The World Which Is

I don’t sit at the table; I fall into the chair, then rest my head on in. I don’t want to ever do this much reading again. I look up when the cup is placed next to my head.

“Mal thought you could use this,” she tells me. I haven’t seen her before; shapely woman and her clothing doesn’t hide her curves. I find myself watching her walk away and images come unbidden of what I could do with her.

I shake my head to clear it, and then catch Malcolm smirking at me and my ears burn. I’m not going to bet he sent her so I’d react, but I’m also not going to say having her serve me was entirely innocent on his part.

The coffee does help settled the brain fuzz spending the day reading for no usable result caused. It’s enough I remember I’m famished. I snacked on jerky as I read, but it’s not exactly filling. I bring up the club’s menu as Brandon enters with Helen and Silver in tow. I’ve selected a hearty meat and vegetable platter by the time they sit down.

“Had a good day?” I ask at Silver’s excitement.

“The best!” She grins. “Robert agreed to take me to a spot in the city where musicians gather, and we spent all morning and most of the afternoon just jamming together. Detroit has very eclectic music.”

“And Robert is…?” I ask, and I’m surprised at how much I don’t like the idea of her in the city with someone I don’t know.

She looks around. “He isn’t here right now. He’s muscle for Johann. Much gentler than being a minotaur leads you to think.”

“I’m sure he was very gentle,” Brandon says lewdly.

“Get your mind out of there,” Silver snaps. “Not everyone only thinks with their dick like you. And before you imply anything else. No, he didn’t talk me into helping him with a job. We agreed on a fair price for his services as a guide and he more than earned that money.”

Brandon raises his hand in a surrender his smirk makes unconvincing.

“So you met a lot of other bards?” I ask to keep him from making other implications.

“Only two. Like us they’re visiting, although they were there specifically for the music. The rests were just people who love playing instruments, so they gather in and around that club and just jam together. It’s rarely the same people from one day to the other, so Robert’s taking me back tomorrow, unless we’ll be leaving.” Her expression makes it clear she’d rather we don’t.

My laugh is on the bitter side. There is no danger of that.

“Excuse me,” Brandon says, standing. “I need to take care of something.”

“Me and Brandon need to go back. I don’t think the ruin—”

“Keep your voice down, Dennis,” Brandon says before heading to intercept the woman entering the club.

I look around and a lot of heads seem to turn away all of a sudden. While Malcolm confirmed that I’m safe from the other explorers, I need to remember that explorers are always looking for new places, and by now, they have to know why Xander’s willing to pay so much for Aaron’s journal.

I keep my voice low as I continue. “The Nox’s barely mentioned in three books, and that’s just to contest its existence. I still think it’s real, but I think Aaron didn’t use the name of the ruin when talking about it to keep others from finding it.”

“How are you going to do that if you don’t know what it’s called?” Helen asks.

I shrug. “He hinted at where it is, but it’s a vast area. We’re going to spend tomorrow and the day after that looking for anything that might get us there. If that doesn’t give me anything, we’ll head to Kansas City to finish my quest and unlock the journal. The location has to be somewhere in it.”

“Why not just go there now?” Helen asks.

“And give Poop an advantage?” Brandon replied darkly as he sits.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“It’s fine.”

Yeah, that’s not the tone I’d use if it was.

“But he doesn’t know anything,” Helen says, “right? So how would he find out it?”

“Because he’s an asshole who isn’t worried about who he pisses off to get what he wants.”

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” I ask, and he glares at me. I continue looking at him and he takes a breath.

“It’s personal. Just got a bit of not great news about something.”

“Is it something we can help with?” I ask.

He shakes his head.

“I figure,” I tell Helen, “that we have nothing to lose by getting in a bit of research done. We could get lucky. And two days, if we decide to go to Kansas City, isn’t going to make that much difference.”

“Except that we’re in this city for two extra days.”

“Not enjoying yourself?” Brandon asks innocently.

“No. But I’m thinking about the price on Dennis’s head. You’re the one who said this is a bad city to be in. If you’re not going to learn anything, I don’t see why you want to put him at risk.”

“Because we can learn something. We just have to take the time to look.” The sharpness is back in his voice.

“Look,” I say before this escalates. “It’s my decision. I want to stay. I’m going to be perfectly safe in the library with Brandon there. Two days. If we don’t find anything in that time. We’ll head for Kansas City.”

*

I stick with Brandon this time as we approach the guard. He’s the same as yesterday, so I don’t get to show him you get more with politeness than threats of violence. We sit at the same table, and I grab a book about the geography of what used to be Illinois. Brandon reads one about the south of Indiana.

When he gets up, at some point, I watch him head to speak with someone. The conversation looks to be calm, so I go back to reading. When I close the book, it’s more force than I’d like. The reading induced headache isn’t making me want to continue. As I bring jerky from my inventory, I notice the cup with liquid in it. The book Brandon was reading is gone, so he must have come by while I was engrossed and returned it and left me something to drink.

I look around, but don’t see him. Because it’s Brandon, I test the liquid. Fruit juice of some kind. No alcohol. I start, realize how thirsty I am, and it’s empty by the time I put the cup down.

I pull the waterskin, because that was nowhere near enough to quench my thirst. Although it was much better than tepid water.

Hydrated and with something to munch on, I feel marginally better about getting back to reading about the Shawnee National Forest hoping there’s a clue in there about The Nox.

It is so boring that within five minutes, my eyelids get heavy. I have heard of being bored to death, but I don’t think I’ve ever been put to sleep by a book before. The yawn is jaw cracking and rubbing my eyes isn’t doing me any good. I stand to stretch my legs, and they fold under me. I barely catch the table in time to fall on it; instead of the floor.

It registers there’s no way this is normal, and I notice the debuff as my vision fades to black.

*

Something registers as holding me up.

*

Sounds, and I pull away from the pit, trying to make them out, only for oily tendrils to drag me back down.

*

The suddenness of the stop shakes me to something resembling consciousness.

“Why couldn’t you just have that guy be here already?” Someone says. I want to say guy, but the whine raises the voice enough it’s questionable.

“You do not want him hanging around here,” another replies, definitely a guy. “He can’t help himself. He’s always going through people’s inventory. He’s going to be here in an hour. He’ll get the journal, then he’ll leave and we can go deliver it.”

Well, thank you for telling me what this is about.

“What about the guy who came with him? He’s not going to just go back to reading when he returns.”

“He left with someone in a hurry. And he’s just going to think he went back home.”

You do not know Brandon. But if he isn’t around, it also means I can’t wait here for him to rescue my ass another time. I can’t move, can’t open my eyes. But my overlay is there. And the icon is a body lying on the ground with swirls over its head. I think that’s the unconscious icon. Fuck, I need to memorize them if this is going to keep happening. It’s yellow leaning toward greens but I don’t notice the shift, so this is a long-lasting debuff.

Okay, so, let’s apply some willpower to the task.

Nothing. I either don’t have enough, or this is something I can’t will away. Like poison. I guess I shouldn’t have drank that juice.

If it’s physical, it needs to be healed.

I don’t have anything against poisons. How about I add that to the list of stuff to get? Do the food bars remove those kinds of debuffs? Can’t remember if the merchant said anything about that, but it’s not like I have anything else.

Okay. I can’t will the debuff away. Can I will myself to act in spite of it? I lose some willpower, but I feel my hand close in a fist. At least I’m not going to drop it. I equip the food bar and, with a bit more willpower, hold it.

Now to raise it to my mouth. That isn’t going to be easy.

The motion starts with less willpower than I expect, then I feel my hand drag against something and I’m hit with vertigo as my sense of position shifts. I’m not sitting. I’m lying on my side.

“What is he doing? I thought that drug was going to keep him unconscious for hours.”

Interesting. My endurance? That is a lot higher than anyone would expect because of my class.

“How should I know? Maybe that herbalist scammed me. I’ll go see her after this and make sure she knows I’m dissatisfied with what she sold me.”

Another possibility.

“Should we stop him? What if that’s a cure?”

“N-gry. A-ol.” I hope chewing isn’t this hard.

“He’s angry?”

“I think he said he’s hungry. That looks like those bars travelers carry around.”

How about you help and unwrap it for me?

“I still say we should take it away.”

“Don’t worry about it. I doubt he’s going to be able to remove the wrapper.”

Yeah, that could be a problem as it slips through my teeth. I can’t will them tight enough on the end of the wrapper.

Okay, let’s try on a thicker part.

Really funny. Now the difficulty is opening my mouth wide enough.

“Is he going to eat it with the wrapper on?”

And give the guy a prize.

“He must really be hungry.”

My teeth sink into the soft ‘meat’ of the bar, but the paper doesn’t rip until I pull, then I have a chunk in my mouth, but I can’t chew it.

Oh, this is not going to be pleasant.

I probably use up more willpower forcing myself to swallow what feels like sharp edges, and it hurts going down, and I’m panting from exhaustion. I hope that worked, because I don’t have enough willpower to do that again.

“I think that’s all he had in him.”

Is the debuff turning green?

“See, I told you not to worry about him.”

I use the sliver of willpower I have left not to smile in triumph. Pulling my hand to my mouth doesn’t feel any easier, but I don’t need willpower this time.

“You’re right, he is hungry.”

Biting into it is also easier, and I chew as the debuff turned fully green. I keep my motions slow as I regain control of my body, and finish eating the bar, wrapper included. It’s a good thing it’s going to heal the damage that did going down.

I slowly open my eyes and I’m… disappointed at my two kidnappers. On the thin side. Dressed normally in what I’ve seen those working in the library wear. When I push myself sitting, they back away in surprise.

“Let me guess. You two are after the reward.”

“How did he do that?”

I have to use the wall, but I get to my feet and don’t fall when I let go of it. I equip my sword and they back to the other side of the room. When I raise it, my hand is steady. The last of the debuff vanishes.

“Look. You tried, you failed. You promise to leave me the fuck alone, and I’ll just walk out of here without making you pay for this.”

They both eagerly nod, and I head for the door. I’ve pulled it open and am about to step out when pain explodes in my side.