Month 1, Day 4, 10:30:42; Arvium, Trinity Village

Aella walked down the path toward the village with heavy steps. Jothan hadn't asked her about what she had seen in the Temple. He had just nodded to her when she reappeared, and led her out of the caves and down the mountain. She pulled off the helmet, feeling the warm sun touch her face.

"Aella?" Jothan asked, turning to look at her.

"Go on," she said, giving him a small smile. "I'll follow in just a little bit."

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and listening to the bird calls in the greenery around her. The air was warm, filled with humidity, almost tropical. The rocks on the path crunched as Jothan kept on walking, heading toward the village. With a breeze came the smell of cooking vegetables and meat, and the sounds of laughter and talking.

The crystals were heavy in her pocket, and she bounced on her toes. It feels like I just drank five cups of coffee. She stopped and opened her eyes as she heard a fern rustle to the left. She narrowed her eyes as she saw the man leaning against a tree at the base of the path.

His arms were crossed and he had his back to the sun. He wore the simple attire the other villagers wore, a white shirt and leather pants, with leather boots. But this time, two black leather straps crossed his chest, and the hilts of two swords peeked over his shoulders. At his side, hanging from a leather utility belt, was a quiver of arrows, and a black recurve bow sticking out amid the arrows.

He killed those players. She frowned. But he saved two players, and let the second group go. She scowled at him and crossed her arms. Then he kidnapped me.

"Come now," he called out, opening his arms wide. "You still haven't forgiven me? I did save your life, you know."

She scoffed, and raised an eyebrow. "When?"

He pushed off from the tree and stood, his arms crossed, mirroring her stance. "When you were caught in the avalanche. Noir and I dug you out and I carried you to the cave entrance where Jothan and his men met us."

She shifted to one foot, a groan escaping her lips as her shoulders sank. Please tell me he didn't. She straightened and pointed a finger at him, her voice raising until she was almost shouting, "You still kidnapped me."

He rolled his eyes, throwing his hands up into the air. "If you were in my position, would you have done any differently?" His voice grew louder as well with each word, and he motioned with his hands in wide gestures as he argued. "I'm supposed to be dead, remember? Dead of fatal wounds received in the last Alpha battle? Having a witness that places me in the Beta Game destroys that theory and would call down the fury of the entire Mortia and Invictus Guilds down on Ender and me."

Aella clenched her fists and growled. "I wouldn't have told anyone--I didn't even know for sure if you were a wraith!"

He paused for a moment, then shook his head. "You would have been curious and started asking for more information."

She nodded. He has a point. "But I know how to find it quietly. I hadn't told anyone yet, and I managed to find out you were a wraith. I even found the names of your team."

His shoulders lowered and he ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. "Prince isn't a fool--he would have figured it out. Ender was right. I shouldn't have appeared yet. I should have just stayed in my castle and left things alone."

She walked down the path, passing him. She stopped, turning to face him. "Why did you come back?"

He smirked, then his gaze lowered and the smile disappeared. "I couldn't leave the last Omega players to be slowly picked off by Mortia mercenaries. They were my friends, and it was my fault their guild was destroyed."

She nodded. He's a jerk. A crazy jerk. And he needs to work on his first impressions. She looked up at his face, then sighed. "Why are you here?"

He stepped forward, walking down the path.

She followed after him, jogging to catch up with him.

"I am going to give you your first lesson in Game weaponry and magic spells," he said, looking down at her. "My way of apologizing for the whole kidnapping thing. Besides, you need to strengthen your alibi."

"Alibi?" she said, confused. She stopped, glancing toward the common area that was only fifty feet away. People milled about the tables, eating breakfast and talking with their neighbors. Her stomach growled as she smelled the savory meats and saw bowls full of brightly colored vegetables.

He chuckled as he shrugged. "I may or may not have lied a little bit about what I said earlier."

Aella frowned. I'm going to punch him.

"I might have added a warning to the Chronicle about a wild boar attack, and made it look like you were attacked while you were guarding the field. There is a search party going on right now by Anadon and your teammates, along with some of the High Council soldiers."

She shook her head, pausing. She took a deep breath, calming the urge to scream at him. "How is that an alibi?"

He smiled.

Her heart sank as she saw it. I'm not going to like this.

"Let's eat," he said, walking toward the common area. "I'll tell you later."

***

Month 1, Day 4, 11:15:12; Arvium, Trinity Training Area

Aella's eyes opened wide as she saw the wide training area, easily the size of four acres. The archery range in front of them held targets at various distances, and several women were taking shots in unison. The clang of swords filled the air from the opposite side of the grounds, where the men were sparring with each other.

She turned to see Garron, standing in an empty square of land. His stance was relaxed, and his arms were crossed.

"What spells do you already know?" he said.

Aella took a deep breath. "Defense spell and a scouting spell that acts somewhat like radar for a twenty meter radius. Other than that, nothing."

Garron nodded. "Bring out your manual. I'll explain how you can use it and we can start you on the spell lines."

Aella nodded, swiping her hand up. She paused as Garron shook his head. "What?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Nothing--I just need to get you a proper helmet. Your menu will be permanently displayed and controlled by voice. No more of that swiping mess--it will tell your enemy that you are going to be preoccupied for a while."

She frowned as she clicked the manual in her inventory, and dismissed the menu. She held it up.

"Now," he said, crouching and then sitting on the ground, patting the grass next to him. "Let's see what is in that manual."

She stepped over to him and sat down, then opened the book. The first page was beautifully decorated with a painting of a old tree with six main branches. In the center of a tree was a medallion, that was blue and shimmering silver with an ancient sailing ship and waves curling around it's bow. Each of the six branches held a silver medallion with a symbol on it.

"It's a spell tree," Garron said. "A fancy one, but a spell tree nonetheless."

She traced the medallion with her fingers, then the branches. "How does it work?"

He motioned to it with his hand and she handed it to him. He pointed to the six smaller medallions. "These are the profession medallions and contain all of the spells that are available to that profession." He tapped on the Elite one, lifting his hand as the pages flipped, opening on a blank page with a complicated design of lines beginning at a single point, then crossing and splitting from each other with hollow circles at intervals on each line. "These circles are spells--if they are clear, they haven't been unlocked yet."

He pointed to the base, where all of the lines met together. "This is the first spell. You have to unlock and master its requirements before moving on to the next, and so forth."

Aella nodded. "I understand. All I have to do is start unlocking them?"

Garron waved his hand back and forth. "In a way, yes, but some of them are independent spells that are quest specific and won't be unlocked until you finish the quest. You won't know until after that you've received a spell. And some are monster specific or companion specific. Those will have their own spell pages that will unlock as you level up."

He tapped on the only black circle on one of the lines. The page turned over and she read "Defense Spell" followed by a short description and it's statistics. Below that, a small meter was halfway filled with green bars. "That's good," he said, pointing to the bar.

"What?" she said, looking up at him.

He smiled. "You're halfway through to leveling this spell up. Once you've done that, you should be allowed two other spells that will bind to your weapons and multiply the effect."

Aella frowned, thinking back to the fight with Fox in the High Council Weapons Arena. "I think I've done something similar to that--I used a defense spell aimed at the ground in time with my staff and it sent a small shock wave against my opponent. It was enough to make his footing unstable."

Garron glanced at her, an eyebrow raised. "You shouldn't have been able to do that. You must have just been extremely lucky to hit at the exact moment the spell activated."

Aella chuckled. "I wouldn't call myself lucky."

Garron closed the manual and handed it back to her. "My guess is, since that is a Trinity manual, there will be spells for the blue Galaxium crystals, or at least, modifications to certain spells that allow the use of the crystals. You won't have access to them yet, just the latent effects of added health and magic."

Aella nodded, dismissing the manual.

"One other thing," Garron said, before shifting on the ground to face her. "Any spell can be leveled up indefinitely, with increasing amounts needed for the next level; but after you pass a certain level, other spells are unlocked."

"Thank you," Aella said. "I didn't know that--it will help to level up much faster."

He nodded. "Now, you can summon weapons and armor much the same way as you did that book. Check your magic and health. Can you spare ten units of each?"

Aella swiped up, then checked her magic and health bars. She had ninety units of magic and ninety-eight units of health, and she dismissed the menu. "Yes."

He smiled. "The assemble spell is quite simple, and is not included in the spell tree. It is usually given to you after you have completed ten matches in an arena, but there are no requirements so it can be unlocked without all of the fighting. It uses ten units of magic for each use, and two units of health. You can change the name of any weapon or suit of armor to make the spell shorter--like calling your armor "Armor" or "Bow" rather than "Avenger of my enemies" or something."

Aella smiled, nodding.

"Now," he said, crossing his arms. "I want you to assemble your armor. It has been delivered to your residence and added to your bank inventory."

Aella took a deep breath. "Assemble armor." She gasped as she felt weights settle on different parts of her body, and she gasped. Her jacket had disappeared, replaced by a mail tunic that reached halfway down her thighs. She held up her arms, seeing the mail sleeves and red and gold arm guards that sat on top of the chain mail and covered her forearms up to the elbow. Her legs were covered in a thick, metal boot made of interlocking metal pieces that allowed movement and reached her knees. She felt weight on her chest and she glanced down, seeing a simple scarlet metal chestplate covering her upper body.

"Very nice," Garron said, reaching forward and tapping something above her head, a hollow sound filling her ears.

She reached up and felt the outline of a helmet, her fingers tracing the design of the wings on the sides.

"Allow me?" Garron asked, pointing to something on the top of the helmet.

Aella nodded, and lowered her hands.

He leaned forward, his hand turning her face to the side as his eyes roamed over the helmet. He nodded as he pressed something just below the left wing.

Her eyes widened as a tinted visor slid down over the front of her face, connecting with the bottom of the helmet at her chin. She moved her hand over the front, feeling the metal piece that came down over her nose and ended in the metal piece that looked like a bird's beak.

"You'll look fierce once the whole suit is finished," Garron said, nodding. He stood, holding his hand out to her.

She took his hand and stood, feeling the chain mail swish around her legs. It was lightweight, but felt heavy enough to protect her.

"Next," he said. "I am going to open a permanent chat with you--that means it is always open and can be activated by voice."

She waited, then tapped "Accept" on the banner that appeared in her vision.

"Can you hear me?" his voice sounded in her ear.

She winced, closing her eyes. "Turn volume down five," she said, holding a hand up to her head. "Yes, I heard you loud and clear." She moved her hand to the side of the helmet, finding the small button that Garron had pressed to lower her visor. She pressed it and the visor slid up and into the recesses of the helmet. "Though I don't know how I like having you in my head."

He laughed. "You will like it next time you get into trouble and need a rescue."

Cocky windbag.

He frowned. "You don't have a very good poker face, you know."

She glared at him, and he shrugged. "Now, before I teleport you to the den of a wild boar, I want to make sure you can use your bow. Assemble it, and we'll run some practice shots with a targeting spell. That spell comes with the bow."

She nodded, and sighed. "Assemble bow and quiver." She reached back once she felt a weight settle between her shoulder blades, and she pulled the bow out of the quiver. It was a simple recurve design in black wood, but had metal tips that were sharpened and could be used as daggers.

"Good choice," he said, nodding. "It can be multi-functional."

"Now what?" she said, pulling an arrow from the quiver.

"Fire when ready," he said, pointing behind her to a lone target.

Aella shifted the bow to her left hand, gripping it around the hand rest. She used her right arm to pull out an arrow. She brought the flat end of the arrow by the fletching to the string, situating her fingers so they held the bow and the string, and took a deep breath. She pulled the bow up, pulling back on the string, and aiming for the target.

"Aim higher than the center to account for gravity" Garron said.

She grit her teeth at hearing his voice in her ear. She released the string, smiling as the arrow sunk into the target near the bottom.

"Not bad," Garron said, moving closer to her. "But you can improve your aim with a targeting spell--how high you level up determines the range of the spell. It uses a grid like the defense spell does, but the targeting spell is circular and the center is where the weapon should go."

Aella nodded. "Can I use it on different weapons?"

"Yes," he said. "It's a basic spell and can be used for almost anything. It uses two units of magic per use. I also want you to use a binding spell on your bow. It will bind the target spell to the bow so everytime you use it, the targeting spell will activate."

Aella shook her head. "What if I want to upgrade my bow--add things to it?"

Garron smiled. "It will still work even if you upgrade the bow, and will be automatically upgraded every time you level up the spell."

She nodded. "Okay--how do I do it?"

Garron pointed to the bow. "Hold it in both hands and say "Binding spell: basic targeting spell." It should take ten units of magic."

Aella moved the bow so she was holding it with both hands. "Binding spell: basic targeting spell." Her eyes widened as a soft white light surrounded the bow then sunk into the wood. A banner appeared above the bow, stating "spell complete." She shifted the bow to one hand, nodding. That was pretty easy. I need to get started reading that manual.

"Now try it again," Garron said, crossing his arms and turning his body toward the target.

Aella nodded, pulling an arrow from her quiver and nocking it against the bow. She held the bow in front of her, and smiled when she saw a small red grid in front of the arrow's tip. She matched it up with the target, then pulled back on the bowstring, letting the arrow fly.

It sunk into the target just above the center and she chuckled. That's a handy trick.

"Good," Garron said.

Aella gasped as he disappeared, reappearing by the target. He pulled the arrows out and then disappeared, and she jumped as she heard the arrows sliding into her quiver. She twisted, seeing Garron standing behind her, a smile on his face.

"You teleported," she said, pointed her bow at his face.

He raised an eyebrow and used a finger to move the sharp tip away from his nose. "Yes."

She growled as she lifted the bow, then frowned as she saw the smirk on his face. "What are you--"

He moved forward, faster than she thought possible, his hands on her shoulders. She blinked as the surroundings changed, and her eyes ached as she tried to take in the dim light.

She was in a forest, standing in the middle of a clump of ferns. Tall pine trees stood all around her, and somewhere just ahead, beyond the curve of a hill, the ground crunched under something heavy, accented with deep grunts and honks. She reached behind her and pulled out an arrow, nocking it to the bow.

She turned, hissing as she saw she was alone.

"Good luck--and remember," Garron said through her helmet. "Make your alibi look good."

Her eyes widened as a five foot tall boar with massive fangs stepped out from behind the hill, and saw her, its red eyes glowing as it lowered its head in preparation to charge.