Nathan’s Conundrum

Nathan had a conundrum. The glass globe that mapped the entire planet - which he had dropped and shattered - was missing! The last place he recalled having it was while infiltrating the militancy hall in Droon. He'd been in the back alley trying to piece the broken - well pieces - together. What had happened after that? He had no memory of the moments after, which deeply disturbed him. To distract himself he stomped a rock into the soil of his personal floating island. 

Displaced dirt was pushed out of the edge in influence from his runes and fell off onto the forest below. “Well, that’s okay.” 

Nathan inspected the runes by stroking his finger through the groove in his totem. He traced them all the way to the dirt it was wedged into. “Fine calculations I believe.” 

He was a genius. The totem wasn’t even centered and he still kept the chunk of earth level. “Now let’s see, I wonder where the pieces have gone. Someone might have stolen them. Maybe sold them off for a large fortune.”

He had no way to track the pieces. They weren’t homing crows. So would he ever find them again? He might have to give up and spend his life on something more meaningful. At least he had the portion that showed most of this continent. The town west of Droon would be good. He recalled visiting there once. He’d been surprised how much news came through there.

“Maybe I will find a young lady asking the local glass blower for the remains of a glass globe to be repaired. By which time I will arrive and sit with my drink. After overhearing the young lady I will approach (in a not perverted way) and offer my assistance. Namely my financial backing. I would pay for the repairs. Then with the glass map, we will join on an adventure together and become fast friends before using the globe to end the Terror of the Militancy once and for all.” Nathan was keenly aware of the plot holes and cli·chés in his story. 

Once the town was in sight he lowered his personal island into the forest to its south. The mountains and hills in the distances evened out and fell away as he lowered under the tops of trees. He was in the midst of the quiet forest when he crashed to the ground. The island collapsed into a heap of grass and rock and dirt with his totem askew. There was no other way to land.

He brushed himself off. His fine coat was dirty now; about right for someone who had traveled on the road. He was grateful for the cover. As for the totem he hoisted it and shuffled a sack under it and sat to rest. He was sweaty thirty ticks later when he was done. Even better, it was summer after all. 

When he took a step up to the main road through the town, a woman ran out of a building on his right.

“Haha! We usually get the best news by scroll, but this time the news walked itself in!”

Nathan froze. Did she know him?

“Hah! Well, bring your strange log in and tell us about it!”

The woman turned and walked back into the building. Nathan followed her. This would probably be exactly where he’d want to be. Past the door, Nathan looked up at the sky. What did they do when it rained?

“Terral! I’ve got him!”

Nathan laughed. “You have me. Now…uh… do you have anything for me?”

“Hahahah!”

“Hehe.” A light and feminine voice laughed.

“I’m Arri. Tell me something more interesting than the news out of Droon, and I’ll feed you and rehydrate you.”

Nathan took a seat at the long table under a canopy. He shuffled his butt on the well-worn stool. A plate of grains and root vegetables steamed up between him and the women sitting across from him. They all smiled.

“Looks good.” He pushed the plate aside. 

They all leaned in. Terral had an eager look on her face. “This is definitely going to be juicy.” 

Nathan took a sip of the drink they’d served him. “The totem I lugged here? That’s a rune totem I carved myself.”

Terral’s eyes were so rapt with attention that Nathan felt the heat of a blush rise to his face. 

“What’s the totem do?” Her light and now breathless voice made his heart beat faster. What was this?

“Ah…uh, the totem. I use this for transportation.”

Nathan took a bite off the plate while they pondered his words.

Terral looked at the other woman. “I think this news is fabricated.”

“Maybe he’d find comfort among the other fabricated stories.”

“Oh you’re right. He’d be all nice and cozy.”

Nathan chose to eat his generous meal and ignore the banter. He knew they spoke of the scrolls hung behind him. He’d been bullied enough to know not to react. After finishing the drink he had food remaining. He accepted an offer for a refill. While Arri went to fetch more, He stood and turned around to walk up and read the scrolls that hung on the far wall. 

Terral came up next to him while he skimmed the various news reports. She respected his focus by watching silently. After he had skimmed all the news, Arri came up on his other side with a cup. He moved to accept it but she shook her head. 

“Yours ‘s on the table.”

Then she tossed the contents on the scroll in front of her. As the liquid soaked in, the ink ran. Nathan turned toward her in shock. He heard a giggle behind him. 

“It’s water.”

“Water…” He looked at the scroll soaking into the fabric. Not parchment as he’d assumed. She jerked the cup up again and more water ran the news away. Nathan watched as some drops fell into a divet in the ground where the bottoms of the scrolls were weighed down. 

Someone new suddenly burst in and hurried over. 

“The news! Arri! It’s not even raining. what’d you wash it away for?”

“This is yesterday's news. Stay a while and enjoy the company of your neighbors. Today’s news will arrive shortly. Do I ever tolerate a late runner?”

“No. no, you don't, you can be trusted. I’ll have what he’s having.”

While the other man took a seat, Terral replaced him and felt one of the fabrics. “She washes the news away early, so folks come from all over the village and sometimes even Droon and the outlying homes to keep in the know. She’s brought a suspicious community together in a really clever way, I think.”

Terral gave him a look. He didn’t know what the look meant, but none of the news would help him. He looked at her, tried to remember her name, but failed. He spoke to the air instead. “I lost a glass map of the planet. I’m looking for the pieces.”

“Wow, a globe? Those are so expensive. Who even needs one? Nobody’s going to cross the ocean.”

“No, I think they are still on this continent. I dropped it and it shattered. I have a good memory, but not after that moment. Here, I have a piece. He pulled out a concave shard of glass and held it up for her. 

“Let’s take that to the table so you don’t drop it again.”

At the table Nathan pointed out the geographic etches in the glass. The woman felt the smooth oceans and the rough continents. 

So why do you need a globe? Are you trying to learn about the other continents?”

“Well I can still learn about this continent with the part I have. Yes, the other parts are necessary if I want to get back to the academy.”

“Academy… The University in Droon?”

“No, this one is out in the ocean.”

“Out there? Ships don’t even leave sight of the shore. How will you get there? Wait back? So you’ve already been there?”

Nathan nodded. “Would you like to see how? “

“Arri. a break?”

“Sure thing Terral! As long as you tell me all about your date!”

Terral. That was her name. He’d remember it now.

Nathan guided her out to the forest again. Terral was keeping pace with his long and quick stride. She kept her face turned away from him. Was she blushing too? He picked a flat and empty lot with plenty of healthy grass, where he dragged the totem out of the sack. With a heave of his totem he pegged it into the soil right through the grass. 

Terral watched him trace the runes from top to bottom. The runes were carved all around the totem and connected by smaller grooves like elegant veins. 

After his finger passed a glow lit up the runes. Once he reached the base of the totem, the ground broke up around them. They rose on the chunk of earth and had to kneel from the sudden movement. Nathan gestured for her to hold onto the totem. Once high enough to see over the rooftops Nathan eased the amount of runic influence on the island. They stood suspended directly above the empty lot. 

Terral waved at the people in the open air news hub. They pointed and waved back. This was sure to be news that would get him into trouble again. That was good because he wouldn’t find those globe pieces easily.

Terral sat and said, “What if you never find the other pieces?”

“Well the naive stories of gathering the parts of a relic and saving the world are very unrealistic. I’d need an anchor linked to this totem to move horizontally. Otherwise I can only levitate a small piece of ground Directly up. The globe has a link to Flor’eliant zherself. That’s how I anchored to the forest nearby. 

His “date” looked past him in thought. A smile lit up her face, “You are clearly a genius at using runes. You could try making your own map.”

“That wouldn’t be enough. I’d need a deep connection to the elements. The globe isn’t runic magic itself. I have no idea how it was made….”

A short woman walked into the the news hub and sat at and empty seat. she dumped a pile of broken junk in front of her and began placing them in an organized arrangement. 

Nathan turned to Terral. “Does this town have any maps of the area? “

“Are you going to make your own globe?”

“No, I’m going to try a different way to anchor the totem to the land in the ocean.

“So giving up on finding the glass parts?”

“Not quite, but I think that local maps might even have a better connection to the planet.

“Arri!”

“What!?”

“This Nathan man wants maps!”

“I’ve many not very useful ones.”

Terral looked at him. “Well mister Nathan. Want to look?”

Nathan smiled. “Even old or outdated maps could help.”

Nathan and his new companion perused the maps in a room behind the news hub that did have a roof. While they grew excited, the newcomer was placing glass pieces together that represented waves and other images in glass. She tried in vain to solve the mystery of the images. In frustration she slid everything into a pack and left the hub at a brisk walk. 

“All right, do you mind helping me home?”

A great vine rose out of the soil on the outskirts of the town. The woman was lifted high in the air and carried away across the land. The great vine wove and entered the earth in long-reaching arcs. As one portion descended another rose for the woman to hop onto. In this manner she quickly traveled past the city of Droon to the east, then turned north and with her went the shards of a glass globe. Deeper inland, and north to the city of Amnyl where she would return to her pursuit of the past. 

“We’ll find out what you are yet, little artifact.”

She patted her pack with optimism.

Back at the town, two strangers peered over old and new maps with a fervor of those engaging in novel and intellectual pursuits. Forgotten was Nathan’s dreary voyage across the land. Forgotten was Terral’s lonely yearning for  news abroad. In a cramped room they shared a new journey. A journey much like the one a young mechanist had embarked on at the workshops of his university. 

Three journeys that shared a single thread.