The Seeds of Evermore

by Andrew Haines

  The four of them stared at the chest that he had left for them as their reward. Tuomas slowly opened it to find the five thousand gold pieces inside the chest. “This is going to take some time to count,” he stuttered, “I kind of wish he had left us a note with the amount on it.”

  “He did say five thousand when you took the quest.” Donovan said to him closing the chest. He picked it up and waited for the others to decide the next move.

  “We should go back to the inn and rest for the night, then head to the city in the morning. I am really tired and could use the rest.” Alissa commented, turning towards the inn.

  The others agreed and followed her; as they got close they saw Nick and Charlotte in the window of the inn, chatting. The wooden door creaked as swung open. The four walked in and looked at the two sitting at the window table. They jumped up and scurried over to them. “You’re all alive!” Nick exclaimed sarcastically, gesturing out at them.

  Charlotte embraced Scott, “I’m glad it went well.”

  He groaned a bit from the pain of his wounds. “How is your arm today?” Scott asked pulling back and placed his hand on her arm.

  She turned it so Scott could see the bandage better, “Better, I replaced the bandage and put some medicating herbs on it to prevent any infection.”

  Scott kissed her forehead, “Good. I may need you to wrap me up a bit, I have a few cuts.”

  Tuomas interjected into the group, “We are going to rest up here one more night, then head into the city of Crystle.”

  Nick and Charlotte acknowledged the information. Charlotte turned back to Scott and pulled on his right arm and leaned up to his ear, “Can we go upstairs?”

  Scott nodded to her. They all broke into doing their own pass times and Charlotte led Scott back up the stairs. Scott closed the door behind him, and Charlotte stood in front of him. He broke the silence, “Is everything okay?”

  Charlotte looked at him, “Sort of.” she shuffled her feet.

  Scott took a step closer to her, “You did ask me up here, do you want to tell me what is going on?”

  She nodded, and then bobbed her head down, with her hair dangling in front of her face. Scott moved right in front of her. He placed his hand upon her chin and lifted her back to eye level, “Charlotte, please tell me.”

  She leaned into his chest, “You know you are special to me.”

  Scott’s heart began to race, “Yes, as you are to me.”

  “I am scared about this. All of it, being here, and wondering what will happen when we get out of here.”

  In a way the words calmed Scott, “What do you mean? We were kind of together before we entered this virtual world.”

  She retracted and sat upon the bed, “I have been thinking about what you told us about your past. Being trapped once before.”

  Scott interrupted, “I wasn’t very detailed on what happened in there.”

  Charlotte ignored his words and continued, “All of it, the whole thing, I can’t wrap my head around all of it. It feels so fake, but I know it happened. I remember it going on and everything, but to think that you were in that game.”

  Scott sat down next to her, she looked him right in the eye. “How did you survive that horror? How are you even capable of feeling anymore because of it?”

  “The first question that is something that will take a much longer explanation than the second one.” He placed his right hand on her left, “I am still capable of feeling at all, being able to have relations with anyone anymore, is because I refused to let myself fall of the cliff of despair against any odds. I lost too many people I had learned to trust and fought next to in that game. I watched my friends bleed out in my arms.”

  His eyes began to tear up, “I couldn’t handle keeping myself locked up tight, without breaking into a mental rage. I found solace keeping myself busy and not thinking about it for those I lost haunt my memories and dreams. I had to keep moving, not just for me, but their memory and what they stood for. I just keep going and going, I learned to live with it. Though being here may change that.”

  “How do you keep your sanity, you never seem to know how to stop?” She leaned back onto his shoulder, and whispered, “What other secrets are you keeping to yourself?”

  Scott placed around his arm around her, the metal of his armor clacked together as he did, “Enough secrets to make a normal person cave. Enough where I could say one a day for a year and not scratch the surface.” He leaned over and kissed her on her head, “I can tell you more in time, but right now, I think that it is enough, I don’t want to cause a mental reaction. I’d rather not have that happen right now.”

  Charlotte didn’t answer, she wasn’t sure what to say to him. Scott was right, time was her greatest ally to finding out more about him, but she wanted to know it all, but something clicked in her mind, “I think I am finally getting to know the real you for the first time.” She turned her head towards him, “It’s you and me, and I don’t want anything else.”

  She pulled away, and reached for at his armor, and began to pull upon the leather straps, “Take off your armor.” She demanded.

  Scott pulled his armor off and left it at the foot of the bed. His clothes were stained with sweat from early. They both sat upon the mattress and looked upon each other. Charlotte reach over and pulled off Scott shirt. She ran her hand over his chest, then leaned in and placed her head upon his heart, listening to his heart race. She leaned back slightly, and Scott followed her lead and began to lift hers off, up until her breasts, he was hesitant, “Do it.” Charlotte whispered into his ear. He took a breath and pulled it off, and her bare chest was there before him.

  Charlotte shuffled closer to him, her heart racing, and embraced him, their two bare chests connecting. Scott wrapped his arms around her lower back. “I want you to know that I am not scared of your past, and hopefully I can find it in my heart to share mine with you one day.” She said to him.

  “I am showing you myself to show you my trust in you, I know you can figure that out,” her voice started to have a level of pain in it.

  Scott just held her tight. He spoke no words, he just held her in his arms. What does she mean by that? He thought, he wasn’t sure about it. But it had been a long time since a woman had shown herself in this way to him, and he didn’t want to take advantage or ruin anything that could cause him more pain.

  Love? Is that what this is? He asked himself, as they laid down next to each other, topless: The last time was years ago, before school… back in Cogs… damn it, why do emotions work this way?

  He looked down at Charlotte: Stop overthinking it, just take it as it is. That is what I did before, just go with it.

  11:

  The morning was a mess, none of them were ready to take the hike up to Crystle. They had sprung themselves over the rooms they had rented from the Inn. Tuomas had expected them to leave no later than nine. They were not ready to go until almost eleven. As they started out of the Inn on the trek to the city, they stuffed their stomachs with jerky and different breads that the Barmaid had prepared for them at Tuomas’ request.

  The journey to the city took close to four hours. They took many stops since most were still sore from the fight the day before. The landscape was rocky and uphill which made it uncomfortable for them. They were beginning to feel crusty, they had not had showers or real plumbing for a few days now. Tuomas guaranteed that the city would be different than the village they were at.

  They walked up to the gate and were prompted by two guards, “Halt, state your business in Crystle.” The older looking of the two guards bellowed out.

  Tuomas looked at him, “We are adventures searching for more work, and I own property in the city.”

  The guard looked at him, “Do you have proof citizenship within the walls?”

  Tuomas opened his satchel and pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it to the guard, he scanned it and handed it back to Tuomas, “Welcome back sir.”

  The party made their way
past the guards and through the enormous stone archway and into the city of Crystle. The city seemed vast; the buildings were made of white and grey stone and were two or three stories high depending on the block they were on. People were moving around through shops and trader stands that lined the streets. The sounds echoed throughout the city, making every step deafening. Tuomas led at the front seeming to know his way around the city well. Alissa and Charlotte followed close behind, as Nick, Donovan, and Scott meandered slowly behind them. Scott was getting a headache from the noise, as he tried to close the gap between the two groups. “Tuomas!” He called out.

  Tuomas stopped and turned to face him, “Yeah?” He yelled over the crowd.

  “Please tell me wherever we are going isn’t this loud.”

  “No, it is actually one of the quietest places in the city.” Tuomas hollered back.

  Scott nodded, even though Tuomas could not see him do so, and continued to follow behind him. The crowds seemed to stay out of the center of the streets, which allowed the party used to their advantage to close the gap forming between them. Tuomas pointed over to a large garrison style building, “That building is our best spot to find Sir Belthor later on when we may need work to do to keep ourselves busy.”

  The others nodded as they kept walking. “So where is this place at Tuomas?” Nick asked.

  “It is on the outskirts of the garden district.”

  “Perks of being the lead on the design?”

  “Something like that, I told you I had a place in the city, didn’t I?”

  “How big?” Charlotte asked.

  “Mansion sized.”

  Tuomas turned to see their eyes widened and their jaws dropped, “What?” He said, “I did design the whole world seed myself, I should have something of my own to start with. Come now, we are almost there.”

  They kept moving as Tuomas seemed to quicken his pace. As they approached the garden district, there were less people out upon the streets and people looked more high standing. It became quiet and peaceful, though the grey stone seemed to resonate a dark vigor as the sun disappeared over the high walls of the city as they came up on them. “We are close now.” Tuomas told them moving at a quick pace.

  They came upon a small open archway that seem to lead into the back of the buildings. “Through here.” Tuomas headed through first and disappeared into the dark passage. The others followed single file behind him. The passageway a little over fifteen feet long with a blistering sun meeting them at the end of it. Greeted by a massive garden that was being tended to by servants, they all stopped at the end of the passage way where they all stared at their surroundings.

  They saw a large home-like structure sitting in the middle of the gardens. This must be it, this thing is massive: Scott looked upon the grey stone building. It was covered with stain glass panes of vast colorations and depictions of fantasy like events. The smell of the gardens grew stronger as they walked closer to the large gate that would give them passage on to the property. Charlotte and Alissa looked at each other and back at the building in awe. Tuomas opened his satchel on his hip and pulled out a metal key. “I will make sure to get you all keys to the gate, but for now, let’s go inside and get ourselves settled in.”

  He stepped up to the towering wooden doors of the mansion and inserted the same key into the metal lock. Turing the key the sound of the internal mechanism groaned, signaling that door was now unlocked. Tuomas pushed on the doors, forcing them to open inwards into the vast entryway of the mansion. Stepping onto the marble floor that was in front of him, Tuomas took a large breath and rose his arms towards the celling.

  “Home…” Tuomas said under his breath.

  The others walked up behind him looking around the vast opening of an entryway. “This place is huge!” Nick said in awe, analyzing the marble pillars that ran down the middle of the room.

  “Everyone will have their room. There is a place for training, an armory, a forge, everything we will need, food supplies and many gardens and livestock,” Tuomas spoke up over the light chatter that the group was speaking amongst themselves.

  “Something tells me you weren’t going to leave this world even if you needed to,” Donovan responded to Tuomas’ words.

  Tuomas’ face turned pale, “Well, that is something for another time, come let’s get out of this garb and grab a drink and settle down for a bit,” he deviated from the question as quickly as Donovan brought it up.

  The others didn’t like the tone of his voice as Tuomas spun on his heel and walked up the stairs. They followed him up the stairs and into a large kitchen where servants were prepping food. “Let’s see here.” Tuomas stopped one of the servants, “Do you know where Elana is?”

  The servant nodded and whispered into Tuomas’ ear. “Thank you.” Tuomas responded to the servant.

  “Who is Elana?” Scott asked, his interest peaked by a name he had yet to hear before from Tuomas’ mouth.

  “Someone who means a lot to me.” Tuomas said in a stern voice, “Come we must keep moving.”

  Tuomas led on, moving from room to room, giving each person a chance to put their gear down and rejoin them after leaving their weapons and packs down. Showing them the different floors and rooms in the mansion came with questions of use and ability. To the best of his knowledge, Tuomas answered them. They hadn’t gone to the lower levels of the mansion when Tuomas led them out to the garden. It was empty, unlike when they arrived an hour ago, except for a single woman sitting upon the hill next to a bed of roses. Tuomas stopped and did his best to clear his mind. As the others walked up behind him. “Wait here.” He told them, as he scurried over toward her.

  The group watched as Tuomas made his way over to the woman. They stood far enough away that they couldn’t hear him but they knew he said something, and the woman jumped up and hugged him on sight. The woman kissed him and seemed to start crying while he was holding her.

  Scott looked at the others, “I think I know why this is here…” As Tuomas stood having a conversation with the woman.

  Alissa and Donovan looked back Tuomas, “Why?”

  “She is his fiancé, the one from the accident.”

  The others looked at Scott with a confused look. “That is not possible, didn’t she die? That may not be healthy…” Donovan responded, “If that is a fake, Tuomas and I need to have a talk.”

  “I don’t know, we will get him to tell us but for now we need to play it cool and we need to work on finding out what the next step is.”

  The others agreed with Scott, and they all turned and headed back into the mansion.

  ***

  A few hours passed by and everyone had settled into a room where they found new clothes and a place to hang their armor and weapons and bathrooms with running water. Donovan was lying on his new bed when a light knock echoed upon the door. “Yeah?” Donovan said, sitting up.

  Scott entered the room, “Yo, you have a sec.”

  “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “So back out in the real world, you said that you had a thing for blacksmithing stuff?” Scott asked him

  “Yeah, what does that have anything to do with anything?” Donovan countered, giving Scott a confused look.

  “I was doing some looking around and had a look at that forge down in the cellar area , all the stuff needed to make weapons and repair them are all down there, do you think you’d be up for doing that?” Scott continued, trying to keep on track.

  Donovan stared at him, he seemed to ponder the idea, “I think I would be willing to do that, if I get the clear for Tuomas, it is his home after all.”

  “Awesome, I’ll ask him, I need to have a word or two with him anyway.”

  Donovan nodded, “Just let me know.”

  Scott turned, “Roger that, see you later.”

  “Later.”

  Scott left and closed the door behind him, leaving Donovan to his thoughts. Scott headed down the corridor of rooms and entered the main room of the mansion. He admired
the tapestries that dangled from the ceiling. They had two swords with a shield over the top, it was generic but subtle, and the dark pine green complemented the white marble pillars they hung from.

  Scott enjoyed the silence of the corridor, there were no servants scurrying around and the light came through the stain glass illuminated the hallway well. Taking a moment to look at what the stain glass resembled, it showed a last stand of men against a demonic evil, a dark goddess clad in black armor standing about a single man holding a glowing sword against her.

  Scott thought it looked like something out of an old book and movie series back that his father had him watch when he was younger: Lord of the Kings? No that is not right, something like that. He couldn’t put his finger on it. Scott didn’t appreciate it as much as a kid as he now though he should have, but never took a moment to watch it again as an adult. He looked back at the stain glass: Our fate awaits…

  A small tap hit Scott’s shoulder. He turned to see Alissa standing behind him, “Heyo.” She said to him.

  “Why hello, what’s up?” Scott replied to her.

  “Just taking a walk. Trying to learn our new home, you?”

  “Same, I just stopped to admire this room and its antiquities, particularly that.” Scott responded gesturing up to the stain glass.

  “It is quite an exciting item, in a way, it all flows together, all the colors move together. Like it was meant to show a heroic battle where the fate hangs in the balance.”

  Scott nodded, “It does indeed.”

  Alissa walked over to one of the pillars and placed her hand upon it, as she looked towards the celling, “It all feels so real…”

  Scott looked at her, “It all is to us now.”

  She nodded, “It really is.” She looked over at Scott, “There is a fine line between life and imagination, and we are living both.”