CHAPTER ONE
Susan Cantrell logged into the Solar Descent gaming session and let the environment unfold around her. The physical sensations of her real body back in her apartment faded away, replaced with the game’s virtual world. She found herself standing in the middle of a wide pedestrian boulevard suspended within the canyons of a vast, inverted city of glass and metal. Inverted because the buildings seemed to have been built down from a mechanical sky.
Her avatar came into focus next, clad in a set of blue armor that hugged her body’s athletic curves. Her deployable helmet was retracted into her collar, revealing an approachable face that seemed ready to face the challenges of the day without letting them fluster her. Her bright red hair was groomed into a neat pixie cut, and her hazel eyes were open and alert.
The face matched her real one perfectly. Mostly because creating an avatar from scratch in the game was a lot of work and she didn’t want to hold up the other players.
Her drone floated by her side, shaped like a kite shield, and a spell-sword hung in the scabbard at her hip.
Susan had chosen the stellar vanguard class for its combination of durability and flexibility. She often found it a good idea to lean toward more defensive strategies when trying out a new game’s mechanics, and the stellar vanguard’s starting gear and stats certainly fit her preferred playstyle.
She checked her character status in a discreet pop-up window on the inside of her wrist. Both her Health Regen and Impact Reduction auras were active, and her spell-sword came primed with an Immolation charge.
“Good to go,” she declared with a nod. “Now, what next?”
According to the session primer, the city was called ClearView, and when she looked down, she understood why. The transparent walkway afforded her a view of the Everdark Eye, a black hole that played a key role in Solar Descent lore, being the source of many of the setting’s science fantasy antagonists.
Which means ClearView must be built along the bottom of the Loop, she thought.
She turned in a circle, taking in the full panorama around her. Sure enough, she could make out the thinning silvery line of the Loop shrinking into invisibility ahead and behind her. If she recalled correctly, the Loop was an orbital ring constructed around the Eye, and it seemed ClearView had been built along the ring’s underside.
“Okay, so now I know where I am.” She looked around again. “But how do we get this scenario rolling?”
A steady stream of pedestrian traffic flowed around her in both directions. Most of them possessed a certain genericness that informed Susan’s highly experienced gamer senses that they were unimportant. However, two individuals stood out with their characterful flamboyance.
One was a smallish, mousy woman, hunched forward by her heavy backpack. Her helmet and torso plating looked a size too large for her and were covered in gray-and-black digital camo.
The second woman’s platinum skin gleamed under the streetlights, and her fiberoptic dreadlocks pulsed with a kaleidoscope of technomagical energies. She wore a flowing robe that glittered so brilliantly it gave the impression of having been spun from gold.
The two women stood at the darkened mouth of an eatery that—judging by all the dynamic graffiti and the trash on the ground—might as well have put “Shady Bar” over the door in bold letters. Susan assumed the two vibrant characters must be her fellow players, Grace Damphart and Nina Cho, though she wasn’t sure which was which.
The more colorful of the two women waved at Susan, and she walked over.
“Greetings fellow adventurer!” the metallic woman began in a boisterous version of Nina Cho’s normal voice. Her luminous eyes were white from end to end. “My name is Radiant Blaze, laser mage extraordinaire. And this here is Medic-One-Forty-Four, the latest in a long line of mass-produced combat medics who have served as my faithful companions on many adventures.”
“Medic-One-Forty-Five,” Grace corrected. “One-Forty-Four was my last character.”
“Really?” Nina asked, the bombast vanishing from her voice entirely. “I thought your last character was One-Forty-Three.”
“With you and Isaac, sure. But I was running a separate campaign with the kids.”
“Ah. Okay, got it.”
“Also, how would Radiant know any of my other characters? I’m not clear on that.”
“You don’t like my little improv backstory?” Nina crossed her arms, and her eyes changed from white to dark blue.
“It’s not that I don’t like it. I just don’t see how it would work. This should be the first time you’ve met any of us.”
“But can’t I have met some of your past clones?”
“I guess, but we’re all starting fresh characters for the new season. What adventures are you referring to?”
“Okay, yeah, good point.”
“I suppose we could have a shared adventure in our backstories if you want me to add one?” Grace offered.
“No, no. I can work with this.” Nina cleared her throat and returned her attention to Susan. Her eyes brightened. “Sorry about the confusion, fellow adventurer! It seems I was mistakenly thinking of someone else. Clones, you know? Who can keep all of them straight?”
“Understandable,” Susan said.
“And what might your name be?”
“Susan Cantrell. Stellar vanguard.”
“Susan?” Nina said, her voice becoming quiet once more.
“Yes?”
“I’m asking for your character’s name. Not your real name.”
“This is my character’s name.”
“You’re using your real name for your first Solar Descent character?”
“By mistake,” Susan admitted. “I got confused during character creation. When it asked me for a name, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to give mine or make up one, and by the time I realized the error, I was already fifteen screens deep in the creation process and didn’t feel like backtracking.”
“She does have a point there.” Grace gave them a knowing nod. “The whole character creation interface really needs an overhaul. It’s the worst part of this game, if you ask me.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s just move on.” Nina cleared her throat once more. “Welcome to ClearView, Vanguard Cantrell! I assume you’re here like us to investigate the disappearance of renowned star seer Natli Klynn on behalf of the Solar Guild?”
“Umm.” Susan smiled bashfully. “Am I?”
Both Nina and Grace nodded.
“Then yes, I am.”
“Wonderful!” Nina beamed a bright smile. Literally. Her teeth were translucent, and light leaked through them from the back of her mouth. “That makes three of us. However, the Guild believes abyssal cultists may be involved in Star Seer Klynn’s disappearance, and they’ve arranged for us to be joined by an expert.” She bobbed her head toward the bar door. “He’s inside.”
“Go inside, meet expert,” Susan summarized. “Got it.”
Susan stepped toward the door, but Nina placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
“I must warn you, though. This expert is a harbinger, a master of abyssal energies and a worshipper of Singularity, one of the dark gods of the Abyss. We have no way of knowing how far the rot of his twisted faith has spread.”
“Be on guard. Got it.”
Susan started for the door once more, but the laser mage held her hand firm.
“Also,” Nina added in her normal voice, “we may have trouble recruiting him.”
“Why’s that?”
“He prepared a backstory for his character,” Grace said with the slightest hint of a frown.
“Is that bad?”
“Could be.” Nina faced the door and tugged her robes taut. “We’ll just have to see for ourselves. Let’s go.” She led the way inside.
The dim, smoke-filled interior fit Susan’s expectations of a shady space bar. A few of ClearView’s denizens sat at round tables, eating, drinking, or smoking, while a robotic bartender served drinks from behind protective iron bars. Most of the patrons were of the same generic nature as the people outside, all except for a lone hooded figure seated in the corner.
They approached the dark figure. Purple runes glowed along the hem of his black cloak, and a pair of purplish, luminous eyes shone from beneath his cowl. He picked up a fistful of small cubes covered in runes and cast them across the table. His glowing eyes surveyed the results.
“The gravity waves have . . . spoken of your arrival,” Isaac Cho said, giving his voice a throaty, ethereal quality.
“They say anything about the job the Guild’s offering?” Nina asked, crossing her arms.
“My divinations have not been . . . that specific.”
“Well, the Solar Guild asked us to hire you. We’re searching for Natli Klynn.”
“Ah, the renowned star seer. I too found her disappearance . . . curious.”
“This is official Guild work, so the job pays well. Interested in helping out?”
“Money is not a . . . concern of mine.” He cast his divination cubes again and inspected the results.
“Okay, well”—Nina shrugged—“how about you join us for the hell of it then? We could use a party member who’s familiar with the abyssal arts.”
“I’m afraid I . . . cannot.”
“Here we go,” Grace whispered, drawing Susan’s eye.
“And why the hell not?” Nina placed a hand on the table, looming over Isaac.
“There is a . . . personal matter that requires my attention.”
“A personal matter?” Nina asked. “Do you have to take care of it now?”
“I do. A regret from my past has . . . revealed itself. The window of opportunity to resolve my mistake is . . . closing.”
“So, basically, you want us to ignore the main story in order to waste time on some side quest you threw together. Does that about sum things up?”
“I’m afraid I don’t . . . understand your question.”
“Uhh!” Nina groaned. “Enough, Isaac!”
“What? Is something wrong?” Isaac replied in his normal voice. He pulled back his hood, revealing sharp eyes framed by short, black hair. The face closely resembled his real one, with the exception of the glowing eyes.
“Yes, something’s wrong,” Nina said. “Don’t you want to get the main quest rolling?”
“Well, yes. Of course, I do.”
“Then why are you being such a pain about it? Let’s party up and move the story along!”
“I’d love to, but you have to convince my character first.”
“Convince him? But you control him!”
“True, but it’s called roleplay for a reason, and he’s not a trusting individual. You see, at a young age, Dominus Souleater encountered a traveling—”
“‘Dominus Souleater’?” Nina snorted out a laugh. “What? Was Evil McEvil too on the nose for you?”
“The name follows the lore guidelines for the harbinger class. Besides, I thought it’d be nice for us to gain a level or two before we hit the main story. I finished laying out the scenario last night, and Cephalie agreed to run the NPCs for us.”
“Can’t we do this after the main quest?”
“No. Dominus has a very tragic backstory. You need to earn his trust.”
“But we don’t have the time!” Nina complained. “It’s been a total pain trying to schedule sessions that accommodate all of us. We all woke up early this morning so we could fit in a few hours before work, and you want us to waste it on some home-brewed quest instead of the main storyline!”
“Then why didn’t we play last night? We would have had plenty of time that way.”
“Sorry, but I couldn’t.” Grace raised a hand. “Niece’s birthday party took priority.”
“Also,” Nina continued, “does your character have to talk like that all the time?”
“Talk like what?” Isaac asked.
“With stupid . . . overdramatic . . . pauses . . . sprinkled in your sentences.”
“It’s a verbal tic. Dominus picked it up during his—”
“Tragic backstory,” Nina finished with a roll of her eyes. “Yeah, I get it. I’m sure your Solar Descent fanfiction is thrilling, but I want to find out what happens to Klynn! This season is kicking off a new story arc, and I want to experience it for myself before someone spoils the ending for me.”
“Eh.” Isaac shrugged. “I found the ending rather lackluster. You see—”
“Don’t you dare!” Nina pointed a stern finger at him.
“Wait. Hold up,” Susan interrupted. “Isaac, how do you know the ending already?”
“He watched spoilers,” Grace explained.
“He always does that,” Nina added.
“Of course, I do,” Isaac said. “That way I can relax and enjoy the ride rather than stressing about how it’ll end.”
“You dare come close to spoiling the ending, and I’ll use Irradiate on Mister Souleater! See how his tragic backstory likes being flooded with gamma rays!”
“Then the joke’s on you, because I know how touchy you can be sometimes, so I planned ahead. I already have a Nullify counterspell queued up. Go on and waste your Irradiate cast on me. It’ll fizzle into nothing.”
“I just might! You got two Nullify charges on you? Because after I Irradiate your ass, Susan can Immolate it!”
“Umm, just to be clear,” Susan said, “I’m not immolating anyone’s ass. Least of all someone I work for.”
“Work with,” Isaac corrected. “We’re partners.”
The comment put a smile on her face, though it quickly vanished as the twin siblings dove headfirst into a long, protracted “disagreement” over spoilers, schedules, and gaming etiquette.
Grace walked over to the bar and sat down on a stool. The twins didn’t seem to notice.
Susan sighed and joined her. “Are they always like this when they play Solar Descent?”
“Not always,” Grace said.
“Sometimes, though?”
She nodded.
“Often?”
“Well . . . ” Grace shrugged without answering.
“By the way, it’s nice to finally meet you, Detective Damphart,” Susan said, careful to pronounce the last name as “Damp-Heart” rather than her first guess, which had been the equivalent of “Damn-Fart.” She extended a hand to the other woman.
“Likewise.” She twisted around on her barstool and gave Susan’s hand a firm shake. “And please, call me Grace.”
“Sure thing, Grace.”
“Thanks for pronouncing my last name correctly, by the way. Not everyone does that.”
“You have Isaac to thank there. He was quite insistent on how I should pronounce it, for some reason. I’ll admit, my first instinct was to say—”
“Please don’t.”
“Right. Sorry.”
The two of them glanced in unison back at Isaac and Nina. The twins were still going at it.
“I heard about your work on the Gordian murders,” Grace said. “Nasty business there, especially at the end. Glad to see both you and Isaac made it through alive. It would have been terrible for us to lose one or both of you on your first case together.”
“Yeah, it was a close thing,” Susan said, recalling the torrential storm on Saturn’s moon of Titan, the frigid sheets of liquid methane lashing their crashed aircraft with Isaac unconscious in the cockpit while she ventured outside to face the horde of weaponized drones encroaching on their position. “A very close thing.”
“I bet,” Grace agreed.
“Okay, you’ve made your point!” Isaac exclaimed.
“Then can we skip your stupid side quest?” Nina asked.
“If you insist.”
“We ready to move on?” Grace asked, stepping off the stool.
“I guess,” Isaac said. “I’d still like to do the side quest at some point. I spent a lot of time on it.”
“After the main story,” Nina said.
“All right. After,” he agreed with a sigh. “Back in character?”
“Yeah. Let’s get this session moving already.”
“Okay. Here goes.”
Isaac pulled his hood up then cast his divination cubes onto the table. He ran his hand over the cubes, then used a finger to flip most of them to a different side. When he was done, all the cubes showed the same starburst symbol.
“The gravity waves have deigned to whisper to me once more. I have received a . . . revelation. It seems I am fated to join you on your quest to find the missing star seer.”