The wheels crunched along the hard-packed ground. The dunes had passed the day before, giving way to dirt and grass. They had found a path that had been traveled enough to leave its mark upon the earth.

  “You think your idea will work?” Jeb asked Bleek. His feet were up on the front of the cart, and his arms were stretched wide on the back of the bench. The monk sat in the back of the cart with the empty jugs of water and gear.

  “You are an exception to the rule. The logic is sound. That doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous,” the monk replied.

  Dangerous? More like suicide, Jeb thought to himself.

  It is marked how dangerous this would be. There are so many unknowns. There is no real prediction. Too many wide variables. The estimation of success ranges from 5% to 95%, Jeebz chimed in, always with the statistics and data analysis.

  “But you say I’m not ready either. What does that mean exactly?” Jeb looked over his shoulder at the monk. Raul was intent on the barren path that had rocks and cracks. The ride was not exactly luxurious.

  “Just because you were not caught in the screen outside of the lunar orbit doesn’t mean that the equipment can’t be recalibrated to your mind's wavelengths. Additionally, you may be good at combat, but on that station, there are more than mere mortals of Earth.” The monk pulled out another sandwich, from where Jeb had no clue. Some kind of black hole, he assumed.

  “Okay, so what do I have to do in order to ‘be ready’?” He asked, lifting one leg at a time to stretch them out.

  “Leave the training to me. All you have to do is be willing to be trained,” the monk spoke between bites.

  Confusion, vagueness, and no answers. Jeb shook his head, rejecting it all. But he didn’t have much choice, unless he decided to live here, on a prison planet, with no running water and no electricity. He looked back at the path in front of him.

  Minutes passed.

  “If I can possibly make it, why can’t you?” Jeb asked, breaking the silence.

  “My influence and mind have been detected. They have been seen. The wavelengths of my electric field cannot pass through the screens without detection,” the monk replied.

  It occurred to Jeb that Raul had not mentioned any of this, whatever this was, to either of them. It was as though he wasn’t aware of it. He looked back at the monk, who was finishing his food.

  “That still doesn’t explain how I’m even capable of getting off this rock,” Jeb continued. “There are not any stations or ships, at least that is what you claimed.”

  “That you will just have to leave to me and trust that it’s possible. Getting you ready is more important.” He smiled at Jeb. “Your boots need to be filled. Too much wiggle room at the moment.”

  Old man, or whoever he is, Jeb thought a moment. WHATever he is. Jeebz concurred that the correction was an accurate statement.

  “Until then, we’ll need to get some supplies. Our travels are going to be far and many. There are… things we will need to get,” the monk continued. “The first thing is foodstuffs and some maps and another set of animals. These ones are worn out.”

  Raul, almost on cue, raised his hand and pointed at the horizon. “I think there’s a city up there.” He brought his hand over his eyes to shield them from the glare of daylight.

  Jeb sat forward and peered at what Raul had pointed at. Indeed, there was a city. Magnify, he told Jeebz, and his eyes began to zoom in more than a normal eye could see. Indeed, a large city too. Maybe three hours away. It had walls and guards on the top of them, but he couldn’t make out what kind of weapons. Probably bows and swords.

  “I guess we’re in luck. We can probably get what is needed in this city coming up,” Jeb said. He leaned his head back and used his forearm to cover his eyes. He was going to try to get some sleep.

  The walls were massive, nearly fifty feet high, which explained how Raul could see them from so far back. Not quite three hours, maybe two and a half. The main gate was pulled up and locked in place, spikes pointing down towards holes in the ground where they could meet and lock in there as well.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The gate walkway was also surprisingly thick, nearly five full paces, and doors between the two gates led into some kind of tunnels within the walls.

  On the other side was another wall that guided them to the right, blocking the view of the inside from the outside. Even if you were to break through while sieging this place, you would never know what was coming until the last second.

  The ground was hard-packed dirt, somehow smoothed down into a flat, even surface. Periodic slits in the wall, and the occasional glint of steel on the other end indicated armor and weapons.

  This is a definite fortress. Getting in had been almost botched. Entering this city cost money. And the peasants and poor were left outside of the walls, kept to the sides, begging for those passing in to help them get in as well. No one did.

  Having no coin, they were about to be rejected. But the monk merely told them that they had to go in, and he changed his mind; they were to be let through immediately, without trouble.

  “Not an illusion this time?” Jeb asked him.

  “Illusions are based on reality.” They were turning the corner now. “Reality and illusion are closely linked and monitored. Altering too much when there are too many people around to directly see it makes things harder. Changing something, even if temporarily, is much easier with a couple of people versus hundreds or even thousands. The way people consider a space to be is that way, and the more people consider it that way, the harder it is to change.”

  “You mean like a hive mind?” He recalled dealing with some people whose A.I.s had been hacked, and a small moon had been taken over.

  “Yes, you could say that. But this is more directly an unknown agreement. Up is up, down is down. So thoroughly agreed to for trillennia. It’s just automatic now. There is no reasoning with it. Not really.”

  “So what did you do to that guy?” Jeb pushed on. The walls of buildings came into view, and many paths opened up, leading to different parts of the city.

  “That is different. He got the idea that a lord wanted to see us. Affecting one person’s own mind is much easier than any change to the collectively agreed-upon mind we call reality.”

  “K.” That was all Jeb could really say.

  They made their way down multiple streets, where food stores, shops, and taverns were abundant. But the refuse on the ground was plentiful too. The people outside would not be much better off inside. The smell was starting to get to Jeb. A man, with no regard for decency, was relieving himself in the middle of the road. He even made eye contact with people walking by and waved while grunting out his body’s defecation.

  “This place… stinks,” Jeb said to his companions.

  “Indeed it does,” Raul replied. “This city has gotten worse since the last time I was here.”

  “How long ago was that?” Jeb asked.

  “Oh, maybe five years ago.” He looked around, a rag over his mouth and nose. “That… display… would have been dealt with, quickly and quietly.” He indicated the man defecating on the bricks twenty paces behind the cart.

  The smell didn’t seem to bother the monk at all. His general mild contentment kept him loosely looking about, occasionally smiling at a child.

  “Let’s get what we need and leave.” Jeb saw a man in an alley, on the ground. A pool of blood slowly grew around him. The echoes of footfalls drifted away further down the alley. “This place is cursed.”

  The monk gave Jeb a knowing look and nodded quietly. Then his eyes flicked to a building further on in the city, towering above them. Jeb followed his gaze to the large building and… felt something. He didn’t know what it was. A wrongness.

  “There it is.” Raul led them up to a building, a smaller tavern. On the side was a gate for the horses and cart to be stored. “We’ll need coin though.” He looked over at Jeb. It was Jeb’s problem now. The monk was off the cart and already making his way to the inn.

  “Yeah. I guess we can sell the still. We can buy it back or buy another. I guess I can make another if it comes to it.” Jeb helped Raul get the animals and the cart into the stable. Not too much, though; animals were not a thing in Systems. Some worlds didn’t even have an atmosphere outside of the buildings, and inside only to be able to communicate via sound. He missed his other body.

  Locking up, he and Raul found their way into the inn where the monk was in conversation with the innkeeper. A middle-aged man who appeared to be going bald. His skin was a deep olive color. The inn itself was basic, with tables and chairs, a bar for orders received by the one barmaid, and stairs in the back that went up to its only other floor, presumably where the rooms were.

  “Yeah, we have a room. Only one bed, though. Might be big enough for two, if you’re into that.” He eyed Jeb and Raul as they joined the conversation.

  “Ah, yes. My two servants,” the monk introduced them, his eyes saying not to protest. “They’ll be fine in the hayloft.”

  Jeb shrugged and found a nearby table, and Raul joined him. A few moments later, the monk sat with them. “The room is secured, so are the animals.”

  “What about coin?” Jeb asked.

  “No worries, I handled that.” The monk smiled. “Now, onto more important things.”

  Raul stood up and said he was going to go for a walk. Jeb glanced up at him, but before he could get a word in, Raul was already halfway to the entrance, now exit.

  “Yeah? What important things?” Jeb asked. The barmaid had brought them some water in some kind of metal cup that Jeebz notified him was pewter, a soft alloy.

  “Why, your training of course!” The monk seemed excited. “I want you to go walk around the streets. No, don’t go with Raul.” He cut Jeb off before he could speak. “I want you to go around and look. Really look. Don’t assume anything. Don’t even let your A.I. report to you, except for danger.” The monk stood. “I’ll be in the room. Third door on your right, up the stairs.” And with that, he was gone.

  Jeb glared in his direction. What was he doing with this… this, whatever it was? He continued to argue with himself.

  Are you okay? Jeebz asked.

  Splendid. Wonderful. Jeb finished the water and began his tour of hell.