The Applicant Read online

  #

  Oodrosil stretched its pine-like leaves up to the sun, always thankful for the life that Sigela, the Fire Dragon provided to the earth. Even though Sigela was trapped and effectively banished from ever being one with the planet itself, she still had her place, and Oodrosil was always pleased to feel her warmth on its branches.

  The mighty yew also was very happy this morning because it always enjoyed when new people came to visit. Oodrosil liked sensing their surprise and often their joy when they looked upon the gigantic yew for the first time. No matter how far humans evolved, a powerful tree could still humble and calm all but the most arrogant of the species.

  The three visitors this morning were of particular interest to the great tree. Oodrosil stretched its branches out, almost tasting the air as it flowed around them. There was something odd left behind in the wake of the visitors, and the yew tree was certain that one of the visitors was not who he or she was pretending to be. Oodrosil could sense power that was already realized—the kind of power that could only reside in a Drayoom—one of the direct descendants of Abred from the time of creation. A Drayoom was not nearly as powerful as a dragon, but compared to humans, the species possessed vast and myriad powers. They understood how the world really worked, and they could manipulate the magical energy that was present in the elemental forces of the world. Above all, they could speak the creation languages of the dragons, and that made any Drayoom very dangerous. Whichever one of them it was, he or she had done an effective job of masking their energy signature, making it impossible for even Oodrosil to accurately pinpoint which of the three guests was the infiltrator. And that concerned Oodrosil the most. If a Drayoom with this level of craft was here, it could only mean that one of the families had found Ohman, and that Oodrosil’s home among the humans was no longer safe.

  2

  When Cara had said that she wanted to talk about magic, Chris thought she was speaking metaphorically. He figured it was time to hear another pitch about how chemistry and finding the right fit between an employee and his employer was so very important.

  “I know you three are here because you think we conduct the latest and greatest artificial intelligence research around, and that is absolutely true…in a sense, at least. But what we at Rune Corp are doing is beyond any AI you’ve ever heard about or even read about, except perhaps in science fiction books. I always find it difficult bridging this gap for the first time with people, so I think it would be better if you just watch for a second instead.”

  Cara leaned forward, plucked the wooden sphere up off of the plastic table, and held it in the palm of her hand.

  “Observe,” she said.

  Cara opened her mouth as if to speak. But instead of words, an inhumanly low series of noises and tones poured from her mouth—like the sounds of heavy dirt being dropped from a steam shovel onto a hard ground. Chris felt, more than heard, Cara’s words as vibrations in his gut in much the same way he had experienced the security announcement earlier when he had first entered the Rune Corp building.

  As soon as Cara intoned her sounds, the wooden ball slowly rose and floated in the air several inches above her hand.

  Chris raised an eyebrow, inadvertently searching for the wire that must have been holding up the piece of wood. He casually looked all around the cube and, finding nothing, he turned to each of the other candidates. Neither of them met his gaze. David seemed to be almost afraid, whereas Natalie surprisingly looked almost angry, but both of them were focused on the floating sphere of wood in front of them.

  “What are you showing us?” Natalie said.

  “This is very unusual,” David said, speaking over Natalie, as he fidgeted in his chair.

  Cara stood up and paced around the room while the ball remained suspended in mid-air.

  “What you are seeing is not a trick. It is actually magic or as close to it as you will find in this world. Those sounds you heard come out of my mouth a minute ago—those were words from the Earth Dragon tongue. And yes, there are actually dragons. And, no, they do not have scales and fly around breathing fire and terrorizing people. They are elemental forces, and there are four of them. There is Terrada, the Earth Dragon, Sigela, the Fire Dragon, Araki, the Wind Dragon, and Lagu, the Water Dragon. Each of them has been around since the beginning of the universe, or the Manred as we call it. And to be clear, this is not my religion. This is not a myth, and I am not crazy. The dragons are real. They exist. My father and I are from the Earth Clan, and we, for lack of a better term, worship Terrada, the Earth Dragon.”

  Cara paused and looked at the three candidates, paying special attention, it seemed, to Natalie. Each of them remained silent.

  “However,” she continued, “a very, very long time ago, Terrada and her siblings withdrew the understanding of their creation languages that they had given to us, and we have been playing catch up ever since, trying to rediscover and rebuild the lost lexicons of the dragons.”

  Cara sat back down in her chair. The gazes of the three candidates tracked her with precision, but still no one spoke.

  “So that’s what we are doing here,” Cara said. “Each dragon has its own creation language. Each language is comprised of the words that were used to create this universe and that are still used to govern it and to call on the powers of its elements today. And we here at Rune Corp are combining modern day science with good old-fashioned magic to speed up the rediscovery process of the dragon words.”

  “Words?” Natalie finally said.

  “Well, not words in the way you would normally think of them. Humans can’t even hear most of the words that are used around them every day by the trees, the wind, storms, etcetera. But just because you can’t hear them doesn’t mean that the words aren’t there nonetheless.”

  “You’re trying to reconstruct the lost languages…from dragons?” Chris said, trying not to smile.

  Cara nodded.

  “Well, actually,” Cara said, “we’re just working on reconstructing Terrada’s language here.”

  “Ridiculous,” Natalie said. “I can’t believe…that you’re wasting our time with all of this.”

  Cara leaned back in her chair.

  “Go ahead,” Cara said. “Test the sphere. Look for wires. Try to keep the ball on the ground—to keep it from floating. Look for motors or miniature fans keeping it afloat—that’s my favorite explanation that people use to explain this. Give it all you’ve got, and when you’re left with no other possible answer, you will see that my explanation is all you have. We do live in a world where magic exists. There are dragons, just not the kind you’re used to hearing about. And I am not human. I am one of Terrada’s children. Half human and half Drayoom.”

  “Half Drayoom?” David said quietly.

  “Yes,” Cara said. “My father is Drayoom, and my mother was human.”

  David sneered at Cara’s answer.

  “And that’s why you can make those strange noises?” Chris said.

  Cara just nodded again.

  “I have extra vocal folds that allow me to intonate up to four sounds simultaneously. Very similar to the Tuvan throat singers who have trained themselves to mimic an extra vocal fold when they perform their traditional songs. What you just heard was me speaking the creation name for that particular type of wood along with the word of doing that means to float.”

  “Is this a psych test?” David said. “Are you trying to see how easily our minds snap under pressure or how susceptible we are to scams?”

  Cara smiled slightly and sighed.

  “There is a sphere of wood floating in front of you—something you cannot explain. I am simply introducing you to a concept so out of touch from your normal frame of reference that your brain isn’t even willing to accept it enough to consider it fully. I urge you to let go of your preconceptions and trust your senses instead.”

  Chris leaned forward and waved his hand beneath the suspended piece of wood. Nothing. No strings. He did the same above the spher
e and all around it. There were no wires or strings anywhere. He tentatively poked the ball with his finger, and the piece of wood moved forward until Cara gently nudged it back to hover over the center of the table.

  Natalie was next. She stood up and pressed down on the top of the sphere, like she was palming a small basketball. She easily pushed the sphere down until it sat on the table. As soon as Natalie removed her hand, the piece of wood rose into the air once again.

  David didn’t do anything. He just sat there looking pensive, as if he was having a hard time grasping the whole experience.

  “I can and will show you more, but first, let’s get on with the interviews.” Cara said. “Natalie, you’re up first.”

  Cara opened a door that led into an adjacent room and motioned Natalie to enter. Natalie reluctantly got up from her chair and entered the interview room. Cara turned back to Chris and David.

  “Please don’t leave this room. If you need anything, you can ask me in between interviews. Each of you should take about a little over half an hour.

  Cara closed the door behind her, and Chris turned to David with a quizzical look on his face.

  “What do you think? Maybe it is a psych test?”

  David swallowed hard and seemed nervous as he smacked his lips together unconsciously.

  “You may be correct. This may be a test of some sort. The whole magical story is obviously not true, so there must be another logical explanation for that,” David said, pointing to the levitating wooden sphere. “I’m leaning toward nano-tech. There could easily be nano fans all along the surface of the sphere, blowing air out, creating a cushion of wind for it to float on. I think they want to see how flexible our minds are when presented with the incredible. I’m sure that our reactions are just part of the interview.”

  Chris took his two hands and cupped them together. He placed them under the wooden ball.

  “I don’t feel anything. No air. Wouldn’t the thing change position if I put my hands this close to a bunch of nano fans?” asked Chris.

  David just continued to stare at the sphere.

  “Let’s pretend there is this thing called magic that does exist,” Chris said. “I don’t see why it’s not possible that these people, the Drayoom, have stumbled onto some new branch of science—maybe even alien tech. Maybe they’re working for the government. If this is classified government work, that would explain all the high security. What’s that saying about any significantly advanced technology being indiscernible from magic? That’s what I’m leaning towards here.”

  Chris paused, sizing up the impact of his next statement.

  “And listen,” Chris said. “I know we’re all competing for this job, but now I really hope I get it. I bet this company gives its employees some amazing toys to play with.”

  “I’m not going to lose my mind over this just yet. I’m looking forward to hearing what Cara says in the interview,” David said. “This has got to be some kind of trick enabled by science, maybe artificial intelligence like she was talking about earlier. There’s really no other explanation.”

  “OK,” Chris said. “I guess we’ll find out more in our interview. Maybe there’s an AI program sending remote commands wirelessly to the sphere somehow. I don’t know, but like I said, whatever’s going on here is definitely cool.”

  Chris and David didn’t say much else to each other while Natalie was in the interview room. Both mainly stared for long periods of time at the floating wooden ball in front of them. In a little over half an hour, just as Cara had promised, the door opened up, and Natalie stepped out, looking a bit dazed, but not as angry as before.

  “Your turn,” was all she said, as she indicated Chris.

  Chris stood up and straightened his suit coat. He was looking forward to being locked in a room with someone as hot as Cara, even if she did claim to be only half human. He stuck out his chest slightly, squared his shoulders, and walked inside, closing the door behind him.