Tutorial's End

The New Arrival's Guide to Common Things

by Jorbon Delivas

Beyond factions, there are dozens of less common organization types. Corporations, gangs, syndicates, cabals, and plenty of stranger things. The most important thing to note is that any official organization, recognized by the UICI, has some form of specific purpose designated. That purpose is public record and can be looked up by anyone.

One of the few UICI features which is entirely unrestricted and free is the organization registry. Simply search "Org Registrar" and look for the entry with '- UICI OFFICIAL' at the end. It may be somewhere near the tenth or so page, as the official page tends to be contested by dozens of unofficial ones at any given time.

Willow

???

"So! This is the second 'layer' as you keep calling it, Mad-rick?" The slight way the corner of his weird green eyes tightened told Willow her little name modification didn't go unnoticed.

He pretended it had anyway, perhaps mistaking her for a cat who would stop performing an undesired action if ignored long enough, "It is. This is where the training truly begins. Completing the first layer is simply a writ of passage, a method to separate the unmotivated from the determined."

"There's an actual door ahead." Jonah reported in the next moment from the front of their little procession. "It has a long slot for weapons and there are ten…. Creatures… With crossbows on the other side. They kind of look like hunched humanoid canines but with a lot of ball-like joints with their bones literally visible." He paused and made a slight gagging sound. "They're nasty."

"Gnolls." Madrick supplied brightly. "They run this layer. You're welcome to deal with them in whatever way you see fit, just be aware that there are millions of them spread across the planet, and yes they are fully sentient beings despite looking monstrous."

"If they own this place, does that mean they'll try to take the shiny rocks Willow and Naomi mined up after destroying that little nest of assids yesterday?" Piper asked curiously from her spot laying on Willow's shoulder.

"If you offer, they'd be happy to take the fruits of your labor. I'm certain." Was the uninspiring answer their 'trainer' deigned supply.

A few moments of walking through the familiar samey tunnels later, the passage widened dramatically on either side. Extending from a mere four meters wide to perhaps fourteen, a massive wooden structure barred their progress. A long piece of inset metal spanning from one end to the other was the only ornamentation on the 'door'. The metal was clearly covering the long slot Jonah had mentioned.

The party halted to examine the obstruction barring their path.

"That's more of a gate than a door." Naomi noted. Her flat tone might have indicated dry humor coming from anyone else, but Willow suspected her friend was simply observing a fact.

Jonah shrugged from the front of the party, "What's a gate if not a big door?"

No one had a rebuttal for the truly genius argument.

"So… Who's taking point?" Slyth asked.

"Me!" Piper immediately answered before shooting forward in a bee line from Willow's shoulder to the metal grate.

Surprised, the others reacted with varying degrees of aplomb. Willow sprinted after her guide, shouting for her to wait. She passed Jonah, who had frozen with his mouth open, as he'd been about to offer some suggestion or another. Naomi had already resumed walking, and Slyth fell in step beside Willow: matching her sprint.

When they arrived at the gate, the metal slide had already been pulled back and a beady black eye was staring at Piper as she explained, "…so of course we beat all them up and started exploring down here! We saw your super-cool door, or is it a gate? Anyway, we saw this thing…" A tiny hand tapped the wood making up the top ledge of the slit. "And thought, 'we should go see what kind of cool beings make such ingenious passage blocking technologies!' And here we are!"

A couple moments passed in silence as the black eye blinked a few times, processing. Finally, a reply came in a barking, yapping, and somehow slathering accent, "How'sat esplain who ya-ar!?"

"Sorry, sorry." Willow apologized as her hand shot out to catch the floating pixie, who took the disrespect with good grace by struggling and making gasping sounds as if being crushed and suffocated.

Ignoring the plight of her captive, she answered the Gnoll's question. "We're explorers who want to challenge the second layer. Will you please open the gate to let us in?" She flashed a bright smile, showing her pearly whites.

The slit slammed shut. Willow and Slyth exchanged a confused look as they heard sharp tones and words exchanged beyond, but the voices were too muffled to make anything out. The noise grew and grew until the din reminded Willow of a documentary she'd watched once where a pack of hyenas had been recorded fighting over a meal.

Just as Slyth looked as if he was going to ask something, the murder-slit slid open again. This time a half dozen eyes looked out at them. A new voice with the same sharp accent and irregular speaking cadence demanded, "Tribute for passage!"

Sharp, nervous sounding, laughs and words of agreement followed from the others.

Piper, still held tightly in Willow's grasp, suddenly groaned and went limp. Playing dead. Six eyes rolled down to the source of the distressed noise, then flicked back up to the human girl's face. Willow's lips were pressed in a thin line, eyes tight, smile strained.

"What do you want?" Slyth asked, pulling attention from his 'murderous' partner. Naomi and Jonah finally arrived, Willow hearing the soft their familiar footsteps approaching behind her.

The slit closed again, another round of loud but incoherent discussion, then it flew open. "Pink dead thing!"

A hand roughly the size of a petite human woman's reached out through the slot. It was covered in rough, matted, grey fur. Dozens of scars crisscrossed each finger, interrupting the fur pattern grotesquely. Worse, the knuckle of each finger was an entire sphere, which the fingers were able to rotate around freely. Willow knew they could move around the entire ball because they were doing just that, in a freakish and horrifying display of dexterity. The motion was like a 'come hither', but rolling in a circle rather than crooking up and down. If every major joint on these creatures was like those ivory knuckles, Willow understood entirely why Jonah had wretched.

She almost passed Piper over just so the horrible motion would stop. "Uh, sorry. I can't give you my friend here. She's fine, just being dramatic." Willow held up the limp pink girl and shook her, causing the 'dead' Piper to flop around like a ragdoll.

"Quit it, Piper! Show them you're alive!"

"Not until you let me go!" She refused, her voice ringing in a musical cadence.

Sighing, Willow let Piper go. She fell to the ground, slapping on the stone floor and splattering into a gooey pile. "Piper-" Willow growled deep in the back of her throat.

A few soft yips caused her to look up from the squished fairy, noting three of the eyes had retreated. This time, with the thin window still open, Willow caught some of the discussion beyond.

"…her in! Scary growl, she hurt'n us if'n we not!"

"Canna' hurt'n us, she out'thr and we'n hur!"

"Gotta let gud barker'n! She'n's make hunt packer!"

"No, NO! Hurt'n us not worth-"

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The voices cut off as the others near the window realized they were allowing the argument to reach their guests and slammed the metal slit closed once more.

Turning her attention back to the ground, Willow poked the now-reformed Piper with the toe of her shoe. "I thought you were getting more mature, what's with this?" She demanded.

Piper snicked and flew up, hovering at eye level, "I was bored!" She explained. Apparently thinking that was enough justification.

WHIIIISH The grate flew open and an eager voice barked, "QUEST!"

All other voices died down, listening. Willow blinked at the single eye staring at her. "I'm sorry?"

"Do quest'n we let'cha in!"

Some barked disagreements and yowls of outrage countermanded the offer immediately. Hoping this was their chance to actually get somewhere, Willow nodded quickly, "Sure, what's the quest?"

"Bring'n Hama back!" The outrage within ceased, silence suddenly reigning.

Turning slowly in the air to face the black eye staring intently at them, Piper was the first to ask the obvious question, "Who's Hama?"

A long discussion with many interruptions due to murder-hole slamming, followed by internal discord, later the party had a rough explanation. Hama was this gnoll tribe's shaman. She had gone out to guide a lost soul that, according to her, had been wandering about without direction for weeks.

"Okay," Naomi stepped forward before Piper could ask another irrelevant question. So far she'd asked if Hama was old, how many children she'd had, and several other non sequiturs. Willow had tried to reign in the pixie but she was being extremely unruly, slipping around each of her attempts to catch and subdue.

"We will happily search for Hama for you. However, from what you'd explained, it sounds as though she's on the other side of the barricade." So saying, she tapped the wood of wall. "So you'll need to let us through, then we'll search for your lost shaman."

"Deal!" "Okay!" "Yes!" "Good!"

For once, all of the gnolls appeared to be in agreement. A moment later the gate slid open. The entire massive wooden wall retracted a few meters into the wall, rolling smoothly on a track.

"I wonder if that ever pops off the track and dozens of them have to work together to shove it back on, angling it up juuuust right." No one appeared to appreciate Willow's joke, giving her varied 'huh' expressions.

Disappointed by her companion's lack of relatable experience installing closet-doors, Willow waved them off and took point beside Slyth. The party automatically took their normal 'ready for battle' formation as they entered, unsure if there were any dangers. The gnolls seemed chaotic, but ultimately harmless, but they were entering mostly unknown territory.

Sure, Jonah had been keeping them informed about anything interesting he saw on the other side of the fence, but that wasn't enough to truly comfort the group. Especially as they passed through the gate and saw the sprawling warren they'd entered.

Rather than passing through into just another tunnel, or even a cavern, it was as if they had stepped onto a platform overlooking a mass transit station. Hundreds of cavern openings pocketed every inch of the massive cave beyond. From their position, the ground slanted downward for a few hundred meters.

The path they were standing on had transitioned smoothly from a enclosed, if wide, subterranean tunnel into a kind of ramp leading to the exit. Either side of said ramp fell off into a pit which extended who-knew how far down. Willow certainly couldn't see the bottom.

I'm not afraid of heights, but bottomless pits aren't not scary! Her entire body shivered as a sense of dread swept through her as she stared into the abyss.

Slyth gently nudged her shoulder with his elbow and grinned down at her, "You can hold my hand if you're scared." His golden eyes swirled with gentle mirth as he teased her.

Throwing her hair dramatically, Willow reached out and snatched his proffered palm. "I'm not scared, but if I fall I'm taking you with me for your insolence!"

"Mhm, should I get you a teddy bear in apology for the horrendous insult to your honor and mettle?"

"You absolutely owe me for the slander! But why a teddy?"

"Y'know, in case you get scared again…"

"Jokes on you, teddy bears are awesome and not something to attempt to shame a woman with! I demand two, one for me to carry around and one for you!"

And then they were across. Willow felt her tight grip on Slyth's warm hand loosen slightly as the insane drop to either side passed. The feeling of his sharp claws gently indenting her skin relaxed a bit as well. He'd clearly been similarly affected despite the bravado.

It was odd, she'd walked across bridges on Motrendi without an issue which almost certainly fell further than the pits on each side of this one. Those had been visible drops, though. She could see how far she'd fall, or rather she could see the endless sky below. The darkness offered by this particular drop raised gooseflesh in a way she rarely felt.

Heck, I literally fell from a mountain dozens and dozens of times. Why'd that freak me out?

Across the ramp-bridge, the path branched into dozens of roads winding through a complex network of walkways. The street split to the left and right, with dozens of choices of turns breaking off regardless of the direction. Some of the options would lead up, others down. Some twisted, while few appeared to go straight. Any given path was marked clearly with large, detailed, signs. The posted signs meant pretty much nothing to anyone in the group as they were comprised of symbols and drawings, a kind of shorthand required to notate the complex system appropriately.

Happily, the gnoll who had given them their 'quest' had taken it upon himself to lead them. He'd followed behind as the group distracted, braced, or otherwise forced themselves across the intimidating bridge spanning an unknowable precipice.

Making his way around the group, the guide gnoll took them down the left path, then took the fifth turn. The track sloped down for a while, before twisting to the left and up. A good half hour of walking and dozens of turns later found the group walking across a trail hundreds of meters above the ground.

Willow looked curiously over the edge, once again wondering why she'd felt such dread before. On Earth, this fall definitely would have killed her and yet she wasn't concerned in the least. It helped that she knew for a fact she'd break a bunch of bones then heal up within less than a minute if she actually fell.

"Doesn't feel as bad, does it?" Slyth asked from her left side. They'd mostly remained in their habitual assault formation throughout the walk.

Flicking her eyes up toward his face, she saw he wasn't teasing now. His gaze was solemn as he looked out over the edge beside her. "No. I don't know why it's different… Is it just being able to see the drop?"

Running a claw down the bridge of his nose, Slyth considered for a long while before answering. "I don't think so. I've looked down from vast heights before and felt nothing but slight unease. That was different, more… Palpable. At least to me."

"Yeah… I've never been scared of heights before either. Madrick threw me off a mountain a few thousand times once, after all. No biggie."

"He… What?" The bafflement in Slyth's voice was such a sharp contrast to the conversation's previous trajectory that Willow couldn't contain a soft giggle. Recovering quickly, she noted, "You know, for training. I was climbing the mountain and he was making it fight me. Removing hand-holds, making the entire cliff face tremble, that kind of thing. Course', I didn't know he was the one doing it at the time. I thought the gumbo-burned mountain itself was fighting me!"

"Here! We'n ya here!" Their gnoll guide suddenly barked from just ahead. "This's the exit gate tu th'uther side'n the layer!"

Standing proudly in front of a much smaller version of the same gate they'd entered from, the gnoll's arms gesticulated in broad gestures. His arm rolling around his disturbing ball-joint shoulder.

"Find'n Hama'n bring her back!" He demanded as he rolled the gate out of their way, revealing…

Yet another bog-standard tunnel. After the warren they'd just traversed, Willow had thought the scenery might actually be changing for the more interesting! Nope. Just more earth-toned circular passageways.

Were there even any other gnolls around? I don't think I saw any others… Where are they all? Wouldn't it take thousands and thousands of them to make that crazy tunnel system?

Piper

Stepped Back/Gnoll Highway

After a while, the party's banter had gotten boring. Naomi was mostly quiet, just pointing out some interesting mushrooms or something every so often. Jonah, Willow, and Slyth chattered away about this and that on the trip. Though, Piper got the feeling Jonah felt a little left out sometimes. She'd joined in for a bit and even just talked to Jonah by himself, but after a while got tired of it.

Whether Jonah felt like he was getting enough attention or not wasn't Piper's problem. No, her problem was finding the Hama gnoll. She'd realized it was her problem when Jonah had mentioned it was a good thing they'd had a guide, or they would have gotten lost entirely going through the weird nonsensical stone-carved streets.

A guide. They had a guide, so they could find where they needed to go. That's what she was supposed to be! Willow hadn't ever kept her origins a secret from Piper, after all. She knew she'd been a rift reward, a guide that was supposed to help Willow travel to entire other universes!

The possibility was exciting, of course, but it was also worrying. Mostly because she didn't know how she'd possibly go about doing that. She didn't know the way to anywhere! Though, she had guided Madrick, right?

Which was why she'd step backed. She'd hoped she could find Hama by just thinking of wanting to find her, like she'd found Katha and Mejah by wanting to see anyone sneaking up on Willow.

Unfortunately, that hadn't worked. Rather, it'd worked way-way-way too well. Normally, her void was a space with a few bubbles. Willow's, her previous location, and sometimes Katha and Mejah's. Recently, she'd also started adding Madrick in! Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't. He had some way to hide himself from the spell, Piper thought. It made sense, since he was the one to teach it to her. It'd be silly if he was so easily defeated by his own spell.

Now, though, that normally empty space was full. Well, okay, not totally full. The dark space still seemed pretty much the same. Infinitely large while also being shockingly small, with everything close together.

It just felt more full. Way more full. Because when she'd used the spell to step back and search for the gnoll Hama, she'd found more of them than she could possibly count. The orbs in her space were like stars in the sky, uncountable. Unlike stars in the sky, though, Piper could approach any one as easily as any other. Every orb was within her reach.

If only that helped me narrow it down… She sighed and tried again. She exited her space, re-appearing on Jonah's shoulder where she'd started. He didn't seem to even notice she'd returned before she took another two steps, changing her intent a bit.

I want gnoll Hama on this planet with me!

This time there were thousands, rather than uncountable billions. Great! Progress!

Another step out and back in.

I want gnoll Hama on this planet, close to me!

A thousand instead of many thousands.

I want gnoll Hama on this planet, close to me, related to the gnoll who's been leading us!

No change. Still thousands.

No matter, she'd get it eventually. Just had to keep thinking of ways to narrow the search!