Ui’s transformation was so shocking that neither Ember nor July did anything, even though it took many valuable seconds which they could otherwise have used for preparation, or simply to run. They gawked helplessly as the pretty armored woman took the shape of a white dragon whose body would just barely be able to fit into a city bus, if you removed the top and creatively interpreted the provision that all animals needed to be in a carrier. It was the sort of dragon with the low and threatening forehead of a snake. She was girdled by hundreds of large white scales, each of which had a letter painted on it in black brushwork. Most of them were unreadable given the movement, the distance, and the ochre dim of the torchlit courtyard.
In Beowolf, which Ember had been made to read, the titular protagonist faced down a fire-breathing dragon with the company of only one other particularly brave warrior. All the other warriors fled in terror at the sight of the dreaded creature, and she remembered feeling from her cushy perch in the modern world that they were sort of pathetic and cowardly to have done that.
She owed those guys an apology.
Ember drew her Eos out and jammed down the center button. SOFI emerged instantly in her moon pajamas, no pillow this time. She rubbed her eyes at the new monster, looking every bit as surprised and frightened as Ember herself. Given that until then SOFI had been a rock of unshakable optimism, her reaction was a shock to the senses.
“SOFI, wake up!”
“I feel like we skipped a step…” SOFI said, and dove back into the Cell. Newly draconic Ui had been slowly swiveling her heavy, white-scaled head back and forth, low to the ground, either trying to determine whether to attack from the left or right or simply giving them a moment to appreciate the majesty of her true form. Their free time was over when Ui breathed in laboriously and unleashed a stream of dragonfire which flowered against a greenish translucent hexagonal Barrier that dauntless July had erected in front of the pair. The red brick of the darkened courtyard shone like a brilliant hell for those long seconds. Ember felt the oven-heat of the flames as they poured around the barrier and to her sides, instinctively pressing herself to July's back. Once the fire abated she drew the Cellbow and ducked around the Barrier to whip an arrow towards Ui, a shot which bounced off her hardened scales harmlessly. Ember upped the ante with Shatter, but to her disappointment the Shatter arrow bounced off as well. The process effect didn’t even activate and the arrow came to rest a few feet away from Ui, whereupon she smashed it with one of her taloned feet while looking straight at Ember.
“There’s a formal weak point! It should be clearly marked.” SOFI’s voice came again from the speaker. Ember folded up the apparently useless Cellbow. Now that she thought of it, neither Beowulf or Wiglaf had thought to employ a ranged weapon or even something with reach like a pike. Maybe Beowulf would have lived if they had. Probably not the point.
“There are hundreds of clear markings!” Ember shouted, squinting in the attempt to read the letters on Ui’s scales in the hopes that one of them said something like ‘stab here.’ It was too dark to tell, even if it did. The dragon snatched up the bicycle and brought her jaws on it, breaking it into three pieces, the center of which she tossed over the castle wall. The two halves of each tire slapped down onto the ground roughly where the bike used to be. Then Ui tested July’s Barrier with a lightning fast attack accompanied by the sudden sound of a gong which made the hairs on Ember’s neck stand up. If the wall hadn’t been there, Ui had the power to knock both of them down in one shot. It didn’t feel like she was fighting a monster in a game that was designed to be won; rather, it felt like she was facing a creature who would destroy them mercilessly at the first opportunity.
“She’s takin’ me down fast Ember. Now or never.” July said, a fatalistic edge to his voice. He couldn’t be thinking of attacking without the knowledge of her weak point.
“SOFI, can you change the time of day in the article setting?”
“I can revert it to a version with daytime from the throne room.” SOFI said. The dragon gonged against July’s barrier once more. The throne room was in the keep, a little less than 200 yards away around a dog-leg. At the very least they would find some protection in the keep, and a moment to evaluate how best to use their paper thin resources.
“I’m going for the keep!” Ember yelled to July. She didn’t wait to hear the reply before she took off, and only trusted that he would protect the rear. He followed close behind her and once more she heard the gong of his Barrier deflecting a physical attack, and then shortly after the sound of a crashing pane of glass. She saw July’s Barrier break and then the dragon close her jaws around him and toss him out of view, then take to the air with a flap of her powerful wings. Ember was still well short of the keep when Ui landed in front of the steps with a gust of wind, blocking her path. Ui slapped her tail across Ember’s chest at the same time as she whirled around to end it with fire. There was no avoiding the wall of flame the dragon spat towards her. Ember gritted her teeth, recalling the discussion she’d once had with a friend in which they decided, by mutual agreement, that being burned to death was one of the worst ways to die.
Dying there wasn’t, as it happened, her wyrd. A black arrow with pink vanes brought a whirlwind of grass and water through the broad avenue in front of the keep. As it sailed over Ember and towards the dragon it swallowed up Ui’s own flames and spun them into a fiery tornado aimed right at her. The fire and rush of searing steam washed over the whole of the dragon’s body and the black shaft thwicked into her snout and exploded. Ember looked over her shoulder to the source and saw a distant May flash her a v-for-victory sign. She’d never thought she’d be glad to see May, much less find out the girl had lied about her capabilities.
Ui appeared to be stunned by the blow, shrieking and writhing but far from death, or even serious injury. Ember went for the keep behind, but as she passed she was close enough to read the scales on the dragon’s back and caught a glimpse of the fateful sign. Halfway up the spine of Ui’s back and a foot to the left was a symbol that she was sure was the weak point, for in addition to its sheer relevance it was the same symbol that held such a prominent place on the relief in the pediment of Tow Hall. Omega.
Dropping the plan of turning on the lights, she leapt onto Ui’s back and went for the scale. The dragon launched herself into the air, leaving Ember clutching the ridged spine tightly with her eyes shut, paralyzed by fear. Ui let loose another shriek and climbed into the night air, beginning to circle over the castle. Ember forced herself to open her eyes, moving so close to the dragon’s sharp scales that she wouldn’t see the edge of her body. Shivering overtook her, born of fear and the chill quiet of the night air, which was broken only by the flap of wings. It dawned on her that Ui didn’t realize she had a passenger, having been still dazed by the explosion when Ember mounted her, and her scales being so armored that she couldn’t feel much through them. On one of her rare glances forward she spotted that a hawk with dark feathers was flying ahead, and the dragon’s gaze was following the distracting little creature back and forth.
Soon the Omega scale was only a couple precious feet away. She dragged herself along Ui’s spine with excruciating slowness, closing her eyes periodically and recovering her resolve. One foot more. Then she was looking right at it, close enough to bite it. Just as she completed the Cellblade Gesture, Ui let out a shrill cry. Ember looked up and saw the yellow slit of a draconic eye staring back at her. Ui was then assailed by the brave little hawk, which clawed uselessly at her snout. Taking advantage of the distraction, Ember yanked the knightly sword out of the Cell and drove it down into the Omega scale right to the hilt. Ui let loose another piercing cry as the scales covering her body shattered away like so many ripe seeds, revealing great expanses of defenseless white skin. The dragon then rolled over and shucked her aerial stowaway free into the night sky.
Ember failed to activate Leaflight in her haste to draw it, and a negative sound came from her Cell as if she’d gotten the wrong answer in a game show. She found that it wasn’t actually falling she feared—just the prospect of falling. Once it had already happened she was more or less calm. As the ground rose up she closed her eyes, slowed her fingers and completed the Gesture, landing softly on her back in the courtyard amid a vibrant shower of autumn leaves. The dragon was circling lower now, and as Ember lay on her back May ran up alongside and loosed a black arrow skyward. It arced into the dragon’s side and a bright glyph flashed out. An iridescent wire connected it to another glyph painted on the grounds of the courtyard, near where December was standing. The wire, luminous enough to cast a light of its own, went taut and dragged the beast out of the air. Once Ui hit the ground there was a cracking sound, followed by an explosion which enveloped her. Some kind of team-up attack.
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As the bloodied dragon lay on her side, December climbed atop her and drove the great sword deep in. When Ember got close she saw Ui was still breathing, but her life was fading away. December hopped down from her chest as May jogged up and bent over at the waist to examine the fallen creature. Ember was just about to go find July when she saw him shuffle over to the group, clutching his midsection. December walked over to him and laced his arm under July’s shoulder, giving him some support.
Ui’s breaths became ever more laborious. Though she couldn’t say why, Ember felt her heart sink when she should have been elated. Ui had played her role well, but seemed to be essentially gentle and wise. All five of them, including SOFI who had come out to perch on Ember’s shoulder, remained respectfully silent as they watched her dying breaths. The hawk from earlier landed on December’s shoulder.
“My responsibility passes to you.” Ui said, and closed her slitted eyes. There were a few more breaths and then she went still. Ember felt a weight inside of her that she hadn’t felt when dispatching any of the Users. It just hit her that SOFI had never given any assurance that Ui was not a real person with her life on the line, like an Agent or an Enduser.
“What happened to you two?” Ember said to December and May.
“On the other side of that door—” December said, and pointed to the archway embedded in the castle, “A very large corn maze. Very large. My agent HAWK couldn’t find the edges in our cell. Sweetness here became bored with it, and then we decided to recover you from the tower when ZUNE notified us of your post to Natter. How did you manage that, by the way?”
“Secret. So what you’re saying is, you rescued me because I’m more exciting than a corn maze.”
“I’m not a fan of them either. They seem redundant.” December said.
“Exciting is good.” May said, giving Ember a grin, “Before we lost coverage, I heard about you being a bonafide mean girl. Thank you.”
“What for?”
“For being the only one who is less popular than I am! Wouldn’t look at Natter if I were you, by the way.” May said.
Ember rubbed her hand down the whole of her face and retrieved her own sword from the corpse. December spotted her as she replaced it into her Cell, and she guessed that he’d probably intuited the new mechanic at work. Then he picked up his own sword and folded it back into his black Gates Cell. What was once Ui dissolved into a procession of green fireflies skyward, as a pyre, and what was left behind was the huge gilded trunk of a treasure chest.
“This is the part where we kill them and take it all for us, right?”
“Oh come on…” July said weakly, and he looked to Ember. July appeared to have run out of battery before he could heal fully. May and December had both—surprise—shepherded their resources more than July and Ember, who were in no condition to fight. Ember didn’t think they were about to kill anyone, though, and gave July a reassuring look.
“She’s kidding.” December said, mostly to July. The girl was just pointing out that they could have done that.
May ran over to the chest and unlatched it. The first thing she laid her hands on was a costume of sorts, which she lifted out and laid against her. It was a maid outfit of navy blue, with full length matching blue stockings and a pair of black shoes. The off-white apron that came with it had an oversized plastic puzzle piece set over the chest, emblazoned with a couple of characters that Ember couldn’t read but recognized to be Japanese. Another pair of puzzle pieces May removed from the chest had hair clips on the back of them. One of them had the Omega symbol on it, and the other one a Chinese character. Ember imagined the puzzle pieces with the hair clips were there to decorate her pigtails, if she wished. It was all in May’s size, so there was no doubt about who it was for. Ember couldn’t help but imagine how disappointed she was.
“This is,” May said, and when she looked up her eyes were alight with excitement, “probably some kind of magical armor!”
July gave a whistle.
“Wonder if there’s another.” he said.
“Never.” Ember resolved.
“Another? There’s three more in there just like this.” May pointed to the chest innocently. December and July glanced at each other, then back to her.
“…how magical we talkin’ here?” July said to May after a fashion.
Ember took a deep breath and braved a look into the chest to see if there was a such a costume in store for her as well. For the second time that day she was pleased to find out that May had lied. Laying diagonally in the wide chest and just barely fitting from corner to corner was a highland claymore with an acute silver crossguard, whose blade lit up from base to tip when she laid her hand on the long, brown leather-wrapped hilt. It was slightly less than a foot and a half shorter than her when she stood next to it. Since it was a little shorter and narrower than December’s blade and didn’t have the ricasso Cell integration, she tested to see if she could hold it with one hand and found that she could. It was perfect. July cleared his throat.
“How d’ya know that one was for you?” he asked, perhaps feeling covetous.
“Fight me.” Ember said with a smile.
“Ah, see your point.”
She spotted four gift cards for the End Store in there and distributed them before one of the black blades took them all. She didn’t see anything else in the chest, though, so perhaps a person was only presented with what was intended for them. A little piece of cardboard peeled away to reveal a QR code, which deposited 30 Coins into her account when she snapped a photo of it. A new application called Wikiwalk also appeared on her screen. The ritual was completed thrice more, with July taking a while to figure out how to work the Nokia’s camera.
When it was his turn for spoils, July pulled from the chest a very nice silver watch whose analog face was divided into tenths. After fiddling with the dial he eventually got it to produce a little shield, just like the smart watch they saw at the End Store.
“Huh.” he said, “Not bad. I’ll take her.”
Last was December. His prize was an expensive looking yet quite ordinary gold ballpoint pen, which he spun around and tucked into the inside pocket of his suit coat without comment. After everyone had gone and seemingly removed everything from the chest, a yellow glow issued from it. Ember approached and removed a saucer-sized puzzle-piece of glass with a frosted Omega sign in the middle of it.
“Looks kind of fragile. What if I break it?” Ember said.
“I assume we would lose the benefits of map control, User loyalty, and possibly the new Gesture we all have.” December said.
“It’s indestructible.” May said confidently.
“How do you know?”
“Because it’s a key item.”
No point in trying to find out either way.
“SOFI, what about the Gesture?”
“Ah ha! I was wondering when you were going to get around to that. The Gesture ‘Wikiwalk’ allows you to internalize the subject of a single article in any Wikitown establishment, similar to how Cellblade confers sword proficiency. The more specific your focus, the greater your grasp of the subject’s theory and practice. It requires the cellular connection, so passive drain will occur when an article is loaded. If another faction takes control of the Mandate of Glass you will still have the Gesture, but will lose your license to use it.”
Ember looked around the darkened and empty courtyard. December took a few steps away and turned back towards the group. Backlit by a nearby torch, he looked practically like a shadow.
“I know you all are excited and in the bloom of youth, but I am tired. My understanding is that we have a stronghold here now, so I believe I’ll be making my way there.”
“Man, I can’t believe it’s only 880 beats. Feels later.” May said. Ember wasn’t sure if she was making a joke at the expense of Swatch Internet Time, or had already submitted.
“I’m really going to be spending the night.” Ember said distantly. How many more? It had been the longest day of her life. Maybe, if she slept, she would wake up in her own world.
The quartet wended their way out of Tow, saying very little, until they came back to the Gold coin room which started the trouble. Ember, the last one out, halted on a whim and went back to the plinth to replace the Coin she’d stolen. Then she picked up the plastic cover and placed it over it. All better.