AMBROSIA

My adopted family told me this story. Before the Earth we know of now, there was another created, with eons of history. The world had all kinds of plants and animals, and people worshiping a bunch of different religions. Despite what they thought, God didn’t care whether they worshiped one or another, just so long as they took care of the Earth, and each other. But they couldn’t even get that right! I mean, how hard is it, really? So, God intervened… God split the world into light and darkness, a world of Existence and a world of Void. Anyway, I don’t really care about history. The only thing I know is, a few thousand years ago, God made a prophecy. If Evil ever came again, God would send an Oracle to bring the universe back to balance… and stuff. But that’ll never happen.

Ummm, my name is Ambrosia. I'm Ambrosia Brahman. My memories have always been kinda fuzzy. Not like regular people either, where they can remember until about age three or so (childhood amnesia, I think Elias called it), I can’t remember anything clearly before about nine years or so. All I remember is my adopted parents. They were an old couple, and they were really sweet, but of course they died recently, and I wound up on the street.

The town where I was staying has no name. It used to be called the town of Opening, but that was scratched out, and now you can write anything you want, provided there are only 10 letters or numbers. I’ve chosen to call it _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, for now anyway. It’s a pretty shabby town, honestly. The town has big walls on all sides, and a curfew and guards on the top. Not because there are national threats or anything, but because the town was just run by insane and brutal thugs. The residential district is filled with nothing but one-room clay huts, ruins, and small houses. To be fair, there is a lot in the way of business: a bounty hunting board, a bank, a healer, a few stores, and so on. But to be honest, most of these “businesses” tend to involve a man or woman, or in some cases a child, standing outside a warehouse or near a pile of goods. The houses they go home to tend to have only the slightest amount of furnishings, and some of these only seem to have just a chest. I can’t imagine how these people sleep, unless they open the chest and sleep inside. The only thing decent about life here is that some townspeople decided to built me a bed outside. But even so, it isn’t a particularly safe bed, it rains and gets hit by lightning, and every now and then small wild animals slip into the cracks of the town walls and bite me. Oh yeah, and the well-water I have for drinking usually makes me sick. Did I mention how much I hate this town?

Hmmm? Who am I talking to? I honestly don't know, anyone out there who will listen, I guess. I'm pretty lonely, and it feels good to talk to someone, even if ultimately it seems like I'm talking to myself. But I'm not crazy! Am I?

In the western part of town, there's houses packed together in a slum. It’s almost as if someone took some type of digital editor and just rubber-stamped them. But I’m not supposed to know about such things. After the New Earth, most technology we find is pre-industrial. There are robots from the original Earth, but alchemy, thaumaturgy, and religion tends to be the way of things. Nobody understands technology anymore, so they can't build these things. Alchemy can produce some advanced stuff, but it’s like some sort of chemical magic. So, digital editors? Nah, I don’t know about those. Even though I just mentioned them.

Just east of that was a house obviously built by outsiders. It is totally at odds with the building style of the rest of the town. I hate outlanders. They come in and try to change everything. Well, they could be nice. But I haven’t bothered to knock on the door. By the way, I'm an outsider myself. I was born in another town. But yea, I hate outsiders.

At the very north of town is a graveyard. It is, of course, haunted. Whenever I try to go there alone, a crazy old woman winds up giving me Jar of Human Tears. She tells me, “The sadness inside tends to repel evil spirits,” so that I can visit in peace. I have no idea who that woman is, but it’s like looking at someone incredibly familiar, and I wish I cold look as good as her when I'm old. Whenever I leave the graveyard, she vanishes like a ghost, only to reappear again when I return to encourage me to be safe.

I enjoy visiting the graves. There’s something very peaceful about all of these markers here. I take a quick glance at the stones, « Here lies Gregory Smith, the last worshiper of Christianity (3000-3075 AD)», «Moten Yoshi, firstborn of New Earth (4000-4065 AD)», and so on. My favorite grave is near the top, it reads, «Here lies Sarai Jianne, beloved of Yazim Jianne (7045-7073 AD).» I think I like this one because it's so recent. She died about three years ago right in this town. Every so often, I see new flowers there.

I awoke in my bed in town, cold and hungry. I manage to live despite being dirt poor by fighting off rats and eating them. Thank God for the root veggies that the farmer in town grows or I’d be really sick. Rat is not all that appetizing, I must say. It has an oil that it gives off, so the meat I ate smells like rat. This also gives it a kind of strong aftertaste and very gamy texture. It isn’t for the faint of heart.

I didn’t have a knife for killing or cutting up meat. I had only a fishing pole. It’s handy for catching fish, but pretty awful for fighting. Thankfully, it’s pretty sturdy. They were a bit tricky to kill being so fast and determined, but after a few good whacks on their spines, about three of them were dead or dying, and the others decided that I’m not worth messing with. I shouted after them, “That’s right, you’d better run!” Although I wanted to roast them on a spit (there are no laws against that), well...I kinda couldn't. There were no public fire pits or anything, and I had no flint, and definitely no steel. While I could conceivably have used the pole itself to make fire, it had served me well over the years. Anyway, I would never have done that, as this was a very important gift from my childhood. So yeah, I was totally gonna eat rat with its fur mostly on and raw. As usual.

I had very little to do today, since I had no job, no money, and nothing much else. Thankfully, while there is no welfare system, generally people are allowed to build houses or sleep anywhere.

Our town was not in recession, but despite my best efforts, I haven’t managed to secure anything remotely resembling a job thanks to zero skills. I hadn't been on the street very long, and didn't know how to craft anything. So I couldn't start really my own business either. One thing I was good at was being pathetic, so begging was a natural fit. There is no income tax and no property tax, but work laws are soft, so anyone is able to make money through almost any means. Yes, this means that prostitution, con-artistry, begging, or even outright theft is considered okay. The guards only prevent the violent crimes such as rape, murder, or armed robbery.

This morning, I went begging, hoping to get a little bit more. Maybe I could save enough to get some better clothes or fresh yak meat from the shop, or maybe even eventually get a real weapon. With something to cut food and start a fire with, at the very least, I could have warm meat rather than cold unskinned rat. After an hour of begging, some strange person in a heavy cloak said, “Take this money, you seem to need it,” handing me a bag filled with coins of Gold. They walked off before I could thank whoever it was.

Gold was of various shapes and sizes, depending on the region, but the price was standardized by the Council. I held up a coin. On the front, I saw a beautiful woman standing over a violent crowd with the words «Victoria Dei Gratia Regina» over her head and «Sic Semper Tyrannis» running below the scene. I turned the coin over and saw an image resembling a large chicken or something, covered in flames, with «Regina Phoenix Fidei Defensor 7062 AD» on top and «In Deus Nos Fide» on the bottom. To write all of this legibly meant the coin was as big as what that old country of America called a half-dollar. It was mostly gold, with just enough other metal to make it firm to the touch. This was a Gold coin minted under the reign of Queen Victoria, but it was supposedly not minted like other currency. Gold from Phoenix was usually better made than the average, while that of Kushiyama tended to be worse. Along with Hinata's Gold with its images of natural landscapes and shrines with unreadable text, there was one coin from Kushiyama in this bag. Unlike Phoenix's Gold, that one has the image and inscription of their leader on it as though he were an omnipotent god-emperor (it even described him in Latin as “King Yama, Almighty Lord of his Kingdom”). Far from commanding respect or love, anyone so forceful is generally seen as a tyrant. All Gold was valued the same technically, but when it down to it, people preferred Phoenix-minted Gold, while Kushiyama-minted Gold was treated almost like counterfeit. After counting my findings, I dropped that one coin on the ground; nobody picked it up. There were also Silver and Copper coins among this bag, but they weren't much used, since it took 100 Copper or 10 Silver to equal even one Gold.

Having more than a few coins was definitely a different experience, almost like trying to dive for clams or mussels, and finding pearls instead. I would like to say I felt joy or gratitude, but that’s not quite true. This is not to say I’m bitter, or petty, or anything like that. I just couldn’t feel much of anything. Maybe it was from depression, or maybe it was something else. My heart went kind of cold, and nothing much mattered. But with this money, things would change, I was sure of it.

The woman ahead of me bought some sturdy shoes and some climbing gear. She headed off for the side wall, obviously to leave. Lately, the guards have taken to charging money for exiting town. Since income tax is basically out, this is one of the main ways of earning money for the town. So a lot of people have taken instead to climbing the wall nearby. The town guard try to catch them when they do this, but they aren’t supposed to attack those who have left the town borders, so it’s a losing battle. She made it halfway up the wall when a group of guards grabbed her and knocked her down with some wrestling move, then hauled her off. We never saw her in town again. While they were distracted with her, another one managed to leave. The guards strung their bows, but it was too late. The Council had set their jurisdiction at town limits after all.

I was now at the head of the line in this “shop” near the southern gate, deciding what to purchase. Normally, they would quickly find that I have no money, and tell me, “In that case, leave!!!” After which, I would be tossed bodily in the air. But this time was different. This time, they saw a big pouch by my side (which could be filled with rocks). The sales lady decided to take a chance on me, though. She asked, “What would you like, sonny?” Ignoring the fact that she obviously needed glasses, I said, “I'd like some fresh yak meat.”

I normally don't pay attention to how people look. This is not to say I'm a snob or anything, I just don't have many friends. Most people either seem to be looking at me like I'm just another beggar and scoff, or they just walk past after a glance. However, since I've been in this line for nearly an hour, I had a good chance to look at her. She was ordinary-looking, with long brown hair swept to one side and a green pleated dress with a hood and pair of good hiking shoes. I'm sure she's tried climbing the wall too, back in the day. As I wasn't going to become a frequent customer, I didn't bother looking any closer at her, but she seemed like the type of lady that might have children or cats to feed at home. The store closed early, and I didn't want to keep her waiting. As I moved close enough to tell that I was, in fact, a woman, she replied, “What cut of meat do you wish to have, my lady?”

“My lady.” I couldn't say that I am really anyone's idea of a lady. Looking in the mirror behind the near-sighted woman, I saw a willowy malnourished girl who desperately needed that yak meat right now. I had straight natural blue hair that used to be in a neat ponytail, but at the moment had curled from grease and darkened with grime to the point of looking brownish-black. My skin, once a pale peach, was also similarly dusty, making me look tanner than I was. I originally wore a nice sturdy leather dress, but time outside had scuffed it up to the point of being ragged. Yet my eyes were still as clear and blue as ever, and they focused on the goal of fresh meat. I drooled at the thought.

I thought about her question. Yak meat looked different from beef. Unlike cows, yaks have their fat layer as outer blubber instead of that nice marbling. But once that's all done, it cuts into clean pieces. I observed all of this as she cut, telling her repeatedly that I did not in fact want the blubber, despite her claims that everyone loves it. “Yes, but I don't,” I said, as she shot an annoyed glare at me for making her scrape this off. Instead, I ordered, “Let's go with a few slices of stew meat. Ummm, maybe some cooking gear too.” She handed me a soup pot, skillet, metal bowl, some forks, metal chopsticks, and spoons. I would have to go somewhere else for a good knife and flint though. She put all the cooking materials into a cloth bag, wrapped the yak meat into parchment paper and handed it over to me.

I was just about to congratulate myself for a smart purchase, and I walked over to a remote sandy spot to somehow build a fire; no sooner had I placed the meat onto the pot though, than a group of hungry worms attacked! And by worms, I don't mean those tiny cute little nightcrawlers or the redworms that eat compost to make soil. The name for these worms is olgoi khorkoi. They are worms fully large enough to shake the ground and create large holes, and their mouths are as big as I am. These worms and their sister race, sandworms, were roughly the size of a small tree. These had no eyes or teeth and these ignored live food, but fresh meat was another story. I swung my fishing pole at them, but it bounced of their rubbery flesh. The worms appeared to have a deep fear of the hook of the fishing pole; despite not hurting it at all, it shrunk in fear. Perhaps they knew that should I catch them on my line and somehow have super-strength enough to haul them into the sea, they would end up as bait for some enormous fish that I also couldn't pull. After trying, and missing, in a charge attack, one of them emptied its... well, whatever. It puked on me. Centuries of pesticides, artificial fertilizers, and soil additives created toxins inside the body of the worm that produced a sort of heavy substance. Although they do not have what one would call stomach acid and it wasn't acid or basic enough to burn my skin, some of these chemicals paralyzed me and put me in shock.

Having gorged themselves on my food, they had little interest in trying to eat someone like me, even if they were not eaters of dead food. I was simply too dirty for the worms. When I came to my senses, all of my meat was gone. I was so tired of being lonely, poor, and hungry. “Why?!?” I cried.

GOD

I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. I am eternal. Everything past, present, and future constantly exists, and whatever I see is also me. It is not for me to explain my ways. Any humans that I would use to do so would be accused of heresy or insanity. After all, how would any humans convince others that I have indeed spoken to them? Shall I come to them in a dream? They tend not to remember what they dream clearly, in any case. Perhaps, I could come to them in a waking vision, but alas, even if it is a mass event, they completely ignore my actual message. I come to them as myself, and they are terrified.

Let me be clear to you, the Reader (yes, I know of you who see this writing). I do not wish evil on anyone. I am not trying to punish them, but rather there are situations where granting one person what they want would interfere with what many other people need. There are also times when events happen for human growth, although even here, I allow free will. I do not act as some omnipotent control freak, but rather only intervene if things are out of hand. And I constantly worry if these humans will hate me if I should act, or curse me if I do nothing.

There are people like Ambrosia, who seem to get an awful deal from life despite my attempts to help. I make no excuses for this, even though it is sometimes human free will and not my actions that is the cause of this. As much as possible, I try to mitigate some of the harm caused through the conflicting intentions in the course of human life, but there is only so much even a God like me can do openly. If I were to act too much, I would create dependence, while if I were to do nothing, I would cause even the atheist humans to fall into despair. For example, when the olgoi khorkoi attacked Ambrosia, there were originally supposed to be four worms, and one of these would trample her after she was paralyzed. Her unconscious body would wind up crushed into a pulp under its weight. However, the extra worm found itself cut off by an underground mineral deposit, and had to redirect itself to somewhere else. Meanwhile, while I have expressly forbidden myself from interfering in free will of both humans and other living things, I could still make the meat extra moist to distract them.

Yes, you heard correctly. The answer to the omnipotence paradox is this: I could not be omnipotent without the ability to set limits for myself, yet I could also not be omnipotent without the ability humans call potential. I have created specific limits to my power, just as humans have Ten Commandments. I do not wish to rule humanity, only to save them if they should risk destroying themselves. The rules were written for mortal races and matter, so beings like angels/demons, or First Materials were not subject.

1. Thou shalt not be seen by humans in thy true form, for mortals may die.

2. Thou shalt never remove free will from a living thing. Lest you disobey, thou shalt never be able to. Thou shalt not govern the people as a tyrant.

3. Thou mayst appear to individual humans in a comely and innocuous form of thy choosing, or in dreams, visions, or an avatar. Thou shalt not directly act to interfere with any personal action or religious belief, unless all humanity is at risk. Thou shalt not possess humans, but thou mayst speak through them.

4. Thou shalt not make immortal beings or indestructible matter. For all living things, unless they discover or earn the secret of eternity, are subject to death and rebirth; likewise all matter is subject to decay.

5. Thou shalt not cause a living thing to be stripped of its reincarnation memories once it attained the ability to remember them, nor give any living thing ability to remember reincarnation that they have not justly earned.

6. Thou shalt not set humans apart from others, either as a pariah or favored one.

7. Thou shalt not interfere in the time-space continuum, as thou wilt branch reality. Only if thou must save a life, mayst thou reverse an event. If by saving a life, it is as though you have saved the whole world It must be done.

8. Thou mayst grant prayers, yet they must have faith, and they canst not be prayers to harm others, even indirectly. Thou shalt not undo previous prayers.

9. Thou shalt not reveal the secrets of reality, except to those who deserve them.

10. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The last commandment sounds like it's merely a sweet saying, and for humans, it probably is. But for me it means that any and all things I might do to humans, such as smiting them or causing suffering, have a very high chance of causing me some pain. I cannot exactly die, but I am able to suffer the pain of death.

Ultimately, with all my cosmic powers, on an average day, I mainly deal in coincidences. This person got here a little later or earlier, that man recovered from illness, or occasionally I might perform an It's a Wonderful Life type of miracle, creating an alternate reality to help people. In the life of most humans, they never have any strong reason to believe in me, which is fine. It's not like I need human worship, or to be honest, particularly enjoy it. It's not to say I am indifferent or don't like people, though. I mourn their suffering, and I cry and laugh when watching the plays and shows they make. But when I see thousands of them die each day, I have to keep my heart protected from the loss. This day was different, however. For this day, the universe needed an Oracle.

I heard the girl Ambrosia cry out, “Why?!?” and I answered. Whenever I decide to appear to a mortal, I have a decision to make. But I knew this mortal personally. She would not care about anything she dreamed, she did not care what others said to her, and she had an absolutely tacky aesthetic when it came to miracles.

I caused all of her surroundings to fall away, leaving her standing in a blank white space. Of course, to everyone nearby, she was basically staring out into space having a heated conversation with herself. She was not the type to care, and people of this town knew of her habit of talking to herself. This is one of the reasons that I stick to appearing in dreams, they tend to draw less awkward looks. Although I could certainly speak as a regular person might, part of this type of thing is theatrics. Even if it is completely impractical, people tend to expect the smoke and mirrors approach. They want to see Oz the Great and Powerful, not that person behind the curtain. I appeared to her as a giant floating triangle thing. A person of the old Earth might recognize this from popular culture, but alas this was well before her time. Humans might assume this was a trademarked symbol, yet this was already stolen from the Hojo family crest. In any case, for the sake of performance, I spoke to her in a still voice. Young child, do not fret over your fortune. For in your hands lies the power to change destiny. You must become the Oracle of Tao in order to defeat evil, and make the Earth freed to the balance of Good and Evil.

I continued, You must awaken the Crests... Seek Delphi, the first Oracle to awaken your inner power... She will advise you. But you must hurry, because evil seeks to remake this world as well. Go now, and return Balance to the Earth.

Ambrosia replied, “Wait, but...?” I realized nothing I said made any sense to her, and it was all very cliche and cheesy, but I also knew this was precisely what would motivate her to do her task. After finishing, I returned her to awareness of the world around her.

AMBROSIA

After a very strange hallucination, I noticed two things were obvious. First, I had a different set of clothes, my rags replaced with a brown blouse, a red skirt, and white apron. I was wearing a pair of convertible shoes where before my feet were pretty much naked. Convertible shoes used a series of drawstrings which opened into sandals or closed into boots. Right now, they looked like a pair of simple brown boots without heels. My hair and the rest of me was wiped clean of all dirt, and I no longer looked quite as starved. I looked almost like a housewife! It was only after my palm began to sting that I noticed a tattoo on it. It was a Yin Yang symbol, and there seemed to be a strange sort of power coming from it. I ignored it completely. Strange marks are nothing to worry about, just like those nasty bites I got from rats a week or two ago. And that time I got bitten by a tick. And the spider, and... Okay, okay, I'll go to the healer!

We have always had doctors or healers, but they haven't always been good. For many years, medicine was a subset of religion, since healing others was seen as a civic duty, and thus it fell under the moral domain. But as belief in faith healing faded, along came the so-called “modern” medical era where the medical symbol (Rod of Asclepius) was confused with the commerce/thieves symbol (Caduceus), where one of these things had too many snakes. And it showed.

The difference between our medicine and the “medicine” of former ages was incredible! Back in those days, treating just the symptoms was the norm and research was the exception, and doctors would actually be punished for doing their own research, often losing licensing for questioning established dogma. For example, regarding cancer treatment, actual studies showed that immunosuppressants worsen cancer because cancer was a failing immune system. So while they could have treated people with immunotherapy, or used a diet approach (using herbs like ginger, raw garlic, cayenne pepper, basil, and turmeric as well as foods with antioxidant or probiotic properties like fresh vegetables, fish, milk/cheese/yogurt, and fresh fruit; all that and lowering sugar and radiated/burnt/processed foods), they instead prescribed three major treatments that were counterproductive and heavily suppressed other treatments. Despite the fact that radiation caused cancer, despite the fact that chemotherapy suppressed the immune system, and despite that all but the least invasive surgery made the body weaker, they went ahead and prescribed these treatments. The medical system collapsed once people began to learn that roughly 75% of these same doctors would not do this on themselves.

And then there was insurance. Insurance normally worked but when medical insurance became mandated, it screwed with supply and demand. When everyone was made to buy it, people who never went to the doctor balked at the idea of paying expensive insurance because of people who smoked all the time. Nowadays, medical insurance doesn't exist, having been replaced by barter and sliding-scale pricing.

Thankfully, we don't have these problems anymore. Today's view of things is that all disease is caused by imbalance in the body or spirit, such as lack of rest, starvation, or overeating. So while germs are a thing, everyone knows you can't get sick unless you are already less than whole. It also means that the average person knows and practices good health habits. This is why even though I did not know much about a lot of things, everyone with basic education at least knew about this stuff. Medicine nowadays also has no side effects, because its motto is “If Doing Something Would Harm, First Do Nothing.” They have three effective systems: applied organics (herbalism), symbolic medicine, and unified faith theory.

After studying herbs, and properties of food, medics combined nutrition and herbalism into a unified whole. They had certain salves rubbed over the body, certain foods, and certain bacteria that helped the body heal or fight disease. Of course, some adventurers just use the herbs alone, so Healing Herb and Medical Leaf have become top sellers for people suffering from poisons and other issues. Over time alchemy became part of this, so things like Potions and High Potions became common for wounds.

The second method of medicine is the one I have the most trouble explaining. They call it symbolic medicine. At one point, people studied psychology and the placebo effect, and found that a lot of the people seemed to have ailments that were ruled out as hypochondria. After trying several methods, they recognized that many of these diseases had a symbolic cause. For example, you had a throat issue because you wouldn't talk about something. And that's kinda as far as I understand.

After the New Earth, people discovered elves and other races, and discovered that they had a different theory of how stuff like faith works. Human knowledge before that was that faith was just something in your head. But then, the elves showed a visible energy wavelength when praying. It didn't seem to matter what they prayed to. The elves explained that the body is made of several types of energy, and every conscious action was the spirit body altering the physical world. So when you pray, the spirit resonates or something, and reality shifts. I guess? We called the process of performing spiritual acts thaumaturgy, or literally, “the working of wonders.” People sometimes called it “magic” but this often meant using natural or elemental forces. But thaumaturgy was hard to say, so some people called it that anyway. There's also the arcane way, also called sorcery or Onmyodo, but the less said about that, the better. These were people who tried to alter reality, after all. This was against God's law. I think?

When people first studied thaumaturgy, they found it varied by denominations. Each of these religions resonated energy in a different pattern, so certain groups like the Zoroastrians were better at setting fires, others like the Buddhists were better at exorcism/healing, and some were better at other stuff. Unless God or nature or whatever decides to lend energy (this is usually called a miracle), a good portion of the person's own energy goes into a prayer. This uses mystic power (or MP), which kinda means they can't heal all day because eventually they will become too exhausted to continue. So yeah, medical clinics can suddenly close in the middle of the day.

When faith works against the natural laws of the universe, it meets resistance called disbelief. It's like this. Unlike a simple healer, a priest can resurrect the dead or remove curses. But a priest on his own power can raise the same body a limited number of times without divine intervention, and after about three or four days of rot has difficulty raising anyone. And if the body is destroyed completely, revival typically only happens with a miracle. This is made worse when disbelief becomes unbelief, because it is shared by masses of people who lack faith. Such a thing is a sort of magical “dead zone.” Thaumaturgy usually works through a type of spoken/written magical particle called runes, and could do healing at range; on the other hand, the average healer used their own aura to heal through a process similar to reiki. Aura-based magic could heal even in an area of unbelief or antimagic, but it could typically only be done by touch.

Today, hospitals almost don't exist, outside of big cities. And all of those are mostly outpatient (since even the common cold can now be cured easily with a touch). The idea of packing sick people together in a closed space and expecting them to get better is hopelessly stupid, which is why those remaining hospitals are typically open-air buildings with screens. This lesson honestly took millennia to learn, despite leprosy being proof that quarantines didn't work . Today's healers are broadly trained to prevent overspecialization, and they make house calls. They also wander around outside, wearing their distinctive medical robes. Anyone who wants to be healed simply has to touch their robe to get their attention. I approached the old healer. He was a nice guy, especially since I usually couldn't pay anything to heal me.

I watched as the old man did his thing. He guided his hands over me. As he did, his body began to glow, then the glow concentrated into his palms. When he touched me, a thin glow spread over my whole body. It felt like he was feeling out anything that might be wrong with me. As the energy collected, it begin to light up certain areas more than others, and it seemed to be sucking spread-out venom or other stuff into bubbles, as best as I can describe what happened. The healer would pull these bubbles outside of the body, and the bubbles flashed white and became nothing. “There!” he said, “that should take care of the spider venom and the tick bacteria. By the way, it looked like you had been bitten quite some time ago. How did you manage?” I shrugged my shoulders and sighed, “I guess I just have a rugged immune system. I ought to anyway,” I said as memories of nights on the street flooded through my mind.

As they did, I remembered something else. Come to think of it, the whole event of being bitten by rats seemed like a bad dream. I don't remember winning against those rats, and the next day, I could find no wounds. “Could you check to see if I have any old wounds? Like rat bites.” He responded almost immediately, stating that there was no sign that I had ever been bitten by rats before today. I guess whatever it was had been just a fever dream back then.

Since I had no particular deadline, I decided to do some last exploring before I left town. After buying more yak meat, I bought a pendant watch modeled after the old clockwork kind, but this one contained an AM/PM slot on the right side of the hands . The clock right now read «11:38 AM.» I had missed being able to tell the time.

We started the day at sunrise, calling about 6 AM “sunrise” and everything until sunset, the “first hour” up to the “eleventh hour”, so the eleventh hour was 5 PM, and then we said sunset. Despite summer or winter, the time of sunrise and sunset was always the same. All time after the sun sets is called Void Time, because it was traditionally not measured at all. This was set up during a time when guards had to be constantly vigilant for night invaders. But nobody uses this system of time nowadays, except for priests and the guard. Now everyone uses AM/PM time. I also bought a calendar and a cellphone.

The calendars we have do not require updating year after year. Rather than using technology, our civilization runs from alchemy (which I cannot begin to explain) and runes. When we discovered runes, we worked for decades understanding a method in which people could write on objects. Oddly, using energy and using prayers to make mystical effects was the easy part, learning to implant runes on objects, not so much. People discovered that they could write runes on paper and make interactive maps or other such things. My cellphone also ran on runes, since such devices didn't need electricity if they were simply told how to work.

There were drawbacks, particularly in mass-production, but we'll talk about that later, I suppose. This calendar was actually a single piece of paper. It showed today's date by default, but people could also ask it, “What day does (this holiday) start?” or “Can I see the calendar for (that) month?” and the paper would change in response to this.

The months and days of the week were different from what people used to know, though. Our months were based on the Chinese zodiac, the weekdays were Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Wind, Day of Rest, and Holy Day. The Day of Rest in particular was an interesting day, as no thaumaturgy but that used to save the lives of others would work. Today's date, for instance, was Earth, the 5th day of the Rabbit month in the year 7078 AD, and it was summer.

Now that I had shopped for everything I wanted, I went to the bank. “One bank account, please.” The woman there had blue hair of a far deeper blue than mine and was dressed like a maid, while standing near a large red chest and never looking up. “Welcome to the Red Chest bank. Do you have any identification?” I shrugged, “I don't. Can you make one?” She continued to look down as she was writing upon a single sheet of paper attached to a clipboard, creating a sort of makeshift laptop. The paper crunched numbers which shrunk down and shifted into a single rune once totaled. At last she acknowledged my presence. “Sure, that's fine. Let me finish this.” And back she went to crunching numbers.

After an hour, she pulled out a blank ID card made from thin metal (probably sorcerer's alloy), and what appeared to be a kid's magic wand. It was a small bit of wood with a bit of cheap rock carved into a crude star at the end. After asking me a few questions, she told me not to smile, said a few words under her breath, and pointed it at me. I got blinded for a few seconds with a flash of light. When I could see again, my card was done. «Name: Ambrosia Brahman. Address: The Street, Opening Town. Age: Probably 21. Hair: Blue. Eyes: Blue. Height: 5'8”. Weight: 139 lb. Identification: 17A6B95F.» She told me that my information would automatically update, and gave me a purse to carry my stuff. It had the Red Chest design on it for advertising, so yeah, not entirely about charity. She quickly created an ATM card and asked me to input a four-digit number, then pushed the card into the chest by her side. I stuffed the card into the slot, and then said my birth date . Adding most of my Gold, I turned around and walked in the other direction. The only thing I hadn't managed to buy was a decent knife. It was finally time to go.

I arrived at the gate to town. Opening town, along with all the other very strange things about it, had only one exit. The south entrance had a line that moved slowly. I saw all of the men and women and animals heading out. The two guards, a man and a woman wearing shiny red armor and a silver sword, stood as fearsome reminder that this town sucked. Every now and then, a person would try to sneak by without paying, and the female soldier would casually cut them apart with the sword. As I came close enough to hear, the soldier said to a person ahead of me, “That will be 350 Gold.” I realized that all of my banking and spending, I was now 108 Gold short. If I didn't get out of the line, I too would be turned to ribbons. I tried to back out, but people behind me grabbed me and shoved me back in line, crying, “No cutting!”