For the second time, I believe I surprised Lachesis. Either that, or her intense gaze was meant to test my resolve. She stood unnaturally still—but hauntingly beautiful—as if she were a Grecian statue carved to blend in with these surroundings. Then, the moment passed, and I watched what it must look like when a statue comes to life.

“That is quite…a surprising choice,” she finally said. “I had excluded it from the original selection for two reasons. The first was because SCRIBEs are not known for COMBAT ability. Though you cannot see so far ahead in the SKILL TREE, some later CLASS evolutions do place SCRIBEs into situations where they may see COMBAT, but these are rare. I know you wouldn’t have known that, but perhaps that knowledge will help you, now that you’ve made your choice.”

If only she knew, I thought, and I now know that I wasn’t supposed to see those choices. I wonder why…

“The second reason is due to not choosing a DEITY,” she continued, “The majority of SCRIBEs work for temples, so it will be difficult for you to find a mentor to apprentice yourself to. The combination of two led me to believe that you would not be interested in such a CLASS. However, I am a Fate, and I did see one tiny thread that might connect you to that one, so I did not remove it completely.

“You will be happy to learn that by choosing SCRIBE, you did not go off of SCHEMA’s original list.”

I furrowed my brow and she noticed my confusion.

“You did not use your boon,” she stated, simply. “You still may choose one. Either a weapon you would never be Fated to weild, or a treasure you would never be Fated to find. Would you like to request your boon at this time?”

I already knew the answer, but I gave it some thought, anyway. Knowing how little I knew about what might wait for me in the outside world, though, made me certain that I should save it.

“I think not,” I answered, carefully. “How can I contact SCHEMA at a later time and let them know that I want to use it?”

“Simply say ‘SCHEMA, I wish to use my granted boon’ and then say what you want, and SCHEMA will tell you where it can be found.”

I didn’t like the sound of “tell you where it can be found.” That sounded like SCHEMA was going to make me work for something that they had promised me for free. I decided it wasn’t going to get me anywhere to argue about it, so with an unconscious throwing away gesture, I moved on.

“Is there anything else that I need, now that I’ve made my CLASS choice?”

“You may take this opportunity to distribute your AVAILABLE STATISTIC points, if you wish.”

“Actually,” I said, happy that she’d reminded me, “Now that I’ve chosen my CLASS, I think I will.”

I’d already given the matter some thought; I had no idea what would be waiting on me as I exited this pocket dimension, but there was always the chance that I wouldn’t have time to distribute my points before something—or someone—jumped me. I would be taking the chance of loosing them all. I’d learned quickly, both in the military and in my…less savory professions: It can’t help you if you left it back at the base.

I brought up my CHARACTER sheet and saw that my CLASS of SCRIBE had already been added to it. A quick flick over at the CLASS sheet showed me that the SKILL TREE was also there, with SCRIBE as the trunk of the tree, with branches going in four different directions. To my surprise, the options that I thought I’d seen, of HAND and RUNE WRIGHT were no longer visible. I wonder if I really saw them? I couldn’t help feeling a chill. What if it’s another trap that someone set for me? Could House Clintogne be already on my ass? I just didn’t know.

ENGRAVER, the next choice I could make once I reached LEVEL 10, was still visible. The descriptions for both SCRIBE and ENGRAVER were very close, but a careful reading revealed that while SCRIBEs could INSCRIBE on paper—or paper analogues, like parchment or vellium—ENGRAVERs could INSCRIBE on almost anything.

The first branching came at LEVEL 20. I had two choices—neither of which I could see—both of which brached off again at LEVEL 30.

“I have a question, if I may?” I asked Lachesis. She inclined her head and I asked, “If I want to take full advantage of the entire SKILL TREE, can I choose to make every choice, given time and EXPERIENCE?”

“Yes,” she said, “However, you must navigate to the ultimate choice on each branch. You don’t have to choose all of the connected options, but you have to progress to each ultimate choice on each branch before starting over on another. Once you have done so, you may continue to choose from the second branch, or you may choose more options from the first, but you must reach the ultimate option on the second branch before choosing to begin the third, and so on.

“With the possibility of living an extremely long life, as close to being immortal as makes no difference, many will choose to follow this path. Also, at LEVEL 20, if you find that you do not like your CLASS, then you may choose to reCLASS at that time.”

I filed that thought away for later. I remembered the branch that lead to the two choices I’d seen—maybe seen—earlier, so, depending on what I saw when I got as far as ENGRAVER, I knew I could find my way there. With that in mind, I flipped back to my CHARACTER SHEET and looked at the 40 in the AVAILABLE position.

I knew that I wanted to raise my STRENGTH and CONSTITUTION, as much as possible, since those were the primary STATs involved in determining my LIFE and STAMINA pools. I knew I needed MANA, and thus INTELLIGENCE, for spells, but DEXTERITY was one of my CLASS STATs, so I had to raise that one, too. From how I understood the CLASS to work, the MANA would be applied at the time of the inscription, and not on the fly, so while it was important, and I would definitely have to raise it next, I had to make sure my primary CLASS STATS were raised first.

With that in mind, I also needed to raise CHARISMA, as it was also a CLASS STAT, but from what I’d read in the CLASS description, it appeared its main use was for getting work and dealing with important people. Even though it seemed counterintuitive, I was more of a loner than anything, and so I would put some points in it, but not as many as in the others. That left WILLPOWER and LUCK. WILLPOWER was a primary stat in SPIRIT, which I guess I wouldn’t need at all, but it also helped to resist mental domination and making decisions, and was a contributing factor in MANA, so I had to consider that. LUCK was the big question. What does LUCK even do? I wondered. Something about mob drops and critical hits, I thought I recalled from one of my conversations, either with SCHEMA or the kid. One thing I did know, if LUCK had been a real thing in my former life, I’d seen it play a huge role in keeping some people alive and opening doors I never would have guessed they could go through. I had to throw some points in that at some point.

I just don’t know.

So, I began with the ones I did know. I put 4 in STRENGTH, 5 in CONSTITUTION, and 6 in DEXTERITY, bringing them all up to an even 15. That dropped my AVAILABLE points down to an 25, but there was nothing for it. I had to have more LIFE and STAMINA or I was a gonner the first serious opponent I faced, and those three STATs were critical for that.

After a lot of internal wrestling, I raised my INTELLIGENCE up a whoppin 11, using almost half of my remaining points and bringing that score up to 15, as well. Now I had to figure out what to do about the rest. Finally, I decided to raise my CHARISMA up to at least 10, so I put 7 points in there. That left me with 7. Acting on impulse, I decided leave WILLPOWER alone and drop the rest in LUCK, bringing it up to 10 as well. I hoped that it was intuition and not just stupid.

Immediately, I got a pop-up asking me if I wanted to confirm my choices. I looked at them again, but honestly, I couldn’t think of any other way to distribute the points that would make more sense, so with a beating heart and a creeping sensation that I was making the wrong choice, I said, “yes.” It was done.

I watched the numbers in my pools rise, and some of the anxiety that I’d made the wrong decision started to leak away as I saw that, while it didn’t raise them as much as I might wish—especially with my MANA—it did raise that one nearly double, and the rest of them were much better than they’d been before. The longer I looked at the new numbers, the more satisfaction, and the less worry, I felt that I’d made the right decision.

With a decisive nod, I said, “done.”

“Very well,” Lachesis replied. “Now, here is your CLASS equipment. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the contents,” and she handed me an oddly shaped box.

The box, it turned out, was a travel writing desk made of a dark wood with a deep, almost purple grain. I wanted to say it was mahogany, but I had only read about that now illegal wood, so I couldn’t say for sure. The finish was perfect, it shown almost as if it glowed, and it was smooth as silk, with no knobs marring its clean lines; even the hinges were recessed. At first glance, it looked too bulky to be a travel desk, but as I inspected the outside, I noticed tiny circles where the grain was set perpendicular to the rest of the wood at each corner near the bottom of the case. It had to have been done intentionally, I couldn’t imagine the master who had created this work of art would have missed something so obvious.

When pressed, narrow telescoping legs popped downward from the corners. Playing with it proved that the number of times you pressed the circles determined how long the legs would stretch. There were three heights, one for fitting over your lap if you were in bed, the next at what would be a comfortable height if you were seated in a chair, and the longest as a standing desk. Turning it over, I noticed that there was another offset circle in the center of the bottom, near the front. Pushing that showed that the bottom of the case concealed a compartment in which a small, leather-seated folding stool.

I refolded the stool and closed it back in its shallow compartment and turned the case back over to the front, leaving it at standing height. The case appeared to open from the center of the front, but I could see no knob, perpendicular-grained circles, or latches, but when I pressed my fingers against the front of the case, a latch did release and the top opened with a snap.

The top had two wings that unfolded to each side, and at the bottom, a leaf that folded out to make a slanted writing surface covered with a stained leather blotter. Folding the wings out revealed cubbyholes and small drawers that rivaled many a roll-top desk I’d seen. Each case and every drawer were filled with ink pots, quills, nubs, a sand shaker, and a rocking blotter. Folding out the writing-surface leaf revealed a compartment with space filled with both modern paper and antique parchment. On top of these, there was a folded parchment with a wax seal embossed with a stylized L. Next to that was a rubber stamp and ink pad. The stamp had a stylized TN which I took for my personal seal.

I noticed that there was what appeared to be a small compartment at the top of the lower part of the case. Touching this opened a drawer. Nestled within was a complete kit for wax sealing, including a candle-holder with a mount for a small scoop slightly larger than a tablespoon in which to melt one of the selection of narrow wax bricks lined up like crayons between the melting pot and a stone seal with the same stylized TN as the rubber stamp. Next to this removable case, I found two curious metal pens. I couldn’t see any means to load ink, and the writing end was a smooth, rounded point. Underneath all this was a small leather-bound book with embossed gold writing on the cover.

This being a primer for beginning inscribing with runes

I rubbed my fingertips over the letters on the cover of the book and looked up at Lachesis with wonder on my face. I was delighted and enchanted at the writing desk and contents, and I’m sure it showed clearly in my expresson.

“This is wonderful!” I finally managed to exclaim, “I never expected anything like this! It makes the kits that I bought for my other SKILLS look like a child threw them together!”

She laughed like golden bells falling into crystal waters, the sound made the Elf girl’s laugh sound like the braying of a mule. “I admit that this is not the standard SCRIBE kit that SCHEMA usually hands out. I know that you will face many challenges in your coming life, and I wanted you to have something special to start you out.”

She cut off my stuttering attempt to protest this incredible largess, “No, I have to say that not all of this upgrade is my doing. SCHEMA allows us some leeway, so it really didn’t cost me anything more than if I’d given you the kit they had planned.

"While you have your primer out, go ahead and learn your CLASS SPELLS."

I opened the book and saw that it was divided into three sections. The first was a tutorial on how to INSCRIBE, the second was a small collection of RUNES, and the last contained my three CLASS SPELLS.

I looked at the first:

POLYGLOT: Allows the SCRIBE to converse, read, and write in the target language.

COST:

1

TARGET:

SELF

TIME:

INSTANT

DURATION:

PERMANENT

Underneath the description were the same kinds of unintelligible words that I'd seen when I temporarily learned MANA BOLT. When I focused on them, they began to swril and just as I was starting to become dizzy, they disappeared and I understood the SPELL.

Next on the list was INSCRIBE: SCRIBE focuses mana through an INSCRIPTION tool which allows the SCRIBE to IMBUE MANA onto the page. This is done so that the reader is able to VERIFY the truthfulness of the letter or document. Only truthful words may be INSCRIBED. The MANA COST varies according to the length of the document or the complexity of the RUNE.

COST:

VARIES

TARGET:

PAGE

TIME:

INSTANT

DURATION:

PERMANENT

After I learned that spell, I moved on to the last one:

VERIFY: When cast on a TARGET, including the SCRIBE, himself, the TARGET is only able to speak truth, as the TARGET understands it, for 60 seconds. Once the SPELL is cast, SCHEMA will notify any listeners that the TARGET must speak truthfully for the given period of time.

COST:

1

TARGET:

VARIES

TIME:

INSTANT

DURATION:

60 sec

“That,” she said, her face growing solemn, “brings us to the final item, but before I tell you that, I want to draw your attention to the letter in your case and the one in my hand.”

I lowered my eyes to the sealed parchment that had already been in the desk.

“This is your introduction to the SCRIBE’S GUILD. You will find that every profession under the SCHEMA system is governed by the GUILD system. It is somewhat like your country’s labor unions, but much more powerful. Until you reach a city where a GUILD HALL is located, you may practice as a SCRIBE, but once you find a GUILD HALL, you must immediately register with the SCRIBE’S GUILD or face their censure. A GUILD’s censure is no laughing matter and can affect you in any other profession or CLASS in which you seek to find employment. The letter introduces you to the local GUILD MASTER and includes permission for the withdrawal of sufficient funds to pay for a lifetime GUILD subscription. This letter,” she said, removing another wax-sealed parchment from the breast of her tunic, “is permission for a SCRIBE MENTOR to withdraw funds sufficient to pay for the full length of an apprenticeship.”

“Do I have to go through an apprenticeship?” I asked, taken aback, “I hadn’t planned on that, it could take several years, as I understand it.”

“No, you do not have to serve as an apprentice, and truly, even at your tender biological age, you’re a little old for one. You can test at any GUILD HALL in order to earn your JOURNEYMAN and MASTER status once you reach the required proficiencies, though I warn you that it is still difficult and time consuming to gain the necessary proficiencies for these without a MENTOR To teach you. Still, there are ways. You can purchase a proficiency directly from the SCHEMA MARKETPLACE, though I warn you, it is quite expensive. Prohibitively so, for most USERs. Additionally, you can buy, find, or be awarded books, such as the primary one included in your travel desk, that allow you to learn in the traditional manner. These are less expensive, but still not cheap.”

I took the letter from her and stored it in the desk, which I folded up and collapsed the legs before storing the whole thing away where it appeared next to my other kits in the CRAFTING INVENTORY.

“Thank you, Lachesis. I am very grateful for all of your help. Is there anything else that I need to know?”

“Yes,” she said, dropping her arms to her side as if she were standing for an important event, “This final thing. I have to inform you at this time that not every USER is allowed a BEGINNER TUTORIAL. The ones who are have been selected by the Fates and SCHEMA as those we believe have the most potential to make a lasting impact on their respective worlds.

“There is no way we can determine exactly what that impact will be—good or bad—but we felt it would be helpful if we gave you some training and experience to give you the best chance possible. The SKILLS and ABILITIES that you acquired, as well as the STATISTIC points you earned before you rolled points here today, came using a system unique to the BEGINNER TUTORIAL. This places you at a great advantage over the vast majority of those you will encounter, especially during the lower LEVELs, as they will only have what they can roll during their initial CHARACTER CREATION.

"When you leave here, you will appear back in your world at the moment that the SCHEMA system initiates. It will be as if no time has passed, and you will see, first hand, the effects of SCHEMA taking control of a planet.” Her face set in grim lines as she said these words, and my heart stuttered.

“Since you now know that you have been given training and have a better survival chance than any other USER not so gifted, and since you also know that many—most—of your fellows will not have this chance, and are unlikely to survive, you have this one opportunity to choose where and with whom you will appear when you return.

“Where would you like to go, and with whom would you like to be?”