James kept talking. "Lower Hutt has its share of problems, just like everywhere else in Eldin. But Lower Hutt has it worse. I'm not just saying that because it's where I grew up. It's right on the river, and the Empire built their shipyard just upstream from it. Before the rise of the Emperor, it was bad. After his rise, it's worse. The run-off from the shipyards poisoned the river. It killed the fish and killed the trade from all the little smuggler's ports in Lower Hutt. No-one wants to be that close to the staging grounds of the Empire. Too risky. So now everyone who is left there either has no money, no hope, or no options. Some of the unlucky bastards have zero from three."
"You grew up in the orphanage?"
"Lots of parents in Lower Hutt have kids they can't keep. They all end up somewhere. I did. It was better than being tossed in the river as a newborn to drown."
I made a face of disgust, and James caught me.
"Yes, well. It happens far more often than you think." That constant smile of his was gone. "Ah, here we are! A carriage!"
A horse-drawn carriage trundled up the street towards us. James held up a pair of coins. They caught the carriage driver's eye, who brought his horses to a stop right next to us.
"Where you off to?" the driver asked.
"Lower Hutt. There's an extra copper in it for you if you can get us there quick."
The driver looked down with a sneer, and James jingled his coin purse at him.
"I'm good for it," James said.
"Three coppers for the fare, and a fourth for haste," the driver said simply.
"As you wish." James fished another copper out of his purse and handed three to the driver.
James climbed into the back of the open-air carriage and offered me his hand. I took it, and he helped me in. Then we were off.
The sea of people crowded into the streets of Eldin parted before the carriage. It was like everyone had a sixth sense about when we were approaching. Although we weren't the quietest travelers on the road. The wooden wheels rumbled noisily over the cobblestones beneath us.
We emerged from under the shadows of three-story houses and into a street that ran along a vast open park. Such a grand space in the center of the city should have looked like a sanctuary, but it didn't. Men in heavy leather coats openly carrying swords and pistols gathered in a group at one corner. A contingent of Elite Guards marched around the paths of the park. The trees and gardens inside it were gray and dying. A solitary child tried to use a see-saw by himself but only succeeded in splashing dirty mud all the way up his thighs.
"That park seems rather glum," I said.
"Ah yes. Merryweather park. An unfortunate name. They can't seem to keep anything alive in there," James said.
"Tis the spreading corruption seeping up from 'neath the ground," the driver said.
"Corruption?" I asked.
"Eldin's dyin'. Emperor Erodwulf thinks he's divine, but the divine don't want nothin' to do with him."
I looked over at James, who spoke to the carriage driver in a low voice. "You keep that kind of talk to yourself if you want to keep your head, old timer."
There was a darkness in James’s eyes that I hadn't seen before.
"Jus' speaking the truth, good sir. No-one can argue that there's something rotten here in Eldin. Not unless you're a few wheels shorts of a wagon."
James leaned into the driver's ear. "I don't disagree with you, old timer. But if you speak that freely with anyone who gets into your carriage, you'll soon find yourself standing a head shorter. And we need all the allies that we can get. For when the time comes, you understand?"
The driver kept his head pointed forward but nodded. He didn't speak again for the rest of the trip.
We arrived shortly after. The Allurian Orphanage was a grand looking building made of old red brick that appeared as though it had been standing for hundreds of years. The carriage came to a stop, then James and I disembarked. James handed the carriage driver the money he had promised, and I saw him offer the driver a sly wink as he spurred his horses back into motion.
"I bet you're wondering just where my allegiances lie," James said.
"To be honest, I wasn't going to mention it," I said. I thought it would be safer to pretend I hadn't heard what James said to the carriage driver.
James sighed. "There has been tension bubbling up between the Emperor and the people of his Four Kingdoms for quite some time now. The Emperor was once only interested in making sure that the citizens of his empire were safe. He was chosen by the people in a time of war, but of late he seems to be more interested in expanding his empire into new lands. It seems as though he is going back to the warmongering ways that the Kings and Queens of old took such pleasure in."
"It seems like he has a pretty strong grip on Eldin. Are you saying that there's some sort of rebellion looking at overthrowing the Emperor?"
I realized that this might have been a segue into one particular style of quest line. One of the most popular types of quest lines in expansive open world RPGs; becoming part of a rebellion. Most of these quest lines allowed you to become involved in a rebellion that was looking to overthrow some kind of authoritarian figure. Given what I had already seen of the Emperor's elite guards and the grip that he seemed to have over the city of Eldin, it seemed as though the Emperor was in a vulnerable position to be overthrown.
"Wherever there is a source of power, there will be a rebellion trying to overthrow it," James said, echoing my own thoughts on the matter. "Will this one be successful? I'm not sure. Right now, it seems more of an undercurrent throughout the populace than any kind of organized rebellion. It is important that you are aware of this, Lucas. You wouldn't want to say the wrong thing to the wrong person. You might get in quite a lot of trouble. There are still people who are loyal to the Emperor. However, you may just be able to use this information to say the right thing to the right person at the right time."
"Duly noted," I said.
The carriage disappeared around a corner in the distance, towards the bobbing masts of moored boats that rocked on the wakes left by paddle steamers on the Eld River. Even though trade was dead in Lower Hutt, the river itself was still alive with passing boats.
I followed James as he approached the front stoop of the Allurian orphanage.
There were two kids playing there. They were engaged in some kind of complex game involving gray and black stones arranged across different levels of the stairs. They reminded me of a rudimentary version of a tabletop war game. Gray stones were lined up in formation to protect against black stone battle lines. Every now and then, a cluster of gray and black stones looked like it was engaged in some kind of battle. The children rolled square stones painted different colors to decide the outcomes. The two boys were so engrossed in their imaginary war that they barely noticed us as we passed.
Beyond the doors I expected pandemonium. A bunch of kids stuck in one place with no parents should have been an absolute nut house. But it wasn't. There was a feeling of unreality as we passed through the entryway and into the orphanage proper. Children did not run. They did not play. There were blank looks on almost all their faces. The children were broken and obedient, likes feral dogs brought to heel.
It made me feel incredibly uneasy. These children were completely devoid of exuberance. I looked back at my partner, and he gave me a shrug in reply.
A young girl, she couldn't have been more than five, was sitting with her back against the wall. She held a small wooden toy horse cradled in her tiny hands. She was inspecting it like it was a precious gem. She looked up at me as we passed by but averted her eyes the moment they met mine.
A little further in, there was a reception area. A woman wearing a blue hooded robe sat behind a pane of glass. She saw us approach but didn't offer us a warm greeting of any kind. It felt as though there was some kind of grim expectation to the way she sat with her shoulders hunched forward and her eyes set hard. I thought back to my abilities pane and realized that there was something that migh
t assist me in the coming encounter.
She was just a non-player character, but this conversation was the first real taste I had of navigating the Investigator's primary method of quest completion.
"Just a second," I said to my partner.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing. I just... I just need a moment to gather my thoughts."
What I really needed to do was to open my abilities menu and see what I had in my bag of tricks that might help in this situation. What I also needed was the ability to pause the game while I assessed what my options were, but when I saw my partner smirk at me through the opaque abilities window, I knew that this wasn't the kind of game you paused.
This was the kind of game where opening the menu to sort things out would eventually get dangerous if I wasn't taking notice of my surroundings.
From my Abilities screen, I found what I needed. I focused on an Ability called Persuade.
Persuade
Current target
Concentration Points: 25%
The Investigator attempts to persuade a target into doing what they want them to do. This ability uses a quarter of an Investigator's Concentration Points and is heavily influenced by the Investigator's Charisma score.
I closed my abilities screen, then activated the Persuade ability. An error message appeared on the view below me.
You do not currently have a target.
Of course. How stupid of me. It even said on the ability pane that this particular ability was only able to be used on a single target. I nodded towards James, then he headed towards one of the sisters sitting behind a glass fronted window.
She couldn't have been more than 20 years old. She was fresh-faced and freckled but wore a permanent scowl.
"What can I do for you?" she asked.
"I'd like to speak to Sister Margaret," James said.
"I'm sorry, but Sister Margaret is attending to a very important matter, and cannot be disturbed," the Sister behind the desk said. Her words were clipped. She was not happy to see us.
I focused on her and activated my Persuade ability.
"Sister, my partner and I are here on very important business. We need to speak with Sister Margaret about a matter of some urgency. A matter that, if we were to reveal to you, might put you in harm's way. So please tell her we're here."
The Sister looked from me to James and back again. Then, she looked behind her as though she was checking whether she was being watched. I wasn't entirely sure my persuasion attempt had worked, and I was thankful when James cut in.
He lowered his voice, leaned in, and spoke close to her. "I'm one of her children. She will be very upset if am not able to give this information to her directly. Involving another party in this rather indelicate matter would not be prudent."
The Sister opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She carefully considered her words. "Of course. I'll see if I can find Sister Margaret. What did you say your names were?"
"We didn't," I said.
"James Treborn. And this is my associate, Lucas Hutchins."
"Wait right there, Mister Treborn. Mister Hutchins. I'll be back momentarily."
James turned to me with a strange look on his face, as though he expected that I would have questions.
He was right. I did.
"What did you mean when you said you were one of her children? She's not your actual Mom, is she?" I asked.
"No, but maybe something a little like that. Before I came here to the orphanage, I was in a home that wasn't safe for a child. I'll spare you the details, but let me tell you, the horrors I faced here were nothing compared to the horrors I would have faced at home. I could have tried my luck on the streets, but here, I knew that I could tackle the dangers on my terms. I would come out the other side a better man."
"And did you?"
"I'm still here, and I'm still fighting against the forces of evil. The thing I learned above all else was that evil can't really be conquered. It lives in the hearts of all men and women. It can't be beaten, but it can be directed. Have you ever killed anyone?"
The sudden turn in the conversation left me feeling like I had whiplash.
"No," I answered honestly.
But that wasn't entirely true, was it? Ellie and I ended those two men in the alleyway. Did that count?
"You will, in time. It's a sad truth in Eldin. Taking a life is an evil thing, but if you kill someone who takes pleasure in killing others, does that balance the scales?"
At the mention of balancing the scales, I thought of Empyria. Out of the ten thousand players in the first wave of Crematoria Online, Empyria the Celestial had chosen ten players to be her heralds in this world. I was one of the chosen few, and now this non-player character was talking to me about balancing the scales. It couldn't just be a coincidence.
"I don't know," I said. "If you take a life because that person took a life, then doesn't that make you just as bad?" I asked.
"The scales are always re-balancing, Lucas. The forces of evil on one side, and the forces of good on the other. It's up to every single one of us to decide which side we fight for."
"What if we choose not to fight?"
James laughed. "That's not a choice, kid. It's suicide. The forces of evil are knocking on the walls of our mortal realm, and eventually, someone's going to open the door and let them through. You can't rely on others to do the right thing. If you don't act, you're still making a choice."
"You make a good point," I admitted.
Games like these were all about the huge world-altering events that would shape the game world for the next expansion. So far, I'd been introduced to a couple of concepts that seemed fairly far-reaching. There was a looming threat of things beyond the veil of our reality, trying to get into our world to complete their nefarious and incomprehensible machinations. Then there was the Empire, which seemed to be strangling Eldin in its iron grip, and the rebellion that was about to boil over.
The Sister reappeared, with an older Sister following behind her. The older Sister's face seemed to be permanently stitched into a scowl too, and it only grew deeper as she approached.
"James Treborn," she said in a husky voice.
"Sister Margaret. You're looking as lovely as ever."
Her face didn't change, so James continued.
"I have a matter I'd like to discuss with you. In private, if possible."
Sister Margaret looked at me.
"Who's this?" she asked.
"This is my partner, Lucas. He's new to Eldin, and I wanted to ensure that he received a proper introduction to the good work you all do here at the orphanage."
Sister Margaret sighed. "Of course. Thank you for coming to get me, Sister Annabelle. James, Lucas, please follow me."
Chapter Thirteen
Sister Margaret
Sister Margaret led us through the maze-like orphanage without a single word. I wanted to try my Persuade ability again as we walked, but she didn't give me a chance. She projected an air of a librarian, the scary kind, not the sexy kind. I could not help but peer into the rooms as we walked by them. Many of the rooms in the orphanage were made up of bedrooms with bunk beds with brown sheets that appeared almost indistinguishable from each other. There were children in the halls, and children in each of the rooms, and some of them appeared to be playing, though not in the way that I played as a child.
When I was a kid, I grew up in one of the poorer areas of the city. My mother, father and I had one room to ourselves in a share house with six other families. We all slept in the one bed under the window and my play area was against the opposite wall in the corner. I had a toy box that was filled with broken and unwanted toys that I'd scrounged from the landfills that dotted the city. In another corner, we had our makeshift kitchen which comprised of a single-burner camp oven, but it was rare that we ever had enough gas to be able to power it.
When I played as a child it would be with the children of other families who lived in our house. Sometimes we
played in the family room and we'd all bring whatever toys we are able to find in the dumps and share them with each other. We would make up stories and names of these heroes and villains that we would invent. Some of them were from old cartoons and movies, and some of them looked like they had been put together from wooden blocks and 3-D printing modules. We didn't know who any of them were, not really. We enjoyed making up the stories for ourselves.
The children here in the orphanage didn't play in the same way. They seemed to be talking to each other as though they were mature adults. It was as though their imagination and the joy of play had been completely burned out of them. There was no running, no exclamations of joy, no horsing around, and no smiles. Either the sisters of the Allurian orphanage had unlocked some kind of secret in raising good well-behaved children, or there was something more sinister going on here in the orphanage.
We passed by room after room of silent, well-behaved children. Sister Margaret led us into a sitting room with a low timber table sitting in the center and for comfortable-looking armchairs sitting around it. There appeared to be freshly brewed tea sitting on the table complete with a set of four cups and saucers, a container full of sugar, and a small glass jug of milk.
"Please, take a seat," Sister Margaret said.
James hesitated for a moment, so I hesitated as well. There was a nervous energy to how he held himself around Sister Margaret. Some of that tense energy dissipated as he sunk into one of the comfortable chairs. I followed suit and took a seat myself.
Sister Margaret sat down opposite us. "It's good to see you, James. Please help yourself to some tea."
"Thank you," James said.
Sister Margaret turned to look me. "And you?"
"I'll have what he's having," I said.
"There are no waiters here," Sister Margaret said, motioning towards the tea set in front of us. "I'm afraid you'll have to help yourselves."
James leaned forward in his chair and took three sets of cups and saucers, then lined them up in a row.
"Do you still take yours with milk, sister Margaret?"
Rise of the Crimson Order: A Crematoria Online LitRPG Novel Page 10
