Chapter 45 - Decisions (Patreon)

Violet was unable to sleep after waking from her dream.  There was no doubt in her mind that Divination had triggered shortly after unlocking her system.  It had taken all of the joy from opening it and turned it to ashes.  What was she going to do?  She no longer had Avery’s wards to protect her from detection.

The more pressing problem she had was what she would do about the assassins.  Telling the royals that she had spatial magic sounded like a horrible idea.  While she considered Crown Princess Regina a friend, she needed to keep her secrets.  She kept picturing herself becoming a prisoner if people found out she had more than two schools of magic.

She brought up her stat screen to distract herself from these heavy thoughts.

Level 27

Age 15 yrs 11 mo

Experience (36470/37800)

Health 600/600

Mana 1440/1440

Stat Points 130

Skill Points 5

Strength 45

Constitution 60

Dexterity 42

Intelligence 148

Wisdom 144

[Contracts] [Magic] [Skills] [Storage] [Traits]

She had spoken to Avery, her parents, and Regina quite a bit about what to expect when her system finally unlocked.  The consensus was it was a good rule of thumb to add one point into Constitution for every level she had gained.  From there, the advice varied quite a bit.  Everyone agreed that a base stat of 50 for every category was a safe bet.

Avery said it was a good idea to keep her Intelligence and Wisdom equal or as close to equal as possible.  It didn’t matter how hard a spell would hit if you didn’t have the mana to cast it.  Her parents felt having a large pool of mana was a more significant advantage than hitting something harder.  Regina, coming from a country that was constantly at war, argued that doing enormous damage in short bursts was safer because she could recover her mana pool in a protected area.

After allocating five points to Strength, twenty-seven points to Constitution, and eight points to Dexterity, Violet would have ninety points left over to pour into Intelligence and/or Wisdom.  She decided to go with Avery’s approach to assigning stats.  After evening the two stats out and adding what she had, she had a total of one hundred ninety-one Intelligence and Wisdom.

Her reasoning for doing it this way was she wanted to be a more balanced magician.  Violet had learned quite a bit from Regina over the years about just how unique and lucky she was.  It was typical for a thirteen-year-old who had just unlocked their system to have their stats in the high thirties.  She was slightly above average for Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity but almost 100 points above the average for Intelligence and Wisdom.

The influx of points added to their stats could cause discomfort or pain when someone unlocks their system.  There were two main ways that people dealt with this.  The first way was to enter a few points and slowly assign your free points over a week.  The second method was to dump them all in at once and ride out the pain.  Some people were known to pass out when using this method, so assigning points while lying down was suggested.

Violet did not have time to fiddle with her stat points over a long period.  She needed to talk to her parents and possibly Avery about her Divination tripping, and she also needed to stop an assassination.  She left a note for her parents beside her bed, letting them know she unlocked her system if she passed out, and then made her selections.

In hindsight, she probably should have asked what the average level children were when they unlocked their system.  She lost consciousness right away.  When she awoke sometime later, her mother was sitting next to her bed with a worried frown on her face.

“Oh, thank goodness! You’re finally awake.”

Violet cringed at the loud noise her mother was making.  Her head was throbbing, and she could not recall why she was in bed initially.  “Oww, whisper,”  She said while pulling a pillow over her head.

“You put more than thirty points in a single stat at one time, didn’t you?”

Violet mumbled affirmation from underneath the pillow.

“We should have warned you. Most teens spread their stats out enough that this is not an issue.  Let me go get a potion for your headache.”

After imbibing the most magnificent potion known to humankind, also known as a healing potion, Violet started to feel more like herself again.  She felt better than herself.  Her memory was more precise, and it felt like she was processing thoughts faster.  She felt like she was on the brink of processing two trains of thought at once, but she was not quite there yet.

“Mom, I need your help…”

After explaining her deadly vision and the consequences of having said vision, her mother was in a state of shock while she processed this new information.  It did not take her long to respond, even if it wasn’t constructive.

“Know that your father and I support you in everything that you do.  It would be a good idea to somehow tell the royals about the assassination plot.  Letting them know your secret seems dangerous though, maybe Avery will know of a way to keep your identity secret?”

It was a long trip from the aviary to the capital, so Avery had come up with a way to get messages to each other using the messenger birds.  Violet sent a coded message asking to speak with Avery as soon as it could be arranged.  She felt it was ok to wait a few days because nobody else knew she had unlocked her system yet.

Avery responded with another coded message of her own on where to meet Rasmus.  The crown city had several flaws in its defenses. One of those was that anyone with wings or the ability to fly could quickly enter the town.  Rasmus could cloak himself while sending in a human-shaped decoy for her to talk to him.  He could combine his air magic with illusion magic to create a talking decoy.  She was pretty jealous of this feat.

She met Rasmus’ decoy in a secluded park not long past noon that day.  Through the bond the two birds shared, she was able to talk to them both simultaneously.  After hearing about the plot, it was decided that they would use a messenger bird to deliver a warning of the assassination plot to the head of the royal guard.  With that plan in place, Violet breathed easier and informed her teacher about unlocking her system.

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That night she had another vivid dream.  Instead of being in the throne room, she met with the royal family in a private section of the castle she had never seen before.  Queen Alexandra explained that there wasn’t an ancient magic school, and Violet would be paired with an Illusion mage and a healing mage to further her magic.  Halfway through the meeting, people started to throw up blood.  She was quick to use her healing magic, but there were too many people.  By the time she had healed the first person, she had started to feel the effects of the poison in herself.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t purge the poison from herself in time.

She woke once again covered in sweat.  The note had stopped the assassins, but they had still managed to slip poison into the tea.  Did she want to take a chance and just warn people that the tea was poisoned?  What if they looked at her as the person who had put the poison there in the first place?  She was, after all, a foreigner.

Her father found her pacing in her nightclothes the next day.  After an awkward moment of her father asking her to put some clothes on, she asked him for his advice.

“Poison is a terrible business.  It is twice now that people have tried to kill the royal family in your presence.  What happens if you are not there the next time they try?  Or do you think that you are their target?”

While they were discussing possibilities, a royal courier arrived with an official letter for Violet.

Dear Lady Violet,

We request the pleasure of your company tonight two hours before sundown.  There will be an informal gathering to celebrate the unlocking of your system.

Sincerely,

Queen Alexandra

‘Well, that escalated fast.  I won’t have time to get word to the royals about poison anonymously.’  After showing her parents the letter, they both agreed she should expose the poison after being served to her.  They felt she could use the excuse of her detecting poison in her tea to stop the tragedy.

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Her mother took time off work to go shopping with Violet.  She needed something to wear fit to be in the presence of royalty.  When they arrived at the dress shop, they were surprised to see princess Regina already there talking with the head tailor.

“Oops, you caught me!  I was just letting Frank know that you would need a dress tonight and to charge it to my tab.”

“You don't need to do that.  We can afford to buy our daughter a dress.”  Her mother responded, sounding hurt.

“Oh, I know you can, but this way, you have more money to spend on accessories,”  Regina said the last word with a squeal.  She loved to shop for accessories and felt the dress was needlessly expensive.

“Violet, while Frank takes your measurements, I’m going to steal your mom and do some shopping.  Sorry, but being fitted for a dress is boring and waiting for someone else to be fitted is just plain awful!”  Regina called while dragging her mom out the door.