Chapter 19: The Temple of Light
When Tariel came to, he found himself in a large room, filled with religious symbols and drawings on the walls. A young woman was standing next to him.
"Where am I? Who are you? What's going on?" Tariel asked.
"I am Sister Medica, chief healer of this temple. You are at the Temple of Light in Carpathia City. You almost died out there, but we rescued you and brought you back."
"Am I hurt?" Tariel asked. "Will I be able to move soon?"
"Your hit-point injuries have been healed," Medica said, "but I'm afraid to inform you that your soul has been possessed by a level 6 demonic spirit. It's sapping your energies, so you probably shouldn't leave without it being healed.
Tariel tried to move, but he struggled just to sit up. Medica was right: there would be no way he could adventure in the shape he was in. "So, can I get this demonic spirit exorcised?"
"May I see your insurance policy?"
Tariel gave Sister Medica his insurance policy scroll. Medica looked it over.
"I'm sorry, but it says here that your policy only covers exorcisms up to level 5. You're not covered. The procedure will cost you about 15,000 gold pieces."
"Fifteen thousand!" Tariel asked. "There's no way I'll ever be able to afford that! Am I doomed to be stuck here forever?"
"No, actually. Here at the Temple of Light we're proud to be on the cutting edge of magical healing research. We can heal you for free if you'll agree to participate in a new research study of our latest medical device"
"Well, it's not like I have any other choice. Sign me up."
Sister Medica wheeled over a large crackling orb. It looked similar to the TRX-900 from before, but this one looked bigger and more powerful.
"Put your hand on this."
Tariel reached out and put his hand on the orb. He felt its energy flow through him. Sister Medica then picked up a long dagger, lifted it over Tariel's heart, and prepared to brig it down.
"What is that? You're not about to stab me with it are you?"
"Just wait. This is part of the treatment."
"This isn't some newfangled magic item is it? I've used them. They don't work."
"Actually, this treatment has had almost a 100 success rate so far. This isn't one of those crappy magical items like you might find in Altaria. These are top-of-the-line models."
"Okay, fine. Just try not to kill me."
Sister Medica thrust the dagger down and into Tariel's heart. Immediately after the dagger struck, a bolt of lightning came out of the orb and into Tariel, causing him to disappear.
88.2 seconds later, the orb emitted another bolt of energy and Tariel reappeared standing up. He felt fine, with no demonic spirit whatsoever still in him. At that moment, Artalax and Talia rushed into the room.
"There you are!" Artalax said, waving a magazine. "While you were here I found some top-secret documents that might give us valuable clues!"
"Actually, he bought that at a newsstand outside the Temple," Talia said. "But it still contains valuable clues. At least that's what he seems to think for some reason."
Artalax opened the magazine and showed it to Tariel. "Here's the deal. This is the Adventurer's Quarterly, the premier magazine for heroes and adventurers throughout the entire continent. Of course, it's not available in Altaria, since we haven't developed the printing press yet."
"And how does this give us clues?" Tariel asked.
"Well, every year, the magazine publishes rankings of all 378 kingdoms on the continent, each rated by how good a place it is to adventure in. This is its 25th year of publication, and for their 25th anniversary issue they're re-publishing the ratings for all the years, so we can see how it's changing over time."
"So, what does it say?"
Artalax flipped through some pages and poined out a chart. "This chart is for Carpathia," he said. "You can see it's been in the number one position for all 25 years straight."
"Well, I would have guessed that," said Tariel. "Just think about it: We've already gained four levels and we've only been here less than a week. But what does it say about Altaria?"
Artalax flipped through some more pages until he found the relevant page. "Here's the chart for Altaria. It starts out near the top. 10th, 8th, 9th, 11th, the ranking hovers around there."
"Then what?"
"Look right here," Artalax said, pointing to an entry. "Drops from 12th to 32nd in one year. Then 63rd, 99th, 148th, and so on. Now, according to this, this year Altaria is number 378. Dead last. And you should probably notice something interesting."
"I see," said Tariel. "The year when it starts dropping is the same year that Prince Arthanis came to the throne."
"Yes," said Artalax. "The year of the ascension of Arthanis. Also the year that the so-called "Decade of Peace" starts."
"But why would the kingdom's rating go down so much because the kingdom is peaceful?"
"You're right," said Artalax. "Because the kingdom is peaceful. Remember, adventurers make their living by fighting evil, But right now it's so peaceful that there's no evil to fight. Just look at the evil-bad-guy density statistics."
Princess Talia, who was listening in on this conversation, jumped in. "How can you do this?" she asked. "How can you reduce this to mere numbers? True heroism, genuine bravery, the spirit of adventure – how can that be reduced to numbers in some chart?"
"It's right in here," Artalax said, flipping to another page. "It explains the ranking methodology right here. 20 percent of the rating is based on quest availability, 10 percent on MMSKs…"
"What are MMSKs?" Talia asked.
"Marriageable maidens per square kilometer. If I'm an adventurer, I don't want to travel through the wilderness for days looking for a maiden in a tower to rescue. The more marriageable maidens there are per square kilometer, the less time on the average I'll have to travel. Less travel time means more time for action."
"What I mean is, you can' always be concerned solely about efficiency and saving time," Talia said. "Sometimes you have to be concerned about the more holistic human factor."
"We are concerned about the human factor, Talia," Artalax said, "which is why we want to be able to do things more efficiently. Think of it this way. Let's say that, in Altaria, I have to travel for a month to find one maiden like you to rescue. But here, since there are more maidens, I can rescue three maidens in the same time frame. Now, in terms of helping others, which is better: saving one person, or saving three?"
"But, I though the rule is that if you save a marriageable maiden you have to marry her," said Talia. "You mean you're planning on marrying three people?"
"Well, I wasn't aware of any laws specifically prohibiting polygamy, at least in any kingdom I've been to," said Artalax. "But that would have to be another factor I would have to look at. Maybe Adventurer's Quarterly should take points off for kingdoms with anti-polygamy laws."
"This whole heroism thing is looking more and more like a scam every day," said Talia, and left Tariel and Artalax to continue their discussion.
"I think this is coming together," said Tariel. "Adventurers from all the way across the continent are coming here, to Carpathia, because it has such good adventuring. And they're leaving Altaria because it's so peaceful, there's no evil to fight. And I think I remember Robari saying something about Kalmeth bribing the evildoers to stop evildoing."
"You're right," said Artalax. "That's the evil plan! He bribes the evildoers, then all the adventurers can't find work so they have to move to Carpathia. So when Kalmeth's forces invade, Altaria will be defenseless!"
"So what should we do?" said Tariel. "Should we go back and warn Prince Arthanis?"
"That won't help," said Artalax. "There isn't much Prince Arthanis can do about it at this point. Even if he tells all the adventurers to stay, they'll still leave, since they can find better adventuring here. He can't keep them there by force - Altaria's military and police forces aren't anywhere near strong enough. He can't offer financial incentives to stay - Altaria's entire economy is based on adventuring, and it's in such bad shape right now that Arthanis doesn't have any money to pay them."
"Then what do we do?" asked Tariel.
"It seems to me that Kalmeth is the guy we should be after," said Artalax. "He probably has a lot of money. He's the one who's bribing the evildoers, and he also owns Kalmeth Industries, which makes all those respawn devices."
"That reminds me. What exactly do those things do? And by the way, if all the adventurers are coming to Carpathia, then how do they maintain enough evil for everyone to fight? I mean, you'd think that with all these adventurers from all over the continent, all the evil would get wiped out pretty quickly and that would be it."
"I have to admit I don't know the answers to either of those questions," said Artalax. "But they might be connected in some way, you never know."