Nicholas Greyer, the Anti-Hero

Chapter 5

Chapter 5
The City Under the Sea

It was almost exactly thirteen minutes that it took the trio to arrive after Reginald Luther had said so. It would have taken exactly as much, had the traffic at the top of the TAS been better, or so Reginald explained.

"The TAS is always busy, but it seems exceptionally so today. I presume it is because news has already broken, and people are desperate to rubberneck their way around. Pay them no mind, Mr. Greyer. As, you will find pretty soon that you dislike their reasoning. At last, we've arrived!"

Reginald Luther did not explain what TAS stood for, but Nicholas assumed it was some acronym for the travel through the entire planet they just took. He still felt relatively sick, and he smelt of sweat and smoke and dirt. He also smelt a bit like the pizza from his car.

When they arrived, Nicholas almost forgot to be angry that he had not clue what was going on and why he had been kidnapped. For he could see nothing outside of beautifully sculpted skyscrapers, the colorful bubbles containing children floating around happily while avoiding other floating bubbles that formed a line going to a network of tubes that all reached high into the sky above all of the other buildings where Nicholas saw there was a dome. The entire city was inside of a dome. He could see the tubes branching out and reaching into other domes, some miles away. He thought he saw a mountain inside one, and an entire beach inside another.

Somewhere, sunlight seemed to be lighting up the entire dome, but Nicholas did not get a chance to see where. He only got a few more quick glimpses at this domed city, the interesting clothes and magical shop names, and the large crowd that began forming around them before a silk scarf was quickly placed above his eyes.

"Sorry, Nicholas, but it's a necessary precaution...apparently," Reginald Luther said, while tying the scarf with a quick jerk. "Honestly, I don't quite understand all the hubbub. That's the wizarding community for you. Always afraid of anything risky. Ah, appears I've said too much," he said, as Nicholas heard a hissing cat.

Despite the scarf he could still hear the wonderful noises, and wondered at what they could be. The whooshing that sounded like a t-shirt cannon, could it be the tube network he had seen at work? The bells ringing, could it be to the shops? He desperately wanted to see, but decided to pay more attention to his steps, as he had begun tripping over himself.

"If you're a wizard," Nicholas began speaking. "If you're a wizard, why couldn't you just magically blind me and take me to where ever you wanted to go?"

Reginald Luther chuckled. "Well, magical blindness isn't exactly painless, but if you do insist."

Nicholas stopped and held up his hands in defense, and Reginald burst into laughter.

The shop next to them smelled like meat and cotton candy, and Nicholas decided all wizards must have some sick sense of humor.

"Oi, whatcha got there, a harlet nescius? Aint'cha know they got laws here about them kind?" A gruff man's voice called from nearby, causing a series of voices to mumble their agreement.

Reginald's laughter stopped abruptly. "Even if this was a nescius, what makes you think I've brought him as a Harlet, Yoric? What have I done to have that reputation follow me to your ears? Hmm? I'm not a fairy, you brute. I'm a wizard. I don't go around passing of nescius people as harlets."

A short silence followed in which only the sounds of the city could be heard. Then, Reginald ushered him forward once again, and they set off.

"Then, what is he then?" one of Yoric's posse called behind them.

"That's for the Council to know, and you to hopefully never find out," Reginald said, dully, clearly too tired of the conversation to give much effort.

"Is he that dangerous," they asked, clearly not so easily appeased.

"As dangerous as Atlas," he laughed.

"What's that mean?!" Yoric called back.

"It means that it's not for you to know, with your small little minds and your silly little rumors. Now, hush up, before I sick the Councilmen hounds on you," Reginald said, as he lost his gentlemanly demeanor.

Nicholas wondered if what Reginald had responded as a joke had been more than a joke, and what a nescius was. More so, what a nescius harlet was. He guessed it was some sort of prostitute, but didn't want to make too many assumptions. Still, he was sure that it had to be that, as they were speaking plain English, and so he decided that he could add that to the few assumptions he made that day.

They walked for a long ways, with Nicholas asking where they were going and how much longer only half as much as an ill behaved toddler in a car on the way to visit his grandparents three states away during the Christmas holiday. Reginald Luther managed to remain cool-headed longer than he had around the group of rubberneckers earlier, but still did not give him many answers.

The sound of the tube system, the TAS as Reginald Luther had called them, had dulled after about thirty minutes, but it began to get louder yet again. Nicholas took that as a sign that he was about to be sucked into one of those tubes and pass out again. He heard a popping noise and the sound was muffled all around them, so he assumed they were in one of the clear bubbles he had seen before.

"Away we go," Reginald called, gripping Nicholas' shoulder once again. Instead of feeling intense and burning hot as the travel had before, it felt more like being sucked up a straw very, very quickly.

However, he did still lose consciousness, as being sucked up a straw never did feel quite nice.