I nodded and let my teeth separate. The orb was cool on my tongue. The precious object felt like a rock or a marble. I closed my eyes and swallowed, then immediately lost consciousness.
Muffin
The next thing I knew, I was standing in the home I had grown up in before my father had been arrested so many years ago—a house that reminded me of happier times.
Other than the artifacts of my youth, the parlor was empty. The shelves of precious books looked exactly like they did in my memory. I glanced around, taking in the scene...until someone cleared their throat. I spun, my hand frantically going to my belt, but there was no shiv there. A high voice said, “It looks exactly like your memory because it comes from your memory.”
At first, I couldn’t find the speaker until I looked down. Then I goggled. A giant rat in a tracksuit and a dapper hat was striking a pose while holding an ornate bow. The enormous rodent continued, “We don’t have forever. I should probably introduce myself. First off, I am not a rat,” said the rat. My eyes must have been round as plates.
Is the rat reading my thoughts? I wondered.
“Yes, I can hear your thoughts, and no, I am not a rat. I am a capybara, and I am a girl, not an ‘it’.”
The rat really did look different than other rats I’d seen. Capybaras…I’d heard of them, but they lived on a different continent on Ludus. It still looked like a rat to me, though. I closed my mouth with a click and asked the first question that came to mind. “Why is there a talking rat in my house?”
“This is a memory, oh brilliant one. And I am not a rat.”
I narrowed my eyes. It was bad enough that I’d had a terrible few days. My best friend had died, and I’d been on the run—all while forcing myself not to cry my eyes out. My entire life, such as it was, had been destroyed. After enduring all of that, I refused to be disrespected by a well-dressed rodent in my own house. My hands balled into fists, and I took a step forward, but the rat just disappeared and reappeared on top of a bookshelf.
The creature sighed. “That was incredibly stupid. I’m trying to be nice since we need to work together, but you keep thinking of me as a rat, and you’re acting like a fucking idiot.”
I felt a spark of growing anger, but held myself still, forcing myself to think. What was my last memory? Oh right, the crazy High Priestess and the orb. Suddenly, the situation was much less confusing. This smug little rat was still getting on my nerves, though. I thought rat as strongly as I could.
The rat narrowed her eyes at me and displayed long front teeth. “You’re not very smart, are you? I’m here to help you, moron. Why are you trying to irritate me?”
“Right back at you, rat. This is just making me angry.” I frowned. “I’m guessing you are somehow connected to the orb I just swallowed. Maybe you’re a helper put in place by Enheduanna. We are standing in a memory of my childhood. I can even see the coloring book I used to play with on one of the shelves. I can put those pieces together, but you don’t really fit. If you’re a helper and we are in my imagination, why are you carrying a bow?”
“That is...a surprisingly good question,” said the rat in surprise. “But if you think of me as a rat, or call me rat one more time, I’m not going to help you anymore. My name is Muffin.”
I almost called the rat a rat again, but common sense prevailed. I grudgingly thought of her as Muffin and asked, “What is this place?”
“You are barbaric, but you are doing a good job of controlling your emotions. This is good data. It seems like when the orb put you to sleep and started repairing your body, somehow your consciousness got some sort of aggressive stimulus after you became self-aware in this space. You are adjusting on the fly, though. Fascinating.”
“Yes, I’m sure it’s riveting. What are you? What’s up with the bow?”
The ra—Muffin sniffed, and explained, “I am the controller for the orb you swallowed. Carrying a bow is part of my character. Unlike haphazard, modular Dolos orbs that appear as a figure from the memory of their host, Enheduanna orbs all have a single, preset guide, different for each device. Think of me as your orb.
“As you can see,” Muffin gestured at herself, “I am a capybara, a large rodent. For your information, I am considered very attractive for my kind.”
Thoughts began to form in my head, but I ignored them, sensing they’d just cause me trouble. Then I focused on the ra—Muffin and asked, “Alright, what do you do? What am I supposed to do.”
“Again, good questions.” The ra—rodent girl nodded approvingly. “This is where you will interface with me, now that you’ve become orb-Bonded, and every time you achieve a new rank in the future. You will attain ranks by swallowing spirit stones that you can find on Ludus or in dungeons. You are at first rank now, and you will get to second rank with one spirit stone, third rank with two spirit stones, fourth rank with three spirit stones, and so forth.”
“Unholy rot! That many?” I exclaimed. “Spirit stones cost even more than Dolos orbs do! How in the rotting hell am I supposed to find that many?”
“I’m sure you will figure something out. If you don’t, we won’t see each other as often. Won’t that be a pity?” The smug ra—capybara girl shrugged. She added, “Even if you manage to find a huge stash of spirit stones, you still can’t advance until I think you are ready. I find this entire task silly, but I am an AI still, after all. I can’t refuse my core mission.”
“What does that mean?”
“Don’t worry about it. You don’t have the background yet to understand. Just think of me as a really smart spirit.”
I frowned. “Okay, spirit...Muffin. What am I supposed to actually do here?”
“Ah yes, you choose your new abilities here, or in some new setting you will find yourself in. You will find me when you have swallowed enough spirit stones, when I think you are ready to achieve the next level, and when you are sleeping.”
“This all sounds complicated. What abilities?”
“You get advancement points every time you achieve a new rank,” explained Muffin. For your first rank, you get ten, plus a choice of your main power.”
“Power?”
“Yes. I have accessed your memories. I know that Enheduanna explained some of how her orbs differ from Dolos orbs. However, her explanation left something to be desired. Basically, Dolos orbs, created by the god of this world, give a wide, shallow variety of powers through magic. Enheduanna orbs focus on certain powers and grow them much faster.
“For instance, an orb-Bonded with fire magic will usually use fire projectiles in combat, so most of their other abilities won’t be used as much. If you choose energy blasts with an Enheduanna orb and specialize in fire, your attacks will be far, far stronger than a standard orb-Bonded fire mage of your level—even one with a modular orb like yours.”
I thought I understood. To clarify, I asked, “So what you’re saying is that instead of a whole bunch of smaller, less powerful abilities, I will get a few stronger ones with an orb like you?”
“Exactly. You will also have access to some of the same abilities as a standard modular Dolos orb, like enhanced strength, better senses and things like that.”
“But I will have to use these...points?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Alright, then let’s start.”
The giant rodent jumped down to the floor. “Even as long as this took to get you up to speed, I was afraid it would take longer. You truly are very intelligent. It’s too bad you tend to think of smashing your problems before talking them through.” Muffin’s nose twitched, and she stroked her whiskers.
I narrowed my eyes. “You know, you are really not a very friendly capybara girl or AI or whatever. Why did I get stuck with you?”
Muffin drew herself up proudly and said, “I don’t have to be nice. I’m the best, and you’d better remember that. The world is dangerous. Even more so for you now that you are working for Enheduanna. I was chosen for you because working with me will give you the best ch
ance of survival. Duanna is helping you...unfortunately for me.”
That was a cheery thought.
Super Powers
Muffin led me over to a bookshelf. Over her shoulder, she said, “I have done an analysis of your personality. You are not very good with authority unless you respect someone. On top of that, you don’t particularly like me. Therefore there is no point in directly giving you my recommendation. Listing all of your choices out loud would also be a waste of time since you do not learn best that way.
“I have compromised by putting all of your choices into that book there.” The capybara girl pointed at a tome resting about eye level for me.
“So that has the stuff I can spend my points on?” I asked.
“It has your best choices, yes.
I don’t know how I knew, but I could just sense she was being deceptive. “And what else? What are you not telling me?”
Muffin’s whiskers twitched, and she made the capybara version of a frown. “I have taken the liberty of omitting powers and abilities that are least suited for you.”
I gave her a flat look. “Put them back in.”
“But—”
“Now.”
The spirit—AI—thing glared at me before gesturing at the book. The cover glowed for a moment before looking utterly nondescript again. “All of your choices are included now, but I have marked the ones that I still think are a bad match for you, as well as a few that would be the best fit.”
“Thank you,” I said. There was no point in being nasty now that I’d gotten my way, even though I had a feeling that Muffin would have refused if she could have. I removed the book from the shelf and started flipping through. My eyes widened in surprise, eventually turning to delight. Maybe being orb-Bonded won’t be so bad…
There were pages and pages of powers and abilities. Most of them had simple descriptions. To my side, Muffin said, “Descriptions, even brief ones like you are seeing, are unique to Enheduanna orbs. Regular orb-Bonded do not get this kind of help. I can only answer basic questions, so don’t ask me about anything more than you see in the book.”
I nodded absently, remembering that Muffin could read my mind, and kept reading. Some of the entries definitely caught my interest. I even saw the power that Duanna had told me that I naturally possess.
Adomopathy
Ability to mimic movements or skills, drastically reducing or even eliminating training time.
I could see how that would be a useful ability, and I wondered to what extent my natural ability extended. There was no reason to doubt Enheduanna. I decided to take her guidance and look for some other abilities to complement the one I already had.
Replication (objects)
The ability to clone objects
Replication (self)
The ability to create personal clones
Now that was an interesting power. I looked closer at the entry and noticed a line of numbers to the side of each ability. “Hmmm,” I murmured. They were point values for new ranks.
“That is how many points it costs to buy the ability, and then to raise its level,” said Muffin, obviously reading my mind again.
“What do the ranks do?” I asked.
“They make the abilities stronger. Some of them allow you to choose ways to evolve it. The only example I’m allowed to give is adding an available element to the Energy Blasts ability, like fire or electricity.”
I flipped a few pages of the book and found the skill that Muffin was talking about.
Energy Blasts
Fire bolts of energy.
The margin of the book had a flashing arrow pointing to the power, indicating that Muffin thought it was a good one for me to pick. There was a little drawing of a capybara winking at me, too. That’s a little over the top, I thought.
“It may not be subtle, but it got your attention,” said Muffin, her voice wry. “I highly recommend that power for you.”
I frowned and considered Energy Blasts. When I concentrated on the entry, new text appeared beneath it.
If chosen:
-Choose part of the body blasts come from
-Choose element
“Oh, okay; I get it,” I said, slowly nodding. “There are a lot of possibilities here.”
“Yes, much more so than modular Dolos orbs,” replied Muffin.
“What does ‘modular’ mean?”
The capybara girl explained, “Some Dolos orbs automatically give the orb-Bonded certain powers. These types of ‘Bonded never meet an orb controller like me. Other orbs give an element of choice and points to spend, just like yours. These are modular orbs.”
“Huh,” I mused aloud, flipping through my book. “So how many points do I get again?”
“Ten for your first rank. For your second rank, you will have eleven.”
I focused on some of the abilities I was seeing. Another strange one caught my attention.
Mendacity Detection
Sense lies
At first, I thought this power was kind of underwhelming. Then I imagined someone having a mendacity power in the legal system or in governments. Wow.
“Why do some of the costs change? This one keeps turning from five to zero,” I said, pointing.
“That’s because you haven’t chosen your primary power. Your primary power is free, at least at first rank.”
“What?” This was new. “You never said anything about that before. Explain,” I demanded.
“Your primary power is automatically added when you integrate with me, the same as a standard orb-Bonded with a modular orb gets a magic ability. Since you swallowed an Enheduanna orb, you get to choose now, after, instead of before you actually take your orb. It’s another improvement that Enheduanna implemented. No directions are needed.
“Primary powers are your strongest power, rank for rank.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So what you’re saying is that with my ten points, I can buy multiple powers? And that is on top of whatever main, or primary power I choose?”
“Yes. That is why all the powers have a point value.”
My eyes opened wide, and I began pouring over the book in my hands with even greater interest. Some of the entries were fascinating.
Demonic Attributes
Choose a physical, demonic characteristic or physical ability
I narrowed my eyes and focused on the entry. The text that appeared beneath it read,
Prerequisite: Endurance 1
Choose an attribute, including but not limited to: tail, claws, wall crawling, venomous bite, etc.
Wow. I could imagine ways that power would be useful, especially a tail. I pursed my lips at the prerequisite. “Endurance 1?” I asked.
“That is a standard type of upgrade that all modular orbs offer. You can find these types of general upgrades in the back of the book,” said Muffin.
I flipped to the back, and found Endurance 1, or Endurance, Rank 1. 2 points, I read to myself. That was the cost for the first rank.
The entire concept was alien to me, but I was starting to understand how the system worked. Suddenly, Muffin said, “No wonder Enheduanna is interested in you. Your mind moves quickly, and you are surprisingly adaptable. I have been monitoring your thought processes. Maybe you aren’t as pitiful as I originally believed.”
I ignored the rodent girl and just dove back into the book. A few other powers caught my attention before I dismissed them for various reasons.
Miasma
Generate a cloud of gas or other particles
Hyper Awareness
Senses extended 360 degrees
For Hyper Awareness, further text revealed I could choose types of awareness. Interesting.
As I perused the entries, I started really paying attention to the ranks and trying to remember what I knew about orb-Bonded. First rank ‘Bonded were usually weak, or at least weaker than higher ranked ‘Bonded, right? Suddenly some of the abilities in my book didn’t seem quite as powerful. Like, if I could clone myself, what if
my clone just stood there, or was half my size?
“I cannot confirm your train of thought, but I can tell you that you are surprisingly wise,” said Muffin.
The whole mind reading thing was getting annoying, so I thought, Let me read in peace, as loudly as I could. Muffin tsked so she must have gotten the message.
I kept skimming through the book, looking through it several times. Some of the powers that were marked as bad fits for me kept drawing my focus back like a leaf in a whirlpool. I did math in my head, figuring out how the different combinations could work with ten points.
Muffin kept moving closer, staring intently at me, her body language growing more agitated. The reason for her distress wasn’t hard to figure out. I was seriously considering some of the powers listed in the book that had been noted as bad choices. My mind was almost made up, too. I trusted my gut a hell of a lot more than some imaginary spirit—upright walking animal girl.
Muffin twitched her whiskers and muttered, “At least she didn’t call me a rat again.”
I reviewed my options one last time, adding up the points in my head again. “Alright, I have made up my mind,” I said.
“You really shouldn’t go with that set of abilities,” sighed the capybara, tapping her bow on the ground.
“Yes, I know you think so.”
“You don’t understand. I don’t think so, I know so,” said Muffin with a flat tone. “I am more knowledgeable and intelligent than you can hope to understand. My recommendation is to choose one of the abilities I outlined for you and then specialize in it. If you choose Energy Blasts, you could all but ensure your survival to second rank. You are adding up all sorts of random abilities. This approach is inefficient. In fact, one of your choices has no hint text. I don’t even know what it does.”
I nodded and said, “Yes. It’s a risk, but I’m curious about it, and I always trust my gut. Plus, I get the feeling that some abilities you’re trying to keep me from buying will grow in power later, but are weak to begin with. I’m guessing that Enheduanna put you here to try to keep me alive, and these powers make my survival less certain.”
Mitigating Risk Page 6