by Sam Ferguson
Had this simply been a game, Brian might have acknowledged that she was a challenging foe, but with his friends actually in danger of dying, all he could do was hate her. He made haste back to Myron’s old house, scanning the roads and alleys for more assassins or Morr’Tai footmen. As he was about to emerge from the last alley, he saw the tall assassin male with the claymore standing on the roof of Myron’s house.
How did he know? Brian wondered. Had he found Mike and Freya? Were they dead? Was Brian the last one still alive? That thought unnerved him more than he cared to admit. He felt unable to finish the game and save his friends. A sinking feeling pulled his stomach as if it was dragged through the floor in real life. He couldn’t possibly pull this off.
The tall assassin swung his claymore lazily through the air as he paced along the roof.
Seeing the blade swing, Brian felt a rage grow within him that he hadn’t known before in his life. He sprinted across the street just as soon as the tall assassin turned his back to him. There were two foot soldiers in the alleyway to the left of the building, but they had their backs to Brian. Brian sprinted to them and then lunged up, stabbing his dagger through the first foot soldier’s neck and then removing it quickly enough to drive it through the second foot soldier’s right temple. Both Morr’Tai foot soldiers dropped to the ground, but Brian didn’t bother looting them. He raced up the side of the building and clambered onto the roof.
The large assassin turned around just as Brian stood up. The man smiled and glanced to Brian’s dagger.
“I see you still carry a small blade,” the assassin teased. He swung the claymore around with a flourish and then got into his ready stance.
Brian walked toward the man with steady, measured steps.
“You can’t kill The Master,” the assassin said. “There is no point resisting him.” Brian kept his eyes locked on the assassin but didn’t bother to respond. “You don’t really think you can win with that toothpick do you?”
Brian sneered, letting his rage flow through him as a yellow dot appeared over the man’s head. Odds are mostly in my favor, Brian thought to himself. He stopped five feet in front of the assassin and then raised his dagger.
“Ha!” the assassin snorted. “You don’t stand a chance in Hammenfein against me!”
The assassin lunged forward, sweeping the massive blade through the air. Brian somersaulted to the right, using the roof’s pitch to speed his escape. He got to his feet and faced the assassin just as the large man recovered and came in for another strike. He dropped into a backward somersault, using his hands to propel him over the edge. At the last second he grabbed the metal gutter with his left hand, depending upon the game’s physics to allow him to hang despite his weight. It worked. The large man stumbled forward and only barely managed to stop before going over the edge himself.
Brian lashed upward with his right hand, scoring a savage gash across the large man’s forward shin. The HP bar dropped by a third, then began flashing red. The sword went up, preparing for a chop. Brian let go of the gutter and dropped to a third-story balcony as the claymore swooshed through the empty air.
The large man leapt down to the balcony in a move much more graceful than Brian had anticipated. Brian stabbed the man in the chest, dropping the HP another third. The large assassin responded by head-butting Brian so hard he was sent backward over the railing. His HP dropped by fifteen percent and his stamina dropped by a quarter, but the move worked in Brian’s favor, since he was able to catch the second-story balcony and stop himself from falling.
He glanced around. Seeing no one in the streets, he dropped to the next handhold, and then the next until he made it to the ground.
The enraged assassin leapt from one balcony to the next, and then down from the second story to the road below. He charged Brian a moment later, swooping from a high guard position and then spinning around for momentum to press the attack with a horizontal chop.
Brian somersaulted forward, slashing at the man’s legs as he passed beyond him. The assassin’s HP dropped to a quarter. The claymore came down hard, missing Brian by maybe an inch, but close enough that the VR system vibrated his real body.
The assassin then quickly stepped forward and launched a snap kick that hit Brian square in the chest, throwing him several yards through the air to slam on the road. His HP dropped to half and his stamina was nearly gone. Jumping to his feet, he rushed to the house. He leapt onto the wall and climbed faster than he ever had before.
The sound of a crossbow firing preceded a bolt slamming into the wall near Brian’s right hand. He made it to the third story before a second bolt was fired. This one hit him, dropping his HP to ten percent. He pulled himself over the roof as his HP bar flashed green and started going down bit by bit.
Ah crap! Brian opened his inventory and used the health potion. It restored half his HP, but the poison remained.
“You can’t hide from me!” the assassin yelled.
Hide! Brian thought. He sprinted to the other side of the roof and entered sneak mode. The sneak icon was shut and dull. No one saw him. Brian lowered himself over the edge of the roof and waited. His HP was still dropping steadily as the green flashes pulsed around his HP bar. There wasn’t anything he could do about it now though. He just had to hope that the poison would stop after a certain amount of time, like the enchantment on Bella’s Razor.
Brian waited as the footsteps came closer. The large man was breathing heavily, headed straight for him.
“I’ll find you!” the assassin shouted.
The toe of a boot slammed down next to the fingers of Brian’s left hand. The eyeball of the sneak icon started to open, but Brian reacted fast enough to keep his sneak bonus. He lunged up with a powerful stab, catching the large man in the groin.
“GAGH!” the assassin shouted.
With a heavy pull, Brian used the dagger to direct the assassin over the edge.
“AAAARGH!”
SPLAT!
The assassin’s HP bar dropped to nothing and Brian received fifteen hundred experience points.
[You are now level 27]
The message came just as Brian’s HP hit about twenty percent. The bar refilled and the green flashes went away. Whether the poison had timed out, or leveling up cleared it, it was gone now. An ability point flashed on the HUD. He spent it on Finesse, reducing the stamina cost of each melee attack by ten percent, and then hurried down to loot the large assassin. He gained another set of Morr’Tai master attire, four hundred more gold pieces, a light crossbow with ten bolts, and the massive claymore, which was called Dragon’s Bane and offered a plus three to base attack, twenty percent increased chance of critical strikes, and ten percent of total damage as additional bleeding damage over four seconds. Brian shook his head, counting himself lucky that he’d taken a hit from the poisoned bolt instead of the claymore. Brian pulled himself back over the roof’s edge. Making his way into the building, he snuck through the hallway to the stairs. He didn’t hear anything, so he snuck down until he could see Mike and Freya standing behind the couch as he had suggested.
“You okay?” Brian asked.
“Sure, why do you ask?” Mike replied.
“It’s been a busy few minutes,” Brian said as he exited sneak mode and came down to them. “Here, we should switch clothes. I have three sets of armor from the Morr’Tai guild, but these aren’t the regular hooded kinds, these have full helmets that will disguise our faces too.”
“Smart,” Mike said. “So the master assassin can’t recognize us as we go through the streets.”
“Right.”
The three of them changed their armor, then walked out the front door.
They all froze as three more Morr’Tai foot soldiers approached from the left.
“Have you seen them?” one of the foot soldiers asked.
Mike breathed a sigh of relief.
“No,” Brian said.
“Keep looking, they can’t have gone far.”
Bri
an and the others sprinted through the streets until they reached the library.
“We should probably change into our regular clothes so we don’t startle him,” Brian suggested. The others agreed and quickly changed. Trading the items out in a flash of inventory choices, Freya’s Telarian steel armor reappeared one item at a time and Mike was soon standing in his previous gear. Not having any armor apart from his Morr’Tai items, Brian opted for a set of simple clothing.
They entered the building and surveyed it in dismay. The cloisonné globe was lying on the ground in pieces. Hurrying into the library proper, they discovered that every glass cabinet door had been smashed in and their contents strewn about. Books and manuscripts lay piled on the ground and tables, some of them shredded or ripped in half. His heart fell into his gut as he realized this meant that Rored had already torn the place apart looking for more code keys with trapped players. Where was the scholar? Where was Meredith? He raced to the back of the room, leaping overturned chairs and hopping over piles of books as he went.
[Acrobatics +1]
Aaaah! he screamed in his head, wishing it were possible to turn of the notifications. It doesn’t even matter!
He reached the scholar’s desk a moment before Mike and Freya and began hunting frantically for the scholar’s body. Knowing it could have despawned if looted, he went to his knees and started shuffling through piles of books and papers, looking for either the crystal code key that held Meredith’s consciousness or the box he had seen the scholar take it from. Mike joined him while Freya stood over them, her weapon drawn and her body tense, keeping her eyes toward the entrance.
Brian was so focused on his task, more so every minute as their lack of success caused his hope to steadily drain away, that he almost didn’t notice the flutter of wings or the faint glow that appeared on the desk near his head. As it was, it required Freya’s frantic tapping on his shoulder before he finally looked up. A terse reprimand for the interruption died on his lips before he had the chance to speak it.
Fumbling for words, Brian stood quickly. He slapped ineptly at Mike’s shoulder until he too looked up from his search. Seated crosslegged on the desk in front of him was a fairy, holding Meredith’s code key out to him with a proud smile on her face. Brian glanced hesitantly to Mike and then slowly extended his hand and accepted the crystal pyramid. He gave it a careful examination to ensure it was undamaged and then added it to his inventory.
[Acquired Gaia’s Tear]
The fairy placed her elbows on her knees and then rested her chin on her fists and continued to smile at the three of them. She looked to be about six or seven years old from the appearance of her face and the proportions of her body. Her disheveled brown hair gave Brian the impression she had just come indoors from playing a rough game of tag, but the pristine, glistening appearance of her flowing silvery dress made him think more of the peaceful reflection of moonlight on the waves. A gentle light emanated from her entire being and pulsed ever so faintly each time she beat her downy wings. The movement of the marvelous appendages seemed thoughtful, the way an animal’s ears might twitch when considering a new acquaintance.
“Thank you,” Brian finally managed.
“You’re welcome,” the fairy replied simply.
“Do you know what happened to the scholar?” Brian asked.
“Yes,” she nodded her head and then placed her hands on the desk behind her and leaned back. She raised her eyebrows expectantly, evidently waiting for another question.
“Is he alive?” Mike asked.
“Yes.” She didn’t appear to be trying to annoy them. Her smile remained as simple and friendly as ever.
“Could you tell us where he is?” Brian asked, a little less appreciation in his tone this time.
“Yes.”
Brian did his best to control the eye roll that ached to manifest itself and managed to get away with a rapid eye blink and a forced smile instead.
Evidently sensing his frustration, Freya put a hand to his chest, keeping her sword in the other. “What can you tell us about the scholar and the commotion that took place here?” she asked.
“I saw Morr’Tai coming from the window,” she pointed to the section of stained glass where Brian thought he had seen something a couple of days before. Her wings began a slow pulse that lifted her until her legs extended beneath her, swinging gently below her body as her toes brushed the surface of the desk. “I warned Zammin and he locked himself in his hidden library.” She pointed to the location of the hidden door behind them. “The assassins spent a long time searching the library. They looked and looked, but their eyes were not very clever. I could tell what they were looking for. Soul-trapped items like Gaia’s Tear and books about Terramyr,” she opened the fingers of her right hand as though dropping something, and a swirl of glittering silver dust unraveled across the desk and created the outline of a book with a glowing silver title, Tales from Terramyr.
Brian recognized it as one of the first Terramyr books he had read as a kid. The fairy dust swirled and displayed another title, The Adventures of Phinean and Jaleal. A few more titles presented themselves before it became clear that they were looking for books that would have held more than a page or two of text for effect as game props. They were looking for the real books that had been scattered through the game as easter eggs for thorough, overachieving explorers like Rhonda. And souls. The fairy had put it perfectly.
“This must have been where they found the professor,” Brian whispered to Mike.
He nodded his head gravely in response.
The fairy ignored the comment, hovering closer to Freya now as she inspected her armor and weapon closely. “They took a few books, but they never saw me. They were too angry to use their eyes for anything but breaking. When they were busy, I took things back. When I couldn’t take, I destroyed what it seemed they should not have. I think it made them more mad.” She was now in front of Freya’s face, and without any indication that she thought it was a presumptuous thing to do, reached out and removed Freya’s helmet. Freya appeared surprised, but didn’t move to stop the diminutive being. A moment later the fairy gently slid the helmet back onto Freya’s head with a soft giggle and a wave to Freya as she floated over for an inspection of Brian and Mike.
“Thank you for saving our friend.” Brian wasn’t sure what else to say as he watched the fairy examine Mike’s face closely. All he could do was wonder whether Barry’s code key had been here to begin with, and whether that had been an item which was saved, destroyed, or stolen. He hated to think about the possibilities.
“Aren’t you happy I saved this friend?” the fairy asked, flying closer to Brian’s face. “You sound unhappy.”
“Another was taken. A book with a soul in it,” Mike answered for Brian. “The Morr’Tai Master destroyed it. We fear our friend is gone forever.”
“They only took boring books. I know better. That,” she pointed to the place where Meredith’s code key had disappeared into Brian’s inventory, “that’s the only thing in the library that holds a soul. Why does he hunt you and your friends?”
Everything about the fairy, from her face to her mannerisms, was so innocent and childlike, Brian wasn’t sure how to explain it so she could understand. At the same time, he somehow didn’t feel it was right to dismiss the question with a vague answer. She seemed genuinely concerned for them.
“The Master wants for everything around him to obey certain rules. He wants to remove anything that doesn’t fit inside of the rules. He calls it ‘creating order.’ He doesn’t think about what makes people happy or sad. He only thinks about what fits the rules,” Brian explained, trying to be simple without sounding patronizing. He’d always hated it when adults had treated him like he couldn’t understand things or had babied him more than was necessary.
“Are the rules bad?” the fairy asked. Her face was open and ready to hear the answer, with no prejudgment betrayed in her expression or tone that would show what she hoped the answer woul
d be.
“It’s bad to not let people talk about what rules are best for the whole group, and it is always bad to hurt people to make them keep your rules,” he answered.
A wise smile spread across the childlike face as she cocked her head back a bit. “Mmmm. I like your words very much. More importantly, he will like your words too,” the fairy hugged her arms and shook her head and wings vigorously. The wind-tossed appearance of her hair began to smooth out as the locks jostled their way to a more comely arrangement and some of the down that covered her wings shuddered away like snow being blown off of pine trees in a breeze.
A tinkling laugh escaped her lips as she flitted from Freya to Brian to Mike, giving them each a little kiss on the forehead. When she returned to a position in front of Brian, her face appeared to have matured a few years, giving her the look of a ten or eleven-year-old. Swirling patterns peeked out beneath the thinned fluff that covered her wings.
“I think we had better get moving. I’m confident the meeting will go well. Let’s get Zammin out of that locked library, eh?” She smiled broadly and whisked away to the empty bookcase behind them. Touching the cracked wood with her delicate hand, she slid it out to the side as though she were sweeping open a curtain.
The ease of the motion belied the strength required to perform the task, but the sound of shattering gears and the roaring sound of metal being torn asunder spoke the truth of the matter. Brian’s mouth dropped open and he could hear a strangled sound of surprise erupt from Mike at his side.
A startled, blinking scholar emerged from the dark chamber clutching an armful of books. His hair was standing every which way, and his wrinkled robes indicated he had spent an unhappy night sleeping on the floor of the library. When his vision adjusted to the light, he finally recognized Mike’s and Brian’s faces. Erupting with a cheer of joy, he dropped the books carelessly as he threw himself at the two men and embraced them each with an arm around the neck.
