War for Maicreol Read online

  “I think we both need a good look at our characters what we are and what we can actually do, now that the systems seem to be working better.”

  “Are you still getting glitches?” she asked.

  I could only nod at her. I’d been dying to get into my stats and explore all the things I’d learned and done since I’d been with Gestal and his Hamu. But I was also still seeing some error messages. Sigh.

  She took hold of my hand, squeezed it, and let go. We walked back toward the others, and I listened as she told me more and more about what happened to her in the forest. I tried to comprehend everything they’d been through with the creature in the forest, how Jessica and Akillia had helped her fight it. It sounded like it was much more powerful than any of them. They only had a chance to defeat them together. That worried me. Something so powerful shouldn’t be in this world surely. Dahlia explained how she thought it wasn’t from Puatera, and I laughed, trying my best not to believe how real it felt like it could be. She really had been through a lot, but there were such joy and excitement from her that I shouldn’t have worried. This was after all why we played games. Fun. I shivered. Gestal’s Hamu hadn’t been that fun, but the inner me somewhere had loved a lot of it. It had given an out to the darker side of me, and I had liked that a lot.

  “Everything all right?” Abel asked as he saw us approach.

  I tried to smile at him. Maybe he caught my worried expression. “Hey, you okay?”

  “I will be,” I nodded as I walked past him. “We’re going to be a little while. I think you can keep everything ticking here for a bit while we work through our insides.” I tapped the side of my head, and he understood I meant the game system.

  “Of course. If you need Dresel or me for anything else, we’re both at your disposal. Okay?”

  “Thank you.”

  I really meant it. I wasn’t sure what he meant to Akillia or to even Maddie, but their bond and connection in the way they talked and looked to each other spoke volumes of the trust they had. The world I’d landed in was different, cruel, and I didn’t know if I wanted to protect all of it, even if it did mean the most to those here. I found myself in a very strange place, emotionally and physically.

  I found us a nice place to lie down and Dahlia lay back accessing her screens quickly. “I’m glad we’re in here. It’s an amazing place. More so glad you’re here. We really bounce off each other.”

  I knew we always did. But right now, she had no idea as to what I was, or who I had become in here. To be honest, neither did I.

  “Dahl,” I said. “I’m not the usual player in here.”

  Her face didn’t frown, her eyes didn’t give anything away. “I know, and you’re amazing.”

  I settled back and waited for the calm that should come to me, but it didn’t.

  I sighed and looked to Dahlia, she looked so peaceful. And that at least I loved. She was family, and at that thought, I felt tears.

  I hadn’t really had time to process what had happened to us or to really think about never getting the chance to see them again, ever. Or Mom. I know we’d said we would stay in the game to sort things out, but I also needed to go home and spend some real time there.

  When I lay back down, and my mind returned to the thoughts of things, I found that the log out button was ever so tempting. Instead, though, I pulled up my interface and started to dig. I remembered where I’d left off. The seven Karma I’d basically thrown into my character. Now I hoped at least I could look and see a lot more about what made me who I was now.

  Aspects - Advantages - Aptitudes - Affiliations

  I clicked Aspects read quickly.

  Body — 1

  Mind — 2

  Soul — 1

  Same… as before… Clicked through to—

  Advantages – 0

  Still nothing. No surprise there.

  Karma – 2

  Wow, I’d not seen those notifications. Was that because we’d defeated Gestal? I didn’t know. But I also wasn’t spending them just yet either. I learned that they came in very handy in dire situations.

  Aptitudes

  Combat (Body) —2

  Diplomacy (Mind/Soul) — 1

  Endurance (Body/Soul) — 1

  Faith (Soul) — 2

  Subterfuge (Body/Mind) — 5

  Logic (Mind) —1

  Affiliations

  Born within the Guild of Assassins you have a natural Affiliation. Your learning curve is reduced for sharp wits and manoeuvrability as it’s naturally in your blood.

  But there were other screens. Yes! I almost screamed out. This was what I wanted to see more of.

  Learned Abilities

  Angered Strike

  Deceitfulness

  Pure Determination

  Stealth

  Shake it off

  ITEMS OWNED

  LIGHT BAG OF HOLDING

  REFILLING WATER BOTTLE – FROM THE HALLSK MOUNTAINS

  TWO SNACK BAKES

  ONE CHANGE OF CLOTHES

  AMESTEH’S DAGGER – JEWEL ENHANCEMENT - WILL DOUBLE ANY

  LEARNED STEALTH ABILITIES

  MAIDENS LUCK - INCREASE TO SPEED

  GREGOR’S BOOTS - MAKE YOU AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER - TO SNEAK PAST ANY GUARD THESE BOOTS ARE A MUST.

  BEARER’S TOKEN - BASIC PROTECTION AGAINST MAGICAL WARDS.

  SILVER WINGS OF CARN - WARDS OFF MAGIC AND POISONS.

  CONTACTS OF SOUL PROJECTION

  EPOL’S EYE – THE ALL-SEEING WATCHER OF THE DARK.

  I shivered, wondering if Epol’s eye would stay with me forever now?

  There was a lot of stuff that I wished I could see more of, but this was neat. I sighed, though. The log out button was there, prominent… I wanted to push it.

  O.M.G Lila! Dahlia’s voice came to me then. You’ve got so much! How did you even do that? All those skills, the gear?

  Internally, I squirmed. How could she see everything I was?

  I swiped my stats away and looked over to her. I can’t see anything.

  No?

  I met her gaze with mine. Dahlia, I gotta log off, I said. Even briefly, I just need to see Mum.

  I know. Her voice shook, and I could see tears there. I feel it too. See you on the other side.

  I sucked in a breath, and I pushed it.

  LOGGING OUT.

  Waiting for it to do something spectacular was just awful.

  What happened and what I felt next was horrific. There was another voice with me, though—one I thought I recognised.

  “Breathe through it. You’ve got this. Come back to us, Lila. We need you.”

  Then my eyes opened, and I was staring into the eyes of my mum.

  “Oh, honey.” Tears dripped off her chin, and she reached for me as the AI system disconnected from my neck and back, slowly lowering me to the ground.

  The lights hurt my eyes, and I blinked furiously looking around. There was no sign of Jessica or Dahlia. “Where are they?”

  “Don’t worry. We’re monitoring you all individually now. We had you moved from the test room that you broke into private rooms so that we could study each of you and have full teams on standby in case you woke.”

  “That sounds bad!” I tried to hold myself up but couldn’t. “How long was I in there?”

  “Too long,” she said simply. I heard the door, and a couple of white-coated doctors rushed in. I was scooped up before I knew it and sat on a table, kind of scared to even breathe, but I felt air being sucked in and out of my lungs, and it was good. It felt real, really real, and tears brimmed in my own eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Mum,” I said. “We never...”

  “Don’t worry about that now. All I want to know is what’s going on in there.”

  I didn’t know what she meant at first, but the docs prodded and poked and then started to draw a needle up. “Just need to check your blood,” Mum said.

  “What do you mean? Because of all the glitches?”

  She cocked her head at
me, and she said, “No, because there’s something else in there, something alive.”

  It couldn’t have been true, really. I wasn’t thinking straight.

  Mum pulled me up so I could look at her straight in the eyes. “Why wouldn’t you come home sooner?”

  I struggled for the words. I didn’t want to disappoint her. “I was trying to figure out things inside the game, to help you.”

  There was something else Mum wasn’t telling me. Right? I looked at the medics, and I asked her straight, my voice wobbled through. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  I watched as she fought with a choice, I could see it across her face.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked again.

  “All three of you are showing signs of fatigue that we’d expected with players that had been in the game for so long, but not when you’ve been cared for by the system properly and at the higher end of the tech.”

  “That’s not so bad, we expect to get that, though, right?” I tried to brush it off, but the fact was, I could see Mum worried and that had my mind spinning. “Our bodies aren’t doing anything, so it’s bound to happen.”

  I watched as the tech shook his head. He obviously wasn’t happy with something that was showing in his readings. Could they examine blood that quick? I tried to remember back to my medical classes and how quickly things had progressed in the last years. Yeah, maybe.

  I watched Mum get up, “Mum, what’s going on,” I demanded. Then on seeing her reaction, quickly added, “Please tell me.”

  But she didn’t. She left the room with the medic for a few minutes. This worried me more than anything. If there was something going on, and I couldn’t see or hear it, then it had to be bad.

  All I worried for was my sisters, not for myself. If I’d caused them any serious problems because of my idea to do this, I don’t know if I would ever be able to forgive myself.

  There was a sound as the door opened again, and she came back in.

  “We’ve got some more tests to do, and I need you to answer straight. Do you feel different? In any way at all?”

  I had no clue what she meant, and I looked to my hands. They seemed normal, just like the rest of me. “No, Mum, I don’t. What do you mean?”

  “Your blood shows pathogens that aren’t from this world.”

  “Wait!” I said. This was inside the game, surely. Epol’s Eye? Was it real?

  “The pathogen’s attacking your system, and it has everyone here confused. I’m not sure as to what degree the damage is or what it’s doing to you and neither does the team.”

  “Wait, what damage?”

  I saw her brow furrow that way it always did when she was struggling with work at home and couldn’t share it. “Yes, you’ve got some kind of blood infection. The team needed to take better samples while you were awake.”

  “Why not while I was asleep?”

  “The AI and the inner system haven’t let us actually do anything with you or your bodies.”

  “How can the AI stop you from doing anything with us here?”

  “The order came from Dresel. He said until things settled, we weren’t allowed to touch you at all. That your lives were at risk if anything went wrong with the tech.”

  I could see that. There was a lot more going on inside the world of Puatera than I knew, but the only thing that could have physically done anything was the AI had control of things and our life support, the water and the food, the waste. He could easily have just stopped doing things and let toxins build up until our bodies died.

  I shuddered at the thought of that as a death. It would be horrid. I guess, though, at least in the side of the game, we might not have actually felt it.

  There was a calmness now over my mother’s face, and I wondered what had changed in the last few minutes. “Is there anything you can tell us about the AI on the inside of the game? Why you couldn’t log out? The glitching interfaces? Has it spoken to you, done anything?”

  I mean, I’d had my quests given to me, but that was about it. “There hasn’t been any direct interaction. But I think Dahlia had, did something happen to her?” Mum motioned to the glass wall. I knew someone was watching on the other side, but who I’d no idea. “This is an AI, right, like one you programmed, created?”

  She nodded, but then also shook her head.

  “Sci-fi gone wonky?”

  Why was it that important that Mum speak to the AI? I could also see on her face that she was worried, really worried.

  “I need you to go back in there and get the AI a message from us,” she said.

  “Message? Why can’t you log in and speak to him?”

  She paused and kept looking away from me.

  “Mum, why can’t you talk to him?”

  “There’s something stopping us. No one else can log in.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Every attempt to log in now is being looped. It’s not letting us in.”

  “You know it’s a he? And I can actually do that?”

  She tried not to let her frown deepen and let any more info out. She was holding back from me. I could see this. “I need him to contact myself or Dresel as soon as he can.”

  “He’s an AI. Why not just send him a message?”

  “He’s not listening to anything we’re sending.”

  I thought about it for a moment and briefly to who Maddie and Jessica had just gone off with, what they were going to do, mostly because of him, the quests. “I’m sorry, Mum, but I think they’ve got a lot going on in their world, and I think they need to concentrate on that.”

  My mum sat down before me and placed a hand on mine. I felt weak all of a sudden like the contact here actually broke me.

  “Lila,” she said, reaching forward with her other hand to tuck some hair behind my ear. I think I smelled bad, but she didn’t. She smelled just like the usual coconut cream lotion she used, and I loved it. She smelled of home.

  “What’s the real deal, Mum?”

  “If this beta trial doesn’t work out, and they can’t get their ratings up in the next few weeks, they’re going to shut down the system.”

  A shiver literally ran down my spine. “They can’t,” I said, feelings flooding through me. Noc. Alia. And the guild. Everyone who helped me. What would happen to them? Would they just die? I reiterated again. “They just can’t.”

  My heart sank. The people in there, everything would be terminated…

  I felt the emotion building up, the fact it was almost over. If there was no one jumping on the band wagon to back the game or to want to play it, then they’d lose everything.

  “What can I do?” I asked shakily.

  “You need to get the AI to talk to us. We need better access to what’s actually going on in there. There were viewers watching Akillia, but then it’s like she vanished off the face of the planet.”

  “She did,” I replied. “Both she and Maddie left part of Puatera for somewhere else.”

  “Oh, where?”

  I shrugged. I wasn’t sure, only that their quest had taken them to another part of Puatera. The fact it was in the presence of Kamaal, I couldn’t share. I felt that he was real, like Maddie was real like the real devil should be in our world. That he could have done a million bad things all at once. But I wasn’t going to tell her that.

  “I will do my best, Mum, for them, for my sisters.”

  “I knew you would. That’s why I also am going to do this for you. You’re going to live feed the world now. Everyone will see what you see, what you do. Okay?”

  I’d never been a streamer before. I mean I knew that they did it, that people sold their inside game views and their lives, but me, no, I was thirteen. What they hell would interest them about me, plus I wasn’t ‘good’ I was technically touching darker than I think they’d want to advertise for Puatera, no matter who they wanted to attract as buyers.

  “I’ve been given a quest to do,” I said. “I’m not sure that it would be that interesting to ot
hers out there.”

  “Then you have to make it so…” It was the way she trailed off the sentence that caused me I swallow.

  How and what could I do? We were only protecting the eggs, right? What could be so exciting about that?

  “Just do what you can to make things good, to show them that Puatera is interesting that there’s quests, loot, anything.”

  I guess, if I had to do it, for Puatera to help them and Maddie, then I would. I’d go back and do whatever it took.

  “Oh, I see,” I thought aloud. “You just want me to be inside and show them something that would entice them in.” Lots of players wanted to do dungeon raids, to level up more and get as much loot as possible. Maybe I could do something like that… find a dungeon. Oh, the thought didn’t do me anything. I’d spent a lot of my time already inside the game worrying over and trying not to live in such places as dungeons. But the Tromoal caves already need protection, right? Maybe they’d be seen as a dungeon. Or maybe I needed something else.

  “Do you know if there is a dungeon that might be interesting? Maybe help get us a side quest?”

  “It will have to be one of the quests you’re already on because we can’t have it any other way.” She sighed.

  “Oh, so it could be the quest involving the Tromoal eggs, protecting them?” I said. “At least that would make it easier.” I watched her reactions. No, I didn’t think it was going to be easy. “What kind of monsters are down there?” I asked her.

  “We’ve been watching Puatera closely. They’re going to be a lot higher level than you are, much higher. You’ll need to gain in strength as quickly as you can, you and the others.”

  “The others?”

  “Yes, you’ll need to make your party strong so that you can and will be able to go in and find a boss. The only way to do it is to win that battle.”