Amazon Apocalypse 4: Chapter 14

Cyra and I explored the town. We asked around a bit and chatted with a few shopkeepers, where we discovered everybody coming in through Glacia came this way. In a way, this was a teleporter hub to get elsewhere in the Mucaria mystic realm. One of the most frequent destinations was the academy.

There were a few big cities in the pocket realm, and we could have returned to Glacia as well, though doing so would lose us the time dilation. In the end, Cyra and I decided to simply explore the area.

One of the first things we did was buy an extra cot and throw it in Morgathor’s Satchel. This one was extra large and specifically for Cyra. If we were spending another night in our tent, there was no reason to sleep on the floor again because neither of us wanted to be the one to take the bed.

After that, we tried to go hunting for monsters, but the area around this place was well-groomed, and there were no wild monsters to be found. We did find the artificial forest used as testing grounds, but the fog maker was offline and we weren’t sure if the place was open for recreational use.

So instead we did as Official Rykard had suggested and checked out the libraries in town. There were several of them open to the public, and even more bookstores. The Dragon Lodge hoarded knowledge like a dragon hoarding gold. Though, considering the size and majesty of even the smallest library in town, they probably hoarded a considerable amount of gold as well.

“So... a weightstone is a unit of mass rather than weight? Despite the name?” I asked.

Cyra frowned. “It’s how heavy something is measured against something else. Is that not weight?”

“Weight depends on gravity. If you’re measuring by hanging something from a spring, you’re measuring weight. If you’re using a balance scale, you’re measuring mass. That sort of thing.”

Cyra shook her head, clearly not familiar with the distinction between the two topics. It wasn’t too surprising, though. Themyscira was mostly medieval by Earth’s standards. I was certain people in the Dragon Lodge would know.

“Well, to answer your initial question, a weightstone is sixteen weightgrains. Each of which is one hundred twenty-eight weightspecks.” Cyra went on to explain the most convoluted and tedious system of measurement I’d ever heard of. The way to measure volume, mass, energy, intensity, money, and everything else had developed completely independently. Worse, different worlds had their own historical methods of measurement that dated from before their integration, so other cultures had entirely different systems of measurement.

The ones on the test had just been the most common ones used by the dominant races on Glacia and large parts of the Dragon Lodge. Being able to quickly convert between dozens of arbitrary units was apparently a subject of serious study for any young scholar. To me, it sounded like a needlessly tedious pain in the ass.

The only useful thing I picked up was a few tidbits about Thaums, which was the Dragon Lodge’s own internal unit of measuring mana. One Thaum was a standardized unit of mana, based on what the System considered one point of a mana pool. It was possible to subdivide quantities of mana further, but smaller than that, and most System screens wouldn’t display such minute mana expenditures. I suspected it was quite an old unit, developed by whoever had created the System.

I was a bit excited when I picked up the book that described Thaums in detail and how to build a basic measuring device for one of them. This seemed like the sort of thing that would be helpful in artificing. Unfortunately, the book was rather sparse on the kind of calculations I could do with Thaums. I had expected centuries of research graphing how the speed and distance of a Mana Bolt increased based on the number of Thaums powering it. Or relating the cost of a teleportation spell in Thaums to the distance the teleportation needed to cover.

Instead, I received little more than a suggestion of general trends and advice on estimating approximate costs for various spells. In fact, even looking through the more advanced spells, there was a distinct lack of hard numbers. Certainly nothing beyond a middle school level. Eventually, I quizzed Cyra on the subject.

“Algebra? It sounds like someone sneezing,” Cyra replied.

“Hmm...” I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to put it in a way she’d understand. “It’s like doing math, but instead of numbers, you use letters in places. The letters can represent any number.”

Cyra’s face was blank.

“Okay, how about this? You’re building a bridge and you need to figure out how far apart you can make the columns. You want them as far as you can get them so boats can pass underneath. How would you calculate--“

Cyra held up her hands. “You’re asking the wrong clanswoman that question. We didn’t build the bridges and paths leading up to Valkyrie’s Watch. We ah... contracted that out."

I frowned when I remembered Myrina's version of that tale. It had contained considerably more attacking and little mention of payment. At most, the bridges were a gift given at swordpoint.

“Did you see them doing any calculations, though?" I asked, avoiding the messy politics of getting the bridge.

“They brought in several oracles to peer into the future and find a vision in which they built a bridge that wouldn’t collapse, then they copied that design.”

I frowned. The test had asked me to divine the answer rather than to calculate it. Maybe my answers on the tests weren’t as thorough in explanation as they needed to be.

Soon, we set up our tent again on the outskirts of the town. Each of us practiced with our new abilities some more, since the occasional fight in the wilderness wasn’t nearly enough to get used to them.

After dinner, I finally just brought up the topic that had been on my mind throughout our entire trip together. I’d hoped she’d be the one to bring it up, but if it had to be me, then I’d have to do it.

“So, Cyra, about that little misunderstanding with Dramonar. What’s going to happen going forward?” I asked her.

“Uh... umm...” Cyra suddenly went quiet. She’d been laughing and smiling a moment ago, but now she was shy again.

“I assume your Great-Grandmother has been straightened out. The whole thing about him having a marriage claim on you is fabricated. And the claim that me and you are married is based on his own false one, which will also crumble in the public eye.”

“...Yeah...” Cyra replied.

“So it stands to reason that the two of us should have something in mind. An explanation for our people and what’s going to happen going forward.”

“Mhm.”

I drummed my fingers against the table. It was clear Cyra wasn’t interested in having this conversation. But it had to be done.

“What is it you want, Cyra? I’ve heard from Myrina you’ve been looking for a husband for a while, but never found one. Nobody measured up.”

“Yeah.” She shrugged.

I held her gaze. “Do I measure up?”

She tensed, freezing in place. Then, slowly, she nodded. “Yes.”

I leaned back and smiled. I’d been pretty sure of the answer, but it was nice to hear it from her own lips. Originally, I’d hoped for more of a conversation on the subject, but I knew Cyra well enough by now to know what she wanted to ask without her having to explain to me.

“When we return, we’ll have a duel. A real duel. Then, when the last of Dramonar’s lies fall away, we’ll have something real to fall back on. I think it’s more romantic to do things in the traditional way, anyway.”

Cyra’s face flushed, and she was quiet for a moment.

“D-do you think it’s really okay? Will Sakura, Bridget, or Myrina really accept me?” Cyra asked shyly.

I chuckled. “Cyra, they accepted you months ago. Trust me.”

Then Cyra’s expression firmed. “Okay. But if we’re going to do this, you need more practice.”

From there, we went outside and sparred again until the sun had completely set and the sky was high overhead. This time, we didn’t have to worry about exhausting ourselves before a test. Cyra was good at what she did, extremely so. On a technical level, she was better than Myrina, though now that I could match Cyra for stats, I could see the distinction between the two sisters. Cyra fought with well-honed reflexes forged through years of diligent raining. Myrina made up for it with natural talent and hot-headed passion.

When we finally called it quits, I showered and handed her the Cyra-sized cot we’d bought earlier that day so we wouldn’t both be sleeping on the floor for lack of a second bed. When I emerged from the shower, Cyra was already asleep on the other side of the room.

***

When I woke, I found Cyra pressed right up against my side, skin to skin. Looking over, her cot had somehow migrated all the way across the room and was now next to mine. I crawled out of bed like the day prior. Cyra awoke with no knowledge of rolling her cot right up next to mine, let alone snuggling up next to me in bed. Something similar had happened with Myrina too, so I wasn’t too surprised. It must run in the family.

We stretched, sparred a little, showered, and then went to find somewhere that sold breakfast since I would have felt bad subjecting Cyra to my cooking for a second day in a row. After eating, we went to meet Official Rykard again to chat about our test scores and see whether this little diversion of Galbatorix’s was worth it.

Even if the Dragon Lodge rejected us, our stay with them had been worthwhile. I had a day of shoring up my magical understanding and picking up a bunch of new skillbooks, all under time dilation. Back on Earth and on Themyscira, it was only morning the day after we left. If only I could pick up levels at high speed in here too, this would have been the perfect place to train.

Thanks to breakfast, we arrived after most of the others who stayed at the local overpriced inn.

More people swarmed Cyra and me, but we were saved by the most unlikely of people.

“The heroic and respected members of the Samhain family need their space!” cried Borelius.

I shook my head. Two days ago, he’d called us a couple of countryside hicks. Now, he was acting like Cyra’s personal servant. Maybe his family taught intense shamelessness for moments when overbearing arrogance wasn’t appropriate.

We chanted with familiar faces in the same hall where we’d taken the written tests. I mainly the two girls we’d fought with the day prior. When they went up to speak with Official Rykard, they both looked extremely happy. That probably meant they’d passed. That was a bit of a relief for me. As long as the Dragon Lodge history test wasn’t weighted too highly, I’d have slipped through. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do as a member of the Dragon Lodge, or even if I’d attend any classes, but I could make use of just being able to set up camp here in a time-dilated pocket realm.

“Carter?” Official Rykard called me to the front. I walked up to join him, and when I joined him, I was presented with an ornate jade medallion embroidered with the head of a snarling dragon on one side and a staff and wand crossed on the other.

“I’m in?” I asked curiously.

“Not just in. In with a jade medallion. The people from the standard exams get bronze tokens, silver or gold if they perform particularly well. Everyone from the elite exams either gets gold or gets rejected. You, however, have earned the unique distinction of a jade medallion. You’ll have access to some unique resources only accessible to truly valued graduate students of the academy.”

“Neat.”

Official Rykard licked his lips, with a look in his eyes that spoke of a type of hunger only those truly enamored with learning new things could have.

“You know what it was that tipped you over the edge? It was your answers to the theoretical exam questions. At first, I didn’t know what to make of it, so I passed it along to one of my colleagues who teaches divination here. He was very intrigued.”

“The math?” I asked.

“It looks like an entirely unfamiliar tradition of divination! The only reason we recognized it at all is because an archeology professor noted some patterns resembled that of the ancient creators of the System! Their current day descendants have long forgotten what those symbols mean, but maybe someone like you could decipher them. Is this a tradition of your homeland?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, it’s popular where I come from.”

“Remarkable. This could be an entire field of study.”

I chuckled. “Back home, it is.”

“Truly astounding. I was prepared to pack my bags and visit this realm of yours when Master Galbatorix shot me down. Apparently, the world you’re from isn’t so easy to visit, especially for C-Grades. Newly integrated, was it?”

I nodded.

“Such a shame. But I’m a patient man. I can wait a few years. Allow me to give you some advice, given your situation. You’ll want to focus more on hiring other graduate students as private tutors than on attending classes, though to do that, you’ll need lots of contribution points. The alchemy labs are always looking for new ingredients, so I’m certain someone like you with access to an unintegrated world will be able to get all the contribution points he needs in short order. I wish you the best of luck in your future studies, young man. And if you wish to try tutoring yourself, even I might fork over some contribution points to learn whatever that divination system you used on the test is.”

With that, Official Rykard shook my hand, and that was it. It was a bit anticlimactic as far as I was concerned. Now I had permission to hire specialized tutors? I supposed that would be useful in shoring up any holes I had in my studies. Official Rykard was right, though that I didn’t plan on attending many classes. I just couldn’t spare the time right now with so much going on back on Earth, even with the time dilation here.

I stepped to the back of the room, where Cyra returned with her own gold medallion.

“I’m surprised you didn’t get a jade one too,” I said, hefting my fancy new medallion.

“Doesn’t look like anybody else got a jade one,” Cyra said, glancing around at everybody else.

After that, Official Rykard pointed us in the direction of the graduate campus and told us our new medallions would take us there through the teleportation arrays. There, we could use our new status to purchase goods and skill books not available to the average person, even on Glacia, sign up for classes, or hire tutors.

Cyra and I figured we’d check it out since this was a shopping trip. It was time to check out the famous Dragon Lodge.