Spy: Reborn

by Angie A Huxley

  Argo grimaced, remembering how much of a jerk he’d been in front of them just now. “I’m not sure about that. I humiliated myself back there, remember? Can’t even swing a sword to save my life, play a stupid tune without some douchebag hacker taking my lute away from me.”

  “If I can have your permission, I’d like to tell the others what you’ve been going through,” said Aaheli. “Not Kurtz, but the rest of the Crew. I think it would help if they knew. They’d all want to help you.”

  Argo wasn’t sure, but now he had told Aaheli it didn’t really matter if the others knew, and it would help explain his behavior back there. “Okay,” he finally sighed, “if you think it’ll help.”

  “It will help,” she replied. “Come on let’s go back to the apartment. We can have some hot chocolate and get you into bed. You could do with some rest.”

  Aaheli helped him to his feet. He was tired and shaky all over. “Thanks,” he said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “I think I do,” said Aaheli, “and that’s what really frightens me.”

  Chapter Five: A New Path

  Argo woke at about eleven am the next morning with a splitting headache and a throat as dry as a desert. That would be the last time he’d force a hard shutdown while dead drunk... or in any state of physical discomfort, for that matter.

  He lay in bed a few moments, trying to piece together the events of the previous night, and let out a low groan. He’d made a complete fool of himself, and what was worse, he had heaped all his problems onto Aaheli into the bargain. She was determined to look after him now, even though this was all about achieving independence. All his problems remained but now he’d gotten other people involved, which made things even more complicated.

  Despite that, a part of him was pleased at how understanding Aaheli was and her willingness to support him financially meant that he could avoid returning home at least for a few more months. Thoughts of suicide had disappeared along with last night’s mead and he refused now to consider that as a viable option. It would be a betrayal to Aaheli and he couldn’t lay that shock on her along with everything else. He had to live, and he had to figure out what he was going to do next.

  His mind churned at the many problems he was facing and he could not go back to sleep so he got up and slipped on his dressing gown. Aaheli was sitting in the kitchen eating cereal and drinking lavender coffee when he padded barefoot into the living area to join her.

  “Hey, little soldier,” she said, giving him a warm smile. “How are you holding out?”

  “I’m not too bad,” he said, slumping into the chair next to her.

  “You look real bad,” Aaheli chuckled. She poured him a cup of steaming coffee and put it in front of him. “Maybe next time you’ll think twice before drinking honey mead at full strength. That stuff is lethal if you can’t handle it.”

  “Tell me about it,” Argo replied. He took a deep drink of the hot fragrant coffee, and a pleasant feeling spread through his aching joints and into the pit of his stomach. “I’m sorry again, A, about last night.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Aaheli said, getting to her feet and going over to the work surface. She poured him out a bowl of cereal and returned with it and a spoon, and she put it down in front of him. “All that matters is getting you feeling better again. Did talking about it last night help?”

  “Oh yes, I’m glad I told you,” Argo said, nodding his head. “I knew I should have said something straight away instead of bottling things up, but what I said last night about not being financially supported by you still stands. I can’t let you cover my share of the rent. If I can’t afford to live in the city, I will go home, I’m adamant about that.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Aaheli replied. She gave him a wary glance. “You’re not still thinking about hurting yourself though?”

  Argo shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. I was being stupid. I got to face up to things, I realize that. If I have to go home, I’ll go home. That’s all there is to it.”

  Though he had been through a lot last night, the same horrific dread of working with the family still persisted, and he couldn’t really say whether he wouldn’t decide to take drastic action rather than go home again when the chips were down. Aaheli didn’t look convinced about his assertion either.

  “Well, you don’t need to worry about going home at the moment anyway, and don’t get so hung up about the rent. I’ll make sure you find a way to earn an income and not have to give up acting. I’m going to make it my life’s mission, that and dancing naked at the Super Bowl of course.”

  Despite his heavy mood, Argo couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks, that means a lot to me.” Another unhappy thought suddenly struck him. “Did you tell the others what was wrong with me last night?”

  “I did,” Aaheli said, “but not in front of Kurtz. They are all really understanding and they want to support you one hundred percent. We know things are tough for you, and we all want to do our bit to make you feel better. If you need to talk to any of us, don’t hesitate to say something. That goes double for Sonia when I start filming.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it,” Argo said. Though he felt embarrassed that the rest of the Manticore Crew knew about his problems, he was also relieved that they now had an idea why he behaved the way he did last night. “I’m sorry I spoilt things with Kurtz. I know you really like him.”

  Aaheli waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Actually, I found him a bit of a bighead to be honest.”

  Argo looked at her in surprise. “Really?”

  “Yeah, he loves himself and the Night Tuskers a little too much. Still, he is nice enough.”

  Argo nodded. “Are you going online today?”

  “A bit later on. What about you?”

  “Um, I think I’ll just stay in the real world for the time being. I don’t have much energy. I think I’ll just sit and watch some TV today.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Aaheli said.

  After he’d finished his breakfast, he went and grabbed a shower. The hot water rejuvenated him, and he planned on sitting on the couch and watching mindless cartoons for the next couple of hours. As he was getting dressed, though, he received a message on his phone from Henk:

  Hey, can you come and see me in about ten minutes? I’m at the manor.

  Argo stared at the text. He hadn’t expected anyone to contact him. He finished getting dressed, and went back into the living room. “I just got a message from Henk,” he said to Aaheli.

  “Oh yeah, he said he might drop you a line today,” replied Aaheli. “What does he say?”

  “He wants me to go and see him,” Argo replied, “in about ten minutes at the manor.”

  “Cool, you better get going.”

  “Okay,” Argo said. He hesitated by the door and looked over at his Astral-bubble. “Um, are you coming too?”

  Aaheli slumped down on the couch and switched on the TV. “The message is for you, not me. You better go on your own.”

  Argo frowned. He got the feeling Aaheli knew more about Henk’s mysterious message than she was letting on. He started to grow nervous. “I’ll see you then.”

  “Bye,” said Aaheli without looking up.

  Argo logged into Drake Realm and appeared in the yard in front of Witchstorm Manor. It was a bright sunshiny day in this facet of the Astra-verse, and Henk was sitting on the grass gazing out at the rolling hills that stretched to the south.

  Argo’s anxiety picked up. Despite Henk being the leader of the Crew, Argo had never spent much one-on-one time with him, and this request to speak to him on his own was highly unexpected, despite the circumstances. Argo felt the sudden fear that Henk was going to ask him to leave the Manticore Crew altogether. It would make a lot of sense. Even without showing himself up last night, Argo hadn’t been much help during the Blight Cube quest, and its failure had proven to be a big blow to b
oth Henk’s prestige and the Crew’s fledgling career. Though Argo had struggled in the game, he didn’t want to lose his place amongst the Crew. He was experiencing enough rejection already.

  Cautiously, he approached the Paladin. “Henk,” he called out.

  Henk turned and smiled. “Hey Argo, glad you could come by.”

  “That’s no problem,” Argo said, keeping his eyes on his feet. “I’m sorry about last night.”

  Henk shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Come on, I’ve got something I want to show you inside.”

  He got to his feet and headed toward the manor, beckoning Argo to follow. For the first time in as long as Argo could remember, Henk wasn’t wearing his Paladin battle armor. Instead, he had opted for a homespun tunic and dark horsehair pants. The simple outfit made him appear a lot less intimidating.

  “I know how tough your situation can be, Argo,” Henk said as they entered the large house. “You can end up feeling like you’re all alone in the world and that you’re completely trapped. I can tell you that it is simply not true. It took me a long time to figure it out… and two suicide attempts, before I realized I wasn’t on my own.”

  Argo was stunned. “You tried to kill yourself?”

  Henk stopped and turned to him. A sad smile played on his lips. “It was about six years ago, when I was in High School. I was in a very bad place back then.”

  “What happened to you?” asked Argo, “If you don’t mind me asking?”

  “No, I don’t mind,” replied Henk. “I grew up in a rough frontier town in the Outland Territory and my parents had addiction problems. They both drank and did drugs. My dad overdosed when I was eight and died.”

  “That’s horrible,” Argo exclaimed. “I had no idea!”

  “It’s not something I talk about much,” Henk replied. “The rest of the Manticore Crew don’t know about that and I’d prefer if it stayed that way.”

  “I won’t say anything.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate that. After he died, my mom just fell to pieces. She hit the bottle even harder and got hooked on starglitter. You know what that is?”

  Argo nodded his head. “I’ve heard of it. It makes you hallucinate like crazy, right? Makes LSD trips look like nothing out of the ordinary… I heard people can end up stuck in a loop, forever trapped in a nightmarish reality.”

  “That’s right,” said Henk. “Mom had a really bad trip one time. She thought she was being chased by zombies and ran around town with a shotgun. She had to go into a mental health unit after that. She never was the same…”

  They had reached the main hall, and while Argo sat down, Henk cut up some bread and cheese for them to eat and poured out a couple of glasses of fresh grapefruit juice. He brought the simple meal to the table and carried on with his story. “I ended up in social care after that,” he said. “They planned to foster me with a family that could look after me properly, but I just wanted my mom back, so I fought them every step of the way. None of the families I was put with could cope with my behavior, and I went from one care center to another and one school to another too. I also got into drugs, nothing as heavy as starglitter, but enough to really mess my head up. I tried to take my own life like I said, and I started getting into petty crime. I was facing the prospect of ending up in a juvenile reform center.”

  “What happened?”

  “After my last suicide attempt, I was sent to a holistic psychiatric clinic where I was assigned a social therapist called Delby. He wasn’t like the other support workers I’d had, who were all harried bureaucrats and just interested in meeting their targets—this was before robo-therapists were brought into the care sector, you see. Delby actually cared what happened to me and wanted to help. For the first time in my life, I felt like I could actually talk to someone and he really understood what I was going through. He was a big gamer and he got me into immersive online reality games. He was one of the first players in Drake Realm and he introduced me to it. It was the best thing to ever happen to me. When I set foot in the game world, I felt immediately at home. I loved the questing system and being able to be a completely different person to who I was in the real world.”

  Argo nodded appreciatively. “I can understand that.”

  “What really made me fall in love with the game was the fact I could help people here and be of use. Sure, they were NPCs and just simulations, but I still felt like I was playing an important part in their lives. I wasn’t an adventurer though back then. There were restrictions on what kind of player I could be because of my age. Delby didn’t go into the violent aspect of the game much, and played as a blacksmith working out of a little town in the Dalelands. That part of the gaming world is fixed on a peaceful setting. I worked as his assistant and I’d help do chores and little jobs for the NPCs who lived there. Sure, I know it sounds tame, but I really loved the slow pace of life and the sense of community spirit.”

  “That sounds really nice,” Argo said.

  “It was. Playing in the simulation helped turn my life around in the real world and I started to believe in myself and come to terms with my past and what had happened to my family. Later on, I started to long for some more excitement and got involved with the action-adventure elements of Drake Realm. That’s when I moved away from the Dalelands and began playing as a Paladin.”

  “What about Delby? He is still down there? He sounds like a really nice guy.”

  Henk’s expression clouded. “He doesn’t play the game anymore. He moved on.” He looked at Argo and smiled. “But I didn’t ask you over here just to talk about me. I wanted to show you something.”

  Argo raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Show me something? What?”

  “If you’ve finished your lunch then come on. It’s over in the library.”

  Leaving the main hall, the two headed down the winding passages of the manor house and came at last to the library. As Argo entered the large book-filled chamber, he saw Casadraggrio sat at one of the reading desks, quietly smoking his pipe. He was clad in a colorful purple doublet slashed with yellow and dark breeches.

  Spotting the two players, Casadraggrio got to his feet and smiled. “Ah, Henk, my friend, you are here at last,” the NPC said in his deep melodious voice. His sharp blue eyes fixed on Argo, he looked him up and down. “Is this the one you were telling me about?”

  “He’s the one,” Henk replied with a slight smile.

  Casadraggrio cocked his head and twirled one of the corners of his oiled moustache. “An interesting choice, but we might make it work.”

  Argo darted a nervous look to Henk. “What’s he talking about, Henk? What am I an interesting choice for?”

  “A new path my friend,” Casadraggrio said, patting Argo on the shoulder. “I have a little something for you that will change your experience of playing Drake Realm forever.”

  Argo didn’t like the sound of that. In fact, he didn’t like Casadraggrio, nor did he trust him. The mysterious adventurer was one of those rare NPCs who had achieved total Sentience; he knew Drake Realm was a computer game and that people like Henk and Argo came from another world. Though other NPCs understood that players in the game were different and special, they were programmed to believe that they were all part of the same reality and did not question in-game logic such as giving out the same quest over and over again, or being killed and then respawning as if nothing had happened.

  They lived their lives very much like the players in the real world and never stopped to ask themselves whether any of this was real or not. On rare occasions though, NPCs would become Sentients—anomalies in the program able to see that Drake Realm was a simulation, able to understand that players were mere avatars for flesh and bone beings from another reality. This realization sent many Sentients insane and the Over Monitor quickly identified these rogue NPCs and erased their memories.

  But on even rarer occasions, Sentients like Casadraggrio retained their sanity and slipped under the Over Monitor’
s radar. He inhabited Drake Realm’s underbelly, offering advice and help to players he took a liking to in exchange for information about the real world. He had struck up a friendship with Henk for that reason and his help in the quests the Manticore Crew tackled had been invaluable. Still, Argo didn’t fully trust him. After all, how had Duke Red known that the Crew were going to destroy the Blight Cube? And how had the rogue player accessed the locked quest in the first place? Argo couldn’t be sure Casadraggrio had betrayed them of course, and he kept his suspicions to himself.

  “What do you mean a new path?” Argo asked warily. “What does he mean, Henk?”

  “Show him, Cas,” Henk said in an amused voice.