False snuck around Gobland, hood pressed over her face, hiding her features. It wasn't like the coat she'd bought from Katherine would help her much; in this empire, her mere height made her stand out compared to the normal citizens. Around her, goblins hurried past each other in the marketplace, haggling over prices, shouting jovially. False had always felt short being a hermit surrounded by tall emperors, but now she was the one who felt too tall.
She was in the Gobland marketplace to try and find some machinery to repair her damaged computer, which she had safely tucked away in a sling bag under her large coat. Doc was here too, in another part of the marketplace, helping look. Honestly, with his green features, he ironically blended in better than False did. But False didn't want people knowing she was here. The thirteen emperors were too well known, and she looked too much like her clone.
False paused in front of a stand that seemed to be selling used hardware. Gobland was the second most technologically advanced empire among the thirteen that so far existed, with the first being Cogsmeade, which was the reason why False was there in the marketplace. She honestly didn't like being there too much. It was noisy and crowded, with narrow hallways/alleys formed by tall wonky goblin buildings that seemed all too intent on turning the whole empire into a dark maze.
The marketplace was the most complicated place in Gobland. Stalls brushed up against other stalls and poking out of preexisting buildings, giant neon signs and lights hanging precariously from eaves and often other signs that boasted the owners' wares, deep alleys that hoarded the best products but were home to pickpockets and swindlers. False found herself bumping into other people and tripping over wares that had fallen from the stands onto the rocky floor too many times.
Then a goblin practically crashed into her and they both tumbled to the ground, cursing. False was on her feet in an instant; a trait she developed over years of pvp training. "Hey, watch where you're going!" She shouted, although the goblin had already blended away into the short green crowd. False glared at no one in particular and started to walk away, but she quickly realized that her pockets felt... lighter. Worried, she emptied them and found them empty.
False cursed. That pickpocket took all my diamonds! This wasn't good. Gobland was known for overcharging its customers so False had brought along practically her whole savings since travelling through the rift. And now she was penniless. But how was she supposed buy the parts she needed without money? There was still the option of trading, a monetary practice that had replaced the use of currency in most empires, although diamonds were usually still available for smaller goods. False just wasn't sure what she had on her to trade.
She stepped out of the crowd and into a side alley, standing under a bright flickering sign that proclaimed an ongoing sale in the nearby store, checking to see what stuff she had on her. She had her armor, obviously, but she didn't want to part with the set after spending so much time mining for lapis lazuli to enchant it. The same went for the sword and ax she had on her belt, and she was always safer with a weapon on hand. And her battered computer was the whole reason why she was here, to get it fixed.
Frustrated, she punched the wall and immediately regretted it, wringing her hand in pain. The stone cave walls of Gobland were made of very tough rock, although in some places they seemed to have... bite marks. False did not want to know why the walls had bite marks. "Are you okay?" False whirled around to see fWhip standing there, chewing on something gray and hard. "Yeah," False said, disguising her voice and pulling the hood further down to obscure her features. "Just annoyed because some pickpocket took my diamonds!"
fWhip nodded in understanding. "Yeah, we have those a lot around here," He said, and held up a watch. Not just any watch, though, it was False's watch. Which was not on her wrist anymore. False glanced at it to her wrist and back again. fWhip grinned and tossed it back to her. "Sorry, couldn't resist," He said. False rolled her eyes and stepped away from him just the teensiest bit to keep her remaining stuff far away from his grabby hands.
"What are you trying to buy? We've got lots of good wares and goods and products in Gobland! And all for a very good price too," fWhip said in a sales voice. Yeah, good price for the people selling, False thought. She slipped her computer out of the sling bag and showed it to the goblin, who appeared very interested in it. "A friend of mine damaged it. I was trying to buy some parts to fix it but now I can't without diamonds."
fWhip looked at it from various angles. "That computer looks like someone hit someone else on the head with it," He said. False blinked. That's exactly what happened... Why does he know what a computer that had been used to hit someone on the head looks like?! "I think I can help," fWhip added musingly. False felt her hopes go up. "Really?" She asked, trying to not sound too eager. "For a price," fWhip added. I should've known that was coming.
fWhip lead False through the maze of stalls and stands, seemingly looking for a particular place. As they walked, False was struck by the weird goblin aesthetics and fashion. For one thing, goblins seemed to have a very obsessive love of gold jewelry. fWhip had a pair of heavy gold earrings that dragged his enormous ears slightly downward, and they'd passed by some goblins who wore gold necklaces and bracelets and sometimes even headdresses, or had them as buttons or brooches on clothing.
"You guys really love gold," False remarked offhandedly. fWhip shrugged and continued perusing stands. "It's an inherent trait," He said, and when he spoke, False could see he had a gold tooth. "Some theorize that we're related to piglins. I mean, love of gold, big nose, pointy ears, it makes sense. Although we're green and they're pink." "What's with the fish ears?" False asked, catching sight of a large group of goblins passing by them who all wore accessories over their ears that looked like fish fins.
"It's because of another theory of who we're related to," fWhip said. "There's this legend that a long time ago goblins didn't exist. They used to be fish people who could live on land and underwater. Then one day there was this big disaster where the oceans drained away and the remaining fish people who survived fled underground to where all the water went. Eventually they evolved and their gills and fins and stuff were replaced by stuff more suited to mining. The only thing we have left of our heritage is our pointy ears, which used to be fin-like." fWhip twitched his ears as he spoke.
"That's complicated," False said, reeling slightly from the overload of information. fWhip shrugged again. "Hey, it's history. Blame Pix, not me. Oh, we're here!" They were in one of the deeper alleys. Ironically, it was less suffocating down there, with barely anyone else around to form a crowd. There weren't that many stalls either, though, but False could see some hardware stores at the end of the street.
fWhip started to knock on all the doors and soon the curious shopkeepers came out to see what the matter was. They seemed to know fWhip well, since they all started to greet each other warmly. "This person needs some help with her computer," fWhip said, gesturing at False. As she pulled out her battered device to show the goblins, fWhip's use of the words 'this person' made her realize that she'd never told him her name.
I'll need a psuedonym, since he knows the other False. Okay, what's a good replacement name? Maybe True. Yeah, that'll be a good one. It's the opposite of my real name. "My name is-" False started, but the other goblins shook their heads. "We don't take names down here, missy!" One of them shouted and the rest nodded in agreement. Well, that's just really convenient. This place feels like a black market.
"Can anyone help with this?" False asked, showing the computer around, A few of the goblins attempted to take it from her but she kept her grip firm, making sure she didn't get pickpocketed again. "I might have some parts that will work," A goblin mused. "But I need to check." "Me too," Another said. False went into all the shops and found some stuff she thought she needed. But then the problem of not having any diamonds came up again.
"You'll just have to trade," fWhip told her. "I don't think I have anything to trade," False said. Then her phone beeped out a notification and False turned it on. It was a text message from Doc saying that he didn't have any luck and asking where she was. Quickly, False texted her coordinates and asked him to go to where she was. Soon enough, Doc arrived, and the two hermits checked what sort of money they had.
"Ten diamonds," Doc said. "Only ten?" False whispered. "I thought you brought more!" "Pickpocket," Doc growled. "What happened to your diamonds?" "Pickpocket," False sighed. "So in other words, we're broke," Doc said, folding his arms. "Do you have anything on you to trade?" False asked. He shook his head. This wasn't good. False needed her computer to be fixed as soon as possible before her clone showed any significant relapse into her dangerous habits. Any setback at all was not acceptable.
Then False felt a tug on her cloak and turned to see a goblin with gold hoop earrings examining it closely. "This is spider silk," She said. "It is?" False said. She thought back to earlier that day when she'd bought it from Katherine to help hide her identity. The princess hadn't said anything about what the pretty cloak was made of but False knew that Glimmer Grove's export was spider string so it made sense.
"I can trade some of the parts you need for this coat," The goblin said suddenly. False felt a slight ray of hope descend onto her, deep down in this underground alley. "I need enough to fix my computer," False told her. Then the other goblins came closer. "Spider silk's expensive," They said. "How about you trade the cloak to all of us and we'll give you the parts you need for a new computer?" A replacement computer. It was better than nothing.
"Are you sure this one coat is enough?" False frowned, then immediately regretted what she'd said. The goblins started to think carefully about the potential sale and the prices. "I'll add in ten diamonds," Doc said, pulling out his pouch of money. "How about fifteen?" One of them said slyly. I am not going to be scammed, False thought. "We don't have fifteen diamonds," False said, "But how about you take the ten we're offering and my old computer, if you're going to make me a new one?"
False had heard that goblins were good tinkerers and could make almost anything out of wonky junk, so she figured offering her device was worth a shot. It was enough to convince them. "We'll take it!" The goblin with the hoop earrings made to pull the battered computer away from her, but False jerked it back. There was something she had to take care of first.
She excused herself for a moment and ducked into a deeper alley, where no one was looking. She pushed the power button and the monitor flickered feebly on after the fourth try. False opened up a program that erased all of her device's history and replaced it with harmless-looking stuff. She couldn't have anyone find out about anything she'd been doing in Cogsmeade, and her faithful computer had recorded it all, so her history had to go.
When that was done, she handed her coat and computer and Doc's diamonds to the goblins and they immediately started bickering over how to split the spoils evenly. The hermits had to separate them long enough for False to get the computer parts she paid for, and for the goblins to assemble it all into a working computer. "You owe me ten," Doc told her as they turned to go.
False nodded and then noticed fWhip eying her curiously. "You look a lot like a friend of mine," fWhip said musingly, and False felt her blood run cold. "You're a lot shorter, though," fWhip added, and False felt a bit relieved. "Like a hermit." False gulped. She didn't like where this was going. "Really? That's a big coincidence," She said, trying to shrug it off. "What's her name?"
"False, but she's not really a friend," fWhip said. "I don't really know her that well and I've only seen her like three times, so maybe you two don't really look alike." False let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. She shrugged noncommittally and she and Doc made their way back to the surface, with the parts for the replacement computer in tow.
---
Jimena practically ran all over Cogsmeade running errands for False. To enact False's plan to hijack the computer, she needed parts. But since they were being spied on, they had to get the machinery separately and disguise their intentions. Some were secured from the junk heap when Jimena went to reclaim the used parts to be refurbished. Others were 'broken' and pried off of existing machines. One False took from her computer in the iron farm blimp.
The girls pretended to be busy all day to not arouse suspicions about what False could be doing deep inside her house where no telescope could penetrate. Slowly, little by little, using stolen fractions of time in between errands, a computer chip was being pieced together and programmed. And False couldn't wait to get it to work.
But of course, running all those errands were tiring, so as soon as the early dinner was eaten up with no leftovers, Jimena jumped into bed and fell asleep quickly. And the other thing that came quickly was the dream. The void again. Jimena flew around, looking for a particular someone to talk to. But he was silent; the void was actually empty this time. Where is he? Jimena wondered, and she flew further.
Slowly, the void melted away into a chasm of endless light. Jimena was surrounded by 4d pictures that flashed by her in an instant. And she recognized the pictures. They depicted her experiences, things that had happened to her. I remember that, Jimena found herself thinking when she saw them. But there were some pictures that Jimena couldn't remember. They were gray.
One set of these gray pictures were clumped together. And stood over them was Qiron. Jimena watched him as he emitted blue light from his hands and wound it around the gray pictures. They flickered and fluctuated and began to change, ever so slightly. Then one broke into pieces and Qiron put another gray image in its place, one that he'd created out of his own power. He's replacing it. Jimena thought, and as if he'd heard her, Qiron looked up and saw the girl.
He thrust out both his hands and suddenly Jimena was gone from the place of light and was falling, falling, falling in the void again. And the dream continued the whole night. When she woke up the next morning, Jimena remembered nothing of what she'd seen.