by Pavel Kornev
Sorry! This artifact is non-transferrable
In any case, Neo showed no interest in the egg. He was much more interested in the dagger, which in his hands appeared almost as big as a real sword.
Neo had long forgotten about his fight with the demon. He must have had a very adaptable mind.
Not many human beings could boast that.
I heaved a sigh and began studying the egg. It turned out to be a pet but not a proper one. Just a temporary companion, irretrievably disappearing after the player’s logout. Something between a sorcerer’s familiar and a sample product used in advertising.
Never mind. It wasn’t as if I was going to log out any time soon.
Chuckling, I picked up the white Templar robe from the floor, draped it over myself and turned to Neo, “Are you ready?”
“What did you say? Oh! Yes, Uncle John! Yes, I’m ready!” the boy shoved the dagger behind his belt and headed for the exit.
I stopped him. “Your magic. Do you control it?”
Neo hesitated, then admitted, embarrassed, “Not really.”
“What other spells do you know?”
“I know ‘Blessing”, “Network”, “Spear” and “Shroud”,” Neo began to recount.
I didn’t have enough health left to take another demonstration of priestly skills, so I just asked, “Leave the orcs to me.”
But the orcs weren’t outside. Their axes and scimitars had left some deep notches in the gates. I carefully examined the square in front of the temple and stepped cautiously out.
No one. Really, not a soul in sight.
“Doesn’t the church require supervision?” I asked Neo when the boy had joined me.
He shrugged. The gates behind us slammed shut on their own accord even though no one had touched them.
“I think the Silver Phoenix will take care of itself,” Neo decided.
It was my turn to shrug.
The church didn’t need a guardian? Excellent.
Time to get out of here!
7
STRANGELY ENOUGH, we’d got back to Stone Harbor without any further ado. That was unusual for a world entirely devoted to the entertainment of players. The orcs were nowhere to be seen. They’d abandoned the outpost leaving it unguarded. All forest beasties fled from our path. We’d even managed to spend the night in the already familiar flooded farm.
By noon the next day, our boat had landed not far from the magic-fire beacon. We set off for the city. I chose the narrowest of trails just in case until I reached the city limits and took cover in the bushes.
“Do you remember the guys we ran away from?” I asked Neo. “Go have a look if you can see any of them near the Tower of Power.”
The boy nodded and ran off.
The Dark Ones had retained the city. With my status of “Defender”, I should be quite a welcome guest here. Still, it’s difficult to defend one’s right if everyone around is eager to crucify you. If Garth somehow managed to uncover my true nature — and there had to be some undead-detecting spells in the arsenal of necromancers — no one would care about my past achievements. I might run into some very big problems. I didn’t want to risk it. Rightly so.
Finally Neo came back, panting and out of breath. “There’s one of those catchers with the net by the tower!”
A catcher with the net? Ah! A gladiator!
What a shame. And I’d been hoping that they would break up with the necromancer after their last fiasco! These guys had had all the time in the world to remember me; no amount of Incognito or Templar robes could fool them.
They’d recognize me, that’s for sure.
“There’s no one on the pier,” Neo added.
I stared at the boy in bewilderment. The pier? What would we need the pier for?
He flashed me a toothy smile. “It takes a barge two days to get to the capital! It’ll be cheaper, too!”
A barge? I hadn’t even thought about it. In a game, time costs a lot of money. It had never occurred to me that one could waste it so foolishly.
But if you think about it, an ordinary player spends less than eight hours a day in a virtual capsule. So what difference does it make to him what happens to the character for the rest of the time? And not everyone needed to travel such a long distance, either. Most players moved from one little town to the next, unhurriedly discovering their new world.
That was it, then. I lifted the hood and concealed my face behind a mask.
“Let’s go to the pier!”
THE GOLD I’d amassed in the course of the game proved to be more than enough to pay for two tickets to the Tower of Darkness. I paid some more for a separate cabin and meals. We had to wait another half an hour for our departure. After that, the river orc crew raised the sail and punted with their poles, driving the barge away from the shore.
None of the few passengers had lingered on the upper deck. Even Neo had gone back into our cabin as soon as the city and the beacon had disappeared into the haze. I’d stayed, though. The fanged sailors paid no attention to the eccentric anonymous passenger and I still had plenty of internal energy left. This was better that the cramped confines of our cabin.
The low waves caressed the boat’s sides. The mast creaked. A friendly wind kissed my face. A new stage in my virtual life had just begun. But how virtual was it, really?
I scratched the handrail. It didn’t look like part of computer animation at all. In fact, it felt quite real.
I cussed. My brain frantically searched for a way out of this situation but failed to find it and therefore tried to lull itself into a false sense of security.
Did I really want to live my life here? Hell no!
It wasn’t even the fact that here, I was a deadman. The problem was, sooner or later they’d unhook me from life support. Then I’d become dead for real. If I died there, I’d die here as well. I’d be dead everywhere, once and for all. For ever and ever.
And I didn’t really want to die, come to think of it.
Shit! I was quite prepared to get ten Scrolls of Rebirth if that could get me my life back! A hundred, if necessary! With or without Isabella’s help, I had to do it!
Overtaken by fury, I was close to losing it. I had to take my mind off it. I took out the phoenix egg, cradled it in my hands and shook it. In order to bind the pet, I had to sprinkle the artifact with blood. I sliced my wrist with my own sharp claw and pressed the egg to the fresh wound.
THE SHELL began to glow from within: a soft silvery glow, soft and undisturbed. Immediately it faded, replaced by a pitch-black darkness.
The artifact cracked open. A black head poked out, its dead eyes white and nebulous.
The disgusting creature spread its wings and rose into the air, emitting loud crowing noises. It made several circles over the barge, then landed on the mast, gripping it with its terrible claws. The thing didn’t resemble the temple phoenix pictures in the slightest. It looked rather like a raven with a disproportionately powerful beak, bare legs and bristling black feathers.
Still, that was a phoenix. Or should I say, my dead black phoenix. A perfect companion for me, courtesy of the game.
The creature opened its beak wide and emitted an ear-splitting Craaah! as the barge carried me off to my new adventures.
All the way to the Tower of Darkness.
End of Book One
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About The Author:
PAVEL KORNEV is a popular Russian author whose writing crosses the boundaries of the sci fi thriller, fantasy adventure and steampunk. Genre mashing has long become his signature style.
“His books are a page-turning mix of non-stop action and hard-boiled detective stories in the edgy atmosphere of steampunk noir. Far from being a knight on a white charger, Kornev’s typical protagonist is an everyday man with his fair share of flaws who puts his talents to good use. His heroes struggle to survive and win their places in the sun; but most importantly, they manage to preserve their humanity even in the direst of circumstances.”
Pavel is a professional economist who spent years working for a large bank – until his first novel, The Ice, became an overnight bestseller, allowing him to quit his day job. In his spare time Pavel jogs, swims and is an avid beer brewer.
