Legend of Alm -The Valor Saga Pt 1 - Falling Star

by Graham M. Irwin

  “Sorry,” Anaxis said, lowering his head to avoid eye contact.

  “Sorry? You could be dead,” the man said. He shook his head as he rolled past.

  Mills watched the cart turn around a corner and said, “I suppose we should try our best to go unnoticed. We’ll have to be sharper.”

  “I agree,” said Anaxis. “I’m exhausted, though.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Let’s try and find somewhere to sleep until the sun comes up.”

  “Good idea.”

  The best they could find was a space behind a large trash receptacle in an alley, where they tucked themselves in tight and fell asleep in as the town slipped into the small hours of the morning.

  15

  Anaxis and Mills awoke where they had fallen asleep when someone tossed something heavy and cumbersome into the trash receptacle that had been their headboard. The sounds of the day in the nearby street were loud, so loud that Anaxis and Mills were surprised they hadn’t been awoken by them already. The two checked each other over to make sure they didn’t look too much like they had spent the night in an alley, then headed out into the bustle.

  “So where do we go?” Mills asked. “Where’s this Maleira fellow?”

  “I’ve got the directions somewhere here,” Anaxis answered, shuffling through his documents. “And we’ll have to find out where we are.”

  “Any possibility of getting some breakfast first?” asked Mills.

  “I’d love some. But, we don’t have any currency, or whatever they use for exchange here,” Anaxis answered.

  “Moan,” said Mills. “Then let’s hurry up and find this guy, I’m starving.”

  The two sought out the nearest street sign, which to their relief was in their own language, Takar. Along with their map book, they determined they were at an intersection not far from where Maleira was supposed to be located, and so headed his way.

  Apart from its sheer size, Gnirean seemed much like Talx or even Exile for that matter; full of citizens working and going about their days. There was little high technology on display, apart from artificial light. Laborers used normal hand tools, goods were pulled by beasts and the hard work of men and women. The city wasn’t exactly dirty, but it seemed ragged and overused.

  “I thought it would be fancier,” Mills remarked. “I thought everybody’d be flying around like we did in the desert.”

  “No, there’s not much going here at all, is there?” Anaxis asked.

  “Why do you think that is?” asked Mills.

  “No idea,” Anaxis answered. “It’s one of the first things I’m going to ask Maleira, when we find him.”

  “So, this Maleira guy works for the city, or something?” Mills asked, eyeing a cart of produce hungrily.

  “I guess,” said Anaxis. “And that’s how he knows what to do with the amulet. Something along those lines.”

  A large billboard hanging over a wide square the two passed through read, ‘Unity and Order are Our Greatest Strengths.’

  “What’s that about?” Mills asked, pointing out the sign to Anaxis.

  “Propaganda, probably,” answered Anaxis.

  “Do you think it’s that easy to control people?” Mills asked. “Just literally command what to think on a giant billboard?”

  “Well, I mean, think how often we heard talk of the ways of the ancestors in Talx. You say something often enough to someone and it becomes ingrained in their thought patterns.”

  “But to have it printed in giant letters up on a massive sign like that, isn’t the manipulation a little obvious?”

  “I guess every society teaches their people how to behave differently.”

  “Guess so.”

  Row after row of Gnirean’s city blocks were composed of the same type of building, all blocky, utilitarian, poured composite stone, executed without flair or character. There were plants and flowers here and there that injected little bits of life here and there, but for the most part the city was as similar and unvaried as its people, who all wore some manner of the same clothing and look of dull removal on their faces.

  “Here it is,” Anaxis said. “This should be Maleira’s building.”

  “How can you tell?” Mills wondered. “They all look exactly the same.”

  “Well, they’re numbered differently,” Anaxis said. “See? He’s on the… Fifteenth floor. Looks like we need to climb a lot of stairs.”

  The two walked through a revolving door, which took them a while to figure out how to time just right, then studied a chart in the building’s lobby to find out exactly where Maleira’s apartment was.

  “Place feels just like home,” Mills said as he looked around. “Except it’s a human-made, gray stone instead of natural, brown stone.”

  “I guess a container of blocks is just the best way to house a lot of people,” Anaxis said. “Good thing he’s only on the fifteenth story. I’d hate to walk all the way up to sixteen.”

  “I bet you can see really far from up top,” said Mills.

  “Good point,” said Anaxis. “Maybe we can go up there later, just for the view.”

  “I hope so,” said Mills.

  The two reached the fifteenth floor wheezing and red in the face, and then found their way to Maleira’s apartment. They knocked on the door and waited.

  “Everything’s so exact,” Mills said, studying the hallway. “All the doors are exactly the same size, all the floor tiles. It’s kind of weird.”

  “Nothing like anywhere else I’ve been, that’s for sure,” said Anaxis.

  “Where is this guy?” Mills wondered after the two had waited for some time.

  Just then, a round plate on Maleira’s swung open, and a set of eyes popped up into the window it revealed.

  “Who is it?” asked the man on the other side of the door.

  “You don’t know us,” Anaxis answered, “But we were sent here on behalf of Haven.”

  The eyes through the pane went wide, and then the noise of numerous locks shuffling sounded through the door. It eventually opened, and the man inside the apartment beckoned Anaxis and Mills inside.

  “Come, come,” he said with metered excitement. “Come in!”

  The inside of Maleira’s apartment was sparsely decorated and bright.

  “Have a seat, please,” the owner of the apartment said, looking from Mills to Anaxis with wondered excitement.

  The two sat down on the edge of the one, long seat in the main room. Maleira disappeared into another room for a brief moment, then reappeared with a stool to sit on.

  “Where are the two of you from?” he asked.

  “Talx,” Mills answered.

  “You’re here all the way from Talx?” he marveled. “However did you come to meet the people of Haven? And what are you doing here?”

  “We met Cine, Laquin, and Orn after we went to examine a flying machine that had crashed in the Low Desert,” Anaxis explained. “It’s actually kind of funny how it all happened.”

  “Tell me, please,” Maleira said.

  “Before we do, do you have anything to eat?” asked Mills. “We’re pretty hungry. We sort of slept in an alleyway last night.”

  “Oh, where are my manners? Of course, of course. Just a moment,” Maleira said. “I’ll be right back.”

  The man went into another room, leaving Anaxis and Mills alone to look around at the bare walls of his apartment.

  “Kinda lifeless in here, isn’t it?” Mills asked under his breath.

  Maleira reappeared faster than either of his guests had expected. “I like it boring,” he said, setting down a plate of crackers on the couch between Anaxis and Mills. “It allows for my thoughts and imagination to run free. I think of the walls as a blank canvas for my mind.”

  “What’s a canvas?” Mills asked, stuffing a handful of crackers into his mouth.

  “As in painting,” Maleira said. “It’s what you paint on. What, there’s no painting in Talx?”

  “On rocks, sure,” Mills an
swered. “We’re pretty basic, compared to Gnirean. Most of what we do is rock-based.”

  “The flying ship I found in the desert was the first think like it that either of us had ever been so near to, apart from the Silvers flying overhead,” Anaxis said.

  “Is all the food here so dry and tasteless?” Mills asked after choking down his mouthful of crackers.

  “No,” Maleira answered. “Same as the walls, I like things very plain and basic. It’s just fuel, you know.”

  “What is?” Mills asked.

  “Food,” Maleira answered. “Just fuel for our bodies, for our thoughts.”

  “Oh,” said Mills. “Well, you know, there’s fuel that tastes good, don’t you?”

  “Sure,” Maleira said. “And I appreciate it, on the rare occasions I have it. But as a general rule, taste isn’t very important to me.”

  “Fair enough,” said Mills.

  “Tell me, tell me, you were in the desert, and you found a fallen craft…” Maleira said leadingly.

  “Right,” said Anaxis. “I saw it fall from very high up in the sky, and then I got Mills here and our teacher, Xala, she headed back home, to come with me to investigate. When we got back to where I saw it fall, there was another group there, people from Haven. They had seen the craft fall, too, and went to investigate it in one of their own flying machines.”

  “Really?” Maleira asked, surprised. “They risked such a thing?”

  “It’s because the fallen craft was from space,” Mills said, struggling with more of the crackers.

  “From where?” Maleira asked.

  “From outer space,” Anaxis continued when Mills couldn’t speak. “After we made a long journey from the crash site to Haven with Orn and Laquin, we learned that what I saw fall from the sky came from the people of the planet Alm.”

  Maleira’s eyes went wide and he nearly fell off his stool. “You don’t say!” he gasped.

  Anaxis nodded and continued, “Oh yeah. And, apparently, the craft had an amulet, a key, of some sort, for the space craft that is buried here beneath Gnirean.”

  “The craft in which…” Mills said, pieces of cracker flying from his lips.

  “I know, I know, I know!” Maleira exclaimed. “You mean to tell me you brought the crystal amulet here? To me? Now?”

  “Yes,” Anaxis said. He dug about in his bag until he found the item, then presented it to Maleira.

  The man looked like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He rubbed his eyes, shook his head, and then looked again at the small, spherical key, before reaching out for it with trembling hands.

  “May I touch it?” he asked.

  “Go ahead,” Anaxis answered.

  Maleira took the key and struggled to catch his breath. “Incredible,” he murmured. “Absolutely incredible.”

  “So you can help us implant it in the ancient ship, right?” Anaxis asked.

  Maleira stared at Anaxis for a moment before starting to nod.

  “I can,” he answered. “I’m sorry for acting so shocked… I do hope the two of you know how absolutely astonishing this is.”

  “I think we have a clue,” Anaxis said. “But we’d love to know more.”

  “Oh,” Maleira said, half-lost in deep thought. “There is so much to tell.”

  “Do you have anything to wash down the crackers with?” Mills asked.

  “I do, I do,” Maleira said. “You know, I’m feeling hungry for something a bit more flavorful myself, all of a sudden. Would you two care for some real food?”

  “Would we ever!” Mills said.

  “Excellent,” Maleira said. “Why don’t you come with me. We have much to discuss.”

  Maleira led the two strangers to Gnirean through the gray streets of the city to a diner. He opened the front door and held out his hand to invite them to enter first.

  The inside of the diner was dingy and run-down, but whatever the kitchen was cooking smelled delicious.

  “Howdy, Mal,” one of the waitresses said with a wrinkled smile. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

  “Nala,” Maleira said back, tipping his head politely. “Care where we sit?”

  “Anywhere you can find a seat,” the waitress said back. “I’ll be over in just a bit.”

  “Great,” Maleira said.

  Anaxis and Mills followed him back to a booth covered in torn leather that was much more comfortable than it looked.

  “What’s good?” Mills asked, studying one of the menus on the table.

  “Anything on there,” Maleira answered. “But I recommend the tooyoo stew. Order it extra spicy.”

  “Tooyoo stew it is,” Mills said, putting his menu down and sinking back into the leather. “Is this your favorite place?”

  “It is,” Maleira answered. “Though, I haven’t been out to eat in some time. But, with this news about the amulet you’ve brought me, well, suddenly something is rumbling in my stomach.”

  Anaxis looked about the place to see if anyone was listening and then asked, “Is it alright to mention it here? In public? Where people could overhear us?”

  “Oh, sure,” Maleira said. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “I don’t know,” said Anaxis. “I mean, Gnirean’s security is so tight…”

  “It’s tight everywhere but Gnirean itself,” said Maleira. “They don’t care what happens in here. Everyone follows the rules and schedules. Plus, there’re not really the people or energy to devote to policing the city.”

  “Really?” asked Mills.

  “They invest all their energy in keeping the threat out. That’s how it’s always been. In my lifetime, anyways. There’s never been a threat from within. If there is, if someone doesn’t like it here, they don’t try to change it. They go live in Exile.”

  “But we were in Exile before we came here. Those people are patrolled by troopers,” Anaxis said.

  “Well, they’re the ones that chose to leave,” Maleira said.

  “So it’s a punishment?” asked Anaxis.

  “No. But they’re obviously dissatisfied with how things work here. So they’re suspect. So they’re patrolled,” said Maleira. “No one’s really told that before they leave, though.”

  The waitress showed up at the table just then. “What’ll it be, fellas?” she asked.

  “Stews for everyone?” Maleira asked Anaxis and Mills.

  The two nodded.

  “Tooyoo all around,” Maleira said to the waitress. “Extra spicy.”

  “Great,” she said. “Anything to drink?”

  “Just water,” answered Maleira.

  “Alright then. It should only be a second,” the waitress said. “You look like you need to eat, Mal.”

  “Well. I haven’t been very hungry lately, Nala. I suppose I have gotten a little thin.”

  “I’ll get you a couple bowls, how’s that?” asked Nala.

  The waitress smiled and collected the menus off the table, then went through the door to the back of the house.

  “Why is Gnirean so overprotective, anyways?” Anaxis asked. “Does it go all the way back to the war with Allovast?”

  “It sure does,” Maleira said. “They’ll never forget it. It would be easier if there were generations passing and memories fading. But the councils today consist of many of the same citizens, because of the eternity serum. And they won’t let go of their grudge.”

  “How long do people live here?” Mills asked.

  “Thousands of years,” Maleira said. “Too long. I know I’m sick of it. Well, was growing sick of it. But you’ve brought a reason to be excited, haven’t you?”

  “It looks like we have,” said Anaxis. “So what will happen if we implant this key, anyways? Will it start the spaceship up?”

  “No,” said Maleira. “Well, it won’t make it operable, anyways. It will never fly again, it’s been pulled too much apart. But the amulet will probably still enable its communication system. Which, in theory, will try and contact the mother planet.”

&nbs
p; “Alm?” asked Anaxis.

  “Right. And maybe they’ll come and end this horrible system we’ve entrenched ourselves in here,” said Maleira.

  “So you don’t like it here in Gnirean?” asked Mills.

  “Oh, no, not at all,” Maleira answered. “It’s why I hardly eat. I’m so sick of it all I would rather die. But that’s not a possibility. Unfortunately.”

  “What’s so bad about life here?” asked Anaxis.

  “The fact that I know that everyone else on the planet is kept in the dark because of the decisions of the select few here, which were made years ago out of fear. The fact that nothing ever changes inside the city, that everyone plays their roles without enthusiasm or joy, endlessly, on and on, day after boring day.”

  “So why haven’t you left?” Anaxis asked. “Why haven’t you gone to Exile? Why didn’t you leave with the others to Haven?”

  “Because I’m so close to the power structure here,” Maleira answered. “Because I’ve always held out hope that something like this would happen. That someone would find a key, or a way to contact Alm. Someone had to stay in the belly of the beast. And it was apparently worth it, wasn’t it?”

  “How long have you been waiting?” asked Mills.

  “Seven hundred and eighteen years,” answered Maleira.

  “Wow. So our showing up must make you really happy,” said Mills.

  “Kids, you have no idea,” Maleira said.

  The waitress showed up again to hand out three huge bowls of steaming stew, and three glasses of water.

  “It’s extra spicy, how you like it,” she said.

  “Thanks, Nala,” Maleira said. “Did you tell Bo I was here?”

  “He said he’ll be out in a bit to see you,” said the waitress. “You fellas need anything else right now?”

  “This is perfect,” Maleira said, picking up his fork. “Thank you so much.”

  “Thank you,” Anaxis and Mills said in unison.

  “You all just wave if you need me,” said the waitress. “Enjoy.”

  “So what do we have to do?” Anaxis asked after taking a gulp of stew. “To implant this amulet, this key? This is really good, by the way.”

  “Well, it won’t be easy,” said Maleira. “We have to travel through the tunnels beneath the city, to where the ship is buried. And I can only take you so far. The deepest levels are protected from those who’ve taken the mark of Gnirean.”