Monde was a life bearing blue-green planet, roughly a thousand times the size of similar worlds.
At its core, in addition to the usual expected molten metal and stone was an anomalous mass. Highly magical in nature. It’s origin naturally unknown due to the fact that it predated the world.
This mass was responsible for Monde’s high concentration of magical energies and entities. It was also was responsible for offsetting the gravitational forces that should have made it impossible for Monde to sustain human life.
*****
The fall of the Argus Empire led to a loss of nearly ninety percent of Monde’s human, or rather Monde’s “Humanoid”, population. Fortunately nearly ninety percent wasn’t everyone.
Enough individuals survived to sustain the species, even if genetic modification had to be brought in at times to help things along. Humanity here, is a communal term used to refer all the sentient races in much the same way one would use the word people.
Whether it was homo sapiens, regular humans, homo alfheimer, elves, homo nilbogus major, orcs, homo nilbogus minor, goblins, or the many, many races of mutant and lycanthrope, they were all people.
The people recovered, society recovered and civilization was resumed, limping but still moving forwards. Much was lost of course but there were moments where you could almost forget it.
*****
Bartrand “Bartt” Burch stood loitering in a coffee shop, sipping a frothy, foamy, cloyingly sweet dose of morning caffeine from out of a styrofoam cup. He reached into his pants pocket and brought out a little rectangle of glass and plastic and metal.
It was a phone. A smartphone. Ragnarok-Proofed factories and slightly over earnest A.I.s meant that such things still existed in the world.
Existing with enough abundance that there were more than a few of the simpler ones filling the trash heaps that lay beyond the city’s walls.
The real problem was that the high levels of aetheric radiation and transdimensional fluctuations in the upper atmosphere made long range communication difficult.
The loss and destruction of several satellite systems by the things from the outer dark and the meteor showers that appeared during the fall, made the restoration of global networks impossible.
Nowadays Phones were mostly used for their computer functionality as well as for the digital storage of certain spells and magical enchantments. They were also used as expanded walkie-talkies and symbols of status.
Thanks to Thaumaturgy and magical modifications to the old world’s technology, short or rather middle-range, Communication was doable. It was possible for a city or lesser kingdom to set up a fairly robust in-house network, but extending these networks past city walls was extremely difficult and came with risks.
Risks like having something ‘else’ track you and possibly have something predacious and dangerous come through the connection. Many an entire city or kingdom had been lost in attempts to do just this.
Bartt checked his phone, looking to see if he had any messages. Looking to see if that ‘sweet-piece’ that he’d spent last night getting friendly with had called him.
Looking to see if his ex-wife had called him to say she’d take him back or would ever have anything to do with him again. Looking to see if the people he was waiting for had at least texted to say that they’d be late. Bartt frowned at his phone.
“Hmph...Nothing. Some people haven’t any manners at all.” he said. Grumbling as he finished his coffee. Taking a moment to openly leer at the barista at the counter before ordering another drink.
Fifteen minutes passed and Bartt decided he’d wait another ten minutes more before walking away and deciding that the whole matter had been a wash. He should have known that his potential buyers would be no-shows.
His EITC liaison Trevor pretty much hated him and the feeling was mutual. Having Bartrand waste his time waiting on a so-so lead was exactly the kind of thing the liaison would do.
Five minutes went by and Bartt was just about to get up and go when the door to the coffee shop opened in. The bell above the door jingling for the tenth time in ten minutes.
Bartt didn’t even bother looking, he just knew it’d be another dopey-looking, well-to-do, punk with his mother’s teat milk still on his breath.
Coming to either mess with the manager or hit on the waitstaff. Barely buying enough to justify the establishment’s tolerance of their presence. Just another asshole and if Bartt wanted to see that he could just go home and look in a mirror.
Before heading out he went to the bathroom because he’d literally just drank five coffees in about forty-five minutes time.
He came back and saw that his table was already occupied. It was annoying somehow but he just shrugged figuring that he was about to head out the door anyway.
Then just as he was about to pass his table he heard his name called.
“Nh...You’re Bartrand Burch, right?”
Bartt stopped and turned to look at the speaking, taking the time to take a good look at the folks who’d stolen his table.
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There were two of them, a guy and a girl. The guy was dark skinned like most native citizens of Meallan. His gaze sleepy like he was either “on” something or he’d just woken up. Dark hair, dark eyes. His expression flat.
The girl bore a lighter shade of the Meallan tan. Her hair sunflower yellow and feathery enough that he was guessing she had some bird-kin in her. Either canary-kin or duck-kin.
The girl was all smiles, but when he came it became the kind of polite smile that was more just a thing that some folk wore because it was their job to do so.
Bartt knew the smile because he’d seen many a waitress wear them, still smiling despite all the cat calls and slightly over-friendly touches.
He knew that smile very well, his ex-wife had been a waitress once and she’d worn a similar smile both at home and at work. It was nostalgic. Seeing the girl’s made him smile a little too.
They were young, probably barely in their twenties. Though the guy looked like he could be slightly younger. They were both attractive in that same slightly higher than average way, that everyone on Monde was attractive.
It wasn’t anything magical, or actually it was. Attractiveness was mostly just hygiene plus health, plus visible indications of genetic viability. Aether’s effects on the body boosted all of that, doing so on a genetic level that passed on to one’s kids.
History being what it was and Monde being Monde, the fact’s now stood that so long as one did a little basic grooming, pretty much everyone looked sitcom ready at the very least.
These two kids looked a little bit more so, Bartt guessed that they were either old money or the children of strong practitioners.
Bartt’s eyes narrowed as he changed his assessment. The girl was probably old money at least. Her smile was the kind of million-watt smile that normally cost thousands in dental fees.
The boy was a bit off. Sitting stone still like a mannequin or a doll. Bartt decided to watch ‘him’ a bit closer. That probably had something to do with Bartt getting the sense that “he” was being watched closely in turn.
The boy had probably been the kind of kid who got mistaken for a girl a lot when he was younger. A thin, youthful face, delicate features. Thick dark hair. Rather than being made “handsome” by the aether, he was being made “pretty”, possessing the slightly photo-edited “beauty” that female practitioners of higher ranks eventually all started to take on as they cultivated.
Becoming slightly unreal looking and too perfect as they reached the higher layers.
While it was possible that the boy was just vain and using some kind of potions or attractiveness boosting spells, it was also just as likely that he was the girl’s bodyguard or something.
His rank high enough for just his presence alone to suffice for the job, even in a city like Gene. At the very least he was he was definitely fairly strong, which meant he was someone to be wary of.
*****
Billy assessed the sloppily dressed man in front of him. This was a business meeting and the man’s one assent to this was to come wearing a slightly higher class of sweats. Billy was all for being casual but that was a tad too much, or maybe that was his inner old man speaking.
Bartt their future landlord was slightly pudgy, while he wasn’t yet middle-aged, he wasn’t young either. Brown haired, brown eyed and Meallan-bronzed. This was the kind of person you could find anywhere in Meallan. At the very least he seemed to have an honest face. A sly face but honest.
“Wait...you guys are my buyers, yeah?” said Bartt.
“Yes.” said Billy.
“Um, I think so....” said Edna.
“Oh well, It’s fuckin’ kind of you guys to finally show up. You’re an hour late.” said Bartt. Pulling up a chair and plopping himself down at the table.
“Sorry.” said Edna. Looking slightly sheepish.
“....Pardon us for getting lost. I’m afraid this city’s just a bit bigger than our last home.” said Billy. His tone too flat for it to be discerned whether he was being sarcastic or not.
“Oh? And where’d you two come from?” said Bartt.
“Garland.” said Billy.
Bartt laughed.
The lesser kingdom of Garland might have technically been called a kingdom, possessing its own royal family, but it was called ‘lesser’ for a reason.The City of Gene sat on the edge of the Meallan-Gwenael border. By the main road that lead between to the Kingdoms.
The district that held the eastern gates for Gene was large enough to ten Garlands all on its own. The Argus continent was filled with small place and large places and similarly it held people of small and large statures.
In a place as large as this, fish and dragons swam together freely and being at the height of the material layer was barely better than being a normal human.
“Well okay then country mouse, I believe you when you say you got lost. Still you could have called or least text me to say that you were still coming. I nearly bailed on you two.”
“Call? Text?” said Edna. A little lost.
“Cell Phones….This city has a network.” said Billy.
“Ah! Oh, okay...Cool.” said Edna. Deciding to wait till later to ask Billy what a cell phone was.
“Alright, so shall we go?” said Bartt.
“....Let’s.” said Billy. Sounding faintly indifferent, having not yet decided whether he liked or disliked the candidness of their new guide.
*****
The three of them left the coffee shop. The coffee shop sat next to a convenience store which sat next to an apothecary which sat next to a smaller office of this city’s branch of the EITC. Which was why Bartt so often came here for coffee.
Choosing the shop as a convenient neutral meeting place for those few times he needed to meet someone for business.
On the street outside the coffee shop, there were folks wearing t-shirts, jeans and sneakers walking in groups talking about charms they’d seen in the magic shops. Warriors in plate mail and ballistic padding chatted on cell phones.
Gene being the major city that lay in between Meallan and Gwenael, it was natural for the roads to be packed. Congested. Filled with a mixture of wagons and buggies that were lead by horses and oxen.
As well as nouveau riche so-and-so's who drove about in shiny metal automobiles. Trailed by security who were following them with less flashy means.
Gene was a Meallan settlement so naturally there was a mixture of adobe brick and concrete. However there was a bigger number of refurbished old world buildings here.
The glass and steel monoliths gleaming as they stood towering above their peers. Massive sign boards covered in bulbs were mounted on many of them, waiting for the sun to fall and the evening to come. Waiting so they could shine in all their sordid glory.
There was also fair number of wooden buildings. Ranch style houses, slender three-layer mansions. Offices that looked like they were grown instead of built. Flooding the more affluent portions of the city with greenery.
Crawling ivies, shrubberies, small manicured trees, community flower beds, etc... An aesthetic put into place by the Gwenaelite businessmen and merchants, who’d brought in a bit of the Great Summer Kingdom’s forests and fields with them when they came to Gene and settled down.
*****
Bartt led the two youths through the town. Showing them the sights. Pointing out a few shops he liked to frequent. Mostly just good bars, twenty-four hour shops that had decent spreads and one cake shop that he always promoted in the faint hopes that the lovely proprietress would somehow hear about it and sleep with him again.
Their trek took them from the relatively upscale parts of town, which was pretty much any part of town where the bigger companies and guilds placed their influence, to the less savory parts.
Places where the walls were marked by gangs vying for territory. Where the amount of litter slowly rose because the city custodians were a little more wary of going there. Where the buildings started taking on a dejected air of disrepair. This wasn’t the worst part of the city but it certainly wasn’t the best.
They eventually came to their destination, a town house that stood across the street from one of the few bars Bartt didn’t frequent on account of the owner being an asshat. And also because he’d been banned from ever going back.
“Well here she is…” said Bartt.
The two youths stood staring at the town house. A steepled box made out of dingy brown brick. The roof covered in rusty metal plate.The tiny yard at the front of it, looking sun scorched. The tiny fence around the yard and the house, looking like it would fall apart if a stiff wind came.
“Nh…We’ll take it.” said Billy. After a moment’s thought.
Bartt startled.
“Really!? Sure you don’t want to take a look inside first?”
Billy just yawned.
“....No. That won’t be necessary.”