Circuit World

by Daniel Pierce

  “That is a risk I would be willing to take,” Binari said with a smug grin.

  “Are you saying that you will join him if we choose to send him on this journey?” Mirtha asked, her eyes wide, showing more emotion than I had seen from her so far.

  Binari looked me over silently for a few seconds and nodded, saying, “Yes, I will accompany him to the desert.”

  Frey scoffed, “Do as you please, girl.”

  I looked at the girl and smiled. “All right, it’s settled then. Who else will join me?”

  “Sadly, I cannot join you on this trip, Si1ence,” Faun said. “My duties call me elsewhere, but I hope that we can reunite soon.”

  “As do I, Faun.”

  “If Horan is not occupied, perhaps he could accompany you? He seemed to take quite a liking to you.”

  “I will believe that when I see it,” huffed Frey. His arms were folded now. “Horan is a sensible man. He would never lower himself to be acquainted with riffraff like this boy.”

  “You would be surprised then, Frey,” Faun replied. She was still trying to maintain her air of nonchalance, but her old friend’s stubbornness was clearly beginning to wear on her.

  “All right,” I said. “If Horan will join us, that makes three. Binari, what all does this investigation call for? I don’t know if three of us could handle an entire slave operation.”

  “We will see what must be done when we get there,” she said. “I do not wish to fight, but if it comes to that, it might be best to flee. Give me a moment, please.”

  She turned and hurried back to her alcove, taking a plain wooden bowl from one of the shelves and placing it on the table in front of her chair. All of us watched quietly as she took a jug from the opposite shelf, poured water into the bowl, and looked into it for a time. Frey glanced at me for split second then looked back to the young druid, tapping his foot with increasing impatience.

  Binari soon returned to the group, saying nothing to explain what she had just done.

  “Well?” Frey asked, his voice tense. “Did you see anything in your little impromptu scrying session?”

  She responded curtly, saying, “Find your own pool of truth, old man.”

  Elder Frey huffed.

  Mirtha told us that she would inform the others of this new course of action and took her leave. Faun also bid Binari and me farewell, wishing us luck as she took the grumpy elder by the arm and led him over to his cubby to brief him in private on her latest rounds of Tel’Maryn.

  I felt a slender hand on my own arm and turned to see Binari standing closer than she had been when I looked away.

  “We should leave in the morning,” she said. “Do you have a place to stay for the evening?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I plan to get a room at Edmund’s. I’m meeting Horan there later for drinks.”

  “I do not know this Horan. I shall like to meet him before we set out. May I join you for drinks?”

  “I think that would be great.”

  We took our leave of the Temple. Binari said she’d had enough of that stuffy room for one day and jumped at the chance to get out and stretch her legs. She was curious to know about me, but there was not much I could truthfully tell her without breaking character, so I turned the conversation back on her whenever possible.

  “So, how did you become a druid? What did Frey mean about your unusual relationship with the Presence?”

  “I am not a druid,” she corrected. “I am a mage, and I am here to study my craft. As far as my association with the Presence is concerned . . . I helped them out when I came to this Zone and they awarded me honorary membership status for the duration of my stay. Frey and a few others are resentful of that fact, but the majority ruled in favor of the decision before Frey came back into rotation, so he did not even get a say.” She smiled, amused at the thought. “But I suspect that I will not be here for too much longer. I tend to go wherever I feel needed and do not like to stay in one place for too long. I am sure I will return one of these days.”

  “Interesting,” I said. “What did you do to help them out?”

  “It was simple. There were several ailing children in the city, and none of the druids knew how to help them with their naturalist magic. Someone had actually cursed the children with a semi-potent hex which few druids have the power to cure. I used a different school of magic to heal the children.”

  “It’s fortunate you were there then.”

  She shrugged. “Any one of the hundreds of academically oriented mages in the Temple could have helped those children. I simply happened to be nearby at the right time.”

  “Still . . .”

  Binari walked with me back to the clearing I came to refer to as the commercial district. She unstrapped a small pouch tied to her silver chain and thrust a handful of silver coins in my direction.

  “You want me to take that?” I asked, confused. “I can’t take your hard-earned money.”

  She shook her head. “I will file it with the Presence when I return this evening. They will reimburse me. This is eighty silver coins. You will need to find some better gear in case anything does happen tomorrow. You said you are not from here—do you know how our currency works?”

  I shook my head this time.

  “Bronze coins are the base unit of currency. There are few things that a handful of bronze coins can purchase you, other than food and minor amenities. Silver coins are the next level up. One of these is equal to 100 bronze coins. Above them are gold coins. Can you guess what one of them is worth?”

  “A hundred silver coins?”

  “You get it,” she said with a grin, pressing her coin-filled hand up against my chest.

  I took them without another word of protest. Free money is free money.

  “Now, a stealthy person like you will benefit most from lightweight armor crafted by a tanner. The nearest one is over there.” She pointed to a spot several trees down the line from the smithy where Faun had sharpened her dagger earlier. “Shall we see what they have available and then make our way to Edmund’s?”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  We walked into the tanner’s shop. All sorts of leather armor lined the walls, hung on the sturdy twigs and rounded knobs conveniently growing there. My inability to summon the user interface began to nag at me again as I stepped through the threshold. There was no way that I could see to accurately compare the stats of my equipment.

  The tanner himself, a thin elf with short blonde hair, sat hunched in the corner wrestling with a large hide, tying it to a wooden frame using sinew. His frustration with the task disappeared under the folds of a warm smile as we walked in.

  “Good afternoon,” the gangly man said. “Is there anything in particular I can help you with?”

  Binari said nothing, only looking at me.

  “Nothing in particular,” I said. “I’m just looking for something better than what I have on now. Can you help me with that?”

  He looked me up and down and got to his feet, setting the frame with its half-tied hide against the wall. “I can, but it depends on how much you are willing to spend. I have better leather mail than that, but it might be best to get your legs suited up before we even consider changing out what you have covering your chest.”

  “Fair enough,” I said. “I’ve got eighty silver coins plus some bronze. You got some chaps that would work well for a rogue like myself?”

  “Yeah, I think we can find something in your price range.”

  He brought me over to a row of chaps hanging side-by-side and pulled down a pair that was several shades darker than my mail. I took it as he offered.

  “What do you think of these?”

  “Uh . . .”

  As soon as I touched them, I heard that blasted metallic pop. The blue window appeared at my side and read:

  Plain Leather Chaps

  Price: 40 Silver Coins

  Durability: 100%

  Physical Defense: +3 (+3)

  I didn’t know ho
w good plus three physical defense actually was since I did not know my own stats to use as a baseline, but I assumed that the second plus three in parentheses meant that I would see a full benefit from that defense boost once I put them on. Now, if I was already wearing some chaps that provided a plus one boost to my defense, I would expect these to have a plus two in the parentheses.

  “How much are these, forty silver?”

  The tanner’s jaw hung slack for a moment before he said, “Why, yes, as a matter of fact. That was a very good guess. Do you like them?”

  “Yeah, they’re all right. Would you have some mail better than what I have on that would be in my price range after purchasing these?”

  He looked at my torso armor for a long moment and said, “No, I do not. Come to think of it, I do not believe I have anything better for your chest that you could purchase with what you have in your pocket now. But . . . I do have several nice pairs of gloves and boots that you would be able to purchase with your chaps.”

  “All right,” I said. “I’ll take these and check those out.”

  I handed him forty silver coins and he brought me over to the gloves, which were conveniently hanging directly above the boots. I decided on a pair of plain leather boots which matched my chaps perfectly and provided two additional physical defense. Best of all, I was able to comfortably layer them over my footwraps, so that I could get the highest boost possible. I always loved games that allowed the player to layer their clothing.

  After spending an additional twenty-five silver for those, I did not have enough left to purchase anything else, so Binari and I bid the man farewell and headed for Edmund’s.

  I found Sleeper still tied off as we neared the stable. He turned to me as I approached, and I caressed the side of his face. “Hey, buddy. It’s good to see you again.”

  He neighed as if he understood.

  The tavern’s curtain was closed, but I could hear the commotion inside, so I had no qualms about letting myself in.

  “Rixon!” Horan shouted, standing to greet me with his glass raised.

  His cheeks were flushed; he was clearly well into his relaxion time already, and the sun had not even gone down yet. I led Binari over to the table and made introductions.

  “Horan, this is Binari. She works at the Temple.”

  “How do you do, young lady?” he boomed merrily, extending a hand. “I am Horan, the Master of Mounts in the area.”

  The girl giggled and they shook.

  “Please,” Horan said, pulling out a chair, “take a seat. Let’s drink and be merry! Ales!”

  A barmaid rushed over to drop two tall glasses of ale down in front of us as we took our seats. The liquid was dark brown, like soda, with a layer of froth on top. I watched the maid hurry over to attend to other customers and noticed for the first time how large the establishment actually was.

  The outside was unassuming, to say the least, but the secret to its size lay in how far back it stretched. Many of the tables and their seating, including the bar itself, were nothing more than polished hunks of wood curving straight out of the wall. There must have been people in the community who had the job of guiding the growth of such unusual shapes, because I had never seen anything like it in nature before. There were other tables, too, but they were plain and unimpressive in comparison.

  Many people seemed to have the same idea as Horan in calling it a day and coming by for a drink because the place was brimming with life. There were several small tables along the wall opposite the bar where patrons sat playing dice and cards. Every so often, a group huddled at the big round table in the back would erupt with laughter, and the maid would come by to refill everyone’s drinks. There was a bard in the back corner dancing around and going to town on his lute with a small crowd cheering him on and periodically tossing coins his way. More people were still filing in after Binari and I sat down with no signs of slowing down. I was sure that the place would be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with no room to sit in a few hours’ time.

  The sound of Horan’s hand slapping down on the table brought my attention back to the big smiling man. “So, tell me,” he boomed, “what’s on the agenda, my friends? What’s happening?”

  I filled him in on everything that had happened since we’d parted ways, taking time to allow Binari to interject and expand on things when needed.

  “I have not heard of this unrest to the east,” Horan said. “How do you know of it, Binari?”

  “I have honorary association status with the Presence,” she proclaimed with a self-satisfied grin. “One of their rangers reported it two days ago.”

  “Ah . . . I have only just come back into town after being away for seven days. Things happen fast.”

  “That they do,” she agreed, taking a big gulp of her dark brew. The oversized glass was slightly comical in her delicate fingers.

  “So, will you join us?” I asked.

  “Of course!” Horan shouted. “It has been a long time since I got to go head-to-head with the Gray Favor.”

  Binari held up a cautionary hand. “We hope that it will not come to blows. They might easily overwhelm us if their numbers are too great. The slave trade is no small business.”

  “Well, we shall see what happens.”

  I slapped my head with a sudden realization, and they both looked at me confused. “I forgot to grab healing items.” Looking to Binari, I said, “Is there someone around here that sells items to heal wounds?”

  “Yes,” Binari said, “but don’t worry about that now. I will grab some on my way here to meet you tomorrow.”

  “All right. That’d be great, if you don’t mind.”

  “It’s not a problem at all. I was going to stop by the apothecary myself anyway. It will just result in a bigger reimbursement from the Presence.” She gave me a reassuring smile.

  We talked and laughed well into the night. As things began to die down, the bard bounced his way over to the remaining tables, asking for suggestions on what to play. Horan asked him to play a raunchy song called The Saggy Barmaid. He said it loud enough to draw the actual barmaid’s attention as she was passing by and returned her disapproving look with a wink. The whole house clapped and sang along as the bard hopped around strumming his strings.

  After several more of these sing-along tunes, Binari decided that it would be best to prepare for bed and told us to meet her at the stables at the crack of dawn before she left. It was just the Master of Mounts and me, and he had fallen deeper and deeper into the hole of drunkenness as the night progressed. When our mage left, he was nodding off in his chair; the only thing keeping his head from dropping to the table was the mug braced against his chest.

  “Hey, Horan,” I said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Do I just ask the barmaid for a bed?”

  “Ugh—huh?” He sat up and looked around as if he had forgotten where he was for a moment.

  “I need a place to sleep. Do I get a room from the maid?”

  He shook his head. “No, no . . . No rooms.” He began to slouch again, so I firmly put my hand on his arm.

  “What do you mean ‘no rooms?’ I thought you said this place has beds.”

  “Yes,” he slurred, “but they’re full.” He turned a lazy, drooping eye to the curtain and smirked. “Stables—sleep with Sleeper.”

  “Are you serious? I’m sleeping in the stables with the horses?”

  Fuck, I thought. I would have shacked up with Binari if I’d known that! She was practically offering!

  He nodded his head and then dozed back off. I got the maid’s attention, and she confirmed that what Horan had said was true—they were out of rooms. I didn’t ask her if it was customary or acceptable to sleep in the stables because I was not in the mood to be laughed at, so I just walked out and found my buddy Sleeper.

  He was resting, and there was a nice pile of hay available for me in his corner. I decided to just roll with it. I had slept on dirt and hardwood floors before, so this wasn’t the worst sleeping arrangement I
’d had.

  I lay awake for a while, pondering the new developments and looking into the starry sky. Things seemed like they were about to pick up. I could not wait to see what my first boss fight was going to look like.

  Just before I dozed off, I got a glimpse of the moon high overhead. It was different than the red one I’d seen several nights prior. This one was bright white and smaller than its predecessor, surely one of the many surprises awaiting me as my exciting journey continued to unfold.

  7

  I awoke to the melodic giggling of my new companion. She held in one hand a well-worn staff that stood taller than me, and in the other she carried several red potions, the signature design for videogame healing items.

  “Good morning, Si1ence,” she sang. “I baked us some pastries to eat before we set out.”

  Indeed, she had. Binari was apparently a decent baker in her spare time. She pulled four bready treats from a small wicker basket hanging around her arm, and we scarfed them down right there on the stable floor. They were filled with a thick, sweet cream that tasted the way I imagined heaven would. Some streaks clung to my face as I tore into my two, which resulted in more giggles from my companion. She took the red-and-white picnic cloth that was covering the basket and dabbed my nose.

  Horan arrived just as we were finishing up.

  “Oh, good—you’re awake,” he said with a broad grin. “I’ll loan you Sleeper again today, Rixon. Binari, I would give you another, but I am afraid I don’t have any more to spare. We had some extras when we arrived in town yesterday, but I had to drop them off at the barracks.”

  “That is fine,” she said. “I will ride with . . . what did you call him—Rixon—if he will allow it?”

  “Works for me,” I said. “And I’d prefer both of you to call me Si1ence, if you don’t mind. Everyone calls me by that name back home.” That statement was practically true, since I had over a million fans who couldn’t get enough voyeur gameplay action in looking over my shoulder.