LITMIR.BIZ

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      “This is the opening sequence,” Lathyr said. He stood beside her, dressed as he had been in real life—European-cut suit, pale blue shirt, no tie.

      He swept an arm around in an expansive gesture, and turned in place. Kiri did, too.

      “As you can see, there are four realms in Transformation.” His smile crinkled his eyes and Kiri thought it was the first carefree one she’d seen from him. Was he easier in a game setup, too? “Since many things in the game are complex, such as the virtual reality...hardware...” Now he waved a hand and Kiri thought she saw the outline of a sparkling glove. “We are keeping the magic portion of the game fairly simple. Each realm corresponds to an ancient element—water, air, earth, fire.”

      “Ah.” From the hill, the realms were vivid quarters of a round pie and looked different and colorful. Excitement and just plain fun began to seep into her—why had she balked, this looked so kewl? She flexed her fingers and tiny sparkles rose from her hands in spirals. Oh, yes, cool! She did a little rock in place, a little butt shimmy, and tried another wave. Her mouth dropped open as small butterflies rose from her fingertips. Her laugh got stuck in her throat and came out a low chuckle. “I love these gloves!”

      “Good to hear,” Jenni’s smug voice came, vibrating through the band of Kiri’s visor over her ears.

      “Examine the realms,” Lathyr said. “This is the only time you will be on this hill and have this panoramic view. Your time here—our time here—is limited.”

      That thunked Kiri’s heels back down to the ground. Had she actually been dancing? Yeah. And this wasn’t just a new game to love and hate and be exasperated with and prize and master. This was a realm she’d help create and refine. Write for the enjoyment and entertainment of others. This was the job, the career she wanted.

      The realms showed bright colors of cartoonish intensity—one was mostly green. Green, green hills, an equally verdant ridge with a wooden door in it. Towering mountains looking a lot like the front range of the Colorado Rockies rose behind the lush hills. “Earth Realm,” Kiri gestured and more butterflies streamed from her fingers down the hill toward the Earth Realm.

      “Each realm has a major race and a minor race—the Earth Realm has dwarves and brownies.” A note in Lathyr’s voice had her turning her head and she caught him eyeing her—her figure? her stature?—before a bland expression covered his face.

      Green and brown earth was in front of her on the left when she’d arrived. To her right appeared a blue-and-green realm with a spring becoming stream, widening to a river, flowing to lake and beach and ocean. Easy to figure that out, “Water Realm?”

      “Yes. Mers—mermen and merfems—are the major race who usually live in the ocean. Naiads and naiaders of ponds and lakes and streams are the minor folk. Most Waterfolk are the size of humans.”

      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.”

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