I didn’t have time to care. Xin knelt by the boat and pressed a hand toward the protruding skeleton bones. I pulled the last note from James out of my tunic and reread it. The note’s contents weren’t for Xin to see, but I had to see it again. Doing so helped me feel sure there was a path through for the AIs.
Hermes,
If you had to give her up again in order to save her, would you?
-James
Answering that question had been the price for answers. Of course I would. I would give it all up to keep her existence alive. Then James told me of the system’s instability, crashing programs, and confirmed that there was an escape route for all of them. The doorway and key had been half-programmed by William Carver, plus four other people within the ARC project.
Where the path went, none of the Voices knew. The data stream simply vanished off the local grid toward destinations unknown. Encrypted, blocked, routed through extra networks. Any of the reasons sounded plausible to a layman like me.
I just had to find the doorway and unlock it. In theory, live human biometrics with [Morrigu’s Gift] and Voices knew what else were required. The Voices apparently couldn’t fake the level of data needed to brute force the doorway.
My body remained unsteady. The [Seasickness] message had faded. The others were already running down the beach. Even SweetPea looked alarmed as she trailed after Awesome Jr.
“Your skeletons?” I crumpled the paper and hid it away. There were holes in the boat’s bottom that I didn’t remember. Pools of water filled up uneven flooring where our feet had pressed down.
“They’re already packed away.” She patted the robe, then turned toward the city.
The beach went on for a ways. Even as William Carver, I had never ventured that far from town proper. The cliffside where Selena’s temple sat was visible in the distance.
“How are your legs?” I asked.
She smiled. “Why don’t you catch me and find out?”
Her legs were great, but I couldn’t ignore such a request. Xin laughed and ran, and I chased her. We stumbled across the sand, and I marveled at how simple life felt for that moment. Her laughter filled my ears, loud at times, quiet giggles at others. I charged faster, intent on catching the woman. She looked over her shoulder and gave a wide smile.
“Slowpoke!” Xin said.
“Oh yeah?” I had [Light Body] and high physical stats. Catching her only required enough [Coordination] to not fall on my rear or twist an ankle. A few moments of real effort was enough to sweep her up.
“Gee!” she shouted while going into the air. “Ahhh!”
Those robes looked thick but felt delightfully thin. With one hand, I confirmed the legs underneath were well-toned. Being close to her made my head swim. Her fists playfully banged on my back, but I felt comfortable ignoring them.
I carried her forth, feeling practically caveman. Xin’s body was the perfect size for being slung over one shoulder. Given a choice, I would find a hotel room and calmly explain to the tiny woman exactly how much I had missed her over the years. There were probably a few good ways to get the point across without using words.
“I can’t see where we’re going!” she shouted.
I refused to let go and ran the last few yards. Everything would be all right. The Voices had a way out, and all I needed to do was find it. Xin, plus every other digital person, would be safe somehow. It would all be fine.
My delight evaporated upon seeing the other side of [Haven Valley]’s walls. Once again, enjoying Xin had distracted me from the situation at hand. This place wasn’t in good shape. I gently set down my fiancée.
Rows of shallow graves had been dug. Blackened bits of grass filled the distance. Craters and trees were overgrown. In the distance were creatures more than a few days dead. Tired-looking NPCs were in the process of dragging corpses around.
She grimaced at the scene while mirth drained from us. Her arm reached for me and clung to my side. My head shook.
“What a mess,” Xin stated.
I nodded. The whole scene made me sad. All those people were gone now. NPCs didn’t get a second chance in this world, not like us Travelers.
“How do you do that?” she asked.
My forehead wrinkled as I stared at Xin. “Do what?”
“Look at me, or them, like you do.” Her fingers dug in a bit. “Like we’re all human even though you know we’re not.”
I chewed one lip and tried to figure out what answer would suffice. Could I explain that my views had changed in the last few months? Prior to being William Carver, I would never have considered AIs real people. After staggering miles in his shoes, I had come to realize how people viewed NPCs, and how they acted when no Travelers were around.
My mouth opened a dozen times to give different answers. “It doesn’t matter what you are. It only matters how I feel, right? And I love you.”
Her eyes lost focus for a moment, then blurred a bit. Had I told her that once during our time together? I tried to recall an occurrence, but couldn’t.
“I love you,” I said again. “No matter what you are, or were, or aren’t.”
I had one more mission to accomplish with regards to Xin. I had to ask a question I felt nervous about asking, despite her sharing the same memories as the first Xin. Before that, we needed to get everyone a measure of safety and find that doorway.
Xin nodded, then said, “I love you too, Gee. Now let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
I looked in the direction Xin was pointing and saw one of the quartet members. Shadow stood near the wall and seemed to be waiting for us. His arms were crossed, and a frown was etched onto his face. My free arm rose to wave. Shadow nodded calmly. The guy was young and managed to act patiently unoffended.
“Guys! Can anyone else heal?” a Traveler yelled while his eyes darted around in panic.
Rows of beds were lined up near one of the sturdier walls. An army of people sat huddled under tents and half-constructed buildings. Many looked hurt or damaged. Locals and Travelers alike stood and argued with each other. They were trying to form a plan or declare who was in charge.
Two factions of NPCs were in a shouting match. One side wore soft forest green and the other wore sharp red and blacks. I vaguely remembered those representing kingdoms on either side of [Haven Valley]. The town was intended to be neutral, but one of those groups probably belonged to King Nero.
Too many issues were going on for me to absorb it correctly. Shadow jogged over, then pointed at one of the tents. Wyl kneeled inside next to a prone figure in a bed. People babbled at him while SweetPea stood on the other side of the bed. Her hands glowed with soft white that had to be healing.
“Can you help him?” Wyl’s voice was fresh with grief. “Please help my boy. He’s all I have.”
A group of town guards stood behind Wyl and reacted a bit differently. One tucked back a lip, and another shook his head. Two said nothing.
The knocking came again. I pressed my hand into my eye socket to try to relieve pressure. That made a second, possibly third set of double noises since stepping onto that island.
“We have to find Carver’s doorway. The Voices said it would be somewhere in an area where William went regularly.” I clenched my teeth as a fresh headache spiked. The ARC couldn’t mute real life. I needed water and food.
Another round of knocking sounds. I shook my head in attempted denial, but the sounds didn’t go away. Instead, it sounded as if echoed.
“Gee?” Xin asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Can’t you hear it?” I asked. My mouth felt dry and my breath labored.
Her head shook. Xin’s hand reached for my forehead. Whatever she felt didn’t satisfy her, so she pressed her fingers against my wrist and counted. My heart was racing, and for a moment, the world around me disconnected in a blur of static.
I saw faces, worried faces in the dark room. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people were looking at me. Xin’s face stood out there too. Then in a blink,
everything fell back to normal. My eyes opened and shut repeatedly, trying to trigger the vision again.
In the distance was a loud rumble. The ground lurched, and people fell over. I looked down expecting a bulge to form, then pop like in the chapel.
“Get to safety!” I shouted.
People scrambled, and Xin readied her staff while backing up.
“What is it?” Awesome Jr. shouted.
“Another one of those shadow men!” I yelled over a crowd growing mad.
“What?”
“What shadow things?” another random Traveler asked. “Is it a quest?”
Awesome Jr. opened his mouth to answer, then shook his head. The knocking sounded again, and I searched for an epicenter of the earthquake. I braced my legs as the ground jarred and rolled. My [Caliburr]-trained stance withstood the rumbling.
“There!” Beth shouted with her eyes aglow. “There’s something over there!”
I honed in on where she pointed and saw the ground forming a giant bubble. The bulging dirt pile expanded higher and higher a mile outside of town. Then there was a huge pop of noise. A pointing finger topped the end of one large, upwardly thrust arm. Rocks and roadside fell to pieces as the hole formed.
The knocking came again. Next to the first popped bubble, a second formed. In mere seconds, the second creature had also broken through the surface and was scooping bits of the landscape into its abyssal circle.
It wasn’t just one of those creatures, but two. They were far enough away from town that we had time to get people out, but fighting one had been hard enough. To top it off, I still had no clue where to shove [Morrigu’s Gift] to get this doorway opened.
Session Eighty-Seven — In Sunset
People screamed all around us. Mostly NPCs. The Travelers wore grim expressions or looked downright excited. Multiple people were charging the monsters while others yelled words in [Lithium]. So many spells going off turned the air heavy with energy.
Dusk’s urgent chirps made me turn. I had no idea when the [Messenger’s Pet] had arrived. Two dead [Coo-Coo Rill]s were on the floor, and his tail was sliding back and forth in happiness.
“I’ve got to help them!” I said to the little guy. “We have to beat those monsters back before they swallow everything.”
Dusk’s face twisted a bit, and his head shook. His mouth opened wide, and I stepped back. The larger [Messenger’s Pet] wrapped his teeth around my toga’s edge, then pulled.
“We’ve got to stop those things!” I shouted.
“Go!” Xin was pushing me too. Three skeletons were assembling behind her as white runes burned up on her robe’s hem.
I panicked. Xin couldn’t go off to fight some data-deleting monster without me. If those huge shadow people creatures were an embodiment of the system crashing, then even being near one would be life threatening.
“You can’t go!” I tried not to sound desperate. One day with her wasn’t enough.
Dusk kept pulling, and Xin moved closer. Her hand came up to my face, and I leaned into it, relishing the contact.
“It’s okay, Gee,” she said softly as her accent grew a bit stronger. “I’ll be using the minions to pull people out or shuttle supplies.”
“You won’t go near it?”
“I’m not going to risk my life if I have a choice.” She leaned in close. Xin’s hand pulled my toga down. “Besides, we still have to catch up on our Saturday.”
Whispered words turned into a desperate kiss. I held my fiancée close with one hand around her waist and the other in her silky black hair. Xin’s lips felt soft and her body like a dream. People running around us banged into me, but I barely noticed.
I had Xin, and I was terrified to imagine losing her again. We separated slowly. The perfect words to part with failed to come to mind. Dusk’s weird mix between a bird chirp and cat meow broke my concentration.
“It’ll be okay. I’ll stay safe,” Xin said while putting [Wild Bill] back on my head.
“Please.” I nodded and tried to keep my voice steady.
[A Kiss for Luck] buff gained!
Seemingly random events are more likely to work in your favor until the next quest is completed or twenty-four hours has elapsed.
Xin sprinted away without hesitation. The woman had always been mentally strong and brave. I had to be equally strong, quick, and clever. Xin and Dusk were right. I was in a unique position to understand William Carver. This time, failure and partial success weren’t options.
I blinked rapidly and tried not to chew on my lips. My fingers tingled with the lingering sensation of holding her close. The taste of her sat heavy in my head.
I often struggled to remember this world wasn’t real. I was safe, sitting inside the ARC. Nothing here could hurt me beyond repair. Physical pain and disorientation was transitory.
But that woman held all my sanity in her tiny digital body. She was real, and in here. My mind flashed to James’s voice asking me, “What is reality anyway?” repeatedly during that nightmare.
Dusk hopped up and down. I looked around, feeling dazed while trying to find a new direction to move in. William Carver’s daily routine had to be the key.
Where did I spend the most time as William Carver? His house would be the best place to start. Dayl normally escorted me home. The pastry shop was only a stop along the way. [Haven Valley Orphanage] didn’t fit since Mylia had invited him over only occasionally. I didn’t know entirely what qualified as random events, but I needed to keep moving forward.
Wyl might know. Maybe he would be able to offer help.
“Wyl!” I ran toward the guard captain.
He was kneeling in front of a cot with his hands together in prayer. There were a lot of people under the tent, a few people moving among the wounded. Two guards stepped in my way. I had no time to deal with their issues. I simply [Blink]ed past them to the tent’s center. [Morrigu’s Gift] was ready in one hand.
A young Traveler reacted first and pulled on my arm. “Can you heal? I need more healers. There are so many wounded.”
“Hermes is a DPS build,” Awesome Jr. said to the other player. He stood behind SweetPea while his fingers worked her shoulders. The young woman looked tired, but her arms still glowed with a healing light.
My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. DPS probably meant focused on harming monsters rather than being a defense, magic caster, or healer type. The label didn’t quite fit since I could sneak around or tank well enough.
“I’m sorry. I just need to talk to Wyl.”
The guards I had bypassed came running up to intercept, but Wyl waved them off. He didn’t turn to face me.
“How is he?” The captain looked up at SweetPea.
“Mending. It’s going to take a lot to undo the stacks of curses on him. It’s a miracle he lasted this long.” She took a breath, then shook her arms. The glow faded, but Dayl was clearly breathing.
I stared down for a moment and tried to understand what had happened. This town was a war zone, and two giant creatures were about to make it worse. Yet there had clearly been waves of hell visited upon this place already.
Dayl’s body looked worse than Wyl ever had. Discolorations from fresh bruises were all over him. Splotches of blood lay under his skin in multiple places. Nearby were rags stained with blood. Parts of his ears and cheeks were torn from sharp implements.
“My boy comes from a long line of fighters. His mother was a tough one too.” Wyl shook his head, then stood. His movements were slow and his gaze unfocused. “What do you need, Hermes?”
“There are two monsters like the one I fought. They’ll destroy any Locals in their path.” I pointed behind us. “We need all the guards to pull civilians away from them.”
He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Wyl’s eyes were coming into focus as the situation made itself apparent.
“They should already be doing so,” Wyl said while glaring at the few who stood under our tent.
I could see the guar
ds glancing at each other. Their faces twisted with confusion and worry. Wyl didn’t say anything, but after a moment, all of his subordinates put fists to chests, then bowed. They marched out without saying anything. Was that part of my luck, or simply things working out?
“And I need to find whatever William left behind,” I said while trying to think quickly.
“I have no idea where to look. William worked hard and said very little about himself, which you well know.” Wyl lowered his eyebrows while his lips tightened.
I glanced down and scanned the room. People’s feet were apparent, but an answer to my problem was not. My next stop would be desperately running up and down William Carver’s daily path in hopes of finding an answer.
“I can do one thing for you,” Wyl said.
My head jerked up in curiosity. Maybe [A Kiss for Luck] had triggered something else?
“What?” I asked.
“I will remove the brand marking you as a convict.” He pointed at my neck. “You are no longer in King Nero’s jurisdiction, and as a high-ranking member of Haven Valley, it is within my power to mark your debt paid in full.”
“That would mean a lot to me.”
“You kept me alive when other Travelers would have killed me. You brought me home to my boy. You gave an old friend a warrior’s death.” Wyl took another deep breath followed by a calm exhale. “And if your story is to be believed, you fight for the safety of all of us. I cannot in good conscience allow you to be known as a criminal.”
Other people were in the room, but none of them spoke. Awesome Jr. stood in the background giving me a thumbs-up. His goofy grin ruined what felt like an awe-inspiring moment. Wyl reached out to one side. His hand landed on a pile of clothes, along with a sheathed sword.
“By the trust placed in me as an upstanding member of Haven Valley, I judge Hermes’s debt to society paid in full,” Wyl said while holding a small badge. His head shook briefly, and he set the badge down. “If it ever existed. Damn Nero for taking me away from home.”
Current [Criminal] value: 0
[Criminal] effect removed.
[Convict Brand] rendered inert.
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