The sounds of urban life issued forth from the little village as Prospero drew near. At this point, his greatest concern shifted to whether he could suspend his own immersion enough to keep his head above water. He needed to remain focused on his plans if his grand strategy for this whole affair was going to be worth it.
Once again, his mind was dragged aggressively into the moment when a line of children burst from a field. They rushed up the road after him, and followed him from a safe distance. Prospero glanced over his shoulder to look at them.
“Hello there,” Prospero said, putting on a friendly tone.
“Hello, stranger! Where are you from?!” asked the bravest of them, shouting over their great distance. The child was a head taller than her friends, and looked to be about twelve. She trotted up to stand a little closer to Prospero, and the other children followed suit, looking either bashful or wary.
Oh shit, Prospero thought. I forgot to ask if this was going to be set in the same exact world and time period as Unity Online. Ah, but, what does it matter? Like some little kid from a medieval village is going to question if I name a place from somewhere else.
“From Avinstown,” Prospero answered. “Do you know it, Young Lady?”
The children giggled and blushed at Prospero addressing the girl—who was so clearly a poor commoner—as ‘Young Lady’. Their reaction confirmed at least one of his theories, the culture of the NPCs was at least roughly the same as in Unity Online.
“Don’t call me that,” the girl shot back, flustered, trotting up even further to stand even closer to Prospero. “But aye, I’ve heard of it. Avinstown. It’s Northern, right? Frontier town?”
Prospero’s eyebrows went up, surprised. There were another theory confirmed: Same world. Good to know, he thought.
“That’s the one!” Prospero said cheerfully. He offered the girl a charming chuckle and glanced sidelong at her, still walking toward the town. “I am surprised you know it. Maybe you are a Young Lady after all, who has studied the wider world and all of its places.”
The girl blushed again. “My father tells me about them. He was a soldier once. He traveled the world and saw many places.”
“Ah, then you are not the daughter of a scholar, but the daughter of a hero.” He smiled again, but turned now to stop in the road and face the girl, who stopped before him, blushing from receiving the praises of a traveler. “Forgive me, Young Miss, I did not know. My name is Prospero. May I ask yours?”
“I’m Sadia of Canthari,” she said, finally smiling back. She gestured to the village. “Welcome to Canthari, my home. Where are you headed?”
Canthari. He wasn’t familiar with it. But then, he wasn’t familiar with any settlement this small. It would seem that UGL had built this simulation to include much more granular details, even in the economy and sociology of Vallon’s civilization.
“You know, I haven’t decided yet. Perhaps I am headed here,” Prospero said with a genial tone. “I left home without a plan for what should come next, so I will need to take time to think about where to go and what to do.”
The girl frowned at him. “Oh no,” she said sullenly. “Father said all the fighting is forcing people from their homes. Is that what happened to you?”
“Yes,” Prospero decided on the spot. “But not to worry, I have always had a traveler’s heart. This suits me just fine. Where is your father? I think I could learn a great deal from such a well-traveled man.”
“My father knows everything and is always happy to help others! Come, I’ll take you to him!” Sadia said eagerly, rushing out ahead of Prospero and waving for him to come.
Prospero chuckled and raised a hand. “I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up if you run.”
And so the two walked, and were eventually bravely joined by the rest of the village kids. Prospero marveled at the sophistication of the NPCs. The dialog-generating AI for Unity Online had always been impressive, but the NPCs of that game were so obviously just that, AI-generated. These kids were indistinguishable from real people in sound, appearance, and behavior. Is someone writing their behavioral script live? he wondered. But if he was experiencing time at a rate three times faster than real life, that would be impossible. He scratched the theory off oh his mental list. Then his expression grew even more horrified. Is the intelligence of all these separate human beings… truly being live-simulated? Is that even possible? Or did UGL manage something greater than that by an order of magnitude?”
A dark cloud hung over Prospero’s mind as he auto-piloted his feet the rest of the way to their destination while the kids chirped questions about the outside world and he gave short, non-committal answers. When they arrived at a small villa, a large man dressed in a commoner’s hemp tunic and trousers was squatted down beside the tilled earth in the house’s front garden, tending to cabbages. The man turned to see his daughter leading a procession of children with a strange man standing in the center of them. His jaw tensed and he rose to his feet. Prospero read defensive aggression in his body language.
“Hello stranger,” the man said, his voice terse.
Prospero had to look up slightly to smile at the man as he closed the distance between them. “Hello there! You must be Sadia’s father. She sings your praises, my friend; a feat not all fathers achieve. My name is Prospero,” he said, and he lowered his head in a courteous bow. “I am a traveler come down from the North, where war is ravaging the frontier.”
The man’s tension relaxed as Prospero spoke, responding well to his earnest friendliness. “Prospero, well met. My name is Olin.”
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“Well met, Olin. I will mark your name,” Prospero said, remembering the formal pleasantries of Unity Online’s NPCs. “Your daughter tells me you were a soldier once. I have yet to decide what I will do, but I feel I must do something to aid the suffering of the common people. I would be honored if you would lend me the benefit of your counsel.”
“It would be our family’s pleasure to receive you as our honored guest, Prospero. Where do you come from?”
“Avinstown, up North. I was something of a hermit, living remotely at the outskirts of the village. The fighting in the North has compelled me to sojourn in safer climes for a time, at least while I decide what I should do about it.”
“What you should do about it…” Olin echoed. “Are you also a soldier, Prospero?”
Prospero lifted one side of his long coat, revealing the belts and holsters that now held a supply of basic spell components, and a wizard’s book of spells. By the widening of the man’s eyes, Prospero knew that was enough to signal what he was without needing to spell it out for him.
“Not a soldier exactly, but I am perhaps uniquely qualified to help quell the chaos and aid the common folk.”
Olin stiffened and hurried to offer a polite bow of his own. “Forgive me for not offering my courtesy sooner, Master Prospero. I have seen few mages in my time, so I did not recognize—“
“Peace, Olin, peace, please. You and your daughter both have already offered me far more courtesy than I’ve earned. If you bow to me now, you’re only bowing to my book. Besides which, I’m the one imposing on you. Tell me, is there anything your guest can do to earn his keep before you offer him the benefit of your counsel?”
Olin made an agonized sound, putting a hand to his face and shaking his head in disbelief. “I do not dare to ask a mage for help with our petty trifles. It will be—no, it must be enough—for you to use your magic for the good of the Kingdom.”
“I am willing to bet your troubles are more than petty trifles, Olin. Come, tell me what struggles you and your neighbors face. I cannot promise that it will be within my power to help, but I would hear them all the same.”
Olin hurried from his garden to the front door of his villa and held it open for Prospero. “Then come, Prospero. Be our honored guest for the evening, and I shall tell you all you wish to know and more.”
Prospero smiled and followed after the man. Before he went into the house, he turned and waved back to the flock of children. Sadia stood frozen in place; a horrified, disbelieving look on her face. Up to this point, she was probably just excited to have the tedium of her rural routine broken by the arrival of a traveler—a rare occurrence in Vallon, as Prospero recalled. But the appearance of a mage was rarer still, and could portend either weal or woe. Most often, woe. Mages in this setting were most commonly members of the literati, who thought highly of themselves and did not respond kindly to lapses in courtesy. He only hoped he’d signaled to them enough that he was a different sort of Mage.
“Thank you for guiding me here, Miss Sadia. But I can bear to interrupt your play no longer. You’d best get back to the business of running through fields.”
Olin stopped, his face turning to stone again. “Doing what?” he asked tersely.
Sadia’s expression changed from existential fear, to the fear of a child who’d just been outed for leading her fellows in mischief that her father didn’t allow. “Run!” she commanded, and her wolf pack of children followed her as she fled down the street.
“Stay out of peoples’ fields!” her father bellowed after her, red-faced. He turned and presented himself with exasperated embarrassment to Prospero. “That child, such a free spirit. She runs as rough-shod over my rules as she does the grain.”
Prospero chuckled and patted Olin on the shoulder. “I’ve known enough fathers to know that sometimes, that’s just how it goes. Better to admonish than to jail though, where we can. I think people are too quick to remember the powerlessness we ourselves felt in our youth.”
Olin looked surprised by the words. “You look young, Prospero, but you speak with the wisdom of a sage. Is it some manner of magic that makes you look younger than you are?”
“Not exactly,” Prospero answered with a laugh. “But I was raised with a sort of magic that made all the knowledge of the world, and all of its people great and small, like an open book to me. I suppose in a way, it helped to foster a kind of borrowed wisdom. But not everyone with that power chose to learn humbly from it as I did.”
“I should say so! All the knowledge of the world?! And you say it like it was nothing!” Olin exclaimed, flabbergasted. “If I had all the knowledge of the world, I would—well, I dare not say what I would do with it.”
The two entered the villa. Its main room was sizable. The floor was rammed, flattened earth. In the spot with the sitting area, woven mats made of straw covered the floor beneath small wooden folding stools that strung a band of red fabric between their two sides, making a humble but comfortable seat. Not unlike a modern camping chair, Prospero thought with a wry, inward grin.
“I am embarrassed, entertaining such a guest in so humble an abode,” Olin said as he walked over to the brazier and set a teapot over the hot coals.
“You shouldn’t be; your home is very charming. As I said, I was a rural hermit before, and now I am a traveler. A roof is the definition of comfort, chairs and a fire the definition of luxury.”
Olin stared, puzzled, at Prospero for many seconds before he chuckled and shook his head. “You must forgive me for my impropriety saying this, Prospero, but… you are a very strange man. One who knows the ways of magic, who claims to possess all the knowledge in the world, but travels and befriends common men rather than entering the service of one of the great lords and gaining wealth and power for himself. Frankly, I’ve never even heard of such a thing, much less met anyone who lived such a way.”
Prospero chuckled in kind, and graciously accepted as he was passed a cup of hot tea. “You are right. I sound more like a charlatan than a great hero.”
“N-no, I didn’t mean-!”
“It’s fine, my friend, I know what you meant. In truth, even with all that collective knowledge and years spent immersed in its… shall we say ‘study’, I am still as aimless as anyone else. If anything I am more aimless, as I can see a million paths ahead of me that others have taken, and I have seen the myriad ways in which they usually do not work out. To a coward like me, such knowledge can be very demoralizing. I feel as if I have shackles on my hands and feet, knowing all I know, knowing the risks of trying to do… well, anything.”
For the first time since their meeting, Olin’s amazement and panic and nigh-deification of Prospero yielded. Now, looking at the man’s face, Prospero could see a look of contemplation and understanding in Olin’s eyes.
“You are young… and indeed, you are only a man,” Olin said simply.
Prospero nodded, confirming the observation. “Maybe less than one.”
Olin made another exasperated sound and rubbed his chin. “This is a fortuitous meeting. Someone as humble as you, with knowledge and power such as you possess, could indeed accomplish incredible things for the common folk,” the man said with a laugh of delight and a quick pointing gesture.
“Then you will offer me your counsel?” Prospero asked, raising his head and smiling wryly.
“I will. And when you have heard it, and had a meal and a night’s rest, I will take you to meet the headman of our village. He is a distant scion of House Eurytus and a scholar. If you impress him with your knowledge and talents, he may be able to raise you to greater station.”
“I’m in no rush to rise to greater station,” Prospero said.
“Young man, no… honored guest. It is my firm belief that the sooner you rise to the height of your potential, the better we will all be for it.”