Now that how Sama got here is done, we go to others.

Twelve years ago...

Her heart was beating.

She could feel it, clear as day. She could also feel another heart beating, right next to hers, all around her. She felt warm and confined and comfortable , despite the fact that she wasn’t breathing.

And there was something glowing between her eyes, except her eyes were closed.

It took a bit to concentrate on it, and then it leapt up in front of her.

It was her Casting Matrix.

Well, holy shit, she thought, staring at it.

There it was, basically identical to what she’d had in game. There were things missing, which it took a few minutes to identify. The Divine and Warlock Valences and Flows had been stripped out and were not present, leaving her with just the Wizard and Sorcerer Valences of her Arcane Theurgy.

Even the Heartsong bonuses were absent for some reason.

So, why am I looking at a Power of Ten Casting Matrix? I’m not in game. I’m dead, she thought to herself.

But still, there it was, right in front of her. The Valences of Wizardry, her Primary Class. Spell Engrams in their orbits of power, waiting to be balanced out against one another in proper Star Magery, infused with form and power, ready to be unleashed. Complementing them, the blazing rings of her Sorcerous Bloodline, waiting for the Rune Engrams to set up on them, fixed and stable and ready to unleash their power through.

The floating forms of dozens of Metamagic Feats fluttered around like lost birds, and she realized that she’d lost all rep counts on them.

Well, of course I have, I’ve never actually Cast spells before, she mused, staring at the tableau.

Wizardry, the most flexible and versatile of the Casting classes, but also limited, because every spell had to be set and readied ahead of time. If you knew the spells and had the Metas, the things you could do were beyond any other Class. If you wanted spam, well, you’d better know your Reserves and your Siege.

Both of which were also hollow, thin spirals of energy that wanted to form, but were currently lacking.

Because she had never Cast spells.

Sorcery was more spammable. Same list of potential spells, but instead of Spell Engrams you could swap, you had a fixed set of Rune Engrams that did not change, and a pool of energy at each Valence you drew on to Cast those spells, in any order you wished until your supply was dry.

Arcane Theurgy combined Wizardry with Sorcery. The Valences of each form intersected, rather than avoided one another. She could use Wizardry with the power from her Sorcery Valences, or sacrifice the energy tied up in a Spell Engram to power a Rune Engram Sorcery spell instead.

That was Magery, the mark of a true Arcane Caster.

There were only five Engrams currently lit up. They were familiar spells, as they spiraled up in the familiar pattern of the Arcane Bloodline.

Humans, as a race, were non-magical. They only gained the potential for magic from outside Bloodlines coming in and having children, who then interbred with other humans, and so passed the potential down.

The Arcane Bloodline was often called a ‘mutt’ Bloodline, since it was what happened when all those alien, soulborn, primal, elemental, fey, divine, and whatever Bloodlines mixed together, and then stripped out all the racial bias for pure affinity to magic.

The first was the Valence 0 Cantrip Detect Magic; simple, efficient, indispensable, universal. Everybody needed it, but she didn’t have to pick it. Shards, the basic offensive spell that was the first ranged combat spell every arcane Caster learned, an evocation that had incredible potential if pursued properly. Invisibility, the classic illusion spell, defense, stealth, and evasion all in one. Dispel Magic, the classic Ward spell, countering spells, undoing them, possibly even taking them over. Dimension Door, the first of the powerful dimensional travel spells, naturally of Conjuration; the priceless ability to remove yourself beyond the range of someone who could threaten you, or to enter an area that was impassable. The last was Greater Flight, of Transmutation, altering the rules of the world to allow speedy flight for hours, giving the Caster tons more options.

Just those five spells could satisfy so many needs, and be used so flexibly. They were core spells not just for the Bloodline, but to basically almost all Sorcerers and Wizards alike. Having them as default spells really saved a lot of effort. Supposedly the Bloodline continued, building up a true Divination, a Necromantic, and an Enchantment spell, culminating in some powerful Valence Nine magick(s?) that could totally own... but no one had gotten there in game.

So, this was just like the game. But... she was dead. She couldn’t be playing the game.

The cancer was unstoppable, she had fought as long and hard as she could. The game had been her great escape, the friends she had made, the quests, the rebuilding of the ravaged world of the game and the battles against the creatures that would tear it down, and the utter reality of it, where death was not a casual thing, and you didn’t just respawn and go back to a fight. No, you’d had to be careful, tactical, and not take risks at those low Levels, until you could build yourself up to a complete badass at the higher ones, and your friends could bring you back.

She had been famous inside the game. She had been Hazé the Star Mage, the first Caster to assemble five Stars, and, unbeknownst to everyone but a very select group of people, become Sustained.

It was a great accomplishment, a great trick, and it had died with her.

Yet, here she was, looking at her Casting Matrix.

There were two types of Wizards... generalists, and specialists. Well, and super-specialists.

Specialists got more spells in their specialty, at the cost of giving up on a School of magic, effectively biasing their Matrix heavily in the favor of a specific school. Super specialists gave up even more Schools, for increased spells and skill in an even narrower field.

She had never seen the point. Specializing was basically what Sorcerers did with their Bloodlines. If you wanted to be really good at a specific type of magic, be a Sorcerer. Sorceress, whatever. The power of a Wizard was having ALL the spells, all the tools in the toolbox, not just a selection of them, without ever being able to use, oh, screwdrivers.

Generalists had their own power, and that was being a Star Wizard.

The initial idea had been to use the power of the opposed eight Schools to form a greater resonance in the Matrix that enhanced all the Schools. To the utter surprise of those people who tried it, it had worked!

You had to arrange your Spell Engrams in opposition across Valences. So, four of the eight Schools had to be arranged in Valence One, and matched up to the other four in Valence Two. Setting them up properly resulted in a +1 Caster Level bonus once you had your First Star.

You could make a Second Star at Valences Three and Four, once you had the Slots. If you had full Archmagery, you could make the Rose Star, placing four spells in the bonus spells from Valences One to Four, and then four more at Valence Five, forming the Rose atop the Stem.

The Wizard Specialists had more spells, but the Star Wizards were stronger Casters, as was only right. Specialists who had tried forming Stars blew apart their Matrixes, killed themselves, and if they were returned to life, still lost a precious Level as they had to rebuild their Matrix.

There was a fourth Star, the Divine Star, for those who could swing Mystic Theurgy, which was uncommon but possible, as it directly required Divine approval.

And she had discovered a fifth Star, resulting in her being able to Cast at a base Fifteen, a true star of the game.

Clearly, there was something going on. It couldn’t be that the rules of the game... actually worked in reality, did they?

That would be too crazy. But she felt her heart beat faster just thinking about it.

Furthermore, this was a full Matrix in front of her. If this was true... she was a Ten. She couldn’t imagine what being a Ten would mean in a normal world. She could teleport hundreds of miles. Fly all day. Summon Elementals to wreak havoc, toss lightning and fireballs and manipulate objects with her mind.

A Ten Caster was a truly powerful being.

She reached out towards the Matrix, touched it.

It was empty of mana, from the bright core of Valence Zero, Cantrip-level stuff that could be used all day, even without a Focus, all the way up to the ominous and dangerous Valence Fives, towering with potential might and mischief.

So, of course, she had to Meditate and start filling it up again. Like, did she actually have anything better to do?

Well, one thing.

She turned Around in her head, and gazed at the wall of Engrams there.

Visual File Mastery/5, Spell Mastery/5, Eidetic Spellbook.

Every spell she’d ever studied was not in some weighty or compressed tome she had to lug around, but imprinted in her memory for instant access. She’d had the written back-ups of course, as there were distinct advantages to reading a spell right out of the book as you Cast it, but it wasn’t necessary for normal Casting or memorization at all, just a boosting trick.

Spell Allocation...

She had to get the Engrams in place if she wanted her Stars to align... and especially if she wanted the Blood Star.

She’d had the Divine Star, too, but that wasn’t active. What she had stumbled onto was the Blood Star, derived from Sorcerous Bloodlines, and which could only be accessed through the mixed heredity that the Arcane Bloodline represented.

Certain spells had integral ties to different Bloodlines. By integrating those spells into a Star, you established a tie to a Bloodline. If you then matched them to Engrams in the Arcane Bloodline, you in effect formed a new Bloodline, Wizardry... or, The Blood Star.

Celestial, Fiend. Luck, Fate. Plant, Animal. Death, Life. Elemental, Nature.

The four Wizard spells also had to integrate into her existing Stars, which meant spell selection was critical. But she’d found a workable Pattern, and with her full Archmagery doubling her Wizard Engrams, she’d had more than enough Slots to retain flexibility.

She began to slot in the Engrams carefully, especially her Sorceries, as changing them once they hit a Valence would take a minimum of a week, and so was not something to be done lightly. Sorceries, to a Mage, were meant to be the workhorse spells used all the time, while Wizardries were all the niche special use stuff and nasty surprises which could really annoy people.

But this time, she needed subtle stuff. More Divinations then normal clustered her spare Slots as she prepared to do this right. When she was finished, her Matrix had new, bright spots all over it as Engrams glowed, ready to be filled with power.

She mentally centered herself in the Core, where even her Cantrips had been laid out in a Star format, the first and most crucial step to forming functional Stars. She relaxed as much as she was able to, trying to synch up her heart with the beat all about her, and began to rotate her Valences.

Slowly and smoothly, mana began to stream into and all about her, starting from the Core and then extending out into Valence One first.

She felt the speed of the influx, and sighed as she continued. About thirty-five spell levels an hour... it would take hours for her Valences to fill.

She could only hope something didn’t happen in the meantime. She had a bad foreboding, that the reason she had woken up was because something adverse was about to happen. She didn’t have enough information, she didn’t know what was going on, and she had to take steps to protect herself, even if she couldn’t physically move.

For a true Caster, that wasn’t going to be an impediment. All it would cost was Valences, and in the end, she would still be able to run away...