I scratched my jaw. My mother’s given name was Takagi. I’d have asked more questions if I’d known my mother had spoken to her through the vision.
“Wait, she spoke to you?” Grig said. “I just watched a cut scene giving an overview of the game, and then went into a detailed win condition.”
“How do you win this game?” Dagney asked.
“Me personally? Either as a member of Team Ryo, or as a Devout—I’d need to win the loyalty of the high priests, retrieve the Armor of Irizald, and take the throne to rule as a theocracy, after betraying the prince, of course.” He shrugged. “Pretty standard secretly evil sidekick storyline.”
My stomach twisted into a betrayed knot. “Grig!”
“Relax yourself, Ryo. I wouldn’t tell you I’d betray you if I were planning on it.” He squinted at me. “Is that an icon over your head?”
“You’re getting your game vision!” Dagney’s eyes shone. “It seeps in slowly.”
I stepped away and glanced around the Holiest’s office. How exactly did I come to be here with this madness?
“What’d Ms. Takagi say to you?” Grigfen asked.
Dagney pulled her hair over her shoulder. “She said there is a glitch in the pain receptors, so we should do our best not to get hurt. She said we are trapped in the game until someone wins and we break out, and that the glitch is affecting the source code.”
I understood about one word in five she said, but Grigfen paled and sat back down. “I’m pure done in.”
“I know.”
She sat on the edge of the desk.
“What happens if we die?” Grig asked.
“I don’t know.” Dagney gestured to me. “Ryo here comes back from the dead. Best-case scenario we feel every inch of death, so I can’t advise it. And that’s if we have extra lives. I don’t think we all do. I think Ms. Takagi gave Ryo extra.”
She twisted her ring around her finger.
I stepped forward. “I have a few questions.”
“I’m sure you do, mate,” Grigfen said. “Just let us plan for a wee bit and we’ll explain things on the road.” He turned his back on me. The impudence.
Dagney’s lip was a thin line. “So we go after the Armor of Irizald. Did your vision say where to find it? My vision was interrupted by Don’t get hurt, please save my son. I don’t even know my win condition.”
Grig cupped his jaw. “Mine didn’t say where the armor was either.”
I lifted a finger. “I know where the armor is.”
They turned to me. Finally.
“Seriously?” Dagney asked. “Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
“I don’t know, perhaps because you seemed so receptive to everything I had to say.”
She huffed. “You could have told me.” She glanced down and then met my eyes. “I love game lore.”
I swallowed hard.
“I think the Historian’s shortcut bought us a moment of peace,” Grigfen said as he slid open a drawer and riffled through. “We’re listening now.” He pulled out a sharp knife with a polished bone hilt and claimed it as his own.
Thieving ran in their family, apparently.
If Grig was distracted by looting Edvarg’s desk, at least Dagney seemed interested. Well, if she insisted. “Irizald was the last queen of the Devani. They made the armor for her.”
“I love that the armor was made for a woman.” Dagney leaned forward. “Sorry. Continue.”
I closed my mouth. I was only going to tell the pertinent information, but with Dagney’s rapt attention, I had the strangest desire to tell the full story, the way my father told it to me.
“Before my family claimed this land, it was ruled by the Devani witches. They weren’t one nation or race, but many, drawn together from every continent to pursue magic. They gained their power by making deals with powerful spirits, friendly bogeys, and the Lurchers—monsters two stories tall with sharp teeth and an unending hunger.” Dagney’s eyes widened so I curled my fingers like claws.
“But every deal they made strengthened those monsters, and they couldn’t turn against them. The monsters crept out of their forests and hunted our people. The Devani changed, learning to imbue magic inside objects, or weapons, so they could reuse the same spell without strengthening the monsters. But it was too late. The Devani couldn’t stop those monsters they’d freed alone.”
“That was when the Everstriders formed, right?” Dagney asked.
“Indeed. Together they fought those monsters with honor, but a few Devani would not stop making their deals. Until one day, my grandmother Verelise discovered a way to steal the ghosts’ energy.”