Chapter 3: What do you Mean We Can’t go Home?!
I fell face first into the bed.
“Y’alright?” Regis asked. He sank into the bunk opposite mine.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice muffled horribly by the pillow. I was exhausted; I’d been playing for hours now.
Artemis claimed the bunk above me. Our weapons were neatly piled in a corner of the room, the door locked. No one would be able to open it without our say-so.
We had gotten back to the newbie village and headed straight for the armoury. Regis and I went in while Artemis had stayed outside, tapping her foot impatiently. After a literal dumping of the pelts, bones, fangs and coal, the NPC stared at us both for a few moments.
“Well, ain’t you kids quick?” he had said as he counted the numbers of everything on the counter. “Pick your classes.”
Regis smiled. “Saber, sir.”
“And you, young lady?”
I was glad Regis had explained the thing about job classes earlier or I’d be at a total loss. “Assassin class sir.”
We watched as the old man carried our hard won items into the back of the armoury and cam out with two small pouches, one black and one gold. He handed me the black one and the gold one to Regis. “Don’t be opening those in the shop.” The NPC gently pushed us out of the building and onto the street. “And treat that girl right, boy!” He laughed and returned to his spot behind the counter, leaving Regis and I to stare at our pouches.
Artemis had then come to our sides and pointed at the pouches. “Open them. Your swords should be in there, along with a few other items like potions or a scabbard.”
He and I had exchanged glances, shrugged and carefully opened the little bags. He had pulled out a sword with an elaborate hilt and a straight, double-edged blade. It was a giant of a weapon, almost six feet long from pommel to tip. It looked heavy. I was grateful I hadn’t picked the Saber class.
He swung it around experimentally, twirling it easily. As I stared, the hilt looked oddly short for such a long blade. I would have asked, except Regis commented on it before my words could form. “It’s definitely a Zweihänder, but the hilt’s strangely small. It should be at least a foot long, for two hands. It’s more like a hand and a half sword.” As if to prove his own point, he didn’t even attempt to grasp it with his other hand. He strapped the sheath to his back and carefully slid the blade in, adjusting the strap across his chest.
As he kept fishing through his pouch, I went through my own. My hand brushed something solid and pulled it out carefully. A curved sword with a single edged blade slowly came out of the bag. I was surprised by its length, the blade nearly four feet long. It looked delicate, and deadly. My breath caught in my throat.
I had heard a low sound of admiration from Regis behind me as well. “That’s a beauty of a katana. Keep looking, you might have gotten lucky and been granted a daisho.”
I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about but I passed the katana off to him and kept digging. I found a scabbard with a strap to sling it over my back. A third time through, I found something else. A smaller hilt, it had felt like. I slid it out. A smaller but similar sword was in my hands. It looked exactly like the katana but its blade was only about a foot and a half long.
“A wakizashi,” Regis supplied.
“Oh, hurry up,” Artemis yawned. “We must find a room. It’s getting dark.”
As I pulled out the collection of potions and stashed them away, I had noticed the fading light in the sky. It would be time to log off soon. I clipped the wakizashi to my waist and the katana went in its sheath on my back.
All armoured up, we had run around the village to find an inn so our characters could sleep. It was nearly completely dark before we found a single room. It was the last one, the NPC explained, so we couldn’t split ourselves up into boy and girl rooms. We had paid her and gone upstairs.
This was where we were now.
“Night all,” Regis muttered as he rolled away from us.
“Night,” Artemis and I answered sleepily.
I turned onto my side and closed my eyes, slowly falling into sleep. When I woke up, I’d be in my bed at home. After a few minutes, I nodded off.
I opened my eyes.
I wasn’t home.
“What the-?” I shot up and looked around. I was still in the inn. I flicked through the system menus until the log out option was displayed in my right eye. “Log out,” I said quietly.
Nothing happened.
I let out an unintentional groan of exasperation. What was wrong with this thing?! “Log out,” I said louder, more clearly this time. Still nothing happened.
Regis stirred on the bed opposite me. He shouldn’t have been able to; his character should have been completely inanimate because the person playing him was no longer logged in. He rolled over and looked at me weirdly. “Why am I still here?” he asked.
I shrugged, having no explanation to offer. I heard a sudden and loud snore above me and I jumped, smashing my head on the bottom of Artemis’ bunk. Regis snickered and I caught a glimpse of fangs. I punched the bottom of her bed in frustration. She drew in a quick honking breath and fell to the floor.
“Whoops…” I murmured, staring at the poor woman on the floor. She was sitting up, rubbing the back of her head.
And whining. Did I mention that?
“Ow…you’re so mean you guys! How could you do that to such a peacefully sleeping girl?!” She had the most pitiful puppy-dog look that it was difficult to keep a straight face.
Giggles started to escape from the corners of my mouth so I coughed to try to cover the sound. I was scowled at for my troubles.
“Really, what’s with you two?” she muttered darkly. My laughter died, reminded of the current state we were in. Which was, still being in the game.
I commanded the game, “Log out!” As if saying it louder would actually do anything. I watched as understanding dawned on my team’s faces. They both barked into the air, trying to log out. Half a minute later, we were no better off.
Artemis was the first to venture anything. “What do we do now?” Her voice was soft and shy, wavering slightly. I had never seen her like that before. Rather than an unshakable slab of stone, she was a dried up leaf, shivering in the wind. My blood chilled.
Regis reacted even more strangely. He moved as a blur, snatching up his sword and tearing out of the room. I heard his boots beat down the stairs and the NPC yelling unintelligible words after him. My blood suddenly ran hot, laced with adrenaline. I needed to go after him…but I had to take care of my sister first.
“Artemis! Artemis!” I yelled, shaking her. She only responded with stutters. I took her hands and jumped back with surprise. They were clammy and cold. I picked her up with a grunt and rolled her onto my bed, careful to cover her with blankets. She didn’t even seem to notice. I left her there, certain I’d only be gone a moment, with my new blades at my side.
I streamed past the poor innkeeper and up to Regis. He was standing in the middle of the street. His breathing was heavy and his hair stuck to his face while he looked around wildly. He was searching for a way out as if it were a physical thing. An object he could grasp.
“Regis…” I moved to comfort him when movement caught my eye. Players from surrounding inns slowly poured into the street with stunned looks on their faces. No one was talking; they just walked slowly, staggering like an undead march.
Except for one player.
I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. The clouds parted, casting eerie moonlight through the streets. Everyone turned up their faces toward it except for that person. Instead, they locked gazes with me, eyes dark and glaring. Silver light bounced off their short blue-green hair and made their white robe seem ghostly. They smiled, and shifted, throwing the light on their giant crescent blade. It rivalled Regis’ zweihänder, or whatever he called it.
Considering the tense mood, I had expected something different. Perhaps a wave, a mock salute or even a “hello.” Instead, they flipped me off and kept on walking. I heard them chuckle low in the near dead silence of the street as they stepped out of the moonlight and returned to the concealing shadows of the night.
I couldn’t follow them. I wanted to attack them, release whatever it was that I could feel building up inside me. But a hand on my shoulder held me back. Wind swept in from the north, gently stirring debris and drying sweat on the back of my neck.
A haunting, high-pitched howl rose and fell, echoing through the street. Shivers ran up my spine. On the tail end of the howl, I could have sworn I heard a girl’s laughter.
“Let’s get out of here,” I muttered, pinching Regis to get him to take his hand off me. I needed to move and getting out of this village before the spell broke would definitely be beneficial. I tilted my head back to get a look at his disturbed face. My two pillars had crumbled and I wanted nothing more than to go sit in a padded room. Too bad, I couldn’t. It was time to be a pillar myself. “Let’s go,” I insisted quietly.
He followed, looking like a lost teddy bear…well…wolf plushie. He looked like he could use a hug from one too. His ears lay flat against his head and he seemed to be staring at the ground, I couldn’t tell past his hair. As we trudged back up to our room to collect Artemis, I kept playing that strange laughter over in my head. It sounded like a woman’s but had a weird child-like quality to it. And I wasn’t even certain I’d actually heard it! Why was it freaking me out so much?
“Artemis?” The woman in question was curled into the fetal position, wrapped tightly in blankets. I tried to think of how I could carry her when I realized the issue could be solved easily. “Regis, can you carry her?” I asked innocently, gently prodding him towards the answer I wanted.
Through the one eye showing through his hair, I caught a glimpse of confusion and something else. Surprise, or maybe awkwardness. If I could have beat myself without looking like an idiot, I probably would have. I couldn’t act like weak “Swan” who always needed help; I had to act like “Pandora,” a confident warrior who could take care of herself. Wasn’t a clean slate why I hid myself from Regis and Artemis in the first place? I bit the inside of my cheek in frustration.
Regis lifted Artemis as if she were a porcelain doll. I snagged her bow and bag and led the way back down the stairs. We left the back way this time. As we snuck out of the village as silently as anyone laden with crap and/or people could, I saw slices of the streets through gaps in the buildings. All the players were still a zombie hoard, milling about slowly. I saw no sign of the idiot who’d flipped me off, which strangely made me even more angry. Oh well, at least I was moving.
Who was that anyway? I’d like to bash them upside the head with their own sword.
It was easy going until we hit the trees. The moonlight shattered into fragments that littered the ground. The effect was eerie. Shadows only existed in part on the slender path while they surrounded us on two sides. Stretching, reaching and falling short. Goosebumps rose on my skin as the distant howl of a wolf resounded.
I hate the dark.
I heard Regis murmur, “The night conceals everything from peering eyes.”
My forehead wrinkled as I tried to figure out where exactly that came from. Not getting anywhere, I had to put thought into the wording of my question. “You didn’t strike me as… the poetic type,” I commented, cringing as I stepped on a branch. The crack seemed impossibly loud in the quiet.
“I didn’t say anything,” he replied, sounding surprised. I whipped my head around and stared. He didn’t appear to be lying.
A stream of curses erupted from the blackout to our right. In unison, Regis and I slowly turned our heads in that direction. After staring for about a minute, my vision adjusted enough to see a singular figure moving rapidly.
“In blazing tornadoes, the bones of the dead shall dance!”
Red light exploded and blinded me. I blinked rapidly, trying to quickly clear my vision. Orbs of light floated in front of my eyes, feedback from the now very stressed cells. But I could see. Except I didn’t want to anymore. Hardly ten metres off, a fiery skeletal hoard surrounded a white haired demon.
I should have mentioned: I HATE NECROMANCERS! They summon the creepiest things.
Encased in thick armour that covered everything but his chest, eyes the red of his flaming skeletons, the demon stood and smiled. He hadn’t seen us yet. Good thing too, he looked like he was ready for a fight and if he could already summon five skeletons then he was a higher level than any players in my team. I stepped back instinctively…and stepped on a branch…again.
The snap made Regis wince and the demon caught sight of us. His eyes narrowed. With a snap of his fingers…the skeletons dissolved into dust? As he took a step closer, I grasped the hilt of my katana. I couldn’t use it, but he didn’t know that. He stopped and raised his hands, palms out. Surrender.
“What are you doing out here?” I called out to him, injecting false bravado into my voice. Though the skeletons were gone now, I still felt queasy. And Regis really wasn’t helping at this point. He had just backed up and out my way. Probably to keep Artemis safe. Which was nice, though not having a beast at my side did a number on my self-confidence. The demon shrugged and edged closer, into a shard of moonlight. “Stop-” I started, then immediately shut my mouth. His skin was dyed red with blood. Chunks of his hair clumped together with it and open wounds gaped.
“Had a falling out with my teammates. Thought I’d do some training and get some cash before heading back to the village.” The demon spoke calmly. Well, not really, more like he was just trying to get over it.
I fished for words to reply. “I hope they look like you then,” just popped out of my mouth. I was surprised at myself. That wasn’t something I’d normally say. The demon’s lips twitched, what I guessed was as close to a smile as I’d get. Then what he said actually struck me. “Wait, you haven’t tried to log out yet?”
He looked at me strangely. What I was asking was, of course, strange. “What do you mean?” His expression became vacant as he flipped through his system menus. When his eyes fixated on me again, I guess he knew what I was referring to.
“A bug?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t recommend heading to the village. A riot’s liable to break out. We just left.” I set Artemis’ bag down and fished through my own for a vial. The second its smooth surface touched my fingers I pulled it out and threw it at the demon. “Drink it. You look like hell.”
He caught it almost…delicately between his index and middle fingers and downed its contents in one shot. I watched as his wounds knit themselves together seamlessly until only pink patches remained. It may have been both the coolest and most disgusting thing I’d ever seen. “Good stuff,” the demon said, sounding mildly surprised. “I’m Sabre.”
“Pandora.” I gestured at the beast and for-all-intensive-purposes unconscious woman behind me, “This is my team. The beast is Regis and the elf’s Artemis.” Regis grunted a greeting. As Sabre’s gaze drifted over my shoulder, I wondered if those two were having a private staring match.
“Pleasure’s all mine…” Sabre’s eyes narrowed as he looked back to me. His black armour gleamed in the moonlight. For being a creepy necromancer, I had to say he looked somewhat cool.
Regis spoke up after rearranging Artemis. I think his arms were getting tired. I’d have to joke about her weight later. “Join us, we could use a mage.”
“Eh? You sure?” Sabre smiled, it was a frightening sight. Those teeth looked amazingly sharp. “They kicked me out because I challenged the leader.”
In that last word, I though I heard something. A faint tremble. It sounded almost like he was afraid of his old team’s leader. Though I didn’t think he’d tell me, I wasn’t quite that naïve, but it did make me curious. Hm, maybe I could stand a necromancer…so long as I didn’t have to be near those creepy skeletons. Wait…in making this decision, was I letting Regis have the leader’s role again? I didn’t want to just hand that kind of power over to anyone yet I didn’t want the role for myself. What was the right choice?
I didn’t have time to puzzle it out. Regis retorted, “You’d fight a girl?”
I turned and stared at him. He winked, something I could barely see through those cursed bangs of his. For half a second, I still thought he could be talking about Artemis…no, apparently not.
“I don’t know how to fight,” I mouthed, glaring.
“Don’t worry about it,” Regis mouthed back. His lip twitched into a smile so I decided not to press it any further. If he was getting over his initial shock of not being able to leave Universal, I’d pretty much do anything. One never knows when they may go insane and need something to lean on.
I turned back to Sabre, arranging my expression into a mask of perfect confidence. I extended that to my body language. Anything to not get my ass kicked by a Necromancer.
Sabre’s elf-like ears twitched. A moment of intense silence followed. I started getting twitches just as he barked out a laugh. It had no humour in it. “Her? No. She helped me with no intention of benefitting herself.”
I gave you a vial of healing potion. Wouldn’t anyone?
“Maybe later I’ll see what kind of skill she’s got. Can’t let a noob lead me by the nose.”
It was my turn to smile. My hand left the hilt of my katana. I didn’t know how to use it anyway. “Welcome to Dark Sky, Sabre.”
At this point, Artemis started to embrace reality again. She moaned and looked at me. “Christen…what’s wrong?” she asked, mumbling the words.
I froze, nearly panicking. Was my charade already over?! Not this fast! No! I tried taking the confused-but-accepting approach. “Artemis? Are you alright? Who’s Christen?”
She shook her head. Regis and Sabre were both staring at her, more confused than I was. How could she have seen through me?
“Oh…Pandora…” she mumbled like she’d woken from a dream. She probably wished she really was waking from one now. “I’m sorry…I thought you were…” she didn’t bother finishing her sentence before falling into a half sleep.
A mental sigh of relief as I kept my face a mask…while being concealed by a mask. It was my eyes that I was worried about. As I wondered how the sleepy Artemis could have figured it out, Sabre examined me. Maybe weighing his options. Another quick glance at unconscious woman and he made his own comment. “Damn…compared to her, you’re lacking.”
I knew what he was talking about and it irritated me. I hit him with the back of that little-katana-thing, the wakizashi, and snapped, “Well sorry my boobs don’t measure up.”
Regis snickered and I felt like hitting him too for a moment. I reconsidered, since he held my sister and dropping her would be a bad idea. Saber was busy rubbing the back of his head and glaring at me as I replaced the wakizashi. I shrugged and muttered, “Let’s go.”
We trudged along, sounding like elephants in the otherwise deathly silent night. Though I was sure the temperature was dropping, sweat beaded on my neck. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves and evaporated the moisture on my skin, welcome at first. Except I heard it again, that girlish laughter. Faint, very faint. But I knew I heard it.
It couldn’t be a bug keeping us here.
It was deliberate. And she had something to do with it.
As I opened my mouth to ask if anyone else heard that laugh, the sound of cloth scraping on dirt hit my ears. I looked up the path and the demon who had flipped me off was hardly ten metres off. I had no idea how they’d gotten so close without me noticing earlier.
In a woman’s voice, the demon commented blandly, “Oh, you’re the chick who pissed me off.”
