Puzzle Piece
This one was on an adventure.
Hot and humid air engulfed this one as it pushed its way through the thick jungle underbrush. An old pyramid rose out of the jungle ahead, overgrown by vines and moss, and chunks of masonry littered its steps as the elements took their toll. According to the villagers who lived closest to the pyramid, it had been here long before the zebras had colonized the island of Zanzebra, dating back to a time when the Dromaed dominated the island that lay off the coast of their homeland. An ancient people, the Dromaed still dominated much of the mainland south of the great jungle and mountain range that split the continent between their nations and the Zebrican Empire.
This one stopped when it finally reached the half-overgrown stones that led to the pyramid. It reflected upon—
“Wait, what were you even doing on Zanzebra?” I asked. “That’s a long way from Freeport. I didn’t even know you had been there before.”
Puzzle sighed. “This one will get to that, Shimmer-mare. You asked how this one came to meet the Do-mare, and this one is starting as close to that as possible without losing context. Be patient.”
I crossed my legs over my chest. “Okay, but this better not be your way of skirting around my question.”
Daring shot Puzzle a wry grin. “Oh don’t worry, I’ll make sure we cover that later. Trust me.”
Puzzle frowned at Daring, but didn’t comment. “Now then, as this one was saying...”
The villagers had warned that the pyramid was dangerous, though they couldn’t agree why. Some said it was boody-trapped, or else cursed. Others claimed it was haunted and that the undead walked its halls. Perhaps all these things were true. Whatever the case, approaching the pyramid was taboo to the villagers, and any who went there took their lives into their own hooves. This one wasn’t sure where the line between superstition and reality stood, but this one had been hired to procure the treasure that was supposedly hiding inside its depths and it intended to do just that.
This one stopped short of the pyramid as something caught its eye. An old fire pit sat next to the entrance, filled with burnt-out wood. This one picked up a stick and checked for embers but found none. Not a surprise with how often it rained in the forest; unless a fire was consistently fed fuel every day the embers would quickly be drowned. But still, the ashes looked relatively fresh, probably only a couple days old. There were hoofprints in the dirt, the wet ground making it easy to pick them out. At least two sets of tracks led to the doorway, while none led back out again. Not the most fortuitous sign.
The better question was who had gone in ahead of this one. It probably wasn’t one of the villagers—they seemed scared of the place and had repeatedly warned this one away from it. It was possible that they were hiding something here, or perhaps some small group came to the ruins now and again for some shadowy purpose. The alternative was some group of outsiders had entered the pyramid. Maybe this one wasn’t the only treasure hunter here.
This one flew a circuit around the pyramid, but for lack of resource and time, it was unlikely this one would find some convenient alternative entrance. When its flight yielded nothing, this one resigned itself to the direct approach. It landed and stepped through the archway large enough to fit a two-pony cart through, and was met by perfect darkness. Whoever designed this place hadn’t considered using windows to allow daylight in. Squinting its eyes, this one saw a recess along the ceiling that might have allowed for some sort light fixtures, but the recess was long empty. Thankfully, this one hadn’t come unprepared. This one tapped a small gem on its silver necklace, the various protective talismans clinking against one another as the gem lit up and cast a glow over the stonework of the foyer.
The light revealed that this one was stepping into a large chamber. Bioluminescent fungi had overgrown much of the room, and while it didn’t offer much light, it did give the room a fascinating glow. A fountain sat in the center of the room, and a miniaturized pyramid lay in its center. Whatever mechanisms that ran it had long worn out, leaving only stagnant water surrounding it.
Holding up this one’s source of light, it saw something inscribed into the walls of the chamber. Flying up, it rubbed away the fungus on one section of the wall to reveal an engraving that depicted a half dozen bipedal, feathered reptiles supplicating themselves before a similar creature at least three times their size and much more ornately dressed. The creatures depicted were probably Dromaed, though this one could only guess what exactly the engraving was supposed to represent. Perhaps commoners were paying respect to some sort of ruler?
“You didn’t know much about the Dromaed at that time, did you?” Daring asked. “Like about the Quinametzin, the Hristak, or … well, anything?”
Puzzle shook his head. “No, that was outside of anything this one had read about or experienced up to that time. Freeport didn’t do that much trade with the Dromaed, and they’re not politically important to the Council either.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That’s a bit weird for you, considering you always like to be informed about what you’re jumping into.”
“Circumstances weren’t exactly what this one would have preferred, and besides—this was before this one became an information broker.” Puzzle shrugged, seeming satisfied with that non-answer about his weird behavior. “Anyways...”
This one indulged in a bit of archaeological curiosity, examining the ancient mural. Though as its hoof wiped away more of the fungal growth, its hoof brushed upon something decidedly solid. Turning my light source, I discovered a skeleton embedded within a solid lump of the fungus, the side of the skull poking out from the mass. A morbid part of this one wondered how a skeleton had gotten embedded so high from the floor, but it probably didn’t want to find out. Suddenly no longer curious, this one wiped its hoof off and turned its attention back on its task.
This one looked between the trio of doors open to explore. A quick check of the two closer doors revealed only small chambers. One was probably an armory, but the fungal growths and humidity of the air had long ruined anything of value. The other room was largely empty, and this one could only guess its purpose. The third door revealed a wide hallway that led deeper into the complex. This one proceeded slowly, but didn’t get far before it found a very good reason to stop again.
It was one of the explorers that had entered the pyramid ahead of this one. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t get to interrogate the earth pony, seeing as he’s been transfixed against the wall by a swinging roof panel full of spikes. The poor pony still wore the shadow of shocked expression on whatever part of his face not already overrun by fungus.
This one noted his pack had somehow been spared a similar fate, and it crept forward cautiously. The saddlebags had already been opened, this one noted. Going off a hunch, this one checked to see if it could find the pony’s coin-purse.
“Because you totally weren’t hoping to pocket his bits for yourself,” Daring teased.
Puzzle grinned. “This one wasn’t getting paid by the hour, and dead ponies have no need for coin. Besides, whether this one found a coin-purse or not would tell this one a great deal about who it was dealing with.”
Alas, this one didn’t find a coin-purse. So either he hadn’t brought one with him, which seemed unlikely, or his compatriots had liberated him of his coin. He had been equipped for an expedition into the wilderness, as this one discovered as it looked through the saddlebags, but whatever his occupation or purpose for coming here was a mystery. What this one did find was his identification papers. An examination of the packet revealed the pony to be an Equestrian by the name of Rock Steady, and had visited Zebrican Empire mainland before coming here. He had come a long way just to die.
Further examination of the papers and the contents of the saddlebags revealed something of importance. This late pony’s employer of this pony was one Ephemera—the same pony who had hired this one to come here! She hadn’t mentioned sending anyone else here. This one hadn’t asked, admittedly, but she still had failed to bring it up. That was telling, and something to talk to Ephemera about later. Assuming this one made it out of the pyramid alive.
This one had to admire the ancient architects. By all rights, the swinging mechanism should have degraded into uselessness long ago. Preservation magic could theoretically keep it intact, but that type of magic ironically faded with time unless it was maintained.
With that in mind, this one transformed back into its natural form. Considering how dangerous this place was, it seemed best to be in the form this one felt most comfortable moving around in. It has maintained its zony disguise in case it met whoever was in here, as most sapient species tended to react poorly to seeing a changeling in its natural form and this one prefered to avoid that type of trouble. But the traps of the pyramid were a still greater danger, and this one could always transform into something else if it eventually did find someone alive in here.
With its horn available, it cast a spell to detect magic. It didn’t take long to discover that there was indeed preservation magic placed over the trap, and even the whole structure. It had still degraded somewhat over the years, but it was still quite potent for how long the place had stood abandoned.
Or at least it should have been abandoned. What was most troubling was that most of the preservation magic had been refreshed relatively recently. Maybe there was something to the stories about this place being haunted, or at least the tales about regular visitors. Though who and why someone would want to maintain the traps of some old ruin was beyond this one. Were its contents worth that much? The corpse was a complication this one didn’t particularly need, on top of the problem of this one’s current employer hiring others to its job. She had probably hired this one in response to her other employees not coming back, based on how old the corpse looked.
Just to be sure, this one cast another spell to check for poison, but it didn’t detect anything to be worried about. That was good at least. This one didn’t need to die from toxic spores. That would just be embarrassing.
That left this one to decide how best to proceed. It could cut its losses and head back to port. Continuing was certainly dangerous, possibly more so than was worth the coin being offered. This whole situation made this one itch under its carapace. But this one hadn’t come to Zanzebra to be safe, and this one needed to shore up its accounts. That meant continuing forward.
But this wasn’t the first time this one had dealt with traps, and it was prepared. This one pulled out a series of rods and screwed them together until they formed a ten-foot pole.
Kukri snickered. “‘Ten-foot pole.’”
I sighed. “Kukri...” In addition to bad language, Kukri had picked up a crass sense of humor while serving on a merchant ship.
“What?” Kukri asked with fake innocence. “We’re just talking about Puzzle’s ten-foot pole.” She covered her mouth as she tried to contain her laughter.
I groaned, dreading the talk I’d have to have with her later. “Continuing forward...”
This one pressed itself against one wall and slowly advanced, pressing each floor tile with the pole. This one scanned about for more magic in case other arcane traps had been set into the stone. Inching its way down the hallway, this one made slow but steady progress. This one was rewarded for this caution when another of the spiked plates snapped up, nearly breaking this one’s pole in the process. This wasn’t going to be the fastest or most interesting way to move through a pyramid, but a little bit of boredom outweighed a grisly death.
Once this one inched its way up to the plate that had triggered, it pulled out a bag filled with chalk dust and marked the dangerous tile. That done, this one proceeded forward. This one triggered several more spike traps along the way, which made this one wonder exactly what was worth so much defending.
This one was scooting along the wall when the floor under its forehooves abruptly gave out. This one flailed as it lost its balance, and on instinct it flapped its wings as it started to plummet. A pit filled with spikes opened up below it, and this one nearly impaled its eyes on one before its wings finally halted its fall. This one’s heart thudded in its chest as the weight of the fact it nearly died fell on it. It seemed that poking at the floor hadn’t been enough to trigger the trap.
This one belatedly noticed a second explorer at the bottom of the pit. Unlike this one, the zebra hadn’t had wings to save itself with. Curiosity getting the better of this one, it hovered down to the corpse and rifled through its saddlebags as well.
Daring grinned. “If the information brokering thing ever falls through, you could always take up professional grave-robbing.”
“Isn’t that what the Do-mare does on a regular basis?” Puzzle countered. “This one remembers how you’ve looted several burial grounds over the years.”
Daring’s grin lost none of its luster. “No, I’m recovering historical artifacts for museums. That’s totally different.”
Puzzle shot her a flat look. “Yes, the Do-mare is a saint like that.”
This one found much the same as it had with the previous corpse, though this one still had its coin-purse on it—which, yes, this one liberated from it. Its presence meant one of a few things: either Ephemera had only sent two other explorers ahead of this one, none in their group could fly, or they had lost their nerves to the point they could no longer bring themselves to loot their compatriots.
With this latest trap in mind, this one stopped scooting along the wall and instead hovered over the ground. It was more tiring over time, but it was better than falling to this one’s death. Still, this one didn’t hurry. Haste led to carelessness, and this one wanted to be as careful as possible marking the traps for its return trip out.
Caution was rewarded when this one noticed a section of the hallway that had small holes hidden on both sides of the hallway. This one confirmed their function when it triggered a pressure plate and several darts shot out from the wall. This one pressed the plate again and more darts shot out from different holes. Probing around, this one found another pressure plate that triggered the same trap.
Seeing a simple means by which to disarm the trap, this one repeatedly pressed the trigger plate. Soon the floor was covered with dozens of darts, and nothing came out of the holes other than the sound of clicking mechanisms. After pressing the plates a few more times to make sure the dart-traps were indeed spent, this one continued.
This one flew forward and found itself inside of a new domed chamber. Where the fungus had been scattered about in the previous rooms, it covered the walls and ceiling here. The room was cast in the fungus’ blue light, revealing a staircase that led up to a platform.
This one flew up and discovered a strange mechanism on a raised dais. A half-sphere of near-black metal jutted out from the dais, with three discs of gold surrounding it. Each of the discs was engraved with what this one guessed was the written language of the Dromaed. They didn’t look like any arcane sigils or runes this one could recognize, and they looked similar to the writing on the walls in the first chamber of the pyramid.
A skeleton lay next to the dais, and it looked fresh—for a skeleton, at any rate. Magic radiated from the dais, especially from the metal sphere and the discs, and this one could detect several different types of magical effects interwoven together: abjuration, divination, preservation magic, and a few others this one couldn’t identify.
This one examined the side of the dais and found something concerning. Several trap runes had been engraved into the stone and had been tied into the magic of the dais. This one had a sneaking suspicion that one of the explorers had come to the room before this one and had run afoul of the trap, thus ending up as the skeleton lying on the floor. So the question was how best to proceed without getting itself killed?
“Oooh!” Kukri raised her hoof like she was in a classroom. “This one knows! What you do is turn the discs in a specific way to solve the puzzle and make the sphere open up. That’s what you did, right?”
Puzzle chuckled. “Not quite.”
This one turned its attention to the trap runes. After carefully studying them, this one pulled out its dagger and several tools from its saddlebags and worked slowly and deliberately to alter the runes to render them inert. It was exhaustive work, as the runes were so alien that this one had to forego trying to understand them and instead examine the magic behind them. The wrong alteration could either set the trap off or result in this one getting blasted by a burst of wild magic right to the face. It didn’t help that the runes were intrinsically tied into the magic of the dais. Playing around with magic you didn’t even fully understand could easily result in several nasty side effects if you mess up.
It took a several grueling hours of work, but this one eventually disabled the trap wards. Of course, that still left the strong magics woven into the sphere to deal with, which in turn looked like they were tied to the rotatable discs. This one would have liked to play around with the puzzle to figure it out, but the fact it was tied up into some sort of magic made this one wary to do so lest it be disintegrated or suffer some other brief and horrible death. But, as this one had come to learn, there was more than one way to solve a problem if one had a flexible mind and the right tools.
This one pulled out a vial from the magical storage space of its saddlebags and gingerly unscrewed its cap. Using the dropper built into the lid, it withdrew some of the clear and noxious-smelling liquid from the vial. This one precisely levitated the dropper to the edge of the metal dome and released two drops. The acid hissed on contact as it melted away the metal. This one placed several more drops after them, taking care not to melt whatever was inside the dome.
Soon the hole was big enough to allow this one to shine its light inside, revealing a wooden box about the size of a pocket watch or a particularly large amulet. A couple more drops of acid opened the hole enough to let this one slide the object out.
Kukri frowned. “Heeey, that’s not how you solve a puzzle ... Puzzle.”
Puzzle grinned back at Kukri. “This one wasn’t trying to pass a test or beat a game—it was on a job, and for a job it’s the results that matter. Besides, this one wasn’t eager to get disintegrated by some ancient trap because it couldn’t read a dead language.”
“I could have solved the puzzle,” Daring said with a confident smirk. “But I do have a degree in archeology and ancient languages. While you have an education in ... being a crime boss? Spying? Can you get a degree for something like that?”
Puzzle casually took a bite off of his partially burned shishkabab. “Sadly, this one doesn’t have a fancy degree from a famous school like some of its more prestigious friends. But that’s another story.”
This one’s objective in hoof, it checked the small box to confirm that it was what this one was looking for. A small cloth string ran through a ring at the top of the box, but the string disintegrated at the slightest touch. That confirmed that this had been here for a very long time. This one turned the box gingerly in its hooves, worried it might fall apart at any moment. Failing to get paid because the artifact was too delicate to transport would have made for an extremely disheartening trip.
“I’ve been there a couple of times,” Daring grumbled.
Thankfully, studying the box revealed it had preservation magic cast into it like the rest of the room, and while the wood had faded with age it still looked to be in good shape. In fact, there were even a few different magical effects emanating from it. Its lid was engraved with an intricate image of a city dominated by a large pyramid etched into the wood. This one carefully pried at the box to open it up, which took a lot longer than it anticipated due to years of lying around sealed and inactive. The top was attached to the bottom with a hinge in a curious design that, further reminded this one of a pocket watch.
The device’s interior had a rounded emerald inlaid into a wood base that had a vine-like pattern carved into it. The gem had a spark of magic within it, and then an arrow of green light formed. This one frowned curiously and turned the device over in several directions, but the arrow always pointed in the same direction. This one next pulled out its compass and compared it to the arrow. It didn’t take this one long to determine that whatever the device was pointing at didn’t seem to be in a cardinal direction—at least, any of the familiar ones.
Before this one could further contemplate its discovery, the atmosphere in the chamber ... changed. The itch under its carapace returned as it suddenly felt like it was being watched.
“You are not of the Green.” The words were not a sound, but a force that struck this one’s very being. A psychic communication of some kind, perhaps?
This one’s head snapped around as it tried to find the speaker. “Hello? I was just exploring the pyramid and I didn’t realize there was anyone still here. Who might you be?”
There was a moment of silence, and this one saw movement along the walls in its peripheral vision. Was the fungus ... shifting? “You are not of the Green,” the voice repeated. “You do not belong here.”
“Riiight.” This one slowly started backing up towards the entrance and slipped the magical device into its bag. The plant matter that had covered the walls was definitely moving now, and this one did not like that idea. “How about I leave and never return then? I can go ahead and show myself out.”
“That does not belong to you.” The plant matter congealed along opposite wall, tendrils emerging forth from corpulent mass. “The compass is for those of the Green. You are not worthy, abomination.”
This was quickly going downhill. Did this … thing somehow know that this one was a changeling? This one could have dropped the magical compass, and that might have placated whatever this creature was, but this one hadn’t come all this way to come up empty-hoofed.
This one grinned. “‘Abomination’? Now you’re just hurting my feelings.”
It clearly wanted to hurt more than hurt this one’s feelings, for several tendrils shot out towards it like so many pythons. This one drew a fire gem out of its bag and hurled it at the massed bulk of the fungus creature. The tendrils almost reached this one when the fire gem exploded in a raging inferno. The reaching appendages fell to the floor, their detached ends smoking. An inaudible screech hammered this one’s psyche, nearly bringing this one to its knees. It gritted its teeth and turned to flee back to the hallway and away from a fight.
This one had only made it a hoofful of steps when a section of ceiling came crashing down. Hazarding a glance over its shoulder, it saw that it had almost been crushed by a stone ramp. The hallway shook beneath this one’s hooves as a spherical boulder rumbled down the ramp. Had this one set off a trap? Or had the creature somehow activated it? Either way, this one needed to run if it didn’t want end up as a smudge.
This one picked up the pace only to have to come to a screeching halt as a score of spikes suddenly shot up from the floor. It slammed into the side of the metal spikes as they just as suddenly pulled back into the floor. This one tumbled to the floor and instantly rolled to its hooves to get out of the spot it was in. Good thing too, for the spikes once again shot up and barely missed this one’s hindquarters.
Looking ahead revealed an extremely disheartening sight. All the traps this one had spotted earlier and more were now going off and resetting on their own accord. That would have been bad enough on its own, but the boulder was catching up with this one far too quickly.
With no other way out, this one quickly timed the traps’ motions and flew forward. It barely dodged a set of spikes descending from the ceiling as the boulder smashed through the first set of spikes. Trapped by its own momentum, this one kept ducking and dodging its way forward as fast as it could. A hidden blade scythed from the wall and nearly took this one’s head off as a dart skimmed off of this one’s carapace, and only the fact this one didn’t stop moving kept it from getting set on fire by a flame trap—all the while the boulder was catching up with this one even as its momentum was constantly interrupted by the traps.
This one felt the bottom drop out of its stomach as it chanced a look over its shoulder. It flew up and over more spike traps, and its hope grew as it saw the doorway to the first chamber of the pyramid. If it could just make it...
The boulder was now close enough that this one could feel it behind it. It smashed aside another spike trap, sending a chunk of metal smashing painfully against this one’s wing. This one’s wing could not have gotten hurt at a worse time, for it was forced to slide under the next spike trap, costing it valuable time. As it slid, it caught sight of the boulder and the fact that it was almost ready to roll right over this one.
If not for its training it would have died right there. Pity its training wasn’t going to keep it alive—not long enough to get it to the exit. This one went with the last desperate gambit it could think of. Forcing its hurt wing to buzz to life, this one leapt into the air and took flight as pain lanced through , a flash of pain shooting through it as it did so. This one waited for just the moment then kicked out its hind legs. It kicked off the boulder right as it closed the distance and shot forward. This one soared over the last spike trap as it snapped up, and the boulder collided with the trap just a second later. The change of speed wasn’t much, but it was just enough to get this one through the doorway first.
The boulder slammed into the doorway, and while some of the stones for the archway were shoved out of place, the structure as a whole held. Good thing too, because this one’s wing immediately cramped up and sent this one in a tumbling roll along the hard floor. Spots flashed over this one’s vision at the impact.
This one groaned as it slowly regathered its senses. A jab of pain shot through this one’s shoulder as it rolled over to try and get back to its hooves. It wanted out of that pyramid, and sooner was much better than later. The fungus monster was probably still alive, and the traps might not be much of a deterrent to it—for all this one knew, it might well control them itself. So placing as much distance between it and the pyramid sounded like a very good idea. A shame someone had other plans.
“My, my, my, if it isn’t little Puzzle Piece himself?” a vaguely familiar voice crowed. “He’s presented himself to us and everything.”
This one’s vision straightened, revealing a half dozen heavily armed individuals standing about the chamber. They all looked down at this one with a mixture of unpleasant smiles and deep frowns.
“Friends of yours?” I asked.
Puzzle shook his head. “Not exactly.”
This one grunted and struggled to its hooves. It couldn’t afford to appear weak, not now. This one shot them a confident grin as it rose, causing the two closest individuals to momentarily pause. “You’re all here to see this one? Really, you should have arranged a meeting. This one could have met with you someplace much nicer than this.”
The apparent leader of the bunch, a hard-looking zebra stallion in a chainshirt, flashed this one a gold-toothed smile. “Somehow I doubt you’d show, what with you being a slippery one,” he said with a Freeportian accent. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to track you down?”
“This one was aiming for impossible, but it seems that it fell short of that.” After this one had a few seconds to think, it recognized the leader as the skilled Freeportian bounty hunter Cafer. This one had never dealt with him directly, but it knew him in passing. “So, who hired you? This one must have quite the bounty on its head for you to come out all this way.”
Cafer snorted. “No one specifically. In truth, I didn’t wait around in Freeport for everything to be announced. Once I saw how big some of the first bounties were I knew me and my gang better jump on this if we wanted to beat out the competition.” He pulled out a cigar and lit it, taking a deep draft before continuing. “Thinking it over on the voyage here, I’m going to have an auction for who’ll get you. That’ll get us the most ducats for our trouble.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did things get too hot for you in Freeport?” People placing a bounty on Puzzle’s head wasn’t particularly surprising, though I’d never heard of him fleeing Freeport as a result. Though there was a lot about Puzzle’s history I didn’t know about, and I wasn’t going to believe every rumor I heard about him.
“This one left a ... complicated situation back in Freeport.” Puzzle waved vaguely. “This one had made a lot of enemies at the time, and it wasn’t in a position at the time to deal with them.”
This was the real first news this one had heard about Freeport since coming to Zanzebra the previous week, and it wasn’t a welcome one. This one had hoped, vainly, that things wouldn’t have turned so badly against it due to ... recent developments. But then, this one had left Freeport very suddenly because it had had a bad feeling about what was to come. Considering at least one group of bounty hunters had chased this one to a forsaken ruin all the way out in Zanzebra, it wasn’t particularly encouraged.
Something else that didn’t encourage this one at that particular moment was the fact that some of the fungus on the walls was slowly shifting. None of the bounty hunters had noticed the movement yet, but this one had a pretty good idea about what was coming. Yet another reason to get out of there and quickly. Shame two of the bounty hunters were standing directly in the doorway to prevent this one from escaping, and the other three weren’t likely to let this one get even that far without a fight.
This one hid its worries behind a grin. “This one doesn’t suppose we could take this conversation outside? In case you didn’t notice from the boulder nearly crushing this one, this place isn’t particularly safe.”
Cafer blew out a thick puff of smoke. “And give you the chance to just fly away? Not a chance.” He pulled out some shackles from his saddlebags and tossed them to the floor in front of this one’s hooves. “Put those on, and then we’ll talk about getting out of here.”
This one had no intention of going anywhere in chains. Especially when it had a pretty good idea of who it might get sold to back in Freeport. The trick was getting out of there without being killed. “As far as jewelry goes, this one has to say that what you’re offering for our first date is lacking.”
One of the bounty hunters snickered, and Cafer shot him an unamused glower that cut his employee off. “Real funny, smart guy. Let’s see how smart you are when—”
“You are not of the Green!” the fungus creature roared.
“What was that?!” one of the bounty hunters yelped, jerking his spear up.
This one heard the boulder being pushed out of place behind it, and knew it was out of time. “The reason why this one really wanted to take this talk outside.”
This one’s reasoning was supported when a tendril of the fungus snapped out from the wall to a nearby bounty hunter. She screamed as it wrapped around her neck and dragged her towards the wall. More cries of surprise and horror rang out from the bounty hunters as they brought their weapons to bear, and the fungus gathered to attack—including the large mass this one could feel coming up behind it.
The moment to strike had come. This one tossed a thunderflash stone and covered its eyes as exploded in a blast of light and sound next to the bounty hunters standing in the doorway. This one was quicker to recover than the bounty hunters and charged for the doorway. Cafer was too busy blinking away the spots in his vision and backing away from the moving mass of the fungus to stop this one.
To give them credit, the bounty hunters by the exit, a pony and a gryphon, had gathered their wits by the time this one reached them. The pony to the left jabbed at this one with his ponycatcher, a polearm with a two prong head intended to catch an equine and pin them to the ground. The aim was slightly off, and this one was able to sidestep the blow and step inside his guard. This one threw a hoof right into the side of his knee, which buckled with an audible crack. The pony screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his ruined limb.
The gryphon was the next to try his luck a second later. Metal-wrapped talons slashed at this one’s head. This one ducked under the first blow, stepped forward, and blocked the second by striking the inside of his elbow. Inside his reach, this one flowed forward to use its momentum to chop into his throat. The gryphon let out a strangled gurgle, falling back as he slashed wildly to try and ward this one off. This one caught the limb between its legs, pulled it to its full extent, and twisted it to force the gryphon to his knees. A precise blow to the back of the elbow resulted in a predictable breaking of bone, and this one kicked the howling gryphon in the ribs to knock him aside.
The way open, this one ran through the doorway. This one glanced back to see if it was being pursued and saw Cafer scream in terror as the shambling mound of fungus fell upon him.
This one ran, and didn’t stop running for a very long time.
It was the next day before this one returned to Port Nowhere. This one had a feeling that its pursuers would be in no place to chase it after the encounter in the pyramid, but it still struck this one as a good idea to get back to Zanzebra’s main port where it could hide if need be. Cafer might have more hunters under his employment, after all, and there was the more worrying prospect that there might be even more bounty hunters in Zanzebra searching for this one.
This one wasn’t sure how they had tracked it down. Magic was the most likely explanation, as any number of spells might allow someone to find this one, but there were perfectly mundane explanations as well. Unfortunately, this one hadn’t had time to question Cafer or his followers. For all this one knew, it was walking into a nest of cutthroats looking to cash in on this one’s misfortune.
While this one was tempted to flee the opposite way of the port, it opted to play things cool and head into the city. For one, this one needed to cash in on its find. Money made nearly everything easier, and this one’s funds were running short. This one had quite a bit of ducats in the bank, but they were in Freeportian banks, and this one would bet its horn that interested parties were keeping track of those accounts for a hint about where this one was. That meant getting coin however it could for the time being, and then getting on a ship out of Port Nowhere.
Thus, this one took on a zebra disguise as it headed into the port. It wasn’t a particularly large city; originally built as the Zebrican Empire’s southernmost outpost during the Empire’s heyday, it had been intended to be a launching-off point for greater conquests to the southern half of the continent. But other things demanded the attention of the Zebrican sultans as time passed, and the island of Zanzebra faded into obscurity.
Dromaed warlords and rebellion had threatened to tear the outpost from the Empire, but the sultans had managed to hold it—for now, anyways. This one had a feeling that it was only a matter of time until someone took the island from the struggling Empire, perhaps even this one’s own nation of Freeport. The Council would certainly not mind an additional trading post, and Freeport had conquered the island once before during the Necrocrat’s war with Zebrica before losing it during the Council’s revolution.
“Uuugh!” Kukri groaned. “Do you have to give a history lesson while telling your story? It’s so boring!”
“Knowing your history is important, Kukri,” Puzzle explained. “It helps you understand the context of the situation you're in, and helps you keep from repeating the mistakes of the past.”
I nodded. “I’m going to have to agree with Puzzle on that.” Sure, practical exercises were the best teachers, but there were some things you could only really learn from a book. Though museums were pretty good teachers as well. Still, learning history was pretty important, and I’d wished I had learned more about Freeportian history before coming here. I’d gotten a decent overview, but there seemed to be a whole lot of things the locals learned that had never been covered in Equestria.
“Besides, a lot of history is really interesting.” Daring nudged Kukri with an elbow. “Don’t you like reading about all the cool history facts I put into my books?”
“I kinda skip over all that stuff,” Kukri admitted with a shrug.
“What?!”
But in the meantime, Port Nowhere served as a moderately sized trading post for exotic goods from the island and Dromaed lands and manufactured goods from the Empire heading for the Dromaed kingdoms. While the city didn’t compare to the Freeport, it still had a steady stream of business that prompted the maintenance of a good dock in the port’s harbor. It might have been a bit more orderly than this one’s home city, even if this one had serious doubts about the morals of its guards and officials. This one might even have done well for itself in the city were it not destined to try and get out of there on the first convenient ship it could find.
This one soon reached its destination of the finest hotel in Port Nowhere. The Beauty Rest inn wasn’t terribly impressive, at least in comparison to some of the establishments this one had seen, but it was still a nice hotel that served the well-to-do merchants who visited the port and wanted to rest someplace that wasn’t their ship’s cabin.
This one found a discreet alley to shift into its zony form and made its way into the hotel. Perhaps not surprisingly, this one received suspicious looks from some of the staff and residents of the hotel, but they didn’t prevent this one from going up to see the pony it was doing business with.
Daring smirked. “You are a pretty shady looking guy, whatever your form.”
Puzzle sighed melodramatically. “And this one tries so hard to be trustworthy.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You named your ship the Trustworthy. You can’t tell me you don’t know how that looks.”
“It does seem to be this one’s curse.”
This one reached the top floor of the hotel and headed to the royal suite. Standing before the door to the suite was a pair of heavily armed and armored zebras. They frowned as this one approached, giving this one the cold, hard look of professional bodyguards who perceived everyone as a potential threat to their employer. This one could tell that they weren’t the types to trifle with, and would bet good coin that they knew how to handle themselves.
This one flashed the two of them a disarming smile. “Mind if I see her ladyship? I have business with her.”
The guard carrying a great warhammer on his back grunted neutrally. “I’ll check.” He headed inside the suite and reemerged a couple minutes later. “She’s ready to see you.”
“Good to hear.” This one headed inside, flanked by the hammer guard who closing the door behind us. It seemed that this wasn’t going to be a private conversation, even if the guards didn’t strike this one as the decision making types. Appearances could be deceiving—this one should know, considering its nature—but the simplest answer for the guard staying with us was that his employer did not trust this one all that much. This one could work with that so long as it got paid.
The mare this one wanted to talk to stood on a suite balcony that offered an impressive view of the harbor. The unicorn was a tall and thin pony, and possessed a green coat so pale that it was nearly white. She was sharp featured in the face, and her curled duel-green mane covered her right eye, only showing her ice-blue left eye. She casually sipped from a cup of tea, as though not noticing this one.
This one suspected the air of disinterest was an act; after all, it never payed to seem overly eager. That would always place you at a disadvantage with whoever you were talking with.
Daring rolled her eyes. “So does he give you lessons like this too, Sunset?”
“All the time,” I answered. “I can hardly have a conversation with him without him trying to give advice.”
“This one likes to impart its pearls of wisdom on those it cares about,” Puzzle explained. “There’s little point in being wise if you can’t spread it around now and again.”
“Hello, Lady Ephemera,” this one said in Equestrian as it stopped short of the balcony. “Enjoying the view?”
“It’s ... sufficient.” Ephemera swirled her cup before taking another sip. “In truth, the view in Canterlot is much more breathtaking than some second tier port. Even Manehattan is much more impressive on account of its scale. Once you’ve seen the best the world has to offer, everything else pales in comparison.”
This one shrugged. It rarely paid to directly contradict one’s employer before getting paid. “As you say, there isn’t much here to impress. It’s a long way from any of the first rate ports in the world—more like a miniaturized Freeport, only without all the things that makes Freeport a respectable city.”
Ephemera snorted derisively. “As if that den of smugglers and pirates could be considered respectable.” She turned to face this one and the corner of her mouth turned up in a lopsided grin. “Though I hope you don’t take too much offense about me talking about your home, but Freeport is what it is.”
“Hardly.” This one bowed its head in acknowledgement. “It’s hard to claim that Freeport is perfect. It might be better than it once was, but that’s hardly a ringing endorsement.” This one had certainly seen more than enough of that living and working there, and that was no small part of why this one had fled. And after everything it had done for Freeport too...
Ephemera refilled her cup and mixed some sugar into her drink. “So what brought you to someplace like Nowhere, then? I would have thought Freeport would have had more opportunities for someone like you.”
“I wanted to see more of the world than the little corner I had grown up in.” That was true enough, even if it wasn’t the whole truth. This one had read about the wider world when it was younger and had wanted to see the place described in those pages. It just wasn’t until now that this one could find the time for it. “It’s why I wanted to earn some coin to go someplace else. Speaking of, there was the bit of business we talked about earlier.”
Ephemera’s eye sparkled, the first real break from the calm and bored exterior she had been presenting throughout the conversation. “Oh? Is that so? Do you have something for me?”
“That I do.” This one pulled out the magical compass and presented it to Ephemera. “The artifact you desired?”
Her eye widened and she reached for it. “You found it? Give it—”
This one pulled it back out of her reach and grinned. “I have it, but do you have my pay for the contract?”
Ephemera’s eye narrowed as she frowned. Her bodyguard stiffened, and this one could sense that he was ready to react to any command his lady gave to him. “You worried that I won’t pay you for your service?”
“I like to be able to verify my trust in people,” this one answered. “I went through a great deal of trouble getting this, you should know.” This one dropped its more flighty tone for a far more somber one. “And it proved more trouble than some could handle.”
This one’s patron took a long sip of her tea before replying. “And your point?”
“You could have told me about the fact that you sent others to the pyramid before me.” This one stepped out to the balcony, making a show of looking out at the harbor as it discreetly got itself into the best position to flee if it had to. This one could fly, while the zebra guard and Ephemera almost certainly couldn’t unless they had the right magics on standby. Ephemera was a relative unknown to this one, so it wasn’t sure how she would react to this one needling her for information. Best to be safe, just in case.
Ephemera squared her jaw. “That wasn’t information you needed to know.”
“It would have let me have a better idea about how dangerous the pyramid was,” this one countered. “All your employees are dead, by the way. Killed by the traps.”
Ephemera went very still at that announcement. Seconds passed before she sipped her tea again and took a position opposite of this one on the balcony. “Why bring all of this up? Were you hoping to extort more coin out of me?”
This one shook its head. “Hardly. When I make a deal I stick with it. I just want the coin we had agreed to—nothing more, nothing less.”
She took another long draft of her drink. “Fine, then.” A nearby chest clicked and its lip opened. My patron levitated out a bag of coins and placed it on the table. “Your pay.”
This one stepped to the table, making sure to keep an eye on the both of them. It placed the compass on the table as a sign of trust, and started counting out the ducats.
Ephemera raised an eyebrow. “You think I would cheat you?”
“Just checking to make sure no one miscounted,” this one said to sooth her ego. It seemed that Ephemera has a prickly pride, in addition to being suspicious.
“I assure you, I am quite capable of counting.” Ephemera slide up next to this one and carefully picked up the compass. She opened it, revealing the gem and the magical arrow within. “Excellent, it still works. I was worried I would have to have it repaired.”
“It seems the Dromaed make things to last.” Confirming that this one had received the right amount of pay, it put the coin back in the bag and slid it into its saddlebags. “Though I am curious what this was all for.”
Ephemera frowned at this one. “And why do you care?”
“I was curious what was worth so much blood and gold.” This one pointed at the gem within the compass. “Getting this artifact wasn’t the end goal, was it? The compass leads somewhere—somewhere you think is worth all this trouble.”
“I’m starting to wonder if you’re too smart for your own good, Puzzle.” Ephemera snapped the compass shut. “Your curiosity is liable to get you into trouble someday.”
“True, but my curiosity does help to keep things interesting.” This one gave her a disarming grin. “Not to mention it pays to keep one’s ear to the ground for profitable ventures.” This one know it was probably playing with fire. There was always information others would go to great lengths to keep secret, which was partially why this one was in trouble with powerful individuals back in Freeport. Thought the immediate question was whether Ephemera was going to try and silence this one or bring it into the fold.
Ephemera pressed the tip of her hoof on this one’s chest and then slowly ran it down this one’s body. “You looking for another job? It could be dangerous.”
This one shot her a confident grin. “I can work with that if the pay’s right.”
The slightest smile formed on her lips. “Tell me, have you ever heard of the Quinametzin Empire?”
This one frowned as it combed its memory. “I have, but I don’t remember reading much about it. Something about some long-dead empire that used to spread across where the Dromaed kingdoms are now?”
“More like the entire continent.” Ephemera moved past this one, briefly brushing against its side in what might have been an accident. She stopped before a large map of Zanzebra and the coast of the continent that was sitting on the wall. “According to legends, the Quinametzin were a mighty people, giants whose size rivaled that of the tyrant lizards and who mastered magics we could only dream of today. They created an empire that dominated all it surveyed before some great calamity struck it down.”
“Sounds fanciful,” this one said. “It reminds me of all those legends about cities that had sunk into the sea, or flying cities that disappeared mysteriously.”
“Perhaps, but unlike those cities, the City of Giants is real.” A smile spread across her lips as she looked at the compass in her hoof. “It’s a city so secret that even its name is unknown—only the Dromaed shamans know exactly where it lies in the great forest that divides the continent. Apparently they use the city as some sort of test for their hristak—green seers or knights is the rough translation to Equestrian—and the only way to find your way to the City is with one of these compasses.”
“Is that why that pyramid was trapped like that?” this one mused out loud. “Damnable way to test someone, it’s a good way to kill initiates.”
Ephemera shrugged. “I don’t claim to understand the Dromaed’s ways. They are a strange people. They’re not even equines. Who knows why they do what they do?”
“I’ve found there’s usually a logic to what everyone does, whatever their species,” this one countered. “It’s just a matter of figuring out how that logic works.”
Ephemera grunted and put the compass onto her gold necklace. “I don’t care about some archaic test by a bunch of savages. What I care about is the treasures lying in the City of Giants.”
This one disagreed about completely dismissing the traditions of whoever had built that pyramid, especially when she was planning on using one of their artifacts to find this City of Giants to start with. But it wouldn’t do to voice this one’s opinions on the matter when there might be an opportunity. The sound of treasure and adventure certainly appealed to this one.
“Sounds like you’ve got a plan,” this one said, trying to pry into what Ephemera had planned. “And an ambitious one at that.”
Ephemera smiled. “It is certainly that.” She tapped the compass. “And this is what’s going to let me find the City of Giants. Good thing I hired you to retrieve it—as far as I’ve been able to tell, it’s the only other one on the island.”
This one raised an eyebrow. “There’s another one? Where?” Considering the trouble this one went through to retrieve the compass, it was curious how difficult the other one had been to retrieve. Going after the other compass might have saved this one a great deal of trouble.
Ephemera returned to the balcony to stare out at the harbor. “Right here in the city. Though retrieving it has its own difficulties.” She leaned against the railing and smirked. “My rival went through all the trouble of having it brought to the city, but I have sent my own agents to snatch it out from under her very nose.”
“And who is this rival of yours?” this one asked.
“An old acquaintance of mine, though affairs broke down between us some time ago. Professional differences, you could say.” Ephemera’s face became a stony mask. “Her name is Daring Do, if you must know, and very soon she won’t be a thorn in my side anymore.”
“And here’s where I’ll take over the story for a bit,” Daring said with a roguish grin.