Book 4: Chapter 37: Sentience
Victor watched as the ghostly white flames consumed his offering to his ancestors. He’d unloaded all his monster trophies from the hunt, piling them on two big tarps in the garden for Tes and the broker to comb through. While they worked on that, and Valla watched, he’d taken one of the hearts and two fangs down a side path, stopping in front of a pleasant little fountain in the shape of three splashing fish, and then he’d cast Honor the Spirits.
The broker had been dismayed to see him walk off with the fangs; apparently, they were precious. Tes had quickly diverted the hairy Vesh’s attention back to the trophies Victor had left behind. Valla, for her part, had simply smiled and waved as Victor walked away. He supposed it was good that they understood his need to give tribute to his ancestors. He barely understood it himself, but he had that feeling in his gut every time he looked at his loot and remembered Citlalicue’s words about him repaying her tenfold—he owed her. If he didn’t send offerings, he could forget ever getting his ancestors to intervene directly again.
After the last wisp of spirit smoke faded away, he returned to the larger trail where he’d left the others. Tes and the broker stood off to one side, conferring over a white, slightly luminous slate. Valla, who’d been listening to them, walked over to Victor.
“She’s driving a hard bargain, but he seems pretty desperate for some of these parts. He got very agitated when he saw the night brute prince’s bones.”
“Really?” Victor looked at the large pile of dark, still-bloody bones that he and Tes had carved from the enormous corpse. “Did Tes keep back some scales to make our armor?”
“Yes, she made sure I was watching when she collected them into her storage . . . ring? I’ve never seen her storage device.”
“Yeah. If she has jewelry on, I think she hides it with magic.”
“She didn’t take any of my scales. Are you sure it’s all right that she makes armor for both of us from the scales you earned?”
“Yeah. I got a hell of a lot more than you.” Victor sat on a bench and motioned for Valla to sit beside him. She complied, and they sat quietly for a few moments, watching Tes go back and forth with the Vesh, pointing at something on the glowing slate, then shaking her head. “I kinda feel sorry for the guy.”The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.
“You know, she annihilated that night brute prince. I'll wager the armor she’s offering to craft us would sell for a fortune. I wonder—what’s she getting out of helping us?” Valla’s voice was soft, and she leaned forward, resting an elbow on her knee, holding her chin in one hand, staring at the subject of her speculation.
“I had similar thoughts earlier. I’ve decided it doesn’t matter to me—she’s powerful enough to take what she wants, but she’s not doing that. She’s helping us and seems to be having a damn good time doing it. How am I supposed to speculate on the motives of someone so powerful? Listen, on my homeworld, we had these things called video games. Imagine a dungeon, but contained in a magical box that you could explore with tiny avatars—bodies that weren’t you but represented you. Do you follow?”
“Like a box that you could see into? And watch your ‘avatars’ fight monsters and solve puzzles?”
“Exactly!” Victor cleared his throat and tried to remember where he’d been going with the explanation. “Oh, right. So, imagine some people could get really good at the game. So good that the challenge of it became boring. Sometimes people like that would torment new players, making their lives difficult as a way to pass the time. Other people like that, though, would help the new players. They’d give their avatars equipment or help them kill monsters they couldn’t handle on their own. I think Tes is like that.”
“You think she’s just bored and enjoying the ‘game’ through us?”
“Well, I’m probably oversimplifying things, but yeah, I guess that’s what I’m saying.”
“I think you’re on the right track, but I wonder if it’s more complicated, as you implied. Maybe she has challenging things to do, but she’s stalling or taking a break. Maybe we’re something of a diversion for . . .”
“Well,” Tes said. Victor and Valla had been so intent on their whispered speculations that Tes had walked up completely unnoticed. Victor had no doubt that Tes could surprise them even if they’d had their eyes trained on her, though, so he just grinned at her and attempted to look sheepish. Valla slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide with shock. Tes, though, was smiling happily as she continued speaking, “if you’re done trying to solve the mysteries of Tes, I have good news!”
“I’m sorry . . .” Valla said as Victor chuckled.
“You made us a good deal?” Victor looked around her to see the hirsute Vesh walking among the trophies, making them disappear into containers one after another.
“Indeed! Valla, for your share of the spider, night brute, and wyrm trophies, I’ve managed to collect a fee of four tokens!”
“Truly?” Valla stood and actually pranced in place with excitement. Victor didn’t see what the big deal was—the item she wanted to buy was five tokens unless she wanted the better one, which was ten. She’d still need to earn more to teleport home . . .
Tes interrupted his thoughts, “Truly! Which means, Victor, your share of the trophies garnered a rather stunning thirty-seven tokens.”
“Holy shit!” Victor said, suddenly understanding Valla’s enthusiasm. Of course, she’d figured out that if she’d earned four with her smaller share, he’d have a huge haul, and, of course, she knew he’d share.
“Yes! Your pathway home is open, with plenty left over to purchase treasures. Or, if you want to take the time to bargain for other prizes, you might find some things more valuable than those on the warlord’s list.” She paused as Victor’s face grew contemplative and added, “I do hope you won’t depart this very minute. If you have time, there’s still much to learn here in Coloss. I’ll also need a week or two to craft your armor.”
“Tes, about what I was saying earlier,” Valla said, but Tes waved her words away.
“Nonsense. You both have questions about me, and I’d love to answer them all, but I’m bound by promises to keep many aspects of myself to . . . myself. I’m the one who should apologize.”
“Are you kidding, Tes?” Victor chuckled. “You’ve helped us so much; don’t even think about apologizing.”
“I agree wholeheartedly!” Valla said, reaching out to grasp Tes’s hand with both of hers.
“All right, all right. Here you are.” She produced two black, velvety pouches, one noticeably more full than the other, and handed them to Valla and Victor. Victor produced his other four tokens and slipped them into the pouch with those Tes had bartered for him. He hefted the little bag, grinning at the weight of forty-one tokens, then placed it into his storage ring.
Valla also tucked hers away, then sat on the bench and motioned for Tes and Victor to sit with her. “Will you give us your advice, Tes? How should we spend these tokens?”
“Oh?” Tes sat on the bench next to Valla, and Victor sat next to her, though there wasn’t enough room for him. Half his butt ended up hanging off the edge, and Tes laughed, “I’ll give you the rest of my spell pattern so you can learn it while you’re here, Victor.”
As Victor grunted his thanks, she took a deep breath, and a small pulse of Energy surged out of her. Victor’s ears popped, and then she said, “I can certainly advise the two of you with regard to those tokens. If you hadn’t noticed, there are two markets in this town—the day-to-day market brokered in beads, and the secondary, less talked about market brokered in prize tokens.”
“Yes,” Valla nodded. “I paid a hundred thousand beads for my tincture, but I could have paid a couple of tokens instead.”
“Thank you, Valla! This helps me to illustrate my next point: The warlord’s prize list is a good bargain for some things but a rather poor one for others. The alchemical ingredients are not a good value—your tincture contained two different ‘epic’ alchemical ingredients. Did you know that? To buy those ingredients from the warlord’s prize list would cost you, at a minimum, ten tokens. I say at a minimum because there’s little chance you’d get the ingredients you wanted with the first selection.”
“Ah,” Valla nodded.
“Some items are exceedingly rare; thus, the warlord’s prices are better than you’ll find in town. The epic racial boosts, for example. Generally, you won’t find those for sale because they’re so coveted.”
“What about the stones of sentience and consciousness?”
“Thank you, Victor. Please proceed.”
He nodded and followed Valla to the System’s City Stone, and she was quick to place her hand on it. He figured he might as well check on available prizes, so he touched the stone and navigated to the Treasure Exchange menu, and then read through it:
Available Treasure Exchange
Elixir of Regeneration - 1 Prize Token
Racial Boost - Basic - 1 Prize Token
Racial Boost - Improved - 2 Prize Tokens
Alchemical Ingredient - Advanced - 2 Prize Tokens
Racial Boost - Advanced - 3 Prize Tokens
Cultivation Breakthrough - 3 Prize Tokens
Alchemical Ingredient - Epic - 5 Prize Tokens
Racial Boost - Epic - 5 Prize Tokens (1 Available)
Stone of Sentience - 5 Prize Tokens (1 Available)
Alchemical Ingredient - Legendary - 10 Prize Tokens
Stone of Consciousness - 10 Prize Tokens (2 Available)
Epic Light Weapon - 10 Prize Tokens
Epic Heavy Weapon - 10 Prize Tokens
Epic Ranged Weapon - 12 Prize Tokens
Epic Energy Focus - 12 Prize Tokens
Random Legendary Treasure - 20 Prize Tokens
“There are fewer available than last time,” Valla said from beside him just as Victor drew the same conclusion.
“Only one epic racial boost,” he said, then selected it, suddenly fearful that somehow someone else would beat him to it.
***Tokens Received. Your prize will appear at your feet.***
The sudden System message reminded him that this City Stone and the exchange within it were managed by the ubiquitous arbiter of Energy and Classes and so much more. As he watched his purchase apparate out of a cloud of bright yellow Energy, he wondered about Tes’s earlier words. Her people had existed long before the System. They’d kept it out of their world for millennia, but when it grew bigger and stronger, it still forced itself on them. He wanted to ask her more about it and resolved to do so.
“If I can get her to talk,” he grunted, leaning down and picking up the glimmering, heavy, silver flask. It felt like he was picking up an ingot of gold, so dense was the container or whatever was inside it. He slipped it into his storage ring, figuring he’d ask Khul Bach or Tes when it would be wise to advance his race again. He saw Valla straightening up beside him and that she cradled, in her hands, a shimmering, silver and white egg-shaped object that emitted a soft, swirling mist of Energy.
“How do I use it?” she asked, her words a bare whisper as though she feared she might disturb the object in her grasp.
“Let’s go ask Tes,” Victor said, putting a hand on her shoulder and walking with her back through the gate. She moved slowly and carefully, and he almost laughed; she really did treat it like an egg.
“It looks like a magical chicken egg,” Victor said as they approached Tes.
She stood from the wrought iron bench where she’d been waiting and looked at the beautiful object in Valla’s hands. “It does, doesn’t it? It’s the most beautiful Stone of Sentience I’ve seen.”
“They’re not all the same?”
“No! That’s the seed of a spirit, there, Victor. They can be as different as one person is from another.” Victor’s eyes opened wide at the idea, and he leaned closer as Tes said, “Valla, hold it in one hand and summon your blade.”
“Just one moment,” Valla said, carefully tilting her right hand so the stone rolled into her left, then she cupped it there and held out her free hand. A moment later, she held Blue Razor, the deep, dark-blue blade aloft. The black, leather-wrapped hilt, long enough for her to wield two-handed, jutted out below her fist. Victor took a good look at the sword, noting how lovely the silvery crossguard and pommel were, etched with vines and flowers. He knew it was heavy, having felt its weight in many sparring sessions, and he admired how effortlessly Valla held it.
“Now, Valla, this is important!” Tes said, moving to stand before the smaller woman so she could look her in the eyes. “Fill your mind with your intentions! Picture something that embodies a virtue you think is worthy, a virtue you’d like to see reflected in the spirit of your blade.”
“A virtue,” Valla said softly, then she closed her eyes, and when she reopened them, her gaze was far away and her face serene.
“Good, now, move your hand with the stone next to the blade; press it against it—not the pommel or hilt, only the blade.”
Valla didn’t speak, but she nodded in understanding, and she carefully moved her left hand over to the blade of her sword and pressed the Stone of Sentience against the deep, blue metal. Victor watched as the stone seemed to melt and spread into it, and then the entire sword flared with blinding, silvery light. When the bloom faded from his vision, and he saw the sword, now held aloft in both of Valla’s hands, he gasped in awe at its beauty.
The sword’s dark blue, almost black blade glittered with thousands of tiny motes of light that reminded Victor very much of the ones that lurked in Lifedrinker’s haft. The blade’s edges radiated faint, wispy-white Energy tendrils that faded to nothing almost immediately. Valla laughed and whipped the sword around in a few intricate practice forms, and when she stopped, she was practically glowing with excitement.
“I can feel it! Her! This sword is no longer Blue Razor! Her name is Midnight Hope, and she’s wonderful!”
