Maybe you should think about that, before you get back on your high horse and accuse them of being lazy because they didn't advance.
"What about you, Sabine?" I asked her, trying to take the focus away from Atlas. He looked like he needed a break.
Before she answered, I saw him give me a grateful look of reappraisal. "I went higher in the tree," she said. "I don't know what's up there, but it took me out. When I respawned and found my way back to the Strands of Grass, I didn't even get halfway to Isaac's tree before another rush of fire swept me up."
"Okay," I said. "I guess that's something to go on. Isaac's stuck though, yes?"
"I am," he agreed. "But at least the XAR leave us alone now. We wouldn't have progressed as far as we have so quickly, if it weren't for that. When you destroyed your opponent through the link he was building in your mind, they agreed that you won the duel."
I didn't want to pat myself on the back, but it was hard to hide my pride. "Yeah? Serves that fucker right, if I do say so myself."
Sabine was grinning from ear to ear. "The XAR have been hunting us for as long as I can remember. I haven't so much as seen one since that big ant clipped my head off in the fight. Good job, Adam."
"Thanks."
Isaac palmed a joystick and maneuvered his wheelchair closer to us. "As near as we could tell, the XAR made a point of picking off the stronger members of each faction. Their nonaggression will serve us well."
I looked over at Atlas, who was rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. "Yeah, I guess I forgot to thank you for that."
"Happy to help," I told him. "And I'll do what I can to improve your lot in the Citadel. I have to remind you all though, I'm here for a good time, not a long time."
"We understand," Isaac's electronic voice said. "We have been getting prompts in the Citadel that only our leader can respond to. Before the duel, we acknowledged that was you. Apparently, that has carried forward. We have all been struggling in there for quite some time. Lucas is almost to his second anniversary, and he is the longest-serving of our members. New blood and new vision will be a benefit to all."
I nodded, careful not to mention Neve and the rest. Now may not be the time... "Why don't you guys tell me what you can do, then? Sabine, Lucas told me that you were a Blitzer. I got a little bit of a taste for what that meant in the duel, but it'd help me if you explained it. Better to learn now than in the Citadel, right?"
She shrugged. "Okay, sure. In there, I'm greased lightning. I'm good at finding an enemy's weak spots, too. I guess I sort of specialize in getting out of the way of stuff, because as you saw—" she dragged her thumb across her own neck—"if I don't, it doesn't take much to put me in the ground."
Isaac's electronic voice slid into the conversation. I was so used to it now that I simply took for granted how quickly he could compose his thoughts. "Actually, in anticipation of our meeting I have created a short rundown of our current team members. Would you like to hear it?"
"Hell yeah," I told him enthusiastically.
He'd managed to get the voice to pretty accurately simulate the one the Citadel smashed through my mind whenever it wanted to get its point across, and for a moment I looked around nervously, worried that I was somehow about to cross into the contest.
Instead, the voice read:
Sabine
Level 7 Blitzer
Primary Abilities - Flame Fist, Sideslip, Channel Power
Passive Abilities - Detect Flaw, Instant Reaction
Atlas
Level 6 Brickbat
Primary Abilities - Draw Focus, Counterpunch, Absorb
Passive Abilities - Resist, Last Stand
Lucas
Level 8 Powerhouse
Primary Abilities - Augment Strike, Pummel, Flurry
Passive Abilities - Overclock, Breach
Isaac
Level 6 Telepathist
Primary Abilities - Group Think, Remote View, Override
Passive Abilities - Inspire Confidence, Inspire Fear
I'd been so caught up in what they could all do, my gamer brain deep within a pile of strategies and tactics, that I didn't realize they were all staring at me until they'd obviously been doing it for a while. "Right," I said. "I guess you guys already know that I'm not even level one."
Sabine and Atlas nodded.
I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly very dry. Sabine saw what I was doing and stepped out of the room for a second, returning with a glass of water in her hand. She was flanked by Dr. Kyun.
"I am sorry to interrupt, but we need to get Adam into surgery. In order to give his body the best chance of maintaining the minimum percentage of original body function, our work must begin now."
I looked over at Isaac. I hadn't thought to ask if they put him in the Labyrinth with or without his wheelchair, but I couldn't see him counting as 'functional' under the agreement with the Evvex. How had he been allowed to be in the Citadel for so long without being disqualified?
Kyun followed my gaze. "Isaac's presence on the list of approved contestants is our best proof that it is the Citadel and not the Evvex who are selecting the Contestants. They may occupy the highest floor, but they don't make the rules. We are not allowed to let any of you slip below an established mobility metric, but the standards are based on a percentage of your original ability."
I looked down at my ankles, and then at my hand. "How much time will I have to talk with everyone, before I get back into the game?"
Kyun pursed his lips. "I fear you will need every spare moment to recover. If all goes well, we will keep you in a state of rest until just before it is time to get you suited up once more."
"So this is goodbye, then?"
"Sort of," Sabine said, "but not really. It's all right. Let them patch you up. We're all in the same shitty situation you are."
"Except for the brain thing," Atlas added.
"And the broken bones," Isaac interjected. "And the fact that they really hate him."
Sabine rolled her eyes. "Yeah. But you know what I mean. The only family I can be certain of seeing again is you guys and Lucas. Give us a chance to prove ourselves to you in the Citadel, okay, Adam? Let yourself figure out that you're amongst friends before the end of it all, you know?"
I nodded. "Before I go, I hope to be."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Citadel
Floor 1
Area 0
The Glade
"Right on schedule," Toot said.
I was too out of it this time to feel my consciousness upload. "I missed you," I told him, surprised at my own emotion. "Hell, I missed the Citadel."
"Is that so? I don't think it is designed for you to like it."
I shrugged. "I guess it's all relative. I mean, at least in here I have a chance to fight back at all the shit that's trying to kill me. Not to mention that the system seems happy enough to pat me on the back when I do something right. Even though I haven't actually raised a level yet, at least it promised me the chance to improve myself. Between that and a few intangible rewards along the way, it's downright heaven compared to the life I'm leaving behind in order to compete."
He may just have been a silver orb floating in front of me, but somehow that didn't stop him from staring. "How long do you have left before the thing in your head ends you?"
"That's an excellent question," I told him. "But it's not one that lets me give you an exact answer. Maybe a month? Perhaps a little more or less. Nobody really knows, least of all me."
Toot spoke more quickly than usual, and it felt like he was trying to change the subject. Had the guy gone soft on me? "Sanctioned duels occur in such a way that I am unable to observe them. It is meant to stop us from being able to influence future outcomes by critiquing your style and your enemy's strategy. I am aware only that you won, in your own fashion. Congratulations."
I made a face and shot him a dour look. "Yeah, not that it did me a whole hell of a lot of good. One of the conditions of victory was for the
XAR to leave us alone. It sounds like they're sticking to their end of the bargain, though it would have been awesome if the guy in charge of teaching me about the game had let me know that suicide within the Citadel would result in me sitting in limbo, unable to respawn while the Evvex in my body back home beat me to a pulp."
"In that case, Adam, it would have been perhaps equally awesome if you had asked what the result of death at your own hand would be."
I couldn't help but smile. When he was right, he was right.
I thought the conversation was over, but Toot bobbed up and down in the air a little and then wandered in a slow circle. I'd never seen him act like that, and when next he spoke I sensed he was weighing his words more carefully than usual. "You should know that the Human Faction has been the subject of much discussion, of late. What the Evvex are doing to you, in particular, has not gone unnoticed."
I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for the concern, but from the way you're talking it doesn't sound like anyone's willing to stop them."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because if you could, I think this little powwow would be going a lot differently. You wouldn't sound so sorry for me, for instance. I mean, just listen to yourself. It's like you're weeping over my grave already. Pull yourself together, Toot."
"I am composed," he told me.
"But there's no sign of vindication coming, right?"
He sighed. "You must understand that these things take an incredibly long time to play out. Justice is rarely swift. There are petitions, and investigations, and—"
"I get it," I told him. "And before you start worrying, I've got no hard feelings toward you. If the Evvex want to beat the shit out of my body while I'm in here, I suppose the only recourse I have is to beat the shit out of them while I'm in here."
"Those are very bold words, Adam. Does that mean you have a plan to make it happen?"
I smirked. "Absolutely not. But I talk a good game, don't you think?"
He didn't answer.
I was done with all of this. It felt like all he wanted to do was feel sorry for me, and that crap was why I'd stopped returning phone calls and talking to my family. "Anyway, thanks a whole bunch for the pep talk. It's really, really helped. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the rest of my team. Apparently, in my absence some of them have managed to get themselves stuck up a tree or something."
"Adam?"
"Yeah?"
"When the Citadel changes hands, an enormous amount of power goes to the champion Faction. They control many of its functions. If you and yours could defeat the Evvex and hold the Citadel's upper floor, is there anything you would change about it?"
It felt like an important question, and so I bit back the smart-ass reply that was desperate to leap out of my mouth and chose to ponder my response for a moment.
That was when I realized that I'd never asked myself what came next, because I had already come to terms that I wasn't getting an 'after'.
"I don't want to bullshit you, so I guess I can't really say for sure," I told him. "I don't feel like I know enough about how everything works to be spouting edicts, but I sure as hell wouldn't force anyone to play. Humanity's going to get screwed because they got a raw deal, and I doubt we're the only ones. That's not right."
"You would attempt to end the Citadel?"
"No. But I think I'd use it as what it feels like it was meant to be: a means of settling disagreements. Having thirteen members of a race fight it out in here is certainly better than planetary genocide, but putting a gun to a species' head and coercing them to sign on the dotted line is just plain wrong."
"Your cancer is too advanced. You have squandered what little time you had," he said matter-of-factly, as if he was telling me what tomorrow's weather would be. "There's literally no way you can beat the Citadel with that which remains to you."
I shrugged. "Wow. That's a real kick to the nuts, man. I mean, I already knew that, but here you are just coming right out and saying it... Holy shit. You really know how to make a guy feel better, Toot. You know that? It's just one of your many, many gifts."
I thought I'd either break the mood or piss him off. Either one would have been fine, but instead he took it in stride, responding with, "Would you like one more?"
"Huh?"
"Would you like another gift?"
"Sure..."
"Very well. Just try not to be as wasteful as you have been thus far."
I heard the wall of corkscrewed trees and tightly wound vines behind me creak and grind apart. When I turned around, I watched as one by one, tendril and branch and limb and coil extricated itself from the tangled mess and retreated into the ground in a complicated dance. When they were finished there was a new twisting path ahead of me extending away from the grove, in the opposite direction of the stream and the Swathe.
"What's this?" I asked.
"This is all the Yvarre'en have left to offer anyone. Go now, and remember us with fondness."
You have been offered the Yvarre'en's Relic if you are willing to complete a quest.
Do you accept?
"I'll do my best," I told him as I felt Toot vanish. This time the air that rushed in to fill the space he'd occupied did so with a thunderclap. He wasn't just gone.
He was gone...
His presence had always been a reassuring one despite his sarcasm, and now that the air that had held him was as empty as all the rest, it was with a heavy heart that I stepped forward, walking toward whatever it was he had provided for me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Citadel
Floor *
Area *
YOU may only access this area of the Citadel once. Upon death, you will be barred from reentry.
I walked down the new road that Toot had revealed to me. I could sense that the sun was still shining brightly overhead, but the trail was still covered in a thick roof of branches. Sometimes there was a dappling of light on the crisp grass ahead, but for the most part the only illumination that made it down to me was a golden yet diffuse glow.
Toot's absence still shook me. I'd only just begun to get used to the idea that I may have a place within the Citadel, though now that I was back the combined absence of both he and my newfound team members left me feeling naked.
It didn't take long for me to discover a campsite set into the middle of a bulge in the path. A circle of thirteen crackling fires threw light and heat in every direction, and when I stepped into the center of them I felt whatever remnants of dread or trepidation I had burn away.
You have found a Safe Place.
And just like that, I was finally given permission to do something with the experience points I'd been earning. I'd been out of the Citadel since my last showdown with CAV, which meant that I had no idea what I'd earned by defeating him.
Current experience points - 1488
You may now become level 1 at the cost of 100 experience points. Would you like to do that now?
Fuck yes.
Congratulations.
Current level - 1
Current experience points - 1388
You may now become level 2 at the cost of 1,000 experience points. Would you like to do that now?
I hesitated for a moment. It might be a better plan to reach level 2 and poke around first, but I'd spent so long in this place without making the most of my time that I didn't have it in me to go slow. I'd try my damnedest to make the right choices, but I wasn't going to pussyfoot around.
Yes, I thought at the Citadel.
Congratulations.
Current level - 2
Current experience points - 388
Core Statistics
Flesh
Strength5
Stamina4
Intelligence7
Finesse
Dexterity8
Perception6
Wit7
Friction
Fortitude4
Endurance3
Resolve2
Physical Buffer0
Mental Ward2
Aptitudes
Magic, Survival, Command
I hadn't seen those aptitudes before. I could only guess that they were a mix of the skills the Citadel had believed I brought in here with me and the ones I'd picked up along the way. Right or wrong, I didn't see a way to change them.
Thankfully, it threw an explanation at me right when I needed it to.
Which of your aptitudes would you like to prioritize?
Magic - Allows you to modify yourself or your surroundings without the use of technology.
Survival - Improves all aspects of life within the Citadel including tracking, resource gathering, and self-preservation.
Command - Allies and Companions will find respite and comfort in your requests, whilst Enemies may discover their resolve wavering in the face of your wrath.
Damn... It was a hard choice to make. Despite me wanting to hurry this along I must've waited too long to answer, because the Citadel eventually took pity on me.
You may elect to prioritize none of your Aptitudes at this time. This will result in you following the path of the Unelected Emissary. Is this what you would prefer?
Unelected Emissary, huh? That had a certain ring to it, particularly the 'unelected' part. I suppose there was still room to quibble over which of the aptitudes may be better in what setting, not to mention the chance to move a couple of points around in my statistics.
But what was the point? My first, best, and certainly most knowledgeable compatriot in the Citadel had straight up told me to my face that I didn't have enough time in here to make a difference. Sure, I could claw my way up a couple more floors, but in the end that wouldn't be enough to get Earth out of the bind she'd gotten herself into.
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