“The wizard gave you a day,” she told them. “There’s time to discuss this. And, by this, I don’t mean who to send as sacrifices but who to send as an attacking force.”
Justin nodded. “As the lady asked, is your plan to live in constant fear and be picked off one by one when Sephith wants his fun?”
People looked at one another and muttered.
“We drove him away from here,” Anna said and had warmed to the theme. “Other adventurers went into his tower alone and all of them failed, but the three of us managed to hurt him. If he could have killed us, he would have done it, wouldn’t he? But he ran away. The more people we have, the better our chances.”
“So, you did need us,” he said in an undertone. “All that stuff about him being yours to kill?”
“You’re not helping,” Anna snapped in an undertone. “And that’s a fair amount of big talk for someone who spent most of the fight stuck in midair until I distracted him enough to drop you!”
“That tower is full of his thralls,” the leader told them. “Traps. Spells. You won’t beat him and neither will we.”
“So we lure him out!” Justin called. “Listen to me. Listen to me. I can help you.”
The crowd hesitated, then began to advance on them.
“Fuck,” he muttered. He threw a look at Anna. “This is all your fault.”
“You know what, you’re right.” She gave him a venomous smile. “If it weren’t for me, you’d be dead in a pile of ash right now and you wouldn’t be dealing with this problem.”
“You’re insufferable,” he told her.
“Well, look on the bright side,” she told him. “At least you’re taking me down with you.”
Tad went to the lab straight from his last meeting of the day. He knew Mary had intended to go past the PIVOT offices and he wanted to make sure all was well. It made him a little anxious that he hadn’t heard from her at all.
As he moved down the hallway, he could hear her in an intense discussion with Dr. DuBois, and he began to hurry. If something was wrong—
He couldn’t bear to think of that.
When he burst into the room, Dr. DuBois was stabbing at the screen as he tried to explain something to Mary. She argued with him, although there was doubt in her voice. Neither of them had noticed him. He tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes as he moved quietly closer.
“But if they’re sacrifices, they’ll arrive at the tower with a significant disadvantage,” she said.
Tad grimaced. He had not expected to hear his wife say that sentence.
“It gets them there as a group,” DuBois countered, “which is good for Justin and Anna to bond.”
“Bond how?” she asked suspiciously. “Please tell me he won’t fall in love with a…video game…fake…made-up woman.”
That sounded more like his wife. He adjusted his tie and waited.
“Bond as a comrade in arms,” the doctor explained patiently. “I still don’t quite understand the problem with that. He’s ascribing very negative motivations to her. Of course, she’s doing the same to him. Then again, she does have some basis for it. Maybe…he feels differently about female warriors than he feels about tavern wenches.”
“That seems likely,” Tad interjected.
Both looked at him.
“Tad!” Mary came to give him a hug and a kiss.
“Are you debating aspects of the game?” he asked. He slid an arm around her. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
“It’s complicated.” She pointed to a pad of paper where she’d written notes about the game. He could see phrases such as xp loss for dead villagers and debuff = handicap. “The game isn’t only one thing. It responds to what Justin does. That means the way he solves problems and the way he behaves can affect things down the line. It’s not only about having a big sword. He needs allies, too.”
“Ah.” Tad sat with a sigh of relief. He was exhausted and he still had no idea what to do about the lobbyists. Right now, he simply tried not to think about it.
“Your son’s imagination is remarkable,” DuBois told him. “He sees layers behind the story and they begin to exist because he creates them. The game he is playing is richer because he is the one playing it.”
He frowned. “The game isn’t all…programmed?”
“It adapts,” the doctor replied. “Its algorithms are truly incredible. Justin’s interest and hunches have shaped a whole piece of the narrative in a way that may give