TASTKA POV
On the third try, I managed to tie my hair back. The wild tumble of my mane was usually just fine the way it was, but I often tied it back to keep it out of the way when trying to do something more delicate. In this case, that wasn’t what I was doing… I just liked the way it looked.
I was usually much better about wrapping the hair tie in, but my excitement was getting the better of me. I finally forced myself to relax enough to get my mane up in something resembling a controlled spill.
I felt my ears heat up as I glanced to the side and saw my foster father’s brother giving me an amused look, prodding my First Father to get his attention and nod my way. I let out an aggrieved huff and hurried onward to see if I could find Fisk and Eyssa.
So what if I was excited? Everyone was excited when they were this close to their first Path. This was normal, right?
As soon as I was out of sight, I slowed down a little and once again pulled up my status screen.
My affinities had unlocked some time ago, but I resisted the urge to expand that menu and view all of them. I’d looked at that screen so many times that I’d memorized the values. It was that pulsing “Preparing...” that kept drawing my eyes back.
I’d been told that this usually only lasted a day or two. I was now on the third day, which was unusually long. That alone had gotten many people excited, since every time the First Path had taken a long time to appear, it had meant something unusual… or that an excellent choice had been made available.
It hadn’t happened in a long time. In fact, I’d never heard of it happening to anyone. One of the older adults had mentioned she’d seen it happen once when she was a child, and now it had happened to me – or was happening.
“Tastka!” called a voice from nearby. I perked up and quickly looked around, coming to a halt.
I’d been near the tree line that marked the edge of our encampment, and it appeared that our [Clan Guide] had spotted me about to rush off. He was signaling for me to come over. I hesitated, but I realized that when the big moment came, my friends would probably come rushing over anyway. A part of me had really wanted to use that day away from chores to play with them… but they probably still had chores too. At least, that was what I told myself to feel better about turning and trudging back toward the adults.
My mood lifted when I saw that my First Father had lingered nearby. Sometimes, taking on a foster father led to children drifting apart from their First Fathers, and that had happened to me as well. But “drifted apart” didn’t mean I never saw him – he still tried to encourage me when he could. I was lucky to have such a First Father.
I was also lucky that the [Clan Guide] could speak to me in person. Our clan was not large, but it was not small either, and my presence in the encampment that housed the [Clan Guide] was fortunate. The other six camps had to make do with an assistant.
He rested his hand upon my shoulder, giving a firm squeeze that made my tail twitch. I had never been touched by the guide in such a way. I’d seen him do that to Fisk and to some of the more important adults, but I’d always assumed I was beneath his notice.
“It has been more turns than any of us can count since a Path has needed so long to reveal itself,” he said to me. “We are all curious about what you will have.”
Of course that made a lot of sense. I realized that before this, I had been neither particularly talented nor untalented. The only strange trait I had was my high affinity with Flux… but I was far from the only one in the clan with that talent.
Now, though, I had something that even the [Clan Guide] had never seen before: a Path that refused to reveal itself even after the second day. My ears lifted in polite but sincere warmth.
“I wonder too, Forward One,” I replied quietly.
I snuck a quick look at my Status Menu again, and my tail suddenly stilled. The guide smiled and released me, motioning for the others to gather. I heard shouts nearby, and I knew that soon many of the camp would be here, to see what I would become.
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I barely noticed the others gathering around me… whispering, trying to guess what would be revealed. I was sorting through the available classes, mentally pushing aside all the ones I wasn’t interested in.
I’d been warned about this during my preparation for choosing my First Path. Everyone was offered more choices than they could count, but most of them were too narrow to be a good choice for a first class. Very few people ever chose them. These were classes like [Climber], or something more generic, like [Laborer]. Those classes had their advantages, but they were better used as secondary classes. They wouldn’t progress as swiftly as primary ones, but they would still grant some benefit.
The important choice was always the first primary class. That decision determined who would teach me going forward, and what they would prepare me to do for the clan. It could only be changed with great difficulty, so this was a moment that mattered to everyone.
My ears perked up as I saw the choice I had been hoping for. I knew I was very likely to be offered something related to Flux, and I wanted to use my affinity with it. [Flux Shaper] was there, just as I had guessed.. but [Flux Speaker] was also listed. That was the one I’d been hoping for. Yet it wasn’t rare enough to explain the delay, so I continued looking.
“What do you see?” the guide asked.
“Nothing yet,” I replied. “I was offered [Flux Speaker], and if I don’t see anything better, I think I’ll take that.”
Both he and my First Father nodded appreciatively, and I saw my foster father’s ears lift not far away. That was no surprise… he’d been preparing me for this, hoping I would follow him in being a [Flux Speaker].
Then I saw it.
I had to stare. My tail twitched, then dipped rapidly in distress, drawing a gasp of shock from those gathered.
“What’s wrong?” Eyssa asked. I hadn’t noticed she’d arrived, but it made sense. I’d been lost in my menu for quite a while. Someone must have fetched her, knowing she’d want to see. Fisk was probably somewhere nearby too.
“I think I found it,” I said slowly, “but it’s... very strange.”
“What does it say?” our [Clan Guide] asked, his tone edged with excitement. I knew he hoped for something new… something the clan could use to lead us to further prosperity. That would be his legacy, and my own.
I looked up from my menu and repeated the words I saw.
“Essence Host, Provisional Name… Temporal Registry Locked.”
Silence fell for a long moment as everyone looked around, trying to see if anyone understood what I had just said.
The term Essence… we all knew that one. The system used it to describe the various kinds of energy we could manipulate to shape the world. The word Host also made sense, so it seemed to imply that I could hold or contain more Essence.
But the rest didn’t make any sense at all. I could spell out the words with difficulty, but they sounded clumsy and wrong… not like anything an elf would actually say. They felt rough in my throat, as if I wasn’t meant to speak them.
The clan guide clapped his hands together as the whispering started to rise, prompting everyone to fall silent again.
“What does the description say?” he asked.
I nodded and first looked back at the [Flux Speaker] class before glancing down at this strange one.
It was so different from the new class. Then I felt my heart tighten in my chest as I read the full description. The last part of the [Essence Host] description was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. I wasn’t sure I should tell them what it said. The idea that a class existed that could do this would make everything we knew different. But I knew even if I didn’t tell them they would want me to take it as a primary class.
If I did that, I couldn’t take [Flux Speaker] without revealing the truth. It was possible to have more than one primary class, but not at my age. Maybe... maybe I could lie.
I thought fast, then swallowed, and began to speak, my tail trembling.
“Provisional Description. The user possesses a connection to something greater. This force strengthens them against harm and provides a boost to every affinity upon level-up. Upon each level-up, it provides a boost to mana capacity. It is unknown what other effects this class has.”
My tail quivered again, and then I said the lie.
“Choosing this class as a primary class immediately allows access to a second primary class.”
The words came out unsteadily – I wasn’t used to lying – but I forced them through. Even that was new, but it was less disruptive than the truth. My tail gave another nervous flick as I looked at the actual description, at everything I’d left out.
I could barely hear the shouting and confusion that broke out around me while I continued staring at the real description.
Numbers