Big Trouble

by Andrew Seiple

  “Without pursuit, or further aggression,” Thomasi said, eyes still on Chase.

  “Unless they go back to town. I have plans for that town, and I won’t be held accountable if they decide to get in my way.”

  “No,” Chase spoke, but Thomasi spoke over her.

  “Yes,” he said, firmly. “This is between me and him. Do not waste what I’m giving up for you. And listen, what you’re looking for isn’t in town anyway. And it isn’t here, so where does that leave, then?” His eyes flicked right, but before Chase could follow his gaze, he snapped his fingers. “Listen to me, don’t look away. Got it?”

  And Chase did.

  There was only one thing she could think of in that direction. She didn’t need to look to know it was there.

  “If you’re done trying to drop codes and hints, we need to seal this deal. Hit me, Tom. One free punch. You know you wanna.” Vaffanculo moved up, arms wide like he was going to embrace an old friend.

  “No need,” Thomasi said, turning to the side. “Options,” he said, and Chase’s ears flared in amazement.

  He’d used a skill but none she’d ever heard of before. What even was that? What could it possibly do?

  She watched in confusion as the Ringmaster dragged his hand through the air, swiping at something she couldn’t see.

  “There we go, was that so difficult?” Vaffanculo shrugged. “Now. Do your thing.”

  “Go,” Thomasi snapped. “I said go!” He yelled, roaring at Chase. “Don’t test him!”

  Chase tucked her rocks away, grabbed Renny up, and fled, with Greta hot on her heels.

  And behind them, she heard Thomasi’s voice rise with that tone that denoted a skill being used.

  “Send in the Clowns,” the Ringmaster spoke.

  Horns honked joyously.

  “Kill them!” Vaffanculo commanded, and Chase looked over her shoulder, whip-fast, then snapped her head back around and kept on running.

  And as the halven sisters fled into the woods, behind them, the last clown gurgled blood and honked his horn mournfully as the skeletons clawed him down and threw him on a pile of greasepaint-caked corpses, each one dressed in floppy, loose clothes. All of which were now stained with red, red blood.

  “Again, if you please,” Vaffanculo nodded at Thomasi.

  “Send in the Clowns,” the Ringmaster said, shaking his head in disgust.

  And as four clowns leaped up from behind gravestones and out of pits, the Necromancer smiled again.

  “Kill them,” he told his skeletons, and once more the grisly scene played out.

  Five frantic minutes later, Chase collapsed, exhausted, behind a crumbling log.

  Greta hopped over it and joined her, face red as she panted. Finally the taller girl caught her breath. “Chase, what do we do? What do we even do?”

  “I don’t know. Let me think,” Chase said, letting Renny go. The fox hopped up and sat on the log, waiting, ears swiveling.

  Chase looked over at him, waited until his glass eyes were staring back. “I should have realized it in the tavern. Hoon froze time, but only for people. The fire still crackled, and objects could be moved around. But you were frozen. You’ve been a... a person all this time. That’s how you got into Mom’s sewing kit.”

  “Yes,” Renny nodded. “I’m sorry for fooling you. I was hurt and scared and didn’t know how you’d react. And I couldn’t talk because my voice was torn out.”

  “Which is why Hoon gave me a sewing kit with a... a... sounding box. Yes. That’s in your throat now, isn’t it?”

  “It was very convenient that you had that. I was surprised when you put it in the backpack, and I sewed it in and attached it while you were walking. It wasn’t easy. I’m glad there was a mirror in the kit or it would have been impossible. As it was I got a Tailor level out of doing it, finally.”

  “Yes,” Chase said, absently. “He thought of everything. Now I’m sure he cheated me with that mug game.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” She pulled up the party screen again and stared at it. “You’re a toy golem.”

  “Yes.”

  “And a fox, and an Air Elementalist, and a Tailor, but I know what those are. I don’t know what a Sensate is, though.”

  “Chase?” Greta asked.

  “Let him speak. I’m taking stock of our resources,” Chase said. “Figuring out options. Strengths. Stuff like that. It’s all very, it’s all...”

  The adrenaline left her then, and she sniffled. “It’s all very hard,” she said, feeling her voice crack. “Skeletons, Greta! We almost got killed by skeletons! He would have killed... us...”

  Then her sister’s arms were around her, and Chase cried for a bit into Greta’s shoulder. But only for a bit.

  A pair of fuzzy arms circled her neck and gave her a brief squeeze, when she was done crying. “I’m sorry,” Renny said again.

  “It’s okay,” Chase sniffled until her voice was clear. “Tell me about your Sensate job.”

  “It’s a job that works with the five senses. It can make illusions and affect other people’s senses. I can dull and heighten senses. I can make people deaf or put them to sleep. I can make simple illusions that don’t do much. That’s about as good as I’ve gotten with it so far.”

  “Okay. I don’t know we can use that yet, but okay.” Chase rummaged in her pockets, and hauled out a roll. “Eat up, Greta. We’ve got a walk ahead of us.”

  “You figured out what we’re doing, then?” Greta asked.

  “Yes. We’ve only got two options. It’s a choice,” Chase said. “Not a good one. This is the page of warriors reversed, this is where that card comes in, I think.”

  “What? You’re not making sense. You said some weird stuff on the hill, too.”

  “I’ll explain that later when we have more time. Vaffanculo wants to attack our town and make people undead or something like that, right? So the first choice is to go to the town and try to warn people and prepare for a fight. But that’s the bad choice.”

  “We have to warn them!” Greta protested.

  “No! Because everyone who can fight isn’t in town. They went out here, into the woods. The good choice is what we were going to do originally! The good choice is to find Dad and the others, tell them what’s going on, and get them back to town to defend it! That way we might have a chance. Although...” Chase bit into the roll, chewed, and weighed her options.

  Her terrible, illegal, exciting options.

  “Oracles,” she said, after her mouth was clear.

  “Mrrrfff?” Greta asked around a big bite of bread.

  “Renny. Do you know if Oracles are any good against undead or necromancers?”

  Renny blinked, cloth eyelids sliding over glass. “Yes. They can heal, and undead are hurt by divine healing. I remember that from training.”

  “They can heal...” Chase muttered, as her eyes slid over her sister’s face. The bruise on it was fading, almost gone as Greta’s meal restored her HP. She didn’t need healing now, but if another situation like that arose, then a healing skill could mean the difference between life and death.

  Damn it all.

  This was going to cost her money. But she couldn’t see any other way around it.

  “Status,” Chase commanded, and the words that defined her appeared, sliding neatly into her view. “Help Unlocked Job Oracle,” she said, and Greta stirred, face worried.

  “Chase?” Greta asked, but her sister’s worried expression vanished, hidden behind the wall of words that materialized.

  ORACLE

  Chosen by a god or affected by proximity to a divine influence, Oracles serve to embody the concepts and will of their patron. They can heal, remove and transfer conditions, and eventually overcome time itself with foresight and wisdom. Oracles gain experience by predicting the future and aiding those around them to cope with twists of fate.

  Do you wish to become an Oracle at this time?

  “Yes,” Chase spoke.

&n
bsp; And everything stopped.

  CHAPTER 7: FORESIGHT AND FOX TALES

  Earlier, in the tavern, Chase had seen time freeze. Only for the living people in there, true, but it was still something she had never dreamed of witnessing before. On a less hectic day, she would have sat and wondered about it, marveling about the life of excitement she’d somehow been swept up into.

  This now, this wasn’t time freezing. This wasn’t everything freezing. This was motion and breath and life and everything shifting at once, as she lifted free from her body... but it wasn’t her body. It was numbers and letters assembled in an order that meant something—

  —and so was everything else, Chase realized, as her view pulled back. The grass she was standing on had letters and numbers, and her sister was a more complicated string of symbols... but not really that different from the grass, not in the grand scheme of things.

  Then she lifted up, lifted into the sky, which was more numbers, all green in a sea of invisible light, and the world was nothing but patterns of symbols, repeating, shifting, breathing and moving in and around. Somewhere a one turned into a zero, and it rained that day. In another place a zero turned into a one, and a child was born. The scope and vastness of it took her breath away... and numbers shifted within her own chest, as she went from breathing normally to winded.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” A familiar deep voice spoke, and his words were more numbers and letters and symbols. But she understood them.

  “This is what’s behind it all?” Chase said, staring with eyes that weren’t really eyes.

  “Ha! You’re a clever one. I knew I chose rightly.”

  “You set this up. You planned this all along.”

  “A plan?” Hoon snorted. “Do I look like a man who has a plan?”

  She turned to face him and shrieked as she beheld his true form...

  ...and forgot it, mercifully, as he waved a hand. A proper hand, not one made of numbers. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I forgot how much stress it is on you folks.”

  “You were... the patterns... you’re above, but not, and you...” Chase trembled and hugged her knees to her chest, as she floated in starry darkness, with a blue and green and white and gold marble below her, turning, turning endlessly. The details of what she’d accidentally seen were already out of her mind, and thankfully so, for she knew her sanity would have fled otherwise.

  Once she could think straight again, Chase lifted her head and met the god’s eyes. “Yes. You do look like a man with a plan. The smug grin gives it away.”

  “I’m not really about plans. More like... opportunities.” Hoon turned away and surveyed the marble down below. “I wander, because I’m the god of journeys. I trade because I’m the god of trade. And if my travels take me to places that might be interesting to me later, hey, that’s just how it goes. And if some items that I trade make people dream of far-off journeys or inspire them to hit that road... well, that’s on them. Opportunities.” He looked back at Chase, and there was that smile again. “But hey, I’m NICE about it. You know?”

  “Not yet, not really. I hope you are, because I’ve accepted the job you offered me.”

  His grin widened. “The job you unlocked yourself, kiddo. You did that, picked up on the hints.”

  “It wasn’t exactly difficult.”

  “You’d be surprised. So. Time’s short. No more gifts, because I gave you those already. No more questions because I gave you answers. Just a request, because I don’t command.”

  “What do you want of me?” Chase shivered.

  He leaned down and took her shoulders in his huge hands, kneeling to put his face on her level. “I know it’s tough right now, and you’ve got lots of heavy stuff to worry about, but later on? If you can get to that later on? Have FUN, okay? Go out and do everything you wanted to do, see awesome things, and have fun with it. Because if you’re not, then what’s the point, huh?”

  She hugged him then, and he stiffened, just as surprised as she was. She felt his chest rumble, and then the god was laughing, hugging her back.

  “Thank you,” Chase said.

  “Aw. You’re welcome, kid. You’ll do fine. Just don’t die. I want a long, long time before I have to come and visit you for that. Understand?”

  “Yes,” Chase said.

  Then with one last squeeze he was gone, and she was falling, as the marble rose to meet her and flattened out...

  And then Chase was back in the second she’d left, staring at Greta’s worried face...

  ...and the letters that were scrolling up over it.

  You are now a level 1 Oracle!

  CHA+3

  LUCK+3

  WIS+3

  You have learned the Absorb Condition skill!

  You have learned the Diagnose skill!

  You have learned the Divine Pawn skill!

  You have learned the Foresight skill!

  Your Foresight skill is now level 1!

  You have learned the Lesser Healing skill!

  Your Lesser Healing skill is now level 1!

  “Chase,” Greta whispered, face pale and eyes as white and round as twin full moons. “What have you done?”

  “I took the Oracle job,” Chase said, looking back at her.

  “But you’re only fifteen!”

  “I know. I’ll work hard and pay the tax. After this is done. If I survive.”

  “Don’t say that!” Greta said, her voice rising, as she grabbed her sister. Chase squawked but didn’t resist, and after a second Greta let her go. “Don’t say such things,” Greta said, in a calmer tone.

  “I won’t. Finish your roll, and we’ll go.” Chase tucked her own half-eaten roll back into her pocket.

  Greta regained some of her old spirit and childhood conditioning, as she scowled at the thought of wasting food. “Aren’t you going to finish your own snack?”

  “No,” Chase said. “I don’t need it. The job filled up all of my pools when I leveled in it.”

  That was how they worked, she recalled. She hadn’t planned to be doing this sort of thing for at least five more years, but as benefits for breaking the law went, it was useful right now.

  “It won’t refill hit points, but I guess you’re uninjured,” Renny said. “Why are you so worried about learning a job?”

  “It’s the law,” Chase said, remembering her conversation with Hoon. “Maybe not a very good one. I don’t know why we have it. The law says we cannot have more jobs than we have decades of age.”

  “Uh oh,” Renny’s ears flattened. “I’m very illegal, then.”

  “I think that’s the least of our worries.” Chase studied him for a minute, then stopped and thought about what she was doing. “Okay, hold on. You’re a stuffed toy, why are you talking?”

  “It’s a very long story.”

  Chase stood. “You can tell us as we walk.”

  “Where are we going?” He asked.

  “Thomasi pretty much told me where our parents were. He flicked his eyes that way, when Vaffanculo couldn’t see.” Chase pointed, and her two companions followed her finger, looking north, north and up.

  Up to where the cave sat, the great dark eye in the side of the mountain, weeping its endless river.

  “No,” Renny whispered. “I... we can’t go there. Not yet.”

  “Why?” Chase asked. “No, tell us on the way. We don’t have the daylight left to waste time.”

  “You’ll die!” Renny burst out, voice screeching, as the strings of his voicebox stretched. Chase and Greta took a step back.

  We’re all on edge, Chase reminded herself. She forced her temper down, bit back the reply she wanted to say, and made her tone gentle.

  “If Vaffanculo reaches our town with that army of undead, we all die. Where are we to go, if they eat our town?” Chase shook her head, black curls bouncing. “No. We’re going. You can stay if you want. Like Thomasi did, hiding in the woods. Maybe that will work out better for you than it did him.”

  And without an
other word Chase turned and left. Greta yelped in surprise, then followed her sister.

  Chase walked, counting silently as she did so. Ten. Nine. Eight...

  At four, she heard Renny following behind her and let out the breath she’d been holding. Illegal or no, weird or not, he was the strongest ally they had right now, if his jobs were any measure of the matter. They’d need him one way or another. She felt a bit bad for forcing the issue, but the situation left little recourse.

  “I’m a golem,” Renny said, catching up to them.

  “I don’t know what that is,” Chase said.

  “A Golemist used magic to bring me to life. I’m like a magical statue, but I can think and feel. Well that part’s because I’m a greater golem, lesser golems are pretty dumb.”

  “Okay. So what does this Golemist want with our town, and why did he send you?”

  “It’s not exactly like that. I’m part of an exploration team. We’re from Cylvania.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Cylvania.”

  “No? Okay. I’m a little worried about that, but I guess I’m not surprised,” Renny reached up a little black paw and rubbed his cheek.

  The sight was so adorable, that Chase almost ran into a tree, but she managed to dodge at the last second. Keep your mind on your business, Berrymore. “Where is Cylvania?”

  “I was hoping you could tell me that. I’m not exactly sure how we— how I got here.”

  Chase stopped for a second and squeezed her eyes shut. Her frustration wasn’t the little fox golem’s fault. She told herself that, before resuming her stride. “Why don’t you tell us the full story, and I’ll try to stop interrupting you.”

  “Yes, thank you. That would help.” Renny kept pace, glancing up at her with his glass eyes. It was weird to see him walking on two legs, but he seemed comfortable with it. “Cylvania was sealed off for many years. We had a magical barrier around our land. When the barrier came down, nobody was left around us. Just wilderness, ruins, and monsters.

  “A lot of us were dead from the troubled times, when we were sealed away. There had been wars, and a wicked king, and a lot of other bad things. But everything’s peaceful now. My guild is sending out groups of us to explore, find friendly people, and figure out what’s happened to the rest of the world.”