Stalking, But the Good Kind
“You know what?” I begin but then stop myself as I realize that everyone can still hear me from the audition area below.
I stopped but then realized that it would be best to continue.
“You are exceptionally insightful, stalker girl.”
That last part just jumps out, I do mean it but for the life of me I can’t remember if this girl’s told me her name. I’m pretty sure that she has, which only makes this worse as I should remember, but I’m drawing a blank here. That is why stalker girl is what I can come up with for the moment.
“Stalker girl?” The girl fires back. Then I realize she is likely older than me, or at least her avatar is older than me, making this exchange really awkward.
“Okay, Stalker woman, is that better?” I press, and that causes her to be quiet long enough for me to continue. “But yes, you are right Stalker lady, those students that have been chosen down below. Well, the ones that were ultimately selected, but didn’t make it in on their own. The only thing that they had over the others was the fact that they pressed on until the end.”
“Many that made it to the third tier, they stopped. Becoming complacent with their progress, knowing that once they made it to the final hurdle, they would wait for others to accept their greatness.” I pause, letting that sink in.
“Well that might get them through life. They are all exceptionally talented. In fact, it is my firm belief that everyone who got a marking had what it took to get in and truly succeed at SVC. But with only thirty-nine spaces available I had to be diligent. I wanted students who not only had the talent but the perseverance to press through. Those of you third tier students who got to the finish line and sat down, waiting for something to come your way, you are the first people I will always discard when I can. The moment things get tough, the moment you reach a hurdle, rather than stopping to think about a solution, you just accept that your efforts were enough and stop.”
This is when I give my speech for all the future generations of students. My goal is to hopefully make it so that SVC isn’t seen as a joke.
While this was a great showing, I still felt that most were just here to help fulfill the Guild’s odd orders. Which is fine, as we got the people needed to help with my quest, but I would have liked to have more time evaluating the few hundred students who could have made it.
I also want to speak to the students who only had the first or second phase unlocked before quitting on themselves and chose to stand around and watch to the end.
This message is meant for them especially.
“The same goes for you other mages of the second Tier, you all quit as well, even though there was still time. Time is the one resource that we can never truly account for. Talent can be measured. The fact that you are all here shows that you have or at least think you have the talent or want to continue to learn. I applaud that, I respect that, but I cannot encourage apathy or acceptance.”
“I can’t make you learn. I can give you the lessons, the methods to teach and learn on your own, but I can’t make you learn. Heck, as proven here, I can’t even make you all try until the end.”
Chuckles.
I am slightly concerned that people laughed at that last part, apparently thinking it was a joke, but oh well.
Thinking about it, they are likely either giving me that nervous chuckle that some people do while trying to get you off the stage. I know some people will enjoy being able to talk again, without being forced to listen to my voice and ramblings. That is why I decided to try to cut this short and end on one final note.
“So, with my closing remarks of this wildly attended entrance ceremony. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all for trying your best. And for those of you that fell short, remember this. Never, and I mean never let someone else decide your fate for you, when you have the chance to force fate to bend to your will. That is the true power of a mage, and the true impact of magic.”
I paused long enough to let that last comment sink in.
“Now if you all will meet with whomever has coordinated this, to get your schedules that would be great. You Qi warriors stay there, you are about to join Qi Manifestation training. The rest of you, I will see you when I see you. Thank you all and welcome to SVC.”
With that I end my Modified Radial-Forced Selective Hearing.
Then for those that made it, I give them all a fourth stage of my entrance ceremony glyph.
SVC Attendee:
I don’t care about the numbering system, who got what number, etcetera.
All I do is mark those that earned a spot, and those that didn’t.
Then as the large gaggle of trial candidates filed out, I turned to face Valeria and her intriguing guard.
I realize this all counts towards the four hours I must spend teaching Valeria, so I continue to talk to her and her bodyguard. Hoping that Valeria can learn by my teaching others.
“So, what are your thoughts on that process?” I ask.
Hearing my question, Valeria’s eyes just bulge wide. “I don’t know how you did it, getting so many perspective students down to a final thirty-one.”
“Yeah, how long did you have to prepare for this?” The Stalker Guard asks.
“About twenty minutes? Give or take.”
“Twenty minutes? You did that in twenty minutes?” Valeria asks, her voice incredulous.
“I mean, I did cheat. I used magic after all. Not like I was doing it all by hand,” I reply.
“Did you already have the spells for creating intricate glyphs?” The bodyguard asks.
“No, I made those up using Illusion, Mind, and Life magic.”
Then I show them the spell.
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“Wait, you can create spells?” The Bodyguard asks confusedly.
“Of course you can, that is what magic is, an adaptation of your will to the world through your imagination and Willpower.”
Tingle.
As I speak, I feel something deep inside me resonating with that comment. I’m likely meant to pick up or try to pull on this clear but obvious intonation by the system. Almost as if I am meant to speak something profound about magic into existence, but I can’t for the life of me understand what?
Oh wait, maybe it is something that I am meant to pass on to my Apprentice? Is that it?
Then just as I am contemplating my own reason for feeling suddenly odd about a breakthrough with magic, the stalker guard continues her questions.
“All right, so how many spells did you create for this event?”
“Two,” I answer truthfully, but then I realize something is off. “Actually, three new spells were registered, but I really only consider one of those new.”
At that comment, I felt the tension that had been around me suddenly loosened. With that one comment layers of dark karma just shed off into the ether around me.
Lying creates dark karma, huh, good to know. Kind of makes sense, and likely why I need to be more truthful with my comments.
I’m guessing the reason why those dark karma threads didn’t stick was due to my not really considering two of the spells as spell creations.
I mean, the one was clearly modified. Then for the vertical testing fields I just cast an area of effect Illusionary Barrier spell. Then also modified that spell to be wholly unique to interact with the glyph spell. That was the second spell that I counted.
In my mind, I had already created the Selective Hearing spell, so a modification of it was just that, a modification of a previously created spell. That said the system apparently thinks otherwise.
Then again, I guess that might be enough for some people, as that is after all how I got to use the avatar of the Mage’s Guild office on the second floor of the Arcanarus Tower.
I helped that mage achieve his dream by slightly modifying a spell to be tougher to cast, with minor magical accents and he created a new spell. Which was all that was needed for him to get his next ranking and be able to move on to the afterlife.
Exhale.
Maybe I am becoming a magical snob.
I should be more accepting that changing or altering a spell to do more or less of an intended act should still be considered a new spell. Even if it does ultimately seem cheap.
“You okay?” The bodyguard asks.
“Yeah, just thinking about being a little less snobby with the definitions behind spell creations,” I admit.
With that both the stalker and Valeria just stare at me.
Fortunately, we are saved by the awkward entrance of Jhonny, who must swoop and glide around many of the still leaving students.
“Sorry I’m late, did I miss anything?” Jhonny asks as he stares at the mass of potential student candidates that are still leaving.
At that Valeria and her new guard just scoff.
“Not really, we have thirty-one new students for class, but otherwise not much,” I answered truthfully.
Scoff.
“She just cut down over fourteen hundred applicants by creating three new spells on the spot. She even said she only had twenty minutes to prepare for the ordeal,” the female guard lets out.
Hearing that Jhonny just winces.
“They are all alive, right?” Jhonny asks a bit too dramatically.
I open my mouth to reply, that what should he think, but then realize I can’t.
“I mean twelve of them are Deolarians,” I reply.
“Good call,” Jhonny responds then has that look of his joke might have been in bad taste but won’t admit it and just hopes that we continue our conversation as usual. “So, you ready to teach us, Master?”
UHH!
“Don’t call me master, you know I hate that,” I reply.
“I know, which is why I must keep doing so. For the moment you accept it, is the minute I must file a new set of forms with Mallory,” Jhonny replies.
“That’s a joke, right?”
Jhonny for his part just stares at me, before pressing his lips together and realizing he has seen the girl before.
“Gabriellaz, you made it!” Jhonny exclaims as he rushes over to shake hands with Valeria’s guard, who apparently is Gabriellaz. The name does sound familiar, but there are a lot of names here.
Beamingly, Gabriellaz smiles, “yes, I passed the selection committee and got accepted, now here I am.”
Gabriellaz bites her lower lip just a bit while staring at Jhonny, and I don’t know if there is a thing there, or if Gabriellaz just has an overbite, either way I figure it is my chance to test out my theory on why Gabriellaz is here.
“Gabriellaz, are you ready to train?” I ask.
“Yes, please can I sit in and participate in your Qi Manifestation classes?” Gabriellaz asks, her voice overly excited.
“Look at you being the Qi Stalker Queen over here. Oh wait, that’s it,” I exclaimed.
“What?” Gabriellaz, Jhonny, and even Valeria all respond in near unison.
“You new nickname.”
“My what?” Gabriellaz asks.
“Stal’Qing, you know Qi Stalker Queen but condensed down to Stal’Qing.” I replied excitedly.
Upon hearing my explanation all three look mildly put off.
“Oh come on, it is a good name and you all know it.” I press.
Chime.
Then as if the system itself decided to come to my rescue and agree with me, I feel chime and get a new system prompt.
Seeing the mental message for me alone, I smile knowing that the system at least has good taste in my naming.
“Yes,” I speak out loud all but dancing at the sudden attention from the system.
Just as everyone is about to question what I am saying yes to, a local announcement appears.
That was the message to everyone, but I did get to see the final message sent to Gabriellaz, mainly because she was so confused that she apparently showed her name and its details on blast.
Fortunately, the message only went to those of us that were nearby.
“What the heck is this?” Gabriellaz asked, while displaying her new surname.
Seeing the surname I thought it was decent. Likely could have been better, but Gabriellaz seems mainly focused on learning Qi, so the name fits.
Feeling proud of myself for giving another great name that has major benefits, I think of it as a win-win all around.
My thoughts are of course dashed when Gabriellaz has her hands out to the sides, palms up in a really, gesture.
“Stal’Qing? I and my entire family are going to be known as a bunch of Stalkers?” Gabriellaz exclaims, clearly not as excited as I am about this name.
“Qi stalkers. I mean, think if I try, we might be able to change it slightly,” I mentally feel for the spot in my mind where the message asking me to accept the last name appeared.
There does seem to be a few minutes of buyers remorse available. At least that is what I equate the partial box still being there.
“Let’s see, you are the Qi Stalker Queen, this is what I have to work with,” I say as I look at the original words and what I have left to work with. “It seems that I can only work with letters and meanings from those three words. Let’s see. Oh, we could go with Stal’Qi’Queen,” I pose.
Then mentally I re-arrange the letters to show that new name and its potential future impact.
“What!” Gabriellaz declares indignantly.
“I don’t know, that is ten percent to both Qi retention and your Qi Absorption rate. Though at the cost of half of your Qi stealth and movement efficiency bonuses,” Jhonny counters, showing that the resonance of the words are closer to what was originally said than now.
“No, that name is even worse than the first. My kids would be known as the Stalking Queens? That is terrible.” Gabriellaz hisses.
“You could just go with Qi Queens,” Valeria tries to offer helpfully.
“What if I have a boy? My sons are coming here, hopefully.” Gabriellaz states.
“Oh good point, yeah, Qi Queen might not be the best name for a level one trying to make it in this world,” Jhonny poses.
There is a momentary silence, at which point I speak up.
“So, what is it, keep Stal’Qing, or change to the more powerful Stal’Qi’Queen?” I ask, trying to make sure we get a definitive answer before this box completely disappears.
“Keep Stalking,” Gabriellaz states.
“I could also remove it entirely,” I offer.
“You can, we can start over?” Gabriellaz asks, excitement in her voice.
“We could, but you would never get another surname. This is it, for you. One chance, either keep it or go without.”
“Keep it,” Gabriellaz replies and nods her head in agreement.
“Keep it?” I pose one last time.
“Keep it,” she nods again in confirmation.
“Okay, keeping it as is,” I reply then mentally let go of the prompt. The minute I let go of the prompt in the default state, that is with Gabriellaz’s new surname being the original one posed by the system of Stal’Qing, the prompt fades away entirely.
Exhaling.
I took a breath as that was a bit exhausting. Just the pressure of having to deal with such a moment was almost unbearable.
Then the minute I relax and let down my guard, that is when Gabriellaz hits me with another plea.
“Wait, is it too late to change it back?” Gabriellaz asks.
“Really?” I all but hiss, as it is clearly beyond the time to offer any changes. Though I don’t want Gabriellaz to think that. Instead, I want her to be happy with her decision.
“Well, I was just hoping that maybe you could change it back. That extra ten percent to Qi retention and Qi Absorption might come in handy,” Gabriellaz states.
I just look up and away in frustration as there is clearly nothing I can do for her at this point. Fortunately, Jhonny is well used to my ticks and actions and realizes that there is nothing I can do for her. So he goes in.
“Come on, you admitted it yourself, being the Stal’Qi’Queen family was far worse than the one you were offered. Also, 50% bonuses to Qi stealth and movement related powers is huge. You will see. That increase of 25% is more than enough to just be considered mere Stalkers.” Jhonny replies.
I don’t think being called a Stalker is the best, but it seems to work.
That or Jhonny as some type of charm skill at play as Gabriellaz once again blushes and bites her lower lip at the attention from Jhonny.
This confirms two things, first Gabriellaz does not have an overbite, and second I’m pretty sure she has some type of interest in Jhonny.
Though I think Jhonny has some sort of relationship, at least I think he did before I left.
That said, rather than forcing Jhonny to go on a date for my behalf, I try to move this along.
“You know what, how about this,” I begin. “As a sign of my apologies for giving you the surname you wanted, how about I also…”