The Giants of Shattered Swamp

by Eddie Patin

  "Sure! Why not?"

  They then experimented with having Jason open horizontal rifts from different distances in front of him. At first, Jason had no idea how he was going to manage opening a portal twelve feet away instead of right in front of him, but he found himself instinctively getting a feel for where he needed to think of himself in the ninth dimension. That was the only way that he could describe the feeling; it was weird and didn't make logical sense. It was kind of like orienting for differently-angled rifts; something to do with his position in the multiple layers of space-time.

  Jason found himself opening rifts right in front of him, a few feet away from him, then all the way across his extra-deep garage. The farther he stretched away from his position, the stranger it felt—like it was more difficult to maintain a hold on his understanding or orientation of his connection to the ninth.

  He figured that he'd get better with practice.

  Now, he just had to figure out a world to send bad guys to. They needed blank focus keys from Dave's in the Market.

  "Let's go to the Market," Jason said. "I want to get a bunch of blank focus keys. We've got so much gold now; there's no reason I shouldn't have a shitload of those on hand for experimentation."

  "Sounds good," Riley replied. "No fighting this time?" Riley clapped him on the shoulder.

  Jason laughed. "I think I learned my lesson there," he said. "Actually, I don't think I would have gotten sucked into fighting with Ghrag in the first place if I wasn't so damned exhausted at the time."

  "I sure hope that fruker is dead now," Riley said.

  "Me too."

  "Hey, let's take the unknown magical items with us," Riley said. "Maybe we can find someone there who can analyze them and decipher their properties."

  "Someone to identify?" Jason said. "Good idea."

  He couldn't help thinking about so much of this new life in terms of the DnD game that he knew and loved. So many monsters. His rifting was like teleportation magic, like Dimension Door and the like. They'd been dealing with different kinds of resistances; energy and physical. Jason's minotaur-hide jacket gave him the real-world equivalent to damage reduction to slashing and piercing, it seemed. Now they needed to find someone to identify their magical loot.

  "What's so funny?" Riley asked with a smirk.

  Jason realized that he'd been grinning. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking of parallels between this planeswalking stuff and the DnD game I used to play."

  "The fiction?" Riley asked.

  "Yeah. It's just a game."

  "Well," Riley said, "for what it's worth, your 'game knowledge' has been helpful at times."

  Jason laughed, searching through his CamelBak's main compartment for the magical rings and stones. "So, you want to bring these four things? Should we bring the evil knife?"

  "Eh," Riley said. "Let's bring the rings and the purple and orange stones. Unless you want to bring the knife."

  "I dunno," Jason said. "It's not my style. Maybe we should sell it."

  "Then bring it, too, and we'll 'identify' it and sell it if we can."

  Jason held the rings up in the fluorescent light of the garage. "You know, we could just experiment with these. I doubt the necromancer was wearing anything that hurt him in some way..."

  "Jason," Riley said with a smirk, "This isn't your game. Magic shet can be really dangerous if you don't understand what it is. They could do literally anything to you. Who knows what that necromancer had going on with that Weave thing or whatever other horrific shet he was involved in?"

  Jason looked at the two rings, resisting a strong, curious urge to slip them on. They were magic. They'd just resize to his fingers and slide right on...

  He put them away.

  "Alright. Let's go."

  Chapter 7

  "Maybe we should split up," Jason said to Riley.

  "Not a good idea," he replied.

  They stood in the dim pink atmosphere of Churn under the massive protective black shell of the Market's pyramid-like exterior. The upper reaches of the absurdly huge and complicated structure were semi-transparent, and Jason could faintly see the swirling pink and yellow sky through what might have been a high-tech version of dark glass. Churn was a barren planet; nothing but weird rock formations, sand, and constantly blowing winds. It was always cold here and Jason had a hard time determining whether it was day or night.

  The Reality Rifters had been walking around for over an hour visiting various strange shops and merchants looking for someone who could effectively 'identify' their magical items. Riley was doing all of the talking. Even though the Market was a place where getting into a physical altercation could get you instantly zapped to a random world—like what had happened to Jason and Ghrag a few days ago—discretion was still a pretty big deal when it came to 'magic shet' as Riley said.

  They were looking for someone capable of analyzing their magical items while at the same time trying to avoid becoming targets for robbery.

  It was dicey, and they were failing.

  "What did you normally do with Jason 113, back before when you had to identify magic stuff?" Jason asked.

  Riley shrugged. Jason was watching him with his night vision on, so one of Jason's eyes struggled to interpret the dark pink world, and the other was seeing everything—including the mix of humans, humanoids, and extremely bizarre planeswalkers around them—bathed in pale shades of green.

  "Jason 113 had a guy for that," Riley said, scratching his beard. They were standing against a tent occupied by an odd, floating triangle-creature that was selling organic-tech-hybrid contraptions that Jason couldn't understand. "The thing is, we didn't get much magical stuff. That necromancer's tower? That was a rare sort of thing. We don't normally raid wizards' towers and shet. We mostly worked for gold and bought non-magic gear whenever we needed it." Riley smiled and clapped Jason's arm. "That flying disc was a hell of a find, man. The rings and stones and other shet, too. We never came across a haul like that. Too bad I never met Jason 113's magic guy."

  "Damn," Jason said, looking over at Morgana. She was dressed in a fleece jacket that he'd bought her the day before, a parka, a warm hat, and she still looked cold. "You okay, Morgana?"

  "I'm fine," she said a little too firmly. "It's cold here, but nothing I can't handle."

  Jason smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer to him. Gliath stood behind Riley, a tall and black guardian watching over them all without a word.

  "I figured," Jason said, "that in a place like this—this weird hub of shops and stuff—it'd be pretty easy to find a merchant that could handle magic."

  "You'd think that," Riley said, watching a trio of very tall aliens pass by them too closely. "But it's hard as hell to find just a fruking healing potion, let alone rings and shet. There's not much magic here. Lots of weird alien tech and weapons and such, food and the like, but like I told ya before, magic shet is rare."

  "We still need to get some blanks from Dave's," Jason said, "and some Merc armor for Morgana if he's got some."

  "Okay," Riley replied, hugging his arms to his chest and pulling his hellhound-hide duster jacket more closed. Jason had no idea whether or not Riley was resistant to weather with his augments. He looked cold, at least. "Let's go there now."

  They did.

  When the four of them reached Baylor General Provisions and headed into the tent, Jason was relieved to find the temperature about ten degrees warmer. Like usual, Dave Baylor—Riley's friend and ex-Reality Rifter—was sitting at a desk with hissing space heaters aimed at him from all around, reading a book. The burly red-haired man bundled up as much as a human being could. He looked up and his haggard face broke into a grin.

  "Riley! Jason! Oh, hey, Gliath!"

  "Hi, Dave," Jason said.

  "Hey, Dave," Riley exclaimed, walking up and shaking his friend's hand. The cyborg's eyes immediately went to Dave's pegboard wall full of guns for a moment before he met his gaze again. "How's business?"

  Dave stood
, dusting off his many layers of coats and jackets. He adjusted the thick wool hat on his head. "Same old thing," he said. "Who's the young lady?" He smiled warmly at Morgana.

  "This here is Morgana Soloster," Riley said, gesturing to her. "She joined the Reality Rifters after our last mission."

  "No shet?" Dave replied, wiping his hand on his coat a few times before extending it. He took Morgana's hand with a firm grip, gently laying his other hand on top of hers. "Morgana Soloster!" he said. "Nice to meet you, girl! You know, I used to be a Reality Rifter too for a time, a long time ago! Riley brought me in back when ... you know ... Jason 113 ran the show." His ice-blue eyes flickered uncomfortably for a moment to Jason then back again. "Riley and I went through the Guard together."

  "Nice to meet you," Morgana said with a smile, holding Dave's eyes and holding his hand until he awkwardly released her. Despite her previous shivering, she held herself tall and regally. Jason suddenly saw the leader that she'd been in her last life on u936. Morgana was basically some kind of noble. During these last few days of giggling and flirting and awesome sex, he'd lost track of the grim and stoic Morgana from just before leaving that terrible world. "You were a Reality Rifter?" she asked. "Why'd you stop?"

  Dave took back his hand and huddled his arms up again. He sighed and looked around the shop. "I retired," he said.

  Riley smirked. "Quickest retirement ever, really," he said.

  They laughed.

  "What Riley does was a little ... too risky for me," Dave said. "After saving up a good bit of gold, I found an opportunity here and took it. I've been running this shop ever since."

  "The only human merchant here, right?" Jason said.

  "Yeah," Dave replied. Then, he turned back to Riley. "So what are ya here for today, Riley Wyatt?"

  Riley started chatting with Dave as Jason scanned the store from where he stood with his team. Riley mentioned the wyvern eggs again. He would keep trying to sell those things—hopefully before they hatched in Jason's garage. There was no telling whether they'd hatch on Earth or not. Jason sure hoped not. He remembered back when he ran into a wyvern baby in the back of the cave. That nasty little shit had tried to eat him and he had to beat it to death with his cane.

  Finally feeling his face thaw out a little, Jason looked around the shop at the various general items; mostly human stuff.

  Morgana wandered away, browsing the many items on the many shelves.

  There were small generators stacked on shelving, a multitude of cases and containers, a variety of clothing both functional and military-like, the wall of guns, knives in a long display case, a single katana hung on a wall, spools of rope, miscellaneous pouches and webbing accessories, racks of Merc armor hung tall like wetsuits, tools, and all kinds of other wares. The gun wall—a huge area of pegboard somehow attached to the canvass backing of one wall of the tent—included several obvious slug guns (some designs and brands unknown to Jason) as well as other more futuristic-looking weapons like Gauss rifles, a rail gun like Gliath's, and what might have been laser rifles. There was a similar variety of handguns in another wide display case like the one with the knives in it, and as Jason approached closer to look inside, he also saw a huge bin full of various holsters, belts, and accessories. The tent was lit fairly well—a lot better than the rest of the Market—with several caged lightbulbs hanging from the canvass ceiling, no doubt all hooked into Dave's array of generators that were constantly chugging along in the background. The shop made Jason think of what an army-navy surplus store back home might look like if it was stationed in Antarctica.

  Jason made his way to a rack full of used Merc armor.

  "Over here, Morgana," he called. "Check this out. Let's get you some armor."

  She was two aisles over. "Armor?" Morgana put down what looked like a stainless steel mess kit after looking it over intently then joined him. She reached out to the rack and felt the slick, woven fabric of a few suits' shoulders. "This is just like yours," she said.

  "Apparently, suits like these are pretty common," Jason said. "I don't know where they come from. Riley said that he had one from when he worked for some big mercenary group back on his home planet. Maybe they all come from there."

  "If I'm understanding this planeswalking stuff correctly," Morgana said, "then that's not likely, is it?"

  "You're probably right," Jason said.

  As Morgana started examining the various suits, Jason found himself thinking about the rings and stones in his belt pouch. He was thoroughly fascinated by the idea of magical rings. He'd worn Morgana's 'Smuggler's ring' already, and it was harmless. It served a purpose and it was pretty easy to figure out, just like magic rings in DnD. He pulled out the two rings and looked at them subtly in the light of a hanging bulb nearby after a quick sideways glance at Riley.

  Riley was very cautious. He also wasn't cautious enough, sometimes. Why would Malydamus wear these rings if they'd cursed him or hurt him somehow? Derek Norton was a necromancer. They were probably rings that somehow helped him with his skills, right? Maybe they increased his intelligence, or helped him cast spells better, or they were like Rings of Protection or something.

  Of course, they didn't protect the necromancer from the Reality Rifters...

  Jason was overwhelmed with a desire to experiment. He'd done it before in DnD games. The rings couldn't be some kind of trap; Malydamus was wearing them for his normal day-to-day stuff, right?

  With another quick glance to Riley—the cyborg was still chatting with Dave and Gliath near the rifles—Jason pulled off his gloves. He put the silver band with the gold stripe on one ring finger, and the brushed steel ring with the tiny ruby on his other. One on each hand. Unsurprisingly, they instantly resized themselves to fit snugly but not too tight.

  Jason smiled. Awesome.

  He stared at the rings for a moment then remembered where he was and quickly put his gloves back on. He'd experiment with them. He could try to find different energies and see if they gave him any resistances; see if he could put his hand slowly into a fire without burning and stuff. When he had a moment to himself, he'd try to jump. He'd try to fly.

  They won't make you fly, he thought. Malydamus already had the disc for that.

  Maybe he'd be able to concentrate better and rift more efficiently.

  Jason adjusted his gloves until they were back to normal, then closed his eyes, trying to detect whether or not he felt any differently. He didn't.

  "What are you doing?" Morgana asked, her face slightly concerned, her eyes darted down to his hands and back up to his face as she held a suit of Merc armor on the rack.

  "I'm going to test them," Jason said.

  Morgana cocked an eyebrow, smirked, then shook her head, looking at the suits again.

  "I have no idea how these will fit on me," she said.

  Jason looked at the inside collars and along the torso-length zippers, but he already knew the answer. His own suit of Merc armor didn't have any sort of 'sizing tags' on it, and these didn't either.

  "Hey, Dave," Jason called out.

  The conversation between Dave and Riley stopped.

  "Yeah?" the burly redhead called back.

  "We need some armor for Morgana here," Jason said. "Can you help us figure out which one?"

  "Sure!"

  Dave bustled over and helped Morgana pick out a suit. Jason had no idea how the man judged one suit vs another, but he settled on one that he claimed would fit her. It was only slightly used with a hole as big around as Jason's forefinger poking through the left hip and out of the right butt-cheek.

  "What's this?" Jason asked, sticking his fingertip through each hole. "There's a hole going straight through."

  Dave shrugged. "Eh—probably the shot that killed the last wearer. Shot through the pelvis, looks like. Just wear some shorts or something under it." He chuckled.

  Jason laughed a little nervously, sharing glances with Morgana. A cold stab of dread simmered up in his guts. This was a very dangerous profession
.

  "Can I try it on to make sure it fits?" she asked.

  "Sure thing, girl," Dave replied. "Just head to the far corner by the sleeping bags."

  She did, changing in a far aisle out of sight of the others, then came back. When Jason saw Morgana wearing the sleek jumpsuit of—what did Riley say it was made of before?—a graphene weave with aramid fibers and other shet, he smiled. She now matched them. Morgana looked good. The suit was slightly too big in the waist and behind her neck, but it looked like it fit mostly okay.

  "How's it feel?" Jason asked. "Comfortable? Any problems?"

  Morgana flexed her arms and legs. She pantomimed swinging her sword, then stopped and smiled. "Feels okay," she said. "This should work. Now I'm a warrior from the stars."

  They laughed. Morgana decided to wear it out of the tent, carrying her fatigue pants draped over one arm. She wore the rest of the clothes she came in underneath the suit. Putting her jackets back on, on top of the Merc armor, she looked like a proper planeswalker.

  "Is Athelos still here?" Riley asked when they all met Dave near his desk again.

  "Not anymore," Dave replied. "After the minotaur job, Athelos left after ... well ... just over a week in Ebonexus time."

  After giving me my jacket, Jason thought.

  Well, if they ended up needing a tailor for Morgana's suit, they'd be able to find one sooner or later.

  They picked up more Gauss rifle ammo, a dozen more blank focus keys, and a bottle of whiskey from Riley and Dave's world in addition to Morgana's armor. They paid in gold tabs from the Bounty Boards and infinity crystals from the wyvern's cavern. Dave told Riley about a new merchant that might be interested in the wyvern eggs. A little while later, they all stepped out into the dim, pink street full of planeswalkers moving about on their business.

  Riley gestured for the rest of them to follow, taking the lead to head to the merchant his friend had mentioned.

  "Hang on," Jason said, taking Morgana's hand. She looked at him. Riley turned around. "How about we meet up at the Bounty Boards in a little bit?" he asked. He knew that Riley was going to walk halfway across the Market to find that merchant, and wanted to head back to a shop they'd been in earlier while looking to identify the rings and stones. There, he'd seen a pretty bracelet of a pink-silvery metal with a glowing rose charm. He wanted to get it for Morgana.