"I can't do the magic thing, but I can solve it," said Alex.
After mixing it up, the pink-haired girl threw it to her. Alex had been watching the whole time, so she knew exactly where to start when it was in her hands. The internal pivot mechanism was sticky, keeping her from zipping through her paces, but Alex's fingers remembered the trick of the cube. Before a minute had passed, she threw the puzzle back to the girl.
"What in the Abyss?" exclaimed the pink-haired girl, staring at the completed cube.
"I used to be sub-twenty, but I'm out of practice," said Alex with a one-shoulder shrug.
The train lurched to a stop and the pink-haired girl got up to leave.
"Good luck at Gamemakers."
Alex got confused until she remembered that she was wearing a Gamemakers pin, which looked like a pair of tumbling dice. After the brief examination, she looked up, catching her reflection in the window. She touched her dark hair, which almost touched her shoulders since she hadn't had it cut in a while, trying to save money for her mom. She liked it short, coming just past her jawline, which helped frame her chubby face. Alex adjusted her dark-rimmed glasses.
After switching to the Blue Line, which served the outer city, she made it to the twelfth ward. Immediately, her nose wrinkled from the smell of rotting garbage. The run-down buildings were covered with graffiti. It looked like this part of the city had once been an industrial center, before business had moved on.
Alex checked the directions again, finding that she was on the correct street. She squeezed her backpack to the side as she headed in the direction of the hall.
As she passed rusty chain-linked fences and old buildings with most of the windows knocked out, Alex kept checking over her shoulder.
When she came around the corner, she didn't know what to make of what she saw. The only reason she knew it was Gamemakers Hall was because she was standing at the address, and it was the only place in the area that appeared livable.
The building looked like a dozen other mismatched buildings had been smashed for parts and then jammed back together with cement. There was an old console game she remembered playing when she was a kid called Katamari that involved rolling a sticky ball that grew in size as it picked up anything it touched. This building looked like an architectural version of a Katamari ball. She saw a turret, a gothic church front, an elementary school library, and a dozen other building features within the conglomeration.
Frozen by the strangeness of it, Alex almost didn't hear the footsteps until it was too late. She turned to see a couple of figures hidden by shadows moving in her direction, spurring her towards the gate before Gamemakers Hall.
When she passed through the archway, it felt like she'd passed through a membrane. Her ears popped.
She glanced back to see whatever had been following her had disappeared back into the industrial buildings. That the Gamemakers Hall had to set up shop in a run-down area didn't bode well for its standing in the university, but Alex decided she should give it a chance before having regrets.
Inside the entryway, she expected to be greeted by a professor or older classman, but the wood-floored room was empty. She saw three different passages leading deeper into the building, including a spiral staircase that looked rescued from a circa 1920 mansion.
"Hello?" she called, hoping that the greeting committee had stepped away for a bathroom break.
When no one appeared, Alex took the middle passage, hoping it led to the correct place. Further down, she heard the familiar beeps and whistles of a stand-up arcade game. An open door revealed a dozen vintage arcade games packed side by side.
A figure in a hoodie was standing in front of the Battle for Invictus! game, jamming the control stick in various directions and slapping the action buttons in a steady staccato. The person playing the game looked pretty focused, so she waited until they'd beaten the level before speaking.
"Hello, can you help me? I just joined Gamemakers today," she said, wondering why the player's motions were awkward and stiff.
A voice answered her, but not from the direction she was expecting.
"Bully on you, kid. Pick an open room. Good luck."
Sitting in the corner of the arcade on a folding chair was a guy with messy brown hair, looking like he'd just woken up. He was tapping on his smartphone while frowning.
"Oh, hi, I didn't see you there. I'm Alex, short for Alexandria," she said.
"Yep, the new kid," he said without looking up.
As she stared at the figure playing the arcade game, she was struck by how wrong it looked. Cautiously, she stepped forward until she was parallel with the player, only to find that there was no "person" under the hoodie, but a mannequin from a department store.
"That's Manny," said the guy in the chair. "I was bored last weekend so I enchanted him to play Battle. He can get through the first fifteen levels, but then he dies on the second boss."
Watching the plastic man play an arcade game made her take a step back. "Whoa, that's really amazing."
The guy snorted. "Not really. It's just an algorithm and a little magic. Any idiot who understands basic non-deterministic recursion and the finite-string method of arcane material control could do it."
Alex was simultaneously excited and intimidated. "Can you tell me where I'm supposed to go? Who I'm supposed to report to for classes?"
"Classes, ha. That's a good one. You came here to play games, right?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied.
"There you have it," he said while biting his lower lip and hammering on the smartphone screen as if he were trying to poke a hole through it. "Dammit." He dropped the phone in his lap and looked up at her with an exasperated sigh. "They get younger every year."
"I'm standing right here," she replied, feeling less intimidated and more annoyed. She squinted at him. "What's your name?"
"Bucket."
"Nice to meet you, Bucket."
He stared at her without saying a word for a good ten seconds. Without a scowl on his face, she thought he was cute, but then the frown returned and he went back to his smartphone.
Alex sighed. "Where is Lord Falker?"
He wrinkled his face. "Lord Falker?"
"He's the one that recruited me," said Alex.
"Ah, Professor Marzio. You'll find him in the turret," said Bucket.
"The turret?"
"You know," he said, "round thing, like a tower, but attached to a building. Looks more like a bloated cannon on our humble Hall, but nobody asked me."
"What about Patron Adolphus Dimple?" she asked.
He glanced up, deadly serious. "Just talk to Marzio."
When Bucket started cursing under his breath at whatever he was doing on his phone, Alex took that as her cue to leave. Her stomach was starting to twist with the thought that she'd made a mistake coming to the Gamemakers Hall. She hoped that Professor Marzio would make a better impression.
Chapter Six
The entrance to the turret required climbing through a passageway that angled upward at a steep enough grade to require crawling. The surface was smooth enough she had to dig her sneakers into the angle to keep from sliding back down.
The passage was so inconveniently sloped that Alex had to prop her feet against the opposite walls to bang against the door, hoping that Professor Marzio wouldn't keep her long because she didn't know if she could hold herself in that position long.
A cough and a scrape of a chair across the floor later, the door opened. A man with a tightly kept beard, bald head, and intense gaze was looking down at her.
"Professor Falker? I mean, Marzio?"
For a moment, she thought he was going to push her back down the passage, but a switch went on behind his eyes, bringing a toothy smile.
"You must be Alexandria," he said, reaching to help pull her into the turret.
"Thank you," she said, once she was in the room, which was angled away from the center of the Hall.
Professor Marzio motioned toward
s a chair before a desk.
"We're really glad you could join us at Gamemakers Hall," said Professor Marzio with his hands clasped on the desk, staring intently at her.
"I'm...glad to be here," she said.
He slapped his hand on the table. "Excellent. Then I'm sure you'll do great."
Professor Marzio dug through his desk while Alex sat patiently. He pulled out a bag of hard candy, unwrapped one, and popped it in his mouth before returning to the papers on his desk.
Alex counted to ten in her head before asking, "Uhm, so where do I find my room? And what about the classes? And I thought I was supposed to link myself to Patron Dimple so I don't get faez madness."
Professor Marzio looked up, a frisson of surprise on his forehead as if he hadn't expected her to still be sitting across from him.
"That's right, I'm very sorry," he said in a way that Alex almost took as sarcasm. "We should get you sworn in."
He stood up suddenly and rushed into a side room with Alex right on his heels. In the corner of the rhomboidal-shaped room was an obsidian cube. The glossy black surface seemed to absorb light.
"Put your hand on that," said Professor Marzio.
The surface was cool. It felt almost alive under her palm, though she could detect no movement.
"I want you to open your mind, let faez collect there, but do nothing with it until you feel it pulled away from you like a string. It will be slightly unpleasant at first, like falling asleep on your arm, but then it will not," he said.
Alex knew what to expect, since she'd temporarily linked herself to one of the professors who'd run the Trials, but they'd been present for the procedure. She was confused about the presence of the obsidian cube.
"I don't understand. Where is Professor Dimple?" she asked.
"Traveling," said Professor Marzio. "But this cube will connect you to him. Nothing to worry about."
Feeling a little overwhelmed by the strangeness, Alex decided it was best that she just follow the instructions. As soon as she summoned faez, a tug pulled on her mind. Her first reaction was to hold fast, but then she let go, and the raw magic slipped away, leaving her whole body tingly. Then after about twenty seconds of discomfort, the prickly feeling left, and a wave of euphoria rushed in after.
"There, that wasn't so bad," said Professor Marzio. "Welcome to the club."
As he walked her back towards the door, she asked, "When do classes start?"
His lips squeezed flat, while his forehead knotted as if he didn't understand. "Whenever you want. Just ask one of your fellow Gamemakers. They'll show you where to go."
"O...kay. Anything else I need to know?"
Distracted by a buzzing phone on his desk, Professor Marzio said, "You must reach level twenty by the end of the year or you won't be able to return."
Professor Marzio practically pushed her through the door, before slamming it shut. Alex slid down, landing with a hard bump on the main floor.
"Level twenty. Now that's something I can understand."
Alex spent the next hour investigating the rest of the building. She made up her own rule of exploring any room with an open door. This led her to a messy kitchen filled with pots in the sink, surrounded by empty ramen wrappers and pizza boxes. The eating area seemed small for the size of the building, but was much larger than the table in her trailer.
Along the way she found numerous empty bedrooms that looked hastily abandoned. The beds only had a mattress, and the desk chairs were usually knocked over or stacked on another piece of furniture. She found a dozen power strips, two that still had cords attached, as if someone had grabbed their laptop but forgotten to unplug the power.
In one room, she found a slim tome with common spells. Alex couldn't find a name in it, so she slipped it into her bag.
It wasn't until she reached the third floor by way of the iron spiral staircase that she found her room. As soon as she stepped inside, she knew that's where she'd be staying. It was the upper section of the gothic church, so the ceiling was angled and the back wall was covered with a massive circular window that looked out at the Spire. Sure, there were a few industrial wrecks behind Gamemakers Hall, but the view was expansive enough that she could avoid the mess.
With bags unpacked, Alex went in search of another soul. Gamemakers Hall seemed big enough to hold fifty or sixty people, but she'd only seen Bucket, Professor Marzio, and a girl asleep on a couch with a book over her face.
She made her way back to the arcade, running into Bucket when he was leaving. He tried to step around her until she moved in his way.
"Excuse me, new kid."
"The name is Alex."
"Good for you," he said, and tried to step around her again.
She growled under her breath. "I need you to help me."
Bucket blinked a few times as if he didn't know how to process her request.
"Look, I found Professor Marzio and a room, but this place is a ghost town. He told me I have to hit level twenty by the end of the year, which sounds like a total cakewalk, but I don't know where to find this game. Gamemakers Online, right?"
Bucket nodded vaguely before trying to slip past her again. Then he stared at her with a frown firmly attached to his lips.
"If you won't let me past, I can't show you where to go."
Alex made an elaborate bow, flourishing her hand down the hallway.
Bucket led her into a lower section through a door with a password. As soon as she entered, she found herself inhaling with surprise.
In the center of the room was another obsidian cube, except this one was as big as a city bus. Scattered around the room were squishy pillows all over the floor, making it look like a harem.
"Here you go," he said, nonplussed.
"This is Gamemakers Online? I thought I was going to log into an elaborate VR system," she said.
He seemed confused by her lack of understanding, but shrugged and explained, "This is the game portal. It's made of obsidian because that's the best material for teleportation. Except this isn't teleportation, not really. Instead, you'll appear in a simulated world which is housed inside the cube. It's the same magic-tech they use for the Second Year Contest."
"Simulated world," said Alex breathlessly.
Her whole body tingled with anticipation of "logging" into the game.
"How do I get in?" she asked.
"Get comfortable on one of the pillows, place your hands on the cube, then let faez fill your mind. The cube will do the rest," said Bucket.
"And then?"
A sly grin rose to his face. "Game on."
Alex rubbed her hands together. She couldn't wait to get started.
"Any hints?"
"If you need those then you shouldn't be here," he said.
"Fair enough," she said, crouching on a pillow. "What about classes? Do we meet with the professors in between game time?"
He nodded towards the cube. "Everything you need to learn is in there."
"Really?"
"Really."
Alex sighed as she considered what was being expected of her. It was strange, but it was also exciting.
"Thank you for showing me where to go."
Bucket shrugged as he moseyed from the room, muttering to himself, "It's not like you gave me a choice."
It took a moment for Alex to get comfortable. She didn’t want to wake up with a backache after the session, if that's how it worked. She found it odd that no one else was in the room. Did that mean she actually disappeared from this reality into the cube? Or was everyone else taking a break?
Further questions were dispelled by the anticipation of getting to play a new game. There was nothing in the world that excited her more than that first time of logging on. So many possibilities unfolding. What class would she pick? What kind of creatures would she encounter? It'd be a whole world to explore, and she wouldn't have to wear bulky VR gear or alt-tab to access chat programs.
She placed her hand gingerly on the obsidian cube. Her fing
ers tingled as she let faez flow into her mind. She found herself holding her breath, and forcibly exhaled before reaching out to make a connection.
Alex joined Gamemakers Online.
Chapter Seven
Alex expected a loading screen, or a cut scene giving her an infodump on the world. At the very least, there should be a character choosing menu so she could deliberate on the myriad of choices. It was one of the many joys of playing a new game, sorting through the possibilities to divine the best possible class.
She didn't have a personal preference on play style. She was comfortable as a tank, DPS, healer, or support class. Her only requirement was that she could leverage her ability to exploit gaps in game design.
When she landed on a rotted log on the edge of a thick forest, the soft wood crumbling beneath her boot releasing a pile of maggots that had been slowly decomposing the fallen tree from the inside, she almost logged right back out due to the verisimilitude of the game. The only thing keeping her from doing so was that she didn't know how to log out.
"Mother of magic," she muttered, cringing at her voice.
After stepping away from the rice-like maggots wriggling in the grass, Alex spun around, taking in the surrounding forest.
At first glance, it could have been a forest in Kentucky or Tennessee. When she was younger, and her family was whole, they'd taken trips to Gatlinburg in the Smokies. The tall trees had provided a canopy overhead in which birds chirped and critters rustled. She'd sensed its aliveness, felt its vitality. Much like this place.
But it was the blue edging around the leaves that made her realize it was a foreign. It wasn't Fae, but it had an otherworldly feel that suggested danger lurked around every corner.
After confirming there were no immediate threats, Alex checked herself, finding a standard set of newbie equipment. On her hip was a short dagger. She wore tan breeches and a simple gray shirt.
Alex pulled the dagger from the sheath and held it before her eyes. The blade had a nick on the edge. It looked like a weapon that had seen better days.
Item: Nicked Dagger
The Warped Forest Page 3