Chapter Forty Eight – Talk with a God

I felt lost, as always. Everyone else seemed to know or at least have some idea of who this Francis was. I, on the other hand, was completely clueless.

He took a few steps forward to me and smiled. His name above his head was glowing a neon gold, but otherwise he was just an incredibly strangely dressed player.

“Gell, the Jellyfae? Good afternoon. I am Francis Delaney. I’m the lead designer of Tread the Sky,” he said with an air of nonchalance.

“Hello Francis Delaney. You look weird,” I said simply.

Someone in the crowd snorted and Francis blanched. “I… well, I probably deserved that. I’m sorry to pull you away so suddenly, but unfortunately, you’re going to need to come with me. I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind?”

There was a certain strangeness to being asked if you could be asked questions. Most people just started asking, but the man standing before me seemed to be waiting for permission to ask. Something about the way he asked implied that he had more than the usual, “How did you get that race?” questions that I was already growing tired of.

“I was kind of in the middle of something. I was trying to become a builder, so I could make pie!” I replied, feeling a little annoyed. “You said you could help with that. Can you?”

There was no wariness in him, I realized. Unlike every other adventurer I’d ever met, Francis did not hold himself even slightly on edge. He was completely unprepared for an attack. We were in a safe zone so attack shouldn’t be possible, but the wariness in all the other adventurer’s eyes made it plain that attacking wasn’t the only thing they had to be wary of. Thieves I suspected.

Conversely, this man did not even bother. I chose not to let that affect my opinion of him as much as I was able, though. He seemed genuine, anxious, and excited and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why.

We were in a crowded room filled with builders, most of whom had looked up from their conversations with the man behind the desk and were staring at the two of us in unwavering interest.

“After, perhaps. Alright, let's find out what to make of you,” he said before clapping a hand on my shoulder.

All of a sudden, the entire world changed. Completely. There was no fade to black. No loss of control like when I’d entered the city either. One moment we were in the builders guild, and the next we were in a sunlit meadow. The sky was bright and inviting, which was drastically different from the cloudy weather of Variak.

A waterfall was cascading into a river a little ways down the sunny path and a pleasant looking wooden table was erected a few paces off the path.

“Sorry about that. Really, about all of this,” he said. “But some of the questions I need to ask you are a bit… personal. I’d rather everyone in the builder’s guild back there not know.”

“Wh...what? Where… how did we? Can you teleport?” I asked. I’d never seen an adventurer who could teleport before. Everyone in the Builder’s Guild had been giving this man loads of attention though. Even more than me.

I wanted to be angry but I was feeling more shocked and confused than anything. How did this man just… yank us into a new location? Why? I didn’t even know him.

“Well, let me get right to it then. How long have you been playing Tread the Sky?” he asked simply.

I scowled. “Playing? I don’t know what you mean. I’ve… as far as I can remember, I’ve never really played anything before. What’s Tread the Sky? Isn’t that when you explore somewhere that no one has ever been?”

Playing was something you did for amusement. Tread the Sky was… was… a name. For something. Not for the world.

He blinked. “So… so then… you don’t know where you come from, I mean? How far back do you remember?”

I folded my arms, feeling a little defensive. “What does that matter to you? Most people just ask how I unlocked my… race.”

“Most people don’t have an inkling of what you are,” he replied.

I couldn’t help how my heart skipped a beat. “S-so… so you, know what I am?”

He shrugged, a little and repeated, “I have an inkling. I’d like your perspective though. Tell me, what are you?”

I looked him straight in the eyes and sighed, forlornly, throwing up my hands in disgust. “I wish I knew…”

“You… don’t know?” he asked.

“I am a Jellyfae. That’s all I know to tell people. I used to look… different. But that changed when I did something bad.” I was unwilling to divulge that. I didn’t want to share my guilt.

“Did you steal something?” he prodded.

I blinked. “Steal? No…? Well. A few things but only from invaders. Oh! Once I stole some of Dull Beauty’s leafy food! It wasn’t very good.”

He blinked. “So, it wasn’t stealing? Well, what was it you, did?”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” I responded immediately. “Can we go back now? I really wanted to become a builder and build something to get my pie.”

Almost absently, he waved his hand and there on the picnic table a scrumptious looking pie appeared. The scent of apples filled my nostrils and I moaned in delight.

“You can make pie out of the air!? Is that an ability of someone who created Tread the Sky? I would love that ability!” I exclaimed, staring at the treat in longing. I almost gravitated towards it but stopped short. “Uhm. Can I have this?”

He nodded with a laugh and waved his hand amused. He was content to let me bury my face in the wonderful pie and I ate with all the joy I could muster.

Inside I was shivering. I wanted to attack him but the casual way he had changed all of reality made me terrified. The way he’d commanded the attention of everyone in the builders guild. The way he’d made a pie appear as if from nothing.

‘What is he?’ I thought.

“Another question, if you don’t mind. What do you think of Tread the Sky?” he asked. “You didn’t seem to recognize the title when I mentioned it.”

“You mean… the little tread counter in the corner of my invisible screens? Mine still says zero, but if making a counter gives you the ability to make pie out of nothing, I want to make one too! Hey, can I ask you a question?”

He blanched, taken aback. “No. I meant the world. The world you currently live in. What do you think of it?”

“Tread the Sky is the world?” I returned, feeling like we were talking about different things.

“Yes. I developed this world along with a lot of others. That was the name we gave it,” he said, almost looking annoyed. He took a sip from Saint Joe, and suddenly it all clicked.

“Y-you’re a Developer…” I whispered. “One of the false gods.”

He smiled, a prideful look on his face. “I am. Wait what?”

I strode over to him, standing up from the table where the decimated pie’s remains lay unfinished, then stood on my tip toes to stare directly into his chocolate brown eyes.

“Did you know?” I demanded. “Did you know she was torturing me? I’ve wanted to ask one of you ever since I found out you were responsible for watching over the whole world. So did you?!”

He blanched again, backing away as if I’d struck him. “I… torturing…? No. Gell. You weren’t being tortured. Or killed.”

“She killed me over and over and over again! So many times that I lost count! And it hurt! It huurt! If you made the world then why would you make someone so cruel as her!?”

“I’m sorry, Gell. I don’t call it torture becuase she didn’t know you were… more than a mob. More than any other dungeon creature.”

“That’s exactly what she said. She didn’t know I had a mind. That I could feel! So that was supposed to make it okay? What she did to me?”

“If you want to continue living then yes!” He hissed, a sort of real worry in his eyes as he glanced around. “Gell… I don’t know how to put this lightly but your attitude with me right now might mean the difference between life and death for you. People are scared beings like you.”

“Beings like me.” I said, feeling skeptical. “There’s no difference between me and any other Kin! The bugbears and the wolves and the wronkles! Avwren the bat and Torchlight the unicorn! We’re all the same! We’re all just not adventurers!”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You see, all of them have code. Have a behaviour pattern that we control. You don’t.”

I shivered.

“You… you control the Instinct.”

Something in my tone must’ve alerted him because he suddenly tensed.

Rage filled me. I wanted to lash out. I wanted to shock this bastard. Kill him. I wanted to destroy the instinct and everything it represented, and this man had just told me that the Developers created it!? Why?

But I was too gone to ask. Too lost to the anger.

I lunched, shocker at the ready, prepared to paralyze this asshole who didn’t even have any fighting instincts.

Suddenly, he was no longer there. I felt a light tap on the back of my head, and a sudden burning sensation as hot liquid spilled over my hair.

Then for just a moment, the world went grey.

“You Have Die–!”

“You are being resurrected. Accept?”

‘What in the world?’ I thought, looking around the greyed out world from a position hovering over… was that my own body on the ground? It was as if I were in the eyes of one of the angels that dropped down from the sky after someone died, surveying the landscape.

The No button was apparently greyed out, so I pressed yes and suddenly I was back in my body. Light swirled around me as I was lifted up from the ground. I had no control but it was coming back. The pretty lights deposited me on the ground, even as they twinkled out, leaving me stunned. Breathless.

“Wh-what…?”

“So. Tantrum overwith?” Francis asked.

“I… uhm. What just happened?” I asked, feeling small and scared. When Red Thorn had killed me back in the cave, I’d at least been able to see her move. It… had also hurt. That. Didn’t.

“You attacked a developer. Not smart. And really not going to go over well when I try to explain to the board that they should let you live.”

“I… what?” I asked, feeling lost and afraid. I slumped back down onto the bench, and hugged my arms around myself.

I hated this. I hated feeling powerless. Feeling like I couldn’t control my own life.

“For what it's worth, Gell. I’m so sorry. For more than just you. I’m sorry that your first interaction with the world was death and torture. That you weren’t discovered immediately upon realizing that you could truly learn. I’m sorry, we let you down. But we did not know about you.”

“I… okay. I guess I can accept that you didn’t know. If you had… would you have stopped her?”

His eyes softened, an earnestness appearing there where before there had been only calculated curiosity. “Of course I would have, Gell. No one should suffer like you have. Agghh!”

He ran a hand through his dark hair and sunk down onto a nearby boulder that I could swear hadn’t been there before.

“Gell… everything about this conversation has implied that you believe yourself to be alive in this world, and that that’s normal. You’re… not going to like what I have to say, but I want you to listen to me. We’ve just met, and I know you don’t have much reason to trust me… but please just hear me out. Okay?”

I looked around. The meadow was pretty but I had no idea how to get back to Variak. “You haven’t really given me much of a choice.”

He smiled apologetically. “And I’m sorry about that. It was necessary though. For your life and the future of this world.”

I sat back down on the picnic table, and picked up the least damaged part of the pie. It really had been delicious.

“Alright… I’m listening.”