Executioner- Reign of Blood

by Edwin McRae

  “She needs to send the executioner home,” Mark reminded her.

  “And after that?”

  “She’s all yours.”

  The captain grinned and Mark was reminded of the wolf she’d been only moments before. “I reckon I’m going to develop a taste for inquisitors. Makes me feel like changing back in time for lunch.”

  Karina’s look of fear was all Mark needed to know that the wardog meant every word of it.

  30

  [Arix]

  Arix plucked a battleaxe from the hands of a dead reiver and tried not to think back on his own recent demise. Tentacles and slime, followed by fatal claustrophobia when small places got even smaller.

  He gave the dead man a kick, just for being an NPC in a world filled with really fucking infuriating NPCs. Everything was right royally fucked as far as he was concerned. All his plans flushed down the loo. No way was he going to be able to drag Mark back to reality now that his dream girl had risen from the dead.

  He still couldn’t work out how she’d done it either. She weren’t no player so it had to be some sort of glitch. Some really unlucky quirk in the code.

  Nah. That weren’t it neither. She had to have done something. He didn’t know what and that gave him the screaming willies. NPCs were not allowed to change the rules of the game. Yet another reason he had to ditch this nuthouse, sooner rather than later.

  He rounded a newly fallen building and strode towards the inquisitor’s marquee. He found Mark and Vari sitting outside with Karina. The latter was tied to a pole. He heaved a sigh of relief.

  “Oi! Bastards! I want a word with you lot!”

  Vari looked up as he approached while Mark stood and rested his hand on the pommel of his sword.

  “Maybe put the axe down first,” suggested Mark.

  Arix eyed the warlock for a moment or two, trying to judge where he was at inside that delirium he called a mind. Mark had his full gear on while Arix’s axe and armor were buried ten meters underground.

  “I can tell by his stance that Arix is conflicted as to whether to attack you or not,” informed Citadel. “He keeps shifting his weight from left to right.”

  “Oh for fuck’s sakes! Can I not even contemplate a bit of quiet fucking murder without some NPC giving me a running fucking commentary?” He looked to the grey-mantled sky and imagined a row soft, bearded heads looking down at him. “Oi you devving fuckfaces! Get me the fuck out of this asylum before I sue you for every motherfucking cent you have!”

  Then he turned back to Mark and fixed him with the baleful glare that he usually reserved for addressing troll commenters on his YouTube channel.

  “You might be a lost cause, Mark, but you’re standing between me and my imminent salvation.” He raised his battleaxe and prepared to charge. “I don’t care how many runs this takes. That reiver bitch is coming with me.”

  “Sid?” Mark’s voice was unnervingly calm. “Do you think you could locate Arix’s resurrection point?”

  “I already have, Mark. It was remiss of him not to move upon awakening this time.”

  Arix felt the hot winds of his fury drop away, leaving his sails limp and lifeless. If Mark got the better of him this time, and he probably would, the warlock could then grief him at leisure. He took a deep breath in a vain attempt to still the roiling frustration in his gut. Then he feined a nonchalant shrug and tossed the battleaxe aside.

  “Fine, fine. Have it your fucking way then. I’m done with this shit-assed game anyway.”

  “Good choice,” answered Mark.

  “Fuck you.”

  For the first time, Arix noticed what the reivers were up to. The few that remained were roaming the camp, salvaging, packing and taking orders from…

  “Fuck me. Sergeant Maribella?”

  “You two have met?” wondered Mark.

  “Yeah. We was introduced during my stint as a slave.”

  Mark smirked. “Notice anything familiar about her?”

  Arix wrinkled his nose. “Nah, It…”

  Actually, there was something about the way she moved, and when she turned to look at him with those frosty eyes of hers the realization rushed at him with claws and slavering jaws.

  “Fucking hell! The dog?”

  “That’s Captain Dog to you,” corrected Mark.

  Hearing this, Maribella gave Arix a wolfish grin and then turned back to her work, swearing colorfully at a couple of soldiers who were looking to crack the beer keg they’d just salvaged.

  Arix folded his arms and looked to Karina. “That your doing, luv?”

  Karina burbled something and Mark gave Vari a knowing nod. Vari stood, placed her hand on the inquisitor’s cheek and murmured “Sculpt Bone” and “Mend Flesh” in quick succession.

  Karina spat blood at Vari, narrowly missing her, and opened her mouth to let rip. Mark silenced her with a glare. “You say one word that I don’t tell you to say and Vari breaks your jaw all over again.”

  The inquisitor clamped her mouth shut and returned the warlock’s glare.

  “So now what, Mark?” wondered Arix.

  “Time for you to go home, Arix.”

  “You know that I’m going to be talking to the Reign of Blood devs, right? It won’t matter what I say or don’t say about you. They only need to look at their data to see what’s what. They might just pull the plug on you.”

  Mark’s eyes hardened. “No, they won’t. Because you’re going to talk them out of it.”

  “And why would I do that?”

  “Because Vari here has seen into your selfish little soul.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Physik Perception,” Vari answered for him. “I used it on you while you were busy assuaging your own guilt by talking too much. Once I reached Tier Five, I unlocked Meta Perception and that allowed me to see what you really are, Arix the Damned.”

  Arix felt a chill go down his spine. “And what am I, Miss Scripted-bot-lady?”

  He’d meant it to come out nice and smooth, with just the right seasoning of vitriol. Instead his words sounded sluggish and sticky because his mouth had gone dry all of a sudden.

  “This version of you is just a construct of words and numbers that exist within the confines of a brain made of lightning and metal. In Mark’s world you’re a real person. This,” she said as she looked him up and down, “is just a puppet.”

  “Same with your boyfriend there, luv.”

  “I know. His body is somewhere else, in another world that I’ll probably never see.” She rested her hand on Mark’s leg. “But he tries to be more. Mark is here, spirit and mind, because this is where he wants to be. You don’t care about this world, Arix, and that’s why you’ll never belong here.”

  “Of course I won’t. It’s not fucking real!”

  “No, Arix,” said Vari gently. “I think it’s too real, and you don’t know how to deal with that.”

  There was a shadow of a doubt now. Faint, but it was there. He weren’t no AI expert, but bog-standard game bots couldn’t think like that. Vari was not only recognizing the difference between his avatar and his real self, she was accepting, in her own terms, that she too was a construct inside a computer. He wasn’t very up on his consciousness philosophy, but it sounded scarily like self-fucking-awareness to him.

  “Vari?” he croaked.

  She looked at him, her dark eyes blank of emotion, like she was trying to work out which species of cockroach had just crawled onto the seat of her toilet. He cleared his throat and pushed the reluctant words out of his mouth. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

  Vari’s expression didn’t change. “Just go home, Arix.”

  He looked to Mark. “Guess this is goodbye, innit.”

  Mark’s smile almost reached his eyes.

  “Goodbye, Arix.”

  31

  [Mark]

  Two days went by and Mark was still in Reign of Blood. Perhaps Arix hadn’t talked to the devs like he claimed he would. P
erhaps the devs were happy to let sleeping dogs lie. Or perhaps they would pull the plug any second and he would wake up in his hospital room. Too many ‘perhaps’ for Mark’s liking. If a hospital bug didn’t kill him then the suspense might.

  It was cool in the fortress this evening. Most of the villagers had lit their fires. Earlier in the day Calder had gathered everyone together to hear how Mark and Vari had completed the Chasms of Corruption quest. Some asked after Arix the Damned and seemed happy with Mark’s ‘gone’ response. Whether he was dead or simply off on other adventures, no-one seemed to care. It appeared Arix had successfully alienated everyone he’d interrogated.

  The rustle of her robes announced Vari’s arrival. She joined him at the battlement and followed his gaze down into the courtyard.

  “Still worried that you’ll blink and find yourself back in your old world?”

  Mark sucked his bottom lip before answering. “Did Meta Sight tell you that?”

  She laughed. “No. That anxious look on your face did.”

  “If it comes to that, I’ll find a way back in, I promise.”

  “I know you will. What would these people do without their great Warlock of Garland?”

  He quirked an eyebrow at her. “That’s right. ‘These people’ would miss me something wicked.”

  She drew close and slipped her arm around his waist. “Yes, ‘these people’ certainly would.”

  “Well, at least we managed to solve their corruption woes. But do you think I did the right thing, burying the altars like that?”

  Having slotted the Rift of Corruption spell, Mark went ahead and opened up a chasm right under the three altars. He’d close it again, straight away, ensuring that several dozen tons of rock and dirt stood between some ambitious inquisitor and another Breaking Dawn.

  “It was worth it to see Karina cry,” Vari assured him. “It must have been difficult for her, seeing her life’s work slip through the cracks like that.”

  “Not as bad as what Captain Maribella was going to do to her,” observed Mark.

  “I hope she meant what she said,” said Vari.

  “What bit?”

  “About developing a taste for inquisitors. Dayna would shoot me in the face for saying this, but Captain Maribella might actually turn out to be worth a thousand rangers when it comes to keeping Garland safe.”

  “I’m still going to kill her the next time I see her,” stated Mark matter-of-factly.

  “But not yet?”

  He smiled. “I think we deserve a holiday, don’t we? Travel around Garland for a bit. Actually see this beautiful country that we’ve fought so hard to-”

  “Evening, geezas!”

  Mark yelped and Vari shouted “Rend Flesh!” as she pointed at the smiling apparition. Arix just kept on smiling.

  “Sorry, luv. Thought you might do that so I asked the devs to give me temporary God Mode.”

  A fearful shot of adrenaline spiked through Mark’s gut. Arix with God Mode was a terrible combination, but the executioner clocked his alarmed expression and waved away his concern.

  “In the words of Douglas Adams, Don’t Fucking Panic. I’m not here to break your toys. Far from it, in fact.”

  “Would you like me to fetch the cockroaches, Mark?” asked Citadel from somewhere near Mark’s feet. “Judging by his current weight, Arix appears to be unarmed. I would wager that a dozen or so could tear him limb from-”

  “No need to release the bughounds. Fucked if I’m hanging out with you nutters any longer than I have to anyways.” He winked at Vari. “No offense, luv.”

  “The feeling,” said Vari, “is totally mutual.”

  Arix grinned and turned back to Mark. “Anyhow, I got you a job.”

  Mark sighed. “I’m not fucking working for you, Arix. Now or ever.”

  Arix feigned shock. “That hurts, that does.” Then his grin returned with full force. “But I’m not the one paying you. I just organized it. It’s the Reign of Blood devs what want to hire you.”

  The spike in his gut dissolved into something akin to a hundred scuttling spiders. “What sort of job?”

  “User Experience Analyst they want to call it. Basically, you’re just a glorified Beta Tester.”

  It was then that Mark registered that Arix wasn’t in his executioner garb. He was wearing a bomber jacket, a black Resident Evil t-shirt and black jeans. Arix took a pen and a sheet of folded paper from the inside pocket of his jacket and handed them over. Mark opened the paper and read over the contract while Vari glared and Arix grinned.

  “They want to shift me to a private hospital, cover my medical bills and pay me a salary,” Mark summarized. “In return, they get to observe how I interact with the world and its inhabitants.”

  “Not your most private moments, don’t worry,” Arix assured him as he clicked his fingers at Vari.

  “Sid?”

  “Yes, Vari?”

  “Did I leave Blood of the Lost in the bathroom?”

  “I’m afraid not. It’s in the armory. Would you like one of my cockroaches to fetch it for you?”

  Arix raised his hands. “Hold the fuck on, stabby lady. As much as it pains me to admit this, Mark was right.” He pointed at the ceiling. “Those fuckers set this all up and then just let it run for six months on hyper processing. They weren’t looking to crack the lid on it for at least another six. Then I comes along, tells them I’ve suffered no-logoff and VR torture for several days and that they’d better crack that lid before I sue their company into fucking bankruptcy.”

  Mark’s eyes narrowed. “You got a payout?”

  “Not nearly as much as I’d have got if I’d gone public.” He leaned against the battlements, a conspiratorial smirk on his lips. “But then I wouldn’t have a first week’s exclusive when they do finally release.”

  “Release?” squawked Citadel. There was real fear in his voice. “I’ve been managing my existential crisis rather nobly, I thought. Yet it’s one thing to realize that your world was created by some otherworldly mages with frankly unfathomable powers, quite another to learn that these mages intend to turn your home into a playground for a horde of Arix the Damned types. How many everborns are we talking about here?”

  “Everborns?” wondered Mark. “Like Zevryn the Everborn?”

  “Yes. Zevryn was the first warlock with the power to resurrect. Everborn was the moniker I offered up and he rather took to it.”

  Mark mentally tried it on for size. Mark the Everborn. It had a nice ring to it.

  He raised an eyebrow at Arix. “One of the devs, trying this world on for size?”

  Arix shrugged. “Or an alpha tester under a non-disclosure agreement.”

  “He was summoned by the druids,” interjected Citadel. “Like you were, Mark.”

  “What happened to him?” Mark asked him.

  “He did his duty, fended off a reiver invasion, and then the druids sent him home.”

  Arix’s brow wrinkled with suspicion. “Don’t think them devs are telling me the whole truth yet.”

  Mark didn’t think so either. “Sid. You said that it was Ivara of the Dancing Flame who took you under her wing?”

  “Indeed. She was an ‘interesting’ mentor.”

  “Was she born in Garland, like you?”

  “Not that I recall, no. Then again, my migration from body to building was less than smooth. I lost more than I gained, I’m afraid.”

  “What about Garridar?”

  “He was rather tight-lipped on the subject of his background, but I can assure you that he was neither Garlander nor reiver.”

  “The devs assured me that they’d left this world alone,” interjected Arix. “They wanted it to be completely independent. In fact, they were pretty chuffed to learn it was populated and relatively nice, not some post-apocalyptic dust bowl.”

  “Interesting.” Mark sighed. “We’re not going to solve this mystery today, but it looks like we’re not the first outsiders to come here, Arix.”

  �
�And as I said, we won’t be the last neither. A full player influx is going to happen sooner or later,” concluded Arix. “At least you’ll get fair warning now. And the devs have promised to profile everyone right down to their proclivities. No sick fucks allowed.”

  “Sick fucks like you?” snapped Vari.

  Arix winked at Mark. “You need to tell Vari a bit more about our world, yeah? Especially the internet. There’s bastards out there what make Karina look about as evil as dearly departed Braemar.”

  Vari visibly shuddered and looked to Mark for confirmation.

  “Sorry, Vari, but Arix is right about that.” He tapped the contract with his index finger. “What’s with this clause about ‘special quests’?”

  “Alright, you’re a little bit more than a Beta Tester then. Resident Bug Hunter too. Like, for a start, they want you to go have a word with the druids. Can’t have them summoning anyone else here. They was lucky they got you, Mark, and not some-”

  “Asshole like you?” Vari finished for him.

  Arix groaned. “Really, Vari? Every fucking opportunity?”

  Vari pointed at her throat. To his credit, Arix was quick on the uptake.

  “Alright. Point taken.” He turned back to Mark. “At some stage you’ll have to go sort out them inquisitors too.”

  “Give Maribella a few weeks,” said Mark, “and there might not be any inquisitors left.”

  Arix shrugged. “It might be just a mop-up job, but the devs need to be sure.”

  “Can’t they stop the summonings themselves?”

  “Not from the outside, no. It’s something these AI…” He paused and checked himself. “These ‘people’ have come up with on their own. Got the devs scratching their heads.”

  This was an “ah ha!” moment for Mark. As he’d suspected, the druids and the inquisitors had somehow turned their rituals into code and hacked systems completely external to this version of Reign of Blood. It was dangerous, but it was also bloody fascinating.

  “Anyways, you’ll get to the bottom of it, assuming you sign that contract.”