Chosen, Chapter 50: Before the Storm

Aidan

The Realms

Thirdday, 1st week of the 8th month, Godless Age 597

Mid-afternoon

Starchaser Village, Mistvale Highlands

Aidan spent a few minutes cuddling with the women in his life, then asked Brighid, "So, what's on the agenda for the evening?"

"Not much. The expedition to Ceallach Macht leaves in a couple of days, and we have been working hard this week, so I thought tonight we might take things easy. I want to spend some time with you; besides the dungeon, which hardly counts, it feels like we have not had much time together. Maybe we can have a run around the village and then relax in our bathing pool?" Riama stirred at that, raising her head from Aidan's chest, ears perked.

"Well, it looks like the fuzzball likes that idea, so let's go with it."

Brighid carefully maneuvered herself back to her feet, and Aidan followed her, cradling the purring astral jaguar to his chest with one arm. He extended the other to his lover, and, hand in hand, they headed to the village outskirts.

Once he was sure that they were out of sight, Aidan put the riding blanket on Brighid, then climbed aboard. Riama jumped up and settled herself between Aidan's chest and Brighid's back. The centaur stood up, took a few steps to make sure everyone was seated comfortably, then broke into a canter. Aidan slid forward to wrap his arms around Brighid's waist, encircling his familiar at the same time. She, in turn, stood up on her hind legs, placing her paws on Brighid's shoulder for balance. The three of them rode in a broad loop around the village, then a second at a gallop, then back to a canter for a third loop, ending at the isolated pool.

Brighid and Aidan quickly stripped out of their clothes, but Riama was the first one into the water. With a trill of happiness, she jumped off of Brighid's back once she slowed to a walk and ran right up to the pool. She dove right in and began to swim around with remarkable skill. Brighid followed soon after, beating Aidan to the water by virtue of having fewer clothes to remove. "Well, it looks like somebody's eager!" Aidan laughed as he finally joined the others. He washed the sweat from Brighid's skin and fur, then let her return the favor. They played around in the water for a while before climbing back up onto the shore, cuddling as they dried off in the late afternoon sun.

Riama continued swimming for a while longer until she spotted something and dove underwater. After several seconds, she bobbed back to the surface with an eight-inch fish grasped in her jaws, which she carried to shore and set to devouring. Eventually, though, even the jaguar grew tired of the water and came over to curl up between Brighid and Aidan. The three of them rested that way, dozing in a happy pile, for the better part of an hour. As the sun reached the top of the western peaks, however, a horn sounded from the direction of the village. Brighid was instantly awake, stiffening and starting to rise.

"Something has happened, hurry, we need to get back to the village!"

It only took a few minutes to scramble back into their clothes and make their way to the village gates. Brighid started to ask one of the guards for information, but the guards didn't know any more than they did, except that Fionn was at the Council Hall. Aidan exchanged a worried look with Brighid, placed Riama on her back, then started to run towards the Hall. Fionn was outside, barking orders to messengers who then went sprinting off through the streets. As soon as he spotted them, he waved them over. "Good, you came quickly; you must have been nearby. The Tannath Taig has begun to assault the wards in full force, and the mages do not think they can hold it off for long enough to implement our original plan. We march on Ceallach Macht at first moonrise. Go and get your weapons and armor. Eat, if you have not already. The warriors who are already present are assembling outside the north gate." He eyed Aidan critically, then asked Brighid, "I assume you are carrying him on your back? By the mists, girl, you are determined to buck tradition. I will not stop you, but it will be on you to deal with the aftermath. Well, go on, there is no time to waste." He turned to issue orders to another messenger.

Brighid's house was not far from the Hall, so it only took a couple of minutes to run home. Before Aidan could step inside, though, Brighid stopped him. "This is not quite how I pictured this would go, but..." and a startling series of notifications blossomed in his mind.

"Oh, thank Birgitte!" Exclaimed Brighid. "I was worried that it would not be enough to get you to level 10. Exalted Mage, huh?" She let him inside, then followed and closed the door behind her.

"Yes, something about high affinity with magic. More importantly, what the hell kind of quest was that to give me seventy-five thousand experience?"

"Remember when Mother asked if you wanted to return to Ceallach Macht, you agreed, and I protested? I got this quest after you told me you needed to go. The goal was to encourage you to gain as many levels in as many different Skills as possible. Even I did not expect your growth to be so explosive, though. One hundred and three Skill levels, twenty-four different Skills, and twelve new Skills learned. Limitless, indeed." She shook her head.

Aidan nodded a little numbly, taken back by being confronted with the sheer scope of what he had accomplished in less than a week. "Do you mind making us some food while I assign my points and take a look through my Talents? I'm sure it'll take me a while to distribute a hundred Talent points—"

"A hundred!" Brighid interrupted. "With a Class and one Profession, you should only have ninety. A hundred is more Talent points than I have."

"Another benefit of being Chosen, I guess. Like I was saying, I'll look my Talents over and distribute the points while we eat."

Aidan thought he heard Brighid mutter, "Cheater!" to herself, but he was too busy in menus to pay much attention. With a boss fight looming, he spent three points in Toughness, two each in Endurance, Charisma, Willpower, and Intuition, and one in Luck. He briefly considered where to put his Skill bonus, but when he brought up his Status screen to check his Skill levels, he received another shock.

371 Concentration? Not five minutes ago, he only had 217, and the Attribute points from leveling were nowhere close to bridging that gap. "Brighid? Why is my Concentration so much higher now?"

"You have a Class now, love. One of the things Classes do is give a multiplier for Health, Stamina, and Concentration. As a Mage variant, your Health and Stamina probably got a negative multiplier, but your Concentration will be significantly higher than what your Attributes would otherwise give you." He did some quick mental math and figured that he received around a 10% penalty to his physical pools but a roughly 50% bonus to his Concentration. "You should check your spells as well. Classes that incorporate spellcasting usually grant new magic at keystone levels—ten, twenty, and so on."

Sure enough, he had two new Spells in his Spellbook.

Both looked quite powerful, and they were level 1 multi-school spells. Aidan couldn't wait to see what higher-level ones were like. With that in mind, he turned to his Talent screen to see the new additions. In addition to the small constellation surrounding the Courtesan node, he now had a new Exalted Mage root node linked to its own cloud of Talents.

There were fewer options here than in the Courtesan tree, but they seemed more focused and more generally useful. He wouldn't be able to use Blending of Schools until he figured out how to create new spells, but the other three seemed like great investments.

The first things that drew his attention were the school-specific Talents. Since there was one for each of the magic types he knew, it seemed likely that there was, in fact, one for each school. That was good to know so that he could keep Talent points in reserve for them. He went ahead and purchased the Fire and Life Talents.

That seemed tailor-made for what he was about to do. A single cast of Spark of Life would instantly kill something equivalent to a Boar Manikin, given how much Aidan's Attributes and Skills had grown since he last fought one and would continue to damage stronger enemies. And, assuming that the Manikins were also weak to life damage, it would deal over 100 damage per second, over 700 damage total, just from base damage and vulnerabilities. It was far and away more potent than either Flame Jet or Burning Barrage against a single powerful enemy. He spent the 5 points with no hesitation. No new Talent nodes opened up, so he directed his attention to his other options.

Aidan didn't want to invest in Soul Caliber or Altered Beast yet since he didn't intend to make any use of Ensoul Object or Minor Shift in Ceallach Macht. That left Strength in Diversity and As Above, So Below as the other new options. They were both strong options for long term benefits, but the latter was quite expensive. In the interest of exploring the cheapest options first, he spent 2 points for Strength in Diversity. Interestingly, the second rank of the Talent remained locked off, but a brand new, very expensive Talent opened up.

Whoa! 40 Talent points were no joke, but being able to maintain potentially dozens of expensive buffs without using Concentration was enormous. Aidan briefly debated spending the points, then decided in favor. This was something he was going to want eventually anyway, and he could afford it. Spending so much on a single Talent hurt, but he mentally pushed the button. No further Talents opened up, but that was okay. Aidan took a moment to cast Kindle the Hearth-Flame on himself, then activated Crown of the Exalted. Brighid turned to look at him when she heard the spell chant; her eyes widened when the glowing, silver-gold aura manifested above Aidan's head, capped by a single bright red point.

"What in the Realms?" She wondered. Aidan explained the Talent and Trait to her. "That is truly a Talent worthy of legends. It may have been premature to take it now, but I cannot fault your reasoning. You are not going to be able to hide anywhere with that active, though, and keep in mind that there are no Kings in the Mistvale Highlands. Taking even the superficial appearance of one will earn you more enemies." She finished putting the food together and carried three plates over to the table, placing salads in front of herself and Aidan and some small scraps of meat in front of Riama.

Aidan eyed the salad dubiously and reached out towards his familiar's plate, but she hissed at him and sent a pulse of <territoriality>. He decided salad was good enough, causing Brighid to laugh at him. "You do not want to eat a heavy meal before a battle anyway, trust me. Just eat your salad like a good boy." Despite his misgivings, the salad was tasty, and he tucked in.

While he ate, he finished spending his Talent points. He went ahead and took the second level of Jack of All Schools, Weave the Strands, Familiarity, Firepower, and Lifeforce, then the first level of As Above, So Below.

He had enough Talent points left to take those two new Talents, but something told him it would be a bad idea to over-invest in his Class Talents compared to his Profession ones. Besides, Riama was only level 1; those Talents would be of limited benefit to her for now anyway. He resolved to take them once he had a chance to get her level up, then focused on his dinner.

Zurai