They were nearly at a full-on sprint as they retreated from the wador. One and all of them were thankful that the cats had refrained from escalating. If they had it would have got messy. Luckily, just like all the competitor races here, they knew that it was in their interests to cooperate with each other. Despite that need, a gory finish had been closer than anyone of them would have liked.
They had hated it when what they perceived as absolute rules of negotiation had been broken. The first time it had happened had been excusable as for the second… that interruption was a lot less acceptable. Tom’s head whipped around to glare at the ritualist. “Harry, did you have to interrupt like that.” He said via party chat, which because of the speed they were travelling had to be used in order to be heard.
“They were stupid…I hate wilful ignorance.”
“Harry,” Tom almost growled.
There was a pause.
“Sorry. I should have shut up. They were just pushing my buttons.”
“Yes, you should of.” Michael agreed. “Even what I did was dangerous but, I thought it was worth the cost.”
“It’s just that it’s so stupid. A day of work from one of them to save one or more of their lives. I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t they cooperate.”
Michael snorted. “It’s a cultural thing. The wador are apparently a more selfless species than we are. I don’t believe for a second they’ve got the ability to dodge the dragon attacks, at least not consistently. I could tell with my skills that they know helping us would reduce their losses, but they’ve done the calculations and decided that not getting the teleporters will hurt us more than it damages them. That’s their justification. They’re willing to be hurt if they hurt us more.” They ran in silence for a bit. “And you know,” Michael continued after a while. “They’re probably right. If you think about the ladder, the dragons are going to first.”
“We don’t know that.” Clare protested.
“No, we don’t,” the healer answered. “But I think on the balance of probabilities them and the insects are competing for spots one and two. I’m nominating the insects based on the exponential growth Tom observed from the dreams. Tom, do you agree?”
He swallowed as he mulled over the question. There were fragments of memories half formed and not consciously accessible that helped form his opinion. The way they bred and how fast the champion’s strength had grown. “They’re better suited to Existentia than humans. They can grow numbers and individual strength faster than us, so they’ll crush us in the competition.”
“That doesn’t really make sense,” Toni said doubtfully. “Why would the GODs let something in? That’s so powerful.”
“Their temperament,” Tom told her and was absolutely sure of this answer. He was uncertain about how or why he had the insight, but he was convinced of its accuracy. “Yes, they’ll get explosive growth in the competition and probably get too many ranking points for us to beat them but when their race comes to Existentia properly. They’ll create enemies. Start wars and then be considered as a dangerous terror race. The existing powers will stomp them from existence.”
“Exactly,” Michael said. “They’ll both be top two. Then, the chosen and inventor species unless there is some weird fluke like the chosen being in a position to cure a multiple species threatening plague will fill the last two places. So it’s us, the wador and the giants who will via for the middle positions. If they think an action will hurt us more than them, then they’re going to take it because we all know the difference between getting third versus fourth. I, you, me and the rest of humanity will do almost anything to cross that gap. The wador, on the other hand will do anything, including dying for the cause.”
“Are you sure?” Keikain argued. “They don’t strike me as a race that has low self-preservation instincts. Almost the opposite of that.”
“I think we value family, individual, extended family and then society in that order,” Michael responded seriously. “I believe the wador values their species as number one. It’s a subtle difference. But the impact to actions is significant.”
They reached their room and the debate between Michael and Keikain continued but even though he found it fascinating. He couldn’t concentrate on it. He collapsed in his corner of the room and unconsciousness grabbed him immediately.
Another static dream filled with nothingness interrupted him before a natural dream could form..
They were coming like clockwork and while they had once excited him, they no longer had that effect. They had been dragging on for too long and he couldn’t understand what the point of them was.
How could something be so valuable that True Dreaming just kept smacking itself into the same barrier and failing every time. It had taken less than five dreams to blow the wador’s eyes out and his skill had found purchased in the first one. The wador had been surprised by Tom’s effectiveness. They had thought his skill was capable of holding him out completely. Whatever he was currently knocking up against was nothing like that. There was no purchase, and he was pretty sure he was up to dozens of the dreams. They had been going on for so long that even though it was ridiculous; he was beginning to wonder if somehow the wador had acquired an artefact that had broken his ability to punish him.
Was it possible that this repeating dream was actually a trap and not his skill trying to force through a protection when it shouldn’t?
The frustrating thing was that he didn’t know, but he was forced to suffer the boredom of the nothingness and the crippling exhaustion the following day. Instead of excitement, he now greeted them with annoyance.
Straight after the True Dream blissful normal sleep overtook him, but he knew from recent history a second dream would come soon, and he wasn’t looking forward to it.
Clang!
Adrenaline blasted through him. It sounded like a chime had gone off under his skull.
He leapt to his feet his spear appearing in his hand. Instinctively, his domain spread out to assess the situation. Everyone appeared to be asleep, and there were no unexpected opponents touching the stone.
What had awoken him?
He didn’t know what was happening. His head was pounding. Had it been a particularly vivid dream.
If it was a noise as loud as he remembered, it would have woken everyone else, he reasoned with his thoughts feeling sluggish. After all, courtesy of True Dreaming, he was by far the heaviest sleeper. He peered around. There was nothing wrong. Everyone else was sleeping, and his eyes dropped down to his bedroll. It looked so inviting.
Clang!
Tom jumped into the air before he could help himself. His spear stabbed down at the floor, which had generated the noise. The magically enforced wooden tip struck the stone and left a small mark.
His senses simultaneously probed downwards as he seized absolute control of the area and found nothing that could explain the disturbance.
He would have thought he was imagining it, but he had noticed Everlyn bounding to her feet and Claire pushing herself into a straighter sitting position from where she was probably supposed to have been on watch.
That was concerning! Was there a secondary spell that had disabled her?
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Everlyn had her magical bow out and an arrow drawn. Clare was alert but had not produced her weapons. She lacked the same offensive capabilities, but by the way her eyes were flickering she was ready to cast a taunt.
“Tom, what’s happening?” Everlyn demanded as she rotated in a tight circle, searching for enemies. Her eyes flickered over where Clare had fallen asleep and they narrowed. “Clare, do you have anything to say for yourself?”
The healer come tank was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with a single hand while keeping her head on a pivot to catch any danger. She blushed under the scrutiny but refrained from responding.
Clang!
Again, it was right under his feet. His spear had stabbed down instinctively, but he stopped them motion before stabbing the stone pointlessly once more. His active awareness was in the stone. There was no threat coming from that direction.
The third loud noise and Everlyn’s questions had woken up everyone.
Tom was gladdened by how professional they looked. They all shifted straight from sleep into battle focus with weapons and spells at the ready.
Meanwhile, he was trying to puzzle out what was happening. The noise was clearly targeted at him. It hadn’t tried to wake up Everlyn or any of the others, plus the apparent volume he had heard had been the same each time. That meant that the first clang that had awoken him would have had to have been far softer than the two that followed because his ear had been against the stone then. That on its own was suspicious because it spoke to magic control that was beyond impressive.
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If Everlyn hadn’t been also surprised, he might have considered her to be responsible for it, because as far as he knew she was the only one of them with anywhere near the capacity to do something like that and that wasn’t just here in this room it was all the humans in the trial.
Clang!
Tom flinched because it was incredibly loud. Everyone was looking at him, but he couldn’t even sense what was creating the noise, so he didn’t know how to respond.
If only his head worked better, he thought bitterly. The weight of the deep sleep hadn’t left him yet, and it was hard to focus.
Michael cleared his throat noisily.
He looked over, and the healer pointed toward the screen that controlled the room’s features. There was a subtle glow to it. An image was being displayed when usually it was blank. Not for the first time, he cursed how slowly his brain was registering things.
“Maybe you should check it out.” Michael suggested.
“Yes, he definitely should,” Keikain agreed. “It says for the eyes of Tom.”
That was more than sufficient confirmation. He still didn’t understand what was happening, but he sprinted over to find out.
When he approached it, the screen immediately changed its appearance in a similar way that the walls in his virtual system room did.
Your presence is required.
It was signed off as coming from the fortress’s ruler and under it was what was clearly a map.
Tom stared blankly at the screen and map as he tried to process it.
“It’s from the giant,” Keikain called out to the others who were further away. “Tom’s been summoned. There’s even a map.”
The words registered. His mind thumped and thoughts felt like they were pushing through treacle. “What time is it?”
“A few minutes past midnight,” Everlyn answered. “You slept for only an hour, so it’s no wonder you’re struggling to wake up.”
CLANG!
He jumped.
The noise had occurred multiple times while they had talked, but he had been able to tune it out. But not the latest. It felt like it had been twice as loud as the previous ones… almost like it was alive and was becoming impatient.
“I’m going to have to respond. This is not something we should disregard.”
“We’ll all go with you.” Michael stated, taking charge. “I doubt we can provide security against the giant. But…” his lips pursed. “With Jenny out there, it’s too dangerous for you to go alone. So we’re definitely coming.”
“Should we wake the other rooms?” Clare asked. “Bolster our numbers?”
Michael hesitated clearly torn about the correct answer.
Tom shook his head. “No, let them sleep. The couples haven’t had a lot of private time. We should give people a chance to be happy whenever we can.” The full reasoning behind the decision was slightly more nuanced than that, but he didn’t bother going into that level of detail. The chances of them being spotted were low, and the six of them would defeat Jenny’s small squad. If it did come down to Jenny and the wador opposing them, then getting the couples and Vidja’s team would be unlikely to make a difference. If they folded Selena squad in, then the balance of power would be closer, but honestly, Tom wasn’t sure he could trust her. Yes, Michael had checked her intentions with his trader abilities, but she had companions, and one traitor from within their ranks could spell their doom.
“I don’t know,” Michael started.
CLANG!
Everyone winced.
The volume had increased yet again.
“We don’t have the time to argue,” Tom snapped. “We have to get going.” He had long since memorised the map so there was no point delaying. Before anyone could argue further, he jogged at the door and it opened silently in front of him.
The ground flashed, and he didn’t break his stride. There was another flicker of light, which he saw in full. It had created a line which led away in the same direction the map indicated. Just like the sound had been inexplicable, lights had been embedded in what was otherwise perfectly smooth marble. “We’re to follow them,” he said as he started to jog.
The magical technology base of the building was truly wondrous.
It set the speed they had to run at because if they dropped down from a fast jog or Olympic sprinter pace on Earth the lights started to strobe insistently. None of them wanted to see what would happen if they pushed the patience of whatever was guiding them.
Within half a minute, they left the smaller tunnels and entered into the type sized for the larger of the two original occupants. There was a flash of energy in the magical spectrum as they did so.
Everlyn cursed. “I missed it.”
“What was it?” Tom asked.
She looked at him in surprise. “Is that a serious question? Shit, it is. You need more sleep if you didn’t recognise it.”
“It was a magical trip wire wasn’t it.” Michael interrupted the conversation.
She nodded.
“Everyone speed up.” the healer ordered.
Their fast jog transitioned into a sprint.
“Did you catch who?” Michael asked over party chat because they were sprinting so fast the wind would have whipped the air right out of his throat. They were all running faster than he had ever managed in a car on earth, at least legally.
“It was almost certainly Jenny.”
There was a slight pause. “Small mercy. That’s better than it being the wador.”
“Not them. It was definitely placed there by a human. I could tell that much from the energy signature.” Everlyn confirmed.
They must have sprinted for over twenty kilometres through the huge corridors before the lights led them into a massive room.
The giant was sitting on a kind of stump and next to him was the inventor.
Tom had once caught a glimpse of the inventor through a polished mirror, but he hadn’t understood its size. He had been imagining something four or five metres high, but instead it was only slightly larger than him. It was shorter but significantly wider, so Tom estimated it had to weigh twice as much him. A furry torso without a head with eyes and mouth near the top and the explosion of tentacles at the bottom where legs should have been.
Apart from the fur and size, it reminded him a bit of an octopus maybe one that had left the ocean and was adapted for terrestrial survival.
They had paused at the edge of the room and the two original occupants were closer to the centre almost two hundred metres away.
“Tom, you have to mention the trip wire.” Michael said urgently as they started to walk into the room. “The giant needs to be aware.”
“Enough pointless chatter.” The giant boomed. “Everyone, not called Tom. You are going to stay there.” It pointed to a circular piece of metal around thirty metres wide, which was embedded into the otherwise smooth floor. “You will wait there and I will grant you the boon of hearing the conversation. The isolation array willstop you from interfering. Even if I won’t hear you refrain from talking amongst yourselves.”
It was clear Michael wanted to say more, but knew better than to risk it. Pushing the wador who were close to peers to them was one thing. Doing the same with the giant would be suicidal.
Tom did not slow as the others peeled away. He marched straight to a point only ten metres from the giant. A location he was very aware, was within range of its physical attacks.
“Now that you’re here. I will interrogate you and you will answer.”
He said nothing. Social Silence was very clear that it was the only acceptable reaction.
“For this session, I plan on asking a series of questions. You shall answer exclusively; yes, no or maybe. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
There was no apparent emotion on the giant’s face, but Tom felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He was being assessed for the accuracy of his statements, and he wouldn’t be surprised if it was something more powerful than a truth spell.
“Is the dragon a threat?”
“Yes.”
“Is the dragon a threat to me?”
“Yes.”
“Are the insects cuddly?”
That set him briefly for a loop. Tom wouldn’t find them cuddly, but the giant might.
“Maybe.”
“Are slingshots required to defeat her?”
“Yes.”
“Can I kill all the wador?”
“No.”
“Are any extra materials needed for my spear.”
“Maybe.” Tom on that answer had been tempted to explain further, but Social Silence hit him so strongly he was almost brought down in a helpless coughing fit.
“Will painting things pink help?”
He suppressed even a flicker of a smile in response to that weird question. “No!” he answered firmly.
“Can I kill one of the wador?”
“Maybe.”
The queries came rapid fire, and some were as absurd as others were pointed. Tom didn’t have time to think about the answers and just chose whichever of the three options felt most truthful.
Amongst the thousand or more questions, there were a few that stuck out to him.
“How about the chosen. Are they available for me to kill?”
“Yes.”
“Is any specific human off limits.”
“Yes.”
“Can I kill you, Tom, and survive?”
“Maybe.”
“Does my chances of survival improve if more people are left alive for the final battle?”
“Yes.”
“Is it a problem if some of the humans die before engaging the giant?”
“No.”
“Would ten humans dying be an issue?”
“Yes.”
Then thirty questions later. “Is five human deaths too much?”
Tom wanted more than anything else in the world to lie. Five was borderline.
“Maybe.”
“Is four non-critical human deaths before the engagement sufficient to significantly reduce my survival chances?”
“No.” he had no choice but to answer. The giant had already established who amongst the humans were known or thought to be critical. Rahmat yes, Tom, Phil and Everlyn were the maybes.
“Can I kill one of the weaker wador?”
“Yes.”
“Has humanity conspired to keep resources from me.”
“Maybe.”
The dangerous questions had been scattered at random points throughout the hours of the interrogation, but Tom noted them anyway. It felt treacherous to have provided it with that type of information, but he was also certain he had no choice. Lying would have been effectively committing mass suicide by an enraged, unstoppable force. Yet, having given the giant permission to kill up to four humans, he felt sick.
The inventor throughout the interrogation had remained silent. It had just watched and assessed everything that was said. The way of doing it had been strange, but Tom felt like the entire human plan had been extracted from him and in more detail than had come up in their own conversations.
“I will think about this further.” The giant finally declared, waving him away. “You can go.”
By this stage he was beyond exhaustion and with all of them being slightly shell-shocked, they departed the room.
“He is dangerously astute,” Michael said once they, if not out of earshot were at a polite enough distance to talk about the experience.
“We’re all champions of our species. What else did you expect from him?” Tom answered. “Were you expecting a dull, dumb stereotypical giant from our fairytale stories?”
“Hoped not expected.” Michael answered sadly.
Tom frowned. He kind of wished that had been the case. If that fierce intelligence hadn’t existed, the whole situation would have been easier to manage. In some ways, it was even worse than that. He could still recall the prickly sensation he had felt while being interrogated. “He is more dangerous than even you are thinking., you can guarantee that he was using his gut heavily throughout all of that. I didn’t lie, but he was probably inferring more from my answers than the yes, no and maybe responses should have allowed.”
“It feels strange that the planning for that final battle is out of our hands.”
Tom shrugged in response to Michael’s observation. He had never for a moment imagined anything other than this would occur. The humans, even with their extra numbers were still the weakest of the seven competition species, excluding possibly the chosen. It did not make sense that they would be left in charge. “All that matters is that we’ve done enough that most of us will be alive after this ends.”
“I can agree with that.” Michael said roughly.
They stood five hundred metres out from the giant’s meeting room. It was going to be a long trip back and Jenny and her reinforcements were probably waiting.
Michael sighed. “Anyone got any bright ideas of the best way to reach our rooms safely?”