The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  “That’ll take most of the night to accomplish, newfar,” Justin Ridgely said, gauging my reaction carefully.

  “I expect it will,” I said with a shrug. “But, it’ll take even more time to resurrect them all.”

  “Scout Captain Dherler, while you’ll be joining me in the arena to help calm the citizens that are resurrected, I want your men running patrols around the city in groups of no less than five. If they run into any enemy, they’re to fall back and report.” Seeing the conflicting emotions in the Dark Elves eyes, I lowered my voice. “Make sure you assign one of those groups to look for your missing families and to loot what you can of the enemy’s supplies. We’re going to need everything we can for the coming battle.”

  “By your leave, milord,” the Dark Elf said, giving me a quick fist salute before heading out of the graveyard at a run.

  “Assault Leader Dell, have Ollie and Liam take their prisoners into the dungeon under the Warden’s Fortress.” Seeing the surprised look at my use of their first names, I gave him an embarrassed nod. “Sorry, I forget their last names.” He waved off my concern as I continued. ”Leave Ollie on guard duty and have Liam join in on the search for the dead. Setup a guard rotation for the men at the main gate. Also, I’d like you to join me in the arena and have the Sub-Captain let the civilians we rescued know what’s happening. If any of them want to come and help, they’re more than welcomed.”

  “Yes, milord,” Assault Leader Dell said giving me a fist salute. Though, I stopped him before he could head off. “Have Logan West and his men taken to the arena too and let everyone know to keep an eye out for a bunch of severed heads. Maybe we can save them yet.”

  “What should the rest of us do?” Kenzie asked, a little put off now that the action was over. “Not all of us can heal or are interested in lugging corpses. Besides, I’m sure you’re going to do your NPC thing.”

  “You could go shopping.” I said with a shrug. Seeing the withering look from the women of the group, I held my hands up defensively. “Look, you all were looking forward to going shopping in Darom before we made port. Why not do some shopping? You’ve done your part to help the people of this city. Go get Neristhana to show you around and see if you can find anything interesting. If the person is still alive, you can pay them for the items. If not, think of it as a reward for saving the city.”

  The thought of possibly free clothing or at least extremely reduced price clothing instantly changed the cold looks I was getting as my female friends began talking excitedly. I couldn’t help but laugh as Phoenix jumped in on the discussion. Not that I was judging. There was something fun about dressing up your female character in sexy cloths. Not that I did that with my main character during the year I was playing as a female tank in-game, I lied with a thought as my eyes took in the rest of the group.

  “Look, we’re here to have fun. If you want to help, you know where,” I glanced at Thompson and Yun who both gave me a thumbs up, “Thompson, Yun and I will be leveling up our Holy magic. I’m sure none of us would complain if you could dig up some kegs of beer and something to eat.”

  The thought of food and beer to celebrate our win perked the rest of the Devil Dogs up as everyone started to come down from there combat high. It was a little bit early to be calling it an evening, since it was only about six at night and the sun wasn’t even close to setting, but there wasn’t much of anything else to do besides collecting and distributing the loot. I caught Tinyr’s eye as he watched Unalia head off talking excitedly with the other women in the raid. “We still need someone to strip down the corpses and organize all the loot so we can roll on it.” That seemed to put a smile on the little rogue’s lips as I nodded to Thompson and Yun.

  The night was early. Neysa kept watch as we worked, aka lounging on the ground with half-closed eyes, while Helgath and I got to work on resurrecting all of the troopers that fell during the battle as Yun and Thompson healed them. Refusing to look at the Half-Orc girl holding my arm, Fylreh stiffly said she was heading back to the ship to check-up on Tavon and heal the civilians there. While the centauride had the ability to heal and could have leveled it up by working beside us, everyone understood the real reason for her decision.

  Not that I could blame her on one level, since our history of closeness didn’t make any of this easier to deal with. Besides, I’m sure she couldn’t stand to see the Half-Orc working so closely with me, since our bond required us to be touching to share our magic. Whatever, I thought ruefully as I quickly got down to work.

  With Helgath extending my resurrections casts, we were able to raise up five people at once. Still, each cast nearly drained us dry as we made our way through the troopers’ ranks in an hour. While that sounded incredibly fast, with the amount of corpses in the city, that wasn’t even a drop in the proverbial bucket. I had no doubt I’d be lucky to get out of here with enough time for me to catch some Z’s in the real world.

  After we moved our operations to the arena, Thomas, Matt, and Darkhorse managed to get a keg setup and were grilling up some meat on an open fire. Grabbing a clay stein that the boys had managed to pick up along with their acquisition of the keg, I poured myself and Helgath a beer as we got down to business. Thankfully, the focus of resurrecting the dead kept my eyes from contemplating the crate-like cages, chains, and other horrors that were slowly being dismantled by a group of soldiers that Assault Leader Dell had set to the task.

  A lot of townsfolk and troopers came by to watch us work and to look for their loved ones. I heard a number of people whispered conversations going on about me in general and specifically why the ex-Royal Army and Navy members had decided to change allegiance to the House of Kayden. It was interesting to catch portions of their conversations. Most of the comments centered on how I treated them as equals, the quality of their gear, honoring my word to take care of their families and the amount of food that they were given, the three main values that soldiers throughout time always seemed to respect.

  Helgath and I had just finished up resurrecting the last of the troopers, the soldiers from the Warden’s dungeon and the sailors that had been serving Princess Reeva, and accepting their sworn allegiance as vassals. Now we were moving to the townspeople, when a familiar couple hesitantly came to a stop about ten yards away from where we were sitting to regenerate our mana. Clapping Helgath on the shoulder, I stood up and made my way over to the Moon Elf couple.

  “Krishan … Lyeneru,” I called out in a welcoming voice as I came to a stop, offering them both a hand. “Thanks again for helping out with the final battle.”

  “It’s the least we could do after you resurrected Lyeneru,” Krishan said, the conflict in his soul clear to hear. “Sorry for calling you a ‘see’er’ when we met.”

  “No worries, we’ve all been there at one time or another,” I said with a casual shrug. The derogatory comment had been forgiven once we’d gotten the measure of one another. “Although, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever been called a see’er.”

  A lot of people tended to get their panties in a knot if someone cursed at them, whether or not the curse was meant as a friendly joke or for the word’s intended purpose. That was ridiculous to my way of thinking. A lot of people use racial slurs and crude curse words as a form of friendly greeting. They could do that because they were friends and the words themselves meant nothing. The insult was in the intent behind the words, at least for me and my friends.

  Domenic could and usually did tell me to ‘fuck off’ on a regular basis, but it wasn’t an issue because I knew he wasn’t using the phrase to put me down or hurt my feelings. Mike and I could be even more brutal in our back and forth games. I’m sure people would be shocked if they ever overheard us sparring back and forth, but neither one of us thought twice about it. He knew I’d be there for him through thick and thin no matter what, besides we both knew there was no truthful intent behind the harsh words.

  When Krishan had cursed me as a see’er, I’d no conception of what the term
meant. Still, it had pissed me off. Not because I understood the term he was using, but because I understood the gist of what he was trying to express. I’d kept my cool, because of everything he’d obviously been through. Luckily enough, it had worked out in the end. No matter, I appreciated the thoughtfulness of the apology.

  “It’s a term used by the visually impaired,” Krishna explained, somewhat embarrassed. Seeing the confused look on my face, he ran a nervous hand through his close-cropped black hair as he explained further. “V-MMORG has been handing FIVER Pods out to the visually impaired community. Our guild is made up similarly disabled people who were interested in playing from around the United States.”

  “You mean you’re a guild of blind players?” I asked somewhat taken aback.

  “Dude, the term is visually impaired!” Krishna corrected, giving me an annoyed look. “No one uses the term blind anymore.”

  “Hey man, no offense.” I held up my hands trying to calm him down. “I’ve never known anyone that was blind … err … I mean visually impaired before. That’s cool.”

  “What do you mean, that’s cool.” Krishna snapped back.

  “Uh, cool that you’re able to game in an amazing virtual world and see. Also, cool that I’ve met someone different.” I said, giving him a weak shrug as the Moon Elf let out a belly laugh.

  “Naw man, I’m just fucking with you.” Krishna said, giving me a wink. “Besides, the look on your face was priceless.”

  “Dick!” I joked back as we both laughed. I was really beginning to like this guy. You couldn’t help but respect someone who could laugh at their own tragedy. After everything I’d endured during my abusive childhood, I understood that better than most.

  “And you’re lady friend here?” I asked, meeting Lyeneru’s bright green eyes.

  “I am not a newfar.” the Moon Elf said, smoothly laughing in a musical voice, while her mane of silvery hair bounced around her shoulders. “I’m the druid trainer for the Uten Syn Guild.”

  “It’s an honor to meet you, milady,” I formally said, giving her a half-bow as she blushed at the compliment. Seeing Krishna bristle at my polite words, I quickly spoke up. “Chill out dude, I’m just being polite.”

  “It’s cool,” Krishna muttered, shaking off his jealousy. “I’m a little sensitive about Lyeneru. Some of my guildmates have been giving me a hard time about falling for …”

  “A person of this world?” I asked, offering a non-offensive term that I felt fit better than NPC.

  “Exactly,” Krishna said, giving me a warm smile.

  “Listen guys, I’d love to talk, but it’ll have to be a working conversation.” I said nodding towards the corpses laid out on the floor of the arena.

  “That’s cool,” Krishna said as Lyeneru solemnly agreed. “I think we understand the beauty of what you’re doing here better than most.”

  Pouring them both a stein of beer, I led them over to our group and introduced them to everyone. Except for looking up over her shoulder to eye them for a moment, Neysa chuffed and laid back down as Helgath stood up to give them both a respectful bow. This time both Moon elves introduced themselves officially to the Half-Orc, giving her the respect she deserved. After seeing how we worked together, they both knew Helgath deserved as much thanks as I did for bringing Lyeneru back to life.

  Thompson and Yun both gave them a cheerful welcome, since they’d been working together to keep as much of the raid alive as possible. While they started talking about several particularly rough spots during the fight were they’d managed to keep everyone standing, I nodded to Helgath as we got back to work.

  There was a brief moment of excitement when the first set of five civilians were resurrected. Thankfully, Old Man Fortner was there with Team Leaders Butcher and Ridgely to help calm everyone down. His long white beard bobbed around as he gently helped the newly risen civilians get caught up to speed on who we were and to ensure them that we were there to help. Although not officially recognized by the nobility, Fortner was a staunch figure in Darom’s community and recognized by most as one of the city’s oldest elders.

  From the quick introduction we’d been given upon meeting the old man, he was born a commoner, a farmer actually, and was a veteran of the Royal Army. Supposedly, he now ran the market square or something. Not that it mattered what he did one way or another to me. The old bird had a sharp eye and was a straight shooter. We hit it off immediately, which was a relief since most people either loved me or hated me.

  We were just sitting down to recover our mana again, when Krishna excused himself from the discussion with my friends and sat down next to me for a private conversation. As usual, Helgath silently sat and listened in while the man told his story. He and his friends had started a guild on the Isolde Line and, similar to a nightmare start, they’d been given their own profession called Nature magic. While they didn’t have the same type of ‘Nightmare Challenge’ that the rest of us had upon entering the game, theirs was a different challenge that had been laid out for them altogether.

  Unlike the other trials, everyone in Krishna’s guild was ninety to a hundred percent visually impaired from birth. This meant that even the simplest things had to be explained to all of them. One could read and comprehend the concept of trees, forests, rocks, mountains, the sky, the moon, and other such things to a point, if your imagination were great enough. But, that wasn’t really knowing what these things were. All of them had read or been told about colors. All of them had friends that had tried their best to explain what colors were. They used many different techniques to try to put the unbelievably difficult concept into words that their visually impaired friend could truly understand, but it wasn’t until he’d been given vision inside the game, that he’d come to understand what colors actually were.

  How could you understand a sensory input that you’d never experienced before? Most see’ers, the word I quickly learned was used by many of the visually impaired to describe ignorant people that had vision, couldn’t understand how people like him didn’t at least understand what darkness was. But, how could one understand the concept of darkness when the concept of light was completely foreign to them? The best way he could come close to even describing the idea was to imagine a person from a three-dimensional universe trying to explain their world to a person from a two-dimensional universe.

  Surprisingly enough, with the people of The World’s help, he and his guildmates that were part of the trail had learned all of these things with amazing alacrity. In a week, they were doing activities like chopping wood, mining stone, and learning how to wield a sword, shoot a bow, and other incredible things. Looking sideways at Lyeneru talking to my friends, he shyly mumbled. “It’s like looking into someone’s eyes.”

  Lowering his voice, Krishna embarrassingly confided that he and his girlfriend were having in real life issues with their relationship. They’d both fallen in love with The World and having sight. They’d only been given one pod to share together for their trials, and ever since then they hadn’t shared a moment in the real world together. During these last three weeks, he’d confessed his love for Lyeneru and she’d happily taken him as a lover. The guilt was eating him up, but at the same time, he couldn’t deny what he felt for this amazing woman.

  “Well, you can each just think of your new lovers as you’re in-game girlfriend or boyfriend,” I jokingly said with a twinkle in my eye. Seeing his lips turn into a frown, I hurriedly explained that the concept wasn’t something new. In many walks of life, people joked about having work-husbands and work-wives. For gamers, there was a similar phenomenon too. With a thoughtful nod, he calmed down and continued his story.

  Helgath and I listened without judgement, silently working to resurrect the dead once our mana filled up once again. Not that she understood the problem our culture had with sharing one’s physical self. For myself, I couldn’t even imagine how suddenly being able to see for the first time would affect my mental equilibrium and hormones. Let alone, how that
would affect a serious relationship in the real world. At times, I felt the Half-Orc’s mind paw through my thoughts and memories as she tried to understand certain concepts he was talking about, but beyond that, nothing more was said.

  I’m sure many would judge the visually impaired man harshly for his indiscretion, but it wasn’t just him. It was something that had affected them both as a couple. Besides, I’d learned over the years not to judge others until I’d walked a few miles in their shoes. Well, at least in some things, I thought with a depreciating smile. With bullies, I had no patience. I’d experienced their ugly nature all too often throughout my short life and I had no patience left for such people.

  While I hadn’t grown up blind … I mentally chastised myself … visually impaired and then suddenly been granted the gift of sight. I knew the pain of hunger, of being unloved, and abused. I’d endured suffering on a level that either makes you or breaks you. It also gives you an understanding of the horrors in life and an appreciation for the good that few people can truly comprehend.

  A sad smile creeped to my lips as I pushed the dark thoughts away. So many people complained about how terrible life was without ever having experienced true horror or destitution in their lives. Instead of letting minor inconveniences be exactly that, minor inconveniences. So many people in today’s world turned simple issues into unconscionable crusades that had to be resolved by any means necessary. I partly think this was because many people had such a good life that they didn’t have the life experiences necessary to differentiate between a minor inconvenience and a major problem.

  Meeting Helgath’s golden eyes, I once again felt an affinity that crossed the species and world gaps like nothing else could. Her life’s story of horrors made mine pale in comparison. Still, it was enough for us to create a connection that crossed species lines. Giving me a fragile smile that broke my heart, she gently wrapped a clawed hand around my upper arm as I silently wrapped my hand around hers, before proceeding to resurrect another batch of townsfolk.