Excerpt from System Manual III Pg 115
Miasmic anomalies, also known as just ‘anomalies’, come in many shapes, sizes and types. While most are benign and can be safely ignored, some may be a sign of an impending disaster or the abuse of magic.
There are three major categories of anomalies: dimensional, temporal and boundary. All anomalies can be natural phenomena, so it is important to investigate anything above a Level 2 anomaly to determine whether it is benign or a result of something dangerous.
Dimensional anomalies can range from a room being a few inches too small to a whole city shrinking to the size of a piece of parchment. In most cases, dimensional anomalies are caused by the misuse of dimensional magic, but they can also result from an adverse reaction caused by the meeting of Essence and Miasma. Usually, dimensional anomalies can be easily rectified by creating a magical brace to hold the area at the correct size until it heals itself.
Temporal anomalies occur when two spaces next to each other are out of sync. Often, this is the result of magic or related to a boundary crack (boundary anomalies are discussed in the next paragraph). Temporal magic is illegal, and all temporal anomalies should be investigated thoroughly for magical tampering. If the anomaly is the result of a boundary crack, the crack should be closed immediately, as it will continue to destabilize the time zone which can lead to unpredictable weather, further time dilation and natural disasters.
Boundary anomalies occur when the boundary between Ember and Ashen is ruptured. There is a level system based on the height and width of the anomaly (a table can be found on page 402). Boundary anomalies, also known as boundary cracks, can be safely ignored if they are under a Level 2 phenomenon. These leak minimal energy between the worlds and usually close themselves without intervention. Cracks that are Level 3 or 4 should be evaluated and closed if it is determined that they are causing energy instability or if they are an abnormal anomaly (see the list below). Cracks that exceed Level 4 should be closed immediately if it is possible. If the crack cannot be closed, it should be converted into a dungeon by technicians to prevent a Miasmic crisis.
Redundant cracks are boundary anomalies that appear within an established dungeon. They usually release large amounts of Miasma before collapsing in on themselves. They do not require specific attention, but dungeon Keepers should notify the Administrator immediately if their dungeon is producing more monsters than usual as this can lead to a sudden dungeon break if not properly handled.
Twin cracks are boundary anomalies that open within a few feet of each other. They can be safely ignored, as their proximity creates a vacuum effect that pulls Miasma from one crack to the other until they close naturally. In rare cases, a third crack may be present. Triplet cracks should be monitored to see if the amount of Miasma entering and exiting Ember is the same. If not, the least stable crack should be closed to establish the previously mentioned vacuum.
Malignant cracks remain open for long periods of time without any apparent reason. They should be closed as soon as they are identified as such. They will continue to release Miasma into Ember indefinitely and can even worsen over time if not dealt with immediately.
Leech cracks pull Essence from Ember without releasing any Miasma into the air. They should be closed as soon as possible to prevent complications on Ashen’s side of the anomaly.
Portal cracks can transmit matter as well as energy. They should be closed for public safety. Animals, Lerians or even plants can be pulled through the anomaly and find themselves stuck on the other side until they can be transported home through a dungeon.
Cracks can be unpredictable and even if they do not fit into one of these categories, they may behave in a way that is unique to them. All anomalies should be monitored if they display any unusual behavior or if they open in a residential area.
For more information on how to monitor and resolve dimensional cracks, see Manual VII, page 328.
“Okay, but how do I find them?” Rayna shook the e-reader as if doing so might shake loose the information she was searching for.
Leaves crunched under Rayna’s shoes, defying the season with their early demise. Amon said it was early summer by Helia’s standards, but as Rayna passed both bare trees and trees in full bloom, she couldn’t help but wonder if the flora worked differently on Ember.
Rayna was fairly sure she was close to where she dropped her amulet. The caves to the right of her looked familiar, but they also all looked the same, making it hard to be certain.
Having finished all other preparations, Rayna wanted to get her ace in the hole back.
After that, she planned to go to Lord Emery’s estate and check up on Nali. Rayna felt bad about ditching her mentor for yet another unscheduled detour and it happened to be close to where Amon thought the third hub should be.
Of course, knowing where the hub might be was useless if she couldn’t figure out how to work the short-range scan. Hubs had a low-level telepathic field that made them less noticeable to passersby. According to Amon, that was how he remained undiscovered for the last six thousand years. It didn’t work if they drew too much attention to the hub, which was another reason that the humans weren’t going in and out of the hub more than was necessary.
Rayna put her tablet away, focusing on the underbrush. Her amulet was a gaudy eyesore that should be easy to spot amidst the dull brown leaves coating the forest floor.
Rayna tried summoning the artifact again, receiving the same error message as before.
The item you are trying to retrieve is too far away. Move closer to lower the Mana requirements and try again.
Rayna sighed. The least it could do was give her an idea of how close she was getting. Rayna could be walking away from the artifact, and she would never know.
Rayna scanned the forest floor with half of her attention as she turned her mind back to the problem of the anomalies. She thought she was just looking for hubs, but the way the System Manual described boundary cracks, she wondered if that might be something they should be looking out for. Amon hadn’t even mentioned the possibility of a sudden dungeon break, but Rayna was quickly coming to the realization that the Keepers, while great sources of information, would not be able to help her with System maintenance. They were too busy with their individual roles to spend brain power on helping Rayna figure out how to fix the System and she would throw herself in an Arachne nest before she asked Ronari for help.
The short-range scan had to be something simple, didn’t it? If it was complicated someone would have thought to at least briefly describe the process in the manual.
Maybe it’s just like everything else in the System, if I think it, it will happen.
Rayna stopped and closed her eyes, trying to project her consciousness outward into the forest around her.
If something happened, Rayna didn’t feel it. She opened her eyes and looked around, hoping it would be obvious, but the forest looked the same as it had before.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Rayna grumbled about unintuitive System features and useless technology as she started walking again.
A Jaranin walked in front of Rayna, growling threateningly when it noticed her.
Rayna hissed, baring her teeth and the Jaranin backed off.
That was one convenient thing about leveling up. None of the monsters wanted to mess with her anymore. Everything in the forest was below Level 10. To them, Rayna was a predator twice their level.
It had saved her some time and trouble, but there was still the occasional monster with a death wish that attacked Rayna when her back was turned. They weren’t a legitimate threat, but it was starting to get annoying.
Something sparkled in the leaves and Rayna dove for it, grinning broadly as her hand closed around the cold metal chain. She dusted off her amulet and slipped it over her head. It still had a few thousand points of charge from before she lost it. The amulet healed several scrapes that had been too small to be worth Rayna’s attention and relieved the ache in her legs from all of the walking Rayna had been doing that day.
Rayna funneled a few hundred MP into the amulet and turned to leave.
A slight rustle was the only warning Rayna got before the ground opened up beneath her. Panic filled her chest, the memory of being buried alive flashing through her head until she realized that this time, nothing was dragging her through the dirt. She was falling through empty air and she landed at the bottom of the hole with a loud crack.
Rayna cried out as her amulet dropped several hundred points to heal her broken leg. Her tiny charge wasn’t going to last long.
Who the hell leaves a hole in the middle of a forest?!
Rayna got to her feet and felt around the sides of the hole, trying to find a solid handhold to drag herself out of it. The dirt was too loose, falling down every time she grabbed at it and Rayna stopped, afraid she might bury herself trying to climb out.
She tried jumping next, but the hole was almost thirty feet deep and even with her increased Strength and Dexterity, she couldn’t make it even close to the top.
Rayna pulled out her scry glass—one of two that she bought in preparation for this trip—intending to call Corban, but a woman appeared in front of her, distracting Rayna from her task.
The woman was tall, her vibrant green hair flowing all the way to the forest floor. Leaves and vines were woven through the locks in a way that somehow looked both intentional and spontaneous. Her emerald eyes glowed, creating a second light source in the hole besides the soft glow of Rayna’s hair.
The woman’s eyebrows knit together with concern. “Oh dear, I seem to have hurt the poor sapling! What should I do?” The woman didn’t seem to be talking to Rayna. She paced nervously at the bottom of the hole, oblivious somehow to Rayna’s incredulous stare.
“I could close the hole,” the woman muttered. “But no, then she would suffocate. You made that mistake last time, remember? Oh, I know! I can make a ladder?”
Roots poked their way out of the wall, wrapping around one another to create handholds all the way to the top of the hole.
Rayna eyed the ladder with suspicion. This woman had all but admitted to creating the hole in the first place. This could be a trick.
“Oh dear, maybe she doesn’t know how to climb…” the woman looked Rayna up and down. “No, she certainly seems like someone who should be able to climb. Perhaps she just needs a little encouragement.”
A root grew out of the wall behind Rayna, forcing her closer to the ladder.
Rayna yelped, pulling her staff out of her Soul Realm and whacking the attacking root with it. The root snapped in half.
This seemed to distress the woman further. “Good job, Salice, now you scared her more.”
“Who the hell are you?” Rayna snapped, tired of the charade. “You should mark your traps better if you’re not trying to catch people.”
She really hoped that this person wasn’t trying to trap people…
Salice blinked. “Wait, she can’t be talking to me… is there someone else in the hole?” She turned around, her hair flowing lazily in the breeze.
“Rayna! Are you okay down there?” someone called from the top of the ladder.
Rayna looked up and found Shela’s worried face leaning over the edge.
“Shela? What are you doing here?” Rayna called up, vaguely aware that the woman was still muttering to herself.
“I followed you from the city,” Shela said. “It’s a good thing, too. Hold on, I’ll get’cha outta there.”
“I can climb up myself,” Rayna said. “Just give me a sec.”
Rayna started up the ladder, making a note to retest her telepathic limits. She shouldn’t have been able to understand Shela from this far, but considering that she had evolved and ascended in the past few days, it wasn’t outlandish to think that her other abilities had been enhanced too.
“Ah, yes, that must be who she was talking to,” Salice said. “She wouldn’t be talking to you. No one talks to you, silly.”
Rayna frowned down at the woman who was floating just below her. Should she make it clear that she had been talking to Salice or should she ignore the woman’s presence altogether? She didn’t want to startle her and risk losing the ladder, but it seemed rude to just ignore her.
Rayna reached the top of the ladder and Shela helped her climb out of the hole.
“If you’ve been following me since the city, why didn’t you say anything?” Rayna asked, dusting herself off.
Salice rose out of the hole and waved her hand. The sides of the hole collapsed, dragging dirt out of seemingly nowhere to fill it in as a solid patch of soil formed on top. New sprouts of grass shot through the dirt, making it nearly impossible to see where the hole had been a moment before.
Shela frowned at the newly formed patch of grass. “What was the point of all that?”
Rayna shook her head. “Maybe someone left it there by mistake. Now more importantly, why are you following me?”
Shela raised an eyebrow. “I was worried. You disappeared all of a sudden and we didn’t even get a chance to explain evolution to you.”
“I’m fine,” Rayna said. “Thanks for the help, but I can go alone from here.”
“Oh good. She is fine. Now how to keep her here…” Salice muttered.
“You came to find your necklace?” Shela asked, nodding at the amulet.
“It made good bait,” Salice said. “Maybe I can use the knife. No, what if the sapling gets hurt again. No knives. Hmm… should I make a cage? No, she will burn it. She is a clever sapling and a stupid sapling, that is for sure.”
Shela didn’t seem to see Salice. She was wholly focused on convincing Rayna that she needed help.
“If you come back to the village, I can introduce you to the elders,” she tried. “Do you know what your inheritance is? We have a way of—”
“I know!” Salice said, making Rayna jump. “I will communicate! What can I do…”
Before the woman could come up with an idea that would undoubtedly result in an unpleasant experience for Rayna, she turned to address her.
“Would you leave me alone?!” she snapped, tired of the woman’s antics.
Salice frowned. “You’re talking to me?”
“Yes, I am,” Rayna said. “And I am asking why you’re so interested in keeping me here.”
Shela watched Rayna cautiously, getting the same look she did when Rayna had been hallucinating in the tunnels. “Rayna… are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Rayna said. “Not crazy. I’ll explain in a second, okay?”
“Oh, this is marvelous!” Salice said, grinning ear to ear. “You can see me! And hear me too!” She turned to Shela. “Can that one?”
Rayna shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“What?” Shela asked.
“Not you,” Rayna said, feeling like she was talking on the phone.
Salice’s smile faded. “Well, that’s too bad. Maybe if she met Montaigne. He’s older than me. He would know how to fix her.”
“Rayna, why don’t we go back to the village. You woke up too early,” Shela tried.
“I’m not hallucinating,” Rayna insisted. “I’m fighting with a tree.”
That sounded even crazier.
It had taken her a while to put the two together, but with all of Salice’s muttering about Rayna, she was fairly sure of her conclusion.
“I am not a tree!” Salice objected, her hair swishing lazily. “I am a forest spirit.”
“A forest spirit who takes the form of a tree,” Rayna pointed out. “You’re the willow, right? The one that tried to trap me three weeks ago.”
Shela’s eyes widened. “A forest… what is her name?”
“Salice,” Rayna said.
Salice grinned. “Oh, it’s been a while since you said that. My name sounds marvelous when you say it. Can you do it again?”
“Salice?” Rayna said uncertainly. Were all spirits this…eccentric?
“We should go,” Shela said suddenly. “It’s never a good idea to mess with Elementals.”
“Oh no, don’t go!” Salice said, grabbing at Rayna’s arm. Instead of the woman’s hands, a tree root wrapped around Rayna’s forearm, pulling her away from Shela. “I need your help!”
Rayna tried not to panic, acutely aware of a rough wood scratching her skin. “Shela, how about you stop talking before you convince the willow tree to bury me again,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Again?” Shela’s voice was full of concern.
“That was an accident,” Salice objected. “I was trying to figure out how to ask for help and you kept running away.”
Rayna shook her head. “All I knew was that a sentient tree was trying to keep me there against my will. Now, how about you release my arm, and we can talk about this.”
Shela opened her mouth to say something, but Rayna shot her a warning look. She followed Rayna from the city, which meant one of two things: either she knew about the Ellis hub, or she had been waiting outside the city for Rayna to appear. Considering Rayna had snuck out behind a group of merchants to avoid notice, it was probably the former.
Whatever Shela’s deal was, she knew more than she was letting on.
Salice released Rayna’s arm and nodded. “Right, I can talk now. That will be much more convenient. Have you always been able to talk to me, Sapling? Why didn’t you say so before?”
“This is a recent development,” Rayna said, wondering if this had something to do with her Friend of Elementals title. “Now, why don’t you tell me what it is you need help with?”
The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame!
Kiera Wulfe, Dyna Jannes