Useful Heresies

~ Alexis ~

They returned to their room at the inn, where he put a tiny mana stone on top of a disk smaller than a saucer. Magic circles lit up, and the room around them blurred. Outside noises became low-pitched hissing, like the sound of water running down a steep slope.

"Tell me what you know about where classes come from, why only humans get them, and why only some humans get them." The legate sounded very much like a teacher at school, or Curator Jane.

"Everybody knows that. The goddess Knexenk gifted them to humans so we could fight the monsters. And the demis, too, if we had to. When we turn twelve, on the cusp of adulthood, we present ourselves to Knexenk so she can choose the best to receive classes. Without classes, the empire would have crumbled a long time ago. There might not even be an empire." She finished her speech, confident that she had gotten every important thing correct.

The legate nodded along. "That's been the dogma ever since Saint Wynnefreede the Evangel's gospel. The Arcaics tell a different story. You see, I have this odd library at home …"

"Excuse me, but what are the Arcaics?"

"Arcs, elves, dwarves, and beastkin."

"Oh, demi-humans."

"Don't call them that." Even though she couldn't see the legate, a tense anger pressed at her through the Riverstone illusion. "Never to their faces, and never around me. Demi means 'half' or 'partly', but they aren't less than us. If anything, they're more than humans are. Dwarves are literally twice our density. Arcs are tiny, but they live five times longer. I don't know much about elves, but beastkin live nearly as long as Arcs and they're stronger than us."

"But they don't have culture. They had to join the empire, just to learn to read."

He laughed. Scornfully. "I don't know where you heard that from, but it's not even close to true. The reason they're called Arcaics as a group is because they share the Arcaic language, which is older than Orlut. Their written works predate the empire.

"My family founded Mourne around the Middle Empire period. Some of my early ancestors were avid book collectors, and I have shelves full of Arcaic texts from the period. Some of them are hand-copied from much older texts, from before the Gordian Empire. It was Arcs who created a writing system for Orlut, because the native speakers, your ancestors, didn't have one yet."

"They were your ancestors too, you know."

"Irrelevant. They didn't know how to write until Arcs taught them. It was so long ago that classes were offered to everyone, regardless of age or race."

"No, they weren't! Knexenk is a goddess for humans!"

"Knexenk … " he stopped himself, as if he were about to say too much.

"She what?"

"Before there was a Gordia or the Gordian Empire, there was only one temple of Knexenk. It was very remote, and people had to endure long journeys through monster-infested territory to reach it. Despite that, thousands of people made the trip every year, and nearly all of them received classes. It went on like that for millennia. She never cared what race someone was, or how old they were, until the Evangel arrived one day, packed Knexenk's divine statue in a box, and carried her back to Gordia.

"That's when Wynnefreede wrote her gospel, set up a church, and started teaching people that Knexenk was the highest of all the gods, and cared primarily about humans. Until that point, she was subordinate to the primary gods. No one had ever written anything different, at least not that I've seen."

"That isn't what the church teaches. It's … this is … you could get into so much trouble."

"The word you're looking for is 'heresy', and it's the reason for the privacy barrier," he explained, hands outstretched. "But you don't have to believe all of this to work with me here. I'm pointing out that, when it comes to divine matters, our mortal perspectives are severely limited and tend to change over time. Much of what we call history and religion was written by people to serve their own agendas, like ensuring their church became a powerful force in an emerging empire."

"You're saying the church lies."

"I'm sure many of Knexenk's priests are fully sincere. Many of them probably know everything I just told you, but choose to serve anyway, as a way to help people. The church does a lot of good work besides handing out classes. But it's also a powerful institution with its own needs and a will to survive. Otherwise, why bother pounding doctrine into people?"

Alexia tried to push the unwanted ideas out of her head and focus on what was important. "How does any of this help me with my class?"

"Next question. What is a class?"

"What is it? It's the thing Knexenk blesses us with, to make us strong."

"That's the why of it, according to the church, and where it comes from. But that isn't the what. What do you think a class is?"

Her brain stumbled over the question. What did he even mean by that? What were classes made of? Divine grace, maybe? Maybe he was asking how they worked, but she didn't know anything about that. She could only shrug.

"A class is a tool that applies mana to a specific profession and its related tasks. It guides and invites people to explore possibilities, but it isn't the final word on what you can and cannot do. The established class progressions are just starting points, well-mapped territory. There's another way to use a class, which is to treat it like a tutor. When it shows you a skill, you practice it until you can learn to do the same thing without activating the skill. Repeat the process enough times, and you learn to apply mana to anything and everything you want to do. To truly master a class means moving beyond it."

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She felt like she'd been knocked on the head. "I don't believe any of this. Why should I listen to you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, have we not met? I'm Legate d'Mourne, I'm ten years old, and yesterday I fought a thousand-year-old tree monster to the death. You could say I'm an accomplished magician."

At last, she had found the flaw in his arguments. "Exactly! You're a magician. An unclassed magician. Why would a spellcaster know about classes? And I don't want to hear that you read it in a book somewhere. There's a big difference between that and doing things."

The legate huffed. "You should believe me because being a magician isn't about casting spells. Spellscript is just a tool for using magic. So are praxes, foci, magic items, mana stones, and all the rest of it. My stock in trade isn't spells, it's doing things with mana. And classes are tools for applying mana. See the connection?"

"This is too much. You can't expect me to just believe you and then follow you into some harebrained scheme. Because that's where this is going, right? You have some weird thing you want me to try, that'll ruin my class forever, and I'm the one who has to live with it."

"That's a fair point. What if you didn't have to believe in me? What if you only had to believe in Knexenk?"

"Well, naturally, I'd do what she said to. She's the goddess."

"And, in your belief system, the goddess would never offer you a quest that was bad for you, right?"

"Of course not."

"Well then, here's my offer. We find you the very best teaching orchardist we can, someone who will help you master the essentials without a class, and expose you to a broad view of what's possible. You'll train as a normal apprentice, with your class notifications disabled and your attribute gains pre-set."

"That's the opposite of what everyone says I should be doing!" she complained, and the legate nodded in agreement.

"Meanwhile, I will teach you how to work with mana like a top-class magician. I won't make you learn a bunch of spells, or Spellscript, or magic circles, or anything like that. I'll teach you raw mana manipulation. We'll have several days before you leave, and most of the winter when you return to Mourne. That's plenty of time to have a major impact. Do this, and not only will your long-term class gains be profound, but you'll have the freedom to shape your class to fit your dreams. You could blaze a whole new path that nobody's seen before."

That sounded good to her. Great, even. But there was a problem. "You said you'd prove it to me. I don't see any proof."

"Wait for it."

"Wait for what?"

"For the quest that's coming."

"You can't just call up a quest whenever you … "

Primary Quest: [The Mage's Path]. A mysterious young wizard has offered you an alternative path. The way is subtle and strange, but the rewards are unique.

If you accept this quest, your progression can't be adequately measured by conventional means. At times, you may feel you have fallen behind. Initially, your peers may mock you. Yet the ultimate rewards are as subtle as the path itself, and profoundly powerful. You will have broad control over your class, access to skills outside your class, the option to invent never-before-seen skills, and a chance to blaze new paths for others to follow.

The quest ends when you complete three years of apprenticeship.

This is a primary questline with many sub-quests and the potential for many side quests. Success meets the first threshold condition, clearing your way through level 20.

Do you accept [The Mage's Path]?

"You're cheating somehow. You have to be. This can't be real."

"If classes are holy gifts from Knexenk, patron god of humans, then this can't be a trick."

"You messed with it, somehow."

"According to your beliefs, that's impossible. On the other hand, if I were able to do that, it would prove I have a deep knowledge of classes, and you should listen to me."

There was something fishy about this argument. If he was right, then he was right. But if he was wrong, he was still right. But the quest was right in front of her. Not just any quest, but one with unique rewards.

"Why would you do this for me? You're not even asking for anything in return."

"The town gets you for nine years, remember? You are a precious asset, one whose choices will influence the welfare of hundreds of people. A legate can't let this opportunity slip by. If we can't find you a conventional class teacher, then we'll do something unconventional." His eyes crinkled kindly from behind his mask. "I understand why this is confusing for you. You don't have to decide right now."

"It's hard to tell when I can't see you, but I don't think you're being totally honest. You sound like my brother does when he's trying to get something from our parents he's not supposed to have."

"But it happens to be true."

He sounded exactly like her brother. "That's not convincing at all. What are you really after?"

"Fine. It's going to be awesome, and I want to see what happens."

"Uh-huh. That sounds more like it." She was even less sure now.

"There is a third option, you know. You could ignore your class. Avoid the whole mess. The town can't force you to train."

"No! I'm not giving up on my class!"

"Then your choices are The Mage's Path or The Boring Path. Your call."

She didn't want to make a choice, not when the wrong one could ruin her life. She wanted to stall. She wanted more information. "When would we start this mysterious training?"

"Today, if possible, depending on how things go."

"Can I try the training and then decide?"

"Did the quest say there was a timer on acceptance?"

"No."

"Then let's do that. For now, we have a lot of stops to make in town. Bring yesterday's clothes so we can get them mended. Oh, and one more thing. Don't talk about Prater. Don't bring him up. If someone asks, refer them to me. And don't talk about the training we do. The last thing I need is Rossignol Court having another reason to kidnap me."

He made her promise three times over.

They left the inn immediately via the concierge desk, where the legate dropped cards for express delivery. They grabbed a carriage at the stop across the street and, for the first of several times that day, he showed the driver a business card. The driver nodded, shook the reins, and pulled them into some quarter of the city Alexis hadn't seen before. Her heart thrummed aloud in her chest, thrilled at the new adventure. She had no idea where she was going next, but she was sure it wouldn't be boring.

For now, she'd put The Mage's Path aside until d'Mourne could prove to her he knew what he was doing. She could still decline the quest.

Won't Knexenk be mad at me for that? There was a disturbing thought. The idea that she could refuse a quest without divine repercussions was like admitting d'Mourne was right. But if he was right, then she should accept the quest. Or, maybe he was wrong, but Knexenk wanted her to follow him anyway. But, wouldn't that mean Knexenk agreed with what the legate wanted to do?

Alexis felt like she'd been tricked, but the quest pulsed at her with promise. Maybe, it didn't matter who was right, so long as the quest was real. She pushed away the floating words and told her class to be quiet. She could decide tomorrow.

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