Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe stared at the woman in shock. Did she somehow know that Zoe was a half vampire? Should she be honest? Should she lie? Could she even lie?

“I’m.. I’m human?” Zoe stuttered. It wasn’t a lie, it wasn’t exactly the whole truth either, but she had no idea what the right response was here.

Emma and her dad backed up from Zoe, her dad pulled her behind him and eyed Zoe with suspicion. Emma was staring wide eyed at the scene in shock, tears dripping down her face.

The woman scowled and reached for Zoe. She tried to step back but was too slow, the woman’s firm grip on her shoulder stopping her movement as though she were stuck in cement.

“I’m going to ask one more time. What. Are. You?” She screamed, her face inches away from Zoe’s face.

“I… I…” Zoe stuttered, not able to bring herself to finish her sentence. What was she? Zoe didn’t even know the answer to that. Was she human? Was she a vampire? Was she something else entirely?

Zoe’s surroundings shifted, the city rushing past her in an instant before she settled down in the forest. She felt like her insides were going to explode, pain wracked through her body. Each muscle, each joint felt like she’d spent the last three days doing an intense targeted workout.

She screamed and fell to the ground. How was this happening? Why was this happening? She was just supposed to go and enjoy dinner with a new friend. Why did this need to happen?

“Sit up.” The woman said, standing over her. A burning fury raged beneath her calm exterior, threatening to explode if Zoe so much as looked at her the wrong way.

Zoe did as she asked, ignoring her body begging her to just relax. Just let it go and allow herself to recover. She checked on her health.

Health: 143/200

Not as bad as the poison then, but still horrible. She could live, as long as she assuaged whatever problem Emma’s mom had. She just needed to figure out what it was, find some way to defend herself.

“Hold this,” the woman said, tossing a large glass orb to Zoe. It looked like a larger mana orb that was full of the coursing blue energy.

Zoe caught it and as soon as she did knew there was no way it was a normal mana orb. The instant it touched her, she felt a connection with it. Nothing physical, but it attached to her in a very real way, in a way that she was intimately familiar with and yet had never experienced before.

It terrified her.

“You’re going to answer my questions. If you so much as make a suspicious move or tell a lie, I’ll be dropping you off with the guards. Do you understand?" The woman asked.

“Yes,” Zoe nodded frantically. The orb lit up with a bright green light when she did.

Fuck, Zoe thought. It was a lie detector of some sort.

“For the final time, what are you?” The woman asked.

“I’m human, I swear.” Zoe pleaded. The orb lit up green and Zoe felt herself relax a little. It was a fear of hers, the stat window told her she was human but it was hard to believe it. Seeing the orb confirm her statement made her feel just a little bit better.

“Hmm. Strange.” The woman said and paused for a few minutes.

Zoe had no idea what was happening. Why was the woman not saying anything more? Did she think something was wrong with the lie detector? Was she going to kill Zoe? What would the guards do if she ended up there anyway? Why was this happening. What did she do?

“What level are you?” She asked.

“I’m level eight,” she said, wishing this could be over already. Zoe was level eight, she wasn’t a threat. It was all a misunderstanding, she could go home now. Please, she begged in her mind.

The orb shone green.

“What manipulation skill are you using?" She asked.

Manipulation skill? Zoe had no idea what the woman was talking about. Zoe had her vampyric empathy but that didn’t manipulate people it just told her what they were feeling.

She paused, realizing her mistake. Vampyric Charm had sat there in the background, her highest level skill by a large margin only ever approached by meditation. She had no idea what it did, no idea how to use it or how to stop it from being used. For the most part, she had forgotten about it. It was just a part of her, something she’d have to accept.

But was it manipulating people without her approval? How could she even phrase the answer to be telling the truth but not just outright say she was a half vampire. She decided to take a gamble, if the orb only showed truth or lies then she should be fine. If it showed intent then she was probably going to die. But if she told this woman she was a half vampire she was probably going to die anyway.

“I don’t know for sure but I have a charm skill which might be it?” Zoe said, begging the universe to be kind to her just one more time. Just let the orb shine green, don’t let it read her intent.

The orb shone green.

“Turn it off.” The woman said.

“I don’t know how, I wish I did, I’m so sorry I just don’t know if it can even be turned off. I don’t even want this stupid skill.” Zoe said.

The orb shone green.

“Every skill can be disabled. Figure it out.” The woman said.

Zoe looked inwards, searching for a switch, for anything that would help her. She had looked before and found nothing, but she was better at this now. Her meditation gave her a much better understanding of herself, of the energies that made up the system and the world.

She begged the system to turn it off, reaching for every tiny speck of interest she could notice within herself. Minutes passed and Zoe could feel the sweat dripping down her neck. If she couldn’t find a switch to turn it off, was this woman going to kill her? Because she just got stuck with a skill she didn’t even want? How was that even fair?

The woman waited, watching Zoe with those terrifying eyes that seemed to burn into Zoe’s very being. She stood, motionless. Zoe didn’t know how long she had before the woman’s patience wore out but she hoped it would be enough.

And then she found it, she found the switch and pulled on it with all she had. When she did, Zoe felt a pressure disappear. It was somewhat similar to the lie detector orb, something so much more intimate than she had ever experienced before. It was so subtle that she hadn’t even noticed it before.

But now that it was gone, she felt so free. Zoe smiled, the fear she felt, all the pain she felt. It all washed away from the pleasant feeling that coursed through her.

The woman’s eyes squinted at Zoe. “What level was that skill?”

It was one of the questions she absolutely did not want to have to answer. How could she explain having a high level skill while still being level eight? She didn’t even know what level it was at since it levelled so fast.

­- Vampyric Charm (53)

Shit, Zoe thought. It really did level so much quicker than everything else. Was it just always blasting out “come like me” rays at everybody Zoe talked to? She cringed, feeling guilt well up inside at her lackadaisical approach to the skill. How many people only liked her because of this skill? How many people were unwittingly affected by her irresponsible actions?

In a way, this woman had done her a favour. A horrible, terrifying favour.

“It’s level fifty-three,” Zoe said, staring at the ground in front of her.

The orb shone green.

The woman’s eyes widened, the red fury that burned within almost bursting out from them. “How is your skill level fifty-three if you’re only level eight?”

“I have a feat,” Zoe said, on the verge of tears. It was a secret that she didn’t even know if she wanted to keep, but having it forced out of her like this was definitely not what she wanted.

The orb shone green.

“Don’t play this game, what’s the feat and what does it do?" The woman asked.

“Patient Decider, it gives some bonus stat points and removes first class restrictions. You get it for living twenty-five years as a human.” Zoe said, keeping some of the details to herself. If the orb only verified that she told the truth, not that she answered to the best of her ability then she would use that to her advantage.

The orb shone green.

The woman sighed and leaned against a tree nearby. “You’re a freak, you know that?”

“I’m sorry?” Zoe said, not sure what the woman was saying.

“You’re by far the most impressive level eight I’ve ever met, but you don’t even understand your own skills. If you spent this many years with however many skills you have, a normal person would have experimented with them more. Learned about them more.

“But you just didn’t? You went all this time not even knowing how to turn off a skill you don’t even want? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“I…” Zoe wasn’t sure what to say, what to do about the sudden loss of tension. “Are you going to kill me?”

The woman cackled. “No, you’re naïve. Powerful and terrifying in many ways, frail and brittle in many others. But you don’t deserve death.”

She walked up to Zoe and knelt down next to her. “One last question. Do you, or have you, at any point in time, considered in any way, through any means, harming my daughter?”

“No, absolutely not,” Zoe said.

The orb shone green.

“Good,” the woman said and grabbed the orb. It vanished to whatever storage item she had, and Zoe felt the connection sever.

“I know this must have been hard on you. It’s terrifying having somebody higher level than you rip you from your life and threaten you like this. I understand what you’re experiencing better than you might think.” She stood up and stuck her hand out for Zoe.

Zoe took it, and the woman lifted her to her feet.

“With that said, I’m not sorry for what I did to you. You came into my house, blasting your manipulation at my family. If your skill was a few levels lower I doubt I would have even noticed it, but it’s not anymore. You need to be more careful about using higher level skills on people. Take this as the learning experience that it is and be more responsible in the future.” She said and grabbed Zoe’s shoulder again.

Zoe closed her eyes and braced herself, ready for the terrible pain that would come from the woman moving her again. But it didn’t come.

She felt a shift, the temperature rose a few degrees and the sounds changed from the forest to the city. Zoe opened her eyes and saw the dining room, Emma was standing off to the side with her dad, tears streaming down her face.

“Zoe!" She called out and tried to rush to her, but was held back by her dad.

“What happened?” Emma’s dad asked.

“Zoe here had a manipulation skill that was always on. Didn’t know how to turn it off.” Emma’s mom shrugged.

“What?!” The dad exclaimed. “You were manipulating my daughter?” He looked ready to pummel Zoe himself.

“It’s done, she’s turned it off and we had a nice chat.” The mom said.

“Did you?” The dad nodded his head in a way that seemed meaningful.

The mom shrugged.

“You know you’re not supposed to do that.” The dad sighed, “I guess I can’t blame you though.” He looked to Emma.

The mom looked to Zoe, “You’re welcome to stay for dinner still if you want. I know a great therapist who can help with the trauma if you like, too.”

Zoe was speechless. Just minutes ago she was begging, pleading for her life. And now she was being invited for dinner again? Offered therapy for the trauma that they caused?

She looked back on her time in Flester, so many things making sense. The first blue marked mage didn’t notice her empathy or identify. Of course he didn’t, how could he? They just told her information that was already available.

He noticed her charm.

Liz wasn’t even interested in bartering the first time she saw him. He could have gotten other people to do the job, klir was easy to get even in the winter. Yet when she saw him again he was willing to wiggle on the price a bit. Why was he willing to do that when he already set a price? He had no leeway the first time, no leeway for the man who was buying all those potions.

But he did for Zoe?

Everybody just liked her, she couldn’t think of a single time that somebody actually hated her. She wrote it off as Flester being a friendly place, but was she manipulating everybody so they couldn’t hate her even if they wanted to?

“I’m sorry,” Zoe said, her eyes glued to the floor. “I had no idea how to turn it off. I tried, before. I didn’t even know what the skill did, not really.”

“It’s fine Zoe, I didn’t even notice it personally. I’m not sure how mum did.” Emma said and ran up to Zoe, her dad finally letting her go.

“I’ve had similar experiences before,” The mom shrugged.

“Well, with that out of the way. Are you going to stay for dinner, Zoe?” The dad asked.

It felt so surreal to her, so outlandish. One moment she’s excited to meet her friend’s parents, try their food. The next she’s on her knees in the forest begging for her life. The next everything’s back to normal like that never even happened.

It didn’t even feel real yet. Zoe was sure that she would have some trauma to work through later, but it almost felt like a distant dream, a fantasy, a show that she watched. Her fatigue was gone — she even felt pretty good from having her skill disabled after all this time. There was nothing bad to show from the experience, and everybody was being nice again.

And besides, if she thought about it, she was in the wrong at the end of the day. She was manipulating people, even if she didn’t know it. It was hard to say that she deserved what happened to her, there could have been a nicer way to handle the situation.

But she understood it, at least. Just not enough to stay for their weird dinner after. She needed time to process it, to understand what had happened.

“I don't think I'll stay for dinner," she said.