by Rick Scott
* * *
Your Awareness increases by 0.2.
I awake to the smell of something wonderful. I crack open my eyes and the room is dim, lit only by the soft red glow of embers in the fireplace. Gilly is still asleep next to me, as is everyone else, it seems. I hear noise from the kitchen and presume it must be Becky.
I try to go back to sleep but amazingly I don’t feel tired anymore. Even my exhaustion debuff has worn off on my HUD and my body, although a bit stiff, feels well rested. I’m not sure how much time has passed, but I feel like I’ve been asleep for a week.
I wander out of bed and head towards the kitchen.
The smells get stronger and I recognize the aroma as fresh baked bread. Not that I’ve smelled fresh baked bread outside the game before, but I’m getting to experience all kinds of new things these days.
I find Becky stirring a large pot set on a wood burning stove. It’s a bit comical to watch since she has to stand on a stool to do so.
“Hey, Becky,” I say.
She jumps startled and looks over her shoulder. “Oh! You frightened me.”
“Sorry,” I say with a smile.
She laughs good-naturedly and then returns her attention to her pot. “You’d think I’d be used to Ninjas sneaking up on me by now.”
I chuckle at that one.
“You didn’t sleep very long,” she says. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah…just not tired anymore, I guess.”
“You must be like Val, she’s up too.”
“Oh yeah?”
“She went down to explore that tunnel.”
“Really? I hope she doesn’t spoil her appetite down there.”
That gives Becky a laugh this time.
“What are you cooking, by the way? It smells great.”
She shows me. “Good old chicken soup. Got some nice bread to go with it too.”
My stomach grows at the sight of it. “Yeah, the smell of that bread woke me up, I think. Looks delicious.”
“It’ll be ready in about an hour. You should try to go back to sleep.”
“Nah, I tried already,” I say. “Maybe I’ll go see what Val is up to.”
Becky nods. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind the company.” She then looks back at me and pauses a moment before saying, “Thank you, by the way, Reece. For honoring my request.”
“Huh? Request?”
“For stopping to destroy that orb. That thing you fought inside there was very powerful, I know that. I don’t know what you did, but I’m sure you’ve saved a lot of people by doing it.”
I blush a little at that. “Honestly, I can’t even remember what happened. It’s like my memories have been partially erased or something.”
“Oh…?” she says sympathetically. “Well it still doesn’t take away from what you did. So thank you.”
I smile, feeling a bit silly. “You’re welcome.”
Becky goes back to her cooking, but while we’re on the subject there are some things I want to ask her too.
“Do you even know what they are, Becky? The monsters? Are they AIs?”
She rests her stirring spoon to the side. “I don’t know. I never encountered them in all my years here before. Rembrandt mentioned you had though?”
“Yeah…” I say. “Kind of.”
I take a seat on one of the spare stools and tell her about my experiences in a bit more detail. About the ones I saw down in the mines as well as the ones I saw on Planet Hell. We compare notes about what she experienced inside the labyrinth too and I get the picture that these things may really be from someplace else.
“Dillard always referred to it as an Other,” Becky says. “Like something that didn’t belong. He never called it an alien, but, from what you just told me, I’m starting to think that maybe it was.”
The thought chills me. Could those things really be from another planet?
“Or maybe it’s from another dimension or something,” Becky says, and that concept frightens me even more. Her eyes then drift off, perhaps reflecting on the idea herself.
“What about what Dillard said?” I ask. “Do you remember? When he became a wraith he blurted out something about the Moon controlling the Earth. Did that make any sense to you?”
Becky shakes her head. “I honestly wasn’t trying to focus on him at the time. It was a bit traumatic for me. I didn’t know them for that long a period, but being connected as we were, I felt close to both of them. I knew their innermost thoughts, without really knowing them. It was like I could understand their thoughts more than even just hear them.” She squints at me. “Does that make any sense?”
“I think so,” I say, and it vaguely reminds me of something too, but I’m not sure what.
“About the moon thing, though. I heard Dillard say it before. He said he figured the whole place was in space.”
“Really?”
She shrugs. “After seeing that Labyrinth Spirit maybe he was right. I mean, we were all still physical in there, right? How’s something that big just float like that in the real world?”
I never gave thought to that. “Yeah, being in this game world, it’s easy to forget stuff like physics. But then again, we were able to fall in there too, right?” I chuckle to lighten the memory of when we all nearly died. “Remember?”
She cracks a weak smile. “Yeah…maybe it was just the platforms that produced the gravity or something.” She shrugs. “Anyway, a place best left forgotten for sure, but we need to do something about them. Those things. It was eating us alive in there, like our souls, and it wants to do that to us all.”
I nod in agreement, thinking back to those giants with throats of fire, both in the physical world and on Planet Hell. “The Shadow King was one of them in disguise. And you remember how strong it was, right? How do we fight an army of them? And when they’re twice as big?”
Becky shrugs. “Well you defeated one single-handedly, didn’t you? So it can be done.”
“Yeah, but I can’t remember how I did it.”
I sigh as I try to recall what even happened in there, but my memory of it seems to have faded almost completely now.
“Sounds like regaining those memories will be essential to defeating them,” Becky says. “Whatever you did, you need to remember.”
That makes me check that level 99 sword again.
[1]
Could it be the key to it all? “Does Kono-Zemsu mean anything to you?”
She shakes her head. “Maybe you should talk to Rembrandt. He mentioned being in a safe zone based on New London that’s across the wild from here. He said they have the same level of technology as they do in the treatment centers back home. Maybe they might have something there that can help recover your memories.”
“Oh right. I was going to talk to him about all this stuff too.” I look back towards the common hall. “He’s sleeping now, though. Maybe once he wakes up.”
She chuckles. “Perhaps I wore him out with all my yapping.”
I laugh at that.
“We probably all need to talk about it,” Becky says. “But after we have a good meal first. Now, let me get back to this soup, young man.”
I chuckle when she says that. Although Becky looks like a little girl almost, she’s probably older than all of us—especially by the way she talks sometimes. I can see now why she and Rembrandt would probably hit it off. They’re both very old souls.
“No prob,” I say with a smile. “I’m gonna go check on Val.”
* * *
I drop down into the tunnel and follow my way along the shaft. It’s dark but I see light coming from the end of it. When I reach the chamber I find Val Helena in her Paladin gear, yelling with a War Cry and chopping at the air with her gleaming longsword. The place is aglow with four light spells, which I figure Val Helena herself must have cast. They’re set in an array at the top of the ceiling, making the cave as bright as midday.
“Yo, Va
l!” I say as I approach. “What you up to?”
“Hey!” She greets me with a smile, still swinging her sword. “Just practicing a bit.”
“As Paladin?”
She performs a Shield Bash followed by a quick Riposte to the air. “Yeah. I was a bit rusty when all those guys ganged up on me outside the labyrinth. I’m thinking of switching. Making Paladin my main again.”
My eyes widen at the thought. “What? Really? I thought you loved Warrior.”
“Yeah…” she says. “I do.” She takes a break then, sheathing her sword. The Half-Giant saunters over to me, still a bit out of breath. “But I need to change, Reece.”
“Huh?” Then I put two and two together. “Oh! Aiko must have told you she’s switching to Thief, right?”
She cocks her head. “What? She is?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Wait. You didn’t know?”
She chuckles as she shakes her head. “No…Haven’t spoken to her at all. But I guess this means it really is meant to be now. Guess I’m going to be your new back-up tank, Reece.”
I smile as she nudges me.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
She then looks down at the ground and frowns a bit. “To be honest though, that’s not the reason I want to change.”
I raise a brow at her. “No?”
She’s quiet for a moment and then lets out a long sigh. “I need to change who I am, Reece. I don’t want to be the same Val Helena who bullied her friends into entering that labyrinth and nearly got us all killed.”
Whoa…I wasn’t expecting all that. I look up at her, and see her eyes burning with both determination and remorse.
“I swear,” she says. “When I was at my lowest and nearly jumped off that platform, it was all I could think about. The damage I’d done to cause it all. And all because I was a stupid idiot who wanted to do nothing more than push limits. With everything….and everyone.” She looks down at me with her big gray eyes. “I can’t be that person anymore, Reece. I need to take responsibility for what I did. I need to become something better.”
I’m not sure what to say to that, but I feel like I should say something.
“Wow, Val…I…That’s…pretty deep.”
I feel stupid the minute I say it, but she chuckles anyway, even though I wasn’t really trying to make a joke.
“So anyway,” she says. “It made sense to me to become someone who can protect people. Someone who has to do more than just care about herself.” She smiles. “You saved me from making that jump, Reece, but I’d like to think that the old Val Helena did jump off that platform. I’m starting with a clean slate. Reborn into something new, just like this class.”
I stare at her a moment and it begins to sink in exactly what she’s saying. It takes a really big person to admit something like that and the more I look at her, the more fitting she looks in that noble knight’s armor of hers.
Val Helena the Virtuous.
An immense sense of awe and pride swells within me and I can hardly hold back the smile on my face. The memory of her transforming from Warrior to Paladin replays in my mind, but I view it in a totally different light now. I had no idea the kind of metamorphosis I was witnessing at the time, but it gives me hope that even I can change. To become anything I need to be, in order to protect my friends—to change both inside and out.
“Hey, you wanna spar?” Val Helena asks with a Cheshire grin.
“What? Tank versus Tank?” I laugh. “I don’t think either of us is going to do much damage.”
“Don’t tell me you’re chicken.” She draws her longsword and drops into a ready stance. “Come on, we’ll go till dinner’s is ready.”
A flutter of excitement runs though me as I unsheathe my blades. I can think of no better way to pass the time than to spar with one of my personal heroes—a woman I’ve grown to respect day by day. I grin as I cast Shadow Haste and Shadow Copy.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s do it.”
Chapter 29: Deliberations
Bruce awoke slowly to the gentle chime of his comm device set on his bedside table. The alarm played for a good thirty seconds before he mustered the wherewithal to do something about it. Bruce fumbled for the device clumsily with closed eyes, shutting off the alarm as the remnants of half-forgotten dreams faded into nothingness.
He cracked open an eyelid and took in the semidarkness of his bedroom. It was still early, only 7 A.M. Barbara lay next to him, still sleeping soundly—perhaps more soundly than he had seen her sleep in days.
The effects of his late-night ordeal with the board were still lingering on his psyche, but it evaporated immediately when he thought of Gilly again. That nightmare was finally over. He checked his comm device again, sorting through the applications to find the one monitoring the excursion team. He held his breath until the lines of vital signs appeared.
All still in the green.
Barbara had cried when he showed them to her last night. Even at 3 in the morning he had to wake her to let her know their Gilly was alive and well. They stayed up perhaps an hour more, reconciling and then finally drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.
Bruce smiled at the ceiling. His little girl was still alive and the Roberts boys too. There was hope for the city yet.
A missed call from Carl hovered over the status screen of his comm. Bruce accessed it. It had come in perhaps an hour ago. He was so tired he must have slept through it. There was no message left so Bruce dialed him back and waited for the sonar tech to answer on the other end.
“Hey, Bruce,” Carl said. “Thanks for calling back.”
“Yeah, no worries.” he said clearing his throat. “You called early so I figured it was important. What’s up?”
“We got ourselves a hit.”
“A what?”
“On our special project.”
It took Bruce a half second to recall what he was referring to. He’d tasked Carl with placing surveillance on Dennis, and Carl had been working on some weird way to do it using old binary technology. With everything that had happened since then he’d nearly forgotten about it.
“You got it working?” Bruce asked.
“It’s been in place a couple of days now, yeah.”
“And you found something?”
Carl paused on the other end. “I can’t tell, but you should come and see it. Some pretty odd stuff.”
Bruce’s stomach fluttered as his mind wandered into the realm of speculation. After his defeat at the board meeting last night, perhaps Dennis was already prepping a plan ‘B’. It wouldn’t surprise him in the slightest. Of course, that all depended on what it was Carl had uncovered, but one thing was for certain…Dennis wasn’t one to waste time.
And Bruce couldn’t afford to either.
“Give me an hour,” Bruce said. “I’ll pop in before I head to work.”
* * *
I hammer away with all my might at Val Helena’s shield, my blades moving with lightning speed.
You hit Val Helena for 36(365) damage!
You hit Val Helena for 37(375) damage!
You hit Val Helena for 37(377) damage!
You hit Val Helena for 36(369) damage!
She lets out a laugh as I chip away at her massive HP bar and then thrusts at me with her pike-sized longsword. I avoid it with a quick backwards roll. I have her down to 90%, but with the distance she’s gained from my roll, she casts a Heal II and is topped right back up to full again.
Darn it!
“You keep getting that stupid heal off!”
Val Helena gives me a goddess laugh in response. “You keep letting me!”
It’s been going on like this for what seems like forever, but I’m having a great time and I think Val Helena is too. We circle one another, looking for an opening, making quick moves back and forth. It feels good to be able to cut loose and try new things. I almost wish I could train with Aiko like this. I’m sure there’s a thing or two she could teach me about being a better Ninja through PvP, like
parrying and stuff, but right now any alone time with her is probably off limits.
The thought conjures up that incident again. It’s not so much what happened anymore, but how she’s reacting towards me now.
Could she be—?
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
What?
“Hah!” Val Helena yells in triumph. “I finally hit you!”
“No fair!” I say. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
She continues to laugh. “No kidding. Were you daydreaming about Gilly or something?”
I give her an eyeroll as she lays the laughter on thick again. I wonder if I should share with her what I was really thinking about. About what happened with Aiko. She does know her better than me. Maybe her perspective could help.
“Hey Val, can I ask you something?”
The Half-Giant performs a double slash and turns her back with a spin. “Sure.”
“I had a strange encounter with Aiko just now.”
She stops mid-turn, lowering her weapon. “What?”
The way she gets all serious has me second-guessing myself about sharing this with her at all now. “Never mind.”
“No, what happened?”
I sigh and then tell her about Aiko and I’s weird “almost kiss” outside the baths.
Her gray eyes gleam with irritation. “She seriously tried to kiss you like that?”
I shrug. “I guess… she’s done it before, but it was like she was just joking those times. This time…not so much.”
Val Helena sucks her teeth distastefully. “She probably has a damn crush on you.”
Holy crap… A crush?
“Are you serious?”
Val Helena sighs. “I mean, I get it. You’re seriously cute in a sweet and naïve sort of way. But you belong to Gilly and she needs to respect that.” She begins stalking off towards the exit. “I’m going to give that homewrecker a piece of my mind.”
“No wait!” I say. “Don’t!”
She stops. “What? Why?”
“I don’t want to make things any more awkward than they already are. And I don’t want to upset Gilly with this either.”