by Jeff Kish
“Eh? Sure it is,” Jem argues. When Era smirks, she barks, “Okay, I’m not the stupid one! Just remember how your game went, Era.”
Luk glances to his former opponent. “Era, hm?” He stacks his coins and says, “Never been a fan of Valvoran monikers. Era sounds like a girl’s name.”
“Hey, now,” he complains, “let’s not get personal.”
“And my opponent’s name is Fire?” he asks. “I’m greatly enjoying this, Fire. Try not to throw it all away, now.”
She meets him with unyielding eyes. “It’s your call, old man.”
“O-Old man?” Agitated, he refocuses and says, “Four hundred, less than nine.”
“Pass.”
“Smart call.” He flips the card and reveals a one of fire.
“Two hundred, less than five,” she calls before he can gather the previous pot.
He frowns. “That’s far too aggressive. Pass.” He flips the card and reveals a ten of air, but, as he collects Fire’s coins, he can’t help but notice confidence in his opponent’s gaze. The look isn’t one he normally sees from someone down to her last five hundred ault. “Do you know something I don’t?”
“Just make the call.”
He wrinkles his nose. “To think I was starting to like you.” He taps the top of the deck with a cocky smirk. “One hundred, higher than four.”
“Five hundred, higher than five.”
Era is perplexed by the bet, and Luk’s expression tells him he’s right to be surprised. Fire just placed all her coins on the table for a potential gain of one hundred ault.
“Are you trying to bait me?” he asks. “I call.”
The card is flipped, revealing a nine of water, and Fire leaves the coins where they lie. “Six hundred, higher than four.”
Luk stares her down before flipping over the card, revealing a ten of air. Era winces at the sight of the card that ended his game, and Fire collects the money as if the hand never happened. She seems satisfied given she made no money that hand, making Era wonder about her strategy.
“Five hundred, greater than five,” Luk barks.
“Six hundred, greater than six.”
He aggressively reveals a nine of water, and Fire snatches her coins. Era suddenly has hopes for a comeback, and that’s when he notices it: Fire’s cards have been facedown for quite some time now. ‘Does she have them memorized?” he realizes in amazement.
Luk, however, looses a low chuckle. “Fire, I can’t tell if you’re a genius or a nitwit. You’ve played well, but you won’t win like this.”
She ignores his banter. “Two hundred, less than ten.”
“Eight hundred,” Luk barks. “Less than seven.”
“Nine hundred, less than five,” she says with a coy expression.
Luk freezes, and even Era grasps the significance as three fives and two sixes have been turned up. Era remembers seeing the other sixes in Fire’s hand, but Luk doesn’t know whether those cards are at play, so it’s likely that Fire stole the bet he wanted to make. Fire caught him up in her pace, and he stepped right into her trap.
“Call,” Luk declares, and he picks the card up so only he can see it. Era holds his breath as the hustler seems content to build tension. Finally, his lips curl as he tosses it down for all to see. “Five of water,” he says with satisfaction. “Game over.”
Chapter 18
Luk’s guards applaud his victory as the coins are gathered. Era steps back from the table in disbelief, his hopes shattered with Fire’s defeat at the hands of the expert gambler. He looks to his friend, fearful of a bitter retaliation, but it is only disappointment that he finds, and he realizes just how badly Fire wanted to win that game. She fixates on the final card, mentally replaying her call over and over.
“That’s it? We lose?” Jem cries, displaying the anger Era was expecting from Fire.
Luk clears his throat as he grabs his flask. “You,” he says to Fire, extending his clenched fist. Puzzled, she reaches out, and he deposits her five coins back into her hand. “I want to speak with you in my chamber upstairs. Privately.” With that, he turns to the back door.
Fire abruptly refocuses and swiftly snatches Jem’s satchel. “Hey!” Jem cries. “What are you-”
“I need this,” Fire curtly replies before starting after Luk, but Era places his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I’m coming too.”
“I don’t need your protection,” she says.
Era raises an eyebrow. “Truer words could never be spoken, but I still need to speak with him.”
“Me too!” Jem says. “I’m part of this as well, and that’s my bag.”
“I only want to speak to the gamer,” Luk calls from the hallway. However, with his arms behind his back, he thoughtfully adds, “But I suppose the gimp can come, too.”
Fire hurries after Luk, and Era follows. Jem also gives chase, but a burly guard steps in the way, a hand on his blade. She stomps her foot and barks, “Move it, fat man!”
“You heard the boss,” he grunts. “Back off.”
“If my partner goes, I go,” she insists. When he holds his ground, she calls to Era, “Help me out, here!”
Era panics as he watches Fire and Luk disappear around a corner. “Jem, I mean… can’t you just wait for me?”
“Hey, we go together or we don’t-”
“I’ll be fine, okay?” he interrupts. “I don’t need you for this.”
His words pierce her, and she backs down with pain in her expression. “Fine. Go get your answers, Era.” With that, he offers an apologetic nod and hurries after Luk and Fire.
Savory aromas fill the passage behind the kitchen, where a bustling staff furiously prepares meals for the patrons. Era longs for a normalcy that would allow him to enjoy this revelry as a customer, though he suspects he’d lose a lot of money.
They climb a narrow flight of creaking wooden stairs to the top floor of the kajoni, where a plush carpet guides the group to a heavy door. Upon entering, they find themselves in a cavernous chamber with bookcases stretching wall to wall, packed with ancient tomes yellowed from the passing of time, as if they could turn to dust with the slightest touch. An atmosphere thick with mildew reminds Era of the Academy’s dungeon-like library, and an expansive picture window stretches behind a robust oaken desk, hand carved with a different exotic animal on each corner. The same plush carpet stretches to his desk.
Era respectfully approaches the overlook and is surprised to meet his reflection. “This is… glass?” he asks as he softly knocks on it.
“Never seen a glass window so wide?” he asks. “Just what do they spend their time researching in Valvoren?”
“Hey!” Era argues. “At least we have trains.”
Luk frowns. “Good point. That technology is actually incredible.” He shoos at his guards lingering in the doorway. “You’re dismissed. I want you downstairs.”
They glance at each other in surprise. “Sir,” one says, “she’s armed, and the runt probably is as well.”
“Wait, I’m the runt?” Era asks in disbelief, lamenting his creator failed to design him with a more impressive build.
Their host prods his guards outside. “Downstairs, all of you.” He slams the heavy oak door with a scowl on his face. “Those ruffians don’t know how to respect a man’s privacy.”
“Things are certainly getting interesting,” Fire says wryly. “Why are you so trusting of a pair of brigands?”
“I trust no one, my dear.” Luk finds his luxurious chair and leans forward on his desk, a glimmer in his eye. “The guards simply offer little value with a runic in the room.”
Era grimaces. “Figured it out, huh?”
He leans back in satisfaction. “You nearly had me fooled. I initially concluded the country bumpkin was the runic.” Looking to Fire, he says, “Turns out it was you.”
“You think I’m a runic?” Fire asks in amusement.
“I believe I just proved it downstairs,” he says. “Surely you know by now that luck has little to do wit
h winning that game. It’s impossible for a new player to trip into a victory against a seasoned veteran, though it is beautifully designed to appear as such. You have to be a mathematical genius to pick it up on your first game.”
“Well, I guess we’re not geniuses,” Era laments.
Luk points directly at him. “You’re an idiot, but your friend here did something she should never have been able to do her first time playing. She’s either a hustler, a genius, or something else.” He pauses while studying her. “Do you know much about rune programming?”
“Try me,” she says, her patience fading.
“It’s all about ones and zeroes. Something we call binary. It’s logic,” he explains, tapping his forehead. “If runes are mathematical machines, then runoids were mathematical monstrosities. And a runic, well, runics are something very special, indeed.”
“So, what, you’re saying runics are good at math?” Era asks.
“Subconsciously so. My testing has shown their capacity for mental calculations is deeper than the best of mathematical minds, though they seem unaware of this potential. It’s a curious paradox.” With pleasure, he says, “You may have lost, but you played the game flawlessly.”
“What makes you think I played-” Cutting herself off, Fire can’t help a smirk. “You knew the cards I had.”
He withdraws a deck of cards from the pocket of his vest and proceeds to deal as if starting another game. Smugly, he beckons for her to take the hand. “Look familiar?”
The mercenary eyes the cards before throwing them back at Luk. “Should have known.”
“I keep three of these decks on me at all times,” Luk explains, patting his vest. “I hope you’re not offended. I gave your money back, after all.”
“Hey, but not mine!” Era gripes.
“Your strategy wasn’t worthy of a refund,” Luk retorts.
Fire wants to vent her frustration, but, in a reversal of attitude, she sighs and says, “Fine, you caught me. I’m a runic.”
Though Era is momentarily shocked, he quickly realizes Fire’s ploy. Watching the master at work yet again, he adds to his mental notes about conversational manipulation.
Luk doesn’t seem sure about Fire’s declaration, but he’s also clearly vested into his own conclusion. He sips from his flask and says, “A smart move to keep the gimp along for the ride. When you asked about runics, I presumed he was discovered by losing his arm. The cloak is a tad over the top, though.”
Era rubs his shoulder. “It’s not a very good disguise. Please don’t tell Jem.”
Luk looks to Fire and says, “So, a runic is standing before me, unbound and looking for something I have. But what?”
Before Fire can respond, Era blurts out, “Tell us what exactly a runic is.”
The expert glances to Fire in confusion. “Is he serious?”
Though annoyed by his preemption, she relents and says, “Answer his question.”
A smile creeps across his face. “Ah, now it’s becoming clear. It seems you were approached by a certain dark-haired woman. Athena, yes?” When Fire offers an affirmation, he gripes, “That seductress has our prince wrapped around her little finger. Athena has so far been an absolute authority on runics, yet she remains a troublesome enigma. Where did she learn of you? What is her relationship to all this?” He slams his flask on the desk with a scowl. “She must have told you of your identity, but did she then send you to me?”
“Yes,” Fire says, “but I’m not sure why.” Era is almost depressed at how easily his veteran friend can keep up such a ruse.
“It’s because she likes to play games,” Luk says, taking another drink. “She thinks she can sow chaos between Krypta and the crown for her own amusement, but she’ll not have her way with me. She no doubt wants me to bind you.”
“Bind?” Era repeats. “Is that how a runic gets stronger?”
“Really? You don’t even know that?” Luk scoffs. “Then allow me to start from the beginning. After all, you asked what a runic is, did you not?” Lowering his voice, he explains, “Runics are unlike any technology we have ever developed or studied, originating from the Third Kingdom or beyond. They have apparently been sleeping in chambers beneath our soil for hundreds of years. Or so our fine Athena claims.”
“Hundreds…?” Shaking off his surprise, he asks, “So are they really just runes?”
“Yes and no,” he answers. “I have spent half my life studying runoids, which, simply put, are runes programmed with an extreme level of complexity. Though runoids can react to their environs, it is still according to that complex programming. Runics, however, seem to have something which sets them apart from runoids.”
Fire taps her foot. “And that is?”
“Free will,” Luk reveals. “The ability to make decisions. Runics don’t merely appear human. By all rights, they are human.”
Era’s heart races. “They have free will? Even though they’re created and programmed like other runes?”
“Such is my conclusion following extensive experimental testing, not that I’ve seen decommissioned runic obelite so as to study the code,” he admits, “but empirical evidence suggests that runics are capable of many principles of free will. They can learn and adapt. Store memories. Exert their will and express desires, outside of the aforementioned binding relationship. These are not pre-programmed responses.”
“So what does it mean to be bound?” Era asks.
“Another great mystery,” he replies. “Runic chambers contain a controlling device, and a human who takes it is in complete control of the runic’s actions, desires, mentality… everything. The conductor, as he or she is called, owns that runic’s body, mind, and soul.”
Fire’s brow furrows. “What’s the value in being so powerful, yet forced to bend to another’s will?”
“Well, that brings us back to the idiot’s question,” Luk says. “An unbound runic is strong, likened to the most talented of human manipulators. Once bound, however, the runic’s powers increase beyond even the most skilled elemental masters and field soldiers. Their elemental control, their physical prowess… possibly capacities we’ve not yet observed! These all increase by several orders of magnitude once bound.”
Era now understands what happened to Di. The general’s control over her, her acute elevation in air shaping capabilities, her ability to keep up with a sky boat… it all makes sense now. “So the binding process is required to unleash Fire’s full potential?”
“Precisely.”
“How does one find these runic chambers?”
“Ah, how quickly the desire to control a runic seizes one’s soul,” Luk muses. “I can tell you where a chamber is, but I have to wonder whether it’s the correct one.”
“There are more than one?” Era asks, disappointed.
“Perhaps, or perhaps not,” he says playfully. “We have been at Athena’s mercy thus far, and she has only revealed the one chamber. However, within this chamber were four pedestals, marked by the three fire elemental manipulations, plus one for earth instantiation.” Swirling his finger at Fire, he says, “With a name like yours, it would be natural to assume this is your destination.”
“And if it’s not?” she asks.
“Well, there must be one in Valvoren as well,” he declares. “After all, the Valvoren military has already secured two runics for itself.”
“Two?” Era whispers to himself. “How many runics are there?”
“Candidly, I do not know. All I can say for certain is what I have already divulged. The chamber I saw is five miles to the southwest of Jeevits.” With a shrug, he adds, “You’ll also find a sizeable military encampment. Probably two hundred troops defending it.”
Fire eyes him suspiciously. “You know a lot about runics, but you know just as much about what’s happening within the government. What’s your deal?”
“I’m no simple runoid scholar,” Luk says boastfully. “My expertise was tapped when Prince Trapak first met the temptress and heard h
er claims. Krypta and the crown aren’t exactly on good terms, so I refused his summons… until he forcibly retrieved me. That caused additional strain between us, as you might imagine.”
Era recalls the incident in Stayltin. “Yeah, I can imagine,” he mutters.
“I spent a month in custody, but I was far from miserable. I extensively studied the first runic we obtained, testing its limits and fully exploring its rules for behavior. I also excavated artifacts from the underground cavern and made many surprising discoveries. It was truly fascinating, but I grew weary of the prince, and I was able to arrange for my associates to free me amidst the distraction of locating a second runic.”
Fire snickers aloud. “You grew weary of the prince, or you were no longer needed?”
He suddenly grows somber. “I had given Trapak what he sought, and I could tell my access to the runics was soon to be removed.” He tries to shake the last drops from his flask, frustrated by the results. “With a growing collection of runics, the tenuous balance of power between the royals and the Krypta family has been shattered. Fortunately, he has greater priorities than shutting down our operations. If he wanted me dead, it would be a trivial matter, after all. I’m not exactly in hiding here at my kajoni.”
“Do you plan to hunt runics?” Fire pointedly asks.
“Of course not,” he says with disgust. “I have no desire to further draw the ire of the prince. My hope is that he’ll soon forget I exist.”
Era fidgets, growing impatient with the course of conversation. “So how can we find the other chambers?”
Luk strokes his chin and keenly observes, “Ah, so the elements I named don’t line up? If that’s that case, I do have some other information that might interest you… but I’ve given you plenty for free already.”
“Free?” Fire sneers. “You still kept five thousand ault.”
“Which is relatively free. People would kill for what I just disclosed.”
Annoyed, Fire flips open Jem’s bag and reveals her trump card. “Would something like this entice you to give us what we want?”
Luk’s brow furrows. “What is that?”
Fire hands it over. “It’s a runoid we fought and killed.”
