Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “What exactly is a Chaos Stone?” Molly asked, clearly intrigued by what William was saying. “Or Primal Energy, for that matter. You don’t mean Æther, do you?”

  “No.” William shook his head patiently. “Primal Energy and Æther are two completely different forms of energy, and the Chaos Stone only carries an affinity for Primal Energy.”

  The man paused for a moment as he collected his words. “If I would liken the two of them to common terms more easily understood, Primal Energy is the raw essence of creation itself. It is what the gods used to create Reality, the very ground that we stand on.

  “Æther, on the other hand, is the natural coalescence of magic, and it is what the gods used to create life,” William continued, his explanation completely capturing our attention.

  “I think I understand,” Molly said slowly. “Without Æther, life wouldn’t exist. Without Primal Energy, life wouldn’t have anywhere to exist.”

  “In essence, you are correct.” William nodded, before holding up a hand in warning. “However, it is much more complicated than that in practice.”

  “How does this relate to the sigils?” I asked, feeling slightly lost. “The sigils somehow channel Primal Energy?”

  “That depends on the sigil,” William said. “The sigil you have on your chest, the Sigil of Rage, is one tied to the Primal Energy source. There are others that are tied into the Ætheric source, and a rare few that are tied into both.”

  “Just how many sigils are there?” Molly asked.

  “That answer is only known by the gods,” William replied. “In my time before The Fall, I have seen Sigils of Alacrity, Power, Fortitude, and Intellect, in addition to the one Lazarus has, with multiple variations of each. It is my theory that the sigils were created by the gods to empower their servants as they went about the task of creating Reality. As the eons wore on, ambitious mortals such as the Ascendant Emperor discovered the sigils too, turning them to serve his own purposes.

  “That is why I had to be sure how the sigil had been written onto to your chest.” William focused his grey eyes on me as he spoke. “In the Ascendant Empire, the Emperor had sole control over the distribution of the sigils and purposefully restricted them for himself, his inner circle, and his elite guard, the Sigilbound. But being the paranoid man that he was, all the sigils that he inscribed carried a component that compelled a near-permanent, undying loyalty to him, allowing him to commit a millennia’s worth of atrocities without fear. For the briefest of moments, I was terrified to think that somehow the knowledge of that compulsion had somehow survived The Fall.”

  “I understand,” I told William. Living under an immortal tyrant for the majority of one’s life definitely left a mark, and seeing the symbols of his oppression would understandably stir up memories rather forgotten. “How were the sigils granted? With my memories gone…I have no idea how I even got the sigil in the Arcaneum. We were supposed to be looking for a single artifact.”

  “Truthfully, I do not know,” William told me. “My position as a Head Librarian gave me an insight to a great amount of lore that was otherwise restricted from the common populace of the Empire. But as for how the emperor granted the sigils…that was a closely guarded secret.”

  “Well,” Molly said with a sigh as she turned to look towards me. “All that does is just raise more questions than answers.”

  “Going back to the Chaos Stone that Edith has?” I said, steering the conversation back on track. “What were they used for?”

  “That depends,” William said thoughtfully. “The stones were originally designed to keep renegade Sigilbound in check; it would temporarily deprive them of the sigil’s power, allowing them to caught or killed. A side effect of the stone negating the sigil’s power was that it would be filled with the sigil’s energy instead, allowing the wielder to tap into that energy to fuel their own spells without drawing on their natural reserves.”

  “That explains how she managed to cast such a powerful spell,” Molly commented, looking over at me. “But how did she end up so…deformed?”

  “She alluded to something happening back in the Arcaneum and blamed me for it,” I said with a sigh, glancing in Molly’s direction as I placed my hand on my chest directly over where the sigil was, sensing the well of energy hiding behind it.

  “Yeah, but what?” Molly asked with frustration. “Something to do with the artifact she wanted us to help steal?”

  “I don’t know,” I whispered, feeling the sickening sensation that we might have hit a dead end. William had clearly done his best to answer our questions, and had raised several more in the process. But we still had no clear idea of what Edith was up to, or what our next steps would be.

  How much of what Edith is doing is related to what happened in the Arcaneum? I wondered, trying to piece together everything that had happened. Did she have all of this planned before seeking Molly and me out? Or is she just scrambling after everything came apart?

  “I appreciate your help on this, William,” I said, looking towards both Molly and Quinn to see if they had any other questions for the man. Without any leads to follow, we might as well head back to the guild and fill Isabella in on what we had learned so far.

  Nodding slowly at me, William let out a small smile. “It is nothing. And I apologize for reacting so harshly earlier. A lifetime of fear and hate is hard to overcome, especially for a man as old as me.”

  “I appreciate your help, William,” I replied with a smile.

  “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Molly asked with a worried expression on her face, looking at the much-recovered half-elf. “We can stay a bit longer if you’re not feeling well.”

  “I don’t mind staying,” Quinn said. “It really isn’t any problem.”

  “No, no, I am fine,” William replied earnestly. “If nothing else, this was a sign that I should move around more often, instead of spending my days sitting. I may be old and have death looming over me, but I do not wish to make it any easier on him than I must.”

  “Be that as it may, I think it’s time you looked at getting someone to help around here,” Quinn said seriously.

  “Hey,” I interjected before William could reply, an idea coming to mind. “Would you be interested in teaching? There is a boy in the guild that needs a more rounded education than the guild can provide, and he would be able to help you get around. Plus, with all the training he’s had so far, he should be able to avoid Chomper or any falling stacks of books easily enough.”

  “You mean Goner?” Quinn looked at me with surprise before nodding quickly. “That would be a great idea! He can help you around here on a regular basis.”

  “I haven’t taught since I was in my early seventies,” William hedged as he looked at all of our faces, seeing our excited expressions. “But perhaps I could teach the boy something useful. At any rate, another pair of hands to move some of these stacks around and clean up would be most helpful…”

  “I’ll ask him and see if he’s interested,” I told William, feeling happy that Goner would be somewhere safer than the heart of a Thieves Den. I had a feeling that William’s apartment was a much more appropriate place for a growing boy than an underground lair filled with cutthroats and murderers.

  “Of course.” William nodded, sensing that our visit was coming to a close. “But before you go, I have an odd question for all of you, if I may.”

  “Sure,” Molly replied the quickest, having warmed up to the elderly man during our short visit.

  “How many times have you all died?”

  Each of our eyebrows shot up at the odd request, and we looked at one another in surprise. It certainly was an unexpected question, but I couldn’t see any harm in replying.

  “Six,” I replied, filtering through the number of reckless or poor choices that I had made over the last two weeks.

  “Two,” Molly added, giving me an odd look at my rather high number.

  “Once,” Quinn replied, coloring as Molly and I loo
ked at him in disbelief.

  “Your only death…” I said slowly as a grin crossed my face.

  “…was being crushed by a pile of books?” Molly couldn’t help but laugh as she finished my sentence.

  “Yeah, well,” Quinn said with a shrug. “I consider that a good thing. I don’t know about you, but I prefer not to die, on general principle.”

  Looking at us with a sense of bewilderment, William’s mouth fell open, completely at a loss for words.

  “I am an old man, reaching the end of my natural life, and I find myself thinking of death often, worrying about what I will find on the other side,” William managed after a moment. “Yet you all stand here before me, having passed through that veil, multiple times in some cases, and still remain in good spirits. It warms me in knowing that there is something more waiting for me one day. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.” William waved his hands as if he were shooing us away. “Go find this woman wreaking havoc in the city, and perhaps then we will be able to talk at length.”

  “Thank you for everything, William,” Quinn said as we all began to shuffle out of the room.

  “No, thank you, Quinn,” William said as he watched us leave. “Good luck in your hunt. I sense that you will need it.”

  Chapter 13

  “He reminds me of my grandfather.” Quinn was the first to speak once we left William’s apartment and out into the fresh air again, walking back towards the Market District on our way to the guild headquarters. “It’s a little hard to constantly remind myself while I’m there that he’s not really real.”

  “I know exactly what you mean, Quinn,” I said. “This game has only been out for a short time and I’m already feeling the lines between this world and Reality blurring. I can’t imagine how we’ll feel in a few months or a year.”

  “I don’t think any of us expected to ever find a game this real,” Molly whispered quietly. “Did you watch his expressions when he spoke about the Ascendant Empire, or when he saw Lazarus’s sigil? His emotions were real, raw, as if he actually lived him.”

  “Maybe he did,” Quinn offered. “CTI hasn’t released anything about how they developed this game; we don’t even have the faintest glimpse of what sort of technology they used to create these NPCs. They’re a scary level of real.”

  “I don’t know about that, Quinn. William said he was a hundred and fifty-three years old!” Molly exclaimed, waving her hands around to the street around us. “But we know that this game has only been on the market for barely two weeks!”

  “Time is relative to a computer program,” Quinn said with a shrug. “If there weren’t any players plugged into the game, what’s not to say that CTI just sped up the rate of time when compared to Reality? You know, like one second in the real world is equal to a day inside the game. If these NPCs are as real as we think we are, they could have let the world’s history write itself.”

  “Now that is a scary idea,” I stated as I mulled over Quinn’s theory.

  “Why?” Quinn asked, a quizzical expression on his face. “It’s not impossible, given what we’ve seen.”

  “That’s exactly why it’s scary,” I told the mage. “It means CTI isn’t actually interacting with this world, but is letting it evolve on its own instead.”

  “So, it’s just like real life, then,” Quinn replied, clearly not sharing the same worry as me. “Just better.”

  Is it, though? I couldn’t help but shake a chill that crept down my spine as we walked in silence for a few blocks and made our way back into the Market District. If all of the NPCs in this world had evolved according to their experiences, how were they any different than people in the real world? Was there a difference because they were just digital constructs, and we were actually flesh and bone? Or was there someone looking down at us from above that regarded us the same way we did at our creations?

  The thoughts swirled around in my mind as we retraced our steps through the Old District, passing through the lavishly appointed street quietly and crossing back over into the Market District. Taking a moment to glance around my surroundings, I noticed yet another flashing quest update, in the corner of my vision. With nothing better to do as we walked across the city, I brought up the update and skimmed through it as it appeared in my vision.

  Quest Updated! No Honor Among Thieves!

  Your meeting with Quinn’s contact, William, turned out to be a bit unusual, but you managed to uncover a wealth of lore regarding both the sigil on your chest and the devils that Edith summoned. Return to Isabella to tell her what you’ve discovered.

  Collect information about the Sigil: 1/1 (Complete)

  Collect information about the Devils: 1/1 (Complete)

  Return to Isabella and inform her of your discovery: 0/1

  I hope this quest doesn’t end up taking me all over the city and wasting all our time traveling, I thought to myself with a sigh as I dismissed the update from my vision. I had noticed that city-based quests tended to force the Adventurer to range from one end of the city to the other on a fairly regular basis, giving frequent and small updates each and every time a quest goal was achieved. Likely a balance decision, since we don’t have as far to travel as Adventurers who choose to make their life out in the wild. That, and traveling is relatively ‘safer’ in the city.

  Well, most of the time.

  Continuing our trek back towards the guild headquarters, I noticed few Adventurers or citizens on the streets, allowing us to make great time as we crossed the length of the city. It seemed that the news of the military leaving had finally caught up to the remaining Adventurers in the city. The short time that we had spent visiting with William had been more than enough for the Adventurers to ready themselves and rush after the departing soldiers and for the civilians to take shelter back in their homes.

  Hopefully we’ll find out why they were sent out, I thought to myself as we turned off of one of the main roads and onto a side street. Then we can figure out if the kingdom is about to be plunged into war once again, or if all of this is just a huge waste of time and stress.

  I felt a sudden wave of nervousness wash over me at the thought of open warfare. I had no frame of reference to even picture how a conflict between two nations would play out in Ascend Online, vaguely imagining thousands of troops charging into one another and hacking each other to pieces. I had trouble envisioning myself in such a conflict and felt my anxiety increase.

  Taking a deep breath, I banished the spiraling thoughts and focused on the moment, scanning the area habitually for threats, just like Fairfax had taught me a few days ago. Looking to my side, I noticed that both Molly and Quinn were also lost in their thoughts as we walked, their eyes staring blankly ahead of us, staring at a pair of Adventurers in the distance. A quick glance behind me showed an empty street behind us, but despite looking around the area, my body felt tense, as if there was something it was trying to warn me about.

  Why are my nerves so shot? I asked myself as we continued to walk down the side street, trying to distract my overactive mind by forcing it to study my surroundings. There’s nothing here, it’s just a normal side street, everything is nice and quiet…

  “It’s quiet,” I whispered, realizing what was missing and why my body was on edge.

  “What?” Molly replied, startled out of her train of thought. “Sorry, just thinking about the day.”

  “No, not us, the street,” I said as I subtly glanced behind us again, spotting three Adventurers as they came walking around the corner. Turning my head the other way, I saw that the two Adventurers ahead of us had since turned around and were making their way directly towards us, effectively boxing us in. “Heads up, I think we’ve attracted Hunters.”

  Both Molly’s and Quinn’s eyes widened as they shook off their mental cobwebs.

  “Plan?” Quinn whispered through his teeth. “Attack first?”

  “Follow my lead,” I hissed back, seeing a familiar flash of red armor and a golden shield between the cloak
of one of the Adventurers ahead of us. There was only one Bounty Hunter I knew that wore armor like that. “I think I know one of these guys.”

  I saw Quinn flinch out of the corner of my eye at my statement, turning to look at me with surprise. Knowing a Bounty Hunter often meant that one of you had died the last time you met, which understandably led to hard feelings between the two parties the next time they crossed paths.

  Of course, this time was no exception.

  “Sawyer!” I shouted from across the street, visibly startling the pair of Adventurers walking towards us. “What are the odds that I’d meet you again here?”

  “Better than you’d think, Lazarus,” a male voice called back after a moment to recover from the surprise. “This city isn’t that big for people like us.”

  “I don’t know, man,” I replied, spreading my hands out wide, indicating the city around us. “Seems like plenty of other people are finding other places to be today.”

  “Yeah, well…” The red-armored Eberian man came to a stop a short distance away from us, fixing his dark eyes on me. “Not many other people are responsible for taking out the entire Undertaker gang in a single night. Something like that catches a lot of heat from those invested in their services.”

  “The Undertakers are gone?” I asked mockingly. “Damn, you’d think that if a single person were capable of taking out an entire gang in a single night, others would know well enough to just leave them the fuck alone.”

  “You know, I thought the same thing,” Sawyer admitted, putting his hands on his hips as he threw back his cloak, revealing a heavily muscled body underneath his blood-red armor. “But it’s strange how a pile of gold coins can change someone’s mind.”

  “Shit,” I gasped sarcastically, glancing between Quinn and Molly, seeing my girlfriend roll her eyes at my attempt at theatre. “They’re offering gold for this guy? How much? If the price is right, we wouldn’t mind getting in on it and splitting the bounty. Besides, if I remember the last time we met, you had a rough time doing everything by yourself.”