“Who are you?” He asked again.
“Just a busy body. Where’s HotPants? She’s easier to work with.” And so angry. Goodness, but it would be funny to say hi. That woman was the oldest of the quartet that had guided me through the [Maze of Midnight] when I was acting as Carver.
“Well! Attack! What else are you imbecilic peons being paid for?” The angry one shouted. Nevermind. Now wasn’t the time or place to sort out the Awesome Quartet.
“Have we met?” Awesome Jr. was absolutely perplexed. He showed enough sense to stay away, though. I could be some player killer for all he knew.
Briefly thoughts of Requiem flashed through my mind. I was a player killer, I guess. So were most people here.
“Not exactly,” I said.
“Where did you get that weapon from?” The young man finally clued in on the fact that [Morrigu’s Gift] was in my hand. It was currently in the smaller cane shape which still felt comfortable to me when not actively fighting.
“An old man gave it to me when he passed away.” I smiled. Telling the truth without providing a straight answer felt amusing. It was a leftover behavior from being a [Red Imp], where I constantly gave Requiem misleading responses.
Thinking about Requiem for even a second made my teeth grind. I sucked in a lung full of air and tried to keep myself focused. These letters had to be delivered or else my failure would never be fixed.
A door below shattered and pieces went everywhere. I pulled my head back behind the curtain just in time to avoid splinters of wood. Both princesses shouted and a few people cried out from below. People broke in from down below.
“Finally!” Cathryn the Angry shouted. “Kill them!”
“Protect Princess Katelyn!” The defending four players pushed back Katelyn the Crying. Two then dove towards the attackers. Everything turned to chaos.
“Dammit. Are you still holding to that Legacy Wish?” I ran over to Awesome Jr. and shook the young man. He was short, lanky and clearly hadn’t filled in. A few weeks of reality and months in-game made no difference to his build.
For a moment, my back twitched like someone was sneaking up on me. I looked around and found nothing. Below us, the players kept shouting at each other. Someone was clearly chanting [Lithium] which thankfully no longer made sense to me. Lightning splashed into a nearby wall.
“Who is this, Adam?” A female asked. I turned around and recognized the shorter girl. Her knitted wool cap now contained a rainbow of colors.
“Finally, SweetPea, are any of you following the Legacy Wish?” Maybe she would have an answer for me. I needed to keep the two princesses alive down below or this stupid quest would be impossible to finish.
She looked at Awesome Jr. He shrugged. Finally, SweetPea nodded.
“Good! Remember the rules! Adventure and care for the world!” I leapt up to the rail. “Letting princesses die is probably bad!”
Shadow literally faded into view a few feet away. He still wore darker clothes. The only bright spots were white wrappings around his fingers. I gave a quick chuckle. He had been sneaking about with a vaguely smug look. The young black haired teen that had inspired such grumpiness in Carver now struck me as amusing.
“Someone’s up above!” One of the individuals attacking shouted. Their colors were a forest green that made Awesome Jr.’s stupid cloak look even uglier.
I saluted with two fingers. [Morrigu’s Gift] was pulled from the belt and a moment later my [Blink] triggered.
They were too slow. I ran between two of them, shifted [Morrigu’s Gift] to the two-handed form and blocked the impact of a heavyset man in leather gear. The Traveler intended to attack Katelyn the Crying.
[Awareness Heightening] kicked in automatically as the action started. Everyone felt in slow motion as my second [Blink] landed near Cathryn. I had the [Barricade] skill and a shape-shifting weapon. This was the place to use it. One arm pressed out at Katelyn to keep her from standing up. I slammed [Morrigu’s Gift] into the ground between the attackers and us. Another bolt of lightning was shooting across at us.
Everything ran by slowly and ideas flashed through. A few seconds later [Morrigu’s Echo] was out and in the same giant sword shape. Thank goodness both were over the top and huge. Briefly, I said a prayer to the Voices and slammed the second one downward to complete my corner shield.
I tucked in over Katelyn to protect her. Lightning hit the weapons and spun across. A second, then a third blast followed quickly. The system displayed a [Barricade] successful message.
The skill [Awareness Heightening] kept right on going as I stood up. Both sides were still fighting. Multiple Travelers swung blades in slow motion, [Lithium] being chanted by two different people, another initiated their scroll with a thumb. Everything about their movements seemed like the sloppiest football game ever. Neither group was organized. Shazam would have whipped them into much better shape.
I pulled out the scroll and put it right in a bewildered Katelyn’s hands. Her face looked up at mine with a delayed reaction. A check-mark popped onto the screen.
That meant this war really needed to stop. Both princesses needed to go back to their corners. Given the sheer outrage and pushy attitude of number two, it was unlikely that this would stop with a ‘please’.
I reached up to the hilt of [Morrigu’s Gift] and shifted it to a much smaller dagger, the same one I tried to use frequently in the mountains with Shazam. With the tall flat blade now out of the way, my vision settled upon Cathryn the Angry. Two, three [Blink]s might cover it.
One of the Travelers after Katelyn the Crying got too close. Leather clad in near bondage gear combined with a wicked looking morning star to freak me out. I panicked and raised one foot to kick at the man’s midsection. He went flying.
Another door slammed open. The noise became buried under battle. A female voice registered in the background with a burst of familiar laughter. One [Blink] later and [Morrigu’s Gift] blocked another blow. [Barricade] successful popped onto the screen again.
My second [Blink] triggered and put me right behind Cathryn. I grabbed her by an arm and placed a longer version of [Morrigu’s Gift] at her neck.
“Attention!” I shouted. People turned towards me. Those attacking the castle in their forest greens wore expressions mixed with horror and confusion.
It was time to put a lot of trust in my [Acting] skill.
“Cease fire!” I demanded while backing us up to a wall. Some of the defenders were inching in my direction. “Or the princess never gets to visit another castle.”
A string of players flooded into the room from the defender’s side. In the mix was HotPants in her angry red garb, a half cat creature, and my niece Beth. [Awareness Heightening] faded out and everything returned to normal.
“Jesus, Uncle Grant, what’s your brawn at?” My niece asked from the doorway. She wore a loose and flowing top. The leather pads I had last seen on her were scuffed and portions charred.
“Uhhh…three hundred,” I said while shifting both Cathryn and the blade around towards the nearest person. My heart felt insanely loud, or maybe it was the princess in my arms.
Holding a princess at knife point was another item to knock off my bucket list.
“That’s insane.” She responded, which pretty much summed up my life in Continue Online.
Session Thirty Nine – Sane Illusions
“Read it!” I demanded. The other Travelers were getting far too close. Behind me loomed a wall which limited the choices.
[Morrigu’s Echo] lay far away. My other hand was taken up keeping Cathryn nearby. She was a lot younger than I thought, smaller, rail thin. It felt like holding a board that squirmed and ground teeth.
“What is this?” Katelyn the Crying had more than enough defenders on her side now. One of my delivered messages sat in her hand. Katelyn looked like an older sister, far more filled in and nearly plump.
“Just open it up and read the stupid message!” My second chance to help Xin’s memories rest
ed on this. Under normal circumstances, this would be aggravating. With over ten other players shoring up sides, my tension rapidly reached an all-time high.
“What in God’s name is going on in here?” A female broke in. HotPants finally made her appearance. I glanced up above quickly trying to figure out where the rest of our, Carver’s, gang was.
“More factionless?” One of the Traveler’s stuttered. The large man that suffered my kick earlier groaned while crawling around. “Why now?”
“Because you’re an idiot. You, and all the others here.” HotPants had a new staff in one hand. She looked two steps away from planting either end into someone’s face.
A lot of people protested. The only one that really registered belonged to Beth. “Hey now.” My niece said.
“Well, you are. God. All of you.” HotPants frowned at the mixing of players. Most of them looked young.
“What is that!? What did you give her?” Cathryn the Angry shouted. Her surge of movement caused a few players to make halfhearted attempts in my direction. I yanked her back.
“Not so fast.” I tried to keep calm, but everything seemed to conspire against me. Too many players, and I teetered on the edge of a second failure. My niece being here in the mix didn’t help.
“Who’s he?” Someone next to Beth tried to whisper but failed.
“My uncle, the one I said might join us. He started two months ago in real time.” Beth’s return whisper contained a trace of awe mixed with amusement. I tried not to smile with pride in my success at being useful.
“Bullshit. With three hundred brawn? Even high Ranks are lucky to sit at three hundred anything.” One of the attackers said. This conversation contained no privacy.
“Got to be a lie.” A shaky person that wore a lot of dark green sounded doubtful. Her face was wrapped in layers of light looking cloth.
“Kicks like three hundred.” The large burly man in bondage gear had a giant welt on his skin from my boot imprint. Part of me felt proud to have knocked anyone back so hard. Bondage Gear managed to get upright, but the health bar above his head flashed red.
I was surprised that no one went crazy and started murdering each other. Part of me expected stupid battle frenzy when dealing with other players. The scene outside this castle only reinforced my perceptions.
“What if he’s telling the truth? Maybe an Ultimate Edition?” The person next to Beth guessed. “You know they catch up faster.” My cheeks stayed calm. Neither eye twitched in response to the Traveler’s accurate guess.
“Keep back.” I quickly swung [Morrigu’s Gift] at one of the attacking Travelers. Cathryn the thin and angry almost made it out of my grip.
“Ahh!” The younger, rail thin princess screamed loud enough to ring in my ears.
“You’re both staying here until you read the message,” I said while trying to shake off her minor daze effect. The other players nearby looked to have equally suffered from the shrike.
“Why should I do anything you say.” This young woman I had captured was all over the board in her attitude. Overbearing, rude, haughty, snide, it was every annoying emotion ever developed rolled into one being.
I wanted to explain how there was a knife to her throat right now, but someone beat me to it.
“Look, you’re clearly still in diapers. I bet if you both stopped to read the letter he would let you go.” HotPants said. She was resting on her staff. The blonde woman with her red highlights looked annoyed and tired.
“Can’t read it if you’re dead,” I said, pleased that someone else made the point for me.
“I refuse to read it unless Katelyn is killed. You do that for me, I’ll give you whatever you wish.” She disturbed me with her attempt at being sultry and suggestive. Cathryn was about six years too young to even remotely consider. On top of that Xin still existed in some form.
One of the Travelers next to me looked hurt. Cathryn’s offer struck him wrong somehow. I tried not to retch in my mouth. Teenagers just didn’t understand how badly they judged character at that age.
“Counter offer, read the letter, or you both die here, today,” I growled in annoyance. Hopefully, my [Acting] skill would turn this into a credible threat. I did not want to have to commit any harm upon Locals of this digital world.
“Uncle Grant!” Beth’s shout was drowned among a chaos of other people.
“Sorry, Munchkin, I’ll explain it later, but either they read the letters or none of this matters. None of what I’ve done…” Doing all those trials. Pretending to be William Carver for a month. Shivering on a mountain with Shazam. Dealing with Requiem and his constant physical abuse. “None of it matters. This is my only way through.”
“Surely we can talk about this.” A man in shining metal armor said. He looked to be a commander or leader to one of the parties.
“They read it. Or I, I have to kill them. That’s how it’s got to be.” I ground my teeth and pressed the blade closer to Cathryn’s neck. Blood trickled down in a thin line causing people to gasp.
Someone’s lips were moving which meant a [Lithium] might be chanted. Whatever it was scared me into action. [Morrigu’s Gift] shifted into a larger blade form. Someone thought there was enough time to run for Cathryn but [Morrigu’s Echo] had already been [Recall]ed into my hand.
I shifted my second weapon and hurled it through the crowd towards a Traveler trying to cast something under his breath. My foot came up and gave a push kick at another player that got close. A moment later [Morrigu’s Gift], my main weapon from William Carver was back in hand and at Cathryn’s neck.
“Very well, Mister.” One of the attackers backed up hastily. Their royal figurehead for this war needed to stay alive. I banked on them staying peaceful in the face of my threat.
“Hermes. Just Hermes.” I gave my Continue Online name.
Those on my niece’s side, the defenders, didn’t seem upset at all. They were also amazingly non-aggressive. Maybe they hoped to resolve this peacefully or at least without casualties on their side.
“The Greek messenger god?” A Traveler said. It looked like Katelyn’s team felt perfectly comfortable bunching together and backing up slowly.
“That’s my job. Messenger to the Voices.” I curved the blade around the hostage’s neck a bit more then reached for player inventory where my second letter was stored.
“You are no messenger.” Cathryn sneered. She found the courage to be rude and bold while a knife loomed across an artery.
“Read the title, princess,” I said.
“I have no means to do so, I am not Traveler, and neither are you.” She sounded downright upset. “You’re some slob who’s bitter about their failure.”
I shook from the statement. “What?”
“What could you mean? He nearly died doing his duty for our father.” Katelyn’s comment came from across the room at her sister. The wording touched on a buried memory. I looked around in confusion trying to keep an eye on the other players and both princesses.
“He failed! He sat there and let my father, along with so many others, die to poison.” Cathryn turned up towards me while her health bar took a scratch from [Morrigu’s Gift]. “It was your job to test the food and you failed.” The Angry princess said to me.
“What are you talking…” then it hit me. That was one of the first things I had ever done in Continue Online. She had to be talking about the [King’s Taste Tester] event during my trials.
“Uncle Grant?” My niece Thorny, Beth, whatever, said. She sounded disconcerted and worried. I told myself that everything happening now was for Xin. A woman who I couldn’t save from the train wreck could be saved here.
Goodness. That felt like an unfair throwback. More to the point, how had James worked that into the backstory of the very game? Either the Voice had clearly abused everything to insert my face into an artificial construct’s past, or both these girls were mistaken.
“It will be okay if they do what they’re told.” I did my best to keep calm and
level headed.
“You’re not really going to kill her, are you?” Beth asked.
“If I have to, I will.” I hated, hated, hated lying to Beth about anything. My face managed to keep fairly straight. That silly [Act: Straight Face] already paid off.
My mind flickered back to the issue with my original Ultimate Edition trials. One thing had become clear to me recently, the Voices plotted long and deep. James picked each trial in the room, having one come back to face me like this should have been expected. After all, [Red Imp]s hated green, and I had stood in it.
Xin’s ghost in the machine haunting me since day one of the game was no accident. Dusk himself followed me around. Then there was SheHulk, also known as Elane. Part of me grew chill and the back of my neck tingled with the edge of an epiphany. Vice President Riley had pointed it out, they were screening me, testing me for something.
No, I shook my head. Now was not the time. Therapy said to focus on one item, solve it, then move on. Too many issues would overwhelm me and spiral everything back down to the pits of depression.
“Read the letter.” I waved it in my other hand. [Morrigu’s Gift] remained pressed against Cathryn’s neck.
“No.” She said, resolute in her defiance.
A familiar set of jaws clacked together after a yawn. I tilted my head back a little.
“Dusk!” I shouted. The little guy had always been nearby. Now he would be perfect to add credibility to my claim. A [Messenger’s Pet].
Dusk leapt down and spun a lazy circle over our heads. Finally, he headed for the wall and clung to it like a soaring gecko. Or a flying squirrel, dragon, bundle of neatness. I liked him a lot, even if he was part of the [NPC Conspiracy] to test my sanity.
“Look, sister,” Katelyn said, one finger pointed upward towards Dusk. The [Messenger’s Pet] crawled down the wall a few more feet and onto my shoulder. “He has a Messenger’s Pet.”
“So.” Cathryn’s eyes were blinking fast. Her heartbeat sped a little. I could feel her rapidly losing any composure she had left. Dusk yawned then coughed out a small ball of fire that sizzled the princess’s hair.
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