[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 142 – New Trials Await

Primordial runic power has cascaded down through the Shardrune multiverse, forging new pathways to Convocation Trials.

Convocation Trials are now available for selection.

You are eligible for Vagrant (G-League) [1st Echelon] Authority Trials and below.

You have 1 standard day (24 hours) remaining to make your selection.

All trials will commence in 1 standard week (7 days).

[Vagrant Authority Trials]

1st Vagrant Trial: (Obscured)

Participants: First Ring Competitors

Type: Group

Difficulty/Rewards: High (A)

Duration: 2 Standard Months (56 days)

2nd Vagrant Trial: (Obscured)

Participants: First Ring Competitors

Type: Solo

Difficulty/Rewards: Moderate (C+)

Duration: 1 Standard Month (28 days)

[Commoner Authority Trials]

1st Commoner Trial: The Shattered Keep (Glimmer Realm)

Participants: First Ring Competitors

Type: Group

Difficulty/Rewards: Low (D)

Duration: 1 Standard Month (28 days)

[Exile Authority Trials]

Trial: Elemental Plateaus

Participants: Earth-Lormar

Type: Solo & Group

Difficulty/Rewards: Very Low (F)

Duration: 2 Standard Months (56 days)

Mel woke up to the hanging Shardscript in front of her vision. I’m not drunk enough for this.

Gwen barged through Mel’s door, breaking it clean off its hinges. It spun into a weapon bench, which formed a massive crack down the middle. “There’s new trials, Mel!” Howling in sheer excitement, she dove onto Mel’s bed.

Mel stared silent daggers at her. I am definitely not drunk enough for this. “You do realize how early it is, right?”

“I couldn’t wait!” Gwen grabbed the much smaller girl then rolled around back and forth, giving Mel an eyeful of her wolf tail that was wagging very fast.

Mel was absolutely sure Gwen didn’t have a red furred tail during the first trial. It only appeared after she transformed.

“Which one are we going to pick?” Gwen asked, beaming. “How about the hardest one with the best rewards?”

“I gotta pee,” Mel said tiredly. “Keep shaking me around if you’re into that though.”

Gwen pouted with comical adorableness, then rolled off Mel, propping her head up on a fist.

Mel sat up and scooched to the edge of her bed. “Now tell me–”

Heath skidded into the room, caught the doorframe, and yanked himself inside. “New trials! Ohhh, can I be on your team again, Mel?” He looked at Gwen. “Is Gwen on our team again? Awesome. I’ll do better this time, promise.”

Gwen’s eyes widened in panic, as if she hadn’t even considered that. “...I am, right?” she asked. “I’ll fight other Magi to be on your team, Mel.”

Hanging her head, Mel pinched the bridge of her nose and flopped around with her free hand until she found her crimson witch’s hat. She rammed it onto her head.

She stood up, stared at both of them, and then staggered out of the room without a word to find the bathroom.

Gwen and Heath looked at each other just as Thomas skidded into the room. “Which trial–” he began before realizing the room was empty of Mel.

A glance at the door, then at Gwen, told him exactly what happened. “Did you scare Mel off, Gwen?”

“Heath, if I gotta beat you up to stay on Mel’s team, I’ll do it,” Gwen said. “Nothing personal.”

Heath cracked his knuckles. “Oh, I’m ready to bring the heat.” He shook his arm. “A little thunder.” He shook his left leg. “A little lightning and–hey, don’t laugh!”

Gwen burst into laughter at Heath’s show of force. She even teared up.

Thomas patted him on the shoulder. “You’re better off just standing quietly in the shadows and glaring. The intimidation thing really doesn’t work in your favor with your…unique brand of movement.”

“What’s wrong with the way I move?” Heath asked.

“The word that comes to mind is: spasmodic.”

“That a bad thing?”

“Not if you’re trying to fake a seizure, but for intimidation? Yeah. Yeah it is.”

Sylvie, carrying a sleeping Komachi, poked her head into the room. “Where’s Mel at?”

“Why?” Gwen asked, rolling out of the bed. “You wanna join her team too?”

Sylvie stared at them all in turn. “Three people are in Mel’s room and Mel’s not here. I assume that one of you saw where she went, kinda obvious.”

“She’ll be back. Probably,” Gwen answered. “Bathroom. Hopefully didn’t fall in.”

“You haven’t seen the bathrooms yet?” she asked. “Man, you’re really missing out. It’s pretty nice!”

Gwen seemed intrigued by that. “How about you take me there?”

Sylvie looked her up and down. “Hard pass. I like to poop in solitude.”

“Wait, it’s not some spa thing?”

“Tell Mel I stopped by!” Sylvie hurried off down the hall.

“I wouldn’t expect a spa,” Thomas said. He leaned out into the hall. “Where’re you off to, Charlie?”

“Picking a new team.” Charlie looked over her shoulder at him past a curtain of wavy dark hair, then tossed a coin into the air. “It’s between two choices, and well…”

Catching it, she looked down at the coin. He couldn’t see which side it was.

“You wanna talk about it?” he asked. “I can’t imagine it’s easy benching a friend.”

She glanced at him warily, then turned around. “I appreciate it, Thomas, but I’m not sure what there is to say. Almace needs rest. And I’m running out of time.” She lifted her hand to motion goodbye and walked away.

Mel came across Charlie on the way back to her room. “Hey, meeting in fifteen downstairs. Tell your boys.”

She frowned in frustration. “Fine.”

Mel put both hands to her doorframe and peeked into her room. “Meeting downstairs in fifteen minutes.” Just as everybody started to get up, she looked at Gwen. “Fix my fucking door.”

“If I do, will I be on your team?”

“It means I won’t disqualify you.” Mel stalked out.

She whimpered like a kicked puppy.

Heath looked nervously at Thomas and Gwen. “She’s…not really going to go to a different team, is she? I mean, we have uh…history. Right? Guys? Why’re you walking away, Thomas? Thomas?” Heath hurried after Thomas, leaving Gwen alone in the room with a broken door.

“Heath,” Gwen said too sweetly. “I know you have Artifice aspect.”

He stopped and looked back into the room. “Yeah? You want me to make you like a smokebomb or something?”

She stared at him. “I want you to fix the door for me.”

Heath looked at the door, then at her. He looked at the door again. Then at Gwen out of the corner of his eye. “Um…I make small things. I think you need a carpenter.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. And here I thought you might show me something impressive.”

“I could blow the room up,” Heath offered. He took out a small patchwork sphere that was ominously ticking.

“Come on, Heath! Why would you offer that? Just put it back in your pants, kid.”

He looked at the ticking bomb, then at her. “No way. I want to have kids someday.”

Gwen groaned miserably, then got to work on the door.

It looked worse when she was done with it. “Well, fuck me.”

“So that’s a ‘no’ on the bomb?” Heath asked, as the ticking became more insistent.

“No bomb!” she roared. “Not unless it rearranges this damn door. How the heck did I get the doorknob down there?”

He looked at the crooked door. Then back at Gwen with his brows raised. “Ya sure about that?”

She stared at him, then at the door. “...Sure, let’s see what happens. Can’t be worse than this.” She seemed to realize what she was saying. “Well, actually...”

Heath set the bomb down and darted out of the room.

Downstairs, Mel was sitting at a table as the other Magi filtered in. Shrubley was fixing up some food in the kitchen with Cal’s help. He summoned little tornadoes to ferry trays filled with plates of breakfast food.

The best food of all time.

Mel didn’t understand why people didn’t just eat breakfast all day long. Orange juice, pancakes, crepes, waffles, bacon, sausage, and all the fresh fruit you could eat. What’s better than that?

Nothing, that’s what.

Adam and Almace seemed to be trying to desperately get on Charlie’s good side, and she wasn’t having it.

“My rest can wait,” Almace said to the Necromancer in hushed tones. He seemed like a passionate kind of guy. His emotions play all over his face.

Food was passed out, though it was clear to Mel that they needed a better system for breakfast. Maybe a long table they could all eat at in a private room somewhere.

She filed it away for later. There was only a single day to pick the next trial, and in Mel’s eyes it was best done like most intimate things. Out in the full light of day.

There was a dull THUMP! and several boards in the ceiling rattled, followed by a drift of dust and soot from upstairs. Mel shook her head.

I forgot what it’s like living with Magi.

Still, she found herself smiling all the same. At least it would never be boring. Better to be dead than bored.

Once everybody was seated and they finished a breakfast piled high with syrup-drenched pancakes, Mel stood up on her chair and called for their attention.

The way several people looked away or at Charlie told her that she still had a long way to go until she had all their loyalty. That was fine. Mel wasn’t afraid of hard work.

“Archon Harper called this meeting,” Charlie declared to the group, not bothering to get up. “So listen to whatever she wants to say, please.”

Mel gave her a flat look for being so unhelpful. “Yeah, thanks for that, Princess.”

She took a deep breath and adjusted the brim of her crimson hat. “Unless you’re blind, you’ve no doubt seen the coming Convocation trials. From what we’ve learned, the maximum standard party size appears to be six, and there’s not an even multiple of six in our Order, so it seemed right to call a meeting about it.”

“Why?” Hal asked. “Most of us are just going to go with our old groups anyway.”

“That’s why,” Mel said, pointing at him. She nodded at Sabrina’s group who ate at one table. “Some of us will be staying here, others might not have the same Authority level.”

“Which is what?” Sylvie asked. “I still don’t know what that means.”

“For the purpose of this meeting, it means access to different trials. It feels best that we pick teams out in the open. Anybody who cannot or does not want to join the next trial, please stand near the bar.”

Sabrina’s group got up all at once and moved over, some still eating off their plates.

Shrubley hopped up and waddled over.

“Shrubley?” Miranda asked.

“I wanna make this a home,” Shrubley said happily as he slipped behind the bar and obviously scrambled atop a stacked set of boxes. He began to wipe down the bar top. “A place worthy of the Magi. I’ve had plenty of adventures, and there’ll be plenty more!” He put a hand beside his bushy mouth. “Besides, who else will keep these wild Magi under control?”

Some of the Magi and Archivists were on board with that. The burly Aegis went over with Ashera.

“I figured we could work on finding a way to contribute,” Sabrina said, holding her cup of tea.

“Ashera?” Hal asked.

She gave him a sad smile. “I need a bit of time, and the Covenants are still out there. We can’t afford to leave our home undefended.”

It made sense. There was no benefit to going into a trial if you could find things to do out here. The same amount of time passed regardless if you were in or out, and if they could not only find but root out the Covenants…that might be a better use of time.

Looking at those available, Mel nodded to herself. “Now, everybody who has an Authority level of Vagrant, stand over by the…the…Pyreplace.”

I hate myself for that.