In life, there are obstacles.

This much is obvious to anyone who is currently alive.

Sometimes the obstacles are mental, and are called ‘cobwebs’, ‘blocks’, or ‘fog’.

Sometimes the obstacles are physical, and are called ‘the hurdle’, ‘the wall’, or ‘the limit’.

Sometimes the obstacles are other people, and are called… er… things I won’t repeat here.

And sometimes, just sometimes, there is a moment in time, when the ‘cobwebs’ or the ‘hurdle’, or the [expletive deleted]…

Just suddenly ceases to be a problem anymore.

The obstacle has been passed.

In life, this is called the ‘Eureka Moment’.

In GAMING however, it’s called ‘Leveling Up’.

There is a line. A limit is drawn, stating ‘you can do no more than this’, and it IS enforced.

You can’t cast that spell.

You can’t wear that armor.

You can’t wield that sword…

Until you reach the minimum requirements.

Until you reach that level.

For a MMO character, a ‘level up’ is a moment of transition, of transformation.

If you’re a MMO character, you can expect three things to happen:

A huge fanfare proclaiming to the world that you’ve leveled up;

A reward of status points and skill points -- and possibly certain level-restricted items and equipment “unlock”, allowing themselves to be used for the first time;

For a moment, just for a tiny moment in time, your body glows and there’s a sparkling ‘fizz’ enveloping you, as your character changes to something stronger, healthier, BETTER... with a new level limit.

Now imagine for a moment what would happen if the person getting the ‘level up’ was NOT an MMO character.

Imagine if, for example, the person was an abnormal human being, a rare wielder of magic.

A wizard, in particular.

One cannot become a wizard without having knowledge and more importantly some sense of magic.

There is fanfare.

There is reward.

There is transformation.

What does one sense during that moment?

And… transformation into what?

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Sheila screamed.

Sheila… SAW.

She saw the TRUTH.

She had no choice.

She tried closing her eyes, but that just made her vision turn inwards.

Into herself.

Sheila saw the TRUTH about herself.

She saw her TRUE place in the universe, and just how little she mattered in it.

She saw ALL of her virtues, and ALL of her faults.

ALL of her victories, and ALL of her failures.

She saw her own birth, and she saw her own d—

Crying, she pried open her eyes with her own fingers.

There was pain, and she saw that her nails had drawn blood.

“Someone, ANYONE, MAKE IT STOP!”

Suddenly, there was warmth.

Her hands… were warm.

Someone... was holding… her hands.

A nun... with half her face covered up... was holding her hands.

She looked worried.

She looked--

And Sheila SAW her.

Teresa Gedder.

Sister Teresa Gedder.

Acolyte of Ilya.

Toy of Ilya.

Servant of Ilya.

Pawn of Ilya.

She saw Teresa’s past.

She knew as if she were there, about the fire, about her family, about how three souls—

“You are the one who speaks for Gods, who speaks for Truth, who speaks with violence. I SEE now. That’s what he meant by [party]. He wasn’t trying to deceive us. You too…”

Sheila giggled.

She saw on the—she saw on Sister Teresa Gedder’s face that she sounded a bit mad.

Somehow, she didn’t care anymore.

It didn’t matter.

She herself didn’t matter.

“You three… will join us.”

She felt herself toppling over, her mind was—

Turning out the light.

Shutting down for the night.

Good night.

Time to let the bed bugs bite.

Don’t be a fright.

Fright?

Oh, right:

Sheila managed with the last of her consciousness to half-whimsically, half-sadly point at the nun.

“And all your first loves will be in vain.”

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An elf was staring at Daniel Bowen. It was a deep, longing stare.

It was an uncomfortable, and yet not entirely unpleasant feeling, to be looked with such desire.

It wasn’t sexual.

At least, he hoped it wasn’t sexual.

Although who can tell with elves?

He knew that look.

He saw it often enough from his publisher.

It wasn’t the look of “take your clothes off before I RIP them off”, but more a look of greed.

A look of “you have something I WANT very, very badly”.

He took the cell door key from the guard.

The staring… didn’t intensify that much.

So… it’s not about your freedom…

Money?

As treasurer for the Bowen estate he had access to quite a lot of it, but…

No. You can make gold coins and daggers appear, so it’s not financial…

Power?

He did have clout with a number of important people, but…

He yawned again. He had been yawning a lot.

I should be asleep in bed by now after having been up all night, but no. SOMEONE just had to teleport in via a giant glowy pyramid thing and get the guards all riled up…

Damn. I can’t think.

It’s not money, it’s not power, what else would he want from me?

Something I’m carrying?

Does he want the knife and gold piece back?

The women nearby started whispering excitedly among themselves.

“Look at how the kid is looking at him… it’s gotta be that, right?”

“Oh my, really? HIM? Oooohhh myyyyy!”

“I think it’s beautiful… true love… without barriers…”

“Do you think Mr. Bowen knows… you know, about that?”

“Oh my! OH MY!”

“I wonder if he knows that song?”

“You mean the one about elf ears?”

“Yeah yeah! That one!”

The annoying chatterboxes seemed to be confused about the situation.

The prospect of him and this elf boy…

Having a…

NO.

NO WAY IN HELL.

NO WAY IN NINE HELLS.

“OH MY! OH MY!!!”

SHUT UP! SHUT UP, YOU DAMN COWS!

-- was what he was thinking.

What instead came out of his rigidly stiff smiling mouth was,

“Dear ladies, I’m SURE you all have things that need your attention. Lord Bowen has ordered the release of these two people so I’m sure you’ll all have your chance to meet with them LATER. Gentlemen?”

He motioned at the two jail guards.

“Could you KINDLY escort these nice ladies OUT, please?”

He waited for peace to return.

Then he waited some more for calm to return to his mind.

I REALLY need to go to bed…

He fumbled the key into the cell door.

That was his mistake.

Healz Pleaze, the elf boy, shoved the door open with strength MUCH greater than he expected and advanced upon him.

He could hear swords being pulled from scabbards behind him as the guards began to leap forwards.

But it was already too late.

His hands were grabbed, preventing his escape.

Holding him in place, as a beautiful, young, silver-haired elf in a girl’s purest white one-piece dress INVADED his personal space.

Looking up at him with glittering purple eyes that drew him in, and a smile that lit up the room...

* THUMP! *

He felt his heart leap up in his chest.

He felt his dry throat swallow.

The world slowed down as he awaited what the girl (no, it’s a boy, damn it!) would say:

“I come to you for training!”

So now you know why things got confusing. On her last level-up, Sheila saw the TRUTH about Healz Pleaze. "So yeah, that girl you liked? That you were starting to feel, maybe, you might...? -- Uh no, that's a boy. And an alien. And a reincarnated fat geezer. And he doesn't think of you the same way." -- You gotta admit, that would make ANYONE plenty confused and distrustful.