“Is there something you can drink to bolster it?”
“You mean like magic water?”
I laugh. “Yeah, actually. Exactly like that.”
“I don’t have any with me,” she says, but at least she’s smiling. I could drown in that smile. I’m taken over with the desire to just grab this woman and make her mine, but this hardly seems the time or place. Down boy. We stay quiet, catching our breath. The chamber is huge and it may be still that we’re not alone. They might be minutes away; they might be on our backs.
I reach out to Catriona and take her hand. If we can’t talk, I can at least let her know that I’m happy to be here with her, odds be what they may. It would be easier for me to do this without her here. I could just slip past the elves unseen with my rogue abilities. Cat has no such stealth available to her. She’s actually a detriment here and I don’t care. I want her with me.
“We should move closer to the center,” she says.
“Right. Good idea.” There’s a gathering of columns where we’re headed. I don’t know what they’re surrounding, but I think that’s where we’re going. Of course, that’s when I see the next wave of shadows along the far wall. I grab at Catriona’s arm, point to my eyes and then to the shadows. She looks and nods.
Since these guys are on the move and not already stationed at columns in wait, we have to take them all on at once. Catriona readies her area of effect spells that will at least slow some of them down, and seriously hurt others.
“Ready when you are,” she says.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
I slip along the shadows and leap to the back of the group. I come up from behind. Shadowslide, backstab. Shadowslide, backstab. Shadowslide, backstab. Stats are flying in front of my face—the damage I’m dealing, the armor deductions. I don’t have time to wave it all away, I just play through it, let the messages pile up. I can still see my targets, and that and keeping moving is what matters.
It actually hurts when I take damage, and I’m feeling a lot of pain in this fight. I can take on one guy at a time, but three swirl around me, getting their own cuts in. Catriona stays out of sight behind a column, and sears them from above. She sends me the occasional heal, just enough to keep me in the fight. I don’t know how much longer we can do this. I keep stabbing, and my daggers keep finding their way home.
I realize I’ve completely forgotten to dip my daggers in the poison I made. I knock the handle of my daggers against the skulls of the three nearest elven attackers, and they fall obligingly to the ground. I take a moment and grab the poison from my bag, then doctor the knives. Then I rise back up and leap into the fray, this time, just running up and down the line and scoring as many of the enemy as I can with my concoction.
I do this a few times, dancing out of the way of their attacks, doing minor damage but lacing them all with poison again and again.
In a minute, I see that my strategy is working. One by one, elves collapse, clutching their throats, gagging against my unseen hand.
Finally, the last one falls. I am truly exhausted and running low on health points. I don’t have any food left in my pack and I am guessing Catriona’s about flat out of juice too. “You all right?” I ask when I catch up to her around the bend of the column.
“Yeah, I’m good. Did we get all of them?”
“Think so. Enough to move on to the next obstacle and see what’s over there.” I point to the cluster of columns that’s caught my attention.
“Okay,” she says. “But I need a minute first. I’m out of spell points and I’m hurt.”
“Hurt, why didn’t you say anything? Are you bleeding?”
She nods.
“Where?”
She just looks at me like I’m a stupid white boy. I take a step back and look her over. Her long skirts are ripped and there’s a gash on her abdomen where a stray arrow has grazed her. I hadn’t even seen the archers. She must have been onto them before I even noticed them in the middle of the fight. “Why aren’t you putting pressure on it?” I ask her and lunge in toward her to cover the wound with my hand.
“Nothing’s real here, Leeroy Jenkinz, remember? I won’t lose damage any less quickly by doing that.”
“No food in your pack?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I just need time.”
“Can you at least make it over to the columns?” I ask her. I feel too exposed out here. And I don’t want to come up against a third squadron of goons in our current state.
“I’ll try,” she says, and I help her to standing. I keep lookout as we walk slowly over to the circle of columns. Catriona seems much weaker than she’s letting on. She grows paler by the moment. Her skin is white. Here, the columns are run over with crystal strands of that magical light wiring that illuminates the entire underground facility we’re in. The lights from that sparkle all over her face. She looks like a ghost in comparison. “We’ll rest now. I feel better, sheltered by the columns,” I say. “Here, sit.”
“Sit with me,” she says, and I do so. Her hip and leg line up against mine as we sit with our backs to a column. There’s an elevator platform here in the center of the columns, one that goes down into a deeper shaft. We sit there and I watch it rise up those last few feet, wait for several long seconds, then slowly plunge then fall the rest of the way to the bottom. I watch this over and over again, and I know we’re going to have to step onto that thing as soon as we can.
Chapter 28
After long minutes, her wound is but a memory, the blood dried, and both of us feel ready to go on. “Should be another five-breath before the platform is back,” I say. We stand and move to the lip of the elevator platform. The platform arrives and we step onto it.
The drop my stomach feels when it plunges down after the first gentle acceleration rivals any roller coaster sim I’ve ever felt. We fall and fall, holding onto each other. She feels good in my arms. I let my hand caress her ass. She doesn’t seem to mind.
The platform slows and we lurch sideways and catch our balance. I know this place. There are columns of server racks spread out like tentacles from the main power hub and climate control station. I know every inch of this place.
“This way,” I tell Catriona and head off down the row of banks I know to contain the physical server I need to mangle.
“What are we doing here?” she asks.
The place is deserted. “Watch out for traps. It’s weird that they don’t have guards here.”
“Well, we did just take out about fifty of them upstairs.”
“True. They probably didn’t expect us to make it this far.” I’m distracted, looking around, orienting myself.
“So, what are we doing here?” Catriona says again.
“Oh.” I run a hand through my tangled hair and pull my cowl down as I turn to face her. “It’s not enough to just erase the program from the hard drive. I mean, I’ll start there, and send out a Trojan horse to erase any remnants of it on the entire system. But we need to destroy the server it’s housed on as well. Like, physically destroy it. What I should have you do is act as a lookout, but I’d rather have you close.”
She even smells good. I know, intellectually, that I’m not even here, that this is a sim chamber, that nowhere on this planet is my body anywhere near a girl of this magnitude, and yet here I am and it feels real.
I remember that Catriona hasn’t been here before. “We’re in an area known as the convergence zone, because this is where technology and magic can co-exist,” I tell her. “It was the only place to build the servers for the game, and the servers that control the lottery for the portal into the actual earth for Arcadian residents.”
“Ah, yes,” Catriona says, vitriol dripping from her voice. “The Elven Queen isn’t all black of heart; she draws ten names a year by lottery for inclusion in the earth excursions. So generous.” Her voice stays dry, but I know she’s bitter.
“But there were people lined up in droves to go,” I say.
�
�The lines at the portal are just to sign up for the lottery,” she tells me. “And while they move quickly, they never dwindle.”
“You mean they keep filling up with new people who want a lottery ticket?”
“Yes, I mean that exactly.”
I can’t imagine the breeding rights of an entire diverse population being dictated by a single human being, but it is. It’s disturbingly cruel.
We keep walking, and come to a series of tunnels, several of which branch off, and those branches end in a hub that serves several small server rooms. It feels like a spider web of interconnected caves. The tunnels are dark and short. I have to find the right room. Luckily, I remember the way. I thread my way through several hubs and finally lead Catriona to the right chamber.
“Here,” I say. “This rack. I need to jack in. It’ll take me a while. Then we’ll send out my Trojan horse and bludgeon the hell out of the box with the hard record. I need you to go find us something to do the bludgeoning with.”
“Got it,” she says.
“Wait. Take something to mark your way.”
“It’s on my map now,” she says.
“Of course. Well, go already then.”
I watch as her fine ass sways on down the row away from me. Damn, that girl is eye candy. Then, I get back to work. I jack into the box and get a vidscreen and keypad up and running. Hopefully I’ve remembered everything correctly, and passwords and logins still work.
For some reason, they do. Hallelujah! I get to work writing the Trojan horse code, the little bug that will ride out and destroy my big code wherever it resides on the network. Then, the portal can come down.
It doesn’t take long for the coding to become a meditation for me. I key in the code like the wind, like I’m just breathing it into the keyboard. I’m just a conduit; it’s not coming from me, it is of me and through me. I’m a little metaphysical about my code. But that’s how it works. That’s why a robot hasn’t replaced me yet.
Chapter 29
I don’t even look up when I hear footsteps in the row, that’s how relaxed I am. I assume Catriona has found her boulder.
“Whatever it is that you’re doing, I beg you to stop,” a woman’s voice says, startling me out of my coding reverie. I look up to see it’s the Elven Queen herself, all by herself.
“Come to make a final case?” I say. I’m feeling brave. I’ve got most of the work done and saved. I’ll need a few more minutes once I’m done with Queen Lunacaller, but the work I’ve done so far is good. Still, she makes me nervous. It’s arrogant and brave of her to come alone.
Wait. Did she find Catriona first? Where is Catriona? Why is she taking so long? I can’t ask the queen because if she didn’t run into Catriona, she’ll know I have an ally here and if she did run into her, there’s no words she can say that will offer me succor.
She walks forward, footfalls echoing. It’s gone awfully quiet in here. She holds her hands out to show she’s weaponless. Not that weapons matter when you can hurl spells at your opponent. I realize I don’t know what Queen Lunacaller’s class specialization is. This puts me at a distinct disadvantage. I have to hurry. I ignore her advance and enter in a few more lines of code.
“You don’t understand,” she says. “You must stop.” Her tone is calm but her teeth are gritted. It’s taking her a great deal of effort to remain passive in this situation. I keep typing.
“I think I do understand,” I say. “I think I understand exactly how much power controlling this gives you, how much favor you’re able to curry, how much gold.”
“You can’t imagine what the consequences will be for Arcadia if the portal is opened! Imagine the chaos that will result when humans can intermingle freely with us. The genetic failures, the deformed children that will come into this world. Our people will face such hatred ... wars will break out. If we don’t carefully watch this now, it could lead to genocide, Leeroy Jenkinz. Is that really what you’re about? You signed on to help me in the first place for a reason.”
“Probably for the money,” I say.
“No, it was more than that. You signed on because you wanted to preserve Arcadia. You wanted it to stay pristine, fresh, undiluted by human touch. You helped map out our world in the virtual reality so that our lands would be protected from all but a few and yet those few would be enough to sustain our populations. Don’t you remember? You took this job in the first place because you agreed with me, because you wanted to protect Arcadia. Because, like me, you love Arcadia. Take down the portal and you’ll destroy everything you love about it. The magic will bleed out of the land. Everything about our way of life will be destroyed.”
She really believes this, and for the first time, she has given me pause too. I feel too much for Catriona and the others I’ve met to be on the queen’s side, but I also wonder if Catriona’s really thought all of this through. Is securing the ability to have children at will worth giving up magic for? I’m not sure I know.
I wish I had all of my memories back, but I can’t remember taking the job to work for her, or if I knew even what it was for when I signed on for all the money. I do remember the paychecks, and the fun I had. I loved my job. I loved making the game. I was responsible for helping to make this amazing game. God damn. I’d done something with my life. Or, at least it seems like I did ... Are the memories mine or the game’s?
And now the ruler of the realm I love, the fucking Queen of Arcadia, who just happens to be my old boss, has me at a crossroads. Do I stop what I’m doing? Trust her? Or do I fall back on what feels right and stick to the plan I have built with Catriona? Where is Catriona? It shouldn’t have taken her so long to find something to do some damage to this machine with. I feel a renewed sense of urgency.
There is no choice, really. I know whose future I want to support. All things must change eventually, and this planet is ours to share; no corner of it belongs to one person to put a chokehold on. I need to unlock Arcadia and open it to the masses. Even if it destroys the land as I know and love it. At least it will be preserved in the game.
I keep keying in more code.
“Please, stop.” She’s begging now. I can hear that wheedling tone in her voice, the undercurrent of sincerity. “I do this for the good of my people.”
“You think I believe you?” I almost spit at her. I’m not entirely sure where this change in me came from. We should all be in charge of our own lives. Not this one person in charge of so many.
“You should. You used to. It made sense to you once. Your mind has been corrupted.”
“Even if I did believe you, and even if I do,” I say, “I still think I was wrong and maybe I still am wrong and yes, I wanted to preserve something that I thought Arcadia was, but now that I’ve been here, now that I’ve met the rebels it’s populated with, rebels whose stories I’ve heard, now that I see how your choices are playing out in your world and mine ... now I don’t think it’s such a good idea.”
I key in some more code, wishing I were more eloquent. Well, why would I be? I don’t give speeches for a living.
In my peripheral vision I see the woman’s hands start to glow. Witchy shit, then. I’m about to get hit with something hot or cold I imagine. Wishing I had a shield about now, but that’s never been a practicality for my class. I have to hurry, that’s what I have to do.
Just then Catriona arrives with a massive rock in her arms. She drops it when she sees the queen and rushes to cast something at the woman. She succeeds in interrupting the Elven Queen, and I scramble to finish up my program. I have to stay on track and I only have a few more lines of code to key in.
Catriona keeps the queen occupied. I cast a glance or two her way while I’m working and see her doggedly holding her own against the queen, sweat breaking out on her brow.
There. It’s done. I don’t exactly have time to test it. I do look the code over, scanning through it quickly, and then I send it out through the neural network here. Essentially, I make it go viral.
Then I
turn and join the fight. There’s a shit ton of wizard fire and priest fire going back and forth between these two. I get a quest with a unique reward promised for killing this boss.
Quest offered: Queen of All the Land
You have encountered a boss, Layora Lunacaller. Take out the boss for a special reward.
Do you accept?
“Yes,” I say under my breath.
Chapter 30
I collect myself, and shadowslide in behind the Elven Queen. I know what we’re trying to do is high treason, but the truth is, she attacked us. We’re merely defending ourselves. I don’t care what the rules are in Arcadia, I don’t care if I’m a treasonous bastard. I care that Catriona and I get out of this little shindig alive.
I try to slash and stick my way through the queen’s backside, but her superior armor blocks all damage, which means there’s no poison getting in. I do manage to get my rage up, and then I go for the backstab. I aim high with this one, trying to get above the lip of the neck armor for the downward strike.
Success! Unfortunately not for much damage, though, only 5%. I’m used to that maneuver pulling down 25% or more with a single strike. This woman has some serious defenses in place. Her hit points aren’t all that high, it’ll just be exceptionally difficult to take her down. I set into the whirl fest, slash, stick, slash, stick, slash, backstab, repeat. Catriona’s holy spells are having nearly equal effect on the queen as my blade work is; I can see her health bar steadily dropping.
The Elven Queen goes into a prayer position for a moment and I find that my next strike skitters off an invisible barrier. Out of thin air, two little monstrosities have materialized. They look like they’re composed entirely of dark blue ink, and they have a putrid smell as they ooze toward us. I take a stab at the one coming for me and find that my daggers slice right through it, no effect whatsoever. So, I’m pretty much useless here. “Cat, you got something for this?”
“Maybe,” she says. I see her in casting mode. The one nearest her quivers and its health bar shows she’s impacted it. And, the bar is still slowly going down.
Arcadia Unlocked: A LitRPG Novel (Arcadia LitRPG Book 1) Page 16