by Adam Elliott
Cayden laughed at that. He could hear her footsteps clicking off the marble floor, each one taking her further and further from him. Then all at once, he realized his mistake, whirling on the girl just as her fingers stretched out to touch the mirror before her. "Your name!"
“The Wh-”
“No.” He shook his head. “What is your name?”
That seemed to stun her. Her fingers wavered in the air before her, inches from the surface of the mirror. Then she turned to face him. She had ice blue eyes. Eyes flecked with small rays of white.
She smiled and began to trace the air with her index finger. As it passed, it left a trail of light, and soon enough that trail had resolved itself into a recognizable form. A rune. "My name is C-"
* * *
There was a loose stitch on the back of his right glove. How had he never noticed that until now?
Then again, how much time did he spend kneeling on the ground looking at the back of his hands?
“Shifty! He's moving! I think he is awake!”
The words were a catalyst, all the spark he needed to pull himself back to the here and now. Had that just happened?
“Cayden. Are you okay?" Celia asked. Her voice was nervous, and even to his addled mind, it was obvious she was keeping her distance.
“What happened?" His voice sounded hoarse as if he'd just gotten back from an Evil Dead concert.
Shifty's voice came from somewhere just over Cayden's shoulder. “I'd kind of like to know the same thing, preferably before you go berserk again.”
“Berserk?" Cayden asked incredulously. He turned to look at the other man and suddenly realized that he could see shifty. The previously dark room was lit by the two dozen torches that ringed the room. Torches like that only lit if someone aggroed the boss.
“Where is the boss?" Cayden asked, stumbling to his feet. Every muscle in his body ached. Had he run a triathlon while he was out?
His two companions exchanged glances with one another, though it was Celia who ultimately spoke. “Cayden, you killed it. Don't you remember?”
“We fought a boss while I was...? Are you serious?”
“We didn't fight anything.” Celia said with a shake of her head. “You turned around and rushed the thing while shouting in tongues.”
"I've never seen anything like it." Shifty added. "It didn't touch you. You just dismantled it; then you started hacking at the body. Then the loot crystal. Then finally just kept hitting the floor until your sword broke. We didn't dare get near you for fear that you'd start swinging at us."
“What happened Cayden?” Celia asked.
“I...” Cayden started. It was a struggle to recall, like trying to plot the specifics of your dream in the minutes after waking. Only the most vibrant parts came back with any clarity. The closet, the murder, his murder. And then The White Knight, her armor, his promise to her. He couldn't quite remember her face, but it was alright. He knew her...
"No!" Cayden said, desperation seizing him even as his companions retreated a few steps in the face of his sudden outburst. He didn't care. His fingers snapped to call his display to life, and he navigated to his lexicon in a panic. Nineteen out of twenty, he'd learned 'White Knight,' which meant he hadn't learned the rune she showed him.
Please work! Cayden swiped into a sub-menu of his lexicon, a practice screen appearing in the air before him. The memory of the rune was still there, but even then it took him three attempts to get the system to recognize it properly. Once he did, Cayden reached for a second button labeled meaning. “Name of The White Knight.”
Celia and Shifty continued to stare at him, but Cayden couldn't have given less of a damn at that moment. He was staring at a progress bar, the system ticking away as it surveyed his proposal. For several seconds there was nothing. Then a chime.
Rune Accepted
A new page populated in his lexicon, but to his dismay, the name and the pronunciation remained blank.
"Damnit!" Cayden swore. He wanted to throw something, but there was nothing in arms reach. All the better, a display of any violence would have been enough to send Celia and Shifty finally running for the hills. "How am I supposed to find you when I don't even know your name."
“Cayden." Celia said, at last, her eyes narrowed with concern as she watched the boisterous young man slumped in defeat against a nearby wall. "You need to tell us what happened."
“When we get out of here.” He said after a drawn out pause. “Just... give me a minute. Let me find my bearings.”
Celia and Shifty turned away, no doubt conferring with one another as to whether or not they should even continue. If what they said about him was true, he wouldn't blame them for not sticking around. If circumstances were reversed, he certainly wouldn't have. Party member risks going crazy mid combat and soloing a boss? Great right up until the point he decides to solo you.
The notification tab of his HUD was blinking incessantly even as he tried to orient his mind, to try and organize his apparent fever dream into something rational. Probably just a few new messages. He clicked it open to dismiss them and found a trio of messages from Celia. Apparently, she'd tried sending him electronic messages after talking to him had failed. What did that say about his addiction to technology that she thought that'd work.
He was also pleasantly surprised to find one other notification in his tray, though his voice didn't carry the normal level of enthusiasm. "Oh, hey. I leveled."
He closed the notification tab and opened his character info. His fingers were on auto-pilot his brain so far elsewhere that he almost didn't notice the second bolded class sitting next to Guardian in his recommended class list.
Runemagi (Unique)
Unique? Cayden thought, a finger moving to highlight the class. His eyes scanned the information he found there, and they grew wider and wider with each passing word. Despite his dedication to his build, Cayden didn't even make it through half of the class description before he mashed accept harder than he'd ever mashed a virtual button in his life.
Achievement Unlocked
Take at least one Level in a Unique Class
You really are the one and only
New Special Quest
First Steps.
Requirements: Locate Aaron Beresik and Vincent Tempes. Convince them to tutor you.
Reward: 35,000 XP.
New Grand Quest
Find her.
Requirements: Locate and free The White Knight
Reward: ???
You'll know.
The words came back to him as he gathered his feet beneath him. She wasn't wrong. He knew exactly what to do. “I'm alright now. I promise that everything will make sense once we're done here.” Cayden gave a hoarse laugh. “At least, as far as they make any sense to me.”
Chapter Twenty
Hours later, Cayden sat outdoors in the shadows of firelight. It was the first time since he'd first arrived that he had stopped to admire the sights. Even back in a city as small as Des Moines, you couldn't see the stars. Ten thousand street lamps blotted out a hundred million stars, leaving only the brightest to twinkle in the perpetual twilight of urban life.
It was beautiful but unnatural. A field of stars that were not his own, streaked with a swipe of green he knew to be a part of a galaxy, an odd parallel to the milky way. No one knew if the stars above them were real, or some illusion created to give the appearance of reality. If he walked too far in any direction, he'd eventually run into a mountain, a swamp, fog or some other impediment to turn him around and keep him within bounds. Cayden wondered what would happen if someone just went up. Would they hit a ceiling? Or fly to the moon?
“You doing okay?” Celia's voice was timid, barely audible over the crackle of the fire.
“I'm fine. Just... taking in the moment.”
“Can't say I blame you.” She laughed. Her feet brushed through long grass as she stepped out of the small clearing they'd made, wading through nature to join him. “Some day huh?”
>
The words were an understatement. Their day hadn't ended in the boss chamber, though they lingered there for over an hour even after Cayden came back to his senses. The room had proven a wealth of knowledge, and as expected he had more than doubled his vocabulary, even as he had to give a cliff notes explanation to his fellows. He could now boast a total of fifty-three known words. Fifty-four if he counted the curious rune, he had recovered from his... episode.
From there they had traversed the remainder of the dungeon, battling some new critters, including Cayden's first encounters with one of Babel's most ubiquitous enemies. The lizard men.
White had proven an appropriate name for the unnamed final boss of the dungeon. An albino alligator, it had proven a near deadly foe for Shifty, and an infuriating one for Cayden. Fought on a platform surrounded on three sides by water, the giant alligator initially fought by pulling its massive bulk halfway out of the water. It snapped and clawed at Cayden, but much like its companions, the beast was ill-suited to battle their particular composition. Three high-level players were far more of a threat than five low level ones.
Where it proved dangerous was in its enraged state. Angered by the damage, it continually took to the water, swimming just beneath the waves to confuse them before lunging out for a quick attack. Shifty had assured them the target was random, but after the fifth time it focused the party rogue with its attack, it began to feel oddly personal.
But even praying on their weaker members proved insufficient to save the scaly monster. Riddled with daggers and covered in sword slashes; eventually, the beast succumbed to their attacks. The victory was theirs and both Shifty and Celia got small upgrades to their armor for the trouble. The water drained from the room at the alligator's defeat, though he couldn't even begin to guess why it had done so, allowing them to progress.
Shifty had proven true to his word, much to Cayden's relief. There was no ambush squad waiting for them just past the exit of the dungeon, nor did any ninjas leap from the woods as they passed through them. In fact, they made surprisingly good time towards the second-floor dungeon, in great part due to their high levels dissuading some of the more intelligent random monsters from trying their luck.
They'd set up camp in a small clearing in the midst of a few small hills at the edge of Terrines forest. Tomorrow they would skirt the edge of the road, following it to the floor dungeon at the center of the woods without having to worry about bumping into any awkward travelers. Hopefully, a cloak and a bowed head would be enough to get Cayden into the dungeon itself without bringing any possible bounty hunters back onto his trail.
It was then Cayden's turn to honor his word. He told them of how he had first learned his hidden skill, what it had proven capable of so far. He told them of the unique class, and let them peruse its stats directly by streaming the information to them from his display. Finally, he told them of the visions he'd had hours before.
His only significant omission was on the subject of The White Knight. He'd been able to explain most of what had transpired from his first experience as best he recalled, but when it came to the subject of the girl he demurred. He referred to her only by title and kept much of their conversation to himself. It was enough, he thought, that they knew he felt driven to search for her. They didn't necessarily need to know why.
As far as Shifty was concerned, 35,000 experience was a substantial reason why in and of itself.
“That is one way to put it, yeah." He said, at last, turning his eyes down from the sky to regard her. "I don't think I've ever been this tired while at the same time feeling completely unable to sleep."
“I don't blame you.” She smiled wanly as she slid down onto the grass next to him. “What's the lowest level grand quest you've ever heard of?”
“Floor twenty-one. The Ruby Monarch questline.”
She nodded, nervously running a hand along her neck. “The Jewel Kings war.”
“Your sister played a pivotal role in the quest if I recall correctly."
“Her and Zoltan, yeah." Celia winced, looking away from him for a moment. It wasn't hard for Cayden to guess why, and he suddenly felt like an ass for bringing it up. The war had consumed much of the twenty-first floor for the better part of two weeks, an enormous PvP event where four of the then largest guilds each sided with a different Royal House in an all out war. Zoltan, the highest level player at the time had been one of the casualties, and from the look on Celia's face, the wizard had been more than just a friend of her sibling. "That is what scares me."
“I don't think you'll have to worry about it anytime soon.” Cayden replied.
“Oh? You found something?”
Ostensibly he'd left the warmth and companionship of the fire to do some research on his new quest. In truth, he was a solitary person at the best of time, and after a day in the company of others, he craved the chance to be alone. That hadn't stopped him from spending at least some of his time buried in his AR display, and it hadn't taken long for him to get a hit on one of the two names.
His fingers snapped, and screens sprung to life in front of him. A few swipes of his fingers and a chime sounded in Celia's ear, alerting her that Cayden had just forwarded her some information.
“Aaron Beresik." She mouthed the name, stumbling over the pronunciation. The page of information before her was spartan, just a listing of Elan occupants of a particular fort. There were hundreds of pages like this one; the internet kept a virtual registry of every Elan in Babel for just such an occasion.
The only unique thing about this one, was where he was located.
“Floor Forty-nine!?” Celia nearly shouted the words in her sudden surprise.
“A place named Fort Axtell." He nodded. "Population of just over ten thousand. It is in a war zone as if the floor number alone wasn't a kick in the teeth."
Celia paged through the information Cayden had presented to her then started a search of her own. Most information on floors above twenty was spotty at best, but the ongoing conflict between the dual forts of Axfell and Cleaven had proven to be of sufficient interest that both forts had received extensive coverage.
The short version was that much of the forty-ninth floor was a battleground. Two Elan factions, the Axfell and the Cleaven, were trapped in a bitter rivalry over domination of the primary island that occupied ninety percent of the stratum. Each faction had petitioned the newly arrived players for help in swaying the balance in their favor, but by the time the progression guilds had reached the forty-ninth floor they had more or less reached an understanding on the subject of Elan wars.
If the progression guilds could come to a consensus, then they would throw their weight behind one faction or the other. If they could not, then they would stay out of it. Too much progression had been lost, and too many fallen players littered the floors where powerful guilds had sought to swing the balance of a war, only to be opposed by a rival who could not let them be the one to benefit from completing such a quest.
There was no winner in anything but a one-sided Elan war. The only winning move was not to play.
“We... are going to have our work cut out for us.” Celia admitted. With forty-seven floors between Cayden and even the start of his quest, that felt like a bit of an understatement.
“Us?” Cayden asked, deciding to air the obvious.
“Our party.” She gestured to Shifty back by the fire.
“Aren't you forgetting something?" He waited for the realization to dawn on her face. "Yeah. You might have been able to sneak out this time, but I doubt your babysitter is going to let you party up with a wanted man anytime in the future."
Celia shrugged. “So she babysits all of us. Same difference.”
“I'm worried about being anywhere near Silver.” Cayden replied shaking his head. “Let alone spending days fighting in front of her.”
“I don't understand.” Celia replied, her eyebrows knitted together.
“I have an unknown skill that just gave me access to a completely un
heard of category of class." Cayden explained, waiting for the realization to dawn on her. "It doesn't matter if she doesn't party with us, she probably has a spell that will reveal all of my class levels that she'll use at some point. And even if she doesn't, eventually I'll have to use one of my new class' abilities in front of her."
A mixture of emotions washed over Celia as she struggled to find a solution. “Couldn't we just tell her?”
“If I do that I'm probably telling your sister's Raven's Head guild at a minimum and the whole CFC if even one person isn't entirely trustworthy." Cayden looked back to the sky. He'd been dreading this conversation. "We've both heard the stories about how shaky the coalition is. At best I end up like you, a bird in a cage being watched over 24/7 while I voluntarily join their guild. At worst it sparks a small guild war as people try to control me or cut off other guilds from controlling me."
The words washed over Celia, and Cayden could tell from her expression that the girl now understood the consequences probably better than he did. He could see her mind working, struggling the way he had to come up with some solution that would keep away the inevitable.
“I could send Silver away. Tell her I have my party."
“Even if that works, it will only last until her or your sister checks in on you and sees me standing there." Cayden said softly.
“I could tell my sister, keep it just between the five of us.”
“You trust both of them to keep this secret?" He asked. "And you trust your sister not to try and use me once she has me?"
“I-” Celia started the thought but couldn't finish it.
They sat together in silence for several uncomfortable seconds. In the darkness, it was hard to see the girl's face, but Cayden wondered if the slight glimmers on her cheeks were tears, or merely his imagination.
“I really liked this.” She admitted. “Today. With you and Shifty.”
“I know. Me too."
“It's just... I've been playing for about a month now, with Silver always over my shoulder. There is no wonder or danger. No fun. Just grind for the next level so I can get to the level cap and maybe help out my sister." Celia sighed. "If you hear them tell stories... they laugh about the close calls, the silly moments. Up until today, I didn't have any of that."
