[Sympathetic Resonance: Link two points in space and time by striking them with the same resonance]
Her aching hunger eased as the decision flowed through her. She felt a ping as the system acknowledged her request, and then the body path ability unfolded within her. She stretched her fingers of chain and knew the potential they now carried. Where before she could only walk, now she could run.
Oriz sat at the end of the table, waiting for Zoe to speak.
“I followed your advice,” Zoe said. “I know the reason I have this option is… complicated, but I don’t want to regret it. It brought us together, and that hasn’t been a terrible thing.”
Oriz smiled.
“No, and we have both seen terrible things.”
“We have.”
“I would like to see what you can do with this new ability.”
Zoe smiled as a moth wing flutter passed across her heart. She wanted to see it too. Her body path allowed her to activate the ability once daily, but she knew that with effort, and by achieving harmony with herself and the universe, she could create moments of sympathy between different points. Her hunger itched to taste the power, and so she rose from the table and approached the willows by the river.
Taking only a moment to calm her breathing, she moved through the steps of the Grasping Vine, but now her fingers shot out into chains as she struck at the trees surrounding her. Each strike tapped against the bark, and she felt they were almost harmonizing. Each strike created vibrations, and the sound was close, she tried again, breathing, wiping her mind of thought, and, she almost had it when —
[Prepare yourself for the Magnifying Glass]
[Time before launch: Ten seconds ]
Sweat clung to Zoe’s skin as she stood there heaving.
She was close to achieving her body path without the system-enforced activation. It would begin with harmony and then, as Oriz had further explained, at level 40 she would move toward her true potential.
Incursions.
Tears in reality.
She flexed her fingers and felt her [Mind’s Eye Incision] slide from the tips. Her body was not the one she was born with anymore. No, she had reforged herself with dark fate and blinding fury. No longer human, but something more.
[5 seconds]
She looked around at her friends, and they all stood ready. A smile split her scarred lips.
“You know, I feel good about this one.”
[2 seconds]
“Don’t jinx it,” Anton said as he shook his head.
“Too late,” Bella mocked. “I bet one of us will die for real this time.”
They stared at her in horror.
“Ooh, too dark?”
And the Gambler snatched them up like a toddler eager for his toys.
###
The lights flashed and reflected off the glass ceiling. Flying cameras invaded their space and recorded their every flinch. A crowd chanted and deafened and watched,
It was the hell they expected, but exaggerated, amplified. The five of them stood around at a large circular table. A large wheel dominated the inside of the table. Zoe’s heart sank at the familiar game show sight. If it was a wheel, it would be random, and the Gambler was the god of chance.
How doomed were they?
But the other teams distracted her from her mounting horror.
Directly opposite stood Rue, Lorrilla, and a hulking, dirt-covered man Zoe had never seen before.
Between them on either side were two other teams; one was a sallow-looking man with a shock of bright pink hair dressed in as much torn denim and tight studded leather as any dream of a punk could. He had two women beside him. One blonde and one redheaded, and each looking like they dripped off a fashion magazine left out in the sun. They wore studded collars and clothes either too small, too tight, or too invisible. Zoe couldn’t stop her eyes from roaming, and when the blonde one caught her stare she winked and blew a bubble of gum as pink as the man’s hair.
The final team looked like any black-skinned suburban family: husband, wife, and two daughters. All four of them had the hides of hyenas draped over their shoulders. The spotted fur shifted in the light like some kind of illusion.
The father glared at Rue, trembling, as he pointed a finger.
“You!”
[That’s right!]
The Gambler made his appearance with a poof of golden dust and stood atop the wheel in the center of the round table. He wore a suit of golden shark skin with long tails and a floppy collar. As the audience cheered, he spun a top hat around his middle finger.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
[That’s right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, aliens, angels, demons, and things! Today we have a very special episode of The Magnifying Glass, and it’s not because we’re talking about drugs. Pause for laughter…]
He paused as the stands erupted into a sickening cacophony of hooting and jeering that made Zoe’s ears bleed. An iron taste filled her mouth. Clouds of it filled her lungs. From the paling faces of the other humans at the table, she knew she wasn’t the only one affected.
The Gambler snapped his fingers, and she felt fine.
Better than fine.
It was as though someone had injected morphine into her veins, as though her veins broke and her blood swelled beneath her skin, as though her skin split and her liquid innards flowed out into the air, as though the air disintegrated, and she flowed out — hot, liquid, content — into the space between space and for a moment she saw a curve on the horizon of reality where something dwelled, something heavy, something dark, something watching, something —
The Gambler snapped his fingers again.
[Too much of an over-correction, but we are here for the sloppy mistakes are we not?]
The crowd cheered again, but this time it was manageable. Zoe leaned against the table. What was it she just saw? Was it something he did not mean to show, or was the Gambler playing with her? Was it even real?
She had no way of knowing, and the way the Gambler’s eyes gleamed like a coin in the air — a spinning coin deciding fates — she couldn’t be sure. Where did the trick end and the game begin? When did reality become real?
Nothing meant anything.
She fought down the urge to vomit. Not in front of these monsters. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Rue watches her from across the table.
“I see you figured out a solution,” he said as he gestured at her hands.
She flipped him off with a finger of silver chains, and he laughed.
"You know, in some cultures, that's considered a compliment."
“Not in mine,” Zoe said.
"Not mine either," he said with a grin as sharp as a razor blade.
The Gambler glowered at them like a parent wrangling kids for a family photo.
[Please, no fighting before the game begins! Otherwise, why do we have the game at all? Oh, ha ha ha, oh! What a wonderful question, am I not full of philosophy as a frog is full of flies? Yes! Why do we play games when life is already one grand attempt at placing order upon chaos? Why?]
He cupped his hands and leaned toward the audience. They shouted as one, and even the gods at the round table joined in the deafening chant.
"BECAUSE IT’S FUN!"
[Ha ha, so true! The first cell split not because it must but because it could, because it wanted to, because it was fun, and so in doing so, it made a want into a need because we seek what we want with far more desire than what we need! Want over need is the refrain of the golden god and so I say to you fine contenders, prepare to give me what I want!]
His attention flowed over the humans, and they each stood up straight as he plucked at the neurons firing in their muscles.
[Today we have four teams. Team 1 is led by the finest brewer to ever fight his way out of a hyena’s stomach: Brassus Jones! Team 2 is led by a man who has proven himself as stylish as he is sinister: Derrick of Glasgow! Team 3 is led by our returning champion: Zoe Chambers! Team 4 is led by the illustrious warrior who needs no introduction… but I’m giving him one anyway! The Bladed Forest! The razor-edged apocalypse! The planetary disaster himself! Prince of the system and god amongst gods, I give you, appearing for the first time as a contestant on this game, Rue!
Even through the Gambler’s protections, the applause was sickening. It shook Zoe’s bones. As she looked out at the stands, she saw they extended up in a curving wall like a stadium stacked upon a stadium. It continued up and until her neck craned.
“How many people is that…” Bella murmured to her side.
Anton’s eyes widened.
“Millions…”
“I think I have stage fright,” Jack said.
“Is that the great Deviant Jack?” said Derek of Glasgow in a thick accented stage whisper. “I loved your last album.”
Jack blinked.
“Oh, uh, thank you.”
“Still gonna have to kill you, mate, sorry not sorry.”
“Shut up, you Scottish bastard,” Bella snarled. “You’ll kill him over our dead bodies!”
“That’s the idea.”
The Gambler bent over backward and placed his head between the arguing humans.
[As always, it’s a delight to see such fire from our beloved Bella! But save the juice for the game, and without further ado, let's get on with it!]
He snapped his fingers and vanished in another luxurious cloud of golden dust. Lasers flashed from the ceiling. Smoke and lights and mirrors before calm settled once more.
The Gambler strode toward the circular table with two female clones of himself upon his arm. They wore revealing versions of his long-tailed suit. Their legs revealed up to the hip, and their bow ties fixed upon an expansive rack of cleavage. Golden glitter glimmered upon their skin.
Zoe wasn’t sure which of them was the true Gambler, for all their smiles were the same haunting rictus of joy.
[The game couldn’t be more simple! Our players will simply announce a body part that they possess and then spin the wheel. If the wheel lands on a red space, they lose that body part. If the wheel lands on a white space, they gain that body part. Team 1 will spin first, then team 2, and so on. We will continue until everyone has spun]
One of the female clones frowned in mock confusion.
[I think I forgot something?]
The male gambler laughed.
[You’re right! I almost forgot to explain where our contestants will gain a body part from. I’m so glad you remembered!]
[Me too! Why don’t you explain?]
[Why don’t you?]
[No, you!]
The inanity continued, and even Rue and his cohort gritted their teeth. Zoe couldn’t help but feel a sick sense of satisfaction at the discomfort of the godlings. If even they hated this but dared say nothing, then the risk must be even.
But she shivered at that thought. If even the gods were afraid, then this couldn’t be good.
At last, the Gambler got to the point he, she, they alluded to.
[Since this episode has special guests, we have a special prize. Assistant! Lower the prize!]
The vast glass ceiling split apart like a kaleidoscope. It folded away piece by piece and revealed a vast space above, like a warehouse in the dark. Pulleys whirred, and a figure descended. As it came into the light, Zoe gasped.
A hog-tied human hung on the end of the cables. They spun slowly as the wires lowered them until they hovered six feet above the spinning table. An apple-shaped gag-filled their mouth. Hands and feet were pinned back. They were naked and glistening with oil. A male form, with genitalia dangling, but an androgynous build. Completely shaved, even their eyebrows.
She didn’t recognize them, not their face or their resigned eyes, but deep down — deep in the place humans called their hearts — she knew who she was looking at.
[Your senses do not deceive you]
The Gambler’s voice was hushed, rapturous, and brimming with satisfaction like a cup overflowing with cream.
[What we have here is the former system of the planet called Earth]