5 - The old oracle

“Forgive me for my rude behaviour yesterday. You must understand that claiming to be from another world is not something to be said lightly.” Eldor said, apologetically. He looked genuinely sorry, and Fenrir wondered if his wife, Fey, had anything to do with that. He still had his stern tone of voice, and his face looked hard and unreadable. His long beard was more fitting of a dwarf than an elf, the captain thought. He wondered just how old he was. Hell, he had no idea how old Lunora was, even if she looked like a teenager.

“It’s nothing. I understand.” It was a half lie, actually. He would have understood if they didn’t believe him or though he was nuts, but a reaction like that was not anything he could predict. It was almost like his revelation had triggered something in the ‘old’ elf’s mind, and he was not sure what.

“There was a prophecy, a long time ago. It said that an otherworlder would save us all from… something. Unfortunately, for the most part it has been lost to the sands of time.”

“Is that why we are going to see the oracle?” He asked. He couldn’t believe he was seriously talking about oracles as if they were normal. Barely a week ago if anyone had come to him talking about oracles, he would have laughed in their face. But now, he was walking through the forest in search of an oracle of the elves.

“Exactly. You see, the jade pendant you wear is not just an item of fashion. It was given to us from the oracle itself many generations ago. When my daughter foolishly gave it to you, it should have rejected you. But it didn’t. This means that you have been chosen for the fulfillment of the prophecy.” Flawless logic, he thought, and had to suppress a chuckle. He didn’t want to be disrespectful, but the whole argument seemed rather forced. It was almost like they were completely shifting responsibility for something. As if it was no longer their problem. Just give him the basic information, and then send him to fuck off. That kind of vibe.

“No pressure.” Fenrir said, trying not to think about it too hard. Right now it was hard for him to just believe Eldor’s words, but at the same time considering all that happened to him made this sound almost plausible. Even if he had his suspicions regarding the elves’ true intentions.

“We’re here.” The elf said, stopping for a brief moment at the entrance of a cave. It was just a small cave, on the side of a modest hill overrun with vegetation. The trees on top were short and unimpressive, making the location completely bland and irrelevant. So much so that it almost had the opposite effect. There was no path leading there, and it was completely hidden unless someone knew of its location.

Inside, there was a short tunnel that led into a single large underground room. It was fairly large and well lit, but at the same time the air was damp and stuffy. The light was provided by irregular crystal growths that hung from the ceiling, surrounded by white stalactites. The crystals projected white light, while the stalactites seemed to glow orange and red from the inside. There probably were iron deposits inside of them, although Fenrir had to admit he had never seen such glowing crystals before. The shadows they projected onto the ceiling all around flickered with the light. The contrast made those shadows appear completely black to the eye, and rather ominous. But he could feel no presences, and the air around the ceiling was completely still. He thought that at least some animals would inhabit those shadows, perhaps something similar to bats, but if there were they were completely hidden to him.

At the center of the room, standing above a stone obelisk, there was a perfectly round metal sphere. It was suspended in mid-air around two feet from the polished red stone of the pillar, and was slowly rotating clockwise. Its surface was smooth and clean, reflecting the light coming from above as it rotated. It featured several golden lines criss crossing and drawing intricate patterns on its surface. As soon as Fenrir got close to it, he felt it react to his presence and to his jade.

The sphere began glowing and heating up. It started to vibrate and whirr in place, moving so fast it became a blur. Then it suddenly stopped. Small beams of light filtered through its surface from the slits of its golden lines, becoming thicker and thicker as those lines detached themselves from the silver surface of the sphere and began hovering all around it. Then, the whole construct morphed and shifted, until it produced a kind of antenna at its summit. The antenna glowed blue, looking like it was being bathed in Cherenkov radiation, until it pointed towards the captain and fired a blue beam of lightning directly at his head. Then the world went black.

[Compatible host detected]

[Preliminary operations]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Preliminary operations successful]

[Reading host memory]

[...]

[...]

[Found relevant data:]

>digital technology

>microprocessors

>data storage

>classic computation

>AIs

>neural networks

>quantum computing

[Constructing system]

[...]

[...]

[Data found:]

>RPG game system

[Implementing]

[...]

[Building innate skills:]

[...]

[Unique Skill: Transcendent]

[...]

[System build successful]

[Unique Skill: System Version 1.0.0]

[Booting up]

[...]

[Found evidence of mana accumulation]

[Magic affinity: F]

Slowly, he tried to open his eyes. His head was pounding, and his vision was still blurry, but he managed to understand where he was. He was back in the familiar room on the tree, in what he supposed was Luna’s home. He had passed out again, and the thought that the elder elf had to carry him all the way here was not very pleasant in his mind. But, most importantly, what were those weird things he thought he saw while he was unconscious? He tried to recall what the text said, but found it almost impossible to remember it clearly. He had been knocked out pretty hard, and it was normal for his memory to be all jumbled. But… he felt different, somehow.

“Damn, I wish there was some kind of status report like on the ship.” He muttered to himself as he tried to sit upright. His body seemed fine, but his head hurt like hell. It was as if he had been run over by a truck. Except only his head.

Fenrir [Level: 1]

Magic affinity: [F]

Unique skills: Transcendent; System Version 1.0.0

Active Skills: none

Passive Skills: none

“What?” he scratched the back of his head, incredulously looking at the holographic window that had appeared before him. It looked exactly like the status windows that he used back on the Defiant. But those were made out of congealed photons held in place by force fields, in other words they were a result of technology. There was no such tech here, nothing of the sorts of devices that could produce such an image in mid-air. He had checked, and the level of technology these people had was very much paleolithic. True, he hadn’t seen much, but everything pointed towards a kind of bucolic village living in communion with nature. He couldn’t imagine these elves secretly developing advanced technology, while at the same time living frugally inside of giant trees.

He poked the screen with a finger, to see whether it was touch sensitive. The finger went straight through, warping the image around it momentarily. Then, he tried to identify whether there was a keyword that had to be said in order to conjure up and then make the screen disappear. “Status.” he said again. Surely enough, the status window vanished.

“Status.” now it reappeared, just as before, hovering right in front of it. It moved with him as he moved around, remaining always at the best distance for reading.

He examined it. So basically it featured a level next to his name, in a video game fashion. Then it mentioned magic and skills. Since pressing with his finger yielded no results, and neither did using words or thoughts, he decided to momentarily drop the matter until he had more data available. He changed clothes, making use of the clean ones the elves had generously offered him folded onto a chair, and then headed out of the room to look for known faces.

Fortunately he found Eldor sitting in the living room, sipping some sort of tea at the table where they had dinner last night. Trying not to recall the unpleasant experience, he called out to him.

“Oh, hello. You are finally awake.” the elf said, drawing another sip of the steaming liquid. “Want some?”

“Sure, thanks.” he took a cup and sipped. The liquid was bitter and fiery hot, but refreshing and invigorating. He could feel something odd going on inside of him as the tea made its way into his stomach, but the sensation was rather pleasant. It seemed unlikely that the elf would spike his tea, considering that he could have done whatever he wanted to him while he was out cold. He dismissed the idea. “How long have I been out?”

“Just a couple of hours.”

“I see… why did the damn sphere zap me?”

“It was not just a sphere. That thing… was the oracle. It’s unbelievable, really. To think that the oracle would choose a human.” It was evident what the elf thought about humans. Somehow, though, Fenrir could feel that his deprecating words were not directed at him. Quite the opposite, actually, for he felt like Eldor now held some sort of respect or reverence towards him. It was hard to tell, given all his social ineptitude, but he felt a hint of that somewhere.

“It chose me? To do what?”

“That I do not know. You will have to find out your path yourself.” He said, and slowly rose from his wooden chair. He politely dismissed the man, and went off with his business.

Feeling that he was no longer welcome in the room, Fenrir left. This conversation only left him with more questions, and the only thing he felt he needed right now was to see Lunora. He missed her: he hadn’t seen her since yesterday evening. He began his descent down the hollow trunk of the massive tree that was home to his host family. It was impressive how the elf chief had managed to carry him all the way up here. Fenrir had all of his genetic enhancements to aid him, and yet he was already sweating profusely. And he was not even halfway down yet.

Awarding passive skill: Endurance 1; Stamina 1

“Uh? What’s that?” He said, stopping in his tracks. He sat down onto the branch he was in in order to examine the menu more safely. He didn’t want to risk falling down several hundred meters just because he was distracted. Apparently the system that had installed itself in his head had rewarded him with two skills for the effort of climbing down the stairway.

Endurance: increases proficiency in aerobic activities. Power increases with level.

Stamina: increases proficiency in anaerobic activities. Power increases with level.

Odd. But that was not all, for those two names had now appeared in his status screen, in the passive skills section. It really was like a video game, all the way down to skills and levels. He could feel the effect of those two new skills already. The descent now felt less tiring, and his breath less laboured. He felt he could run faster, and for longer. It was an awesome sensation, but where was this power coming from?

Also, if he now had skills, did this mean he also had magic? Even if he had, though, he had no idea how to use it. His first attempts failed and made him realize just how cringe he must have been to see. If any of his old crew had seen him wave his hands around like that… the crew… damn he missed them.

The rest of the descent went on without much happening. He kept looking down at his feet, feeling gloomy and sad. He cursed himself for thinking such sad thoughts even when he was genuinely feeling better. It was like his mind had not given him permission to be happy. He noticed that his skills had both gained a level, and that his descent felt much easier now, but he didn’t care. No amount of skills or power will ever bring back his friends.

But now he was here. In the present, not in the past. He shook his head, trying to clear away the dark clouds that had gathered. It was true that he couldn't do anything to change the past, but that didn’t mean that he could not change the future. He had an objective now, didn’t he? He had sworn to protect Lunora, to be her friend and her guardian angel.