by Ramy Vance
The Shishigami turned to face Chip. Its face was soft and understanding, as if the answers within its heart were truly encouraging.
Suzuki had wanted to ask the same thing Chip did. When the Mundanes had first arrived back from the Battle of the Rings, Suzuki had gone to mourn and celebrate with the rest of the MERCs. He hadn’t felt like drinking. The rest of the MERCs were either getting shit-faced because they were surprised they were still alive or because they were attempting to stave off the pain of losing their friends.
Suzuki couldn’t do either. Neither could the rest of the Mundanes. They had sat in shock, playing over how they could have done better, how they could have kept José from dying. It was at that moment that Suzuki looked up from his bed and saw something. He wasn’t sure at first, but as the glimmer of light approached, he saw it was José.
José, or the vision of José, had said something to him he couldn’t remember now. He still wasn’t sure if he had a vision or if it was just shock manifesting itself in a different way from anyone else’s. He had heard of soldiers having flashbacks or going off at the sound of fireworks. Only a few hours before, he had seen someone he looked up to obliterated right before his eyes. Maybe he was just having a shitty time with it.
Chip was still looking eagerly at the Shishigami. She looked ready to cry, her eyes tearing up yet still somehow hopeful. “What happens?” Chip asked.
The Shishigami stood up and approached the fire. It bent its head low and plunged its face into the flames. The flames flickered different colors as the Shishigami fell into the flames. The fire instantly extinguished itself.
Chip leaned back, her eyes wide enough a little bit of the mechanics behind her eyelids were visible. “Well, that’s a bit fucked,” she muttered as she took a small cup of ambrosia away from her machine and passed it around the fire as everyone stared mutely at the now-dead fire. In a few moments, everyone had a cup of ambrosia.
Diana pointed toward the sky. The sky had grown blacker, and the moon and stars had disappeared. It was like looking into a black veil. There was something moving behind it. Slowly, a few bright lights came into view. They swirled around each other, taking the shape of a familiar face—that of the Shishigami.
The fire roared back to life.
The Shishigami sat beside Chip, its legs neatly folded up the way a baby doe would. “There are many kinds of life,” the Shishigami said. “And along with those lives, many deaths. There are deaths of gods, death of those who follow those gods, death of those who follow no gods, and death of those who know of no death. Each person creates their own afterlife. They do it from the moment they are born. Their beliefs spark new realities. Some people share the same reality. Others, only vague similarities. Each person creates a perfect universe to themselves that awaits them when they close their eyes for the last time. Except for some. There are some who understand the truth of life and death, who will not be placated by a holding space for eternity.”
The Mundanes and the Horsemen sipped their ambrosia. Suzuki instantly felt the effects. He felt more awake and hyper-focused yet, oddly for him, much less critical. He was aware he would have probably not cared much about this conversation, other than for its practical uses. As he listened, he thought that was something he might want to change. He also was aware it was the ambrosia talking. That didn’t really bother him.
The rest of the MERCs were also leaning in to better hear the Shishigami, who was now looking at the stars and humming softly. The Smuggles echoed the melody with soft voices.
Chip reached up and petted the back of the Shishigami’s neck. “And what is that truth?” Chip asked.
The Shishigami’s antlers stretched toward the heavens. They looked to touch the stars, where his face still beamed down upon them. “There is no life or death. Everything continues, and there are those who have learned how to continue as they see fit. Nearly immortal. They pull themselves through any plane of reality, no matter how painful.”
“How do you find them? If I need to find someone, how do I do it?”
“It is discouraged. Many lose themselves in the place between realms. It is chaos and madness. It is not a place to go to find things. If they want to find you, they will.”
Suzuki shook his head. He was trying to piece everything together, but none of this made sense. Nothing really died, yet there were places you went once you died. Alternate dimensions for everyone who’s ever existed? Except for people who found their way out of the cycle. Who brought themselves back. “That’s what the Dark One is, isn’t it? One of those…immortals?”
The Shishigami’s antlers touched the antlers of the Shishigami in the sky. Everything went white, and suddenly it was dawn. The sun was rising between the Shishigami’s eyes. “There have been many iterations of the Dark One. He has been known by many names and believed to have been vanquished many times as well, yet the realm between realms cannot hold him. It has become his birthplace and kingdom. And he wishes to spread it to everything.”
“No, that can’t be right. We saw the Dark One. We fought his army. All he seemed to care about was making organic life technological instead. It was just about control. It wasn’t as big as all this. He’s just some asshole who feels like he needs to control everything.”
“Sometimes, even we are a mystery to ourselves. I have seen this cycle. Watched it run its course many times. Make no mistake, what the Dark One wants now is only a shadow of what he will become. He is an evil that presents itself with a new voice. But what is underneath is always the same.”
Suzuki thought over what the Shishigami said. He’d heard of this trope before. It wasn’t one that often made its way into literature but was more often seen in myths, in folktales of evil and malice. Few authors believed in absolute, unkillable evil. It went against all stories about the nature of good and evil, the everlasting battle. If evil was something that was unbeatable, what did it say about goodness? Maybe there was no good and evil. Maybe there were just ambivalent forces. But that was more of the elder god type of stuff. The Dark One did not seem ambivalent. From everything Suzuki had seen, the Dark One was intentional and methodical in his desires.
The tone of the fireplace had changed. The MERCs sat around and watched the flames in silence. What had fallen over them was not fear, yet it was different for each of them. They looked into each other’s eyes and could see that a note had been struck. Each of those notes formed a chorus, a harmony that was unspoken. Whatever the Dark One was, they were going to be the ones to stop him.
Chip poured herself another cup of ambrosia. “Usually, I’m not one to turn down a nice pitter-patter on doom and gloom, but yeesh. What’s the vote on lightening the mood the fuck up?”
There was a general murmur as the Shishigami smiled and rose. “On that note, I shall be going. I greatly appreciate all you have done for me. I wish you luck on your travels.” The Shishigami turned to Suzuki, his eyes boring into the MERC’s. “And for your sake, I hope that you are correct.”
Chip passed everyone a new cup of ambrosia, and they all sipped while watching the stars above. Even though the stars had returned to normal, it still seemed like Shishigami was above them, watching over. Suzuki wondered if the creature really was a god. It was hard to tell what things were in Middang3ard. Suzuki was still surprised he hadn’t met a Norse God.
Suzuki reflected on the name of Middang3ard for a little bit longer as the world around him grew pink and purple. “Hey, why the hell is this place called Middang3ard anyways?” Suzuki asked.
Diana laughed as she sipped her ambrosia. “The naming conventions that we’ve had to use are…complicated, to say the least. Some of the worst magic that Myrddin’s used, in my opinion,” she explained.
Sandy did a double-take, practically spitting her ambrosia out. “Wait, are you saying that the reason that we call this place something that ridiculous is because of magic?”
“It’s hard to explain. Like I said, it’s pretty sloppy work. So, think of it like thi
s…name a book. Just pick one off the top of your head.”
Stew threw back his ambrosia and shouted, “Jules Verne!”
Diana shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. “That’s not a book, but sure, we’ll use it. Happens to work perfectly, so I’ll let you off the hook. Verne wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth. You remember the volcano, the one they use to get to the center?” Diana pointed at the volcano.
Stew whistled and murmured, “Fuck me.”
Sandy leaned over and rested her hand on Stew’s crotch. “Later, babe.”
Stew completely ignored Sandy, leaning forward and almost knocking her over. “Are you saying that shit is real?”
Sandy collected herself, brushing the dirt off her thighs. “Didn’t peg you for a Verne fan,” Sandy teased. “Let alone a fan of, you know, books.”
“I love Verne! Everything he ever wrote. Those books were like magic.”
The childlike glee on Stew’s face was contagious, and Sandy smiled at him as she took his hand. Suzuki thought back to the first Verne he had ever read. He couldn’t have been older than twelve. He remembered it vividly, being trapped in those worlds that Verne had created. He had lost time there.
Diana was nodding in a far off way as if she were listening to music, her eyes closed, lost in memory as well. “That shit is real. Not everywhere. Not on Earth. But Middang3ard is hollow as hell. Anyways, the way the magic works is that Myrddin would find authors and use magic to bring out their latent talent. It basically helped them concentrate. Then what Myrddin did to seal the spell was tie it to the words that they used. They became words of power. Because of that, there are a lot of descriptions and so forth we can’t use until the copyright date runs out.”
Suzuki burst out laughing. He wasn’t sure if it was the ambrosia or if that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. “Are you fucking kidding me.” He guffawed. “You’re saying that using the names of copyrighted materials weakens the spell?”
“Exactly. Even after the author dies. It starts to affect the potency of their work, which is why we avoid calling certain places, like this realm, which bears a strong resemblance to a certain realm with halflings, by their true name. That Myrddin tied his spell to something as complicated as legalities is beyond me.”
“So, why don’t we just call this place Middang—”
“Shush. It was one of the first spells Myrddin tried, and he botched the whole thing. Also, if I remember correctly, a fantasy author named a spectacular book that, and has the copyright for another few years.”
Beth rose and yawned loudly before finishing her drink. “I can’t wait until that shit is over and I can stop stumbling over Middang3ard. All right, I’m off to sleep, douchenozzles. Later.”
Suzuki got ready to stand up and go after Beth. “You want me to come too?” he asked.
Beth shook her head. Her eyes looked sleepy and distant. Suzuki wasn’t sure if it was the ambrosia or something else that was bothering her. “No,” Beth said almost curtly. “Just because I’m going to sleep doesn’t mean you have to. Be your own person, Suzy.” She turned and walked off to their tent.
Suzuki sat down, dejected. Something was wrong with Beth, and he wanted to do whatever he could to help. But the way she had spoken to him, the little bit of bite in her voice, had cut Suzuki in a way he hadn’t thought Beth capable of. She probably didn’t even realize she had, so it wasn’t anything to lose sleep over. He turned his attention back to the conversation at hand.
Stew was still very excited about the prospect of his favorite science fiction books being real. “Okay, what about Burroughs? What about Tarz—”
Chip shook her finger at him. “Ah, ah, ah,” she cut in. “Don’t be spewing names all willy-nilly. And that one’s out, as well as that Percolator one or whatever it’s called. Burroughs ain’t gonna roll around to public domain for another twenty-one years. ‘Til then, try to keep your fanboy hard-on away from the literature, will you?”
“All right, all right. Don’t want to fuck up the magic, right?”
“Exactly.”
The Mundanes and the remaining Horsemen continued to drink long into the night. They spoke in quick bursts, laughing for extended periods of time as if they had only just realized how funny their companions were. It was lamented that Beth had gone to sleep so early, but it was understandable. Why had they not gone to sleep? No decision was agreed on across the board, but they did slowly drift away to their tents. Tired yet rested somehow. As Suzuki opened his tent, he could understand why José loved ambrosia.
7
Suzuki returned to his tent, trying not to stumble over the little bit that was inside, namely, Beth’s feet. He found the corner of the tent and plopped down. He looked around, trying to figure out what he was going to do with his time. Sleeping didn’t seem like a good idea. Whatever the ambrosia did, it wasn’t the same as alcohol, but it was similar. There was a general sense of relaxation, but it also provided an intense amount of energy. That’s not quite right, Suzuki thought to himself. It’s more like…I’m interested?
It seemed like a waste to just go to sleep, so Suzuki grabbed his axe and pulled down his HUD. He had been thinking about working on his enchantments earlier but had been distracted by dinner and the conversations that had come afterward. Now seemed like a pretty good time. Everyone had headed to sleep. Beth was snoring softly.
The enchantments Suzuki had on his armor were mostly passive, charms and enhancements that boosted his strength slightly while also helping him with his balance. Enhancements that were simple to work with and would expire after considerable use. But the ambrosia had Suzuki’s mind going. He realized he was using enchantments in the most boring way possible. If he could cover his armor with charms and enhancements to distort and buff different properties, there was almost a limitless number of possibilities he had never even begun to play with.
Suzuki pulled out the book of runes Sandy had found for him a few months ago, dug from the catacombs of the MERC library. The book was still musty. The smell of thousands of years. Suzuki cracked the book open, along with the rune compendium Diana had gotten him after finding out the book of runes had sat on his desk unopened for nearly two weeks.
The premise of the book was simple. There were runes. Each represented a different thing. If one was to etch that rune into an object, that object would take the properties of the rune. It was a process similar to the SD card attachments his HUD had. The difference was that he didn’t need Chip to fine-tune them. Even further, there was something he found extremely comforting about working on his own armor and weapons. Carving the runes himself made him feel as if he were creating something of permanence in Middang3ard, as if he were making something for himself and only himself.
It was a time consuming process. To begin with, there were thousands of runes. It was one of the reasons Suzuki had kept to basic ones. It was not a problem of carving the runes but rather finding the proper runes to carve.
Suzuki wasn’t worried about that tonight, though. He flipped open the book to a random page and started reading, cross-referencing with his dictionary. He found two he thought would be fun to try out. There was a rune for levitation and one for carrying out tasks with haste. Suzuki didn’t know why, but he decided to pull off his boots and get to carving. He worked for nearly an hour before he felt the pull of sleep. He yawned, went outside to stretch, and came back in, taking off his shirt and tossing it into a pile of Beth’s clothes before getting back to carving.
The weight of his axe in his hand and the way the steel cut into the soft leather soles of his boots brought a smile to his face. In Middang3ard, there was always loot to find, just like in the VR. Sandy always found or searched out loot that called to her. Stew tossed away each old axe for a new one at a moment’s notice. Suzuki had never had that kind of luck or relationship with his gear. What he had found through enchanting filled that void. For the most part, he had much of the same gear as when he’d first come to Middan
g3ard but every time he worked an enchantment on a piece of his gear, it felt like something just for him. He was never one for tinkering before. It always surprised him that enchanting was one of the most calming things he could do.
Suzuki hummed to himself as he worked, a slow song of sorts. He could not remember where he had heard it or why he felt it must be hummed, but everything felt right about this moment. He finished the last rune and held his boots up, looking at his work. As he turned around, he saw that Beth had woken up. She was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, smiling slightly. “Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Suzuki said.
Beth waved away Suzuki’s concern as she stretched her arms. “You don’t have to apologize, Suzy.” She yawned. “I was hoping you’d wake me.”
Suzuki held his boot up to the dim light thrown by the magical fireflies they had cast when they first pitched the tent. The fireflies cast a soft blue light that was easy on the eyes for sleeping but offered enough illumination for working or reading. “Oh yeah, you were?”
“Yeah, I just wanted…ugh…I fucking hate saying this, but I just wanted to say I was sorry. About earlier. About you being your own person. You know, I haven’t ever done this whole dating thing. Like, the whole being in a relationship shit. It’s weird. I feel like I could be smothered. Not that you’re smothering me. Just, I don’t know, kinda afraid that could happen. But that’s not even what I’m trying to say. That’s not why I said that…I just…I’ve been feeling weird. Not weird. I been feeling shitty. All that talking about death and shit. Gods and whatever. I don’t know why, but it really set me off.”
“I can see why talking about death had you—”
Beth sat up straighter and stared at Suzuki, her eyes full of an emotion Suzuki could not easily place. “That’s not it. It’s what I heard from my friends, from the military about what the Dark One is doing. The military is pulling back. They’re retreating. I think… I think we should take the fight to the Dark One.”
