by Jakob Tanner
“Even better,” she said.
Inside the box was the most premium ramen noodles available on the market along with the most organic and immaculately raised eggs. Max hurried over to the fridge pulled out the most prized bacon slabs in the city.
“Are you ready to have the most delicious bacon and egg ramen of your life?” Max asked.
“Ooooh, this is the best Christmas ever!” Sakura squealed.
Max cooked them each a bowl of bacon and egg ramen and they dug into it.
When they were stuffed and finished from the hyper salty meal, Max said, “So what should we do for the rest of the day?”
Sakura smiled. “I actually invited a few guests over for dinner. I picked up everything you need Max to cook a brilliant Christmas feast!”
“Wait, who did you invite?” asked Max.
So that was how later that day, Casey and their instructor from the climber academy were in Sakura’s living room, laughing and celebrating Christmas together.
Max wasn’t celebrating as much as the rest of them as Sakura had left him to cook the entire Christmas meal. He had to keep an eye on the roasting turkey and vegetables in the oven, the gravy boiling over on the frying pan, and everything else.
It was all worth it in the end as Sakura and the guests all wolfed down their Christmas dinner and asked for more. They gave the highest compliments to the chef.
After dinner, the instructor and Sakura peeled off from Casey and Max, staying in the kitchen area close to the beer and alcohol.
“Do you think they’re going to—” Casey couldn’t even finish her sentence.
“I hope not. If our instructor is serious about courting Sakura, knowing her, she’s going to make him work very hard for it. She might even make him quit smoking.”
“They’re doomed in that case,” laughed Casey.
She suddenly went quiet and then reached inside her bag.
“Hey! I got you something,” she said.
Max was about to protest as he hadn’t bought her anything. He didn’t even know he was going to be seeing her over the holidays.
She handed him a beautiful origami paper crane, made out of really nice red paper.
Max didn’t know much about stationary but he knew that the paper this crane had been made out of was not your average dollar store variety kind of paper.
“We used to sell special origami paper at my family’s shop,” she said. “But things have been a bit more complicated recently. Anyway, origami always makes me smile and something I used to do a lot more often before I unlocked my profile and trait, and—I don’t know—I wanted to share something close to my heart with you.”
Max blushed.
“Casey, I don’t know what to say,” he said.
“Don’t say anything,” she said. “Keep it in your pouch or on your bedside table. It’s a good luck charm.”
Max smiled. “Well, thanks.”
Sakura and the instructor giggled in the kitchen, lost in their own conversation.
Max figured this might be the best time to continue their ongoing discussion about what to do concerning Samuel Archer.
“We heard him right,” said Max, speaking almost in a whisper. “He mentioned going beyond the wall. He’s doing something in the outer-rim, which as far as I know, is completely illegal. People’s lives could be at risk.”
“What do you think we should do?” said Casey. “Should you tell Sakura?”
Max shook his head. “He’s too powerful. Going to Sakura would be like going through the proper channels, he’s amassed too much respect and status within the climber’s guild for people to start a direct investigation into his affairs. We’re the best people for the job as no one is paying attention to us. Furthermore, if we tell Sakura, she might not let us go and she might even tell other high-ranking climbers and we don’t know who’s on Samuel Archer’s side.”
Casey nodded.
“Whatever we do next though,” said Max. “We’ll have to be very careful. Spying on Samuel Archer has the potential to be more dangerous than anything we’ve yet experienced in the tower so far.”
67
In the build-up to the new year Max and Casey gathered as much information as they could easily and safely acquire.
They shared what they’d each discovered out in the city streets during the new year’s parade.
Casey hadn’t found out much, but Max had investigated routes out of the city and into the outer-rim. Every day, garbage trucks left the tower-zone to deposit garbage in a dump in the outer-rim. More suspicious was that Max saw Samuel Archer talking with one of the city climbers who escorted the dump truck, which led Max to only one conclusion: whatever Samuel was up to it involved climbers entering the outer-rim surreptitiously through the garbage trucks every day.
“That’s crazy,” said Casey. “What do you think he’s planning?”
“I don’t know,” said Max. “But whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
“So what do you think we should do next?”
“We need to figure out a plan to get out into the outer-rim ourselves and follow those dump trucks,” said Max.
Casey paled and let out a long sigh. “We could go to jail for something like that. We could get expelled from the academy. We could lose our chance to take part in the final exam and—I can’t believe I’m the one to say this—we really should be studying and training for that right now, rather than investigating one of the strongest climbers in all of Zestiris.”
“So you’ll make me go out there on my own?”
Casey groaned. “I guess not, plus I’ve never been out there. I’m both scared and excited to potentially see the wondrous world of the outer-rim.”
Max’s memories of the place rushed back to him.
“Trust me,” he said. “You’re not missing much.”
“Okay, but we still haven’t figured out how we’re going to get out.”
“We’re going to figure that out right now,” said Max, walking back through the crowds of people waiting for the new year’s fireworks to go off.
“How are we going to do that minutes before the new years fireworks?”
“I know one person,” Max said, “who I think might be able to help us and I highly doubt she stopped her normal routine for new year’s celebrations.”
They hurried through the streets of the tower-zone as the new year’s fireworks exploded and flashed in the sky above and headed towards the city’s main library.
Casey was surprised when Max pushed the door open and it wasn’t locked.
It was as Max had expected.
The librarian girl was at her desk, pouring over a book as she usually was.
She didn’t take a day off even on December 31st.
“Oh, excuse me, we’re closed,” she said in a half-whisper. “Oh, it’s you.”
She clearly recognized Max and remembered him from when he was inquiring about books on the endless forest last time he was there.
“As I said before, we’re closed, so you really shouldn’t be here,” she said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “But since you made such interesting inquiries last time you were here, I am curious to know what you’d like.”
Max cut straight to the chase.
“What do you know about the different exits and entrances between the tower-zone and the outer-rim?”
Her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened, shocked by the question.
“Such information is not publicly available,” she said. “But there are old books on the planning and building of Zestiris in the restricted section. As a librarian, I had the privilege to look some of them over. If I were to tell you anything though, I could get my librarian status revoked and, worse, be arrested.”
They were asking a lot of her, Max realized. But without a way to follow Samuel’s henchmen, they’d be leaving the entire city—both zones—at risk.
“Listen,” said Max. “We believe something very dangerous is going on. So we’r
e going to check it out. Worst case scenario, I’ll personally take the blame for any trouble you get into. Best case scenario, you’ll be commended as a hero of this city.”
The girl’s cheeks blushed.
“Not too many librarian heroes are there?” said Casey.
“No,” said Max. “But there should be.”
The librarian sighed.
“Okay you’ve convinced me,” she said. “What do you want to know?”
68
A few days later, Max and Casey went to Hawker’s Alley to pick up supplies.
The market was less crowded, people still sleeping off their new year’s hangovers even a few days after all the celebrations.
There were even less stalls open, but the one Max was hoping to be open was.
“That’s the one,” he said to Casey as they walked towards it.
The stall was one that sold magical weaponry and artifacts. Max had normally avoided it as Sakura had told him he should rely more on training his body and mana as weapons and learning as much about other traits as possible. A weapon would only make things confusing for his training and create new obstacles for when he needed to be quick on his feet. But for this current operation with Casey, there was a specific tool he had in mind.
The owner of the stall was a skinny grizzled looking man with a scar over his left eye. The scar-covered eye was blind and glassy looking. Some people would opt to cover part of their face with an eye patch but that was clearly not this merchant’s style. Intimidating customers was clearly part of his business plan.
“Whaddya want?” he barked at Casey and Max as soon as they approached.
Max gulped.
He didn’t know how to describe exactly what he wanted, but he knew he’d seen it in action before. He wanted a tool like the one the assassin had used when he had come to kill him on the October monster wave. He wanted a tool that broke through magical wards.
“I want a knife or some kind of cutting device to break through magical wards,” Max explained.
The man’s one good eye fluttered with surprise.
“You know, young man, such tools are deemed illegal by the climber’s guild,” said the merchant.
“I do,” said Max. “And I don’t care. Do you?”
The man snickered. “You’re clearly a fool boy, but I’m not in the business of chaperoning idiotic children. If you want to buy a ward-breaking device, I’ll sell you one. It will cost you one hundred gold though.”
Max bristled at that price. He only had about twenty gold to his name. Maybe Casey could pitch in some money too, but they still wouldn’t be anywhere close enough to the merchant’s price tag.
“Could you do twenty gold?”
“Sorry, nope. See ya around if that’s all you got to play with,” said the man.
Crap!
Based on the information the librarian had given them, any secret means they’d have of exiting the tower-zone would most likely require a ward-breaking device. Without one, they wouldn’t be able to go ahead with their plan.
“Here’s a proposal,” said Max. “For ten gold coins, can I borrow the knife for two days and then return it to you?”
The merchant man scratched his chin.
“It’s not a bad offer,” he said. “Make it fifteen gold and we got a deal, but you’ll also need to provide me with some form of collateral.”
Max and Casey looked at each other nervously.
“What do you mean by collateral?” asked Casey.
“Well, what’s to stop you two from running off with my fancy knife and selling it yourselves and never coming back to me,” said the merchant. “I need something that tells me—you’ll definitely be coming back. With another customer I might make them give me something of equal or similar value, but as you two are just a bunch of kids, something more sentimental might work. Like how about that rat in your pocket there?”
“Toto!?” shrieked Casey.
The gerbil immediately hid from view.
“So that’s the rat’s name, huh?” said the merchant.
“Toto’s not a rat, he’s a gerbil,” said Casey, correcting the man.
“You say ‘tomahto,’ I say ‘tomayto,’” said the merchant, grinning. “I promise to take good care of him.”
Casey shuddered.
“The fate of the city and all of us might rely on this,” said Max. “You’ll see Toto again in a few days.”
Casey grumbled and handed Toto over to the merchant. “He likes salt and vinegar chip crumbs and he likes to be petted every hour or so. If you ignore him, he’ll get irritable and depressed.”
“Don’t worry, sweet cheeks,” said the merchant. “This rat and I are going to have a grand time, aren’t we chap?”
The gerbil climbed up onto the merchant’s shoulders and sat there slumped and depressed. He waved its tiny claws to Casey.
Max and the merchant then exchanged the money and he got the ward-breaking knife.
“I’ll see ya in a few days,” said the merchant. “I want that knife back more than I want this rat, ya hear?”
The two friends then left the market.
They walked along for a bit and then Max looked over his shoulder.
“Has anyone been following us?” asked Max.
“Doesn’t look like it,” said Casey.
Good. They could immediately get to work on their plan.
69
In one of the leafy suburbs of the tower-zone was a loose sewer grate.
Max pulled it up, revealing a ladder into the sewer down below.
“Pee-yew,” said Casey, holding her nose.
A horrible stench of the city’s sewage wafted up from the dark shadowy hole. There were the rusting handles of a built-in ladder used by hydroelectric or sanitation city workers to get down to the lower levels of the sewer. Of course, Max and Casey weren’t there to inspect the sewage levels or the inner workings of the city’s refuse system. They had other plans.
Max grabbed the handles and started his descent into the darkness of the sewer.
He entered a dimly lit passageway with a small concrete footpath alongside a river of sewage.
The shadow of a rat scurried in the distance.
“Spiders!” shouted Casey when she landed on the sewer platform after him. “Ugh, it’s icky down here!”
Max looked up and down the passageway. It was dark and smelly in these sewers and he couldn’t be certain about what else lurked below the tower-zone.
Drip!
Both Casey and Max jumped in fright from the sudden drop of water from the ceiling hitting the river of sewage.
“Alright,” said Casey. “Let’s hurry and get out of this sewer. I don’t want to stay down here any longer than I have to.”
“Amen to that,” said Max.
He oriented himself based on where they’d entered up top and figured that taking the left passage would head in the direction of the wall that separated the tower-zone and the outer-rim.
They headed deeper into the shadows of the sewer.
After about thirty minutes of walking down the winding path of the city’s subterranean passages, Max took a step and smacked head first into an invisible wall.
“Ow!” he shouted.
“It looks like we found the magic ward we were worried about,” sighed Casey.
Max took a step back and placed his hand forward.
A powerful energy reverberated against his palm, sending him backwards.
He looked up to the sewer’s ceiling.
So the wall that separated the two zones of the city must linger high above them here.
He materialized the knife he’d temporarily rented from the artifacts merchant in Hawker’s Alley.
He stabbed the knife into the invisible wall of energy.
CRACK!
There was the sound of glass shattering without there being any glass in sight.
“Did it work?” asked Casey.
Max placed his hand forward and felt no
pushback from the space ahead of him.
“Looks like it,” he said.
He took a step forward, leaving the tower-zone behind and illegally entering the outer-rim.
70
Max and Casey continued through the sewers after breaking through the mana ward separating the two zones of the city.
Ostensibly, nothing had changed after the ward. The sewer was a sewer just like it had been prior to the magic ward they had broken through, and yet, Max felt his heart beat a little faster.
“I can’t believe I’ve crossed over the wall,” said Casey, biting her nails as they walked through the underground passage.
Max expected Casey to become more nervous once they crossed the wall, but he was surprised at his own rising anxiety. He was someone who had now lived on both sides of the wall, in both areas of the city that made up Zestiris, but even as someone who had crossed the boundaries between the zones more than once, he still felt the gravity of doing so once more.
They continued further until they found another set of ladders leading up top.
The librarian girl had known a lot more specifics of the subterranean world of the tower-zone than that of the outer-rim, so it was up to them to guess when to emerge in the other zone of the city.
“It’s going to be a risk wherever we emerge,” said Max, “so we might as well try here.”
“Lead the way,” said Casey.
Max grabbed hold of the ladder and pulled himself up.
He eventually got to a sewer grate and had to twist a handle to loosen it so he could push it up.
Max quickly peeked up into the streets and sighed with relief when he saw the tunnel emerged in a random empty alleyway.
He quickly pulled himself into the alley and then helped Casey by grabbing her hand and pulling her up.
He put the sewer grate back where it was.
“We have to remember this alley,” said Max. “It’s our route back to the tower-zone.”
Casey nodded and looked around.
“This is the outer-rim, huh?” said Casey. “Looks pretty similar to the tower-zone.”
