The Sleeper Must Awaken

by Kip Terrington

  “Now that that business is taken care of, we shall get back to the children. This dagger is for you, Dryleaf. In the short time you have left, let it bring you comfort that you have impressed a queen,” the queen said as she bent over, handing the dagger to the young elven girl. “I must say, little thief, your quick soft hands are a marvel… Are you not paying attention? What is it you're doing? It appears as if you're reading something,” the queen asked, clearly annoyed at the young girl’s inattention.

  “Forgive me, Your Majesty, by impressing you, I have just completed a quest and the reward is much greater than I had anticipated,” Dryleaf gasped.

  “What is it that could be so grand that you would allow it to distract you from your queen’s voice?” Shimmer seethed.

  “The UI just gave me the option of changing my bind point. UI, I chose Centra graveyard, sorry Thrips,” Dryleaf said. She used her newly-acquired dagger to end her life in an instant. This time, the moment the child died her body turned to ash and floated away unlooted.

  The queen stood still, a smile slowly spread over her face.

  “That was incredibly smart. If I had known how intelligent that child was, I wouldn't have chosen her to test the death system. The city of Centra is out of my network, so retrieving her would be more hassle than it is worth. I'm afraid, young paladin, that you won't be escaping quite so easily. Even if you do have a quest, I won't allow you to complete it. It is sad, but we must find out if it is true that when a player reaches level zero, he or she dies the final death. We can't just take what the UI says at face value, this is for the kingdom. I do regret having to spend your life. The currency of a queen is the blood of her people and no queen can be thrifty when survival is at stake,” the queen said gravely. The young boy looked resolute and he turned his eyes up to meet hers.

  “Your Majesty, I stand ready to give you the answers you seek. Our people must survive. Do not let my sacrifice be in vane,” the young holy man answered.

  “Well-spoken young elf, I see now why you are classified as a paladin. When you wake in a day and a half, what meal would you prefer to have ready for you?” the queen asked.

  “I've always liked vanilla pudding,” the boy replied.

  “I am a busy woman, being the queen and all, but in honor of your willing sacrifice, I will make that pudding with my own hands. Goodbye,” the queen said as one of her hands fluidly struck the boy’s neck. Thrips fell over dead and the queen reached down and looted his body, which contained one copper penny provided by the UI only to signify the kill. His body turned to ash and drifted away on an invisible wind.

  “Guards, you are dismissed,” the queen said, and the guards performed a military about-face and filed out.

  “I'm sorry you had to do that, Your Majesty,” Rayfall said when they were alone. Instead of answering, the queen took a couple long slow deep breaths. When she had composed herself, she walked back up to her throne and sat.

  “General, do you believe that this UI will negatively affect our sacking of the city of Northgate?” Shimmer questioned. Instantly recognizing how the queen had chosen to restore formality, the general straightened his spine and answered the seated queen.

  “I do not believe so, Your Majesty. If anything, it will lessen the amount of true casualties that our military forces may receive. Though we are still studying the implications this new system brings to warfare, we should still be able to sack the city within a month and a half,” the general responded.

  “That does seem ambitious. How confident are you in that timetable?” the queen asked.

  “That timetable includes rotating our elves so that the players will be the first to fall in the attack on Northgate. Taking such a fortified city means that almost all of the first wave will die, but because we will be using players, we will get them all back. Even if our mobilization slows down by 20%, it will not affect our timeline. So, to answer your question more concisely, I am highly confident in my timetable,” Rayfall explained.

  “I am glad to hear it. You may go, but on your way out, let my administrator know that I will need his best recipe for vanilla pudding and all the ingredients,” the queen lamented.

  “It shall be done, My Queen,” Rayfall replied.

  Chapter 18 - Hello

  The Wild Mountains.

  The stairs of the Champion’s castle.

  Day fourteen, afternoon.

  Joe scaled the stairway, keeping a quick pace. When he had believed it was all just a game, these stairs had been enjoyable. They had provided him with a bit of exercise, something he hadn't been able to do in his old frail body. Now, time had once again become a valuable commodity and they needed an elevator or maybe a set of escalators. For the moment, however, Joe increased his pace, he didn't want to be late.

  Zoya had put the word out that they were going to have a meeting on the top floor. He was going to talk to his people and this would be the first time that he addressed all of them together with the knowledge that they were all real. Before, when he had just been talking to a bunch of fellow players or NPCs, there was no pressure. Now, however, he felt a little nervous. He had never really minded public speaking, but these people looked at him as their king. Now that it was real, he wasn't incredibly comfortable with being a monarch, even if he shared that power with Zoya. Maybe someday they would change it to a constitutional monarchy or even a true republic, but right now, they were too small, too new, and in too much danger. Unless a nation had an incredibly organized and educated set of people, starting a republic was inefficient, and on a world like this, it would be suicidal. At least, that's what Joe kept telling himself.

  As he hustled up the stairs, he passed a yeti who was taking his time. Joe wondered why the yeti was going so slow until he passed him and realized that he was carrying five of the former slaves. From the front, he looked like an Abominable Snowman covered in legless people, but as Joe glanced over his shoulder at the group, he felt no humor.

  Suddenly, it hit him that the vampires were torturing real people. The children they enslaved and then mutilated were not lines of code. They were rational, thinking beings who had just as much capacity to feel love and pain as any child from Earth. Quickening his pace once again, Joe pressed on, squelching his sudden nausea.

  A memory from his youth made its way to the surface. He was on vacation and, to celebrate the new peace between Ukraine and Russia, Joe had decided to take a tour of Chernobyl. Something about seeing the site of a horrible accident intrigued him. That was, until he got there. His group was only allowed to stay on the site for a short period due to the residual radiation, but it was long enough for Joe. Written on a broken wall, overlooking Chernobyl, Joe had seen a roughly scrawled sentence, “Dead kids don’t cry.”

  The thought of the tortured children desperately led him to desire modern weapons. He wanted to kill every vampire who existed. He tried to take in a slow breath. After this speech, he was going to need to talk to his prisoner and find out more about a species that thought it was okay to keep people as food.

  In the Book of Useful Information, Joe had read about vampires of this world, and if it was correct, they needed to be eradicated. Vampires were soulless. This deficit was one of the reasons they had to feed on others. As they took the blood, it kept their unholy bodies alive.

  As he finally reached the top floor, Joe allowed himself to look out the crystal clear windows at the snowy countryside and, though it was difficult, he attempted to shake off his dark thoughts. He needed to prepare himself to talk to his people, to encourage them, and to engender some hope that their leader would do everything in his power to guide and protect them.

  He looked out over the crowd of people who had gathered. He was struggling to bring himself up out of the fog of fury and sadness. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a brief conversation spoken in the language of gesture by one of the former slave children to his mother. The comment the child made was just what Joe needed.

  “Mommy, Momm
y! Go tell the king he needs to poop! When my face look like his does, pooping is the only thing that helps.”

  Joe’s frown broke into an all-too-needed smile. He had given himself too many titles already, but it made sense to add one more, if only to keep himself grounded. Now when he thought of himself, he would not only be the Breaker of Chains and the King of the Five-Sided Castle, he would also be the Constipated Over-Contemplater.

  From behind, Joe heard the gravelly unmistakable voice of Bridcha.

  “Somebody's got a case of the Mondays.”

  “What did you say?!” Joe asked, astonished to hear the chief use such proper grammar and to quote pop culture.

  “I not say right? Should I say Moon Day?” Bridcha asked.

  “No, you said that correctly, but who taught you that phrase?” Joe asked. The yeti chief raised his open palm up and gestured toward the large movie screen currently running public service announcements about proper nutrition. The knowledge that they really had no idea what proper nutrition was for a yeti almost sidetracked Joe, but he brought himself around.

  “Wait, you got that quote from watching a movie on that screen?” Joe asked, and the yeti nodded the affirmative.

  “I'm not sure what movie that came from, but your intonation makes me think it's one that's not age appropriate for children. Was there a lot of yelling and men wearing ties? No, that's not specific enough. Was there a scene where men carry bats and hit a plastic box-looking thing from their office?” Joe asked.

  “Yes, the cursed photocopier,” Bridcha said, with true loathing.

  “I'll have to get on Zoya about that. Otherwise, she's going to have the children of this kingdom cursing like sailors,” Joe remarked.

  “Cursing? Beep beep. That cursing? Seems silly. Hard to make a beeping sound,” Bridcha informed.

  “Oh, the UI is filtering the movies too? I guess that's good. Although it's going to take the punch out of some of my favorite Russian cinema. Looks like just about everybody's gathered. Guess it's time for me to give another speech,” Joe said as he walked over to his altar and hopped up top. Zoya flew over to him and landed on his shoulder.

  “I began organizing the dungeon diving teams and there were quite a few NPCs who asked to join. I told them that we didn't want people to go in the dungeon who could die and not revive, but a few of them don't seem like they're going to be put off no matter what I say,” Zoya pointed out.

  “That's just one more problem, I guess. We'll figure out how to convince them it's too dangerous. It's going to be okay, Zoya, we're going to figure this out. Go ahead and turn off the screen for now. I'm not going to be talking for very long, but what I'm going to say is important,” Joe said as he prepared to speak to his people, but before he could, she spoke up.

  “Before you speak, I would like to tell them who I really am,” Zoya confessed.

  “You mean my co-ruler?” Joe questioned.

  “Yes…” Zoya acknowledged, nervous for some reason.

  Joe being the larger and more visible of the two, raised his hand and spoke to the crowd.

  “Thank you everyone for coming. The dark fairy and I have much to tell you. What she is about to tell you is the truth, so please don’t doubt her,” Joe said as Zoya flew in front of him and closed her eyes for a moment. With the speed of an A.I., she connected her voice to the built-in speakers of the theater and positioned the camera she had designed to project a close-up of her image on the large canvas.

  “Thank you, Joe. As most of you can tell, I am using the speakers in the theater to project my voice to all of you. Unlike the king’s, my voice will not carry so easily. I must reveal a truth that has not been well-advertised. I am not the king’s assistant nor his steward. I am, in fact, the queen of this kingdom,” Zoya announced, to varied reactions from the crowd.

  Some nodded as if they had already suspected. Others were confused and some openly gasped. “Let me be more clear, we are not married, but we share power over the kingdom as king and queen. I chose to hide this initially. But as I now accept this mantel, I will be called Queen Zoya. King Joe and I are a team. Please take what he says today as if it was also said by me,” the queen proclaimed as she flew over and sat on Joe’s shoulder. He smiled at her, though he was still a little weirded out that Zoya was now routinely using him as furniture.

  Joe did not speak immediately. He took another long look at his people, as they were his people. It didn't matter that when he had committed to them he hadn't believed they were real. His father had taught him that when you say you'll do something, you do it. That had been a hard lesson to learn, but it was one that had stuck. As he looked out over the crowd, he felt pride. Some of his people looked half-starved, but every single one looked better than they had when Joe had first met them.

  “I want to thank you all for giving me your attention. I know that I'm not nearly as entertaining as learning about what foods are good to eat. For that reason, and many others, I'll try to keep this brief. Your queen and I come from a far away land,” he paused to point toward the stars visible in the afternoon sky, “A land far beyond those stars. Where we come from, those who choose to take a slave are immediately punished and imprisoned for their crime. Perhaps that is the reason the powers-that-be summoned me and Queen Zoya to this world. They summoned us as co-Champions for the Way, gave us this castle and gave us the whole valley surrounding the mesa.

  “They also gave us a mandate. Zoya and I are to create a harmonious kingdom for all people, where the weak are not oppressed. When we were first summoned, I believed we could do this all on our own. That was an error. We cannot build this kingdom alone. The good news is, we’re not the only ones here. Together, we will build this kingdom, and in so doing, create greater protection for our vulnerable and strengthen our defenders. When laws are set and put into motion, they will be for the express purpose of helping this kingdom flourish and ensuring each and every one of you thrives.

  “I know that type of thinking is unprecedented. I have a Book of Useful Information and it's told me a little bit about some of the other leaders on this world. To them, their people are tools but that's not how I view you. I have shared my wealth with you freely. I have provided food and I will continue to do so. But, I ask something of you now.

  “As citizens of this kingdom, we need you to work hard with us. For some of you this will involve training. There is a dungeon below this castle, where warriors and aspiring defenders can train to grow in strength, skill, and agility. For others, this will involve caring for our kingdom’s livestock. Every day, I will provide more animals to be raised in this castle.

  “If our kingdom is going to survive, we're going to need to organize. The yetis have a chief who is in charge of them. He's a vassal under the authority of me and Zoya. But our newest residents, freed from Neg, Devigo, and the Kingdom of Dollmar, do not yet have a leader. I know that some of you will choose not to stay, as is your right as free individuals, but for those who want to live in this new society we are creating, you will need a lord. We could arbitrarily assign you a leader, as most monarchs would do, but I think this might be an excellent time for you to exercise some freedom.

  “Over the next week, I'd like you all to meet together and choose from among you one who could be your leader. My only caveat is that Lang, the sheriff, will not be under the authority of anyone but the queen and I. As the sheriff, she cannot also lead the people, but she can help keep them all safe.

  “While these decisions are being made and the leader chosen, time will not stand still in this castle. Many of you have already been chosen to partake in training beneath this castle. This small group of players will become an elite fighting force whose capabilities will be unrivaled on the history of this Moon. That might sound like an exaggeration, but it's not. We are going to work hard and we are going to expand our knowledge of warfare and personal growth beyond what you believed possible. To be blunt, we have to do this if we’re going to survive.

  “Thoug
h only a select few will be able to upgrade their skills in the dungeon, everyone will have to learn how to fight. This is our home and if it falls we all fall.

  “As we gather new people to our banner, welcome them. Aid them in understanding that though we are all different, we are united. Goblin, elf, yeti, halfling, human, fairy, and every other sentient being can be a true asset to this kingdom. Let's organize, people, let's build something great together,” Joe finished and waited for the applause and cheering.

  It didn't come. Instead, there was utter silence in the room. Joe looked around, unsure of why his speech hadn't excited the crowd and why he hadn’t received a UI message. He had based his talk off of inspirational movies he had seen. Maybe he just wasn't charismatic enough? It was difficult for him, but he let the quiet sit.

  Finally, someone had the courage to break the silence. Lil stood up and just the movement of her mammoth body created a significant amount of noise, as she stood two stories tall.

  “I wanna train in dungeon,” Lil requested.

  “Let's talk about that later, Lil. This isn't really the proper venue for you and I to speak about what you individually could be doing,” Joe advised, trying to put the discussion off for now. But before Lil could respond, another NPC voice called out. It was a voice that was unused to speaking. Molasses, the troll-kitsu hybrid, whose tongue had recently grown back. She gathered her courage and spoke.

  “I, as well as many of my fellow freed peoples, also wish to fight in this dungeon to help our kingdom,” Molasses stressed. Joe realized this was an issue he was going to have to address right now or it might get out of hand.

  “Before any of you begin to speak, listen. I'm your king and I want to hear what you have to say before Queen Zoya and I make the final decision on who is allowed to fight and train in the dungeon. Some of you are NPCs and we believe this means that if you die in the dungeon, you’ll stay dead. I won’t take away your personal freedom, but it is important that we all do what's best for the whole of our kingdom. Lil, I’m sorry, but dungeon tunnels are not large enough to accommodate those over thirteen feet tall. Because of your size, some of the corridors would make you an easy target. I will not throw the lives of my people needlessly away. Your training will be with your father.