Julien looks at the colorful apparition in disbelief. “Now? You show up now?” he hisses. “Where the hell did you go?”
“I could ask you the same thing! This does not look anything like a civilized place. It looks like some dank cellar crossed with an open sewer. Where are we?”
Julien shrugs. “You tell me.”
After a thorough investigation, looking left, right, up, and down, the Fool cradles his forehead in his hand. “Please. Tell me you didn’t take that mystery gate!”
“So what if I did?”
“No sane person would have taken the mystery gate!”
“Well, maybe you should have stuck around long enough to tell me that! Or, I don’t know, put up a sign saying, ‘Gateway to Hell!’”
“The best choice was obvious. Blades! The Kingdom of Blades!” The fool sighs as he throws his hands in the air. “An idiot. I’m stuck with an idiot. Why did I have to get bonded to him? I’ll be stuck in stasis before half of The Cycle is over.”
“Maybe instead of whining, you can actually try to help?” Julien interrupts.
The Fool turns to him. “What…happened to you?” He takes in the tattered clothes covered in mud, grime, and blue blood. “You look terrible.”
“I do? Gee. Maybe that’s what happens when you get attacked by huge, sewer-spawned killer salamanders.”
“I guess that explains why a good chunk of your life energy is missing.”
“My what?”
The Fool points to his left. Following with his eyes, Julien sees two bars: a blue one that is about three-quarters full and a red one about halfway empty.
“Of course.” Julien quickly looks around the corner to see whether he is still free from pursuit before facing the Fool once more. “Since I seem to be relatively safe for now, I think it’s high time we cleared a few things up.” As the Fool opens his mouth to protest, Julien raises his hands. “I know, I know. We have limited time. But how about this? I ask short and simple questions. You give short and simple answers, or tell me it’s complicated.”
The Fool smiles and nods. “Go ahead.”
“We have a magical bond, but when the blue meter is empty, you disappear. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Let’s say I require a certain energy to function properly. When it’s depleted, I shut down.”
“And you reappeared now, because?”
“It takes a full meter for me to re-establish my manifestation.”
“You provide information, right?”
“Correct.”
“What kind of information?”
“All kinds of information.”
“How specific. Could you elaborate?”
“That’s complicated.”
Julien groans. “Just give me an example! Maybe a small demonstration.” He gestures with his hands, both still coated in blue-green salamander blood, and one of them holding the bone he found.
Seeing the bone, the Fool smiles. “Alright. Take a look at what you’re holding in your right hand.”
“It’s a bone,” Julien says without looking.
“It’s a bone,” the Fool repeats mockingly. “Just look at it.”
When Julien does, a translucent screen appears above it, and he hears the Fool’s voice in his head.
“A sharp human (maybe) bone the length of a dagger. With its sharp point, it can function as a weapon. If that’s what you’re into. Four piercing damage.”
“Is it a bit clearer now?”
Julien’s mind is racing. “What else can you show me?”
“A lot. For a price.” He nods to Julien’s left. Julien sees that the blue bar has lost a noticeable chunk. “You could say I provide a lens through which you can see more than the average denizen of this world.”
“And when you disappear, I lose that lens.”
“Precisely.”
Eyeing the two bars in the corner of his vision, a nagging thought forces itself to the surface. “What happens when I run out of life energy?”
“Who knows what happens after life?”
“So I die.”
“Probably.”
To think he could have run out of life energy whilst fighting those salamanders without ever knowing. Without the Fool’s so-called lens, he would never have known. “Can I preserve the magical energy you need to function?”
“Good question. Maybe you’re not quite the fool I thought you to be.” The Fool chuckles. “Yes. You can have our bond in an active or passive mode.”
“How do I do that?”
“You hung on to those cards, I hope?”
“You hope? You could have mentioned their importance before you disappeared!” Julien starts patting his ripped pants feverishly. Discovering a lump, he sighs, turns his right pocket inside out, and retrieves the pouch.
“Hey, I’m sensing a lot of hostility. I’m helping now, am I not?” The Fool eyes the pouch. “Besides, you still have them.”
Julien opens the pouch and retrieves the cards. “Okay? So, what am I supposed to do with them?”
“Find my card.”
Julien finds it quickly, as it happens to be on top. He holds up the card that shows the Fool in full ornate garb. “Now what?”
“Hold it in front of your chest.”
Julien follows the instruction, and a glowing rectangle appears in front of his chest. Tendrils of light tentatively reach out. They connect with the card. He instantly becomes aware of a force tugging at it. Looking at the Fool, he raises an eyebrow.
“Let go.”
The card is pulled towards Julien’s chest and takes its position in the rectangle. Both light up, and as Julien looks on, eyes opened wide and mouth agape, a grid of lines appears and expands over his entire body. Where it goes, his clothes change. The torn and bloodied shirt and shorts make place for a surprisingly comfortable suit identical to that of the Fool. Hovering over the clothes is a network of pulsing strands of light. Like ley lines, they connect geometrical figures lined with strange glyphs that are placed all over the suit.
“Congratulations! You have activated your Fool suit. This artifact is crucial to your survival. You better learn all you can about it. Current Fool Integration at 0.90%.”
Julien is both fascinated and delighted at the improved state of his attire. He also wonders about the last part of the message. What would happen if that number went up?
“Hey! Focus! Active and passive mode, remember? A full activation requires more energy!”
Julien sobers up immediately. “Alright, so how do I switch between active and passive mode?”
“The words you want to remember are ‘Synthisa’, ‘Activa’, and ‘Passiva’. I’m sure you can guess which combination does what.” Julien nods. “In the passive state, you can monitor your energy and health, but you will have no access to any other information.”
Seeing the blue meter drop steadily, Julien decides to leave other questions for later. He gives the Fool a solemn wave and says, “Synthisa Passiva.”
As the final word leaves his lips, the Fool starts disappearing, much as before. It is a slow fading from feet to face. This time, though, a floating ball of light is left behind that approaches the card at the centre of his chest. It is promptly sucked in. The grid of light ripples again, and the Fool suit disappears, leaving Julien behind in his previous disheveled state.
He sighs. “Well, that was short-lived.”
He takes in the blood that had started caking on his arms and chest and notices that the card is still there, encased in a frame of dimly pulsing light. The number 0.90 briefly lights up in the centre at intervals.
Julien wonders. Should I try to activate the suit again? Just to see if it works? Maybe ask another question or two? He shakes his head. What if it runs out of energy?
He eyes the blue and red meters that are still present in the left corner of his vision. The first has only a quarter left. The latter is still about halfway. He dismisses the urge to activate the suit. As long as he can keep track of those, he’ll be fine. Right? I just have the nagging feeling that I missed something. Something important. Empty meters are bad. Preserving energy is good. Following that train of thought, Julien suddenly realizes he had forgotten to ask a very important question.
How can I fill the meters up again?
“FUCK!”
He quickly casts a look around the corner to see if his outburst triggered some activity. The hallway is still empty.
“Good,” he mutters. “Guess there’s nothing I can do about it now. Not without risking running out.” Julien stands up. “Next time! For now, let’s just see if we can find a way out of here.”