Markets and Multiverses

“Orthanoids?” asked the dragon, in heavily accented old Orthan. Its voice was gravelly, and sounded kind of like boulders slowly being ground against each other. I wondered how its body produce the sounds.

I also noticed that it spoke Orthanoid, and quite fluently. The pronunciation the dragon used for several syllables was very different from the modern pronunciation of the Orthanoid language, so it took me a few seconds to parse what the creature had said. However, it was very clearly speaking in distinct Orthanoid. 

“Umm… yes,” I said. “We’re Orthanoids.”

“One of the slave races, I see,” said the dragon. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to be present when I awakened. How long have I been asleep for? And why is the air so foul?”

The dragon sniffed the air around it, and then wrinkled its nose in pure, unadulterated disgust.

I blinked. Before, we had discussed all sorts of reasons why the dragon might not have left this place, since it had no direct access to metal and this area was tainted with the presence of outside creatures.

However, I hadn’t thought of the idea that the dragon simply… hadn’t woken up since the dawn of the black sun.

Had it just been napping here since then? Had the outsiders in this region simply never found the dragon, causing them to continuously ignore each other?

The idea seemed absurd, but if I hadn’t had access to soul-sight, it was entirely possible that we would have simply never known that a dragon was here at all. And in that case, we would have never bothered opening up its cell…

“I don’t know how long you’ve been asleep, uh…” I tried to think about what I was supposed to call the dragon. I had always referred to the silver dragon and white dragon as ‘silver dragon’ and ‘white dragon.’ Until now, it hadn’t occurred to me that they might have individual names, or specific cultural requirements I needed to pay attention to. I had always treated dragons as incredibly powerful monsters or wild animals, rather than treating them as a species with their own culture and ideas.

Something which was now proving incredibly inconvenient. I suddenly felt a bit bad when I realized that I hadn’t been treating dragons as individuals, even though they were known to be sentient and sapient. When I saw other Orthanoids, I had no trouble thinking of them as individuals with their own personality and ideas, but whenever I thought of dragons, the bitterness and resentment I held towards the white dragon had been somewhat transferred to their entire species. Even if I didn’t like the white dragon, it wasn’t fair of me to blame the entire species for my problem with one individual.

Before my awkward silence could stretch out any further, Felix simply made a very slight crouching motion with his body. It looked almost like a bow, but rather than bending his waist and making his body resemble a ninety degree angle, the angle of Felix’s body was much smoother. In a very strange way, his movement almost resembled a snake’s body as he leaned forward and gave the dragon a respectful nod.

“It is an honor to behold you, dragon whose scales resemble rubies.”

“Oh, somebody knows proper courtesy,” said the dragon, sounding a bit amused. “I also behold you, Orthanoid. I would give you a more distinct and proper name, but I admit, I cannot tell apart your species very well. You all look very similar. Anyway, you may refer to me as the red dragon, rather than dragon whose scales resemble rubies. Do you have a name you would like me to use? I am given to understand your species is quite particular about names.” I was surprised by how relaxed the dragon seemed, despite the fact that it was chained to a table and seemed totally unable to move.

“You may call me Felix, and these are my companions, Miria, Sallia, and Anise,” he said, introducing each of us in turn. “And that is Sekundyrr,” he said, gesturing at the cage.

At least one of us had been paying attention to dragon culture. Even if I really felt like it should have been me that did that, and not Felix.

“Ah, a… fish-plant creature of some sort,” said the dragon, grimacing. Its mood seemed to take a downturn as it looked at Sekundyrr, which was still in its cage.

Greetings, sent Sekundyrr when it saw the dragon staring at it. Are you also test subject? These Orthanoids nice! Help escape!

“The fish-plant can talk? It is escaping? Ah… is that what it is?” asked the Dragon, giving us a much more relaxed look. It was hard to make out any expression at all from its metallic face, but when I concentrated on it, I was able to at least make out when its eye ridges furrowed and stretched, and guess what its mood was based on how its eyes moved.

I also realized that the dragon might be much more concerned about its predicament than it pretended to be. It had seemed wary of us once it saw Sekundyrr locked in a cage, but once it realized we were helping Sekundyrr escape, it relaxed its guard against us again. Perhaps it simply didn’t want us to know whether it was nervous or not?

“In that case, I suppose it’s fine,” said the dragon. “Now, tell me, Felix, what exactly has gone wrong with the air here?” asked the dragon. “It smells positively foul. And I cannot help but shake the feeling that the air itself is trying to eat me, however strange that feeling is. I quite hate it.”

“It’s probably because we’re near the origin point of the black sun,” said Felix, smoothly taking over negotiations. “May I ask the red dragon what the last thing it remembers is?”

“The last I recall, several Orthans attacked me while I was making a nest. I had been pursuing the dragon of green scales for several decades, and she had just agreed to share a cave with me. I had gone to prepare everything and make sure it was perfect, then some Orthans broke into the cave and imprisoned me. I was very upset, so when I heard they wanted to test how my mind reacted to some spells, I simply went to sleep. Hmph. Show them for capturing and imprisoning me,” said the dragon. “I intended to wake up when there was a way to escape. Since I don’t see any Orthans around, I assume that they went and blew themselves up doing something way beyond their abilities? Based on your facial expressions, I shall assume that is correct.” The dragon’s lips curled into an odd, spine-chilling grin. “Good. Now tell me, how much time has passed? Has the dragon of green scales shared a cave with anyone else?”

“We don’t know much about the dragon of green scales. Sorry,” I said.

“A shame,” said the red dragon. “I shall need to seek her out and see if she is still interested in me later, I suppose. I hope she had not found someone else.”

“What might be more relevant to you is that the time that has passed since you came here,” said Felix, before the dragon could dwell on the dragon of green scales. “The time that has passed is… likely much longer than you expected. Several centuries since you went to sleep, at least.”

“Several centuries?” The red dragon’s eyes bulged in shock. “Why so long? Shouldn’t it have only been a few decades? I did not think it would take that long for an opportunity to escape. Perhaps I was too strict in setting up when and how I would wake up?” The dragon frowned.

Felix shrugged. “We don’t know why you slept so long, either. The Orthans blew themselves up a long time ago. Centuries ago, to be precise. As for why you never woke up… it’s hard to guess.”

The dragon thought about it for a few moments, and slowly, the expression of surprise on its metallic face faded away. 

“Oh well. I suppose it’s not a big deal if I slept for a little longer than expected, as long as the dragon of green scales hasn’t found someone else,” said the dragon. It rolled its eyes several times, reminding me of a wheel spinning round and round. I had no idea what the action was supposed to represent, although it was likely meant to correspond to some sort of facial expression. 

“Anyway, I see that you’re carrying around the Palanthyrre creature. In a cage, for some reason. May I ask why?”

“We freed Sekundyrr, the fish-plant creature, a while ago,” said Felix. “But unfortunately, it’s unable to survive outside of its cage. We’re keeping it in the cage because it’s a localized space that lets the creature live inside without killing it.”

“Ah, I suppose that makes sense,” said the dragon. “I had heard that some sea creatures die if they leave the water for long. While I have never seen such a strange creature before, since it somewhat resembles the fish I had heard about in the past, I suppose it might also need water to survive.”

I paused, and decided not to say anything. It seemed the dragon wasn’t particularly aware of ‘other dimensions,’ and explaining Sekundyrr’s origin seemed like a conversation I didn’t want to have. 

“As for your final question,” said Felix, “the air smells foul to you because we’re very close to the black sun.”

“Black sun?” asked the red dragon.

“As far as we know, several hundred years ago, the Orthans made contact with several other places,” said Anise. “One of them was the origin of the black sun, and after coming into to contact with it, the Orthan civilization was destroyed…” Anise seemed more comfortable now that the dragon hadn’t taken any overtly hostile actions. She started filling the dragon in on the history of our world, starting from what we knew about the end of the second Orthan empire. The red dragon didn’t speak while Anise talked, although its eyes occasionally rolled around. After Anise finished speaking, the dragon’s eyes spun around a few times, before it grunted something unintelligible.

“If all outside creatures smell like this, I can see why other members of my kind hate them,” said the red dragon. “How about you release me, and I will help the four… five of you sever the connection with the origin place of the black sun? I am not quite sure what a ‘dimension’ is, but I can certainly feel space being manipulated in this area. I might be able to help with that, and rid this area of its foul odor.”

I paused. “Can you promise not to attack us after we release you? We had nothing to do with your imprisonment here…”

The dragon rolled its eyes. “Why make me promise? Words have no binding effect on me, so it’s not like there is any meaning to a promise I make.” The dragon made a strange chuffing sound, which I assumed was laughter. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I suppose. It must be hard to behold a creature as magnificent as me and not feel at least a little ashamed and afraid of your own inferior biology. Very well. For what it’s worth, I promise that I will take no hostile actions against any of you, so long as you do not take any hostile action against me first. And if you can help me get in contact with the dragon of green scales, I will give you a handsome reward. Orthanoids like valuable rocks, right? I should have some red ones left in one of my caves, so long as they are still intact. I can give you a few of them.”

“Good enough for me,” I said, although I remained ready to create a sleeping bubble if the dragon went haywire.

Since we had at least a tentative promise that the dragon wouldn’t harm us, and it seemed possible to communicate with the creature, I turned towards the Prismium chains that kept the dragon imprisoned. I turned towards Sallia. “Sallia, do you want to do it?”

“Actually, could you let me try?” asked Anise.

The three of us turned towards Anise, giving her a baffled look.

She shuffled, a little bit nervously, and then leaned closer to us. She started whispering softly.

“Well, I was thinking about how Achievement and skills work, right? I was wondering what specifically I would need to do if I wanted to get an extreme affinity. I don’t want to get left behind after you die, so I was thinking about it… and we get Achievement every time we do something ‘impressive,’ right? Regardless of whether we’re connected to the Market’s System or not?”

“As far as we know, yes,” I whispered, nodding.

“Well, in that case, I was wondering if doing impressive things using one particular type of Essence might ‘upgrade’ your talent in that essence. I know it’s a bit of a long shot, but I don’t have any better ideas for how to upgrade my affinity. My talent with manifestation essence is already really good, but I have no idea if it’s at the level of an ‘extreme affinity’ or not. And I don’t know how good my talent with manifestation essence needs to be for the Market to pick up my soul after I die. So I was thinking about how impressive it should be to free a dragon using only manifestation essence…”

“Ah, I get it,” I said. I turned towards Sallia and Felix, to see if they objected. However, both of them were grinning. 

“It’s worth a shot,” said Felix. “Let’s do a little bit to help out, so that we can at least get a smaller Influence Achievement reward. But let’s let Anise do almost everything. There are several different chains keeping the dragon in place, right? How about the three of us destroy one each, and Anise blows up the rest?”

Anise smiled radiantly, and the four of us moved towards some of the chains keeping the dragon in place.

I started out by trying to stab them using my own market-made sword, just to test the durability of the Prismium, but I found that the sword simply phased through the chains as though they didn’t exist.

“Huh?” I asked, baffled.

I tried touching the chain again. My hands phased through it as if it didn’t exist.

I looked at the others, and they were having the same problem. I tried touching the part of the chain that held the dragon down, but my hand simply passed through the prismium as if it didn’t exist, before I accidentally touched one of the metal plates that made up the dragon’s body.

The dragon snorted.

“It’s some kind of odd material,” said the dragon, shrugging. “It feels very solid to me, but your hands pass through it. Perhaps if you feed it some essence, you will be able to interact with it?”

“We tried using shaping and spellcasting essence when we first encountered the rock,” I said, frowning. “We couldn’t figure out how to make it work. We did see it used to contain heat, though.”

“Perhaps try heating it up or cooling it a lot?” asked the dragon. 

I shrugged. We had already tried both, but perhaps we simply hadn’t heated or cooled it enough to make a difference? If that didn’t work, I might be able to just ‘shape’ the chains into being solid again - while we couldn’t figure out how to actually ‘activate’ prismium, I didn’t think that it was impossible to force it into a certain shape using my current skills as a shaper. However, before trying anything, I wanted to give Anise a chance to figure out the solution.

Anise nodded, and stepped back. “I can try messing with temperature. The first chunks of Prismium we found being used were able to contain the heat of an unborn dimension, so the materials might interact with extreme temperatures. Hmm… don’t disturb me, I need to modify a spell,” she said.

Then, she fell into a trance and began staring into space. I could feel little bits of manifestation essence moving around her, but every single manipulation of essence was very subtle. I got the feeling that Anise was messing with the subrunes to a particular spell, although I couldn’t figure out anything more specific than that.

The four of us, along with the dragon, found comfortable positions to wait and then fell silent.

Half an hour later, Anise finished modifying the spell. “Miria, Sallia… be prepared to heal me if I messed up and the spell misfires,” she said. Then, she pointed her finger at one of the chains keeping the dragon shackled down, and then the chain started to get colder and colder. The spell was very well-controlled and directed - none of the rest of the room changed temperature at all, making me think that Anise had somehow told the spell to compress itself onto the chain and not spread throughout the room. 

The chain continued to get colder and colder, and after a solid five minutes of waiting, Anise tried poking the chain.

Instead of phasing through the chain as if it were an illusion, Anise’s hand touched the prismium. She grinned.

“Sallia, hand me your sword!”

Sallia immediately handed Anise her sword, and Anise slashed at the stone chains. The market-made sword bounced off the chain, accomplishing nothing.

Anise frowned, and then fueled the gravitite in the sword with a little bit of alteration essence.

This time, the chain was cut clean through, and the four of us, as well as the dragon, let our relieved sighs.

We had found a way to free the dragon. And hopefully, a way to bring Anise with us in the future.

 

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