Listen to where the wind takes us.

Surrounded by echoes of silence.

The notes are also the key.

The symmetry of sound lies in the eye of the beholder.

I read the clues for the seventeenth time. When I had gotten the Sylvan Forest clue, I had been ecstatic. For a brief moment, it seemed that all the joy in the world had gathered in me and was thumping in my chest. The feeling was further strengthened by an email from my dean announcing that my exam had been moved to the following week due to a database glitch. All that had taken place an hour ago. Since then, my progress on the riddle was zero.

“Twinkle, any alphanumeric patterns?” I asked, knowing full well the answer. If a dark broker was unable to find an answer I doubted my arcane AI companion would.

“No, Sarah. Nothing,” the cat said with tears forming in his eyes. Jeff, why did you add a new animation pack after all the trouble I’d gone through removing the old one?

“Send Flicker another message.” I sighed and sat on the grass. Four clues in, and I still was hoping he’d be able to buy the fifth.

“Done, Sarah!” Twinkle’s tears and sad expression disappeared, as he switched to his default positive state. “Blazing Battle Guns is doing a promotion for entry level characters. Triple gold and drop chance for the next six hours.”

Triple drop promotion. A week ago I would have jumped at the opportunity. BBG was one of the more popular games, which meant streaming profit would be high. For some reason, I didn’t feel like it. I had no doubt the game was great, with top notch graphics, solid mechanics, and actual functioning AIs, yet it remained a game. I’d do my quests, flash a few poses for my stream followers, then return to my standard work-game routine.

“Twinkle, how much time until work?” I asked, too lazy to check myself.

“You must leave in eleven hours and thirty-seven minutes to be on time.” The cat floated in front of me. “You have enough time to take advantage of two game promotions and catch five full hours of sleep!”

I’d also have the time to take my exams. Thinking about it, the delay was a crappy thing to happen.

“Hurray! Five thousand dollars have been deposited to your account!” The AI swirled around me leaving a trail of confetti as it did.

Normally I’d be annoyed, but I couldn’t stay grumpy considering my financial situation. At the end of the day money was money. There was no secret where it had come from—my dark broker had bought the clue information from me the moment the message had appeared. Maybe I was getting used to handling large sums of money, but I thought I had given it to him for cheap. On the plus side, I had made it onto his good list.

A message notification popped up in front of me. Flicker had responded with a single word: Negotiating. That was good news. It also meant that until he finished, there was nothing for me to do. Yet again, I read through the four hints. All of them had sound references, but that was both too obvious and not obvious enough. Twinkle had tried all sorts of anagram and deciphering algorithms with no result. It was possible his software wasn’t up to the task, though I didn’t think that was the issue. From what I had seen so far, the riddle was supposed to be simple, childish even.

“Hey, you,” a voice broke my concentration. Unfortunately, I recognized the owner, and she wasn’t someone I got along with. “What’s up?”

“Hello, Max.” I put on a fake smile. “You just missed him. We concluded our business—“

“Purely business deals, big secret, yadda, yadda, yadda.” Max waved her hand. She had changed her hairstyle and ditched her skimpy assassin outfit for an equally skimpy set of knight armor. “Let’s go get a drink.”

“Sure.” That was the last thing I wanted right now. “Your tavern?”

“Nah. Crystal Spires.” She tossed me a small pouch. Inside, I found a few amount of platinum coins and a bunch of various player tokens. “That should get you through the door.”

“You know I can’t afford that.” I looked her in the eye.

“You’re not.” She smirked. “I am. And I’ll ruin your life if you don’t come.”

“Okay, then.” So much for small talk. I put the pouch in my inventory. “Twinkle, mute and message Flicker I’ll see him later.”

Every virtual game had its elite locations—places like Kalifax, where only paying players could gather—yet in the entire net, there was just one Crystal Spires. Some considered it a franchise that had a presence in every major game. In truth, it was far more. The Crystal Spires was the place where professional players went to hang out. When I was young, people called it the Hollywood of the gaming world. That was before the popularity of progamers surged to levels media stars could only dream of. Today, going to the Crystal Spires was the equivalent of being invited to a royal wedding. Money alone wasn’t enough to get someone inside; membership and personal invitations were a must. My greatest concern was whether Max had gotten hers legally.

The teleportation spot at Crystal Spires was on the top of a crystal tower above a sea of cyan clouds. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by two silent statues of grey marble who escorted us along a winding staircase to the main gate. It was difficult for me not to glance around. The only time I’d seen this place was on screen grabs and event video feeds. The entire palace and all its surrounding buildings were made of colored crystal that flickered with such frequency and intensity it made my rig processors steam.

“It’s best viewed in hypergraphic settings,” Max said in false modesty. “Especially at sunset.”

“Cool.” I shrugged. This wasn’t the first time someone in-game was trying to impress me.

We made our way to a large crystal gate connecting the arrival tower with the main part of the complex. The moment we got five steps from the crystal bars, a teenage archangel materialized in front of us.

“Heya.” The archangel smiled. I could tell he wasn’t an AI. “There’s a private event today. Membership only, sorry.”

“I’m a visiting member.” Max rolled her eyes. She was terrifyingly good at it. “And she’s my plus one.”

If I had heard that in real life, I might have choked. Immediately, I switched on my emotion suppressor, a moment too late to hide my surprise. The archangel looked at me silently for a few seconds, then turned back to Max.

“Let me just register you and—“ he began.

“No,” Max cut him short with a smile capable of slicing through steel. “You don’t have to register us. In fact—“ she leaned towards him “—you must absolutely make sure you don’t.”

Looking from the side, it was amusing watching Max destroy someone with so little effort. It took a certain amount of guts, skill, and ego to do the things she did. Her approach was completely different from Claire’s. The dark broker didn’t need to prove what he was capable of, so he loaned enough rope to his clients to hang themselves. Max had an attitude of someone itching to start a fight in order to be noticed.

“My bad.” The archangel backed down. He gestured towards the gates, making them swing open. “Forgive the mess up.”

“We’ll see.” Max narrowed her eyes. “Let’s go,” she said and strolled forward.

Camera functionality disabled.

A message box flashed in front of me. All to be expected. As much as the progamers loved attention, their sponsors wanted to capitalize on viewing rights and the majority of games obliged. Nowadays, every in-game picture of a pro was subject to game confirmation. Players could take all the pictures they wanted, yet to view them, they had to pay a certain fee. There were mods that circumvented the restrictions, but they were difficult to find and rendered inefficient within weeks. When it came to money and legal obligations, the devs released patches pretty fast.

I thought Max would take me to the open hall where the press and invited guests usually went. Instead, she passed by the grand entrance and went up a flight of stairs.

“Where are we going?” I asked, opening my area map. The window was blank.

All information was restricted.

“We’ll just have some ice cream,” Max replied without looking back. “Chill.”

“Can I afford ice cream in a place like this?” I know you hate me, so what’s all this?

“No.” We reached a door of dark glass. “You’ll watch.”

Beyond the door was a mix between a bar and a coffee shop. Considering the average age of the customers was fifteen, its existence would be highly illegal in the real world. Thanks to the Virtual Responsibility law, here it wasn’t. Game companies backed by ISPs argued in court that since everything here happened in the mind, there was no grounds to consider it a crime. Alcohol, tobacco, and even drugs were merely figments of people’s imagination; the only difference was that technology made those figments seem real. Growing up, I knew a lot of people who petitioned for in-game bans of restricted substances. Today, most of them were likely in nursing homes.

Max went a table in the corner of the room, not too far from the bar, and sat down. I followed, feeling out of place.

“Cherry ice cream,” Max said. Her order materialized in front of her.

“It must take a lot of money to come here.” I took my seat. The ice cream alone probably cost the equivalent of a hundred bucks. “Would Claire approve?”

“‘Claire’ doesn’t run my life,” Max hissed, proving the exact opposite. She couldn’t make it more obvious she was striving for his attention if she’d put a pop-up above her head. “I got my own invitation here!”

“Not my business.” I leaned back into my chair. “I’m just here 'cause you wanted.”

“Yes! I wanted!” Her avatar trembled for a split second. “You’re just a low-level bitch! I can crush you like a cockroach anytime I choose! Any! Time!” Max pointed her finger at me in the worst Mob Crime impersonation I’d seen in ages. Identical setting, identical actions, identical phrases. If only she could act. “K’s too good to waste his time on someone like you!”

“He came to me.” This was getting annoying. “If you hate me so much, why don’t you tell him to drop me? There are other cockroaches on the net.”

Max jumped out of her seat. “Because I don’t want to—“ she began shouting then abruptly stopped. Half the people stopped their conversation and turned our way, hoping to see some drama unfold. I would have given a lot to learn how Max would have continued. Unfortunately, she managed to regain her calm. Moments later, she sat back down and switched on the table’s privacy settings. “K has his reasons. And he isn’t the only one.” There was a slight pause. “You’re his chess piece, and while he’s protecting you from kings and queens, he’s ignoring the obvious.”

“He is?” This was getting interesting. “And you’re not, I take it.” I leaned forward.

“Hey, I’m not stupid!” Max snapped. I didn’t say she was, though now I have my doubts. “I know I can’t see the macro game. I’m focused on the micro picture, and that’s why I notice things.”

A sudden thought came to mind. FlickerFlacker had mentioned that he had engaged the services of a female dark broker. Was it possible that he meant Max? So far, neither she nor Claire had mentioned she was anything more than an information broker, yet they hadn’t denied it either. It was entirely possible that she had gotten involved out of spite. I wouldn’t put it past her to try and hack Twinkle.

“I hope you crash and burn,” Max whispered. “But not before you complete the stupid quest. So until then, I’ll help you.”

“Thanks.” And you’ll remind me of your debt, I’m sure. “So, what’s this micro picture you noticed?”

“Pawns,” she said, then scooped a spoon of her ice cream.

“Pawns?” I tilted my head.

“K is focused on the people behind the pawns. That’s why you’ve been off limits to major attacks so far. No one in their right mind would start a war over something like you.” For the amount of pleasure she put in saying that, it didn’t hurt me at all. I could have told her that myself. “But he ignores the pawns. That’s why he didn’t know about the ork or the stupid user forum. And now he’s ignoring the pro player.”

“Pro player?” The words hit me like a day one patch. So someone from the professional scene had gotten involved. How on earth had Claire missed that? “What do you know?”

“Just that she got the quest two days after you and has already gathered six clues.” Max’s face twisted in a smug expression. “I bet she’ll get the remaining two by tomorrow. Oh, and knowing how mega competitive she is, she’ll probably keep any competitor from completing the quest until her timer runs out.”

Shit! That’s why I hated mixed pro-player events! They were so aggressive that they didn’t care how many skill levels they were above anyone else. The only time I had tried a friendly PvP against a pro, I had been crushed in thirteen seconds. I knew there would be hell to pay for accepting Max’s help, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

“Who’s the pro?” I whispered.

“Why don't you see for yourself? She’s sitting right behind you.”