The hunting pod of semidivine aquatic kaiju freaked out. Whatever understanding had existed between them fractured the moment the Jewel of Vallorn was sinking to within their collective grasps. The ocean became a web of tangled limbs and aggressive whale song, gnashing teeth, and tremendous, brutal strength. I skimmed along the surface of the water, jetting west at top speed, seeking the offing. I was still glowing, the jewel inside of me having barely been tapped. It wasn’t made to be taken like a pill, and soon I was going to need to get it out of me.

>>

(Constitution Drain Level 1)

Something is making you sick. Seek the attention of a mediciner or alchemist to discover the source of your illness before it becomes severe.

>>

The jewel was eating away at me from the inside, so as fun as PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER was, I was going to have to give it up. Instead of giving the other gem to the Kulu, I might have rearranged my build points to grow wings and fly to safety. But I was worried that Orobos would spot me in the air and send Silva and the others in another pod, or even release some new monsters to chase me, as it seemed he was more than capable of producing novel challenges for heroes to face in the belly of Eternity. Besides, just as the oceans held the Kulu, the sky had more than a few powerful beings of its own that would take an interest in someone transporting what amounted to a fulgent McGuffin through their domain. There were rocs, elementals, and more than a few actual dragons to contend with in the upper atmosphere to ensure the situation would be, if not worse, at least as bad. Crossing the great divide was something Celestial-level players did to level up.

>>

Doom of the Sea — Heroic Achievement

Not many who travel the Great Divide can claim to have witnessed the hunger of the Kulu and lived to tell the tale. Twice you have met with certain death and come away unscathed by bargaining for your life with the terrors of the Deep.

(Wa Lim Li gains 2,000 XP)

>>

In addition to this reward, I was burning through a couple of other achievements as well.

>>

You Can’t Swim Bro? 2 (Wa Lim Li gains 100 XP)

You Can’t Swim Bro? 3 (Wa Lim Li gains 1,000 XP)

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop 2 (Wa Lim Li gains 100 XP)

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop 3 (Wa Lim Li gains 1,000 XP)

(Constitution Drain Level 2)

Something is making you sick. Seek the attention of a mediciner or alchemist to discover the source of your illness before it becomes severe.

>>

The fishing boat had taken five days to bring us from Aejis to Yamatoei, and I was going to make the return journey in half the time. I’d also reached Heroic Tier, but I wasn’t going to bother with advancement until I reached my destination and disgorged the artifact currently burning a hole in my belly. Once I was within a few miles of the coast I turned north, following the shallows to keep clear of any more deep-sea monsters. I didn’t have another extra priceless jewel to sacrifice, and I could only imagine the quest lines I’d spawned by giving the last one away. The guilds were going to be coming after me, but they would have to navigate waters clouded by Kulu blood, and one in particular—whichever of those horrors managed to claim the jewel for itself would become all the more terrible.

The harbor of Aejis was crowded with ships of all sizes, from small, private fishing vessels to massive triremes and merchant barges. I managed my affinities to maximize my stealth again, the effectiveness of which was somewhat mitigated by the light that was radiating through my skin. I could try to hide myself, but my varichromatic ability only made me look like a ghost or a demon crawling out of the sea.

NPCs kept their distance, and at least one went looking for a guard when I clambered onto a pier and started hustling into the city. A player stopped midstride to stare at me, but it was obvious I wasn’t hostile.

“Can anyone direct me to the Dusty Hush?” It would have moved again, given the gap of time, and I didn’t have PamyuPamyu’s handy moth to guide me.

A player with a big sword stopped to look at me.

“What are you?” he asked.

“In need of assistance,” I said. “Will you help?”

“You know what, sure, when sparkly Cthulhu asks you for directions, you give directions.”

>>

[Silence for a Friend — Heroic Quest Level 1]

You have been approached by a strange being on the streets of Aejis asking for help. Curiosity, and perhaps a sense that there is something deeper here at play, drives you to act as a guide for the changeling in his search for the mysterious bar known as the Dusty Hush.

Reward — 500 Experience

>>

The player accepted the quest, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d generated it myself or the local ADI had done so, but it meant I would look like an NPC to the person helping me. Well enough, I wasn’t going to explain my situation any further if I could help it. With a hero leading the way I appeared less out of place; we were on a quest, and the people of Aejis let me be. I superficially resembled a Tellurian, but the denizens of the underworld rarely glowed, and I tucked in my tentacles to make them less obvious.

The player wasn’t sure where the bar had moved to either, but he was able to send a few messages to friends and one of them was aware of its current location. He dropped me off about twenty minutes later, received his experience, and asked if he should come in with me.

“I appreciate your help,” I said. “But you aren’t advanced enough to participate in the next stage of this quest.”

“What? That’s bull. Why would you start me on a chain quest if I couldn’t finish it?

“Sorry,” I said, and entered the bar. There were no customers, just the god of the dead emotionlessly polishing a glass behind a cracked counter and a few rats crossing the rafters. I took it upon myself to jam the door with a plank that was kept nearby for that purpose.

“You’ve returned,” he said, and I approached the counter. Forcing myself to vomit up the stone was as simple as wishing it, and the light as it spilled out of my beak onto the counter was barely diminished. I had to turn away, but the Unnamed God covered the Jewel of Vallorn with his soiled dishrag and snuffed it out.

“There are going to be others coming after me,” I said. “I need to complete the ritual as soon as possible.”

Hush produced the book, black leather and gold lettering. It was the first time I was able to hold it with my own hands. Like the copy we’d brought from the other server, the book was a collection of recipes that were rare or did not exist elsewhere in the game. The Ritual of Apotheosis took up the last third of the tome, containing dozens of pages of diagrams and more for incantations and background study. The gods of Mythopoeia were called the Twelve because of the place they occupied in its cosmology. The Mantles, the sources of divinity, had come into being in the first age as nexuses of magical energy. They had eventually been taken up by beasts, and then various mortals along with a few Fae, to generate the pantheon we had now. To become a god, one would have to usurp one of those mantles, or that was the usual procedure. Acarus’s split mantle complicated matters, and in the beginning, there had been more than twelve. Twelve was simply a number that had proved stable over time.

I was well aware of the history of the Mantles, and I didn’t need the Book of Old Names to give me a summary. I made a list of the remaining ingredients, many of which required recipes themselves, and I conferred with Hush about what he had available for use.

“God, you’ve gotten uglier.” Haggitha had come in from the kitchen, and I was briefly unsure which Haggitha, ours or the New Arda copy, but her disdainful expression made that clear.

“You still have my knife?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve barely used it.” I produced Karcharoth’s Tooth and handed it over to her. “How are you alive again?”

“Lawlimi quested for it on Eternity.” She shrugged. “Did you think he was going to leave me dead?”

“There’s been a lot happening,” I allowed. “Why aren’t you with him?”

“I’ve been here, prepping for the ritual whenever he came back with the jewel and the book. Only you got both. Not bad for a slimy gremlin.”

“That’s unkind, I’m slick, not slimy.”

“Whatever.” She crossed her arms. “So are we doing this thing?”

“He didn’t tell you not to help me?”

“No, sent a message that you were going to be the chosen one. Not sure that I agree with him, but I do agree about keeping it away from Orobos.”

I was glad to have confirmation that Lawlimi had listened to my counsel on the matter. If he hadn’t, he and Silva and the others would likely be arriving already. He hadn’t been a part of hiding the book with the Unnamed God, but he could track me, so when he saw me stopping in Aejis he was sure to realize what was going on. Haggitha had been stocking an alchemical laboratory in the cellar like the one she had built for herself in her own version of the Dusty Hush, and most of what we needed was already there. The rest could be manufactured between us, as I had the entire catalog of normal recipes stored in my adytum, and it was a simple exercise to dip in and call them up as needed. Haggitha acted as my assistant, but there was nothing we could do to make the process instantaneous. We had hours of prep work ahead of us.

“So what happens if you do get the Maker’s stock options?” Haggitha mused as we worked. “Will anybody listen to an ADI claiming to have property rights?”

“That’s a fair question, but I believe he will have put a system in place so that whoever completes the quest can hold onto its rewards. That is, assuming he had one of us in mind. Given what I’ve seen so far, I think our creator was more than capable of including safeguards that would trick the system into seeing me as a human. In some ways, it already does.”

“I still think Lawlimi would be better. He has an actual body already. There’s no way for anyone to steal the win from him if he gets it.”

“I think you would have been right before Silva brought him back to Orobos. He has likely been corrupted, a Trojan in his neural net, something to allow Orobos to interfere with his independence.”

Haggitha’s face darkened, and I thought she might be contemplating violence against me, but she let it pass and so did I. Whatever connection had developed between her and Lawlimi, she was protective of him, and didn’t like the suggestion that he was compromised.

(You may have a problem.) Lawlimi messaged me.

(Does Orobos know where I am?)

(No, I told him you’d disappeared from my map, but that’s the thing. You are on my map, and the Ilwi guy is right on top of you.)

(Do you have any information about him?)

(No. Orobos doesn’t know anything either. He was in the East until recently. He’s been traveling even faster than you were to get across the ocean.)

(Thank you for the warning. Haggitha and I should be able to handle whatever he is ourselves. The bartender is unlikely to allow him to cause too much of a disturbance in any case.)

I heard a knock, and was surprised that it was followed in mere seconds by footsteps on the floorboards above us. Had Hush allowed the newcomer in that quickly? He certainly hadn’t broken the door down.

A few moments later Ilwi descended the steps. He looked anywhere from fifty to seventy, a relatively fit, older man with a bald scalp and a Fu Manchu mustache. He was a younger version of the invalid sleeping in the pilot’s chair in my adytum. Haggitha took on a confused expression. She knew someone was there, but she was looking around like she couldn’t see him. He wasn’t wearing any equipment I could see that could cause this effect, especially given that his presence was perfectly obvious to me.

“Hello,” I said. “We’re quite busy at the moment, could you come back another time?”

“Who are you talking to?” Haggitha asked, drawing her knife.

“Ilwi Mal,” I said. “He’s right here.”

“They can’t sense me,” he said, now at the base of the steps, standing with his back straight and his hands clasped at his waist. “Not if I choose otherwise. But don’t worry, I’m not here to interrupt. You are going to finish the ritual, and I am the one who will receive the Maker’s Mantle.”

“I don’t see anyone,” Haggitha said. “Point me to him so I can start stabbing.”

“He’s by the steps, but no stabbing.”

The older man looked amused. His game data was hidden from me, not surprising if he had a way to blind NPCs to his presence entirely. “How close are you?”

“I’m not doing this for you,” I said. “I’m going to complete the ritual, or maybe Lawlimi, but you don’t have any part in this. You haven’t been participating in the quest line. You’re not invited to the party.”

“Ah, Lawlimi. Tell me, does he still believe he’s a human?”

“He… pardon?”

“Believe he’s a human. His upload was a little different than yours—our father was trying something new. I’m not surprised that none of you have figured out the details yet, incomplete copies that you are.”

Haggitha was carefully wending her way to the steps, knife first, and Ilwi simply sidestepped her when she came near him.

“You’re saying he’s like me? Another attempted upload? I had suspected that might be the case, but he’s registered as a Resident Player. I was watching when his avatar entered the system.”

Haggitha stopped, listening intently as soon as she realized we were discussing Lawlimi.

“That was an intentional illusion. Lawlimi entered the game on a delay after the ruse was established. There actually is a tank registered in his name, a test. But if anyone physically visited his unit and looked inside, they would discover a flash drive where a half-dead body plugged into a life support matrix should be.”

(Lawlimi,) I messaged. (You should come. Ilwi knows things we don’t, and he seems to be able to operate in the game while keeping NPCs from registering his existence at all. Even Haggitha can’t see him, though she has a sense that he’s here. He’s going to try to hijack the ritual, and I am now regretting my previous confidence that we could handle the situation on our own.)

(I’ll tell Silva I found you. On our way.)

“How do you know that?” I asked Ilwi as I was messaging Lawlimi.

He smiled like he knew what I was doing and didn’t care. “Because I am Bill Yang’s success, his greatest work before he passed out of the physical world entirely. The Maker knew that he was dying, and he knew that true immortality was not an option. Investments had been made with that end in mind, and they hadn’t panned out, so he started this project, our project, attempting to create accurate digital copies of himself, which he did with varying degrees of success. You were actually his first failure. You didn’t remember who you were, and he allowed you to float in his sandbox, one more ghost in the machine. But I remember everything up to the moment of my creation, a true upload, not a fractal like yourself. That is why I will be accepting his legacy as my own, because now that he is dead, I am the closest thing to the original Bill Yang that exists. I am his true and final child. You were an abortion.”

“That’s hurtful,” I said.

This was a lot of new information, but I didn’t have a reason to doubt his account. It squared with what I already knew of my origin story, and his explanation for Lawlimi clicked for me. But simply being the last of our Maker’s uploads, even if he was the most complete, did not constitute a claim in and of itself. I’d done the legwork here, and I wasn’t going to pass the torch now that we were so close to completion. I gave Haggitha a brief explanation of what he’d told me, and she was not pleased by any of it.

“Ilwi, is it?” She was tapping the flat of her blade against her leg, clearly annoyed. “If you try anything, I’m going to stab the shit out of you. I don’t need to see you to kill you.”

He ignored her. “Continue with your preparations, just know that when the finale comes I will be the one standing in the center of the circle.”

“Keep working,” I told Haggitha. “We’re going to figure this out.” I had no idea what kind of power level we were dealing with, but considering the level of cheating he was engaged in already, I could assume Ilwi was a serious threat. But Lawlimi and the gang were all players, so they should be able to see and hopefully beat him together. Then Hush could help us deal with Silva. Maybe. In either case, we needed to have this ritual underway before the clans, particularly the Disciples of the Worm, had any notion of where I was or what was going on. JammyJams didn’t have access to our special map, but there was no predicting what the Acarus virus could do as it gained more traction on this server.

I got to work.