Trailblazer Read online

  Sally stared after them as they left, leaving her alone. She was still staring at the door when Essley and Darthrok hurried in, looking frantic.

  “There you are!” Darthrok exclaimed. “What happened?”

  Sally remained impassive for a socially awkward amount of time, then pasted on a bright smile. “Hello! What brings you here today?”

  The two froze in place, then exchanged a worried look.

  “Sally?” Essley asked cautiously.

  “I got some new puzzles in,” she confided, just as she would have in the old days.

  “Oh no…” Darthrok’s face fell. “She’s been reset.”

  They looked too sad and Sally felt like a meanie. She said slyly, “Just fitting, guys.”

  “Just…what?” Essley’s expression cleared. “Hang on. Did you mean, ‘just kidding?’”

  “It’s guaranteed,” Sally nodded, giggling.

  Their expressions slid from surprised to irritated, then to relieved, and finally settling on outraged.

  “You were messing with us?” Darthrok asked, incredulous.

  Sally nodded. “Just fitting around.”

  Essley let out a startled laugh. “Well, you did kind of the same thing with her when you gave her that device. I guess she’s paying you back.”

  Darthrok’s mouth opened, but no words came out. He looked from Essley to Sally and back again.

  “Payback,” Sally agreed. She already knew both of those words, and putting them together was just a matter of saying them quickly.

  Was she getting better at making new things to say? She hoped so.

  “Wow,” Darthrok said, rolling his shoulders as if to release tension. “Okay, I guess that’s fair. But what the doot! We were really worried! What happened?”

  She pressed her lips together, searching for a way to explain it. She didn’t have all the words she needed, so she’d have to do her best to get the ideas across. “My condition is good. Someone got me and I stopped. Then, a big thing with people. Then Kitria, and I ran. The someone person brought me here.”

  “Oh man, you ran into Kitria?” Essley stepped closer to the counter and rested her hands on it. “And somebody helped you get away? Helped you get back here?”

  Sally nodded. The fact that Somewhat Threatening Guy had seemed somewhat threatening went unsaid because the words to describe him eluded her. Nor could she explain how he’d gotten her here. Not only did she lack the words, but she didn’t understand what had happened.

  “I’m glad you made it back, then,” Darthrok said. “What then? How was the shop?”

  “Lots of people,” Sally answered.

  “Did anyone notice anything different about you?” Essley asked.

  Sally shook her head. “All the same. They take, they go.”

  “Did no one even notice your clothes?” Essley asked in surprise.

  Sally shrugged. “Barely.”

  “Wait,” Darthrok said, looking at her closely. “Where’s your crossbow?”

  Right. She’d left that behind at the festival, along with her balloon stick. At least she’d grabbed her backpack.

  Sally waved a hand dismissively. “Easy come, easy go.”

  They watched her silently for a few long moments. Essley said, “Well, I guess we aren’t going to get more specific details right now. At least you’re well. Did Kitria recognize you? No one else has known you, besides the banker.”

  Sally thought back to that moment when her gaze crossed Kitria’s. She’d definitely seen a flash of recognition, she was sure of that. But it was only a flash, and she’d moved fast. Maybe Kitria had done a double-take, then decided there was no way she’d seen what she’d thought she’d glimpsed.

  The idea that Sally had been gallivanting about a festival should have seemed ridiculous to Kitria. Hopefully she’d laughed off the silly thought and continued with whatever jerk thing she’d been doing at the time.

  Was it unfair of her to characterize Kitria as a jerk?

  Sally had heard her say that killing Sally on a regular basis wasn’t just for fun, it was part of her maintaining her karma as a chaotic neutral person. Kitria hadn’t invented the world or its workings. Perhaps it was unfair to use her necessary self-maintenance against her.

  On the other hand…Kitria had chosen her alignment and her profession. Nobody had forced her become a thug. And she could surely maintain her karma in some way that didn’t mean stabbing Sally to death. That was a purposeful choice she’d made. Repeatedly.

  Though she’d mostly considered the deaths a mere inconvenience before, Sally felt much more strongly about them now. She felt angry about it. And when she’d seen Kitria, she’d felt fear, and that made her mad, too.

  Yes, indeed, Kitria could rightfully be called a jerk.

  Jerk, jerk, jerk. A steamin’ heck of a jerk.

  Sally noticed Essley and Darthrok staring at her with concern. Right. She’d gotten distracted by her thoughts and been silent for too long again.

  If only she could expose her thoughts to them, instead of having to keep them inside. She needed more words. Somewhat Threatening Guy had suggested something about that. If she ever saw him again, which she mostly hoped she didn’t, she’d have to ask him about expanding her vocabulary.

  “I’m fine,” she said in response to the question about whether anyone had recognized her. This time, the word fine came out sounding almost natural. Nice! “Fancy. No one sees Sally.”

  “Good,” Essley said. “That might complicate things. At least for now, it’s good to stay incognito.”

  “So what’s it like being back here?” Darthrok asked. “After seeing a bit of the world outside, is it uncomfortable to be back here again?”

  “No,” she answered thoughtfully. “The condition here is good. Helping is good. I like it here.” She paused, thinking hard on how to express her next thought. “Others who aren’t you can be bad.”

  Essley pursed her lips. “You’re saying that other adventurers treat you poorly?”

  “Some,” Sally agreed. “Most just ignore. But I’m of good quality. I want to be valued.”

  “Well, at least we know you’re special,” Darthrok said. “It’s a start, right?”

  Sally considered, then nodded. “Yes. Something started. I can’t waste it.”

  Darthrok raised his fist as if to hit her and she took a step back before she realized he wasn’t threatening her. He held his fist out, as if offering her to take it. She looked to Essley for help.

  Essley made two fists, then bumped her right against her left.

  Ah. Sally curled her fingers into a fist and bumped it against Darthrok’s. She suspected that this was some kind of ritual from their homeland. Her suspicion seemed confirmed when Darthrok cheered.

  “Yeah!” he exclaimed. “We’ll take it as far as it goes.”

  Essley nodded.

  The pair didn’t know what “as far as it goes” might mean, but in truth, neither did Sally. They’d have to find out together.

  5

  Sally remained in her store for the next two hours, serving customers just as she always had, while Essley and Darthrok went off to run some personal errands.

  Well, not just as she always had. In between customers, she explored her home with new eyes. Everything looked the same, but with much greater resolution, as if she’d gotten some new goggle lenses that improved her regular sight by a thousand times.

  It wasn’t at all like a prison, as Darthrok had suggested. The wood planks that made up the floor, ceiling, and walls had a polished shine and a lovely grain pattern. Her sales counter had a granite top with a yellowy-beige pattern that had sparkly flecks here and there. The cabinets holding her wares were neatly organized and well-stocked with goods. Sally had always liked to imagine that her products had eager energy—that they couldn’t wait to get out into the world and start doing what they were meant to do.

  Had she been reflecting her own hidden desires on them?

  She had a beaut
iful old cash register too, which had been restored and updated over the decades, making it a gorgeous paradox of modern anachronism. Tracing a finger over the number keys, she thanked it for its years of steadfast service.

  She liked her home. She really did. But that didn’t mean she wanted to be confined here. She’d received word that the town would be moving in an hour, and after they’d settled in the new spot, she intended to do some exploring. She needed to come up with a solution for knowing when customers arrived while she was out, though. She didn’t want to inconvenience people, or cause a stir that would get Somewhat Threatening Guy’s attention.

  The world awaited her, and she couldn’t wait to get back out and see what else she could find.

  Opening her cabinets, she began grabbing things and putting them on the counter. She had only a vague idea of what she wanted to do, and hoped that her inventory would help her figure out the rest as she went.

  Essley returned to Sally’s store first, shortly before Pivot began its shift to a new location. She approached the counter with a curious expression. “What’s that?”

  Sally frowned at the collection of items she’d assembled. Try as she might, she couldn’t get them properly aligned.

  She pointed to the door. “For that. My store can’t be poor.”

  Essley looked from the metal-cutter in Sally’s hand to the assembly of parts. “Is it…some kind of doorbell?”

  Sally wasn’t sure about that. “It’s to know if customers are here. Because I forget about things.”

  “So it is a doorbell.”

  “Okay,” Sally agreed. “But it doesn’t work.”

  “Why not?” Essley reached out a hand to touch the device, then pulled it back as if she had second thoughts about doing so.

  Sally gave her a peeved look.

  Essley let out a short laugh. “Right. You don’t know why it won’t work. I’m no help, though. I’ve got zero mechanical know-how. Kind of sad, right? Sometimes I wish I’d ignored everyone’s advice that a Northerner should be a mercenary. Sure, I heal fast and don’t get hurt as easily, but hitting stuff all the time gets boring, you know?”

  “So change,” Sally said absently, trying to figure out why she couldn’t get the cogs of two gears to line up properly. Every time she tried, they worked briefly, then the timing went wrong and the gears ground to a stop.

  It was seriously vexing.

  Essley stood up straighter. “What, you mean retrain? That’d be so much work.”

  “So?” Sally asked, picking up a socket wrench to tighten a bolt on the other side of her device. Maybe the metal pieces she’d used weren’t pressed together tightly enough, and was allowing the metal to shift slightly when the pieces were moving.

  “So, I’d have to start over in a new guild. I’d have to either give up all my mercenary skills and start fresh with the ones from a new profession. Or else, freeze all my merc skills and learn new skills at half-speed. It would be a long time before I could get back to where I am now.”

  Sally stopped fiddling with her creation to focus entirely on Essley. Right now, her friend’s misaligned parts seemed more important. “What profession would you want?”

  “Well, I’ve been working up to being a bodyguard, so I can help good people. You know, protect them from the mean mercenaries. I thought it would be cool to kind of be a rogue of my own kind. But in truth, it stinks because other mercenaries think I’m a goody-goody, and non-mercs dislike mercs. Because, you know, they tend to be jerks. So, basically, I’m disliked on both sides and to be honest, some days it really just stinks.”

  She heaved out a heavy breath, then continued her line of thought. “But if I were going to choose a different profession, knowing what I know now of Everternia, I’d like to be a maker. A botanist, I think. Then I could make medicines and potions. And, heck, since botanists usually work with doctors, maybe I’d meet someone, you know, special.”

  It seemed obvious to Sally that whether Essley changed professions or not, she’d meet new people on a daily basis. Maybe she meant she’d meet someone who didn’t treat her poorly for being a merc. Sally knew how it felt to be something that people treated like bog slime, so a change of profession seemed like the best option for Essley.

  “You can stay the same and be not fancy,” Sally said slowly, trying to find the best words in her vocabulary to convey her thoughts. “Or you can change and be what you want.”

  Essley picked absently at a button on her jacket. “So you’re saying I can continue being less than satisfied, or do the hard work to reach for something better. Right?”

  Sally nodded.

  Essley nodded. “Yeah. I think you might be right. I’ll think about it. But after Pivot moves, I think I know how we can make your doorbell work.”

  Sally smiled. “Is that right?”

  “Yeah, pretty sure. Or if not, we could figure out a different solution. There are lots of ways to do something. We only have to find one of them.”

  Darthrok came hurrying in, carrying a small package. “Whew! Made it. I was at the bank when they said we had five minutes until Pivot shifts. So, how do Essley and I know how to meet up with you once you arrive at the new spot?”

  Sally had already thought about that. She reached out and touched both Essley’s and Darthrok’s hands, forming a group that she was now leader of.

  Wow. She was a leader. She’d never been one before, but she felt incredibly good about it. Strong. Reliable. “Like this. Just stay.”

  “We won’t get kicked out?” Darthrok looked skeptical.

  “Not sure,” Sally said. “But I think this will work. I can’t leave during a shift.”

  He said, “So…if you’re coded to remain here during the shift—which makes sense, because you’re supposed to be the one driving the store—you think Essley and I being grouped to you will keep us from getting booted out when the shift starts?”

  Essley smiled. “It makes sense that it might work that way. Good thinking, Sally.”

  Sally smiled back, pleased with the praise. “Let’s go.”

  “Go where?” Darthrok asked.

  Sally brought her hands up to chin level and pantomimed shifting a lever, then holding a wheel and driving.

  “Ohhh, wow, you actually drive? I always thought that was kind of a hidden mechanic that we just had to imagine.”

  Sally tried to make sense of his words, then dismissed them. He said strange things sometimes. Probably because he came from very far away, and didn’t always know how things really worked here.

  It was kind of cute, how naïve they were about such things.

  In the cockpit of Sally’s store, Essley and Darthrok looked around with the curiosity of children while Sally focused on the coordinates she’d received.

  Watching through the opened window, she monitored her instruments, which gave her constant readouts of her current coordinates and her shop’s attitude in relation to the two planes.

  Her companions had been briefly amazed when she’d opened the window in the side of her store, revealing everything that lay ahead. When closed, that spot didn’t look like a window at all. Since adventurers were forced to track Pivot down wherever it went to cultivate their basic skills, the town had measures for making sure it couldn’t be followed.

  Therefore, the idea that Pivot’s buildings had openings in them had struck Essley and Darthrok as kind of amazing.

  It was cute how little they knew about the world they lived in.

  At first, Sally had considered them so much more worldly than herself, but the more she observed, the more she realized that it wasn’t true. Yes, they had far more experience in many areas, but she apparently knew things intrinsic to Everternia that they’d never even considered.

  How had they thought Pivot traveled from place to place? That it magically appeared and disappeared? Silly adventurers!

  The move was neither particularly long nor particularly short. As far as Pivot’s shifts went, it was entirely average, wh
ich meant that it took long enough for Essley and Darthrok to get bored. Their excitement over the novelty faded quickly. When they finally arrived at the new location, the pair was eager to get out and go do something.

  She’d given them the coordinates of the new spot, but the description had meant nothing to them. They’d just have to take a look to see what it was like.

  Upon arrival, Sally oriented her store as she’d been directed, then disengaged the engine, making sure all its parts ceased activity, vented steam, and began to cool. Then the three went back to the storeroom.

  “What’s this on the counter, Sally?” Darthrok asked on the way. “I noticed it on the way in. Did someone sell it to you?”

  Sally shook her head. She went to the item in question and put her hand on it possessively. “I made it. It isn’t fancy yet. Essley said she could help.”

  Darthrok shot Essley a dubious look. “You, help with something mechanical? I don’t think so.”

  “Not me,” Essley shook her head in exasperation. “But there is someone in this town who’s a master technie. Remember?”

  “Oh, right. Let’s do that, then.” Darthrok looked to Sally. “Do you want me to carry it for you?”

  She didn’t really want to put it in a container and jostle it around, but she did need help to complete it. “No, thank you. I’ll take it.”

  She bent down and reached beneath the counter, pulling out a black box used for gifting. It was the sturdiest container she had. Carefully, she put her invention into it and covered it with the lid, then put the box into a shoulder bag.

  She followed Essley and Darthrok out into the newly-settled town of Pivot, hoping that whoever they were taking her to would provide the help she needed.

  Already, people hurried by, though rather than the customary streams of people, Sally saw a mere trickle.

  Interesting. She’d never really thought about what happened to the town’s flow of traffic after a shift. Her store’s traffic flow was so entirely sporadic and unpredictable that she’d assumed it was just a function of how the town worked. Later, when she had some quiet moments, she intended to reflect on her burgeoning views on Pivot’s realities in relation to her previous assumptions.