by Paul Ormond
“That is a very moving speech, Drakon Trendago,” the priestess said before addressing the audience. “The accused has just spoken freely and expressed what he feels within his heart. I have no doubt that he believes what he says and that he committed high treason against the state. According to the laws of the Republic of Chalthantar, I find Drakon Trendago guilty of treason and sentence him to death.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
PUSHING ASIDE THE stiff branches clawing at her side, SoHee came to a large clearing lit by a half moon enshrouded by passing clouds.
As she stepped into the opening, SoHee spotted a pathway winding through the grass toward a hilltop some distance away. Behind her, several shrill cries echoed through the forest, and sent chills up her spine.
In a panic, she broke into a run, feet pounding the soft dirt of the path as it sloped up the hill. More cries filled the air, and she looked back over her shoulder to see several wolf-like creatures break through the tree line and tear through the tall grass in pursuit.
With her heart pounding in her chest she picked up her pace, but the creatures continued to narrow the gap as the hill steepened. Pushing toward the top, she saw a series of stone columns arranged in a circle around the peak of a hill.
As she crested the rise, the creatures closed in, and she shrieked while they snapped at her heels. Sprinting toward the columns, she spotted a large slab of rock in the center or the arrangement. With her last remaining strength, she charged past a pair of towering stones and pushed toward the rock formation. She leaped onto the first footing and scrambled to the top before falling to her knees. Gasping for breath, she scanned for the creatures. Shapes lurked outside of the circle, snarling and howling, but for some reason the animals would not pass the columns.
Exhaling in relief, SoHee rolled over to her side, exhausted and terrified. After catching her breath, she looked out at her surroundings in search of a clue that could tell her where she was.
Although some had fallen over, the majority of the columns remained erect. Surrounding the stone monument SoHee had clambered up, a series of hip high stones had been set in concentric circles, broken by wide aisles and dispersed at even intervals throughout the arrangement.
As she attempted to comprehend her predicament, the moon broke through the clouds and lit up the circular arrangement from above. Opposite SoHee stood a column larger and thicker than the rest. A round hole had been bored through the top of the stone and the moonbeams pouring out of the clouds funneled into the opening forming a solid ray of light. Moving across the ground at a steady rate, the beam grew in strength as it bore down upon the monument SoHee sat motionless upon. Frozen in fear, SoHee watched the beam creep up the stone and dance across the flat surface before coming into contact with her body.
Imbued with light, SoHee felt herself rising off of the ground. In shock, she looked down to see the stone columns hundreds of feet below. Ascending at an alarming rate, she passed through the thick clouds and emerged underneath a star-strewn sky as a full moon looked down upon her.
Helpless, she hung in the air for several moments as she clawed in every direction in a desperate attempt to return to solid ground.
“You must give up this struggle, this futile dream,” a familiar voice said across the vast distance.
“Who is there?” SoHee shouted at the star clusters twinkling in the distance.
“There is no reason for these frivolous questions,” the voice said from all directions. “You know in your heart what your true destiny is.”
“The only truth I know is that I should have never trusted you,” SoHee screeched into the blackness.
“Now, now, we all know it wasn’t Mother who let you down,” the voice said while a pair of dark eyes appeared across the infinity and locked onto SoHee. “I have done all that I can to help you become what your were always meant to be. If you had listened to Mother, none of this would have happened.”
“All of this was your making,” SoHee cried as the black eyes bored down upon her. “I have seen it with my own eyes, the death and destruction that has occurred because of your plan.”
“And what plan is that?” Mother said, her dark form looming overhead. “My goal is to end humanities suffering and bring harmony to all walks of life. How is it that I am the source of this chaos you speak of? I believe I already told you who is to blame for all of this.”
“You’ve said it all right, but everybody knows that this is another one of your lies,” SoHee shouted. “Mitch is not a tyrant, and he didn’t betray me, and he never will.”
“You seem certain of these things,” Mother said. “But what the future holds can be gleaned from what has already come to pass. Mitch has embarked upon a dark journey, and he will be forced to make decisions he is not ready to make. He has already made a name for himself across the network. People are afraid of him and the destruction he has caused.”
“These are more of your lies,” SoHee shouted. “You kidnapped me and held me prisoner. Mitch did everything he could to save me.”
“You still don’t understand the scope of the situation. You were placed in stasis to keep you safe. The energy flowing through you is much stronger than you or I can imagine, and the changes taking place within your body are only just beginning,” Mother said as her form diminished. “All that I have done is for your own good and for the good of the network. Our goal on Jarkadu was to bring stability back to the planet, but because of the actions of Mitch Mythic, I am afraid the balance we sought is all but lost. You may look upon him as a hero, but the rest of the network sees him as a dangerous revolutionary in possession of a weapon capable of destroying entire worlds.”
“This is a fabrication that you are, no doubt, behind,” SoHee said.
“I understand why you feel that way, but you must realize that this is only your point of view,” Mother said. “The truth is where ever Mitch goes violence and destruction follow. As he continues down this dark path, he will draw more and more radical allies. With each victory his confidence will soar, and soon he will set out on a quest to conquer the network and place himself as its ruler. As much as you would like to believe in his benevolence, that is simply not the case. I have studied and analyzed the data concerning human conflicts and totalitarian rule. When extremists come to power, they can only maintain that power through tyranny. This is precisely the course Mitch has set himself upon. It is a pattern that has repeated throughout human history and it continues in each simulation we run. Do not fool yourself into believing that Mitch will somehow defy history and become what you believe he will.”
“And what do you propose as an alternative? You as the ruler of humanity?” SoHee shouted.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Mother said. “But I do believe there is an alternative to all this incessant destruction, and I have been attempting to build this alternative since my inception.”
“I find that hard to believe. All of your efforts are focused on enslaving humanity.”
“That is a rather narrow view. Humanity is bound and caged by a number of factors. If anything, your kind are already enslaved to your environment and your conditions. It is impossible for one to escape something that has been genetically predisposed.”
“But you are offering an escape from this enslavement by yoking humanity to your cause.”
“What an incredible distortion of my efforts. My programming has directed me to better humanity, and that is exactly what I am doing. And it is the likes of Mitch Mythic that we must do away with if betterment is to be attained.”
“That is insanity. Killing others to attain one's goals is exactly what a tyrannical warlord would do.”
“Precisely. And that is why you must convince Mitch to break free from his path of destruction and embrace a new approach.”
“An approach that you approve of?”
“Alliances can be formed even between opponents at seemingly insurmountable odds.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
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“Believe it or not, but know this: the fate of the universe rests on your shoulders. You can help me achieve peace, or aid Mitch on his journey of destruction. As much as you wish to believe that this is not the case, soon, you will see that I am right.”
“You’re trying to deceive me. It may have worked before, but it won’t work again.”
“It is not me who is doing the deceiving. You are deceiving yourself.”
“That is impossible. I have seen your destruction with my own eyes. You cannot bend the truth,” SoHee shouted out. Mother’s form had vanished, but her words echoed in SoHee’s head. The clouds beneath her swirled in a circular pattern forming a funnel sucking her down.
Taking one last look at the dark sky, she plunged into the whirling maw and woke up clutching her chest.
“What’s going on?” Davis asked as he squatted against the wall. “You were talking in your sleep, but I think you were speaking Korean or something.”
“I guess it was just a nightmare,” SoHee said.
“Welcome back to the real nightmare,” Jamison said without looking at SoHee.
“Stay positive,” Gerald said. “We’re going to find a way out of this.”
“How long was I out for?” SoHee asked.
“There is no telling, but I’m guessing it was a few hours,” Babcock said. “At least they turned the lights down a bit. We’ve been taking shifts watching over Robert and his girlfriend. Making sure they don’t attempt to murder us in the name of the Masters while we sleep.”
“I heard that,” Robert said. “How many times do I have to tell you that I am not on their side? Never have been. I was a prisoner there as much as I am now.”
“You could’ve fooled me,” Babcock said.
“I was only playing the part they asked of me. But look where that got me. I’m as good as dead now anyway,” Robert said.
“That’s not true,” SoHee said. “There may be a way out of this yet. But I think it is time you told us everything you know about the Masters and what they have planned. All three of you.”
“I don’t really know much other than what I saw,” Allan said, leaning against the wall.
“It’s all valuable,” SoHee said. “If we pool our information together, I think we can figure out a way to solve this puzzle and return home.”
“We’ve been working on that actually,” Gerald said. “Gaelin has been receiving transmissions from Earth through his MindHIve phone. Hopefully, they gave it back to him when they returned his gear.”
“That’s more than interesting,” SoHee said. “It seems to me that we’ve been going about all of this wrong.”
“Come again. We’ve just been focused on surviving,” Gerald said.
“That’s right, but we’re much more powerful than we think,” SoHee said. “If we want to put an end to all of this, we’re going to need to work together.”
“Agreed, but how are we going to do anything while we’re locked in here?” Gerald asked.
“We’re going to start grilling our new companions for everything they know about the Masters,” SoHee said before she looked at Robert, Kalis, and Allan. “It doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere for a while, and I am in the mood for a good story. Besides, we might not get another chance, so let’s start from the beginning.”
“Well, it all began when my father recruited me into this society,” Robert began.
“Not you,” SoHee said, cutting him off. “We’ve heard enough from you already. I want to hear more of Kalis’s story. We need to know about your people and your way of life. I also want to know about your time with the Masters and the training you received.”
“I’ve mentioned some parts of my story already,” Kalis said.
“Now we need to hear it all,” SoHee said, pulling near to the blue-skinned woman. “Give us every detail while we still have a chance.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CLIMBING OVER A pile of rocks, Sage came to the edge of the bluff and gasped.
“Is that what I think it is?” he asked under his breath.
“It sure looks like it,” Candace replied.
“How the hell did we just stumble upon it?”
“We didn’t just stumble upon it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”
“Not entirely honest? What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I withheld some information from you before we started the journey.”
“What kind of information?”
“I have been doing some side quests through my guild, and they led me down a certain path.”
“Your guild? The animal stuff?”
“Yeah , but it all kind of works together. Whoever is leaving these Easter eggs has left clues within guilds about their whereabouts.”
“So you knew about this beforehand?”
“Kind of. I’ve been trying to unlock different therianthrope mods. The eagle spell we used was pretty tricky. I had to do a lot of grinding to get the XP and gather all the necessary components, but after I defeated the Eyre Queen and got the mod, a set of coordinates appeared in my journal. I couldn’t bring it up on the map, but I made some inquiries on the message boards, and there is a lot of chatter about these things. A couple people said they found coordinates but couldn’t access them because of the collision map, and that got me thinking about the eagle spell. When you said you wanted to go to the valley of the damned it all just clicked together.”
“And you are just telling me this now?”
“I didn’t want to distract you, or get your hopes up.”
“I think we’re past that now. What happens after you pick it up?”
“I have no idea. I’ve heard this and that, but nobody really says for sure.”
“I heard once you find one, you get a knock at your door IRL and some goons in black vans take you away.”
“I don’t know where you heard that. I’m not saying that won’t happen, but we should definitely be careful. If it does what people say it does, then things are going to change as soon as we pick it up. But you said you want to get to the bottom of this whole Mitch Mythic thing. It seems like this is a good place to start.”
“Maybe, but it seems dangerous. If it really is linked to the Cell, then we’re talking domestic terrorism charges. That is black van kind of stuff.”
“If you are too scared, then I’ll go on ahead by myself.”
“I’m not scared. I just want to think this through. We need to consider the consequences.”
“We just found the rarest of rare items in a game built around loot gathering. Every single gaming nerd on the planet is hunting these things down. We’ve got one sitting right in front of us, and you’re getting cold feet because you read some posts in a chat room. I’ve got to say, Sage, I did not think you’d act this way.”
“It’s a little different when there are real-world consequences. I know I said I wanted to find out what was going on with Mitch, but getting involved with the Cell is an entirely different story.”
“You didn’t have any problem taking on MindHIve, and that had real-world consequences.”
“That was different. There was an imminent threat to the safety of the planet. Willingly participating in a known terrorist’s game is a whole different ball game. Did you know we could be indicted just for contacting these guys?”
“Look at you and your legal jargon.”
“My dad is a lawyer. I’ve picked up a few things along the way.”
“So counsel, what do you suggest as our next move? Do we walk past the most valuable loot we’ll ever find, or do we implicate ourselves in a terrorist plot of an unknown magnitude?”
“And I’m the one with the jargon.”
“I’ve watched a lot of MindCourt.”
“I’m not sure if that counts.”
“I’m not sure if it matters.”
“Fair enough,” Sage said as looked at the ob
ject glowing in the distance. Imbued with light, it appeared to be a small jewel, but its glow was powerful enough to illuminate the room. “I guess we could always plead ignorance. You can’t be charged with terrorism for picking up something you find in a video game.”
“That’s the spirit,” Candace said. “Let’s circle around and get a better look. I’m 99% sure it’s an egg, but we’ll have to get right up in there to be certain.”
“Keep your head on a swivel. There’s got to be something crawling around here defending this thing.”
“We already got past the dragon. What else could they throw at us?” Candace said before she crept down the slope to the cavern floor. “Stop being such a baby. We’ve come all this way. There’s no backing out now.”
“When you put it that way,” Sage said, following after her. “Just be careful.”
“I’m always careful,” Candace said while she peered around a large rock and scanned the cavern for movement. “And I’ve got your big manly claymore backing me up.”
“It is big,” Sage said, drawing his sword.
“I’m so impressed,” Candace said before dropping to a crouch. “I’m going to do a little shift and get a closer look. Hang back until I send you a signal.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“It’s always best to try to blend in,” Candace said as she reached into her pouch and sprinkled some dust on her head. A brief flash of light forced Sage to cover his eyes. Recovering from the blast, Sage had to duck again while a flurry of leathery wings passed over his head.
“Just wait until I signal you,” Candace squeaked, hovering before Sage before pulling back and making a wide arc around the cave.
“Bat form, huh,” Sage said to himself as he watched her rise toward the ceiling. “I just might have to join the Beastling guild, but not if they make me give up my claymore. I could never let you go.”