I woke with a start, furiously looking around the cell as adrenaline flooded my system. But other than the light flickering slightly outside the bars, it was all empty and quiet. I had not expected prison cells to be as clean or as silent as this, even inside the Chatheza.

The familiar itch in my head drew my attention to the Order, a sensation tinged with a bit of ... annoyance? I once more looked around the cell with a sense of dread I could not explain. I could have sworn I heard soft laughter, close enough to have been inside. But there was no one in here but me. I shrugged and made the now familiar shift to see what the Order had in store for me.

You have been victorious! You have slain an enemy stronger than you! You gain 186 Experience!

You are suffering from Infusion Sickness! You need rest!

Congratulations! You have advanced to level 2!

Congratulations! You have advanced to level 3!

Your Infusion Sickness has faded!

You have unallocated Attributes! You may choose a new Trait or Ability!

I considered what I knew for a moment. There was no explanation for Infusion Sickness, except that it said I required rest. But why had I gotten it to begin with? Was it related to enchanting? The death of Jab? Was it something that happened to people when they needed to level up?

In the end I still did not know why I had gained my levels now, when I had not done so after accumulating enough experience for my first level earlier. Maybe sleep was required and not sleeping brought on a negative effect. I put my musings aside and spent some time figuring out how to bring up my options for Traits and Abilities.

Paranoia

You are not paranoid, they really are out to get you.

Effect: +4 Willpower, +2 Endurance, -3 Wisdom

Paranoid Negotiator

There are always plots within plots within plans, everyone is several steps ahead of you. But you try to keep up.

Effect: +2 Intelligence, +2 Willpower, +1 Charisma, -2 Wisdom

Forced Calm

Things really are as bad as they seem. But you have learned how to cope.

Effect: +3 Willpower, -1 Wisdom

Fervent Casting

You have faced unforeseen circumstances enough that they have become somewhat of a habit and you have adapted.

Effect: You may cast two of your spells per day, unaffected by restrictions.

I tried to make sense of what I was seeing, were these normal Traits for an Enchantress? It sounded like I had a class with an inherent mental instability. I had never done any negotiating, other than possibly haggling in the slums.

Putting that aside I took in my options. Fervent Casting was the only Ability among these, though it did not seem that impressive. It would let me cast three Fire Burst instead of one, with the Mana pool I had currently, if it could counteract Limited Caster that is. Which was not enough damage to even threaten my life, never mind someone who I might actually be afraid of. My enchanted stones were far more impressive and the Ability would not help me escape this place.

The problem I had with the Traits was that they all had negative Attribute values associated with them. I could compensate for that with my unallocated ones and come out ahead. But there was something about that; I felt … averse to using Traits to increase my Attributes, as if that was a… bad deal?

The thought refused to stick with me and kept slipping away. Even so I went back and considered Fervent Casting carefully. Nothing I could get now was truly immediately useful for an escape, but Fervent Casting had potential and might be more useful as time went on. Casting without being restricted was vague, however it was a level three Ability, I could not expect to be awed by the power of it.

I decided to go with my strange feeling and picked Fervent Casting and then turned to my Attributes. Strength, Dexterity, Agility and Perfection were out. They would not help me right now and was of limited use long term. Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Willpower were long time goals, while Charisma and Endurance might have some use for an escape plan. But the chances of me running away or talking myself out of this seemed slim, so I decided to increase Constitution, Intelligence and Wisdom by one, and put the remaining three points into Willpower.

I had not appreciated how hard it had been to stick with my decisions when my Will had been affected, and I wanted to put more distance between that experience and myself.

Congratulations! You have reached a branch in Intelligence! Choose your path!

Mana Connection

Mana flows naturally for you.

Effect: Regain Mana 20% faster.

Crystallized Thoughts

While Mana does not flow swiftly for you, you are far more efficient with how you use what you have.

Effect: Your Mana pool includes Intelligence as an Attribute, but you regain Mana from Intelligence 40% slower.

I had never heard of Attributes branching before, was this something related to my class, or was this simply a lack of information on my part? The choices themselves had me really stumped though. On the one hand gaining Mana faster was good. But having more Mana meant I could actually cast several spells instead of just one, if that was ever a thing I needed to do. As I learned new spells later, that might start to become a real issue. What if I did not have the Mana to cast even one? Could I still learn and use it? More things I did not know. While Mana Connection seemed really useful, Crystallized Thoughts seemed like a safer choice to compensate for Limited Caster.

In the end, I did not know how much faster Mana regeneration might help. Sure, it would affect my ability to mass produce enchantments, but how much more would it help compared to more Mana in general? I felt so frustrated, there was just not enough information. With a sigh I decided on Crystallized Thoughts and hoped that was not a choice I would come to regret.

I noted that after that choice it would now take me almost 40 minutes to regain all my Mana, a rather daunting number. But I could also cast five Fire Burst back to back if I used Fervent Casting and that actually offset Limited Caster, something I needed to make sure of. At my current Health that was actually enough to kill me, which was a sobering thought. Apparently only my maximum Health increased when I gained Constitution, not my current Health.

"Status."

Ewynne

Age: 18

Level: 3

Experience: 11/300

Race: Half-blood

Class: Enchantress

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 14

Agility: 12

Constitution: 8

Endurance: 8

Intelligence: 20

Wisdom: 12

Willpower: 15

Perfection: 14

Charisma: 12

Health: 54/80

Mana: 470/470 (12/minute)

Stamina: 57/80 (16/minute)

Now all I could do was wait and see what would happen next, while my stomach kept complaining about the lack of food.

**

Had this been an epic story like the ones mother used to read to me, someone would have shown up to tell me what was going on, as soon as I was done with my levels. Preferably a villain holding an informative monologue. Apparently I was not that important, since it took what was sure to have been several hours before I heard footsteps coming my direction, sending my mind into a furious tumble.

How exactly should a prisoner behave, what was I supposed to do now? With a sigh I sank back onto the bunk and waited. They might not be coming to my cell after all. A thought that made me hope they would not.

It did not take long for the footsteps to resolve themselves into two stern looking guards. Their garb made it obvious that they belonged to the Guard, and that I was in fact inside the cells of the Chatheza.

"Hands through the bars."

The Guard was not loud, but his tone of voice and steely eyes made it abundantly clear that I would do as I was told. Having no desire to see what would happen if they had to encourage me, I swiftly got up, stepped up to the bars of my cell and stuck my hands out. The Guard who had spoken, swiftly shackled me with a set of bulky manacles.

You are suffering from Mana drain.

Effect: -25 Mana/second.

Duration: N/A

The effect of the manacles was immediate and horrible, it felt like someone was tearing my guts out, and a growing hollow sensation started just bellow my sternum. I had to grab onto the bars of my cell not to fall over as the world seemed to lose color. The visual distortion brought up a strange half memory of someone shouting welcome, but it soon faded as I did my best to keep standing.

The so far silent of the Guards grunted as he grabbed me by the arm to keep me upright, while unlocking the door. After they had pulled me out, they half-carried, half-dragged me along a rather narrow stone hallway.

My vision had started to resolve itself somewhat as I left the cell, enough so that I could pick up on more of what was around me. It was a bit uncomfortable that one of the Guards was half a head taller than the other, since most of my weight was resting on the arm he was holding.

The stones of the walls above head height were glowing with a soft light, which gave me a desperate urge to explore how that was accomplished, but I strongly suspected the Guards would not appreciate me stopping to study the phenomenon.

After having walked for a short while, we reached a set of stairs leading up to an empty archway. It seemed strange that there was no door, but as we ascended the stairs it became apparent that the arch contained a mirror. Frowning I wondered what was going on as we marched and hobbled up the remaining steps. I tried to pull back as the Guards seemed to be of a mind to just walk into the mirror. But they roughly pulled me head first into what turned out to be nothing. I stumbled, losing my balance but was kept upright by their none-so-gentle hands.

Somehow we had ended up in another hallway moving perpendicular to the one we just came from. I tried to turn to see what the strange mirror looked like from this side, but the Guards would have none of it and roughly kept me moving. I considered asking them what was going on, but dropped that idea just as swiftly as I got it. The Guards were not known for their chattiness, I was far more likely to get a blow to the head than an answer to any of my questions.

The journey continued along hallways and stairs, the light here coming from Mage-Lights rather than glowing walls, and the quality of the stone was quite a bit less impressive than what the cells had been made of. That was strange, why would the prison cells be of better quality than what seemed to be a main part of the Chatheza?

Finally we came to a stop before a pair of large wooden doors. The Guards dragged me to a wall and stood to either side of me, staring silently out into the otherwise empty area. Apparently we were waiting. In silence.