Riana wanted to go home.

She hadn't, at first. It had been thrilling, being kidnapped and dragged away to a mysterious compound in the desert. Terrifying, yes, but it was the kind of adventure she'd always loved to watch unfold.

The novelty wore off around the third hour into their trip, revived briefly as they were dragged out of the vans and into a dungeon, before it shriveled and died completely after being locked up and ignored. For days.

People came by to ask questions a few times. She answered, as best she could, tearfully. She wanted to act defiant, stand up for herself and her friends, but when it came right down to it she was just a scared kid in over her head.

She hated learning that about herself. Hated every minute of the days that drove the understanding of her own weakness in deeper and deeper.

After years of hoping and doubting, Riana had finally met her call to adventure. Finally gone off to learn magic in the secret world hidden beneath the surface of reality. Finally made real friends who could become true nakama. Learned secrets beyond secrets.

And then, when the first obstacle arose, she crumpled like damp paper.

She cried long after they'd gone, cried like she'd never imagined someone could cry, long after her tears were gone. She’d never felt this way before. Like her body was stuck on loop, disconnected from thought and reason.

She didn't know how to stop herself, couldn't reclaim control. And still she was sobbing, her throat aching, a stitch in her side, for what felt like hours.

Oddly enough, it was the system that finally snapped her out of it.

Congratulations Riana Blake!

You have 1 level available.

It felt like a glitch, a momentary disruption. She didn't realize she'd run her stamina to empty until it was suddenly refilled, her health rushing through her in a wave.

She hadn't even done anything to level up. It made her giggle, then laugh, but the laughter was easier than the crying, and when it wound down she found herself... not exactly calm, but more stable. Less hysterical.

Classes available:

Mage (Primary)

Fighter Ranger Scout

She was going to select Mage, she always did. But she lingered over the choice anyway. She hadn't considered subclassing before, not seriously. Dual-class characters were rarely as powerful as their more focused counterparts, trading power for versatility.

But was there anything in the subclass options that could help her out of this mess?

She took her time thinking it over, staring at each button in turn, but finally shook her head. Mage all the way.

Mage level increased to 8.

+6 health, +12 mana, +6 stamina Unassigned Stat Points: 1 Riana Blake Unassigned Levels: 0 Primary Class: Mage Mage Level: 8 Subclass: None Focus Spells: 1/1 Stat Points: 1 Strength: 2 Psyche: 4 Spirit: 1 Health

163/163 Mana

133/133 Stamina

103/103 Health Regen

3 /minute Mana Regen

5 /minute Stamina Regen

2 /minute Ability Points: 0 Gust (Focus) Tier: 2 Cost: 2 mana Fires a wide short-range burst of sharpened wind, dealing area damage. Air Blade Tier: 1 Cost: 10 mana Fires a single blade of intensely focused wind directly at the target. Augmentation Tier: 1 Cost: (variable) mana Enhance a spell with additional power. Increases damage by a proportional amount.

There wasn't much to do with a single level between thresholds, just the assignment of her lone stat point. But it was something to think about, something to distract her from the monotony of being chained in an empty box. She'd previously settled on a cycle of psyche-health-psyche-stamina-psyche-health-repeat. Stamina wasn't very important for her as a mage, but it made sense to at least keep her regens viable.

If she were to follow her system, then her point would obviously go into Psyche. But the longer she sat here, helpless, the more she wanted to put it into Strength.

Instead she did neither. She held onto it, holding back one decision. One thing she'd always be able to have power over. One decisive action she could choose to take at any time in the future. It wasn't like being stronger or faster or more magical would help right now anyway.

She hadn't even tried to cast at her interrogators. She'd never even thought of using her spells to protect herself.

Some mage she was.

She swapped her focus spell from Gust to Air Blade, using the cooldown to track the hours. Then back again.

It was hard to believe it had only been two days since their capture. It felt like an eternity. She'd begun to think there would never be anything but sitting alone in the omnipresent sourceless light, trapped in her own thoughts, constantly on the edge of tears if she'd had anything left to cry.

Drowning in an apathy so deep she couldn't even imagine why anything had ever seemed meaningful to her in the first place. What did it matter when she lived in a world where something like this could happen?

She couldn't even summon up anger or indignation any longer. Either would have been preferable; both required emotional energy she didn't possess.

So when the door clicked, the lock turning, she wasn't sure whether to be worried about mentally collapsing again, or glad that something would break the monotony.

Instead, a giant floating lidless eyeball hovered outside the door, surrounded by a swarm of those horrible slashing-bashing fishes.

Riana shrieked and fired a Gust at it by pure reflex before she took in its allied tag. All their allied tags. And names.

Before she could correct for her mistake, it had ducked out of the doorway and disappeared, leaving only two fish and one Crackle behind. The fish swam over through the air and started bashing at her chains, while Crackle set to work dissolving her manacles.

If any of them had been any bigger or slightly less spiky, she would have hugged them. Hope she'd thought had been entirely smothered sprang to life and surged through her. If Crackle was here, that meant Irene and Cas had finally figured out a plan. They were breaking out of this horrible place, finally!

The fish finished before Crackle did, so she stood and walked to the door with the broken chains still hanging from her wrists. Hesitantly, Riana poked her head out, hands raised and ready to cast if she needed to.

No, there was no threat. The corridor was empty except for more prisoners, both familiar and strangers, and the minions working their way down the line opening doors and breaking chains.

"Anyone here a Tamer with the Revive skill off cooldown?" Irene shouted over the clamor. "We've got a few minions to revive before we put our escape plan into action."

Riana ran toward her, laughing in relief. "Irene! You're alright. I was so worried."

"Riana! Have you seen Cas anywhere?"

Riana turned to look up and down the rapidly-filling hall, but didn't see anyone else she really knew. "No. I just got out." Her voice cracked, the memory of the past days threatening to choke her.

Irene stepped forward and met her, arms wrapping around her before Riana quite knew what was happening. "It's alright now," Irene murmured, "it's okay, you can let it go. It's over now."

Riana didn't know what she'd ever done to deserve someone so wonderful and supportive in her life, not only a guide through the mysteries of magic, but someone who actually cared enough about her to always knew exactly what she needed. Almost like a second mom. Or an awesome aunt. Maybe a big sister? No, too much of an age gap, that would feel weird.

Labels ultimately didn't matter. All that mattered right now was that Riana held on to Irene and let out all the stress and fear of the past days, uncaring of who was watching, and Irene held her and whispered comfort until the panic and fear had all receded and left Riana feeling empty.

"I think I need to sleep," she finally said, surprised by her own admission. It had been weeks since anyone worried about sleep.

Irene didn't judge, only nodded. "We won't be leaving for another several hours. Come find us when you're ready, if you want to help, but if you don't you can stay back with the rest."

"No, I want to help. I'll come."

"Whenever you're good and ready. Take as much time as you need."