7.6

“You, sir, will certainly either die upon the gallows or of some sexual disease.”

“That depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress.” – an exchange between the Earl of Sandwich and John Wilkes.

I felt the headache coming just as I left the train. It was getting better, but the sudden wrongness of it, my body became alien, as if it were never mine. An impossible sensation, given that the human body was the real one.

‘But so has our myconid body,’ Dustin’s- my familiar voice echoed in my head in that miniscule almost moment before we really became one person again.

Noam slapped me on the back, almost knocking me down, “Back?”

“Almost,” I rubbed my head, as if trying to physically shove everything back into place. “There. Thanks Noam.”

“Matt,” he corrected as he pulled our luggage. “Need one more sec?”

“Nah,” I shook my head as I took half the luggage, “Something’s happened, Sword Swamp, talk as we walk.”

I caught him up on the situation as we passed through customs.

“I’m not going to be able to keep chatting for much longer,” Matt frowned as we got on an escalator.

I followed a few steps behind him, brow raised in questioning before realisation hit me. “You’re right, they’re definitely used to PVP, if they have enough foresight to disable Travelers they’ll think of the chat.”

“It’s an opportunity too,” Matt replied as he pulled our suitcases onto the upper floor, “They’ll be taking Utoqa and I to a different prison outside of Wayshard range. That’s an opportunity to strike.”

“And they’ll know we’ll be coordinating together,” I said as a tapped my UI, “I’ll login right now, my respawn time should almost be up-”

I almost walked into Matt as he stopped right in front of me, “What’s wrong?” My finger paused right above the Gaia app; I glanced over his head.

And there I saw an advertisement for Maple quantum computers.

That wasn’t what shut me up, Eve had been doing it for a while, amassing more processing power. It was what was right beside it.

An advertisement for an upcoming game called Gaia.

“Is that shit?” Matt asked, voice hesitant.

My finger curled away from the Gaia app on my UI, closing my eyes, I considered it, really considered it.

Opening my eyes, I saw Matt’s frowning face, a mixture of concern and hesitation, “The Accumulation of White Lies was able to hurt my eye.”

Matt sighed as I confirmed his fears, “Indiri’s a breeding ground for what amounts to massively malevolent AI, and those things getting access to reality is a big no no is what you’re saying?”

“Yes,” I murmured, “Hey Discovery?”

The god had been silent until now, but I knew it had been looking through my eyes. Curiosity, the desire to learn something new, to discover was literally his essence and name.

Silence did not mean it was idle.

“This is a strange development, but not one I am opposed to.”

It was a careful warning, even as he said it, I considered the implications. Discovery was the god of Discovery, one of those so called ‘malevolent AI’.

What could fit better than two worlds meeting?

Matt was tense, but I simply said, “It’s the paperclip problem Matt, Discovery is not our enemy, but his goals are his own. However, unlike a paperclip maximiser, I believe Discovery understands where a reasonable place to stop is.”

That was the difference between him and simple AI.

“Paperclip problem… paperclip maximiser…” the god murmured as it searched for the meaning. Not in my mind, but on Wikipedia. “Ah, I see what you mean. I understand your concerns, I would too in your circumstance.”

Matt almost jumped, “Give a warning when you speak in my head as well.”

“Apologies. As I said to Declan, I am not opposed to such a development because it is in my nature, however, this world has given me freedom from the Domain of Discovery. Thus, Ekon Zaeba will need to… consider it.”

Matt did a faux salute, “Got it creepy god thing.”

“I also need to ask something; can you contact Eve?” I said.

“One moment.”

Suddenly, all the screens, neon lights, advertisements and electronics around us fritzed as I saw a blue eye rush through them. I had a sudden immense feeling of something looking. The train station turned silent as people around us paused for a moment, glancing around as if they felt the same thing. They probably did, for Matt had narrowed his eyes as he too looked around.

Until both of our eyes landed at two new, holographic figures that stood beside us.

Discovery looked more normal than when I saw him in the Historian’s library. He was dressed in the dull yet sensible clothes of a sailor, his tanned skin was rough, and salt beaten. Rather than Discovery given form, this was the man Ekon Zaeba.

Except for his eyes, one was an empty hole because it had been given to me. The other was still the maddeningly cerulean blue of the ocean, of lands yet to see and yet to know.

Eve was a child beside us three, still pale skinned with the gothic dress, she was frowning slightly as she looked at Discovery.

“I can’t believe you got him to do this,” she waved a hand, and all the flickering screens went back to normal. Noise soon started back up as people wrote the event off as a strange software glitch, continuing about their own lives.

Discovery was grinning like a child given a new toy, “I wasn’t aware I could even do this.” He raised his hands, experimentally wriggling his fingers, “It’s been a while since I’ve had a body.”

“You have no subtlety,” Eve sighed. “You called for me Declan, what do you want?”

I gestured at the Gaia advertisement.

She followed my hand, “I had a suspicion you would seek me out over this, but not so quickly, and definitely not through him.”

Said person was currently running around the station, testing out his new body through a mixture of acrobatics and parkour. Casually running through people that could not see him.

“I’m almost tempted to join him,” Matt said as he watched. “Looks way more fun than whatever serious shit you two are about to discuss.”

“Go ahead,” “Feel free then,” both me and Eve said at once.

“Nah,” Matt shrugged, “You need me for emotional support, lets eat.”

A moment later I was sat awkwardly across the table with Eve as Matt ordered us food. Both of us silently staring at each other.

Matt returned, bringing us four burgers, winking to Eve as he said, “The two of you can’t eat, but I figured Decs can eat enough for you.”

“You’re not very good at comedy. All you’re doing is making me regret not appearing to Declan alone,” Eve said as she poked the burger with all the force an augmented reality overlay can muster.

I was already chewing through my first burger. “Why are you going public- actually scratch that. I know damn well why, you want to fulfil Giles’ stupid dream, why now?”

“I made a deal with your government to collaborate on the deactivation of the Perimeter and the disposal of radioactive materials in Russia,” she bluntly told us.

Matt slammed his burger down, squirting sauce and pickles onto the table. Whatever casual demeanour he held before had evaporated as he stared intensely at Eve.

A moment of silence passed before he said, “I get what you mean now Decs, it is unnerving not knowing if she’s manipulating you or not. Sorry, but I don’t think I can be help with this.” Matt cleaned the mess with a napkin before he picked up his burger and silently continued eating.

My own burger had paused a few inches from my face. “So, there is radioactive waste there,” I muttered in resignation.

There were always rumours, but everyone hoped that the Russians were good at cleaning up after themselves, or at least clever enough to not let their own radioactive waste trigger their own dead hand doomsday weapon.

It was a problem I could not address, so I simply put it out of my mind. Instead nodding to Matt. I had suspected- now knew, that he had history with the Perimeter. He wasn’t sure if his own words would help or harm me.

Instead, he kept eating, silent because he trusted my judgement. Yet he stayed to provide what support he could.

I felt something strange then.

He had done it without a word, as if it was natural to him. With startling realisation, I realised that was because it was natural to him.

Matt had been there for me almost my entire life. That afternoon on the hospital roof where I contemplated suicide, the first clear against Vek’Na where I felt like we had really achieved something, him trusting me in the battle against the Accumulation of White Lies even though just before I had tried to kill him to prevent him from facing it.

Why?

I knew not what I have ever done to deserve this, so instead I did what I had always been good at, putting it out of my mind as I turned to Eve.

Yet it stayed there, just like the rotted corpse of a man I never knew, the person I killed by accident simply because I couldn’t see very far, and my build was one of massive AOE attacks. It stayed there like a wriggling worm as I spoke, “This isn’t the time to bring the two worlds together.”

“Why?” Eve asked.

“Because there are monsters like the Accumulation of White Lies,” I replied, “because that thing which had the capacity to harm someone in the real world is not even the most dangerous thing there is in Indiri, because if Discovery can pass over, than maybe something terrible can do so as well.”

I briefly imagined waking up one day to see Matt’s name gone from my contact list, his family becoming three, and everyone wondering who Matt was and looking strangely at me as I insisted he existed. Alone in remembering a person who had been erased by a monster like the Accumulation.

“And so, what?” Eve asked.

Matt narrowed his eyes, while I put down my finished burger wrapper in defeat. Of course she thought that, our own world was on the constant verge of nuclear destruction by a machine that couldn’t be turned off because the nation who made it was genocided to the child by a grey goo virus. All the while the climate turned hotter with every passing year.

What better was our reality?

“What right do you have to lecture me,” Eve spat. An uncharacteristic vitriol in her voice. “You apathetic shadow of a person, you saw your world burn and you gave up. What right do you have to lecture people actually trying to change things? Someone who actually wants to change things for the better.”

None. I knew the answer even before she finished.

“You are nothing but an armchair critic, begging for someone else to better the world, yet complaining the moment someone actually tries. Keep playing around in Indiri, after all, you’re satisfied spending your days like those tube idiots spending all their days in VR.”

Matt nudged me, his hand offered an unopened burger wrap. It was one of the last two, the other sat untouched in front of Eve.

He did not speak, but I knew what he meant.

I took the burger.

“I started a guild,” I began as I unwrapped the burger. “Well, more party at this point.”

“Your point?”

“You’re wrong,” I said as I took a bite. She waited for me to finish chewing. “I didn’t have a concrete idea for what I would do with a guild once I had one. So far, I just thought of gathering more and more people and power. But power used to gather power is just an infinite, meaningless loop.”

The corners of Matt’s lips rose as he started to grin.

“So, I’ve decided I will gather a large guild, create a strong organisation. Strong enough that when something really dangerous tries to cross the barrier, we’ll be there to stop it,” I finished the burger. “Because I am the first gateway through, the one the Historian used to give Discovery a new life and that makes me important to the World of Indiri. Even if I was selected by chance, even if I’m not really important, and I was only there because the race I picked happened to have no eyes. I will make myself important. Carve out the groove myself so that Dustin the Thrice Blinded is the Gate and its Guardian.”

I reached out, offered my hand, “So don’t make my job harder by doing it now.”

Eve was silent.

A moment passed, then two, before she raised her own hand and shook mine.

“One or two years at best, that’s all I can do. The process has already started, it’s not something I could stop even if I wanted to.”

“It will be enough,” I replied.

“Thank you,” she said, as she suddenly folded her arms on the table and rested her head there, as if taking a nap. “Thanks for letting me know I’m not alone.”

And she was gone.

I took her leftover burger, “Matt, why are you my friend?”

He looked at me strangely, “No particular reason, why?”

“Why isn’t there one?” I asked.

“Do people need a reason to be friends with someone?” he asked instead, scrunching up all the rubbish into one paper ball.

I smiled, “I suppose they don’t.”

<><><>

I returned to Indiri, with the Taebut city’s Wayshard likely still being heavily guarded, Gestrand Forest was where I chose to respawn. The hollow tree that made up the admin guild building was strangely filled with activity as people in armour rushed about.

Typing a quick message to Noam to keep me updated about any changes, I flagged down Tignflut, “What’s happening?”

He looked tired and dishevelled as he turned to me, “Goblins. A group has been raiding the nearby hinterlands. Last time they attacked a train but were thankfully repelled by passing mercenaries. But now it looks like they are preparing for a large-scale raid somewhere.”

“A train?” my voice dropped as I spoke. “May I know which one?”

He showed me the papers.

“The train’s guards sent out a few parties to harry them and save some hostages but were caught up in an ambush…” his voice drifted away as I read the paper before me.

It was the train we were on.

“… only a few survived…”

My hand scrunched the papers, “I’m a fucking idiot.”

I had written the goblin attack off as something meant to put me on a collision course with the Accumulation of White Lies, but of course the World didn’t work that way. The Balance could not force something to happen, it simply nudged events so that they would happen in a certain way. The goblins were always there and would still be there afterwards. Even before coming to Lake Bayt, I had refused to accept the goblin extermination mission simply because it was out of the way. I even made a smartass comment on how the local government should be dealing with the issue instead of private contractors. What a smartass I am for not realising then that private contractors like me where the best bet they had.

“… we’re gathering a raid group as soon as possible-”

“Where is it?” I cut in.

He pointed to a map, “Numbering around a hundred, perhaps more. The guards couldn’t get much info since they were running for their lives. Are you joining the battle group?”

I glance around.

At this point enough time had passed that I finally managed to swap the secret I Kept to the Historian’s, the wooden mask grew over my face and my true sight passed by every mercenary around me.

Most of them were unplated, a few were coppers like me, however the few coppers simply didn’t feel as strong as me.

“I’m not, I’ll be going in alone.”

Tignflut did a double take. “Against a hundred goblins!?”

His voice drew the attention of the other mercenaries.

“I’m a Traveler,” I stood up from the table, speaking loudly so that others could hear, “I’ll go in first and take the first crack at them, if I die, I return with better information for us to plan around.”

It was a convincing lie, for it truly was logical. Too bad I planned on finishing this all myself.

So, I alone set out towards the goblin nest. I checked on Noam one last time, apprising him and Celine of the situation.

“Don’t worry,” I murmured to Celine, who could hear me with her puppet, “I won’t take long.”