by J P Carver
"And what if we can't stop her? Then you're still captured. We don't even know if we'll be able to find you, let alone help you." Marcus turned to Merigold, who had gone quiet and didn't meet my eyes. "Come on. Tell her how crazy this is."
Merigold scratched at the back of her head and shrugged. "It would be the distraction we need… but he's right, Ragan. How are we gonna find you? Unless…"
"We set up a way to track me from outside the game. Autumn Sin has an external API that you can hook into. I've made little programs before to keep track of our group in raids. This shouldn't be too different."
"I think I can create something like that, but we're running it through your neural and taking updates from there. If she has a way to scramble the API info, we won't be able to do much about it. Your account will probably be banned, but that'll be a few days from now. We'll worry about that later, as finding you is only one piece of the problem. If you're sure about this book being the key, then we need it cracked and working for us."
I nodded. "I'll go in and see what I can figure out. I'll use the guildhall, so I should be safe there."
"I don't like this at all," Marcus said, frowning. "I just want to be on record with that. This is a terrible idea."
Six
GuildHall
The only place where I could look at the book was in Autumn Sin. I couldn't access it through my account, even though all my other inventory items were there. It only showed up in game. That put me in a lot of danger since the demons were still around and taking people, if the number of people being admitted to the hospital was any indication. The reports were up to almost two hundred people. I had to take the chance if it would save them all.
I used our spawn point to appear outside the guildhall, a place that only members of our guild could enter. As I stepped off the spawn point and started across the cobblestoned street, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.
Wistam pushed off the pillar of stone beside the gate that led to the guildhall. She gave me a small wave. "Hey."
"What are you doing here?" I asked as she stalked over to me.
"I want to know what that book is all about. I'm not a big fan of you keeping me in the dark."
My hand slowly dropped to my chakrams, which were attached to my belt. Wistam noticed the movement and drew her sword before I could blink. "How did you know I'd come here?"
"Call it a hunch. This place is a casket right now. Pumpkin children are all over the place, trying to get some of the slim pickings of players. They're still bound by NPC rules, and I have a feeling whoever started this can't command them anymore." She shook her head, and her stance relaxed, the sword drooping. "So this was the only way you could come if you wanted to be sure you'd be safe."
"Okay, Sherlock, nice reasoning, but I don't have anything new to tell you right now."
"I'll kill you for the book if I have to, Ragdoll. Don't make me have to."
"Huh. Are you working for her? A woman contacted me and wants the book just as bad. Well, go ahead and kill me, but it won't matter, as the book is in the guild vault."
"I'm not working for her. I don't even know who she is. She has my sister. Don't you get that? I'll do whatever I have to for information on what happened.
"How do you know so much about the demons, then?"
"I've been watching them," she said.
I gave her a disbelieving look and unlocked the gates to the guildhall.
"I have. They showed up not long after I lost contact with my sister, so I figured they have something to do with it."
"I'm not handing the book over to you, Wistam."
"What about info? I know where the demons take the people they capture."
"Bullshit."
"No lie. I swear it. I'll even show you if you bring me in on this book thing." She put her sword away and stood in front of me. "I'm just asking not to be left in the dark."
"I'll think about it when I have someone around to back me up." The gate opened, and I stepped inside the small courtyard area. I turned to face Wistam. "You'll be around later?"
"I ain't leaving this spot until I get something." A small wooden chair appeared beside the gate, and she sat down. She took a piece of jerky out of her pocket and chewed on it. "When you're ready, I'll show you where they go."
"If you know where they go, then why don't we save them already?"
She smirked. "Don't you think I've tried? It doesn’t open up to anyone but them. It's this giant tree out in the forest, and I fought for fifteen minutes trying to find a way in until that Samhain bastard you told me about showed up and chased me off."
"Guess it couldn't be that easy." I left her and went up the steps to the guildhall. The building was a sea of stone and wood outside, and those same items continued on the inside. The entrance was a set of large wooden doors, and beyond them, a massive room was laid out with enough tables and seats to fill what was basically a banquet hall. Square, dark wood pillars bigger than my head held up a spiderweb of rafters. Metal chandeliers hung from said rafters, caked with wax from candles that burned brightly but threw drab shadows across the wooden floor.
It was damn expensive. It had taken our group almost a year to save enough gold for it. The building was really just for show, but if you wanted to get big jobs, you needed a guildhall.
The blacksmith and chef NPCs both looked up and watched as I crossed to one of the tables. I accessed the guild bank and brought out the book. It lay on the table, looking as normal as any other tome I'd come across in the game, but just as before, the difference was apparent the moment I opened it.
Spells, which looked as random as machine code, exploded across the open book, symbols and words being written as I turned the pages. Surprised and unsure of what to really make of it all, I went back to the first page and watched the spell flash across it. I did my best to understand the formulas and symbols, but my magic skill was far too low.
I sat back in the chair and looked to the ceiling, thinking. Finally, I gave up on trying to come up with another way and contacted Nina. She was a witch, and it was a spell book. She was my best bet, but the last thing I wanted to do was bother her with Winter still not out. I swore and opened Guild Chat.
>Whisper to: [M*S]Crow:> Crow?
No answer, which probably meant she was still sleeping. I switched to Marcus's account and sent him a message. He answered through a link.
"What's up?" he said, his mouth full of something. He was supposed to be watching the door to the break room, where I was knocked out in one of the chairs.
"Are you eating… again?"
"Fast metabolism. Did you need something, or are you contacting me because you missed my seductive voice?"
I snorted a laugh. "You've got a vast imagination. Look, stop stuffing your face, and get Crow up. I need her in the guildhall."
He swallowed hard, and I heard the chair squeak. "We'll be there in ten."
"I only need Cr—" He shut the link off before I finished.
The doors to the hall opened a few minutes later, and I turned to see Marcus and Nina come in. Nina yawned as she made her way down the steps and stretched. "There's some woman sitting outside the gate. She a friend of yours?"
"Not really, no. How's Winter doing?"
She shook her head as she weaved between the tables. "No change yet. Plot says you have something good."
"We found this book." I stood from my chair and pointed to the book on the table. "I don't know what to make of it, and I'm hoping you can figure it out. We don't have a lot of time."
"What do you mean? You found something that could help, so what's wrong? What aren't you telling me?" She sat down in front of the book and glared up at me.
I caught Marcus's eye, and he gave a small nod. I sighed and placed a hand on Nina's shoulder. "It… well, it looks like we only have until nine tonight to… shit, Nina. If we don't figure this out before nine tonight, then everyone is… gone."
Nina stared at me blankly and then tu
rned to the book. When she spoke, it was surprisingly calmly. "Then you're right. We don't have much time, I guess."
"No, but we got this, Crow." Marcus hopped up and sat on the table. Nina didn't look over.
"It's a GM object." I flipped open the book.
"Then why do you still have it? They're programmed to go back to the GMs after a certain amount of time."
"We think it's a hacked book and was done by the person who took everyone. It could be the key to this problem," Marcus said.
"It's a spell book, which means as a rogue, I can't make any sense of it, but you—"
"I can because of my class." She took a deep breath. "All right, let's take a look." She paged through the book, studying the words as they appeared. We all sat quietly until she spoke. "Huh…"
"What?" I asked.
"There are a lot of intricate game spells in here. Most of them I've never seen before." She flipped back through the pages. "Get me some paper. I'm gonna have to take notes, but this thing looks like it can… almost control the game."
"Seriously?" I waved at Marcus to go get paper. He sneered and left. "Can you use it to get everyone out? Can we stop her from killing everyone?"
She lifted a shoulder and frowned. "I don't think I can really do much of anything yet. This book isn't bound to me… but I may be able to alter it."
"How would you be able to do that?"
"I—uh, I can alter it like I can with my own spells. I might be able to combine some of these spells, which are normal game ones, and overload the book and break the binding. It's supposed to only be bound to GMs anyway. I'd just be resetting it to its natural state. But I don't know… I'm just guessing here, Raggy."
"We all are. You need anything else?"
"Just time, really, and I know we don't have much of that. Is this the only plan you have?"
I nodded slowly and looked around for Marcus. He came running from one of the side rooms. When I gave him a curious look, he slammed into the table and sent paper flying everywhere.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked.
"Samhain—shit, guys, he's in the building." He pushed himself away from the table and pointed back the way he'd come. Nina and I both stood in shock. The doorway was filled with the form of Samhain. He was too big for the frame, but that didn't matter as he shoved himself forward. The wood wall cracked and buckled, splinters showering the room. The doorway broke, and Samhain thundered into the room.
"So about that time… you've got a lot less now," I said as Nina moved behind me, the book clutched to her chest. "He's after the book, I bet. Plot, go with Crow, and get her somewhere safe so she can work. Call in the rest of the guild if you have to."
"I ain't leaving you to get all the glory." Marcus drew his sword and stepped beside me. I glared at him. "And none of your pretty looks are gonna change anything."
"I'm not going either," Nina said, and a blue glow flowed over us as a magical shield appeared.
I turned to both of them. "Guys, we're wasting time. Just get out of here, and get to work on figuring this out. Wistam is outside. She should be able to get you somewhere. Please… just go."
"Raggy—"
I shoved Nina into Marcus and stepped away from them both.
"You can't do this. I'm not going to lose someone else that I care about." Nina took a swing at me, but I was too far away.
Samhain shoved a table out of his way and sent it flying into the blacksmith. He and his tools were thrown through one of the large windows, and the glass rained down into the room. Samhain stared at me, and when he growled, I knew I was the target. I readied my chakrams and tumbled over a table to put myself between Nina and him.
"You aren't losing any of us. I'll log out as soon as you're out of here," I said to Nina, who was still trying to get away from Marcus's hold. "Just figure it out. Plot, I'm counting on you to keep her safe."
"That's cruel, Doll. We'll get it done, but you and I are gonna have a chat later."
"After I'm done with you, that is." Nina glared at me.
I smiled as Nina finally allowed Marcus to pull her with him, and they left out the back of the building. The table in front of me shattered under Samhain's great fists, and I stumbled back out of the way. The floor cracked and shifted under me as I rolled to my feet.
I threw out a chakram, and it rode Samhain's arm, leaving a red streak of demon blood to his shoulder. The disk came back, and I caught it while dancing out of range of Samhain's other fist. He was strong—like, guild-raid strong—but he was also slow. That was all I had going for me.
He raged and moved forward, breaking up more of the nicely finished floor as he tried to reach me. Every step he made, I threw another chakram in his direction. His blood splattered the entire room, yet it didn't look like his health was dropping. As I took that idea in, I made a misstep, and his open hand caught me and sent me across the room. I hit the wall, the air knocked from me as I dropped to the floor. The pain I felt was barely a fifth of what it should have been, but it still hurt.
When I looked up, Samhain took up most of my vision. His breath stank like an open sewer as he huffed through his horselike snout. His blood dripped into a small pool around me, coating my hands and boots. All feeling had left me, and the only part of my body that I could move easily was my head. His claws had torn my armor, which allowed the poison from before to work on me again. I was trapped.
"Step back, Samhain," a voice said, and the demon moved back three steps, sat on his haunches, and began to lick his wounds.
"Who's there?" My voice cracked, and even my tongue started to feel numb.
The woman from the guild video stepped around Samhain and stopped in front of me. She wore a long black dress with silver trim. In her right hand, she carried a staff that was nearly as tall as her. She knelt down and touched the blood, rubbed it between her fingers. "Strange how he bleeds so much, isn't it?"
"I don't have your stupid book anymore."
She wiped the blood on my pants and smiled. "No, but your friends do, and I figure they care more about you than some simple book. If not, at least I get revenge on the girl who decided to stick her nose into places it didn't belong."
"You're an asshole. You're not going to change anything. After a few months, everyone will be back playing again."
"Maybe, but at least everyone will understand the real danger."
"What danger? What the hell made you a psycho?"
She frowned and placed a hand on my knee. "I'm not crazy, just grieving. Do you know how many people die from dehydration or from lack of food because they never leave these games? Have you seen them? Buried them? Sure, they say it's all safe, that the system monitors players, but it does nothing to stop the addicts from modifying these systems, does it?"
"So you've lost someone. So what? Who the hell hasn't? If you want to kill yourself to prove a point, then that's on you, but you brought innocent—"
"All of them wasted hours upon hours of their lives here. They've all hurt the ones that loved them because they couldn't pull themselves away. They are a waste, just like what my sister became."
I stared at her. "Your sister?"
She stepped away and turned to Samhain. "Take her."
Samhain lumbered over and lifted me like I was a piece of paper. He tossed me over his shoulder and walked back to the witch as she drew a circle on the ground with a piece of chalk. She stood when she finished, and Samhain stepped into the middle with her. In an instant, we appeared somewhere else, but before I could look around, the poison took over completely and turned my world dark.
When I woke, I found myself in a wooden cage that was bell shaped. I hung high above a wood floor of rings, and I'd somehow been caged in a very large hollowed-out tree. All around me were cages that matched my own, some empty but many with silhouettes moving about in them. The room itself was dimly lit by torches that ringed the walls, and at the other end of it was a large font of blue fire. The place was majestic and sort of pretty,
and I had to remind myself that I was in a game still, not going crazy.
"Winter?" I called as I placed my face against the wooden bars. "Winter, you here? It's Ragdoll."
"Doll?" a voice said. I scrambled around to try to see the cage above me. A hand was sticking out of the bars and waved at me. "Jesus, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Been trying to get you out of here… you can see how well we've done. You all right?"
"Sure, if you call being trapped by some crazy person all right. You should have stayed away." The cage shifted, and his hand disappeared. I assumed he was standing up.
"You're with my best friend. Like I could do that. What's been going on here? Notice anything useful?"
"Not really, no. I can't log out and can't access my inventory. It's like we're not here but we are. Sammy has been in and out of here, usually bringing someone else with her."
"Sammy?"
"Yeah, the witch woman. She let slip her name when she was talking to herself about her sister. Even if she wasn't doing this, I'd still call her a bit nuts."
I sighed, turned around, and placed my back against the bars. "That would have been useful information on the outside."
He chuckled. "Yeah, guess so. So you don't have a plan? I was hoping you being here would be the end of this."
"There is something in the works, but it's up to Crow now. We have to wait and see." I looked around and wondered if I could break the bars. The cage was about thirty feet up from the floor, but there were steps sticking out of the side of the tree. That could be a way to get down. I kicked at the bars, and they didn't even flex. "You know what's up with those blue flames down there?"
"Nope, been burning since I got here. Every time Sammy has come in here, she stops and tosses something from her book into the flames." He paused. Then he asked in a quiet voice, "How's Crow doing?"
"How do you think? She's freaking out over you."
"She should be," Sammy said. She was right out in front of my cage, floating on a platform of blue flames. "Had you just given me the book, you all could be home right now. Instead, you wanted to play games."