The next day, Tessara and I set out to the city Sheidar. It's on the southern edge of the continent on the north side of the Geratie strait, dividing Elegar and Austri. The trip took us about a half a day by bike. Tessara was freaking out the entire first hour as we drove through the mountains around Nazul. She's not good with heights, and honestly it's a miracle we didn't fly off the edge due to her shaking and pulling me around every bend.
The sun was beating in the early summer sky as we drove through the countryside. We passed through a small town and made a stop at a nearby shop. The building was covered in rust and the eloq circuits buzzed loudly in the dim store. I grabbed a few snacks and a sandwich for Tessara and I. The front door slid open and I made my way to my bike, but Tessara was gone. Oh, great. Just what I need — to play babysitter in the middle of a road trip. I looked up and down the dirt street. No sign of her anywhere.
"Tessara!" I yelled. No response.
Oh, come on. I quickly made my way to the back of the building, incredibly irritated.
I turned the corner and saw it. Sitting in a somewhat open area behind the building was a strange metallic hole in the ground. A small part of it glimmered from under overgrown tree roots. I slowly walked up to it, it shimmered a dull bronze and coppery shade in the sunlight. The metal was old and weathered, but not rusted. Sharp edges stuck up around the entrance as if it was once connected to something larger. I scanned the rest of the area, but I didn't see anything else like it. The brush around it had been moved and there was a stairway that led down the hole. It was dark — too dark for me to see.
"Tessara?" I called down.
"Huh?" I heard a voice echo.
"Get up here now!"
"Vera? Where are you?" I heard her scream.
"At the top of the stairs, dumbass!" In the darkness, I saw the glint of her yellow eyes reflect the sunlight up the stairway. Very Creepy.
"Oh, hi Vera!"
"What are you doing? Get your ass up here now!"
"Sorry I just saw a cute animal and I followed it down here."
"Do you even know where down there is? It could be dangerous"
"C'mon I can handle myself, besides this place is so cool you have to come down here and check it out!"
"Tessara we don't have time"
"Bu-"
"NO! UP HERE NOW!" I yelled so loud it felt like my voice rang off the metallic walls. She gave a sad look and began walking up the stairs. Behind her a faint yellow light began to glow.
My curiosity got the better of me.
"Ok, fine. We can check it out, but only for a second. No more, got it?" She immediately began nodding her head excitedly. Then bolted back down the stairs.
The yellow light shot up along the sides of the stairwell, lighting it an eerie, off-white shade. With the weathered bronze and copper wall, it was more of a strange orange shade. Light pulsed up the sides of the walls slowly, lighting and dimming the stairs as we descended. I soon made my way to the bottom. It was a vast, open room. The walls were all the same metallic shade with strange designs of pulsing light racing up the walls. There was what appeared to be tables in the center of the room and a large metal desk.
There were a few other doorways. One of them looked as though it had been bent open, two more were just wide open. It was dark behind them.
Tessara was tracing light patterns on the walls, mesmerized by them. I slowly walked over to the desk. The desk had small holes all up and down its slanted top. I couldn't quite tell if it was by design or if animals had done it.
I rested my hand on it and it lit up. Green and yellow sparks shot across the desk. It began flickering and buzzing loudly. A holographic panel lit up under my hands. Strange symbols danced across it, they were odd, but somewhat familiar. I touched it and it reacted. Several holographics shot up over the desk. Most were far too distorted to even make anything out.
One was pretty clear though. It was a rotating hologram of a structure. It was rings cycling around a spherical shape. I couldn't quite make out what it was though since it was all dull shades of green and still flicker a bit. This was far beyond any technology I had ever seen. What is this place, it seems incredibly old, but far beyond our technology. The console suddenly shut down and the room went dark. Red circuits began shooting up the patterned walls and racing violently. A sound began ringing off the metallic walls. It was a voice — at least I think it was, but it was so distorted it just sounded like screeches and static. Doors around the room started slamming together with loud metallic clangs.
"Run!" I yelled as I darted towards the stairs. Tessara followed right on my heels. We sprinted up the stairs and lunged out the top of the entrance right as it slammed shut.
"That was fun!" Exclaimed Tessara dusting herself off.
"If you ever wander into some hole like that again, I'm going to make you walk home. Got it?"
"I-, yes." She slowly walked back to my bike. We hopped back on and resumed our trip south. I have no idea what that was, but I'd be ok if I never got caught in a room like that again.
After a few more hours of (thankfully) uneventful driving, we made it to Sheidar. The city was filled with old buildings consisting of old metal and dark wood. It was late afternoon by now. The city was large but underdeveloped, like most cities around the world.
It was only recently that big metropolises like Nazul started developing. Nazul is the second largest in Elegar and fifth in the world. Most are still like Sheidar, about the size of a large town and typically don't have the greatest technology. Most have eloq circuits powering them, allowing them to use modern household items. They also have some guns, but other than that, it hasn't changed much in fifty years.
We walked around town and got some supplies for our trip ahead. Once we cross the strait we have about another twenty miles east along the coast until we hit Laragoi. I have never been on another continent other than Elegar, so I don't really know what to expect, but I doubt it's much different than up here. In fact, I haven't even been more than twenty miles away from Nazul, but this city seemed pretty similar to the ones I've seen.
We bought our tickets for the boat across. About four hours until the boat leaves.
We spent it wandering around the city and found what has to be the largest fishing shop in the world. I swear they had everything in there, lots of fish of all shapes and colors that I had never seen. The people were very kind, I could tell they are very used to tourists and had quite a few gimmicky souvenir shops.
After that little adventure, we loaded the boat with my bike and sat down.
The next forty minutes across the water mainly consisted of me hanging my head out the window of the bottom level so I didn't puke. It was an ok ride, aside from getting a nice splash of freezing water every wave.
Finally, we arrived at the city of Rubic. We unloaded the boat. I went to a nearby store and scanned a map in a pamphlet and displayed it on my wristech. A 3D holographic map of the continent popped up on my screen. "Okay, so we're here," I pointed to a small dot on the map indicating our location, "and we need to go here," I drew a line using my finger on the map.
"So how far is that?", Tessara asked. I pressed a button on my wristech to automatically map a route.
"About twenty five miles, so it should take about thirty minutes to get there."
"Okay, cool! Let's go!" Tessara ran off towards my bike.
We hopped on it. Suddenly, I got a call.
"Shit! It's Kato. Don't say anything stupid," I said, darting her a serious look. I pushed a button on my wristech and the speaker buzzed.
"Oh, hey Kato. How are you doing on this fine day?" I said as nicely as I could.
"I'll cut to the chase, where are you?"
"Pfft we're nowhere, nowhere at all," exclaimed Tessara. I glared at her, and she shut her mouth real quick.
"I'm not stupid, Vera, I told you to leave this alone!"
"But I have a lead, I can't just leave it, I think-"
"Stop, return to the guild now", his voice started to raise.
"I can't and you know it."
"I understand why you're doing this. Deaths can be hard, but this is out of our reach. I can't help you out there."
"I don't need your help," I snapped
"You know what I mean," he said, pleading.
"I'm sorry, but the answer is no." I quickly hung up the call and got on my bike. We drove off down the road.
I'm not doing this just because of his death. I'm doing this because it feels right. I know there's more.
Traffic inside Rubic was a little claustrophobic, but once we got out of the main downtown area, it lightened up pretty quick. Soon, it was just us. The ride was pretty smooth — mainly dirt roads, hilly terrain, and winding jungle trees. It was nice, though. It helped keep the drive from dragging on.
The scenery was amazing. Bright blue skies, shining ocean water, with several shades of blue and green. Tropical trees and forests lined the roads with vibrant shades of green and vibrant, colorful flowers.
Eventually, we made it to a town about half the size of Sheidar, and it looked like it had been through hell. I drove slowly through the center. There was almost no one there. If not for the open signs and the five or six people walking, I'd think it was abandoned.
Most of the buildings looked destroyed or badly damaged. Shattered or boarded up windows, caved roofs, and broken sidewalks. The town was far too silent for my comfort, and I could tell Tessara was uneasy too. I continued slowly and stopped at a small convenience store.
I parked the bike and walked in. Tessara stayed outside. A small bell rang when I opened the door. The store was clean, but definitely old and smelled a little musty. I made my way around the store, seeing if they had any good supplies. I didn't find much, just some bread and cut meat. That's good enough for us, though. I got to the front counter.
"How are you today?" the lady behind the counter asked politely.
"Good. Um, can you tell me what this town is?"
"Why, you're in the city of Laragoi!"
"Laragoi?" I said surprised
"Yup," she said with a smile.
"What happened?"
"What do you mean what happened?"
"There's a bunch of destroyed buildings and there seems to be no one around."
"Oh, that's normal. It's just how the city is. It's been like that for a while," she said quickly.
"Um, ok."
"Well, have a nice day, bye now," she said, pushing my items towards me.
"Yeah… you, too," I said. She was acting weird, that's for sure.
I walked out the door back towards my bike, but Tessara was gone again.
"Here you go," she said somewhere to my left. I turned to see her giving a little boy a cookie, then she patted his head.
"Now you be more careful, and watch where you run, because scraped knees suck!" He nodded and wiped a tear.
Then a lady ran and snatched the kid, "Hey don't touch my son", she slapped the cookie out of his hand and turned him away.
"What are you trying to do? Poison and steal him?" She pointed at Tessara accusingly.
"Uh um, no I was just helpi-"
"You were just what?" She said rudely.
I walked over to Tessara's side, "Tessara let's just go, leave this bratty bitch alone."
"Who are you? This isn't your business!"
"She's my work partner and I saw the situation so yeah it is my business." I said, immediately starting to lose patience. She looked me up and down and gave me a snooty look. "Aren't you a little old to be playing dress-up?"
I slowly turned around and glared at her.
"Don't piss me off, I've had a long day as it is."
"Oh I'm sorry sweetie, did I hit a nerve?" She said in a mocking tone and then turned to the kid.
"That's it, I'm through with you bitch!" I began advancing on her, but Tessara was holding me with all her strength. She tried to hold me back, but I started to slowly drag her forward. After I finished my sentence she turned to see my psychotic rage, barely being held back.
"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" She said snootily while dragging the kid by his arm down the street. Now that one made me so mad I didn't even know how to respond.
"Calm down, it's ok." Tessara said, trying to get me to stop pulling her.
I eased up and stood there. "Whatever, let's just go before I really lose it."
"That wasn't you losing it?" she said, laughing a little bit.
"Yeah whatever. Let's go find a place to stay and see what other information we can get about this city and its people".
Good thing there wasn't anyone walking around at that time, because I'm sure that wasn't a great first impression.
We then walked around the city from shop to shop asking about the city, or well Tessara did I just stayed by to listen and observe, because in all honesty I'm not a people person. Not to mention I was still a little pissed off. After about two hours of going around town and asking, we got almost nothing. Every person said the exact same thing.
We did manage to find one lead, though. Apparently, on the north side of the city was a group of new visitors. Rich people — definitely corporate. They have to be from a big city. After observing their complex on the hill at the edge of the city, they were definitely corporate. All we got from anyone was that they were there, No one seemed to know why and, when we pushed for more, they shoved us away.
"Well, that was kinda pointless," said Tessara, disappointed.
"Yeah…"
"I mean, how could not a single person know anything about them? And it's also strange that they moved here, but have had nothing to do with the city ever since, like how do they not even walk down here?"
"I don't know, it makes no sense to me either." I said.
"What if we go up there and talk to them directly?" Asked Tessara.
"I doubt they'd be all that talkative with us. They won't even talk to the people they live with."
"Maybe, but it's worth a shot."
"If you think so, then sure. We can try," I said as we started walking towards the hill and made our way up the stairs. They were white, almost marble looking with dark gray trim on the outside. Extremely out of place compared to the city's oxidized metal blues and wood.
We walked up to a large white metal gate and walls that seemed to stretch all the way around the mansions.
"Ok let's go see if we can get someone to talk," Tessara said. She stood up and started making her way to the gate. I got up and followed her.
When we got up to the gate, we noticed a small screen where you can ring in to get the attention of someone. Tessara pushed a small button below the screen and it buzzed. We waited for a moment, and then the screen flickered to life.
Low and behold guess who answered, "Yes? Oh." Her tone went from kind to immediate disgust. "It's the child nabber and the raging psycho. What do you want now? Are you here for a fashion lesson?"
"I'll come in there and give you a makeover in the cement if you wanna keep talking like that," I said with a clearly angry undertone.
"Oh, thank you, but I think I'm good. Now scram! Get out of here this instant! I never want to see your faces again!" The screen went blank.
"Ergghhh", I punched the screen, shattering it.
"You know vandalism isn't a great look either." Said Tessara with a disapproving look.
"Yeah, yeah, who cares? They deserve it anyways."
We slowly walked back into the main part of the city and into the first inn we found. Tessara walked up to the desk. "One room, two beds please."
The man looked at me and then Tessara, "Aren't you the two that tried to kidnap a kid earlier?"
I clenched my fists, slammed it on the counter and yelled, "SHE DIDN'T TRY TO STEAL ANYONE, AND I'M SICK OF HEARING IT SO IF YOU DON'T MIND WE'LL TAKE THAT ROOM!"
His eyes widened and he dropped the keys on the desk.
Tessara then took the keys, "Sorry, thank you sir," She said, apologetically.
We walked down the hall, his face clearly stating he thought I was insane. Our room was one of the last in the hall — number forty two. When we got to it, Tessara unlocked the door and we walked inside.
The walls were a dingy yellow and it smelled like an old person's home. The furniture was a little dusty and the tv didn't seem to work, but honestly, at this point, all I cared about was sleep.
I laid on the bed farthest from the door. My head hit the pillow and I was facing Tessara on the other bed.
"I hope tomorrow goes better."
"Who cares?" I said, closing my eyes.