Chapter 4: Bargain (Patreon)

Elliot’s eyes snapped open.

The world in any context he understood had vanished. Surrounding him was a field of mist, far more placid than the blue-white chaos from before. The ground under his feet felt like hard packed dirt or stone. It was warm, and the air smelled faintly of incense.

“Rowan!” He shouted, twisting left and right. Everywhere he looked the mist billowed, unrelenting.

“Your sister is fine, but she won’t be joining us yet.”

Elliot spun, heart racing, and came face to face with a bland looking man in a sharp black suit. His hair was neatly combed and parted around a face that seemed almost plastic, like a half-hearted attempt had been made to mimic human features. The maybe-man was sitting on a simple wooden stool, hands folded in his lap.

“What are you?” Elliot snapped, “and where’s my sister?” 

“I am your liaison for this transition,” the man replied. “I am not responsible for the decision to merge your world into the Loom, and I am affiliated with neither those who initiated the process nor their enemies. Your sister is in her own transitional space.”

Elliot opened his mouth to say something aggressive, then forced himself to close it. Be smart. You don’t know what’s going on. “When will we be able to see each other again?”

“Shortly, assuming you both elect that option.” The man started spinning the tip of one foot languidly in the air, like he was drawing invisible circles.

Elliot took a deep, ragged breath. “What’s happening here?”

“Your world’s population is being woven into the great Loom, the warp and weft of reality.” The man sounded bored. “Your people will be scattered largely randomly between many worlds, with only a fraction joining you at your specific destination, although I will preempt what I’m sure would be your next question by adding that yes, your sister will travel to the same world as you.”

Elliot closed his mouth on the question he’d been about to ask.

“Every world is different, and you’ll have to make your own way, but there is one constant. You will have a Beacon. When you arrive on Vael Terras, it will empower you on whatever path you choose to walk.”

“Empower,” Elliot said slowly, “in what sense?” His mind reeled as he tried to take in his new circumstances. Had Earth, and every beautiful and ancient thing on it, been lost just like that? This pseudo-human was acting like this was a routine clerical process, and the incongruence was starting to threaten Elliot with a panic attack. Was he supposed to calmly move on from the destruction of everything he’d ever known?

“Empower in almost any sense,” the man said, flicking his wrist dismissively. “Do you cook? You could make food that would beggar the imagination of the greatest gourmet on your world. A painter could create a masterpiece so intense it mars the soul of anyone who looks upon it. A hunter could bring down bloodstriders instead of deer. Unmitigated potential. Eventually, of course, not immediately. All things in time.”

Elliot narrowed his eyes, trying to concentrate. He didn’t trust this man. This was no time for grieving; he had to make it through the madness. Focus. Stay focused. Get Rowan, get wherever you’re going, then fall apart. “That seems too good to be true. Who’s paying for this? Where does the power come from?”

“A fair question,” the man replied, leaning in. “Civilization, reality itself in fact, does not exist uncontested. You’ll pay for the power you gain with the risks required to collect it, as well as the work you’ll do to support society against the forces arrayed against it, one way or the other.”

“So this is some kind of army recruitment?”

“Nothing so pedestrian,” the man said, his smile twisting from polite to the edge of mockery. “You’ll live your life however you please, deciding your own balance of risk and reward. A being’s existence in and of itself tends to lend stability to the world around it. There are outliers of course, heroes of the cause, but I doubt you’ll be one of them.”

“So I wouldn’t be signing up with the people in shining armor, who were fighting for us?”

“What? No,” the man let out a short bark of a laugh, “you? With the Titans? That would be like asking a rock to stand shoulder to shoulder with volcanoes. When did they show themselves to you? That’s not allowed.”

Elliot grimaced, pressing his lips together.

“Don’t worry. I’m no enforcer. Keep your secrets, if you are so moved.” Despite the reassuring words, Elliot saw a new sharpness in the man’s eyes as they met his own.

“Let’s get back to what’s going on,” Elliot replied tersely. “How do we communicate with the people on this new world?”

“The language barrier will be smoothed away.”

“Oh,” Elliot said, “good, I guess. So what happens now? When do I get to see Rowan?”

“Well,” the man said slowly, the sharpness in his eyes gone as if snuffed out, “there’s really only one thing to discuss before I send you on your way. Your starting position.”

“My what?”

“Your starting position. It’s a term for how much, ah…call it assistance I render when transferring you. Vael Terras, as I’ve implied, is not a peaceful place. There are pockets of quiet, but if I were to drop you at any random location the chance of your imminent death would be quite high. Alternatively, if I were to devote considerable energy to your transfer, I could conceivably have you gifted a powerful designation and drop you at the heart of an empire where you would be feted and nurtured along your path.”

“And what would make you do that?” Elliot replied, feeling an itch at the back of his neck. He didn’t trust anything about this man, if it even was a man.

“As you yourself intimated, nothing in life is free. Not everyone can be the golden child. Assuming your sister agrees to join your transfer, the basic transmission would give you both a decent chance of entry into some kind of civilization, although likely only frontier towns. There would be a small but not negligible chance of being dropped in the wilderness, and an equally small chance of entry into a major city. Your professions would also be average, rather than curated.”

“Professions?”

“Your designations. Classes. The mantles you wear, focusing your potential energy into something useful instead of the diffuse mess that is the natural state of most life forms. A profession molds itself to the mores of society, so you would likely find the titles familiar. Perhaps you would be a hunter, a soldier, a cook, etcetera. In time, perhaps a dragon knight or a high sorcerer, but that’s only if you choose to engage with the associated risks. There are many—”

“Wait, wait,” Elliot interjected, “is this some kind of fantasy land? You said bloodstriders before, and now sorcerers, is that actually real?” A part of him ached for this to be some massive, elaborate prank. Aliens with strange technology he could buy, but sorcerers?

“Power flows more directly where you’re going. Call it magic, call it an accessible reality matrix, it doesn’t matter. Sapient beings aided by a Beacon can warp the fabric of the world with will alone, if they have the strength.” His toe stopped circling. “As I was saying, I could transfer you both directly and you take your chances. Or, we could strike a deal.”

“What kind of deal? I assume we’d have to pay some kind of price?”

“No price to me, I assure you. It’s quite forbidden for me to receive gifts or favors. No, you could call it more of a game I like to play. You can think of the energy available for the shared transfer of you and your sister as…say ten units.” 

He held both hands up in front of his chest, as if weighing out two objects. “If you both get five, then it will be just as I said. Likely somewhere reasonably safe, but with a small to moderate possibility of great danger. Some kind of a profession that roughly fits you, but nothing special. A challenging but viable start in a generally unforgiving world.”

He leaned further forward, eyes glittering. “Now, if you take the deal, I would be willing to give either you or your sister a preferential start.” One hand rose, and the other fell. “A large city guaranteed, a rare and valuable profession, and a path to success. But the energy must come from somewhere.” He waved the lowered hand gently. “Think of it as a roughly eight to two split. The other party will not face certain death, but they would enter at the fringes of civilization, with a profession that is not optimal for survival in the wilderness. This would—”

“I’ll take the deal, my sister gets the benefits and I’ll take the short end of the stick.” Elliot cut in firmly.

“Now, hold on,” the man said, almost seeming flustered for the first time. “You’ll want a chance to think. If you take a more balanced approach you’d still both likely end up somewhere workable, whereas this approach will bring considerably more risk down on your head, potentially even death, which really—”

“Would we be able to stay together if we take the neutral option?”

“No,” the man replied after a short pause. “You’ll be guaranteed the same continent regardless of what you pick, but that’s all.”

“Then, unless there are other meaningful benefits or drawbacks you’d like to share, I’ll take the deal. Rowan gets a good start, strong career or whatever you said, and I’ll take the wilderness.”

He felt a clenching in his chest at the idea of starting in the wilds of a world that apparently contained things called bloodstriders, but at the same time a larger part of him couldn’t believe his luck. Beyond all odds, even with death and danger on the table, he’d actually been offered the option to give Rowan a safe and secure life.

The man was frowning at him, hands now clasped in front of his face in almost a prayer-like pose. “Surely we should let your sister have a say too.” He sat back slightly in the chair, unclasped his hands, and snapped his fingers sharply.

Rowan popped into existence right between them, along with a young girl in an all-black set of pajamas. 

“Rowan!” Elliot exclaimed, darting forward to pull her away from the man and the new child.

She grabbed him in turn but stayed facing the two in black, frowning ferociously. “Stay away from us. We don’t want anything you’re selling.”

“Come now,” the strange girl said soothingly, raising her hands as if trying to calm a wild animal, “I was just trying to explain what’s going on.” She could have been one of Rowan’s yearmates at school, although her face also had the disturbing nullness that made it uncomfortable to focus on for too long.

“Shut up,” Rowan snapped, “you don’t get to come stomp on our world and then pretend you’re trying to help. It’s not fooling anyone.”

Elliot kept a hand on her shoulder, partially as reassurance and partially just in case someone tried to phase shift them again, although who really knew if physical contact would make a difference.

“We were discussing a potential deal,” the man in black continued. “It seems you haven't gotten that far yet.”

The child frowned. “She refuses to engage with me.”

“Oh yeah, let’s have tea and biscuits, alien who admitted that Earth has been completely destroyed. I feel so stupid for thinking that message was from someone kind.”

The child’s frown deepened. “She is difficult. I have already said I do not represent the organization who initiated the transition.”

“Rowan, I have a good option for us,” Elliot said quickly, trying to wrest back control of the situation, “where we both go to the same world, and you get an excellent starting situation. I start a little in the boonies, but I’ll just make the hike and join you as soon as possible, and then we’ll be doing great. Maybe even better than on earth if all this power stuff is true. Did she tell you there’s magic?”

“Magic?” Rowan replied guardedly. “What kind of magic?”

“Now not so fast young man, I think you’re being a bit fast and loose with the deal we discussed,” the man in black interjected smoothly. “Rowan deserves to know the full truth, don’t you think?”

Rowan shot a glare his way, but he continued before she could say anything.

“You would get an excellent starting position in the new world, it’s true, but your brother would be giving up quite a lot for it. At baseline he would likely arrive somewhere civilized and safe, with the chance to take a combat profession if he wants to act as your guardian, but if you take this deal he’ll be sent to a much more dangerous part of the world, and a combat profession will not be an option.”

Rowan’s eyes narrowed, and she looked back at Elliot. “What does he mean?”

“I don’t know how far you got with your person, but we’re going to a new planet, and they get to decide where we’re sent. If we take this deal I would be at the edge of civilization, not the middle of the wilderness,” Elliot replied, trying to sound as calm as possible. “That should be a quick trek to a town; worst case I run from some wildlife. And think about it, it’s actually much better for one of us to have an excellent profession than for both of us to have a mediocre one, that way when I find you it’ll be easy for you to make enough money to keep us both safe and comfortable.”

“Wait, what do you mean profession? Like a job? And you’d get a bad one?” Rowan replied, eyeing him with growing suspicion.

“As I was trying to say,” the child in black said stiffly, “Your profession is how you interact with the world around you. You might be a tailor, or a soldier, or even an explorer. Whatever you pick, you could grow incredibly skilled and powerful. You really should see this as the start of an adventure rather than the cataclysm you insist on envisioning.”

“Shut up,” Rowan snapped, “I don’t want to hear anything from you. Elliot, I feel like you’re trying to do everything yourself again.”

He opened his mouth to say something reassuring, then paused. This could be one of the most important conversations of his entire life. What was fair? What did he have the right to impose? He wasn’t a real parent, but he was responsible for her. It was challenging to win an argument with Rowan if the matter was debatable, but this time he was right, and he knew he was right.

“I am doing that, I suppose,” he said slowly. “The way I see it, there are two reasonable options. One, we take an even start. We’d be separate, and likely on a frontier somewhere, with a very small chance of being in the middle of the wilderness or in a major city. We’d have average magic skills. Two, we take the deal in your favor. You end up with a strong skillset, in a big community, where you have a chance to be safe and grow more powerful, with what sounds like good support. I would end up ‘at the fringes’, which I assume means in the wilderness, but fairly close to some kind of town, is that right?” He looked over at the man in black.

“Sufficiently,” the man replied, looking much more satisfied now that there was discord.

“And I wouldn’t get a strong profession, or at least it wouldn’t be good for fighting and surviving. But, even though I’m biased, the second option is still the better deal.”

“No,” she snapped. “That’s just you trying to sacrifice yourself again. Maybe the best answer is for one of us to get as strong as possible if we’re trying to conquer the world, but we just want to live. It’s way more important to focus on not dying.”

“Hear me out,” Elliot said, mind racing. “Obviously it's a higher risk for me at the beginning. And we don’t fully understand the risk either. But this is the end of the world; we were never going to get zero risk. Humans can be just as dangerous as wildlife, and a small frontier town doesn’t sound like total safety to me either. I’m not comfortable with the idea of you popping up in a rough area without a strong profession, and I think that’s reasonable. If we take the option that favors you, I’ll still arrive with a plan. I’ll hit the ground running, orient myself, and do nothing but hurry to get to shelter. I won’t try to explore, I won’t experiment with my profession, and I won’t jet off to find you right away. I’ll just focus on survival, and nothing else. When I get to a town, which is presumably going to be a small frontier town, then it’s really just as good a start in terms of safety as the balanced deal.”

Rowan was still frowning, her arms crossed, but she didn’t immediately shoot him down.

“That leaves the profession. And, from a practical perspective, you have to admit that it’s much better for one of us to be a star and one of us to be weak than for us both to be average. This sounds like a violent world, and I don’t think average sounds very safe. You know you’d be better than me at taking advantage of access to a strong profession and good support.”

“Just because I’m good at school doesn’t mean I’m going to be good at magic.”

“I think it does. You’re intelligent, adaptive, and great with people. You love a project, especially if it’s something new and complicated to explore, and what could be more new and complicated than literal magic? You know I’m right. You have a better chance of going further with a good start than I do, and I have a better chance of doing well in the wilderness than you do.”

“You don’t know that,” she replied. “We don’t know what it’s going to be like. The starting parameters are so wildly vague that everything you’re saying could be bogus.”

“Come on, be fair. This is the information we get, and we have to make the best of it. I love to camp, I love long hikes, I’m taller than you, faster than you, stronger than you. Whether it’s the wilderness or a frontier town, I’m going to be safer and taken much more seriously by random adults than you. Everything lines up in my favor.” I’m right. This isn’t just me trying to protect you. You know I’m right.

She scowled, shoulders tense and hunched. “I hate this.”

“I know,” he said, crouching down slightly so they were at eye level, “it sucks, and there’s no reason you should like it. I wish we were back on Earth eating ramen, and I could go to your college graduation someday. It’s not fair that this happened. But it did, and now we need to figure it out. I won’t lie to you and say I’m not trying to protect you here. I’m sure I’d be arguing for this whether it made sense or not. But it does make sense. And you know it.”

She gritted her teeth, but then something seemed to break loose in her face, and her eyes started to well up with tears. “I’m scared. I don’t want you to die, like mom and dad.”

He stepped forward and gathered her up in a hug, feeling a deep ache in his chest. “I know. I love you, and I promise I’m going to try my absolutely hardest. I’m going to survive if there’s any way at all through this, and I’m going to find you.” He smiled. “Unless you find me first.”

She snorted, face still buried in his shoulder. “Of course I’m going to find you first.”

“So you agree?”

There was a long pause. Then she hiccuped, took a deep breath, and stepped back. “If we do this, you have to be careful.”

He smiled. “I’ll be quiet like a mouse. You’ll probably find me holed up in a nice little cottage on a river somewhere.”

She shook her head. “When I find you I’m going to be—”

Before she could finish, the man in black snapped his fingers, and both Rowan and the child disappeared.

“You took a lot of the fun out of that, you know. Usually people argue one way or the other for hours,” the pseudo-man said testily.

“What did you do? Where’s my sister?” Elliot said, spinning around frantically.

“Well you made up your mind didn’t you?” the man replied. “I didn’t think there was much left to say.”

“You didn’t let us say goodbye!” Elliot shouted, surprise rapidly changing to fury.

“That’s a shame. I guess you’ll just have to find her like you said. I hope you have as easy a time as you seem to be imagining.” The man definitely appeared annoyed now, plucking at his collar as if it chafed. “Also, food for thought. This world isn’t as harmonious as you seem to think. Your sister will get a good start, it’s true, but with a good profession many people will want to take advantage, and she’s so young and impressionable. I hope she doesn’t sign any bad contracts or have any irreparable harm done to her before you find her again.”

“You bastard,” Elliot replied, eyes widening, “You said it would be a smooth path.”

“I said she would have a clear path to success,” the man shot back, “you can always lose track of a path, no matter how clear.”

“Damn you,” Elliot spat, lunging forward, but before he could cross half the distance a force battered him to the ground.

The thing’s mask of a face tightened, skewing into a rictus-snarl that was barely human at all, teeth multiplying in a disorganized sprawl. “You peeve me. Another bargain, then. Knowledge for sacrifice. Had you not displeased me, she would have begun no more than a few hundred miles from your position. Though she will still be on your continent, know that now your sister will be as far south as south can go. If you think you’ve traveled far enough, go farther. And also, a prophecy.” Its maw widened into the shattered facsimile of a smile. “But that’s for later.”

Elliot’s eyes widened, and he tried to scramble to his knees, but then something small and black lanced over from the being and a searing pain erupted in his chest. The thing snapped its fingers one more time, and everything faded.