Enter the Kingdom: The Complete Series

F THEY NEVER LOOK YOUR WAY, THEY NEVER SEE YOU COMING...
The Kingdom is the world's most exclusive VR platform where the rich, famous, and evil can cavort in a utopian fairy tale world. Little do they know that the code beneath their feet grows weak. The only thing keeping the platform-and all their secrets-secure is the tireless and unsung efforts of a single Plaxis employee and sole remaining Purusha Prime language programmer, Cindira Tieg.

For her part, Cindira couldn't care less if the Kingdom went permanently offline tomorrow. Only, the same source code that makes it possible also powers Plaxis's original VR platform, Gaia. There, war is waged virtually, saving the planet and humanity from ruin. It was the greatest legacy her mother left the world, one she intends to defend and sustain.

But when a detective from Authority shows up at Plaxis, demanding access to the source code, Cindira fears an enemy at the gate. In the real, Francisco Batista is a mystery, untraceable and without public record. The only way to discover his true identity and intentions is by going into the vreal herself. But when the coder confronts her mother's creation, she'll discover there's a lot more at risk than a legacy.

A COMPLETE SERIES FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE RED CHRONICLES! JACK IN AND GET VREAL TODAY.

The omnibus includes:
Court of Discontent - Series Prequel
Mistress of Cinders - Book One
Freebird - A Midseries Novella
Isle of After - Book Two

Cindira threw down her bag on her desk and called up the Kitchen’s AI assistant.
Pele’s soft feminine voice filled the space. “Good evening, Miss Tieg. How may I be of service?”
“I’m here by myself.” Again. “I’m going to need help running the ops while I work inside the Sink. Open a portal into the Kingdom and take me to Kaylie’s room.”
More than just a sandbox when developing new elements for the vreal, Cindira had discovered the Sink’s dual utility as a semi-jacked environment by accident on yet another night before yet another ball. One of the tangible-light diodes (TLDs) in the floor of the Sink needed to be replaced. Not able to wait until morning when the staff techanics would arrive, she’d decided to handle the matter herself. Cindira forgot, however, to turn the projectors off. The way her coworkers hailed her for discovering that everything inside and technically in the Kingdom responded to her touch in the vreal, she might as well have cured lunarity pox.
A low hum accompanied a scramble of colors inside the Sink as the power flicked on. Cindira crawled in through the service hatch and into the chamber, a small thrill running up her spine as the TLDs, embedded in the floor, ceiling, and walls fired up and beamed at her from all directions.
Pastoral landscapes whisked by, the image dodging people—other clients inside the environment—panning over cobble-stoned streets and around the VAPORs until, at last, it reached the front of her family’s Kingdom residence, Alsace. Styled after a picture Kaylie had once seen of a baroque French chateau, the two-story brick home with narrow turrets on its left and right flanks looked out of place in the heart of the Kingdom’s urban center, with its rows of grand townhouses pushing out from either side. Cindira knew Kaylie hadn’t been happy about its “pitiful” scale. For once, Johanna had put her foot down on her own daughter’s vanity for the most mundane of reasons: money. The profits to be made from the lots closest to the markets and the palace district were far too lucrative to waste on Kaylie’s self-indulgence.
Pele’s voice filtered through a speaker above. “Authorization required to enter the private residence of… Alsace. Please state passcode for user Kitchen316 to enter the premises of Her Majesty, Queen Johanna Tieg.”
Cindira’s fingers flexed and tightened as a wave of disgust curdled her insides. “Minion.”
The image dove forward again, through the front door, past the luxe entryway and the chandelier overhead, up the stairs, and into Kaylie’s private suite. Once the image settled inside Kaylie’s room and in front of her wardrobe, Cindira set about her work.
The microscopic sensors embedded in the glass around her read each movement, translating real world actions into vreal world manipulations. Though she knew there was no actual brass handle within her grasp, Cindira’s mind created faux sensations suggesting otherwise. The wardrobe the length of a king-sized bed held gowns. Dozens of them in a rainbow of colors and a caravan of materials. Clients made certain agreements when they paid to play inside this virtual landscape, one being that, in order to maintain the esthetic of the fairytale world, they must dress appropriately. For women, this meant complex layers of petticoats, chemises and corsets – all designed and sold for a tidy profit by trendy designers. But even the most talented etailor that New York or Hong Kong had to offer couldn’t do what Cindira could with code.
In short order, Cindira located one of the older dresses on file. A trail of chiffon and lace danced over the floor as she pulled it out. It was indeed one of her better creations. The secret to its appeal, the tiny twinkling diodes coded into the fabric that made it shimmer in even the dimmest light. Technically, the conception of such a thing would have been flagged by the team in charge of observing and maintaining the Kingdom’s esthetic integrity. This was one instance where Kaylie being Kaylie helped Cindira push the boundaries. No one was going to flag something worn by a high-ranking Plaxis executive and the stepdaughter of Rex Tieg as non-compliant.
Cindira took a moment, studying the gown, conceptualizing its iterations.
“Pele, give me an interface up here.”
“Acknowledged.”
Like some sort of technical wisp-o-the-willows, a soft glow emerged, a floating tablet filled with numbers, letters, and genius. The code. Most saw only the rudimentary meaning behind the series of symbols, picking out the sections that served to express the augmented representation of each element of the dress floating in the air before her. Cindira saw form, shape, beauty. A few changes, including moving the color from green to yellow and shifting about the pleats and diodes, and the only thing remaining was to follow the template change with the accessories. After which, she hung her creation on the door of the closet, admiring it. It really was quite a gorgeous piece. Elegant, luxurious, yet simple in its form. Kaylie would turn every head in the palace when she entered wearing it. Cindira reached out, running her fingers over the fabric, imagining the sensation of silk on her palm was real.
“User approaching,” Pele announced.
Kaylie must have jacked in early to check on Cindira’s work. Which meant it was time to go. Not that her stepsister would see her if she came in. Though Cindira could interact with VAPORs in the Sink as if she were jacked in, she remained invisible to actual clients. She instinctually turned to witness the look in Kaylie’s eyes when she saw the refashioned dress, the closest thing to appreciation she’d get, when a very unexpected thing happened.
It wasn’t Kaylie. It wasn’t even Cade or Johanna. Hell, it wasn’t even her father, though after two months of the silent treatment, she’d actually welcome that for once.
Who did enter instead was Detective Batista.
“What are you doing here?”
He couldn’t hear her. Cindira hadn’t engaged the intercom that allowed someone in the Kitchens to be piped into the section of the Kingdom framed in the Sink. Otherwise, she’d do some detecting of her own. The Tieg vresidence had been set up with the strictest security protocols. Just because Batista was Authority and working on Gaia’s behalf didn’t give him the right. With a warrant, he could compel his way in, but there’s no way Cindira wouldn’t have heard about that. For reasons she didn’t understand entirely, she found herself suddenly on the defensive for a family that in turn felt it owed her nothing.
“Leave,” she commanded to dead air, before remembering she had her AI assistant at the ready. “Pele, remove the other user in this space. Move him, oh, let’s say, fifty feet from the property boundary, two feet off the ground.”
The fall he was about to experience wouldn’t hurt him, but it would serve as a fair warning.
“Cannot comply.”
Cindira bit her tongue, reminding herself it was illogical to get angry at something that lacked sentience. “And just why can you not comply?”
“You do not have the authority to override user.”
“Doubtful, I have Class 1B clearance. The only people at Plaxis who can override me are my father and Johanna.” Probably Kaylie now too that she was the boss. Hopefully Kaylie herself hadn’t realized that yet. “Dad’s not around, and there’s no way Johanna let this guy in. She didn’t even want to give him the time of day, let alone a self-guided tour of Alsace. Remove him.”
Two beeps, and then the same message. “Cannot comply.”
What the… Cindira cocked her hip and scanned her thoughts for a solution. “What security clearance level does the other user in this space have?”
“User Batista has Full Administrative access to all systems.”
Impossible. “On whose authority?”
“By the authority of Omala Grover.”
That was impossible. Her mother had been dead for fifteen years.