NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: Sallia
“Hello?” The girl called out again. She sounded close – she was probably just outside of the house. I looked around for a moment, before I grabbed the best weapon I could find nearby – a metal frying pan. Even if it wasn’t great, I could still slam it into someone’s face if this turned out to be a trap.
Then, I slowly crept out of the house while trying to locate the source of the girl’s voice.
I crept onto the street, moving slowly and keeping an eye on my surroundings. If I found whatever had killed the guy in the house, I wanted to be able to fight or run at a moment’s notice.
“Is there anyone here? What’s going on?” called the girl’s voice, this time laden with more fear and uncertainty.
I crept closer to the source of the sound. Finally, after passing several houses and turning a corner, I saw another human.
She was tall and willowy, and wore the same plain, white linen clothes that I did. She was currently looking around with a confused, lost expression, and since I had remained quiet and hid myself, I could observe her without being noticed. I couldn’t spot anything abnormal about her, at least at first sight.
“Where am I?” she said, her voice growing quieter. I gritted my teeth, trying to figure out if I should keep observing her or make my presence known. This city clearly had various kinds of magic available - the floating islands above the city were already testament to that. The girl could be an illusion, or she could be an invader who had helped destroy the Market. However, I knew almost nothing about my situation, and I was working with several time limits, any one of which might explode in my face and kill me at any moment. If I took a risk here, I wouldn’t be alone while wandering through this city, and she might be able to figure out something I couldn’t if we worked together. Then, I hid my frying pan behind my back and stepped out from behind the building I had been hiding near, exposing my presence to her. It was time to take a small risk in this land of unknowns.
“Hey!” I called out to her, quietly.
“Aaaahh!” The girl whirled around at the sound of my voice, her hand unconsciously creeping towards her waist where she found nothing, while she extended her other hand towards me. Then, she stopped moving, wincing a bit. I got my first good look at her face.
She looked younger than me, though not by more than a few years. I guessed she was probably in her late teenage years. She was probably eighteen or nineteen. She had blonde hair, a nervous expression, and a reasonably attractive face. These features were pretty normal, and if I saw her on Earth, I wouldn’t have thought twice about them. She would have just seemed to be another pretty young woman passing by. However, her eyes were different.
They had no pupils, or whites. They were entirely purple, with no other colors at all. It looked like someone had taken two chunks of amethyst, carved them into perfect spheres, and jammed them into her skull. I felt sudden fear. Had I guessed wrong? If she wasn’t human, maybe she was hostile?
“What… what, what’s wrong with your eyes?” she asked me, staring at my face in horror. “Why are there… black holes in the center of them? And the rest of your eyes are so… so white. I’ve never seen anything like that before. It’s... “ She shivered slightly, before she stopped herself. She visibly worked on composing herself, the fear disappeared from her expression. “Ahem – my apologies. I… I did not mean to touch on a sensitive topic. Let it be known that regardless of what birth defects you were born with, what truly matters is your actions and what you make of yourself. I hold no ill will towards you for your station at birth, only for who you have become,” she said, as if trying to erase the awkwardness of her initial reaction. “Might I inquire as to where precisely we are? I am under the impression that I should have died recently, but this looks rather different from the afterlife the Priests told me of…”
I couldn’t help but suddenly feel amused. I thought her eyes were weird and unnerving. She thought my eyes were weird and unnerving as well. After the tense time spent creeping through this city, my nerves had been on edge. However, I realised the two of us might still be in pretty similar situations, even if her eyes looked alien to me.
I started laughing, feeling more than a little absurd at how utterly ridiculous the situation suddenly felt. The girl gave me a strange look as I worked on regaining control of myself, but the situation suddenly struck me as so utterly hilarious that I took a minute or two to get myself under control. Perhaps it was the tension I had felt for all of this time, or my initial panic when I had seen her, but the entire situation felt downright hilarious to me. I took a few seconds getting control of myself, before I managed to pull myself back into the conversation.
“May I… may I ask why you’re laughing?” She said, shifting uneasily. I finally calmed myself down.
“I’m sorry, I just think it’s really funny you’re afraid of my eyes, because your eyes are also kind of scary. Ummm…” I shook my stress-related giggles off, and glanced back towards the street I had come from.
“Let’s get inside a house I found first. It should be safer than out here. I did find a corpse inside though, so stay alert - there might be hostile things moving about.” I gestured for the girl to walk to the side of me, but kept my other hand near my frying pan. As much as the situation seemed like a misunderstanding, I was still afraid of getting caught off guard by a strange ability or abnormality in this city I wasn’t able to guard against. I still needed to keep an eye out for any tricks she might have.
She eyed me up and down for a moment, uneasiness and confusion warring on her face, before she nodded and stepped to my side. Out of the corner of her eye, she seemed to glance at my right hand, which was still awkwardly positioned behind my back, but she didn’t say anything as the two of us made our way back into the dead guy’s house.
Once we were inside, I quickly shut the door, before turning back to the girl I had found.
“So, I’m… uhh…” I suddenly recalled that I did not seem to know my name. All I knew was that it started with ‘Isa.’ “To be perfectly honest, I don’t really remember my name. But it’s still nice to meet you.” I held out my left hand towards her, and she gave me a baffled look. It didn’t look like she refused to give me a handshake - it looked like she had no idea why I was holding my hand out towards her. She frowned for a moment, before clearing her throat.
“I am Sallia Nostrausse, last of the Nostrausse family,” she said, giving me a very elegant curtsy. The elegance and ease of the motion was seriously hampered by the fact she was wearing very basic linen pants and a shirt, rather than a dress, which was a problem she seemed to realise moments later. She blushed, before brushing past the failed curtsy attempt. “Ahhh… Please forgive any discourtesy I have shown you,” she said, looking at her clothes and frowning in distaste. “Regardless, may I ask if this is the afterlife? What does it appear so… odd? I thought my heart was to be weighed for judgement, but I can’t seem to find Ashra’s court. Could you… erm… kindly direct me towards where I’m supposed to be going? Also, though it may be presumptuous, may I ask what the… strange black ocean I saw while coming here was? This is also quite different from what the priests described…” She turned to me, and her gaze started to become filled with expectations and curiosity I had no good response to.
Her questions, combined with her unusual eyes, started to give me a sneaking suspicion...
“Sallia… Before we continue speaking, do you mind explaining what your home was like? Not a long, detailed explanation – just a quick description will do.” I said. I was starting to realise that she came from somewhere very different from whatever home I came from.
Sallia gave me a strange look. Then, her eyes widened as she seemed to realise what I was getting at.
“I live… lived on a continent where the priesthood rules the lower posts of the country in the name of the gods. They run the education system for nobles, and answer directly to the god-king. Nobles are the families born with magical talent, and are blessed with the task of keeping martial order within the kingdom. Upon dying, it is well known that the first god-king, Ashra, will take us to his halls and weigh our hearts upon the scales of judgement. Those found worthy will be granted another life as nobles, while those found wanting will be born again as commoners, to learn the lessons that eluded them in their previous life. Those in between will be reborn as the children of wealthy merchants, and those found to be truly benevolent and perfectly free of evil will be reborn as phoenixes, the holiest and most sacred animals of all.” She took another dubious glance at the scorch marks inside of the house, before giving me another strange glance from the corner of her eyes. “I see that perhaps the afterlife is quite different than I was told. What about you? Were you born in a different kingdom or continent?”
“I was born… in something called a London. I…” I felt a pounding headache as I tried to reach into my memories. The more I concentrated on my previous life, the more I felt dizzy, and my headache grew worse as I tried to figure out what London was. However, even if my memories were hazy, I was absolutely sure that I had lived in a world with lots of technology in it. Even though many of my memories were like jigsaw puzzle parts without a full picture, I could still remember bits and pieces of information, like computers and cars, even if some other obvious ‘daily’ things were completely gone. The world that Sallia had described was utterly alien to me. I struggled with my headache for a few moments, before I shook my head and gestured at one of the giant skyscrapers visible down the street. “I came from a place where a lot of people made buildings like that one. And at home, magic and mages were considered nonsensical stories for children.”
“Nonsensical stories?” Sallia seemed shocked at that statement. Whatever she had been thinking or preparing herself for, it clearly wasn’t this. “Wait, how did your continent function without Mages? I’ve never heard of ‘London’ before either. Even if you were born in another kingdom, life without magic is just impossible. Who would rule the country? Or heal the sick and wounded? How do you even know who is or isn’t noble if nobody can cast spells?”Sallia looked appalled, like I had just suggested that people in my world had walked upside down every day, or like I had suggested that breathing was optional where I came from.
If I hadn’t had a few hours to process the idea of a city where floating islands and System popups existed, I would have also had a hard time accepting the idea that her world also existed. A continent where magic and god-kings ruled would have seemed impossible to me before I had come to this place. However, besides just feeling confused and amazed, I was growing even more curious about the nature of this city.
What was this place? Both Sallia and I knew we were dead, but had arrived in this city after our deaths. We came from two worlds that were so utterly and completely different from each other that it was difficult to believe we were from different parts of the same world, or even the same universe. And yet, somehow, here we were, in a city with a wide variety of technology and magic, all thrown together in a hodgepodge of nonsensical shapes that made me wonder if Cthulu was the city planner.
And, in this city powerful enough to pull in two people from totally different universes and shift things around through space at will, instead of a thriving civilization, we found massive piles of rubble and corpses.
What the hell happened here? And who or what had destroyed this civilization that could do things I couldn’t even imagine?
* * *
Sallia and I spent about an hour inside of the house, talking to each other and recounting our experiences to each other. I learned a fair bit of useful information in that time, and had also slowly grown comfortable enough with her to put down my frying pan.
First, Sallia also remembered her death – in fact, she knew much more about her death than I did about mine. Her family had been devastated by a plague less than two years ago, and eventually, she followed them to the grave after a strange bout of serious pain in her stomach. Sallia thought she had probably been poisoned. She also didn’t have a particularly long journey before she reached the Market – she described it as taking a day or two, rather than the weeks or months I remembered floating above the ever-changing ocean.
I couldn’t help but feel a bit of admiration for Sallia now. Even though she had a few speculations about who might have ordered her assassination and why, she was remarkably calm despite knowing that someone had murdered her just a few days ago.
Her situation also formed a stark contrast with mine. My best understanding of my death was ‘something heavy hit my head and I died,’ and I didn’t even remember my first name. I didn’t know why there was such a huge difference between our two situations, but the fact that she hadn’t attacked me over the course of the time we spent talking made me feel assured that she wasn’t hostile, at least. I remained somewhat wary of her, but I didn’t think she would just fire a spell at me the moment I turned my back anymore.
After Sallia described more about her world and her death, she asked me more about what I remembered of my world. I had a hard time remembering specifics, but I still gave her an overview of what I did remember. I could describe computers in some detail, which Sallia found fascinating, and I could also describe vehicles, even if I couldn’t remember some of the specifics.
However, by the end of the hour, I had finally noticed something… peculiar.
My body was a fair bit more odd than I had previously thought it was.
Even after walking around the city for several minutes, maintaining a high state of tension for almost an hour, physically exerting myself to move things around inside of the house while searching it, and then standing for almost another hour while talking with Sallia and getting to know her, I was still in exactly the same physical condition I had started in. I didn’t get tired. I didn’t seem to get thirsty, or hungry, or need to use the bathroom, either.
At first, I thought this was just because I hadn’t been here long enough. However, since I found it increasingly odd, I decided to mention it to Sallia. She frowned, and then began jumping up and down and doing what looked like a high-intensity exercise routine for a few minutes, before turning back to me and shaking her head.
“I don’t feel any change at all. Normally, I wouldn’t be able to finish this exercise routine. My instructor said it was a difficult exercise routine even for an average mage-knight, but I just finished it and I’m not even out of breath.” Then, Sallia’s face turned even more strange. “Also, I just realized this, but I don’t think I’ve been breathing all of this time, either. I need to breathe if I want to talk, but if I don’t say anything, I don’t need to breathe at all.”
“Really?” I frowned, before I started consciously paying attention to my breathing. I stopped talking, and just sat there for a few minutes, before I confirmed Sallia’s suspicion.
If we didn’t feel like talking, we could just… hold our breath.
Forever.
“How odd,” said Sallia, frowning. “It’s very easy to not notice, but not needing to breathe is just… strange.”
I frowned, before I thought about all of the weird notifications I had gotten during my exploration of the Market.
“I think I got a notification that a basic body was created for me to inhabit when I got here, or something like that. Also, if you take a look at the bodies in the room I mentioned earlier, there aren’t any bloodstains in the area, even though the wounds on the corpse should have leaked blood all over the place. Instead, there’s just weird clumps of light everywhere, that look sort of like floating candles. Do you think the bodies we’re currently inhabiting are just… flawed, somehow? Or fake?” I struggled to put what I was thinking into words, but Sallia nodded after a few moments of thought.
“I suspect that the civilization originally inhabiting this place treated bodies like clothes. They could change out of them at any time, and if a pair of clothes got damaged, they could simply buy a new body and change into it. Skilled craftsmen might have specialized in providing good bodies for people to inhabit. However, they might have also valued convenience over durability. If they found breathing annoying, perhaps they specifically created bodies that no longer needed to breathe, even if it caused bodies to deteriorate more quickly as a result. After all, if they could simply buy another body later on, it doesn’t seem like a serious problem if a body collapses within a few months.”
I frowned, before I nodded. “That also explains the food stockpile in this house. I know a lot of them, and they’re all kinds of food well-known for being bad for you if you eat too much of them. I was originally wondering if the owner of this house just didn’t care about his health, but… if he didn’t need to eat at all, things make much more sense. Food was just a form of entertainment, so once his body became unhealthy, he would just swap to a new one.”
Sallia looked at the random scraps of food throughout the house, displaying a bit more curiosity than before, and then nodded.
“Either way, this information does not solve our fundamental problems. We must figure out what ‘reincarnating’ actually entails, find it before our Achievement runs out, and keep an eye on when and how our bodies will deteriorate. We may also need to learn how to ‘swap out’ of bodies and change into new ones, if we don’t find a better solution to our other problems in time. For all of our problems, we must explore the Market more. And neither of us knows enough to solve these problems on our own.”
Sallia took a look at my frying pan, before shrugging and digging into the pantry. She pulled out a frying pan of her own, before holding out her elbow towards me for some reason. “Are you willing to work with me to explore this city together? Since we are in similar situations, it makes sense to work together, no?”
I had no idea why she was holding her elbow out, but I grinned at her and nodded. “Sounds good. Let’s work together.” Sallia took a glance at my elbow, before finally realising I had no idea what she was doing. She fell into thought, before holding out her left hand towards me.
I took her hand and shook it. She seemed surprised when I touched her, but after a moment she also grinned and shook my hand back.
Then, the two of us set off. I wasn’t actually sure how effective our frying pans would be as a weapons, but they were better than nothing.
The two of us crept through the city, street by street, while keeping an eye out for anything else in the area. Weapons, items, allies, enemies… neither of us had any clue what we should expect, so we just watched out for anything unusual.
As we shuffled along the silent and empty streets of the massive skeleton of a city, our surroundings started to change. Paved roads and houses began to be replaced with recognizable commercial districts. Buildings, with strange signs advertising a variety of things, started to litter our surroundings, while advertisements also floated in the sky above the city.
The advertisements seemed to want to sell anything I could think of. Everything from alcohol, to clothes, to snacks, to games and books were advertised. For now, Sallia and I ignored those shops, since they seemed devoted to entertainment and didn’t seem useful. We started searching for something related to the city’s unique features instead. A bookstore, a library, or one of the companies selling physical vessels or other Market-unique items would be far more useful to us than a store selling snacks which our bodies probably had no use for.
Finally, we started to come across more signs of battle on the streets, rather than just the occasional broken door or corpse. Scorch marks started to litter the streets. Random craters scarred the pavement. Headless corpses, piles of bones, and lumps of… meat were scattered across the sidewalks. Most bizarre of all, many of the corpses looked like they had been partially dissolved into clumps of light. The clumps of light looked sort of like the wicks of candles, except for the fact that there was nothing connected to them and they were blue instead of orange. There were also several half-demolished skeletal remains, which had been destroyed in a wide variety of ways.
Sallia and I grew more and more nervous as we came across these increasing marks of battle. Whatever had happened here, we were finding more and more of the city’s former residents. And not a single one of them was alive.
Half a street later, I saw something in the corner of my eye move.
I immediately got my frying pan ready, whirling to face the destroyed shop front.
A cluster of white bones assembled themselves in front of my eyes.
In front of us was a freshly animated skeleton. Clumps of green soulfire glowed inside of its eye sockets. It held a greenish-purple sword in its right hand, and a yellow shield in its left hand. And it was looking right at us.
