The Devil's Foundry

Rel stepped off her X-abite onto the massive cloud.

It felt just like she always hoped they would, all soft as silk and feathers and all of the other soft things Ma used to tell her about growing up.

“Bitabit!” The toothy X whipped off through the sky, joining the massive flocks of X-abites soaring through the clouds. If Rel squinted, she could see the books and scrolls in their pockets. It looked like lots of people were requesting knowledge today.

Relia flicked her pocket watch out; the hands were pointing to ‘late’. She frowned. “I’m late. I’m late.” She started moving, jogging forward past the towering piles of knowledge off to either side. On a normal day, she would have liked to explore them, but for now she was late for a very important date. So she had to hurry.

Rel’s feet sank into the fluffy surface of the cloud as she ran, and she felt herself slowly begin to sink deeper, little tidbits poked out of the cloud. “Did you know the average velocity of an unladen swallow?” “What do you do with a drunken sailor?” “Ten tips to keep your man satisfied.”

“Guh!” Rel scrambled against the cloud as the knowledge grabbed onto her, yanking her from her walk. She felt herself start to panic when the X-abites swooped around again, looking for new prey. If she didn’t project enough confidence, they’d eat her too, just like the killer humming birds.

Rel ducked under a copy of a shipping manifest as the sound of “bitabitabitabitabitabit!” passed by overhead in an endless stream. After a moment, they were gone and Rel peeked out from beneath her cover. The sky was clear. She let out a sigh.

“Are ya winning son?”

“Eeeeeeee!” Rel jumped out of the cloud as the Insta-thought popped into being behind her. “Gods! Don’t do that!” She swept her hand through the pillar of thought, dispersing it back into mist. “I don’t have time for that today.” She started jogging again, this time ignoring all of the libraries and towers of sorcery that lined her path through the cloud. She had one very specific tower she was interested in, and the rest could go hang.

Of course, the insta-thoughts were more insidious. Now that one had distracted her, they wouldn’t stop popping up and demanding her attention.

“Lady Via’s hair is very nice.”

“Wow, I can’t believe she made a special outfit just for me.”

“I wish Electra didn’t come back.”

“Mistress smells so nice.”

Rel held back a blush. Th-these thoughts were lewd! Too impure! She was just trying to get to her date—her appointment! With a huff, Rel concentrated. She pushed her hands out. “Begone thoughts!” The cloudy pillars vanished in the morning light.

“I never thought that Cutting Words would be so useful.” Rel shook her head, pushing the distraction aside. “I’m late.”

Again she tried to run, this time into the stream district. The water ran through channels in the cloud, before falling to the ground as rain. The thinner ones she could jump over, but some of them were really big streams. Like, huge streams!

Rel’s foot accidentally landed in one as she tried to jump over.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!”

“I’m sorry!” Rel jumped out of the live stream. “I didn’t mean to, I’m just l-late.”

The stream clicked its tongue. “Did you get lost again girl? Don’t forget to follow me, I’ll show you where to go!”

“Oh, right!” Rel ducked her head, “S-sorry.”

“Yeah, just hit the bell on your way, so the rest of the streams know that you’re following me. Then they won’t get in the way.”

“Thanks.”

The live stream smiled. “Don’t worry about it! Hey, she’s waiting for you after all.”

Rel nodded, hitting the bell beneath the stream. It rang and the cloud shifted, making it so that she could easily keep track of the stream she was following. It led her closer to the central tower, right in the middle of the cloud.

Right where Lady Via would be waiting.

The last stop was the ferry. Rel reached into her pocket and handed a few coins to the ferryman. “I need to get across the last stream.”

The ferryman looked at the money she gave him. “That’s too much.”

Rel blinked. “Huh?”

“Way, way too much lady. I mean, c’mon. It’s called bit coin.” He took out his scythe, cutting the coins up into tiny little bits. “Honestly, talk about not even knowing the value of your own currency.” He dumped the pile of bit coins back into her hand, keeping just a single bit for herself. “City kids, amiright?”

Rel just huffed, stuffing the coins back into her pocket. “Well maybe I’d know if people bothered to explain things to me.”

“That’s the point, lady, it’s all out of context. You need to figure out what’s going on out of the context!”

“The… context?” Rel asked.

“Yeah! Like your’a taking the pieces and putting ‘em together and—HEY!” Rel jumped as the Ferryman yelled. “I’m boating here!”

The stream, which had started to shift, returned back to its normal form. “Excuse me? Last I checked, I’m the live stream, you’re just some guy on a boat.”

“I’m just here, day in day, out, trying to do my job.” The Ferryman shook his fist, big black sleeves billowing out around him. “Then some live stream comes in and tries to tell me how to live my life? Kid, I’ve been here while you were still a bunch of precipitation on ya’ daddy’s nuts.”

The live stream sighed. “Okay, boomer.”

“And for the last time, my name isn’t Boomer, it’s Boomson!”

The live stream rolled its eyes. “Don’t you have a passenger or something?”

Boomson shook his head, muttering as he finished rowing Rel across the live stream. “Sheesh, you seein’ this? Just… don’t grow up to be like him, okay? Do somethin’ with your life lady.”

Rel paused, one foot out of the boat. “I will, Boomson.”

“Feh, just call me Boomer.” The Ferryman waved a hand. “Everyone else does.”

“Okay… Boomer?”

“Yeah! Just like that!” He grinned at her. “Now you’re starting to catch my memeing, Lady.”

“You’re… meaning?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said!”

“Okay, Boomer.” She waved. “See you on the way back.”

“Yeah, you do that.”

Rel turned and jogged up to the tower’s steps, only to come to a stop right in front of the doorway. “Oh. You’re here.”

Electra looked up from the captured sensation in her hand. The little sphere looked like a bubble of froth on the waves, giggles emerging from it. “Oh hey! You finally made it.”

Rel held back a glare. “How did you get here before me.”

“Oh you must’a taken the X-abites, right?” Electra shook her head. “Classic rookie mistake, you know the fastest way here is to go nowhere.”

Rel blinked, “Nowhere?”

“Yeah, just like Empress said. It’s nowhere and everywhere. So just go nowhere, and then you’re everywhere.”

“That…” Rel frowned. “That’s why I’m late?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Electra grinned, wiggling her eyebrows. “She’s waiting for you at the top of the tower after all.”

Rel paused on the stairs. “I don’t like you.”

“What?” Electra blinked. “Why? I’m awesome.”

“Yeah.” Rel bit her lip. “That’s why.”

Electra just tilted her head. “Uh, okay, I guess? I respect your decision and I hope we can still work together.”

“…Sure.” Rel turned and started running again.

The tower in the center, unlike the rest of the buildings in the cloud, was made of pure glass. Her footsteps seemed to chime as she ran up the stairs. From the outside, it looked like a scintillating mirror, impossible to see into, inscrutable even.

But from within, Rel’s vision was clear. She could see what Lady Via had seen when building the internet for her. The live streams stretching outward from the center, connecting people to repositories of knowledge. X-abite nests, more and more being built every day. Rel didn’t understand it, but here, now, she could still see that it was beautiful.

Slowly, she emerged up onto the top of the tower. “Lady Via?”

From the parapet, Via turned, jet black hair billowing in the breeze. The woman smiled, wiping her forehead. “Rel, perfect. I just finished.” She reached out, snagging Rel’s wrist. “Stand right here for me.”

Rel complied without thinking. “You’re… not mad that I’m late?”

“Well, from a certain point of view, you arrived right on time.” Via gave her that sly smile once again, waving her hand towards the cloud. “What do you think? I told you I’d show you after all.”

“It’s amazing.” Rel shifted, half leaning into Via, half just trying to stop from collapsing back into herself. Via didn’t like it when she slouched. “It’s just… why did you do all of this?”

Via raised a single, aquiline (thank you, Cutting Words) eyebrow. “What do you mean? Who else would I make it for?”

Rel glanced to the side. “Electra?”

Via laughed. “Oh, good one. I’ll have to remember that for next time. She’ll hate it.”

Rel didn’t really, or Relly, understand, but she just nodded along anyway. “But still, why me? I’m just…”

Via hummed, squeezing Rel’s hand. “Let me guess, you’ve never had anyone do something for you before? You’ve gone through your whole life ignored, just one more face in a crowd, no one special, no one worth remembering? And now you’re wondering why someone like me is taking so much of my time for… well, someone like you?”

Rel nodded wordlessly.

“Yeah.” Via quirked her lip. “That’s why.”

“What?”

Via checked her watch, clicking her tongue. “I’d explain more, but we’re out of time, Relia.”

Rel blinked. “What do you mean, out of time?”

“It’s time for you to wake up.” Via pointed to the sky. “All of this was just a dream after all.”

Rel felt her vision tilt as her gaze tracked Via’s finger. Everything flipped on its axis as suddenly she was upside down looking at a rock. No not just a rock, every single rock, of every shape and size in the entire world.

“This is all just a dream,” Via repeated, “that we tricked out of a rock.” She smiled gently. “And it’s time to wake up, Rel.”

“Wake up Rel.”

*~*~*

“Rel, wake up.”

Rel’s eyes snapped open. She was lying on her back on Via’s straw mattress in the alcove. Lady Via was standing over her, already dressed. Rel blinked once, hearing the ding of a system message.

“Are you ready to go?” Via asked. “Last chance to say no; after this, I’ll be pretending that I hate you until the guild makes their move.” She held out a hand.

Rel bit her lip. She glanced down at her new skill, eyes widening as she read the description.

Then, without hesitation, she reached out and grasped Via’s hand. “I’ll do whatever you need. M’lady.”

“God, I should have gotten you a fedora.”

Rel didn’t understand, but that was fine. She had a skill that would help her fill in the gaps, until the day that Via could finally show her the internet.

Dream Sequence

LvL EX

You see the dreams of your lady, and you know the steps you need to take in order to bring that dream closer to reality.

Don't trip.