Chapter 9

The gate leading out of the Ever Steady held more than just a gate. There was also a glimmering, sickly-white shimmering shield set between two uneven stretches of wall. It saw a steady stream of traffic in both directions. There was no doubt who the veterans and who the newcomers were around here, though. As a whole, the ones fresh to Ademia were visibly cleaner, less pungent to pass by, and, well, gawked a whole lot more.

In that respect, I didn’t look out of place at all. The moment I passed the gate I stopped in my paces and took in the surrounding world.

I whistled softly. From within the walls, the far-away surroundings had looked dull, normal, like something that could almost be placed back on Earth. Out here? Things changed.

The Ever Steady was situated on a large hill, with the portal slightly off-centre and the watchtower dead centre, watchers able to see in all directions. Tents and camps surrounded the place on the outside of the camp, down the hill and half a kilometre in each direction. Beyond that, however, any hint at civilization faded.

The muddy plain in itself looked like nature you might find on Earth. The farther away from the hill you came, the more things changed, however. In one direction, a large forest stretched straight into the air, like a bamboo grove, but gargantuan. In another, an enormous canyon carved into the earth, disappearing into blackness like a wound in the world. Kilometres away, I could see a shimmering brilliance that might be a large body of water, only the shimmer seemed to continue up into the sky as well.

Then there were the veins.

They started near that canyon, stretching out, fine, branching lines like… what’s that fancy word for, like, blood vessels? Oh yeah. Capillaries. Like a network of those, only these were silver and black and seemed to stretch in every direction. They were more predominant in some places than others, but nowhere as heavily as the canyon, where they seemed to spill from within the canyon itself. Honest to God, every sci-fi action flick I’d watched over the years had me expecting the damn things to start moving, tentacle-like.

Fortunately, we evaded tentacular ruination, and I started focusing on the rest. The wildlife. Currently, I could see a steady stream of shapes moving away from or back to camp on all sides – all human-shaped, thankfully. Farther out, however, things got interesting. There were shapes there. Some were little more than itty-bitty blurs in motion to me, promising some sort of fight. Others were large enough that I shuddered to guess at their actual size. Regardless, there was no doubt of the bottom line: This place was teeming with life. I grinned. I couldn’t wait to test myself against that life!

Finding my way was easy. Not because the encampments surrounding Ever Steady were well-arranged with logical pathing and the like. Sure, one nearby camp sported uniform tents arrayed in neat lines with the sort of millimetre precision that just shouted to the skies they were one of the military groups. Yet, in the absolute chaos of larger and smaller groups in varying degrees of quality and deterioration, that smidgeon of order faded into the backdrop

To my relief, somebody had been kind enough to erect a six-meter-tall, gleaming sign, stating ‘U-Nerds’ with large, blockish letters, and I made my way in that direction.

The camp wasn’t huge. Not compared to the military get-up where the tent rows had seemed to go on forever. Here, the messy layout and steady decline of the hill made it hard to get a proper count. I’d guess that there were at least a few hundred tents there. But it was interesting. I saw gleams of magic left and right. One tent was just floating in mid-air, with nothing visible keeping it there. Another burst with multi-coloured light, like some DJ was having fun inside.

Stepping past the sign, I realized that there was no clear leadership position here, no clear goal. So I stopped and turned as I spotted a guy sitting in front of a tent a few dozen meters away.

He was alone, sitting on a mat, surrounded by a number of wooden racks with dark brown stacks of… something on them. Initially, the racks looked half-obscured by moving clouds, and I grimaced as I realized what was going on. The racks held slabs of bloody meat. And the moving clouds? They were insects. Tiny, buzzing insects fully focused on the lovely meal arrayed in front of them.

I didn’t realize I’d stopped until I heard a snort from below.

The man stared up at me, clearly amused at my expression. He was black, sporting a short, untamed afro and wore shorts and a once white newbie shirt adorned with an almost hypnotic set of concentric circles set in fluorescent colours. “Fresh to the grinder, are you? Don’t worry. This ain’t Delhi street food. You aren’t looking at your near-future food poisoning.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s not super comforting. So, those flying raisins there are just condiments, and not laying eggs in the meat?” I spotted a fly, brilliantly green and sparkling, busily slurping at the centre of a dark red mass of meat that had to weigh at least forty pounds. It seemed to be having the time of its life.

He guffawed. “Very fresh to the grinder, it seems. Give me a second.” He closed his eyes and concentrated.

The slab of meat – a full torso of some animal, it seemed, with the legs and head removed – closest to the man moved with a disconcerting slurp and I inadvertently took a few steps away. Then, something seemed to dislodge itself from within the meat, and I gawked in equal parts disgust and intrigue, as the entire damn set of bones clattered out onto the wooden rack, leaving the slab of meat deflated at a third the size. “What. The. Fuck?”

He exhaled forcefully and climbed to his feet. “Whoee. That always takes it out of me. Barsam. Bone Collector. Nice to meet you.”

“Bone Collector?” I chortled. “I have so many questions! The name’s Liam.” Out of the blue, my stomach rumbled.

“First of which, it would appear, is when we eat?” He laughed. “I’m guessing, since you’ve made it here, you’ve talked to one of the recruiters?”

“Will.” I said. “Kind of a nerd, but he seemed alright. Told me to go talk to, erm, some major pain or other?”

He groaned. “I’m so sorry for you, man. Sucks to be you.”

“What?”

“No. I can’t help you anymore. I’ll guide you there, man. But then you’re on your own.” He shook his head sadly and murmured. “Major Pain? Damn.” The capitals were audible. Why would you capitalize that? Sounded corny.

He got up, and we walked through the encampment. As we walked, he explained how, whenever one of the Crafters working with food did their thing, they’d use actual magic to cleanse the food, removing any insects, impurities, basically anything that didn’t belong and result in a better food product, and easing my mind a ton.

Five minutes later, we came to an open space within the tent city. A few dozen meters of space had been cleared, leaving room for… a man.

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One man, right at the centre of the open circle. I saw heads perk up from nearby tents.

While we’d walked, I’d built up the image of my contact in my mind. Who called themselves Major Pain? It had to be some massive douchebag with an otherworldly drill sergeant complex. He’d probably yell at me from the get go and have biceps the size of my thighs.

He… was not what I expected.

Major Pain sat on a rickety folding chair, placed under a brightly coloured umbrella, even though the sun was weak. He was picking his teeth with a toothpick, leaning back precariously as he loudly hummed a tune that sounded suspiciously like Bon Jovi.

He was not a muscular powerhouse. In fact, the only strong thing about him was the white shirt holding in his prodigious belly. He wore cargo shorts – I wasn’t even starting in on how he’d gotten cargo shorts made here – and white socks in flip-flops. His face was wide and friendly, half-hidden behind a massive moustache.

The folding chair tipped forward as he noticed me. His eyes narrowed, as he leaned toward me, looking me from head to toe.

“Barsam.” He nodded at the man. “Bringing in a fresh set of bones, are y’all?”

“Fresh from the selection, looks like, Major.”