Hmmm… Am I the only one who thinks Alea is in serious denial?
Let me know what you think, it's always wonderful to hear feedback from others. Whether it be a novel-length review on how I can improve, or a single encouraging word, hearing from you guys always makes my day. 3
(P.S. We learn some important things in this chapter, so you may want to pay very close attention.)
Chapter 9: Aldanonsense
As soon as Alea returned to the Sunken Flagon, she gathered her party and left to report back to Captain Brelaina. It'd been an exhausting few weeks, and Alea was ready to speak with Aldanon about her… unique situation. Before she could do that, however, there was still one more thing on the itinerary before they'd be granted official access to Blacklake.
The githyanki hideout may have been swarming, but to Alea's powered-up stats, it felt less like being eaten by piranhas, and more like a bunch of guppies trying to nip at her fingers. It was short and underwhelming. The blade golem was frightening to look at in person, but also wasn't overly powerful. Still, it did a respectable amount of damage to her companions as well as the githyanki. Alea had to make sure the others didn't harm it irreparably so that Grobnar would be able to fix it up later. When she ordered them not to ruin it, they looked at her like she'd gone insane. Casavir, at least, pretended not to think her mad, but the others were utterly confused as to why she would let it go.
When Brelaina heard of the ease that Alea and her companions dispatched the githyanki, she was remarkably impressed, but not even a little bit surprised. Alea had proven her worth plenty of times over. Alea nearly danced with joy hearing her entrance to Blacklake officially sanctioned.
They didn't waste time, passing the gate to the district immediately. She was guided to Aldanon's estate, and finally heard the infamously puzzling sage's voice for the first time in person. It brought an amused smile to Alea's fair face.
"I'm sorry, are you here with the delivery?" he called through the door.
Alea called back, "I'm with the City Watch, I'd like to ask you some questions.
"The Watch? Whatever are you here for? Is someone in trouble?"
"I need your help with an investigation."
"Really? I'm always happy to help the Watch – and information is something of a specialty of mine, you know. Quite a hobby. Let me just remove these wards…" There was a bit of suffling around inside before he called out again, "there, all disarmed. I think. Come right on in."
Casavir, being the gentleman he was, opened the door to allow the others through. Alea walked past him, giving him a gracious nod of thanks, and entered into a dimly-lit room. It was cozy, though well-kept. A small bench sat against a wall beneath the portrait of a red-haired young man. Alea didn't recognize him but figured he must either be an ancestor of Aldanon's or some historically significant figure. As her eyes adjusted to the low light, she saw an elderly man in white robes stride in, a cheerful smile on his face. Aldanon himself stood before her.
"Ah, well met, well met… please forgive my rather rude questions at the door. I would never intentionally stand in the way of the City Watch... well unless there was nowhere else to stand really. But that wouldn't happen unless there was a flood. I must confess, normally I'm rather, well, reclusive. Not that I dislike people, mind you – quite the contrary. But lately with all the troubles – a murderer on the loose and young nobles sneaking around, up to who knows what – I've had to place wards around my home."
"Warding your home?" Alea asked, playing along with the script once again.
"Ah yes." Aldanon responded, "Lately I've seen some figures sneaking around in the dark, and not that well-meaning sort of sneaking, either. It's obvious what they want."
Humoring him, she replied, "What do they want?"
"Why, my house, of course? As if I would ever sell it – ridiculous. I'd sooner give up my left eye. But my right annoys me at times, so that would be an easier sell."
"Alright," Alea encouraged, "Please go on."
"In any event, back when I first settled in Neverwinter, my humble abode was on the outskirts of Blacklake, bordering acres of untouched wilderness. Now with Neverwinter being rebuilt following all that plague nonsense, my property went from the periphery to being right on the main thoroughfare of the 'rich' part of Neverwinter. All the nobility wants to live in Blacklake, but there's no more room. So lately they've been trying various ways to convince me to sell my land."
"Are you sure these figures you see are nobles?"
"Of course. Who else would sneak around my home… well, present company excluded." He seemed to remember something just then, "Oh… that's right. You came here for a reason, yes?"
And so, Alea explained the situation. She told him all about where she was from and left out no details other than the fact that everyone in that room – aside from herself – was merely a video game character. She started from the beginning and told her entire story up to where they were. The others looked at her in shock when she mentioned the giant elbow-y arms. (She did, however, leave out the part where she had to kiss Sand in order to avoid being forced to massacre a bunch of drunk morons. She figured it was unimportant.)
"Great Tyr!" Aldanon exclaimed, "What a tale! The moment you arrived I knew I'd be interested in meeting you – wish I'd known that when I first greeted you, would have saved some time." He grinned cheerfully, "You've certainly come to the right place. A while ago I found another shard with properties similar to the ones you possess. I've done every possible test on the shard but learned little. However, I've never had another shard to compare it against. As for your transportation problem, I have a fair few tomes on magic portals and interdimensional theory. If you'd like some answers, I'll gladly run some test on the shards. I have just enough quicksilver to do it. I'll also need to run a few tests on you, as well as ask some questions. I have a feeling we can both learn quite a bit!" He seemed incredibly excited to have something so interesting literally walk up to his doorstep.
Alea wasn't sure she liked the sound of the semi-mad sage running 'tests' on her, but she'd come this far and wasn't going to back down now, "Alright. Lead the way."
"Excellent! If you would just come in here and stand right in this circle here… yes, perfect. Now, I want you to tell me everything you remember about what happened before and after you ended up here."
Alea had prepared for this, knowing he would need some explanation as to how she ended up here before he could give her any definitive answers. She explained everything, expertly skirting around the fact that this world – at least where she was from – didn't actually exist. It was a speech she'd practiced in her head, as well as with Sand, many times over in order to give Aldanon what he needed, and nothing more. He was practically entranced with her tale, stopping her periodically to ask questions.
As she spoke, he brought out several odd-looking items, potions, and reagents. She watched as he mixed several together and sputtered as he occasionally splashed something in her face without warning. Each time this happened, he'd go, "Hmmm… Yes, go on," and simply continue mixing and busying about doing whatever it was he was doing for his tests. There was one point where he nearly set her hair on fire, and she began to doubt that he was learning much, if anything, from these odd little tests.
When he was done testing her, he ushered her out of the room and went about testing the shards. She was less interested in what he'd say about these, as she'd heard that bit several times by now. She waited patiently, occasionally hearing some sort of strange sound from Aldanon's lab. She sat on the bench by the wall until he finally came out.
"My tests are complete. With another shard to use as a comparison… well, I learned quite a bit. Quite a lot, actually. It appears these shards contain latent magical energy caused by a strong enchantment from when they were whole… or from their method of destruction. Furthermore, the shards resonate when they are brought together, increasing the magical energy output accordingly. These shards are pieces of a broken githyanki silver sword. Are you familiar with the githyanki?"
"Far more than you could imagine, yes."
"Well, then you would know that the githyanki are a race of beings that dwell on the Astral plane, led by Vlaakith, the Lich Queen. Not a nice woman, I hear. Ages ago, the ancestors of the githyanki were human, and inhabited another plane of existence, where they were enslaved by the illithids, or mind flayers. I believe you may have been brought here from your own world in a similar fashion to how they occasionally travel here. Perhaps as a side effect of one of their blades shattering. Although that would have to happen several times in order for such a strong effect to reach all the way to your plane of existence. My guess would be about-"
Alea interrupted him, understanding showing on her face, "Thirteen times…" She spoke in barely a whisper, but her voice easily carried throughout the room.
Aldanon considered this for a moment, then nodded, "Yes, I suppose that would do it. It would take a force of incredible power to shatter a silver sword after all, let alone thirteen of them. In fact, I've never heard of one being broken before. It could be that the githyanki are as interested in how it was broken as they are in reclaiming the pieces."
Her mouth dropped open as she processed this information. If this was all happening because she played the game so many times it literally sucked her in, then what did that mean about her world, or the other worlds that she'd always thought were simply stories?
Aldanon, not noticing her shock, continued, "Then came Gith. Little is known about her outside the githyanki, but she led the rebellion to free her people of the illithids, and is considered the hero and founder of the githyanki people. The githyanki silver swords are forged with the special purpose of severing the silver cord that connects the form of an astrally projecting traveler to his or her material counterpart. They look like a regular githyanki weapon until used in combat, at which point they turn into a column of flowing, shimmering liquid, really quite amazing, I'm told. I believe the shards that you have found are pieces of one of these silver swords. I presume the githyanki have come to Faerün to recover the shards."
Alea half-listened as Aldanon prattled on, still trying to process this information. If the silver swords were real, and not just some in-game item, and she'd played what she thought was just an RPG so many times that they were somehow able to reach across whatever veil separated her world and this one, then what did that mean for her? Was she really herself? When she had supposedly come from her home to here and turned from Sophie to Alea, did she actually end up here, or was she only a shadow of the girl she thought she was.
Her mind spun in circles, trying to make sense of everything. She fought the urge to pass out as she underwent a true existential crisis. There were fictional stories in her world – or what she thought was her world – of people either intentionally or accidentally copying their own consciousness and that copy winding up somewhere else. After all she'd been though, could she really write them off as only stories? After all, she'd thought Neverwinter was fictional, and yet here she was, standing beside what she had always thought of as mere characters.
After a moment, she noticed everyone was staring at her, waiting for some sort of response. Working hard to keep her voice from squeaking, she aksed, "Is there anything else you can tell me?" Her eyes were pleading, but she already knew the answer.
"I wish I knew more. Ammon Jerro was the real expert. He actually possessed a silver sword."
"Where can I find him?" Again, she already knew the answer.
"Well, he's dead now, so I'm not sure finding him will help you much."
No, he's not, Alea thought to herself, but allowed Aldanon to continue. She needed to get out of there and find Shandra Jerro immediately. The sooner she got to Ammon Jerro, the sooner she could interrogate him about her plight. Once again, it looked like she was still being guided along the set plot line.
Aldanon kept talking, "When word of Ammon's death reached me, it was from a messenger, who had heard it in passing… the nobles who ruled Neverwinter at the time must have assumed I would simply know if another scholar passed away, for they had not mentioned it to me – it was almost an afterthought. I learned later that it was partly due to what Ammon's family wanted… and what had been requested by the deceased, to enter life quietly and to leave it the same way. It is sad in this age when the passing of a humble scholar and indistinct court wizard barely warrants a footnote in history. It makes me wonder… will anyone remember me when I am gone?"
Alea smiled comfortingly, "I have no doubt of that."
"That's kind of you to say, but unlike Ammon Jerro, I will not be survived by any family."
Alea knew what to ask, "Would Ammon Jerro's family have access to more of his research?"
The rest of the conversation went on much like it did in the game. Aldanon told Alea of Jerro's Haven and told her how to get into the archives. He gave her his shard and said goodbye.
Alea easily convinced the guard to take them to the archives, and just like that, she was off to find Shandra Jerro.