Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe left Emma’s house. Emma tried to follow after her, but Zoe told her not to. She wanted to be alone. Emma obliged and went back inside.

For a moment, Zoe thought of staying for dinner. The situation was so outlandish, so ridiculous that it didn’t even click for her. She almost said she’d stay. With the weird psychopath who kidnapped her.

Though, that wasn’t fair, she thought. It was messed up, it was terrifying. But could Zoe blame her for it, really? Zoe came in with some manipulation affecting Emma’s whole family, of course her mom would be livid. She counted herself lucky that Emma’s mom didn’t just kill her on the spot.

If Zoe wasn’t still level eight, maybe she would’ve. If Zoe was higher level, maybe she couldn’t have.

Zoe made her way to Joe’s inn, thinking about the situation more as she went. Therapists were a thing in this world. That was good. Did she need to see one? She didn’t think that she did.

When she was younger she had almost five years of consistent therapy week after week. She learned coping mechanism after coping mechanism and she made it this far without going too far off her rocker. She’d managed to cope with having her entire life ripped away from her, a little interrogation couldn’t be that bad.

Joe was in the kitchen when she arrived, slaving away on the stoves. Zoe opened the kitchen door and gave a sheepish smile.

“Hey Joe,” she waved.

“Hey Zoe. You seem different today, did you do something?” Joe asked.

Zoe’s vision began to blur as tears dripped down her face.

“Hey, hey. What happened? Are you okay?” Joe dropped what he was doing and rushed to Zoe.

“I thought I was Joe. I thought everything was okay and then I saw you and I don’t know. I don’t know, Joe.” She fell to her knees and sobbed, wiping tears from her face.

She felt a semblance of safety when she saw Joe, and the guilt from that ate away at her. Did she only feel safe with him because he liked her because of her charm? Could she ever be forgiven for what she’d done?

Joe closed the kitchen door behind her and knelt down. “Did something happen? Do you want to talk about it?”

“I fucked up Joe. I ruined everything.” She sobbed.

Joe summoned a glass of water and handed it to her, “Have some water and calm down. It’ll be okay, alright? I promise.”

Zoe took it and sipped from the glass between sobs. Joe sat in silence as she tried to take deep, regular breaths and compose herself.

“Emma invited me to dinner. She’s a friend… was a friend I met at the school.” She started, pausing to try and keep herself from being a bumbling mess any longer.

“And it was all great. She had a big house, a nice… ish, dad. And then I saw her mom.” Zoe rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Apparently one of my skills was a manipulation skill. A charm skill. I didn’t know what it did, I didn’t know how to stop it. I tried, before. But I couldn’t figure it out.” She sniffled and took a few more deep breaths.

“I wrote it off, it was just a part of me. That was okay. I could live with it. I never bothered to look at what it did, never bothered to see how it affected people. Emma’s mom noticed it, and she didn’t like it.

“I don’t even know what she did, Joe. It all happened so fast. One moment I was in their dining room and the next I was out in the forest in horrible pain being questioned with some weird magical orb that showed whether I was lying or not, I think.” Zoe laughed through her tears.

“I don’t even know if it was a lie detector, I never even tried to lie. It was so terrifying, maybe it was just a stupid orb that glowed green every time I said something. I’m so sorry, Joe. I must have done it to you too. I’m so sorry.” She sniffled.

Joe looked at her for a moment. “Is the skill off now?”

“What?” Zoe asked, feeling a little confused.

“The charm skill. Is it off right now?” Joe asked again.

“Uh, yeah. I don’t think I’ll ever turn it on again. I don’t want to be that kind of person.” Zoe said.

“Turn it on. I want to see how much of a difference it makes.” Joe said.

Zoe chuckled. “Okay, guess I am turning it on again then.” She fiddled with her internal energies until she found the switch again — still rather difficult to find but much easier without as much pressure.

“Huh. That’s a neat effect,” Joe said.

“What’s it do to you?” Zoe asked, flipping the switch off again. She wasn’t comfortable having it on any longer than necessary.

“Not much, really. Your eyes light up with this subtle warmth that makes me feel slightly more comfortable. I don’t think I’d have noticed it without the side by side comparison.” Joe said.

“That’s… not as bad as I thought it would be, actually. Are we going to be okay?” Zoe asked, hoping he wouldn’t say no.

Joe laughed, “Yes we’re fine Zoe. I don’t know what level it’s at now but when I met you it couldn’t have been anywhere near as high as it is now. I doubt I would have noticed anything even with the side by side comparison. Just don’t keep it on, alright? That’s technically not legal everywhere.”

“No, never. I’m keeping that off forever, I don’t want any part of that.” Zoe said.

Joe smiled, “It’s your skill, Zoe. It’s a very heavily restricted skill archetype, yes. And what you were doing was very illegal. But it’s still a skill you have, maybe you can use it to make animals like you a bit more. Maybe it could help you out of a pinch someday.”

“I dunno, Joe. It just feels so wrong to manipulate anything like that to me. It makes me uncomfortable. It made me uncomfortable even before I knew what it did for sure, let alone now. I can’t believe I didn’t take it more seriously. I didn’t even know it was restricted. I’m such a horrible person.” Zoe said, still sitting on the floor.

“You’re not a horrible person. A year ago you didn’t even know magic like this was possible. Now you’re dealing with stuff that even most of the people here wouldn’t think of as being possible. It’s a learning process, Zoe. You’ll be okay.” Joe said.

Something about his words made Zoe feel a little better, made her feel a little more secure than she did before. Even after what she did, even without her skill on, Joe was still just as nice as he was before.

Even more than ever before, she vowed to pay him back someday. To show how much she appreciated his presence.

“Thanks, Joe. I feel a lot better now. I thought I was okay on the walk over here and then I saw you and it just all hit me at once. That was really scary.” Zoe said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Joe stood up and returned to the stove he was working at. The meat he was grilling was beyond burnt and he chuckled, vanishing it to whatever storage item he was using.

“Any chance you’ve got a room tonight?” Zoe asked.

Joe chuckled, “Unfortunately for you, I’m all full up. You can use the kitchen if you want somewhere to stay tonight though.”

“That’s fine, I think I’ll just sit in the dining area and read tonight if I can get another book from John maybe.” Zoe said.

“Sure thing,” Joe said, waving to her as she left.

She walked back in a moment later, “Actually, Joe. What does a restricted archetype mean anyway?"

Joe chuckled, “I forgot what it was like having you around. Some types of skills aren’t permitted in public — your charm being one of them. Anything that can manipulate somebody’s emotions or psyche, mental effects like that are generally extremely frowned upon.”

“What other types of skills? I have an empathy skill that tells me how people are feeling, is that okay?” Zoe asked.

“Hmm, I don’t think that’s a problem. It’s mostly to do with manipulation and large scale destruction. If you had a skill that was good at poisoning an entire city people would be more than a little bothered by having you here.” Joe explained.

“What’s the punishment for having a restricted skill?” Zoe asked.

“For just having a skill? Nothing. Everybody’s allowed whatever skills they want. If you’re caught using them then it depends on the extent of the damage. You shouldn’t be worried about it, you didn’t do anything heinous with it, just don’t keep doing it.” Joe answered.

“I won’t. Actually I was wondering about something else. My empathy skill I found really easy to turn off, but the charm skill I tried a couple times before and couldn’t find anything. I barely managed it earlier when Emma’s mom was interrogating me. Why was it so much harder to turn off?” Zoe asked.

“Ahh, that’s probably because it’s a physical effect. It changes your eyes, after all.” Joe said.

“So skills that have physical effects are just harder to disable for some reason?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah. Something like a cooking skill doesn’t change you, it just gives you knowledge. Shutting off that ‘valve’ of knowledge, so to speak isn’t all that complicated.” Joe said.

“But making the system restructure my eyes on demand is very complicated.” Zoe interrupted him.

“Something like that, yeah.” He said.

“Alright, thanks Joe!” Zoe said.

Joe smiled, “No problem. I’m always here.”

Zoe walked down the street to John’s bookstore. She thought about her system theory on the way — many more of the skills fell into the category she’d dubbed as ‘system helpers.’ Things like her identify and immortality, but also her empathy and probably her cooking and archery too.

She pushed her focus inwards, trying to find as many of the switches as she could. It seemed that only the skill she was actually looking for was even visible to the strange viewpoint she had. Or maybe her intent pushed her to the right area subconsciously?

Exploring the essence of her being more in depth would be something she could do later, she thought. She had no idea what she was even searching through, what the torrents of power she could feel within her amounted to. Her soul? The system attached to her? Her mana? She had no way of knowing, but it felt safest to stick to what had already worked for now.

Most of the switches she found relatively easy, the list of skills she’d lose if the system disappeared much larger than she initially expected. What Zoe found most interesting was that her Vampyric Immortality didn’t seem to have a switch, though she wasn’t sure if that meant it wasn’t there or she just couldn’t find it yet. It shouldn’t have any weird effects like the charm did so she wasn’t afraid of letting it just always be on.

Immortality wasn’t a bad thing anyway, not to her. The other skills that were more challenging to find were her Vampyric Senses, Vampyric Regeneration, Vampyric Resistance and Meditation. She found it strange that her empathy was the only vampyric skill that was easy to disable.

It made sense, at least from her limited understanding of how the system worked. All of the other skills did something physical, whereas Empathy was strictly mental. She could see what people were feeling. Useful, but just an information pipeline. She didn’t need to have her brain rewired for it to work, the system could just give her that information. Or maybe parse what was already there for her?

But would it work without the system? Probably not, if her theory was accurate. Skills that were easy to disable wouldn’t work without the system, but skills that were difficult to disable should. Not that it was something she’d ever be able to test, anyway.

When Zoe arrived at John’s books, she found him to still be closed. That eerie darkness in the windows greeting her once more. That was fine, she could just focus on meditating for the night, finish off the mana orb and get enough money for the next week of schooling.

She returned to Joe’s inn and sat down at one of the empty tables, focusing on the energies swirling around and within her to fill her mana orb. The orb was finished right around the time she had to get to school, so she said her goodbyes to Joe and made her way down to class.

Emma was waiting outside the school when she arrived, giving her a timid smile and a wave. “I’m so so sorry for my mom, Zoe. You didn’t deserve that at all. Can we still be friends?”

Zoe smiled at her, “I think so. I don’t think I’ll be going to your house again any time soon though.”

“I would never! I’m never bringing friends over again after that, I can’t believe she did that to you. I’m so so sorry, Zoe. I never wanted that to happen. She’s really protective of me and-” Emma rambled.

“No, I get it. I mean, I don’t like it. But I would have been mad in her position too. I did kinda show up at her house actively manipulating her family.” Zoe said.

“Yeah but you didn’t even know how to turn it off. She could have just asked you nicely instead of kidnapping you like that. I’m so mad, I can’t believe she did that. I was so worried you were going to hate me over it. I finally made a friend and then my mum scares the hell out of them.” Emma said.

“You were worried that I would hate you?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah! I mean, my mum kidnapped you! It would have been totally reasonable for you to hate me. I’m so glad you don’t though.” Emma said.

“It’s not like you kidnapped me, though. I don’t think I want to see your mom ever again, but you’re not your mom.” Zoe said.

Emma sighed, “I’m so relieved. Are you okay, by the way? That must have been so scary. I’m so sorry Zoe.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t do anything. I’m okay, I think. I cried a lot last night with a friend and I feel a lot better now, honestly.” Zoe smiled at her.

Emma smiled back, “Good, let me know if I can help you with anything alright? We should get to class before we’re late, though. I don’t remember if there’s a stupid fee for that or not.”

Zoe laughed.