Chapter Two: Outside The Gilded Cage
244 Days until D-Day
“Marc…” Jess looked across the table with a pained expression.
“Yes, I know. It’s crazy. I know I’m asking for a lot. I’m just asking you to hear us out for now. Trust me that I am absolutely serious, and that I will be able to prove… most of this soon.”
Marc and Sandra sat across from Jess over the small table in her mobile home.
A lot had happened in Jess’s life since the tournament. Despite their loss, and Marc’s fall from grace, most of Jess’s plan had remained intact.
As expected, Awakening’s popularity had taken another major jump after the tournament, and with the inclusion of PvP battles, commercial interest in the game had exploded. Jess was positioned to ride that wave as she quickly moved to form her own media empire.
With her extensive network of journalists, bloggers, corporate sponsors, and fan groups, Jess’s new media enterprise, Aware Media, had risen to the pinnacle of the popular zeitgeist, centered on the collaborative blogging/news site, The Daily Wake Up. The company was now a highly courted media startup, rumored to be worth more than a billion dollars on paper, and Jess was the power broker behind and above it all.
Because of the publicity surrounding Marc’s arrest and subsequent disappearance, Jess had been careful not to come out publicly defending or attacking him. In private, however, she had made it clear to him that she still believed in him and proved her loyalty time and again by doing her her best to subtly protect him from the worst of the fallout.
Marc had never asked for her help, and he had made it clear that he didn’t want her to do anything that would jeopardize her, or any of the team’s future on his behalf. Still, he was grateful for her support. While the others had kept their distance since returning to Silver City, Jess still made it a point to keep in touch with him. Despite her busy schedule, she called him at least once a week, and if he didn’t answer, she would get Shiela or Cyrus to do a wellness check.
For the time being, she had left the mobile home parked in the same RV park across from the Lobo, and had stopped by a couple of times, ostensibly to “unplug” from her new busy lifestyle. Marc knew, from the care she took to keep these visits secret, how much extra stress they likely brought to her.
When he had asked her to stop by, he had been surprised to see her on his doorstep the next day. She had flown her new leased private plane into the Grant Country airstrip down in Hurley, bypassing the larger airport down in El Paso, and shown up demanding an explanation.
Marc had been vague over the phone about why he had wanted to speak with her, but was adamant that the conversation had to take place face to face. He had implied that it had something to do with the game, and a potential threat to the safety of the public. Of course, she could not ignore the possibility of a massive story, but she had to admit that the source was rather suspect.
In the days since Sandra had shown up on his doorstep, she and Marc had been comparing their memories and experiences. Sandra had decided to stick with her human name and identity for now. Deep down, she explained, she felt like herself, a human game designer with the memories of a sentient magical world interface. Marc’s experience had been aa bit different, but he could relate somewhat to the confusion the situation invoked, and did his best to honor her wishes, sticking to her human name, and not pressuring her too much to explain her motivations and actions from the other world.
It was when they began trading notes on more recent developments, specifically the recent appearances of portals and beasts from the other world in this one, that the discussions took on a concerning focus. This is what led to Marc reaching out to Jess. If what Sandra suspected was even close to the truth, something needed to be done, and there was no time to waste.
Of course, Jess immediately recognized Sandra, not just as a senior member of the I.S.K. management team, but also her connection to the scandal that had taken Marc out of the game. Her surprise at seeing them together in Marc’s cabin was nothing compared to her reaction to their story, which Marc tried to layer in slowly.
He started by explaining the real reason that his knowledge of the game was so perfect. He explained that he awoke one day with the memories of having lived an entire lifetime in another world. He kept his description of his other life vague, but explained it as a fantasy world that exactly mirrored the details of the video game.
They explained that Sandra’s situation was similar, while avoiding talking about their specific relationship. Sandra, they said, only recovered her full memories after her collapse at the tournament, but reasoned that her work on the game was influenced by the those memories, that must have been suppressed somehow.
Jess took the first part of the explanation calmly. Her face betrayed skepticism, but she had agreed to hear them out. As the story continued, however, that look turned into disbelief, and finally sad disappointment.
“Marc. I don’t know why you are doing this. I know things have been difficult, but you are worrying me. This is not you. If this is a joke, it’s not in good taste. Just tell me what is going on.”
Marc nodded sadly.
“I know it’s a ridiculous story. I need you to believe me. Wait here for a second. I have something to show you.”
Marc stepped out of the room through the door to his bedroom. Jess leaned over and whispered to Sandra while shooting her with daggers.
“I’m not sure what your game is. If I.S.K. finds out you are involved in this kind of conspiracy theory, they will bury you, especially because of your position,” Jess warned Sandra, further cooling her a steely glare.
“If we are right about what is about to happen, I.S.K. lawyers are the least of our worries.”
“If you are right about… Do you realize how absurd this story is? I don’t know what you are hoping to accomplish here. Marc’s been in a bad place since that incident in Salt Lake, and now you show up, and he’s starting to seriously lose it. If this is some kind of scam, or worse, I’m not going to let you get away with it.”
Sandra scrunched up her face in a sour expression. Realizing that this woman was blaming her for Marc’s story was annoying, primarily because she didn’t know what to say to convince her of anything.
She had no evidence. Security at the office was insanely high, suspiciously tight, even for a major tech company. She had left for Silver City as soon as she located Marc’s information and copied down the address from the database. Even as an executive, Sandra was unable to copy anything directly from the servers, even her own emails and notes. Nothing electronic could leave the secure area, and sensor gates would flag anything in the high-security area.
Marc trusted her. How could he not, after everything they had been through? This woman, however, had no reason to believe the absurd story without any evidence. Evidence that she did not have.
Sandra explained what she knew about the current situation. She had told Marc, and now this journalist, about the secret government contracts, the new facilities under construction, and her suspicions regarding the purpose of the update to Awakenings.
Marc had added his understanding about the portals and the recent problems with beast incursions. Finally, they had outlined their suspicions about what was really happening with the game, and what was Mary up to.
Sandra, the human woman, had no experience at all with events on this scale. It was a conspiracy theory on overdrive. She hadn’t even suspected anything strange, focused so singularly on her goals as a game developer. But once the memories of Kira had been re-integrated, she recognized many of the design details hidden within the software and built into the astounding new support infrastructure. This was not knowledge or technology that belonged to this planet.
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Things that no one in either world should be able to produce existed in the design language of I.S.K. It was beyond even the mages of the Ranobe Empire. Only because of the things Marc had experienced in the other world, and within the heart of the Tower, that Sandra was able to recognize what it might mean, and what effect it could have on this world.
Marc re-entered the room with a bundle wrapped in a small blanket. He walked over to the fireplace and motioned for them to come over. Grabbing a log from the pile next to the wall, he placed it on the ground, standing up vertically. Then he placed the bundle on the small table next to the sofa and unwrapped a long, thin, object.
“Marc, what the hell is that?” Jess stepped back.
Marc looked up at her with a calm expression. He understood her reaction and concern, but this was the best way to get her to believe them.
“Proof,” He said simply, then picked up the small dagger.
It was a simple design that he had used often from his time as an apprentice in Threshis. A simple utility knife, popular with smiths and similar in size and shape to the Ka-Bar Marine utility knife of this world, but thicker, like an old-fashioned Bowie knife. This one had been forged with all the knowledge of a master craftsman and mage, however.
With a strong downward thrust, he stabbed the blade into the top of the log, where it stuck out after only penetrating the wood by just an inch or so.
“This is probably the best way I can demonstrate things to you right now. If what I am afraid of comes to pass, however, there will be many more convincing things coming soon. I promise, it will help. Try pulling out the blade.”
Marc motioned to the log, then stepped away from it to stand next to Sandra.
Jess stared at him with wide eyes. She debated running for the door and calling the police. There was something seriously wrong with Marc, and now he was flashing around weapons.
“Please, Jess. It will be fine. Things should make sense in just a minute. Just give it a try.”
She pursed her lips and stared from the knife to Marc. She had never been timid. Working as a tech journalist as a woman had given her very thick skin, but everything about this was a red flag screaming at her to get out of there. It’s only because of the affection and trust that she had developed over the months with Marc that she hadn’t left the cabin already.
Still, if even some of what they had described was partially true… The journalist in her was tempted by the possibility of an epic scoop, regardless of how ridiculous it sounded right now.
Eyeing Marc and Sandra carefully, Jess slowly slid her feet towards the log and reached out with one hand to grasp the knife’s handle. She was surprised when she couldn’t even budge it. Marc must have really stuck it in good.
Sighing, she turned and grasped the handle tightly with both hands. It took a bit of effort, but the blade finally popped out, and she held the surprisingly heavy knife.
“I made that myself. It’s a design I came up with based on my memories. For the most part, it’s not that interesting, but…”
Marc reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object. It was a small clear crystal, about the size of the tip of a pinky finger.
He reached out to Jess, he indicated that he wanted the knife back.
She stepped back away from him again, but her curiosity seemed to assert itself and she handed the knife back to Marc, handle first.
He smiled at her small display of trust, then held the blade in front of his chest with one hand, and the crystal in the other.
“This is a Mana crystal. They should not be present anywhere in this universe, but because of what is happening, they are now starting to appear in this world. I also used one in the construction of this knife using techniques I know only because of the memories I have inherited.”
Even Sandra seemed surprised by this revelation, and her eyes grew large as she watched Marc’s movements in fascination. He hadn’t actually demonstrated any of this to her yet.
Marc took the crystal and pressed it against the side of the blade. He slowly rubbed it back and forth, from the handle to the tip, and after a few seconds, the blade started to emit a light golden glow.
Soon, the blade became luminescent, and while not so bright that it would be hard to look at, it glowed with a clear light that illuminated the dark corner of the room near the fireplace.
Placing the crystal back into his pocket, Marc walked over to the log. This time, he held the knife lightly by the end of the handle and let gravity pull the blade down so that it hung freely, held by just two fingers.
He positioned the tip of the blade above the center of the log, less than an inch above the surface, and released the knife.
Jess’s eyes went wide as the knife’s blade sunk into the wood as though it were made of foam. There was no resistance at all, and it made a noise only when the hilt of the handle hid the wood and stopped the fall of the knife. The blade was now completely concealed within the log.
Marc pulled the blade out, still glowing brightly. He carefully grabbed the blade between his fingers and held it out for Jess to take back again.
Seeing her apprehension, Marc tried to reassure her.
“Careful. I forged it so that the sharpening effect should only focus on the edge of the blade. It’s safe, but unbelievably sharp, so just be careful with it.
Jess gingerly accepted the knife by the handle, then brought it up closer to her face so she could examine the blade more closely. It was still glowing brightly, but she couldn’t detect any light sources. There were no lights in the blade or the hilt, and, realistically, there was no room for any. It still felt like a normal knife.
“Try it out on the log,” Marc encouraged.
Curiosity winning her over, she grasped the handle tightly, then attempted to cut into the log like a birthday cake.
“Impossible,” Jess whispered.
The blade slid into the wood with no resistance at all. She cut down, then made a few more cuts, removing a large block of wood, but still, slicing through the hardwood elicited no feedback whatsoever. It was beyond even those late-night TV ads. No knife on Earth was this sharp.
“Marc… how did…”
Jess turned. She was about to say something, when the words in her mind were uttered by someone else in the room.
Sandra was staring at the blade in total shock.
“Mana crystals? You forged a Mana amplification blade? Where…? How…? But she has no Mana…”
Marc smiled. It felt like he hadn’t smiled in years. It was a rare treat to surprise Kira, and it felt a bit like old times.
“It took some tinkering, and of course, there is no elemental Mana, so there isn’t much more that I can do than this. The Crystals were harvested from some of the beasts that slipped through the portals.”
Jess was still in awe. She had started to dismember the log and had nearly turned the heavy piece of wood into kindling when the blade suddenly got stuck.
“Huh?”
“It’s out of Mana. I can only transfer enough for a minute or so this way.”
“Osmotic diffusion,” Sandra whispered, nodding slowly.
“Yeah, it’s basically a parlor trick as it is. I was mostly experimenting to see how much Mana remained in the crystals I was able to collect.”
“You mean… This is… magic?” Jess said while pulling on the knife, trying to extricate it from a block of wood.
“Well, not exactly. It’s a phenomenon that is caused by the same thing that powers magic. Mana. Mana, which exists everywhere in the other world, is what forms into Mana crystals and Mana cores. It’s what allows magic to manifest. This is just a basic application of raw, unrefined mana.”
“Mana?” Jess finally gave up and handed the knife back to Marc, still embedded into the piece of wood.
Marc pulled the knife out and tossed the wooden block on the pile that Jess had left on the floor, then checked the blade for damage. Satisfied, he wrapped the knife back up in the bundle. Taking the crystal out, he handed it to Jess.
“This is a Mana crystal. It’s taken from the heart of a beast in the other world. They grow naturally there, due to the ambient mana in the atmosphere.”
Jess examined the object carefully, as though afraid it might explode.
“These aren’t dangerous, are they?”
“No. Not in that state. They can be used in concert with certain artifacts, though they require someone with a Mana core to activate them. I’m pretty impressed you were able to build a circuit to bypass that on your own,” Sandra said, nodding to Marc.
“Like I said, it’s just a basic structure. Even so, it also took quite a while to get it to work.”
Marc looked around Jess, who had moved to the sofa and was sitting down, staring at the pile of cut-up wood.
“Jess, can I borrow your phone for a second? The one you use for Awakening.”
In a state of shock, Jess turned to Marc, then after staring at him for a moment, shook it off and reached into her coat pocket, pulling out the cell phone and handing it to Marc.
“If what we are saying is true, then this should work. Jess, we need someone to help us. If this is true, then this entire world is in danger.”
The journalist looked at Marc with a stunned and confused look. What was Marc talking about? Was this true, or was it all some kind of sick trick? She trusted Marc, but this was too much. How could it possibly be true, she thought to herself.
Marc held the phone out while Sandra stared at him with widening eyes. He had taken the crystal back from Jess and now placed it above the phone’s screen.
This time, instead of the phone, the crystal between Marc’s fingers started to glow brightly.
“That witch! How long has she been doing this?” Sandra spat between clenched teeth.
Jess jerked until she realized that Sandra was not looking at her, but was staring straight ahead.
“What… what does that mean?”
Marc handed her back her phone, then examined the crystal closely.
“Whatever they did with these phones, it’s beyond me. It’s knowledge beyond this world and the one where my memories come from. Still, without Mana, the circuit is useless. In this world, without any ambient Mana, it’s completely inert. That’s why I didn’t notice it before.”
Marc seethed. This was Mary’s plan. No one else could have done this. There was no one in this or any world who could engineer something like this, but considering the danger, he still had no idea what she was hoping to accomplish with it.
“What do you mean? If it doesn’t do anything, what’s the point? Where is the danger?”
“The danger isn’t in the phones. It’s the reason the phones are like this at all. Why I.S.K. and the game exist in the first place.”
Marc stared into the crystal with an angry expression.
“It’s Mana. I don’t know how, or why, but she is going to bring the Mana here. Mary is planning to bring magic to Earth.”