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In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.
In unison, they complete their shared spell.
Admin in Elcenia
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"Elcenia. My daughter and her roommate accidentally summoned someone who claims to have added my world to this - afterlife, I suppose - so I'm checking it out. Perhaps you can help."
"I haven't heard anything about a new world, but I guess I wouldn't, if it's that new," she says. "What exactly did you want my help with?"
"Apparently everyone from Elcenia is in some kind of stasis now, but may start to wake up eventually if we don't get them all summoned out of here quick enough. What will happen if they wake up here?"
"Well, a judge will look at them and give them papers and send them to this office, and if they're very very good the papers will say Upside and I or some other guide will take them up the elevator and show them how to use the public transit to get to their res, and if they're not, the papers will say Downside and maybe a sentence and their guide will take them down the elevator and show them how to use public transit to get to their res and tell them about torturers and contractors. Most people end up Downside," she says.
"Torturers?" says Keo sharply.
The guide shrugs. "Yeah. The deal is, if you're bad enough, the judges will sentence you to a few hours of quality time with someone whose job it is to hurt people. A contractor is someone who substitutes for people they don't think deserve their sentences."
"Why is this the system?"
"Search me," she says with another shrug. "Way before my time. I'm not going to say it's ideal, but the senior judges don't take it well when somebody suggests reforms."
"And this not taking it well manifests how?"
"Well, last time it happened, the guide just got fired. But she was Upside - the time before that, he was a Downsider and Di sent him home with a stack of sentences for everything on the books he'd done since he was hired. And they didn't take another guide from Downside for the next couple thousand. Years."
Keo chews her lip. "I'm not dead. Can they do anything to me? Any of these unpleasant people."
"Nobody who's not dead has ever showed up here before," says the guide. "I have no idea what kind of difference it makes. If it doesn't, though, judges can sight you - read your whole history from your perspective at a glance - and torturers can get control on you, which means get your body on magic puppet strings, basically. And that's just the magic stuff. If you walk around Downside, nothing's to stop somebody from walking up and taking your head off with an axe."
Keo thinks about that.
"Is it all humans, here? And does torturer's control work on a mental level or just take over the body directly?"
"Is it all humans, here? And does torturer's control work on a mental level or just take over the body directly?"
"All humans as far as I know. Torturer's control is a body thing, not a mind thing."
"Is that all of the magic stuff? Nobody here has other kinds of magic?"
"Well, I guess language patching is magic," she says. "But I can't see why you'd be worried about somebody giving you the ability to speak a language."
"...I am not worried about that," agrees Keo.
"It's not very threatening," says the guide.
"...Is there anyone I can talk to who's less staggeringly desensitized to this place but has had longer than an angle to think about it?"
The guide snorts.
"Try the contractors. 9246938^0. Take the elevator down," she points to said elevator, "put in the number beside the map on the wall, press 'Go', get in the booth that lights up. I can give you their card with the code if you don't want to trust your memory, but I can't leave the room while on shift unless I'm guiding someone in an official capacity and you don't count."
"Try the contractors. 9246938^0. Take the elevator down," she points to said elevator, "put in the number beside the map on the wall, press 'Go', get in the booth that lights up. I can give you their card with the code if you don't want to trust your memory, but I can't leave the room while on shift unless I'm guiding someone in an official capacity and you don't count."
"I'll take the card," says Keo.
"Mmkay." She produces a smallish business card; on one side it has a logo consisting of a thin, sharp-pointed crescent, and on the other side it has the number she mentioned.
Keo takes it, and heads for the elevator, and follows the instructions.
It's a long elevator ride down to a room with, indeed, a map on the wall, opposite a long row of doors resembling the elevator's, with blank digital number displays above each.
When she inputs the code on the keypad next to it, the map shifts to show what is presumably a view of her destination, marked by a glowing blue dot. When she touches 'Go', one of the doors on the opposite wall rolls open and the display above it lights up with that code.
And when she gets in, the doors close, and when they open a few seconds later she is in a different room; instead of 'Tower Station' above the electronic map, this one has the crescent logo from the card, and a helpful arrow directing visitors to the elevator and stairs.
When she inputs the code on the keypad next to it, the map shifts to show what is presumably a view of her destination, marked by a glowing blue dot. When she touches 'Go', one of the doors on the opposite wall rolls open and the display above it lights up with that code.
And when she gets in, the doors close, and when they open a few seconds later she is in a different room; instead of 'Tower Station' above the electronic map, this one has the crescent logo from the card, and a helpful arrow directing visitors to the elevator and stairs.
Keo follows the arrows.