Vex Draskalian's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Vex Draskalian woke under a tree she did not plant, in a body that felt too light to be dead. She remembered dying. She remembered the people she had failed to protect, their faces still sharp behind her eyes. That memory settled into a cold promise: wherever this was, she would build a place her enemies could never reach, and she would drag everyone she loved inside its walls. She sat up. The tree above her had a white trunk and leaves the color of shallow sea. A katana lay in the grass beside her hand, plain steel, no gems, no runes. She knew its weight before she lifted it. Her fingers remembered the grip her mind did not. "Welcome to Halias, Vex Draskalian." The voice came from inside her skull. Vex rolled to one knee and swept the blade up, searching the empty field for a throat to cut. "You will not find me," the voice said. It was warm, patient, almost amused. "I am Aria. You died through no fault of your own. I gave you another life. Put the sword down." Vex did not put the sword down. "Show yourself." "I cannot. I am far from here." A faint pressure brushed her thoughts, the way a hand smooths a frightened animal. "Explore. Learn what you carry now. But first, choose." The air in front of her lit blue. A flat panel hung there, bright as noon glass. Words scrolled down it. Classes, each one a title and a short line of promise. Healer. Warden. Flamecaller. Vex read them without caring until one stopped her. Spellblade. She thought of the katana in her hand and the spells she had thrown in another life, how she had always wanted the two to be one weapon instead of two. She reached out and touched the word. Heat ran up her arms. Thin silver lines crawled across her skin, over her wrists, her throat, her face. Runes. They burned without pain, then sank beneath her flesh and faded. The katana hummed once in her grip, and for a breath the steel glowed emerald along its edge. "It is done," Aria said. "Your magic and your blade are one now. Use them well." The blue panel winked out. The pressure in Vex's mind thinned, as if Aria had stepped back behind a door. Vex stood alone under the teal canopy. She was alive, armed, and nowhere. The people she meant to save were not here. They might not exist in this world at all. That did not change the promise. It only meant she had to find them, or find who they would become, and build the sanctuary from the ground of a world she did not understand. She wiped grass from her robes and looked for a road. Before she could start to move a form peeked around the tree trunk, a small blue fox looked up at her, inched closer sniffing like it was chasing a familiar scent.