by Randy Nargi
“Tomorrow morning I can have three high-level teams at whatever dungeon you guys left off at. We will dominate it.”
“That sounds great, but Chad, to be honest, I’m still a little messed up about what happened to my sister and Lazarus and all of my friends. Plus everything that just went down… I just need some time, you know?”
“Absolutely. We can talk again tomorrow morning. You want to do brunch? There’s a bunch of people I’d like you to meet. And I know Zoë would want to get to know you… for real…”
“We will definitely take you up on that. Brunch tomorrow. Where should we meet?” Pari asked, knowing full well that she intended to be far away from Rathenhall by tomorrow.
They made some plans and then she and Justin took off.
“Don’t say a word,” she told Justin under her breath. “Until I tell you it’s okay.”
“What?”
“Shhhh!”
They left the Hawks’ tower and made their way back up the hill to the Wood and Silence manor house.
“Okay, now it’s safe,” Pari said.
“What was that all about?”
“I’m pretty sure that some of his enchanters have extended senses.”
“What’s that?”
“A spell that lets them see and hear over long distances. It’s good for spying. I forget the exact range, but we should be okay here.”
“So you really want to join the Hawks?”
“I don’t know,” Pari said. “If Chad was sincere, I’d think about it. But he might just be using me to get to you.”
“No way!”
“Way. I told you that sages are in demand, and I think he suspects that you’re like a magnet for unusual stuff.”
“How does he know I’m the magnet? Maybe it’s you.”
“Maybe it’s the both of us.” She looked into his eyes and they didn’t say anything for several moments. And then Justin looked away shyly.
“Anyway, I just feel that we’re close with this Iron Veil thing and I want to see where that leads. I mean, those assassins were definitely using extreme measures to get info. It must be really important.”
“I think you’re right,” Justin said. “I think it is very important.”
When they entered the manor house, they saw a half dozen workmen repairing the back wall in the main hall.
Pari was relieved to find Mr. Darrow alive and well and supervising the repair work.
“Ah, there you are, Mistress Pari. I’m afraid we had a bit of a robbery attempt here yesterday, but not to worry, Cal Menzies and his boys here are on the job. Should be back to new in a day or so.”
“That’s good news, Mr. Darrow, thank you. I hope none of the other staff was… uh… affected by this robbery attempt.”
“Mrs. Lawson slept through the whole thing, bless her heart. Torie was at her mother’s flat, and Mr. Tate was on the road when it happened, but he’s back now from Holgate with Milly as you requested. Mr. Klothar will be pleased to know that Tate found his horses as well. They’re all being tended to in the stables.”
“Excellent, Darrow. I’ll speak to Tate myself in a bit.”
“Very good, mistress.”
“In the meantime, please let Torie know that I’ll be needing a bath. Justin too.”
“Main baths?”
“Yes, we’re pressed for time, so that would be quickest. We’ll be up soon.”
“As you wish, mistress.”
Once Darrow had left the hall, Pari told Justin “A quick bath to wash the blood off and then we’re off, okay?”
“Works for me.”
“We’re going to need to stick together. I don’t want to take any more chances with Mariel and that other guy still out there.”
Justin nodded. “It sounds like Klothar hasn’t come back. I’m getting worried.”
“Me too.”
They went out to the stables, where Tate was brushing down the horses, and told the farmhand that they would be taking Milly and another mare, Breeze, out within the hour.
Next Pari led Justin upstairs to the bathing chamber where Torie had almost finished filling one of the big wooden tubs.
“You weren’t kidding,” Justin said. “This really is like a hot tub.”
“Yes, there’s a cistern on the roof and some sort of magic that heats the water. No whirlpool jets, but it gets the job done. Now turn around.”
Justin complied and Pari stripped off her blood-stained clothes. “We don’t have time for separate baths, so I hope you’re not bashful.”
“Ummm…”
She slipped into the warm bath. It felt amazing.
“I added the lavender oil, ma’am,” Torie said. “Just like you like.”
“Thank you.” Then to Justin she said, “What are you waiting for?”
She turned her head towards Torie to give Justin some privacy while he stripped off his clothes.
“Torie, can you check Tolman’s wardrobe to see if there is anything there that might fit Justin? We have to depart very soon.”
“Yes, ma’am. But won’t you need me to attend you?”
“I’ll be fine.”
The lady’s maid nodded and left the bathing chamber. Justin eased himself into the water. He was as red as a beet but trying to play it cool.
“It’s amazing that the game has stuff like this… amenities,” Justin said.
“Yeah.”
Pari couldn’t help but notice Justin’s skinny bod. It didn’t really do anything for her, but some people might find him attractive.
“Man, this is nice,” he said.
She tossed a washcloth at his face mischievously.
“Hey!”
“Get cleaning, we need to take off soon.”
He started scrubbing himself. “I have like an inch thick of dirt on me.”
“Me too.”
“So what’s the plan?” he asked.
“I’m thinking we should check out those coordinates just outside of town. It won’t take long and I want to know what the green marker means.”
“Then Holgate?”
“I guess.”
They washed for a few minutes in silence. Then Justin asked, “You really think those assassins were game devs?”
“It would explain a lot.”
“I know, but there are still a few things about it that don’t make sense.”
“Like what?”
“The whole Iron Veil thing. I mean, if they were devs wanting to have fun ganking players, why go on a quest? Why interrogate people? It was like there was something they needed to find out. It was a big deal to them.”
Justin had a point. When you thought about it, devs would know all the quests and riddles of the game. These guys seemed to be on the same quest as she and Justin.
“I think you’re right,” she said. “Now turn around. I’m getting out.”
Torie was able to find some clothes that weren’t too loose on Justin. While he was getting dressed, Pari went back to her room and grabbed Iniya’s wooden plaque she had hidden on top of the wardrobe. Thank god no one had found it. After getting dressed herself, Pari met Justin, and they went downstairs to the kitchen where Mrs. Lawson packed them a lunch. Then they set off.
It took them less than twenty minutes to find the location marked on the map, but when they arrived, the only thing there was a boulder carved with some arrows.
“Are you sure this is it?” Pari asked.
Justin held the phone up. “See for yourself.”
“I believe you.” She ran her fingers along the boulder. It stood about five feet tall and had three arrows carved into the stone. One pointed roughly west, one pointed northwest, and the last one pointed to the northeast.
“Roads,” Justin muttered, still hunched over the phone.
“What?”
“According to this, these arrows point in the directions of roads leaving Rathenhall.”
That made sense. There were three main roads out of the city.
“Durrow’
s to the west, Tashon’s Gate is to the northwest, and Holgate is to the northeast,” she said.
“But big deal,” Justin said. “You don’t need a marker on a map to tell you that.”
They spent the next fifteen minutes carefully searching the boulder and surrounding area. Pari pushed on the arrows engraved into the stone, felt around for secret levers or buttons, even used a stick to clear all the leaves and junk away from the area around the boulder in case there was a trapdoor there.
Finally, she said, “I think this is a waste of time. We should just head up to Holgate.”
“Let me try one more thing,” Justin said as he picked at the knot on the drawstring of his pants.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Turn around. I’m doing to make an offering to the gods of urine.”
Ugh. She turned and walked back to the horses.
“Um… Pari…?”
“No, I’m not going to look at your junk.”
“I’m serious. Check this out.”
Hesitantly, she turned. Right in front of the boulder were three crystal archways that hadn’t been there thirty seconds ago. Each one was a dozen feet tall and six or seven feet wide and they seemed to be made of glass blocks. The space within each archway shimmered and rippled and it looked like it was filled with stars.
“You pissed on the rock and this is what happened?”
“No, I put the phone on the boulder while so I could have both hands free to aim—”
“Too much information!”
“And I think it was the phone that activated these things. They must be the gates.”
Pari walked over to the closest one. A cold breeze blew in from the archway. “I think you’re right. These are teleportation gates. They must be.” She started to walk towards the gate facing northeast, but Justin grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“Hey!”
“If anyone should test it, it should be me,” he said. “What if it’s a deathtrap? I’ll just rez at the nearest Life Tree.”
He had a point. She nodded.
“Okay, here goes nothing.”
“Remember what Klothar always said.”
“What?”
“Don’t die.”
Justin smiled, stepped into the gate, and disappeared.
Chapter Thirty-Two
It was cold. Really cold. And dark. But the sensation only lasted a second. Then Justin was through the gate, standing in a little wooded grove near another boulder marked with three arrows.
He let out a deep breath. At least he wasn’t dead.
Behind him stood the crystal gate.
How long would it stay open?
Justin pulled out his Circle of Reckoning to try to get a sense of where he was. The map showed that he was right near Holgate. Cool.
He stepped back into the gate, through the cold and the dark, and found himself back with Pari.
“You survived,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“And I came out right near Holgate.”
Pari high-fived him. “Nice! We just discovered the first teleportation gates in the game!”
“You’d think that would be a basic thing.”
“For whatever reason, they didn’t put any teleportation in the game. Until now, I guess.”
“These gates could have been here from the start. Maybe you just never ran into any.”
“I guess, but as far as I know, no fellowship has ever reported seeing anything like this. And even so, how would players activate it? I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones with a phone.”
“Yeah, a phone that used to belong to those assassins.”
With a little coaxing they managed to lead the horses through the gate, and just like that they were somewhere on the outskirts of Holgate.
Once Pari got her bearings, she led them west towards the main road into town. “We’ll drop the horses at Lena’s farm,” Pari said. “It’s just southeast of here.”
“There’s someplace else I think we should go,” Justin said. “To the north.”
Ten minutes later they found themselves in front of Klothar’s cabin. It had been completely rebuilt.
“How…?”
Pari said, “They do that sometimes with NPC stuff. It just gets restored.”
“Ah, visitors,” called a voice.
Justin turned to see Klothar with an armful of firewood.
Thank god. He was alive.
“Klothar!”
The ranger looked at him oddly. “Yes, that’s me. And who might you youngsters be?”
“C’mon, stop messing around. We have a lot to tell you. Those assassins killed Pari and—”
“Who’s Pari?”
Pari sighed. “He doesn’t remember.”
“What?”
“I was afraid that this might happen. NPCs reset after a time.”
Justin didn’t want to believe that. He grabbed Klothar’s shoulders. “You remember me, don’t you?”
The ranger seemed taken aback. “Should I, lad?”
“He called me lad!” Justin said to Pari.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” she replied. “He’d probably call me lad too.”
“I know why you’re here,” Klothar said solemnly. “You want to know about the ratkins.”
This sucked. Klothar really didn’t remember them.
“I first saw them here in Durbam Dell about a fortnight ago,” the ranger continued.
“C’mon,” Pari said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“NPCs aren’t the same as us. They don’t have agency.”
“Klothar wasn’t just an NPC.” Justin rubbed his eyes. “He was a friend.”
“Are you crying?”
“No, I’m not crying.” But the truth was, he felt numb inside.
“Okay, well then, let’s get over to Lena’s farm and drop the horses. Then we’ll find what’s at those coordinates.”
She climbed on Milly and started walking the horse away. Justin swung up on Breeze and took one last look at Klothar.
“You sure you don’t want to know about the ratkins?” the ranger asked.
“Goodbye, Klothar.”
“See you soon, friend.” And then it almost looked like the ranger winked at him.
As they rode away, Justin told Pari, “I feel like I just got punched in the stomach.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s not like he died for real.”
“But isn’t this worse? He doesn’t remember us.”
Pari’s face fell, and she was silent for a while, like she was thinking of something. Finally she said, “Like my sister. And everyone else in the fellowship.”
“What do you mean?”
“You die after level five, you come back with no memory. Just like Klothar.”
“So your sister is back here, but she just doesn’t remember you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe she chose another game. She could be playing Star Rim Empire as far as I know.”
“Sorry.”
“Whatever. I’m getting used to it.”
They rode through fields and pastures and then down a narrow lane to a farm where a nice lady friend of Pari’s promised to take care of the horses.
Then it was a short hike uphill back to the old stomping grounds.
The village sure looked smaller than he had remembered even though it was less than a week since he’d last been here. It was just that, compared to the splendor of Rathenhall, Holgate was a little dumpy.
There were only a handful of other players around, which made sense. Pari had explained that most people left Holgate after they hit level two. There just wasn’t much here. Except for whatever was at the coordinates on the phone’s map. Supposedly the ‘next quest step’ according to the chat log.
They both grabbed a meat skewer and some bread from a vendor and sat down on a bench in the village square.
&nbs
p; “It feels like I’ve been in this game for months,” Justin said. “It’s so intense.”
“It feels like years for me. It’s not really like a normal game, is it?”
“No,” Justin said.
“I mean, if someone asked me six months ago what I thought OmniWorld would be like, I would have said just like any other video or VR game, but maybe more realistic. But that’s an understatement. A big understatement.”
“Does anyone just get overwhelmed and quit?”
Pari took a last bite of her skewer and raised her finger while she chewed. Once her mouth was no longer full, she said, “A lot of people. But mostly within the first two weeks. If you can make it through that, you’ll probably be fine.”
“So you can tell the game that you want to quit?”
“Yeah, I think so. I mean, I assume so. I don’t really know anyone who’s done that, but it’s probably a voice command.”
“I’m glad I didn’t know that the other night when I was getting my face carved up.”
“Let me see.” Pari moved closer and gently touched the gash under his eye. “Does it hurt?”
“Nope.”
“Maybe it’s healed a little more. I can’t really tell.”
They sat for about fifteen minutes more, not talking much. Justin looked up at the sky which was clouding up. Flies buzzed and picked at the tiny bits of food left on the skewers. When he looked over at Pari, she had her eyes closed and was soaking up the last little bits of sun.
“Well, shall we go find out what’s at 46.059523 by -123.14038?” he asked.
Pari opened her eyes and smirked at him. “Now you’re just showing off.”
He took out the phone and activated the map. It looked like they were right on the marker.
“Huh? The next clue is right here in the square?”
“Let me see that.” Pari took the phone and started walking around the square. Justin hurried to keep up with her.
“Okay, I think I got it.” She walked a little west until she was in the middle of the square, then headed south, and right up the steps to the Library of Globes.
“46.059523 by -123.14038,” Pari announced.
“Are you serious?”
“What?”
“This is right where I started.”
“Yeah, it’s where all sages start.”
“Well, the trainer is real bastard.”
“Suck it up.” With that, Pari handed him the phone and pushed her way through the door. Justin followed her through the narrow, dark hallway lined with shelves of books.