Mirrorworld (27 page)

“I got it, thanks,” Marcus growled. “But, why
me?
I’m not even a Viaggiatori!”

“Hell if I know. Because the Master wanted to support your burgeoning leadership skills? I doubt it, somehow. Because she likes a good joke? Could be. Because she’s completely mad? Also likely. Ask her yourself, if you make it back alive.”

“Wait..
Eira
did this?”

“Do you think he’s found out, yet?” Eustace asked.

“If not, he will do soon enough,” Eira said happily, sinking back into her chair. Eustace had popped by to let her know that the strike team had successfully departed the city, and in her utter desperation for good news even this little fact had cheered her up. “I made sure Lucin heard me telling Musk, and if any aspect of that man’s personality is reliable, it’s his affinity towards causing trouble. It’s practically guaranteed.”

Eustace nodded sagely in agreement. “But why did you do it? I didn’t really think Marcus had much inclination towards leadership if it didn’t involve leading himself somewhere quiet and safe.”

“Well, yes, you might be right,” Eira conceded, putting her feet up very pointedly on the small note that the council had sent her requesting an update. “His psychologist didn’t give me a glowing report either. But I had three very important reasons. First,” she said, holding up a finger, “who else could I have given it to? The Assassin can’t be trusted, Kendra is a wild card, Lucin even worse, and Fervesce spends most of the time asleep. Plus, a healthy regard for one’s own skin might just help temper any dangerously over-confident plans Musk comes up with. You know what he’s like, he doesn’t always think of non-brute force approaches. Not that that hasn’t worked for him so far.”

“Was that one reason or two?” Eustace asked, settling himself opposite Eira.

“It was one, I just added a bit. Reason
two
is that this entire endeavour is a gamble against huge odds. We have no idea what they might find out there, or what will happen, but we
do
know that something about Marcus makes him important in some way, and if a little authority might help bring it out of him, then I’ll take that as a possible advantage, however unlikely it may be.”

“Alright,” Eustace said, graciously accepting a cup of the coffee Eira had just poured. “And the third reason?”

“The third reason is that..” Eira paused, sipped her own coffee, and grinned. “The third reason is that the thought of the look on his face when he finds out makes me giggle.”

“Of course Eira did it,” Lucin said, rolling his eyes. “Musk is hardly likely to have appointed you himself, is he? You see, he’s all about the physical strength, not only in action but planning. He doesn’t need a back-up. Whatever plan he devises, I’ll give you good odds right now that it will begin and end with ‘charge!’” Lucin hesitated, but when Marcus didn’t take him up on it, he sighed and carried on. “So maybe we’ll get to see some of your judgement calls, eh? Why not. Go cause some chaos. It’s what I’d have done if the position had been given to me.. which is probably
why
the position wasn’t given to me. Ha.” The short man grinned, in a highly malevolent manner. His bird squawked knowingly.

Marcus dropped back to walk by himself again, head swimming. Well, this surely explained Musk’s newly frosty attitude, even if the man had displaced his fears of usurpation onto the more threatening figure of the Assassin.. yes, that was about right. Life in the Mirrorworld, it seemed, was full of surprises, and now Eira had dropped another one on him. It was a testament to her skill and veracity that she was capable of making life more difficult for him even when she wasn’t actually there.

Plumm’s main gate was a beautiful, pointless affair. It was tall, wooden and foreboding, with a stone frame peppered with flaring lanterns and the town’s name in large red and yellow lettering across the top. Unfortunately the general effect was somewhat diminished by the fact that the town didn’t have any walls, compromising the structure’s defensive utility in how anyone looking to invade could just walk around them. Nonetheless, the gates swung open dramatically to mark the Viaggiatori’s arrival, and Marcus walked through them with an appropriate level of humble awe, wondering exactly what it was they had in here that could justify them.

As the group moved through the streets, Lucin pointing the way towards the inn where they’d be staying the night, Marcus couldn’t help but be disappointed. He concluded quickly that Plumm was a definite downgrade from Portruss; in the latter city, it was almost impossible to take a step without becoming entangled in a debate with someone else who’d taken the same step coming from the other direction and crashed into you. Portruss buzzed like a hive, whilst Plumm buzzed like a tired bee, spiralling through the sky en route to an emergency landing on a nearby flower. Even here on the main street, there were very few people about. A few blocks over to the right, a bright neon glow battled with the increasing darkness for control of the sky, and snippets of faint music floated from the alleyways that led off in that direction. There was light and life somewhere, at least, but it wasn’t here.

The name of the inn they were staying at turned out to be The Last Waltz, a creaky, shambolic motel glitzed up with fairy lights that only made it look more tragic. Musk paused their group just outside the tiny, dirty reception office. “Alright lady and gentlemen,” he said, “is everybody listening?”

Marcus leant forward, hugging his staff; whatever arcane force powered it had adjusted it to a perfect height for him to rest his head against it and look petulantly tired. To his left, the Assassin stood, similarly slouching. On his immediate right, Kendra appeared to be listening attentively. Lucin and Fervesce made up the circle on her far side, the one staring blankly and the other with eyes still closed, somehow attentive even in sleep. Marcus decided to keep an eye on him.

“Okay,” Musk said wearily. “Here we are in Plumm. We only have two rooms with three beds apiece for the night, so you’ll have to go forgo privacy, Kendra. Sorry.” The woman only shrugged. “Fine. Now, once we’ve checked in, feel free to do whatever you want with yourselves – we are meant to be here looking into strange activity, so I recommend taking a walk and looking curious for the sake of our cover. Still, I won’t pretend to command that you do exactly as I say; I’ll leave it with you. Just make sure you come back tonight, because we’re leaving early in the morning, and I won’t have anyone moaning about lack of sleep. Alright?” There was a murmur of assent. Musk relaxed, and went to butt heads with the receptionist regarding the state of their rooms.

Marcus ended up sharing with Fervesce and Kendra, since Musk and the Assassin both claimed the larger, cleaner room, and Musk wanted Lucin on side to scout the city with his magic eyeballs. The former three were thus sent to the room next door, which had a higher population of miscellaneous insects than it did human residents. Marcus spent a few minutes playing whack-a-mole with the beasties lurking in his mattress, trying not to choke on the mushroom cloud of dust that each hit sent fountaining into the air, whilst Kendra made herself at home and Fervesce collapsed face-first onto his bed despite the state of it. After a while, Marcus sat down on the edge of the bed, exhausted, and was relieved to not immediately feel anything crawling around underneath him.

“This town is horrible,” he said forlornly to no-one in particular. Kendra had gone outside to sit on the porch, and Fervesce had already proven himself not much of a conversationalist. Nonetheless, this was the first moment Marcus had found himself alone with the man, so he decided to undertake an investigation. Full of resolve, he spun around to face Fervesce and said hello. There was no response. He leant forward and poked the man gently.

Stop that,
said a voice in his head.

Marcus froze, finger still pointed treacherously outwards.

Ahem, hello?
The disembodied voice continued.
Can you hear me? If so, don’t poke me.

A few seconds passed wherein Marcus very slowly retracted his finger.

Oh good, I guess you can. Okay. Hello. I’m Fervesce. Or rather I’m not. I
am
an automated message left by Fervesce in case anyone attempts to wake me from my current state of shutdown. Message continues: stop doing that. I am currently running at 15% capacity in order to pre-emptively take care of any exhaustion that will come about from a severe exertion of my psychic abilities, so please do not further attempt to awaken or converse with me, lest you actively desire to jeopardise this expedition. You punk. Thank you, this message will now shut down and be replaced with a far less polite one if you poke me again.

Marcus decided to go outside. He wandered out onto the porch and sat down heavily next to Kendra, who was stretching out and leaning back, staring over the rooftops towards the lights of the town. As he fell into place next to her she glanced at him. “Y’alright?”

“I was just insulted by a voice in my head,” he said blankly. “All I did was poke an old man.”

“Oh, Fervesce? Yeah, that happens. Good, isn’t it?”

“He said he needed sleep. For his ‘psychic abilities
’
.”

Kendra glanced at him again from around the angles of her characteristic head tilt. “No need to be like that. He really does have psychic powers.”

“I can believe that,” Marcus said, doodling inattentively in the sandy dirt underfoot. “It’s the fact that he said he was taking care of the exhaustion he’ll feel
after
by going to sleep
before
that got me.”

“Ah, our Talents work in mysterious ways,” Kendra said with affected wisdom, staring off into the distance. “Ways that makes no sense, usually. Musk can make himself stronger or weaker at will. That doesn’t make any sense. Still, it’s handy stuff. Which is the point, really..”

“I feel like I’m missing something here,” Marcus said as she trailed off. “Have you all got these ‘talents’, then?” After a few moments of silence in which Kendra continued to stare blankly ahead, Marcus felt moved to repeat himself, and waved his hand in front of her eyes.

“Hello,” she said with a smile. “What’s up?”

Marcus contented himself with repeating his question again.

Kendra nodded. “Yeah we all have them. Musk’s you already know. Lucin’s I think you do – the eye thing.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “Fervesce is he of the incredible psychic ability which means he can pretty much do anything if he sleeps for long enough beforehand – I know, I know, don’t ask. The Assassin has his magical resilience which is the whole reason we’re here. And then there’s me. And you,” she added, raising a finger on her other hand.

“What’s your – wait, me?”

“Yup. We get our Talents from the Mirrorline, you know. Everyone who passes through gets marked by it with some new toy, for better or worse. We’re all here because we’ve got the most useful stuff for this situation, but, well, you got dragged over from Earth, and though you might not be here for the same reasons we are – did you figure that out yet? – doesn’t matter. Point is, you crossed the Mirrorline just like we did, so you’ve definitely got some of our magic jazz in you!”

Marcus stared at his hands, which were now covered in dirt from the surrealist masterpiece he’d carved into the ground underfoot. “I don’t recall feeling any different.”

“You probably won’t,” Kendra said, rocking back and forth on the edge of the porch. “Until you do. Don’t try and predict it, it could literally be
anything
. Friend of mine back home can instantly boil water, very handy, doesn’t save the world at all. The only thing that comes close to making sense about Talents is that they always get stronger the more you Linewalk. Fervesce, he’s been at it for decades, so he can melt you with his mind. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Well, this is a revelation,” Marcus said weakly. “Hey, couldn’t this mysterious whatever turn out to be the thing that makes me so important?”

“Maybe.. But nah, you were marked as important before we ever tugged you over here, so I doubt it. Might make a difference, might not. We’ll have to wait and see!”

Marcus only felt more depressed by her genuine excitement. “Yay.”

“Oh shush,” Kendra said, poking him, “It could be worse.”

“Ow. How?”

“You could live here,” she said, with the triumphant air of a poker player laying out a killer hand.

“..Good point. This place is cheap and nasty.”

“Incorrect,” Kendra said, going in for a poke again that Marcus was able to dodge. “Well, no, correct, but incorrect, like, like when we say green ideas sleep furiously. Plumm isn’t really cheap, there’s actually a lot of money here - it’s just that most of it is over there.” She aimed her wandering finger, which Marcus has been warily observing, in the direction of the distant lights and sound.

“And what’s over there?” Marcus squinted, but beyond the roving searchlights and odd silhouettes of tall buildings decorated with neon that flashed through the night, it was impossible to make out anything specific.

“Why don’t we go look?”

“Do we have to?”

“Yes. Let’s go look investigative, like Musk asked us to. Plus, I want some biscuits.”

“What about the others?” Marcus asked feebly, nodding back towards their rooms.

“Musk won’t come out, he’ll be too busy fretting. The Assassin left almost straight away, and Lucin snuck after him soon after, probably on his way to the nearest den of iniquity. And Fervesce has made his stance clear, it seems,” she added with a wicked grin.

“Oh alright then,” Marcus said, giving up. “I’ll get my staff.”

The formation of the town of Plumm occurred early in the life of the city of Portruss, a city that had found itself cursed with an unpleasant underbelly to its population, one that consisted of thieves, liars, tricksters and embezzlers whose sole goals in life were to move money from other people’s pockets and into their own. In doing so, they were ruining the economy for everyone except themselves, and constantly proving a thorn in the side of the ruling classes of Portruss, who believed that that should be exclusively their job. That in mind, they hatched a cunning plan.