"Well, what do you think, Henri?"
"You have chosen well, ma fille. She is a fine ship. But I am no sailor, I am a programmer turned innkeeper."
"I know, Papa. Lex can sail her. He won the challenge in-game, in this very ship. We were just lucky to find her unoccupied."
Alexander swore under his breath. He had won that challenge the day before it was released to the public, and had taken Em along with him - against Val's orders. That was a mistake. At least he was reasonably certain that Val wasn't watching that day. For now, though, he had to get on that boat. It was the only way to keep an eye on her unless -
"Um, anchors away, then?" Henri was saying as Lex turned the crank to pull up the anchor. Alexander jumped back to the dock - there was no way to get on board now. He looked up as the anchor emerged from the water, and his hood fell back - just as Lex looked down toward the water.[1]
Their eyes locked, and Lex's tattoos flared in recognition. "You," he hissed. Alexander froze for a moment as Lex swung a leg over the bow of the boat - but then he pushed the boat off the dock, and it started to float away from its mooring. Alexander held a finger up to his lips as he replaced his hood, and Lex nodded almost imperceptibly. Now the Prophis knew that they were being watched, but if he told Em, he would have to explain more - at least more than he should to stay in her good graces. This was a good thing. Alexander found a hiding place in some crates and exited out of the game.
Several hours later, as he was eating some takeaway food with a glass of wine, there was a knock at his door. He rose and answered it to find a courier there with a large brown envelope.
"Papiers pour Alexandre de Monsieur Badeaux, signez ici s'il vous plait." The courier stood there with the envelope in one hand and the other extended. Alexander fumbled in his pockets for some money - clearly not enough based on the courier's expression - and took the envelope just before he shut the door. He could hear the courier swearing as he stalked back down the hall. Alexander tore into the container and found a bound notebook along with a rolled-up piece of paper and a small pouch. He took the items to his table and, after removing the takeaway containers, spread everything out. No sooner had he picked up the notebook when his phone vibrated. It was a call from Val. He put it on speaker.
"Sorry about the tip for the courier. It was all I had on me."
"My goodness, then I clearly do not pay you enough." He could hear Val smiling through the phone. "Do you have any questions so far?"
“No, sir, I’ve only just opened it. I will be sure to let you know if I do.” Val disconnected the call, and Alexander put the phone back down on the table. He picked up the roll and broke the wax seal on one side of it before unrolling what looked like a map. The word Faqur was written in an ornate script at the top, and there were continents and bodies of water laid out around them. It looked remarkably familiar, but Alexander put it to one side and reached for the notebook. He opened it, and there was a handwritten note on the front page.
“Alexander, this package contains information about the inspiration for Arcstone. Please call me if you have any questions. There are more instructions in the following pages. - V”
He nodded and started turning the pages in the notebook, briefly skimming the pages. Was this a new zone that Val wanted to be added to the game? Probably, and since Alexander was his beta tester, it made sense that he would be the first to see it. The notebook was divided into sections - “Economy,” followed by “Citizens” and “Landscape.” Alexander thumbed ahead to that last section and then unrolled the map again. He always started with the physical layout before working on the lore for a new section of the game. All the places listed were marked on the map except for the last one, merely titled “Rift.”
“Hmm, maybe that’s a zone border?” Alexander smoothed out the map and got up from the table to retrieve the magnifying glass from his office. Occasionally he had to use it to see the tiny and precise marks that Val made on the maps of the zones in Arcstone. Still nothing. He pulled a notepad out of his messenger bag and made a note to ask Val about that.
Several hours and lots of notes later and Alexander pushed back from the table and stood up to stretch. He had yet to find the “instructions” that Val mentioned in the letter and wondered if he should ring Val and ask. As always, Em was in the back of his mind, and Alexander wondered where she was and if she was all right. She hadn’t heeded his message, but it was too dangerous to send her another one - if Lex had told her what he saw on the dock, she could have stayed there to search for him. Alexander rubbed his temples, but his musing was soon interrupted by his ringing phone. He picked it up - it was Val - so he touched the green button on the phone and lifted it to his ear. “Oui?”
“Very good, Alexander, you’re learning to answer the phone correctly.” Alexander scowled. “I trust you have had time to look through what I sent you?”
“Yes. I was just about to ring you, actually. I am not sure what you want me to do with -”
“So you haven’t read all of it, then?”
“No, just taking a break at the moment. It’s incredibly detailed, though, sir. I can see how it inspired Arcstone - the overlaps are apparent.”
“I’m pleased you approve, Alexander. I’m going to need you to study what I’ve sent you and learn the landscape by heart.” Val paused for a moment. “There are languages to learn as well, but that will come later.”
“You mean like in the game? Experience points placed into the languages?”
“Yes, but you won’t do that right away, though. The first thing you need to do is learn that map and the information in the notebook that corresponds to each place on the map. You have two weeks.”
“Two weeks? Sir, I have to be at work and -”
“That is your work now, Alexander. When we next speak in two weeks, I will give you a test of sorts to see how much you’ve memorized. In the meantime, I will cover your GM duties, so you don't need to worry about logging into the game. "
“Oh, alright, yes, sir. I will speak to you then.” The line went dead, and Alexander stared at the phone for a moment before replacing it on the table. This was a bizarre assignment but was still not the strangest thing that he had done for his employer. He rifled through the papers and thought of Em for a moment - his loneliness for her was intense now. She was always the one that wanted to do all the research for quests and missions for them to run later. She would love this work. He couldn't go for two weeks without knowing how she was doing.
"I love you, Em. I will get you out of there as soon as I can, I swear."
Em
Nineteen
She had found it hard to sleep since the boat left the dock, and now that they were in the abyss proper, it was even worse. Em had never been on a ship in her real-life but had logged plenty of hours in the game sitting in boats with Lex - with Alex, she corrected herself. Both in the tavern and on the journey north to the Scarlett Islands, there had been ample time to talk, and from what Lex could remember, he was part of the game world, not the Alex she knew from the real world. How he had come to know her and know so much about the time she spent with Alex was still a mystery...how he and Alex were separated, independent? Beyond her at this point. It was a question for Val.
She walked up to the bow and leaned into the wind whipping off the surf as the boat cut through the waves. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath of the night air, salty and refreshing and almost soothing. There was still much to sort out, but for now, she could just feel the spray against her face.
“Careful, Em, don’t fall off into that water.” Em smiled as Lex moved in behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back a step from the bow. “Can’t you sleep?”
“No, not since we left port. I’m not seasick, not exactly. What about you? Why aren’t you getting some sleep? Is Henri all right?” She snuggled into his arms as he moved them up around her chest and pulled her close.
“Snoring.” Em giggled. “Em,
I’m still - well, I’m sorry about the mark.” Em turned around in his arms and put her hands on his shoulders as she shook her head. “The truth is that I knew about not being able to leave if you are marked. I knew that would keep you here.”
“How could you have known that? You did it to heal my arm - an injury, by the way, which I inflicted on myself. I guess I just wore you out so much, and you were sleeping so soundly that I couldn’t wake you.” Em looked down at her shoes - she hadn’t told him how afraid she was when she woke up, but that was the truth. “I’m sorry I threw you up into the ceiling.”
Lex lifted her chin until she was looking at him again. “Em, it doesn’t matter anymore. Your arm is healed, and - well, I can think of worse things than being stuck in Arcstone with you.” She grinned up at him and then stood up on her tiptoes until her lips touched his. She felt his arms tighten around her and pull her in even closer as the kiss deepened, and then suddenly he was everywhere again, filling her senses as he swept her off her feet and carried her below deck to her cabin. “Perhaps you won’t snore as much as your father does?” he asked as he gently put her on her bunk and then climbed in after her, wrapping his body around hers. She laughed and kissed him again, shifting her body until she was underneath him. He pushed up off of her onto his elbows. “Are you sure?
“Absolutely sure.” Em wound her fingers into his braid until she found the tie holding it, and soon his hair was free and cascading down onto her. He kissed her again, deeper this time, and she held onto the back of his head as she returned the kiss. Her tattoo matched the purple glow of his as they rose and fell together, matching the rhythm of the boat.
That was the first night's sleep she had gotten in days, and she dreamed of home, her apartment, and her cat whom she was sure had gone out the cat flap and never came back when she didn’t come home the first night. He was a contrary beast who tolerated her at best, but she missed him. The next morning when Em awoke, Lex was lying on his side, looking at her.
“Good morning, gorgeous.”
“Good morning, yourself.” He leaned down and kissed her gently, and she saw a purple light flash through his tattoo before it settled back to its usual blue. “None of that, now.” She snuggled into his arms for a moment, enjoying the closeness and the safety of him. It was still too much to believe that she was actually with Lex, even though she wasn’t sure who he really was.
She stretched, and he smoothed her hair back from her face, but after a long moment, she sat straight up in the bed. “How long have I been asleep?” She tried to get out of the bed against the pitching of the boat and ended up losing her balance and falling backward - into Lex’s waiting arms. “Laugh, and I will punch you.”
“Never. You had a few good hours of sleep. Henri came by a bit ago to check-in. He says that we are still on course. He’s not a bad sailor for someone who has spent all of his life on land.” Em chuckled.
“He’s always wanted to be the captain of a ship. He told me that when he was a little boy in France, he and his family would watch ships come down the Seine through Paris.” She managed to slip out of the bunk this time and got to her feet without much trouble. She pulled her leather tunic over the cotton one she slept in and then put on the rest of her armor and boots before extending a hand to Lex. “You going to stay in bed all day, or are you coming above deck?” He threw back the covers to reveal he had already gotten up and dressed while she was asleep.
“Wherever you’re going is where I’m going.” He grinned and hopped out of bed before taking her hand and following her up the stairs. Em laughed as they came out onto the deck and found Henri in the same spot where Lex had seen her the night before. “Like father, like daughter, I suppose?”
Twenty
Henri opened his arms wide, and Em ran into them, hugging him tightly. As she snuggled into his embrace, she thought about how easy it was to believe that he was real - and how easy it was to overlook that Lex was not. He was real in all the ways that mattered, she guessed.
"So, Papa, how goes sailing? Steered us off the edge of the world yet?" His frown deflated Em's mood. "What's wrong?"
"We are no closer to the edge of this world than we are to the edge of the abyss. I mean, I'm skirting the outer edge as best I can so we don't get sucked under, but it is taking all my energy." As if to illustrate his point, the wheel jerked violently to the right, and Henri fought it back into position. "It wants to pull us down into that immense… Comment les dis tu tourbillon?"
"Whirlpool?" Em scampered to the edge of the deck and looked off the starboard side, gasping. The water was churning only a few miles from the boat, threatening to drag them down into the spinning maelstrom. She turned back to Lex and pointed at Henri, who was again fighting with the wheel. Lex slid in behind her father and whispered something to him, causing Henri to move to the right and give Lex space to grab the wheel and right the boat's trajectory.
“Thank you, Lex.” Henri was red-faced as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “You’re just so much stronger than I am.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Lex continued to stare out to sea as Henri approached Em. She was watching Lex steer the boat and harboring some very inappropriate thoughts as he broke into her reverie.
“What is it, Papa?”
“I don’t know where we are headed, Em. I feel like we have been blown wildly off course while I went below deck to take a nap last night.” Her heart hurt to see the sadness on his face.
“You needed your sleep.”
“Also, while below, I found something on the floor by the rope that raises and lowers the anchor. A piece of paper - I don’t know how it survived the water that came in as we raised the anchor, but it was there.” He reached in his pocket and handed Em an envelope. “I don’t know how anyone knew that you were aboard, but it is addressed to you.”
She snatched it out of his hand without thinking. “Did you read it?”
Henri chuckled. “Only the salutation, ma fille. I promise.” Em opened the letter and found the same handwriting she’d seen in the message at her house in the woods. “Is it important?”
“Potentially.” She moved toward the stairs and indicated that Henri should follow. Lex was not paying attention - he was still playing at being the captain of the ship. “Papa, I received a message when Lex and I were still at my house in Embercrest. It was not signed, but it warned me to be careful around Lex, that he wasn’t who he said he was.”
“Did you mention that to Lex?”
“Well, no. It seemed to be written...by him, or by who I thought he was - who he was when we played the game together. But then a storm blew up, and I had to go inside to keep myself from getting hurt.” Henri looked at her, clearly puzzled. “The rain in Iredale is caustic to the Tyrael skin. Ironic, no?” He shrugged. “So I lost the letter then. I checked around the house and in the mailbox before Lex, and I left, but it wasn’t there.”
“Well, what does it say?” Em held up a finger as she read it aloud.
“Darlin’, you did not heed my warning. I know that you are close to Lex, but I must warn you, he is not what he seems. If you and the innkeeper are to make it out of this world and into the next, you must heed my words and leave the Prophis.” She folded it and shrugged. “That is basically what the first one said. Is it because Lex - well, because he might not be...real like we are?”
“I don’t think we can know, ma fille. We don’t know who sent the letter. We don’t know who wrote it.” Em nodded in agreement. Still, it gave her pause - that another letter would turn up meant someone was following her, someone that did not want her to be with Lex.
“Maybe we should show it to Lex. I didn’t do that with the first one.”
“Maybe.” Henri stroked his chin. “What do you think he will say?”
“What will I say about what?” Em nearly jumped out of her skin. Neither of them had heard Lex walk up behind them.
“Have the waters calmed?” Em hoped that she could distract him. His gla
re told her that she was unsuccessful.
“Have you something to show me?”
Em scowled and held out the letter. “It was found in the area below deck where the rope is stored after lifting the anchor.” Lex opened it and scanned the words, frowning. “I’m not worried about the content, Lex, I’m worried about -”
“Perhaps you should be, Em. I mean, clearly, I am not trustworthy.” He looked like he was about to shred the letter, but instead, Lex carefully folded it, hands shaking with exertion as he clearly tried to keep from ripping it to bits.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Lex.” Em took the letter from him and put it in the pocket of her trousers. “You and I are...we are… Well, I mean, you are someone that I trust. It will take a lot more than a letter to change my mind.” She looked him in the eye, and he held her gaze for a moment before stalking back to the bow of the ship and gripping the wheel.
“Let him be, for now, cherie,” Henri said as he rubbed her back. “I will speak to him. We will figure out who left that note. We will sort it out. You go check the maps for me, oui?” Em nodded and walked down the stairs to her cabin. The feeling that she was being watched hung over her. Until she found out who had left the notes, she would not rest well - not even in Lex’s arms. Especially not in his arms. This day had started so well...Em shook her head to clear it and then sat down on her bunk. She picked up her pillow and pressed her face into it - Lex. A stinging at her neck caused her to touch her tattoo. It was crimson, and the light was filling the room. This uncertainty could not continue - she and Lex would have to talk.
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