by Andrew Novak
To Jack’s surprise, Sartorius slumped down onto the steps and stared at the flower-covered meadow. The tulips, silver in the moonlight, looked incredibly beautiful. But was there so little beauty in Alterra? Beauty was not a suitable excuse for postponing the completion of a quest.
Again, there was that strange sensation that something light, barely perceptible, had touched his consciousness. As if there was something huge — immense — somewhere in space that had turned its attention to Jack. And this entity seemed dissatisfied.
“You’re always tormented by questions, are you not, traveler?” the God’s ghost continued thoughtfully, “Questions, questions… You seem to think that by receiving an answer, you will gain something. Attain a higher state. Having received the answer, you’d think you’d become different. Better. More significant. But this is not so. Trust the God of Answers. The answers will not change you. I am the lord of answers, they are all at my disposal. But I did not become taller when I touched them, one by one. Look how beautiful this meadow is, see how the flowers are swaying in the wind. In this picture lies more meaning than in the answer you seek. Beauty and peace, these are the answers to which one should strive. Look how beautiful this world is, I say. And it is truly beautiful. Leave it as it is now. Beauty is a fragile thing, and answers can kill it. Did you not think that if you received an answer, you would harm this world? Alterra is now in balance, and you…
“Sartorius!” Jack could not stand it. “Zaratos is a famous scoundrel, he’s just deceiving you. Distracting you from our quest. I would listen to what he’s saying but I have very little time left. Come, the altar awaits us.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Sartorius stood up. “Come on, Jack.”
They passed the blabbering ghost and entered the temple hall. It was a huge room; its far end was lost in the dark. But the altar with the extinguished fire was visible immediately from the entrance.
In front of the altar rose a neat pyramid of white bones crowned with a skull. When the players had crossed half the distance, the bones began to move, forming a skeleton in dark rags.
Rebellious Priest of Zaratos
Expertise: 50
Disease: 30
Right away, Jack didn’t like the Priest’s high expertise. Neither Ged nor Astra had high-level servants. What did it mean?
Moving fluidly, the skeleton made a deep bow, then extended its bony hand to the altar in an inviting gesture, as if saying, here is your goal, now you can complete your task.
“Strange,” muttered Jack who somehow didn’t really want to follow the invitation, “how kind he is.”
“It’s Zaratos, he never acts through force,” Sartorius took a few steps toward the altar.
The skeleton jumped back, grabbed the lever sticking out of the column, and yanked at it. The floor shuddered. A crack opened under Sartorius’s feet. Screaming, the alpha descended into blackness.
Jack rushed to his help but he was too late. The mage disappeared into the open abyss.
At the same time, the invisible mechanism hidden under the floor plates continued to work. Something thundered, cracked and gnashed, muffling Sartorius’s far-off cry as the stone platform on which the mage stood kept descending into the dungeon.
Jack jumped over the black hole in the floor and ran to the priest. If he returned the lever to its original position… But the Rebellious Priest twisted the lever around the axis with a sharp movement, yanked it out of the wall, then hobbled off into the darkness.
Jack followed, straining all his strength. The skeleton only seemed slow, yet ran very fast, carrying away the lever that controlled the trap. Jack failed to catch him at the far end of the hall. The dead priest ducked into some secret door and began to shut it behind him when Jack burst through after him, using all his weight. He slammed into the door with such force that his in-game body reacted with a message:
You receive damage!
You lose 1 hit point!
But the priest also went flying through the air until he crashed into the far wall so hard that his bones began to crumble. Without slowing down, Jack ran through the fallen corpse, kicking and scattering the fragments of the skeleton with his boots. After trampling the body for a minute, he found the lever and hurried to rescue Sartorius.
The mechanism had already stopped; the alpha’s sounded quite muffled. He was somewhere very deep. Jack found the column with an indentation for the lever, inserted it and began to turn it, trying to guess which way it should go.
Finally, he found the right position. The underground mechanism screeched back to life. Sartorius’ screams became more pronounced. Still, the wide gap in the floor began to narrow as the alpha ascended back to the surface.
“Jack, help me!” he yelled from the hole. “The walls are closing in. I’ll be squashed! Quickly!”
Jack jumped to the hole, dropped to his knees and threw his hands into the darkness. Sartorius clung to his palms and began scraping his feet on the wall, his efforts slightly less than useless. Luckily, they were not required as Jack had decent strength numbers. He tensed and pulled the mage out of the closing walls of the trap.
“Well, how was it down there? Did you find peace and contemplation? You gotta be alert when you deal with the wise Zaratos, and contemplate what he suggests very carefully. Okay, let’s go to the altar.”
* * *
Afraid of new traps, Jack approached the altar warily. But it looked like the Gods resources were limited. They could only place speaking ghosts at the entrance and set an evil corpse upon the newcomer, that’s all. That is, not the Gods themselves, but those who, according to Necta, had taken their place. Someone who did not want players to be able to complete the quest and reveal the Great Mystery of Alterra.
And perhaps this someone believed that the main danger had been Ruger. Was that why they’d killed the old general? But how could the beings from virt act on things in real life?
For the first time in his life, Jack began to look at the outside world differently. What if both ghetto and New Atrium were in fact not quite what they seemed? What was reality? What forces were hidden behind its scenery?
The sensation of a stranger’s presence didn’t release him. It felt as if someone unkind was watching the newcomers. Did they think that it would all be over with Ruger’s death? And now they were sure that the game was still going on.
The thought made Jack hurry. Standing at the altar, he began to touch the Rosary. The yellow stone worked, disappearing.
Fire flared on the altar. Both players leaned forward, waiting for Theokrist to appear. Finally, his face arose in the flames.
“Greetings, wanderer,” the ancient hero wheezed in a crackling voice as sparks from the fire span around his mouth, “so we’ve met again. Until now, luck must have been on your side if you could get to this temple. I see I was lucky with my follower. Now you know what to do and how to use the Rosary — the model of Order. But the next temple might prove to be a difficult task. Get ready!
Wow, Jack thought, so was this temple not a difficult task? A boss with inexhaustible health!
Theokrist continued to speak from the flame:
“Now the Compass will lead you to the lands of the Careans. They are a strange people. The Temple of Faceless, now forgotten, is located in the Secret City. The Careans themselves hardly remember where this city is located, and the Compass may be mistaken in its search. You will have to work hard to find this place. But finding it is not all. As the Careans themselves said about the Secret City in ancient times, it’s easy to enter, but difficult to get out alive. However, you have a grand dream and you will manage, my brave follower. I believe in you. Remember that the Careans are a suspicious and sullen people. They don’t trust anyone, and they are very risky to trust. My Helm, in which I once went through their country and managed to earn the gratitude of the prince, it could help you. Yes, that’s the trouble, I lost my helmet nearby. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to find it. Farewell, and may you be lucky, my f
riend. Hasten to unravel the Great Mystery of Alterra and may the gods be with you.
“Oh yes they are,” said Jack when the face of the ancient hero dissolved in the fire. “They’re constantly with us so that they can play their dirty tricks. Sartorius, don’t you have the feeling that we are being watched?”
“Are we?” the alpha asked.
“I see. You don’t have it. I do, but we’re done here, anyway. Time to go.”
They left the temple. The ghost of Zaratos had already shut up, as all the other images of the Gods had, and disappeared after completing the task. But the Golem was still hovering near the road.
Sartorius was suddenly curious about what happened to the unconquerable Sentry. He asked Jack to wait a bit, then cautiously approached the dark, shapeless lump. At first the magician moved slowly, then faster. Finally, he stopped a couple of dozen paces from the Golem and called,
“Hey, Jack, come here! Take a look! It’s worth it, I swear.”
“I’ll take a look, don’t you worry. My knife must be there somewhere.”
After all the adventures in the temple, he had completely forgotten about the Flying Dagger, but now he’d remembered. Also, he’d noticed that the weapon icon had disappeared from the interface. Was the artifact considered lost, or what?
He went to the alpha. Surprise: the winged icon reappeared, only now it was pale and inactive.
“I’m not losing any health, either,” the mage called. “Don’t worry. The Lily is not dangerous anymore.”
When he was a few steps from Sartorius, the icon of the Dagger sprang back to life. Jack activated it, opening the command table below. He poked the green arrow. The familiar silhouette of his weapon emerged from the flowers next to the Golem which towered over them like a hunchbacked shadow.
It turned out that neither the Golem nor Lily no longer presented a danger. The Sentry had turned to stone. Its face had turned almost human. Its crude body had gone hard. It gently held the Lily with both hands bending over it as if it were examining it, admiring its beauty, and froze that way.
“Beautiful, isn’t not?” said Sartorius. “The Lily is beautiful and it steals life. And the ugly golem attacked everyone who came to the temple, but didn’t raise a hand against such a beautiful flower. It managed to get rid of the dagger, took the Crystal Lily and died staring at it. The deadly flower absorbed the mysterious source of the Golem’s life which dampened the Lily’s lethal emanations, so that we no longer get injured even though we are standing right next to it.”
“All’s well that ends well. And my Dagger is back,” Jack nodded, picking up his artifact. He was still worried about the sensation of a foreign presence and wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. In addition, he felt very tired. It was strange and frightening, to be honest. “We’re going to the village, right? I’m so tired that I feel like I might turn to stone like the Golem.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot that you’re sick,” Sartorius said. His enthusiasm immediately disappeared.
They walked toward the Achaean village. Despite the late hour, several residents stood by the village gate, obviously waiting for them.
“Well, there they are,” Mackon said. “What do you say, brave heroes? Did you manage to use the old road? And did you happen across Broch the Lahitte?”
“I did,” Jack snapped. “You’re a poor keeper, elder. But we caught up with him and finished him off. And we have taken care of the monster. It’s no longer a threat. Well, and we revived the Dead Lake. In general, all your problems are solved. Live in peace.”
The elder glanced at his countrymen. Then he looked the rescuers over and finally decided,
“Eh! My generosity will be my undoing. But you are such great heroes that I cannot do otherwise. Please accept as a token of our gratitude this most beautiful, amazing and mysterious piece crafted by human hands that exists in our village.”
Mackon handed Jack a helmet. Or rather… well, of course, it was Theokrist’s Helm. The thing was rare and with unknown properties — the info window said as much.
The artifact looked just like a venerable, ancient relic with unknown properties should. It was a leather helmet enhanced with strips of copper, with plates to protect the cheeks, a nasel and an aventail. The leather was worn and scratched. It was quite a match for the shabby cloak of the ancient hero.
“Only one prize for three exploits? And so modest at that?” Jack smirked wryly. “Indeed, such generosity can become anyone’s undoing. Mackon, I want you to add two more awards to this one. First, I need a black sheep.”
Mackon zoned out for a second, just like Elder Neville had, then perked up and nodded, narrowing his eyes, “We can do that. And secondly?”
“Secondly, smile. Your smile is the greatest reward in all Alterra.”
“Jack, look,” Sartorius stared into the sky. “What’s that?”
A chain of lights appeared among the stars above the Achaean village. They were definitely not stars, for these glowed with a warmer, yellowish radiance and moved in a very smooth, precise curve.
“Well, it’s time for us to go,” Jack decided. “Mackon, bring us the sheep and we’ll leave you alone. That’s what you wanted, so hurry up.”
He’d seen the crossroads earlier. It was where the road split into the old one which led to the temple of Zaratos and the new one next to the lake. A very nice crossroads, with a stone pillar covered with some ancient signs. It had been a long time since he could indulge Necta with a sacrifice in such a respectable place. These days, it was always in some little abandoned lot.
As they walked to the crossroads, dragging a rather headstrong sheep behind them, the lights in the sky had grown noticeably closer. Sartorius occasionally squinted over his shoulder. What was that flying mystery?
Finally, he decided to ask, “It’s Skyfort, isn’t it?”
“That’s it, and now it’s better for us to get out of here. I mean, I almost don’t even care, because I’m dying in real life, but you should hide. Well, let’s begin our murderous ritual, yeah, brother warlock?”
“Listen, I…” the alpha suddenly spoke.
But Jack did not listen as the Skyfort was already very close and descending. He could even make out the chain of lights that were its windows bathed in the moonlight, and the outlines of its walls and towers. The last time the Skyfort had appeared over Gaerthon, it had been accompanied by natural catastrophes and great destruction. Better not to stick around to see how the meeting might end this time.
“Great Necta, accept this bloody sacrifice and transport us to the crossroads near the city of Narim on Stoglav!” he lowered his sword.
The Dark Portal opened over the crossroads. The map of two continents unfolded before Jack’s eyes.
* * *
Bathed in the moonlight, the forest road was quiet and surprisingly calm. Jack looked around, recognizing the familiar landscape. Sartorius shifted his feet next to him. He didn’t dare speak even though before he’d stepped into the Dark Portal, he’d started saying something.
“Well, did Gaerthon disappoint you?” Jack began so that the alpha would finally spit it out.
“Jack, I just don’t have the words. You know, I’ve been dreaming about something like that since we read the Book of Bacchus, remember? That shapeless Golem with the Lily in its hands! It held the flower so carefully — so gently. It was so touching that it took my breath away. All in one picture, an exact balance. The combination of rough power and fragile beauty, life and death, that’s what the developers invested in Alterra. Just unbelievable! And Zaratos’ speech… how he approached the matter, eh? His task was to dissuade us from entering the temple, and, you know, at some point, I really wanted to obey. Sit on the steps, drive away all the questions. I’m speechless!”
“Well, I’m glad you were so impressed with this adventure,” Jack smiled sadly. “Really, I’m glad. That’s exactly why I invited you to the lost continent. I just thought you might be the very person who would ap
preciate it. It’s a pity that this was our last joint venture. I didn’t manage to earn enough to buy a passage to New Atrium. It’s probably better to say goodbye now, just in case.
“No, no, Jack! Don’t say that!” Sartorius blurted out. “Listen, I’ve thought it through. All this time I’ve been thinking. There is still a way. I can take you through the Barrier. And I’ll get a chip that will help you stay there for a while, inside, without raising suspicion. It won’t solve all of your problems, but it’s a chance.”
Jack listened with bated breath.
“But it will be very difficult, you know,” Sartorius continued quietly and calmly. “How well can you swim underwater? Well, to begin with, can you swim?”
“Not too good. But if my salvation depends on it, then I’ll float as much as I need.”
“I was afraid that you would say that,” the alpha shook his head, “but we don’t have a choice, right?”
“That’s right. Tell me your plan.”
“The thing is, once a week the water supply system of New Atrium pumps water from the East River. And tomorrow at six in the evening…”
Chapter Sixteen
The Storming of the Fortress
HAVING PARTED WITH Sartorius in the roadside chapel, Jack went to the Shell. Now all the plans that he was preparing precisely for this moment and which were still in a suspended, inhibited state, had to be launched at full speed. All parts of the puzzle had to form a picture, and this picture would be of a dead Brandt.
Jack once again had his doubts. Would Sartorius come up with something? Would Jack be able to enter New Atrium? And there, after they were behind the Barrier would Goodwin’s plan work out? And if so, would it be possible to return to the ghetto to settle scores with Ironfist? No, too many steps, too many plans that weren’t his own. He couldn’t rely on other’s ideas. First, the meeting with Brandt, then everything else.
