Cass woke up with a crick in his neck and the sinking feeling that yesterday had been a mistake. He blamed stress, probably.

  His things had been brought from home, not that he’d been able to see his family. Returning from a satisfying dinner in the cafeteria, he’d found a packaged bundle of items already placed in his room. It was a nice accompaniment with his newest companion, constant silence.

  The rest of the day had passed as a blur of decorating, swapping the stiff Guild bedsheets for his own, and trying not to let the existential dread take over. The confidence he’d felt the day before hadn’t lasted as long as he had hoped. All it had taken was one look at the System Map to drown him in despair all over again.

  There were so many problems.

  Sitting up, Cass mentally shook off the negativity. Problems don’t solve themselves, and he knew far too little about what being a QuestWright actually meant. Understanding that he needed to define the issue to solve it, Cass resolved to look again. Sitting down at the desk, he tapped on the ability.

  [System Map - Tier 1: Common]

  Range: One Mile

  Scope: Civic Need

  Filters: Delivery, Retrieval

  —Loading—

  Just like before, the map shimmered into existence wherever his eyes wandered. But there was a neat trick to it that he’d discovered by accident. Anytime the ability met a flat surface, it attached itself, anchoring down. The desk worked well enough, even if the ceiling would have done a swell job too.

  Cass ran his hands through his hair with a sigh. It’s not that he expected Liora to be perfect, but he had hoped that it wasn’t quite so broken.

  The map finished loading, and he leaned in.

  A three-dimensional model of downtown Liora climbed upon his desk. As the buildings rose, so too did a patchwork of colored lights. In a one-mile radius around the Guildhall, yellow lights flickered like tired fireflies as they moved around curving routes. Steady, green dots meandered, moving from one location to another in no apparent hurry. The number of them present, in such a small amount of space, was truly unbelievable.

  He’d stopped counting at one hundred. The crick in his neck was right.

  A knock at the door told him that it was time to greet the world again, though this time as a Guild Administrator. Changing into a fresh robe, Cass checked himself over in the small mirror he’d placed on the wall, then gave himself a smile.

  “It’s going to be a perfect day.”

  Not quite believing that, but still hoping it was true, Cass stepped over and opened the door. Behind the yawning entry stood a tall woman in form-fitted black leathers looking at something just above his door. When her eyes traveled down to meet Cass’s own, he was shocked by their intensity.

  “Cassio Vale, QuestWright?”

  He nodded with a slanted smile, “That’s me.”

  “I’m Kara Tullis, your Guild Trainer. Follow me.” Without saying anything else, she spun around and quickstepped away, forcing him to lightly jog to keep up. Turning the opposite corner from the cafeteria, she spoke while taking long steps, “What do you know about the guild?”

  Cass caught his breath before speaking, “Only what my family’s told me.”

  “Uh-huh.” The bright sunlight drilled into his eyes as they exited the building. “The Guild was formed a year after the reshaping. Liora’s Guildhall, specifically, was one of the first ten to stand up. Although it’s only been twenty years since the world changed, Liora was among the first to change with it.”

  Cass heard the sound of horses in the distance as they entered a new area. “Here, we believe that every Calling, no matter if you’re administrative, trade, or combat-based, matters. And having traveled a fair amount, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it isn’t like that everywhere.” She pointed at a set of deliberately placed rocks, increasing in size and arranged in a zigzagging path. “I want you to jump from one rock to the next until you can’t anymore.”

  “What?”

  They’d arrived at a gravel-filled area. It smelled like livestock, and large brown boulders littered the place as a light breeze touched him. A bird called out nearby as Kara stepped to a nearby rock, lifting a pre-placed folder off of it.

  “I received your dossier from the Guildmaster yesterday. Cassio Vale, youngest son of Cassandra the Chainmarshal and Dallan the Braisesoul. Little brother of Janine Vale, IronMonger and rising star of the Goldencrown Company. After three failed attempts and at the maximum age of eighteen, Cassio has received the Calling of QuestWright. Assigned to Tier-two Guild Trainer, Kara Tullis, for orientation, processing, and training.”

  “Okay, but what does that have to do with jumping rocks?”

  Kara snapped the folder shut. “Because that’s what most Callings begin as, a leap.” She pointed to the line of rocks again, “Go.”

  “But-”

  Her copper stare froze him mid-word, “Go.”

  Walking over, Cass took a slight hop onto the first rock.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Kara’s voice slapped into his ears as he prepared for the second rock. “The first QuestWrights began with no knowledge, no information about how the system worked or what their purpose was. They began with nothing.”

  When he looked back at her, she didn’t speak, only moved her eyes over to the next in the line. Cass made the jump.

  “The world was on fire. Monsters came to your city, your neighborhood, your house. They destroyed everything that allowed humanity to form civilizations. The Callings didn’t even arrive until a year later. Until then…”

  Cass made the next leap, windmilling his arms to maintain balance as the rocks grew progressively higher and farther away. He looked back and found Kara wasn’t watching him, though her voice still came through.

  “Until then, people could just barely survive. But we knew survival wasn’t living. So when the system first activated and the Callings arrived, we fought back. We discovered levels and experience. Created warriors from teachers and medical personnel.”

  Bracing himself, Cass made a great leap to the fourth rock. He scratched up his palms on the way down, but he’d done it.

  “It was the QuestWrights who organized the chaos. It was the QuestWrights who founded the Guild. They couldn’t fight, but they found people who could and helped organize everything, assigning roles, building logistics, and giving people something to fight for again. To live.”

  Cass sized up the next leap. It was twice the distance of the last one, and at least a foot higher. But he wouldn’t stop now. He’d already gone further than he’d thought he could, and he hoped that getting to another step would get her to tell him more. Moving to the back of the rock, he started to run forward when Kara called out.

  “Wait, that’s enough.”

  Cass skittered across the rock as he stopped himself. Catching his breath, he looked back at her, “I can do it.”

  She tilted her head at him, “You’re sure? I wouldn’t want our first day to end up with Liora’s first new QuestWright in ten years going to the Clinic.”

  Looking back at the rock in front of him, he turned his back to her. “I can.”

  “Alright, Cassio Vale. Show me.”

  Moving to the outermost edge of his current platform, Cass took several short, quick breaths, then launched himself at a dead sprint toward the other side. With a great heave from the bottom of his legs, he leaped toward the last rock in the series, far higher and farther than all the others.

  He wasn’t going to make it.

  Soaring and falling through the air with the rockface quickly approaching him, Cass wondered at how he’d ended up here. That was when someone caught him.

  Two strong hands gripping his upper thighs roughly pulled him toward the ground. Swinging him lightly to bleed the momentum, they placed him upright as laughter danced across the area.

  “Well, Cassio Vale.” Kara said, stepping back and opening her folder with a new snap, “That was quite the experience.”

  Catching his breath and shaking off the residual feeling of doom, he had to ask. “What’d you write?’

  “Observations of Cassio Vale by Tier 2 Guild Trainer, Kara Tullis. Risk-tolerant. Bold. Slightly reckless.” She clicked her pen and closed the folder. “Could be worse. Come along.”

  This time around, she moved at a more sedate pace, letting Cass walk beside her. He looked her up and down, “How’d you catch me like that?”

  “Guild Trainers receive abilities that help us in all sorts of situations. Strength, Speed, Coordination, so on and so forth. Most of ours are passive, though. We don’t gain experience in combat, only through training.”

  She caught me. Mid-air. Like it was nothing. And she laughed? His mother and sister were strong, he knew that, but they’d never shown him anything like that before.

  She knew I’d try. Knew I’d fail, too. And still let me leap. The thought settled into his collection of new experiences since the previous day.

  My life has truly changed.

  “So QuestWright, why do you think I had you leaping across those rocks?”

  She’s a Guild Trainer. From what I’ve heard Mom and Janine say, most new Callings get assigned to them for foundational training. He took a stab.

  “To check my conditioning?”

  “Good, you’re thinking straight ahead, but that’s only part of it.”

  They passed by a large, circular stone building, then walked up a few steps and stopped on a wooden bridge. Kara tapped her foot down twice. “What is this?”

  “Wood?”

  She gave him a sideways glance, “Like your last answer, yes and no. This is the Uncalled Way, the tunnel you entered that took you to the Atrium and the start of your life as a QuestWright.”

  Kara crossed her arms, looking him up and down for a change. “I had you leapfrogging those rocks not only because I wanted to see what you’d do, but also to see what you wouldn’t do. Couldn’t do.”

  Pausing, she said, “Most Callings are easy to train. Swing a sword, shoot a bow, cast a spell, sell a product. But QuestWright? You’re different. Your Calling is tied to the invisible threads covering the city. It’s abstract.” Stepping forward, she put a hand on his shoulder. “A QuestWright doesn’t do, a QuestWright decides. I needed to judge if you’d take the leap, even when you weren’t sure you could land it.”

  “Why?”

  Kara’s expression softened just a little, “Because the world doesn’t care if you’re ready, and neither does the system. It won’t wait for you to feel confident, certain, or brave. It’ll just keep feeding you problems that lead to harsh realities, and expect you to find the right people to solve them.”

  “My decisions.” He confirmed.

  She nodded, “Your decisions. You’re a QuestWright. That means every quest you draft has a rippling effect on the potential of Liora and its people. Every assignment, every complication, every detail you include or miss, matters.”

  They started to walk again, though blessedly, in silence. Cass felt every echo of the boots the Guild had given him as he slowly came to terms with what she was saying. Those patchworks of color on the Map weren’t just data; they were people. His Calling wasn’t about quests. It was about Liora itself. And it made him start to wonder…who was making all of the quests before him?

  Kara stopped just before they entered a wide archway, a quill engraved above the door, “This is the Quest Registry. Inside here are people who will push you, pull you, and demand that they get the quests that they want in the manner that they want them. One of your jobs is not to give in to their pressure.” She paused, letting the weight of her words settle. “Do you understand?”

  Cass nodded, unease stabbing at his spine. “I understand.”

  Kara smiled, “Good.” She reached for the door, “because your sister’s in here.”

  Cass paused mid-step. Of course she is. Why wouldn’t the world stack the deck?

  Steeling himself, he followed Kara inside.