Interlude: Attaboy

By the fifth time the old woman came into his cell, Attaboy was feeling much better. He could sit up from his cot, and even take a few steps around the room. Many of the aches and pains were gone, though he still felt considerable discomfort at the base of his skull.

When he reached back, he could feel a rough patch, almost as if his skin had been glued together, and a small depression in the bone, where he was pretty sure there had been none before.

He tried to ask the old woman about it, but her words were hard to understand. In his travels before capture, Attaboy had learned that not everyone had the same words. He had learned many of the words from the villages he had passed through, as new words and knowledge soaked into his reborn mind like water in dry dirt, but the old woman’s words were new to him. Plus, she didn’t have many teeth left, and that made it even harder.

Even selecting his ear picture didn’t help.

He felt like his mind had been scrambled in his small cell, and wondered if he might have died a third time.

He couldn’t remember much about how he got into the cell, just a few images of running from large people and being shot. He had learned about guns the first time he entered a village, had learned about the thunderous noise and the destructive force of the metal sticks, when the big people had fired at him and yelled in words he couldn’t understand. That was also where he learned, from the children who were taunting him and throwing sticks, that most people in the world were big and that he was a ‘gob’.

He missed Lilijoy terribly for a while after that experience. She was always the one he could talk to when he felt bad about something.

Thankfully, there had been no shortage of food on his journey, as the termite mounds were plentiful. Later, he discovered that his new pictures had raised his scavenging abilities to new heights. His eye picture was turning green, which had allowed him to see in the dark and see great distances clearly. His nose picture was still yellow, but now he could smell live food from a great distance, and find buried foods with ease. His ears allowed him to avoid predators and other dangers. Attaboy was quite sure that he would have died, possibly permanently, if it wasn’t for his pictures.

Of course, he still didn’t understand what most of them did. There was a square with lines across it that filled his vision with hundreds of bizarre lines and shapes. The first time he activated that one, he nearly peed himself, and after spending most of a day trying to get back to his normal pictures, he resolved not to tinker with the unfamiliar ones.

The second village was more friendly. No one shot at him, and a kind couple even allowed him into their home for a night. That was the first time he learned that there were man people and woman people. It turned out that woman people had a strange need for being secret when they changed their cloths, which made Attaboy feel glad he hadn’t had to deal with that at Night’s Safety.

He learned many things in his brief stay, but he felt compelled to move on from the village.

After all, he had a quest to complete.

Chapter 9: Lessons

Sitting alone in her room, Lilijoy thought back on the last few days of training. She had fought golems of increasing speed and varying sizes, lifted rocks at increasing levels of gravity, and run in Flash until her Endurance finally ticked up another point. She had also begun to learn to wield a short blade.

Skill Unlocked: Upgraded(2) Novice(1) of Weapons: Blades: Short (VP = 2)

“Guess there’s nowhere to go but up,” Rosemallow had commented when she unveiled the skill. In just a few sessions, Lilijoy had raised the skill to Initiate level, and was curious about what all the terms meant.

“It’s simple,” said her trainer in response. "There are seven ranks to your base skill, which is like your natural traits. It represents your actual competence at the skill."

Novice (1)

Initiate (2)

Apprentice (3)

Journeyman (5)

Expert (8)

Master (13)

Grand Master (21)

“When you Outies come here, all of your knowledge and abilities come with you. If you learn a skill Inside, you learn the skill Outside too, for the most part. If you are an expert musician Outside, you are the same in here. It’s common sense really. What is different here is the other set of ranks. There is a special magic to skills Inside that supports and expands your base ability. We call it the ‘Magi’ part of a skill. Again, there are seven ranks...."

Natural (1)

Upgraded (2) (costs 2 points)

Augmented (3) (costs 3 points)

Enhanced (5) (costs 5 points)

Illustrious (8) (costs 8 points)

Illuminated (13) (costs 13 points)

Enlightened (21) (costs 21 points)

“But unlike base skills, you raise magi skills with free points. The magi skill can never be more than one rank greater than the base skill. Let’s take your unarmed combat skill for example..."

Skill Unlocked: Natural(1) Apprentice(3) of Unarmed Combat (VP = 3)

“You have learned a huge amount in just a few days, and just barely reached the Apprentice level in your base skill. You haven’t spent any free points yet on the magi skill, so you remain ‘Natural’ which is to say, unaugmented by magic. Each time you level up, you can spend free points to raise the magi skill one rank.”

Lilijoy was quite proud of her martial arts accomplishments. She had discovered that she could watch old videos while on the Inside, just as she could also cultivate and communicate with the Outside. She had spent hours watching training videos and martial arts movies, using her system to visualize and copy the movements. It was still very much a work in progress, but between her research and Rosemallow’s training, she was improving quickly enough to impress her trainer. It was one reason they had begun weapon training.

Rosemallow continued, “Then it’s just a matter of multiplying the points from each rank. An Enlightened Grand Master has four hundred and forty-one VP, value points, to her skill. When we are talking about combat, that is a direct bonus to offense and defense. An EGM could kill you by sneezing. Luckily for you, achieving Grand Master rank is almost impossible. Even Master level is extremely difficult to attain, but much more common, so the strongest fighters tend to be Enlightened Masters, with two hundred and seventy-three VP.”

She took a breath and continued lecturing. Lilijoy always loved it when Rosemallow went into lecture mode. Not only was it informative, it also involved far less suffering.

“Of course, combat isn’t really just about damage points. Along the way, you will discover other ways to use VP for a skill. An archer may be able to increase their rate of fire or curve their shots. With melee weapons, you can learn to stun opponents, or stop just short of killing. There are many possibilities, and each fighter finds their own tricks. When you add in Flash and Power, the possibilities are endless.”

She let out a satisfied sigh before turning to the latest torturous exercise for Lilijoy.

The lessons with Professor Anaskafius had been wonderful. The day after her first Charm lesson he had shown her the other part of magic on the Inside.

“In our last meeting, we talked about Charm, a talk I am anxious to revisit soon. But first, there is an entire world of magic for you to discover. Indeed, many consider Charm to be more ‘magic adjacent’ if you know what I mean?”

He had looked at her with such an earnest expression, she couldn’t help nodding.

“The elements, young miss, are what most consider to be the true magic of the Inside. Do you know what I am referring to?”

“Fire, Water, Air and Earth,” she replied.

“Very good. When you underwent your trial, you were evaluated for your affinity and received modifiers to your species starting point. If you chose to go into a cave instead of the open air, you might have raised your Earth Affinity.”

Lilijoy had a good feeling about her Earth Affinity.

“It’s normal to favor one or two elements over the others. Myself, I prefer fire and earth. The Earth Affinity is to be expected for my kind, but my family is still bewildered by the fire part. Typically, the Hedgefolk prefer water, or even air over fire. But I have always loved the dance and colors of the flame. Anyway, enough about me; let’s take a look at your affinities.

Elemental Affinities Unlocked!

Base + Trial Bonus

33% Fire: 20 + 13 (Tier III)

58% Earth: 25 + 33 (Tier II)

30% Water: 20 + 10 (Tier III)

28% Air: 15 + 13 (Tier IV)

(Tier IV 0-29%, Tier III 30-54%, Tier II 55-79%, Tier I 80%+)

His eyes widened for just an instant. “Well, well. You must have a little of the Hedge in you, Emily. I have never seen a human with uneven base starting points. Typically, it’s twenties down the line. And what a beautiful sight that Earth Affinity is. Your trainer will be pleased, I’m sure.”

Lilijoy wasn’t sure if Rosemallow could be pleased by anything other than her suffering, but she nodded anyway. “What do the numbers mean?” she asked.

“Not too much at the moment, as you will need a Source before you can do anything magical yourself."

He forestalled her next question. "There will be a very helpful class for you explaining Sources and all the other details behind spellcasting. Once you know the basics, I will be happy to help explain anything you don't fully understand. For the numbers you see in front of you now, the percentage is the amount of damage reduction from direct magical effects. What matters even more is the Tier. Better Tiers make it easier to learn spells and raise your affinities. The higher your affinity, the less points it costs to raise. It is most common for humans to emerge from the Trials all at tier fours, with maybe a three if they are lucky. But, as you well know by now, you had an excellent trial. Not the best I’ve seen for affinities, but certainly nothing to complain about!”

“What’s the highest affinity you’ve seen from the Trials?” she asked, feeling disappointed for no rational reason.

“You must keep in mind that those of us from the Inside, and the Outside clans as well, have a certain advantage when it comes to preparation. Oh, we all know not to spoil the results by telling them what to expect, though it took the clans a while to figure that out. Also, Insiders don’t do the same Trial as Outsiders, it’s a bit more situational.

With that in mind, the best I’ve seen from an Outsider was two scores in the sixties. Other species start with different base levels. Some elves, for example, start with thirty in air and water. Or my folk, who start with forty in earth. But affinities do not a mage make! There are still two traits we need to look at."

Traits Unlocked!

Mana Well: 94

Mana Gathering: 10%/100 seconds

“Excellent scores once again! This part is simple, I hope. Your Mana Well is how much magical power you can hold, and Mana Gathering is how fast you can fill your Mana Well. For brevity’s sake, we usually just call them Mana and Gathering. I think it is every mage’s wildest fantasy to have their Gathering at one hundred percent, so that they could cast spells all day and never run out, but only the most obsessive bring it past twenty. It is far easier to expand your Mana Well.”

The rest of the magic lessons had been Charm work. She practiced hiding and changing her public information, and altering her character sheet, then resisting Professor Anaskafius’ attempts to convince her to do various tasks. The other exciting moment was when he brought out a small plant.

Some kind of succulent, maybe related to aloe?

“This is a burnbalm plant,” he announced. “Time to see what you can do with this little fellow.”

Skill Unlocked: Augmented(3) Journeyman(5) of Nature: Plants (VP = 15)

“Your skill with plants is remarkable for someone so young!” he exclaimed. “And with the top-level skill too!”

Lilijoy didn’t try to explain that she was channeling knowledge from her system. If it worked, why poke at it?

I wonder if the only limit is my connection to the Tao System, she thought. Will I instantly know everything about everything when I finish Stage Two?

“Usually I see youngsters with Herbalism or Horticulture, if anything,” Professor Anaskafius was explaining, "Nature: Plants is what is known as a top-level skill. It includes the ones I mentioned, and one or two others I rarely come across. Arboriculture, I think, is one of them. How excellent for you to start at the top, as it were. Either way, you will use your skill, combined with Charm: Plants when you work with our little burnbalm plant here.”

He moved the plant in front of Lilijoy.

“The trick to working Charm on plants is to know what they want to do. Obviously, plants have no brain, but they do have an immense will to be themselves. Trying to get a plant to do anything not in its nature is an exercise in futility. What do you think our burnbalm plant wants to do?” he asked.

“Grow,” Lilijoy answered immediately. “And…” She considered the plant for a few moments, “… defend itself. But there’s something else.” Without realizing, she dipped lightly into her Two Minds, One Self ability, sinking into a rapport with the little potted plant.

“We have lived with the un-sensed ones, who have spread us far and wide. They take and take, but they give more than they take. We serve the un-sensed, for what protects us heals them,” the burnbalm and Lilijoy said.

“Most interesting!” her mentor exclaimed. “I begin to understand your new ability, young miss. You have confirmed something I have pondered for all my years working with plants... they are aware of us at some level! Perhaps those plants, such as our friend here, that have been propagated for use by people over millennia have grown into a symbiotic state. Oh, the experiments we can do!” He rubbed his little paws together feverishly as he spoke.

Shaking her head to remove the trance, Lilijoy looked at the burnbalm with fresh eyes. It was not just one plant, but an extrusion of a vast being sprawled across history, one tiny needle poking into her time and space, connected to a huge branching tree of ancestry.

“Now ask it to grow,” suggested Professor Anaskafius. “But don’t use your ability just yet. Just skill and charm should be enough for a visible effect.

Lilijoy addressed the small potted plant in front of her.

“Grow, please.”

She imagined her charm feeding the plant, filling its fleshy leaves with sap and driving its shallow roots deeper into the little pot. The plant shivered, swelled, and ever so slowly began to grow. She kept her focus for several minutes before exhaustion set in, and by the time she finished, the little plant was not as little as before, perhaps doubling in size.

“Excellent work!” said Professor Anaskafius. “Plant charming is not for the impatient. It can take weeks of daily effort to produce a significant impact with a mature tree, for example. But it is peaceful and wholesome work, by and large, though it does eventually drain your Mana. You can check your current Mana levels by thinking of your ‘vital stats display’. Try it now, if you would be so kind.”

She did as he asked, and saw two colored bars appear, floating in the corner of her vision. The red one was full; the blue was just an outline with a bit of blue.

“As I’m sure you know, red is your Health, blue is your Mana. Charming drains Mana slowly, at the rate of the Value Points of the associated skill, though you will have to experiment to figure out the time increments, as they are subject to many factors. It is always best to keep an eye on your Mana, on the blue, as the students like to say. Try not to go below fifty percent other than in dire emergencies.

At your rate of Gathering, it will take about seventeen minutes to refill. If you sit quietly and meditate on collecting energy from your surroundings, you will find you can increase your Gathering substantially. You can try that now, for a few minutes, and then we will try out your ability.”

Lilijoy closed her eyes and turned off all her external senses, though she used a tiny part of her system to monitor the environment in the background for any changes she should know about. She figured that eliminating distractions would be the best way to increase her focus on whatever it was she was trying to do.

The dark void almost sent her into her Soul Space out of habit, but she resisted the temptation and stayed connected to the signals from within her body. She could feel her heart pushing the blood through her veins and the deep even breaths pulling air. A sense of lightness filled her, starting at the top of her head and then traveling down the back of her neck.

She imagined the cozy chamber surrounding her, imagined it filled with energy that flowed into her with each breath, circulating around her body with her blood and filling her with energy. The feeling was a close cousin to cultivation, familiar and new at the same time.

After a minute, her mind started to supply light to her eyes internally, imagination crossing over into her ocular cortex and activating neural structures that usually processed signals from her optic nerve. She felt like she was floating in a glowing sea that ebbed and flowed around her, that she was pulling on the waters and causing them to spiral slowly toward her center.

She focused on the spiral motion, encouraging it to rotate inward to her body, and felt the sea of light respond, reluctantly at first, then with greater and greater force until she was at the center of a whirlpool of light that flowed into her and transformed, filling her with a vibrant tingling, until she could take no more and released, slowly returning to her senses.

Skill Discovered: Natural(1) Journeyman(5) of Meditation (VP = 5)

She was greeted with a full mana bar and a new skill as she regained her vision.

Her mentor was watching her when she opened her eyes. “Full already?” he inquired.

“Yes. I got a meditation skill too,” she replied.

“Excellent! You must already have considerable experience with inner journeys to have acquired the skill so quickly. What rank did you receive?”

“I’m a Natural Journeyman. Is that good?”

“It’s really quite good! Particularly for someone your age, I must say.”

He took off his little round glasses.

“I must tell you, Meditation is an odd skill. As far as anyone has been able to tell, there is no value received by raising the Magi portion of the skill. Best to leave it at Natural rather than waste points experimenting. The base part of the skill seems to multiply your Gathering by the Value Points it creates, in your case five times faster at its peak. However, it takes a couple minutes to get to that level, and usually a couple minutes to return to full alertness after, so don’t plan on using it anywhere other than a completely secure location.”

He wiped his glasses and perched them back on his snout.

“Can I try my ability now?” Lilijoy was eager to find out how different plant charming would be using Two Minds, One Self.

Her professor was just as eager. Moments later, she was communing with the burnbalm plant.

She reached out to it and felt it reach back to her, as if eager to resume the connection they had found earlier. They fell into rapport and found that neither was interested in growing larger at the moment, but that they wished to be useful.

We are valued, they thought, for our healing defense. Our sap is thick and powerful against our enemies, the fast-eaters, and the pain of their penetration. Let us be powerful and useful and propagate by enhancing our mutual defense. Let us thicken and concentrate and supplement. We shall exalt our sap with energy from the earth and produce it in abundance. We are powerful. We are valued.

After some time, they felt their energy flagging and unraveling, roots and branches disentangled, bodies resumed their boundaries, and soon, Lilijoy was sitting in front of a small potted plant again. Only now, the plant was a deep purple color, and beads of sparkling sap lined its blade-like leaves, collecting the light of the small room and refracting it, adding to it until they shone like gems.

The sight alone was soothing, and Lilijoy had a strong feeling that the sap would possess abundant healing properties.

“My dear girl, you have created something wonderful here! This new ability changes everything for plant charming. I dearly hope you can teach it to others.” He looked to the side and lowered his voice. “Perhaps in time, even this old Urchin could try if you are willing.”

“I wouldn’t even know how, but I would be happy to try and help you learn, Professor,” Lilijoy said.

He straightened and looked her in the eye.

“It would be a great honor to learn this ability someday. But now is not the time for you to be teaching me. It might take years before you gain the Teaching skill; many try to gain it and never succeed. Teaching is not for everyone, after all.”

Lilijoy wondered what could possibly be so hard about teaching, but felt that the moment called for silent agreement, rather than more questions.

When Professor Anaskafius consulted his internal clock and determined their time was up, he insisted she take the plant and could not be convinced otherwise.

“You have created something of great value here. You must keep it with you in your room and research the changes you have made. As your teacher, I absolutely insist!”

“But Professor,” she countered. “I don’t even have a room.”

Anaskafius sputtered, “No room? No room? How could you not have a room? You must see Mumo immediately. Now off with you, young one.” He turned, muttering to himself about negligent trainers.

This led to the discovery that she did indeed have a room, only no one had bothered to tell her.

“You can’t blame me,” Mumo had said, his three hairless tails floating behind his head. “I was trapped under a rock.”

He made a show of looking through a drawer in the giant desk he guarded.

“Here,” he said, leaning over the desk and handing her a thin silver chain. “Wear this on your wrist or keep it on you, if you want your door to open. Room 3557.”

Lilijoy stood beside the desk with the slim chain dangling from her fingers.

“How did you end up guarding the desk?” she asked.

What she really wanted to know was how to find her room, but she thought he might be more helpful if he was trying to get rid of her.

“I don’t talk about that!” he barked. “Scram!”

“But where do I go?”

A deep sigh emanated from behind the desk. Mumo stared at her with black, expressionless eyes, just visible to her from her low vantage. She smiled up at him in response.

“I’m sorry to be so much trouble. I’m sure I would know everything I needed if you had been here when I came the first time. Is there anything I can do for you in return?”

He snorted. “You’re good, kid.”

He made a gesture toward her and said something magic under his breath. “Have a map of the Academy. Don’t go in the black areas. I put a marker on your room for you. In return, I like fish, still flapping.”

He eyed her burnbalm plant. “It might be nice to have some plants in here too, if you can fix the whole ‘no sun’ issue.” He looked as if he might add something but turned away instead. Lilijoy could hear pen on paper.

I guess that conversation’s done. She noticed a small square icon blinking in the upper left corner of her vision. Must be the map… Sure enough, she focused on it and the icon grew and unfolded several times, until a top down view of the Academy filled her vision.

It really does look like a termite head, she noted. She could see a tiny red marker somewhere in the depths of the building and found she could zoom in and magnify the map at will, as well as navigating to the many different floors. After some more searching, she found her own location in the small room just off the front entrance.

She turned to begin what looked like a long trek.

“Hey kid,” came Mumo’s voice behind her. “Magic has consequences. Sometimes. Listen to your teachers, and you might avoid guarding a hunk of misplaced forest for half your life. Thanks in advance for the fish.”

“Thanks for the map, Mumo.”

She found her way through halls and stairs and rooms that led to smaller rooms and then back to halls and more stairs.The Academy sprawled. It sprawled aggressively.

She knew she was close when she started down a long hall with evenly spaced and numbered doors. Three thousand one, she noted. Only five fifty-six to go. Every hundred doors or so, the hall turned left or right for a stretch and then doubled back on itself. Finally, after the fifth turn, she found herself at her door.

***

Stone. Whoever built the academy must really love stone, Lilijoy decided. The endless halls of the dormitory were stone. Walls and ceiling too. Randomly placed blocks of glowing white stone provided light. The doors, well, they were a dark heavy wood. But Lilijoy felt sure the builders would have preferred to make them stone too.

Her room was stone, with one notable exception. An entire wall was an east-facing window, that looked out over the pond and the arenas. This was a little confusing to Lilijoy, as her map clearly showed that her room was deep in the interior of the building. She shrugged and moved on; ignoring things that confused her had become a habit recently. It occurred to her that the window was probably just magic stone anyway. Even the bed was a stone platform.

When she first passed through Door 3557, she found herself in a central room with no furniture. Four additional doors led into four small bedrooms. Two of them had belongings already, so Lilijoy took the empty one with the giant window. Her plant needed light, after all. She took some time to settle in to the room, imagining what she could do with the space if she went to town and bought some furnishings.

She had no money, but since she had lived her entire life to this point without it, she didn’t feel any particular stress. It would come, or it wouldn’t she decided.

After a round of cultivation, she looked out at the night sky. The moons weren’t visible through the window, but at least one of them was up, casting a gentle glow over the landscape. She thought over the last few days, and then the last couple of weeks. It felt good to have her own space on the Inside; it had never occurred to her to ask if one was available, but now that she was in it, she felt like she could process all she had learned in a different way. Somehow, a place of her own gave her the mental space to work through her thoughts.

She was happy with her progress. It brought to mind what Jiannu had said to her before they reconciled.

Growth is change. It is a common cognitive error for sentient beings to want growth without change. You must decide, Lilijoy. Do you want growth or not?

She did want growth and if she was honest with herself, she also feared change. She could feel the stress from the two opposing principles. She needed to be the person who could save Attaboy. She wanted to stay who she was.

Whoever that was.

She was distracted from her musing by the sound of the front door opening. Followed by total silence. The door to her bedroom was closed, though unlocked, as she hadn’t bothered to figure out the mechanism yet.

Probably one of the others who live here, she decided.

She opened her door and confronted the tall, thin figure of a girl dressed in black standing just to the side of the open front door. She looked to Lilijoy like she was about to bolt for the hall, staring back at her with dark brown eyes that darted around the room as if searching for threats.

“Hello!” Lilijoy said, trying to project harmlessness.

This person seemed so frightened of her that she felt bad for coming out of her room.

“My name is…” she hesitated for a moment. She still had mixed feelings about the whole ‘Emily’ thing. But the reasons for choosing the name were valid, especially since she was meeting someone she didn’t know at all. “…Emily,” she finished. “But you can call me Lily.”

That seemed like a good compromise on the spur of the moment.

The girl watched her silently. She had tightly braided hair and light-brown skin, and now, Lilijoy saw that her first impression of the girl’s height was somewhat subjective. She was tall compared to Lilijoy but would still be considered quite small on the Outside.

Not a huge fan of uncomfortable silence, Lilijoy tried again.

“What’s your name? Are you from the Outside?”

The girl seemed to reach an internal decision, and her shoulders relaxed slightly.

“I’m Magpie. Don’t call me Maggie. And yes, I’m from the Outside.” She looked Lilijoy over.

“Nice hair. Are you a gnome or something?”