Before Ember knew it she and July had clambered out of the water and were lying on the ground, wide-eyed with shock. Puddles formed as the excess water sloughed off of their soaked clothes. The policeman stood over the pair of them where they lay on the stone walkway.
“Endusers, huh.” the policeman said, looking into her unnatural eyes. “That makes sense. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast.”
Ember slowly stood up. She expected to feel cold when she got out of the water, but the air in Rainforest Ring was too warm and muggy for that. Her soaked sweater hung heavily upon her. She tried not to stare at July, whose shirt clung to him and made him look practically naked from the waist up. The beat cop was about to return to his patrol when Ember turned to speak to him.
“Wait, maybe you could help us. We need to find the End store. And some dry clothes would be nice.” she said.
“The Ring Has Everything. There’s a kiosk over there with the map. Just so you know, you can buy your abilities anywhere—any convenience store in the city.” the policeman said, “Good luck.”
Ember thanked the man and waited for him to get out of earshot before bringing her phone up for a chat with SOFI.
“SOFI! Why’d we come all the way here then?” Ember said.
“You asked me what was a good place to find shops. I’m here to help, but I’m not going to make airplane noises and spoon-feed you. If you want the right answers, ask the right questions.” SOFI said in the tinny speaker voice she had when she was inside the phone. SOFI came out and stood upon her little stage before she continued: “Also, are you telling me you don’t want to go shopping? It’s a material world, sort of, and Rainforest Ring has almost everything that can be bought. It’s like an infinite mall. Now, hand over that ducat.”
Ember passed the golden Coin off to SOFI, who handled it as if it were a 45 pound weight plate. SOFI heaved the coin into the screen with a girlish little grunt and then followed after it. Ember’s smile broadened and July let loose a groan.
“What is it?” she said to him, knowing perfectly well what it was.
“Nothin’.” he grumbled, “We can go shopping, but I ain’t holding any bags.”
“We won’t be able to afford anything, anyway.” Ember said. July was relieved until SOFI cut in with something to add.
“You buy cheaper stuff with Tokens.” SOFI said, “They’re decently stable and the exchange rate hovers around 100 Tokens to a Coin. Currently 98. Ember, you have 94 Tokens.”
Riding the subway wasn’t a whole coin, then. It was four tokens. That explained the price of her cab ride in. She wondered if any of the other Endusers had paid out the fare, and what it might’ve gotten them besides a good feeling. It didn’t sound possible to get the information necessary to properly pay inside of three questions, unless one of them was something oddly specific about how to pay. Like ‘I lost my purse. Is there any other way I could pay you…?’
Maybe some of the other cab drivers demanded payment. The people on Natter were, after all, complaining about the cab drivers being overly nice to the girls. Did she get off easy? If Harry had demanded payment she would have been given the opportunity to learn about Coins and Tokens up front.
“July, did your cab driver ask for payment?” Ember asked. She knew he probably hadn’t paid out. The concept of finding coins looked new to him when he did it in the Forum Heights subway, and he claimed to have 51 after that. July nodded in affirmation, but didn’t say anything else. Ember prodded him, figuring there was more to it: “So… what did you do?”
“I said I felt real bad about it, but I didn’t have the money.”
“And what then?” Ember said. July shrugged.
“Fella spit on my shoes and drove off. Said I was a bum, too.”
The people on Natter might have had a point. Her clothes were already starting to feel lighter, airing out faster than if she were tumbling around in a dryer. She followed behind July as he walked over to one of the many triangular information kiosks, which looked just as they did in every mall. His shirt was already dry and billowy again, which was a disappointing development. Ember reached down her sweater and tried to feel for the holes May’s sword might’ve left in it earlier. All stitched up. The blood had been gone from it for a while, though she hadn’t thought about it until then.
“I think our clothes restore themselves.” she said. July reached down and pinched his shirt between his thumb and forefinger with surprise. Dry as a bone.
“Huh. No need for new clothes then.”
“That’s a separate issue.” she said immediately. July gave her a look but said nothing.
When they reached the kiosk SOFI again popped out and flew over to the map to highlight their destination. Though SOFI hadn’t explicitly stated it, Ember sensed pathfinding was part of what the fairy considered to be her duties. The shop was fortunately in walking distance—the Ring was enormous, and Ember suspected from the map that it ringed once around the entire city. Fortunately, the shop they needed was close enough that they didn’t have to make use of any of the boats or the light rail.
“SOFI, won’t people start to miss us? We’ve been here like an hour and a half already.” Ember said after a couple minutes of walking.
“Time doesn’t pass the same way here as it does in the real world. However long the game lasts, you’ll be back before the sun rises on the next real day. Time here is, of course, measured in Swatch Internet Time.” SOFI said. Ember bit her lip.
“What?”
“Each day consists of 1000 ‘beats,’ equal to 86.4 seconds of perceived time. Endusers have been arriving every 21 beats since midnight. It is currently @255 beats.”
“Ugh. Can’t you just convert it for me?”
“It’s best if you just get used to it…” SOFI said, sounding apologetic. Ember figured off the top of her head that 500 beats was noon, 250 was 6 am, 750 was 6 pm, and 0 was midnight. Three hour offsets from any of those would be 125 beats, so 9 pm would be 875. It was just after 6 am. That was a start.
“So December’s riding in now.” Ember said, and turned to July, “Did you watch my taxi ride on the news?”
“Yep. They summed up the others, too.” he said. They passed an electronics shop which was three times wider than the other storefronts. Dozens of large flat-screen TVs faced outward towards the stone path through the wide glass panes. They were all showing a colorful demo reel which featured a clown fish weaving through some purple anemone. Ember stopped and tugged on July’s shirt.
“I want to see it! I want to see December.” she demanded of him, fairly imperiously.
“You sure? We should probably get on track.” he said.
“FIDO will warn us if there’s any danger. He warned us about May. Going around without knowing what’s happening is more dangerous.” Ember said. July thought on it and nodded his assent. A little risk, but no point in living in fear. He took his PalmPilot out and pointed it at the array of televisions.
“FIDO,” he said, “fetch me the news.”
A happy bark of obedience from FIDO. Over the course of a couple seconds all of the televisions flipped over to a twenty-four hour news network called 3N.
“Wow!” Ember blurted out as the channels began to change.
“Guess some things still use IR.” he said, not nearly as impressed with the feat as she was.
Ember and July—and, thankfully, many other bystanders—began to drift to the largest of the screens. It was monstrous panel which you could imagine setting up in a dark room and pretending you were at a real theater, except better, because you didn’t have to wear pants. She saw on the screen a clean-cut older gentleman with short, wavy silver hair dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and a crimson tie. He had his black-gloved fingers laced together and appeared to be contemplating something out of the window with a measure of professorial calmness.
#
“I’m afraid I don’t know where I am.” he admitted to his driver. His refined way of speaking had the tonal character of an old-school WASP patriarch, someone who might’ve been British if it weren’t for the ocean. His great grandfather was probably on the wrong side of the Revolution. Ember was familiar with the type, if not especially fond of it. She’d attended a private high school in New England and learned a hard lesson that status was, everywhere, relative. She returned her attention to the screen in time to hear the driver’s response.
“December, this is Noumea.” the cab driver said. His face was off-screen.
“New Caledonia isn’t what it used to be.” December said. He asked no further questions, and looked out the window for the rest of the ride in silence. The cab dropped him off in what she now recognized as Forum Heights. It was a different part of the area, but it was the same sort of milieu. December stepped out onto the lawn and didn’t ask about payment, and in fact didn’t even bother looking to the cab driver again. The cab quietly pulled away without so much as a harsh word. The camera switched to an exterior shot, slightly above the ground, set low in the post of a street light.
“Why’d he ride for free?” July said.
“Senior discount?” Ember guessed. From his silvery hair and the lines on his face he had to be in his mid 50s. Ember gasped, along with everyone else in the crowd, when she saw the figure who was approaching him in the near distance. It was May. December put his gloved hands in his pockets, making himself nonthreatening, and turned to note her approach. He appeared prepared to ignore her, but instead she stopped short about fifteen feet away and faced him, silently demanding an audience.
“Are you lost?” he asked of her. Ember thought it was an incredible question, considering he had no idea where he himself was. May drew her head up and took out her phone. Run, December! Ember thought, regretting that they didn’t take care of May when it would’ve been easy. Perhaps they should have. She was a menace. Now here was a target even more unprepared for her assault than July and herself. Someone who had just stepped out of the cab and had no way of even defending himself. Even if she sent him a message to warn him, what would that do for him except provide a fatal distraction?
“Who are you?” May demanded. December hesitated. He must’ve had the same sort of amnesia as Ember, but he had been addressed by his new name once, and like September had, he went with it.
“December. It’s dangerous to be out alone at a dark hour like this, you know.” he said.
“I was just thinking the same thing. Why don’t you walk me home, old man?” May said, giving a mockery of a smile, and then making two strokes on her phone to summon the Cellblade. On being threatened with the pink-edged black rapier December immediately took one step back, such that he only presented a thin profile to her, and furrowed his brow. He was a picture of calm given what he was facing, but he wasn’t without caution either. If any real fear quickened in him, it never played out on his face.
“If it’s money you want, I’m afraid I haven’t any on me.” he said.
“I don’t care.” May said, “I’ll take your phone.”
December slowly took out the rectangular black slab from his pocket, pinched between two fingers—a ‘Gates’ Phone, she recognized, from their characteristic blocky design compared to Machina and Eos designs. No no no! Ember thought, and realized she was now right up against the glass of the store window, buoyed forward by her own interest and that of the pressing crowd which had formed behind her. On the screen December threw the phone over to May, who caught it with her offhand and jammed it in her pocket, just as she’d done with July’s. May smiled with malicious triumph. She didn’t lower her sword, though, or leave.
“That’s all I have.” December said, and turned his palms outward.
“What about your clothes? Strip!” May demanded. Ember guessed he was far too dignified for her crummy little world, so she had to bring him down to her level before she dispatched him. December laughed as if the silly request came from his five-year-old niece, rather than from a sword-waving psychopath.
“You’re no stranger to swordplay, are you?” December said, looking curious. May nodded.
“Nope. Now, allow me to introduce you! December, this is swordplay.” she said, and surged forward in quick and deadly lunge towards the older man. Ember gasped, along with everyone else. December leapt back with both feet equally quickly, much faster than anyone could have expected, as if he’d been on a loaded spring. He landed on the lawn a few steps back, and though he slid on the damp grass in his dress shoes, he seemed to have anticipated that. There was a fortuitous old-style rake at his feet. He levered it with his shoe and flipped it up into his hands. Employing its greater reach, he swung it around and caught the ornate hilt of May’s sword in between the tines, and then yanked it away from her with a simple pull.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Once the rapier was on the ground he stalked purposefully towards his disarmed opponent and grabbed her wrist just as she reached down and reclaimed her weapon. There was a short pause in which Ember registered May’s panicked face, and December crisply twisted May’s wrist forward and forced her to kneel, a helping hand on her upper back, and plucked the sword from her now-weakened grasp. The sequence of events was so flawless and smooth it looked like he was demonstrating some textbook martial arts maneuver with the help of a compliant assistant. To add insult he whipped the thin flat of May’s own blade down on her rear with a crack, causing the girl to jerk her spine and cry out.
“We’ve met. Now, I’ll have my phone back, miss.” he said, and put a little bit more twisting pressure on her wrist to encourage compliance. She was somewhat recalcitrant, and it took another sharp and obviously painful thwack from the blade to garner her full support. She removed December’s phone from her pocket with a shaky hand and presented it to him over her shoulder. He took it back and released her wrist at the same time, then examined the nature of the blade May used against him. He sliced off a branch of a nearby oak with the decisive ease of long practice. May remained kneeling, palms on the ground, silent tears beginning to flow down her cheeks.
“A Germanic rapier with an avant garde styling. Hilt is a masterwork. If it’s money you need, I can arrange to give you an attractive price for it. You’re welcome to keep the blade, though. It’s short, tacky, and appears fragile.” December said, appraising the glassy, glowing blade coolly, then looking at May in the same way. Ember was sure he was rendering judgment on the both of them simultaneously. His irises were blue-black with a hint of lighter gray, like smoke against the night sky.
“It’s all I have. Please give it back.” May spoke quietly to the ground, which she began watering with her tears.
He drove the tip into the soft earth near her and took a step back, putting his black-gloved hands in his pockets and waiting. May finished wiping her tears away and retrieved it by the hilt. Ember wondered why he’d given it back to her. What was the man thinking? As soon as May caught her breath she made another lunge towards him, which didn’t appear to surprise him. This despondent and poorly formed strike he batted away with one black-gloved hand. He continued past and smacked her on the back of the head for effect, putting her face in the dirt. Though still armed, she struggled to rise and began to shake with her frustration. December approached her and knelt down, a position May exploited by trying to swipe at him again. Ember felt that, even though the girl continued to fight, hers were no crocodile tears. December took hold of May’s wrist long before such a pathetic attempt could have met the mark, and threw her attack away. Ember couldn’t help but admire May’s shameless tenacity in the face of such a daunting opponent.
May looked confused, as one who’d just lost a chess game to a barn animal. December extended one hand to her to help her up, the other on the small of his back. She steeled herself and swiped at him again, aiming to cut it off at the wrist. He dipped his hand just a hair below the cutting arc. Then he offered it to her again, and that time she softened and decided to take it. Halfway through being helped up, she made to attack him again. December caught her wrist with his other hand as he dragged her to her feet. He waited for her to attack him, but she didn’t, and seemed to be mulling something over.
“Kill me when you’re ready.” he said. May looked up at him with a transparently wicked smile, then clasped his hand.
#
The news broadcast cut away at that point and went to a discussion of what had transpired in case any viewers hadn’t understood it. Ember and July had no interest in that portion, and continued on their way. Before leaving she did catch that December was the fourth and final member of the Yellow Team, which would make him their teammate in the same nebulous sense that binds neutral parties together in any conflict.
“That guy’s a clown. She’ll stab him soon as he shows his back.” July said. It was a reasonable objection, but Ember shook her head in disagreement.
“I don’t think so.” she said. July looked back in disbelief.
“I’ll send him a warning.” he said, already having taken out his black Nokia to prepare it. He squinted with concentration as he assembled a text message using the old T9 (text-on-9 keys) system. The unwieldiness of T9 was even more effective than Natter at crushing language into a perfect square: ‘May is bad.’
“You can if you like, but, I don’t think he’s in danger.” Ember said.
“What makes you so confident? He’ll let his guard down sometime.” July said incredulously, and fired off the text.
“I mean, don’t you think the next step, from her perspective, is to try to get him on her side. Not fight him.” she said, but it was clear he was unconvinced. On the way to the shop Ember again stopped short and went over to one of the red brick storefronts, distracted once more. When July noticed this he pursed his lips and nodded slowly to himself, and quietly walked up behind her to see what the fuss was about.
“Sorry,” she said when she looked over her shoulder and saw July folding his arms. Ember pointed to a flatscreen inside the window which was cycling through a number of stock-market looking graphs. This wouldn’t have normally been interesting to her, except for the fact that they were trading in Coins and some of the ‘stocks’ or whatever they were appeared to reference her name, or the name of one of the other Endusers. “SOFI, what’s all this?”
“This is,” SOFI said, coming out of the phone and giving a wink to July, “not important right now. Just focus on the task at hand, Ember.”
Ember scrunched her nose up and looked over her shoulder at July. He had his hands in his pockets and was looking off to the side, whistling and affecting innocence. She looked back at SOFI.
“Hey! You’re my servant. Don’t listen to him.” Ember said to her little sprite, who grinned sheepishly.
“Touché. Briefly: you can invest your Coins. For example, you can buy Chits with them.” SOFI said.
“Chits?” Ember asked.
“Another kind of currency.”
“Oh. What can I buy with Chits?” Ember was starting to get confused, which only served to increase her fascination with the subject.
“Nothing!” SOFI said definitively, then amended reluctantly: “Practically nothing.”
“Then why I would I want them!?”
“It’s complicated. And stupid. You have no idea. Let’s just forget I brought it up.” SOFI said hopefully. Ember thought on it and decided that, whatever this useless and mysterious thing was, she wanted in on it.
“Be right back.” Ember said, and went into the shop. July resigned himself and leaned up against a tree trunk as he waited. Ember emerged a couple minutes later proudly bearing a small item, which looked like a copper version of a Coin. He was already walking away when she came out, which forced her to jog up to him.
“How much that cost you?” July said once she was alongside him.
“21 Tokens.” She hugged the little coin against her.
“Not bad. I’ll buy one, too. Might come in handy…”
SOFI cleared her throat and emerged on wing to speak to July. Since he was walking, she had to fly backwards.
“That was the price when Ember bought one. Chits are now trading near 53.” the little fairy said. Ember held out her new Chit to him proudly.
“Still want to buy one? I’ll sell!” Ember said. Before any deals could be struck SOFI again cut in quickly with news.
“Not so fast. Now they’re trading at 7.” SOFI said. Ember frowned.
“…I’ll pass.” July said, knitting his brow with confusion. He may not have known entirely what was happening, but he knew there was some funny business involved.
Ember handed the Chit off to SOFI. When her Agent had earlier handled the golden Coin it appeared to have substantial weight, but the coppery Chit she treated with the lightness of a trash can lid. SOFI spun the metallic disc around on the tip of her finger like a basketball and flew away from the phone into to make a lovely jump shot with it. The Chit arced into a hoop SOFI had materialized on the screen and disappeared, then followed by SOFI herself.
#
Ahead the canal split in two to accommodate a diamond-shaped, grassy island with an enormous tree sprouting up from the center of it. The trunk was shadowy with thick bark and ringed by a spiral staircase, the planks of which were formed from the cambium and sapwood of the tree itself.
“Here we are! The End Store. Leave your Tokens at the door, they only accept Coins here.” SOFI chimed in from the speaker.
“What about Chits?” Ember said, still curious about the use of a currency with no predictable value.
“Honestly, Ember, I wouldn’t even admit to owning one.” SOFI said. Ember looked up at the staircase which spiraled around the tree, high as she dared. The tree was so tall it left the confines of the greenhouse over the Ring via a specially-cut portal in the glass dome.
“There are no guardrails.” Ember blanched.
“‘fraid of heights?” July’s casual tone of voice was enough for Ember to understand that he didn’t know what it meant to fear something.
“The short answer is yes.” she said.
“And the long one?” They’d arrived at the base of the long staircase, which Ember refused to even look up.
“This summer I worked at a grocery store, and I had to get a package of toilet paper from the top shelf in the back,”
“Uh huh.” July said.
“I decided I was going to get it, even though I needed to climb a tall ladder. I got the ladder, climbed up to the top shelf and got the package.”
“So? Mission accomplished.”
“SO, that’s where they found me a half-hour later, desperately clinging to the top of the ladder. It took another hour for them to talk me down, step by step.”
“Alright, then, I’ll hold your hand.” July held his hand out. Ember shook her head.
“No way. The view would be dizzying.” Ember had been looking for ways out of the ascent, and July was looking for ways into it. They were approaching an impasse, one in which she would just have to admit that she wasn’t going up no matter what.
“Then I’ll hafta carry you. Upsy daisy.” he said.
“Wait—”
Before Ember could object July had hoisted her up. He carried her draped over his shoulder like a log.
“…this isn’t how you’re supposed to carry a girl.” she complained.
“Darlin, I only princess-carry princesses. In my world that’s pretty much just my kid sister.” July said. It was also called a bridal-carry, but that hair was of no help to split.
July had only taken a few steps up and she was already starting to feel a bit lightheaded.
“Let’s go back. Let me go. Wait, no. Go back down, then, once we’re safely on the ground, gently put me down.” she said, and even started to struggle a little to escape July’s grasp while there was still time. July only clamped down on her—he was still stronger than her, even though they were in some strange netherworld where she could use a sword.
“Nope. Gotta do this.” July said.
“Go up by yourself then!” Ember whined, and thumped him on the back a few times with her fists.
“We’re both goin’. Close your eyes if you like.” July said. Respecting his insistence on the point and her inability to escape, Ember stopped struggling and closed her eyes. She calmed significantly when blinded to the threat, somewhat like a horse. The only clue that she was ascending was that the moist air began to pick up a breeze, and the subtle change in momentum that came when July leaned his weight on the next step and raised the two of them up. He offered what he thought was encouragement: “Even if I drop you, you’ll be fine in the end. You can’t die from anything that’s not one a’ these swords.”
“Drop me!?” Ember said, and dug her fingernails into his back enough to cause him pain. Judging from her earlier experience there was a limit to how much pain an Enduser felt, but that limit was distressingly high. It might even just be that she couldn’t be knocked out, which was terrifying in its own way. She imagined herself splayed out on the ground for however long, awake and in excruciating pain as everything reordered itself inside of her. It was not calming.
“I was kidding!” he said.
As they climbed up July chatted with her, and none of it meant much, but it calmed her and passed the time—she learned, for example, that he was a couple years her senior, that he’d joined the Marines after high school, and that Rainforest Ring reminded him of his home in Savannah. Ember copped to being a Yankee—the worst kind, a New Englander. She suddenly felt warmth on her back. It wasn’t like the diffuse and muggy heat of the Rainforest Ring. It was radiant. The radiance came alongside a cool and dry breeze. Sunrise, outside air—they must have ascended out of the greenhouse area.
“There’s nothing you’re afraid of?” Ember asked him.
“Sure. I’m afraid of dying here. Afraid of clowns too, but right now we got bigger problems.” July said.
“What if one of the other Endusers is a clown?”
“Christ… you’ll have to fight that one alone.”
“They say you should face your fears.” Ember said. July laughed quietly. She had left herself open to a cheap shot, one which most people would have instantly taken with great relish. Even though she had set him up for it, he didn’t. That he didn’t—for some reason—made her smile.
July eased her off his shoulder and faced her carefully in a specific direction. Gathering it was a safe place, Ember opened her eyes and squinted away when she saw rosy Dawn come over the black mountains on the horizon. The great tree they ascended was one of a handful Ember could see which had escaped from the greenhouse confines of the Rainforest Ring and now towered over their brothers, free to feast on the first light with their great spread of leaves before it touched any below. Near the center and innermost ring were gleaming glass-and-steel towers that she’d earlier mistaken for an Eastern neometropolis. Though they were impressive towers, she also saw that their height was added to the fact that they were on a circular plateau bounded by the Rainforest Ring. From the high vantage of the tree she was above the surface level of the innermost ring containing Dox, but the top of the greenhouse below was roughly even with it.
On the fringes were dilapidated and murky-black neighborhoods glowing sporadically with garish neon. Other areas were ancient and noble, clean and intricate, and waited quietly for dawn to touch them. The city was unfathomable in its scale, a feeling a shadow of which she’d had once before when she accompanied her father to dinner at a skyscraper in Shinjuku and saw an endless sea of lights. Even though the glass towers loomed higher over her, she felt she was perched on a mountain peak. The shop they had come for was a sort of tree house situated on the high wooden deck their ascent had brought them to. July had been stunned to silence as well, and the only sound came when a lone wind chime spoke up. If the fact that they were no longer in their own world had escaped them before, it couldn’t possibly now.
July went to the edge and leaned over the roughly hewn railing, a simple feat of bravery Ember could never have matched. She stayed well away from the edge, which seemed to be tugging at her. If she got closer to it, she might dizzy and come to feel that she were being pushed towards it by a malevolent spirit. For someone who suffered from acrophobia, heights really were something to be afraid of due to the lack of control and panic they induced. A negative feedback loop. Fortunately for Ember it wasn’t so crippling when there were barriers between her and any nearby precipices. July turned around and nearly fell back over the railing with surprise when he looked back at her. She followed his eyes and saw that he wasn’t looking at her, but at a point over her shoulder.
Ember slowly turned around to see two people were now at her back, close enough to strike her with a few extra steps. The lantern-jawed man out front was close enough that she should have heard him approach. He was black, thickly built, and looked like a bodyguard in his sunglasses, dark-blue suit, and bald head. Ember ventured he was some kind of special User, like a higher level version of the beat cops they’d met. The other person was a woman in her early middle age wearing a white suit and skirt. She had short, wavy platinum hair in a chignon and wore heels, her eyes an icy light blue. Ember felt a buzz from her phone and slyly looked down to see that SOFI had left her a one-word text:
January.