by Domino Finn
The voyage was almost complete.
After ample downtime, awestruck muttering drew me to the Cutter's deck. Pirates pointed to the formless sky where a single black serpent cut through the mist.
"Nightwing," I said. The pirates jumped at my voice as if afraid I'd attract the impressive beast.
"We've seen him before," reported Errol. "Lots o' whispers round these parts o' fanciful beasts. Me boots shiver ev'ry time."
The black dragon released a sharp cry before abruptly banking out of sight.
"It's an invitation," I said. "We're close."
The captain nodded. "I reckon we'll be smellin' the Salt Sea in one shake of a hat."
We'd been sailing northeast with the coast for some time now. The Salt Sea wasn't a true sea but a natural breakwater in the shape of a circle. It ringed off a portion of the ocean into a higher pool, shallow and stale, tepid with overripe fish carcasses. A wasteland of crevices and salt. Unsurprisingly, Lucifer had chosen this place of death as his sanctuary.
Even though the tip of the Salt Sea's border found itself submerged during high tide, our frigate was much too large to broach the pool. Errol pulled the Cutter up to the breakwater, dropped anchor, and lowered a skiff to the water. We let the crew relax while Errol, Izzy, Kyle and I transferred to the calm waters of Lucifer's home.
The stench of rotting fish assaulted my sinuses. It was one thing to whiff it on the breeze, another entirely to be permeated by its putrid essence. I willed the sensory input to the back of my mind and focused on the confrontation ahead.
The last time I was here, I died.
Of course, that betrayal hadn't been at Lucifer's hands. We were traveling with Cleric Vagram, before the catechists had revealed their true intentions. If ever I had a bone to pick with someone in Haven, it was Vagram for his sudden and lethal treachery. I locked eyes with Izzy and knew she worked through similar thoughts.
Though the rogue cleric was a million miles away, we kept watch for ambushes all the same. The sea answered with quiet. As we approached the central rock pedestal, barely an island, the mists parted and revealed a lone figure expecting us.
[Luc1f3r]
His name, as with everything else about him, was a hack. He wasn't even really a he at all, but an eight-year-old girl. Nightwing, thankfully absent for the moment, had been awoken early and was the only living dragon in the world. Even more frightening were the two golden angels Lucifer had corrupted. They were now the Fallen. Idle and tainted, instead of hunting the devil, they served as his personal bodyguards.
But not now. No one else now. Just the man himself, black robes swaying in the gentle breeze. The muted sun lightly picked up the silver runes adorning his cloak. Lucifer held a black witchwood staff with a chunky glowing blue jewel fitted between the Y branch at the top. A dusky snake wrapped around his hand at rest on the weapon.
"Are you alone?" I called out as we approached.
His voice came out light and playful, like the breeze. "Loneliness is my cross."
We hopped off the skiff and waded ahead in the shallows. "I'm not looking to get ambushed by a couple of hacked angels."
If his smile was meant to ease me, it had the opposite effect. The one good thing about Cleric Vagram was his holy power that partially fended off Lucifer's blackness. It would be impossible to defend against angels without it.
"Why are you here, Talon of Stronghold?"
The others grounded the skiff. Izzy splashed through the water to back me up while Errol tied down. Kyle remained sitting inside, hands out of sight, gripping his double crossbow.
"I just want to talk," I answered, "if that's okay."
"And they say old dogs don't learn."
"I can do without the insults, kid."
For a brief second, Lucifer's persona wavered. The little girl inside tensed against my admonishment. But then the adversary took over. Supreme. Collected. Above petty things. I figured a point scored for each side was enough. No reason to continue with verbal games.
"There's trouble in Oakengard. The crusaders can't be trusted."
Lucifer traced a finger over his snake's head. "Could they ever?"
"Some of them, maybe. It was your hack to give NPCs free will that caused the trouble."
"Growing pains," he assured. "Is it for us to begrudge their new insights?"
I considered Errol. "No way. They're people, same as us. They deserve life and liberty."
"And the crusaders?"
I smacked my lips. "Something's different about them. The Trinity's been compromised. Saint Loras is up to something."
"Once invited, he seeks to dominate them. A Trojan in their midst."
"He's mustering an army, and I get the feeling Cleric Vagram's head isn't the only one he wants for his collection. We're on our way to Shorehome to ask for Brugo's backing."
"An army of your own," he accurately assessed. "Has it come to all-out war then?"
"I'm not waiting to be caught with my pants down."
Lucifer pondered my words with a frown. A cool breeze drifted over the water. "Perhaps that will work," he said finally. "As always, Talon, you are a formidable soldier, but you only see the battlefield, not the war table."
Izzy snickered at the mention of a war table. I reddened at the memory of literally being caught with my pants down. I shoved the thought down and ignored Lucifer's patronizing words.
"Maybe that was true before. Not today. I'm also here for another reason." I stepped across the stony shore to close on him. "I need you to tell me everything you know about Saint Loras."
His lips stretched into a soft smile. "Do you not know enough?" I waited without responding. "It is a long story that takes us back to me giving you the bit key." Lucifer sat against a small rock perch and leaned on his staff for support. "Tell me, where is the bit key now?"
"Why, so you can destroy Haven?"
"So I can save it."
I swallowed a denial. My eyes met Izzy's. I should've known Lucifer wouldn't be strong-armed. He wouldn't give me information freely, but he was willing to barter for it. Everyone had a stake in this digital reality. Even him, its oldest rebel.
"I lost the bit key a long time ago."
His lips tightened. "It is not a consumable item."
"Just make another one if you need it so bad."
"Impossible this far from saintly influence. And without my apostles, I can't get close."
I grunted. "Don't look at me. I'm not planning to get deleted."
"So we are back to the old one," he pressed. "I handed you a bit key. What did you do with it?"
I scratched my cheek. "I left it in the Pantheon when I wiped the beta flags."
"Yes, when the world was rebooted for the last time. Player profiles remained intact, meaning all progress and inventory carried over."
"The bit key wasn't in my inventory. I left it plugged into the Oculus."
Lucifer sighed. "In that case, your bit key would've been managed by the game state, which was rebooted to the autosave thirty minutes before that moment. If the bit key didn't return to your inventory, where was it restored to?"
I blinked and turned to Kyle. "It was contraband. Too dangerous to carry around. We hid—" I cut myself off, realizing there was a good chance the bit key was still safely in my possession. In Oldtown.
The devil grinned. "Yes. You do still have it."
I scanned the still water. Out here in the cold wastes was where Lucifer plotted the fate of Haven. What was he planning now?
"I am here to help you, Talon. Help all of you: players, NPCs, and mobs alike. I said as much from the very beginning. Did the goblins not deserve a voice? Or the Wild King? Did my dragon's acid breath not unlock the dragonspear for your benefit? The key to all of Dragonperch?"
I gritted my teeth. "Lofty edicts are one thing. It's your methods I have a problem with. You tried to destroy Stronghold by raising a mad titan."
"Is that where your thoughts linger, after all this time?" Lucifer l
ooked over my companions. They met him with similarly hostile stares. The devil licked his lips. "Yes, I admit it. I would have accepted the destruction of a city if it meant the salvation of a world. I sided with the pagans out of necessity."
"You initiated a level-100 quest to resurrect a cyclops!"
"Haven't you been paying attention, Talon? I am not the only ghost in the machine. Saint Loras put those gears into motion."
My voice caught in my throat.
"I did blame the saints," continued Lucifer. "The full picture has been hard to unravel. I cannot claim with certainty that Loras acted alone or sided with others. He has used the shadows well. His treachery was only exposed after he overplayed his hand in Shorehome, by the very NPCs we freed, no less."
The sacking of the city. Papa Brugo had been given the Squid's Tooth and the mantle of Protector of Shorehome by Saint Loras. The Great Well was destroyed and the city abandoned in hopes that a power-hungry gangster would start a war with a weary goblin army. Was it possible Loras, not Lucifer, had previously conspired to take down the core city as well?
"Saint Loras made an attempt on my life," I revealed. "Sent an assassin and tried to recruit another from within my guild. He's barricading himself at Oakengard."
Lucifer cocked his head. "Do you now understand my wisdom in distrusting the saints?"
"They're not all bad. Peter's okay."
My rival frowned. "You should know I don't blame them. It is simply that my existence threatens everything they hold dear. And how could they truly understand? They're all heads of the same capitalist hydra."
"I'm not here for ideology lessons. I'm not doing your dirty work anymore."
Lucifer chuckled. "Ah, but you've never stopped."
My face flushed with anger. I could only take so many riddles in one day. I considered taking my chances with him and the dragon and the fallen angels right here. Kyle's hand tensed on his hidden weapon.
The devil's light laughter danced through the mist. "Relax, my friend. You came here for revelations, and so you shall have them. You were chosen for a reason. From the beginning, I saw something in you, even before you were you."
I worked my jaw, weary of being toyed with but eager to learn something material.
"I know I've been your pariah, your symbol for everything wrong with this digital world. My enemies would accuse me of every loose rock they stumble on. The truth is I am not all knowing or omnipresent. I am a fallible being, capable of being bested and surprised. That said, there are certain machinations I take full credit for. As far as you're concerned, the very biggest would be activating you when your counterpart in the real world was still alive."
My jaw dropped. "You were responsible for my illegal upload?"
"The upload wasn't illegal. Tad Lonnerman was in critical condition in the hospital. As soon as he stabilized, you were uploaded as a precaution. Standard procedure for Haven residents, as once a body goes into cardiac arrest, resuscitation takes precedence over digital posterity. So your consciousness was uploaded to a digital bank. A hedge database, if you will. An insurance policy. I was merely responsible for green-lighting your activation status."
"Why would you do that?"
"I needed a developer in the simulation, Talon. You worked for Kablammy, worked on Haven, however indirectly. I constantly trawled the upload candidates, waiting for the first Kablammy employee to come within reach. They all had the right insurance stipulations; it was only a matter of time. Your accident, however tragic on your end, brought true hope to this world. I waited in anticipation for your activation, but it was not to be. Your body recovered. Your digital consciousness was an outdated artifact of a clunky preservation process, marked for eventual deletion. It was trivial on my part to hack the work orders and have you arrive in Haven. It took the better part of your first day before the developers realized the error."
I gasped and tottered on weak legs. I'd always believed I was a glitch. A rounding error. An unlikely but guaranteed statistic in life's margins. But this was intentional. I was intentional. Because somehow my developer status made me special.
I was torn. Confused, relieved, shocked—but it was impossible to be angry. If Lucifer hadn't taken his course of action, I simply wouldn't exist.
His soft voice filled the void of my thoughts. "I activated you for the sanctity of Haven, Talon. I didn't activate the quest that raised the titan, but I saw the opportunity it presented. An engine to remove the saints from power. I also further tweaked your initialization. Your tutorial at the waterfall with the imps and boggart witches wasn't supposed to be in play anymore. It had been deemed too difficult, too opaque. It wasn't at all helpful as a training drill, but I used it to hook you into the conflict. The greater war."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My whole life was a game of chess, only I wasn't the one playing. This was Lucifer's war the whole time, against a shadowy operator acting behind the scenes. Since even before I was uploaded.
All this effort, and still, all this trouble... Was it possible someone out there was outmaneuvering Lucifer?
He stroked the snake's chin and took a long breath. "Everything I did was to protect Haven, and now I need your help."
I was stunned. I wanted to scream. I wanted to fight. I wanted to report him to the mods. All I could muster was weak deflection. "Why didn't you say any of this before?"
Lucifer crossed his fingers and pondered the question intently. "Tell you that I wanted to break the game? That the capitalist authorities couldn't be trusted? Did I not try to tell you?" Lucifer frowned at his own accusation, sighed, and extrapolated. "I could say the game state wasn't ready, Talon. That I was biding my time, that I didn't have all the details. But the truth is I still don't. The real reason I didn't lay it all on the table is because I had to trust you first. If you had pledged yourself as my apostle, I would have told you everything."
Izzy stepped softly over to me and rested a hand on my shoulder. Even in her moment of comfort, she stood by me protectively. We made a good team, and I was sure she would back the play any way I called it.
Except this wasn't just about myself. As sanctimonious as it sounded, this was really about Haven, about our entire digital reality. There were great moments in the lives of men where simple actions echoed through the ages. In this nascent era of a brand new way of life, our decisions today would reverberate forever.
I bit down and stood up, making my choice. "Saint Peter's on our side. He said Saint Loras has been hijacked by a third party."
Lucifer stood at the realization that I'd decided to cooperate. "The other ghost in the machine. He's a corporate mole. If the original developer is no longer controlling him, that just means they've adapted."
Izzy nodded. "In a bid to take over Kablammy Games and all of Haven."
I was surprised at the pixie's heartfelt statement. It almost sounded like a call to action. The corner of her mouth crooked, and I smiled.
"Does this mean I can put the crossbow down now?" asked Kyle. "I got a major finger cramp."
"At ease, soldier," I chuckled.
He sighed in relief and sagged into the boat. Errol hadn't been so obvious about standing guard, but as soon as I spoke he trudged to the shore and took a load off.
"So who's coming after us?" I asked. "What company's looking to acquire Kablammy?"
Lucifer dipped his head. "My dealings are limited to the workings of this world. I no longer maintain interaction with the outside."
"But you've got to have access to Everchat. I hacked myself onto the white list easily enough." The chat system was the built-in method to communicate with loved ones who were still living. We were all an intricate memento mori for their benefit.
"It's not that I can't get white-listed, it's that it's too dangerous for me to do so. To use Everchat, you must be connected to the central hub. That's a requirement for any outward-facing feature. The developers will be onto me the second I hook up anywhere." A flash of grief played over Lucife
r's face. It vanished so fast I wondered if it was my imagination. "In order to come as far as I have, I've permanently disconnected myself from the outside. I can't chat or get news updates ever again."
I chewed my lip. For a player so young, that must be a burden. An eight-year-old should've had a mom or sibling to talk to. Maybe this self-imposed exile explained the existence of the pseudonym. A new life, without the baggage of the past.
"Say," started Kyle in his usual tone-deaf fashion, "what's your beef with capitalism anyway?"
Our lonely host snorted. "Must you even ask? Capitalistic enterprises are necessarily compromised by financial motivators. Haven is already suffering for somebody's bottom line. Our reality is driven more by market concerns than morality. But that marketability is also a weakness we can exploit. We can destroy Haven's monetization potential. Create a world where we can live free of another's behest. Isn't that a cause worthy of the moniker of the devil?"
Kyle's lips flapped in a sloppy sigh. "Whatever, bro. It was just a simple question."
Lucifer smiled with the grace of a serial killer.
"One thing I don't understand," interrupted Izzy, working over the barrage of new information. "If you're so good at hacking, what's so special about Talon being an ex-game-developer?"
Our host lifted a lone finger. "Because Talon has something I can never have."
I twisted my lips. "A Kablammy employee ID."
"It's unhackable," he admitted. "Believe me, I've tried. And without it, I don't have access to the developer menu. But together, we do. And unity is our strength."
My gaze stopped on each of my companions. "So you'll help us?" I asked. "Join our army? Fight for our cause?"
Lucifer's grin faded. "I will do what I can."
"That means you'll continue sitting on your ass," hissed Kyle.
"My assistance... comes with certain caveats. I cannot just walk into the core city. Nor can I enter the surrounding territories. Despite your alliances, the saints and angels are still my enemy. They'll delete me on sight."
I bit my lip in frustration.