One week was their deadline. One week was the time given to construct the Raman Spectroscopy. The third day came and went. In the first few hours of the fourth day…
“We’re done.” David let out a sigh and plopped down. “Finally.”
Chuckling, Kazi sat down beside. Admittedly, he was quite relieved too. They were finished. Kazi and David sat with water bottles, drinking and leaning on the wall. Laid out in front of them was a mini-factory. Fifty by fifty feet, rows of conveyor belts stood dormant, their mechanical arms and specific operations poised to spring to life at a moment's notice. Metal mingled with the thick aroma of grease and lubricant. It was quite nasty.
“You were smart to start building in advance,” David remarked. “We’re going to have so much to show.”
To bring the best impression possible, they planned to bring several additional devices. That included a fully-functioning smartphone, lidar, and the highly requested Raman Spectroscopy. Kazi flipped over the smartphone in his hand, examining it. He couldn’t believe he had done it. He and David had been working in the background whenever possible. The device boasted a slim and lightweight construction, fitting comfortably in the palm of his hand. He turned it on. A high-resolution touchscreen display dominated the surface, stretching from edge to edge with crisp clarity and vivid colours. The bezels were minimal too.
“A bit slow on the activation,” Kazi muttered.
“Nobody is gonna notice,” David said. He inhaled. “But goddammit, it’s annoying me. Here, give it to me, I’ll try and adjust it.”
The tempered glass of the smartphone was the least trickiest part. The modern smartphone market used aluminosilicate glass which required zeolite, a naturally occurring element. On Earth, it would have been easy enough. Here, not as much. Kazi had to sacrifice modernity and chose to manufacture borosilicate glass instead. The primary materials were boric oxide, silica sand, soda ash, and alumina. The quality was superior to normal glass and thus had other marketable functions. In other words, even if Kazi’s idea failed, he had something to lean on: the water bottle and camera industries. After all, on the back of the smartphone, a polished casing housed the camera module.
As David cracked open the back to adjust the circuit, a black System window suddenly made him drop the phone. Any exasperation Kazi had was replaced by bewilderment.
[ ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL PLAYERS
GATE 13 IS CURRENTLY UNDER OBSERVATION! NO FURTHER PLAYERS MAY ENTER!
SINCERELY, ARCHITECT CAIN ]
‘Architect Cain…?’
“Cain…?” David repeated in a mutter. “Wait, that’s the guy from the very start! R-right?”
“I think so. An Architect, huh? This doesn’t seem normal,” Kazi said, mostly to himself. He got up. “I’m going to the Bazaar to check things out. Be right back.”
“Sure. Catch ya later.”
***
“Have you heard?”
“Gate 13 is closed!”
“No, as in, no one can enter it. For some reason it’s closed off.”
“Blimey, mate, yer actin’ like the players have a bowl of porridge in ‘ere. No shite something happened. I bet my grandmother's best whiskey.”
“The Silent Force…freaky ass place.”
Going on a stroll through the Nebulous Bazaar and picking out voices to eavesdrop on was a skill Kazi cultivated through years on the streets. When he was a servant, he often went out to gain a deeper understanding of his surroundings. He wanted to know what the people wanted, how they reacted, and why they spoke the way they did. What were their true feelings regarding the decision on a particular matter? He read their lips, grasped their body language, and tried to be attentive to their emotions.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Any carriages with passengers, he discreetly slowed down to listen to. Some worked, others didn't. He never stayed glued to a carriage for longer than a minute.
He purposely went toward the Guild Sector. He calmly strolled through the territory of the Templars, eyes flickering and reading. He didn’t expect much from the Templars given what happened to their students. He went ahead and encroached onto the Chinese Sects. First was the Justice Sect, the white hanfus of equality fluttering. Voices of the old and new echoed everywhere.
The structures facing each other belonged to the Justice, a placement regularly employed by many large guilds. Two schools of martial artists, the left for the experienced cultivators and the right for the newbies. Kazi drifted to the right and cast a glance at the open gate of the school. Beyond the gate, a spacious courtyard stretched out before Kazi, paved with smooth stone tiles and students.
He read their lips. He tried to understand. He slowed his pace by just a step. He was past the Justice Sect territory without anyone knowing and without knowing anything more. It was the same everywhere. ‘Everybody is confused,’ Kazi thought. ‘Gate 13 closed and no one knows why.’
Past the Justice Sect were the Orthodox Sect, Unorthodox Sect, then the smaller guilds. The Maccabees, the Holy Dynasty, the Golden Phoenix Clan, Thunderstrike Brotherhood, and everyone else. At the very, very end were the Alhambra Guardians. Kazi could relax a little here since he was Muslim. Suspicion wasn’t casted on him.
Even then, he didn’t get the information he wanted. He glanced at the Harem Palace, adjacent to the Magnificence. Fragrant flowers perfumed the air. Other than that…Kazi sensed nothing from it. For some reason, looking at it caused him a headache. Looking at it caused him to think of nothing. To go empty.
He looked away and went left. Facing the Caliph’s Harem Palace was the largest mosque in the Nebulous Bazaar. Indeed, Kazi was able to circumvent any and all suspicion by going in there. It was Friday and he joined the crowd of people funneling into the gate. A classical Ottoman-designed structure, one massive dome stood in the center, accompanied by four smaller domes. Tall, slender minarets rose high into the sky, their elegant spires reaching toward the heavens in silent reverence. Six of them.
Inside, he and a hundred other worshipers found themselves in a massive courtyard. Stained glass windows were everywhere. He got through to one of the four semi-domes, slipping off his shoes, the floor of expensive carpet. The crowd having thinned, Kazi approached the first volunteer he encountered, who was asking for donations from everyone that entered. “I’m new here,” Kazi said, smiling. “Is there any way I can help?”
“Ah, no, no, this isn’t like the old world.” The man patted the golden crescent moon on the breast of his thawb. “We work for the Alhambra Guardians.”
“Understood, understood. Thank you, brother.”
“Anytime.”
In the background, he continued to hear requests for donation. Kazi chuckled to himself. Some things never changed.
***
An hour and a half later, Kazi was inside the elevator of the House of Wisdom. Harp music played and he whistled to himself. “What to do, what to do…”
The hundred-plus buttons on the elevator panel were drawn with symbols. Swords, spears, imagery of fire, water, and the other elements. It was very encompassing and often vague. His finger hovered over the button. That was when a System box appeared and the specific section name was given.
“Gate history…Gate history…there it is.”
Click.
Instantly, the harp played faster. Kazi crossed his arms, fingers tapping, until the elevator doors opened. He went through. He had been here once before and like last time it was half-full. It wasn’t a lack of information or books. Rather, the shelves were ginormous and encompassed tens of thousands of books. The centerpiece of the section, the thick magical tree, hid the additional shelves on the other end.
Staring at the tree with the head of an ibis was a mighty male. Shirtless and in a white shendyt, his wings folded neatly against his back. His complexion was brown and sculpted by pristine, marred by nothing and lacking the flaws of a human.
Turning, the ibis-headed male's long, thin black beak faced him. His eyes were tiny dots, black like the void, regarding Kazi with a gaze that said nothing.
“Ah, a guest.” He fully turned, towering over Kazi like a child. “I am Thoth, the librarian of the House of Wisdom. How may I help you?”
The librarian of the House of Wisdom, one of the seven pillars of the White Abyss. He must have been an Architect too. “I'm curious about the recent announcement and wanted to do some research.” He glanced around, finding thirty people already littered throughout. “Looks like I'm not the only one.”
“It appears not.” Thoth stared down at him. Suddenly, he tilted his bird head. “Valknut.”
Kazi blinked twice.
“Your left eye…” Thoth leaned down to his level. “Valknut, the knot of the slain, the symbol of Odin. Curious.”