Once Upon a Star

by Anthea Sharp

  Instead, everything inside The Realm was shiny and new. Colorful and perfect. No trash littered the streets and no grime lingered on the windows. The sun above shone with such brilliance, I had to squint my eyes just to see the blue of the sky above me—something I’d never once had to do in real life.

  But here in The Realm, with the proper gear, real life was indistinguishable from the virtual. In fact, this imagined world was so much more pleasant, it was easier to believe it was real. Stay here long enough, and you never wanted to imagine anything else could be possible.

  That was why people preferred to stay inside the game.

  If you were wealthy enough to afford the full pod experience, every single one of your senses was heightened here. You could hear, smell, touch, taste, and even feel everything here in The Realm as if it were completely real.

  With that kind of existence, why would you ever want to leave?

  Unfortunately, though, not everyone could afford the pods of the elite Lifers. Many of the citizens here in The Realm spent half their time working as little more than slaves to the wealthiest Lifers just to pay their monthly subscriptions.

  The poorest were often making do with gear that was nearly a decade old and didn’t have nearly the same capabilities as the pods.

  What was worse, it was dangerous for people to be logged in with that old gear full time. Anything more than eight hours or so at a time could leave someone physically or mentally disabled, and if something in the old and overused headgear shorted out, it could mean instant death.

  Not that most people listened to the warnings.

  The Realm was an addiction, and for most people, the risks were worth it. Better to die in the game than to live in the real.

  My own parents had died a similar death. Or at least that’s what I’d been told. My father died before I was born, pushing his old gear to the limit, trying to work extra hours to support his growing family. A small, worn piece on his headgear had shorted out, and he was gone just like that.

  My mother was so depressed to lose him that she couldn’t bear to spend her time in the real world. Her best friend apparently forced her out of the game every few hours while she was pregnant with me, making her rest or take breaks, but after I was born, my mom lost herself inside the game.

  It wasn't even faulty gear that eventually did her in. She simply never logged out to eat, and without the pods like the Lifers had feeding you through tubes, a person could starve to death if they forgot to come out of The Realm and eat real food.

  So, at the age of two, I’d been sent to live in a city-run orphanage, care of D.O.V.E. Industries, the inventor of The Realm and the savior of all of human civilization. At least that was how they told the story.

  But the truth about D.O.V.E. Industries was a worry for another day.

  Right now, I needed to be thinking about getting from here to the mansion on the edge of town where the Orb of Altress was being kept.

  Nothing mattered so much to me as finding rare and valuable artifacts, selling them on the black market, and distributing whatever I could earn to those who needed better gear and a better life.

  I couldn’t do anything to stop the horror of real life, but if I could do even a little to make life inside The Realm safer or more bearable for people like my parents, that was all that mattered to me.

  If D.O.V.E. managed their gear better or cared about their subscribers and citizens even a little bit, stories like mine wouldn’t exist.

  They hated me, and they wanted to capture and kill me, but they were the ones who had created me in the first place.

  And I would fight back for as long as I could.

  I materialized in game as a dark figure in an alley, wearing a burgundy gown that flowed all the way down to the cobblestone streets, with a black, flowing cape around my body and drawn up over my head to cover my face.

  In the game, my avatar was constantly shifting her appearance. While my real-life hair color was a dirty dishwater blonde that was cut sharp around my chin, I could play around with any style I wanted here in The Realm.

  Normal subscribers had to pay for appearance changes, of course, but I’d cracked that code early on in my game explorations. I could change my appearance almost at-will now, with just a few adjustments to the code running through my mind at all times.

  Today, I had long crimson hair pulled into matching braids that flowed down either side of my body. I’d given myself tanned skin and bright green eyes—an expensive and rare combination that would cause most people to turn their heads down rather than look at me too closely. Staring too hard at a Lifer—especially one of the wealthiest—could get you thrown into a dungeon. Or worse.

  The rules and laws here inside The Realm were not always logical or fair. The richer you were, the more power you had, and the more eager D.O.V.E. officials were to make sure you were enjoying your experience inside the game.

  Anyone on the fringes was careful to toe the line, because getting into trouble too many times might mean being banned from The Realm entirely—a punishment very few were willing to risk.

  I made my way into the main part of the streets. Despite the fact that it was nine in the evening in the real world and dark out, inside The Realm it was just after noon. Time worked differently here in the game, giving people more hours of daylight and a faster rotation through the days.

  Today, I was in a small coastal city called Everbrooke, on the outskirts of a large region called Miraglass. Everbrooke was close to one of the rare zone lines where the world simply stopped if you went far enough out into the ocean.

  I’d actually swam out there a few days ago when I first got here, just to see if those rumors were true.

  And they were.

  Once I’d gotten about half a mile away from the coast out into the ocean, I seemed to hit an invisible wall. I could see more of the ocean in the distance, but my character was not allowed to go beyond that zone line.

  In all my years exploring The Realm, it was the first time I had actually ever hit an impassable zone line. The end of the world.

  Curious that the Orb of Altress had ended up out here, where nothing too exciting ever really seemed to happen. A magical artifact of that power would usually be wanted in one of the major questing zones, where high-level characters could battle virtual monsters for extremely valuable loot and coin.

  There were no real monsters or high-level dungeons out here on the outskirts of Miraglass, though.

  In fact, the nearest major dungeon was a good day’s ride out from this part of the coast.

  So, what did its new owner want with it, anyway?

  As I walked through the streets of the city, I glanced at the names of the shops and the owners of the carts. Simple folk. Mostly craftsmen and fishermen. A few jewelers here and there, but no one selling anything particularly powerful or magical. Most of the jewelry in these shops was merely decorative.

  Bakers selling mostly low-level food. A few blacksmiths working on plain swords and wooden shields.

  This was not a town that catered to high-level Lifers.

  And it was not the kind of place anyone would expect to find the Orb of Altress.

  Which was maybe why its new owner had decided to bring it here. As a mythical item, there was only one of it in the entire game.

  The Orb itself had changed hands more than a dozen times since it had first been discovered a year ago. It had been sold a few times for a very high price, but most of the time, it had been stolen.

  So far, it had proven to be a difficult item to hold onto, so maybe its newest owner intended to keep it hidden away for a while, rather than flaunting it in groups and raids the way most of its owners had in the past.

  It had honestly been a miracle that I’d tracked it down at all.

  So, how had Ghost heard about it?

  A new message blinked on my chat room mailbox. Blast had been trying to ping me ever since I logged into the game, but I swiped him away and kept moving. I didn’t
have time for distractions. I’d have to contact him once it was done.

  I tightened my jaw and kept walking, careful to keep my pace normal and my eyes down inside the dark hood.

  Ghost was a complete mystery to me. Where had he come from?

  I’d gotten to know pretty much all of the renegades and thieves on the fringes over the past few years, and even though we didn’t exactly work together, we traded information and tips when it suited us. We were loyal to each other in a way, following the same code for the most part.

  But Ghost was a wildcard.

  I’d searched through his records—what little of them I could access, anyway—and he seemed to just appear out of nowhere three months ago. No history. No real name. Nothing.

  The same went for the twenty or so crew members he seemed to have following him.

  No one could figure it out.

  And I’d never seen such a clean file in my life. Whoever this guy was, he was either extremely connected and had managed to pull some strings inside D.O.V.E. itself, or he was the single most talented hacker I’d ever encountered.

  Until he showed up, that was a title I had gladly claimed for myself around here.

  I knew I shouldn’t let my ego be a part of this. Who cared if he was better than I was? Blast was right. This guy was taking some of the heat off of me, drawing the attention of the Iron Guard every time they hit a new, high-level target.

  But still, something about him unsettled me to my core.

  I bit my lip and glanced behind me, suddenly feeling that I was being watched.

  Not a good sign.

  Normally, even the smallest gut feeling like that would make me log out and try again another day. That was part of why I’d never been caught after all this time. I trusted my instincts.

  But today, I didn’t have the luxury of walking away. If Ghost was aware of where the orb was located, and he had any intention of going after it, I would lose it forever.

  I had too many families depending on me right now to let this go.

  I cursed and ducked into a side alley, touching my hand to my temple the moment I was out of view.

  My appearance changed instantly. Instead of the burgundy gown and cape, I was now wearing a rough, green wool dress and boots. My blonde hair was pulled into tight curls against my head.

  I picked up the pace but turned to spare a glance at the entrance to the alley. A few people passed by, but no one looked my way.

  I sighed as I hurried through the damp alley.

  Paranoid.

  When I emerged on the other side of the alley, I’d changed again. This time, I wore a pair of brown trousers, plain brown boots, and a cream-colored button-up shirt. With my short black hair and boyish features, I looked nothing like the crimson-haired woman who had first stepped into the alley on the other side.

  It cost more energy than I wanted to spend this early to shift my appearance so often, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't being followed. As much as I didn’t want to lose the Orb of Altress, I’d never be able to help anyone again if I lost my life because of it.

  I hurried down the side streets until the mansion on the hill finally came into view. It was a modest mansion compared to the castles and opulent homes of the northern cities, but for this small fishing village, it was probably top-dollar.

  Not the most inconspicuous place to hide the orb if anyone knew it was here in town, but anyone looking inside the mansion itself was walking into a trap.

  The actual orb was being hidden away inside the caretaker’s small shack at the edge of the property near the stables.

  And, if I had to guess, there would be traps hidden inside the grounds from the mansion all the way to the shack’s entrance.

  I didn’t want to take the time to slowly search for and disable each and every trap, so instead, I climbed on top of the fence running around the edge of the property and walked it like a tight-rope all the way around to the stables.

  I jumped down on the horse’s side of the fence and ran my hand across the coarse mane of a beautiful black stallion.

  “Seen anyone around here, boy?” I asked softly.

  The horse sniffed my hand a few times and then trotted away, probably disappointed I hadn’t brought him a treat.

  There were ten other horses between the stables and fenced-in pasture, but I didn’t see anyone out here taking care of them. Odd for no stable-hands to be employed and working out here during the day.

  Of course, the new owner of the Orb of Altress was also newly the owner of this estate. He’d purchased it from a couple who’d apparently lived here for more than a decade. He’d made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and they’d left their home and their beloved horses behind practically overnight in exchange for a new home closer to the big city and a pile of platinum deposited into their account.

  Not that I could blame them.

  Only fools would have turned down a deal like that.

  And only a truly wealthy Lifer would have the coin to make an offer like that for a small piece of property on the coast of nowhere. I hadn’t been able to make out the identity of the orb’s new owner, but I honestly didn’t care who it belonged to. I just wanted to grab the orb and be on my way.

  I stood just inside the entrance to the stable and stared at the small shack about twenty paces away. How many traps lay between me and that shack’s doorway? And how much time did I have before someone came to check on them?

  Or before Ghost made his way over here?

  Normally, I might have found a good place to hide in the stables until nightfall, but I was too anxious to sit and wait.

  Besides, it had been a long twelve-hour shift at work today, and I had to be up in less than five hours to start it all over again. I couldn’t afford to sit here for three hours and wait for darkness to fall. I wasn't prepared to lose an entire night of sleep tonight, and being too tired at my job could mean losing an arm inside the equipment.

  I shook my head. No, I couldn’t afford to wait today.

  But walking across the grass to that shack felt too risky. And even that small distance could mean five or six traps I’d have to disarm along the way.

  Impatience made my stomach flip, and I glanced around, looking for a better way.

  I smiled when I spotted a ladder leading up to a loft space. I climbed quickly and lifted myself through a small opening that took me onto the roof of the stables. I walked to the far end of the roof and then measured out my footsteps from one end to the other.

  Eight long strides.

  I eyed the distance between the two buildings, trying to calculate the chances of making it across in my head.

  I sucked in a deep breath. I’d made jumps like this before. Never between two slanted roofs like this, but the distance was manageable.

  Glad I had switched into pants instead of that ridiculously long, flowing skirt I’d had on earlier, I walked back to the far end of the roof and laughed. This was stupid, but what the hell? No risk, no reward.

  I let out a breath and engaged the code in my mind, enhancing my movement speed and agility as I took off. Eight long strides and I leaped into the air. To anyone watching, it would have looked like a blur flying through the space between the two structures, and for a second, I wondered if I’d gone too far—boosted my speed too much—but then I came down right in the center of the shack’s roof, my heart racing.

  I slowed my speed and shifted my stats again to boost my stealth, making myself nearly invisible to anyone who didn’t have enhanced detection abilities.

  I crouched there for a long moment, waiting to make sure there were no footsteps or other signs that someone inside had heard me land on their roof. When no one came and nothing around me stirred besides the horses, I crawled over the roof toward the open window.

  I placed my hand on the area just above the window and ran through a special set of code Blast created for me, checking for any sign of traps or alarms. When nothing triggered, I smiled and lowered myself do
wn and through the window, one step closer to the Orb of Altress.

  The End of The World

  The room I dropped into looked completely bare, but I could immediately feel the power of the orb here. Someone had placed a cloaking spell on this room.

  I closed my eyes and ran through various pieces of my code, looking for something strong enough to unlock the illusion that had been placed here. As I got to the end of my list with no results, I started to panic.

  I couldn’t be this close to the orb now and not be able to see it or touch it. I had to find a way.

  But nothing in my little bag of hacker tricks seemed to be working.

  I opened my eyes and paced the room, feeling around for any type of switch or trigger that might release the illusion spell. There was a seriously nasty trap on the door to this room, but other than that, I could sense nothing but the cloaking spell.

  All I needed to do was drop that illusion, grab the orb, and get the hell out of here. It was mine for the taking, and I wasn't going to leave this room until I had it safely in my inventory.

  I just needed to think.

  I sat down in the center of the room and reached out with all my senses, including what Blast called my “hacker sense.” I wasn't sure exactly how I did it, but here inside The Realm, I seemed to have a strange sixth sense. It was as if I could feel and see the code around me in a way that most people couldn’t.

  I had to really focus to tap into that feeling, and to be honest, plugging into it for too long scared the crap out of me. I would sometimes tap into that sense long enough to get an idea of the type of code I needed in order to break a spell or cast a certain kind of magic, but if I stayed too long, the code seemed to get inside of me in a way that felt wrong. Dangerous.

  I avoided making the connection as much as possible, but right now, I didn’t seem to have a choice.

  I needed to break this illusion, fast.

  I put everything else out of my mind and took deep breaths. I placed my hands lightly on my knees and with each breath, I imagined myself sinking a little deeper into the floor. It was a difficult sensation to describe, but in some ways, it felt as if I was melting into the floor itself. Becoming a part of the game.