Erebos (37 page)

‘Oh well, it would please him, and I'm interested in it.'

Finally she turned to face him, and looked at him as if she was checking that he was telling the truth.

‘So you're not mad at your brother because you're responsible for your father's wishes now?'

Nick pushed his ponytail off the nape of his neck. ‘No. I'm not mad at him at all.'

Even though he hardly ever got to see them, Nick knew exactly how the two flying ravens looked that Finn had tattooed for him just under his hairline. He felt Emily's fingers like a breath of air on the tattoo. He swallowed.

‘Why ravens?'

‘At first it was because we both have such dark hair that Mum always used to call us “the raven brothers”. But Finn says they're good luck, And besides they're like a ... seal, a sign that we belong together.'

Emily gently took her hand away, much to Nick's regret. His ponytail slipped back into its normal place.

‘He has a knack, your brother. It looks good.'

The install was slowly nearing completion. Emily had gone into the kitchen to get a bottle of ginger ale and two glasses. When she came back, the screen was going dark.

‘Is that how it's supposed to be?'

‘Yes. I thought at first something was wrong too. Just wait.'

Black. Black. Black.

Then the letters appeared, red and throbbing.

‘Enter.

Or turn back.

This is Erebos.'

‘Well, then.' Emily said, and clicked on
Enter
.

Dark forest, moonlight. Her nameless figure was huddled in the middle of the clearing. He looked exactly like Nick's game character before he became Sarius. Nick fought against a renewed surge of melancholy as he watched Emily get familiar with how to control her own Nameless.

‘It's easy to get him to run around,' she said. ‘Can he do anything else?'

‘Yes! Climb, fight . . . everything! There'll be keyboard shortcuts for special abilities later on, but there's no hurry.'

Emily made her Nameless walk up and down the clearing. She had a good look at everything before she decided on her line of approach.

‘I think I'll go where the forest is not as dense; I don't want to make things harder than necessary for myself.'

Branches snapped, the wind rustled in the treetops. If Nick had had his way, Emily would have raced her game character through this first sequence much faster, but he was trying hard to conceal his impatience. She was handling it well, considering she was a newbie in computer gaming. Unlike Nick she didn't make Nameless rush around pushing his stamina meter to the limit; instead she was pacing him. After about twenty minutes of wandering about she turned to Nick. ‘Is there a goal? Or is it a test of patience?'

‘There is a goal. Somewhere round here there's a fire and someone you can talk to.'

What the tree had been to Nick when he'd used it to get an overview, a tall rock was to Emily. Nameless climbed up, and for the first time the stamina meter went down a little. But the view was compensation enough. A sea of treetops all around, and on the right a hill with dots of light hinting at the existence of a settlement.

‘There!' Nick cried, and pointed with his finger at a weak golden glow between the trees. ‘That's where you have to go!'

It was only Emily's look of surprised amusement that made him realise how agitated he must appear.

‘Well . . . that's where you go, over there. If you're interested.'

On the way to the small fireplace Emily, too, encountered an obstacle. It wasn't a crevice, like Nick's, but a rampart that she couldn't scale. Every time her Nameless took hold of it in order to pull himself up, stones and earth crumbled off.

‘And now?' Emily asked after the fifth failed attempt.

‘You need to learn how to solve problems like this. It's something you'll have to do quite often. Imagine that it's real. What would you do then?' Nick felt like some idiotic teacher, but he wanted Emily to grasp how fantastic and lifelike this all was.

And Emily grasped it quickly. She made Nameless drag some small boulders over, all the time keeping an eye on his stamina meter and giving him little rests. In the end he scaled the rampart without any trouble.

From the other side they could already see the campfire flickering. Nick also recognised the dark shadow that was silhouetted beside it. His heartbeat sped up. He wouldn't give Emily any more tips now. She needed to see for herself what Erebos could do.

The man by the fire didn't move when Nameless slowly approached. But the shimmering silvery words appeared at the edge of the screen.

‘Greetings, nameless one. I have been expecting you.'

He hadn't said that to Nick back then. He'd praised him for his speed. And for his ingenuity.

Emily took her game character closer to the man, and tried to peep under the black hood. But he lifted his head of his own accord. Nick had nearly forgotten the narrow face with its small mouth; the man hadn't ever turned up again later in the game.

‘You are curious. That can help you or destroy you, nameless one. It's something you need to be aware of.'

Emily threw Nick an uncertain look.

‘Do you wish to proceed?' the man asked. ‘Only if you ally yourself with Erebos will you be any match for this game. You need to know that.'

Emily was still looking back and forth between Nick and the screen, at a loss.

‘He's waiting for an answer,' Nick said, and pointed to the keyboard.

‘Seriously?'

‘Yes. Try it out, you'll see.'

Emily placed her fingers on the keys, hesitated at first, and then typed.

‘What does that mean, ally myself with Erebos?'

The man poked around in the fire with his staff. Sparks flew, rose into the air, extinguished.

‘It means overstepping limits, overcoming limits. What it ultimately means will depend on you.'

Emily took her fingers off the keyboard and looked at Nick in astonishment. ‘He gave me an answer. How does that work?'

‘No idea,' Nick said. ‘That's one of the special things about this game.' He suppressed a smile, because he could literally see how Emily was getting hooked.

A delicate melody started to play: flutes and violins, very soft, very seductive. The astonishing thing was that it was a melody that Nick had never heard during his time in Erebos. Not one single time.

‘Would you advise me to ally myself with Erebos?' Emily typed in. ‘Would you advise me to proceed?'

The man fixed his gaze on Emily's Nameless for a long time.

‘No.'

‘Why not?'

‘Because the darkness is full of pitfalls and abysses. Some of them you will not emerge from unscathed. Some of them swallow a person forever.'

It seemed to Nick that Emily had forgotten his presence completely. She stared at the man's words, her hands floated over the keyboard, and finally she asked the question that Nick had asked before her.

‘Who are you?'

The man put his head to one side thoughtfully, without taking his eyes off Emily.

‘I am a dead person. Nothing more.'

Nick heard Emily draw breath.

‘If you are dead, what are you doing here?'

‘I am waiting and keeping watch. Do you wish to proceed? Or will you turn back?'

His eyes were green, Nick noticed, and they were so lifelike that he could almost swear he had seen them before. In a flesh-and-blood face.

‘I will proceed,' Emily wrote. ‘That is what you were expecting, isn't it?'

‘Everyone proceeds,' the dead man said. ‘Turn left and follow the stream until you come to a ravine. Walk through it. After that . . . you'll take it from there.'

The dead man said that to me too, Nick recalled. But that wasn't all.

‘And watch out for the messenger with the yellow eyes.'

Nick warned Emily about the hostile toads that had given him such a hard time, but when she reached the ravine the attack came from above. Small yet extremely vicious bats swirled all around her Nameless, snapping at him with sharp teeth. The red bar on the life meter was sinking steadily.

‘You have to use your stick! Press the left mouse button!' Nick had to restrain himself not to take the mouse out of Emily's hand and kill the bats himself. ‘Shake them off with
Escape
. Jump with
Space
.'

It took a while and cost Nameless a lot of blood, but finally Emily had killed all the bats.

‘You can take the meat with you,' Nick explained. ‘It can be sold in the city later on.'

With a shrug of her shoulders Emily stowed the remains away. ‘And now?'

But her words already mingled with the sound of approaching hoof beats. Nick couldn't help ducking. What would the messenger say if he saw him here? The next minute he shook his head at himself. He can't see me. He can only see Nameless. I'm a complete idiot.

Emily sent her game character further along the ravine. There, up ahead, was the rock face, with the cave yawning in the middle, and on the ledge right in front of it the familiar figure of the messenger, waiting on his armoured horse.

‘Wow, is he creepy,' Emily whispered.

The messenger regarded Nameless without moving. The horse seemed restless; it pawed the ground and snorted.

‘Greetings, nameless one. You have made a good start.'

‘I'm glad,' Emily typed.

‘However you should continue to practise your fighting skills, otherwise you will not be destined for a long life.'

‘All right.'

The messenger turned away from Nameless and looked at Emily, who couldn't help sliding her chair back.

‘It is time you are given a name. Time for the first rite.'

‘What must I do?'

The messenger pointed with his bony finger to the cave behind him.

‘Enter. All else will follow. I wish you luck and the right decisions. We will meet again.'

He pulled his horse around and galloped away along a small, barely visible path high above Nameless's head.

‘I assume I have to go up these stairs, right?' Emily asked.

‘Yes. Up the stairs and into the cave.'

Nameless disappeared into the darkness of the mountain and the computer screen darkened.

‘This will take quite a while again,' Nick said. ‘You mustn't get nervous.'

Emily jerked the mouse back and forth, but the cursor was nowhere to be seen.

‘It's amazingly real,' she said after a while. ‘I felt as though that messenger was really looking at me. As if he wanted to show me he's perfectly aware that it's not the game character that matters, but the person controlling it.'

‘You'll find that happens a lot.'

They looked at their reflections in the monitor.

‘Is this first rite difficult? As difficult as the thing with the bats?'

‘No, quite different. You'll see in a minute.'

Tap, tap! Tap, tap!

‘Sounds like a heartbeat. What is it?'

‘It means it's about to continue. Press
Enter
.'

The black screen created red letters.

‘This is Erebos. Who are you?'

Would Emily lie? Would she enter a false name?

‘I am Emily.'

‘Tell me your whole name.'

‘Emily Carver.'

Ghostly whispering. ‘Emily Carver. Emily. Emily. Carver. Emily Carver.'

They do that to welcome you, and before they throw you into the abyss, Nick thought wistfully. Emily sought his gaze, and he smiled at her: all quite normal.

‘Welcome, Emily. Welcome to the world of Erebos. Before you start playing, acquaint yourself with the rules. If you don't like them, you can end the game at any time. Understood?' ‘I wouldn't have expected that,' Emily murmured, while she typed ‘okay'. ‘Any time. It actually sounds fair.'

‘Good. Here is the first rule. You have only one chance to play Erebos. If you squander it, it's over. If your character dies, it's over. If you break the rules, it's over. Okay?'

‘Yes.'

‘The second rule. When you play, make sure that you are alone. Never mention your real name in the game. Never mention the name of your game character outside the game.'

Emily took her fingers off the keyboard and looked at Nick.

‘That means I need to chuck you out now, doesn't it?'

‘Just type “yes”,' Nick said. ‘You could still do with a little help at the moment.' Was she really going to throw him out? He didn't want to go. He wanted to be there for the first rite. Maybe even for her first fight.

A small smile tugged at her lips as she wrote ‘okay'.

‘Good. The third rule. The content of the game is secret. Do not speak to anyone about it. Especially not to people who are not registered. During the game you can converse with players around the fires. Don't pass any information on to your friends or your family. Don't post any information on the internet.'

‘A few things are becoming clear to me,' said Emily.

‘The fourth rule. Keep the DVD somewhere safe. You need it to start the game. Don't copy it under any circumstances, unless the messenger asks that you do so.'

‘Okay.'

Light streamed across the screen, almost out of the screen. Nameless sat in the sunny clearing. The ruined tower, in which the first rite would take place, was waiting behind him.

Emily had scarcely touched her game character with the cursor before he stood up, peeled the face off his head and walked towards the tower.

‘These are important decisions now,' Nick said. ‘You mustn't rush them. I'll help you.'

Emily's Nameless stood before the first copper tablet. ‘Choose your gender.'

‘It's not so important what you choose here, although the men are stro —'

Emily had already clicked on ‘Woman'. Nameless's body changed, became narrower overall; the chest and hips swelled.