:10/05/2251:

4:16 PM

The slap of my body against the back of the horse as we galloped through the forest jolted me awake. I struggled for a moment before I remembered where I was. Before I remembered what had happened and why no sound was coming from out my throat as I attempted to scream. My arms were bound in some, tight sticky substance behind my back, same as my legs, and even the tentacles on my back seemed to be wrapped tightly with some kind of adhesive cord. 

My mind raced as my heartbeat climbed in my chest, the feeling of being trapped, helpless, finally setting into my startled brain. It wasn't until I heard Em's soothing whisper that I was able to collect some small measure of sanity.

"Hey, calm down, Mags. We're fine; everything's fine. You may be... fairly helpless right now, but I promise there is nothing that they can do to stop me. I just need you to settle down so I can think, ok? When you panic, I panic too. And I really need to finish thinking this through before we do anything rash."

I opened my mouth to ask her why the hell she hadn't already logged us out, but I found that no words came out. It wasn't even the startled type sounds one might make if one's tongue has been suddenly removed, but rather it was just... nothing. I didn't have a voice at all.

"Look Mags, if I were to log us out now, in front of a live stream when it is clear that you have been rendered helpless to the satisfaction of what... obviously... are hired professionals, it will be obvious that you cheated. Even our own faction will start to call 'hacks' and it will be seen as proof that you are using illegal mods," she responded to what I had tried to say, even though I had been unable to form the words.

I opened my mouth, attempting to mouth out the words even as the constant thudding of my body against the horses' back rattled my teeth together and made me bite my lip.

"No no, just think. I swear, you know I think everything that you do. Don't get us hurt trying to maintain some human illusion of conversation," she whispered in a steady, peeved voice. "Look, don't fret, one way or another, I'm going to pull you out tomorrow at exactly noon. Everyone will think that your Harvester AI, Matti, cut you off for missing your calisthenics and no one will be the wiser."

I frowned, focusing on keeping my actual mouth shut and furrowing my brow as I tried to think towards her. I wasn't sure how effective it was, but I was annoyed, in pain, and it felt like I could literally feel my digitized organs rattling around in my body, even with the Dire Wulf's inherent pain reduction abilities. 

"That's better, I guess. Look, I know you don't care who finds about your illegal mods right now, but I promise you that if I pulled you now, you would most certainly care come morning. No shut up and try to relax, or you're going to hurt yourself again. Look, I've already worked it all out. This way you can get a good look at McBeal, maybe hear what she has to say even, and tomorrow at this time we'll be curled up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate watching recordings of our favorite streams, ok?"

Forgetting myself, I opened my mouth again to argue, only to have it forced back shut as my head slammed against one of the horses' ribs.

"Don't worry, I'm telling you. We'll be fine. And if it's too much, then you're the only Arch-Druid in the game. No one will know if I manually shift you that you didn't actually do it yourself with some kind of a special trait. Ok? But lets at the very least, get into striking distance of the Queen before we put all of our cards on the table." She seemed to huff, there into my mind, "See? Worst case, you have an uncomfortable night in a cell somewhere, and I wisp you off to safety before you've even missed dinner. But whatever happens, it's going to draw viewers and interest, and it will end up working out for us when this is all over."

I wasn't quite willing to admit that I was mollified, that her words had actually made a lot of sense, not even to myself because I knew she would somehow know if I did. Yet, I did feel my heartbeat calming, and my breath started to whisper out in a much less panicked rhythm. 

:10/05/2251:

6:46 PM

As the forest thinned and we pulled up in front of the gates of the city Anthera, I felt like every bone in my body was bruised or cracked from the long ride over. I didn't understand why we hadn't just taken a portal unless the men who wore the colors of the city somehow weren't actually bound to the town portal there. And that made absolutely zero sense unless they were Perma-bound somewhere else, as I was as queen of Dementia since usually switching a bind point was as easy as the press of a button. That... or maybe they had switched binds to a smaller town at the center of their search area... which kind of made more sense as I thought about it.

The city and the gates around it seemed to loomed much higher and much thicker than they had appeared from a distance. It was ironic, as the Queen of a city center of my own, that I realized that the walls had been generated from one of the common perks that I had always overlooked. And it struck me that Anthera, for being a starting Capital existing since the beginning of the game, wasn't even an uncommon class or epic level town. It was little more than a high-level, basic town for a very peeved basic bitch.

I smiled at the thought as we passed through the gates, and I heard the tring of a status update as I was marched into the city.

New Quest! (Employee, Mandatory)

Confront Queen McBeal.

Reward: Varies based upon performance

My smile widened as I read the text and dismissed the update with my eyes. It struck me as odd as there were parts of the interface I could work with just my eyes, but that there was no way to log out or free myself without my hands or voice. Surely the developers could have easy sorted a logout function into an ocular menu if they had seen this sort of scenario coming, and surely not only had this sort of kidnapping been considered, it had obviously already happened often enough that my team of captors had perfected it into an artform. So... why did it continue to be allowed in-game?

Anyway, regardless of my earlier qualms, I was now fully on board with Em's stupid little plan. It's not like I had a choice after receiving a direct instruction through the managing AI, in the form of a quest. Speaking of which, how was an AI directing this? Wasn't that the whole reason behind the whole synthesizing living minds thing? Because AIs couldn't be adapted to respond to truly dynamic situations as well as a reproduced human brain?

"Yes," Em responded directly to the thought. Now that I couldn't make it clear when I was talking to her and when I wasn't, she seemed to have taken it as a carte blanche to intrude herself in my own internal conversations. "As far as I can tell, the DDO AI is actually a single synthetic mind with a massive amount of computing power and algorithmic assistance. I'm ninety-nine percent sure that this entire game is... or was, I guess, a person."

Somehow, her helpful bit of clarification failed to comfort me. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was horrifying and disconcerting, and the synthetic mirror of me continued to be... really fucking creepy. She was also, I reflected, my only way out of the city. So I decided to give her a pass.

The men trotted us directly to the steps of McBeal's palace... wait; she had a palace, I realized. Why the hell wasn't I able to build a palace? Anyway, as we pulled up to the stairs, I was pulled (quite roughly, I might add) off the back of the equine and shouldered up the long staircase. The man carrying me was huge, easily 6'6 if he was an inch, and I had a clear view of his ears to prove that he was not, in fact, one of the Queen's loyal elves. No, he was a human, cloaked in the queen's colors with the hood pulled up over his small, rounded ears.

Once inside, I was deposited bodily on the floor in front of a desk. I could hear the other members of the humans' party following him up the steps as my body flopped bonelessly across the marbled floors. "Quarry has been acquired. Our instructions were to bring it directly here," the grim, unemotional voice of the man above me echoed across the stone into my ears.

"Please wait a moment, I shall inform the adjutant that you have returned," came a perky, female voice from the other side of the desk. It was the voice of someone who works professionally in customer service, and I had the feeling, listening to it, that she could sound just as perky and upbeat if she had been telling the man that his family had just been slaughtered and he was sentenced to death by draw-and-quartering - but to please have a nice day!

His boot found a place in my ribs on which to rest its weight, and the minutes trailed by as we waited, me, the captive footrest, and the human man-at-arms with the extremely tired foot. It seemed like it had been hours before the woman finally returned and I felt the boot drawing away from my bruised flesh. 

"I am to process your payment now and have this creature taken into holding. Please accept this humble reward for your service, directly from the city coffers," her happy, sing-song declared.

The man simply huffed, and I heard the sound of metal on metal as he, apparently, tested the coins he had received. Seemingly satisfied, the sound of his heavy steps along the echoing stone soon sounded his retreat from the palace.

I was then dragged bodily across the floor and down a long set of stairs. Whoever it was that took me was less strong and, worse, less careful as I was skidded along the ground. And by the time I found myself moving past a large wooden door and facing a cold, stone wall, I was quite certain that another five, maybe six bones had been broken.

:10/05/2251:

10:52 PM

I had been slipping in and out of sleep, jolted awake by the pain in my side, or the freezing stone floor every time I unconsciously moved in my fitful sleep. My crown and sword were gone, though Em assured me that, as equipped items, they had moved into my inventory within minutes of having been lost. The artifact robe did little to detract from the cold of the stone. And while I had an innate resistance to the freezing temperature as resulting from my chosen race, it was still far less than comfortable to my tired, sleepy brain.

It was during one of those fitful times, when I was staring at the ceiling wishing that I could shift, just for a single moment, and dance my wounds away. It was during one of those times that I heard the rusty of the rusty hinges squeaking as someone opened the cell door. Ironically, it wouldn't have taken a second, just a single second, and I would have been fully healed, debuffs removed, and back up on my feet. Yet that would be a second that was denied to me, as long as I chose not to shift, and as long as I chosen to bide my time and wait for the Queen to summon me. 

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Loud, wide boots echoed across the ground behind me and there appeared, inches away from my face, a scarred, bearded head, eyeing me hungrily. Rough arms grabbed the fabric of my robe, and I was set up against the wall by the man with the scars and evil grin. 

He made sure I was properly adjusted, leaning against the stone prison, when he pulled out the knife. His voice sounded cruel, and he seemed to breathe just a little bit too loudly, too excitedly, as he leaned down over me, "We wouldn't want you looking like that when it's time to address the Queen, would we?" Shaking his head, he smiled wider and wider as the knife began its work against the fabric of my robe. "Oh no," he breathed heavily, "Let's get you all cleaned up, my dear. You look like an absolute mess; I'm not afraid to say."

Em then whispered softly, consolingly, an almost painful contrast to the look I was seeing in the man's eyes, "Ohhh no. Fuck this guy." Pausing for a second, she seemed relieved after a moment, "Don't worry, your robe just appeared in our inventory. It can be repaired."

Looking up at the wide girth of the man who had just cut away my clothes, leaving no few nicks and gashes on my body for all his trouble, I somehow didn't consider the state of my robe to be all that high on my priority list. And as his hand started squeezing roughly the softness of my chest, I simply repeated to myself over and over in my head that he couldn't remove the underwear without my permission. This was all he could do. My body was still, in that small way, my own. And I could survive whatever it was that the man planned to do. 

"Oh, what shall we do with you, my pretty little treat? You're all bloody and dirty," his words eroded some small bit of my confidence, and with every passing moment, I felt more and more exposed. "Oh, your wounds are all jagged and puckered. That won't do, that won't do at all..." he trailed off as his hands pulled away from my skin.

I could feel him bending over, just before I felt the shock of pain through my ankle. The skin and the bone seemed to sear with agony, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that he had bent his face over the wound. Between waves of putrid agony, I was able to catch a glimpse of the man bent in front of me, to see the way his jaw worked as he chewed the flesh of my stumps and made those hideous sucking sounds.

I tried to knee him, I tried to kick and elbow, or to twist myself around, but the more I fought, the harder it was that his teeth seemed to bite. He was... eating me, from the legs up, and he looked like he was having an amazing time of it.

After what felt like hours, but was likely actually several minutes, he pulled away. Grinning at me, blood trailing down his chin, he smiled like he was somehow relieved. The wink he gave me was playful, unburdened almost, compared to the look he had been giving me moments before, "Oh yes, it's official. You are good enough to eat, you scrumptious little thing."

I saw him moving toward me and closed my eyes. Somehow I felt my body tense up even more as my instincts screamed at me, my shoulders curling up as if to protect my all too vulnerable body. I felt his hands sliding across my skin, gently groping and squeezing with as though he were my lover. I was suddenly very aware of just how thin those basic, default undergarments actually were, and how much it felt like his hands were actually touching the skin through that fabric.

I felt a wave of horror wash through me at the touch against parts that had never been with a man; a sickening chill up my spine that felt like I was absorbing the man's slime through the sleaze of his skin; somehow creeping inside of my body and leaving the trail of his sleaze behind in places that he should never have been able to touch.

Finally, he stood up, wiping away... almost none of... my blood with the back of his wrist, "Welp, I guess that's good enough for now. We have to save some of you for the queen, after all."

I tried to scream in response, my throat aching from the furious attempts to make my voice work. But, again, nothing came out but the sounds of my own labored breathing.

"I know, I know dear," he muttered as he turned and began to leave my cell. "I'm going to miss you too. But don't worry, we'll have plenty of quality time together after the queen has welcomed you properly."

The door of my cell slammed shut, and I could hear the metal mechanism turning as he locked me in. The last thing I heard before the slatted window shut and locked were the whispered sounds of his farewell, "I promise."

I spent the next minute attempting to find new ways to scream. The sheer silence of the room seemingly closing in on me with every breath and stealing my sense of me.

It was only after the lack of breath sent my vision spinning, tiny pinprick stars forming in my vision as my body reminded me of its need for air, that I finally stopped. And lying on the cold stone floor, wearing nothing but my basic undergarments that were always there, I started trailing off to sleep again.

I couldn't be sure if I had dreamed it, later, but for the life of me, I thought I heard Em's soft, regretful voice, "I don't care if it takes a thousand years, I swear to you Mags. I will find a way to delete that man's soul and shred whatever silicon bits allowed that to happen." And yet, more than comforting me, I remember feeling bolstered. I remembered the vulnerability and fear being surrounded, though not replaced, by the white hot scream of a rage that both was and was very much not my own. 

:10/06/2251:

11:02 AM

I was draped across the floor of the throne room, white marble hard against my naked knees. Two men held chains bound to shackles that encased my upper arms, holding me upright, even as my vision flashed with strange colors just sitting up straight in my exhausted state.

I had been drug here in chains and forced out onto the ground at the bottom of the stairs, allowing the Queen to lord over me, standing high up above. The queen chose to ignore me at first, even as I lay bleeding there on the floor in front of her. Sickening white and green puss leaked from the wound at my ankle, shooting random bits of pain that echoed through my body with every breath I took. I was both amazed and horrified at how much detail had been programmed into such a wound, from the look and congealed texture of the puss that leaked from the wet skin to the sheer indescribable agony that it caused me, no two bits of mind-numbing pain feeling quite like the other. 

Finally, she looked down at my bound form, turning up her nose as she took in my battered, bloody skin. "So, they tell us that you are the one who is pretending to be a queen," she finally said, taking a slow step down from her throne and toward my place there down on the bottom stone floor.

It was only then that I thought to check her status text, realizing even as I faced her that I honestly had no idea what class the queen, my rival, was ascribed to.

Queen Olivia McBeal (Employee)

Telekineticist

I honestly had no idea what that even was, as I read the golden text. It was a legendary class, no doubt, as was clearly identified in the screen. But it wasn't a class that I had ever before heard of or knew what to expect from.

"Surely this is a mistake?" She intoned, smirking sarcastically and seemingly glancing back behind her, at the advisors behind the throne, before turning back to me. "I don't believe for a second that this little waif thinks that she is somehow the rival of Anthera. I mean... look at her." She took a step closer, wrinkling her nose, "She hardly seems fit to work in our kitchens, let alone sit on a throne."

One of the men behind her subtly cleared his throat, as if unsure if he was supposed to answer, "Yes, my queen. We have confirmed this most conclusively. The girl before you is the owner of the new city, Dementia."

McBeal forced a laugh, turning up her head and letting the sound, too loudly, echo across the chamber. "Oh, you poor, poor thing," her words dripped with honied compassion, but as if to punctuate her words she gave a slight flick of her wrist, and I felt a warm stream of liquid and pain erupt from the right side of my face. "What have you gotten yourself into, little dove?"

Taking a step closer, she let out an exaggerated, dramatic sigh, "You fell in with the wrong crowd, I suppose. What did it take me, two days? Three? For me to have you brought here shackled and crawling before me. What chance could you have possibly thought that you had?"

Again, the Queen punctuated the words with a wave of her arm, and I felt an invisible force slam into my belly, forcing the air from my lungs. I tried to scream then, as I struggled to breathe, to tell her to stop, but again I could not produce a sound from my cracked and bleeding lips. "See, you are too scared, even to speak a single word in your own defense, too humbled by the presence of an actual, honest to god Ruler."

Closing the last step, I felt her fingers wrapping themselves in my hair, ripping my head back to look me in the eye as she spoke the final sentence. "Well, now you know better, I think.  And know this!" She yanked my head around as she spoke, as if I were a prop to punctuate her speech, "Your nanny AI will put you to bed soon, as I'm sure it's well past naptime for such a little baby girl. But you will abdicate. I will have you brought here, in chains, and I will remind you the errors of aspiring to greatness. Every day when you log in, my soldiers will be waiting. And you will find me there every time you close your eyes at night."

She spit in my face this time, the warm spittle from her tongue mingling with the blood-red gash across my face, and she pulled me closer as she dropped her veneer of amicability, letting the hate finally fill the words as she whispered into my ear, "You are mine, little bird. Mine. And we are going to have so. much. fun."

I heard another voice whispering, however, even as the spittle dripped and dried across my face. "Oh, fuck this bitch. Pull your shit together, Mags, we go in three."

"My men will have you," McBeal whispered darkly, "My torturers shall sate their hunger upon your flesh."

"Two."

"My ladies will take turns sitting on your head, and the only fluids you imbibe shall be the bitter taste of their piss."

"One."

Straightening and releasing my hair, serendipitously, McBeal turned to walk away with a flourish. Showing me her back contemptuously just as Em did make our move.

The tips of my wings had been clipped, and the tip of my tail had been severed, but my fangs still sprang, ready, from the edges of my shifting mouth. As skin tightened into scales, the chains fell loudly from arms that were no longer there, and my coiled serpent's body sailed smoothly through the loops of my former bindings.

If I had not been forced to kneel, if I had been allowed to stand or if I had been chained to a chair like a human being, my transformed coils would not have been so tightly wound. If she had not come so close, needed to twist my head about and spit directly in my face, I would not have gotten close enough, would not have had enough momentum to complete my savage arc. But I was, and as my body unwound and my wings pushed my strike even faster through the air and toward the skin of her unprotected neck.

My fangs sunk in so deeply, meeting little resistance as my leathery skin smacked into her body. As she had unleashed her venom, so too did I unleash my own even as the iron taste of her blood filled my mouth and nose. I clung to her flesh, unleashing wave after wave of my own twisted poison deeply into her veins until finally, she managed to twist her hand far enough around her body to trigger a defensive enchantment. 

And yet, even as the wave of force smashed into my body, tearing me away from her in an explosion of blood and flesh and fangs, I heard the trill of a status notification, flickering into view.

Quest Complete!

When I said 'face to face' I wasn't intending for you two to start swapping spit. 

Reward:  Employee Project Complete; Unique Achievement

Achievement Unlocked! (Unique)

Nemesis

Poisoned your Rival in her throne room

Increased construction speed in your city's workshops.

Special:  +1 Willpower (Permanent, Max: 10)

Somehow, after being slammed with that much force and flying half way across the chamber, I recovered. Slowing to a hover in the air, I turned and slithered through the air back at the twisted queen. Magic exploded around me, I felt the whoosh of waves of force brush against my skin as I twisted my way toward her. I realized I had to be almost dead, I hadn't seen the HP texts, having been lost in my own pain and self-pity, but the way I felt I knew that the fight was already over.

And yet... before the final spell found me, before I felt my body tearing apart from a million invisible blades, I once again found myself within range of the queen. With a final, desperate leap of defiance, I sunk the single remaining fang in my mouth into the other side of her pretty neck. Holding on for dear life. The waves of poison seemed to spurt into her body of their own accord, even as I realized that I could no longer feel anything attached below my head.

And as the world dimmed to black, spinning away with my avatar's death, I received one final notification.

Achievement Unlocked! (Unique)

Warlord

Murdered your Rival in her throne room

Decreased schematic research time in your city's specialty buildings.

Reputation raised with Chaos from: NOBLE to: LEGEND  

Reputation raised with Angmar from: TOLERATED to: ALLY

Reputation raised with Galdenheim from: TOLERATED to: CONQUERER

Reputation lost with Anthera from: HUNTED to: NEMESIS

Reputation lost with Church of Light from: CORRUPT to: NEMESIS

Special:  +1 Willpower (Permanent, Max: 10)

Special:  +500 Fame