Chapter 24
Jace wasn’t sure what he had been expecting inside the observatory, but this wasn’t it. The building was one large chamber. Lining the walls of the chamber were box-like alcoves that looked like upright coffins without lids. There were circles of coffins in the center of the room as well. Inside the coffins were skeletons, hundreds of them.
“We found the skeletons,” Jace muttered quietly. Charlena gave him a worried expression. Stepping back, he motioned for her to take a look. She squeezed around him and peeked into the building.
“We are totally screwed,” she whispered as she moved back behind him.
It was hard to disagree with her. Yet he still felt compelled to check it out. He might die. He might even lose his equipment, but he needed to check out the chamber. It was that strange compulsion that both prodded him on and frightened him.
“I’m going to go check it out,” he told her quietly.
Her eyes went wide but she kept her voice low. “Are you crazy?!”
“I want you to stay here,” he told her. “I’ll give you my stuff. If I die and they come after you, run away from this building. Since the rest of the city is deserted, we can come back and get our stuff as long as it’s not near the building.
“Are you serious?” she asked him, her face portraying her doubt.
“Yes,” he told her. “I need to go into that room. I can’t explain why. It’s like something is drawing me in.”
“Oh geez,” she muttered. “Go down into the basement to check the breaker while there’s a murderer in the house.”
Jace chuckled quietly. “I know, it’s almost a horror vid clique, but I need to do it.”
Charlena rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated breath. “Fine. But you’d better be right about us getting our stuff back.”
Jace gave her a boyish grin and a wink. “It’s all right, trust me.”
Charlena raised an eyebrow. “Channeling your inner Solo?”
Jace grinned broadly that she got the reference. He hadn’t met any other women who enjoyed the old vids like he did. He definitely needed to talk with her more when they got out of this. He glanced back at the doorway. IF they got out of this.
Stripping off his gear, he initiated a trade and passed it to her. She accepted the trade and he was once again, completely naked except for his loincloth. He glanced back at her to see that she was eyeing his body and he immediately felt his face get warm.
Charlena noticed his blush and smiled wickedly. “Looks like there’s a bright side to this after all.”
Feeling both embarrassed and pleased by the praise, he turned to go. She caught his hand, leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “For luck.”
Her kiss was warm and wet on his cheek and sent shivers up his spin. He was thankful this one time that his sensory level was set to maximum. He smiled and then turned away so she wouldn’t see him grinning like an idiot.
Taking a deep breath, Jace crept into the room and stopped. Nothing happened. The skeletons remained in their chambers unmoving. Now that he was inside the room, he could make out more details.
The first was that he noticed some sort of pipes lining the inside walls of the chamber. They were thin and ran the height of the enormous room, all the way up to the ceiling. Looking up, Jace could see that the ceiling was open and he could just make out the mirrors he’d seen earlier.
Second, this was absolutely the source of the moaning. The sound echoed around the chamber, making it impossible to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from but one thing was clear from the sheer volume - this was the source.
Looking around the chamber, he also noticed that the coffins weren’t a uniform color. About a third of them were red, another third were white, and the remaining third were black. Jace remembered the mirrors at the top of the observatory. They were the same colors. Was there a connection?
The closest alcove was red and Jace crept around to the side of it. He peeked his head around quickly and then back around. It had been too quick to get a good look but he had seen enough to know there was a skeleton inside. He waited for the skeleton to come out of the alcove and attack him.
Nothing happened. Jace peeked around again, intending to take a longer look and then duck back around but he froze once he’d gotten a good look. These weren’t skeletons. They were golems. They were made out of the same ivory stone that the city was made out of. The golems had long, slender arms and legs, as well as thin bodies that made them resemble skeletons. Up close, Jace could see their joints and crystal eyes. But the tell-tale sign was the large red gyroscopic device in the middle of the chest. It was most definitely a golem, no doubt created by the Ancient Ones.
The one he was looking at appeared to have the remnants of an ancient set of leather armor on it but the moment Jace touched it with his finger, it disintegrated into a pile of dust and small pieces at the bottom of the alcove.
Jace watched it carefully for any signs that it would animate but after several minutes of it not moving, he relaxed. It was deactivated. Or, it’s power cell had run out. Like all constructs, a magical “battery,” or power cell, animated them. How long the golem stayed animated depending on how much magic was put into the “battery.” Unlike the rest of the city, Jace noticed that a thick layer of dust covered this skeletal golem.
Slowly, he moved to the next alcove, keeping an eye on the first golem. When it still didn’t move, he relaxed and checked out the next one. The second golem was identical to the first and it also had a layer of dust on it.
Going from alcove to alcove, Jace examined several more of the golems. They were identical in every way. And none of them seemed to be active. Not only that, but they appeared not to have been activated for some time.
All the alcoves he’d looked at had been red, so Jace moved to the opposite side of the chamber to examine the white alcoves. These also had skeletal golems that were identical in every way to the others except for one thing. The golems in the white alcoves had white gyroscopic devices instead of red. Did that mean these golems had some other purpose? Or was it related to the mirrors?
He turned to the circle of alcoves in the center of the room. They were all black. He started to move towards them and suddenly noticed the floor had thick black metal lines on it that ran from the walls to the alcoves. He cocked his head and looked at them. They were almost like the lines on the old fashioned circuit boards that took current from one part to another part.
Going back to the white alcoves against the wall, he looked all around them until he spotted what he was looking for. The white alcoves had a white metal line running from the wall to the back of the alcove. He guessed if he looked behind the red alcoves he’d find red metal bands connecting them to the wall.
Jace looked up at the mirrors again and then followed the “pipes” down the walls with his eyes to where they intersected the floor. Was this what he thought it was? Was this some sort of recharging station for the golems? But what powered it? This was underground so the mirrors couldn’t be powered by the sun. What else could…
It hit him then. The moons. The moons were said to be the source of all magical energy and the home of the gods. Had the Ancient Ones figured out a way to tap into that energy to power their constructs? He looked back up. There was a mirror for each of the moons, capturing their energy and then relaying it down the pipes. No, not pipes, they were cables of some sort. The magical energy was sent down the cables into the alcoves and must have recharged the power cells of the golems. He grinned, no, they weren’t alcoves or coffins, they were recharging stations.
His smile faded as he remembered the black mirror was still intact. Was it possible it was still recharging the golems in the black recharging stations? There was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, he crept closer to the black alcoves.
Jace crept to the back of the nearest black station and paused with some trepidation. If the black pods were being recharged, then the golems inside were most likely a
ctive. That meant, if he peaked around, it might see him. But he had to know.
Slowly, Jace peeked around the recharging station. Inside was a skeletal golem, just like the others with two main differences. The first difference was the color of it’s gyroscope. It was black. The second was that the gyroscope was spinning at an incredible velocity. The spinning was creating a whirring sound that closely resembled a moan.
He was congratulating himself for his discovery when the head of the golem turned and the glowing eye crystals stared right into his eyes. For a brief moment Jace froze, transfixed by those crystal eyes. Then he backpedaled away from the station only to bump into the station next to it. His bare feet lost their footing and he fell, tumbling into the middle of the black stations. Almost as one, the golems in the black stations which now encircled him turned their heads to regard him.
Jace froze for long seconds as the golems regarded him. Then, as suddenly as they had moved their heads to look at him, they all moved their heads back into their original positions. Still holding his breath, Jace waited to see if the golems would do anything else.
After nearly a minute, Jace finally let out his breath. Slowly, he got to his feet. None of the golems acknowledged his presence. He took a step back towards the entrance. Again, there was no reaction from the golems.
He took another and then another until he finally turned and started back towards the door.
That’s when he heard a loud clicking sound from high up in the ceiling. He stopped and looked upward. The black mirror had started to move. Suddenly the entire room began to thrum and he saw the black cables coming from the ceiling start to glow. The black metal lines that went from the floor to pods began to glow as well and Jace felt the itching feeling starting to grow unbearable. He clenched his jaw to stop from scratching.
The pods themselves began to glow and the whirring sound of the golem’s gyroscopes increased in pitch until it was beginning to hurt his ears. Then there was another clicking sound and the floor in the center of the room began to open.
Fascinated, Jace watched the center section of the flood split into two, revealing a large opening 20 or 30 foot in diameter. He noticed then that there were red, white and black metal lines running directly into the opening. Were there more pods under the floor?
He started to take a step towards the opening to look in when a new sound emerged from the hole. It was like the whirring from the golems, only higher pitched - almost a whine. That’s when he saw a long, slender insect-like leg appear out of the opening and set down on the floor.
“Time to wake already?” said a whispery female voice as the rest of a spider-like body emerged from the opening. Eight crystal eyes stared down at Jace from a giant spider golem body. “Oh, and what delicious morsel has come to entertain me?”
Chapter 25
Behind him, Jace heard Charlena scream and that broke him out of his paralyzing stupor. He spun to run but with unnatural speed, then spider golem moved between him and the door. “Going somewhere, my little naked pet?”
Jace froze, once again staring at the spider’s eight crystal eyes. He noticed that this golem too had a gyroscope in it’s thorax that whirled with that high pitched whine.
“Run,” he whispered to Charlena. “Run!”
“No, no,” said the spider in its almost seductive female voice. “No one leaves the party until I say so.”
There was no indication that the spider golem had done anything, but suddenly a dozen skeletal golems sprang from their alcoves and ran towards Charlena.
“Run Charlena! Run!” he yelled out.
The spider laughed. “Is that your girlfriend? Or maybe she’s a virtual flame that you hide away from your real life wife.”
“She’s not my…” Jace had started to retort until the spider’s words sank in. The spider had said “real life!” It knew about the outside world. Could this be another player? He realized the spider had stopped moving, as had the skeletons.
“Did… did you… understand me?” asked the spider golem with a hint of desperation in her voice.
“Yes,” Jace said. He remembered back to Duglas and had an eerie deja vu. “You’re a player who was inserted into the game when you died, right?”
“Yes,” gasped the spider. “How did you know? And how do you understand me when no one else was able to?”
“Jace?” came Charlena’s voice from behind him.
Turning, he saw that she had stopped running when the skeletons had stopped and had crept back to the door. “I think it’s okay. I’m pretty sure she’s another player like Duglas.”
“Pretty sure?” she asked.
“She can’t understand me?” the spider golem asked.
“No, just me,” he told the golem.
“You want to stay there?” Jace asked Charlena.
She seemed to consider for a moment and finally gave a little shake of her head. She came towards Jace and the skeletons all parted for her as she did. Then, the skeletons ran back to their alcoves and went inert.
“Why is it only you can understand me?” asked the spider again, more insistent this time.
“Because I’m dead too,” Jace told her, once again feeling that pang of regret and sadness. “I was inserted into the game as a monster.”
“You were a monster too?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes, I… wait, do you have a name that I can call you?” Jace asked.
“Name,” the spider thing muttered. “My name? Oh my god, I haven’t said or heard my name since I died. My name is Anika Holden, but you might know me as Diana Stewart.”
“Diana Stewart?” Jace repeated.
“Diana Stewart?!” Charlena exclaimed from beside him. “THE Diana Stewart?!”
Jace turned to her and asked, “Do you know her?”
At the same time the spider golem said happily, “You know me?”
Charlena looked between the spider and Jace, her face alight with excitement. “Geez! I wish I could understand her! Diana Stewart. She’s a romance novelist. She wrote the Scandalous Queen series and the Midnight Earl. Wow! It’s great to meet you. Well… you know… meet you in this life or game… or whatever.”
“Yes,” Diana told him sadly. “That used to be me. Once upon a time. And now, I am the Spider Queen, feared monster of the underground city.”
“I’m sorry,” Jace told her and then translated for Charlena. “The same thing happened to me. I believe there is a bug in the insertion routine. But I know a way you can turn yourself into a woman.”
“Really?” Diana asked, her voice excited. “You mean, I don’t have to be this… thing for all eternity?”
Jace smiled at her. “It worked for me and it worked for Duglas, another player who had the same bug.”
“So, I’m in this body instead of a beautiful elf body, living a life of luxury because of a bug?” Diana demanded.
“I’m afraid so,” Jace replied. He remembered that he was still standing in nothing but his loincloth. “Charlena, do you think I could get my clothes back now?”
“Oh cutie,” purred the spider. “Don’t get dressed on my account. I can’t even remember the last time I saw some young stud mostly naked.”
Jace blushed furiously and Charlena demanded that he translate what she said. When he told her, she burst out laughing. “Well, you are pretty cute.”
“Oh dearie,” said the spider as Jace equipped his gear again. “If I was 30 years younger and not in the body of a spider, I’d be all over that.”
Blushing again as he translated, Jace tried to change the subject. “So yes, it is a bug.”
“And here I thought it was a plot by my publicist to keep all my royalties,” Diana said. “Either that, or I really did go to hell.”
Jace gave her a questioning look. “You had your royalties transferred into the game?”
“Yes, every month my royalties were supposed to be transferred into the game. I was supposed to be living like a queen right now,” she said wis
tfully.
“It’s terrible,” Charlena said, after Jace had translated. “You’re such a good novelist! You deserved better.”
“I like this girl. She’s a keeper.” Diana chuckled, a strange sound from the golem. “Let's get back to the part where you make me human.”
Jace explained how he’d become human and then how he’d helped Duglas do the same. He found out that she’d actually never played the game before, she had just been coached by her publicist. He also found out that she was worth about 10 million dollars. But since she had no family to leave it to, she had donated most of it to charity and had the rest inserted into the game for her - along with the monthly royalties. She literally should be living like a queen with all that gold.
She’d also been responsible for the player disappearances. She’d fought off a few players before realizing they just respawned and came back. Then she’d figured out that if they fell into the traps, they didn’t come back. She’d been having the skeletal golems grapple the players and throw them into the pits. Clever.
Unfortunately, she’d made the mistake of sending the golems to the city, thinking to scare them into not sending any more adventurers. But the game had compensated by creating a quest to end the “skeleton” scourge.
Finally, he learned that she had been inserted into this spider golem and she had never died. Which meant she had never monster hopped. This seemed to make her a bit skeptical when Jace mentioned she had to die for the process to work.
“So, you’ve actually only done this twice,” she asked skeptically. “And I have to die for it to work?”
“Yes,” Jace told her. “But there’s no reason to believe it wouldn’t work for you.”
“But if it doesn’t, I could end up as some other monster? What if I don’t come back?”
Jace nodded. “There is no reason you wouldn’t respawn. And if for some reason it wouldn’t work, then yes, you would end up in some other monster’s body.”
Diana was quiet for a long while. “I don’t know. It seems like quite a risk.”
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