Year: 3045 AGD
Month: Time of Storms
First Firstday
Serenity Valley
Institute of Learning
Sub-level Six
Shawnrik and Verrian sat across from Instructor Tienna Wildthorne, a second-year student by the name of Nathanial Port, and a fourth-year student named Shirley Williams. They were near the room that Shawnrik had first arrived at when he came back to the Institute the day before. Nathanial and Shirley had been the two students near the science building that they had rescued, and it had taken them nearly an hour to get back across campus to the administration building without being detected by the Trolls that were patrolling the grounds.
The display on Shawnrik’s bracers had shown a purple dot heading steadily towards the same building as they were making their way towards it. They only had to wait a few minutes once they reached the building before they saw Tienna Wildthorne quietly creep around the corner. By the time they reached the sixth sub-level of the old prison facility, it was late afternoon. Aegis led Shawnrik to a cold-storage room and had him remove several large metal cylinders that he took to a nearby cafeteria. After being given step-by-step instructions on installation, Shawnrik and Verrian had managed to get the machines up and working. The food wasn’t delicious, but it was a welcome relief to the small group, who hadn’t eaten since the attack started.
Tienna told them that she had been using the restroom when the first clump of trolls had gone through her building and had managed to stay hidden while they cleared the building of students and personnel. The only information she had was information that Aegis had already given Shawnrik, and that was that she overheard some of them saying that they were taking the people to the Amphitheater for holding.
Nathanial and Shirley had much the same stories on how they avoided detection. Nathanial had been doing his job as a custodian when the Trolls came through. He had been in one of the storage closets grabbing supplies when he heard shouting and locked the door. She had been in a small room that had been set aside for handling rare and potentially dangerous or volatile rock samples that the Institute had on hand. When she had exited the room, she found that the building had been cleared, and as she neared a window, she saw a large group being led by several Trolls towards the Western end of campus. After they ate and shared stories on what had happened, Aegis assigned them sleeping quarters and they had spent the night lost in their own thoughts.
It was obvious as Shawnrik looked at the people around the table that they had gotten very little rest in the night. The facility was ancient, but well-maintained by creatures that Aegis called maintenance drones. There were some things that the drones couldn’t do, however, one of which was being able to work on the water filtration system. Most of the facility’s water was taken in from the ocean that surrounded the island, and the filtration systems were not working, so they had taken salt water showers when they woke up. Their clothes had been cleaned on the spot, and Aegis had told them that it was working on getting one of the sub-sections working again so that it could make them new clothes.
Verrian was currently looking at a small pad that Aegis had given him, and he was the first to break the silence that had pervaded the room since their initial greetings.
“There we are. I found an instruction manual on how to fix the water filtration system. I also cross-referenced some of the likely components that might need replacing, and Aegis’s records indicate that most of the parts are in storage.”
At this, Nathanial perked up. “Oh, that’s brilliant; I hadn’t even considered fixing it ourselves.” The young Dwarf came around the table to read the document over Verrian’s shoulder. “This doesn’t look too much different than some of the technology in the Institute.”
“You think you can fix this?” Shawnrik asked.
Verrian looked to Nathanial, who nodded. “Sure, Nathanial and I can probably get this done this afternoon if we can find the right tools.”
“Great!” Shawnrik stood up. “I’m going to go aboveground and see if I can help some of the people that are still free. Aegis says that three more were captured last night. It doesn’t seem like our little stunt set off too many alarm bells up there. There are still a dozen people out and about though, and I would like to reach them before any of the patrols find them.”
“Well, maybe I…” Verrian started.
Shawnrik put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I got this. I think it is more important that you work on the water system for now. Aegis says there is only a limited amount of drinkable water, and if I can even get half of the people that are left up there, we’ll need more fresh water. There’s no telling how long we’ll be down here before this thing is done.”
At this, Shirley looked up, her Gnomish eyes wide. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it is obvious that they are looking for something, and I highly doubt they are going to give up until they find it. This campus is huge, and that’s not even counting this facility that very few people seem to know exists. We could be here for weeks, and that’s assuming that they’ll just leave once they find what they want. There’s no way of knowing if they have other motivations in mind.”
“Shawnrik is right,” Instructor Wildthorne said. “We need more information, and we need to prepare for this to be an extended event.”
As the group looked at the Elfling instructor, Shawnrik was reminded why everyone in the room had been studiously avoiding looking at the Mythology professor all morning. The moment she stepped out of the shower room, all of them had stopped whatever they had been doing. It quickly became apparent to everyone just how much work the Instructor put into making herself look less appealing when teaching. Shawnrik wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but there was something in his brain that just enjoyed looking at the professor, and he could tell by the looks the others were giving that they were having the same issues. When she looked up and saw them all staring, she turned bright red and quickly left the room, which seemed to break the spell for everyone as they all took deep breaths.
Her reaction that morning had made them all feel ashamed, but even armed with the foreknowledge of how she affected him, he was having trouble not staring at her lithe features. It took him just a fraction of a second too long to respond, and he was mad at himself when he saw that she was starting to look uncomfortable again.
“Right.” Shawnrik cleared his throat. “We need to do what we can.”
Verrian was the first of the three to snap back into reality. “Right, we’ll just get to this then.” He pushed his chair back, hitting Nathanial in the process, which seemed to remind him where he was.
Nathanial adjusted his glasses. “Indeed. Aegis, if you would show us how to get to the supply room, and perhaps to the tools we will need.”
“When you exit into the corridor, there will be two sets of arrows. The green arrows will lead you to the supply warehouse, and the yellow arrows will lead you to the maintenance bay. I shall update these paths as you progress through the facility.”
“Thanks, Aegis,” Verrian said, before looking at Nathanial. “Alright, let’s get to work.”
Nathanial grinned and clapped Verrian on the back as the two left the room.
“Now the question is, what do we do?” Instructor Wildthorne asked. “My specialties are in Mythology and History, and Miss Williams is knowledgeable in History and Geology, I believe. We aren’t exactly warriors or engineers.”
Looking back at the Instructor, he could feel that primitive part of his mind wanting to take over again, but he pushed back at it, making a valiant effort not to gawk. “You’re right. Once we save everyone, I can teach you how to fight if you want. Until then, you are both intelligent, maybe you can figure out some of the secrets of this facility. You might even dig up a few things that have been forgotten about our history over the last few thousand years.” Shawnrik watched as she tapped her lips with her finger for a few moments before realizing that he had let his attention wander.
“That’s a good idea,” Instructor Wildthorne said as she stood. “Do you think the being in control of this facility will let us freely dig through its archives?”
“There are three hundred and forty-seven thousand documents that are available to you in my archives, Ms. Wildthorne,” Aegis responded to the indirect question. “If you require anything that is not available to you in the archives, you will have to ask an administrator for access.”
“Who is an administrator?” Shirley asked.
“I’m sorry, that information is not available at this time.”
“Figures,” the Gnome said, throwing up her hands in disgust. “Well, let’s see what these archives have for us. We can try to unravel the other mysteries of this place later.”
Shawnrik led the two to the room in which Aegis had first revealed itself to him, and they went to work digging into the computers for information. He grabbed the bag he had left there the afternoon before and brought it to the room that Aegis had assigned him. He took out a longsword, deciding to trade power for mobility, and looked down at the map before heading out. “If you could make it so the others can contact me while I’m up above, that would be great.”
“Of course. I’m here to assist. Which target would you like to assist first?”
“Let’s stick to the buildings; then we can move to the outer sections of the campus.” Shawnrik started moving as the line popped up on the map. “Let me know if any of the others are in danger of being discovered first, though.” He started jogging down the hallway, focused on what would come next.
Year: 3045 AGD
Month: Time of Storms
First Thirdday
Siniquity
Cyrian Dreadmeir’s Estate
“Good, you are getting more used to your body moving at an increased speed,” Jason said, as he quickly reversed direction and tried attacking from the right.
Shade wasn’t prepared for the move, and he barely managed to deflect the blow before it punctured skin. There were no training implements in Jason’s room; they only used real weapons, and Jason wasn’t afraid of wounding Shade to teach him a lesson. Luckily for Shade, Cyrian employed some of the best healers in the city, and over the last few days he had seen them much more often than he would like. There were several dozen places all over his body that still ached from wounds he had taken in the days since he had started working with Jason. The healers kept explaining that it was best for the body to do most of the work itself, but he was starting to feel like there might not be any undamaged areas left by the end of the week at the rate they were going.
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Another thing that Shade had noticed was that no matter how fast he made himself, Jason was able to match his speed perfectly. Shade knew that the man could move much faster than he himself was able to, but no matter how fast he moved, it was as if that was the normal speed for Jason to move.
“How do you do that?” Shade asked once they stopped for a break.
“Which part?” Jason grinned.
“Every time we spar, it is as if I am just able to match your natural speed. When we are fighting, it feels like whatever speed we are fighting at is the one you are most comfortable with.” Shade took a drink of water. “I always feel so uncomfortable when the speed changes.”
“Well, once you have a few thousand years of experience, you will probably feel comfortable at any speed you move as well, but you need to learn to let your body be at ease no matter how fast you are fighting.” Jason waved him towards the middle of the room. “That is one of the things I’m supposed to teach you before the competition next year. You are going to have to look like you are just barely keeping up with whoever you are fighting, getting incrementally better as you go along. If they knew how fast you will really be able to move by next year, you would have so many bounties on your head that you wouldn’t be able to go anywhere on Terrazil and feel safe.”
“How long will it take for me to feel comfortable?”
“If we continue to stand around here doing nothing but talking, forever,” Jason said, as he took an attack stance. “If you keep working as hard as you have been, I can at least make it so you don’t give anything away by the time the competition rolls around.”
As they moved through attacking, parrying, and dodging, their blades were a blur. He wasn’t sure how long they had been fighting, but shade began to wonder what it would be like to be a regular person watching them spar. He realized too late that his focus was wavering when he took a solid hit on his upper thigh.
“Alright, that’s enough for now,” Jason said, as he moved back from Shade and dropped into a non-hostile stance. “What happened just then?”
“Sorry, I started thinking about what it might look like to someone if they walked in and saw us fighting.” Shade grimaced as he looked down at the blade that was embedded in his upper thigh. As he moved backwards, he felt the tip of the blade grind against his femur. “Well, I don’t think it hit an artery.”
“Yeah, I try to avoid those.” Jason grimaced. “I’ll go get a healer. Try not to move.”
“Good idea.”
It is always entertaining how guilty he looks when he didn’t mean to hurt you, Stewart Cantel said, as they watched Jason leave the room.
I have a large piece of metal sticking out of me. Perhaps we can wait until later to find the humor in this situation? Shade thought.
When did you get to be so serious? Stewart asked. Victor would have made a quip about the injury before I could say anything.
Yes, well, might I remind you that I am not Victor. Shade grimaced. He hated talking about whoever he had been before the Blood Mage Yandarian had done whatever it was he had done to block all of the parts that made up Victor Deus’s personality. Sometimes at night, Shade would sift through the former High Commander’s memories of the times that the man had met Victor and try to compare how much of himself he saw in the young boy. Victor had seemed so sure of himself to the former High Commander; he was quick with a smile, and eager to learn.
Realizing he had said the wrong thing, Cantel tried to stop Shade’s line of thought. You aren’t so different as you think. His voice took on a paternal tone inside Shade’s head. You are two sides of a coin, shaped by different experiences. I think Victor will like who you are.
Shade took a deep breath, trying to maintain focus on not moving his body. I just keep thinking that I’ll be thrust aside and kept in a mental box somewhere once he gains his freedom.
Then you do not know Victor Deus. Vitiosi surprised them both as he spoke. That part of his mind had been quiet through the past few days of training.
What do you mean? Shade asked, his curiosity piqued.
He is not one to discard things that are useful.
They were all silent for a time after that exchange. Shade could feel the part of his mind where the former High Commander resided, and he knew the man was just as intrigued by Vitiosi’s statement as he was. As he watched Stewart Cantel mull over the statement, he realized something that disturbed him. The edges around the area that differentiated the former High Commander’s thoughts and his was beginning to decay.
Ah, you noticed huh? Stewart Cantel said.
When did this start happening? Shade tried to see if there was something he could do to strengthen the area that separated them, but it seemed like the more he focused on that area, the more he noticed it decaying.
I think it has been happening since I was put in here. Cantel said. I noticed it within a few days. It’s a slow process. I figure I’ll have at least a few months more as I exist right now, and then…” The former High Commander gave a mental shrug.
Then what? Shade asked, but realized that someone was standing in front of his body.
“He’s not breathing,” the healer said.
Shade realized he was holding his breath and let out a soft gasp before filling his lungs with air. He wondered how long he had been standing there like that.
“Sorry, I was meditating.” Shade forced a grin.
“Uh huh,” she replied.
Today’s healer was Dorynne. Of all of the healers he had met in Cyrian’s employ, she was the most enigmatic. From the little information that Shade had managed to gather, she was a Human woman who might have a little bit of Elven blood somewhere in her ancestry. The interesting part, however, was that she was from the Great Desert, where the people who had not gone below ground during the Great Disaster had ended up as the storms raged around them.
“You really should quit using this boy as a pincushion,” Dorynne stated as she pulled the dagger from his thigh.
“If you want to make an omelet…” Jason started.
“Yes yes, you have to break a few eggs.” She handed Jason his dagger and looked into his eyes. “But if you want to keep eating omelets, you need to keep the chicken alive.” She turned around and placed her hand on the oozing wound.
Shade involuntarily sucked in a breath as he felt the healing energies enter his body. He could feel the tissues in his quadricep start to reconnect, and it was a very unpleasant feeling. All of the healers but one that Cyrian employed drew their powers from the worship of the beings Shade knew to be Ethereals. They seemed able to draw in potential particles and focus them in a way that was fundamentally different from the way he had managed to manipulate them the few times he had tried since waking up in the cave. The one healer who didn’t get her powers from the Ethereals was a Blood Mage, and after the first experience being healed by them, he figured he liked the way the religious folk did it better.
When she removed her hands, all that was left of the wound was a thin scar.
“It’s going to feel strange for the next few weeks. I’d tell you not to put any undue stress on it, but I know neither of you will listen to me. It should hold up, but if something goes wrong, come to me immediately.” She then grabbed Shade’s shirt and pulled it back to expose a similar scar on his shoulder blade. “You seem to heal faster than most. If I hadn’t been the one to work on that wound a few days ago I would say that it was at least a week old.”
Dorynne turned to Jason. “No fighting for at least an hour.” Then she promptly left the room, not even bothering to wait for a reply.
“In my younger days, I would be all over that woman.” Jason sighed.
“Really?” Shade said. “That’s your type?”
“You will find that there are few things in this world better than a person who knows what they want.” Jason grinned. “Enough of that, however. We will heed the healer’s advice and take some time for rest and reflection.” He went over to the wall and triggered the closing mechanism for the hidden doorway. “First we stretch, and then we get philosophical.”
They used the next twenty minutes to stretch their muscles, making sure to get their bodies as relaxed as possible before they sat down. As much as Stewart Cantel enjoyed their training sessions, Shade found himself enjoying these moments more. The intellectual discussions that they had several times a day were interesting in a way that combat simply wasn’t to him. They would talk about everything from morality and the role of a leader to things as simple and yet complex as life and death. He had yet to guess what topic they would be discussing each day.
“Games,” Jason said as he sat down.
“Games?” Shade replied, taking his usual position a foot in front of the strangely pale man.
“Yes, things like chess. I have never understood them.” Jason motioned in front of him as if there were a chessboard between them. “They say it is a tool for teaching tactics and a quick mind, but the game only works if everyone plays by the same rules. On a battlefield, you will rarely find anyone playing by the same rules, and those that do usually don’t last very long.”
“I think they are just supposed to be stimulating,” Shade replied. He had never played a game before, so he felt like he didn’t know enough about the subject to argue the point. Luckily, he had the former High Commander’s memories to fall back on, and Stewart Cantel had been an avid gamer.
I can see where he is coming from, but it isn’t about the winning or losing so much as how you win or lose. Cantel said.
“Stimulating. Yes, I can see that. But it reinforces the belief that things are supposed to be fair. Life isn’t fair. The most intelligent and wise man in the world can’t be of any use if he looks like a beggar and the guards won’t let him in to talk with a noble, but a fop that is dressed nicely and has a regal bearing may at least get the chance to have a few moments with the same noble.”
“So, you are saying each piece needs to have different specialties based on its own inherent values, not whatever values we assign to it,” Shade said, attempting to keep up with the conversation.
“No,” Jason said, before cocking his head. “Well, actually yes. That would, of course, make the game convoluted and infinitely more complex, but it would also at least give you an idea of what it is like in a real battle, or even a game of political intrigue. I have seen games like that in my lifetime, and a few of them even managed to be fairly popular for a time, yet it is the games like chess, go, and the game of twenty squares that manage to stay around through the ages.”
“Maybe it isn’t about being realistic. Maybe it is supposed to just be a challenge between two people to prove who is better at playing the game. Maybe it is more about the way that you win or lose than about winning or losing.”
“That sounds like Stewart Cantel talking.” Jason grinned.
Shade shrugged. “He’s played the game. I haven’t.”
“I see your point.” Jason nodded at Shade, but they both knew it was aimed at the former High Commander. “Let’s look at it this way, though. Even if a game is organized in such a way that neither side has an advantage at the start, you cannot do the same with the player.”
Shade mulled this over for a few moments.
He’s right, Stewart Cantel said. Nim and I were fairly evenly matched when we played, but neither of us managed to beat the Arch Magus. Your father is the only one who I know of who has come close.
Shade was caught momentarily off-guard with Cantel’s casual reference to Lagelion Daystar as his father. As far as he knew, that was information that very few people had, and they had decided that it was unlikely that even Victor himself had known. To hear it so casually used was jarring, even if it had been in the confines of his own mind.
“So, what you are saying is that a game can never truly be fair, and even that illusion of fairness can even be harmful to someone because they may then begin to believe on some intrinsic level life is supposed to be fair as well?” Shade replied, pushing the thoughts of Lagelion Daystar aside.
“Precisely!” Jason grinned, turning his wan appearance into something almost human for a moment. “Life is not fair. If you start to believe that everything is supposed to have its place, and that things are supposed to conform to rules because they are there you will be unpleasantly surprised more often than not. There are things out there in the universe that defy all rational thinking, and just because we believe the universe works in one way, does not mean that there isn’t a species or singular creature out there that has a fundamentally different concept of how the universe works.” Jason smiled. “That was one of the hardest lessons for humankind when they took their first steps out into the vastness of space. They had become so sure that they had begun to unlock all the secrets of the universe that when someone else opened a different playbook it took them centuries to come to grips with the idea that they needed to adjust their thinking.”
Jason stood, signifying an end to this portion of their talk. “That didn’t mean that everyone was that slow to respond, but remember…” He slid the dagger from its sheathe. “…people can react and change quickly, but governments and institutions only change when there is no other choice.”