Ash wandered into the ER from the spluttered lighting of the ambulance bay. A big med-kit was slung over her shoulder. She whistled to herself as she moved to the partition just inside the door from the bay and set up her trading shop. The place was not empty. Inside the waiting room, a man sat reading the most recent issue of "New Rydynn Weekly." Another man, about 5'9 in height with purple hair, stepped through the doors. She lifted her ice blue eyes to regard the man named Azreth. He came into the Emergency Room looking tired and haggard. Of course, anyone who came through the ER looked tired and haggard. That was the norm on Sabatt just from the toll it took to survive.
"Hey," she called to him. "Sick? Or here to trade?"
Azreth shrugged. "I'm not very sick, so I suppose, trade."
"Yeah?" Ash was eager as she opened her big bag and began to pull out items for trade of various shapes and sizes and interest. She set out a magazine clip for some kind of firearm - empty; a snow globe with a cityscape of Demm City inside - no snow mind you; there were paper airplanes folded from flyers with Sidd Neverr's picture on them too. She arranged them just so on the examination table – perfect for perusal. "Wha’cha got?"
"I've got a bunch of pretty rocks," Azreth said with some enthusiasm, a slight smirk at that comment curling his lip. One might have thought he’d have said a bunch of pretty diamonds. Of course, what diamonds were worth to the people of Sabatt, Azreth couldn’t be sure.
In the waiting room the man continued reading "New Rydynn Weekly," one of the surviving – perhaps even flourishing – periodicals of the post war times. His eye strayed to an article which apparently made him exclaim, "Wow! That living vine is one tough customer, huh?"
Ash called out to the man with the weekly rag, through the propped open doors of the ER, "What's that?" Her voice echoed off the white tile. Could anything new have been written about Sabatt’s resident intelligent vine, "She?" Ash shrugged when the man didn’t answer immediately. Must not have been anything good. Maybe she’d mistaken his tone of voice. Quirking a brow at Azreth because he’d not yet produced his "pretty rocks," Ash prompted him with, "They shiny?"
"A couple of them are..." Azreth continued. "I've got some nice crystals formed from slow dripped industrial pollutants."
"Let's see 'em."
Azreth pulled out a small plastic box and popped off the lid with a woosh of air. "I wouldn't hold them under your nose," he warned. He then lifted out a few small crystals and set them down. Leaning forward, he blew slightly on one, and it began to glow a bit. "Cool, huh?"
Ash jumped back a little, catching a whiff of the crystals. "Whoa... hoo... that is stinky. What you want in trade?"
Shrugging, Azreth looked at the items spread on the table. "Who's that on those airplanes?"
"Eh... just Nuke's head man. Sid Neverr. You know... Salvation Via Radiation." Ash made a face.
"Oh yeah," Azreth said, remembering, "never seen a picture. Just heard stories."
From the waiting room, Destrain spoke up. "I have an ... ancient artifact that I might be willing to part with."
"Will it get me back home?" Azreth asks the man.
Ash peered at Destrain, interested. "What you got honey?"
Destrain moved into the room to negotiate. He presented a large wooden staff for Ash's inspection, the words 'WackingStick' on the side. It had a gold-plated crystal on the top.
Azreth looked over the staff. "Now, what's that for?"
Ash's reaction was a bit less subtle. Her eyes widened out at the sight of the staff and a low whistle escaped from her lips.
Destrain explained, "Well, when magic was still around, a powerful wizard owned it. Now, it's a pretty stick. Very old." And to emphasize, he added, "VERRRRY old."
Ash couldn't keep her eyes from the stick. She addressed Destrain, rubbing her hands together. "Old, eh? What you looking for in trade?"
Azreth, was not convinced. "Eh, it can't be that old," he said and then gestured to the crystals he'd presented to Ash, trying to intrigue her. "I mean, look at these crystals. Do you know how long it takes them to form?"
"It can be, and it is." Destrain said flatly.
Ash sat quietly. She thought to let the two men battle it out and perhaps she could hide the way she was itching to get her hands on the staff.
Azreth addressed Destrain's comment with flat disdain. "Of course it is." With the expert lilt of a salesman, he indicated his crystals again. "I found these in the bottom of a pile of rubble, just oozing with beauty."
"It is and I can prove it---" Destrain stopped himself mid-sentence, almost as if he were hiding some secret.
Ash's attention was drawn back to Destrain by that. "Eh now. You gonna -- like -- do some magic or something?"
"Oh yeah? I'd like to see that." Azreth quipped with a hint of amusement in his voice. Of course, he didn't give up on his own sales pitch. "These crystals are the same kind." "There's different kinds of crystal." Clearly, Ash was skeptical.
"I repeat: These crystals are the same kind that the ancient king Exsoson used to make his wife's engagement ring. They come from the exact same raw stock."
Ash blinked three times. "Exsoson?"
Az nodded sagely to Ash. "Yes, he was a great king."
She scrubbed her fingers through her crew cut. Trading was never so interesting as when there was a good tale tossed in. She was enjoying the story, but didn’t want to give a haggling edge to Az by letting him know that. She snorted, folded her arms across her chest and said, "Never heard of him."
"He led legions of his soldiers across a burning desert," Az began in a modulated tone, clearly into his tale. "…all for the love of a woman, who he presented with a ring made of these crystals. She had been captured by a bandit prince, who was intending to force her into marriage.
"I will, because I am so gracious, give you, say, 300 grams of this crystal for anything of an equal value."
Ash assessed this with another snort and the comment, "Romantic claptrap."
"Right," Az snorted right back at her. "I can tell you've got a lot of experience with it." A haunted look came into Ash's eyes as she stared at Azreth and then left as quickly as the footsteps of young Ed Archer came in from the dark and unfriendly world beyond the ER’s walls.
"Claptrap? Romantic?" The concept sent Ed into a fit of laughter. When he regained his composure, he smirked and said, "What did I miss?"
Ash nodded a hello and then filled him in with the quip, "Trading times." Then she turned her attention to Destrain, since Az’ sales pitch seemed at an end. "Now … what are you looking for?"
"I am looking for trade…" he said, but as he held out the staff to Ash, offering without asking for anything, a tear welled up in his eye.
"Now wait a minute," she countered, not yet taking hold of it. "You're just giving this to me?"
"Yeah," he said. "I have no use for it. And you 'ere itching for it." It was true, she couldn't argue that. She'd been stealing glances at the thing since he produced it for trade. But she was very nearly disappointed. No one gave up something for nothing around here, even if that something was worthless. It just didn't happen.
"Now...that ain't how it works. You gotta need something, right?" She watched him think about it and waited.
Az greeted the still smiling Ed with a smile of his own and the words: "Want some of these crystals, which are sure to bring luck and good lays to whoever gets them?"
"Good lays? I don't have much use for sleep in my work."
Az blinked. "How old are you, exactly?"
"Old," Ed said with some asperity. "Why?" Everyone was always questioning his age.
"Curiosity."
"Uh huh..."
"Whatever. You're probably like sixteen."
While waiting on Destrain to decide that the staff was worth something for trade after all, Ash’s face screwed up into a smirk. She listened with half an ear to Az and Ed, then piped up, "Hey ... sixteen is old here. Sheesh."
"Sixteen years," Ed said as if it held great weight. Indeed, on Sabatt, few made it to sixteen when living in the war torn wasteland was their lot. "Well, maybe," he admitted after a short pause. "I stopped keeping count."
"Wotever," Az told him, then glanced at Ash, "How old are you?" Then he yawned slightly and sent a malicious little smirk in Ed's direction.
I'm with Ed here. Who cares? If you can do the job..." She shrugged as she takes up the staff in her cool hand.
"Well," Destrain said at last, smiling, "I could use some information on the Great War. I'm. . . new in town."
Very pleased by this opportunity for a fair trade, Ash said, "Information, I got. You know how to work a computer?"
"Com-poo-ter? Oh! Yeah... uh... right! I can work those. . ."
"Follow me, fine sir." Ash said, leading Destrain to the nearest Elliot terminal where she kicked out a very old chair for him. "Careful now ... things got a bad leg."
Slowly Mera Harperr filtered her way into the waiting room. In her slender fingers she held a glass of precious water. There was a great deal of action going on just inside the doors of the ER and she peered from the open waiting room door to see what was going on within. She lifted her cup to her parched lips as she paused in walking and swallows carefully. She savored every drop of the liquid in the cup. She moved slowly so that there was no threat to her ration. She smiled at Ed who pulled off his hood and said hello to her as she made her way into the ER. She saw Ash wink at her just before the man sitting at one of Elliot's terminals sat in the notoriously old chair and tumbled to the floor over the side of it.
"Yeesh!" Ash yelped and jumped out of the way. "What did I tell you?"
"Where I come from chairs are kept in GOOD CONDITION."
The scowling reply snapped back, "You know a carpenter who can work with deadwood. You bring him here and we'll talk about new chairs."
Azreth laughed at Destrain’s bemused look as he sat on the floor recovering from his ignominious deposit there. "And when was the last time you were there where you come from?" He really didn't expect an answer, even less so as Ed piped in with his own question about from whence Destrain came.
To Ed the man replied, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He graciously took the hand of Ash as she offered him help up from the floor. Ash could feel Mera’s brown eyes on her and just knew the girl was silently giggling at them. All the same, she hauled Destrain to his feet, surprising him by being somewhat stronger than she appeared.
"Now," she muttered, "...sit careful, right?" She righted the chair, letting the conversation between Destrain and Ed flow around her. She heard shuffling feet and could feel Mera come up behind her.
"Sure…" Ed said thoughtfully back to Destrain. "Who knows...maybe I've been there?"
"Heh. You could say your there right now."
Azreth seemed to find this funny because he grinned at Destrain and interjected, "That makes two of us that were born in Hell, then."
"Lemme guess..." Ed began. Then he shook his young head. "Never mind, I can't." Ed himself didn't mention that he seemed to remember being born in a beautiful place with green grass and fresh water. Then again, maybe in all the madness of a post war world, he'd only convinced himself that he had.
Glancing over Destrain's shoulder, Mera asked, "What’cha doing?"
Ash turned her head and gestured to Mera the international sign for loony where no one else could see her do it. Mera’s chestnut eyes widened and she nodded knowingly, this time actively needing to suppress a giggle. "We're gonna make Elliot do some work, hon. Lookin' up the great war," Ash said. Then she glanced around as if she'd heard some ominous music.
Mera frowned slightly. She'd heard enough of the war ... she'd seen enough of it every day. Turning, she lifted the glass once more to her lips but paused upon seeing the crystals lying upon a table. "Hey ... what are these?"
A flick of Ash's hand over at Azreth told the tale. "He brought 'em in."
"Those," Az began again, nodding to Mera, "are crystals produced by ancient craftsman."
"Yeah," Ash quipped. "Industrial Pollutants." She said it as if it were the name of a craftsman. She bent over the terminal and began to punch a few keys. There was a whirring sound and Elliot came to life at the terminal. "Good evening, Mirandahh. How may I be of assistance?" Came from the speakers in the ER.
Azreth glared at Ash and went on. "A great kind forged a ring out of them, and then, marched his legions across a burning desert to win steal back his love from a bandit prince, who intended to force her into marriage."
Mera took one up in her fingers for a closer examination. "Craftsmen, huh? Magic users." She shivered and put the crystal down. "I would hate to be one of them these days."
"Yeah, sure." Az said. "Not magic users. Just like, you know, factory workers."
Ash rolled her eyes heavenward at Elliot's blaring of her formal name. "Yeah...Elliot... Give me anything you got on the Great War."
Destrain smiled. "I was told a machine could talk ... but I never believed it!"
Ed glanced at Ash and murmured quietly, "Mirandahh. Cute." Even if the name didn't seem to fit a woman of such ... spirited nature and voice. "Melba maybe…or Minerva."
Ash heard as surely as she heard her ghosts. She looked over her shoulder, ice blues narrowed dangerously and said, "Mera...give 'em lethal doses of morphine...now. Put 'em outta their misery."
Mera chuckled quietly to herself. Destrain "eeped" and Az just stuck out his tongue, the ring glinting in the light.
Ash's smile to Destrain might have been reassuring, but even the pristine white light of the ER couldn't make plain the intent behind that smile. She continued with her instructions. "Use the touch pad here ... to flip through info ... right?" Destrain indicated the affirmative. Elliot announced the Great War data base was accessed and Destrain got down to surfing the information. Ash looked over at Ed as he said, "Melba, what the heck," and told him, "rads’re getting to you, kid."
"Who is Melba?" Mera chuckled out loud this time, also looking at Ed.
"Melba..." Ed said. "I don't know. Huh ... anyway... How are you, Mera? Rads. What's a rad? Elliot...what's a rad?"
"Rads. Like, slang for gamma particles. Radiation," Az offered.
"A rad. In what context, sir?" Elliot's singsong voice said pleasantly over the speakers. "Scientific measurement of radiation levels."
Mera smiled then gathered her lower lip between her teeth in a girlish gesture. She sat herself on one of the ER beds as the war took Ed's attention.
"Elliot," Destrain asked. "What caused the Great War?"
"You know what caused the great war," Az piped up. "There was a woman, and she had her heart set on getting these crystals. And she had a nuke code. And she didn't get these crystals. And she discharged her nuclear weapons. And that started the whole thing."
"Your not selling them to anyone, so give it UP!" Des told Az.
"What are you on?" Ash wanted to know as she whirled on Az.
"That information is incorrect," Elliot intoned. "There is no one cause to the Great War. Contrary to what some historians might tell you."
Mera said, "You really wanna get rid of those, don’t you?" She sipped her water and listened.
"I was just kidding. It's not like the Great War is going to change."
"Azreth ... some people are ... easily upset." Ed added in a moment of sage quiet.
"What was the primary cause, Elliot?" Destrain asked.
"At the core, the struggle of technology versus magic." Elliot told him.
Ash thought that perhaps there was a bit of disdain in Elliot's usually soothing voice. She sighed and slipped out of the ER, muttering, "I'm going to go get some air." She leaned on the staff once she'd gotten out of the room, but watched everyone still, scowling slightly.
"It seems that technology won out. I can't cast a single sp--" He caught himself and looked warily around him but Azreth had made his way out, passing by some fellow in a silvery suit and Ed was looking at Mera who was still sipping her precious water. Whistling softly, Detrain continued to peruse Elliot's database on the War.
Elliot was busy responding to the last comment Destrain had made. "The withdrawl of the Nexus has put a damper on spell casting, yes."
"One other thing, Elliot. What is She?"
"She is an intelligent plant form that inhabits the fertile areas of the planet."
"There are fertile areas in this nuclear-blasted world? Could've fooled me!"
"There have been reports of fertile land not tainted by radiation. They are few and far between," the Elliot Series number Seven told him.
"Back to dampening of magick... are there any spell-casters left? That aren't charlatans?" Destrain may or may not have realized that Ed's attention had been pulled back to his conversation with Elliot by the brief discussion of "She," the rarely mentioned vine.
"Members of the Fellowship of Magic are known to be magicians."
Ed hooked a thumb toward the old red and white exit sign. "Azreth, the man that just left, he casts spells..." he told Destrain. "At least, he tries."
"The energy required to cast such spells generally leaves the caster weakened badly," Elliot added, almost in an afterthought.
Destrain nodded and abruptly stood up from the terminal. "I must go now," he said, a hint of something in his voice. "Farewell." Ed would have questioned this sudden departure, but the ER doors admitted someone else just then, someone he had no desire to see.