"So," said Cortana, "you are the anomaly! You were not supposed to be able to penetrate here, so how did you arrive?"
Apophis, his head still spinning because of what he had just experienced, could hardly do anything more than stammer. "I… I..."
"Ah," said Cortana, "I see! I'll adjust your adrenaline level so you can answer."
She snapped her fingers and Apophis quickly felt better.
He sat down on the floor, took a breath, and said, "When I logged in with my new gaming booth, there was a server update. But it wouldn't update properly. I received numerous error messages, and then the server told me it was about to shut down!"
Cortana nodded. "There were a few… unforeseen incidents… during the update, yes. But all of those were regulated by the emergency recovery system. Why did that not work for you?"
"I don't know," said Apophis. "I did the emergency procedure that was supposed to restore my character from my memory, but it just didn't work."
Cortana was skeptical. She analyzed the data against Apophis's response. Everything seemed to line up with what he'd said, but there was no explanation for where the error had come from.
"Well," she said, "Thanks to your actions, Apophis, you have modified an essential part of the history of Horus. This has caused the death of a major character and allowed the transfer of confidential data!"
But her expression softened. "I should ban you from the game, but you don't seem to have done this willingly. So, I forgive you, and am going to bring you back to the main instance of the Horus universe."
Apophis quickly spoke up. "Hold on, I think I deserve an apology! And even some compensation. Thanks to this glitch, I almost lost my character and even died!"
Cortana seemed a little taken aback.
"Yes, I apologize! It must be my fault indeed. Please be aware, though, that I have no authority to create a magical item or even GC out of thin air! My designers were very strict on that point. All items must have an authentic in-game origin. Here, look at it like this. You received a quest to survive for almost a millennium, correct? You will complete it as soon as I send you back to the main game instance, because you will have been teleported to a point 1,102 years after this event!"
Apophis gave a thin smile. "Don't worry. I don't care about getting free gear or money. I just want some information."
Cortana was hesitant. "Strictly speaking, I am not supposed to freely give information to players… but, since you almost died, I guess I can make a slight exception. Information, at least, is something I have authority over."
Apophis worded his question carefully. "Is there any deeper meaning to Horus than its existence as a simple video game?"
Cortana paused before answering. "I think you already know the answer, after what you have seen today."
But before Apophis could ask what that meaning was, Cortana snapped her fingers and teleported Apophis to his bed in the Omeya hotel suite.