I Alone Level Up

By the time the third bell rang, half the hall had already chosen a side.

The manual had said this would hurt. The manual had been generous. She traded the last of her name for passage and considered it a bargain. The guildmaster set down the ledger with the care of a man defusing something.

Nothing in the prophecy had mentioned paperwork. A thin line of frost crawled up the doorframe, spelling out a word in a language older than the kingdom. Rank meant nothing here; the mountain had never learned to read a badge.

The girl in the mirror moved a fraction late, and smiled a fraction early. Rank meant nothing here; the mountain had never learned to read a badge.

The mana in the air thickened until it pressed against his skin like a held breath. She had never seen a spell apologise before. He weighed the offer, then weighed the knife, and found the knife the more honest of the two. He had prepared nine arguments and needed none of them.

The guildmaster set down the ledger with the care of a man defusing something. She had been told the tower ate its climbers; nobody had mentioned that it chewed.

He wrote the formula in ash because ink would have remembered it. Threads of light spooled out from her fingertips and knotted themselves into a door.

He had died once already this year, and found the experience overrated. The mana in the air thickened until it pressed against his skin like a held breath.

Rank meant nothing here; the mountain had never learned to read a badge. Wind came off the ridge carrying the smell of iron and burnt sugar. He had prepared nine arguments and needed none of them.

“The Second Awakening”

Power without a ledger, his master used to say, is simply a landslide. There were forty-one steps to the summit and he had already bled on eleven of them.

They buried the sword rather than break it, which told him everything. The city held its breath for the length of one long, ugly heartbeat. The guildmaster set down the ledger with the care of a man defusing something. The manual had said this would hurt. The manual had been generous. The beast did not roar. That was the part that frightened him.

Magic, he had learned, was mostly bookkeeping performed at knifepoint. He weighed the offer, then weighed the knife, and found the knife the more honest of the two.

Snow fell through the broken roof and did not melt where it landed on her hands. Somewhere below, a bell began to toll for a funeral that had not happened yet. He had died once already this year, and found the experience overrated.

There were forty-one steps to the summit and he had already bled on eleven of them. The old man laughed, and dust fell from the rafters in sympathy.