Chance awoke to something soft. He shifted, feeling the comforting embrace of a blanket wrapped around him. It had been a long time since he’d been in a bed this comfortable. He wearily opened his eyes and came face to face with Gibson.
He was lying in a small stone room, and the grizzled man sat directly in front of his bed, leaning over his face. Chance yelped, sitting up so fast that he drove his forehead into the older man’s. It was like hitting a brick wall. He flopped back to the bed, clutching his head and groaning.
“Shit. What are you doing?” Gibson snarled.
“Sorry,” Chance groaned, moving his hands. Then he froze. He was out of the alleys. “I’m free! I’m actually free!”
He flopped back into the bed, relief replaced by a hysterical laugh. Confusion and concern warred on Gibson’s face.
“What in the world are you on about, boy?” Gibson snarled. “You can’t stumble into a Shikari training field and just demand food and water like a dying man before collapsing.”
“I – where am I?”
“I just told you. A Shikari training field,” Gibson said irritably. He shoved a glass of water into Chance’s hands. He drained it greedily, not stopping for air until it was finished.
“No. Where am I? There’s magic and monster dogs and infinite alleyways that never end,” Chance rambled.
Gibson’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a new arrival?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“You died,” Gibson said. “And someone sent you here. Correct?”
“I – yeah. Yeah. Does this happen a lot?”
“More than it should,” Gibson muttered. “What world are you from, boy?”
“Earth.”
Gibson’s expression darkened. “Of course. Why are you wandering around like a lost idiot, then? Did Terrence kick you out?”
“Terrence?” Chance asked, licking his lips and glancing around. Gibson handed him another glass of water, and he drained it.
“You know the man who greeted you?”
“Nobody greeted me,” Chance said.
Not counting Yamish, but I really hope that isn’t who they normally have greet anyone.
“Unless you meant the dog. Sorry about that if you did. He tried to kill me.”
“What are you going on about?” Gibson asked, baffled. “You didn’t kill Terrence. I talked with the old bastard this morning.”
“No, he didn’t look very old. It was a dog. How are you supposed to know how old a dog is? It was a little busy trying to kill me.”
“Terrence isn’t a dog.”
“Oh. Then I’m probably fine,” Chance said. “Because I killed a dog. A lot of them, actually. God. I’m going to hell for that. They weren’t really dogs, if you think about it. No dog looks like that. Dogs like pets, not ripping people’s throats out.”
“Are you talking about a Soothound?” Gibson’s eyes narrowed. “What were you doing fighting them?”
“Mister, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on,” Chance said. “I woke up in an alleyway and stumbled around in them for ages.”
Gibson stared at Chance. “What? You didn’t arrive in the arrival room?”
“Is it an alley?”
“No.”
“Then I didn’t. Can you please tell me what’s going on?”
“I – I’m not sure,” Gibson said, off guard for the first time since Chance had seen him. “All new arrivals appear in the same spot. That’s how this works.”
“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I don’t know what this is.”
“What’s a broken – never mind,” Gibson said, shaking his head. “Probably some damn Earth term. I suppose I’ll have to do Terrence’s job for him.”
“Who is Terrence?”
“Just… shut up for a little while,” Gibson growled. “Listen up. You died. You showed up here, on Centurion. That’s the name of this world. The city you are currently in is called Gleam. It’s one of the great Scholar-Cities and is exceedingly difficult to get into. Congratulations on your admission.”
Chance blinked heavily. “Can I talk now?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you have an endless labyrinth of alleyways inside your city?”
“You mentioned those before,” Gibson said, staring closely at Chance. “Did you overhear someone talking about them?”
“No. Why would I make this up? I showed up in them.”
“And you survived? As a new arrival? Do you realize how improbable that sounds?” Gibson asked. “How long were you in them? You must have arrived in the edge, so a day or two?”
Chance opened his mouth to answer, then paused. Something about the way Gibson spoke gave him pause.
“I guess it was something like that,” Chance said. “It was hard to keep track. I managed to kill one of the boney dog things and then ran until I stumbled out.”
Gibson shook his head and leaned back. “You’re lucky to be alive. You were in the outskirts of the Old City. It’s twisted by magic and an incredibly dangerous for even the most experienced Shikari.”
“You’ve said that word a few times. What’s a Shikari?” Chance asked, suddenly glad he’d hidden how long he’d wandered around in the alleys.
“They’re hunters that kill monsters,” Gibson replied absentmindedly. “They kill things like the Soothounds you mentioned and keep Gleam safe.”
“Oh,” Chance said intelligently. He and Gibson sat in silence for several minutes.
“Uh… what now?” Chance asked. Now that he’d escaped the alley, he had absolutely no idea where to go. He’d been pretty focused on not dying.
“I was just wondering that myself. If you really are a new arrival, it means you know nothing about Gleam, right?”
Chance nodded.
“I see. I’ll be honest, I can’t be bothered to show you around everything, and Terrence is too busy to waste time on someone who isn’t confirmed to be a new arrival. You got three options. First, walk out of here and do what you want. Second, join the Academy. Third, become a Shikari.”
“Join the Academy?” Chance asked, his interest caught.
“It’s one of the greatest institutes of learning in Centurion,” Gibson said with a nod. “It’s five thousand gold a year.”
Chance cleared his throat. “Right. And how much is that in, say, hamburgers?”
Gibson stared at him.
“Okay, maybe no hamburgers here,” Chance muttered. “How many meals is five thousand gold?”
“An average meal costs around one silver. There are ten silver in a gold.”
Chance did the math in his head and his face went pale. He cleared his throat. “Okay, I might not have quite that much gold. Maybe later. Does the first option just mean I’m homeless again?”
“It means you’re out of my hair,” Gibson replied.
That’s a yes.
“Then I guess I’d like to be a Shikari,” Chance said. “They help people, right?”
Gibson’s face softened slightly. “Yes. They’re the barrier that keeps the people of Gleam safe from the demons that lurk within and outside of it. It is a noble profession, and many who wish to study at the Academy start as a Shikari for experience and money.”
“Then I think that’s the way to go,” Chance decided.
There’s no point just sitting around. I’m not going to be nothing this time. This is the opportunity Bob told me about, and I’m going to wring it for everything I can. This time, I’m going to be someone of note.
“I thought you might say that,” Gibson said with a sigh, all traces of kindness in his face gone. “Earthlings. Always the same. Get up, then. I took care of the paperwork already.”
Chance slipped out of bed and carefully rose to his feet. They held him well enough, and he had to hurry to catch up with Gibson, who was already heading out of the room. The two walked out, back into the training fields.
“Where are we going?” Chance asked.
“Shikari Lane,” Gibson replied curtly. Chance took the hint and fell silent as they walked an iron gate – a different one from the gate he’d entered the field through.
Chance took the opportunity to marvel at the city around them. Towering buildings rose up in the near distance, and a rider on a huge bird occasionally flew overhead. Flashes of magic danced near the people training around them, clashing with showers of brilliant sparks.
“Do you have any experience?”
“Huh? With what?” Chance asked, tearing his gaze away from a pair of sparring kids that couldn’t have been much older than him.
“Fighting.”
“I’ve gotten into a brawl or two, but I don’t think that would really count as knowing how to fight,” Chance replied with an awkward chuckle. “So, no. I guess. Not unless you count the dogs.”
“You’ll need a more experienced team member, then,” Gibson said with a sigh. They came up to a tall, iron gate. The ends were pointed like leaves and looked sharp enough to cut. On the other end was a large street dotted with houses.
They looked about as normal as they could get. While there was some variation between them, most of the houses were either one or two stories and painted in muted colors. Each of them had a metal plate on their door with an inscription on it.
Gibson pushed the gate open and walked out onto the street, tapping his chin. Chance struggled to keep up with the older man’s gait. They strode down the street, then came to an abrupt stop in front of one of the two-story houses.
“Could you tell me what’s going on?” Chance asked carefully.
“I’m trying to determine what team to put you with.”
“Team?”
“You’re going to be training and fighting, boy. Do you think you can do that on your own? Can you become powerful without aid? With no support from anyone but your own, gods given talent?”
Chance stepped back as Gibson’s voice rose with every sentence. They stared at each other for a second. Then Gibson gritted his teeth and turned away. “Never mind. Yes, you need a team. Every recruit is put into a team of three until they become Knight ranked.”
“Why thr–”
“Because if one of you gets hurt, the other two can carry them to safety,” Gibson said, cutting Chance off before he could even finish his question. “And, before you ask, if two of you get injured – you screwed up. Don’t.”
Chance opened his mouth.
“No more questions right now. I’m the Head Trainer, not your personal tutor,” Gibson said. “Your team will have someone assigned to it that’s there specifically for all your questions. Presumably someone who did something dumb enough to get demoted into this job.”
Chance wisely chose to shut his mouth. His question about teams had really struck a nerve with Gibson for some reason, and he resolved to try to figure out why so he could avoid mistakenly pressing it in the future.
“This one will do,” Gibson said, clicking his tongue. “Memorize this house. It’ll be where you’re staying for the foreseeable future.”
“Okay. Are the rest of my team here already?”
“No clue.” Gibson walked up to the house with Chase at his heels and knocked on the door. “Hopefully. If they aren’t, you’re explaining this yourself. I’m not standing around all day.”