“Please sir, let me in! It will be quick, I swear!” Max couldn’t believe how unlucky he could be in one single day.
“We’re closed, boy. But please come back tomorrow, we open at ten,” said the shop owner, from behind the closed door. His voice was weirdly squeaky, getting Max’s attention.
“I can’t wait until tomorrow! It’s for an anniversary. If I don’t have it by tomorrow at dinner time, it will be meaningless!”
“Can’t you just buy it online? All the kids do that these days anyways. You’d probably just come in, take half an hour looking and then leave, just like half the people that pass through this damned door.”
“I wanna give her something special! She could order anything online herself! I promise I will buy something if you just let me come in!”
“You must be really desperate to promise to buy something in a dump of a store like mine, especially without even seeing what I have to sell,” he chuckled. “Come in, boy, quickly, before I change my mind.” As the man opened the door, Max could see that he was a dwarf, around a foot shorter than himself, and one of his eyes was bigger than the other.
“Thank you!” Max hurried inside without even thinking.
As soon as he entered the store, the smell of mold filled his nostrils. That was shocking in itself, considering how serious Hydra was about air quality. Once Max recovered from the initial shock, he noticed the store was bigger on the inside than he had originally thought. But that wasn’t what surprised him the most; its interior was so old-fashioned that it could very well be a museum. The mysterious atmosphere made the hair on the back of his neck tingle. There were functional wooden shelves, to Max’s surprise, that seemed to be made of real wood, almost reaching the ceiling, packed with all kinds of exotic items, from porcelain to stuffed monkeys. He would never have expected that such a place even existed in Emporion, it appeared to belong to another era. Of one thing he was certain: If what he was looking for was something unique, he had come to the right place.
As he started to search for a present that would fit Julia’s tastes, he looked at several objects: some handmade totems that seemed to have an African origin, some Persian rugs, and even old paintings of mountains, trees and the sea, in the artistic style that was typical of what used to be Asia. But none of those things were the right present for her. He was starting to regret the commitment he had made with the owner until he saw something promising. The store had a section fully dedicated to rings and jewelry in general, all handmade by people instead of robots. Or at least that was what the signs claimed.
Although these options seemed better than the other items in the store, Max was still having trouble finding something that he thought Julia would like. That was until he saw a golden ring with a pearl as an adornment. Julia loved the sea, even though she had never seen it personally. Max suspected the pearl was either produced by oysters bred in captivity or collected by robots from wild animals, but regardless of which it was, he was in a hurry and running out of options.
“I will take this one,” Max said, putting the ring on the counter.
“Really?” the man seemed shocked but quickly recovered. “I mean, of course! It will cost you a thousand credits.”
“What? You must be kidding me! I bet that’s more than all the rings you have here combined! Five hundred credits sound more than reasonable.” Although Max wanted to give Julia a nice present, he also needed to eat, even though he hadn’t done much of that today.
“But you see, it was handmade! And by human hands, that is! But since I like you, I will let it go for seven hundred credits, but not a single credit less!” It seemed that even though the vendor supposedly didn’t make many sales, he still knew how to negotiate.
“That’s still too expensive! Come on, help me out here!”
“It’s a small price to pay for such a beautiful present! She will be overjoyed! And just ‘cuz I like you, boy, you can choose any jewelry box in the store, for free! And besides, it’s not like you have many other options right now, is it?” The dwarf had a little smirk on his face.
“I guess I will take it, then.” Max felt as if he had just lost yet another battle. He was wondering just how many times he could lose in one day. “Which boxes do you have?”
“That’s what I like to hear, my boy! I’ve got this beautiful mahogany box with hand-drawn images on it,” said the vendor, as he brought it out. It was made of dark wood with rough shapes and symbols all over its surface.
“What else have you got? I don’t think that goes well with the ring.”
“What about this one? It's made by authentic Asian descendants!” The vendor showed him a jewelry box with the image of what seemed to be a geisha, it looked like it was made of porcelain.
“That’s better, but still… I don’t know, I’m not sure if it’s a good fit either.”
“Come on boy, it’s getting late. What do you expect, a jewelry box in the shape of an oyster? I don’t have that!” He seemed to be regretting the decision of offering the jewelry box in the first place.
“What about that one over there? The gray one.” Max pointed at a box that was behind the man, at the height of his head.
“Huh? Oh, that one. Yeah, I forgot about it. It’s ancient, made even before the city. It’s probably worth something, but nobody pays any attention to it. It beats me why. It’s made of a good material, you see, marble!” he said, while putting the box on the counter.
Max wondered why someone would use marble to make a jewelry box, but regardless, he liked its classical design. “I will take it.”
“Great! Finally, I can go home!” said the vendor, as he hastily put both the ring and the box in a shopping bag, and gave Max the usual scanner for him to pay.
“I hear you.” Max could feel how tired he was, as he put his finger on the scanner, and with his fingerprint, the payment was completed in a second.
Once the deed was done, Max left the shop and went directly home. He had forgotten to update X about his arrival, and as a result, his food was cold when he finally got home. However, his hunger had gotten to such a level that he ate it as it was, not even bothering to heat it up.
Before going to sleep, Max sat on his bed to look at the gifts he had just bought. The ring looked even more beautiful with the light of his room reflecting on the pearl. He then opened the jewelry box to put it inside, but the box wasn’t empty.
“Dammit, he sold me a box with trash inside! It’s all dirty, and there’s even a piece of glass in here!” Max removed an uneven piece of glass from the box, wondering who would put that kind of thing in a jewelry box. Had he not been careful, he might have cut his hand.
“It is unsafe to hold a sharp shard like that, Master. Also, I suggest you go to sleep sooner rather than later; it is past eleven hours.”
“You’re right, X. It’s not a big deal; I’ll just clean it tomorrow morning before leaving for work,” Max replied, as he threw the piece of glass back inside the box, put the box and the ring on top of the nightstand, and went to sleep.
“Good night, Master.”
“Good night, X,” Max replied, even though he knew it made no sense to wish a robot good night.
***
As he opened his eyes, Max found himself in an ample room. The floor and ceiling seemed to be made of marble, and there were several Greek columns around him. He couldn’t see very far due to the area’s poor illumination, but he could hear water splashing somewhere. He came to realize that he wasn’t alone for he could hear voices, sometimes whispers, and even laughter at times, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. They were talking in a weird language he didn’t recognize, but he was certain that they were men’s voices.
He ventured through the dark with caution, following the voices. The closer he got, the brighter it became, until he got close enough to notice the source of the voices. There were five men, all of them naked, in a huge pool right in the middle of the room, talking to each other. As he got closer he was sure one of them would spot him, but none of them reacted, so he took the opportunity to study them further.
One of them talked more than the rest. He was the only one with a beardless face, and his neck seemed bent slightly forward, but what caught Max’s attention were the man’s eyes. They were two different colors: one was black as the night, and the other blue as the sky. Maybe it had something to do with his different eyes, but the man had a powerful stare. Max was still analyzing him when he was startled by a voice next to him.
“Do you like what you see? You’ve been staring at him for a while.”
Max then noticed a little girl next to him. What an odd place for a child to be, he thought. She was cute, but unconventional. She had silver hair, which was weird for a child to have, to say the least. Her skin was as pale as a sheet of paper, and Max wasn’t sure whether his eyes were deceiving him, but her eyes seemed purple. It must be a trick of the lights, he convinced himself.
“What is a little girl like you doing here? And how come you speak English and they don’t?” She couldn’t be more than 7 years old, and Max felt weird asking questions of someone so young, but he had so many that it was hard for him to even know where to begin.
“Oh, sorry, you can’t understand, can you? Let me give you a hand with that,” the girl said. She snapped her fingers, and suddenly the men switched from whatever language they were speaking to English.
“And then I charged into the center of the enemy formation. As soon as I met Darius, he thought he had me because he had prepared for it, but of course, I had expected him to be, and had a counter measure: a double phalanx! That broke his center, and he had to flee for his life!” said the man with the mismatched eyes, and all the others started laughing.
Max stepped out of the shadows. Now that he could understand what they were saying, they didn’t seem so threatening. “What’s a phalanx?” he asked, as he got closer. He couldn’t explain it, but that man had something different about him.
But no one answered. Worse than that, nobody even looked at him; he was utterly ignored, and their conversation continued.
“How cute! Are you trying to make friends? They can’t hear you, dummy.”
“Why not? And you still didn’t explain why you’re here; and how did you change their language like that?” Max decided to ignore the brat’s insult.
“Well, I kind of work here. Yeah, I guess you could see it like that,” the girl said, balancing herself on the tips of her toes playfully. It was clear now that she was deliberately choosing which questions to answer and which to ignore.
“So, you’re trying to convince me that a little girl like you works here? What are you in charge of, playing with dolls?” Max was trying to make fun of the obvious lie that the girl had just told him, until he realized something. “Oh my god, are you being kept here against your will? Are they hurting you here?”
“Hurting me? I think you’ve got it wrong.”
“You don’t have to hide it, I can help you! As soon as I find a way out, I will sneak you out with me.” Max was already scanning the room, looking for an exit.
“You don’t understand. Watch: Alexander!” the girl said, now looking at the man with the mismatched eyes, and he instantly looked at her, got up in a hurry, and ran in her direction despite being naked.
As soon as he was just two feet away, he bowed. “Nike! Do you have a message from the gods for me? Or maybe an omen?”
“Yes,” she answered, with a devious smile. “The gods say that the only way for you to win your next battle is to prove yourself worthy. And to do that, you must carry a horse on your back.”
“A horse, you say? I shall do as the gods bid, but I’m not confident of how I could possibly accomplish it.”
“Use your intelligence instead of brute strength, Alexander. But you must do it now.” It was weird for Max to see such a young girl commanding such a big man. He’d had his doubts before, but was sure now that she definitely wasn’t normal.
“Hmm…” Alexander scratched his beardless chin. “Well, a baby horse still counts as a horse, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, a smart idea, just as I expected from you. Just make sure no one sees you. You don’t want to start a rumor that the king is going crazy.”
“I will do it at once, Nike! Thank you for helping me!” Alexander bowed again, and stormed out of the room, still naked and ignoring the cries of the men that had been talking with him before.
“As you can see, I’m fine here. No need to try to sneak me anywhere!” Nike was now looking at Max with a cheeky smile, as if she was purposely not telling him everything.
“Ok, that was weird. Where are we, anyway? And did you just ask a naked man to carry a horse just to make a point? And why can you talk with them, but I can’t?” Max had so many questions that he could barely keep his thoughts straight.
“Do you always ask so many questions? Jeez! We don’t have that kind of time; there’s more to be seen.” And with that, the world around Max shifted, and everything changed.