My only proof that I wasn’t dreaming was the fading pain.
Somehow, deep down in my heart, I knew this was real—at least, as real as it could be.
Was this part of that strange simulation? The one that seemed too real to be true... Then there was my phone.
Looking around, I couldn’t find any evidence of a UI.
How could I be in a simulation if I couldn’t manipulate it? Lifting my hand in the air in front of me while voicing the command to access my user settings hands didn’t work either.
Something was wrong.
“Hello?” I shouted, hoping to get whoever was speaking before me to respond. Perhaps I could persuade them to give me the answers I desired.
“Hello, my child,”they said, their voice warm and familiar despite the fact that she was new to me.“I sense your concern. You have nothing to be afraid of. As we speak, your fated is attending to your needs.”
“My needs?” My brow scrunched in bewilderment as I spun around, trying to figure out what was going on. “What are you talking about?”
“Your body was severely harmed as a result of defending my land.... Your land,”the grandmotherly voice replied matter-of-factly.“I’m taking my time healing you while your fated works on making you a robe.”
“Why would I need a robe?” I exclaimed as I looked down at my body. I was taken aback by my nakedness. I wasn’t a prude, but this wasn’t how I remembered the state of my body being last time I was awake. “And what do you mean by fated? If you mean leading my team to victory in the World Championship, then yes. But what does that have to do with this? Are you the AI to some new simulation I’m talking to? If so, I’d like to return to reality, please.”
“I can’t do that right now,”the voice responded, her tone firm.“I’m not done with you yet.”
“Why do I need to be healed?” I spun around, fists clenched, eyes narrowed, looking for the source of the voice. “Where am I? What exactly is this?”
“You’re on X’thyrl,”the voice explained.“I’m your luwaeri’s hometree—”
“Hometree?” I shifted my gaze to the fluorescent, glowing display, my gaze fixed on the massive tree in the center, towering over everything else. “What exactly are you saying?”
“I don’t know how else to explain it to you,”the hometree replied, the large central tree pulsing with each word.“But, despite the fact that your fate is tied to one, you are not a child from this planet. You’re my caretaker’sluwaeri, his sacred one, and it’s my duty to restore you to glory.”
“What are you talking about?” Shaking my head, I took a step back, not believing anything this... tree was saying. “What kind of simulation is this? Is this some sort of role playing game where the AI can form arranged marriages?”
“What’s a simulation?”
The feeling of impending doom overtook me.
I’d heard of earlier systems not allowing users to exit their simulation, but I’d never heard of the AI not knowing what it was. How were they supposed to guide the players if they didn’t even know they were a part of one?
“It’s irrelevant,” I sighed, not wanting to explain myself to a... hometree. “I want to get out of whatever this is. Please return me to my body, and you and I can go our separate ways.”
“If that’s what you want—”
“It is.”
Time slowed as a sense of calm washed over me, drowning out my doubts and concerns. I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the void-filled sky as a numbing warmth enveloped and welcomed me. I accepted the transfer and let the hometree guide me to where I belonged, letting go of my resistance and awareness of my surroundings.
My ear throbbed,as if someone had pierced the entire helix with something and had rested it against my head. The floating sensation had persisted despite the strange intermission between simulation and reality.
Why couldn’t I feel anything else?
I opened my eyes, blinked hard, and tried to adjust to the darkness around me. My vision was blurred as I tried to figure out what the glowing markings on the walls were.
This wasn’t my team’s docking room. The coloring was wrong. This wasn’t even the arena, because their rooms were brighter than it was now.
I gasped, flinching, as the feelings in my hands returned, along with the sensation of floating on the surface of a body of water. As my head dipped below the surface, waves splashed over my hands.
As strange-flavored water rushed into my mouth, I splashed to right myself in whatever it was I had awoken in.
