Before me stood a duo of children: a little girl stood down a tiny hallway inside the apartment with a slightly older brother standing behind her.

“Who are you?” the girl squeaked in a small voice. I exhaled heavily. My first encounter in the city was not quite what I had anticipated.

The children both stared at me expectantly. I know nothing about children or interacting with them.

“Uh, hi,” I replied. Why are they here? My key worked, this is the right place. Are they living here alone? Was I assigned children to take care of? I looked around the room. No clues there. It was a simple room: a table with four chairs, a large window in the back, some shelves with plates and cups, some closed cupboards, and a hallway with two children staring at me. I could just make out two doors down the hallway, but I couldn't see anything else. They’re still staring at me. I should probably say something. “Can I help you with something?” I tried to force a friendly smile, but may have come across like a broken automaton instead.

The young boy spoke this time, “Our mom is at work. She’ll be back soon for lunch.”

“Shouldn’t you be at school or somewhere?” Preferably somewhere away from my apartment.

He shook his head. “They don’t have school in this hex. We have to wait until we get our real home first.” By hex he means this tower, I’m guessing.

As if on cue, a woman walked into the door. “Why is the door open?” She paused when she saw me. “Oh. Hello,” she said meekly, glancing at my hand still grasping a dagger. “I didn’t know we had a fourth coming today.”

I quickly put the dagger away, smiling awkwardly. “Why are you all living in my apartment?” Maybe not the best place to start, but I had really been hoping to sleep in a bed after being in the line outside for multiple nights, and traveling nonstop before that.

“Each apartment keeps four people,” she replied, visibly at ease now that I wasn’t armed. “We only have the three of us, so they put you in here to make it four.” Great, exactly what I needed right now.

Honestly, it wasn't a big deal. I had slept in much tighter spaces with many more people. I just hadn't been expecting it. The towers are huge on the outside, but I guess it takes a lot of space to house the remainder of humanity.

I should try to be friendly. “Where are you three from?” They look like they’re probably from this general part of the world. Dark hair, almond eyes, skin a middling shade similar to mine but with a different underlying tone. I thought the people of Mius were given premium accommodations, though.

“We are from Himaho.” Of course they are. Of course my assigned apartment has a family from the only country in the world to ban magic and convince their people it’s normal. I looked them over. I should have realized from the plain brown smocks and shoes that could have turned to dust at any moment. They were the spitting image of peasant farmers from 1000 years ago. The only place where people still look like that is Himaho.

“I’m going to sleep now.” I walked quickly past them into the hallway. Door to my left or door to my right? I pushed open the left. It was just a bed, and a block of wood with legs in a poor imitation of a nightstand. No signs of any of their belongings in here, so I’m taking it.

I faceplanted into the bed. Objectively, I knew it was a terrible bed, but it felt amazing after all the time without one. I think I’ll sleep for about 11 hours. That’ll put me a couple hours before midnight. I preferred the night to give me good cover to explore the city and find some work.

____________________________________________________________________________

I woke up and immediately jumped off the bed. I needed a moment to reorient myself. Tiny room. In a shared apartment. Inside a giant tower. Right, end-of-the-world accommodations.

What time is it? The mindlink immediately put it in my vision. 3:57OT, just a couple hours before midnight. I felt surprisingly well rested, maybe missing a small chunk of energy. Time to figure out this city. Maybe I can find some work, too. Food isn’t exactly free.

I peaked out from my door. The apartment was still; they must all be asleep now. They looked innocent enough, but I decided to bring all my stuff with me for the time being. Oh, speaking of stuff, I have the random bag of “complimentary” things they gave me. The table room was well lit by the nearly-full moon outside shining peacefully through the window. Just beneath it, the static blue wall continued its deathly approach.

I opened up the bag and looked inside. Immediately, a screen appeared in front of me. It showed several boxes, each with a little picture in it. I reached in and grabbed something from the bag and one of the squares lit up. It looked like a picture of a shirt. I looked down at what I grabbed: a rolled up piece of cloth.

I unfurled it and it was exactly the shirt in the picture. With the box highlighted, it also showed a weight and cost. Weight: 0.4lbs. I bounced it for a moment; it seemed about right. Value: 0₯. Wait, they don’t use drachma here. I mentally adjusted and the symbol changed to satang. 0₴. There we go, now I know the conversion rate for worthless items.

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I stuffed the shirt back into the bag and took inventory of the other items on the screen. The shirt, a pair of pants, and shoes: all extremely simple and lower quality than what I have on. Beneath all of that, a map of the city: actually useful.

I mentally highlighted the square image and felt my hand reach almost automatically into the bag and pull it out. This is pretty awesome. I don’t know how much time I had wasted digging through bags in my life up to that point, but I know it must have been quite a bit. The mindlink has more tricks going for it than I initially thought, even without external enchants.

The map was two sided. On the first was an outline of the city. It was made of 14 hexagonal towers built next to and attached to each other. Each tower was marked with a few of its primary purposes. The one I was in was marked “Temporary Housing.” I glanced around the apartment. Hopefully very temporary.

There are three towers connected to this one: the one to the northwest is marked as dedicated to the Master Sorcerors, straight north is a normal residential and multipurpose tower, and northeast is an arboretum. Did they really devote an entire tower to just plants? On the other hand, if I’m stuck in this apartment for more than a week, I might consider camping out in a bush there.

The other side of the map had the same outline, but was littered with little symbols and a list of what each symbol was for. There were several markets, specialty shops of all kinds, the Arena. My eyes stopped on that. I had seen lusors of arena matches, but never had the chance to see one live.

They had many different types of fights before the Catastrophe. I wonder what they’ve managed to put together here. The thought of getting to see the Arena was enough to give me the last boost of energy, I was pumped.

Maybe I could make some quick money there, too. I’ve got some decent fighting experience and a handful of weapons. They’ll probably put me up against some nobody, too. Well, I know where I’m starting the night.

New Quest: Enter the Arena

I did my check: dagger, sword, bow, perfect. I walked out the door and turned left, the opposite of the direction I came from. I was rewarded for my curiosity: there was another set of risers on that side of the tower. The walk to my “temporary” place will be a lot shorter from this side.

I stepped near the tubes for the risers that were going down and a disk slid out from the wall of the tube at the level I was on. I stepped on and it immediately dropped. Its enchantment was, of course, well done. My feet didn’t leave the disk despite being in almost freefall. At the bottom, it gently landed a little outside the tube, the same as at the top.

I strode down the ramp to the ground floor. It was still fairly busy considering how late it was. Everyone was moving slower though, more relaxed. I still moved quickly; I can’t help but move at an almost jogging pace unless I’m intentionally walking slower.

The Arena was two hexes straight north from the housing hex. I always had a good sense of direction. I knew the big door on one end of the room was the one I had come from, which is the south, so I headed through the corridor on the opposite side.

The threshold between the two hexes was longer than I had anticipated, but it finally opened up to the next tower. I nearly stopped walking at the sight. It was so much better than the one I was staying in. There was a large fountain in the middle of the plaza, small bushes and trees around, even a couple birds fluttering by. It smelled like fresh rain and grass, instantly relaxing.

This tower didn’t have the hole going straight through the middle. The ceiling was still very high, but it was hard to gauge exactly because it was enchanted to show an illusory sky. It was accurate, too: I could see the few constellations that I was familiar with. There were even more stars than I had seen before, too. I guess illusions of the sky aren’t affected by there being light everywhere.

The entire area was lit by a combination of the sky above and several illusory flames of various colors on top of lampposts. This place had signs too, so it was actually possible to get around. It looked like they had a market upstairs. I’ll save that for later. The Arena was still calling to me.

New Quest: Discover the Market

I walked across the hex. It was about the same size as the one I was staying in. It took a minute or so to reach the other end and enter the next corridor.

Halfway through the corridor, the discordant noise of a very active crowd began to grow. I exited out and was in a completely different world. People were eating, drinking, laughing, yelling. The smell there was…distinct. A combination of food from every corner of the world, sweat from the mass of bodies, and dirt from the ground. They didn’t pave this hex or place down a floor for some reason, so it was just dirt crushed down from a million footsteps.

There were guards dotted throughout the crowd, standing at the edges and wandering around. Several red dots appeared on my mental map and I couldn’t help but laugh. I guess I can’t shake old habits, even when I’m not actively being pursued.

Another difference: this hex had a directory hanging on the wall of what there was to do here. It was apparently the entertainment hex: a place to come and forget what’s happening outside the city. There were floors for sports, food, games, shows, simulated worlds and environments, lusors, and at the top: the Arena. Cataclysm Arena, apparently. A fitting name for fighting at the end of the world. I bet the sorcerors in charge of the city aren’t fond of it, after giving their city a name like Suriya– sun.

There were a few other options that sounded interesting (a gambling house, a weapons range), but I headed straight to the Arena. There were risers all around the edges of the room. About half of them were marked as going only to the Arena. Must be popular. I stepped onto one of the disks and began my trip upwards. The tube I was in was a green-tinged glass that allowed me to see out across the room. It was enormous compared to the first two hexes I walked through, easily twice as wide without all the buildings along the edges.

I had a second or so to enjoy the view before the riser rose past the ceiling and continued on to the top floor. It was a pretty quick ride, with the riser landing much farther from the tunnel than usual.

I stepped off it and saw a gorgeous circular stone building illuminated by the night sky shining in through a glass dome. It was made of pure white marble, accented with gold and silver slashes as if someone had cut through the stone with a sword and filled the wounds with metal.

Objective Complete: Find the Arena.