Dassah

Reality flickered a thousand times, shifting and changing from one dreamlike setting to the next. Forests with trees that towered over mountains became a peaceful seaside. Scents of pine mixed with salt as Dassah went from watching deer in a quiet forested grove to schools of sea creatures jumping from the ocean waves.

Then it was nighttime in the desert, the endless sky filled with more stars than she thought possible. Ribbons of light and color lit it up, shimmering like mother-of-pearl. Great beasts Dassah never saw before flew like fish swam in the sea, gliding effortlessly on the wind without wings.

She could be raptured by the scene for only a few moments before night spun round to day. The stars were replaced by three suns hanging in a cloudless sky, and the beasts replaced by six-winged birds.

Surroundings sped past—then a pause.

On a high wooded cliff, giant eagles danced with wyverns over a white citadel.

Dassah stood surrounded by chamomile, a touch of magic danced at her fingertips. River water was carried to her by the wind as a great waterfall spilled off the cliff beside her. A wyvern rose on an updraft and landed beside her, the force of its wings creating a gust that sent her backward as she shielded her face with her arms.

With golden eyes it gave her a fierce, wild stare.

It asked: “Human. Why have you come?”

Before she could answer, the scene changed.

Then again.

Then again.

She hardly had time to think about what she was seeing, let alone figure out how she was supposed to react to it.

I just have to have faith in the system, Dassah thought as she stood on a jungle step pyramid in a dense, vibrant junglescape. Earar flew in packs overhead, their bat-like wings beating furiously against the sky.

The Fates’ task was infamous. There was quite a large outcry for the devs to tone it down by half, but the devs proved resistant to the idea. This was, as they said, “The game’s training wheels. The system needs data drawn from the players’ brains to have a standard to judge the health of the user.”

According to them, this could only be done the very first time a player logged in.

According to others, however, Varier Corporation was using this is as an important excuse to have legal access to thoughts, emotions, and even memories of any individual in the system—and that was even before they discussed the mental repercussions of any untrained players who hadn’t gone through testing orientation.

That was why she was supposed to ask the Fates to keep her records private before she entered the task.

It’s annoying, but it's not like I have anything to hide, Dassah thought as she watched a charming, romantic scene of a pair of bark-skinned tivarys exchanging red flowers they grew from their hands.

In a verdant oasis of a golden desert, she emerged from the water. A startled lizard girl gasped and ran to a nearby caravan, where a pair of guards emerged. They carried sharp spears and had eyes of rubies and sapphires, and asked: “Why have you come, human?”

The scene flickered, and she was standing on a bridge between mighty mountains, the moon was huge and high. The evening light streaming through the mist turned everything to a shade of pearly purple. A silvery falcon flew overhead, shooting from one place to the next, from up high to down below, courting the waterfall that ran beneath the bridge. As it flitted back and forth, Dassah could just barely hear a high-pitched voice asking: “Human! Why have you come?”

Dassah’s sense of awareness and sense of self faded to the back of her mind as she tried to grasp onto sanity against the constant assault on her senses.

Flickering, flickering.

She was in the woods in the dead of a firelit night. A procession of people and monsters in masks and finery passed by, carrying lanterns that held back the dark along the snake-like path they walked. One saw her hiding in the bushes and pulled her up to join them.

Though she could not tell who or what these strangers were, she oddly felt at home among them. Fascinated, she took note of every detail, but in her distraction tripped into the person in front of her.

“S-Sorry!” she said as she stumbled up, then realized it wasn’t the robe she had fallen into, but a white, fluffy tail.

Chuckling, the person helped her stand steady before raising his mask to reveal a sharp set of jet black eyes and a pair of real, fox-like ears. White hair that matched his tail was pulled over his shoulder.

“Human,” he said, pulling a cloth mask from his long sleeve. He tied it around her head. “Why have you come?”

“Is this a wedding?” she asked with wonder.

He nodded cordially. “A wedding indeed, one out of place and time. You should be going now, girl yet to be born—the world awaits you!”

The fox man shoved her.

Dassah fell into the bushes only to find herself looking up at the clouds in a bright blue sky. She sat up to find herself in a glade, face to face with a unicorn. It was lean and narrow like a deer but large as a horse.

With silvery, almond-shaped eyes that took up most of its face, it stared at her a moment before pointing its single, bladed horn at her heart. With a sweet voice, it asked: “Why have you come?”

The glade then swirled away.

Suddenly she was sitting on the beach. She’d lost her shoes.

Did I have shoes? She wondered, but could not recall. Her mind felt numb, and she felt like she was forgetting something important. She wracked her brain, but the waves gently lapping against the shore soon lulled her mind to an unquestioned contentment.

The sand was silky and warm between her toes, and the smell of the ocean embraced her. Ocean foam mingled with the shells and seaweed that had been ferried to the shore, and the world felt at peace.

But from the waters, a seal emerged. Intelligent eyes observed her before it shed its skin. A girl in a ragged dress took its place and walked up to her. “Human? Why have you come?”

The world went white.

White, then gray, then faded to black, and then the fog returned to wrap her in its cool embrace. But this time, the dampness felt sharp and unpleasant.

“Why have you come?” The words echoed in the mist. Cold words. Haunting words. Words she could not answer. “Who are you?”

Who was she? Surely she should know. She was…

She felt ill as she struggled for answers, but the more she thought about it, the more questions she had. The more questions she had, the more confused she became. The more confused she became, the more fear gripped her heart.

No! she exclaimed internally, and as her mind cleared, the fog thinned to a gentle mist. I know who I am. I’m Dassah—No. Guin Grey. I am Guin, and this is a game. This is TheirWorld.

I have to leave the other name behind. I’ve come here for a reason. A purpose. Dassah may lie, but Guin Grey doesn’t need to. Guin is free of Dassah’s shackles.

Drawing a shuddering breath, tears filling her eyes, she stared at the light with conviction.

“I am Guin Grey. A blank book waiting to be written. I can be anything and everything, but…” she started, faltering. Suddenly feeling compelled to tell the truth, she frowned and said, “I am torn between what I am, what I was, and what I wish to be. Dassah is the reality I cannot escape and Guin is the dream yet right now I am neither. I am no one.”

Dassah gently touched her lips as the words seemed pulled from her. Is this an effect of the system?

“No one?” the voice questioned, then the light faded and flickered away, bringing back the darkness. But the voice remained and asked: “Does that make you afraid, child? Do you fear?”

Was she afraid?

“Dassah” was always afraid—or at least it felt like she was. Her friend Stella always pointed out that no truly scared person could fly across the universe to get paid to play a video game for a few years, but that wasn’t right either. It was difficult to explain that just because she moved to a new place didn’t mean she stopped being afraid.

She just temporarily overcame it.

As before, the truth was drawn from her lips with a soft, “Yes.”

Inches from her face, the mist swirled wildly. She cringed away as threads of white entwined with strings of black.

Chaotically the strings spun to life as they made what looked to be a face within. In constant motion, it flowed like the sketch of a child twisted into a nightmare. Eyes, black, swirling, and soulless, its mouth opened to a great black grin with sharp white teeth.

Voice caught in her throat, Dassah stumbled back.

“Do. You. FEAR?” asked the creature before her.

The voice of the nothingness went from soft to harsh in a word, and wind blasted around her. The laughing face hung in the air as the mists swirled into patterns, colors, and shapes. One moment her feet were firmly on the ground. Then the ground was swept from beneath her.