Turning back to Valerie I asked, “Are you familiar with a people called the Vassicans?”

  She raised an eyebrow and crossed her muscled arms across her chest, “You can find them throughout the Pools. You may have seen some of their people before. They are all female and snake kin. I have never really heard of them having a center of power, however.”

  After a long moment she smiled at me and said, “But if anyone would know where to find them, it would be Mattieu Foix. He has conducted an exhaustive study of the islands throughout the archipelago and,” she sighed with some chagrin, “he loves to discuss it at length.”

  Flashing her a confident grin and a wink I said, “Looks like we are off to the Rebel Base then.”

  Valerie’s lips quirked into a small smile and then she averted her eyes as she said, “Our flotilla must remain active on the open sea to keep the Order distracted and away from our fortress but I suppose we can spare one ship to get you to the cove and,” she took a deep breath and nodded, “I will accompany you. I need to see my mother, anyway.”

  After an awkward silence she stood up straight and gave me a kind smile as she said, “I’ll have one of the crew show you to a cabin where you can rest. We will set sail for Ibdys Cove in a few hours.”

  She started to turn back to her charts and my hand raised to reach out and touch her. Before I could I thought better of it and just said, “Thank you, Val.”

  Her smile somewhat strained, she turned and nodded as she said, “Get some rest.”

  I took some time to introduce myself amongst the crew. Most were young and passionate men and women who expressed adoration for me that felt underserved. Many of them had been children in L’Chasse when this strange detached version of me had helped to defeat the Immolated Order. One of the young sailors eventually led me through the central galley, arrayed with wheeled siege weaponry of strange design. They were long brass and wooden bars covered in runes and attached to strange cables that ran the length of the ship.

  My guide led me down a short hall and into a small cabin. The young woman showed me into the closet sized chamber and before leaving me bowed and said, “Sleep well and,” she paused as if considering whether to say anything and finally said, “thank you, hero.”

  With that she left me.

  Sighing, I sat down on the cot, the ship shifting back and forth as it hissed through the waves of silt, I raised my arm and flicked open my notifications with my forefinger. The gains were small. My Assassin Role had not advanced and I had only gained one level for the fight on the beach and the subsequent slaughter on the ship. Rune Carver had advanced to Expert level nine and was now capable of being advanced to Master. I got a prompt as a result.

  Congratulations!

  Your crafting skill has the potential to advance to the Master tier!

  Similar to your combat and social skills you may now advance your Crafting Skill: Rune Carver; into a Master Role. However, you can not do so until the associated Gathering Skill: Herbalism has also advanced to Expert Level Nine.

  In addition, at level eight of the skill I gained a new host of wards including the long awaited advancement to standard variety elemental wards. These new wards had the same explosive radius but more damage and longer durations for their individual afflictions. In addition I gained a Spike Ward that blasted out tiny shards of metal that shredded targets in addition to making the ground with its radius difficult to traverse, a Sonic Ward that could deafen targets within a three meter radius and a Goo Ward made up of quick drying gelatin that enveloped a single target and could eventually immobilize a low strength enemy.

  I dropped my arm and let out a sigh as I dropped into my hammock, which was remarkably reminiscent of my suspended dive chair. Wary but unafraid of what I was about to face I pulled my helmet off my head.

  My world shifted seamlessly back to the suffusing red glow of the dive room.

  Above me the monitor showed my avatar’s viewpoint of the ship’s cabin ceiling.

  Turning I saw a smiling and attentive Olivia staring at me from a chair on the other side of my coffee table with her legs crossed. The table was strewn with tools and the envelope I’d put there…

  This morning?

  Was it this morning?

  What…?

  Olivia disrupted my thoughts with a gentle question, “I can understand why you might still be upset Malcolm…”

  Raising a hand to stop her, I swung my legs out of the dive chair. The clips along my back and legs popped loose with unnatural synchronicity and I leveled a flat glare at her, “Anger is not my problem anymore.”

  She offered a small smile, resting her hands on her knee as she said, “I saw that. You said you are going to ‘solve this’.”

  I averted my eyes. Somehow I still felt the constant glaring eye of the AI that had been my personal assistant as I said, “What of it? Does it matter to your bosses how I do this?”

  She let out a long sigh and looked at me with concern, “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

  Shaking my head with a grimace, my eyes settled on the envelope again. Something was not allowing me to focus on its purpose or why it was there. Trying to grasp its meaning was like trying to grab onto an icy ledge over an abyss threatening to swallow me. The two words written on the front of the simple piece of paper were simultaneously gibberish and perfectly understandable. The more I stared at it the more it started to glitch and shift graphically.

  Somehow their system had imposed a mental block about the strange little rectangle of paper.

  I gave her a defiant grin and snatched up the envelope. It felt hot in my hand. I could feel it shift and twist between my fingers as I held it up before her eyes.

  “How about this? Congratulations to your bosses. Sydney? Myriad? Cameron ‘Fucking’ Lake? My life? You’ve succeeded in removing those little trivial roadblocks from my path. You guys have my full attention now.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Olivia just shook her head slowly as I looked up to the ceiling and growled, “Congratulations Lyd, you and your boss have cured my fucking funk. From this day forward you and your shitty game have Malcolm Voss’s full attention.”

  Standing, I rolled my shoulders as I walked past Olivia and casually tore up the envelope and let the pieces tumble to the floor. I made my way to the stairs, “I guess it's time to see what that amounts to.” Without looking back I ascended the stairs and into the kitchen.

  Even if this was a constructed environment my hunger and needs had not been magically waved away. The grimy feeling of a day spent glued to that dive chair did not magically disappear. My exhaustion and hunger were still very present. Without me asking Olivia went about facilitating all of those needs. She set out new clothes. She started a small meal. Through whatever connection she seemed to have with Lydia and the smart devices in the home she had my traitorous AI help her.

  Going about these tasks I remained mute despite Olivia’s attempts to engage me. Showering, eating, resting and dressing passed in a blur, the feeling of being imprisoned settling over my shoulders. A quick search of all the doors and windows proved that there was no way to escape the home. I even attempted to break a window with an old wrench I kept under the kitchen sink. The glass was impenetrable.

  The world outside the house was sunny and peaceful. Occasionally cars drove by on the street outside. At one point a neighbor strode by walking their dog. Screaming for help wouldn’t do any good. This world was no more real than The Dark Spiral.

  Several hours later my now impersonal and cold AI announced, “RESUME TESTING!”

  On the way through the kitchen I cast a brief uncomfortable glance at the half full bottle of whiskey on the kitchen counter and then forced myself back down the stairs with a purpose.

  As I was pulling the helmet back on Olivia stopped me with a simple comment, “I really am just here to make sure you stay safe. I know you refuse to believe this, and given the circumstances why would you, but I really am a huge fan of yours. I admire you Malcolm…”

  Eyeing her with cold contempt I sighed as the strange tentacle-like connectors re-established connection with my dive suit. I settled into the dive chair and pulled the helmet back on.

  –

  Back on the cot of the ship I looked up at the cabin ceiling and took several deep breaths. Closing my eyes an image of Sydney intruded.

  She was smiling at me backstage at an awards show.

  Her head was thrust into my side and her eyes hidden as she wept over losing her asshole of a father.

  Laughing after she fell for the third time while I was trying to teach her to dance in our old place.

  A distant yell from above the decks shocked me out of my thoughts and I jumped from the cot and burst out into the hallway. The sounds of raised voices resolved into panicked orders and cries of alarm. The ship rocked with impact and I cursed as wrenched open the door to the hold. Silt sprayed through the portholes in the sides of the ship as men and women hurried around the weapons I’d seen before.

  A young man shouted, “Charging!,” as a burst of dark energy built up along the weapons arrayed on the port side. Hurrying through the chamber I activated my blood mist to avoid the working sailors and reformed on the other side of the galley. A static hum filled the area as the weapons reached maximum charge.

  “Fire!”

  There was a hollow ‘thump’ as the energy released and lanced out of the open ports and out into the night. Running up the stairs to the main deck I found the ship in chaos. The constant howling wind of the Pools battered at the entire crew as they rushed about moving lines to adjust the ship’s energy sails or leveled long rifles over the railings.

  In the distance on the endless expanse of rising and falling black silt I could see the shapes of two large ships on a parallel course with ours. Mystal gave me a friendly wave from the center of the deck as if we weren’t under attack. Several of her mist men were aiding in the defense of the vessel. On the stern castle Valerie’s second in command, Etta, shouted orders to the crew as the Captain herself stood at the wheel.

  Vaulting up to them I was shocked as Etta shouted, “Incoming,” and just managed to fall prone as lances of energy flew over the decks of the ship. One of them impacted the side of the ship and someone screamed amidst the cries of alarm below decks. Rolling to my feet I yelled over the howling wind, “Oi, Captain Val, we can’t stay broadside to those two for much longer!!”

  She almost growled her response as she pointed out over the violent waves, “We can’t outrun them either!”

  Now that she pointed it out, I noted that the two ships had a considerably lower profile than ours. This ship was fit to carry a lot of sailors and supplies but could not hope to outrun two smaller ships like these. The fact that they were smaller vessels had likely saved us from being scuttled already. This ship has ten weapons while I had only seen two shots being fired from each of our pursuers.

  Scowling I shouted up at her as I turned to return to the deck, “Then turn windward and create a smaller profile. I’ll take a team to discourage them.”

  A terrified looking Haithan man who crouched near the aft rail and stared off in the direction of the ships bellowed to her, “Cap’n if we turn windward they’ll be on us in seconds!”

  Ignoring him the giant warrior woman spared me a single searching look, cursed and barked an order, “Do as he says Etta! I’ll be joining the assault boat!”

  “Yes Cap’n!,” from the gruff Haithan heralded a sudden lurch of the vessel as we came about and left the two smaller ships aft of us.

  Turning, I saw Valerie advancing down the steps toward the deck. She had shed her stormcloak for a simple sleeveless vest that barely contained her physique and was wearing a shield on her back and carrying a heavy basketed sabre in her hand. The look in her molten eyes was firm and brooked no questions. Smiling grimly at her I turned to gather the rest of the team.

  Sakurai was advancing toward me on the deck and muttered just loud enough to be heard over the wind, “How can a skeleton be seasick?”

  “You good to come with us?,” I said with a smile.

  She only nodded and I turned to the last potential crew member, “Mystal…”

  My question was cut off when I jumped in surprise, finding the mist creature looming right behind me with a manic grin on her face. Sighing I shook my head and asked, “Wanna go?”

  In answer, she bounced and clapped her hands together, shaking the deck and earning an eyeroll from Valerie.

  One of the crew members in the metallic crows nest above roared an update, “Pursuers at one kilometer and closing!”

  When we reached the rail I could see the dark shapes of the two vessels cresting a silt wave behind us, their energy sails the brilliant golden red of the Immolated Order’s cult.

  “Mystal, you are our pilot. I want you to get us as close as you can to that ship on the right, I’ll board and sow havoc and you three hit the other ship. I will join you as soon as possible.”

  “Reckless as ever,” Valerie grumbled as she climbed into the small craft.

  Sakurai’s voice was calm and gentle as she joined, “It turned out well last time.”

  “Which last time?,” the Pirate Captain complained, “the time he ran off and ended up getting stomped nearly to death by my mutated aunt?”

  She continued while rifling through her bag, “Or the time he played hero fighting mutant Alphonse and a Priest of Pain, and we didn’t see him again for six revs?”

  “Stomped by what…,” I started with concern before Mystal giggled and ordered the crew to drop us toward the silt. The hull of the metallic frame burst with dark energy just as we hit and the small boat hurtled away at high speed. The vessel arced around a particularly large wave and out toward right most of the small ships. There were several shapes just visible on the deck and it was clear that we had been spotted. Firearms cracked just audible over the crashing waves and around us the silt burst upward as long lines of red gold energy lanced past us.

  When I gave Valerie a concerned sidelong look she said, “Invention of the cult. Powered by magic fire gems they mine in the eastern Pools. Don’t get hit by them!”

  Wincing, I said, “Thanks for the heads up.”