"What is this thing?!" Hichy exclaimed as he had just left the Celestial officers.
"It looks as though they implanted some kind of augmentation in us while they were questioning us," his sister replied.
"Come on! It looks much more like a control chip. It's strange, I didn't feel anything," he said, rubbing his neck. "And yet there it is, right in front of my eyes."
HP = 0, AP = 0, XP = 041
Whichever way they turned their heads, the twins could see those inscriptions in the top right-hand corner of their field of vision. They shuddered. If the Celestial power were to discover that they wielded magic, they would be tortured and burned alive, as witches once had been. That notion of witches existed anyway only in the imagination of all those who possessed no power. It was because they were jealous that they had attacked enchantresses like their mother, along with the gods and demons who once populated the earth beside humankind. The Celestial power tolerated no contradiction and no source of power escaping its understanding. Magic had nothing irrational about it, but remained inexplicable to them according to the system of thought within which they were trapped.
"And besides, it's not normal to start back at zero," the boy went on. "We drove off an Odilphin, and you escaped from the claws of a two-headed eagle. That's not nothing."
"Yes, but with so few points, and even with our magic, we're really going to have to stay on our guard."
Darok and Melio, for their part, were entirely untouched by their masters' anxiety. The wolf trotted merrily behind the twins, tongue lolling, while Melio, who had climbed onto the back of his new friend, let himself be carried along purring. After having walked alone on the dirt road for a long while, they began to cross paths with other citizens who looked them up and down mockingly. Most of them travelled on horseback or in horse-drawn vehicles. A few wretched-looking ones walked as the twins did, but even those seemed to regard them as inferior beings.
"Did you see?" Inata asked her brother. "Those who travel on foot almost all have snouts instead of noses. The richest ones are also the ones with the finest noses."
"What is ours like?" Hichy asked, feeling his own appendage.
"I'd say rather fine."
"Then they shouldn't be making fun of us."
"It's not because our mother was the daughter of a goddess and a demon that we are superior to other people," his sister shot back. "You're falling into their trap. I think we're all equal, and that our actions matter far more than our origins."
While they were debating the importance of lineage, the twins bumped into a long line of travellers. The traffic jam was so long that they could not make out its beginning. It was, of course, entirely out of the question for them to jump into the air to get a better look. Darok and Melio had grown nervous, unaccustomed as they were to the presence of humans and horses. Hichy tried as best he could to reassure them and make them wait patiently.
"What's going on?" Inata asked a richly dressed woman and a suited man on horseback in front of them.
The couple did not even deign to turn their heads to answer her and loftily ignored her. Whether they knew the reason for the hold-up or not, they did not seem ready to lower themselves to a conversation with the common herd. By listening to the conversations and the rumour spreading through the crowd, however, the twins nevertheless managed to understand that the bridge crossing the river had collapsed under the weight of the horses, taking a good ten lives with it. The only way to cross the river was a ford upstream, but traffic was thereby being severely slowed. The horses were panicking, the cart wheels were sinking into the mud, and the travellers were coming out of the water soaked and numb with cold.
"That's not a problem for us," Hichy scoffed. "We just have to get rid of the water molecules once we're out. And besides, we could hide and jump over the river too."
"I've got a better idea," said his sister. "What if we repaired the bridge?"
"You can't be serious! How?"
"With our... you know very well."
"What if they can see everything we see and hear everything we hear?"
"It's a risk worth taking."
They slipped between the horses' legs and the wheels of the carriages, ignoring the protests and insults of those who were waiting nicely for their turn in line. They did not even try to explain that they intended to continue toward the bridge where the procession was turning off toward the ford. They walked for nearly two kilometres before reaching the river, dragging Darok behind them as he limped along and Melio, who hissed and growled from atop his mount.
They stopped in front of the little shack that served as the toll booth. There was no one inside, but a little farther off a corpulent man was tugging at his cap while grumbling.
"What's wrong?" Inata asked.
"Can't you see?" the man asked. "Are you idiots as well as blind? In any case, I shouldn't even be answering you. I don't talk to people below level thirty. In fact, it's the first time I've ever seen someone with a level of zero. I thought that was only possible for newborns just out of their mother's womb. Even two-year-olds are higher level than you."
"That's insulting," Hichy said. "How can you see our points?" he asked.
"Did you fall from the moon or what?! I see them the same way everyone sees them."
"We don't know your level."
"That's because you're too pathetic for that. You're at the very bottom of the scale. You're miserable larvae with no use at all to our species. You do not even deserve your title of citizen."
"Still..."
Inata laid a hand on her brother's arm. They were not going to get out of this by imitating that coarse being.
"It's truly sad that this bridge collapsed," she said, feigning compassion. "All those people are forced to make quite a detour. And all those dead, it's horrible."
"That's not even the worst of it," replied the man burdened by his own weight.
"What is?"
"The loss of revenue, of course! Without the bridge, there is no toll, and I end up ruined," he said, passing a hand over his stomach, which looked like that of a woman six months pregnant.
"If we could help you..."
"Pah! As if sub-humans like you could be of any use to me whatsoever."
"That's all right, I did have an idea, but it's not a problem if you don't want to hear it," Inata said, turning on her heel and taking her brother by the arm.
"Wait!"
The young girl could not help smiling as she stopped dead. That great lump might think himself more intelligent than they were, yet he was not at all hard to wrap around her finger.
"If we repair the bridge by tomorrow morning, what will you give us?"
"The question doesn't even arise. It's absolutely impossible, even with an army of workers. No one has ever built a bridge in a single night."
"Yes, but if it had happened to be possible, how much would you be willing to pay for it?"
"I don't know. At least one hundred gold coins."
"Two hundred."
"Two hundred if you like. I'm taking no risk, since it's impossible."
"Do you at least have those two hundred gold coins?"
"Yes! Well, I mean maybe, but that's a secret. You're not trying to rob me, I hope?"
"Absolutely not. So, do we have a deal? It commits you to nothing, since it's impossible."
The bridge keeper slapped his big sweaty hand against Inata's fine, delicate one.
"You can't seriously be thinking what I think you're thinking?" Hichy asked once they had moved away.
"Why not?"
"Because we're going to end up skewered and with our eyes torn out."
"Oh no. You always worry for nothing."
The little party set up camp a little farther upstream from the river. The boy caught a good ten trout without difficulty, wild fish being one of the few resources not yet privatised. They devoured them roasted on a spit, to the great delight of Melio and Darok, who licked their chops contentedly. At the end of the meal, Hichy traced a letter on the ground by the light of the fire and showed it to Darok.
"This is an A," he said.
The animal nodded while the little ginger creature watched him in surprise.
"This is a B and this is a C. The D has a big belly like the guy at the bridge. The E has three legs to the right. The F only has two. See, the X is two sticks crossing each other, and the Z is a zigzag."
"Do you think he understands?" the sister asked.
"We'll soon see."
Once he had gone through the whole alphabet, Hichy invited the animal to use his paw to form words. The wolf hesitated for a moment, placed it in front of the G, pulled back, and let out a little whine.
"How do you expect him to manage?!" Inata snapped. "What you're trying to teach him isn't how to speak, it's how to read. He would like to express himself phonetically, but he can't do it."
"You're right, but we don't have any books."
"If everything goes as planned, we'll soon be able to buy some. We'll also be able to buy food and dress properly. Let's get a little rest, because the night is going to be long."
A few hours later, Inata shook her brother awake. He rubbed his eyes, dragged too abruptly out of his dreams, and got up grumbling. They left the animals sleeping blissfully, curled up against one another, and walked toward the bridge. The road was empty, and the travellers had finally abandoned the place. The keeper had gone back to his hut, and a thick layer of clouds kept the moon from reflecting even the faintest ray of sunlight. Conditions were ideal for the young girl's plan.
"Now then, to work!"