“That’s…kind of personal. And inappropriate. I really have to get going.” He also still needed to pee.
“You tried to stand up to the Darkness the other day. You fought a vampire—a creature of malevolence.”
“Are you following me?”
“I looked you up, saw how you waste your days.”
He worried that she’d seen Shannon arrive at his apartment in her Sisters of Torment getup, but he assumed Talia would have brought that up if she had. “Why are you spying on me?”
“A better question: Why didn’t you have your sword? You have the means to truly fight evil, yet you shy away. Why won’t you embrace what you are, Denby?”
“I’m a computer programmer who designs web applications; I don’t really think fighting evil is my thing. I mean…shouldn’t that be a police matter or something?”
She laughed. “You don’t understand anything. Your eyes are open, but you’re still not ready to see.” She handed him a piece of paper under the stall barrier. Terrance accepted it and took a look. Written on it was, Meeting of the Infinite. 6 p.m. Thur. Beyond the Hobby Lobby.
“What’s this?” Terrance asked.
“There are others like me. If you want to learn—if you want to truly understand—then come.”
He wasn’t quite sure he wanted to be in a room full of others like Talia. “I’ll think about it.”
“There will be snacks.”
“Well, I guess I’ll see if I’m hungry that evening.”
“You will come. You can try to pretend that you can live your life normally, but you won’t be happy. You’ll be like Tantalus, but instead of the things you truly desire being out of your reach, you’ll just never even try to grasp them. The best you’ll do is attempt to smother all the thoughts of grander things in the embrace of your whore.”
Terrance rolled his eyes. “So I’m guessing my girlfriend isn’t invited.”
“If you think she is ready to see, then you can bring her. If not, then we have no use for her and neither should you.”
“It’s getting pretty serious between us. We’ve dated a month and—”
“We’re done here.”
“Well, I have to pee, so can you leave?”
“I’ll leave after you.”
Terrance sighed, put the invitation in his pocket, and left the stall. He went to a urinal, but it took him a while to start, knowing that Talia was in a stall behind him and perhaps watching. As the stream finally began, Talia uttered, “You have a destiny, Denby.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that. Thanks.” He quickly finished, ran some water over his hands, and hurried out of the restroom.
“You fall in?” Shannon demanded. She was leaning against a wall just outside the restroom. “I was about ready to recruit a search party to send in after you.”
“I had business to attend to.”
“‘Business,’ eh. Just took you a while to muster the courage to take me on again.” She smiled at him mischievously. He loved her smile, but his enjoyment of his girlfriend was undercut by how many secrets he was keeping from her. It gave him a sense of dread, but he wasn’t sure what to do about it. Coming out and telling her everything was an option, but then Shannon and her people would probably do something nasty about Talia and her people—and he couldn’t convince himself to support that.
Shannon’s expression became more serious. “Are you sure nothing is the matter?”
Terrance smiled. “I’m just still getting over the trauma from that last race.” He kissed her and hoped that was enough to forget his worries, but he knew he was now in the middle of something. And it was unlikely to end well.
Chapter 12
The next night, they relaxed at Terrance’s place. They tended to hang out there since Shannon lived in the evil-looking fortress up on the mountain, which was kind of out of the way (and very ominous), and frankly Terrance wasn’t in much of a rush to get near it. Of course, he had never told Shannon this; it was just another secret he was keeping from her. The secrets were becoming a huge weight on his mind, to the point that they began to ruin his time with Shannon. He wanted to unload some of these burdens, but everything seemed like a minefield. For instance, he thought about telling her about the tunnel under his apartment, but then maybe she’d want a look and his sword was in the closet and he was really afraid of her finding out about that for some reason. If he wanted to continue his relationship with her, he’d have to get rid of it.
If. There was no “if” to it, he thought as he looked at the lovely woman sitting next to him on the couch. He enjoyed every moment he was around her, and he certainly would enjoy his time around her even more if he got rid of the anxiety he had about a number of issues. That’s what he had to address. All he had to do was settle his mind about a few things and all would be well.
“Thanks for watching Farscape with me.” Shannon snuggled up next to Terrance as the music played during the end credits of another episode, and rested her head on his shoulder. “You really don’t mind even though you’ve seen them before?”
“No, I enjoy it.” It all seemed so simple: he just had to forget about Talia and his sword. And then he’d have to convince himself that the things he thought were awful weren’t really so awful. After meeting Talia in person, it was more understandable that someone would want to feed her to a horrible monster. But the gathering she had told him about promised more answers. And what she’d said about fighting evil—a little part of Terrance perked up at that idea.
Then again, apparently part of the evil he would be fighting was Shannon. He looked at her, cuddling against him. There was nothing even slightly evil about her. Her hair smelled nice.
“Are you excited about Lacey’s birthday party on Friday?” Shannon asked, a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
“Oh, yeah, on pins and needles.” He was dreading it. First off, he was never good at parties where he didn’t know anyone, and he was terrible at starting up conversations with strangers. Second, Lacey was one of Shannon’s coworkers, and he was a bit scared of being surrounded by people from Shannon’s job; he just hoped they’d be in normal clothes and not demony-looking armor. Third, the party was going to be at the evil-looking fortress, the one Malcus and other ominous things were always flying around, and Terrance shuddered at the thought of even getting near it.
“My friends from work are cool; you’ll like them,” Shannon assured him. “Just don’t show weakness, because they hone in on any perceived weakness.”
Terrance shuddered. “Like what do you mean? Will they—”
“I’m kidding!” Shannon chuckled. “You look like a scared puppy. You’re going to have fun on Friday.” She kissed him on the cheek. “And sorry I have to work the next two nights.”
“You work a lot of nights.”
“Well, it’s just more intimidating a lot of times to attack at night.”
“So…what are you attacking?”
“I dunno. I’m not really at the high level with the planning. They just kinda throw us into places—but usually it’s pretty obvious what to do.”
Stop asking questions! yelled a little voice in Terrance’s head, but he was determined this time to try to understand. “I just never really got what the point of your organization is. Is it associated with the government?”
Shannon giggled. “No. This is stuff beyond government matters.”
“Beyond?”
“Yeah, they don’t get involved with these things. It’s above them.” She sat up and looked at Terrance. “Why are we talking about boring work stuff?”
“I don’t find this boring. I want to understand this.”
“Well, you can’t; that’s the thing.” She looked deep in thought for a moment, trying to come up with the right words. “You know how science explains, like, everything?”
“Yeah.”
“We’re concerned with the stuff it doesn’t explain—the things that shouldn’t be, really. We’re trying to keep this universe togethe
r, basically, because there are things trying to tear it apart. People, even.”
That certainly didn’t make what she did sound too bad. But it didn’t quell all his concerns. “You know how the other day I had a run-in with a vampire? That seems like one of the things that falls outside of the…um…normal realm. Do you handle things like that?”
Shannon hesitated a bit, seeming to work quite hard on forming her answer. “As part of the…um…let’s just say ‘cracks’ in this universe…some things may seem bad when they really aren’t.”
“And other things like faeries may seem good when they aren’t?”
She nodded. “Exactly.”
“So there are cracks in the universe?” Terrance asked. “That seems like an important thing everyone should be worried about.”
Shannon shrugged. “There’s not anything most people can do.”
“Are scientists looking into it?”
“No. As I said, these are matters beyond science, and scientists only care about things within science.”
That seemed to sort of make sense while also being completely ridiculous.
“Why are you asking so many questions about this anyway?” Shannon asked with a smile, but Terrance could sense a little tension.
“It’s your job. I just want to understand it.”
She smiled. “That’s sweet. I want to understand your job, too, but it sounds boring and nerdy.”
Terrance chuckled, but his humor quickly faded as the one question he really wanted to ask lingered in his mind. “So, in your job, do you ever worry that what you’re doing is wrong?”
Shannon quickly sat up and faced him. “What do you mean?”
“It’s just you seem to be killing lots of things…and raiding villages…and I guess sometimes harming people, and doesn’t that maybe seem a little…um…bad to you?”
Her expression tensed, squeezing out all the sweetness that was usually in her face. “Why would it be wrong? I explained to you what we’re doing and why.” Her voice kept rising, anger building behind it. “Why in the world would you think any of that is wrong?”
This was exactly what Terrance feared. He knew he was on a precipice: another step forward and things would fall apart. So he backed away. “Well, you sometimes get blood splattered on you; that seems like a health risk.”
“Oh,” Shannon said, nervously laughing and then becoming visibly relieved. “No, that’s nothing to worry about.” She snuggled up against Terrance again. “But it’s cute that you’re worried.”
“I just wouldn’t want something to happen to you.” He ran his hand through her hair. “Then I wouldn’t get to go to this fun birthday party I’m super-duper excited about.”
She giggled. “It won’t be bad.” She turned to face him. “But don’t ask my coworkers a lot of questions like you’ve been asking me, okay?”
“Of course not.”
His eyes went briefly to the coat closet, where there was a faerie sword and a tunnel deep into the ground. If he wanted answers, he could try to find them. But he dreaded what he’d discover.
Chapter 13
Terrance sat in his living room the next evening, staring at his coat closet. He so wished he had a copy of Legendary Quest to take his mind off things, but it was still sold out. Tomorrow was the meeting Talia had told him about, the meeting of people perhaps trying to destroy the world, as Shannon described it. He really wanted to accept Shannon’s description of things—it would make life so much easier. Talia and whoever else she was with were bad and to be avoided. All the weird stuff Terrance noticed simply had to be ignored, and then he could enjoy Shannon’s company with no reservations and everything would go back to normal for him.
But for some reason he couldn’t accept that, no matter how much he wanted to. He needed to find more answers first. He needed to explore the places he’d previously ignored, as Talia had told him to.
Terrance got up, went outside, and climbed the stairs to the apartment above him. He knocked on the door, and Lance answered. “What?”
“I’m going to explore that tunnel under my apartment.”
Lance looked confused. “Why?”
“To find out what’s there.”
“What do you expect to find?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll see.”
Lance was silent for a moment. “You really don’t know what to do with yourself when your girlfriend isn’t around, do you?”
“I guess not. So…want to come?”
“Why would I want to come?”
“Well…it’s a little creepy. Plus down there is whatever has been pounding on my floor. I thought maybe the buddy system would be a good idea.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so, dude. I just don’t get the point.”
“You sure? Who knows what we’ll find? Might be interesting. Last time I was exploring, I found an office building alone in a field with an elf in it.”
“That sounds stupid, so no, I don’t think so. If you’re scared, do you have a gun or something you can take with you?”
“Well, I have a Glock .40 caliber my dad gave me, but I never got a concealed-carry permit. I’ve meant to, but it’s kind of a hassle because I have to take a class and then get fingerprints taken and get a form notarized. Anyway, I don’t know if a tunnel under my apartment counts as my property or not, so I should probably have the permit if I were going to take the gun. So you’re sure you’re not coming?”
“Yes. If you’re bored, why don’t we just go to Tappers?”
Terrance shook his head. “No, I need to find out what’s down there.”
“No you don’t. You’re descending into weirdness, Terr.”
Terrance shrugged. “I guess that’s just who I am.”
He headed back to his apartment and prepared for his descent. He got his Maglite and strapped his Leatherman tool in a sheath on his belt. He opened the coat closet and stared down at the entrance outlined in the floor. He looked at the faerie sword leaning against a wall next to it. He decided that if he wasn’t taking his gun, he would take the sword. He strapped it to his back again; even though it was hard to reach, it seemed like it would be easier to descend a ladder that way than if it were at his hip.
So he was ready. He moved the backpack and other things out of the way and lifted up the trapdoor. He stared down the hole for a moment. The ladder descended far out of view. He couldn’t tell how far down, just that there was a light at the bottom. He took a deep breath, eased himself onto the ladder, and began to descend.
It took a while. He eventually became afraid of looking down, not quite sure how high up he was. The whole passageway was quite narrow. Terrance had never been claustrophobic, but he also hadn’t spent minutes in a nearly endless passageway of such a small size. A couple of times, he thought about heading back up, but by that time, it would already have been a long climb, and he was hoping that getting to the bottom would be quicker. Eventually he saw the ground, and finally, for the last few yards, the passageway opened up into a brightly lit cavern nearly the size of his apartment. The light was coming from glowing, pinkish crystals embedded all about the cavern.
Terrance set his feet onto the rocky ground and slowly walked over to one of the crystals. It was larger than his hand and warm to the touch. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture.
He looked around the cavern and saw a tunnel just big enough for a man to fit through. It had no crystals in it and was quite dark, but he could see light spilling in from the other end. Terrance took his Maglite in hand—more for security than for light—and slowly headed into the tunnel. Again, it made him a little claustrophobic, but after he turned a corner he could see the light coming from another room. He upped his pace and came to the exit of the tunnel.
The room was enormous—a cavern so large, a football stadium could fit inside with room to spare. The ceiling appeared to be hundreds of feet above him and the walls were covered in the glowing crystals. Ahead was a vast underground lake, and at
the far end he could barely see what looked like a temple built into the rock face. He stared in awe for a few moments, then took another picture with his phone. It was one of those things that were hard to portray on a two-dimensional image; it looked flat on his phone’s display compared to the vast grandeur he saw with his own eyes.
Terrance approached the lake. The water was clear, and crystals illuminated it from below. He could see fish swimming in it, and then something much larger headed his way. He backed up as it suddenly emerged above the surface.
“Hi!” It was a young woman, holding her upper body out of the water. She wore nothing but a big smile, her dark hair covering her bare chest.
Terrance forced his eyes to hers. “Hey. You…uh, live here?”
“I hang out here a lot. Technically I live in the ocean.”
“Are you a mermaid?”
“Yep!” She ducked her body back into the water and lifted her blue fish tail above the surface. It was scaly like a fish, but had horizontal flukes like an aquatic mammal tail. Terrance decided to ignore the incongruity.
“Are you the one I keep bothering down here with the noise from my apartment?” Terrance asked.
“No, I never hear you. Are you noisy?”
“I don’t think so…but I’m bothering someone down here.”
The mermaid shrugged. “Anyway, I’m Jenna. It’s nice to meet you. Are you a warrior?” She pointed to the sword on Terrance’s back.
“No. My name is Terrance, and I’m a computer programmer who works on web applications.”
“Ooh! That sounds fun!”
It didn’t sound like she was mocking him. “It is, actually. Once you gain an understanding of programming, it can be quite engrossing.”
“Neat! So what are you doing down here?”
“Well…um…just exploring, I guess. I’ve started to notice things…”
“Like what things?”
Terrance looked at the temple beyond the underground lake, but it was hard to see much detail. “I don’t know exactly; things seem to be going on that I hadn’t noticed before…maybe like a war. Have you heard of the Infinite?”
Sidequest: In Realms Ungoogled Page 9
