Fate Deals the Cards: Fifty-Two Pickup Part 2: The Hermit

  Ch 5 Man In The Mirror

  My new acquaintance, Skrithi’ee, the mantis lady promised to discreetly bring her friend ‘Klevin the Dungeon Lord isekai’ to meet with me in three days, as she vanished into the woodlands.

  Her oath to keep my presence a secret from her employers made me less nervous about lingering in the area, but I still moved my encampments and listening posts farther into the woods and higher in the trees.

  Skrithi’ee would still find them and would be able to track me down eventually, but I was also pretty sure she wasn’t going to double cross me. She felt like a very tranquil and reasonable being, possessed of a keen mind and admirable self control.

  I had three days of hanging around spying on dwarves, while she was away; I spent them seeking a taste of the inner peace she had displayed.

  I began to spend time in meditation, a practice foisted on me by a barely remembered hippy, during one of the infrequent ‘counselling’ sessions I’d been forced to endure while in state ‘care’.

  In the interest of refining my still shaky control over my body, I also began slowly reciting poetry and song lyrics in my native language of dance, during my abundant spare time.

  When I slowly found myself combining the two activities, I reflected on the groups of slow moving aisan seniors I’d watched practice their arts in the park, on so many foggy, northern california mornings. The homeless rise with the dawn, just like the old and there’s not much else going on at sunrise that’s worth watching from a bedroll hidden in the bushes.

  By the middle of day two I was feeling some pretty significant improvements in my control over my body and its new and intrusive instincts. Even when hunting, the accuracy and range of my leap had improved noticeably. I resolved to continue the practice and see where it could lead, since I had few other activities calling for my time.

  Not that I was idle; I spent a fair bit of each day gathering materials to continue my experiments in crafting. I used my silk saw to take down and peel a few birch, aspen and pine trees, which I stacked under a rock outcropping to season and dry.

  Under that shelf, the wind would blow through my careful arrangement of peeled and rough sawn logs almost constantly, while the sun would only hit the stacks for an hour a day. Before too long I would be ready to start experimenting with seasoned lumber…

  Skrithi’ee was as good as her word… After three days, she brought one lone dwarf out to meet me. The old blind man who followed her, holding her pointy forelimb like a trusting child, as they walked into my clearing. He was definitely a newcomer, brought in through whatever means that they used to arrive and depart the world that I was now a resident of.

  I peered at the short, burly, bearded man and looked into his dead, milky eyes. “Hi there…” I danced as loudly as I could manage. “I don’t think he can see my dance, Skrithy baby.”

  “I do sense a being there, Skrithi’ee… but I kinnae perceive his language at all.” The old man muttered disgustedly. “These old ears kinnae hear as they once did, and me eyes…” He sighed gustily. “I been havin a similar trouble back home… I hae a friend wi a non verbal language. He understands me, but kinnae speak a lick for himself.”

  Hearing that I was not the only one facing difficulties like this made me feel just a little less hopeless… There had to be a solution, but I was years away from being able to synthesize a human sounding voice, even if I could get access to any materials I wanted.

  My old woodworking knowledge and skills were human abilities… I didn’t have hands anymore and I had none of my familiar tools and materials.

  “I had not considered that, master Klevin… my apologies to you both.” My mantis friend muttered unhappily.

  “Never ye mind lass…” Klevin sighed. “I would speak with this fellow in any case, if only to help a fellow isekai. We are so uncommon and so many of us fail to thrive or meet untimely ends. It is a sorrowful thing, lad… I’d see ye well prepared for what is to come.”

  The old codger seemed to be at least familiar with my situation and I was willing to listen to anyone’s advice at this point, so long as no one suggested that I surrender to whatever authority figure wanted to lay claim to my furry backside today. The geezer settled himself on a stone and began the long process of figuring out how to communicate.

  “I happen to be doing this same thing for my other isekai friend, he is also non-verbal, by humanoid standards... Poor lad; he’s an octopus, tansfigured by surprise. He claims to be a misplaced human, like yerself. Though he kinnae make any speech I can understand, the poor waif can only make noise enough for yes and no questions.” The old man shook his grizzled head and sighed again.

  “An octopus?” I asked in my rough approximation of mantis language with a few quick runs down my bamboo guiro. The soft, woody buzz of the hardwood stick rattling across the ridged and resonant bamboo pleased me on some primal levels. I was always a fool for a nice latin beat. I started scraping, scratching and rapping a samba from my instrument, which really helped my fluency.

  “Oh, very good, lad! Don’t strain yourself, just relax. If ye make intelligible sounds, I can pluck a bit of meaning from them… at least until my friend arrives.” The dwarf peered in my direction and grinned. “The Chariot asks if he may come see thee; he is also an isekai, a formerly human man set down on a world far stranger than this one. He came here by accident, from a world called ‘Dirt’ or ‘Soil’…”

  “Earth?” I asked, using a ska beat, since I was feeling pretty nervous and the tropical vibe mellowed me out.

  “That’s it lad! His name be Gary Ward the human isekai from earth!” The old man chortled merrily.

  Hearing the old man say my name… a name he shouldn’t know, chilled me to the bone… bones I didn’t even have anymore. Even on Earth, I was a barely remembered footnote in a ledger somewhere; Gary Ward, an escapee on the lam from the juvenile detention and foster systems…

  Somehow this old dude said my name in clear and proper human speech… it was impossible…

  “What was that?” I asked weakly, slipping into a downtempo reggae vibe to hide my growing dread and fear.

  “The Chariot, he says his true name is Gary Ward, He he was a musician and crafter of musical instruments before he died and was reborn in his new form.” The old dwarf rumbled happily. “I met him a few centuries ago, when I was freshly isekied me ownself. He does travel the realms seeking his lost kin, his scattered brethren. The Tarots, they style themselves, after the cards in the deck.”

  He shrugged and smiled at me, oblivious of the thoughts and emotions that were shaking me from deep inside.

  I was in a mad jumble, thoughts of tarot cards, one of my mother’s passions had been drilled into me since I was a little sprout. I’d grown up watching her deal the cards for her musician friends from my playpen.

  When busking for change was slow, I’d read the cards for tourists from time to time, until I attracted the notice of the locals. The gangs that run that hustle were territorial enough that I stopped that right away.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  I still found the ritual soothing, when I could find a deck, the time and mental clarity that the subtle art required… but no one knew that. I hadn’t used my real name on Earth in more than two years; nevermind that I was on a different freaking world. The old dwarf kept rattling on about the guy who wanted to meet with me, the guy looking for other Gary Wards.

  “In their search they have found some few members of their scattered clan. I’ve only met two of them… or of him. It was deeply odd indeed; I could swear that they were the same man, Judgment and the Chariot.” He shuddered at the memory, lost in his own contemplations.

  “I had eyes, then, lad. Seeing them there, standing side by side, they looked nothing alike, save that they had the same face and form. I’ve never experienced such before or since. It were a disturbing and terrible thing; to be watched from two sets of such ominous and dangerous eyes.” Klevin sighed.

  “I will meet him.” I managed to stammer, before my rhythm went to crap and I lost the beat entirely. I was feeling incredibly nervous and super twitchy so I did the only thing I could, the only reasonable thing to do.

  I leapt forty feet across the clearing and vanished up a cliff wall, moving so swiftly that the two people in my clearing were still watching where I’d been, long after I was gone.

  “He’s a quick one, lass.” Klevin rumbled, as I scampered through the woods, not even a little bit in control of myself.

  It was a few long minutes before I managed to get myself wound down from whatever crazy endorphin cocktail I was tripping balls on. When I felt overly worked up, frightened or stressed, my body would blast me with an overwhelming rush of nervous energy and an irresistible urge to leap. Leap forward to attack, or leap away to flee… I couldn’t not move, when that feeling grabbed me from deep inside.

  I would need to get control of myself, before I could even think about facing the wider universe; a limitless expanse that seemed deeply hostile to me.

  With my emotions and my body chemistry back under control; I made my way back to where the pair were patiently waiting for me to return.

  “I sensed rising stress levels in you, friend…” The mantis hummed softly. “Then you bounced away in a panic… Is something troubling you?”

  “Is that what that was?” Klevin muttered. “I did wonder at that. In any case ye agreed to meet my friend, the Chariot, yes?”

  “Yes. Meet…” I buzzed through my hollow cane and little stick, rattling out a sleepy and swaying samba. Old man rhythm was doing all my heavy lifting, and would be, going forward.

  “Interesting, my octopus friend plays similar tunes, in his attempts to communicate.” Klevin muttered. “I’d swear it were a similar tune.”

  “Interesting… as rhythm and meter are innate components of language, should music not be a relatively universal theme among those capable of speech?” The mantis hummed, as they walked off.

  Before they vanished among the trees, she called out to me. “The Chariot will come to this clearing tonight. Do not be frightened, please, he will not hurt you.”

  That landed a bit weird, and made me recall Klevin’s claim that the man’s gaze was somehow frightening. “Yeah, wheel, I’m a giant freaking spider..” I complained to the uncaring universe, through dance.

  At least I was going to be the most intimidating person at that meeting, what with my venomous fangs and eight long legs… That was a sure bet.

  /

  It was a cool, clear night… moonless, since this place had no moon, but the stars were out and there were so ridiculously many.

  Constellations would be a joke in the bright, jewel strewn heavens there were just too many and they were too wildly varied in color and brightness, my eyes just wandered off, dazzled by the outrageous wealth scattered across the night sky.

  I hadn’t had too many clear nights here and most of those had been spent hiding under a bush, or among the boughs, rather than stargazing in a clearing.

  “Each of those stars is a dungeon world, brother.” A firm, mellow and mature, male human voice said behind me, without any warning whatsoever. My fellow exoskeleton haver’s warning was long forgotten by then.

  I didn’t panic… I did lose a little web… I may have jumped a few dozen yards straight up, but I kept my cool.

  My visitor was a tall, muscular and terribly waxen pale man of very early middle years or late youth. Most of his face was shadowed in a hooded cloak, but he seemed damnably familiar. He also kept lecturing on crackpot astronomy, while I got my shit together; allowing me to salvage at least a little dignity.

  “This sky is shared by all of these dungeon worlds, set apart from the prime worlds and awaiting their birth… think of this as the womb of all creation. It is from within this realm that new worlds, sentient species and gods are born.” He seemed to be reciting a well rehearsed speech, but one he believed in still.

  “To be incarnated here is a distinct honor and privilege… one we should all strive to be worthy of. Each of these points of light, each and every one is a dungeon world, and so many that lie beyond, lost in the brightness of those that lie near.” He turned his head to face me and dropped his hood, revealing his face under the starlight.

  He was neither young nor mature, but lost somewhere in between; likewise his very presence seemed less than entirely authentic. There was something off about him, something hidden.

  “Ah, you see through my glamor, brother.” He said with a sigh. “New made and unranked… you have keen eyesight indeed, Gary Ward.”

  I stiffened and worked really hard to not freak out and skitter off into the night, I was medium successful…

  Rather than forcing me to flee, my instincts hurled me at my visitor; fangs out and venom glands primed for a massive dose.

  “Be at ease… I am no threat to you… and you are no threat to me.” He said calmly, while holding my fangs, one in each hand and gently using them to wrestle me down to the ground.

  “Unranked and less than a month old, but so strong already…” He sighed, as he took me down like I was a fussy baby. “You have not yet accepted your dungeon lordship yet, see… very cagy. We are a clever one, sometimes.”

  In a few seconds, I was in a position where I was somehow restrained without duress, in a manner that drained my will to fight or flee rapidly, leaving me drained and exhausted.

  “Very good, now, Gary ward, young luthier from earth… I am Gary Ward; once upon a time, a young luthier from earth, fallen onto a strange new world.” He said firmly and clearly.

  “We are… think of us as brothers… it’s easier. I am the Chariot, we each take names from the tarot, since we are all different; yet we all share a name. That alone is super complicated and causes all kinds of problems, I can tell you…”

  He carried on and on, lamenting the difficulties of his ongoing quest to locate ‘all of the Garies’ since he declared we were all ‘naturally sneaky and paranoid’.

  “Yes,” He sighed eventually. “We are all very sneaky and averse to being restrained or controlled… And yet that is a significant portion of my task.”

  He felt me stiffen up at that pronouncement and he spoke more softly. “I’m not going to capture you or restrain you. Relax. You are one of the lucky ones.”

  I did relax, not that I had much choice. I couldn’t even really tell how he was holding me down, since he had long since let me go and was pacing about as he spoke. Yet, some invisible force held me in an iron grip, pinning me from above.

  “How safe were the conditions you arrived under? Were you in a safe place with food, water or shelter available? I think not. How would you have done, if you arrived as you did, but naked and a human?” He let that hang out there for a moment.

  “Many of us are traumatized, wounded, maimed or even worse. I also seek to collect the souls of those of us who did not survive, when I can find them.” He smiled at me, from an older, paler and more gaunt version of my own human face. The one I didn’t have anymore.

  “Yeah, it’s always a shock. Trust me, this is the easiest way to handle this. Well, except for the ones who’ve gone nuts… They take the news like champs.” I said to myself, in a voice that was mine; or had been. When I was human, just a few days ago.

  “I am the Chariot, brother… think of me like the ferryman across the river. I can transport the living or the souls of the dead.” He smiled in a weird and crooked way that was half crazy… and was entirely mine. “We are total edgelords.”

  After a few more seconds of me being held down by some invisible, irresistible but gentle pressure, he spoke again, very quietly.

  “I’m going to let you up so we can talk. Try to stay loose and just roll with it. A few of us can be a little… flighty and panicky, so this is nothing new for me… Just relax and let yourself exist for a minute. Just be…”

  His voice lulled me somehow, soothing my jangled and jarred spider nervous system into settling down and behaving again.

  “Better? All right, let’s try this. You are Gary Ward in there, right?” He asked.

  “Yes…” I rattled through my guiro, I’d hung it from a web strap for convenience, which was… convenient.

  “Just dance it out, brother, I’ll understand. I can’t really use human speech either.” He admitted. “This is a shadow voice, a trick of necromancy. I’m using a ghost as a reverse ventriloquist's dummy.”

  “Necromancy?” I demanded in a quick bit of stepdance. “Like magic? Wizards and witches?”

  “Yup. In all the many and varied flavors. I’m a necromancer, some of us are warriors, knights, scouts, hunters… even a few tanks. We tend to skew towards rogues and bards, though.” He murmured happily.

  “No healers?” I asked, like a smartass.

  “We all have some kind of gift for healing or restoration of some kind, but most of us don’t focus on that side… I wonder why?” He mused thoughtfully. “You’ve given me something else to investigate!”

  “All right, buddy… so, you’re me? Like from the future?” I asked, finishing off in a B-boy pose.

  “Nope. I’m me; Gary Ward. I’m several hundred years old, but I was made from the same man you were, the same man I was. After that, I went my own way, as will you. Each of us starts out from the same root stock and grows from there.” He smiled at me and shook his head, a head I was beginning to suspect was entirely a construct of illusion, of magic.

  “Come with me and meet a few of us if you wish, or I can simply show you the way; though wandering the void alone is perilous.”

  “You can show me how to travel to another world?” I asked, finding myself trusting this stranger wearing my face… “And there are more of… us?”

  “We don’t gather together often, since we are all very busy beings, but I can take you to meet a few of us. Just relax, because our family is a lot to take…” I answered my own query, in a voice that was mine, but more aged and weathered than I’d ever heard it before.

  \