The bus stop was only a half mine from home but Victoria found herself emotionally drained as she staggered the last few feet to the driveway of her home. Her family lived in one of the older sections of town up near Castle Hills, she stopped to check the mail and as she did she looked at her home and saw it as a refuge from her crazy day. The house was an older ranch she recalled that her dad had said it was built after the soldiers had come home. At the tome she hadn’t been sure what that really meant.

It was red brick, with a grayish-black roof. The shrubs had been lovingly tended by both her mother and father over the years. To the right was an attached carport, she was surprised to see her mother's car parked under it. At some point, there had been an addition adding on a larger master bedroom and bathroom. The patio in the back was covered and let onto a fenced yard that held her mom's garden. She sighed in relief as she walked down the driveway. Looking again at the front she caught a brief glimpse of a brightly painted object hidden in the shrubs. “Huhm.” She grunted as she eyed the squat figure. She sighed as she went through the door. “Mom!” She called. “The roaming gnome is back!” She dropped her book bag on the counter.

As she strode in she saw her brother slouched at the table doing his homework. He looked up at her startled. “Toria what happened?” She regarded him carefully. Did he get secret messages that only he could see? He was a good looking kid she thought tall, dark-haired like her with blue eyes though not a beefcake he was athletic. She was glad for once that he had fallen a year behind. She snorted at that she would only have one year with him in the same school as her not the two years she had originally feared. She reflected on that it wasn’t that he was dumb he was just born at the wrong time of years.

“I got in a fight at the hospital.” She sighed dramatically. “One of the interns mouthed off and I popped him a few.”She said straight-faced.

“You what?” Her brother said as he did a double-take.

Victoria chuckled as she saw the whites of his eyes. “No seriously, I was attacked by some kind of rodent. It had gotten into dad's room and I had to kill it when it attacked me. Don’t Worry Vince it’s okay.” She said displaying her impressive war wounds.

“Moms heating up your favorite,” Vince said as he looked back at his book and gave a big sigh then bent over to look in his own book bag.

The girl gave a sniff. “It smells good. I’m Hungry.”

“And hey Toria?” When she looked over at her brother she saw his hands move quickly and jerk something out of the air. “Happy birthday.” He said smiling. She glanced down and saw a small package in her hand. With a smile, she hugged him. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept seeing the small flashing notification.

Walking into the kitchen she found her mother huddled over the stove putting the last touches on her favorite dinner chicken casserole. “Hi, kiddo what happened today? The hospital didn’t really tell me much.”

“Wait, what?” Victoria asked. “There was some kind of big rat that got into dad’s room it attacked me.”The girl said in confusion. “They called you, remember?” She looked at her mother with incredulity as she appraised the woman that had born her. She was in her late thirties but looked older due to stress and the lines under her eyes from a lack of sleep. Her mom was shorter than her by three or four inches with dark shoulder-length hair. Usually, it was above her shoulders but now it was far longer than she could ever recall it being. That was before her father's accident. “Did they say anything about how he was doing?”

“No.” Her mom said shaking her head and looked up at her then drew her into a hug. “Your dad’s a fighter. He’ll be with us soon. He just caught a bad break is all.” She smiled “Now go wash up.”

X X X

Much later after the food had been eaten, the homework and dishes were done, Victoria found herself sitting alone on the back porch in the swing watching the flashing notification. With trepidation once more she acknowledged it the box unfolded before her eyes;

Happy 17th birthday!

You have 16 hours and 32 minutes to completely set up and registration,

or the system will initialize with default settings.

Again Happy birthday!

Do you wish to enter Set up?

Y/N

The terrified girl finally said yes. As she did so she started to see lights flaring up around her it looked like light was flowing up from the ground and as it went it seemed to build a souring structure that engulfed her. Thick pillars grew from the floor and the sky up forty or fifty feet into the air, the whole time she whipped her head left and right watching as the magical structure grew around and encompassed her. Her eyes grew wide as she looked around and realized. “A library? I’m in a library.” The ancient walls were lined with vast shelves lined with tomes, scrolls. And things that Victoria lacked the words to Be able to describe. In the center, she saw a great globe that stuck out fo the floor, a ray of light shown down bathing the North American continent and the pacific region in light.

“Where am I?” She said in wonder. Her words were loud in the room.

“Welcome to the Akashic Library Victoria Vivian Leighton.” A feminine sounding voice said.

Startled the girl replied. “Where…” She started to say as she looked around her even going to stand up from the swing and try to look around the library to find the voice. “Are you?”

“The Akashic library is everywhere and nowhere. We reside in each individual and encompass the tenth dimension” The voice said. Victoria felt her jaw drop.

“That is impossible.” She said starting to feel wild-eyed.

“Only improbable.” The voice said in what Victoria thought was a snide tone.

“Why am I here?” She said thinking of the vast power this Library must hold. “I mean why me?”She asked and spun around looking at the library.

“The question is not why you. Instead, ask why not you.” At that note, the young woman saw a glimmering on the globe and found herself walking to it. “To answer that question we must begin at the ending.” She found herself staring at a spot on the northeastern section of the African continent a circle that looked like a target in the Sahara desert. “Long ago there was a land of knowledge, science, religion, faith, and magic that existed in a far offshore.”

“But how am I involved?” She pleaded.

“The great city fell, its people scattered in a great diaspora when there was a great inundation that sank the city.”

“Wait!” Victoria started her eyes even wider. “Atlantis?”

“Yes, that was the name given it by Plato. Though the city was lost over twelve thousand years ago. Today we are still faced with the consequences of that loss.” The voice echoed. The last word as it seemingly built into a crescendo. “The last great experiment opened cracks in the world. The surviving families bound they and their descendants to eradicating the evils and creatures that came from the horrific accident.” Victoria felt a chill wash over her as the voice paused.

“I’m Atlantean?”She asked in a shocked tone of voice. “Do like sea creatures come to my call?” She said jokingly.

“The scions are many things.” A window opened before her eyes she saw figures there. “War wolves.” A figure of a man stood there a wide barrel chest then he changed and a beast stood there with the head of a wolf on two legs.” Another figure stood a young girl fire flying from her hands. The forms grew and flowed before her showing her possibilities. Then they stopped dissolving into particles of light that reformed into an image of her.

“The Akashic library is a part of the Akashic field or that is to say we are the same.”

“What is the Akashic field?” She said as she stared at the light sculpture of herself. As she moved it move to imitate her perfectly.

“It is known by many names: Magisphere, Prana, Mana, the force across your world there are over two hundred and fifty-two words that describe it in the known languages. Nearly three times that many if you factor in the dead languages of civilizations past. But it all comes down to one word. Magic”

She shook her head in confusion, her hair whipping around. As she did so the image did the same. “No. No, no, no you can’t do that. Magic isn't’ real.”

Victoria could have sworn that the voice snorted. “Magic is as real as your Santa Clause just ask Virginia.” Okay, she definitely sensed amusement in the voice. “You Victoria Vivian Leighton have been called by your bloodline oath to take up the call and become a hunter on this the seventeenth day of your birth.”

“Is my mom a hunter? My father? Is that what happened to him he was hurt while hunting?” She asked

“Your biological parents were both hunters of the highest renown. They have fulfilled their oaths. Their passing was a great loss.”

The girl was stunned. “Wait! What the fuck!” She yelled. “My parents are alive.” The library was silent.

“MY parents are alive!” She felt something inside of her soul lurch. Did this thing just tell her she was adopted on her birthday? “No, we have the video of me being born.” She said. “You have the wrong person.” She threw out in desperation. Then laughed. “I’m not who you want. I’m not a hunter.”

“Victoria Vivian Leighton do you believe an entity that is all, and knows all, would make an error as fundamental as mistaking you for another.”

She felt her world collapse around her. An entity that knew all and was all the cosmic consciousness was calling her to do battle. “It is noted that you have been separated from your people. I am authorized to enable a learning and assistance construct to aid in registration. Do you accept?”

The shocked girl nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes I need help. Maybe a psychiatrist.” As she quipped boldly another figure took shape it was a small woman about a foot tall.

“Hi Victoria. I’m Lacie and I’m here to help you through your first few days.”

“You’re a pixie.” She said eying the creature warily. The small woman just smiled. and cocked her head. Victoria examined her carefully she was short with a short pixie cut blond hair bob. She wore a short green dress that sparked a memory. “Wait a second, you’re the pixie that was in my mom's garden.”

“Yep, that's me.”She said brightly as she put her hands together and pushed her arms put and down while laughing. “Now let us take a look at your statistics and see how many points you may have to work with.”

“I really hope I’m going insane,” the dark-haired girl said.

“Oh your not insane. Unless an insane person's invisible constructs can talk to them.” Again the small tinker bell-like form laughed its wings beating to seemingly keep it in the air. “Let me display your stats here.” A list came up and Victoria found herself looking at a numerical representation of her mind, body and seeming life.

Statistics

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 12

Constitution: 15

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 18

Charisma: 11

Luck: 18

Extra Stat Points:5

“Wow, That's actually very impressive. Well except for your charisma. Did your parents have to put a pork chop around your neck to play with the dog?

“What, do all the stats mean?” Victoria asked as she looked at them. Surely she was better than an eleven.