Virtual Prophet (16 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Danielle

After the Sisters do a flyby of the Colony, they hover in the air for a moment to speak with us.

“Not good.” Courtney meets my eyes and can read the agreement in them. “Let’s take you to see Steph now. She’s camped a short distance from here. Follow us.”

The women turn and begin to fly toward the east. Twenty minutes later we reach the bluffs where Raphael’s group has been holed up. There’s a large clearing surrounded by old trees below. On a flat, rocky surface in the middle of the clearing are three tables with chairs arranged around them.

We drop to the ground and Stephanie stands from her seat at the centre table. She’s holding a glass of pale golden liquid, which she raises as we draw near.

“The favoured leader has returned,” she says with a smile. Her expression looks as kind and loving as it always did, but somehow I have trouble buying it.

“Stephanie,” I say coolly. “You look better than ever. It would seem that being the queen of all that is evil in the world agrees with you.”

Stephanie nods and continues to smile. Her eyes flit questioningly to Raph, revealing more vulnerability than I would have expected. I look at Raph in time to see him smile and nod. She returns his grin and walks towards him as the two embrace warmly.

“It’s good to see you again, little Sister,” he says. “I’m glad that you survived the succession.”

“Thanks, Raph,” she says. “I couldn’t have done it without help from all of my friends.”

“I’m glad you’ve done well for yourself, Steph,” I say, “although I would be a lot happier if you hadn’t taken over the Colony. Before I left, Daniel expressed an interest in doing the same thing, and I would have gone to war to prevent it. For some reason, Raph, Carl, and the others let you walk right in and take over. Raph said there were valid reasons and assured me that when the time was right, you would explain things to me.”

“Let’s enjoy a meal first,” Stephanie says, “then we can get down to business.”

I shake my head. “How many are dead?” I ask.

She looks at me for a moment and then sighs heavily. “You always were business first, pleasure if there was enough time for it. So often there wasn’
t
enough time for pleasure with you, Danni. How much life you missed out on over the years...”

I smile and shake my head. “Some lives are for pleasure,” I reply. “Other lives require different results. I guess it’s easy for you to lose track of that, since life is just one long episode for you, Stephanie. I kind of like how us players do it. Besides,” I say, “I did have a significant amount of pleasure during this life.”

“I guess that’s true,” she admits. “Let’s take a seat and I’ll fill you in on what’s been happening.”

We move to the centre table and sit down. The sisters sit on either side of Stephanie and we sit across from them.

Stephanie pours drinks for everyone and raises her glass to make a toast. “Welcome home, Danni,” she says.

I clink glasses with the others and take a drink of the light, fruity wine. No one speaks at the table; I’m not sure if they’re waiting for me to speak, but I’m still waiting for the answer to my first question.

Stephanie chuckles and nods. She’s known me since I was a young girl and I haven’t changed that much.

“Danni, it’s absolutely boring being in charge of a large colony of mortals. You know that better than anyone here.”

A slight grin forms against my will. She’s right, it’s a nightmare. Of all the things I ever did in my life, governing the Colony was the most arduous task I experienced.

“Yeah, I thought so,” Stephanie says. “To keep things brief, there are many things that Infernals do to spread confusion and discord across the world, but there’s one very important rule that all Timeless must follow.”

“Maintaining the balance,” Raphael says and the others nod in agreement.

“Exactly,” Stephanie agrees. “The balance must be maintained. There have been times throughout the history of the world when severe events have happened which forced the Timeless to abandon their traditional roles and work together for a common cause. If chaos becomes too widespread, then Infernals tone it back. If order threatens to take over, then the Eternals begin to do nasty things.” She shrugs. “The simple answer to your question is this; the Day made things too chaotic, so Infernals were called on to help add a little bit of order.”

“As simple as that?” I ask.

Stephanie laughs. “Of course it wasn’t as simple as that. Horrible events have occurred, but years have passed and the dust has settled, leaving me solidly in place as the Infernal leader. I surrounded myself with powerful allies,” — she motions to the two sisters — “so that I could implement changes to help further the cause of order and assist with restoring the balance.” Her eyes flash with an evil look. “The sooner we get things back on track, the quicker we can get back to doing what our crimson eyes really want us to do... start breaking things again.”

“You expect me to believe that you took over leadership of the Colony to hel
p
?”

Stephanie shrugs. “At this point I don’t really care what you think, Danni. I left things to the status quo, for the most part; I think you’ll find that the majority of the population still belongs to the Gamer movement. Ask Raphael if you don’t believe me.”

“Why did Raphael and the other Eternals leave, then?” I challenge.

Stephanie chuckles. “I bet you haven’t even asked him that question, have you?”

My cheeks flush with embarrassment which confirms the truth of her statement. “Oh, Danni,” Stephanie says. “You must learn to find out all the facts before you go storming into a situation. One of the follies of youth, I suppose. Do try to remember this lesson when you return to your home world.”

“You’re willing to leave the Colony, then?” I ask.

“I’ve already left.” She spreads her arms to remind me that we aren’t in the settlement. “If you’re that keen about reclaiming the job, then I’m glad to hand the reins back to you.”

“What about the Thirteen?” I ask.

Stephanie raises her drink and looks at me over the edge of her glass. “What about them?”

“Where are they?”

“Gone.” She finishes her drink and sets it down on the table.

“What do you mean, gone?” I ask.

Stephanie glances at Raphael. “Did you show her the cavern?”

Raphael nods and Stephanie looks back at me. “They weren’t helping here, Danni. We sent them on.”

I turn to Raphael with a look of confusion on my face. “What is she talking about?”

“The Thirteen are important for another game, Danni,” Stephanie says. “I don’t think you’ll get to see how that one turns out... but we sent them to a different part of the world. They will be safe there until the opportunity comes for them to be put into play.”

“What about the power outage?” I was really hoping they would confirm to the rest that things were back online. Why did I ever agree to Shane’s ridiculous condition?

“I’m not certain that it’s important anymore,” Stephanie says.

“Of course it’s important,” I say. I spent seven years looking for the solution to that problem. There’s no way I will believe it was all a waste of time, although I did accomplish many positive outcomes for people along the way. I shake my head and continue to talk. “The world needs power, Stephanie. The past ten years have been hell for everyone who was lucky enough to survive.”

“Do you think everything will suddenly be all right if people can text each other again?” she asks. “Perhaps e-mail will make the world’s considerable problems just melt away?”

“There’s more to it than that and you know it.”

Stephanie runs her hand through her hair and rubs her eyes. “Look, I’m willing to do whatever you like. If you want me to take my group and go live on the other side of the world, then I’ll head out. If you want our help, then I’ll help. I know you find it hard to trust the Devil, and I don’t blame you, sweetie, really I don’t.” She looks at Raphael and then the Sisters. “This world seems to be
ending. I think we should try our best to find out if we can stop that from happening. In my humble opinion, that’s more important than getting video games and soap operas functioning again.”

I sigh and shake my head. “I really don’t know what to do at this point,” I say.

“Perhaps some time to consider things will help,” Raphael offers.

“Does anyone here know why so many people are dying?” I ask again.

No one answers me. Finally Courtney speaks. “There is one theory, but we can’t know for certain.”

“What theory?”

“When we become Timeless, there are key events which we are briefed on. None of us expect to be around when they occur, because most sound too absurd for even us to believe. This might be one of those events.”

A sound interrupts her from my left. The familiar hissing of a doorway of light begins to sizzle and hum as the outline forms ten feet away. After a few moments the full doorway is complete and two people step out of it. I recognize one of them immediately.

“Hey, Melissa,” I say. “Who’s your friend?”

Melissa looks over and then runs towards me with a huge grin on her face. I stand up just in time to catch her as she throws herself into my arms. “I’m so glad to see you again, Danni! When did you get back?”

“Just a few days ago,” I say. “Where have you been and who’s your young friend?”

Melissa releases me and looks over at the young man standing politely off to the side. The doorway has disappeared, and he seems to be enjoying the scene from the sidelines. He looks very distinctive in his black jeans, T-shirt and black hoodie. His eyes are unusual — do I detect silver flecks floating in them?

“This is Azrael,” she says. “I just met him a couple of days ago. He has some very interesting ideas to present.” Melissa looks at the young man and waves for him to come closer. “I don’t know how you knew she was here, but you were right,” she says to him.

The young man approaches, and as he comes closer it becomes clear that his brown eyes do indeed contain silver flecks... exactly like mine.

“Azrael?” Raph asks.

“Yes,” the young man replies. He’s smiling comfortably, and there seems to be a noticeable air of authority about him. I look at the Timeless and they appear to be instinctively deferring to him with both their posture and body language.

Raphael moves to get a closer look at his face. “Azrael?” he asks. “Is that truly you, Brother?”

The young man nods his head. Raphael cries out and wraps him in a huge bear hug. The two laugh and slap each others’ backs, acting as if they are long lost brothers or relatives.

When they finally release each other, I ask Raphael the obvious question. “You two know each other?”

“Oh, yes,” Raphael says. “This is our brother, Azrael.”

“Is he an Infernal or Eternal?” I ask.

“He is neither,” Azrael answers for himself. “I am the Archangel of Death, come to collect and guide souls to their true homes, Danni.”

“What does that mean?” I ask him.

“It means that time has almost run out,” he replies. “I would like to tell you about some very exciting things that are about to occur on Earth.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Trew

“What just happened?” someone asked as the picture and sound dissolved into hissing static.

“It looks like Azrael remembered to scramble the signal,” Michelle said.

“Who is he?” Lilith asked. “Isn’t he a bit young to be a Timeless?” she looked around the room at the blank faces. “Does anyone here know who he is?”

“He said he was the archangel of death,” Nadine said.

“That sounds ominous,” Lilith replied. “Especially since we all know angels don’t exist.”

“There seem to be a lot of avatars dying inside the Game at the moment.” Trew steered the conversation in another direction. He wasn’t about to tell the group that Brandon had come back, first to Tygon, and then he’d jumped into the Game. Trew believed that he knew exactly what Brandon was up to, and he would continue to watch events unfold until certain that his hunch was correct.

“NPCs,” Michelle stressed again. “I know from a Game point of view it’s somehow significant, but have any of us been able to figure it out?”

I
hav
e,
Trew thought to himself.

“What are they discussing?” one of the team members asked. “We just got the feeds back up and now they scramble us? It’s frustrating!”

“I want a count of how many NPCs have perished inside the Game,” Trew announced.

Michelle looked at her tablet and quickly tapped a few commands. “Just under thirty thousand,” she said. “Not many at all.”

“What if we were talking about players?” Trew asked.

“Thank goodness we aren’t,” Lilith said.

“What if the problem jumps and starts affecting players?”

It felt like a heavy blanket had been dropped over the entire room.

“That’s not funny,” Michelle said.

“Exactly,” Trew said. “Let’s do our best to scour the feeds and see if anyone suspects what is making this happen.” He looked at the group, trying to hide his anger at their treatment of NPCs, but understanding how they could feel so little for them. Just a few days ago he’d felt the same way. “I would like to find a cure for this epidemic so that we can stop anyone from suddenly dying inside the Game.”

“Is this Azrael causing it?” someone asked.

Trew looked at Cooper and shook his head, raising his eyebrows for confirmation from Cooper. Cooper shook his head, indicating that Brandon wasn’t causing the problem as far as he knew.

“I don’t think so,” Trew said, “but it wouldn’t hurt to keep eyes on him as best we can.”

Trew stood up. “I need at least half an hour of rest. Cooper, come wake me soon, please.”

Cooper stood to follow. “I’m not leaving you alone,” he said.

Trew began to protest, but he knew that it would be in vain. “Okay, let’s go, then,” he said.

They walked down the hallway towards one of the nearby rest quarters.

“How long are we going to do this dance?” Trew asked.

“I don’t know,” Cooper said. “I guess that depends on how long it takes you to come out and ask me a direct question.”

Trew stopped walking and looked at Cooper, then shrugged and resumed his walk down the hall. “I guess it will be a while longer, then,” he said.

Cooper chuckled. “I guess so.”

Trew opened the door to the small rest area. He looked over his shoulder and asked the question that had been on his mind since the moment he guessed what was happening. “They’re not NPCs, are they?” he asked.

Cooper’s eyes shifted from Trew’s to something inside the room. He looked surprised, and Trew quickly swung his head around to see what Cooper was looking at.

Trew had seen this old man before, but not on Tygon.

He sat comfortably on the couch, his bare legs crossed, and the black laceless boots swinging gently. The garbage bags that made up his outfit looked cleaner than Trew would have expected, and his white hair stood up and pointed in a multitude of directions. One arm was stretched out comfortably along the back of the couch, the light glinting off the red metal of his bottle cap gloves. He smiled as the two men stood in the doorway looking at him.

“Hello, Trew,” he said. “I couldn’t help but overhear your question for Cooper,” he smiled and waved a hand for them to enter the room. “Why don’t you boys come in so we can have a little chat? I’ll start by answering that question.”

The old man’s eyes glinted with mischief as he leaned forward and spoke softly. “You are absolutely correct, Trew, the NPCs dying inside the Game are not NPCs...”