“In the universe, there are things that are known and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”

William Blake

The archways into the Lodestar Church loomed above us. I couldn’t believe I had never entered here over the course of my life so far. The town was not particularly huge, but I suppose it kind of made sense with my mother’s objection to the individual in charge of the church’s branch here.

“Where is the priest?” she asked not keen to run into him again. I was not sure whether it was because she feared she would murder the abrasive fellow or for some other reason.

“Grandpa Smit is currently entertaining him about the possibility of building a chapel on our island,” Father replied.

“Over my dead body.” She replied completely against the idea of him setting foot on our island. I wondered whether he had attended the silver sea games or whether he had stayed in Wester Town.

“Of course, that is completely understood. The offer will be made but in the correspondence to the church, it is going to be dependent on the removal of our current priest. It might work it might not. It all depends on how he ended up stationed here in the first place. Still, the church will be keen to form a favourable relationship with a new noble house and a shuffle of personnel is a small price to pay for that.” Lady Acacia explained their strategy for offering.

“Whether they replace the fool. Or we just end up with another fool is another matter altogether. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high.” Grandfather muttered.

“Times a wasting, let us proceed a pace.” Lady Acacia declared stepping forward to open the door for us and we entered the church properly.

“Under priest Cleo, perfect timing.” She said as a man stepped forward to meet us as we entered the church introducing us to the man that would be managing providing us entry and escorting us there.

“Welcome, welcome to the Silversea family.” He invited us in giving a small bow the first we had received on Wester Isle from the general populace so far. “May I just say that I truly enjoyed the Silversea Games? How may I help you today?” Either he was being particularly obsequious for an islander or he hailed from further afield and knew what noble families would expect as their due.

“We would like to see the Wester shard of the Lodestar.” Lady Acacia stated as we followed in her wake.

“Of course, of course. Would you like to wait for Asravan?” He demurred while stalling for time. He was hesitant to deny us while at the same time reluctant to take us straight there.

“No that won’t be necessary.” She corrected him unwilling to allow a delay.

“Perhaps some refreshments before you refine your metier then?” He deduced the reason for our visit and again offered an alternative to instantly fulfilling it.

“Thank you, but no. We are on something of a schedule today.” She informed him redirecting him once more.

“Right, right.” He seemed to acknowledge that we would not be delayed any longer. “This way then.” He stated as he led us deeper into the heart of the church.

As we travelled through the main hall I looked up to the ceiling where images of the Anemoi could be seen. The Anemoi were the Gods of each compass point alongside their mythical beasts and their images decorated the ceiling in carved stone. We reached the inner sanctum of the Lodestar Church and he hesitated to open the door.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to wait but a moment? I’m sure he will return soon.” He had one last attempt at pausing our progress. “While the choice is always your own, he can offer guidance and advice to ensure you choose one best suited to you.”

“No, it’s quite all right. We have discussed Aleera’s choices extensively and ultimately; we would prefer privacy for the selection of our métier. Thank you for all your assistance. Please accept a small donation of our appreciation.” Lady Acacia said handing a small bag of money to him part thank you part bribe to speed his departure. Also, it was interesting to see that they were avoiding talking about my presence completely.

“Certainly, certainly. All donations to the church are gladly received. I will see that you are not disturbed as requested.” He pocketed the donation, opened the door to usher us in then closed it behind us once we had filed in.

As our family passed into the inner sanctum of the Lodestar Church my gaze was transfixed by the glowing blue stone in front of us. It stood on a pedestal in the centre of the room and illuminated the room with its pale light. It was not large and we would struggle to touch it all at the same time but there was not necessarily a need for more than a finger to touch apparently.

“This is a Lodestar. The rock on which the faith is built. Each church has its own and will provide one whenever they build a new church. It is also how you may choose a metier and continue to level.” Lady Acacia briefly outlined the history of the stone. “It is said that they fell from the sky at the beginning of time and have helped all races to progress further in the light of the lodestar. Humans keep them in their churches, elves in their sacred trees, dwarves see them as the hearts of their mountains, to each race they have their own place of prominence and even worship.” She continued to explain.

“Now, usually we would do this separately and take time to discuss the options but as time is of the essence if we all move forward to touch the stone there is no rule against or reason not to do it all together.” She moved us all forward until we stood on different sides of the stone gathered in a circle with it at our centre. “Also last but not least, normally Kai you would be unable to choose one until you were at least 10 years old and able to allocate your stats but . . .” she hesitated. “When have you ever done anything at the appropriate time before? Let us see how it will react and whether it is possible for you. But do not worry if you cannot.”

Grandfather, mother, father, Aleera and I, all hesitated to be the first to begin.

“Remember to choose wisely. The métier must be based on the skills that you already have as well as the skills you plan to continue using. You can take a new one next year if necessary but equally, you do not have time to waste so do not.” Were her last words to us before by unspoken consent we all reached forward to touch the glowing Lodestar stone.

. . .

Ding! Level 12! Métier is available!

The Lodestar had recognized me I was excited to see whether I would be able to choose my métier like my sister, who was going to choose merchant. I thought I knew what I would choose but it all depended on what I was offered.

Welcome, Lord Callen Kai Silversea!

Brief, simple and to the point the window somehow filled my vision. It seemed to be going through my status one line at a time. Interestingly enough all my names including my title had been officially recognized by the system.

Age . . . Error!

Oh, ^%$#! That did not sound good. My finger felt affixed to the stone, I doubted I would be able to abort the process even had I wanted to.

Age . . . Physical 44 months infant . . . Soul 720 months adult . . . Physical 44 months infant

The Lodestar or system seemed to be having difficulty accurately assessing my age and was flickering back and forth between what counted as my physical age and what counted as my soul age. How it could tell the age of my soul especially one without a system was another line of questions I was rapidly developing to distract myself from the worry as I watched the assessment flicker back and forth.

Selection made: Age 44 months . . . infant (720 available)

The system seemed to have finally decided to stay with my physical age rather than what it perceived my soul to be. I guessed that this was what happened if you tried to touch a lodestone when you had lived more than one life, which I was assuming was not a common occurrence. Unfortunately, the error messages had not finished.

Race . . . Error! . . . Trait . . . Error! . . . Attribute . . . Error!

Guess the system much like my sister considered me a bit of an oddball. Hopefully, I walked out of this still human rather than a monster. That would be . . . awkward.

Race . . . Human . . . Elf . . . Gnome . . . Beastkin . . . Mythic . . . Pixie . . . Dwarf . . . Giant . . .

The next line gave me some hope that I would not be walking out a monster. Mythic looked like the most interesting race to be. I guessed that could be from the attribute Source of Mana. Luckily none of the options seemed monstrous although becoming part Gnome or Pixie would be particularly annoying if I ended up shrinking in response. Regrettably, it did not look like I had a choice in the matter as the Lodestar continued to cause the system to reassess me.

Half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . Error!

Great another error message, 8 halves don’t make a whole.

Recalibration required . . .

Vitality: 144 -44

Endurance: 127 -27

Strength: 102 -2

Dexterity: 131 -31

Senses: 144 -44

Mind: 145 -45

Clarity: 122 -22

Magic: 146 -46

Charisma: 63 +37

Luck: 7 +93

The &[email protected]#! Those were my hard-earned points. I could feel my body sweating as I stood there locked to the Lodestar. But I was still unable to move. The recalibration had done wonders for my luck stat but I was not feeling very lucky as I watched this happen to me without a choice in the matter.

Recalibration complete.

The system liked its base ten if that is what it was reducing or raising me to.

Race Arithmos

That was new. No one had ever mentioned them to me before. Hopefully, I would still look like me when I was finally released from the Lodestar. The system seemed to have worked its way through its error messages and my new status finally displayed itself in front of me.

There were a few changes.

Level: 12

Title: Lord

Name: Callen Kai Silversea

Age: 5 years Experience: 0

Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 1000/1000 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1000/1000

Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky

Vitality: 100

Endurance: 100

Strength: 100

Dexterity: 100

Senses: 100

Mind: 100

Clarity: 100

Magic: 100

Charisma: 100

Luck: 100

Free Points: 171

Okay, there were a lot of changes. It appeared that I had not lost any points in the system’s recalibration of my race, the extra points had been added to my free points to be spent later. But it appeared to have reset me to what it considered an Arithmos’s base set of stats for a 5-year-old child. This sort of made sense considering a ‘normal’ human child would often first see their stats with a base set of 10 in each stat at the age of 5.

Interestingly the system seemed to have taken some of what it felt were my available months of age and added them to bring me up to 5 years of age. The age from which statuses were supposed to become visible. The most painful part of the process at least mentally was the cost of experience. It had removed my first 11 levels worth of experience in its recalibration. That was over a year’s worth of effort reset in a single moment. I felt like screaming but I was still locked into stillness and silence as the Lodestar had yet to release me. If I was unable to gain a métier as planned I think I might just start crying when my body was released.

There were however several other positives to my new race. My bonus attributes appeared to have been upgraded to traits and . . . I had two new ones. Charming which I assumed came from my Charisma stat reaching 100 and Lucky which I assumed came from my Luck stat reaching 100. Those alone were hopefully worth the loss in experience and above all this, I was now perfectly balanced. That would be worth its weight in gold moving forward. I had even gained two years which meant two years less of waiting to finally be able to assign my free points and I had not technically lost any of those.

It took a while to see all the changes let alone process them, but the system was not finished with me yet. Once it had shown me my new status more words were waiting for me to focus on.

Level 12 Child Métier available!

This is what we had visited the shard of the Lodestar for, to choose a métier. Lady Acacia had believed that my level would allow me to choose one and it appeared that she was correct. For most children, they would level without one until they chose their profession then depending on their family or apprenticeship, they would approach the church to get one.

There were pros and cons to when they wanted to do so. If they levelled up to Level 5 and then choose a métier it meant that they would be able to continue to level up quickly. However, once you had switched métier you were unable to come back to it. So, for example, 5 child levels in addition to 5 apprentice levels would allow you to start as a Level 10 in your Journeyman métier. However, if you had 10 child levels in addition to 10 apprentice levels you would be able to start as a Level 20 Journeyman on your second métier provided it was the same as the first. Therefore, the speed of levelling came at the cost of long-term potential. It was a difficult argument to make when you could always choose an alternative métier provided you had enough skills to offer its selection. Then again, for most, skills did not come quite as easily as they did for me.

At Level 12 both Aleera and I were more than ready for our first métier. I could still feel my body I was not divorced from it my hand still felt fixed to the stone in a manner that implied I would be unable to remove it until I had made my choice and there was a lot to choose from. But I was also aware that I had probably spent far longer than the rest of my family holding onto the stone. They were waiting for me. It was time to make a decision.

Apprentice Metier available . . .

Singer, Sailor, Merchant, Mage

Teacher, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Mapper, Mason, Silversmith

Cooper, Carpenter, Linguist, Liar

Scholar, Student, Mentalist

Warrior, Wizard, Ranger, Rogue . . .

The list went on. From what I had been told there would not normally be so many options for most people. I doubted my father would have as many to choose from. And, as much as I would have liked to have chosen Wizard or a Silversmith possibly based on the jewellery I had made with the Blacksmith’s daughters I knew I had to follow Lady Acacia’s advice. I had to choose something that I could continue to level with my existing skills, which would support me in increasing my charisma stats.

Or at least this had been Lady Acacia’s plan for me. Before I had been reset by the system. Before I had gained a new race. It was so tempting to try something new.

But this was not a class as I knew it from books or video games. It was not a straight jacket that would define me however it would have consequences and restrictions. Ultimately it was a job that would allow me to continue to level up, but to do so I would have to fulfil those conditions.

Keep it simple stupid. Lady Acacia had a plan for my progression and for once in my life, I was going to follow it.

I chose Singer and stepped away from the Lodestar.