The world went black except for tiny letters that appeared in space in front of him. “System registered. Klendistone comm protocol 201 executing. Screenshots disabled.”
Ethan hesitated before pressing the exit button. The words hovered there like a prompt, promising nothing but endless black from a crashed game, and the darkness gave him a feeling of vertigo.
As the seconds ticked by, the image subtly changed, with splotches of dark gray emerging from the darkness. Eventually, a scene resolved itself, and he found himself standing in a stone room lit by candles. The walls were partly covered by shelves of loosely-bundled papers and a handful of books. A chalk circle crowned with strange symbols surrounded him, and three people in robes stared at him wide-eyed.
The people were younger than him. One, a blond boy with a slight acne problem, seemed the oldest at maybe twenty years of age. He was flanked by two girls that seemed to be in their late teens. The one to Ethan’s left had light skin and long hair that seemed impossibly black and glossy and seemed to be a little older than the other two. She stood just in front of a bucket of water with a mop inside it, the mop handle leaning against a shelf.
The girl to the boy’s other side was blue-skinned, as if she had argyria—silver poisoning. Her braided golden hair enhanced the effect. Of the three, she seemed the youngest, maybe sixteen years old. That made the argyria surprising, as Ethan thought it only occurred after years of silver exposure.
The young man swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. These were not the plastic characters of computer graphics. Everything Ethan looked at, from their facial expressions to the tiny candle flames, seemed photo-realistic, as if he was looking at a movie on a 4K TV in full 3D. It was seamless, perfect, limited only by the screens and lenses of his headset. The company must have pre-recorded the footage from live actors.
The boy stared at Ethan open-mouthed. “We did it! We actually did it!”
“Now what?” the blue girl asked. “What are we going to have it do?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I really didn’t expect this to work.”
Ethan grinned. “I gotta say, I’m impressed,” he said to himself. “This is really incredible.”
The three characters flinched at his words. The blue girl stifled a shriek with both hands.
“You can talk?” the boy asked.
Ethan laughed. The photo-realistic characters went far beyond any video game he’d seen with their ability to react with perfect timing.
“This is cool as hell,” he muttered.
The blue girl started shaking. “Hell?” She turned to the boy, grabbing his arm with both hands. “Oh no, Dane, we summoned a devil from Hell!”
Did the characters key off of what he’d said, or was that a coincidence? If it was the former, the game was far more sophisticated than Ethan could have imagined. Sure, voice recognition was pretty common these days, but having characters respond to his statements in such a lifelike manner was beyond cutting-edge.
The young man—Dane—looked down at Ethan’s feet. “Eve, are you sure that you got the binding spell right?”
Ethan followed Dane’s gaze and examined the circle. A staple of fantasy and supernatural horror stories, circles like this were supposed to cage supernatural creatures stuck inside. Was he supposed to be playing some kind of summoned monster? It didn’t mesh well with the storyline of the tutorial. However, being stuck in the binding circle could be a clever design trick to limit the amount of the world he could view. Would it let him escape? He had to try.
He manipulated the hand controls to instantly move, as he’d been taught in the tutorial. The view in the headset wavered, and he found himself outside the circle, behind a shocked Dane. The disorienting effect gave Ethan a brief sensation of vertigo and nausea, but it soon passed.
The teenagers gasped. Their reaction was convincingly realistic, unlike any game he’d ever seen, even on the latest consoles. He reached up and lifted the headset to peek at his apartment just to make certain the real world was still there. Reassured, he addressed the three young people. Even with the latest AI, 3D graphics and animation, there were limits on how well they could respond.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Please, don’t kill us!” the blue girl cried out. “We’re sorry!”
“What?” Ethan raised his hands in what he hoped was a friendly gesture. “I don’t want to hurt you. Don’t attack me, and we’ll get along fine.” If the game forced him to fight these three, he was going to be pissed. Aside from the blue skin of the one girl, they seemed like kids he’d gone to high school and college with not too long ago.
Dane sighed in apparent relief, but the girl with the black hair seemed unconvinced. She folded her arms and said, “I’m Alicia Stormhand. This is Dane McDougal and Eve Delaney. We’re students at Nyrlim Academy of Magic.”
“And who do you think I am?”
Dane held up a sheet of paper. “Spirit entity zero-zero-zero-zero-zero dash zero two six. We, uh, summoned you. We invoked the Right of First Summoning, and the binding ritual…”
“Which was supposed to hold me inside that circle? Did you screw it up?”
“We’re sorry!” Eve cried out again.
Alicia glanced sideways at Eve. The candles in the room reflected in silky orange pools in her hair. “That, or you were far too strong to be held by the simple binding spell we used.”
Ethan guessed the game-makers intended the latter to make the player feel special. “So what’s this first summoning thing?”
Dane answered, the answer sounding semi-rehearsed, as if he was answering a question on an oral exam. “Spell casters summon entities in one of two ways—with or without a name. Without using a name, any entity may be called that meets the criteria of the spell. These are usually weak, although there is a danger of a more powerful entity appearing and overwhelming the summoner. Calling a specific entity by name increases the summoner’s control over it. This control is much stronger if the summoner is the first living spell caster to summon the entity. This is why unused names are so highly sought after. It is also why…” He glanced at Eve and then returned his gaze to Ethan. “That is also why summoners with the first rights to powerful beings are targeted by their rivals.”
“So summoners are basically slave owners, is that what you are telling me?” Ethan asked.
Dane stammered, and Alicia came to his rescue. “It’s not like that. Not usually, anyway. Most summoned spirits are not really free-willed entities. And the named ones usually make bargains for their services.”
The game was getting interesting right off the bat. Honestly, he couldn’t see how a title of this quality could have garnered an exclusive with a little boutique VR manufacturer, no matter how cool and next-generation their hardware might be. The realism of what he was seeing was a quantum leap beyond the tutorial. “Uh-huh. And who did you guys kill to get first rights to me?”
“We wouldn’t!” Eve said. “That’s why we summoned you!”
Dane, regaining his composure, answered. “Your original summoner was Theodore Callister, a professor here at the Academy… and my… never mind. We took your name from his office. We summoned you to ask you who murdered him, or at least tell us who his enemies were.”
“Sorry, I have no clue who you are talking about.”
“Professor Callister? He was the wizard who summoned you before.”
“Uh, nope. This is the first time this has happened to me.” Ethan played along.
He had been expecting a high-fantasy adventure with this game. Was it now turning into a murder mystery? Add that to a growing list of mysteries around the game itself. He threw some more wrinkles at the game characters and see how their canned responses would work.
“Besides, that number isn’t my name. My name is Ethan. I am not a spirit, I’m just a guy with a new Virtual Reality game I wanted to try. You are characters in my video game.”
It hurt to say this, as it felt like the closest human contact he’d e
xperienced in weeks. It felt like he could just reach out and touch them—yet it felt real enough that he didn’t want to be rude, game or not.
Alicia was the first to respond. “Ethan, is it?” She inclined her head slightly to one side. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you are clearly not human, and this isn’t a game.”
The response, and the humanity in her voice, was absolutely convincing. He looked at his hands, which glowed white in the air, disconnected from a body. “This isn’t my body. I’m actually standing in the living room of my apartment right now.” Once again, he lifted the visor to reassure himself. He lowered it back into place over his eyes and shook his head. “This all looks so real.”
Dane stared at him, as if trying to make sense of his words. Alicia raised an eyebrow again, and bit on her lower lip. Eve opened her mouth in shock, but instead of voicing fears, she said, “Could this be like astral projection? A magical device to project your spirit into this avatar?”
“Huh.” Ethan thought for a moment. “It’s not like I’m unconscious in the real world.”
Eve looked at Dane. “If what he says is true, he could control this form like a puppet. It would explain why my binding wasn’t strong enough. I used the wrong spell. If I’d known…”
Dane patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. We knew that was a risk, and he doesn’t seem hostile. I think we’re okay.”
Alicia folded her arms again, frowning slightly. “Summoning a human would be unprecedented, and offer frightening implications. Especially with binding. However, many spirits are known to lie, aren’t they? Especially if they aren’t properly bound.” Her eyebrows lowered as she looked Ethan over.
Ethan laughed. “Seriously? You are actually asking me to prove I’m human? How would we do that?”
Both the girls looked at Dane, who shook his head. “We never covered anything like this in any class. I have no idea. Maybe we can summon it again, with a better binding?”
“No, we’ve already used up the Right of First Summoning,” Eve said. “Maybe a far more powerful spell would work, but especially if it is a human, there’s nothing more I can do. I’m sorry. We should dismiss it and clean this up before we’re caught.”
Ethan eyed the bucket and mop. Out of curiosity, he moved toward it and grabbed the mop handle. The mop moved clumsily, but with a bit of effort he was able to control it as he mopped at the circle on the floor. For the most part, the mopped section turned into a swirling puddle of chalky sludge, but there was something fun about a tedious chore when done in the context of the game.
Dane snorted. “That’s the worst mopping I have ever seen. If that’s an attempt to prove you are human, I think you failed.”
Ethan laughed. “Hey, it’s my first time doing it in VR. I’ve got to get the hang of it.”
Eve eyed the door. “We need to go soon. We’re going to get in trouble. If we’re caught…”
Alicia waved at the door. “You two go. I’ll handle the dismissal and finish cleaning up.”
“Are you sure?” Dane asked.
“I can dismiss a summoned spirit. I’ll be fine.”
Dane opened the door a fraction, peeking outside. “Okay, it looks clear,” he said.
He took Eve by the hand, and the two slipped out, quietly closing the door behind them. Ethan kept mopping, and Eve knelt down beside him and grabbed from rags that had been draped on the side of the bucket to help.
“So I guess you are all three studying to be wizards,” Ethan said.
“They are.” She shrugged. “Eve is one of the most powerful student spell casters in the school. Dane is Callister’s nephew, and a very gifted summoner.”
“What about you?”
She shook her head and scrubbed a little harder. “I’m good at the academics, but I’m not powerful enough to go far as a wizard. I’ve already been here two years longer than usual to try to get my practicals up, but I turn twenty-one next month. I won’t be allowed to stay after that.”
“What, they kick you out at twenty-one?”
She nodded. “Professor Callister was putting together a graduate program based on some new research and had invited me to be a part of it. With his death, I don’t think anyone else will sponsor it. I’m going to have to choose another career field with magic as a secondary skill.”
“I think I understood most of that,” Ethan said. “So where are we, exactly?”
“The school? It’s near Vissos in the Kingdom of Aligia. What about you?”
“Never heard of that. I’m in New York. Upstate, not the city. Uh, in the United States.”
“I have never heard of any of those.” She glanced up at him, arching an eyebrow. “It sounds made up. Is there an Old York to go with it?”
Ethan snickered. “Just York, yeah. Back in England. I’ve never been there. I’ve never been much of anywhere, really. I’m only about sixty miles from where I grew up.” He dipped the mop back in the bucket and set back to work mopping the floor.
“Are you also studying to be a wizard?”
“No such thing here. I graduated from college a couple of years ago. I’m a software engineer.”
“I understood most of that,” she said. “I don’t know what a software engineer is, but it sounds like applied science.”
“That’s about right. Do you have computers in this world?”
“People who do mathematical calculations?”
“Machines.”
“Ah. Some counting devices, yes.” She squeezed the rag into the bucket. “I think we’re done here. I should dismiss you now.”
Ethan peeked under the headset at the glowing LEDs of the clock on the microwave. “I should have gone to sleep a half an hour ago. I didn’t realize how long I’ve been playing. It’s time for me to go.”
“I will cast a dismissal spell. It’s not too powerful, but if you are willing to leave, it won’t need to be.”
Ethan shrugged, but the expression didn’t really translate to his avatar. “I can just exit the game here and save you the trouble, you know.”
“I still don’t know what you mean by game. But even if you are telling the truth, I don’t want any of your puppet lingering around.” She made a circular motion with her hands, gesturing at him. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for the inconvenience. We didn’t know we were summoning a real person.”
Ethan laughed. “Actually, this was an extremely interesting night.”
She smiled at him. “You are an interesting person, Ethan. I enjoyed meeting you.”
“I was glad to meet you, too, Alicia. And your friends. I look forward to seeing you again.”
Her smile dropped. “I… I think that is unlikely. But maybe.” She spoke a short nonsense phrase while gesturing at him. The screen went black again, except for a message that read “Klendistone comm protocol 200 executing. Screenshots re-enabled.”
He exited the game, turned off the headset, and then plugged the VR system in to recharge.
He went to bed after a quick meal of dry cereal, but it took him two hours to fall asleep, thinking of Alicia, Dane, and Eve. He just couldn’t convince himself that they were only characters in a game.
The next day, Ethan called his boss to say he’d be working from home. These days, that was a non-event. Most of his coworkers did the same, almost every day, including his boss. He really didn’t have much need to go into the office at all, except that it gave him a change of scenery.
But the game had done that even better, hadn’t it? Even if he’d only seen the courtyard and a storage room, it had been a new place. At least, it felt that way.
As he worked, he glanced at the virtual reality gear sitting on the shelf near his tiny desk. Nyrlim Academy was only a few feet away. He resolved to take a real lunch break today and visit the school once more. Maybe he’d see more of it than a storage room. He thought about the things he wanted to talk about with Alicia, and then mentally chided himself when he caught himself.
“You’re losing
it, Ethan,” he said out loud.
She wasn’t real. None of it was real. Nyrlim Academy was just a game.
When lunchtime rolled around, Ethan wolfed down a microwaved meal and threw on the VR gear. He swore in annoyance as he launched Nyrlim Magic Academy, and a patch notice came up. As he waited, he looked over the patch notes and saw a warning that anyone who had played the game earlier should start a new game, as their current save state might be corrupted.
“For the very few players who have received the first batch of Klendistone VR kits and who played the unpatched version, we apologize.”
It was too late to abort the update. When it was complete, Ethan took his chances and loaded his game from the previous night. He didn’t want to lose what had happened in the storeroom. Not yet, at least. Re-playing it again would shatter the illusion, and part of him wanted it all to be real.
He found himself standing in the tutorial courtyard again. This time, the doors to the castle stood open. The scene seemed like the set of a high school play compared to the storeroom the night before. Sexy-witch Vera, in her cartoonish glory, stood beside him.
“Uh, hi. I’m Ethan,” he said.
“You have completed the tutorial,” Vera said cheerfully. “You may now enter Nyrlim Magic Academy. If you have forgotten how to cast the spells, I can help you.”
Ethan took the hint. It had been late when he’d played, and he hadn’t spared a thought for the spell system. He remembered how to cast all the spells except the one to move the weights around the courtyard. When he consulted with Vera, she spoke of only four spells. The bugged spell was missing, which was not surprising. However, the magical shield spell was also missing, replaced by a spell to “stop someone’s heart.” He practiced it until he had it down against illusionary monsters that Vera conjured, but this seemed like a strange selection for a game about young students at a magical school. This was a darker game than he’d imagined.
After one last drill to make certain he could cast the spells he’d learned, he walked through the doorway, anticipating another trip to an extremely realistic location.
Fantastic Schools, Volume 3 Page 3