Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  Finn nodded. “So, we have two problems. We need some way to approach the city undetected – or at least in a way that makes it difficult for Bilel to coordinate the hounds and his own magic. And then we need to take out the hounds before confronting Bilel.”

  A sudden silence once again hovered across the clearing, the same dark expression lingering across each person’s face. They were all thinking the same thing.

  That was nearly impossible.

  Even Finn was drawing a blank. The task before them seemed insurmountable, and he could feel an ember of frustration simmering in his chest. There had to be a way…

  His thoughts were interrupted as a whistle went up from the western side of the island. A Khamsin runner soon appeared, racing through the stone spires. As he approached Finn, he placed a hand to his chest. “Najmat Alhidad, a message from Aerys. The merchants and fighters are assembled at the Flagship, and they are ready to start the Forging. I am waiting to guide you at your convenience.”

  “Thank you,” Finn said with a nod. He let out a sigh. It seemed that the larger strategic problem would have to wait. For now, he’d need to work on ensuring that their fighters and mages weren’t immediately converted into hellhounds the second they attacked Lahab. He expected that it was going to take a while.

  “It looks like the fun never ends for you lot,” Brutus observed in a dry voice.

  “You have no idea,” Finn replied softly. “No idea.”

  Chapter 33 - United

  A woman stepped forward. The tattoos coiling down her neck and peeking out from behind the thick leather armor that covered her chest and arms marked her as a fighter. Although, the chiseled muscle and stoic expression that seemed to have been carved into her face would have likely given away her guild regardless. Finn wasn’t sure why each member of the fighter guild seemed to have the same severe expression, but he could only assume it was a byproduct of their intense training.

  Perhaps, someday, he could get Malik to share some details about the enigmatic guild.

  Although, he was sure that process would feel like pulling teeth.

  The fighter placed a fist to her chest in greeting, bowing her head. “Tahiati lak,” she murmured.

  “Tahiati lak,” Finn echoed, gesturing for her to rise.

  Many of the guildsmen had already begun adopting the Khamsin’s mannerisms… including an unusual reverence for Finn. He had been expecting a line of belligerent mages and fighters intent on arguing with him, and only grudgingly permitting him to administer the Forging. He had been shocked to find that both groups were incredibly receptive to anything that could insulate them from the hounds and Bilel’s staff.

  Although, upon reflection, he supposed that wasn’t so strange. The guildsmen might not have undergone the purge or been banished into the sands like the Khamsin, but they had effectively been prisoners in their own city. Commodities to be bought and traded by their guilds for political favors. Muscle and flesh pitted against one another to the death. And that was putting aside the grueling process of escaping Lahab and fending off the hounds.

  Either way, they now seemed extremely motivated.

  Finn’s attention snapped back into focus as the woman knelt and set a blade upon the small stone altar that Kyyle had pulled from the floor. Then she rested her left arm upon the rock, her open palm facing upward.

  “Is this the object that you wish to be bonded with?” Finn asked, the words coming automatically. He had asked that same question dozens – possibly hundreds – of times already. And he could easily anticipate her the answer. The fighters were predictable.

  They always chose their weapon.

  “It is,” the fighter answered with a nod.

  Finn leaned forward, touching the woman’s sword with his left arm. The fighter’s eyes widened as the sleeve of Finn’s robes drew back and revealed his crystalline fingers, a fire raging within the translucent surface. With his right hand, Finn grasped the woman’s arm. Then he began casting the Forging.

  The now-familiar guttural words drifted from his lips. His mana surged through his body in a fiery torrent. The pain was an almost distant thing now after having performed the rite so many times. Flames soon wound around the fighter’s arm, Finn’s focus on the cluster of rainbow energy that resided there. The fire wrapped around that bright spot even as flames encircled the sword, a thin thread of flame connecting them.

  Finn understood what he was seeing now. The flames were a conduit. They carved the Najima from the woman’s body and transferred that energy to the inanimate object, using Finn to help build that bridge. And once he completed the process, a string of fire mana would remain, connecting the two – a permanent union of body and metal.

  Only seconds later, he was done.

  Finn slumped back in his stone chair, suddenly feeling weak. The spell cost him – not in abstract numbers on a screen. But physically. It required mental endurance to weather the searing pain that pulsed through his body each time. And the act of removing the Najima and reinserting it within cold steel required focus. Precision. Concentration. Even a slight mistake and he could permanently destroy the Najima. The memories Nar Aljahim had supplied made that point abundantly clear.

  “Thank you, Najmat Alhidad,” the woman murmured, staring in rapt fascination at her sword. In Finn’s sight, that weapon now glowed with a vibrant energy.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” Finn answered. “The time will soon come for you to pay the price for this Forging. In the meantime, practice with your new weapon. Guard it carefully. You are now one. If the blade is destroyed, you will be too.”

  “I will,” was her curt reply. The fighter then rose and strode away.

  Finn’s eyes followed her as she left, noting the long line of people still waiting to receive the Forging. There were dozens of fighters, mages, and even the occasional merchant standing nearby, and he knew that line stretched down through the winding passages of the Flagship. Under other circumstances, he might have appreciated the novelty of the scene – these once sworn enemies now working together toward a common goal. However, that was difficult with the headache that throbbed just behind his eyes.

  He gave himself a momentary break, switching away from Mana Sight. His world was soon awash in a blue glow, revealing that he was sitting in a large chamber in the Flagship, the room specially dedicated to this task. He had long ago forgotten what the sun looked like. His world had become only stone, and flame, and a brief break before the next person took a seat opposite Finn and laid another object on the rock.

  60 seconds, he thought to himself, his fingers massaging at his temples. That’s how long he gave himself after he performed each rite – just enough time for his perpetual headache to dwindle to a dull, throbbing pain.

  “You look like shit,” a familiar voice chirped.

  Finn glanced up, automatically shifting to Short-Sighted. His daughter stood nearby, her hands on her hips, watching Finn with a severe expression.

  “And you’re starting to sound like a broken record,” Finn grunted. “You could at least think up some new material in between these little visits.”

  “Hilarious,” she replied, raising an eyebrow. “For such a smart guy, you can sure be an idiot sometimes. If you would take breaks like a normal person, I wouldn’t have to make the same observation every single time I check in on you.”

  “No time,” Finn grunted. He waved at the line waiting for him, those eyes staring at him – waiting, hoping, demanding. “At the rate we’re going, it will likely take—”

  “2 days and 6 hours to complete the Forging on the remaining fighters, mages, and merchants,” Daniel chirped helpfully from beside Finn’s shoulder.

  He waved at the AI tiredly. “Yeah… that long.”

  “So, a short break isn’t going to hurt anything,” Julia snapped. As the next person began to approach, she held up a hand. “The Najmat Alhidad needs to take a break. He’ll be back in four hours.”

  The woman simply nodded and
returned to her position in line, waiting patiently. The man behind her whispered something in her ear, and she shook her head. That whisper continued on down the line, a low buzzing that was as predictable as it was annoying. Yet not a single soul moved from their position in line. Finn couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but that bottomless, accepting patience just made him even more irritated.

  “Come on,” Julia urged, laying a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Log out for a second and stretch your legs…”

  Finn raised an eyebrow at that.

  “Metaphorically,” Julia continued in an exasperated voice. “I certainly don’t mean that literally.” She paused as she eyed him critically. “Seriously, what’s eating at you? You’ve been tired before, but you seem even more on edge lately.”

  “Oh, I don’t know… where do I even begin?” Finn grumbled, keeping his voice low so that the people in line couldn’t overhear him. The last thing he needed was to start rumors that the so-called “prophet of the flame” was losing his damn mind.

  “I need to spend the next two days sitting in this cave casting the same damn spell over and over again. And if that wasn’t already grueling enough, it gives me plenty of time to ponder on just how totally fucked our position is.”

  Julia just sat down across from him, waiting for him to continue.

  “We’re facing a legion of hellhounds, which outnumber us by a decent margin and basically make Bilel immortal. So, we just need to figure out how to take them out before we confront the demon himself… somehow. Oh, and we haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet! How the hell do we even attack this city? The damn place is a fortress, and Bilel is going to see us coming from miles away.”

  Finn let out a sigh, his face sinking into his hands. Even that gesture felt strange, the hard surface of his newfound fingers pressing sharply into the skin of his face. Yet he knew that focusing on the discomfort was just a distraction. It was easier to bitch about his hand, or the army of sycophants lined up before him, than to dwell on the questions and problems that swirled through his mind – unanswered and unresolved.

  Much less what was really eating at him.

  “You’re worried about Mom,” Julia said softly, as though reading his mind. Although, he supposed she didn’t need to be a telepathic goddess to figure that one out.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I am,” Finn muttered.

  He peered up at his daughter between glassy fingers. “Can we do this? I mean, really do this?” he asked.

  He saw a mixture of compassion and uncertainty lingering in her expression. “I don’t know,” she began, hesitation in her voice. “But if we do nothing – give up now – then she’s still… still dead. So, we give it a shot. We try our best. It’s not that much different than when we were down in the Forge. We really don’t have anything to lose.”

  Finn nodded, although he didn’t feel entirely convinced. Defeating Bilel was just the tip of the iceberg. Ever since his meeting with the Seer, her words kept returning to him, persistently hovering at the edges of his thoughts.

  “And if we succeed, what does that look like?” he asked softly. Ever since his last meeting with the Seer, he hadn’t been able to escape that question.

  He saw his daughter’s lips press into a grim line.

  “Will it really be Rachael – your mother? Only a fragment? Or an illusion? And if it is really her, what then? She’ll be trapped in this world, dependent on the AI that is running this place.”

  “We could find a way to pull her out of the game,” Julia offered hesitantly.

  “Maybe,” Finn grunted. “But it will take time to figure out how to transfer and store her consciousness – if I even can. So, in the meantime, do we try to build a life here? In this desert? With every damn faction and their second cousin quarreling over something,” he offered, gesturing to where two men in line were getting into a tussle as word of Finn’s “break” spread, their shouts swiftly alerting the Khamsin guards that stood silently nearby.

  “Can you really blame them, though?” Julia offered with a weak smile. “If you lived in this sun-blasted wasteland your entire life, you’d probably be on edge too.”

  Finn let out an amused snort. “I suppose you might be right about that.”

  He shook his head, his good humor short-lived. “I just feel like the axe is about to drop. It’s not just this impossible battle ahead of us… it’s also the aftermath. I can’t shake the feeling that the Seer is going to screw us. I seriously doubt she plans to let us all ride off into the sunset as one happy family.

  “It… it just seems impossible,” he said, cradling his face in his hands.

  It wasn’t just one thing. It was everything. The fight ahead. The aftermath. What he’d already endured. The unanswered questions. That damn hopeful spark that gleamed in every pair of eyes that knelt across from him. It felt like he was being crushed under a mountainous weight. Everyone was looking to him for answers – to carry that weight.

  The gods’ damned Prophet of the Flame.

  The fucking Najmat Alhidad.

  The tired old man who couldn’t cope with the death of his wife…

  Finn squeezed his eyes shut. “I just don’t know if I can do this.”

  Julia reached forward and took Finn’s hand – his real hand – in her own. “Hey. Hey, look at me,” she urged him, Finn reluctantly raising his eyes to meet hers.

  “I don’t have answers for you. I don’t know how we’re going to handle the attack on Lahab. Or what might come after.”

  She squeezed his hand, her gaze steady and determined. “But I’ll be by your side the entire time. Win or lose. We’ll do it together. You don’t have to do this alone.”

  Finn felt a faint burning sensation trickle down his cheek and rubbed at it. As he pulled his hand away, he saw a small wisp of flame curl around his finger, winking out in an instant. “Great, now you’re making your old man cry living flames.”

  “You really might want to get that checked out,” Julia retorted with a hint of a smile. “And lucky for you, you’ll get a chance since you’re going to take a break—”

  “You never give up, do you?” Finn said, throwing up his hands.

  Her smile only widened. “What can I say? I’m my father’s daughter.”

  Damn it. She had him there.

  Julia leaned forward. “Now log the fuck out. And don’t let me see you back online for at least a real-world hour.”

  “Fine, fine,” Finn muttered.

  Then he pulled up the system menu. With another tap of his fingers, he hit the log-out button, and the dreary cave broke apart, streaming away into nothingness. Maybe his daughter was right. Maybe a break was what he needed to get his head screwed on straight. But even if he didn’t, he knew Julia would be there when he came back.

  And, for some reason, that thought gave him comfort.

  I’m not alone.

  He kept repeating that to himself, even as the cave fully disappeared, and he dropped back into a bottomless, dark void.

  Chapter 34 - Dreary

  Finn rolled himself back into his office. He was freshly bathed, the growing forest along his chin had been trimmed back to a manageable length, and he’d taken care of the laundry list of other real-life necessities – annoyances like eating and visiting the restroom. The entire process had made him realize just how strange it was to be back in the real world… and just how much time he now spent inside AO. For all of the stress that the game world entailed, it now felt more familiar to him than his actual home.

  This place – his real home – just felt like an empty, vacant shell now. It reminded him of what he’d lost, an elaborate electronic tomb that he had constructed for himself. Returning here, to this place, only served to reinforce how much things had changed since he first donned that headset. How much he had changed.

  Gone was his typical morning schedule.

  Days spent mindlessly tinkering with his house’s AI.

  Hours spent alone and listless – without any
real goal.

  He’d been a zombie, just going through the motions.

  How did I not notice that? he wondered – not for the first time.

  “Are you okay, sir? You’ve been stationary for several minutes,” Daniel chirped from beside Finn.

  His gaze panned to the AI. Even this world’s version of Daniel seemed lifeless.

  The AI simply hovered sedately beside him – a glowing blue cloud of light projected by cameras artfully concealed in the walls. His voice seemed more robotic and scripted. The in-game version of Daniel would have been moving around the office in a whirlwind of orange light, likely making some sort of snarky comment about Finn being lazy or complaining about being bored.

  “Sir?” Daniel repeated. He hadn’t responded.

  “Yes, yes, I’m alright,” Finn said, waving at the AI.

  Although, as he did, Finn hesitated, noticing the bulge of his bicep and the dull ache in his shoulder, as though he had recently worked out. Even his normal bathing routine had felt easier than usual – Finn being able to lift himself into and out of the tub without any trouble. That was curious. He had noticed the ache in his limbs before but had chalked it up to sitting stationary in his chair for hours on end.

  But he would have expected muscle atrophy – not the opposite.

  “Daniel, can you please run a full diagnostic scan of my body,” Finn ordered.

  “Of course, sir,” Daniel replied, flashing once.

  Finn felt a tingle along the chip in his wrist and the sensors embedded in his arms, shoulders, torso, and base of his neck. He knew more of the chips had been implanted in his legs, but he felt no sensation as they activated. His workstation sprang to life, a globe of screens whirling slowly through the center of the room and a progress bar appearing along one screen. It would take a few minutes for Daniel to complete the scan and compile the results, which gave Finn some time to mull on his situation.

  Or “mope” was probably a better word.