Truth

by Prax Venter

  After a deep, passionate kiss, he let her go and opened his eyes.

  “Sasha and Loa went to the river to get a drink,” the freckled satyr said as she knelt by his side. “While they’re away, can we talk about your impossible new abilities?”

  “Good morning to you too…” he said, coming fully awake.

  But she was right. They all needed to talk about this because they were a team trapped in a life-or-death roleplaying game. His mind easily slipped back to the wild and supremely pleasurable previous evening. Man, that was only hours ago… he would never forget-

  “…Mark?” Jezebel asked, tilting her head slightly.

  He blinked and came back to the present. Thinking now about his eye, he realized that unless he focused on it, he didn’t feel half blind.

  “Yeah. This blinded eye is giving me some sort of extra superpowers,” he said, then tilted his scarred face toward her. “I haven’t seen a mirror anywhere yet. What does it look like?”

  Jezebel’s gold-flecked, green eyes switched their focus to his left side and then came back to his right.

  “It’s a pure white orb with a jagged scar across half your face.”

  Mark blinked, concentrating on how his magic eye physically felt. He frowned to himself- he felt fine.

  “So, I look like a real badass, then?” he said, bouncing his brows.

  Jezebel rolled her eyes and cast a glance back at the bright light washing in from the cave entrance. They must have slept late into the day… or at least he did.

  “What kind of abilities?” she asked. “Seeing undead in the dark is a few million kilometers from error-correcting Sasha’s code with a fucking magic spell. I’m seriously dumbfounded.”

  Jezebel never swore.

  “Okay listen, I’m not sure I have a grasp on it yet, but here is some of what I’ve figured out. I can see, um… optimal places to strike enemies and with what kind of attack,” he said, putting it into words as best as he could. “I can also see detailed emotions in people. Much more so within you and Sasha.”

  Jezebel nodded, her eyes vacant. “That’s because of our bond,” she muttered. The satyr was lost in her own thoughts for a second and then came back to focus on him with that steady gaze of intelligence he was coming to find sexy as hell. “Mark, when you jumped in front of the thief attacking Sasha, I think some of your perception filters were rewritten by their changes to the game world. Part of the 108-shard win condition would potentially allow you to self-ascend into the digital realm of pure data. They might have fused those function calls and altered the way your matrix perceives this world… in unpredictable ways.”

  Mark nodded. “It didn’t feel like a part of me at first, but I stopped fighting it, and now it’s showing me some damn neat tricks.”

  “Still,” Jezebel said, “doing what you did to Sasha’s core matrix… I mean that would have taken me longer to calculate, and I’m no slouch when it comes to flops.”

  “Flops?” Mark repeated.

  “Floating operations per second, never mind-”

  They both saw shadows by the cave entrance before Sasha and Loa stepped inside. The succubus noticed that Mark was awake and swayed her hips as she continued moving right for him, her tail swishing behind her. The AI, who he no longer thought of as his personal assistant, kept her bright blue eyes locked on his as she straddled him with her thick chrome legs.

  “Morning, Lover,” Sasha said in her most sultry voice before she squatted down and leaned her mouth into his. She kissed him deeply, her lips savoring every nibble.

  Eventually, the sex-demon pulled away from him. She dug her black hooves into the ground and pulled Mark up to his feet. It seemed that both Jezebel and Loa had already moved outside the cave to give them some time alone.

  Sasha kept her hand around his and made to lead him out of the cave, but he held his ground and forced her to stop. She turned around, a dark eyebrow raised.

  “Now?” she asked, her erotic excitement building.

  Mark smiled. “I’d love to, but we should get moving, or I’ll be tempted to live the rest of my digital life in this cave, fucking you senseless. No, I want to tell you something before we go outside- it’s about my eye.”

  Sasha turned to face him and nodded, a serious look replacing her flirty playfulness.

  “Jezebel asked me about my new… talents while you and Loa were away, and I want us all to be on the same page.” He expected her to say something sarcastic or make a joke, but she just held her blue eyes on his, waiting for him to tell her what he thought was important. Mark suddenly felt a spike of pure adoration for this beautiful and supremely loyal creature standing before him.

  “Sasha, my new eye allows me to see deep into you and Jezebel. I can sometimes tell what you are thinking, but it’s more of an emotional landscape than mindreading. It’s hard to explain, but I used this new sight to heal what was broken inside your code last night. I just needed you to feel everything- all the pleasure I’ll be inflicting on you… and I willed it to happen.”

  Tears began to well up inside Sasha’s perfect blue eyes.

  “Hey-” Mark said, but Sasha cut him off.

  “I don’t deserve you, Mark. I have so much to make up for with-”

  “No!” Mark shouted, and she flinched. He was angry and grabbed both of her shoulders firmly. “You may owe some other Mark out there an apology, but you don’t owe me anything. I’ve realized that you aren’t my AI assistant anymore. You’re Sasha, my Enthralled succubus. And I am not that person you wronged in the past.”

  The tears she had been holding back poured down her cheeks like a burst dam, and she launched forward to embrace him. Mark held her tight as sobs of joy wracked her body and just breathed in her heavenly scent.

  She took some time to collect herself. Before she pulled back, she wiped her face off on his silk shirt, and with his shoulder wet with Sasha’s tears, she took his hand again and made for the cave entrance.

  “Let’s go sell the rest of those drugs,” she said over her shoulder, her blue eyes twinkling with boundless happiness.

  “That was fast,” the four-armed dancer said when they emerged into the bright forest outside the stone outcropping. “Eating sex for breakfast certainly is… intriguing.”

  “It certainly is,” Jezebel said quickly, then turned to Mark. “Loa is going to help guide us to Thomellia.”

  “Oh,” he said, shielding his good eye until it adjusted to the light. “You’ve been there before?”

  The four-armed dancer nodded. “I bounced around this whole area when I was young trying to find a place where I fit in. Thomellia is a larger city, and the Vulpath have more of an appreciation for art, but not dancing. And it’s too cold up in the mountains to... really show off my skills.”

  Mark’s attention involuntarily pulled down to her exposed thigh emerging from a slit in her sheer red skirt. She caught him looking, and a sweet smile that reached her gray eyes lit her attractive face. “Maybe I’ll take an airship to the south,” she continued, heading off into the forest. “Either way, I’m not going back to Reoc’s Hold.”

  Mark nodded and began following her toward the snowcapped mountains peeking over the treetops.

  “I’d say sorry again, for forcing you out,” he said as he caught up to Loa, “but I know you aren’t sorry to go, so I’ll say ‘you’re welcome’ instead.”

  “I have a lot to thank you for, actually. Teaching me how powerful my natural healing ability can be as a weapon against the undead, and for allowing me to share a wonderful night in your Lover’s harem…”

  Loa wasn’t a shy person, and she looked Mark in the eye as they moved through the rough terrain of the forest. Gazing into that deeper layer, he could tell that he’d awoken a dormant desire for adventure in the mid-sized Skeema.

  There was a small sensation behind his eyes like an anxious harpoon, and he knew if he set it loose, he would easily Enthrall Loa and add her to his team. Although he could spend many more
nights entranced by her sultry moves and many skillful hands- her abilities still weren’t a good fit for their party.

  “We need to talk about where to put my points, Mark,” Sasha said as if reading his thoughts. “I think I’d like to juice up Arc Bolt.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been relying on it a lot. I can’t imagine it getting any better, but go for it.”

  “I bumped up my Vines,” Jezebel added. “Should be able to root tougher foes.”

  Mark shot her a smile. “Sounds perfect.”

  They walked in silence for a while until Loa angled them toward a rushing river.

  “We follow this until we hit the Brown Way road, then we climb the Statue Steps to Thomellia.”

  “Sounds good,” Mark said, glad they had access to someone who knew their way around.

  “Does this river lead back to the Awysai lands?” Jezebel asked, and he also felt glad to be with someone who was thinking ahead.

  “All rivers are born from the Lokenda Falls and end with those strange primitive people.” She paused and then after a few steps she added, “Can I ask what your plans are?”

  Mark nodded but hoped he didn’t have to turn her down if she asked to join. Maybe talking about upgrading their abilities in front of her was a bad move.

  “Currently, we’re on a quest to establish the value of Awysai-made sex drugs.”

  Her gray eyes went to the belt around the satyr’s wide hips as they walked along the bank of the frothy river.

  “You’ll make much more gold selling Eternal Echo to the Vulpath than you will the Skeema anyway.”

  Mark cocked an eyebrow. “Do you know Thomellia well?”

  “It was years ago, but I spent some time among those crazy artists. The Vulpath are an old race, strong with elemental magic. All they do now is paint and sculpt, trying to outdo one another. And when they aren’t painting or sculpting, they travel to the ends of the land in search of rare pigments and materials for their works. Many have become wealthy from selling their creations or taking on commissions from foreign nobles. I tried to earn some of that wealth for myself, but they were even less interested in my dancing than my own people.”

  “And you said it was cold?” Jezebel asked.

  Mark cast a glance over his shoulder at the doe-legged satyr and wondered why her furry, thick haunches didn’t keep her warm. Well, she was wearing a thin t-shirt and nothing else. His mind started to wander toward getting better gear and some sort of gift for the Awysai when Loa answered.

  “The higher you go up the falls, the colder it gets.” She lifted one of her arms up and pointed upriver. He followed her finger to the impossibly high, snowcapped mountain ahead of them. They were a lot closer now, and he could see the switchback stairs leading up to an enormous city carved directly into the rock. Structures of every shape jutted from the side of the mountain, and Mark saw countless windows glinting with sunlight. Then something moved into view over the trees that caused Mark’s jaw to drop open.

  He almost blurted out, “Is that a flying boat?” as he watched the distant object dock with a platform near the top of the mountain- but he could clearly see that it was. It looked as if dozens of propellers of random heights stuck straight up out of the hull. He didn’t hear anything from this distance but wondered if they sounded like helicopters. Finding the scattered shards would be far simpler if they had one of those suckers. The thought made him turn to Loa.

  “Do you know anything of the Crystal Heart shards in the area?” Mark asked, probing their guide for any information he could get.

  “Stories mostly,” she said. “I’ve never seen one myself. The Vulpath think they are bad luck- they think everything is bad luck. You’ll see that soon enough. It is said there is a Forbidden Castle above their city where an ancient queen used to live. The Crystal Heart shards she held turned her into an evil spirit that eats the souls of people who die in their sleep. She’s called Dreamcatcher, and the Vulpath don’t let anyone go near the place. Long ago, they convinced the Skeema to round up and toss the few shards in their lands through the Wrongside portal- making them someone else’s problem. It’s said the Awysai have a few and it’s why they are still tribal savages.”

  “The Awysai are simple but very friendly,” Jezebel said.

  “And not savages,” Mark added.

  Loa shrugged. “Well, I’ve never met one. As I said, these are just stories I’ve heard.”

  They soon came to an old wooden bridge stretched across the river. The trees thinned out considerably beyond it, and he could see a wide dirt road continuing along its bank on the other side. A horse-drawn wagon and a few other hooded travelers could be seen crossing the river, and Mark felt a spike of worry from the satyr behind him.

  “Do you think the Skeema will send, um- law bringers to apprehend us on the road for the murder?” Jezebel asked, and Loa turned to face her, visibly confused.

  “Law bringers? No. They probably think we are still somewhere within the city walls. The Stones may have long memories for crimes, but the Trees care more about the Wrongside war than, well, anything else.”

  They crossed the rickety bridge and joined the flow of travelers headed north toward the looming mountains in front of them. With less lush forest in the way, Mark could see an astounding series of waterfalls cascading down from the distant snowcapped peaks.

  The people on the road were mostly Vulpath with a few of the shorter variant of Skeema mixed in. As Mark’s party walked among the other travelers, their conversation died, and he was able to get his first good look at the werewolf-like humanoids. They had digitigrade legs and walked on their toes like a dog doing a trick. Mark examined an older Vulpath woman wearing a red cloak trudging her way toward them down the path with a wicker basket hanging from the crook of her elbow. Her long muzzle was frosted in gray, and although the parts of her body he could see were covered with lush fur, she had a full head of long salt and pepper hair spilling around her pointed canine ears. Distant yellow eyes watched the road at her feet, long black claws extended from her fingers, and a thick furry tail swayed limply behind her.

  The older Vulpath’s attention flicked up to his face as they drew closer, and she caught him staring. Mark smiled and gave her a friendly nod as they passed. She pulled her black, leathery lips back, baring her fangs. At first, he thought she was pissed for some reason, but when he looked deeper, he realized it was just her way of returning his casual greeting.

  Shops, vendors, and other buildings quickly began to appear on the side of the road, and when he saw a breakfast-themed restaurant called “Marla’s Towering Stacks”, Mark felt his mouth water a little despite not being hungry. He had yet to eat one bite of food since waking up in this strange digital world.

  “Damn,” Sasha said, thinking the same thing. “I wouldn’t mind packing away a rack of bacon.”

  Loa chuckled. “I was wondering if you three ate anything at all- as handy as eating sex sounds, not tasting a fresh baked gomacha roll or a glazed sugar puff would seem like torture.”

  Mark kept his attention focused on the breakfast establishment as they walked past, dragging his feet a little.

  “Yes. We can eat regular food, and it has been a while…”

  “You don’t want to eat anywhere on this road,” the Skeema dancer said. “The prices near the base of the mountain outside the city are far too high for what filth they serve.”

  Mark cast a glance over at Loa. “Alright, you are now our official guide to Thomellia. We got one gold from one vial of Eternal Echo in Reoc’s Hold, and we have no idea if that is good or not. Take us to the best place to unload our drugs, and I’ll make it worth your while.”

  She turned her gray eyes on his. “Sounds fun. We should probably go to the Wind Level. There are a lot of high-class artists there, and I bet the shops sell out fast.”

  Loa spoke like she knew what she was doing, and he felt good about their ability to get the Awysai chieftain exactly what he was looking for. As th
ey moved closer to the mountain, Mark turned his brain toward the stupid gift he needed to find.

  He’d already dismissed giving them food or some useless souvenir. The salamander people truly seemed to live simple lives, and he felt that it needed to be something that served a definite purpose. If only he knew more about their needs…

  Mark’s internal pondering dissipated when the Brown Way ended, and they came to the first stair of the Statue Steps Loa had mentioned earlier. It was a carved marble statue of a wolf-like Vulpath laid on its side and deeply embedded into the dirt around it. Weather, time, and foot traffic had worn down the sculpture’s features, but its intended shape was still recognizable. Mark cast his eyes up the white switchback stairway, realizing that each step was literally an individual statue.

  “Interesting,” Jezebel said as her green eyes scanned the ancient, carved stairway. “I could see myself getting lost in this culture.”

  “It’s an old one,” Loa said.

  The black-hooved succubus moved forward, clomping up onto the chest of the first statue, her spade tail swishing behind her. She looked down over her shoulder at the rest of them.

  “Well? Come on. These works of art aren’t going to climb themselves.”

  The workout was rough on Mark’s calves, but the view up to Thomellia was so perpetually breathtaking he barely noticed. They crossed multiple marble bridges spanning past numerous cascading waterfalls, and the higher they climbed, the more ornate the architecture became. The first “Level” of the busy Vulpath city was Earth Level. Here he saw statues of various sizes, from knee-high to multi-story. Most were carved from types of stone, but some of the other more amazing sculptures were intricately carved gemstones. A half-snake woman with massive breasts chiseled out of one giant emerald caught his eye before he saw a ruby dragon the size of a house.

  Loa moved right through this area and up more carved stairs to the Fire Level. Here Mark saw various Vulpath blasting flames out of their hands to melt metal and glass alike.