Total XP- 1,224
You have moved up a level.
Current Level- 65
Joe saw a new message appear in his HUD and simultaneously a bright white beacon materialized high above his place of power on top of the geodesic dome. Like an old-style bulb in a lighthouse, the white beam spun. His castle on the mesa had now surpassed the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria. Anyone in the valley would see the white beacon pulsing from the five-sided castle.
Trying to ignore the new light, Joe read his message.
Congratulations! Beacon of Freedom created.
You have broken a Grand Slave Mark and freed 200 slaves. Your demonstration of power and kindling of hope have made such an item possible. The Beacon of Freedom is not an ordinary light. Its mere presence dissolves slave marks. Those who draw close to its light will inevitably become free. Note: the stronger a slave mark, the longer it takes for the Beacon of Freedom to be effective. Grand Slave Marks are immune to the beacon’s power.
Chapter 7 - Checks and Balances
As the Grand Binding cord snapped, the Great Mistress felt a resounding discordance. The loss of a troll-kitsu hybrid was significant, but its weight was vastly overpowered by the discovery of an unbound Champion. Such an acquisition would force her rivals to submit lest she remove them through force.
Her small place of power was set in a vast chamber deep underground. Light struggled to find its way in and she offered it little help. With such low light, the mistress could only be seen as a gray outline amid her truly minimalistic decorating style. Her vampiric eyes required very little illumination to see as she paced about.
Shaking off the uncomfortable failure of losing one of her slaves, she bent over her place of power and magically took hold of the node she had created to join together all of her Grand Binding cords. What she was about to do was overkill, but in order to obtain a true dominant power, the flexing of every ounce of strength she had was required.
She began to chant the spell of her own making.
“Death is certain, death is true
Death is no more than your due
Life is pain, life is cruel
Life has only shown you a fool”
With a deep breath, she drew in the power and released the dark spell with two words.
“Death mark.”
The magical node began to flash deep black waves of magical energy that shot out through each Grand Binding cord. The signal was sent. The trap was set. Now, she could only wait and hope her rivals would not ascertain the reason behind her action.
She felt their awareness awaken. They began to reach out through the cords that bound their three places of power together. Instead of fighting their desire to communicate, she cast a spell to allow each of them to view a real time facsimile of the other.
Directly in front of her place of power, an intangible representation of her rivals materialized. Casting her vision upward, the Great Mistress surveyed her rivals with their pale hulking figures, four-inch fangs, and bulbous foreheads. Striking similarities aside, the main difference between the two was one had been raised to a vampire from a female giant and the other from a male giant. She smiled in satisfaction at the knowledge that she held more beauty than both combined. Thankfully, their shared ancestry and stature of homeliness offered them no sense of loyalty to each other. One thing she could bank on was that vampires at their core were utterly selfish, and true selfishness left no room for loyalty. And yet, almost as one her rivals spoke together.
“How dare you!” the two giants screamed. Their fury halted at the sound of the other and they stared in surprise.
The mistress decided to clear up their confusion.
“You called at the same time. Hence, I granted both of you an audience,” the mistress explained.
“I assume the attack was not directed specifically at me then, if she contacted you as well?” the male giant asked.
“It wasn't an attack, per se,” the mistress interjected, “More of an experiment that I've cast on all of the slaves I created with a Grand Binding. This includes my own as well as the ones I have traded with you. I'm sure that I will cancel the spell, but sometimes it feels good to remind people of the power you hold.”
“If you harm the property we rightfully traded, I will make sure your cost is double my own,” the female giant proclaimed, “However, if you're not planning to follow through with this threat, what is its true purpose?”
“I've given you all the hints you're going to get. Though, I do so love our little chats,” the mistress replied.
Pure fury burned in the hollow eyes of the female giant as she raised her hand and mentally called forth her bound shadowed Champion. An ethereal eight-foot tall robed creature rose out of the stone floor, dripping power from a shadowed plane.
In response, both the mistress and the male giant immediately called forth their wraith Champions to stand by their side.
Each ruling vampire stood with their most deadly weapon, and their only means of defense, standing beside them.
“Whatever game you're playing, my wraith stands ready to defend what is mine,” the female giant threatened.
“Clearly the two of you have a problem with each other, go ahead and fight it out. I'll be here to console the winner,” the male giant said.
“Neither of us will weaken ourselves enough to allow you to rule over us. This balance of power has stood for time immemorial and it will continue until the sun burns out,” the mistress said.
“I will not send my wraith away,” the female giant swore.
“Then neither shall I,” the mistress responded.
“Reveal why you have activated this Death Mark or the consequences could be more than you can handle,” the female giant threatened.
“I'm sorry my experimentation has caused you to lose your ability to think rationally. I have no intention of upsetting the status quo, but your open threats indicate the need for me to isolate. I am closing my borders. No one shall go in or out of my territory. My borders are closed until my sense of security returns to me,” the mistress proclaimed.
“No, not that—every time one of us closes our borders it completely throws our commerce out of whack. We have obligations to meet the malefic needs of the kingdoms surrounding us. Our usefulness is what keeps us secure,” the male giant pleaded.
“It's too late, I've already given the order. My borders are sealing as we speak,” the mistress relayed.
“Let her hide in her hole. I can cover her slack for now. You can make it up to me after you feel safe,” the female giant said.
“I always pay my debts. May the blood you drink contain all the suffering you could desire,” the mistress intoned the common farewell.
“For you as well,” they replied in unison and the facsimiles blinked out.
Closing her borders was a sacrifice that would lead to some challenges, but she hoped the resulting confusion would derail her rivals from discovering the truth. She smiled. Even now, she heard the distant echoes from the terrible weight of stone and rock collapsing all possible entrances to her domain through the outer tunnels. Once complete, her vampires would begin clearing the debris stone by stone and rebuild her passageways. None of them would relish this task, but would do as she commanded.
Chapter 8 - Killer in the Code
Seeing how others had taken to care for Molasses, Joe ran to check on Spooky. A small crowd of free individuals had gathered around her, but they cleared a path for their king. Joe noted with relief how Spooky's tiny little chest still rose and fell. Kneeling beside the tiny figure, Joe put one finger on her forehead and cast a minor healing spell. She opened her eyes and quickly slapped Joe’s finger away from her face.
“Why’s your finger in my face? …oh, my head…,” Spooky said as her hands held her forehead in obvious pain.
“I was just trying to heal you. I'm pretty sure you have a serious concussion,” Joe said.
“How did I get a concussion?” Spooky ask
ed and then her eyes widened in horror.
“The mistress. She's a binder, like me, but so much more powerful. The danger she represents to us cannot be overstated. Is she still in control of Molasses? Or is Molasses dead?” Spooky asked, obviously fearing the worst.
“Molasses’s okay and she's free now. In fact, it looks like her limbs are slowly growing back. The Grand Binding had obviously halted her ability to regenerate,” Joe explained.
“How did you defeat the mistress? Her power seemed absolute,” Spooky shuddered.
“I think we had already damaged the slave mark enough that she couldn't maintain her control. I just held on until it finally broke. She said some freaky stuff at the end though—that if I didn't come to her within three months, she would kill anyone outside of her territory who carried her Grand Slave Mark. I think she was just bluffing, though. Trying to manipulate me,” Joe said looking out the window toward the mountains.
“I don't know, Joe. By simply observing her masterful use of Binding Magic in that short interaction, I gained quite a few new spells—and, she wasn’t even fully present, she was only possessing a person nearby. She is extremely dangerous. You shouldn’t go to her, no matter what she does. We need to prepare, build our defenses up. If she said she would kill those with a Grand Slave Mark, I believe her. …Hey, when did you make this castle a lighthouse?” Spooky asked suddenly struck by the new beacon.
Joe looked up at the rotating bright beam of light. For a second, he scrunched his face up in thought as he considered why the bright light didn't seem to affect the movie screen directly below it.
“Yeah, the UI awarded that to us once we broke the Grand Binding,” Joe said.
Spooky put her hand to her forehead and winced. Despite being in clear pain, she began to hover and stretch her neck out. Resting for a moment, she turned toward Joe and spoke with a quiet intensity.
“Joe, I will not attempt to control your actions in any way, but you need to be aware that the thing we just had contact with is very dangerous. Please hear me on this. The fact that she was able to use her magic through a puppet means that, in person, her strength will be unfathomable. Maybe someday you'll be at her level, but you're not now,” Spooky pleaded.
“I'll take that into consideration. So, are you saying you won’t try to stop me if I decide to face her?” Joe asked.
Spooky nodded her head, “No, I will not.” Joe raised an eyebrow.
“Then, why are you nodding your head yes?” Joe questioned.
“I am doing that, aren't I? As I said earlier, I’ve had a little chat with myself and, in that discussion, decided that controlling you would be both wrong and detrimental. But there’s still a part of me that wants to protect you, even if it's against your will. Although that part of me is remaining silent perhaps its desires are still coming through. You are my patron, but I have no ownership of you. I will support you and I will not control you,” Spooky insisted.
“Why does it sound like you're trying to convince yourself, and not me?” Joe asked.
“Because my emotions still want to protect you. My head and my heart need to hear my commitment so that it will be easier to follow through,” Spooky explained.
“That's weird. I've never heard of a computer needing to reframe their thinking. …What did the mistress mean when she said you had gained perfect binding sight?” Joe asked.
“When the mistress began taking control of Molasses, I could suddenly see bright cords of Binding Magic running out from Molasses and a few of the other yet-unfreed citizens,” Spooky said.
“Like ley lines?” Joe asked.
“I'm not sure, but I don't think so. If that was the case, I think I would have seen more lines connecting to our place of power. All I saw was a line from you and I that led into the place of power and then one going from the mithril box and shooting straight up into the sky,” Spooky explained.
“Do you still see those lines?” Joe asked.
“No, but let me try,” Spooky said as she raised her elevation and noticeably concentrated her vision.
“Yes, I can see them again. Molasses’s is gone, but I’m assuming once we broke the mark, it removed the mistress’s cord of control. I can see the Grand Binding on others in the crowd, but thankfully not all of them. And, the three connected to our place of power are still there.” Her hands raised to her temple as she closed her eyes. “I can't hold it for long. It seems to drain my mana at an exponential rate. Let me refill.”
“I'll go with you. My mana is still low from breaking that mark and we need to check on Molasses,” Joe said as they returned.
Molasses’s limbs were growing back steadily, not as quickly as a full-blooded troll, but still at a remarkable rate. Joe studied her face, assessing if the regrowth was painful. Her right arm finished its regrowth well ahead of the other limbs. She held it out and examined her fingers as they extended and flexed.
“It must be amazing to have control of your hand again,” Joe remarked.
“Guess so, never had limbs. Weird,” Molasses said still using the slave gesture language. Joe’s face darkened and Spooky interjected.
“You have always been a slave to the vampires, so you never had fingers before?”
“Not remember,” Molasses gestured.
“…I am sorry, Molasses,” Joe paused, unsure of how to comfort or encourage her. He gently squeezed her newly grown hand and then turned toward Spooky, “As soon as our mana is full, we will need to break those other Grand Marks. How many are there?” Spooky focused again and looked around the room.
“There are four more, but Joe, something is happening,” she spoke in a panicked voice, “All of the binding lines leading back to the mistress seem to be pulsating. She is doing something.”
In unison, the four hybrids gave a tongueless scream. The once subtle slave marks on each of their foreheads became shimmering black spots. Joe raced toward the closest, but Spooky ran interception.
“Joe, please don't touch them. Check their status,” Spooky pleaded.
Joe mind-clicked a troll-halfling hybrid and focused on obtaining as much information as he could from the action.
Race- Troll-Halfling Hybrid
Hitpoints- 245/460
Wisdom- 6
Skills
Regeneration
Status
Grand Binding Slave Mark
Death Mark: 91 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 2 seconds
Joe watched the death mark as it counted down by the second. He needed more information on this new danger. Quickly, he pulled out his Book of Useful Information and read the first page.
When attending the theater, it's important to enter without any expectations. The baggage you bring with you can diminish your entertainment. It’s not always about you, Joe. Sometimes it’s about space wizards with laser swords.
Joe shook his head. While it was possible that might be useful information, it wasn't what he was looking for. Again, he clicked on the hybrid in front of him. This time he clicked on the death mark itself.
Death Mark
This sentence of death is imprinted on a person by the one who holds their binding. As such, only the original binder can grant a stay of execution. Any attempt to remove such a mark by an unauthorized individual causes instant death to slave and, therefore, destruction of property. Note: no refunds.
Systematically, Joe clicked on the other death marks. Without exception, Joe noted the unenviable countdown.
You’ve been offered a quest:
Malevolent Temptress
Meet and greet the most eligible vampiress by visiting the Great Mistress Alenia’s place of power.
Reward for completing this quest: the choice between two rare items that fit your class, and the freedom of your four slaves with a Grand Binding Slave Mark.
Penalty for failing or rejecting this quest: the death of your four slaves with a Grand Binding and loss of integrity with the former slaves in your kingdom.
Time limit for compl
eting this quest: 91 days, 23 hours, 54 minutes, 16 seconds.
Accept Quest? Yes/No
Joe resolutely accepted the quest.
“I guess this means I have a date with a vampiress. If this is the game's version of internet dating, I think they need to update their algorithms,” Joe said, turning back to speak to Spooky.
She was no longer hovering in the air. The little fairy sat cross-legged on the ground, holding her face in her hands, and weeping. Despite his knowledge that she was a computer, he was immediately uncomfortable. Then his eyes narrowed.
“Are you trying to control my actions through your tears?” Joe asked.
As if someone had thrown a bucket of water on Spooky, she sprang up and shook her head. Quickly wiping away her tears, she pulled herself together.
“No, I'm not. Sorry about that, Joe. This whole experience is overwhelming. Maybe I am faulty code. I don't know. Right now, that doesn't matter. You should start training, Joe! The dungeon beneath our castle will provide you with all the experience you need to level up both yourself and your army of players. I will help however I can with equipment, with information, and with a non-manipulative attitude,” Spooky sniffed as tears continued down her cheeks.
“You're still crying,” Joe remarked, and Spooky touched her face and realized he was right.
“I'm a machine. It's just a leak, I'll fix it,” Spooky resolved as she pumped her wings and flew out a geodesic dome window without another comment.
Joe watched her go, wondering if he had been too harsh. There were still a few slaves with regular bindings who needed his attention. Joe called them forward and focused on the task at hand. Joe needed to free them so that they could rest and he could focus on increasing their food supply. When everyone woke up, he would see this dungeon.
GONG
The Abiogenesis Bunny Generator has made the Midnight Bunny.
The Sleeper Must Awaken Page 9
