Jyck had always been unlucky.

  It had all started when his mother had died in child birth. His grief stricken father turned to drink, though he never blamed Jyck out loud or beat him.

  He just wanted him out of the house most of the time, because he couldn't bear to see the suggestions of his wife's face in Jyck.

  Everyone in the village took pity on him at first, until his bad luck had "infected" them and then they all steered well clear.

  Everyone said he had Jellica's eyes, soft blue like a Ruddock's egg. He got lost sometimes looking at his eyes in the Clearlake nearby, it hurt knowing that he could see her eyes in his own head but had never seen her. Sometimes they didn't even feel like they were his.

  Jyck was still largely happy, even if everyone gave him the cold shoulder, or didn't love him the way a father should, it wasn't their fault, he really did have incredibly bad Luck! It was literally 1 out of a possible 50 bestowed at birth. Most common people like Jyck had between 8-10 Luck, the only other person in town that had less than that was the farrier, but his was only 5 and all he ever had to deal with was rocks in his shoes and an occasional bite from out of nowhere by a horse or two! Nothing like Jyck. But still...Jyck was largely happy, yes definitely still...largely happy.

  Jyck's face screwed up in frustration and despair. He had tried so hard. He had gotten SO close. It wasn't enough.

  He stared at the status screen of his latest attempt at changing his literal fortune and wept openly, not bothering to wipe away the tears that fell to the bare dirt of his hidey-hole in the old willow.

  [Quest: A Few Bad Eggs.] (Common)

  Details: Find all the bad eggs in Farmer Ted's Chicken Coop and Pen before time runs out!

  Eggs: 4/?

  Status: Failed to find 1 egg 4/5.

  Reward: +1 to any attribute! - Failed.

  Better Luck Next time!

  One egg, one missing egg had caused him to fail...again. As he always did, no matter how easy the quest.

  He had scoured the entire coop, flipped every nest and dug through the feed trough, the water bowl, the damn dirt itself!

  And he couldn't find it within the time, heck he still didn't see it anywhere. Farmer Ted would smell it eventually.

  Time to let him know.

  He dusted himself off and trudged back over to Ted's and knocked softly on the old wooden door. Ted Answered with a half smile and some lemonade in hand.

  "Well then ya wee banner-knacker, how went the hunt?" Ted said in his odd accent.

  Ted had moved to their small village only a few years ago and he treated Jyck better than most.

  "Not well, sir." Jyck replied with his head down.

  "None of that now, I'm no shiny fool of pomp and circumstance, ya know ta call me Ted." As he opened his screen door and handed the glass of lemonade to Jyck he took the basket of bad eggs and inspected them.

  "Huh, I could have sworn there were only four...ya sure you didnae find them all?"

  "Yes si- I mean yes Mr. Ted. The Status screen says there's a fifth in there somewhere. Sorry."

  "Hmph." Was apparently the entirety of his thoughts on the matter.

  "I better get going Mr. Ted, Pa wants me home to eat before sundown."

  Ted grumbled under his breath and turned to his coop. "Boy ya've got just a moment ta wait, I'll be right back."

  When he returned a few minutes later his face was...odd. It looked like he was mad but it wasn't directed at anything.

  "I found it. It was eggbound in one of me older Hen's! How the absolute-wank-stain-of-a-system thinks this be a friars fete I cannae tell ye, but I'm sorry boy."

  Jyck just stared at the egg Ted had retrieved. It felt like his stomach was about to burst.

  He started laughing and crying so hard that it hurt, it literally couldn't get any worse than this! Inside a hen! He was doomed, it was just a fact, he'd probably end up dead within an hour once he was out of the Tutorial period of his life in a few short years. Why fight it? Why? Why him, why his poor mother, why? Random chance. It was unfair, but then what wasn't?

  Ted had been awkwardly standing next to him looking concerned as Jyck had his outburst, clearly not knowing what to do or if he should comfort the poor boy. Jyck wiped his eyes and leaned on the fence to recover his composure.

  "Listen boy, I...I am sorry about, well everything in your life honestly. It's not fair the fate of some, and yer a good boy, it's not alright." His voice cracked at the beginning but it gained strength by the end, as if he'd decided on something final.

  "It's alright sir," Jyck said forgetting once again. "I'm just not loved by the Heavens and I never will be, it's nothing anyone can do anything about."

  "Ah, well...that is not strictly speaking true." He glanced up to see Ted rubbing the back of his neck and looking away into the woods on the edge of his farm. "Are you willing to take something of a risk, boy?"

  "Like what?" Jyck asked, confused.

  "Like a risk of losing what little luck you DO have in order to gain 5 points in one go? It's not going to put you on the Path to Hegemony or anything, but it's a sight more than the near certain Fate that awaits you as things are now, eh?" Ted looked very serious now, and determined.

  Jyck didn't know what to say. He'd never heard of any opportunity like the one Ted described, except in tales and fables that Old Potter Hill told on Sundays to the children after he'd had a few.

  "I think I'm just not..." Jyck began and then stopped. He'd been going to say he wasn't worth it, that he would never amount to anything when this too inevitably failed, but what had he to lose? His single point of luck? What good was it doing him now?

  "I'll do it." Jyck finally said.

  Ted's eyes lit up and he went inside with the empty glass and came back with a rolled up piece of parchment.

  "Tonight, when yer pa goes to pub and has been away for half the hour, I want you to go the spot on this map." He said handing Jyck the map and a compass made of what looked to be Ancient Brass of all things, he'd seen a clock made of the stuff once but that had been at a town fair as a curiosity, the stuff was beyond rare. Most everything he'd ever seen was made of crude iron or at best pot steel.

  He looked up at Ted and dared to hope.

  "Don't look at me like that boy. I may not be doing you any kind of favor, this is a true risk, and I wouldnae advise it were you anyone else, but desperate times call for desperate measures as me dear mother always used to say. At the spot you will find a tree with a lightning scar. In the hollow of that tree is a wee hole that you can probably just shimmy into. Go in and you will find a trial made just for you. Complete it and you will gain, fail and you will be punished. You will live, but ye won't be happy I can promise ye." He clasped his hands around Jyck's and the items within and turned him around toward home. "Go on now boy, away wiye. Don't tell yer Pa, he will stop ye, and make no mistake. Good luck boy, go with the Grace of Her Wisdom."

  With that invocation to the Mother he turned and walked inside, leaving Jyck to amble home with a wildly beating heart and hope like he hadn't ever felt.

  Maybe, finally his Luck would turn.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  His father was waiting at the table when he got home. He had stowed the parchment and the compass in his hidey hole in the willow before running home, and he'd been late as a result.

  As he came in, Pa just nodded without looking at him longer than was necessary to identify him and bowed his head over the table with his hands clasped in front of him. Jyck sat down and assumed the same position.

  "Heavenly Host we beseach ye to bless this repast and nourish our bodies in the name of the Divine Council." With that he split the bread and gave half to Jyck and ladled the soup into the bowls on the table. It was simple fare, they were simple people, but it was plentiful and it was filling and tasty. All that could be asked for according to Pa, at least until it came to drink.

  As he had been late Pa expected him to do all of the cleaning instead of just the majority, and stayed at the table unspeaking and eyes distant as Jyck tidied up around him. When he was finished Pa thanked him, gave him a wan smile, kissed his head and went to the door to fetch his coat. "Make sure to wash up before you go to bed. I will see you at breakfast. Good night." And with that he left. Jyck's heart hurt as he watched his Pa walk with his sole purpose down the road to the town-proper. He wished he was worthy of his father's love.

  He cleaned up, got himself ready and then waited a half an hour, watching the candle flame burn ever closer to the marker he'd placed. He was deep in thoughts of a future, with real friends and real work, one where his Pa would look at him without seeing a ghost and a failure, when the pig iron nail fell to the candle basin with a clatter. He jerked his head up with a start, in one movement he spun to his hook to grab his coat and pack, tripped over his feet, hit the table, sent the candle flying and was rewarded with hot wax on his oustretched hands. Cursing his Luck, he reset the table and returned the candle to it's place, bent but still servicable and closed the door behind him as he left.

  He skipped a bit in spite of his mildly scalded hand and took off towards the willow into the dimming twilight.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  He had followed the map using the last of the dying light and then his glow-lamp to the secluded glade. In the center was the lightning scarred tree. Mr. Ted hadn't told him much about the place. He didn't think description would have done it much justice. It was...ethereal he thought the word was, he'd heard a wandering Kivathi Scholar talking about the ethereal misty hills surrounding the town proper and the explanation he'd given for the word very much matched this place. It was alight with mystery and it was otherworldly. The place was very clearly magic and it took less than a moment for Jyck to hustle his way to the tree.

  Before he knew what he was doing he had placed his glow-lamp on the ground and put his hand on the silver bark of the tree. The light from the moon above limned the edges of the bark in gold that almost seemed to turn to mist in the night air. The bark was cool to the touch, smooth papery skin covering the massive trunk. The crevice Ted had mentioned was not on the side he had approached so he went around, absentmindedly tracing his fingers on the bark as he did so.

  He came to the dark opening and knelt down crawling forward without hesitation. His mind awash in Ancient harmonies and chime-like tones. The hole in the tree felt infinitely deep, like it extended into reality itself. It was a Transfer Gate. He had heard of them as he listened in to his "friends" playing just out of sight one day, talking about becoming adventurers and soldiers for the Baron. He never thought he'd see one, let alone that one was right here in the blasted woods, a short walk from his home!

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The darkness beckoned, and heart thumping, he crawled in as a wall of velveteen gloom swallowed him.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Light seeped through his eyelids and he realized he was standing. He opened his eyes to a world of colors and movement as his ears started to register the noise of the crowd around him. Something wasn't right.

  Peering around he realized everything looked wrong. He looked down at his legs and saw he was wearing a rough outfit of linen and leather with a belt and scabbard at his waist. He was too tall. He wasn't in his own body.

  He ran to a nearby shop window and scrubbed a pane as clean and shiny as he could with a sleave. Staring back at him in a translucent haze was no one he recognized. It was a man in probably middle age with a beard and a frankly bewildered look on his face as he stared at himself mouth agape. But he noticed one thing was the same, his eyes. He still had his eyes. They looked out of place on this rough time-worn face. He kept looking at himself until he was interrupted by a polite cough behind him.

  "If the good sir would like to come in and take a look, we would be happy to show you our various wares and/or services. If you're amenable and sufficiently solvent as it were?" The voice dripped with oil and vinegar. The man he turned to see was dressed in a neatly tailored suit the likes of which he'd seen on what his father called The Honourable Country Dandies, sons of the various farflung Barons of the farmlands and hills, only this one lacked all the color and lace he'd seen then. A crooked smile was all he could muster.

  He said not a word as he fled in mild embarrassment and confusion. Wasn't he just at the tree? Oh right, the Transfer Gate. This was not what he had expected at all. He thought he'd just be taken to some trial room like the boys in the village all dreamed of going to. This was something else entirely. What was he even meant to be doing?

  Just as he had the thought a Quest Prompt opened in front of him.

  [Quest: Trial of Fate] (Rare)

  Details: After a night out drinking with your charge and some lovely ladies he managed to pull, you awaken with no idea where you are where he is, or what happened last night.

  Find your charge: Antonias Borgare

  Charge Found: 0/1

  Status: Ongoing

  Reward: +5 to luck

  Punishment: Lose 2x your current luck up to a max of 10.

  He read and re-read the quest several times but could glean nothing more from it. He even tried to look behind the screen for a moment in a futile attempt at seeing if more was written but it just moved with his point of view as it always did.

  That was it? That was all he got? How was he supposed to find this Antonias with just that to go on?! Had his Luck already made this harder on him? Was he given less to go on because of his terrible stat?

  He was on the verge of panicking when he stopped and took a breath, then another. This was a trial, this was his one shot at becoming something other than a brief misery to those around him. He needed to focus, to think.

  He started rummaging through his paltry storage. One bag, a belt knife, an empty scabbard and what looked like a drink token from a tavern somewhere in the city, featuring a crown and griffin. Well ok, there was something!

  He rifled through the bag and found a few coins in a metal he couldn't recognize, like brass but heavier and shinier and a few that looked like tin but also shinier and a lock of hair tied with a small strand of blue-bells.

  He sat on a nearby fountain edge and splayed his items before him. The only thing he thought was immediately actionable was the drink token. He stowed everything else and took off toward one of the many Barkers standing on raised platforms throughout the crowd. The young man was older than he was in his real body but no more than 18 or 19 and covered in dirt, but he cried out over the crowd with confidence about news and local maps for sale.

  "Excuse me s- young sir, er, but could you possibly tell me where the establishment that takes these tokens is located?" He said as he held it up.

  "Roight, so at's gonna be The Crown and Griffin over in the East Wind Quarter, straight 'at way and then follow the Canal de Crisquey until you hit it on your left opposite the canal, if you hit the whore-houses you've gone too far."

  Then he held out his hand and started shouting again. After a few moments the man above him looked down irritated before Jyck figured out what was wrong. He opened the bag and handed the Barker one of the shiny Brass-like coins and said thank you as he left.

  He didn't see the look of slack-jawed amazement on the young man's face.

  The Barker surreptitiously palmed the coin and stepped down from his platform and signaled for one of his mates to step up for his turn, he was going to enjoy a meal and a bath, it was his lucky day, after all he'd just made a years salary.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Jyck was still following what he assumed was the Canal de Whatever, and was losing hope when he saw a faded sign with a crowned griffin much like the one on his token.

  A steady flow of traffic was coming and going every few minutes but the place didn't sound or look too full from outside. He walked up and pushed open the door, just as someone else was coming out and was smacked in the face and knocked down. Rubbing his forehead where the door had hit him he looked up and saw a handsome young man with dazzling green eyes and a half-smile staring down at him with familiarity.

  "There you are Kazan! I've been looking all over for you. We really tied one on last night didn't we old boy? I say I've never seen someone swallow that much Corium Brandy and juggle swords, it was quite the sight!" Jyck looked back through incomprehension and bleary eyes that were finally drying. He held his nose as he said, "Antonias?" with a mixture of question and hope.

  "No, I'm afraid the young lord is nowhere to be seen either. You two were like a whirlwind in the dueling arena you know?" Jyck groaned as he realized that this was not Antonias. How could it be, with his Luck?

  "I was hoping that he'd be found with you actually Kazan. You two were last seen together, leaving here with a couple of fine fillies I hear! I sadly left to attend to a matter of some urgency on behalf of the Marquis, but needs must, yes?" He pulled Jyck/Kazan to his feet and with a deft flourish produced a gleaming blade.

  Jyck recoiled briefly before the man tucked the weapon in the empty scabbard at his waist. "You apparently left this with the barman? Told him it was to commemorate the event apparently." He laughed as he straightened from his maneuver to look Jyck in the eyes.

  "I'm afraid I've had little time to search. The Marquis is genuinely paranoid at the moment about the Abject Hierarchy fomenting discord and war on the border to the north. The Blighters will swarm them soon as they always do, I tell him, but he's convinced this time will be different." The man sighed and turned to leave with a quick quip over his shoulder. "Hurry and find the little lordling would you? His mother is starting to really chap my hide, I know it's typical for the boy but she's in a tizzy and I can't seem to calm her as I usually can. This whole family will be the death of me, I swear. Chop Chop, weapon-master!"

  Then he was gone. Like he'd never ben there at all.

  Jyck was left confused but had gained a sword. It was absolutely stunning Blue Steel too by the looks of it. A knife was the largest piece he'd ever seen in his life and it was the common stock you'd find on provincial gentry. This, was something else entirely. It was a foot and a half of gleaming dark blue metal with an edge like none he'd ever seen. He touched the tip and a drop of blood appeared without even a twinge of pain.

  He sucked his finger as he sheathed the beautiful weapon.

  When he turned back towards the street, seeing no point in going in to investigate when the man he'd talked to had probably given him all he was going to get here, he was met by two women in scarves that tied there long blonde hair back that looked, frankly pissed.

  "Uhh, hello?" He said in what he could only assume was a voice tempered by yelling and hard drink.

  The two young women just stared and then asked almost in unison, "When are you going to come get this dumb lout from our apartment, he hasn't even woken yet and we have things to do today!" He blinked once, twice, three times and said, with more hope this time, "Antonias?"

  "YES!" the women nearly screamed together.

  He didn't understand why it was this easy. His Luck was absolutely terrible how was this possible?!

  Suddenly he thought of something. He brought up his Status Screen and was blown away by what he found.

  Strength - 110

  Dexterity - 110

  Constitution - 110

  Intelligence - 70

  Wisdom - 80

  Luck - 45

  What was this?

  Where was his abysmal Luck and where did all of these other stats come from? He'd never been able to earn any boosts. What was going on?

  He looked up at the sound of tapping feet and shook his head.

  "Sorry. Lead the way?"

  They harumphed and he followed grinning all the way, what else could he do?

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  A snoring, disheveled man in his late 20's greeted him when he entered the girls' apartment. Antonias, he presumed, was face first in a thick pool of his own drool. Sawing away. One of the two girls pinched the slumbering man and he started awake with a small cry.

  "What's 'at?" He whirled and stood on the bed before tumbling in a tangle of limbs and half-worn clothes.

  Jyck looked down at his "Charge" with a small smile and said, "Good morning sir, time to go home. You're mother is worried sick about you." Jyck's smile slipped for a moment as he realized what he'd said, but he put it back with the swiftness of long practice.

  "Ohhhh, come on Kazan." The pile that was his charge said from the floor. "It's only just morning, can't she just wait a few moments?"

  "It's nearly 2 hands past midday you scruffy cur!" The woman on the right yelled at him as the other on gathered various clothes and items strewn across the room.

  "Oh." Antonias said as he slid his shirt over his head and sat up on the bed, somehow already in his pants and boots. "Well then we should be well on our way, eh Kazan? We can't leave my lord-mother waiting." His smile was genuine but somehow off, like he'd done this all before, too many times maybe.

  They left and headed down one of the main-thoroughfares towards the center of the city, where a great dome of stone and gleaming metal sat in the early afternoon sun.

  "Almost home then Kazan, then you can deliver me to my mother and go and sleep off that hangover I just know you must have." He laughed as he walked with a sway in his step.

  He was incredibly graceful for someone that had to be feeling quite a bit worse for wear based on the context of the previous evening. "You know I didn't know you knew the three step flash technique you old goat, had no idea you were even fast enough to perform it let alone block it. I guess father pays you for a good reason."

  "Uhhh, your Honourable Lorship," he blurted from his scant memories of proper decorum, "is too kind. I am...always happy to teach." He finished awkwardly but with a small smile as he turned to Antonias.

  The look on the man's face was transformative, gone was the lazy young lordling without a care in the world. Before him now stood his death, rage incarnate and then it was like it had never been, lost in a look of affable ease. Only the lines of tension in the way Antonias walked from that point on belied the slip.

  Jyck had never seen anything like that before. Not even when the older boys would tease or bully him back in the village. It had made his mouth dry and his blood run cold.

  "Come now Kazan I am no Baron's barely legitimate son, please refer to me by my proper title if you're to refer to me at all, eh? I think I can make my own way from here." He said as they neared the gates, again in that shiny metal so reminiscent of Ancient Brass.

  He noticed the sun was fast falling, which couldn't be right, it was just early afternoon.

  Antonias turned over his shoulder, and once more had a glint in his eye like the Adversary himself as he said, "Too bad, you were so close too."

  As the gates closed behind Antonias, Jyck surged forward realizing something was wrong, that what he'd thought was a done deal had abruptly fallen from his grasp. Then everything went black.

  When he opened his eyes again he found that he had been crying, as he realized what had just happened, he continued, with deep heaving sobs.

  He couldn't even bare to look at eh blurred words of the Quest Status Screen before him.

  [Quest: Trial of Fate] (Rare)

  Details: After a night out drinking with your charge you were tasked with locating him and bringing him home.

  Find your charge: Antonias Borgare

  Charge Found: 0/1

  Status: Failed

  Reward: +5 to luck - Failed

  Punishment: Lose 2x your current luck up to a max of 10. - Failed

  What had he done wrong, he wasn't used to all of this fancy stuff. He didn't know how any of it worked! Why had Antonias suddenly left, what was that horrible feeling he had given Jyck when he looked at him? Why? Why him, why again?! It was his damn Luck!

  He screamed, a shrill cry of pain, of anguish and demand from the Divine Council, how could they let things like this happen?

  What had he done to deserve any of this?

  It felt like hours had passed as he screamed, until his throat was sore and his lungs had no air left.

  Then he just lay there, tears and sweat and snot streaming down his face as he tried to think of what to do.

  He could only do one thing. He had to finish the quest and go home. He pulled up the screen and scrolled down to the accept/close button.

  He clicked it and he felt something vital drain away from him.

  Switching over to his Status Screen he watched as his only Stat hit 0 as the points were deducted.

  This was his life now. Or what was left of it.

  Then another wave of vital energy was pulled from him and he gasped and fell to the floor again.

  His status Screen flickered and then changed as his Luck ticked down again this time to -1 and then the Screen buzzed and hummed, distorting and shifting as if it were torn by some unseen wind. It shattered and he threw his hands in front of his face as the pieces were flung outward in a ring. He felt nothing as they passed through him and continued on. He watched them until they disappeared in the surrounding darkness. Turning back to where the screen had been he found a strange square of darkness in front of him. It was the exact shape and size of the Status Screen but it was if the area was a lack of something rather than a presence of something.

  It was like he was looking into nothing at all. Reaching out he brushed his hand across the edge where the frame would be and an explosion of light caused him to throw his hands up again. Peaking out he saw a scintillating crystalline screen in front of him. It looked like the status screen but if it were made of some kind of pale crystal instead of the matte blue with a white border.

  On it was an incomprehensible message:

  IntegerOverflowError Value set to Max.

  "Uhhh..."

  Jyck quickly brought up his status screen.

  [Status Screen]

  Luck - 255

  "Oh, Oh wow. I..." and then he passed out again.