CHAPTER 295 – A GIANT SURPRISE
As usual, Tom was woken by a spear thumping into his side.
He winced.
It struck him again. He grabbed the offending wood. “I’m up! You don’t need the second poke. Ever!”
“I know,” Harry said cheerfully. “They’re pretty light. It’s not like I’m hurting you and it’s funny when you get so annoyed.”
“Screw you, I’m waking up here.”
“Did you have a true dream?”
His mind was more than a little muddled as he tried to shake off the fog in his mind. “Yes, is it that obvious?”
The ritualist laughed. “No, of course not. I ask you that question every single time.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So what was it? Obviously not urgent since you haven’t opened your eyes yet.”
He almost groaned out loud at that reminder. He hadn’t opened his eyes. There had been no assessment of the dangers. He wasn’t up and ready to fight anything that was near him.
Shit, you idiot, he thought to himself. He was slipping. The presence of friends and companions was breeding bad habits. This half asleep state, it was a travesty, a foolish, useless, lazy moment, a betrayal of his hard earned experience… he would never have tolerated such indulgence in the tutorial. He shook himself and cracked open his eyes. The stone roof looked back at him and his eyes flickered in every direction as he assessed where they were. Nothing had changed. There were no enemies.
He sighed and recalled the strange dream. It was one of his better experiences. Uplifting and insightful.
“Well,” Thor pressed. “What did you discover this time.”
Tom smiled. “The recipe to negotiate peacefully with the wador.”
“Really!” Toni exclaimed in excitement. “That’s great. Is it some sort of smelly witch’s brew.”
Tom chuckled. “No, not that type of recipe. It was an eating ceremony centred around raw meat. It’s funny you sort of know it logically, but you discount it with all the swords and magic of this place. But the wador had technology and a civilisation before Existentia. One that was a lot like ours.”
“In what way?” Michael asked curiously.
“Cities, crime, politics, nations, slums,” he finished thinking of the old architecture she had so looked down on. “And you know a peaceful world.”
Michael swallowed. His eyes closed, and you could see the loss in the lines of his face. “This competition, sometimes you forget how destructive it is. If you think about it is very ungodly.”
“I disagree. It just feels that way to our earth sensibilities,” Keikain disagreed. “If you have ultimate power and can do anything, then all you have left is competition with your peers. But it’s not nice being the chess pieces.” He conceded.
Food was handed to him. Tom glanced around. Everyone excluding Rahmat who was presumably undertaking a more active scouting role was listening in.
“It’s sad that wador was the same as us,” Toni said quietly. “It means their civilisation has been destroyed too.”
“Nothing has ever been fair,” Michael said sadly. “Evolution wasn’t fair, society wasn’t fair, this…” he left that bit unsaid.
“All we can do is strive to do the best we can for humanity,” Keikain said sharply. “And for our allies of course.” He was looking over at the chosen, but all the humans gathered could tell the words were not sincere. Tom hoped the chosen wouldn’t notice.
“Hear, hear,” Michael said immediately.
He ate some more of the sandwich that had been handed to him. The bread was so dense that the meat was the soft part of the food.
“And?” Thor asked. He had a pen and paper in his hands. “Can we get the details while it is fresh?”
Tom quickly explained what he had witnessed.
“And that’s it?” Thor asked. “Three courses of meat.”
“Plus, the boulder cut in half and the single envoy standing initially with everyone else prone on the ground. That’s all I’ve seen. There might have been a step required prior to this one. If there was I’m sure I’ll have another true dream. We should tell the others.”
“No. That is stupid.” Keikain snapped. “You shouldn’t have told us. What you’ve said is dangerous and unactionable. Why are you even sharing it. If they don’t recognise the ceremony for what it is, they could attack before they even realise we’re trying to form a connection and we’ll be helpless. Worse, a lot of what you listed was non-verbal and we have different anatomy. Even thinking about doing this is suicidal. You need to be more responsible. You’re like a toddler with a semi-automatic. You don’t have a clue about what you’re doing. Do you ever think things through!”
Silence descended at the accusations, and Tom could feel his blood almost boiling. “I told you everything I experienced.” Tom snarled back. Every time he said anything Keikain had been jumping on it and criticising him. Sometimes blatantly other times with a snide comment. It was too much. “What in all hells more do you want me to do? Not share, hoard my knowledge and screw us that way.”
“I don’t know. At the very least, not share advice that can kill us.”
“Are you just bitter that I stopped your murder spree.”
“Tom!” Everlyn snapped scandalised.
Keikain glared at him. “That was out of line, even for you.”
“No, it wasn’t. This is bullshit. I know what this is about…” and there’s no way I’m using the contract to enforce behaviour… he thought, but the constant sniping was too much. “He’s out of control and if he thinks True Dreaming is useless, he needs to bloody well get his own alternative.”
“We’ve already discussed that.” The earth mage snapped. “That’s a non-starter. We can’t do it and I wasn’t saying that. You need to learn to not blab dangerous information until you know the right course of action.”
“Fuck you Keikain? You chose to take the cursed bloodline, not me. It’s done and none of us can change it.”
“What the hell’s that got to do with anything!”
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“Everything! Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you’ve been treating me. Everyone has seen it. Whenever I say anything, you’re jumping on it. Insulting me and ripping it down.”
“You’re delusional.”
“You chose the bloodline and then it was you who came to me asking what was the best way to maximise yourimpact. You came to me! And I because you asked me to, used my oracle question.”
“I never asked for that!”
“No, you didn’t. Not directly. Instead, like a coward, you tried to foist off responsibility for your future actions on to me.”
“Now you’re fucking lying.”
It doesn’t matter. He tried to say the words, but his throat choked off. Everyone was looking at him, demanding he say something. He wanted to end the conversation; he didn’t want to blab about these secrets but the skill wouldn’t let him do that. It was a case of silence or truth. “You wanted me to take responsibility and decide on your behalf. Rather than making a mistake I asked the oracle what was best for humanity.” Tom said and was surprised there was no push back from the skill. “You wanted to know the answer. I got it for you. Get over yourself and stop blaming me for your own shitty choices!”
Everyone apart from Keikain looked confused and uncomfortable.
“You ordered me! You took away my rights.”
“Keikain you were the arsehole who forced the decision off on to me.”
“You don’t care that you’re making me into a monster.”
“You made yourself into a monster,” Tom snapped at the earth mage. “Don’t put your contribution store decisions onto me.”
“Yes, I did! I hate it. I own it. I fucked up. Clare fucked up. We all fucked up and we have to live with it. But you fucking ordered me to double the number of sacrifices I have to make! That’s not right or fair!”
Everyone was looking at them in shock.
“You asked,” Tom ground out his brief anger gone. Keikain was distraught, furious, angry, desolate and hearing him yell most of that bitterness was directed inwards. Some of it might have been playing out and hitting him, but most of it was internal. “I’m sorry. I got you the answer, and you made me responsible for the decision. It wasn’t something I wanted and when the solution was yes… well, you know we needed to put humanity first. Don’t go blaming me for what’s happened or yourself. There are billions depending on us and for them this is the right choice. Stop beating yourself up over it. Stop lashing out at me because of it. For goodness’ sakes, just accept what you have to do.”
“It’s so hard. I…”
“What’s happening?” Everlyn asked, rounding on Keikain. “What do you mean you have to kill more. Tell me everything.”
The earth mage ignored her and walked away until he faced the wall. His body shuddered.
“Clare?” she asked.
The healer turned off tank, hesitated.
“What did Tom mean about forcing you to kill more people.” Everlyn looked pissed. She glared at him and like Keikain he turned his back to her. He had said all he was willing to on the topic.
Clare answered, and Tom ignored the hushed conversation that resulted. He did not want to be involved.
People drama was something that he could live without. One thing puzzled him. His social skill had only kicked in once. It had been fine with him getting stuck in Keikain for his behaviour. Throwing insults had not triggered anything, in fact only when he tried to withdraw from the argument did it even complain a little.
It was perplexing… This time it had let him speak his mind. In fact, it had been almost forcing him to speak it openly when usually it did the opposite.
The main group was still interrogating Clare with the exception of Michael who had gone to stand next Keikain. Tom couldn’t hear either conversation through lips were moving, so he guessed Everlyn was portioning sounds or possibly the healer was keeping his chat secret. A privacy spell was very much a Michael thing to have obtained.
He found he didn’t care. He hoped some of his words had got through to Keikain or that Michael could talk sense into him but it wasn’t important for now. The True Dream, as it often did had done a number on his concentration. He needed to get his head back into the game. While the zone suited them, it only did so if he applied his full skill set. It did not suit the rest of the group just him. He was critical here, but his mind was too fuzzy. As he was, he would make mistakes, which was not something they could afford.
Tom would not have called it meditation, but the state he reached was close to that. He set up a pattern a pulse of Touch Heal then a couple of deep breaths, rinse and repeat.
It shouldn’t do anything to strip away exhaustion, but it seemed to help.
The larger group broke up with Clare having satisfied the curiosity, though none of them looked happy and a short time later the conversation between Michael and Keikain ended.
They continued their slaughter of the Zlotorcs. The number of tunnels Tom had collapsed must have been into the triple figures.
“Interesting,” Thor muttered as a portal appeared in front of him.
“What is it?” Michael asked.
“It’s from Phil.” Thor plucked out a piece of paper and then read it. He bit his bottom lip as he read it. A look of annoyance flashed across his face. “This… this isn’t good.”
“What?”
“The giant he…” Phil stopped talking and shook his head. “He threw it away.”
“What away?” Michael pressed.
“His equaliser box. He got one too. Phil confirmed it, but it was worthless to the giant, so he disposed of it.”
“It did what?” Everlyn asked in disbelief.
“Sold it,” Harry clarified. “His species doesn’t have an auction house so they can sell loot of all tiers straight to the GODs.” Thor chuckled darkly. “It was a weapon with some useless one off enhancement. The giant got over three levels for selling it.”
“What enchantment?” Michael asked.
Thor laughed. “That’s the funny thing. He doesn’t know. He didn’t care, it was junk and so he got rid of it.”
“Junk?” Michael appeared outraged.
“Insane,” Everlyn stated.
“Arrogant,” Tom summarised. “Just arrogant. I understand why he sold it, but are we sure the giant can’t remember anything. Did Phil push for an answer?”
“That’s what’s written,” Thor confirmed. “Phil said he asked until the giant told him that if he kept questioning him, he was going to squish Phil. His gut apparently was telling him not to, but the giant was willing to go against it if he didn’t stop being so annoying.”
He remembered the feeling of conviction that often filled all the giant’s thoughts. He could definitely imagine the giant saying that. “That’s unfortunate…”
“Tom, you know you need to find out what the item was.” Michael said. “You have to direct things the next time you sleep.”
He wanted to say no. Despite his meditation he was still suffering the after-effects of the lunch time dream.
“If all these boxes are designed to work together,” Michael continued. “And they feel like they probably are. We can’t exactly ignore this one.”
“I… yeah I agree.” Tom sighed already imagining the exhaustion it was going to cause.
“You can do it later. And by later, I mean tonight not tomorrow.” Michael nodded in the general direction they had been travelling. “For now, we need to find a new location to fight.”
They started walking again.
“I can’t believe the giant just threw it away,” Harry said in disbelief.
Thor shrugged. “He placed it on his auction house and got three levels.”
“It was an equaliser box,” Harry said. “Surely you have to think it has a purpose.”
“It equalised him by giving him extra levels.”
“A human’s not doing that. None of us would have done that. It’s ridiculous we would have seen it as a puzzle piece. There’s no way a normal person would have thrown it away.”
“Yes, Harry, you’re right,” Tom interrupted the rant. “He’s not normal. He’s an alien. He’s not just a bigger human, he thinks differently than us. Very!”
“But what happens if we need whatever he threw out?”
“The balancing would have been done by SUPREME,” Michael reminded them. “SUPREMEs a GOD… I suspect predicting how the giant reacted would have been trivial. If Ton’s next dream show that item is necessary to beat the dragon, then I’m sure there will be another way to get it back.”
“And you’ll make me find a way to buy it?” Thor complained.
“I suspect it’ll be too specialised to be found in the human auction houses,” Michael continued. “But something like that is bound to end up in the Spectaculi auction house. I’m sure we’ll find it.”
Tom glanced at Michael who kept walking after making such a casual statement. The F word had been deliberately left out of it, but they were all thinking it.
“We can’t rely on something like the Spectaculi.” Thor muttered. “Hopefully it’s something minor.”
Michael burst out laughing. “Minor, nope. It earnt the giant three levels.”
“So?”
“Think what the means. What level is the giant? A hundred, two, maybe even three hundred?”
Thor’s face screwed up at that reminder. “That’s not good. That means it got half to ten million experience.”
“Yep, and that’s at fire-sale prices.” Michael reminded him. “An auction house that takes everything is going to extract a pretty hefty margin. If we’re rebuying it, then we have to expect it to cost two or three times what the giant sold it for.”
“Ridiculous,” Thor exclaimed. “The giant didn’t think.”
“Alien,” Michael reminded him with an amused tone. “It’s not worth worrying about. We’ll get the facts and respond.”
They finished their fight and started another, then another. All too soon, he was settling down to sleep. This time, he activated True Dreaming before he drifted off. His mind had a singular focus. He had to discover what the giant got in the Equaliser box. He triggered his skill to knock himself out and was thrust immediately into a True Dream.