Chapter 21

Fiona did mention millions of fictional V-scapes that humans visited every day. I still had the plastic coin that allowed me access to all of them, and while a lot required a buy-in, or were pay-to-play, a great amount of them were still free-to-play with in-game purchases.

Among the free V-scapes, the ratings guided me to one named: “We Can All Be Stars.” Perhaps it was due to being one now, but I was drawn to try it. To my disappointment, this V-scape was referring to a world where you decided what kind of famous person you wanted to be. The most popular was a rock star, but entrepreneur and tech mogul were also highly rated options from about a thousand different characters. In that world, you took over their life, making decisions and altering life to your whimsy. Each character could go dark with underground dealings, or could swim in a pit of orgy flesh thanks to their capitol. It was a strange ‘scape, not really where you went to interact with others, but rather to escape a harsh reality.

I flipped through the V-scape catalogue while in blank virtual space looking for something geared a bit more towards fantasy or science fiction. One V-scape caught my eye due to a place I had seen before, the Dream Vestibule. It was called: “A World of No Light.” What sounded like a lazy way of making a world without stressing the graphics, turned out to be well made in the screenshots that revealed high quality imagery in gray-green hues. I wanted to give it a solid chance, so I went in.

At first, there was nothing except darkness around me. I had no Dawner’s Eyes inside this computer-generated world, so I was stuck in the darkness. A whisper moved around me, but spoke some foreign language. Very faint lights lit up on the ground ahead, keeping my surroundings dark. Following the lights, I approached a pillar where a green ring hung in the air. There were no instructions on what to do with it, but it had to be something for me to wear. It was wide enough for my head, so I tried that first. As soon as I had it over my eyes, it snapped around my head like a rubber band at the level of my eyes and ears.

“Can you hear me?” a whisper asked. It was a human dressed in dark army attire.

“Yes,” I replied in a normal tone, but he shushed me. Everything had a green tinge from the ring thing covering my eyes, but the darkness took a step aside into an eerie gray mist. It revealed objects and extended my range of sight by a lot in this pitch black. I decided it was best to whisper. “Are you a human or a program?” He had the same green thing over his eyes, so it was possibly a human, but the creators could have chosen his outfit on purpose.

“Human,” he whispered back. “This part of the V-scape is meant to scare you, make you stumble around in the dark and get used to dying due to that fact. Just look back at the lights I laid out on the path.” I glanced back to see the path of white orbs, no longer very dim, outlining a path on a very thin edge. If they weren’t there, I’d be falling off and dying.

“Why would they make a V-scape like this?” I whispered. “It’s like they want you to fail.”

“Well, yeah,” he replied. “But new people often have a friend to guide them to the verete ring. I just hang out in low level areas to help nooblets out.”

“Just out of the goodness of your heart?” I asked. He had to have an ulterior motive.

“You don’t have to believe me, but yes,” he said. “It helps to make friends at an early stage. If you make it big in this world, you might look back at who helped you in the very beginning. Yeah?”

“I guess,” I whispered. “Why are we whispering again?” He handed me a dagger.

“This dying at the very start isn’t just about falling down the ravine,” he replied. “There are creatures out here among us. I think I might have dragged in a pack of wolves, too. At the start, beginners get to the ring after many deaths, only to die by a giant lizard when they first put it on, or carried off by a big bat. The bat is rare, but birds can kill you just as well, and the weapons you have to find yourself laying around on the ground surrounding the pedestal.

“Anyways, I can hear those wolves getting ready to attack, so be ready. Oh, yeah, my name’s Ledeon. Sorry about this, but do your best to defend yourself, here’s a dagger. I’ll try to get the whole pack before they eat us. They’ll be coming over that ridge.” Sure enough, spots of eyes appeared in a few seconds, spreading out to surround their prey. I clutched my dagger tight. This was just a V-scape. Nevertheless, I decided to fight as if my life was on the line.

It was beautiful to watch him dance among the wolves, stabbing and slashing to the sounds of growls, snarls, and yelps. I was so entranced by his motions that I did not see one wolf until it was too late. The teeth sank into my arm, and I acted to stab the fur, but missed. In a few seconds of the teeth snarling in my arm, Ledeon flew down on top of the beast and stabbed the last of the pack right through the head. I did not expect this to be such a vicious V-scape.

“I’m Finn,” I said, as he wiped the blood from his short sword. “So, are you a pro in this world?” He smiled, but did not answer. I handed the dagger over to him, but he shook his head.

“You keep it,” he said, no longer whispering. “Consider it thanks for sticking around. Usually, nooblets are meant to die at least ten times on the way into town, but this will get you there in no time safely.” He held out a yellow ring from his pocket meant for a finger. “It’s single use, so if you’d rather use it than walk, it’s perfectly fine. You can always save it for some dire situation later on. I’m staying here to greet others since the orbs die out in a few minutes.” He waved and walked toward the narrow path that no longer had spots of light. He was a good guy, but he must have been bored to do that all day. I made a plan to log out in the first town. The higher tier dagger he gave me was of great help along the way.

The town was lit by very dim orbs in the distance, yet it wasn’t as though this world had no light, just no stars or sun in space. Above was a gray sky that seemed to churn or shift. I was almost sure it was an optical illusion based on the texturing of the far-off surface. Why would they make the sky alive otherwise? A few things attacked me on the way toward that distant light. A big bat tried to get me, but before I was airborne, I cut up its wings. Another time, an owl landed on me to peck at my eyes, but flew off once I cut a leg off. When I was near the town, an old man stopped me on the path asking for help, but when he drew a sword on me, I was saddened to dispatch him. It had to be a final trick boss of the starter area, an old man that anyone would try to help.

When I finally arrived at the city, everything looked too bright due to the green band on my eyes, but I realized it was no longer glued to my face, so I slipped it down around my neck. People mingled at the entrance, where guards kept them safe from wildlife with some flaming staves. A few merchants lined the first street into the city, and a few players were trying to steal items from them without getting caught. I grew cautious of that and wondered if they could take my dagger away. I clutched it tight and went off to find an inn. Did I need a room to leave the V-scape safely? Some townspeople tried to talk to me, peddling quests, but I ignored them for now, got a room, and logged out to find Fiona’s face next to mine.

“Don’t tell me you’re getting into those damn V-scapes,” she said. “Doc’s already addicted to his programmed castle. I DO want you to come meet my parental cluster eventually, while we’re still young enough to travel.”

“Is there a limit?” I asked, removing the plastic coin from my neck.

“That’s what they tell us. You can’t just fly around forever,” she said. “Eventually, at the tenth enid or so, a Zaxient must choose somewhere to expand and remain to cook life on some planets in the vicinity. I think they can no longer move after they expand, except by outside forces like Tisyros or Garavand.”

“And what if your parents lied to you to preserve your innocence like human parents do?” I asked. Fiona paused and put a finger to her chin.

“I should ask Doc,” she said. “He has no reason to lie about these things. He’s been around for a few hundred enids, or so he says. He was even a star once, a Zaxient, but he regenerated from within a Tisyros before he went supernova.” I laughed at the claim. Doc sounded like a bragging uncle. Was there even any proof to his “stories”? What if he was just another Zaxi hopping between bodies all the while boasting about all the epic things he’d done?

“Sounds like he’s done a lot,” I said. “And you take a lot on faith. Don’t tell me Zaxi are unfamiliar with lying.”

“Zaxi don’t ‘talk’ in the cluster,” Fiona said. “That name isn’t even our invention. It uses a human language, something that Zaxi don’t possess. Lying is new on speaking terms, but we know of betrayal. The Dralish and our own kind have been fighting a lot in the past and they often fluctuated in a pleasant energy until they were close enough to contain us. Those red giants used us like batteries, but no longer. Our races signed a peace treaty some two-hundred and forty enids ago.”

“Is the universe chaotic out there?” I asked.

“It was a lot worse a few hundred enids ago,” Fiona replied. To her, this was history, but I could only see that amount of time as before the Earth existed, before humanity existed. “Currently, our prime concerns are the Garavand plans and what exists beyond the cluster. Those ‘vands hide pretty well, but Veil Raisers can see them. There aren't a lot of those unfortunately, but it’s a mutation that can occur in any being, even human. I think only Galteans may be able to hide from them, and that’s only when they’re straining their light redirection properties. Not that you could find one so easy and ask them about it all.”

“Doc killed and skinned one recently,” I said. “You were there. He was showing off the cloak he fashioned from the skin. It was pretty evil, but humans did the same a while back.” Fiona shifted in her seat. We were in the containment section of the lab. Doc sat here when he coached me to hold the form for hours on end.

“He’s been a bit off ever since he stopped drinking,” she said. “I liked him old. There was no fire in his step, and so much regret of the past.”

“Right…” I replied. “Sometimes the betterment of one causes others pain. That’s a human lesson, but applies. Does he even have a name, a real name? Does his kind?” Fiona shrugged. She leaned close to my ear.

“I only know he’s the cluster’s Earth liaison,” she said. “Ra speaks highly of him.”

“Ra?” I asked. “Like the Egyptian Sun God Ra?”

“Yeah, it’s the sun’s nickname,” Fiona answered. “He went down once or twice to check on the parts of the world where people struggled to live. What stupid ape would choose to live in a desert? Of course he had to interfere, and so he was labeled a god to them. That started them on that stupid path of worshiping things they feared. It was entertaining to watch, but Riklian got in trouble with the cluster for interfering. His full name is Rifft Saixk Lovell Ianti, at least in human terms. It’s weird how the names translate sometimes so we make those weird shortenings, sometimes even real names like mine.” I leaned in closer to her.

“You know, Doc could be watching us right now,” I whispered, as Fiona glanced up for a second. “With his cloak, he’s invisible to our Dawner’s Eyes.”

“Huh,” a voice said between Fiona and me. “So it’s not perfect. How did you know I was there, Fi?” She stood up as Doc stepped out of the gross invisible skin.

“You forget that Zaxi have more than one way of seeing,” she replied. “Our specters sense all types of energies, even ones that bend light like Galtean skin. It’s faint, but I can feel you move around in the heavy electromagnetic field of this planet.”

“Damn this planet,” he said. “I might have to hand liaison duties off to my competitor. Seems like that’s the only way to try this baby out for real. I just hope I don’t run into a Veil Raiser.”

“Are you really willing to leave this world full of water?” Fiona asked. “You think there are a lot of worlds like that out there?” Doc looked perplexed for a moment, but shook it off.

“Anywhere I sent compound X, water must exist,” he said. “Besides, I can dimensionally pack some water for the trip.” It almost sounded like he needed to drink water to live, but I could have sworn he said that water is a poison that his body could handle while impaired as it detoxed.

“Didn’t you say that you just needed tar and sap?” I asked.

“That’s candy to him,” Fiona said. “But he needs water, all organisms do. Doc just gets all impaired when his system breaks it up. He also loves to munch on diamonds and quartz, but it doesn’t give him much.”

“Carbon Dioxide burps and oxygen gas mostly,” Doc added. “I don’t want to drink water anymore. I’ve had enough. It ages me!” I wanted to laugh at the human situation, but I had to be the sane mind here.

“Is there a limit to your regenerative capabilities?” I asked, trying to stop their bickering.

“Contrary to popular belief, there is no limit,” he said, and made a “hmph” sound. “I’ve been around when the Dralish used your kind to advance their brutal technologies, and I will be around long after all of your kind get killed by the Garavand.”

“Now, that’s just mean,” Fiona responded. “You don’t have a seer’s cell in your body. All the Goni are extinct!”

“Enough!” I said to stop the pointless exchange of what I assumed were hurtful words I didn’t understand. “If there is no limit to your regeneration, why do you care if water ages you?” That was the right question to ask for now, and I hoped it would calm the conversation.

“Right,” Doc said. “Compound X, or the source of all water in the current universe, was my creation to survive. When it lived long enough, it attained sentience and demanded freedom. Ever since then, I’ve been looking for the monster I’ve created. In human terms, I’m the ‘thing’ that started it all.” There was a flaw in this explanation.

“How could you create water if you needed it to live?” I asked. “That makes no logical sense from the beginning. It’s like you’re the chicken and the egg, without an explanation of what came first.” The young man in a lab coat hopped onto his little triangle. The device expanded to three times the size in the blink of a Dawner’s Eye.

“This explanation requires some visual aids,” he said, without turning around. “Hop on. I’ll give you a tour of my real lab, but beware there is cruelty in the thirst for knowledge. I work with living beings, even human test subjects.” He paused to gauge my reaction. I wasn’t as surprised as he thought. I was no longer a human being, but something throbbed in my chest. The artificial heart was tightening under some emotions. We stepped onto the triangle to join the mad doctor. I tried to lift my foot as we took off, but it felt glued to the surface.

“Entanglement,” Doc said. “Your skin and shoe has been bonded to the surface of the lift at an atomic level to extract that error of unbalancing the propulsion. Relax and observe.” We lifted to the ceiling of the warehouse, only to realize that there was none. We passed through the layer of a hologram into a giant room filled with sections. There was a creature next to us with horns, but the container kept it away.

“What’s this thing?” I asked, looking it over. It had brown skin, but vanished when I tapped the surface. “A Galtean?” Doc burst out laughing.

“This little thing? A Galtean?” Doc asked, still chuckling. “No, my dear, that’s an Ewatineru. Their skins have similar properties to the Galteans, but only hide them from normal eyes. Flex those Dawner’s Eyes, you’ll see him again.” I looked and strained my eyes until the shadowed creature came back into view.

“Why keep it locked up?” I asked.

“This is my collection and research lab,” Doc said. “Nobody’s going to miss one or two of each creature. In the case of humans, I have a whole grouping. They are so easy to get now that V-scapes exist. I get their bodies transported when they’re inside the ‘scapes, and log them out in confinement. Studying them is quite fun. They are a resilient species, always seeking freedom, but enjoying their pleasures anywhere. That’s why I gave you a fully functional body, Finn.”

“To study me?” I asked. Doc did not bother answering.

“How are you enjoying the Euphoria Eggs?” He asked. “I loaded a lot of flavor profiles into them that humans enjoy. Be sure to keep trying them out. It’s pure flavor. I do still have your energized originals stored, of course. Those will be so much fun to play with.”

“So which are you, the chicken or the egg?” Fiona asked, to return the conversation toward Doc.

“Ah, yes,” he said, motioning his hands to direct the floating triangle still bound to my feet. We flew toward a globe of constantly shifting material. The closer we got, the more it reached out to touch, but Doc paused right before contact. I reached out, but Doc slapped my hand away.

“This is Compound X,” he said. “It takes matter in like a black hole, or the general understanding of one, but what comes out is water molecules. In layman's terms, Compound X excretes water like humans excrete waste and Zaxi excrete light. The combination of water, matter, and energy, allows for life to grow, though matter and water are much the same thing. In some sense, so is energy.”

“Where do you fit in that spectrum of life-creation?” I asked, watching Compound X shift in empty space.

“The main engine of Compound X is what kept me alive since I was just a single-cell organism. The torrent of water it produced, helped me to capture it. Within there, is a descendant of the source of everything anyone knows, a Ryv speck.”

“A Ryv speck?” Fiona asked. “Why name it? Does it have a conscience?”

“This speck once contained the bubble of all reality, drowned in eternal aquatic,” Doc said, ignoring Fiona’s question. “I captured one speck, gave it life, and it ran from me. This speck is a second one. The one that ran off was the one I experimented on. I’m neither the chicken nor the egg. I was once an error of life that survived to take over the before. The Ryv, on the other hand, is the fabric of reality, and I have one in my collection. When I first met a Zaxient being, a new curiosity burst from within me. That led me to Garavand, that to the Galteans, and now that I have that cloak, I can finally look for the original Ryv speck that I lost to the thirst for knowledge.” Even with an expanded mind of Zaxient kind, this amount of knowledge drowned my mind. Fiona felt unaffected.

“That’s my truth,” Doc said, landing the triangle on some surface. “I’ve lived so long, seen so much. I took samples. Who could blame me? In all that, I find myself searching for something I might never find, the Ryv speck that gave me a home, the Compound X I brought to life which brought so much to life thanks to the Zaxi and the origin of matter in the universe. That’s my goal.” When my feet and shoes were free, I dropped to my knees in thought, but I did not need to search far.

“Wait,” I said. Doc and Fiona looked toward me, a star once human. “The Ryv speck did not give you life by itself. You were a single-cell organism before that. It was a team effort, like with Earth. The question you should be asking is: Who provided that first cell? Right?” Both Doc and Fiona were quiet. Did he really not think of that even when creating Filigare? Not even when installing Euphoria Eggs in place of the energized cauldrons of life. It was another case of a dumb genius, so smart that he missed the simplest things.

“I’m glad,” Doc said at last. “I’m glad that I made you, Finnelgamin. Now I have a question I can ask of Compound X when I hunt it down. I was chasing the past, but for no reason. Now I have a reason. It could take me millions of enids to find it again, and the universe only expands, making it harder.”

“Then what’s a few thousand years spent with me?” I asked. “Have a drink, change your face, and help us out. Study some things even. We’ll be out there sooner than you think, but we still need you here.”

“Yes,” Fiona added. “The cluster depends on you, but humans are expanding ever faster and more heralds will be dispatched to assist. Until then, be here, with your family, your cluster, even if it’s strange.”

“Heh,” Doc replied, pouring himself a glass of water directly from the second Compound X hovering above them. “What’s a couple million years? Cheers!” He downed a glass of water with a grimace like a human would react after a gulp of strong alcohol.

While he imbibed from the giant orb above, I set out to explore his cruel prison. It was a laboratory, but with so many subjects, it felt more like a display of all the collected species, a sort of menagerie. Each column of cells had a triangle lift with a hovering panel to navigate. Fiona walked off in the other direction, also scoping out this place she had not known about. After a few minutes, she dropped out of her human skin to fly around in compressed form. I considered doing the same, but did not trust my compression to sustain the energy. I’d have to do a lot more training to trust myself enough to venture out into space, into the cluster of stars in the dark.

I chose a panel and ascended, stopping at each level to read the displayed name. Most of the strange creatures didn’t move in their cells. I understood the collection of things. It was done to be included in the world, to show off prized pieces, but that was only for inanimate objects. Having living beings in cages was not just a hobby. If I had any say, I’d free them all, but were they all harmless? What stopped one angry released prisoner from coming back a hundredfold to destroy the world where they were locked away? There was no easy way to solve this cruelty. Even if I was no longer human, I was still protective of the planet that gave me life in the past.

“Anything interesting?” Fiona asked, flying up to me. The platform was stopped at a cell with a green speck floating in the middle. “What’s that?”

“A Doknaton,” I replied, reading the display. “This physical enhancement creature feeds on energy of life. By consuming years of life, a living being is sucked dry to boost stamina and develop strength beyond regular capabilities. Huh, I wonder how much energy it can handle.”

“Hey!” a voice shouted from the green speck. It manifested a mouth with sharp white teeth. “Who are you? What do you want?” I looked at Fiona and she shrugged. Her hand went into the cell without breaking the skin-like containment.

“Can you consume my energy?” she asked. The speck grew a bit bigger and molded a nose to sniff at the hand. A tongue touched the containment skin, and retracted. “What?”

“Sour,” it said, then expanded the mouth to bite Fiona’s energy-compressed finger off. She molded a new one in a second, but the Doknaton spat the purple glowing digit out covered with some green goo and a look of disgust. “Bitter! What are you? You’re not a human. They taste sweet, alive.” Fiona absorbed the severed finger and withdrew her hand.

“Not a human, sorry,” she said and flew off without another word. The green blob sniffed with a green nose.

“You smell human,” it said. In response, I bit open my skin to show him an orange glow of my Zaxi body.

“Sorry,” I said. “We’re both the same.” The mouth in green grimaced and bit itself until it was only a speck again. It was a strange creature, but I was even stranger still. I headed back to see how Doc was doing, but he was still chugging water, now from a hose. Was there no limit to his absorption? A human drinking too much alcohol would eventually die, but he only seemed to be getting older.

“I’m heading off to train containment!” I shouted over the rush of water. I saw a slight nod. Fiona flew in close.

“Fil should be in there now,” she said. “Maybe you two could bond while training. He’s no longer a child, you know.”

“I’ll give it a go,” I said, before descending on the triangle lift. Fil was in the tank I often used. When I came in, he lost his form and expanded over the whole tank.

“Sorry,” I said, slipping out of my human skin. Once I could contain myself, there was no need for those golden rings. I floated into an empty tank beside his and released containment to fill it. We were equal now. “Need any pointers? Any questions?” I waited, but he did not reply. That was the first time I wondered how I was actually speaking without a mouth, but it was probably just a manipulation of energy like releasing light.

“Was I just an experiment?” Filigare asked. “Mom told me that she wanted to have me, but that’s the thing about lying, you can kinda tell by pulses.”

“I’ve always wanted a child,” I said. “No matter what you are, I will love you, Fil.” He said nothing in response. I flexed into a blob of energy and kept compressing to a human form. Filigare did the same and we ended up holding our forms without speaking for a few hours. His was marbled purple and blue light, where mine was bright orange.

“Here is something your Mother won’t teach you,” I said and arced my energy tail to connect back to the containment body. “Consuming your energy’s light.” As the arc cycled, I dimmed out of sight, but could not hold it very long. Ten minutes later, I had to release back to cover the tank.

“How do you do that?” Fil asked. I sent out a few pulses of joy. “Can you show me?”

“When you compress to containment,” I instructed. “Arc some energy out and bend the flow back into yourself. It might feel strange at first, but while you loop energy with the arc, absorb only light visible. It might take some practice to dim out all the way. I can’t hold it for long yet.” Fil compressed to a human figure and pulled an arc of light from his chest, but it was still connected at both sides.

“Like this?” he asked.

“Not exactly,” I said. “You don’t pull out an arc. You just create a small opening in the compression skin to bleed energy through into a sort of tail, then grab that tail and feed it back absorbing only light. If you feed it back without thinking of the visible spectrum of light, it might feel pleasant to a degree.”

“Is that why Mom doesn’t want to teach it to me?” Filigare asked. “It’s human to be ashamed of feeling good, but she’s no longer pretending to be human.”

“I think it might be because this can also be done between two or more of our kind,” I said. “It’s intimate to a point, and while you’re just a child, she’s almost three enids old.”

“You’re younger than me,” Fil countered.

“Yes, but I’m still your father,” I said. “Your mom and I can be intimate, but you are too young for it in her specters. You’ll find someone to do that with in due time. For now, let’s practice dimming so that we can travel beyond Earth unseen.” I watched him for a second, but he didn’t try arcing his energy out. A pulse of sadness reached me at that moment.

“Why do we have to hide?” Fil asked, letting a flow of energy out from between his legs. It wasn’t the greatest of places to choose and for a moment there it looked as if he was peeing light. My pulses of laughter made him change where he opened the containment skin. Now it came out from the top of his head like a bunch of hair.

“Well, you see,” I started, but paused. Humans were hunting us, but that wasn’t why. Was it the Garavand? Dralish had an alliance. It had to go back to humans. They were dumb for now, but would not stay ignorant of the Zaxi for long if they saw them as more than distant lights. “The human kind has to remain in the dark. Coincidentally, so must we. If all of them knew about us, they’d make it their mission to use our kind as an energy source, more than they need to, and apparently the Dralish already did that once.” I watched as Fil moved the arc to touch his neck and instantly exploded to fill the tank.

“You ok?” I asked, but no response came. “Filigare?” Pulses of joy burst out of the tank he filled up.

“That was amazing!” he burst out. “I would rather just fail to dim if that’s the reward! How can you even hold back?” I smiled, sending out a joyful pulse.

“It takes practice to hold off,” I said. “It’s pressure in the face of feeling good. You will need to learn to dim yourself even if it feels better to fail. Come on. Let’s try it again.”

“Ah, what a sight,” spoke a new voice. It was strangely familiar, but hoarse. “A father teaching his child how to get off. Fi will not be too happy when she finds out.” It was Luke, Fiona’s brother.

 

 

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