Nobody questions the discovery of a jester curled up on the side of the road beneath a movie poster that blows in the wind. This is good, as the jester is me. Upon awaking, my hand traces to my cheek, where I get the sensation that something sharp has struck me.
“Get up, Victor!”
The loud voice startles me into a confused panic, and I bring my knees and elbows around myself like a shell, staring through them at a face in the early light.
Her arms are teapot-esque, stern hands gripping her waist where a yellow belt separates two parts of her flowery dress. The silhouette of this mysterious woman stretches long into the morning skyline, where the only other things I am able to distinguish in the glow are buildings. I can tell it’s windy by the papers and leaves circling in the air around her.
Slowly, I relax my limbs and rub my bleary eyes. As my vision clears, the woman takes on the form of somebody I know rather well. “Clareese!” I yell. “Did you…You slapped me!”
“I was waking up your sleepy ass from the side of the road,” Clareese says. “You should thank me!” Her features take on a smug look that puts me in a no-thank-you mood.
My eyes begin to readjust to my surroundings. Street cars loudly cough fumes as they travel along the road in both directions, always sounding halfway between barely functional and hurtling off the road at the slightest lump in the gravel. Occasionally passersby glance at me, but their interest is nonplussed at best, disturbed at worst. The scenery is gothic and indicative of a different time period, like something from the nineteenth century, rather than two hundred years later.
I remember arriving at Lucien City a number of days ago, but I can’t come up with a reason as to why I’d be curled up on the side of the road. The aches in my back and neck suggest the ground was my bed, or it’s just because those sorts of sensations start happening when you approach thirty.
“Don’t you have any shame? Get up,” she says, and I see her blurry outstretched hand outlined by a halo of sunlight, alarmingly close to the reddened part of my cheek.
“Okay, okay,” I groan. Risking the last bit of dignity I have, I take her hand and let her lift me with surprising strength to my feet, which wobble dangerously under me.
“Hey!” She nudges me off her as I involuntarily collapse into her tall silhouette, and then she pats down her flowing skirts, rustling in the winds. “Are you drunk or something?”
“Geez, I don’t know. Everything’s spinning, so maybe!” I retort. “How did I get here? And how did you find me?” I look around, but I only see strangers. “The others didn’t see this…right?”
Clareese sighs as though I’ve said something that should offend her superior intelligence. “It might help to listen to this.” She withdraws from her waistband a phone. I curiously await as she does something on it, and then holds it close to my ear.
“Do I just talk into it—” comes an elderly woman’s voice.
“Just ignore this part,” Clareese says.
“Victor, hello. It’s Emilie Mier. You must still be alive, which is a good thing. Oh, but don’t worry—as I said, those kinds of side effects are quite rare, indeed. If you are still feeling drowsy, it is just the effects of the potion wearing off—but you should be fine in no time at all.”
“Potion?” I say, looking up at Clareese.
“Shhhh!” she hisses aggressively.
“—next part of the test will begin when you visit my friend Marten in downtown Lucien City. I will give Clareese the address and she will help you get there. Don’t worry about Marten. He has his unique ways to go about things, but he’s done this lots of times before.” There is a pause. “How do I stop this—”
The message ends. Clareese tucks her phone back in her waistband.
“Now that I hear her voice, I remember a bit,” I say. “Old lady. Well, very old.”
“Perhaps you could’ve left it at ‘old lady’. Or even forgo the ‘old’ part, hey?”
“I’m just trying to make sure my memory is accurate,” I say with a petulant look at Clareese. “Is it?”
She scoffs, crossing her arms. “Yes, it is!”
“No need to shout…” I say, nervously.
Aside from the woman, Emilie Mier, the only other thing I remember is being inside a large temple, with the strong smell of ginger everywhere. I blow a sharp breath through my nose, smelling it even now, the acute scent suddenly bringing water to my eyes.
Clareese looks at me closely, narrowing her eyes. “You must really have hit that potion hard then.”
I frown. “So that was the test? Drink a potion, walk around the city, pass out on the sidewalk? All things considered, not the hardest test one has ever devised. So, what’s next?”
“All right, big guy,” Clareese says. She rises up and then lets her heels thud back into the earth. I watch her hair collapse upon her shoulders, the sun turning it almost auburn-like. “Let’s find Marten then.” Her hand slaps me on the shoulder as she walks past, her skirts billowing in the breeze. I scratch my head as I watch her. “Wait up!”
Awesome chapter 🙂