by Tony Corden
“Thy dear companion must of necessity be absent on this quest because the places you have to go just hate dragons with a passion. Now I bet you’ve heaps of thoughts about this, but it is unseemly for a mortal such as thyself to seek justification from an immortal. Oh, and just one more thing to think about. It seems my son hath some reason to harbour a goodly measure of animosity toward thee also, as thou recent announcement hath set him upon a lower throne than thine. He’s not keen, at all, on anyone being of more import than he is, but I’ll let you talk it through with him. Enough has been said. Thy task is set before thee. As I take my leave of thee, I’ll drop you in his neighbourhood, well, sort of. Caio, farewell. By the way, his name is Somur T’kan.”
With another flash of darkness and the passing shadow of light, Geckiş disappeared, as did Mìng and the valley.
The next thing Leah knew, she was standing at one end of a moss-covered stone bridge which at one time may have crossed the wide river Leah could see before her. But not only had time left its mark but the last half of the bridge had either fallen into the river or been dismantled.
Before Leah could take a step, two messages appeared.
Geckis’ Divine Mission: First 10 (1, Diamond)
Atherleah (Level 303), you have been chosen to undertake a Divine Mission for
Geckiş - God of Transition, Change and Metamorphosis
You are the tenth player to be assigned this Divine Mission.
Reward 1: 5000 x 303 = 5628225 (+271.5%) Experience Points (3950000/3950000 (3706863/4050000)
Reward 2: + 4% to all future Experience
Reward 3: 1 x 1 Diamond
Reward 4: Increased probability of valuable drop. Luck is increased by 7.5 whenever you are on this Mission.
Fame: 5000 Fame Points (253915)
A Commemorative Plaque has been placed in your bag.
You have been set a task by the God of Transitions. You must find his son Somur T’kan, and bring him to the realm of Lord Geckiş so that Lord Geckiş might choose his successor.
You stand at a long forgotten entrance to the Forest of Night, home of the Dark Elves of Vatan. Within its shade lies the ruins of Yilanlar where İki Tarafda once ruled. Your companion Shēngmìng de huǒ has, of necessity, been excluded from this mission. Dark Elves have nothing to do with any dragon except for Lord Kötü Niyetli and his dark offspring.
Should you die during this mission, you shall be returned to your resurrection point, and the mission will be assigned to another player who meets the conditions.
Note: Due to the nature of this mission it will be published on the Dunyanin achievement forum only if you are successful.
Level 4 Named Personal Achievement
Quickest to Achieve 250000 Fame - First 1 (5, Diamond)
You have completed the Achievement Quickest to Achieve 250000 Fame. You have surpassed the previous fastest by a period of 102 Dunyanin Days.
Reward 1: 5000 x 304 = 5707600 (+275.5%) Experience Points (4050000/4050000)…(1214463/4250000)
Reward 2: 10 Platinum x 5 = 50 Platinum
Reward 3: +3% to Experience Points
Reward 4: 500 Fame Points (254415 FP)
A Commemorative Plaque has been placed in your bag.
Leah looked around and then moved back into a strand of trees which gave some cover and hid her from anyone on the opposite bank.
"Gèng, my memory puts the Forest of Night on the eastern edge of Vatan and almost eight hundred leagues from the Elfaun Valley."
"That is roughly correct."
"Where does Lord Geckiş live?"
"It is said that mortals may enter his realm through any of the Four Tunnels of Transformation. The tunnels are actually paired arches. The first is the East-West tunnel with an Arch at the most Eastern tip of Vatan and one on the most Western tip. They are apparently exactly aligned. The second tunnel is North-South. The third is the Near-Far tunnel with one arch at the very centre of Vatan and the other on the outermost islands in the Nusak Archepeligo. The final tunnel is the High-Low tunnel with an Arch at the top of Mount Siddetli and the other somewhere in the Kukurt Depression."
"So, which is closest?"
"It depends on exactly where on the forest boundary you are. It will either be the Eastern Arch or the one in the Kukurt Depression. Neither of them is easily accessible. The Eastern Arch is a sacred place to one of the more violent Dark Elf sects, and no one has yet mapped the Kukurt Depression except its upper reaches. The deepest place would, by implication, have to be almost impossible to reach."
"So the task is to enter an extremely hostile, huge, and unmapped forest to locate a lost and ruined city. All this in order to convince an angry, prideful, demigod, against his will, that he should accompany me to an inaccessible place to meet a parent he hates and all the while being on the lookout for his similarly angst-ridden sister."
"I believe you understate the difficulties, but that is an adequate summary, except for the unmapped observation. Players can play as Dark Elves, and they have access to a restricted portion of the Dunyanin official sites as well as their own forums. It would be a valid assumption that they have access to detailed maps of their realm."
"Alright, now as with any plan it always seems more manageable in small bits. Task one is to enter the hostile, huge, unknown forest. Dark Elves hate everything about me I suspect?"
"The only combination they would hate more would be a mixture of a human and a dark elf."
"Then I shall have to become someone new. Can you show me a picture of what I might look like as a full Dark Elf?”
"That depends on your particular clan. The Solgun Clan are very pale, but with ebony hair and depending on their status, they have different areas of their scalp shaved. The Yarim Clan is said to have skin whose shade that matches the tree bark of their home tree. Their hair matches the colour of its foliage. The Siyah Clan have ebony skin and white hair near the scalp which becomes darker the longer it grows. Once it grows past the waist, it becomes the deepest black. The longer the hair, the more status. There are several smaller clans, and all the clans are constantly at war with each other."
"I'll need to find out which area I'm in before choosing a clan. Any other problems you can think of?"
"In Dark Elf society they do make use of every type of magic, but only if it is cast in combination with Dark or Shadow Magic. They almost always identify an imposter by the spells used."
"This is getting better and better. I don't know any Dark Magic and very little Shadow Magic.”
"You have Orumeck's Spell of Summoning which you obtained on your first day in Dunyanin, and the two spells Summon and Banish which you obtained in the Dark Lord's Kotu's Dungeon. Also Beast-Walking uses darkness."
"I'd forgotten Beast-Walking. I will not summon a demon though I might consider summoning one of Orumeck's creatures. I need to do some research before I blunder into the Dark Forest. I'm going to log out and spend some time researching. Let Sharon know the feed will be less tomorrow and suggest they prepare an overview of the Dark Elves."
With that, Leah logged out of Dunyanin and spent the next few hours researching the Dark Forest and Dark Elves. Then she logged out for a late dinner.
Conner was in the kitchen preparing some ramen when Leah entered. He offered to make her some, and they talked while the water boiled. When everything was ready, they ate in silence until Conner, who finished first, asked, "What's the latest on mum? John's been in and out of the Pod all day, and some of the security guys have been holed up in one of the conference rooms. Lacey's disappeared. No one is saying anything. Is there news or what?"
"We think we roughly know where she is and we hope to have that narrowed to the exact location soon. John's probably sent Lacey to follow-up a lead which might give better information about what we're up against. I'm not sure what the security guys are doing, but I imagine they're reviewing the places where mum might be held and thinking of ways to get her out."
"Can I help?"
> Before Leah could answer him, John's voice interrupted from the doorway, "Not this time Conner. What you must do is keep anything you hear to yourself. I know why Leah answered your question but the best thing is if you know nothing." He held up his hands at the expression on Leah's face and said, "I know, I know. You gave him nothing specific and what he knows wouldn't affect the outcome. Still, he, and you, need to remember that no matter how insignificant the information, it must stay secret. We don't want the people who have her to even think of moving her."
Leah reluctantly nodded as John sat down. He continued, "Having said that Conner, I need to fill Leah in on some things. I think you should leave but Leah trusts you, and I'm of the opinion that if you're willing and able to own all the consequences of your actions, then you’re adult enough to participate. But then I'll deal with you as an adult and not as a kid. If you stay, then you have to keep whatever you hear quiet. You're not to speak of the matter out loud without permission. That includes talking about it with Leah or I unless we raise the issue. If you can agree to those terms, and only if Leah's OK with it, then you can stay. Otherwise, we will go talk somewhere else."
Conner nodded and said, "I promise, not a word."
John looked him in the eyes for a moment and seemed satisfied because he turned to Leah and raised his eyebrows questioningly. She said, "What is the general topic?"
"The chipper, the scans, and your current fitness level."
She pondered for a minute and then turned to Conner and said, "Conner, what we have to discuss is very private for me. I don't want to hurt you by asking you to leave but I'm not very comfortable discussing them with anyone, even with John. But I'll let you decide what you think is the best thing, to stay or to leave."
Conner looked at her and then nodded. "Before all this happened I would have stayed just to embarrass you as much as I could. I think you have enough on your plate without me adding to it. I guess I'll just have to find some other way to annoy you after this is over because it isn't much fun when you put the responsibility back on me." With that, he got up and left the room.
John said, "He is starting to grow up." Leah gave a wan smile and John continued, "That lead panned out. He not only had your scans but hundreds of others. Unfortunately, it's not going to be a simple matter of retrieval. He's part of a group that meets in what used to be called the Dark Web but has evolved into what he called the Shadowverse. This group he's a part of trades and sells scans for a wide variety of purposes and to all sorts of people. What Lacey shared with me I won't share with you, not without Lacey or your dad here. Apparently, this group is one of the hundreds that exist in the Shadowverse, and while it's tame compared to many, it is still extremely adept at security. I checked around, and the authorities know such groups exist, but they don't often go out of their way to hunt them down because it's seen as basically a victimless crime."
Leah said, "Victimless?"
"Yeah, the unofficial official attitude is that no one is hurt and that any half decent graphics AI could substitute real faces on bodies seamlessly anyway. It isn't in the public multiverse, so they say it is in a grey area and people should have the right to do what they want to in their private worlds as long as they don't hurt real people."
John could see Leah was getting agitated and although he agreed with her, he didn't want her to lose control, so he said, "Leah, calm down. I agree with you, and so does Lacey and everyone who heard what the chipper had to say. We know it's more than simple theft but it’s something to deal with later. For now, we focus on your mum. Now concentrate."
Leah took some deep breaths and nodded. John continued, "We have the address and a good description of the security arrangements. It will take us most of tomorrow to get everything together. First impressions, we won't make it in and out without your assistance, and that will mean the others in the group are likely to see some of your new abilities. I don't like the knowledge getting out, but I can't see a way around it."
"Me neither. We need mum back so don't worry about any of that."
"Then we need to get the materials Gèng ordered made into something you can wear. No one in the Switch has any experience with this type of material but I asked around, and one of the Bosses down in Logan has a lady who works with all sorts of fancy materials. I've booked her services and she'll be here just after midnight if that's OK with you. Everything I heard says she's discrete."
"No one here that you trust can do it?"
"They could try, but it'd be hit and miss. What Gèng ordered is very expensive and engineered to the molecular level. It's not aimed at clothing but has a number of highly specific industrial uses. We don't have any experience."
"Alright, I guess she doesn't need to know what it's for, just that we need it. Can she work on my scans or do I need to be there?"
"If she had the usual equipment the scans would work, but she's doing this the old-fashioned way, by hand."
"I'll make myself available. Is there anything else?"
"Just a bit worried about your dad. He's been in the Pod almost all day. He’s only stopped for the minimum breaks. Do you know what's going on?"
"I asked him to look into a world for me. It's one the Kodomans are both interested in. Either he really wants to help, or he's training in the martial arts you suggested. I was that focussed three weeks ago."
"You still are, Leah. If I didn't get reports when the kitchen was being used, I'd never see either of you."
"Don't worry too much John. I'm sure once we have mum back that we'll slow down a bit. She is one person who will not be immersed full time in the Pod."
After a few pleasantries, John left and Leah headed back to her room to research Dark Elves and prepare for her session with Dr Ellis.
After four hours looking through the information on the Dark Elves of Dunyanin, Leah had a better understanding of what she faced but wasn't much further along in putting together a viable plan. She needed a break from reading, so she entered Dark Moon Duel and spent several hours working on new forms.
Leah swam in the lake beside the Tower and then made her way to Dr Ellis' laboratory.
This time, Dr Ellis appeared as soon as she arrived and motioned her toward the aether-dimension creation machine he had just exited. As she approached, he said, "Leah, today we are going to make some virtual changes to the setup. If they don't cause any problems here, then I'll make similar changes to the real machine. Unfortunately, it never translates exactly to the real world because we can only test in here what we think will happen. In reality, the unknown can appear in any experiment when we push at the boundaries of the known universe."
"Which part do you want to make changes to?"
"The part you studied last time. I think we should be able to predetermine the spatial orientation of the Aether dimension within this universe by a double-bombardment of neutrinos rather than the single bombardment that we use at the moment. I haven't been able to arrange this before now, but I recently acquired a second mini-accelerator that's designed explicitly to form, focus and expel neutrinos. It is capable of doing this at a rate equal to what my current accelerator can. With the two of them bombarding the folded and bound dimensional field I hope to find a way to determine the alignment of the Aether dimension."
Leah thought through his plan while they made their way into the immense machine. It took a while, as numerous particle accelerators of different varieties, various field generators, and the vacuum chamber took up much of the interior. The rest was crawl-ways and countless elements of machinery aimed at shielding and isolating each instrument, and process, from any unwanted interference.
Finally, they reached the interior space where Dr Ellis planned to install the new neutrino accelerator. From here Leah could see into the central chamber, and Dr Ellis pointed out where the other accelerator was located. He said, "When we've got this one aligned we will need to sync them both before we can begin testing. Are you able to do that?"
While he had been ta
lking Leah had been noting the positioning of the neutrino accelerators and considering the possible effects on any aether-dimension that was formed. A diagram she had once seen which described the various flavours found in the oscillations of neutrinos came to mind, and one of the newly formed neurones in her corpus callosum facilitated a conscious connection to a particular expression in her hypothesised quaternary braid. As her attention became focussed on the similarity, several nearby neurones were stimulated to bring more relevant data to mind. Leah knew she needed to put all this together and almost sub-consciously, she began to increase the rate at which she was able to perceive information. This time the increase wasn't applied to the application of sensory data but the solving of this particular theoretical problem. Gèng reacted instantly, but it was Leah's brain, and Gèng could only observe as the factor by which Leah's enhanced brain increased processing speed moved past her previous best of 36.4 and slowly climbed into the low forties, finally holding steady at 43.3.
When Dr Ellis got no reply, he looked over at Leah and saw the look he'd often been told was on his face when deep in thought. Her eyes were open, unblinking and gazing far beyond the room. He’d once sat like this for two hours working on his unformed ideas about aether dimensions. He never forgave the bus driver who shook him free of it and told him it was the end of the line. To this day he believed that ten more minutes and he would have been able to solve the issues he was still wrestling with fifty years later. So he waited.
Much sooner than he expected, Leah's gaze slowly focussed on the accelerator in front of her and she turned to Dr Ellis and said, "We will need six neutrino accelerators and a way to isolate all three leptonic flavours. The accelerators should be paired. Three forming neutrinos and three the corresponding leptonic antineutrinos. I've done some calculations but think that by controlling the timing and direction of the bombardment and by coordinating the order of leptonic number and chirality, we can control the alignment of the quantum mechanical wave packets and induce not only alignment into the aether-dimension but also decrease the inherent instability. If we could actually determine the particular eigenstate, then it may be possible to determine the resultant quantum package that exists in the dimension being created."
