Nail - A Short Story (2 page)

Zell looks to Ralic with a disgusted
grimace across most of his face— though one eyebrow betrays that
he’s impressed with the boy’s wit. “Funny, spirit. It’s that very
same thinking that makes you the wanderer.” The two walk to the
central plaza, well-lit with dreaming lanterns and a couple of
children playing. “Tell me, you’ve come here to steal our secrets,
haven’t you?”

Ralic smirks as the two sit at a bench.
“No, no I haven’t.”

“
But you have.”

“
No; I’m actually just here
on behalf of my village.”

Zell squints. “Again, you don’t need to
act like your spirit village is real; the elder’s stories cross
time and tell us all about the outside world.”

“
The outside
world?”

“
Yes, a land of mists and
nothingness— where ideas alone exist, and all of them dangerous.
That’s why the elder built the wall with our ancestors generations
and generations ago.”

Ralic leans his head forward. “So…
You’re saying you people have never been outside the
walls?”

Zell smiles. “That’s right, we’ve never
exited the true world.”

Ralic looks about the long
workshops and forges, bustling with industry, and then he jolts.
“So, you’ve never been
above
ground?
”

“
If you mean to say The
Spirit World, yes, only the elder is allowed to traverse the
place.”

Ralic hums. “You’ve never been
curious?”

“
When I was a boy, yes; but
the tunnel guard of that time stopped me, just as I stop the young
ones of this generation.”

“
Ahh, yeah, and I guess it
would be hard to find the ladder in pitch black.”

“
Indeed. Not one human has
gone to The Spirit Realm a single time. We are a proud and wise
race, thanks to the elder.”

Ralic bites his lip. “So, this elder…
an old person?”

Zell nods with pride, understanding
that Ralic is an enemy, but still pleased to tell him all about his
society. “Very old.”

Ralic squints in perception. “It must
be a few hundred years old, if not more.”

“
Yes, and
he
is of great power— a
man of incredible wisdom.”

Ralic squints a bit more. “I see… I
suppose you don’t find that strange?”

“
Of course not. He is
miraculous just as we are with our creations.”

Ralic sighs. “I’ve been a bit curious.
Just what are these secrets of yours?”

Zell hums in thought and then nods with
a grin. “About time you asked, spirit. As I’m certain the elder
won’t let you live after discovering the town, I feel it is fair to
show you all that we have.”

Ralic scoffs nervously. “Yeah,
alright.”

Zell’s positively beaming as he gets up
and leads Ralic along. “This way, spirit,” he says as he takes
Ralic into a separate cavern.

As they pass through the town, Ralic
notices an over-crowded house, busy with the sounds of sickness and
sorrow coming through.

“
What’s this?” Ralic
asks.

Zell looks aside, curious at first— but
his expression sours the second he sees what Ralic is looking at.
“This is the sick house… We have many of them. The elder has told
us that it’s a lack of a certain kind of light that makes them
sick, so we are moving at full speed to create a light that will
cure them.”

Ralic raises a brow. “Like,
sunlight?”

Zell scoffs. “I’m certain that whatever
your ‘sun’ is, Spirit, that it cannot cure these people.” The two
stand at a nervous attention as they peer in at the dozens of sick.
“The elder says that it is something we must invent, something that
only we can do… We all have the symptoms.”

“
Of the lightless sickness?”
Ralic asks.

Zell nods. “We… we don’t
know why only some of us get it to the point of collapsing and
death, while others are fine. I am told by the elder that it is
worse this generation than any before; only half of us have the
strength to work… it’s a desperate struggle, one we’ve been
fighting for generations… but we’re close… I
was
afraid that we wouldn’t win the
battle, but we’ve made a great stride.” Zell smiles. “Yes, we’re
close. This way.” Zell pushes Ralic onward into the forging
cavern.

This cavern is bigger than
the town; while the town with all its shanties are where the people
of the town live, this bright, brilliant cavern is where they work.
Ralic stops in his tracks with a look of pure awe. Unfolding in
front of him are at least a hundred men and women. Some use forges
to smelt ore, much like Qetaine— but
these
forges are longer, more complex,
and much, much hotter. There are rotating wheels where artisans
spin a clay mixture into useful pots, bowls, and other objects.
Sand, clay, wood, glass, bronze, iron, steel and more are being
shaped and materialized in front of Ralic. Unlike Qetaine’s
hard-working but mostly unskilled craftsmen, the people here have
golden touches under the golden light of the dozen furnaces lining
the great hall of industry. What is beyond Ralic’s comprehension,
however, is the use of all the many objects they’re creating.
Chests with small, complex hinges— stoves, heaters, complex
furnishings, full dressers, hinged things, pivoting things, and all
manner of inventions that Ralic’s never once witnessed.

“
By the word…”

Zell laughs. “Now just tell
me if your
outside world
has anything like this!”

“
Well, no. This is…
incredible.”

Zell nods in satisfaction. “You’re damn
right, spirit. You may mock us for living ‘underground’ as you say,
but we’re worlds above you!” He tugs Ralic over to a man-sized
device with a wooden crank and a strange, glass bulb. “Behold,
progress toward the cure!” Zell cranks the wooden wheel proudly as
Ralic looks on in curiosity. After a few seconds, the filament in
the bulb begins to take on a glorious luminescence.

Ralic inhales sharply. “You
guys can make
light?!
”

Zell laughs again as he stops cranking,
causing the bulb to go dark. “It’s good fun to have something that
doesn’t know about the greatness of human engineering. With our
knowledge of the mathematic code, we can make precise measurements
and calculations so accurate that we can guarantee if an invention
will work or not!”

“
Mathematic
code?
” Ralic asks, assuming it’s just some
creed for work ethic or something.

Zell shakes his head with a shrug.
Almost like a father to a son, Zell explains mathematics to Ralic.
He tells him about the value of the number zero, and explains that
by using a uniform system of measurement, they can achieve a level
of physical accuracy impossible to achieve otherwise. All the while
Ralic’s eyes widen more and more. He knew counting was important,
but this is life-changing.

“
You see, spirit. All things
can be measured. There is nothing that exists that
cannot.”

Ralic nods, completely dumbfounded as
he processes the information. It takes him a few seconds, but he
looks up. “This would make an incredible book.”

This time, it’s Zell that looks
confused. “Book?”

Ralic turns his gaze to Zell. “Uh,
yeah, like I said. You know, paper bound into a volume of
knowledge.”

Zell hums, doing his best to avert his
eyes. “Ahh, yes… Books. I have indeed heard of these from the
elder, I do believe.”

Ralic smirks. “You know what writing
is, don’t you?”

Zell clenches his teeth. “One of your
spirit tricks, no doubt.”

Ralic’s smirk grows to a smile as he
sees Zell faltering in embarrassment. “A town that knows so much of
engineering, but so little of writing— incredible.”

“
The only good things come
from within the true world, spirit— so I can’t say I’m interested
in your spirit ideas.”

Ralic crosses his arms.
“What if I told you there is a way to store information, knowledge,
and wisdom
indefinitely
?”

Zell laughs. “We’ve been over this— I
would say it is but a spirit fantasy.”

“
Time to make some paper,
then. ....
damn
,
but it’ll take awhile.”

Zell raises a brow. “Paper,
spirit?”

“
Lumber pressed down so it
can be written on.”

Zell points over to a far corner of the
cavern holding a stack of wood gathered and preserved ages ago by
the elder. “Like these?”

Ralic nods. “Precisely like
that.”

“
We could… We could press it
with the fall hammer!”

“
The fall wha-”

Ralic’s words are drawn out by a deep,
deep thud, ringing through all the hall. A giant, chain-lifted
weight has just been dropped onto a hunk of molten steel— pounding
it to an obedient plate-shape on impact. Ralic smiles. “We can work
with this.”

Chapter 3

An hour passes of mixing, pressing, and
other various paper-making activities. Before long, the first page
is ready; Ralic takes up some of the night-black coal used for the
forges. By this time, Zell and 'the spirit' have drawn quite a
crowd of jeering spectators— everyone interested in what Ralic has
to show them, though all of them doing their best to look
uninterested and suspicious.

“
Alright, now see, everyone.
You can store knowledge like this. From my town we have something
called ‘the alphabet’ which is used to compile singular sounds—
like this one, ‘A’ –into full words. See the following.” Amidst
gasps of both awe and shame in that they hadn’t thought of it,
Ralic spells out the word 'achievement' using his alphabet. “So, by
knowing the alphabet, you can sound out the words that the letters
create— thus making a full, spoken word.” He keeps writing and
speaking, as no one wants to stop him. “You compile these words
into sentences and, with punctuation, you can create coherent
sentences much like the ones we speak.”

“
So why is this useful?” A
young man asks, trying to appear worldly by questioning the spirit.
Everyone looks at the young man like he’s crazy, and Ralic
laughs.

“
There are no bad questions,
so long as you’re truly curious. This thing, called writing, will
let you all pass your wisdom to your children forever more. Pages
with sentences like these can be used to tell them anything— much
easier than instructing each one individually; all you need to do
is write the book, and they’ll do the learning on their
own.”

There’s a long silence of
awe as Ralic finishes his explanation. It’s as if an entirely new
form of knowing things to them, a revolution of thought. Zell just
stares on at the pages, his mind racing with the new possibilities.
“So…” he starts, “so… if concepts like your letters are represented
here… would that mean that…
any
concept could be given a symbol?”

Ralic squints an eye in thought, caught
off-guard by the question. “You know…” Ralic comes to a nod. “Yeah!
Yeah, anything can be represented with a symbol.”

Zell and Ralic look to each other in a
blazing moment— there’s a kinship born between the two of them as
they both imagine the same thing. “Numbers can be given symbols in
writing, then,” Zell says. “… So we can teach our children the very
paramount of our knowledge… yes, and symbols for adding,
subtraction, multiplication— yes! This idea is… Spirit, this is an
idea from… outside?” Zell asks as hushed gasps flow through the
great hall.

Ralic nods. “Yes. I’m
telling you all. I’m from a town with people much like you. We are
a town that knew of writing, and you are a town that knows of these
numbers. We should
unite!
Just come with me and I’ll show you everything!
You just need to trust me!” He says.

A fearful, curious murmur breezes about
the crowd. Zell crosses his arms, looking sternly at Ralic.
“Spirit… this knowledge is obviously great… perhaps as great as our
numbers and our craftsmanship… but you are from the outside, and
the elder says that The Spirit Realm is where only lies come
from.”

Ralic straightens himself, realizing
the playing field of respect has just leveled. “Your elder has lied
to you.” He says, gaining a chorus of gasps and disgust. “Think
about it. If what he said is true, I would speak no truth; but I
have instead shared this idea with you that you can now keep
forever. I ask you, let me share more with you, and I’ll ask you to
share more with me. I’m no spirit, I’m no pretender; I am human,
like you— searching for knowledge hidden among the folds in our
world. Let me show you, please! If you go to the surface, and
you’re not satisfied, then you can kill me!”

The young man from before smirks. “He
sounds confidant.”

Zell hisses under his breath with many
of the others. He knows that Ralic’s request is more than
reasonable— but to defy the elder… “Spirit…” Zell’s breathing picks
up as he searches Ralic’s face, and presents his hand. Ralic takes
Zell’s hand and they hold clasped for a short, deep moment. “You
must be human, you certainly must be like us… But the elder has
done nothing against us. He is a man among men— a true leader and
caretaker.”