Are they nihilists who desire the end of the world? Or perhaps just witless fools who think they are freeing their chained god?
In either case, they were fucking with Eric’s plans and accelerating everyone’s demise.
“What’s wrong?” Naomi asked—she’d clearly noticed his expression.
Eric turned to face her. He wanted to say what it was, but he could not, as the guards were right there with them. “I just thought about what a poor choice I made. I spent all of my Components on gear. I didn’t sell any for whatever they use for money here. Coins, I’m pretty sure, since I saw people trading with that.”
Shannon shrugged and licked her fingers clean of the snack’s caramel coating. “It just means we need to go back into the Twilight Depths soon and get more stuff to sell!” She giggled. “I’m going to be rich!”
Eric was relieved that his lie held up—at least to Shannon’s scrutiny. Peter looked at him with slight concern, and Naomi’s harder expression told Eric that she was clued in that something really bad had just happened. Eric tried to crack a smile. “Right. We’ll just have to go back in there.”
Naomi glanced at one of the guards. “How long until nightfall?”
“A few hours yet, Tinkerer Takinaka,” he replied.
She nodded and looked at the group. “We should head back home and decompress. It’s been a long day.” Everyone else agreed, and so the group began their walk back to the estate. Naomi got up next to Eric and spoke in whispered English. “What happened?”
Eric replied in the same language, “What we say translates regardless of language. It’s only written words that keep things secret. If you write in any other language, like English or Spanish, with the intent to write in that language firmly in your thoughts, it won’t auto-translate.”
“Right. Then I’ll get a notebook and we’ll correspond in that way,” Naomi replied.
“There’s a place in my room, a hidden alcove. We can also talk in the kitchen—I plan on cooking tonight.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Peter asked as he walked up to join the two.
Eric looked back to him. “Just talking about dinner.”
“Oh yeah. I hope it’s something hot and cheesy. Like I said, I’m starving. Give me another bite, Shannon.”
Shannon pulled her churro-like pastry away. “I gave you a bite. Use your own money to buy one!”
Well, good thing I asked Benson to buy ingredients for exactly what you’re looking to eat. A nice, Earth-like meal.
The rest of the walk through the city was spent discussing the events of the Twilight Depths. Eric distracted himself from the thoughts of those trying to free the Titan by focusing on recapping their combat encounters and critiquing how they should have approached threats.
When they reached the estate gates, the two stationed king’s guards allowed them entry, and the ones who had been escorting them dispersed. Once the Summoned were inside, the gates were shut behind them with a clang.
“Feels like a prison,” Shannon muttered. “I guess that’s kind of the point, huh?”
“Seems so,” Peter commented.
Eric walked up to the doors to the manor and opened them. “I’m going to help with dinner,” Eric said from the doorway.
“Why? We have someone to cook for us,” Peter asked, lingering outside with Shannon.
“It’s something I enjoy,” Eric replied as he walked into the front entryway.
“Oh, don’t make things too spicy, please!” Shannon called out. As Eric began to descend the steps to the basement, he heard Shannon and Peter’s voices overlapping, discussing plans to search for swimsuits and hit the hot springs outside.
Naomi joined Eric in his descent to the basement. “I think we’ll be making a bit of a racket with the cooking, right?”
“Probably. I can chop pretty loudly.” Eric reached the kitchen and called out, “Mari? Benson? Either of you here?”
There was a rummaging noise from one of the servant quarters, and Mari opened her door; she was clad in a simple dress and had disheveled hair. “Welcome back. My brother is currently out getting your clothes tailored.” She looked at Eric. “I went shopping earlier and acquired your ingredient list.”
“Thank you. You are welcome to have some once I make it.”
She blinked a few times. “I—erm, you wish to cook?”
“I’m sure I’m not as good at it as you, but I cooked a lot where I’m from.”
“Well, let me show you where the ingredients, pots, pans, and the like are. I just ask that you don’t mess up my organization.” Mari led the way to the back of the kitchen. She pointed at a metal panel with an inset ring in the ground. “That’s the cellar. All the ingredients are in there. After you go down and get what you need, make sure you put your hand on the blue stone on the wall. That’s a coolstone. Push some mana into it to keep the space nice and chilled. I’ll show you this first time.” She opened the hatch and descended. “What are you trying to make?”
Eric described the process of making a pizza, and she began handing him ingredients that he then handed to Naomi, who placed the items on one of the big countertops. Mari then exited the cellar, tapped the coolstone, and shut the latch. “There you go. When you tap that coolstone, just push some mana through your skin and into it. That’ll keep things nice and chilled. Do you need me for anything else?”
“No, thanks. I think we’ve got a handle on things from here.” Eric walked around the side of the counter towards the oven, then stopped in his tracks.
Right. I’m new here. I don’t know anything about cooking here. Think, Eric.
“Sorry, one more thing.” Eric used his right hand to gesture to the metal doors in the walls that he knew led to ovens whose interiors were lined with heatstones, and then motioned with the same hand to the black, slightly raised countertop with offset red heatstones with metal racks set above them. “I think I know what these are, but just confirming. Stove and ovens?”
Mari nodded. “Yes. Let me show you how to dial in the temperatures . . .”
Eric made a show of asking questions about how to properly utilize the heatstones, playing up the role of newly Summoned despite knowing exactly how to use all of the appliances.
Mari expertly explained everything, and then after Eric thanked her, she curtsied and departed.
Naomi was at the sink, setting a bucket up and activating the windstone that made the vacuum to pull water up. Water splashed against the top of the pan with a loud tink to drown out their conversation. Then, she went to the door and closed it tight. “So, what freaked you out earlier?”
Eric set to work chopping up the vegetables that would go on top of the pizza. “Someone is working on freeing the Titan.”
Naomi’s back straightened at that, shoulders pulled back at attention, and her eyes snapped to Eric. “No shit?”
“Not shitting you. We’ve only got fourteen years now.”
Naomi leaned against the door and let out a deep sigh. “We’ve got some villain working on destroying the world.”
“Maybe they think they’re freeing a god or something like that,” he continued. “Either way, our timetable has sped up by a year. Based on the message from The Paths, it seems like if we clear the mega dungeon, then we’ll obtain some means to push back the timer.”
A shadow crossed Naomi’s face. “Can The Paths lie? Could this voice be misleading us?”
Eric shook his head. “The Paths can’t. The voice, though? I don’t know. But it’s just been informative so far. It was the same voice from before I died, if that’s worth noting. Maybe some deeper entity inside The Paths? I honestly have no idea.”
Naomi put her hand to her chin in thought and closed her eyes. Eric began making the dough, and as he was kneading it, Naomi walked over. “Right. Let’s talk about the game plan,” she said. “Fourteen years is still a long time. We need to focus on the here and now, and set ourselves up in the short term before we can focus on that long-term goal.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“I have an old friend—sorry, a friend from the last timeline—coming over tomorrow. His name’s Darius.” Eric put the dough into a bowl, covered it with a towel, and began to cook the sauce. Passing his hand over the heatstone on the stove and pushing mana down his palm, he turned the cooktop on.
Eric continued, “I told him about the whole primal force thing as an incentive, and also dropped a secret about him no one knows. When he’s here tomorrow, I’ll be telling him everything about the Titan, our theory about how Ley Lines play into it, the whole deal. The man was a hero, once. He won’t want to see the world destroyed.”
“Are you sure about trusting him?” Naomi asked.
Eric began putting the ground-up tomatoes and spices into the pot on the stove with a bit of oil. “Yeah. He was the kindest person I ever met. We had a lot of good talks my last time around. I would trust him with my life. He was my best friend. And, like I said, he was a hero before something tragic happened and he retired. He literally saved entire cities from natural disasters.” He met Naomi’s eyes. “He’s a good person.”
“Okay then. I’ll trust your instinct. What next?”
“I’m going to see if he’ll be willing to take on the brunt of the investigation into the Ley Lines’ connection to the Titan. He’ll do the digging while we focus on getting stronger to deal with whatever he uncovers.”
“Seems smart, outsourcing labor. What are we doing in the meantime? Our short-term game plan?”
“Tomorrow, Seraphine will show up and tell us how we did in the Twilight Depths. After that, we’ll have four days of culture training and schooling. On the twenty-fifth of fall, we have the soirée that is our official introduction to the capital. Word will spread through the kingdom about the Summoned. We’ll become known . . . and that’s when people may start to move against us or try to manipulate us.”
He looked up to Naomi. “Hand me the things that look like peppers over there. Those purple and red ones.” Once she did, he put on another pot with some oil to make a spicy sauce separate from the main one. “We’ll need to make some connections at this party.”
“I got your list. Four major players aside from the small council proper. You called them old blood.”
“Each of us can work on one of those families,” Eric said.
And now I take a massive risk, but one that I think is necessary. If Naomi agrees, I know it’s the most logical path to take. She is a genius, after all.
Eric spoke softly. “We need to bring Shannon and Peter on board and tell them the truth, or at least part of the truth, if we want their help with that part. The old-blood families need to be brought onto our side. Thoughts?”
Naomi sighed. “The less people that know, the better . . . But I think it is wise to have all four of us on the same page. I can’t envision anything but a negative outcome if we kept it hidden from them and they eventually learned the truth—our trust would be shattered irreparably.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Eric replied, relieved she agreed with him. “But, aside from us four and Darius? No one else should know. Darius won’t tell a soul, since he’s a loner and misanthrope by choice. No connections or ties.”
Naomi nodded. “Maybe in a day or two, when they are better settled.”
“Oh, and Darius said he’ll bring a noise-suppressing magic item, so we can speak in places less suspicious than the basement. I’ll convince him to part with it and let us hold onto it. Silence Nodes aren’t common pieces of gear, but they aren’t completely unheard of. I’m sure he’ll be fine giving it to me once I drop a secret or two.”
Naomi glanced up at the ceiling, then looked over at the pot with water still running along the top, continuing to make its pinging noise. “I’ve definitely seen Benson and Mari lingering just at the edge of earshot when I’ve been chatting to Shannon or Peter. And I believe you said the servants are spies?”
“Yes they are,” Eric replied. “But they report directly to the Spymaster with no middle-men. Nothing we can do about it. Alright, different subject.” He cleared his throat a bit as some scent of the spices caught in it. “The soirée isn’t just our chance to get people in our pocket. They will be trying to get us on their payroll, for lack of a better term. They’ll promise Components, gear, Body Enhancements, all types of stuff.”
Naomi groaned. “Fucking networking events. Just like when colleges were trying to recruit me because of my SAT scores and science-fair-contest wins.”
“Pretty much.” Eric chuckled and turned to face her, still stirring with a spoon in each pot, dual-wield action. “You’ll probably be the center of attention, with your Tinkerer Class and unique perspective on technology. Manatech is still in its foundational stages, but you will—sorry, you previously improved upon it a ton.”
“I’m going to revolutionize this place,” Naomi replied with a grin. “So, what’s after the soirée?”
“A few seasons until the small council has a diplomatic meeting with Bhlast, the Meritocracy across the mountains. After that? We have a few years until international tensions escalate.”
“Give me a timeline.”
“Right. Do you know how the calendar works here?”
Her voice was laced with frustration. “No. The Index didn’t have any information on world history. Just system mechanics.”
“Each year is three hundred and sixty days, divided into four seasons, each with ninety days. Days are referred to by the day of the season, then the year, and finally the era. Right now it's the twentieth of fall, year twelve-sixty-three, in the twelfth era,” he explained.
Naomi reached into a pocket and pulled out a small notebook. She began scribbling. “Okay. Give me the dates and times of events.”
"Why not use your little Index-based notebook? That would be more secure."
Naomi tapped the notebook with the pen she had also pulled from her pocket. "If we're bringing Peter and Shannon on board, I want them to have a reference guide as well. Don't worry, I'm focusing on writing in English."
Eric rattled off the significant dates that he wanted Naomi to know about. Once he was done, she held it up for him to double-check. It was all written in English, so even if it fell into someone else’s possession it would be very difficult to decipher. He knew the exact dates perfectly thanks to being able to access those memories inside of The Paths. Though he still had no clue how those memories traveled back with him to the past.
- 21st of fall, 1263 – Eric’s friend visits, start of culture training.
- 25th of fall, 1263 – Soirée to introduce us to the Kingdom of Trok.
- 20th of spring, 1264 – Diplomatic meeting with Bhlast.
- 90th of summer, 1266 – International tensions rise due to the Empire of Pwish looking to expand and take over the Petty Kingdoms of Diaphan, Nairos, and Gorrund. They all have mutual-defense pacts with Bhlast, and thanks to the Bhlast and Trok alliance, we get drawn into it.
- 1st of spring, 1267 – World War breaks out, as Flescion moves on Trok while we’re occupied with the dispute in the east. Allied Cities of Chisholm stay out of it for most of the conflict until Flescion shows its weakness, then they pounce.
- 90th of winter, 1277 originally, but now 1276 – Titan breaks free. We are not sure if the day changes because of the year.
Naomi nodded. “Good. Now I’ve got a general timeline to work with.”
Eric took the pots off the stove to cool and went about spreading the dough onto a large, circular stone. “Alright, help me out with the toppings. Grating the cheese is going to suck because it is really sticky like the vegan stuff from back on Earth. But it melts amazingly.”
Thirty minutes later, Eric and Naomi brought up the pizzas and placed them on the table. Shannon and Peter joined them, and both let out mutters of, “Oh my God,” and “Mmm.”
Benson knocked on the door frame to announce his presence, then poked his head into the room. “Pardon me. Eric, you left some food downstairs. Shall I bring it up for you?”
Eric waved the question off and leaned back in his chair, savoring the goopy cheese and spicy sauce. “No. I made smaller ones for you and your sister. Enjoy.”
Benson blinked a few times, seemingly taken aback at the gesture. “You’re too kind. My thanks.” Benson dipped his head and departed.
Shannon grabbed another slice. “How’d you get the stuff for this?”
“I just described what I wanted, and Benson used money from our fund. The estate has an account he keeps track of in his butler book. Just tell Benson what you want to buy, and he’ll tell you if it's in the budget or not.” Eric took another slice of the pizza and took a chomp out of it. “Mmm.” He swallowed. “If you have money, you can donate it to the estate fund.”
“Oooh! I want to make barbecue like my mom does.” Peter began to stand up, then looked at his companions with concern. “Is anyone here a vegetarian or vegan?” No one answered in the affirmative, and Peter grinned. “I’ll go make a list of what I need right now!” He left the room, calling out as he left, “We need a smoker!”
Shannon smiled and ate yet another slice. “The cheese is a little saltier than I’m used to, but the sauce is sweet. And it’s not a tomato?”
“Nope. They don’t have tomatoes here,” Eric replied. “Something similar enough, though.”
“Mhmm. Thanks for this. Reminds me of home. Although the style is all wrong. Thin crust? Bleh. Thick, deep-dish Chicago-style is where the flavor is at.”
“We’ll make it a weekly thing. I can try to do Chicago-style next,” Eric replied. “We shouldn’t ever forget where we’re from. And who knows? Maybe we can start selling the recipe, or even open up our own restaurant.”
Shannon grinned. “Our own business? That would be fucking sweet if we ever wanted to retire.” She took another bite. “Now I just need some ranch to dip it in.”
Eric finished with his journaling. He wanted to create a generic accounting of recent events, written in the most banal, generic, surface-level-thought-recollection way possible. He put it into the hidden alcove, and intentionally left the wall ajar so that Naomi could find the opening with ease. The journal would be a nice cover for anyone—namely Mari or Benson—that were snooping around for intel on the Summoned.
He finished sipping his worldspine root tea and lay down in bed.
I have to do the culture training and intentionally fuck some of it up so I look like a newbie. Might as well see what I can get from The Paths tonight. Maybe that’ll help settle my mind.
He chose to speak aloud, as it just came more naturally when lying in bed, versus interfacing with his mind alone. He made sure to keep his voice at a whisper as he said, “Index: I want to know about primal forces.”
[Blackflame is one such power. There are REDACTED such powers, and they are called REDACTED.]
“Fine. Index: Tell me about the Titan.”
[REDACTED]
“Index: Tell me about Blackflame.”
[Explanation: The Blackflame is a primal force. Once ignited, nothing can put it out save the user willing it to cease.]
[How to progress in your path: killing, burning, incinerating, and destroying. Blackflame annihilates, and thus you will grow from indulging in its wrathful whims.]
“Index: what do I need to do to remove the redacted sections?”
[Titan: must be learned about outside of the Index. Then, the knowledge will be revealed. This applies to anything else REDACTED you may see.]
The next set of words appeared as usual, but the voice that accompanied the words was the same as when he’d touched the Summon Stone and descended into the Twilight Depths. The same as when he’d died and was between resurrection and the abyss.
[You should really focus on improving yourself. Get that body more in shape. The same goes for those mana channels and inner reservoir. Get more milestones. Focus on you and not all these schemes and plots. If you want to save the world and keep us all alive—me included—you need to become far more powerful than you did in your prior timeline.]
Eric shot up in bed. He was in utter shock. Never before in his life—in either life—had the Index directly spoken to him, much less been critical of him in such a way. It had always been a program-like assistant for navigating The Paths. He was completely taken aback, and it took him a few seconds to process what he had just heard. After he had recovered his wits, he said, “Index . . . are you aware? Sapient?”
[What, you thought that I was just some voice in your skull and words in your vision? Of course I’m sapient!]