95. Administration

It was about three hours before Tarisha teleported to my side using her new abilities to do exactly that.  The Midnight Guard switched out with the Dawn guard, and I recognized more of these faces, since they mostly belonged to members of <Peasant’s Revenge>.  Because time was of the essence, which made travel speed important, I reluctantly relaxed my request to have part of the ten person bodyguard team made up of Travelers closer to my level.  And I agreed to leave Shadow unsummoned, instead riding behind Tarisha on her wyvern with its modified two-person saddle.

I had managed to arrange a teleport from Prowlhaven back to Zhesa on my own, and from there I paid a Mage to portal me as close to Briarton as possible.  Which wasn’t actually all that close, at fifty leagues.  I could have kept looking for a mage who had a closer destination, but it was uncertain that I would find one.  And the mage whose services I had managed to employ had a very ‘take it or leave it’ attitude in regards to his portal services.

Still, it had cut down many hours on the journey, and when Tarisha arrived, we gained even more time as we took to the skies.  Without any lower level Travelers to slow us, we flew in formation over the expanses of Thorn March.  We didn’t make a direct line for our destination, however, but instead flew over my land in a pattern, examining the local wildlife and darkspawn from above to get an idea of the inherent danger it posed to its inhabitants.

And it was … tame.  Very tame.  We saw enemies ranging from levels ten through levels thirty, which almost made Thorn March qualify as a starting zone.  Perhaps it wouldhave qualified for a starting zone, had any of the Gates of TirNiki been nearby.

It wasn’t so tame that a level one [Child] could run around unsupervised, but even the wilderness of Thorn March seemed to be one of the safest zones I had seen outside of the walled cities of Zhesa city and Prowlhaven themselves.  Which might not have been that great for the purposes of drawing in Traveler crowds.  But for a quiet place for Mother to hide in the next few weeks, that would be perfect!

We flew over a number of thornberry vineyards, attracting some attention from the locals as they came out to stare at the high level Travelers flying overhead in formation.  It is fortunate that we weren’t trying for stealth, because, among the Natives at least, we were noticed everywhere we went.  As for Travelers, I didn’t see any at all.

“I’ve never seen a land which wasn’t touched by Traveler exploration,” I admitted to Tarisha as we closed in on Briarton.  “It’s almost like going back in time, to before the gates opened.”

“I looked up what information I could on the forums,” Tarisha informed me.  “And, well, there wasn’t much.  There have been a few guilds which explored the area.  A few known quest chains that give minimal rewards, and pair of lairs which aren’t really that great.  No dungeons or raids in the area.  In general, before it was assigned to your management, there was absolutely nothing here which would draw the attention of a Traveler.  Not compared to the high traffic zones or the established leveling areas, at least.  I did find a blog of one guy who managed to get hired on in one of the vineyards and spent two game years making thornberry wine.  I’m actually waiting to hear back from him; I’ve sent him a half dozen messages requesting a meeting ever since you were given Thorn March, but he insists that he’ll only accept a face to face meeting.”

“That sounds … very unlike a normal Traveler,” I said gently.

“I have some serious respect for this level of dedication to the art of Are Pee,” Tarisha said seriously.  “I hope that we can recruit him into some official capacity and give him the formal respect and support that he deserves.  Full immersion players like this are really hard to come by.  Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll be happy to see us.  Not if he’s been paying attention and noticing that … well, that everywhere you go you tend to leave a wave of change behind you.  If he’s the sort of Traveler I think he is, he might be upset that we’re about to change his way of life.  But if we can get him to talk to us, he might be an excellent source of information.”

“I’m really not looking to set anything on fire this time,” I reminded Tarisha.  “I’m hoping for a nice quiet place to stash my mother for a few months.  Even if the locals are cheating on their taxes and the steward of this province has been robbing me blind, I think I might overlook it this time as long as it guarantees safety for my mother and baby brother.  At least until after the coronation.  My brother should be safe after that, and they can go back to either Eolstree or Zhesa.”

“I understand,” Tarisha said, and moments later we were landing in the fields outside of Briarton.  A few natives lined up to examine us, but as my guardians dismissed their mounts, the Natives seemed to lose interest in us.  I walked up to a young woman and put on my most charming smile.

“Hello.  I’m Earl Hail Jeoran.  I’ve come to see the steward of Thorn March.  Would you happen to know where I might find him?” I asked.

“Kneecrest Vineyards,” she answered.  “It’s his, after all.  He comes into town once a week to handle whatever paperwork needs handling, but government doesn’t take up all of his time.  Most of it goes into his family business.”

“I see.  And, in your opinion, has he been doing an overall good job?” I inquired.

“Eh.  He could be worse.  I think he drinks too much of his own wine.  But he’s fair to the city, as far as I know,” she said.

“And you’re not saying that under any sort of coercion?”

“Don’t know that word,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said.  “Could you point the way?”

She shrugged, and pointed off to the northwest.  “Three leagues that way.”

I decided it would be better not to arrive by air this time, and so my entourage and I summoned our ground mounts instead.  Mostly, I just wanted to ride Shadow after a few hours of clinging to the saddle of Tarisha’s flying mount.  But also, it was just nice to take in the weather on a leisurely journey after all of our scouting of the province.

A flash of blue light appeared next to me, and Thomas materialized, mounted on a chestnut mare.

“Hello again Hail,” he said.  “You opened a ticket?”

I glanced at Tarisha.  “Would you give us a moment?”

She nodded and signaled the others, and my Traveler friends backed off a respectful distance, leaving me alone with the administrator.

“I wanted to thank you for helping me save Valerio,” I said.

Thomas smiled.  “I didn’t actually do anything at all, Hail.  You solved that all on your own.  I was still floundering around, half asleep and panicking, when you cut the deal with Eclipse.  After that, I waited to make sure she was honoring it, then I went back to sleep.  That’s all.”

“You showed up to help,” I pointed out.  “So even if it wasn’t needed, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“It was Storm, wasn’t it?” I inquired.

“I can’t answer that,” Thomas said.  “I’m sorry.  I can tell you that the assassin tried to cut a deal with Eclipse, and Eclipse tricked her pretty cleverly.  The assassin used up a significant amount of resources obtaining divine favor to help her remain undetected and ensure that the poisoned drink was delivered to you.  But Eclipse knew that you’d never drink it without casting [Detect Poison].  She made it sound to the Traveler like she would ensure that the poison was administered to you, while she was really only promising that it would get placed in your hand.”  Thomas paused.  “Also, the assassin chose a poison that affected humans more strongly than Leonids, if the Leonids are in their beast form.  You were the target, Hail.  If Valerio had transformed immediately, he might have been safe without divine intervention.  But it was a complicated scenario and we weren’t certain how it would play out.  I don’t think Eclipseknew for certain how it would turn out in the end, although it does seem she got everything that she wanted.”

“Yeah, I knew Eclipse had a thumb on both sides of the scale,” I admitted.  “What does she need the Dungeon Cores for, anyway?”

“I can’t say,” Thomas answered.  “But it’s not morally objectionable, I think.  She wouldn’t ask you to do anything out of character or that violates your principles.  I will promise that she’s not going to force you to use them to create battlegrounds or otherwise use them offensively.  And we’ll stop her if she does.”

“I see,” I said.  “What Valerio said.  Could I have moved to Eolstree instead of staying in Yuikon?”

Thomas hesitated for a moment, then shrugged.  “We were watching you pretty closely in the days after Gideon rejected you.  The goal was to get you ready to interact with Travelers as soon as possible.  If you had shown separation anxiety from your mother, then yes.  Steps would have been taken to keep you together.  But we thought that the best thing for you was to get you ready for real human interaction as soon as possible, so we pushed your caretakers to train you in ways that would help you interact with the average Travelers.  We thought that Zhesa city was the best location for that, but the administration would have had no preference between having you live with your grandfather or your mother during that preparation time.”

“I see,” I said.

“It was a shitty situation for everyone involved, Hail, and I am sorry for that,” Thomas said.  “We’re trying our very best to ensure that when the next entity like you is introduced into the game, they will have loving caretakers from both the Native and Traveler sides.  We … we kind of really flubbed things by picking Gideon.  And he really screwed up by not seeing your potential.  Seriously.  The people who are sewing him for disbanding his little guild should be sewing him for rejecting you instead.  Between those two mistakes, leaving you behind was the bigger one.”

“Thank you, Thomas.  You can leave now, if you want.  I don’t really want to rehash every decision that administration has made for me, I think.  I just wanted to say thank you for showing up when I needed help, even if you didn’t need to lift a finger.”

“You’re welcome,” Thomas said.  I expected him to vanish into lights like he usually did, but instead he paused.  “Actually, I do have something to say.  Hail, you don’t have to have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

I blinked.  “What?”

“It’s not your job to balance this world.  That’s what the gods are for.  Your job is … well, you don’t actually have one.  You have a backstory that was written into this world.  You have a bunch of systems that are set up to help you.  But you don’t haveto do anything.  The entire idea behind The Gates of TirNiki is that the world is supposed to evolve and manage itself based upon the actions and decisions of its player base.  The story centers around canon individuals, of which you are one.  An important one, but not the only one.”  Thomas paused.  “You do have quite a bit of ‘pull’ in the world, and you can use that pull to try to shape things however you want.  Some forces are designed to pull back against you.  Some are designed to help you.  The system is designed for an overall balance.  The world is meant to evolve and change, so that it’s always new and something is always happening.  Does that make sense?”

“I guess,” I said.  “Why are you saying these things, though?”

“Because, Hail, if you were to suddenly disappear, if you were to take a vacation by spending a few weeks as a Traveler or a different Native, the system would survive your absence.  Thedum would not allow Yuikon to fall into darkness.  The adversary would not push the frontier a hundred miles into the heartlands.  Things might change while you were gone, but the world wouldn’t end.  You’re a very important figure in this world, but at the same time, it doesn’t revolve around you.”

I frowned.  “Thomas, are you telling me to take a vacation?”

He laughed.  “I’m telling you that, if you did, you wouldn’t come back to find things significantly more or less on fire than they are right now.  I’m just worried about you, Hail.  You’ve been under quite a bit of stress, and although you seem to be handling it well, it’s not the sort of thing that is good for a person.  We’re not sure where to actually gauge your emotional and intellectual development, but we are pretty united in still thinking of you as a kid.  And kids goof off all of the time.  I just wanted you to know that it’s okay if you do that too.  And that you can use your abilities to help you relieve steam, if you want.  It is totally okay with the administration if you decided to send the entire world on a wild goose chase just for fun.  We’ll stop you before you cross any barriers that we’d view as too serious, but most of the things that we’d consider intervening in are the sorts of things that I doubt would even occur to you.”

“So you’re telling me to take vacations … and abuse my system given powers for my personal amusement,” I clarified.

“If you want,” Thomas said.  “Goodbye Hail.  Have fun.  I hope you like being a big brother.”

This time, Thomas really did vanish into motes of blue lights, his horse despawning with him.