Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  Sela smiled, “After you summoned him and he told me,” she laughed momentarily before continuing, “he actually asked me to carry him over here. I obviously told him he needed to lose some weight, and I think he might be on a diet now.” She laughed again when Rocky told her he could talk to Azoth now then through laughter she said, “he’s very talkative just you wait!” She laughed uproariously and at continued confusion from Rocky summed it up by letting him know Azoth was on his way through continued giggle fits.

  After Rocky understood at least that much, Sela gladly accepted the piece of paper, smiling, and began quickly jotting down estimations for the miscellaneous goods Rocky carried in his bag.

  When she saw the bottle of Gaia’s Essence listed on the page, she froze as every muscle in her body fired simultaneously. Sela hadn’t known Rocky had this item and hadn’t expected to see it. She had always had access to his bag of holding but it didn’t list out its contents so conveniently and she had never thoroughly looked through it. She slowly turned her head, and she looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

  Had Rocky hidden it from Sela somehow or just not known the value? Deciding he wouldn’t have just given her access to this list and the bag with this item on it if he had done it intentionally, she cautiously queried, “This vial of Gaia’s Essence. You didn’t show it to anyone else?”

  Rocky stood upright quickly and looked her square in the eyes, and Sela again contemplated if he had known the value of the substance planets literally fought over. When he did speak, his voice was quiet, “I did not show it to anyone.” Rocky’s voice was quiet and serious. “Why?”

  Sela sighed in relief and looked him straight in the eye, trying to convey the gravity of her words, “It is the main reason for life on any planet. It is at the center of every war, every conflict, and every decision. This substance is pure, filtered power for a planet, and while I lived, Gaia had the most, which meant she had the strongest armies, the most abundance of life, and the largest reach.”

  In the deepening silence, Rocky asked her, “You said you led campaigns against Mars when you were alive?”

  Sela nodded and sat down to tell him a brief version of the time she was alive.

  “In essence, the war had two planets involved, Mars and Gaia. These planets had long since captured and were in control of the other planets in the galaxy. The war began with proxy battles fought on those outlying planets.

  However, it escalated, and when I was alive, the war had pushed on to Mars itself. Every powerful guild and the Gaian Military had outposts on Mars, and the fight was coming to a close with Gaia the clear victor. I can’t tell you much more because at this point, Mars decided to turn to a war of shadows, and it sent extremely powerful Martian assassins to Gaia.

  I was amongst the first of the casualties of this tactic change, and as the potent poison worked its way through my body, killing me slowly over a few more years, the war only escalated. By the time I died, the Martians had claimed they had a weapon that would assure our mutual destruction if we didn’t cease attacks.”

  Rocky heard the emotion in her voice and saw the pain of remembrance flit over her face throughout her story. He knew that the poison hadn’t been kind to her. The hope that they would find a cure to the powerful alien poison, followed by the long months of suffering while holding onto that hope only for her to die anyway could be felt, and he wanted nothing more than to wrap her in his arms.

  The moment passed and was replaced with abject terror when she continued, “By the sound of it, most planets have forgotten about Gaia, which means she has slept an extravagantly long amount of time. However, if they were to find out that there is an abundance of powerful, filtered essence with little to no defense, this planet will not be spared.”

  They both sat in silence, thinking about the issues that would arise when Gaia was eventually rediscovered. It brought into perspective, even more, the importance of the Territory they owned and its development.

  Rocky broke the silence after a time and asked a pertinent question which had been on his list to ask Sela before she disappeared, “How did that shop end up here? Did someone send it here?”

  Blessedly, Sela shook her head. “No, seed shops are released into the Ether Waves and randomly land on planets as Ether spreads or, in some theories, creates them. These shops migrate to the nearest, largest safe zone and then grow instantly. This will not be the only shop on Gaia currently and probably not the only one which was found.”

  She paused at this point, clearly thinking of the best way to describe shops accurately, “Alright, here on ‘Earth’ we had three aboo-akai, which I usually referred to as prime shops. This isn’t the full meaning of that ancient word, but for our purposes, you can think of it as the main body.

  These prime shops are made of a metal which is extremely rare, known as Arbuckle. This metal can use Ether as if it were alive, and all spells that are inscribed onto it are recast continuously. At first, they attempted to use them as weapons, but the sheer value of the substance made it like throwing pure Essence at an opponent.”

  Rocky smirked at her description and couldn’t help but think about Chris Rock’s golden bullet skit. It would seem that the same principles were at play here. If this metal was so precious, they found a better use for it that would probably line their own pockets.

  Sela continued her explanation and went into more specifics about the shop's taxation on sales and on buyers and how the shops created small amounts of the metal automatically that was then occasionally sent off into the Ether, like a pollinating flower. These floating ‘seeds’ generated seed shops when they landed on new planets.

  When she was finished her explanation, Rocky was left wondering what had happened to the shops here on Earth when the Ether had gone. What had happened to all the seeds? Were they active again now that the Ether had returned? Would this possibly be another avenue of discovery?

  When he voiced these concerns, Sela admitted she didn’t know the answer to his questions, but the look on her face made him realize she was seriously thinking about it. This was probably the most substantial discussion they had ever had, and Rocky was thrilled. He could now see a much more extensive range of emotion than he was used to in her; perhaps it was because she was human again.

  Rocky asked about the event that had occurred in Algonquin Valley, and he had to admit that her restraint in the matter was well thought out. Sela told him about her world and how they would have reacted to crimes such as this. Before the end of the conversation, he managed to convince her to go back to the Territory the following day with his Bag of Holding and all the supplies they would purchase from the shop.

  Then of course, he brought up the shop and his last visit. He mentioned his suspicions that it seemed Corsair was somehow monitoring it. Sela smiled and told him she would handle that.

  Finally, after what felt like too short a time but, in fact, had lasted hours, the two decided it was time to head over to the shop and see what they could find. Rocky bit his cheek and reminded himself to check out a suspicion he had about the shop due to their conversation.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The two of them walked into Ottawa, and it was anything but uneventful. It may have been easier to have Sela fly in as a raven, but they had talked about it and decided that it would be best if she could speak while in the shop. As well as not wait an entire day for her to be able to transform again. So they had made the decision to keep that option as a backup and have Sela literally piggyback on Rocky.

  With Rocky using his skill Dark Cloak, her form was easily occluded from sight as long as she was pressed up against him. The eventful part was that even though some deep part of him knew that the woman clinging to his back was an ancestor of some sort, his body didn’t want to listen.

  Carrying her weight was a simple thing, especially with his increased stats, but the soft bits of Sela were constantly pressed up against his back. Whenever he was forced to shift his weight, her le
gs would tighten, and her body would move to adjust her balance. Each time that shift occurred, he felt each muscle contract and loosen on his back. It was by far the most erotic piggyback he had ever experienced.

  Trying to maintain Stealth and move confidentially despite his blood abandoning his brain had left Rocky stumbling more often than usual, which only exacerbated the problem. His vision, as always while using the skill, was increased in the darkness, but from Sela’s muttering, he could tell that she wasn’t able to see.

  I mean, theoretically, she is at least one billion years removed from my family history, and if humans on average live eighty years, that would mean one and a quarter million times removed. Also, she doesn’t look like– Stop it, she is off limits!

  He finally was able to tear his mind out of the gutter when guard patrols became more numerous. It would seem that since his last visit, Corsair had attempted to up the security. Each patrol was assigned two tanks and eight soldiers accompanying the awkwardly silent but loud machines. By this point, the two had passed into the heart of the city, but the increased patrols could only mean one of two things.

  Either they were looking for people in the area sneaking around, or the frequency and strength of monster attacks had drastically increased.

  His focus sharpened, Rocky began meticulously winding through each patrol. Sela noticed it also, and he could feel her head moving as she too tracked the patrols by the sounds they made as they passed. The tension built as they crept ever closer to the bubble of light radiating from the hospital.

  When they got into view, Rocky’s eyes squinted as his confusion mounted. The area that Rocky had been carrying Sela to should have been quite near where the shop was located. Thin metal sheets that were held upright by driven I-Beams sat in the spot the shop had resided before. While he could see the poor quality of the temporary structure, it didn’t lower the effectiveness of its purpose.

  Rocky felt his jaw muscles clench, and Sela tapped him on the shoulder as she felt the man’s muscles tighten under her. In response, he lowered her to the ground and crouched beside her before deactivating Dark Cloak and Stealth. Once the smoke had dissipated, he looked her right in the eye and motioned at the structure, holding up a hand indicating a wall and pointing to the other side while mouthing the word “shop.”

  Sela’s eyes widened, and she nodded her head while turning to study the makeshift structure, which was only about fifteen feet high. The problem wouldn’t be getting into the container, it was the guards stationed at each corner. When you combined the guards, the walls, and whatever Corsair had done to detect Rocky last time, the task seemed insurmountable.

  As she studied the structure and guards, Rocky’s eyes suddenly widened, and he pointed to a tank that was parked nearby. After pointing at the tank, he made another motion with his two fingers approaching the wall and getting trapped, followed by raising both shoulders in an apparent “I don’t know” gesture. This action caused her to look at the tank, and she tilted her head, trying to puzzle out his meaning.

  Within a moment, she figured it out, which was made apparent by her mouth forming a silent, “oh,” and her eyes lighting up with amusement at not seeing it right away. How did the tank not get stuck? Easy answer; there must be a door on one of the two sides they couldn’t see.

  At this point, Rocky held up one finger and then reactivated his Stealth and Dark Cloak skills to go check out the other sides of this makeshift metal structure. Out of the corner of his eye, as he stalked away, he saw Sela lower herself as flat to the ground as she could. When he reached a new vantage, he almost laughed in delight at what became apparent.

  The group had only walled off the shop in three directions and left the fourth side closest to the hospital open. The open fourth side was evident from Rocky's new, slightly elevated vantage of the structure; this meant it would be straightforward for him to get in using Stealth, but Sela?

  Making a quick decision, Rocky went back to her location, dropped his skills, and pointed to his back once more. Sela quickly complied as she jumped aboard the Rocky Express, and the two moved away from the hospital under the cover of Dark Cloak. Deeming the two large rocks they had found to be the safest place, he began laying out a plan.

  In a quick, hushed voice, a smiling Rocky began, “Look, the issue as I see it is you don’t have the Stealth ability at current, right?” At the nod from Sela, he pointed back towards the shop. “In a moment, we can have you a purchased Stealth ability scroll, and we can both enter the shop by walking right up to it. Follow me?” As he finished, she nodded but held up a finger.

  “Bring me back first, and I will try to adjust any of the sensory spells in the area,” Sela whispered.

  So Rocky jogged back to the hospital carrying Sela, and after a long fifteen minutes of waiting with Sela crouched, holding a hand to the ground, they began jogging back. Sela’s body was absolutely exhausted after whatever she had just done, and Rocky could feel it in her limp and sweaty form clinging to his back. Together, they moved back to the initial hiding place, and once there, she pointed to a small depression in one of the rocks before tiredly crawling in to rest.

  Nodding his head, Rocky jogged back the way they had come and once he got to the edge of the light, he removed Dark Cloak. His Ether cost of Stealth increased and was painfully evident as the dark blue, nearly black Ether pool bar began inching downward.

  Making his way around the three-walled structure as quickly and as quietly as possible, Rocky rushed to the inside of the metal sheet that abutted the shop's rounded walls. This would hopefully ensure his door opening in the shop wasn’t spotted and when he exited, he was also not going to run directly into a guard.

  A moment later, Rocky popped into existence in the splendid mountainscape of the Aretrean Bazaar. Rushing over to Jesse’s stall, he quickly saw the cockroach of a man smiling at passersby from his “chew-scent” blanket. He strode up to the man, intending to start a bit of an argument for the outrageous prices he had been charged the last time.

  However, his thundercloud expression was met with a broad smile and a look of utter innocence from Jesse. “Hello, young man. Welcome back. Are you in the market for some more scrolls?” Rocky opened his mouth ready to tear into the man when he continued, “You seem to be putting the other purchases to good use. I see you got your money’s worth.” After finishing, Jesse broke into a deep coughing laugh that brought red to Rocky’s cheeks.

  Sputtering half in anger and partially at a loss for what to say, he chose to merely state, “You practically robbed me, you toadwart!” At his words, the laughing died down before resuming with an even higher volume.

  “You piece of gutter trash–” Rocky started when he was promptly cut off by an instantly cold and calculating Jesse.

  “It is better, young man, to allow people to assume you are an idiot than to open your mouth and prove it to them. Now, are you really upset that a merchant,” Jesse pointed to himself, “sold his goods to a consumer,” he pointed at Rocky, “for the highest price he was willing to pay?”

  Okay, slime rag. You want to play it that way, no problem!

  Originally, Rocky was just going to confront Jesse and then look for another merchant to purchase the scroll from. Now, Jesse had just woken an anger in Rocky he was used to channeling into action. Now, his only goal was victory, and his opponent was Jesse. His anger fueled mind and increased intellect stat must have been in overdrive because he came up with a spontaneous plan.

  Rocky immediately funneled his anger and put himself into the mindset of a rude aristocrat or, at least, the best one he could picture from Hollywood. Then he curtly responded in a tone that dripped scorn, “You are absolutely right. I should not have expected you to act in any way befitting a civilized member of society. I must always remember that merchants hold themselves to a much lower standard than even criminals.” Just as Jesse attempted to speak, Rocky chose to cut him off, looking at the back of his nails and not at the man any longer, “I d
o, in fact, have the desire to purchase a scroll or two today. If you could please show me your sub-par merchandise, we may find that your wares make your personality bearable.”

  Finishing with a disdainful sniff, Rocky was overjoyed when there was an audible click as Jesse slammed his mouth shut. It was the merchant’s turn to blush as he flicked his fingers over invisible menu screens in front of him. A moment later, Rocky was asked to confirm inventory sharing of Jessibihr as a screen popped up in front of him.

  Rocky already knew what he wanted to buy, of course, but he highlighted a random assortment of scrolls that had no meaning to him and absolutely no business being on the same shopping list before beginning again, “You have quite the wide array of garbage, don’t you, Jessabelle? An apprentice Finding Spell Scroll, only good to one hundred yards, and you’re asking for a full crystal?”

  Faking a laugh that sounded foreign even to his own ears, he continued to break down each and every highlighted item. Somewhere in the middle, he casually brought up the Skill Scroll of Stealth and told the merchant it was barely worth a single crystal while continuing to feign disinterest.

  This show wasn’t just to insult the man and get back at him for his last visit, which it was. It was also for this moment, and Rocky had been watching the entire time closely, throwing out what seemed to be random numbers for items. Each time, the man would either turn red around the ears in indignant anger, blanche slightly, or sit there impassively. When he said “a single” crystal, the man had done the latter and told Rocky a great deal of information.

  The scroll was worth even less than a crystal. Isn’t that fantastic news.

  Reaching the end of his tirade, Rocky was left glaring at the poisonous merchant, and when their eyes met, something changed. It was subtle, but a crinkle in the corner of Jesse’s eyes paired with a squint and a small head tilt told Rocky that he had the man’s grudging respect.

  After some haggling, which Rocky was ferocious with, he left the shop with a Skill Scroll of Stealth for eight gems, five marks, and two chips. Typically, he would have probably not argued right down to the lowest denomination, but he still had a lingering bit of frustration towards the man for robbing him.