Lost Portals

by Bruce X Brown

  Priest tried to answer, “Not really a download it’s a—”

  “Whoa!” Gina said clicking on a folder, “GINA_fantasy_landXXX! What is this—”

  Priest quickly swiped away and the constellation of apps flew by in a blur, “Nothing. Just apps. We gotta get back to business, Gina.”

  “Noooo! Hold on! What was that XX fantasy folder,” Gina grinned. Her eyes were wide. “Is that about me? Some kind of fantasy. You can do that in here?” She let out a devious laugh and clutched her stomach.

  “No. What?!” Priest said scrolling and scrolling and scrolling careful not to make eye contact. “That’s not how it works. I won’t—”

  Gina laughed, “Priest, it’s ok. And you know… you don’t have to fantasize. All you have to do is ask.” She moved in close and draped her arms on his shoulders.

  Priest finally brought his eyes to hers. He sighed slowly, “I’ve considered it. But… I really care about you… and I don’t want to change how I feel about you. You don’t know this, but you were there for me when I was at one of the lowest points of my life. I don’t ever want to feel like I’m taking advantage of my friend.”

  Gina hugged him tight smearing tears on his neck and collar. He hugged her back.

  “From the first time we met, Priest,” she said wiping her face on the front of his shirt, “I’ve seen you as a father figure. You can take advantage of me anytime you want…”

  Priest shuddered and had a look of mild disgust on his face as he considered her words, “Uhhhh.”

  “Did I just mess up our moment?” Gina asked batting her eyes.

  “Uhhh, yeah,” Priest said. “You kinda did.”

  “Sorry,” she said giving him another hug.

  “Ok,” Priest said. “Here. It. Is.” He clicked the system-realization icon and a door appeared against the wall.

  They walked through the door.

  Gina smiled and walked forward into a mall, “Haha, what the… I used to work here. This is Alamogordo mall. How did you do this? It’s like an exact replica. It’s sooo real.”

  Priest smiled and shrugged, “Alright, I’m seeing that you have some mana. You’re a fire mage. That’s cool. Here’s how you use it—”

  Gina ran outside. Priest rolled his eyes and followed her, “Gina, where are we going, dear?”

  “Looks like the outside is a little off,” Gina shook her head observing a street that went straight into an abyss of white nothingness.

  “Actually,” Priest said. “This is a great opportunity to add something out here while you practice invoking fire.”

  Gina shot a flame out of her hands, “Wooo! I’m lit!”

  “You’re really a natural,” Priest said. He walked into the vast white canvas. “System interface, run forest one.” On the ground of the white background, a sparse scatter of green appeared on the ground. The green grew into saplings. Gina stared and took a few steps forward on the road. On either side of the road, she saw the saplings grow into 10-meter evergreens. A forest surrounded the mall stretching as far as the eye could see.

  “System, run Sky one. No weather patterns for now,” Priest said. A clear blue sky soaked into the white canvas above.”

  “That was pretty cool,” Gina smiled. “I could get used to this place.”

  “You should see the fantasy apps,” Priest winked at her. “System, run Fire Bishop Trainer.”

  A frail old man in a dingy brown cloak appeared. He was holding a staff. He was bald with a long white beard covering a mouth that was not amused.

  His raspy voice sounded weary, “Who summoned me?”

  Priest bowed, “Honorable Bishop of the flame, son of Kalos and grand master of the pyro-martial arts, I am Priest. I humbly ask that you train this new student.”

  Priest kept his head bowed while the Bishop limped his way over to Gina. She stood a full foot taller than the short withered man, “Hmm,” he looked her up and down. “Let’s see how she fairs against targets.”

  He tapped his staff against the ground and five white knights appeared from four meters away marching toward her with swords raised. They had mechanical movements and they were slow.

  Gina backed up and glanced over at Priest who nodded. She shot a fire bolt at them and the flame pushed one of them back a step leaving a black scorch mark across his chest. They marched faster. She shot two more bolts with the same effect. Once they were a meter away with swords swinging, the Bishop used a finger to burn them to ash.

  “I will train her,” Bishop said summoning another batch of white knights with a tap of his staff.

  “Great,” Priest said. “And please, don’t burn down my forest. I just made that.”

  Chapter 26:

  Lady Blades Audio log 3

  An audiolog from Game Master 665, Lady Blades (Kiera Kali) archived in the GM LitRPG shared reality library

  This is an audio log for you, Dear Listener,

  I am surprised that any of these have been released into the LitRPG library, but here goes. I have been moved from an elven cell and into a lavish room of the governor’s expansive quarters in a fortified city known as Elven Reich Compound. I am told that I am supposed to meet Governor Ven eventually. They don’t see me as a threat but more of an intellectual curiosity. My guess is that they’ve gotten some of my soldiers to tell them everything that is going on. And they are anxious to know more. They now know that we are not from their world.

  The room has incredible handcrafted furniture made of shining polished wood. Every blanket, pillow, and sheet have edges of fine gossamer lace. Every metal knob, latch, and frame are made of gold, silver or a purple iridescent metal the system identifies as elven violet gold. The room is large enough to be a comfortable home for a large family. It has a huge closet, a changing room, a bathroom, a couple of guest rooms and a large bed in the main room. It’s more of a suite, really. They already know who I am from my soldiers who are hopefully still alive, now they want to see what I’ll do.

  They sent servants to attend to my needs. Low level elven female servants. Which made me understand that they were putting lambs into a cage with a tiger to see how it will react. The servants were expendable, powerless nobodies who were absolutely terrified. They knew that their end was near. I’m not sure if they sent them in for some sort of sick entertainment in hopes that I could tear them apart and eat them raw or if they expected that I would be fitted for new clothing by these tiny, doe-eyed morsels. They were young nubile creatures barely dressed in see-through gossamer negligée robes suggestive of a servant fit for any and all wishes. The petite submissive pixies never made eye contact and referred to me as master. I wasn’t sure if the governor had these servants sent to every room for guests as complimentary items or if I was just special. Why did they send these ladies into the room of a killer?

  I suspect that they did it to determine once and for all what kind of threat they are dealing with (if any). Either way, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity. I would put these sacrificial lambs to good use.

  These NPC servants were treated no better than slaves. In fact, I noticed that all the non-magic users were treated this way. There was a caste system where magic users were on the top and non-magic users were dirt. The system offered another quest. It said:

  Birth of the Mana-Born

  Give power to the powerless. This will create a new class of elves within the walls of Elven Reich. This will cause a chain reaction that will disrupt the pecking order.

  Reward: Gain a percentage of First Town Authority for each elf imbued with power (depending on the of the elf given mana); gain the complete allegiance of all mana-born elves you imbue with power.

  I approached each of the 5 elven women tasked to attend to my needs and I gave them power. I made them system-realized. I gave them access to the Personal Reality Subset and initiated training. Their gratitude for gaining these powers was palpable. They cried, they bowed, they worshipped at my feet and swore complete allegiance. I told them to hide
their power until I could gather an army.

  They told me that I was part of a prophecy from the Elven Book of Elias The First High-Born. The prophecy spoke of a warrior and a priest giving birth to the first Mana-Born daughters. Interesting choice of words.

  They then proceed to make me the most beautiful dresses I’d ever seen. My favorite was one in black velvet trimmed in gold with places to hide my swords once I got them back. The ladies told me how many of my men were left and where they were. I told them to bring me more servants that I could imbue with power.

  My Authority of First Town was at 1%.

  I will record new audio logs should any new important developments occur.

  Game Master 665 out.

  Chapter 27:

  First of the Mana-Born

  Priest opened his eyes and stood up looking at Noelle’s changing face, Xavier’s deep slumber and Gina sitting in the lotus position with small flames hovering over each palm in quiet fire meditation. The silence in the room was interrupted by soft applause. Priest looked around to see an audience of beautiful elves clapping; some of them moved to tears. It was as if they’d just watched a performance or listened to a moving love song.

  The blonde elven woman that had let them in wiped tears away and moved toward Priest. She bowed and said, “Your power is amazing.”

  He returned the bow, “Well… thank you. Judging from your magic users, what I’m doing here isn’t much.”

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “Magic is used often here and we do have powerful magic users. But only by the initiated, the High-Born… those born with the ability to use magic. You have given the power to the low-born, uninitiated… those born without powers?” She asked.

  “Yes. This is a standard skill for the Game Master role,” he said.

  “I am Mela Thea, I am the Madame here at Sister Seamstress,” she bowed again.

  “I’m Priest. Priest McKenna,” he returned the bow.

  “Game… Master? As far as I know, we don’t have that classification in the Elven Reich. Your ability is shocking. It-it sounds like an ancient myth that we have here. A prophecy of one that can give powers. We were wondering if you can give power to low-born Elven people and not just Wild Land Tribes people.”

  “What are the Wild Land Tribes?” he asked.

  “Aren’t you and your people from the Wild Lands?” Mela looked at each of them. “Except... Wild Landers don’t normally speak our language so fluently... their customs are… different... You look like them. Your clothing is strange. A-and your mannerisms are different. You definitely don’t smell like them. Aren’t you from the Wild Lands?”

  Priest shook his head, “No. We’re from a different realm. A place very far from here. As far as giving you access to magic and other abilities, I can try. Your body will fall asleep, so let’s sit here,” he sat her down on a group of fluffy pillows in the corner of the room.

  Mela placed her small hands in his and stared at him, “Now close your eyes.”

  He took her to the forest outside of the mall. She looked around focusing on the road and the neon and metal sign outside of the mall, “What is this place? Is this your realm? The realm you come from?”

  Priest walked toward the forest and she followed, “This shopping… merchant area is a copy of the place we came from. It looks like you have powers,” Priest smiled. He stopped to stare at her. He could see that her class was a shapeshifter and a rogue. “Try it out.”

  She looked at her body, “I-I can feel it. I am sneaky... and I can hide in plain sight. I can... I can change my face and body to look like other people,” Mela smiled.

  Before his eyes, the bone structure and of her face shifted from smooth rounded features to more angular, sharp corners. Her skin darkened from a milky white to an even tan. Her blonde hair turned black. When the transformation was complete, he saw a smaller more feminine version of his own face looking up at him

  He recoiled. “Whoa,” he smiled. “Good work.”

  “Thank you, master,” Mela gave him a hug.

  “Hey, Priest,” Gina walked up behind them with the Fire Bishop by her side. They had shopping bags and shades on. “What’s going on guys?”

  Priest cocked his head, “What’s going on with you? You’re supposed to be training her, Fire Bishop.”

  “Hey, chill, man,” the old man said adjusting his shades.

  Priest’s eyes narrowed, “What?! Are you freakin’ high! System, run diagnostic on this Fire Bishop training app.”

  The system responded, “Diagnostic complete. The Fire Bishop Training application copy is working in accordance with recent personality modification made by Gina Fuego.”

  “You changed my training application?” Priest turned to Gina.

  “Just a little,” Gina pouted.

  “How did you change it? This is my app. Only I have rights to make configuration changes,” Priest said walking around the Fire Bishop.

  “It was easy,” Gina said. “System made me a copy then I modified MY copy to make her cooler.”

  “Fire Bishop’s a MAN forged in the flames of Hell. He has an incredibly dark back story,” Priest said looking the Bishop up and down. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and matching shorts.

  “He can do the entire dance routine to Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies Put a Ring on It’,” Gina smiled at the abomination she had concocted. “You wanna see it?!”

  “No,” Priest shuttered, “I don’t know what you just said, but the cringe factor is off the damn charts! You’re supposed to be training not shopping, Gina.”

  Gina rolled her eyes, “I have been here for five hours, Priest. We were taking a break. A shopping break, right Bish?”

  “Yass, Queen,” Fire Bishop said snapping his fingers on full diva.

  Priest stared at his Fire Bishop and wanted to cry. He shook his head, “Yeah, time dilation. Time is faster in the training module. This helps with training. I was gone for about 20 minutes, but for you, it was 5 hours.”

  “Yeah,” Gina protested. “Five hours! I got bored and wanted to do something else.”

  “I can readjust the time dilation later. For now, I need you to train as quickly as possible so we can find Samantha and the others and get back home.”

  “This is Mela,” Priest introduced the elven shapeshifter. “We might be able to get some help from her and the other elves to get back home.”

  “We can help you,” Mela said bowing to Gina.

  Mela and Priest opened their eyes and looked up at a group of elven ladies surrounding them. The other elven ladies rushed him touching and petting him saying in excitement:

  “Master, me next!”

  “Can you do me next, Master.”

  “Please, master.”

  “No, me next.”

  Priest smiled, “Ladies, I am almost out of mana. I’ll need to wait to recharge. But I should be capable of doing another 4 people after a while. I just need some rest. And I need to attend to my partners here.”

  Mela looked up at him. She had a hand on his hip, “I don’t know if it is the same for your kind but there is a much faster way to replenish mana.”

  “Really, how?” Priest asked.

  She gave a quick glanced over his body and back to his eyes and cocked her head. A few ladies giggled.

  Mela smiled, “It’s the reason that many noble magic users use our establishment quite frequently.”

  “It’s called Sister Seamstress,” Priest said. “Isn’t this like a sewing and tailoring shop? Do you have… OTHER services?”

  “Yes,” She grinned. “We have the most beautiful women and men in First Town doing seams, sewing, and alterations. Any OTHER services for noble magic users would be illegal, hidden and only on personal invitation. So, we’d NEVER be involved in such a naughty thing.”

  The petite elven woman looked him up and down, “I’ve never made an outfit for a man of your size. None of us have. I imagine it would be a challenge. Broad shoulders and chest. It would be a tight fit b
ut we’re flexible.”

  The ladies laughed.

  He pretended to miss the hint and changed the subject.

  “I-I’m not sure how safe we are here, Mela,” he looked toward the door. “Those wizards may come looking for us.”

  “The Red Robes?! No,” she laughed. “No offense but you guys aren’t that threatening. We’ve had Wild Tribesmen wander here, believe it or not, there are a few here within the Elven Reich province who can handle themselves. The Red Robes are concerned with other Elven realms that are just as powerful as them. I suspect that they thought your captors were part of the Dark-born Empire. There is a power struggle among High-Born nobles and Dark-Born magic users of the Elven Reich provinces. They fight over control of us uninitiated people.”

  “What about the guards and soldiers? Won’t they be coming?” Priest asked.

  Mela smiled. “Yes. If they noticed your escape, then they will be looking for you. But even if they do? Our little establishment has been enchanted with an obscurity cloaking spell. I am surprised you could see me. Perhaps, my concern for your friend interrupted the spell? Like peering from behind a hiding space for too long. I may have interrupted the spell. I’m not sure.”

  A short-haired lady, the tallest one there standing 5’0 said, “One of the best enchanters in First Town has given us this spell… for discounted services, of course,” she giggled. “Our best girl has him wrapped around her finger… Anyway, our location was obscured to protect our many high-powered clients who frequent our establishment. Normally, people just passing by cannot see the front entrance or the sign unless they’re name is on our guest list. I’m not sure how you were able to see Mela when she looked out of the door. Maybe it’s related to how you got through the magical barriers surrounding First Town that keeps out Dark-born and Wild Landers. I suspect that it is because you are from another realm.”

  Mela slapped the ladies behind, “This is Sena, our one and only magic user. I am not sure why she hangs out with a bunch of uninitiated escorts. But here she is.”