humanoid golem wearing a bowtie [https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdzgJKuFiVjQrRNUrb8q2hme9c-qAecQqJWoh0IajlcAbxdDA434Hba6d1E4VZxJ5oRSgdLLefr2UENLnxu6PvXwt5MRNwvTZh6UGEM2BRpD781yokQ7cvVOS3O4YUrVkpz7ESQ36DEnDlbrgdSyYCFVnBN?key=ydQkOJdag5XUl5PwiJ-eyPnV]
Resolved to not drag things out with this Archivist—What if his next offer was even worse?—Alice put her new sandals back on, then headed to the door of her stone prison as directed in the letter.
The sandals felt odd on her feet, surprisingly comfortable, as if she walked on cushioned foam instead of leather on stone.
She had little time to form expectations as to what might happen when she put her hands on the door, but a second folded page sliding through a temporary letter slot which opened at the base of the door had not been among them.
Again, the outside of the note read:
> To My Temporary Guest
>
> Beneath the ever watchful gaze of the System, the gods' final miracle, I affirm, to the best of my knowledge, the veracity of the words contained herein.
With a sigh, she sat back down on the floor and unfolded the page to read whatever else the Archivist had to say.
> I am pleased you seem amenable to forming a System contract.
>
> The System can only be accessed by us humans, and only while we are calm. Some say it requires meditation, but this isn't wholly accurate. Instead, many find meditative practices necessary to reach the state of true calm required for System access.
>
> To start, breathe in nice and slow while counting to ten, then exhale at the same speed. Continue breathing following that pattern. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Ten in, ten out.
>
> If it helps, close your eyes and picture a calming scene. I favor the ocean waves myself.
Alice, familiar with the concept of going to her happy place.
Mention of the ocean always brought back one specific memory: the time spent with her family aboard a cruise ship during a minor storm.
Still quite small, she’d nestled beneath a blanket between her three bigger brothers and watched movies all morning and afternoon, at least until RJ tried watching Jaws with his younger siblings. He’d been in so much trouble once the screaming started and their parents realized what they were watching. Lost his tablet privileges for the rest of the cruise, the joker.
Looking back, her big brothers had almost definitely conspired together, desperate to keep her from crying while they were all stuck together in their tiny little room aboard the cruise ship. Even after RJ almost ruined their scheme the twins rallied, breaking out two decks of cards and convincing their parents to join in on the first of a long series of Andersen family Liverpool rummy tournaments, the agreed upon rules being written down by their father to be referenced in perpetuity to settle all disagreements regarding their house rules.
From then on, anytime there was a storm, especially one which knocked out the power, they’d gather round the breakfast room table and play Liverpool rummy by candlelight, often continuing on well after the storm broke and the power came back on.
Wiping away some annoying tears from her stupid eyes, Alice continued reading.
> Once calm, form a thought within your mind, a simple greeting to the System. There is no right or wrong way to complete this step as long as you do so while calm and collected. It is fine if you don’t succeed on the first try, merely continue settling yourself, proceeding when sufficiently calm.
Feeling a bit silly, Alice again thought of playing card games with her family during thunderstorms. Sufficiently in her happy place, she decided to give the next step a try.
‘Hello?’ she thought. ‘System? Is this really—’
Words appeared before her, despite her closed eyes. When she opened her eyes the words vanished, but they reappeared as soon as she closed them again.
[System connection established]
[Query?]
‘Menu?’ she tried. The letter continued on, but she wanted to try things out on her own first.
The words changed in response to her question.
[User Status]*
[Personal]*
[Social]*
[System Options]
‘User Status,’ she chose, starting from the top.
[Overall Health: Healthy]
[Willpower: Full]
[Stamina: Full (Mundane)]
[Mana: Full (Mundane)]
[Level 1 Steelbloom Mind (1 Level Point)]
[Growth: 0]
[Resilience: 0]
[Retaliation: 0]
[Body: Unbonded]
[Spirit: Unbonded]
Deciding to leave her ‘Level Point’ alone for now, whatever it did, she tried the next menu option, thinking, ‘Personal.’
[Map]
[Notes]
The map just showed her current location, which was entirely unhelpful with the rest of the map dark.
She had no notes, but made one labeled ‘Hello World’ just because. Once made, the note had info attached, giving the date the note was created.
[Hello World (Created 257-3-2-2-5)]
She opened the note again to try and parse that date format.
[Hello World
257-3-2-2-5
257? The year, maybe?
3? Month?
2? Month? Day?
2? Week? Hour?
5? Day? Minute?
Todo: Make notes later and compare
]
Honestly, the numbers could mean anything. And why would the System use hours and minutes? Those were from Earth. It would be weird if it did, unless somehow the format was for her, personally, and—
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
She was getting distracted. The Archivist, if he was somehow observing her, probably thought she couldn’t find her happy place.
Next, the Social menu.
[Contacts]
[Contracts]*
[Guild]
[Party]
‘Contacts?’ she tried.
[No Contacts]
She put off investigating the Contracts option, but suspected she couldn’t do so for long. Both the Guild and Party options had similar messages to her Contacts, obviously, as she had joined neither such group.
Last, she inspected the final menu option.
‘System Options.’
[Notifications]
[Personalizations]
She could deal with those later.
Notifications, in particular, sounded kind of terrible. She kept her phone on silent most of the time for a reason. If there was some kind of System messaging service, as seemed likely, maybe it was better for her to have as few Contacts as possible.
On a whim she made a second note, ‘Test 1,’ which got the exact same string of numbers as her first note. Seemed it wasn’t counting the seconds or minutes, or the local equivalent.
She read ahead, skimming the parts which addressed everything she’d figured out, until she found the next relevant section.
> You will be unable to initiate contracts of your own until reaching level 10 in one of your bonds, when several System features are unlocked. But you can see the menu option now due to my request for us to form a Contract. Be sure to always have a contract in place when making any business deal worth more than a few credits. People who say there is no need are likely trying to scam you in some fashion.
>
> The System adds addendums to ensure all agreed topics are covered by the contract and that the overall contract is fair, to protect both parties. It’s best to
Rolling her eyes, she opened the Contracts option.
[1 Contract Offer Pending]
[Contract Offer received on 257-3-2-2-5
Type: Acknowledgement of Life Debt Owed
Savior: Xylvan Cypheron
Debtor: Alice Andersen
Cost to Replace Items Used:
1x Potion of Renewal (High Quality) @ 100,000 credits
1x Seed from the First Steelbloom Tree (High Potency) @ 100,000 credits
1x Large Mana Core (Average Quality) @ 1,000 credits
All other costs are waived by the Savior
Total Debt: 201,000 credits
Interest Rate: 1% * 2n, where n = the number of seasons since the debt was created
Penalties: If the debt remains after three years the Savior may sell it to a debt collector, to recover the total debt however they deem most effective.
Payment Method: System Credit Transfer
Addendum 1: Both parties agree to a pact of mutual nonaggression. Neither will attempt to harm the other in any way for the duration of this contract.
Addendum 2: Upon formation of the Contract, the Savior will see the Debtor safely led to the Bloomhaven Information Guild branch where she might gain the means to repay this debt. He will provide her with a Letter of Recommendation to facilitate her swift acceptance into the guild.
Addendum 3: If the debt is repaid within one year from its acknowledgement, the Savior agrees to offer the Debtor a second contract in which he will provide her with his captured “portal beast” for bonding in exchange for her agreement to help him complete a specific task in the future.
Addendum 4: If the Savior fails to uphold his side of this contract, he must pay the Debtor or her designated heir an amount of credits no less than one hundred times her remaining debt. If no heir is designated, he must donate the sum to a charity over which he holds no influence, else the System will choose one for him.
Addendum 5: If the Debtor fails to uphold her side of this contract, all damages incurred will be added to her debt. Additionally, Addendum 3 will be voided.
]
[Accept? Revise?]
While she understood the fourth addendum’s purpose, knowing the guy would pay out to a charity if he decided to kill her wasn’t exactly reassuring. Then again, if he wanted her dead this whole situation was a rather convoluted way of going about it.
Rather, it seemed like an option to pay her a large lump sum if he had someone else bond with the portal beast instead of waiting to see how she did in this first year. Probably fair, since he was dangling this chance for her to get home in front of her. It would stink if he gave it to someone else.
Reading over the contract again, she had to agree it seemed fair, as long as one accepted the premise she should owe her “Savior” 201,000 credits for his expenses. Given she had no sense of a credit’s value, she had no idea how much she would really be agreeing to pay. A thousand credits could have the same value as a dollar for all she knew. Probably, that wasn’t the case. She could still hope.
She considered trying the Revise option, but aside from the total debt and onerous interest rate she didn’t have much she wanted to change. She could try, but—glancing through the rest of the letter, she confirmed he did in fact mention being unwilling to agree to any changes to the contract.
After biting her lip and reading through the thing one final time, she thought, ‘Accept.’
[Debt Contract: 203,010 credits owed]
Alice scowled at her total debt which had already jumped up by 2,010 credits. One percent interest.
Next season it would be two percent, 4,020 more credits.
Or, no, it would be 4,060.2 credits, two percent of the new total. She’d need to figure out a way to earn at least that much if she wanted to stay ahead of the interest.
Not that just staying ahead of the interest would see her debt cleared in a year.
…She’d figure something out.
Before she could get too depressed, the door opened!
In walked a rough statue of an approximation man, made from chunks of stone the same gray as the room. It wore a black bowtie pinned at the base of its neck, in lieu of actual clothing.
“Archivist?” Alice tried, doubting herself even as she spoke. No, in the letter he called himself a human.
The stone man shook his head from side to side.
“No? Is that a universal gesture?”
The stone man nodded.
“That doesn’t actually clear things up,” Alice pointed out, feeling annoyed. After a beat of consideration she tried, “Indicate ‘Yes’ then ‘No.’”
The man of rock nodded once, then shook its head once.
She stared into the dark pits in its head that would indicate eyes. “Well. That’s cleared up then.”
It nodded, then handed her another note. Two, actually. The second being a sealed letter not addressed to her, but to “The current branch manager of the Information Guild’s Bloomhaven branch.”
Alice read her note, now addressed “To My Debtor,” which made her roll her eyes.
> You are in the basement of a building I maintain in the Arena district outside of Bloomhaven. As I have no use for the place in the foreseeable future, feel free to use it as you will for the next three years. What it lacks in amenities other than running water, it makes up for in that you can live there rent free.
>
> Rocky is the building’s guardian. The golem will defer to you unless carrying out his duties.
>
> Should you repay your debt in under a year, Rocky will direct you to me.
>
> For now, Rocky will lead you to the Bloomhaven branch of the Information Guild. Use the letter addressed to their current manager to gain admittance to the guild. I can think of no better place for one so unfamiliar with our world to begin her Path. Your secrets are your own, but, should you consider them worth sharing, the guild will pay a fair price for whatever knowledge you are willing to share from your realm.
>
> Follow the golem without deviation. You must enter the city before being considered a proper resident—something required for your personal safety within humanity’s sanctuary cities, and providing some safety without. When you arrive, you must tell the guards you are “new to the cities of humanity.” When asked your purpose, state you “wish to become a resident.”
>
> Answer the guards’ following questions truthfully. There will be no repercussions for any answers you give as long as they are truthful. Guards are bound to keep secrets learned during the course of their duties secret unless the secrets pose a danger to the cities, which I can assure you yours do not. Lie and there will be complications which will waste time neither of us can spare.
>
> The Guards will see you Marked and explain the laws of our land. I suggest you heed them.
>
> Likewise, I suggest you do your best to avoid drawing too much attention to yourself until you gain the strength to handle such unwanted attentions, as there is no more aid I can provide you from a city away. Trust in your guildmates, or rather the guild charter which ensures no foul play between guildmates.
>
> If there is a chance you might forget the instructions above, be sure to bring this letter with you and refer back to it.
>
> With Sincere Anticipation Of Your Triumph Over All Present and Future Trials,
>
> Archivist Xylvan Cypheron of the Runic Council
>
> The Academy, Solstrice's Vigil
Alice frowned down at the letter. Now he was giving her a place to live, just like that? What was the catch?
Rocky the golem, meanwhile, had shut the door to her stone room.
Before she could open her mouth to complain, he held up one finger, then put both hands against the door as she was instructed previously. The door opened at his touch. He touched the door the same way and it closed again. Then he gestured her towards the door.
At her dual touch, the door swung outward. “Got it, thanks,” she said.
Before she could leave, Rocky held up a finger to get her attention again. He pointed at her, knocked twice on the wall, pointed at himself, then walked in place. After a moment he held out his arms and made jazz hands.
Alice thought this through. “If I knock on the wall, you will come find me?”
It nodded, then knocked on the wall twice again.
“Knock twice. Got it. Anything else?”
He pointed at her again, then cupped his hands in front of his nonexistent mouth and bent back as if taking in a deep breath before bending forward, exhaling all the air he didn’t breathe in.
After a moment he again held out his arms and made jazz hands.
“You’ll also come if I shout?” she guessed.
The golem nodded, giving her a thumbs up, then gestured for her to follow, exiting the room.
Briefly, she considered the hand signal and wondered if, like the head gestures, it meant the same as what she expected. But why would it? Did the locals also once have gladiatorial arenas where the crowds cheered for a thumbs up signal which indicated the death of downed foes, thus associating it with a positive meaning despite its bloody origins. Could the same gesture have originated from different circumstances? Or, could the golem be making some entirely different signal, and it was her translation necklace which convinced her of what she saw?
Before falling too far down that mental rabbithole, Alice realized she lost sight of Rocky. After a moment of hesitation she followed him into the hallway, the room’s door closing behind her.