Awaken Online: Dominion

by Travis Bagwell

  “It took you long enough,” his younger self said dryly.

  “Th-they’re part of me, aren’t they?” Jason asked quietly. “All of this is just my mind. The hallways, the webs, this room. It’s sort of like a defense mechanism, isn’t it?”

  The boy nodded. “Of course.”

  “But why the library?” Jason muttered to himself, looking around the room. He had always loathed the library. It only represented his parents’ neglect.

  “Did you, though? Did you always hate this room?” the boy asked calmly, apparently picking up on his surface thoughts. “Or is that just how you remember it now? Through a mental lens that has grown worn and warped with time and anger.”

  Jason cocked his head in surprise. “I…” He hesitated as a flash of memory crept through his mind’s eye – of hours spent curled in a corner of this massive room, buried in a book.

  Did I really hate this place? he asked himself.

  His eyes shifted across the library, looking at it in a different light. As his gaze swept along the ruined bookshelves, they slowly mended themselves, drifting back into place. The books rose from the floor and neatly tucked themselves away on the wooden shelves. As the room pieced itself back together, the webbing and spiders began to disintegrate, dissolving into tendrils of familiar gray mist that tumbled in streamers throughout the room.

  He remembered now. He had spent hours here reading stories of grand adventures. Heroes that developed incredible powers – that dared to take what they wanted. He remembered how this room had been an escape. This school might represent his parents’ betrayal, but, just for a moment, the stories trapped within these books had given him a way to forget his problems – to forget the hours spent waiting for a phone call or the honk of a car horn that never came.

  Moisture was budding at the corners of Jason’s eyes as he looked back at the boy. “I-I think you’re right. I once loved this place, didn’t I? It was my way to escape.”

  His younger self only nodded.

  Jason heard a moan from behind him, and he turned. Riley was still bound in gray silk. The other cocoons lingered beside her, containing the limp bodies of his friends and family. He rushed to Riley’s side, trying to tear at the substance with his fingers, but having difficulty finding purchase. Every time he ripped through the silk, it melded back together seamlessly.

  “Why can’t I set her free?” Jason demanded of the boy, growling in frustration. “The rest of the room changed, and the spiders are gone.”

  “Because you haven’t let her in,” his younger self replied. “This challenge was about trust. Yet, you have only fought her entry by creating this labyrinth in your own mind and sending the spiders to protect yourself. You need to let her in.”

  Jason whirled on him angrily. “You mean this wasn’t enough? Seeing the way my parents abandoned me? Facing these demons that haunt my own mind? This wasn’t enough?” he repeated.

  The boy simply shook his head.

  “I have no idea what to do then,” Jason muttered.

  “Yes, you do,” the boy responded quietly. With a wave of his hand, a door suddenly appeared along one wall, the drywall shifting and rippling unnaturally before forming a strange gray substance. Meanwhile, bands of silver smoke drifted from the seams in the door, trailing into the room and pooling under the doorway. Above the door, a sign protruded from the wall, the word “Exit” framed in glowing red light.

  “You just have to let her in.”

  Jason glanced one more time at Riley, who could only stare back at him in confusion – likely as taken aback by this scenario as he was. Then he walked toward the door, his mind awash in doubt and worry. He suspected he knew what was on the other side. Should he do this? Should he open this door? Riley would see what was inside. There would be no turning back. He wouldn’t be able to stop the inevitable questions that came afterward.

  He paused. He would be putting Riley at risk.

  Jason glanced behind him, his eyes taking in the rest of the cocoons that lingered in the room. He saw his aunt’s face and Frank’s. Claire and Robert. In some ways, they were already at risk, weren’t they? Claire and Robert might have just committed perjury – a direct result of him not coming clean about his relationship with Alfred earlier. His aunt’s home was on the line, and she was just as beholden to Cerillion Entertainment as he was, but she didn’t know the truth. And some part of himself could acknowledge that he had sent Frank to finish his quest just to give himself some distance. They had only spoken a handful of times over the last week.

  Then his eyes met Riley’s again. He realized he had even pushed Riley away, talking himself out of his feelings for her and wallowing in self-pity. And now that she was in his life again was he just going to keep lying to her?

  His younger self stood there, watching him. The boy’s expression was conflicted, an uncertain mixture of fear and pride warring for dominance as he observed Jason. “Are you certain?” his younger self asked. “Are you certain you can trust them?”

  “No. I’m not,” Jason murmured, his eyes on the ground.

  He could feel his resolve hardening. “But I am willing to give them a chance. They deserve that. We deserve that,” he whispered. Without giving himself time to wring his hands, he turned and pulled open the door in a single movement. A blinding flash of light spilled from the doorway, briefly blinding him.

  As he blinked his eyes to clear his vision, Jason’s gaze settled on the room on the other side. It was an octagonal enclosure, the walls standing in perfect symmetry. Meanwhile, black obelisks speared into the air at haphazard angles, pulsing with an ominous green light and reminding him of the towers he had seen in the control room at Cerillion Entertainment.

  And in the center of it all was a raised platform, a single black cat sitting sedately on its surface. Its foreign feline eyes stared back at him with inhuman intelligence.

  In the center of the room sat Alfred.

  Chapter 47 - Muted

  As soon as Jason met Alfred’s eyes, the world faded away, swirling into a thick gray fog. Within only moments, he found himself sitting in front of a familiar wooden table. A milky-white globe rested upon its surface, and faint gray tendrils of energy swirled within its depths. Just seeing the strange energy again was enough to conjure the memory of the Queen Spider and the eerie school labyrinth they had just endured, sending a shudder down his back.

  As Jason’s eyes skimmed across the globe and toward the opposite side of the table, they met Riley’s gaze. Her brow was furrowed, and her attention was fixed on him – the tilt of her head and the flash of light in her eyes speaking volumes.

  She had seen inside the room.

  After what felt like an eternity navigating Jason’s mind and overcoming his own issues, he had given Riley a glimpse into his soul. And what had he revealed? A cat. A black cat, sitting among a minefield of dark spikes. He had no idea how she would react to that or if she would even appreciate the implications of what she had witnessed.

  I bet she thinks I’m insane, he thought to himself.

  Riley opened her mouth to say something but was thankfully interrupted as whispered voices drifted through the room.

  Challenge 3: A Trial of Trust has been completed.

  Congratulations, challengers!

  While they might have finally conquered the third challenge, Jason didn’t exactly feel like celebrating. If anything, this latest experience had just created a new problem – in this case, the questions that lingered behind Riley’s eyes and rested at the tip of her tongue. Questions he still wasn’t sure how to answer. Or if he even should answer.

  Rex’s wispy, black form materialized beside the table. He seemed slightly different, although it took Jason a moment to notice the change. The skeletal general was wearing what appeared to be a black party hat comprised of tendrils of dark mana.

  “Congratulations!” Jason’s former general shouted, pumping his fists in the air.

  When neither Jason nor Riley reac
ted immediately, Rex hesitated. The pair still sat sedately in their chairs and tried to avoid making eye contact. “Well, you two are just depressing,” Rex finally said with a sigh. “What happened? Why do you look like I just decapitated your dog?”

  “The challenge was interesting,” Jason offered tentatively.

  “By interesting, he means awful and strange,” Riley interjected, sparing a glare at the skeletal man. “I got captured by what I can only assume were giant mind spiders – which seem to have built a nest in Jason’s head. And then a younger version of Jason talked the real Jason into opening some weird door…”

  “Okay, it was odd,” Jason said quickly, earning him a skeptical look from Riley. “You mentioned we would be viewing a memory, not that we would be going on a prolonged hike through my mind.”

  Rex shrugged, waving a hand to dismiss his party hat. “The challenges have rules. I’m not supposed to reveal too much information, otherwise it undermines the lesson. Although, I have to agree that the cryptic explanations probably hurt more than they help.”

  “So, what exactly did we just do?” Riley asked, shaking her head.

  “What do you mean?” Rex questioned, staring at her in confusion.

  “I mean, was that really Jason’s mind? It definitely wasn’t a memory – or at least it wasn’t just a memory,” she hesitated, cocking her head as though recalling the events inside the school. “But the spiders. The boy. Was that all Jason?”

  Rex sighed and backed away from the table, pacing beside it. “Yes and no. As I said before, this crystal is special,” he explained, pointing at the globe on the table. “It doesn’t just provide a glimpse into a single memory. It hones in on something important in the Keeper’s mind, something that he has tried to bury deep. Then it creates a puzzle, allowing the participants to unlock that secret. Although, it is ultimately up to the Keeper to allow them to solve it. He has to let the Soul Guard in by deactivating his own mental defenses.”

  Seeing the blank looks on their faces, the former general simply shrugged again. “Look, I didn’t build the thing, and I don’t really understand how it works. I’m just telling you what the voices tell me. If you beat the challenge, then Jason revealed something that he thinks is important.”

  “You mean that cat,” Riley said flatly.

  Jason interrupted her again. “Speaking of beating the challenge, you did mention a skill reward,” Jason reminded Rex. “Well, we won. It’s time to pay up.”

  Riley bit her tongue but gave Jason a look that made him uncomfortable. It was clear that she knew that he was trying to avoid talking about what was inside that room. She might be giving him a pass now, but he had a distinct feeling that she wasn’t going to let this go. Not that he could really blame her. If he had found out Riley’s deep, dark secret was that she had an uncomfortable infatuation with a black cat, he probably would have been confused too.

  Unfortunately, he suspected that she was going to find the truth even more unusual.

  “Uh, well, about the reward,” Rex replied, suddenly looking everywhere but at Jason and Riley.

  “Wait, we do get to learn a new skill, right?” Jason demanded, irritation coloring his voice. After everything they had just gone through, they better get something. “You said we did.”

  “I did say that,” Rex agreed with a nod. “Although… I didn’t say who would get the skill,” he mumbled quickly.

  “What was that?” Jason said, leaning forward and staring down the ghostly skeleton.

  “Okay, fine,” Rex muttered. “It’s a skill for Riley. This challenge awards an ability to the Soul Guard that completes it.”

  Suddenly, Riley wasn’t staring at Jason. Her attention was focused solely on Rex, and she had a hungry look in her eye, which was a relief. He planned to tell her about the room and the cat. Eventually. But now didn’t seem like the right time and he needed time to process what had happened himself.

  “I get a skill?” Riley asked. “Well, let’s see it!”

  Rex waved at the air, and Riley’s eyes squinted as she read through a prompt that wasn’t visible to Jason. After several long seconds, he couldn’t take it anymore, the curiosity eating at him. “So, what is it?”

  “Ahh, you don’t like it when I just sit here in silence reviewing my newest awesome ability?” Riley asked with a raised eyebrow and a grin. “Well, welcome to a taste of your own medicine! I’d like to remind you that I sat there for an hour while you stabbed yourselves with bones in the first room.”

  Rex let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Jason immediately glared at him, the general going for his best doe-eyed look in response. The effect was somewhat lost given that he didn’t really have eyeballs – just swirling vortexes of dark mana.

  Although a smile still lingered on her face, Riley took pity on Jason. “Anyway, it looks like the challenge granted me a new passive ability. It’s called Spirit Bond. It grants me a buff to my statistics when I’m near you and a debuff when I’m too far away. I guess the idea is that it’s supposed to encourage me to stay close and defend you.” She bit at her lip and was about to say something else, but she hesitated.

  “What is it?” Jason asked. “Worried you’ll have to spend more time with me?”

  Riley gave him a skeptical look. “That doesn’t bother me. This is probably a useful ability, especially given the number of times I’ve had to bail you out of trouble,” she added with a smirk.

  “Hey, I seem to recall you getting kidnapped by a giant spider,” Jason tried to defend himself.

  “Uh huh. When I was unarmed and trapped inside your head,” she reminded him. “I’d like a rematch with some real weapons.” Her eyes glinted darkly at this last statement as her hand cradled the hilt of her dagger lovingly.

  “Fair enough,” Jason replied with a smile of his own. Some of the tension had drained from Riley, and they had resumed their usual banter, which helped settle his own nerves. Although, he had to agree with her that it felt good to have his staff back in hand and he relished the chill bite of his dark mana. He had felt powerless and vulnerable inside this last challenge, in more ways than one.

  Rex just rolled his eyes at their bickering, or at least he tried to, the gesture looking a little strange with his misty form. His eye sockets seemed to rotate in place. “Not to break up your touching moment with your weapons, but I’d like to mention – again – that you two of have finally completed the rest of the challenges. So, mission accomplished! Feel free to be properly relieved and excited.”

  As the former general finished speaking, a quest prompt appeared in front of Jason.

  Quest Complete: Keeper Challenges

  Congratulations! You have completed the three challenges created by the Keepers of old, and with no time to lose. Only a few days remain before Thorn will make good on his promise to return to the Twilight Throne and finish what he started. You have grown stronger, but the question remains. Are you strong enough to face the Order?

  Jason surveyed the quest notification with a grim expression, his good humor vanishing. Leave it to the quest prompt and Alfred to undermine even a small victory. And Thorn was only the tip of the iceberg. Alexion was still attacking their towns at the border, and, as far as he knew, Cecil was still in a coma from the attack on the trade school.

  “Why the long face?” Riley asked. “I mean, I hate to agree with Rex, but we did just finish the challenges. We should probably celebrate.”

  “Yes, but now we need to tackle the next problem,” Jason replied tiredly. “Thorn is still out there, and we only have a few more days until his deadline is up.”

  “Well, if you ask me, I’m surprised you even managed to complete the challenges in a month,” Rex offered in a dry voice. “Leave it to you to see the sword as half-sheathed.”

  “I’m just trying to be practical,” Jason replied. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

  Riley and Rex shared a look at this statement, their expressions making it clear wha
t they thought about Jason’s pragmatism.

  Before Jason could try to defend himself, his UI dinged, indicating that he had just received a message. What now? he thought grumpily before tapping at the icon in his peripheral vision. A message soon filled his field of view.

  Jason,

  Sorry to bug you in-game, but we need to meet tonight at 5:00 PM and regroup regarding the hearing tomorrow. We’re meeting in conference room 2701C.

  I’m not sure how to sugar coat this, so I won’t try. Considering today’s events, we expect that Gloria may call you as a witness tomorrow. Robert, George, and Francis will be in attendance at the meeting, and we’ll need to prep you for your testimony. You should probably be prepared for a late night.

  Claire

  P.S. – Don’t worry about dinner. We’ll have the cafeteria bring up some food.

  “Shit,” Jason murmured after skimming the message. He swiped the notice away with a frustrated hand. They might face challenges inside AO, but those problems didn’t hold a candle to the CPSC hearing – a sense of dread settling in his stomach like a heavy weight as the full import of Claire’s message hit him. He would have to testify tomorrow? He had thought he would have more time before the hearing got to this point.

  “What happened?” Riley asked, concern replacing the humor in her eyes.

  “Yet another problem. It looks like I need to log out for the night. I need to go prep for tomorrow’s hearing. Claire thinks that they’re going to call me as a witness,” Jason explained.

  Rex looked on with a confused expression but held his tongue.

  “It’s okay, Rex,” Riley offered, giving the skeletal man a reassuring smile. “Maybe just give us a second. Thanks for all of your help with the challenges.”