Towns and Towers: A New Land Read online

  Craning his neck so that he could see his new companion, Sam said, “Yeah, well, it didn’t look like he was going to give her much of a choice in the matter.”

  Shifting the package around to get a better hold on it, Anna asked, “So do you want me to show you anything?”

  Scratching his head, Sam said, “Well, I still don’t know where I’m sleeping tonight. Do you think you could show me how to get to that inn Sekuri mentioned?” and then he gestured towards Anna’s package and offered, “If you want, I could carry that for you.”

  Waving off his hand, she answered, “The inn is no problem. I figured we would end up there sooner or later. I just didn’t know if you wanted to see our mage shop or talk to Cole at the Port before then? Maybe he knows where your Urth is and has a boat heading out soon.”

  Figuring that there was no way a boat was going to get him home, Sam went for the other option. “I can talk to Cole a little later. I’m not exactly in a hurry to travel home just yet. On the other hand, if it’s not too much trouble, I think a quick stop at some of the other shops might be interesting.”

  Nodding, Anna said, “All right then. Follow me.”

  The three of them, Anna, Sam and his new lizard, ducked in between two buildings to cut through to the next street over, and then they cut across a plaza and took the stairs down to the next area. As they descended the stairs, Sam felt the lizard grip his shoulder more tightly, but it refrained from using its claws as it did so, and Sam felt pretty confident after the first couple steps that it wasn’t going to pierce his skin again. At the bottom of the stairs, Anna pointed out several places of business including a general store which she described as having everyday items which people used to do their jobs within the surrounding farms and orchards, a bakery which, as she described it, had some of the best pastries this side of Baher, and a psychic.

  Curious, Sam asked, “A psychic? Do people actually go see her?”

  “Yes,” answered Anna. “Madame Esmerelda’s actually quite sought after in this town as her predictions are said to be very accurate. Most of our Tower Tempters go to see her before entering in hopes of gaining some advantage over their competition and making it back out alive.”

  Commenting offhandedly, Sam said, “Huh, that’s about the opposite of how people treat them back in my home. No one who claims to be a psychic in my world, or um city, is taken seriously.”

  Gesturing towards the small blue and yellow building, Anna offered, “Do you want to step in and find out what she has to say?”

  Shrugging, Sam said, “I don’t know. It’s not really my thing.”

  “Come on, Sam. Live a little. Maybe Madame Esmerelda will be able to tell you your future and how to get back home.”

  Lifting an eyebrow, Sam had to admit to himself that in many games he had played, a psychic character was often a good source of information for the protagonist and usually helped to point players in the right direction. Accepting this, Sam agreed and said, “You have a good point. Maybe she can help me out.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  Following Anna in, Sam noticed the classically dim atmosphere of what many consider the standard for psychics along with the rich scent of incense burning. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with dark fabrics, each laced with gold colored accents. The floor itself was covered by a thick Persian rug, and several plush looking seats of various opulent colors were positioned around the room.

  Stepping out from behind a long fabric curtain, a short stout woman welcomed Anna saying, “Good afternoon, Anna, dear.”

  “Hello, Madame Esmerelda,” greeted Anna. “I brought a new friend with me today.”

  “I see, I see. He looks to be quite an interesting friend indeed, dear girl. A guest to this city with what appears to be an intriguing destiny.” Then addressing Sam directly, she said, “My name is Esmerelda. I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”

  “Hello,” said Sam. “This is quite a place you have here.”

  Giving Sam a knowing smile that came off rather creepy, Madame Esmerelda responded, “This place exists between the realms of dreams and reality. It lies between mind and matter. It is a room that only those who seek truth may enter.”

  “Uh huh…,” began Sam, not knowing what else to say back.

  “Tell me, traveler, are you looking for truth?”

  “Well, I am looking for a way home,” answered Sam honestly.

  “Have you considered that you may have lost your way for an entirely different reason? Perhaps it may be that a different fate awaits you altogether, or that you must complete some quest before you are able to travel further along your path.”

  Unsure if this was the psychic’s typical mumbo jumbo she gave all of her customers in order to swindle them out of their money, or if she was actually talking more directly to him, Sam responded with a flourish to his words which he thought she might respond better to. “Sincerely, ever since I arrived, I have been searching for a way home, but I believe that you may be right. Perhaps there is something I must do before I return. If you could tell me what that something is, I would be most grateful.”

  Gesturing for him to follow, Madame Esmerelda led Sam into the back of the store, behind the curtain she had come through, and gestured for him to sit on one side of a small table. As he did, his new lizard companion scurried around the back of his neck and laid down along his other shoulder as if it were going to sleep.

  Sitting herself at the table so that she faced Sam, she reached beneath the red fabric of the tablecloth and produced an oversized deck of cards with an image of a screaming eagle holding a sword in one claw and a staff in the other on the top of the deck. Placing the deck in the center of the table, she said, “Please place your hand on top of the cards for a moment.”

  Shrugging, Sam did as he was asked and put his right hand on top of the cards while he waited for the woman to finish chanting in whatever foreign language she started speaking. When she finished, she nodded for him to remove his hand and then began to shuffle the cards quickly, despite the fact that they looked to be three sizes too large for her small hands.

  “Now, let’s take a look into your future, shall we? Do you believe in fortune telling?”

  “Not really, but then again, I’ve never tried it before.”

  Smiling with that same creepy knowing smile she had earlier, Madame Esmerelda explained, “Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different, much like each of us is born the same as the next with untold possibilities laid out before us. In this case, the cards themselves take on the essence of the person who touches them, and by their divine intuition, they show us what we need to know.”

  “I’m mostly just interested in finding my way home,” said Sam.

  “Hmm…,” said Madame Esmerelda, now sitting with her eyes closed as her left hand hovered an inch above the deck of cards. “Well, let’s see if that is your fate, shall we?” Flipping over the first card, she announced, “The Tower in the upright position. This represents the immediate future, and it warns that a terrible catastrophe is imminent.”

  Having just been ripped out of reality and shoved into a game with no way out as far as he could tell, Sam felt that he didn't need a creepy old woman to tell him that catastrophe is coming. It was already here.

  “The next card always indicates the future beyond, and for you,” she paused to flip the next card, “it appears as the Moon, and it, too, is in the upright position. This card represents hesitation and mystery.” Pausing to stare at the card as if studying the artwork in the picture, she quietly whispered, “Very interesting indeed.”

  “What does that mean?” Sam asked.

  Looking up as if she had momentarily forgotten that he was there, she answered, “It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you. In the coming days, you will enter into a new life of some sort, and after which, you will return here many times. The coming year is
going to be a turning point in your destiny. If the questions you seek are not answered then, I fear your future may be forever lost.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “My role here is only to provide assistance to you as our guest. I’m afraid it will be up to you to find the rest of your answers.”

  Snorting with derision, Sam said, “Well, that’s not exactly what I was hoping for. I kind of thought you would be able to tell me clearly that if I go to a specific place or talk to a specific person, then I’ll be able to get home.”

  Scowling, the older woman said, “If it’s something specific you want, then you’ll have to look inside yourself for those answers.”

  Repeating himself, he asked, “What does that mean?”

  Seizing Sam’s right hand, Madame Esmerelda said, “Here, I’ll show you,” and flipped it open so that his palm faced up. From there, she began tapping at it, first hitting each of his fingers and thumb and then she began tracing a long spiraling circle on his palm. When the circle finally reached a point where it was too small to continue, she poked right in the center of the spiral.

  “Ouch,” exclaimed Sam, and he tried to withdraw his hand from the table. What he found, however, was that the woman’s grip was so tight that he couldn’t budge it even an inch. Alarmed, he looked back up to her face, and said, “Hey, let go, would ya?!”

  Not taking her eyes from her work, she said, “Not yet, child. You have not seen your truth, yet,” and then she began pinching at the meaty flesh along the blade edge of his hand.

  Sam was about to try to stand, sure that he could break the woman’s grip if he had the leverage to do so, but then he saw something that made him freeze in place. At the spot where the old woman was pinching, he saw what looked like a thin film of translucent paper, and it was peeling up from his hand as she continued to work at it. Transfixed, he watched as at first there was just an edge, and then there was thin flap, and finally, there was enough skin hanging off for the woman to get hold of. From there, he was awestruck as she peeled up on what looked to be a thin piece of paper. It reminded him of when he was a kid in grade school and used to waste glue by letting it dry on his hand only so he could peel it off and claim it was snake skin. That’s when he realized that was almost exactly what she had done, except instead of glue, she had actually pulled off the top layer of his skin.

  Horror-struck, he yanked his hand back to his chest, spilling her tarot cards onto the floor as he did so, and exclaimed, “That’s my skin, lady! Why the hell did you do that?”

  On his shoulder, Sam’s new small lizard lifted its head to look around and then dropped it back down as if nothing that was going on was more important than its sleep.

  Smirking mischievously, Madame Esmerelda answered, “To get to your truth, Sam. Now, rather than coddling your hand which shouldn’t hurt in the least, perhaps you would like to see what we have discovered about you.”

  Realizing that she was right, that his hand in fact didn’t hurt, he dropped it back to his lap and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you can’t just go around ripping off people’s skin.” Then he stood up as if he were prepared to storm out of the psychic’s building and froze as he looked down.

  All along the floor, the cards had landed randomly, but instead of the pictures which he had seen on their front when she flipped them or the image of the eagle that had been on their backside when he placed his hand on them earlier, now all of them lay on the floor blank white. Not understanding, he asked, “What did you do to the cards?”

  “You see, it is as I told you, Sam. This is a place of truths. Truths which you are only now discovering. Sit, and let me show you yours.”

  Reluctantly, but with too many questions to leave, Sam sat back down and asked, “What’s going on here?”

  Placing the piece of skin which she had pulled from his hand in front of him, Madame Esmerelda said, “Read this and know yourself.”

  Looking down, he was surprised to find that there was actually writing on the skin, and he leaned in closer to try to read it in the dim light. What he found turned out to be a typical game character sheet with all of his information and stats on it. It was slightly different from the menu he had interacted with at the start of the game, but the important information was all there. His name, Sam, along with his chosen character name, Kyoshi, was written at the top, with his current amount of experience, which was listed as fourteen points, next to the phrase Level 1. Internally, he thought that killing those snakes should have netted him more than that, but he read on to see what else there was.

  Below his name and level information, it listed his health, dexterity, strength, agility, magic, and luck. Next to each of these statistics was the number twenty. Remembering back to when he evenly distributed the attribute points to his character, he understood that there must have been a four to one ratio involved for each of these areas but was surprised that they weren’t listed the same way they were when he had gone through the game’s initial options. Scanning further down the sheet, it continued with his skills/ability list, but here, there appeared to only be a line of question marks. His best guess was that the game saw that he was somehow capable of doing a special skill, but since he hadn’t really done any fighting, he still hadn’t learned it yet. After that, the sheet listed one last thing: Familiar – Tezukayoshi.

  Looking to the lizard still perched on his shoulder, Sam said, “Tezukayoshi,” and it lifted its sleepy head to stare at him once again. This time, he noticed a greater depth to the small lizard’s eyes, something that shouldn’t have been there, and he quickly looked away, fearful that something even more unexplainable would happen if he didn’t.

  “Sam, I have done this only a few times over the years, and the fact that this has happened with you tells me that you are destined for something great, but I must caution you. Of all those who came before you, you are the only one who still has a choice about what is to follow.”

  Swallowing, Sam asked, “Why is that? What happened to the rest?”

  “They are no longer with us.” answered the woman quietly.

  “You mean they found their way home?” asked Sam with doubt in his voice.

  “No. They have each fallen.”

  Nodding, Sam admitted, “I was afraid you might say something like that.”

  Pushing the skin paper towards him, Madame Esmerelda said, “You may take this with you, but be aware that the information on here may change in time. I will leave it to you to return when you are in need of more guidance.”

  Understanding that this was all part of the game world and that the fortune teller was clearly some sort of in-game status updater, Sam decided to try a more direct question, and asked, “Can you tell me anything about an exit, or how I’m supposed to log off?”

  Returning to her flowery language of riddles, Madame Esmerelda said, “I’m afraid the only exit I can show you is the front door, but you should think of it as an entrance just the same.”

  Shaking his head, Sam stood back up and thanked the strange woman before he drew back the curtain far enough so that it wouldn’t hit his shoulder where his lizard familiar had returned to sitting up inquisitively and headed out to see Anna.

  “So how’d it go?”

  “Strange,” replied Sam.

  “Yeah, that’s what a lot of people say at first, but they always come back to her for more.”

  Sighing, Sam admitted, “I probably will, too, eventually.”

  Making a show of adjusting the package she had been carrying, Anna asked, “How about I show you to the mage’s shop next?”

  “Sure,” agreed Sam. “Is it very far away?”

  “No, we were headed in that direction already before we stopped in to see Madame. It’s just on the next street.”

  Gesturing forward, Sam said, “All right then, lead the way.”

  Crossing the street, the two of them made their way to the corner and turned right. As they did so, Sam saw what appeared to
be a strange hut leaning a bit to its side and yet somehow sandwiched between two much larger, newer looking buildings. Looking up to the sign which hung above the door, Sam recognized the long pointed hat as that which normally belonged to a wizard’s outfit.

  Eager to see what was available inside, Sam

  unconsciously sped up a bit and beat Anna to the front door. When he tried to enter, however, he found that the door not only didn’t open, but that the door itself was a fake. His hand had slipped right through what had appeared to be the door handle, leaving him standing there confused.

  Behind him, Anna giggled and said, “You can’t get in that way. It’s just a glamour.” Then, walking towards the corner of the ramshackled old place, she added, “You have to come around the side, over here.”

  Following her around to the side of the building, Sam found that the walls changed to reveal a secret entrance as Anna placed her hand up to what appeared to be a small glowing plant. Shaking his head, Sam followed her inside and asked, “How does this guy expect anyone to buy his stuff?”

  Smiling, Anna set her package down on the counter and said, “Well, I would imagine that she lets them in the front door when she is here, but since she’s out right now, she cast a spell so that only a few trusted people were allowed to enter.”

  Following her in, Sam asked, “You know the wizard, I mean witch, then, who owns this place?”

  “She doesn’t really like to be called a witch,” explained Anna. “Too many people have weird ideas about witches.”

  As he made his way through the threshold, the lizard on his shoulder perked up and began sniffing the air. Tezukayoshi took only a second to access the new building before he reacted and began climbing down Sam’s body. It took less than a second for the little guy to scurry down Sam’s back, move around to the front of his pants, and make his way to the floor. Once there, he shot off towards the back, leaving Sam to exclaim, “Crap, the lizard is loose.”