8: Sanctuary
Zyra hastily led the way into the Temple of Paths. Tark brought up the rear, shutting the door to the vestry behind them and letting the drape fall into place. The monks were doing their usual thing - kneeling, chanting and occasionally prostrating themselves.
‘What if this doesn’t work?’ demanded Hope.
‘Well, if they start to break into here, I’m banking on the monks noticing it,’ said Tee. ‘They’re programmed to protect the Oracle at any cost.’
Tark stepped up to Tee, standing right in front of him, where he couldn’t be ignored. ‘Wot dids ya mean about Zyra and Hope bein’ togetha?’
‘I had hoped to explain this properly under better circumstances,’ Tee said. ‘But I suppose I’ll have to tell you, now.’ He indicated the step leading up to the altar behind which the red-robed monk silently kneeled. ‘You had better sit down.’
‘More secrets,’ Zyra whispered to Tark, as he joined her. ‘Why can’ts he just gives us the whole story?’
Tark and Zyra sat down together, Hope a little to the side of Zyra. Tee stood before them, addressing them as if he were making a speech.
‘There is a cheat code,’ began Tee.
‘Actually, there’s more than one,’ corrected Hope.
‘Yes, thank you, there is more than one,’ said Tee, a hint of irritation in his voice. ‘But let me deal with one thing at a time. There is a cheat code, handed down -’
‘Wot’s a cheat code?’ asked Zyra.
‘It’s a code that lets you cheat,’ stated Hope, flatly.
‘Oh yeah, great.’ Zyra glared at Hope. ‘Thanks. That explains everythin’.’
‘It is a code,’ Tee quickly cut in, ‘that contains instructions on how to circumvent the will of the Designers.’
‘Instructions?’ Hope’s voice rose in pitch and she snorted in a half laugh.
‘Yes, well,’ Tee corrected. ‘It’s more like a series of hints. Or a prophecy. It has been passed on from Outer to Outer over many series of repeating characters. In fact, the previous Tark gave me it. And the Tark before gave him it. And so on, all the way back to the original Tark and Zyra.’
‘The original us?’ asked Tark.
‘That’s right,’ said Tee. ‘It seems that they may have been the first Outers. Or so we think. It was a very long time ago. No one knows how they came upon the cheat code, only that they -’
‘Cuts ta the chase,’ Zyra interjected. ‘Wot does it says?’
‘It says a lot of different things.’ Tee paced about in front of the others. ‘Most importantly, it says that two generations together, parent and child, a father and son or a mother and daughter, will have the ability to travel between the game worlds.’
‘Anyones with a key and enough money ta getsinta Designers Paradise can gets inta other worlds,’ said Tark.
‘Yes, but Zyra and Hope, together, in theory, don’t need a key or money,’ said Tee.
The monks’ chanting echoed around them, as Tee paused to let his words sink in.
‘Wow!’ Tark looked at Zyra with wonder in his eyes. ‘Who woulds have thunk ya’d be so special.’
Zyra punched him on the shoulder, and then looked at Hope. ‘How?’
‘No idea,’ said Hope.
‘That’s the problem,’ Tee admitted. ‘The cheat code is not very specific.’
‘Well, wot does it says?’ Zyra rolled her eyes and huffed. ‘Exactly?’
‘Exactly?’ Hope mimicked. ‘Zero. One. Zero. One. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero -’
‘Shuts up!’ yelled Zyra. ‘Wot’s with ya?’
Hope produced a handheld screen from a pocket and tossed it to Zyra. Tark leaned over and the two of them saw a stream of green numbers scrolling across the screen.
01010000 01100001 01110010 01100101
01101110 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110
01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 01100110
01110011 01110000 01110010 01101001 01101110
01100111 00101100 00100000 01110011 01100101
01110000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01110100
01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01111001
00100000 01100111 01100101 01101110 01100101
01110010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111
01101110 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100
00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01101110
01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100
00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01100111
01100101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010
00101100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111
01100001 01101101 01100101 01110010 00100000
01101110 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111
01101110 01100111 01100101 01110010 00100000
01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111
01101110 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000
01101111 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011
00100000 01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101
01110010 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101111
01100111 01100101 01110100 01101000 01100101
01110010 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110
00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110110
01100101 01110010 01110011 01100101 00100000
01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111
01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 01110011
00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100
01101000 01100101 00100000 01000100 01100101
01110011 01101001 01100111 01101110 01100101
01110010 01110011 11100010 10000000 10011001
00100000 01101101 01110101 01101100 01110100
01101001 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011
01100101 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101000
01100101 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110010
01100101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01100100
01100101 01100011 01101001 01100100 01100101
01110011 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101000
01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 01100110
01110011 01110000 01110010 01101001 01101110
01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 01101001
01110100 01101001 01100001 01110100 01100101
01110011 00101110
‘Ya thinks ya is so clever,’ said Tark, glaring at
Hope. ‘Ya is nuthin’ but -’
‘Would everyone please calm down?’ Tee did not shout, but he injected his voice with authority. ‘We don’t have time for bickering.’ He stepped forward and snatched the screen from Zyra.
‘It’s binary language,’ he explained, tucking it away into his pouch. ‘Translated, it says: “Parent and offspring, separated by generation but connected by gender, a gamer no longer and one who was never, together can traverse the worlds of the Designers’ multiverse. The parent decides, the offspring initiates”. I think this is why the VIs have gone on the attack. They are trying to keep Hope and Zyra from using the cheat code. Zyra is the parent, the one who is no longer a gamer, the one who can decide on a destination. Hope is the offspring, the one who never was a gamer, the one who initiates the jump from one environment to another.’
‘So wots do we do?’ asked Zyra.
‘You and Hope need to figure that out.’
Zyra looked over at Hope, who glared back at her.
‘Hangs on a tick,’ Tark interjected. ‘I still don’t gets wot’s so special about these two. Couldn’t some others motha/ daughta team do this jumpin’?’
‘There are no other children.’ Tee’s voice was quiet and low. ‘No Outer has ever had children before. And Zyra - my Zyra - died during childbirth.’ He turned away. ‘There is no other parent and offspring that can be teamed. We’ve waited a long time for a new Zyra to join us.’
‘Oh,’ Tark whispered.
‘I was assuming we’d have plenty of time to work it all out.’ Tee rubbed a hand across his tired face as he turned back to the others. ‘But it seems that the VIs are determined to stop you.’
At that moment, the monks stopped chanting andraised their hooded heads.
‘Look!’ Tarkjumped up and pointed towards the vestry door.
A pinprick of light emanated from the centre of the drape that hung in front of the door.
‘Looks like we’re not safe in here, either,’ said
Hope.
‘So we better figure out how to get the two of you to jump,’ said Tee.
The light from the drape intensified. Slowly, thefabric was being eaten away. The red-robed monk behind the altar rose to his feet.
‘The safety of the Oracle is threatened.’ His voiceboomed through the Temple. He nodded to his monks and two of them got to their feet, approaching the door. The first of the monks drew a sword from beneath his robes, the second a loaded crossbow.
‘They know what’s going on?’ said Hope to her father.
‘The VIs are absorbing the door,’ explained Tee.
‘I was hoping the monks would perceive the threat.’ The first of the monks flung aside the drapeto reveal the VI, larger than it had been before, practically filling the doorway. The second monk shot two bolts from his crossbow in quick succession. Both bolts were wiped from existence within seconds. The mass of static moved forward a few centimetres, but stopped just inside the doorway, unable to move further. It pushed forward, something forming deep within the undulating greyness - something with claws and teeth. The first monk stepped forward and lunged with his sword, plunging the blade into the heart of the writhing ball of static. Monk and static both froze. The sword was deconstructed and absorbed, the monk following suit - robes, skin, innards.
The air was torn asunder as the horrible shrieking sound echoed through the Temple.
Hope looked to her father. ‘The monk was an essential character?’
‘The monks are the guardians of the Temple of Paths and the Designers’ Oracle.’ Tee smiled at his daughter. ‘They are all essential.’
‘Ya knew thats would ‘appen?’ asked Tark.
‘I suspected and hoped.’
They watched with relief as the VI was sucked into the Interface and the monk replaced. But their smiles quickly faded. With the doorway cleared, they could see that there was litde left of the vestry, and that three more oversized, amalgamated VIs waited, roiling and writhing, something dark moving within each. And beyond them, blazing through the sky, dozens more were racing to join them.