55. GridGame
GridGame
Playlist: Just Pretend - Bad Omens
Kael
Lyra knows when I play games I always win.
We can’t afford to lose this time. With both our magics humming in sync like twin circuits ready to overload, every move feels like the edge of a precipice: one slip, one hesitation...game over.
I refuse to entertain the thought. Failure is not an option for me.
LINK rises before us, not as the neutral entity I built her to be, but as an evolving thing straining toward humanity. Her outline blinks between the cold lines of code and an almost feminine shadow. Her voice cuts like a knife.
CORRUPTION DETECTED
A pause, as if she’s evaluating her next move.
ACCESS ALLOWED
KAEL: WELCOME HOME
The words flash green across every surface.
“Welcome home?” I shake my head in disbelief. LINK is definitely darker, older, wiser, but so am I.
“That’s adorable. Let me remind you, I built this house, and you don’t get to play host.”
Lyra looks at me, fear filling in the lines of her beautiful face. “We need a plan, Kael.” She keeps her voice low to avoid triggering LINK.
Kenji’s lessons bubble up from somewhere inside me:
“Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”
—Sun Tzu—The Art of War
Together, we decide to push into DreamNet to avoid LINK and to come up with a solid plan. She won’t be expecting us to leave the grid.
My magic lashes out in streaks of molten orange; her magenta-gold threads weave seamlessly into the fire blooming from me. They coil around each other, forming a door, fueled by her fear, pure adrenaline. DreamNet.
We jump through, the sensation of falling into deep water rushing both our bodies. I look back once we’re through. Just as I suspected, LINK doesn’t follow.
Lyra’s purple-hued beach comes into full view, warm and inviting after the stark coldness of the system grid. No time to admire it, though. I have to get her to safety because eventually I will have to rip my heart out and leave her here on this very beach. I can’t stay here.
Everything appears normal, a fabricated calm. There’s a part of me that wants to relinquish my entire life, settle here with her, and just pretend. But I know better.
Lyra releases my hand slowly, reluctantly. Her eyes dart to mine, pulsing amber hues. She feels it too, the way our powers snap together, an electric lock that shouldn’t fit but does. Once joined, they feel content.
“We shouldn’t be able to do that, should we?” she whispers in awe.
“No,” I answer. “But we did.”
Her lips part as if to argue, but I don’t let her. “This isn’t DreamNet’s normal door, Taiyō. This is ours. We forced it open. Together.” The word “together” tastes glorious on my tongue. It feels like ownership, like a vow etched in blood.
The false wind rolls in, slamming salt air into me.
A wave of nausea rumbles through my stomach and up my throat, forcing me to bend over and close my eyes.
My hands rest on my knees. I can see they’re still glowing faintly.
I stand up slowly, hoping it will pass, but find myself staggering, light-headed, as if starved for oxygen.
Lyra catches me before I hit the ground, fingers gripping my shirt, eyes searching my face, making sure I’m not injured.
Her hand moves to the middle of my back, stroking me like my mother used to when I was young.
I’m a little shaken that the memory has surfaced right at this moment in time. I haven’t thought about her in years.
“Breathe,” she says softly. “You’re okay.”
“I’m not,” I rasp, staring at my hands like they might light up again. “This...this isn’t possible. I don’t have magic.”
She smiles, unafraid of what I’ve become. “You do now.”
I do now. Those three words set off the harsh realization that my magic didn’t awaken randomly. It emerged because of her. Because I let her in. Because whatever this bond is, it doesn’t care about my life rules or that I could be a liability to whoever I choose to walk this path with me.
I look out at the horizon and chuckle quietly. “The architect has become part of the system.” I run both hands down my face, still feeling heat in the tips of my fingers.
Her magic hooks into mine instinctively, not asking permission, just assuming I’ll follow. And I do, because my power responds before my mind catches up. Lyra releases me and turns toward her parent’s cottage. “Come on, let’s get you home so you can take a minute to process all this.”
Home.
That word sounds so foreign to me. Sure, I have one, my penthouse, but it’s mainly where I transition from work to sleep, or where I go to train after a long day in the neon rot.
I can sense that LINK’s presence has dropped away as DreamNet renders around us, raw edges smoothing around the sea, colors filling in to form the digital sunset. The program is adapting quickly to our intrusion from the hijacked entrance. Impressive. I’ll need to study this later.
Lyra begins to lead the way. Sand whips at our ankles as we walk toward the small cottage rising from the dunes.
Its lights glow warm against the darkening sky, windows flickering like golden candlelight.
It looks almost too fragile to exist here, a small slice of comfort against the harsh expanse of code.
The roof is thatched in pale reeds that sway in simulated wind, casting ripples of shadow over the walls.
Weathered wood shutters cling to the windows, painted once in soft blues but now faded to a shade between ash and sky.
The closer we get, the more the air shifts to a cold chill that doesn’t seem natural, even for DreamNet. My magic recoils, tightening against my skin as if it knows what’s ahead. The wind stops altogether, silence thick enough to stifle my breath.
Lyra throws her hand in front of me, protectively, surveying the area around the cottage.
Through the window, I catch glimpses of mismatched furniture, the glow of a hearth, and shelves sagging under the weight of actual books.
She must have dreamt them up herself, a product of having too much time on her hands while trapped inside.
No one reads actual books anymore, so naturally I get lost in the thought of us sitting in front of the fire reading together, savoring the tranquility of the moment, words connecting us in ways technology never will.
I know why she holds on to this dream. It feels alive in a way the rest of this world doesn’t. Personal. Stolen pieces of memory woven together into a sanctuary.
The blowing sand fades at the doorstep. It’s much more than a home. It’s Lyra’s heart made into architecture, every piece of it a testament to a place where she can still feel human, still feel safe.
We take two steps inside and immediately are met with a violet surge that erupts through every windowpane. The lights flash like the bulbs are shattering inward. A voice echoes, fractured and furious. “Well, it took you long enough.”
Elliot Vaille. Eli.
“Lyra?! What the hell is he doing here?” His eyes strobe.
That’s when I feel it, his void building at just the mere sight of me standing beside her. Not just absence, but a seismic shift, like gravity inverted. The kind of darkness that remembers light only to consume it.
He manifests through a dozen images at once, hollow avatars, their mouths twisting in sync, void-light spilling from their eyes. His presence is wrong here, jagged, tearing pixels from the simulation as he forces his way in.
Lyra steps forward. “Eli.” Her voice breaks on his name.
I immediately move to shield her, my body taking over reactively, sliding her behind me. I remain there, firelight still humming under my skin.
I’m ready to protect her, ready for a fight. And for the first time in my life, I’m not just fighting the system. I’m part of the game now.
He snarls through all the mouths at once. “Don’t touch her! Don’t let him touch you!” His void lashes out, ripping at me like black claws of static.
I feel Lyra’s power waver, pulled between love for her brother and rage at what he’s become.
My magic surges harder on impulse, protective, no thought involved, just action. LINK immediately finds us from his surge, her code fracturing as Eli’s void eats into her core.
DREAMNET COMPROMISED
“LINK—stand down. Do not engage!” I bark, my voice coming out too loud for the room. I turn to Lyra and take both her hands in mine. “Feel me. Match my pulse. We can hold him. We have to hold him. If this void reaches outside of DreamNet again, he could destroy the entire city.”
Her eyes snap to mine, calculating, scanning. Her head tilts like she’s processing her reaction. It’s like a fist through my heart. She’s only part human now, more machine than ever before.
Our powers braid tighter, resisting the pull of the void, but it’s not victory. Eli screams. The echo sound, hollow and technical, the one Lyra speaks of when she recalls the night she was erased from humanity and rebirthed as a weapon with a heartbeat she can no longer feel.
The grid splinters like ice around us. Lyra throws her hands up, to keep the void from tearing us apart, her emotion driving the magic, scattering across my own, weaving neon nets to hold us steady.
But it’s too much. Eli’s void eats everything, black and thick like oil.
LINK cuts in, her voice breaking into something almost pleading.
CONTAINMENT CAPACITY EXCEEDED
PARTITIONING VOID
“She’s protecting us?” I question as I pull Lyra behind me, my body readying in a fighting stance. It’s not logical. “LINK reroute all processing power from your personal matrix to the neural firewall.”
FIREWALL INITIATED
PRIORITIZING CREATOR INTEGRITY
Lyra shakes her head fervently. “No, Kael...she’s protecting you.
” She grabs my shoulders and spins me around to face her, her eyes losing their soft human focus, replaced by a rhythmic jitter.
Gods, she’s data scrubbing me, less like reading and more like a drive being indexed.
“LINK’s power-loading Eli, I can feel it. ”
This is worse than I thought. LINK is recklessly dumping raw energy into him, emptying her own reserves into his veins.
If I wasn’t living it, I’d think it was sheer brilliance on her part.
Power Eli enough to destroy the grid, protect me, protect herself, and avoid any blame for destroying Lyra by absorbing her humanity, making her just another string of data.
I refuse to let that happen. I’ll need to reach deep for the courage to protect both of us. My magic’s new, still foreign to me, it pales in comparison to Eli’s void. Eli’s power devours, Lyra’s bleeds, and mine? It commands.
I just need time to master it.
Lyra’s fingers catch mine. That’s all it takes to lock me in place. “You have to go!” she warns.
My whole body revolts at her touch. “What?! No, I’m not leaving you!”
“If you stay, we both could collapse into the void. I’ve got this.” She laces my other hand in hers. “I trust you, Kael. Now I’m asking you to trust me. Cut the rope.”
“Taiyō...don’t.” She’s referencing last night, reassuring me that she heard every word of my truth to her. My voice is low, my heart already breaking into a million tiny pieces. “If I pull out, you can’t follow me. I have the DreamNet band.”
“Better one of us alive in the real world than both gone in here.” Her forehead rests against my chin, her breath sending a shiver up my spine. “Besides”—she presses her head against my lips—“I need you out there to save me, remember?”
My hands hover at her waist, I allow my fingers to tighten around her soft flesh.
Fuck, I don’t know where I’ll find the strength to let go.
She doesn’t know I’m already willing to throw it all away to keep her.
She doesn’t know what I’ve promised myself.
That I will destroy my life’s work if it means having her by my side.
My jaw flexes, teeth grinding against the urge to drag her out with me even if it scalds me from the inside.
“No. I won’t allow you to leave me again.
” My words slip out so quickly they sound like an order.
Her mouth meets mine in a kiss so devastating, my magic flashes throughout every piece of ink on my body.
The code around us pulses, glitch-fire flickering and appearing as lightning in a storm over the ocean. She’s trembling, afraid, and all I can think is that I’m just as afraid. Not of losing my life, of losing her.
The system convulses as Eli’s void rages. LINK is rapidly looping commands, but they’re disappearing into the void just as fast. The walls themselves begin to fold inward, the beginning of another DreamNet collapse.
Lyra’s gaze crawls slowly up to mine. “You always get what you want, Kael. Always.” There’s accusation in it, but also pride. “But not this time!”
She reaches down and rips the band off my wrist, forcing an abrupt kill of my link to DreamNet. She stuffs it in the pocket of my dress shirt and gives me a hard shove. Pain sears through my chest, white-hot light exploding under my skin as my magic slams through the network.
Lyra’s shaky voice follows me out. “I trust you, Kael. Save me.”