Tiny red and crystalline specks were floating inside the two Stars as they faded back to their whitish hues, only visible because the other Stars didn’t have them.
I flicked them up again, going Cold this time, then dispersed them. They fractured away, and the power drilled down into two more Stars, crystals and blue-white there.
I put my fingers to my temple, and instead of Casting, just pulsed a jolt out from my Matrix Core.
That... did nothing. It was too dispersed, not concentrated enough. I sent it through the Assay Rune Engram, but didn’t Cast it, just let it ripple out to dissipate.
The fifth Star grabbed it, and a clear nodule was now visible inside it.
I used Detect 0 and then Prestidigitation, depositing a clear node and scintillating sliver in the sixth and seventh Stars.
Okay, obviously my Darts were more efficient, popping up two at a time. Did these things store Mana?! That would be simply incredible...
No, that wasn’t what was going on. They seemed to be integrating the nodules into themselves. Moreover, they seemed to suddenly be pretty erratic in their orbits, as if they were out of balance...
Because some idiot had filled them all with different energies, she had, instead of keeping them in tune.
Goddamn distractions and funny new surprises!
Take Spell Focus (Good): +2 to the Save DC’s of Good spells vs. Evil.
Sanctified Spell instantly popped +d6 bonus Holy damage, and Zealotry/1 made sure the damage and Saves worked against Neutrals, which in the immediate case probably meant animals or plants.
Divination Reserve: As long as you have a Divination spell slotted, you can Speak with Animals. +1 CL to all Divination spells.
The last was a purely precautionary choice, but given I was in the wilderness, a pretty good one, especially since I instantly started understanding the birdsong and chatter of the smaller animals around, which would gain me instant alarm bells.
I sighed, bringing up the Assay again. What was left to do?
===========
Fae
Female* Human/1
Vizard/3**; Wizard/1; Sorcerer/1 (Arcane Sage)
Strength (10): 8
Dexterity (16): 16
Constitution (16): 18
Intellect (16): 22
Wisdom (12): 16
Charisma (12): 16
---
Height: 5'5" Weight: 95 lbs. Hair: White Eyes: Silver (Warlock Sign, Blue) Age: 15
Health: 15
Soak: 27
Movement: 45’
Talent: Naturally Focused
Acquired Powers: Immune to Fire and Cold, affinity for Fire and Cold Magic (1%/1%); Sylune’s Grace; Master Archtheurge Incarnation
Racial Bonus: Intelligence (+2)
Skill Points: 3 (40 Unallocated)
Masteries: 16
Feats: 12
Traits: 2
Favored Class Points: Unchosen
=============
Favored Class benefits affected Skill Points, so I picked them first.
I didn’t need more Cantrips for the Wizard Level, as I knew them all, so a Soak Point and a Skill Point it was from the three options available to me. The Soak Point wouldn’t stack with another Class, but the Skill Points would...
Sorcerer Level, pick Bonus Cantrip Known, meaning permanent in memory. I picked Holo, so I could spin up simple holograms on command. My Stars sparkled in a ghostly manner as I did so, and I chose a Skill Point to back it up. I watched the Skill Point counter tick up, now at 42 outstanding...
Vizard Levels had a unique choice of +1/2 a Skill-based Feat as an option, and I took it, along with three more Skill Points. The Skill Affinity Feat I picked with the 3/2’s was Wary, +2 to Concentration and Initiative, leaving me ½ a Feat, to be filled next Vizard Level.
The Human Level gave a Health Point as an option, not a Soak Point. So +1 Health and +1 more Skill Point...
unallocated Skill Points. Just to be sure, I tapped Concentration, trying to put more into it, and it wouldn’t let me.
Drat. Tons of Skills to have to put points in...
Well, the sad truth was there were always Skills to increase, especially when you were alone.
Perception, the King of Skills. Stealth, the Queen. Concentration, the Emperor of Casting Skills, was already taken, but his Empress, Meditation, was not. Then off to his Chamberlain, Spellcraft; his Vizier, Arcane Lore; his Bishop, Faith; his Justice, Sense Motive; and his Ambassador, Diplomacy.
Then the other stuff. For now, I needed Survival, and I definitely needed Athletics. Picking three Ranks in both promptly darkened my already dark skin a shade, and hammered a lifetime of conditioning into muscles that hadn’t existed an hour ago, making me grit my teeth in silence as crushing fatigue and new vitality pounded through me in the same breath.
Some Alchemy, and Chemistry so I might recognize valuable things if I came across them. I was in a forest, so Animal Empathy wasn’t out of place since I could talk to them.
Religious Lore, prepping for Renewal. Thinking ahead, I was. Faith and Religious Lore were the foundation of what was coming next.
The Heal Skill was also important here, since I was literally the only source of healing I had, and conserving magic was probably going to be important. I wasn’t going to like administering to myself, but that was what Minor TK and Prestidigitation were for...
skill points dispersed. I sighed in relief.
Ah, yes. +1 Soak towards maximum. Didn’t need it for Health, still at One, where it was maxed for a protagonist.
Goddamn character creation process, finally done.
My stomach chose that moment to remind me that it had never actually processed something to eat, and I was Damn Hungry.
Fifteen. Towards the low end of adulthood. I just shook my head, sure I had more growing to do, and wondering how that was all going to work in and work out if Aelryinth ever turned around and came back for me.
More to the point, I’d been ‘born’ in this world, and was technically a native of it now. What was he going to do, take me back home? Whatever would I say to his wife, kids, friends?
Like it or not, I was probably staying here for the rest of my life, wherever here was. Although if what had happened to Einz/Traveler was any indication, I might have been SENT here, and I was here for a reason.
Heaven was empty here. That sounded like one Damn Good Reason for me to be here.
I didn’t want to go running around while I was hungry, burning energy I couldn’t replace, as I wasn’t Sustained for now. Definitely needed to be before I hit Four. Which meant I was going to need to get Karma from somewhere and feed my very crude Zeben. I could give him a new home as soon as I hit Five and got Shape Stone...
Maybe I go run around, explore, waste my energy, and when my Renewal finally came up I’d be exhausted.
Or I could do something actually productive and find out what exactly these seven Stars rotating around my Matrix were, and what I could do about them!
------
The first thing I did was rebalance out those Stars from all the specks of energy they’d absorbed so greedily. Every different spell and stuff I’d tried was applied to each of them equally, and their jangly and swingy orbits calmed down and firmed up again as they all came back into balance.
They were all also definitely brighter, but they were definitely shells at this point, and didn’t even look all that strong.
They couldn’t take in the Core energy from my Matrix directly, they seemed to need a Cantrip to stratify the magic into a particular ‘flavor’ before it could be absorbed. Prestidigitation’s multiple-aspect, unspecialized magic got the most colorful reaction from them, since it could basically do half the job of a more specialized Cantrip.
The only energy type I couldn’t really give them was negative energy, or necromantic power. It was part of both the Elemental and School views of arcane magic, but I didn’t have any necromancy up, even in my Cantrips. Something else I could change at Renewal...
Well, could the Stars take Eldritch Energy?
The Runes on my Soul flared, and Electrum energy swirled over the Stars.
They quivered at the energies they were bathing in, but there seemed to be a lack of harmony between them, and they couldn’t absorb the Heavenly power.
Oh, right. They were anchored to my Matrix and the Arcane energy I was using. I didn’t have any Theurgies at the moment, so my Pact and Arcane magicks were not compatible or harmonized.
Huh, I was already an effective Three Warlock. That meant I could also take an Eldritch Theurge Level at Renewal... but that would mean I’d have to go find some food.
I had the idea the Stars wouldn’t be complete until I finished the full array of energies with them, so I’d Slot Exterminate at Renewal...
Was there another way to fill these things? Well... how about the traditional way Valences were filled?
I dropped into Meditation, expanding my awareness out, sensing the magic in the air.
Damn, there was a lot of it...
It seemed to be thick with Elemental influences, strange mixtures that were more primal and unrefined than I was used to, chaotic and fey in nature. They were both responsive and rebellious, sensing my efforts as I reached out to them, but not wanting to respond...
Except the Fire and the Cold Mana dancing about, that stuff responded to me. It streamed in happily to me, the Fire swirling into my heart and the Cold stuff into my bloodstream, and didn’t do a heck of a lot of anything as they did.
Okay, affinity for Fire and Cold Magic, that was working, just not in the right way. The Ritual and Ceremony were Druidic magic, which operated on natural harmony. I wasn’t harmonized with the local magic.
Huh, intellect wasn’t going to work. The Manafield was too chaotic and rebellious. Intellect trying to herd and corral the stuff quickly became an exercise in frustration, the magic was literally trying to run away from me, not obey.
That left sheer willpower, the Charisma method.
I brought up the Wrath of Heaven, letting it fill my Aura and leak out of me.
Very quickly, the wandering Mana was swirling around me, reacting in awe and wonder to the power leaking out of me. I let my thoughts reverberate through it, and simply told the Mana to come to me.
Almost eagerly, it began to gather in, at roughly the speed you could expect of a +12 Meditation check.
All my own Slots were already full, so the Stars were the only targets. I guided the Mana in to them, and somehow was not surprised when they began to fill up their hollow interiors, one by one.
------
If I was measuring things right, they each took a Mana ‘point’ before the inflow was passed to the next Star. I just followed the connections along, and kept filling them up. After all, I had nothing but time, and doing this was a nice distraction from my empty belly yammering at me.
I had the Wrath fully going into my Aura of Valor, nothing more, definitely not being visible. Still, the aspect of Heavenly power thrummed in the Manafield, and the Mana was swirling about like good little soldiers, happy to gather and serve.
I didn’t care about what type of power the Mana wanted to be. I swirled it all together as true arcane magic, exactly like my core, and dumped it into the Stars, which seemed to take it in eagerly, if not completely. After a moment, I realized it was because the Stars were incomplete, and needed that necromantic edge to complete themselves properly, perhaps actuate some sort of evolution?