by G. R. Cooper
He looked through the door and saw a small cave that narrowed down until it was no higher than his thighs. He crouched and made his way into the hole. He fought his way through a bramble, then found himself outside, duck-walking into the light and grass next to the northwest road out of Edonis.
"What?" asked Snorri breathlessly as he crossed the road flanked by Rydra and Bear.
Wulfgar pulled up short. The trio was running across the road, just as they had been when he first entered the cave. He stood, turning to fully face his friends as they joined him on the lip of the road's ditch.
"I found a little cave," he began slowly. He held up his hands to stop his friends, "But there's nothing worth seeing. Never mind." He smiled sheepishly, "Sorry." He flicked his eyes back to the cave entrance. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, only a small warren suitable for a small animal, he climbed back onto the road and led his friends back to the camp where Lauren was still piling wood into a small fire-pit she'd lined with stones.
She smiled as they joined her, "What was all of the excitement about?"
"I just got my profession quest," he answered as the group sat around the pit.
Wulfgar looked up into the confused faces of his friends. He shrugged, then smiled, pulling open his herb pouch.
"Step back," he motioned toward Lauren. When she did he held forth his right hand, full of plant matter, then activated the fire shot spell. A fireball formed from the goat's rue, motherwort, and mountain mint in his hand and leapt into the stack of wood. The small woodpile burst into flame as the ball poured its energy into the kindling.
"Nice!" said Rydra, "I assume we're now in the presence of a mighty sorcerer!" He laughed.
"Damn," chuckled Lauren, "I'd never have spent my gold on that Light spell scroll if I'd known one of my buddies was going to be able to do it like that," she snapped her fingers.
"Buddies?", thought Wulfgar, "is that where we're at?" Neither had mentioned the previous night's coupling during the day's ride. Wulfgar groaned inwardly; he'd always hated the ambiguities that seemed endemic in sexual politics. He'd never known why people couldn't just say what they felt. Then he laughed at himself - he was as guilty as anyone.
"But how?" asked Snorri.
Wulfgar shrugged again, "I assume you mean how in reference to the amount of time it should take me to go into a small cave, get my fancy new profession and learn a few choice skills?"
Snorri nodded.
"I don't know what to say. It looks like what took me about half an hour happened in the blink of an eye for you guys." He looked around at his friend's faces, "I mean, we all know that this world operates on a different timescale than the outer world. Much faster. I guess that there are places within this world that operate at even higher frequencies." He shrugged again, "I don't know, but that's all I can come up with."
"Like in the guild hall," added Lauren.
Wulfgar nodded, "Yeah," then to the other two. "When I first went into the magic user's guild hall, they booted Lauren and Bear," he scratched to dog's ears, "back out into the city before beginning my introduction. That must have taken five or ten minutes, but when it was over, I rejoined these two and it was as if no time had passed for them."
"Interesting," said Rydra, "but it seems odd that I haven't heard anything of this sort before."
Lauren shrugged, "Me neither. Maybe it's new. Maybe it's a high-level spell that the guild master has only recently learned."
"Or maybe," laughed Snorri, "it's top secret info that this dork wasn't supposed to tell us about." He handed a sharpened stick with a cut of meat skewered to Lauren, then began preparing another. She dropped the meaty end into the flame, which began to sizzle as fat almost immediately began to melt into the fire.
Wulfgar laughed, "In that case, it's their fault for not swearing me to secrecy." He accepted the second stick from Snorri and thrust his dinner into the fire next to Lauren's.
Bear growled.
"Sorry," laughed Snorri tossing a raw steak in front of the dog's snout. Bear began chewing happily.
Wulfgar stared into the flames, thinking. He suddenly realized that he'd probably made a huge mistake in showing off his new ability. He was now out of the agents required for the fire shot spell.
"Do you need anything to use the Light spell?" he asked Lauren.
She shook her head, pulling her now nicely charred meat out of the direct flame to finish cooking. She began rotating the meat slowly.
"Nope, you just need to have the spell and enough mana." She pulled the meat into her face, eying it then then pressing on the steak with her free thumb before putting it back near the fire, "But you can only really spark a flame with it. It never really gets more powerful or anything," she smiled, "and it's not like I can launch it over distance. It's really just a fancy match. A Zippo. There are a few little spells like that anyone can use. No magic level is required, you just need to read the scroll and have the minimum intelligence required."
Wulfgar nodded thoughtfully.
Lauren then laughed loudly, "If you guys are judging me by how long you want to cook your meat, I hope you like it well done, cuz that's how I eat it."
Wulfgar pulled his steak out of the fire, "How do you tell if it's medium rare?"
Lauren waved his steak toward herself, he held it to her. She reached out and pressed her thumb into it.
"You're almost there. Make a circle with your middle finger and thumb, then press into the ball of the thumb. When the steak feels like that, when you get the same sort of pressure on the meat, that's about mid rare."
Wulfgar held his left hand up to his right, which was holding the stick, and pushed into the area between his thumb and index finger. It was kind of squishy, but pushed back. He then pressed into his steak. They felt similar. He nodded.
"OK," she said, "now pull your meat away from the fire and let it rest. Five minutes. And don't pull it off the stick yet or all the juices will run out."
He did as she told him, "Farm girl knowledge?"
She shook her head, "Fine dining girl knowledge. I was working my way through school waiting tables and running food," she shrugged and smiled. "You pick up a lot."
"How about medium?" asked Snorri.
"Same thing, just use your ring finger and thumb instead of the middle finger. Pinky for well done, or index finger for rare."
"Learn something new everyday," muttered Snorri while digging into his pack. He pulled out a large bottle and uncorked it between his teeth. He passed it to Lauren.
She sniffed it then took a happy draw.
"Mmmm, that's wonderful."
"What is it?" asked Wulfgar.
She just handed him the bottle.
He held the opening to his nose. Wine. Red. Pungent. He tilted it into his mouth. It was, without question, some of the best wine he'd ever had.
"Wow." He passed the bottle to Rydra as Snorri pulled a quartet of baguettes from his pack.
Wulfgar took the bread and bit into it. The crust was perfect - it almost bit back. The interior was light yet substantive. Like the wine, it was as good as, if not better, than any he'd ever had. He pulled the steak to his mouth and took a bite, directly off of the cooking stick.
His mouth seemed to flood in flavor as the tender meat surrendered to his teeth. He could make out thyme and other herbs.
"Holy crap," he muttered in between chews, then followed the steak with another bite of bread. He greedily accepted the bottle back from Rydra and washed it all down with what tasted like the best Rhone vintage. He handed the bottle back to Lauren before looking at Snorri appreciatively.
"You?" he asked.
The big man laughed and shook his head, "Nope. Got it from my favorite purveyor."
"A player?"
"Yeah. This guy is a genius. He puts every skill point into his cooking. And it shows. Guy's making a fortune. I mean, anyone can cook and it'll be pretty good, but what this guy can do is magic. Probably literally. He's got this wonderland store wit
h a giant walk-in for dry aging his beef. A bakery that's out of this world and the best cellar in the city."
"It's expensive as hell," Snorri continued, "but worth it. It's like the food goes right into your brain and activates the pleasure center." The others nodded, too busy eating to respond.
"Anyway, this meal's my treat. We ain't gonna be eating this good for the whole trip."
Wulfgar burped his gratitude, took another swig of wine and passed the bottle to Snorri, then leaned back on his outstretched arms and looked into the darkening sky. High, thin clouds scuttled across a purpling, emerging star field. They had another two days travel until they reached the mountains where their quest lay. He was happy about that. Happy to be traveling lightly and enjoying the perfect weather and better company. He looked west, to the mountain range that was their destination. The sky seemed to flash green, for just a second, before the last of the sun left the day behind and night settled upon them.
He smiled. No TV to watch. Nothing to do but sleep, to be up before the dawn, readying for the next day's travel.
"If I stay here much longer, I'm going to turn into a morning person," he muttered, leaning back against Bear's already sleeping bulk.
"What?" asked Lauren as she joined him and curled up in the crook of his arm.
"Nothing," he whispered as he kissed the top of her head and looked back into the fire. He watched the flames until he fell asleep, perfectly comfortable within and without.
Wulfgar dreamed. He relived space battles. Starships flared and burst. He was just about to unleash hell from a Grizzly class cruiser onto a hapless destroyer named the HMS Westy when the scene shifted, changed.
He was in a large chamber. The room was dimly lit by a few sputtering torches hanging in sconces along the walls. Squared, the space looked to be about ten meters on a side, with two rows of plain stone columns - seemingly carved out of the rock like the rest of the room - running down the middle. The polished stone of the floor and walls reflected the fire light and gave the room an eerie feeling. It looked like it was moving, with shadows playing around the entire area. He was standing in front of a door. The door had a bas relief skull carved into it.
He was in the same room in which he'd begun his profession quest. Standing near the first door he'd gone through, the door that led into the dark space where he'd first found his spell book.
Wulfgar heard movement behind him and turned. He saw, walking forcefully down the area between the two rows of pillars, a medium height human, male. His hair, long and dark, hung over his shoulders. A group of uniformly silver hairs hung in a rope from his right temple over his collarbone. He looked up at Wulfgar sardonically.
"You made yourself pretty tall. Trying to make up for some limitation in your real life?"
Wulfgar smiled as the man reached him.
"It's time you made a choice," he began recalling what Jeremiah had said to him. "And it's a life altering choice. You can only make it once, but you don't have to make it now. If you choose to go through this door, you choose to dedicate yourself to a profession. You choose to become a Magus of Evening."
"I am Wulfgar, Magus of Evening."
The man shook his head in exasperation, "Whatever. Just get on with the quest thing, OK?" He snapped his fingers. Wulfgar was overcome by an instant dislike of the guy.
Nobody ever said that I'd only be dealing with wonderful people, he thought.
The man snapped his fingers again, "Hey, dumb-ass. Can you snap to it? I'm not really interested in playing out whatever bullshit Dungeons and Dragons fantasy arr-pee-gee crap that gets you off. I live here. This is my life. I'm not playing a game, and I really don't have time for you morons who don't seem to get that."
Wulfgar raised his hands in supplication, "Fair enough." He raised one hand further, pointing his thumb over his shoulder, "Through that door is where the quest begins."
"Good. What's involved?"
Wulfgar shrugged. "You get your spell-book. Learn a couple of spells, solve a couple of puzzles. Then they let you know that your quest won't actually be finished until you get roped back here, like me, to help some other newbie through the process."
"Jesus, was that so hard? Why the Elrond imitation?"
What a dick!
Wulfgar said, "In any case, welcome to the profession. I hope to run into you someday," he turned and began walking away. He didn't know where he'd go in the small room, he just wanted to get away from the guy.
"Any tips? On the quest."
"Yeah," called Wulfgar over his shoulder, "in the room with the three doors, pick the door on the far right."
"That was mean," laughed the dark haired girl.
After Wulfgar had walked a few paces, he heard a door close behind him and the scene again shifted. He was once again standing in front of the raised throne in the guild-hall. The girl, her long dark hair pulled into a lengthy pony-tail, was sitting cross-legged looking down at him.
"Did I fail the quest?" he asked.
"Nope. There's really no way you can fail the quest. Even if there were," she shrugged and smiled softly, "he was kind of a dick."
She hopped down from the throne and walked to him. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Her eyes, almost purple, looked up at him, smiling.
"Is there a message you want to leave for him?"
"Did he pick the right hand door?"
She nodded.
"Did he make it? Make the jump to the bridge?"
She shook her head, giggled.
He took the scroll and quill she was holding out to him and began writing.
Did I say the door on the right? Oops. My bad. I meant the door on the left.
He handed her the scroll.
"That was mean," she repeated lightly.
"What happens to him?" he asked, "I mean, does he fail the quest?"
She shook her head again, "No, not really. He still gets all the spells and skills. He still gets called on to help, or not help," she glanced back up at Wulfgar, "a new initiate."
"Then what was the point? Of the whole thing."
"Two-fold, really. First, it was designed to give initiates training in their new skills. To give safe, well, safe-ish, places to learn your new spells and skills."
"Second," she continued while climbing back onto the throne. She dropped onto the padded seat and turned, her legs folded beneath her long, black dress. "Is so that we can get a look at you. To see, a little, what kind of person you are."
"Some professions are pretty lackadaisical about their membership. It's nothing more than a title and a specialized skill-set. As a Magus, however, you may be held to somewhat higher standards. If we decide that you are, for lack of a better word, worthy, you can rise in guild leadership. That can open many very interesting paths that aren't available to outsiders."
"And if I'm not worthy, I assume those paths are closed to me as well."
She nodded.
"What about that guy?" he asked, "Where would you rate his worthiness?"
"We really don't decide based solely on the initiation quest." She smiled, "Maybe he was having a bad day. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed." She shrugged, "We'll keep watching him."
"So you can watch us? I assume from afar."
She smiled broadly, pointed two fingers on her right hand toward her own eyes, then swiveled her hand until those fingers were pointing at his eyes.
"Hey," he said suddenly remembering, "How do you do the whole time scale thing? How do you make it so that time passes normally for me, seemingly, but no time passes for my friends?"
"Wait," he continued before she could respond, "I'm dreaming, right? I'm currently asleep. How the hell can I be asleep next to the road yet here talking to you?"
She twisted an imaginary key in front of her lips, then threw it away.
It's magic, she mouthed silently.
Chapter 3
Wulfgar sat up suddenly, startling both Lauren and Bear awake. The sun was just beginning to lighten the east. The
flood of his dream rushed into his head. He remembered, with perfect clarity, the events that seemed to have taken place while he was asleep. It felt almost like a dream within a dream; a game within a game within a game.
"Congratulations! You have completed the initiation quest Passing the Torch from the Magic User's Guild."
"Congratulations! You have gained the professional skill Familiar!"
"Congratulations! You have gained a level! You are now level 4! You have 2 Attribute points to spend!"
"Whoah," muttered Wulfgar, shaking the sleep from his head. He felt a little overwhelmed with the sudden influx of information. Dazed.
"I need some caffeine."
"And here we are in the only spot in the known universe that's not spitting distance from a Starbucks," yawned Lauren sitting up. She looked up into his face, "What's up?"
He looked into the fire, reflecting that it seemed that either wood burned a lot longer in this world or his friends had been tending the flame through the night. He shook his head.
"Weird night. Dreams that weren't dreams." He looked down at Lauren, who was rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Bear rolled onto his back and continued to snore. Snorri and Rydra were still curled into themselves on the other sides of the fire-pit. Smoke rose lazily into the early morning.
"I completed my professional quest. In my sleep." He raised one eyebrow, "Weird, right?"
"Very," she whispered, yawning again. She stretched her arms out then began to rub Bear's belly. "Tell me about it."
He shrugged, "There's not much to tell. I was basically just shepherding another initiate into his own professional quest. Once I'd done that, I was in front of the girl in the guild hall. She put the rubber stamp on me, telling me I was in. A made member of the magical mafia."
"Are you sure it wasn't just a dream."
He nodded, "Mmmhmm. When I woke up just now I got flooded with the congrats messages. Also," he grinned, "it was enough to push me over the edge. You went to sleep with a lowly level three rogue and woke up with a mighty level four sorcerer in good standing with the Guild of the Magi!"
"I'm humbled to be in your presence."