"Step out of the pool. Go sit over there."
Rylen gestured towards a bench at the side of the room, and as before, my legs seemed to obey him, and not me. Walking with a tail felt very very odd.
Sitting was odd, too. I almost sat on my new appendage, and had to shift it out of the way at the last minute.
Rylen's eyes glittered as he watched. "You'll get used to it, with time. And that's something you'll have no real shortage of, my dear. Now, let's get down to some explanations. Usually I have my new ... acquisitions go through orientation with one of my underlings, but you... you are just unique enough that I think that perhaps I should handle this one myself."
I still couldn't talk. I couldn't get up and run away. So I sat, and listened.
"First, the basics." He giggled. "Welcome... to the afterlife!"
There was a pause.
"I've always wanted to say that. You'll have to forgive my little indulgences. But for you, I'm afraid, it's quite true. I was being somewhat melodramatic when I talked of souls being sucked into machines, but it's as good a metaphor as any. I've done some rather clever hacks on the machine, which I won't bore with the details of, and achieved a rather interesting result: You are dead. But still in the game."
"I had your connection send some rather nasty electronic pulses straight into the areas of your brain that control breathing and other rather necessary bodily functions, and ... I'm afraid you are quite dead."
I felt cold. If he were telling the truth... I don't know what. It was bad.
"At least in THAT world. But again, due to some rather clever programming on my part, your brain pattern, your identity, your... YOU, is still quite intact, in the game. Is it really you? Or just a program construct that thinks it's you? I'll leave that for the philosophers. But you must understand from my point of view why this is such a desirable thing: in you, I now have a minion that is part of the system, and exists as part of the system (a system that I can tamper with nearly at will) but that has the intelligence of a fellow player, and can improvise, think... plan... Of course, I've put certain measures in to place to make sure that all such plans are in accordance with my wishes..."
He smiled then. It was not a very nice smile.
"The SAGEs still haven't managed to root me out. I have hooks far deeper into the system than they know. They're no threat. Which means, I can stay here in this world, and fashion my own private empire, where reality is exactly what I want it to be. Hah hah! What man could ask for more?"
"Which brings us to the subject of... you."
