Core
Dawn had already come and gone before Sam turned over in her bed, pushed the covers off herself, and sat up with huge stretch. She opened her eyes, and there he was sitting patiently cross-legged at the foot of the bed, looking right at her.
“Good morning,” said Sol casually. “How did you sleep?”
“Good,” Sam replied groggily. It took her a few moments to remember the events of yesterday. “Have you gone downstairs yet?”
“No, I was waiting for you.”
“Well, let’s go you something to eat.” Sam shoved the blanket off her and walked over to the dresser to pull out a couple pairs of clothes. She looked over at Sol to see his tangled blond hair and went to fetch a hairbrush from the bathroom.
“Here, put these on and brush your hair,” she said while she handed him the items.
Sam went into the bathroom, fixed her hair, got dressed, and returned to the room. Sol was dressed in the T-shirt and pants Sam had given him, and his hair was… still messy, but not quite so tangled anymore.
Sam led him downstairs where they were greeted with noises of clinking dishes. They sat at the bar and waited for Mo to emerge. When he came out, he was carrying a dish for himself and Sam with a few miniature sausages and a pile of hash browns.
“Oh!” Mo’s eyebrows raised, creating waves in his forehead. “Who’s this then? A new friend?” He reached out towards Sol to shake his hand. Sol stared at it curiously. After a moment Mo gave up and then slid his plate over for Sol to have.
“Actually, I was hoping you could help us out with that.” Sam took a couple minutes to explain how she had found Sol in the patch of woods, about Sol’s memory loss, and about Tim’s remains.
“Poor Tim. I’d always figured he’d had an accident out there. So, you’re telling me those Core guys never even bothered to find him?” Sam shook her head. “Yeah, that figures, can’t say I’m even surprised with how they treat you folks.”
“So, you really don’t remember anything huh?” Mo angled his shoulders to face Sol.
“No, nothing at all”
Mo looked Sol up and down for a moment and then said, “Well, I’m not sure who you are, but I’m sure you’re not from around here. Your hands are pristine, and I don’t know a soul in this community with blond hair like yours.” He turned back to Sam. “Did you find him with anything on him? What did he have on? I’m thinking he must be from the city…”
“That’s another thing, he didn’t have anything on at all.”
Mo let out a hearty laugh while Sol shuffled his feet anxiously. “Well, I guess he really did hit his head or something, didn’t he?”
Mo went into the kitchen before returning with a plate for himself. They chatted for a bit longer before Sam let out a sigh.
“Well, I’ve got to go up to Mosel and go to the core building to report Tim’s death.” She fished around in her bag and pulled out a rather limp-looking coin purse and began counting out money. “I really think Sol should take some time to get situated…”
“Oh nonsense,” Mo rejected the coins Sam was trying to push over the counter to him. “I’m not taking any more of your money than I have to. Besides, the rooms are empty, it’s not like he’s taking up any precious space.”
“Are you sure? Thank you, Mo.” Sam put the coins back into the bag. “Sol, is that okay with you? I can help you out more when I get back. I should be back tonight or maybe late if I get hung up.”
“Of course,” Sol said, “I don’t want to be a bother.”
~
Sol sat in his new room, which felt very large to him. He toyed with a large brass key, and stared out at the countryside and the bright sun that was beating down on it.
He saw Sam down below throwing her bag into the front basket of a slightly rusted bike before she took off down the road. Sol let out a small sigh. He didn’t really want to be alone, but he also didn’t want to go downstairs. He couldn’t quite explain it, Mo was an incredibly gracious host, but something about his gruffness put Sol on edge.
Sol got up and looked around the bathroom. He turned the knobs and watched the water flow down the drain. He turned on the shower. He flushed the toilet. He inspected the towel and its soft fur-like texture.
Then he went into the main room. He opened all the cabinets, looked up the fireplace, and played with the fire pokers. He felt the bed cushions, looked inside the dresser, and then just began wandering around the room looking for anything he might have missed.
With a sigh, he sat back down and stared out at the countryside once again. The sun had barely moved an inch.
~
After around an hour and a half of pedaling, Sam rode over a small bump, and was riding over the red brick roads of Mosel. The houses were skinnier and taller, and the quietness of the countryside was replaced with the barking dogs and barking people of the city. Sam made her way towards the business district, which mostly consisted of several story brick buildings.
The building Sam pulled up to was much different. There were huge glass windows covering the face of most of the building, all with a dark tint. Hung several stories up in huge white block letters was the name of the company. Core.
Sam parked her bike in the rack and grabbed her bag from the basket. Luckily, it wasn’t too hot out today, so even though the journey had been exhausting, she wasn’t too drenched with sweat. She quickly brushed her fingers through her hair to untangle the mess her helmet had caused and used one of the building’s windows as a mirror before opening the large glass doors and walking inside.
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The inside of the building was large and empty. White tiles covered the floor. Every surface seemed to be reflective, whether it be stone, glass, or metal.
Sam walked up to the receptionist’s desk and took out her ID card that donned a not so flattering black and white picture of her on the front. “Hi. Samantha Evans.” She handed the card to the man behind the counter. “I need to talk to a supervisor for an early reporting.”
“Okay! It looks like the next appointment is in around 30 minutes. Does that sound alright?” Sam nodded and went to sit at an upholstered chair in the back of the lobby.
~
Sam looked at the clock on the wall for what seemed like the one hundredth time. She had her ritualist’s book on her lap, and had been studying up on first aid spells from the “In the Field” section of the book’s appendix. It had been over an hour since her expected appointment time. She glanced up at the man behind the desk, who caught her look, and smiled back apologetically.
Something on his desk caught his eye and he waved Sam over and told her that she could go upstairs to meet a supervisor now. Sam walked up the stairs und followed his instructions to find the correct room.
Sam knocked on a glass door, which made a noise she didn’t like very much, and walked inside after hearing a muffled “Come in!”
“Hello Samantha!” called out a woman who wore a black suit and a broad smile, who was sitting behind a large wooden desk. It was mostly empty except for a clipboard with an empty form attached. “How can I help you today?”
“Hi, I’m assigned to the Shoehorn region. I’m sure you’re aware that Timothy Swain disappeared there while he was on duty? Well, I believe I found his remains. They must have missed it somehow during the initial search.” Sam pulled Tim’s notebook and ritualist’s book out of her bag and handed it over the counter. “Here are a couple of his things.”
The woman looked over his things and replied “I’m so sorry! I’m sure that must have been horrible. I’ll have this escalated immediately so that they can do a proper search and investigation,” she said while furiously writing notes onto the empty form in front of her. “Do you need to use any of our therapy services?”
“That’s Okay, thank you.” Sam said as she watched the woman forcefully tap and ending period to her paragraph and file the document into a drawer within the desk.
“There was another thing too, I’ve noticed some strange growing patterns in the area, especially outside of the bounds of my ritual area. Do you know anything about that? As far as I know no one is assigned there.”
“That is quite strange!” She said while scribbling notes onto a new form. “When they send someone out to investigate poor Timothy’s death, I’ll make sure they send out an expert to investigate that as well.”
After that, the conversation shifted to the logistics of Sam carrying out her next assignment in Shoehorn. Sam had a quick materials audit, before getting a pay order that detailed how much she should be compensated for the previous period, as well as what materials she should be given for the next period, all to be filled out by the materials department. She took the sheet of paper after the supervisor signed it and made her way downstairs.
The material resources department was on the bottom floor of the building. When Sam pushed open the metal door, she was greeted by a tired man behind the counter who was wearing the trademark Core polo but with the top button left unclasped lazily. He looked like he may have been sleeping a few moments ago.
“Hi, I have a purchase order from my supervisor.” Sam handed him the slip of paper. He looked at it for just a moment before going and getting her supplies. He returned with a tray of carefully measured bags and bundles of growth ritual supplies, as well as a sleeve of coins that was her pay compensation. Sam thanked him, took the items, and put them into the correct places in her reagent bag.
Sam headed outside and thought about where to go next. Since she didn’t have a ritual to perform tonight, she didn’t really need to get back immediately. Of course, Sol was there alone, but Mo should be able to help him if he had any issues.
She decided a coffee sounded nice. It was something she missed about being in the city. Cafés were a rare sight out in the rural towns that ritualists were normally assigned, and Shoehorn was no exception. She saw a place just down the street from the Core building called ‘Don’t be Latte’, which was an egregious pun, but it looked warm and welcoming inside. She opened the door, which caused a bell to jingle delightfully as she took in the smells of coffee and sweets.
She walked up to the counter and peered through the glass display which had a wide variety of baked treats. The man behind the counter asked what she would like, and she ordered her regular, an americano with added chocolate and caramel. She walked over to the cash register and waited for her order.
“Quite the sweet tooth, aren’t you?”
Sam looked up a to see a woman in her younger 20’s who was entering her order into the cash register. She was smiling at her.
“Uh yeah, I guess so,” Sam said as she looked up at her. Seeing this woman’s perfectly kept hair, which was dyed pale white, and her painted nails, Sam suddenly became very aware of the hour-long bike ride she had taken earlier to get here. She touched her hair, conscious of the tangled still present from wearing her helmet. Sam would have ordinarily found this woman’s dyed hair much too striking, but in this case, she found that it perfectly complimented the features of her face. She was wearing a nametag on her uniform. Alice.
“No, no. I like it!” Alice said. “The people around here just order black coffee all the time. At a coffee shop! If you’re going to splurge, I don’t see why you wouldn’t get something tasty.”
“Yeah, I think so too,” Sam said while she fumbled around with some coins and handed them across the counter. At this point the man came back with Sam’s order. Sam took her cup, thanked him, and then turned to leave, taking a glance back at the cash register as she left.
“Have a nice day!” Alice called out from the counter. Sam thought about going back and introducing herself, but then thought about her assignment in Shoehorn, along with her hopelessly neglected hair and the dirt under her fingernails, before calling out “You too!” and pushing the door open, which left the bell dinging once again as she left.
Sam wanted to pick up some books to read in her downtime when she got back, so she decided to go to a bookstore. The first one she found was a great big building which contained towering shelves of books covering every subject imaginable. She wandered around a bit while cheerfully sipping her coffee, before picking up a cookbook that looked like it had a few tasty recipes inside and a novel that promised to take her to a wonderful fantasy world of elves and fairies.
She also looked through the practical magics section, which was always amusing. Some of the spell books promised good fortune, a great love life, and various other hilarious fantasy magics. Even more were full of promises of free energy output from things like common gravel, or another claimed that you could cast magic spells from thin air, but that it hinged on very specific keyword pronunciation and magic wands with feathers in them. Nonsense. Among the mess though, there was a book that went into the practical applications of growth rituals with a targeted focus on increased yields from fruiting plants, which Sam thought was quite interesting, and decided to pick up as well.
She carried her selections up to the counter at the front of the building and asked the clerk how much it would be for the lot.
“10 silvers?” Sam tried to suppress her alarm but didn't do a very good job of it.
“Yes, that's right. 6 silvers for the spell book, 2 for the cookbook, and 2 for the novel.”
“Yikes, just the novel then, I guess.” Sam figured she would have to wait until she could find the spell book in a library, or maybe if Core could cover the cost in materials… A thought she realized was incredibly optimistic the moment it crossed her mind. Sam looked back at the book and thought briefly about making a bad decision, but decided against it, paid the 2 silvers for the novel, and walked to the exit.