by Charles Dean
“You . . . step away from her!” he howled.
“I’d like to . . .” Lucas mocked, “but it’s really hard. You can clearly see that she doesn’t want me to. You heard her, right? Has she ever made those noises for you?”
Jake’s eyes threatened to bore a hole through Lucas as his face turned red, and one of the veins in his fur-covered forehead stood out enough to be plainly visible.
“He’s lying,” Trisha cried. “It’s magic! He’s using magic to force me to make that noise! Please, just ignore him! Ignore me and kill him!”
Oh well . . . I could cast it one more time, but I don’t know if there’s any point. This guy is going to reach his boiling point soon. Unless . . . Lucas looked at the girl out of the corner of his eye. No, that’s too cruel. Then, seeing Jake’s face, he chuckled. Alright, I suppose that this might earn me another quest at the very least. What I do for you, Liu, is above and beyond the call of duty. With his mind made up, Lucas committed to doing the evil deed he had thought of.
“Stop hiding behind a woman and accept your fate,” Jake demanded.
“It’s hard to do that,” Lucas replied. He was watching Jake carefully since he had no way of knowing what skills or tricks the ninja would pull out of his sleeves in his mad rush to kill him. “Fate and I don’t get along. Fate tells me that I am supposed to live out the rest of my days miserable and alone, but the more I do that, the more I don’t want to do that. The more I just want to throw this guilt aside and take everything I can reach . . . like . . .” Lucas felt the energy from the spell welling up around his necklace. The only thing he needed to do now was to make sure that Jake attacked right when the skill activated. “Like your woman.”
“You can’t--”
“Oh, but I can. So long as I . . .” He paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to become the perfect cheesy villain. Then, borrowing from some of the most clichéd and awfully-written sagas, he finished, “So long as I taste her for a moment and seal my gift within, she’ll be my slave for all eternity!”
The moment Lucas finished the line, he craned his head down and bit Trisha’s neck. He would have done something else, but for his plan to work perfectly, he needed an excuse to whisper in her ear without Jake noticing what he was saying.
An event has occurred. You have partially completed another requirement to begin the Vampire quest chain.
Lucas let the blood rush into his mouth for a full moment, and he pretended to continue biting her as the spell finished. Knowing that he could set another command, he gave one last instruction. “When he comes forward, say, ‘you can’t kill him!’ as you take two steps to your right.” Then, releasing his hold on her, he backed up. “There. It’s done. Now, she’ll be firmly in my grasp until the moment I die. She’s mine now. Forever.” He chuckled to himself as if laughing at his own villainy. He was beginning to feel rather confident that his villainous laugh might one day even impress the picky Viola, who demanded all theatrics be perfect.
Jake charged straight at Lucas with his katana drawn, screaming, “Then you’ve sealed your fate, monster!”
Lucas began to worry whether or not Meddling Minds was strong enough to get Trisha into harm’s way, but then it happened. She darted in front of him, her hair flowing in the wind like an angel as Jake’s rapid, skill-empowered slash cut into her armorless and exposed midriff.
“You can’t kill him!” she cried. Her knees gave way underneath her a moment later, and she weakly collapsed onto the ground.
Jake stood frozen in shock as he watched the woman he loved die in front of him. His bloodstained blade wavered for a moment and then dipped as his arm lost all strength.
“I . . . I didn’t mean . . . Trisha, please . . . Please don’t go. You can’t go,” Jake pleaded on the verge of tears.
The whole thing wrenched into Lucas’s own heart worse than he thought it would. He wasn’t soulless, and the pain he saw on Jake’s face was one he was very familiar with.
I’m sorry, my friend. I thought it was lust, not love. “You don’t have to cry,” Lucas said flatly. He had to force the emotion that threatened to well up at the scene out of his voice. He couldn’t help but empathize with the man. “You’ll be together soon.”
Lucas stepped forward over Trisha’s body and thrust his dagger toward Jake’s neck. The grief-stricken ninja didn’t even try to lift his own hands up to stop the blow or fight back, and Lucas’s blade sank deep with little resistance. Blood gurgled up from the wound and spilled down the front of the wolf-man’s outfit from underneath his unused mask.
Lucas put on his evil smile. “I know. You want to tell me I’m a bastard and that you’re going to kill me. I’ve heard it before. Now, just die.”
You have killed Jake. You have been awarded 1873 EXP. A gold ring, 5 shuriken, and 20 gold have dropped upon death.
Title generated: Enemy of All Men.
Effects: 25% bonus Charisma for all interactions with women. 25% Charisma penalty for all interactions with men in love.
Warning: Jake has been given a quest involving you specifically.
Details of Jake’s quest: The hatred you have sewn in Jake’s heart is without end. He will hunt you to the end of the earth. He now has been given one task: Free Trisha from your hands.
Warning: If you die, the player Jake’s quest against you will automatically succeed, and Trisha will return to his side, regardless of whether she is near you to be recaptured on your death.
What? What’s all this about? I didn’t brainwash the NPC completely. The second she dies, she should spawn right next to him. He crouched down and propped her head up.
“I’m sorry, my love,” Trisha said, looking up into Lucas’s eyes. “I didn’t mean to . . . I didn’t mean to dirty your outfit with my worthless blood.”
Lucas’s mouth opened in shock. Wait, did the game just change this NPC to fulfill the requirements of a quest? One that was generated based solely on the dialogue I used to trick Jake out of the shadows?
“Oh my god . . .” Jesse said from back at the school building’s entrance. “You . . . You really mind-controlled her.”
“I . . . I didn’t!” Lucas exclaimed despite the fact the evidence in his hands spoke entirely of the contrary. Crap! Is my Charisma score too high now? Lucas seriously hoped that he hadn’t just been saddled with a useless NPC strictly for the sake of humoring an enemy’s quest. Actually, she’s going to die in a moment. Will that undo the quest? Lucas wondered, looking at the massive open wound in her stomach.
“Crap, here, let me handle it,” Jesse said, walking up toward Lucas. “Can’t have your new . . . thrall . . .? Well, can’t have her dying on you when you just got her.” He produced a salve from his bag and slathered it across Trisha’s stomach.
“You just keep that on you?” Lucas asked.
“You haven’t seen how big the explosions are when a monster evolution fails,” Jesse chortled. “One time, the blast was so big that it launched everything so high in the air that it just hovered for a moment before it fell. Kinda like bedsheets after spicy meals.”
“That . . . You seriously need to work on those analogies,” Lucas said. Please don’t heal her. She needs to die and go back to her real master. However, he didn’t have the heart to voice that right in front of the lovestruck woman who was bleeding out because of him.
Even if she was an NPC, Lucas couldn’t be so cold to someone who was, for whatever reason, dedicated to him.
“Thank you,” she said, holding on to Jesse’s hand for a moment. “I was worried that I’d be parted from my master too soon.”
Master this, master that. Ugh. The rest of them are never going to let this go, Lucas thought with a groan, already anticipating the mockery he was going to get for this NPC’s attire and behavior.
Jesse stood up. “Okay. The wound healed up nicely, so now we can go get that lunch. My treat.”
“You mean my treat, right?” Lucas asked.
“I mean, a pizza isn’t
a problem,” Jesse said. “I can treat you to a pizza.”
“Yeah, but you paid for the salve you just used.” Lucas gestured to the girl, who was now tidying herself up and adjusting her ludicrously short skirt. “Add in the free lesson earlier, and I think it’s safe to say I owe you one.” He was a little sad about the fact he had to push this issue. Jesse insisting on paying might be a culture thing, but it also might be some nuance of the Imperium social structure that Lucas wasn’t aware of yet. It could also just be the simple fact that Jesse was so grateful to have someone for company who wasn’t an animal that he didn’t want to risk scaring him off.
Welp, now it’s going to make ditching you two even more awkward, Lucas thought as he fell in step behind the NPCs. When they reached the dining hall, he was a little taken aback to discover that the area looked like something out of a country club. The long, straight tables that he had become accustomed to back in the bars on Hesse had been replaced with circular tables, white table cloths, excessive silverware, and fancy glasses. He had spent enough time in expensive restaurants and country clubs during his tenure as CEO, and this setup would not have been out of place in any of them. It was only after the hostess greeted them at the entrance and asked where he would like to be seated and what he’d like to eat that Lucas realized his mistake: Jesse had offered to treat Lucas because they didn’t take money.
Although Lucas enjoyed his meal, chicken cordon bleu with asparagus, Jesse talked about creatures nonstop. Trisha didn’t say a word. She kept stealing glances at Lucas, which made him increasingly uncomfortable as time went on.
Yup, gotta ditch them, Lucas thought, avoiding Trisha’s eyes as he took the last bite of his meal and gulped down a cider made from a fruit that had no real-life counterpart: the rukken. It tasted like a pear and a pineapple had been forced together by a mad scientist and then given a touch of tart.
“By the way, I hate asking, but”--Lucas paused and looked over at Trisha--“how long were you and Jake together?”
“Oh, him? Two days. We met two days ago, and he proposed,” Trisha said, smiling.
“He proposed?” Lucas wasn’t sure if the answer made him feel worse about the situation or better.
“Mmm . . . I told him that I wanted to run off with him, but I’m not sure why I ever said that. I certainly don’t now.” Her face scrunched up as if she was confused, and she looked down for a moment as if searching for answers. “I think . . . Why did I agree? It doesn’t matter now. I told him that I’d only ever marry him if he saved my grandmother, who was captured by the Were-Cat tribe Raggamuffin.”
“And . . . did he?” Lucas asked. He found it interesting to watch an AI try and reason out how a quest was impacting her. He had no doubt that her old Were-Wolf companion’s Charisma and dialogue choices from previous quests had greatly affected Trisha’s decisions, and now that she had been separated from him, and the quests surrounding her had changed, those previous effects had worn off. There was a very good chance that she would have gone through this exact same process even if Lucas hadn’t stepped in. Even more interesting was that Jake had been ready to slaughter Lucas in the name of love after only a few days. A lot of the best romances are the quickest in adventure books, but this . . . Lucas’s old gaming friend from before he went into business, Locke, had mentioned that he had met his girlfriend and was already rather serious about her in less than a week.
“So, umm . . .” Lucas shifted the subject and gave Trisha one last wary glance before saying, “I’m going to head toward the next lecture.”
“What’s up next?” Jesse asked.
“A physical combat one. It should be pretty interesting,” Lucas said. And it’s definitely needed. I can’t keep counting on the ability to manipulate my opponents during battles. If there had been two little ninja kids, I’d have been in trouble.
“Ah. I have alchemy next,” Jesse said. “Gotta work on my mixing if I’m going to build the right lures and sleeping agents.”
Lucas nodded. “Makes sense. Could you, umm . . .” He looked over at Trisha, and Jesse seemed to understand immediately.
“Need me to show her around while you’re in class?” he ventured. “No problem.”
“Yeah, and make sure you listen well to what Jesse says, okay, Trisha?”
Trish’s tail dropped. “Yes, master. I will listen to your request and learn as much as I can from your friend, Jesse.”
“Thanks then,” Lucas said, standing up and excusing himself. “See you guys soon, I guess.”
“I’ll drop the girl off later,” Jesse said. “Then we can try out a better dining hall.”
This place has more than one? Lucas’s eyes widened as he imagined what sort of food he was going to get from the next place.
-----
Edmund scowled at the large grandfather clock, one of the few in existence. It was almost time for the meeting, but because of Rowland’s new trouble-making “friends,” he had been far too preoccupied to go over all of the paperwork with the focus it deserved.
Lesser men. Cowards. Who does that lowborn guttersnipe think he is? Just because he earned a title of nobility through common means, he thinks he has the right to call himself one of us? Edmund could only bemoan his son’s new choice of friends.
“It’s time for my nap,” he said to the butler waiting by the door. “I shall be retiring in my chair as per usual, if you don’t mind. Would you be so kind as to shut the door and make sure no one interrupts?”
The butler looked over and then bowed his head. “Yes, your liege. No one shall disturb you.” He then closed the door behind him as he exited the large room, leaving the noble alone within the study.
“We aren’t losing the war,” Edmund grumbled as he shuffled the papers back together. “This isn’t us hiding from enemies.” He stood up with the documents in hand and walked over to the grandfather clock. “No, we’re just playing a game that a lesser man like that lowborn ingrate cannot see. Ignorant of the bigger picture, that idiot might ruin everything.”
He opened up the clock’s face to reveal both the inner workings and a hidden lever. With a little effort, he was able to pull the lever, and a bookshelf to the right silently popped inward.
“Rowland would be here to pull this if that kid had even half the brain of the others,” Edmund sighed as he passed through into the secret hallway. He grabbed a torch that was conveniently placed at the entrance, lit it, and then shut the secret doorway behind him before making his way down a hallway, a set of stairs, and then along another hallway toward a room in the middle. The walk took around ten minutes, and he desperately wished that his son had the wits to be included in these activities. Unfortunately, if associations were any indication, Rowland had proved that he was an idiot. The only thing that fool is fit for is producing a suitable heir. Although, with that overly muscular, meat-headed wife of his, I don’t know if I’ll be getting an heir or a brutish thug.
Finally, he reached his destination: the joint room. It was directly between two of the major houses and a secret entrance that was located just outside the city walls. The tunnels and this room served as lowkey, secretive meeting places and shelter in times of political turmoil.
While the hallway itself was rather cave-like, constructed of bricks and rock with small air shafts dotted along its length, the room was different. It was large enough to hold a banquet in, and its floors, ceilings, and roof were solid marble. It had beautifully woven rugs, carved oak tables, and a full kitchen attached to it. There was a larger metallic table in the center of the space that dominated all the others. Although its exact material was unknown, it was easily large enough to accommodate thirty people, and every expertly crafted inch had a picture etched into it.
The story depicted across its surface and sides was that of the group’s first meeting during the fourth great war of the Imperium against the beast people and the Alfars. It told of the high price of victory. On all sides, be it Alfar, Beast, or Human, the nobility was losing al
l that mattered. Regardless of who won the war, the most likely outcome was the destruction of all noble houses and the creation of a world where barbaric commoners reigned supreme. Each year the war continued, soldiers gained greater importance. They rose in level and in numbers due to prolonged fighting and conscription, while the noble houses lost heirs and spent fortunes hiring mercenaries to protect their estates from roaming bandits or surprise attacks from generals seeking to cut supply lines. The nobles paid in both blood and wealth, and without those two, the commoners wouldn’t know who their betters were. Near the end of the war, the great and wise Were-Rat Namor, seeking to not lose his house’s prestige and place in the world, organized a daring meetup between his house and the other nobles across the three warring factions. They first broke bread, discussed their common threats, and then plotted the unthinkable: regicide.
It took a month, but after the alliance had been struck, Ramon and the other nobles who had signed the accord usurped the existing leaders and coerced their replacements into signing ceasefires, thus ending the war and bringing peace to the noble houses. There had been dozens of wars after, but each lacked the brutality of the previous great wars and was instead a play to consolidate power toward their own noble houses.
The current war was designed to shrink the Imperium holdings, forcing rising families to give up their power base and return to the city, paying an arm and a leg to Edmund and his four co-conspirators as they sold the returnees the same land they used to own before they left for the countryside. The Imperium would admit defeat, agree to some nominal concessions, and then the land lost during the war would be returned, at which point Edmund and his co-conspirators would use the ridiculously high payments that the families who crawled back to the city gave him to rebuy the land at pennies on the dollar. His family would prosper, and the concessions the Imperium agreed to would go to the Alfar and Beast families that started the war.
