by Andrew Lynch
‘What are these?’
‘Thank you for asking!’ the Fawn exploded into life. A kind of… valley girl life. ‘Our range changes daily, so you should always come back to check what’s new! Okay! First up we’ve got an amazing Klatchian Dwarfbread pickmeup!’
I leaned into Bri. ‘You named these?’
She nodded. ‘Try and get them all.’
‘That sounds a bit heavy for me right now. What else have you got?’
The Fawn, a bit frowny now that I hadn’t liked her first offering, moved to the second barrel. ‘You’re the boss! Okay! In here we’ve got a delightful blend of local ingredients, blended together to create a purée version of a regional dish. We call it the Halas 10lb Meat Pie!’
I gagged a little bit at the thought of eating a pie in purée form. ‘I don’t argue that a 10lb meat pie is lighter than the dwarfbread offering, but can we take it down a notch to something that is naturally liquid?’
The Fawn gave a little snort and shook her head in annoyance, making her facial piercings jingle. She skipped the next two barrels and pointed at one that looked like it was oozing a brown sludge. ‘Okay! Here we have a delightful sludge from a far future. It doesn’t taste nice, and is the furthest thing from “organic” that we serve. It may also be contaminated with a little bit of mechanicium sanctioned promethium. Its only job is to keep you awake, and it would come with a medical warning if those still existed. It’s Imperial Recaf!’
I grimaced. ‘Step in the right direction, but a touch aggressive, maybe? And the sludge is off putting, I don’t think it should be that corrosive. Anything else?’
This time the Fawn’s smile dropped into a straight bitch face at me. Luckily, Bri gave the nod, and the smile was plastered back in place.
‘Okay! I see you’re a discerning customer! Something more your pace is this little number! To drink this tea, you’ll have to undergo a battle of wits! You get served two cups of this beauty, and then have to choose which you’ll drink. It has a zesty finish and will keep you on your toes. It can only be brewed under the guidance of a short man who isn’t aware most things are conceivable. It’s Iocane Tea!’
I narrowed my eyes to see if this was a trick.
‘You know what, I’m going to go with the Imperial Recaf.’
‘Great choice!’ The Fawn skipped back to the Imperial Recaf, banged a few rocks together, tugged a vine, and squeezed a handful of moss into a cup, then presented me with it.
‘Enjoy!’
We went to a table and sat. I stared at my drink.
‘Will this kill me?’
Bri smiled. ‘It’s only a sharp coffee, you’re safe. The descriptions are just to keep me occupied. Not much to do these days outside of siege prep.’
‘I see.’ We were the only ones in this weird coffee shop. In fact, the guards hadn’t let anyone else in while I was above ground, and no one was down here. ‘Does anyone visit? It seems like you could be raking the money in. I mean, maybe not with those descriptions, but your other shops, possibly?’
‘I’ll let people start trickling in soon. With all the new troops suddenly arriving, I’m building an artificial scarcity. Sure, my profits take a hit for a few days, but it’ll pay dividends soon enough when I’m able to charge whatever I want for any product or service. And they’ll thank me for the opportunity to give me their money. Economics 101.’
I scratched my head with my chained hand. ‘Huh. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t even started to think about these things. Been too focused on other things.’
‘As you should be. I can focus on business because you are handling the more important things. Like the coming battle. It’s your village, and I’m bound to your plan regardless of my wishes, so…’
Was there a note of annoyance there?
‘What are your wishes? Do you think I’m doing the wrong thing?’
She looked away and shrugged. ‘I understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. But we have different motivations, and experience levels. You’re doing the right thing for you.’
I frowned at that. ‘Well, what would you do? With your motivations and experience levels, hmm?’
She rolled her eyes ever so slightly. ‘I didn’t mean it like–’
‘No, go on. You’ve piqued my interest. Tell me.’
‘I’d run. I ran from my last village and rebuilt here. Sure, I had to downsize, but it’s only temporary. I didn’t lose a single minion.’
‘I’m doing this for my minions. Hell, it was my minions that really made this choice. They want to fight this battle. Stand up for something greater than themselves. And damn it, I want to help them.’
‘I know. And I didn’t want to lose my friends, so I did what I had to to keep them alive. Tulgatha is a world of fighting where death is normal. I didn’t want my friends to die. Sometimes you have to deny, to save.’
‘Sacrifices have to be made to make the world a better place.’
Bri nodded gently. ‘I agree. I just don’t see why I should make them.’ She looked into my eyes, and I saw the swirl of an ebbing ocean in hers. ‘I just want to have fun.’
Part of me was outraged that she didn’t want to protect those around her. How could she be so selfish? She saw those in need and she wanted to ignore them. But another part of me screamed out that it was just a game. It wasn’t real. Was it?
‘You’re so… but then you… and…’ I didn’t know where to begin or end my thought process. So I sat back and took a swig of Imperial Recaf. Despite it having the faint smell of petrol, I didn’t immediately go blind when I swallowed. However, my heartbeat doubled. I sighed, but more to try and steady myself than for any other reason. ‘That is strong. I’m more a tea guy. But the iocane powder… I’ve only died twice and once was to poison, so not doing that again. Oh, and the other time I died? To the guy that’s leading The Eastern Shadow’s little battalion.’
‘How long have we got?’
Until what, Bri? Until they arrive and you stand by my side and protect those under your care? Or until you leave and our friendship ends?
‘The new hunter, Muadshai, says about two weeks.’
‘Someone’s really into Dune. Rides a sandworm, let me guess?’ She smirked. ‘And until the walls are finished?’
I checked my HUD. ‘Eight days.’
‘Even if they’re early by a few days, we’ll be ready, then.’
‘Seems so. But, I have one more idea to give us an edge.’
She took a bit more notice. A hope that maybe she wouldn’t have to run away in the night to save her fun?
‘An idea from our illustrious leader. Do tell.’ Like that, she was back to her snarky ways.
‘What’s the best way to fight fire?’
‘With overwhelming amounts of water.’
Balls. I hadn’t thought of that. ‘With fire. Or, in this case, light magic.’
‘We don’t have any light magic. Even if some of those troops that arrived earlier can use it, one or two magic users, plus your own dark magic, aren’t going to outperform a battalion of light users.’
‘True. But from my time fighting them, most of The Eastern Shadow use just regular physical attacks. However, those that do use magic always seem to be bound to light. And anything we can do to impede their Child of Light from decimating us sounds like a good plan. Also, they are going to have to lay siege to us here. Which typically will mean siege spells, which we can guess are going to be light based, right?’
‘Sure. And?’
‘The walls give us a fighting chance against their physical troops, so we need something to help with their magic. We need to find Hursh.’
She thought for a moment. ‘That guy in charge of that army you fought under?’
‘Yup.’
‘The guy that was soundly defeated?’
When she said it that way it didn’t sound great. ‘Exactly.’
‘He’s a player, so just who him.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Wh
o him. In your console type… nevermind, I’ll do it.’ Her eyes lost focus for a few seconds. ‘Player Hursh Dunning, level 659, Warrior. Last online three weeks ago in Tulgatha.’
‘Three weeks? So he hasn’t logged on again since the situation? Well that’s not a good sign. And what does it mean, “Tulgatha”? So he could be anywhere in the whole world?’
Bri sighed and spoke like she was explaining something to a child. ‘Tulgatha, the capital.’
‘We’ve got two weeks, we’re down a team member, we don’t know if my plan will work, we’re facing overwhelming odds, and I’m level ten, so clearly I’m the one we should all be listening to.’
She smiled.
‘When you put it like that, Severo, it does sound fun. I’ll fire up the capital portal.’
‘Great. You do that, I’m going to get some of this Imperial Recaf to go, because lord emperor does it ever grab you by the balls. Pure heresy!’
Chapter 36: Tulgatha
Stepping out of the misty portal, I found myself in a large and dark hallway. I was standing behind someone. I was in a queue. I looked around but couldn’t make out many details. There were a few knife edges of light burning into the dark space, but they were so bright I couldn’t make out what they illuminated. The crowd around me shuffled forward slowly, and there were enough murmurs to tell me that the place I was in had an echo.
‘Why a queue?’ I asked.
‘Standard. Nothing to worry about. Should only be a few minutes,’ said Bri, who was in front of me in the queue.
Precisely six minutes later, after many slow shuffles forward, being bumped into by the person behind multiple times, I was at the exit, which had enough sun shining through the door that I could make out the floor. It looked like light grey slate.
‘Name?’ The guard at the door asked me.
‘Can’t you read it off my nameplate?’ I asked.
The guard looked up from his ledger and made a face that told me I’d said the wrong thing.
‘Akuma Severo,’ I apologised.
‘Reason for visit?’
‘Well, my village, Thanis, is preparing for a siege, and the odds are going to be very overwhelmingly stacked against me, and there’s going to be a lot of light magic coming my way, so I had an–’
‘Business or pleasure?’ the guard interrupted.
‘Oh. Umm, business?’
The guard scribbled on the paper making a satisfying scribble sound.
‘Locations planned to visit?’
‘Tulgatha.’ Then I added, just to be sure, ‘The capital.’
The guard sighed. ‘Locations planned to visit, within Tulgatha?’
‘Right. Sorry.’ I turned to Bri and shrugged helplessly.
She stopped talking to the guard on her side and said, ‘Lower and mid.’
The guard looked to me.
‘Yes, sir. Lower and mid.’
The guard ledged in his ledger, and then signalled for me to walk past into the blinding sunlight.
I said my thanks, which was firmly ignored, and headed out.
I shielded my eyes from the sun. ‘Wow!’
‘Yeah, it’s pretty impressive the first time you see it.’
‘I’m sure it is, but I haven’t seen it yet.’ I rubbed at my eyes. ‘I kind of forgot that the Dead Wood is so grey. I haven’t seen proper sunlight in weeks. It’s actually really painful.’
What I could hear, however, was the sound of massed humanity. The bustle of a crowd, the shouting of vendors, children, and guards, the tolling of bells, the alluring jangle of merchandise, the crashing of water in carefully allocated and aesthetically pleasing civil spaces.
My eyes finally began to adjust, and the first thing I saw were people walking past me. A steady stream of boots and shoes and hooves of all shapes and sizes. They weren’t just coming from the hall that I’d just left, they were coming from multiple halls all of the same size. I turned to see six buildings identical to the one we’d emerged from. They were standard gothic architecture, looking like cathedrals of old.
‘Come on,’ Bri said. ‘We’re not there yet, and the guards don’t like it when people linger on the portal platforms for too long.’
I turned back and started to walk forward, but after a step, I had to stop and take in Tulgatha for what it was. An eclectic masterpiece of design and art. The buildings behind me had prepared me for a standard European gothic city. I’d seen that before and could handle it, no matter how grand.
But this was no standard city. The first thing I noticed was that I was, very gently, bobbing up and down a few hundred metres in the sky. Or, the platform I was on was, at least. And, in fact, the entirety of Tulgatha was surrounded by these floating islands. They were different shapes and sizes, but they all seemed to serve the same purpose, at least from what I could tell from the nearby islands. Several buildings on top of a chunk of land that looked like it had been ripped, tree roots and all, directly from the ground by a giant hand, all filling up with people. Each island had multiple smaller platforms shuttling to and from entry points all over the capital. These ferry platforms were made of a sandy, light yellow brick, and all seemed to be manned by a magic user that was controlling the platform.
Part of me said that it was a ludicrous way of handling visitors, immigration, and travel around the city, but then another part of me looked at Tulgatha and decided there was no other choice.
I may have been on a floating island a few hundred metres above the ground, but Tulgatha’s spires still towered far higher than my measly platform. And calling them spires gives visions of spindly, narrow structures, but that simply wasn’t the case. This was a tiered city, with multiple levels to each tier, and some levels branching out into vastly different tiers on the same level.
Bri pushed me along. ‘Take it in while we stand on the ferry. Come on!’
The first thing to draw my attention was obvious. The crystal spires on the middle tier. It started out like any castle would, wide and sturdy on the ground floors, all made from a silvery white gleaming rock, as if arcane magic had crystalized. As it rose, it split off into two separate spires at the rear of the building. Still acceptable and made sense according to physics. But then the two spires wound around each other, like twin comets shooting into the sky, until, far above where my platform was held in the sky, they reached an apex and clashed together, a sphere of jagged crystal held aloft on impossibly thin spires. It was as if the two towers had been built by giant magical hands, grown rapidly and then collided, freezing themselves there permanently. Except the shards that broke off, continued to rise higher, large shards of crystal, held together in a slow rotation, going ever higher towards the sky, but tamed by invisible chains. Yet, despite their height, they only just managed to peek above the ground of the high tier.
The mid tier had a luscious forest taking up half of its land. There was also a giant lake that was fed from the top tier, gathered in the mid tier, and then continued down to the low tier, where it snaked throughout the city until finally trailing off into the distance as multiple rivers.
Bri shoved me onto the ferry, and despite there being barely enough room to breathe once everyone had crowded in, I pushed my way to the edge to see where we were going.
Unlike the mid tier, the top tier had a carefully curated garden instead of a jungle, and astonishingly large fountains instead of a lake. There were buildings, of course, but none stood out as much as the crystal spires. They were a more traditional European medieval gothic affair, for the most part. One of them had a lot of iron girding the building, along with giant weapons carved into the ground all around it, and on those giant weapons I could see sparring grounds brimming with people. One glowed with holy light. Another was made entirely of glass, it seemed. There was a temple similar to Ixly’s but triple the size, and it was right next to a gigantic monster that was lying on a bed of sand, with a few tents on its back. I probably should have mentioned that first, in hindsight. It looked like an angry tu
rtle. Perhaps angry giant lettuce didn’t exist. At least, I thought it didn’t. And then, the crowning jewel was the castle in the centre of the tier. There was no doubt that it was the heart of the royalty, or government, or whatever ruling class existed here. It looked like… Minas Tirith. I won’t mince words. It looked like the entire city of Minas Tirith in the centre of the tier, but it was resplendent, with clean white brick, and jewel encrusted walls. It was… really gaudy, actually. I wouldn’t say it was in bad taste. Just, not good taste.
The city walls, enclosing the city, rose to half the height of the mid tier. They were huge, massive walls, but next to everything else, they looked insubstantial. They were wide enough to fit several buildings width-ways. They had giant statues all along the tops. Four of them, each a different fantastical creature, none of which I could identify.
We sank below the walls now, the ferry taking us down.
‘Are we going to visit the crystal thing?’ I asked Bri.
‘Not sure why we would.’
The ferry continued its descent until we landed with a barely noticeable bump against a set of stairs. Looking above, there was a steady flow of these ferries traversing the sky, moving from the floating islands to docking points all over the city.
Bri sighed, took my hand, and led me off the platform as I was still in a daze.
Down a few steps, and my feet touched real ground again. If I’d had any time to notice, I probably would have been clinging to the railings in case I fell off. It seemed like a real hazard.
‘Where are we going?’ I asked.
‘That’s your part. I’ve done mine.’
‘My part? What did you do?’
‘I got us here, and now I’m your guide. But I don’t know what your plan is. Why does this Hursh matter?’
I shrugged, more to myself than her. ‘Well, he doesn’t, really.’ She suddenly looked very cross, and I held my hands up in defence. ‘No, no, he does, of course. He does. But I mean, it’s not him that matters, per se. It’s what he has. If he has anything left.’
‘It’s a good thing it’s not him that matters, because his online status hasn’t changed.’
