It began to sink in how truly out of his element he was.

Crap.