by Natalie Grey
“I’ll stay with him for now,” Freon said. “Between a rogue and a frost mage, we should be able to seriously mess up some people’s days.”
“Solid.” Gracie hefted her axe. “Red Squadron!”
“Red Squadron!” the rest of them chorused back.
“Aww, we’re turning into a cult.” She laughed as the doors opened. “Let’s go explore!”
Jay didn’t feel any guilt about sneaking off with Gracie. After all, the whole point of this exercise was to have fun, wasn’t it? They weren’t trying to win. He opened a private channel.
“Follow me.”
“Where are we going?” Gracie followed him curiously. They were heading along the outer wall, going west, and she was looking around at everything. Once or twice, she tried to slide into gaps in the wall. “That’s a good spot,” she said after one of them. “Not sure what you’d use it for, but if you could sort of herd a flag carrier down this way, maybe?”
“Good call.” Jay hopped onto a toppled column and ran up it.
“Where are you going?”
“Come on!” he called back.
Gracie laughed as she followed. She had put a glamor on her armor to make it a dusky, aged bronze color rather than the bright gold it had been before—very like her to do, in Jay’s opinion. With the axe and darker armor, she looked a good deal more deadly.
Jay led the way up the column and onto the slanted remains of the roof that ran along a side hall. This had been one of the places the developers had held victory dance parties when they won, and it offered a gorgeous view of the desert around the keep as well as the verdant oasis inside.
Plus, on an artificial roof, there was no chance of slipping on a stray tile and crashing to earth.
From here, they could see the whole battlefield, and Jay swept his arm out triumphantly. “Behold the site of your future victory.” He cleared his throat. “At some point, I assume I’ll find out why we’re focusing on PvP now.”
“Awesome,” Gracie breathed. “This is great, thank you. And as for the PvP…” She looked over with a shrug. “Call it a hunch.”
“Mmm?” Jay watched as a series of frost spells went off in the library. “Freon and Dathok have company.”
“Hamstring ‘em, boys,” Gracie cheered. She had crossed her arms and was frowning as she surveyed the ruins of the keep.
Saladin’s Keep sat at a crossroads that was no longer used; the roads stretched away, cobblestones scattered and quickly lost in the drifting sands. The building was massive and still sheltered the oasis, even in its tumbled-down state.
The two ends of the keep formed the bases for the PvP match. At one end was a dining hall, where Saladin had entertained the most distinguished of the caravan leaders, scholars, soldiers, and nobles who passed through the crossroads, and at the other end was the library. In between, were the old kitchens, bedrooms, and even a temple. Outside the walls of the keep proper were longer, lower walls where caravans would have camped.
In the center was the most innately interesting feature of the keep: the oasis. Possessing a large pool of clear, deep-blue water, it was surrounded by tall palm trees, bushes, and flowers. From the way Gracie stared at it, Jay knew that in the real world, she was lost in its beauty, even if he couldn’t see it on her avatar’s face.
“What are you thinking?” he asked her after a moment.
“I’m thinking that the oasis draws people in, but it’s the most useless place,” Gracie said slowly. “The rooms, the corridors, the roofs—all of those are better for a run with the flag. If you worked together as a team, you’ll be able to—”
DEFEAT flashed up on the screen.
“Whoops,” Gracie said. She switched to the main channel. “Anyone know if we can re-queue in here?”
“We can,” Caspian said. “Because we’re a full group. We’re just all going to get yanked back to the starting room, and it may flip-flop us to the other one when we get opponents.”
“Cool,” Gracie said. She pointed to a series of rooms just below them: “Okay, so, real quick… If you look there, you can see that there are a lot of ways through the—dammit!” The reset had yanked them back to the main room. “Blast.”
“Yeah,” Jay said. “No, I see what you meant. Next time, let’s…”
“Let’s?” Gracie looked at him.
He made sure he was on the private channel before answering. “Well, what I should say is that we should take everyone to get acquainted with the path so we can try things out, but what I actually wanted was to spend some time with you.”
“So let’s do that," Gracie said with a smile emote. She gave him a thumbs-up. “We can lose at this any day of the week, man.”
Jay burst out laughing.
“All right,” Gracie said to the group. “We have a hunch that the best way to run this is to go down the side corridors instead of through the oasis, no matter how pretty it is and how it seems like the best place to go. There aren’t many places to hide backup, and it’s just a clusterfuck. If we make a team effort to go down one of the sides, though, we’re in good shape. Jay and I will take the west side and note anything we see there, Ushanas and Fys, take the east side to see about ranges for AoE and pets, and the rest of you work on various defensive hiding places or offensive tactics. Try range, try sneaking up on people, try anything you want.”
“Roger that,” Dathok said. “Freon and I are still on defense, I assume?”
“Yep,” Gracie responded. She clapped for the two of them. “Everyone, say thank you to Dathok and Freon for giving us the space to try this out.”
“Thank you,” the group chorused, sounding like a group of five-year-olds.
The countdown began again, and Gracie and Jay ran over to the west side of the library. She held up her hand for an e-fist-bump and he tapped it before the barriers disappeared and they took off.
They raced one another, hopping over tumbled stones and ducking under barriers. He heard a laugh, and he looked over to see Gracie stumble.
“I actually jumped,” she said, amused, “rather than using the controls. Not great on the landing. My downstairs neighbors probably hate me.”
Jay laughed. They were in the long gallery of the temple, which was set up with what looked like altars to many gods. That would make sense in a place like this, he supposed. Most of the statues were gone, however, or destroyed.
He wondered what had happened here.
They moved through more slowly now, practicing hiding behind statues or in alcoves. None of the other team seemed to be coming this way.
“So, why are we doing PvP now?” Jay asked her.
She looked at him seriously, her hair drifting around her face in an unseen wind. “I think it’s how Harry will come for me next time.”
“Can he?” Jay asked skeptically. “He had to inhabit bosses last time. He wasn’t able to start the quest himself. Unless…can he port a boss in here?”
“I don’t think so,” Gracie said. “But there are a million ways he could set me up to fail. He knows the rules of this game, Jay, and I don’t. The real game, I mean, not Metamorphosis Online. His game.”
“Good point.” Jay crossed his arms and sighed as he considered. “I wish I knew what to tell you,” he said finally. “I don’t know much about PvP.”
“I suck at it,” Gracie said. “People do the stupidest things just to be spiteful, so it’s not like fighting a computer where it’s set up to make you do things that are legitimately difficult. No, you have to account for the fact that people might make a stupid decision just to fuck you over. I hate it.”
Jay smiled at her.
“What?” She crossed her arms.
“Are you sure you haven’t been replaced with a pod person?” Jay asked her. “Because the Gracie I know really, really likes winning, and she sure doesn’t back away from a fight.”
Gracie snorted, annoyed. “I like winning fights that are worth winning,” she said grumpily. “Not fights that are full of ba
d logic.”
“Can’t this one be both?” Jay asked her. “Because, yes, if we wind up fighting PvP, it will be as much a mind game as a skill game. That’s true. But what we’ll be fighting for…well, it’s the same thing we’ve always been fighting for. And that’s worth it.”
Chapter Fourteen
It’s the same thing we’ve always been fighting for. And that’s worth it.
The thought was still circling in Jay’s head when he pulled into the parking lot of Dragon Soul Productions the next day around noon. His team had gotten used to working across the entire day, focusing heavily on the evenings, when the bulk of players were online. When he’d first met Gracie, they had been in a phase of working from 8pm until 4am.
He had chosen to walk away from this place, and he would do it again—but he had missed it. Gracie had put into sharp focus all the things he loved about Dragon Soul and the game they had created. His team had worked hard to create a new home for people who needed an escape. Jay had liked being part of that, and he had liked his team.
Now he was back, and he found himself unexpectedly nervous. Not knowing what to do, not knowing what Dan and Dhruv might come after him or his coworkers for, he hadn’t been in contact with any of them except Sam since he left. Several of them had texted him to ask if he was okay, but Jay hadn’t written back.
Would they even be glad to see him?
When he arrived, the place was quiet. Computers hummed, but no one seemed to be around. Jay stopped, frowned, and pulled out his phone to check the start time Sam had given him.
It did say noon.
But maybe this had been some elaborate prank by Dan and Dhruv. No, that was ridiculous.
Right?
He was chewing his lip when Sam popped his head out the door of one of the conference rooms. “There you are. Wanted you to come in early for all the HR paperwork bullshit. Come on, I got bagels.”
With a small sigh of relief, Jay headed down the hallway, swinging his messenger bag over his head. He walked into the room with a hello and jumped when a chorus of voices called, “WELCOME BACK!”
Jay’s old team was all there. Some of them looked deeply disheveled, and all of them had donuts and caffeine in their hands. A full spread of breakfast food had been set out, and people came up to give Jay handshakes and tell them how glad they were that he was back.
Jay gave Sam a bemused smile, and his boss edged closer.
“I figured we’d do this before Dan and Dhruv were in,” Sam said, his voice low. “They agreed that you could come back, of course.”
“But a whole party might be pushing it?” Jay asked. He nodded at Sam. “Seriously, thanks. This is awesome. I missed these guys.”
“They missed you,” Sam said. “Also, while you’re here—Ria, Paul.” He beckoned over two people who looked vaguely familiar to Jay. “You were in on first interviews for both of them.”
“Oh! Right.” Jay shook their hands.
Paul had long, floppy brown hair and was wearing a much-too-large polo shirt, and Ria was tiny and delicate, dark-haired, and with an aura of someone who was trying to pack far too much energy into her small frame. She was, paradoxically, the only one in the room not holding a cup of coffee or a bottle of soda.
Jay nodded at them both. “Settling in well?”
“Yeah,” Ria said. “Had to hack one of the VR suits to make it fit, but we managed.”
“She’s a male Ocru in-game,” Paul said, snickering.
“I wanted to know what it was like to be tall,” Ria said as if it should be self-explanatory.
Jay laughed as they wandered off and glanced at Sam. “So? Is there actually any HR paperwork bullshit to do?”
“Only a couple of things.” Sam waved a hand. “We can get it done anytime. Get some breakfast, since I know you don’t eat much in the mornings. Saw you were doing some PvP last night.”
Jay, who had been picking up a cinnamon sugar donut, raised an eyebrow.
“I still have all the controls hooked up to watch you,” Sam said with a shrug. “I’d say it’s safe to assume they are as well.” He didn’t need to say who they were.
“I don’t suppose we could expect anything else,” Jay said, sighing. “Looking for ways to bring her back to zero, huh?”
“Jay, you know it’s not that.” Sam was serious now. He peered around the room. “This…isn’t the place for this. Get a plate—no, a full plate, a donut is not a balanced breakfast—and we’ll do the paperwork. All right, everyone, wave to Jay, you’ll see him later, I have to take him to do paperwork.”
Everyone groaned and waved, and Jay and Sam walked to his office in silence.
When they got there, Sam sat in his chair and took a moment to choose his words while Jay mixed sugar into his coffee.
“How’s Gracie?” Sam asked finally.
“Fine.” Jay gave him a look.
“I was actually asking.” Sam raised an eyebrow. “It’s clear you care for her.” There was a question in those words.
Jay sighed and took a bite of his donut. “Yes,” he said finally. “We’re together. No, we’ve never met in person. No, I am not going to have a lecture on—”
“Did you really think I brought you back here to lecture you and threaten your girlfriend?” Sam asked him. “I think I’ve earned the benefit of the doubt from you.”
It was a good point. Sam had risked his job multiple times to create distractions for Red Squadron and hamstring the Demon Syndicate. Not only that, he’d been a good boss in general, always putting himself in the way of employee code changes or unwarranted discipline.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Jay frowned, frustrated. “But I don’t see how you can support them. You’ve watched what they’ve been doing.”
“Jay, just because I don’t think it’s right to have people buy their ranking in this game, that doesn’t mean I’m all right with having some sort of demigod queen.” Sam shook his head. “And I definitely don’t think it’s a good idea to have Harry’s programming still in the game. I’m sure she’s a wonderful person. I have nothing against her. But I want her to be a player. I want the game to be solid and secure and enduring.”
Jay could think of nothing to say to this.
“They haven’t said it,” Sam said, “but I think part of why Dan and Dhruv wanted you back is that you seem to have better luck than they do at finding the pieces Harry left behind. Jay, you seem to think this is all over because she got what he wanted. Have you actually paid attention to any of the stories about Harry? Because he won’t let it end here.”
Jay’s head came up. His chest felt cold and hollow. “You think he’s planning something more?”
“Of course, I think that.” Sam looked at him like he had two heads. “Don’t tell me Gracie doesn’t agree.”
“No, she…she said she expected a PvP battle.” Too late, he realized he shouldn’t be talking about this with Sam. The words were out of his mouth, though, and there was no coming back from it. “I just thought she might be wrong.”
“Jay, you’re a very good employee,” Sam said. “You’re smart, you’re capable…and sometimes you’re a complete moron.”
Jay spluttered through a sip of his coffee.
“Gracie is right,” Sam said grimly. “Dan and Dhruv know it; anyone who knows what’s going on knows it. You… I don’t know what’s going on with you.”
“He hasn’t been able to get into the game,” Jay said, annoyed. “She has his powers.”
“Like that’s really going to be the end of it for someone that vengeful?” Sam shook his head. “This is making me worry about your relationship. Look, a few quick tips: pay attention to the things your partner likes, so you can do something fun for her birthday. When in doubt about—”
“I’m fine on relationships,” Jay said, nettled. “Thank you.”
“Are you sure, man?” Sam shook his head. “Well, your funeral, I guess. Hit me up if you ever spectacularly biff a holiday.”
“I am not going to… You know what? I am not having this discussion with you.” Jay jabbed a finger at him. “I am totally aware of the situation; I just don’t think it’s dire.”
“Then prove it,” said a new voice. Dan was leaning in the doorway, his arms crossed. He nodded at Jay. “I don’t suppose there are any donuts left.”
“Probably,” Sam said. He didn’t seem worried at all.
“I’ll go get one in a moment, then.” Dan looked at Jay. “In the meantime, do know that no one would be happier than us if you were to find out there was no game-destroying kill switch. That’s what you’re going to be spending your time on. It could be anything. Lord only knows how he could have hidden it.”
Jay considered this silently. Gracie would want him to do this, he knew, but he still had some questions. When this was over…
“Find it before Harry destroys the game,” Dan told him seriously, “and we’ll let Gracie stay as whatever she is. That will be the end of it.”
Jay reached out to shake the man’s hand without hesitation. “Deal.”
Chapter Fifteen
"That was fucking weird," Kevin called from the living room.
”Eh?" Jamie stirred the pasta in the pot, then went back to the frying pan, where thick-cut bacon cut into small pieces was frying up. A small bowl of peas sat next to a heaping bowl of freshly shredded parmesan, a pinch bowl of red pepper flakes, a glass of white wine, and some egg yolks.
Kevin came around the door with his VR headset under his arm. He was still wearing the rest of the suit over a plain white t-shirt and workout pants. Jamie had come to learn that Kevin had no casual clothes.
They were going to fix that. Jamie believed strongly on a moral level that no gamer should go through life without a comfortable sweatshirt and a pair of flannel pants.
"PvP just takes some getting used to," Jamie told Kevin now. He checked the table to make sure he'd put out silverware. "Did you—"
"It wasn't the keep," Kevin said. He put the headset on the counter and began stripping off the rest of the suit, still frowning. "So, I finished, and I went over to the armory, right? I wanted to find some armor that might help with interrupts, and also healing modifiers.”