by Rick Scott
“I think you’re right,” I say with a smile.
“So,” Queen Angela says. “Are you all still leaving us as planned? I can’t convince you all to stay another week or two to help rebuild, can I?”
Again she says it addressing all of us, but looking straight at me.
I smile. “I know we all wouldn’t mind, but we have our destination now. And we need to get back home.”
“Fair enough,” she says and extends her hand. “You always have a home and allies here, Reece. Call me for anything…I mean that.”
I shake hands with her and then also with Lance.
“Stay sharp,” he says gruffly, but nothing else.
We all say our goodbyes then. Rembrandt gives Angela a deep embrace ending in a lingering kiss and I wonder if their relationship hasn’t gone in the direction that Angela had always hoped.
“You come back when this over,” she tells him, wiping her lipstick off him with her thumb. “That’s an order from your High Queen.”
Rembrandt laughs. “As soon as task master Reece gives me shore leave, you’re the first port on my list.”
“Better be the only port, mate,” Maxis says and gives us all a laugh.
“Gilly,” Angela says. “My thanks to you again for making all this happen. I know Lexi would have been touched by what you’ve created here.”
She blushes. “It was the least I could do.”
“And here,” she says. “I have something else for you.”
Angela materializes something familiar in her hand. It’s the keychain I’d given Lexi with the image of both her and Gilly on it, but attached to it is an actual key now. “I know you gave this back to me after you fixed it, but honestly, I think Lexi would have wanted you to have it.”
“Her buggy?” Gilly says.
Angela nods. “I can think of no one else more fitting.”
Gilly’s eyes glisten as she makes the trade and rematerializes the keychain in her palm. She looks at the picture of herself and Lexi, her eyes tearing, but then she laughs instead of cries.
“Okay, time to saddle up,” Aiko says. “I hope you all packed as good as I did. I’ll be slumming it in comfort when we get back to stick-and-hicks-ville.”
“Don’t tell me you still bought that stupid generator,” Val Helena says with an eye-roll. “It’ll work for maybe a day or two tops over there.”
“Yeah, you remember that when you come banging on my door for hot water.”
That gives us all another laugh.
“Oy, don’t you forget this, mate,” Rembrandt says as he trades something to me.
Rembrandt wishes to trade with you:
Rembrandt offers you a Double-Barrel Flamethrower
“You actually found one?” I laugh as I complete the trade.
“Figured it’d be best to come from the horse’s mouth than from me,” he says with a wink. “You’d have one very angry gnome on your hands if you didn’t come correct with Mr. Blacktop.”
“No doubt!”
“So with that critical issue settled,” Becky says cheerily as she takes center stage and raises her hands to cast a spell, “are we all ready to go?”
I look to my team and see the smiles on their faces—even Gilly’s, which does wonders to warm my heart. We’ve come a long way since the wild: defeated enemies we never knew existed, restored harmony to an unbalanced system, and finally found our way home.
There’s nothing left to do now, but to get back there and save us all.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter 57: Epilogue
Bruce adjusted to the cerebral pull on his mind as he logged into virtual space. As his body materialized within the construct, he all at once felt a dissonance with it. It was too thin, too young, and the wrong gender—but it was all necessary.
“How’s it looking, Carl?” Bruce asked in a feminine voice not his own as he stared into the endless void of white all around him.
Carl’s response came back as a voice within his head, communicating to him from his basement hab outside in the real world. “The mask is in place. You’re within the binary construct now. No one should be able to trace or track this, especially not Dennis. And you look good, by the way. I’d date you.”
Bruce huffed with chagrin as he looked down at his body—now a carbon copy of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Evelyn Munroe—a young black woman in her thirties with a petite frame, good looks, and short cut hair. “I’ll be sure to let Evelyn know.”
Carl laughed.
They’d put the Trencher, Cedric, on ice over a week ago, locking him into a stasis pod and jacked his mind into a 24-hour virtual prison. He was now under continuous psychiatric care by Dr. Munroe herself, receiving sessions from her personally. Bruce had read her reports—some form of undiagnosed delusional disorder was her current hypothesis.
But Bruce was about to undo all that.
Getting Cedric under Evelyn’s care wasn’t for his mental wellbeing, but more his physical. With the potential of what he knew, Bruce wouldn’t put it past Dennis to orchestrate something that would result in Cedric’s ‘untimely demise’. And that would almost certainly occur if the Trencher were plugged into the normal stasis chamber.
But he was instead miles from there, in Dr. Munroe’s private facility, under high security provided by Flores and in a totally isolated virtual space. One that Carl was now about to hijack.
“You ready?” Carl asked.
Bruce nodded. “Hit it.”
The world shifted in a second, changed from all white to the interior of a spacious room, with warm carpet, comfortable couches, and a huge picture window overlooking the ocean. Cedric appeared on the couch, still looking much like himself in real life—lanky, bald and currently staring at him with a set of contemptuous blue eyes.
“More sessions, Doc?” he spat. “How long are you going to keep me in here? I have important work to do.”
“Is that so?” Bruce took a seat in an easy chair opposite the couch and tried his best to sit like a lady. “Tell me about it, this work of yours.”
“Why?” he said. “So you can call me crazy again? Make me think that it’s all not real? I’m tired of you trying to convince me that I’m the one living in a dream world, Doc.”
“No, Cedric. I’m not going to try to convince you of anything. In fact, we’re going to try something a little different today.”
Cedric squinted as he looked back at him. “Different like what?”
“I’d like you to tell me everything you know…” Bruce said as he leaned forward with a smile. “…especially about the Great Ones.”
* * *
We materialize around the Wayfaring stone in the heart of Brookrun.
The transition from modern splendor to medieval squalor hits me like a punch to the jaw. An overcast sky rumbles with thunder as a sickly drizzle patters against the surrounding trees. The air is thick with the earthy scent of mud and we sink into the nasty stuff a few inches as our bodies fully form.
“See?” Aiko says, disgust written all over her face. “What I tell you?”
“Quit complaining.” Val Helena dismisses her with a wave of her hand. “We just got here.”
“And in one piece,” Becky says with a smile. “At least we know Teleport can work across the wild now.”
I’m about to question her as to why we were attempting something we weren’t sure of, when the thunder booms overhead again, but much louder this time.
Rembrandt cocks his ear towards the sky. “You all hear that?”
“You mean the thunder?” Aiko says sardonically.
“That wasn’t thunder, love,” Rembrandt says. “I know ballistics when I hear it. That was cannon fire.”
My heart beats a little faster. “Let’s check it out.”
I take the lead up the small path leading away from the Wayfaring stone and back towards the Common Hall. Nostalgia overtakes me as I recall my brief meeting with Karlis there, while she was in the gu
ise of Wilbur. Ancient history now, but I marvel at how vastly different both the worlds of Nasgar and New London are and especially their ruling AIs. When I was speaking with Karlis it was cryptic and truly like conversing with a god, but with Lennox it was like talking to a normal person, albeit a somewhat eccentric one.
More differences come into focus as we get beyond the Common Hall and I see just how much Brookrun has changed.
“Holy cow,” Gilly says as she stops next to me, overlooking the town. “Look at this place!”
My mind does a double take as I see row upon row of streets and houses, extending as far as the river behind us and well into the grassy plains ahead, bordered by the towering perimeter wall. Other buildings made of stone rise above the houses, dotted throughout what I can now truly call a town, or even a small city—windmills, factories, marketplaces. I’m just about to pull up my HUD to confirm what changes have been made when Val Helena steps next to me, slowly shaking her head.
“Something isn’t right,” she says.
I look up at the giantess and see her gray eyes narrow with focus.
“What is it?” I ask.
She looks down at me. “Where is everyone?”
I was so taken aback by the architecture and structures that I totally missed the absence of people. It must be mid-morning but there’s not a soul within the streets below.
A thunder booms again and Rembrandt points. “This way!”
We take off following him and the booms grow louder and more frequent, the scent of smoke permeating the drizzle hanging in the air. Two figures emerge at the end of the street and start running towards us, one much taller than the other.
I pause and when they get closer, I see it’s Wilbur and Lady Diana!
“It’s them!” Wilbur points ahead of him. “See, I told you!”
“Wilbur!” I greet him swiftly, and marvel at how fast the old man can run. I then look to Diana as they both slide to a halt in front of us. When I last saw her, she was bound in that emerald dress, but now she’s wearing full plate armor again, although I do still see the dress poking through beneath.
“Thank Karlis you’re back,” Diana says as she greets me with a quick embrace. We then all exchange hurried greetings as the tension in the air mounts.
“What’s going on?” Rembrandt says. “We hear cannon fire.”
“Don’t worry, it’s ours,” Lady Diana says. “The trolls are attacking again. In broad daylight this time.”
“What?” I say.
“The Goblin Queen,” Wilbur says. “She’s returned—reborn as some kind of demon. Even the dead she commands.”
That doesn’t sound good.
“She’s retaken control of the mines and turned it into her stronghold and now she’s threatening to wipe us out.”
Crap!
“Our access to Citadel is through there,” Gilly says, looking up at me. “What are we going to do?”
“That’s not the worst of it,” Lady Diana says. “Come with me.”
We follow Diana through the abandoned streets to one of the windmills and traverse the steps within to exit onto a balcony on the outside. She points towards the north and just beyond the perimeter wall I see an encampment flying the Stormwall Flag.
“It’s Braxus,” she says with contempt in her voice. “I’m not certain how he found me, but I’m sure it has everything to do with this filthy dress. I still can’t remove it.”
There has to be over a battalion of soldiers there already, plus mages, no doubt. General Lyons is likely with them and Lord Xavier as well. Perhaps even Braxus himself, in doppelganger form.
“They started appearing a few days ago,” Wilbur says. “We’ve taken heavy losses from the Goblin Queen already. We’re in no shape to fight a war, much less one on two fronts.”
My friends release curses of frustration around me, but somehow I’m not surprised or even upset by the news. I thought once I faced Braxus again, I’d be overcome with anger and hate, but those emotions seem to belong to a different person now. I’m not the same stupid kid who couldn’t kill Braxus when I had the chance, nor the hotheaded fool who tried to kill him when I had no chance at all.
Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m a Kono-Zemsu with the power of Zenkai, or that I just true killed a man in cold blood, for the greater good, without an ounce of anger or malice in my heart. But now I feel I can truly deal with Braxus on the level that he needs to be dealt with. I may have the power of a god at my fingertips, but Braxus is not the kind of enemy you can defeat with a sword.
He’s grown far more dangerous than that.
“Send an envoy,” I say to Lady Diana. “Tell King Braxus I’d like to meet with him.”
And then a smile draws across my lips.
“One king to another.”
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading Book 4 of Crystal Shards Online! I truly enjoyed writing this one and I hope you had a great time with it too.
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