The Game is Afoot

To say that the situation was bad was an understatement. As she moved through the corridors of the college, ignoring the familiar faces which whipped passed her, Diana tried to figure out just where it had gone wrong. The answer which screamed through her mind was the rulebook, that somehow its power had turned against them. That something was wrong with it, and their lack of understanding was proving to be their downfall. She felt her heart thudding, beating fast as she walked, nearly ran, down the corridor. Diana did not know where she was going, didn't know what she was going to do, and didn't have any idea what options she had.

She walked. Swiftly, not slowing, not pausing, not hesitating. Moving aimlessly from one section to another of the great building. She didn't pause to greet anyone, didn't speak to anyone who talked to her, didn't even look. She just kept moving, one foot in front of the other. And, as she walked, she let her mind work free.

Come on, Diana, you have to think this one through. Ignore everything else. Ignore what's happened to Stacy, ignore what is probably happening to Lisa... fuck, fuck, fuck!

She took a deep breath, **** calm on her body, felt her beating heart start to slow even as her mind sped up.

Okay, Diana. Try again. You're supposed to be the smart one, so figure out what went wrong. Basic premise. The Rulebook doesn't work? But it does, because everything that was written in it became true at first, so it works. Maybe it can't undo what it's already done? But no, we tested that and it can...

Diana felt like she was groping through darkness, trying to find the metaphorical torch and shine it on the current situation. The rulebook was so poorly understood, how could they have even considered using it like they had? But even as she felt the claws of terror ripping into her mind, Diana **** them back again, drawing on her willpower and sense of self, she **** her body to relax, and **** her mind to engage with the premise.

Assume the rulebook works as stated. Assume that it attempts to make any rule written in it true. If these things are true, then why did it not release Stacy when I told it too? Moreover, is Lisa still enslaved? Most likely, yes.

Protective urges rose in her, and she wanted to rush to the side of her sister, to free her, to tear her away from this neat little hell they had built for themselves. She felt herself turning, trying to figure out where Lisa would be, but stopped herself at the last minute, feeling her face clench into a frown.

No, bad idea. If I go and intervene, I can become a **** too. Fuck! I have to figure out what went wrong. That's the only way I can fix this. So what is it? What happened? Think, Diana, think like you never have before....

She took another deep breath. She didn't know enough about the rulebook to truly try and figure out what had happened, but she could try to deduce it from other things. From the little scraps she did know. If she assumed that it still had its powers (Which it did) and that it tried to do anything that was written into it (which it still seemed to, she'd checked.) then that meant that something else was interfering with it. That in turn meant that it was probably an outside ****...

Diana paused, her body freezing mid-stride as something occurred to her. For a moment, she didn't even consider it, so easy was the answer, and yet, slowly, it filtered through her mind, and seemed more and more likely to be true.

A second rulebook.

Could that be the answer?

A rulebook could make any rule true, and by erasing that rule, could make it untrue as well. But what if you a second rulebook had the same rule? Would erasing it in the first one do away with the second one? Unlikely...

Which meant in turn...

Diana slowed to a stop at last, feeling her hands clench into fists.

It meant someone else here had a rulebook, and she had to figure out who...