by David Gunter
“OK, wait! This doesn’t make sense”, Tommy exclaimed. “How can all the Undead of this City be walking around with their souls intact. This concept is just not making any sense to me.”
“Ah, but there’s a deal the living make that can be struck with any of the shrouded.” Slow explained. “We can either go into the veil or agree to inhabit the city with these undead bodies so long as we answer when called. It’s another way of saying that we are at their beck and call. They let us carry on our lives as we would have otherwise but with that string attached. Thanks to this revelation, however, you’ve helped solve a big mystery as well. On every first of the month, the Shrouded ring a bell from one of the towers and all the Undead line up to receive what they call ‘The Mark of the Willing’. They gave us each a symbol when we were turned Undead, and it’s common knowledge that each symbol corresponds to one of the shrouded. Sly and I have the symbol for the line of Magus. He’s a powerful and pretty cold-hearted shrouded, and we’ve seen Sinbad, and he gets into some pretty heated arguments. Well, anyway, we all stand in a line on ‘Mark’ day, as we’ve started calling it, and Magus will come down the line giving us a scratch on our arms with a fancy-looking dagger. We’ve wanted to examine one of those daggers for so long. Now we understand why we are made to do that, but that doesn’t really explain why they need the soul energy.”
Sly looked at Slow and asked. “Why would Sinbad send Tommy to us? He knows how much we want to find Da; does that mean he is going to help us?”.
“There can be no doubt! He has always sided with the Undead of the City against the others”, stated Slow.
“I would believe that, but I’d also believe that he’s targeting Magus. I wouldn’t be surprised if he befriended the others on our lane and gave us each a means to destabilize Magus somehow. Do you think they use the soul energy they’ve been collecting toward some dark end?” pondered Sly out loud.
Tommy stayed quiet as he watched the exchange and tried to piece the whole thing together. He thought about the conversations with Whispers and then meeting ‘Big Guy’ at the entrance to the city, and now these latest revelations and something just didn’t add up. There seemed to be other games at play here, and it felt as if they were a part of something much more complex than a rivalry between two shrouded.
“Well, OK, so maybe there’s some game afoot in this city, and we’re all involved somehow, but what about this dark quest? What’s that all about?” Tommy asked.
“So Sinbad isn’t like the other shrouded. He’s been known to come in here and get pissed drunk, and we’ve even seen him join in song with the other patrons and well hit on some of the barmaids too. Well, we haven’t seen him making such a fuss since our Dad went missing, but before that, he and ‘Da’ would often sit at this very table and talk for hours about stuff. Late one night, when everybody had cleared for the night, Da, who had gotten pissed drunk that night, started telling us some pretty wild stuff. He told us that the god of this city was in prison on another world and that the only reason he still had any presence here was that some of his soul was being kept trapped here somewhere. He told us that Sinbad had told him that we were an integral part of everything and that our very lives were what kept everything working”, said Sly.
“Yes, that makes more sense now!”, Said Slow. “Our soul energy is collected in those weird daggers they carry, and they must have similar abilities as Spine’s. So they take our soul energy and use it to keep this arrangement working somehow? Well, who knows how that arrangement actually works.”
“Well, we have to remember what Da said the day before he disappeared. He said he might be going on a quest the next day and would be back in a few days. Did he say dark quest?” Sly said, directing her question at Slow.
“Well, we’d both been drinking with Da that night, and I can’t remember exactly what he said, but he might’ve said that,” Slow answered. “Hey, you don’t think Da is still on this quest, do you? He said days, but it’s been months, Sis!”
“What if he is, though?” Countered Sly. “So get this, Sinbad sends us this stranger and tells him that we can help him answer questions about a ‘dark quest’? Sinbad is playing at something, and he intends for us to get involved. What’s more, I think he wants us to find Da, and I’m going to venture that this stranger has the key to the thing”.
“The Dagger!” Both women answered in unison.
“OK! So this dagger has something to do with this quest, but what is the quest exactly?” Asked Tommy.
Sly seemed to have a moment of inspiration and looked at her sister. “Sis! Da has a map on his study wall, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it has answers yet to be revealed.”
“Yet to be revealed? Haha. Now you sound like a fortune teller”, Slow said with humor. “Well, let’s go take a look at this map. Maybe a little revelation would go well with some of that slippery.”
Sly rolled her eyes and countered, “Well, don’t get any of that sloppy on the map; it may be the only clue we have.”
Tommy stifled a laugh, just barely, and the two sisters gave him a dirty look, which he deflected by looking up and at the ceiling, pretending not to be in the same room or on the same planet. The girls had a quick laugh, and then all three got up from the table, and Tommy followed the ladies as they led him downstairs towards what he hoped would be some answers.
A few moments later, they had all entered into a basement that had clearly served as both extra storage space and a study. They made their way to a desk on the far side of the room after making their way around some barrels and boxes stacked high and which clearly contained liquor and cheese.
“Here it is,” said Sly as she stood in front of a simple desk and pointed at the six by four foot-sized map on the wall. The map looked to have been drawn by hand. It had been meticulously measured as ruler markings had been drawn vertically and perpendicularly before the sketching had been started. There were places marked on the map, and there seemed to be several key markers on the map with many smaller points throughout. On the bottom of the map read the words, ‘The daggers’ bloody map.’
Not surprisingly, when Slow examined the map, she pronounced. “Yes, the name of this map is ‘The daggers’ bloody map,’ and it is stated to have a connection to the ‘Dark Quest.’”
“Wait, I had other questions before, but I have to know how you two are seeing this information.” Asked Tommy.
“Oh! Well, it’s a skill we acquired a while back. Da took us when Ma was still alive on a voyage across the sea to see the Light City and do some trading in the Bay of Light. He would trade black stone for beer and other supplies back then since the black stone was in so much supply throughout the nearby forests and hills. The surrounding area was much safer then too. Anyway, so we met with a group of monks part way through the voyage, and one of them offered to look into our mind’s eye and see if we had any talents. When Da was convinced they meant us no harm, one of the men put their hands on our head hummed this funny song, and the next thing we knew, we heard ourselves singing the song with him. It was a strange experience for sure, but the monks said the fact that we could sing the song so clearly meant we were destined for great things and that we now had the ability to see things for what they were. My Da was grateful to see we had received such a pronouncement, but we didn’t know how valuable that was to him until we arrived at the city and helped Da make a fortune from that trip.” Slow explained.
Then Sly continued. “Yes, Da became the wealthiest of men around, and Ma and Da put the ‘City of the Dead’ back on the map, so to speak. They enlarged the Inn and made it a proper place to stay when visiting the city and also arranged many voyages to bring people from everywhere to come to see their loved ones they’d long thought lost. Life was good for a long time before Ma was taken beyond the veil”.
“What!” Tommy exclaimed. “You mean she was killed?”
Sly kept on, “Yes, t
he city was prospering a lot because of Da, but money brings out the worst in people, and the Undead are no exception. As more of the living started showing up looking for a way to rescue their loved ones from a life of un-death, so did the opportunists in the city that wanted to reestablish their control of things and make some money in the process. One morning, Da woke up to find a big burlap bag at the door with Ma’s un-souled body within. She’d been taken the day before on the way home from the market, and someone had collected on her coin, no doubt. Many such burlap bags were left at doorsteps that week, and the report was made that many living had been seen leaving in ships which had once been dead. The ‘Dead Trade’ is what they called it, and there have been many rumors since that it was encouraged by some of the Shrouded. We once heard a drunk patron, one of the living, tell Da that they thought one of the Shrouded was actually the linchpin of the whole thing, but we never heard anything more about it.”
Slow then added. “I remember that. A few days after, Da became friends with ol Sinbad, and we started seeing more and more of him around. We talked a little while about asking ol Sinbad about it but never got the courage to ask as we were afraid of Magus in those days and didn’t want to give him an excuse to single us out at the next Marking. Maybe you haven’t noticed yet because you’re new here, and you’re one of the living, so this wouldn’t matter to you, but the shrouded are taller, and they are also much stronger than any of the Undead, and they hold all the knowledge and do all the talking for the city. They are in charge, and they don’t waste any time putting the rest of us in our place the moment they feel they must. Well, anyway, a few months later, something horrible happened at the docks, and the ‘Dead Trade’ came to a stop, for the most part.”
“Oh, that was terrible,” Sly interjected.
Then Slow continued. “A father, one of the living, had come with his two daughters in the hopes of exchanging a coin for his wife, who had crossed the veil. Well, the next day started as a happy day for him when, as promised, his wife returned alive. The father hugged and kissed his wife and helped her carry a large burlap bag she was carrying onto the ship, and then he ran to find the girls.”
Tommy covered his mouth and gasped, but Slow continued with the tale.
“Well, you might’ve guessed it, but the father couldn’t find the girls anywhere, and he combed the entire ship looking for them. Then the captain, who had remained uninterested up until then, realized the truth of the burlap bag and asked the mother when she had acquired the large bag. The father came back, completely bewildered at the missing girls, to his wife just in time to see the bag as it was opened and the two dead girls inside. The screams of the father and the mother are said to still be in the memories of the copycat gulls that fly the docks today. Those bastard birds are the reason we avoid the docks in the morning and especially around that time of the year when they most enjoy making those shrill cries. Well, as it turns out, the mother had been paid to take the large bag with her to the docks and had been given extra if she would carry the bag herself. The thought of carrying a dead loved one on one’s shoulders is a sobering thought, and the way that served to end that awful trade was effective, though morose.”
All three of them stayed quiet for a little while, and a little while later, the map broke them out of their silence as Tommy gasped.
“Wait a second!” he exclaimed.
Tommy pulled his dagger out and overlaid it onto the map allowing the end of the handle to remain stationary at one of the key markers and then using this as a swivel point, he moved the tip around the map and found a point where the tip met and then noticed that one of the jagged edges on the blade perfectly fell on one of the other points on the map. He repeated the process and found that there were two other points where both the tip and the jagged edge fell on marked points.
“So, do either of you know the length of the other blades?” Tommy asked.
“Well, no two are alike, but you’re right to suggest that they may be the same length,” said Slow.
“In fact, I know how to test that,” said Sly. Last Marking day, Magus’s handle caught on my thumb as he gave me the cut, and I’m sure if I use your handle the same way, I can guess the length very close”.
She took the blade from Tommy, and, holding it towards her and locking her thumb on its handle, she found the point of the blade to be almost perfectly aligned to the scratch. It was clear to the three that the blades were of roughly the same length, with the handles being a slight variable. Tommy and the women examined the map closer, and he continued to move the blade over the map noticing how other points on the map came close at times but didn’t perfectly line up with his dagger.
“I think I have an idea of what we might be seeing,” he said after a while. “I think that the blades hit different points on the map depending on their slight variations in curvature and sharp edges. I think, as well, that these intersections and markings are how your father planned his trip but what is even more interesting is that I believe, judging from the holes and lines on the map, that he may have had access to, at least, two blades in his research, which can only mean one thing. He may have a blade of his own, and he may have found an opportunity to use ol Sinbad’s blade, with or without his knowledge.”
The women exchanged quick looks, and then they both responded with their agreement. Tommy thought the exchange between them seemed a bit odd, but he had noticed quick and unspoken looks between the women all morning, and he was starting to feel like this was something he would just have to get used to around the two.
Tommy then tried to look at the map as a person who might be planning a trip and thought about where he might find shelter and any roads connecting the dots. He thought about his special traveling requirements, which included his aversion towards sunlight and moonlight touched items. Then finally, he thought about the number of days between each point and the return trip he might take. Then he came to a conclusion.
“Ladies, your father is fine! He’s just on a really long quest!”
CHAPTER X
Busted Pipes
David awoke to the sound of chirping birds and a distant rooster crowing. He found himself entangled in a bush and fell out of the bush as he tried to untangle himself. Then he stood up, collected himself, and looked at the place he had slept that night. It couldn’t have been of much protection, he felt. If the woods had been of any danger, he should have found himself an easy meal to any hungry creature that found him there.
A quick thought of the night before brought the creature he’d seen, before passing out, clearly into his mind’s eye. The terror of it threatened to overtake his present calm, but he forced the thoughts away again.
The ravine lay before him, and the sunlight was coming through trees on both sides of the divide. It was beautiful, he thought.
“Hellen, you made a pretty nice forest. Did you make this all for me? You know I don’t like forests, dear.” David said this, almost as if she was there with him somehow. It amused him to think of her nearby even though he knew if she was in this place, she was somewhere far away, just waiting for him to find her.
Somehow that didn’t sound like her, though. If it had been her voice that he’d heard coming to this place, then she knew he was here, and she would’ve started looking for him straight away. That thought amused him even more.
“Babe, if you’re here somewhere in this world, you’re not going to find me in some dark woods. Maybe I can make it a little easier. I need to get to this Opal City and make a name for myself there. This could make it a little easier for you.”
David looked down at the ravine and spotted a good place to land that was more pebbles than water or mud and jumped down. The splash from his landing was small, and the pebbles were firm enough to both cushion his fall and keep his clothing dry, though he’d already given up on keeping his feet warm, clean, or dry.
As he walked to the other side, he looke
d across at the path the wolf creature had taken and saw the large paw prints it had left behind on its trek down the ravine. Where had it gone, he wondered. He sincerely hoped that he would never run into the creature again and decided to forget the entire night he’d spent in the woods someday. For now, he had to simply get out alive.
He clambered up the other side and into the woods once more. As he walked around trees and plants, he started noticing an odd attraction to the green things, which seemed almost magnetic. Then he thought of clearing a path to the other side, and the trees and plants seemed to open a way for him. His pace increased with every step, and pretty soon, he was running in a straight line through the woods. The path made for him appeared and disappeared as he went, and a few minutes later, he could see the edge of the tree line and the treeless land beyond.
David came out of the woods and was once more shocked by the view of the VR world. The land beyond the trees was vast and had large rolling hills, and in the distance, he saw Opal City. It looked like the most beautiful sight he could imagine.
As tired as he was, he hoped for a smoother path than the one he’d taken through the wood. He remembered that he’d been on a path as he’d entered into these wood the night before, but he’d managed to lose that one somewhere along the way. Where he now stood was somewhere south of that path of that he was certain, so he figured that if he followed the tree line northward, he’d soon find that path again. He made his way towards the north, keeping just outside of the woods, and after a few minutes, spotted the road that led out of the woods and towards the Opal City.
Walking on the path towards the city in the distance gave David time to think and look at everything with a new perspective. He thought about the ‘Seed of Hope’ and the quest he’d been given. He thought about the book and conversation with his daughter and Mark. He wondered if all of this was for nothing and the possibility that he might be dead in the real world. If he was here and his children knew he was here would they come looking for him as they had planned? If they did come looking for him, he had to make it easy for them to find him as well. So both Hellen and the kids could find him easily, he needed to figure out a way to make his name and whereabouts well known. He had real-world skills, did he not? He had learned chemistry, steel working, welding, and smithing when he was a younger man. He had his musical background as well, but which skill would achieve his goals would have to be a matter of practicality. He was bound to find work in the Opal City; of this, he was sure.