I let out a sigh of frustration.
“I did try to read it, you know,” I said. “But I couldn’t. It reminded me too much of you.”
She studied my face for a moment, then she smiled.
“What’s your avatar’s alignment these days, ace?” she asked me.
“It’s still Chaotic Good,” I replied. “Why?”
“Because if your alignment is any brand of evil, the Silmaril will burn your hand and you won’t be able to pick it up.”
“Good to know,” I said, locking eyes with her. “I’m really glad you’re here, Arty. Thank you for coming.”
She raised her chin up at the towering peaks of Angband looming above us. “Og and Kira were the ones who originally recreated Beren and Lúthien’s adventures here on Arda. They designed and coded this quest together. It’s insanely difficult. No one has ever managed to complete it. Including me. In fact, it’s the only quest on this planet that I haven’t completed. I’ve never even attempted it.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because it’s a two-person quest, Z,” she said. “And I always wanted to complete it with you…”
“Then I ruined everything,” I said. “I know. I’m sorry. It was my fault. This is all my fault.”
“It’s gonna be OK,” she said, grinning at me. “We’re going to complete this quest now, Watts. You and me.”
“All right,” I said. “Just tell me what to do, and what not to do. I’ll follow your lead.”
She started to smile—but then it morphed into a worried frown.
“You’re starting to twitch, Z,” she said. “Are you feeling OK?”
She reached out and took both of my hands in hers. That was when I noticed that they were trembling. And that I couldn’t make them stop. I also realized that I was grinding my teeth, and I was starting to feel like I had a migraine headache coming on…
“Synaptic Overload Syndrome,” I said. “The symptoms are starting to set in. And it’s only going to get worse, so let’s keep moving. No one else can collect the last two shards except me, Arty.”
She stared at me in silence for a moment, then nodded.
“You sure you’re ready?”
“I feel fantastic!” I lied. “Now that you’re here, I have a very positive attitude about all this.”
She smiled. Then she opened her inventory again and took out a beautiful Mithril helmet cast in the shape of a dragon’s head, and covered with jewels and precious gems.
“Here,” she said, handing the helm to me. “Put this on. It’s the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin. It will protect you in combat and prevent you from being poisoned by the cursed weapons of the Great Enemy. And here—put this on too.”
She handed me some sort of magic fur coat called the Wolf-hame of Draugluin. As soon as I pulled it on, my avatar began transforming into a giant wolf, forcing me to drop down on all fours. Transforming into another animal when you were wearing an ONI headset was a strange experience, because you no longer felt like you were inside a human body. It took some getting used to. But I’d transformed into plenty of other four-legged creatures during quests, so I was already used to the sensation and had plenty of experience getting around on four legs.
After she finished disguising me, Art3mis removed some sort of magic cloak from her inventory and put it on. My HUD’s image-recognition software identified it as the Bat-fell of Thuringwethil. When she lifted its hood and pulled it over her head, she transformed back into a large bat and took flight, flapping her dark wings and fluttering forward through the wide-open Gates of Angband.
It took me a few seconds before I realized I should follow her. Then I bounded forward, running after her on all fours.
* * *
Art3mis led me through the massive black Gates of Angband, then down a steep stone staircase that led down into the cavernous depths below. At the bottom, we found ourselves standing at the entrance to a maze of dark corridors and passageways, all of them leading farther belowground.
I was about to continue straight forward, toward the widest and most well-lit passageway. But Art3mis flew into my path and changed back into her human form.
“If we continued this way, we’d be forced to navigate our way down through the Labyrinthine Pyramid,” she said. “It’s a massive subterranean dungeon maze, made up of one hundred procedurally generated levels of increasing size and deadliness. It’s a recreation of the old roguelike game based on Angband.” She pointed off to her right. “Luckily, I know a shortcut that leads directly down to the Nethermost Hall, which is where Morgoth’s throne is located. Follow me, Bracegirdle.”