Within moments of the Jade Emperor's appearance, the messenger animals that Hisui and Appella had tried to summon earlier popped into existence. Apella seemed distracted by the elaborately robed figure before her, and ignored both the messenger that circled her, and Hisui's frantic lunge.
Jade had been half expecting it, so he paid no attention to the messenger animals or the Emperor, as the temporary portal he had laid finally powered up and the connected space opened. He reached over to snatch the rocks and sand from where they lay beside the portal, and toss them through the opening before it vanished. He wasn't prepared at all for the jet of air that blasted out of the small circle as the first object cleared the rim.
Despite his vastly better dwarven coordination, Hisui lost his footing and was blown away, high into the air, over the sea of moving Augusmin.
The Emperor laughed aloud, but made no motion to stop the dwarven character's unexpected flight. The little portal shimmered oddly when the Emperor gazed at it, but remained in place long enough for Jade to use Hisui's dwarven strength and coordination to launch the last moon rock pebble in his hand past the rim of the little portal before it snapped shut, and the rim crumbled away.
Hisui fell. He fell too slowly, and yet too quickly, all at once. Sky's messenger animal popped into existence beside the falling dwarf, and held out the message almost elegantly.
Jade struggled with instinctive reactions that his new 'memories' told him had been developed by the 'deaths' his mechanical bodies had experienced. The mental paralyzation was 'physical' here, but the game interface also responded instantly to his wish once he formed it. Hisui's steady hands collected the message as smoothly as though he stood at his forge.
That movement freed Jade's mind. For Hisui, as for all Players, death within the game was merely an inconvenience. This wasn't his first fall, and he adjusted his position to catch as much air as he could, even as he aimed for an open space in the thinning crowds of Augusmin below him.
Skyheart Snowsong's message screen was hidden before the words finished forming as the spellcheck on the ignition enchantments in his boots threw an error message pop up. System-wide achievement notifications overwrote that too, as announcement after announcement popped up. Coriander sent the first message from the moon. Kidmaiden both committed the first murder and suffered the first player death. The Imins guild activated the first permanent portal on the moon. Taken claimed the first territory at the same time.
Hisui hit the ground far harder than Jade felt like he should have. He got to feel the impact of the first bounce, but then everything went dark in a familiar fashion. The too predictable video that began to replay Hisui's life before Jade's eyes… actually felt rather shocking.
Jade had not forgotten anything, but he watched his mother hug his dwarf a thousand times. She had always looked so much like she did in real life, but watching her gradually aging visibly over the years, her life was flashing before his eyes wasn't it?
And then seeing Apella's… no Eric's, she had looked a bit more like Eric back then hadn't she… Seeing the previous character his friend had played for years, walking and laughing at his side… seeing everything… all those quests… watching his friend ride the dragon all the way to the top of the sky once more… and then vanish forever.
And then witnessing some of the slightly awkward moments afterwards, when Apella had reconnected with him, not exactly different, and yet… things had not been exactly the same had they. Knowing that Eric had been beside him in real life at that point altered Jade's interpretation of some of those moments, some of those questions.
The memories passed by without pausing for Jade's comprehension to catch up. He watched Apella go missing from his friend list. Watched Hisui cry. Watched his new friend Skyheart Snowsong climb into the sky beside him.
Jade knew that Living Jade Empire always showed the highlights of a character's life. Everyone knew that. But had it always shown you… all of this? Had it shown him this before? How long had it been since he had let Hisui die?
Jade held so many memories… his own… those of his past… and those created by the other half of himself… Jade was sorting through his own recollections of Jade's life when the bird interrupted.
--
"That went quicker than I expected," the Jade Emperor commented mildly.
Apella stared through the annoying pop up screens that tried to block her view of the elaborately robed figure who had already been blocking her view of Hisui. Who looked far too much like a slightly older version of the Jade who existed outside of the game. How Eric had missed that resemblance before, he couldn't fathom.
Apella's mouth opened in soundless protest as the notification of her party member Hisui's death blazed into existence atop the other pop up screens. As soon as Jade had announced that he just needed to make a call, it felt like everything had exploded.
"Apella! Can you hear me!?" Sky's muffled voice demanded from the mirror beneath Apella's hands.
"No!" Eric screamed with Apella's voice. "It's not over!" The hand holding the communication mirror slapped the screens aside in a splash of sparkles, as though its enchantments could shatter the interface screens.
The being that wore a version of Jade's face regarded Apella with a far far too familiar expression of concerned puzzlement. "The portal has already closed and my summoner has departed this plane," the Emperor replied gently.
"Who are you really?" Eric demanded. "What the hell is happening!?" For the first time, he hated hearing Apella's lighter voice shouting in place of his own.
"Simple questions with far too many answers for this simple Emperor to reveal them all to you now. However, this should help point you in the right direction," the Jade Emperor replied with amusement as, with a wink like some sort of old fashioned stage magician, he vanished.
"Apella?" Sky's voice asked again, far more uncertainly. "Hisui was killed?"
The quaver in Skyheart Snowsong's question stabbed Eric through his own lungs and for a moment he couldn't speak.
The system-wide message screen that formed out of the sparkles of the previous screens froze the rest of him.
"Engrave this day into the history of the Moon. Carry the true name of the one who opened the path that the Jade Emperor traveled to reach the other side of the world above his Empire, to the Tree that his father planted so that it may be sung for a thousand years. The first player to complete the same journey that the Augusmin travel every cycle of the Moon, will be able to compose a song that will never be forgotten."
There was no option to refuse. There was nothing to force anyone to complete it. There were currently only two players who would know that Hisui's name would fulfill the first condition. There were no answers offered beyond the most obvious identity of the Jade Emperor.
Apella's face was colder than the breeze that blew from the direction of the ever so slowly approaching darkness beyond the tree, as she finally replied to Skyheart Snowsong. "This challenge was laid for us."
"It was Hisui wasn't it," Sky replied dryly. "Want to bet that it means there isn't a single shrine to the Twins already on the Moon?"
