Hope Engine

by Andrew Lynch

  ‘Mmm, yes. Very good. Just as I would have done.’

  ‘Indeed, master.’

  ‘What is…’ I pointed to all of the foundations being built. ‘All of this? Is it all necessary? I know I wasn’t the most diligent town builder. Other things on my mind, you know? But we were surviving.’

  ‘Oh yes, master. In the same way a man clinging to a log in the middle of an ocean technically isn’t drowning. While correct, it is inevitable, no?’

  I scratched at my beard, now definitely needing a trim. ‘I guess. So what’s the damage?’

  ‘As in all things, compromises had to be made. Currently in construction are several gardens, a place of worship, a coven den, and a monument. All in the mana-infused tier, of course.’

  ‘Mana-infused? How the Eyes did we manage that? We’ve been a bit preoccupied with being under siege to do anything like advancing research and tech trees. Or even harvest basic materials.’

  ‘Tithes, master.’

  I looked to Bri and Ixly. ‘Have you guys been holding out mana-infused bricks on me? Your last tithe was just stone.’

  Bri shook her head. ‘Not from us.’

  Ixly pointed back through the gates. ‘From them.’

  ‘Who the hell has top-tier materials to tithe to someone? And it’s not like I’m providing anyone with anything.’

  ‘It’s symbolic,’ a man said, walking toward my little group. It had been a while, but I recognised him. He wore a long fur and hide cloak, far too heavy for the dead woods, but perfect for where he levelled up. A ridiculously sized sword was strapped to his back, easily as big as him and half as wide. He was flanked by two women – one with a shield and spear, and the other an old, bent over crone. A shield maiden, a council mage, and the man himself, Hursh.

  ‘Oh, hi. I thought you said you weren’t coming back?’

  He winced. ‘We all have our bad days–’

  ‘Months, in his case,’ the old crone said.

  ‘Yeah. I’m back now, anyway. After I heard about what you did here, I logged in and found my council.’

  ‘Still in that damn lumber mill. It was damp in there. Terrible for my joints.’

  ‘Yeah. Sorry about that. Again.’

  Bri nudged me with her elbow and gave me a hint of a smile. ‘See. Your plan worked.’

  ‘Wow.’ I snorted. ‘Talk about long shots. The high levels seriously rallied around the first defeat of The Eastern Shadow?’

  ‘Literally,’ Hursh said. ‘I only managed to get a small plot of land in Little Thanis and it was quite far out. Some of the closer plots are going for insane amounts of money.’

  ‘It’s true,’ Horace agreed. ‘I looked over the contracts. There is a slight issue though, master. I did not set these up. A third party is taking seventy five percent of the tithe for himself. He calls himself “the breaker”. Possibly just an enterprising individual, but possibly something more.’

  I sighed. ‘Of course someone is trying to profit from someone else’s hard work.’

  Hursh stepped forward and extended his hand. I untangled myself from Ixly and grasped it.

  ‘I just wanted to officially thank you, Severo. For bringing…’ he grinned to himself. ‘Well, for bringing hope to HOPE.’

  I felt awkward for the compliment, yet couldn’t keep the grin from spreading over my face. ‘I did what I had to.’

  Hursh and the crone said their goodbyes, and everyone was sure that they could meet up in the tavern for naterry soon.

  As the four of us ambled slowly towards Bri’s grove, Horace spoke up. ‘Master, it pleases me to see you on your feet. I confess I had… doubts.’

  ‘Doubts? What about?’

  ‘Well… the dagger was–’ I saw the three of them exchange glances. ‘– a direct hit.’

  I thought back to choking on my own blood. How real the pain seemed. How the dead wind hadn’t come.

  “Soon.”

  An ominous Thorn.

  ‘Yes. Stabbed me in the heart. Or lungs. You know how dying is. Things go a bit fuzzy, right?’

  Awkward, half hearted laughter.

  If Thorn wouldn’t answer… ‘Hey, yeah. Maybe you guys know. I mean, the dead wind didn’t come. What’s up with that?’

  Ixly shrugged. ‘It was peculiar that you didn’t respawn, but then one only respawns when one dies. Logically, you didn’t die.’

  Horace added, ‘To us your Life was at zero, but there was obviously something beyond the mortal wound to the injury.’

  ‘Oh? How so?’

  Bri rolled her eyes and Ixly made an exasperated huff.

  ‘He should know,’ Horace argued.

  ‘Know what?’

  ‘I’ll tell you when we’re back in the room,’ Bri said and winked at me. ‘Alone.’

  Well, I certainly couldn’t argue with that idea. I wasn’t sure how much I’d want to be talking, though.

  As we stepped onto the soft, brilliant green grass of the grove, I saw a familiar friendly face greet us.

  She Who Slays screamed and my ears rang.

  “Friendly” face might have been a stretch. In fact, even “face” might be too generous. There was a lanky and gaunt man stood next to her, with skin almost dark enough to rival Ixly’s obsidian armour.

  ‘She Who Slays, so nice to see you again. How is–’ I turned to Horace, suddenly remembering how I’d last seen the cultist. ‘How is Teint?’

  Horace nodded to She Who Slays, and the spriggan, holding back her scream, managed to give me the answer. I couldn’t understand her directly, but there was something about the whistling wind and creaking branches that, when I paid attention, I could dismantle. Teint was doing well. He was adjusting to the loss of his legs. After the shock of battle had worn off, he was sad, but with She Who Slays, the most beautiful spriggan to ever grow, by his side, he had pulled himself together and decided to start a new life. She Who Slays, despite being able to have any being she wanted thanks to her feminine wiles, would stay by his side, and devote her magic to the former cultist, using her powers to shape a new pair of lower legs for him every morning.

  I wasn’t sure how I got all of that from a few whistles, but I did.

  The tall man stepped forwards. He had a blooming flower tucked behind his left ear in stark contrast to his skin. He worse a shirt woven from vines and leaves – the kind of debris anyone could find around the grove – and his trousers were cut up and patched black cloth with the occasional flare of yellow. Bubonic buttercup yellow, in fact. His trousers were slightly too long, bunching on the floor. The floor, not his feet.

  I drew my eyes back up to meet his. A man whose face I had never seen before.

  ‘The no hood look suits you,’ I said.

  ‘Thank you, mas– Severo.’

  ‘Are you sure I can’t tempt you back to the dark gods?’ I laughed to let him know I was joking.

  He flashed a charismatic smile. ‘It turns out I didn’t need a god. Just a goddess.’

  She Who Slays’ branches quivered in an unfelt wind, and the two looked at each other.

  ‘And the… your legs? Is there anything I can do?’

  ‘You are not responsible, Severo.’ He held up a hand towards Horace. ‘Neither are you, priest. If anything, I thank you. Through fire we are forged, and in that crucible of pain, I realised myself.’

  We stood and talked and laughed and reminisced, and it was decided that we would all meet at the end of the day for a nattery in the tavern. I looked forward to it.

  Once Teint and She Who Slays had departed, I was guided towards the city walls. A new addition had been made that I was immensely thankful for.

  ‘Hey, steps! Good thinking, guys. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’d have been able to handle a rope climb right now.’

  Ixly nodded vigorously. ‘Oh yes, I made sure that everywhere was access friendly.’

  I took the first step and had to stop as a lance of pain shot up my right side. After a minute, and the pain – the very real
and not dampened by the game, pain – subsided, I grimaced. ‘Perhaps another time?’

  Ixly knelt down before me and pointed at his back.

  I considered refusing. It would hurt my ego to require so much help. But then… I was literally being offered a dinosaur ride, and who could turn that down? Bri and Horace steadied me as I mounted my steed, and Ixly rose slowly. Despite his bulk and the stairs, he was a smooth ride. The honour guard had inched even closer during this ordeal, and were obviously not happy.

  A few steps from the top, and Ixly prostrated himself on the floor, allowing me to step off my dinosaur mount and onto the ramparts of Thanis.

  To see Little Thanis, I didn’t need to walk to the edge of the wall. I had to look up. My land was still my land, and I had a battle scarred stretch of dead earth between my walls and the treeline where The Eastern Shadow had obscured their troops from me. Although now it would be called a building line. There wasn’t a tree in sight. There was an opposing wall. More precisely, multiple walls forming a patchwork of different coloured materials, tough enough that just looking at it threatened to drain my Life. A small patch of wall to the north was beige and jagged, with a spiked bottom and a top that seemed to constantly shift and rotate like quicksand falling in on itself. A wall to the north east was bright, gleaming steel, polished to such a sheen that even in my overcast realm it shone bright enough to blind me. As if that wasn’t enough, to the east of that wall was another that was literally made of crystallised light and was blinding me. Next to the light wall was a city with no wall – which seemed a bit out of place, but I was sure it was surrounded by lethal traps or a magical border that when crossed teleported you to hell or something silly like that.

  Beyond those walls was a dense metropolis, worse than the low tier of the Tulgatha capital. What Hursh had said earlier explained it. A prime location, and these high level players were caught in bidding wars for tiny plots of land – thanks to this mysterious land broker – and so they had to cram their plots with everything they could. Which meant they were building vertically.

  ‘I mean, I hadn’t had much time to build the walls but… I didn’t build them that small, did I?’

  Ixly waved a claw. ‘Bri is right in this. When the high levels get something into their heads, they tend to go overboard.’

  Bri harumphed. ‘I’m right in all things.’

  Ixly tilted his head but stayed silent. He was a wise Stagadon.

  ‘Well, what do they really want? Why have they come?’

  ‘They’re refugees,’ Ixly said. ‘Of a sort.’

  ‘Rich as all hell, refugees.’

  ‘Indeed. But they all lost their townships and no doubt a lot of their followers. The first defeat of the enemy that did this to them was a big event. They want to show their support in every way possible. Also, no one actually knows how you did it. They don’t know about the shadowgems.’

  ‘No one else had figured that out?’

  ‘I’m sure some had, but you had a very unique situation. A lot of coincidences had to occur for you to discover this, and it took the efforts of two other people added to your own. It isn’t like you saved up some skill points for a few levels and then dumped them all into a single stat that is considered strong for your class. Anyone could stumble into that. And it’s stupid to do. Not interesting, either.’

  ‘One could even say it is boring, master,’ Horace said.

  ‘Uninspired,’ Bri added. ‘Lacking creativity. From the dull of mind.’

  ‘Yes okay,’ I stopped them all. ‘You’re getting off track. So they’re here because I did something that only a few others had done, and I had better PR than them?’

  ‘Essentially, yes,’ Ixly said.

  ‘And they want me to… what?’

  ‘They want you to…’ he began, but stopped. ‘Well, we don’t know. They’re here. They’re here because of you. But what are you supposed to do about it?’

  ‘It’s up to you,’ Bri said.

  ‘Use them,’ Horace suggested. ‘Consider them yours.’

  Bri propped me up. I hadn’t realised I’d been resting on her so heavily. ‘Until they say they won’t follow you, use them.’

  ‘Ey. Let da man make his own decisions.’ I turned to see Muadshai who had managed to sneak up on us thanks to the silent slithering of his sand worm. He stepped off his pet and grasped my hand, pulling me towards him as much as he could wrestle me out of Bri’s grip.

  ‘I’m glad to see you made it.’ I pulled back, letting my weight fall back to Bri. ‘After the scouts were sent out, it all went crazy and I didn’t hear from you.’

  ‘Ya can’t keep a good scoot down. I was at da front, helpin’ dat orc and dat other one. Good people. Shame how many we lost.’ He tapped a hip flask at his belt. ‘Can’t chuck it yet, ’ey?’

  The hip flask was a lot smaller than the gourd he’d been carrying before, and was carved out of a black, swirling glass. A shadowgem, in fact. ‘Is it safe to drink out of that?’

  He shrugged. ‘Is it safe to drink?’

  ‘Fair point.’

  ‘I got tings to do. Just wanted to say dat I’m happy you pulled through. I was worried. And hey. We did it, ya?’

  ‘Did what?’

  ‘What you promised. Win or lose, we fought. Fought for our families.’ He motioned to the three stood with me. ‘But ya know? Honestly, I thought we would die. At least, dat was what I wanted.’

  I didn’t know what to say. Muadshai was tall, intimidating, and rough. I could handle that. But Eyes, he bared his soul without hesitation. He was open, and he was stronger for it. Stronger than I was.

  ‘Yeah. We did it.’

  He smiled, and stepped backwards, the tail of his sand worm moving into position so he didn’t skip a beat. His fingers played with the crystal stopped of his hip flask. ‘I’ll see ya around. Tonight, at da tavern, ya?’

  ‘I’ll be there. Come and say hello.’

  He left as silently as he came.

  I looked at Bri, Ixly, and Horace, and felt the strength go out of me. ‘I think I’m ready to head to the tavern. Maybe a nap before this evening. Sounds like it’s going to be a heavy one.’

  They all agreed, and Bri gave me a wink. Oh yeah. Tonight was going to be good!

  They helped me back, and we walked in pregnant silence. I could see they all wanted to tell me something, but none of them could bring themselves to start a conversation. I, however, was feeling too drained to fish it out of them.

  At the tavern door, Horace excused himself, claiming there was much to do before he could rest. After Ixly had struggled through the still too small door, he graciously allowed Bri to escort me up the stairs, giving Bri a hard stare as he said that I needed “rest”.

  Bri lay me down in bed and kneeled on the floor next to me.

  ‘Finally alone,’ I said, but not with nearly as much excitement as I should have. She was so beautiful and perfect and… watery. Her jawline and cheekbones were like coral reefs beneath her semi-opaque, shifting blue skin. Her eyes were like pearls fished from giant clams. Clams that I remembered don’t exist in Tulgatha. How weird.

  ‘Severo…’

  ‘Yes, Bri?’

  ‘There’s something I need to tell you before… before.’

  My heart beat faster. Before what?

  ‘Of course. Anything.’

  ‘It’s your… thing.’

  My eyes widened, and I almost choked. ‘My what?’

  She shook her head. ‘Your injury. Before the priest arrived, I was tending it, and…’

  She went silent for too long.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘It’s not… I mean, it is… I think it’s…’

  Silence again.

  ‘Come on, Bri. It’s not like you to be silent. What is it? It looks like it should have killed me? Yeah, I know that.’

  She shook her head. She put her hand over mine and intertwined our fingers. ‘I think it’s bad, Severo. Really.’

  ‘Is
there much worse than being bad enough to kill you?’

  She spoke quickly now, rushing to get it out of her mouth. ‘I mean look, it’s now like I know what it is, or the symptoms of what I think, but I haven’t seen anything like it before, and I definitely haven’t heard of anyone surviving it this long, and here you are, but I don’t know, you know?’

  ‘Woah, calm down. Just say it, Bri.’

  She looked away from me to the door, like she wanted to run, to be anywhere but here. ‘N-plague.’

  I let out a sharp bark of a laugh. ‘Bri, I don’t have N-plague. Evac protocols are so good these days, no one…’

  My words trailed off into silence. I wasn’t a player. I was a prisoner.

  “That’s right.”

  ‘Like I said, I don’t really know,’ Bri said.

  ‘No. No, that’s not right!’

  “You know it is.”

  ‘Okay, yeah. I’m wrong. Forget it.’

  ‘Why? It can’t be.’

  Bri shifted uneasily. ‘You should rest. Just your tiredness getting to you. To me too.’ She laughed nervously, looking at my eyes to see how I reacted as she said, ‘I haven’t slept much since you’ve been hurt.’

  I dropped my eyes from hers.

  She glanced at the door and untwined our fingers. ‘I’ll let you rest. Come down to the tavern when you wake.’ At the door she turned, silhouetting herself against the corridor. ‘And once you have your strength back tonight, we can… get to know each other. Like we should have before all of this got in the way.’

  I nodded absently. Even before she left, I began removing my bandages. I wanted to rip them off to find out what was under there, to see the mess Koif had made of me. I also wanted to leave them on and stay ignorant. It was all going so well, why did I have to find out?

  I didn’t need Thorn to echo in my mind to know what he would say.

  The bandages fell away, and the room brightened ever so slightly. It was hardly a radiant beacon, but it did glow. Strands of gold encompassed my right side, tumbling out of the still open hole in my side.

  What is it?

  “You know.”

  No! No it doesn’t make sense. I’ll just log out.