Runecarver Volume One

Chapter Five

As soon as I realized what had happened, I understood what Sir Keith had meant when he said it was hard to describe to someone who hadn't experienced it. The space was a white... room? Room wasn't the right word — there didn't seem to be walls or a ceiling. All I could see was whiteness. There was no horizon or seam with the floor. I could only tell there was a floor by the fact that I wasn't falling. I also noticed that I was wearing the fine green dress I'd been wearing the previous day, rather than my nightgown. It seemed whoever was behind this respected my modesty. They'd even provided me with my pouch, and practical boots rather than my fancy shoes.

The situation only became more bizarre. A blue something appeared in front of me, about the size of a window. It looked to be a sheet of stained glass, but when I tried to touch it, my hand passed through it as if it wasn't there. Then, white words appeared on it.

INSTALLATION IN PROGRESS.

I had no idea what this meant. Before my eyes, a rectangle almost the length of the window (this seemed the appropriate thing to call it) appeared under the words, and beneath this rectangle was a percentage which gradually increased as the rectangle filled.

I called out into the void. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?" There was no answer. I tried walking, but it was impossible to discern progress thanks to my featureless surroundings. As I walked, the percentage continued to increase. Then, it reached one-hundred, and the text on the window changed again.

WARCRY BETA VERSION 2.18.3 INSTALLED. NO ERRORS DETECTED IN INSTALLATION. USER annabelle_pendragon REGISTERED. DISTRIBUTING TRAIT POINTS AND GENERATING SKILLS. BEGINNING MODULE: beta_tutorial_v3.

I was completely bewildered. None of this made any sense, and nothing Sir Keith had told me could prepare me for this. But then I felt a strange sensation. Strength flowed into me. I felt I could run faster and further, could jump higher, as if I'd spent the last decade exercising rather than studying manners and weaving. That wasn't all, though. There wasn't much to see, but my vision seemed to sharpen — I could make out more detail in the fabric of my dress without bringing it closer to view.

The greatest change, however, was my magic. I was expecting what Sir Keith had described: an increased flow of power, about twice as much as what was there before. What I experienced instead was a surge of energy unlike anything I had ever felt. It was extraordinary, as if I'd thrown myself into a pot of boiling water. The sensation brought me to my knees, but I quickly grew accustomed to the feeling. The power went from painful to exciting.

I decided to draw my wand to try out this new power, and for the first time in my life, my wand hummed. It vibrated so fiercely that I had to tighten my grip, lest it leap out of my hand. I gave it an experimental swing, and the latent mana just from being in contact with me caused a rush of air in its wake. I focused my mana, imagining one of the spells my uncle had taught me the theory of. What had been a trickle was now a rushing river, and it flowed from my heart and my hand and into the wand. I unleashed the spell with a flourish. A torrent of flame large enough to engulf a dozen men was unleashed, so hot that I began to break out into a sweat. I grinned despite myself. A spell more powerful than any I could have ever dreamt of casting, and I could hardly even feel a depletion in my mana. I thought I could cast it a dozen— no, a hundred times and still not suffer from mana depletion.

What had happened? Why was I so powerful despite everything Sir Keith had told me? As I wondered this, a lance of fear struck through the swelling in my chest. Was it temporary? Perhaps the power they'd implanted in me had surged before it would relax back to normal. It was then that I noticed that the text on the window had changed again. Perhaps it would explain.