Change

by Tony Corden

  Wisp joined in and said, “He also has fire magic, his firebolt killed James.”

  Leah, in Mist form, moved into the woods in the direction of her new target. She could see three warriors on the road with Thad and Wisp. As one of the warriors approached Thad, he shared the words with Leah.

  “Thad, isn’t it. It appears as if Atherleah is more resourceful than I imagined. I intended to take her alive and deliver the message in person, but you can give it to her once you resurrect. Merideath is annoyed, and she has sent my friends and me to communicate her annoyance. We will continue to find you, and kill you, every step of the way until Atherleah has the decency to return what she stole. Merideath also has a message for you and anyone like you who continues to help this nobody, Atherleah. ‘If you help Atherleah, you will suffer, not just in Dunyanin, but in any virtual world’. Be assured, Merideath will find you and she will destroy you.”

  As he was talking Leah had finally found the mage positioned on overwatch. He was in the fork of a tree overlooking the road and had an arrow nocked and ready. Leah un-Misted silently behind him, equipped her bow, and very quietly aimed at the base of the man’s skull. Her shot was perfect, and the arrow entered the skull through the foramen magnum and shattered against the frontal bone. She immediately teleported behind one of the remaining warriors, a short dwarf carrying a massive mace and before he even noticed her, she used the Haladie to remove his head and then equipped her bow. She had chosen the dwarf because she now had a clear shot at the remaining two warriors, one a heavily armoured Paladin type who was obviously a woman and the tall human swordsman who was talking with Thad.

  She said, “I’ve got the message, and I’ll make sure my friends know they have a choice to stay or leave. When you see Merideath feel free to tell her that I heard her message but have completely disregarded it. There is no other return message; my actions will show her what I think.”

  “So, you are Atherleah, a Level 240 who just killed four of my much higher level friends. I’d encourage you to rethink your reply. I also have a message from Mr Kodoman. He says, ‘stop annoying my wife, or I will get upset, she is getting on my nerves.’ Let me warn you, Merideath is vindictive, Mr Kodoman is lethal. She plays in the virtual world but he operates in the real world. You annoy her, and she ruins your virtual life. Annoy him, and it’s game over.”

  She checked the man’s name, and it read Fiore_Incarnate Level 347. She said, “Thanks for the advice, Fiore, but I didn’t start this little feud of ours, Merideath did, her and her family. But what now?”

  “Now, I kill you, and these two, and we wait until next time, and there will be a next time. I didn’t believe Eli when he said you could teleport but he was right. We’ll be ready next time.”

  Leah looked at him and then without warning released the arrow at Fiore’s head. As he moved to swat it from the air she cast Chain Lightning at him before teleporting behind the Paladin and casting Ki Freeze. Fiore was a little slow in stepping toward her and forgot Thad, who kicked out and caught his legs making Fiore stumble. The stumble was only brief, but Leah was ready and had time to finish off the Paladin. When Fiore regained his footing, he found Leah ready with a sword in each hand. She said, “So, this is better, one on one. Are you ready?”

  He lunged forward, and he was fast. Leah only just managed to evade being skewered and his sword gouged a furrow along her leather armour. During the next few minutes, Fiore attacked her with a speed and skill that was above anything she had yet faced. Before long her armour was torn, and she had shallow cuts on all her limbs and a more serious wound in her left side just under her ribs. Fiore stepped back and said, “You are fast, but I am second only to Merideath herself, and I am Immortal. Until now I have been playing with you. Goodbye!”

  Leah looked up and said, “I’ll see you later.”

  As Fiore stepped forward, Thad plunged his knife into Fiore’s kidney. He turned toward Thad only to receive a fireball from Wisp straight to his face followed by one of the steel arrows Leah had picked up, the arrow drove deep into his chest. It took another arrow and fireball to finish him, but as he turned opaque, he said, “Not fair.”

  Leah just smiled and moved to harvest anything left behind. She was not surprised that he left nothing except a few coins. She moved to Wisp and Thad and helped to remove the arrows which had been left in them. Finally, when they were all healed, she said, “What now? I imagine these guys will follow us to the mountains. I mentioned to Eli where I was headed, and they’ll be able to find us.”

  Thad said, “How much time do you have to finish the quest?”

  “Today is day ‘fifty-five’, so five days after today.”

  “How many leagues?”

  “It’s almost sixty to Pazar and then another ten to the base of the mountains.”

  “I doubt we would have made it anyway.”

  “I know, I was going to have to rush ahead at some stage and teleport as far as I could see.”

  Wisp said, “Well I suggest you do that. You leave now, and we’ll head back to Ticareti. After we meet with the others, we can decide on where to head next. You can go there from the mountains. If the worse comes to the worst and they watch us, we’ll lead them off in all sorts of directions.”

  They spent some more time discussing options but finally agreed with Wisp’s suggestion. Thad and Wisp hugged Leah goodbye, and they headed for town while she continued along the trail. She continued to run throughout the day with the occasional teleport when she could see for more than a kilometre along the trail. On several occasions, she was able to travel several leagues in one teleport. Altogether she had covered almost 20 leagues and decided to find an out of the way place to camp for the night. She looked ahead and to either side of the trail. Ahead she could only see trees, except on the other side of the river where she saw a rocky outcrop poking above the trees, far in the distance. With nothing to lose she visualised the top of the rock and teleported. When she arrived she quickly set up the tent and logged off.

  Leah took a quick break with breakfast and then entered the Tower. She said, “Gèng, can you replay the sword fight with Fiore for me, please?”

  “Certainly, is there any particular thing you are looking for?”

  “I wanted to get some idea of the various moves he made that I struggled with. I thought I’d talk with the Farron and ask for some specific forms which might help against those particular moves. While I was fighting, there were moments when I had only a little difficulty defending and then it seemed as if he accelerated and made moves that seemed incredibly complex and fast.”

  Leah had watched the fight several times when Gèng said, “Leah, I’ve analysed the various moves and compared them with whatever I could find on the skills in Dunyanin for those who use the sword. I suggest these are preprogrammed moves at Grandmaster Level.”

  “Yes, I noticed in the fight three times when he made a downward motion to his left that spiralled and became an upward right slash. His hands changed direction and position almost too fast for me to see. I agree it is probably pre-programmed. Can you show me that move and play it at one-tenth the actual speed.”

  As Gèng showed the moved, Leah walked around the projection and watched what was a blur of movement even at one-tenth the original speed. Finally, she said, “There are six other moves which caused me a lot of trouble. Can you isolate them for me and do the same?”

  After Leah had studied the seven moves, she headed for Dark Moon Duel to see Farron. When she arrived, he stood and looked at her for a few moments before saying. "After the Tournament, I wondered if you would return. I am not convinced that you are suited to combat. You allow your fears to rule you."

  Leah stood for a moment reliving the shame of their last parting. Taking a deep breath, she said, "You are right. I did allow my fear to rule me. When we last spoke and even now, I can see you consider this something of which I should be ashamed. Then, and now, I have felt shame, but I believe that feeling to be wrong. Ins
tead, I consider what happened as something I can learn from. Shame is what I should feel if I fail to learn, if I fail to grow. I will not feel shame for the failure itself. Should I do the same again, even then it is not shameful except if I have not tried to improve. There were reasons for my fear, real and justifiable reasons from my experiences. I have worked to understand and master these fears, but I am not ashamed of them."

  Farron nodded as he considered her words and then said, "I was wrong, forgive me. Your words show a deeper courage, the courage to continue when the fear is real. I am honoured to train you."

  After an hour lesson, she shared that she had been in a fight with someone and he had used seven moves that she needed help in overcoming. After showing Master Farron the first move in slow motion, she explained that it had been done much faster and not only was she unable to replicate the move but wanted to know the best way to defend or defeat it.

  “Well, I agree with you that the move as you describe it is much faster than I imagine possible. Besides the change of direction, you need to change your hand position. All that is possible but not at the speed you describe. As for defence, I have at least two forms that might help. You said there were several moves he made, please show me them all and then we’ll look at the best way to counter them.”

  In the end, he taught Leah three new forms and said that although they were out of sequence, it was best to be prepared. He had another five to show her and suggested she not approach the swordsman again until she had mastered them all. Leah spent a further three hours with the Master of Blades until he was confident that she could use the first three.

  After she finished with Farron, she did two lessons with Master Ning before logging out to think about her next steps. She was sitting on the sofa when Gèng entered and sat down opposite her. She said, “Leah, I’ve received notification that four of the bosses have deposited money in the account we set aside for them. We need to arrange for at least four pods as their occupants are scheduled to arrive at midday. That timing was given by the bosses, by the way.”

  “Contact the bosses and let them know that their recommended people should arrive at two because I’ll be busy until then. Please let my parents know what is happening and contact John and give him a heads up. Arrange for the four new Pods to be ready. I’m going to visit MIT and see what the results are and then I’ll check with everyone in the real world before heading for Dunyanin.”

  Gèng agreed, and Leah headed for the MIT portal to see if Professor Hill had the final results. When she arrived the Professor greeted her and asked her to wait a moment until Mr Patterson, the MIT Attorney, and the new Chancellor, a Professor Linda Mosley were available. Leah waited for five minutes and then was shown into the Chancellor’s office. After greeting everyone, she said, “Mr Patterson, I am wondering if I need my lawyer present for this meeting?”

  “Ms Carroll, I am here more to ensure that your rights are maintained than anything else. I do not believe you need an attorney present, but we will wait if you want us to.”

  “No, that is all right. I was after information regarding my testing.”

  The Chancellor looked at Leah and said, “Ms Carroll, my name is Professor Linda Mosley, and as you know I am new to this position. After reviewing the results that were originally supplied and those provided afterwards by the Australian Department of Education, it was with some interest that I reviewed your test results. We conclude that neither set of results give a clear picture of your educational level and as such, both are fundamentally flawed. The original results because they only indicated what you had been tested on and the second because they were complete fabrications.”

  “Both are flawed?”

  “Yes! It is clear that you have spent considerable time pursuing your own education and that your pursuit often went beyond the set curriculum. When did you begin teaching yourself rather than merely attending to the set classwork?”

  “I’ve worked by myself most of the time since I was six, Ma’am. I assure you I still completed every task and test that the schooling system set me.”

  “I see. Before we continue, let me ask how it is that you received only 97% on the final mathematics paper when you had received 100% on the previous six years’ examinations?”

  “They had a multiple choice question with three parts, and I don’t believe any of the suggested answers were correct. I redid the work several times and in the end wrote what I believed to be the correct answers on the form.”

  “Yes! Our testing shows that you are at a level at least equivalent with those in their junior year here at MIT, and in some cases you exhibit a level consistent with some of our graduate students. We don’t know the best thing for you. What do you most want to study?”

  “Mathematics and experimental physics with a preparation for further studies on a practical integration and applications of braided string theory and quantum packaging.”

  “That is very specific. Why do you want to study this, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “I’ve read the various works by Ivan Podshivalov and Lindsey Poncelet, and I’ve been looking at a possible braid formulation which unites their theories and provides possible practical applications. I need more time and understanding to finalise the braid and determine if it can be correlated to the Poncelet theory of isolated quantum packaging. If we can, then that has amazing potential.”

  “All that is over my head. Still, it brings me to our offer. We wish to offer you a primary degree in Science if you complete a senior unit on experimental design and implementation. It was decided that you had little or no interaction with practical experimentation. Usually, we would insist on four subject credits, but your examiners insisted the first two years would waste your time. This senior unit will count as two subjects and must be completed with distinction. If you do this, you will be awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science with Honours and be allowed to enrol in our Doctoral program. No one doubts your ability. We have decided to allow you to begin researching in your areas of interest if you can find a professor who agrees to be your advisor. You will be tentatively enrolled as a graduate student and expected to begin working on your submission. As agreed upon by the court, MIT will cover the full cost of your tuition. Do you have any questions?”

  “Maybe a thousand, but none are very relevant right now. I just want to say thank you. I will probably show my lawyer any agreements between you and I but please know that is not a matter of distrust, it is just that I’m very wary right now.”

  “That is understood. I will have Mr Patterson forward you and your attorney the various documents outlining our decision. In anticipation though, let me welcome you to MIT.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am, thank you.”

  Leah shook hands and walked back to the Tower in a bit of a daze. She sent a message to Stephen Riley about the offer and then logged out to see her parents. As was her habit these days she grabbed a few sandwiches and then sat with her parents. After telling them the good news, they discussed the people who were coming and the need for appropriate monitoring. They agreed that they had a responsibility to help prevent people from becoming isolated in the virtual world.

  “It’s going to be hard to force them to interact. I was in a Pod facility setting for one week and I was comfortable not talking with anyone. We need to prevent this type of isolation because long term it will take them from family and friends.”

  Her dad said, “We understand, Leah. Even now it is difficult for us to find enough time to interact with you and know what is going on. But how do we do help them?”

  “Ling, I notice that with the food being outside your room you come out more regularly. I suggest we remove the mini kitchens from the Pod rooms and provide a communal kitchen and lounge, even if it is only for five people. You could even afford a cook to provide their meals, whatever they wanted, when they wanted. They will exit the Pod for food.”

  In the end, they followed her mother’s suggestion and arranged for the
small kitchenettes to be removed from the Pods. Michael would work through the morning to arrange a ‘make do’ communal area and work to have something permanent in place by the end of the week. Leah headed for the security office and was surprised to find John there.

  “Having a break to reality, John?”

  “With the news that more people are arriving today, I wanted to make sure everything was covered. Our security is good, but it needs to be tighter.”

  “Agreed! I received another threat today. This one also mentioned possible action here in the real world. I’m taking it seriously and think you should too. Have you heard anything about the woman who was coming here, Charlotte Brown?”

  “Not yet, though I had expected her before this. Maybe you should check with the AI that everything is all right. Be assured I am taking the threats seriously. Remind me again what time the others arriving in 55 Cancri?”

  “At eleven this morning, real time. It’ll take them a day or so to slow down, so we have nothing to do until midnight tonight. Make sure you’ve had your NREM3 sleep and arranged for your second avatar to be at 55 Cancri by then.”

  “The plan sounds risky.”

  “That’s only because it is, but I’ve checked the algorithms in the Cosmos Online Handbook several times, and it should work.”

  “None of the others think it will.”

  “Of course they do, they all agreed after we discussed it.”

  “Don’t take offence, Leah, but you are still socially blind. Their agreement wasn’t based on logic or mathematics but friendship and trust. Their body language says they think you’re not playing with the full deck. You’re going to have them fire a missile at you.”

  “Two missiles and it’s all in the timing, John. Cosmos Online works out your final ‘velocity’ when entering Plankian space by comparing your velocity vector with a sampling of several spatial metrics in the area around the spaceship. They have to do this to take account of solar flares, the gravitational effect of black holes and people who translate during combat and are either hit or affected by the radiation and debris from explosions. A well-placed missile can throw you out of line and mean you die in the deep black. All I’m doing is changing the metrics in the space around the ship at certain places to change where we will go and be ready for it.”