The standing stones, as Marcus had called them, were a ring of tall slate blocks arranged in a circle with more blocks connecting them. E4 immediately was reminded of Stonehenge, save that the stone had silver and copper etchings in patters she could not quite understand. In the center the Myst seemed to condense into a dull gray cloud that swirled gently. She watched as Marissa and Marcus gathered around it, before Marissa spoke up. “E4, stand over there.”
“Here?” E4 asked, standing at the indicated location. She noticed that each of them stood one third around the center. “Mistress, should we have E1 join us?”
“No, this requires Aether to work. At best she’s burn herself, at worse she’d dissipate.” Marissa replied. “Hold out your hand and, well, try to feel The Myst. Reach for it, and… well do your best."
E4 took a deep breath, then reached out. She felt, something. It reminded her of holding a magnet next to another magnet, her hand just felt dragged to a specific direction. She could move it, the pull wasn’t overly strong, but it was undeniably there. There was a whistling of wind, and a CRACK! E4’s entire hand was struck by pins and needles, and she quickly pulled it back.
CLINK. Something fell to the ground. E4 knelt to pick it up, and found a small compass, twenty golden coins, and a box of 6 eggs. Opening the wooden box she found each egg a bit larger than a chicken egg.
“A Myst compass, I guess The Myst is giving you a fighting chance.” Marissa said, pocketing a bottle of something and a box of vacuum tubes as well the coins, before seeing the box. “Is that a box of eggs?”
“Looks like,” E4 almost dropped the box as she turned it over. “Strange, can The Myst make living things?” E4 tried not to look at the symbol on the box, a pair of crossed scalpels with a fire just above the center. She felt her limbs begin to shake, it had to be coincidence. She could swear her heart would be audible to her companions, they would know. The sickly-sweet smell of alcohol fuel wafted up from the box of eggs. Her eyes instinctively looked to the left and the right, ears listening for the stomping of heavy metal boots and the telltale whoosh of flames.
“Never seen that brand.” Marcus added, holding a bandoleer of knives and a plume of crow feathers. “At every town we go to we hit the local standing stones. Usually they give a few useful items, some consumables, and a hint as to what’s going on nearby. A boon, some bullets, and a bundle of trouble.” He reached for the carton of eggs and E4 handed it over. As he took one out the Myst surrounding them seemed to flow into the egg and condense. “You recognize these?” E4 shook her head. “Neither do I. We’ll have to test if they’re edible later.” He turned and faced the center of the circle. A large bronze dish sat in the center. Slowly the Myst formed upon it, and as it left a pair of objects were left behind. “Sweet!” He immediately held up the slightly curved blade. “A katana, I’ve read about these. They say they’re folded seven times to wipe out impurities.”
E4 watched as Marcus went from serious to gushing about the blade. Finally Marissa brought an end to it with, “Marcus, Brother, I think we should be more careful. The Myst has eyes after all. It may be time to check the town hall, see where everyone went.” As they packed up Marissa put a hand on E4’s shoulder. “Something to note, you don’t have to take the boon in the center, it is perfectly ok to leave it behind. Some call it a boon, but it is officially known as a bargain and jokingly as a bundle of trouble. Taking it is the same as accepting.” She made a gesture, and to E4’s surprise the other object jumped to her hand. It was a staff, crude in construction, with three human skulls stacked towards the top and held on by crude iron nails. “Goblins.”
“Are those real?”
“Is it a Myth or is it The Myst, and in this case they are very real. They’re nasty creatures that come out of the Myst. We believe The Myst, pronoun, uses them as foot soldiers.” She paused. “If there are Goblins around it explains why everyone is hiding. They don’t like trains though, or the tracks, so that should be safe so long as we don’t try to hide inside.
“Do they use pack tactics, short bows, horse choppers, and dogslicers?” E4 asked. That drew a look from Marissa.
“E4, I don’t remember giving you permission to use the library, have you been studying on your own?” Marissa asked.
“Rest assured Mistress, aside from your husband and yourself, I am the only one who has been among the stacks. None of the other maids have touched the library save for the romance section that you so graciously have allowed us to use.” E1 replied. E4 felt her adjust her glasses, the malice palpable.
The town hall was abandoned and completely silent. E4 noticed the structure was painted white on the outside, but inside was unpainted brown wood. Portraits had been hung up, but all were faded and of rough construction as if they were both old and had been made in a hurry. Marcus made a gesture and pointed to the door, which E4 instinctively knew they were to stack up on it. She gripped her crossbow, as did E1, while Marissa gripped her firearm. Marcus peered his head in and made a shhh motion. He drew his blade and thrust. “Get ready.” He jumped back and to the side, drawing his blunderbuss as he did.
The creature that lunged after him was short and covered in tattered rags. E4 couldn’t tell anything about it save for the tiny arthritic hands that jutted from beneath the rags, each finger bearing a long and cruel claw. Its head was obscured by a hood and veil, but E4 could tell it was about twice the size it should be for its body.
BOOM! The blunderbuss spoke, and E1 and E4 added their crossbow bolts to the mix. Yet it was Marissa’s weapon that truly surprised E4. It took just a moment to charge, yet from its barrel sprung a bolt of lightning. Immediately a large chunk of the creature’s chest was simply gone, and it fell to the ground.
“What is that?” E4 asked.
“A goblin.” Marcus replied. He watched as the body began to turn to Myst. “Remember, a creature of The Myst will always return to its master, and it will remember who slew it. Strike hard, strike fast, and move on, lest your foes learn how best to kill you.”
“Does that mean we can never return?” E4 asked.
“They forget in time, maybe a few days or whoever comes by next. General rule of thumb is two days for every day you spend.”
The rest of the structure had only one goblin. This creature carried a sickle and appeared to be searching one of the bedrooms. E4 noticed the floors and walls all were littered with slash marks, and still decaying piles of cloth.
“Other goblins, apparently this one got separated.” Marissa whispered. “Lucky for us, unlucky for it.” She raised her firearm, took aim, and pulled the trigger.
With literal lightning speed her shot struck the creature dead. Yet the moment it did E4 heard something fall. She pushed her mistress out of the way just before something heavy struck the door with enough force to slam it shut on her firearm.
Hooting and hollering sounded from around them as goblins seemed to fall from the ceiling.
“Ambush!” Marcus exclaimed, aiming his blunderbuss at one of the goblins and reducing it to a fine red paste. He quickly holstered the weapon and drew his sword cane, lashing out at one of the goblins and relieving it of its hand. In an impossible moment his blade seemed to lash out twice on its own, stabbing the two neighboring goblins in the gut.
E4 fired a single shot from her crossbow, just barely missing a goblin, before her knives were out. She stood before her mistress, who had drawn a smaller revolver and was taking pot shots at the tiny creatures. E1 was carefully firing as quickly as she could, yet E4 sensed a lack of fear or worry in her shots. She did not have long to ponder, as the goblins were upon her in less than a moment. E4 danced a deadly dance, her feet moving in time to the clashing of rusty crude knives against her borrowed polished daggers. With practiced ease she stabbed a goblin in the eye, yet her blow was a bit too shallow to penetrate the brain behind. She sidestepped a blow and tried to amputate it at the wrist, but instead simply mangled the hand. The result was the same, two goblins removed from the fight, and in the next moment both were breathing from slit throats.
The entire fight took no more than 18 seconds, and at its conclusion there were 8 dead goblins. Marcus had taken a few blows to his legs, but his thick pants had prevented anything from drawing blood. E4, on the other hand, had a few bruises but no cuts.
“Looks like you need some shin guards.” Marcus spoke up. He eyed the goblins as they faded into mist, leaving behind a few clothing, their blades, and some assorted bones. R4 noticed of the six goblins they now had 3 skulls, 2 right femurs, a left hand, and 3 sets of rib cages. Strangely all six dropped their right ear. As if pulled by a vacuum the clouds of mist were all drawn through a partially open window “And that’s a sign that we should get out of here.” He took the katana from his back, drew it, and admired the blade. “Such a pretty thing, but,” He replaced the sheath, “I can find another. What do you think E4? Go for it and kill the boss for the blade, or leave the blade behind and keep going?”
E4 looked at the blade, then at the remains of the goblins. Their blades and weapons were left behind, and a few of their clothes, but the rest had vanished.
“As this is my first attempt at this, I don’t think I’m qualified to guess.” E4 replied. “What will happen to the people of the town if we leave though? Won’t the goblins kill them? We can’t allow that.”
“Well, the answer is probably not.” Marcus made a gesture and pulled the clothes and blades into his hand and dropped them into a bag. Marissa did the same, but only with the ears. The fact both bags were maybe the size of a small purse yet held the entire assortment without issue was something E4 noticed but decided could wait. “The long answer we don’t have time to get into, the goblins will be back before we answer. Will you be mad if I say it doesn’t matter?”
“In that tone, yes. Triage is important, but to not even try,”
“What if I told you that trying to save them would kill us all, and then they would die anyhow?” Marissa asked. “And what if I told you it would not be a pretty death, that if we are lucky we will be killed, mutilated, and eaten. That if we are extremely lucky it will be in that order.”
E4 took a deep breath. “There is no emergency in a pandemic.” E4 replied, reciting an old mantra. She had never heard it before, yet it fell from her lips without pause for she had spoken it a thousand times. “There is no emergency in a pandemic. If we rush to help the dying without protection we will only add to their number. We can’t help anyone if we’re dead.” She eyed the blade. “But you’d do it for a sword?”
“Well no, I’m leaving it behind. If I take it with me the goblins will follow us and attack the train in transit. That’s the deal, the consumables are yours to keep, but the good stuff comes with an obligation.” He shrugged. “None of the blacksmiths know how to make these, and I used to read about them in comics back on Earth.”
“Wait, Earth?” E4 asked.
“Ah, I’ve said too much. Come on, we’d better get out of here. I don’t know if that’s a goblin shaman or a goblin necromancer out there, but if they’re directly manipulating the myst they’re probably tier 2 and we’re not prepared to deal with them with just this.”
“Yeah, two tier 1 and two tier 0’s would get smacked. Shame, if it were just a ton of tier 1 we could probably,”
Whatever Marissa was going to say it died on her lips. First there was a gust of wind that rattled the entire structure, then the fire hit. E4 blacked out from the blast, but when she came to the house was a ruin. E1 was lying on the ground bleeding from her forehead and her right arm looked bent at a wrong angle. Marissa was already on her feet staring in shock. Marcus fared the best. He had the katana in his hands, from his stance he had just swung it. E4 took a moment to take in her surroundings and found that the roof was to her right and left, yet the space they stood had not a trace of the tiled roof, as if someone had cut it and sent it to the right and the left.
“Maybe that blade is worth…” What she saw sent her heart beating and the folly from her mouth. There was no more fog obscuring their sight, but there wasn’t much of a town left either. Rather, the ruined husks of the houses burned a brilliant red and dreadful purple. E4 saw small figures simply disintegrate as the waves of heat burned flesh, bone, and even metal with equal ease. In the center of the town a violet mushroom cloud grew gleefully towards the sky. Yet it was the figure in the center that caught her attention.
“No, no you can’t,” Two dead glass eyes stared back at her. Its silver mask and white suit accented in gold were meant to represent the hope and purity it brought. Yet for E4 it brought only dread. “Even here?”
“E4, we’ve got to go!” Marissa took her by the shoulder, and immediately lost her grip as E4 took off in blind panic. “E4, you’re going the wrong way!”
For E4, AWAY was the correct way. Yet a low hum sounded in her ears and she corrected to follow it. The mist that had been blows away quickly rolled back in, obscuring her sight. It came back thicker, and darker. E4 felt her hair standing on end, a strange static charging through her.
“That’s not good, The Myst is bringing in a storm. E4! Come to us!” Marcus yelled. E4 couldn’t see him, but she could hear him. “C1, C2, C3 FULL STEAM AHEAD!”
“Marcus, we can’t just leave her!” E4 heard just ahead. She saw the lights of the train, and a bolt of despair shot through her as it began to move. With a desperate energy she poured everything she had into her limbs. She remembered a time before, stretching her limbs so she could run faster, clawed limbs that could jump long distances, hidden joints that could exert inhuman strength. With a jolt she felt her hand touch the caboose and she climbed on with desperate strength.
“E4!” Marissa yelled. Yet the rest of her words were lost to the whistle of the train and the rush of the air. She paused, caught her breath, and finally stood.
Everything hurt. E4 remembered a time when such a sprint would have been child’s play, yet now she was tired.
“Mara, Lady Mara, your Fang misses you.”
The low trilling sound that touched not her ears, but resonated within her chest, brought a smile to her face. She couldn’t understand it, but the emotion behind it was clear even as it sent a chill down her spine. Peering through the lock E4 saw no one was on the other side. She moved to pick the lock, yet decided to try the door first and found it open.
Slipping inside was easy. Past the caboose was the medical car, which E4 noticed was bathed in sterile white lights and had a sterile white floor. Next was a comfortable library car with several comfortable seats and plenty of books. As luck would have it she did not run into anyone until she made it to the kitchen. E3 was busy mixing some manner of salad while E2 was in the middle of setting the table E4 quickly ducked behind a counter. She watched their movements, waiting for a moment they would be too busy to notice her. Yet in the limited space she seemed to have no chance.
“Maybe,” E4 made a gesture as she had seen her mistress do. She focused on a fork E2 had just placed. She saw the fork vibrate slightly. With a second gesture she pulled it, intending to pull it to the floor. Instead, it jumped from the table and jumped right into her hand.
E2 noticed and turned. “E4, I believe the Mistress is looking for you. She is currently in the engine room.”
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“Thank you E2, I just need to freshen up first.” E4 replied. She slipped past, and quickly made her way to the bathroom. Locking the door she approached the sink. She peered into the mirror looking at her new face. She looked plain, straw colored hair cut short and covering clear green eyes. They did not have the emerald green she would have thought after seeing the azure blue or ruby red eyes of her mistress or master, but they were not the shadowed eyes of the other maids. “Almost seems a waste.” She eyed the face for a little longer. “You were pretty. Sorry E4, whoever you were, but I’m going to have to mess up your face a bit. You had very pretty eyes, if that means anything to you.” She took a deep breath. “Mara, I’m ready.”
A small creature crawled out of the sink. To look at it was to see a tiny isopod, easily mistaken for a wood louse save for the purple eye like pattern on its back. A close inspection would reveal the hidden claws, a little like a pseudoscorpion’s “Alright little guy, hit me,” E4 said as she reached down for the ravager isopod and immediately felt a numbing sensation as it dug its fangs and claws into her finger and sipped her blood. A sense of euphoria quickly spread up her arm, the ravager toxin doing its work. Every muscle hummed then relaxed, like a hot shower after a long run “This was so much easier when I was knocked out.” She put the isopod on her face and turned away from the mirror, not wanting to see what was about to happen. Thankfully, with the toxin running through her veins she didn’t feel what the isopod was doing, just noticed when the vision in her right eye went dark. She waited a few moments before closing that eye. Finding some bandages beneath the sink she quickly made herself an eye-patch and wrapped up her head. Taking a second look at herself she sighed. There was no blood on the bandages, at least, none that showed. A burst of color and lights flashed along her right optic nerve. “Dang, forgot about that.” She took a deep breath. “Here we go.”
Stepping out of the bathroom E4 made her way towards the front of the train. Opening the door of the front car she took a moment to steady her nerves and look beyond the train. Each of the cars had windows, but the curtains were drawn. An instinct told E4 to never open them unless they were in a town, but she did not know why. Out here there were no curtains, yet there was also nothing to see. The Myst was thick, and occasionally she could see the shadow of a tree but little else. She reached for the door, but hesitated. Her instincts told her to go to her mistress, fess up, and take whatever punishment was given. A part of her feared what that would be, her memories were foggy and she did not remember the last time her mistress had punished her.
A low hum that resonated against the still growing isopod reassured her. She gripped the door and quietly slipped inside. Marissa was sitting down in a chair not really doing anything aside from looking upset. C1 and Marcus were examining a complex looking chart on the wall that E4 didn’t even try to make sense of. C2 was cranking on some mechanism while C3 was keeping a close eye on some kind of gauge and occasionally twisting knobs on several different pipes. She did not, however, see E1.
“Hey, you alright?” E4 asked, kneeling down next to her mistress. Marissa looked up, then nearly jumped out of her skin. E4 found herself caught in the woman’s embrace. “Easy, easy.”
“You made it.” Marcus replied, breathing a sigh of relief. “We thought we were going to have to find you in another town.
“How would that work?” E4 asked. “Also where is E1, is she alright?”
“E1 broke her arm, so she’s resting in her room for now.” Marissa replied. “I’ve set it for now, but she’ll be on light duty for a few days.” She let go of E4 and pushed her back, keeping her arms on E4’s shoulders. “Why did you run off? You could have gotten seriously hurt. You know I’m going to have to punish you for that.”
E4 straightened. “Yes Mistress.”
“First,” She paused. “What happened to your eye?”
“I think something got in it. It doesn’t hurt.” She winced as her optic nerve lit up.
“Anyhow, punishment…”
“Tying her to your bed for the night is not a punishment.” Marcus specified.
“It is if it’s your bed.” Marissa replied. Marcus nodded at that, and E4 decided not to comment. “No, I want you to read through “Peterson’s Guide to Monsters” by Robin Peterson, “The Myst and Mystfolk” by Phi Doe, and “Atheric Engines and the Atom,” By Alfons Einstein. I will be quizzing you on the matter afterwards.”
“Still not sure that’s a punishment.” Marcus replied. “A punishment would be deep cleaning the oven, or 20 smacks with a switch.”
“If it’s yer sister usin’ the switch I’m still not sure it’s a punishment.” C1 replied, causing C2 and C3 to chuckle.
“HEY! We are running for our life from an unknown hostile, is now the time for jokes?”
“Begging your pardon Master Marcus.” C2 replied, stroking his well braided red beard, “But we’re always running from something dangerous, or to something dangerous. Pardon my brother, he’s just trying to keep us out of the grim spiral.”
“Fine, I’ll overlook it.” Marcus replied, shooting a look to Marissa. “But only because it made Marissa smile.”
E4 quickly found her way to the library car and got to work. The books she had been assigned were easy to find, yet she ran into a problem.
“I’ve read medical texts less dry that this.” E4 muttered trying for the third time to get through “The Myst and Mystfolk.” She sighed and put it down, reaching for “Aetheric Engines”. She read that for an hour or two, and while it was dense it was far more accessible than The Myst and Mystfolk. It dictated that Aether came from the Myst, but not The Myst which it was careful to specify with an odd iridescent ink. E4 was somewhat surprised to note that Aether was very conducive to certain electronics, but horrible to others. After trying to wrap her head around memory cylinders, the Aether version of optical drives, she finally put the book down and turned to her final book. Peterson’s Guide to Myst.
The book opened with Peterson’s theories on how monsters came to be in The Myst.
“The Myst runs through the blood of beasts and the Myst Folk, and even we Aether Blessed are touched by it, for it is from The Myst that we draw Aether. I claim not to know what The Myst is, nor why it is absent from Earth. I am tempted to say our home, but we no longer belong there. By Myst are we bound, and by Aether are we empowered.” E4 read.
The first chapter was about the mundane animals of the world, which E4 skimmed. To her surprise an odd camel like creature replaced horses as the go to working creature, and a creature that resembled a terror bird known as a Horit seemed to be widely used when speed was needed but a train would not work. Apparently they could be easily tamed with peppered fish, which acted like catnip to them. The second chapter was not about animals, but the Myst Folk themselves. E4 immediately regarded it with skepticism, especially given the numerous times the Myst Folk were described as listless and prone to mindless habits.
“While less common in small towns, 43% of settlements and 85% of towns have black markets. This can be determined by a man with one eye sitting near the train station. In 5 of 6 cases he will have a cat, bird, or dog with him. If he has a dog his name will be Sketch, and he is legit. If he has a cat his name will be Stretch, and he will have an 8 in 10 chance of having a scheme that will fail and 2 in 10 chance of knowing the location of a point of interest within The Myst. This should be treated with caution, as there is no way to know if his location is a simple milk run or a march into the jaws of death. If he has no pet I have found it best to avoid him, for while he will always have useful information it shall come at great cost. Should he have a bird his name shall be Sir Pugilist, this is a constant more consistent than gravity. Should you engage him in fisticuffs and lose he shall share with you a secret you need to know. Should you win he shall answer one question with as much honesty as he can. Do not try to game him, or the secret shall inevitably be that you need to try harder.” E4 reread the paragraph. “What is this a creepy pasta?”
“What’s that?” E4 looked up to see Marissa looking over her shoulder. “You haven’t gotten very far.”
“My apologies Mistress, I had some difficulty with The Myst and Mystfolk. I have read medical texts with more meat in them.” E4 realized what she had said. “I mean,”
“Why E4, you didn’t tell me you had attended a medical school in your small town.” Marissa sat down in a chair opposite her. “Or are you E4, and not some imposer who is pretending to be her? Did you somehow steal her face, or did you hollow her out inside and wear her like a skin suit?”
“Um…”
“I see. Well, I suppose the only way to know for sure would be a full medical examination.” Marissa smiled, and E4 just stared. “Come come, your books will still be here.”
E4 felt her skin begin to twitch, but she rose. “Are those things I need to worry about mistress? Something hollowing me out and wearing me like a suit?” She tried not to think about what the isopod was doing right that moment, and the shiver that went down her spine at that moment wasn’t helping. It always took a while to fully attach, but she anticipated a rough few days, a week or two if her new body was denser than her old one. If she was lucky it would chew through the occipital lobe over night, being blind was not fun.
“It can happen.” Marissa flipped a few pages and revealed a page of a tall featureless humanoid. The title read “Body Snatcher.” “This guy’s pretty weak normally, but if he gets someone alone he has a nasty sting he hides in his claws. It can paralyze the person, and he slips out of his old body and inhabits the new.” She quickly took E4’s hair and took a deep sniff. “You don’t smell like rot, so you’re probably fine.”
E4 eyed the creature, then the numbers next to it. “Is this a stat block?” She read it again. Average tier and danger replaced estimated challenge rating, though the six stats were different. They were a bit more complicated, a range of numbers and several codes she had to check the back of the book to figure out what it meant. “Did I land in Raven-”
“Don’t say it.” Marissa cut in. “You’ll draw the eyes of The Wizards upon us, and they are an irritable bunch.”
“Are there actual wizards?” E4 asked excited.
“That’s what they call themselves, but I’m pretty sure they use Aether like we do. They can spin a complicated legal argument out of thin air though, and that’s what I’m worried about” Marissa replied as she led her into the medical car and instructed her to strip down and sit in a specially designed chair. E4 eyed the chair Marissa instructed her to get onto.
“Why are there straps?”
“Myst Folk don’t like to sleep, and they don’t trust anesthetic at all.” Marissa replied. She fetched a simple robe from a closet. “You can step behind there and put this on.”
E4 took it, and quickly learned it was actually two pieces. She examined one, and found it was a soft pale green wrap that went around her shoulders easily and had a simple clasp that went behind her neck.
“You’re wearing that backwards.” Marissa corrected. “The clasp goes in the front.”
“Why would the clasp go in the front?” E4 asked. “That would practically expose my breastbone… Did your brother design these solely to tease us maids?” Marissa’s eyes shot to the left, not meeting E4’s eyes. “Mistress, did you make these?” E4 drew in a low gasp, though mostly in sarcasm.
“No, I didn’t make them. I might have chosen them over some more conservative options though. They cover, but they still let the doctor do an adequate examination. They also let me examine the abdomen without exposing your chest or lower half.” She paused. “They might also look pretty nice if you’re working on a strapping young Myst Folk man who hurt themselves on the farm.”
E4 rolled her eyes as she sat on the chair. With a gesture the straps wrapped themselves around E4’s arms and legs, and she noticed that her legs were not bound together. “Is that really necessary?”
“Yes?” Marissa began examining E4’s arms. “You know, your pulse is a little high.”
“Mistress, I think we both know why that is.” E4 replied, blushing.
Marissa chuckled, blushing herself. “Oh, I like you.” She continued examining E4’s arms, then worked her way to her chest. “Breath in, breathe out.” E4 did. “So, what do you remember of your childhood here?”
E4 thought. “Next to nothing. I know I grew up in a small town, but I don’t remember the name. I know my named was Ere’th’var something. I think my parents were farmers, my mom might have known some herbal medicine. I don’t know if it was because there was nothing to know, or…”
“Or if you weren’t actually there? I know that feeling.” She pressed down and E4 flinched. “Good reaction.” She moved her hands a bit north.
“Mistress, what exactly are you testing for?”
“Never too early to check for breast cancer.”
“I’m 20, it’s a little early.” E4 replied.
“Fine. Aether Blessed tend not to get cancer anyhow, for various reasons, but can’t be too careful” Marissa moved on. “So, what do you remember about your time on Earth? What year were you from? Any useful skills?”
“Mistress, I was born in The Myst.”
Marissa smiled, before applying a light flick to E4’s foot which made her jump. It didn’t hurt, it just surprised her. “Now now, don’t go lying to your mistress. If you were a Myst Folk your eyes would be shadowed and hidden. You’ve dropped enough hints so we know you’ve from Earth.”
“I was, well, I worked for a group that investigated disease outbreaks.” E4 replied. “You could say I was a doctor, but most of my job was investigating where diseases came from. By the time I was treating a patient, it was usually too late to save them and I was in a full hazmat suit. Do you know what those are?” Marissa nodded. “I graduated in 2025, but that was at least 5 to 10 years ago, I don’t remember exactly how long. Things got pretty hectic towards the end.”
“Really? How were the 2020’s? Did AI ever take over? Is it the era of peace and harmony we were all promised?”
“Sadly, humans are still, ye-ouch.” E4 noticed Marissa had taken a small hammer to her knee. “Mistress, who trained you how to use that?”
“I had a few lessons from one of the doctors in town. I’m more of a chemist, but chemistry and medicine are pretty well tied together.” She tapped E4’s other knee, making her jump again but with a bit less pain. “You were saying?”
“Humans are still humans. We have a planet wide information network, and it’s full of misinformation. That and … cat videos.” E4 noticed her mistress take an odd bronze wristband from a box and, as she placed it over her hand, a thin barrier of Aether seemed to form over it. For a moment sparks jumped between the fingers “Um, what’s that?”
“Don’t worry about it.” As E4 watched Marissa gripped her big toe and an electric shock seemed to shoot up her leg making her jump and let out an involuntary gasp. It wasn’t painful, but felt strange. E4 tried not to think about the jolt of serotonin it gave her. “Ooh, nice reaction.” She noticed E4 eyeing the glove. “Sterile glove, handy since we don’t have access to a lot of plastic so disposable latex gloves would be cost prohibitive. Also lets you send,” She tapped E4 on the toe again, “A little jolt to test aetheric conductivity. Doesn’t work on Myst Folk, which is a shame. E1 can take it, but she doesn’t enjoy it.” She grinned a concerning grin. “I just had an idea for a fun little game.”
“Mistress, I’m strapped to a chair in a sarong and you are wearing electrified gloves. I have SEVERAL concerns.” E4 noticed once again she had several instincts in conflict. One instinct was instructing her to listen to her mistress. Another wanted to faint in shame, but this was the faintest. Her third instinct was whispering to play along, and ready her claws the moment weakness was displayed. Her non-functional eye began to tear up, a reaction she recognized as futile but a good sign the isopod was getting settled. “But continue.”
“I’m going to quiz you on what you read, and if you get something wrong,” She put a finger on E4’s right big to. “I’m going to shock you. Sound like fun?”
One of her instincts went dead, likely it had actually fainted. A thought occurred. “Do I get to ask questions if I get them right?”
“Sure, why not.”
The next hour went past very quickly,
“Ok, so final question. If Aether is so heavily tied to electricity, and we have access to electric motors, why do we use steam engines?”
“Tradition.” E4 replied, earning herself a powerful jolt. A shot of serotonin and dopamine followed it as the isopod took advantage of the stimulated nerves to accelerate its work. “Myst can be infused into water, but it can’t be held within steam. Condensation towers help to keep the Myst density a bit lower, though exactly how much the books weren’t really clear on. It’s low enough the standing stones are still needed. When the water is boiled, using either coal, electricity, or straight Aether the Myst is forced out, causing the volume of steam created to be 10 fold what you would get from boiling regular water. Even if you’re using an electric heater and a steam generator you end up with a net positive energy. When the fuel you need is literally in the very air you breathe why not use it? Also plastics and rubber are expensive.” E4 paused. “But, doesn’t that just use up The Myst if you use Aether on it? On that note, won’t you eventually run out of Myst entirely?”
“Using Aether produces less steam, but you still only convert about 20% so if you have one liter of Myst instilled water you are effectively boiling 8 liters rather than 10. However, you’re doing this with just a little bit of your own energy. If done within the proper containment it’s self sustaining so long as you have the fuel. Our train has been running on the same spark that Marcus and I put in it over three months ago. Even if it went out, it would take either of us about a minute to reignite it. If you mean using up Myst in general, The Myst is actually increasing faster than we can use it up.” Marissa explained. “The average Myst density has increased 1.5% per year in the last 10 years, and that’s with us using more of it. Remember, dense Myst tends to manifest into monsters like those goblins we fought. Destroying them doesn’t actually remove much Myst. If you think of it like sugar settling out of hot coffee as it cools, destroying the creatures is like stirring the coffee to get it to dissolve for a little longer. Only what sticks to the spoon is actually removed. The items we take from them would be like allowing the sugar to settle onto a string and then pulling it out, kind of like rock candy. That stuff is still Myst, and once it degrades it will return to regular Myst as if you put that rock candy back into the water. Only converting it into Aether at the standing stones or with aetheric weapons actually gets rid of it. That’s another reason why we tap the stones before we hunt, so that the dense Myst has somewhere to go and doesn’t immediately become another creature of The Myst.”
“Where does Aether go?”
“That,” Marissa took a moment to give E4 another squeeze and elicited another gasp and another burst of serotonin, “Is a topic for another time.
“Hey, we’re,” Marcus paused, seeing what Marissa and E4 were doing. E4 noticed just where he was looking for a few moments before his brain kicked back in. “Marissa, what did I say about being a deviant?”
Marissa made a gesture over E4 and immediately her bonds untied. With a quick step E4 was behind a curtain and throwing on her clothes. She was dressed in thirty seconds flat, yet as she stepped out she was still beet red. By this time Marissa had already been shooed out and only Marcus remained. He looked like he’d rather not be there, but as E4 tried to slip past him he held up a hand.
“E4, or Ere… E4. Are you ok?” E4 blushed. “I know Marissa can get a bit… grabby. I also know that The Myst pushes instincts into you that can be hard to resist. The Hymn of The Myst rings loud in the ears of those under its sway.”
“Is that what that is?” E4 asked.
“Yes, all Myst Folk have it, and even the Aether Blessed don’t shake it until becoming charged.” Marcus seemed to focus on something, and E4 immediately felt called to the library. She stepped into the car and her hands immediately went to a book that was not on the approved shelf. She turned and handed it to Marcus, before realizing what she was doing. “See.”
“That is, concerning, but it’s not irresistible Master Marcus. I’m alright, honest.” E4 replied.
“Still, if Marissa ever pushes you to do something you’re not comfortable with, you can come to me. I’ll get her to stop.”
E4 eyed him with suspicion. “Yes Master Marcus.”
“You don’t have to do that, you’re Aether Blessed now too after all.”
“I understand,” E4 smiled, “Master Marcus.”