“How!?” Owen whined, pounding the table.

I’m a benevolent god, so I decided to give him a pro tip.

“You kept taking my minor pieces with pawns, it’s why your pawn structures got so fucked up.” I explained. “That’s usually not what you want to do.”

“But if I didn’t take with those pawns, you would have just moved away!”

“You shouldn’t have been using those pawns as guards in the first place - it let me make favorable trades.”

Owen and I had been at it for hours, waiting out a snowstorm that had blown in last night. It was a bit unusual for this early in the winter, but welcome. Classes were canceled, and most of the students were out at the Coliseum, engaged in a snowball battle royale. It sounded like a blast, but I suspected that if I showed up, a bunch of girls would start whispering unsubstantiated bullshit into their boyfriends’ ears, and I’d get shoved head first into an ice block.

Of all the students in Castella, there were only two nerdy enough to be holed up in the library on a day like this. As for myself, I was studying for the advanced mathematics test. Based on the previous tests that I’d gone over, it appeared doable - I just needed to brush up on the fundamentals. I was also on the hunt for books about forging. The class thus far had been mostly concerned with the act of forging itself, but it would quickly turn into design work, and I wanted to be ready. The fate of APPLE depended on it.

“...uncle.” Owen said, defeated. It was about that time.

“Tell Allison I said thanks for talking to Stella for me.” I interjected.

At this point, I’d accepted that, no matter what I did, no matter how well I managed to keep myself in check, Stella would never really like me. But for now, she was at least back to tolerating me.

“I was actually the one who told her.”

“Aww, Allison didn’t want to?”

Owen rolled his eyes. “She and Stella haven’t been on speaking terms ever since Burt took Stella shopping.”

“Spicy… thanks for the intel.” I pondered, wondering how much coin got dropped. I knew for a fact that Stella was flat broke, so it wouldn’t take much to impress her. Really, she should have been out snow shoveling with the other students who needed a part-time gig. That’s what I’d been up to this morning, and I had a shiny silver coin to prove it.

“What have you been studying?” I asked.

“Geography. I’ve mostly just been searching around for the best map of Alterra that I can find.”

“What have you found?”

“Just this one so far.” said Owen, unfolding a large sheet of parchment over a table. Sure enough, Alterra really was just one vast blobular continent.

“Kinda looks like… an archery target. What are those rings?” I asked.

“The big ring is the Halo Mountains - they’re almost in a perfect circle, and there are very few ways in or out. They also mark the border of the Castellan empire. Most of the army is stationed at around a half-dozen major roadways that cross through the ring.”

“Then what’s the smaller ring?”

“The Hallowed Ridge. That’s where we are, see?” Owen said, pointing to a small dot labeled ‘Castella’ on a northern stretch of the ridge.

Unlike the Halo mountains, the Hallowed ridge was its own imperfect shape, kinda like a ringworm that one of my sisters got when we were growing up (and we never let her forget). Though it wasn’t perfectly circular, the center of the ridge seemed to coincide with the center of the Halo mountains, which also seemed to coincide with the center of the whole continent itself.

Coincidences all over the place…

“And Apis is right in the middle of it all?” I asked after a few moments of quiet study.

“That’s right. There isn’t a dot for it on the map, since the town hasn’t been around for that long, but it’s supposedly right next to the very center. One of those river offshoots is the stream that runs through town.”

After a bit of prodding, Owen showed me a few more places of interest. Castella’s largest trading partner by far was Aetheria - a massive city whose influence stretched through most of the southern half of the continent.

“Aetheria is way down on the continent’s southern coast. If you go by cart, it takes several months to travel from Castella to Aetheria.” Owen said excitedly. “But at the transportation hub, you can travel there instantly! For a generous fee.”

Finally, Owen pointed out another big dot on the continent’s western coast.

“These are the guys you have to watch out for. This is Sol, the capital of the Sunhome kingdom.” Owen said, with considerably less enthusiasm. “The City of the Damned. They’re always trying to sell us their slaves. Castella has been in conflict with Sunhome ever since they teamed up with the Duskov empire to try and invade us.”

That’s a whole lot of words I don’t know…

“But they failed?”

“Yeah. The Duskov empire collapsed when their ruler lost his key, as the story goes. Personally, I think there were a lot of other factors that played into their defeat, but anyone with an ounce of superstition puts it on the key.”

“But what is so important about the keys?” I asked stiltedly, perhaps betraying my incredibly vested interest in the matter.

“Nothing inherently - the keys aren’t known to unlock anything. In the Church of Iron they’re just symbols of trust, and the pursuit of the truth.” Owen explained. “After defeating the demon lord, the hero Matthias gave them to the rulers of seven countries for safekeeping. Some people say that the keys provide their host country with prosperity, growing more powerful the longer they have been safeguarded. But if a country loses its key, that’s a massive hit to morale. It means that the leadership has strayed so far from reality that they have lost the competence to protect their people.”

So hypothetically, if I was hiding one of these keys in a cubby hole… that would be a big deal?

I didn’t actually say that. But I made a mental note to never, under any circumstances, open my yap any wider than it needed to go.

“I heard that when Duskov lost their key, they ordered all of their citizens to kill their pets and check their stomachs for it.” Owen gulped. The gulp was contagious.

No wonder John and Dunkan were so freaked out…

After geeking out over the map for a little while longer, Owen had an idea for how we could bring it all to life.

“Let’s go up one of those elevators that spans the cliff!” He suggested. “I’ve always wanted to see the city from the top of the ridge!”

“Dope.” I agreed, giving him a thumbs-up.

----------------------------------------

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As we soon learned, after a thirty minute wait in a queue, this meant I would have to relinquish control over my precious shiny coin. I paid for Owen’s trip as well, as a sort of thanks for hanging out.

The elevators were all lined up next to the cliff, a short walk behind the school campus. Some of them were for small groups of people, while others were large enough for carts. I was kinda surprised to find elevators in a medieval town, but they operated flawlessly, without magic, using a counterweight system with diverted water from the river that flowed down the ridge in a great waterfall through the middle of town.

While most segments of the Hallowed ridge were manageable to climb, Castella was built at the foot of one of the tallest and most sheer sections of the ridge - with cliffs soaring a thousand feet high. It was dead vertical, so we could go all the way from the bottom to the top of the ridge with just one long motion.

Before long, we were at the top of the ridge, gazing out over the serene Castellan landscape, leaning on a wooden fence that had been erected as the last line of defense against idiots.

It failed.

A short distance away from us, a prominent ledge of rock jutted out about ten feet from the edge of the cliff.

Not to see shapes in the clouds or anything but… that’s a diving board.

Apparently, several wannabe daredevils agreed. They walked right out to the edge of the ledge, striking ridiculous one-legged poses like demented flamingos. A couple of them mimed falling off, to the amusement of their friends.

“Does this place get a lot of high divers?” I asked Owen.

“Not that I’ve heard of… they don’t seem to be policing it very strictly.”

Morbid question, but I had to know. I had to know because I’m from Earth, and I’m accustomed to never not knowing - all the information you could ever desire is just a click of the way. Even the horrible stuff. Especially the horrible stuff. Like how anglerfish breed. I watched a woman give herself an abortion with a hammer once. I have no idea what the internet did to my brain, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I had some kind of PTSD - if it wasn’t such a cliche term. But it’s only cliche because everyone has it… and you know what? Maybe they do.

The sun had just begun to set in the west, casting golden rays over the city. The nice thing about Castella was that, since the sun always crossed the sky in the southern hemisphere, the city was never stuck in the shadow of the cliffs.

From my vantage point, I could see the castle and the church which, as tall as they were, were still dwarfed by the cliff.

I saw how the river cut the town almost perfectly in half, separating the tall, dignified stone manors of the west side from the lively mix of stone and wood buildings that sprawled throughout the market district on the east side, with people flowing through the clogged streets like ants. The protective perimeter of the stout stone walls dotted with guard towers added to an overall sense of security and order. All of the buildings were capped with fresh, white snow from the day - only the major roadways had been completely shoveled. The countryside was mostly just a blank white canvas, with only a few roads and villages on the east side to show for itself, while the western countryside was all but devoid of humanity.

“The killing field must be seriously dangerous to prevent any kind of building over there…” I mused.

“They do call it the killing field…” Owen shrugged. “But that’s for you adventurers to worry about.”

The Coliseum, the school, the bathhouse, Dunkan’s Church… after I’d seen everything I wanted to see, I turned my attention back towards the idiot brigade. They’d cleared out, but for some reason a small crowd had converged around the ledge. Before I even had time to wonder what they were gawking over, the reason made himself apparent. A tall, well-built shirtless man strode through the crowd and made his way onto the ledge.

Looks slick with snow… don’t mess up bro.

He wasn’t going to. As the crowd gasped, the man slowly knelt at the very edge of the rock and raised himself smoothly into a handstand - facing towards the abyss. I was getting secondhand vertigo just from watching. A girl yelped. And this absolute maniac… took that as his cue to start doing handstand pushups. Not gonna lie, I was a bit jealous. Back on Earth, my shoulders would have been strong enough for something like that, but I’d never had the proper balance to hold myself upright without toppling over.

Like a gravitational pull, Owen and I wandered over and joined the crowd. There was a little collection tin parked nearby, and a few of the onlookers dropped some change in. This guy was literally being paid to work out.

After ten push-ups, but still maintaining the handstand, the man turned himself so that he was facing the crowd, then shifted his weight, picked up one of his hands, and gave the people a little wave, before standing back upright and doing a front flip. He repeated these stunts a few more times for good measure - Owen cringed every time the guy got particularly close to the edge.

The routine ended with two consecutive front flips - and the crowd gave the man an enthusiastic applause. The man picked up his collection tin, shook a few tins, and left the way he came. Suddenly, right as he was passing us… I recognized him!

“Hey Zerch!” I waved.

“No way, it’s the shrimp!” Zerch smiled back. “And Owen, right?”

Owen grinned and greeted Zerch as well.

“Looks like you’ve recovered from your sting.” I said.

“Yeah… you too.” Zerch asked. He turned fully towards me and started studying me carefully.

“Was it worth it?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nope. I tried taking smaller doses of that venom later on, and got the same response. There’s some kinds of venom that you just can’t build a tolerance to - but at least I know that now!”

“Bradley seasons his food with it.” Owen blurted.

“That’s crazy!” Zerch laughed. “You might have found your talent, kid! Every king needs a food tester.”

“Getting paid to eat… when can I start?” I contemplated aloud.

“That looked really risky…” Owen said, looking at Zerch nervously. “Do you need the money that badly?”

Zerch grinned reassuringly. “I’m an adventurer - risking my life for spare change is what I do. Are either of you taking the adventuring class right now? That’s where I got my start!”

“Yup!” I said, giving him a thumbs-up.

“That’s great! If I was teaching the adventuring the Adventuring class, first thing I would do is line all the little kiddies up, march them up here, and-”

“No way!” Owen cut him off.

“Oh, I’m serious.” Zerch said, the smile disappearing from his face. “Off the top of my head, I can list ten things out there…” he pointed at the killing field, “...that can kill you faster than that ledge can if you lose your footing.”

“I’ve seen too many new adventurers die…” he continued, a touch of sadness creeping into his voice, “...because they can’t face death. They overthink. They faint. They go hysterical. Worst of all, some of them freeze - they don’t even move a muscle while some wild beast tears their best friends to shreds.”

Zerch looked back at me. “Are you trying to become an adventurer, Bradley?”

“Yeah, I am.” I nodded, without hesitation.

“Well then, if you’re so sure of yourself…” Zerch pointed to the ledge. “Show me what you’re made of.”

Damn. If Zerch hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near that ledge - heights make me dizzy, and I’m one of those morons that always gets the stupid urge to jump. It’s all risk and no reward. Completely unjustifiable… but now, after what Zerch had just said… there was absolutely no way I was backing down.

Hesitantly, I walked to the base of the ledge. The sun was just about to dip below the horizon, and it was getting dark fast. The surface was uneven, and while the other daredevils had done a good job clearing most of the snow, there were definitely some slick spots. Trembling slightly, I inched forward to about the halfway point of the ledge. The rock was only about four feet wide here, and I was already starting to visualize how things could go wrong.

“Keep going!” Zerch called, more as a command than as encouragement.

I desperately wanted to turn back and flee, but it was just as Zerch had said - my whole life was gonna be full of crazy, dangerous shit like this, so it was time to turn down my fear volume. I slowly closed in on the tip of the rock - less than three feet wide - and took in the best view of the town I was ever going to get, bathed in reddish gold.

“Alright! Now when I tell you… Jump! Land so that you’re facing us!” Zerch ordered.

This fucking guy…

The smoke from the smokestacks wafted wobbily up through space, distorting my already strained spatial awareness. A pink-banded meteor streaked through the sky, landing in the forest to the west.

I bent my legs slowly… wondering how much force to use… which direction to go…

When was the last time I jumped for any goddamn reason!?! This is my sister’s job! She’s the jumper! Not-

I cut myself off and jumped… a fraction of a second before I was ready! And when I landed, my first foot down slipped on a patch of ice!

All I had to rely on were reflexes, nothing else. No training, no planning, no strategy. I didn’t even have time to think any thoughts that could be translated into words. I curled my legs up and twisted so that I fell on my stomach, reaching out with one arm across the rock. I was sprawled out uncomfortably… but I was safe! Slowly, respecting the snowpack all around me, I regained my feet, and walked back to Zerch and Owen. It might have been my imagination, but my last few steps off of the ledge were a bit more confident than before - I guess since I knew how to handle the shit if it ever decided to hit the fan again.

Zerch clapped, while Owen looked on disapprovingly.

“Well done, kid.” Zerch said, his smile still not fully returned. “Here. When adventurers do something dumb, they get paid.”

He reached into his collection tin and handed me a shiny silver coin.