NOVEL SIMPLE Ch. 1: An Unusual Voyage
Cass stared at the starry sky above her as the dark clouds parted around the boat. A warm certainty settled over her. For the first time since her arrival, she felt like maybe she had a handle on her circumstances. Salos and Alyx would guide her. Between the two of them, she wasn’t alone.
The wind danced through her braid, pulling at her loose clothes. The night air was chilly, but she hadn’t felt warmer since she arrived.
She looked out over the bow of the boat, her eyes fixed on the distant, star-filled sky. After so long without, her heart soared at the sight, even if they weren’t her stars. Even if that wasn’t her moon.
Moons, actually. There were two, one a disk of shining silver, one a copper crescent. This really was another world, as if there was room for doubt after everything that had happened.
The air was clean and sweet. Even cleaner than along the coasts of Earth. Maybe it was her slyphid senses, maybe it was the lack of industrial pollution.
Maybe it was the lack of saltwater in the air?
Cass frowned. Something was deeply off. She looked down, expecting a dark ocean and foaming spray as the keel cut through the gentle night waves.
There was no such thing below the boat. There was no water.
Just was a sea of stars.
“What the hell!” Cass shouted.
“What’s wrong?” Alyx squinted over the side.
Salos stood on her shoulder, joining them in looking over the edge. “Did you sense something?”
“Where did the ocean go!” Cass pointed furiously at the space below the boat. Now that she was paying attention, Atmospheric Sense happily reported that the boat was floating forward at a constant pace and that the sails to either side of the boat—the things Cass had mistaken for oars—were comfortably catching the winds.
“What ocean?” Alyx asked.
“Weren’t we on an island?” Cass had assumed Uvana was an island on an ocean, but maybe it sat upon a lake instead?
Alyx didn’t look any less confused.
“The water,” Cass clarified, gesturing at the space below the boat. “The water is gone!”
“Yes?” Alyx said slowly.
“No,” Salos disagreed. “I’m sure it’s right where we left it. It’s sitting as it always is on the Island’s lake.”
“I mean, it depends on your frame of reference,” Alyx amended. “Technically, the cat’s right. Why does it matter?”
“The Island’s lake?” Cass repeated. That made even less sense. “We cast off from a dock on the island’s lake?”
Salos nodded.
“Then, we’re just using this boat to cross a lake?” Cass knew that couldn’t be right. They had talked about a mainland. Or a continent. Or something.
“Not ‘just’, but yes, we did cross the lake,” Salos said.
“Not just,” Cass repeated dumbly.
“We’re on the aether between the Continent and the Island now,” Alyx said. “What’s confusing about that?”
Cass clapped her hands together, her fingers coming together in a concerned steeple. She had an inkling of where this was going, but all common sense said it was utterly impossible. She had to be wrong. “Are you telling me this boat is flying?”
“Yes?” Salos said.
“And this was fully expected?”
“Yes?”
“And it’s required to get from the island to the continent?”
“Yes.”
“Because it’s a floating island?”
“As opposed to what?” Salos asked.
Cass groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Are you telling me all islands float?”
“Yes? That’s why they’re Islands.”
“The Continents float too,” Alyx pointed out.
“Just in the air?” Cass asked.
“In the aether, technically,” Salos said.
“What are they floating above?” Cass asked.
“Nothing,” Alyx answered. “Occasionally one continent passes over another—”
Alyx was still talking, but Cass wasn’t listening. Just as she thought she’d gotten a handle on everything, something else threw her off balance again.
You alright? Salos asked telepathically. He hopped back onto her shoulder, his presence warm and stabilizing despite everything.
Cass pet his head and took a deep breath.
Stop that, he grumbled and pulled away, even as his cat chest thrummed with satisfied purring.
I’m alright. Cass answered finally. Just reminded once again how out of my depth I am.
Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. You can always just ask me if you need help.
I know, thanks.
The boat drifted silently through the open sky, stars swirling in a sea of blue and purple galaxies in every direction around her. The sky thrummed with power and potential. The wind whispered promises of adventure and excitement. Of sights she’d never even dreamed of and of places that defied imagination.
At the back of her mind, the notifications from the last fight pinged impatiently. She pulled them up, letting the blue System messages fill her vision.
Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 11.
Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 12.
Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 13.
Wind Step has increased to level 7.
Wind Step has increased to level 8.
Staff Mastery has increased to level 9.
Dodge has increased to level 8.
Dodge has increased to level 9.
Sprint has increased to level 3.
Sprint has increased to level 4.
Sprint has increased to level 5.
Sprint has increased to level 6.
Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 11.
Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 12.
Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 13.
Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 14.
Wind Blade has increased to level 7.
Wind Blade has increased to level 8.
Mana Blade has increased to level 5.
Beacon of Hearth and Home has increased to level 7.
Staff Mastery has reached the First Step! Congratulations!
[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:
+ 3 Str
+ 2 Dex
+ 1 End
+ 1 Vit]
Dodge has reached the First Step! Congratulations!
[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:
+ 3 Dex
+ 2 Per
+ 1 End
+ 1 Ala]
Beginner Quest (4): Slay the Lord of the Pass Complete!
Reward: Increased Bonus to Skill Milestones
Trait Gained: The Pass’s Blessing - For conquering the Pass, you have been blessed on behalf of He of Might and Fire.
[Bonus to Skill Milestones increased by 1 point for each rewarded stat.
Retroactive bonus applied to currently held milestones:
+ 1 Str
+ 4 Dex
+ 3 End
+ 1 Wll
+ 4 Ala
+ 2 Res
+ 3 Per
+ 2 Vit]
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
+ 4 Dex
+ 4 End
+ 4 Wll
+ 4 Ala
+ 16 Free Points
Shock froze her in place.
She had known there were a lot of notifications waiting for her—she hadn’t needed to open them to feel that instinctively. But four whole levels were still far more than she’d been expecting. She had jumped straight from level 15 to 19. Plus, two new skills at the First Step?
Cass added a point to Str and Frt to keep them from falling too far behind, then put the rest into the mental row.
Str 17 -> 18
Wll 41 -> 47
Ala 41 -> 45
Res 32 -> 36
Frt 14 -> 15
She opened her status screen to see what that looked like all together.
Name: Cass
[Race: Slyphid
Lvl: 19
Str - 18 Dex - 39 End - 32
Wll - 47 Ala - 45 Res - 36
Frt - 15 Per - 24 Vit - 20
Free Points: 0]
Concepts:
[- Wind (Dex, Ala, Per) [The Wind is Ephemeral. The Wind is Speed. The Wind is All.]
- Hearth (Unapplied)
- Liminal (Unapplied)]
That was a far cry from where she had started a little under a month ago. She did a quick comparison of her starting stats and her current ones, barely able to believe the change.
Str 4 -> 18
Dex 3 -> 39
End 4 -> 32
Wll 16 -> 47
Ala 9 -> 45
Res 12 -> 36
Frt 2 -> 15
Per 5 -> 24
Vit 7 -> 20
She had gone from 62 to 276 stat points across her nine stats. That was over four times as many as she’d started with. Her lowest stat (Frt) had multiplied by seven.
And the numbers didn’t lie. Earth Cass hadn’t been strong. She’d been clumsy and easily winded. Now, she could swing her staff and break bones. She could walk for miles without stopping. She could run over uneven ground in the dark without tripping. She could walk off injuries that would have left an ordinary person bedridden for weeks.
Cass took a deep breath and dismissed the System windows. The stars stretched out in every direction around her. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She did not dream of power. But she would not have survived up to this point if she did not have it.
Earth Cass would be dead in the valley if not for the power she had been granted.
This power would carry her to her true dreams. To find her way home. To find her way back to her family. To Kaye and Robin.
It had been about a month since she’d been yanked into this world from her camping trip with them. All she had were questions. How were they handling her disappearance? Her kidnapping?
She clenched her hand around her staff before her mind could spiral down that train of thought. She had no answers. Her fears and speculations helped no one. Imagining their heartbreak only reignited her own.
Her hand crept up to Salos’s head. She scratched behind one of his ears. He purred quietly.
She would get back to them. That was all that mattered.