Solipsism: Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Aexilica and I finally reached our destination the next day, and it felt like we’d walked another hundred miles. I was beyond exhaustion. Hollowed out, like someone had opened me up and scooped away all the energy in my body, then stuffed a bunch of cement back in the empty space. Sweat had soaked my clothes so much that they were sagging off me like weights, my limbs were even heavier through sheer exhaustion, and it actually hurt to breathe. 

But god damn, we’d made the journey. I felt a bizarre euphoria as I looked up at the mountain range. It lasted all of two seconds before I realised…You know. I was looking up at a fucking mountain range.

“We need to climb that.” I gasped, considering the merits and demerits of asking my brain nicely to just cut to the chase and finish shutting off.

“There’s a pass.” Aexilica explained, heading for it without another word. 

There was a pass, fortunately. A steep, miserable, stony set of slopes that seemed specifically designed to make me unhappy. We made slow progress up them, because we made slow progress in everything. 

By midday, though, we stopped for camp. 

“We’re high enough.” Aexilica explained, then, when asked further, “If we wait long enough, the Mountain People will find us.”

“Mountain People?” I echoed. “That’s their name?” She shrugged.

“Only one they’ve ever needed. Not sure what they call themselves, but everyone else in Aethiq call them the Mountain People.”

Well that was ominous. We made our camp, waited out and, sure enough, we were found. Not nicely though. One moment I was sitting there, trying not to notice my own smell. The next I was gaping as something cold and sharp pressed against my neck and strong hands held me still from behind.

“Stay still.” Came the voice from behind me, and I didn’t need telling twice. I froze like a deer in headlights, only moving my eyes to glance over and see Aexilica was being held by another man, just as tight and just as still. Moments passed as men moved around us, all short and wiry, but covered with lean muscle. They wore fabric thick enough that I thought it must have been armour, and those few areas it didn’t cover peeked out with bronze flesh. 

They certainly looked like the other locals in Aethiq, but their welcoming committee was a lot less nice. Unless one counted the cyclopes.

“What are you doing in our mountains?”

My first instinct was to look at Aexilica and wait for her answer, my first thought was that looking anywhere would involve moving my neck relative to the knife against it. My second thought was how sharp obsidian was. Instead I bit my tongue and just waited.

“We’re here for sanctuary.” Aexilica replied, her voice rendered raspy and tight by the lack of motion available to its vocal chords. “We’re on the run from the Priests, and…Well.”

“And you thought you’d use us for safety, like everyone else in Aethiq foolish enough to anger their cannibal-Gods.”

Aexilica quitened down as the lead man spoke. He continued. 

“Your people know nothing about the Shugkan, you only even remember us when you need somewhere to hide. So what do you have to offer us? Why should we welcome you into our haven?”

I had to admit, he had a point. Space was probably at a higher premium than normal when one lived in a literal mountain range, and these people survived off of secrecy alone. 

“We have power.” Aexilica answered. “I can…” She trailed off, eyes flicking to me. Oh. She was reluctant to let me know what she could do. Fearful I might use it for an advantage? She got over her paranoia fast, at least. “I’m stronger and faster than most, and I have weapons from another land. You can see one by our packs, and two more are at my hips.”

She was speaking about her bow and knives, I gathered. Well there went one mystery. Everybody else was using flint and slings because her stuff was from another place. Where, I didn’t know. I’d have to ask later. 

“How strong?” The mountain man- the Shugkan he’d called himself- asked. “How fast?”

“I’m as strong as a man twice my size, and faster than anyone else I’ve ever met.” Aexilica replied evenly, she seemed to be calming down. I certainly was. The more they talked, the more time these people had to calm down as adrenaline worked its way out of their systems and momentary impulses fizzled out. My odds of getting tossed into some creek with a cut throat were getting lower by the second. 

“And you.” The leader of the Shugkhan pressed, turning to me now. “What can you do?”

“He-” Aexilica began, only for him to cut her off.

“-Shut up. I’m talking to him.”

Shit. 

I’d learned just enough to know that telling him I was a Worldsinger- whatever that was- wouldn’t end well. At best it would get me popular with the locals, but the way Aexilica had described it word would spread fast, and I’d have a lot of unwanted attention. So which lie would serve me best?

One of omission, it was the only kind I had the ability to reliably tell. I just didn’t have enough data for anything more complex than that. 

“I can affect physical objects, weakening them with a touch, and I can send things flying or heat them up. I can also make invisible material that I can affect without touching directly, but still not from more than a few feet away.” That was one of the new discoveries I’d gotten by spending hte day practicing my powers over energy, at the expense of concentrating on matter it had to be said. I’d still not gotten to my second level of that. Maybe it was because of neglecting it, or maybe I’d just gained my second level of energy through something other than practice. It was irritating how little of the rules I knew here. 

“That doesn’t narrow things down much at all.” The Shugkhan noted. “What scale of power can you wield? How large an object can you affect, how much can you do those things?”

Right, he was asking about the extent of my abilities rather than just the specific tasks they could do. I’d been sure to test that myself of course. 

“I once smashed a chunk out of someone’s head by throwing a rock, I can heat up wood enough to catch fire…I was able to…Dig my fingers into someone’s flesh and peel off a strip of skin and muscle by weakening it.”

The man stiffened instantly, they all did, as I said that last part. I knew instantly that I’d overstepped, would have even if I hadn’t seen the sudden concern in Aexilica’s eyes. 

“You can use magic on human flesh?” He asked.

There was a right answer here, and certainly a wrong one. I didn’t know enough to even begin guessing which was which. Certainly, I couldn’t actively contradict myself already.

“In that specific way,” I replied, “But only the once.”

The man stared at me, eyes narrowing beneath his armoured mask. Was he buying it? I might not live long if he wasn’t. 

“That is considered magic of the Priests.” The leader of the Shugkan continued. “You are aware of this?”

I shook my head, deciding to try my luck with a bit of truth given how much success I hadn’t enjoyed relying on lies. 

“That explains why you volunteered the information then.” He mused, apparently tied up in thought now. “And it makes you very, very useful. Yet also a great priority to hunt down for the Irethani Pretenders. Why should we provide you protection if doing so might lure our ancient enemies into hunting us out more desperately?”

“Nobody knows except us.” I replied, perhaps faster than I’d ever replied to anything.“The only person who saw me do this was the one I did it to.”

It hit me just an instant after I said that how stupid it was, and my mind scrambled to correct myself. Very nice Gordon, tell the violent insane guy who’s considering killing you to avoid attention that the giant enemy-magnet is known to only the people present now, that’ll surely stay his knife from opening up your neck. 

But the cut didn’t come, and the grip on me didn’t even tighten much as the leader of the men started pacing, muttering to himself for a good few moments. 

“This isn’t a decision I can make.” He said at last. “The Chief needs to hear this.”

“Chief?” I asked.

“Shut the fuck up.”

I did. I was fairly sure I was safe now, if I was being taken to their leader then a unilateral killing would take a lot of incentive to push them into, but sassing the scary knife-man still didn’t strike me as smart. 

“We’re going to take you through the mountains.” The leader said at last. “And you’ll speak with our Chief, what happens there is up to her.”

Her? Well that was interesting. More pressingly though…I’d just been told that this Chief would be deciding my fate. If they didn’t want us to join here, we might have gotten away. But if they didn’t want us to join after we’d already been taken up to their main living area and introduced to their boss…Well, I didn’t think people as obsessed with secrecy as this would hesitate to have us killed under the best circumstances. 

Was there anything I could say? There must have been. How did I flip this? 

Come on Gordon, think!

I didn’t have many talents in life, but making excuses had always been one of my best. I’d managed to coast through years of university with barely an essay turned in before finally getting kicked out, convinced my parents to continue funding me through half a decade of completely intentional unemployment. The moment I started slithering my way around a conversation, people gave me what I wanted. But I lacked the context here- I didn’t know enough about this damned world to trick these idiots into letting me leech off them, let alone taking the risk of sparing me.

I had nothing. The lights were on but no-one was in, the wheel was turning by the hamster was dead, the road had ended, the twists were used up, there was nothing left but the destination. And if that destination was an opened-up jugular or a new safe haven, I had virtually no way of controlling it.

But…I didn’t feel scared. Maybe it was a natural response to being thrown into so many life or death struggles so quickly, or maybe I was just finally starting to synchronise my gut with my brain. But I wasn’t scared. Because none of this was real, it was all just me. How could they kill the creator of the universe?

How could they kill the main character? 

*****

Well boy howdy kids, looks like your old pal Gordon has gotten himself into quite a sticky wicked assuming he's not deliriously drowning in a puddle hallucinating everything. Stick around until [A DATE TO BE DETERMINED BY FUTURE EVENTS] to see how he gets himself out of this one! We hope you've enjoyed this little preview and are eager to read more, in the meantime any comments and feedback are more than welcome!