“I’m sorry” The young woman who was manning the ‘Enquiries’ counter at the local branch of the ECRA said with a polite smile. “But all information regarding [Space Magic] and derivative or similar skills is restricted.”

I stared dumbly at her for a few seconds. “All of them?”

Her smile grew slightly strained, and an uncomfortable silence descended as she did… something on her computer. Then her eyes lit up, as she found me an answer.

“There is the Demesne class of Powers which becomes available to everyone after their fifth class advancement that has something to do with space. Further information is restricted.” It was impressive how she could contort her smile into a way that screamed ‘have a nice day’.

I thanked her, a tad awkwardly, and left the counter. There were some guide pamphlets on one of the walls, one of which was entitled ‘Classes and You’. I leafed through it until I found the section on advancements and progression. I knew I needed 3 trial clears to advance the first time, and happily the progression didn’t seem to be too bad - the second advancement would take 6, the third would take 9… The fifth would take 15. So that was… 45 trials.

And I needed to be qualified for it, somehow. My last clear had only counted for my Path after all. Then again, I hadn’t been doing much in the way of artifice. I could but given my last experience with Talismania…

I shuddered. It had been nothing but horror and regret, and I could only hope that things would get easier from now on. Not that it seemed particularly likely.

Not that the meandering would bring me anywhere…

A red light on the wall suddenly began flashing.

“A minor gate to depth 12 has appeared thirty kilometres to the northwest of this branch.” A woman politely announced. “Please clear it.” There were two more Awakened in the room, having quiet conversations with the officials. They didn’t move, or even give a sign of having heard it. I waited.

One of them walked away from the counter, over to a coffee machine, and then went back again. The red light had stopped flashing as well.

Uncertainly I approached the counter. “Um.”

The woman looked at me unimpressed. “What uh… What’s the procedure for the gate?” She nodded briefly. “We announce the gate, and ECRA registrees clear it. If you would like to go for it, please fill out this form.” It was relatively clear from her tone of voice that she didn't actually expect me to do it.

I blinked, pulled over a chair, and filled it out with a mix of spite and curiousity. Then I was led to a car, and we were rushed to the gate.

This one was shimmer a pale green in the middle of a village green, and there were some adults shouting at some very stressed looking policemen.

I walked over. There were some doubts, which were smoothed over by paperwork. There were multiple concerns raised, because apparently keeping your children away from the glowing portal wasn’t common fucking sense.

And now, I was on my first ‘standard’ gate dive, but on hazard pay because I would have to drag the kids out without clearing the gate or them getting sop injured that it would trigger an Awakening.

I stepped through the gate, and onto a beach. It was an impossibly idyllic, tropical stretch of silver sand, by a storybook blue ocean. On my other side, a veritable wall of trees and greenery stretched. I frowned, and glanced at the sun that hung in the corner of my eye.

It stayed in the corner, moving as I moved my head. I shrugged and wrote it off as a weirdness of this gate. I glanced at the shimmering oval behind me, and then began counting my steps out loud as I walked down the beach.

Not blindly either - there were small footsteps that I was following.

I started running when I heard screaming, pounding away at the sand below me and shooting forward a dozen feet with each step. Now THAT felt good, and made the fact that there was a child screaming in fear ahead of me a tiny bit more bearable.

I saw them, running away from what looked like a writhing mass of crabs. Two of them were obviously crying, but the eldest of them was managing to hold it together and drag the others forward.

I jumped the last twenty meters and slammed my palm down onto the mass of crustaceans. The shock didn’t propagate very far, but the crabs immediately around my hand instantly pulped.

The mass scattered below me, but Newton’s laws really helped me out, and given how my barehanded attacks worked now… Well, I was already drifting back towards the children. I grabbed the slowest one, waited until she was clinging on to me, then grabbed the other two.

Then I poured on the speed. Just as well, because more crabs and some lobsters were beginning to crawl out from the waters, like a wave of reds, oranges, and some blacks and greens.

I outpaced them, naturally, but it was still horrifying, especially when spiders started scuttling out of the forest to fight them about twelve seconds before I crashed back out the gate.

There was much rejoicing, and I regretfully informed the officials that I would not be clearing that gate, and that it need a very heavy arachnophobia warning.

Then I went to a quiet café, and sat down until I couldn’t hear the clicking and hissing anymore. While I was there, a woman in red robes with a big NO SPIDERS sign on her back arrived, and went into the gate.

She came out a few minutes later, gave me a nod when she spotted me, and then we both went on our way as the gate flickered out of existence.