Ienella and her partner—I wasn’t yet clear on how matrimony worked for iepurrans, if at all—had come down the Seeriee river by boat. Floods had improved their travel time considerably, which was a boon for everyone involved as it helped with the challenge of keeping twenty kids behaving on a week-long journey in a cramped space.
A divine intervention joke lay right on my tongue, but I’d learned long ago that God and politics are two subjects I would never engage other people with, regardless if they were Romanian orthodox assholes or rabbit people.
Before I got to question the logistics of a species where one family would have over twenty offspring, Ienella mentioned her sisters. The horde currently ravaging Eklil’s home was actually formed of five families, the other adults unable to make the trip this year. Little wonder she and Velin looked tired and bedraggled.
Eternity helpfully provided further context: a week, on Oresstria, was actually a tenday on Earth. Ten days in a boat with twenty hyperactive bunnies… my heart went out to Ienella.
“I don’t know what a Rose Night is,” I admitted as things began quieting down. “Eklil mentioned a festival, but we didn’t really get a chance to talk about it.”
“The Night of Roses celebrates the founding of this village,” Ienella provided. “Father and the other founders have come here thirty years ago and they’ve been celebrating it for the past ten. If you ask me, it’s just a way for all of them to draw back wandering family.”
“It’s also my first time participating,” Velin said. He had a quiet demeanour and had so far kept respectfully quiet. “Ienella insisted we come together. I’m looking forward to see this festival.”
“Neat. Will be a first for the both of us,” I said as I smiled at the chestnut-coloured iepurran.
He gave that nod that I was coming to associate as an analogue to smiling for iepurrans. “I am happy to be in your company, honoured guest. I was worried I would be the only newcomer here.”
I would be a newcomer wherever I went, I realised. I didn’t know how to feel about that so I pushed the thought aside and focused on whatever was to come next.
There was no doubt in my mind that I would head out and see what else there was out there for me. I wasn’t going to go by boat.
Boats scare me. I never got the hang of swimming and being on the water is… eh, not fun. Let’s leave it at that. I’d rather walk barefoot through thorns than sit in a boat with a life vest on, tied to the mast, and hooked up to emergency oxygen. I wouldn’t get on a boat if it was dry docked.
Fuck boats!
Which begged the question: where to next?
“When is the Night of Roses?” I asked.
I wanted to see the festival, even as an outsider. I rarely got to participate in place-specific customs, but I liked them all the same. With as much as I travelled before Oresstria, I never stayed in one place enough to get and enjoy the customs or the flavours.
“It is improperly named a night of roses,” Eklil said as he finally broke free and came to lower himself onto a stool. He winced as he cracked his back. “The festivity starts tonight, goes on through tomorrow, and will end at the next midnight. I would be honoured to remain your host throughout.”
I inclined my head with as much respect as I knew how to express. Eklil had been the soul of kindness to me, so I felt terrible about my decision. “I’d love to stay. But I will be leaving. Probably tomorrow.”
There was really no point in thinking up a better way of saying this. My mind was made up. I didn’t expect more trouble from any other dungeon creatures, so all in all… why wait?
Eklil gestured with a hand and Ienella stood up and headed out the door without a word, in that way iepurrans do when they’ve other business to attend to. A bunch of kids followed after her while the others started dragging the luggage into the free rooms.
“She has gone to arrange provisions for you, before the village gets too crowded today,” Eklil explained as the door closed.
“I don’t have any money—” I started protesting but the village chief just held up a hand.
“You walked into the village with the clothes on your back and a sword poorly slung at your hip. It is no great feat of imagination to understand you have nothing, honoured guest.” There was no malice in the words, but that didn’t stop me from feeling chastised. “If you mean to leave during the festival, I would like to help you with what you may need. Also, know that there will be no boat to take you away. The next arrives five days from now.”
“I think I’ll walk on,” I said. My cheeks burned and I tried not to argue against the kindness. Iepurrans were blunt and direct, so I expected Eklil would just insist. “I think I’ll try and find another dungeon to clear. Do you know of any?”
Eklil scratched under his chin as he thought.
“There is one that I know of, to the west of our village, deep within the Brightleaf. The road is poorly maintained and the forest is dangerous.” He thought some more, then hopped off the stool to head to his tea kettle. “I believe there is also one in the Shorthorn Labyrinth to the east, but we’ve never headed there. Land’s not good for farming that way.”
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Well, those were very good leads to have.
Eternity stirred from its nest atop my head. “Your first insight level allows you to see the closest nodes. But you do require a high vantage point to make use of this functionality. The MP drain is also quite severe.”
And there was another bit of good news to add.
“Really? I haven’t seen anything when we went up to catch that squawker.”
“You weren’t looking,” it answered with usual distance.
I sighed as Velin went to trail after Eklil, handing him the supplies the old iepurran demanded while brewing tea.
“Will you have tea with me today, honoured guest?” the village chief asked. “Ienella will bring breakfast.”
This time I was ready. “Yes,” I said, almost too eager. “I would love to join you.”
“Excellent.”
He served battery acid again…
All right, it wasn’t the same kind of brew as the monstrosity from the day before, but it was another powerful concoction that made my hair stand on end. The first sip could only be described as electric, and the second was teeth-dissolving.
Neither Eklil nor Velin had any reaction while I was fighting for my life to down the thing.
“I welcome you as a friend of the Ehreen-sen family, Klaus,” Eklil said as he raised his cup.
I stared at it, trying to hide the tears in the corners of my eyes. I wasn’t choking up. It was the tea. The final notes of it were darkly bitter, almost caustic. The more bitter the medicine, the better its effect—I learned later that iepurrans really believed in that saying, proving some things really were universal.
Velin saved me from embarrassment as he lifted his own mug and tapped it against mine with a soft clink.
“I am honoured to be in your company, Klaus,” he said easily, his eyes darting from my cup to Eklil’s.
It wasn’t a very subtle hint, but it did take my brain a few moments to catch up. I clinked my cup to Eklil’s. Invitation and answer. I would have to learn a lot about social contact on Oresstria. Not everyone would likely be as understanding and patient as the iepurrans were.
“Happy to be here,” I said and, to my surprise, meant it.
[YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED A FRIENDLY CONNECTION TO EKLIL EHREEN-SEN - VILLAGE HEAD OF CARMILL HILL]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ESTABLISH AN INTERFACE CONNECTION?]
“Uh… Eternity?” I asked as I stared at the notification. “What does an interface connection do? And I swear to God I will say something really ugly if you say ‘It connects two interfaces’. Remember that there are children present.”
Velin chuckled at that, ears twitching. “I take it you’re absolutely new to our world?”
That caught my attention: he wasn’t surprised at all, not by my appearance and not by my ineptitude in knowing things that should have been natural. I had gotten used to the villagers not reacting to me after the first day, so I hadn’t noticed it on him. Which, of course, begged the question:
“Are people like me common?” I asked.
“Back in the the capital? Not exactly, but there are a few that come to town now and again. You’re likely to meet them if you head that way.”
“We’re in a country?” The depths of my ignorance were beginning to look quite unfathomable. I hadn’t even considered asking about the general arrangement of the area.
“I don’t know what a country is,” Velin said. “But you are within Validor’s influence. And Dragon’s Tear is the capital city where the largest dungeon is. Ienella and I live there.”
Now, I really wished I had some paper to write on. There were a few names thrown my way and I was going to forget them with the next brain fart that popped in my head.
“Eternity, will the others Velin mentioned be just like me? Humans brought here to find purpose?” I gave an ugly twist to the question.
“I cannot say,” came the indifferent answer.
“Of course you can’t.”
Considering this Dragon’s Tear city was ten days away by boat, I could only imagine how long it would take me to walk there. Was I in any hurry? Not really, no. And from what Eklil had said, that was a dangerous place altogether.
Well, I made a mental note to start heading in that direction. I would need to go there regardless to find a moment-binder to teach me. Eh, the plan went into its own mental folder—
I blinked. An actual folder opened up in my field of view, with pages and everything.
“Neat,” I said as my thoughts got recorded on the first file that showed up.
I could actually take notes and annotations? That was so fucking cool! I hadn’t dug any deeper than skills and stats because I’d seen what the [INVENTORY] tab did.
It listed the items I had on me, which was utterly pointless. I did learn I had lint in my pockets though.
“To answer your question,” Eternity grumbled, “an interface connection allows you to communicate with a chosen party as long as you are both within your area of influence.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“The area you have visible on your map. If you find another dungeon, your area of influence will grow. Every time both you and the person you are trying to contact will be within your intersecting areas, you will be able to communicate directly.”
Again, neat. More functionality meant more stuff for me to learn and keep track of. Now I had to wonder what else lay in store as I headed out. The tug to push on and go became so much stronger.
“You can establish a connection without being a part of the family, Klaus,” Eklil said as he swirled the dregs of his tea in his cup. “You receive this notification automatically when you form a relationship with someone, but you can also simply initiate it. Know that many people will not want to connect. The communication notifications can get… annoying.”
I took the hint in his voice and the look he gave me: don’t be an asshole, his demeanour said. I mentally clicked to connect and a new tab formed in my view: [CONTACTS]. Opening it up showed a photo of Eklil and his full name and age—he was old old, in his late nineties. Holy shit! Tapping on his name opened up an old-school, bare-bones chat interface, like some ancient IRC channel.
KLAUS: TEST (SORRY)
I sent the message. There was literally no difficulty in writing the words with my mind.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: It works as intended.
We both nodded at one another. This was going to be useful to have. I also initiated a contact with Velin, just in case I eventually made my way to Dragon’s Tear.
Just to test the other new tab that showed up, namely the [NOTES] one, I created a fresh file and named it ‘To do’. I added three items:
- Reach and clear a second dungeon;
- Travel to Dragon’s Tear and visit Velin;
- Find moment-binder and learn skill to create echoscripts.
The moment I finished setting these up, I got another notification:
[CONGRATULATIONS]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3!]
[YOU HAVE GAINED: 1 ATTRIBUTE POINT]
[YOU HAVE GAINED: 1 SKILL POINT]
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