Changes made to chapter 11. (Patreon)

This will be delete before the next chapter comes out. It is what I changed in the chapter so you don't have to reread the whole thing again.

“So, how do I find my way back?” She asked herself nine months, eight days, and four hours since she ripped out the anchors to her world. The odd shed was still there, but the wall where the doors had been was gone. Blown out in a fit of madness.

“If I answer that question does it count as you being crazy?” A voice that sounded just like her own asked her. Turning around, and away from her river she found her double standing behind her.

“Depends.” Lily replied, looking up and down her double’s body. “Am I hallucinating?”

“Nope, it’s the real me, not you.” Her double said, walking towards the edge of the river and sitting down. Her double looked exactly like her, still. The same clothes, same wild hair that Lily had stopped brushing all that often. Even the same shoes, which her double was currently taking off to soak her feet.

“How did you find me?” Lily asked as both she and her double looked out at the rushing water.

“Let me tell you, it was really hard. When you go crazy and run away, you really know how to do it, I’ll give you that.” Her double told her, sounding exasperated. “Next time you have a temper tantrum, don’t rip yourself out of your own reality. It’s really hard to find you again.”

“Yeah, I think this is a one-time thing.” Lily replied, feeling both embarrassed and ashamed.

“So do you want to know the good news or the bad?” Her double asked, still not looking at Lily.

“It must be bad if you’re not looking at me. Hit me with the bad.” Lily said, turning to look at her double.

“There has been a ruling by an arbitrator. You are being penalised for deserting. First off, you lost your citizenship with Lowell, but I expect you never wanted it in the first place. You lost one third of all of your wealth from the point of desertion to today, which was a lot of credits by the way - lots of people bought your profession. Lastly, you lost all of your unclaimed experience, which amounted to twenty-six levels. Seriously, you never went back to the hub? Not even once?” Her double asked, sounded pissed.

“Never needed to.” Lily admitted, not really caring about her levels.

“You do know that most people visit a System Hub at least once a week, if they can?” Her double told her.

Lily shrugged, not really caring.

“Well, that’s all gone. You’ll need to start all over again.” Her double explained. “You also lost your good standing with the System.”

Again Lily just shrugged.

“You know you’re lucky he didn’t hit you with the normal ruling on desertion. Normally, someone like you would be banished from all System-operated settlements. All city spirits, like Woburn, would have to order all of their defenses to kill you. He would not have a choice.” Her double said, looking at Lily.

“I survived without the System’s help for almost a hundred years. I think I would have been just fine by myself.” Lily replied, feeling slightly angry.

“You’re probably right.” Her double said, turning away and looking back out at the river “But humans aren’t meant to be alone for long periods of time. Your people can survive alone just fine, but that’s all you’ll be doing, surviving. Surviving is not living, Lily. You are all social animals. I know you’re hurting, my love, but you need human contact. It’s in your nature. Please don’t let the bad of your species turn you off to the good. There is good as well as bad in your people, Lily.”

“I don’t know.” Lily said, feeling tears starting to fall down her face. “I’m just so tired. I was so happy to be out, but it all went wrong. All of it. Please, I have to know. Did they all lie to me?”

“Woburn didn’t.” Her double said with a sad smile. “I don’t know about the others, but Woburn was the first to bring charges against the city spirit, Lowell, for endangering a Sage. Lowell has been found at fault, and has been censored. It might not seem like that bad of a punishment, but he is one of only two city spirits since the invasion to be censored. He will feel it.”

Lily laughed a bit and whipped the tears from her face. “Why did they do it?” Lily asked her. “It was the force fields, right? I would have done it for free.”

“The investigation found that it was. Lowell is poor, and I know you want to hate the Governor and everyone at the top, but they were apparently desperate. Yes, they should have asked you to do it, but they didn’t and made some seriously bad decisions. The Governor has otherwise done some good for the city. The System wouldn’t have allowed him to stay in office otherwise. It’s also why he didn’t get the maximum penalty, which is banishment.”

“What about Corrina?” Lily asked, looking at her double.

“Lost her commission and fined.” She replied. “They allowed her to stay in Lowell’s military.”

Lily nodded and looked away. She wasn’t sure if she was happy that the other woman was still in the military or not. From their conversations she knew that Corrina loved being in the military. Lily was not sure if she was a good officer or not, but she felt a little bad that the other woman lost her officer position. Honestly, Lily still liked the other woman even after everything that had been done to her.

“Love. I still have some bad news.” Her double told her. Lily turned to her double and waited, not sure if she could take any more bad news.

“You temporarily lost your title of Sage. You still have it, but it won’t show if anyone uses Identify on you. It won’t matter how strong their Identify ability is. The System will simply not show it. Your spells, the ones you already created and the ones you will, won't have the title in front of your name. It’s been removed until you get your rep back with the System. Honestly, it shouldn’t be too hard. If you do nothing but sit on your spells and your profession then it will take right around a year, maybe less. If you work at it, maybe a couple of months. Now, this last one is going to hurt.” Her double told her.

Warily, Lily looked at her double.

“With your title temporarily removed, you will temporarily lose access to your home here until you get your rep back.” Her double told her, waving her hand all around her while watching her with a sad expression. “I know we can’t stop you from creating a doorway, but we ask you not to. The arbitrator has ruled that you need more contact with other people. He wants you to make friends and assimilate back into human society. The one third of your wealth is to recoup a fraction of the cost of what the System had to spend to find you. He also wants you to visit the System hub more often and, my love, I agree with him. He took away all your unclaimed experience as a lesson. Right now you don’t see the value of the System but, honey, you have so much to learn. You barely know anything about magic and mana, and the System will teach you, if you let it. It's part of why your people were given it. Your spells are amazing, Lily, but you can do so much more. Let the System help you. Let it make you stronger. Please.”

Lily felt as if the world fell from under her feet at the knowledge that they were taking her home away from her. She barely heard her double talk about why. She didn’t really care. Well, she did, but still, it was her home. Her vision tunneled until all she saw was in front of her. This world was her home. It was her safe space. She wanted to go back, but not at the cost of losing her home. Thoughts of defying the System and creating a doorway back kept popping up in her head.

“Stop it.” She told herself. “You lived without it for months. You don’t need it. Plus, it won’t be forever. Just a year, then I can come back. I’ll do what they ask, but on my own terms. I won’t be used again. Not ever!”

“How about a compromise.” Lily said, looking back at her double.

“Don’t.” Her double replied. “The System’s arbitrator has made his ruling. There is no compromise. You will do what he asks or you will lose all its benefits. The System doesn’t play around, Lily. It spent a lot on getting you back, but if you defy it, it will make your life miserable. There are worse things it can do to you than just banishment.”

“Fine, for now.” Lily thought, looking at her double.

“What about the people who arrested me when I didn’t do anything?” Lily asked, feeling a bit of anger growing in her gut.

“Oh, a lot of people got in trouble for that one.” Her double said with a small smirk.

“Pretty much everyone who was in on the unethical conscription lost their in-good-standing status plus a lot of credits when the System arbitrator evaluated the situation. It was big news when the story broke. The Governor and the Mayor, plus a few other political members of Lowell, are out of a job and have been punished with fines and loss of rep with the System. And, unlike you, it’s going to take them at least a decade, if they try really hard, to get that rep back. A few members of the police have been disciplined for blindly arresting and assaulting you without reason. When a Sage tries to kill themselves, even if it's unintentional, heads will roll.”

“I didn’t try to kill myself.” Lily told her double.

“You ripped the bindings off your little reality while you were still inside. You’re lucky you didn’t cease to exist. As it is, you had maybe a couple of months until this whole thing folded in on itself. If it was anyone else, the System wouldn’t have wasted all the resources it used on searching for you. Despite that, what you are doing is considered critical to the war effort. Some of you humans are going to reach high enough levels to join the war effort soon. Your spells are surprisingly effective, no matter what level the wielder is.” Her double told her.

“It’s because I built mana control into most of them.” Lily thought to herself. A person could control how much mana they used for the spell after the initial mana cost. Want a bigger boom, then add more mana to it.

“So what happens now?” Lily asked, after digesting just how close she came to accidentally killing herself.

“I dropped an anchor in a city north of where you were. It has no conscription, and has very lax immigration policies. They give immigrants free housing. It’s small, but livable. The first three months are free, but, after that, they request you pay a small monthly fee. My suggestion is work on your spells, and, for the love of the System, read your damn messages. There is a System help book in there where you can learn pretty much everything about the System, including how to request an arbitrator who could have ruled on the validity of your conscription. You still would have had to do it, since it was for the betterment of humanity, but you could have argued your case down to a year instead of throwing a stupid temper tantum like you did. So much of this could have been avoided if you just read the damn book. Make better choices,” her double scolded her like she was a child.

“Why would I still have to get drafted? I thought what they did was illegal?” Lily asked, confused.

“Your people are at war, Lily. The System has no problems with forcing people to fight to protect the rest of your civilization. The problem it had was how unethical the reasons for the draft were. Humans need to get better. Your people called what happened almost a hundred years ago an invasion. My people would have called it a simple raid. Your people can’t stay where they are, or the next raid on your planet will end your people.” Her double told her, looking Lily right in the eye.

“I’ll give you a few minutes to gather your stuff and collect a bunch of mushrooms before I open the doors again,” Her double told her.

Lily stood up and started to head back to her cabin but stopped and looked at her double. “What’s the name of this new city?” Lily asked, getting why her double wanted to change the subject.

“Quebec.” Her double said with a slight smile. “I suggest you brush up on your French.”