Chapter 14: Going Home, Nicholas POV (Patreon)

Chapter 14

Going Home.

Nicholas POV

I woke from the Game in my armchair. It was located in the corner of my sitting room in Thistlebush Manor and was nearly as old as I was. I raised my hand to stifle a yawn. Most people came out of the Game feeling refreshed, but I always came out sleepy.

I blinked twice and used my Power to reach for the bottle of water I’d left on the side table, momentarily forgetting where I was. It flew to my hand.

I stared at the bottle I was holding.

“That’s peculiar.”

The kettle whistled from the kitchen, causing me to jump, and I instinctively threw out my Domain to see who was in there. I lived alone. My mother now rented an apartment in London with a few of her surviving friends. They were reliving their youth and having fun. Pan lifted the kettle off the hob and poured the boiling water into two cups filled with tea leaves instead of using the teapot to his right.

I sighed, forcing myself not to raise a fuss. This was likely the first time he’d made tea. As I held my tongue, it occurred to me that I was still sitting in my armchair.

What the hell was going on?

“Pan, are we still in the Game?” I asked, projecting my voice to him.

“Can you see me, my Liege?” he asked quietly.

“I can.”

“Try not to panic. I’m almost done with the tea. I’ll explain what’s happening in a minute.”

I decided to take his advice.

Pan came through the door almost a minute later, carrying a tray of Jaffa Cake along with the tea. He placed the tray on the side table and took a seat in the other armchair. For the next few minutes, we both silently stared through the sitting room windows at the front lawn and let the tea steep.

There was something therapeutic about the silence. It let the stress from the last three and a half days wash away. It reminded me that I’d done what I set out to do. Now, I just had to deal with the consequences and decide what I wanted to do next.

Pan gave me a friendly smile as he picked up and cup of tea and placed it on the table beside me. “To answer your first question, we are not in the Game. Please, don’t give me a follow-up question until I explain.”

I stared at the teaspoon full of Earl Grey tea leaves that were floating in my cup and almost missed what he said next.

“All factions can become Transcendent beings in the Game. However, some races can’t psychologically deal with the changes that occur when they gain the class. Humanity fits into that category. You can’t psychologically deal with the new senses you’ve been given and the loss of these senses. It would be like suddenly becoming blind whenever you come out of the Game. To compensate for the trauma this gives, you have been given these abilities outside the Game, but in a reduced capacity.”

“What are you talking about?”

My stomach growled and I reached for one of the Jaffa cakes. At least, he hadn’t managed to ruin those.

“Have you ever seen those videos of astronauts right after they’ve returned from space? The ones where they place things in the air and let go?”

My mouth was full, so I nodded.

“You’re like those astronauts. Except you could fly and see things in places you couldn’t see. The Peacekeeper's biological evaluation of humans is that you are not psychologically capable of switching back and forth from one situation to the other with every Cycle. You might try to use your Domain when crossing a road and get hit by a car or might try to pull a child back from falling out a window with your mind instead of your hand. The profile they built on removing your Domain was actually scary. Each of you develops extreme claustrophobia and panic disorders.”

“So, I’m not in the Game.”

“No.”

“Why are you here?”

“Two reasons. Someone needed to explain your new situation to you, and as a member of your pantheon, I get shore leave like you do.”

“So, you’re one of those AIs that can leave the Game?”

“I am. It’s the main reason I took this job.”

I held my hand and willed the water bottle to fly across the room. It bounced off the stonework around the fireplace. “Can you do this too?”

Pan raised his hand, and a Jaffa Cake floated to his hand. “Yes. Leaving you the only one who could do this sort of thing wouldn’t be good for your psychology either.”

“Am I bulletproof?”

“No, but you have a personal shield. It will react in life-and-death situations.”

“Why?”

“You’re going to slowly lose your sense of survival unless you work on it.”

“This sounds bad.”

Pan winced. “It is. The human brain isn’t wired to deal with what you can do in the Game. At best, you are going to become eccentric. At worst, you won’t be able to function socially. There will be a rehabilitation process once you lose your Transcendent status, and the longer you remain Transcendent, the longer it will take.”

That sounded horrible. “Why would they give me this power if it’s so dangerous?”

“The sanity of one being is irrelevant compared to the balance of the Game, my Liege.”

“How very totalitarian of them.”

“Respecting all individuals and all cultures is an impossible feat in a universe as large as ours. There are species that do not need to eat who believe every member of your species is a mass murderer and needs to be eradicated from existence. There are species that have evolved so that they are the only species within their environment, so they freely practice cannibalism as a way to sustain themselves. You would think them evil, but they do not. The Peacekeepers try to be fair, so each species is evaluated by their own morality when integrated into the Collective. However, once they are within the Game, they are all treated equally, and the needs of the Game outweigh the needs of any individual.”

“Just because something is necessary doesn’t make it right.”

“Yet it is still necessary.”

That was true. “So, I need to get rid of this class as soon as possible?”

“If that is what you want.”

“I don’t know what I want.”

Pan bit into his biscuit. “Perhaps you should find out what that is then, my Liege.”

I willed my cup of tea to my hand, levitating the tea leaves floating inside the cup out and onto the saucer. I took a sip and decided I should spend some time educating Pan on making tea in case he ever wished to poison me again. “So, what do I do now?”

“I think we should discuss what you experienced in the Game.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m your designated shrink with complete access to your physiological profile, and I believe you need to talk about the thing you have seen through your Domain.”

Pan held out his hand, and his cup of tea floated into it. He didn’t remove the tea leaves as he drank, visibly chewing on them.

I didn’t want to talk about the horrible things I had seen, so I tried to change the subject. “I’ve got a question about the Game.”

“I will answer it if it’s something I can answer.”

“You mentioned several days ago that it was possible to ditch our followers without losing strength. Is that still something we could do?”

“It is. However, I would caution against this as you have gained millions of followers in a single Cycle and seem to be on track to gaining a lot more. Playing along for now would be extremely beneficial.

“What would that involve?”

“There needs to be a structure to our followers. They need to build churches and alters to us. This isn’t for ego purposes. They provide buffs and take some of the Power requirements off of us. The churches will be able to raise clerics who can wield power in our name. They will also help take the Power demand off on us.”

“My mother is going to be really upset with this. She’s Catholic.”

“She’ll have to get over it. The lowest deck of The Pantheon to technically a holy site, so we’ve probably crossed most of the lines she won’t approve of.”

“I didn’t notice anything like that?”

“That’s because the changes are being made during our downtime. When we return to the Game and the Bionoid spaceport, The Pantheon will be the Vatican of your new religion.”

“Why?”

“We need something to provide the necessary structure to disseminate our religion and raise clerics. Also, now that Jack is gone, you don’t have to pander to his ego.”

“What about when he comes back?”

“It won’t be difficult to keep him away from the lowest deck. But enough of that, let’s talk about what you saw.”

I sighed. “I don’t want to talk about what I saw.”

“That means you should probably talk about it, don’t you think?”