Ray realized he would look like an enemy flying into the city on a column of blue

light. He couldn’t let the locals see him and think he was some kind of witch to be

burned. The metal hand was bad enough.

“Lamp, set us down at the edge of the tree line,” thought Ray. “Flying in might be a

mistake.”

Affirmative.

Ray dropped to the ground a few feet from where he thought he would land. He

needed to be a little more specific in the future.

He started walking toward the walled town. He wondered what was out in the dark.

He decided that he needed to set up some ground rules in case something happened

to him where he couldn’t function.

“Lamp, I’m going to give you some instructions that I want you to follow,” thought

Ray. “I need you to keep me functional, and heal up any damage when possible.

Deflect or block anything hostile to me when possible. Aggregate information about

the four invasion sites to see if there is any way to predict where the fifth site will be.

That’s where our target will be if he has to do any kind of preparation.”

Affirmative.

“All right,” thought Ray. “We’re not here to fight everyone we see. We’re going to

go into town and see if we can get a place to stay for the night. Then tomorrow, we

need to find a place to get more information.”

Affirmative.

“I guess a library would be the best place to get started, then maybe actually looking

at the sites in person later,” thought Ray. “I wanted to do it all tonight, but I don’t

think I can.”

He walked up to the main gate that he could see. The guards looked down at him. He

still wore his shirt and jeans with the blue metal arm sticking out of the sleeve. He

wondered how they were taking that.

Maybe they thought he could only afford armor for one arm. That meant he was a

poor fighter, if that was his profession.

Would they let him in? He was showing up in the middle of the night after the gates

closed. He decided they might make him sleep outside the walls until daylight.

He decided he was okay with that as long as he had a place away from any predators

that might come along.

“Hello the wall,” Ray called out. He waved a hand. “Is it okay to come inside?”

“The gates are closed until daylight,” called down one of the guards. “You have to

wait until then.”

“All right,” said Ray. “Thank you.”

Thanks for nothing.

“Lamp,” thought Ray. He examined the front of the wall. “I’m going to sleep here at

the base of the wall. Wake me if anything comes along that needs to be dealt with,

repulse any attack with the minimum force necessary. I don’t want to leave a trail of

bodies everywhere I go.”

Affirmative.

Ray lay on the grass, propped up against the wall. He wished he had a blanket. He felt

vulnerable without a cover. He made a sound of irritated amusement. They gave him

a magic arm, some gold and food, but not a tent, or coat to act as a blanket.

Gods. They expected so much, but gave so little.

He laughed at himself and rolled on his side. The lamp would take care of him until

morning. He had enough in his bag to keep him going until he found a place to use

for his search.

He wished he had enough power to send messages home. That would be great.

Barbara was probably worried sick over this.

He decided it had been a good thing to tell her about the marker. He imagined she

would be even more worried if he had just vanished without a trace. It was one thing

to know your loved one was away, and might not come back, compared to just left

without a trace for a number of years, and then maybe showed up out of the blue.

If things had been reversed, he would have liked to have known what was going on.

Ray finally fell asleep. He wandered a world of code pouring into an engine of flame.

He observed it, but wasn’t part of it. And he thought some of the code emulated life

of some sort. He wanted to touch it, but by the time he had stretched out a hand to

grab a piece of a number, light shining on his face woke him up.

“Good morning, Lamp,” said Ray. He didn’t move from his spot. “Any problems

while I was asleep?”

Negative. The mechanical voice comforted Ray with its sense of purpose and

practicality.

“All right,” thought Ray. “Let’s get something to eat, and think about how we’re

going to start our search.”

He pulled out his water skin and a wrapped package. He undid the string holding the

paper closed. He smiled at the bread and dried meat. Someone had chopped up apples

and put the slices in.

“This food will go bad quick,” said Ray. He wolfed his meal down. “I forgot how

much refrigeration helped things.”

Ray took one last sip of water before standing up. The best place to start was a

library. If he couldn’t find one, he would have to find an expert taleteller to tell him

what had happened during the other invasion waves.

Reputations would have been made during an event like that. Someone would have

reported it as a story, or as news if they had such.

“Lamp, we may need an aggregate of events around each invasion,” thought Ray.

“Maybe there’s a common factor that was overlooked.”

Affirmative.

Ray nodded as he went to the gate. He realized that he might be killed before he even

saw the gates open in the two years everyone was planning on. He had to think about

that.

“Lamp, I don’t know what the recall procedure is if I die,” thought Ray. “Anything

we learn about the invasions should be handed over to Woad so he could do

something about it.”

Affirmative.

He wondered if he was being monitored. If he got killed in the next few minutes,

would Woad’s people know? Would they take the arm back, or leave it on the field

for anyone to use?

He decided that wasn’t his problem. He was there to redeem his marker. Anything

else was not something he could do a lot about at the moment.

Once he had a handle on his situation, maybe he could get Woad to leave the arm

with someone worthy enough to use it.

He doubted that would be a consideration for the one eyed man.

Ray waited patiently for the gate to open. He thought he could knock it down with his

metal arm. He decided against it. Being impatient would just get him a lot of trouble

for nothing.

The gate split apart as the guards opened the city for business. He was the first one

there for those doing their daily business. He waved at the guards in attendance as he

entered. None of them waved back.

He needed to find his library. Once he had done that, he could think about setting up

somewhere and using that as his base while he was in the city.

He decided not to ask the guards for directions. They seemed too ready to jump to

anger. He didn’t want to announce his presence to them, and have to fight them off

before he got what he wanted.

He was sure he could fight them off with the lamp. He had asked for an omniversal

tool. Taking care of the local police should be within its capabilities.

Ray headed into the city. He tried to enjoy the people going about their businesses as

he went about his. He wished he could send a picture back home so Barbara and the

kids could see what he was experiencing.

Not the arm amputation. That would be a little too much. But the rest of it so far

should be okay.

He wondered what they were doing right now.

He should have been there to take them to the game. He doubted they would have

traded this for that.

He found a local saloon. Maybe he could ask for directions there.

The smell of cooking food made his stomach rumble. He looked at the menu, but

couldn’t read the local scrip. He nodded to himself. He should have expected that.

Games just let you assume you spoke whatever language was being spoken if it

wasn’t your native country as setting.

“Lamp, translate the writing if you can,” thought Ray. “I would like to grab

something to eat.”

Affirmative.

An overlay appeared over the written words. Ray smiled when he saw pancakes was

on the menu. He would love to get some of those before he explored the city.

“Welcome to the Blue Oak,” said a waitress. The accent seemed strange, but Ray

realized the fire was translating her words into English for him without being asked.

“I would like to get some breakfast and some directions, ma’am,” said Ray.

“Where would you like to go?,” she asked. One hand pushed back the braid of

brunette hair over her shoulder.

“I was hoping there was a place I could find out information about the local history,”

said Ray. “A library, or a school?”

“There is a university toward Grandview,” said the waitress. She pointed in the

general direction of where he was supposed to go.

“I’m new here,” said Ray.

“Grandview is on the north side of town,” said the waitress. “The university is on a

hill overlooking the neighborhood.”

“Thank you,” said Ray. “Could I have whatever you are serving?”

“We’re serving pancakes and bacon today. Chopped tomatoes will be on the side,”

said the waitress.

“That will be fine,” said Ray. “Thank you for your help.”

“Can I ask you a question?,” asked the waitress.

“Sure,” said Ray.

“How did you get an arm like that?,” she asked. She pointed at his blue metal arm.

“I owed a lot of money,” said Ray. “So they took my arm instead of the coins I

owed.”

“That’s some tough stuff,” said the waitress. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s not a big deal,” said Ray. “Do you have syrup to go on the pancakes?”

“No, we don’t,” said the waitress. Her expression said she had never heard of such

a thing.

“That’s okay,” said Ray. “Could you bring me two servings. I’m starving.”

“Take a seat,” said the waitress. “I’ll bring your food to you as soon as it’s done.”

“Thank you for your help,” said Ray.

“It’s not a big deal,” said the waitress. “Sorry about your arm.”

“I’ll live,” said Ray. He smiled.

He found a table near the back of the room and sat down. He realized the lamp in his

arm would burn up a lot of resources if he went without food for any length of time.

He shook his head.

Aldur could have done better than this