Page 4 of The Glass Unicorn: Part 12

He’s here—they’re here.

Whoever said that wasn’t talking about us—the focus was elsewhere. I opened my eyes and jumped to my feet, hand on my sword as I glanced around. I hadn’t felt anything threatening, but that didn’t mean we weren’t in trouble.

But the next moment, the air next to us shimmered as two forms began to materialize. Thornhold and Brynn began tounsheathe their weapons, as Reggie and Ray fell behind us. Before any of us could make another move, however, the figures appeared directly in front of me. Standing there, in all their glory, were Otsiano, the Guardian of the Crystal Forest, and his friend, the Glass Unicorn.

CHAPTER 70: THE GLASS UNICORN, AGAIN

“What are you doing here?”I stared at them. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but…”

“We’re here to guide you. You’re entering treacherous territory, and the Summer Kingdom is a space we can enter without difficulty.” Otsiano glanced at the Glass Unicorn, who bobbed his head. “Master Ashelainn sensed you were near the prison containing Devastey. Therefore, it goes without saying that Zaran will be here as well.”

“I have foreseen your death should you go in unprepared,” The Glass Unicorn said. “We are here to prepare you.”

I froze. My death? I had no plans on dying, at least not while trying to get rid of this stupid key, and my blood ran cold. “It’s really so dangerous? I mean, I knew Zaran was a high-level mage, but…”

“It’s real, make no mistake about that,” Master Ashelainn said. “If you die here, you die for good. What’s your plan?”

I glanced at the others. “Well…”

“We don’t have one,” Thornhold said. “We figured that by the time we reached the Summer Kingdom we’d know what to do, but the truth is, we have no clue.”

I wanted to correct him, but the fact was—he was right. Find the Summer Kingdom. Destroy Devastey. I couldn’t even just give the key to her sister and be done with it. “I don’t know what to do,” I finally said. “I don’t know how to get this key off my neck. And we don’t know where to find the door leading into Devastey’s dimension.”

Otsiano nodded. “We thought as much, but we can only offer so much help. While we exist outside of this world, our influence and powers are limited here. But while we’ve been waiting for you to travel this far, I did some more research. You truly are stuck here. Abarria is your home. The portal to your world is gone for good. I have limited access to your home world, but I’ve asked some friends to look into it for me.”

“Friends? You have friends in our world?” Brynn asked.

“In a manner of speaking,” Otsiano said. “You won’t know them. Trust me.”

“What did you find?” I was less concerned with who his friends were than with what they found out.

Otsiano glanced at the Glass Unicorn, then sighed. He motioned for us to follow him over to the stream, and there he took out a black bowl from a pack he carried over his shoulder. He dipped it into the water and then set it on a nearby boulder.

“Look and see what you see,” he said.

I hesitated, then leaned over the bowl. As I did so, the water settled into a perfectly flat surface, and I began to see images flicker across the surface. “I see something,” I said.

“What is it?” Thornhold asked.

“I’m not…wait a moment,” I said. The image cleared, and I found myself looking at a headline on a screen. “It’s an…article?”

Otsiano nodded. “Yes. You’re basically looking at a magical screenshot.”

I took a deep breath and began to read the print that grew large enough for me to see.

Abarria Systems regrets to announce the disappearance of sixty-five in-gamers who have vanished from their holo-reality version of their reality-game version of the Legends of Abarria. It’s believed that the cyberattack experienced several weeks ago caused a power fluctuation strong enough to disrupt the neural-technology that allows players to enter the game in-body. CEO Daryn Sanders expressed his condolences to the families of all players involved.

“There’s very little chance that any of them have survived, and we’ve done substantial investigations into seeing what we might do to retrieve them, but all indications point to the cyberattack causing a massive overload on the system used to transport players, and as a result, it destroyed them along with the rest of the game.”

Families have been talking about suing the company, but all players signed waivers releasing Abarria Systems from any damages incurred, including up to death. Given that this attack was not of Abarria’s doing, it’s unlikely any class-action suit would hold up in court.

I looked at the others, having read it aloud. “We really are here for good. They know—I know they know we’re still alive, but they’re taking the easy way out. They’re writing us off.”

“We’re collateral damage,” Reggie said. “And sometimes, you just have to eat collateral damage to survive.”

“I hope their company goes down in flames,” I grumbled. “I know this was my choice to come here, but…”

Otsiano reached out and placed one hand on my shoulder, a soft, sad look in his eyes. “I know you’re angry, but you have theright to know where you stand. Once you are free of that key, you can go about making a life for yourself here.”