014

“Have you ever ventured into Ar’Kendrithyst to deliver information on Spur’s Incani population to the neighboring town of Frontier, or any other human settlement?”

Hera’s questions had gotten progressively more esoteric as the interview turned from ‘some questions’ into an hour-long interrogation, with more than a few of her inquiries asked in subtly different ways than she had before. When it looked like the interview would take more than two minutes, Erick suggested they move to the couch nearby. Hera agreed. Now it seemed like he was stuck to the couch, forever forced to answer the same damn questions over and over. Erick hoped that his torture would be over soon.

“No. I have never been in Ar’Kendrithyst or delivered information to any humans, anywhere.”

The stone in Hera’s hand glowed pink, meaning that Erick had lied somewhere along the way.

Hera eyed him.

“Uh. I have never been in Ar’Kendrithyst.”

Green stone.

“I have never delivered information to any humans in Frontier.”

Green stone.

“I have never delivered information to any humans anywhere.”

Pink stone—

“OH! Right. I probably delivered a lot of non-Veird information to many humans back on Earth through the years.” He went back to answering Hera’s question, “I have never delivered any information on any incani anywhere to any humans on Veird, except for to my daughter Jane. You know… Because they’re out to kill us.”

Green stone, throughout.

Hera wrote down notes onto a pad of paper she used for the interview. She wrote for a full minute. She straightened her back. “Final question—”

Oh thank god.

“Do you know last night’s Sewerhouse intruders, what they wanted, or anything about them, at all?”

“They attacked fast, but Savral and Bacci responded fast, too. They saved our lives. That’s all I know about what happened last night, except that the attackers used some green fireballs that caused Decay, which I already described to you. And I almost died.” He added, “The intruders might have come for the rads? I honestly don’t know.”

Green stone.

Hera put away her interview equipment, saying, “Thank you for your time, Mister Flatt. If only all my victims were this easy to talk to.”

“Victims?” Erick chuckled. He felt annoyed and angry after an hour of questions, but he wouldn’t call himself a victim. It wasn’t that bad. “You make yourself sound sinister.” But maybe she meant what she said?

“Ah. That’s not what… You’re right.” Hera moved to the back of the room, heading toward the other three interviews she had to give. “I hope Spur treats you better than it has.”

Erick laid down on the couch while Hera walked downstairs. The interview was over!

… Now he had to wait for all the others to finish.

Damn.

He almost fell asleep on the couch, right there and then, but someone cleared their throat across the room. Oh. Right. Bluescale was still there. Wasn’t he in a trance, staring at the ceiling? When did that stop?

Felair said, “[Witness] revealed you’re all innocent of any wrongdoing, and that’s what I’m telling Merit. The Mage Guild is going to bitch, claim you should have defended the Sewerhouse, but they’re idiots. They weren’t here.” He moved toward the back of the room, muttering, “And that fool child needs to [Scry] already but she can’t help gnawing on a secret.”

Erick barely watched as Felair descended the stairs. His eyes were already closed.

Naps are wonderful.

 

– – – –

 

Jane poked him awake, saying, “They’re gone and we’re done, Dad. Let’s go get lunch. Al’s buying.”

“I most certainly am!” Al said. “You all did great last night and deserve a reward.”

Erick stomach rumbled. Lunch was a great idea.

Al treated them to a restaurant meal in the Orcol District. The prices were huge. The meal was massive. The people all around him were so beautiful, and so tall, that Erick had to keep his eyes down at the food the whole time. They ate a lot, and it was quite good, but if asked to describe his meal, Erick would have flubbed something about ‘good meat’ and ‘nice atmosphere’.

Al introduced Jane and Erick to several remarkably pretty people. Jane might later recognize whoever they talked to, but Erick could only hope that he hadn’t embarrassed himself by openly staring.

Every single orcol was a physical masterpiece. Beautiful shades of cream-green, to ebony-green, to forest green, with luxurious hair, piercing eyes of every color from red to blue to black, tiny and cute fangs or big and menacing fangs, sharp jaws and firm asses, and muscles and breasts and—

When lunch was over, Erick was thankful that he hadn’t made an ass of himself. Or, if he had, that no one had mentioned his wandering gaze.

It wasn’t till they were one street away from the Sewerhouse that Erick noticed something slightly different in his Status.

 

 

He checked his notices and— Yup! There it was.

 

 

“I got plus 1 Strength from that meal.”

Al laughed loud, patting him on the back, almost sending him sprawling to the ground.

Savral laughed too, saying, “Only took a hundred gold of monster meat.”

Erick paled.

Al just laughed again, saying, “You all survived! Be happy!”

 

– – – –

 

“Hey, Jane? Have you seen our cellphones?”

 

They were back at the sewerhouse, preparing to move on to do their own things for the rest of the day, which mostly meant giving Jane most of the gold Al gave him so she wouldn’t have to immediately go out and risk her life killing monsters. Erick liked it that way.

But he did not like that look she was giving him right now.

Jane stared at him. “You didn’t.”

A chill crept up Erick’s spine. Jane’s eyes were filled with an icy fury.

“I took it… out…” He took his phone out of his pants the night before last, and never put it back on his person. The batteries were dead. It was dead weight. Why would he want to carry it around? Besides, the Sewerhouse was a pretty safe location. “Uh.”

Jane deflated, crashing her ass onto the couch. “You lost it, didn’t you.”

“Neither of us have our wallets either so—”

“Wallets are just paper and IDs that don’t matter! Our phones are actual technology!”

“They’re dead weight! I didn’t even consider that it might be lost until now!”

Erick waited for her to say something. She turned to stare at the wall.

“It’s okay, Dad.” Jane sighed, her fury ebbing away. “I still have mine. It might be dead weight but it’s never left my pocket. I couldn’t find much from home in the wreckage of last night. I had hoped you would keep yours on your person too. There are photos on there. Music. Books and more. But I guess that doesn’t matter.”

Thinking about it like that… That wasn’t a viewpoint Erick considered. He never really took pictures with his phone… Or did anything with it that Jane apparently did.

“I’m sorry, Jane.”

“I hoped to use them to talk to each other, too, someday. Find a spell to utilize whatever was already there… So while I’m off wherever and you’re somewhere else we can still talk to each other. Maybe you’d stay here? Maybe we move to another city? I don’t want to go to Frontier or to any human city, though. Military service is mandatory for humans. So Spur is good. But our phones! I… I had hoped…”

I’m sorry, Jane.

“Oh!” Jane looked up. She smiled wide. She said, “Irogh duplicated my D&D book! He might be able to do that for my cellphone.” Relief washed over her. “He probably won’t, but that’s okay. If the magic exists at all I might be able to duplicate my cellphone on my own some day.” She looked away. “Though ‘duplicate’ doesn’t appear when I search the Script.”

And just like that, Jane was full of joy. Her enthusiasm washed over Erick and he smiled.

Jane muttered, “Too bad I can’t seem to find anything I want in the Script.”

Erick had searched the Script for abilities he might want to use, too, but nothing ever jumped out at him, screaming ‘PICK ME PICK ME’. All of it looked rather bland, truthfully.

There were the basic damage spells in all varieties; beam, cone, missile, expanding wave, etcetera, and of course your telekinesis and your other fantasy mumbo jumbo, like [Conjure Weapon] and [Conjure Armor]. Erick only really knew about all that fantasy junk because Jane loved her D&D, and he wanted to be a part of her life. He wasn’t an expert on the genre at all, but he knew enough to know that some staples were clearly missing from the Script’s searchable database of skills.

Where was [Fly]? Where was [Turn into Toad], or whatever they called it around here? Where was [Create Food] and [Create Water]? Where was [Create Illusion]?

You know… Flying would be pretty cool.

Erick asked, “Have you come across [Fly] somewhere in the script?”

“No.” Jane sighed, loud. “I’m guessing [Fly] is one of the ‘Old Wizard’ spells, and has been reduced to its component parts strewn throughout the Script. Maybe it’s sort of self-[Ward], combined with some other skills. Anti-gravity? I don’t know, Dad.”

“Oh. Right. Combining magic.”

Erick was almost disgusted by magic all over again. It was too formulaic! It was too numerical! But that was how this reality functioned. So Erick played around with the Script for a moment, thinking how to make a good [Fly] spell. Soon, he was poking at a blue box in front of him that read [Telekinesis].

 

 

No.

“How about [Telekinesis] and a personal [Ward]? Not level 1, obviously.”

Jane read the air in front of her. She said, “Might be.” She cocked her head. “1 minute per spell level seems useful, too. Maybe I’ll take [Telekinesis]… after I ask Al.”

“Ask Al about what?” Al poked his head into the room. “I couldn’t help but overhear spell talk.”

Jane said, “[Telekinesis] and a personal [Ward]. Would that make [Fly]?”

Al stepped into the room, moving to the empty couch, saying, “You’d want a personal anti-gravity [Ward] tuned to negate whatever of your own weight you’re comfortable with, as well as a level 10 [Telekinesis]. This is so that you can move quickly and hover without concentrating on holding yourself in a hover. A good version of the spell would cost somewhere between 100 and 150 mana and last 20 or so minutes.”

Erick stepped out of the room, saying, “That’s all great to know. See you later.”