Magicis Mercator

Chapter 20: Quest Complete

"Some hours before I need to add...energy back to it. We'll be back at the capital before then."

Alexia grunted her acknowledgement and began looking more closely at the vehicle. The large seat she was on was a strange material, like some kind of cloth. It was soft and uniform. She could not grasp how artisans might have made it into one single piece like this, with no seams seen anywhere. Her attention then drifted to the front, where she saw strange hollow holes and various instruments. Krajek looked over them and his hands moved expertly whenever he needed to adjust something.

She had initially thought this to be as fast as a horse but then she was surprised when they passed next to a deer, scarring the poor beast but also blazing by it as if it was standing still. If Krajek's country, nay his world, had many of these, they could easily provide logistics and bring troops to any location in record time.

She had had plenty of time to think about the situation and had to resign herself to her decisions and actions. If Krajek was truly an emissary and he brought back word of his treatment in a negative light, she would have to give herself up to their justice, to prevent all out war. Still, it seemed unlikely, as Krajek clearly had the power to stop and go back to his own world at any time.

A screeching sound made her shoot her arms up and she brought her hands to block her ears. "What is this infernal racket?!" she screamed.

"Ah my bad, I was trying to see if the radio worked. Figures it doesn't. I'll have to put a cd in. Never bought many cd's, usually keep the music on Spotify in my phone so this Gorillaz cd will have to do."

Music? Who would be making the music in this vehicle, Mordain? She did not take him to be a musician. The static was soon replaced by an odd vibration and then some type of stringed instrument began taking over the hum of the vehicle, masking the noise from its wheels on the road.

It was unlike anything she had ever heard before. She obviously could not understand the lyrics but the rhythm of the whole thing felt nice. It stood very apart from classical music, at least the type played she went to an event that her title entitled her to go every so often in the city. Her curious nature began to bug her however and she found herself unable to continue enjoying the music. How was the sound benign created? Was the vehicle embedded with a magical device that could produce it? Was this the only music of their world? The quest for knowledge gnawed at her until she could suffer no more.

"Please, I must know more. Can you explain these...things?" She practically begged, adding an inflection of pleading in her voice.

"What things? That's very broad of a statement." Came back Krajek's reply.

"Everything I'm unfamiliar with of course! Everything from your world, your country. How does it work? Who made it? Why and how did they make it?"

"I suppose I can tell you a few little things. Uhh, well the music for starters. This is a group I like. They uhhh, get into a room and turn on a device that takes a recording of the sounds, the music, they make. Another device then makes a copy of what it recorded and the process is repeated many times, until those copies end up in the hands of people like me. We pay for these. The actual specifications as to how sound is produced is beyond me. I know there are speakers, small round shaped diaphragms that vibrate and emit sound but that's about as far as I know."

Aexia chewed on the answer with dissatisfaction. Every answer only brought more questions!

The rest of the drive was relatively quiet, time was spent enjoying the scenery and relaxing, which proved to be harder than initially thought of due to being offroad.

Some short distance from the city, Krajek stopped on the side of the road. "Alright, everyone out."

As quickly as it had come into the world, the vehicle was gone, vanished back into some other dimension. Aexia sighed and started walking, following behind the two.