As he focused on their worried faces, Ethan’s mouth curled in a grin. “You all don’t look too happy. Didn’t I win?”
“Not exactly,” Vivian said, watching him clinically. She hesitated before adding in a grudging tone, “Yet you made it further than I expected. I wasn’t entirely forthright before. Most of our novices rarely make it past the second room. Even our journeymen typically struggle with the third.”
The group just stared at the mage for a long moment as she lapsed into silence. Finally, Lucas managed to form the question they were all thinking, “Does anyone pass the fourth room?”
Vivian glanced to the side to avoid their collective gaze. It was the closest expression the mage had made to embarrassment since Riley had met her. “There are a few Masters that have managed to make it through the last door.”
“A few Masters…” Ethan sputtered and stared at her incredulously.
Vivian sighed. “You caught me in a rather unpleasant mood. Even members of our guild are not entirely immune to emotion. I apologize.” She glanced at Riley. “Since Ethan made it as far as he did, I’ll grant your fire mage friend a meeting. Although, I make no promises to accept her into the guild.”
“All she needs is a meeting,” Riley said gratefully.
“Let’s get back to the part where I was almost crushed to death,” Ethan grumbled.
Vivian turned back to the warrior as he pushed himself upright on the table. A hint of a smile graced her typically emotionless lips. “You made admirable progress. If you hadn’t already chosen a class, I would offer you a place within the guild.”
She hesitated and peered at Ethan closely. “Perhaps I can offer you another reward. Your earth affinity rose considerably during the trial, and I may be able to teach you a simple spell.”
Ethan’s eyes widened, his anger immediately forgotten. “Yes. Yes, please. What did you have in mind?”
Vivian rubbed at her chin for a moment. “It needs to be a spell that doesn’t require an incantation since you don’t know Veridian. That limits the options considerably. Perhaps a defensive spell? There is a weaker version of Stone Skin that we sometimes teach the novices.”
The earth mage approached Ethan and rested a delicate hand on his temple. A trickle of green energy emanated from her fingers and slithered its way into the warrior’s skull. Ethan jerked slightly and his eyes clouded over. “Huh, that seems simple enough,” he murmured after a few moments.
Vivian turned back to the group. “If that’s all, I need to get back to maintaining the city’s gravity wells. I’ve wasted enough time as it is,” she said in a dispassionate voice. With that, the beautiful mage turned and strode from the room.
“What a strange woman,” Lucas said as he watched her leave.
“That’s one word for it,” Emma muttered.
Riley helped Ethan off the table, and he re-equipped his gear quickly. The color was starting to come back to his face, but Riley could still detect a change in his demeanor. He didn’t look like the same carefree guy that she had seen only an hour ago. His expression wasn’t haunted or angry. Quite the contrary. He now moved with a quiet confidence, and there was a thoughtfulness to his gaze that hadn’t been there before.
Maybe he’s begun to realize just how far he can push himself, Riley thought. She had assumed at first that the trial was merely pointless torture. Perhaps Vivian was right. There was something to be gained by putting yourself in an extreme situation and testing your limits. This wasn’t easy to do in the real world without serious repercussions.
Lucas groaned nearby. “Damn it’s late. I need to log off guys.”
Emma and Ethan both looked off into space for a moment, likely checking their in-game clock. Ethan sighed. “I guess I’ll have to try out this spell later.” He glanced at Riley. “Same time tomorrow?”
“Works for me,” Riley said. “I’m anxious to find out what Flare has discovered in the fire mage guild.”
Emma huffed softly. “Likely nothing. So far this has felt like a wild goose chase. Come on, Lucas,” she said, gesturing at the mage. He rolled his eyes, but pulled up his system menu and tapped the log off button.
Riley shook her head slowly as she watched the twin flashes of multicolored light that appeared where Lucas and Emma had been standing only moments before. Ethan noticed her confused expression and grinned ruefully. “Don’t mind Emma. She’s always like that. Especially with other girls. She and Lucas have only been dating for a few weeks. She actually begged him to start playing this game, and he pulled me in with him.
“I try to tiptoe around her,” Ethan added with a frown. “There’s no sense antagonizing my friend’s girl.”
That made a lot more sense and explained why Emma seemed so nervous about her relationship with the skinny air mage. Maybe she thought Riley was somehow out to steal Lucas from her. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
As though reading her mind, Ethan chuckled. “So, are you on the prowl? Going to snatch up her man?”
“Not hardly,” Riley said with a smile of her own.
“Huh, what about that ‘friend’ you were all anxious about when we were on our way here?” Ethan asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
Riley looked at him in shock and Ethan laughed again. “Just curious. I expect it would take a suitably badass person to keep up with you.”
Her thoughts immediately turned to Jason. In the past, she hadn’t really thought of him as anything but a friend. Sure, she had thought he was cute in a nerdy, shy sort of way. After spending so much time with him in-game, he had been entering her thoughts quite a lot lately. Riley shook her head. She wasn’t in any hurry to start dating anyway. She wasn’t quite certain she had gotten over what Alex had done to her.
“Like I said, he’s just a friend,” Riley said finally, realizing she hadn’t answered Ethan’s question.
The warrior raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like there might be a story there, but I’m not going to pry.” He yawned loudly. “Besides, it is late. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Riley waved at him, and he disappeared in another multicolored flash of light. She sat in silence for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts. She wished she could smooth things over with Emma, but she didn’t really see a solution. She had always had an easier time getting along with guys. Maybe she should lie and say she had a boyfriend. That might make things easier.
With a sigh, Riley pulled up her system menu and tapped the log off button. She soon found herself back in the real world, her back pressed against the soft covers of her bed. She lifted herself to a sitting position and pulled the heavy plastic helmet from her head, her long blonde hair getting caught slightly against the foam padding. With a weary sigh, Riley lay back down, intending to relax for a moment before getting ready for bed.
Before she knew it, she was asleep.
The next day, Riley woke up late, got ready for school in a rush, and barely managed to make it to practice on time. Her shin was still giving her some trouble, and so the coach had her do upper-body weight training alone in the gym. She was more than happy with this arrangement since it allowed her to keep her head down and avoid drawing the attention of the other girls. She even discovered that she had gone up a full ten pounds on all of her sets. Maybe she had been hitting the practice field a lot harder than normal lately.
She managed to maintain her low profile until lunch. Riley was currently carrying a tray through the cafeteria. Long tables had been laid out in sequential rows through the large room, the area illuminated by harsh fluorescent lights embedded in the ceiling. Screens along the sides of the hall flickered faintly, the logo for the school scrolling across the displays.
She had just spotted an empty table when she heard a snide voice behind her. “Look girls. There’s a lesson here. No one wants to have anything to do with a slut.”
Riley turned before she could stop herself. She knew she shouldn’t react, but she couldn’t help it. Carrie sat with a group of people, her face set in
her usual smirk. The other girls at the table snickered softly.
“What? Nothing to say for yourself?” Carrie asked, eyeing Riley contemptuously. A lanky boy sat next to her and Riley vaguely remembered that his name was Kevin. His expression was uncertain as he watched the girls heckling Riley, but he didn’t move to interfere.
Riley silently fumed. She had plenty she wanted to say to Carrie, but she knew it wouldn’t help. Making a scene in the cafeteria would just make things worse and lashing out at Carrie’s accusation would make her look guilty. Still, she couldn’t help but visualize what she would do to the little brown-haired bitch if she ran into her in-game. It would make what she had done to the fire mage Prefect look gentle.
With few options, Riley turned away and started toward the empty table. Before she had made it a few steps, she heard Carrie call out angrily, “You think you can just walk away from me?” Riley turned again to see the girl rising from her seat.
“Come on, Carrie,” Kevin said, putting his hand on her arm. “Let’s leave her alone. She’s just trying to eat lunch.”
Carrie turned and glared at the boy beside her before she could control her expression. Then her eyes softened slightly. “Perhaps you’re right, Kev. She’s not worth it anyway.” Carrie retook her seat and immediately acted as though the confrontation hadn’t happened, chattering away with her friends.
Riley stood staring at the girl for a moment. Carrie had become the ringleader of her tormentors. In her opinion, there was always one girl that drew in others like flies to honey. Carrie was definitely a queen bee at Richmond, the daughter of a filthy-rich oil tycoon. Add in the fact that her father was rarely home and often handed her his credit cards, and this had allowed her to create a little band of worshippers among the other students.
Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Riley took a seat at an empty table and began picking at her food. Her eyes lingered on Carrie and the boy beside her. As she watched the couple, Carrie placed her hand on Kevin’s and giggled at some joke he must have told. Riley had known Kevin since grade school, but they had never been more than acquaintances. He seemed like a nice enough guy. She idly wondered why he had decided to date Carrie.
As the lunch period drew to a close, Riley heard static crackle over the loud speakers. The screens around the room flickered, the logo screen replaced with white noise that slowly resolved into a picture. The other students looked around in confusion, eyeing the screens with curiosity.
“What’s going on?” a girl near Riley asked her friends.
An image of a deserted locker room appeared on the screens – water hitting the shower floor was the only sound that could be heard. The video angle shifted as the person holding the camera walked forward toward the showers. Riley could feel an odd sense of dread curl and coil in her stomach as she noticed the telltale signs of the girl’s locker room. As the camera edged around the rim of the shower, she squeezed her eyes shut.
Riley could hear laughter from the students around her, and the shuffle of movement as heads turned in her direction. She used every ounce of willpower she had to keep her face calm. She wouldn’t show them how much this hurt.
How could they do this?
She opened her eyes and saw the vision of herself floating on every screen. The sound of the students around her felt muted and surreal. To make matters worse, a message had been scrawled along the bottom of the image. “Call me for a good time! – Riley.”
Riley stood slowly, keeping her eyes on the tray in her hand as she walked towards the exit of the cafeteria. She could see her hands tremble ever-so-slightly as she held the tray.
I just need to keep walking, she repeated to herself over and over.
“Well, that was an entertaining advertisement,” a familiar voice called from behind Riley. “There’s nothing like lunch and a show, is there?”
Riley didn’t respond. She wouldn’t give Carrie the satisfaction of seeing the tears budding at the corners of her eyes. She dumped the contents of the tray and walked out of the room, the sound of laughter trickling along behind her as the humiliation settled on her shoulders like a heavy weight. And there was nothing she could do about it. As far as she may have come, she still felt weak. She was still weak.
Chapter 16 - Mercenary
When Riley logged back into AO later that day, she once again found herself in the earth guild. She was still standing on the balcony overlooking the large cavern where Ethan had undergone the challenge. Her thoughts were dark as she looked down into the row of rooms below her, anger boiling in her veins.
Not for the first time, that anger was directed at herself. How could she let those girls do that to her? Why didn’t she do something to fight back? Even her parents had told her to stand up for herself.
She had no qualms with defending herself inside Awaken Online – but the real world felt different. How was she supposed to retaliate against Carrie and her awful group of friends? What could she do? Feeling helpless and trying to escape the painful emotions that swept through her brain, Riley summoned her dark mana and the chill energy swiftly clawed its way up her spine. The cool power immediately blunted the edge of her anxiety and anger.
As Riley considered this, she realized that maybe her dark mana explained the difference between her real-world and digital reactions. Inside the game, her mana washed away all of her fear and hesitation, allowing her to act on what she wanted. In the real world, those emotions were still there, preventing her from acting and allowing her to question herself and the consequences of her actions.
Riley sighed. Not that this revelation helped solve her problem. She shook her head, trying to focus on her quest. Maybe she could at least make herself forget the embarrassment for a few precious hours. She pulled up her friends list and saw that her teammates were already online. Riley sent them a message and said she was heading over to the fire guild shortly. Within a few minutes, the others replied and explained that they would meet her there.
Riley scanned the area around her, the polished walls of the cavern were illuminated by a faint green glow from the floating lamps. “Now I just need to figure out how to get out of here,” she muttered.
It turned out it only took her fifteen minutes to navigate the maze-like earth guild and find the exit. She only had to ask for directions three times. She was getting better. Another ten minutes passed, and she was standing outside the rough-hewn wooden gate of the fire guild. The weather had worsened in the game world, a thin sheet of rain falling continuously and pattering against the heavy leather of Riley’s hood.
“About time you showed up,” Emma groused when she saw Riley approach.
“Oh? Did I cost you a whole five minutes?” Riley snapped. Her hood fell back slightly as she leaned forward, and Emma flinched as she caught sight of her dark eyes.
Ethan looked at Riley in surprise. Then he interjected before Emma could start a fight, “They could afford to install some signs in the earth guild. It took me forever to find my way out of those caves. I kept getting turned around. The in-game map also has trouble showing the different levels of tunnels inside the mountain.”
“So, are we going to do this?” Emma asked tersely, glaring at Riley as she hugged Lucas’ arm. She shivered slightly as the rain cascaded off her white robe. Apparently, the fabric didn’t provide much resistance to the elements.
Riley knew she had a bunch of spare cloaks in her pack. Jason purchased them in bulk for his zombies, and she had ended up with a large number of extra garments. However, she made no move to offer one to the light mage. She wasn’t exactly in a charitable mood.
“I’m curious to find out what Flare has learned,” Lucas said, oblivious to the tension between the two girls. “You think the cultists could be hiding within the fire guild?”
“I have no idea, but let’s find out,” Riley replied.
Without any further ado, she approached the gate and rapped her knuckles against the wood. Once again she was greeted by the surly-voiced gu
ard, and then Emma and Ethan paid the group’s toll. The gatekeeper told them that Flare was probably in her tent since the duels tended to peter out when the weather turned wet.
The group found Flare sitting outside of her tent in a loose set of garments. Her eyes stayed closed as she let the rain wash across her skin. She looked tranquil, her form loose and relaxed. Riley felt envious for a brief moment. She hadn’t found much peace lately. Then she did a double-take. Was she actually jealous of a computer program?
As she approached the fire mage, Riley cleared her throat, and Flare opened her eyes. “How’d it go?” Flare asked bluntly, inspecting the group closely.
“We spoke to Vivian, one of the earth guild Masters, and she has agreed to meet with you,” Riley replied. “She didn’t promise to let you into the guild, but you have the interview you wanted.”
A small smile curled Flare’s lips, lightening her usually aggressive demeanor. Then, in a flash, it was gone. “Thank you,” Flare said gruffly. “I’ve discovered some information as well.” Her eyes darted to a passing pair of mages. “We should move inside and out of the rain,” she suggested, motioning to the tent behind her.
The group obliged and moved into the tent, taking up seats on the floor. Riley hadn’t missed Flare’s furtive glance at the other fire mages. Was there something going on within the fire guild? Was Flare suspicious of the other mages?
“What did you find?” Ethan asked in his usual rumbling voice.
Flare grimaced. “If I had known what you were asking me to do, I would have requested more than an interview.” Her eyes rose to meet Riley’s. “Although, like I told you on the road leading to Vaerwald, some among the fire mages are still honorable.” Her gaze dropped to the floor. “Just not very many…”
She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. “As you suspected, the fire mages have been purchasing undead for some time now. The slaves are stored in a warehouse near the back of the camp, and only a few of the higher-ranked mages are admitted to the building at a time.”
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