Irena - Part 7

Disclaimers may be viewed in the previous posts or accessed here: Disclaimers.

Irena faded into another neighborhood, similar to the one she left. In front of her was a man in a large straw hat, red shirt, and jeans. He had a warm, open smile and sparkling blue eyes under a shock of white hair. "Hi, you must be Irena. Welcome to Shandi's neighborhood. You just missed your sister Katya, she headed back to the surface a few minutes ago."

"At last, someone else to talk to! It feels like I've been wandering empty places for ages." She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and stared at the time. "Although, it's only been a few hours according to this."

"It does seem very empty down here, although, my brother Kiril has been hanging out with Shandi quite a bit and says there are plenty of people around. He's the one who got me down here, but he hasn't told me anything."

"Shandi left me this book," Irena tapped the one on her belt, "and a cryptic note. I've seen some weird stuff already. Not the least of which is this thing on my hand." She added, pointing to the KI on her wrist. "So, where am I? How did I get here, and what am I supposed to do?"

"You came here the same way I did, by linking book, which is what the books that teleport you places are called here. I guess we are supposed to explore, find out what is happening, at least that's the little bit Kiril told me."

"That's more than the note from Shandi said."

"She didn't tell you anything?"

"No. If it hadn't been for Katya's message, I wouldn't even have known how to talk to anyone."

"You could have wandered around the neighborhood you linked in to originally, or go through the Nexus to the city."

"Right, assuming I figured out how that worked."

"Yeah, it is kind of hard at first. Katya suggested I invite you to join this neighborhood. That way you can always find her or me, or maybe Shandi or my brother Kiril."

Author's Note: this was the last I heard from Irena for a long while. When she sent me information again, quite some time had passed. She had just re-connected with her friend Kreel. Unfortunately, it seems neither one had much time to explore during their reunion.

Irena arrived back in her Relto and checked to see if Kreel was in the caverns. Kiril's message had said he might be. She linked to the neighborhood when his name appeared in her buddies list. "Irena, oh my gosh...its really you!"

"In the flesh...for a change. How've you been?"

"Very very busy with surface matters. Work, mostly."

"Yeah - have known that feeling!"

"Since I saw you last, I've probably covered about 50,000 miles."

"Wow - I've been mostly staying here, just lots of projects..and extra shifts at work. I like being the bar manager, but it does take a lot more of my time."

"My work requires a lot of travel."

"Ah - is that good, bad, both, neither?"

"Mostly good. I get to a lot of places and meet some really cool people!"

"Good. Work is much harder when it sucks too..."

"I love what I do...but sometimes I get physically worn out from the travel. And it takes a toll on my family sometimes, which I don't like."

"Yeah, that is a serious down-side. I am glad you love what you do! Have you kept up with cavern events?"

"I've heard Kiril talk about some kind of Bahro war going on. And apparently someone was killed by a Bahro...I'd call that worrisome."

"I have heard about the war and our shaky place in it. Wheely Engberg was killed by a Bahro and a friend of hers was killed in a cave-in. They had gone someplace not-so-safe in the city. It is troubling. Particularly that Wheely was alive until the rescue team was just about to get to her. I heard it was pretty awful for them."

"I didn't know about the cave-in. Yikes...worse than I thought. I've also heard that some guy named Phil is back...some have said they've been to is Relto."

"That's about as much as I've heard as well. Don't know anything about this Phil. I've heard there's a way from Teledahn to his Relto, but haven't tried to find it yet."

"Neither have I. The few times I've been here, I've only stayed long enough to get to Ae'Gura and try and catch up on recent events. I've also seen a new age book show up in a place called the Watcher's Pub."

"The deaths have caused a shake-up in the DRC. Michael Engberg left for a while. He's back, but not sure if he's back with the DRC. Sharper is off doing something related to Bahro again. Not sure about what though..."

"Yeah, I heard some rumors about that, and some guy named Watson is around, too."

"I'd heard the one about Watson too. Wasn't sure that one was true - he's been gone a long time! I've been to the new place from the Watcher's Pub. It's oddly beautiful with lots of weird machinery. Seems we can feed the lake with it, and make the lake algae grow brighter. I had some time a while back and managed to get the machinery on in the new age. It's a very convoluted system, hope those algae like the food...it sure is hard to make!"

"Wow...I didn't know that part. Darn, its 5pm where I come from and in about 15 minutes, I have to make some dinner for guests coming over tonight."

"Oh - sorry I was so late then. I had a early afternoon project that took a lot longer than I had expected. What times work for you in the coming week? I have some flexibility in my schedule right now."

"Well, can't be helped. I got in here about 3pm my time and waited for you to show up. Someone named White Rose, had a death in her family and several are holding vigil for her in the Uru Obsession Bevin, so I was over there for a while."

"Ouch, sorry to hear about that."

"Next week is not good...heading out of town until Thursday night. But I'll be around next weekend. And the week after. Are you ever available during the daytime?."

"Crossing schedules again. I am out of town next saturday for a week and a half."

"Wow...the gates are against us ever exploring this place together!!"

"I have the day shift, mostly - although, starting when I get back, I have a week and a half of time off and will have most of those days available!"

"I'll be around a lot during that time, though not the entire time. Maybe we can steal a few afternoons for a couple of hours of exploring."

"That would be wicked cool!! I do sometimes get frustrated at how the surface so often intrudes into my life."

Kreel starts to laugh, "I know. Have you found anything new for your Relto?"

"I found some fungus plants in the algae feeding age - those are kind of fun, and fortunately, I don't seem allergic to those spores!"

"Cool. Yes, I recall how you sneezed in Teledahn."

"How about you?"

"Not really. I just haven't had any time to do any exploring. I've heard there's new linking books in the library and in the museum, too. Lots for us to do, I think."

"Sounds like it! I had almost given up on the Library - nothing ever seemed to be there."

"Well, apparently there is now. So, we have that to look forward too as well."

"Very cool! Did anyone have any juicy rumors about what the DRC is working on at the moment?"

"I've heard that they are about to open another linking age to some place called ayonnie or ahonanny or something like that. Kiril still keeps his journals, so I might try to steal a glance when I can."

"Annoyingny? At least I've seen that penciled on a piece of paper Shandi forgot to pick up...sadly, that was about all there was on the paper, other than a few things that helped me with the algae feeding place."

"Well, that's good. I need to run now."

"I'll poke around at Shandi's stuff again and see if I can find anything else. Should I send it to your ki if I do? Or is there a different way you'd like me to send it?"

"Ki is great. I'll do the same if I hear anything."

"Wicked! Have a great night and enjoy your dinner!"

"See you soon," Kreel reached down, touched his book, and faded from view.