Chapter 9

When Ludger woke up, he felt as weak as a newborn baby. His mind was so foggy that he had the impression of having slept for years. He tentatively stirred on the soft feather mattress.

From somewhere in the room he heard the patter of small feet on the tiled floor. He did not have the strength to open his eyes, to investigate the sound. He decided that it would be easier to sleep it off. He sighed and proceeded to do just that.

A few hours later he had a passing moment of lucidity, where he remembered the dark eyes of Leta, looking worriedly at him. The next day, when his mind finally crawled back out of unconsciousness, the first thing that he saw was a pair a dark eyes.

Thinking that they were Leta’s he grinned and winked at her, mumbling an off-colour comment. As his mind cleared he realized that he was grinning like a lovesick puppy at Kurden. The dwarf was studying him, concern showing on his broad face.

When the dwarf decided that Ludger had recovered sufficiently, his face lit up and broke into a wide smile.
“I will take note,” He said. “of what you suggested. But I can tell you right now that you are not my type…. Welcome back to the land of the living, my friend. You have scared us in the last few days. I did not think that you were so sensitive and such a powerful conduit for magic.”

“What happened? How long have I been sleeping?” Ludger queried in a thin raspy voice.

“You collapsed after the last ceremony. So much magic flowed through you, and was amplified by you, that you were almost consumed by the backlash of energy when the magical connection with Vulcan was broken when you collapsed in total exhaustion.”

Andrack, who was now standing behind the dwarf, said.

“It took all of my skills to bring back your mind from the void it had been thrown into.”

“I was not aware of anything. It only felt like I was sleeping.”

All of his friends visited him and inquired about his health. Bacchus came in with Dregnar. She nuzzled him while whimpering softly. Ludger spent a long time petting her soft fur, very glad to feel someone from his own world close to him.

A servant brought him a meal tray, that he shared with his dog. He was feeling homesick and depressed. His gloomy contemplation was interrupted by Andrack, who was coming to check on him. The wizard was holding a small silver flask. He offered it to Ludger.

“This is a special tonic that will get you back on your feet overnight. We cannot delay our quest much longer. The blizzard should be lifting tomorrow. We must be on our way.”

Ludger took the small flask from the wizard and unscrewed the cap. A pungent effluvium greeted his nostrils. With a frown, he said.

“I know that to be effective a medicine should taste bad. But this is ridiculous.”

“Come on, drink up, you will feel like a new man tomorrow.”

“I like the one that I am, now. I don’t want to turn into Mr. Hyde.”

Not comprehending the literary allusion, Andrack looked at him quizzically.

“Forget it.” Ludger said. “Its a long story.”

He pinched his nose and rapidly gulped down the content of the flask. The taste was not as bad as the smell, but it was still fairly potent. Soon a warm glow settled in his stomach. It rapidly started to spread. He grew tired. He fell back, in the bed, asleep before even hitting the pillows.

Andrack recuperated his flask and recorked it. With the help of Leta, who had just come in, he gently tucked Ludger in his bed.

*

The next morning, Ludger woke up early and felt so full of energy that he thought he could take on Magdar singlehandedly. After a quick shower he dressed in his own clothes. He went into the corridor in search of Kurden. He found the dwarf checking on the horses, making sure they were saddled and packed properly. He warmly greeted Ludger and urged him to join the others for breakfast.

After a hearty meal, Ludger was brought to a small room to meet one of the priests. This man would present him with his magic weapons. After a short chant, the priest anointed Ludger’s forehead with a scented balm. He ceremoniously gave him his sword, knife and chainmail.

Kurden joined them to instruct Ludger into the proper wear of the lightweight mail. The pliable metal mesh was of a soft golden hue. It was of light weight, like aluminium, and felt like a soft, thick, airy fabric. It was cut like a long tunic, reaching bellow the knees, with three-quarter length sleeves and an attached hood.

Ludger slipped on the strange garment. It fitted him perfectly. He voiced his concern to Kurden, that he was not able to reach into the many pockets of his vest and pants. The dwarf leader showed him how to remodel his garment to open up for him, at any place that he wished. With a bit of meditation and the judicious use of his fingernails, the mail would open up, only for him, like hook and loop fasteners. He was also showed how to gather the garment in a seam between his legs and to split that seam to form a pair of riding britches.

The chainmail would react to any outside force with a counterforce that was proportional, thus preventing any harm to the wearer. In simple terms, the harder you pushed on it, the harder it would become. This newfangled armour was completed by a pair of thin, leather palmed, metal meshed, gloves and knee-high boots of subtle leather, in which were sewn thin strips of metal to protect legs and feet.

Ludger buckled his heavy gunbelt around his hips, slung his new sword over his shoulder and tied the scabbard of his kukri sideways to the back of his gunbelt, so that the handle could be easily reached by his right hand.

He pulled the tight fitting hood over his head. After donning the light gloves, he practised drawing his sword until it smoothly flowed into his hands. The sword could detect black magic and made its presence known to Ludger, by a subtle vibration of its handle.

Ludger looked at himself in a tall looking glass. He burst out laughing. In his exotic get-up, he cut a dashing figure. He looked like a cross between a Samurai warrior, Robin Hood and Rambo. He profusely thanked the priest and Kurden for his sensational new weapons. He rejoined Arexis and the others, who were ready to go. His arrival created quite a commotion. Andrack said in a booming voice.

“Now you finally look the part of the mythical hero.”

Arexis added.

“I am sure that with a dashing warrior like you, we will prevail in our quest.”

Not being sure if they were serious or making fun of him, Ludger said in a hurt tone.

“Its easy for you to say, but I feel foolish dressed in this carnival outfit.”

Dregnar replied, apologetically.

“Master Ludger, do not listen to them. You do look like a hero and Bacchus and I will serve you faithfully.”

Hearing her name, Bacchus barked to emphasize the point.

“I am touched by your feelings, but would you please stop calling me Master Ludger.”

“If you desire so…, Master Ludger.”

Frustrated, Ludger walked away amidst the laughter of his companions. The ranks of the Prince’s guards had been augmented by ten or so dwarf soldiers leading solidly built small horses. Ludger bid farewell to Leta and her sisters, who stood in the palace’s courtyard tears in their eyes. He kissed each of the girls on the forehead and thanked them for their hospitality. To Leta, he gave a small photograph of him and his dog standing in front of his house. He said in a soft voice.

“I will always cherish the memory of you. Our paths must sadly part, but for the short time they were together you made this alien world a better place for me. Goodbye….”

Ludger embraced the young girl and sombrely walked to his waiting horses. Kurden gave the signal to depart. They slowly led their horses out of the gates and down the main avenue. Ludger felt a little nervous. The previous day, Dregnar had told him stories about cave ghouls, that haunted the long abandoned mining tunnels. Through mimicry they could lure unsuspecting travellers from their parties, to steal their lifeblood.

The tunnels, that they would follow were a veritable maze. But the dwarves had an uncanny sense of direction, that would never lead them astray in their underground forays. This closeness with the earth’s forces was the source of their magic and of their incredible success in prospecting for metal ore.

As they walked through the large underground city, Ludger noticed groups of dwarves, assembled around large fire pits, singing, drinking strong ale and swapping stories of daring do’s. Obviously stories travelled fast because he heard the highly embellished tales of an alien warrior killing bandybears and kraken with a thunderstick. As he was recognized, he was cheered-on by the jovial dwarves. Ludger caught up with Andrack. He inquired.

“How good is our chances of retrieving the sceptre? Is it protected by magic or physical obstacles?”

“I am cautiously optimistic. The king must always make the pilgrimage to the Source. It is rendered more complicated by the length of time since Bluthor’s demise and the drying up of the river, which reduces the magic. But if we get Arexis to the Source he should have no problems in proving himself. As for most of the obstacles I am pretty sure that they are mostly physical. But the magic of the guardian would prevent any unworthy man to take possession of the sceptre. It would cause the man to hallucinate. As the poor soul wanders through the corridors of the Source, seeing visions of paradise, he would finally die of total exhaustion.”

Ludger thought that this form of deception was a very effective way of guarding an area. His house was protected by a similar field operating on fear. He had already experience its effectiveness.

They soon left the city behind them. As the diffuse lights of the city somewhat faded, they reached the opening of a small narrow corridor. Kurden called a halt. He double checked that everybody was accounted for. Without a word he dove into the darkness. Their larger horses barely squeezed through the opening. They lit torches and followed one by one. The tunnel quickly widened and permitted more comfortable progress. Ludger was near the back of the party. His torch was smoking badly, giving a flickering, orange light. Occasionally the dim light would reveal the opening of a side tunnel.

After four hours of monotonous progression, they entered a large cavern whose walls were covered in crystals of all colours. The light from the torches was caught and amplified in a stunning kaleidoscope of coloured patterns.
Kurden called for a short rest. He told Arexis that they were the first strangers to witness the Cave of Crystals. They recuperated for twenty minutes, watching with awe the never repeating spectacle of lights. When they were ready to continue, Kurden warned them to stay close to each other. The path ahead was very complicated until they exited near the river of Gods.

As the hours passed, the men and the horses grew restless from the wearisome monotony of the underground leg of the trip. Ludger’s pack horse slipped. When he struggled back to its hooves it favoured one of its hind legs. Ludger stopped to investigate the problem. He jammed his torch between two rocks. He grabbed the offending hoof between his knees and found a small rock lodged under the horse’s shoe.

While keeping an eye on the lights of the moving column, he quickly dislodged the offending rock. As he started moving, he just lost sight of the trailing man’s torch around a bend of the tunnel. He picked up his pace and as he rounded the next bend, he saw the flickering light of the tail man. He let out a sigh of relief. He urged Bacchus to move faster and they were soon catching up with the light. Ahead, the light suddenly stopped moving. They had probably stopped to let Ludger catch up.

The tunnel opened up into a large cave, lit by an eerie glow. The sight that greeted him, when he entered the cave, crushed the breath right out of his chest. There was no men, no dwarves, no horses and no torches. In the middle of the room stood three ghostly creatures made of rotten flesh. They had cheekless grins on their faces. They were looking at him through lidless eyes, like a starving man looks at a feast that faith just invited him by mistake. After what felt like a century, Ludger willed himself to breathe again. He ordered Bacchus not to get close to the creatures, not that she seemed anxious to approach them.

*

When Kurden called a much needed halt in a spacious cave, everybody was relieved. Soon the light banter of the men was chilled by the discovery that Ludger and his dog were missing. Nobody had noticed before. No clues on how long he had left the group could be garnered. The only sure thing was that he was still with them in the Cavern of Crystals.

Kurden decided to backtrack, with a few of his men. Since time was of the essence, it was agreed that the party would proceed under the guidance of one of his sons. After a short rest Kurden bid them farewell and started to retrace their steps.

*

Ludger slowly advanced toward the cave ghouls, trying to figure out what to do. He could not turn and run. This would leave his horses to certain death. He did not think that his bullets could do much damage to a creature that was already dead. He pulled his hood over his head and donned his gloves, that were tucked away in his belt.
He did not relish hand to hand combat but he could not see any other way. As he was mulling this over, he felt an insistent throbbing coming from his sword. He unconsciously drew the blade. He lashed at the closest creature. An unearthly screech rose from its lipless mouth, as its arm, severed at the shoulder, fell limply to the ground. The other two ghouls rushed him in unison. He barely contained their attack. From the corner of his eyes he noticed two new ghouls entering the cave. He started to seriously doubt the issue of the combat. His mind was reeling amidst the screeches of the creatures, the neighs of the nervous horses and the barks of his dog. As the fight progressed, his handling of the sword was becoming more effective, as he increased his concentration. He was becoming more confident by the minute when suddenly, as he was backing up, a strong hand gripped his ankle and tripped him.

As he was laying down on the ground, he looked down in horror at the disembodied hand grabbing his ankle. He shook it off and before he could get back on his feet, one of the ghouls was upon him. The foul stench of rotting flesh emanating from the creature was choking him. He prepared himself to die. He heard a vicious growl coming from Bacchus and the angry dog lunged, head first, at the creature. It lost its balance long enough for Ludger to regain his footing.

The creature brushed the dog aside as if she was weightless. It returned its attention to Ludger. Bacchus, not to be undone, jumped at the ghoul’s leg and came away with a thigh bone as a trophy. The ghastly creature collapsed to the ground, but it kept crawling toward Ludger. Bacchus was wagging her tail in triumph. Two new creatures rushed Ludger. He counterattacked with renewed vigour, seeing that it was his only chance at survival. For a moment he appeared to gain the upper hand. During a lull in the battle the ghouls regrouped and attacked as one. As he was retreating, Ludger felt a presence behind him. He quickly stole a glance over his shoulder. One of the ghouls, entirely missing his head with no apparent ill effect, stood there ready to grab him. At the last second it fell stiffly to the ground.

Startled by the sudden turn of events, Ludger quickly regained his countenance and attacked. From the entrance he heard the familiar voice of Dregnar yelling at him.

“You have to first behead them, then crack open their skulls and burn its content.”

Ludger did not know what to make of the troll’s presence. But the sight of him with a lit torch and a dwarf’s war hammer was very welcome. A strange combat followed. Ludger would behead one of the ghouls. Its headless body would keep coming at him until Dregnar would crack its skull open with a sickening blow of his hammer. He would then set the pulpy green content of the mashed skull, ablaze with his torch. Only then the body would collapse.
After another twenty minutes of this macabre dance of death, Ludger and the troll were sitting, panting, on a rock overlooking the disgusting mess left by the battle. Bacchus was howling, which was uncharacteristic of her. She still was clutching the long femur that she had captured, between her front paws. After a while things quieted down. They heard Ludger’s horses return to the cave. Dregnar explained.

“I noticed that you were gone. Without alerting the others I started to search for you. I followed the trail of scents left by the horses and dog. I am glad to have found you, Ludger, at such an opportune moment.”

“I am also glad that you did. You are a loyal friend, Dregnar. I thank you.”

After a few minutes of backslapping and giddiness, a doubt crept in Ludger’s mind. Did the others know that they were gone? Would Dregnar be able to guide them out of the mountain? As they realized that they were hopelessly lost in the cavernous maze, a joyful booming voice startled them.

“Why do you looked so gloomy?”

They turned as one and saw Kurden, with three other dwarves, enter the cave. The dwarf-leader laughingly said.

“It does not look like you need our help in defeating a roving band of cave ghouls. I am sorry that we worried about you.”

After a few heartfelt greeting he continued.

“The others should be by the river by now. We should hurry to join them.”

After convincing the horses to cross the cave, they exited by a side tunnel. They made rapid progress, stopping only for short rests. By early evening they were out of the mountain, on a promontory overlooking the once mighty river of Gods. Its narrow bed now lazily went its serpentine way between the mountains. There was enough room to move upriver beside the river, on the dried up portion of the bed. They would not need to follow narrow mountain trails.

Ludger, for one, was happy to be out of the tunnels, where the dwarves seemed to be so comfortable. About half an hour away they could see, by the river, the firelights of the Prince’s camp. From this high vantage point Ludger decided to radio Chargoff, as it was their appointed time. They told him that all was well and to expect the arrival of a battalion of dwarf soldiers. The general promised to relay the good new to Nathalia, at the palace.

After a few more minutes of breathing the crisp mountain air, they slowly made their way down to their friends, who were anxiously waiting for them. One of Arny’s men, on the lookout, quickly spotted them. He spread the news of their imminent arrival.

The tantalizing aroma of food on the grill reached them first, the camp was still hidden by a low knoll. Ludger realized how hungry he really was. They were greeted back to the camp by songs of joy and full wineskins. They sat down to eat by the large fire. While they revelled in Dregnar’s embellished recounting of their heroic battle against the cave ghouls, Ludger quietly sat in the shadow of Andrack’s large bulk, lost in his own thoughts.

“What is wrong?” Whispered the wizard.

“Oh…, nothing. I was just thinking.”

“You can tell me about your problems. I am only here to help you.”

“I know, but it is not a problem. Its just that I feel closer to you, and the rest of these people, than anybody I knew back in my own world. Also, despite the discomforts, the attacks and all…, I feel so comfortable in this world. Is there something wrong with me?”

“Do not worry, this is why you were chosen by the magic of my spell. You are very compatible with the magic of this world.”

Startled, Ludger replied.

“Do you mean that I could perform some magic myself?”

“You have already done so, without knowing, during the forging ceremony. But it almost killed you. To become a practitioner you must devote your life to the art and make the conscious decision of staying in this world permanently.”

Ludger fell back into silence. He was torn by inner turmoils. Andrack left him alone, sensing that Ludger needed to work it out by himself. Late in the night the songs finally died down and the men retired to the tents for the nights. Ludger packed the snow, in an area slightly away from the fire. He unrolled his ground mat and bundled up in his mummy bag. He laid back, looking up at the stars, lost in deep thoughts. After a while his thoughts drifted to green eyes and a certain feisty red head.

At the thought of this challenging person, he told himself.

“I singlehandedly fought draken, bandybear and cave ghouls. I should be able to conquer the heart of one person, however rebellious she might be.”

He fell into a deep slumber, with a smile on his face.

*

Ludger awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking. He saw that the suns were already high in the sky. He was surprised that he had slept for so long. Bacchus was still asleep by the fire.

Andrack came to him, carrying a mug of strong herbal tea. Ludger queried.

“How come nobody woke me up earlier? I could have helped with the morning chores.”

The white haired man answered.

“You needed you rest after yesterday’s events. We have still a few long days ahead of us. I thought it best for you.”

Andrack left him to his morning ablutions. Soon after breakfast they broke camp. They started their slow trek upstream. At least they could now ride their horses, but progress was painfully slow. The dried up bed of the river was filled with polished rocks covered in ice and snow. They made the horse’s footing precarious.

Large snowflakes started to fall. The men turned up the collars of their travelling cloaks. Ludger put on an insulated, Gore-Tex® lined parka over his chainmail. He shivered at the thought of what laid ahead.

By mid-afternoon the wind had picked up. The snow was falling heavily, blinding the men. It made their advance more hazardous. They had just decided to make camp for the night, under a large protecting overhang, when – coming at their flank – a band of dark riders attacked them.

Kurden and his men, who were leading the group, doubled back. They jumped in the battle with their war-hammers high over their heads. Once the initial surprise had passed, they counterattacked in a frenzy. They were not quick enough to prevent two of the Prince’s guards to perish by the swords of the black riders.

Ludger grabbed his rifle and took a clear shot at a man who was about to skewer Andrack from behind. The startled old man did not know what had happened. Ludger was happy that his mount had not thrown him at the loud report from the gun. He could not risk firing again, due to the close quarters of the fight. The heavy snow accentuated the confusion. He holstered the G3, drew his sword and joined the melee. He was confronted by a large man with an evil grin in his face. He seemed to be the leader of the band. The man lunged at him with a heavy battle axe. Ludger deflected the blow with the sword. Sparks flew and the impact stung his right hand. The axe glanced off his left shoulder. His shoulder felt numb. Being off balanced, he had great difficulty holding on to his saddle.

He was lucky to be riding a well trained battle horse. The horse had pivoted and disengaged his opponent, permitting Ludger to regain his balance. He pulled his hood on, not wanting to loose his head in the battle. He cleared his mind and concentrated on his sword. He turned his horse around with his knees and attacked the man with uncontrollable fury. With his sword windmilling around him, he quickly gained the upper hand. He was amazed when his thin blade sliced through his opponent’s massive axe, as if it was butter. With a swift pass he slit the man’s throat. The man with unfathomable hatred in his eyes, slid slowly from his saddle.

Ludger turned his horse around, looking for another adversary. Dregnar had fallen from his horse. He was cornered by a laughing man. Ludger spurred his mount and rode to his defense. As he passed them, he dealt a killing blow to the man. Without stopping he went to Arexis, who was dealing with one of the last raiders.

His attack created enough of a diversion to open the man’s guard to the Prince. Arexis dealt him a quick thrust with his sword. As the man fell, his horse stumbled, landing on Ludger, who was unhorsed in the process. As he rolled on the ground he saw with horror, out of the corner of his eye, the right front hoof of the spooked horse, coming toward his head with the speed and power of a freight train. His head collided with the hoof, or vice-versa, and all went black.

*

Ludger quickly regained consciousness with a numbness in his shoulder and a ringing pain in his head. A lot of drawn faces were looking at him. For a few second he had to fight to recognize them. His mind soon cleared to the happy relief of his friends. Arexis extended his hand, helping him back to his feet. Kurden offered him a skin full of strong brandy. Ludger let out a long stream of the potent liquid into his mouth. The brandy burned his throat as he swallowed, putting back a needed vigour in his soul.

Ludger learned that the battle had quickly ended, due to lack of foes. As they made camp he was saddened that three of the Prince’s guards had not survived the attack. All the raiders, bar one, had perished. This survivor later perished from his wounds. But not before telling them that they had been a band of mercenaries, hired by Magdar, to prevent them to finish their quest. The man’s last word were.

“Beware of the giant rock troll.”

The camp was silent that evening as the men mourned their lost friends. Trackers had been sent, ahead and back, they would report later in the evening. Ludger was surprised by the effectiveness of his lightweight armour. His parka had been ripped to shreds by the numerous blows he had suffered. But he had not suffered any ill effects, except for a stiff shoulder and a mild headache.

When the trackers returned, Ludger joined Arexis and Andrack by the fire. The men who had backtracked had disposed of an advanced patrol of dark elves. By their conversation the had found that the main body of a large force was following, about two days back.

The group who had gone ahead advised that they were about half a day’s forced march from the source of the river. The side pass, from which they had been attacked, was now empty. No signs of other raiders were presents.

After a short deliberation it was decided that since they could not backtrack to face the black elves, they had to reach the Source, retrieve the sceptre and be back to the side pass, before the black elves reached that point.
After a short rest and meal they would leave quickly and march overnight. Luckily the weather had cleared up and their progress would be lit by the full moon.

They would try to return by tomorrow afternoon, at the latest. Thus giving themselves only half a day head start, up the side pass, ahead of the dark elves.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 1990: One Way Ticket To Talenthar

The Sass

Chapter 8

Ludger slept in late. When he woke up, he felt as if the entire weight of the world was resting on his shoulders. He slowly crawled out of bed. He looked at himself, bleary eyed, in the mirror overhanging the wash basin. He looked even worse than he felt. His hair was in a disarray and his eyes were red with sleep. His mouth felt as if someone had put little furry sweaters on his teeth and carpeted his tongue with felt.

He grimaced at the pitiful image reflected to him by the mirror. He was still dizzy with sleep. His head was filled with a kaleidoscope of dull aches and pains, that were amplified by his every movements. He poured some water in the wash basin. He splashed it on his face. It did not have the effect that he had wished. He now felt just as miserable, but he was also wet.
Ludger turned to his pack, who was on top of a closed chest, at the foot of the bed. He hesitantly walked to it with both hands holding his head. He was desperately preventing it from rolling to the solid oak floor. With a groan he extirpated from the nylon bag, some fresh clothes and his toiletry kit.

He opened the door of his room and stumbled to the washroom, at the other end of the corridor. Luckily it was unoccupied. The first thing he did was to hang his kit on a hook and unroll it. He filled a glass with water and took, in succession, a powerful analgesic, some megavitamins and an antacid. He quickly undressed, sat in the bottom of the shower holding his head and let the flow of the water slowly revive him.

Ludger stepped out of the washroom over half an hour later, looking well groomed and refreshed. His head had cleared and the pain had subsided to an almost comfortable level. He collected his bag from the room and headed for the dining hall. When he reached the top of the stairs he noticed that everybody was already up and having breakfast. Arexis, who was sitting at a table with Andrack, Arny and Dregnar, cheerfully greeted him and asked him to join them. Ludger threw his bag by an empty chair, sat down and ordered a light breakfast consisting of fruit juices, cold cereals and bread, from the jovial innkeeper.

Eyegar soon joined them, after having walked Ludger’s dog. Ludger thanked the tall man and happily patted Bacchus on her head. He petted her until his breakfast arrived. The innkeeper soon came back with a shallow wicker basket containing a tall glass of reddish-pink fruit juice, a bowl of cereals with a pitcher of cold milk, assorted muffins and pastries with fresh butter and preserves. He placed the basket in front of Ludger.

Before he could be thanked, the man quickly returned to the kitchen. He came back, a few minutes later, with a pot of herbal tea and a cup that he placed in front of Ludger. He put a bowl of ground meat and gravy, on the floor, in front of Bacchus. Ludger profusely thanked him for feeding his dog. The portly man patted him on the back and winked. He said.

“Your friend, Dregnar, told me how much of a hero and a fighter your dog his. I will treat her as such. I am glad to be host to our future Saviour. By the way, the herbal tea will invigorate you for the journey ahead.”

He winked at him again and returned to the kitchen. Ludger hungrily disposed of his breakfast. While he was sipping his aromatic tea he asked Andrack.

“Yesterday, when you said that you could not use a healing spell on Balnor and that it was a question of entropy, what did you mean by that?”

Andrack cracked a smile and replied in a scholarly tone.

“As you surely know, the universe is governed by entropy, In simple terms, if things are left by themselves, they will eventually go from an organized state to a disorganized state requiring less energy to maintain. All of our efforts are to slow down this natural trend.

It is the same with magic. It takes a lot less energy to cast a destructive spell, like a fire spell, that will increase entropy, than to cast a healing spell, that will locally decrease it. With the reduced energy available to me, it is impossible to cast any constructive spells. Only some minor destructive spells are still possible.”

Balnor chuckled and said in a hushed tone.

“It his a good thing, because most of the time his constructive spells, more likely than not, ended in destruction anyway.”

Andrack glared at the scribe. Before an argument could start their emaciated guide joined them and curtly said.

“We will leave within the hour. I assume you will be ready.”

He stiffly bowed and left the inn. Ludger looked at the others and said.

“I guess we should take care of the bill, fetch our horses and get ready to leave.”

The innkeeper vehemently refused any payment from Arexis. He stated that he was glad to have made this small contribution to the Prince’s quest. As they left the inn the horses had already been brought out. They were being saddled by the stable boys. Ludger was able to contact Chargoff at the appointed time. They were rejoiced to hear that all was well in the capital. Nathalia had contacted him the night before. They told him of the ambush they had escaped from, the previous day and that Balnor would be coming back to recuperate, with a group of young lads from the village that would join the troops.

Since the communication had been very clear, Ludger decided to install a small repeater on the roof of the inn. With this, they would be able to communicate with Chargoff from further up in the mountains. With the help of Dregnar he collected the small radio unit, a long collapsible antenna and a solar powered battery charger, from his pack saddle. In the meantime some of the stableboys had erected a long ladder.

Ludger and the troll quickly climbed to the roof. They installed the small transceiver with thin pieces of metal strapping and some nails. By the time they were back on the ground, the party was ready to leave. They grudgingly parted company with their friend Balnor and the innkeeper. They walked toward the mountain pass, leading to higher elevations, amongst the cheers of the villagers.

They were unhesitatingly led through a maze of canyons and passages by their gloomy guide. Early in the afternoon the temperature suddenly grew colder as dark clouds rolled over the mountain tops. In a matter of minutes a violent blizzard had descended on them, reducing the visibility to zero.

Arckvor quickly called a halt, so the riders could don warmer clothing. He himself declined to do so, the cold did not seem to have any effect on his body. They decided that every rider should be lead by the rider ahead of him. Their pack horses would follow by their side.

Soon a double file of horses was slowly led by a lone dark rider. They progressed for countless hours, having lost track of time and direction. Still Arckvor relentlessly led them through the rapidly deepening snow.

Ludger had long ago lost any hopes of ever seeing again a warm fireplace. He could not believe that anybody could orient himself in the white soup of the blizzard. The snow was getting so deep that the horses had slowed to a crawl. He could feel the cold in his bones and he had resigned himself to the worse.

Suddenly they entered a narrow gorge. The walls were so close that there was just enough room for two horses, abreast. There was less snow on the ground, but they could still see the blizzard raging high overhead. It was very cold and damp, but at least they did not have to contend with the high wind and the snow.

After a good hour of slow progress, they finally reached a cirque facing a gigantic metal clad door, set in the mountainside. Arckvor called a halt. He, alone, proceeded to the door. He leaned from his mount and grabbed a massive knocker, set in the middle of the door. He banged three times, paused, then two more times. He slowly pulled away from the door, as it ponderously opened out in silence.

A solidly built dwarf, wearing an intricately engraved suit of armour, approached the guide. Arckvor bent down toward him. He talked to the guard in a low voice, while pointing to the shivering group. The dwarf acknowledge with a nod. The guide turned his horse toward them, saluted, spurred his mount and quickly disappeared in a side passage leading back into the storm.

They were left alone with the dwarf. This last signalled them to follow him. They were led into the mountain. The large door closed behind them with a resounding thud. They were in a nondescript dark cave of large proportions. A few torches were smoking on the walls.

Arexis hesitantly ordered to dismount. The dwarf guard, without a word, grabbed a torch and headed into a dark tunnel. They were quick to follow him on foot, leading their horses. After the raging blizzard, the tunnels were very comfortable. They were led through a long series of tunnels that ended in a cathedral sized cave with a ceiling so high, that the light from the torch did not reach it. Their guide instructed them to wait while he fetched his leader. He disappeared in one of the multitudes of openings lining the walls.

The air in the cave was clean and warm. They uneasily talked with each other, as they stamped their feet to reestablish some warmth in their cold bodies. After half an hour had passed, Ludger wondered if their guide had forgotten them. He said so to Andrack. The large magician replied.

“You cannot rush a dwarf if he his otherwise occupied. We will be attended in time.”

Just as Andrack was finishing his phrase, a deep booming voice, coming from one of the openings, said.

“Andrack, you old fool. I am glad to see you again. Have you learned any new tricks lately.” The last he said with a wink.

Ludger could not believe his eyes at the sight of the dwarf who had joined them. He was over a foot shorter than him, still very tall for a dwarf. He looked almost as wide as he was tall. He was wearing a pair of heavy cloth pants. He was bare-chested under a long leather apron. A large hammer was stuck in his belt. His wide hairy torso and massive arms were bulging with heavy muscles. His callused hands looked like vices that could crush a tree trunk. He had a square set jaw and a wiry head of air and beard. Making this awesome physique secondary was the darkest pair of eyes that Ludger had ever seen. They looked like polished, black onyx set into a snow white surrounding. They made the man look like he could love or hate with the same endless passion. He was glad that these eyes showed happiness at seeing them. He did not want to be at the receiving end of their hatred.

The dwarf went straight to Andrack and easily lifted the bulky wizard as he hugged him. He looked at the other men and said.

“My name is Kurden McNish, I am the leader of this mountain’s dwarves.” He pointed to Arexis. “You are Bluthor’s son. You have a lot of him in you. May he rest in peace.

Andrack, where have you hidden my friend Balnor, the one who knows better about you?”

“He was injured in an ambush. He returned to Arnor to recuperate.”

“I am saddened to hear that. I will miss him, we have a lot in common.”

He winked at the wizard then eyed Ludger up and down for a long time. He turned toward Andrack and said.

“This must be the one that you summoned. I can sense that he his not of this world.” Turning to Ludger he continued. “Do not believe anything that this large bag of useless magic has to say about me. Welcome to Thorland. My city is now your city.”

Kurden shook his hand. Ludger winced from the pain. He thought that he would never be able to use his hand again. The dwarf clapped his hands and dozens of attendants answered the signal. They relieved the party of their horses and heavy winter clothes.

Kurden led them through the tunnel he had come from. It was lit by crystals embedded in the rock. It ended in a large underground avenue that was bordered by shops and inns. Hundreds of dwarves were milling up and down the street, attending to their daily business.

The sight of the underground city was marvellous. Imagine a large city, carved elegantly out of the rocks, that stood in the middle of a cavern so vast that it seemed endless. The buildings were exquisitely engraved with countless volutes and statuaries. This hedonistic scenery was lit by a diffuse glow coming from no particular direction. It was as if the air was glowing faintly.

Kurden headed for an inn across the avenue. He entered the hall and said to Arexis.

“Your troops can have food and shelter here while you and I have a long talk.”

They left the guards and the trackers at the inn, while they followed the dwarf to a large, elaborately carved, portal that stood at one end of the avenue. The other end was lost in the distance. They soon reached the large marble door, where attendants ceremoniously bowed their heads to their leader.

The doors opened on their own accord. Kurden showed them in. The walls of the entrance hall of the palace were covered in intricately carved murals inlaid with precious gems. Lush wool carpets covered the floors. With a laugh Kurden said.

“Welcome to my humble abode.”

Willowy female attendants escorted them to private quarters, while Arexis left with Kurden. Ludger followed the perfectly proportioned short woman leading him. She was dressed in a gauzy long dress, that showed tantalizing glimpses of her exquisite body.

They soon reached an exotically decorated room, all silk tapestry and deep cushions. In a corner Ludger’s bags and equipment were neatly stored. The attendant closed the door behind her. She silently took his hand and dragged him behind a curtain leading to the bathroom.

In the middle of the room stood a veined marble tub filled with steamy, scented water. Behind it another houri, the exact duplicate of the one escorting him, stood naked. She was pouring some aromatic liquid into the water. The heat and the humidity in the room was stifling. Perspiration was beading on her forehead, her luscious body was slick with moisture.

Ludger’s mind was in turmoil. Only a few minutes ago he was lost in a blizzard, slowly freezing to death, with all hopes lost. Now he was trust in a tale right out of the 1001 nights, though it was populated by miniature creatures of dream.

Unsure of what to do, he turned toward the girl who had brought him. He looked into her jet black eyes and before he could mouth a question, she put a finger to his lips and hushed him. She turned him around and gently pushed him to the edge of the tub. Her deft fingers attacked the unfamiliar fasteners of his clothes. Within seconds he was standing naked in front of the other girl. She stepped down into the tub and helped him into the scented water. The shock of the heat sapped his last reserve of energy. He clumsily sat down in the middle of the water.

The original houri shrugged her wispy clothes off and joined him in the water. She took a jar, carved out of vivid green stone, from the edge of the tub. She dipped her fingers in the warm salve and handed the jar to her counterpart, seated in front of Ludger. She started to rub his shoulders with a surprisingly strong touch. Amidst the moist heat, the fragrances and the sensuous massage, Ludger felt so relaxed that he could not consciously move a muscle. But -incredibly- at the same time, he had never felt so aroused. His rigid tumescence stood at attention, underwater. As the girl rubbing his shoulders grew nearer, he could feel the engorged bud of her nipples tickle his back.

Noticing his turgid member, the girl holding the jar, put it aside after taking a great moist glob of the salve. She rubbed it between her fingers. She pinched her quickly enlarging nipples, leaving traces of the ointment on their brown tips. She looked into Ludger’s eyes and cracked a smile revealing her perfectly formed teeth. While holding her gaze she gently pushed him back onto her willing sister-in-pleasure, as she started to slowly massage his chest. As she drew nearer, and lower, Ludger found himself to be the meat in a voluptuous sandwich. Four hands, populated by a multitude of wonderfully dextrous digits were exploring every contours and apertures of his body. Soon his arousal reached its paroxysm. His release built slowly from the base of his spine and escalated, quickly building momentum, until it seared his brain with an outburst of passion verging on agony. As he laid, limp and lifeless, between the two warm and receptive girls, darkness slowly engulfed him amid muted giggles, tickles and nibbles.

*

Ludger slowly came back to consciousness, not knowing exactly where he was. He was floating on a warm cloud, feeling utterly relaxed and vibrant with energy. He did not feel any of the small aches and pains normally associated with the human body. His first thought was that he was in heaven, floating on a cloud. He even, halfheartedly, grasped around him to see if he could find his harp. He felt strangely lyrical, this morning.

He soon remembered that he did not believe in the traditional views of heaven, as reality slowly crept back in. He finally recalled who he was and where he was. At the thought of his encounter with the twin houris, a wide grin enlightened his face.

He slowly opened his eyes. He found himself in the bedroom that Kurden had graciously offered. He was laying in a deep feather bed covered by a soft airy comforter. He yawned and stretched languorously. All in all the first leg of the quest had concluded very nicely. He was ready to face anything that would be thrown at him. As he completed his thought a young woman, dressed in a revealing outfit of shimmering silk that bared her midriff and displayed her pert bosom, entered the room.

He smiled and noted that nothing better could be thrown at him. She smiled back and handed him a long silk gown and a pair of slippers. He grudgingly slipped into the gold silk and donned the fur lined slippers. She escorted him to a warm room where his friends were lounging on silk pillows around a low table, dressed as he was. Kurden and Arexis were at one end of the long table. Ludger was led to a vacant group of pillows at the other end. Bacchus was at her usual place, dozing in front of a roaring fire. His dog’s affinity for finding a roaring fire to lay in front, was amazing.

Ludger laid down and made himself comfortable. Kurden said in his deep voice.

“I hope you feel, humph…, relaxed.”

Ludger, slightly blushing, replied.

“I thank you, Sir, for your hospitality. It is second to none.” With a smile he continued. “I never have experienced such good, argh…, service. You had left me in very capable hands….”

With a wink Kurden said.

“I am glad you approved. My eldest twin daughters wanted to be the first to welcome a bona fide hero from another world, into our mountain commonwealth.”

Ludger choked at the thought that this man would offer his daughters to strangers, but he did not want to offend this powerful man and his strange customs. As he was lost in a fit of coughing, the young woman that had escorted him, brought him a silver tankard full of soothing herbal tea. He gulped it, between coughs, as she was softly rubbing his back. He soon recovered and excused himself. Kurden continued.

“As I was telling your friends, before you joined us, the situation in the outside world is so critical that I have decided to help Prince Arexis in his quest. I will guide you myself, to the source of the river of Gods. Even though our powers are not derived from it, we would like to see its powers restored. I will also send a battalion of my best soldiers to help you in the upcoming war.”

In a hoarse voice, Ludger asked.

“When will we be leaving?”

“Even though we will travel underground for part of the way, we will wait for the blizzard to abate before leaving. Thus, when we reach the upper course of the river, we will have good weather to travel. In my best estimate, we will leave in two to three days.”

Attendants brought in a sumptuous breakfast, into which the travellers dug in hungrily. After breakfast Kurden continued.

“My good friend Andrack, informed me that you have brought, with you, a wide assortment of metals from your world. After you rest for a few more hours, we will meet and discuss what I can forge for you, with the metals. Until then….”

The dwarf leader stood up, saluted with a nod and followed a scantily clad young attendant, with a leer on his face. They stepped behind a silken curtain. A slap and some hearty giggles were followed by the sound of running feet.

Ludger felt a small delicate hand on his shoulder. The young woman who had waken him begged him to follow her. He took the offered hand in his own and gladly did so. He was happy to notice that her expression did not suggest a period of rest. She lasciviously smiled as he was dragged back to his room by this surprisingly strong girl.

He judged that, even if she was no taller than a nine year old, she must be at least seventeen or eighteen years old and used to get her own way. As she closed the door behind her, she turned toward him. Leaning against the carved panel, she said.

“I am Leta, Kurden’s youngest daughter. I was very disappointed when I lost to my twin sisters. Now I will have to do my best to catch up to them.”

The young girl quickly wriggled out of her vaporous garment. She posed in front of him, showing off to their best advantage every inch of her trim, shapely body. The twin domes of her pert young breasts were tipped by wide budding nipples. They were a shade darker than her tawny skin. Her muscular abdomen was slightly raised in the centre. It was indented by the smallest of navels. She slightly parted her powerful thighs, showing him a glimpse of the thick, curly, black hair covering her hidden pleasure nest, as she slowly turned away. Her perfectly shaped back widened, at its base, to the tight globes of her buttocks. They were deeply dimpled at the side. As she finished her display, she looked at him deeply in the eyes and asked in a sweet little voice.

“Do you like what you see?”

Ludger, being mesmerized by those dark eyes, nervously coughed. A familiar stirring in his loins, tenting his golden garb, answered for him.
Leta looked down at his staff, pushing at the silken fabric. She beamed as she proudly said.

“It is obvious that you like what you see. Now it is time to put it to good use.”

Ludger blushed at the boldness of the young woman. She slowly walked toward him and put her hands on his shoulders. Since the top of her head barely reached his chest, she had to crane her neck to look at his face. She grabbed his neck and pulled herself up by the strength of her arms, sliding her warm body against his, through the silk of his gown.

When her face reached the level of his own, she wrapped her powerful legs around his waist. She locked her delicate feet, together, in the small of his back and firmly anchored herself to him. She let go with her arms. She held herself solely by the strength of her legs. She reached behind her head and unpinned her silken black hair. She shook her head, daintily sending a cascade of raven coloured locks floating like a cloud around her delicately featured face.

Leta smiled again. Her hungry mouth grabbed his own and greedily bit his lips, then his tongue, in a lust filled passionate kiss. Ludger lost his balance and stepped backward. He hit the edge of the bed with the back of his knees. He collapsed backward into the deep softness of the feather mattress.

As he was falling back, Leta flew through the air, above him, executing a perfect somersault. She landed with the aplomb of a trained gymnast. The young woman giggled and came back at him with a vengeance. She grabbed his long robe and forcefully pulled it over his head. It landed on the floor by the bed. She clasped her thighs on either side of his head and lowered herself to his waiting face. What followed could only be described as a two hour long sexual workout. It was a very technical display of erotic prowess lacking warmth and affection. It reminded Ludger of the multitude of people studying the martial arts to learn a technical skill, without ever understanding the philosophy and the mind control behind it.

Even though all the right buttons were pushed and their bodies responded like well oiled machines (no pun intended), Ludger felt somewhat empty, laying spent on the soft mattress with Leta wrapped around him. He was basking in the afterglow of a particularly rousing final climax, when his mind started drifting to the image of a crying young redhead, who was waiting for the return of her brother in a faraway castle. Ludger angrily told himself that she disliked him, that she was not even his type. But he could not keep his mind from her, as he drifted into sleep.

*

A sharp slap on his behind woke him up. A playful voice was saying.

“Come on, lover, we have to get cleaned up and dressed. We cannot make my father wait.”

Leta was pulling him by the arm as he slowly stood up. His body was dully aching. It felt clammy, being covered in dried sweat and other bodily fluids. She dragged him into the shower and quickly cleaned him up and helped him into a clean silk robe. As she slipped back into her abbreviated clothes, she instructed him to fetch his bag of metals. After he did so, she dragged him down a series of corridors, to a large ornate door. She sharply knocked, opened the door and pushed him in, rapidly closing the door behind him.

Ludger stumbled into a small room, whose walls were covered with a panoply of edged weapons of all descriptions. Kurden was seated on a cushion, behind a low square table. It was the only piece of furniture in the room. On its exotic woods, inlaid top, rested an antique balance with an ornate set of weights.

The dwarf leader lifted his eyes from the leather bound grimoire that was laid out on his lap. He studied Ludger with his gaze. He pointed to a cushion at Ludger’s feet and silently invited him to sit. He grinned, noticing how stiffly Ludger lowered himself to the cushions. With a twinkle in his eyes, he said.

“I notice that you have had a run-in with Leta. I am told that she has a tendency to sap all the strength, of even the most vigourous man.”

Ludger blushed again and answered.

“I do not think that I have ever experienced such a vigourous workout. Are all your daughters so, humph…, athletic.”

“No. Leta is the most quiet one of the lot.”

Ludger digested this bit of information. For an instant he feared for his life. He quickly decided that there could be worse ways to go. He put the thought aside. He told Kurden.

“I have been asked to bring a variety of metals from my world. I do not think that there is much to be done with them. They are all so different and I do not have much of each of them.”

“Young man, let me be the judge of that. As you know, our world is ruled by its magic. Anything in it must abide by its rules. Any mystical sword that I could forge from metals mined in this world could be a powerful weapon with no equals. But it still could fall prey to a high concentration of dark magic, like Magdar’s supposedly controls.

Since the metals that you have brought me are not of this world, I can forge you a weapon that cannot be attacked by this world’s magic. This will make it indestructible.”

“I still do not understand how you can mix metals that cannot be alloyed in my world.”

“As the ruler of this commonwealth, I am also the Grand Priest of our religion. Our god, Vulcan, reigns over the other minor deities. He his the patron of blacksmiths and of all those working with metal. He will help me in combining the metals in modifying what you would call the atomic structure of its different components. By this way we can achieve a composition that cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the universe.”

The burly dwarf put aside the grimoire that was still open on his lap. He donned a pair of thick lensed, half spectacles. He looked at Ludger over their rim. He said with a tremulous voice.

“Now lets look at what you have brought me.”

Ludger took the long rolled-up leather pouch from his lap. He deposited it in front of him, on the table. He slowly started to unfold it. Kurden, rubbing his hands in anticipation, urged him to proceed faster.

When the large piece of leather was finally laid out, open on the table, Ludger took out the assorted pieces of metal from the pockets stitched into it. He laid them out on the leather and pushed the entire collection toward the waiting dwarf. He looked more like a kid than like a great leader.

Kurden passed his hands over the foreign metals, mumbling an incantation. His eyes were closed and his face was contorted in a mask of great concentration. He suddenly opened his eyes and said.

“We will be able to do great magic with these foreign treasures.”

He took every scrap of metal and examined it carefully under the magnification of his spectacles. He rubbed a spot with his powerful thumb, lightly licked it, then placed it on his forehead. His eyes would close and a great tremor would shake his body.

When the tremor subsided he would open his eyes, put the bit of metal on the scales and weigh it carefully. He wrote the results of his inspection down on a wide sheet of parchment that was laid down in front of him. The metals were placed in three different piles. After he had finished examining all of the metals, Kurden took a deep breath and said.

“I am impressed by the subtle metallurgy of some of those alloys. They have made some of those metals very strong, without the aid of magic.”

“This is the result of our technology.” With a smile Ludger continued. “You should have a discussion with Andrack, about this subject, one of this days….”

Kurden looked up sharply at Ludger, then his eyes softened.

“I will be able to forge you a sword and a chainmail. If you already have a strong knife, I should be able to greatly improve it. Now we will discuss what kind of sword you wish.”

The dwarf made a widely encompassing gesture with his arms. He pointed at the wide array of edged weapons hanging on the walls. Ludger examined the amazing collection with glee. He soon realized that no matter how exotic the blades looked, he was not trained in handling any of them. The only type of sword that he could use, with any hopes of proficiency, would be a samurai sword. It resembled the long bamboo staves (shinai) that they used in the sport of kendo, which he had practised for many years.

He explained his dilemma to the dwarf. Kurden invited him to describe, in every details, what he was looking for. They spent the next hour designing the sword and the lightweight chainmail. Ludger described his modern version of the traditional kukri. Leta was called in to fetch the large, curved blade knife from Ludger’s room.

When she returned, Kurden examined it. He approved the design of the graceful, yet massively powerful blade. He put it with the smallest pile of metals. He turned to Ludger.

“You should go and meet with Andrack. He will instruct you in some relaxation exercises. They will enable you to clear your mind of any thoughts and to focus your inner soul to the magic of this world. Later, some of the girls will come and fetch you. They will prepare you for the purification of your soul, that will precede the forging of your weapons. We will start at sundown.”

They were interrupted by a group of six priests, dressed in crimson robes. They were coming to fetch the metals to prepare them for the ceremonial meltdown. Kurden followed them out of the room. He carried the bundle of foreign metals. Leta gently tapped Ludger on the shoulder. It brought him back to reality. She escorted him to Andrack’s room.

The tall, portly, wizard effusively greeted him. He handed Ludger a cup of wine. They sat comfortably, discussing the events of the last few days. When they finished their wine, Andrack took on a professorial tone and started to lecture him on the three stages of mystical meditation.

“First there is the emptying of the mind of all thoughts and emotions. Second, is the baring of ones soul from the confine of its outer protection. Third, is the filling of ones soul with the essence of the Gods and the magic of the earth.

Somebody trained in the magical arts, should be able to instantly attain step three, in any kind of situation and under any form of external or internal stress.”

Andrack thought Ludger some meditation exercises to aid in the liberation of the soul. Ludger was able to reach step three without too much problems, in the quietness of the wizard’s room. He had regularly indulged in similar exercises during his martial training. He would now have to work on attaining it rapidly under stressful situations. He would also have to maintain it under duress.

Andrack instructed him in a series of exercises that would help him attain this goal with daily repetitions and practice.

A discrete knock at the door interrupted Andrack’s lecture. He answered it curtly. Six of Kurden’s daughters, dressed in black silk robes, were there to bring Ludger to the purification ceremony, that was to precede the Holy Forging. Amongst them were Leta and the twins, looking demure in their long silk robes.

Ludger excused himself from Andrack. He followed his lovely escort. He was brought to a high ceiling room where hundreds of thick, aromatic candles, burned. The air was laden with powerful exotic smells. In the middle of the room was a series of five narrow pools. On each side of the four furthest pools, stood three young women also dressed in long silk robes. The colour of the robes ranged from crimson for the attendants of the closest pool, to cyan, yellow and white for the furthest. Stairs led into the first pool and out of the last. At the far end of the room was a wide portal closed by white silk drapes. A wide, low, altar stood at a distance of one of the sidewalls amongst the burning candles. As Ludger stood restless at the top of the stairs leading into the first pool, a discordant music suddenly echoed behind him. He turned to see an elderly dwarf priestess, garbed in a flowing white robe, walk into the room. She was carrying a white alabaster jar. Behind her a solemn looking young girl was carrying an imposing volume, bound in white leather. She was dressed like the elderly priestess, as were the young musicians following her.

The old woman put the alabaster jar on a white pedestal, that stood near the far end of the room. She slowly walked to the back of the altar, where she stood motionless. The young girl deposited the leather bound book in front of her and quickly removed herself. The musicians seated themselves in front of the altar while performing their strange melody.

With a flourish of hands the priestess opened the book and silenced the musicians. She took a deep breath. She then declaimed a prayer in a strange tongue as the music followed her halting speech pattern. She nodded toward the black clad girls surrounding Ludger. They quickly removed his silken gown. He stood there, naked in front of a room full of young women. He blushed in embarrassment.

Ludger and his escort walked slowly into the warm scented water. The water soaked their silk gowns, making them cling to their young, firm, bodies. They sat Ludger in the shallow pool. They lathered his hair and beard with a sweet smelling soap. He was instructed to swim through an underwater passage to the next pool.

He held his breath and swam the short distance. He was greeted by the crimson garbed young women. They lathered up his body and propelled him to the next pool. The women in blue trimmed his hair and beard. They also did his finger and toenails. All of this was accompanied by the eerie music and chant.

In the next pool, the young women in yellow silk anointed his hair and body in exotic oils. When he reached the last pool, some drops were placed in his eyes. They stung him for a few seconds. As he was led out of the pool, he admired the way the white silk clung to his young attendant’s bodies, becoming translucent in the process.

He was vigorously dried with plush towels. His hair and his beard were combed. He was asked to kneel. The music and chants reached a crescendo, then suddenly died. The priestess stood in front of him. She held, high above her head, the alabaster jar. She chanted a last incantation while scooping a small amount of the balm with her long, fragile looking, fingers. She anointed his forehead, his lips and his chest, over his heart.
Ludger felt a burning sensation at her touch. It was as if a great amount of energy had flowed through him. When the pain subsided, he felt lightheaded. his soul felt cleansed of all the burdens of the world. He had never felt so fresh. He had just been reborned.

The young attendants draped his body in a gown similar to the one worn by the priestess. He stood up and white sandals were put upon his feet. The priestess motioned him past the milky silk curtain closing the portal.

He was greeted by an impressive sight. He stood at the top of an imposing staircase, leading down into a gigantic room. Coal fires were burning and imposing machines worked soundlessly. They were attended by strongly build dwarves, dressed in black leather pants and aprons.

In the middle of the milling throng, by the hearth of an imposing forge, stood Kurden. He finally noticed Ludger. He signalled him to come down and join him.

They were ready to start the proceedings. He waved at a burly dwarf, standing by a large gong. The man took a long mallet and crashed it on the large copper disk. A deafening sound reverberated through the room. In its aftermath, the room was strangely silent. A trumpet blew in another room. The six priests dressed in crimson walked into the room, two by two. Each pair was carrying a wicker basket between them. In each basket laid part of Ludger’s metal collection.

They, in turn, dipped each basket in the water of a small stream flowing through the room. They emptied the content of the baskets in three waiting crucibles, that stood by a large open pit of red hot coals.

Some herbs and potions were thrown over the fire, making it flare deeply. The priests began a low chant while a group of smiths, using an overhead crane, lowered the crucibles into the hot coals. A crew of young dwarves, manning a large bellow, started to pump it rhythmically. The coals glowed white around the crucibles. Soon the various metals flowed into a uniform fluid mass.

Ludger, who stood by the fire near Kurden, was instructed to let the energy flow into his soul. He concentrated. He could feel an entity of amazing strength gently nudge into his consciousness. He felt the fire grow inside him. He was one with the planet.

One by one the crucibles were brought out of the fire. They were put in front of Ludger. Over each one, Kurden took Ludger’s right hand. He held it firmly while a priest, holding a long thin needle, lanced the tip of Ludger’s thumb. Kurden squeezed seven drops of blood into each crucible, while the priest mixed the blood with the molten metal using a ladle.

Their content was then poured into three waiting ingot moulds. Ludger came out of his trance, while the metal was cooling. Kurden took each ingot with a pair of long metal tongues. He quenched them in the water of the stream.

He took each ingot in his powerful hands, feeling the power flow through them. The priest blessed the three ingots. The lightest one was given to a waiting smith to be drawn into a long thin wire, to fabricate the mail. Ludger observed, as the ingot was softened in the coals. It was brought to a large machine consisting of drums, turning against one another. The softened ingot was passed between the drums and rolled into thick wire. That wire was continuously fed to a second machine where it was pulled through a die plate. It was thus drawn into a long, thin, wire that was spooled on the far end of that machine.

Kurden explained that this wire would be cut in short pieces that would be bent in small loops, that would be woven together and welded shut. This would form his chainmail. He gave the smaller ingot to another smith who would reforge his kukri. He took the larger ingot to his own forge and started on the sword.

He buried the ingot in the coals, with a large pair of pincers. He instructed the bellow crew to start pumping. When the metal was white hot, he pulled it out of the fire. With mighty blows of his hammer he elongated the piece over a large anvil. He briefly returned it to the coals then notched the middle. He sprinkled some flux on the metal’s surface, folded it upon itself and hammered it back into a homogeneous mass. He repeated this procedure countless times. When he reached the requisite number of folds he hammered out a blade out of the ductile metal.

The hand of the master swordsmith quickly became a blur, when two of the priests joined him in a chant that was echoed from different areas of the large cave. The noise was deafening and sparks were flying everywhere. Ludger grew dizzy, watching Kurden work. After what seemed like hours, in the timeless glow of the forge, a rough outline of the sword had emerged from the ounce shapeless lump of metal.

He quenched the hot blank in the waters of the stream. He held it to the light and closely examined the metal surface for imperfections. He went to a large grinding wheel, that was turning, lapping at the river’s water. He was accompanied by the two priests. Kurden ground a long bevelled edge along the length of the blade. He honed it to razor sharpness on a finer grit wheel. The sword was uniformly grey and dull, except for its sharp edge. Ludger had never seen any metal work like that. The round guard and handle had been forged, with the blade, out of the same piece of metal.

The only thing left to do was to polish the sword and to quench the blade. Kurden brought the sword to a large buffing wheel. He rubbed some polishing compound on its edge. He applied the sword to it. From the dull grey skin of the metal emerged a brightly shining smooth surface. Ludger noticed that the mirror-like blade was covered in inlaid gold runes. The guard had the glow of platinum. The handle was covered in a rubber-like substance similar to the one his kukri’s had been.

Ludger looked at Kurden with wonder showing on his face, as the sword was handed to him. He could not believe its sheer beauty and its perfect balance. He was interrupted from his contemplation by the sight of the six priests carrying a large round platter, loaded with a mound of a substance looking like pure white tallow.

The greasy mess was dumped in a large shallow pot and heated over a flame. As it melted it released an acrid smoke that made Ludger’s eyes water. Ludger was asked to get back in his trance. His left thumb was now lanced by the priest. Seven drops of his blood were mixed with the melted fat. It hissed and bubbled, then suddenly turned a deep crimson.

The fat was cooled down and mounded back on the large platter. A gigantic ceremonial bowl, holding a bed of glowing coals, was wheeled into the room and put in front of them. The six priests surrounded the tub. Accompanied by a flourish of trumpets they started a long incantation. Each one, in sequence, threw a small packet of powder on the coals, making them glow in a different colour.

When they finished, Ludger plunged the sword into the coals. When the blade was glowing red hot, Ludger went back in his trance and grabbed the glowing blade with his bare hands. He did not feel the heat. He pulled it out of the coals. He raised the blade high above his head while being led through a prayer to Vulcan. Great bolts of energy were flowing through him, making his hair stand on end. He lowered the blade into the crimson mass. A great ball of flames engulfed him. He was feeling an intense bond forming between himself and the blade. When the flames subsided he stumbled and sat hard on the floor. He felt totally drained.

Later, when they were ready, the ceremony was performed again with the knife and the armour. During the last ceremony, with the armour, Ludger had spent so much energy, in the last few days, that he collapsed before the end. The abrupt termination of the mind-link with the Gods, created a backlash of energy, that engulfed Ludger with a cloud of glowing plasma. He laid on the ground, twitching violently, until the energy dissipated. His still form was carried back to his room under the worried eyes of Kurden and Andrack.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 1990: One Way Ticket To Talenthar

The Sass

Chapter 7

Ludger awoke with a start at around 04:00. It was still dark outside and he could hear sobbing in the room next to his own. He got up and dressed to investigate.

All was quiet in the stately corridor, except from the muffled weeping coming from a neighbouring door, that stood slightly ajar. Ludger noiselessly walked to the door. He was witness to a compassionate scene. Nathalia, with all traces of her regal, commanding ways gone, was crying on her brother’s shoulder. Arexis was doing his best to soothe his sister’s sorrows. She looked so young and vulnerable in her brother’s arms, that Ludger thought that her earlier conduct might have been the veneer of court rearing, put on to maintain her composure.

He silently retreated to his own room. He quickly found out that he could not sleep. He decided to take a bit of fresh air and go walk his dog at the same time. He walked to the other end of the corridor, escorted by Bacchus. After ten minutes of unsure progression and numerous backtracking in the silent palace, he finally found a corridor exiting in the courtyard. Ludger crossed the empty space to the main gate, where two guardsmen stood at attention. They saluted him. When he inquired, they pointed the way to the palace’s gardens. Since he was not dressed to comfortably jog, Ludger took a long brisk walk in the crisp, cold, morning air. The gardens were quiet and desolate in this early winter morning. The scenery fitted Ludger’s mood perfectly.

It was slightly past five when Ludger returned to the palace. In the courtyard he found Chargoff examining his truck and equipment with a look of confusion mixed with curiosity, on his face. He joined the man and explained to him the workings of the truck and of some of the equipment. Dregnar soon joined them, accompanied by a stableboy who was leading a pair of magnificent grey horses.

Both horses had their chest, shoulders and hindquarters covered in flexible, lightweight chainmail. The leading horse was tall and solidly built, while the other was shorter and more massive. They both seemed even tempered.

Chargoff explained that the lead horse was a trained battle horse that would follow its rider’s commands implicitly. He would not retreat under attack. The second was a sturdy pack horse that was trained with the battle horse as a team. It would follow its leader without any attention from the rider. It could carry a heavy load, day in day out.

Ludger looked over the horses with an expert eye. He was satisfied with his inspection. He proceeded to saddle the horses with the help of the stableboy. This last was fascinated with the modern saddles. With the help of Dregnar he loaded up the pack horse with his equipment. He put his G3 and shotgun in the long scabbards hanging from his riding saddle. He stored some extra ammunition and personal effects in a couple of saddle bags, that he fastened on the horse’s rump.

Other teams of horses were already assembling in the vast courtyard, under the watchful eye of General Chargoff. Ludger cornered the General and showed him the use of a 2-way radio. The General was very impressed by this technology. Ludger gave Chargoff two of the handheld units, with some spare battery packs. One was for himself, the other for Princess Nathalia, so that she could keep track of her brother’s progress. Ludger urged the General to establish a daily schedule of short calls at fixed hours, to preserve the batteries’ power as long as possible.

After the preparations were completed, Ludger followed Chargoff to the officer’s mess. They would eat breakfast with the troops. He felt comfortable with this no-nonsense man. Over breakfast they talked about their respective world’s differences and similarities.

They were interrupted by Andrack. The portly magician was looking for them. He informed the General that the Prince was ready to go. Their presence was needed in the courtyard. Chargoff ordered his officers to assemble their men. The small group left for the courtyard.

Ludger left the General to his job. He quickly found and mounted his horse. He told Bacchus to follow him. As the Prince lead his troops out of the castle’s yard, he fell in line behind Andrack, who was riding a massive black stallion.

As they slowly emerged from the courtyard, Ludger caught sight of Nathalia. She was overseeing the departure from one of the tower’s balconies, with barely suppressed tears in her eyes. Masses of troops were waiting in the outer enclosures. After they crossed the bridge to the citadel, Arexis motioned Ludger to ride at his side. More troops joined them in the citadel. Every soldier not critically needed for the protection of the city, would follow to the base camp.

As the main gates of the citadel opened, Ludger noticed that crowds of citizens were lining the streets, even at this early hour. They silently watched, with gloom in their eyes, as their leader left for his quest while a strangely dressed man, mounted on an alien saddle, rode at his side.

They slowly crossed the town on their way to the north-east gate. Once there, the small party, with their armed escort, parted company with the main body of troops. They picked up their pace as they crossed desolated snow covered farmlands.
They rode all day under the cold winter suns. Ludger’s only distraction was to listen to the constant bickering between Balnor and Andrack. They were discussing the proper method of reclaiming the sceptre. They seemed to never tire of their endless arguments, like young siblings on the back seat of a car, during a long trip.

Late in the afternoon, Chargoff called a halt. They set up camp about half a days ride south of the town of Arnor. Soldiers kept themselves busy by setting up tents for the night. A few large fires were lit. The men sat around them to eat their meagre trail rations. Ludger, after taking care of his horses and dog, unrolled an insulated sleeping pad and laid down comfortably in front of the crackling fire. Dregnar brought him a piece of dried meat and a steaming bowl of thick stew. The troll uneasily sat down between Ludger and his dog, who was sleeping by the fire. The troll still did not trust Bacchus.

At the end of the meal, Andrack came to join them, carrying a leather covered flask. The large man sat on a boulder next to Ludger. He passed him the flask. Ludger was delighted to find out that it contained a fortified wine similar to Vintage Port. He took a sip and passed the flask back to it owner. With a long sigh Andrack passed the flask back, after taking a long pull from it. He said.

“I am glad that you decided to come with us. I am sure that without your help, it would be impossible to finish our quest.”

“You seem to have more faith in me, than I have into myself. I do not really have any special magical abilities and I am not familiar with the customs of your world. The only thing I can offer is a little bit of technology.”

Ludger took a long sip of the strong wine and before Andrack could reply, he continued.

“I have read your treatise on technology and magic. I agree with you that in some cases, unfamiliar technology can be called by the uninitiated, magic. But I do disagree, though, with your position that they are fundamentally similar.”

“Well, they are similar in that they both accomplish good and help man in his daily life.”

“They both can also do bad. Like your black magic and our military technology that makes killing more easy every year. But in my world the technology, or machines, are not in themselves evil. Only the man using them for this purpose, is. In your world it seems that black magic is the embodiment of evil that corrupts its user.”

“This might be due to the fact that the people using this form of magic are predestined to be creatures of evil and that black magic only amplifies this trait in its users.”

While Ludger was listening he pulled, from his vest, his cigar case. He offered one of the long cylinders of tobacco to the large magician. They both lit up and continued their argument.

Ludger pulled on his cigar and let out a long stream of pungent smoke. He then said.

“Another difference, that I found, between our worlds, is that here magic brings you close to your environment. It is part of the essence of your world. In my own world, it seems that technology separates you from the earth. It removes you to an artificial man-made cocoon. The more technology, the further away your are removed from the earth.”

“But your technology comes from elements harvested from your earth and….” So the argument went on, late into the night.

When the discussion was finally wound up, due to lack of ammunition, Andrack retired to one of the tents. Ludger was left alone, thinking, by the fire. He felt refreshed, like he used to feel after similar argument when he was still a student. Stimulation of the mind is something that is very important and it is needed on a regular basis. It felt so good, under the cold stare of the stars, that Ludger decided to sleep al fresco.

He fetched his down-filled mummy bag from his pack and made himself comfortable by the fire. He noticed that Dregnar had also decided to sleep under the stars, as he quickly lapsed into unconsciousness.

*

Ludger awoke with a start. It was still dark. His body was stiff from the long day’s ride. He heard muffled noises coming from the direction of the river. Dregnar was not around, so he decided to investigate. He pulled on his boots, laced them quickly and took his G3 rifle. He attached a powerful multi-cell electric torch under the barrel of the firearm. He turned on the light and the illuminated reticle of his scope.

He slowly walked in the general direction of the sound. Bacchus followed sleepily. They soon reached the edge of the dried up bed of the river, where they followed the sound of the scuffle to a series of large boulders that stood ominously in the stark moonlight. As they approached the first rock, Bacchus’s ears started to twitch. She emitted a low menacing growl.

They soon found the source of the commotion. Dregnar was cornered, amongst the rocks, by a large animal with a long, well-toothed muzzle. It looked like a cross between a black bear and a rat, because of its pointed snout and its long tail. The animal was about ready to pounce on the poor troll. Ludger could do nothing, because the troll was in his line of fire. Sensing his indecision, Bacchus let out a lone bark and ran, head down, toward the bear. She bunted the animal in the chest, making it loose its balance. Before it could regain its equilibrium, she jumped, open jawed, at the animal’s throat. She could not get a good grip on the loose folds of fur. The creature effortlessly brushed her off. This had been enough to remove Dregnar from Ludger’s line of fire. The man surgically placed two bullets, in rapid succession, in the creature’s shoulder. The beast was killed instantly. The deafening roar of the shots, awoke the sleeping camp. Soon Ludger, Bacchus and the dazed troll were amongst friends.

Chargoff was surprised that a feisty water bandybear could be so easily defeated by Ludger’s firearm. They were all in awe of the power of the gun. They left a group of soldiers to expertly skin and quarter the carcass, for meat. As they walked back to the camp, Chargoff explained that the bandybear’s meat was a delicacy. It would nicely supplement their daily rations. He then chided Dregnar for leaving the camp, alone in the night.

As they sat by the fire, merrily passing around a wineskin, Dregnar pledged servitude to Ludger and Bacchus, with Arexis’ blessing. While things quieted down and people started retiring to their tents, Arexis took Ludger aside. He said.

“I want to thank you for leaving one of those communicating devices to my sister Nathalia. With it she will be able to keep in touch. I know she might seem haughty, but she is under a lot of pressure. She is at the verge of a breakdown. I had hoped that you two could have met under better circumstances. She is really a great girl.”

Ludger silently acknowledge the Prince’s words. He went to his packs to retrieve one of the small radios. He gave it to the Prince for personal use. Both men exchanged a warm handshake and retired for the rest of the night.

*

They were under way at dawn. After an hour’s ride, Arny of Elkvar – the Prince’s Trackmaster – joined them with his squad of trackers. They had news from the north. The way was free to Arnor, though there was trouble between Arnor and Setcryck. Bands of goblins or trolls had attacked small villages. They would have to be very cautious on their way up north.

By mid-afternoon, they arrived at Arnor. The farming town seemed desolated in the middle of the snow. Led by Arny, they bypassed the town. They went directly to the military camp. There, they found a few thousand soldiers looking worn. They were milling around the tents in an enclosure defined by high log walls. They met Colonel Dimitri at the gate. The solid man, in the prime of his life, was wearing a field armour. He enthusiastically greeted them.

Dimitri led Arexis and Chargoff to a tent, so they could finish planning their campaign. Arny and his trackers proceeded toward Setcryck to reconnoitre ahead of the small party.

After a night’s rest in the camp, they prepared to leave. They met with Chargoff, who was staying behind. They quickly went over their plan. They would first travel to Setcryck. There, they would find a guide to escort them to the underground city of Thorland. In that city they would request help from the dwarf’s leader, to proceed to the source of the river of Gods.

They had an emotional farewell. They rode all day without any signs of trouble. Early in the evening they set camp by the river. After they finished their evening meal, Arny of Elkvar came back from the field. He reported on his findings.

The tall thin man, dressed in the traditional green felt uniform of the Royal Trackers, said in a low clear voice.

“My men and I, have found traces of a marauding band of trolls patrolling this area. Guards should be doubled for the night. I would advise that Dregnar stays out of sights. I fear that if his presence is revealed it could provoke an attack by his inferior cousins.”

“Thank you…” Said Arexis. “…we will act upon this information. We should meet again at midday, tomorrow to evaluate the situation.”

With this, Arny soundlessly disappeared into the night, to rejoin his men. Arexis instructed Dregnar to stay out of sight. The men nervously settled down for the night.

All through the night Ludger kept being awaken by yells and cries emanating from the sparse woods surrounding the camp. He was uncomfortable at the thought of a band of trolls roaming in the darkness. Bacchus seemed to be of the same opinion, she kept growling faintly all through the night.

After a restless night, they raised camp early in the morning. Around them, the snow was slowly getting deeper. The air grew colder. They were lucky, it was still more invigorating than uncomfortable to ride in the cold air.

By midday they caught up with Arny. The willowy tracker was sitting on a rock while pensively cleaning the soles of his soft leather boots. When they reached him, Arexis called a halt.

Arny gave them a grim look. He said, pointing to the low foothills ahead of them.

“To reach Setcryck we must take a pass, in the hills, about three miles ahead. In a narrow portion of this pass, a group of goblins and trolls, together, have set an ambush. This is a very bad sign.”

Andrack quickly said.

“This is true, only Magdar could force trolls and goblins to work together. They normally cannot stop fighting each other long enough to cooperate.”

Balnor nodded in agreement. Things must have been really serious, it was unusual for the scribe to agree with matters uttered by the magician. The situation was discussed and a plan of action was decided. Arny’s men had found a small gulley that lead from the pass. It was unoccupied and could provide good cover for hiding. The bulk of their small group would hide in the gulley. A small party, lead by Arexis, would ride ahead to the site of the ambush. There, they would draw the attack and retreat past the gulley. From there, Ludger would launch an attack on the rear guard of the ambushers, who would effectively become the ambushees.

On foot, quietly leading their mounts, Ludger and his men were led into the gulley by one of Arny’s trackers. At the mouth of the narrow trench, another tracker signalled that all was well. They went in a single file and hid themselves as best as they could, amongst the low vegetation that clung to the walls and behind large boulders that had rolled from the top of the hills. After they were settled, the two trackers covered their tracks in the snow. Soon it was as if no one had entered the gulley. Nothing would reveal their presence, except the occasional muted neigh of a horse, that was quickly lost in the sound deadening bushes.

After waiting about half an hour the small party, lead by Arexis, passed in front of them. The Prince was lost in deep conversation with Arny, who was riding a borrowed horse. Silence quickly fell back amidst the waiting men.

Their wait was of short duration. Suddenly, amongst loud hooting and hollering, they heard the rhythmic drumming of horseshoes. The Prince’s party burst into the open space in front of them, with a ragged band of trolls and goblins at their heels. The formers ran like overgrown apes while carrying large knives. The later looked like small deformed caricatures of human beings, with permanent toothy grins set on their distorted faces. They kept cackling, laughing and hitting each others with a mind boggling panoply of sticks, knives and rusted swords.

When the unlikely group finished defiling in front of them, Ludger launched his own attack. MAC 10 at his fist, he spurred his horse after the evil creatures. His men jumped into the foray with their swords drawn. Ludger let go of a few short bursts of fire, but soon found out that he was just as likely to hit a friend than an enemy. He put away his submachine gun and drew his long kukri knife. He quickly hacked at a troll, who was trying to bite him through his boot while hanging by his stirrup. The heavy blade thudded in the troll’s neck. It fell, lifeless, to the ground.

When Ludger was bent forward, in the follow-through of his blow, a goblin jumped on his back. He could smell the stench that reeked from its open mouth. Fighting nausea, he elbowed the creature to his side. As it was about to bite him, Bacchus jumped on it. She clamped her teeth in the goblin’s leg. They both rolled to the ground. Dregnar swiftly disposed of the creature with one swift blow of his walking stick. He wildly grinned at Ludger, nodded to the dog and they both went after their next victim.
Andrack was calmly sitting on his horse. With a flourish of hand gestures, he was setting the greasy hides of goblins and trolls ablaze with simple firespells.

They quickly decimated their attackers. After they had regrouped, they discovered that the only casualty, on their side, was Balnor who laid on the bloody ground, with a deep cut in his shoulder. He was hysteric. It was well known that being wounded by a goblin’s weapon led to massive infection and soon after, painful death.

They quickly established a makeshift camp in a clearing. Balnor was carried to it. They laid the scribe on a rough blanket, by a fire that Andrack had hastily lit with a spell. Ludger grabbed his first-aid kit from his pack horse. He attended to the wounded man. Andrack was pacing back and forth and muttering to himself.

“I do not have enough power for a healing spell. It is all a question of entropy.”

Balnor, through clenched teeth, said.

“I am glad that I will not be touched by Andrack’s magic. I do not know what I would be turned into.”

Ludger hushed the man and looked at his wound. It was messy but superficial. He cleaned the area, then anaesthetized it. He disinfected the gaping wound with providone-iodine. He stitched the deep gash using silk on a mounted cutting needle. He dressed the, now closed, wound with an antibiotic ointment, then applied an adhesive bandage.

Andrack, looked with great interest. Ludger said to no one in particular.

“And now to combat the potential infection.” As he drew a syringe full of antibiotics. He expertly injected Balnor in the biceps and followed it with a tetanus booster.

As he swabbed the injection site he said to the man.

“Your shoulder will be stiff for a few days, but you should not be afraid of any infection. You should rest for an hour, then we will ride.”

Ludger helped Balnor to arrange himself comfortably by the fire. He went to the Prince, who was talking with Arny. Ludger said.

“Balnor will be alright we should be ready to ride within the hour. I would suggest that Balnor return to Arnor.”

Arexis replied.

“Thank you for your help. We will have to force our pace toward Setcryck. Arny does not think we should chance sleeping out tonight. He fears another attack.”

After a short rest, the men gathered their horses. Balnor was helped to his mount. Some of the soldiers carried Arny’s trackers behind them. After an uneventful crossing of the snowy pass, they reached a long valley. Setcryck occupied the far end, with its back to the tall mountains.

By nightfall they has reached the banks of the river of Gods. They forded the narrow muddy creek without any difficulties. From there it was only a short ride to the village.

Setcryck was nested on an incline at the base of tall mountains. Two deep canyons led from either side of the village. They once contained the raging flow of the river of Power and of the river of Gods.

The village was gaily lit by lamps hanging in the windows of alpine style chalets. A large stone wall, made from a hodge-podge mixture of darkly polished river stones, blocked the access to the valley.

Men, standing guard by fires near a narrow tortuous gap in the wall, recognized Prince Arexis, as he was leading the party. They ceremoniously bowed and saluted the Prince and his entourage. They were led through the narrow opening. As they crossed the gap in the wall, Ludger noticed that it would be very easy to dislodge stones from the sheer sides and effectively seal that gap.

When they reached the snow covered path, leading to the heart of the village, a mob of children were waiting for them.

Obviously, news of the Prince’s visit had travelled quickly to the villagers. Escorted by the irreverent horde of cheering kids, they quickly reached the main square of the village. A large Inn stood ablaze with lights. A painted sign representing a ruddy complexioned, cheerful faced, dwarf holding a large blacksmith’s hammer, hung over the front porch. On this porch stood the owner of the Dwarf’s Hammer, the town’s mayor and a few other dignitaries.

They officially greeted the Prince and his friends. They were led to a large common room while young stable boys took care of the horses.

The high ceiling, brightly lit, room was lined with tables. A high mezzanine circled it. A massive staircase led to it and the sleeping quarters.

They were ushered to take seat at the tables where the mayor made a long speech. The portly man, with a faded suit where the sash of his office left a bold stroke of colour, finally terminated his oration to the applause of the bored crowd.

Arexis gratefully thanked them for their hospitality. He requested rooms for the evening. The large innkeeper graciously offered his best rooms for the night. He ordered a meal brought to his guests. A hearty repast of meat and potatoes was devoured by the ravenous men. Entire kegs of ale were drunk in the revelry that followed the telling of the story of their heroic fight.

Andrack was sitting in a quiet corner, lost in a conversation with a thin man wearing a dark cloak. He finally shook the man’s hand and gave him a small leather pouch. The man’s long thin fingers expertly appraised the weight of the bag and deftly pocketed it.

Andrack went to fetch Arexis, Arny and Ludger. He introduced the thin man to them.

“This his Arckvor, our guide. He will escort us to the gates of Thorland. Where we will meet with the dwarf’s leader, my good friend Kurden McNish.”

The thin man replied in a low reedy voice.

“I am pleased to meet you. We will leave by mid-morning. We should be in Thorland by mid-afternoon. We will have to keep close to each other. It is very easy to get lost in the snowy mountain passes. I will see you in the morning.”

The thin man curtly bowed and retired to his room. The three men look at each other and shrugged. Ludger asked.

“Can he be trusted.”

Andrack replied.

“Do not be put off by his gruff manners, he his one of the best mountain guides around. I have known him for many years. He can be trusted, I guarantee you.”

Ludger took another pitcher of ale. After he finished drinking the potent brew, his head was spinning. He wearily climbed to his room. It was a comfortable, well appointed room. He fell asleep on the bed, without first undressing.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 1990: One Way Ticket To Talenthar

The Sass

He did not have much hopes about his own security. His foremost thought, was that he would have to find out about Kathleen. Was she here? And if she was, was she considered dead? All kind of half baked scenarios were coming to his mind, to try to resolve this conflict. He was lost in this jumble of ideas, when a discreet knock was heard at the door. Richard’s mind did not acknowledge this until the knock was repeated. He said quietly: “Come in.”

The door opened slowly, just enough for a head covered in a mop of tangled sandy blond hair to appear in the opening. A shy voice asked: “I hope that I am not disturbing you, Mr. Thanatos asked me to help you with anything that you need.”

“Please, do come in. I have a lot of questions, that needs answers.”

With this the door opened further and a mousy looking young woman walked into the room. She carefully closed the door behind herself, and seated herself uncomfortably on a straight back chair. With a bashful smile she asked him: “What can I do to help you?”

Feeling a bit more confident than usual, in face of the shyness of his interlocutor, Richard asked: “First, you can tel me your name.”

“It is Sonya.”

“Good, this is a first step. Do you know what will happen to me?”

“I do not have any idea, but I am sure that the research committee will make the best decision for all involved.”

“That doesn’t sound too reassuring, but it will have to do for now. Do you know if my friend, Kathleen McNamara, is here?” Richard mentally crossed his fingers awaiting the answer.

“Yes, she is currently in debriefing, prior to her assignment to deprogramming.”

A surge of relief entered into Richard’s heart. “Does that mean that she was…, his one of the test subjects?” The relief was of short duration.

“She was one of the test subject. She did not survive the transfer from earth.”

“But you said that she was in debriefing, how could this be so if she is dead?”

“There is no such thing as dead around here, when one of the test subject returns here, after completing their larval phase, they are automatically debriefed prior to their return to earth to start a new cycle. I don’t think that they can survive the transfer.”

Richard leaned forward from his couch. “Can I meet her? I would like to talk to her again.”

Sonya smiled, it lit up her face. “I don’t thing it is permissible, but I will try to arrange it. I have some friends in the debriefing staff.”

She quickly stood up, having lost some of her shyness. She walked to a large armoire, standing against the back wall of the room, and opened its doors. In it stood a computer terminal. She turned back to Richard.

“I think that you are familiar with this. We use technology that is compatible with your period so that the subjects coming through here are not disoriented too much. You can log in with this name and password.” She handed Richard a piece of paper.

“You will be able to find a lot of answers to your questions, in here. I will now try to arrange a meeting with your friend. I will see you later.”

She quietly left the room before Richard had the time to thank her. He dragged a chair in front of the terminal, and booted it. He logged in the system and was surprised that they were using a standard operating system, and some commercial applications from earth. He quickly found his way through the system and delved into the history of this project.

Richard was awed by the scope of the operation, they had roughly two hundredth of one percent of the earth’s population as subjects, about one million souls. Of these, at any time, about ninety percent were on earth. Leaving around one hundred thousand people being processed for debriefing and deprogramming. During this period lasting from six months to a year, these people “lived” in the continuum bubble. At any time, a population the size of a small town was resident.

Richard was so engrossed by his findings, that he did not hear the door open. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. He looked at the owner, and tears of joy welled in his eyes. Kathleen was standing beside him. They looked at each other for a long time. No words needed to be exchanged to explain their common feelings. After what seem to be an eternity, they fell into each others arms and kissed with a passion that brought comfort to their soul. None of the shyness that normally controlled their behavior remained. They knew that they mutually desired each others, and finally acknowledged it.

After a long time they reluctantly separated. Through the joy of their meeting, Richard could discern some pain in her eyes. He brought her to the couch and they both sat down with their arms around each other. Richard brushed an errand strand of hair from her face. “Lets talk about it…”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 7/2006: The Day I Fooled Death

The Sass

Consciousness slowly came back to Richard. He was stretched on a gurney and a worried looking nurse was taking his pulse. When she noticed that he was awakening, her face broke out in a wide grin. In a sympathetic voice, she said: “There you are, you had us worried when you arrived unexpectedly. You are lucky to have survived an unscheduled transfer.”

Richard was puzzled by what she had said. He could not think of anything more brilliant then to say: “Where am I?”.

“You are in the recovery room near Mr. Thanatos’s office. Where else did you think you would be, after your death?”

“But…, I am not dead….”

“That is only a technicality, once you are here you are considered dead. The fact that you are not, displeased Mr. Thanatos very much. He has standards to maintain and you have broken his perfect record. He will want to meet you as soon as you are recovered enough.”

Not knowing what else to say, Richard answered: “I think that I am feeling as fine as I will ever do for that meeting.” He slowly sat on the edge of the gurney, while letting out a long sigh.

The nurse flashed him a wide smile, and said: “Don’t worry Mr. Thanatos is an understanding man. If you willingly submit to have your mind selectively erased, he will forgive you.”

With that the nurse winked at him and started toward the door. As she reached it, she turned suddenly and said: “Mr. Thanatos’s assistant will come to fetch you in a moment. Bye….” She opened the door and briskly walked out.

Richard tried to figure out where he was, but his mind did not seem work properly. Adding to the confusion was the fear brought on by the words of the nurse. He definitively did not want to have his mind worked on in any way. While he was ruminating, a young, severe looking man dressed in a business suit, walked in the room. He gave Richard a disdainful look. In a haughty, high pitched, voice he said: “Mr. Thanatos will see you now. Please follow me.”

As Richard stood up, the young man did not seem to appreciate his rumpled look. He turned from him with a scornful snort, and led him out of the room. Richard walked out into a plush carpeted corridor. He was lead to a nearby, darkly polished oak door. The young man knocked once and walked in. Richard hesitantly followed. The richly but severely decorated, paneled room, housed an imposing desk of darkly stained ash. Behind that desk sat a jovial looking man with a round face and eyes full of mirth. His balding head was ringed by a halo of bristly grey hair. When he noticed that Richard had entered the room he stood up and extended his hand in greeting. Richard saw that he stood less than 5 feet tall. As the man was looking at him with piercing eyes, Richard took the offered hand and was surprised by its crushing grip. When he finally let go, the man pointed to the chair facing his desk. He said: “Please have a seat, we have a lot to discuss”, turning toward his assistant, his eyes lost some of their joy, he continued “You can leave now, Mr. Gregg. I can handle this myself.” His eyes did not leave the young man as he departed in a huff. When his eyes returned to Richard they softened a bit.

Richard was surprised by the warm welcome, it did not match the dread that filled his mind. He had a feeling that under this warm exterior, his mind was ice cold. The man’s attention was riveted on Richard. A long silence stretched into eternity, as Richard felt all of his life and soul exposed to the man’s piercing gaze. A frown creased Mr. Thanatos’s forehead. He looked directly into Richard’s eyes and asked: “Do you know that you are not dead, and not supposed to be here?”

“Ergh…”

“What do you have to answer about this?”

“Ergh…”

Richard’s mind had a difficulty grasping the concept of “Here” and the fact that he was supposed to be dead to be there. Sense this difficulty with his interlocutor, Mr. Thanatos asked rhetorically: “You do not have a clue where you are?”

“Ergh…”

“Let me explain…” He sighed deeply. “…Eons ago, when my predecessors found out that intelligent life was about to evolve on this planet, we decided to study the dynamics of this evolution. We captured a large sample of the local population, and genetically engineered them so that their life energy would become static at the end of their earthly life cycle. As you well know, earthly life is but the first stage of your species life cycle, after its completion there is a long maturing process of your life energy that will eventually lead to a new highly intelligent species on another plane of reality.” Noticing the befuddled look on Richard’s face, he inquired: “You do know about this, do you?”

“Ergh…”

“O my dear man, I had no idea. This must be quite a shock to you. Do you want me to go on?”

Richard shook his head in an effort to garner his thoughts. This was almost too much for him to absorb but his programmer’s mind needed the information once it was open to new concepts. He struggled to say: “Please do so, I need to know more.”

With a look of concern Mr Thanatos continued :”Do not be afraid to interrupt if you need further enlightenment.” He paused for a few seconds, to be sure that Richard was following him, then continued. “Your species is within a few centuries of reaching a new phase of evolution. We are very happy to see its progress. As I had said earlier we created genetically engineered specimens of your race so that we can study them at the transition phase of their life cycle. A stable area of the space-time continuum was created for this purpose.

As you might well imagine, it requires an incredible amount of energy to maintain such a bubble in the continuum. Also, this bubble has to be of a finite size and be able to accommodate only a specific number of individuals, plus the research and support personal. Since we are dealing with a limited number of test subjects, and that we have no wish to acquire new ones at this late a stage in your evolution, we send the test subjects back to earth after a rigorous debriefing and a period of deprogramming. They start a new life unbeknownst to their new parents. In this way, we have been able to maintain our test facility to its optimum size. Any variation of this size, no matter how small, could create havoc with its stability. Which in turn could form a rip in the bubble that could destroy our subject of study, the Earth.” He pause for a sobering moment.

“This brings us to your presence here. You are not a test subject, and by definition should not be able to be present in this bubble. The other problem is that you are still alive in your larval form, and we cannot bring ourselves to eliminate you. This would be against our code of ethics. We do not know if your life energy would be able to escape from the confines of the bubble.

Do not let this bother you, the research committee will have a meeting later on today to discuss your case. In any way we will meet again tomorrow. In the mean time, if you have any questions, I will assign to you a research assistant to answer all that we can. Have a nice day.”

With this, Mr. Thanatos stood up and shook his hand. Before he had time to form a reply in his mind, Richard was ushered out of the office by the efficient Mr. Gregg. He had not noticed his return, because he was so engrossed by Mr. Thanatos’s monologue.

Richard was escorted through a labyrinth of corridors, to a nicely appointed room. He let himself fall onto a comfort¬able couch, as his mind considered the implications of what he had heard.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 7/2006: The Day I Fooled Death

The Sass

Richard had barely slept that night. He had a feeling of impeding doom that haunted his every thoughts. As he arrived at the office, Ralph barely recognized him. He had reason not to, because Richard looked as if he had slept in his clothes, his eyes were red and swollen from lack of sleep, worry lines circled them, his hair was uncombed and his face unshaven. Ralph, with concern in his voice, asked: “Are you all right, Mister Dexter? You are looking ill this morning.” Richard looked up at the young man. He willed a smile to his face and replied: “Don’t worry Ralph, I only had a bad night. I am not used to my new responsibilities. I will get used to them eventually. As Miss Kathleen come in this morning? Is she in her office?”

The young man looked at Richard with a startled look in his face. He jabbered: “But…. You don’t know…?”

“I don’t know about what?”

“About… Miss Kathleen. She has gone on holidays for at least a month… I had thought that you knew… She left this envelope to Phil last night. It is addressed to you.” He handed Richard a small white envelope and continued. “I am sorry Mr. Dexter…”

Richard did not wait for the young man to finish his sentence, to leave. He dragged his feet toward the wing housing his cubicle. He was half way over when he realized that he no longer had a cubicle. He reluctantly changed his course. He unlocked his door and walked in the office. Everything was as he had left it last night. He threw the letter on his desk and let himself fall in his chair. He looked at the letter for a long time, afraid to open it. Finally he garnered some courage and proceeded.

“Dear Richard

I managed to talk to Dad, last night, with the help of Ken. I tried to reach you at home but your phone was off the hook. I am sorry that you were not there. We discussed the long term prospects for the firm. I am not sure if I am the right person to guide the company at this moment. I have a lot of things to think about, the company, my future, also, possibly, our future you and I. I will need a few weeks just to clear my mind and think this over. After that, I will send for you to plan for the future. In the mean time Ken will take care of the day to day business of the company. He was nice enough to agree to it.

I will see you soon.

Love

Kathleen”

Richard was dumbfounded by the immensity of it all. Not only was Price now running the show, but Kathleen was gone. He did not find any comfort in the prospect of a future with her, because he now suspected foul play. He barely controlled his impulse to storm to Price’s office, demanding an explanation. He needed to find out more about this “Thanatos” project. He could find no better way than to hack into the computer system of the advance research department.

He turned his chair and rolled to his workstation. He was surprised that someone had tempered with his system. The prompt on the screen was not blinking in the same directory as he had left it last night. Paranoia settled in his Richard’s mind. Thinking that his workstation was monitored he stormed off to Ben’s office. He walked in without first knocking. His friend did not look surprised to see him barge into his office. Ben said. “I was wondering when you would show up. I found out some interesting things about you friend Price. I am now worried about Kathleen’s disappearance. I have tried to reach you all night.”

“How come I’m always the last one to know about these things. I seem to be living in a different universe than anybody else. What’s the news.”

“Last night Amanda told me that there was a large explosion in one of Price’s labs. There was a large commotion and she is sure that she saw Kathleen going in the lab before it happened. When she inquired about it this morning, she learned that Kathleen had left for an extended period and the lab did not show any signs of the explosion. She was sure to have seen glimpses of destroyed instruments last night. When she pressed Price about that, this morning, he reluctantly showed her his lab. It was as if nothing had really happened in the lab since the last time she had been there.

Also there has been snoopers on the computer network. They are trying to clamp down on the hacking. There were areas that I used to get into easily but now I have no access to them. What do you think about this?”

Richard shook his head. He replied: “It only confirm my suspicions. I think that Kathleen was eliminated by Price and I will try to find how it was done. Can I used your workstation? I think that mine is bugged by Price.

“Go ahead…. I hope you don’t mind if I watch?”

Richard did not answer as he sat in front of the keyboard. He quickly go out of the graphic shell and back to the command prompt. He did not log-in by his name. He was afraid that it would be flagged by the network snoopers. He did not want to use one of his alternate names in case that they were also known. He looked at Ben with a wry smile on his face. He said dryly: “Can I use one of your alternate names to login? I don’t want to alert the snoopers by using one of mines.”

Ben seemed upset by this statement, he replied in an injured tone: “Why do you think that I have illegal access to the system? I never would do such a thing.”

“Come on, you know as well as I do that you have at least 4 or 5 alternate identities on the system. Just the same as I have.”

“OK you got me. Try logging-in as BeniHana with the password 9854267y98pu.”

Richard logged-in as Ben watched over his shoulder. For two hours he tried unsuccessfully to find any information about the “Thanatos” project. Everywhere that he looked files had been purged. Areas of interest where off limit even to his persistent hacking. Richard had made a career in breaking down systems security. For the first time he was unsuccessful. He was growing more stymied by the minute. After another frustrating hour he managed to get through the back door of the advance research project system, using a telecom link to a maintenance system. He was at last getting some results. At that moment the telecom link came down. As much as he tried, he was not able to reestablish it. The advance research complex was cut off from the rest of the world. Richard banged his fist in hanger, on the keyboard.

He turned toward Ben, who had been admiring his work, and asked: “Do you think that Amanda can get me into the complex? I need to work on one of their workstations to get some answers.”

Ben shrugged. He answered: “I’ll call her right now and see.”

He got on the phone and arranged for Richard to meet her that evening at the complex. With the help of the night guard, he would be able to get in.

Richard spent the rest of the day in his office trying to get some work done, without getting much results. As the time of the meeting grew nearer, he could not keep from pacing behind his desk. Before leaving his office he walked into the private bathroom adjoining it. He could barely recognize the man that was staring back at him in the mirror. He looked even worse than he had in the morning. He did not even attempt to make himself look more presentable. He could not care less.

He met with Amanda at the entrance of the underground passageway that linked all the buildings in the sprawling complex. The stunning brunette was seated on a small electric cart. She looked worried when she saw his bedraggled appearance. He drew a thin smile and said: “Don’t worry I look even worse inside.” He took the empty seat beside her. She drove the cart silently back to the advance research facilities. When they arrived and took the elevator to the lobby and its guard station. Richard was surprised to see that Ralph was sitting at the main desk. He looked from his paper and winked at Richard. He said: “Don’t worry, Sir, I am replacing the regular guard. He suddenly fell ill.” He winked again saying that. Without asking for anything he continued. “I can see that your passes and authorizations are valid. Please be on your way.” He opened the gate preventing them to access the building.

As Richard passed by, the young man shook his hand. He left in his cupped hand a small electronic keycard with the security logo embossed on it. He murmured: “Good luck…”.

Amanda pulled on his sleeve to make him hurry up. She dragged him to a small office, in which stood a functioning workstation. She showed him the keyboard and said: “This station has already been logged-in with the highest security clearance. Use it at your discretion. When you are done, please ask Ralph to let you out to the basement. My cart will still be there, here are the keys.” She handed him a small key at the end of a short piece of rope. She continued, “Good luck, I hope that you will find what you are looking for.” She left locking the door behind herself with her own keycard.

Richard quickly started to work on the console. From this station, he had no troubles to access the information that he wanted. What he found out was devastating!!!

In the past few years, while they were trying to extract energy from the interstitial space in a controlled manner, Price’s crew had contacted an entity that inhabited that area of space-time. Price had found a way to exploit that being’s feeling of boredom, in helping him to gain control of the company.

Richard kept reading file after file for the better part of the night. He was almost sure, by now, that Kathleen was trapped in that interstitial space and he was looking for a way to get her back. He was so tired that his eyes had difficulty to focus on the CRT. He rubbed them, trying to make the fatigue go away. This only increase the sting to an intolerable level. His discomfort prompted him for action. After he logged-out of the system he use the security keycard to open the door of the small office. He peered furtively into the corridor. It was devoid of any activity. He exited the office and locked the door behind himself. He tried to remember where Price’s main lab was located. He only had been there once, on a guided visit of the complex.

He went to the end of the hall and tried to orient himself. He walked one way, then changed his mind and walked the other way. He arrived in front of a pair of large glass doors. Stenciled in flowing script was the name of Kenneth Price. He hoped that his security card would unlock the doors. He inserted the small plastic card into the lock and heard a muffled click.

He sneaked in the lab and looked around. Behind a partition a vast expanse of machinery stood idling in the penumbra. He tried to make sense from the consoles that operated the equipment. A low hum emanated from the machine. He sat at what looked like the main console. Richard was afraid to touch any of the controls. As if sensing his presence, the hum slightly increased in frequency. A few seconds later the lights came on in the lab. The sudden brightness startled Richard so much that he froze on the chair. He slowly turned toward some increased activity at he far end of the lab. His tired eyes had difficulty focusing on the face of Kenneth Price, who was standing behind a glass screen, with a wide grin on his face. Fear paralyzed Richard. He was about to bolt for the door when a bright arc of blinding light enveloped him. His senses were so overwhelmed by the light that his mind blanked out, and darkness enwrapped his mind.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 7/2006: The Day I Fooled Death

The Sass

When Richard arrived at his cubicle, men were busily packing his workstation on a cart. He interrupted their work, wanting to know what they were doing. He learned with disbelief that they were moving him into his new executive suite. Most of his stuff was already there. With a sinking feeling, he slowly walked to the executive wing.

When he walked passed Frederick McNamara’s door he noticed that Kathleen’s name had been painted on it, replacing her father’s. He was surprised to see that a crew of men, in green coveralls, were busily moving him in the suite of offices next door. One of them was painstakingly painting his name and title on the door. The sight of this made him shiver. He never had liked the feeling of been summoned in the office behind one of these impressive oak doors. Now he had one of his own.

He wandered down the corridors of the executive suite while the crew was finishing their work. As he walked passed Kenneth Price’s office he overheard an enthusiastic conversation in which Kathleen’s voice sounded pleased. He strained to hear more, but was unable to do so without looking suspicious amongst the people walking the corridors.

When he returned, the crew was finally finishing-up. A burly young lad holding a clipboard, walked toward Richard with a large smile on his face. He handed the clipboard to Richard, and said: “Would you please sign this chit, Sir. Your new office is ready for you. I hope that you will enjoy it.”

Richard signed the paper, and thanked the man absentmindedly. He walked into the office and slowly examined its luxurious furnishings. He had always enjoyed the womb-like quality of his cubicle. Now his workstation and reference manuals were neatly arrayed on a large, darkly stained, oak escritoire. The scope of the room was huge. He felt completely lost in it. He sat, at his desk, in a large leatherbound swivel-chair, and looked at his collection of curios on its top. They had made his cubicle homey, but now looked completely ridiculous on the vast expanse of polished wood.

Richard pivoted in his chair and rolled it toward his workstation. He flipped the power switch and watched the screen with glazed eyes, while the operating system booted-up. The familiar patterns scrolling on the display soothed him. He was so lost in his thoughts that almost did not hear a faint knock at his door. He weakly replied to come in.

The door cracked open and Kathleen’s face poked into the opening. She looked excited as she said: “I hope that I’m not disturbing you. Can you spare a few minute for me?”

Richard smiled. He answered: “You should know by now that I always have some time for you. What’s all the excitement about?” Inwardly Richard knew the answer already. He also knew that he could not change her mind, if he was a good judge of the expression on her face.

Kathleen hurried in and closed the door behind her. She came to him and, as he got up to greet her, she hugged him tightly. She quickly straightened up and sat down in front of his desk.

With excitation barely controlled in her voice she started: “They have managed to do it… They contacted dad on the other side!!!”

She got up and started to pace frantically in front of Richard’s desk. She continued. “They will try again late tomorrow and I should be there to talk to him. Will you come with me?”

Richard cleared his throat, and seeing that he would not be able to convince her otherwise, he said: “You know that I will stand at your side. I would like to see that with my own eyes.”

He barely was able to control the sarcasm in his voice. He thought that it would be best to see this demonstration and try to expose it as fraud. His mind was racing at the prospect of exposing Price’s for all that he was. Richard had never liked the man, and the feeling was probably mutual. He exchanged some pleasantry with Kathleen, and buoyed by her mounting enthusiasm, she finally left his office to complete some errands of her own.

Great angst was mounting in Richard’s mind. He sat glumly watching the screen of his workstation. Hours passed and Richard had still not moved. He was afraid for Kathleen, but his nature was preventing him to make a stand against the figure of authority that was Kenneth Price. Finally, with a long, slow sigh he stood up and left his office. Maybe he would think with a clearer mind in the morning.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 7/2006: The Day I Fooled Death

The Sass

Richard only had time for a dash to his apartment for a few hours sleep and quick shower before returning to the office. When he arrived at the check-in desk Ralph, the morning watchman, was already on duty. The young man, looking sharp in his crisp uniform, told him in his deep voice:

“Miss. Kathleen left a message for you. Let me get it for you.” Ralph rummaged around the top of his desk and handed a small white envelope to Richard. He said: “Here, this is it. I hope that you will have a nice day.”

Richard opened the envelope and read the neatly handwritten note on his way to his office. It said:

“Dear Richard:

I will not be able to meet with you this morning. I have an meeting with Kenneth Price to discuss his “Thanatos” project. I will let you know about it as soon as I learn more.
Fondly… Kate

PS. I think he might have found a way to communicate with the dead as an offshoot of his research. I would be so great if I could communicate with dad and ask him to help us with the company.”

He was astounded by the news. As soon as he reached his office, he tried to contact Kathleen at Price’s office. He learned that she was out of the main office complex and had gone to the advanced research building. Thinking that it was not to his best interest to pursue her there, he decided nonetheless to contact Ben Krysler, a friend of his in the “parapsy” department. Ben agreed to see him right away.

When Richard reached Ben’s office, he was greeted by the jovial young man. His boyish looking face was lit by a wide grin, than was framed by long stringy hair. He looked at least 15 years younger than he was. He shook Richard’s hand vigorously, while he said in a sniggering voice:

“Should I now call you Mister Vice President or just your Highness….” He broke out laughing, while Richard blushed to a deep crimson.

Richard felt embarrassed and finally said:

“How did you know about this, I has not been officially announced yet.”

“Well…, by the same way we usually both get news around here. By hacking in the executive computer system. Don’t tell me that in your exalted position you would now frown on this.”

This brought a smile to Richard’s scowling face. Upon seeing this, Ben continued:

“This is better. You looked like you were sucking on a particularly sour lemon. Why the long face?”

“I have not started yet, but management already doesn’t agree with me. I need your help on an exceedingly sticky situation. Its about Kathleen…” Ben quickly interrupted. “I know, there are rumours racing around the office these days.”

Richard blushed again to an even deeper shade. He managed to continue. “It’s not what you are thinking.”

“How do you know what I am thinking?”

“Stop it. Be quiet. It is very serious.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. I thought that you didn’t believe in ESP.”

“Stop fooling around. I really need you help. I am afraid that Kathleen might be getting involved in Price’s “Thanatos” project. I am afraid for her.”

As he heard that, Ben sobered up instantaneously. He said in a sombre voice, that was unusual for him: “If she is get¬ting involved in that load of crap, she might very well be in danger.” Richard did not like the sound of that. His suspicions were confirmed when Ben continued.

“This idea of his, to extract energy from interstitial space, is ludicrous. All that they will ever manage to do is to make an impressive light show. Our research has suggested that the interstitial space might be inviolable. Measurements were made of an inflow of energy from our reality to that theoretical space, but it is always balanced by a simultaneous outflow. In my opinion, if you try to extract a large amount of energy from that space you’ll end up with a rebound effect that will suck energy from our space. Ending up with massive damage to your equipment, and a bruised ego (if not worse). As you well know you cannot gain something from nothing.”

“What you are telling me is that it’s impossible to get energy for free, which I do believe. But what about Price’s claims of contacting dead people on the other side. What do you think about them?”

“Since when has he claimed that? As you well know, if someone is profoundly sceptic about the paranormal, it’s Price. I once mentioned my opinion on the subject of interstitial space as a repository of souls, to him. He laughed me right out of his office.”

Richard handed Kathleen’s note to Ben, and said: “Then why as he now changed his opinion?”

Ben read the short note. His face became livid. In a trembling voice he answered: “I don’t believe any of this crap. He sure doesn’t believe in it himself. I don’t see how he could have done any progress in a field he doesn’t know anything about, without anyone in the parapsy department hearing anything about it. It looks like a way to get something out of your poor Kathleen.”

“I am sure of it. Don’t you know anyone at the advanced research complex that could help us. What about Amanda? Are you still seeing her?”

“I have not seen her lately but I wouldn’t mind renewing our relationship. I will try contacting her this morning. I’ll let you know as soon as I have some news.”

They bid each other goodbye, and Richard returned to his office.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 7/2006: The Day I Fooled Death

The Sass

Richard walked without any apparent aim for a while. So much had happened, in the last few hours, that he could not absorb it all. He finally ended up in his cubicle. It was one of the few places where he felt safe. The narrow walls and the friendly glare of his computer monitor greeted him. This was where he spent most of his waking hours. It was more his home than his little apartment in a housing complex nearby. He only used his apartment for his daily ablutions and sometimes to sleep. He did not turn on the lights, as he seated himself in front of the monitor. Richard loosened his tie and leaned back in his chair. He keyed in a few commands on the keyboard resting near his right hand. With a glazed look, he watched the screen. As the disassembler begun its works, rows of figures started scrolling on the monitor. His mind was not on the problem at hand, but he liked the pattern of the data on the screen. He hoped that he could keep working in his cubicle. He did not relish the idea of moving to an executive office, where he would not have time to do some programming or troubleshooting.

As his mind drifted toward some much needed rest, his attention was drawn to the sound of a hushed conversation going on in a nearby cubicle. He could recognize one of the voices. It was Kenneth Price’s. A heated hushed argument was going on with an unknown person. Richard could hear some parcels of the exchange.

“… find… way… rid of her…”

“…I know, but… a way… parapsy… Thanatos…”

“…proceed… no one… find… involved…”

“…never… ready… next week…”

Richard did not move from his cubicle until the office was again quiet. He looked around the room but found no one. Not knowing what to do with what he had eared, he decided to leave for the day. He stopped at the guard desk to sign out. He notice from the list that Kathleen was still present. Phil, the night watchman, told him. “Mr. Richard, I see that you are leaving us early, but before you go, Miss Kathleen asked me to tell you to meet her in Mr. Frederick’s office.” He winked at him, and continued, “I hope you have a nice evening.” then winked again.

Richard acquiesced with a nod of his head. He proceeded wearily toward the designated office. He felt uncomfortable in going to his boss’s former office. It rarely was used by its former owner, who preferred to direct by mingling with his troupes. Richard had only been there, formally, on one occasion: the day of his job interview. He stood in front of the darkly stained oak door, still trying to decide if he would go in. He finally knocked. Kathleen’s muted voice instructed him to come in. With a slightly trembling hand he opened the door.

Kathleen was seated at her dad’s large oak desk. She was going through some papers. She looked up at Richard with bleary eyes. She sighed deeply and said with a tired voice: “I’m glad that you came. I will need your help to direct the business. I wish that dad had prepared me better to take over from him.”

“You should look at somebody else for help. I don’t know, myself, how I will be able to cope with my new responsibilities.”

“Don’t worry, dad always had the greatest admiration for your potential. He really looked to you as his son. At times, I was even jealous of you.”

Richard blushed sheepishly. He replied: “You know that I greatly admired your dad, but you should not have feared for his affection. He was always talk about you with such pride.”

It was Kathleen’s turn to blush. She raised from her chair and came to Richard’s side. She said: “Lets stop this mutual admiration society before it gets out of hands. I have some projects that I need your opinion on. But first I really do need your help, I hope that you will always be there for me.” With this, Richard found himself at he receiving end of her embrace for the second time that day. He did not know what to say. He contented himself by just patting her on the shoulder until she let go of him.

“I’m sorry” She said. “I only needed a shoulder to cry on for a while. All of this is so new to me. I hope I have not offended you.”

Hurrying to answer, Richard said: “You can be assured that I don’t mind. Please feel free to hug me anytime you wish.” This seemed to break the ice. She gave him a drawn smile and pulled him to the desk. She pointed to some papers that were laying on its top and said:

“These are some of the projects that Dad had some doubts about. As you can see most of those are low priority purely experimental stuff that can be only useful in their theoretical content. Also thrown-in, are a few dead-ends that have not progressed in years. I think that these should be shelved.” Richard nodded in acquiescence while she continued. “But there is a major project that dad had some doubts about, and it scares me. It is Kenneth Price’s “Thanatos” project with the boys in the nuclear physics department. He is trying to extract energy from interstitial space, where the lads in the parapsychology department think that our “soul” goes after our death.”

As he eared this, Richard’s mind froze. His worst fears were becoming realities.

As the blood drained from Richard’s face, Kathleen stopped talking. She looked at him, wondering what was wrong with the man. She worried that he might collapse in front of her, like her father had done at the board meeting. She rushed to him and embraced him in her arms, fearing for his health.

The warmth of this contact brought Richard out of his trance. He responded by circling her slim body with his own arms. They stood in their embrace for a timeless moment. Slowly they relaxed, and she started crying softly on his shoulder.

Richard did not have the guts to let her know of what he had eared earlier. As their embrace lingered, he hugged her tightly. This seemed to calm her. She finally sighed deeply, and murmured in his ear:

“Dear…, Dear…, Richard. I wish that dad was still with us. I don’t know how we will cope with all of this.”

The emphasized “we” in her plea, made his heart grow warmer. In all of this crazy situation at least something was going his way. They talked late into the night and agreed to meet early in the morning, in her office, to further discuss the situation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 7/2006: The Day I Fooled Death

The Sass

Richard Dexter was uncomfortable in his, rarely worn, business suit. He normally wore jeans and t-shirts to work. He was nervously glancing at himself in the rear view mirror of his beat-up car, as he was driving into town. It had all started last week when Frederick S. McNamara, the chairman of the large R&D conglomerate for which Richard worked, passed away in the middle of a board meeting. He had suffered a massive coronary, while arguing the faith of a new research project with his old friend, Kenneth Price.

Richard remembered the old man fondly, especially his gentle patriarchal management style. In an field that was as cutthroat as Research & Development, it was a joy to work for F.S. McNamara Enterprises.  When Richard had found himself unable to cope with the hectic pace and the politics of a competing firm, the old man had taken him under his wing. He had nurtured the shy young man’s talents until they bloomed and gave him confidence. Richard was now a senior systems analyst in charge of his own department. The easygoing attitude of the company style suited him perfectly. When he had heard of his mentor’s demise, Richard had been overcome by grief. It was as if his world had collapsed. The normalcy of his office life had been maintained by the presence of Mr. McNamara. Now that he was gone, Richard was afraid that the influence of Kenneth Price would be felt. The man was a brilliant scientist, but his style of management was very antagonistic. His aggressive behaviour had always been curtailed by his admiration of Frederick McNamara’s work. Richard had not only lost a close friend. His office life would also be changed by this lost. And since he only lived for his work, it was devastating to him.

Soon after McNamara’s death, rumours of massive cut-backs were heard around the office. Some projects, including Richard’s own, were supposedly slated for the trash bin. Richard never put to much faith on such rumours, but he had frequently been at the receiving end of Price’s wrath. He now feared for his job. His anxiety was heightened because he had been convoked to the reading of Frederick McNamara’s will. This explained his unusual attire and his trip to the city. The old man had been his mentor, but it did not explain his convocation. He definitively did not belong there. Kenneth Price would surely be left in charge of the company, and he did not want to be there to see the reins passed to their new owner.

As he approached the tall mirrored tower, housing the law firm in charge of Frederick McNamara’s estate, Richard’s stomach started to knot. The loud rumbling and ache added to his discomfort. Has he looked up at the towering buildings he felt crushed by their weight. He drove into the underground parking. The attendant passed a few unkind remarks about his car, while handing him his ticket. Richard did not take notice of them, as he was too self absorbed.

On the way up the elevator Richard tried, without too much success, to regain his composure. As he exited the lift he came face to face with Kathleen McNamara, Frederick’s grieving daughter. She was a stunning looking young woman with a full head of auburn hair and delicately chiselled features. She looked a little peaked in her neat black business dress-suit. She gave him a tight, drawn smile. Richard had always been infatuated with her, but he never had been able to ask her out. His shyness and the fact that she was his boss’s daughter had prevented him to do so. This was a constant subject of gossip around the office that she had occasionally joined in good humour. As he approached her, she reached for him, gave him a tight hug and rested her cheek on his shoulder. This was one his dreams come true, but he was too dumbfounded too react. He just stood there feeling like an idiot. They were both brought out of their reverie by an abrupt, authoritative cough. Kenneth Price was standing in the open doorway of an office, looking at them with contempt. Kathleen moved away sharply from him, looking flustered and giving him a shy, confused smile. They both walked toward the lawyer’s office under the reproachful glare of Mr. Price’s eyes. Without any reasons Richard mumbled some kind of apology under his breath, when he passed the man.

The conference room in which they were ushered had a feeling of traditional solid values to it. It was panelled in dark wood and a long, massive table stood in its centre. The walls were adorned with paintings of elder, long deceased partners, who looked down with scorn and contempt at the assembly. At the head of the table stood Vernon McDuff, the genial senior partner of the firm. Richard had met him only once, when his employment contract, and what was expected of him had been explained. He had taken an instant liking to the man. Today, in different circumstances, he felt somewhat overwhelmed by the man. He felt completely out of place in this meeting of senior corporate executives, in their neat business suit. They all looked at him wondering about the same thing. Richard wished that he could at least look the part, but his rumpled ill-fitting suit prevented him to do so.

Sensing his embarrassment Mr. McDuff greeted him warmly: “Dear Richard, come this way. I know that you are wondering why you are here. It will soon be explained to you. For now, just be assured that it was under our dear departed friend’s direction. You know that he looked at you as he would have a son.”

He pointed toward and empty chair beside Kathleen’s, and said, “Please sit down beside the lovely Kathleen, and we will start as soon as everybody is seated.” He turned toward the assembly, and said in a louder voice, “Would you please be seated, so that we can get this meeting under way.”

As soon as everybody were seated, McDuff continued. “I will first play you a short videotape recorded by Frederick shortly before his untimely death. The I will read you the details of the will, in respect to the Company.” He turned toward a VCR sitting on top of a TV monitor that stood on a narrow table set against the wall. He pressed a key on a remote control sitting by his yellow notepad.

The patriarchal face of Frederick McNamara appeared on the screen. As usual he was without a necktie and his shirt sleeves were rolled up. He was looking straight into the camera. A quick smile crossed his wrinkled features. He said in a throaty voice that was uncharacteristic of him. “I am sorry about the emotion in my voice, but it his not everyday that you can speak after your death. I hope that I will not make a habit out of it. You all know that I am, sorry, was proud to have owned and directed one of the few large R & D companies that is independent and family owned. I only had to answer to myself in company policy. Due to this fact, my last wishes are that the Company continue in this mould. To accomplish this, the new President and CEO will be my daughter Kathleen.”

A look of astonishment came to Kathleen’s face, while a low growl escaped from Kenneth Price’s tightly pressed lips. His face was quickly turning brick red. The recording continued undisturbed.

“Before my good friend Kenneth storms out of the room in anger, let me explain.” This seemed to somewhat calm Price’s anger. “I want you to continue in your position of trusted advisor and vice-president of the company. A portion of the Company’s shares will be transferred to you as will later be explained in details by Vernon. Ken, I know that you wished to be in charge, but I think that the company should still remain in the family. If later Kathleen wishes to pass the controls to you she can do so, but she will have to wait for a period of 5 years from the day of my death to do it. In the meantime she will have to assume the day to day running of the company. Kathleen, I know that you will do me proud.” A long sigh escaped from Kathleen’s lips as she looked fondly at the image of her father. Meanwhile the recording continue.

“Dear Richard, I know that you are wondering about what you are doing in here with all these stuffed shirts.” A nervous giggle escaped from the assembly. “I have looked at your progress in the company and I feel that it is time that you should take more responsibilities. I know that you will not like it at first, but you will thank me for it in the future. You are now promoted to vice-president for data processing. I know that I will be as proud of you as of my own daughter…”

With these last words, Richard’s mind seemed to blank to the outside world. He barely remembered the remainder of the tape and the formal reading of the last will and testament that followed. His mind was overwhelmed by the fear of the responsibilities that would be trust upon him in the days to come. He left the conference room in a daze and much later, near the end of the day, he ended up back at the office without knowing why he was there.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From 7/2006: The Day I Fooled Death

The Sass