Apostle of the Sleeping Gods Read online

  “If they find out, they’ll take me away from dad,” she said quietly. “And that would just kill him! I’m all he has left. He’s just having... difficulties and sometimes he... It was my fault; I was running my mouth...”

  “And does your father have... difficulties a lot?”

  “No, come on!” she shot out in fear. “No! He just needs to calm down... Come to his senses. So can I stay?”

  “Of course, stay!” The thoughts of Tissa’s father instantly blew away when I realized what she was asking. In a flurry, I hopped out of bed and started picking up my room. “If you want, you can sleep in my bed and I’ll stay in the guest room.”

  “Thanks, Alex.” She kissed me on the cheek and yawned, covering her mouth with a dainty little hand. She rubbed her eyes. “Then if you’re not opposed, let’s go to sleep...”

  * * *

  It was an uneasy night on the guest-room sofa. Intimate thoughts were twirling around my head, multiplying. The fact that Tissa was in my bed right sleeping thrilled me. By midnight, I had regained control over my imagination. But then something else got stuck in my mind – the attack on the Dementors. Somehow it seemed to transcend the average confusion between Dis and reality. Was Big Po really so vengeful that he would jump right to flagrant criminality?

  It didn’t make any sense. Who was this Wesley Cho? Just a teen like me from a totally normal family. We weren’t even citizens yet! we had no money, no influence, no connections. His guild had decent cashflow, but that was in gold, which we couldn’t withdraw yet! There was no way of meeting players from big Dis. Our messages couldn’t even reach there, so...

  All that led me to another idea. If what happened to the Dementors was Big Po’s doing, how did he arrange it? After all, the attackers were clearly not simple unemployed inwinova, they were career criminals. They had no chips, didn’t give a damn about citizenship categories, and had no dream of one day becoming citizens themselves. These were people who didn’t give a damn about the law.

  With those thoughts in mind, I fell asleep. But as soon as I closed my eyes, Tissa and mom were waking me up. I could smell toast and fresh-brewed coffee.

  “Rise and shine sleepy head!”

  Tissa poked my shoulder and giggled. She was already dressed and looking very fresh, much better than yesterday. The bruise on her cheekbone had been treated by the Home Doctor, and not a trace remained.

  “Get him up. Get him up, Melissa!” Mom egged her on. “Alex will always trade a hot breakfast for twenty minutes extra sleep!”

  “There’s no such thing as too much sleep, mom!” I shouted, jumping out of bed, and went to get cleaned up.

  We had breakfast without father. He as it turned out, had spent all night simulating a new project and was now sleeping it off. Mom set the table and drank a cup of coffee with us, then tactfully left us alone.

  “We need to fly,” I said. “We’ll be playing hooky of course, but I won’t be able to calm down until we solve the Big Po problem.”

  “Agreed. Let’s go!” Tissa said, full of unflinching vigor. “Let’s see what that lardass has to say!”

  * * *

  Flying Sails High, where Wesley Cho went to school along with, as I found out yesterday, Underweight, Overweight and Goosebumps, was of the same category as Tissa and mine. It was in a different part of the district, and it took almost an hour to fly there but with Tissa by my side it went by in a flash. Obviously they didn’t just let us in and we had to wait for Cho in an alley in front of the main door. And we had to give our names and the purpose of our visit. Such precautionary measures had become normal after a spate of school shootings, when people turned violent for no good reason and killed schoolkids.

  We had to wait a long time: first for the bell, then for Big Po himself who, by the way, didn’t have to come if he didn’t want to talk. But he did. Most likely he was just curious. Either that or he was eager to mess with us. My experience with Wesley had given me the impression that he never missed an opportunity to remind you who was who, who was more important.

  His pudgy, spongy figure was hard to mistake, even though this was the first time I was seeing him in real life. Tissa and I got up from the bench at the same time and I had to hold her back. She was seething with righteous anger, just bursting to throw herself onto Wesley with her fists. I had spent the whole flight trying to convince her not to, but she was stubborn.

  “Well look who the cat dragged in! Sheppard! Tissa! Decided to join Axiom? You didn’t have to come all the way out here to do that!”

  He didn’t extend a hand, just stood in front of us with a broad grin.

  “Speak.”

  “Yesterday someone beat up Ed, Malik and Hung,” I said. “We’re sure you had a hand in it.”

  “Crawler, Infect and Bomber got beat up? What a pity... I don’t know anything about that.” He turned around to leave. “In any case, accept my sympathies.”

  “You lying piece of shit!” Tissa shouted, throwing herself at Big Po, but I stopped her.

  Wesley walked away, raising a hand, his middle finger up. Letting Tissa go, I caught him at the door.

  “Wait Wesley!” I grabbed him by the shoulder, but he got out of it.

  “Hands off, Sheppard!”

  “Alright. Just answer one question...”

  He looked at the clock pointedly and nodded:

  “Make it quick, I gotta get back to class.”

  “Just tell me how to stop this.”

  “Stop what?” The mockery in his voice vacated all my doubts. He spat at my feet in contempt. “Well! Be more specific!”

  “You know what I’m talking about.”

  “I do. And so do they. What difference does it make?” He shrugged. “I told them: one hundred thousand gold and the incident will be forgotten. But you know... even if they can find all that money, I’ll just tell them my price went up to one fifty!”

  Big Po gave a vile laugh. It really sounded evil! I wanted to slam the chuckle down his throat, but I restrained myself.

  “So that means you’re only interested in money and even that won’t change things?”

  “Well... who said only money? Money just happens to be what I’m most interested in. But I could see myself accepting an artifact...” said Big Po, stroking the back of his head with a snicker.

  “An artifact? Will a legendary do?”

  Like hell I’d give him a legendary, I just wanted to get as much information from the Axiom head as possible. Maybe I’d find out something useful.

  “Just fine!” his eyes lit up, suspicion flickering. “But where would a poor bastard like you get a legendary item? Is there something I don’t know about you, Sheppard?”

  “Wait, I’m not sure I understand. If I just give you an artifact or legendary gear, you’ll forget the whole thing? You’ll leave us alone both in Dis and IRL?”

  “Come on Scyth, to hell with him!” Tissa edged in. “Can’t you see he’s just mocking you!”

  “No, I don’t want it!” Wesley replied, ignoring her. “You can’t get away with just giving it as a gift. Every transaction of that sort is subject to special corporate and police oversight. You know how many cases of meat-space blackmail and extortion there have been in Dis? How much money laundering? How many bribes paid in virtual gear? No, Scyth, this isn’t gonna be that easy.”

  “Then what can we do?”

  “Let’s say you have something to offer. You, because I will not be speaking with Rodriguez or his guys. I don’t trust them anymore. But let’s say you’ve got a legendary sword...”

  “Okay. Or a mount. Or a ring.”

  “Well, I’d have you bet your mount or ring on something. Something you know you will lose.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, not the weather. It has to be a bet with some action. An arena match perhaps?”

  “Scyth, don’t even think of it!” Tissa hissed, standing next to me.

  “Oh, I’ve got a much better idea!” Big Po exclaimed.
“I think Crawler will go for it like a dog after a bone!”

  “What is it?” Tissa asked, squinting her eyes suspiciously.

  “What about the clan tournament in the Arena? It will be my last one in the sandbox, and it would be my enormous pleasure to smear you into the sand in front of millions of viewers!”

  The annual sandbox clan Arena games were, of course, not as popular as the big Dis Arena, but they still had millions of viewers all around the world. Axiom took the highest place of anyone in the Tristad sandbox in last year’s final rankings, which was how they’d become our top clan.

  “Save your wet dreams for your girlfriend, if you have one,” Tissa snorted.

  “God Sheppard, how can you stand her? Does she ever smile?” Wesley chuckled. “Anyhow, you and your clan place higher than Axiom and I’ll forget everything the Dementors have done to me, all my grief. And you’ll be off the hook too, no matter how much of a sketchy smartass I think you are. But if you can’t best us, you give me the legendary... which you don’t have. Alright, gotta run. For what it’s worth, I’ll be in the Bubbling Flagon after school if you want to make it official...”

  Wesley, whistling a little tune, walked away. Tissa watched him and said through gritted teeth:

  “Good luck, creep. Even if we had something to bet, there’s no way we could win! But what a monster, and...”

  “Most importantly, we know it was him now. Were you recording that?”

  “Yes... But it’s useless, Alex! He didn’t admit to anything. If I take this to the cops, they’ll tell us to get lost along with the audio.”

  “So I guess we have no choice but to take the bet,” I sighed, making a decision. “When does the tournament start again?”

  Chapter 15. The Awoken

  “YOU’RE JUST as competitive as your father,” mom always loved to say. “Once you get into something, you dive into it head-first and long-term... until you find your next fixation.”

  And for me now, Disgardium was a strong fixation. The way I felt after that disrespect from Wesley Cho only added to my enthusiasm and drive. My sharp inborn sense of justice, warm feelings for the Dementors and attachment to Tissa multiplied them. But nevertheless, before letting my heart decide, I ran the numbers. At the very least I tried, based on present data and logical extrapolations.

  My ideas about Big Po were based in a very large amount of “if.” Too much. Too many factors had to come together for us to succeed, and a few of them were only hypotheses for now. But nevertheless, the idea of going toe to toe with Axiom had captured my imagination.

  After school, Tissa and I flew to the regional hospital to see the guys. We hung out in a picturesque park full of ancient oaks on a quiet path by a fountain which, unfortunately wasn’t on due to the cold weather. There was a strong wind blowing, bending smaller trees, slipping under my clothes and causing me to shiver. We were all freezing but still didn’t go inside the hospital. Ed was severely bugged out and thought we shouldn’t discuss certain things in public buildings. And we were talking about Dis and Axiom specifically, basically running down the top-ten list of taboo topics. The guys looked normal, but Hung was a limping somewhat.

  I didn’t learn anything from their explanations except that the attackers looked older and there were six of them. After Ed heard Tissa’s colorful retelling of our conversation with Big Po, he went psycho:

  “I’m gonna tear that Chinese sack of shit to pieces! Has he lost his damn mind? I mean now that little bitch is mocking us! The Arena tournament! Yeah, sure! He must think we’re idiots and easier to beat in Dis.”

  “Good thing there isn’t much time left before we go into the big world...” said Malik, drawing out his words. “And yes Alex, screw him. No one will touch us now. He gave us a big scare, but it’ll all be over soon.”

  “Do you he’s just gonna get away with it?” Hung bellowed. “Hell no! I don’t know how, but I will get him back for this! It might take one year, maybe two, or maybe even ten. It doesn’t matter! I will not forget this!”

  “We don’t have much time before the Arena. Qualifying matches begin the first week of the new-year break,” Ed said dispassionately. “All low-rated teams are split into groups of five, and only two of them get into the play-off bracket. Nobody below level twenty even tries. We’ll have no chance against any of them, much less Axiom.”

  “Are they really that strong?” I asked.

  “They were last year. Big Po was lower level for the last sandbox clan tournament, but Axiom let him on their team, and they performed admirably, reaching the top one hundred. Best of our whole sandbox! Nobody else from the Axiom’s main PVP team is left except Polynucleotide,” Ed said, pronouncing the nick like a tongue twister, as if spitting it out. “One-on-one, he has no equals...”

  “If he and I were the same level, he would,” Hung announced. “We’re coordinated, good at teamwork and have a ton of experience...”

  “But we aren’t the same level as him,” Malik threw out bitterly. “Scyth is twelve and Crawler is eleven. The rest of us are ten. A year of levelling straight out the window.”

  “Yeah...” Hung sighed. “Even if we had something to bet, we won’t be able to level past fifteen. And we can only even hit that if we stay in dungeons all day and night...”

  “Yeah, he can go fuck himself!” Tissa exploded without warning. “Alright, let’s drop it! They already figured out the vulnerability they exploited to hack our flying car. I saw it on this morning’s news. In school we’re safe. But in Dis... Let’s keep doing what we’re doing, guys! We aren’t in any rush, so let’s level as much as we can, save up resources, only come into town in the mornings while everyone’s in school...”

  “Like rats!” Hung interrupted her.

  A heavy silence fell. Tissa kicked some fallen leaves with her toe, Malik hugged himself at the shoulders, clacking his teeth. Ed was squinting into the wind and gritting his teeth and Hung sat down on a wet bench and extended his legs. The right leg wasn’t all the way healed yet, though the bone had grown back together.

  I was not feeling strong enough to make up my mind – thinking tensely. But then I mustered some spirit and shot out:

  “We’ve known each other since kindergarten. That’s ten years already. So tell me, Ed, Tissa, Hung, Malik... Can I trust you?”

  “Of course!” they answered in synch.

  “Okay. I might have a way we can kick Axiom’s ass...”

  I fell silent. First they looked at me in surprise, waiting for me to continue, but then all hell broke loose. Malik shouted in jubilation, Tissa squealed and hung off my neck and Hung stood up and slapped me on the shoulder:

  “I knew it! I always told everyone: Alex Sheppard is the biggest damn smarta... sorry, Alex... Is the smartest kid in our whole damn school! And he’s always got something up his sleeve! Isn’t that right, old buddy?” He stood up, excited, put too much weight on his injured leg and swore.

  “Alex, you can trust us,” Ed said after the storm of joy had calmed. “But I’d caution you against it. You see, I think I can guess... not specifically, no. But in general terms. You’ve got some talent or quest, or ability, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, we don’t need to talk about it. At all.”

  “So you’ll just trust me and do what I say?”

  “Consider it done, but there is one little thing,” Ed reasoned reservedly, steady. “When we get home tonight, I’m gonna disband the Dementors. Big Po specifically wanted a bet with you and your clan, right? Not whatever clan you happen be in, but your clan. Do you understand? Well, you create one. It just takes five signatures and, with all of us, we’ve got it.”

  “I don’t see the difference, to be honest...”

  “There is a difference, Alex,” Tissa intervened. “You’ll see.”

  * * *

  Tissa had to fly home. Accessing additional profiles from one virt pod cost extra and required extra configuration, so she couldn’t log in from my place.

  I sat in my room
and didn’t enter Dis until she called:

  “Daddy’s asleep, I’m home. I’ll be on in five minutes.”

  “Got it, I’ll log on...”

  “Alex! Wait. He might wake up tonight and be in a bad mood again. As soon as we’re done with the clan, I’m coming over, okay?”

  “Not a problem. You promised my...”

  I appeared right in the middle of the tavern dance floor, right where I had been dancing with Rita the night before. None of the Dementors were online yet and I walked over to the city council building. That was where Tissa, the guys and I agreed to meet. I figured I’d hand in the Eye of Murkiss while I had the chance, too.