บท 3: The Blue News
The gateman — gatewoman, rather — was a striking young woman with lavender hair and a thin scar across her left eye. She moved toward them with the sort of walk that a general might have, never allowing her ruthless eyes to stray from Graham's face.
"You know the drill, Gray." Her tone was harder than steel and left no room for dissent.
"Yep. Sure do, Lily, sure do." He spread his feet apart and raised his arms. From what Nathan could tell by observing the other gatemen work, this was not standard procedure.
Considering the manner in which she searched him, it was likely not ethical either.
"You're good. Just do one more spin — might've missed something in your back pockets. Alright, that's good. Actually, I think I see something in your — "
"Hi, Lily," Wink said, saving the blushing Graham from any further disgrace.
Lily's demeanor changed in a flash. She bent down to Wink's level and gave him a bright smile. "Oh, my goodness, I didn't see you there, Winky. Did you have fun today?"
Wink nodded. "We harvested a bunch of monster cores. Saw some husks in the first circle too."
"Deebo's grunts, I bet. He's stopped even training his auxiliaries; just gives them rucks and leads them into the fifth circle. It's no wonder his team's fatality rate is off the charts." Lily turned to Nathan and gave him a hard look from head to toe. "Who's the new guy?"
"He only started a couple days ago," Graham interjected. "Found him looking for work at the Rag and Tag — thought he looked capable enough, so I got him a license. Figured we could use an extra hand since we've been going past the fourth circle lately."
Lily stared at him for a moment then shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever. I see Annie sulking over there — is she not on your team anymore?"
"Well, for the moment she is, but I think she plans on quitting and starting her own team when she gets back to the barracks."
Lily snorted. "As if anyone would follow her. That girl is nothing but trouble. Ugly as a dredge, too. This new guy seems — " she paused for a moment, considering her next words " — not like trouble. Dresses weird, though."
Nathan made no reply to the jab at his choice of apparel, though it was the second one he'd suffered in just an hour and it had done some damage to his confidence in fashion.
"Yeah," Graham said, stretching the word. "You know, we should probably head in now. Got to sweep tomorrow and all that stuff. It was really nice seeing you, though, Lily." He spun around and took a step forward.
"Wait."
Graham turned back to her, stiffer than a dead man and just as pale. Nathan gathered that he was risking a lot to sneak him into the Ring. For what reason, he had no idea.
"You'll take me out on a date next week," Lily said as though it was a fact as undeniable as the planet being round. "Dinner. Not at some sleazy grubhouse, either. A real restaurant."
"Yes, definitely. Wouldn't miss it to save the realms."
"Good. You can go, now."
Graham sped away from her as quickly as decorum would allow, though decorum had long since been abandoned in their exchange. Nathan and Wink followed after him, the latter receiving a chipper goodbye from Lily.
"We got lucky," Graham said. "She didn't even look at the clipboard. Whenever they tally things up, she'll realize that we lied, though. Might send Keepers after us. I was really banking on her not working today."
Wink punched his arm. "One step at a time, right?"
"That's right — one step at a time."
They walked through the gate with the other dozens of baggers, entering into a long, sconced hallway with another gate at its end, this one smaller. It opened up with the same terrible noise as the first.
"Home sweet home," Graham said, taking a step past it.
The light hit Nathan first — the electric blue that he'd seen from the tower and on the ceiling, cranked up to a thousand. It was vomited from every lamppost and billboard he could spot, so intense that his retinas screamed for mercy and his brain cursed whatever electricians had permitted its existence.
Graham handed him a pair of goggles, identical to the ones that he and Wink had slipped on while he wasn't paying attention. They looked somewhere between awesome and totally lame, with cloudy blue lenses held in place by a thick, copper frame.
"You might want these," Graham said. "Pretty much every light in the Ring is magblue, even the ones inside of some buildings. That's usually just your seedy bars and rundown hotels, though."
"Magblue?" Nathan asked, pulling the goggles around his head.
"It's the shade of blue that's unique to pure magic." Wink pointed to an especially bright light on a building. "Every light in the Ring comes from a bright glyph. If you put in the script to change a bright glyph's color, it drains at nearly twice the rate. Too expensive to maintain; much cheaper just to keep it all blue outside."
When the lenses went over Nathan's eyes, the world regained its color.
The Ring shifted from a blue smear to a city out of a fantasy novel. Stone buildings from three-story to skyscraper ran down the cobbled streets, falling apart as all things in the Underground did. Columns and arches mixed with balconies and tall glass windows to make a confusingly modern and primeval concoction. It was as though the architects were time travelers, stealing elements from different eras.
The streets were rich with people, men and women all busying themselves with the errands of urban life — darting in and out of buildings, shopping at canopied food and craft stands, walking too many pets, peering through store windows at pricey clothes and toys. It was a refreshing sight to Nathan, not so utterly foreign as everything else he'd seen.
Dozens of zip lines hung from every building, people swooshing down them in harnesses, travelling from roof to roof with an expert grace that only extensive repetition could produce. Lifts like the one on the tower could be seen as well, moving at a more moderate pace along the cables that snaked through the Ring.
"So?" Graham asked. He was smiling at Nathan's dazzled expression. "What do you think?"
"I think that I'd explore every inch of it if my legs weren't about to quit on me."
A young boy, pale as bone with a brown mop of hair, ran up to the three of them, newspaper clutched in his hand.
"Got the Blue News for you sweepers," he said, wagging the newspaper at them. "Special today — something about the Church and the Seer. Just a talon, only one."
"Go away, Barky, we know you stole that," Wink said, shooing him with his hand.
Barky grinned at him and opened his leather satchel. "Stole these, you mean. Got dozens in here, fresh from the press."
"You're going to get caught one day, you know."
"That's the problem with you, Wink — you're always thinking in days and weeks. I think in seconds and minutes, myself, so I'll keep on stealing." Barky waved the newspaper at them again. "Got some good stuff in here, though. Well, I think it does, at least. Can't read, but the paper boy I yanked this from could, and he said it had good stuff. What'll it be? Just a talon, only one."
Graham flicked a coin at Barky, and he caught it with two fingers.
Barky's grin grew bigger, revealing a missing canine. "Thanks, Gray. Enjoy the paper." He sped off down the street, beat up shoes clacking with every step he took.
Nathan laughed at the silliness of the scene. It seemed that even in a world full of magic, poor children still sold newspapers. Perhaps it was a trend across every universe — an inevitability.
Graham skimmed the paper for a second then held it up to Nathan. "Nathan walks among us — pretty good headline. Looks like the Church was expecting you. Guess the Seer isn't full of slark like I thought he was."
"What should I do about it?" Nathan asked.
"Well, you could go see them if you want, but I think you should wait. Maybe learn a little more about our world before you throw yourself into that mess."
Nathan nodded. "Waiting sounds good; I think I've been through enough today. Besides, I want Wink to teach me how to draw glyphs."
Wink beamed at him. "Our place is on Mitten Street, way up on the thirty-third floor of the Grand Davide. It's only a few minutes away if we take the zips. Have you ever used one, Nathan?"
"No, and I'm not sure if — "
"Let's go, then!" Wink scurried through the people in the street and shot into a tall building. He peaked out the door a second later and motioned for Graham and Nathan to follow.
Nathan looked at the zip line at the top of the building. It was definitely high enough to kill a man should he fall from it. Probably painfully, at that. He looked at Graham, hoping to find some reassurance.
Graham shrugged, just a hint of a smile on his face. "You're the one that got him all worked up. Don't worry — zipping is fun."
Nathan stared at the top of the building again and let out a pitiful groan.
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