Chapter 8 – First Lesson

Something about this is terribly wrong. That was the first thought that went through my mind. And I certainly didn't mean the murderous headache, because I had become accustomed to waking up in pain somehow. No, it rather was the environment that I absolutely couldn't assign. Neither was I lying on my thin mat inside a tent in the Shiverpeaks, nor on my bed in Rata Sum. The mattress was hard, but softly padded with several blankets and tons of smaller pillows, and the blankets were in no comparison to the scratchy Dolyak furs I had been sleeping in for a week. I opened my eyes, slowly, to get used to the bright light, and sat up to look around. Too fast, as I then realized, because I was immediately grabbed by a dizziness that threatened to knock me right back to the mattress.

"Whoa, slowly! You have to have a huge hangover, judging by what you drank last night, so give your head a little more time!"

Startled, I let out a feint scream and frantically tried to search for the source of this voice. Not far from me, an asura was leaning against a stone counter, with two steaming cups in his hands. Brown curls stood out wildly on all sides of his head and he wore plain brown city clothes, but I recognized his face from somewhere. In my head, I went through all sorts of different situations where I could have met this person, until I remembered the breakfast scene with Zojja. This was the chef who provided the college of Synergetics for food! What was his name again? Bernd? Broll? Blimm?

The asura laughed out loud, apparently reading my expression and pretty much knowing what was going on inside my head. "You have no idea what happened last night, right?"

Panicked, I looked down at me. Did I wear clothes? Yes. Phew. Did I wear any other marks, scratches, bruises? Only the usual injuries from training with Narru.

He raised his hands reassuringly, still holding the cups in them, as I pulled the blanket up to my neck. "No, no, nothing in this direction. I'm Bromm, remember?" Bromm! That was the name. I nodded.

"We met at the victory celebration yesterday. You do remember the victory against Zhaitan, right?" Another nod. "Well, you drank. A lot. And when it was getting late and I couldn't find anyone who was with you or knew where you live, I took you here. Nothing else! I mean, you almost drank yourself in a coma and didn't wake up once during the whole travel."

I couldn't manage more than an "oh!". I vaguely remembered seeing a familiar face and much laughter that followed, but I was denied any further memory.

"Oh…" I said again and with some embarrassment, I took the still steaming mug that Bromm handed me. "I… um… I'm Szallejh." I stammered miserably to myself and made Bromm laugh again.

"I know that you're Zojja's niece. We talked for a long time last night after all. But obviously you don't remember even a bit of it."

Carefully, I sipped the tea. Could be green tea, with a touch… vanilla? Hmm, possible. But there's something else… Something I can't classify.

The taste of the tea was perfect, even though I didn't think much of green tea usually, and although I repeatedly burned my tongue on the hot brew, it definitely made me feel much better. And with me, I meant my head. Not only did it soothe some of the burn in my throat, but it also calmed the roar inside my skull. No aspirin could have worked better in this situation.

Bromm cleared his throat and placed his mug on the counter. "I'll make us some breakfast then… if you want."

I just nodded; thinking about food, my stomach went crazy, refusing any other kind of communication. I pressed my hands to the grumbling belly in vain as I tried to suppress the feeling of nausea that came up after not eating something for too long, hoping that it would disappear soon or that I would get something to eat soon enough before it became critical.

While Bromm was busy behind the counter with all sorts of equipment, I looked around the room a bit. So far, I hadn't seen another asuran apartment except the miserable student rooms, and so I was all the more curious to know how normal asura lived, if they could afford more than a room that was only the size of a few feet.

I figured out that I was probably lying on a kind of sofa, which was basically just a niche carved into the stone wall, which had been lined with blankets and pillows in neutral shades of brown. Opposite of me, behind the counter, was a narrow kitchen unit with something that looked similar to an oven, except that it lowed unnaturally blue and gave off pulsating light, and a single stove plate under which a gas flame blazed with a splendid play of colors. In addition, innumerable buttons, switches and levers shone in all sizes and shapes. Probably not the right kitchen for just frying some simple eggs, and there were pans of different sizes everywhere, some even so big that they could've belonged to Norn before, and some so primitive that I wondered if they would really serve their purpose as a pan. Bromm really seemed to be a passionate chief.

On the other free walls hung shelves, some with books, some with tablets, and on others were golem parts, rune stones, and all sorts of stuff I couldn't define. Again. I should really educate myself a bit.

To the left were two doors, one with the familiar wave symbol and another, through whose open crack I could see a rumbled hammock. To my right was a single plain door, with a few shoes stacked messily, most likely the front door.

The apartment didn't look very large and was mostly made of stone and metal, but it was functional and comfortable in its own way. Special lamps on the ceiling created the illusion of daylight, which meant they mimicked a reddish glow appropriate to the sunrise, for the narrow triangular window next to the kitchen unit didn't let in much of the morning sun. But behind the slightly polluted glass, there was a wonderful mixture of colors on the clouds, which were bathed in a variety of reds, yellows and violets. A faint feeling in my stomach, which definitely was not hunger-related, reminded me of how high we had to be above the ground, and all of a sudden I didn't trust this huge stone cube anymore that weighed a lots of hundreds of tons, hovering in the air simply held my magic.

While I had studied my surroundings, Bromm had finished whatever he had prepared, and now he approached me with two bowls filled to the brim. I put down my now empty mug and gratefully accepted the food, while Bromm took a seat next to me on the sofa; but he left so much space that his closeness left no signs of anxiety. I didn't know what had happened between us last night, but he seemed to have a good feeling that I felt a bit uncomfortable in my situation because of my lack of memories.

"Hmm, that tastes really fabulous!" I mumbled with my mouth full as I savored the taste that spread along my tongue. Bromm had made something reminiscent of sandwich, just inside a bowl: thick toasted slices of bread with egg, bacon and salad. And even though I had absolutely no idea what the ingredients for the sauce were, it tasted delicious. Bromm just nodded as a sign that he appreciated my compliment and stared at his breakfast a little embarrassed while he ate. He seemed to try to say something now and then, but each time his mouth closed again with no sound coming out of it. Maybe he was embarrassed, too, and the thought made me giggle.

We spent the rest of our meal in silence, and while it was a slightly insecure silence I appreciated that I didn't have to talk about everything for once and just could get lost in my own thoughts while enjoying my breakfast. This whole world seemed so surreal; while it definitely felt real to be here, all this shouldn't be able to happen at all! How was that even possible? This world was known to me as an online game, all persons around me had to be fictive characters, born from the written words of a more or less creative game designer. But for those beings, this was the real world, and if one was going to tell them that…

I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind. No one would be able to just accept the truth of existing in a parallel world just as a NPC, not as a real person, with their fate being controlled by thousands of humans. Steered by strangers' hands, like a puppet. Was anywhere out there another universe or another world, where my home simply existed as some kind of game? I shuddered. I didn't feel comfortable at the thought that possibly there was someone out there knowing everything about me and my fate like I knew about the future of Tyria.

We finished breakfast eventually and Bromm got up, taking my empty bowl with him while he strolled back to the kitchen.

"So you're studying in synergetics?" he asked while stowing the dirty dishes inside a box that reminded me of the cloth cleaning systems back in the dorms. I cleared my throat sheepishly and for a moment considered to just tell him a lie.

"To be honest… I'm not studying anything. I have lived in the Shiverpeaks for a long time and came to Rata Sum only some time ago."

Bromm stared at me with surprise, and I could sense a bit of… disappointment!? Yes, I was sure that he didn't like that answer at all. But what had he expected in the first place? I suddenly felt very uncomfortable and wanted to leave this home as soon as possible. With some hesitation, I shoved the blanket away, got up and tried to tidy my randomly mixed clothes, though they were completely crumbled from the night.

"I suppose it's time to leave now. Thank you for everything you did."

Bromm seemed to be hesitant of what to do next, but he didn't try to hold me back. He shuffled his feet on the floor while I failed to put on my shoes and opened the door for me. I could hear some mumbled words of farewell, but the door was already closed again when I turned around.

I felt dumbfounded the way I just stood there. Did I say something wrong, or was it really just the fact that I wasn't as smart as he had thought I was that caused him to react that way? Did an asura really lose face just because they didn't graduate from a college? Maybe I should ask Zojja to teach me some bits. Maybe I could make it someday… no matter if it would be good, as long as I could graduate.

In the second I stepped away from the door, the unbridled noisy heat from Rata Sum confronted me. Bromm's home had to be isolated in a very good way, not only against the heat, but also against the enormous noise level covering the lower levels of Rata Sum.

Initially I had planned to enter my room first, but now I imagined it would make more sense to visit Zojja first and question her all the things floating through my head. I didn't know where she lived, but I was optimistic to find her in her lab anyway, and even a progeny in this city would be able to point me there.

It was enough to ask a single asura, an elder one with bald head, ragged ears and friendly eyes, and even though he stared at me with unspoken questions in his eyes, he pointed to one of the three humming portals on the southwestern side of Rata Sum's top level, except only the council sat higher.

In front of the portal that would probably lead to the Snaff memorial lab stood a dark-skinned asura with a monocle and piercing blue eyes that made me forget my purpose here for a heartbeat. A hologram over his chest revealed him as "Gate Monitor Az", and he gave me a grumpy look while I just stood in front of him, searching for the right words.

"Uhh, I… I want to visit my aunt, Zojja. She should be in her lab, I guess."

Az dug up some kind of tablet, activated the glowing display with a quick movement and scrolled down a list of names while mumbling some incomprehensible words. "Zojja's niece, huh? Didn't know she had relatives after all. Let me see if I can find your name on the entry list. What was your name again?"

"Oh, uh… Szallejh."

With a frown, Az checked the list a second time, though it didn't seem to be many names on it as far as I could tell, but he shrugged eventually. "Sorry, I can't find your name on the list. It seems like Zojja doesn't want you to visit her lab after all."

I could almost hear my head spinning while I searched for a way to get to Zojja after all. How could I have believed that a genius like Zojja, who would be working day and night for sure, accepted visits from any idiot inside Rata Sum after all?

"Yeah, that… I think that's because I moved to Rata Sum only recently. I'm sure she just forgot to add me to the list!"

Az snorted without any signs of humor. "Zojja forgot. Of course she did." He sighed. "Alright, I can send a query through if you insist. But remember that a refusal will cause a lifelong blockage."

That sounded quite hard, but I nodded. Az typed something into his tablet, which started to blink red, and waited.

I shifted from one foot to another nervously. Zojja wouldn't reject me, would she? Narru had spoken about her duty to give me some lessons, but who knew if she would really do that? Who could promise me that Zojja wouldn't get tired of me soon enough and just stopped talking to me?

A surprised "Oh!" from Az brought me back to reality again. The tablet was glowing green now, and Az stepped aside while looking obviously confused. "Well then, she let you in. Your name will be on the list from now on. But rethink every word before you speak it out loud, as she can remove you from the list within a heartbeat. And once removed, there is no chance to be added again. That's the rules. Alright, you might pass then."

With a hard swallow, I took out my tag so he could scan it, and he only inspected it with a confused gaze without taking it. For some moments, I just stared at him, waiting for Az to order me to pay a portal fee or something, but all he did was staring back with the same confusion.

"Is there no portal fee?" I eventually asked carefully, but that only seemed to confuse Az even more. He shook his head.

"This is a private portal. Private so not everyone can step through it, and private because the costs are all being paid by the lab's owner. Oola's ghost, did you leave your brain back at Hoelbrak?"

"Somewhere in that direction." I replied with a grin, while wondering how much gold Zojja had to own to be able to own such a portal.

I gave Az a short wink, enjoyed the sight of his confused face for a last time and ascended the ramp towards the portal, with its unnatural humming growing louder with each step. I could feel how a part of me was being pulled towards the portal, and even though my stomach turned at the thought of portal travelling again, I knew that this would be the only way. And the more often I travelled through portals, the more I would get used to it. At least I hoped.

"Out you go, you worthless pile of skritt-junk!" Zojja's angry voice confronted me as soon as I stepped through the portal. A very upset asura ran past me, with slacking ears and tightly pressing a tiny bundle to her chest. I followed her with my eyes until she disappeared through the portal, then turned around to face Zojja, who stood at some stone steps to my left with arms crossed in front of her chest, while the other asura were hiding behind their desks in fear.

I wasn't surprised at all that right now someone seemed to have been dismissed from Zojja's krewe, and I knew it wouldn't be the last one. Zojja was a quite bossy person in general, and as I was glad that this couldn't happen to me since I was no part of any krewe, I approached her slowly.

"How long did she take it?" I asked with a grin and gave my aunt an arm as a greeting. Zojja only now seemed to take note of my visit, threw a short irritated glance at my arm and snorted. "Two days! Two days and she already was trying to blow up my whole lab. Can't believe she wanted to equip a S3-golem with megalaser-powerstones! Useless pack."

I sighed and took back my arm. "And how many fired members is this now for this week?"

"Only the fifth, why do you ask?"

I couldn't hold back the laughing that shook me and wagged my head in disbelief. I had expected something like that, but five people? As if it wasn't a good day without at least one asura being fired in this krewe.

"Well… I'm afraid you'll run out of aspirants for your krewe if you keep on treating them like this, don't you think?"

"As if! Every one of those lesser wannabe inventors would give all they have to work for a genius like me!" I could make out some indignant glances in the faces that hid behind the desks as Zojja called them lesser beings, but not one dared to speak up.

"So, will you hire me?"

The staggered look made me laugh again, and most of the asura in attendance probably wondered if I had completely lost my mind to make jokes like that in front of Zojja. My aunt turned around with a "Pah!" and waddled back up the stairs to her console, where she continued to putter around. I followed her so I could see what was lying at the tables besides the console, were dozens of panels moved, shifted, ran up and down scrolls and others turned and changed position. To my left I could make out some kind of burner with blue fire, some vessels and jars, a knife and tongs, holding onto something that had been burnt to unrecognizability. To my right were a microscope, some quick sketches and blueprints and a tray holding something black that definitely had been some body part in the past, but I refused to think about it more.

I sighed. "Since my job interview has failed very badly – let's talk about the real reason I came here. Do you have a moment for me?"

Zojja didn't look away from her console. "No, I don't. I am quite busy right now, as you might see. But you're lucky enough to talk to someone who is genius enough to work and answer your petty little questions at the same time. What is it?"

That's called multi-tasking where I come from. Mostly used by women who think they know everything.

"Oh, auntie, you're the best." I said with a grin and got another very confused look from Zojja. Pushing aside the working utensils from the table's stone plate, I sat upon it with the hope it had been built for more weight than I had. The other krewe members were slowly but steadily getting back to their work again too, while they still seemed to be quite careful and no one dared to come to close to Zojja for now. I supposed most of them were wondering who of them would be fired next, and I shook my head. It was beyond my comprehension how someone would voluntarily work in this krewe, living with such fears every day. Maybe Zojja paid well enough? Can't imagine that from someone like her. Maybe it's just the reputation…

"Okay, so, you genius of multitasking. There are some… really dumb questions I want to ask, if you can call it like that. But I don't have to justify in front of you anyway, I assume… And it's even better right now that people are avoiding you for the moment. So, first question. What about asuran tooth hygiene?"

Zojja definitely seemed to be dumbfounded with that question. She stared at me with big eyes, opened and closed her mouth like a fish, searching for words, and was close to throwing her hands up in despair. "Your first days in a completely new world, and your first question is about how asura clean their friggin' teeth!?"

I only shrugged. While I had used decorticated twigs back in the Shiverpeaks every morning (which had worked just fine for the time being), there had to be other ways of getting a more fresh breath without having to search for a tree every single day. Which would prove more difficult in Rata Sum than in the Shiverpeaks for sure.

"It's easy. We tear out a few clumps of fur of some friendly Charr and use them as dental silk. Makes the special taste, if you get what that means."

Now it was my turn to open my mouth like a fish. Of course I knew that Zojja was joking, but I hadn't been prepared for an asura like her being able to use this kind of irony.

Zojja returned to typing on her console like crazy and I tried to decipher some of the lines, but they were running up the display too fast for me to understand whole sentences. The only thing I managed to understand was that this had to have something to do with devourers.

"You should get yourself a TC-Tron. Just ask for it the next time you get to the market place. It's easy to operate and will clean your toothlets with arcane energy. Just be careful you don't hold it too close to your eyes, as you wouldn't be the first asura to get blinded by the radiance."

"Oh." I moved around a bit on the table plate, slightly unsettled by the faint creaking noise coming from the material. The decorticated twig didn't seem that primitive to me anymore, and I was sure I'd prefer it over the danger of getting blinded. Wasn't there anything that just worked as simple as a normal toothbrush?

"Good, ehm… next. I was at Bromm's home this morning, and he seemed to like me… until I mentioned that I'm not studying on any college."

Zojja rolled her eyes in an excessively way. "Oh, dear. You have to stop those human thoughts inside your little brain! Of course the men are interested in you, since you're my niece, and they most likely expect you to be a similar genius as me, coming together with the same high status. There will be more showing such behavior towards you, but not because you're beautiful or something. It's just the status that's promising, nothing more. And as soon as they realize that you can't compete with my brain power, they lose interest."

Ouch. "So… Do asura only agree on relationships when there's profit for both sides? No real feelings or anything?" It did appall me that Bromm just had been this friendly to me because I was about to officially become the niece of a celebrity. But on the other hand, what did I expect? Asura were nothing more than an arrogant, selfish and on their personal profit fixated race after all. Zojja was right, I had to rework my way of thinking completely if I wanted to fit into this world at some point. But was this what I wanted? To live in a completely selfish society, where nothing and no one counted except your own person?

"Asura are not as emotionless as you might think now. Of course do many of them only conceive a progeny to pass on their genius of both sides to the next generation, and marriages will most likely come together with a higher status, but there are indeed a few who commit themselves to others just because of aberrant feelings. Mostly a decision they will regret later on, but" –she sighed theatrically – "love does exist for asura too." Judging her depreciating tone, she didn't think highly of this subject, and I wondered if Zojja had ever fallen in love before, or if she was able to at all.

"But what is the role a family plays then, when emotionality is this undervalued? Do asura have something like a real family after all?"

Zojja's look could be compared now to staring at a crushed insect with disgust. "What, do you think we're like Charr, who just give away their cubs as soon as they can survive without their doms and sires, just to get back to their lower cravings? What a waste! Asura are eager to provide the best education to our progenies, because as soon as they belong to the great geniuses of their time, we will profit too. But if you have more questions concerning this topic, you should probably talk to someone with more practical experience than me."

I swung my legs in thoughts. Somewhere behind us, I could hear a suppressed curse and held my breath for a moment, but nor did something blow up; neither could I hear anything else happen.

"Zojja… You were a child once too! What about your family?"

She too glanced at one of the lab tables in the back, and her body relaxed visibly, while not completely, once she made sure the mistake wouldn't risk the safety of her lab for now.

"My progenitors belong to the minority of those coupling because of sentimentalism." While her voice was snarky speaking those words I was sure to see a short warm flicker in her eyes. She sighed.

"I didn't see my father very often. But my sister and I received reminiscences of his journeys now and then, rare materials, foreign technologies… And my mother, well, she let me solve equations before I could properly walk and set everything in motion so Snaff would chose me as his disciple and end Kudu's apprenticeship. Snaff has been the greatest genius in Tyria after all, that promised status! She wished the same for my sister, but when Narru decided to join the Vigil, my mother was distraught over her so much she didn't talk to my sister for many years, just because she wouldn't follow the path of a genius. You see, even this marriage was based more on purpose than on love, the purpose to generate progenies as successful as possible, even when the origins couldn't be found in the rational."

It surprised me that Zojja was unveiling so much about her past, and I was grateful for her honesty and frankness. I already knew that this definitely wasn't typical for most of the asura. It was also clear that Zojja was done with this topic now and wouldn't talk more about it. So I let her concentrate on her work for a while and watched her being completely lost in her console until I was sure she had forgotten about my presence as soon as we had stopped talking.

A golem was floating through the whole lab, from one working table to another, constantly beeping a feint rhythm. It took me a while to realize that this had to be some sort of communication device to deliver messages and things from one group to another without having to disrupt their work. How useful. And with increasing frequency, I noticed hidden glances towards our direction, most of them focused on me for sure, because Zojja wouldn't be an unusual view in her own lab. I just assumed that others had rarely managed to stay near Zojja that long before me without being fired or stomped into the ground – or both. For a short moment I even wondered if Zojja would ban me out of her life as soon as she was getting tired of my presence.

I cleared my throat after a while and Zojja startled away from her console impalpably, as if she truly had forgotten that I was still here. As if to make sure of it, she threw a quick side glance at me and gave me an arrogant "hmmpf".

"Why is High Counsillor Flax so nice to you after all?" I asked quietly, because during our silence I had remembered that the Arcane Council was known to cooperate with the Inquest. Shouldn't that imply that Zojja and the Council were on the outs with each other?

She laughed. "Believe me, dear, it has not always been that way. Flax didn't like it at all that I was able to look at his cards all the time. He tried to manipulate me as I tried to manipulate him. But since I know how corrupt the Council really is, I'm aware of things that could turn out dangerous for Flax. And he knows that I know, and that I won't hesitate to reveal pieces of my knowledge in case he is standing in my way. I used those secrets for my benefit multiple times now after Flax allowed Teyo to steal blueprints for the Snaff-Price from Tippa's krewe. Since then, the Council tries to not get into my way, as long as I leave the Council matters alone. Though I do have my doubts concerning the endurance of our unsteady peace."

I shifted my weight with raised brows, as my bottom began to hurt already from the hard stone table.

"You really doubt everything, don't you, Zojja?"

"That's what asura do. What we live for." She replied with a shrug and cursed about a red blinking window that had popped up on her console display. But the mistake was quickly found and soon the display was glowing green again.

I thought back to the day Zojja had found me. She hadn't doubted my story.

"Why do you believe me then…?"

"If there's something I know very well, it's Tyria's magic. And dear, what you did back then… that was not from this world for sure."

Back then, I had fallen off the sky out of nowhere and had sat in the grass for minutes like a maniac, and I grinned at the thought how it must have looked from Zojja's point of view. I was just shifting my weight back to the front so I could get up and search for a more comfortable place to sit, as the material below me eased with a loud Crack! and I found myself back on the floor, all around me pieces of the broken stone plate and in the middle of my lap the thing that for sure had been a body part once.

I couldn't decide yet what hurt more: my bottom or my head, which had gotten hurt by the burner and all its equipment, but as I saw the black something in my lap, I screamed in a high-pitched voice similar to a mouse and hit around me, hoping to get rid of the something that way. Unfortunately, the substance was stickier than I had thought, and I had to loosen it from my shirt by hand to finally throw it away a few meters.

After following its flight with a disgusted look, my eyes turned back to Zojja. She was staring at me with disbelief and couldn't properly close her mouth anymore. I was sure that this was the point where she would throw me from her list and out of the lab since I had destroyed a part of it, but just then Zojja begun to roar with laughter.

In those days, I had never heard her laugh that way, and the other krewe members stared at us too, shocked, surprised and with disbelief.

It still took me time to fully understand what exactly had happened to me when Zojja gave me her hand and helped me up again. With a grimace of pain I tried to rub dirt from my clothes and gave two golems a sheepish glance as they hurried towards us and started to clean the little chaos I had made.

"Eh, sorry for the work table…" I mumbled as Zojja managed to calm down a bit. The grin was still glued to her face, and I would have killed to hear her thoughts in that moment.

"Don't worry about it too much. There have been made far worse damages already inside this lab."

She examined me from top to bottom and added: "But maybe you should consider some changes in your diet?"

I tried to look as scandalized as possible, arms akimbo. "Aunty… did you just call me fat!?"

Zojja only laughed and wiped away some dust from her console that had been stirred up by my accident. "The golems will manage with the cleaning, don't let them irritate you. But before you continue to ask your human-brained questions, I have a question to you."

That caught me with surprise. "You have a question to me?"

She nodded. "What does Multitasking mean?"