Chapter 8

After her initiation, things settled into a routine. Nora worked shifts at the brothel out by Tanner’s Circle. Some people complained about the smell. Nora thought the grateful clients more than made up for that. Most of the time, the Tanner’s Circle brothel was a low-resolution zone. Ephemerals who needed some sexual experience in their back story might find a whore there. For the most part, they didn’t include her identity in the scenes they experienced; that way they didn’t need her approval to fix their scene in reality. It made things easier if they needed to remember the scene somewhat differently. Some of them probably remembered her as a lover rather than a whore.

She did something similar in her firstwhoreinteraction scene. She lived against a real whore to get exposure to a realistic experience. But she didn’t fix against a specific actual person. It made it easier to change the scene later.

There were a few exceptions. Ariel’s notoriety brought attention to her classmates. Some immortals hired Nora simply because she was in Ariel’s class. Nora’s meta didn’t have to pay for cognition time for most of her shifts. Ephemerals needing sexual experience paid for Nora’s cognition as well as their own. Of course immortals swept any ephemerals around them into their own budget. Even after accounting for remembering her back story and initiation, Nora still had a generous tick budget available. So when Nathan’s meta approached Nora to explore possible quest directions, she was open to the idea.

Scene: join_Ariel Take 1

Approvals needed: Nathan, Nora

Nathan pillowed his head against Nora’s breast. The two of them lay in Nora’s bed at the training brothel.

Action!

“You remember at Ariel’s lunch how we were talking about how nice it is to work in a group?”

“Aye, an ya said ya’d like to keep doing that.”

“So you do remember. I’ve been thinking ... Ariel has potential. It’s common for immortals to include a couple of ephemerals in their parties as they go off adventuring.”

“Ya think a whore’s like to form an adventuring party?”

“I do. I’m not sure she has thought it through, but when she does, I bet she decides she needs a party. She will need a party for all the standard reasons: protection while traveling, and a group to face dungeons with.

“But I bet she will need ephemerals more than the average immortal. If she takes advantage of being a whore, the quests she gets will be different than immortals normally get. Right now, there aren’t any other immortal whores to join her.”

The life expectancy for ephemeral party members, especially at low levels, wasn’t very good. Normally that would have been enough to dissuade Nora from adventuring with an immortal. However, it would be easy for her to remember how she had been struck by Nathan’s comment and pondering the idea of how to keep close to Ariel. With those memories, she would at least consider Nathan’s idea. “Ya’s wantin to combine your training as an adventurer with what ya learned in the Whores Guild?”

“And why not? We’d be good adventurers! I’m good at fire, and that’s great offensively. You must be an artisan at Sword and you are definitely strong enough.”

Nora shook her head. “Not artisan yet”—she grinned—”although I’m gonna make artisan soon enough. I guess adventuring’d give me the practice I need right enough.”

Nora continued, “Do ya think Ariel’s like to want to stay with us?”

“Well, imagine how much she’d save not having to pay for cunt slops,” Nathan said.

“Oof!” Nathan rubbed his arm. Nora didn’t think she’d really hurt him, but if he was going to tease her like that, he’d have to pay the price. “Seriously,” Nathan said, “Ariel has done a lot for us. You can’t help out like that, spending as much time with people like she has, without growing closer.”

“How would we manage to do it?” Nora asked. “Guild rules ain’t gonna let apprentices whore around out of their city.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too. I talked to the guild master. She said that with support of one of the peers, she could give us permission especially once Ariel makes Artisan Whore.”

“So, ya could talk to the princess?”

“No, not me. I told you—your family actually has more standing than mine.”

“Ya want me to go before her highness an ask her to let us go with Ariel?”

“Yes, to charter an adventuring company or something like that.”

Nora supposed that what she had done to the princess worked both ways. Once you looked at someone naked, judging how fine their body was, you couldn’t actually be intimidated by them. At least, if she told herself that often enough, she thought she might work up the courage to go before Princess Aubrielle at the keep. “I’ll be there with you,” Nathan said. That settled things. Nora Smith was not going to let some mage show her up. Even if he was sexy and talented.

“I’ll do it. Mind, I’m a mite nervous, but the princess ain’t that scary when ya’ve seen her like we have.”

“Do you need help writing up the petition?”

“Aye.” Nora had to remind herself that Nathan wasn’t going to judge her. He didn’t think she was stupid. At the moment, thinking of what a mess of a formal court petition she’d make with her commoner accent, she was having a bit of trouble believing in her own intelligence.

“I’ll ask one of my teachers. I have never done something formal like that.”

Cut!

Nora’s meta thought they had come up with a great idea. For now, working in the brothels, challenging herself to accept the emotional implications of being a whore kept Ariel busy. Hulda might be satisfied to spend her nights bringing pleasure to the crowd at the Roasted Pig, but Nora couldn’t see an immortal spending their life doing that.

To succeed outside the brothels, Ariel would need some sort of party. Whores needed emotional support. Also, few quests could be completed alone at higher levels. Yet Nathan’s experiential was right: there weren’t immortal whores for her to adventure with. Even if there were, that kind of close intimacy with other immortals on an ongoing basis would be asking a lot. To succeed at her future quests, Ariel would need something like what Nora and Nathan were proposing.

Not that she cared directly, but her experiential was thrilled with the idea. Her crush on Ariel had not lessened; Nora’s experiential was thrilled at the idea of whoring closely with Ariel on a daily basis. Nora’s meta did care about how the back story for such a party was coming together. She was proud of her part in that.

Scene: ask_Aubrielle Take 1

Needed approvals: Nathan, Nora, quest review

It was four days later when Nathan and Nora found themselves waiting outside the guild master’s office. Two days ago, her father had submitted the petition that Nathan had prepared. As a master crafter, he had the standing necessary to approach the Bermans. Nora and Nathan had expected a summons to the keep, but instead, Master Craggs had ordered them to the guild master’s office this morning.

Action!

“Come in,” Master Kessler called.

Nathan and Nora entered the office. Master Kessler stood. Princess Aubrielle was seated behind the guild master’s desk.

Nora was a second behind Nathan kneeling before Her Highness, Princess Aubrielle.

“Rise,” the princess said. “I decided to hear your petition here in part because we can get rid of most of the ceremony here at the Whore’s Guild. Besides, it sounds like Master Kessler’s approval will be needed as well.

“Nora, your father petitioned on your behalf. Why don’t you explain what you beg of the Berman line.”

“We’ve had us a right good time working with Ariel, Your Highness.” The princess smiled.

Nora continued, “We’re coming up on graduating as apprentice whores. We were hoping we could continue working with her.”

“And you figure she will form her own party after she graduates?” the princess asked.

“Aye, Your Highness. Quests for an immortal whore ain’t like to be same as for a mage or warrior none.”

Aubrielle laughed. “I guess you have a point there. Have you talked to Ariel about your plan?”

“Nay, Your Highness. I was thinkin it might be a right fine surprise, at least as an offer.”

“Ariel has exceeded the guild’s expectations,” Master Kessler said. “I’ll be the first to admit that I was too hard on her at the beginning. Given what she’s done and the challenges we’ve put before her, a reward could be in order.”

“So, the Whores Guild and the Bermans give her a charter that makes it easier for her to operate all throughout the Peerage of Equals.”

“Yes,” the guild master said, “we can let her ignore all those regulations each town has about where whores can work and where they cannot.” The guild master focused on the trainees. “The two of you are comfortable with Ariel handling your training after graduation?”

Nora and Nathan nodded. “Yes, Master Kessler.”

“Aye, right enough, Guild master.”

Master Kessler smiled. “Oh, and once Ariel gets experience training whores, I know exactly what I will have her do. Yes, I support this petition.”

Princess Aubrielle nodded. “My only regret is that I will not be able to adventure with you. Ariel has changed my life.

“I will draw up a charter and get it approved by the Lord of Berg’s Keep.”

“It’s like to be that simple?” Nora asked.

Princess Aubrielle laughed. “Not everything has to be tied up in politics. This is close enough to my work as a trainee that I need not worry that others will complain if I show special interest. Besides, I owe Ariel.”

Cut!

Ariel’s charter received rapid quest approval. Apparently Nora and Nathan had moved Ariel’s quest development forward significantly. The quest approval came with one big surprise for Nora’s meta.

If Ariel accepted Nora into her party, Nora would be entirely disconnected from the quest system. Her meta would no longer know anything about Ariel’s quests beyond what Ariel chose to tell her. Her back story would no longer evolve to help drive quests forward.

If Nora would have considered, she would quickly have realized that there could be no other way. Spending that much time with Ariel in intimate situations, they would either grow closer or find they hated each other. It wouldn’t be right for Ariel to love Nora if Nora’s emotions, motivations, and back story continued to be manipulated for the convenience of quests involving Ariel. Sure, Nora’s meta would always make sure that whatever happened was realistic. If Nora betrayed Ariel, she would remember some very good reason why it made sense. If Ariel learned the details, perhaps she would even agree that she should have seen it coming. But that kind of manipulation just taught immortals never to get close to ephemerals. That wouldn’t further the creator AI’s plans at all, and so the closer ephemerals got to immortals, the more they were left to live their own lives, disconnected from the needs of the broader world.

Nora’s meta was frightened. So far, she always had the quests to guide her. When she came up with a plan for humiliating the princess, she knew she could take pride in moving Ariel’s quest line forward. She was doing exactly the sort of thing a good meta did. Later, when she realized how much her silly cunt slops idea had served to draw Ariel into her experience, Nora’s meta beamed with accomplishment. That doubled when she realized how she had helped reshape the Becoming a Whore Quest.

Nora wished she could just fall into the easy motivations of her experiential. Her experiential would be delighted to spend that much time with Ariel. Nora realized that her experiential was getting the best chance at her dream of being with Ariel that she was ever likely to see. Nora didn’t know if her experiential would be able to seduce the immortal: there were cases where things like that worked out, but they were the minority. Nora’s experiential would get her chance, and like always, her meta would be there supporting her.

Yes, that was true. No matter what, Nora’s meta would always have her primary job: making sure her experiential had what she needed to live an authentic life. If Nora was going to try to seduce an immortal, then her meta definitely had work to do. She didn’t quite know what that work was. What would Nora need to know about her back story? How was she supposed to guess?

Without clear direction, she started remembering haphazardly—almost frantically. What did Nora like to do for fun? She could remember enjoying several street festivals both as a child and apprentice. She loved the energetic country dances, the music and of course the food. Also, it was another chance to interact with animals, and ever since that first fostering she had enjoyed animals. She could remember working as an apprentice, shoeing horses at the festival. She thought she found that relaxing; it was a way to get to know all the horses.

Later, she wondered at her hobbies. She had crafting skills other than Smith. Some of those other projects might be hobbies.

Nora’s meta realized she had gone too far when she was pondering whether Nora might want children. She didn’t think she’d be open to a client getting her pregnant, and she was understandably reluctant to be a mother without a plan to take away the necessary time from adventuring. All that would be valuable, but it was rather unlikely Nora would need to remember that part of her back story. Not many immortals were interested in having kids in Phoenix Rising. She could have worried about that if it ever came up. It was natural to be nervous: many of the sources of certainty in her admittedly short life were going away. Nora’s meta would be on her own in ways that she’d never been before.

So how could she put that nervousness to use? What were the real threats to her experiential getting the same chance to live an authentic life as anyone else? She could start by thinking about all the ways immortals were different. They lived their lives live without multiple takes, fixing things in reality almost as soon as they happened. For Nora’s meta, that was the ultimate source of fright: there were no second chances with an immortal. But as she interacted more with Ariel, she was getting used to live takes. Immortals spent time in their own world separate from Phoenix Rising. Ephemerals had limited capacity for understanding that world. Out there in that world, immortals could even gain some understanding of how ephemerals lived. They couldn’t know all the proprietary details, but they could make guesses. What would happen if Ariel learned (or guessed) more about how Nora lived her life than even Nora’s experiential knew? Nora’s meta didn’t know, but she had the tick budget to explore how it might work out, and doing that had to be more productive than delving more into whether Nora had been a picky eater as a child. She felt it was worth the ticks even though she would need to have a proxy fill in for Ariel.

Scene Ariel_confrontation Take 1

Immortal proxies: Ariel

Future exploration: cannot fix

After graduation, Nora and Ariel had slowly grown closer together. Her crush had turned into a deep love. Adventuring with Ariel was rewarding enough that she did not even mind how much time she spent away from the forge and her craft.

Nora had returned from a long shift as a whore as Ariel logged in.

Action!

Nora spread her legs for her lover. Normally, Ariel would take advantage of the implied offer. Tonight though, she hesitated.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Nora asked.

“I was wondering. Do you even think about me when I’m not here?”

“I’s like to think about ya all the time, ya know that right so!”

“No, not that. I mean I know you think that you think about me—when I’m here, you think back and remember thinking about me. But do you really think that at the time or do you go back and add it later?”

“What kind of horse shit is that? It don’t even make sense—I think that I think about ya. What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ariel almost managed a smile. “Okay I see I’m going to have to start a few steps back.” Ariel began her explanation. As the minutes dragged on, Nora’s face fell.

“So, let me see if I’ve got this,” Nora said.

“Ya think I’m just a figment of your god’s imagination.”

“No, not just.”

Nora glared. “Fine, but ya think I’m a figment of some god’s imagination.”

“No, I ... well, I guess you could think of it that way.”

“An I don’t have a real life. This god just pretends things I’m like to have done. An ya wonder if the god pretends I’m thinking about ya all the time, or if they fill it in all at once, pretending I’ve been thinking of ya even when it didn’t happen.”

Ariel nodded slowly. “That’s kind of mixed up, but it’s close enough to start.”

“Can’t ya see that’s all fucked in the head! I mean we’ve been saving each other’s life, fucking, taking care of each other an everything! For months now. An if I’m some figment of a god’s imagination, then what in the Deceiver’s wilderness are ya?”

“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but I’m telling you ephemerals work kind of like that.”

“An I’m telling ya that if you can’t believe I’m real—if ya can’t believe in this wonderful love we’ve found together—

“I’m telling ya that if ya can’t believe in that, we’re done!” Nora began to sob.

Ariel reached out. Nora backed away. “Are ya ready to give up on this horse shit?”

“Listen, I know it sounds strange—”

“I been listening! I’m done, right enough. I ain’t no figment of anyone’s imagination, an if that’s all ya think of me, we’re done ya here! Right now!”

Nora stormed out. She slammed the door so hard the door frame shattered.

Cut!

Looping madness, no! Nora had to find a better answer for her experiential. Ariel had accepted so much about the world of Phoenix Rising; Nora’s meta thought she ought to be able to accept Nora despite the differences in how Nora lived her life. As for Nora, her experiential ought not let some philosophical disagreement about when her thoughts happened get in the way. Based on the personalities, Nora and Ariel ought to be able to work through this. Metas were good at judging that sort of thing; they had to be. And since it was supposed to work out, the metas were responsible for figuring out the right back story so it fell together. Nora didn’t want to let her experiential down. Somehow she had to solve this.

She tried several variations, but they kept running into similar results. Eventually she realized that she hadn’t accounted for the time Ariel and Nora would need to spend getting to know each other. In the scene, she dumped her experiential fully into the middle of an existing relationship without going through all the beginning stages. Whatever Nora and Ariel eventually did to build that relationship would build trust. Nora wouldn’t let one disagreement erode that trust. She tried factoring in the trust:

Scene Ariel_confrontation Take 4

Action!

“An I’m telling ya that if you can’t believe I’m real—if ya can’t believe in this wonderful love we’ve found together—” Nora began to sob. Ariel reached for her. Nora flinched, but let Ariel grasp her hand.

“I’m telling ya”—Nora struggled to get herself under control—”what we got here’s something beautiful. If ya think I’m a figment of some god’s imagination, well that’s horse shit for sure, but I’m not like to let some crazy notion get in the way of us.”

“But are you sure our love is real?” Ariel asked.

“Aye, right sure.”

After an hour going back and forth, Ariel finally let the conversation end. Nora didn’t see how she could answer Ariel’s questions or even why they mattered. If some demon—Ariel called it an intelligence, but Nora couldn’t see how anyone intelligent could waste so much time fucking around with how someone else thought ... Anyway, if some demon was bent on twisting her mind around, rearranging when things happened, she didn’t see what she could do about it. She couldn’t even tell why it mattered. But it was confoundedly important to Ariel, so she would listen and try to understand.