Those closest to Jennie and I during our conversation had been listening, hoping to glean any tidbit of information or advantage. I didn"t understand why most of the crowd had gathered. Tulley had mentioned Ranked, hangars on, and those that would set themselves against Lord Kel were gathering. But these people appeared more common. Clothing for most would lead one to believe they were working cla.s.s, not Ranked hoping to climb my coattails.I felt a bit like the Pied Piper must have as Jennie began leading me away. The gathering of disparate beings separated like a wave crashing against the cliff, only to reform behind our pa.s.sage and begin following us. Asking Caraid to identify the who or what I was seeing, I soon was able to recognize Kelpies, Sprites, Fairies, and Cat Sith.
Watching a Cat Sith transform from a black cat into a person was entertaining and enlightening.
As we made our way to the gates, I briefly worried about Cedric finding us. I a.s.sumed he would be resourceful enough to figure out what was going on when he returned and would be able to discover where we had gone, no matter how long it took him.
Which made me wonder.
"Caraid," I asked, "how do you tell time here?"
[We use the System,] he answered, surprised that so obvious an answer hadn"t occurred to me, [simply think System: Time, and you will get a notification.]
Well, that made it easy. I wondered what other aspects of daily life the System performed that everyone took for granted. I laughed at myself thinking, I might be the oldest Seelie to ever learn how to tell time.
"What about children and those that haven"t Ascended? I thought they didn"t have System access until after the Ascension process?"
[Everyone has access to the System from the moment of birth. Ascension allows an individual to incorporate full System functionality.]
[Stats. Time. Skills. Any basic information is available.]
[Quests, Levels, and Oaths become available after Ascension. Scholars have concluded these functions are delayed in order to protect children. All species have exploited the young at some point. System exploits can be especially onerous.]
[Imagine tricking a young child into swearing a binding Oath before they understand what they are pledging.]
"And if you can"t read yet?"
[Sound.]
That seemed logical. System would have to have a way to interact with those individuals that were illiterate, deaf, or blind.
I froze in disbelief once our progression reached the gates that lead off of the Palace grounds.
Paved roads.
Not only paved but pristinely maintained.
Vehicles traveling along those roads powered by unseen forces. Vehicles that hovered inches off the road. No wheels, just sleek cars, for lack of a better word, that smoothly wove amongst each other. People going about their daily lives, not caring about the drama they were pa.s.sing.
The scene was a bit of a reality check.
"Caraid?" I questioned in wonder. "This world has automobiles? Just what is the tech level on this planet? Are there planes, cell phones? Computers? The Internet?"
[We are an interstellar community.]
[We have created a network of portals that allow us to visit a diverse selection of planets across the galaxy. Of course, we have vehicles for travel, and devices to communicate. Skimmers not cars. Crystals, not Cellphones.]
[Planes? We have never bothered to create that form of transportation. There is no need. Why use a plane to travel when you can use a Portal array to instantly move from city to city and planet to planet?]
"I guess I thought since you used magic instead of technology, you wouldn"t have combustion engines or explosives."
[We don"t. Why would we use combustion engines? That type of technology rapes the planet of resources and pollutes and destroys what is left.]
[I have scanned your memories, SYSTEM has allowed me to use the time when you sleep to delve into who you used to be, and your experiences. I don"t really see much that existed on your previous world that doesn"t exist here or didn"t at one time.]
[I don"t think our people are as obsessed with Internet p.o.r.n as you seemed to be. But technologically we have found ways to harness magic and combine it to produce the same results.]
[Additionally, because magic makes it much easier to not destroy the environment, something your previous planet seemed to care about, we don"t have widespread deforestation, smog, and cancer-causing carcinogens spewed into the air and water.]
[We are Sidhe, descendants of nature G.o.ds. So, we are aligned deeply with nature, so we have created technologies that are sustainable, renewable, and eco-friendly. We consider it almost our sacred duty to protect the land and the bounty that nature provides.]
"A planet full of druids or maybe hippies," I concluded wondrously. "But I"ve seen no evidence of this kind of technology until now!" I complained bitterly.
[You mean things like running water and flushing toilets?] Caraid asked humorously.
"But. Where are the electronics? The televisions? Cell phones? And why are the guards using swords and bows? Why don"t I have skills for guns or lasers?"
[There has been a magic particle holographic display in every one of the bedrooms you"ve entered. M-Holo. That means something projected and created by magic. There is no big boxy contrivance that adorns the walls. Crystals inscribed with arrays that project and broadcast entertainment programs.]
[As for communication, I already mentioned crystal technology. Look at your stats, what did you think that mind magic affinity was for? It allows you to connect and access mental arrays that allow for worldwide and inter-planetary communication.]
[Mental. Meaning instant. The speed of thought. No time lags because of distance,] he emphasized.
[I see the problem,] he said after pausing for a moment to collect himself and calm down.
[You equate swords with sorcery with barbarism and have made a.s.sumptions based on your experience with magic in novels you"ve read and games you"ve played. In most of those worlds, you"ve imagined, magic civilizations stopped progressing technologically during a medieval or Renaissance era.]
[That simply isn"t the case here.]
[Think about it logically. The math and technologies required to find other planets and then connect to them via portals have to be much more advanced than simple Newtonian physics.]
[We, too, have had our great thinkers. Our Einstein"s. Heisenberg"s. Our Hawking"s,] he said almost bragging at this point.
"But why didn"t you mention this when I was asking Cedric to find lodgings? If this level of technology exists, there has to be a way to browse listings of available properties for rent or for sale.
"And what"s with the medieval architecture for the Keep?"
[He probably did browse available properties to generate a list. Using that list he then went and personally inspected those properties he felt might suit. So that he could make an informed decision based on what existed and not what was advertised.]
[And he probably used a skimmer for transportation as he traveled between properties.]
[As for the architecture, need I remind you that even on your previous planet, even with your technological marvels, ancient architecture was preserved. Your planets Royals lived in palaces that were centuries old. You worked tirelessly to preserve ancient structures that have stood for thousands of years. Your ancient Pyramids. Stonehenge.]
[It"s most interesting that your civilization managed to maintain and preserve these structures despite your races complete disregard for the planet and nature.]
[You come from a civilization that is most strange.]
[At times you protect, zealously, what you create, and yet you disregard and dispose of inventions and items almost carelessly. Always racing to own the next generation of better, faster, smaller, or more advanced item. You come from a disposable society that has no respect for anything or one but yourselves.]
[Even other people are often treated as less. Bigotry, Racism, Ageism, h.o.m.ophobia. Earth was rife with evils and injustice. I think it is almost a requirement. When a species is capable of developing a civilization, they must find ways to differentiate between them and us.]
[Climate change. Melting polar ice caps. Animal extinction. Nuclear proliferation.]
[World Wars that killed millions. Ignoring disease and starvation. The poor being ignored or forgotten. And the rich, greedy for more, so much they would never be able to spend their wealth in a dozen lifetimes.]
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[It"s a wonder you didn"t destroy yourselves.]
OK. Maybe I deserved that. Humanity certainly had its problem. He wasn"t wrong to sneer and suggest that our society had become the "me" generation. Always seeking the next faster or shinier toy.
But humanity wasn"t all bad.
Sure, we had a capacity for great evil. But we also had a capacity for great selflessness. It was often in our darkest moments that our ability to empathize, our compa.s.sion for others that made us great.
Countries rebuilt after the destruction of natural disasters. Victims and survivors embraced by communities. Protests and demonstrations to rail against unfairness and injustice.
It was often when we had fallen to our worse, that humanity was able to look past differences and find common cause to lift our hearts and shoulder our burdens.