by Dante Doom
“He was not lying,” Ten-Thirty said, following behind Timon. “Those equations carved into the wall explained how this entire world functions. In a strange way, I have seen the creation of my universe now, carved in stone. This place was created to serve a purpose, free of Virals.”
“I don’t even know how to process this,” Savannah said. “I thought… the ranks were made for a reason… like for…” she trailed off in contemplative silence.
“They were made for a reason, Savannah,” Timon said. “A far better reason than to establish a ruling class. This changes everything. We can’t let Elanor shut off the Grind, now.”
“I’ve heard these tales,” Savannah mumbled. “About the World Before. People used to be able to travel through the sky in things called airplanes. They were big metal machines that could take you all over the world.”
“Yes, travel, medicine, agricultural science…” Timon replied. “Here, perhaps we can find all of the information we need to fix things in Verre. Maybe they know how to cure poxes.”
“Those Machina…” Savannah whispered. “From the fields! Remember? The first level, there were big machines that could harvest enough food to feed Verre for a year. What if the instructions told us how to build those in the real world? It would solve all of our food problems. The Serfs wouldn’t have to break their backs all day in the fields. There’d be no more shortages. No more famine.”
“This… this is big,” Timon said with a nervous sounding laugh. “This is bigger than I could have imagined. Savannah, we’re onto something! We can change the world with this knowledge.”
“Something’s not adding up, though,” Savannah replied. “If the ranks were never meant to be used outside of the game, why does our entire society revolve around them, and the Grind?”
“Well, if the tutorial was off and no one ever explained the Grind’s purpose to the survivors, maybe they assumed that’s how our ancestors used it. It’s possible… Think about it. The catastrophe must have killed most of the population. The survivors had children and those children grew up, never knowing what the world looked like before. If their children’s children were to go into the Grind, they would have no idea what it was meant for. If enough people died out, and people who knew it were more focused on surviving than passing on the information… the information could have been lost within just a few generations if the catastrophe killed off enough of the adult population.”
“It’s all one big misunderstanding, then?” Savannah whispered. “It’s all a big lie…”
They were silent for a few more minutes. “Ten-Thirty, you can really confirm this is true?” Timon asked.
“What would that Aspect have to gain by fabricating such a story?” the android replied. “You questioned it many times. The equations on the wall spoke of the fundamental design of this place. Everyone I have met has had it so wrong.”
“I can’t believe it,” Savannah mumbled. “How did we get it so wrong?”
Everything about what Alcius had said made sense to Savannah. There had always been so many gaps in the existence of the Grind. The usual answers were always insufficient, as to who had built it, and whenever she had questioned it, she’d been met with rebuttals by adults who were just as clueless as she’d been.
It was easier to believe the words of the Aspect because the implications were staggering. If the whole thing was a sham, if everything about the Grind was completely different from what everyone thought, then it meant there was hope for something better. The truth meant that everyone would be able to benefit, not just the nobility. She could accept this new way of thinking quickly enough because it was far better than what she had believed before. Her mind darted to her previous conversations with Hem.
Her father had told about a place where Leopold was gaining power. He must have been referencing the College of Colossus. But did Leopold know the truth? If he didn’t, how would he react to learning what the real purpose of the Grind was?
“What should we do now?” Savannah asked.
“I suppose we follow our plan,” Timon replied. “We find Leopold’s ghosted player. We can explain what we’ve learned to Elanor and convince her not to shut the Grind down.”
“Why bother with any of that?” Savannah asked as she reached the top of the ladder and climbed out into an enclosed room with a large opening in the ceiling. She looked around, taking in the space absently. In the center of the room was a giant telescope, but Savannah paid little attention to her surroundings, she was so lost in thought. She turned to face Timon as he stepped away from the ladder to let Ten-Thirty climb up into the room fully. “What if the reason Elanor, Leopold, and the rest of the Nobles are all so petty and vain is because they believe in the tradition of the Grind, as well?”
“What do you mean?” Timon asked.
“Think about it! Verre has been around for a very long time; generation after generation has been born under the belief that the Grind is meant for determining our rank in society. What if everyone else is just as blind as we were?”
Timon shrugged. “Well, let’s not get too excited. While there are a lot of implications, we’ll need to confirm what Alcius said by looking for the college.”
“My dad told me about the place, actually,” Savannah replied. “It’s real. It’s real, and Leopold has access to it.”
Timon crossed his arms. “Well, then he knows the truth, right?”
“Not necessarily,” Savannah said. “What if he’s completely clueless? He could be controlling the one area that would fundamentally bring change to Verre and not even realize it.”
“Or maybe he knows the truth and has decided to keep it to himself,” Timon replied. “If everything was a sham, I doubt he’d be willing to tell everyone about it.”
“Maybe… but maybe not,” Savannah said. “Sure, he’s a petty asshole, but would he really stop all of Verre’s development just because he wanted to remain a ruler?”
Timon shrugged. “I can’t really say. I doubt he’d jump for joy when he found out everything was a lie, though. In fact, I think most Nobles wouldn’t care to learn about this.”
“So?” Savannah asked as she began to pace back and forth a little. More ideas were beginning to come to her mind. “Who cares what they have to say?”
Timon frowned and shifted a bit. “What are you getting at?”
Savannah continued pacing as she talked. “There are thousands upon thousands of us working in the fields, under the delusion that this whole tradition means we have the potential for advancement if we follow the rules and play the game, Grinding, but ultimately, it’s meant to keep us acquiescent. If Leopold or the other Nobles refuse to believe us, it doesn’t really matter. Once the peasantry learns the truth, it will be all over for them. We can mobilize them and invade the second wall. It doesn’t matter if Leopold knows the truth or not.”
Timon seemed to measure his response before speaking. “Savannah... if there was a revolt, people would die. We have to look at this logically before—”
Savannah laughed. “Logically? There are barely forty Nobles in the court, two hundred Barons at the most, and more than one hundred thousand peasants working in the fields—and the only thing holding us down is this lie! Timon, change is coming. Sooner rather than later. Much sooner.”
“Whoa, Savannah, let’s slow things down,” Timon said as he held his hands up, taking a step forward as if to calm her. “We have to figure out the best way to approach this.”
“I say we talk to King Leopold and tell him the truth about this place. We’ll see what he has to say.”
“And if he doesn’t want to cooperate?”
Savannah grinned. “We log out and get to work. Forget all of this Grind business, at least for now.”
Timon placed a hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t we at least talk to Elanor first and see what she thinks?”
Savannah took a deep breath, trying to contain her excitement. Possibilities were opening up before her. “Yeah, ok
ay, okay,” she said. “You’re right. I don’t want to get too carried away.”
“And don’t forget that we don’t really know if this is true yet,” Timon warned. “It could just be a hoax.”
“It’s not,” Savannah said with a laugh. “I know deep down that it’s true. I’ve had so many questions about this place, and Alcius connected most of the dots.”
“I have an aching suspicion it’s all true, as well,” Timon said.
Savannah glanced around to see that Ten-Thirty was gone. She hadn’t noticed it leave. “Where did Ten go?”
“Over here!” Ten called from down a hallway.
The two walked past the telescope to the door opposite of where they had emerged from. Ten-Thirty was around the corner, looking at a large wall with various runic circles on it. “I believe this is one of the entrances to the registry.”
“Good,” Timon said. “Let’s find out where Leopold’s linked player is and then head back to meet with Elanor.”
“Why do we still need to know where the King’s goon is?” Savannah asked.
“Because we’re going to keep moving forward with the mission. I would rather have Elanor in control than Leopold, because I’m fairly certain that she can be persuaded to keep the Grind functioning once she knows the truth. So, we should eliminate Leopold and put Elanor in charge.”
Savannah scoffed. “She won’t be in charge for very long, you know. As soon as word breaks, it’s going to be a whole new world.”
“I’m concerned that you’re not thinking things through; I mean, the tradition of the Grind has to exist for some reason, right?” Timon rationalized. “So, we can’t simply throw it all out. Yes, it is false, but simply because it is wrong doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve a purpose. We can figure out some way to slowly introduce this new idea.”
“All this time… I thought I had to become a Noble in order to be free. I thought the only way to escape this was to obey the rules! Turns out the rules were one big joke,” Savannah said nearly to herself, ignoring Timon’s words. What would Hem think of this news? He was a respected member of the Serf community. All her father had to do was start spreading the story around, and then things would change. The nobility wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Savannah, are you listening to me?” Timon asked as he snapped his fingers a few times.
“What?” Savannah asked as she looked up at him sharply. She had completely tuned him out as she’d paced about the corridor, lost in her own thoughts.
“We need to focus on what moving forward looks like,” he said. “Let’s find Leopold’s goon and stick with the plan.”
“Sure, sure,” Savannah muttered as she pulled the medallion out and walked past Ten-Thirty. She placed the medal against the runic circle, causing the door to slide open, revealing a large room with dozens of screens lining the walls.
“Allow me,” Ten-Thirty said as it pushed past the two and moved into the center of the room. There was a large keyboard there, and Ten began to type on it.
“Here’s hoping we find our target,” Timon said as he walked in after Savannah. The two looked around at the screens. As Ten typed, hundreds of player names and IDs began to pop up.
“How long is this going to take?” Savannah asked.
“I should be done in a moment,” the android replied as it continued to work. As it furiously typed away, all of the screens began to display a single line of words that said ERROR UNKNOWN.
“What’s that?” Timon asked.
“Unfortunately, it would appear that Leopold has removed his linked player’s information from the registry. That is problematic,” the android replied.
“Well, there goes our hopes of taking Leopold down quickly,” Timon mumbled as he threw up his hands in frustration. “I knew it couldn’t be this easy.”
Savannah shrugged. “So, now what?”
Timon sighed. “I guess we tell Elanor that we didn’t find what we wanted. After that, we’ll see what she thinks about this discovery.”
Savannah, Timon, and Ten-Thirty emerged from the mountain cavern to be greeted by the light of the Abyssal Plains. The long slope before them would take them back to the trail they had originally come down. Elanor would be waiting for them back at the Fieros Med Center.
“Which way do we go?” Timon asked.
“I think we should…” Savannah’s words trailed off as she watched Leopold and a few of his men appear from around the bend of the slope. “That’s not good.”
Timon groaned. “Well, I guess our clever ruse wasn’t that clever after all. If he’s here, he’s probably going to kill us.”
“I see you three!” Leopold called from a distance. “Save your dignity and come down here. I wouldn’t want to have to run you down like dogs.”
“Can we run?” Timon asked.
Savannah glanced at the cavern behind her. It was possible that they could make a run for it, but then again, why bother running? The worst thing that could happen would be that the King would kill her in the game and kick her out. The Grind didn’t have any power over her, so she wasn’t worried.
“No, let’s talk to him. I want some answers,” she replied as she began to walk down the slope.
“Wait!” Timon said as he reached to grab her by the shoulder.
“Sorry, Timon, but I just gotta ask him!” Savannah replied as she pulled away from his grasp. She rushed up to the retinue of guards. Leopold looked annoyed, but not furious. He was shaking his head as she approached.
“Savannah, I’m a little disappointed in you,” Leopold said as he wagged a finger at her.
“Sir?” she asked.
“Don’t ‘sir’ me,” Leopold growled. “What, did you two think that you could run a search on me without me knowing?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Savannah replied.
“Don’t lie to me,” Leopold said. “It’s not worth it.”
Timon caught up to the two of them, jogging lightly to reach them. Above his head hovered the words Your Running Skill has Increased by 1.
“My liege!” Timon exclaimed.
“Save it, laRange,” Leopold growled. “You two had better explain yourselves right now. I don’t have the patience to deal with liars and fiends who seek to betray me. What did Elanor offer you? What could she have possibly given to you that I can’t? You could have had everything you wanted working with me, and instead you decide to throw it all away, and for what? For nothing.”
“We… we’ve learned something startling, sir,” Timon said. “It has caused us to change our course immediately, in order to find you. We were just searching for you so we could get to you quicker.”
“A feeble lie,” Leopold replied. “You could have just contacted me remotely.”
“No sir, it’s too important not to talk about without meeting in person,” Timon said. Savannah looked at him. Perhaps this was a last ditch effort to not be killed by Leopold, she thought, but then he began to tell Leopold the entire story of what they had seen. When Timon finally finished, though, Leopold spoke simply.
“Quite the tale,” the King said. “I could see why that would cause you two to want to speak to me. Still, that doesn’t explain how you would have my ID number.”
“Is it true?” Savannah blurted out.
Leopold turned his head and looked at Savannah. “Why do you care?”
“Because if it is true, then everything changes!” Savannah replied. “We… we could turn Verre into something incredible!”
“You would think that, wouldn’t you?” Leopold said with a sigh. “You’re not familiar with the political state of our city in the least.”
“What are you talking about?” Savannah asked as she cocked her head.
“This kind of… story… can be dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands. The people of Verre believe the Grind is necessary for them to advance to a higher station in life. It keeps them occupied with the belief that there’s a better life on the other side. What if t
hat weren’t the case? What if they knew the Grind’s ranks were meant for something else?”
“They’d rebel,” Timon said, glancing at Savannah. “They’d overthrow their leaders.”
“Exactly!” Leopold exclaimed, making a hand motion as though he had a knife to his throat. “They would slit our throats in our sleep and burn our homes down. Our knights serve us, but why? Because they believe in the Grind. Our guards protect us, but why? Because they believe the Grind has assigned them that task. They follow their lot in life because the Grind tells them that is who they are meant to be. The moment they stop believing in the Grind… well, we’re dead. Whether it is true or not doesn’t really matter; the Grind is necessary the way it is.”
Savannah wrinkled her face in thought. “But the truth does matter!”
“Only to those who are the losers in the arrangement,” Leopold replied with a smirk. “The world is composed of those on the top and those at the bottom who are there to support them. As far as I see it, they are irrelevant. Now, then, what am I to do with you two?”
“Don’t try to change the subject!” Savannah pressed. “You know the truth, don’t you? You know it’s all true!”
Leopold chuckled. “And what if I do? What does it matter?”
“I don’t understand,” Timon interjected. “Why would you keep this information a secret if you knew it?”
Leopold shrugged. “A long time ago, people couldn’t figure out exactly what the Grind was. They connected into the pods and explored it, unsure of what any of it meant. Then they started getting into fights with Virals and began gaining points. The man who got the most points was given the title of King, and everyone gave him deference and reverence in the real world. He realized how desperate everyone was for structure, for order. So, he created the rules for Verre. He told them all how ranking worked and, since his little tribe liked him so much, they believed him.”
“So, this King made this up?” Timon asked.
“Of course! It was as if the answer was handed to him on a silvar platter. When he was eventually dethroned, the new King believed the whole lie. Hook, line, and sinker. Not because it made sense, but because it gave him complete power over everyone else. Verre grew. Walls were erected, thousands were born, and the city boomed. Every now and then, someone would run into Alcius and learn the truth, but… those people were usually the ones at the top. The ones who could afford to poke around in their ample free time.”