by Rick Scott
“Oh no, Bruce,” Novak said, cutting him off. “There ain’t no murder mystery to solve here and we definitely ain’t teaming up like some detective duo either.”
Bruce stared up at the larger man, confused. “What?”
“I came here for two reasons,” Novak said, sliding the ammunition clip back into the pistol. “One was to see if you numb-nuts had actually dropped the ball and let something like this slip through the cracks. But by the yellow in your belly, that don’t look the case. Which means someone’s already found a way around your stupid protocols and the damage is already done.”
Bruce swallowed involuntarily. This was looking like Dennis more and more. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying the weapons are out there, Bruce. And personally it don’t matter to me who cracked the code now. Soon everybody’s gonna have a gun.” Novak paused a moment to marvel at the weapon in his hand again, making Bruce nervous. “The balance of power is about to shift and I’ll be damned if the Kings are going to lose their territory due to an arms race.”
An arms race? Bruce’s mind conjured up images of bloody gun battles in the hub, the kinds of things you’d see only in the Shards. Dear God…this can’t be happening.
“Which brings me to the second reason I came here,” Novak said with a grin.
Bruce stiffened. “And what’s that?”
“I want the protocols, Bruce. I want the Kings to be able to print their own weapons.”
Bruce’s heart nearly stopped. “Are you insane? I’m not giving you access—”
Novak’s hands moved in a blur as he jabbed the muzzle of the pistol painfully into Bruce’s forehead. “How about now, Bruce?”
Terror seized Bruce’s chest as all the blood drained from his face. He couldn’t think as panic sent his knees weak with fright. He stared into Novak’s eyes—still and intense, the look of a killer.
Then Novak laughed and withdrew the gun from his head. “Ain’t a nice feeling, is it?”
Relief washed over Bruce and he could finally breathe again. He did so in huge gulps, like he’d just run a marathon. Then slowly his relief turned to anger.
“You crazy idiot!” Bruce spat in a fury. “What the hell are you trying to prove?”
Novak scoffed. “Expect situations like that to become the norm, Bruce. Unless you want me to do something about it.”
Bruce huffed, still regaining his breath, anger seething. “What are you playing at?”
“A deal,” Novak said, wrapping the pistol back within the dirty towel. “If you give me the protocols I’ll make sure law and order remains down in the hub.”
“What?”
“Person with the biggest stick, rules and all that, right?” Novak grinned. “I’ll keep this mess from reaching the habs, especially the lower levels. If you give me what I want.”
Bruce couldn’t believe this. “You’re asking me to sanction you with access to live weapons?”
Novak grinned. “I like how you say it, Bruce…fit and proper. But yeah…I wanna be sanctioned. But I know how you top brass work. So I’ll give you a couple days to get the rest of your cronies together to have your board meeting.”
Novak stuffed the wrapped gun into the pack of his jeans and made for the door.
“Don’t let me down, Bruce,” he said as he walked past him. “Unless you want a war on your hands.”
Chapter 6: Goddess
My senses snap to and I’m surrounded by stars. It feels like I’m back in the Labyrinth of Onizoso again—a surreal and abstract environment void of the normal constructs of reality. I’m standing on nothing, at least nothing that I can see. As I look up, a huge green crystal looms before me—a giant tear-shaped emerald, brilliant and glittering with a light of its own, although it appears to be cracked and missing a piece on one side. I can’t tell exactly how big it is, perhaps the size of a building, but with no other frame of reference—even to judge how far away I am from it—it’s hard to tell.
I try to move and find I can walk just fine, although again, there is no floor or structure. My head swims with vertigo as I take in the vast expanse of the stars above and below me, an endless universe as far as I can see. The experience has my heart racing with anxiety and wonder, both. If this is what it’s like to meet a god, then I can totally understand now why it’s a one-shot deal.
“Come hither,” a deep, feminine voice intones, seemingly coming from the crystal itself. I’m not certain if it’s even sound that I hear or if the words are spoken directly into my mind. I wonder if I’m even in the normal game world anymore.
The thought makes me check my stats.
Name: Reece
Class: Ninja
Level: 85
Strength: 6+20
Dexterity: 80+100
Agility: 80+160
Intelligence: 4
Mind: 6
Vitality: 31 +20
HP: 1732/1732
Stamina: 357/357 (+50)
TP: 261/261 (+80)
[You have 6 unassigned Veteran Points]
Well, my HUD is still here and my character looks intact too. Plus I have six Veteran Points to assign? After all the running and fighting I guess I leveled up more than I thought. Developing my character has been the last thing on my mind, but after my encounter with Braxus’ Imposter, I’ll definitely need to improve…and think very carefully on where to spend my points next.
I notice something else too. A small timer is counting down in the corner of my vision.
Audience 4:48
Audience 4:47
Audience 4:46
Holy Crap… this thing is timed?
My thoughts turn back to Lady Diana, the whole reason I’m here. I edge towards the giant crystal and the voice that came from it.
“Hello?” I say cautiously as I step closer.
A translucent figure slowly emerges from within the glittering emerald, a form as big as the crystal itself. I stop short in awe at the sheer size of it. It’s hard to make out at first but it’s definitely feminine in shape. Two sets of wings extend from its back as it materializes into solid form. The wings are much the same as those of the angels in the labyrinth—connected by some unseen force and floating just off of its back.
My breath catches as the enormous figure solidifies—a woman at least three stories tall. Her porcelain-white skin is flawless, her features sharp and elven, complete with elongated ears. Her eyes are closed, but in the center of her forehead is a sparkling jewel that looks a splitting image of the tear-shaped emerald behind her…cracked and all. Straight dark hair, that’s tinted a deep emerald, falls over her shoulders and covers her chest that’s clad in an ornate gold top. Around her neck is a huge golden collar that’s adorned with more emeralds that match twin bracers about her wrists.
As amazing as she is, what stuns me even more, however, is what’s below her waist.
Where a set of shapely hips should be is instead the curvaceous lines of a snake’s body. Just beneath a belt made of golden tassels, which reminds me of something a belly-dancer would wear, are the thick yellow scales of a snake’s underbelly.
Her serpentine lower half is at least ten feet thick and coils behind her for an indeterminate length. The adornment of her tasseled belt extends down the back of her green-scaled lower half which undulates mesmerizingly before me, shifting from side to side.
She opens her eyes, revealing two glowing amber orbs, with the slit-like pupils of a snake.
I lose the ability to speak as my eyes meet hers and my heart thunders in my chest. She’s both terrifying and alluring and I wonder for a moment if she doesn’t have some kind of ability that has me frozen with fear.
I focus on the name floating above her head.
Karlis
That’s it. That’s all it says. No level, no description, no lore, no elemental affinity. But, perhaps, as the entity that controls the entire safe zone, that’s all it needs.
The giant snake-woman slithers forward and bends her
upper half towards me until her huge face is just a couple feet from my own. I step back as her green-stained lips part in a smile, revealing a set of teeth with elongated fangs and for a moment I fear she might lunge at me and swallow me whole!
“Shard Warrior,” she says in a hypnotic voice. “I wondered how long it would take for you to visit me.”
Holy crap. I know I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s been expecting me, since she was basically the one who gave me the favor through that quest and all, but still, it feels disconcerting to be acknowledged like this by something that is supposedly a god. But she’s more than that. She’s a Builder: the ancient AIs that made our home of Citadel and the vast game worlds of the Crystal Shards on the surface.
And I’m standing right in front of her. Talking to her!
A million questions spring to my mind. This could be my opportunity to find out about everything! The true relationship between the real world and the game world. The nature of the Labyrinth. Why the wayfaring stones don’t transfer nano back to Citadel anymore. Perhaps she even knows the location of Citadel itself!
But before any of that I need to ask the question I came to ask first.
“Ah…goddess…Karlis?” Eesh that sounds kinda stupid, but how else am I supposed to refer to her? “I’ve come to ask you to save Lady Diana.”
“Oh?” the goddess says, rearing back a bit, and waves her hand in the air. “You wish to make a request? Is that the final choice for your favor?”
A list then scrolls onto my HUD.
You have 1 favor to spend.
[+] Advance 5 levels.
[+] Obtain a rare weapon.
[+] Obtain a rare armor piece.
[+] Obtain a rare item.
[+] Unlock an Advanced Class
[+] Make a Request
I guess saving Lady Diana would fall under Make a Request for sure, but the other rewards seem amazing too. “Yes,” I say. “I wish to make a request. Can you save her?”
In an instant the world changes around me and I’m back at the edge of the wild with my friends again. But then I realize I’m not there exactly, but looking at it from the outside. I see myself clad in my ninja gear, standing next to Gilly, frozen in motion as if in a hologram. Behind me are the rest of my friends and ahead of me, Lady Diana, trapped on the opposite side of the barrier.
I wonder if what I’m seeing is real or just some image, but I look to be in the same position as when I just used the favor, surrounded by a glowing white light.
“Have you stopped time?” I ask, looking up at the goddess who is now hovering over us, three stories tall.
“No,” Karlis says. “Such would be well beyond my powers. We are having this conversation in a matter of nanoseconds, hence why there is a limit. I suggest you not take too long to make your decision, Shard Warrior. Your time is waning. Are you ready to confirm your selection?”
I check the timer again.
Audience 3:52
Over a minute gone already…
“Yes,” I say. “I wish to confirm, make a request, as my favor.”
She closes her eyes and the jewel in her forehead glows.
You have spent 1 favor!
You have gained: Make a Request
You may now make a request of Karlis.
The goddess reopens her eyes. “And what is your request, Shard Warrior?”
“I’d like you to save my friend, Lady Diana.”
“This one?” Karlis asks, extending the tip of her clawed index finger above Lady Diana’s head.
“Yes,” I say.
“Save her how?” she asks.
I guess I need to be more specific. “There’s a barrier she can’t get through. Can you allow her to pass through it?”
The goddess chuckles, flexing her twin sets of wings that span some hundred feet across. “I’m afraid I’m bound by rules, the same as you. My powers only extend within the domain granted to me. Your request must be limited to areas within my control.”
Crap… “Can you send her to somewhere else in your domain then?”
She closes her eyes a moment as if checking something. Finally she reopens them and smiles. “Yes.”
“Really?” But then something else occurs to me. “If you can do that, then does that mean you can teleport all of us?”
“Yes, if that is your request.”
I think on that a moment. She could actually teleport us all somewhere else? I think of travelling back to Brookrun. It would be great to go back there and recuperate for a bit. But that would place us even further away from New London. Crossing the wild is going to be bad enough and adding an extra day or so to that journey doesn’t sound like a good idea—no matter how good a rest sounds right now. No, we need to get to New London as soon as possible. We need access the data banks there so Gilly can find the location of…holy crap, wait a minute…
“Can you to teleport us to Citadel?”
My heart thunders within my chest as the goddess closes her eyes again. Tense seconds pass and finally she reopens them. “No…that location does not exist within my domain.”
Darn…I should have known it wouldn’t be so easy. But her answer tells me something else though. At least we know it’s nowhere within this safe zone. And that’s telling us a lot actually.
“Do you know its location?” I ask, trying again.
The goddess smiles at me. “I do not have knowledge of areas outside of my control.” Our surroundings change once more and I’m back in the field of stars alone with the giant Naga, the huge crystal looming behind her. “Are you ready to request your favor?”
I check the timer again.
Audience 3:25
Just over three minutes.
“Yes, but I have some questions first,” I say.
“Is that your request?”
“What?”
“Information. Do you wish to change your request from saving your friend to requesting information?”
Ah snap! “So I can’t just ask you anything?”
“You may question the process for making a request, but to ask me something specific and unrelated is a request for information. Do you wish to make your request a request for information?”
Man, how bureaucratic!
I glower inwardly. All the questions I want to ask would come at the price of Diana’s life. No way I’m doing that. Still…there’s so much I need to know.
“Although…” the goddess says with a smile. “I’ve come to be quite intrigued by you, Shard Warrior.”
“Intrigued?”
She must catch the odd look on my face because she gives me a laugh, which causes the tassels on her outfit to jingle.
“Yes, intrigued,” she says again. Her coils writhe in a huge knot behind her as she slithers closer to me. “Ever since you entered the labyrinth, I have felt a great burden lifted and even some of my memories restored.” She then touches the fractured gem within her forehead. “Although not all. Still, I can’t help but attribute this recovery to you. Perhaps then, I owe you a favor in more ways than one.”
The jewel on her forehead pulses.
You have been granted a favor!
You have 1 favor to spend.
Whoa! Maybe she’s not so bureaucratic after all! I guess she must be referring to the class change function being restored, but she mentioned memories too. That reminds me of something. Something the giant Witgar said—about his wife not remembering him. I scroll through my logs and pull up his description again.
Witgar
Legendary Monster
Level: ???
The Giant Master Builder Witgar is said to have been tricked into building the home of the gods, with the promise of the goddess Selena as his bride. When the gods were not forthcoming after his labors, and granted him a different wife instead, he swore vengeance, but was then banished to the realm of men. Now he takes his vengeance on any and all who cross his path.
A different wife…could it be Karlis?
�
�You have been granted another favor to use. How do you wish to use it?”
“I wish to make another request.”
Her jewel flashes.
You have spent 1 favor!
You have gained: Make a Request
You may now make a request of Karlis (2)
“And what is your request?”
Wow…one question. How can I boil everything I want to know down to just one? But she seems to be able to speak somewhat freely at times, if it’s about the game system especially. If I can stick to asking about the favors, maybe I can still get some more information for free.
“Can you grant me more favors like this?” I ask.
Karlis chuckles in her deep voice, leaning away from me while folding her arms across her chest. “I am capable of many things, Shard Warrior. Whether I have permission or not, is a different matter. As I said, I am bound by rules the same as you, perhaps even more so. I have many restrictions on where and when I can intercede. This favor I granted you is an example of this. Your efforts within the labyrinth justified your reward.”
“Right. The same as how you give quests,” I say, making sure it’s a statement and not a question.
“That is another way, yes,” she affirms. “Placement of things is another. Risk and reward. That is the ultimate principle. For all that I can grant it must come at a cost: through either effort or sacrifice. This is the balance of the universe, even at its core. I exist to maintain this balance within my domain. That is my sole purpose.”
“Who sets these rules?”
She chuckles. “Is that the question you wish to ask as your favor?”
Darn, too specific, I guess. “No…I ah…I need a moment for that.”
I check the timer.
Audience 2:32
Audience 2:31
I need to think! My heart races with anxiety as I try to cram everything I want to know into a single question. I think of Citadel and my mother and getting the nano back there. That’s still top priority, but there are deeper questions I want answered too. Rembrandt believed we could find the answers to Citadel in New London, so I probably shouldn’t waste this opportunity asking for that. I need to ask something far more fundamental.