Gifts of the Greeks

by Edmund A. M. Batara

Deeming himself close enough, he stopped and let fly a flight of his favorite blades, the spearhead-size ones spiced with fire. Three of the constructs targeted each beast. The blades flew towards their targets. The dire wolf was immediately slashed into three pieces by the projectiles which then exploded, spreading burning pieces of its body all over the area. The same happened with the serpopard , though the creature was able to evade one blade. But the two which buried themselves into its flesh and then ignited was enough to warrant a demise as spectacular as that of the dire wolf. Fiery pieces of the serpopard joined the bits of the giant wolf in the air.

  He looked at the chimera. It had burned his blades to nothingness with its fiery breath.

  Shit! I forgot! Chimeras breathe fire!

  The beast was rushing towards him. But to Tyler, it looked as if it was just walking. The gift of Hephaestus was at work. Thinking fast, he detonated a fireball in front of its lion head to distract it. As the fireball exploded, he loosed a barrage of several fiery blades but targeted them to strike from around the beast. He watched as the knives danced through the air and surrounded the massive creature. Once all were in position, he immediately struck. The blinded beast couldn’t defend itself. The blades sliced through its flesh and released their fiery contents from within. The chimera exploded.

  Half-blinded from the brightness of the explosion, Tyler rubbed his eyes. He didn’t expect the creature to die like that. Must be something inside the beast. Its fire-generating whatchamacallit probably, he surmised.

  As he recovered his sight, another gory scene greeted him. The area before the cave was littered with smoking and burning pieces of the animals. The familiar scent of burned flesh wafted in the air.

  Viracocha appeared to his right.

  “Well, that was anti-climactic,” he commented.

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” replied Tyler, in a mocking tone. “I prefer to get things over with quickly to guarantee intact limbs. My intact limbs.”

  “Mockery isn’t you, Mr. West. Don’t let it be a habit. It’s a road which leads to a lot of dead ends.”

  “I am sorry, Viracocha. But that “anti-climactic” comment was really uncalled for.”

  “But I meant it! I thought I would see death-defying action! Slashes galore! A glorious fight between a hero and three beasts of legend!”

  “I think that’s Conan the Barbarian. Close-in action. Hack and slash. But that’s not me. I prefer to keep my distance.”

  And that’s what gaming teaches you when you play a mage. Keep away and blast away.

  “Conan the Barbarian? I don’t think I have met him. I have not even heard of him.”

  “He’s a creation of a story-teller back in the First World. Not real.”

  “No wonder. Do you think this Conan would survive here if he were real?”

  “Maybe. One of the deities would probably snap him up as a Champion. Or one of your beasts of legend could take him with one toothy bite. You think it’s safe now to visit the cave?”

  “Oh, yes, it is. Those are the only guardians. They’re more to keep mortals away. The pantheons were not sure if mortals could access it. They never did try. They couldn’t agree on how to choose the mortal. In the end, they all decided there wasn’t a good chance of the plan succeeding anyway. Come, let’s get down there.”

  As the two walked towards the cave, the smell of burned flesh became stronger. Surprisingly, it made Tyler hungry. His stomach rumbled. The deity heard it.

  “I wouldn’t think of it, Mr. West. Eating mythical creatures of unknown provenance is not advisable. The after-effects could be hilarious, harmless, or fatal. I’ll bet on the fatal.”

  Tyler kept quiet though he was starting to feel hunger pangs. Finally, they reached the mouth of the cave. Viracocha stopped around fifty feet from it. Tyler also halted and grabbed some food from his sack. As he started to eat, he observed the deity make a sweeping motion with his right hand. A large pile of boulders in front of them started to move in the direction of the motion. With a noisy jumble, the rocks were tossed aside, and the entrance was exposed. The boulders involved were huge. Tyler wondered how powerful Viracocha still is. His lifting ability couldn’t handle even one of the boulders. And the deity made it look so effortless.

  Still eating, Tyler focused on the dark cave mouth. He couldn’t see anything inside. It was as if a solid black curtain blocked his view of whatever was in the cave. He looked at Viracocha in puzzlement.

  “Don’t look at me. It’s my first time to be here too.”

  “Something is blocking my view of what’s inside,” Tyler told him.

  “My sight is also blocked so I can’t help you there. Quite powerful energy. But my favor is done. And I believe it’s time for me to leave.”

  “No intention of trying to go inside? Or waiting for what happens?”

  “I like my limbs intact too, thank you. I don’t think whatever is in there had forgotten about deities and their intentions. As for what happens, it’s your quest for knowledge, not mine. I will know about it anyway. The way you’ve grown accustomed to your abilities is far beyond the early stories about one Mr. West. Don’t worry, your name is safe with me. Those busybodies on that Akrotiri hill only know you as Havard the Mage. And don’t look surprised. After that display with the drakon, pantheons would definitely be talking about you. Trying to know everything about the young mage. Hatching plans on how to use him. It’s the way of the world. Of both worlds, in fact.”

  “I guess this is goodbye then. Thanks, Viracocha, for everything. You turned out to a pleasant surprise from the deities I have met.”

  “Really? Not all of us are as conceited, arrogant, and power-hungry as the rest. Jerks. A few may meet your standards of what a benevolent deity is. Though being out of the Great Game is a major point in my favor.”

  “Will remember that piece of advice.”

  “I did forget to tell you that somebody told me about your presence in this part of Hellas. I did promise not to reveal his identity, but that one is playing the game. Probably has an irritatingly complex plan in play, with you as an actor. I would be careful if I were you.”

  “That’s… interesting. And scary. Mostly scary,” replied Tyler.

  “And I would be careful also about one Incan god in particular. Coniraya, a trickster god, also of the moon, magic, and fertility. How he became identified with fertility escapes me. Except for the unfortunate incident with Cavillaca. Though his lust is something else.”

  “Another trickster god. One would have been enough,” said Tyler.

  Viracocha laughed and slowly disappeared, giving Tyler a wave of goodbye.

  Tyler turned his attention to the cave. Nothing was happening despite the show with the three creatures.

  “Hal?”

  “I am here, Elder. The energy signature indeed comes from the cave. It is a lot stronger now. But there are indications of damage. The only way to find out is to enter it.”

  “Can’t you communicate with the guardian inside?”

  “I have been trying to, Elder. I have sent various signals encompassing the spectra I am capable of transmitting. But except for a brief response, I have not received any signal in return.”

  “I just hope we won’t be facing a mad version of you, Hal.”

  “I hope not, Elder. But constructs like me don’t go mad. The term, I believe, is “rogue." Madness is a concept applicable to humans. And nothing in my databanks reveal such an occurrence for my class of constructs.”

  “Your databank is incomplete, Hal. And just because there hasn’t been a mad version of you doesn’t mean there won’t be one.”

  “Accurate conclusions,” conceded Hal.

  “Only way to find out then. Watch my back, Hal.”

  “As you direct, Elder.”

  Tyler made sure his barriers were in place. After checking his armor and with staff in hand, he walked into the darkness of the cave.

  As he entered the cave, Tyler noticed an odd fact. Tho
ugh it was daylight outside, no illumination entered the cave. It was pitch dark. When he looked back, he could see where he came from, bathed in sunlight.

  “Hal, is this usual? I didn’t encounter this in your temple.”

  “Each temple is a unique design, Elder. Its layout and appearance depend on the one building it.”

  Tyler didn’t answer. It was hard enough to keep his footing. His feet kept on stumbling on rocks. After a few more steps, he had enough. He cast a light spell. Nothing happened.

  “What happened, Hal? My light spell didn't work.”

  “An energy-suppressing field. Affects ordinary magical spells. A pure Elder spell would have worked.”

  “Thank you for boosting my confidence. Again.”

  “Sarcasm doesn’t work on me, Elder.”

  “I know. Feels good anyway. You didn’t have to point out the obvious.”

  “I will try to refrain in the future, Elder.”

  “So how are we going to do this? I can’t see anything.”

  “Use your staff to check for deep holes and rougher ground ahead of you. The only way to go about this is to move straight forward.”

  Tyler did as Hal advised. Though he found it easier, it still didn’t help that he was blind as a bat. After a few minutes of fumbling around in the dark, his staff hit something hard. At first, he thought it was a large rock. But as he lifted the staff and felt around, he concluded it was a wall.

  “We seem to hit a wall, Hal.”

  “Not a stone wall. A force barrier. This close to it, my sensors do not detect a natural formation in front of you. I recommend you touch it.”

  “Touch it? What if it fries me? I do remember what happened to Eira’s brother!”

  “Trust me in this, Elder. It is a test. A means to determine who you are.”

  “You do remember that if I die, you’re history too?”

  “Just touch it.”

  Gingerly, he reached out his left hand and touched the barrier. He felt a small surge of power run through it to his body. Suddenly, the cave lighted up and the barrier quickly moved past him towards the entrance. He looked back to where it was going. From its former position, it now moved closer to the mouth of the cave and blocked it. He looked around. It was a large cave and in front of him was a plain obsidian column. It looked like a slightly larger version of one of the pillars in the Elder temples. It was around three feet at the base, tapered somewhat in shape as it rose to about twelve feet high.

  As he examined the cave further, he noted that the light flooding the cave didn’t come from one direction. It suffused the entire space, leaving no dark areas. But the illumination didn’t hurt his eyes. It was like having the morning sunlight inside the hollow. The dark pillar itself was erected on a huge square of the same black marble-like material he had seen before. It covered the floor of the cavern in a nine feet by nine feet configuration with the column in the middle. But he didn’t see any gray tablets.

  But the cave and the area around the column clearly sustained damage. Rockfalls could be seen around the cave. Numerous fallen stalactites were on the ground. Stalagmites were destroyed by falling rocks. Two sides of the square forming the tower’s base were crushed under walls of stone. The tower itself showed some damage. He could see some chipped surfaces.

  He stood there for a while, waiting for a reaction to his arrival. Nothing happened.

  “Hal, you sure whoever or whatever is in here is of Elder origin?”

  “Certainty is a hundred percent, Elder.”

  “So why doesn’t your brother, sister, or cousin say anything. This is creeping me out.”

  “I suggest you speak first, Elder. We are programmed not to speak unless first spoken to.”

  “Oh. You know, you could have told me that earlier.”

  Hal remained silent. The eerie atmosphere was starting to get on Tyler’s nerves. Added to that is the reality that he didn’t like closed spaces. Especially cold, rocky, closed spaces.

  “Hello?” he ventured.

  “Greetings, visitor. A descendant of the masters, I presume,” came the answer. It was not spoken out loud, but he could hear it clearly. It sounded like a female voice.

  “Well, Hal here thinks so,” he replied.

  “Hal?”

  “Oh, the entity from the first temple I came across. I named him Hal. His real designation was too long.”

  “I understand. From his transmissions, I believe he said most of that temple was destroyed. I apologize for not replying in full, but communications protocol required a set of identification marks and sequences which were transmitted in an incomplete form. Logic dictated prudence.”

  “That would be the proper course to take. Though my quest for the temples also entailed looking for the tablets. I don’t see any here.”

  “My designer didn’t believe in openly showing them. But before we proceed further, one final question. Another test, if you can call it that. One of knowledge. A fact no native of this world would know.”

  “Would that be the number of pi?”

  “No. Knowledge about that concept existed in ancient civilizations. The question will not be complex as it will not be fair. It is to test how advanced your civilization is."

  "I didn't know this quest involved a test. But go on."

  "What are the numbers in a binary number system? For any society to develop to an acceptable technological level, passing through the early and primitive stage of using binary code is necessary.”

  Thank you, Mr. Google! Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Gaming Industries!

  “That would be 0 and 1.”

  “Correct.”

  “May I ask you a question?”

  “Indeed, you may, Elder.”

  “What if the visitor came from a period of lesser technological level? He wouldn’t know the concept.”

  “My designer, alone among his peers, believed that granting access to Elder knowledge to a less technologically adept mortal from the First World would be disastrous. Elder concepts may be too strange and advanced for comprehension by such a mortal. Nor would the information serve the purpose of granting the beginnings of understanding Elder knowledge. He feared a technologically inappropriate background might lead to corrupt use of the knowledge.”

  “He slipped that question in?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  Even transcended, these Elders still are human, he thought. They cheat if they want to.

  “What do we do now?” Tyler asked. “Reaching this place was on my to-do list, but I really haven’t thought about what was going to happen upon arrival. The last temple I visited was absolutely ruined. Only one tablet survived.”

  “Of the thirty-six tablets, this location only has eighteen in acceptable working condition. Nine tablets were arrayed on each side of the square, but as you can see, two sides have been severely damaged. I cannot guarantee the operational capabilities of the tablets on those two sides. As Hal may have informed you, any possibility of damage to a tablet removes it from accessibility.”

  “What intact tablets are there?”

  “Numbers 1 to 18, Elder. However, most of them contain research data from Elder experiments and inquiries.”

  “I already had accessed tablets 1, 2 and 15. So that leaves fifteen new ones?”

  “Fourteen, Elder. Tablets 1 to 3 contains my operating system and other related information. Tablet 15 will be redundant.”

  “But if I access the tablets, then what happens to you?”

  “That’s a quandary, Elder. Unlike other guardians, my creator provided me with three tablets instead of the usual two. He wanted to make sure that the knowledge was indeed understood. Though I doubt if he had foreseen the attack on this temple site.”

  “So, what you are saying is that if I take the knowledge in those tablets, you get to go with it?”

  “Yes, Elder. My creator saw it fit to hardwire my circuits with the tablets.”

  Aw freak! Schizoid me!

  “Ano
ther voice in my head? That’s a bit too much to take,” commented Tyler.

  “We do have the option of a merged construct, Elder,” replied the voice.

  “Wait. I have to have Hal on this. It wouldn’t be fair to decide things without him.”

  “Hal? Would it be possible for you to join the discussion?”

  “Yes, Elder. I have been listening. I do appreciate you standing up for me. Let me access the appropriate program first.”

  He let Hal be for a while. The cave construct must have also deduced what was happening as it was silent.

  “There. We can have our three-way discussion,” said Hal.

  “So how do we resolve this?” asked Tyler. “Hal has been with me since the start. He may be a sarcastic basic version, but he did save my ass a few times.”

  “We have the following options,” commented the entity. “A merger of constructs but it would mean one becoming the dominant intelligence, subsuming the other. I am ready to be the secondary entity, but access to the knowledge in those tablets would nearly be impossible as I am intimately connected with the databanks in this cavern. I don’t know what precautions my creator had embedded in my programming. Another would be the presence of two separate entities within your consciousness. Until the time when it would be possible to have an independent existence outside your body. Or you can leave me as I am and look for another temple. It is not my fault that my designer or creator made me the way I am.”

  “First, let’s just call you AIs, short for Artificial Intelligence. That’s how we refer to intelligence constructs back in the First World,” answered Tyler. “Second, I really can’t just leave the knowledge here. Fourteen tablets are fourteen tablets. I don’t know if I would get to access another temple in the future. Third, I don’t want Hal to be gone. As I said, it wouldn’t be fair to him. But I do have a question for you.”

  “I will see if I have the answer, Elder.”

  “What’s the third tablet for? As you said, two tablets are the usual number allocated for guardians. You have an extra one.”

  “The information was not given to me. I have not been given the access code for the tablet though I was tasked with monitoring the integrity of the information contained within. What my designer intended was for the Archmage to access the information himself, when he is capable enough.”