A guild chat message appeared on all of their UIs. It was Michael.
“It’s finished. The battle is won. We… lost some people. Too many. And there is still much work to do. Anyone you could send would be appreciated.”
The man sounded exhausted. The fight in Antalia had gone on a full day longer than Elysia’s. Alexander turned to find Silverbeard but saw that his chancellor was already organizing teams. Lucas, one of the Antalia healers and new immersion players who’d been stranded in Elysia during the battle, asked, “How’s my little Sprite?”
Tiny Sam answered. “Pop’s already asleep. Annabelle is fine. She’s here at the guild house. She’s been putting bandages on people with minor wounds.” They could all hear the amusement in the young girl’s voice.
Lucas looked at Alexander, who nodded and opened the portal. Before Lucas could step through, Brick shouted, “Wait!”
He ran back to the smithy and returned carrying another tricycle. “We thought mebbe yer lil Sprite might want one too. But erhmm… this one do no’ have brakes either.”
Lucas took it from him, thanking the dwarf. Then he winked and said, “Anybody who rode one of these as a kid knows you can just lock up the pedals and it’ll go into a slide. I’ll teach Annabelle what to do. And I’ll bring her back here to teach Fibble!”
With that, he dashed through the portal to see his daughter. The relief teams streamed through as well, carrying loads of potions and rations. Silverbeard went with them to help organize things.
The portal closed behind them and a roll of thunder echoed across the forest. Alexander looked up at the sky just as Richard’s avatar appeared. He said, “Get everyone to your quarters,” then blinked out again.
Alexander used guild chat. “All guild officers to my quarters. Now. Pop has something to tell us.” He opened the portal to Stormforge so Sasha and Lainey could return.
Five minutes later, they were all gathered in his sitting room, Sasha and Lainey having just walked in.
Richard, sitting in a padded chair near the fireplace, got right to the point. “A little while ago, I got confirmation from the FBI. Matt is dead. Killed early this morning by a deputy sheriff, apparently on his way to Olympus.”
There was an assortment of cheers, sighs of relief, and fist-bumps as they celebrated the news. Alexander asked, “And you just now got confirmation?”
Richard tried not smile. “DNA confirmed it’s him. Shot in the throat. Choked on his own blood.”
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!” Max did a little touchdown dance by the fireplace.
Richard let them celebrate for a while… then cleared his throat.
“The FBI will finish cleaning up his organization. We’re sure there are more of them out there, but without Howard and Matt to provide funds or leadership, they shouldn’t be much of a threat. We’ll stay in turtle mode for a bit longer, just to be sure.”
He paused as they all nodded along. Then he changed topics. “Since we have you all here, Alexander and I would like to take this opportunity to discuss something with you.” He looked to Alexander, who nodded and stood.
“You all know that my dad built the immersion pods to help me. To try to extend my life by making my brain create new connections to move my muscles. So far, the pod – along with medication – has helped me quite a bit. Maybe added several years to my life. You’ve all seen how much it helped Jules during her recovery.” He looked around the room. Everyone there was an immersion player now and had been filled in on all the details.
“And we want to do that for others, so we’ve formed this Foundation. We’re going to give away a lot of these pods, and use them to help people…”
When he was done explaining, every single player in the room volunteered to help.
End
Greystone Chronicles Series.
Acknowledgements
As always, I would like to the thank my family first and foremost. They are my alpha readers, co-conspirators, monster generators, (also responsible for the Tyrolean Hat of Death) and the people who tell me to stop and get some sleep when I’m exhausted, or get off my ass and work when I’m procrastinating.
I’d like to thank those among my beta readers who are willing to be publicly associated with me. Bobby Bjurstrom, Taj El McCoy, Jake Goodrich, J.D. Williams. And to those who wish to remain anonymous, I don’t blame you!
My thanks to Richard Sashigane for the inventing the chick-magnet that is Fibble from a few rough sketches, and for providing the epic cuteness that is this book’s cover. Also thank you L.E. Sherrard for editing the many mistakes m’ fingers makes.
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World At War Page 39
