Interspecies Trader

While we were waiting, a few more people reached the gate room to prepare to leave. Since I had nothing better to do, I continued to ask questions.

“So, this gate goes to dome 8. What about the other one?”

However, the guard seemed to get annoyed with my queries.

“Enough with the questions. It’s not my job to entertain you.”

Her colleagues spoke next.

“Don’t say that, Lis. She’s still young, and being curious about things is good.”

“Hmph.”

She turned toward me while smiling gently.

“The other gate goes to dome 93.”

“Thank you. What about the broken one?”

“It was linked to dome 71.”

“So, each dome is normally linked to three other domes?”

“That’s correct, except for the ten main domes. Each of them is linked to twelve domes. For example, dome 8 is linked to all the domes numbered in the 80s, plus dome 7 and dome 9.”

“Ah… I see the pattern now.”

“It’s simple, right? The gate network was created to allow anyone to travel to any destination. It still works even if some of the gates break… At least for now.”

“It’s well-thought. Very impressive.”

It was nothing compared to the network in my world but a bit of praise didn’t cost me anything. Not that it was bad anyway. It was indeed great that they managed to hold it in place for so long. The kind guard grinned again and we continued chatting while waiting for the rotation’s time to arrive.

Soon enough, no one came out of the gates anymore. The guards waited for a couple of minutes more while monitoring their watches before turning to us and shouting.

“Gate 8 is ready! Come forward and line up here if it’s your destination.”

“Gate 93 is ready too!”

I lined up as instructed after saying goodbye to the guards while people and goods started to enter the gate. When it was my turn, I shivered a little and hoped nothing would happen this time. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. I crossed the gate, experiencing the very familiar feeling, and arrived in a much larger space than where I came from.

The gate room in dome 8 was several times larger, with a lot of bustle, people, goods, and noise all around. The number of guards was also impressive, together with their ranks. I could see many rank 6 mages and sorcerers here, who were no doubt some of the strongest people among humanity.

As I looked around, I saw the twelve gates, or more exactly, ten active and two broken ones. As expected, the network was slowly losing its integrity everywhere. I was quickly ordered to move forward to give room to the next people and was soon surrounded by a new group of guards. The language used here was different from the one in 82 and everyone was using sel on their ears to ease communication.

They checked my ticket and my planned trip before directing me toward another gate. I wished I could take the time to explore the dome but I wasn’t allowed to do this. Fortunately, the gate I had to use was already opened in the correct direction and I soon moved toward the next dome.

Just like that, it took me around one hour and a half to reach my destination after using several more gates, sometimes directly, sometimes after a bit of waiting. There, I was finally allowed to go out of the gate room. The guards destroyed my ticket and pointed me toward the exit, which I promptly did.

After climbing a lot of stairs, I reached the main floor of dome 6’s city hall, which was also quite bigger than the one in 82. I put myself in a queue for one of the counters. It didn’t take too long before I was in front of one of the public servants, who was also constantly using sel, maybe due to handling so many foreigners.

“Hello. I just came from dome 82 and I’m looking for a pharmacy. Could you indicate one?”

“Of course. The largest pharmacy from here is just a few minutes away. When you exit the city hall, go left for about two hundred meters. Then, turn right and it’ll be in front of you.”

“Thank you very much.”

Now that was easy. However, as I went out of the city hall, I was surprised by the dome’s size. It was hard to judge since I was surrounded by buildings but, just from its curvature, it was probably two times larger than the one in 82, if not more. This meant that the surface area was at least four times more consequent, which also implied that the dome could support four times the population. If dome 82 had fifty thousand inhabitants, dome 6 should have around two hundred thousand. This probably applied to the other main domes too.

The architecture and fashion of the people on the street were also different, together with the temperature. It was colder here than in 82, making me ponder whether I had moved a bit north or a lot south. Or the reverse, depending on which hemisphere of the planet 82 was located. I wished I had access to a world map, if such a thing existed.

Unlike the buildings in 82, which were made with a mix of whatever materials residents had on their hand at the time, the ones in 6 were more uniform, made of mostly white stone and having more floors overall. As for the people, they also wore warmer clothes, creating a strong contrast with the lightly clothed folks in 82 and Geola.

I followed the civil servant’s instructions, and just like she said, I was there in no time. The building had two stories and it was popular. Many women were going in and coming out, making it a bustling place. Inside was the same, with many employees handling the large number of customers.

I once again put myself at the end of a line and waited for my turn. When it arrived, I faced a woman sporting a perfect professional smile, the type that made me want to employ her in one of my future stores. She saw me having sel around my ears and did the same on her side.

“Welcome. What can I do for you, young lady?”

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