Outside the dorms, he was surprised to see a quaint little town. The entire place had a relaxing atmosphere. He understood immediately what the guardian meant by the Crossroad being a place to rest and recover.
As he aimlessly strolled through the streets, he walked past a little bakery with tables outside where aspirants sat enjoying various delicate baked goods and fancy drinks. A couple of stores had clothes and daily necessities.
Through the open doors of a larger building, he saw a magnificent collection of books filling shelves upon shelves across two stories, interspaced with comfortable places to read.
Trying to find a more secluded area, he passed a gym with a massive outdoor training area. It was well equipped with several pools, obstacle courses, tracks, and target ranges. It was quite lively, with a mix of aspirants and guides using it.
Leaving that behind, he came to a place that looked familiar, a garden unlike any he’d seen before. It wasn’t filled with a bunch of magical plants or anything, but the more he walked through it, the more he noticed its peculiarity. It wasn’t as well-kept as the gardens from back home, nor was it left to run wild. Instead, it’s like someone took a wild forest and imposed just enough order for it to be called a garden.
At first glance, it looked like a chaotic, wild place, until you realised it had far too many places to relax. Quiet corners of welcome that dotted the untamed growth. A gentle brook slowly flowed through the lush trees and patches of flowers, forming the chorus to the soft birdsong. The entire garden formed a strange melody, harmonious without effort or control.
Reaching the top of a hill that overlooked the Crossroad, with a nice view of the Ways’ enormous gate, Felix found a quiet spot under a tree. Flopping to the ground and resting his back against the tree, Felix finally relaxed. He didn’t fall back into his depressed mood from before Lara found him, nor did he dwell on what happened over lunch. He just allowed his mind to still, his thoughts to drift freely.
He simply allowed time to pass around him as he sat under the tree. The garden’s song reminded him of home, but he let the thought go. The smell of the garden reminded him of Alvara’s tea. He remembered what she said about everything being mana. His thoughts tried to linger, tried to get him to question his surroundings, but Felix didn’t stir.
The grass beneath him and the tree to his back reminded him of the rush of sensations on his journey and that endless Continent, large enough to dwarf not just planets but entire star sectors. It reminded him of all the life struggling for survival there, but he let that thought go as well.
As these thoughts drifted in and out of his mind, he became calm. He could almost see himself as one of the trees, drawing strength from the soil and sky. His thoughts were like flittering birds, resting for a time before moving on.
He looked up. It suddenly occurred to him that it was already afternoon.
‘Not exactly how I thought my time here would be going. Losing the first day to moping in my bed and the second to moping in a garden.’
He didn’t want to dwell on those negative things. He’d had enough of that for now. He let those thoughts drift away as well. They were more stubborn, but they were eventually chased off as he noticed something new to fixate on.
It was late afternoon, he knew that, but as he sat staring at the sky, he noticed that the sun hadn’t moved. It was pinned to the centre of the sky. The lighting over the Crossroad changed over time, the shadows shifted, the tone of lighting changed, but the sun was always exactly in the middle of the Crossroad.
“Another mystery to add to the pile.”
He tried to let this thought drift away like the rest, but somehow it gnawed at him. His curiosity wasn’t satisfied with being told that they’d figure it out eventually. His mind kept coming back to it, trying to figure out how it worked. Not another explanation of its magic, you’ll know when you’re older. He was old enough now, and he wanted to know. No explanation he came up with made sense.
His eyes drifted to the library and to the Ways. His frustration at not knowing the answer grew. This was a thought he couldn’t let go of. He’d spent his whole life wondering about questions just like this one. For the first time, the answers weren’t barred from him. He could actually go out and find them.
As his eyes drifted over the Crossroads, his curiosity constantly ate at him. He froze when he spotted a group heading to the Ways. Even from this distance, he could recognise Eugene’s group, Lara and Aster trailed behind them but were also heading towards the Ways. He watched as they stopped in front of the golden gate for some time, discussing something. Then they started entering one by one. Eugene, Lara, and Aster were the last ones to enter.
Before Eugene left, he turned back to the girls, probably saying something before he too entered the Ways. Lara turned back to look at the Crossroad one more time before Aster ushered her forward, and they both stepped through the gate.
He thought that he should feel troubled, and yet the tree embraced him and soothed his worry. Emotions and thoughts crashed over him like waves, leaving as suddenly as they came. Sometimes sorrow, sometimes rage, sometimes worry or loneliness. Spokes, he even felt happy at some point that Lara was moving forward, but even that soon drifted away.
The heat from the strange sun grew cooler as he sat in the embrace of his tree, comforted by the garden's melody. Bird song slowly gave way to the chatter of insects. Still, as he sat there, the one thing that wouldn’t leave him was his aching curiosity.
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He wanted to know, not just about the sun. He wanted to know about everything, his affinities, the challenges that awaited him on the Ways. He wanted to know about homeworlds and the Continent. He wanted to know about magic and how his bedroom light worked. The longer he sat there, the more unbearable these questions became.
In his almost translike state, his eyes fell on the Ways, and a question rang through his mind.
‘So I guess you’re not going to be a Traveller, huh?’ He couldn’t remember who said it. It wasn’t important. He’d let it drift off with the rest of his thoughts, but the question stayed.
For the first time in what felt like days, a genuine smile came to him. He had his answer.
He stood and placed his hand on the tree. He sent his thoughts of warmth and gratitude to it.
“If something like not having the talent to be a knight is enough to stop me, then I don’t deserve the answers to all those questions, do I? What did grandma say? ‘Magi aren’t able to become explorers? Horse shit.’ It just means I didn’t have the drive to be an explorer.”
“If I want the answers, if I want to be an explorer, I just need to get strong enough to do it. That’s all there is to it.”
Maybe, just maybe, his grandmother wasn’t so lame after all.
The next morning, Felix woke up bright and early. Despite his motivational burst, he was still too drained, physically and emotionally, to do anything the previous day. He decided to get some sleep before setting out first thing in the morning.
Coming downstairs, he noticed only a few bleary-eyed people who seemingly hadn't gone to bed yet. Surprisingly, Agrona was still up and looking no worse for wear. She sat calmly reading a book by the long counter that separated the kitchen area from the rest of the dining hall. As soon as Felix’s foot hit the first step, she looked up and made eye contact. She waved him over with a smile and quickly set her book aside.
“Good morning! You’re up early, and looking a little fresher to boot. Did you manage to sleep alright?”
Agrona was an older, dwarven lady with a figure that spoke of her love of food. She wore her curly amber hair in a messy bun and had a smile that made Felix feel like he was being welcomed into her home.
“Good morning, yes, I slept alright, thank you. You’re Agrona, right? I’m Felix, thank you for the meal yesterday.”
“Ha! No need to be so polite, child. Yes, I’m Agrona. I’ll be taking care of all your meals while you’re at the Crossroad. Feel free to pop in for a bite whenever you like. It’s important that you eat your fill while you’re still growing.
“Speaking of, what do you say to some breakfast?”
“Ah, isn’t it a little early? You don’t need to make something just for me, I can get something when I’m back.”
“Nonsense. I’d be ashamed to send you out on an empty belly when you’re industrious enough to get going before the sun is even up. What would you like, some dragonberry flapjacks? Maybe a waffle? I have some genocide wasp honey, to go with ice cream made from drop bear milk and some cocoa beans, a friend of mine cultivated on a frozen moon?”
Felix stared at her in shock, unable to even process the options he was being presented with. Agrona, mistaking his silence for refusal, quickly switched gears.
“Huh? Did you want something savory instead? Let me see–”
“Uhm, no, sorry, it’s just… I have no idea what any of those things are.”
It was Agrona’s turn to stare at him, though she recovered much faster than he had.
“Oh dear, how silly of me, I forgot we had a homeworld batch this year, hmm, let me see. Life and mind, huh? Incredibly pure as well, how interesting. Ha! I have just the thing!”
Before Felix could even express his surprise that she was able to tell what his affinities were, she dashed off into the kitchen, pausing only to grab her apron and chef’s hat. While he listened to the noises coming from the kitchen, he started thinking back. It wasn’t just her, was it? So far, all the adults at the camp could tell what his affinities were with seemingly no effort.
He gave a dramatic sigh, another question that needed answers, he’d need to start taking notes or he’d forget them all. Even as he thought that he couldn’t hide the faintest hint of a smile that crept up on him. He turned his head and stared out the glass wall at the Ways. It was about time he found some answers.
Next thing he knew, Agrona was back with his breakfast. He’d gotten so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice the wait.
“Here you go, child, this should have you sorted and ready for the day. Quite a special treat if I do say so myself. Go ahead and try it.”
On his plate was a beautiful dish, a strange honeycomb-like biscuit sat at the bottom with a lighter custard cream on top. Draped over the ensemble were delicate leaves, some deep reds and oranges, others delicate yellows and vibrant greens, with even a few cold blue leaves mixed in. All in all, it was a bizarre dish, yet somehow it seemed irresistibly appetising.
He picked up one of the blue leaves, so enamoured by the dish that he even forgot to thank Agrona. Putting it in his mouth, it was surprisingly sweet and refreshingly cool. It melted in his mouth like a delicate sliver of ice.
Picking up the spoon, he tried the rest of the dish. Surprisingly, all the leaves were sweet, each with a subtle reminder of a different season. The honeycomb biscuit was surprisingly not sweet at all, and yet its taste still reminded him of honey. If anything, it was a little salty. If not for the custard cream marrying the sweetness of the leaves with the salty biscuit, the dish might not have worked.
The biscuit made him feel like he was having a hearty breakfast, filling him and getting him ready for the day. The cream brought the flavours together, somehow making it feel like his brain was getting a massage with every bite. It intensified the effects of the different leaves. Felix had so much fun matching the different seasons, with each other and with the rest of the dish, that it was finished before he knew it.
“I take it you enjoyed that?” Agrona had at some point returned to her book, watching Felix enjoy the strange meal.
“That– I don’t know what to say, that was incredible. What was that?”
“I knew you’d like it! The leaves are from the Feywilds. It’s a favourite of elven children, I thought that you might take to it, considering your life affinity. It’s not very filling, though, so I paired it with a hearth biscuit. The real special thing was the Dreamlark custard. Ingredients with mind mana are rare. Dream mana isn’t quite the same, but it's close enough and worked to bring the dish together beautifully.
“Best dish I’ve made this year, I think it’s going to take me a while to outdo it. Honestly, your affinities are a wonderful source of inspiration.”
“Wait, you actually add mana to the dishes? That’s why it made me feel so strange!” Felix asked in astonishment, causing Agrona to burst into laughter.
“Felix, did you forget already? Everything is made out of mana. You have no idea how much effort goes into making homeworld food as mundane as it is. To the rest of us, everything you’ve had up to now is the equivalent of baby food, highly nutritious but definitely not something you want to be eating unless you don’t have another choice.”
“That’s– wait, so everything I eat from now on is going to taste like that?”
“Haha, don’t get ahead of yourself, child. I might not be one of the greats, but I’m no slouch when it comes to cooking. Besides, that was definitely one of my better dishes —a shame it’s adapted to the human palate. Not a lot of mind mages among you guys, so it won’t make my next cookbook, but definitely something I’m keeping in my back pocket.”
Felix couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, but still, he was definitely going to take advantage of having such a wonderful cook at hand for the rest of the year.
Stuck in a roguelike where dying resets everything? How many times can you die before you stop pretending it's just a game?
It's a flippin roguelike.
What to expect:
- gallows humour
- strong multi-dimensional characters
- vicious rodents of unusual size
- slow grindy but satisfying growth
- an adorable companion
- real world stakes