“Am I allowed to get dressed?” Kliss hissed when the last pupil departed and the door closed shut behind them.

I ignored her and put on the Overseer’s red cape. It was a bit too long and looked silly on me. I sat behind my desk, twirling her armacus in my hand.

“I don’t know,” I fake-yawned. “Are you going to be a nice girl or are you going to murder me again? What’s your plan for me, friend?”

Her right eye twitched. “Look, Dante, I attacked you twelve years ago because there was an aberration living in your soul. It’s clearly not there anymore. The phantom left your soul, since you don’t even have a Soul-Song. I'm not going to bother you or your family. Can you please just leave me the hell alone?”

“Oh no, I’m never leaving you alone,” I laughed. “You’re my new best friend.”

“Stop that!” She hissed. “Stop it, I’m begging you!”

“Why should I?” I asked. “You killed me. You owe me one, Overseer.”

“I had to, damn it! It’s my job! I can’t not do my job!” She screamed, the blue stained glass vibrating to the gale of her voice.

“Don’t get angry with me, pal. You don’t need to yell.” I spun the magitek bracelet on the desk.

“I hate Skyisle, I hate all of you and most of all… I hate myself for what I've done,” she whispered and suddenly started to cry.

I realized that my hormones were getting the best of me once again. I was still miffed at her for losing twelve years. I sighed, stood up from my seat and walked around the table closer to her.

“Kliss, I don’t know if you’re a good person,” I said. “All I know is that you stabbed me in the head while I was sleeping.”

“I'm sorry, okay! I just want this nightmare to end,” she sobbed into the desk.

“Are your Vows getting stronger?” I asked. "Are they tearing at your soul?"

She nodded.

“Did you actually want to kill me or did the Overseer’s vow make you walk up the stairwell every step of the way that night twelve years ago?”

“What do you think? Do you think I actually want to murder children? I was young and stupid when I applied to be an Imperial Citizen! I didn’t know what I had signed up for!” She tiredly looked at me, her eyes filled with tears. “Please, stop tormenting me. I just want to die. I’m so sick of Skyisle! I can barely remember the faces of my friends anymore. They’ve all moved on, passed to higher levels, forgot about me. They have no idea why I’m staying here, probably think I’m just some weakling or an idiot in love!”

I threw the red cape at her and she wrapped herself in it, sobbing silently.

“I’m sorry for nearly killing you, kid," she finally uttered. "I wish I had never taken this job, I really do.”

“Are you done with the lesson, Overseer?” The door to the classroom clicked open. The face of Instructor Wiklogg peered into the room.

“Get out,” Kliss growled. “I don’t want to see you until tomorrow’s lesson!”

The door banged shut.

“Would you hire my Great-Aunt to teach in this church?” I asked Kliss.

“No,” she replied. “She attacked and disarmed an Overseer. The Vow will make me reject her application.”

“What about Professor Kerenski?”

“Is he a citizen of the Gregarius Imperium? Does he have an Imperial passport for me to process?”

“No,” I mumbled.

“Then the answer is no,” she replied, crushing my hopes.

As I looked at Kliss I thought about what I had accomplished in Skyisle. It wasn’t much. I had acted foolishly, thinking that levelling myself up wouldn't be noticed by anyone. I was noticed. I stood out too much. The result of my error was sitting right in front of me.

A poor, miserable girl bound by Vows that had no choice but to execute me. There were others like her no doubt, other Imperials bound by their Unbreakable Oaths. It didn’t just happen once - my curiosity and my Infoscope had attracted the Soul-Hunter Phantom. I had to stop standing out, had to hide for a bit, disappear from the eyes of the world. Maybe in a month or two, I could emerge from my “studies” with my eight levels as if they had moved up naturally under the instructions of my brilliant Master Vladislav Kerenski. I had to learn how to vanish, how to be invisible, untouchable.

"Overseer, do you still have that invisibility cloak of yours?" I asked.

"Urhm... yes?" She mumbled.

"Bring it to me - I want it as compensation for nearly dying. Gift it to me and I'll leave you alone, promise."

She nodded and quickly walked to her office up the stairwell. She was gone for only a couple of minutes. When she returned, she deposited a shimmering cloth into my hands.

"There," she muttered, sitting down. "The cloak is yours - just... please, stop calling me your 'friend'. Y-you don't know how much it hurts, claws at my soul from within with a thousand invisible blades."

"Don't worry, I'll keep my end of the deal," I nodded.

Something clinked into the glass window above us, then another. Then another. I looked up and saw that bees started to land on the window frame one by one, some of them banging into the glass. I rushed to the latch and unlocked in.

Kliss cowered, trembling in her seat.

A figure made of bees manifested in the room as the swarm made its way inside.

“Long time no see, Overseer,” Delta spoke through the Bee-speaker. The speaker was working poorly as her skill had degraded, her words were barely discernible, consisting of horrid, unnerving buzzing.

“Beemancer Delta,” Kliss whispered. She stood up, dropped the cape and closed her eyes. “Driven by my Oath... I attacked your nephew. If you’re here to end my life, please do it quickly.”

I stepped in front of the figure made of bees “No.”

“No?” Delta asked. “This vile woman deserves death for her crimes!”

“If she dies, they’ll just send another, far stronger Overseer,” I shook my head. “Let her be.”

“What do you want to do, Dante?” Delta buzzed.

“I… want to unlock my Soul-Song. I want to study under Wizard Kerenski to bring my level up. I want to become stronger. Want to get strong enough to stand up to the monsters and aberrations! Professor Kerenski said that I’ll have to leave school, maybe even leave my parents… I’ll do it. I’m ready now.”

I put the armacus down onto the desk next to Kliss. “Keep Skyisle safe for me, Overseer.”

“Good,” The swarm buzzed as Delta played along. “Follow me. The yellow brick road awaits you, Acolyte of Oz.”

“Beware of Wizards and their Vows,” Kliss sniffed.

I walked to the door and glanced back at her. “There are no Vows in the Emerald City. Goodbye, Overseer Kliss.”

“Goodbye Dante,” she muttered quietly as I opened up the door, leaving the Church of Equality.

I followed the path of orange sand and cobblestones as I headed back to my parents house. Delta’s swarm spun around and slightly above me like a ring of darkness as if I was some sort of a bee-monger. She didn't want to leave me and didn’t want to stray from the lantern-protected path.

I didn’t go through the front entrance, instead I climbed up the side of the house as I often did for the past month. Once I was on the roof, I slid through the cracked window into the attic.

The swarm returned to the old, vaguely-human shaped nest.

“Activate System,” I uttered with conviction.

[ Solve Equation for Full System activation: 52x21+1-0x0x2= ]

I thought about what I was taught as a twelve-year-old pupil.

Soul-Song? How do I make the System sing?

The blue text window blurred in my eyes.

“To unlock your Soul-Song,

Spark the wisdom’s answer

Show that you belong.”

A perfect female voice, no, a melody woven from unearthly tones resounded from all around.

“Fifty two times twenty one

Plus one,

Minus zero times a zero times a two,

Speak your answer loud and true!”

For a second I was lost in the beauty of the ethereal song-rhyme, but then the rational part of my mind took over. It seemed that the System was malleable by expectations. If someone believed that it was just a song, then it sang to you. The Soul-Song was fun and beautiful, but it was also slow and inefficient.

“1093,” I replied with a smirk, expecting a blue screen chart this time. "Status!"

Name: Dante Alan Skyisle Age: 12 years old Species & Subtype: male - human - pupil Level: 8 Experience: 3251/4050 Health: 34/34 Stamina: 36/36 Mana: 8/8 Mana regen: 8 m/hr [x10] Strength: 1 Agility: 1 Dexterity: 1 Vitality: 5 Charisma: 1 Magic: 40 Luck: 1 Intelligence: 190 [-25%] Wisdom: 1 [-22%] Soul: 74 [-16] [-31%] Skills: [ Modify - Create - Life LV 121] [-44%] [ Mindspace LV 74 ] [-31%] [ Universal Comprehension LV 1] [-21%] [Info-tether LV 33] [-21%] [Soul Devourer LV 2] [Wardsmith LV 15] : [Rewind] [-31%] [Lucid Dreamer LV 7] [-11%] [Improved Mana Regen LV 10] [-15%] Vows: [Sacrifice of: Destruction, Infoscope & Transient Soul] Affliction: [Soul Hunter's Kiss] [Cellular damage x 2] [Soul decay - various] Investiture points: 2

Before I could even fully evaluate my status, reality faded away into a small screen on Bessie. The Computational Institute grew around me, walls, windows and doors folding out of nothing. Myriads of red lights ignited all around. The Mindspace had come online. Bessie looked a tad moldy, dusty, cracked and overgrown. Only about 3/4 of the red lights blinked.

I looked down at myself. I was still twelve, still wearing my Skyisle clothes, still covered in scratches. I was used to seeing myself as a twelve-year-old. I could barely remember my previous face and body.

Delta crashed into me with an all-encompassing hug.

“Dante!” She sobbed into me. “Please never leave me again. You’ve no idea how much I’ve missed your company. No idea how long I’ve been waiting for this!”

I looked at her body now that she was so close to me. There were gashes in her avatar, parts of her hair and skin completely transparent. Half of her body looked jagged and glitching as if made up from torn-up fractals and broken pixels. There were deep, dark circles under her eyes, a representation of how tired and exhausted she felt.

“Thank you for keeping my soul safe in the Astral,” I said. “I would have never woken up if it wasn’t for your bravery. I would have remained soul-less if it wasn’t for you.”

She nodded, not saying anything.

“How bad is your decay?” I asked.

“Around -67%” She whispered. "Some skills are worse, some are better."

“I’ll fix you,” I promised. “I’ll make you stronger than ever.”

“Just… don’t die on me tonight, please,” she softly muttered. “I… can’t do this again...”

“No promises on that front,” I whispered.

“Danteeeee,” she whined.

“I’m kidding. I’m not going to die again,” I reassured her.

I thought about my parents.

Mom fed me but she also piled a million chores on me. Dad constantly demanded free labor out of me at his workshop. On top of that I had to fetch the runestones from the windmills every morning for just a single copper a week and had completely useless studies in the Church of Equality. Over several years, I managed to save up exactly 9 coppers.

None of the things that I was doing as a kid would be able to save Skyisle from slowly being absorbed and corrupted by the magogenic fault.

It was time to take action, time to depart from my life as Dante, time to fully step away from the path. Time to begin a new life as the wizard’s apprentice.

Too bad I didn’t have a real wizard to mooch off... but hey, at least I had my soul back.