“So now that that’s done,” Jay ventured, “is there any food down here?” He wasn’t as hungry as he should have been, wasn’t even as hungry as he had been on the otter island for some reason, but it wasn’t like he could just not eat. At this point he was going on three days with no food and a few sips of dirty swamp water that were probably poisoning him. He’d feel it soon.

  Hm, the Agen-Seps hummed. The full mental cloud effect of [Commune with Spirits] had ended, but the familiar bond replaced it effectively enough. There used to be. He swung his head toward an alcove between crystals. There. I don’t know if any of it will still be good.

  Most of it wasn’t. Of all the little drawers in the pantry-alcove, only one wasn’t a giant mold colony. The only real difference between the drawers was that the one without the mold was cold. It wasn’t necessarily frigid, just cooler than an average refrigerator’s contents, but there had to be some additional protection mixed in with whatever was keeping it that way.

  It was just a shame there wasn’t more in it. Two fruits that looked like crosses between apples and pears, a single brick of layered flatbread, and a small cup of some brown sauce. It almost looked like a cracker with how crispily dense the whole thing looked. Jay devoured the stuff gladly, finding the flatbread easier to eat when dipped in the thin onion-y sauce. It made the brick less dense and fair easier to chew, even absorbing some of the overwhelming salt in every bite.

  He set the last quarter of the bread-brick back into the drawer with the remainder of the cup of sauce. He’d finish it for dinner. Or for breakfast. Or whenever he got hungry again, since he had no idea what time of day it was anymore.

  Jay, the Agen-Seps said, once he had finished eating. There are things I need to tell you. About Rukai, about this continent, about…about where to go next. The snake’s emotions took an abrupt turn toward frustration at the end there, though Jay couldn’t tell why.

  “The closest thing to a plan I had was to find and get to wherever had a lot of books and do enough research that I could find out where to go from there.” Jay sat down in front of the spirit, leaning against the cave wall. “What do you think?”

  Before the familiar could respond, thunder shook the entire cavern. That strike must have been right above them. Just afterwards, before Jay had even blinked from the shock, they both heard a voice on the wind that was underlaid by the System’s resonance. The words were distinct, an echoing shout of “[Resonant Nail]!” Was that what had been dissolving trees? It would make sense with the distinct sound of the trees dissolving and the little needle-nails he’d found.

  The spirit picked up the thread of conversation without even remarking on the ability usage. I do not know where you came from. I have seen the barest flashes of it in your memory and it seems as far removed from Halea as anything I could possibly imagine being. So it stands to reason that you lack most of the foundational information about this world. My suggestion was going to be to travel to the nearest center of learning so you could gather that information. Thankfully, it seems that you have already come to the conclusion that doing so would be the best course of action.

  But there is some information that you must understand the weight of before that can happen.

  “What happens if I choose not to remember anything you’re about to tell me?” Jay didn’t plan on disregarding the advice, which he figured the snake would be able to discern through their bond, but he wanted to know just in case it turned out to be something entirely inane.

  Then I won’t let you leave this place at all. It would pain me – literally, emotionally, and now spiritually – to do that to you, but I will do it if I have to. The spirit’s now-golden eye coverings twitched at that.

  “Are you a basilisk spirit, then?” Jay couldn’t remember where he knew that connection from, which meant it was probably something from before he died, but he knew it was there and knew it would line up with the fact that the Agen-Seps was a snake.

  No. You might call them a cousin breed to mine. Lesser cousins, perhaps. My gaze does not petrify. The effect would be more than enough to keep you here forever, though. It didn’t seem to be a threat as much it was just a statement of fact.

  “If you say so. Keep going.”

  Hm. First you must know of Rukai herself. She was a [Necromancer of Spirit Binding], the latter label being her subclass’s addition. She worked primarily through binding spirits to bodies with curse tablets that anchored each spirit to a body. Sometimes more than one body, if the spirit was powerful enough. By the end, she was binding dozens of bodies to individual spirits for them to work as a unit.

  But she was already losing herself by that point. That is the core of what you need to know before anything else can happen: the Class Curse that you are already familiar with? It is not a one-or-the-other option. Its grip will sink into you the more you use your necromantic abilities. This includes training to reach higher levels.

  The deeper its claws sink into you, though, the more powerful you will get in the short term. Balance this carefully. There is no healing ability that can undo the curse’s effects.

  “I’ve been told I should fix the Curse. Sounds like that’s hopeless, then,” Jay said. “Maybe I should just max it out; go out in as large a blaze of glory as is possible.” It was mostly a joke, but then he found himself actually curious and leaned in. “Did any of the other necromancers try that? Could the curse just be used up like that?”

  One did and it couldn’t – or didn’t – get used up then. I never knew his name, but his madness overran an entire continent, sinking it into the ocean. Rukai had tried to warn him it would not work, but the [Necromancer of Earth] was as stubborn as the stone itself.

  An entire continent? That was a level of power Jay hadn’t even suspected an individual could gain.

  Do not be so impressed. Very few made it off Ayor before it sank.

  “How many people were there on the continent?”

  Hundreds of millions. It was historically the most populated continent.

  Oh. Well now he felt like a dick.

  To return to our topic, Rukai’s ability to spread her power out through her tablet crafting allowed her to resist the Curse’s corruption more than most. Her familiars – who could take some of the strain on themselves – contributed to that as well.

  “So you can do that too?” Jay asked. “Is that why you wanted me to bond you specifically as a familiar?” Jay’s health ticked down twice this time for some reason.

  Yes and also yes. You are able to cast spells through me and I will take on the corruption that comes from that. Do so as frequently as you need.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “If I do that, what happens to you?”

  The Agen-Seps didn’t answer but the frustrated feeling that had slightly subsided returned in full force.

  “You were so talkative two seconds ago, snake. Answer the question.”

  That is of no concern.

  “Not an acceptable answer. What. Happens. To. You?”

  They stared at each other for a while, Jay’s green eyes meeting the spirit’s golden false eyelids, until the latter broke and looked away.

  The same thing that would happen to you. Only quicker, as the magic would be foreign to me.

  “Not happening then.”

  You have to. Something about the way he said it convinced Jay that there was a reason there, but if there was actually a reason, why wouldn’t he just say it?

  He wouldn’t find out if he didn’t ask. “So tell me why. What makes you so eager to get magic cancer and go crazy?”

  The snake’s frustrated feeling peaked. It felt like he wanted to say something but after almost a minute of silence, it didn’t look like he was going to say it after all.

  “Until you have a good reason that you’re willing to share, that’s not happening.” Jay didn’t know why he cared so much. He’d only just met the Agen-Seps and the majority of that time had been with them on the verge of fighting. If the spirit wanted to get himself killed by taking on some of the Class Curse, so be it. It wasn’t like Jay was forcing him to do it.

  They could debate the morality and feasibility of it later. It wasn’t like they were short on time now that they were bonded. There were other things to hash out first.

  “So where is the nearest library, then? Since we both seem to agree that that’s the best place to go.”

  There is an island. When the Empire’s founders first reached it, there were centuries of historical accounts and records of System abilities already there. The storage has continued to expand under the Empire’s control, as far as I know, and should now hold more than enough information for our purposes. We can find a ship. There was a brief pang of sadness. It will not be as easy as it once was, but there should still be a town near enough to do so.

  “Then we just have to wait for the storm to break.” Jay let himself relax back against the wall to wait. “Anything else you want to tell me about Rukai while we’re waiting?”

  *

  After the storm had passed, which took long enough that Jay had to both sleep and finish up the brick of bread, they set out. The Agen-Seps displayed a remarkable ability to climb the ladder and slip out of the trapdoor, despite neither of them being sized for him. He even did most of it without using his newly grown legs, making it more impressive.

  He paused at the top, clearly taking a moment to mourn the town that had stood there and adjust to the new landscape.

  This rim was not here before, the snake said. Nor did that tunnel have so far to climb. Nothing is as it should be.

  “Not much we can do about it now.”

  No. If only there were. And it’s all so silent now. I hear no life.

  “The only living things I saw on my way here were some otters and a guy that probably wanted to kill me,” Jay said.

  Then we should try to avoid repeating the second of those. The spirit lowered his head to Jay’s chest height. I will be faster than you, even with these gangly new appendages. I will carry you.

  “Thanks. I think. Just don’t drop me.” Jay clambered onto the familiar’s head, scooting backwards until he was braced against the crest. “How fast are you expecting to go?”

  Very, the Agen-Seps said.

  That wasn’t just idle boasting, either. Once the spirit started moving, the trees began to blur together; if Jay had to put a number to their speed, he’d say it was about forty miles per hour. They were moving straight up the coastline for now, though the snake said that the ocean would curve away from them at some point.

  There weren’t very many landmarks along their planned path, not that the Agen-Seps had felt confident would still be standing. The plan was to keep going past the point that the water – the first landmark – fell away from their path until they hit the second landmark, a plateau that marked what most people had thought of as the end of the peninsula. Then they would veer north-ish, skirting the small foothills of the plateau, until civilization came into view.

  Actual civilization would feel good. A bed. Toilets. Food that hadn’t been sitting in a moldy alcove for snakes-only-knew-how-long. Water that was both clean and hadn’t run down a cliffside to be slurped out of a puddle.

  In the meantime, Jay had homework. The snake had said that there was a lot of customization of the System’s summary sheets that could be done to match someone’s preferences. Doing so was supposed to give more connection to the rest of the System’s functions as well, with rumors – unsubstantiated rumors, according to the spirit, even if the idea of training familiarity with the windows was still a good one – that enough personalization could reveal secrets or earn rewards from the System itself.

  So Jay had been firmly suggested to try doing some of that. Including concealing his actual Class, but that could come later. First he had to figure out how to go beyond sticking some of the information directly in his vision.

  It took him most of the day of travel to do it, but he finally succeeded as the sun sank. He renamed the Abilities section to Spells. It wasn’t much of a change, but it was something to prove it was possible. When he woke the next morning, he kept moving things around, trying to find the best form for everything to be. Every so often, he’d swap back to trying to conceal his Class, but that always ended in frustration.

  “How common is that [Summarize] ability you mentioned?” Jay asked, raising his voice to make himself audible over the wind of the spirit’s speed.

  Very. Most people gain it as part of their childhood. Those that don’t tend to get it in their adult life easily. The only exceptions are those small groups who refuse the ability for one reason or another. The Agen-Seps somehow didn’t sound tired despite the fact that it had been running all night without sleep. It insisted that that was fine, that it only needed to sleep once every few days, but it still made Jay nervous.

  Finally, as the sun set for the second time since they left Rukai’s Redoubt, Jay managed to hide the Subclass portion of the summary sheet. He didn’t need it; he was a long way from figuring out a subclass to specialize in and even further from being able to do so.

  He didn’t get long to celebrate. His familiar decelerated so fast it nearly threw him off, then came to a complete stop.

  “Something wrong?”

  No. Look up.

  Jay did and saw the plateau. They were already in the foothills. He’d missed the entire approach to it in his attempts to hide those portions of his sheet.

  I must sleep, the Agen-Seps said. There is shelter here. We will continue tomorrow. Do not go far from here.

  “Why not?”

  The spirit yawned. Danger. The table is always dangerous. The closer, the more dangerous. He curled up right where they’d stopped, nestled between two small hills and – if the feeling from the bond was anything to go by – was asleep even before he’d stopped moving.

  Jay felt like he’d just slept, and the snake hadn’t said to avoid going anywhere, just to stay close. He poked around the few hills nearest to their little impromptu encampment, even peeking into the two shallow caves that were nearby. There wasn’t anything interesting except for a couple of berry bushes that he didn’t want to try without actually knowing what they were.

  The biggest surprise he got was when a branch broke behind him at one point and he caught a brief glimpse of his serpentine familiar wandering around. It hadn’t even been an hour since they had stopped by that point, and he almost dismissed it with the thought that he was going to answer nature’s call. Surely even semi-ethereal snakes needed to pee at some point, right?

  Only two things stopped that dismissal.

  The first was the feeling from the bond: as far as Jay could tell, it felt like the Agen-Seps was still asleep. Not even shallow sleep, like what he’d expect sleepwalking to feel like, deeply asleep.

  The second was that he was heading straight toward the plateau itself, always seeking higher ground, as if he intended to climb.