Kingdom Come: Chapter 5

Suri, Rin and I all breathed a sigh of relief once we were out of the War Room and back out under a blissfully dragon-free sky. When I touched Karalti’s mind, I got a flash of her predatory concentration. She was hunting.

“Welp. Our trip to Myszno’s looking kind of grim, isn’t it?” I remarked aloud.

“Yeah.” Suri ran her fingers through her hair, chest lifting in a way that caught my eye. “So… anyway, what’s the plan for tonight? Rin?”

“Oh! I was going to go to the University and do some research on stuff for the quest and for my crafting, you know.” The little Mercurion was suddenly much more chipper. “Ebisa and I are finishing up some tinkering, too. And tonight’s the Dark Moon Festival, so I guess we’ll be going shopping. The Church has mana auctions where Mage-classes can stock up really cheaply...”

“What is the Dark Moon Festival, anyway?” I reached out to Suri as if I would put my arm around her waist, but didn’t quite touch her. She stepped into the offered embrace with a sultry quirk of the lips and a sidelong glance that made my heart skip.

Oblivious, Rin clasped her hands and bounced up and down with excitement. “Twice a year on the equinoxes, Erruku and Archemi line up in front of the sun and the moon goes dark! Well, I guess it’s not really the moon, because we’re actually the moon, but you get what I mean, right?”

“I’d wondered.” I scratched my jaw. “Erruku kind of weirds me out, to tell you the truth. I don’t think the physics of this planet are totally kosher. Like, wouldn’t a moon that big tear itself or Archemi to pieces?”

Rin gave an anxious little laugh. “Probably. The game IS in beta, and we took artistic license with some things. The eclipse thing looks really cool and I-I think Erruku even has some of its own lore, but we were scheduled to get some astrophysicists to play-test and advise us on refining the skybox-“

“The what?” Suri squinted at her.

“The, uhh… the… planetary mechanics?” Rin flashed her a fleeting, nervous smile. “Sorry, I keep forgetting you have amnesia. We, I mean, the Architects… we…uhh… don’t worry about it, okay?”

Suri cocked her head, a red curl tumbling over one of her eyes. “You guys are serious, aren’t you? About the whole ‘the world is a game thing’?”

“Yup. And Rin here helped to build it.” I squeezed around her waist. “Sorry.”

“So why is it that you can’t just get up into your God Box or whatever you were talking about, and go and crush this cunt in Ilia like a cockroach?” Suri asked her. “Because that’d make our lives a whole lot easier.”

Rin was looking more stressed by the second. “The… uhh… short answer is that I can’t, and that Ororgael isn’t supposed to be able to do what he’s doing, either. It’s complicated. I-I don’t have any more power than a normal player. Person. Starborn player-person.”

The larger woman shrugged uncomfortably. “You know, one day, I’m gonna pin you down and ask you some hard questions, Rin. But not now, because this bitch is going shopping. Today’s just been one thing after the other, and I need some retail therapy real bad.”

I chuckled. “What’s on the menu today? Shoes? Bags?”

“Armor, you dick.” She bumped me with her hip, grinning broadly. “And maybe some nice shoes, but it feels dumb to think about buying anything like that when we’re going off to a war zone.”

“Nothing dumb about it.” I shook my head. “When I went to war, I always made sure I had something at home I wanted to come back to. For me, that was my antique games collection, my motorcycle, and this photo album I got from my grandparents. And every now and then, when I had the chance, I’d order a package for myself online, you know? Like a new shirt or something. And I’d send that package to my house, so that when I came back alive, I’d have like a year’s worth of presents waiting there.”

“That’s so cute!” Rin put her hands to her cheeks.

I shrugged, suddenly self-conscious. “It’s just a mind trick. I was a conscript… it was just one of the things I did to make it out the other side.”

“It’s good advice.” Suri smiled mysteriously, and turned in a little toward my body. “On that note. Do you mind just leaving me and Hector while you go do your thing?”

“Sure.” Rin’s eyes were shining. “You guys… um… have… fun?”

“Hell yeah,” I said. “We’re gonna get our faces painted, and get our nails done together-”

Suri kneed me in the thigh as I snortle-laughed at my own bullshit.

When the Mercurion was back inside the Keep and we were alone, I spun Suri around and dipped her down. She laughed, and when she came up, she looped strong arms around my neck and looked up at me. “Hi.” 

“Hi.” Her eyes were a brilliant golden yellow, and as I gazed back, I noticed something about them I hadn’t seen before. Her irises were constantly in motion, veins of color slowly folding in toward her pupils like slow-moving magma. “Have I... ever told you how gorgeous you are?”

Her smile turned a little shy. “Yeah, a couple of times. I still like to hear it, though.” 

My mouth was dry, pulse hammering under my tongue. Sometimes, I could be confident with her, leading the way in our conversations, our lovemaking. Other times, I could hardly believe this glorious Amazon of a woman actually wanted me near her, let alone have me hold her like this. But here she was. “You... think you might want to hear it going forward? Because I mean, I can dish out as much as you can take.”

“We’ll see about that.” Suri sucked her bottom lip under her teeth. “But you know... tonight’s our last night of peace, right?” 

“Uh-huh.”

“Might be the last night we sleep in a proper bed, too.” She pulled herself up to embrace me, sliding her cheek along mine until she could speak against my ear. “I hear the Dark Moon Festival has an awesome Night Market. Wanna go with me?”

Stupid as it sounds, my first thought was my character sheet – and Karalti’s. If we worked hard tonight, we could probably hit Level 18 and 10, respectively. Still not enough… but better than where we were now. I winced.

“I really want to go,” I said haltingly. “But after that meeting… I can’t. I’m sorry. You’re Level 20 already, but we’ve still got to catch up before Myszno.”

Suri didn’t pull away, but I could sense her disappointment. She kissed me on the cheek. “I get it. No worries: we’ll have another chance some time. So… what’s on the agenda for the day, then?”

I sighed, guilt tightening my chest. “Well... honestly, I was going to go to the hospital. I want to ask Mashka about Myszno, and see about learning Vlachian and Churvi. I want to level up my healing skills until Karalti gets done stuffing her face. That, and I need to see how Rutha’s doing.”

Suri cocked her head curiously. “The Lys woman. Yeah… I was wondering how she was, actually. How do you know her?”

“She’s...” I trailed off, not sure how to respond. With most women, I’d have been on thin ice, especially after saying no to a date. But Suri didn’t seem like that kind of person. There was no hostility in the inquiry. No edge to it.

“Rutha and I escaped that slave ship together,” I admitted. “You know, the one I landed on when I first incarnated into Archemi? We helped each other out, and she gave me the Spear. We… ahh… had a two-night stand while we were in Liren. Nothing serious, but it was my first time and… I mean, we’re just friends now, but uhh-”

Suri rested her finger against my lips, cutting off the babbling. “That’s all I need to know. When you go and see her... say hi from me. Tell her I look forward to meeting her when she wakes up. Tell her she’s got people on her side.”

“Really?” I blinked a couple of times. “You aren’t... like... mad?”

“I’m mad this Baldr cunt beat the shit out of a woman and used her as a hostage to make a point.”

“Yeah.” The rage I’d felt on the parade ground was still trembling in my stomach and in the muscles of my jaws. “Me too. I was just worried you’d be…”

“Jealous?”

I nodded. 

Suri chuckled softly. “I’m not a jealous person, alright? Are you?”

“I... no. I don’t think so.” It was in that moment I remembered that we hadn’t known each other for all that long. Only a couple of weeks, really. It was easy to forget when I was lost in her like this. “I’m pretty new at this relationship stuff, though. I don’t know.”

“That’s a good answer.” Suri smiled, but this time, it was strangely bittersweet. “You and me, we’ve both seen evil, haven’t we? Real evil.”

I nodded, taking her hands in mine. “Yeah. We have.”

She squeezed back. “I had a lot of time to think in Al-Asad. You know what I realized one day? ‘Evil’ is ‘Live’ backwards. Whatever you had or have with Rutha, that’s a living thing. It’s the opposite of evil. How can anyone be jealous of that?”

***

I walked to the hospital with a little skip in my step, humming as I let myself in. The Masterhealer was at the triage counter, tending to a giant ox of a man with a grossly swollen hand. Mashka was older than dirt and tougher than boiled leather, with the kind of jaded wisdom you gained after living through the rule of three kings and not only surviving, but keeping your tenure. She had an underbite, hard steely eyes, and wisps of gray hair pulled back in a brightly colored scarf. The tiny old woman had to stand on a step-stool to mix potions, pounding a pestle into a bowl of herbs like it owed her money. 

“Ah, well, look who it is. His new lordship, Count Tuun.” She spoke in a heavy accent, and didn’t glance up from her work as I padded over. “I heard you helped His Majesty fend off those dragons before, eh? Good work. Now, go over there and tell me what you think of this hooyeh’s injury before he dies.”

“No, Masterhealer, I beg you. Don’t let me die.” The man panted. He was bright red and soaked in sweat, squirming in his armchair with discomfort. "I-I have a family!"

The old woman turned on him. "I know you have a family, you dolt! I delivered your son. I've had my hands further up your wife's piztar than you have!"

I couldn’t help but smile. In a world full of characters, Mashka was a standout.

“You’re supposed to go to the doctor before you’re on death’s door, man. What did you do?” I asked him.

“It was just a scratch on a nail in the stables,” he moaned. “I didn’t think anything of it until now. Please, give me water.”

“No, no, no, don’t give him any water yet. He’ll bloat up like a dead fish and his blood will boil with fever.” Mashka shook her head irritably. "Medicines first, then water."

I went to examine the stablehand’s infection. He looked like he was wearing a purple-red baseball mitt. “Staph infection, right? That's a... sanguine disease?”

“Correct. A sanguine germ disease, from the feces of the hookwings in the stables. Do you remember the difference between sanguine and choleric diseases?”

“Sanguine is hot and… moist? Sanguine diseases are things like blood poisoning or liver failure. Choleric diseases are hot and dry, and attack the skin and muscles, right?”

Ting. My HUD chimed as I gained a small amount of Skill EXP toward Field Medicine. Mashka nodded. “Correct. You’re smarter than you look. Now, take his temperature.”

I unequipped my right gauntlet and put a hand to his forehead. Assessing temperature through touch was a Level 1 Field Medicine ability. I was at Level 3 now, so I got an auto-success. “He’s burning up. That’s got to be at least a hundred and five degrees. He’s at risk of organ failure.”

He whimpered. “Khors have mercy.”

“If the gods had mercy, there’d be no need for doctors.” Mashka stirred in clear alcohol, the smell stinging my nose from across the room. “This fever is not so good. Give me a moment.”

I knelt next to the man’s chair, and soon enough the healer came bustling over with a poultice and three bottles of potion: one yellow, one green, and one blue. The blue potion emitted a faint glow. She set the alchemical brew aside, and uncorked the herbal medicines. “Now, what do we do first?”

“Lance the abscess and drain the wound,” I said. “Then the yellow po… "

"No!" Mashka slapped her hand on the counter. "Wrong!"

"Oh, right. Sanguine’s hot and moist, so you have to... dry it out and cool it down," I said. "So you lance and apply alcohol to dry it, then the poultice to cool it, then give him the potions. And water after that."

“Correct. You do not want to give a man liquid for a sanguine condition. This is a Concentrated Oil of Garlic poultice. It will suck the poison from his blood and remove the Blood Poisoning status effect.” Mashka took a clean scalpel from her apron pocket, dunked it in a small vial of alcohol, and swirled it around. “You need garlic oil, red rashovik, and activated charcoal to make it. You simmer the rashovik in the oil until it turns bright scarlet, then add the charcoal. Mix, wrap, drain the wound, then apply it straight on.”

[New Herbalism recipe learned! Concentrated Oil of Garlic poultice]

Archemi didn’t have any healing magic – at least, not healing magic that was available to players. Instead, it had a comprehensive medical crafting system comprised of four interrelated skills: Field Medicine, Surgery, Herbalism and Alchemy. Herbal potions could restore HP, cure common debuffs, or give buffs, and they were safe to use on NPCs. Alchemical potions contained mana, monster parts, and other magical ingredients. They could heal bad injuries, regrow limbs, raise the dead or create mutant dragon riding smartasses like me, but most normal people – read, NPCs – couldn’t consume alchemical potions without being fatally poisoned. The four healing skills were closely interlinked. You had to sometimes perform a surgery, then apply a potion. Properly diagnosing a patient using Field Medicine made them more likely to survive surgery and/or an alchemical process. Scientific advances in the field were possible, and were rewarded by the game. I’d never considered a medical career in the real world, but Archemi made it kind of fun, in a survival crafting-kinda way.

I watched as Mashka dabbed a sticky white substance onto the man’s hand, waited a few seconds, then began to cut into the numbed flesh. The stablehand lay there, sweating and squirming as she squeezed pus from the infected area, opening up almost half of his finger to get it all out. Then she applied the poultice. A Status meter appeared, counting down from 60 seconds. At the end of the minute, his Blood Poisoning debuff vanished.

“Now we give the potions. This is Goldenseal Tincture. It cures fever.” She swirled the yellow bottle around, then put it to the man’s lips. “Drink it, and no whining.”

I glanced down at the other two. “What's that alchemical potion?” 

"That is Bloodmoon Decoction.” Mashka held the man’s head as he grimaced and sputtered. “If he turns up his heels and dies, I’ll pour that one down his neck. It restarts the heart, purges blood clots and fluids from the lungs and brain... but it’s dangerous, like all alchemical medicine. If it doesn’t Strange the person drinking it, it will blind them. All the blood vessels in the eyes burst and turns their eyes red. You can always tell someone who drank Bloodmoon and lived to tell the tale.”

Her patient shuddered. “I’d rather die, Masterhealer.”

“You were begging for your life just a few minutes ago! So which is it? And before you tell me a life without eyes is no life at all, what about your children?” Mashka scolded. “The Volod will give your family a pension whether or not you’re alive, but your son will prefer a blind father than no father at all.”

I sat back and watched them bicker, but as the stablehand’s status effects ticked down and then vanished, he got noticeably better. His fever broke, and then his hand began to look less critical.

“Alright. You take this second Goldenseal Tincture before you go to bed. It’s bitter, but you must drink it all.” Mashka helped him sit up once the second-last debuff vanished. “If you don’t, the Blood Poisoning will come back, and we’ll have to do this all over again.”

“Yes, Masterhealer.”

“You come back tomorrow for more medicine, or I’ll send Stanislaw to pull you in by the ear. You’re not Starborn like this strapping Tuun here. You need more than one day’s course.”

The man grimaced. “Yes, Masterhealer.”

When he was sent off, Mashka went to go and wash her hands. When she returned, the old woman regarded me shrewdly.

“How’s Rutha?” I asked her.

“Not good. Not at all.” She shook her head, rubbing her hands with a clean towel. “Her skull has a fracture, and the join is still soft. She has dried blood in her nose and ears, which means there is damage to her brain. There is no miracle cure for brain damage, I’m afraid. She may awaken tomorrow, or she may awaken in a month, or she may never wake up. I hate to say it, but she is now in the hands of the gods.”

I looked away for a moment. “Can I see her?”

“I want the medicines I gave her to settle in her blood before I let any visitors in,” Mashka replied. “But that will not take long. You can stay here, keep yourself busy.”

“Actually, Ignas recommended I see you," I replied. "He said that you could tell me about Myszno. And I was wondering if you could teach me Churvi, maybe Vlachian as well."

The old woman cocked her head with birdlike curiosity. "Churvi? Why would you want to learn that?"

"I want to fit in.” I shrugged. “Also, I have a hunch that my honorary noble title might become less honorary, more practical.”

"Hmmph. A Tuun becoming landed gentry? Even with your dragon and your fancy spear, that would not go down very well with the other great houses of Myszno. But my people… if you show an interest in our ways, that might be a different story. Yes, I can teach you Churvi - Khel Khammun, as it's properly called. I can teach you Vlachian as well, and it is wise that you ask to learn from me. The Vlachian spoken in the East is a different dialect from the capitol. People here will think you sound rural, but the inhabitants of Myszno will take to you faster if you sound like a local."

"I figured that might be the case. To be honest, I don’t give a shit what people think." I bought up my character sheet to check my available skill points. After my last level, I had four remaining. "How many points do I need?"

"Three for basic fluency in Churvi. You already know some Vlachian, so you only need two points to become fluent in that tongue."

I winced. "Damn. Only have four."

Mashka thought for a few moments. "Then I can teach you enough Churvi to survive, and you can learn the rest while you are there. Once you have a start in a language, you can invest a point here, a point there... by practicing it, you will also improve without the need to invest points. I dare say that Vlachian is more important."

"Yeah, it is." I nodded. "Official language and everything."

Mashka gave a curt nod, and a prompt jumped in the corner of my eye. I pulled it over, and a holographic trade screen appeared between us. Before I could make my selections, I got a tutorial prompt. 

[Do you wish to learn more about Language Skills and Abilities?]

"Yes," I thought back.

The prompt unraveled into a tutorial pane, which my HUD narrator read to me:

Languages in Archemi

Archemi is a diverse place, with several major sapient species and hundreds of organically generated regional languages and cultures within the five basic playable races: Artanese Humans, Dauntan Humans, Lysians, Meewfolk and Mercurions. To learn a new language or dialect in Archemi, you must spend skill points to gain initial fluency, and from that point, you must study and practice speaking, reading and writing your new language to gain mastery.

The skill point cost and practice time is automatically calculated on the difficulty of the language relative to your intelligence score and the languages you already know. You can often spend fewer skill points if you are willing to put in more time practicing. If you urgently need a language to complete a quest or travel to a different country, you can spend more skill points to gain fluency more quickly. If you love to study and learn without spending any points, you can do that too!

Language acquisition using skill points is fast, but will take anywhere between one to ten minutes. You may experience a brief sensation of dizziness and a warm feeling in your temples as Archemi's GNOSIS system uploads the language and primes your brain to be able to speak. As this is the Beta testing phase of Archemi Online, you should report any adverse symptoms to your supervisor. Revisit our Health and Wellness TOC for more information on GNOSIS.

I frowned. That was weird. None of the other skills I'd learned, or my fantasy combat abilities had needed a disclaimer. "Can you hold on for a moment?"

Mashka shrugged, and waited while I PM'd Rin. "Hey, sorry to interrupt you, Admin Girl, but why is there a TOS health advisory for learning new languages via skill points?"

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about," Rin replied absently. "There were some problems with language processing during alpha testing. I guess the company lawyers made us include it."

"What… kind of problems?"

"Scrambled speech, mostly. People would mix up the fictional languages with English when they were offline. That was during the civilian game testing phase, mind you. As it turns out, uploading fluency to the brain is REALLY complex, but the Creative Design Board were adamant that we needed multiple languages for immersion and marketing down the track. You know... it gives players the feeling of being in a kind of club or tribe if they have a language only Archemi players can speak. I heard the military had a huge problem with memory loss in the early days."

"You mean like Suri?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Listen, I-I've got to go... I'm in the middle of crafting medicine packs for me and any other Mercurions in Myszno. Don't worry about the language stuff. You're safe: it was worked on a lot before the beta testing began."

"Right. Thanks." Not exactly reassuring, but I didn't have much choice: not if I really wanted to sort out the Myszno situation. Sighing, I waved the PM window aside, and selected my languages. "Vlachian first."

Mashka nodded, and then looked away with an expression of intense concentration on her face. A few seconds later, I got a prompt.

[Would you like to learn your new language: Vlachian (Eastern)?]

"Yup."

[Starting upload. Please close your eyes and minimize sensory interference during the transfer.]

It occurred to me then that the Ryuko Corporation might not have tested language acquisition on people who’d been perma-uploaded to the game, but there was no time to ask before the upload began.