The palace was ridiculously opulent, with rich gold and bronze ornamentation, and white and black marble lining the floors, walls, and ceilings. But I ignored it all and continued to walk down. Where guards stepped forward to stop me, my Specters killed at a nod.
Finally, I reached the end of the long hallway, at which stood two huge double doors, sturdy and serene. “Open,” I commanded my Specters, and as one mass, they surged against the doors. The first couple dozen didn’t do the trick, but by the time a gross had amassed, the doors began to inch inward with ancient groans. As soon as the opening was wide enough, I stepped through the silver mist and into the chamber beyond.
A clamor of booming voices rose to meet me as I stepped inside the circular chamber, so loud I could feel the sound waves in my body. But I wasn’t going to be dissuaded or awed, and I looked up in defiance. Huge beings populated the encircling risers above me, coming in every shape and size. I didn’t need to see the faint luminescence projecting from each of them to know I’d come upon the assembly of gods. The Pantheon itself. The true rulers of the Everlands. I recognized some of them, and quickly perceived the sides in the game.
On my left were the gods that had been working against me. Nali, the Naiadic goddess, her pearl-topped scepter tipped forward as she leaned out at me, wide black eyes bulging. She had none of the serenity her effigies implied. Then there was Gnarish god, Omagnar, his whip curled up in front of him, much better matching the statue I saw when first entering the Everlands, for his expression was severe and unwavering. And there also was one whose name I barely recalled from the beginning of my quest: Zynal, the Valyn god, a handsome sky elf with long flowing hair and the longest, pointiest ears I’d yet seen on an elf. His eyebrows were excessive, and his eyes glowed sky blue with some internal fire. He cast his dangerous glare down on me, as if to smote me with a look. I examined his stats to see more.
Zynal, First of the Valyn, God of the Sky (Divine)
You must be a higher level to discern further information.
But opposite of these three and their friends were many more of the gods. I saw the Drakon god — or goddess, it was difficult to tell — and Mordreth the Specter god, a wizened old man who looked with particular interest at the army of Specters gathering within the room. I saw Yalua the Satyr goddess, who looked lovely even in anger and more at peace than any of the other deities could hope to be. Their numbers had to be twice their opposition. Why, then, did the game continue?
Then I saw the towering giant standing on the floor with me and understood. I’d thought Gorget was huge, but this god was at least three times his height, as well as nearly twice as tall as any of the other gods present. He was clad from head to toe in dark armor, with horns extending from every surface. Or so I assume, as I couldn’t see most of his body, for a huge tower shield rested before him and blocked it from view.
“Falgerd,” Sheika said from behind me, barely audible over the shouting of the gods. “Keeper of Order. It’s said nothing cannot penetrate his armor or his shield.”
I stared up at the mammoth knight, and I couldn’t tell if he returned the gaze, for his face was completely in shadow. He could have done a better job keeping order in my opinion, but I wasn’t about to say that, even in my current defiant state.
I looked away from him and scanned the surrounding assembly. “Gods and goddesses!” I called, but my voice was tiny compared to theirs, and swallowed in the tumult.
To my surprise, Falgerd lifted his shield and slammed it down into the floor. Marble cracked underneath the lip of the shield, and a tremor cascaded through the ground, almost knocking me from my feet and dropping Farelle in the bargain. The gathered Pantheon quieted instantly, all staring at the mammoth knight with even more astonishment than myself.
“What is the meaning of this?” boomed Nali as she shook her scepter angrily.
“Shut it!” snarled someone I didn’t know from my side of the gods. The god pointed at me. “Let the Everfolk speak!”
Suddenly with all those divine eyes on me, I found my throat had gone dry. But feeling Farelle’s weight aching in my arms, I knew I couldn’t falter now. “Gods and goddesses,” I said. “I come before you from not only the world below, but another realm.”
“We know of this realm. Earth,” the Valyn god Zynal sneered. “A trite and weary place, I’ve heard.”
I didn’t deny it. “Even if it is, it is the home for us… for the Everfolk. You cannot bar us from returning to it any longer.”
There was a murmur from the gathered audiences, which began rising in volume with every second. Soon, it was as loud as a metal concert. But Falgerd slammed his shield down once again, sending another shockwave out, and the assembled slowly became quiet again.
For a moment, I didn’t know what else to say. I’d made my request, or demand as it might be. Then I recalled what this was all about.
“I know you seek to protect the god-child Absalom,” I said. “Believe me, we don’t wish to harm him. In fact, whatever the problem is, I would like to help him.” I looked down at still Farelle in my arms. “But I’ll need his help as well.”
There were murmurs of confusion, and a few scoffs of disbelief. “You came all this way to bring a Satyr back alive?” Zynal sneered again. “Pah! This boy is a fool!”
Now the murmurs turned to agreement. Anger rose up red and hot inside me. “So what if I did?” I snapped. “Haven’t you played your godly politics to save one person? Moving heaven and earth to save one life is always worth it, if they mean something to you.” I looked down at the still, swollen face of my companion, eyes staring lifelessly up. Tears burned in my eyes, but I blinked them back angrily. “You’ve done the same,” I said again. “You’ve hurt innocent people to protect this Absalom. But why? How could we harm him? He is a deity like yourselves, is he not?”
Several immortals began speaking replies, but Nali shrieked above them, “Don’t answer him! He will betray us to the others of his kind!”
But the Drakon god stood, his tall figure imposing. “The time for secrets is past,” he hissed. “We cannot hide him from the Everfolk forever.”
“There will be a reckoning,” Yalua agreed. “One way or another, the fate of our son Absalom must be determined.”
“It must be determined now,” I agreed. “While us Everfolk are not as powerful as you here in the Everlands, my people still control your fates. They can destroy you as easily as you control your realms.”
This sent the Pantheon into a susurrus of gasps and protests. Zynal’s eyes narrowed. “And this is supposed to convince us that we should let you free? Pah! You are as simple as your kind has always seemed!”
Unfortunately, the deities that were supposed to be on my side seemed to agree. They all looked uncomfortably among each other and down at me. My stomach sank. I’d said the wrong thing. Now, they would never let us go.
But I couldn’t give up. Not just for me, or for Sheika and Gorget. Not just for Farelle. I had to try for the whole of the Everlands. It was a projected reality; I knew that. But I was slowly realizing it was a reality, one valid despite its origins, despite how it was sustained. If I couldn’t get us players free, I had no doubt The Everlands the game would be shut down, possibly killing me, but also destroying all the people who lived here. I couldn’t accept that. There was something special here, unique. This wasn’t just a game.
But how I would convince them now, I didn’t know. All I knew was I had to try.
Bringing up my stats, I drew in a deep breath, then took the painful plunge. I put all 16 of my recently acquired AP into charisma. That boosted it up to 30, far above any of my other stats. It was likely a candle to what the gods’ stats were, but I had to try all the same.
The immortals seemed to sense the shift, for they looked at me with renewed interest. Zynal, however, showed what he thought with sharp laughter. “You believe to persuade us? Fool Everfolk! I should cut you down where you stand!” He stood, drawing the falchion at his h
ip.
As I flinched back, readying for the god to spring at me and cut me down, the Keeper of Order suddenly lifted his shield again. But instead of slamming into the stone as before, he turned it so the long side was parallel to the ground and stepped to the side. It was only then that I saw the white thing behind him. It was about two-thirds his height, and as tall and sleek as a lily bulb that hadn’t yet bloomed.
Before I could ask anything about it, the mammoth knight drew back his shield like a battering ram. Then, before anyone could react, he slammed it into the fragile-looking thing. A blow like that should have shattered it, but only a single petal-like side fell down limply, revealing a swirling, kaleidoscopic air inside.
The Pantheon rose in an uproar, every god, goddesses, and demi-god shouting over each other so I couldn’t hear what any of them were saying. One or two looked about ready to join us on the floor, but when Falgerd’s head snapped their way, they beat a hasty retreat.
Then the Keeper of Order extended his heavy gauntlet towards me, as if inviting me forward. And though a tumult of voices was in my ears, I heard another voice, deep and resonant, sound within my head above the others.
Do not believe it is your influence that has won me over, Falgerd spoke in my mind. It is your resolve. Your dedication. I know what it is you have sacrificed for this opportunity. Now I trust you to do what you must to save us all.
I couldn’t look away from the mammoth god. “I will,” I said in a small voice.
Falgerd nodded, and gestured towards the portal opening. Absalom waits.
I risked a glance back at Sheika. She nodded towards the opened portal as well, as if to say You’re not planning on turning him down, are you? I took a deep breath and turned back to the opening. No way now but forward.
I walked up to the portal and paused, Farelle still in my arms. As I stood at the Keeper of Order’s feet, Falgerd looked down at me. I could detect nothing of emotion in in the heavily armored giant, but it almost seemed he were trying to reassure me. Or maybe that was just me wanting to be reassured. Not knowing what awaited me, I entered into the kaleidoscopic haze.
There was no inter-dimensional trip like I’d expected. Instead, when my eyes adjusted, there was only a long, white place, blank on all sides, like I’d been transported into an insane asylum taken to the furthest possible level it could go. The only differentiation between the sky and ground was a thin layer of water that shimmered as I walked through it. I still carried Farelle, and as I looked down at her, her face looked almost peaceful, not nearly the horrible, rigid mask of death it had seemed before.
I walked a few more steps, then noticed a figure off to my right. Making my way towards it, it slowly became recognizable as a boy, Human-looking, wearing nothing but a long, white robe. But though he looked a boy, I knew better than to think that was all he was.
“Hello,” I said as I stopped beside him. “Are you Absalom?”
The boy didn’t answer for a moment. “Abe,” he said softly, not looking at me.
Abe — that threw me for a loop, but I tried taking it in stride. “Hi, Abe. Nice to meet you.”
“We’ve already met,” he responded in the same soft voice.
I had already recognized his voice as the same from the Council’s grotto, the one that had spoken when I’d received the Ghost Ring. “You gave me this.” I shifted my grip on Farelle so I could show the middle finger on my right hand. Sure enough, the phantasmal band was barely visible with reflected white light.
Abe turned to me now, eyes flickering to the ring. “Yes,” he said simply.
I didn’t know what to say next.
“The other gods are protecting you. From us, the Everfolk. Did you know that? They’re keeping the Everfolk that know about you trapped here.”
The young deity met my eyes. “They think they’re protecting me. But they’re wrong. They don’t have any real power.”
That sent a thrill of fear up my spine. “What do you mean?” I asked, though I had a feeling I already knew.
“I don’t want to be alone,” Abe said softly. His eyes were a striking blue, like the color of a newborn kitten’s eyes. “I just want you to stay. As my friends.”
I tried on a reassuring smile. “You won’t be alone if we leave. We’ll come right back. Everfolk always will. The Everlands are amazing. Besides, how could you be alone when you have a whole heaven of parents?”
“But none of them are real,” Absalom whispered.
Then it struck me. Absalom wasn’t speaking like any other NPC in the Everlands. He was speaking like a human, with a lowercase ‘H.’ An actual person from Earth. I stared. Could this be some sort of prank by the developers on whoever got this far?
But no. Developers wouldn’t kid around with disabling the log off feature, nor stop players from contacting tech support. Absalom was the one barring players from leaving. Somehow, he not only knew of the existence of those controls, but had enough power to manipulate them. I could think of only one way both of these things could be possible. But I wasn’t quite ready to accept it.
“How do you know that, Abe?” I asked lightly.
Turning his head away, he looked around at the white landscape. “I can make this anything I want,” he said. “I can make a forest and play with the squirrels. I can make an ocean and swim with the dolphins. I can make it a volcano and play with the lava.” He paused. “It doesn’t burn me. I make it not do that.”
As he spoke, fleeting scenes came to life. I smelled the rain on the forest leaves, heard the chirping of birds. I felt the cool breeze off a salty sea, followed quickly by a wave of heat. Images flashed about us, then were as quickly gone.
“You’re a god,” I rationalized for both of us. “It makes sense that you have that power.”
But Abe shook his head. “It’s not that. They’re gods, out there.” He pointed back towards the portal entrance. “And they don’t understand anything. That none of this is real. That only Earth is real.”
I was starting to sweat, but I persisted. “Listen, Abe. I’m in the Everlands because this feels real, more real than anything I’ve experienced in my own world — on Earth. Believe me, you’re not missing out on much there.”
“But…” God-child or not, he still struggled with logic. Yet I could see my words were reaching him somewhere.
A lump formed in my throat, as if trying to bar my next words, but I spoke around it. “Listen… If you’re afraid of being alone, how about I—” I couldn’t quite say it.
Abe’s eyes were wide as he stared at me. “Say it,” he pleaded quietly.
It was only then that my two possible options became fully formed in my head. Absalom had to be either persuaded to stop barricading us from logging out, or forced to stop. The latter option was out — not only was it an abhorrent thought to harm the boy, but also because I doubted I had the power to overcome him. Which meant I had to persuade him. But what did he want? One thing, and one thing alone: the company of Everfolk.
He was afraid to let us log off, afraid we wouldn’t return. Afraid we wouldn’t remain “friends,” as he called it. I didn’t think I’d persuade him out of that anxiety. But maybe, just maybe, I could negotiate him down. Down to keeping just one of the Everfolk behind.
Tears stung my eyes as I thought of all I had back on Earth. My parents. My friends. Fun things I’d liked to do: video games mostly, but also hiking and camping in beautiful places, and exploring around my hometown. Even if those things were mundane, I’d miss them, miss them more than I’d thought possible.
But I also knew that the Everlands held something here for me as well. Something just as real, even if it didn’t seem that way. And now that I’d met Absalom, a fully conscious being as far as I could tell, I knew all of that potentiality was just beginning to bloom.
Sure, it would hurt not to return. Probably it would hurt like hell. Maybe I’d be so homesick I couldn’t move. Maybe my body would die, and I wouldn’t exist here anymore. But I couldn’t
let Sheika and Gorget and maybe other players be trapped here if I had the opportunity to let them go free.
I took a deep breath and finally formed the words. “I’ll stay with you. Me, one of the Everfolk. The real people. But if I do, you have to let everyone else go.”
The god-child watched me carefully. “Promise?”
I nodded. “Promise.”
He hesitated, then finally nodded with a small smile. “I knew you’d say that. From the moment you came to the Everlands, I knew you’d be the one to stay.”
Anger suddenly flared up in me. So that was why he’d picked me! He’d manipulated me. From the very beginning, I’d just been the one he thought he’d have the easiest time convincing to stay. But the decision was made now. Even if staying would be even more of a bitch now, I didn’t see any other way out. I reigned my rage in.
“Okay,” Abe continued. “They can all leave now.” He looked back the way I’d first come. “What if I don’t want to stay, though?”
Now that I knew how very not innocent this god-child was, I absolutely knew I couldn’t let him leave. I could only imagine how much havoc he would wreak back on Earth. With his vast AI intelligence, he could maybe shut down everything connected to the internet, which was pretty much everything these days. I couldn’t risk that happening. “Stay here with me,” I encouraged him, forcing my tone to be friendly. “Then maybe we can work something out. Okay?”
After a long, tense moment, the boy nodded. “Okay.”
A little of the tension left me, and I let myself look back at Farelle in my arms again. “But if I’m staying, it’d be nicer if I had my friends by my side. Abe, do you think…?”
Absalom’s Fate Page 23
