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| <title>11: an instrument</title> | |||
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| <p><b>11: an instrument</b></p> | |||
| <p> </p> <p>The wind rustled in the treetops as Selmina laid back on the soft grass, long and uncut like an unkempt suburban yard from the otherworld. The underside of a lean-to dominated her vision, twigs already fallen from the trees hastily glued together with mud. It wouldn't survive a rainfall of any kind, but hopefully it would keep the birds from gifting her graffiti while she slept.</p> | |||
| <p>Her heavy eyelids begged to pull shut, so she let them, listening to the wind, the birds occasionally chirping to each other.</p> | |||
| <p><em>Perhaps I jumped too readily to denounce Solstice. She is divine, after all... Chronos is</em> her <em>grandfather. Bringing his life to an end would be</em> her <em>rite.</em></p> | |||
| <p><em>It would be lovely if we didn't have to deal with this god business. If she was just another human in Rennica-</em></p> | |||
| <p><em>Oh, what am I saying? Life would be boring then. And besides, now I've gotten to see the firstworld with my own eyes. The sand is gone. Soon, we won't have to hide anymore-</em></p> | |||
| <p>"<em>Selmina...</em>"</p> | |||
| <p>Her eyes jerked open. She crawled out a bit, glancing around her- but she was completely, utterly, alone in the forest.</p> | |||
| <p>She shook her head. <em>I'm going crazy.</em> She crawled back under the lean-to and closed her eyes again.</p> | |||
| <p>"<em>Selmina...</em>" the voice echoed again.</p> | |||
| <p>She groaned. <em>A nymph, maybe? Some kind of little girl who knows my name? One would think that an enemy would try to be less suspicious...</em></p> | |||
| <p><em>Big Sister Selmina!</em></p> | |||
| <p>"I'm an only child," she answered, not bothering to get up. "If you want my soul, then just say so, and I'll gladly fight you for it."</p> | |||
| <p>The voice failed to respond. The wind died a bit. Selmina stretched her arms out one final time and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.</p> | |||
| <hr /> | |||
| <p>She awoke with a start. A weird kind of weight sat on her chest for a few moments before her brain kicked in and she scrambled out from the crumbles of what had been her lean-to. The wind slapped her face- she spat hair out of her mouth, one hand to the side of her face to let her breathe.</p> | |||
| <p>A fog had settled over the whole forest, a plume rising from somewhere beyond the immediate area- but there was no flicker of light, no crackle of flame. Combined, the drifts raced through the forest like a wolf pack, bending around Selmina's ankles, brushing past her limbs, fluttering the skirt of her dress all about.</p> | |||
| <p><em>Gods above, it's...</em></p> | |||
| <p><em>Come on, this is no time for words to fail me!</em></p> | |||
| <p><em>A... A tornado!</em></p> | |||
| <p>The ring glinted on her finger. Without a moment's hesitation, she threw it off into the air, where the wind flung it to places unknown.</p> | |||
| <p><em>Let's see the veracity of your words-</em></p> | |||
| <p>A gust of wind knocked her over.</p> | |||
| <p>Lex's feet were just a few inches away from her face. She scrambled to her knees as he peered down at her. He grabbed the corner of his robe and pulled. It furled out- and stretched all the way to the horizon, covering everything in sight in immediate, inky darkness.</p> | |||
| <p>A candle between them.</p> | |||
| <p>She was sprawled on the floor of a dark room.</p> | |||
| <p>Selmina grunted and pushed herself up. The forest was gone; the windstorm was gone; everything... was gone, except for the two of them, and the flame between them.</p> | |||
| <p>Selmina looked up to Lex, eyes wide. Lex's face was hidden from view, the candlelight only going up to his shoulders.</p> | |||
| <p>"You..."</p> | |||
| <p>Lex crouched down, his face serene despite the prominent dark circles under his eyes. "Me?"</p> | |||
| <p>"You saved me."</p> | |||
| <p>"Did I not say that I would?" Lex cackled. "What's your name?"</p> | |||
| <p>"Selmina."</p> | |||
| <p>"A fine name for a fine girl. Quite a shame that it carries no meaning or history, though."</p> | |||
| <p>"Damn history!" Selmina pulled herself to her feet. "Damn meaning! I'll make my own."</p> | |||
| <p>The corners of Lex's lips curled up in a smile. His hand wandered up to his face, fingers drumming on his lower lip, as he thought. A few moments later, and he stooped over and swiped a hand over the candle. The flame traveled to his fingers, a marble, glassy reflection as he stood back up. The shadows danced on both of them as he passed it from hand to hand, nonchalant like it were a simple trinket.</p> | |||
| <p>"You seem to have a knack for getting yourself into rather... unfortunate situations with the gods, Selmina. They just seem to keep abandoning you, don't they?" He balanced the marble on the tip of his finger. "I'm shouldering a great risk by taking you in under my wing."</p> | |||
| <p>"I don't see what vendetta Chronos would have against one human girl."</p> | |||
| <p>"Do you really think yourself so... demure?"</p> | |||
| <p>Selmina furiously shook her head. "I was born in the otherworld, under a different god. For my collaborations with Ceuta's daughter would be the only reason he would see me a threat."</p> | |||
| <p>Their eyes met. Whether his eyes were truly orange or just a trick of the light, Selmina couldn't say.</p> | |||
| <p>"Oh? What brings a flower such as yourself to the firstworld?"</p> | |||
| <p>"I'm going to kill Chronos."</p> | |||
| <p>He snapped his fingers. The marble shattered, throwing them both into stark darkness. He tugged at her hands- then slipped his into hers, scarred skin against soft.</p> | |||
| <p>There was something long and cold in his hands. Pressed into her palms, rectangular, the size of her hand.</p> | |||
| <p>Strangely enough, she couldn't pull herself to pull away.</p> | |||
| <p>A door opened in the ceiling. A dim white light streamed down on them. <em>DEBUG MENU</em> appeared on the ceiling in blocky letters. A line after that, a flickering cursor at the beginning.</p> | |||
| <p>Selmina's breath shuddered. A monster staring back at her from the abyss, a leviathan peering straight through her body, jaws wide open and implicit in the flickering block of the cursor.</p> | |||
| <p>'So my dreams... were true."</p> | |||
| <p>"Oh?"</p> | |||
| <p>"Everything was too... fortunate. Episodic. Like Lady Luck was banging us while we slept." A wet breath shuddered through her body. "Please tell me this isn't a dream."</p> | |||
| <p>"It's not. You and I, Selmina, are living in a video game. A predetermined set of events that only has one logical conclusion. Any attempt to go against the path of the game only results in death- <em>defeat</em>- or a very narrow victory requiring almost all you know and love to die in the process." He chuckled to himself. "Did you play a lot of games in the otherworld, Selmina?"</p> | |||
| <p>"A few, when I was young and unsettled in Rennica, but they were simplistic and I grew bored. I'd rather read a book. Graphical fidelity rarely gets in the way then."</p> | |||
| <p>"A cultured woman. Respectable. But when something went wrong in a game, you restarted from your last save, right?"</p> | |||
| <p>"...Yes, I believe that's how games work."</p> | |||
| <p>"I believe this is one of those saves. One line's broken off from the main line of fate by whatever player was pulling everybody's strings dying and restarting from an earlier save, abandoning a different us to persist in the doomed world they created. You and I are being controlled, Selmina. Everything that is to happen has already been decided. Does this sit well with you?"</p> | |||
| <p>"The player dying..." The world swooned under her. She stepped back. "Solstice, gods, no..."</p> | |||
| <p>Lex shook his head- his hair rustled around his shoulders. "No. I believe the most recent break was at the fork at the caedat exploration at the end of Book One. Going forward would trigger a few conversations with a corpse before Chronos spawned into the area in dragon form and killed the player. Obviously, the canonical decision was to abandon the body in the desert, which is the line you and I live in."</p> | |||
| <p>"So any fork where the player takes the 'wrong' decision splits this world off from itself?"</p> | |||
| <p>"Any fork that doesn't result in successful completion of the game. Of course, it becomes even more restricted when there's a sequel of the game and there's no save check from the previous one that all the required characters are still alive. How funny, to witness the death of a comrade and then see them alive and walking a few years later and talking as if they hadn't perished at all. The only way to maintain the fragile thread of fate would be to keep <em>every single person</em> alive."</p> | |||
| <p>"And how am I to know who's fated to die?" she added.</p> | |||
| <p>"Precisely."</p> | |||
| <p>Lex let go of her and closed the window and relit the candle. Selmina glanced in her hands- it was a black slab, one side glassy, the other tough and rubbery.</p> | |||
| <p>"A... phone?" She peered at him. "An unusual model for a burner. Is this for until you master telepathy?"</p> | |||
| <p>"Of course, there's no way for you or I to know with our current powers if we're meant to be the players or the NPCs," he said, ignoring her. "Especially in situations where your dialog's already been chosen, and your appearance- <em>everything</em>- and you're just struggling to survive until the next cutscene." He gestured to the phone. "I've homebrewed some small utilities for peering into the game's code and working memory. You hold them in your hands. I would use them myself, except that the museum I pilfered from only had one device. I thought I might let you do the honors, given your... <em>unique</em> ties to Ceuta."</p> | |||
| <p>"How... gracious of you. Unlimited power. You <em>are</em> aware that I could turn you into a puppet with this, right? Make you dance until you die? Carry me all the way back to Rennica on your shoulders?"</p> | |||
| <p>"The executive code's already been burned into the game cartridge, and to rewrite major swathes is beyond the reach of anyone save the programmer themselves. I've only sullied out the simplest of save pointers. And, besides, I already know how this encounter will end."</p> | |||
| <p>"What's the point, then? If I can't choose my own fate..."</p> | |||
| <p>The corner of Lex's mouth quirked up. "Who's to say we can't?" He touched a palm to Selmina's forehead. "Now listen carefully. First, hold down on that button on the side..."</p> | |||
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