Callie's Heroes

PART II - GNOME NONSENSE

“Ah, yes,” Vanis said. “This Little One.”

“Fine, fine,” Earick said. “Come up. Full name and class.”

Callie was still trying to wrap her brain around Tazrok being able to change shape into various animals, but with a poke, Lena got her attention. Callie started to walk up to the table, but Lena quickly put her hand on the little Gnome’s shoulder.

“Wait. There is a bit of a situation with Callie before you scan her?”

“I think we’ve had enough situations with your little group for today,” Earick said, giving Lena an exasperated look. “She’s the last one and I would really just like to complete this so I can get out of the sun.”

“Scryer Earick, please, just a moment of time,” Vanis said.

“Oh, of course, Your Maj… Master Vanis. Apologies. What seems to be the issue?”

“It seems that Callie may have been taken and drugged before being put into the transport wagon,” Lena began. “She has no memories of before waking in the wagon shortly before we arrived.”

“Is this true, Master Vanis?” Earick asked.

Lena rolled her eyes and gestured to the Warlock. “You take over, apparently he’ll listen to you.”

Vanis nodded disapprovingly. “Yes, Scryer Earick. It is as Miss Lena said. Callie awoke on the transport scared, confused and with no memory of how she arrived there and no memory of her time before waking. She does not know her class, or if she is even Conscript.”

”Does she know her name?” Earick asked. “How far does this memory loss go?”

“I believe she knows her full name,” Vanis said, glancing at Callie, who nodded back. “Anything from before waking is at best vague and confusing.”

Earick turned to Yulayla, who had rejoined the group once it became apparent something else was out of the ordinary. “What do you think? Just process her?”

Yulayla thought for a moment. “Let’s scry her. That will at least tell us what her class is and if she is Conscript. Once we know that, we can decide what to do next.”

Vanis turned to Lena, who looked down to Callie, giving a brief nod. “Go ahead.”

Callie took a deep breath and walked to Earick. It was the moment of truth. Was she going to be separated from her new friends in this strange land with its classes and magic spells, or was she Cursed, and would be forced to become a soldier and fight against demons. She stumbled a moment as a wave of fear hit her, took a cleansing breath and looked up at the two Scryers.

“Full name, please,” Yulayla said in a gentle voice.

“Callie Wi… Sorry. Calliope Willow Archer.”

“What a fascinating name. Very … poetic.”

As they spoke, Earick made a quick note before standing and holding up his scrying gem. “This may tickle, but won’t hurt. Please try not to move.”

Callie nodded as Earick peered and slowly turned the gem. “How very odd. Your class information is strange. It’s as if your descriptive aura is … full of holes.“

“And the Curse?” Vanis asked.

“Regrettably, however, it appears you do have the Conscription Curse.”

Unbeckoned, a part of Callie leapt for joy knowing she was Conscripted. Now maybe she could stay with her friends at least? She looked at the gate she arrived through, out into a strange, unknown world, and hoped even harder she could stay.

“Full of holes?” Yulayla asked.

“Look for yourself.”

Yulayla pulled out her own scrying gem and aimed it at Callie. “May I?”

Callie nodded and Yulayla peered into her own gem. After some confusing looks on her face, she finally said, “How strange. I’ve never seen that before.”

“What’s wrong?” Callie asked.

Yulayla shook her head. “Your class information is missing.”

“So I don’t have one?”

“No, it is more strange than that. You are old enough that you would surely have your class by now. But even if you did not have a class, then it would be clear you had not yet acquired it. But in your case, it’s as if there is an … emptiness … or call it a void, maybe, where your class color should be.”

Callie looked quizzically at the rest of the group, confused.

“Would you permit me to do a deeper scan on you, Miss Calliope?” Yulayla asked. “Unfortunately, this one will be a little painful for a moment, but I assure it will cause no harm.”

Callie felt a moment of panic at the thought of it being painful, but if it wouldn’t cause damage, then this might simply be the price for getting to the bottom of whatever is going on.

“Okay,” Callie said. “If it won’t hurt for long or too much.”

Yulayla held up the gem and started to look through it before stopping. “Please try to bear the pain and not move. It will only be for a few seconds.”

Callie gulped. “Okay.”

Yulayla started to twist the gem again as she concentrated deeply on it. Instantly, Callie felt like her skin was on fire. “Ow ow ow ow!” she whimpered. “Owie!” In her head, she imagined her skin blistering and flaking off in heaps of scorched flesh. She imagined her bones being exposed, bright and white, before her fingers started to blacken and finally crumble to ash. She did her best not to move, but the pain was intense and unceasing. “Owwwwwww!” she screamed.

“You’re hurting her!” Lena cried out. “Stop!”

“Two more seconds!” Earick snapped, holding up his hand to forestall Lena interrupting, as Vanis barely held her back.

Callie debated between bursting into sobs, outright passing out or, at minimum, falling into a fetal position to protect herself. And then, just like that, the pain ceased. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at her hands and arms. Where she had imagined charred flesh and exposed bone, there was nothing. No blisters. No burns. Not even a bit of redness. Only the marks of her fingernails digging into her palms. It was as if the pain had never happened, but her mind remembered every moment of the agony.

“I am really sorry,” Yulayla said, trying to be comforting. “I wanted to triple check the readings before I stopped. I thought that might be better than having you go through that again.”

“It’s … It’s okay,” Callie said, still catching her breath. “Did you find anything?”

“Only that it is still very odd. With this scan, I get far more information about you. Yet your class is still simply a void. I wonder if maybe that reading is the result of your loss of memory, or perhaps the drugs used to sedate you? It’s a curious mystery.”

“What else did you see? Anything that might be helpful?” Vanis asked.

“May I have your permission to share?” Yulayla asked. “This is a more-personal scan, and Scryers have rules about what can be shared with others when it is this deep.”

“I guess you can, unless it’s super-embarrassing or something,” Callie said with a shrug.

“A surface scan doesn’t always reveal perks, but this deeper one found several,” Yulayla reported. “Some of them are unknown to me. I didn’t see any skills, but that part of your scan isn’t a void like your class, just empty, so likely you do not have any.”

“What perks does she have?” Vanis said.

“She has the following perks: Basic Carpentry, Basic Plumbing, Bookkeeping/Logistics, and a strange one called Basic Electrical. She also has, of all things, the perk Advanced Archery.”

“Archery? For a Gnome?” Xin said. “How strange!”

“I know!” Yulayla said “Miss Calliope, do you know what any of these might mean? Do any memories come back?”

‘Perks’ was another word that Callie had heard several times and she had been trying to figure out what was meant by that. Based on what Yulayla had just said, and the names of the ones the others had, a perk must be like some body of learned knowledge or something. Xin had said she had spear fighting perks, and Vanis one for Demon control. Was it possible to somehow simply be imprinted with the information on how to do something by magic, just like apparently happened with skills? Did that even make sense? Not to any rational part of her thinking, but then again, not a damn thing happening to her was rational.

Yulayla was still waiting for a response, and Callie nearly answered that these five ‘perks’ all made perfect sense. All the home repair and maintenance lessons her father had given her explained that knowledge. Bookkeeping was apparently this world’s word for being an accountant, which of course she had a degree in. She had also been on her high school archery team, and even placed at State her junior and senior year, so she knew all about that. She didn’t say that, though. If she did, she’d have to explain how she remembered that information, but didn’t remember anything else. She simply shook her head and flat out lied to the kind Scryer, “I’m sorry, but no.”

“What else did you learn?” Vanis asked.

“Much of the rest is personal, and comes across as impressions and emotions, not details. Likely nothing immediately helpful. For example, a loving mother and a loving father, now passed for some time. Fear. Confusion. Worry. Curiosity. The remnants of lust and desire she felt for Mistress Juniper is also quite evident.“

Callie’s face flushed hot and she did the best she could to shrink away and avoid eye contact with everyone. “I thought nothing embarrassing,” she mumbled.

“You’re right, I don’t see how any of that additional information is of benefit,” Vanis said, “Except perhaps we now know to keep the Dryad away from her.”

“Oh, cripes,” Callie said, her face actively overheating in embarrassment as she slapped her hand to her face.

“So what do we do next?” Earick asked. “The Advanced Archery perk seems to imply there’s a combat class, even if odd for a Gnome. We need to do something with her because she’s Conscript.”

“I would suggest we bring in the Master Trainer to get his opinion,” Yulayla said.

Erick snapped his fingers and from seemingly out of nowhere, another small Sprite zipped down from the sky to hover right in front of him.

“Hello!” the flittering Fae said.

“Yes. If you would, please fetch Master Trainer Thorn. I believe he would be in the Commandant’s office. Express to him that there is some urgency.”

The Sprite seemed to bounce up and down in agreement. With a high-pitched ‘Goodbye!’, she flew off with a whoosh, a streak of yellow mist fading behind her.

“We will need to wait, but it should not be long,” Yulayla said.

As they waited, Callie walked back to the rest of the group. Vanis and Lena both had concerned expressions on their faces.

“What do you think,” Lena asked. “Can you explain these perks, Callie?”

“Um,” she began before looking at Xin, who had not been part of the conversation in the wagon.

“Quite right,” Vanis said. “Xin, if we make you privy to some sensitive information, may we count on the honor of your discretion, for the safety of Miss Callie?”

Xin looked from Callie to Vanis and then back to Callie and seemed to think for a moment. “As long as what I learn is not dangerous to others, I will honor your request.”

Vanis frowned briefly. “It will have to do.” Quickly he related a quick overview of Callie’s story to Xin. Her remembering another life, even another world, before waking in the wagon. He relayed her belief that she was once human and was now somehow in a new body, and that Lena’s skill had found it truthful.

“I see,” Xin said as Vanis finished. She looked to Lena before asking, “You are sure she was truthful?”

“I am,” she responded. “Or at least she believed what she was saying. At my Tier, that is the best I would be able to be sure of, but I would have seen any doubt she may have.”

“I do not believe this is a secret you will need to maintain for long, just until we can assure that she will be safe,” Vanis said, trying to allay any concerns Xin may have.

“Please, Xin,” Callie said, “don’t tell anyone. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on, and if the wrong people find out …” Callie let those final words hang in the air.

Xin gave another long thought. “I will abide by your request, Miss Callie. And yours as well, Sire. But not because you are the son of the King, but because you appear to truly wish to help the Little One. But please do not ask me to risk anyone’s safety for this secret.”

Vanis let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Xin. It is my hope, all of our hope, to determine what really happened to Miss Callie as quickly as possible. What we have now is all speculation. Hopefully, determining her class, or why she seems to be apparently missing one, could be a clue to this mystery.”

Lena put her hand on Xin’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Now, about your perks, Callie. Can you explain?”

“I think I understand what a perk is, based on what I’ve heard,” Callie started to say, answering Lena’s original question. “As for the ones that I apparently have, my father taught me about carpentry and plumbing and such growing up, so I could help around the house to fix things and take care of myself.”

“And this … electricity … perk?” Vanis asked.

“It’s related to Carpentry and Plumbing, and you need to know it to build some things.” How do you explain electricity to a fantasy world? “It’s … complicated, and from what I can see, not relevant, because you don’t have it. It might take too long to go into it right now.”

Vanis nodded, choosing to accept Callie’s response in the interests of time. “But Carpentry and Plumbing you are familiar with,” he reconfirmed.

“Well, like the Scryer said, just the basics. Enough to repair the house or install a sink.”

“And you mentioned Bookkeeping on the wagon,” Lena said. “So that perk seems to make sense. At least that could be a vocation for you, depending on what happens.”

“I wasn’t much of one before I came here,” Callie said bitterly, remembering the disastrous interview that seemed so long ago, but was really only several hours before.

“But Archery?” Xin said. “How would a Gnome know Advanced Archery?”

“That’s just it. That’s what you all seem to not be getting. Before I woke up in that wagon, I wasn’t here. I was on Earth, and I was Human. I was as tall as Lena, and I knew archery because I was a competitive archer growing up. Please understand, a few hours ago I was not a Gnome.” Callie was almost getting a little panicky as she spoke. “As far as I can tell, a few hours ago I was in another world, downtown Chicago, coming home from a lousy job interview. A world where my mother probably thinks I got hit by a train and died. I don’t know what is happening, or how it happened.”

“Calm down, Callie,” Lena said in a whisper, glancing at Earick and Yulayla, who were chatting together with someone.

“Calm? Calm! How can I be calm, Lena? What’s happening to me? I don’t want this, but it’s happening and I don’t know what to do!”

As she spoke, the worry and anxiety finally crashing in on her, Callie felt her chest tighten and she began to feel woozy. “Why is this happening to me?” she managed to eek out in a whispered squeak. Her heart started pounding in her ears as her vision narrowed to a gray tunnel. Lena dropped to her knees and grabbed Callie in a big hug, simply holding her, and helping to keep her upright. “Shhh shhh shhh. It’s ok, Callie.”

Vanis, Xin and Tazrok exchanged worried glances.

“Now not time,” Tazrok said quietly to Vanis. “Must deal with later.”

“You’re right,” Vanis said, nodding lightly in agreement. “The Master of Trainers, this Thorn, will be here shortly and we need to get through this.” Vanis knelt and peeled Callie away from Lena. Her eyes were slowly filling with water, and he caught and held her gaze. “Callie, we will do everything we can to help you figure this out, I swear to this. But we need you to stay focused for a little while longer.”

“What?” Callie said, wiping her face with her sleeve.

“The Master of Trainers is coming. We must find out what he thinks about your strange class situation and then take what comes after one step at a time. But for now, you must clear your head enough to get through the next few hours. We won’t leave you, I promise. Can you do that?”

Callie “I think so. Maybe. I’ll try. I am just so confused.”

“That’s all you can do,” Vanis said. “We will keep up your amnesia ruse until we have a proper moment to evaluate next steps.”

“Hey, I think he’s here!” Lena said quietly, gesturing with her chin.