Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Dragon Fire Eternity,” I say. “It’s a video game. Looks just like this. I’m sorry, but I’ve obviously gone insane. I think you’re wearing golden pants, and obviously that’s impossible.”
My fragile grip on reality is coming unmoored. I’ve always had a good imagination, but this is pushing it too far. I don’t know if it’s drugs or something else, but I don’t believe it. I can’t. I wasn’t having dinner or fucking my boss one moment, and inside one of the most popular games of the year the next; that’s not possible. I come to the conclusion that this is nothing but a fever dream of some kind. I don’t have to take any of this seriously because it’s not real.
Ornix lifts a brow at me. “All you behold, and you don’t believe the golden pants? That is the part that most concerns you?”
“Concerning is a good description,” I say. “They’re so gold.”
He frowns at me. “Yes. They are. My kind enjoys gold, and jewels of all kinds. It is our weakness, and our strength. You will be similarly adorned when we are wed.”
“Oh, we’re getting married in my delusional dream? I suppose that suits me.”
He steps closer, extends a hand that now quite obviously has scales on it, and claws where his nails could be. I look into those eyes that are no longer human, but obviously dragon. How did I not clock that right away? Oh, right, because I was sane at first, as opposed to now, entirely insane all the way to the membrane, as the scriptures say.
Even though I know this isn’t real, it feels real. My senses are intact, and the closer he gets with that powerful clawed hand, the more I draw away from him in some measure of fear. He’s so strong and so large. And he is a monster of some kind. My mind is addled, and I am deeply confused.
“What is happening? Did you slip me something?”
“Melissa, there are worlds that most people do not know anything about. This is one of them. It lives adjacent to your own, and it is a realm.”
I cannot fucking believe the words coming out of his mouth. I know them by heart, having heard them hundreds of times before.
“Where dragons fly untamed, where beasts reign supreme, and where riches are awarded to those who earn them through trial by fire,” I finish his sentence.
Ornix looks at me with absolute confusion written on his handsome features. “How did you know what I was going to say?”
“Because it’s the tagline to one of the biggest MMORPGs out there right now. Dragon Fire Eternity has millions of players, and they all know that speech; it comes from the title sequence. I must be losing my mind.”
He draws away, his upper lip curling with something like disdain. “What is a MMORPG?”
This is the problem with sleeping with the delirium-induced incarnation of an older man. They don’t know anything about contemporary culture or games.
“A massive multiplayer online role-playing game. I see it now. I mean, I’ve never been in the Golden Keep this deep before, but I recognize the map.” I start walking around the room, pointing out of the windows, each one of which matches the cardinal direction of another important zone. “That’s the Cauldron of Hades,” I say, pointing at the volcano. “And those are the Sheets of Siren,” I add, pointing at the ice. “That’s the forest of the Wild Nymph, and over there is the Great Deep, the ocean.”
I laugh at the expression on his face as he stares at me in complete shock. It’s nice to not be the only person who doesn’t know what the hell is going on.
“Those are all the names of our most ancient and sacred locations,” he breathes.
“I know. They’re all in the game.”
“The game.” He repeats the word back to me as if it is a deadly insult. I actually feel a little trickle of fear at having spoken to him that way, though it was the truth. I hope whatever drug I am on wears off soon, because this is a hell of a vivid hallucination and I’m starting to wonder if I will get my mind back from it.
“I need to speak to someone,” he says. “Get some rest. Do not leave this room for the moment, not until I return.”
I nod and I let him go on his way, then I make my way over to the bed and I sit down on it, then lie down, then close my eyes and will myself to wake up back in a reality that makes sense.
Ornix
I know precisely who is behind this. There is only one in the house of my bloodline who would dare engage in such blatant sacrilege.
“Nox!”
I bellow my nephew’s name as I enter his chambers. Not entirely out of rage—though I am very unhappy—but out of necessity because his ears are covered with big, thick headphones that block out all the other sounds of the world.