Chapter 2: Chapter 2 – A Choice

I sojourn now in blessed lands of the Rawesan for a time, the birthplace of Her church. Many are the prophets who venture into the deep deserts in search of guidance, but few return with the divine scripture. Those who do are often blessed with the gift-spark and write on parchment, paper, or vellum the instruction of the divine that others may know greater communion with Her.

- The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney 376 A.C

As suddenly as my soul torture began, it stopped. I sensed a shift and I was no longer there, but elsewhere. With a sudden sense of vertigo, I fell face forward into what felt like earth and grass. Curled in a fetal position, I whimpered as the aftershock of pain played across my mortal body. Shadowy purple tendrils continued to whip across my consciousness, yet fainter now, slowly replaced by a plethora of error messages. I kept on begging for the agony and torment to end before exhaustion finally claimed me. I fell into a nightmare-fuelled sleep filled with visions of the deaths of everyone I had ever loved or known.

I awoke naked, gibbering nonsense to an uncaring universe. Dull sunlight mercilessly pounded my senses as I tried unsuccessfully to raise myself on fever drunk feet, retreating instead to curl on a soft bed of grass. Rocking back and forth to a rhythm known only to the mad, I chanted “Not real...not real,” to myself. Over and over, a litany to a world that did not care.

Looking across the sea of green I saw that it was a grey and dark day, clouds pregnant with rain on the distant horizon. At the edges of my vision, the hint of shadowy things scuttled back into the recesses of my mind. Across from me in the semi-distance, I saw a picture from what felt like a lifetime long past; the imposing tree on the hill. I was vulnerable, naked, and alone in a place known only to my madness.

Memories from another place smashed into my consciousness, a high trilling of sound flooding my senses. I wrapped my head in my hands and closed my eyes, willing the world to go away.

As inexorable as time itself, a message played across my inner eyes in a bold script;

CHOOSE YOUR CALLING

Flustered I could not help but be drawn to the message, and as my awareness brushed against understanding new text was shown to me;

INITIATE and below another choice STUDENT

Just as I was musing on the incongruity of ‘Student,’ the text flashed static across my vision and there was a ringing in my ears. The ‘Student’ option had changed to display ‘Acolyte.’ Could I get any crazier? I felt instinctively that I had to choose quickly or there would be dire consequences. I knew in my gut that the ‘Acolyte’ must be some sort of hidden class. Those were usually harder to play but tended to have some real endgame advantages if you could master their skills. With nothing else to go on, no wikis, guides, or even friends to explain the choices in front of me, I mentally chose Acolyte.

I heard a rumble from within as text blazed and imprinted across my mind. A rushing sense of power filled me, a feeling of completeness.

 

STATUS

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