48 AL: GRANDMOTHER

They decided to start with Alex. After they transferred the solution to him, they would get his opinion on if he thought he could talk Companion through the process. Todd picked up his spear before going to fetch the younger man.

Todd led Alex back to the center section of the gallery. Grandmother was waiting for him on the sofa. She asked him to touch the protection crystal before joining her on the couch. Alex glanced at Todd, before stepping out on the sand to touch the crystal. The crystal flooded with a solid blue color.

“Todd and I have discovered a way to transfer the solution to an inscription to another person,” Grandmother told Alex as he sat beside the older woman. “I want to transfer the solution to this one to you,” she explained.

“Ok,” Alex said.

“Did you ever share your interface with one of your parents?” Todd asked him.

“Gran showed me a thing or two,” Alex replied.

“That is what we are going to do,” Grandmother said. She offered her hand to Alex. “Open your interface and go to the inscription decryption screen.”

“Sure,” Alex replied. He sat back and stretched his neck just like Todd did. Alex took Grandmother’s hand and looked off into the distance. He pushed the flashing light into the center of his vision and selected it. He quickly flipped through the selections to the decryption screen. “Ready,” he announced.

“Give me a second,” Grandmother replied. She opened up Alex’s interface and then her own. On her own interface she navigated to the inscription decryption screen. She touched the solution and dragged it over from her interface to Alex’s where she pulled her finger away. Instead of sinking down into Alex’s interface like it did with Todd’s, it bounced off rebounding into her own. “Uh-oh,” Grandmother murmured.

“What is it?” Todd asked.

“It didn’t work,” Grandmother responded. “The solution bounced. Let me try again.” She tried it again, once more it bounced. Grandmother looked at Alex’s interface. At tier three the interface used the Arabic font. Even ignoring that difference, Alex’s interface struck Grandmother as slightly different from her own.

“Alex, can you scroll through the icons for the decryption tools?” she asked.

“Sure,” he replied. He began scrolling them. Grandmother scrolled the list on her interface in time with him. When Alex reached the end of his list, there were still three more scrolls on Grandmother’s.

“That’s interesting,” Grandmother said. “I have more decryption tools than you. I think the solution is bouncing because it uses a tool you don’t have yet.” She dismissed both interfaces and released Alex’s hand. She told him he could close his. Alex gave a sigh of relief and rubbed his neck. Todd thought that was a bit of an overreaction since his interface was only open a few minutes.

“Can’t you just tell me what it says?” Alex asked.

“Seeing it, or maybe having the decryption in your interface, allows you to see the door in that wall,” Grandmother said, pointing at the wall behind the sofa.

“Door?” Alex said. He stood up and inspected the wall. He walked over and pushed on every surface.

“Am I close?” Alex asked. Todd directed him to where it was. Alex pushed directly on the door, it didn’t move.” Todd turned and looked at Grandmother.

“You were able to drag me inside. Maybe we could push everyone through,” Todd commented.

“Including Companion?” Grandmother asked.

“We could escort him back to that ocean square first,” Todd offered.

“What happens when you get dragged inside?” Alex asked. He was reaching high over his head, still trying to find the door. Next he tried pushing lower down.

“I went blind,” Todd said.

“Is that all?” Alex asked. Todd walked over, pushed the door open and stepped through. Alex watched him walk through the glass wall with intense interest. Todd’s hand reappeared. He grabbed ahold of Alex’s arm and dragged him inside.

“Yep,” Alex admitted, “I am blind.” Grandmother followed the two men into the room and pushed the wedge in place to hold the door open. The small space was getting a little crowded with the three of them in it. She stayed close to the door and observed. She deselected their home square before leaving earlier, so the two doors on either side were back to being solid stone. Todd let Alex go. Alex stumbled over to one of the doors and began to feel the outline in the wall. Actually he was feeling the entire wall.

Todd was amazed at how calm Alex was at being blinded. Todd felt a jolt of pure panic when it happened to him. Although Alex was warned ahead of time and Todd wasn’t.

“This feels like a door,” Alex commented.

“When the control panel is activated there is a light show and it opens,” Grandmother observed. “I believe there is a travel pod inside that will take you to a chosen destination.”

“Where is the control panel?” Alex asked.

“The wall across from the door,” Todd said, “to your right.” Alex headed in that direction. He found the corner of the room and turned. When he placed his hand on the stone screen, a dark, dark violet crystal appeared in the center of the screen surrounded by the fuzzy lines of a map.

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“Hold for a second,” Grandmother said, stepping deeper into the room. “Look at that, the screen has activated for him.”

“Interesting. If it works for him, maybe it would work for Companion,” Todd observed. “We could send him home.”

“Again I don’t see us being able to explain it to him with our limited communication,” Grandmother observed. “Although this does leave us with the possibility of sending him home if we learn his language.”

“What does it show?” Alex asked.

“It shows where you can go,” Grandmother said.

“It is a map of all the square and gallery crystals you have touched,” Todd elaborated. “The crystals in the rests don’t qualify.”

“You’re saying I should be touching every greater crystal we find?” Alex asked.

“There is probably a downside,” Grandmother responded. “Almost everything in the structure has two sides.” Grandmother went on to explain what they knew about the control panel. “You can navigate the display with the same gestures you use on your map, only you have to maintain contact with the control panel. It turns off as soon as you lose contact. If you touch one of the crystals with your other hand, the fee will be displayed.”

“Let’s see,” Alex said blindly. He set hand on the mall in the typical ‘looking at my map’ configuration. He mumbled to himself about north, east and higher up. The map on the wall danced around showing a variety of nothing. “Am I anywhere near home square?” he asked.

“Nope,” Todd responded. Todd started giving Alex directions. Together they finally managed to get the home square crystal to appear on the screen. “Ok, there it is. Now use your other hand to tap it.”

Alex held his hand up and started randoming taping the wall. “Am I close?” he asked. After a long series of instructions that didn’t yield any results, Todd took hold of Alex’s wrist and moved his hand to the right place.

“Tap now,” he said. It took two tries. A single shadow coin appeared. The fee was one oxidized bronze. Todd told Alex then turned to Grandmother. “That is a higher price than what it charged me,” he commented.

“The prices seem a little random,” Grandmother replied. “I think it is some combination of distance, time since you touched the crystal and your tier. The tier of the crystal might come into play too. You saw the ownership effect. It definitely isn’t a flat fee system.”

“Well that seems expensive, but at the same time it would save us almost two months of travel time,” Alex commented. He took his hand off the wall and started blindly walking to the right, with one hand out in front of him. “What is on the other wall?” Todd stepped out of his way.

“Another stone door,” Todd commented, but he made no move to stop Alex from feeling his way across the wall. Alex gave just as much attention to this wall as he did to the first one.

“Is this one different in any way?” Alex said.

“Not from what I can see,” Todd replied.

“It never opened,” Grandmother commented. “If the other door is departure, maybe that one is arrival,” she hypothesized. Alex passed the last corner and felt his way through the open door back into the gallery.

“That is a relief,” Alex proclaimed as he stepped through the opening. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the gallery like he never saw it before. Todd and Grandmother followed him out.

“I think it is time for a team meeting,” Grandmother said as she settled onto her sofa.

“I’ll go get them,” Alex said. He was already walking away. Todd sat next to Grandmother and braced his spear against his knees. He looked at the decoded inscription, thinking through their options.

When all the group members arrived Grandmother explained the situation, including her worries about Companion. Companion settled into the sand garden, his ax beside him. Their back was braced against the inscription wall as they watched the humans. They would look at the speaker when their name was spoken, indicating that they knew they were the subject of the conversation.

“Where do you think you got the extra decryption tools?” Ellen asked Grandmother.

“I don’t know,” Grandmother responded. “I didn’t use the interface to decrypt the inscriptions in the early days. It wasn’t until after Agatha passed away that I realized I could.” She turned to Todd. “Have you used the built-in tools a lot?”

“No,” Todd responded. “I usually let you or Sarah read all the inscriptions.”

“In that case it must be tied to tier level. It could be a simple mechanism to limit access to higher tiers,” Grandmother theorized.

“The player we saw by the ocean square was a tier four,” Alex commented. “Even if Companion can’t see the door, maybe they know about the system. If they at least knew the concept it would be a lot easier to try and walk him through it.”

“The inscription decrypted into a symbol that is on the access door. If we draw a copy of it, we can see if Companion recognizes it,” Grandmother commented.

“Let me grab my stylus,” Sarah said, rising to her feet. She hurried off to return with her spell diary and a stylus. She handed the items to Grandmother who set about sketching the symbol. When she was done she handed the sketch to Alex.

“I think we should test it,” Ellen said. “You think it is a transport system, but you don’t know.”

“Whoever goes will have to come back, otherwise the rest of us still won’t know for sure what it is,” Sarah commented.

“I’ll go,” Todd said, before Grandmother could come up with some reason why it should be her.

“Do you have enough for the cost of the return trip?” Grandmother asked.

“Yes,” Todd said confidently.

“What if the cost is higher than what it wants to go from here to there?” Grandmother countered.

“I can pay double the price easily,” Todd replied.

“Hmm…” Grandmother mumbled. She rose from her seat and went around to the prize altar. She returned a moment or two later tossing a coin at Todd. The coin flashed a polished copper in the air. He caught it out of the air. “Put that in your inventory just in case,” she instructed. Todd smiled, glad he won so easily.

Todd stood up and went over to the prize altar to deposit the coin. He packed his gear, including the fresh travel food he prepared over the last few days. With his spear in hand and his pack on his back, he returned to the central furniture cluster.

“Have you got food and water?” Grandmother asked. “The trip might take some time.”

“Yes,” Todd replied. “If it doesn’t work as expected I will go to Home Square and wait for you there.”

“Agreed,” Grandmother responded. She turned and went back into the transport room. To everyone but Todd she appeared to walk through the glass wall. Companion started talking excitedly in their high voice. Alex went over to the player and tried to explain to them about the transporter, showing them the sketch of the symbol. Todd caught Ellen’s arm and locked eyes with her.

“Keep watch on Grandmother. Don’t let her curiosity lead her into danger,” he said to Ellen.

“I will do my best,” Ellen responded in all seriousness.

Todd joined Grandmother in the transportation chamber leaving the rest of them behind. Grandmother’s map was up and she was navigating to the crystal at Home Square. Grandmother tapped the crystal and the light veil appeared over the departure door. She removed her hand from the control panel. The map went dark, but the departure portal remained.

“Good journey to you,” Grandmother said to the young man.

“Stay safe,” Todd responded. He took a deep breath and stepped through the light. The light went out instantly behind him, replaced by stone. By the time Grandmother reached out to touch it, the stone was real.