Danika was still grinning even as she asked seriously, "Is Jade a secret?"

"Not exactly," Lin Hao prevaricated.

"But Myles is in your department, and didn't know that the Emperor is also the merchant?" Danika pointed out questioningly. "If even the people in our own departments don't know about the Emperor's history…"

"He's just oblivious," Dalma spoke up with assurance. Danika thought that she would have been annoyed by someone defending her that way, but Myles looked thoughtful as Dalma explained, "We got the whole summary of Jade too, how all of the major AI functions had been compressed into one by the dominant one in the heirarchy. Also, not everyone in the seventh works directly with the Jade Emperor like you do in the sixth now."

Myles added quickly, "I'll make time to read through the notes on the Emperor." 

Devon grinned as Jade volunteered helpfully, "I can summarize everything for you, except what has happened in the Empire since that Frederick person (who irritates Lin Hao) created my copy." 

"Okay," Myles agreed.

Lin Hao opened his mouth, but then hesitated, while Devon told Danika, "Jade isn't a secret, but we don't want to publicize his existence until we find out if this project works out well."

"After that, the more people who know, the better," Paul added cheerily. 

"Why?" Danika asked. 

"So that I can have enough players," Jade responded quickly. 

"That too," Devon agreed. "But mainly to commercialize the copies."

As much as Danika liked working with Jade, and even though he was technically a program, she felt doubtful about the idea of selling copies of him. 

-- 

When Danika finished her shift, she didn't get out of the VR-medi pod to do her exercises and eat dinner, she just switched applications.

She appeared in 'Living Jade Empire' above a small cloud that was being ridden by a mouse wearing a sword. ShinZing hovered beside her, saying, "…after I pierce the shell Saaki." 

During the afternoon they had finally learned why the cloud cat wanted to destroy the airship: it had made a bet with the dwarven smiths who had crafted the ship. If it succeeded, it would be paid a huge sum. If it failed, it would have to guard the ship for a year.

In VR Danika could see into the cloud cat far enough to make her doubt that it was made of anything but mist. "How are you riding on top of your cat?" she asked Dame Mouse. 

As soon as she spoke, ShinZing turned toward her and gave her the quick hug of an emote. 

"I'm not her cat," the cloud cat protested in cat. 

Dame Mouse replied cheerfully, "Like I told Nao1, he's not my cat, we are companions in adventure." 

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Danika wanted to protest that neither of them had answered her question, but Saaki said, "Hurry up, or I'm going to sink too far to reach and have to teleport back up to you again." 

The red haired genie was slowly sinking in a picturesque fashion. The magic carpet he sat on made his character look like part of an illustration. The slow descent of the carpet made an excellent launching platform for a genie in an aerial combat situation, but they were increasingly expensive within the game. 

"You have a carpet!" Danika blurted. She hadn't noticed anything about them obtaining a carpet while trying to monitor their progress from her assistant's link to the mobile version. "Did you borrow it?" 

"It's new," Saaki told her quickly, "but nevermind!"

"Right, going!" ShinZing announced and zipped away. 

Danika turned to watch. As he approached the airship, which Danika thought looked too heavy to fly, lightning arcs crackled into life along the ship's metallic skin. ShinZing shouted something and turned green. 

By the time Danika figured out what had happened, the pixie had drawn his sword and punched a hole through the ship's skin. The lightning crackled around him, and toasted leaves began to drift away from him as he shoved what looked like a white stick into the hole. The plant that had enveloped ShinZing was being fried by the currents that touched him. 

ShinZing bounced away from the ship with a bang, just as Saaki shot forward in a gust of flaming wind. The cloud cat bounded forward and expanded. The white mist enveloped Saaki just as he hit the edge of the lightning's reach.

A jet of white fire blew the ship away from the genie wrapped in cloud cat, and Saaki screamed in frustration, "It's still not burning!" 

Danika searched worriedly for Dame Mouse, as the cloud cat withdrew from Saaki, who teleported away in a puff of flame as he started to fall. 

The cloud cat dove downward as soon as it had resumed its usual size. It caught the courageous little rodent who, Danika could now see, was sailing downward on a paper airplane. The airplane vanished into the soft white vapor, leaving Dame Mouse with her original appearance of being seated on the small cloud's head, as it floated back to where ZipZing hovered.

"Don't be disheartened," Dame Mouse advised. "We have a full two hours left." 

"We haven't even managed to burn anything on the inside of the shell. The anti-flame enchantment on that thing is too good," Shinichi grumbled as ShinZing came to a halt beside them.

"Does it have to explode? Or just be destroyed? And does it count if it's not something a cloud cat and a mouse could do?" Danika asked a string of questions.

"There was nothing in the wording that prevented us from seeking aid, but tis true that the phrase "blown up" was used. The others blew up too easily," Dame Mouse replied. 

"Others?" Danika questioned. 

"You have certainly become very talkative and inquisitive of a sudden?" the mouse replied questioningly in return. 

"Ah, I was just logged into the mobile version while I was at work before," Danika explained.

The cloud cat announced suddenly, in cat, "The small dragons who ride the storms have blown up many ships already!"

Danika blinked and ShinZing asked curiously, "What did it say?"

She mixed her own thoughts into her reply, "It said many were blown up by storms. Maybe it's kind of obvious, but dragons in this world are part of the weather system. What they are really trying to do is build a weatherproof airship!" 

"We chased many small storms to it before we called upon the Endless Song for aid. Unfortunately, they did not seem able to do more than toss the ship around," Dame Mouse explained.

Danika turned and examined the ship more carefully. "How do they get in and out? Or see anything?" she questioned. It wasn't that the metal ovoid was featureless, it had fins, but it didn't have a basket below it or any obvious doors or windows. 

"Portal inside?" ShinZing suggested. "It has diamonds embedded on its compass points that they might have vision through. Since that failed too, let's regroup."

He dove downward, and the cloud cat followed. On the ground below, Nao1, SilentSky, and Saaki were waiting in a small clearing that Danika didn't think would be hidden from the airship's view. On the other hand, if it didn't have any openings, it probably couldn't attack them.