by Tony Corden
She waited quietly for a few minutes, hoping she hadn’t been spotted. When no-one appeared, she sat back against the wall and looked at the message.
Unique Personal Quest: Claim the Ancient Elfaun City of Dag Tarafind
Atherleah, you have entered the ancient city. To claim this city, you must complete the following tasks (Attempt 1 of 2):
1. You must first declare your intention to rule by ringing the Royal Bell of Ascension.
2. You must complete the five trials of Den Meler.
3. You must defeat the five Mage Circles of Iktidar.
Difficulty: Very Hard (Be warned: The current ruler High Mage Zorlan Kimse will not relinquish her power while she lives, regardless of the Laws of Ascension.)
Constraint: You may not leave the city until the quest is completed or you have failed.
Reward if successful: 1. World Achievement: Complete Merkize Task - Claim a City (the reward will depend on the number of cities already claimed) 2. Variable reward from the restored Royal Line
Consequence of failure: There will be only one attempt remaining.
Do you wish to accept this Quest?
[Yes] [No]
“Yes”
Leah had just over four hours remaining before she needed to log out for breakfast and a break. She was about to Mist when Gèng said, “Leah, I’ve a couple of messages from John. The first is his recommendation that you plan on needing half-an-hour, real-time, to enter Quickdraw and get to the meeting point. The second message is they haven’t detected any other of your mother’s trackers. He did some tests, and the flow in the pipes is faster than expected. He’s ordered a few more receivers and says they should catch the next tracker. The other possibility is the timing of bathroom breaks”
“Thanks, Gèng, no replies. Without a reply from Meredith, I’d better spend the next session in Cosmos Online to see if I can find the message. Is there anything else I need to know?”
“I’ve been talking with Akia and we have some ideas to run by you concerning her situation, but they aren’t urgent.”
“Nevertheless, it is something we should start working on. Tell Akia I suggest we discuss your thoughts after I’ve met the people in Quickdraw.”
Leah Misted then moved out of the room and began moving along the carved path which headed along the canyon wall toward the more built-up areas of the city. She moved rapidly and was soon travelling through much more populated sections of the city. Very few of the Elfauns she looked at showed specialisations like the Scouts or Warriors she had seen. Most were labelled as Common Elfauns and were the size the Warrior Elfauns, but their horns grew more from the top of their skulls and resembled the goat horns of the scouts. Their clothing varied greatly. The majority—males, females, and children—were dressed in simple tunics and capri length breeches made of a rough cloth. A few had finer garments of different colours and styles and were obviously the elite. The commoners were careful to move quickly out of the path of the wealthy.
Added to these were an even smaller group of Elfaun who exhibited other specialisations. She saw two who had large antlers that spread out and had points like those on an elk. These were labelled as Arbiter Elfaun, and the common Elfaun moved out of their way quickly but with an attitude of respect rather than fear. Another was wider and stockier than even the Warriors and had thick, strong horns which came straight out from the side of their heads before slowly turning upwards and finishing in blunt points just past shoulder width. They were labelled as Enforcer Elfauns, and the respect they were shown was clearly due to fear.
She also saw one of the Mage Elfaun. Its horns were basically straight but had a spiral twist. The horns were long and sharp. They grew almost straight up from points above either ear. Leah could see that they were coated with dark purple or black Mana, or maybe they were made of Mana for all she knew. The mage wore a gown rather than a tunic. The material was the same colour as the horns. Every Elfaun stopped and moved out of its way, then dropped to one knee and looked down with bowed heads.
When the mage drew near Leah, it slowed to a stop and began to search the area with its eyes. Several times it looked in Leah’s direction but the eyes never focussed on the place Leah had stopped. Finally, after checking each Elfaun in the vicinity, it slowly moved on. Leah took a deep breath and decided not to follow the mage as had been her first thought. The further she travelled into the canyon, the higher the city rose along the cliffs, and the deeper were the inroads made into the side of the mountain.
She’d travelled over a third of a league into the city, and she could see another path or street parallel to the path she was on but excavated almost fifty paces into the mountain. She decided to switch streets and noticed almost immediately that as she went deeper, the Elfauns became poorer and thinner. She was passing a small laneway which branched off to her left when she heard a thump and a squeal of pain. She moved into the laneway and saw one of the Enforcer Elfauns lifting his foot up to stomp on a small form curled in a foetal position on the ground.
Leah un-Misted behind him but off to one side. Equipping Merdiven Leah swung the Morningstar end through an arc to meet the pastern just before the hooves reached what Leah could now see was an Elfaun child. Of the two, Merdiven was harder and travelling with greater momentum. Both pastern bones shattered and the leg was forced forward and up causing the Enforcer to fall backwards and come down hard on his back and head. She saw his eyes widen with pain and then with shock as he saw what type of creature had attacked him. She finished him with her sword and then turned to the small form.
Leah could see its health which hovered under half, and she cast Heal to bring it back into the green. Speaking in Elfaun, she said, “It is safe now. Can you let me have a look and check you are all right?”
Slowly the child uncurled and then it looked at Leah. Its eyes widened in fear and Leah thought it was about to scream so she said quickly, “I don’t think I’m that scary. Please don’t scream. I promise I won’t hurt you. My name is Atherleah. What is your name?”
The little Elfaun swallowed the scream before it had fully formed and then said in a small voice, “Zarif. What are you?”
“I’m half an elf and half a human?”
“What’s an elf?”
“Well, an elf is …”
Before she could finish explaining Zarif said, “Are you going to eat me?”
Leah smiled and said, “No. I don’t eat little Elfauns. But I do have some bread in my bag. Would you like some?”
Zarif nodded and was soon sitting on Leah’s lap and eating the bread. Zarif, Leah discovered, was female and she ate very carefully, not dropping a crumb. When she had finished, she looked at the dead Enforcer and said, “We should run away. If people find him here all dead, then they will put us in the circle.”
“What circle?”
“Where the ones with the straight horns kill people.”
“Do you have somewhere safe to go?”
Zarif nodded and said, “In the holes.”
“What holes?”
Zarif stood, and grabbing Leah by the hand, she began to move deeper into the laneway when she stopped and looked at Leah’s boots. She said, “What is wrong with your hooves? Do they hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t hurt. These are called boots, and I have them because I don’t have hooves.”
“Everybody has hooves.”
“I don’t. I’ll show you if you like, after you show me the holes.”
The alley ended in a solid wall, but Zarif ducked down and began to crawl into a circular hole near the base of the wall. It was just wide enough for her to crawl along. Leah looked in and could see a tunnel running deeper into the mountain. Zarif crawled back out and said, “Now, show me your hooves.”
“I will. But it is nice to say please when you want someone to do something.”
“Why?”
“Because then they know you aren’t telling them what to do. You are just asking. It lets people know they have a choi
ce and that you don’t want to force them to do something.”
“Please show me your hooves. You said you would.”
“You are right, I did.”
Leah removed a boot and a sock and showed Zarif her foot. Zarif broke into a fit of giggles and slowly reached out a hand to touch Leah’s toes. As her hand got close, Leah wriggled her toes, and the little Elfaun squealed with delight. After a while, Leah put her boot back on and said, “Zarif, where do the holes go?”
“Everywhere.”
“Is it safe in the holes?”
“It’s safe from the thick-horns and the straight-horns. It is safe from most adults except the small ones. You have to stay away from new holes because of the hole-makers.”
They discussed it for a while, and Leah came to understand that the mountain was riddled with tunnels formed by a large rock-eating worm-like creature. Most of them had moved deeper into the mountain and left behind a large interconnecting tunnel system that was used by the street children and orphans of Dag Tarafind to move around safely. There were several larger caverns in the network, and they used these for sleeping. Each cavern was controlled by an older child and run like a gang.
Zarif belonged to one of the smaller gangs. Her mother had been killed a year earlier when an Enforcer shoved her out of its way and off the cliff-face. Apparently, she hadn’t moved out of the way quickly enough. Zarif had been caught outside the holes when she’d tried to steal some food from the refuse pile behind one of the eating houses. The Enforcer had caught her, and that was when Leah had saved her.
Zarif looked at Leah and asked, “Where do you live?”
“I don’t have a home in this city. I was looking for somewhere to hide until tomorrow. The thick-horns and the straight-horns, they don’t like me either.”
“You could come home with me, but you’re too big.”
Leah checked her mana and said, “How far is it to your sleeping place? If I could come, would the others be scared or would they want to hurt me?”
“You’re too big to hurt. You killed a thick-horn. When I tell them you are nice, they won’t be scared.”
Leah smiled at her innocence, and she wondered when she had lost hers, how early. She said, “I can become small, like you. If you let me come then I’ll make myself small, and I’ll follow you.”
“You can come with me.”
Leah cast Grow while concentrating on Zarif and nothing happened. She quickly checked the spell and realised what she should have known from the words she’d remembered. Zarif wasn’t an adversary. She decided to change the words and let her intent power the spell. She closed her eyes and thought of Zarif, of her kindness and openness and then cast “Let the waters flow through me and life fill me to meet my friend with equality!” Her mana seemed thicker and harder to move than usual, so she focused her will on growing smaller and being able to look Zarif in the eye. Her mana pushed against the barrier, then suddenly flowed out and then back into her body. Leah felt herself grow smaller and opened her eyes. As she approached Zarif’s height she tried to stop the flow of mana. It was a struggle, and she only succeeded when she was an inch or two shorter.
Zarif stepped closer and said, “You’re smaller than me. I’ve never had a friend smaller than me before.”
“I think I need to practice that a bit more. You go first, and I’ll follow.”
Zarif headed into the tunnel and for the next twenty minutes led Leah on a journey behind the ancient city of Dag Tarafind. Some of the wormholes weren’t horizontal, and the children had hammered footholds and handholds to help them up and down the steeper parts. Finally, Zarif turned around and said, “Let me go in first, and I’ll make sure they won’t hurt you. Don’t worry, we don’t hurt the little ones. Only the big ones if they chase us.”
Leah wasn’t sure she liked being called a little one. A few minutes later Zarif called her to come out. Leah exited and found herself in a large spherical cavern. The walls weren’t smooth but had grooves at all angles which looked similar to what the worms made in their tunnels. There were five other kids in the cavern, and they all looked at Leah with suspicion. She said, “Hello, thank you for letting me stay here for the night. I promise I won’t hurt anyone and I have some bread that I can share with you.”
It took a while, but eventually, she felt secure enough to cancel the spell and return to her full size. She fed the kids and then after explaining that she would sleep really still all night long, and that they wouldn’t be able to wake her up, she lay down and logged out.
CHAPTER FIVE
December 11, 2073 - Part 2
Leah arrived in the tower to find Gèng waiting next to the sofa. Leah said, “Is everything all right?”
“Yes! I have a message from John. They had another ping but it only allowed them to move several hundred metres to a large junction of pipes. The possible locations, however, dropped by approximately twelve percent. He was insistent that you be told as soon as possible. I asked why he was so insistent and he said you were under a lot of stress and anything we could do to reduce it would be helpful.”
“Please don’t tell him, but all the small details stress me out more than a good summary would. Is there anything else?”
“Dunyanin has still not started showing your feed from yesterday. They’ve released a statement that they are still in negotiations with you over the misunderstanding yesterday and hope it is resolved soon.”
“I’m not sure if that is bad news or good news. Keeping my life private is good. Being blamed for upsetting thousands of viewers is bad.”
“Sharon says it is bad and suggests you release a comment. If you are willing, she says she’ll drop over and let you look at what she’s drafted.”
“While I have a break, can you ask her to set some parameters? Also see if you can find a way to release our own version of the feed? I imagined people would be watching it so why don’t we make it work for us.”
Leah headed for the kitchen, and the lack of congee simmering away and the absence of the usual smells had her gently sobbing for a few minutes until she realised it wasn’t helping her get her mother back. She dried her tears and instead ate some of her father’s homemade muesli. She also made some sandwiches and had a large mug of tea. She washed the dishes, including those left in the sink by her dad and Conner. She wondered if they realised, as she was beginning to, all the things her mother did which went unnoticed until she wasn’t there.
When she arrived back in the Tower she found Gèng and Sharon discussing what should, and shouldn’t, be included in the feed. Sharon said, “Leah, this is a great idea. I’ve already arranged for the feed to be made available as a free experience on Spectator. The owners of Spectator have agreed to buy the feed and said they’ll consider continuing to show it if it brings in the business they think it will.”
“What is Spectator?”
“They have this new program which remaps any video feed and allows a viewer to step into any scene as an unseen spectator. People love it. They not only have the option of watching their favourite three-dimensional show but can wander through the scenes and view it from any angle; zooming in and out at will. The world is new, and they think allowing people a free trial if they want to watch your feed will increase their membership significantly.”
“When you say buy, what does that amount to?”
“In the end, I agreed to 0.04 virtual credits for every new viewer who takes up the trial, and an additional ten virtual credits for every viewer who joins with a paid membership as a result of the trial. They expect around five million people will agree to the free trial, which should bring in 200,000 Virtual Credits. If viewers want to watch other shows on Spectator, then they’ll have to join. The Spectator guys said they project a take-up of membership of between fifteen and twenty percent. That’ll mean between seven-and-a-half and ten million virtual credits.”
Leah blinked a few times and then said, “Gèng, please see if you can get both George and Susan in the
loop and have them advise on tax and any other issues that arise.” Turning to Sharon, she said, “What you’ve done is fantastic, but please let George and Susan know what is happening with any big money issues. I’d normally stay and talk, but I need to see if I can crack the encryption on the Annoyance before I talk to the kidnappers.”
Leah turned to leave, and Gèng said, “Both Thad and Wisp have asked me to tell you that they would like to drop by later today. They asked for a time. Thad left a hologram message for you.”
“Tell them both I’m busy, and I’ll contact them when I’m a little freer.”
“I think you should visit them like you did Amy.”
Leah nodded and said, “You’re probably right, but it’ll need to wait until after midday. I’m not sure how to deal with Thad.”
“Be honest. You know that is the best path. Why are you afraid?”
“Because whatever ends up being the truth, it will hurt him.”
“I think keeping the truth from him is more dangerous for your relationship in the long run.”
Leah stood in silence for several minutes just thinking. Finally, she said, “You are right. But I need to put mum over the relationship. I can't do anything to jeopardise her safety. And, I keep thinking of all the books I’ve read, the adventure and fantasy ones. More often than not the good guy ended up in the most trouble when they did something that anyone with a brain wouldn’t have. They trusted the wrong person, or followed the wrong clue. As I was reading, I would almost cry aloud, ‘Don’t do it!’ I’m desperately trying not to be that person.”
“Were there ever any stories where they went the wrong way because they failed to recognise the one person who could have helped them?”
“Yes, and that frustrated me just as much … Very well! Tell them I’ll find a time later this afternoon to drop in and see them. If they are ok with that, then find out when they can be free, and we’ll talk about it later.”