Compendium Effect : : Tolen's Trial

Tinkers

They had traveled on foot several kilometers, topside, through the blowing, polluted sands of the ruined Giza Power Station complex. The elbows pumped madly; the blood rushed furiously in the ears and made the teeth throb. Tolen couldn't push the avatar any further. His run came to a crumbling halt and he hunched forward, cupping hands over knees, commanding the eyes close and open again, allowing sweat to stream over the face barely registering the passage of time. "Maramore!" he called.

Maramore turned around and came back, jogging in place, irked with his comrade's avatar, so frail that even threat of death could not tap hidden strength.

Maramore sensed movement a heartbeat too late to take decisive action. A half stroke later, pairs of amber, glowing orbs appeared—goggles held to the the face with cloth wrappings. Maramore made no moves, only watched as several more figures closed in around them, two more, then four and another, all in heavy, shambling robes, holding javelins ready.

Maramore and Tolen watched as their host demonstrated the machine. Well into the dewy, autumn night, the very same night of their capture, Maramore and Tolen listened to the the calm flow of the Jordan river and the odd clink of coin tumbling from a cast iron device resembling a drum-style coal shuttle.

"Vahel," he said, speaking over the murmur in the huddle of cousins, nephews and brothers-in-law. The youngest of the clutch lifted his head above the rest. "Come," said the chief, and the young man obeyed. Tolen became acutely aware the ochre tent smelled of damp camel hair and burnt lambs fat, and registered Jabir's nostalgia and sense of ease in these surroundings. The chief addressed the youth. "You are wanted for soliciting facts, no? The constable would have you before the magistrate. Is this true?"

The young man, unashamed and without hesitation said, "Yes, master. This is true."

Immediately a heavy green coin with a hole through its center tumbled from the device and fell to the carpeted floor in front of it. The boy picked up the coin and brought it to his master. Taking it into his hand he spoke, "Friends, I believe you when you say you are not from here. It is obvious you understand nothing." He held up the green, metallic coin so it shined dully. "All truth has a common source. This source makes our money from the true word said."

"Interesting," Tolen said," Transmutative blockchain."

"The irony is," the chief continued, "Vahal becomes a nameless one if I feed this coin to the Machine. His truth is consumed."

Tolen could not check the avatar's widening eyes and lifted brows.

While the Anu ability to perceive the avatar's consciousness, its memories, its thoughts was nothing unusual, commanding the Jabir avatar was an experience different from most because it was impossible to exert full control over its faculties and gifts. Tolen normally avoided using it but there was nothing for it.

Tolen and Maramore, were indeed intractably interred, unable to access any other iteration, entangled or otherwise interacting with any other node of the Euna. Keron's plan for them, it seemed, was an experience similar to most Sapien; a present-past-future compartmented, rule-bound, linear reality, with a twist.

One Hour Prior...

Drenched and cold, Tolen awoke, gasping for breath, relieved to be alive. He pushed his exhausted avatar to move. Maramore's hand found his as the variable glow in the chamber went cold, leaving them in the dark.

The chamber lit again, in the normal way, as any receiving other chamber, light from nowhere and everywhere, a soothing, familiar, aquatic radiance. Then it grew dark again and light again. Something was wrong, he thought, as his consciousness faded away again. "How did we land here?"