Big Trouble

by Andrew Seiple

  “Wait,” Greta said, a note of panic entering her voice. “Your GUILD?”

  “Yes,” Renny said. “We figured out how to make guilds. Have people done that yet, here?”

  “Let him finish. We’ll talk about that later,” Chase said, fighting down her own knot of worry. Guilds were distant things of politics and trouble, and she was cautious to get onto this subject before Renny was finished with his own story.

  “All right,” the little golem said. “We set out to the west from Cylvania. It took us weeks to get through the wilds, until we came to an old ruin. It was a castle, once. We sheltered at the entrance for the night, but... there was something horrible there. I’m not sure what it was, we barely survived. It chased us inside, and we lost it in the dungeon. But it trapped us there, and we couldn’t get out.

  “This wasn’t a problem for me and Baconator, we could wait forever if we had to,” Renny looked away. “But everyone else would eventually run out of food. So when we found the waystones, we thought it was the answer to our problem.”

  “Waystones?” Greta asked again. Chase weighed the odds of her sister listening to her request to shush and let the fox finish and decided it wouldn’t work.

  “Waystones are magical stones that people with the Explorer job can make. They let you teleport to things called Waymarks. That’s about all I know. There were enough for all of us, it looked like a secret cache, like someone’s escape route for themselves and a full party.”

  “So, seven all told,” Chase said. She remembered that from her school’s class on adventuring and how to avoid it. Seven was the maximum size for a party.

  “Yes. We used them, and they took us behind the mountain.” Renny pointed at the peak. “There is a circle of stones back there. We rested, hunted a bit, and decided to climb up the peak to see what we could see. Then along the way we noticed the cave.”

  Renny slowed then, looking down. As he started to fall behind, Chase turned back, held out her arms. “Do you want me to carry you?”

  “No. It’s... that’s why it’s my fault,” Renny whispered. “We saw the village, too. We had to decide which to do, explore the cave or go to the village. And we decided to explore the cave, first. It was my vote that broke the tie. And we... we went in there. And only I came... out...” Renny shook and put his paws to his face. He sobbed then, and Chase’s heart broke to hear it. She moved back and scooped him up, held the little toy as he shivered and cried, without tears.

  “Shh, shh...” Chase soothed, trying to pull on the lessons she’d learned when they still allowed her to babysit impressionable young children. “Shh... it’ll be fine. It’s okay. It’ll be fine.”

  “No,” Renny said, voice harsh and rasping. “It’s not okay. My friends died in there. And now you’re going in, and you’ll die too. It’s bad in there.”

  “Our father is in there. Assuming Thomasi was telling the truth.” Chase said, jogging him a bit in her arms, as if he was a baby. “All we have to do is find him.”

  Renny stared up at her, glass eyes inches from her own. “You won’t turn back, no matter what I say?”

  “No. But I will listen to what you have to say and ask you to tell us about what specifically you found in there. Because if it’s that dangerous, then any information you have could save our lives.”

  “All right.” Renny shuddered. “The second we got out of the treeline and started toward the cave, someone started shooting arrows at us. We charged forward to try and stop that, but some people in scary-looking uniforms came out and fought us. We won, but it was hard. Then we got inside, went up some stairs that turned out to be trapped, and came to a strong door. But Gadram picked the lock, and we got into what we thought was their secret hideout...”

  And so the fox spoke, as the sisters walked, stopping twice for short food breaks. There was no other way around the abysmal halven endurance problem and getting to the cave exhausted would be a death sentence, if half of what Renny said was true.

  But they kept to their course, and somewhere around five o’clock, by the angle of the sun, Chase and Greta and their golem ally found themselves crouching down in the last of the scraggly pines before the stony slope that led to the cave. Nearby, the river burbled out of the center of the dark circle, down over sharp rocks, and into the valley beyond. It curved east and south, eventually coming within a quarter-mile of the village.

  Sticks of wood, tipped with feathers jutted out of the ground all up the slope, and dark patches showed where blood had been spilled. There had been a fight here, and there might be again if they were incautious.

  Chase was being cautious at the minute. It occurred to her that she hadn’t taken stock of her Oracle job, and she wanted to figure out if it had anything that could help them get past this potential trouble spot safely. She had her status screen up, muttering the names of her skills and asking for help with them. And each help request provoked more words, from wherever they came from.

  “Help Absorb Condition,” Chase whispered.

  Absorb Condition

  Cost: 10 ForDuration: Instant

  This skill transfers a condition or debuff from a target that you’re physically touching to yourself. This skill has no levels. Regardless of the debuff or condition absorbed, the Oracle shakes it off after a day’s worth of time if it isn’t cured before then. This skill is a spell.

  That might be handy at some point, but right now it wouldn’t do much.

  “Help Diagnose.”

  Diagnose

  Cost: 5 SanDuration: 5 seconds

  This skill reveals all debuffs and conditions on a target. It never fails and has no levels. This skill is a spell.

  Not much useful there. “Help Divine Pawn.”

  Divine Pawn

  Cost: N/ADuration: Passive Constant

  Congratulations! The gods have selected you to be one of their agents on Generica. Good luck with that. You gain a bonus to your fate equal to your Oracle level. This skill has no levels.

  Chase glared at the words. That seemed rather sarcastic. Also unhelpful at the minute. “Help Foresight.”

  Foresight

  Cost: 10 ForDuration: 10 seconds

  Time is malleable to gods. They’ll share a little bit of that with you, spinning out predictions of the next few seconds. You get a glimpse of the near future, and the results of an action you choose at the time of using foresight. Bear in mind that failing to follow through with an action similar to that chosen has a risk of backfiring, as the feedback and dissonance from the false visions throws off your precognition for the rest of the day. The higher your skill, the less the chance of dissonance.

  The halven paused and re-read the words. This, this was about what she was looking for. But just for the sake of completion, she examined her final job skill, anyway. “Help Lesser Healing.”

  Lesser Healing

  Cost: 5 SanDuration: Instant

  Instantly heals a living target within a hundred feet of the Oracle, restoring a small amount of HP, influenced by the level of this skill. This is light-based healing, and when used upon an undead or negative-natured target, it inflicts damage instead of healing. This damage bypasses all defenses and automatically hits. This skill is a spell.

  Chase nodded in satisfaction. Renny had been right, she did have a weapon against the undead. But that was for later, unless there were undead here, too. I hope not, Chase thought to herself. This is going to be rough enough as it is.

  “I think I can do this,” Chase said to the others. “Renny, you said the arrows came when you were halfway to the cave mouth?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. Give me a little space, here...” Chase took a breath, then chose what she was going to do, and said “Foresight.”

  And once more, everything changed.

  The world stopped and slowed, and as Chase watched, a ghostly version of herself moved through it, running full-tilt toward the cave. The ghostly Chase got to the cave mouth and paused, then darted to
the side.

  Then everything unfroze, and Chase stared for a second, trying to figure out the feelings and sensations that were coursing over her.

  But those feelings were pushed aside, as a more urgent one, something like a piece of string stretching tight and starting to tear, started to build behind her eyes.

  This must be the feedback, whatever that is, Chase realized. I have to do something similar to the action, or I’ll have problems.

  So Chase ran for all she was worth, ignoring the shouts behind her.

  AGL+1

  Your Foresight skill is now level 2!

  She’d wanted to know if it was safe to get to the cave entrance, and it seemed to be. And to her relief, as she ran, the taut feeling in her head relaxed and faded until it was a dull throb that vanished entirely when she reached the cave mouth and slid to the side.

  “What were you thinking?” Greta hissed, once she and Renny were flush against the wall next to Chase. Renny refrained from commenting, keeping his eyes on the cave, haunted and wary.

  “I have a skill that shows me what happens if I do something. I think. It’s worded a little confusingly,” Chase muttered back. “But then I have to do something, or I lose the skill for a long time.”

  “Okay, I think I see it,” Renny said. “You wanted to see if you were going to be shot at. So if you had, then you wouldn’t have gone, and you would have lost the skill usage instead of dying horribly from arrows.”

  “Yes,” Chase said. “It’s fine Greta. I know what I’m doing.”

  “You got this job like today. Not even two hours ago!”

  “It’s pretty straightforward.” Chase leaned over and peered in the cave. “Um. Does anyone have a torch?”

  “Why would I have a torch?” Greta asked.

  “Because... “ Chase drifted off. There was no earthly reason Greta would have one.

  Renny looked up at her. “You need a torch?”

  “Just the light, really,” Chase shrugged. “Do you have a way of making fire? There’s branches back there...”

  “Phantasmal Picture,” Renny said, pointing into the darkness.

  A torch, complete with sconce, popped into place on a stony wall. It revealed a series of steps back in the cave, ascending further into the mountain. The river that Chase had thought natural was now revealed to be contained within a clear-cut channel, water falling from above and pooling in a round stone pool before spilling southward.

  “The arrows came from up there, the first time around,” Renny pointed to a ledge at the edge of the torchlight. “But there’s no one up there, now.”

  Metal glittered up above the stone. Chase weighed the odds. “Greta, do you think you could climb up and examine that?”

  “If you give me a boost, sure.”

  Her sister was heavy, but Renny lent his own fuzzy arms, and between the two of them they wrestled Greta up there.

  “Arrows. Lots of them, stuck in a box, with the ends up. Pretty good-sized arrows, too.”

  “Let me see,” Chase called.

  One came sailing over, nearly impaling Chase’s toes. She bit back some frightened, dirty words and scooped it up. It was longer than her arm, and she shook her head. “Not halven arrows, that’s for sure. Anything else?”

  “There’s a horn hanging from the wall. And a bundle of sticks and rope.”

  “Toss it to me. Carefully!” Chase amended.

  Greta tried... but it unrolled as it went, snapping and clattering against the side of the ledge until Chase and Renny were staring at a well-used rope ladder.

  “It’s nailed to the floor,” Greta explained. “This’ll make getting down easier, at least.”

  “Yeah, why don’t you do that,” Chase said, keeping her eyes on the stairway up. That ladder had made noise, and she thought it had probably been lost in the waterfall, but it wasn’t a good idea to take risks. Well, more risks.

  “Let me lead,” Renny said. “I’ll put illusionary torches so you can see. There’s traps on the stairs, and I remember where they are, so go slowly and follow me carefully, okay?”

  “Sure. Um... hold on,” Chase said, as a niggling thought in the back of her mind moved to the forefront. “That torch is an illusion, right?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “So the light it’s shedding isn’t really there, right?”

  “No, not really.”

  “If it’s an illusion, then why is it showing what’s really there? If the light isn’t really real, then it shouldn’t be able to do that.” No sooner had she said those words, then the world went dark, and Chase blinked, rubbed her eyes. “Hey! I can’t see!”

  “You talked yourself out of being able to see the light,” Renny said, with a sigh. “Look, you’re not supposed to think about it too hard. If you disbelieve the illusion then you can’t see it anymore.”

  “How does that even make sense!” Chase said, waving her hands. “If the light was able to show what was there in the darkness, it should be able to keep doing that regardless of my belief in it!”

  “Yes, but since now you reminded yourself it’s not real and thought about it too hard, your brain refuses to be fooled. So it’s all dark again. For you, anyway.”

  “I told you you were too smart for your own good!” Greta interjected, and Chase could tell her sister was holding back giggles.

  Renny growled in frustration. “Just hold on to your sister’s hand. And I’ll put these, uh, absolutely real torches on the wall as I go. Got it?”

  “I’ll try not to think about it too hard,” Chase promised.

  Which of course meant that she couldn’t stop thinking about it, not one bit, as Greta led her up the stairs step by step. The end result was that Chase spent the whole trip in darkness, following directions as carefully as she could.

  She tried to distract herself by thinking about her new companion. Chase had never heard of a golem before, and the thought of something made out of cloth and fuzz and fur being a walking, talking creature was fantastic, no matter how you looked at it. This was the stuff of high magic, of mysterious forces and unimaginable fables. And ruminating on it, she felt an echo of the wonder that she’d gotten whenever she had read the books in Grandfather’s trunk, on those rainy days.

  It also drummed home a bit of irony. Here she was finally having a grand adventure, and instead of wonder, her heart was filled with worry and dread. Her family was on the line, her father was in this horrible place somewhere, and undead were far, far scarier in person then they were in the Jinkies books.

  Greedy, greedy little girl, Chase scolded herself. You finally get the adventure you want and you’re holding out for something less dangerous. What did you think would happen?

  Wood creaked ahead, and Chase found that she could see again. Light streamed from a doorway, revealing a heavy oaken door standing ajar, and Renny pushing it open, straining to do so, little arms entirely unsuited to the task.

  Beyond lay a room carved out of the cave, lit by glowing crystals hanging from chains. The washed-out light revealed wooden furniture around the room... and two bodies lying in crumpled heaps, in dark puddles that pooled on the stone like blotchy ink.

  Chase surveyed them for a second, then turned her head and threw up over the side of the steps. Greta joined her.

  You are now nauseated!

  “Sorry,” Renny said.

  Chase spat vomit, then sagged down onto the stairs, spitting to get the taste from her mouth. She reached out a hand to the spray of the waterfall and sloshed water past her lips, clearing the grossness as best she could.

  “The skeletons were bad,” Greta said, solemnly. “But that’s worse, somehow. I think it’s the smell.”

  “Yes,” Chase said, and managed to fight her stomach down, taking deep breaths until the message flashed again.

  You are no longer nauseated!

  “Alright,” Chase whispered, standing and climbing the last few stairs. “Let’s see what we have, here...

  CHAPTER
8: PANDORA

  The plaque on the wall declared the following, in big, angry-looking letters;

  PRIGIONE DI PANDORA

  GLI INTRUSI SARANNO INCARCERATI

  “Pandora Prison,” Chase translated, eyebrows climbing with worry. “Trespassers will be incarcerated.”

  “Is that what that says?” Renny said. “We couldn’t read it.”

  “It’s in the old tongue. I had to take remedial lessons one summer and Mother Bloom wanted me to help her with some old records. It got annoying copying them by hand, but I learned it pretty well.” Chase stretched an arm up to the plaque but couldn’t reach it. It hadn’t been put in place by halvens.

  That wasn’t the first clue that the place wasn’t made for halvens. The door was far outsized for her own folk, and the two corpses on the floor, upon closer examination (but not too close,) were human.

  There WERE a few halven sized uniforms hanging on hooks, but the rest of the ones up on the wall were all human-sized. They were all simple black cloth, with red trim and low caps with long brims.

  Some of the uniforms were on the floor, as were several inkwells, papers, and weapons. It was like a storm had hit the corner of the chamber, and Renny explained it.

  “We fought here,” Renny said, moving around the bodies. Chase looked away from the gore, to the scattered papers and broken desks beyond. “We fought here,” Renny continued, “and we won. The survivors went down that way,” he pointed at a shut metal door. “So we spiked it and healed ourselves. Well, I sewed myself. Father Gronk healed the others.”

  “Father Gronk?” Greta asked. “That sounds like a strange name.”

  “He’s a gribbit—” Renny stopped, and his voice was a bit more quiet when he spoke again. “He was a gribbit.”