Forever Fantasy Online

by Rachel Aaron

  “We’re an elite group of top fighters with the best gear in the world,” she said cockily, clanging her fist on her runed breastplate. “Every soldier I have is armed with the literal stuff of legends. We’ve fought dragons, gods, demons, and worse, and we don’t come cheap.”

  Garrond looked stunned. “Are you insane?” he cried, whirling around. “What game are you playing?”

  “It’s no game,” Tina said, looking down at him. “Surely you’ve hired mercenaries before. Well, we’re the Roughneck Raiders, and we’re the best you’ll ever get. I’m the guild master, the highest authority, so I’m offering to sell you our services. We’ve got to make a name for ourselves now that we’re stuck in this world, and saving your fort from Grel is a great place to start.”

  Garrond stared at her a moment longer, then he shook his head in wonder. “You expect me to pay you to fight to save yourselves?”

  “Yup,” Tina said. “You’ve been accusing us of playing since we arrived, but doing a job for pay is the definition of work, and that’s what we’re ready to do for you.”

  When the commander looked at her this time, the hate in his eyes was mixed with something else. Tina wasn’t sure what it was, but for the first time, she felt like they were getting somewhere.

  “All right,” he said slowly. “Just for the sake of argument, if I were to accept your ridiculous offer, dare I ask how much it would cost to hire your raid to kill Grel’Darm?”

  “The return of all our weapons and a full resupply of food and ammo for my raid,” she replied without missing a beat. “Before the fight. I also want a portal to Bastion for all of us after the deed is done.”

  That was clearly not what Garrond had been expecting. “Food and ammunition?” he said incredulously. “That’s all you want? During the Nightmare, you demanded our best artifacts, relics, and gold! Now all you want is arrows and bread?” He gaped at her. “What kind of scam are you running?”

  “It’s not a scam,” Tina said angrily. “You think we want your crap loot? We’re Dead Mountain raiders! The Order’s quest rewards were obsolete by the time we made it to the Once King’s doorstep. And gold? I have millions of gold pieces in Bastion’s central bank, and that’s not even counting all the other priceless artifacts and resources I’ve hoarded over the years. All of my other players are the same. We don’t need money. Supplies, on the other hand, are the most expensive things around in a war. I can’t buy arrows out here for all the gold in the world, so I’m actually charging you a lot, but you’re getting a lot in return. You can’t kill Grel. We can. We’re offering you the impossible, but you have to pay for it.”

  Tina was shaking with the effort of sustaining her sales pitch by the time she finished. Whether Garrond believed her or not, though, the haggling had clearly put him on more familiar ground. The guy was definitely more comfortable dealing with greedy mercenaries than demonic players, and so long as Tina could convince him that was what they were, she had a shot.

  Fortunately, faking greed wasn’t hard. She was sick of worrying over every spell and arrow. A resupply and the return of their weapons would lift the whole raid, not to mention make fighting Grel possible. Without their gear and food, they’d be just as dead as the rest of the Order. But as much as Tina wanted to yell at the still-silent commander to stop being such a prejudiced dick and let her save their asses, she forced herself to let him stew. The only way this plan worked was if Garrond talked himself into it. Thankfully for her, he really was screwed without them, and soon enough, the commander walked back to his desk with a sigh.

  “You are very fortunate the Order is sworn to defend the higher good,” he said, sinking heavily into his chair. “But before I agree to anything, let me be absolutely clear: I hate you. My men who were trapped in the Nightmare with me hate you, too. If it were up to us, all of you would already be dead. But we are servants of the Sun, sworn to protect the living, the innocent, and the just. No matter how badly I want to personally butcher each and every one of you for the hell you put our world through, my oaths will not allow it, because you are right. We cannot fight Grel’Darm as we are. You are the only weapon I have that can protect the lands and innocents that lie beyond this fortress, and so you leave me no choice.”

  He shoved his hand at her. “The Order of the Golden Sun offers you hire. As requested, we will return your weapons and provide you with food and ammunition such that you can fight. In return, your Roughneck Raiders will be responsible for singling out and defeating Grel’Darm the Colossal. I also expect you to participate in battling whatever additional forces remain once you’ve downed the giant.”

  Tina had to bite her lip to keep from cheering out loud. She’d done it. She’d won. After the last day and night, she’d almost forgotten what that felt like. But there was still one thing Garrond hadn’t mentioned. “What about our portal?”

  He shook his head. “We cannot reopen the portal to Bastion until the fortress is out of danger. The royal city must be protected at all costs. However, should you succeed in fully routing the Once King’s army, opening a portal will no longer be a security vulnerability.”

  That was good enough for her. Before anything else could go wrong, Tina grabbed the commander’s hand. He responded with the most hostile, bone-crushing handshake she’d ever received—despite being a stonekin—but Tina just gritted her teeth and bore it.

  “Deal,” she said firmly. Then her lips curled into a smile. “Now give me all that again in writing.”

  Garrond dropped her hand with a sneer. “I suppose I can’t blame you for being distrustful,” he said, plucking a sheet of paper from the stack on his desk. “Whom do I make the contract out to?”

  Tina’s smile turned into a full-on grin. “Roxxy,” she said. “With two Xs.”

  Garrond’s eyebrows shot up, then he shook his head. “Players,” he huffed, his quill scratching over the paper as he wrote out their agreement.

  ****

  When Tina returned to the raid, hand still aching from Commander Garrond’s menacing handshake, she was pulling two wagons piled high with crates, bags, and barrels. Everyone in the raid sat up at the sight, the sleeping members poked awake by their neighbors. They crowded in around her as she set down the ox-pull she’d been using as a handle. Tina grinned widely, kicking open the first chest to begin handing weapons back to their owners.

  Shouts of joy rose as the players were reunited with their armaments. Some people actually cried, clutching their beloved weapons to their chests like lost children. As their leader, Tina reclaimed hers last, sliding her sword back into its sheath and putting her shield back on her arm with a relieved breath. The return of the familiar weight felt like reclaiming a lost limb, making her grin with glee as she grabbed one of the extra sacks from the rear of the wagon and tossed it into the crowd.

  Killbox caught it one-handed, and everyone’s attention fixed on him as he opened it, releasing the heavenly smell of fresh bread. Stomachs rumbled loudly, then the Berserker was mobbed as everyone rushed the food. Grinning like a maniac, Tina tossed the next sack, then another and another, flinging her hard-won loot into the eager hands of her players.

  The raid tore open each bag the moment they landed, revealing quivers full of arrows, rashers of dried meat, and wheels of cheese. She cracked open the barrels next, revealing casks of fresh water and salted fish.

  “What’s all this?” NekoBaby asked as the people began looting the supplies.

  “This is for us,” Tina said proudly, lifting her voice. “Everyone, grab whatever you want! Fill your bellies, backpacks, and pockets. I’ll talk after we’ve eaten.”

  Players were eyeing her suspiciously, but that didn’t stop them from grabbing up all the food and munitions they could carry. Tina herself went straight for an entire bucket of water and gulped it down in one go, closing her eyes in bliss. It was just water, but after a day and a half of dry marching, the cold wetness washing the dust from her throat was the most glorious thing she’d ever
put in her mouth.

  The rest of the raid was having a similar reaction. The ichthyians were stripping down and dumping whole buckets of water over their heads. Anders actually climbed inside the barrel of salty brine left over from the preserved fish, dunking his green-scaled head over and over. The other ichthyians looked on, appalled, and Tina had to wonder if that was just their dislike of Anders, or if there were freshwater and saltwater variants among the fish-people.

  At least she didn’t have to worry about pickiness. She’d never touched a salted fish in her life, but the jubatus players leaped on them. NekoBaby piled her arms high with herrings and started tearing into them with her fangs. The elves and humans took much more normal portions of bread, jerky, and cheese, happily wolfing the food down in huge bites.

  “Ha ha, go slow, guys!” SilentBlayde called, pulling down his mask to cram his own mouth full of bread. “We haven’t eaten in a while. Don’t make yourselves sick!”

  Tina was finally hungry as well, but looking around, she wasn’t sure what to eat. She picked up a fish, but it felt squishy and completely unappetizing. The bread was the same. Not bad but not something she wanted to eat. She was rummaging through crates to see what her options were when she bumped into the raid’s other stonekin.

  “Hey, GneissGuy,” she said, pointing at the piles of unappetizing food. “You having the same problem I’m having?”

  The gray-faced stonekin nodded. “Nothing here seems to be our kind of grub.”

  “What the hell do we eat?” Tina asked, annoyed. “It’s not like I had a stone mom to teach me this stuff.”

  SilentBlayde came over with a concerned look. “What’s wrong, Roxxy? Hey, Gneiss.”

  GneissGuy gave him a friendly wave, but Tina was getting annoyed. “We have no idea what we eat,” she said angrily. “I don’t think we do the squishy-people-food thing.”

  SB chuckled, earning him a baleful glare. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, putting up his hands. “It’s just funny. You’re studying to be a librarian, but you’ve never read any of the lore for the game.”

  “I want to be a librarian because I like good books,” Tina grumbled. “The FFO lore is ridiculous.”

  “What are you talking about?” SB said, aghast. “The lore is great! It’s full of amazing knowledge, like what stonekin eat.”

  His eyes twinkled with amusement, and Tina rolled her eyes. “Cough it up, ’Blayde.”

  Still laughing, SB hopped up on the cart and started digging through crates. A few moments later, he came back with some heavy-looking sacks and a wicked smile. “Here you go,” he said, handing a bag to each of them. “Bon appétit!” Then he darted away, safely out of her range, to go talk to Frank.

  Tina and GneissGuy looked at their bags with trepidation. Finally, Tina untied the top of hers and peered inside, hoping against hope that it wasn’t the bag of rocks it felt like.

  “Crap,” Tina said, pulling out a fist-sized stone laced with faintly glowing, obviously magical white lines. “It’s just rocks all the way down with us, isn’t it?”

  “At least they smell nice,” GneissGuy said.

  They did smell inviting. Cool and earthy, like a stone dug out of a garden. She was giving the one in her hand an experimental sniff when GneissGuy popped an entire stone nugget into his mouth and began to crunch. Tina watched in horror as sparks flew off his huge marble teeth. Then he swallowed with the sound of gravel going down a mine chute, and his granite face split into a grin.

  “It’s good!” he said, digging into his bag for another. “Try it before it gets warm.”

  Tina didn’t see how temperature was going to improve the rock in her hand, but GneissGuy had already shoved two more into his mouth as he walked away to sit down with the other Knights. The humans stopped stuffing their faces long enough to watch him crunch another magical stone into rubble between his teeth, then all the Knights had a good laugh before returning to their food.

  Tina looked back down at her rock with a sigh. “When in Rome,” she muttered, shoving it into her mouth.

  The rock broke apart under her teeth like the hardest, crunchiest granola that had ever been. The glowing white veins were softer with a lively acidic, metallic taste. But as strange as it was to be grinding ore into sand in her mouth, the rock tasted pretty good. More importantly, it felt right, which was a first. Tina hadn’t realized how hungry she’d been until she bit into the food her new body actually wanted.

  Grabbing another rock from her bag, Tina sat down on her cart to eat and watch the raid. People seemed much happier now that they had food. Color was coming back to scales and skin. Everyone was still dusty and torn but much less beaten down.

  After they ate, several of the casters got up and started healing minor injuries they hadn’t had the resources to take care of earlier. There were cheers and thanks as bruises, cuts, and gashes were washed away by the euphoric golden-and-green light. When the whole raid was healed to full, the casters sat back down and stuffed themselves again to replenish their mana.

  As the pig-out finally started to wind down, Tina decided that now was the time. She climbed up on a crate and clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention, but the noise wasn’t actually necessary. The moment she got up, everyone turned to look at her, their eyes worried.

  “This should be good,” KuroKawaii called before Tina could say a word. “Who’d you blow for the food, Roxxy?”

  Tina shut the Assassin down with a murderous glare and turned her attention back to the raid as a whole. “Before anyone gets any stupid ideas, I want to start by saying again how sorry I am for how I’ve treated you. Even though I only met most of you a day ago, I’ve gained a ton of respect for every member of this raid during the march here. I’m sorry I haven’t shown it, and I promise to do better going forward.”

  Many of the raiders looked embarrassed by that, but the flushed faces were generally smiling, which Tina took as a good sign.

  “We haven’t talked about this yet,” she went on. “But if you aren’t in my guild yet, congratulations. You’re a Roughneck if you want to be. You’ve all certainly earned your place among our ranks. That said, if you’ve seen enough and want to quit, now’s the time. This includes the older members.”

  There were a lot of hurt looks at that, and Tina held up her hands. “I’m not trying to get rid of anyone,” she said quickly. “Just hear me out. The Roughneck Raiders have always been a hardcore raiding guild, but that part of things is over. This is our reality now, and the old guild stuff isn’t applicable anymore. Hell, ninety percent of the Roughnecks’ roster isn’t even here. Which is why, starting now, I’m forming a new guild.”

  She reached into her bag and pulled out the signed contract she’d had Garrond write up, then unfurled the scroll and held it up so they could all see. “When I started the Roughnecks, we all agreed that if we ever moved to a new game, we’d re-form the guild. This is definitely a new game, so I’m re-forming the Roughnecks here and now to be what we need it to be.”

  “What’s that?” NekoBaby asked.

  Tina grinned. “A mercenary guild.”

  The raid began to buzz. “Why mercenaries?” called someone from the back.

  “Seemed like the right fit,” Tina said with a shrug. “Some of you started as Roughnecks, but the vast majority of us are still strangers. There’s definitely no bonds of blood or camaraderie. Hell, most of us don’t even like each other.”

  “So?” yelled Killbox.

  “So,” Tina said, “when your brother hits you, that’s a dysfunctional family. But when two mercs get in a fight, they’re still shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield the next day. Mercenaries can be friends, enemies, lovers, even strangers, and it’s all good so long as the fighting gets done right. I think that’s the model that fits our group best right now, so that’s what I’ve got.”

  She paused to let that sink in. Frank looked delighted by the idea. So did SilentBlayde. Even Zen was nodding, talking quietly with the other Rangers.
Not everyone was happy, but the general atmosphere was more positive than Tina had seen since this started, and she decided to go for the final blow.

  “Going forward, I’m not asking you to like me,” she said, raising her voice over the whispers. “We can spit and cuss and fight each other as much as the enemy if we need to. But if you decide to stay, I expect one thing from you, and that’s to never forget that it’s us against the world. When someone out there threatens one of us, they threaten all of us, which means we band together and shut them down. That’s what it means to be a Roughneck now, so if you’re in, I’m with you.”

  The players’ corner of the yard was silent when she finished, then KuroKawaii stood up. “This is ridiculous,” she said, sneering at Tina. “What’s the point in making a new guild? We’re all going our own way once we hit Bastion. Most of us are already in our own guilds, anyway. Why would we leave them for you?”

  “Because they’re not here,” Tina said grimly, pointing at KatanaFatale, who was still stuffing his face with bread. “He’s the only other player we’ve seen alive since this started, and he barely escaped with his life. I hate to be Captain Bring-Down, but if your old guild got caught in this, they’re probably dead. The only reason we’re still alive is because we’ve stuck together, and that’s what I mean to keep doing. Again, if you want to leave, I’m not going to stop you, but why mess with what works? We’ve come this far by working as a team. If we just keep sticking together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

  “You mean nothing we can’t do for you,’” Kuro said, narrowing her eyes. “This isn’t about what’s best for us. You’re just looking for a way to stay in charge.”

  Tina’s fists clenched. After everything she’d done for this raid, that was a low blow. But as satisfying as it would be to punt the tiny Assassin over the walls and into Grel’s approaching army, that wasn’t how responsible guild leaders behaved. She did not, however, see any point in being nice.