CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Greatest Lie Ever Told

  The Journey’s Respite was the st of Reise’s attras that Bram and Rowan visited.

  Its interior wasn’t anything like the fashionable inns of Bastille’s Hightown, but it was er than Bram expected. The seats they found at the Respite’s bar were fortable, while the foht to their table—ptes of meaty sausages, squashed potatoes, and hot onion soup—smelled scrumptious and looked delicious despite its oner appeal. More importantly, at least for Bram, there were few patrons at this hiving the duo the privacy required to tiheir versation.

  “Did you see the armed men milling around the square?” Rowan asked.

  Bram’s expression darkened. “I noticed the meraries.”

  It would’ve been harder not to notice them. There had been too many able-bodied people lined up outside the local merary guild’s front door.

  “They looked eager…excited,” Bram deduced. “The excitement of those who smell opportunity ing and have begun preparing for it.”

  “This gives credibility to the shopkeeper’s tale,” Rowan agreed, “The rebellion of your northern nobles may begin soon.”

  “Which is why we o move up the timeline of our pns,” Bram insisted. “How soon we summon the first—”

  A young server arrived to drop a bottle of cheap ale oable, drawing Bram and Rowan to sileil she left.

  “I do not believe myself to be an altruist,” Rowan’s brow furrowed slightly, “but are you certain you want to summon unsuspeg otherworlders during a time of brewing flict?”

  The thought of using i lives to fight for him ate at Bram’s sce. However, the prinew he had no other recourse because he had no allies to call on.

  “Holy, it’s like poison to my soul… I have no choice but to swallow this bitter pill, but don’t worry. I have an idea of how to make it more patable.”

  In his youth, Bram had researched all the ways one could acquire power without magid apart from the martial styles of the eastern ti, the seventh prince had found hope in the a legends of long-lost civilizations that had once poputed Aarde before the time of the Imperium’s rise. Among such legends was a tale of demigod-like beings called the fae who wielded trickery and bargains to steal the souls of mortals who’d captured their attention, f these mortals to serve aertain the fae whilst they slept. In those sleeping hours, they were transported to the fae courts to live half their lives in a magical realm. While in waking, these same mortals were returo their regur lives to live as they would until they were called again in their dreams.

  “I know of what you speak of…” A shadow passed over Rowan’s face, though it sted only a moment before her smile returned. “And yes, such a scheme is possible for our situation. Instead of summoning their bodies to Aarde, we could limit it to the otherworlder’s soul instead, ensuring that they remaiethered to their world while they live in ours.”

  “That’s brilliant!” Bram took a bite of sausage, pairing it with a spoonful of squashed potato. “So long as their bodies remain in their world, ahs on Aarde won’t be perma.”

  “Such deaths will leave scars on their souls.”

  “Life is paih know that.”

  Life on Aarde was difficult even for the nobles who could afford to live in it.

  “We ’t simply steal their souls either…” The thought of such a theft made Bram’s stomach . He didn’t want to bee a tyrant who forced others into submission. “We’ll make the transfer aig ohat they’ll want to seek out repeatedly.”

  Rowan’s hand froze in the middle of slig a sausage so that she could look up from her pte. “What sort of trickery would ehem to give up half their lives to us?”

  Bram recalled a vision of the other world that had fasated him during his youth. It was an iing traption; a bck box with glowing knobs and the visor and gloves that came with it. He’d learned in his dreams that this object was like a magic tool that allowed the people of the other world to experierange and fantastical things as a form of eai.

  “They called it…virtual reality.” The words felt unnatural to Bram’s tongue. “A kind of illusion magic, I think… It’s a game many of them py.”

  “And you mean to trick these otherworlders into thinking they’re pying this sort of game?”

  “Yes.”

  “And when they die…what then?” Rowan challenged. “Will they simply return to Aarde whehey py like the undead fiends of old frightening your people with their undying nature?”

  Bram shook his head. “For this to work, both sides must be fooled into believing the lie.”

  The prinpted this while he ate another slice of sausage.

  “After dying ohey’ll be forced to start over under a new guise different from their st life…” Bram took a swig of wi left a ckluster taste on his tohough not as foul as grog. “Their past achievements will remain in recorded history, but the people of Lotharin won’t reize their new guises.”

  “Assuming their faces remain the same, this will require trig the minds of the locals as well so that they won’t see these otherworlders from being the same person as the ohat retly died,” Rowan deduced.

  “It’s possible then?” Bram sounded hopeful.

  “There’s nothing easier than trig a mind into believing the improbable is impossible…” Rowan’s brow creased. “Still, to redo a life from scratch after having spent a great deal of effort on it…this sounds more like a punishment than a game.”

  “An easy game is a b one,” Bram insisted.

  “And a game too challenging will not attract the numbers you require,” Rowan tered.

  “It will,” Bram said fidently. “Aarde is a realm of wohat will fasate the otherworlders just as I am in awe of my visions of their world. Ohey have had a taste of Aarde, they will long for it, desire to dwell in it, and choose to explore it of their own free will.”

  “‘Tis true that men are easily swayed by beauty and wonder,” Rowan ceded, then adding, “And you may be right that Aarde will fasate them but living in a new nd and fighting in a war are two different matters. How will you persuade them to join the uaking?”

  “Humans are filled with desire, and what they ’t achieve in their world, we must make them believe they achieve here.”

  “You think them too like you.”

  “They must be…” Bram gulped dowire gss of cheap wine as if to fortify himself for his words. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have such a strong e to them like I do now.”

  “Perhaps,” Rowan ceded again. “But why would they risk pain and suffering for you?”

  “You uimate a person’s capacity to erife and struggle to achieve their dreams,” Bram answered.

  “Certainly, they may choose to fight and die, but why would they choose the ill-fated prince?” Rowan challenged.

  Bram frow hearing his ill-fated moniker from her lips. “Must you say that name…?”

  “Oh, don’t be mad. I thought I would try it out once.” She smiled impishly at him. “Still, my question stands. Why you when they could easily choose another of Atn’s o serve?”

  “They ’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “The system we build will have safeguards to ensure our is are prioritized.” He poured more wine for himself and Rowan. “It will grant them their heart’s desire while binding them to me, you, and Lotharin.”

  “And what of their freedom?” Rowan asked.

  She took a sip of wine. Her wrinkling old Bram she did not enjoy its taste.

  “They will be free to choose how they live their lives on Aarde but within the limitations of the system,” Bram answered.

  “I see.” Rowan smiled again. Wider this time. “Limit their choices to those that will be only the great uaking.”

  “Exactly,” Bram replied. Then, with an ironic expression on his face, he added, “It will be the greatest lie ever told…”

  Rowan shook her head.

  “Not a lie, My Prince,” she whispered, tilting Bram’s up with delicate fingers so that they locked gazes. “It will be the greatest trick ever sold.”

  Bram and Rowa Reise with full stomachs and happy thoughts.

  They came scouting for a town that had the infrastructure already set io help otherworlders begin their journey on Aarde without any nobles around to impede them. Reise’s amenities were deemed passable by the duo, and with a little capital iment from Bram, it would serve as an excellent base of operations from which to begin their grand uaking.

  “About this system…” Rowan gnced sideways at Bram who walked alongside her on the dirt road. “How exactly do you pn to build it?”

  “We’ll find others to help us manage and improve it, to extend its influence across two worlds, but the system exists already,” Bram replied.

  Rowan’s face lit up with uanding. “The fasating sorcery inside of you…it works as a guide to aid in your improvement, does it not?”

  “For years its existence was just a reminder of my failings. Only with your help did the system finally bee of use.” Bram chuckled at this strawist of fortunes. “Holy, I didn’t pn on using the system for this, but it’s bee the perfect tool to rope the otherworlders into our pns.”

  “Then I am to be the battery that will empower this system so that we might share it with the otherworlders?”

  “Will you be able to do it?”

  “I will…though it will weaken me greatly.”

  Bram’s steps slowed.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like any act of sorcery, the magic required for so great a trick will e most of mine…and it will tio drain me so long as I maintain it, which also means I be of no help should your enemies choose to strike at us again.”

  Bram’s face turned ptive.

  “What if we found ical sources that could help empower your spell…sources you might be able to absorb to replenish your power?”

  “‘Tis as if you’ve read my mind.” Rowan linked her arm around Bram’s. “There are many artifacts on Aarde that I could use to supplement my strength… Relics that could make me stronger.”

  “Relics…” Bram couldn’t help smiling. “You speak of items that hold divinity in them?”

  “There’s no magic more delectable than that whies from the arrogant gods,” Rowan answered.

  Bram recalled such relics that he’d read about during his research. They were many and varied, these powerful souragid divinity; the bones of saints, rings of power, the vestiges of past champions, even the great symbols of the high clergy…

  “We’ll use the otherworlders to seek these sources out,” he promised.

  “Good.” Rowan led Bram onward as if they were lovers taking a stroll at a park. “I too will o grow stronger if I am to have my vengeance…”

  As she said this, Bram recalled an iing sight he’d seen after they left the Journey’s Respite. One where a well-manicured wn had turned into a wastend of shriveled grass and dead earth while the clerics of the sun god Phoebus tried desperately to cure the now-blighted wn with sorcery fueled by divinity. They’d failed. Rowan’s curse was that potent.

  “We shall both have our hearts—”

  He frowned.

  They had walked a fair distance from Reise and could now see the aute that waited for them. Only, as he saw it idling there by the side of the road, Bram couldn’t help but feel that something was amiss. It was just a feeling, but the prince had learo trust his gut.

  “Rowan… you sense anything?”

  “I wondered if you would notice.”

  “What do you see?”

  “‘Tis not what I see, but what I smell.” Rowan tapped a finger against her hey are very potent, the stench of blood and steel…”

  “How many?”

  “More than enough to trouble you.”

  “What do you…?”

  Rowan unlinked herself from him and then stepped aside.

  A smile, impish and taunting, appeared on her face. It was the face of a true trickster. “If the power inside of you is to be the bae of reat uaking, should we not attempt a trial of its capabilities?”

  Rowan’s gaze drifted to the sword tied to Bram’s waist.

  “Wield this sorcery to fight, struggle, and live.” Her voice had bee like the booming challenge of a thundercp. “Show me you are worthy of yreat ambition!”

  Bram sighed.

  Truthfully, he’d been expeg this. The moment that the trickster of legend would demand proof of his determination—his worth. He would show her. As always, Bram had a pn.

  “Watch me theement filled the prince’s expression. “Show status.”

  The All-Seeing Eye blinking at the er of his vision expanded, unveiling a ghostly blue window that gave Bram the quantitative representation of his abilities.

  HEALTH POINTS (HP):120MAGIC POINTS (MP):10STAMINA POINTS (SP):200FATIGUE:1TH:20DEXTERITY:15STITUTION:12INTELLIGENCE:15WISDOM:10WILLPOWER:10POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE:10There was a blinking (+) symbol beside intelligehat made Bram tap on it, causing a new notification to appear.

  ALERT! [Administrator Lv.1] bined with your body’s unique dition alters the effects of certain attributes. Increased [Intelligence] will not stimute the growth of yic power. Magic power [MP] is set to [10] until your body’s dition improves or the penalties of [Administrator Lv.1] are removed.I repared for this…

  Bram tapped on [Administrator Lv.1] .

  JOB:AdministratorLEVEL:1RATING:UniqueDESCRIPTION:You are both the creator and the first user of the system that has yet to receive a is a system desigo assist in the growth of future champions, a training regimen that ensures further development of oalents while providing opportuo earn exclusive rewards.It seemed strao Bram that such promising sorcery could not help him in his youth.

  As an administrator, you have full trol of the system’s operation. However, to ensure fairness, certain funs geared for development are restricted for you. These penalties be removed after you grow in your role and once a system update is avaible.The notification failed to expin how growth ossible. Nor did it detail what a system update meant or how ter ohese insistencies did not deter Bram, however, as he’d vowed to figure out all there was to learn of it soon enough.

  Administrators are not allowed to ge to other jobs. As such, you will not have the ce to learn abilities reted to these jobs.So, others might be able to switch professions at a whim while I am stu pce… How infuriating.

  The final lines of [Administrator Lv.1] were a list of his abilities.

  ACTIVE ABILITIES:[Status Emution Lv.1] [Ability Replication Lv.1]PASSIVE ABILITIES:N/AHis abilities list was rather empty, which Bram thought was strange since he’d trained in many martial styles to supplement his agic. Even stranger, not even his bardic talents were listed among his abilities.

  It’s like I’m being told I’m not good enough yet to have them on my status.

  This obliviouso his talents didn’t dishearten him though. Instead, Bram took it as a challeo prove the system wrong.

  I’ll make ynize me properly one day.

  As Bram checked the first of his only two abilities, a new intation appeared in his mind’s eye. “Emute…”

  ABILITY:Status Emution Lv.1TYPE:ActiveDESCRIPTION:allows you to temporarily copy the status of a chosen target or saved profile. Depending on several factors, a pertage of that target’s status will bee yours, includiain applicable abilities. The pertage of emution, duration, usage, cooldown, and number of saved profiles will increase with higher levels.DURATION:2 minutesUSE:1/1COOLDOWN:4 Hours (Short Rest)SAVED PROFILES:0/3ALERT! There is oarget avaible for emution. Would you like to copy the status of [Rowan Wolfe]?Curious that even the system reizes her chosen name…?

  [YES] [NO]y drove Bram to tap on [YES]. With this choice, a great deal of pain wracked his body—and then oblivion took him.

  CHAPTER ES OUT IN 3 MINUTES. XD

  GD_Cruz