SIPHON
Book One of A TOUCH OF POWER Series
Written by Jay Boyce
© 2018 Mountaindale Press. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by US copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Newsletter
Prologue
Chapter One – New
Chapter Two – Stats
Chapter Three – Assimilation
Chapter Four – Healer
Chapter Five – Altered
Chapter Six – Zombie
Chapter Seven – Invention
Chapter Eight – Rumors
Chapter Nine – Protein
Chapter Ten – Magic
Chapter Eleven – Interview
Chapter Twelve – Light
Chapter Thirteen – Monsters
Chapter Fourteen – Phoenix
Chapter Fifteen – Drained
Chapter Sixteen – Analysis
Chapter Seventeen – Titles
Chapter Eighteen – Royalty
Chapter Nineteen – View
Chapter Twenty – Schedule
Chapter Twenty-One – Bags
Chapter Twenty-Two – Shopping
Chapter Twenty-Three – Friends
Chapter Twenty-Four – Workshop
Chapter Twenty-Five – Overload
Chapter Twenty-Six – Consequences
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Accounting
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Cursive
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Mesmer
Chapter Thirty – Cancelled
Chapter Thirty-One – Bogeyman
Chapter Thirty-Two – Happy
Chapter Thirty-Three – Fishy
Chapter Thirty-Four – Trap
Chapter Thirty-Five – Creation
Chapter Thirty-Six – Path
Epilogue
Afterword
About Jay Boyce
About Mountaindale Press
Mountaindale Press Titles
GameLit and LitRPG
Appendix
People
Places
Magic
Known Beasts
Abbreviated Timeline of Events
Jade’s Ability Descriptions
Acknowledgments
To those who helped with this project, I offer my most heartfelt thanks. To my amazing parents, who have always encouraged me in my love affair with books. To my brother Xander, who introduced me to the genre I came to love and has shared my ups and downs as we entered the industry together. To Kristin Richins, who without her push to start writing again, this book would not exist. To Sandara Tang, my amazing artist who squeezed me into her very busy schedule at the last minute. To Steven Novak, who did an amazing job on my typography. To all of my patrons and loyal readers on RRL, far too many to name, who gave me the courage and inspiration to keep writing, and who were my sanity check and sounding boards. To the GameLit Writer’s Society, who have provided me encouragement, advice, and insight into the world I’m now exploring.
I give my thanks to Dakota and Danielle Krout, who had the faith to offer a brand new author the chance to officially publish, and who have helped me so much in every way imaginable. Lastly, I thank God for making all of this possible, and making me the person that I am.
So to my readers, thank you! I could never have done all this alone.
Newsletter
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Prologue
It wasn’t what I imagined it would be like. It’s cliché, but I guess you really should be careful what you wish for.
At some point in your life, I think everyone wishes they could be someone or something else. I was envious of what others could do, and I wished…I wished I could just have a fraction of their talent and energy. When you live most of your life in a hospital staring out a window, I’m told it’s pretty common to think about the ‘what ifs’ of life. What if I were healthy? What if I could run around? What if I could go to school? But I couldn’t. My life was just a countdown of being comfortable enough until I finally kicked it and died.
So what does any sane person do when they’re completely trapped in the cage we call a body? You lose yourself in the internet, duh. I mean, even normal people do that, or so I’m told. It’s an easy escape into a world of your own creation. So I played games, I read books, I talked to people…and I envied videos of people who were able to actually go out and do. As awesome as losing myself was…I still wished that just once, I could experience a normal life for myself.
Well, that brings us back to the start. You see, I’m pretty sure I died. I don’t actually remember kicking it, so I can’t be totally sure, but I think it happened. Why? Because when I woke up, it was to a pretty blue box covering my vision.
Chapter One – New
Day One
System Scan commencing.
Initializing Profile.
Traveler, welcome to Andara! You have been placed in the country of Caoi.
Good luck on your adventures!
Jade stared blankly at the floating blue box in front of her, trying to make sense of it. The room was eerily quiet, and she glanced around, startled. Gone was the constant hum of machines that were keeping her alive and measuring her vitals. In a panic, she swiped at the air to get rid of the boxes so that she could look around, only then noticing that she could wave her arms without obstruction.
Utterly flabbergasted, she paused, staring at the simple room that was revealed with the absence of the blue box hogging her vision. Gone was the sterilized white hospital room, and in its place was what resembled a dorm room…? It had a small bed with a nightstand, a bare desk, a small dresser, and two closed doors—one beside the bed and one across the room. That was it; no wires pumping anything into her arms or checking her pulse, no machines keeping her alive. Instead of the smell of disinfectant, a gentle hint of cedar and herbs filled her nose.
She stared in wonder at the pale arms she held in front of her. They were skinny, but they seemed completely healthy. Are these really my arms? She stared at her hands, turning them over and observing the play of light coming in from the window. With a thought, she pushed the blanket off of her legs and attempted to stand. She was uncoordinated at first, wobbling as she stood up and stumbled forward a few steps jubilantly.
Peering around again, she noticed a mirror that she’d missed before and stumbled over to it, mesmerized by the face staring back at her. Dark brown hair lightly curled over her shoulders and her jade green eyes appeared luminous. Her skin was pale and she was skinny, but stable. She studied her new body in awe. She might be small, but she was no longer just skin and bones or colored a sickly yellow tinge. Her eyes were even missing the customary red that she’d grown accustomed to seeing in the mirror.
She might not be strong…but she was healthy! Laughing out loud, she stumbled over to the window, still trying to get used to the fairly new sensation of walking entirely under her own power. With a giant grin on her face, she stared out at the new world.
From her window, she could see what seemed like a strange mix of the modern world and an ancient fantasy setting. The buildings and storefronts appeared like something she’d see in a small city on Earth, but the people… They were dressed in all sorts of vivid colors and armor, toting around weapons like what she’d imagined in the average fantasy setting. Laughing brightly, she stepped away and tried to spin, only to trip and fall flat on her face.