Blink of an Eye - a Guild Wars 2 Fanfiction

Chapter 10 - Future Plans

Rata Sum. Main city of the Asura since 1173 AE. Inhabitants: approximately 157.000, total area of the Sum-territory: 25 square kilometers. Average life expectancy: 87 years. Main cause of death: downfall of the city surface, planned as well as unplanned, closely followed by explosions and intoxication as a result of lab accidents.

I kept scrolling through the information about Rata Sum for a while with the help of a Data Pod that I had borrowed from the pubic archives the day before. Since Narru had validated me as an official family member in front of the Arcane Council three days ago, I did not only own a permanent permit of residence, but I was allowed every privilege of a normal citizen as well. Meaning I had access to most of the upper archives, got benefits while using Asura Portals and I was allowed to enter a college, as long as I was able to present a suitable project for approval. The last point was still lying far ahead of me, but at least I could dig myself through all kinds of lectures and recordings and learn a bit more about the knowledge that still failed me.

I sat inside the softly swaying hammock with crossed legs, wrapped into one of the softest blankets I had been able to find on the market. It was still early morning, but for whatever reason I hadn't been able to fall asleep again and I didn't even know what had woke me up in the first place. At least nothing had been exploding in the dorms and everything else was quiet too, since every halfway normal Asura would still be peacefully sleeping. If I now tried to lie down again, I would be tired for the rest of the day, which was for sure. But I still couldn't find the right motivation to get up, thus I busied myself in dim light with the development history of Rata Sum.

Other than expected it hadn't been the Asura who built Rata Sum, as they had only repopulated the abandoned city after the old civilization had failed to endure. The details of that civilization couldn't be found in any document, there were no name and no date, but it was clear that the Asura had rebuilt the city and claimed it as their own after being driven from the underground by the Elder Dragons. Down in the depths of the cube, Golems were still busy with clearing and expanding the Rata to make it habitable. Kekk had taken me down to the catacombs of the city once, and they had fascinated me so much I definitely wanted to get down there again as soon as possible.

The catacombs basically were a quite dramatic, but still fitting name for what I had found down there; mostly destroyed stone foundations, overgrown by wild dark-loving plants, waterfalls here and there caused by damaged pipelines and most of all scrap and every kind of trinkets that someone might have lost before. The hot jungle air wasn't present at all down there, it was cold instead and damp and everything had a scary echo. The light source came from the fluorescence of the plants, maybe even radioactive laboratory residues and here and there a glimpse of light from the upper city. It was full of wildlife, and none of it had tried to attack me yet.

Getting back up again was the only hard part about it. Because the catacombs were mostly still undiscovered, the Arcane Council had forbidden anyone to stay there. Of course no one kept that rule, not even some members of the council itself, but because of this law there were no proper possibilities to ascend, no stairs or portals. After the descend hat proven to be more or less easy if you could climb somewhat good, you had to make sure there was someone in the upper city who got you back up with the help of some kind of rope. I'd have to ask Kekk for help if I wanted to get down again. Or maybe I should just make more friends within Rata Sum.

Only a quarter of the population lives inside the central cube, most of them reside in the outer commons of Rata Sum, the Arkentia Valley, the Magus Valley, the Riven Valley or even the neighboring areas of Soren Draa. The center contains mostly laboratories and studying rooms of the three colleges, Statics, Synergetics and Dynamics.

I soon had learned why most of the people avoided living inside the cube. It was loud; things exploded all the time and you had to live with the fear of being exposed to invisible toxins and radiation. The peacemakers assured on a regular base that the filter systems were working flawlessly, but there were rumors maintaining the contrary. Though I didn't have another chance at the moment, since my financial income would never be enough for a proper flat or even a whole house.