“Wait, don’t!” But it was too late, Archangel snapped his holographic fingers again and Scott dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.
“You will have all the strength you need, and the power to wield the greatest weapon on this plain. Exuberus. Find it and strike down Hela.”
Scott stood, as if a machine awaiting its orders, “Hunt.”
21:
‘I did what I could to save him. I was there, I helped him recover and he is stronger now. The memory lose is deep whatever happened to him in that fall really messed him up, I told him what I could, but he isn’t the same person you all know. If you can restore his memory do it... Save him.
There was a point where he began to quest out again, but it seems he never sought you out. I don’t know what pushed him to do that, but that was another key turning point that changed everything.
I tried many times to send you notes but they never got through, I think Drake may have figured it out and blocked my internal systems. Please be careful. I hope this note makes it to you, this is my last attempt to send you this information, and that I can no longer help you and are own your own.
One last note, the nurse told me that there could be what she called a memory bunk, well I forgot the technical term, but it is that the pain is what is blocking his memories. She thinks he is still in so much pain that they are repressed.
-Liz’
Tuomas finished reading the last line out loud, and looked back up at them. All with their eyes wide, and mouths open. The room was silent, only the sound of the crowds outside filled the space.
Alissa spoke up, “Memory loss, which would explain why he never came back.” She paused, “She said last attempt. I wonder how many she tried to send to us telling us about Scott. I can’t believe it.”
Tuomas shook his head, “I don’t know, but I believe that she is right to think that Drake is behind her messages not getting to us, that or the fact that we can’t receive in game I.M. instances since we are not quote, players. I guess it was something I never thought of either. I have been using a one way telephone with Scott’s watch.”
Nick spoke up, “Am I the only one who feels like this is a really bad cliché from a movie at this point?”
They all half-nodded at his comment. Tuomas continued from Nick’s interruption, “I have an idea on how to get it back, it is risky but it could set everything right.” he looked at Alissa and pointed at her, “And I am going to need your help.”
Alissa looked at him in confusion, “How? I don’t think this files into my area of expertise.”
“Not in our world it doesn’t, I know where we can get an alchemy potion or at least the ingredients to restore memory, but it is not cheap or easy to make. The local apothecary mentioned it to me, what luck is that.”
Alissa nodded slowly trying to get a grasp on the concept. Charlotte spoke up, “If it brings us Scott back, I think we should try. What can the rest of us do to help? Do we need to go take more odd jobs so we can afford the materials?”
Tuomas gave a smile, “I was hoping you would ask that.” He looked at them, “This is going to be one hell of a fight to get it. We need to rest up it will be a week’s journey from here. And it won’t be in completely friendly territory.”
Donovan chuckled and stood up from the stool he was perched on, “A fight to save the one who would die for us? What are we waiting for?”
The others nodded and looked up at Tuomas to hear what needed to be done.
***
After hearing that they would have travel quite a way to reach their destination. They all took a two-day preparation period for a week of travel.
They were heading to the east, to the planes of Almerian Kingdom. The Kingdom of Crystle and Almerian were not on the greatest of terms with each other. They had to be careful traveling over the border between the two kingdoms. But the only alchemist in the whole world who had the potion they needed lived on the outskirts of one of the oceanic villages. There travels would take them back to the town where they arrived in all those weeks ago. They thought that they would stop and see how it was doing since they killed the Chimera in the tower to the west of the city.
They left their armor and travelled light, the party consisted of Tuomas, Alissa, Donovan, and Charlotte. Nick still didn’t feel up to the task quite yet for the length of the trip, and with Elana now having a place on the Council, having her travel to a hostile nation was not a wise choice.
As they rode, Tuomas told them that the Almerian Kingdom had been prosperous until an attack of a sentient race of trees called the Lemalra destroyed the dam that had been a key area of farming. The kingdom had suffered heavy economic losses from all the death that had occurred from the war with them.
“Sounds a bit Tolkien-esk don’t you think,” Donovan asked, trying to speak louder than the wind in his ears.
“Was kind of the point when I designed the world, I may have been on a classic literature binge at that point when I was world building the world seed. But hey, most things are recycled now anyway.” Donovan shrugged in acceptance to Tuomas’ words.
A few hours passed and they found themselves back in the little village that they started in. It wasn’t too much different than when they had left it. There were more guards though, Sir Belthor sent a small garrison to help protect the village after he had been trapped there alone for the days he was before he met Tuomas and the others.
There was however more people in the town now, most seeming like new adventures who are starting the ‘game’. Though at this rate, Tuomas wasn’t even sure if that mattered now. It was helping, and was beneficial for the long run, but how much more could this world take before it would collapse in on itself.
They rested and had an early lunch at the Sunset Inn. The barkeep recognized them and commented that their meals were half off after she heard that it was they who killed the Chimera.
After an hour they hit the trail again, they still had a long day ahead of them, and they needed to get as far as they could each day to achieve their goal within the two and a half week time frame that they had.
The wind howled in their ears when someone spoke up, “How much farther until we hit the border?” Alissa asked.
Tuomas looked around, then took a moment to look at the map he had, “It looks like about a half an hour to the border. Give or take fifteen minutes, it’s a map not a GPS.”
The others acknowledged his words.
“So, what is the plan then? Are we buying something?” Alissa asked, “I know we are heading here for some Alchemist but, to what extent?”
Tuomas looked back at her and shrugged, “Honestly I have no idea. I am going off of a hunch of when I built the world. If it did what I told it to do, this Alchemist should have a potion, or at least the ingredients, which is why you are coming along.”
They looked at him, “Wait you don’t know? That is a first.”
He shrugged again, “Once we left the Crystle province, everything is on an A.I. design. And is out of my area of knowledge, it was supposed to a test of the world generator A.I. I gave it the foundation but most of what we will see was designed by that A.I. world seed generator.”
“But you just said a few hours ago...” Alissa started.
“The world itself, was done by the A.I. design, the lore and how the place worked, that was me.”
Charlotte was not sure to be excited or scared, up to this point Tuomas always seemed to just know everything that was going on. Almost like he was a clone of Sherlock Holmes always seeing what they couldn’t, but this was the first time she had heard him not be sure of himself. But he didn’t seem to be worried about it either, like he was excited for the unknown. And that was something that none of them know about Tuomas.
They reached a river and stopped to water the horses and have a lunch break. Tuomas looked beyond the river, a thick forest dense with large trees, their trunks the size of the great Red Wood Forest trees in California, before the fire that ravage
d the state due to poor fire safety precautions. Charlotte walked up next to Tuomas, “Before we left, I looked at the code to see what the programed age of these trees are,” Tuomas started, “Fifteen hundred years was the youngest one,” He turned to her, “How are you holding up?” He drastically changed the subject.
She looked at him, “I am glad to have a goal again. Gives me a foundation and hope. It is nice to have purpose again, something I want to strive for.”
Tuomas nodded, “Can I ask you one more thing?”
She was confused, “Yes, of course.”
Tuomas smiled, “Will you be able to lure Scott once we have the cure?”
Without hesitation she responded, “I will do anything to get him back.”
He nodded, “Good, because you will be taking over this team once we do.”
She looked at him, “What do you mean? You are the leader of this team. And shouldn’t it be Scott when we get him back?”
“Am I though? And besides, there is something in motion that I know that I will need to trust someone to lead if something happens. And no, not Scott, he isn’t the leader type, at least not after this whole thing, he needs time to readjust, and he is a soldier, he doesn’t want to lead.”
“Tuomas what does that mean?” She demanded an answer out of him.
“I’m dying Charlotte.”
She went into a split-second shock, “You what? How? Why?”
He raised his hand to quiet her, “Cancer, stage 4. Don’t worry, I will still be here... in mind that is.” Hopefully.
And the shackles come off... “When did you find out?” She asked.
He turned to her, “Just recently, I don’t know how it went undetected for so long. I am not in pain at all”
“How did you even find out?”
“Some of the mages are specialized in health, Arcane tree, and developed some interesting medical stuff, and when I looked into it within the code it, they had developed a cancer detector and to what extent. I went for a check with the doc and they found it in between my heart and lungs.” He gave a halfhearted laugh, “You know the one thing that I would’ve never thought would chase us in here would be the thing to kill me. I thought it would have been a sword or an arrow in the chest. Nope, just bull shit that we brought with us.”
Charlotte looked over at Don and Alissa, “When are you going to tell everyone else?”
He smiled at her, “One heart breaking thing at a time.”
“Have you at least told Elana?”
He nodded, “I have. She was the first to know other than me. If I didn’t tell her, I would die from a stab wound and this cancer wouldn’t even have mattered.”
“Okay,” Charlotte’s voice became shaken. I know that I may not have always agreed with everything Tuomas has said and done, but we are about to get Scott back, and now we are going to lose Tuomas… “Is there anything that we can do?”
He shook his head, “No, I’m afraid just like in our own world, stage four is terminal, at this point I will be giving it all until the day it takes me.”
Tuomas ended the conversation there by waving down Donovan and Alissa to saddle up. “We have about another three hours on horseback to the first Inn.”
The three hours passed, and the four of them arrived at the Inn. The inn was called The Scarecrow supposedly a small little hut in a much smaller village. This new land was different to them they didn't quite understand what they were looking at, they felt a presence here, some kind of aura. It seemed not as civilized as Crystle though it seemed a lot simpler and everything else from what they had seen before. Big in their way up the steps they realized that the end was empty no one was inside not even a barkeep, this word them to an extent however to Boston seem shaken at all. Charlotte was the first to step into the inn. The seats were still there along with the tables meals as well, they were not even sure what was really going on. Tuomas said there were supposed to be people here; he had a blank look on his face confused “There were supposed to be people here.” he said, “This is not okay. There's something else going on here.”
Alyssa reached for her sword, preparing to see whatever it was is there it was quiet too quiet. “Do you think the sorcerer is behind this?”
Tuomas shook his head, “No, well…” He stopped. He had forgotten about the sorcerer, for he had not shown his face in such a long time, which was something else that he neglected to remember about this quest, he had left it to some lines of code to keep them on track, but they were not programs, they were people things changed for them. He stood there, blank for a few more seconds before looking over it's one of the inn’s windows. So now he was not sure that the Sorcerer was the cause of this encounter, but he glanced outside the window may now shed some light on what may have emptied the inn. “I think we have bigger problems.” Tuomas stated as he pointed outside the window.
The others glanced outside to see amount of bodies in the center of town. They were burned to a crisp they were puzzled that they didn't smell anything on the way into the town. Donovan clasped his mouth, forcing himself not to throw up. Alyssa put her hand on his shoulder and pulled him away from the window. “That is rank.” Charlotte gagged, averting her eyes from the window.
“This was not the greeting that I was expecting.” Tuomas stated, turning away from the window to face the others. He unslung his bow and gestured the others to arm themselves as well. “There is a mage here. Or at least their work is left here.”
“A mage?” Charlotte asked, looking at him.
“Yeah, a mage, didn’t think we’d run into anymore here, other than that sorcerer that has been on our ass from the beginning. Shit we didn’t need this right now.”
Tuomas knocked an arrow and gestured for one of them to open the Inn’s door. Alissa stood in front of Tuomas with her shield up, as Donovan and Charlotte stacked up near the door, weapons drawn. Donovan pushed the door open and Tuomas let the arrow fly. There was an aura present now, and they all felt it, it was not the same one they felt coming into town either. They heard the arrow hit its target. The sound of the metal piercing flesh was heard in the silence, but no howl came, no screeching, no sound other than the penetration of the arrow. “Zombies!” Alissa shouted.
“Zombies? Ah shit, this is not what we needed right now!” Donovan exclaimed, reaching to pull the door closed.
Tuomas sighed, “We need to get to the horses and get out of here now, before we lose those horses, or we are screwed.”
The all agreed, “So how do we do that?” Alissa asked.
Tuomas looked at her, “Run!” he yelled sprinting out of the Inn past the zombies. The others ran after him. The zombies were slow, not fast giving them the speed advantage. Huffing, Donovan spoke, “Glad these aren’t like those movie zombies that sprint like a sports car!”
From behind him, Alissa spoke up, “Don’t you jinx it!”
They came up on their horses to find them all still there. Charlotte was the first to mount up and pulled out the one-handed crossbow that she took from Tuomas after he recovered it from the cliff side. The bolt flew and hit its mark, with the zombie hitting the ground with a muddy thump.
“Come on we need to get out of here!” She yelled loading in another bolt.
“You packed it?” Tuomas asked.
Charlotte nodded at his question, “It’s why I didn’t bring my shield.”
Within minutes they were riding on, continuing down the trail towards Almerian’s Capital city. The horses were moving at top speed, all four of them were low and letting the horses move with the wind. “Holy hell, that was close.” Donovan yelled out.
“Yeah no kidding, we need to find a place to lay low and sleep for the night. Anyone have any ideas?” Alissa responded, looking towards the forest that they entered.
“A cave or another village?” Charlotte suggested to them, “There has to be something close enough to where we are.”
“Just ride!” Tuomas exclaimed, “Worry about it when we get tired.” He w
as breathing hard, they were too close to saving Scott, and nothing was going to get in the way. For this I must give it all. One last push.
The others didn’t respond but they followed Tuomas, who took point at the front. They road for another three hours, and the sun began to crest over the mountain peaks setting to the west. The red glow illuminated the trail, giving the brown dirt a bloodied tint to it. The horses slowed, for they were growing tired. Alissa located a stream for the horses to drink from. Tuomas made the command decision to make camp next to the stream. There was to be no fire for them. He didn’t want to risk anyone finding them in the middle of the night by tracking the smoke that the fire would produce. Donovan offered to take the first watch, letting the others get the much needed rest they all desired.
Donovan sat by the stream, the Waxing Gibbous moon reflected off of the water, giving him the only light in the whole forest. His gaze rose up towards the star filled skies, his mind flooded with thoughts. Sifting through them he contemplated what they were doing. Was this truly going to be worth it? He thought of the last few weeks, how he was finally moving on from the fact that Scott had died, and now trying to sort his feelings about the fact he was alive, but without his memories. Happiness. He thought: I should be feeling happy, but I am not. I don’t know what to think of any of this, this whole thing is just a mess. I want to go home.
He felt a light tap on his shoulder, bringing him back to his senses. Looking over his shoulder he saw Alissa. “It’s my turn, go get some sleep.” He nodded, and stood. As he took a step towards his bed roll he turned and placed his hand on Alissa’s shoulder. She looked at him, “Are you-” Before she had a chance to finish her question Donovan pulled her into him hugging her. Though there was a thin set of armor between them, Alissa could feel Donovan’s heart pounding. She pulled away and placed her left hand on Donovan’s face, “You dork.” She leaned up towards him and kissed him on the cheek. When she pulled away she spoke again, “Go get some sleep.”
The Seeds of Evermore Page 19