Lost Portals

by Bruce X Brown

  Samantha handed her the portal gun. Sena inspected it. She pointed at a wall and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. She looked at Priest, “Not working for me.” She handed it back to Samantha.

  “A portal device, such as that gun is locked on one person. That means that gun will only work with you.” Priest looked at Samantha, “None of us here can use it, Sam. Few people even have access to the portal mage class. I’m not one of ‘em. The only person in this room who can use this portal gun is you. Even if Sena could use that portal gun, you are the most skilled portal mage. But a level 1 portal mage is pretty limited.”

  Samantha looked at the portal gun, eyes welling up with tears. She looked back at Priest, “You mean we can’t go home? I’ve gotta get back. My mom—”

  “Give me your hands. I’ll show you,” Priest took her hands in his. “Close your eyes.”

  Chapter 36:

  Warrior vs Laundry Lady

  Xavier had the bent sword at the elven girl’s throat. He was leaning back with his arms around her. She was smeared in blood and crying hysterically.

  His health was dwindling:

  HP: 40/120

  Stamina: 15/150

  He was dizzy and had a pain in his chest. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. He was coughing up blood. He looked down to see the woman’s long pointy clothing line pole sticking out of his chest. He yanked it out and the purple haired elf started to cry. Loud.

  “Shhh,” he whispered. “Shut up… They’ll find me. I need to find my sister. If you scream, I will kill you.”

  “I can… help you,” she whispered. “You are not well.”

  He rose to his feet in an unsteady slow motion sinking off balance within the basket of blood-stained white clothes. He was resting the rusty blade against her forcing her to stand with him. The basket tipped and they tumbled out. She drew a breath to scream but didn’t make a sound as the bent blade was back at her neck.

  “Shhh,” Xavier’s eyes were bloodshot. Dawn was breaking. More roosters crowed. Creaking wheels of street cleaner carts on cobblestone echoed down narrow Elven Reich streets. The elven city was waking. A young elven couple came strolling through the alley holding hands.

  New Quest: Seek Refuge

  You are in extremely hostile territory. Big freaks of nature (like yourself) are not taken too kindly in the open areas of the High-Born Elven Reich Compound.

  Reward: 25% of the total experience points needed to the next level; 50 system credits.

  Failure: Serious bodily harm or death

  Difficulty: Medium

  Xavier grabbed her in his arms with the blade on her supple neck and stole away into the shadows of the laundry area. The couple turned into another street before they got to the gory white sheets spilling out of the wicker basket.

  “Where can I hide?” he rasped.

  “What?” She whimpered. “M-My home. You could hide there.”

  “Take me there…to your home! Take me there,” He tightened up his grip.

  In his peripheral he could see his health points ticking down like a timer:

  HP: 35/120

  Stamina: 13/150

  He swallowed down the pain and forced himself to stay strong.

  “You’re hurting me… squeezing,” she squirmed and pouted as he loosened his grip. “My home is here, sir. It’s here.”

  Xavier looked over at an open door just behind them. He was desperately clinging to life guiding her through the door with the decorative blade on her tiny throat. In a sweating panic, he peered out of the window and noticed a gathering crowd outside.

  He pulled back from the window and leaned into a corner his gripped locked on the elven woman.

  “Lyka,” an old voice rasped. “Lyka, is that you, dear?” An old woman came out of another room. Her eyes were milky white and she leaned forward on a crooked cane. She was only about two meters away but looking slightly away from them.

  “Grandma, please go back in the room!” the shivering laundry elf said.

  “Who’s that with you, dear?” The only woman said. “What an odd smell?”

  “It’s nothing, Grandma,” Lyka sobbed. “Please, just go back in the room. I’m almost done with laundry. It’s nothing—”

  “Hardly, nothing, child…” The woman cocked her head. “I smell death on you, troubled one.”

  Xavier could not hear what they were saying. He was seeing through a tunnel. The timer was ticking down faster:

  HP: 9/120

  Stamina: 0/150

  He collapsed.

  Chapter 37:

  Training Module For the Portal Mage

  “What the hell?” She thought. She wiped away tears with her hand and noticed she had the portal gun. It was the most vivid waking dream she had ever experienced. The mall had a boring drab vibe to it. She looked around and experienced deja vu.

  “A mall,” Samantha said. “Alamogordo mall?”

  But where were all the people? Alamogordo wasn’t the busiest mall she had ever been in but it usually had a few people walking around. The strangest thing was an iridescent ambient light flickering. The light was coming from portals all around her; 2-D doorways floating a few inches above the floor. The portals were right in the middle of the mall in a circle around her. Above each portal was a name and number for each destination: Earth Staging Universal Set .0000, Forever Forest Universal Set .0043, Earth Pre-Singularity Universal Set .0001 and others.

  She backed away as she saw someone step out of the portal. A leg materialized from the portal followed by the entire body of Priest. He charged her swinging an ax screaming bloody murder, “Aaaargh.”

  Without even thinking, she dodged his swing, disarmed and flipped Priest. Before he could catch the breath knocked out of him from landing flat on his back, she was on top of him with the ax was raised and the portal gun flat across his neck cutting off his air supply.

  “Gaaahahhkk,” Priest tried to suck in air.

  “What’s that?” Samantha’s eyes were wild and bloodshot. Her teeth clenched and her nostrils flared as she put more weight down. She noticed his face turning red. It put a smile on her face as she realized she’d been wanting to choke the life out of him from the moment he told her that he was the one who’d had her mom’s car stolen.

  “Samantha,” Gina’s voice came from behind. “I think you got him.”

  She choked him a few seconds longer savoring the moment. She released pressure from the gun and allowed his beat red face to resume its normal tan. Priest gasped for air as she rose from him. They had an audience, Gina, Noelle, and some of the elven women had come out of the portal.

  “Sorry that I scared you,” Priest rasped.

  “Anytime,” Samantha said. “My pleasure. What was that all about? Aaaand, how did I do that?” She looked at her chest and flexed a toned bicep.

  “I was testing your new class. You’re a fighter,” Priest said. “As a fighter, you’ll have some basic offensive and defensive moves unlocked, but you’ll have to train to get any better. You can look at a summary of your stats at will. By default, it appears in the left of your peripheral, but you can move it around.”

  Samantha glanced over to see her stats:

  Level 1, Fighter

  Role(s): Portal Mage 1

  HP: 110/110

  Strength: 10 (Above Average +130 kg deadlift)

  Stamina: 195/200

  Dexterity: 13

  Priest continued, “You’ll have heightened strength and speed and you’ll be able to master different martial arts. You’ll have to practice here to understand your new strength and speed.”

  “So, you said it’s a Personal Reality Subset… is that like a dream?” She looked around. “Of the mall?”

  Priest coughed rubbing his throat, “Th-this is a training module. I programmed it to look like the mall so you guys could be comfortable in a familiar place. Yes, it’s similar to a waking dream. Bu—” Priest cleared his throat. Gina pulled him to his feet. “But it’s
more like a reality that your mind is pulled into. We are using it to make you system-realized, give you power and train you.”

  “I don’t understand what’s going on. This is just a lot to accept,” Samantha said, her hands were shaking.

  “This way,” Priest walked through the portal labeled Earth Pre-Singularity Universal Set .0001.

  Samantha stepped through the portal and smiled as she breathed in the cold Colorado air. She could already feel her lips getting dry and chap from the lack of humidity. Old brick and mortar buildings lined a desolate street that was covered in snow. The snow had devolved into dirty slush.

  Priest walked down the street, “This is Universal Set .0001. We are trying to get you and the others back here.”

  Priest continued, “Samantha, the only way back home is to go forward. So, let’s practice. I want you to open a portal to the Forever Forest,” Priest said.

  Sam looked at the screen on the back of the gun. She looked at the side of the gun.

  Priest stood on his tiptoes to take a peek at the screen over Samantha’s shoulder, “You should be able to tell the portal interface the address. It responds to voice, thoughts, and text. It will respond in the same way you made the request.”

  “Portal gun,” Sam said. “Open a portal to the Forever Forest.”

  The portal device interface replied, “Specify the Universal Set designation and location.”

  Samantha looked at Priest and shrugged.

  “Universal Set .0043, Forever Forest,” Priest said.

  “Portal gun, open a portal to Universal Set .0043, Forever Forest,” Sam said.

  The portal gun replied, “Coordinates set. Select a place to open the portal and initiate by pulling the trigger when you are ready.”

  She aimed at the side of a building and pulled the trigger. A glow appeared against the wall. Sam could see the familiar translucent shifting patterns within the portal. Priest walked through and everyone followed. Sam took a moment to look around her hometown. She bit her lip, looked at the portal gun and then walked through the portal.

  They were on a grassy knoll in the middle of a clearing on the outskirts of First Town.

  Priest walked up to her, “Right now, you’re a level 1 portal mage. You can’t set coordinates in the multiverse like we just did in this training module. Portal mage levels 1 – 3 are tutorial levels. But at level 4 - 6, apprentice, you’ll be able to navigate all of the previous portals that have been opened with your portal device. You’ll be able to access any location in your history and saved locations. Which means, there is a way back home once you get to level 4. There are journeyman, master, and advanced levels of portal mage, but all we need is apprentice.”

  Samantha looked around until she found the path she had originally run down, “How long would it take to get to that level? And what do we have to do?”

  “We are going to increase your level by opening portals and completing quests. How long it takes depends on us. But we’re going to start as soon as we are done with this tutorial.”

  “System, end program; exit all,” Priest commanded. The world around them darkened and they opened their eyes to a view of the private club.

  “You said before that it was a simulation… or some kind of game,” Samantha looked at the portal gun.

  “Yes,” Priest said. “People of my world say that this world is all a simulation.”

  “Sooo none of this is real?” she asked looking around.

  “Whether it is real or not depends on your definition of reality,” Priest said. “We come into this world to understand our own reality. It feels pretty real to me.”

  “Are we all players in a game?” Samantha asked.

  Priest said, “More like we’re all characters. There are non-player characters who are born in this world and player characters who login from another world. Not all of you are aware that it’s a system. Most of you go about your lives unaware of being in a simulation.”

  “Are you a player of this game? Did your people make this place?” Samantha asked.

  “I am a player character. I log in and my body is in another place,” Priest said. “Did we make this place? No. We created a system. And the system created a singularity which gave us access to this place. We don’t know if the singularity created it or discovered it or both. There are a lot of theories about that. To be honest, I don’t understand any of those theories, or how real it is. Like I said, depends on your definition of reality.”

  Samantha nodded, “And we’re all non-player characters… It feels so real. I’m self-aware. I don’t feel like a program. I mean, I remember my whole life.”

  “And that life... is real. At least, that’s what I believe,” Priest said. “What some of us have started to understand is that this simulation is as real as our own universe. It has most of the same properties. The system allows us to interact with it and add certain things but it has a level of reality to it that none of us can deny.”

  “Why did you drag me into this, Priest?” Samantha asked.

  Priest said,“I didn’t mean for—” he took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like this...”

  He shook his head and blurted, “Listen, I’ll get you all back home. But I need your help, Samantha.”

  Samantha said, “How do I do that?”

  Priest nodded, “Open up portals and venture out into the multiverse with us so you can get to level 4 portal mage.”

  Chapter 38:

  Meeting the Governor

  They called it hot Healing Leaf tea and it was amazing. It was minty with orange flavor. She put the porcelain cup down on the violet gold tray and an elven servant poured her more.

  In the upper right of her peripheral was a bar that measured her quest for Authority of First Town. Lady Blades was at 2% Authority after empowering 12 servants.

  “How’s your training, Lesa,” Lady Blades asked taking a sip. “You’re a wizard, correct?”

  The servant nodded, “It’s going well, my lady. We are all very fond of the inner training system you’ve given us access to. We are anxious to use our new power against the High-Born.”

  “Patience, Lesa,” Lady Blades stood and admired her dress. It was black with golden trim, backless piece that hugged her long sleek form. She had chosen the colors.

  There was a soft knock at the door.

  “Enter,” Lady Blades said.

  Her elven guide, Fen’Nel, stepped into the room, “Lady Blades, the governor has invited you to a private dinner in his quarters. If you will follow me, ma’am.”

  Kiera nodded and followed him. She noticed that they were very careful not to take her near any open areas that would allow the public to see her walking freely within the walls of the Elven Reich Compound. From what her elven servants had told her, they had some feral humans called Wild Land tribes and she looked like them. They found it strange that she could talk to elves so fluently.

  The Governor’s Quarters was a castle. One of the largest within the Elven Reich Compound. It had smooth emerald green stone walls with beautiful flowers and vines cascading down high walled walkways. Birds flew through corridors singing and socializing in the stone aviary. They perched nests high above in open ports near the ceiling. Servants and courtiers glanced at her but were disciplined and sophisticated enough not to stare.

  Large oak doors that looked like the bark of a tree opened as they walked near. They entered the chambers of Governor Ven.

  The governor was a jolly, plump elf standing 4’10. He wore robes of purple and white. He walked right up to Kiera without any fear and bowed, “Lady Blades! Hello, ma’am. I am Governor Ven. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

  Lady Blades returned the bow, “The pleasure is mine.” She noticed that he had no powers. He was a normal NPC. It confirmed all the information that her new elven servants had told her.

  Governor Ven

  HP: 27/27

  It was hard to believe that an elf with no magic could be a governor in
the Elven Reich, a place with a caste system that looked down upon non-magic users.

  “These are a few of my counsels,” the governor pointed to three gray-bearded old elves standing near the table. They looked shocked to see her walk in. “Selal, Pyn and Telas.” Lady Blades saw that they were all wizards of levels 19, 10 and 9 respectively. None of them bowed to her. They didn’t smile. They barely blinked. Perhaps the idea of sitting down and having dinner with a Wild Lander savage who had just killed at least 20 of their finest soldiers wasn’t something they agreed to.

  “Please, sit,” the governor said pulling out her chair.

  “Thank you, governor,” Lady Blades sat and took a look at the elaborate leafy meal.

  “You and your group are not from here are you, Lady Blades?” Governor Ven asked.

  She considered her ‘group’. Her elven servants had given her a report on how many were still alive and where they were. Jah and Skull Face were alive and being kept sedated in the prisons below the Elven Reich Compound. And there were two captives that had been shot with arrows recovering in the Apothecary.

  Lady Blades smiled and shook her head, “We are from a realm far from here,” she said taking a bite of the chilled salad.

  “I have a question for you, Lady Blades,” One of the white-haired wizards interrupted. It was Telas. He rose from his seat and pointed at her. “Why should we keep you alive for another second?”

  Governor Ven laughed, “Telas, you forget your ‘High-Born’ sensibilities.”

  “Have you lost your mind, Ven!?” Telas’ drooping jowls were shaking with anger. “Bringing this... This savage creature here!”

  The Governor looked over at the white-haired elf next to Telas with a smile, “And how do you feel old Pyn?”

  “W-Well, Ven. I-I must say I am quite appalled at this. This Wild Lander savage killed many elves. Brought a war at our doorstep. Why the very IDEA—”

  “Ok, Ok. That is quite enough. Pyn and Telas, you are dismissed,” Governor Ven said.

  Telas yelled, “Ven! I must protest this—”

  “GET OUT!” Governor Ven exploded. They stared him down for a moment then turned and stormed out.