by Jamie Davis
Someone must have found her on the floor and taken her somewhere to recover. Why they hadn’t transported her to a hospital or the local urgent care center, she didn’t know. It was obvious she was in someone’s spare bedroom. Someone who had unconventional tastes in decorating.
Beside the small bed stood a wooden table with an oil lamp, of all things, and adjacent to the table was a simple wooden chair, rounding out the only furniture in the room. There was a board mounted on the plaster wall next to the door with three wooden pegs extending from it. It looked like a place to hang clothing or a coat for the room’s occupant. The white plaster walls were unadorned and plain, and the single door presumably leading outward seemed to be made of wood stained a deep, natural brown, like aged oak.
There was something else wrong with the odd chamber, and it took her a while, examining it all over again, before she noticed what it was. There were no outlets in the walls and no light switch by the door. Of course, there was no LED light panel or even an old-fashioned light fixture with bulbs mounted on the ceiling, so why would the room’s owner require a light switch? You only needed one in a room with electricity installed.
Sitting up all the way, Cari tried to access her comm unit directly by voice command. “Alex, call Mom.”
When nothing happened, she fumbled at her belt pouch and pulled out her phone. She tapped the screen a few times before she realized it had been turned off. That was weird. She never turned her phone off unless it was updating itself.
Cari pressed the single button to turn it on and stared at the screen while it powered up and went through its operating system sequence. As soon as the home screen showed itself, she tried to make a call by activating the voice commands again.
“Call Mom, Alex.”
“I’m sorry, Cari. There is no wireless carrier signal or net connection available at this time,” the phone’s dispassionate male voice replied.
Sure enough, the corner of the screen showed no signal bars.
Cari rose from the bed and walked around the room, holding the phone up in the air and hoping to find a place where there was a signal. After a minute of trying, she lowered her arm. The phone could not connect to the network.
Frustrated, Cari opened the map app and checked to see if her location was recorded there. No luck with that option, either. She had hoped at least to use the GPS to get some idea of where she was before she opened the door and confronted whoever had brought her here.
The thought she was somewhere with no wireless connectivity annoyed her. Cari refused to admit to herself she was afraid. There was, however, a nagging tension in the back of her mind. Everything about this place was strange.
Her hand fell to her right hip and felt her sword’s familiar hilt resting there. If she’d been kidnapped or something, whoever did it was incompetent. They’d left her armed and more than capable of defending herself. If somebody was playing a joke on her, it was no longer funny. She intended to have a few stern words with whoever was responsible for bringing her here.
“Time to go and see what’s on the other side of the door, Cari,” she told herself.
Quest accepted: Explore the Empress’s Rest Inn.
Cari froze as the glowing, golden letters appeared in front of her eyes. As she stared at them, they slowly faded from view and disappeared. The strangest part of it wasn’t that she saw glowing words in front of her face. The strangest part was how familiar it seemed, almost as if she’d seen it before, triggering a vague memory from far in her past. She closed her eyes as it came back to her.
A much younger Cari Dix toddled down a long hallway with an ornate, mosaic tile floor and turned a corner to find a small, white dog with curly fur and a wagging tail sitting in the passage, waiting for her. A similar glowing, golden message appeared before her eyes. Her two-year-old self couldn’t read the message, but older Cari could.
Quest completed: Find the puppy.
For a long time, Cari stood in front of the bedroom door and tried to make sense of the bizarre message she’d just seen and figure out what it had to do with the memory it had triggered. Once again, it occurred to her how this place seemed so foreign and yet, in some ways, also familiar.
Cari shook her head. This was insanity. Remaining here, worrying about what had happened to her, wasn’t going to solve anything. There was only one way to find out what was going on. She had to leave this room and confront whoever had brought her to this place.
After reaching out and grasping the doorknob, Cari pulled open the latch and swung the door towards her.
As soon as the door opened, the buzz of many voices and the faint lilt of music drifted into the bedroom. Cari could smell a faint odor of wood smoke, too. A long hallway stretched out before her, a patterned rug running across the dark hardwood floor. At the end of the corridor, a banister angled downward, suggesting a staircase. Along either side of the hallway, there were six doors. Each door had a number painted on it in silver.
Looking behind her, Cari noted her door was numbered thirteen. The other doors had numbers in descending order, moving away from her towards the stairs. Cari snorted a half-laugh at the number on her door. Good thing she wasn’t superstitious.
Her father had taught her from a young age that every person made their own luck in life, and nothing she’d seen growing up had changed her mind about that. She had friends, though, who’d freak out about staying in a room with the number thirteen on the door.
The strange glowing message had said something about an inn to explore. These must be the rooms for the guests. Judging by the faint noise of music and voices coming from the far end of the hall, she assumed the rest of the inn, or tavern, or whatever it was, must be down there.
Cari stepped into the hallway, her boots making no sound on the thick carpet beneath her. She pulled the door shut behind her and walked to the next two doors. The one on the left was locked, but the right-hand door opened when she tried it. Inside was a room much like the one she’d just left, though the bed was large enough for two people. There was also a second chair beside the table.
She pulled the door closed and continued down the hallway, checking the doors as she went. All the other rooms were locked, probably indicating they were occupied or at least rented to someone. Cari wondered if she should go back and lock her door. She hadn’t seen a key anywhere in her room, so she searched inside her belt pouch for one. She had nothing in there other than her credit chip, a few elastic hair ties, her miniature holo projector cube, and a stylus for her phone. She’d have to leave the door unlocked for now. It wasn’t like there was anything valuable in the room.
She glanced at the phone screen, which still showed no signal. The building she was in must have a steel frame with no repeater antennas added to it. It was weird. Most buildings, even the oldest she’d seen, had full wireless coverage and net connection. Shaking her head, Cari returned her phone to the pouch and started down the stairs towards the noisy room below.
The staircase proceeded down to a landing and turned to the left to continue the rest of the way to the lower floor. The sight greeting her as she descended was not what she expected.
She stepped down into a large open room. A huge stone fireplace was built into one wall on the right. A fire blazed inside it. That explained the smoky smell. Opposite it stood a long bar, patrons lined up along the length of it. In between lay tables of various sizes and shapes, also mostly filled with patrons.
It was the patrons themselves that delivered the biggest shock. All were dressed in colorful, period clothing not dissimilar to her own modified Renaissance garb. Even the musicians on a low platform beside the fireplace wore cosplay outfits of surprising detail.
Cari appreciated as well that once again she didn’t see a single modern device or electric light anywhere. The light provided in the room came from dozens of candles mounted on a pair of large, brass chandeliers suspended from the ceiling.
Even the bar continued the old-world theme. It was de
void of anything that looked like a cash register, a refrigerator case, or even a sink as far as she could see. The lack of modern conveniences clued her in to where she must be.
Somehow, she’d been taken to the Ren Faire. That was the only explanation for what she observed. Cari didn’t remember this particular establishment from past visits, but this had to be somewhere at the Faire. It must be one of the newly constructed buildings for this year’s festival that had opened in the last few weeks. It had been that long since she was previously here.
With that mystery solved, Cari decided to find out exactly who might have brought her here and placed her upstairs. One of the bartenders must know who was responsible. She’d start there.
Winding her way through the crowd, she noticed everyone in the room was armed in some way, which had to be some sort of record for cosplay fans. Cari also realized none of the blades were peace-bonded. She looked down to check her own sword and dagger. Hers weren’t peace-bonded either. How had all these people gotten through the gates carrying real weapons without security using plastic zip ties to hold their blades in their scabbards?
Cari shrugged off the discrepancy. Obviously, they’d gotten through security somehow. She’d find out soon enough. She’d reached the bar.
“Excuse me, bartender? I wonder if you could tell me how I came to be upstairs in one of the lodging rooms? I don’t remember coming here.”
The tall bartender had his back to her. His broad shoulders and the long black braid that hung down between his shoulder blades showed he was into cosplay as much as his patrons. Then he turned around and Cari saw his face.
His skin had a slight green tint to it, but that wasn’t what caught her attention the most. It was the two small tusks that extended up from his lower jaw over his upper lip. That caught her by surprise. They looked so real.
“I don’t keep the inn’s guest book here behind the bar, miss. You’ll have to check with Arno. Do you want something to drink? The new shipment of goblin ale from the Vale of the Morning Sun is excellent.”
“Uh, no, that’s alright,” Cari stammered. She was caught off guard by the realism of the man’s costume and make-up as well as the offer of alcohol to her, given that she was a minor. The staff at every restaurant and nightclub she’d ever been to had used her bio-chip’s automated system to verify her age before offering her a drink.
“Do you know where I can find the manager, this Arno?”
“He’s floating around in here somewhere.”
A few patrons from down the bar called out for more drinks, and the bartender hooked a thumb in their direction.
“I have other folks who want drinks, so if you’re not going to order anything…”
Cari noted the thumbnail right away. It was thick and pointed like a talon and it, too, looked very realistic. This guy was serious about his cosplay look. Whatever he was supposed to be, he certainly had purchased or made for himself the full package.
“I’ll wait here while you serve them. I really need to speak to Arno.”
“Suit yourself. I’ll send him over to you if I spot him. He’s hard to see among the crowd since he’s so short.”
The bartender turned and headed down to the other end of the bar to pour drinks for the waiting patrons. One of them was also in some sort of non-human costume. He looked different from the bartender. His make-up was much darker, almost a gray-green color. He saw Cari staring at him and he smiled, displaying teeth filed to points. He ran his tongue over his upper lip and winked at her.
Cari blushed and turned away. She wasn’t used to such forward behavior. She suddenly felt very exposed. She scanned the rest of the room until she’d seen everything in plain view.
Another glowing message appeared before her.
Quest completed: Explore the Empress’s Rest Inn.
200 experience points awarded.
A tap on her shoulder distracted her from the new message that had appeared. It had already started to fade away like the others. She turned to see who’d touched her.
A woman with long blonde curls stood there with her hands on her hips. She wore a dress with a low-cut bodice and an exterior corset laced up the front. She looked Cari up and down with a curious expression on her face.
“Hey, missy, my friends and I saw you come down. We wondered why you weren’t wearing your faction colors?”
“I’m sorry, what are you talking about?”
“Your colors,” the woman pointed to a length of red ribbon woven into the laces of her bodice. “Where are your colors?”
Cari glanced around the tavern. For the first time, she noticed everyone in here wore some sort of prominently displayed red ribbon or string on their costumes. Some had them pinned on their chests, others fixed to their caps, and still others tied about their weapon’s hilts or scabbards.
She realized she must have stumbled into a private gathering for some charity or cosplay organization.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have mine. I-I just arrived.”
“I figured as much. Well, you have to wear your colors if you’re going to remain in here for long, honey. People will start to judge you if you don’t pick a side. I mean, you aren’t in favor of that would-be usurper the Duke of Charon, are you? You’re for the Empress, right?”
“Oh, yes, of course. I just got here, but I’m on the right side,” Cari said, trying to think fast and not offend anyone within earshot.
“Good, then here you go. The Empress can always use another supporter willing to stand up for her and the Empire.”
The woman handed Cari a twelve-inch length of red ribbon. She took it and checked others near her for placement before deciding to tie it in a bow through the brass buckle of her diagonal sword belt so it was displayed in the middle of her chest. As soon as she tied the ribbon in place, another of those odd messages appeared in front of her eyes.
Faction accepted: Support the Empress.
Blinking her eyes, Cari tried to understand what she was seeing, then as she recovered from the latest hallucination, she reached out to introduce herself and shake the woman’s hand.
“Thank you. Um, I’m Cari. I’m looking for the innkeeper, Arno?”
Instead of grabbing her hand and shaking it, the woman clasped Cari’s wrist in a strong grip. Cari was surprised by the strange greeting, but she returned the gesture and the woman smiled.
“Hi, Cari, I’m Merry. I just saw Arno go out the front door. He shouldn’t be long coming back. Why don’t you come and sit with me? There’s another traveler sitting at my table who’s new in town. The two of you can compare notes.”
Merry turned and Cari followed her through the crowd to a table against the wall to the left of the fireplace. A young man, perhaps eighteen or twenty years of age, sat at the table, watching them approach with a cheerful grin on his smooth-shaven face. His shoulder-length, curly brown hair was partially hidden by a large, floppy forest-green beret pulled down atop his head. He’d pinned a short length of red ribbon to the front of his cap.
The rest of his outfit was as impressive as everyone else’s costume in the tavern. He wore a white linen shirt with blousy sleeves cuffed at the wrists. The shirt was tucked into tight brown pants, and he wore a matching brown leather vest over the shirt. The young man also had a lengthy coat draped over the back of his chair, and he was armed with a long rapier as well as both a dagger and a belt knife.
“Rod, you were right. She’s with the Empress, but she’s new in town like you and didn’t have a chance to get her faction badge.”
“I told you she was too well equipped to be unaligned.”
The young man stood and bowed, sweeping the beret from his head in a broad, graceful arc.
“Rodrigo Dumont at your service, milady. And you are?”
“I’m Cari, Cari Dix.”
“Aha, so your parents are traditionalists, naming you after the Lost Princess of legend. That must be why you support the Empress, given her supposed place in those stories.”
“I guess so. It’s just my name,” Cari said, shrugging. She took the chair across from Rodrigo and sat down.
Merry sat between them.
“Why are you looking for Arno, Cari? Rodrigo’s brow furrowed. “Is there a problem with your room? Are the rats back?”
“Rats? No, nothing like that. I’m hoping he can tell me who brought me here.”
“What do you mean?” Rodrigo asked. “Did you come with someone else?”
“Not exactly. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I just woke up in a room upstairs. Frankly, I don’t remember coming here at all.”
“You must’ve had a fun evening last night if you don’t even remember renting a room,” Rodrigo said, laughing.
It was a pleasant laugh, and his good-natured grin told Cari he meant nothing insulting, but the statement irked her, nonetheless.
“I wasn’t out partying last night, Rodrigo. I was home. I got up this morning, made plans to go out with friends, and then woke up here in this inn. I just want to find out how I got to the Faire without remembering the journey.”
“What Faire?” Rodrigo asked. “I didn’t hear there was a festival in town.”
“Wait,” Cari said. “This isn’t the Renaissance Faire?”
“No, honey,” Merry said, chuckling. “I don’t know what a ‘Renaissance’ is, but this isn’t it. What part of the Crystal City do you live in anyway? Maybe we can take you home, or are you from out of town?”
“I don’t live in the Crystal City.” The name seemed oddly familiar, like so many other things about this place. “I’m from Baltimore.”
Cari stopped and looked around the room once again. She took in all the things she’d noted earlier, but focused this time on the discrepancies between reality and what she’d expected to see. Cosplay depicting different races like orcs or goblins or whatever they were supposed to be wasn’t part of the typical Ren Faire groups she knew. She’d also never seen so many people armed with naked steel weapons. Every weapon she’d spotted so far showed signs of regular use and wear, unlike what you’d see in the well-maintained replicas usually present at the Faire.