Chapter 3-1

They moved quicker on horseback than they did by cart, but still not as quick as they would have liked. Between the three of them someone always seemed to need to go to the bathroom or have a bite to eat, and by nightfall they hadn’t even made it a third of the way. Worse yet, it had recently rained and so there was no dry wood to light a fire with. Leonas used a light spell in its place, but wasn’t happy about it.

They made camp in a quiet glade off the side of the road. Leonas’s quick light spell bobbed against the ground, providing an unnatural white light. All three pulled bedrolls out of their packs and sat down on them, forming a scattered circle around the campfire.

Milly produced three packs of trail rations from the sleeve of her robes. Anjanette remarked “Wow, that thing’s more handy than I would have thought.”

“Uh... thanks,” said Milly.

They dug into the trail rations with an obscene hunger. Despite being dry and tasteless, the rations were all they had to eat. After a while your senses flipped around so that they were delicious.

“So tell me about being a... what was it, battle librarian?” asked Leonas.

Milly blushed, shrinking away from the light spell and into the shadows. “I basically just search for rare books and artifacts. I hope to open up a big library one day, with all these treasures and stuff, but that’s a long way in the future. It’s really not as interesting as it sounds.”

“Really? Because it sounds pretty fucking dull,” said Anjanette.

Leonas ignored her, even if Milly didn’t. “If you don’t mind me prying, why?”

Milly apparently found an ant crawling on the ground supremely fascinating, but talked anyway. “I guess I’ve just always loved books. Fiction, histories, poems, advice books... like, anything I can get my hands on, really. And, uh, these ancient books that have been lost... I mean, how could I not go looking for them? I just really want to know what’s in them, you know? It sounds really dumb, I know.”
There was a brief hesitation, which Milly used to immediately change the subject. “So, what about you guys? Why are you in the questing business.”

“We’re not,” said Anjanette. She leaned back on her broadsword, planted in the ground behind her.

“We’re con men by trade,” said Leonas. “We figured it was a much better way to make a living while keeping all the adventure and travelling of questing.”

“But doesn’t your conscience bother you?”

“What’s that?” said Anjanette. She and Leonas shared a chuckle.

They talked a bit more, trading road stories over their dry rations. Eventually Anjanette ventured into her pack and pulled out an ilsc.

“Oh no,” said Leonas. “Please don’t tell me...”

Anjanette cracked a sadistic smile. “That’s right. The brand new ‘Noble and Beautiful’. Suck it.”

“Come on, Milly,” Leonas said, turning to her like a doomed princess looks at her shining knight. “If you agree with me that Anjanette can’t watch her stupid soap opera out here, then she can’t, right? Majority rules! The principal of modern life!”

“Um... wait, you still watch ilscs?” gaped Milly, ignoring Leonas.

Anjanette looked at her as if she had asked “You still breathe?”. “Uh, yeah. Don’t you?”

“Well, I’m more of a book person, but since I, uh, learned how they were made...”

“How they’re made? Some sort of magic mumbo jumbo, right?”

Leonas shot Milly a dirty look which seemed to miss by a mile. “Yeah. It was, like, a deal with demons like all magic, but I think that it was particualrly severe. Um, do you not know?” Anjanette shook her head, and Milly launched into scholar mode. “Well, about two centuries ago, shortly after the War of Enlightenment, a group of demons appeared before the A.O.K. Council. They offered the Aokians the spells to make as many ilscs as they wanted, recording their ideas in illusions that could later be released. The Aokian government wanted this technology badly, to help with trade and, as many scholars suspect, placate the masses. But the demons wanted a high price – they wanted a generation of mankind.”

“A generation of mankind?” asked Anjanette. “What does that mean?”

Milly lit up, carrying the air of a passionate professor. “Basically, the apocalypse, whenever and however it happens – and the demons seem pretty sure it’s going to happen – will happen one generation sooner. In the tree of humanity, the top layer of branches got cut off. After conferring with themselves, the Council made the deal.”

“That’s the fucking stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Anjanette. “You expect me to believe that conspiracy theory bullshit?”

“It’s true, actually,” said Leonas.

Anjanette swivelled her head to stare him down. “What? Why did you not tell me this?”

“It usually tends to ruin them for you,” said Leonas. “ I figure now that the deal’s done, ignorance is bliss and I’d just let you enjoy your soaps.”

“So what, a generation isn’t going to get to live, so that I can veg and watch soaps?” said Anjanette, aghast. “How dare they fucking decide that for us? I should guess this doesn’t just affect Aokians.”

“The demons have always communicated with the leaders of the greatest nation at the time, assuming that they speak for mankind,” said Milly.

Anjanette got up and tossed the ilsc away, pacing around the light source furiously. Leonas, a somber expression on his face, said “Personally, I was more disturbed knowing that there’s an end to all this. It could be tomorrow, it could never happen in our lifetimes... but mankind isn’t going to last forever. Of all the creepy shit I learned in the Academy, that’s got to be the creepiest.”

“Um...” Milly wanted to have something thoughtful to say, but she didn’t.

Leonas looked at the ground. Anjanette continued her rampage, crushing all the anthills and plants that got in her way. Milly still felt like she should say something.

“I’m sorry... I thought you would know,” she said. “I mean, I know that the AOK covered it up, but there’s a pretty big part on it in the Historica Arcana, and...”

Anjanette pivoted to glare at Milly, before breaking out into laughter. “Girl, I can count the number of books I have read since leaving school on one hand. And you can bet your ass that none of them were the goddamn Historica Arcana.”

It was Milly’s turn to stare forward with abject horror.

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