Then he said to Simon, “Your turn, if there’s anything you want to talk about. The night security guard will let us out even if the rest of the library is closed when we leave.”

Knowing that Doc had seen real sorcery, perhaps the Delirium block in his brain wouldn’t prevent him from talking about it – hopefully. He found he didn’t feel like talking about it, which might or might not be a manifestation of said Delirium. But he needed help. Simon said at last, “Strangely enough, despite all the books and comics and games I’ve seen, I have no desire to save the world. It hasn’t always been so interested in helping me either. Here’s the thing though. It might be harder to fake such vivid dreams than somehow share with me the visions of powerful seers. And Adam has a little bit of power in these futures, and bears a grudge against me. I can’t see coming out well in a future where I do nothing. Only, I don’t know what to do? Try and murder Adam? How?”

For a moment Doc smiled a quirky grin. “If he dies by violence, I didn’t hear that.”

Then the smile went flat. “I don’t think that will solve the problem. Here’s my suggestion. If we reach the top floor of the tower, ask the River. Never mind that there’s a human actor voicing the River that doesn’t really know anything about this. If comic book artists and novelists and game designers can be guided by the Eightfold without knowing they are real, so can actors.”

Simon looked at him in dismay. He had been hoping for advice more concrete – and saner. All the same, he didn’t have any better ideas. He shrugged.

******

They walked into the Memory Palace. Todd hadn’t come with them. He had an unsettling feeling Todd disliked him, but didn’t understand why. Fortunately he was used to that sort of thing. Carlos hadn’t come either. He kind of liked the idea of being a fallen hero, who couldn’t come with them because he was dead. Simon would rather have had him along, but Doc had discouraged him from arguing.

Simon hadn’t been here for years. In the old days once in awhile his parents had given him money if only to get him out of the house.

That had been years ago, but the décor had changed very little. The five of them walked through the large cafeteria, occupied largely but not exclusively by little kids eating pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, and fries. They might not be old enough for the augmented reality games that were the Palace’s star attraction, but they could still enjoy the video games and other entertainment on this floor. Some of the games using VR goggles looked interesting to Simon, although they weren’t full A.R. Most people brought their own goggles, since the rented one smelled of disinfectant.

Simon was carrying his own equipment in a cloth bag. It was a little old, but he had checked online and it was still compatible with the Palace’s hardware.

They took the elevator up to the second floor. An attendant was waiting for them. She did a reasonable job of sounding perky despite the grey streaks in her hair.

“Hello, have you done any augmented reality gaming at the virtual palace before?”

Her question was directed mostly to Simon. Perhaps she recognized the others from previous visits, or had them in her system.

He replied, “Yes, though it’s been a few years.”

He pulled out the goggles with the earphones attached, the gloves, and the mock sword hilt.

The woman frowned. “Those look a little old. I’m not sure if –”

Instead of finishing her own sentence, she pulled a remote control in front of her and touched the screen. After a few moments green lights flickered and became steady on all three devices.

Looking relieved she didn’t have to explain any problems the attendant said, “Those are all fine.”

Then she turned to Doc. “I have your group down for the River Tower scenario?”

He nodded. “That’s right. We’re ready to go.”

He started donning his equipment. The attendant seemed surprised for a moment, but then left the room. Simon followed Doc’s example and the world changed.

They were standing outdoors, outside of a tower build of stone blocks. They were on a broad path leading up leading up to a heavy wooden door. To the left and right were smooth flagstones, until you came to the fence.

Simon knew that the fences and walls and doors he saw all corresponded to real objects in the room. He could walk around while playing the game without bumping into invisible walls, objects, or people. All his companions were represented in the game. There might be game characters who didn’t exist in real life, but you were not supposed to walk through them anyway.

There were no humans around him. All of them had chosen the forms of species similar to what they had been playing during the live RPG. The exception was Doc, who was playing the youthful form of a Cryston, a vaguely humanoid shape with rough skin that looked like stone. He turned to Simon. “Call me Rocky,” he said in character. Simon introduced himself as Erd, glad he had taken a Rigelian form.

The five of them walked up to the door. Doc pulled it open. They walked into the gloom, momentarily blind as their eyes adjusted from the faux outdoor light.

There were a group of shadowy figures standing inside the reception hall. They were not quite visible, you could only see the silhouettes, even when the angle of the light should have shown more. Simon had been here before, and knew that one of them would be the same height and figure of each of the players present.

Doc stepped forward first. He was met by a shadowy figure of the same size and shape. He saw Doc draw his sword. He knew that without A.R. he would see Doc waving around a vaguely hilt shaped object with no blade attached, but the glowing green blade still looked impressive. Doc was good with it too. There were at least two major differences between fencing with a real blade and shadow fencing – besides safety of course. You couldn’t exactly block or parry, since their was no physical blade to block or be blocked. All the same, when your virtual blade struck or passed through someone elses, they both turned to virtual smoke. Your blade reset to virtual steel when you pulled it back, which would then disable your virtual opponent if you hit him.

The other difference was that it was just a plastic hilt you were waving around. There was no metal blade, and the hilt itself was lighter than a real one would have been.

Doc struck center, but was already pulling back as his blade ‘touched’ the shadow blade. He struck low. The shadowblade was still low when he struck high and beheaded the virtual shadow.

This was supposed to be a test of (game) courage and determination rather than shadowfencing skills. Simon hoped the computer still had his old records, and wouldn’t expect him to shadowfence at the same level as his companions.

Mitch stepped forward next. He was like lightening, stabbing his opponent through the heart almost before Simon could figure out what had happened.

“Wow, you’re good. You should fence in real life.”

“I do, actually. Your turn.”

Mitch nodded towards the portly shadow figure now stepping forward. Simon imagined he could see his own features in the black blankness of its face.

Simon drew his hilt from the scabbard. The sword in front of his eyes gleamed faintly in the gloom. It looked so impressive that his mind almost believed he was holding a sword, although his hand knew the feeling and weight of the mock sword hilt.

Even swinging around the empty plastic hilt, Simon was unable to defeat the shadow. Once he thought he had gotten in a deep cut, but nothing happened. After a moment he realized his blade had already been ‘smoked’, had already been blocked by the other blade. Instead of pulling it back and resetting it, he had pushed on through. While of course the phantom blade could not block his, the headset had shown his as becoming smoky and translucent, but he hadn’t registered it in time. The shadowy figure had pulled back it’s blade and reset it. He managed to dodge the return blow, but it seemed almost as though the figure were moving slowly to mock him. No dammit, it was set to approximate his skill level, which was embarrassing enough when you thought about it. Worse yet, he was getting tired, and would still lose anyway. He would never know how Doc had hoped for this to help him – or Doc would have just told him if he could have. They wouldn’t let him finish with the rest of Doc’s party if he lost this round. The plan would have failed before it began.