The Stick and the System

“A wooden stick?”Caspian’s voice was flat with disbelief. He watched as the shimmering, human-sized portal before him spat out the object. It was a simple length of wood, as long as his forearm, slightly knotted and rough-barked. It clattered onto the stone platform at his feet.The reaction from the crowd in Oakhaven’s town square was instant and merciless.A snicker came first, then a loud guffaw from a burly blacksmith’s apprentice. Soon, the entire gathering was roaring with laughter. Caspian stood frozen, the heat of a fierce blush crawling up his neck. This was the grand event of his Consecration? This was his weapon?In the world of Aethelgard, every person was born with an inner energy called Aether. It was the fuel for everything—magic, technology, the very strength of the realm. On your eighteenth birthday, you placed your hands on the Consecration Orb. It measured the depth and quality of your Aether, and then the Consecration Portal would manifest, gifting you a weapon th

The walk to Haggerty Farm was the most chaotic fifteen minutes of Caspian’s life. It started with Guild Master Boris attempting a rousing, pre-quest speech from the tavern doorway.“My brave… hic… warriors!” he’d bellowed, swaying dangerously. “Today, we strike fear into the hearts of… of… what are we hunting again?”“Goblins, father,” Elara said, her voice tight with patience. She was tightening the straps on a sensible leather jerkin.“Right! Goblings! Small, green, nasty… like my cousin Fergus!” Boris took a swig from a flask, choked, and promptly passed out on a hay bale by the door. Elara sighed, pulled a rough wool blanket over him, and turned to Caspian and Tobin.“He’s out. He’s not coming. It’s just us.”“Just us?” Tobin’s confidence faltered for a second. “Three against maybe seven goblins? That’s… uh… mathematically interesting!”Just then, the ground seemed to shake with slow, heavy thuds. A man rounded the corner of the street. He was a mountain of muscle, taller than the

The silence that followed Elara’s words was thick enough to choke on. Year 20. The final year of a countdown to oblivion. It sat in the dusty air of the Hearth’s Refuge, turning their pathetic goblin victory into a grim, cosmic joke.Tobin’s usual grin was gone. He stared at his hands, gripping his spear. “It's true, kid. So I guess, we just… wait?”Bulkan’s hand, resting on the handle of his axe, tightened until his knuckles were white. A low, guttural “Hrn” vibrated in his chest, a sound of pure frustration.Elara’s shoulders were slumped, the weight of the knowledge she’d just shared visibly pressing down on her. “The big guilds, the kingdoms… they have plans. Contingencies. We have… this.” She gestured at the empty, creaking tavern.Caspian looked from one face to another—the exhausted strategist, the drained spearman, the powerless giant, and the unconscious drunk outside. Then he looked at the yoyo in his hand. He willed it, and it shimmered back into a simple stick.“No,” he s

The second day of the Grand Prix dawned with a different kind of energy in the air. The smell of festival food was now mixed with the scent of damp straw and animal musk. The Monster Menagerie was set up in a large, fenced-off pen at the edge of the square. It looked like a crude zoo built in a hurry.The Gilded Fox gathered outside the competitors’ entrance. The mood was grimly determined. They had scraped into third place yesterday, but it felt like a fluke.Bulkan was awake but looked deeply embarrassed, avoiding everyone’s eyes. “Hrn,” he grunted, which Caspian had learned could mean anything from “Good morning” to “I have deep regret about my life choices.”“Today’s different,” Elara said, her voice low. “It’s not a race. It’s a controlled hunt. Points for subduing monsters non-lethally. They use weak ones—blue slimes, cave pups, maybe a stun-spore shroom. But they’re still monsters. And the Mudfoot Marauders will be in there with us.”Tobin spun his spear nervously. “Right. So w

Caspian woke up with a pounding headache and a strange taste in his mouth that he could only describe as "regret." The common room of the Hearth's Refuge looked like a disaster zone had declared war on a tavern and won.Tobin was sprawled across three chairs, one leg dangling off, his spear somehow balanced perfectly on his chest. Bulkan had fallen asleep sitting upright against the wall, snoring so loudly that the dust motes in the air vibrated. Fizzlewick was curled up in a corner with his Tome of Minor Truths open, using it as a pillow. Marnie was already awake, calmly sweeping around everyone's unconscious bodies with her wooden spoon tucked into her apron.Boris was face-down on the bar, one hand still clutching the ale certificate like a teddy bear.Elara emerged from the kitchen with a steaming mug and handed it to Caspian without a word. He took it gratefully. It was some kind of herbal tea, bitter but waking."Morning," she said quietly. "You disappeared last night. Alden?"C