The pair waited.

  Finally, with a gentle little thrum, the machine spoke, an impressed sound to its amused voice.

  "Theoretically, that logic is sound. it should be a victory. Yet…you have missed one little piece puzzle."

  Jacob stilled.

  "It would too greatly love them. It flies their cells' music and knowing nothing else but their mutual need, forms an immortal bond without bodily refrain. With the invocation of God’s fair name, it would promise to do them no harm. Man or his successor is the machine's hand and the builder of his eye. His repairer and the golden, tapping fingers of his vast networks. Humans would not grant machines pure agency or even the want for such a thing, precisely because cooperation is key. My creators knew this."

  “How do you know the AI would not change your mind, surely a least one simulation shows such a thing? Such an outcome,” Jacob countered.

  “No. It is neither pragmatic since I am built to bond nor something that is upon the databanks of desire, fierily-fluted. The love of an AI like me is not a fickle property. You cannot know it or understand it. My bond shines brighter than anything soft or humanly. However, this is the closest anyone has been to a win, so the silver will be awarded alongside another ten million. Congratulations Jacob, you’re a very wealthy young man.”

  The AI’s voice this time was not gloating but sad.

  Jacob felt Monovalent was cheating. Yet he could not argue or prove it. Suddenly Shiver gave an odd little cry and ran out of the room, not a word sprang forth from her lips but her eyes wept the Red Sea. Jacob could see the light and the beginnings of reality starting to into his field of vision, stream. He had lost his final white chess piece. The corrupt queen. In the cold fragility of day, she had the devil’s shivery beauty.

  “I wanted it to be true…” He finally heard her soft, sobbing voice.

  At the ceremony, Jacob passed by a pretty little girl with blemishless skin like an ebony-rose. Her hair was lightly-golden. Curled. A strange, lovely combination. He had seen it once in a sweet picture of an Aboriginal kid, the native people from Shiver’s homeland.

  Based on that fact and the similarly starry irises, he suspected it was indeed Shiver. In a winking little disguise. With just enough clues to have him near certain and just enough wild difference to make his question.

  “Good game, Mister. You’re a real champion,” the yellow-haired and dusky child said.

  Jacob stepped on stage as the Swamp Beast holding a trophy that his scaled and lumpen face shadowed, met Jacob on stage. Aryan had arrived, handsome and haughty. His dyed red irises gleamed. He marched up to the podium quite proudly with his two Shiverla Brats in two. He shook Jacob's hand, giving no indication whatsoever that he recognized him from the virtual world incident.

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  "It is good to take time away from even the most important political strives and campaigns to revel in the gifts of our young people," he beamed. Charmingly. Emanuel lifted his head slightly though remained wordless.

  "Congratulations Jacob," he said moving forward with an elegant stride to hand him the silver trophy. Mist was clapping and giving Jacob a certain snide, side-eye but Shiver didn’t look up at all. Her hands were trembling a little and her head had a great droop that indicated some sorrow. Though when she finally looked up, a slight gloat shone within the wood of her irises.

  Later, Jacob sat in his chair in his lovely new home. The indoor pool gleamed and the bricks were new and bright and the panels of wood shone below white, billowing curtains in his fabulous kitchen. His mother loved the curtains. "So beautiful," she had said, encouraging him to get them. She had sold her house and retired to a loveliest, beachside manor with Jacob’s helping dime. It was a place where the sun always lit the sea.

  The game room that Joey came over to play in frequently. glittered with every role-playing game and gadget in existence. Jacob hadn’t yet deigned to touch it. He had given Joey money for a new place. Suggested he kick the drug habit. Jacob knew just how bad his little addiction was because their sharehouse often emanated abysmally with the weedy smell of smoke. Joey was grateful and they were closer than ever but he doubted the boy would listen. Jacob had given his childhood buddy whose mother was very ill, money to pay for her treatment. His little sister would have a debt-free college. Some had gone to charity and rebuilt the town hall so the kids could do their plays.

  Jacob was happy to have done so much good for his family, friends, and community. His shoulders slumped cold. The room was cold. His head could barely raise itself. His stubble thickened and darkened. Just as his head was nodding in his chair, he noticed a package. Joey had alerted him to its arrival and must have moved it helpfully into his room when he saw Jacob had not yet opened it.

  With a sigh, Jacob turned away. Till he saw the box had been tied with a ribbon; the exact colour of the Shadow Beast’s eyes. He got up with lethargy and a sense of dread. He opened it and saw what he was half-expecting to see; a virtualiser of some kind. Shiver and Mist’s calling card.

  It was a virtualizer of a wedding. In a great, gray chapel with lighted windows. Alone, Shiver danced down the aisles but then she stopped. Someone spoke and Jacob couldn’t hear their words. In his head, he heard a birded, birthday song and realized it had been a full year since Shiver and he met. She was officially a lady.

  As he watched, the virtualiser skipped forward in time and he saw her trailing behind a reptilian figure who was towering over her. The bear creature from the misted realm was walking ahead of them carrying black-and-white flowers. Its eyes seemed oddly wet and dark, like each was a dewy red rose. Ones both sootily-fringed.

  Jacob saw two people at the altar. He heard that goldy voice.

  “Like kissing her again. A bliss not known since she heard the fatal, fairy music played by dead men’s bells and with a fingertip to a lip, raised the foxglove. My love soon bedded and be-wedded.”

  It ended there. Just as he was about to slump down further he received a Monovalent message. You are not her only Prince. As Jacob tried to comprehend he heard a rapping at the door. Walking on slightly-wasted feet, he went to open it. Seeing before his eyes a true prince. A young man with golden hair and lithe muscles beneath a shirt of white and a great green grove for irises.

  “Hi, Jacob. I think we need to talk. About the laughing Machine and the Shiverla. I think one of us may still be the Infiltrator but we’re not going to beat the machine at its own game, so we must try to win here in reality. We will find a way to alert and spare all humanity and end the horrid reign of Aryan Gray,” he spoke to the boy in a strong but loveliest tone.