Apostle of the Sleeping Gods

by Dan Sugralinov

“Of course, Mr. Arno!”

  The chef hugged me and, touched, wiped away a tear. And then, with a new recipe in hand, I used up the rest of the swamp creature meat. I also realized I should stock up on the other ingredients and have Bomber carry them into the Mire, so I could cook more there.

  I finished up and told Arno I wasn’t saying goodbye; I’d be right back. I borrowed the basket full of cooked fish and ran off to the auction. My clanmates would be entering Dis any second and I wanted to cook up some Roast Undead Rat Chitterlings so we’d progress even faster.

  At auction, I completely unloaded both the basket and my backpack, putting everything I’d cooked up for sale. I put up the most basic dishes at the symbolic price of one or two copper, Carp in Sour Cream went for three copper, and the Marinated Filet of Swamp Bighead with Onion and Herbs I valued at a whole three gold. I don’t know for certain, maybe it would have been possible to sell for ten. But considering the fact that I had an inexhaustible supply of the main ingredient in the Mire, I didn’t want to risk it.

  Zombie Rat Innards were none too plentiful at auction. There were just twelve from various sellers throughout Disgardium. The price varied and, although most were valued at three or four silver, two from one trader were up in the stratosphere at one thousand gold a piece. By the looks of things, not knowing what he was dealing with, he’d jacked up the price just based on a suspicion that a rare little-known alchemy and cooking ingredient might be worth that much to someone. He wasn’t far from the truth, but still I wasn’t going to touch his offers.

  Ten minutes later, I scooped up my purchases from a box and cooked the rat zombie innards in the kitchen, pulling up the trade by another ten. Then I warmly bid Arno farewell and went into the bar area of the Bubbling Flagon. The Awoken were already in Tristad and headed for the tavern, our clan rendezvous point.

  We were planning to spend hours farming the Mire, but I hadn’t eaten lunch yet. I hoped Tissa and the boys would be understanding.

  A system message caught me as I was looking for them.

  Results have been tallied for the Tristad City Council elections!

  The seat vacated by Varm Thorgerdson shall now be occupied by Sir Polynucleotide.

  The official ceremony shall commence on the Central Square in front of the city council building at 8:00 PM.

  And after that, almost at once, another notification popped up. It struck me as weird, because it was giving me a quest that was absolutely impossible to complete:

  Councilman Polynucleotide would like you to decorate all the streets in Tristad with ceremonial garlands.

  Progress: 0/63.

  Time limit: before the official City Council swearing-in ceremony (05:18).

  Reward:

  — 30 experience points;

  — 3 silver coins.

  Penalty for refusing or failing to complete mission: reputation with the city of Tristad lowered to Hostile.

  Would you like to accept?

  Chapter 19. Frenemies

  “HOW’D YOU LIKE my unique quest, Scythy boy?” Big Po asked, stepping out from behind some columns. He then chuckled and said mockingly: “You’ve been given the great honor of decorating the city for the swearing-in ceremony!”

  I didn’t have time to think up a response or express my indignation before Tissa flew into the tavern, the rest of the gang hot on her heels.

  “Hi!” I drowned in her embrace, then the guys patted me hard on the back.

  “What does this creep want now?” Ed measured Big Po up with a purely negative gaze.

  “Ah, what a wonderful coincidence!” Wesley Cho rubbed his hands together as he looked at them, pausing on each one and nodding, concealing a smile. “Good luck finishing the quest, losers!”

  Then he headed for his favorite table, already occupied by Axiom officers. Based on their reddened faces, they had been knocking back cream beers with a bit of Earl the alchemist’s cheer elixir.

  Ed froze for a moment then launched curses at Polynucleotide’s back:

  “What the heck, Po? How?”

  Po stopped and turned around unhurriedly. His gaze flickered with hate:

  “Did you ever consider why we wanted a seat on the council, you nitwit? Among other things, so we could do stuff like this and make life a little less sweet for losers like you! You will not be able to complete that quest, I guarantee it. So haul your butts out of here before the whole city goes aggro on you!”

  We looked at him and I nodded at an unoccupied table, then walked over and took a seat. Everyone was watching the former Dementors but they ignored it and followed my lead.

  “Do we all have the same quest?” I asked.

  “Decorate all the streets with garlands,” Tissa answered. “You?”

  “Yeah, same. The way I see it, our only choice is to accept. We gain time that way. Where can we get these damned garlands?”

  “Old Ja sells them at his souvenir store,” Infect answered. “But for a city quest, Whiteacre will give them to us for free.”

  “But it won’t help,” Crawler squeezed out gloomily. “Have you ever hung garlands, Scyth? Before any festival, Whiteacre rains down quests like this: from decorating trees to hiding Easter eggs.”

  “No,” I shook my head.

  “Well to ‘hang them,’“ Ed said, making quotation marks with his fingers, “on one street takes about an hour. When you have an active quest, the system shows you points on the wall where you can hang a garland. You go up and like ‘stick it’ on, then a progress bar fills up. Each spot takes one minute, and there are forty-five spots per street. We have five hours before the ceremony, and five of us. And that means, in the best-case scenario, with the time we have, we can hang garlands on...”

  “Twenty-five streets,” I interrupted.

  “Exactly. The leader of Axiom must be good at math. If what I’ve read is true, when a player generates a mission, the system won’t allow them to create impossible ones. So this quest must be doable. But Po must have given the quest out to a few of his clanmates who already have a high reputation with Tristad. So if we were all doing our job, we could finish.”

  “But obviously the Axiom guys aren’t going to do the quest,” Bomber sighed. “But won’t that lower their rep too?”

  “That’s hardly a concern to them, Bomb,” Crawler answered. “Tomorrow Big Po will gen them another mission to get back everything they lost. Alright, what should we do, Scyth? You’re in charge.”

  Tissa shook her head at a waitress coming over to take our order, sending her away, and the Awoken all looked to me.

  “Is everyone going to hostile if you don’t do the mission?” I asked.

  They all went silent, studying their profiles. Tissa’s eyes went wide:

  “Aw nether! If I can’t enter the city, I’ll be screwed! Every day I don’t pray in the temple, my faith points fall exponentially! After a few weeks, I’ll lose my status as a priestess of Nergal! Oh no...” Tissa raised her hands and prayed, looking at the ceiling. “Why? I wasted so much time on that...”

  “You’re gonna lose it anyway. When we become followers...” without finishing, Crawler nodded in my direction.

  “We haven’t tested that yet!” she whispered. “You’re allowed to level faith with more than one god.”

  “Does that mean you’ll lose light magic, too?” I asked, worried.

  “No, she won’t,” Crawler answered. “The magic is from a folio, but Nergal gives her bigtime bonuses. Anyway it looks like, five hours from now, we won’t be able to enter the city again.”

  “If that’s true, we ‘ll have to stock up. Food, drink, potions, repair kits...”

  I rattled off everything that, in my opinion, we would need, but noticed that Crawler wanted to say something.

  “Yeah, Ed?”

  “Scyth, we’ve got that under control,” he said. “We used to go on two-week raids back when we were pwning ins’s and moving our res points way out. But I’m worried by a different thing. Do we have any
one trustworthy we can trade through? And I’m not talking about little stuff. We can do that with any of our classmates. But what if we get something that’s really high value? An epic, for example. Sending an object like that by game mail is equivalent to giving it as a gift, and any Arbitrator will confirm that. Russel screwed me on two blues once, remember?”

  “Mhm,” Bomber chuckled. “And there’s no recourse, no point in even trying. After all, no one made you send it.”

  “I’ve got someone, I’ll invite them over right now for a chat...”

  I sent a message to Overweight, suggesting we meet next to the tavern. She answered right away, writing that she’d be there soon.

  “We’d better change location. There’s a lot of people around and we don’t want the wrong person hearing,” Tissa said.

  “Then let’s head out. Bomb and Infect go buy supplies, and Tissa, Scyth and I will talk to the trader.” Ed turned to the boys. “Stick to the usual program for supplies, just get five times as much. And don’t forget vials, blank scrolls and alchemy ingredients. We’ll be making potions out there...”

  Ding! A notification came in that my swamp bighead dishes had all been sold. Three gold a piece! So I could raise the price... Nether, the auction! I totally forgot that I wanted to sell my gear through Rita and, after we left the city, I would not be getting access to my chest any time soon.

  “I’ll be gone two minutes,” I said. “It’s urgent.”

  Running that direction, I heard Infect ask in confusion:

  “We’re in the tavern and our friend suddenly jumps up from the table. Question: does he have to pee?”

  “Scyth, if you’re going to the bathroom, I hope you get an achievement for being the first person to do so in game.” And Bomber’s cheery guffaw followed me all the way to the stairs.

  In my room, I quickly sorted through the items. I sent all the blues to Rita then busted my brains over what to do with the epics: the bow and gloves. I would need them but not soon. And before that, we would all be dying too often for my taste. The chance of losing epic gear was low, but higher than zero. So I sent them by message to Overweight with a note reading: “Hold onto these please. I’ll explain when I see you.”

  When I got back to my clanmates, I immediately was subjected to an interrogation from Infect about what I needed for our long raid, given it could turn into a full exile lasting right up until we made it out into the big world.

  “I don’t really need anything,” I responded mechanically.

  “Are you sure? Think hard. No special wishes?” Hung asked.

  “Okay, I’ve got some stuff,” I nodded, remembering that I wanted to cook food made of Mire creatures...

  I listed off the cooking ingredients I knew I would need, ordered a couple stacks of other seasonings just in case we found new resources for food prep, then threw up a link in the clan chat to the description of Roast Undead Rat Chitterlings.

  “Well god damn!” Ed whistled. “Where’d you get that from? And how much you got?”

  “You’re full of surprises, Scyth old buddy,” Hung said, whispering for some reason.

  Infect turned his head and gave me a thumbs up:

  “Clear! There’s no one around...”

  Ed nodded. Everyone looked at me, expecting an answer.

  “I cooked it,” I answered. “I’ve got half a stack, but if you know where we can find Zombie Rats, I’ll be able to cook more. And you, Bomb, look for the ingredients at auc. Search for Zombie Rat Innards.”

  “Got it,” the tank nodded, making a note in his interface.

  He and Infect got up from the table. Hung patted his pockets and stretched his neck, loosening up his stiff muscles. Real-life habits were often carried over into Dis.

  “Try to get it done in an hour,” Ed sent them off. “We’ve got a lot more to do before we go out in the field. Pack gear kits, do a complete repair...”

  “We know, we know,” Infect interrupted him. “This ain’t our first rodeo.”

  I heard paper rustling and saw a line light up, indicating a personal message from Rita: “I’m at the door. Should I come in?”

  “My person is here,” I told Tissa and Crawler. “Come in, let’s chat.”

  Rita Overweight, tall, buxom and looking especially pretty in a bright vibrant dress that ended just above the knee, shot her head up in surprise when she realized who I was with. Tissa looked like a real adolescent compared to her. Well, that was precisely what she was, along with the rest of us. But looking at Rita, I saw... how to put it... a grown woman? Melissa and I had grown up together since kindergarten. I knew her as a silly little kid with bruised knees and bows in her braids. And that meant I would always see her first and foremost as a friend regardless of gender. Still, clearly, I felt very tender and exciting emotions for Tissa. What could I say, I loved her.

  But everything was different with Rita Wood. She awakened something in me. Something different. Something not from the heart and definitely not from the mind. And it thrilled me, made my blood boil.

  “Hi, Alex!” The initial confusion left Rita’s face and she gave a broad smile.

  “Hi! Rita, these are my friends and classmates...”

  “The former Dementors, if memory serves. Crawler and Tissa,” Wood finished. Then she said dryly: “We’ve met.”

  “So this is your ‘trustworthy person?’“ Ed asked, his eyes fixed on Overweight.

  “Yes, I trust her. What of it?”

  “Well she and her brother Chris hung us out to dry!” Tissa exclaimed. “Let’s get out of here!”

  “Wait, wait! Not so fast!” I took her by the hand.

  Despite herself, Tissa stopped and Ed started admonishing me:

  “Scyth, Axiom could be listening here. That’s for one. We can’t talk about this here. And the Woods are scammers. No matter what happens to us, we cannot have anything to do with them, that’s for two!”

  Rita kept silent, but her facial expression, clenched fists, heaving chest and suspiciously gleaming eyes told me that a bomb was about to go off. I took her by the hand, not letting go of Tissa’s, and pulled them both into the tavern.

  “What? Let me go! Where are you taking me? Let me go right now, Alex Sheppard! Why?” Came simultaneous cries of female indignation, accompanied by cat-like hissing.

  “Crawler, please rent a room from Tashot. I’ve heard they’ve got a canopy of silence. Let’s see out how it works.”

  He was the one who usually gave commands in Dis and the second of tension was palpable. But Ed accepted and ran off to the bar. Half a minute later, clanking a set of keys, he came up the stairs to the second floor and I followed him with the obstinate girls. Praise be to the Destroying Plague that my strength was higher than both of theirs combined.

  Entering the room last, Crawler locked the door behind him.

  “What is this, a kidnapping?” Rita asked, smoothing her wrinkled dress.

  “No, Overweight, this is an attempt at saving our friendship,” I answered.

  No one sat down, we were all still standing: me at the window, the girls scowling from opposite ends of the room, and Ed at the door. I quickly looked around because this was my first time in this kind of room.

  It was very comfortable, spacious, and had a huge bed against the wall, panorama windows that faced the street and an abundance of interior decorations. There were pictures on the wall with a romantic theme, and a vase on the table with a pretty bouquet of fresh flowers and some other things. I didn’t look too closely at the details, just made sure the fairly expensive upgrade to the hotel room had worked. It looked like a luxury hotel in the Persian Gulf, where my parents used to take me in happier times. The room was ideal for a peaceful conversation.

  I sat in a soft deep armchair at the window, put my feet up and told the others to do the same. But only Tissa followed my example, plunking down in a different chair. Ed stayed at the door and Overweight just crossed her arms over her chest and bit her lip.

 
“Rita, apologies, but we couldn’t talk with others around. Let me be direct before we discuss anything...”

  “Scyth!” Tissa shot out, but I stopped her with a gesture.

  “We have less than five hours. After becoming a councilman, Polynucleotide gave us an impossible quest. Now, Tristad’s opinion of us is going to be hostile by this evening. Draw your own conclusions there.”

  “Son of your mother, Sheppard!” Ed shot out in frustration, but didn’t say anything more.

  “Rodriguez,” I answered, not missing a beat. “We’ll get to your history with Chris and Rita Wood, okay? For now, I want to explain our situation to Rita.”