After my mind had settled a little after the strange journey Kallista’s potion had just sent me on, I realised that the system had given me quite a few messages.

You have crossed the first Divide.After crossing the first Divide, your body was strengthened by the Astral River. You gain +5 to all Attributes.

Class change!After crossing the first Divide, your class has changed. You are now a Lunar Sorceress. By communing with the moon, without losing yourself, you have taken part of her, into yourself. You are now attuned to the lunar cycle and her magic.Your new class grants you an Attribute-Bonus of one Intelligence every five levels and one Inspiration every ten levels.

Your new class grants you the trait: Lunar Cycle

Trait gained You gained the trait: Lunar Cycle. The moon conveys both, the frozen light in the sky and the surrounding Darkness she swims in. Depending on the phase of the moon, you gain a bonus on your Ice- or Darkness-Magics..

Title gained You gained the title: Trailblazer. You are the first Traveller to gain a previously unknown class. The Trailblazer-Title increases Courage, when dealing with the unknown, by 100%.

Looking around, I saw Sigmir, Adra, Lenore and Ylva look at me with concern in their eyes.

“Don’t do that again. I was kicked right out of my Hallow!” cawed Lenore. Her words seemed a little callous, but I felt the underlying relief that I was apparently fine.

“That was… I can’t describe it, I don’t have the words for it.” I said, still reeling from the after-effects. “But I did manage to cross the first Divide.” I announced with a grin.

I saw the eyes of all four of them grow a size, when they took in what I just said and what it truly meant. From what Sigmir had told me, gaining levels was great but a Divide represented a leap in power. I was not quite sure what my new class would give me, beside the extra stats and the trait which were nice, but I had a feeling that there was more to the class. My old class never provided any informations that I did not find myself, so I doubted that the new class would be different in that regard.

It also meant that we should hurry toward Tegi as fast as possible. I felt the moonlight empower me, strengthening my ice-magics greatly; both the use of Ice Runes and direct Ice-Magic were empowered by the silvery light. The power would wane over the next two weeks and I would gain a bonus to Darkness-Magic instead which would reach its peak during the new moon. I wanted as much power as I could get to attack the Devourer, without waiting for the next full moon.

The others were in various state of surprise and Sigmir looked at me in a proud and proprietary fashion that I did not mind at all. Ylva looked a little pensive and Lenore retreated into her Hallow before gratulating me. She also realized Ylva’s pensiveness and explained.

“I think she is a little jealous. We spirit-beasts don’t have classes and need to cross the first Divide to draw even. We have stronger bodies, just like animals, but classes even the playing field and then some. And crossing the Divides is hard for us, we need to take in the essence of another spirit-beast or a true spirit. Both is a challenge.”

I felt intrigued by that different way, sure, it sounded more difficult than the way I had gone. But was it really? I had needed the potion given to me by a millennia old dryad and probably a good amount of luck to have the chance to advance and then I needed to keep my mind together against the pull of my domain. Sigmir had been trained since she was able to walk, trained by someone who knew the way to gain her specific class. Without that training, she admitted freely that she would not have crossed the Divide. For Lenore and Ylva, we just had to hunt down an appropriate spirit and let them ‘take it in’ whatever that meant.

“Congratulations. I wish I knew when I can challenge the Divide.” Adra ripped me from my thoughts.

“Thank you, I’m sure your time will come.” I told her with a smile. I was not even sure what class she was, so there was nothing I could say that was not a platitude.

“We should sleep, there is a small change in plans. The faster we get to Tegi, the more power I have to deal with the Devourer. So we will make haste.” I told the other two before using Sigmir as my personal mattress.

During the rest of the night, I slept on and off, trying to make sense of the experience and the feeling of kinship I had felt with the strange consciousness I had felt connected to the moon. Something, or maybe someone, had felt my attempt to reach out to the moon and responded. The tear in my chest was either a result of passing the Divide or it was something unique to me. It felt so similar to the Astral Power within me but at the same time, it felt different. More… robust was the only word I could think of.

It was an intriguing riddle but to solve a riddle, you needed clues. I did not have any, but I would keep my eyes open, looking for them. Maybe I would find some, I had a feeling that it would have a deep impact on me and the world.

The next morning greeted us with a splendid sunrise, illuminating the world around us. My senses felt clearer, crisper, I had never felt as alive as now. Nothing I had done to this point gave me such a feeling of power, of expansion. I was more than I had ever been and I truly liked the feeling. No wonder Sigmir had been subdued and without confidence when she had been under the influence of the cursed parasite. I felt a cold, calculating anger within me, a thirst for retribution, for vengeance. I wanted them to feel pain, the pain of knowing that everything they had ever wanted, their dreams, their desires, everything they held dear, that it all was turned to nothingness because of them.

It was not the hot fury that screamed for instant action, it was the ice-cold anger that urged me to bide my time, to plan my move so when I was done, nothing would be left but frozen desolation.

I placed the concealment-spells, Adra took down her wards and Sigmir broke camp and soon we were on our way south, heading towards Tegi.

That was our schedule for the next four days. Get up early, travel as long as Adra could, make camp, sleep, get up and repeat. There was little time for training and even less time for fun times, but each day reduced the power I had for the attack on the Devourer, for my plan was based on Ice Magic.

The strict travel-schedule gave me ample time to let Elding do the thinking and just let my mind roam. My body had adapted to riding to the point that there was no thinking involved when it came to just staying in the saddle. Part of the time, I quizzed Elding about Devourer, learning that she was rather knowledgeable about all matters spirit and Nethersprites were among her vast knowledge. But most of the time, I focused on my magic and the task I had given myself.

The ample time I had for that turned into magic theorizing, the grimoire I had been given by the Grandmother gave me the foundation and time, logic and instinct built upon that foundation. By the time we neared Tegi, I had a ritual in mind. It would take a long time, hours upon hours, but it should introduce enough power into the area to cause some serious havoc.

Guiding that havoc was the biggest problem, I would have to use a combination of runic formations, which I took from the Grimoire, and pure Ice Magic to let my attacks land where I wanted them. Against a moving target, it would be nigh impossible but the video I had seen and the description of the Grandmother talked about a stationary enemy.

It was basically the optimal situation for large scale, ritual magic. Little in the way of mobility, little mystic ability - just a huge chunk of vitality, endurance and armour. The Devourer could stand up to an army as it would ignore mundane weapons and small-scale magic while regenerating by devouring prey.