I’m growing tired of this question: Is the OverSoul God? In answer to this I say, “To do is to be.” Does the OverSoul not bring out the best in every one of us? Does the OverSoul not answer our prayers? Does she not see all, even into the darkest corners of our soul? Can she not bestow everlasting life? Let me tell it to you straight-the OverSoul meets every condition of the gods of the ancient world, so who are we to add more qualifications?
D_Light was awakened from his chemi-induced slumber by a nightmare. Nightmares never happened. The dream started the way it always did. He was on his sailboat with a strong, steady wind, a wind that shifted to keep him on a reach, the best point of sail. But then there was a beautiful witch who flew across the sea toward him. As she approached, he saw it was Ascara, the character he played in NeverWorld. “I’m coming for you,” the witch said in a menacing whisper that carried over the cresting waves and the whipping wind. “The others cannot find you, but I can. I have magic.”
Suddenly, a great storm rose up, and his boat soon capsized. He was drowning, and as his ears went under the water, he heard his own screaming.
Having woken from the nightmare, relief washed over D_Light. He did not, however, open his eyes.
Smorgeous, what the hell was that?
Master, please specify your request.
My nightmare! What the hell? With the witch? I was dying. Play it back to me.
I have no reference to any irregular dream patterns, master. Would you like me to play back your most recent dream?
Yes, D_Light answered. He spent a few minutes fast-forwarding and rewinding through the archive of his dreams. There was nothing. Had he imagined it? But if so, wasn’t that what dreaming was-a hallucination? Hallucination or not, it should be in the archive, as all conscious experience was recorded.
Smorgeous, check again. Check for something like what I’m remembering now back while I was sleeping.
I’m sorry, master, but there is no archive of anything similar to the distressful events you are imagining now. To summarize, your most recent dream cycle was 16.4 minutes long and consisted of you and I aboard Terralova sailing to an unspecified location. Aside from adjusting the sails and a few minor steering corrections, the dream was uneventful.
But I was dying!
Evidently, you were not. There are some research findings that correlate stress load with false memories. Given recent events, we might hypothesize-
Piss off!
Smorgeous pinged confirmation.
Soul have mercy, am I being punished? Is the Authority haunting me even as I sleep? he wondered.
D_Light lifted his head from the hard ground. His skinsuit was not designed to insulate, and lying outside in the shade had chilled him. He shivered. There was laughter close by, a lilting little chortle. Although the laugh was unfamiliar, the scent that accompanied it-the one he had thought wonderful in the recesses of his uneasy dreams-now filled him with dread. It was painful verification that recent events had not been part of his nightmare.
“Do you always nap like that?” Lily was smiling nearby. She made brushing motions with her hand over her face. D_Light mimicked her, small twigs and bark falling from where they had been embedded in his skin. Indeed, the sedative had done its job. He made a note to Smorgeous to lower the dose next time.
D_Light looked around. Nope, it had not been a dream at all, and therefore his situation was incredibly depressing. He really was a demon hiding in a thicket. Yes, he had been divorced from his family and his point account frozen. And until he sorted this out, assuming he could, he had no chance at immortality. Just another loser crawling toward death, he thought wretchedly.
How is this possible? Decades of kicking ass, and I lose it all? How could the OverSoul do this to me? His present reality seemed surreal, which gave him hope that he might actually be back at the castle having a nightmare right now. He smacked the back of his head on the ground. It hurt.
Having completed this painful test followed by a few others, he reluctantly resigned himself to the fact that he really was awake. “You followed me?” he asked Lily at last.
“Yes,” she answered simply as she gently threw a pinecone at him. It bounced off his chin and she smiled, but it was a sad smile.
D_Light let himself fall back into the needles and twigs. He stared up through the branches above. Rays of sunshine filtered down in a shimmering tapestry of light.
“In ancient times people believed that there were demons that lurked in the forests,” D_Light said. “Well, here we are, a couple of demons in the woods.”
“Not much of a forest,” Lily returned. “And funny, you don’t look much like a demon. Me either, I like to think.” She stood up and walked to the edge of the thicket to peer out.
D_Light maneuvered his body underneath a patch of sunlight, and as he lay there wondering what to do next, Smorgeous’s soft voice pressed into his consciousness. Master, there is a blink summons from Mother Lyra. It is being sent as a high-priority message.
D_Light sighed. Now, on top of everything else, I have her fury to bear, he thought. But what else could he expect? His mother invited him into her exclusive high-stakes game and he promptly abandoned the team without a word and got demonized. She was going to freak out. His only comfort was that he was kilometers from Anywhere now, and so Brian and Amanda couldn’t be ordered to cut his limbs off just yet. It pained him to think that he could have merely done what was simple, what was safe, rather than leap off onto this misadventure of his own design. He could have done the obvious thing and turned in the demon as soon as he realized her status. That would have furnished him with a nice bounty without fuss. But instead, he got greedy. Or maybe it wasn’t about the points-maybe I just wanted to beat the Divine Authority and show everyone how smart I am, he speculated gloomily.
Stop whining, he scolded himself. What’s done is done. Although D_Light did not explicitly give permission to Smorgeous to open the blink, the AI onboard the familiar was good enough to infer the permission.
Mother Lyra’s face materialized before his eyes. The blink did not make her semitransparent or a mere window in the corner of his visual perception; instead, Smorgeous correctly guessed that D_Light wished to focus on the blink, causing the here and now of the forest canopy to blur and be completely replaced by the noblewoman.
I don’t know how you did it, but congratulations! Lyra was beaming with a dazzling smile. I was so right about you! You’re proving to be a FANTASTIC advisor.
Such sincerity in her voice, as if being demonized and hunted down like an animal was not enough. Now she had to kick him with this theatrical sarcasm? Tesla royalty were not known for their compassion, so he could expect no better.
D_Light said nothing, just shrugged and bowed his head. The shrug was not a very respectful gesture to a superior, especially under these circumstances, but D_Light didn’t care. He respected Lyra, but he would not grovel. This was not entirely because he had nothing to lose. On the contrary, there were many degrees of severity for the rehabilitation of a demon. Sure, on one end of the spectrum a demon could be destroyed, but this seemed unlikely for D_Light’s offense. He assured himself there would only be a stiff penalty coupled with some mandatory community gaming, maybe even some counseling.
Lyra did not seem to notice the slight at her son’s shrug. Instead, she laughed-not a cold laugh, but a happy one. This has to be a record, Lyra exclaimed. You accomplished a quest before the rest of us even knew what it was! How did you learn of the next quest so fast?
I…I beg your pardon, Mother. I do not understand. D_Light fell over the words he sent telepathically.
Lyra threw up her arms. You’re a demon, right? The next quest was for one of our party to become a demon. You know, ‘the hunter becomes the hunted,’ the theme of the quest? Imagine our surprise when the quest came up and it said we had already accomplished it! She laughed and pointed off to the side, out of D_Light’s view. My Soul, even Djoser is impressed.
D_Light was dumbfounded. Were they making fun of him? Were they ensuring his trust so they could spring a trap on him to get a bounty? This seemed like too farfetched of a story for that, and he could easily check its validity.
D_Light commanded Smorgeous, Show me the updated MetaGame log.
Immediately, Smorgeous brought up the newest entry. D_Light selected the text version of the entry to keep his audio inputs free for the blink.
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
After aiding in the capture of a demon, one or more of your party is to become a demon themselves. Be careful! If you are apprehended, you will face the consequences and will likely be out of the game. Tip: Keep your sin as minor as possible. Your participation in this MetaGame will not excuse you from a deadly sin.
The text flashed green, and underneath the quest entry appeared the text “Quest Accomplished.”
Lyra’s voice cut in. By the way, you need to answer your BRs. I was trying to reach you all morning. You were busy, I presume?
Yes, escaping the authorities and all, he answered.
She winked at him. So tell me now, how did you do it?
D_Light hesitated, still in shock. Huh, well, there must have been a glitch or something. I must have received the quest before the rest of you. Better to be lucky than good, they say.
Better to be lucky AND good, I say. Lyra winked again. Why in Soul’s name didn’t you tell us what you were up to?
Like I said, I was doing a lot of running and such.
Lyra chuckled to herself and shook her head. So where are you, handsome? We’ve been trying to locate you, but your beacon is turned off. Now I know why. We need to hook up and prepare for the next quest.
D_Light gave his coordinates. Upon receiving them Lyra exclaimed, Damn, you did do some running! I think we’ll grab a transport. See you soon. The blink cut out.
“Yes!” D_Light exclaimed as he made a fist and pumped his arm. He was about to start whooping ecstatically when he remembered the warning in the quest log about being caught; he was still a real demon.
Instead, he ran straight at Lily with the intent of embracing her, whirling her around, and maybe planting a few kisses on her exquisitely chiseled face, but she dodged to the side and, with one arm, swept him along over her outstretched leg. He tripped completely over her leg and crashed violently into the brush, his face narrowly missing the trunk of a tree. A bit befuddled and even more embarrassed, D_Light sat up. “Hey, I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I was going to give you a kiss!” D_Light was sure he looked idiotic, but he didn’t care.
Her eyes were wide, and she stood in a defensive stance, similar to how she looked when the spanker had attacked her earlier that same morning. “I do not wish to mate with you,” she stated matter-of-factly.
Upon hearing this, D_Light laughed with abandon and pounded the dirt with his fists, sending up a cloud of dust and pine needles. “I think you’re cute, but I don’t just run up to women and start mating with them. That’s never panned out for me.” He laughed some more.
Lily did not seem to get the joke entirely, but she laughed anyway. It was contagious. “You are-” she squished up her face and shrugged her shoulders. “You are a rather unusual male, I think.”