Deep within the experience, a thought bubbled up. She might have just thought it, or maybe she'd mouthed the words, but there they were: This is what reality should be like.
"Thank you," someone whispered.
Gabby wheeled around to find the voice, but only Avony was there, leaping with the music, tears of laughter dried on her face.
Avony stopped jumping. She tilted her head like a dog. The crowd parted, forming a neat path off the dance floor. The girls grabbed hands and took the path given. Coyote waited at the edge.
Following Coyote, they ascended a marble staircase. After only a dozen steps Gabby looked back to the party to find they were hundreds of feet in the air. Coyote led them to a hidden chamber, stepping through a membrane of shimmering light that had been invisible only moments before.
A figure that could only be Panner, resplendent in violets and azures, waited in a garden. He radiated an inner mastery. Once, Zaela had shown her old videos of fashion moguls that had existed before the all-consuming LifeGame. They'd been arguing about the importance of art in their lives. They'd never resolved the argument, but Gabby remembered the images of the fashionistas. Panner reminded her of them.
"It's all so breath taking." The words spilled out of Gabby's mouth before she could stop herself. Somehow, she felt like it was rude to have spoken before permission had been given.
Panner made the tiniest of movements with his hand, the one draped over the back of the bench.
"Yes, I suppose that's a way to describe it. It reminds one to breathe. A reminder of life eternal."
Panner's gaze never faltered and Gabby wasn't sure if he was making fun of her or actually receiving her compliment. His eyes flickered once to Avony but then returned to her. It felt like a million eyes watched her. Gabby wanted to turn away, but matched his gaze until he spoke.
"Yes, I can see why. But I'm keeping her for now." Panner spoke as if they couldn't hear him, or he didn't care.
His presence threatened to hypnotize her, so she tried speaking again. The words didn’t want to form in her mouth, but she got them out.
"I didn't know it was possible to feel so buffed," said Gabby. "To weave the senses together until I was euphoric."
He cleared his throat, barely. His hand motioned toward Coyote.
"Panner is done with you now," said Coyote.
Gabby had a sense she'd done something wrong, but she wasn't sure what. When she turned back to apologize, the bench was empty. Through a trick of the eye-screens, Panner had disappeared from their view, just like the party had disappeared once they'd climbed the stairs far enough.
The girls followed Coyote out.
"Did I do something wrong?" asked Gabby.
Coyote turned to her, wearing a slight frown. "Buffed?" Coyote raised an eyebrow. "I thought I'd explained that earlier."
"Oh." Gabby remembered now. She put a hand to her temple. Had she blown her cover so soon? Memories of why she'd come there in the first place trickled back. They'd been buried beneath the lusciousness of the party.
"Does he...?" Gabby didn't dare say the words, in case she was wrong.
"Yes, of course, he knows you're from the GSA. And he even knows you're a spy. It's the deal he has with Cassius."
Gabby was stunned. "He's double crossing the Southlands?"
"Careful with your words. Panner is always listening. And he's not crossing anyone. He's just keeping his options open. Plus, he likes to get first pick of the new blood. If he takes a shine to you, maybe he might keep you. If not, he'll trade you off to another Realm."
A stone formed in her gut. Now she knew why the spies had always disappeared. Panner was just using Cassius to pick from the best of the GSA.
Coyote waved his hand and the steps stretched back to the town. "Rejoin the party or take your leave for the evening. Tonight's special celebration was for a productive month of work. Tomorrow the work begins anew."
Gabby grabbed Avony's hand and they headed into town to find their sleeping quarters. By the time they reached them, their original outfits from the run returned. Gabby lay down but didn’t fall asleep for a long time.
Chapter Eight
The broken, haphazard factories of the GSA were nothing compared to the cathedrals of the Southlands. Each night Gabby went to bed bone tired, but her mind thrummed with the experiences of each day.
Like the GSA, the factories used games to drive the activity of its workers. But games played over and over, on an endless loop turned to monotony and then became work themselves. In Panner's Realm, every day work was a new adventure.
Gabby loaded into the plant anxiously awaiting new tasks. Pug, a short chubby coworker with an angelic face, raised his hand in greeting when he saw her.
"Salute! How fares your status?" he asked, his pink cheeks stretched in a grin.
"I'm well in Panner's heart," she replied with the standard greeting.
They clasped arms and moved toward the entrance. "I was teamed with Avony yesterday. She sends her love."
Gabby squeezed his arm. "Yes, Avony..." She hadn't thought about her in weeks. "I wonder how we can please Panner today."
"Yes," replied Pug enthusiastically. "I don't know how he has the time to care for us so completely. I'm so grateful every night."
"Panner have mercy, yes."
Gabby shivered in anticipation as they approached the sparkly membrane leading into the plant. Yesterday, she'd been an archeologist on a dig site sorting ancient treasures. The day before that, she defused bombs set in urban landscapes. The only failure she had all day was a bomb set under a FunCar and she got it the second time. Who knew what the day would bring?
A starport command bridge waited for them on the other side, hovering over space shuttles, flaring blue flame as they moved about the field of view. A distant planet floated beneath them with wind torn red dust storms swirling across its surface.
"Disaster transport!" exclaimed Pug as the door slid closed behind them.
Gabby took her seat in the left chair. "You've played this one before?"
"Many months or years ago, I'm not sure. But yes." Pug clasped his hands together and drank in the surroundings before taking his seat. "It's rare to play the same game twice, and if you do, it's never quite the same."
Pug ran his fingers over the buttons on the command board possessively. "Panner never fails to amaze and I'm sure this one is no different."
The pair set to their task after working through a short training simulation. The game was simple enough. Route shuttles around the starport, avoiding collisions and the occasional meteor storm while maximizing goods transferred.
After a few hours of intensive play, Gabby massaged her temples with both hands, trying to fight off the migraine forming at the front of her head.
"Oh, dear," said Pug when she was done.
"What?"
"Nothing."
They kept playing, but Gabby noticed Pug occasionally glancing over to check on her.
"I received a Surprise Gift the other day," said Gabby to break the routine.
"Oh, what was it?" Pug's eyes lit up like a firework display as his hands danced across the buttons on board.
"It was an orange. The most delicious orange I've ever had," she said. "And the best part was the note. It read: 'For Miss DeCorte's dedication'."
As she said it, she didn't feel as excited about it as she had the other day. But Pug seemed to think it was the greatest gift in the world. He cooed and asked twenty questions about the shape of the orange and the exact flavor and if it reminded her of sunshine and what font was used in the note and so on.
His exuberance made her feel empty and confused because she didn't feel the same way. To get her mind off her concern she asked, "So what are you going to spend your Panner Points on?"
Pug's cheeks turned bright pink and his ears flushed red. "I'm saving up."
"You've got my curiosity..." Gabby paused as she almost said buffed and finished instead with, "...by the tail. Wh
at are you saving for?"
A broad smile broke across his face. "A dinner with Him." Pug flashed his eyes upward. "And I'm getting quite close. Though it's hard to say."
Pug sighed. "It will be so divine."
An out of control shuttle came screaming into the star port, so Gabby threw her hands back on the command board. She jammed the controls around, hurrying through the emergency procedure. The migraine threatened to return, but Gabby shook it off while she worked.
Once the shuttle had been diverted into a holding field and the proper medical staff dispatched. Gabby grabbed her head again, trying to make the pain go away.
Pug was wide eyed once she put her hands in her lap.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Gabby blew a frustrated breath out. "What is it you actually think we're doing?"
Pug reacted so violently, she thought he'd been shot. He jumped up and put the chair between them.
"Okay, what? You can't possibly not tell me what you're thinking after that reaction."
Pug glanced to the air and then to the door. Gabby wasn't sure he wasn't going to run out of the room. When there was a knock on the door he jumped. The transport game paused at the same moment.
When the door opened, a tuxedoed butler marched in and presented a silver platter with a black envelope on it. Pug motioned for her to pick it up quickly. Once she did, the butler turned about and stiffly walked out of the room. The door slid unceremoniously closed behind him.
"What is it?" She held up the black envelope.
"Panner has summoned you," he said meekly.
"How do you know?"
"I've seen that envelope before, but not for me."
Gabby looked back and forth between the envelope and Pug. "It means I'm leaving the Realm doesn't it?"
Pug nodded.
"It has something to do with the headaches doesn't it? Every time I had a reaction you acted like I was carrying a disease."
"I guess I can say, since you've got the envelope and all. But every time I've seen someone with the headaches, they're shipped out."
Gabby rotated the envelope in her hands. The material was like stiff silk.
"Does it happen often?"
"To everyone eventually, I think. Though after two months is pretty fast."
"Two months? I...I haven't been here that long? Have I?"
Pug nodded.
"It's so hard to tell," he said, "what with the new tasks everyday and the parties and the gifts and what ever it is they give us."
"Give us? Are they drugging the food?"
Pug squinted at her. "You didn't know?"
"No."
"That's why I think they ship people out when they get headaches. It's a sign the drug isn't working anymore."
Gabby paused and started reviewing her actions. She'd been so happy in Panner's Realm. Pleased, maybe even content, if she'd ever been that in her life. But there was something she had to do. Something she'd come to Panner's Realm to do. Her memories started to slowly leak back into her head.
"You know you're being drugged and you let it happen?" she asked.
Pug nodded enthusiastically. "Most definitely. Every day is a joy here, a new adventure. And the rewards divine. I'm a Panner man through and through. And when I get enough Panner Points, I'll get to meet him and sit down for dinner and talk about whatever he wants to talk about." Pug's eyes were delirious. "I'll get to meet my god, Gabby. The one who cares for me and makes my life this wonderful dream."
Gabby nodded. "Yes, a dream. That's what it's been." She cringed when another stab of the migraine returned, buckling her knees. She barely held onto the chair to stay upright. When it left her, it seemed more of her memories had returned. Or not that they had returned, that she cared about them again.
"And what happens if you get the headaches? If the black envelope comes for you?"
Pug shuddered. "I don't know." The prospect of having to leave seemed to shrivel Pug, despite his pudgy nature.
She gave him a hug before she left, though he hesitated, as if her dismissal from the Realm was contagious.
Gabby walked back into town with the black envelope. She didn't bother to open it. Cheery-eyed men and women of Panner's Realm hurried about the town square on their errands. Gabby almost envied them.
Chapter Nine
Startled by a nearby sound, Gabby spun around to find Coyote waiting for her. His whole being, including his bushy red hair, glowed with an inner intensity much like he had during the night of the party. Yet, Gabby didn't feel drawn to him like she had before.
His appearance reminded her of the skins the kids wore in Neversoft High. Technically beautiful, but too perfect for her tastes. He seemed to catch her disappointment and his shoulders slumped slightly.
"Where am I going?" she asked.
"Time for questions later. We have to make the train. It's about to depart."
They hurried to a non-descript alleyway and Coyote grabbed an invisible curtain, pulling it aside. An ultra-modern train station waited on the other side. The train shimmered in ghostly chrome. Gabby was annoyed by the overwhelming whiteness of the station and the luminosity of the train.
"Why does everything have to be something it's not?" she asked. "Why can't the train just be the train?"
Coyote made a queer face and ushered her through the waiting doors. After the doors whooshed closed, the train pulled away from the station, forcing Gabby to grab a pole.
The inside was much the same as the outside, an overdose of chrome and white. Gabby wished she had control of her eye-screen reality to tone down the brightness.
The half full car looked like a scene out of an alien bar immersive. A trio of armored behemoths sat on one side. Grossly oversized armor hung on their massive frames. They each had a mixture of advanced weaponry and ancient swords. The nearest, a dark-skinned giant barely keeping his body on the bench, picked his fingernails with a knife.
On the other side of the car sat a prim woman in a flowery blue dress with her legs crossed, patiently reading a book. At the end of a leash she held with the other hand cowered a man in black leather.
A few other notables were crammed into that side of the car, which Gabby found odd considering the space behind them was quite open. Until Gabby noticed the creatures in that space. Gabby only glanced at them, their revolting visages made her turn away at once, but the images were seared into her head.
"Who are they?" she whispered under her breath.
"Delvers," Coyote said, keeping his back to them. "And what you see is what you get. They mine the depths of human experience in that Realm."
"That's disgusting." Gabby tried to erase the oozing sores and open wounds from her mind, but she couldn't shake them loose. "Why does the Pantheon allow such a horrid Realm?"
"They keep it around as a deterrent. Some of the Pantheon don't keep a firm grasp of their subjects like Panner. It provides a useful threat to remind the unruly subjects to behave. The phrase: to the depths with the Delvers will pale anyone's heart with horror."
"And where am I being sent?" Gabby asked, cautiously hoping it wasn't the Delvers.
"To the Crimson Queen. The largest Realm in the Pantheon."
"And what is she like?"
Coyote nodded toward the brutes along the wall. "Those are her shock troops. Probably moving to the front for the war."
The dark-eyed giant with the knife seemed to sense they were talking about them. Gabby could tell he was listening in.
"And what will I do there?" she asked.
"That's not for me to say. Though I can tell you she asked for you herself."
Gabby paused and considered her options. "Did Panner tell her about..."
"No," he said, "he prefers to keep such knowledge to himself. It might look bad to the Pantheon if they knew."
She let a relieved breath out. Her existence as a spy was safe.
"Wait. Where's Avony?"
Coyote gave her a blank look. "Exactly where she
needs to be. Don't worry," he said. "I'm sure you'll see her again, some day."
Gabby opened her mouth to pester him about Avony, but it was clear from his face he had no intention of telling her anything. Either Panner had sold her to a different Realm or he was keeping her for other things.
There was so much about the Southlands she didn't know. She regretted not learning more before agreeing to be sent down. Right now she was only a pawn for the Pantheon's amusement with no way to find Zaela. She assumed there was a central organization to the Southlands, not a loose federation of Realms that each operated under their own rules. Was the war going be between the Southlands and the GSA, or the Crimson Queen's Realm and the GSA?
She needed to know more. The bushy red-haired Coyote leaned against the pole, staring at the landscape rushing by the window. If she could understand the Realms better, then maybe she had a chance of surviving.
"Does the Pantheon have a leader?"
Coyote scoffed. "The Pantheon is worse than the mythical gods they try to emulate. They scheme and backstab and war with each other. The only thing that keeps them together is that each one holds a critical piece of the Realms."
"How so?"
"Did you know what you were making in the factories in Panner's Realm?"
Gabby paused, trying reason out a clue that might tell her, but the games were all different. "No."
"That's the way they like it. No member of the Pantheon knows what the other actually makes. The truth gets lost beneath the illusions and the schemes. So none of them can dare upset the others."
Coyote glanced at the soldiers along the wall. The big one had a knowing grin.
The connection was clear in their faces. "Unless the Crimson Queen takes down the GSA, then the balance of power will be toppled."
Coyote shrugged. "In the unlikely event that happens. Yes. But few of the Pantheon believe it so. The rumor is that she's playing this hand to siphon resources from other areas. And maybe even take a little bite from the GSA thus furthering her cause."
The attack on the factories had been just that. A tiny little bite. Gabby hoped Coyote was right. Except when they'd taken the Double Eagle. The Crimson Queen had made a full meal of them.
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