Last Bastion

by Rachel Aaron

  "James Anderson."

  He flipped the coin at the glass as he spoke. As it hit, the surface of the silver mirror rippled like water, then the distortions cleared to reveal a single stone room the size of a Wal-Mart. Acres of wooden racks filled the smooth-sanded, dark-stone floor, their tops rising all the way to the vaulted ceiling overhead, and on their shelves was James's stuff--all of it.

  The room grew hazy as tears filled James's eyes. His gear, his pets, his mounts and weapons, toys and collectibles--they were all here! One long wall was lined with huge bins full of his ores, minerals, crystals, herbs, and other crafting supplies all organized by profession, just as he'd left them. On the other side, huge chests held his entire account's worth of gold. He'd only ever seen it as a number on an interface before. Seeing it now in person--the weight of it all, the size, the stacks of glittering coins--was overwhelming. He'd never seen so much wealth in his life, and it was all his.

  "After you," the Grand Schtump said, holding out his hand.

  James didn't wait to be asked twice. He vaulted through the door where the mirror had been and ran straight to the armor stands, which were here as tasteful glass display cases with recessed lighting. The very first one held his Vitas Gloria Raiment set. Staring at the silk robe, belt, bracers, boots, and pants through the glass, James could have sworn he could see the green stitched leaves waving in time with the life magic that floated through the cavern. Beside them, the Vitas Gloria Staff glowed like summer sunlight shining through a leafy canopy light from its weapon rack, shedding an endless stream of feather-shaped green leaves that sparkled and vanished before they hit the ground.

  James really did cry then. The Vitas Gloria Raiment wasn't as highly stat-ed as the Dead Mountain raid-healing set he'd lost when the Nightmare had eaten his backpack, but it was infinitely more precious. The six-piece set and matching weapon had taken him a year of grinding elite quests in the Verdancy to obtain. He was one of only a handful of players in the world who'd managed to collect the whole thing so far. He was about to rip the glass door open and put it on right there when he realized that, while the set would make him infinitely more powerful--and much better dressed--it wouldn't actually do anything to fix their situation.

  Removing his hands from the armor case reluctantly, James forced himself to turn around and look at his wealth--really look. In addition to the sets inside the glass cases, there was a ton of gear on the shelves, but he couldn't actually let anyone else use it since all the pieces were bound to him, either on this character or one of his alts. The three giant shelves full of potions would have been useful, but he'd need a dump truck to transport them back to the castle. His rack of mount items looked more promising, but when he picked up his Reins of the Sand Serpent, they felt like normal leather, not magical at all.

  He gave the reins a shake, just to be sure, but no giant snake made of sand appeared. Apparently, whatever magic made summoned mounts work had been an in-game-only power just like their bottomless backpacks and the ability to instantly message across dimensions.

  James hung the useless reins back on their hook with a sigh of bitter disappointment. So much for his aerial evacuation plan. But as he scrambled to think of a way he could actually use all of this amazing stuff to save the people in the castle, a new plan entered his mind, one he didn't like at all.

  "In the game," he said slowly, turning to look at the Grand Schtump, who was still standing outside the vault, staring at James's gold with open hunger, "schtumple players were always depicted as mercenaries. Is that true?"

  The Grand Schtump nodded. "All schtumple soldiers are mercenaries, even the Black Golds. If it's not for gold, why fight?"

  "Great," James said, pointing at his chests of gold. "How much would it cost me to buy your help against the Once King?"

  "More than you can afford," the big schtumple said sternly. "Helping you would leave the bank unprotected, which would endanger our entire race. There is no price I can put on that."

  "What about some other kind of help?" James pressed, refusing to give up. "If you won't fight the undead with us, then is there something you can do to help us escape? We've got tens of thousands of people trapped in the castle, but if we can just get them somewhere else--somewhere safe, like Windy Lake--that would be almost as good. Is there anything you can sell me that can make that happen?"

  The Grand Schtump's round, jowly face screwed up as he thought that through. "Hrmmm," he said, stomping his feet. "Hrmmm!" The hrmms got louder and louder until, at last, the big schtumple snapped his fingers. "I have a maybe," he informed James excitedly, then he lifted his booming voice. "Fetch me the Senior Financial Wizard!"

  The teller schtumples, who'd been hovering at the threshold of the giant vault door, scrambled to obey. A minute later, the purple-robed schtumple with the abacus who'd been with the Grand Schtump when James arrived hopped through the door and scuttled down the hall.

  "You called for your employee, Grand One?"

  "Indeed," the Grand Schtump said, flipping through the papers of James's account ledger with greedy fingers. "Can we still do the Anywhere Portal?"

  James's eyebrows shot up. Anywhere Portal scrolls were convenience items that bypassed the normal Bastion portal network restrictions. Using one would open a portal from wherever you were to any of a long list of pre-allowed locations in the game, including leveling hubs like Windy Lake. The only catch was that Anywhere Scrolls couldn't be made or bought using gold. To get one, you had to spend real-world money in the FFO web store, which, now that James thought about it, had been run by schtumples. He'd thought that was just because the game devs used schtumple avatars for everything involving money, including telling you when your monthly subscription was about to expire. If their joke money grubbing had real parallels in this world, though, then they might be saved!

  "Please tell me you can do it," he begged. "I still have an account set up with the store! I'll gladly buy a portal!"

  "There is no more store," the Financial Wizard informed him crisply. "It vanished along with the Nightmare, thank the Moon. But many of the items offered are still in their display cases, including the Anywhere Portal scrolls."

  James's hopes shot up so high and fast he actually became physically dizzy. "How much do they cost?"

  "Five platinum," the Financial Wizard said without missing a beat. "Each."

  James's soaring hopes crashed. Platinum was the secondary currency FFO used as a stand-in for real cash in the game to avoid all the various local tax laws. It was also way outside of James's budget as a lowly assistant martial arts instructor with a six-figure debt. "But I don't have any platinum."

  "That's fine," the Grand Schtump said. "First law of schtumple magic: all things have a gold value. Even platinum. We just have to figure out the proper exchange rate. If the Nightmare were still going, we could use trade chat to estimate fair market value. Now, though, we'll just have to guess."

  "Okay," James said, keeping a good hold on his hopes this time. "How much do you think it'll be?"

  The Grand Schtump looked at his Financial Wizard, who frowned. "Let's see," he said, flicking the stone beads back and forth. "The current supply of platinum is zero, but demand is greater than zero, so the gold value of platinum is..." He clicked his beads a few more times. "Priceless."

  James's ears flattened against his scalp. "Priceless? You mean I can't buy it?"

  "No, no, Mr. James Anderson," the Grand Schtump said quickly. "Second law of schtumple magic: Everything has a price. It may be more than you can afford, but there's nothing that can't be bought."

  James thought about that for a minute, then he looked over his shoulder at his vault, the great room filled with all the treasures he'd hoarded over his time playing FFO. "What about eight years of my life? Is that priceless enough?"

  The Grand Schtump and his Financial Wizard put their heads together. After several moments of whispering and checking the abacus, the Grand Schtump straightened back up. "Probably."
>
  James slumped. "Probably?"

  The Grand One shrugged. "Priceless is a hard price to pin down. We won't know for sure until we try." He waved his gold-ringed hand, and a scroll of fine parchment appeared in front of James's face. A golden fountain pen followed, floating in the air above his fingers, ready to be used.

  "If you're serious about this, sign your vault back over to us," the Grand Schtump said. "We'll conduct the purchasing ritual using the objects in this room. If it's enough, the Anywhere Portal scrolls will appear. If it's not..." He shrugged. "No refunds."

  James looked back at his glittering collection. He looked at the racks of legendary weapons and the wreath of golden laurels that had only been given out to winners of the FFO Olympians event four years ago. He looked at the sun-metal music box that played the entire ichthyian ballad "The Song of the Sea." He looked at the oil lamp containing his Fire Rabbit, the rarest pet in the game. He looked at all of it, the priceless hoard of treasures he'd won with blood and sweat and endless patience. In eight long, horrible years of failure, this was the only thing he'd succeeded at, the only evidence that his time in FFO hadn't been a waste--that he hadn't been a waste.

  Even now, after everything had changed, seeing it filled him with pride. In the end, though, the glittering vault was still just a room full of stuff. It wasn't worth a sister or a friend or a kingdom. James knew that, but it didn't stop his hand from shaking as he turned and grabbed the golden pen and signed his name in a messy rush on the golden line.

  The moment the contract was signed, the Grand Schtump whisked it away. "Prepare the ritual!" he bellowed.

  Schtumples began rushing madly in all directions. James was forced to step back into the hall as a team of tellers unhooked the mirror that connected to his vault to the outside world and carried it into the lobby. When they'd propped it up in the center of the cavernous room, the Senior Financial Wizard brought a pair of platinum-embossed scrolls as long as James's arms out from a heavily secured room in the back.

  "Two?" James asked nervously.

  "It has to be two," the wizard explained as he set the Anywhere Portal scrolls down on either side of James's vault mirror. "All your people are stuck in the castle, so it does you no good to open a portal to Windy Lake from here. Unless you want to walk back to the palace through the city, you'll have to make two portals: one connecting the castle to the bank, and one connecting the bank to Windy Lake."

  That was information James would have loved to know before he'd signed the contract, but done was done. Either his vault would be enough, or it wouldn't, so he stood back and let the schtumples work. When everything was in position, the Senior Financial Wizard positioned himself in front of the mirror to James's vault and began to read the contract James had just signed, speaking the words with great emotion as if the legalese were a magic spell.

  James's fur began to prickle as the power in the room built. When it was almost too much for him to take, the Financial Wizard threw the contract at the vault mirror with a flourish, and golden magic exploded outward, engulfing James in a wave of metallic-smelling power. He was still waving his hands in surprise when the Grand Schtump bellowed, "The price is paid! Use the scrolls!"

  The Financial Wizard thrust the two platinum scrolls--which were now glowing like rolls of Christmas lights with sparkling rainbow magic--into James's hands. Fighting to keep his head in the vortex of swirling alien magic, James unrolled the first one and spoke his destination.

  "Windy Lake!"

  The scroll vanished from his fingers. The next moment, a doorway opened to his left, letting in a shaft of blazing sunlight followed by the hot, familiar wind of the Savanna. Satisfied that the portal had worked, James grabbed the next scroll and squeezed it in his fist as he yelled, "The royal castle of Bastion!"

  The second scroll vanished just like the first, and a new doorway appeared on his right. It looked exactly like the opening to Windy Lake, only instead of warm sunlight and pleasant grassland breezes, this portal opened into the roar of battle. Through it, James could see the palace courtyard and the hordes of undead that were pouring through the shattered remains of the front gates. A ring of players and knights had formed to fill the gaps between the outer keep buildings while terrified people stared out from inside, watching through the windows as death crept closer.

  Off to one side, James spotted Tina and King Gregory fighting side by side, trading blows with the massive form of the Blood General. The High Priest and the Arch-Sorcerer had taken the field as well, fighting with the rest of the Roughnecks against the giant undead boar boss Frank was barely holding back. Only a few Sorcerers were still throwing spells, and healing seemed to be nonexistent.

  He tried to get their attention, but no one could hear him over the din. Frustrated, James looked for his brother and spotted Ar'Bati fighting shoulder to shoulder with the three-skulled Knight trainer, Fiona Steelwall, against one of the Dead Mountain's skeleton patrols. With the help of a few player Rangers, they got the skeletons down and were moving on to the next threat when James screamed his brother's name.

  "Fangs!"

  Ar'Bati's cat ears twitched, and he looked up at last to see James waving frantically at him through the portal.

  "I got us a way out!" he screamed. "Tell everyone to run straight through both portals, no stopping! Go!"

  Ar'Bati raised his sword in acknowledgment and started bellowing at the people behind him to move. They didn't need much encouragement. The moment the refugees saw their way out, they charged the portal, almost bowling James over in their rush to escape.

  Scrambling out of the way, James jumped back to stand with the schtumples who'd formed a corridor with their bodies between the two portals, undoubtedly to keep the frantic, bloody people from accidentally fleeing into their bank. Not that James minded. The rows of armored guards were a perfect funnel to keep people moving between the two doors he'd just paid everything for, and the faster they moved, the better.

  "Go straight through!" he yelled as the refugees flooded past. "There are two portals. Don't stop between them. Just keep running! You're going to make it!"

  He repeated the instructions over and over as thousands of men, women, and children of every race stampeded past. Whenever someone tripped or otherwise failed to go at maximum speed between the portals, the schtumple Black Golds grabbed them and tossed them through the Windy Lake side to keep the path clear.

  James was grateful for their haste. With each second that ticked by, the vault on the other side of the mirror grew emptier. Shelf by shelf, James's treasured collection was disappearing as the metals and gold and irreplaceable magical items were consumed by the schtumple magic powering the portals. By the time the courtyard was half empty, his vault was more than two thirds gone, and James was starting to panic.

  "We're running out of time!" he shouted, looking back through the portal at all the players still fighting the undead. "Tina!"

  She didn't even seem to hear him. Cursing, James left the evacuation to the schtumples and the former knights and jumped through the portal himself, racing across the bloody paving stones toward the front lines.

  "Tina!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

  Again, she didn't seem to notice. James wasn't sure if that was because he still wasn't loud enough or if the fight was so intense she couldn't spare attention for anything else. The Blood General, however, did turn around. James flinched as the horrible red eyes bright with ghostfire locked on him, but at least his sister finally seemed to see him, turning her bloody, punch-drunk face in his direction.

  "Portal!" James screamed, pointing backward at the giant magical doorway the whole courtyard was scrambling to run through.

  His sister's eyes widened with recognition, then the Blood General booted her shield into her face. Terrified, James sucked in a breath as her guard was thrown open, leaving her front unprotected as the raid boss swung his sword toward her exposed throat.

  He would have cut clean through it, but G
regory got there first, blocking the Blood General's red sword with the golden Dawnblade as he cried out, "Retreat! Everyone fall back to the portal!"

  The king's command caught the attention of all the fighters who hadn't yet noticed the castle emptying out behind them. With a last volley of attacks, the players and soldiers fighting the undead turned and bolted for the portal. All the refugees were through at this point and someone had even seen fit to drag Malakai along. It was just the fighters now, but they couldn't all retreat at once, or the undead would follow. Instead, they collapsed on the portals, the front lines holding back the horde while the rear guard dove for safety. Even the king retreated, sweeping his Dawnblade in front of him in massive arcs to hold back the undead so the last of the players and former knights could jump through the portal.

  The only one who didn't move was Tina. She was still exactly where she'd started, going toe to toe with the Blood General. She seemed to be holding her own, more or less, but without the others to hold them back, the lesser undead were slowly starting to surround her. If she didn't move fast, she'd be cut off.

  "Tina!" James screamed at her. "There's no time! You have to fall back!"

  She nodded and started to move, but the Blood General cut her off, using his sword to push her toward the far wall instead. Grabbing his staff, James was about to run out and help her when an iron arm wrapped around his middle as Ar'Bati yanked him back.

  "Don't be stupid!" the warrior yelled. "The portals are about to close! You have to get through now!"