by Cat Wilder
My eyes locked with Izzy's. We instantly went from knife fight, to battle over who he took back to the rooms. I struck first, catching Viktor's eyes and biting my lip. A surge of excitement washed through me, making my skin tingle. There was so much desire in his eyes. I knew I had him, but Izzy pressed up to him. Her hands stroked him just right, as she claimed his full attention.
"You're my favorite, baby," I purred as I molded myself to his other side. "Pick me, and I'll make it the best we ever had."
"I'll make your body sing," Izzy promised, and then pulled his lips down to hers. Their kiss lingered, while I panicked. "I'm the best you've ever had. Pick me."
"True. You are the best," he said.
Shocking. He said Izzy, that cold-hearted bitch, was better in bed than me? How was that possible? Sure, she was prettier. I could admit that. But I had passion, and gave my all with every one of my customers.
Viktor turned to me. "But I choose Carly."
It wasn't easy to keep my eyes on Viktor. I so wanted to see what defeat looked like on her face. I could see an incredulous look on her face out the corner of my eyes, but he was watching me so it had to be all about him. I could gloat later.
This place has turned me into a petty bitch, I thought.
"Izzy, tell Taks Daarkin I want to see him immediately."
I was taken aback. Customers only asked to see Taks to complain. What did I do wrong? How much trouble was coming my way? Did that mean he wasn't going to take me to my room and spank me?
Izzy, though, looked delighted and rushed off to obey. Honestly, the collars the girls all wore in that brothel were enchanted, and forced us to be absolutely obedient to our master. We were also compelled to obey any customer, up to a point. Customers could not override Taks' orders.
"How may I serve you, my lord?" Taks asked.
Taks Daarkin approached warily. No one wanted to deal with an angry high official. As one of King Raax's mages, he was as high as a human could get in the Orc Court. The brothel owner could lose his head for just a minor insult.
"Sell Carly to me," Viktor demanded. "How much do you want?"
I froze. Was I about to finally leave that hellhole? The rich and nobility of the kingdom all kept harems of wives, concubines, and slaves. Did Viktor want me as a slave, or something better? Owning me gave him the right to free me from bondage.
"Wonderful," Taks said, but I could tell he was not pleased. It would depend on how much Viktor was willing to pay for me. "Are you buying her for yourself, or for King Raax?"
My breath caught. King Raax was the orc warlord that conquered the Kingdom of Gotari some eight months back. He kept a large harem of mostly humans and elves. All three of the late human king's daughters were in his harem, as were the most beautiful daughters of the vanquished human nobility. I'd probably end up a lowly kitchen slave if given to him. While Viktor was a young, up and coming wizard just starting a harem, which would put me in high status in the future.
My heart began thundering in my chest the second they started haggling. I was being sold like a dog or horse. Izzy looked so pleased. My face heated up, yet the collar forced me to stand there quietly and accept my fate.
I didn't want to be sold, but I didn't want to stay in the brothel. Every emotion, good and bad, swirled within. My virtual life flashed before my eyes. Fights and battles thrilled me. My proudest moment was slaying the King Wizard Artimus, not once, but twice. He eventually defeated me, but made me his apprentice. And that led to greater battles and victories as a general. Being bought and sold dredged up all of that, and more. It fired up my soul, but not in a good way.
What can I do? I wondered, feeling so helpless, used, and abused.
"It has been a pleasure doing business with you, my lord," Taks said, breaking me out of that dark reverie. He was holding a purse full of coins. Okay, he was fondling it. Greedy bastard. "Carly is yours. Izzy, remove her collar."
"My pleasure," the drow princess said, holding my eyes with a look of triumph. "Bye-bye, Carly."
She stepped up and reached for the collar encircling my neck. It had been there since the day I respawned in the common room. The enchantment kept the wearer from removing it, but apparently another girl could do the deed. Izzy opened it quickly, and pulled it away.
"Oooh," I gasped, feeling the magic bleed away.
Izzy stood there smirking at me. I was her only real competition, so she was glad to see me go. The drow just made one big mistake. Taks no longer had power over me. And there was no magic restricting my actions.
So I head-butted her.
The drow cried out in pain and surprise, bright blood splattering me, Viktor, and others. My new lord and master cried out angrily, so I moved fast and kicked him away. One of Izzy's boys pulled his sword and thrust it through my heart.
I heard Viktor cry out as I died.
Blackness, followed by a flash of light as I respawned five feet away.
"Ouch, that hurt," I said.
Sitting up, I noticed several important things right off. Viktor, Taks, and Izzy were all running toward me. The man who killed me spun around, bloody sword in hand. And I was back in my default outfit: Purple and gold Princess Leia outfit. And my bracers!
"Freedom!" I screamed and surged to my feet.
Sword and shield manifested, and I charged into the fight. Izzy chose discretion, and vanished into the crowd. Taks froze, eyes huge, but Viktor's hands erupted with balls of red flames. The mage was about to attack me, so I reacted instinctively.
I thrust my sword through his heart.
"You killed a royal mage?" Taks said. Everyone fell silent, and looked at me in shock and horror. "You're dead meat when King Raax learns about this."
Chapter 4
I've played PvP games most of the time, up until being trapped in that PvP game. Killing other players, much less NPCs didn't faze me until I was trapped inside the game forever. Even so, I was a warrior-mage. My characters killed. It was my life. Yet, killing Viktor hit me hard. I liked him. We had a connection, though it was really a hooker-john type of thing.
"Get the Watch," Izzy shouted. "Don't let her escape!"
Men lurched at me. I willed the sword and shield away, and they must've thought I was surrendering. I wasn't.
"Stay back," I shouted, curling my fingers inward as I spread my arms wide. Bright, blue balls of arcane fire formed around my hands. The brothel's patrons froze. "I'm a warrior-mage, and I'll burn you all to a crisp." I looked at Izzy. "Starting with you."
Unlike the others, the drow princess wasn't frozen in place. She took off running. I watched her vanish through the door to her room in back. I'd be happy if they all followed her, but I'm never that lucky. And then it happened.
"What's that?" I asked, noticing something roll away from Viktor's corpse, coming to a stop between his legs. I moved over to see what he dropped. Mobs didn't always drop an item, but they were a lot more likely to if they're some kind of spellcaster. "That looks interesting."
It was a pair of black leather gloves. I picked them up, causing my HUD to come up, too. I smiled to see what I'd scored.
Gloves of Strength. Multiplies strength by a factor of 10.
I pulled the right glove on, and it shrank to fit my hands like a second skin. My arm tingled all the way up to my shoulder. My left arm reacted the same way to the other glove. To test the power of the gloves, I picked up a chair and easily tore it to pieces.
Spotting Viktor's purse hanging off his belt, I claimed it, too. I tossed Taks a small silver coin, called a crown, which was the standard currency of the land.
"Just paying for the chair I broke. Bye."
I ran out the door and into the street. God, how that felt good! Even better, by respawning I became fully dressed for the first time in two months. That also meant I was back in the low-heeled booties, and didn't have to run around on cobblestone in the five-inch stilettos Taks made me wear. Oh what a relief that was!
I ran until the brothel was o
ut of sight before I stopped and looked around. It was later in the day than I thought. Sunset was minutes away. Since the port city of Got was on the western coast, the sun set over the sea. Those were the best sunsets. The sky was all pink and azure and burnt orange. You wouldn't think those colors would go together well, but it was spectacular.
One side of the street was lined with old, weathered structures of one to three floors. Most were half-timbered with wood-shingled roofs. Few had any paint to speak of, and a couple leaned way out over the street. The docks on the other side were still bustling with activity. Lanterns were being lit, because once they started loading or unloading a ship, they worked until the job was done.
Some goblin sailors called out to me, trying to wave me over. My momma didn't raise no fool. I kept moving, but covertly kept a wary eye on them. They forgot about me quickly. And then the dockworkers started in with the catcalls. Some of them were pretty crude. Of course, when I ignored them it just ticked them off, and sexual innuendo turned into accusations and threats.
Men made me crazy sometimes.
A pale brown minotaur passed by, while giving me an appreciative look. I started walking beside him, caught his eyes, and held them. The fact he was a player drew me to him, but it was his class that I really liked.
Minotaur. Merchant captain (Lvl 25).
Mostly, though, I was interested in him because he had to own a ship to be a merchant captain. He wore simple undyed cotton trousers down to mid-calf. The merchant had to be seven feet tall, not counting his upturned horns which added at least another foot. His limbs were thick and powerful, and his chest deep and rippled with muscles. I suspected an orc would think twice before starting a fight with him.
"Hi, I'm Carly," I said.
The shouts of angry men came from back the way I came. Slanting a nervous look, I worried the alert of an escaped slave would reach us. My new companion glanced back down the street, before giving me a suspicious look.
I smiled and shrugged. "Men get into fights over me. Is it my fault?"
He laughed. A little of my tension bled away.
"Hello, Carly. I'm Captain Hors," he said. I gawked at him. He grinned. "I know. Weird name for a minotaur, but it's spelled without an E on the end."
"You're not a horse, of course," I said, and chuckled. "Just a bull minotaur named Hors. I like you. You're a clever player."
"And I always appreciate wenches of easy virtue. Though, I don't understand why anyone would choose that class to play."
I gave him a cool look. "I'm not really that easy."
"What a shame," he said. Hors leaned down close. "Because I am."
Our eyes locked in a sizzling gaze. I think it was my fault. My easy virtue curse made my head go there too easily. Really big, physically powerful players called to something base and very naughty in me.
"I'm not that hard, either," I said, wagging my brows. "I was a warrior-mage until a wizard cursed me into this character."
"They can do that?"
"He is a very powerful wizard," I said. "I was also magically relocated to Got by that same wizard against my will." Hors looked suitably shocked and outraged. "So I have no idea where in the world I am. As a sailor, I suspect you've seen a lot of this world."
"I have," he said. "And what I haven't seen, I have maps. What was your last location?"
"I was in the Razorback Mountains, south of the Kingdom of Kali."
That drew a blank look. "Never heard of it. What was the nearest port city?"
"Ankor was in a major river."
He shook his head. "Coastal city."
Hors had me there. I'd never been to the coast, and honestly never thought about it. Since the virtual world had continents and oceans, there had to be coastal towns near where I played the game.
Hors was not deterred, though. He turned down the next cross-street. "We'll go to my house. I have maps and I bet we can figure out where you're from."
When I hesitated, he placed his massive hand on my back and urged me on. I let him guide me down that street, acutely aware of his hand on my back. He kept his hand on me, being very possessive. My body reacted like only a wench of easy virtue would. Yeah, it's a curse, and I don't give a damn what Artimus said. Even so, you'd think after two months in a brothel that I'd have had enough sex to last a lifetime.
My body disagreed.
I'd never been with a minotaur, but he couldn't be much bigger than Taks. I couldn't imagine anyone being better hung than that kobold.
When I get back to Ravenna, I'm going to kill Artimus again, I thought. I don't think he tried hard enough to rid me of this curse.
Truth was, the wizard rather enjoyed having me horny and agreeable day and night. He reaped the benefits, while I suffered my own urges and insatiable needs. At the same time, Artimus did take me under his wing. I learned more about conducting sieges, battles, and wars than I ever dreamed.
It was full dark by the time we worked our way through the twisting streets of Got, and emerged on the docks again. Hors led me to a three-story rowhouse overlooking the docks.
He pointed to a merchant ship in the slip directly across from his house. There was a single minotaur on the ship, who waved at the captain.
"That my ship, Seahorse."
The ship itself was a lot smaller than I expected sailing ships to be. It was egg-shaped, with two masts, and Hors rattled off how many tons of cargo it could carry. I was unimpressed, but what did I know about ships?
Hors took me by the hand and entered his house. It was larger than it appeared from outside. There were fifteen foot ceilings, and the décor looked expensive. He said the upper floors were the living quarters. The ground floor was warehouse space, with his office up front. We went straight into the office.
The room was small, with a large trestle table across from the window overlooking his ship. Odd, diamond-shaped shelves filled with scrolls lined the wall behind the desk, and the rest of the walls were lined with similar shelves full of rolled up maps. There were books and scrolls, and lots of maps stacked on that table. A large and sturdy chair sat behind the table. Captain Hors pushed everything off the table, and then brought a small stack of maps over and dropped them on the table before me.
I turned my attention to the maps. Hors pointed out features along different coastlines that I might have heard about. He showed me the coast all of the way around the continent we were currently on. It was called Metis. Never heard of it. Indeed, I didn't realize the continent I'd been playing on had a name. Or I wasn't paying attention when told its name.
"I don't recognize anything," I said. "The wizard said he was sending me to the other side of the world, if that helps."
Hors yanked my long braid, forcing me to look straight up into his fierce brown eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that? We just wasted a lot of time."
The captain took those maps away, and brought back another stack.
"There is one huge continent on this side of the world, but two smaller ones on the other side," he said. "The northern and southern hemisphere each have one, and they are not connected."
Since we were in the northern hemisphere, Hors showed me the southern continent first. It was kind of shaped like the state of Texas, except with a big sea in the middle. Nothing looked familiar to me. So he showed me the northern continent.
That land mass was a lot bigger than its southern brother. It was crescent shaped, with the "horns" pointed downward. A feature on the third map Hors showed me caught my eyes. Twin mountain ranges were indicated on his western side. The minotaur captain pulled a fist-sized gemstone from a pouch hanging off his belt. He placed it between the two mountain ranges. A red script was projected above the clear stone.
Ankor River flows between the Conel and Razorback Mountains. The region is heavily forested and comprised of many small kingdoms and city-states.
"That's it! I'm from Ankor, on that river," I cried.
"Wow, Carly, you are as far away from home as you can get," Hors s
aid. "It could take months, or years, to get back there. It all depends on how much game time you are willing to devote to returning. Honestly, I'd suggest creating an alt character and spawning him in that city. Choosing your character's original spawn site is not an option shown, but you can ask Support to set it up for you."
"I'm kind of trapped in the game," I said. "You might say I was the first one to die and be trapped."
"So you were killed during the glitch?"
"Actually, Artimus changed the game when he cursed me, causing the glitch," I said.
"That's terrible. I have a cousin who was killed during the glitch, so is trapped in the game," Hors said. "That sucks."
"So did he die in real life?"
Hors gave me an odd look. "You really don't know?"
"Hey, I'm trapped in the game. I have no idea what happened to me in real life."
"You didn't die in the real world, but now you are locked out of the game. Or, your real self if locked out of the game," he said. "It's confusing. My cousin is banned from playing any more, but hopes to get a big settlement from the class action lawsuit."
"That's great for him."
"No, the people killed and trapped in the game suffer from headaches and depression," he said. "It kind of messed them up in the head. It's a big scandal, and a lot of people tried to keep the game from continuing."
Panic clutched my heart. "They… They won't shut the game down, will they?"
"Some congressmen want it shutdown, but the courts sided with the company. Shutting the game down would kill all of the players trapped in the game," Hors said. "The other side says you are not really alive, but just AI-sustained personalities. Even the different religions are weighing in on the argument."
"I'm an AI-sustained personality? Wow."
That was a little freaky. I felt a hundred percent real. Finding out I was still alive out in the real world was comforting, but also meant that I would never leave the game. This part of me was forever separate. That meant I was a completely different person. Talk about split personality.
