“What happened when he reached into the box, Em?” Alex was studying her, and Lex knew then that she had made a tactical choice. She was testing him to see if he knew more about the box than he was sharing. She was brilliant. “Of course the box is key to Henri leaving the game - or you for that matter, because it is a portal back to the real world. That box is the metaphor in this world to you typing the exit command into the game. But you don’t just reach into it and fall out the other side, for heaven’s sake.” He looked almost offended. “Give us some credit for elegant development, why don’t cha?”
Em did not return the grin that Alex beamed at her. She held up her hair, and Alex sucked in his breath. “Remember? I have one too, but I don’t believe that something that happens IN the game can really affect me OUTSIDE of the game. I mean, if I am that wrong, then if I die in the game, that means - Alex, are you all right?”
“When did that happen?” Alex was pointing at the tattoo, and he shifted his narrowed gaze to Lex. “Did you do this to her?”
“You know I did.” Lex was puzzled - Alex should have already known about Em’s tattoo. He watched as Alex carefully handed the box to Em, but was not expecting Alex to rush at him, sword raised. Lex thrust his hands toward Alex as magical light flowed from them and froze Alex in place in a block of ice from his waist down. Swearing, Alex swung the sword at the ice, chipping away at it.
"Pieds congelés?" Lex pivoted to Em, who was looking at him expectantly, a grin on her face. He nodded, grinning back and making her laugh. "Man, you'd think that the devs would have come up with a better name than frozen feet!"
"Un...freeze...me!"
"Do you promise you won't hurt Lex or me?"
Alex sputtered. "Y-yes."
"Are you trying to hand me over to Val?"
"Em, don't be stu -"
"Answer me!" She held one of her daggers to his throat, and he shook his head. "Okay, then." She pointed at his feet. "Supprimer obstacle." The ice evaporated, and soon Alex was hopping about, trying to restore the blood flow to his feet. “You knew about the mark on my neck,” she hissed. “What is wrong with you?”
“You know what it would do?” Alex was still directing his attention at Lex but had sheathed the sword.
“I knew that it would take away her pain so that I could heal her - she had suffered a fairly significant wound.” Lex looked down at her, both his hearts pounding against his ribcage. “I would do it again, too.”
“Not on my watch.” Alex narrowed his eyes to match Lex’s angry stare. “We may be able to work past that, but any more and you will doom her to stay here with you - or is that what you really wanted to happen?” Lex looked away as Em pivoted around to look at him. “It is! That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” Alex grabbed Em by the shoulders and shook her as Lex felt his tattoos burn crimson. “He wants to keep you here! He has no intention of helping you, and you accuse ME of trying to turn you over to -”
“To me? Is that what you were whispering about out here?” Val looked at each of them in turn. Seemingly he had just appeared in the hallway, but in truth, he could have opened the door and walked out into the middle of them, as absorbed as Lex had been during the fight with Alex. He would not make that mistake again. Whispering those words like a vow, he stepped closer to Em. “Stand down, my Prophis, she is safe with me. Madelyne is always safe with her Papa and me.” He smiled at her, and Lex could see clearly how Em felt about Val, written all over her angry face.
“I will never stay here with you, nor will my Papa.” Em was fiercely beautiful as she stood her ground and stared at Val - but Lex knew her well enough to know that there was a tiny tremor in her hands that indicated how afraid she was. He and Alex took a step closer to Em at the same time, leaving Val howling with laughter.
“Is it like a threesome, then, or are you just taking him in one form at a time, Madelyne?” He strode over to Lex, who had to fight to remain upright - his training demanded that he kneel in the presence of Le Creáteur. “I must say, I outdid myself when I created this race. There is a little something for everyone here.” He took hold of Lex’s bicep and squeezed it, and before Lex could stop himself, he slung Val off his arm and across the room. Le Creáteur bounced off the wall and was still on the floor for a moment - and then he glitched.
It was not something that the other two would have noticed right away, but Val’s form was frozen for not more than a second. Alex met Lex’s gaze - he saw it too. Val slowly got to his feet, rubbing his right shoulder as it had taken the direct impact with the stone wall. Before looking back at Val, Alex raised his eyebrows at Lex - he didn’t want to let Val know what they had seen. Message received - Lex nodded. This whatever-it-was might be the crack in Val’s armor - it might be the opening they needed to save Em and Henri. He looked over at her and found her staring at Val. She had seen something too, but did she understand what she saw? Whatever it was, a switch had flipped in her, and Lex’s heart dropped into his stomach at the resigned look he now saw in her eyes.
“Valentin, as much as it pains me to say it, I can see that you love my Papa. I hope that you love him enough to let him return to his world, and to my mother.” Val sneered at her. “Hear me out. I will stay here with you, and that will guarantee that Papa will come to visit you from time to time because he will want to see that I am okay.”
“You are mad.” Val glared at Em. “You must get that from your mother.”
“You cannot force him to love you, Val. Is that why you created all of those copies of my Papa? Hoping one of them would do what he could not - return your love?” Val’s face burned scarlet as he stared at Em. “Or would not, I suppose.” He must still be glitching and unable to move because she was clearly provoking him.
“Em, stop it,” Alex hissed at her.
“He needs to hear this. He needs to know that he will never have my father’s love. They will never be together like they were when they were young.” Em turned her attention back to Val, whose face was rapidly changing from crimson to purple. “He needs to know that my father fled from him because he knew the real Valentin. He knew you were insane.”
Val took a halting step toward Em, and both Alex and Lex moved in to protect her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” he bellowed, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth.
“Ah, but I do. So you are going to take me with you and let my friends here get Papa back home.” Lex’s hearts were about to burst from his chest. What was she doing? This wasn’t the plan!
“You cannot get home. You do not have the key.”
“Alex does.” Val spun around to face Alex, and Lex saw his chance. He was on Em in a second, taking her up into his arms.
“What are you doing, Em?”
“Get Val away from Alex. Take the box. Go to my Papa, and the two of you get him home. The box is the portal. Alex will know what to do with it, and you can come back for me after he is safe.” Her eyes betrayed her fear, but her tone was resolute. “Go, Lex, please!” He grabbed the back of her neck, his fingers placing just the right amount of pressure on her tattoo, and pulled her to him in a rough kiss. Her sharp intake of air told him that he had made the right move, and when he released her, he found her looking up at him, eyes hooded, and lips parted as they had been so long ago in her house in the woods. “GO,” she hissed, pushing him away from her.
Lex wasted no time. He dragged Em over to Val and swung her at him, causing him to catch her in his arms. Alex complained as Lex picked him up by the scruff of his neck and dragged him into the next room to find Henri. He only hoped Em could take care of herself.
Alexander
Thirty-Two
Alexander barely paid attention to anything that Em told him and Lex to do - he was so focused on the fact that Val had glitched, right there in front of them. He wasn’t real. Alexander wanted to hit something - how had he been so stupid to have missed that? All those meetings in his office - now Alexander was starting to doubt what was real and w
hat wasn’t. Where WAS the rift between the game world and the real world? He was so engrossed in those thoughts that he didn’t see Lex coming to carry him off into the room where Henri was being kept.
“Let go of me!” he shouted as Lex dropped him - threw him, more accurately - onto the stone floor. “We can’t leave her with -” He looked up at Lex’s face - that face he had seen for years every time he logged into the game - and noticed that Lex was grinning. “You saw it too, didn’t you?”
“The glitch? I did.”
“So, Val is not real? He’s like you...sorry, man.”
“No worries. And yes, that means Val is like me. He is a creation of Arcstone.” Lex hurried over to Henri’s bed - the old man was soundly sleeping. “We need to get Henri to safety now - Em seems to think that you know how to use the portal box - do you?”
Lex’s question pulled Alexander’s wandering mind back to focus on the box in his hands. He turned it over and opened it. Inside was a tiny LCD screen, but that was it. On looking closer, it seemed the bottom of the box writhed and seethed, as though it wasn’t stable. He put his hand into the box and nearly dropped it in shock when his hand went down into the darkness up to his elbow. “What the hell?”
“That’s what Henri said that he did, but he could only reach so far - he thought it was because of his tattoo, which is a barring code.” Everything clicked into place for Alexander suddenly. Well, not everything, truth be told, but a way to get Henri out of Arcstone.
“Do you mean a bar code?”
“Looks like a bunch of lines?”
Alexander nodded. “Yeah, that’s what your tats would have looked like originally, from what Val told me. But he needed the aesthetic, I suppose. Also, those tats look tough and…” He pulled up a sleeve to reveal a tattoo on his arm that was in the same design as Lex’s. “Mine don’t glow in the dark, though.” He looked over at Henri, who was still sleeping. “Right, the box. I don’t think we are meant to reach down into it. I think the key is somewhere on the outside of it, like a button.” He rolled his eyes. “Leave it to Val to program the escape route with something as banal as java.” Lex was looking at him, clearly puzzled. “Sorry, never mind, I mean that I think there is something on this box that acts as a trigger. It opens a smaller version of the rift between worlds wherever you are, rather than having to find the actual rift to use it.”
“You mean the place Valentin sent me, the time that I crossed into your world and saw poor Henri for the first time?”
Alexander felt punched in the gut. That was the time he had been controlling the Lex avatar to show him to Henri - the time that Val kidnapped Henri. Lex had known all along where the rift was and hadn’t said - maybe the Prophis didn’t realize that was what the place was? Or perhaps he really was working for Val? Time to test the waters - he could always come back for Em. “You need to port us there right now, Lex. You, me, and Henri. You know Em can take care of herself until we are certain Henri is safe.”
“I won’t leave without her.”
“You just assured her you would! Did you lie to her?” Lex hung his head. “Didn’t think so, big guy, so let’s go. If Henri can’t stand, you may have to carry him. Can you do that?” Lex nodded but did not make eye contact with Alexander. He crossed the room to the bed and scooped up Henri as though the man weighed nothing. Alex anderfound himself envious of Lex’s strength, but put that to one side for now. There would be time for figuring out that relationship later.
“If you are coming along, you need to get close, Alex.” Alexander moved quickly to his side but took hold of Henri’s arm instead of the Prophis. “Good. Allons-y auberge.” Alexander’s eyes bugged for a moment before the spell took hold. They were going back to the inn! That was where the rift was. That was where he popped into the game every time he logged in on his GM account. That was his starting zone - it made sense. Of course Val built the inn for Henri, right there on the edge of freedom. Diabolical - and oddly sad. The spell landed, and the three men blinked out of sight from the castle as Em ran through the doorway.
The sound of her voice as she called out to them to wait would never leave his ears, but he knew they had to leave her there to distract Val. It would do them no good for him to pop up just as they were sending Henri through the rift.
The landing was rough as always, but Alexander let go as soon as he was able to see clearly, missing the running stop by Lex to keep from falling on Henri. The old man was still asleep, and that concerned Alex - the sleep must be spelled. They would deal with that later, though.
“Where is the rift, Lex?” The Prophis was heading for the back of the inn - Henri’s personal quarters - and he indicated with his head that Alexander should follow. Surely it wasn’t that easy - Val was a better game creator than that. You never put big targets - like a doorway to the real world - in such an obvious place.
“A moment, Henri is stirring.” Alexander ran back into the innkeeper’s quarters, noticing with some relief that there was not another innkeeper appearing. Lex was bent over Henri, whispering soothing words to the older man as his eyes fluttered open. They spoke French to each other for a few minutes, and Alexander was struck by the fact that Lex spoke fluent French, and he did not. Of course he did - he was a creation of the game, but it was still jolting. “He is fine, but he is angry that we left his daughter behind.”
“Monsieur Laurent, I am so sorry to have upset you,” Alexander said. Henri’s head rolled over to look at Alex, and a surprised smile spread across his face. “You have my word that Lex and I will go back for her as soon as you are safe - but you should also know that this was her idea, to get you to safety first. She is a stubborn young woman.”
“Hello again, Alexander.” Henri smiled up at him. “I do know that my daughter is stubborn - she got that from me, I’m afraid. But to leave her here with Val - I don’t think that is a good idea.”
“I know, but we have to do this. Lex and I just need to find the rift - it is somewhere here in the inn - and then we can get you to safety and go back to get Em. Lex, will you keep an eye on him while I look around for -”
“It is the mirror in my washroom.” He coughed. “Val is clever, but once he finds something he thinks is elegant, he stays with it.” He chuckled. “I am not sure what that says about me. Once I put the box away, I started to be able to see him from time to time in the mirror, watching me. Em told me she came through a mirror in the cave, so it has to be the mirrors.”
Alexander smiled wistfully as several pieces of the puzzle fell into place for him. Val’s office, where he had met with his boss so many times, was all shiny surfaces. Val was coming through as a projection via those mirrors because those were all rifts. His smile faded as he started to see the clues that he had missed - the paintings of the different zones and cities in the game in his office must be portals directly to those places. He looked back at Henri, frowning. “Valentin is not human, is he?”
Henri frowned. “I do not know exactly how, but no. He confessed it to me before he left me in that room. He looks the same; his voice is the same, but - his skin is different. He - he kissed me, and his skin was cold, his lips were as hard as a stone.” He looked away as his cheeks flushed a bit. “He is what you would call an NPC, a non-player character, except that he is also a learning and expanding artificial intelligence, an AI.” Henri rubbed his forehead. “It does not make sense to me - I understand the mechanics behind an NPC that can take in data and change its response accordingly. What I do not understand is how he inserted his own consciousness into the Val character.”
“He didn’t, I mean not really.” Alexander grinned, finally able to help. “Lex, do you know how to activate the rift? Think hard, we’ve - you’ve done it before, the first time you met Henri.” Lex nodded and left the room for Henri’s washroom as Alexander turned back to Henri. “He had an accident when he was a teenager and was in a wheelchair for a long time - he told me this once when we were working on one of the zones that had broken. Du
ring that time, he spent most of his days learning about AI and how to create a personality in an NPC that was realistic.”
“Val was always brilliant.” Henri was smiling fondly. “You are confirming what he told me, Alexander.”
“He built that Val that we see in the game - the inside bits, at least, the personality and everything - and then eventually he was able to create his appearance.” Alexander couldn’t stop beaming. This was the kind of conundrum that he enjoyed solving, and he had to admit that he was impressed with Val’s accomplishment. “The only question left is where the original Valentin is now - is he even still alive?”
“No, he told me that he left the body - disposed of it.” Henri shuddered.
Lex called out from the washroom. “Found it!” Alexander held up a hand to Henri and ran to the washroom. He saw Lex standing in front of the mirror, staring into it. As he got closer, he could see through the mirror into what looked like a control room. “I think that is the same room.” Lex’s voice sounded far away. “There is a circle on the floor, it’s faint, but can you see it?”
“I see it.”
“That’s where I appeared. I can’t believe I’d forgotten that - I guess Valentin programmed me to forget it, didn’t he?” Alexander patted Lex on the shoulder. He couldn’t imagine how it must feel, to find out that you aren’t - well, that you aren’t real. “I can remember it now, I came to this mirror, put my hands on it like this, and -” He was about to touch the glass with his outstretched hands, but Alexander grabbed his arms to stop him. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t know what will happen if you go through so you can’t touch the mirror, at least not until we have Henri here with us. What if it closes?”
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