109: Questions, Questions
Chapter 109: Questions, Questions
SENA
The scratchboard wasn’t quite full, but much more full than it had ever been since Sena started her job.
It wasn’t fancy, and it wasn’t permanent… but both of those things suited her well. Even if it was written in her own personal code, she’d rather not have the various notes she’d taken written anywhere permanent, especially with how volatile the information could be. It would be embarrassing if someone surfaced one of her plans, written down. It would be mortifying if they did so on a plan she’d scrapped weeks ago after new information came in.
A faint click-click of one of her toe claws on the floor gave her something to center upon while she considered her options. The political situation had, as expected, temporarily blown up. She’d known it would happen, but what came next, in the short term, was less predictable. Now it was up to her to ensure that this didn’t collapse the entire government. A stable reformed one was what she desired, not complete anarchy or a splintered state.
Her eyes flicked from one symbol to another, following the lines she’d drawn to show the interrelationships between factions, people, and ideals. She hated this, and she hated that she was good at it. Yet even with her experience, this was not something she could fully predict. People were, by their nature, impossible to fully predict. They did not do things rationally, either as a single person nor especially as a group.
It was so very frustrating.
“That looks complicated. What kind of assassin were you, again?”
Sena spun about, fingers curling into claws and teeth baring. Even before she completed her turn, she knew she would be relaxing it. She recognized that voice, even after all these years. It had been burned into her mind after all that had happened.
Even still, she blinked when she saw the speaker. “Kenta?”
The man smiled, offering her a shrug. It was definitely him, but Sena had to look him over again. He wore similar clothing to last time – probably an exact duplicate, like his staff had been – but he himself looked different. More lines in the face, more filled out. And… just a hint of grey at the temples where his hair was turning. It had been a few years, but he looked twenty years older, at least.
He noticed the stare and grinned, crossing his arms. “Trying to be a little less conspicuous this time. I thought it might help if my age matched, just in case I ran into someone else who knew me from an earlier trip.”
Sena twitched an ear and walked forward, poking him in the chest. “So you can just choose your body when you pop in? In my private sanctuary? What if I’d been in a more private moment? Can you just appear anywhere, then?”
The rapid-fire questions did not appear to be what Kenta expected. The nightsleek stepped back at the chest poke, looked down… then gave a quirky smile and rubbed the back of his head. He chuckled, then shrugged his shoulders before answering.
“I figured you already knew something was off about me. I knew you were alone in here and that it wasn’t a bedroom or anything, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Still not, really.” Kenta shrugged again. “I can appear just about anywhere, yeah. It isn’t always a good idea to do it, though. And I can’t act as a spy for you or anything, sorry.”
A heavy sigh escaped Sena as she looked over the man again. Her tail swayed in annoyance. “I suppose you have some kind of rules? Like Quests have things that limit them? Are you here about this… chaos?”
Kenta wandered over toward the board, glanced over it once, then rubbed his chin. “Maybe? I know there’s something going on but I’m afraid I’ve been pretty busy, so I don’t know the details. It’s not a full-on civil war, as far as I can tell. Change of government?”
Sena’s lip twitched at the casual way Kenta ogled all the secrets of her order, but she forced herself to calm down. The man clearly wasn’t a normal vaskan. “You’re dodging the question.”
He turned around and grinned. “I have rules, yes, but not the way you’re thinking. I can do a lot more, but it’s just a really bad idea if I do. My actions here have consequences, possibly more drastic than you or I could ever anticipate.” He paused. “Though I can usually talk or show you things, so long as I don’t ask you to do anything important. It’s complicated. That’s why I was able to take you to see the dragons by offering you a trip, but I couldn’t just tell you to go there.”
With a sigh of frustration, Sena thumped herself back to lean against the wall. “You are a very frustrating man. What do you want? I’m sure this isn’t another tourist trip or you wouldn’t have dropped into my office.”
Her tail flicked and thud against the wall a few times. She was very busy, and while Kenta was pleasant enough as a person, she couldn’t afford to spend several days out on a trip. She needed to take care of her home, and had too much to consider to be dealing with… whatever he was.
Kenta scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry, you’re the only one in town I can just ask things of without, you know… drawing it out. Are you aware of the Dungeon of Mystic Blight? It’s not far, and it has several settlements around it. They’re building a road towards Chall.”
“I’m aware,” Sena answered cautiously.
“I just have some questions about Chall and their intentions,” the man continued. “It’s not that important, I guess, but I’m a little worried it might be getting carried away.”
Sena’s eyes narrowed, but she took a deep breath and considered. The fact that Kenta considered it not that important was telling, wasn’t it? She let out her breath in a slow, even exhale. She’d been baffled by this man for too long.
She needed to take control.
“If I answer your questions, will you answer some of mine?”
There was a long pause, and Kenta blinked several times. Finally, he shrugged. “I can try, but I might not be able to answer some of them. Some of the answers might be dangerous, and others… I’m not sure you could really understand.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose this time, closing his eyes in thought. “Five answers. That sounds fair. You ask questions until I can provide five answers. Then you tell me what you know.”
That was more than Sena had expected. She tilted her head to the side. “You seem awfully confident that I know what you want… but I won’t pass up the offer. Agreed.” She flashed a smile, and didn’t even show her fangs this time.
“Then go ahead and ask.” Kenta leaned back against Sena’s desk, his hands placed on the surface and his legs crossed casually at the ankles. “I’m curious what you want to know, as well.”
She considered for a long moment. Only five questions meant she would need to be careful how she asked them.
“Why did you create the Spirits to give us Quests?”
Kenta raised an eyebrow. “Clever. That’s asking about three questions at once. I’m not a Spirit, Sena, I don’t have to follow the rules exactly. I could have that count as three.” He clicked his tongue. “But I won’t do that. Yes, I created the Spirits based on what you told me, so that they would give out Quests. People doing Quests helps me and the world to become stronger.”
He paused as soon as he said that, then frowned. “That makes it sound like they’re giving me physical power, which isn’t really true. Maybe stronger isn’t the right word for it. Settle for: it helps me and the world.”
Frustratingly less helpful than expected. Sena sighed and asked another, this time frowning as she spoke. “What purpose do the dungeons serve?”
He shrugged. “Sorry, I’m counting that as a question even if you wasted it. They tell you up front it’s to isolate and remove a problem with the world’s functioning.” After a brief pause, he held up a finger. “Or if you want a more general answer, it’s to protect the world. The dungeons are sort of like the world’s walls that keep out things that would harm us. That’s about all I can tell you without it getting more complicated.”
Sena narrowed her eyes. She was so tempted to ask him more questions about his role in the dungeons… but she only had three questions left. One in particular she wanted answered badly… but if he couldn’t answer then it would be no harm in asking.
“What are you?”
That brought a smile to Kenta’s face. “I could say I’m a vaskan and let you use up the question, but while technically true right now, I know that isn’t what you meant.” He shook his head. “I don’t think you can understand. Ask another.”
She sighed. It had been worth a try. “Did you create the System?”
This time, he snorted. “Probably not as you are thinking about it, but yes.” He made a vague hand gesture in the air. “At least, I designed it and placed it in the world. The details about how the classes, abilities, and so on work are more complicated, so I’m not quite the fountain of knowledge about it you might expect. But in general… yes.”
Sena nodded back, her tail swaying. She’d already decided on her last two, if he could answer. From the answers he had given, she thought he would answer honestly. Her life’s work demanded she ask one.
“Do you have any hostile plans towards Chall, either the Domain or the city?”
Kenta just lifted an eyebrow. “… no. I don’t actually have strong feelings either way. I’m fond of it, I think it’s very interesting, but if Chall were destroyed tomorrow I would only be a little upset. I can assure you that if such a thing happened, it would not be due to any intentional action on my part.”
Good enough. Sena glanced up at the ceiling and took her last question. “We have now met dragons and Spirits that can speak to us. How many more creatures do we vaskan share the world with?”
That got startled lift of both eyebrows from Kenta. “Now that is not a question I expected from you. It’s also not as easy to answer as you’d think.” He rubbed his chin, frowning. “But I think I can give you an answer. Depending on how you count, at least eight, but more like ten or eleven more… maybe as many as twenty if you really stretch the definition. Only one of those are likely to be heard of in your lifetime, I’m afraid… though it may seem like more.”
That was more than what she’d expected, so Sena sighed and mentally tucked it away for later consideration.
“All right, what do you want to know?” She gestured. “I can’t leave here, I have to make sure this revolution doesn’t destroy my home.”
Kenta nodded, then stiffened. He tapped his chin. “Hmm. I have a lot of questions about the dungeon, but your own questions… they made me think of something I should have done a long time ago.”
He tilted his head curiously.
“What is it you do here, Sena?”