“Perhaps that is what the box is for? Perhaps that keeps it open long enough -”
“Long enough to move back and forth. Yes! Go get Henri, I’m not sure he can walk yet.” Lex dashed out of the room as Alexander gazed through the mirror. There were monitors, knobs, and buttons everywhere in the room, and some of them were beeping and lighting up. He touched the mirror with a finger, and the glass rippled like water. This was the rift. Alexander frowned. It was cruel of Val to put it right where Henri would have to see it all the time, but at the same time, maybe the AI Val did that. Perhaps it hadn’t developed emotions by that point. Or maybe Val wanted Henri to know he was there?
Lex interrupted Alexander’s thoughts by appearing in the doorway, holding Henri like he was a baby. “Here, he is.” Alexander nodded.
“Okay, here’s the plan.”
Thirty-Three
“Henri, can you stand?” Alexander watched closely as Lex put him carefully on his feet and held on to his arm to steady him.
“I can.” Henri looked up at Lex with genuine affection in his expression. “Tu as été un fils fantastique, Lex. Merci pour tout.” Lex smiled and then grabbed Henri up into a hug. Once he placed the older man back on his feet, Henri took a step closer to Alexander. “I am in your hands, Alexander.”
“Okay, the plan is that I am going to go through first and turn on the system properly, and then Henri will follow. That way, if something goes wrong, I can be there to troubleshoot.” He looked up at Lex. “As soon as Henri leaves the game, another innkeeper will likely pop out there, so I will need you to keep it occupied.” Lex nodded and reached for his sword, strapped on his back. “No, you can’t engage, Lex. You just need to keep him from coming in here. Remember what happened last time when Em killed that one?”
Lex nodded. “Yeah, the rest of them appear already wanting her to die.”
“Correct.” Alexander turned back to Henri. “Here is the complicated thing - once you are through, you need to get yourself to safety. I don’t know where this leads, but it has to be somewhere that Val built when -”
“I know where it is.” Henri was solemn. “It is not far from Paris. Val built this shed in a place where he and I used to go as children. There is a room where I can rest until you get back with Em.”
“Fair enough.” Alexander moved over to the mirror. “Let’s do this.” He took a deep breath and turned back to the mirror. Carefully placing his hands on the glass, he pushed. The sensation was cold as the glass rippled and then gave way. He climbed into and through the large mirror before jumping down onto the floor. “Wait, Henri!” He called out, holding up his hands in case Henri couldn’t hear him through the mirror. The switch he was looking for was reasonably easy to find - it was on a bank of servers to one side. Alexander ran over and flipped the switch, and a light came on above him that created a circle on the floor before he ran back to the mirror. “Now! Come on through now!”
Henri climbed through the mirror and then hesitated, looking back for a moment. “You will bring her home to me, yes?”
“Of course, just come on, I need to get back and help Lex.” He motioned to Henri, who nodded and jumped. Alexander tried to catch him, but they both ended up on the floor in a heap. “I guess I’m not as strong as my avatar,” he said as he helped Henri up off the floor.
“You are strong in other ways, mon fils,” Henri said as he patted Alexander on the hand. “I will be waiting here. Go, help my daughter.” He smiled at Alexander and then moved away from the mirror before taking a seat at the monitors. “This way, I can watch you.”
“Sure.” Alexander climbed back through the mirror and looked back just before he went through. “Be careful, Henri. Val knows you are gone now and probably knows how, so don’t get too close to the mirror.” Henri nodded and waved as Alexander slipped through the mirror.
He was moving as soon as his feet hit the ground in the washroom. He could hear Lex chatting with the innkeeper, so he was careful to sneak out to the big room. He didn’t want the innkeeper to notice that he was coming from a zone that he shouldn’t know about. “Lex?” he hissed as he went into the room.
“Under control.” Lex beckoned Alexander to come over to the table. “He has gone to refill my ale. Shall we head out of here?” Alexander nodded and moved close to Lex, who put a burly arm around him. “Allons-y, Château Badeaux.” There was a mighty roar of a wind that seemed to surround the two of them just before everything went black.
“I’m coming, Em,” Alexander whispered into the void. “Just hang on, we’re coming.”
The landing was rough, but this time they managed to keep their feet. They had arrived in the courtyard of the palace, and Lex immediately assumed the role of one of Val’s guards and grabbed Alexander by the scruff of his neck. Other Prophis were patrolling the courtyard, and they stopped to look at Lex and Alexander, but then nodded knowingly at him and moved along. “Play along, Alexander. They won’t stop us if you play along.” Lex was hissing in his ear, and Alexander nodded back to him. He checked out the layout of the courtyard but did not see any exits other than the main entrance behind them. It was of no use anyway because the portcullis was down. Lex was heading for one of the side entrances to the twin towers that flanked the grand staircase in the middle, leading to two giant wooden doors. They were engraved with one large tree that spread across the two doors.
Lex yanked Alexander’s arm as they passed through a group of Prophis guards, and he nearly lost his footing. “Sorry,” Lex whispered. “That did make it look real, though.”
“Any more real and you will be carrying me and - don’t you even think about it, Lex!” Alexander hissed back. Lex chuckled and kept running. Once inside the tower, they encountered a flight of stairs, and Lex wasted no time bounding up to them. “The chamber where we left them is at the top of these stairs.” Alexander nodded in response and kept pace with Lex. At the top of the winding staircase, he reached out for Lex and grabbed Lex by the arm. “My knees are burning, Lex, I need to -”
A scream cut him off, and he and Lex looked at each other. Lex grabbed Alexander and slung him over a shoulder before continuing to run through corridors. Alexander bounced up and down, trying to keep from slamming into Lex’s back as the demon ran. After a few moments, Alexander decided he was utterly lost - even though he had helped Val create these twists and turns and mapped out every inch, it was challenging to keep his bearings, most likely because he was currently upside down. Lex skidded to a stop and dropped Alexander onto the floor like a sack of potatoes.
“She’s here,” Lex whispered.
“How do you know?”
Lex tapped his tattoos, and Alexander scowled. “I hope that she can sense me and knows that we are nearby.” He put a hand up to each door that they came to and lingered for a moment, closing his eyes. Alexander watched with fascination. This was how he could find her when he and Em ran together before she was trapped in the game - but to click on the tattoo icon would bring up a map that showed her where he was. Alexander hoped that she remembered it. “Here.” Alexander looked up at Lex, whose tattoos were blowing a vivid purple.
“Is it locked?”
“Nope.” Lex pushed the door open and ran inside the room.
“Oh, so we’re just going to go ahead and not check first, okay, sure.” Alexander shook his head as he ran in after Lex. Em was sitting in the middle of the room, tied to a chair. Her left eye was swollen and her right eye, while not completely open, was bloodshot. A cut, still bleeding, under her left eye, left a tiny trail that ran down her cheek, pooling on the cloth that was shoved into her mouth. Her nostrils flared as she recognized them, and Alexander saw anger in her eyes rather than fear. Had Val been human, Alexander was confident that he would have fared far worse than Em seemed to have done.
“Welcome back, boys. Now, where is my Henri?”
“Gone, Val. He is safe - away from you.” Alexander looked at Lex as he spoke. It must be hard for him to stand up to his
creator. His opinion of the demon was on the rise. Val looked over at Lex and smiled maliciously.
“Speak when spoken to, Prophis,” Val hissed as he held a hand out toward Lex’s face. “Ta Gueule!“ Lex grabbed at his face and throat, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water but making no sound at all. Em made a frustrated growling sound from behind her gag, catching Val’s attention. “Tsk, tsk, little girl.” He shook his head as he walked back to her. “They didn’t bring him to trade, so I’m afraid you have to stay here.”
“We brought me to trade, Val,” Alexander said as he glared at the older man. He was looking for another glitch, but it wasn’t happening. Both Lex and Em turned their heads to stare at him, and Alexander knew that it was because this had not been part of the plan. But there was no taking on Val when he wasn’t glitching - Lex might be able to take him, but after the display of force a few moments ago, Alexander wasn’t sure. “I will stay. I will help you build another Henri, one that will love you and stay with you. Just please, let Em go.”
Val laughed so hard that he bent over for a moment. “You must be joking.” Alexander spotted movement out of the corner of his eye - Lex was creeping toward Em. Good. If he could transport her out, then he could take her to the rift. Surely he could get her to safety. “I know that you have encountered my previous attempts - I believe our girl even dispatched several of them, didn’t -” He turned to look at Em just in time for one of her daggers to spin right up to his head...and bounce off as though it was made of plastic. Val laughed again as he batted it away and then held out his hand toward her as he had to Lex. He swung his arm to one side, and Em flew in the same direction and into a wall. She lay still in a heap on the floor.
Lex roared and ran at Val, who seemed surprised that Lex could make such a noise. His tattoos glowed a bright red as he grabbed Val by the neck and held him aloft by his throat. Val struggled against Lex as he tried to pull Lex’s hand off his throat. Lex looked back at Alexander and stared at him as he indicated with his head in Em’s direction. Val took advantage of Lex’s distraction and kicked him hard in the ribs, but Lex didn’t lose his grip. Alexander nodded and ran to Em.
“Come on, Em, you’ve got to get up. Did you hit your head?” She shook her head. “Come on. Easy now.” He pulled the gag out of her mouth, and she coughed and then spat on the floor.
“Let. Me. At. Valentin.” Her eyes blazed as she got to her feet. “Make. Lex. Move.” Alex looked back, and Lex had his back to them. He was holding Val up against a wall by his throat.
“I have to get you to your father,” Em looked at him like he was insane and made a move to grab another dagger. “I got her, Lex!” He called out. Lex looked back at them, nodded, and then turned his attention back to Val. “Com’ere.” He pulled her to him and called up his GM abilities as he had when he transported them to her house. Just before he focused on taking them to the inn, he saw Val disappear, taking Lex with him. Em screamed out for Lex as they too blinked out of the castle to reappear almost immediately in the inn.
“TAKE ME BACK!” She screamed at Alexander as she shoved him away from her.
“I can’t, you know that. Now shush, you don’t want to get the attention of the innkeeper.” He took her hand and pulled her through to the innkeeper’s quarters and then into the washroom. “Look!” She followed his gaze to the mirror.
“Is that -”
“A rift, yes. Long story short, Val has been using mirrors, windows, and other shiny surfaces to travel between the two worlds. This is where your father is and where I need you to go.”
“You mean us? You need us to go?”
“Well, yes, of course.” Alexander bit his bottom lip. It was not so long ago that he would have jumped at the chance to have her away from the game and away from Lex, but he wanted to make sure the big guy was okay. Why? Lex could take care of himself, and the next time Alexander logged in, he would be able to log in as Lex and - Alexander squeezed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He would sort it out. After pushing Em up to the mirror, Alexander picked up the box. Once he pressed it up against the mirror, it ripped and opened and stayed open. “Go, Em, Go!” She jumped through, and Alexander climbed up, ready to follow her. “Be careful, big guy,” he whispered. “I will take care of her.” He grabbed the box as he slipped through the mirror, so when the innkeeper popped in the washroom, all he saw in the mirror was himself.
Em
Thirty-Four
Her apartment was the same. The bowl of cereal she put in the sink was still there. At least she had remembered to rinse it out before she sat back down to play - it was just a game then. What was it now?
“This is nice,” Alexander said as he looked around in the sitting room. Em sank down into one of the chairs at the kitchen table in front of her laptop. The battery must have died - the screen was blank. She dug in her work bag until she found the charging cord and plugged it into the wall before plugging it into her machine. “What are you doing in there - oh.” She looked up at Alexander and then back at the laptop. It blazed to life, and the Arcstone logo appeared on the screen, making her gasp.
Once they were through the rift, she and Alexander had gone to the room where he had left her father, but he was gone. There was a note left on the keyboard in front of one of the control panels, but that was the only clue they had to Henri’s whereabouts.
My sweet daughter, I love you, but I cannot stay in this world with you, not as long as Val remains alive and active in Arcstone. Please give your mother my love and do not look for me. I will be watching out for you as best I can, but I know that Alexander will take care of you in my absence. You must not come back into the game until I let you know it is safe.
Em thought of his signature - a flourish - at the bottom. She couldn’t just leave him there. Luckily, Alexander had enough money to get them back to her flat in Yorkshire so that she could do something to save her father before he was stuck forever in Arcstone.
“Em, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” She typed in her password and clicked on ‘Enter,’ and the Arcstone logo swirled in the middle of her monitor.
“Em, you can’t. Henri was very clear.” She looked up at him, and he shook his head. “I know, try and stop you.” Em grinned as she turned her attention back to the laptop - the opening cinematic played, and the music swelled throughout her kitchen. She chose the zone and then looked back up at Alexander, holding out her hand to him. He took her hand and grinned.
“Only one way to find out,” she said as she squeezed his hand.
Epilogue
Lex
After Alexander left with Em, Lex lowered Val to the ground and released him. As soon as he hit the ground, Val ran from the room, screaming for Henri, and Lex silently watched him go. He wrapped his fingers around his neck, applying pressure to his tattoos, but there was no answer this time. No hum, no vibration - no Em. She was gone, back to her homeworld, and he was here.
There was no way to know if Alexander stayed with her or was still in Arcstone. If he had any sense, he would have passed through with her and destroyed the rift. His musing was interrupted by Val running back in the room and right up to him. “WHERE DID THEY TAKE MY HENRI?” he roared. Lex pointed at his mouth and shook his head. “Tu te fous de moi? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” He pointed at Lex and muttered something.
“What did you -?” Lex shouted as he grabbed at his throat. “I can speak!”
“Answer my question.”
Lex met Val’s glare in kind. “He is back in his world, as is his daughter.”
“You found the rift?” Val considered Lex for a moment as his cheeks flushed with anger. “Answer me! You found the rift?” Lex nodded.
“The closer I got to it, the more I remembered. The human told me that your programming made me forget, but I remembered as I got closer.”
“The human? Oh, Alexander.”
“Well, it isn’t you.” Val’s eyes narrowed. “I know that
you are the same as me, Val, Le Créateur, whatever. I know that you aren’t real. I saw you glitch.” Val’s eyes widened. “Even better, Alexander saw it. They all know, Val.”
“And you know what that means?” A grin spread across his face. “You don’t, do you? Oh, my beautiful boy, one of my best creations.” He took a step back and held his hands up toward Lex. “Redémarrez votre système. Maintenant.” The command took hold - a total system reboot - and Lex felt everything he knew, everything he had learned disappearing, like sand falling through an hourglass. He tried to hang on as his memories slipped away, but he couldn’t. Memories of Madelyne, her face, her eyes - her beautiful eyes faded away to nothing but darkness.
He looked up and saw Le Créateur standing before him, and he immediately took a knee. “Master, my apologies for looking you in the eye, I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“It’s all right, mon fils, you have not been yourself lately. Now, I have work for you to do, a quest of sorts, but first, you must rest.” Val held out a hand and helped Lex up from the floor. “You don’t kneel before me anymore, Lex.” Lex nodded, smiling. He had finally made it to the top of the guard - in Le Créateur’s inner circle. He couldn’t wait for Em to come back to the cottage so he could tell her. This mission that Le Créateur was sending him on would be easier with Em’s help. “Transport yourself back home, Lex. Wait for more instructions.” Lex saluted and then stepped back from Val.
“Allons-y,” he said, and winked out of the room, headed for Ghostfell and the inn. Soon it would be evening, and she would log in, and they would run the mission.
Soon.
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