The Way Forward v2: Guiding your descendant to glory.

Go, if you come away from your way

Find, find your own way that you believe in

Destiny's challenging you;

"Obey me, or defy me"

- 403, "Southern Cross"



1.1



April wearily tugged the strings of her hood closer, the coarse fabric irritating the fur on her ears as she pressed forward into the omnipresent foggy rains of the Queendom of Gariafiy. The road she was on had long since faded into a track, going through the fire-red forests in the foothills against the mountain range on the boarder of Gariafry and Tokiya. It was a popular rule of thumb that where the blue acacia trees on the sides of the mountains gave way to the red crepe myrtle that you had left Tokiya. Not it mattered for most, the foothills of Gariafiy were full of monsters, and a lot of the commoners in Tokiya didn't have the permits to legally own weapons. Or they were like her and banned from it – as an exile they took her weapons.



She no longer remembered why she chose this path, but knew if she stopped, she wouldn't reach the monastery established as a way point deeper into the forest, near the lake before nightfall, and no sane folk would in these parts would risk it. So, she pressed on, ignoring the rain seeming to intensify as she pressed on. Even with the overcoat she had on top of her coat, she knew she'd be soaked wet if this kept going on. Within an hour, she was unfortunately proven right. Her fur wasn't particularly luxurious, but it was still enough to get wet and she was really beginning to wish she had more time to at least try and get better rain-cloaks.



Pushing forward, she reached the outskirts of the monastery as the yellow-purple of twilight began to break through some of the rain, just a light drizzle at this point. Some of the larger and more reflective shards were even beginning to shine on the horizon. This monastery was clearly made back under the rule of Gariafiy, the founder of this queendom. The fencing was multiple separated boxes, with the outermost a dirt dike, topped with spikes. The innermost was a modernized iron and hard-brick. This was patrolled, and April's practiced eye spotted several emplaced amplifiers for mana and Qi uses.



The monastery was an example of both the glory of the rule of Gariafiy I, and the general decline of the Queendom in the four centuries since her rule. It was a building once of gleaming marble and black-glass, from the omnipresent obsidian in this area. It was multiple stories and had a large bell and clock tower with sentry positions in the center. In the front, just through the gate, was a statue of the saint of travelers, Darici, a saint of the Goddess of Night, Fairioni.



However, time had ground down the edges, and visible blue and violet wood reinforcement had been done, with hard-brick painted white in places. She could see red ivy and purple dawn-flowers across many walls, and the clock arms were fluctuating - likely a damaged mana stone. It was still well patrolled, but the fact the track faded to dirt told her this was an unusual situation. As she neared the gate, a troop of elves and humans in what she was pretty sure was the distinctive ivory armor with gold and cerulean inlay. Nobility of the Queendo-



April's heart sunk when she spotted the amethyst-wolfite circuits, glowing bright. Those circuits could carry a lot of mana, some powerful anchored enchantments, and the cost was such that only royal or elite units could command them. And that meant she was willing to bet she could not stay there tonight. That, and the fact that the troop didn't appear to decrease the number of patrolling agents.



The leader motioned to her to stop. He was a tall elf, and wielded a sword and spear, standard for most soldiers. Unlike most soldiers, she could spot the intricate inlay in the scabbards, and sense the faint hum of imbued Qi.

"Apologies, traveler, but I cannot permit you entrance tonight."

April really didn't want to be alone outside the walls. "Is there any way I can camp between the walls?" She suspected the answer was no, but she must ask.

The leader grimaced but nodded in sympathy. "I cannot. However. I know who you are," He rather pointedly looked at her rather distinctive black and silver fur, then continued. " and while I cannot officially aid you, me and some of the soldiers feel you should at least be given a standard pack to survive on. And a recommendation."

Gariafly and Tokiya were allied nations, at this time, after all.

April hesitated a moment. "I.. "

She sighed. She hated taking charity, and from the age of 14, had been drilled to never accept gifts. But she had no choice.

"I am much obliged. If you need something from me in the future, you have but to ask."

The leader smiles wryly. "It is not something you need to worry about. Consider it already paid for with what you have done."

April nodded awkwardly, accepting it. It wasn't much, but a waterproof poncho, and a leather backpack with a faintly enchanted tent – standard for wilderness camping. There was even a spear – a recruit's spear, but enough for her to defend herself with. Something seemed odd about it, and the tent. But she couldn't sense it.

"As a recommendation, I know that the Duchy of Tzariban is looking for trainers and soldiers. You could find work there."

April's light orange eyes didn't -quite- narrow, and she kept a pleasant and grateful tone. "I appreciate the recommendation. "

The leader nodded. "And now I must ask you to leave."

April did so, waiting until she was a good half hours walk away. She then began to feel with her mana – a thing she had tried a few times on the path down here. But.. well, if she had to describe it, it was like grabbing water. Your hands got wet, but you couldn't hold it for long, if at all.

The Tokiya army was not high on training about mana or even Qi more than it had to. Some training was required – the shield skill that prevented firearms from hitting was standard issue for all armies, after all, but on the whole, it frowned on it. Even outside training to understand it was forbidden. It had been one thing she had never truly understood. It wasn't until that last battle she had even tasted Qi and mana in a real way and got the feel of it. And she couldn't begin to explain how she had channeled it into her spear and use it as a magical focus. But the memory of it remained. Including that odd mana feeling that disrupted the shields of many on the field, leading to massive death.

[+ Mana Sense +Qi Sense +2 subranks]

Thinking on that moment, and she refocused, and unseen to her, violet lights appeared in her eyes as she properly bent the mana to her will. It was difficult, and it took a few minutes of strain, where her coats blew off in the faint magical wind she was generating. Only then did she figure out what had been off.

Even a country girl like her knew about the different types of mana imbuements – an enchantment, which boosted the weapon or the user. An imbuement, which gave it a magical capability. A malediction, which harmed the user. A curse, which required a truly powerful caster, which would permanently harm the user. The coat had no mana – which would make sense. It'd have been more suspicious if it did.

The tent had a very strong malediction – it would attract monsters. She wasn't going to be able to use it. The spear.. well, would break on her. It was a particular kind of curse that would only trigger severe injuries, and not leave any sign. She knew instinctively that she could attempt to break the maledictions, but she likely liked the control and skills – and possibly the power – to do so.

That faint sense of unease was now a full-fledged chorus of bells. She knew very well not to go near the Duchy of Tzariban – it was undergoing political turmoil and was rather human-supremacist. She had overheard that at a waystation further back up the road. She was now rather morbidly curious why this happened, but knew she had to leave the lowlands as well, unless she pushed into the Grand Duchy of Sateir, and she did not feel up to the political and demonic issues ongoing in that nation, being so close to the Ocean Ruins.

It was this moment that she startled as the mana in front of her surged and the faint outline of an older kitsune appeared – 6 tails, if she was not mistaken – and April frowned as the fur was a faded black and silver with hints of gold and a particular violet you only see in mana crazed beasts. Still, she wasn't entirely sure the figure was entirely in this world.

The figure nodded in approval as he saw her wariness and attempt to use mana sight.

"You are yet unskilled, but that can be corrected, my descendant. Instincts need to be present to be polished." His voice was faint and slightly ethereal. His eyes were a piercing golden, and if nothing else marked him as an archmage, the eye color being a particular vibrant golden would be a tell "I am Talionis Smithison. I was an archmage in the age of Queen Sayika."

April does some mental math. "That would have been" she trails off here to do some quick math about the history of Tokiya – " about 145 to 65 years before the formation of the Kingdom of Tokiya. How are you here now?"

"The Moirai have commanded me to lead you." The other kitsune says. "And I can speak to you but briefly, before you will be able to see me properly, or I will have the power to appear to you. As you have seen, there are more than just a few that wish to see you dead. I am here to teach you a power you will need and tell you – seek out the Alley of the Star Seeker, on the peak of Mt. Derali." The kitsune holds out a glowing hand. "Take the two powers, young sorceress, and seek out your destiny. Make us proud, young descendant, and show them that the Smithison name still holds weight."

As April takes the powers from the light, the form vanishes, no longer able to maintain itself. April nods, but her ears pick up as she begins to hear movement at the other end of the hill.

[April gains Magic Missile (aspectless) and Extra-dimensional Space (Common)]

"Nothing for it, I guess." April murmurs to herself.

She activated the space and promptly disappeared from the world, only to reappear in a military tent much like the one she used to own while on the march. It had a cot, a desk with paper and an inkpot, a very closed front, and she got the decision she should only look through it when she intended to leave. It was dry, and well, not warm or not cold, and she got the distinct ability that was due to her being a novice at the power, as well as her inability to finetune it. There was only a long-hourglass for time tracking, and she turned it over, knowing it'd give her a good indication when it would be time to depart. But it was safe, and she started checking the gear for tracking as well. She hadn't taken the normal path, so that sound was suspicious. And here, she felt she'd have the ability to safely experiment with overpowering and dispersing the maledictions and enchantments.

Just in time, as several of the rangers of the Queendom's guard came over the hill and continued onwards, assuming the increasing rain had wiped some of her tracks.



Actions: April will spend the night detail checking the gear and attempting to overpower the maledictions. (Likely chances: Good, will gain some subranks in Dispel and Mana Control.)

April Actions

Training (pick one):

• [ ] Practice Mana Sense and Control in meditation, and practice with Magic Missile to get a sense of how it handles. This will mean an abbreviated but still generally sufficient physical exercise to maintain the currently decaying stats skills at the trending subrank.
• [ ] Focus on physical exercises. This will mean an abbreviated practice of mana sense and control and magic missile second and mean little progression on them and their associated stat. This will slow the decaying stats and skills.

Preparation (pick two):

• [ ] It might take an hour, but April knows enough to make a very crude magical focus out of the myrtle with mana infusement. It'd lessen the internal cost of Magic Missile for as long as it lasted, which was maybe three or four months.
• [ ] The spear provided is not salvageable. She should make another one. You think you found some black-steel to make a tip out of. It's still likely to break after a few months.
• [ ] Magic users usually use a dagger and firearm, or a quarterstaff they could imbue. You cannot make a firearm capable of channeling your mana, but a quarterstaff is possible. It'd also break eventually.
• [] The peak of Mt. Derali bordered the Forbidden Range of the Gods, and having rations and water prepared would stop you from needing to hunt in that region. (Decrease travel time by one day.)

Talonis Actions

Conduit Actions (pick three) (This will decrease in two turns to two.)

• [] April is a new sorceress, and lacks, intentionally, many of the starting skills a normal citizen of the Osteria would have. But she has been exposed to a lot of fire and death mana and Qi. You could increase the available fire mana to her and move it in a way that would lead her to experiment with unsuspecting mana. (Progress towards unlocking the Mana Skill: Form Neutral Mana. Progress points required: 140)
• [] Boost her mana power in general by 25%.
• [] April needs a way to detect at much wider ranges monsters – whether of the beastial, or human kind- to survive. She has the baseline perception, but you could send obvious eddies to teach her Manasight or Farsight. (Progress required: 80 points.) (The character will learn either/or.) (Farsight leads to the Diviniation tree. Manasight leads to Advanced Mana Concepts.)
• [] Channel magic to lead her enemies astray. (Less chance of hostile encounters)
• [ ] Spark of Inspiration – Give her an insight into an ongoing issue that will lead to a spell. (Random choice, but one that will matter in turn 2.)
• [] April, unknowingly, is cursed with Death Mana. You could work on purifying it from her before she gains Infernal traits. However, it must be a slow and spread out process. (Ongoing, has 35% Curse Progress. Each turn stops progress and decreases it by 5%.)(Possible side effects and complications if you take this every turn. Current Progress per turn: 3%)

Self Actions (pick one)

• [] You've just ascended, and feel sluggish. You cannot remanifest or even communicate. Your spells fizzle from lack of mana and you feel you will need to unlock them all over again. You will need to increase your mana to do so. (1/?)
• [] You cannot teach her the grand secrets, but you can ensure that she finds the right books, of course. (Increase April's luck for a turn. More likely to learn a power from observation, increase a skill, of course.)

Spell Actions (locked, unavailable)

ETA: Spell-checking, fixing missing words.

Progress:

- Training: Mana Sense -> Common 7, Mana Control -> Common 7 , Magic Missile (aspectless) -> Common 6, Intelligence -> Common 6, Inertial Shield (Common) -> Common 8, Extradimensional Space -> Common 3

- Maintaining: Sword Proficiency -> Adept 0, Spear Proficiency -> Adept 4, Strength -> Common 9, Vitality -> Adept 11

- Talonis: Mana I [79/450]

- April: Neutral Mana: [78/140]

- April: Starting Path [47/80]





It had been a long day. April wasn't fool enough to believe that this shelter had no way to be detected – possibly even her forced out? and she wished she had a way to see out to the world. But when she was working on different spear moves, she did so only after a firm grounding from the Sergeants training her, and she had no such training in magic. Thinking on this reminded her of those days she had been drafted to the Army, and undergone training – and again, when it became clear the Beast Wave would start. With the benefit of retrospect, she could see how that bitterness was unearned. She had taken to serving in the army after her parents disappeared during the Beast Wave, and after studying what little training Tokiya gave on command, had sought to be a good commander. She had asked for advice from some of the NCOs in the army longer than she had been alive, and stove to moderate her command style at that point.

Fundamentally, though, she knew she wasn't a great commander. She strove to be good. And until that last battle, she thought she was. As she worked on tearing the mana out of the tent and spear – it could be tracked, potentially – she had time to reflect on the battle that never seemed to leave her mind. The fear and shock over the dying and those about to follow them into death as the barriers failed. The appearance of the Commander and his Twelve Generals and the sheer rage that overcome her at the sheer death in the pass, the power overflowing… leaving at the end the whimpers and screams of the wounded, the pungent smell of the dead and dying, the smell – and the fire and mana in the air making one feel doomed – she remembered being so tired, empty, and wishing no more that the dying could be rescued, and then-

CRACK! April was jostled out of her memories by a sharp crack of the spear, the mana breaking the spear itself and April winces as some of the shards hit her. She pulls a small tub of a very rudimentary cream out of the old pack and gently dabs a dot over the spot to stop it from bleeding – she needed this to last until she got where she was going to. The battle had left a curse in her joints, and only the cream seemed to ameliorate it any, not that she would be particularly agile or strong for the next few months. She looked at the spear mournfully. It would have made hunting easier. The tent she planned to pitch somewhere as a diversion as she failed to disenchant it.

Just as well, she thought ruefully. She didn't prefer to think on what happened next at all.

She put the shards of the spear in her old pack – and tore the cover of it to put on the new one, just to make it less shiny as she transferred her new gear to it. The lessons from boot camp and later, wilderness training, were a decade ago, but she still remembered how to make yourself not incredibly obvious. It was clear she'd have to move in a wide arc around the monastery, and she would need to do so in the dark. She finished as fast as she could and lay down on the cot, willing herself to sleep. If nothing else, she had learnt how to sleep anywhere and on command.

The next morning, she was relieved to emerge into the pre-dawn light. The deep red and blue spots in the morning sky warned her it was going to be a stormy day, and she resigned herself to not getting too far. Setting out, she pitched the tent in a heavily secluded thatch of redwood, with branches being used to hide it (as she would have done) and put the old pack in there, before moving through the woods as stealthily as possible. It wasn't long before the wind began to pick up, and April grimly pushed forward. Despite her rather delicate looking build, she had done her marching through storms and such. Granted, that was with proper gear, and why she rather thought she wasn't getting anywhere far today.

She hadn't needed to have been told where the Alley of the Star Seeker was. Mt. Derali was one of the highest peaks in the Deiwaikathi Mountain Range, which wasn't as tall as the Forbidden Mountains next to it, thankfully. It was only about four kilometers from the shoreline, as was measured by the Roadseekers Guild. And from this position, she was already nearly two kilometers up. No, the problem was about this time of year the rains and storms moved in, and the beasts became more active. Still, she'd like to reach the main road so she could head up.

Sadly, it wasn't to be. While she had to fight off a low level spider beast or two with her magic – and she knew now that she needed to work on strengthening her ability to draw out the power so it wasn't so tiring or log to do so – the storm began to become a gale and she was forced to summon the extradimensional space and vanish into it, although she made sure to move to a secluded location first. It was a testament to the power of the storm that the "tent" was shaking in the wind, and she could hear the rain. She sneezed and felt she had waited slightly too long to activate the tent. She couldn't start a fire, or could she?

[Vitality Check: 39 + 11 => 50; Passed]

Thankfully, she warmed up fine soon after.

While getting wood and it started wasn't a problem – she might have to focus more heavily on the fire arrows spell – the problem was where could it go? And she didn't like the way the tent was swaying slightly. Clearly, she had to modify this power somehow, to allow her to pop in and out to get wood without having to dismiss and recreate the space; to allow her to vent smoke out; and to better secure the tent. She let her mind wander for a second as the tent began to shake more – the wind outside must be affecting it, and April had a flash of insight. The extradimensional space had to be outside the real world, but likely still had some anchor, like the farsight beacons the Teyerali Royal Mages used. There were ways of strengthening and disguising it, she remembered. Ones that had meant the army had to call in outside help when they were suspected to be within the Kingdom of Tokiya, which had no royal mages – or, really, any mages at all.

April focused on the connection to the spell in her soul? Dantian? What was the term they used? Kosmoscape? She couldn't remember, and eagerly looked forward to someone explaining this to her. Chanting in her head the same chant she had done every time at a shrine in her childhood, she realized that modifying the tent might work badly with her in it, so she popped back out and took shelter under branches to ward off the water as much as possible while she modified it. The image she had was one of the tents that one of the Councilors of the Right had used during the Kaehian Beast Wave Suppression – a tent that had a cover, more internal and external "pins", a way to vent smoke and other things. It even had a window, and she remembered the unit commander at the time suspecting magic and having been faintly scandalized.

[Mana Control: 43+7+8=>58; Passed]

[Mana Sense: 47+6+8 => 61; Passed]

April could only imagine the horror on the elf's face at what she was about to create and wasn't upset too much by the concept. She hadn't understood then, and didn't understand now exactly why the Kingdom of Tokiya had such an aversion to magic. And given the storm picking up, she mentally scolded herself – she could go down memory lane once she got this done. The power's structure wasn't clicking, at first, but she found this in itself was useful to learn more. The tricker bits were making it harder to detect, and making sure the window was one way only. It took her longer than she liked, and the water was beginning to seep through the branches before she was done, but she did finish, and grabbing the driest branches, repopped into her new "tent" just outside the branches, disappearing from the world. As she suspected, it had the furniture the Councilor had, although that had just been a proper bed, a desk with books, and a lot of gadgets, and two chests.

April, curious, went to check on them. The books had nothing in them – completely blank or full of meaningless scribbles, and she spent some mental time dismissing almost all of them. There was no need for them if they were blank. The gadgets were another story. She had to help carry them gently, as the Councilor of the Right was a firm believer in their utility, even though the army used none of them. And, as she suspected, the gadgets that she knew what they did and roughly how the device worked worked. More than likely the power used mana and her understanding of the device to simulate function. As such, the mana detector, barometer, thermometer, hydrometer, clock, and foe-sense worked. The other nine devices she didn't recognize, and gently moved them to one of the chests, both empty.

The thermometer read a slightly chilly twenty-one degrees centigrade and the barometer was reading 1005 milibar, and she knew then that the storm was going to continue. The reinforced stakes – April might have cheated a bit, but she did feel that she was only scratching the surface of this power, since it could be more than metaphorically staked down to anchor it. Maybe expanded. Or temperature controlled. And she got the feeling she could put up magical displays like the ones she had heard about from other nations. Still, what she was extremely curious about she'd need to test – is this a constant additional drain on her mana? A larger one-time cost? It certainly felt like summoning the space had drained her further. Worst off, could it be both at once?

Eventually. She would need to study but found herself excited about the possibilities this power had for her, and for the first time since that battle, was excited again. She put the branches out in the corner to dry out – she would need to move them into the chest, she rather suspected, as they weren't decorations like everything else – and then froze as the foe-sense begin to glow a warning amber. Then, she glanced through the window. She was in a grove near the main road, but hadn't yet reached it, and spotted a patrol of the Queendom slowly moving through the ravine. The grove was out of the way, and she had been extremely careful to mask her tracks – so careful it had slowed her down – so the patrol simply passed her spot by, but it was a clear sign they were out in force looking for her. After sitting still waiting for them to pass, she grabbed a black-steel rock she had on hand, and some of the larger sticks. She had a spear to make and wanted to experiment with making a basic focus. The clock read seven hours into the day, nearing early afternoon, so she had time. And she kept an observational watch on the foe-sense and window, but aside from wildlife, and the odd wandering monster, she spotted nothing. But she did get the focus and spear made.

April stretched out, and spotting it was now into the evening, ate some of her rations.

This pattern held for the next week – traveling during the day and using the tent to study how she manifested her power. She tried to play around with her other powers, and wasn't as successful as with the shelter, and she began to suspect that need had driven that one. As she began to climb up the long path to the Alley, and temperatures began to drop into the chilly teens and single degree temps, she had time to ponder on it as she stared into her fire to warm up from hunting for food. She rather suspected that part of her problem modifying the other powers is that she had no real pressing need to, and without that, couldn't branch from her nearly nonexistent knowledge base.

But there was a chill in the air, and she knew the Alley was one of the high places that got snow, something unknown below two kilometers in most places. She would have to get used to the extreme cold there. The Alley even saw occasional negative twenties, and April shivered already. She would need to think of a way to do temperature control that wasn't a fire, after all.

This pace slowed her down, as the storms on the mountain got more intense, and she eventually was just barely advancing up the curving path when the storm was at its weakest. She was getting experience with the magic missile power, and her spear, but once she broke the tree-line (which was very close), the constant storms were going to be a real problem. The pressure wasn't rising, either, which didn't surprise her. The Deiwaikathi Range was largely impassable in winter except for certain extremely guarded passes. That all being said, she didn't think this was natural. It was too constant, and something about the way the rain smelled was off. And even if that was false, it would be even more unwise to linger. She was an adequate hunter for herself but not enough to be hunting for long. There was nothing for it, she'd have to push through the next few days. Thinking on it, she could possibly adapt the shield she learned, finetune it a bit, but April gave a groan already just thinking about the strain.

The next day, after adjusting the shield spell to counter rain and snow, April set up for a hard climb. It took her three long miserable days, and she felt like she had gained more ability to draw out, but each time she had tried to absorb some of the mana from the air, it had failed. It seemed the easiest method to replenish wasn't going to work without some time, and the storms gained in power and ferocity as she neared the Alley.

But on a certain day of the Stars, in the middle of the deepening autumn, she reached the Alley. And the sight of the eyewall being almost directly over the edge of the thick tight-weave and multiple gem-current inlaid wall told her all she needed to know about how artificial the storm was. She focused forward her mana and pushed through the eyewall. There was a pop as she emerged into clear space, and she felt an odd tension. It was a feeling she couldn't quantify, but she noted the shield was itself wavering and frowned. The shield rippled as she tried to stabilize it, but while she could alter the permeability of the shield, she couldn't alter the drain on her Qi or Mana or how it bled off the excess energy. She had her doubts on how it was taught as a Qi technique, considering it'd feed on her mana far more comfortably, but she had begun to grasp a fundamental issue with her knowledge.

Qi wasn't Mana. She recalibrated the shield, but didn't feel she needed to keep it up. A man in elaborate robes of – silk and tiger fur? Probably the black tiger of the Forbidden Mountains, which in itself spoke to a certain level of power – had appeared. She could faintly sense the mana presence, but even had she been blind to that, she knew she couldn't even begin to shield against those ivory and wolfite inlaid handguns. The man said nothing, giving her more time to at least try and place where he was from. Weather-beaten, but even with that tan he had a very fair complexion and was likely from the Grand Duchy of Sateir. The green eyes and particular slant to the chin said as much. Fit and thin, but in the way that spoke of agility over brawn, unlike her build. Probably in his sixties, she felt, but she knew full well that masters of inner energies lived longer. Probably human. The eye color being green with flecks of gold told her it wasn't an Archmage, and that completed the puzzle.

"Master Sorcerer." She spoke. April felt.. well, small. She was just a rather wet, bedraggled kitsune.

"Seeker." The man greeted her with a smile. "You must be from the Kingdom of Tokiya, to be consciously using Qi in such a manner with your mana. It is quite distinctive. My guess is that you are April Smithidottir, and I am relieved to see you. We did not want to see the linage of the Smiths burn out. But our Alley is for a purpose, Seeker, and I must ask. Why did you seek us? What do you seek to do in the world?"

"I seek.."

[ ] "to continue why I served. It is important to serve the many, with unselfish concern." April smiles a bit wryly. "And if I can no longer serve the Kingdom of Tokiya, I can still seek to serve where I can. The battle has opened my eyes that merely being a commander in a militia unit, while important, is not the limits of what I can give." (Sage path. April will focus on being a great sage, which is a focus on magic and skills that aid all. It has no particular focus, but her mentor will push her to grow faster in the foundation. As this is her destiny, she will progress faster down this path. Second Tier Classes: Sage (expert and focus on magic more useful for assisting the people), Archon (expert and focus on magic more useful for combating threats that would threaten the people))

[] "to find out the truth behind the battle. To ensure that my men, and anyone else who can be sucked in, will be avenged." (Inquisitor path. April will focus on seeking out threats such as demons, or the corruption of nobility, and burn it out. This focus will mean a corresponding lack of social and expert skills. She will also advance slower on this path, as it is against her destiny. Second Tier Classes: Inquisitor (bonus to fighting against corruption or demons))

The man nods thoughtfully. "It will take some time for us to discuss this. But in the meantime, know you have sanctuary from your pursuers here, and can use our library and training yards like any potential initiate. We will get back to you, Seeker, when we can. But for now, be welcome to the Alley of the Star Seekers."

Talonis Actions

Conduit Actions (pick three) (This will decrease in one turn to two.)
[] April is a new sorceress, and lacks, intentionally, many of the starting skills a normal citizen of the Osteria would have. But she has been exposed to a lot of fire and death mana and Qi. You could increase the available fire mana to her and move it in a way that would lead her to experiment with unsuspecting mana. (Progress towards unlocking the Mana Skill: Form Neutral Mana. Progress points required: 78/ 140)
[] Boost her mana power in general by 25%.
[] April needs a way to detect at much wider ranges monsters – whether of the beastial, or human kind- to survive. She has the baseline perception, but you could send obvious eddies to teach her Manasight or Farsight. (Progress required: 80 points.) (The character will learn either/or.) (Farsight leads to the Diviniation tree. Manasight leads to Advanced Mana Concepts.) [49/80]
[] Channel magic to lead her enemies astray. (Less chance of hostile encounters)
[ ] Spark of Inspiration – Give her an insight into an ongoing issue that will lead to a spell. (Random choice, but one that will matter in turn 3.)
[] April, unknowingly, is cursed with Death Mana. You could work on purifying it from her before she gains Infernal traits. However, it must be a slow and spread out process. (Ongoing, has 30% Curse Progress. Each turn stops progress and decreases it by 5%.)(Possible side effects and complications if you take this every turn. Current Progress per turn: 3%)

Self Actions (pick one)
[] You've just ascended, and feel sluggish. You cannot remanifest or even communicate. Your spells fizzle from lack of mana and you feel you will need to unlock them all over again. You will need to increase your mana to do so. (2/?)
[] You cannot teach her the grand secrets, but you can ensure that she finds the right books, of course. (Increase April's luck for a turn. More likely to learn a power from observation, increase a skill, of course.)

April Actions

Training (pick one)

• [ ] Spend time on the training halls to learn to experiment and understand your power. You may never have so much free time to just experiment, after all, with people who would be willing to help you. (All rolls this turn for both Talonis and April's actions that are not skill based are double dice. One power (pick) gains some progress in understanding it.)
• [] The library beckons. While sorcerers are far more in touch with their own power, every initiate is encouraged to write a journal about their journey with magic – something you may soon have to do. And on top of that, there's a lot you are expected to know. (Rolls for skill growth are double-dice. Gain Common 4 in three random skills.)

Other (pick two):

• [ ] You could research those devices to understand them better. It might be a very long term thing, but you can't help but feel it's peculiar a magic hating country such as the Kngdom of Tokiya has them.
• [] Learn a bit of social chatter, as the Alley sorcerers seem to be very well connected to the gossip of this continent.
• [] You may need to disguise yourself. Your fur color is very obvious, and while kitsune can assume a more human form, you never had to, and with your parents dead, could not learn from them. As an inborn power, you think you can at least get some practice, even if you won't be able to maintain a form until your Third Tail. (Progress: 60, is easier to learn now than later even if you will not be able to maintain it.)
• [] Investigate the Star Seeker Alley's history and buildings. (May build social connections, but will have a fortunate encounter. )