Enchanted Ever After

Kiri had bent down to sniff at the grass—something smelled fabulous—and how could she smell in the game? She didn’t know, but the scent went to her head, spiraled through her body.

Think! She straightened slowly. “So dwarves and brownies aren’t our size?”

“Dwarves are shorter and stockier than humans, perhaps the tallest is four feet tall. Brownies are even smaller.”

“Uh-huh.” She peered at the distant waves of the really blue ocean, beyond the sparkling white beach. Yes, too-bright colors, but in those faraway waves did she see the hint of a castle? Maybe turrets occasionally revealed to be pearlescent shell-pink?

Lathyr’s hands came down on her shoulders. He’d moved behind her. Pure sensation rippled through her. She couldn’t help herself from sniffing the fingers on her right shoulder, again a little salt, some sort of fresh odor, and the fragrance all around her, though more intense. “What is that smell?”

“In the game?” He chuckled. “Magic.”

“Oh, of course. I still can’t figure out how we can smell stuff in the game.” Maybe there was scent on the visors, or they emitted fragrance in bursts like air fresheners.

Another amused laugh from Lathyr. “Magic. Now turn and look at the other two realms...our time is running out.”

“Huh.” But she did turn, scanned the white-blue-violet mist and the castle in the air, perched on a huge puffy white cloud with streaks of violet. “One guy explaining the realms to me? This is a lame opening, I could write better.” Too late she realized she’d been offensive. “Sorry.”

“I didn’t write the scenario,” Lathyr said coolly. “We will have a virtual guide. We were given permission for the new game no more than a fortnight ago. Ms. Emberdrake has been concentrating on the game itself.”

Kiri winced. Yeah, she’d offended him, maybe Jenni, too. She swallowed. “I’m sure it’s amazing.” She pushed a little. “And that’s why you need me. I can help.” She waved again, still enjoying the butterflies. “Okay, that’s the Air Realm. Castle in the clouds is a big clue.”

“That’s right. The denizens of the Air Realm are elves and airsprites.”

She twisted from his grip to stare at him. “Elves? Really elves?”

“Yes.”

She couldn’t prevent a girl-squeal from emerging. “Awesome. I could be an elf?”

“In the Air Realm, yes.” His voice remained cool. Ah, well.

“How big are they? Bitty like Santa’s elves or big and—” sexy, no, she wouldn’t say that “—hunky like Tolkien’s elves in the movies?”

“They are usually taller than regular humans, but more slender,” Lathyr said austerely. Kiri guessed her “hunky” irritated him as much as “sexy” might have.

“Oh. And airsprites?”

“They might be considered your elves—though I believe airsprites appear as described more often in huma—literature and art depicting fairies.”

“Oh, small then?”

“Yes, they are humanoid-looking when they care to be.”

“All right. You’ve already done a lot of work on this game.”

“Yes,” Jenni said in her ear again, in a slightly choked voice, like she was laughing? “Though not so much on the opening.”

Kiri winced again.

“And we will have eight races, and only eight,” Lathyr said.

“Oh, no humans?”

“Not at this time,” Jenni said. “Thirty-second warning, Lathyr and Kiri.”

“Oh.” Scanning the Air Realm, Kiri didn’t see any great detail. She could definitely make a contribution there, if it really was only sketched in.

She turned to the red-yellow Fire Realm. This appeared very detailed, as if it might be the best developed realm—red and sandy rock formations, desert, sand dunes of white and brown. Multicolored hot flames dancing in the air, even forming into sheets of heat waves distorting the rest of the picture. “Wow, Jenni, Fire Realm is great. You must have worked hard on it.”

“Thank you!” Pleasure radiated in Jenni’s voice.

“Fire Realm has djinns—” Lathyr began.

“Djinns like genies?” Kiri asked.

“Yes, djinnmen and djinnfems as the major race,” Lathyr finished.

Kiri imagined herself in a turban, maybe a metallic golden one. Gold lamé with a big ruby. Tacky but wonderful. “What kind of costumes do you have?” she asked. And did djinn manifest from smoke? Did they have lamp domiciles? Did they fly? Or have flying carpets?

“Not nearly as good a range of costumes as our game Fairies and Dragons,” Jenni said with regret.

“Oh.” Kiri cleared her throat. “Yet. Not as good a wardrobe yet. I can help with that.”

“I like your attitude,” Jenni said. “And what I’ve seen of your costumes in our times playing together in Fairies and Dragons, you’ll be a great help.”

Kiri was glad she’d already deleted all hideous fashion mistakes.

“The minor folk are firesprites,” Lathyr continued. “Like airsprites, they are significantly smaller than humans, perhaps as tall as eighteen inches as the maximum. Again, they tend to be less substantial than the major folk, the djinns.”

“Time,” Jenni said. “Logging Kiri Palger and Lathyr Tricurrent out of the opening to the prologue of Transformation.”

Chapter 8

KIRI BECAME AWARE of the mesh chair under her butt. Her nose missed the scent of magic, and tears nearly squeezed from her eyes at being back in the real world. Stupid! She swallowed hard, made sure her eyes were dry before she pulled off her visor. Her monitor had gone into sleep mode. She wanted to jiggle the mouse to see if she might recapture the view from the hill.

“Well, Kiri, what do you think?” Jenni was right there, staring down at her. Kiri pulled off her gloves harder than she’d anticipated because her palms were sticky. Looking up at Jenni, Kiri had to blink a bit because the woman actually looked a little red, like she’d gotten a sunburn.

Kiri rubbed her eyes, her fingers definitely smelled like her own sweat, and said the first thing that came to her mind in response to Jenni’s question. “I’m starving.”

“Hmm.” Jenni’s brows dipped. “Maybe I’d better talk to my kitchen staff.”

Kitchen staff, in an office? Jenni sauntered to the door.

“No, no!” Kiri amended. “Don’t worry about it.”

On her way out, Jenni tossed over her shoulder. “Sounds like the virtual reality might burn some energy.”

Lose weight while game playing. Oh, yeah, a win-win situation. “If that’s true, the marketing possibilities are incredible,” she said to Lathyr. He looked just the same. “Are you hungry?”