by Rick Scott
Val Helena, with her muscular eight-foot frame, does a surprisingly cute little curtsey for the crowd.
“Now, let us feast!” Wilbur exclaims, and another round of cheers goes up.
I can hardly wait!
I cut off a big hunk of the meat and inhale its savory aroma before I pop it into my mouth. My brain nearly explodes from the intense smoky flavor of the charred meat and fat, while it’s tenderness causes it to melt in my mouth. “Gilly . . .” I groan. “I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
She laughs with her mouth full. “I know, right? So good!”
We enjoy ourselves like we never have before. Sides of roasted vegetables and potatoes are served, along with more ale—though Gilly and I stick to our fruit juice. After the meal, Wilbur convinces me to tell what happened in the meadow, and although I feel a little uncomfortable at first, I get in front of the crowd and just start talking. The way they respond with honest smiles of wonder puts me at ease, and Gilly even interjects with a couple of funny anecdotes, mostly of me panicking. By the time I finish the story, the whole crowd is laughing and cheering for me once more.
“Well told, young master!” Wilbur says, clapping. “I think perhaps you were a bard in your last life.”
I laugh. “Thanks.”
Then I get an update on my HUD.
You have learned a new skill: Oration
Oration
Your ability to positively influence a crowd increases with this skill.
+20 Favor Brookrun Village.
Level Up! You Favor Level is now 4.
Wow. I didn’t expect that!
“So, I hear you’re all to leave tomorrow,” Wilbur says. “You’ll be sadly missed. Is there anything you’d like to take care of before you go?”
I bring up the village administration screen. The mine shaft and the foundry are still days from completion. Other than that, the only thing I can think to do would be to get the mine in full operation, set up two mining streams: one for coal, and one for iron ore. I tell Wilbur as much, and he nods.
“I’ll see to it that it happens,” he says, and the mining work falls into the queue. “Would you like to communicate with me while you’re away?”
My eyes widen. “We can do that?”
“Not as well as we used to,” Wilbur says. “In the days of the Wayfaring Stones, it used to be instantaneous. But we could raise some homing pigeons that could be attuned to find you wherever you may be. News could take days to reach you, of course.”
I find the homing pigeons under the list of build items and bring it up.
Homing Pigeon Coop
Cost: 5 wood, 5 food, 10 labor
Do you wish to build a Homing Pigeon Coop? (Y/N)
Pretty cheap for what it will do.
“Yes, can you make us a coop please, Wilbur?” I say, choosing the affirmative.
“Of course. Once it’s built, I’ll send you regular updates, one every two or three days. That way, if you need to send something back, you’ll always have one at hand.”
“Sounds good,” I say. “By the way, are there other ways to communicate long distances here? We could have really used something like that earlier today.”
Wilbur considers it a moment. “Some enchanted items can do that. But you will have to travel to a large city to find such things.”
“Or we can pick up a couple of comm links in a tech world,” Rembrandt says, dropping in on our conversation. He then cracks a grin, and I realize he must be joking. Or maybe he isn’t.
“I suppose they wouldn’t work here, though, even if we got them?” I ask.
“Afraid not, mate. We’re stuck in the dark ages for now. It all runs off the same network, like the Wayfaring Stones.”
That reminds me. I need to go check on the Wayfaring Stone here in the village. “Will we be heading to a city at some point, you think, Rem? Maybe we could find a magic item for us to communicate better.”
“We were just talking about where we’re headed next,” he says. “Come join us over here, you two.”
Gilly and I move around the table to where Blacktop is pointing out a few things on a map to Val Helena and Maxis. From the map, Brookrun Village looks to be in the western region of the continent we’re on. To our north is a mountain range, and to the east is a large forest. To the west, the map is blacked out and labeled “The Wild.”
“If you want to get to the Vale of Sorrows,” Blacktop says, pointing to an area past the northern mountain range, “you basically got two choices. You can take a shortcut over the mountains, but that won’t be an easy haul. The mountains are a treacherous climb. Plus, the monsters are strong and the tribes up there are none too hospitable. Still, it can get you there in a day or two of hard travel. The longer and safer way is around the mountains, through the eastern forest first, and then the trade routes, but it’ll take you a couple of weeks, maybe three.”
Val Helena shakes her head. “I don’t want to take that long getting there.”
Blacktop looks up, seeing Rembrandt, and then says, “Oh, and as for you, the direction of the tech world is this way, I think.”
He points to the black void west of us, and then traces a line in a somewhat northwestern direction. “Travel for a day in that direction, and you should hit it.”
“What about using it to get around the mountains?” Rembrandt says as he uses his finger to trace an arc through the wild to our west that reenters the safe zone where the Vale of Sorrows is supposed to lie. “Won’t that be faster?”
Blacktop ponders it a moment. “I guess. Might take you less than half a day, but it is the wild you’re talking about here. Way more dangerous than the mountains. But, yeah, if you want an express lane, there you go.”
I’m not so sure about that option.
“What about a city?” I ask. “Is there one between here and the Vale?”
“Just before the mountains. Three days north of here. The human city of Stormwall. But the two women might have a problem there.”
“Why?” Gilly says. “Are they sexist pigs or something?”
Blacktop chuckles. “Probably. But that’s not what’s going to give you trouble. Their king, Braxus, is at odds with the wood elf clans to the east, as well as the giants of the mountain clans to the north. He’s a bit of a prick.” He then studies Gilly and Val Helena, his HUD lighting up within his eyes. “You’re both half-bloods, though. The girl might be able to pass if she keeps her ears covered. As for Ms. Giantess, however . . . ?” He just laughs.
“It’s all right.” Val Helena shrugs her big shoulders. “I’ve been through there before, and I never experienced anything out of sorts. What do mean by ‘at odds,’ though?”
“Some treaty that was broken a few months back. But it’s a big city,” Rembrandt says. “Maybe fifty thousand people. So long as you’re in and out quickly, it shouldn’t be much of a bother. Maybe some mild harassment, at most.”
“We’d just need gear for myself and Gilly,” I say. “Do you think we could find it there?”
“For the mage, definitely. For you . . . maybe.”
Guess that’s better than nothing.
“So, we’re going over the mountains then?” I ask, looking around the table.
“Well, it’s faster than going around, and safer than the wild,” Gilly says. “So, sounds like it to me.”
“I agree.” Val Helena nods.
“Good,” Maxis says. “The sooner we get there and get this over with, the better.”
I scowl at my brother. “Easy, man. This is her best friend, you know?”
“I understand that,” he says with a sigh. “I just don’t want us to forget the primary mission here. We still need to save Citadel. And I want us to start thinking about how we’re going to find it, too. As you saw, the node that spawned for Lakota was dead.”
“As I mentioned to your companions earlier,” Blacktop says, “your best bet for that might be in talking to the royal cartographers in Iron Forge. Those dw
arves must have come across it at some point.”
Crap, I forgot about that.
Maxis mulls it over. “Yeah, maybe. That could be our next destination after the Vale. The Ice Peak mountain range is to the east from there, about a week’s travel.”
I feel bad again. I could probably say something about the mines right now, but now definitely is not the right time. Not with what Maxis just said. He’d surely want to head there first. After we help Val Helena, I think. That’s when I’ll tell him.
And bear his wrath in the process. That reminds me to check on that Wayfaring Stone again, and to tell Gilly about what happened with the one in the meadow.
I send her a PM.
Me: Hey, I got something to tell you. Let’s go outside for a minute.
Gilly: Okay! (:
“Hey, guys, we’re popping outside for some fresh air,” I say as we both stand.
My brother gives me a suspicious look, and for a second, I fear he might know that I’m trying to hide something from him. But then I get a PM.
Maxis: Remember. Respectable.
I laugh as I roll my eyes. Then I jerk my head toward Val Helena with a raised brow.
Me: You too, bro! ;D
* * *
“So, what’s up?” Gilly asks once we’re outside the Common Hall.
“I want to check out this Wayfaring Stone,” I say as we head down the small path behind the hall. “I got the same weird error message from touching the stone that spawned from Lakota as when I touched that column down in the mines. I want to see if this one has it, too.”
“What are you thinking?” Gilly asks.
I shrug. “Rembrandt says that, in the tech worlds, the AIs are a lot more transparent about what this stuff really is. Here, it’s all magic, but maybe if we can find out what this error code means, we can find some way to fix it.”
“Ah,” Gilly says. “That’s good thinking.”
The sound of the crowd dies down as we reach the stone. The moonlight illuminates it at the center of a ring of small stones and when I touch it, the same error message occurs.
[Node Terminal 52AE: NULL_ERROR_541]
“Yup,” I say. “Different node number, but same error.”
“Null Error 541?” Gilly says as she touches it for herself. “I guess, if we could find out what the 541 stands for, it might be able to tell us something.”
“That’s very good intuition.”
My heart jumps at the unknown voice.
Your Awareness increases by 0.2!
Both Gilly and I turn about to see Wilbur standing behind us. “Whoa! You snuck right up on us, Wilbur.”
He lets out a chuckle. “Tell me, what are your intentions here, Shard Warriors?”
His question takes me a bit off guard. “What do you mean, Wilbur?”
“I mean, why have you come here? To this world. What do you hope to gain?”
I share a glance with Gilly. I suppose I haven’t really told Wilbur about our overall mission yet. “Um . . . to save our world back home, I guess. We need to take these nano-shards there. But right now, we’re focused on saving Val’s friend. She’s stuck in that labyrinth place in the Vale of Sorrows.”
“So, you intend to enter the Labyrinth of Onizoso?”
“Yeah, we have to.”
“I see.” Wilbur pauses a moment, and then looks back to me. “How many are you? In your city?”
“About a million,” Gilly says. “And we’re all going to die soon if we don’t get back there with enough nano to save them.”
“And with the Wayfaring Stones not functioning, how do you intend to get the nano back?”
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” Gilly says. “That’s what we were talking about at the table. We have to find it physically somehow.”
“I see. Well, I hope you find it.” He smiles. “Good luck to you, Shard Warriors. Especially at the Vale.”
My skin prickles as he turns and walks away. Something doesn’t seem right. I focus on him a moment.
Name: Wilbur
Level: 35
Class: Villager (Elder)
“Hey, Wilbur, how’s the progress coming on that Windmill?”
He pauses a moment, looking over his shoulder at me. “I’ll check on it for you. Good night.”
My heart jumps into my throat.
What the heck . . . ?
My skin goes from prickling to crawling as I watch him disappear into the night.
“Whoa,” Gilly says. “Wilbur was asking some weird questions, huh?”
My blood runs cold as my skin goes numb.
“That wasn’t Wilbur,” I say, my heart still pounding. “I don’t know who that was.”
Chapter 17: Gina
Bruce Peters stopped short when he saw the petite woman standing on the observation deck ahead of him. He released a sigh. It would have to be her. It was Friday morning, and he was hoping to get into the office ahead of Dennis to do some admin before the software engineer dug into him with more gloom and doom about the nano shortage.
Now, he had something even worse to content with.
Gina Roberts.
Mike and Ryan’s mother.
His pulse quickened, and he nearly turned about to leave, but she caught sight of him and gave him a frown. Too late to run now. Bruce plastered on a pleasant smile and approached her like he wasn’t the one responsible for her two sons being on the surface. The evidence, however, was already on display. Through the picture-glass window of the observation lounge, two stasis chambers hung side by side. The resemblance between the two Roberts boys within them was undeniable.
He’d been dreading this encounter for days. But it was inevitable perhaps. Once the Nondisclosure Agreement was signed, affected citizens were given free access to the facility to see their family members. Running into her was only a matter of time. Best to just get it over and done with. A quick hello. A goodbye. No more.
“Hi.” He extended his hand in greeting, still feeling much like a heel. “I’m Bruce Peters.”
She kept her arms folded as she continued to stare through the window. “Yes. I know who you are.”
His skin flushed hot with embarrassment and anxiety. The dismissal seemed more than the usual disdain he received from a visitor. Did she know something? The truth? Had her husband told her? Mark Roberts had been sworn to secrecy, same as Mike, but this was his wife, after all. He might have said something.
Bruce had known of this woman for years, but until now, he had never truly met her. Never wanted to, really. Too much guilt. Looking at her only reminded him of the hardships this poor woman must have endured over the years. He was almost ashamed to admit that she was still quite attractive, despite her drawn face and thin frame bundled in a long overcoat. It was the eyes. As brilliant blue as both her sons’.
“Yes, of course you do,” Bruce said, withdrawing his hand. “How can I help you? Ms. . . . ?”
“Roberts,” she said. “And you can help by getting my sons out of those damn boxes.”
Now I see where Mike gets the attitude. “I apologize. We’re doing the best we can. Synaptic overload is still something we’re trying to understand. Recovery can take a few weeks, but being in stasis is the very best state for them right now.”
She frowned. “Do you even remember my husband?”
Panic tightened his stomach, but years of being a public figure had trained him well. He let nothing show on his face when he lied: “I don’t think I do. Should I?”
Her eyes said it all. A look of deep resentment and accusation. “He mentioned that you worked together some years ago.”
If that’s all she knew, then maybe she didn’t know much at all. Bruce pressed another smile. “I see. Perhaps if I saw a picture of him or something.”
Gina Roberts lifted her chin toward the stasis pods beyond the glass. “You got two pictures of him sitting right there.”
Bruce chuckled and pretended to examine their faces like he was seeing them for t
he first time. “Ah . . . perhaps.”
“Look at the younger one. You should recognize him. He’s been to your house.”
Dear Lord, yes! How could he have forgotten that?
Bruce played up his acting skills with a double take. “Why . . . oh my, yes! That’s Jill’s friend. Ryan, I believe. My daughter. She invited him over a few days ago. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t aware of the connection.”
Gina Roberts smirked. Was she seeing straight through him? If she was, she had the steel to not let it affect her demeanor any. “I’m surprised she didn’t mention it to you. Not seeing him.”
His politician’s veil was beginning to slip now. What was he going to tell her? Another lie? That Gilly had simply forgotten to mention that her friend hadn’t appeared for days? That she wasn’t up on the surface, trapped out there with him? Then suddenly, his heart melted and he was taken in a sudden sob that was all too real. Oh my God . . . Gilly!
Gina turned to him, startled. Her brow furrowed, perplexed. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m sorry,” he said, collecting himself. Damn it, I’m falling apart here! “My daughter . . . she’s in stasis, too. My little girl. It must have happened at the same time.”
“I see,” Gina said.
He looked back to her with blurred vision, tears welling within his eyes. He didn’t know what to expect from her. Pity? Vehemence? Kinship? Indifference?
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said coolly, revealing nothing. “Let’s hope both our children recover quickly.”
Was that it?
There was a knowing sense behind her piercing blue eyes. Just how much, though, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps not enough to accuse him of anything outright, but enough to know he had something to do with it. Something to do with why both her husband and now her two sons had left her. A responsibility for which he needed to be held to account.
Or perhaps that was merely his own conscience speaking.