Rift

by Nancy E. Dunne

  “Lex, I remember the day that you described. That was the day you appeared in Val’s workshop in the real world. The first time you saw me, there was the first time you saw me here.”

  “You were so kind to me, Henri, and I have done nothing but help him keep you and your daughter here.” The two men looked at each other for a long moment before Henri opened his arms, and Lex collapsed into them.

  “We will work it out together, mon fils. The three of us will work it out.” He rubbed Lex’s back, and for a moment, Em could see her father clearly. How many times had he consoled her like that, his broad, strong hands rubbing her back when she was younger? His warm eyes were closed as he held Lex, but a smile spread across his face. Lex pulled back from him, and Henri looked up at him, still smiling. Em looked away for a moment - this felt like a moment that did not include her. A movement outside the window caught her attention, and she left them to move to the window.

  “Madelyne?” Em looked over her shoulder, and for the first time, she didn’t correct him.

  “It’s nothing, Papa. I thought I saw something outside the window.” Henri’s face split wide in a smile as she crossed the room back to where they were standing, and he pulled her into a hug.

  Outside the tavern, the hooded stranger pulled the cloak up tighter around his neck as he stepped back into a shadow. “Find your way out, Em, and bring your Papa with you - if you can.”

  Alexander

  Seventeen

  The alabaster spires of Sacre Coeur rose at the top of the hill, the centerpiece of Paris’s 18th arrondissement, Montmartre. During the day, sidewalks were full of artists, easels set up to work, and finished work hung to sell. Tourists buzzed about the front steps of the world-famous basilica, snapping pictures of themselves superimposed on the city of Paris, spread out behind them. The Eiffel Tower was a landmark in the middle of the crowded grid of Paris streets.

  Alexander Sinclair was there, every day, sitting in a cafe with a cup of coffee and his laptop - the latter open and running an instance of Arcstone. He was logged in as his employer, Valentin Badeaux, and was running a “game master” character that took care of issues for players logged in from all over the world. The character was a clone of Val’s main character, Le Creáteur, and was currently trying to work on getting a level twenty human ranger out of a tree in the Sreluth Wilderness, a newer zone in the game that still needed some work. Clearly, Val had not spent enough time working out the required clearance between the trees, because Alexander spent far too much time unsticking avatars here.

  Finally, the ranger was free, and Alexander could move on to the next ticket on his list. He checked his phone as he always did, but there was no message from her. There wouldn’t be - Val had been clear that there was no way that Em would be able to find her way back out of Arcstone, but the least he could have done was left Maddie’s body awake and conscious here in Montmartre. Alexander removed his glasses for a moment and rubbed his eyes before replacing them. He could tell where she was and who she was with in Arcstone. But Alexander wouldn’t let himself check on her too much - at best, she would see him, but at worst, Val might find out. He returned his attention to the queue and sent his avatar to the Lost Colony, at the complete opposite end of the game world.

 

  As the petitioning avatar explained the issue involving a non-player character and a transaction involving some missing gold, Alexander went ahead and credited the player’s account as he allowed his mind to wander, remembering missions run with Em. These missions had ended in her avatar’s house in the forest surrounding Embercrest. He missed the talks they would have after their target had been successfully acquired. He missed her. But Val had promised that as soon as he had his ‘le prix,’ whatever that was, then he would pull Em back out of the game and deliver her to Alexander. But would she still have him once she knew of his involvement? Maybe not. Maybe so. It was too far gone, now, to worry about things like that.

 

  He looked down at the screen and rolled his eyes. Had he ever been so wrapped up in a game that a few hundred gold coins had been a matter of life and death?

 

  He logged his avatar out of the game and finished his coffee. Before leaving the cafe, Alexander quickly logged into the game server interface to make sure everything was still up and running. All green lights - everything was fine. Em was so clever, why was she still in the game world? Why hadn’t she figured out how to escape? Perhaps he should check on them just one more time - he was confident that Val would ask the status of the two captives the next time Alexander checked in with him. That was always the first question.

  Alexander came to Paris to work with Val a mere four years prior. He applied for a beta testing role with Arcstone and remembered being thrilled when it was accepted. He was even more excited when, after only a short time in beta and a few years of uninterrupted playtime, he was asked to come for an interview to join the development team for the game. In truth, it should have seemed strange that he got an interview for a job he hadn’t applied to, but Alexander was so anxious to leave his home in Atlanta that the mere fact that the interview was in Paris had spurred him on to by the plane ticket and fly to France.

  Years passed in the blink of an eye. He met Em in-game when he was scouting out several new quest missions in the brand new zone called the Kingdom of Perrigwyn. Val had been hard at work, creating a new race - the Prophis. They were demons who had been initially written into the game as soldiers and guards, but Val needed a new playable race. The fans of the game had spoken, and the Prophis ended up the race that they most wanted to be able to play as avatars. Alexander felt a sense of kinship with the Prophis because Val had used him as the human model on which he built that race, and he was allowed one of the first playable Prophis to be seen in Arcstone.

  The media hype surrounding that decision was huge. Val spared no expense - not only did he create the new zone and race in-game, but he also added a second playable zone in the same Kingdom and planned in-game tours, parties, formal dances, and raids to explore and exploit Demonwell and Ghostfell, the two new cities. Once all the coding and testing were done, he commissioned a cinematic to be made that would be shown at the next comic book convention. Alexander was given a costume to portray his avatar, Lex, and was the voice of the same in the film. It was during this period of production that he first met Henri, Val’s childhood friend and love.

  He could remember the conversation he’d had with Val about Henri. Brilliant. Creative. Extremely clever. Conniving and disloyal. Selfish. And then Henri had shown up in the studio and had been none of those things. Alexander played the part as he was told - he even repeated the line in French that Val had taught him - and then the lights flashed, and Henri was gone. Val said Henri was in the game - trapped. How was that even possible? His consciousness, maybe, but not his body, right? It was for his own protection, to keep a dangerous person out of the world, Val had said. Henri had seemed such a nice man, but Val was not just a boss to Alexander, he had become a friend, so why would he lie?

  The server names clicked past him quickly as he scrolled through them, finally landing on the one where Val had trapped Henri. Gaol. Alexander shook his head - Val was nothing if not obvious. That had been one of the reasons that he employed Alexander - for his creative mind. He sighed as he clicked on the button that read ‘log in’ next to Gaol, and soon he was greeted with the login screen. A matter of seconds later, he was looking at the outside of a tavern in Ghostfell, right where he had been the last time he logged in there. Directly, his chat box filled up with requests and calls for help from various avatars in the immediate area, and he cursed himself for logging in on the GM account.

 

 


 

  That was the only way he was going to have any peace. He crossed the street and looked in the window. The tavern was dark - how much in-game time had passed since he was gazing in the window, watching Em and Henri and his avatar, Lex? He still wondered how Val had managed to make Lex into such a convincing non-player character, but he didn’t dwell too much on it. It took far too much energy to get the image of that hulking monster with his hands on Em out of his mind, and he wasn’t ready to experience that again.

  He moved closer to the window and was able to spot the three of them sitting huddled around a table. Henri was talking - when was he not? The other two were listening intently. A black box sat on the table in front of Henri, and Alexander leaned in even closer to see if he recognized that game item. Just then, Em looked around toward the window, and Alexander sucked in his breath. She was looking right at him! He quickly exited the game after stepping smoothly back away from the window and into the darkness. That was too close. Maybe Val knew what the box was?

  Alexander closed his laptop and rose from his seat, stretching as he did. He had lost track of time again and was late for his meeting with Val. “Must be Tuesday,” he chuckled as he tucked his laptop into his messenger bag and headed to the funicular that would take him down the hill to Paris proper where Val’s office was. At least he had something new to report that might take some of the heat off his tardiness...hopefully. He exited the glorified lift at the bottom of the hill and hailed a taxi. The address of Val’s suite of offices was one of the few things that Alexander could say coherently in French, and he was soon being whisked away toward the center of the city. After paying the taxi driver, he walked quickly to the glass-fronted building and waved at the guards as he walked in the front door.

  “Bonjour, monsieur Sinclair, ça va bien?” one of them called out as Alexander hurried past them. He waved back - he was never sure how to answer that question. “Fine, thank you!” He made it to the lift just as the doors were closing, and he slipped through. He punched the button for the top floor and leaned against the wall of the cab. The captives were fine, the game was running smoothly, sorry I’m late, boss and oh by the way, what is that black box they have found? Easy peasy. He hoped, at least. The doors opened on several floors before reaching the top but finally opened on his level. Alexander took a deep breath and then left the lift.

  The walls were slick, shiny glass, and they always projected real-time video from the zones in the game. Val’s office was in the corner, and his secretary, Miss Smith, grinned at him as he approached her desk. “Bonjour, Alexander.” He had to admit that he loved the way that she said his name.

  “Good morning, Miss Smith. I’m late for a meeting with -”

  “You’re late again, Alexander.” Valentin Badeaux filled the doorway to his office when he was annoyed. His blond hair was swept back, his suit was tailored, and his fingers drummed anxiously against the doorknob to his office. “I hope there is a good reason?”

  “Yes, sir. I mean, there is, sir.” Alexander hated how nervous Val made him.

  “Well, come on in. Stop loitering in the lobby, and let’s get this over with.” Alexander followed Val through the door, making a mental note as always of the artwork on the walls. The murals depicted creatures that could be found in Arcstone, most of which Alexander had fought and beaten in the early days. Like the images on the walls in the lobby, these paintings moved ever so slightly: the wind moved clouds, and the tides rippled in the background, but the monsters remained still. "Have a seat, Alexander. Tell me what you have learned."

  "All the zones are active, though Sreluth could use a bit of work. I've had to reset quite a few parts of that one when players get stuck." Val nodded and indicated that Alexander should continue. "All the servers are up and running with little to no latency."

  "What else?"

  "The captives are safe at the moment. They are in the tavern in Ghostfell."

  "Did you go into the game to check on them?" Alexander nodded. "Didn't find anything as entertaining as last time, did you?"

  "No." He regretted ever reporting that to Val. It hadn't been a betrayal really when he found Lex and Em in bed together at her house in Embercrest. For all she knew, that Prophis was him. And it was him, sort of - Lex possessed Alexander's personality as though he was Alexander...or Alex, as Em called him. So she was falling in love...and in bed, that one time, with him if you thought about it.

  “Well, good, I hate seeing you that upset.” Alexander looked up at Val, surprised, but then saw the smirk on Val’s face. Sarcasm, of course.

  “What’s my next project, Val? I would like to respectfully ask for time off from the GM gig. There are only so many times that I can add gold to an account or rewind the game to release someone from a tree.”

  “Actually, I have a new project. I’d like you to work on if you’re really after a change.” Alexander nodded. Anything would be better than the stagnancy of the GM gig. “But this will be a top-secret project - no one knows anything about what you are working on, seeing, hearing - understand?”

  “Of course. Who do I have to tell anyway?”

  “I’ve seen you with girls from Montmartre, Alexander.”

  “My French isn’t good enough for them to understand anything I tell them.”

  Val laughed. “Fair enough. But I mean this, Alexander, no one is to know what you are working on in this project. Do we understand each other? It could have disastrous consequences for you and for all of Arcstone.”

  “You have my loyalty and my word, Valentin.”

  “C'est excellent. I will prepare instructions for you for the new project - they will be delivered to you tomorrow. For now, go home and take the rest of the day off. Perhaps play a game.” He winked as Alexander nodded and turned to leave. “Give Henri and his daughter my best, oui?” Alexander walked out of the office, hands fisted at his sides. He would do no such thing - but he could spend the rest of the afternoon and evening watching her and making sure she was safe.

  Eighteen

  It was already the next day in the game when Alexander logged back in and found Em, Lex, and Henri. Clearly, they had come to some conclusions in the tavern and made a plan - he had to use his GM credentials to find them. In the same way, Alexander noticed that Val logged in on the Le Creáteur account and was en route to the tavern. Just missed them - he would be furious. Alexander was pleased, though, that Val was too late. He hadn’t managed to find out what his employer wanted with Em, and was happy to have more time to sort that out if she had gotten a headstart on him.

  He thought for a moment about how she had managed that? Val could log in the same way that Alexander did. He could see right where they were and go directly there, but he chose not to do that. Was he going to try to check in with Henri? No, Alexander was sure that it was Em that Val wanted. The thrill of the hunt, perhaps? He shuddered and turned his attention back to the game. It seemed that they were in the Scarlett Islands, in the northernmost part of the world, on the southern tip of the landmass. The humans had made a settlement there called the Lost Colony, according to the game lore. There was a port there aptly named the Port of Last Call, as one would sail out into the Roxsevain Abyss from there - it was an event quest in the game, and only a few could make it through the rough waters filled with monsters to finish.

  It was a brilliant zone for players to try to conquer, though, as were many in the Arcstone world. Alexander had to give Val credit for his imagination and creativity until it came to trying to get from point A to point B in the game. Luckily he could just pop in and out as he pleased. The formidable gates of the Port were just ahead of him, so he pulled up the hood of the cloak and entered the city.

  According to his information, Em and Lex were down by the docks and Henri - well, it was too hard to track all three, but Alexander assumed that Henri was with them. He stopped in at a local pub to ask directions - and to give himself an alibi - and then
headed to the docks himself. It was a pleasant day, and the citizens of the port city were going about their lives all around him. As he maneuvered his avatar through the streets, they asked him what he was after, did he need a bushel of produce or the catch of the day? He kept going until he got to the docks and then ducked into the shadows between two of the larger moored boats as he spotted Lex and Em.

  They were standing over to his right - Em speaking animatedly to the owner of one of the faster and smaller boats, Lex just behind her, almost entirely concealed in his own cloak. Smart girl - they would never talk to her if they knew what he was. Her armor sparkled in the morning light - that was new. Lex must have made it for her. Or maybe they stole it from someone that crossed their path? Either way, she was every inch the warrior that he knew her to be in the game. Their business concluded with the ship merchant, she nodded to Lex, and the two of them walked over to their new boat. This was bad - how could he follow her if they were on a ship? Especially one that small - no room for a stowaway.

  He crept closer until he was just below the anchor point and the large chain that disappeared beneath the murky waters of the Abyss, holding the ship steady at its mooring point. Here he could hear them if he turned up the volume on his laptop. Maybe.

  “So we have a boat. Now what?” That must be Lex. Alexander wondered if that was what his voice sounded like to other people.

  “Now we wait for Henri to find his contact in the city and make sure we know where the Edge is. We go there, we find the edge of this world that Valentin has created, and hopefully, we find the way out.” Alexander furrowed his brow as he thought about Em’s words. There shouldn’t be an edge - unless she meant the edge of the Abyss as it flows into the Sea of Elsard. That would grant them safe passage back to her homeland, but it required so much skill to navigate through the Abyss safely. He leaned back in to listen but heard footsteps coming down the gangway at a pretty good pace - Henri. Alexander jumped onto the rope that kept the anchor chain attached to the boat and hung there for a moment, hoping that Henri hadn’t seen him.