“Yaharan is glorious! Yes, yes, yes, much more glorious than anything any other petty, puny, pathetic little architect could have ever designed! The arches and bridges and buttresses that span the city like the hands of the Ancient Ones! Triumphant! Triumphant! That’s what I would scream if I had a way to make them listen!”

from the private writings of Lee Corpicus, the Mad Architect.

My head was still spinning, but I was somehow aware of Altarus and Fujiko coming out of the world around me.

“Clay?” a voice was shouting—a voice I didn’t recognize. “Shit, are you all right!?”

“H—huh?” Talking felt strange, foreign. I felt hands on me, unfamiliar hands.

“Clay!” the voice shouted. My eyes barely worked as I opened them, but I saw a face above me that I semi-recognized, but I couldn’t remember from where.

“Give him a moment, Mickey.” That was Altarus. His firm voice and tone were unmistakable.

Mickey! That’s it! I thought, remembering the tech savvy guy I’d met earlier. My stomach felt like an ocean was swirling inside it—an ocean covered in algae and slime or contaminated by an oil spill. I forced the vomit down as I swung my legs off the chair thing to try and get my feet on solid ground.

Don’t puke, don’t puke!

I hated throwing up. Kids at school who drank always said how it was much better to just hurl and get it over with, but as I didn’t drink, I had no idea if that was true or not. All I knew, was that I hated throwing up and would do anything I could to avoid it. My head was shaking and aching, almost as though I’d had a seizure, but not in the same way. It was different, less severe but just as disorienting.

“Are you all right, Rand?” It was Altarus. His hand was strong against my shoulder as he helped me steady myself.

“The monolith,” I gasped, taking a deep breath that chattered through my lungs. “The monolith.”

There was no reply, but I wasn’t out of it enough to miss the fact that my companions were exchanging concerned looks. Every time I closed my eyes I saw it, lingering on the back of my eyelids like it had been imprinted there, drawn there by someone. What did it mean?

“You—you guys really haven’t seen it?” I asked, finally able to look up. They were looking down at me with concern, but I didn’t need them to answer my question. I already knew. I shook my head and wiped sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. “Something’s wrong with me.”

“No,” Altarus replied quickly. “No, you are quite all right. There is simply more going on than we know.”

“Did it pull you out of game?” Mickey asked. “Maybe there’s some kind of disruptive subroutine going on?”

“No,” I shook my head. “Nothing like that. I started seeing…things, so I thought my way back out. Is—is that how you do it?”

“Yes,” Fujiko replied.

“I don’t understand,” I sighed, feeling the nausea sweep over me like a swell of swamp water, causing me to lie back again. “What is happening to me?”

“Mickey,” Altarus said. “Some Vitawater.”

“Sure.” Mickey scurried off and I heard him rummaging around somewhere. Moments later, he was back at my side putting a cold drink in my hand.

“Here you go, Rand,” he said comfortingly. I took it and raised the bottle to my lips, hoping he’d picked up the cucumber melon flavor and not the Dutch chocolate. As the water hit my tongue, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good choice on flavors,” I smiled after gulping down half of the bottle. It wasn’t the world’s best testing drink, but it was exactly what I needed. NASA had developed it for the Mars settlers, and it contained basically everything the body needed, including proteins and fats. They’d spent two years getting the formula down to something that people actually wanted to drink.

“None of that chocolate crap here!” he replied.

I felt strange as I sat there, drinking from the bottle like a hospital patient, with the rest of them standing around watching me. But after only a minute I started to feel a lot better. The nausea began to subside and I was left with only a headache, which was bearable.

“Rand,” Altarus said quietly. “Tell us more about the monolith.”

I shook my head in frustration. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Let’s start from the beginning. When did you first see it?”

“The beginning,” I replied, handing Mickey my empty bottle. “Before all this happened. I was just logging out and then I saw it.”

“Did it appear in front of you?”

“No. No, it wasn’t like that. It was like I was seeing it. Like I was having a vision or something.”

“Is there anything you can tell us about it?” he asked. “What it looks like? Where it is?”

“It’s just a big black monolith,” I told him, feeling hopeless with my description. “Like the one from that old space movie? It sort of sucks up the light around it. And it’s surrounded by this crazy city. If I were to guess, I’d say it was some high level area. Oh, and there was a voice…”

“What kind of voice?” Fujiko asked.

I shrugged. “Everything and nothing at the same time. Seek the monolith it told me. Seek the monolith and find salvation.”

“Salvation…” Mickey repeated.

“Yeah,” I replied with another shrug, leaning on one elbow and then pushing myself into a seated position. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“This city,” Altarus said, pressing me. “Do you have any idea where—”

“No! No, I don’t!” I shouted as a rage I hadn’t realized reared its ugly head within me. “I don’t know where it is, okay!? I don’t know anything!”

My voice was like a hard cut in a movie and silenced the room. The nausea swelled again, lessened greatly, but still there. I gripped the cushion material of the chair odd chair beneath me and crushed down my eyelids with all the force I could muster, trying to will the sickness back. The other three waited patiently while I recovered.

“Sorry, guys,” I said, finally looking up. “I’ve—I’ve just got a lot on my mind, from running out on my mom to wondering what’s happening with my friend and now this monolith thing—”

“Do not apologize,” Altarus told me, again placing a hand on my back. “We all understand. Mickey, has there been any word from Mizaguchi while we were gone?”

Mickey shook his head. “Nothing on the web or the news. They still don’t even know where he is.”

“How is that possible?” Fujiko growled. “All the equipment we have, cameras and I.D. chips and they can’t find the guy?”

“He is a tech savvy dude,” Mickey reminded her. “Going off the grid wouldn’t be too hard for a guy like him.”

“Yes, but why would he do that?”

“We have to figure this out,” I told them. “I—I have to find Rey. I can’t be gone from my mom’s for too long before she starts to worry, reports me missing or something. We need to go back now. Someone has to know where this city is.”

“If it’s a high level zone like you think,” Altarus replied. “We won’t be able to reach it.”

“Maybe it’s not. Maybe it just looks high level. And if it is, then we grind like no one’s ever grinded before, and we get there. Maybe the monolith can help us find…them.”

“Or maybe it’s a trap.” Fujiko asked.

“No,” I shook my head. “Someone wants me to find it, and there must be a reason why!”

“I don’t know, Rand…” Fujiko replied slowly. “I think we need to be careful of this monolith until we know what it is.”

“Well, we won’t know what it is until we find it,” I snapped. I was angry. Confused. I felt helpless, like my mind wasn’t mine and was open to invasion whenever the person or thing calling out to me decided to do so. Rey was possessed, taken by the mysterious corruption and had been labeled one of the Bloodless, and I was no closer to finding her and helping her than I was when this all first started. Sure, I could get myself out of the game, but how was that helping anybody?

“Is it morning yet, Mickey?!”

“No,” Mickey replied. “Still a few more hours.”

“Okay,” I said, leaning back on the chair-table and getting comfortable again. I’ll go back and see mom later. But not yet.

“Do you intend to go back in now?” Altarus asked.

“Damn right I do,” I replied as I reached for the Fount. “We’re just wasting time here.”

My head was still killing me. But maybe if I went back into the game world, it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Rand, wait,” Fujiko protested. But I didn’t. I pressed the button on the Fount and closed my eyes.