Shade's First Rule Read online

  The brown-haired priest handed him a bag. “Strip and put everything in here.”

  “Take off everything?” Ruwen asked.

  “Everything,” the priest said.

  Ruwen did as he was told and stared at the Ascendancy Pool. Well, it was more like a bathtub. In a minute, they would drown him in that tub. It was a necessary process so Uru could store his exact makeup and assign the Class he would have for the rest of his life. After this, the goddess would keep track of the changes in his body, memories, and experience. But it all had to start from a base template. That’s what he would provide now. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as the brown-haired priest took the bag with Ruwen’s things.

  The priestess waved Ruwen over and handed him a small cup. Ruwen had a hand over his crotch and one over the small red birthmark over his bellybutton. For a moment, he couldn’t decide which would be more embarrassing to uncover. Modesty won, and he revealed his birthmark as he drank the contents. The drink smelled like vanilla but tasted like rotten pears.

  He knew the liquid was for the priests’ safety. The mind resisted dying, and without something to paralyze the body, it would struggle and fight against his impending death. The adults seemed almost bored, and Ruwen realized that while this was the most significant moment of his life, to them, it was just another day. Many people would go through this same process today.

  The priestess grabbed his elbow and steered him toward the tub. “Please get in.”

  Ruwen studied the water, conscious of the fact that Slib had been in here recently. But the water looked crystal clear. Actually, he didn’t even know if it was water. His hands over his crotch, he stepped into the tub. The liquid felt warm. His whole body felt warm. He wavered, and the priestess quickly steadied him.

  “Lay on your back,” she said.

  Ruwen laid back, and the priestess supported him while the brown-haired priest folded out supports from inside the tub. The priestess withdrew her hands, and Ruwen remained floating. The world spun as the high priest came into view.

  “You already performed the ceremony?” the priestess asked.

  “Yes,” the high priest said.

  “Did Uru give him a sign?” the priestess asked.

  The high priest looked down at Ruwen. “The Worker glowed brightly.”

  Ruwen tried to shout in protest, but the drink had already taken effect, and he couldn’t make his mouth move.

  The priestess looked down at him, and her eyes glazed over. She was probably accessing his attributes.

  “That’s surprising,” she said.

  “Who are we to know the mind of a goddess,” the high priest said.

  The priestess nodded and then she and the brown-haired priest disappeared from view. Ruwen tried to scream that the high priest hadn’t tested him at all. That Ruwen was meant to be a Mage. How could he find his parents if he didn’t have any power? But the medicine had numbed his body, making it impossible to argue or fight.

  The high priest’s face filled Ruwen’s vision. “What your parents did was unforgivable. My son-in-law was in their party. He lost six months of experience, and his revival left him with a limp. You should have run off and joined your parents when you had the chance. I should throw you out of the city without a Class right now. Let you join the Unbound and live a life of misery. But this is better. You can spend the rest of your life using your grand intelligence to stack boxes and carry wood.”

  It didn’t matter what Ruwen thought. Everyone believed his parents had killed their party while transporting a load of terium, worth a fortune, far from town a year ago. His parents’ entire group had been reborn in the bowels of this very building. A larger group had been dispatched to recover the terium metal, but when they arrived at the old camp, the terium had disappeared. Since Ruwen’s parents were the only ones who didn’t die, everyone assumed they had killed their group, taken the terium shipment for themselves, and disappeared.

  Ruwen had been abandoned and become an outcast on the same day.

  He knew his parents would never do something like that. He didn’t know what had happened, but he knew they were good people and not capable of what they were accused of. Murder, especially away from the city where all the experience and memories couldn’t be channeled to Uru and would be lost, was grounds for execution.

  All he wanted was the power to find his parents, understand what really had happened, and clear their name. Clear his name.

  Instead, he was going to be a Worker.

  For the first time in his life, he didn’t want to Ascend. Dying now would seal his fate. He would spend the rest of his life as a powerless Worker, unable to accomplish any of the tasks he needed to perform.

  “This is for the pain you caused my family,” the high priest said.

  The high priest’s hands glowed as he began the spell that would assign Ruwen the Class of Worker.

  Fusil pushed Ruwen’s chest, forcing him into the liquid. He closed his eyes as his head submerged. Ruwen held his breath, even though it was useless. The drug had made him helpless. His mind screamed for air. Unable to resist any longer, he opened his mouth and exhaled for the last time.

  His life was over.

  Chapter 2

  The darkness disappeared, and Ruwen stood on a cliff. Brown grass covered his boots, the wind pushed his shirt against his body, and a strange light blue sea crashed into rocks hundreds of feet below. Vertigo swamped Ruwen, and he rocked on his feet. A hand grabbed his arm and steadied him.

  “Careful.”

  A young woman, her red hair in a braid that reached the middle of her back, let go of his arm and smiled up at him. Freckles sprinkled her nose and cheeks. She barely made it to his shoulders.

  A tree, thirty-feet tall, stood a stone’s throw behind the woman. The limbs were bare, the trunk twisted, and it leaned away from the ocean. The brown grass stretched to the horizon. He focused back on the young woman.

  “Where are we?”

  “Home,” she said.

  This was certainly not home. Stone Harbor, on the coast of the Frigid Sea, took two days to reach from Deepwell, and the sea was a much darker blue than this.

  “I don’t think so,” Ruwen said.

  The woman’s smile faded as she looked back at the ocean.

  “Am I dead?” he asked.

  “Yes. No. You are in-between.”

  Ruwen remembered the high priest, his spell, and the Worker Class Ruwen would be when he returned. He thought of his lost parents and how he wouldn’t have the power to find them now.

  “It would be better to stay dead,” Ruwen whispered.

  The young woman didn’t respond.

  They stood in silence for a while. The sound of the waves crashing into the cliff face warred with the wind that howled around them. Ruwen’s curiosity got the better of him.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  The woman faced him. “You don’t have time for that answer, but we might have enough for this question. What do you desire, Ruwen Starfield?”

  That was an easy question. “I want to be a Mage. Rune or maybe Fire.”

  “Always Fire. Destruction and chaos. Your kind definitely has a type,” she said in a sad voice.

  A knot formed in Ruwen’s stomach. Had he gone crazy? Was he talking to a creation of his mind? Is this what happened when a person died? Had he lost his sanity?

  “What do you want?” she repeated.

  Ruwen wanted a lot of things. Respect, safety, his parents back.

  His throat tightened. The years of bullying had been hard, but not as hard as the uncertainty surrounding his parents.

  “The truth,” he whispered.

  The woman nodded. “Do you know the strongest part of a tree?”

  This was not the follow-up question he’d expected.

  “The trunk?” he guessed.

  The woman frowned, and Ruwen’s heart beat faster. He snapped his fingers.

  “The root,” he said.

&nbs
p; “Yes, the root is the foundation for the entire tree.”

  She paused and then said, “I have a final question.”

  He nodded, surer than ever that this woman was a figment of his dying mind.

  She pointed to the water below. “Could you swim in a sea of lies if it brought you to the shore of truth?”

  Ruwen pondered her question. Was she trying to trick him? Should he say no? That one should never lie. But he knew he would. If it helped him find his parents, he would lie. He would do much more than lie.

  “Yes.”

  Her smile returned, and she took a step closer. Ruwen could smell cinnamon and roses. She placed her hands on his shoulders.

  “I hope you’re a good swimmer,” she said.

  Then, with impossible strength, she picked him up and threw him off the cliff. Ruwen screamed as he plummeted toward the ocean.

  “Hey!” a voice said, followed quickly by, “Stop screaming!”

  A moment later, his cheek started to burn. Someone shook him, and he realized he’d stopped falling. He closed his mouth and opened his eyes. He was on his back, a blanket over his naked body. The ceiling looked like the same grey metal he’d seen before. A blonde teenage girl looked down at him. She had brown eyes, and her features were distinct but not sharp. He hadn’t expected to wake up to a pretty girl. The name Hamma floated above her head.

  “Uru’s crack, you scared me,” Hamma said. “Who wakes up from their revival, screaming?”

  Ruwen tried to talk, but his throat felt dry. He cleared it and tried again. “Sorry.”

  “Nobody does, that’s who,” Hamma said, ignoring Ruwen’s apology.

  Ruwen raised an arm to try and apologize again, but Hamma kept talking.

  “And how did you materialize so fast? You’re not on the priority list.”

  Ruwen didn’t know what that meant, so he stayed quiet.

  Hamma narrowed her eyes, but after a moment she shook her head. “I shouldn’t have slapped you. Please don’t tell Brother Yull.”

  Ruwen had no idea who Brother Yull was. “Okay.”

  He grimaced as pain throbbed through his head. It felt like someone had shredded his mind with ice crystals.

  “The headache is from the new interface,” Hamma said. “You shouldn’t have that the next time you revive. I’m going to check the other revival baths. I’ll be back in a little bit. You should start going through your displays. This first time always takes awhile. Oh, and welcome back.”

  Hamma disappeared, and her words brought back the moments before he was drowned and the high priest’s decision for Ruwen’s Class. His stomach twisted in misery. He closed his eyes, but it only made it worse. His interface had changed, and every part of it was pulsing a soft gold color.

  He couldn’t bear to look at his Profile, so he started with his map in the upper right-hand corner. As soon as he focused on it, the map filled his vision. Instead of just the town, which was all he’d had access to his whole life, the map included the surrounding area as well.

  Ruwen pulled his focus back, and a larger area appeared. He could see the mountain range now, and small markers for mines. Large square areas surrounded the city, each with the name of the crop being grown there. He drew back again, and most of the markers disappeared. His town, Deepwell, was just a small house in the middle of the map. The capital, Stone Harbor, was visible to the east right next to the Frigid Sea.

  A rough circle surrounded Deepwell, Stone Harbor, and the mountains. The area inside the shape was colored green. Uru’s Blessing was superimposed on the colored area. He knew this was the area where his experience and memories could be transferred to Uru with a simple prayer.

  He pulled back again a few times until the green circle was barely visible. From his studies, he knew the world was vast, but seeing it on his map made him feel tiny. There were a few other areas with green shapes. They must be the other locations where Uru was present, and he could transfer his current state.

  The entire continent lay in front of his eyes. Most countries were named after their diety, and Ruwen could see over twenty capitals scattered over the map. The people ruled in Uru’s lands, but Ruwen knew most countries had some sort of theocracy and a few had monarchies. Mountain ranges ran down the east and west coasts and the Sea of Tears, a vast inland sea, sat like a scar between them. The north was filled with forests and tundra, and the south eventually gave way to desert.

  He closed the map with a thought and focused on the first of three golden squares that pulsed just below his map. He mentally touched the first one. A sound like a chime being struck filled his mind, and the quest text appeared.

  Ting!

  You have received the quest…

  Work is its Own Reward

  As a Worker, you are the hands of Uru. Travel to the Workers’ Lodge and speak with Crew Chief Bliz to understand your options.

  Reward: Clothes of the Novice Worker

  Reward: 200 experience

  Reward: 50 copper

  Accept or Decline

  Ruwen had avoided looking at his Profile because part of him hoped that the high priest had been playing some sort of joke. That he really was a Mage. But this quest proved his new reality. His life would be horrible. He accepted the quest and a yellow triangle appeared on his map. Probably the location of Crew Chief Bliz.

  He selected the next glowing square, and new text appeared.

  Ting!

  You have received the quest…

  If at First You Don’t Succeed

  As a Novice, your capabilities are unfamiliar. Travel with your fellow Novices and learn the strengths and weaknesses of your Class. Speak with Pit Boss Durn at the Workers’ Lodge to begin.

  Reward: Level 1 Worker Spell

  Reward: Level 1 Worker Ability

  Reward: 300 experience

  Reward: 10 silver

  Accept or Decline

  Great, he could learn a spell for sweeping or for cleaning windows. Ruwen mentally punched Accept, and the quest disappeared. Two little triangles overlapped on his map now.

  Ruwen selected the last glowing square, and the quest text appeared.

  Ting!

  You have received Uru’s quest…

  The Strongest Part of a Tree

  Whether it is a tree, a building, or a nation, the foundation is critical for long term stability. The strongest foundations are hidden from sight. Goddess Uru has taken an interest in you and offered you a second Class.

  Beware: Friends and foes alike will resent this blessing and strive to permanently remove you from the world. Secrecy is your only safety.

  Beware: This Class obligates you to perform quests for the Goddess Uru, failure of which will result in serious consequences.

  Beware: The strength of this Class comes at a high cost.

  Reward: Root Class (Hidden)

  Accept or Decline

  Ruwen stared at the text. Had his dream been real? It must have been. The quest’s name came right from his conversation with the young woman. Ruwen shivered. That meant the woman must have been Uru. Ruwen had thought only the Order Class could talk to the goddess. He focused on the three warnings. The last one bothered him the most. What was the high cost?

  He knew there were other Classes than the six Uru provide her people. There were other gods and goddess, and each had their own Classes. Most were the same, however, and while Ruwen wasn’t an expert, he didn’t remember ever reading about one called Root. Probably some Class that made trees grow faster or some other useless ability. It didn’t matter though. He already knew he’d accept it because there was a chance this Class might help him and offset the handicap of being a Worker.

  Ruwen chose Accept and felt his entire body flush. Another quest icon immediately appeared below his map. This one, however, was a blue circle and not the previous gold square. He opened it.

  Ting!

  You have received Uru’s quest…

  The Search for Truth (Part 1)

  Trut
h is hard to find, and it is rarely close to home. Find a way to leave Deepwell’s protection area in the next 30 days to begin your search.

  Reward: Spell, Uru’s Touch

  Reward: 750 experience

  Penalty: Permanently lose 1 from every attribute

  Accept or Decline

  Ruwen hesitated. Permanently losing a point in every attribute would be catastrophic for him. He was average in four of his attributes, and dropping from ten to nine in them would penalize him. And what was Uru’s Touch? He’d never heard of that spell. Not that he knew all the spells, but if it was powerful, wouldn’t he have read about it? But he had just accepted Uru’s Hidden Class. Should he risk telling her no on the first quest she gave him? He slowly chose Accept.

  No new quests appeared, so he moved down to the small figure in the bottom right of his vision and mentally touched it. The figure enlarged to fill his vision. There wasn’t much to look at. Every slot on his body was empty, not surprising since he was naked, and the Inventory grid under the body was greyed out. He remembered that the basic outline would change as you specialized in your Class. He knew that Observers who specialized in a Sniper subclass would gain a quiver. The Worker’s template wouldn’t change regardless of the specialization. They didn’t get anything interesting enough to warrant it. It didn’t look like his Hidden Class gave him any extra slots.

  He closed the Inventory page and focused on the bottom left corner of his vision until his log appeared. He scrolled to the top and compared the first timestamp to the current time and calculated he’d been awake less than ten minutes. He ignored the timestamps and just read the text.

  Materialization Sequence: Begin…

  Initial Revive: True

  Queue Priority: Critical

  Resource Utilization: 93.34%

  Materialization Sequence: …Complete

  Total Elapsed Time: 327.17 seconds

  Synchronization Gap: 3.46 seconds