After a few more minutes of walking, we reached the inner part of the city. In the middle of the street there ran a small canal, with a few boats floating on it peacefully. Every few hundred meters there was a stone bridge over the water, connecting the two sidewalks running along the buildings. The tall houses were made of brick and stone, giving them a medieval feeling, but it was offset by the number of large windows on the walls, and all the greenery scattered around. In the distance, on top of a large building, sat a huge glass dome. The streets were lined with dark bronze lamps that illuminated the sidewalk and the water below.
We were walking on a busy street with lots of signs advertising different shops and services. As we went along, we saw more and more people on the streets. The clothes were very different from mine, people now wore simple dresses with long skirts, tight and tidy suits, or more comfortable shirts. I still had my tattered jeans on, and we were dirty and bloody, so we stuck out like sore thumbs in the tidy crowd. Also, we had a floating jellyfish companion with us, and I didn’t know if that was normal or not.
Feeling more and more eyeballs on our backs, we decided to hurry a bit more to Tara’s home and change to more acceptable clothes. We reached a tall brick building with lots of windows, and Tara held something in front of a small brass box next to the glass door. It swung open softly, and we entered the house. She lived almost at the top floor, the ninth, so we climbed into an elevator that hummed to life as soon as we entered it. This just amused me more and more.
“How does this work?” I asked her.
“With xin? Like everything else.” She answered with a confused look on her face.
“I understand that, but how are you able to build machines that use xin? I assumed civilization went back to the dark ages.”
She opened a door on her floor in the same manner, pushing a small card into a slot next to the door. Again, it opened without any issue.
“Well, I don’t know much about it but runesmiths can enchant objects, and with some power channeled into them they can “use” magic just as we could. I’m an explorer, so I don’t really know how it works.”
“Hmm. Interesting. I’ll have to look into that later.” I decided after a bit of thinking. Putting my magic onto regular objects would be beneficial, maybe it’d hurt less to heal others if I could use a medium for the spell.
While we talked, we walked (some of us floated) into her home. It was relatively large, for such an apartment you’d need to pay a small fortune in my own world. The runes we talked about were everywhere. After examining a few objects, I could see it: small engravings in an alien language were etched into the metal of almost everything. On the faucet above the sink, the door, a refrigerator that was just a large bronze box with ice magic I assume, the stove and oven were full as well.
Very small, light blue glowing lines ran from everything that used xin power to a point in the wall of the home. They connected to a strange device. Two bronze caps held a glass tube, and inside there was a white orb glowing softly. It was a xin crystal, so probably the main source of the power. The top of the device exerted a subtle pulling force, and after igniting my heightened sense of sight to see the xin particles, I saw that it collected the ambient energy to charge itself up and stored the xin for later use. It was an incredibly clever machine, and I was in awe of how smart these people were.
“You should take a shower and clean up. I’ll go and buy you some clothes really quick,” Tara instructed me suddenly.
“Oh okay, thanks! How do I use the shower?” The bathroom was spacious, but there was no bathtub, just a shower, a sink and a toilet. Everything was filled with runes, and the small xin tubes ran to everything that used water.
There were no levers in the shower, only a small dial that connected the xin wires to the head. It wasn’t complicated to use, and I got the hang of it quickly. Using machines that used xin was similar to how electric appliances worked, with the difference that xin could be directly converted into water or flames for cooking and drinking. The shower felt absolutely fantastic, after months of using cold water to clean myself, the steaming hot stream of water felt like heaven. I sat down on the ceramic tiles and just enjoyed the pressure of the hot water massaging my head.
Tara came back after a short while and left the fresh clothes at the door with a towel. I dried myself and got dressed. They were simple, probably wool pants, and a shirt, but they were thick and comfortable. Somehow the grey and soft green shirt looked good on me, it fit the whole aesthetic of the place and it suited me quite nicely.
“Now you look like a normal person,” she smiled after I left the bathroom. “I’ll hop in and wash up as well, after that we’ll run some errands.”
“Okay. Thanks for the clothes and the shower. Can I pay you back somehow?” I asked. It felt weird receiving so much from her and not giving her anything in return. She looked confused.
“Well… Do you have any money?” she asked with a half-smile.
“Not yet, but I can get a job I think…”
“We’ll figure that out later. Now if you’ll excuse me.” She closed the bathroom door and went to get a shower.
While she was in there, I took the opportunity to look around the apartment. It had two smaller rooms and a bigger one, with a connected kitchen. Sunlight shone through the large windows, illuminating the expensive-looking couch and chairs surrounding a glass coffee table. In one of the chairs, I found Neo, he looked somewhat saggy and worn out. I sat down next to him and sank into the soft fabric. If he was resting, I didn’t want to bother him. Also, does he even sleep?
A bookshelf caught my eye in the corner, with antique-looking books, and a few small decorations. Could it be that Tara is rich? I don’t know how expensive all these things are, but the residence looked elite, the furnishing looked luxurious. But maybe my opinion is skewed from having to sleep on the floor for months. Anyhow, my interest was piqued, so I got up and picked up a book from the shelf and opened it. The inside was laced with incomprehensible scribbles. Maybe this was the language of the new age? But then why could I speak normally? I somehow understood it. I’ll have to re-learn to read and write…
Disheartened, I put the fancy book back and sank back into the couch. It felt fantastic to rest after such a long journey, but we had work to do. I had no idea what exactly, but Tara said we’d need to run some errands. Speaking of, she stepped out of the shower in her normal clothes, not meant for fighting, and she looked dazzling.
She actually put some effort into combing her short wavy red hair, put on a soft pastel green dress that accentuated her figure. I immediately felt flustered.
“You look nice,” I squeezed out. She looked so different from having branches in her hair, covered in dirt.
“Thanks. Can we get going?” Tara asked, seemingly enjoying my embarrassment.
“Yeah, sure…” I realized I was staring at her, so I quickly averted my eyes. It landed on the bookshelf. “I checked out one of those books. I hope you don’t mind, but it turns out, I can’t read.”
“Hm… That may be a problem. We’ll need to buy some books on that as well then, and help you learn it,” she decided.
“But why can I understand what you’re saying? If we speak the same language, why can’t I read as well? You don’t even have an accent. I don’t think a thousand years later nothing changed.”
“It is interesting. Maybe it has something to do with your skills?” she was in the dark as well.
“I have no idea. We’ll have time to figure out that later. Should we take Neo?” I asked, concerned for my jellyfish friend.
<Hey man, you awake?> I sent him a quick message through our mind link.
<Sorry, I’m going to rest for a while. Tara, may I use your sink to soak please?>
She went and got some water into the plugged sink for Neo to soak in.
“I think it’s better this way as well, he’s a bit conspicuous,” she declared, and I agreed. We drew way too much attention earlier, which was fine, but I’m not used to crowds.
“Alright then, let’s go. What’s the first destination?” I asked while we left the apartment.
Comments (0)
See all