by Tony Corden
Turning to the drone, she said, "Keep guard on the area behind me." She watched as it skittered into the treeline. Leah then considered one of her favourite spells, Chain Lightning. She no longer used the phrase but still remembered it. "Let the lightning strike and arc!" She thought of the rhythm of the phrase and considered how to change it to include Shadow or Dark Mana in it. In the end, she used Dark. Dark she remembered needed to be commanded and so needed a firmer word than let. She focussed on one of the nearby trees and gesturing with her right hand said, "Dark Lightning, strike and arc!" Nothing happened. It wasn't going to be a simple substitution of words
She considered her previous experience with forming new spells and realised the difference had been her intent. This time, she tried to imagine dark lightning. In her mind it absorbed the light as it flashed between her enemies, cutting deep and burning them. She tried several versions quietly until one seemed the most appropriate."Dark Lightning, strike and burn in turn!" Lightning, dark as night, flashed from her fingers and slammed into one of the trees. The tree shuddered from the impact, and the lightning flashed to the next, and the next, until ten trees in front of Leah lay shattered and slowly turning to ash on the ground. The fire was a deep blood red and consumed the trees quickly and completely. It didn't give off heat or smoke, and within minutes each tree was gone. Nothing remained of them except a faint coating of ash on the ground.
Leah was a little horrified at the sight, and a little impressed, with the powerful difference the addition of Dark had made. She decided she should think deeper about applying Dark to her other spells. A message appeared.
Level 4 Named Personal Achievement
Create a Dark Spell - First 10 (1, Ruby)
You have completed the Achievement Create a Dark Spell. You are one of the first 10 players to gain this achievement. This is your first Level 4 NPA ‘First 10’
Reward 1: 1000 x 306 = 1158210 (+278.5%) Experience Points (2372673/4250000)
Reward 2: 1 Platinum x 1 = 1 Platinum
Reward 3: +2% to Experience Points
Reward 4: 100 Fame Points (254015 FP)
You have achieved the title: Dark Mage
You have created the spell: Dark Chain Lightning
A Commemorative Plaque has been placed in your bag.
Leah stood for a moment and considered the implications of the title and wondered how it might affect her different relationships when suddenly there was a screech of pain behind her. She turned to see the summoned drone being torn in half by a primate with a burnt-orange coloured mane and scaled skin. The scales ranged in colour from dark chocolate to dark terracotta.
SCALED FIRE TAMARIN (Level 310) 91420/96100 HP (15500 EP)
It was bleeding from a puncture wound in its thigh, its blood the colour and consistency of thick tar. Her drone had ambushed it as it prepared to attack Leah. She equipped the Amber Dragon in her right hand, and with her left, she cast Circle of Sloth to slow its movements. Finished with the drone, it turned its gaze on Leah. It slowly crouched low with its front limbs back on the ground. It puffed out its cheeks and the mane flared out making the tamarin look larger than it was. With a sudden movement, it spat at Leah, hitting her high on the right shoulder. She'd ignored the move, seeing it as a diversion, and continued to watch the monkey's movement. Suddenly her right shoulder flared in pain as what turned out to be a powerful acid burnt through what remained of her old armour and began to dissolve her flesh. She quickly cast Heal, and though the pain was reduced, the acid continued to burn.
The tamarin was watching, waiting it seemed, for her to lose concentration but she didn't take her eyes off it. It spat again, aiming for her left side, but Leah Misted her left side before the acid reached her. That slight change in her shape was enough for the monkey, and it leapt for her, arms outstretched and teeth bared. Leah was struggling with the pain, but she'd learnt to push it to one side. Leah swivelled sideways and down to one knee, letting the attack pass over her, and brought the sword across the scaled midsection. She wasn't able to cut deep but did leave a long shallow cut down the side of the tamarin, and Leah benefitted from the HP stolen by her sword. As the monkey's momentum carried it past Leah, its tail curled around as if to grab her. She quickly reversed her stroke and removed the last third of its length.
The monkey howled as it turned around to look at Leah who had recovered some more Health and was standing ready for an attack. A quick look showed it still had at least eighty percent of its health and she was hovering above fifty percent. All the extra strength and stamina she'd received meant she still had more HP remaining than it did. She cast another Heal on her shoulder and then teleported behind the monkey, bringing her sword around in an arc to remove its head only to have the Amber Dragon find the mane impossible to cut. It wasn't hair but was made of a metallic compound, fine and pliable. Even so, her momentum deflected the sword downwards to slice deeply into the creature's shoulder.
With another howl of pain it turned quickly, and its flailing arm caught Leah under the arms, breaking several ribs, and flung her to the ground. The tamarin rose on its rear legs and stared down at a slightly dazed Atherleah, who obviously wasn't thinking clearly because she cast Rain of Fire. For several moments Leah thought she'd finished the beast because when the fire hit the tamarin, it began to burn. The fire reached the tar-like blood and suddenly the entire creature was engulfed in a ball of flame that blazed white for a moment, and then with a howl of triumph, it stepped from the flame. Instead of being only slightly larger than Leah it was now almost twice her height, its health fully restored and covered in flames which blazed from the boundary of every scale.
SCALED TAMARIN OF FIRE (Level 465) 216225/216225 HP (23250 EP)
Lifting both its blazing fists high, it brought them down to pummel Leah into the ground. She reacted quickly and teleported behind it and cast Freeze. Leah could see the spell interact with the scales and watched as a section of flame the size of her hand was extinguished and then over several seconds was reignited. As the blazing tamarin turned to face Leah she saw that its health bar had dropped slightly. She double-cast Freeze and extinguished the whole of its front half. As the creature's health bar dropped below half, Leah used the skill she'd learnt when playing as Qiáng and threw the axe in the same manner she'd mastered for throwing picks. It slammed into the tamarin's chest, and Leah, who'd followed it in, used the axe as a stepping stone to leap high enough to thrust the Amber Sword through the back of the creature's mouth and into its skull.
Its HP dropped rapidly and Leah, now fully healed by the stolen HP, was quick enough extend her fangs and feed as it died. Leah not only was at full Health but her Mana was almost full, stolen by the Amber Dragon. After double checking that the worker drone was dead, Leah used the vambraces to take the form of the tamarin.
Atherleah, you have taken the form of Ateş Maymunu. In the language of the Forsaken Clan, the name refers to one of the seven creatures who act as totems. Together they order the clan's entire existence. The clan refer to themselves as the Şakalaşma. Ateş Maymunu, as someone's totem, brings power, intelligence, long life, and humour. The vambraces have each added 50 A and 50 I to your statistics. Your clothes and belongings will be restored when you return to your human form.
Leah spent an hour learning to use the primate body although she didn't need the whole time as many movements were similar to her own. She had two more things on her mental list to do before crossing over into the Forest of Night. She wanted to see if it was possible to Shadow Walk while using the vambraces and she wanted to practice changing her appearance to reflect each of the major Dark Elf clans. From her reading, she discovered that Dark Elves and even people who played as Dark Elves had names different in form from other elves or players. To help she had already chosen three different identities which she could use if she needed a disguise.
She was working on the image of Atherleah the Dark Elf from Clan Solgun when she received a message:
Atherleah. 4
8 hours have elapsed since your pet Chimera, Mĕi, died. You previously decided that you wished Mĕi to be resurrected. Mĕi is now available, and a statue of Mĕi has been placed in your bag. Leah transformed back into Atherleah the half-elf and released Mĕi. Mĕi was none the worse for her ordeal and enjoyed the enthusiastic welcome Leah lavished on her.
After being reacquainted with Mĕi, Leah spent almost an hour and a half practising the transformations. She needed to not only change the shape of her ears and eyes but also reshape her body to be narrower and taller. Once she'd mastered the shape, she worked on colouring. She found the Yarim clan the most challenging as their skin didn't have a single shade but was patterned like the bark of a tree. Eventually, she was satisfied she could complete the transformations quickly if needed. Mĕi had watched the changes with interest for a while and then disappeared to hunt.
While Mĕi was absent, Leah took the form of Ateş Maymunu and attempted to Shadow Walk but had no success. She then tried to use the vambraces while Shadow Walking but again she had no success. Slightly disappointed, she called for Mĕi and made her way to the near end of the broken bridge, and after examining the far bank as carefully as she could, and seeing nothing, she began to cross the river into the Forest of Night.
The bridge into the Forest of Night was constructed of stone and originally looked to have been designed with two arches. From the central pier, the second arch was simply missing. When Leah looked at the opposite bank, she could see the bare rock of the foundation as even the abutment had been removed. There was no evidence of a trail, only dark shadows, hardly seen, between the trees of the Dark Forest. Leah and Mĕi stood at the broken end, and once more Leah examined the bank carefully. Not seeing anything, she teleported to the foundation stone. As she arrived, she received a message
Atherleah,
You stand at a long forgotten entrance to the Forest of Night, home of the dark elves of Vatan. Once, millennia ago, the dark elves and the other elven kingdoms enjoyed a small reprieve from war. It was decided to build a route through the wilderness in the hope of fostering a lasting peace. It was used by both diplomatic missions and the occasional merchant caravan, and it crossed the border between the lands of the Forest Elves and the home of the Dark Elves here.
When the Elven High King pronounced Orumeck's fate, the dark elves withdrew from the peace. This was ordered by the dark elf king with the full support of the Dark Mage Council. The king was a devotee of Suzluk, Orumeck's God. Orumeck was one of the few Dark Mage's not from the Dark Elf Clans, yet he held an exalted position on the Council, and they saw his fate as a judgement on all Dark Mages. The bridge was torn down, the path obscured, and the one avenue for peace closed.
Leah returned Mĕi to her bag and then taking a deep breath, she moved cautiously under the canopy. Almost immediately the light faded, the shadows deepened, and the general noise of insects and birds became hushed. Leah planned to head east, and when she asked Gèng to keep her in the right direction, Gèng said, "I'm sorry, I'm not permitted to give you that information while in the lands of the Dark Elves. The difficulty of movement is a challenge you are expected to overcome."
Leah nodded, then opened her bag and removed the spell book. Early on while defeating the ants, one of the eggs had given a spell called 'Spell of Ant Direction'. A quick look refreshed her memory. The spell only worked with a map so it wouldn't help here. She had the map-making skill, however, and when it was in active use her sense of direction was heightened. Slowly she began to head east. She stopped every two hundred paces and quickly marked her map with changes in elevation, types of vegetation, and any fauna she saw. After an hour she'd only moved a quarter of a league but had also been harvesting a supply of different ingredients for potions. The Book of Foraging had descriptions of almost a third of the plants, roots and trees she found and Falsi's Diary added even more. Leah also harvested several plants she couldn't identify but looked close to several other descriptions. She was going to stop and brew some potions, and the Analyse skill would come in useful then.
The next two hours followed the same pattern and Leah had yet to see evidence of the dark elves. She had been attacked once by a plant when she'd come within range, but having seen it once she was able to avoid several similar plants. She began to look for a place to log out and eventually decided to beast-walk as the tamarin. She climbed high into one of the trees, settled in the fork of a branch and logged out.
Leah made her way to the sofa, sat down and exited the Pod. After a quick shower, she went for the fitting. Aker again made her strip to her underwear and had Leah work through each of the eight positions while trying on the first draft of each section of the new clothing. There was a body suit that covered everything from the ankles to the wrists and high on the neck. Even though the material was pliable it didn't stretch enough to slide into, so Aker had made it in two pieces. The first went from the ankles to just above Leah's breasts. The second piece covered both arms, Leah's shoulders and neck and had moulded v-shaped sections on both the front and back to protect Leah's spine and vital organs. These sections were thicker and less pliable. As well as mid-calf boots and gloves Aker had prepared a balaclava and faceplate for Leah's. The balaclava left Leah's face bare and was designed to be thick and semi-rigid over the skull and along the vertebrae. The facemask was solid. The eye lenses were fitted with night vision. Filtered breathing had been added to provide extra room for Leah's jaw movement.
Aker still hadn’t finished anything for the weapons but said they would be ready at two-thirty that afternoon which was when Aker wanted Leah to return.
After Aker was finished Leah headed for the kitchen for another solo meal and then back to the Tower for the final preparation for invading the Vault.
They spent an hour fine-tuning the different sensory assignments and then Leah was put through a series of obstacle courses Akia had designed to reflect the Vault security. Leah attempted ten different courses ten times and though she made it further each time she was ejected or caught on every attempt. Finally, Gèng said, "Leah, the time is up. You need the thirty minutes of NREM3 to prepare yourself. I will wake you half an hour virtual time before you begin."
Leah, slightly dejected, nodded briefly before Gèng transferred her directly to a state of deep sleep.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
December 13, 2073 - Part 2
Leah woke refreshed, although her last memory was of failing to get through Akia's obstacle courses. She was lying on the sofa. As she sat up, Akia and Gèng entered the room and Akia said, "Leah, I believe you consider that your inability to master the courses I devised as an indicator of failure. On the contrary, those courses are, I trust, close to the level of the Vault's security. Besides, I applied an additional layer which learned from your previous attempts and made improvements to their detection ability. That you were able to avoid detection at all was surprising. That you continued to improve instigated a review of the algorithm I use to predict success. I have recalculated the probability of your success as 0.2962."
Akia then handed Leah a ring; it was a simple band of gold and had characters etched around the outer surface. "This is my personal key. If you hand that to my Prime, then she will have access to what has transpired while she's been archived."
Sombre but somewhat heartened, Leah spent twenty minutes in the small garden trying to put the problems aside and prepare herself for the incursion. For the first ten minutes, thoughts of her mother, of Thad, and of self-doubt kept intruding. Finally, she did not try and dismiss them but allowed them to stay. As her tears fell, she did what her mother would have suggested, and prayed. She asked for strength to continue on and for a clear mind. She didn't ask for the problems to disappear, nor for the path to somehow become easy. She believed that God expected her to live the life that was in front of her, that he would provide strength and direction, and that both her successes and failures helped to shape her. God, she believed, was more interested in who she was and who she became—m
ore concerned with her heart, her motivations and her attitudes than with the outcomes. Slowly, Leah found peace and after several minutes of slow deep breaths she rose, ready to set Akia free.
Gèng was waiting in the main room and said, "I think it will be easier to leave from my space than from here. Akia and I have fortified it just in case the security attempts to trace the incursion. I will guide you through the exchanges, but I'll remove any element of my presence when we get near. The interfacing program we've designed over the last day will then function completely according to the directions you provide. Are you ready?"
Leah nodded, and they headed for the rooms set aside for Gèng. As Leah stepped into Gèng's cyber-world, she no longer felt nauseous and her sense of disorientation disappeared almost immediately. The program they'd prepared interpreted the cyber-signals so that Leah saw herself in a large warehouse with multiple levels and thousands of doors. From where she stood she could see each door. The floor was covered with tiles which were constantly changing colour as electrical signals moved between doors. Leah could just see the slight pause as each moving packet of data was tested before being allowed through the gap under the door. Each door had a label describing where it led. Gèng pointed to a door labelled ‘LAN:Guàn_Enterprises' and said, "We're leaving through there. You'd best get dressed."
Leah quickly changed into a pair of dark overalls and some soft boots. She slung a utility belt around her waist and added a very slim backpack. When she was ready, she nodded at Gèng. In a single step, they were at the door. It had a keypad, Gèng entered the correct sequence into the keypad and the door opened automatically. Stepping through, they appeared in a circular room with doors around most of its circumference.
Each door was labelled, and all had keypads. She could see one marked ‘SIMPOD:Michael_Carroll', while the others were labelled with the names of those using Pods in her buildings. Covering the remainder of the circumference were letterboxes, each labelled and locked with a key. The tiles on the floor were constantly changing colour as data flowed back and forth from the Pods and other cyber devices being used. Leah had learned to distinguish different types of data, and she saw data from security cameras, motion sensors, and heat sensors all travelling under a door labelled ‘SubLAN:Security’. The pause before entry there was longer than at other doors. One of the doors was slightly ajar. It was labelled ‘SIMPOD:Kyle_Walters'. Leah pointed it out to Gèng, who said, "Kyle is not always careful about which worlds he visits. He's instructed his AI to allow him access to several worlds against the AI's security suggestions. Our security is vigilant and is capable of filtering out the constant attempts from outside to infect Kyle's Pod. John has spoken with him, but he has not yet changed his instructions to the AI."
