Eli was back at his campsite wearing a strange top. He’d quickly looked through the available clothing and found a couple of options. The first was some shapeless garments resembling a cotton poncho, with the sides held closed with leather ties. The other choice was also a few shapeless dresses, like a mumu, that could fit him in a pinch, though the bits of embroidery at the sleeves and along the hem made it look a tad strange. He’d gone with the poncho option, pulling the ties tight on the sides to reveal a bit less skin, and it almost resembled a tank top if you didn’t look too closely. Figuring he’d do a more thorough search once he finished sifting through the DS, the next unknown item materialized in his hand.

Sertala

Item Class: Rare

It was a sheathed dagger with an incredibly thin blade, much like a stiletto. Little designs were set into the dark crossguard, matching the color of the leather sheath. Drawing it revealed a shiny metal, the fire’s light reflecting off the blade.

“Ah, crap. I need to give this to Wolf,” he said, frowning in recognition at the weapon Dara had pulled off the dead assassin Oyett.

Eli tried to recall what she’d said about the blade, something about any cuts bleeding an unnatural amount. Careful of the point, he sheathed it and set it on the blanket while considering what he knew about the object. He then wrote down some more notes and underlined a reminder to give it to Wolf the next time they met, hopefully in a few days. The dagger vanished, sent back inside his bracelet.

Still feeling a little excitement at finally organizing the DS, his awareness went inside the bracelet again. As usual, a dark shape snagged his attention; Lugh’s scary-assed black dagger seemed to have a mind of its own as if wanting Eli to pull it out of storage. It sat all alone near one corner of the lit space, far from anything he actually wanted to use. As always, he shied away from the ominous feeling it gave off and focused on the next item that materialized in his hands.

Madwen’s Tome of Inscription – Initiate Tier

Item Class: Rare

Leaning forward with interest, he felt the wooden tray annoyingly digging into his leg again. Not wanting to bother with it, he touched it and his notes, storing them out of the way so he could focus on the reward from the recent trial.

He couldn't help chuckling at the woman on the cover who seemed far too happy, yet her smile was ridiculous enough to amuse him. He turned the object around in his hands, but it was sealed into a single block like the first time he’d handled it. He placed the rectangular case on the blanket, one hand resting on the corner.

“Open,” he tried, not sure if it would work. He laughed again with success as the lid rose slowly away from the ground. Picking up the top, he moved it to the side and looked at the contents. A large book lay on the left, a stack of paper on the right, and a small pencil case between them.

Picking up the book, he finally opened it to a blank cover page, guessing it might be a magic instruction manual. He hoped it wasn’t as dry as some of the textbooks or reference manuals he’d used in college.

Would you like to use [Madwen’s Tome of Inscription]?

The prompt hung in front of him, much like the quest dialogue from the trial. Instead of answering, Eli tried to turn the pages but couldn’t. Surprised, he ran his fingers down the side, the slight ridges giving the impression of hundreds of pages, yet was actually a single white block within the book’s darker cover.

“Yes,” Eli finally responded while looking at the blank white surface. He figured a reward was unlikely to hurt him, especially considering how well the other two prizes had helped him. Well, assuming that the hidden ring actually did what Fluxi said. Eli couldn’t be sure if-. A bright white flash went off, accompanied by a rushing sound like he was standing in a storm, and the world disappeared.

***

The blinding light diminished until Eli could see again, but his campsite was gone, and there was only a blank white space around him. He was also no longer sitting but somehow on his feet, the floor under him the same white color, blending in until it looked like he was standing on nothing. A slight hum made him turn around to find a swirl of silvery strands in the air, the little bits of shiny metallic lines coming together until a person materialized out of the chaos.

It was the woman from the box art, but the picture hadn’t done her justice. He’d thought the image had been airbrushed in its perfection, yet seeing her before him said otherwise. From her pristine dark complexion to her piercing blue eyes under artfully designed eyebrows, all surrounded by a thick mane of silvery hair, she almost didn’t seem human. There were even little flecks of silver in her skin as if she’d dusted herself with bits of glitter, but it looked somehow natural.

Her outfit was interesting too, with her wearing a colorful dress, quite unlike anything he’d seen before. It could have been a modern take on a Victorian dress in how the many layers of blue and purple fabrics covered much of her body yet were artfully positioned to accentuate the lines around her hips and bust. The top of her garment shaded towards a beautiful violet hue with thick lace covering what would otherwise be a plunging neckline. Something like a bustle sat on both hips instead of her backside, emphasizing her body’s hourglass shape. Her beauty and outfit were such a surprise that he could only stare as the woman smiled to reveal almost blindingly white teeth.

“Welcome, Initiate,” she said, her voice smooth and measured as if well trained for public speaking. “I am Magus Madwen, your evaluator in the magnificent art of inscription,” she continued, the words rolling out in an almost singsong pattern like she was reciting poetry.

“Uh, hello. I’m Eli,” he replied, keenly aware of the bare feet, stained pants, and poncho top he was sporting. He looked around again, but there was only the same white room. “Where are we?”

Her smile widened even further, a bit of laughter reaching her eyes. “You’re in a special simulacrum I developed with the help of some folks from the Draodell Enchanters Guild. This is only the Antecedent as I wanted to meet with you before you start the actual training, but you’ll see the real show soon enough.”

“You wanted to meet me?”

“Of course! It isn’t every day that someone has such a high capacity for data throughput. Most that use my wonderful tomes see only the bare minimum of what they’re designed for, so can you blame me for showing off a bit? I won’t ask how such a thing is possible at your relatively low evolution, but you’ve certainly piqued my interest.”

He blinked a few times as he worked through her words, her lilting speech almost lulling him into a relaxed state. There was something that made him want to trust her, like she was a long-lost friend he hadn’t seen in years.

Resisting the feeling, he triggered Manasight to figure out what he was dealing with. The room didn’t change, but the woman transformed into a dizzying display of shifting particles of multicolored lights. He couldn’t detect any core or illuminated channels within her body, the edges around her clothing sharp as if outlined in a dark highlighter. There were tiny geometric shapes all over her, little triangles and polygons like she was a VR character model without all the flashy filters installed.

“Hey now, save that for your training,” she said, the polygons around her face rapidly shifting as she smiled in a disturbing display of inhuman geometric shapes. She snapped her fingers, and Eli’s Manasight snapped off, her beautiful features and colorful outfit reappearing.

Confused and a little alarmed, he pushed energy into his auric shield. The white room suddenly shook around them, jagged black cracks forming in the suddenly visible walls.

“Eli, what’s wrong?” she asked, glancing around in confusion before looking back at him with concern. “Shielding yourself from the training simulacrum after agreeing to access my tome seems shamefully wasteful. Did you not want to learn inscriptions?”

He hesitated, her words and previous polygon appearance making him view the situation in another light. “Wait, is this a simulation? I’m not really here? Are you a simulation too?” He relaxed his auric shield, the jagged cracks in the walls slowly smoothing out.

Her furrowed brows smoothed out above her renewed smile. “This is as real as your thoughts but not your true reality. I’m a copy of the actual Magus Madwen with enough memories to assess and assist you. Plus, a little sprinkle of my incredible personality for a bit of verisimilitude,” she added with a wink. “This conversation is happening within your mind, a point of interface between my tome and your own consciousness, bound together by your accepting the Greater System’s prompt. You have full control if you truly want to leave, but I caution you to reconsider. Once you’ve left, this single-use tome will disappear,” she finished in a reasonable tone.

“Oh,” he said simply, unsure whether he should go along with this. After his experiences with the Goon, Boruta, and the recent trial, he was leery of anything that influenced his mind, but another disquieting thought intruded. “Wait, if this is happening in my head, what’s happening to my body? I was out in the woods.”

“Well, that’s just unwise,” she replied. “Most would find somewhere safe and guarded before entering a training tome. Luckily, with your information transfer rate, we’re talking at nearly the speed of thought. I’d estimate that only a fraction of a second has passed, and this entire experience should take no more than a few minutes back in your reality. Even with that, we should get going before we use more of your time.”

“Oh,” slipped out again as he tried to wrap his head around the concept.

“Maybe this will help?” Madwen lifted a hand, making a circular motion in the air, and there was a blurring at the edge of his vision.

With his inner ear insisting he was twirling at a dizzying speed, it suddenly stopped, and he found himself standing with her still beside him, but the white room had vanished. They were now inside a massive open building but bisected like someone had cut through a skyscraper and removed half of the interior. The side they stood in was a vast open space, the flooring under them filled with intricate geometric designs. Unadorned silvery walls climbed far up into the open air ending at a ceiling little bigger than a pinprick with distance. The view made him a little dizzy, the sheer size of the structure briefly overwhelming him.

Shaking it off, he focused on the other side of the building, where the multistory cross-section of different floors scaled far up into the air. In front of them, the bottom floor looked like a smithy with a few massive dark anvils surrounded by tables and pallets stacked with materials. There were a few large forges along the back wall, their hearths dark. His angle didn’t let him see all the details on the second floor, but it appeared to be for finished armor and weapons. There were racks stuffed with hundreds of pieces, the nearby walls covered with rows of different tools, and a few bare workbenches sat near the center. Above it was more and more floors climbing up to ridiculous heights, each apparently serving a different purpose.

“Wow,” Eli whispered, his mind trying to comprehend the colossal scale of it all.

“Welcome to my home,” Madwen said with a grin. “Of course, this is just a copy with none of the people usually working beside me, but you get the idea.”

“This is where you live?” he almost gasped, looking around again. “This is amazing, but where do you sleep?”

“Oh, I have a few rooms tucked away,” she replied somewhat dismissively, gesturing vaguely. “Now, don’t be alarmed, but we’re going up there,” she continued with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, pointing nearly halfway up at a floor blurry with distance.

He looked for some stairs or an elevator but didn’t see any way to move between the floors. About to ask if maybe they were hidden on the back side of the structure, he was surprised as something gently hugged him around the hips and torso, tugging him upwards. In seconds, they lifted off the intricate flooring and into the air.

“How?” he gasped, shocked at being airborne.

“Don’t worry. It’s just my own invention.” Madwen chuckled, seemingly unconcerned by the dozen meters of open air under their feet as they continued ascending past the fourth floor. “I based it on the basic Lift inscription, though this one can be used repeatedly and incorporates a few other masteries to make it work properly. I call it my Lofty Lift. It’s all the rage in my region of the Greater Infinite. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?”

Her words, uttered with apparent pride, helped ground his thoughts. “No, can’t say that I have,” he managed to choke out.

He took a surreptitious breath, reminding himself that this was just a simulation. There was no danger of injury or death, just like in a virtual reality flying game back home. He’d played plenty over the years, usually involving fast-paced modern jets, drones, rockets, or spaceships, which made this slow climb seem pedestrian in comparison.

To distract himself from the fear, he focused on another floor as they continued rising, apparently dedicated to either tailoring, clothes design, or a bit of both. Pale mannequins were set in a long line along the far wall, their forms wrapped in a dissonance of different colors and styles. A few large mirrors were placed in the corners near what might have been dressing rooms, with multiple doors leading to presumably smaller rooms. Hundreds of bolts of fabric lay stacked on one wall while the other revealed dozens of various tools.

“And here we are,” she said, her grin even wider as she gestured just above the tailor shop.

As if they were coming to the end of a fast escalator, Eli had to take a couple of quick steps as the Lofty Lift’s momentum deposited him back onto a hard tile floor. He managed to keep from tripping, quickly catching his balance while looking at his new surroundings.

Like every room he’d seen on the way up, this one had a seemingly unique function. Instead of a single open space, it was divided into three sections by waist-high intricately carved stone barriers with a few cutouts for passage. On the farthest side were some tables, beside them a bunch of cubbies with stacks of paper. In the space between the tables, almost a dozen strange contraptions made of wood and metal sat in various spots, their purpose a mystery. The opposite side had some desks and chairs, the entire wall a single massive bookcase at least fifty meters long filled with thousands of different books, scrolls, and seemingly random objects. The middle where they’d landed was almost bare except for a single long table, the pale tile flooring leading to a series of silver doors set within a stark black wall.

“What do you think of my inscriptorium?” Madwen’s words brought his attention back to her, looking his way with a beaming smile. “Now, some wouldn’t set things up this way, but I like to have the component manufacturing on one end,” she pointed at the side of the room with the papers, cubbies, and machinery. “And research on the other end,” she said, pointing at the side with the long bookcase. “And in between are the workrooms where the real fun happens,” she finished, pointing at the wall with the closed doors.

“I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. Slowly shaking his head, he could almost think this was a dream with how incredible yet random everything was. “I’m guessing an inscriptorium is a place where inscribing happens?”

“Oh, that’s what we call it here. What do your people call it?”

“I have no idea,” he answered honestly, well aware of his ignorance.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve never tried inscribing anything, but there might be a word for this kind of place back home,” he continued absently. His attention was drawn toward the long bookcase, somewhat mesmerized by all the knowledge sitting there waiting for him to explore.

“Explain yourself,” Madwen almost growled, the sudden anger in her voice making him turn back with surprise. Her smile was gone, her stylish eyebrows furrowed above piercing blue eyes.

“Uh, what?” he almost stammered, her abrupt shift throwing him off for a moment.

“How do you have my tome if you don’t have any experience with inscriptions?” she said, slowly stalking towards him, her smaller stature growing larger with each step until her head almost brushed the high ceiling. “There are prerequisites for anyone that purchases my wares.” A hand came up, an accusing finger pointing down at him. “Did you steal it? Are you a thief of knowledge?” she hissed, her eyes erupting with blue fire.

“Woah, Madwen,” Eli got out, backing away with his hands up, wracking his brain for a way to explain things to the giant pissed-off woman. “I didn’t steal anything; I won it in a Trial of Might only hours ago.”

“What?” She exclaimed, the accusing finger dropping, shock replacing her incensed expression. “Someone with a high affinity for inscriptions competed in a Trial of Might? Just what kind of secrets are you hiding?”

“I’m not sure what to tell you, but it’s the truth.”

She looked at him for a few more moments before her form quickly shrank back to her previous size, the fiery eyes extinguishing within her complicated expression. “Fizzballs, that’ll make your training nearly impossible,” she whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear.

Realizing that she wasn’t about to step on him or otherwise attack, he dropped his hands, confused by her words. “Aren’t you supposed to teach me the things I don’t know?”

“Me?” She touched a hand to her chest as if in question. “Of course not! I’m the caretaker of this simulacrum, though I also assess your skills, assuming you manage to complete an inscription. Your training happens in there,” and she pointed at the closed doors along the wall. “Those who enter should have a novice education at a minimum, and any reputable merchant knows better than to cross me on this matter. I suppose a trial would get you around that requirement, though I’m not sure the loophole will help you.”

“Can you explain a little more? What kind of training are we talking about?”

“Hmmm, we don’t have much more time before you need to start, so I’ll keep it brief,” she said, injecting a little more warmth into her words. “You’ll be going into that room,” she pointed at the closed door to the far left. “Inside, you’ll find the ideal setup for creating inscriptions, including an entire table made from nishati stone. With your apparent lack of inscription education, let me tell you that it’s the best material I know for working with delicate energies. On top of it, you’ll find spell paper,” and Madwen snapped her fingers, a sheet like the ones in the box materializing in her hand. “And a mana stylus,” she said with another snap, and the little blue pen appeared. “These are copies of the ones you received. With them, you’ll be able to practice your inscriptions.”

“I only get a single sheet of paper for practice?” Eli asked, figuring that he must have heard wrong.

“Oh, spirits no,” she chuckled. “This is a simulacrum and part of why my tomes are coveted by so many. Once inside, whenever you fail with an inscription, the room will reset back to the moment you walked in. That way, you can try and retry as long as you like until this construct’s energy runs out. You’ll find a timer inside to let you know how long you have.”

“But how do I do inscriptions?” he asked almost plaintively, realizing that he was in way over his head.

“I can’t help you with that, Eli,” she said with a sad shake of her head. “That’s not my role and would go against my agreement with the Greater System. Anyone that uses my tomes should already know the basics of the associated skill since it’s created to be the perfect tool for honing their craft. That’s why I set up that requirement about being at least a novice, though an apprentice rank is preferable but not mandatory. Still, I can tell you that since you won my tome, you must have a strong affinity for inscriptions because Trials only reward you with things you can actually use. I know there probably isn’t much comfort in that thought, but it’s all I can give you. Now let’s walk you over,” she finished with a sympathetic smile, nodding towards the door she’d indicated earlier.

“But what’s the rush?” he asked, again looking toward the impressive bookcase. Presumably, the answers he was looking for regarding magic, this new reality, and so much more were right there for him to study.

“Because the energy sustaining this simulacrum is finite,” she said, gesturing vaguely at the ceiling. “Your very presence here is utilizing it, and once it runs out, you’ll find yourself back inside your body. Plus, those books won’t help you without a better grounding in the foundational subjects. Now, come with me so you can at least learn something while here.” Without waiting, she turned and walked toward the left door as if presuming he would follow.

With one more look at the knowledge so tantalizingly close, he finally sighed gloomily before following.