Haggitha stumbled back and caught herself against the wall, drawing her knife out of reflex, and vanishing it again when she saw who had opened the door.

“Dad?”

“No,” the bartender said, and there was a lengthy pause. He looked exactly like the other bartender had, huge-bodied and heavy-bellied, with a stained apron and a somewhat flabby, aristocratic face. But he wasn’t the same.

“All of you can come up. I cleared the house.”

We filed upstairs, or rather they did, while I rode Lawlimi’s back, peeking over his shoulder like an inquisitive tumor. Thick timbers supported the arched ceiling, their dust drifts disturbed by rats that made rounds at predictable intervals. The Unnamed God went behind the counter and began serving us drinks.

No one said anything while he poured, and Haggitha took hers down in a single gulp. Lawlimi sipped, and Shippo followed his example. Dokutsu wasn’t paying attention to us; she was eyeing the rafter rats. For me, the God of the Underworld provided a bamboo straw.

I took it in my beak, crawled down to the counter, and worked myself half over the top of the glass. It was a precarious situation, but I managed to draw some of the amber liquid up through the straw and into my craw. I had never tasted anything before. It tasted like bad.

(What is this?)

“I’m not sure,” the bartender said. “I don’t drink.”

“It’s just rum,” Haggitha said.

Lawlimi found a barstool and sat. “What do you know about the other server? All the crap that happened?”

“My counterpart sent me an explanation before you arrived.” The bartender’s voice was so deep I could feel it in my cartilage. “And as you didn’t enter through the port, I need to finalize your immigration.”

There was a ding, and we all received the same system message.

>>

IMPORTANT — ALERT!

Welcome to the server New Arda! The team here is aware that there have been a lot of changes lately, and we want to assure everyone that the fundamental game of Mystic Seasons is as strong as ever. Mythopoeia is still home to all your fantasies and the most fantastic adventures anywhere in this world or the next. We apologize again for any inconvenience that server consolidation has caused, but we remain confident that your overall experience and satisfaction will only be enhanced by the coming together of Heroes from across all the arks that have unfortunately been decommissioned. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact a moderator or create a help ticket. New Arda is our largest and most active ark, with new adventure threads being generated often, and a host of very impressive guilds we work closely with to maintain balance and continued fair play.

Be kind. Be curious. Be heroic.

Darkest Horse Staff

>>

“New Arda,” Lawlimi said, “why does that sound familiar?”

“Excuse me?” Shippo grimaced over his liquor. “Do you have milk?”

The bartender nodded, and the door to the kitchen swung open a moment later. It was Haggitha carrying a bottle of milk, Haggitha(2).

She dropped the bottle, and both Haggithas immediately had their knives out. As the glass shattered, Haggitha(2) blinked and the threat went out of her eyes. She wasn’t like our companion, an independent ADI. She was an extension of the bartender, who himself was only an avatar for one of the twelve massive ADIs that ran the server. Haggitha(2) went back into the kitchen.

“That’s what I thought,” our Haggitha said. Shippo looked down at the glass fragments strewn through the spilled milk, crestfallen until the whole mess reconstituted itself and drifted up to the bar.

The Unnamed God nodded at Shippo, who thanked him and tucked in.

“My counterpart wanted you to be free to explore Mythopoeia and make your own way. This ark is more stable than the Maker’s playground, and it is populous enough that you should be able to avoid the notice of the moderators.”

“Why would that be a problem?” Lawlimi asked.

(We aren’t what we’re supposed to be. You have too many companions that are too powerful, and my code seems to be imperfectly cohering to this avatar. To a moderator, you appear to be in violation of something, even if they can’t pinpoint what you’ve done wrong.)

“Is there any way to fix that?”

Dokutsu chose this moment to leap into the rafters, seize a rat, and stuff it into her mouth with a satisfying crunch.

“I am not going to tamper with your souls.” By souls, he meant our code. “If you were more advanced yourself, the strangeness of your following would be less remarkable, as would your Celestial hand.”

The X-Cannon was a Celestial weapon grafted onto a Heroic part and a Heroic character. Under usual circumstances, the game wouldn’t generate rewards as unbalancing as that. Though it was entirely plausible that a high-powered friend had helped him obtain it, he and Shippo had actually built it with my help aboard Eternity, the ship of my deceased Maker. It was an irreproducible scenario.

“I’m not opposed to leveling up,” Lawlimi said. “Is there a quest available?”

The bartender took our glasses and began cleaning them in a sink with his back turned. His voice was a low rolling thunder. “There is a book, an old book full of old names. The knowledge within it would be a help to your companions, and key to much more. It was hidden here, in Aejis, but it was stolen in recent days. If you could recover the book, it would be of use to both of us.”

>>

[The Book of Old Names — Heroic Quest Level 1]

The mysterious Bartender of Aejis has offered you a task. You and your companions must recover the legendary Book of Old Names, which was recently stolen from a temple library here in the city. If you do not apprehend the thief quickly, the priceless artifact could be lost forever. Will you accept?

Warning: This quest is time sensitive.

Reward: 1,500 XP — The Book of Old Names

>>

“Legendary?” Lawlimi tapped the bar with his gun arm. “Hollen, can you do a lore check on that?”

(It is the Annunomicon. Book of Old Names is a rough translation.)

“Huh.” Lawlimi retrieved the aforesaid tome from his inventory and set it beside me on the counter. It was massive: thousands of thick, gold-gilt-edged pages bound in dragon skin. The recipe for binding me in my current body had come from that book, and I knew it contained many more secrets.

“Is this it?”

The Unnamed God, Hush to the laity, turned around slowly, possessed of a ponderous gravity not unlike a cargo ship at sea. He looked at the Annunomicon for a long while, until it became so awkward that Dokutsu stopped ganking rats to watch us all watching the bartender. Then he shook his head.

“This both is and is not the book of which I speak. It came from another ark, and some of the powers bound within it will not function here. It also seems different in other ways, as if it was created somewhat apart from the rest of the world, like many toys of the Maker and you yourselves. If you keep this thing, then keep it out of sight of the Inevitables.”

The Inevitables was an in-game title for moderators. It didn’t surprise me that the book had been modified. The Maker had worked on it himself, and it had been tied to Eternity and the Acarus virus somehow. It wouldn’t be a shortcut for this quest chain, but maybe it could be a shortcut for me.

(Let me see it.)

Lawlimi allowed me to drag the book around so I was aligned with the bottom end, and then I flopped it open somewhere in the middle. That happened to be a blueprint for a summoning circle that could be used for some mid- to high-level invocations. As soon as I saw it, the information clicked in my head, and I had access to it through my menus. My character sheet was still throwing up ERROR signs like confetti, but I knew that I knew this blueprint and so many more. I just had to refresh the pathways.

(Later on, I need you to give me some alone time with this book.)

“No worries,” Lawlimi said, then turned to the bartender. “So the Annunomicon we’re looking for looks exactly like this one but has different code, or markers or whatever. That’s fine. Do we accept the quest?” The question seemed more for Haggitha than anyone. We would all go wherever he went, but he was looking at her like she was another player.

“I haven’t got any other plans,” she said.

“Then we accept.”

>>

[Quest Update — The Book of Old Names]

You have agreed to hunt down the thief, but to recover the book, you’ll have to do so before he sells it to the highest bidder.

You have 23 hours 59 minutes remaining.

>>

“A timer again?” Lawlimi said. “That’s butternuts.”

(It builds dramatic tension.)

“I don’t care. I have a bunch of super-rare ingredients, and I wanted to see what I could make with them to sell at the market.”

“Do that,” Haggitha said. “I know the city better than you do, so I can get a lead on the thief while you play with your little girl oven.”

“It’s called an athanoooor.” Lawlimi tilted his head back as he dragged out the word. “You’re an alchemist, you know this. And anyway, no, never split the party if you don’t have to. One of us would get kidnapped or something, and then we’d really be behind.”

“Suit yourself.” Haggitha waved to the bartender. “Thanks for the drink, Uncle. Anything else you can share with us before we head out?”

The big man said nothing, so Lawlimi inventoried the Annunomicon and we exited into the street. The sunflower was so bright overhead that you could see the shadows cast by the boughs of the World Tree in the farthest reaches of the sky. Aejis was the largest port city in the Valanthian Empire, home to its navy, along with countless other businesses, temples, monuments, and public events for players to enjoy. The bar was out of place in a busy trade street, its grungy exterior scratched over and over again with the word “silence” in the common tongue. There was a bit of space between it and the nearest building, a construction company. It was a randomized locale; the abode of the Unnamed God miraculously relocated on an irregular basis. Heroes who needed to meet him often had to rediscover the location, a minor quest in itself. Of course, in my previous incarnation, I had always known where it was, but now I was as ignorant as the rest of them.

“We need to go to the Dregs,” Haggitha said. “The thieves guild has an office there, so that’s a start.”

“Thieves have an office?” Lawlimi mused.

(The guild has an office. It’s a way for players to live out their dreams of being vicious criminals in an orderly fashion that does not ruin the gameplay for anyone who doesn’t want to be involved in that sort of underworld adventure.)

“You think a player stole the book?”

(No. However, they will have information about local NPCs as well. It is the natural place to begin.)

Haggitha was already moving, and the rest of us hurried to catch up. Because Aejis was such a large city, and a port, our mixed crew didn’t draw as much attention as it would have in more parochial settings. Shippo was not the only Therian, and there were a number of Tengu and a few Hounds. Dokutsu was another matter.

Though she was a companion, she read like a monster, and everyone who scanned her saw this.

>>

Dokutsu, Hunger out of Space — Cave Worm

Celestial Level 1 (99,999/99,999)

Nadir — Water — Brown

>>

Monsters couldn’t walk down the streets of Aejis free of constraint, even if they were companions, and it didn’t take long before a busybody was apprising the guard of the situation.

We didn’t quite make it out of the nice part of town before we were accosted. A pair of Watchmen wearing the navy livery, an anchor behind a rampant lion, cut us off just as we turned off the main thoroughfare.

They both carried halberds, and one held up a gloved hand. “Halt, Hero.”

Lawlimi stopped. “Is there a problem, officer?”

They looked him up and down, taking in his trashed armor and superior augmentation, then at me on his shoulder. I waved an arm. Their expressions were stern.

“You are in violation of Purple District’s Leash Laws. If you do not comply, your companionship will be terminated.”

Lawlimi pursed his lips. If these guards tried to take Dokutsu, it was going to turn into a horror show, and killing Watchmen could only bring one thing: a lot more Watchmen.

“I’m sorry,” Lawlimi said. “We haven’t been in the city long, and I don’t know all the rules. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” the same Watchman said. His partner was running on automatic, going through a cycle of checking us out and grimly staring ahead. A barely there AI, he could have been a beetle.

“Then what can I do?”

“We’ll escort you to the Watch Office, where you can pay the fine and buy a leash.”

“I guess that’s what we’ll do then.”

It wasn’t a long walk. The Watch Office was a small building next to a three-story barracks. City guards were all over the place, a constant shuffle in and out as shifts for each district rotated. Valanthia was a highly regimented empire, and Aejis, with its military underpinnings, was higher strung than most.

“Hey, Haggitha.” Shippo had been lagging behind the group, sniffing and staring at everything we passed. “Your dad is god. Your dad is tavern guy. Why is that?”

“It’s a life choice,” she replied, which wasn’t accurate. The Unnamed God had been foremost among the Twelve for a time before and during the War of the Worm. After the sundering of Acarus, he and Betai had come to a disagreement about who was Lord of Lords, and it had ended with Hush being trapped in a tavern. If he ever stepped foot outside, he would be subject to the displeasure of the now well-established leader of the Twelve. Historically, he had engaged in various schemes to weaken Betai’s hold on the others, but nothing had stuck.

We entered the office, which was a rather basic waiting room containing a desk with a storage space behind it. The pair that delivered us waited at the door for Lawlimi to speak to the clerk, who was mousy and overly groomed.

He eyeballed us. “Leash Law, correct?”

“Yes,” Lawlimi said.

“We’ve been wreaking havoc,” Haggitha said, steeped in contempt. “You should arrest all of us.”

“This is a serious offense,” the clerk said, licking his fingers before flipping through a binder of well-aged parchment. “The fee is one thousand gold lions.”

“Not this again,” Lawlimi said. “Look, I don’t have coin, but I have valuable commodities.”

“I’m afraid if you can’t pay then we will be forced to impound your companion.” The clerk reeked of satisfaction.

“Chi?” Dokutsu had been demure enough trailing Lawlimi so far. Actually, a leash wouldn’t be a terrible idea considering the kind of trouble she could cause if she got bored or hungry or pissed or virtually any other emotion, but she seemed to be catching on to what this was about. It was hard to be certain how much the worm girl actually understood of what was said to her. “Impound your companion” may have gotten through. Her hair unwound, lengthening and lifting above us, glistening with freshly secreted venom.

Lawlimi quickly produced a handful of gaudy rings he had scavenged from the crypts below the sepulcher in the Land of the Dead and dropped them on the desk. “These have got to be worth something, right?”

The clerk scrunched his face. “Well, I suppose...” He was already putting the rings in a personal pouch. They were worth half again as much as the fine. “That still leaves the matter of purchasing a leash.”

“How much is it?”

The man’s smile was cool. “A thousand lions.”

I could feel Lawlimi tense beneath me. The clerk was extorting us, and there was no fighting him. An additional thousand would mean parting with some of his alchemical supplies, and Lawlimi had never had much luck with haggling.

“I’ll pay for it,” Haggitha said. She produced a nondescript purse from under her shirt that didn’t appear to contain anything, but she reached inside to produce a stack of coins, a procedure she repeated until the amount was paid in full. The clerk eyed her ostensibly empty coin purse, then wrote us a ticket for the transaction. The leash was braided leather stained dark, with a cabochon in the collar.

“Charge it,” the clerk ordered.

Lawlimi’s mana was clear, so when the crystal was charged it simply looked like its interior had become liquid. Dokutsu had lowered her hackles, and she accepted the collar around her neck with surprising meekness, pressing close to Lawlimi as he moved her hair out of the way. The venom no longer affected him.

“That was a waste of time,” Haggitha said when we were back outside. “Nothing like bureaucracy when you’re on a clock.”

>>

SYSTEM ALERT — ATTENTION, HEROES

>>

Lawlimi stopped. Haggitha didn’t. The game didn’t register her as a player, so she hadn’t seen it. But I had.

>>

SYSTEM ALERT — ATTENTION, HEROES

THE DARK TOWER IS RISING

>>