From alt.pub.dragons-inn Fri Mar 24 10:31:55 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:8218 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!news.pop.psu.edu!psuvax1!uwm.edu!caen!crl.dec.com!decwrl!pa.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com!leggy.zk3.dec.com!orb!not-for-mail From: hutch@ibeam.jf.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [KAN] Into the Woods Date: 22 Mar 1995 08:16:48 -0000 Organization: Duchy of Wabesylvan Obspauk Lines: 541 Sender: news@Orb.Nashua.NH.US Message-ID: X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The maps call it the looking-glass forest. It has that name from a very long time ago, when a fashion held sway for calling things by poetic metaphors. It isn't a forest, at least, not in the sense of a place where there are ancient tress crowded together, with a deep and complex system of younger plants, things sheltered in the dark below the big trees, plants and animals depending on the web of chance and disaster and weather and season. It doesn't have any looking-glasses in it either. At least, it has none of the polished glass or crystal kind, and only one ancient sheet of metal pounded flat and polished against corrosion, to catch the image of the viewer. But the name got onto the map thanks to a bored, romantic map-maker, and so in the middle of a desert is a looking-glass forest. What it really is, in a prosaic modern world, is a dry seabed. It was thrust up over the course of ten generations in a world where one generation lasts upwards of ten millennia. When it first came to the surface the pools were everywhere, but in time they were gone and only the hollows remained, and the mazes of passages between the pillars where the undersea creatures had grown. They weren't corals but they left behind their shells and skeletons just the same, so the name was given. In the early days the Cats came to live there, hunters who found the pools and rivers restful places to find fish and to swim. As the years passed and the pools dried and the rivers became trickles, they all left for other shores. All but a few eccentrics. For a while it did resemble the more common forest with plants of various sizes. The pillars and hummocks and strange sea-growths were overgrown with leafy things, and in some places enough of the growth collected to support the variety of life that makes a real forest, with coral-bushes and coral-hedges and even coral-trees, inhabited by birds and bugs and many Cats. Only one coral-tree remains today, kept alive by a deep spring. There is a temple built over that spring, and inside it is hung the mirror of polished metal that was once a gateway between two realms. Travel through the gateway was never very heavy even in the years when the forest was crowded. The gate is almost forgotten. Only a few of the Cats know about it, the firstborn heirs of the ancient line, the ones who hold the Cats' Homeland. One of these heirs came to the edge of the forest one day. 'Raelf-called-Gild growled under his breath as another earthchange wave passed through him. This area had a predilection for more earth than any of the other elements and it made him feel slow and lazy. At a time like this, fire and water were more to his liking -- their fluid movement sped his travels. He arched his back and kicked down and the electric blue discharge rippled across the highly unorthodox surfboard he rode, lightnings flickering into the dust below him. The sky shattered and reformed around him and his speed left crackling voids in the transparent crystal. A second wave of earthchange washed across him, and he slowed again, moving no faster than a fast run now. Finally he drifted to the dust next to the first of the pillars. The Looking Glass Forest, straight ahead. He put down on the outcrop of rock and looked across the maze of dry pillars. Presently, he reached one gold-furred paw-hand into the carryall space in his board and took out a tin box with a hinged lid. He opened it and shook out two small white pellets in the shape of mice, then returned the box to the carryall. He took a two-hand-long white wand out of the carryall and touched it to the mice. <> he commanded, and the pellets flashed and expanded into fist-sized mice. Before they could realize where they were, he devoured them, efficiently and thoroughly. <> he muttered, scanning the horizon. In the distance he saw the distortion of another earthchange wave. <> he said, growling again. <> The words rang with peculiar authority, and after a moment they exploded outward with their own distortion pattern. He watched the cold edges of the incoming wave strike against the smaller bubble formed by his own wave and they canceled, rippling back and forth until the changes they made were too small to see. <> he said quietly, watching. The dust stilled and he stepped up onto the board where it rested at the boundary between the dust and the crystal sky. One foot slipped forward slightly and the board began drifting away from the coraltree pillar behind him, leaving a shattered trail behind in the crystal that slowly melted together again. The old riverbed was the widest path into the forest. 'Raelf carefully picked a path down the center and followed the winding route while the sun burned its way further down the horizon. A deep blue moon rose just as the light was fading, and he turned suddenly left, following a narrow channel that had been camouflaged in the pattern of shadows. The forest grew darker and more twisted as the moon pooled around the tops of the coraltree pillars. 'Raelf stopped, lifting his mirrored sunglasses. His eyes glinted like polished, faceted gems as he scanned the surroundings, checking his bearings and looking for landmarks. Finally he snapped the shades back down. <> he muttered. <> a quiet cultured voice said from above him. Gild's hackles rose visibly and with an effort, he forced them down. <> he said. He turned a half-turn left and looked midway up the jagged coraltree to where the moonlight pooled on an outcropping that resembled a branch. A faint outline of gleaming white hung in the space over the branch, teeth or maybe fangs shaped to a grin. Gild tried very hard not to return it with one of his own. <> The grin widened. <> <> He shrugged. <> He stared politely just to the right of where the other Cat waited. A shape faded into view around the grin. Dark stripes surrounded the flame-orange that even silver moonlight couldn't damp. Eyes blinked, the color of molten lava. <> Gild touched a rune on his board with a casual movement of his foot and the board drifted up to a level with the branch. <> Gild looked at the tigerish form sprawled on the branch. <> <> The tiger sniffed haughtily. <> <> Gild blinked apologetically. <> <> Gild said, finally grinning back. <> <> The tiger faded again, leaving just the grin and the two burning eyes. <> Gild half-roared. <> His eyes widened behind the shades. <> <> Raj-Keshyr replied quietly, his eyes fading away. The grin started to disappear as well. <> Gild frowned as the last traces of Keshyr's grin vanished away. <> He took his reflective shades off and stared at the empty branch with eyes like sapphires, the color of all the seas of the world, seeking a place and time long past. The hot bluegreen fire in his gaze grew brighter for a moment, then he hissed. He clenched his left hand into a tight fist, crushing what he held. <> He let the shattered pieces of the shades fall from his hand. <> He shifted, and the board rose to the top of the dead forest. From above, he could see a dark spot in the moonlight, and a gleam in the center. <> He shot towards it, shattering the sky behind him. The moon had fragmented into two, and one half was sliding back to the east while the other half slid northwest. A tenthday's travel on foot should have taken him next to nothing using the board to travel. Gild finally stopped. The gleaming spot began to recede, and he snarled and began pushing forward again. <> the impossibly cultured voice said from in front of him, <> <> Gild said, watching the grin materialize on the end of his board. <> <> Raj-Keshyr's grin became a scowl of distaste. <> Gild smiled absently, sliding the board forward without making any progress towards his goal. <> he said, <> and he shifted right, carving the sky in an arc to the right, <> He pointed steadily away from the gleam of light at the center. The scowl at the end of the board vanished. Gild grinned wider. After a few minutes the dark masses of plants were passing under the prow of the board. A moment later the temple was visible below: a cube made up of smaller, pale transparent cubes each the height of two tall Cats, the whole arrangement eight cubes on an edge. Scattered on the sward around the temple, ten short columns with sundials on one end, and a few others -- a crenellated tower, broken, a fallen horse-headed pillar. The board drifted down and Gild let it come to rest level with the lowest level of the temple. Moonlight gleamed through the temple, caught on the planes where it separated into its 256 separate parts. <> Gild said. There was a stirring in the shadow-and-moonlight dappling the garden and the disembodied grin reappeared where the sward met the coral- trees, huge dormant blooms hanging almost to the ground. <> the grin commented. <> Gild snarled quietly at the only opening into the temple. He stepped off the board and opened the carryall compartment in its top. From behind his ear he drew an iron wand the size of a chopstick and put it into the carryall. He stripped off his vest, the black Void-armor stretching like rubber. An amber crystal still hung at his neck, and he still wore the abbreviated cut-offs he'd made from the clothes that he'd inherited. His tail lashed and he took a slicker-brush out of the carryall. <> he demanded. The grin washed back into a head, and then a whole tiger grew around it. Gild waited, gemstone eyes half-lidded, while his ancestor eventually crossed to where he sat. <> Gild said. Raj-Keshyr shrugged elaborately and began grooming his descendant's mane while Gild concentrated on his unruly tail. Eventually, in less time than it should have taken, the younger Cat's gold-fur coat was gleaming and ordered. <> <> Raj-Keshyr half-purred. <> <> Gild tugged on the tiger-striped headband and nodded. <> He stepped into the temple. Behind him, the tiger faded to just a grin, which opened wide in a mirthless laughter. A pawn doesn't see very far. Two boxes straight up, two boxes dead forward, and a little bit to either side where an enemy might be waiting to be pounced on. A pawn can't plan, but a pawn knows that in the end with luck and perseverance, a higher rank and power awaits. Gild wasn't impressed with promises to pawns. He looked around and there wasn't anything to see -- the entry was gone, the only way out of the temple to be killed out or to win through to the gateway. So he touched the walls and the ceiling. A dizzy upwards motion and the floor under his hind paws was white quartz instead of obsidian. He saw a vague shape in front of him -- taller than he and with a broad head or maybe a hat. <> he shouted. <> After a moment he heard a faint murmur +<>+ Nothing happened for what felt like too long. <> +<>+ <> +<>+ <> +<>+ <> +<>+ The castle's shape blurred and hulked closer. Gild touched the wall with one hand. He blinked, once, and _reached_ for the adjacent piece. There was a whirling flash of fire and wind and Gild was gone. In his place a column stood, a sundial on its head. i<>i the pawn shouted, i<>i <> Gild's voice echoed in reply. <> The pawn did not answer. Gild was no longer paying attention to it and so its semblance of life had gone. A castle can move very quickly but only along the fracture planes, through the walls. They wield great power, and they can see quite far, but they tend to overlook the unorthodox and so are a favored prey of knights and bishops. They work well, though, in support of others, and they do have a singular loyalty to their king, to the extent that they will, under the right circumstances, exchange places with their monarch, moving him to a safer fortress while they gather their own power to wield against the enemy. Of course they need a wise and skillful general. Gild took a long look up, left, right, forward, behind. The pawn in his old place twitched as his gaze flicked across it. A sense of danger, of threat to his security, told him to look at the upper front right corner of his cube. Beyond he dimly sensed a black bishop, and knew it to be a threat by the too-familiar way it leered at him, hissing. He smiled and adjusted the ridiculous hat he wore. Orders came through, and he jumped straight up, landing on the topmost loft. The bishop snarled as he passed. In his new locus he felt the immanence of a knight who watched him and the knight who guarded the watcher; he saw to the end of the world behind him and to the sides, unobstructed. Before him in the distance, a black pawn guarded a shadowed figure. As he focused on the pawn, a black bishop slid into position on the bottom loft, menacing him but untouchable by his restricted motions. He growled, and bespoke the knight who guarded him. <> 7<>L the knight retorted, an angular echo in his voice. <> Gild tried to make it sound good, but he wasn't quite convinced himself. 7<>L the knight replied; his mount snorted derision. <> 7<>L Gild almost purred. <> The knight pondered for a moment, then inclined his lance. 7<>L <> Gild *reached* across the connection provided by the defender's role, and twisted things around a lever point in nothing. The knight felt himself abruptly locked into a single fast linear movement, but before he could say anything, the black bishop sliced into his space and he was cast from the game. <> Gild spurred his charger, hurrying to the defense of the castle he guarded, but arrived too late. The black bishop fell under the hooves of his mount, and he scanned the board again with his new perceptions. Knights can see less far than castles, but they have a way of seeing around corners in an exploding-fireworks weaving pattern. They are also almost lamentably noble and chivalrous and the slaves of duty. So Gild saw that he had a chance to kill the black queen, and he felt the urge to do it, while his blade was still bloody with the mark of the black bishop's demise. But he had to wait for a moment, it was out of turn. He felt his warsteed lash out in frustration as she whirled across the distances to a safe haven. Fortunate, though, as he snapped out of the beginning battle trance and remembered his purpose-- not to fight, but to reach the altar of the looking glass. It glittered, barely on the edge of his perception -- he could be there in three knight's leaps. Or ... he moved, finding the white queen's bishop within reach, not exactly by a normal move, but by getting to within shouting distance. <> he called out. ^<>^ <> ^<>^ Gild grinned. <> ^<>^ <> He smiled quietly and watched the bishop considering the request. The bishop nodded, then raised his Crozier and reached it across two spaces to where Gild stood in his stirrups, leaning across his steed. There was a whirl of color and motion and Gild found himself standing on a lectern, a crozier in one hand. The knight clanked his sword across the visor of his armor in salute. Gild returned the salute, then looked quickly at the corners that made his path. Directly towards the enemy, then, and around the corner, would reach the Altar. Gild almost leaped too soon. The point at which he would have to stop, to turn the corner, was warded. The black knight guarded the passage, and would surely cut him down if he were foolish enough to step there. He looked along the downward diagonals and spotted a route that would take him to a better vantage, and batted the lectern with the crozier. It shot down the corner two steps and left him in place with a shot at the approaching avenue again. *<>* -- the voice almost made Gild fall off the lectern. He looked into the distance from his new vantage and saw that he had entered the thick of the fray. The voice was the white queen, who was in his paths of eminence, which meant that they were in mutual defense. Then he noted the white pawn directly guarding him, and that the other white knight, and one of the white castles, held him in their fields of eminence. And then the sense of threat grew: the black queen also held him in threat, as did his counterpart black bishop, and a black knight moved to threaten him. He almost withdrew, but then noted the position of the white pawn at the terminus of one of his paths -- the black king, behind the brave pawn, just far enough not to be threatened. *<>* the voice said again. Gild looked to his queen and almost grinned. There was something about the queen, and a glimpse through the Elements proved his suspicion. Somehow Raj-Keshyr had gotten into the game, as White Queen. <> *<>* the queen retorted. Gild mock-bowed. <> *<>* The voice was smug. <> *<>* Gild scratched between his foot-claws with the crozier. <> *<>* <> Gild flashed a tooth at the queen, noting that she had developed a definitely non-regal grin. *<>* <> *<>* The queen chuckled. <> *<>* The queen sniffed sourly. *<>* Gild blinked once, fast. <> He sighed. <> *<>* Gild shrugged and _reached_ across the channel of Voice before the other could finish, and swapped Place and Position at the same time. ^<>^ The older Cat started to give him congratulations, but the black queen carved her way into his position before he could finish and he was cast out of the game. <> Gild said, and watched the white knight slay the black queen in retaliation. This triggered the flurried exchange of death and destiny and at the end, he slid across space to take the black knight out of the game, and was left alone, in the attack position, and the white pawn in the distance stepped forward, uncovering the path of eminence which led to the black king. Gild made the ritual growl of threat at the king, who cowered and ran, and so Gild made the second move, cutting off the king's escape, and he had a moment to think about being a queen. The field of eminence was much greater, the speed of thought and movement amazing. Gild scanned into the distance, and three actions into the future, and smiled to himself. The next move brought the white castle to threaten the king, and the move after put Gild directly adjacent to the king, but guarded, and the king fled. Gild looked into the future again, and prepared himself. The black king slid down and to the side, and Gild, white queen, was put forward one more row, and then he had clear eminence path to the place where the black king had started, the Altar of the Looking Glass. He met his own gaze in the polished disk of Orichalcum, and )reached( across the distance; taking the hand of his reflection he switched Role and Place and he was no longer in the Looking Glass Forest. He was in a palace of crystal and lace and light, a thousand thousand tiny candles burning in the chandelier overhead. The sound of faint tinkling bells moved behind him, and he looked away from the mirror with its reflected black-and-white-tile dance floor. He turned, and a thrill of fear and recognition rang through him. <> a silken-steel voice said, music ringing behind it. The speaker was a woman, ageless, her powdered white hair styled in an elaborate coiffure, her garb a weaving of silver lined with tiny chimes that shone starkly on her white skin. He bowed. <>