“Thank you for visiting,” I said to my granddaughter, seeing her to the door. “I seem to get fewer and fewer visitors with every passing year.”
“Oh come now, grandfather! You said yourself that there are people constantly calling you to do interviews and asking you to read lectures—and that you have to say no to everyone. But instead you spend almost all your time in Barliona!”
“You’re right Vicky,” I laughed. “But I already explained why I have to refuse. All my lectures end in the same way: with questions about when my new book is coming out. And I still have nothing to say. I’m tired of seeing the disappointment on my readers’ faces.”
“So you still can’t think of what to write?” A look of worry passed across her face.
“Not so much as a sentence in these last few months,” I waved my hand. “So I am looking for inspiration.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t push yourself so hard? Take a vacation, change your surroundings. Your readers can wait. They aren’t going anywhere.” She caught sight of the wall clock. “As for me, I’m late to class! All right, goodbye, grandpa, I’ll stop by in a couple of days!”
Vicky fluttered out of my house, leaving me alone with burdensome thoughts. Maybe she is right and I really need to get the work out of my head for a while and just enjoy a vacation of sorts? Or is it time to think about giving up on my career as a science fiction writer? What new thing can I say to this world? It seems that all the words have already written and any new book I write will be a shadow of what I have already published.
No, I need to cast these kind of thoughts out of my head! I need to distract myself and unwind—and I know just the way.
I’ve achieved considerable success over these last few years’ playing Barliona. I play the most popular VRMMORPG in planet history for my own pleasure, but also in search of inspiration. The game frequently thrusts me into interesting encounters with funny NPCs and unusual players, and has become a seemingly inexhaustible source of inspiration. And yet, as of late, even this tried and tested fount of creativity no longer seems to help—and it’s me who is the problem.
I did not notice myself how I ended up near the capsule. The lid slid silently to the side and I did not resist any further…
***
The guards at the entrance to the Adventurers’ League—located in one of the most prestigious quarter of Anhurs—saluted and opened the door before me. A reputation status of Exaltation comes with its small perks—and I had reached Exaltation status with the Adventurers a couple of years ago. Another perk was the freedom to pass straight to Angern, the league’s chairman, and receive some interesting quest from him personally. I now decided to make use of precisely this perk.
Fortunately, Angern, a fair-haired human male of middle age, was in his office, engaged in an extremely important business: He was hurling knives at the picture of some goblin he had plastered to his wall.
“Track down a holy cat that’s run away from Eluna’s temple, assassinate a faery fop at the ball of the Night Queen, or escort a diplomatic mission to the dwarven cities?” Angern rattled off my options in his usual brusque manner, without looking away from his target.
“The first one sounds like a riot. But no, not today. Do you have anything else that’s interesting?”
“It’s too bad. I figured you would choose the cat. I saved it for you on purpose. But in that case, how about some astronomical poetry?”
“That’s new. Details?”
I took the seat in front of his desk and scooted closer. Angern finally finished vandalizing his wall and turned his attention to me:
“A young nobleman was just here. His uncle croaked just the other day. This uncle had amassed a vast fortune during his life. He was a very singular man. All his money should have gone to his nephew, but since the family never got on too well, his uncle decided to make his nephew’s life more difficult and set a condition for the inheritance. What it is, you will learn from the nephew yourself. Go to Bashir’s house on Maple Street here in Anhurs and ask for Leman. He will be waiting there.”
“And what will I get for doing this quest?”
“Half, as usual. Five hundred thousand gold.”
“A good sum,” I replied in a neutral tone, although I was not interested in the money. I would have accepted the quest without it. It sounded interesting enough.
“So what do you say?” Angern asked me. “Will you take it?”
“Of course!” I got up, intending to immediately go to Maple Street.
Quest available: The Old Astronomer.
Description: Help Leman get his uncle’s inheritance. Quest type: Unique.
“In that case, be so kind as to pass me those knives,” he pointed at the wall. “Oh and yes, I almost forgot! The uncle set a deadline that expires today at midnight.”
And Angern laughed merrily, seeing my expression change. The large clock in his office read six in the evening.
***
I did not take me long to find the address I needed—I know Anhurs very well because I’ve spent most of my five years in Barliona in this city. I’m a rogue and my build specializes in ‘social’ skills such as chatting up NPCs, pickpocketing them, lock-picking their doors and sneaking into their houses to deduct their surplus lucre, as it were. As a result, the imperial metropolis is my natural habitat and hunting grounds.
My mount—a demonic black horse with blazing red eyes—quickly brought me to the spot. And although it is difficult to fluster the urbane denizens of Anhurs, plenty of NPCs and players darted to make way for such a rare and terrifying stallion.
As I reached Bashir’s house, I happened to catch up to the very nobleman who had been in Angern’s office before me. Ahead of me, a carriage entered the gates of the huge manse and a lackey rushed to open the door. A sumptuously-dressed young man stepped out of the carriage. A haughty arrogance accompanied his every motion. I dismounted and approached him:
“Mr. Leman? I believe you asked the Adventurers’ League for assistance and I have been…”
“Come along, come along! Follow me!” the dandy cut me off mid-sentence. “There’s no time to waste!”
Unceremoniously seizing my hand, he literally dragged me into the manse, shouting at the servants along the way. I could have easily broken free but I decided not to resist and followed him.
When we were inside the house, he finally let go of my hand and gestured me to follow him, heading up the stairs. I did not lag behind.
We went up to the third floor and entered the richly furnished study.
It seems that this Bashir really did adore astronomy. In addition to the luxurious furnishings, the study boasted a small telescope with silver detailing, a massive sphere with hoops whose name I no longer remembered, and a few other instruments which I supposed to be astrolabes or sextants. An enormous star map hung on one of the walls and even the study’s domed ceiling depicted the constellations of Barliona’s sky.
Having raised my head, I couldn’t help but admire the worlds above me and I came to only when the NPC thrust a paper into my hand:
“Here, read this! It is my uncle’s last letter, may he rot before it does!”
And I began to read the lines written in an almost flawless handwriting:
My dear Leman,
I know that you have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. You inquire after my health assiduously without coming to see me in person, which means that you are counting each day until you can get your hands on my riches. Well, you’ve almost got your way. I have no other relatives, and therefore no choice but to bequeath my estate to you. But first you will have to find my will.
I have heard rumors that, behind my back, you speak very unflatteringly about my passion for astronomy and poetry. Therefore, I decided that it would be fair if these two pursuits of mine would form a small obstacle to your receiving your inheritance. It seems, you have completely forgotten how in your childhood you would spend nights in my observatory. I am ashamed to admit it, but I utterly missed the juncture at which you changed. From a boy whose eyes lit up at the mere mention of the stars, you suddenly turned into yet another court lackey who only cares about his pocket and his position in the society of like-mindless idlers.
Perhaps this is my fault. But I cannot mend this now. I can only try to remind you of how you once were. If you want your inheritance, you will have to remember everything I taught you once upon a time.
And so, solve my riddles and you will get it all. If you fail to solve them within a month, all my property will be donated to the Society of Astronomers. I have made all the appropriate preparations and the mayor of Anhurs himself has agreed to oversee and adjudicate this, the only condition to my last will and testament.
Your loving uncle, Bashir.
“So, your uncle gave you a month to solve his riddles, and if you do not manage in time, then his property goes to the Astronomers? And the mayor of Anhurs himself is the arbiter to your trial?” I wondered aloud.
“That is correct!” the aristocrat nodded impatiently.
“Less than six hours remain. Why didn’t you ask for help earlier?”
“I tried to solve the riddles on my own,” Leman said, a bit more patiently. “And I achieved some success. I spent the whole month digging into the books and records of my uncle, and solved two riddles. The first led me to the second, and now I am grappling with the third. But I do not even know how many there are.”
“Tell me in more detail.”
The young man sighed heavily:
“When, instead of a will, I received this letter, the first riddle was handed to me along with it. I could not ask anyone for help, because the riddles were meant for me. They concerned my childhood—things that only my uncle and I could know. My parents died early, and my uncle took care of me. Growing up, there was no one closer to me than Uncle Bashir.”
“In that case, how can I help?”
“Perhaps, you cannot,” Leman answered unexpectedly, sitting down wearily in a chair. “I simply despaired and decided to try the first thing that occurred to me: Ask for the assistance of an organization that specializes in hunting for treasure. Surely you adventurers constantly have to solve puzzles, bypass traps and all that.” He made a vague gesture and I nodded in agreement.
Leman was right. The Adventurers’ League was renowned for just this: It offered access to the most unusual quests that could only be completed in unexpected ways. That is what had always attracted me to the league so much.
“I’ll try to help somehow. What were the riddles that your uncle left you?”
“I solved the first one right away. I had to find a copy of a book that my uncle once wrote in the Imperial Academy of Sciences. But when I asked them for this book, they refused me, saying that only a student of the Academy or a scholar truly dedicated to science could gain access to such a valuable tome. The book was called Principles of Movement of the Celestial Bodies, so they demanded that I pass their astronomy examination!”
“Very interesting!” I said, full of respect for the uncle’s last jest. “So you passed the exam, I take it?”
“Yes, but I wasted two weeks on it! I failed the first attempt and then had to wait for the next exam date. And I spent all that time in my uncle’s library, studying for that blasted examination! When I finally got my hands on that book, instead of a will among its pages, I found a note with another riddle!”
“I can imagine your disappointment,” I said, stifling my smile.
“Disappointment? That’s not the word for it! I was furious! I spent a few more days on the second riddle. Using the book I received in the library, I calculated the progress of one of the stars a hundred years into the future. The coordinates I gained thereby were the code to this safe.” He pointed to the small safe next to the desk. “And instead of the will, as I hoped, there was another riddle inside! One which I still have been unable to solve!”
Leman’s words made me look at him in a new way. Sure he wasn’t the most pleasant type of character, but he does have a good mind and he is driven.
“And what is the third riddle?” I asked.
“Another one of his quatrains,” he thought for a second, remembering it, and then recited:
“I’ve died, my friend, expired—lived my last day.
Exhausted spins the spool of my life’s thread.
My star shall set you on the proper way:
Look for it in the night sky overhead.”
He fell silent, looking at me with expectation, but I just shrugged.
“The earlier riddles were a little different,” he said at last. “More specific. I almost immediately understood what was being asked of me, but this one…At first I thought that my uncle had one of the stars he had discovered in mind. Then it turned out that he had discovered hundreds during his lifetime! I studied their names and descriptions in detail but came up with nothing. Then I tried to observe them. As if that would help somehow! I can imagine it now: I’ll just look into the telescope and the star will wink at me and tell me where my uncle’s will is buried!” Leman laughed a little neurotically.
“Maybe there was one star that was special among them? For example, the one he discovered first? Or the most beautiful?”The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“I have already tried these options. All in vain. Damnation! I haven’t the slightest hunch of what to do next!”
“I doubt you should take this riddle literally,” I began to reason out loud. “My star will show the way…Maybe he had a beloved woman whom he called his star? And we should find her? Or, I don’t know, perhaps another astronomer named a star after your uncle in honor of his work?”
Stirring inside of me, my writer’s imagination carried me further and further afield, but Leman said:
“I also assumed something similar. No, it’s none of that! It could be anything, we could sit here making wild guesses forever.”
It seemed like he was right. The worst thing about this situation is that I can hardly help him solve the riddle. Or maybe it doesn’t have a solution at all and Bashir didn’t really want his nephew to receive his inheritance? Then all these riddles are just the revenge of a mischievous old miser…
No, no, no. Despite its stunning realism, Barliona is still a game, after all. There aren’t any impossible quests here! But there are certainly a good handful that can’t be solved in the most straightforward, direct manner possible! For example, if I were a necromancer, I could try to summon the soul of Bashir. And if I were a shaman…I could probably ask for help from the spirits. But I am a rogue, so what can I do in this situation? Search this manse for secrets? Sealed rooms? Hidden closets? Yet it is possible that the will is not hidden in the house at all…
Lost in thought, I looked again at the ceiling and began to examine the constellations painted on it.
“They glow in the dark,” Leman said suddenly. “In my childhood, I liked to spend my evenings here.”
“May I see them in the dark?” I asked, guided by a vague intuition.
“Why not? There is no point in hurrying anymore, I imagine.”
He snapped his fingers, and the magical lights went out, plunging the room into darkness. Evening dusk had already descended on Anhurs and the stars on the ceiling really did glow with a pale light. But far from all of them—only the stars of a single constellation remained visible, forming an almost perfect rectangle. Especially brightly shone a star at its top.
“Strange, they used to all light up,” said Leman in surprise.
“I am not familiar with the constellations, but this one resembles a gravestone, wouldn’t you say?”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it…perhaps…”
“What is the name of that bright star there?”
“That is Arcturus, my uncle’s favorite star…Oh! But, of course!” Leman jumped up and began rushing around the room, unimpeded by the darkness of the place. “I found the riddle in this very study and all I had to do was look up! But what does this give us? How can that star lead me to the will?”
“Tell me, my young friend, where is your uncle buried?”
***
Our mad dash through the city lay behind us now. In Leman’s carriage, we rushed through the streets of Anhurs, barely making the turns and almost knocking down pedestrians until we reached the necropolis. Now we were all but sprinting along the cemetery’s narrow alleys.
It was one of those few places of Anhurs I had never been before. And no wonder: Only the relatives of those buried here were allowed to enter this place—the wealthiest and most illustrious individuals of the empire. The imperial guard itself watched over the Anhurs necropolis. I was permitted to pass as Leman’s companion and then only after lengthy negotiations.
Having turned on my video recording, I constantly looked around, trying to capture as much as possible as we ran.
And there really was something to look at here. The sepulchers, tombstones and crypts looked incredible in the light of the magic lantern hanging over my head. Each tomb was decorated with sculptures, columns or gravestones—each one was a work of art. It was a pity that I could not linger here and take it all in at a leisurely pace.
I was particularly struck by the magical devices that could be seen on each grave. A small glass sphere in which one could see looped holograms about ten seconds long. They depicted the faces of different people—laughing and happy, sad, talking silently or just looking in front of them. It didn’t matter what angle you looked at the sphere from—the person in it would always look directly at you.
Trying to keep up with the NPC in front of me, I began to read the epitaphs on some of the graves.
This one here, for example, was clearly the resting place of some mage: Its tombstone was a statue of a wizard, his mantle fluttering in the wind. Raising his hand with a staff to the heavens, he recites a spell. The inscription at the base of the statue read: “The brightest candle burns the fastest.”
And here a young man lay buried. His sad face reflected his sad epitaph: “If you keep things too close to your heart, your heart will eventually let you down.”
And there was another grave right next to this one, the face in the magic ball as young as the previous one. The inscription on it was full of irony too: “Nothing hurts so much as unrequited love…and ten inches of steel plunged into your stomach.”
Distracted by the oddness of this place, I almost bumped into Leman when he came to an abrupt halt.
“Here,” he said, turning to the headstone. “Even in death, my uncle preferred modesty.”
And indeed, Bashir’s resting place stood out among that of his neighbors. It was a completely ordinary gravestone of gray slate. And it had the customary glass sphere mounted above it so I finally saw what Bashir had looked like in life. An old man in circle spectacles with a neatly trimmed gray beard looked at me pensively from the magical artifact. Why he looked just like an old astrologer from the fairy tales!
“I have never come here to visit him,” Leman said in a completely different voice, looking at the image in the orb. “Indeed, it could be that I would never have come here at all if it weren’t for his riddles. Perhaps this is what he wanted…We never even said goodbye before he died. Oh, uncle! Why did we quarrel so much? Why were you so unhappy with my behavior? I just wanted to be someone, to achieve something! I didn’t want everyone to look at me the way they did at you, a recluse who abandoned society, who lived with no friends! An insane misanthrope!”
As Leman spoke, his voice grew louder and louder until he cried the last few words.
At that moment, the image in the orb twitched and came alive:
“Hello, Leman.” I had to catch the young man to keep him from fainting. “Do not worry, I will not rise from the dead. The sound of your voice has activated this message. If you are here, then you have managed to solve several of my riddles. Or perhaps you just came to talk, but that is unlikely.” Saying this, Bashir’s image grinned. “Now listen carefully to the following quatrain:
“One step remains for you until the end,
Before my papers you can inherit.
Seek now the man who was my life-long friend
And receive your prize on your just merit.”
The image twitched again and the hologram again grew still, rotating mutely in its magical orb. Leman stood still, gazing at the magical footage.
I coughed politely and he started in surprise, as if waking up.
“He said that he did not expect me to come and see him. Just like that, without any riddles. Without the pursuit of inheritance. And I really did not come until now.” He looked at me with a strange expression and sighed. “Come on, I know what my uncle was talking about. We must pay a visit to the mayor of Anhurs. I would like to get this over with as soon as possible.”
***
After we returned to the carriage, we rode in silence for a long time, winding through the dark streets of the imperial capital. My companion stared through his window pensively, as if he had completely forgotten about my presence. He was obviously overwhelmed by his thoughts and for some reason I was certain that he was not thinking about the inheritance so much as his uncle’s message.
“I believe we have arrived,” I said when we stopped without Leman having noticed.
“Yes, that’s right,” he said, stirring. “Cassius has a reception today and half of the city will be here.”
“Then it should be very difficult to see the mayor,” I said, looking at a convoy of carriages filing past the mayor’s huge residence.
“It’s okay,” he said confidently, rising from his seat. “Cassius will spare a minute for me.”
Once again I had to rush after the NPC as he walked briskly towards the entrance of the mayor’s residence.
Leman was right—the belle monde of Anhurs really had come to the mayor’s event. The entrance was crowded with elegantly dressed creatures in ostentatious dress. I even spied quite a few players among the crowd. In my dark gray cuirass and hooded cloak I looked like a black sheep.
Yet contrary to my expectations, we were admitted inside without any problems. The guards, looking at my employer, did not even mention invitations. I could feel the eyes of the envious and curious upon my back as we passed inside.
Encountering an acquaintance, Leman quickly exchanged a few words with him and then waved to me gesturing me to follow him. I noticed that his behavior changed dramatically as soon as he was among the crowd. He immediately affected the same aloof and haughty air that I had encountered when I first met him. The contemplative, doubt-ridden young man disappeared as if he had never existed, while I in turn became something between a servant or a bodyguard in his wake.
“Oooh, whom do I see!” A guest trotted unsteadily into our path. “Leman, my boy! It has been a good long while since I last laid eyes on you!”
“I had urgent business,” my employer replied politely but coldly.
“But of course, of course, I have heard, I have heard,” nodded the unfamiliar NPC. “They say you have completely ceased to appear at court because you spend your days and nights in the company of those bookworms at the Academy. Look out, my young friend—if you keep this up for long enough, your true chums might forget your face.” He wagged his finger with mock reproach.
“See you later then, chum,” Leman said with ill-concealed contempt and dashed off again in a direction known only to him.
At last we arrived at an elevator, and the butler, bowing, opened the door for us. We entered and once the elevator’s doors had shut, Leman—either thinking out loud or addressing me—said:
“By the gods above and below, it seems to me now that my uncle was right! Most of the emperor’s courtiers are no different than a stupid flock, concerned only with being noticed by their shepherd.”
I did not have time to answer—we descended a floor and the doors opened again.
There were no guests here and aside from a few servants, the long corridor was empty. One of the butlers was on duty near the elevator, while another seemed to be waiting for us.
“Please follow me,” he said with a bow.
Arms folded across his chest, Mayor Cassius himself was waiting for us beside a huge steel door, which made me immediately think of a bank vault. “I ought to find my way back here somehow,” flashed through my mind, but I immediately dismissed this thought.
“So I suppose you visited your uncle’s grave,” the mayor said coldly, without a greeting. “I had hoped that you would do so earlier than a whole month after Bashir’s passing.”
“How did you know?” Leman asked with surprise. “Ah, no need to explain. I understand now! All this time you have been watching me!”
“That’s right. I was wondering how badly you wanted your inheritance. I have to admit, I underestimated you. You have shown admirable dedication! But you could have saved yourself a lot of time and effort if you had simply visited him.”
“And still, I solved his riddles,” replied Leman, barely restraining his anger. “The inheritance is mine.”
“As your uncle said, you have one step left. The will lies behind this door.”
“Then open it!”
“It will open on its own if you solve the final riddle.”
“What? Another riddle?”
“The last one. Allow me to explain. A few months before his death, Bashir asked me for a favor. He gave me his will to keep until you appeared. It is I who shall decide whether to give you the papers. So now I want you to carefully listen to Bashir’s last riddle. Are you ready?”
“I am!”
Cassius cleared his throat and recited:
“I hope that you have seen the light of truth!
Speak now the final answer loud and clear:
What was so dear to me during your youth?
What still remains most dear to old Bashir?”
“Astronomy!” the young man blurted out. “He valued nothing like he valued astronomy!”
“No.” Cassius shook his head with disappointment. “As you can see, the door remains locked. That is the wrong answer.”
“In that case, science in general! Science was the dearest thing to my uncle!”
“Wrong again.”
“Scientific discoveries! The pursuit of new knowledge! The freedom to do what he loved! Poetry!”
Leman rattled off all the guesses he could think of, but Cassius still shook his head, and the steel door remained shut.
Finally the young man fell silent, staring at the door helplessly. All this time, I couldn’t help but feel useless, nothing but a silent witness to the scene. All my participation in the quest had been reduced to a single lucky guess, after which I had merely acted as company for the NPC. I couldn’t help but be displeased with this realization.
Come on, think! An extravagant old man, the owner of a huge estate, who had voluntarily rejected his place in high society. His only passion in life—astronomy. Well, that and a dalliance with poetry in his time of leisure. No relatives but a single nephew whom he had raised and with whom his relationship had somehow lapsed and grown spoiled. His entire life dedicated to scientific research. After death, he bequeathed everything to the only relative with whom he did not get along, but on the condition that he solve his strange riddles. So he wrote a letter in which he wished to remind his nephew who he really was. As a result, the young man was forced to spend a few weeks in the library, calculating the motions of stars, chasing the inheritance. So, what is the dearest thing for such a person? What is dearer than all the treasures of the world?
The first thing that comes to mind is science, as Leman said. But this answer was wrong. What could it be then? Leman had listed the most obvious options. Thus, only the unobvious remain. Perhaps, the uncle was a great prankster and wished to go out with one last jest? The nephew racked his head, collected dust in the libraries, and the right solution perhaps did not even exist…Here I recalled the magical image of Bashir and what he had said. No, he did not seem like a prankster at all. Rather, he struck me as a person who regretted that he had not devoted enough time to his nephew…Hold right there! Why, that’s it right there!
“May I give the young man a hint?” I asked, and the mayor of Anhurs looked at me as if I had just noticed me.
“A hint?” he echoed, surprised. “If you are sure that you know the answer, then why not say it?”
“If my answer is correct, it would be more appropriate if this young man arrives to it on his own.”
Cassius looked at me with understanding and, it seemed to me, with approval.
“I don’t need any hints!” Leman objected. “I believe I understand it all now.”
“Yes? And what do you understand?” asked our host.
“I understand what was dearer to my uncle than anything else. I know why he arranged all of this. He wished to instruct me. He wished to make me change. And he tried to show me that I could achieve something. He wanted to remind me of the things I once loved. It turns out that I was the dearest thing for him. More valuable than all the treasures of Barliona. I—Leman…”
He whispered his name barely audibly, yet the huge door rattled and slowly swung open. Contrary to my expectations, the vault was not filled with treasures to its ceiling. In fact, it contained nothing but a small desk, on which lay only a few items: A sheaf of papers under a paperweight that was crowned with a small sculpted telescope.
Leman slowly approached the desk, picked up the papers and began to read. Cassius entered after him and I too decided not to tarry on the threshold. My curiosity overpowered me and ignoring propriety, I peeked over Leman’s shoulder to read his uncle’s last will and testament:
Dear Leman,
I was certain that you would solve my riddles. I hope I helped you understand who you really are. You always had an aptitude for science, and it was painful for me to see you waste your days. You have the potential to make a lot of discoveries. And only you can finish my life’s work. Please forgive me for getting too carried away with the heavens and ignoring all that was around me here in Barliona. Use my inheritance and my legacy wisely.
Your loving uncle, Bashir.
Pressing the paper to his breast, the young man stepped aside and stared at the wall. Feeling awkward, I pretended that I was interested in the paperweight and picked it up to examine it more closely.
“And you must be a friend of Leman’s then?” the mayor asked me quietly.
“No. He asked me for help solving the riddles and I did what I could.”
“Oh?” Cassius said, a little surprised. “So you are a mercenary?”
“I’m with the Adventurers’ League.”
“Ah but of course! So you helped him? Well, that is good. And you know what? I just happen to need a man with a good head for some business I have. You should come back and visit me in a few days. We will agree about the price. Show this to the guards at the gates and they will let you through.” He handed me his business card. “If you like, you may keep the paperweight as a souvenir. I can see it’s caught your eye. Bashir himself would reward you for helping your nephew.”
The mayor’s proposal caught me off guard. I accepted the business card automatically and placed it in my inventory with the telescope figurine.
How simple it was to earn an audience with the mayor of Anhurs himself! And it came with the prospect of getting a challenging quest too! Why, there were millions of players in Barliona who would burst from envy if they heard of this!
“Could you grant me some time alone with this young man now? We still need to discuss the details of his inheritance,” the mayor continued in the meantime.
“It’s amazing how one spontaneous decision can unexpectedly solve a predicament,” said Leman suddenly, “I asked for help out of despair, not truly believing in any success. That’s why I offered so much money. Now it seems I will have to unclasp my purse.” He laughed. “Tomorrow our agreed upon amount will be transferred to the Adventurers’ League.”
Quest complete: The Old Astronomer.
Reward: 500,000 gold and Bashir’s Paperweight. Item class: Unique.
Attention, you cannot earn further Reputation with the Adventurers’ League because your reputation status with this faction is already at Exaltation!
Experience gained: +75,000 XP. You have 325,400 XP remaining until the next level.
“Thank you,” I bowed politely. “I won’t bother you.”
I had already stepped out of the vault when I heard a snippet of my employer’s speech: “…I did not even ask his name…”
Smiling, I quickened my pace.
***
That evening, when I finally reached my home on the outskirts of Anhurs, I decided to take a closer look at the paperweight I had earned for this unusual quest.
Upon closer inspection, the object really turned out to be very beautiful. It was a small decorative model of a telescope cast in gold, but with actual lenses built into it. It was mounted on a hefty wooden base. On the back of the base I discovered a tiny plate with an inscription engraved on it:
May my soul arise from the darkness and enter the light.
After all these years spent with the stars, I welcome the night.
Only now did I bother to read the item description itself:
Bashir’s Paperweight.
Bashir loved astronomy and kept a paperweight with a model of his favorite telescope on his desk. Shortly before his death, he ordered the jeweler to attach a gold plate with an inscription of his own composition to it.
While this item remains in your inventory, you can instantly respawn in any respawn point of all the locations you have ever visited.
At that moment I realized that would never sell this object, even though its price was astronomical. And not only because I could use it myself. Unexpectedly, I was filled with respect for its former owner, who was an old dreamer like me—a man who had dreamed of immortality and other worlds. The only difference between us was that I had been a little luckier.
Suddenly, for a few seconds, I saw a vision. Bashir’s study appeared before my eyes. He was there, sitting in a chair before the fireplace, his nose in his star atlas, engaged in his astronomical explorations. He raised his head and looked up at me. A smile appeared on his lips and he nodded to me like an old friend. The vision immediately dissolved and I squeezed his gift in my hands. I don’t know what that was all about, but I will definitely hold onto this item for as long as I can.
***
The lid of the capsule slid aside. I climbed out carefully and stepped over to my computer. For the first time in several months, lines of text began to appear in the new document on my screen. If Bashir had been able to find the right words to change his nephew’s life from beyond the grave, then I still have something to say to this world!