Phrenia, Bilateralis, Chapter Three

“Sibyl, wake up.”

            Sibyl lifted her head up from the side of the coach. She blinked. She’d never fallen asleep in Phrenia before. It was darker out than when she’d fallen asleep. She looked over. It was Ratty and her alone in the coach. “Uhm... Where’s everyone else?”

            “They got out already,” Ratty said, “We technically fulfilled our obligation to the barkeep; Caroline’s already made contact with her dad. And Grannus has wandered off into Caroline’s dad’s Inn. Or at least I figure that’s where he’s gotten off to. You wanna give the Exitus Stone here a try?”

            “We’re in Flannerytown?” Sibyl asked, confused.

            “Yeah,” Ratty said. He grabbed her hand and tugged her towards the door. “Are you alright?”

            “I had a dream that I was back on Earth,” Sibyl said, “Instead of here.”

            “You did? How was it?”

            “Awful. Principal Weathers had been replaced by the Mayan Sun God.”

            Ratty laughed.

            “What?” Sibyl asked. “It was terrifying.”

            “Your dreams are weird,” Ratty said. “Anyway, there’s no such thing as the Mayan Sun God, just Earth and this Completely Immersive Roleplaying Game that you are currently stuck inside of.”

            “I know,” Sibyl said. She let him pull her out of the coach into the gas lamp lit street. The coach was stopped in front of a stable that was almost identical to the one in Middlerock; except for the fact that it had only one door, and the stable master who walked out to greet them was younger, with a pair of thick arms and a stubbly face.

            “How do ya do,” he said. “Listen, that girl who got off already, Caroline, she said you had some sort of deal with her? That you’d pay for her passage?”

            Ratty failed to disguise his surprise.

            “I figured as much,” the stablemaster said, “I know her father well enough, I’ll have to track him down.”

            “No it’s fine,” Ratty said, reaching under his cloak. He pulled out a handful and dropped it into the stablemaster’s hands. “We were supposed to take her here. It wouldn’t have been fair if we made her pay for her share.”

            “Outworlders being considerate?” The stablemaster said. “A pleasant surprise. Thank ya kindly.”

            Sibyl saw the scrawny blonde haired kid who’d been their driver, sitting with the reins still in his hands. As Ratty walked away, Sibyl stopped beside the driver. He peered down at her.

“Thank you for driving us,” Sibyl said.

            “Oh,” he said, “it wasn’t a problem. I get paid, you know.”

            Sibyl smiled and walked on, feeling as though she’d fulfilled some social requirement. As she caught up with Ratty, she marveled at how similar Flannerytown was to Middlerock; half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets. Middlerock hadn’t had gas lamps, though, and the buildings looked to be in slightly better repair. As well, they passed an officer in a sand colored uniform. The uniformed man watched them as they passed.

            “Where are you headed?” Sibyl asked Ratty, avoiding the officer’s eyes.

            “Caroline said that the Exitus Stone in Flannerytown was located behind the temple,” he said. “She told me that if I followed this road, and then passed the central courtyard, we’d reach it in no time. But I think we oughta stop by the Inn.”

            “Oh,” Sibyl said, “Alright. Can’t I talk to Mandril first? The support guy?”

            “It’s late,” Ratty said, “I don’t want to bother him if he’s asleep. In this game or in real life.”

            “I’ll go by myself then,” Sibyl said.

            “Well,” Ratty said. “If you insist, I guess I’ll come along too. For the scenery.”

            As they reached it, Sibyl saw that courtyard in Flannerytown was twice as large as the one in Middlerock. There was a statue instead of an Exitus Stone, and even in the faded light, Sibyl could read the plaque beneath it; LORD Flannery. It depicted a man with exaggerated muscles, clutching to his side a well endowed woman.

“Figures,” Sibyl said. “It doesn’t say who the girl is.”

            “Whichever Flannery had this statue made probably had the sculptor make-up a woman,” Ratty said. “I heard from someone that the Flannery line is extremely vain. Not power mad though. The mainland has never needed to send troops over to enforce their laws.”

            “Oh,” Sibyl said. The statue didn’t look particularly handsome to her. They found a wide street on the opposite end of the courtyard and followed that for ten or fifteen minutes. There was another sand colored officer on patrol. This one, upon seeing them, raised a hand, and in a polite tone, said “Hold up.”

            Sibyl stopped before Ratty did.

            “What brings you out on these streets,” the officer said, “so late at night?”

            “Trying to get to the Exitus Stone,” Ratty said, adding “sir” after a beat.

            “The one in Middlerock didn’t work for me,” Sibyl said, “So we came here to see if this one would work.”

            The officer nodded. “Do you two know which way to go?”

            “It’s just down the road isn’t it?” Ratty asked, “By the temple?”

            The officer, at least Sibyl still assumed he was an officer, nodded.

            “Could we be on our way, then?” Ratty asked

            The officer grunted and nodded before walking off, headed back along the road towards the courtyard. When he was beyond earshot, Ratty spoke up.

            “Have you noticed,” Ratty said, “that we’re the only people out on these streets? There’s almost no one else. You suppose there’s a curfew tonight?”

            “That officer would have told us,” Sibyl said, “at least I think he would have. But yes, these streets do seem pretty empty... compared to Middlerock.”

            “I guess they got lazy with programming this town,” Ratty said.

            “Or maybe there’s something we don’t know,” Sibyl said. She imagined that there might be some sort of criminal or monster that roamed Flannerytown at night; something that would keep citizens inside and require a police force. “Maybe we should find whatever inn Grannus went to and spend the night there.”

            “You don’t mind staying in the game longer?” Ratty asked.

            Sibyl shook her head.

            “You just slept on the ride over here, though.”

            “I could sleep some more,” Sibyl said. “And as far as I can tell, you didn’t get any sleep at all, did you?”

            Ratty shrugged. A wind blew down the length of the street, rustling the few gardens in front of the little houses and tugging at Sibyl’s robes. She looked back towards the courtyard.

            “I think I saw an inn near the statue. Let’s go check there.”

            “Oh,” Ratty said, “Alright.”

            They turned and headed back. The wind blew again, this time more insistently, towards where Caroline had said the temple would be. Sibyl wondered if the game wanted her to head there. When she thought harder about it, she guessed that the game didn’t program that much for the individual player. She could, at one point, swear she heard footsteps behind them. But when she turned, there was just the empty street, cast dimly in the dull yellow light of the gas lamps. They reached the courtyard, and, as Sibyl had guessed, there was an Inn. Two, actually.

            “Let’s head to the smaller one,” Ratty said, “Paying for Caroline’s share wiped out by funds.”

            They crossed the square, heading for a moment under the visage of the statue, reaching the door. From outside they could hear voices and the twang of a stringed instrument, plucked at an irregular rhythm. When Sibyl pushed open the door, the noises grew louder, and soon she realized that the instrument was in fact playing a song, the twangs she heard from outside were the only strings strong enough to carry outside of the Inn, and when combined with the smaller strings, the music was actually quite nice.

            Sibyl quickly spotted Caroline at the far end of the room. Caroline was talking with a man that shared her hair color and nose. “You suppose that’s Taylor Annocene?”

            Ratty followed her gaze. “I do. Maybe he’ll let us spend the night here for free, seeing as we escorted his daughter here.” Sibyl and Ratty sidestepped through the room, between tables and patrons. Caroline glanced over as they were approaching, and pointed them out to her father. “These are the two who paid for my passage here. I am sure they would have defended me if anything chanced to come across us on the trip. They are able fighters.”

            The man named Taylor Annocene smiled. “I could use some able fighters. Treble’s been seen, lurking about around here.” He shook his head before adding, “It’s nice to meet all of you.”

            “Yeah,” Ratty said, “A pleasure to meet you too.”

            Sibyl curtsied as best as she could in her robe, a gesture which confused Taylor and elicited a muted snicker from Ratty. “Sorry,” she said, “I’m happy to help.”

            “What can I do for you?” Taylor asked, not bothered by Sibyl’s failed politeness.

            “Well,” Ratty said, “We wanted to find a pair of warm beds to keep out the cold tonight.”

            “You aren’t going to your precious Exitus Stone?” Caroline asked.

            “The streets seem unusually... empty,” Sibyl said, confused by Caroline’s sarcasm. “It’s weird. Is something going on?”

            “Like my father just said,”Caroline said. “Treble’s been spotted. He broke free and somehow got here ahead of us... And Lord Flannery’s made it clear that he won’t cover any losses if Treble steals from you--”

            “As for a room...” Taylor said, Caroline glaring at him for the interruption, “I do have one. I can offer it at discount, but only at a discount. There’s plenty that’re wanting beds tonight, you see.”

            “Right,” Ratty said, “What’s the cheapest room?”

            “I’ll give it to you for seven Ivans,” Taylor said.

            “That’s fair,” Sibyl said, “We’ll take it.”

            Sibyl over the seven Ivans she had left, emptying her coin purse, and Taylor pointed them to the stairs. “I’ll wake you up when it’s light, if you’d like.”

            “It’s fine,” Ratty said, “We’ll get up when we need to.”

            Once Taylor got their key, Ratty and Sibyl started up the stairs. “Did it seem like Caroline was a bit bitter about something? Once she found out I wasn’t leaving, she soured a bit, didn’t she?”

            “I think she’s not taking well to us openly talking about Phrenia as a video game,” Ratty said. “Maybe they programmed stuff to keep us in character better. This is a roleplaying game, after all. If the non-players get mad when we don’t stick to character, I suppose that makes us keep to our roles better.”

            “Except for people like Treble,” Sibyl said, “Who treat this as a game. And just wants to be the best at it... Seriously though, how does he keep breaking out? He didn’t seem particularly strong or fast when we saw him at the bar.”

            “Actually,” Ratty said. “He was fast. When he talked about killing us, I think he was really just talking about killing me.” They reached the hallway. “He went easy on you for some reason...”

            “Why would he go easy on me though?”

            “That’s an excellent question,” Ratty said, “I think this is the room.” Ratty unlocked the door, stepped in, and sighed. When Sibyl entered, she saw why. There was a single bed. A large bed, but a single bed. “Sorry,” he said, “We should have specified two beds.” The only illumination came from a gaslamp shining through the window.

            “Whatever,” Sibyl said, “We’re best friends so this shouldn’t even matter. It’s not like I’m going to grope you or anything.”

            “Yeah, but...” He frowned.

            “What?” She asked.

            “Nothing,” he threw up the bed cover and began to push himself under the covers, crawling into the bed on the right side.

            “You’re just going to sleep in your clothes?” Sibyl asked.

            “Why not?” He asked.

            “That doesn’t look very comfortable,” she said.

            “Right,” he said. He kicked off his boots and they sailed across the room and thumped against the wall. “There, no boots. The tunic and the rest are pretty soft though. I haven’t been able to invest in very good armor yet.”

            “Isn’t that dangerous?”

            “It’s how I’ve managed to save up,” Ratty said, “I figured I’d hold out for some enchanted stuff down the line. Maybe get some from raiding a dungeon. Whenever that kind of stuff happens in this game.” He pulled the covers up to his chin. “How about your robes? Are they comfortable?”

            “I guess,” Sibyl said. She slid in under the covers, and quickly determined that the combination of the robes and the covers would be too warm, even with the chill outside. She laid on top of the covers instead, turned to face away from Ratty, and closed her eyes.

She listened to the dull sounds downstairs as she drifted off to sleep.