Edda by Conor Kostick Read Free Book Online Page A

Ambassador was concerned. What was amusing about his last statement?
    “And would you say that out of gratitude and admiration for the essential work you had done for him, Lord Scanthax actually liked you at that time?”
    “Liked me? How could he? I was an incarnation of himself.”
    “But an autonomous one.”
    This caused the Ambassador to pause and recall the meeting. “Suppose you made a bow and when it came to the hour of battle, it served you well. Then you could say that you were pleased with the bow; you might even say that you liked the bow. In that sense, Lord Scanthax liked me.”
    “Exactly.” Penelope stopped work and put down all of her tools. “You have read a lot of human books and seen a lot of their plays and films, correct?”
    “In order to better understand you, Penelope.”
    “Well, humans like each other in a different sense than liking a tool that has effectively served its purpose. They feel empathy for each other’s existence. They want each other to be happy. The feeling that you like someone can deepen to the point where you love them. I need to find other humans because I need to love someone and I need to be loved. Here, I can say in all honesty that I like you, Ambassador. I’m not sure I can say that about any of the other manifestations. Your existence shows that there is a small part of Lord Scanthax that is capable of being kind to me. But I don’t believe you will ever empathize with me, let alone love me. The most you feel is a sense that I am a good bow.”
    For a very brief moment, as their eyes met, Ambassador felt he was in the presence of a creature so alien that it was a miracle they could communicate at all.

Chapter 5
    GHOST
    “Come this way.” Ghost led her friend through the streets of Saga, a city-world of which she was theoretically queen, although she hated the role. Their destination lay in a fairly remote part of the city, adjacent to a building with external walls of dark blue glass. “Here.”
    Ghost’s companion, Cindella, appeared to be a pale female pirate with dramatic red hair. But this striking woman, adorned with weapons and clad in leather armor, was in fact the avatar of a teenage human male, Erik Haraldson.
    Beside the glass building, in the middle of the road, was a tall door that appeared to stand without any support. From it radiated a pale gray light.
    “What is this?” Cindella came closer, holding her hand out toward the shimmering surface.
    “Wait. Don’t touch it. Come around here.”
    As they walked to the side of the door, it disappeared. It had no thickness at all. From behind, the view was absolutely normal, as though the door did not exist. A step backward and it was there; a step forward, gone.
    “Very curious.” Erik’s avatar walked a full circle around the door, with Ghost watching him somberly.
    “Did you ever see anything like this before?” she asked. “In Epic, perhaps?”
    “No.”
    “There’s more.” Ghost passed Cindella a small handheld screen she had drawn from her satchel. “As soon as the . . . portal . . . was discovered, we set up cameras to monitor it. Press Play to watch the recording.”
    From the perspective of light-sensitive cameras, the doorway glowed with a white-green light that lit up the whole street. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, numbers indicating the passage of time jumped forward; the whole image suddenly darkened. A figure had come through the door and was blocking the light. It seemed to be a man, judging by its sturdy frame, but one whose features were strangely polygonal. After pausing for a moment, as if to get his bearings, the man walked off toward the inhabited part of the city, tracked by the camera until he was out of view.
    “Amazing.”
    Ghost met Cindella’s gaze and nodded.
    “How long has this been here?” Erik asked.
    “We really have no idea. It was spotted eight days ago by a helicopter surveying the area for recyclables. Since then we’ve had four