Endless Online: Oblivion's Promise

by M. H. Johnson

  Val cried, crawled up in a puking ball, unable to parry the vicious kicks raining down upon his back.

  He moaned once, piteously.

  She kicked him harder.

  "Our lives depended upon you! They do so, even now! If a Psion or assassin comes for us, and you are this vulnerable? We are all as good as dead! Now quit playing the fool, and fight back!"

  "Elise."

  "Don't question me, Halvar."

  "You need to step back."

  Val sensed her wrath focus upon a new target, Halvar suddenly grunting and stumbling back. Val could feel the wave of her attack, so acute his Psionic Perception had become, achieving Rank 3 just hours ago, bitter consolation for the agony he had endured over the last four day of training. The first day she had at least pretended patience, growing shorter, sharper, less forgiving each succeeding day, making it clear that negative reinforcement was very much in the Highlord repertoire, training him unmercifully since yesterday, Sten making it clear that only because Val could regenerate fully in his sleep would he allow her to drain Val so utterly. Yet still he was an utter failure at the most basic of Psion skills.

  It was a bitter truth to accept, almost as hard as the one he had accepted only months ago: that he would forever be a burned cripple plagued by constant pain, until he somehow found himself here. And still he could not escape his sense of failure. He knew he'd never be able to achieve her feats, or counter her attacks. For all his gifts, for all that he had miraculously entered this world free of crippling injury, Val was still a rung lower than her on the evolutionary tree of man, and here it showed to bitter effect like nowhere else, in actual battles of the mind.

  "Elise! Enough!" Sten roared, and it was all Val could do to crack open his eyes and gaze upon a groaning Halvar, wincing and rubbing his head.

  Sten turned to his lover, disappointment clear in his gaze. "Elise, you go too far."

  "How dare you judge my discipline! This disciple is a weak-willed fool, and all our lives will be thrown in peril with the first Psivestigator to cross our path! Did you think about that before devising your plans to smuggle a half a billion credits worth of Elementium on him? Did you, Sten? Because I thought of it every day I was warding us both from the prying eyes hired by two of the eight brokers you've been negotiating with! Each of them eager to peer into our secrets and rob us blind!"

  "I didn't realize," Sten said in apology.

  "That's because I didn't want you to know," Elise's voice had turned hard and cold. "The problem's been handled, and your innocence assured that you gave no tell to either of those bastards that their hired spies are now brain-burned shells."

  Sten's lips hardened. He bowed his head. "I am sorry, Elise. You should never have had to do that."

  "This isn't a perfect world, Sten. You know that. You knew that when you found me. Rescued me. And I sure as the sky is blue will do everything I can to protect the only man who would ever want me. Who could ever love me. And I sure as hell will NOT let this mutant child, as vulnerable as he is terrifying, spell our combined deaths!"

  Elise stormed off without another word.

  Sten flashed Val unreadable look before helping Halvar to his feet. Soft murmurs of reassurance, laughter assuring all was well.

  "Our little lady packs a punch. No worries, Sten. I've survived worse. Go see to her. I'll look after our Val."

  Moments later, powerful arms lifted Val up, eyes both human and cybernetic peering into his own.

  "Are you okay, Val? Training's done for the day, lad. Time for you to get some rest."

  Val chuckled bitterly. "No reason to put me back to bed. Might as well drag me up the mountain and throw me back like a fish into the sea."

  Halvar frowned. "What are you talking about, Val?"

  Val sighed, shaking his head. "You can't imagine the pain, Halvar, and I know just what you'll say. Highlord business. You won't interfere. Sten said the same thing just yesterday when I was trying just to broach Elise's... methods. The kicks are new, but that's nothing compared to what goes on inside the mind."

  Halvar winced. "Not a thing I can do. But I know you're tough, and a damn good fighter. I'd be surprised if you're laid low by exercises all Psion sensitives are taught at ten."

  Val smiled. "Be surprised then. In case it wasn't already damned obvious, what with me springing wholecloth from some ancient regeneration vat, picking up languages in seconds, happy to use explosives and magic with the first spell I see, even as literacy lessons cause me dizziness and confusion, I'm not like you. Not like you guys at all."

  Val chuckled ruefully. "I don't think, by your definition, I'm even human. At least by what your language implies with the word." Val's gaze turned bitter. "I'm not much better than a talking ape. Just a talking ape that can speak, fight, and cast a spell or two."

  Halvar's grin was both sympathetic and merciless. A drill sergeant filled with granite hard love for his whining recruits. "I knew that already, Val. And a damn clever ape you are. Clever enough to learn whatever Elise throws your way." He patted Val's shoulder. "The mind is flexible. Even the hairy kinds of apes could learn basic sign language. Some even got clever enough to try to argue for their continued existence when the Highlords voted to purge away all genetic... competition. Forever."

  Halvar's gaze grew hooded. "I even had the pleasure of making friends with one at a zoo, once, when I was a child. At least, I thought of her as a friend, always sure to sneak her extra fruit." He gave a gusty sigh. "She even confided her name to me. Lucy, of all things. Then she asked me what I was called. When I was a child I was nicknamed 'big-tree' in my native tongue. I pointed to the tree. She gave birth to an infant ape three months later. She named him after me." He sighed. "Of course, that meant I had to sneak her more fruit than ever. How could I let little Tree go hungry? He was a natural at sign language. Once he even signed me as father." His fond smile grew sad once more. "Lucy and Tree were put to death, less than a year later."

  Val swallowed, bowing his head. "I'm sorry, Halvar."

  Halvar's squeeze was like a vice. "So don't think I'm giving up on you, Val, even if you are just a talking ape. You're still my friend. And if anyone tries to put you down like they did Lucy and Tree, so help me I'll shoot them dead. Highlord or no."

  Val clenched back hot tears he did not expect, hugging the man he respected so fiercely.

  "I won't let you down, Halvar." Val whispered through his exhaustion. "You're the closest thing I have to a brother in this world. If anyone thinks they can hurt my friends, I will kill them. I will kill them all. Meta-human or no."

  13

  Val woke early that morning, earlier even than the sunrise, the first chirp of birdsong presaging his soon to be endless agony at the hands of a pitiless taskmaster. And he refused to let that bother him, embracing a stoic acceptance as he donned his dwarven armor, before slipping outside and practicing his sword forms, taking advantage of the cool quiet while he could, breathing deep of fresh spring air with a touch of dew. His Psiblade crackled quietly as he wove it through the air in a series of strikes, parries, and lunges. Perfectly centered, one with his environment, with each blade of grass, the compound as a whole, flowing through the predawn gloom, lost in Shadowmind, and at peace. Not the predator hunting down his hated prey, but rather the quiet inevitability of a storm, the flow of existence itself. There was no Val. There was only this moment, this motion, the inevitability of his voidal rift tearing through the air in a perfect series of movements executed without flaw, drawing to a natural close as the first golden shafts of sunlight caressed thick shadows and gloom that soon transformed like magic to shimmering dwarven alloy, and Val stepped free of Shadowmind with perhaps his only smile for the day. Content. At peace.

  With the help of Shadowmind, you have learned to subdue your dread of fully embracing the deadliest of all melee weapons, able to incorporate with ever greater skill the techniques of the longsword without foolishness or fear. Rank 3 Psiblade achieved.

 
He turned around before the back door had even opened, having felt the presence of all his friends, somehow knowing it was Elise slipping free of her lover some minutes ago, performing her ablutions before donning her attire and heading for the back door just as Val pivoted to face her, relaxing his will upon the crackling field harnessing a sliver of oblivion, his Psiblade sheathed once more as he turned and bowed the moment Elise's eyes fell upon him.

  Her gaze widened, before narrowing once more. "So pretty you look, as if you had materialized with the dawn out of shadow, glittering brilliantly in the first rays of the morning sun. It is a true pity that you are more brittle than a figurine of fragile crystal, easily shattered with the slightest breeze." Her will clenched. Val felt it. He held himself tight, desperate to invoke Mindward, mind frantically trying to inflate his sense of self, the potency of his own existence, he suddenly the center of the world, of everything!

  Mindward attempt failed! Despite constant diligence and effort, you have once again failed to make use of the most basic of all Highlord defenses!

  Test of Wills Engaged! Elise has launched a Psionic Attack! Test of Wills failed! Psionic Whip has scoured your brain! No natural defense! You have suffered a ten point drain to Mana, Psion, and Stamina! You are temporarily stunned! (You're really not very good at this...)

  Val fell to one knee and groaned.

  "Pathetic." The contempt in Elise's voice hurt worse than did her attack.

  Val flinched, swallowed, forced himself to speak. "Elise..."

  "I did not give you leave to speak!" She snapped, pummeling him with another wave of terrible force, her Psionic Blast leaving him flat on his back.

  He blinked open his eyes to see him glaring down at him. "Pathetic!"

  "Elise..."

  Her lip curled. "I had such high hopes for you. I had so wanted to believe in you! You are no champion. You are just a boy. A broken one. A boy who is a fool, and who does not belong here."

  Val swallowed, closing tight eyes he swore did not sting with tears. "I know."

  "Why?"

  A single word. Barely more than a whisper. Val looked up. Elise's gaze was almost plaintive.

  "I've seen what you are capable of. The ice in your gaze. I thought you were so damn strong. Why are you this weak, Val?"

  Val barked a laugh. Even as Elise's plaintive look turned cold, he couldn't help it.

  "Do you really not get it?"

  "Explain yourself, Val."

  "It's simple. I'm not like you. I'm not what your Highlords would even consider human. To them? I'm probably little better than the great hairy apes capable of sign language and so much more in your universe..."

  "Yes. We had started to genetically enhance various groups, despite the disadvantages of doing such, as they could never then safely enter jump portals."

  Val blinked at this, but it was neither here nor there. "But then the Highlords decided to purge all the lesser races, no? Maybe that's why they feel entitled to Earth and all her people. In their minds, we're a lesser race, worthy of nothing more than exploitation and extermination."

  Elise's gaze softened.

  "You know it's true, Elise. I can almost sense the cortex nodes you have that I don't. You're a bit more evolved on the evolutionary tree, at least in some ways, and even if I'm able to match you in so many things, in at least a few... linguistic mathematical synergization, psionic attacks, Mindwards, you utterly blow me away. You can no more teach me to read your language, or focus my mind to harden itself against blows or strike like a dagger than you can teach your former great apes calculus. I, at least, can feel the bitter irony of my failures."

  Elise gave a furious shake of her head. "That is where you are wrong, Val. Neurons can forge new links. The brain can specialize itself, even adult tissue, which under proper stimulus can grow and evolve. And I will give you all the stimulus you need, so you don't end up like all those already put to death."

  Intent violet eyes locked with his own. "I will do what I can to save you from yourself, but today I expect you at least to try!"

  Val grimaced. "Elise, please... at least do me one thing?"

  His ruthless mentor sighed, standing up. "What, Val?"

  Val swallowed, getting to his feet as well. "Before we do anything else, before my brain is too sore to focus, can you show me how you used your Forceshield?"

  Elise's delicate brows furrowed. "You already know how to activate it, Val. Instinctively. It's one of the reasons I had such high hopes."

  Val grimaced. "Yes, I know. But it did me little good. I can move it around just fine, but whenever we closed, you could pivot me with it effortlessly. You could knock my shield aside with your own as if it wasn't even there!"

  "Yes," Elise nodded. "I could. Do you know why, Val?"

  "I would dearly love to..."

  Her palm cracked against his now unarmored cheek.

  Val winced.

  "It is because it is nothing more than the physical manifestation of my will. Focused and harnessed over years, forged into a weapon that had mastered the basic attacks taught to all initiates in the True Art. After that training, it was nothing to direct my intensity, my sense of focus and purpose, my ego, if you will, into demanding that my shield hold firm. It was moved by my hand, yes. But my ego allowed it. My iron will had it stand fast against all forces arrayed against it."

  Val frowned before nodding. "So that same sense of indomitable will you use for Mindward, a sense of self that transcends everyone and everything, also helps you to anchor your forceshield."

  Elise gazed at him like he was an idiot. "Yes, Val. I thought that was obvious. were you just moving it through the air?" She laughed. "No wonder you were so easy to push aside and dominate."

  Val grimaced, then nodded. "I guess I was, at that." He took a deep breath. "Elise? Since you've just explained that the skills needed to use Mindward are the same ones harnessed in mastering the forceshield, could we just practice with the shields, today?" He did his best to give a winning smile. "Certainly I'll be able to learn more if I'm constantly expending effort, measuring myself against you, as opposed to spending so much of the time crumpled on the grass, groaning in pain."

  Elise's beautiful features hardened. At last she sighed, nodding her head. "Very well, Val. Today we will do it this way. But no slacking. I expect your best at all times."

  Val nodded, relieved and grateful, hoping that perhaps with the shields, unlike the constant blows to the mind, he might actually start to get the hang of things. Maybe even show some progress. Maybe even get Elise, the first to have given him a chance, to look at him with something other than pity and contempt.

  He could not have been more wrong.

  "Try harder, Val! This is pathetic."

  Val looked up at her from where he lay, wearing nothing but a robe of white that she had supplied, and his forceshield. Tossed around like a kite, buffeted in the wind.

  At first, he had been hopeful. He had felt almost giddy at the prospect of testing his will once more in a way that he might actually be able to master. He had hoped. Not at all opposed to using his own strength as well.

  Yet no matter how hard he tried, his attempts to infuse himself with a sense of potency, of primacy that transcended everyone and everything, as if he were a living god that would force the world around him to bend to his will, ended in complete and utter failure every time. He grimaced ruefully. It could not be more alien to his own way of thinking, the mindset that took over when deepest in the killing rage, or embracing, more recently, Shadowmind. The night had no ego, no pride. It simply was. Even the fury that carried him forward had been but the inevitability of vengeance's storm. Primal. A force of nature. He just the tool of its execution. Utterly alien to the fearsome grandiosity combined with undeniable potency that was the core of the Highlords' discipline, the wellspring of power from which their talents sprung.

  And it probably explained why they were all such tyrannical asses, Val ruefully thought, before grunting as
Elise's boot cracked against his side.

  "I heard that," she hissed. "As you had intended. Your mind couldn't be more open than if you had said it aloud!"

  Val groaned. He probably shouldn't have been looking right into those beautiful, deadly eyes when he thought that.

  "No, Val. You probably shouldn't have. Now get up and quit fantasizing about being some wolf howling in the night. You are a man. And a flawed one. Flaws or no, it behooves you to finally embrace your own potency and give me challenge! Is your brain really so flawed, so pathetic, that your potency still can't flow through you? How were your pathetic minds ever able to manage the flashes of technology I see in your eyes?"

  Val smirked. "The internet. The incredible processing power that seems to be alien to your world. We could hold an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge on a handheld tablet, even without being online. If I have a good connection, though, all the information in the world was, more or less, at my fingertips." Val rubbed his throbbing temples. "Also, we're pretty good at extrapolating new ways to manipulate our environment, even if we're foolish in a lot of other ways."

  Elise blinked, for once impressed. "A world's worth of knowledge, playing full length video recordings of events of... contrived fantasy, so realistically, and not just a single movie but hundreds of them, in a device you could easily carry." She shook her head. "It almost makes me think Gregor must be right. Such technology is utterly impossible due to infinity paradoxes and Killian's Seven Sacred Laws, among other things. But in your world? A contrived simulation, perhaps?" She sighed, shaking her head. "It would explain so much, Val. And if you were never truly a man... it explains why you are so fragile in unexpected ways. It explains why I can't really teach you."

  Val swallowed, suddenly ashamed to his core. "My world is real," he whispered. "You can blame me for my failings, but please don't blame my entire world."

  "Then be worthy of your world, Val. Focus your fury. Hate me if you like, but focus your will and fight back!"