Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin spun around, already expecting what he would see. Sure enough, there was now a screen hanging in the emptiness. The Arbiter stood there, clipboard in hand looking intrigued. Getting himself under control he stood up to greet his guest.

“Hello Arbiter, this is a surprise. You said this is my void space, I don’t understand, why is Grace only an outline here?” he said, asking questions before he had a chance to think about how much of a bad idea that might be.

“Yes, Mr. Vryce. This is your void space, the area inside your soul where you can build and store your creations…or in your case, the creations of others that you have acquired the blueprints or patterns for. As for your goblin companion, she is an outline here because she exists in physical form at the moment.” The Arbiter answered concisely.

Benjamin blinked his eyes while he took that in, sitting back down in his calming chair to help him focus on what he had been told. Did the energy overload Silver and kill him after all? Or was it because he was in my pocket when I came here. Maybe when he helped me on the seal. He had stopped thinking of Silver as an ‘it’ when he realized it wasn’t a drone anymore.

“Wait, does that mean I can create my own beings and bring them to life?” he asked excitedly, looking to the Arbiter for more answers.

“Yes, and no.” the Arbiter said. “Eventually you will be able to make your own creations and animate them, but you must unseal your power in order to do that. Sealed the way you are, the best that you can manage is to absorb the patterns the World Lords have already created.”

That wasn’t a no, Benjamin thought. Just a, not right now, he could live with that. He really needed to work on that seal anyway. It was limiting what he could do in the physical world too. The Arbiter’s next words deflated his growing excitement a little bit.

“The Creations, though lifelike, aren’t real, you must understand that. Only the Creator can create true life, in the form of an eternal soul. The world lords forgot this, to their detriment.” He adjusted his jacket as he spoke. Something he did with regularity, as if not comfortable in his skin.

Benjamin thought about telling him that Grace seemed real enough to him, but knew he didn’t want to anger this being. So, instead he just nodded his head. Another thought came to him then and he asked it quickly before the Arbiter could vanish.

“So how long are these patterns good for then? If the creation dies then what happens to the pattern?” he had an idea, a crazy and somewhat gross idea but an idea. He wanted to confirm his thoughts before he acted however.

The Arbiter tilted his head, looking at Benjamin narrowly before flipping through the pages of the clipboard a few times. Understanding seemed to dawn on his face from whatever he was reading.

“Ah, I see. Normally the creations would come back here to the void space after death, until fed soul essence and called again. That is, unless they were removed from the void space and attached to a source of soul essence… Then the pattern would remain in its physical shell, until it was broken or absorbed.” He said, a small knowing smile on his face.

Benjamin was getting really, really, curious about that clipboard, but he had learned what he wanted to know. One more question occurred to him that he should know the answer too before he left here.

“Thank you, Arbiter. One final question, if I may. You said these patterns could be summoned into reality with soul essence. I’m assuming that is the energy or power sealed in my core. So, my question is, even if I have a pattern created or absorbed, until I unseal my core, I won’t be able to call any of them out, will I?”

The smile grew on the Arbiter’s face, he opened his left hand and the clipboard vanished from view. He slowly nodded his head as he answered.

“Yes, Mr. Vryce. As I said before, a soul is a powerful gift from the creator. He sealed the essence cores on earth to give you all a life free of temptation. When you arrived here it was loosened a little, but to reach your true potential you need to remove your seal, and grow your core. Now if you have no more questions Mr. Vryce, I shall take my leave.”

The screen winked out of the void leaving Benjamin and his acquired creations behind. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the seal; it was so much easier sitting in the calming chair. He wanted to start fiddling with it right away but Grace would be waiting for him.

Opening his eyes, he saw the goblin girl, pulling roasted acorns from the fire and adding raw ones into their place. Already eating the second steak she had been cooking, a third on the stove. She looked at him guiltily as he opened his eyes.

“Grace is sorry, Benjamin. You closed your eyes and Grace couldn’t reach you, she didn’t want your steak to get cold so…” she trailed off lamely.

Benjamin laughed at the girl good naturedly, shaking his head at her excuse.

“Please Grace, eat all you want. When you have finished, I’d like to talk to you about going on a little trip.”

* * *

Jade Benz

“Shit,” she all but screamed. They had been in the gray stone tower for several hours, and hadn’t managed to make it off the first floor. The first room had been easy enough, some sort of freaky reptile hybrid with a hard shell was guarding a hallway.

The creature was walking back and forth in front of it. There was a sign that said… something… she hadn’t bothered reading it. Instead, she had her boys smash the lizard thing to paste. It hadn’t been easy, Tok actually got bit.

The monster’s head had snapped out, massive jaws biting down nearly cutting him in half. Before Tik got around behind its head and crushed it with his massive fists. She had worried for her ogre, but had figured out a way to heal it. She just pulled on the line between them.

The power she pulled on moved slowly because she hadn’t solved the whole puzzle yet but it moved out and healed the ogre’s wounds. The glow in her head also dimmed even further. She pondered over that for a while, did that mean she could run out of energy and not be able to have Tik and Tok anymore?

She remembered that she had gotten the energy when she killed the little green dudes. Simple fix then, all she had to do was kill some more shit before she ran out of gas. The problem solved, in her mind at least, she walked right passed the door guard and into the next room.

She was standing in some sort of puzzle room. The first thing she did was walk across the room, again ignoring the sign. To have her boys smash the door apart and continue onwards. Except this time the door was made of steel and hadn’t budged at all when they hit it. Making only a dull thunk noise.

With a sigh she went back to read the sign. Welcome to the first puzzle room, turn the dials together to match the pattern on the walls. First right, then left and on to the next room! With a look around the room she saw that the first half of the wall was painted red, the second half was painted blue.

On the far wall flanking the door were two dials. Each looked like a clock with only one hand. At the ten position there was a red line at the two position there was a blue one. This was easy enough, it was like a combination lock with only two numbers, or colors.

With a snort she walked over and turned the hand right, tell it hit red. Then left, until it hit blue. She walked over to the other side and repeated the process… and nothing happened. She went back to the door and reread the sign.

Welcome to the first puzzle room, turn the dials together to match the pattern on the walls. First right, then left and on to the next room! Ok…looks like the hands have to be moved at the same time.

“Alright boys” she said, “get over in front of those hands and get ready to do as I say.” puzzle room, ha, this was going to be a cake walk.

“Shit,” she said again. It had been four hours, four excruciatingly long hours. The puzzle was so simple, she solved it without even thinking. In fact, it wasn’t really a puzzle at all. Just a set of instructions on how to open the door.

Except there was a problem. Tik and Tok didn’t know the difference between the colors red and blue…nor it seemed did they know their right from their left. They had tried again and again but couldn’t get the concept of right and left, red and blue.

Finally, she sat down on the ground, leaning her back against the wall and looked at her ogres.

“Take a break boys,” she said. “Maybe if I fiddle with this damn puzzle some more, we can do this.” The ogres sat down where they were and hung their heads. They could feel her frustration at them through their link and didn’t like having disappointed her.

She closed her eyes and tried to find the puzzle. It was a lot harder without the focus chair but the first door had closed behind them, they were stuck in here until they got the door open. So, she searched deep inside herself, trying to focus passed her anger and resentment.

* * *

Arbiter

After the arbiter left Benjamin Vryce, he called his portal door. Not having time to dwell on the past he closed his eyes and walked through it immediately. When he came out the other side, he was standing in the Erlking’s space.

The World Lord was sitting on a meditation chair, another one beside his held the World Lord Morrigan. The pair had been the easiest to work with during the setup of this project. Not that the Morrigan counted, she was the Erlking’s creature.

At his entrance the pair leapt to their feet, worry appearing on their faces. The Arbiter pitied these creatures, for all their long history and power they were still beings created within the multiverse. As such they were so limited in their understanding, yet ignorant of their own ignorance.

“Arbiter, we…” the Erlking started to speak. When a raised hand by the Arbiter stopped him.

“I am aware Erlking, that the subroutine in the goblin creation was never intended to subvert the human soul’s free will. If I had thought otherwise, I would have already ended your existence, for breaking faith with the Creator’s will.” The arbiter said casually.

“No, I am here to inquire if you know what the human soul Benjamin Vryce is planning?” he asked the Erlking without preamble.

“Yes, I am aware. I was in the process of cleaning up the mess when you arrived.” The Erlking replied honestly.

“I want you to leave it as it is.” The Arbiter said simply.

“But, Arbiter, if I don’t make changes to the design Vryce will absorb…” again he was cut off.

“I am aware. It was a flaw in your own system that opened you up to this Erlking. He discovered it, however accidentally, and his goal is a noble one. I am not asking you to never change the setup, just to leave it the same until Vryce achieves his goal.”

The Erlking grimaced at his words, he really didn’t like what the Arbiter was saying to him. The Arbiter thought for a moment and then threw out a carrot.

“Alright Erlking, if Vryce dies before he reaches his destination then I will allow you to move him away from the area, and reclaim your property. However, you can only use the creations you already had in the area.”

He watched the Erlking think that over, he wasn’t giving him a choice of course, just the appearance of one. Patterns were extremely complicated, and difficult to design and create, to say nothing of the personal essence he had put into those creation cores.

It was certain that he had planned to retrieve them all after the trial was over, likely to reuse them over and over to train the other human souls. He could prevent the loss of any more by killing Vryce, but every creature that he lost in the attempt was likely to be lost to him.

It only took a moment for the Erlking to think it over and come to a decision, raising his antlered head he looked the Arbiter in the eyes.

“I understand. I regret the loss, but if the souls fail to reach their potential, I will lose everything anyway. It will be as you say, Arbiter.”

The Arbiter nodded his head. Turned around and without a word, walked back through his portal door.