by Zoey Rivera
“Sure,” he said.
Catherine nodded and focused her vision towards the forest as well. The tall trees giving off an ominous aura as they crossed its line. She was scared. She could feel her heart pumping harder than it normally did and certainly nothing compared to the dull beat of it among the elite. But she didn’t mind it. She liked it. It was a feeling she could get used to.
“What about you?” Lorcan asked. “What do you believe in?”
“Oh, um,” Catherine struggled to find the words to explain her faith.
It wasn’t that she had none but she never had to explain it to others. Mostly because she was raised in a community where everyone had the same ideals. There wasn’t as much diversity in people as there seemed to be in Eden. So, there was no need for her to have to explain herself. Everyone just understood.
“I think that there is a higher being, almost like a game creator, but for the real world as well. And they watch over us to make sure nothing bad ever happens,” Catherine smiled at her explanation.
“And what about when something bad does happen?” Lorcan questioned.
“What?” Catherine was thrown off by the question.
“Bad things happen every day. Thousands of people lose their lives to Eden or tragedy or even just age. What does your higher power say about that?” Lorcan knew that she would have a difficult time with this question. He probably should have just let her live in her bubble where nothing could actually go wrong. But if he was going to leave her alone in Hallifax, at least so that he could have a clear conscious, he needed to know that she wouldn’t die immediately after his departure.
“I guess they just miss that,” Catherine shrugged.
“Missed it?” Lorcan asked.
“Yeah, you know how sometimes there are little errors or quirks in things that people make? If you go back in Eden’s history you’ll see that there are a bunch of different types of oculi just because some of the tests worked and others didn’t. There were errors. Life just has some small errors that maybe another version fixed. That’s why I like Eden so much because this world filled that empty feeling error that I have back home,” Catherine said.
Silence weighed down the moment. Catherine’s face reddened slightly. She hadn’t meant for that to come out so sad sounding. It wasn’t that she was depressed at home, her life was too luxurious for her to be allowed to be depressed. But she definitely felt like something was missing from her life when she wasn’t watching Eden.
“I see,” Lorcan said.
They walked a bit further in silence. Catherine would occasionally allow herself small glimpses up at the big man then set her gaze back around the forest. There seemed to be a perpetual fog around them that obscured their vision after about thirty feet or so. Still Catherine could only imagine the types of creatures lurking just out of eyesight.
She squinted her eyes to try and see if there was any movement out there. Not noticing that in her curiosity, she was wandering further from Lorcan’s side. She began to push through the bushes to get a clearer line of sight when she was met with a giant troll inches away from her.
The monster towered over her petite form. It’s hulking body seemed as though it could even tower over Lorcan. The creature of the Mir smiled down to its potential meal.
The girl screamed.
Lorcan whipped her away from the beast and shoved her behind him. He withdrew his sword to challenge it. Engaging the beast in a brawl. It was surprisingly strong, taking all of Lorcan’s attacks without much of a hinderance to his health.
For a moment he just stood, locked face-to-face with the dark creature. Its hollow black eyes staring back at him. He would have to think of a new strategy. He glanced down at Catherine tapping away at her dashboard. A staff materialized into her fist.
She was going to try and fight.
She was going to get in his way.
He cursed, pulling the staff out of the girl’s hand and using it as a bat to slam against the creature’s face. He had never bothered upping his magic proficiencies. He was a man of fists and blades, not spells.
The creature attacked him again, enraged. Clawing and swinging his fists at Lorcan. He managed to catch an opening and shoved himself into the beast. Throwing the both of them onto the ground. He used this opportunity to sink his blade into its flesh, under the breast bone, straight to its hollow heart.
He panted. He wasn’t fully healed from the battle with the sea beast yet. He wasn’t ready to take on a troll so suddenly. His eyes shot over to Catherine. She was standing there in shock. Probably still thrown off from him stealing her staff and misusing it as a club.
“You’re not taking this seriously. This is life or death, Catherine,” Lorcan’s voice was harsh, firm, and unforgiving.
“No! No, I’m not. You want to know why? This isn’t my world. This isn’t my life. I don’t need to live in this world, I can leave whenever I choose. I don’t have to live here. I don’t have to die here. This isn’t a life I need to experience, it is the life I am choosing to live. I want to have fun. I want to adventure. I want to experience the world and what it has to offer me. I want to know what this world has to offer beyond just what the display monitors would show us. That is why I chose to come and live in this world. To experience it. And you, peasant. You damn pawn. You are ruining this for me. So leave me!” She pouted.
Lorcan just stared at her for a long moment, completely dumbfounded at her ignorance of Eden. Just how were the Elite viewing their world? How much of reality were they missing? How romanticized was this hellscape in her mind?
“Fine, I will. Good luck with your adventure. And I hope for your sake, it is a short one. I’ll be back on the ship when you come to your senses,” Lorcan turned around to walk back towards the ship.
There was no point in continuing through the unknown of the Mir and risking his own life for a brat. And if she excused him from responsibility over her, he could mentally argue that he was risking his life further by sticking around. She ran up to him and shoved the rest of his payment at him.
“There. Now you can leave,” she waved him off.
He walked away.
So did she.
Chris was assembling the crew and just finished repairs when he noticed Lorcan reemerge from the Mir. He barely made eye contact with Chris before he was approached. Chris stopped him with a hand on the shoulder and pulled him aside to talk.
“Where’s Cat?” he asked.
“The esteemed elite player wished to continue on her own,” Lorcan scoffed.
“You really going to leave her alone in the Mir after Anna’s stories?” Chris’s voice had an air of disappointment to it. It wasn’t that Lorcan wasn’t aware of the dangers in the Mir. It was that he also knew the power that Catherine held if she really did want him to leave and he didn’t.
“She told me to leave, so I did,” he said tonelessly.
Chris nodded, understandingly. “You get your payment?”
Lorcan held up the bag of coins. He hadn’t bothered depositing it into his inventory yet. He had tied it to his belt after she had shoved it at him and didn’t touch it on the walk back until now.
“Well, job’s done then. Time to move on to the next one, right?” Chris pat his shoulder.
“Right,” Lorcan agreed.
Catherine walked on through the forest. She was mad. She was frustrated. She was scared. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. He was finally opening up to her. They were having a moment. Why was it so hard for him to understand her? Why can’t he see how adventurous this would could be? He clearly enjoyed the rush of monster fights. She had seen him and Captain Chris smiling as they attacked the sea beast. Why couldn’t she have that too?
She stomped onward. She had a crudely drawn map that she had created while she was watching Eden. It didn’t have everything but it had enough to help her with the direction she should be going in. She should have taken the proper map back from Lorcan but it was too late now.<
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Just how long was this forest though?
She let her mind wander as she trudged through the trees. She just wanted to be in Hallifax already. She was done with this boring part of adventuring. She wished she could skip over the travelling and already be living in her comfy (but not too safe because she still wanted something going on) restaurant or inn. She hadn’t fully decided yet. Although, when she had yelled at Robert, she said restaurant. So maybe that was a sign she should open one.
She kicked rocks as she walked on. Maybe her elite friends were right. They had never quite actually been her friends. Just a circle of people around her age whom she chose to associate with. She had worked hard to push their mocking from her mind this entire trip but… It might have been a poor choice to enter Eden.
Maybe it was just a mistake to take a trip through to the town and adventure the Blacksalt Sea before arriving in Hallifax and settling down. It might have been better to have found a way to allow her to spawn inside the city and just start up there.
“But I wanted an adventure,” she mumbled half-heartedly to herself.
She was only just now realizing how intimidating the Mir felt. It wasn’t just the perpetual fog or the seemingly never-ending trees. It was the hollowness and silence that surrounded her. It was making her think too much. She didn’t want to think, she wanted to experience. Maybe that was her problem.
She shook her head to clear it as she neared a small city. She looked around at the small but elegant buildings surrounding a larger mansion-like structure. She gestured to pull up her dashboard and load up a map of the area. Although the maps never showed much, it could inform you of at least your surrounding area.
“Lamia?” she read the city’s name and looked around.
It didn’t look too far off from what she saw of Hallifax on the viewing monitors back home. The cobblestone streets. The simple aura around the city that made it feel like it was straight out of a storybook. If she was too lost to find her way to Hallifax, she supposed she would be happy enough living here. Although, she didn’t care for the mansion in the middle. It ruined the whole humble, quaint, small town vibe she wanted.
She tapped the shoulder of a passing local, “Excuse me, I’m trying to find my way to Hallifax. Would you mind giving me directions?”
The lean, pale blonde man smiled at her with imposing fangs. He looked down at her with bloodshot crimson eyes. She felt herself shrink away slightly from him in fear.
“Sure thing, love. It’s just thirty miles east from here. There’s almost a straight shot if you follow that path there. But someone small like you, I’d suggest hiring an escort before roughing that journey,” he said pointing in the direction she needed to take.
“Oh, thank you, sir,” she bowed her head slightly in thanks and partially to hide her embarrassment. Why had she been so immediately scared of such a kind man?
Fear.
Why was she living with this sense of paranoia now?
These were all real people that she could talk to and interact with. These were all people who were living like anyone else. It was like Lorcan had said. This world is no different than the other. And yet…
She was still scared.
She found an inn and paid for a room for the night. She was careful to buy a very small room to not flaunt around her money. She could still feel Robert’s rage as he lashed out at her. Blaming her purely because she was elite. But she was a player too now. Just like him. Why did he have to treat her differently?
She laid down across her bed and curled up into a tiny ball, pulling the blanket over her to conceal her from the world. She missed Lorcan and Chris. She missed feeling safe and taken care of. She missed The Wandering Willow. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for Eden after all.
“You’re really not going to go after her?” Chris’s voice was filled with judgement and disdain. He knew that over the years Lorcan had given him reason enough to more than just hate him but this was just something else entirely.
“No, why would I bother?” Lorcan asked. He did his part, why put himself at risk when there is no reward or real reason. Sure he had grown slightly attached to the little girl from their short time together but it was just that.
Short.
Chris shook his head and gathered together some supplies into his inventory. Then he started to make his way toward the Mir Forest.
“Oh come on, she is probably fine and well and found either another escort or is making her way through and practically to Hallifax by now,” Lorcan called out.
“Guess I’ll just see her in Hallifax then,” Chris yelled back.
He jogged up to catch up with Chris and stopped him. “Why?”
“Because I’m a decent human being, Lorcan. You seem to have forgotten that over the last few years since we lost Anna. But you forget, I lost her too. She was my best friend before she met you. Unlike you though, I’m not taking my rage out on other players. I am helping, as she would have wanted us to. Now I’ll excuse the odd slaughter here and there as I have been recently because at least they have been somewhat justifiable but this is leaving a defenseless, naive, innocent little girl on her own to her death. And that is something Anna would have never stood for,” he pushed Lorcan’s hand off of him and continued on.
Lorcan stood there in silence for a moment staring forward. Had he lost his way that much since he lost her? And if he had, why did Chris allow him to fall this far?
Because he believed you would snap out of it.
Anna. He could never escape Anna’s voice in his mind. It was stronger than any other judgemental voice in his head. No voice of self doubt cut as much as the voice of Anna. He could practically see her standing there. Her hazel eyes glaring down into his heart. She knew just how to scathe him so that no potion could heal.
He trusted you and you let him down.
Lorcan closed his eyes and tried to shake the voice from his mind. He was allowed to just do his job and keep moving. He didn’t need to let her haunt him. He couldn’t have stopped her death no matter what he did differently. He did all he could for Anna and she still died right there. Right in front of him.
You let us down, L.
This time Anna was accompanied by the voice of Catherine. She appeared meekly from behind Anna in his mind’s eye. She looked so helpless. Because she was. He knew she was and that it was his fault that she was. He had abandoned her. Seeing the two side by side he noticed how similar they both looked. As if Catherine were a younger more pale version of Anna. They both had that look though. That hunger for adventure with eyes beckoning him to come along and fight beside them. And he had smothered that.
He ran to catch up with Chris and walked next to him in silence as they followed down the path he had abandoned her. They kept a brisk pace for majority of the way until they hit the city of Lamia.
“Is this Hallifax? I thought it was further?” Lorcan felt slightly relieved that it was so close to where they had parted ways.
Maybe he didn’t have to feel bad after all. He had made it through majority of the woods with her, it would have been only about 5 miles for her to manage on her own, which he believed even she could do without getting herself killed.
“No, this is Lamia apparently,” Chris corrected. He pointed to the town’s event board. It was covered with the parchment of potential jobs for the freelancers of Lamia willing to take a chance. They were all listed for the city of Lamia.
Lorcan let out a heavy sigh. He wasn’t free yet then. Of course it couldn’t have been that easy for him.
“Maybe she got confused like you did and settled into an inn. We should look around first before we head the rest of the way,” Chris offered.
Lorcan nodded in agreement. They scanned the town’s inns and only one recognized her from their description. The old man running the establishment informed them that she had paid and left toward Hallifax already after eating and presumably resting for a short while.
“She was only here for about th
ree hours, but she still paid the full rent of the room. I offered her a discount but she refused. She seemed well off so I assume she is sponsored and is trying to milk whatever money she can spend of the elite’s. Either way, I appreciated it,” he said.
“Thanks for the help,” Chris said as the both of them exited the inn.
“So, she’s just letting the whole town know she is off to Hallifax then and clearly wearing as much elite apparel as she could manage to put on. Probably wearing that useless hat too,” Lorcan grumbled.
Chris shook his head, amused because she probably was.
“Hey, a new event! Oliver, come check it out,” A boy called over to his friend.
They were both grinning wildly and began gathering a mob of friends near the post. Everyone was getting too excited over whatever was being requested. The commotion drew Chris and Lorcan’s attention over and they looked at the sign. It was a call to arms by the elite against the city of Hallifax.
It didn’t list a reason or an objective other than mindless slaughter. Chris furrowed his brows trying to understand what would lead to an insane request like this.
“They’re giving her an adventure,” Lorcan’s voice was filled with dread.
He gulped as he realized the situation they were now in. Bored elite, toying with their world to amuse the one player they could identify with. Because she was one of them. He was repeatedly annoyed with this truth because of how he assumed she was raised. He never really considered the immediate danger of a bored elite player. He was too busy worrying about getting her there without disgruntled players killing her or monsters. But she was the elite player, one of them, enjoying the world of Eden for real.
Chris ripped a listing from a smaller boy’s hands and read through the smaller details quickly.
“Lorcan, it lists Catherine on here,” he showed the section to Lorcan.
