by Rachel Aaron
“Hey,” he said brightly, jumping up on the stonekin-sized bunk to sit beside her.
“Hey yourself,” Tina replied, smiling down at him. Like everyone else, he looked much better this morning. Magical healing could fix their bodies, but there were some things that only real sleep could cure. Now, though, the dark shadows that had been under his eyes since he’d died and been raised were finally gone, making her smile with relief.
“So,” SB said, lowering his voice so the others wouldn’t hear. “What’s the plan when we hit Bastion?”
“It’s less of a plan and more of a list,” Tina replied. “First item is to get to the bank and get our stuff. Money, gear, pets, crafting materials, mounts, anything we might be able to use. After that, I’d like to talk to the portal keepers. In the game, it was their job to deal with all the multiple timelines, alternate dimensions, and other bullshit the developers came up with to fill the game with content, so I figure if anyone knows how we can get back home, it’s them.”
SB nodded and glanced pointedly at the rest of the raid. “What about the Roughnecks?”
Tina shrugged. “I’ve done everything I can to make us a guild, but there’s no way to know for sure until people have a chance to leave without dying. We held together yesterday, and I want to think that’s going to last, but once the heat’s off, I wouldn’t be surprised if things got messy.” They both looked grim at the possibility, then Tina added, “I’m counting on you to help me. You’re a lot better with people than I am.”
He smiled at that. Or at least, she thought he did. It was impossible to tell when his mouth was hidden by his ever-present mask, and the more Tina thought about that, the more it bothered her.
“Hey, ’Blayde,” she said wistfully, reaching out a hand toward the dark cloth that covered the bottom half of his face. “Do you have to wear this thing all the time?”
She felt him tense as she hooked a finger over the top of the fabric, but his voice was light when he answered.
“Of course. It’s a crucial part of my cool ninja motif.”
“That’s a pity,” Tina said as she began inching the mask down. “People around here might appreciate seeing your expressions.” She really wanted to see him smile again, but as she pushed his mask lower, SB vanished out from under her fingers. He reappeared a few feet away, reaching up to push his mask back into place.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m not comfortable keeping it open yet.”
Tina stared at him, genuinely confused. “But… I thought you liked how your character looked. You did that whole beautiful-elf-prince reveal on me yesterday, remember?”
SilentBlayde’s face reddened. “You needed that then,” he explained. “But I need this now. Please, Roxxy, let it be.”
The desperation in his voice caused an instant knot in her stomach. In all their years together, SilentBlayde had only shut her down this hard once before, and it had been one of the worst experiences of Tina’s life. She never wanted to feel that way again, and she dropped the subject like a radioactive hot potato.
“Sure, man, no worries,” she said quickly, struggling to keep her voice casual. “Sorry. Didn’t know it was a thing.”
“Thank you,” SB said quietly. Then he was forced to duck to the side as NekoBaby bounced into their conversation.
“Oooooooo!” the cat-girl said, tail swishing. “It’s getting steamy over here! What’s the gossip?!”
SB gave NekoBaby the best death glare Tina had ever seen and left to grab his backpack. Neko shrugged at his back and turned to badger Tina instead, but Tina had already stood up, and she used her vastly superior height to look straight over the petulant cat-girl’s head.
“Time’s up, peeps!” she yelled, drowning out the rest of Neko’s questions. “Let’s move!”
****
Standing in front of the portal to Bastion, Tina had to admit the magical doorway was much more impressive than she’d given it credit for.
Inside the Order’s white stone portal shrine were five crystal columns. These had been dark when she’d checked the portal room yesterday. Now, though, each one contained a maelstrom of a different element. After days of the Deadlands’ endless gray, the rainbow collage of colors was the loveliest thing Tina could imagine, but it was the massive hole in the world surrounded by crackling energy that really took the cake.
It was so crazy looking, Tina couldn’t help reaching out to touch the swirling edges, and she got a nasty shock for her trouble. Other players were walking around the floating portal in circles, enjoying the bizarre optical illusions it created as it warped space and time. There was much oohing and aahhing and heated discussion among the Sorcerers as they tried to figure out how the Order had pulled off the one spell they could no longer manage. It might have gone on forever if Commander Garrond hadn’t been waiting in the doorway, tapping his metal boot impatiently on the stone.
Rolling her eyes, Tina stepped up to the portal’s edge. Through the swirling magic, she could see the Room of Arrivals, the giant pale-pink stone chamber lined with columns that served as the receiving room for all portals to Bastion and the game’s central transportation hub with permanent portals to every major city and raiding zone, including the Deadlands by way of the Order Fort. All that crisscrossing normally made it the busiest place in the game, so Tina was surprised when she didn’t see any other players—or any other portals—waiting inside. She was about to ask someone else what they thought when Garrond’s tapping got more insistent, his boot clanging on the stone like someone bashing a frying pan against a rock.
“Okay, okay, we’re going,” she growled, giving the commander a poisonous look before raising her hand. “Roughnecks, in!”
With that command, she leaped through the portal. There was a brief moment of disorientation, like she was doing a backflip underwater, then her feet landed on solid stone again, and Tina moved out of the way as SilentBlayde came through right behind her.
Now that she was through, it was obvious that what she’d seen through the portal hadn’t been an illusion. The Room of Arrivals really was completely empty. But that was a worry for later. She met SB’s eyes with a knowing look, then the two of them took up position on either side of the portal, watching carefully as the rest of the raid jumped through one player at a time. Zen brought up the rear, crossing with a graceful leap, but even after she walked away, Tina and SilentBlayde didn’t move. Then faster than Tina could blink, SilentBlayde’s hand shot out to grab something out of the empty air.
The momentum of whatever it was nearly took him off his feet. Tina was at his side at once, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady him while she reached out to grab his struggling target with the other.
“Ho bag!” KuroKawaii yelled, her body flickering out of the shadows as she fought Tina’s iron grasp. “Let me go, or I’ll stab you!”
She reached for her daggers, but Tina just gave her a shake, knocking the small elf around like a doll before lifting the Assassin up until she was dangling two feet off the ground with her back less than an inch from the swirling magic of the portal.
“You dirty little traitor,” Tina growled. “This portal is for Roughnecks only. You know, the people who actually earned it.”
Kuro kicked Tina only to wince when her foot banged into a metal plate. “Screw you! I never said I’d join your guild! I don’t owe you shit!”
“Zero was forced to hide inside an undead boar because of you!” Tina shouted in her face. “SilentBlayde almost died. We all almost died, because of you!” She leaned to the side so KuroKawaii could see the faces of the players behind her, and the elf went still as she realized all that anger was directed at her this time.
When she was sure Kuro had gotten the point, Tina pulled the short elf in close. “Guild or not, you don’t sign up for a fight and bail,” she said, her voice low and deadly. “We were counting on you, and you left us to die. The only reason you were able to use this portal is because we were awesome enough to pull
victory out of the bag anyway.” Her eyes narrowed. “I should throw you back to Garrond and make you hike your sorry ass through that damn swamp alone for the shit you put us through.”
Kuro was shaking by the time she finished, her normally tan face drained of color as she looked backward through the portal at the four-skull commander waiting on other side. “You wouldn’t,” she whimpered.
Tina wasn’t above letting her sweat over that for a moment. In the end, though, she pulled her arm back. “You’re right,” she said, placing Kuro back on the ground. “I wouldn’t. I said I was going to get everyone to Bastion alive, and I meant it. That includes you, even though you don’t deserve it.”
She let the Assassin’s expression of terror relax just a fraction before adding, “But this isn’t just my guild anymore.”
Her eyes grew wide again as Tina turned them around to address the other players.
“Roughnecks! Time for a vote. All in favor of throwing KuroKawaii back, raise your hands.”
Kuro went stock-still as a scattering of hands went up. All around the room, people were glaring at the elf, some murderously so. ZeroDarkness wouldn’t even look at her, but despite his obvious anger, the Assassin’s hand stayed down. When it was clear the majority of the guild was with him, Tina released her grip on Kuro’s shoulder. “You’re a lucky one, KuroKawaii. Turns out we’re decent folks after all.”
“Thank you,” Kuro said in a voice Tina could barely hear. Then she vanished into the shadows, flickering away before their eyes.
“Should I go after her?” SB asked quietly, hand on his sword.
“Nah,” Tina said. “She’s too embarrassed to be a threat right now. Maybe she’ll come back. Maybe she won’t. Either way, not my proble—” Her reply was cut off as that gut-twisting, world-moving feeling hit them all again. Tina’s first thought was that Garrond had closed the door behind them, but then the whole room flashed as another portal suddenly opened right next to theirs.
Tina put her shield up instinctively then relaxed when she saw that the portal was for the low-level savanna zone. On the other side, she could see an odd collection of gnolls and jubatus standing in a sunny field, but only two jubatus actually jumped through. One of them was definitely a player. There was just no way an NPC would be carrying a raid-level caster weapon with that bizarre mismatch of Agility and Strength armor. The other she wasn’t sure about, but the player-jubatus made it through first, landing in the Room of Arrivals as gracefully as the cat he resembled. He flinched back when he looked up to see the raid staring back at him. Then he spotted Tina, and his feline face split into an ecstatic smile.
“Tina!” he cried, waving his arms. “It’s me! James!”
The moment she heard his name, Tina broke into a huge grin of her own. “James!” she cried, grabbing her brother in a huge hug. “I’m so glad you’re alive! I was worried sick about you!”
James slapped his hands against her arms. “Not for much longer,” he choked out. “Mercy! Mercy!”
Realizing she was crushing him, Tina let go at once, dropping James on the ground in her haste. Much to the alarm of his brother’s strange companion, who rushed to his side.
“Sorry,” Tina said sheepishly. “But how’d you know it was me?” She certainly hadn’t recognized his character.
James arched an eyebrow at her as the other jubatus helped him up. “Uh, you might be the only female stonekin tank with that shield. You’re kind of hard to miss.”
Behind them, SilentBlayde burst out laughing. Tina just rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the tragedy that was his gear. “Dude, what are you wearing? You look like a broke Renaissance Festival cosplayer.”
“I know,” James said with a sigh. “It’s the best I could manage. All my good stuff was in my bags.”
Tina winced. That explained everything. “I told you it was stupid to take your armor off when you logged out,” she snapped, eyes flicking to the scowling jubatus behind him, whom she was now certain was not a player. “Who’s this?” she asked, returning the other jubatus’s angry glare with a stone-cold glower of her own. “Your new pet?”
James winced. “Umm…Tina, this is my new brother, Fangs in the Grass, Ar’Bati of the Four Clans.”
That was not what she’d expected to hear, but it seemed to please the jubatus. He straightened up with a smirk, almost going up to his tiptoes in an effort to minimize the difference between his normal height and Roxxy’s towering one.
“And who are you?” he asked in heavily accented English. “Why do you speak so familiarly with James?” His eyes narrowed. “Also, what are you?”
“Wow, rude,” Tina said, glancing at James, who looked like he was going to pop. She didn’t know how he’d ended up with a cat for a “brother,” but it was clearly important to him, so she stomped down on the overwhelming urge to punch the impolite jubatus in the face and put out her hand instead. “The name’s Tina, and I’m James’s little sister.”
Fangs in Grass stumbled back at that one. “You said you were human!” he cried, turning back to James, who put his hands up helplessly.
“He is,” Tina said. “And so am I. Or I was before this happened.” Then just to freak him out, she flashed the cat a marble-toothed smile. “Have you never seen a stonekin before?”
“I’ve heard of them, but I never knew—” He cut off with a jump as NekoBaby bounced into their conversation.
“Oh! Em! Gee!” she said, flouncing right into Ar’Bati’s face. “I know you! You’re Angry Cat!” She whirled back to the raid. “Guys, guys! It’s Angry Cat! You know, the NPC cat-dude from the old meme!” She turned around again, bursting into the song from the animation that had been all over the FFO parts of the internet a few years ago. “Angry Cat eats your taaaaaaco!”
Several other players laughed and joined in, and Tina dragged a hand over her face as James’s new maybe-brother’s face turned crimson.
“Neko,” Tina said warningly, putting out a hand to shut the healer down before this turned violent.
Behind the poor taunted Ar’Bati, James reached out a hand of his own, but Fangs-in-the-whatever stiffly turned around before James could reach him.
“Typical players,” he said, his voice dripping with disgust.
Normally, Tina would have taken offense at that. This time, though, she had nothing but sympathy. “Guys!” she bellowed, banging her shield. “Knock it off!”
The singing stopped, but the chuckles and snickering remained. She was about to yell again when a loud snapping, fizzling noise made them all jump. Tina whirled around, but it was just the portal James had come through collapsing, showering their feet with rainbow-colored sparks as it vanished.
“Wow,” Tina said. “Hope you didn’t need to go back.”
“It’s okay,” James said. “This is where we need to be. I need to get to—”
“The bank, I know,” Tina said. “We’re headed that way, too.” She turned to the rest of the raid. “All right, everyone, let’s get our asses to the bank and pick up our loot! Once we’re loaded up, what do you say we hit the bar behind—”
A loud clatter interrupted her, and everyone whipped around to see a guard in Bastion’s royal livery standing in the entrance of the chamber, his dropped sword still wobbling on the marble floor. Cursing under her breath, Tina stepped forward to tell him everything was cool when the man whirled around and shot back out of the room at a dead run.
“Players!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “It’s a raid! More players are attacking!”
“Crap,” Tina said as the man whipped around the corner. “SB! Zero!”
The two Assassins vanished in the blink of an eye. A second later, there was a loud thud from the hallway, then they reappeared, dragging the now-unconscious guard to Tina’s feet. She was scowling down at the NPC, trying to decide what to do, when she felt that weird warping sensation again.
Her head whipped around just in time to see Commander Garrond flash her a knowing smile
from the other side of the Order’s portal. Then he brought his hand down in a chopping motion, and the portal to the Order’s fortress collapsed, vanishing with a brilliant flash that left her blinded.
Tina looked back down at the unconscious guard, his face still frozen in terror, then she glanced at the hall that led outside. Now that she was closer, she could smell smoke from outside. Not woodsmoke, but the thick, oily, ashy scent of burning flesh.
“Heads up, guys,” she said, drawing her sword. “I think we’re in trouble.”
The raid moved closer together as she finished, getting in formation behind Tina as she led them cautiously down the hall, out of the Room of Arrivals, and into the glorious—and now burning—city of Bastion.
The End
Book 1 of 3
Thank you for reading Forever Fantasy Online! If you enjoyed the story, or even if you didn’t, we hope you’ll consider leaving a review. Reviews, good and bad, are vital to any author’s career, and Travis and I would be extremely grateful if you’d consider writing one for us.
Not ready for the ride to end? The second book in the FFO trilogy, Last Bastion, comes out Fall 2018, but you can preorder it RIGHT NOW! Click here to see a full list of retailers, or, if you’re not ready to buy just yet, you can always sign up for our New Release Mailing List! List members are the first to hear about any new projects, and you get bonus content, including the list-exclusive Heartstrikers short story, Mother of the Year! The list is free, and we promise never to spam you or give your info to anyone else, so sign up and join the fun! You can also follow us on Twitter @Rachel_Aaron and @TravBach or like Rachel’s Facebook page, facebook.com/RachelAaronAuthor.
