Beneath
the gleaming skyscrapers and picturesque facade of the City of Redemption lies
another city; a community of dark and ancient magic populated by creatures of
the night. Dark Redemption is a shared-world novel based on an online
role-playing game by James Crowther.
Strephon
MacKenzie's investigation into fae activity in the city has led him to the
office of Melchior Aesermann, a Lord of the Faerie posing as a mortal who owns
computer firm.
"You are in an interesting
position," Lord Melchior continued.
"Having, if you'll pardon the expression, a foot in both worlds,
the Mortal World and the Unseen Realm, you can appreciate what we are doing
here."
Now things were getting
interesting. This was the point where
Melchior was going to feel out his loyalties and try to recruit him for
whatever his scheme was without saying anything that would compromise him if
Strephon decided to decline. Strephon
leaned forward and rested his chin on his folded hands. "Tell me more."
"It is nothing less than a
complete paradigm shift."
"Ah... paradigms. That's one of those words management
consultants like to use to impress other management consultants."
"Perhaps this might impress you." Melchior picked up a ugly paperweight from
his desk and tossed it to Strephon.
Strephon caught it easily; then
gaped at it. "This is iron!"
"Yes. Cold iron.
The Faerie's Bane."
Something had been nagging at the
back of Strephon's mind and now he realized what it was. As a half mortal, Strephon could endure the
touch of iron, but how could a pure-blooded Lord of the Fae exist in a modern
steel-frame building, let alone toss pieces of wrought iron around like cricket
balls?
"The paradigm has shifted,"
Melchior repeated. "The
relationship between Mortal World and the Unseen Realm has changed, for those
with the wisdom to see it. Millennia ago,
mortals were weak and primitive, at the mercy of Nature. We preyed upon them openly and mocked them as
they sought to propitiate us with their worship or control us with their
rudimentary magic. But over the millennia
they learned to worship stronger gods and they developed tools and technology
to gain their own control of Nature and in doing so, lost their fear of
us. We were still masters of Nature and
so we did not recognize the danger until it was too late. Then they learned to master Iron and so
gained power even over us.
"Perhaps at that point we
should have left the Mortal Plane altogether, but everything Mortal is subject
to change and the Fae are patient. And
always the Mortal dreams drew us back; dreams as sweet as the lotus blossom
full of desire and terror and beauty; dreams we used to shape our own
reality. But by now, the mortals had turned
away from us; with their technology they had little need for us. Or so they thought.
"As much as we needed their
dreams, so did they need to dream. As
long as their imagination was enraptured with wheels and engines, we kept our
distance, enchanting a Shakespeare here or a Byron there, but for the most part
leaving Mortals alone.
"But now things have
changed."
Melchior tapped a few keys on the
laptop computer on his desk and turned it around. The screen displayed an image of the very
office they were in. Then, before
Strephon's eyes, it morphed into a fairyland, with flowered glades and mushroom
office furniture and the office morphed too, reflecting the image on the
screen. Then it changed again into a
symphony of chrome and steel, then a heaven of translucent alabaster, then a
hell of smoke and flame, all the while maintaining the general form and architecture of the room.
"Virtual
reality," Melchior said, as the office resumed its default setting. "Dreams and technology have become one
and provided an interface by which we can manipulate and control their
technology. A new age is dawning,
Strephon; the Age of the Silicon Fae.
The gateway is beckoning. Are you
interested?"
NEXT: Temptation
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