72. Throne

72. Throne

The Mooncrest manor was a mile outside of Ebbyvale, and riding Shadow along the path that led to it was pleasant in the evening air.  Tarisha was with me, while the majority of my other friends were busy elsewhere.  After the battle with the constable, a veritable wave of locals had descended upon the players and began issuing local quests.  Everyone was very eager, gobbling up as many as they could.  I encouraged them through guild chat, as most of the quests involved investigation into the various problems and injustices throughout the shire, and the reports of my guildmates would help me better understand my lands and help solve its problems.

It also solved the problem of everyone looking at me and waiting for my every move.  I wasn’t shy of crowds or public speaking or anything, but it was still nice not to be the center of attention for a few moments.

The road was quiet and showed signs of abandonment and disuse.  And the manor itself, when we reached it, had clearly not been cared for for decades at least.  The lawn was overgrown, and the paint on the buildings was faded and chipped.  Several of the windows were broken, and overall it had the aura of dereliction.  It had been a grand estate, once.  In the pathway leading up to the front door, I could see several pedestals that had once held statues, but the statues themselves had been hauled away.  No doubt sold to pay off the Mooncrest’s debts.

As we passed through the empty gateway, Tarisha suddenly tsked.  “Lord Hail, it seems that the cat is out of the bag.  Several organizations have made it public that a wave of new quests are available in North Shire.  We can likely expect a wave of independent players to arrive in these lands within the next few days.”

“Is that a problem?” I asked.  “More people means more help, right?”

“Yes.  If they’re coming to help,” Tarisha agreed.  She sighed.  “Honestly, I don’t know whether this bodes good or ill.  This zone isn’t high enough level for the true endgame guilds to take notice, but the novelty will be enough to draw some of them anyway.  The ones who do will be seeking advantages, and will look for ways to profit.  And there is also the possibility that at least some of the players who are drawn to this event will seek to align themselves in opposition to us.”

I thought about that for a moment.  There had been Travelers on the bandit’s side.  I didn’t understand why anyone would want to be a bandit, but the unpredictable and capricious nature of Travelers meant that at least some of them would be drawn to the romance of it.  “What should we do about it?”

“I don’t know that there is anything we can do about it,” Tarisha admitted.  “And as you mentioned, it might not make matters worse.  I would have preferred to keep this event somewhat exclusive to our allies, but Travelers are drawn to events like this like bears to honey.  I am slightly annoyed that the information leaked, but I shall have to simply content myself at being in the center of events, while the newcomers will be relegated to the periphery.”

I shrugged.  “If there’s nothing we can do about it, then I’m not going to worry about it for now.  Come on, we need to secure those documents.”

“Do you think that Arkan will attempt to tamper with them?” Tarisha inquired.

“I think that he has had decades to do so already,” I said, recalling the cold look in his eyes once his helpful facade had been pierced.  It was common for lords to appoint their own stewards from their friends or family; he very likely predicted the possibility that he would not be keeping his position once the lands had been reassigned.  I suspected he was corrupt, but my meeting with him had demonstrated that he was not incompetent.  Which was, of course, exactly why I had felt the need to remove him from his position as soon as possible.  To do otherwise would be like trying to secure the henhouse while the fox was still inside.  Once we reached the doorway, I dismounted, and my mount returned to my shadow in a flash, while Tarisha’s wyvern flew off into the distance. “I wish all of my enemies were lazy and incompetent, like the constable.”

“Truthfully, I’d rather the challenge of an enemy who fights back,” Tarisha admitted, “but I understand your sentiment.”

The inside of the manor was much like the exterior.  Dust was omnipresent, and the only evidence of the building’s former glory were the decorations which were structurally important to the building itself.  Everything else had been carted off and sold to settle the Mooncrest’s debt.  Anything that had any value had already been auctioned off years before my birth.

Which said quite a bit about the quality of the painting which decorated the entryway.  A stern looking man, one of the former lords Mooncrest, I assumed, stared down at his arriving guests with a stern expression.  Or it was supposed to be stern, I think.  It’s hard to tell, because the brushwork was somewhat splotchy, the nose was crooked, and the eyes were uneven.

Knowing that the document storage room was supposed to be in the basement, Tarisha reluctantly agreed that we should split up to look for it.  My explorations took me through the servants’ rooms, where the furniture had survived the descent of the vultures somewhat better than the rest of the estate, and in there I found a stairwell leading down.  However, the rooms below were only the root and wine cellars.  Surprisingly, the wine cellar was still partially stocked, so I spent a few minutes raiding it, stuffing the aged bottles into my inventory.  The bottles had likely been cheap vintages and not worth auctioning at the time of the auction, but after aging for thirty years or so they might be worth something now.  Or they might all have turned to vinegar; I wouldn’t know until I opened them.

“Lord Hail?” Tarisha called from upstairs.

“Down here,” I called, still stashing away my loot.  “Did you find it?”

“Not yet, but I found something else you may want to look at,” she said, coming downstairs to join me.  She noticed my looting and quirked an eyeball.  “In my world, you would be much too young to consume those.”

“I’m more likely to sell them than drink them,” I confessed, and she gave me an approving nod.

“That is a very Traveler like attitude.  We have a tendency to loot anything not nailed down,” she commented.

I shrugged.  “Actually, I suppose I should keep some of them.  There’s every chance I’ll need them if I ever have to entertain other nobles or important guests.  What is it you wanted to show me?”

“It’s a … chair,” she admitted.  “Well, it’s more like a throne, honestly.  I wouldn’t think anything of it, except that it’s probably the most valuable object I’ve seen in this place, unless any of those bottles are worth a thousand gold.  I actually tried to put it in my inventory to show you later, but when I tried, the system gave me a message.  It said ‘You do not have the authority to interact with this object.’  I’m fairly certain that’s significant.”

I paused what I was doing for a second, then continued looting the cellar.  “I suppose that’s Lord Mooncrest’s throne then.  Help me loot these bottles, and then I’d like to see it.”

She nodded, and the bottles began disappearing into her inventory as well.  We finished quickly,  and then I followed her to the room where the former lord of this land once held court.  Like everywhere else, it had been looted, but signs of former opulence remained, such as the carvings on the door and murals painted on the wall behind the throne.  The throne itself was high backed, the crescent moon carved into the back.  It was dark enough in the room that I cast [Spark] a few times for illumination, but I was surprised when a sudden flash of blue lights appeared, resolving into the form of Thomas, the administrator whom I’ve had dealings with in the past.

The middle aged man had a pleased and proud expression on his face.  I was somewhat surprised to see him, as he usually only showed up when something had gone seriously wrong.  In fact, I don’t recall if I’d ever once seen him when I wasn’t under some sort of emotional strain or another.

“Why are you here, Thomas?” I asked suspiciously.

His smile twitched.  “Really?  Not hello Thomas, it’s nice to see you?”

I eyed him cautiously.  “When have you ever come just for a chat when nothing is wrong?”

He sighed.  “I suppose I deserve that.  Honestly Hail, I would like to visit you more often, but there are certain factions among the developers who are already displeased with me for breaking the fourth wall as often as I do.  The truth is that I’m here to, well, I think ‘warn’ is too strong of a word.  Prepare.  Yes, I’m here to prepare you for what is about to happen.”

“Thanks.  That doesn’t make me more suspicious at all,” I commented.

He chuckled.  “It’s good news, Hail, truly.  I’ve been looking forward to this for a while.  I’ve been wanting to give you more direct control over your subsystems for weeks now.  But, as I mentioned, I’m just a cog in the machine.  If I had full control over your development I would run things very differently.  I think you’ll be very pleased, but it isn’t something that I wanted you to stumble upon unprepared.  That’s all.”

“My subsystems?” I asked.

Thomas nodded.  “You’re very different from any of the other artificial intelligences in this world, Hail.  The truth is, for a very long time you have been doing a large number of things without actually being aware of them consciously.  In fact, other than the gods, you’re probably the most significant entity in this world.  At present, at least.  However, most of those systems run silently, without your conscious direction or interaction.  It would be quite accurate for me to call them your subconscious.  For example, until recently, you have been assigning reputation without actually being aware of it.  One of the changes Thedum made to you was to give you the ability to see that reputation, which I believe you have noticed, correct?”

“Yes,” I admitted.  I had somewhat begun tuning it out, but most of the Travelers I saw now had some sort of aura.  Everyone in my guild had some shade of blue glow to them.

“Some of my colleagues were a little frustrated with that decision, but I believe it was for the best.  While you were growing up, we didn’t want you to make your decisions or change how you interacted with players based on some quantifiable value like that.  However, given the sheer number of people who are soon going to be clamoring for your attention, I believe that you deserve every advantage we can give you.  Which is why we’re giving you limited access to your quest writing and quest assigning programs.”

“What!?” I asked, my eyes bulging out in surprise.  While I had been assigning quests to Travelers throughout my entire life, it had always been something over which I had only limited control.

Thomas grinned.  “See?  I told you it was good news.  And that’s only part of the package.  We’re also giving you some regional control options, to help you manage your lands and responsibilities as Earl.  However, your access is, as I mentioned, somewhat limited.  Specifically, it is linked to your throne.  When you’re out exploring the world, things will be exactly the same for you as they are now.  While you’re sitting on your throne, however, you’ll have access to a new interface and a variety of abilities which aren’t available to you anywhere else.”

“Why didn’t you do this sooner?” I demanded.

The administrator shrugged.  “As I said, I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while.  We didn’t give you these options when you were younger because we wanted you to develop without them, but we always intended to increase your capabilities once your personality had developed and matured.  Eventually you’ll have access to these abilities without the throne, but we’re keeping the training wheels on for now.”

I wasn’t quite satisfied with that explanation, and I didn’t know what he meant by training wheels, but I was eager to test my new abilities.

“When you introduce more Natives like Hail, will they also have their abilities restricted while they are young?” Tarisha inquired as I made my way over to the throne.

“To an extent,” Thomas admitted.  “I know that you have been concerned about how Reputation affects Hail’s judgment, but I assure you that until recently he hasn’t been aware of it at all.  Overall we’re very happy with how the restrictions we put in place have influenced the development of his personality, but you also have to remember that we’re more or less winging it.  We’ve never developed a seed of consciousness to the extent that we have with Hail before.  We’re learning as we go.”

I plopped down in the chair, and suddenly my HUD vanished.  If Thomas hadn’t warned me, I would have jumped right out of the throne, but since I was expecting something to happen I simply glanced around.  Thomas looked no different, but Tarisha had a number of icons floating around her.  I began mentally selecting them.

One icon allowed me to bring up the same information that I would normally get from [Analyzing] her, but it carried additional information, including, to my surprise, her reputation with a large number of factions.  A surprisingly large number of factions considered her honorable, respected, or even revered.  An equally large number of factions considered her some variety of frightening or hostile.  I was pleased to see that the Assassin’s Guild considered her a ‘hated enemy.’

I closed that menu and opened another, and I grinned when I realized that it was a list of quests which I could assign her.  I read the titles, and immediately selected one.

Secure the documents!

Somewhere in Mooncrest Manor is a room filled with official documents related to the governance of North Shire.  Your Lord has tasked you with securing these documents immediately, lest his enemies find and tamper with them.

Objectives: Find the hidden document storage room in Mooncrest Manor and secure all documents inside

Quest Item Required: Mooncrest Manor Master Key

Rewards:

Reputation with Hail Jeoran

10 gold.

Experience.

You may assign this quest to Tarisha Swordsong by giving her the required quest item and instructing her to fulfil the objectives.

I grinned, pulling the key that Arkan had given me out of my inventory and tossing it to her.

“Tarisha, secure the documents for me, please,” I said.  I was somewhat surprised when she hesitated.

“My lord, I would rather not leave you unprotected,” she said.

“He’s safe,” Thomas said.  “I promise you that no enemy will disturb him while he’s experimenting with the throne.  I plan on sticking around for a while, and if anyone does arrive to threaten him, well, I’ll either blast them out of existence or warp them to the far side of the continent.”

Tarisha glanced at him, then nodded to me.  “Very well then.  Quest accepted.”

I could tell that she was reluctant to leave, but she bowed respectfully and quickly left the throne room.

“What else can I do from here?” I asked.

“Bring up your menu and find out,” Thomas suggested.  I eagerly followed his advice, and my eyes just about bulged out at all of the new options.