2 Prologue 2: Miracles

Corona, of course, didn't deal in miracles. It dealt in entertainment. Too often these days, people confused the two.

Six months ago

Eric despised the mornings after recycling plant contracts. Not enough to turn them down when his corporate handler offered them -- they paid good money, and his family's finances being what they were, he had to take that wherever he could get it. But the drugs they shot him through with turned his brain to sludge the second they wore off. Tempered amphetamines, the boss said they were. They managed to keep him and the other contract workers awake for the three day shift, but coming down off them...

There was a reason he woke up at 1 PM today, and only then because the familiar sound of Mari's holoscreen blared through the metal halls of their apartment. That meant Lana had been called in for a contract today, then. She would have fussed at their daughter otherwise, whispering at her to let Daddy sleep on his day off.

But, despite the pounding in his head, Eric couldn't blame the poor girl. The sun hung high in the sky. She shouldn't have to live her life in quiet just because one parent or the other was almost always sleeping.

"Hey, kiddo."

Eric rapped twice on her open door. Mari sat in the middle of her bedroom floor, twirling the worn pink fuzz of her rug around her fingers. She hadn't bothered to change out of her yellow footie pajamas. December could get chilly, even as far south as Ohio, and running the heat cost money. But Eric suspected that wasn't the only reason she hadn't yet changed.

The holoscreen bathed the tiny room in dull silver light, and his wild-haired little girl couldn't take her eyes off it, even to tell him hello.

"Morning, daddy," she said. "Is Mommy at work today?"

"Think so. She wasn't around when I woke up."

"Will she be home tonight?"

"I don't know. I hope so."

A plasti-ceramic bowl half-filled with chocolate cereal sat by her side. Eric leaned down to pick it up, but Mari squawked and swiped it away, nearly soaking herself in milk.

"I'm still eating!" She loaded up her spoon and took a hearty bite. Eric couldn't help but laugh.

"Someone got a little distracted, huh," he said, glancing up at the holoscreen now that he could see it properly. Just now, the camera was sweeping over crowds of colorfully dressed revelers congregating outside of what appeared to be a castle made of glass. The Sunspire, palace of the High King and his family. Eric had seen it, of course, as had everyone even mildly engaged with society. No one could escape Corona Online. Not without renouncing material wealth and escaping to the Floridian Wastes, anyway.

"What's happening in the kingdom today, princess?" he asked, ruffling Mari's hair.

"Daaaad." She gave him a sharp look that almost perfectly echoed her mother. The resemblance really was uncanny. "You forgot about the royal wedding?"

"I wasn't invited." He spread his hands. "Should I go put on my suit?"

But, instead of answering, Mari squealed, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. The camera's view had shifted from a wide shot of the crowd down to a glittering blue carriage that hovered ever so slightly above the ground, a palanquin without its bearers.

"There she is, daddy! There she is!"

"Slow down, sweetheart. Who am I looking for here?"

"Lady Sabina!" Mari exclaimed. "High King Arthon's betrothed!"

"His betrothed, wow." Eric's eyebrows shot up. That was a word he never expected out of a six-year-old's mouth.

He knew the name Lady Sabina, vaguely. Some talking head or other had brought her up, alongside the current High King (Arthon), some of the lower kings and queens (Vera Tirana of the kingdom of Dellus, Samael Claryon of Praeton, among others he could never remember), and various other figures of note. There'd been some drama concerning the High King's selection, if he remembered right. The young man, who'd become High King at the tender age of twenty when his father abdicated, had been betrothed to a princess in his youth, only to break it for a girl of barely noble blood.

From how angry some people on the web had gotten, one could almost forget that the six kingdoms of Corona were a video game, and not some microcosmic nation.

A roar went up from the people as the sleek blue carriage swung open its door. With all the cinematography of Hollywood's best, the camera panned in on the woman inside, examining the fine crystal detailing of her lilac gown, lingering on her gossamer silk neckline, then finally showing her face, and the ash blonde hair pinned meticulously around the crown of jeweled flowers on her head.

"Isn't she pretty?" Mari cooed. Eric supposed she was fine -- but then again, that wasn't her real face, or her real body. The real Sabina slept in a pod somewhere, and that made ogling this fantasy version of her feel strange, like he was peeking into some bizarre dream.

The royal bride stepped out of her carriage to thunderous applause. In front of her, the crowd threw heaps upon heaps of purple petals, but her eyes never left the Sunspire, and the stone platform erected in front of it.

*Would it kill her to smile a little?* thought Eric, before a blue screen obscured her face.

[SUPPORT AVAILABLE

Maiden Tier ($5) -- A personal thank you from Lady Sabina

Lady-In-Waiting Tier ($15) -- As above, plus a 3D printout of 1 Corrandin lily

Debutante Tier ($40) -- As above, plus a 3D printout of a Lady Sabina (Wedding) figurine

Courtier Tier ($75) -- As above, plus a simulated watercolor of Sunspire Wedding Tableau, painted by Lord Renard Tirana]

The tiers scrolled past him faster than he could properly read. Mari sat with her tablet, fingers flying -- apparently she'd called up this menu, and wasn't shy about looking at the higher end of things, either.

[Princess Tier ($1000) -- As above, plus a 3D printed copy of Lady Sabina's wedding gown]

Good god. Who could afford to drop a thousand dollars on a game they weren't even playing?

"Can we buy something, daddy?" Mari asked, turning her big black eyes on him. "You can only get these supports today. They're gonna go away as soon as the wedding is over. All my friends are talking about how their parents are getting them the wedding Lady Sabina doll. Can I get it too?"

Dread pooled in his gut, the special kind of dread only poor parents felt. The dread of telling your child -- yet again -- that they can't get what they want.

Eric sighed.

"Scroll back up. I can't see with all these zeroes in my face," he said, but he remembered exactly what the doll cost. Forty bucks. That was birthday present money. Today might have been a special day in fantasy land, but the real world Reisches needed that money to eat on this and every other very regular, non-special day.

"Tell you what." Eric pressed his finger down on the Lady-In-Waiting button. He could swing the fifteen dollars. Probably. "You can have one of those pretty flowers she's wearing in her hair."

The menu disappeared into a video of Sabina's face, overlaid on the footage of her making her way to the Sunspire's wedding pavilion.

At long last, she smiled.

"Thank you for supporting me on my special day, Mari," Sabina said, as naturally as though it weren't an AI substituting his daughter's name in her mouth. "Corrandin lilies are Arsus and I's favorite flower. We'd like you to have one."

A thin tray popped open at the bottom of the screen, and there lay a perfect imitation of the virtual flower: six-petaled, glossy, a perfect ombre of deep blue to lilac. Certainly no doll, but impressive nevertheless, and Mari seemed to agree.

She snatched it out and put it in her hair, running to the mirror to admire the view. "Do I look like Lady Sabina, daddy?"

Eric pushed himself off the ground and fought to keep his face even as his head pounded at the sudden motion.

"I think Lady Sabina could learn a few things about beauty from you," he said, leaning down to give her a kiss on the head.

"I'm going to be a Corona player when I grow up, just like her."

"Of course you will." Eric grinned. "Tell you what. When you're a princess, I'll buy two dozen of your dolls, okay?"