OhmN

by M J Conlon

  “Yes, it seems that you have really stirred the pot with this one, but I suspect it will only last for the next three days or so. There is really nothing to be concerned with at this time.” Queen Mab said, not wanting to give an inch to Derick’s warning. The callous look on the queen’s face reminded him of someone who seemed to be out of place. Then playing on a hunch, Derick pulled out the Luscinda’s two fingers from his pocket and gently flew them over to the queen. A look of anger filled the princess’ face for a second, and while the look of anger was quickly wiped off of her face, the flush red of anger remained a while longer seemingly simmering under the surface of her skin. Why is she angry about fingers? It is almost as if she knows who the fingers belong to. Derick wanted to tell the Queen that he had killed Luscinda the number two of the thieves guild, but somehow Derick knew she would see through the ruse, then it hit him as to why.

  “What is this?” The queen said indignantly looking at the two fingers that were hovering in front of her face.

  “Those are your daughter’s,” Derick said. Derick quickly amended his statement seeing the young princess getting angry to his left. “Luscinda no doubt has told you about a hostile acquisition of her job posting.” Derick said, making sure to emphasize the name Luscinda. This time the queen looked flustered, if only for a second.

  A long pregnant pause.

  “How did you know?” The Queen finally broke the silence by asking the question that had clearly been eating at her for some time. Derick smiled knowing that he had bested her, though quickly let the smirk drop, he wanted the queen to respect his intelligence but he didn’t want her to become angry with his chicanery. It was a hunch, but Derick had survived quite often following his intuition and hunches, a trait he was surprised had followed him into the game. Is it my deductive reasoning transferring into the servers, or is this me becoming more in tune with my class. While the entity said I wouldn’t get any new powers did that mean that powers wouldn’t manifest on their own? Derick had the thoughts derail his train of thought for a second, then he was back. He decided to go the route of flattery.

  “I figured that one such as you would want many of your children to be in every aspect of this city’s inner workings. You have the one daughter acting as the third priestess to Aquarnia. So why not have another child at a different area that could cause trouble with your rule, the thieves guild. But ultimately it was her disproportionate reaction to my actions, given her propensity for women it was clear that she and Termeran were not lovers, yet she tried to kill me upon entering the guild. Even after I showed I could have killed her many times over, she attempted to kill me. The entire action seemed out of character for her, unless she already was already trying to avenge some perceived slight against Penelope.” Derick said, laying out many of the different clues he had been gathering from his time in the game. “But ultimately it was the actions of the princess that really helped me to make the connections,” Derick said, pointing toward the princess. “She had the same anger and almost irrational reaction to treat a problem with violence that helped to show the family resemblance. Especially the look of rage she showed to the fingers of a thief that should have meant nothing to her. Yet she knew who they belonged to before I even gave the name Luscinda,” Derick said, giving the queen the ability to punish her daughter for the breach, even though she too had her tells.

  “How did you know about Luscinda?” The Princess broke in. “About her being attracted to only women?” She continued, knowing the breach of etiquette, but still needing to know. A trait that Derick could appreciate, as he too had a thirst for knowledge that this game seemed to fill enough to at least quench most of his want for knowledge. Derick smiled, then answered.

  “It was the kiss.” Derick said, “while I admit I might not be the most attractive male specimen, I can tell when a kiss is something that is being forced.” Derick knew as he had to force a few kisses and seduction operations on his own while infiltrating towns or neighboring villages. It was always nice to know where a safe house could be found, should a field mission turn sideways.

  Derick remembered going back to the houses of his first two assets, ones that had given shelter to both him and his brother in arms. He could still smell the burnt stucco and the mixed smell of blood and gasoline that wafted on the air. After the first two, Derick began compartmentalizing, separating needs of survival from life. It was when he began separating the women and treating them as assets that their absence became easier to deal will, less real. Perhaps seeing this on his face, or merely wanting to move the conversation along, the queen broke in.

  “Are you finished with your questions about how you were out maneuvered?” The Queen began before continuing “though this is a valuable lesson for your, your temper will let others see you at your weakest.” Derick could see the queen would use her daughter as the out, just the way he had intended.

  “Oh yes,” Derick began “while you are no doubt aware, your daughter is in the process of trying to maintain her position as the number two of the thieves guild. While she is the front runner, I would make sure you help her acquire the most invaluable books and articles of knowledge. For while I am all for keeping members of the royal line in their position of power for an agreed upon price, others might not be so kind.” Derick said, using Luscinda’s possible position and relationship the queen as a perceived bargaining chip.

  “You dare threaten my sister?” The princess demanded with a snarl. Derick sighed and shook his head.

  “Why do you allow children to speak in adult conversations,” Derick said. “Her position is always a threat. If she is removed now, then all of Luscinda’s work for the past few years will be for naught. Additionally the other daughters that Queen Mab has placed at key locations within the other political factions of the city will also be at risk.” Derick said the last part about other political factions as simply a hunch, but that hunch paid off when the queen let another flicker of emotion wash across her face before it was hidden behind her ruling mask.

  “It seems Sage OhmN is a cunning opponent.” Queen Mab said, “perhaps he is correct in that you should be removed from these delicate proceedings.” While Derick was saddened to lose the princess and her easily readable gestures from helping with his deductions, he felt he had a good enough bead on the queen and her goals and intentions that he could dangle enough carrots in front of her to keep the course of the conversation in his favor. The Princess wanted to protest, but to her credit she turned and left the room quietly, though in a manner that denoted severe irritation. The queen waited until the sound of the side door closing shut could be heard, echoing in the tiny room, before she began.

  “Now then, it seems I have underestimated you. Does your offer for speaking on equal terms still apply?” Derick smiled coyly.

  “My dear queen, that is all I have asked for this entire visit,” Derick said with an almost mechanically sweet tone. It was the same tone he had used to speak to the officers that had been placed in charge of him that finally came around to understand that his suggestions a few months prior were in fact the way the unit should proceed forward with a particular objective. Derick always equated it to the fact that I was playing chess, while the officers were playing checkers. Now that Queen Mab is also aware of the game we are playing and the rules, this should be far more entertaining.

  “So how do you propose we begin our negotiations?” Queen Mab inquired with a faint purr to her words.

  “We begin as all allies would, a barter of goods for services and the like. I will begin, I will offer one blade that was used to attack you for a book of power.” Derick said, a faint smile forming his lips, for while Derick knew he couldn’t do anything with blood he had no doubts that something that used blood as a focus could be found in the game world.

  Additionally Derick wasn’t entirely sure if there were such things as books of power, but given the way no one corrected him at the Thieves Guild, he was fairly certain they did in fact exist. Instan
tly Queen Mab’s face became stern as to the obvious implications of what he was offering. “Now now my queen, I merely offer these blades to you, so that you might feel comfortable with their destruction.” Derick said with a smile that only crested his lips for a second and then disappeared.

  “Fine, but I want all three.”

  “Fine, what?”

  “Fine I will give you a book that unlocks healing magic in a person, but I want all three blades.”

  “So to be clear, you are offering a book that unlocks healing magic, in exchange for three blades that were used to attack you?” Derick wanted to make sure he had the wording correct.

  “Yes!”

  “Let me see the book, for we have a deal.” Derick stated. Though he thought the whole exchange was a bit too easy, which meant there was a trap. The queen waved her hand, and a hidden sphere appeared in the room.

  “There give that sphere to whomever you desire to learn healing magic.”

  Derick went over to the sphere, to see that it clearly offered healing magic, but only to elves.

  “This only allows elves to learn magic.” Derick said, grabbing the sphere in his palm.

  “You should have been more precise with your wording. Now a deal is a deal, hand over my blades.” The Queen said, holding out her hands. Derick smiled widely, as he felt he was going to enjoy today. Derick palmed the sphere inside his robe, where it promptly disappeared into his bag of holding. Then he moved three of the five blades that lay in a pile on the floor into Queen Mab’s outstretched hands.

  “I want the blades with my blood on them.” The Queen Demanded.

  “I want a sphere that will teach me healing magic, while you only wanted three of the eight blades that were used to attack you. As I was not precise enough to say I wanted a sphere or object of power that would unlock the magic in me, neither were you precise enough to state that you wanted the three blades with your blood on them, I guess we both should be more precise.” Derick offered with a smile. Then Derick added “now that our lesson in chicanery is over, can we begin bartering like decent people?”

  “You know, even for a Gnome, I would have at one time considered letting you sire a child with me.”

  “I am sure that is supposed to sound flattering, but let us stick to business and save our pleasures for later.”

  Queen Mab just smiled, as the battle of wills and wits began. By the time everything was said and done, Derick owed one restored portal node in the city of Jalinbad, would need to train one of Mab’s daughters of his choice in learning portals, and was out all three blades that had cut Queen Mab’s skin and drew blood. There was a caveat to the training of the daughter, as she would have to follow him around until she was a fully trained journeyman portalist, or they sired a child together. Being as Derick had already seen how crazy three of the daughters were, he did not expect the latter to happen, but let Mab throw it in as she sweetened the pot on that particular exchange.

  In all, once Derick was finally tired from his negotiations, he was the proud owner of three different training spheres for gnomes, one opened the realm of fire magics, one opened healing magics, and one opened spiritual attack magics. While he was not certain that the latter in particular nor any at all would work, he did feel confident that he could at least sell each at an inflated price.

  Additionally he was awarded two on going quests, one for the portal restoration: which offered experience and spell power points. Then a second quest was for the training of he princess, there was also the ability to double the experience and spell power points gained from siring the child and a quadrupling of initial experience points offered and spell power points if both conditions were met. It was the quadrupling stipulation that allowed Derick to retrieve the spiritual attack magic orb, so he couldn’t complain too much. If Derick had not started the game with never needing to eat, drink, or sleep he would have surely felt dizzy by now, but as he was still able to function clearly he felt ready to continue to go about the rest of his plans. The queen on the other hand looked a bit tired, it was now clear that she was mentally communicating with servants behind the scenes.

  “I must admit, your stamina is impressive.” The queen said, noting the fact that he never slouched or slumped the entire duration of their negotiations which lasted hours. Fortunately for Derick it seemed that he also had no need to sweat anymore, as his clothes were just the same as when he had entered. Derick wanting to deflect, merely added.

  “My dear queen, you would not be the first female to make such an observation.” Derick said, bowing slightly if Derick didn’t know better he could swear that he almost saw the woman blush. Perhaps she would have wanted me to sire a child with her, if she was not so… Derick let that thought die off there, as he did not want to imagine where that train of thought went, for while her face and most of her held a beauty it was her eyes and her hair that showed the real truth.

  She is nearing the end of her reign and wants to leave a lasting legacy. The part about her want to leave a Legacy behind was part of why Derick went with the threat against the daughters and then the threat to destroy any book or tapestry that spoke of her existing during the early part of their negotiations. One did not achieve this level of power for so long without vanity playing a key role.

  The queen recovered quickly from Derick’s quick response.

  “I present to you my daughters.” Queen Mab said. Derick didn’t know if it was just his now being used to the queen, or if he was now more observant to the ambient uses of magic around him, but he could feel the mental pulse leave her body and travel out to a destination beyond the walls. With that both walls opened and no less than ten different female elves walked in. Derick saw the princess in red, Penelope in blue, The impostor queen, the impostor princess, he saw a muscular female elf that looked to be a ranger, there was an elf that appeared to be a rogue, one that had straight dark hair and tanned skin that appeared to have aetherial energy pulsing through her. There was an elf that wore the armor of the elite royal guard, but Derick was fairly certain that this princess deserved her spot by the way she glared at him. There was an elf who had fire red hair, and wore an impressive green robe that Derick attributed to her being in the mage’s guild. There was another female who wore the red robes of what Derick could only assume was a fire mage. Even Luscinda was present, though she never made eye contact with Derick, Derick couldn’t blame her as he felt a little disgusted at this part of the process. But a deal is a deal.

  “Queen Mab, as delightful as your presence always is, I will need you to leave the room for this next portion of my selection process. I need the student to be honest and forthright with not only me, but also themselves and I feel they might suggest you would judge them harshly if you were here.” Derick said, then quickly added. “Once the candidate is chosen we will depart and return within 30 days. Please ensure there is a bag with rations and appropriate gear for each of your daughters by the door. They will grab the appropriate gear before we leave and then we will be off, training.” Derick did this for two reasons, he wanted his potential student to be honest with him, but he also thought that the Queen looked tired from their prolonged negotiations.

  “You do make some valid points, I will have the guards post a bag for each of my daughters by the door. When they are not chosen, they are to take their items back to the storage area and explain how they were deemed to be unworthy to the portal master.” The queen said this last part to her children, who each stood up a little straighter at the command. Well fuck, this is going to make their being honest a lot tougher.

  Finally a guard came into the room, where the queen gestured at her long mane of silver hair. The guard quickly grabbed the mane and began gently wrapping it in his arms. Then a second and a third guard came in to stand by her sides as she walked out of view. The stone door ground shut as they left the hidden room. Immediately outside the room Derick could feel the two guards at the queen’s side grab the queen who collapsed almost instantly once
she no longer needed to appear to be as indomitable in front of her daughters. Derick looked out and saw the three guards quickly take her down a side passage way, then out of the immediate viewing area of his psychic-vision which now sat at over 100 yards easily. With that Derick turned back to the ten princesses who stood before him.

  “Look. I don’t know what you were told, nor why you think you are here. My name is De…OhmN.” Derick almost let his persona slip again, though he could not recall how long ago his last slip was, nor how long he had been going without rest. The only thing that was apparent to Derick was that he would not need to rest any time soon. “You are being given the chance to learn the profession of portalist to the journeyman level. This is a gift that I owe your mother, nothing more is expected of you other than you take your lessons seriously. If you are under the impression that anything else is possible between us, then think again.” Derick paused, looking each of the girls in the eyes, many of the girls glared back angrily at him, while Penelope seemed to have a look of sadness to her face, but it seemed as if she could not explain why.

  “That said, being a portalist is tough, you need to be able to learn the ancient runic language of the gnomes, which is entirely different from the dwarfs or any other language you think you might know. You cannot take this lightly, as any miscalculation by you could send you, your friends, or anyone or thing that you sent to a destination that you do not want to know what exists on the other side. If you cannot feel confident that your mathematical prowess is capable of keeping up with a thousand different permutations for each node, each destination point, the rotation of the planets each node is on, the intercepting fields of influence exerted by solar systems that intercept the paths most taken at any give time, then you are not alone. If any of you feel that this profession, or your unyielding faith to do quantitative mathematics will be a stopping point for you, please take one step back before leaving here.” Derick said, then waited seeing that the ranger, the rogue, Luscinda, the elite royal guard, the impostor queen, the impostor princess all left the line and then proceeded to go out in unison. This left the princess, Penelope, the aetherial mage, the nature mage, and the fire mage as potential candidates. Derick looked at all the women, the decided how he could do his next stage of elimination, he only wanted candidates that could learn this profession as quickly and painlessly as possible.